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<issue_start>username_0: What is the most proper greeting for when you enter a panel of faculty members for a PhD Interview, and what for when you leave? I'm in the UK, in case that's relevant.<issue_comment>username_1: Assuming you're referring to the proper addresses of faculty members at UK institutions, the general form is "Doctor" for faculty members who are Lecturers (known as "assistant professor" in some other countries) or Senior Lecturers (known as "associate professor" in some other countries) and "Professor" for faculty members who are Readers (varies between "associate professor" and "full professor" in other countries) or Professors (known as "Chairs" in some other countries. In some UK institutions, the North American standards have been adopted, so it's not completely uniform.
If you're uncertain as to the academic rank of the person, defaulting to "Doctor" will not likely offend. If someone is introduced as "Professor", then use "Professor" in such cases.
In terms of matters of greeting not related to the proper address of the members, there are no formalities upon entering or leaving that you should be concerned about. A general "Hello" / "Thank you. Goodbye" or any variant are perfectly fine.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Don't overdo it. Just greet them in general, not individually. If they are presented personally, say by the chair of the committee, just greet each one in turn courteously, like you would do in any other formal setting.
Upvotes: 0
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2016/02/15
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<issue_start>username_0: I've been invited to a workshop in Japan, and I haven't been to an academic event there before. In my field in the UK, it would be normal to attend an event in "smart casual" wear, eg a polo top or open necked shirt. Should I expect this convention to be different in Japan?<issue_comment>username_1: From going to Japan for math, engineering, and Earth sciences conferences a number of times, expect that every Japanese participant is wearing a dark suit and a more or less colorless tie. (There are very few women in science in Japan, so I don't have a lot of experience in this regard.) This includes student workers -- also in suits. You -- and all of the other foreigners who didn't get this memo :-) -- will stick out of the crowd if you wear anything that has color, or just a light blazer. Depending on how many other foreigners are there, you will be ok, though, with an open neck button down shirt, dark pants, and a blazer.
You will find that you can *really* stick out of the crowd on the streets if you wear an outfit that is colorful. This may just be a pair of light bluejeans and a dark jacket (nobody seems to be wearing light blue pants). You will *really really* stick out of the crowd if you walk from the train station to the hotel after a long flight with an orange or blue wind jacket and a reddish suitcase. I speak from experience :-)
I cannot hide there anyway, being tall and with medium brown hair. But whenever I go out there, I now usually wear gray or black slacks (or black jeans), and a black jacket. I can't get myself to wear a white shirt and dark tie, so I might have an off white or light blue button down.
Whatever you do, though, you will always be treated nicely. It's just a question of how "different" you want to be.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: I was at a major (for my field) academic conference in Japan last summer and I can't say I noticed the people at the conference wearing anything different to what they wear at the conferences I've been to in Europe and North America. If the majority of participants at the event you're going to are not Japanese, I would imagine you'd find exactly the same thing.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: This depends on which field you're in. According to my own experience, typically, in engineering workshops people tend to dress semiformally, where as in pure science people usually dress casually. The idea is, I suppose, is that in the former you need to look like a businessperson. You might be able to extrapolate this to your own situation. Good luck!
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: I live in Japan and work in academia there, and I always wear the same respectable casual attire that I would wear to work in the UK, as do all of my foreign colleagues and most of my Japanese ones. Some Japanese people dress more smartly, but nobody seems to mind the mix. It's been pretty much the same at the international conferences I've been to in Japan as well. My field is "pure science" if that makes a difference.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: I did my PhD in Japan, in Sociology, and my experience at Japanese *national* conferences and workshops was just like the other answers described: black suits and white shirts everywhere. The only ones who deviated from the norm were senior scholars.
However, after moving out of Japan, I was back for an *international* conference there and was surprised to see the same scholars who wore the dark suit uniform for national events wearing much more casual attire. My point is that, besides variations by field, Japanese scholars are aware that things are more casual in the West and are willing to accommodate these differences.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_6: Something that hasn't really been highlighted is that Japanese will be very accommodating regarding different outfits (worn by foreigners). You might feel out-of-place, but looking different (you're not going to wear ripped low-hanging jeans, right?) from the standard isn't necessarily perceived as being under-dressed. **Social rules usually apply only in Japan and only for Japanese**, or rather **for inter-Japanese relationships**.
I don't know how "international" this conference will be. Often researchers with a lot of international experience (that is, papers with foreign collaborators, frequent visits to international conferences outside of Japan, etc.) will dress more like foreigners, i.e. a more leisurely outfit. They might wear a suit, though, if their head of school is going to attend.
Conferences in fields (or sub-fields) that address a national crowd will likely follow the mentioned Japanese standard (black suit, white shirt) very closely, but maybe only because it is a social event in Japan, for Japanese and should thus follow the Japanese norm.
Disclaimer: my field is Pure Mathematics.
Upvotes: 4
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<issue_start>username_0: I arrived at the printer room this afternoon to collect my printing and I happened to notice that someone was yet to collect a printout of [the gravitational waves paper](https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.061102) that has been all over the scientific news the last few days/weeks. Of course, I was curious, so I had a peek.
It struck me that there was only one author... until I saw the asterisk indicating a full list of authors could be found at the end of the article.
There I found *three full pages* of authors. I have no intention of counting the exact number, but a quick estimate by word count suggests there are *over 1000 authors* from *133 institutions*.
You always need to give credit where credit is due, that is a given. But to put it in context, there are at most *7 words of article per author*. In fact, I can think of a number of problems coming from so many authors (like who do you contact if you have a question - the list is alphabetical and there doesn't appear to be a designated contact person).
What is the value of listing so many authors and why should (or shouldn't) it happen?
**Update:**
Thanks everyone for the thoughtful answers. As much as I want to choose an answer, I honestly cannot decide between the two most upvoted, so I'm going to abstain from choosing one.<issue_comment>username_1: The "point" of 1000 authors is to recognize that 1000 people contributed to the paper at a level sufficient to be considered authors, according to the standards of that particular field.
In some fields (including high-energy physics), large numbers of authors are not unusual. See e.g. [the 2015 paper estimating the mass of the Higgs boson with 5,154 authors](http://www.nature.com/news/physics-paper-sets-record-with-more-than-5-000-authors-1.17567). This kind of research often involves very large teams spanning multiple institutions. Typically papers published as a result of a collaboration are credited to all members of the team.
For more information see [Report by the Working Group on Authorship in Large Scientific Collaborations in Experimental High Energy Physics](http://docdb.fnal.gov/C11/DocDB/0000/000004/001/WG_authorship_052006.pdf).
Upvotes: 7 <issue_comment>username_2: It's a high-profile example for something that various people on this Stack Exchange have been preaching for a a long time - **authorship norms differ from field to field**. This is essentially just a specific case of the Academia.SE mantra of "academia varies more than you think it does".
Your interpretation of "author" seems to be mostly in the strict word sense, as in *"a person that co-wrote the paper"*. This is indeed the norm in many fields, but as you say, in high-energy physics, authorship really has little to do with "authoring the manuscript", and is more related to "involvement with the research that led to the paper". I would speculate that in an research attempt such as the LIGO one, the effort of writing the actual paper seems miniscule in contrast to the work that went into the research, so the question whether somebody contributed words to the manuscript or not will not seem like a particularly relevant one for acknowledging hers or his contribution.
Note that high-energy physics is not the only field with authorship norms that may seem strange to outsiders. In many experimental fields, the lab head / PI is customary the last author on any paper from her/his lab, whether (s)he is involved with the work or not. In some fields, authors are ordered by perceived contribution, in others more or less by seniority, while others don't order at all or do so alphabetically.
>
> why should (or shouldn't) it happen?
>
>
>
The important thing to keep in mind is that *it is after all just a norm*. Having a long list of co-authors with one or a few designated PIs, project leaders, or contact authors really is not different in practice than having a short list of authors and a long section "Contributions by: A, B, C", as long as everybody has the same understanding. Coming from the outside and telling the physicists that they "are doing it wrong" because their notion of co-authorship isn't the same as in your field seems misguided to me. If it's working for them, let them continue doing it like that.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_3: In addition to @username_1's good answer, I can speak to this from personal experience. I have a paper coming out shortly on which I have more than 600 co-authors. The reason that there are so many is because of the nature of the experiment that we conducted---in this case, determining the reproducibility of some critical measurements of cellular behavior.
As such, there were essentially three tiers of authors:
1. The key organizers who did the bulk of the work running the study and analyzing the data
2. Secondary contributors to the study organization, execution, and analysis
3. People from more than 100 teams around the world who actually gathered all of the data
The first two tiers of authors are typical of any paper; for the third tier, in the customs of biology publications, it would generally be quite inappropriate to exclude any person who actually gathered experimental data for a paper. Thus, we have an enormous number of authors on the paper. Many modern scientific experiments have similar scope, in which the contributions of hundreds or thousands of people are required by the simple scale of the project.
Critically, however, if you read the "Author Contributions" section of the paper, which more and more journals are including now, it will tell you these facts about who contributed what. There is some ongoing advocacy for such explanations of contributions eventually simply replacing author lists, since author lists are not very explanatory, essentially giving [movie credits for scientific papers](http://www.nature.com/news/it-is-time-for-full-disclosure-of-author-contributions-1.11475). Personally, I think that such an idea is a very good direction to go, though I think that making the transition will not be fast or simple.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_4: As a member of the LIGO collaboration I will say that I am proud to be an author on this paper. Everyone on the author list contributed significantly to the incredibly difficult task of building an instrument capable of detecting length fluctuations at the level of 10-19 meters.
You mention 7 words per author, but you are forgetting about the 100's of other papers put out by our collaboration. Among them are some of the biggest advances in the science of precision measurement in the last few decades (understanding and demonstrating squeezed quantum states is probably the biggest). All of our big achievements took large teams of people working for many years, and all of those people deserve to be recognized.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_5: There's books, and there's movies. A book can be written by one guy in complete isolation. A movie--even if it's just a movie based on a book that one guy wrote--generally requires the collaboration of hundreds.
There are some things in academia that are really just worked out by one person, and some things that take large scale collaboration. In each case, an honest attempt should be made to give credit where credit is due.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_6: This paper is unusually important and comes from an unusual project. Wikipedia reports LIGO is the largest and most ambitious project ever funded by the NSF (see references there).
Seeking the Higgs particle at CERN, for example, allowed many side experiments finding other kinds of results. The LIGO project really had just one goal since 1992. username_4 mentions many papers on progress in designing instruments, and that is true, but they were not exactly partial results. The desired result was to observe gravity waves,and that took over 30 years to do.
So when the thrilling result did come in, it is natural they wanted to credit a lot of people who had invested time and effort in a project which many skeptics had doubted would find anything.
Upvotes: 2
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2016/02/16
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<issue_start>username_0: Currently, I am in the process of finishing my PhD and starting a PostDoc position. Part of this position will be the supervision of Master theses.
I have little teaching experience, and no supervising experience except for "passive" experiences of being supervised myself when writing a Master's thesis myself. An added difficulty is that my workplace and the university where the students are studying are 150 km / 2 hour train ride apart, so I can't just have "open office doors" and meetings have to be pre-arranged.
What frequencies of meetings with students under supervision do you find helpful or too much? This will surely depend on the student, but how do I figure out what is right for a student I have never met before?<issue_comment>username_1: My supervision is (in Computer Science, although I think that this is likely not particularly field-dependent) in the beginning usually quite tight (meaning meetings once a week for about one hour each, although for other fields "tight supervision" may mean something different). At the beginning of the project, the student is usually not yet fully caught up on the literature in his field and does not yet fully understand her/his topic. Hence (s)he is still unsure about where the project is going, and often has a hard time deciding on tactical issues, such as what to try and work on next. In this phase I usually have a weekly jour fixe.
As the project progresses, I more and more retreat to the background and give the student the freedom to decide more individually how to conduct her/his research. This naturally also means that meetings become less frequent, and the jour fixe becomes more an on-demand meeting. I still try to catch up with the student approximately every three weeks (again, concrete frequency may vary for you), mostly to check that the student is progressing and that her/his research is not completely derailing into a track that I consider dangerous or wrong (I will let the student make smaller, tactical mistakes, such as wasting some time on an approach that I suspect may fail, but I will step in if the student embarks on a detour that I consider bad enough that it may seriously threaten the success of her/his thesis).
Towards the end, meetings tend to become more frequent again, mostly because I like to give students quick feedback on individual sections of their thesis while they are writing. No point in letting them make the same 15 standard mistakes through their entire document before I get to suggest improvements. In this phase, and especially if time is already running out, I sometimes have quick feedback meetings almost every other day.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: The answer by username_1 is quite detailed and on the mark. In any case, the frequency of of interaction, and how, will depend a lot on the student (some require handholding the whole time, others are able to work independently and just require the occasional hint or (re)direction). A phone call, or a wiki with daily progress report that you check from time to time, gathering the whole work group for in-general discussion of advance(s) are also useful.
In my case I had students who shared a git repository with their LaTeX source to the thesis-in-progress, where I had a branch with my suggestions of changes. I skimmed through this making my suggestions perhaps weekly, and we interacted by email most of the time. We met face to face somewhat like once a month.
Upvotes: 0
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2016/02/16
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<issue_start>username_0: I'm about to write my thesis (which will also be the basis of a journal article, though not written by me). I was wondering how the materials & methods section should be written, when an experiment has multiple phases. I personally find it clearer, when for each sub-experiment, the materials are listed separately. There will be some repetitions of general materials (i.e. pipets, containers, etc.), however. I was just wondering what can be considered the best way to do this.
Another thing - during my studies, lab assistants sometimes insisted the materials section should list exactly how much of a certain material is used (i.e. 10µl solution). Is this necessary, when the exact amount is already mentioned in the methods section?<issue_comment>username_1: Unless you are specifically precluded by the regulations of your institution, in your thesis there is typically great latitude to present material in whatever form you find clearest.
As such, if you think that it is clearer to separate each method into its own sub-section, you should do so. Likewise, if you have separated materials and methods cookbook-style and you think it is clearer to say a measurement one rather than twice, then let clarity of presentation be your guide. If your readers or your institutional regulations disagree with you, however, then you will likely need to change to a form that they prefer.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: You usually have a lot of latitude. I'd do the following:
1. Introduction. Overview of the work, overview of the following chapters.
2. State of the art. Critical review of the relevant literature.
3. Overview of the experiment, phases, objectives of each, how they fit together.
4. Phase 1 of the experiment.
4.1. Discussion of method.
4.2. ...
5. Phase 2 of the experiment
5.1. Discussion of method
5.2. ...
and so on. Keep each phase as a coherent whole, Think of your gentle reader, who might just be interested in details of phase 3, and couldn't care less for the rest (they want to adapt it to a different setting, whatever).
Upvotes: 0
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2016/02/16
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<issue_start>username_0: I'm a computer science student from Iran. I'm applying for student visa to study master in Germany. Germany's embassy requires students to write a motivation letter in visa process.
>
> For the summer semester 2016 I have received admission from TU
> Darmstadt, TU Stuttgart and university of Freiburg. Also I have been
> rejected from TU Dresden. For the reason of course contents, I have
> chosen to study in TU Darmstadt.
>
>
>
I have written above paragraph in my motivation letter. Is this considered negative to write such things (compare universities or list my admission results)?<issue_comment>username_1: If I were you, I would just write why I want to study at TU Darmstadt. Have a look at their web pages, name a few courses you find interesting and a few professors you'd like to study with. I think that may be sufficient.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: You should write a *motivation* letter. I.e., you are interested in studying in Germany because . In particular, you want to study at TU Darmstadt because . And you have been accepted there. After graduating, your plans are <...>, which relates to the selected university/study in the following ways <...>.
Put yourself in their shoes. *Why* is it advantageous **for Germany** to have you as a student? Are you interested in learn more about the German culture (apart from your studies)? How will you fit into a (presumably quite alien) environment? What is your proficiency in German and in English? (German is obviously needed for day-to-day contact, in and out of your studies; English is the lingua franca of anything related to technology).
Presumably the conditions are that you must return to your home after the study. How will that work out? Will you be able to continue work with colleagues in Germany, maintain contact with classmates?
Upvotes: 2
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2016/02/16
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<issue_start>username_0: I sent an email to a professor in my university two months ago for a research position in the lab since her research was about my place and interests.She told she will contact me sometime in feb (since she was on a maternity leave till December and has joined again in January).How should I remind her gently about my email or should I wait till the end of the month?<issue_comment>username_1: Simple! Forward the same email to the professor, and let him/her know if he/she has any update on the position. Then the professor can catch up with the last email you sent by scrolling down to this forwarded email.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: There is another way in which you can go yourself in person and ask her whether that particular position is still vacant or not. In that way you can remind her that you had applied for the post.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: Maternity does rearrange your life quite a bit, I'm not surprised this fell in a crack somewhere. First make sure she is back, and how all went with the baby (there can be serious complications, and she might not be back yet).
Send a short mail asking if the position is still open, reminding your earlier contact, and perhaps attach whatever you sent originally. Remember to congratulate on the new baby.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]
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2016/02/16
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<issue_start>username_0: In our university, we have a discussion about different question types to use in a module in our Electronic Learning Environment called 'self-tests'. We use this module to stimulate active processing of learning material by students in an automated fashion, enabling us to offer courses with a high degree of interactivity while remaining feasible for large numbers of students.
Our discussion concerns specifically which question types we need to implement in the Electronic Learning Environment. Some example of question types are the following:
* Multiple choice questions
* Open questions
* Ranking questions
* Images with 'hotspots'
* 'Likert'-type scales and matrix questions ('arrays' in LimeSurvey)
* Checkboxes
* Sentences (or complete paragraphs) where words have to be entered to complete the sentences
Some applied examples would be:
* Please organise these concepts to reflect the developmental stages
distinguished by Piaget.
* Which of these types of sampling are appropriate? In
this painting, point out where the artists uses [INSERT BRUSH
TECHNIQUE HERE - sorry, I'm a psychologist, not an art scientist :-)]
* Given the above material properties, how much load can the bridge
bear?
A colleague recently voiced the position that all other question types 'boil down to yes-no decisions' and that therefore, there is practically no variation in the types of information processing students engage in when working with the different question types.
However, in this discussion, nobody has as yet managed to produce any meta-analyses of the evidence, or in fact other forms of empirical, or for that matter, theoretical, evidence. At the same time, I can't imagine this hasn't been studied yet. However, queries in Google Scholar using keywords such as 'information processing', 'cognition', 'formative tests', 'interaction' and 'learning' didn't yield anything. Lots of opinions and examples, but no evidence.
So my question is: does anybody know of literature presenting empirical or theoretical evidence regarding differences in processing between different question types (methods of interaction)?
This is the kind of thing academics (as teachers) should all have readily available I guess - but I'm afraid I don't, and I don't know anybody who would.
I don't have any 'dogs in this fight' - if there is evidence that all question types perform equally, that's fine. I just want evidence, regardless of which way it points :-) As long as the evidence is methodologically and statistically rigorous I'm happy.
One answer would be, of course, "it's not about the question type, it's about what exactly you do with it and how you embed it in the course". However, this ignores the fact that different question types enable/prohibit different problem solving approaches. It would basically just change the question into "assuming the question types are applied properly, which serve which goals best?"
I'd be very grateful for any pointers towards literature where (preferably experimental) evidence on this matter is presented.
[this question is kind of like a more in-depth version of [this one](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/24267/are-automated-online-quizzes-effective-for-formative-feedback-to-students), which is about whether online quizzes can work in general]<issue_comment>username_1: Agree with the comment above about Bloom's. I take a different tack though.
Why not ask questions that matter in the particular discipline. I use the motto of "let the subject speak for itself". If your question matters, it is worth working on it.
If it doesn't matter, why waste time trying to 'tickle' a student's brain. They aren't actually dormant. Most students are pretty busy, more so than professors, and they will work on things that matter.
Equally, keep your assessment format constant throughout the course. If it matters, then it matters to practice it. So model what you want done in class (be the role model of the way of thinking and talking in your discipline) and make sure the coursework and exams are all in the same format. Then they understand what you want and get better at it.
Most courses these days are only 10 weeks so there is very little you can actually teach and practice. A good example though is Andrew Ngs course on machine learning (Coursera). Each week he taught a new machine learning technique. He taught the maths on powerpoint and then set a programming assignment that could be finished in one evening. Students submit it online and it is tested against another data set designed to trap the most common errors.
It is memorable and doable. It has a minimum standard of performance in the programming. Students know they have walked through the theory and can go back to it when they need. Elegant, tidy, predictable, repetitive but with each new assignment taking a student upwards in content, upwards in topicality and upwards in having practise core skills once again.
Hope that helps. (PS never over do the teaching. Students aren't daft. Be orderly and let them get on with it. They will).
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: I'm a teacher major with about 2 years of experience. Unfortunately I cannot cite research, but offer some of my own experience with some theoretical background.
According to the constructivistic theory of education, learning is mainly made by an active effort of the learner to make a mental construct. Therefore, and according to my own experience, the best questions are which require an insight to solve.
For example, good puzzles almost always require you to discover a new concept, unless you knew it, of course.
SPOILER ALERT
There is a Sam Loyd puzzle where you have to make a donkey (or horse) out of a few pieces of paper, which never seem to give the right shape together. But when you put the pieces in a circular fashion, you can make the outline of a horse (the negative, i.e. the table you put the puzzle on). So if positive/negative image is what you want to teach, perhaps in the context of Gestalt or graphic design, it's a great way to make them grasp the concept by utilizing it.
SPOILER END
Lateral thinking puzzles usually do this, because when you reach the limit of your knowledge, you need to reorganize your thinking to go forward. And that's what teaching is about in my (and constructivist teacher's) opinion.
Some other ways to do it would be presenting case studies (word problems), when they need to explain what would they do in that situation and why (both can be multiple choice). Or let them make up their own questions about the topic, which is also great for learning -- and you can use the best ones for later.
There's research that suggest that simply reviewing study material is not enough for long-term memory. You need to try and remember the answer before checking it. I don't have links, but Cal Newport's probably write about it.
Another great resource is Made To Stick by Chip and <NAME>.
So in my opinion, it's not the format of the answer what is really important, but rather how engaging the question is. But maybe there is some research about that, and some formats may be better in a given situation than in others.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: This is a question which is far too big to reasonably answer, particularly without knowing the subject matter and tasks of importance. In terms of theories with solid evidence, ones that I find useful as guidelines are:
* [Chi's Active-Constructive-Interactive](http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1756-8765.2008.01005.x/abstract) framework. However, it sounds like your system does not naturally lend itself to constructive or interactive activities. This is unfortunate, because I've seen studies with evidence of learning gains for things as simple as quasi-interactive tasks like allowing people to continue answering multiple choice questions for partial credit after wrong answers (e.g., wrong answers trigger hints for further reflection).
* [25 Learning Principles](http://home.umltta.org/home/theories/25p): More of a list of known effects rather than a theory, it is still useful to know. The primary issue with some of the items on this list is that it is hard (maybe impossible) to optimize for all of them in designing a course. Also, certain content fits certain approaches better, either because of the type of knowledge or expectations by teachers/students (e.g., embedding math into stories might be pedagogically valid, but jarring/disliked due to unfamiliarity).
* [Aligning Media to Cognitive Tasks](http://www.raypastore.com/knowledge/courses/545/schontz_2003_represenations.pdf): While there is a broad literature on this (Mayer obviously being the big US name), Schnotz's work highlights the relevance of picking multimedia that naturally communicates the information you are trying to convey. For example, it is incredibly hard to verbally describe an individual chair (picture worth a thousand words) but equally hard to show enough pictures to imply the simple concept that "most chairs have 4 legs." This intuition implies two things. First, that much of "[learning styles](https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://cdn-2.learning-styles-online.com/images/memstyles.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.learning-styles-online.com/overview/&h=237&w=250&tbnid=rMHis_cPYKTY2M:&vet=1&tbnh=160&tbnw=169&docid=YruBo6A3GU5bYM&usg=__FarqqpIaKZD8Q7p8MJptNxQKaeE=&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjKiMbZxL7RAhWFjVQKHb1lB5sQ9QEIIzAA)" literature represents preferences, and shouldn't be mistaken for what actually leads to better learning (since the content affordances will almost always dominate the best approach to use). Second, it highlights the need to align your learning tasks to the modality that makes the right information salient and accessible, at least initially. Later, if the authentic application of those skills involves tasks where they are *not* salient or easy accessible, tasks to represent that greater complexity are also useful. This represents one incarnation of the general strategy of scaffolding, where tasks are simplified/supported initially, but increasingly approximate unassisted performance of the cognitive tasks needed. This has implications for question sequencing.
* Multiple Representations: Related to both of the above, I think it is important to note that multiple ways of testing the same information is important. This has a lot of backing behind it, which is why it is big in the US Common Core for math. It is suspected to have two major mechanisms: a) multiple pathways/cues to recall the same information and b) understanding of the abstract relationships/processes rather than brittle task-specific procedures tied to one representation. This would not generally apply to just different input controls, though, which are likely to be a last-step after the desired learning-relevant processing is done. Or, put another way, if your question leads to knowledge that is so brittle they fall on their face because they have a checkbox instead of a multiple-choice, they probably won't be able to apply that knowledge in practice anyway.
* Generative: Also noted in some of the above, and relevant to the question types that you list, open response is different and generally better. This is particularly relevant because many of the above types (e.g., multiple choice) are actually very hard to build correctly, with most teachers using a strategies like: 1 right answer, 1 obviously wrong/off-topic answer, 2 variants of right answer with flaws. They're very prone to test-gaming, unless you start with open responses and build one with a right answer vs. common misconceptions, for example. Gaming behaviors are known to reduce learning, probably because learners spend their time thinking about the strategy to game the answer, rather than actually processing the domain-relevant information.
* Comprehensive Testing: Testing on the full set of knowledge so-far has also been shown to increase learning gains. This was noted by one major report as the single simplest and most effective way to increase course-level learning gains, if I recall, but I don't recall the cite off the top of my head. I also cannot recall if this had implications related to studying more or if it was more of a repeated practice issue.
* [Question Taxonomies](http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.374.7092&rep=rep1&type=pdf): There are also a few question taxonomies to look into, which have some indications that deeper questions (e.g., causal reasoning) result in deeper learning. However, deeper learning is not necessarily *more learning*. The relationship can be quite complex, and if all you really want *is* just recall (e.g., the end-task is recall) then deep questions may not be efficient for that goal. As always, aligning practice to your target task is important: if your ultimate task will be shallow, shallow practice probably works. There might be some value to "multiple representations of different shallow practice" using MC questions vs. Y/N vs. checkboxes maybe, but that seems like such an uncommon situation that I am genuinely not sure if anyone studies it.
In general, I would say that I don't see tons of difference between any of the closed-response questions (Y/N, MC, Checkboxes, Ranking, Likert). Yes/No is a bit flimsier than the others because you only need to evaluate one assertion, but I'd still say you'd do similar thinking when given the same question regardless of how you're entering an answer. I'm not aware of any research that shows substantial differences between these techniques off the top of my head, and even if differences were observed there's a good chance that they're not useful differences. As with the learning styles literature noted earlier, just because you can find a difference when everything else is kept equal (controlled) does not mean that the difference is useful in practice because you generally have much stronger factors to manipulate. Open response is different because you get less cues (e.g., you can't just use recognition, and instead need to use recall). There is some research indicating that is better, but applying the caveat of what better means (e.g., might be deeper but less efficient, if all you truly need is recall).
I will note that there are a few systems out there for making interactive questions for courses. CMU has the [CTAT](http://ctat.pact.cs.cmu.edu/) system. WPI maintains the [ASSISTments](https://www.assistments.org/) system. Both of these have various levels of retry/hinting support for interactivity, among other types of adaptation. There are also some similar systems for doing this with open-response formats (i.e., dialogs), but I don't currently know any good ones that can yet be easily and freely embedded by instructors into courseware and that also have professional support staff available.
Finally, if it really is the input controls that you're most interested in, you might find more literature on that in fields like HCI or marketing survey design. Both of those fields tend to focus more on the affordances and optimizations to input mechanisms, while learning sciences and education is typically more interested in the content of the questions (other than the notable concerns about choice-based questions and simple active learning tasks in general). But personally, I think that the big gains aren't in those minor tweaks.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]
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2016/02/16
| 1,078
| 4,549
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<issue_start>username_0: I'm a sophomore in CS planning on grad school, so I asked Prof. A to do research, hoping that I may eventually get some publication (which was understood).
Prof A. is THE star in our department (and in the field as well) and is all busy fundraising, giving talks, etc. So as I expected I was assigned a PhD student B to work with (so this is B's project). Basically I'm building the software infrastructure of online surveys related to the research, and B is responsible for giving me data so I can populate my survey templates and publish them online.
Now the problem is that B has put off their share of his work (or at least it seems) repeatedly -- they'd promise "I'll take a look at your UI tomorrow and give you feedback" -- then two weeks would pass by, I'd email, and eventually get back to me one week later ("sorry I got busy..."). This has happened a few times, and I believe I finally have the UI the way it was wanted and the entire system ready to deploy -- but seems to be unable to deliver me the data. Again I emailed, still no responses. No luck finding the Prof in their office either.
I'm not sure if it's a good idea to tell Prof A. about this (who after all funds this project)... I have put in too many hours of work (for free) to quit this project, and worst yet the Prof I'm working for doesn't seem to care, and I never dared to ask about authorship (so there's no promise). What should I do?<issue_comment>username_1: Look at it from the PhD students perspective. It is possible the work you are doing is not important enough for them to care. They could also be so overloaded by other work.
I see two options. You either take work on your own: improving the current work or moving onto the next stage, or you could talk to A saying "I think I am done with work, and B hasn't had the time to take a look, is there something else I could be doing to be helpful" I usually go with the second option because the first one might lead to a path not needed or already done, where as the second path reminds the professor you are there to help and might get him to start a conversation with B about scheduling.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: You seem to be in a complicated situation: you are doing grunt work for a person who is not very committed to it, and on top of that you don't know if you will get anything back (the authorship issue). They say that hindsight 20/20, but you should have discussed both the authorship issue and the project timeframe (deadlines, milestones) before getting involved. That would make it much easier to get the PhD student to do his work by reminding him of the deadlines and of your stake in the project. If you are just supposed to get no authorship or only a footnote acknowledgement, you could let it be and let the PhD student dictate the pace of work. When you don't have a stake in the paper, you are not losing anything if it gets delayed and someone else publishes it before you. It is his loss, not yours.
Now, in your current situation, I would approach the student (perhaps together with the PI) and ask about the timeframe for the project and if there are deadlines. This will automatically have the effect of reminding the PhD student that he has to do his part of the work. It will also get the PI's attention without looking like you are complaining about the PhD student to him. While you are at that, you can also try to get your authorship doubts solved by also asking if there will be any paper written and what will your role be in that.
You are doing undergraduate research work, but you are not meant to be anyone's servant. Once you have put work into it, it is your right to know that your work is not done for nothing.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: I would do the following:
1. **Always Email PhD student and Professor**: First of all, any email you send to the PhD student, should also include the professor email address as well. You might ask why? The reason is that the supervisor sees that your are doing your work and the PhD student is the lousy one.
2. **Request a Meeting**: Then if things started to heat up and PhD student does not get involved, have a meeting with the supervisor and explain to him/her the situation.
**Note**: I do not agree with the other answer that states the PhD student might be busy, and this is the point here! If the PhD student is busy he/she should not get involved with other endeavors; just to have a better resume without putting down the work.
Upvotes: 0
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2016/02/16
| 1,142
| 4,384
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<issue_start>username_0: I will have my doctoral defense next month, in Italy. In my jury there's a foreign member, who comes on purpose from Belgium (I know him in person and I invited him to be member of the jury, through my supervisor).
I had two opposite advices.
Somebody told me that it is usual, in this situation, to invite the foreign member to give a lecture at my Department, after the defense (in the afternoon). They say that it is a great occasion, and that he would happy of doing it (or, even, he would be upset if not invited).
Somebody else told me that it is not polite, that he could feel forced and that, after the discussion, maybe he would like just to go around the city and relax.<issue_comment>username_1: I think it is appropriate to invite an academic to give a lecture on their work at any point, provided the invitation is politely conveyed. Part of politely conveying an invitation is making the invitee feel comfortable declining it.
I can think of certain situations in which it is arguable that without further personal knowledge of the invitee, the invitation itself exerts an impolite pressure to accept: e.g. if you invite a job candidate to give an "extra lecture." But I don't see why a foreign jury member would feel compelled to give an extra lecture in this situation. Unless you know of some specific plausible reason why he would feel pressured to do so, I think it is absolutely permissible to invite him. Since you are a bit concerned about this, I would mention in the invitation itself that the invitee can freely decline, in a way which suggests that he will not be committing any kind of social error by doing so. Especially if you know this person, um, in person, I see no problem here.
General tip for dealing with human beings: when possible, try not to assume that they will want to do X *or* that they will not want to do X. Develop enough social skills so that you can ask them which one it is. Of course some exceptions apply...
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_2: It is probably best to arrange for the same person who officially invited the external jury member (your advisor, thesis committee president, department chair, dean) to ask them if they would like to give a talk about current work, or any subject they'd care to discuss. Give them a rough idea of the number and background of potential attendees.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: Definitely go through your advisor and/or the head of the thesis committee. They should not only know what's custom at your department but whether reimbursements of part or all of the travel expenses are appropriate or even possible. Keep in mind that a member of the jury is expected to be impartial and you would not want to make the impression of close cooperations going on (think conflict of interest). Which is also why (at least) some members of the jury should not be former co-authors (to my opinion and according to some regulations and guide lines). Again check you relevant documentation of your institution.
>
> Lediglich einer der Gutachter der Dissertation darf zugleich Koautor der Publikationen sein. [source](https://www.tu-chemnitz.de/verwaltung/studentenamt/abt11/ordnungen/2010/AB_6_2.pdf)
>
>
> (Only one of the reviewers of the dissertation may also be a co-author of the publications.)
>
>
>
and
>
> Im Falle einer publikationsbasierten Promotion darf höchstens ein
> Gutachter Koautor einer oder mehrerer Publikationen [...] sein. [source](http://www.fsv.uni-jena.de/svwmedia/Ordnungen/LesefassungPromOrd210114.pdf)
>
>
> (In case of a publication based dissertation only one of the reviewers shall be co-author of one or more publications.)
>
>
>
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: At the end, the thesis is the work of the PhD student. But til then, the advisor rules.
What I would do as a PhD student (annd the advisor is not taking charge): call the foreign member first, or arrange an informal phone meeting. You could pretend you will be talking about your report. Ask if he/she would be interested in giving a talk on the occasion. If yes, hand it over to your PhD advisor.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_5: Inviting this person to give a conference can also be a way to cover some of the travel costs through the conferences budget. I think all parties involved will understand and appreciate that.
Upvotes: 2
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2016/02/16
| 901
| 3,719
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<issue_start>username_0: Soon I will be assigned to a project with industry partner X which will start in couple of months and is very loosely related to my major research interests. The project *might* not be very challenging and time-consuming, but it has close to zero contribution to my actual research, that is why I am not so keen working on it. Also, there is very little potential to get any publications (although unrelated to my topic) from there.
On the other hand, a new industry partner Y is approaching our group. This partner is willing to offer funding for multiple topics, and they work in the field 100% related to my research.
I fail to understand why the principal investigator would assign me to a project with X, while we were anticipating the collaboration with Y, and knowing that the X project will not be mutually beneficial. But, I guess the decision was made just because X approach first.
How can I communicate clearly and nicely to my PI that I would fancy working in project with Y, and make the point that it will be beneficial in terms of tangibles (more research output in an area of interest to PI, me and company Y) and intangibles (more motivation for me)?
I am sure all this is obvious to the PI, but the PI is probably note concerned about anything but the money.<issue_comment>username_1: Directly and honestly. It's your job to champion your concerns, not your professor's. They might not have realized Y would be a better fit or have some thoughts about X you are not aware of.
>
> Hey Prof. Awesome,
>
>
> Do you have a few minutes to talk about the recent projects assignments? I'm much more interested in working with Y because of *reasons*. I also think it would be more beneficial to my research because *reasons*. Can I stop by sometime this week to discuss your thoughts on X and whether it would be possible for me to switch to Y?
>
>
> Thanks,
>
>
> <NAME>
>
>
>
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Bring it up, courteously.
Be prepared for a blank stare, and being told that you are assigned to project X, or you can opt for the wide door.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: Ok, here are my three main points on joining your desirable project and/or change your research area; during PhD and how to communicate with your supervisor about it:
1. **Fantasy or Realistic Expectation**: So first we start with your ability. At the end of the day, the supervisor would like you to finish your PhD. So, first examine yourself if you have the enough ability to join the project/group or even new research area. For example, a supervisor might have robotic research going on, however the PhD student, do not have the background on that matter. He/she sees that "wow this is the perfect project for me to join in" but the fact of the matter is, the PhD student does not fit the group; and supervisor does not want you to have too much stress and fail at the end.
2. **Ask Students Involved and Then Supervisor**: Supervisor guides. So first, I would suggest you to find any other PhD student that works in that area and see how things are holding up. If the student had a good progress, you can then approach the supervisor and let him know about changing your research.
3. **Don't Forget Your Supervisor Abilities**: I see supervisors get the PhD student and have no idea about the research, the students want to work on. For example, there might be a professor in Computer Science, but he/she didn't touch the software testing in years; then, if the PhD student want to work on this, the supervision become a tricky thing and the PhD student cannot get too much out of it; and the supervisor is not that up to date.
Upvotes: 2
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2016/02/16
| 473
| 1,842
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<issue_start>username_0: Presentions for papers or posters at conferences are easy to reference, but how do you reference activities such as organizing conference symposia / panels on your CV?<issue_comment>username_1: There are, of course, a number of ways to do this, as there is no fixed "CV" format even within a field, let alone across them. I will tell you my own methods for doing this:
Long sessions, such as full or half-day workshops, breakout tracks, etc. go under *Teaching Experience*, with the conference information placed in lieu of normal course information. For example:
>
> Session Organizer, “An Introduction to Doing Good Research”, Learning Institute, Association for Right Thinking People Annual Conference. October 2011, 2012 and 2014
>
>
>
Smaller sessions get pulled into *Invited Talks*, which in my CV is actually *Invited Talks and Organized Workshops*, which then have 'Panel Moderator' or 'Symposium Organizer' instead of an author. For example:
>
> Symposium Organizer, "Novel Methods in Being Unimpeachably Correct". 2016. Society for Doing Science Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL.
>
>
>
Upvotes: 2 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: I recommend including a section at the end of your CV entitled "Service", where you list things like conference/panel organization, committee memberships, refereeing activities, and the like. Initially you may have only one or two items, but the list *will* grow over time. As this list grows, organize it into subsections (University service vs Professional service, for example) and subsubsections (editorial boards, program committees, workshop organization, proposal reviews, refereeing, ...).
(I'm assuming that you mean the American Academic CV, which includes *everything*, and not the UK Professional CV, which is just a two-page sketch.)
Upvotes: 3
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2016/02/17
| 3,601
| 15,419
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<issue_start>username_0: I have interviewed for a tenure-track position. I got a call (followed by an email) saying that they would like to offer me this position and I am their top candidate.
This being said, in the negotiations that followed for a few days after, the department showed no desire in increasing the salary or startup package (which are already pretty low compared to other institutions). This is even after I told them that I have two other offers pending.
I have not seen the formal letter yet, and they are pushing me for a response only a few days after they offered the position on the phone.
I feel like they are low-balling me and being very aggressive. What actions should I take?
BTW, I asked for an extension and they gave me less than a week.<issue_comment>username_1: "I would like to see a formal written offer before we move forward."
Any department that's unwilling to do that is sending up huge, brightly colored red flags. With fancy gold tassels. And embroidery that reads "DANGER".
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_2: Just because you have other offers doesn't mean that you're entitled to a higher salary or startup. A department has to balance how much they think you will be able to bring to the department and how much they want you to come, against how much other recent hires got and how this compares to the rest of the salary structure in the department. It also depends on the overall financial situation of the department. As a result of all of this, they may not or can not offer more. You'll have to deal with it -- you gave it a try to negotiate more, but they only offered this much.
As @username_1 already said, you are, however, entitled to a written offer based upon which you can make a decision. Everything short of a written offer and written response is not legally binding to either party.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: It is difficult for anyone as an outsider to know with certainty
what the department is thinking,
but allow me to venture a guess based on my experience in my department.
In my department,
we have interviewed several faculty candidates
whom we would like to work at our department.
Reading between the lines of what
my department head told my colleagues and I,
my department head told several candidates,
"[Candidate's name], we would like to give you an offer
with salary X and startup package Y.
Would you accept this offer?"
My department head was hoping that
the candidate would accept this "conditional verbal offer",
and if the candidate did so,
my department head would then proceed with the time-consuming process
of working with the HR office to generate a formal offer.
(It took almost 2 months from the time when I accepted a verbal offer
to actually receiving the formal offer in the mail.)
Some of the candidates who interviewed with us
responded to my department head's "conditional verbal offer"
by saying,
"I am not sure because I still have interviews at other departments
and/or I have yet to receive news from other departments."
When my department head observed that
the candidates would not accept the verbal offer from our department,
he decided to withdraw the verbal offer to this candidate,
and would tell the candidate,
"Keep us updated if there is any news in your job search journey."
In summary, maybe the department would give you a formal offer
once you give them verbal acceptance that you would accept their offer.
Perhaps they don't want to waste the time of generating a formal offer
if you are not going to accept their offer.
My suggestion is that you should be honest with them, e.g.,
"I am waiting to see what other offers I receive before deciding."
If they press you to accept their offer and you can't decide
because you are waiting for other offers,
you would unfortunately have to politely reject their offer.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: To start off, I think it's important to remember that a job negotiation for an academic faculty position is first and foremost a **negotiation**: that is, a potentially pretty high-stakes game in which two parties with somewhat opposing interests try to bend the other's wills to theirs. Sometimes things go smoothly and it will look like a genial discussion between two academics; other times, **things can get ugly**, and as in any job negotiation (which I believe you can read quite a lot about [over at Workplace.SE](https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/negotiation)), hardball tactics such as lowballing, short decision deadlines, and even some amount of bluffing, are not unheard of. We in the academic world don't often find ourselves in such highly adversarial situations, so when it happens it's good to keep in mind that we are somewhat out of our element, and try to adopt an appropriate mindset.
A further complication is that this kind of negotiation is by its nature highly asymmetric, involving two parties with quite different levels of power, experience, and understanding of the situation. One thing I recommend remembering is that the department chair may not be entirely on your side, and, depending on the precise politics within the recruiting department, may not even personally want your recruitment to succeed. (Of course, it would be highly unprofessional of him/her to sabotage the recruitment because of his/her own preferences, but what can I say? There are a fair number of unprofessional people out there, so I wouldn't make any assumptions about the chair's professionalism/competence.)
Finally, coming to your actual question:
>
> What actions should I take?
>
>
>
the main pieces of advice I have to offer are:
1. The lack of a written offer may or may not be a problem in your case - that depends on the level of trust you feel you have established with the department chair (by the sound of it, it's not too high I'm afraid). It's not unusual for departments to have to jump through quite a few bureaucratic hoops to be able to produce a completely formal written offer, so there may be a legitimate reason for them to want you to accept the offer before having secured such an official document. However, it would be entirely reasonable of you to demand a high level of assurance from them that an offer would be forthcoming before indicating your acceptance. Documentation of all the parameters of the job in writing would be a minimum. And if they cannot provide a level of assurance that satisfies you and are still insisting that you accept, they are behaving unethically (and possibly illegally, but IANAL). If you can get away with saying you accept in principle but will be considering other opportunities until such time as you are offered a written offer, obviously that would be better, and no one could fault you for saying something like that.
2. With regards to the salary and startup, as username_2 said in his answer, you are not automatically entitled to be offered matching terms to those you were offered by another university. It doesn't hurt to ask, but they are within their rights to say no, and they are within their rights to give you a short deadline. At the end of the day you'll need to make a decision about which of the offers you prefer, and it may come down to a tradeoff between a higher salary/startup versus a more attractive location/university/department.
If you do make requests about salary or other things, the important thing is to send a clear signal about what's important to you. If you make it clear that you prefer this department regardless of what happens but ask for a higher salary just because you feel they should match the other offer, quite possibly your request will be ignored, but if you manage to send the message that this would be a genuine deal-breaker for you, you may get a different answer.
Good luck!
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: If you have an alternative better than their final offer then, after you consummate the other offer, thank them and decline.
If you do not have a better alternative then take the gig.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_6: I am not sure to understand which response they are pushing for?
This is certainly country-specific but beside saying *"yes, I am interested"* - what is expected from you when they say *"what about this and that"*?
In order to be under contract you first need a contract to sign. It is up to you to agree or not to sign it.
* if you were negotiating and ultimately agree with their final proposal - everyone is happy
* if you were negotiating and do not agree with their final proposal - you refuse and they are possibly not too happy but this is life. A negotiation is just for that: to find, **or not**, a consensus.
* if you were **not** negotiating and agreed *pro-forma* to their proposal, then retracted - well, this is not particularly professional and the reaction can go from them sighting, to trying to give you a counter-proposal to making your life miserable by degrading your reputation whenever they can.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_7: You have two other offers pending, and this offer is low? I'm not quite sure from your comments whether you already have better informal offers, which you fully expect to be made formal, or whether the other institutions haven't named figures at all until their offers are formal, but you expect them to be better. I'll assume the latter, but in the former case it's even easier to be tough with these guys.
From a negotiation POV you should probably say, "I will not accept this offer at its current level, but I am open to further negotiation if you're prepared to make a higher offer on salary and startup". By all means wrap that up in some stuff to remind them how much you like and respect them--there's no need to be blunt just because your position is tough--but state your position. This satisfies their request for an informal response to their informal offer, and they can decide what to do next.
You could add that the *reason* you won't accept this offer is that you expect a better offer elsewhere, because that will help convince them that you are not bluffing. The trouble with negotiation is that they can only act on what they believe, not things that you expect or know to be true but they're unsure of.
Alternatively, you could say, "I cannot give you a response until I receive the details of two offers pending, which I expect to happen around such-and-such date". This doesn't satisfy their request, but it does leave them with a clear choice to make: they either cut negotiations now or they accommodate you. If they cut negotiations, then most likely you were never going to reach a deal anyway.
Finally, you *could* say, "I can informally accept your offer pending your detailed formal offer". Then if you get a better offer, call them back and say, "I have received a better offer, so I am now rejecting yours". This is kind of a jerk move, and they'll dislike you for it, but they'll also learn that this is what happens if they rush people into informal lowball agreements.
I understand that you don't want to be rushed, but if they're pressing for an answer and they're not moving on their offer, you have to consider the possibility that they just don't have enough money to fund the position in competition with these other institutions making offers at the going rate. Every negotiation contains the possibility of not reaching agreement. In which case, the sooner they move on looking for someone willing to do the job for cheap, the better for them and for you.
I suppose another reason they might be rushing you, is that they think you're probably too good for them and kind of *expect* you to turn them down, so they don't want to lose their second-choice candidate. It's really none of your concern who their other candidates are, but it's legitimate for one of their goals in the negotiation to be, "a quick answer". But then in their own interests they should do everything they can to help you decide quickly, including expediting a formal offer and negotiating salary. If they want *you* to be in a hurry but don't seem to be in a hurry themselves, then it's more likely this is just a tactic on their part to weaken your position by having you negotiate without the other offers in hand. If all they want is for you to say, "I won't ask for more salary", before you've seen your other options, then yes they're being aggressive.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_8: Answering for others (as poster already succeeded in a plum tenure track job):
Always get a formal offer letter. The answer by Romnik was good overall, but the comment on may/may not be an issue to not have an offer letter is wrong. Always get the letter.
You were doing WAY too much pre-negotiation without even having an offer letter. You have to be vague when people want info on salary and all that and make them do an offer first. After all, it's not like they post the particulars before you show up either.
Departments can very very easily change offer letters, write offer letters, and pull offer letters. Don't buy into "it's hard for us to write the letter". You are important enough to get the letter. The same holds true with extremely junior post BS jobs.
Bottom line: you don't really even HAVE an offer without the letter.
But once you get it, the employer is more psychologically committed (will want to seal the deal even with negotiation). Also at this time particulars that may have been glossed over (vaca, etc.) may become clearer. There are about a bazillion stories of people being unhappy afterwards because something was soft pedalled and then the employer sticks to the contract.
In addition, the written offer is something that can be used to up other offers, etc.
Don't feel bad or mercenary about this. Don't be too obviously "hard". But at the same time, you really need to look out for your interests. There are very few times when you have this situation and the employer has way more knowledge and options than you do. You need to look out for yourself. Be calm and pleasant. But force them to give an offer letter. And then negotiate. Competing offers is a strong position to have.
---
(after reading the rest of the answers and comments)
1. If you don't have the guts to ask for a formal letter, how will you ever have the guts to negotiate your salary, etc.? "Not wanting to lose the opportunity" is a very bad reason not to ask for the letter. Just be pleasant and say, "love to work at Enormous State University. Looking forward to seeing the actual offer in a written letter so I can respond".
[Don't say this--it is argumentative--but you can think it: They wanted written letters and CV and etc. etc. from you. You can make them jump a very small, NORMAL, hoop and write an offer letter.]
2. There's also a benefit time-wise in getting them to write a letter. As it gives you time for the other offers to come in. After telling A to write the letter, I would get on the blower with B and C (both verbal...grrr!) and let them know, "I have another opportunity that is now sending me a written offer...would love to work at B [or C]...could you make me a written offer?"
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_9: **"I accept, subject to contract."**
Conditioning your acceptance *subject to contract* means "[negotiations are still going on](https://definitions.uslegal.com/s/subject-to-contract/)."
Upvotes: 0
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<issue_start>username_0: Following on from [this question](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/63440/what-is-the-point-of-listing-1000-authors-for-a-single-scientific-paper), I'm really curious to know about the logistics of large scale collaborations when it comes to publishing a paper that everyone has some contribution to.
To summarise, the recently published paper on the detection of gravitational waves had an author list with over 1000 names and 133 institutions. The sheer number of people involved would make publishing a single paper somewhat less straightforward than, say, a small research group based at a single institution.
So, to my questions:
* What were the logistical challenges of having over 1000
authors/collaborators when it came to publishing a single paper?
* How were these challenges overcome?
I want to make this question as specific and answerable as possible, so please edit this question as appropriate.<issue_comment>username_1: I have recently been the primary organizer and lead author on a large-scale collaboration, in my case an inter-laboratory study that took place over two years and with more than 100 contributing teams.
The paper has been accepted and is currently in press, and my experience so far has been actually a remarkably low amount of pain. The way in which we organized the study and the subsequent writeup had very clear roles, so there was never any question of having 600+ people trying to collaboratively write up a document. Instead, I led the writing with help from the other core authors; once we were satisfied with the draft, we circulated it to the whole community of authors for review, consent, and corrections, with a one-week deadline for responses. Lots of small corrections came back: we integrated them and submitted the paper as planned.
With all of those eyes on the paper, it is perhaps unsurprising that the reviewers requested only truly minor revisions, which meant there was no need to involve the entire community in the revision, just the core authors. A live-updated draft has always been available to the full community, however (Overleaf is great for this purpose), and additional small corrections have continued to trickle in, up to the very final revision.
In short, then, we simply short-circuited the challenge of many authors by using the project organization to divide into a small group that managed the actual writing of the paper and a much larger group that gave advice and consent. There was one very busy week while the bulk of the feedback was coming in, but other than that it has not been very difficult to manage the paper-writing process in the least, and it appears to have been a good experience for all involved.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: An article on Retraction Watch today directly addresses this question. Here's a quote from [When it takes a village to write a paper, what does it mean to be an author?](http://retractionwatch.com/2016/04/12/when-it-takes-a-village-to-write-a-paper-what-does-it-mean-to-be-an-author/):
>
> [A]uthorship is determined by a set of criteria based on time in the collaboration and/or ‘service work’ – jobs like hardware upgrades, detector calibration, data-taking shifts, and the like, overseen by a hierarchy of institutional leads and, for the largest collaborations, national leads. People join the author list after meeting these criteria, and usually stay on until a certain amount of time (typically six months or one year) after they leave the collaboration. Authors are listed in alphabetical order; <NAME> is a prolific first author.
>
>
> Everyone is an author on every paper, whether or not their specialized work contributed to that paper. Someone who worked on muon detection, for example, would be listed as an author even on papers that do not involve muons. There is no requirement that the individual authors have even read the paper, much less contributed to the writing.
>
>
> Papers are actually written by a small group of authors or a committee, and internally reviewed by multiple committees. Individual authors typically have one opportunity to comment on the manuscript before submission to a journal. In some collaborations, individual comments are common; in others they are not encouraged. This is all governed by a collaboration governing document – a kind of membership agreement between the participating institutions. This is very different from authorship in a small group.
>
>
>
Upvotes: 3
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<issue_start>username_0: I'm not contractually obligated to teach in my postdoc position, but she just asked me as a favor... I don't mind of course, but I'd rather be formally acknowledged as co-teaching on the syllabus, etc. It's good for my CV, etc.
Is it expected that I comply with my supervisor or am I within my rights to expect formal acknowledgement?<issue_comment>username_1: The answer to your questions depends: First what does your supervisor asks you in specific? Teach an entire term or just one or two sessions when she is unavailable? Has the course already started?
I would see it this way. If you just have to substitute her for some sessions, do it. A helping hand is always welcome.
If she asks you to lecture an entire course, mention it in your CV -- even if you don't have any obligation to give classes at your current position. It has been stated (imho orrectly) that there is a difference between teaching and examining; you should definitaley check back with exam regulations what your role will be.
A last thing: If you are to give an entire lecture, be sure that it counts towards your working time (the actual course, preparation and follow-ups) -- or is compensated adequately. I work in academia and (in Germany) there is the habit of giving out lectureships that pay absolutely nothing for your efforts.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: I've seen before that a professor was listed on the syllabus, but someone else was actually teaching in the classroom, so it's not unheard of. If you're a co- teacher, list it on your CV as such. If you're the sole teacher, list it on your CV as such. Just 2 things to consider:
* Get your exact role confirmed in writing, either in a letter or an email. If only one person can confirm you did teach and that person gets hit by a bus, we're now down to 0 people.
* Make sure you can balance the additional workload somehow.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: Why shouldn't you? You will get great experience and learn a lot while you are preparing for the class. In my mind, I don't really care what kind of benefits the professor or the supervisor is getting. This is a great opportunity for you. On the other site, if this really bothers you, you may follow the University rules but not recommended. :-)
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: If you have an interest in academic positions this is a golden opportunity that you should not pass up. You will have actually taught some reasonable portion of a class in your field and will be able to discuss with the interview committee how it went, what you would change, how you would teach such a class at your prospective institution. It will go a long way in helping you write your statement on teaching philosophy. It also will let you know what you are in for - preparing lectures the first time through is an incredibly time consuming task.
If you have no desire to be in academia, well, that is something different.
Frankly, I think your adviser is being very nice to you.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: Don't do it. From own experience and colleagues' experiences: Some universities don't consider your teaching experience if you don't show a student evaluation. If you don't get credit for teaching, the only thing what remains is to show your productivity with publications. (Since for proposal writing you won't get any credit as well as postdoc). Focus on your research or negotiate that you get credit for your teaching (student evaluation etc), because good teaching will take a lot of your time, if you do it for the first time.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_6: This already has too many answers, but I can't help myself: academia entirely runs on people doing stuff they are not contractually obligated to do. This generates a lot of problems along the way, but that is how things stand. "It's not a formal requirement that I do this" is not likely to be a satisfying answer for your supervisor. If the amount of lecturing is not a huge burden, and you feel like it will not make a huge dent in your productivity, then it is probably a worthwhile thing to do (if only as a favor to your supervisor); if you feel like the amount asked is a large burden, see if you can negotiate to reduce it. I also agree that you want to get something in writing. I would phrase it as "I want to be sure I understand what needs to be done for the class. If it's writing, it's less likely I'll forget or misunderstand," rather than making it seem like you are suspicious.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_7: My two cents: you should totally do this; it's a great experience and good for your CV. It could be just slightly better if you were correctly acknowledged.
Don't be hung up on who gets the credit. Besides, you are already getting paid for the work you are doing.
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: I am going to submit a paper IEEE Communications letters.
In the paper, I cited my source code repository to provide an open access:
>
> ... For more detail, please refer [1] ...
>
>
> * Reference
> 1. My real name, My project name "<https://my-source-code-repository>", Accessed: 2016-02-17.
>
>
>
However, IEEE Communicaitons Letters is doing double blind peer review and information about authors should be blinded. In this situation, how could I make it blinded?
1. Anonymize *project name*
2. Anonymize *repository URL*
* Reviews might not able to validate the work
3. Anonymize project committer
4. Anonymize everything<issue_comment>username_1: I think most reviewers for IEEE Communications Letters are unlikely to visit your source code link and try and validate your code. It's fairly unusual in this field (I say this as someone in the same field.) Certainly the reviewers will not *expect* access to your code. So if you want to anonymize everything, that would be fine.
If you want to preserve the ability of reviewers to access your code (which is a very good thing!) and don't mind going to a little bit of extra trouble, you could always just upload an anonymized tar.gz archive containing the source code (without the version control metadata) to any file sharing site. Then use that URL in the version you submit for review. (When the paper is accepted, you can update the reference to point to your non-anonymous repository.)
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Though it is good to add your source code reference to your manuscript, I don't suppose citing it in its full form is encouraged as per the [double-review guidelines of IEEE Communication Letters](http://www.comsoc.org/cl/author-guidelines). One alternative would be to store it in a temporary cloud location as @username_1 suggested and then cite it anonymously (with Author1, 2... as in the guidelines). Once accepted, you may relocate it to a proper location with appropriate citation in the paper to be published.
Having said the above, this question is better asked to the publisher for a better clarification.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: Instead of source code, you should provide the executable binary, together with all the scripts to re-produce your experiments. I don't think any reviewer has the patience to read your source code.
In some conference in my field, it is suggested that the authors set up a virtual machine, e.g. a Ubuntu image, and install the compiled tool there.
In order to host these artifacts, you don't need a repository. You only need to put it in, e.g., google drive or dropbox.
Please note that if your repository is in your website, the reviewers will not visit it, for fear of being tracked.
Upvotes: 3
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<issue_start>username_0: This is a follow up to [the question *What is the point of listing 1000 authors for a single scientific paper?*](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/63440/what-is-the-point-of-listing-1000-authors-for-a-single-scientific-paper), I'm just curious.
Supposed I were the 900th co-author in a paper with 1000 authors. How should I list this paper in my CV? Obviously, I don't want to use 3 pages of my CV just to list the details of a single paper.<issue_comment>username_1: The quick answer might be to look up the CV of a CERN researcher...
From outside physics, when compiling institutional publication lists, I've occasionally dealt with a 100+ author entry (often a major report rather than a paper, but the same problem holds). As our motive for listing this is to note the local author(s), it's a similar situation to the CV.
In this case, I tend to do something like:
>
> <NAME>., <NAME>., <NAME>., [and 78 others, including **Smith, Q.**] (2015) A very tedious paper, *J. Irrep. Res.* 243(54)
>
>
>
or
>
> <NAME>., <NAME>., <NAME>., [et al, including **Smith, Q.**] (2015) A very tedious paper, *J. Irrep. Res.* 243(54)
>
>
>
where <NAME> is the local author we care about. It's probably not a very theoretically sound citation style, but it seems to work!
Upvotes: 7 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: In addition to the approach given by @Andrew, many journals will now push you toward an "consortium" authorship listing that simplifies the CV statement. In this style, all but a few distinguished authors are listed as a consortium, whose members are specified elsewhere. Thus:
>
> * <NAME>., <NAME>., <NAME>., and the Parahuman Genetics Consortium (1898), Sequence of the Morlock Genome, J. Mad Sci., 10(3).
> *(Member of Parahuman Genetics Consortium)*
>
>
>
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: What I do is use either `Smith J et al. (2012), Journal of Awesomeness, 5(3)` or `The Whatever Consortium (2012), Journal of Awesomeness, 5(3)`.
My reasoning is that people understand that if it is on my CV then I am an author and the specific order/amount of authors is not important (given that I am not first or last). I have never run into any issues with this approach.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: If there's no one researcher among the 1,000 who stands out, no specific PIs etc. and you are <NAME>, then:
>
> **Insectophiliac Consortium, The [1,000 researchers including <NAME>.] (2015) Fruit Fly Buzz Demystified, J. Reckl. End. 123(45). Full author listing available at <http://foo/bar.html>**
>
>
>
... maybe even without the comment about the full author listing.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_5: I am a member of a big collaboration. The collaboration produces both "whole author list" papers for key results and "short author list" papers written by a subset of members.
In my CV I have a separate section for "selected full author list" publications, where I only list those to which I feel I have contributed directly.
>
> <NAME>, et al [Super Science Collaboration, including **P. Myself**]. *Observing stuff and taking names*. J. Rad Sci. 12(98) 2016.
>
>
>
It feels dishonest to list them all.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_6: I might consider using 'et int' instead of 'et al' if I were last author. A fictional names example would be:
<NAME>, <NAME>, <NAME>, <NAME>, <NAME>, <NAME>, et int, Jones PP.
If Jones PP was whose CV it was
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: Why are graduates of ETH Zürich awarded with titles that include the "ETH"?
[This list of degrees conferred by ETH](https://www.ethz.ch/content/dam/ethz/main/education/rechtliches-abschluesse/bachelor-master-abschluesse.pdf) also states conclusively that "[t]he Bachelor and Master titles may also be used in the form “BSc ETH” / “BA ETH” and “MSc ETH” / “MA ETH” without mention of the subject".
However, it doesn't explain the rationale behind the "ETH" appendix.
Is it because they think they are superior, and everyone should immediately recognize this from their title?<issue_comment>username_1: This seems to be historical. ETH is a university. Switzerland also has institutes formerly called `Höhere Technische Lehranstalten (HTL)`, which are now called `Fachhochschule`.
The preconditions to enter the ETH and a Fachhochschule differ significantly. Finishing a degree at ETH used to take significantly longer, and the curriculum at ETH involved far more advanced mathematics.
Formerly the titles attained at a Fachhochschule was `Dipl. Ing.`, `Dipl. Ing HTL` or `Dipl. Ing. FH` and the title you got at ETH was `Dipl. Ing. ETH`. As you guessed correctly, `Dipl. Ing. ETH` was a clearly ~~superior~~ different and more extensive education. The title from a Fachhochschule was roughly equivalent with a BSc while the title from ETH was comparable to a MSc from a competitive international university. This changed only recently, with the introduction of Bachelor and Master degrees in Switzerland a few years after the year 2000.
Nowadays graduates of a Fachhochschule usually get the title BSc, and graduates of ETH usually get MSc degrees, and have the option to cut their studies short and end them with a BSc degree, although last I heard it was still very unusual to do so.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: While @username_1s answer is correct on the historical aspect and the difference to the "Fachhochschule(n)", there is something missing:
The ETH Zurich and the EPF (Lausanne) are `Federal Institutes of Technology`. And while they technically are universities (as by the usage of the term outside Switzerland), the difference here is that ETHZ and EPFL are directy budgeted/lead by the federal government, while the other universities are budgeted/lead by the single cantons they are located in.
Both institutions are also the most prestigious Swiss institutes of higher learning in many of their technical degrees/educations.
Last but not least both EPFL and ETHZ are notorious for steep learning curves and filtering out many not-quite-talented-enough students (after first year generally 30% or so remain). I guess one of the reasons why the old ETH suffix is still around is also due to a fair bit of (not quite unfounded) elitism.
Upvotes: 2
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2016/02/17
| 633
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<issue_start>username_0: Over the last couple of days, I happened to exchange comments with users who disagreed with me about the fact that *progress in academia is based on publications*. Am I missing something here?
**What I mean by progress**:
Simply put, progress here means to obtain promotions. To go from postdoc to lecturer and so on.<issue_comment>username_1: Trying to measure success with *any* metric in life is a dangerous thing.
As soon as there is a metric, people will game it or lose sight on its original meaning. For example, in academia, this results in people trying to publish the smallest unit of work possible or trying to go for short term successes rather than the big picture. Additionally, things like peer review have already been [shown](http://blog.mrtz.org/2014/12/15/the-nips-experiment.html) to have a huge influence of luck so it makes it silly to compare.
Publishing can be a very motivating metric, but you have to be careful when you begin conflating it with *progress* or *success*.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: >
> Progress in academia is in their publications.
>
>
>
Yes, they are. But publications do not come out of the blue. You need to do reviews to learn the state of the art. You need to attend conferences, to interact with other people. You need to work on projects, to learn how to follow (at your PhD beginning) and how to lead (when you become a PI). You need to learn how to write proposals to fund your research. You need to supervise undergraduate theses, although they might not always lead to a publication. And most of all, you need a network of people that would write reference letters for you, cite your papers, collaborate with you on proposals and saying NO to everything, as your last post suggested is a sure way to end up jobless.
The projects you participate in, the interaction you have with other scientists, the reviews you have to do, the conferences you attend might seem like a distraction to you, instead of sitting in your desk and doing "your" research. But science and research is a social activity and it is usually your network (as sad as it may seem) that gets you a job and not your research. Participating in many research activities, leads to more ideas and then your research becomes more diverse, instead of rehashing the same line of research which is the usual outcome of people working in isolation. So, suggesting that a PhD student should only focus on a very narrow line of research (which considers his) and avoids any other scientific activity (because it steals time from "his" main research) is a very bad advice.
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: While reading [this slightly-too-snarky question](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/63440/what-is-the-point-of-listing-1000-authors-for-a-single-scientific-paper), I was reminded of a slightly more serious question I’ve wondered about from time to time: how does being one of the 1000+ authors on a paper like the LIGO discovery or one of the CERN collaborations influence your career? I’m used being in a field (mathematics) where most papers have between one and three authors (I’ve written with three separate four-person teams, and people have often considered this a bit exotic), so when reading a CV, one can reasonably ascribe most of the “credit” for a paper to any of the authors.
If you’re in a situation where you have to judge the research output of a scientist (like a hiring or tenure committee), how does seeing a paper from an enormous collaboration change your thinking? What do you if you have make a decision between candidates whose publication lists are identical (due them being in the same collaboration)?<issue_comment>username_1: It depends a lot on what you are using papers for. A published paper can inform a committee on the relative author potential for:
1. Capacity for innovation
2. Scientific leadership
3. Skills in data analysis and interpretation
4. Skills in scientific writing and navigating scholarly communications
5. Team membership
6. Peer connections
7. Capacity for securing and maintaining funding
Any paper with more than 15-20 authors supports with difficulty any of the above items, as there is an evident dilution effect. For instance, when looking at a paper such as [Chatrchyan et al](http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/JHEP06%282013%29081), with 2189 authors, what can be inferred regarding the contribution of author 123rd (randomly picked...)? Only, at best, items 5, 6 and 7. Accordingly, only if such gargantuan papers are accompanied by others more reasonably authored ones, can the multi-authored ones be considered credible.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_2: There's generally a way of assessing your contribution to the project even if it's enormous. So even if you're 29th author, if you were the senior manager of say particle detection and analysis, that's knowable. And they'll have a letter of recommendation from the project supervisor detailing your role.
And people on the committee (especially the person's department head) if they think you're great will advocate for you, the importance of your role, and the importance of your contribution to it.
Upvotes: 1
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| 208
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<issue_start>username_0: If someone works as teacher in high school after completing his undergrad studies or works as a freelance tutor, can he write about it in his statement of purpose? Would such experience be considered as "Teaching experience"?<issue_comment>username_1: Regardless of the field that you are in, teaching is a valuable skill. In my experience as a graduate student it has only ever added value and is often included as a separate category on various applications. I would consider high school teaching and tutoring to both be great experiences that are worth including in an academic admissions context, especially if the subjects fell within your field of interest.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Yes! Showing that you can teach is such a key skill, not only because it shows you can teach but it also shows you can present.
It also may make you more competitive to get funding through TAships!
Upvotes: 0
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2016/02/17
| 991
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<issue_start>username_0: Actually I am doing my PhD in Computer Science, and it is advancing a little bit slow. I am convinced that I can use a technique to solve a problem in my research, but my supervisor is not very keen with the idea. Searching on an online course I found an expert in the area that uses this technique, and I would like to ask for his opinion and maybe advice.
The questions I have are:
* How to write an email to this expert? I mean should it be a formal one asking beforehand if he would have some time to read the doubts I have, or should I just send an email with the question I want to ask directly?
* What to do in order to increase the likelihood of receiving a reply from this expert? I know they usually are very busy people and that they receive tons of emails, so what can I do to make the difference so that he will answer it?
Before, I have sent some emails to other experts and I did not get any reply, except for one special case from a renowned expert in the field of Evolutionary Programming that was incredible kind and eager to answer in a very detailed way the questions that I gave to him. Any advice?<issue_comment>username_1: * Start with a summary. Write a couple of sentences to explain the reason for your email and a rough statement of what it is you'd like help with. If your message is long and takes a while to get to the point then the expert is likely to get bored and lose interest.
* Explain how you know of their work, and how it relates to yours. As @user3624251 suggests in their comment, a bit of massaging their ego will not go amiss, as long as it is not excessively fawning.
* Be polite, but to the point. If you are **too** apologetic then you'll just come across as underconfident and unimportant.
* State your problem as succinctly as possible. As you would on SE, try to make it as self-contained and well-defined as you can.
* If you can't describe the problem in a couple of paragraphs or less, and/or the reply would require more than a few paragraphs, then it might not be well suited to an email enquiry and you might be better off trying to arrange a meeting. You could try finding out if there are any conferences coming up that you could meet up at. Or, if you can sell your problem as being really interesting, maybe the expert would be interested in collaboration.
* Accept that, as you have already discovered, you will not have 100% success rate. However well you write the message, you may not even receive a reply, and that is not necessarily a poor reflection on you. But there is very little harm in trying, and some people turn out to be very generous with their time and advice.
* Always follow up with an appreciative email if they reply in any way whatsoever!
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: When reaching out an expert for help, it's good to learn as much as you can about him before hand. I always dip into LinkedIn to check out background, and to see if there are any interesting clues, common experiences, and the like.
Usually, the very best way to get connected is with an introduction. Do you know anyone who knows this expert, who can make an introduction? That's where LinkedIn is quite helpful.
If email doesn't work, consider using @name in Twitter and see if you can get an answer that way.
Also, when I'm asking for help, I don't usually fire off the question. Instead, I'll shoot a request off saying "I'm XYZ at ZYX and I'm working on ABC. Do you mind if I ask a question on CBA?" I know it's a second step, but I've found that people tend to be more open once asked if a dialog is acceptable.
Speaking personally, I get a LOT of questions via email and have an auto-responder to answer them. I sometimes check those questions, but rarely individually answer them. But if someone I know reaches out to me, or I see a quick, easy-to-answer question on Twitter, I often reply.
Good luck. Don't limit your outreach to one person in a field. If you don't get an answer, move on. You never know how busy any one person is or whether it's just a busy week.
--David
Upvotes: 1
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2016/02/17
| 1,618
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<issue_start>username_0: I used to think that with every degree you get your salary goes up.
Universities produce more and more PhD's and i learned in economics 101 that once the supply is higher than the demand, the price (here salary) will drop.
Even if you get a little bump in salary, you have to take into account, that you are joining the workforce 3-4 years later and therefore "loose" those salaries.
**From an economical standpoint** : Is a PhD still worth doing ?
( I know, doing a PhD is not "just" about the money )<issue_comment>username_1: I would say: "it depends".
Basically: What is your field you want to do a PhD in? Does it complement your field of study or is it something completely new and outfits you with unique skill/expertise?
Secondly: A PhD suggests -- even if it does not fit to your field of profession -- that you are capable to self-organise, to autonomously pursuit a research question and work it through. To break down a problem in abstract thesis and work problemoriented etc. These are skills that are welcome on the outer academia job market although maybe the knowledge you obtained with your PhD thesis might not be. I am a sociologist and interviewed project managers. Many told me that after my PhD I should get in touch with them, since having successfully done a PhD indicates that you can stay on a project and are disciplined to do it while 'on your own'.
Third: Yes, numbers of PhD holders are increasing, however it seems that there is no saturation in the sense you proposed. Employment markets usually do not work the way you might learn in economy 101.
Fourth: You said it yourself: doing a phd is not about the money and not about the fame. If your job does not require it, I would suggest, don't do it; it sets back on many dofferent accounts, like family, outer university carreer and longterm planning.
So what I am trying to tell: A scientific degree like a PhD is not so easily transformed into economic capital as one would think. Of course, it creates benefits but it also closes options down (overqualification). IMHO market principles do not work that well on it.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: If you look at income alone, it's definitely not worth it - assuming you don't live in a country in which "<NAME>" is still highly regarded, and an almost must for high-end jobs in politics and business (like in Germany or Austria).
In industry, there are a few jobs (chip design for Intel or quantitative hedge funds come to mind; maybe in consulting it's a toss up; certainly there are others) where it might help. There are also jobs where it's required to have a PhD (some chemistry research, or such), or at least very beneficial. But outside these somewhat rare positions, HR will put you on a pile called "non-standard degree" which is largely ignored, and you rely on personal connections or quantitative recruiters to even get your foot in.
If you end up in academia as tenured faculty, you get a decent salary with a wide range (e.g., at the top end, Business School finance *assistant* professors lie around $200k at good schools, to a low end that's a fraction of that if the school or department is less wealthy, or the field less supported by industry). But if you're smart and driven enough to get there, you almost certainly could have long made partner at McKinsey by that time, where you won't go home with less than $1m.
I think the term "still" in your title is a bit off. I don't think this ever was different. You should write a Ph.D. as you're passionate about a field, look for independence, and genuinely love what you're working on. And you should be aware early, and accept, that this is not a choice made for the money.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: Answer the following question: Do you want to become an academic?
**If yes**: Welcome to the club then!, you will need to do a PhD and a number of postdocs, and if you work hard at it, you will get an academic position.
**If no**: Simply do not do the PhD, because among other things definitely it does not help you get a better job (and money); simply because industry measure you based on your knowledge, which is determine through their interview process, and not your PhD diploma.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_4: I have an EdD in Music Education, and now I am a software engineer in test. While I started my degree intending to be an academic in Music Education, I changed careers when I was almost done with my dissertation research, and decided to complete the degree.
The degree itself is not the deciding factor in making money, but because I was pursuing a Doctorate, tech companies were interested in interviewing me, curious about my dissertation research, and excited about the different things I pursued. Point being that you really cannot predict every aspect of life (I had no plan to leave academia), but a degree can strengthen your ability to make connections and get interviews, even if not in your chosen field. I write this to share with you my personal experience, as I can only speak for myself. Best of luck in your decision and endeavors.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: This is such a hugely open ended question that I was quite tempted to vote to close it - because the core of this answer is *What kind of PhD?* and *Compared to what?*
To use two edge cases:
* Getting a fully-funded PhD in a field where PhDs do indeed lead to increased salaries, compared to sitting on your couch playing video games and wondering what to do with your life? Yes, it's worth it.
* Giving up an offer to go work as a programmer for 200K a year at Google to take on debt for a PhD in a field that's very crowded, and the job market is dominated by adjunct positions? Clearly not worth it.
Even if you don't think about those edge cases, it will vary heavily by field. For example, there's good, lucrative work to be had for people with an MS in Computer Science, so a PhD might not be "cost justified". At the same time, in my own field, the work you can do with a Masters vs. a PhD are, in some cases, entirely different fields, so it becomes much more a matter of "If you want to do X, you must go get degree A", and the question of cost is more about mitigating the opportunity cost.
In more general terms though, I'd say "It depends. For technical fields maybe, for liberal arts fields probably not, if you're taking on debt almost certainly not."
Upvotes: 1
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2016/02/18
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<issue_start>username_0: I've read a couple threads on how to state a PhD dropout in a CV, but wanted to query opinion on the case where the degree in question is a Master's instead. Additionally, my situation is a bit different from others in that I'm mostly done. I plan to complete 33 units by the end of this semester but need 36 to graduate with the degree. I'd rather not stay an extra semester for 3 units.
My M.S. program in Statistics (top 3 program) ended up being mostly theoretical, similar to the Ph.D program here, and the theoretical courses were largely uninteresting to me after my first year. I found that I'm more interested in the programming aspect of things, as well as machine learning. My program specializes in a specific branch of statistical thought, rather than machine learning.
I am now looking for a data scientist position in industry. The question is, *How should I state a 'MS dropout' in my resume?*<issue_comment>username_1: First, some advice. I agree with @gnometorule, but I would state it stronger: *IMHO and based on limited information you've shared*, it would be a **mistake** to drop out so close to graduation. Even though the current culture within startup ecosystem and, overall, tech industry largely ignores education credentials in favor of "being a hustler", "being a doer", "being street smart", etc., the *data science* subset of the both areas actually seem to have more respect and pay more attention to people's education. This is quite understandable, considering the relative complexity of data science and, especially, its machine learning and artificial intelligence fields of study and practice.
I would strongly suggest you to consider things in perspective and do your best to successfully finish the program. Not only it will give you some advantages when competing in the job market, but also might be useful to you, should you decide in the future to go for a Ph.D., teach at some educational institution or pursue other *opportunities* (i.e., scientific research or consulting).
In regard to your specific question - should you decide to ignore my advice - I think that it would be better to formulate in your resume the phrase *"MS dropout"* not as such or, even, not as
>
> *"University XYZ, MS program, Statistics, Years Range, **Incomplete**"*,
>
>
>
but rather as a *positive fact / achievement*:
>
> *"University XYZ, MS program, Statistics, Years Range, **Completed 90%** of curriculum"*.
>
>
>
Having said that, again, I strongly suggest you to consider finishing your Master's program.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: I think that you should finish because you are so close. I know that employers don't like quitters. If you don't finish, you can always say "The idea of a masters just floated away", or you can say "I am too busy so I will finish when there is a quiet time" or you can say "The salary increment is just too incremental". I actually don't have a masters degree. I have a bachelors degree and a research position. Even to this day, at the ripe old age of 54, people still sometimes ask me why I did not do a masters.
Upvotes: 3
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2016/02/18
| 1,067
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<issue_start>username_0: Three students came to my office hours and told me that they are straight As but for some reason are failing my class. I have 14 students who got A- and A. 11 are in 80s range, 9 got 70-77, and 9 in 50-60% range (three of those didn't turn in assignments). Is this a normal grade distribution or are some failing because I am doing something wrong? I was told that the problem could be my mid-term exam (it wasn't well-designed!!!) or that I am a difficult grader.
I was also told that this grade distribution (lots of Fs!) are common for new teachers. In other words, new teachers have lots of As and lots of Fs. Honestly, I don't understand the logic behind that. How is that possible? Or why?<issue_comment>username_1: It would raise some concern that 9 out of 43 students received F's A more typical number, historically speaking, would be 5%-10%. An example would be: [Georgia State University in 1920](https://discoverer.gsu.edu/portal/page/portal/IPORT_SDM/Grade%20Distribution%20By%20College1/Reports:Student); however, the question is why did they get F's
If you have a batch of students who did not turn in the work or demonstrate that they learned the material then the grades seem justified.
Try to look at other instructors tests that you can compare to yours and have peers look at your tests.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: *Ask your students why they think they are failing to understand the material.*
Is the course too hard? Are they unaccustomed to your lecturing style (and should you try to change it)? Are some of the students missing important pre-requisite knowledge that you are assuming the whole class has? Are the assignments very tangential to the lecture material?
We can only guess as to the reasons. Ask the students.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: **tl;dr:** seems like perfectly acceptable distribution. Students will try anything to get a better grade, don't mind them too much.
To begin with, with N=43, especially if this is your first time teaching the class, you don't have a lot to go on. As you teach it a few more times, you'll get a feel for your overall grade distribution.
I personally average somewhere around 20-25% A, 40-50% B, 20-25% C, and 5-15% D/F/W across all my classes. But I've had some individual sections that were virtually all As and Bs, and I've had one where the D/F/W was a clear majority (!). No one in the administration complained or questioned my grading/instructional skills in that last one because they were due to extreme absences and not handing in heavily-weighted assignments, and also because I had taught it before with more "normal" (= commonly occurring, not statistically normal) distributions.
As to new teachers having lots of As and Fs, if it fits an inverted bell curve, it's a sign that your class is probably a bit too easy, the As are people that get it, and the F are those that don't, but without more difficult questions, you have no way of discriminating any other levels. But frankly, your distribution seems fine and unremarkable to me.
As the user autistic notes in the comments to your question, if you're concerned about too many As/Fs and not enough B/C/Ds, you may need to have questions or assignments that include both more difficult (to pull more Bs out of the As) and easier (to pull more C/Ds out of the Fs).
Your ultimate recourse (and resource) is if the course is something that has been taught before at your university by someone who is still there, ask them to look over how you're grading. If it seems fine to them, then you just got a class that happens to have that grade distribution. If not, then you may want to make some minor adjustments based on their recommendation.
What I wouldn't do is judge your grading with their other instructors. Besides the fact that they could just be very lazy students in your class alone, each department within a university will have its own culture of expectations, workloads, and grade assigning. Those students may have As, but in a department that doesn't demand much. You may also have students that are surprised at getting an A, if they come from one that is far more demanding.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]
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<issue_start>username_0: A bit of context before hand. I am a second year PhD student. In the course of my studies, I have slowly shifted from aerospace engineering towards computer science. Now, my research involves developing software applicable for aerospace systems. I am fairly competent in programming and related subjects, even though I sometimes find my lack of background in those subjects to be penalysing.
I found a summer program in which I am highly interested in. However, it was mainly designed for CS students. In my application, I want to make a case that even though I am not an ideal candidate for this program (which in my opinion is quite obvious, even though I have proven capabilities in some of the subjects required) I still think I should get accepted. One of the my main arguments is that everything I have learned so far on programming and related subjects was through self-study (mainly online tutorials), which shows I am highly motivated and can work independently.
So it got me thinking. In general, is it a good idea to admit his own weaknesses when applying for a specific position?<issue_comment>username_1: Describe yourself accurately enough to let the program organizers decide if you will benefit from the course. In that sense, yes, you should admit your weaknesses, but it's indeed counterproductive to actually phrase things that way - you are the applicant; it's not your job to decide what is a significant weakness.
You obviously think you are ready for the course and would benefit - let the organizers know what your reasons are, and why you are enthusiastic. If you are applying on the strength of being a good software developer in general, including a link to some public code you've written might help.
(And if you are feeling self-conscious about not having an undergraduate CS degree, go and get something like Cormen et al.'s "Introduction to Algorithms" and go through it cover to cover. You will hit most of the things you would be expected to know cold.)
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: >
> So it got me thinking. In general, is it a good idea to admit his own weaknesses when applying for a specific position?
>
>
>
No.
Be well prepared to address the "weakness" if it is brought up.
Bringing it up invites focusing on it, in a time where you would probably prefer that they focus on your strengths.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: >
> I want to make a case that even though I am not an ideal candidate for this program (which in my opinion is quite obvious
>
>
>
This is not for you to decide, nor do you have all the data in your hand to even make that assessment: 1) you don't know the program; 2) you don't know your competition; 3) you don't know the department's needs.
Make your best case about what you can bring to the program and let your transcript speak for itself.
Upvotes: 2
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2016/02/18
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<issue_start>username_0: I am just done with my Masters degree in one of the universities in Germany. I am wondering if I can make my Master's thesis open for public to download and read.
I am not talking about submitting it to a journal or a conference, I am just asking if I can put the PDF file I submitted to my professor on my website. My question is that if I do put on my website, will I run into copyright issues and stuff of that kind?<issue_comment>username_1: Any project done for an academic certificate is owned by the university, but as for public sharing under the right license (for academic usage) it will be accepted to be release, but its better for you to get an approval from the university.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_2: I don't know about Germany, so you will probably need to check with the university for their policy. I did my Master's degree in Canada and when I submitted my thesis I was required to sign a 'non-exclusive license' to the library to reproduce, publish, etc my thesis for non-commercial purposes. However, it was made clear that I retain full copyright ownership. In which case I could make it accessible on a website if I wished, or publish it and try to sell it at the local bookstore.
However, on a related note, the university claims joint ownership for any inventions which result from research conducted there. I don't think this is a universal policy, but is probably common. So, if relevant, patenting something from your thesis would probably need to involve the university.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: **In Germany, the student is typically owner of the copyright (including Verwertungsrechte) their thesis.**
These theses are parts of exams (Prüfungsleistung). Such work *must* be solely produced by the student, and the thesis typically also contains a declaration specifying this. This implies that the work is owned by the student.
You can read through the forms you signed and the exam regulations (Prüfungsordnung): if no exclusive transfer of rights is mentioned, they are yours for sure. If an exclusive transfer is mentioned it is probably void according to the source I link below.
---
Exam regulations forbid that the professor (who's considered a public official person for the exams) or the university accept anything from the student that is not specified by the exam regulations. IP rights are not in that list. The university can and does ask for a certain number of copies of the thesis (in paper and/or electronically), this comes with a license to use these copies, e.g. to put then into their archive and to make them available in the university library (the same kind of license you get when buying a book). However, I have not yet seen an *exclusive* transfer of rights in that context. AFAIK the Prüfungsordnung can also specify that the thesis has to be published, though I have met that requirement only for PhD theses.
Students are typically *not* employees at the university. Often the exam rules explicitly forbid that students can be paid/hired by the university for the thesis. Thus, IP rights could only be transferred to the university by an explicit contract. However, contracts saying that "all transferable rights on the thesis go to university otherwise you cannot do your thesis here" are void because they are considered to be established under undue pressure to the student, and are considered acceptance of benefits by a public official (Vorteilsannahme). There seem to be ways of having a valid contract before the exam that transfers the IP to university, but I gather this is rather complicated to get right.
After the exam is finished and the student has grades and certificates, valid contracts to transfer rights to the university can be negotiated.
Source and highly relevant reading (in German) [<NAME>: Rechtsgrundsäte zu Diplomarbeiten](https://www.tu-braunschweig.de/Medien-DB/datenschutz/messer-helmut-rechtsgrundsaetze-zu-diplomarbeiten-vortrag-2005-11-10.pdf).
Upvotes: 4
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2016/02/18
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<issue_start>username_0: A psychology PhD candidate has been doing research on students (sorry i don't think I can be any more specific than this). They needed someone to develop a application that gathers metrics about each student and then reports back to a central database. The PhD candidate then accesses the database and runs various metrics on the data to try to uncover patterns. I was the person chosen to code the application. I put about 100 hours into building this software application and I was compensated fairly for my effort. Since then I have done regular maintenance and updates on the software/database and I continue to get compensated. Other than the software aspect, I really know nothing more about their research or dissertation.
My question is: **Is there any expectation that I should be credited in the dissertation for my work on the software?** Without my software, the various studies simply would never have happened because there currently doesn't exist any commercial software that does what was needed. On the flip side, I didn't actually help with the research, i had no say in the design or manner of the studies and was essentially uninvolved with anything that did not directly deal with the code.
The reason I am asking this question is mostly to see if I can use my work on this project in future resumes or CV's and actually list myself as a contributor on the project. In my normal life, I am not an academic or involved with any sort of academia other than this one incident so I am pretty clueless when it comes to this type of stuff.<issue_comment>username_1: I'm in a similar situation to yours, my job is a research support position, and it sounds like you're in a similar position. As in your situation, most of the work I do is on the technical side of things, supporting data collection for non-programming related research.
Whether or not you deserve credit for your work very much depends upon what you mean by credit. If you mean authorship-credit, I would probably say it's unlikely, unless the dissertation is going to discuss the use of your software as a novel research method. On the other hand, if you mean credit as in taking credit for designing and implementing the software, yes, you absolutely deserve credit, and you should be able to discuss your work as a project that you've worked on/are working on.
If the PhD candidate is gracious, they will give you an acknowledgement in their dissertation, however regardless of whether you are acknowledged, this is a project that you worked on, and should be able to discuss and claim as such.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: You did work for hire for a research group. Since you say you were strictly involved in developing the tool and not in the research, authorship of subsequent publications is not to be expected. An acknowledgment in the thesis would be appropriate but it would have very little weight in a CV, inside or outside academia.
At any rate, you can definitely list your contribution to this project in your CV regardless of which kind of acknowledgment you might get. In fact having delivered a working software and gotten paid for it will be much more helpful than any kind of authorship/acknowledgments when applying for jobs outside academia.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]
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<issue_start>username_0: I am currently writing a thesis. In the related work part I am discussing a paper from a few years ago. The paper presents several web applications which were available back then. Hence, these applications are referenced via footnotes in this paper. Unfortunately, some applications were shutdown, hence, the URL is not working anymore.
How should I proceed, when mentioning these applications in my text? If the URLs would still be online, I would (as in the original paper) add a footnote which shows the URL + the date/time when I accessed the url. But how should I do it knowing that the URL cannot be reached anymore?
I can see two options as of now, but both don't really satisfy me:
* Just do nothing, that is, no footnote whatsoever
* Use an archived version of the URL from the web archive (web.archive.org) instead of the original URL. If this is a good solution, then I think it would be necessary to state in the footnote something along the lines of *"due to the discontinuation of the application the original URL is down and that we provide an archived version of the URL..."*. If this is a good solution, I would like to know a proper formulation of the statement about why an archived version is provided.<issue_comment>username_1: You cite/reference stuff so later readers can check it. A dead URL is mostly useless, cite the archived one if need be (and explain why! perhaps the page went away for a reason that makes your whole point of refering to it moot...).
You mention "web application", presumably the *application* behind the page went away for good, in which case you don't have much to discuss anymore. Either find some detailed discussion elsewhere that covers what you are interested in, and cite that, or see if the application still exists (under another name elsewhere, a evolved version, ...) and see to cite that.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: If the site has disappeared off the web, we might keep it and add a comment to the parenthetical “publication data” within our note. For example:
… (<http://www.abcdefg.com>: accessed 7 September 2017; site inactive on 10 November 2018).
This documents a time frame within which we (or others) should be able to find a site-capture at Wayback Machine
Upvotes: 2
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2016/02/18
| 2,134
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<issue_start>username_0: Is there any dataset that look at how much revenue academic authors make on their published books?
---
I am aware of the question [How much do Springer-Verlag authors make per book sold?](https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/19333/452) but answers there focused on royalties (i.e., data on number of sold books is missing), and the question was on Springer-Verlag only.
I am most interested in the computer science field (machine learning and natural language processing in particular), but I am curious about other fields as well. I am most interested in the United States but curious about other countries as well.<issue_comment>username_1: It varies, but often, nothing. I have three experiences with academic books:
1. As a postdoc, I was signed up with Springer to write a book together with my advisor. According to the terms of the contract, our only recompense would have been one copy each of the finished book. The book never got finished anyway.
2. More recently, I wrote a book chapter. Springer again. I don't know whether the editor received any royalties, but I received only a copy of the book.
3. I was also asked recently to contribute a chapter for a book to be published by a university press. I declined when I realised that they were asking authors (including the editor) to pay a hefty publication fee, even though they had a guarranteed market (two profs would be using it as a text) and would also be charging students for the finished book, with no royalties back to authors.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: I co-authored a research monograph in a rather specialized area of applied mathematics. I have received about $300 in royalties over several years. I think this is typical.
For most authors, the important consideration is not how much money they will make, but how effectively the publisher will be able to distribute the book. This usually means going with a well-established publisher. I know some highly-respected authors that also shop around to find the publisher that will distribute their book for the *lowest* reasonable price.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: From <http://ndsuspectrum.com/textbook-scam-14-billion-industry-robs-students-professors/> ([mirror](http://web.archive.org/web/20171001175412/http://ndsuspectrum.com/textbook-scam-14-billion-industry-robs-students-professors)):
>
> According to the National Association of College Stores, out of every dollar spent on a textbook, about 77 cents goes back to the publisher. Publishers make 18 cents in pure profit. The writer takes home about 12 cents. This does not consider the gravy bookstores take in on buying and selling used books, where they keep all the difference, and can sell a used book for $30 until the binding falls apart. Then, they can sell it for $25 as a loose-leaf edition.
>
>
>
As a side note, from the same article:
>
> Four publishers control 80 percent of the $14 billion textbook market. They are Pearson, Cengage, Wiley and McGraw-Hill. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, textbook prices have risen 800 percent since 1978, which is way beyond inflation. For comparison, health care has inflated 575 percent and home prices have gone up 325 percent. From 2002 to 2012 the cost of textbooks rose 82 percent. The textbook market is a $14 billion industry.
>
>
>
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: <NAME> recently posted on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/hadleywickham/status/1032413255313055745) that he makes $1.68 per copy of [*R for Data Science*](http://r4ds.had.co.nz/). The book currently sells for ~$20 on Amazon.
Granted, he gives away the book for free online and the purpose of his tweet was to tell people to not feel bad about getting the book for free.
Edit:
-----
I recently found a [blog](https://martin.kleppmann.com/2020/09/29/is-book-writing-worth-it.html) by where <NAME> takes about royalties from his book, *Designing Data-Intensive Applications*.
He did quite well, with close to 1/2 a million in revenue, but he was his publisher's 2nd highest selling book in a hot field.
As quote from 29 September 2020, which answers the OP's question:
>
> The total sales since the beginning have been (in US dollars):
>
>
> * Print: 68,763 copies, $161,549 royalties ($2.35/book)
> * Ebook: 33,420 copies, $169,350 royalties ($5.07/book)
> * O’Reilly online access (formerly called Safari Books Online): $110,069 royalties (I don’t get readership numbers for this channel)
> * Translations: 5,896 copies, $8,278 royalties ($1.40/book)
> * Other licensing and sponsorship: $34,600 royalties
> Total: 108,079 copies, $477,916
>
>
>
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: Personal experiences here: the authors/editors generally get 10-15% of sales revenue. Note this is sales revenue. If the publisher e.g. offers a discount, authors also get less royalties. If the book is pirated, authors get nothing. Royalties are split between all authors/editors.
**Monographs**: A monograph probably won't sell more than 500 copies at best (last I saw 300 is more common). Order of magnitude estimate: if each book costs $100, then the author of a monograph might get $3000.
**Textbooks**: An undergraduate textbook can sell tens of thousands of copies or more if it's widely adopted, but if not then 1000 copies or fewer is common. Graduate-level textbooks have sales more in line with monographs (albeit somewhat higher).
**Review volumes**: Chapter authors can receive something too during contract negotiations - my experience was that chapter authors get a copy of the book but that's it. Review volumes don't tend to sell many copies - definitely not more than 1000, and closer to monographs than to textbooks.
**Popular-level books**: These can sell 1000+ copies if they're reasonably well written, but the median is lower at maybe 500-600. There's a long tail as well - a book can sell millions of copies (c.f. <NAME>'s *A Brief History of Time*). Note popular level books usually have a significantly lower retail price compared to the more technical books.
Caveat: popular level books have a bigger potential market, so with a dedicated publicist one can increase the number of books sold by an order of magnitude or more.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_6: At the risk of self-promotion, I can offer one more data point.
I self-published an undergraduate computer science textbook through Kindle Direct Publishing, which pays [60% royalties minus printing costs](https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G201834330). I set the list price of my book at $27.50, and Amazon's printing costs are $6.51, so my royalties are ($27.50 × 60%) – $6.51 = $9.99 per copy.
I sold 139 copies of my book in August 2019, for which KDP estimates I will receive $1,382.63 in royalties at the [end of October](https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G200641050). (There's a tiny discrepancy from currency conversion of royalties from non-US Amazon sites.)
Like <NAME>, I give away my book for free.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_7: I was paid 50K with no royalties for a proprietary textbook and 25K when it was revised. Individual chapters for another text paid between 4 and 6k
Upvotes: -1
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2016/02/18
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<issue_start>username_0: I plan to obtain a recommendation letter for PhD from a recommender with whom I have worked a lot during the course of my bachelor's. However when I accidentally typed her name in Google, a copyright violation notice by IEEE in her name shows up [(sample)](https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/6061618). It identifies the paper that included the copied text, says something like
>
> After careful and considered review of the content and authorship of this paper by a duly constituted expert committee, this paper has been found to be in violation of IEEE's Publication Principles.
>
>
> This paper contains portions of text from the paper(s) cited below. A credit notice is used, but due to the absence of quotation marks or offset text, copied material is not clearly referenced or specifically identified.
>
>
>
and specifies the original source of the copied text. This violation has nothing to do with my work with her.
I am afraid this shall reduce the credibility of my work. Besides, I am loath to approaching other professors because I have worked much less with them and do not know them as well as this recommender. What should I do? Go ahead with her recommendation despite, or seek another recommender?<issue_comment>username_1: Unfortunately, yes, this might put a small seed of doubt in people's minds about you, by association. Was the recommender the first author of the paper in question? If they were neither the first author nor the lab head, any reflected doubt is much smaller.
What are your other options for a recommender? A recommendation from this academic is still a positive in comparison with a recommendation from someone who doesn't really know you, or is outside academia. If anyone stops to think about it, they will realise that you are so junior that you couldn't possibly be implicated, the only negative is that it may pass through their mind in the first place.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: I assume that because you write "for PhD" that you are currently an undergraduate applying for graduate school.
In that case, I think there is relatively little guilt by association. Some people reading the recommender's letter might discount it because the person is discredited, but I don't think anyone will blame you in particular because we assume **undergraduates don't often have a choice of which lab they work in, or any knowledge of the shenanigans their advisors might be engaging in**.
Her letter might not be as strong as if she didn't have this cloud hanging over her, but I assume that in it she spoke to the quality and diligence of your work and your suitability for graduate studies.
Things might be different if you were a doctoral student in the lab and applying for postdocs or jobs. In that case, there might be stronger guilt by association, especially if you had authored papers together. But you're just an undergraduate so I wouldn't be worried.
---
Anecdote: As an undergraduate psych major at a R1, I worked in the lab of a psychologist who worked on ESP - that's extra-sensory perception. He only hired undergraduates because he knew of the taint that would be associated with this work for grad students. I was quite happy with the money, it was fun work coding people's free-associations due to supposed psionic powers, and it didn't hurt my graduate career in any way.
Upvotes: 3
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2016/02/18
| 715
| 3,152
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<issue_start>username_0: Is it ethical for a psychology professor to expect volunteer work in the lab in exchange for a letter of recommendation? The rationale is that they are unable to judge a student's suitability for graduate school without evaluating their lab abilities. I can see the point, but it's difficult for a working student to volunteer for an entire four month long semester on the professor's schedule, which varies considerably.<issue_comment>username_1: Yes. It would be unethical to trade lab work for a guaranteed good letter of recommendation, but I see nothing wrong with your scenario. I think it's acceptable for a professor to only write letters for students they've worked with if they has open lab positions. I also think it's good to require a student commit to at least one month of research at minimum.
It can be hard for many students to juggle/balance life, school, and work. Doubly so for those who need to work through college. But research is the backbone of many grad programs and it's important to get as much experience as possible. The research requirement can get in the way of everything else, but it's also a way for you to try research before applying to grad school.
EDIT: Another way of thinking about it: Would it be an issue if a professor required a student to take their course (or do research) before writing them a letter of recommendation? Of course not! Wanting a letter from such a professor would require you to spend time going to lecture and doing the course work. The only difference here is that one month of research is probably more beneficial and less work than taking a class.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: To me the proposal sounds a bit fishy. I'm assuming voluntary = unpaid, though!
So IMHO that would be rather on the unethical side: there's a substantial risk of a) the work not being that voluntary and b) the letter being influenced by
That being said, it is perfectly sensible and ethical that a professor should write letters of recommendation only for students they know well enough. But if the student is paid in the usual way for the lab work, any risk/suspicion of the volunteering being payment for a nice recommendation is immediately gone.
To put this in some context, I'm not from psychology. I'm from a field and a culture where students working in the lab are paid (not that much, but at least something), and where quite some part of the university regulations are making sure that professors cannot abuse their position.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: I wouldn't ask "for work in exchange for a LoR", but I'd certainly not be writing a recommendation for a student that I don't know personally in some detail. I.e., they should at the very least have taken several classes with me, more probably have worked as TA a few terms or worked with me in another type of assistantship, or done a thesis with me (or which involved me in some way). I might make an exception for a student that came to my attention in some other way, but I can't really remember any case where that would have applied (and not one of the above reasons too).
Upvotes: 0
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2016/02/19
| 2,300
| 9,531
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<issue_start>username_0: I finished my PhD a while ago but, long story short, got screwed over by my department and wound up entering industry rather than continuing my academic career as I had wanted. My degree and background are in pure math, which industry really doesn't care about (and I'm not interested in the NSA or finance), and thus I don't see any way of moving from industry into academia. I've considered getting a second PhD, but that raises the obvious question of why the first one wasn't enough, and I'm unlikely to get into as good a program coming in from industry as I had immediately after undergrad. (My argument would be that I would have done fine if I had had a different department or even advisor, but there's really no way of proving that, or even politely discussing it, in any sort of application.) What I want is a place where I can do research and churn out papers in my field to build up a nice CV for future things, and that idea doesn't seem feasible outside of a postdoc or grad school. I can't get the former, so my thought was that I could go through grad school a second time.
So, here's my question: Can I somehow revoke or renounce my degree? It's not useful to me; and in retrospect, I should have quit or transferred instead of finishing. (I did try to transfer at one point but wasn't able to arrange anything useful.) It seems easier to go from industry to grad school than from grad school to industry back to something academic again, and it certainly looks weird to apply for a second doctorate a substantial amount of time after the first. Obviously I don't want to lie and claim that I never got a PhD in the first place, so is there some way of officially getting rid of it and forgetting it ever happened? What I want at this point is to start over from scratch, and I'm not sure how to arrange that.<issue_comment>username_1: Don't throw out something you already have. If your goal is to do research and write some papers, then you can in essence do that in your spare time. If you're good, people will want to collaborate with you and mentor you whether you're a graduate student or not. In other words, I don't see the reason why you want to go through graduate school a second time -- having to take all of the classes again, take qualifying exams again, etc. All of that doesn't help you in your goal, for which you are already qualified because of your previous PhD.
Of course, it may be that you want to go back to be a grad student because it usually also includes a stipend, health insurance, etc. But you can get that from other sources as well: You could do research in your spare time, or simply have a part-time job so you have more time for research. A good part-time job may in fact pay no less than a grad student salary.
A particularly useful choice for a part-time position would, of course, be within a math department itself. For example, you could seek to be a lecturer in a math department, where you teach let's say half of the usual load, for half the salary, leaving you the other half of your time for research and paper writing. This would also give you access to professors with whom you may want to work, and you would likely be able to audit courses for free if you're already a member of the department.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: >
> Can I somehow revoke or renounce my degree?
>
>
>
No, and no. By which I mean:
1) There is no honorable way to formally divest yourself of an academic degree.
The only way that academic degrees get revoked is through misconduct, usually academic misconduct. (As has come up on this site before, *in theory* an institution which discovers that a former student has not paid all their fees might try to revoke the degree. But I have never seen this happen, and anyway PhD students in mathematics rather usually receive money from their university.) Obviously this is not part of any sound plan to regain entry into academia.
2) Even if you somehow could get your degree "annulled," that would not have the intended effect: you would still (in my opinion, obviously) be obligated to divulge to all PhD programs your prior schooling, send them your transcripts, and so forth. Giving them all this information and then saying "But then I got my degree annulled" is not going to satisfy anyone. What you seem to be contemplating -- I think; it's the only thing that could work for you *if it were kosher* -- is to make some kind of formal arrangement between you and your PhD-granting institution that both parties can act as if the PhD there never happened. But this is basically an agreement with one party to lie (or mislead, at least) about your past to a bunch of other parties: in other words, it's inherently ethically suspect in a manner that could really push the buttons of the people who would be evaluating you.
Maybe it helps to think of it this way: when I say "I have a PhD in mathematics," I am not describing a *present* rank or title. I am calling attention to a *past* event. The past is, well, passed, so if you got a PhD at any point then you still have it. (Even if your PhD gets revoked for academic misconduct, I would like to say that you still have a PhD -- e.g. you still have a paper document that says that -- it's just been decided that you are not entitled to any of the favorable consequences of that degree.) To try an analogy: if I ask my date "Have you ever been married?" and she got married once and had the marriage annulled, the honest answers are "Yes." and "Yes, but it was annulled." To say "No" is deceptive: I am asking about her past, not her current legal status.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: I think the broader questions here are "Why do you want to go into academia?" and "What exactly is it, within academia, that you want to do?"
Are you interested in research, or teaching? Does the field matter to you?
Both questions are potentially hugely important here.
For instance, if you want to go into academia to teach introductory math classes, then perhaps you should just try to get a job teaching in a local community college or high school.
On the other hand, if what you want is a career as a researcher, then you really need to decide which field you're passionate about--pure math, or something else. If it's pure math you love, then forget doing a second doctorate---just spend that time publishing and attending conferences. If it's something else that you love, perhaps you could craft a compelling rationale for why you need a second degree in order to pursue your new interest. I've seen that happen sometimes, but you need to have a very specific rationale for why you need this new degree in a new field to pull it off.
I worry though, from the tone of your post, that what you're really in love with is just some kind of abstract idea that academia > industry and that you think you'd really love the life of a career researcher. I think that's dangerous, because for the vast majority of full time faculty who make up academia, teaching and service obligations are much larger parts of the job than research. So, my advice is to first sit and think really hard about what exactly you want to do and why. Once you know the answers to those questions, your path will become much clearer.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: Yo, here's the thing I don't understand. A PhD is merely a research qualification. It qualifies you as a professional researcher. I have a Doctor of Philosophy - the major is in Resources Management, but essentially, I can research anything. It is a self directed apprenticeship.
My friend graduated from his doctorate majoring in Entomology. He spent 18+ months attempting to get *any* job. Nothing. A couple of promotions gigs and a waiting job. He volunteered at the entomology collection(4 days a week) until a postdoc position came up. And he got that postdoc! he's on a $350k grant, and travels the world collecting insects. If he had not volunteered he would never have got that position because he was "out" of the loop prior to that.
Secondly, just because your school "screwed you over" (whatever that means) does not mean that your research path is ruined. My school has done sweet FA to support me post-qualification. But I didn't expect them to! You know there's a whole world of universities and colleges out there to do research at, and while the research might not be exactly the right sub-field, that's life. Unless you write a successful grant application to fully fund the research you want to do, being in academia is exactly like any other job - doing research on things you are not actually interested in is par for the course!!! Don't imagine that because you have a freshly minted PhD that you can slide straight into a sweet-as research fellowship doing exactly the research that you want. Those grizzled old academics who pontificate on whatever comes into their heads spent a lot of time doing "grunt work" on projects they cared little for.
If what you want is to learn from the best, then do it.
If you want to do research that is impactful and will get you a career, then do it.
Don't pretend that a "second phd" will get you anywhere, because it wont. If anything it will push you further from your desired destination.
The reality is that you have a professional research qualification and a desire to do further research - pull your finger out and stop being a victim and go do the research wherever and however you can!
Upvotes: 0
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2016/02/19
| 667
| 2,816
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<issue_start>username_0: I am an adjunct instructor in English. I do not have a PhD and don't actually want one. What I really want is a full-time lectureship that would offer job stability. However, I was recently told that they are often offered for one year and then not offered the next year. I want to know if that is how things typically go, or if some full-time lectureships are renewed after the first year. A local public university offers full-time positions that come with tenure-like benefits after five years at the institution. What are the odds they will keep me around for four years and then not renew me so that they don't have to offer the job protection?
(Edit: This is the US, NYC to be exact.)<issue_comment>username_1: We can't know what your university's plan is for you, but you can find out how long the other lecturers in the department you are considering have been there.
As a general rule (assuming that you are in the United States), lecturer positions at large universities are intended to be long term simply because (i) they are cheaper than tenure track faculty, (ii) the need to teach large introductory classes will not go away any time soon. Universities are not well served by having a revolving door for lecturers because a long-term employee carries a lot of experience that is necessary to be a successful teacher.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: I'm in the humanities in NYC, and I think I know the institution you're talking about. (I have friends who teach in similar places, at the very least.) Usually a lecturership in a school like that is a term-limited thing. You might get a one-year contract, or a two-year contract, maybe you'll even get lucky and get the opportunity to renew that contract a second time. But it will be made very clear in the contract you sign that the contract is not open-ended. That means that if they're going to have to pay *more* money for you in year 5, in terms of benefits, or negotiated salary increases, then your contract will not be renewed for year 5.
If an open-ended position does come open, the dean, or the chair of the department, or both, will want to conduct a national search to hire someone for one of those open-ended, tenure-like positions. The fact that you have taught at that school, and have relationships with those faculty will mean absolutely zero in that search. You'll be competing against several hundred faculty, most of whom will have not only PhDs but an increasing number will even have prestigious publications.
There's not really a way to sneak into academia through the back door, especially in a geographically desirable location like NYC. You might be able to go somewhere rural and find a community college type job without a PhD, but even those are increasingly competitive.
Upvotes: 2
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2016/02/19
| 833
| 3,661
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<issue_start>username_0: A colleague of mine, who teaches chemistry, claims that these days, sales of copies of college textbooks are no longer profitable for publishers. He says that their revenue is now from services, such as answer-checking services like MyMathLab. I asked him to provide a source for his claim, but he didn't. I have a pretty hard time believing this as stated, because his statements sound categorical and extreme. But is there at least some truth to this? Is there any way of knowing, since the publishers may not make the data available?
My suspicion is that a $280/copy o-chem text is even more profitable than it was before, because the online services can be used to force the students to give money to the publisher. Before the online services came along, a student could just buy a used book, which would put no money in the publisher's pocket. Now, the student may have no choice but to buy the book shrinkwrapped with a card providing access to the online service.
The publisher can also rent the book to students in electronic form, with a DRM scheme that makes the book evaporate after a year. This also helps to kill off the used book market.<issue_comment>username_1: I don't have any evidence to back this but I believe they are making less profit. As someone who has TA's for years one thing I have noticed is that publishers are sending less free books to academics. They used to send more freebies to people who taught related courses. Also, they would provide several free copies of a textbook to the department when a textbook was selected for a course. Now they only provide one. I think this could be an indicator that they are not making enough profit.
I think the reason is that students buy less books than before. People find PDFs online and download them for free which hurts the publishers. Also, used book sales (which do not benefit the publishers) are ever increasing. A lot of students even opt to just use wikipedia and online resources to complement lecture notes and forego using textbooks all together.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: To be honest, I'm not sure even to what extent a book can be seen as profitable *separate from* the online tools because of the ever tighter integration between the two. A number of textbooks in newer editions have started offloading (er, onloading? uploading?) activities that would traditionally be in the textbook to online systems. This is especially egregious with audio or video activities that used to come on CD/tape/VHS/DVD, and now are only accessible online (those materials are important for us in foreign languages).
And to really drive home the point that they are considered to be a single unit, I've used at least two textbooks now in the past few years for which the physical book + e-book + online tools cost *less* than the physical book alone.
So I guess in that sense, you could say that the online tools are where the money are (because that's where they're pushing people), but it's not like they could discard the textbook and just sell the online tools, at least in my field. A good book can go without online tools, but the other way around isn't so true.
Now there is a trend to goto single-use sells, and again, it's easy to conflate that with the online portion (and hard to fully separate out the economics of it without detailed numbers none of us have): they've always been able to grab people on single-use sells via workbooks, but now I notice there's a small trend to try to integrate textbooks with workbooks in a single print to reemphasize the formers' single use nature, with or without an online system.
Upvotes: 2
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2016/02/19
| 747
| 3,406
|
<issue_start>username_0: Big collaboration projects such as LHC experiments (ATLAS, ALICE \_e.g.) and LIGO result in academic papers featuring hundreds or even [more than 1000 authors](http://archive.sciencewatch.com/newsletter/2012/201207/multiauthor_papers/). Correct me if I’m wrong, but in fields like particle physics, researchers seem to belong to one of a small number of possibly competing collaboration projects. So if a paper resulting from a huge collaboration is submitted for peer review, the number of qualified referees would be very small (excluding researchers from competing collaboration projects), such that the anonymity of the referees would likely be compromised.
Is peer review still meaningful for papers resulted from huge collaboration? If yes, how should it be conducted?<issue_comment>username_1: While I am not certain about physics, I can speak for biology, which also has a large number of mega-author papers. There, the overall field is large enough and well enough connected that, although a massive number of biologists may have a conflict of interest, an even more massive number of biologists are not directly involved but still working in areas close enough to be good reviewers.
I also have a suspicion (though I cannot back this up with data) that mega-author papers may in general have an easier time in review than typical small-collaboration papers. Peer review evaluates papers along several different axes,
key among which are presentation quality, significance of problem, validity of experimental method, and interpretation of results.
In the case of a massive collaboration, typically the questions of significance and validity of experimental method are long resolved: by the time the human genome was submitted for review, nobody was questioning its sequencing methods and a large scientific community was just waiting for enough data to accumulate; likewise for high-energy particle physics experiments. Similarly, no mega-author paper should be able to be submitted without enough eyes on it to ensure that the presentation is decent. That leaves interpretation of the results, and my understanding is that these mega-author papers tend to more focus on presenting data (which is already known to be of interest) rather than on its interpretation, and the interpretation (e.g., "What can we learn from the human genome?") is sorted out across many later publications.
Thus, review of a mega-author paper may actually be much easier than a small paper, simply by virtue of the difference in its goals and scale.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: You are correct in implying that in these cases (few, very large experiments on the same topic), your peers are most likely also your competitors. However, when it comes to peer review, the issue is not one of competition, but rather one of bias. As some people have replied, there are extensive internal hierarchies and editorial committees within these experiments (I was in the [ALICE](http://alice-collaboration.web.cern.ch/) experiment), which set the agenda and conduct internal review. The research is essentially reviewed by the time it reaches publication. However, it could suffer from bias, which external peer review may correct. The experiments at the LHC are very similar in their mission, but wildly different in their setup, so systematic errors and bias may be corrected.
Upvotes: 3
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2016/02/19
| 1,997
| 8,539
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<issue_start>username_0: I am a student in a german technical college. We have several tutors for our various math subjects. One of those tutors is not a student but an employee of the college. He offers an open hour where students can ask question about all the math subjects. I will refer to him/her as X.
During the preparation for my exams I asked X 2-3 questions and later after I understood most of the subjects material was present when he answered other's students questions. This is when I noticed that X sometimes evaded clear answers or just gave plain wrong answers. This became especially obvious after I had understood the subject myself. Here are some examples:
---
**Question 1**: What is meaning of the probability density function? What does it describe? I know it's the derivative of the cumulative distribution function and I understand the cumulative function but what can I do with the density function?
**X**: It's just the derivative. That's all you need to know.
**Student**: But, I mean what can I do with it? Why am I learning it?
**X**: It's really just the derivative, it has no other important meaning. You don't need to know more.
**Student**: Well....OK.
---
**Question 2**: I still don't understand how to read a correlation out of a scatter-plot. For example this one? How do I know if the variables are correlated?
**X**: You can't really learn this, it's just a matter of practice. You have to do it for years.
---
There were other question where X simply gave a blatantly wrong answer (I can't remember specific examples). For me it is clear that X simply does not know the answers and instead of admitting it and offering to look it up X simply gives a harsh answer to intimidate the students. The tutorial is mostly visited by students who are struggling to understand the basic stuff. The other good students did not bother coming to the tutorial so they never saw X do that. I came for some advanced questions and this was when I noticed the wrong answers. I assume that X does help students with other areas of math where X knows more.
I think X's behavior is unacceptable because X is hindering the education of the students and even confusing them. Because most of the question had simple answers.
I have two questions now:
1. **How do I tell this to the responsible professor?** I guess it won't be easy for him because he would have to investigate this matter and in the worst case it could lead to firing X and he probably does not want to go though all the trouble.
2. **When do I tell the professor**? I am interested in this subject myself and volunteered to be a tutor next semester. I probably won't work with X because X gives a general tutorial for different areas of math. Coming up with this matter during my "interview" would probably be a bad idea. I think it's probably better to first become tutor and "gather more intelligence" until telling the professor. I will probably be also more credible then.
Would love to hear your ideas about this matter.<issue_comment>username_1: I don't know about German technical colleges, but in the US and in Switzerland, students do have a chance to give feedback about the teaching. This sort of information is very useful then! It has the benefit of usually being anonymous. But when you do give this information, make sure that it is factual and detailed (so something like what you wrote in the question) so that the professor has a point of entry for the investigation.
If I have an assistant who behaves exactly as you described, I would be very unhappy with the assistant and will be thankful for any student who brings it to my attention.
Now, to answer your specific questions:
1. **How to tell the professor**
a. Again, I don't know about the German system. But if you don't want to be confrontational there are often options of bringing this up through the student union or the association of mathematics/statistics students. In some universities there are also student advocates who can act as intermediary for you.
You also mentioned that other "better students" don't know about this. Perhaps you should drag some of your friends to the office hours and show them what is going on. You will get a sanity check on whether your impression is correct and perhaps have more voices to join you in complaining.
b. *Documentation is important*. You don't want this to be a case of "whom do we trust more." If you feel sufficiently strongly about this, get the assistant's answers either recorded (audio-visual) or in (his/her) writing. If the assistant also answers queries by e-mail that's one way to provide documentation.
c. *Be factual, do not exaggerate*. When I answer students' questions, sometimes I would deliberately give answers which, from the point of view of an expert, is incomplete. These can be pedagogical decisions made to guide a student's focus in his or her studies. While I am not claiming that your tutor is doing precisely that, it is important you present his/her answers exactly as they are, and not "interpreted by you."
d. Another option is to make this *about the system*, and *not the individual*. You say that the tutor has open office hours during which he/she answers questions from all subjects. Maybe that is the problem! Propose to your professor(s) that it may be more efficient to have tutors divided up by specialty and answer questions in those fields only. (At my current institution we have precisely a system set-up so that tutors will not be answering questions out of their expertise.)
2. **When to tell the professor**
As early as you feel comfortable. If I am in charge of tutors, this would be something I want to find out sooner rather than later.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Here's a comparable case at a U.S. college that I'm aware of: Math workshop provides tutors to students. Tutors mostly deal with algebra content; students in statistics come to their instructor every semester and say, "basically none of the tutors know statistics". Math workshop staffing is not controlled by math department or faculty; it's a separate office. Math department is aware and frustrated but has been regularly rebuffed from changing this situation.
So the upshot is this: The chances of you making any large change to the situation are very, very low. Don't expect that there will be a lot of drama, or that there should be a lot of pressure on you as a student. Feel free to mention it to your professor at any time and ask if you should document it, perhaps in an email to said professor. Chances are the issue is already known, and you'll be one more student complaint on an already large pile.
Moreover, you say, "One of those tutors is not a student but an employee of the college. He offers an open hour where students can ask question about all the math subjects." So the tutor is already otherwise employed, and this task is only one hour (per day? per week?), an almost negligibly small part of their responsibilities. It's extremely unlikely that there's anything they can do in this task that would constitute a firing offense. This may actually be seen as an act of outright generosity by the person for the institution; you get what you pay for, as the saying goes.
In short: It's almost impossible to imagine the person being sanctioned, to say nothing of being fired, no matter what you do. Ask the professor if you should document your observations in an email; there may be some marginal utility in that.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: Document this carefully, and send it to your lecturer.
Pass the word around to your classmates. Try to convince student(s) of higher semesters to help you out. An incentive for them is that maybe you can help them out with subjects that aren't their major, or at least it serves them as a refresher of sorts.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: To be honest, the student in the examples is behaving in a completely unacceptable fashion. If the student has *really* understood the CDF, then pdf=derivative of CDF really is all that student needs to know; the tutor is simply right about this (and so on for the other examples; the cases where the tutor was blatantly wrong have conveniently slipped OP's mind). Asking the tutor to rehash definitions is a bad use of everyone's time. Worse, the student's main focus appears not to be to master some very basic and simple ideas, but the manner in which the professor is going to be involved to punish the tutor.
Upvotes: -1
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2016/02/19
| 3,514
| 14,140
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<issue_start>username_0: I contacted a group leader, and he strongly liked my CV. He encouraged me to join his group as a postdoc fellow, but he mentioned that the position he may offer is unpaid (so, I must cover my living expenses).
He mentioned that I can publish good papers in his group following my previous works. Then, I can get a good paid job. So, it is worth of accepting an unpaid job.
I'm wondering if it is common for postdoc fellows to accept unpaid positions?<issue_comment>username_1: That would be illegal (for the supervisor/university) in the US.
Edited by popular request to say that like an unpaid internship the US Department of Labor has some [pretty strict rules](http://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs71.pdf) for when an "employer" is allowed to not pay someone who works for them. At my university, postdocing is work, so I think that role should comply with the same rules. At my university a postdoc wouldn't fit either, so in my experience, unpaid postdocs are extremely uncommon.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: What the group leader should have said is that s/he has no money, but you can join the lab if you have your own funding (i.e., a fellowship). For them to dangle papers in exchange for free work is unethical and potentially illegal, depending on where they are.
Edit: What follows is entirely my personal opinion. I am no lawyer so no idea about legality; feel free to let me know if you think my opinion is too harsh/wrong.
Any kind of free labour in a lab is unfair and discriminatory. It locks out those in society who aren't lucky enough to be able to give their time away for free. This includes undergraduate internships. If you're working for someone, then you should be paid for your time. Even if you are receiving training.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_3: I disagree with the other answers. In my field, PIs offer postdocs space in their labs even when they have no money for salary. In my field staff is the biggest cost so providing space and consumables and access to equipment is not a problem. During this time, the PI and postdoc might work on grant applications together, but this depends on the situation.
My research is fairly interdisciplinary (probably best described as cognitive neuroscience) and I have seen unpaid post docs in every department I have been affliaited with, including the Electrical Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, and Psychology (both in the US and UK). I also have colleagues who have been unpaid poatdocs in Neuroscience and Physics departments. My wife is in the humanities and from her colleagues I am aware of unpaid post docs in Art History, English, and History departments (again US and UK).
From the comments, maybe I am overstating what a post doc is. None of the unpaid positions I am aware of had any teaching or supervisory requirements. Nor did they have any binding contracts. What they did is provide the individual with access to an office/lab, library, and internet. In the sciences they often provided access to consumables, IRB/ethics review and approval, and money to run human subjects (when needed). The positions were all "supervised" since someone needed to sign off on them but the postdoc was basically free to do what they wanted.
I do not know of anyone who stayed in the unpaid post for more than 6 months (they usually either got a grant to stay or a paid position someplace else). Most of the people were straight out of their PhD and were in the process of applying for funding. They tended to have strong ties to the city of the post doc.
There seems to be variation in policies regarding unpaid postdocs. [Yale](http://postdocs.yale.edu/faculty/hiring-postdoc) explicitly says that unpaid and volunteer researchers are not allowed and from what I can find, they do not allow any unpaid visiting researchers. [UPENN](http://www.upenn.edu/almanac/volumes/v57/n01/postdocpolicy.html) does not allow unpaid post docs, but they do allow [unpaid visiting scholars](http://www.global.asc.upenn.edu/visiting-scholar-faq-2/#faq-7) which appear to be very similar to postdocs. [MIT](http://web.mit.edu/policies/5/5.3.html#sub4) also does not allow unpaid postdocs, but does allow unpaid visiting positions. [Harvard SEAS](https://www.seas.harvard.edu/academic-affairs/research-appointments-information-administrators/postdoctoral-fellow) is the only university in my quick search that allows unpaid "postdocs".
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: In the Netherlands, postdoctoral researchers are considered employees, plain and simple. Such a PI is unlikely to be able to sneak this under the radar, and even if he did - the position *is* paid, regardless of whether he would like it to be - he's just not making the payments.
It would not be unheard of (although maybe not in the Netherlands) for you do accept this postdoc then sue the guy or the research institute for back-pay - with a good chance of winning... Of course, I wouldn't recommend this strategy if you have a less, shall we say, adventurous opportunity.
From an ethical/moral perspective, I'd also say that PI is acting reprehensibely. Research is important and hard work; true, it benefits the researcher himself as well - but so does almost any professional position where you build a reputation, whether you're a carpenter, or a plumber, or what-not. What's more, the lab or research group benefits from your achievements just as well - you're are fulfilling its goals directly; and your PI benefits also, since his direction of interest in research is being taken further (and that's not to mention partial credit for your work, authorship on papers etc.) ... honestly, if he really "doesn't have the money" - then let all the lab workers, him first, chip in from their own salary so that you all have the same missing fraction of your pay overall.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_5: In the United States, the Supreme Court has stated [criteria for when unpaid training or internships are acceptable](http://www.dol.gov/whd/opinion/FLSANA/2004/2004_05_17_05FLSA_NA_internship.htm) (quoted from that site):
1. The training, even though it includes actual operation of the facilities of the employer, is similar to that which would be given in a vocational school;
2. The training is for the benefit of the trainee;
3. The trainees do not displace regular employees, but work under close observation;
4. The employer that provides the training derives no immediate advantage from the activities of the trainees and on occasion the employer’s operations may actually be impeded;
5. The trainees are not necessarily entitled to a job at the completion of the training period; and
6. The employer and the trainee understand that the trainees are not entitled to wages for the time spent in training.
In particular, someone can let you do unpaid work for them only when it is for your benefit, not for theirs. I don't know offhand of precedents involving postdoctoral positions, but these criteria seem to me to rule out most forms of unpaid postdocs in the U.S. (Of course, the legal situation could be completely different in other countries.)
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_6: I am a Principal Investigator at a Swiss University.
In my view, postdocs are experienced scientists who should know how to write a passable project description and application for funding. Therefore I expect all my postdocs to help contributing to the expenses of the lab, e.g. by acquiring competitive fellowships (e.g. HFSP, EMBO, DFG, Marie-Curie).
You may, however, try all of the above - and still fail, for reasons that are out of your control. In that case, I will give you a "safety net" by paying your salary through my core funding. But if you feel that the financial health of my lab is none of your business, and you are not even prepared to try and get some funds, then please do not apply to my lab.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_7: I did an unpaid postdoc in Japan, as my wife was staying there anyway, and I was both young and desperate. I knew of 3 or 4 other people like me, also motivated by a desire to stay in Tokyo at "all cost". I wouldn't say they were common, but they weren't unheard of either.
The rationale was that I would get to publish and given the prestige of the university and the lab I was with, it would be beneficial for my career in the long run, even if I wasn't paid. I signed on as an unpaid postdoc and I made ends meet by teaching English, French and translating technical papers and documents.
My experience was overall negative. Despite being reassured otherwise - I was told I would be treated just like any junior faculty/researcher - people just don't take you seriously if they know you are not paid, and it will be very hard to keep it a secret. The psychological effect became very difficult after a while. I expected most people to admire my perseverance and dedication to my research, by willing to work for free. Instead most people were looking at me as some sort of charity case - "he's working here for free because he can't get a real job". There were several conflicts between my research (what I wanted to be doing), and the part time jobs I was doing. It was very hard to focus on my research, when I was constantly being pulled into some task or event because of my other jobs.
If you are a foreign national in the host country you want to do a postdoc in, you will most likely run into visa issues if you are not paid, and you will run into employment authorization issues for whatever part-time work you want to do to make ends meet. In my case I had to switch from a visiting scholar visa to a dependent visa, then wait a long time to get a part-time work authorization. I've seen foreign researchers in the US (where I live now) face similar problems.
In the US, some states don't allow unpaid post-docs for labor law reasons, and even when it is allowed by local laws, the university itself might have rules against it for security, insurance and liability reasons. The 3 places I am familiar with in the US, Georgia Tech, Emory, and MIT, don't allow unpaid post docs.
Back to my experience in Japan, none of the unpaid post-docs I knew of materialized into real academic positions. They all eventually gave up, and either went back to their hometowns/countries and got low-level teaching positions there or they left academia for the industry - and when you join the industry you find yourself having lost 3 or 4 years compared to other people with your age and skill set.
Conclusion: Don't go for an unpaid post-doc, it's very taxing and it's not worth it at all. There's a world beyond academia.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_8: I have never heard of an unpaid postdoc position, unless you're talking about having some external funding so that no money is going out of your supervisor's pockets.
But maybe you need to provide more information. I think that depending on your country and your area of expertise, it may not be as uncommon as people here think.
I advise strongly against such positions, for multiple reasons.
* By now, you are old enough to have to fend for yourself. The fact that your supervisor knows this, and still encourages to join his/her lab without any pay seems extremely unethical on the supervisor's part (unless the lab is world-famous, and a couple years there is enough to guarantee fantastic prospects). I think it seems likely that there are other unethical practices going on in that lab, based on this information.
* Being a postdoc allows you to build your CV so that you can try for a professorship soon after you finish your position. Many of these CV components come from the lab, but you can also get some of the experience through the university, possibly from teaching, or other services to the department. Will you be treated as a member of the university, or are you expected to just show up to the lab, without getting access to any of these other components?
* Do you have any plans on how you are going to take care of other benefits that come with being employed with the university? Health care and pension are important benefits that you probably will not have access to. Even trivial things like journal access might become irritating unless you get a regular position through the university.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_9: In contrast to the answers here, it's very common and many people here do this everyday. There's a term for it:
```
Visiting scientist or visiting scholar
```
(<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visiting_scholar>)
Labs that don't have money can offer a visiting position to a post doc. Many people take the job, do it full-time for free.
Everyone who works as a visiting scientist is a free labour. By definition, the number of free post docs in the world is at least the total number of visiting scholar title holders.
```
Visiting scholar == free work == free post doc
```
It's legal in all countries. All academic institution like that. Thus, all other answers in this post are simply wrong.
Anyone with a visiting non-paid title is a free post-doc. Simple and plain. Please don't deny it.
**Re: Most of the time, salary is contined by the home department, often through sabbatical.**
*Let's say university is paying you for your job. You get a new job at Mcdonald, but work for free as a "visitor". Are you going to say "I am not making burgers for free because my salary is contined by my home department."?*
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_10: I don't know other countries, and I only know the situations in the U.S.
If you are a postdoc, then you are considered an employee, and the university has to pay you; otherwise, this is a serious violation of labor law, and I bet no regular universities would do this. If you are a visiting scholar to an American university to conduct research, then the university may not have to pay you, but you have to show you have enough funding to support your living expenses in the U.S. These funding could be from your home country, from a research institution, or even just from yourself.
Upvotes: 0
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<issue_start>username_0: I'm working on finishing up my thesis in wireless security and I'd like to publish the results of my work in a conference, obviously the best conference that I can realistically get published in.
However I'm having a hard time figuring out what the criteria might be for this. I see conference rankings around, but how can you actually figure out where on that ranking you should fit? How can I learn how to evaluate these kinds of things?<issue_comment>username_1: You learn to evaluate these kind of things by experience. You read the papers published in the conferences, form your own opinion of their quality, see how they impact the field over time, see how they are viewed by others, and revise your opinions. Eventually you get a general sense of how "good" a paper should be in order to be published in this conference, and you compare it with your evaluation of your own paper's quality.
You bootstrap the process by drawing on your advisor's experience.
So: **Ask your advisor.**
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: Asking your advisor, as suggested by @NateEldredge, is a good first step and many advisors will be able to help you. In some cases, though, your advisor may be unfamiliar, may just not publish much any more (that was the case for my advisor), or may not be able to effectively help for other reasons.
If this is the case, then I would suggest two other methods for figuring out where to send your papers:
1. Look at the papers that have been published in previous years, and see how their scope and quality compares to yours.
2. Aim high, and see what kind of feedback you get back from the reviewers. The worst that happens is that they reject your paper.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]
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<issue_start>username_0: I was asked by a potential PhD student
why departments that do similar things as my department have different names.
For example, some of the researchers who
work in research areas that are similar to my own
are in departments with names such as:
* Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering
* Management Science and Engineering
* Systems Engineering and Engineering Management
* Technology and Operations Management
* Decision Sciences
* Business Statistics and Operations Management
* Decision Sciences and Managerial Economics
* Management Science and Operations
He claims that this is confusing, which indeed it is,
given that as an "insider"
I know that the people in these departments
work in very similar research areas.
What is a good explanation for why departments doing similar research
often in practice have very different sounding names?<issue_comment>username_1: I would say instead that it would be much more surprising if these departments all had the same names, particularly for relatively new and cross-disciplinary areas of work like in your example.
The domains of science are broad and overlapping, and there are many ways that the whole domain can end up being parsed into departments by different institutions, just like [there are many different ways that the domain of colors are parsed into color names by different languages](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distinction_of_blue_and_green_in_various_languages).
Given that there are many reasonable possible clusterings and names, the actual determinants tend to be very contingent and historical. Among these are:
* Interdepartmental politics, including which part of a university wants to sponsor the new department, which faction of an old department wants to split away.
* The viewpoint of the faculty forming the department
* Popularity of subjects over time: small departments merge and large departments split.
There are many other possible causes as well. Thus, the question is not: "Why are they different?" but "Why would you expect them to be the same?"
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Names of departments are heavily tinted by history. So you'll find departments of Computer Science (often offshots from Mathematics), Computer Engineering (sprouted from Electrical Engineering), and even Information and Computer Sciences (quirkily enough, born in Library Science). Elsewhere they might be called Informatics.
Upvotes: 1
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<issue_start>username_0: In some of my more advanced classes, I have students present solutions to problems on a rotating basis. Not all solutions are perfect, but for almost all students this goes okay. However, sometimes there is a student X who seems incapable of solving all but the most trivial problems (and cannot always do those correctly). I am unsure whether X is even aware of the difference between themself and the rest of the class (my impression is they are not), but the X's presentations are not pleasant for the rest of the class, and probably not for X either. They typically involve me or other students making several corrections, taking 2-3x as long as needed (and the problems X has gotten so far have pretty easy already), then me eventually cutting of X and saying "Okay, all you do is [...]. Next."
>
> I was contemplating only giving this student trivial problems to present.
> Is this a good idea? Are there better ideas?
>
>
>
My concern about doing this is that it will probably be obvious to the rest of the class if X is routinely getting significantly easier problems to present. It may also be obvious to X, though that is less clear--if so, I can imagine it might be embarrassing. (And if X cannot successfully solve those, it would be more embarrassing.) Not letting X present would probably be the most embarrassing. Right now, my inclination is to let X's problems naturally vary between trivial and normal, based on the rotation, but make an attempt to keep hard problems away from X.
Another option is to say something to X, but I am not sure what, apart from suggesting X check their solutions with another student before presenting. One thing I definitely want to avoid is teaching X individually outside of class. Based on previous interactions, this could quickly become a time sink, and I am too busy already.<issue_comment>username_1: There are at least two+ different issues: (1a) your suffering (1b) suffering of the other students, (2) the obliviousness or incompetence or low-energy of the individual student. The easiest argument that there's something needing repair is that the other students shouldn't have to suffer, in any case.
My anecdotal evidence indicates that whether it's obliviousness or incompetence or some sort of lethargy, any one of these can be an essentially fatal obstacle, and is not within anyone else's power to change in the short term. Maybe long-term. Giving easier problems will not be understood as such, and can have the effect of passively "confirming" the inadequate strategies of that individual.
So: time limits on presentations, at least. Perhaps "failure limitations", too, meaning that a certain smaller window is allowed to persuade the audience that things are going in the right direction. This criterion gives a device to get failing performances off the stage and not waste *other* peoples' time.
Similarly, in my experience, it is possible to spend unlimited amounts of time on some students "with problems", thinking to "lift them out of failure", but have essentially no impact on them. Don't do it. Allocate the reasonable amount of time, and then stop. This is absolutely not an argument against spending time and energy on students (a.k.a. "teaching"), but *is* an argument against pretending that one has infinite personal resources, and against pretending that bad allocation doesn't harm other parts of the enterprise.
Possibly time to mention the Dunning-Krueger syndrome again, too? That is, that sometimes the most problemmatic scenarios are those in which someone lacks the meta-cognition to understand that they "even have problems". If someone has already passed/failed *that* filter, the chances are slim that you can call on their meta-cognitive faculties to help them... Sadly.
So, you cannot deny weak students resources, but don't misallocate so as to harm others. And the cost to you yourself should be *limited*. One does not have *unlimited* responsibility (in time or energy) to students. Definite responsibility, yes, but definitely limited.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: <NAME>'s answer is on spot with two recommendations: time limits on in-class presentations and limits on time and effort you spend helping X. However, there are two fast things you can do to help X.
First, inform X that he is underperforming. Sadly, he may not even realize this, and if he does, there is still that [denial stage](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%BCbler-Ross_model). Talk to him when you meet next time and say that he is falling severely behind with his studies and he has to put in a lot of his personal effort to catch up.
A natural request coming back at you will be, 'How do I catch up?'. Get ready. Have a list of books to read (if possible, indicate the exact chapters) and, more importantly, a list of additional problems for X to solve on his own. The only way of learning to solve problems is by solving another dozen. Tell X that solving these problems will give him a better understanding of what happens in your class. If you feel like it, tell him you'll be able to check his solutions during your next office hours. If you don't feel like it, ask a TA to check X's solutions or ask X to find a peer to check them.
Surely, you might need to give him an easy problem to present at the next class meeting, but do give him more problems to solve on his own. This way, you are giving him a chance to grow up and reach for adequate problems towards the end of the course.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: Your question:
>
> I was contemplating only giving this student trivial problems to
> present. Is this a good idea? Are there better ideas?
>
>
>
Whether this is a good idea depends on what your learning goal for the course is. If your goal is "students should be able to effectively solve an unpracticed problem in front of an audience," then helping student X get better at this skill is important. @username_2's ideas of a short meeting that makes sure the student understands the problem and provides resources is great.
If your class goal is only "students should be able to effectively solve an unpracticed problem" then my answer is different. If public presentation is not an important skill, provide other opportunities for students to work in small groups or work independently to show they can succeed without the social pressure of an audience. Mixing it up even one day a week can make a nice change and give students an opportunity to talk to each other instead of just sit and watch each other struggle.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_4: This question resonates with me, since I am often in what I think is a similar situation. To help fix ideas, I will describe my situation: when I teach math graduate courses -- other than qualifying courses which have a fixed syllabus and prepare students for a later written exam -- the homework issue is often a challenging one. Let me begin by setting the scene: in most math PhD programs in the United States, students continue taking coursework for their entire time in the program. For instance, my department has a regulation that a student must take at least one "real" (i.e., non-reading, non-thesis-writing) course per semester. My own graduate program (Harvard) had the enlightened practice that as soon as a student passed their written quals, their grades in courses are automatically "excused" and thus students do not even necessarily show up at all for the courses they register for (and this is not necessarily a problem for anyone). Most other programs are not like this, and students get letter grades in their courses even while they are writing up their PhD and applying / interviewing for / accepting jobs.
So one is in the position of teaching graduate courses to students, most of whom presumably are at least somewhat interested in the material (they are math PhD students, after all) but many of whom have more pressing demands on their time. On the other hand, for many if not most students attending many if not most courses, simply attending the lectures and never doing outside work is not going to get them anywhere: it would be a more efficient use of their time to simply excuse them from coming to the lectures (which is not unheard of but not guaranteed to be kosher either). So in most cases you want to at least give opportunities for the students to reinforce the material of the lecture, but if you do much in the way of homework then they may be unhappy, and perhaps rightfully so. Moreover, most professors do not get graders for these kinds of courses, and -- more teaching-focused faculty may freely roll their eyes now -- in many cases we have too many other professional responsibilities to spend too much time grading written work. Here are the ways I have navigated this myself:
(1) In all graduate courses my lectures include "exercises" that if worked will reinforce the material. (If I don't do that, then I've lost all pretense of teaching a course.) However in some courses the students are not *required* to solve the exercises in any way. They are -- of course? -- free to ask me about the exercises, however the last few times I used this practice I had very little in the way of such discussion, to the extent that it would be hard for me to be confident that the majority of the students were spending any significant time working the exercises.
(2) I have sometimes had students turn in written homework, however with the understanding that I cannot grade a weekly problem set in a graduate course. I have a memory of problem sets from an elliptic curves course cluttering up my office and then my study long after the end of the course. I looked at some of them but not all of them and probably not enough of them. I know a very small number of professors that *do* grade regular problem sets in graduate courses of this kind, and I admire them for it. I know more professors who compensate for this by asking students turn in a ridiculously small number of problems in total, e.g. less than ten for a semester course. This is not a great solution: most of the work goes unread, and they don't get enough reinforcement.
(3) My favorite solution is to have a weekly(ish) problem session in graduate courses, in which we meet -- usually for at least an hour -- and students present solutions to each other (and to me). I like this practice because:
(i) I don't have to grade written homework.
(ii) The fact that students will be presenting in front of others *usually* makes for more work on any given problem and improves the quality of their presentation.
(iii) When things are going well, it means that students can benefit from solutions to problems that they did not themselves work out.
(iv) It gets students in the practice of talking to and working with each other rather than just talking to me.
I am currently teaching a graduate course (commutative algebra) in which I have "flipped the classroom" by making the Monday lecture a problem session, and then in exchange I give a 60-70 minute lecture on Friday afternoons (of a more one-shot nature; for those who care, my first three lectures have been on: Swan's Theorem on vector bundles and projective modules; Galois connections; and direct and inverse limits).
This is working well -- in fact, better than any problem session I can remember. Whenever I point to a student, they go to the board and solve a problem (one of a longish list that I have given them a week or more in advance). They usually solve it correctly; when they falter, another student steps in to help them out. They do so well that both they and I often feel free to ask followup questions on the spot. Having had the experience of problem sessions that don't work as well in the past, I do not take this success for granted and am trying to figure out what's going on. One of the students is my own PhD student (which doesn't hurt!), and she told me that the majority of the students meet as a group and work out enough of the problems together. That's great! However, the one thing that really makes it work well is that the students are both strong and relatively homogeneous in their abilities and experience: they are mostly second and third year students, and though some are more interested in category theory or topology or number theory, there is no clear top and bottom to the group. There is no doubt that each of the students in the room can solve a positive number of the problems assigned every week.
In past years I've had Kimball's problem: one or two students are -- either by preparation or ability or lack of interest or lord-knows-what -- just not up to the level of the others and the requirements of the course. I have tried to compensate for this in the following ways, many of which Kimball has already mentioned:
(i) Making a wide range of difficulty in problems assigned, and allowing weaker students to solve problems that most of their classmates would regard as trivial.
(ii) Allowing weaker students to present less often than the other students.
(iii) Assigning special problems that target the weaker students' background or are more obviously related to their stated interests. (I can think of one instance where this worked well. But in retrospect I think a big part of the success was that the "weak student" was not actually weak: in fact she was a strong student, just younger and with a worse background than her classmates.)
(iv) Excusing students from presenting solutions to the problems. (I had to do this once, for a student who needed to complete other work in order to stay in the program. This student ended up with a kind of "IOU N problems in subject X" which, of course, was never properly cashed in.)
The bottom line though is that in many math PhD courses, having a student who is not that interested, is not understanding what is happening very well, and who would have to shore up his background a bit in order to engage with the problems at the level of his classmates, is best left alone, possibly after a conversation with his adviser to make sure that he is spending his time productively on other things.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_5: As you note, student X's presentations take up a lot of time, don't help other students learn, and don't seem to even help student X. It certainly sounds like it will be important to have a conversation with X about how to help them do better, or even whether they are prepared for class. In addition to that, having each student present the solution to a problem to the whole class may not be the best way of meeting your learning objectives; the problem is most visible with student X, but this general strategy may not be serving some other students as well.
I use [jigsaw groups](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jigsaw_(teaching_technique)) to meet the goals of having students work together in solving problems and of having students communicate their solutions; moreover, this is a context in which students can come to practice teamwork and see it as valuable. The way I do this is I pick a handful of problems for the class to work on, say 6 problems for a class of 36. Students work in groups of 6, with each group solving one problem (solutions can be prepared in-class or beforehand). Then, the groups re-shuffle, so that each new group has a member of each of the original groups. For each group, the student who solved the first problem presents the solution to that problem with the members of their new group, the second student shares, and so on. This can give you more useful listening to do in class: with students sharing solutions to the whole class, you have to listen all the way through problems you already know the solution to! Instead, by circulating through the room, eavesdropping on groups, I can focus on hearing the most tricky parts of solutions. I avoid intervening immediately, but this often reveals confusions multiple students have, which helps me identify topics to clarify at the end of the lesson for the whole class.
This has a handful of advantages over having each student present to the whole class. First, most students get nervous about presenting in front of a whole class; presenting for a handful of people can be much less stressful. (I grant that presentation skills are important, but practicing presenting something a student just learned may not be the best context for learning these skills.) A solution prepared by a group is more likely to be correct—this addresses the problem with X having difficulty solving many problems: X can at least practice talking through a solution, which can be a valuable way to learn. In small groups, students are more free to ask questions; of course, more freedom to ask questions is great, and, even better, these questions can even a flawed solution. For the more advanced students, teaching a median-level student, or even a student like X, can force them to communicate solutions more clearly; this is a worthwhile challenge for a bright student, and can help them exceed your expectations for them. As a student, I helped my classmates in this way in study groups outside of class, and I learned more deeply than I would have otherwise. By encouraging cooperative problem solving in class, you can help students recognize more effective ways to study together in and out of class.
In direct response to the specific question,
>
> I was contemplating only giving this student trivial problems to present. Is this a good idea?
>
>
>
I do not recommend this. You want X to eventually be proficient even with difficult problems in this class. X can notice if you deliberately lower your expectations for them, and this can inhibit X's confidence that they can reach the high standards you rightly hold for your students. Developing a classroom environment in which cooperation between students is scaffolded can lead to supportive relationships between X and other students.
Upvotes: 1
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<issue_start>username_0: I want to upload my paper to arxiv.org.
I also want to submit the same paper to a conference (computer science/multimedia related). The PC chair informed me that if the paper already has an ISBN/ISSN number, then it cannot be submitted to the conference.
Does arxiv, add an ISBN/ISSN number to all uploaded papers by default ? (assuming I choose the minimal, 'perpetual, non-exclusive' license option on arxiv)
Thank you<issue_comment>username_1: No, arXiv does not issue papers ISBN or ISSN numbers. This is in keeping with the original and continuing function of the site as a preprint repository. Much of the content that is initially posted on the arXiv goes on to be published elsewhere, and the initial arXiv posting is not considered publication in the usual sense.
At this point, any conference or journal ought to have a standard policy on arXiv submissions. Many (essentially all, in the fields I am familiar with) venues explicitly allow authors to post preprints on the arXiv before (or after) they are published. If you are not sure about the policy of the conference you are submitting to, just ask the organizer for clarification.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: No. ISBNs are assigned to published *books* (print or electronic), and ISSNs are assigned to published *journals* (or other serials, such as conference proceedings).
arXiv is not publishing either of these and so will not issue such identifiers.
This is effectively saying "if it's been published, it's not allowed, but informal circulation online or as a working paper is fine". Having an ISBN or ISSN is a simple (though of course not perfect) test to see if something counts as "properly" published. (It's worth noting that papers as such never get an ISSN - the serials they are published in have ISSNs but this will be common to all papers in that serial.)
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]
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2016/02/20
| 530
| 2,211
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<issue_start>username_0: How can I get the most out of my advisor's knowledge if s/he's always travelling and out of office?
We communicate by email, but I find it uncomfortable as I am new to the field I am working in and sometimes questions/answers are not very clear.<issue_comment>username_1: Some possibilities:
* Consistently-scheduled discussion-by-video (Skype, Google Hangout, whatever). Treat these as you would any meeting: send a good agenda in advance.
* Collaborative workspaces, e.g. a Google doc where you and your advisor can leave comments to get issues resolved
* A bug tracker, even if that's an idiom both you and your advisor understand
* Someone else deputized to triage and help you over simpler problems, so that your advisor knows that whatever reaches them is important and/or troublesome
The goals here are to ensure that you get what you need as conveniently as possible for your advisor and as quickly as possible for you.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: I had some success via sharing a git repository with the LaTeX source to the thesis-in-progress, with a branch in which I added commits for my suggestions to be cherry picked or not by the advisee). Students recorded daily (or so) progress reports in a wiki, which I looked over from time to time.
In a time previous to git, we interacted via email (I printed out a copy, and sent a detailed email with suggestions).
The above requires more or less independent work by the student, and is hard on discussing alternative courses of action, or techniques to apply, brainstorming, whatever. So this works best when the thesis work is nearly done.
Note that someone who is permanently on the move probably has their hands full with both the job to be done at the current location (if you the superstar invited for a week, they'll fill your agenda to the brim to make the most of the visit, and invite you to all sort of social activities "so you don't get bored" and to show off with the visiting dignitary), handling domestic issues far from home, and assorted travel-related activities. I.e., they will have precious little time available to guide advisees, and thus will probably make terrible advisors.
Upvotes: 0
|
2016/02/20
| 1,363
| 6,200
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<issue_start>username_0: While writing my thesis, I'm looking for some sites or free software that can help in rephrasing some sentences used in scientific papers. Any recommendation? And is it effective to use such sites to avoid copy-paste sentences?<issue_comment>username_1: The problem with attempting to use some sort of "rephrasing software" is that proper rephrasing is not just repainting a piece of text in order to avoid some technical definition of plagiarism.
Instead, proper rephrasing is taking a set of ideas, incorporating them into your own thinking, and then explaining your thinking (which now incorporates those ideas) in the context of your own work. No mere piece of software can do that work for you---if it was sophisticated enough to do such thinking, you would need to credit it as a co-author.
If you are worried about accidentally repeating phrasing, I would recommend doing the following:
1. Carefully read the entire source that you want to adapt ideas from.
2. Do something entirely different for at least an hour.
3. Write down your understanding of the material you read and how it applies in the context of your own work, entirely from memory and without looking at the original source.
4. Now return to the source and see if there are any important mistakes you made, things that you overlooked, or phrases that you accidentally repeated.
It is easy, especially for an inexperienced writer, to get stuck in thinking that a nice presentation of material is "the only way" that it can be written. Taking that palette-cleansing time and avoiding looking at the original will make it extremely likely that you will end up truly presenting in your own words.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: It seems that you are not aware of how misguided and offensive your question is to me, username_1 (I'm guessing), and other educators reading and posting on this site, so I thought it's worth saying something about that.
The point is that writing a thesis is part of a journey of learning in which a person studies a subject, thinks about it very hard and in great depth, and creates a work that represents their own unique point of view on the subject. The writing is an essential part of this process: as educators everywhere know and understand, **each word and each sentence in the thesis must be individually chosen, crafted, thought about and written by you, the writer of the thesis, in order for true learning to take place**. This may seem like an exaggeration, but I assure you I'm dead serious. (This principle of course makes necessary allowance for names and for properly attributed verbatim quotes.) Keep in mind that when I speak about learning I am referring to a process where you master several complex skills, not only learning about the specific subject you are writing about, but also learning how to think critically, how to communicate complex ideas effectively, and how to write well. These are valuable skills that will serve you well long after you have forgotten most of the technical details related to the topic of the thesis.
Now, if you accept that what I wrote above is true (and I hope that you do), then several consequences follow:
1. The entire concept of "rephrasing" or "paraphrasing" needs to be thrown out the window. In my opinion these are misguided notions that represent the dangerous mindset that taking words written by another person and just applying some cosmetic or algorithmic changes to them, with the only goal being to avoid "copy-paste sentences," is an acceptable practice. It isn't, because it skips the part where you actually **think about the content** of what you are writing, which is the most important and central part of the learning process (and the part that is the most difficult and makes our brain hurt, and that lazy people are always looking for ways to avoid). So yes, in your thesis, it may make sense in certain places to summarize some thoughts or comments from the scientific literature - that is absolutely okay. But instead of thinking about this as "rephrasing" you should think about this as "I've thought hard about how to communicate a complex set of ideas presented by another author, and here is the best way I've found to explain what I understood this author was saying."
2. If you use any method whatsoever for going around the difficult part of thinking about what you are writing - whether it's by paying someone else to write part of your thesis, or using sentence rephrasing software, assuming it exists - **you are cheating yourself**, by depriving yourself of one of the main benefits that you are supposed to be deriving from writing a thesis.
3. Using such software or other means to avoid doing the work that is specifically assumed to be an integral part of writing a thesis is also likely to be viewed by others reading your thesis as dishonest and a form of cheating.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: Ethical concerns with using such "rephrasing" software have been address thoroughly so far. However, I would like to focus on something that has been alluded to in some of the answers and this is the information processing aspect of the thesis experience.
When you are forced to analyze and develop ways to express other's ideas in your own words it is highly beneficial in helping you to retain the incredible amount of information you consume when writing a thesis. This is critical because understanding what you know from having to express yourself helps you to know your thesis inside and out. As you wrestle with each reference and idea it sticks with you for literally the rest of your life. This only happened because you actually thought about and expressed it.
If this process is skipped through the use of software you would not really know what you wrote and why. You would not be able to see the connections between the various ideas and themes of your paper. Lastly, when you are asked to defend your thesis you would be completely unprepared and unable to answer many of the questions of your committee.
I do not want to downplay the ethical concerns here but just bring to light a perspective from a psychological viewpoint.
Upvotes: 1
|
2016/02/20
| 390
| 1,646
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am not currently enrolled in any university (too costly for me at this time), but I would like to study as much as I can in various subjects (Advanced Mathematics, Psychology, Computer Programming and so on.) I'd like to find out the areas in which I am adept in case I decide to attend a university later on in life. This will prevent me from working towards an area that I may not be good at or a line of work that I ultimately find out I'm not interested in (both of which have happened to many people I know.)
Are there any universities that provide past curriculums and exams (with answers) online to be used as study guides?<issue_comment>username_1: MIT's Open Courseware project has a lot of material of this sort. Here is a link to the [Course Finder](http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/find-by-topic/), with courses organized by topic. The depth of the offering will vary from course to course. Some have only syllabi, others have complete video lectures, homework assignments, exams, solutions, etc. The coverage is quite broad and includes courses in all of the specific classes you have listed.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Search for courses, you'll find lots of material. Common are (more of less polished) lecture notes, often you'll find homework (sometimes with answers), also exams.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: [Coursera](https://www.coursera.org/) provides free courses in many different fields from University professors. They also offer you specialized programs and certificates when you complete them (certificates are not free, but not expensive either).
Upvotes: 2
|
2016/02/21
| 842
| 3,291
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<issue_start>username_0: I have noticed that many French diplomas contain the mention "*Pour en jouir avec les droits et prérogatives qui y sont attachés*", which can be translated into "*[The diploma is conferred upon Mr. X and gives the Y level] to be enjoyed with all rights and privileges pertaining thereto.*"
What does "to be enjoyed with all rights and privileges pertaining thereto" mean on a French diploma? I.e., what are those rights and privileges? For example, if someone obtained the [Baccalaureate diploma](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baccalaur%C3%A9at), what rights and privileges does that give?
I'm not sure whether it refers to some legal consequences, academic consequences, or something else, so that's why I don't post on Law.SE.
Examples:
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/XYOVx.jpg)
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/YB4kM.jpg)
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/XllVb.png)<issue_comment>username_1: That the holder is entitled to all rights and prerogatives pertaining to the degree. At the very least, the right to call yourself .
This is probably a leftover from the misty past, where holding a degree could allow you to use certain clothing, attend some ceremonies, the right to vote in certain matters, be ... European societies before the French Revolution were incredibly hierarchically structured. And much of the traditions (togas, berets for graduation, even many of the degrees) have their origins in the Middle Ages. Universities are touted as places in which new ground is broken, authorities questioned without mercy, and on the other hand we follow traditions that haven't made sense for more than two centuries (and were questionable long before).
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: That phrase is clearly not France-specific, as @ff524 mentioned. In order to add to and further illustrate the nice answer by @username_1, I will share the following paper, which discusses Roman origins and Medieval expressions of the relevant phase(s): <http://www.jstor.org/stable/1844716>.
In addition to some comments and answers for the above-mentioned most likely duplicate question, I would add that **modern practical meaning** of this phrase significantly depends on graduate's *field of study* and *institution* they graduated from.
In regard to the *field of study*, rights and privileges might include (beyond the implied rights and privileges to say that one graduated with specific degree from a particular institution, to wear the institution's regalia, to be referred to as a Dr. [for Ph.D. graduates], etc.): to be able to practice in specific regulated fields, such as medicine and law (upon satisfying additional conditions, such as attending medical residency or passing specific state's bar examination, correspondingly).
In regard to the *institution*, some rights and privileges include to participate in alumni activities, to retain institution's e-mail address, to get discounts on various products and services as well as on attending individual classes and, even, enrolling into certain degree programs at one's *alma mater*.
Upvotes: 4
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2016/02/21
| 792
| 2,784
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<issue_start>username_0: I know this is somewhat strange, however I'm trying to properly cite a quotation from a comment on Reddit.
I'm quoting <NAME> from an AMA that he did about 9 months ago. The specific quote for those interested is “Arguing that you don’t care about the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don’t care about free speech because you have nothing to say.”
In the references list (APA format), how would I cite this?
This is a direct link to the comment that the quote was taken from: <https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/36ru89/just_days_left_to_kill_mass_surveillance_under/crglgh2>
This is my best guess at how to cite this:
Reddit. (2015). Just days left to kill mass surveillance under Section 215 of the Patriot Act. We are <NAME> and the ACLU's Jameel Jafer. AUA. Retrieved February 20, 2016 from <https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/36ru89/just_days_left_to_kill_mass_surveillance_under/crglgh2><issue_comment>username_1: I believe that your best guess is pretty close to the right answer. According to the APA Style (6th ed.), you should list as much information as possible for non-periodical publications, which you have done well. I think that your resource falls under category *"Nonperiodical Web Document or Report"*, as described on [this page](https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/10) of the *Purdue OWL's APA Formatting and Style Guide*.
However, on the second thought, it seems that a more correct option to use would be APA's electronic sources guidelines for *"Online Forum or Discussion Board Posting"*. Not only **Reddit** better fits this category, but it also allows you to specify the **author** of the quote you are citing. Therefore, the optimal citation in question, in my opinion, should be as follows (note that I took liberty to remove date of retrieval as the link you provide is a permalink and, thus, pretty stable):
>
> <NAME>. (2015). Just days left to kill mass surveillance under
> Section 215 of the Patriot Act. We are <NAME> and the ACLU's
> Jameel Jafer. AUA. Retrieved from
> <https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/36ru89/just_days_left_to_kill_mass_surveillance_under/crglgh2>
>
>
>
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Citing quotes is not always necessary, particularly when Snowden has said this many times in TV/Magazine interviews. As official as that Reddit AMA was, I would either just quote without referencing where he said it, or reference the quote in something that gets archived in a library like one of his Time Magazine interviews, or a BBC interview, etc.
This is all under the assumption that the quote itself is whats most important, not that it was said on Reddit.
Upvotes: 2
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2016/02/21
| 603
| 2,732
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<issue_start>username_0: If an applicant has research experience in a field that they are applying to and includes it in their application, would there be negative impact on the application if they chose not to include a recommendation letter from their research advisor for that research experience?
The reasons that they don't may be misconstrued as negative, but it could just be that there are others who could give stronger letters of recommendation, for instance from other research advisors in another field or a teacher with whom the applicant had a very good relationship with. Would not including the research advisor as a recommender be cause for speculation?<issue_comment>username_1: It would likely be cause for speculation if the applicant is promoting their research experience but does not include a letter from their advisor. There may be inert reasons and it does happen (an advisor that is too busy or too aloof; on a leave for medical or other reasons). There are also cases where the applicant and advisor do not get along well, or where their interests are not aligned. In these cases it may be worth a direct conversation to find out if they would offer strong support for the position and if not then ask why not. The applicant may be surprised to learn that the advisor with whom she/he argues holds them in high regard. At the same time, the advisor may have useful input to offer that the applicant may wish to weigh as they decide on an educational and career trajectory.
That said, if no advisor letter is provided then the applicant should succinctly provide an explanation for why the given recommenders were chosen, and leave it at that unless pressed. If the applicant has a good relationship with another recommender, she/he might ask that recommender to include a supportive explanatory note in their letter.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: I can only think on the applicant's PoV. I think I would be comfortable doing this if I have other good recommendation letters from perhaps more influential advisors. I don't think the field you specialize in in your undergrad study matters all that much in your application. It's good to have that experience but it's even better if you have good relation and leave good impressions on many advisors not limited to your field.
But if I spent a lot of time researching and somehow screwed up so that my advisor in my undergrad lab now hates me I would really think about how to approach this (more so if I have no one else to go to for letters). I can't say for sure but I think many advisors will still give you a decent letter even if they don't like you at all. After all an undergrad is a student who is expected to make mistakes.
Upvotes: 0
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2016/02/21
| 1,024
| 4,294
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<issue_start>username_0: Why almost all students answer 'Yes' to this question? Is this a must for student visa? I have applied to student visa from Iran to study master degree in Germany. I want to pursue PhD (may be in Germany or may be not) and I will apply to work for giant software companies after that.
I don't understand why people write this?
**[UPDATE]**
I will immediately follow PhD after masters either in Germany or somewhere else. Also all students have 18 months job seeking visa extension. Then why should we lie? Embassy definitely knows that everyone will at least give himself a chance to work in a better company.<issue_comment>username_1: >
> Why almost all students answer 'Yes'?
>
>
>
The host country is not looking to accept immigrants when allowing students to come pursue degrees on education visas. Each country has their own system, standards and procedures for allowing immigrants in the country, and if you appear like you're trying to skip that by entering as a student they will deny your student visa application.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: The bad thing: Your Phd is yet nothing, it is a plan what you say. If you apply for a visa extension because you are a running Phd course, yes that is something.
The students lie because they fear the rejection of their visa. Particularly the USA is infamous in this sense. The German authorities know it very well, more clearly the responsible officers know it, but they follow the directives what they got from the higher levels.
The real effect to the probability of the Visa rejection is probably small, if the student say some different than "yes". Obviously if he states to plan any illegal, that had a very bad effect, but it is unlikely that well-educated people would do that.
However, saying a "yes", on that paper, is practically nothing. Well, you said 5 years before that you plan to go home, however you got a wonderful job offer as a young Master of ..., so you changed your original plans, there is nothing bad in it (and particularly nothing illegal, at least if your employer sponsors your visa).
Note, 5 year is already close to the 8 years where you can apply for citizenship. I do not know the exact rules, but if you are here since 5 years as a student, you are probably close to get at least some "permanent resident" or similar status (meaning that you won't be sent back, except hard cases like being convinced or similar).
In practice, today millions of people live in Germany, with zero German or English skill, with a low-level elementary education, and with zero intention to integrate into the society. The government tolerates it on political reasons.
These directives actually prefer well-educated workforce.
Getting a job after the Masters, yes that will be hard.
Getting the VISA, that is not.
But honestly, also I would say a simple "yes" - simply because it has no relevance for the future.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: You apply for a Study visa for a purpose of studying for a fixed term. This visa does not allow you to stay longer than the term of this study. After the end of your studies you should return to your country (even if your studies are completed or terminated before the expiration of your Study visa).
The question asks you to affirm that you are familiar with the rules and understand it. It does not *really* ask you about you life plans on a general scale (e.g. whether or not you want to apply for a work visa after your PhD or get married or whatnot), and these plans can always change. The question simply aims to establish that you understand that Study Visa has a limited duration, purpose and scope. That's why most people answer "yes" to this question.
If you decide to overstay your Visa or remain in the country when your studies are completed or terminated, it may be difficult for the government to remove you for the overstay (especially if your visa is still valid - it need to be revoked, you need to be informed, etc). But it it very easy to remove you for lying in your visa application - and the fact that you remain in the country despite staying the opposite in your application can be interpreted as such. This is (in my opinion) the real purpose of the question.
IANAL.
Upvotes: 2
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2016/02/21
| 656
| 2,817
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<issue_start>username_0: Suppose that I submitted an essay of a literature review for 1 course and I have to prepare a study for another course with similar ideas. My questions:
1. Can I 'copy' some of the ideas of the literature review of the 1st essay into the 2nd one? How ethical is such a practice?
2. Generally speaking, suppose that I define x and lists its components in one study, can I reuse the same source in another study since I want to also include the definition of x and its components in this 2nd study? If yes, can one use the same exact words?<issue_comment>username_1: It is a good question (one that has likely come up in various guises in the past on this forum). In practice, academics regularly do this form of self-plagiarism (note that does **not** make it ok). The only real difference here is that the prior art was not published.
In general, it is never a bad idea to ask the teacher. Even if it is not the same professor, there is a chance it can be flagged by plagiarism software that collates prior student work. Pre-emptively asking though clears up what is reasonable to all parties though. Small snippets of copying some professors may not worry about - but wholesale copying of a prior paper is not going to be ok.
It is not a bad practice to learn to re-write the same thing in different words. You will have to do it for future journal articles.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: The answer to this question is very simple: **Fully explain the situation to the teachers of BOTH classes and ask what is acceptable to them.** Transparency is the key to avoiding almost all kinds of perceived inappropriate behaviour, and this is definitely such a case. The only right answer in your situation is what both teachers consider acceptable.
Believe it or not, standards of what is or is not plagiarism can sometimes be quite subjective, and in my experience, no area is more subjective than when it comes to questions about multiple submission and repurposing your own previous work (which some people call "self plagiarism", but I hate that term and so I avoid using it--I prefer to describe the behaviour rather than making the ridiculous suggestion that you can plagiarize yourself). What is acceptable to one teacher is unacceptable to another, and not only that, a teacher can change their mind on a situation simply because you take the time to openly explain what's going on.
Often, if you are transparent to both teachers about reusing material across classes, they will let you do it as long as you are very clear to them what is new and original in each submission. (At least, that was my experience in university when I used the same subject for an English paper and a Public Speaking speech, having fully informed both teachers of what I was doing.)
Upvotes: 2
|
2016/02/21
| 1,241
| 5,153
|
<issue_start>username_0: I work at a university and want to get some FPGA development boards sponsored by Xilinx for labs. They have a [donation program](http://www.xilinx.com/support/university/donation-program.html), so I filled a request. But after the final submission I've been presented with the following license agreement, which I find quite reasonable, except the two following points.
I couldn't find this agreement publicly accessible on their website, so see [my gist](https://gist.github.com/firegurafiku/3d18a09ef2c26eadb041) for full text. Also, "XUP" stands for "Xilinx University Program".
>
> 7) Recipient institution grants a worldwide, royalty-free, transferable, sub-licensable, perpetual license to Xilinx, Inc. on any intellectual property rights, including but not limited to rights under patents, copyrights, mask works, and trade secrets, derived from, or related to, Xilinx products, technology, or confidential information to which the recipient institution obtains access in to under the XUP (the “Derivatives”); provided however, that institution shall have no obligation to disclose or provide such Derivatives to Xilinx.
>
>
>
After removing all visual noise, I got that Xilinx wants to have a license to everything I'm going to develop using their boards. I especially fear here words "perpetual" and "trade secrets". Which implications may this point have? And how wide they can be? May they involve someone besides me, my students or someone actually working with the donated FPGAs?
For example, if my students are designing a microprocessor for their coursework, does Xilinx get the right to use the design to manufacture and sell the chips? Or what if I develop some device using their FPGA, use it to obtain some result, and then write a paper; which rights Xilinx gets then?
>
> 8) If requested, the School Representative agrees to share relevant teaching materials with XUP. If deemed appropriate, XUP may disseminate materials to other XUP member institutes.
>
>
>
Does it mean that if I have written a textbook for my FPGA course, I must share it to Xilinx if they wants so? What if I used third-party materials for my book, or wrote it in co-authorship?
Are these terms okay to accept at all? I would appreciate if someone clarify this points for me. And, by the way, I'm in Russia while Xilinx resides in the US.<issue_comment>username_1: Many universities have a patent and confidentiality agreement that is signed by all members of a university who may produce work that could produce money. This applies to students and employees in actually academia departments (such as engineering) to non-academic employees such as a human resources professional. If work was produced on the university's time and resources, the university has rights to claim it as its own. There may be a situation involved where if a product was produced as part of a collaboration (i.e. senior research projects) and then went on to make money, the University could agree to give a percentage of the profit back to you. This should be discussed before any work is done. Your example of the microprocessor would be owned by the university because you developed it on their time, money, and resources.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: I am not a lawyer. This is not legal advice. It is how I would look at this agreement, and reflects how I might evaluate the situation. I have only partial information, and context always matters. I read many license agreements, NDAs, and other matters that affect IP.
Section 7 doesn't seem to cause a problem. If you disclose anything to them related to their stuff, they can use it for anything, with anyone, forever. But, you have no obligation to disclose anything. If you don't tell them, they can't use it, and you can't sue them for misusing it.
Section 8 could be more of a problem. The question if how is "relevant" determined, and it seems vague. Unlike section 7 where there is a full enumeration of all the cases, section 8 is unclear.
In any case, both you and your institution's legal department should be comfortable, and you should have guidelines from your legal department showing how they would interpret the agreement, and what they expect from you as you operate subject to them.
If this is a large enough deal, your institution should support you and may negotiate alternative terms with the vendor. If the deal is too small for the legal team to engage, then you may want talk with the vendor about changing, or even eliminating, most of the agreement. Some parts are likely to be non-negotiable (such as limits on their liability, and probably section 7). Some parts (like section 8) they could be willing to strike.
Section 7 protects their critical interests. It prevents a customer from suing them for IP infringement, be it intentional, accidental, coincidental, or in any other way. Section 8 helps them improve their offering.
Whatever the final agreement, if there is any agreement at all it will probably require review from your institution.
Again, I am not a lawyer. I have not trained as a lawyer. This is not legal advice.
Upvotes: 2
|
2016/02/21
| 474
| 1,737
|
<issue_start>username_0: My paper got published in a good journal but later I noticed that in the final results table I have mistakenly written the parameters used in the previous literatures and not what I have calculated for one of the ions. I know it's a terrible mistake to do. I can't figure out how to write the corrigendum.
Thanks in advance.<issue_comment>username_1: Write a letter to the editor, stating that in your paper so-and-so, table 5.7 should be replaced by [insert corrected table]. Use the format for the journal, so they can publish it as a corrigendum in the next issue. Perhaps add also a corrected version of the paper, to be archived instead of the erroneous one.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Following [The 5th Korean Council of Science Editors'Workshop (2012)](http://blog.bcrec.web.id/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/5%C8%B8_12-HandoutHow-to-write-errata-corrigendum-and-retraction-Jocelyn-Graf.pdf), I copy and paste here for further reference:
>
> **What Should an Erratum Include?**
>
>
> * The complete bibliographic information for the corrected article
> * An explanation of the error and the correction of the error
>
>
> **What Should a Corrigendum Include?**
>
>
> * The complete bibliographic information for the corrected article
> * Acknowledgement of the person who helped find the error(s)
> * Explanation of the correction, whether brief or extensive
> * Brief errors can be mentioned along with the corrected form
> * In the correction of an entire figure or table, only the erroneous parts
> need to be listed, along with a complete revised figure or table
> * Citation of any articles related to the correction, along with a
>
> standard reference list
>
>
>
Upvotes: 0
|
2016/02/21
| 3,512
| 14,061
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<issue_start>username_0: I'm curious to hear from any American professor out there who has successfully done a full-year sabbatical overseas, with his or her family along for the ride. How did you make it work for you financially and personally?
For context: I'll be eligible in 2018 for my first sabbatical in my 20-year career (I changed jobs twice and the tenure clock got reset). I would very much like to take an entire year, and I have contacts at a university in the UK (I am in the US) with mutual interest in me coming to spend a year there doing teaching and research. What I don't have is any idea how to pull this off logistically, since I have three kids ages 7, 10, and 12, and a wife with a full-time job. My university only gives half salary for a full-year sabbatical, so we would have to replace half of my salary plus all of my wife's salary (about $30K US), rent our house to cover mortgage expenses, enroll the kids in schools, rent a house in the host country, etc. I believe I would be given a small salary at the host institution if I taught a class (which I would love to do) but still, that's a lot of income to replace and I am not sure if my wife can take a year off.
I do believe the professional experience would be amazing, and it would be an incredible experience for my kids that would be absolutely worth the upheaval. But I'm at a loss to know how to make this work -- so your experiences and ideas would be most welcome.
I have looked into Fulbright fellowships, but my understanding of how those work is that you can only pick from the universities and positions that Fulbright has in a list. The institution I am referring to is not one of those. Also -- simply squirreling away money to save up for it is not an option for a number of reasons.<issue_comment>username_1: I've taken two full-year overseas sabbaticals, each on my half-salary plus a small ad-hoc stipend from the host institution, the first with just my wife and the the second with my wife and our two small children. Fortunately my wife's job is flexible enough to allow for occasional leaves without pay.
We rented out our house (at a slight discount, because the renters also took care of our dog). We lived like students in a small apartment. We took public transportation everywhere. During the second sabbatical, our kids enrolled in the [on-campus kindergarten](https://ist.ac.at/campus-life/childcare-and-school/); that was one of the key reasons we went [where we did](https://ist.ac.at/).
We also burned through several thousand dollars in savings and racked up several thousand more in credit card debt, which took a couple of years to pay off, but the experience was worth every penny. We're looking forward to doing it a third time in a few years, despite the extra complication of older children.
The most important thing I can suggest is to forget the idea of making up your and your wife's missing salaries, or even a significant fraction thereof. It's just not going to happen. You just have to live with less and make it work.
The other important thing is that it has to work for your entire family. No matter how good the experience might be for you professionally, if you aren't visiting a place where your family can actually enjoy living, you are *all* going to be utterly miserable. I strongly recommend making connections with *the families* of your colleagues at your host institution, well before the final planning stages.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_2: I doubt there's a satisfying general answer to this question. The problems and opportunities are so individual that it's hard to really say anything.
One useful note for mathematicians: the Simons Foundation has realized this is a problem and gives out [special grants](https://www.simonsfoundation.org/funding/funding-opportunities/mathematics-physical-sciences/simons-fellow-program/simons-fellows-awardees-mathematics/) to pay for an extra semester of leave in a year you have a sabbatical. If you look at the list of recipients, you can see that it is fairly competitive, but you do not have to be a Fields Medalist to get it (though I'm sure it helps).
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: I just did a year sabbatical in Japan with my wife and two kids, also at half salary, to visit one of my collaborators.
* **Finances** My collaborator and I applied for a fellowship from the JSPS (like the NSF in Japan), which more or less gave me half salary for the year (not quite, but enough). I don't know if EPSRC has something like this, but you might have your colleague look into this (assuming you're in STEM). Besides specific fellowships for sabbatical type visits, look for internal and external general grants which can provide summer salary/travel money to help set off expenses. (My university has some fairly generous internal funding options.) I did not teach for extra money. We did not rent out our house for various reasons, though many people do this, to help cover the "double rent" issue. One place where we did save money was not having to pay for family plan US health insurance, which eats up a huge portion of my paycheck. Financially, I think we came out about even, maybe minus plane tickets for everyone.
* **Logistics** For renting your house, you can either try advertising personally (maybe a new faculty member will want to) or use a rental agency, or a site like [sabbaticalhomes.com](https://www.sabbaticalhomes.com/). Check with your colleague/host institution about visas and help with housing. Visa assistance came along with my JSPS fellowship, and we stayed in university housing (not particularly cheaper than the market rate, but convenient). (I hope by UK you don't mean London--housing there is expensive.) Schools we just sorted out when we got there, though it's probably a good idea to check in advance what you need to do to enroll (take birth certificates, health records etc just in case). In general, universities deal with a lot of foreign visitors so your host university should at least have pointers to helpful information for moving there for a year.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: Your biggest issue is likely to be your wife's job- will she be able to take an unpaid leave from the job and return to it later, or will she simply have to resign her position?
I've taken two semester long sabbatical leaves, and both times I went alone since my wife couldn't take leave from her job as a school teacher. Fortunately, I was only a short airplane flight away in Los Angeles, and we visited in one direction another every few weeks, but it certainly was not a pleasant way to handle this.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: I can only speak from my experience as a child, but I'll share that perspective since you have children of your own. My father, a law professor at <NAME>, took a year's sabbatical in Oxford when I was four years old (1960-61) to research a book he was working on. We had four children, and a fifth was born over there. Obviously, a four year old isn't going to mind much where he lives, and will adapt easily to the changing culture.
Ten years later, we took two years in Oxford. My father had one year of sabbatical, and a year teaching in the law school's overseas program. Again, I can't speak much about the financial aspects of the trip. By this time, there were seven children, and the house we stayed in was pretty small, so that will tell you some things! On the other hand, the cost of living was lower there than in the US at that time.
I left the US at the end of 7th grade. This time, there were more challenges for me personally. When I got to Oxford (a month before school was to start) and we got sorted in our house, I took off to look around. I went into a newsagent's and struck up a conversation with Bruce, the older kid behind the counter. (He became a lifelong friend.) He told me about his school, and said I would like to go there. As it turned out, they were looking for someone to deliver papers as well. I must say my parents were quite surprised when I came home three hours after moving in, telling them that I had a paper route (they would say "paper round") and a lead on a school to go to! Dad went and had a chat with Bruce. One of my brothers and I wound up going to his school. So, I guess one of the things I could suggest is to improvise a bit, trust to providence, and trust in children's innate ability to connect emotionally with one another across cultural boundaries.
On the other hand, your children (especially your older ones) will have more than the usual challenges to fitting in. I started school in second form. The kids had already had a year of algebra, a year of French, and a year of Latin. I had a gift for languages, and my mother taught French and knew Latin very well, so those weren't much of a difficulty. However, I had difficulty with algebra and wasn't the sort to ask for help when I needed it. Then, when we got back, I was a high school sophomore, and in second year algebra again. The upshot of all that was that I never really did well in algebra until I took a remedial class in college.
If you have a child who will be 12 on the way out and 14 coming home, he will have gotten a lot of mixed messages about social rules as well. This is a great way to learn that social rules aren't as important as they often appear, but the effect of the confusion shouldn't be minimized as well. Kids learn a lot of their ways to interact with one another during those two years, and having to adjust a lot of them during that time shouldn't be underestimated as a difficulty. The usual adolescent insecurities get magnified, and parents may have to do a bit of extra work to help a child get over them.
When people ask me if I liked living in England, my response is generally "Did you like being 14?" But all kidding aside, as a grownup, I can say that this was a great life experience for me. Exposure to a different culture at a young age gives me a deeper understanding of what does and doesn't matter about my own. Also, I was exposed to an entirely different educational system, which educated me on some of the strengths and weaknesses of our own. Finally, I'm probably the only Oxford United fan in the entire United States. :)
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_6: I’m in almost the same exact situation as you. I’m a US academic wanting to do a Sabbatical in the UK. Wife (not working) and two small kids (4 and 7 years old). I have an invite to get an unpaid visiting scholar at a university in London for a full year. But, because my sabbatical is at full pay from my institution money is less of an issue. The confusing or frustrating part is figuring out the following:
1. To do a full year in the UK not needing pay, what visa do I apply for that will cover my family?
2. How do I register my kids for “public” school?
3. Do we apply for UK health insurance? Can we use our US based insurance? Is that advisable?
Here’s some advice I got:
1. Don’t buy a car to get around. Public transport is very good.
2. You need an address before you can do anything, like register kids at school. Get a lease first. If possible, avoid lengthy background check by paying rent for 6 months up front.
3. Use a visa service to get your travel docs in order up front.
4. Drop your health insurance in the US and pay for access to the UK NHS. It’ll be more convenient and comprehensive.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_7: Someone in the answers asked for a "where are they now" update, so I thought I'd check back in as the OP to mention what finally happened with my sabbatical.
**I ended up not doing a sabbatical overseas.** The financial and logistical requirements were just too great. My wife actually found a new job in her field shortly after my post, so there was no way for her to get leave, and even if there were, I think it would have been a net negative for my kids to uproot and leave for a year. And there were no good grant or fellowship opportunities connected with my overseas leads to cover expenses, and there's no way we were going to go into massive debt to do this.
**Instead, I managed to develop a really unique sabbatical leave with a local company that's right in my backyard.** [Steelcase](http://steelcase.com) is fairly well-known for design and manufacture of high-end furniture and architectural products, and they have a huge presence in the education market, so I worked with them to design a scholar-in-residence program wherein I was/am embedded with their education group three days a week, doing educational research and contributing to their product design and business planning. They're located in Grand Rapids, MI which is just 30 miles from my house, so there was no uprooting required. I started with them in August (2017) and will wrap up the residency on May 31 of this year. It's been a truly unique, fun, and amazing experience and I have learned a *lot* that I will be porting back into higher education when I return to my campus in August.
[You can read more about this at my website](http://rtalbert.org/sabbatical), and starting next week I'll be posting some articles where I'll be looking back over my experiences and discussing the big lessons learned.
This kind of opportunity wouldn't work for everybody, but it turned out to be perfect for me, since my research is in undergraduate math education and I will be moving into academic leadership positions when I return. The takeaway that I think would work generally for others, is that if an overseas experience isn't a good fit for you, there's no need to force it --- there may be a cool and groundbreaking sabbatical experience right around the corner.
I'll be up for a sabbatical again in another 6 years, and at that point two of our three kids will be out of the house --- so that's a much better situation for thinking about overseas extended stays.
Thanks to all who have contributed to the answers here -- I think it's been helpful for me and for many others.
Upvotes: 3
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2016/02/22
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<issue_start>username_0: I got accepted for graduate school(MS program) at my top choice (got accepted in few other as well). I have not visited the campus yet (its top 3 program in US, so i just applied). The school will be out of state for me so it will be expensive.
During the application it said that if i applied before a certain date, i would be considered for funding (i did apply before the date). But i have read the acceptance letter and even browsed around and it states nothing about any assistance offered.
So, i want to email the coordinator (who emailed me my acceptance letter), asking him if i got any funding. Is it ok to ask for this and any tips on not to come off as arrogant/rude?
Essentially, what i want to achieve from the email is:
* Thank you for considering me for application.
* Have i qualified for any fellowship/assitanship
* I would like to visit the campus so i can meet staff and see if i will fit in. I have checked the website and cannot find any event, that is why i am asking this in email. Currently, I am working and can afford to go there and stay in a hotel but it would be nice if they reimburse something.
How to ask for the last two parts and is it common?<issue_comment>username_1: You can certainly ask all of the questions that you have above in a friendly, politely worded email. There isn't anything listed that would be considered entirely out of bounds for a prospective graduate student to ask.
There is one suggestion that you might want to consider. If you can afford the flight costs, you might want to ask the program if they are willing to cover your local costs—hotels, meals, and possibly local transportation—for your visit. If they can't, you might want to ask them if they could book the hotel for you. (Many schools have agreements with nearby hotels to provide accommodations at reduced rates.)
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Two things here:
1. It is never wrong to ask your question from the person at the university about something, which your are waiting for, or wanting to know. They are there to help you, in fact it is their job to do so.
2. Never dance around the topic, ask what you want to know. This is because it will save your and the person time; and of course with clear a subject.
I would write the following:
```
Subject: Fellowship Outcome
Dear ,
Could you please let me know if I did qualify for the applied fellowship?
Also is there any available funding for me to come to the campus?
Kind Regards,
X
```
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: What's the issue with just asking? With the exception of things like contents of recommendation letters, etc, you have the right to know that kind of stuff (especially when concerning anything financial). They won't think of it as rude at all, and will give you one of three possible answers: "Yes", "No", or "I don't know [yet]".
Don't wait on asking any kind of important question. It will save you time and trouble, and being direct is the best way to keep a respectful relationship with anyone.
Upvotes: 2
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2016/02/22
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<issue_start>username_0: I am interested to know what the likelihood is that an undergraduate would be able to publish an academic paper (particularly in a STEM field) from home. For the sake of argument, assume they are an advanced student, and work independently of any supervisor.
1. Is this something that is frequently done?
2. Would this look any better or worse on a CV than doing it under a supervisor?
3. Is this something that is likely to happen, in a reasonable time frame, if the student stayed committed?<issue_comment>username_1: At the beginning of my PhD, last year, I had several ideas, so after thinking long and hard about them, I suggested them to my supervisor. His most common answer was "that is a nice idea, they tried that in the 90's, it didn't work".
Later, I finished my first manuscript. I was quite proud of it, and I gave it to him for review. It came back with more red than black.
Also, don't forget the resources a professor can give you. As an undergrad, I had an idea for which I needed a couple of hours in a student lab using non consumable and safe equipment, but I wasn't allowed. I then suggested the project to a professor, and a word from him gave me full access to whatever lab I would need. Depending on your case, this may mean data, computers, or having a conversation with an expert in something you may be stuck with.
So, chances are that if you work by yourself, you will have the same problems. Either you will work on something irrelevant or some known dead end; and when you get a result, you will have a hard time putting it in a publication ready form. Take as an example your own question: you wrote one paragraph, and three people have already considered your post unclear. A several pages research article, where not even the researcher fully understands what is going on, is significantly more difficult.
You can, of course, go ahead and try to research something you find interesting on your own, but your chances of getting published are significantly lower than if you have a mentor. You would have to jump many more hurdles.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: I recommend you to try to publish your paper in a journal with lower impact factor which may increase the likelihood of publishing. If possible, a friend from the same field would edit the paper. Even you did not get your paper published you will get benefit from the editors' or referees' recommendations that will improve your writing.
Upvotes: -1
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2016/02/22
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<issue_start>username_0: I am currently interviewing in several universities across the U.S. for PhD programs in computer science. In every one of my interviews so far, there are always 1 or 2 professors that are eager to know which specific problems I am interested in researching (and it normally comes out as the most important question they are going to ask me). This question stumps me every time because I am not trying to enter a PhD program and start working on a specific problem right away. Instead, I want to do some lab rotations first and get a deeper feeling for the work of the institution's faculty (that works on my subarea of interest) and then, after these rotations, pick a specific problem (perhaps this is the wrong motivation?).
It does not seem to me that interest is a reliable determiner of success in completing a PhD. I could say that I am interested in Dr.X's research on complex manifolds because I skimmed through some of his papers. However, from my personal experience, I think there is a very big discrepancy between having read a little bit about a topic and claiming it as an interest, and actually doing research in that area. In other words, one might be interested in doing research in modelling the response of cancer patients to drug Y (because they want to defeat cancer or something similar) but a lot of times that person might realize that the actual research is far from his expectations and end up switching to different area.
I could list a few other reasons why I think interest is not a good measure of student's commitment but I might be wrong since professors like to ask this question. Why is this and what would be an honest way to answer it?<issue_comment>username_1: I'm not familiar with CS departments in particular, but I think this is less a "we ask because we want to know what we can expect you to hit the ground running on" and more of a "we ask to see what you know about us and where your general interests are". It's pretty much a job interview, so take it as a job interview type of question. A company wants you to show an interest in their company that goes beyond simply submitting a job application. They want to know what you know about them, and how that influences your job hunting. People that simply throw in an application and demonstrate no knowledge or specific interest in the company are unlikely to be hired unless the position is rather non-competitive. Companies want interested, happy, inspired workers; not some guy just looking to cash in his next paycheck, and likely biding his time for something he'd enjoy more to come along.
Look into the department before you arrive and see what things the faculty are working on now, or have worked on recently, and single out ones that seem most interesting to you. If you find there are none, this probably is not the right university for you.
This isn't something that binds you in any way. As one of the qualifying exams for my Ph.D., I was to present a talk on some recent research to demonstrate my knowledge and interest in doing research. Ostensibly, interest specifically in the subject matter of the talk, but in no way was that binding. My actual thesis could, and ultimately did, have absolutely nothing to do with the subject matter of this oral exam. To this day I have not produced a single piece of research that's relevant to the topic of that talk.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Other than the previous answer, we ask this question because a candidate may be interested in an area that is not in fact well represented in the department. If someone wanted to do research on numerical methods for optimization, my department has nobody to advise such a thesis -- but the candidate may not be aware of this.
I personally ask this question because too many graduate students come to me and ask whether I could be their adviser and then expect me to pose a problem they should work on for the 3-4 years. But I don't want to do that: if a student doesn't know what they want to do for research, yes, sure, I can give them a topic, but if it doesn't match their interest, it's going to be a painful 3-4 years for everyone involved. So I typically want that my students come up with topics they find interesting themselves, and then we can see how that fits into my research group and program.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: A candidate with no **intrinsic motivation** and own research interest appears to be only in for the name of the lab and the title of PhD, not the topic.
You want **creative** students that are eager to pursue research and come up with ideas of their own. When you are reading the research topics of the lab, and you don't come up with ideas, then you are the wrong guy. It may be possible to choose the advisor later - but you really need to be highly motivated for the specific topic of at least one of them...
I'd never accept a candidate with a "tell me what to do now" attitude, or a "maybe I will find out later what I like" attitude. It's okay if you switch topics (if it's early enough) but you have to *burn* to do this.
Upvotes: 2
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2016/02/22
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<issue_start>username_0: I would like to ask you a question about my PhD thesis, which has already been defended.
Part of my results were obtained in a university in another country. During my work, two of the PhD students there helped me and they have included these results in their theses. The problem is that I have also included these results in my PhD thesis, which was defended after theirs.
These results (included in my thesis, part of them in the thesis of one of the students and the other part in the thesis of the other student) are included in two publications. I am the first author of both of them, but I am given as equally contributed with one of the other PhD students in one of the paper and with the other PhD student in the other paper.
Do you think that I can be accused in plagiarism or be in authorship conflict?<issue_comment>username_1: You should cite the other publications, your authorship involvement and your noted contribution status.
You should also note that you are presenting the complete result set while the cited publications each contain a part thereof. You should informally notify the other authors of your intentions - this may not change your course of action but it would be useful to know that they don't intend to contest any of your work.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: Most PhD theses I have seen so far included a sentence along the lines of the following somewhere:
>
> This thesis contains material already published in the following publications: …
>
>
>
This applies to compilation theses as well as to monographs. My faculty’s PhD rules require such a sentence.
* If your thesis does not contain such a sentence, you have problems with self-plagiarism anyway.
* If your thesis does contain such a sentence, you properly informed the reader about the fact that those results were published elsewhere and reasonable accusations of plagiarism should not happen.
With respect to authorship conflicts, your PhD guidelines probably require that you contributed to all presented results to a certain extent or, if applicable, explicitly say to which results you did not comply to this extent. The latter is for example relevant if you have to present somebody else’s part of a colaborative work as a prerequisite for your work or in a compilation thesis. You have to decide yourself whether you adhered to this.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: You should find out your school's policy. In addition to citing the previous work, you may need to fill out some additional paperwork. If I remember correctly, at my school using previously published results required written permission of the advisor and the journal, while using cowritten results required written permission from the coauthors.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_4: If you haven't cited the other two theses, you would be committing plagiarism. You might not really be "accused" of plagiarism if you are just circulating your thesis internally and not publishing it as a book or parts of it as a journal paper. However, whether or not you are accused, you should follow academic best practices and cite the other two theses.
Upvotes: 0
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2016/02/22
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<issue_start>username_0: I have recently received a minor revision from a journal. In the manuscript upload portal, there are two places where we could include the response to reviewer comments. One is in the form of a text box and the other in the form of document upload. I am thinking of choosing to include the response file as an attachment as it includes figures and tables that would not be possible to include in the text box. So in the text box I plan to write:
>
> Response to the reviewer comments is included in an attached file (response\_to\_reviewer comments.doc). We kindly request that you open the document to view the responses.
>
>
>
Is this alright? The journal here is the International Journal of Medical Informatics.<issue_comment>username_1: Speaking as an editor, I don't care whether you put text in the box or upload a separate file as long as what you provide is clear. Speaking as an author, I have done it both ways many times, and it has never made any difference. Generally, if the response is relatively short, I'll put it in the box; if the response is long or uses significant formatting (as in your case), I'll attach a file instead and put "See attached comments" in the box.
In short: they wouldn't provide the upload option if they didn't want you to use it.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Personally, I would always use the upload facility to upload a single document and just use the text box to say something like "see attached document for our response to reviewer comments".
There are many reasons why plain ascii text is inadequate. As people have mentioned, if you have figures, tables, or equations, then plain text will not work.
However, even when it is all text, I think that response to reviewer comment documents should have (a) clear headings for each reviewer point, (b) quote the entire reviewer statement, and (c) include quotes of any modifications. All these things are much clearer if different fonts are used for headings, reviewer comments, response text, and quotes of changes. This can be done more easily with a proper uploaded document.
Upvotes: 2
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2016/02/22
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<issue_start>username_0: I am a young scholar about to complete my PhD. in Finance from an Asian country. I am interested to know whether it is possible to pursue Habilitation from Germany (or any other European country) while working as an Assitant Professor in my home country. I have the following subqueries:
1. Is it possible to do the Habilitation similar to a traditional part-time individual doctorate while working in the industry which provides a lot of flexibility?
2. I also came to know that Habilitation can be completed through a series of good publications in a specific field. Is this route possible while not working in Germany or any other European country?
3. Are publications during Postdoctoral Fellowships in Germany or any other European country (with funding usually lasting for 2/3 years) considered for Habilitation through cumulative publications route?
Although I want to pursue habilitation for its own sake, I am also interested in permanent posts as a Professor in Germany. Apart from Habilitation, one way is to work as a Junior Professor, which is temporary in nature( usually lasting for 6 years). In my home country, it is much easier to get a permanent post as a Professor, usually promoted from Assistant Professor rank (also permanent in nature). Thanks<issue_comment>username_1: I'm only answering because I'm surprised no else has done so yet. Hopefully someone more knowledgeable than I will come and set me straight.
My impression is that the Habilitation cannot normally be done remotely. You don't apply for the Habil. Rather, you get hired by the university and after a probationary period the degree is conferred on you, together with permission to teach without being supervised (the *venia legendi*) along with elevation to the status of privatdozent. I think in some places you *must* accept the responsibility to offer a certain number of lectures per year at the university to be given the Habil. If so, then your plan is shot, because you couldn't accept that obligation.
But further, why would you want the Habil.? It wouldn't help your academic career in the US at all. (Your mileage elsewhere might vary.) rather, I think people would look at somebody six or seven years out of the dissertation and want to see a large body of promising published research, not a qualification for a educational system from another country. Your time would be better spent, IMO, trying to publish scholarship, not chasing new degrees.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: I think you have a few misconceptions about what a habilitation is.
To answer your first question: Yes, you can apply for a habilitation as an external candidate; just like a doctorate, this procedure is formally totally independent from your employment status. (But just like for a doctorate, it is much harder to get them to take you on if you are an external candidate.)
For your second and third question: This is very much field (and university) dependent; some will accept a stapled thesis (i.e., just submitting a list of published papers written after your doctorate), others require you to actually write a book. In any case, it is irrelevant where you wrote these.
However, the main part of the habilitation is to obtain the *venia docendi* -- the right to teach at *this specific* university. This means:
1. You must demonstrate to the committee your ability to teach at university level; again, it wildly differs how you need to do so -- some places will accept student evaluations of classes you taught elsewhere, others require you to give an example lecture in front of the full faculty (which, needless to say, can be rather a tough gauntlet). The easiest way is to already have a habilitation at a different university. (This is called *Umhabilitieren*.)
2. More importantly, if you are not interested to teach at this university (and even more importantly, they are not interested to have you teach), the university will not confer a habilitation on you. (To put it bluntly, universities take a dim view of "degree collectors" who are only in it for the title.)
So, **no**, a crucial part of the habilitation can not be done remotely.
Since you wrote you are also interested in a full professor position in Germany: You are correct that a habilitation is a formal requirement for obtaining a full professor position is Germany, but the hiring committee can consider other accomplishments as equivalent. The most frequent one now is a positive evaluation as a junior professor, but another possibility is a tenured position at a university in your home country. In any case, your accomplishments in research (and getting grants) will be a much more critical part of getting a position.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: No, it's usually **not possible to do a remote habilitation**. All habilitation regulations that I know require you to teach a certain amount of classes at the university where you want to obtain your habilitation, which typically requires that you be present at the university.
If you want to become a professor in Germany, the most effective way is to apply for post-doc, junior research group leader, or assistant professor positions in Germany.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_4: I just want to confirm that it is possible to receive Habilitation **without the need of teaching at German university**, because I just received my habilitation without the need to teach. If you have taught in the past in internationally recognized universities (especially in USA) and you can demonstrate the excellence in teaching by providing a "University Graduate College Teaching Excellence Award" from your University you can ask to be liberated from teaching obligations during your Habilitation process. You only need to deliver a single 2 hour sample lecture during your 3rd or 4th year of habilitation while the students evaluate your teaching performance and are giving you score on a predetermined score-sheet. You just need to score above 50 % to get an OK.
Furthermore you can perform your research elswhere, and not in Germany. I also know this from experience. However you do have to be accepted by University and get some kind of post. Now it gets tricky here in your case, since you do not wish to be employed by German university during habilitation. I guess you can become associated as a University fellow who does not receive salary, and if your habilitation supervisor is OK that you are not present at university you may do your habilitation remotely, and visit university only during the habilitation meetings and your accomplishment presentations (usually 1-2 days per year). But this absolutely depends on who is your habilitation supervisor and whether he will allow it.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]
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2016/02/22
| 1,086
| 4,694
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<issue_start>username_0: I'm an Italian student of mathematical physics at the university of Edinburgh. I have recently caught up with one of my friends and noticed that their exams in Linear algebra and calculus (analisi I, II and Geometria 1) are harder than those I have done here, which made me question how valid my university actually is. I am aware that at Edinburgh university the toughest year is supposed to be the third (unlike in Italy where the first is when most people drop out).
Does this mean that an Italian degree in physics provides a better preparation to become a theoretical physicist, or are the two qualifications equivalent?<issue_comment>username_1: Comparing different educational systems is frequently a futile exercise. Learning is like hiking to the top of a mountain from different trails: all of them lead to the same top, but one can be very steep at the beginning, a second one can have its steepest segment halfway to the top and a third one can have a final wall that needs an expert climber. Different educational systems can choose different paths according to different intermediate objectives.
Though it's true that some people prefer a certain type of trail with respect to another, and that along certain trails one can find more people with whom to share the joys and sorrows of hiking (learning), *arriving to the top depends only on your efforts*.
Now you are at the beginning of your trail. It's too early to decide whether it's a good trail or not: start hiking and enjoy the landscape, and if you think that the trail is not enough steep for your training, try to jog or run uphill. In other words, challenge yourself: you will learn much much more.
---
An anecdote about the appropriateness of certain steep starts. When I was a sophomore (2nd year) studying electronic engineering we had a mandatory class called *Rational Mechanics*, about Lagrangian and Hamiltonian mechanics. The exam consisted in a set of problems on mechanical systems to be solved with those two formalisms, a home project in which we had to develop a numerical solver with different techniques (in Pascal), and a viva where we had to prove various theorems. It was a tough exam at the sophomore level, but mostly because no one could really get the grasp of it. I somehow managed to *tunnel* through the exam, even with a decent grade.
Two years later I attended a class on quantum mechanics. The first lecture the professor said something like: "Quantum mechanics is based on Hamiltonian mechanics, and since you already know it we can proceed quickly". I then timidly raised my hand and said "Er... no one in this room has the faintest idea of what Hamiltonian mechanics is. Yes, we passed the exam two years ago, but really... could you please give us a refresher?". She was astonished, but then agreed to spend a few lectures on Lagrangian and Hamiltonian mechanics. I integrated her lectures with a classic book, and since then those topics have been among my favourites.
The above example is to say that sometimes a tough exam at the beginning is just a *misplaced* exam, because some topics require a certain level of scientific maturity to be properly understood.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: I have travelled a similar path around 1970 asking the same questions transplanted from Italy and studying engineering in New York. My opinion is that the US or UK will actually prepare the student better, maybe at a slightly slower pace but not any less. In the US, classes and Labs are well furnished, with lab time and equipment for each student (or teams) to conduct research. In the US, the real study is Graduate and Pos-Graduate, often students are led by well respected leaders in their fields.
The advantage of the US (and possibly the UK) is a better learning environment, less theoretical, more practical (focused on using what is learned toward problem solving). The student body in the US is much more competitive but everyone benefits from exposure to bright students from around the globe.
Unfortunately, the academic study does not prepare the individual for the next steps, like work in academia or the private sector where it will take not only the learned methodology and skills but your insights and ambition to succeed.
To my surprise I landed on Wall Street, a really competitive environment particularly during the past few decades.
I would personally consider what will come after the course of study and which country (economy) will actually offer the opportunity to pursue a rewarding career, since the contacts made during the course of study can help the direction the career will take.
Upvotes: 3
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2016/02/22
| 454
| 2,004
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<issue_start>username_0: I am going to apply for a visiting research program in Physics. The institute asks for a Curriculum Vitae (a single pdf file) which will provide all my academic background and professional background info, copies of my academic transcripts, and a Statement of Purpose describing my background and explaining why I feel that the program is right one for me.
I have an "ordinary" CV. Now I am a bit confused about how to add all those things into one such CV. Please suggest me how to go about it. If there are some sample documents,please let me know.<issue_comment>username_1: It doesn't sound like they want anything out of the ordinary.
If they do indeed only let you upload a single file then just append all of your documents together. Adobe Acrobat or other common PDF tools can easily do this. I've had to do this before.
It is probably just more convenient for them to have one document per applicant rather than 3-6 documents (CV, SoP, and transcripts from different schools).
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: This sounds like a case of the ambivalent comma to me. In the quote that you provide:
>
> "Please attach here (in PDF format only) your Curriculum Vitae, which will provide all of your Academic Background and Professional Background information, copies of your academic transcripts, and a Statement of Purpose describing your background and explaining why you feel that this is the right program for you".
>
>
>
it is ambiguous whether it should be interpreted as "Curriculum Vitae (which has your background) and copies of your academic transcripts and a Statement of purpose" or as "your CV should have: academic and professional information and copies of your academic transcripts and a Statement of purpose"
The typical practice would be for an institution to be requesting the second, so I would recommend interpreting it in that manner. If they allow you to upload only one PDF, just bundle the documents together into one PDF.
Upvotes: 3
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2016/02/22
| 752
| 3,144
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<issue_start>username_0: I just received some proofs of an accepted paper, for me to review prior to publication. The email from the publication staff included the following paragraph:
>
> It is our policy not to include attributions of figures and tables. If you feel that such citation is necessary in the case of your article, please indicate so when sending your page proof comments and corrections back to us.
>
>
>
(no other relevant context.)
Does anybody know what kind of attribution they are referring to here? I have a hard time imagining some kind of attribution that would ordinarily be appropriate, but could be removed as a matter of policy (ethically).
I'm not going to ask the staff member who sent me the email, because it doesn't apply to my paper anyway. I'm just wondering if anybody here knows.<issue_comment>username_1: While I have not encountered this before, my guess is that the journal has decided to discriminate against non-academic citation (e.g., crediting of image sources per [Creative Commons](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/) licenses).
While I believe that this is improper and unethical, I have encountered worse. I have, in fact, encountered a major journal that refused to allow citation of anything that was not a *journal* article, because that journal's field does not typically have peer-reviewed conferences. To somebody coming in from computer science like myself, this is clearly incorrect and unethical: the editors of the journal, on the other hand, saw themselves as manning the barricades in defense of scientific quality and refusing to allow inadequately peer-reviewed material to infiltrate their publication.
In short: I think this is another case of "academia varies more than people think it does," in this case unfortunately being baked into a journal's policy, and would recommend anyone encountering such a policy to simply make their case as suggested by the policy.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: One plausible meaning for this is citations to specific tables or figures within a paper. Thus, the authors might want to say
>
> there is some disagreement between theory and experiment [5, table 6],
>
>
>
or include a reference like
>
> 5. <NAME>. Disagreement between theory and experiments. *J. Import. Sci. Res.* **1** no. 2, p. 345 (2016). Table 6.
>
>
>
The journal could then restrict those citations, as part of its editorial house style, to a plain citation of the paper in question. This is certainly ethically permissible and it is within the range of what journal editorial styles can enforce.
I personally feel that it would do a disservice to the author, the paper, and the reader, by making it harder to find the referenced information, but equally an argument could be made that it is in the reader's interest to have a streamlined article with less superfluous information (with the chance given to the author to make the case that the specific citation is not superfluous and should remain in the manuscript).
Ultimately, though, to be sure of what the paragraph means you would have to email the journal and ask.
Upvotes: 2
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2016/02/22
| 533
| 2,178
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<issue_start>username_0: Last year, I presented a poster at a major conference.
My lab didn't have the money to send me, so I applied for and received an undergraduate travel grant from my university's office of undergraduate affairs.
Is this a relevant and/or important thing to list on my resume for future scholarships and grad apps?<issue_comment>username_1: At the position of *applying to graduate school* (judged based on your tags), I would say you should include it.
But there's a basic issue. There's several axes to consider:
1. Internal / External
2. Integral to your program / Separate Application
3. Merit / Need
4. Competitive / Non-Competitive
5. Prestigious / Unknown
Based on what you're saying, this sounds like an internal, separate grant.
If it is competitive to get (as in you received it because you had a higher GPA or better proposal), then you should mention that -- preferably with an indication of how competitive (10% acceptance rate, etc.). If it's not competitive, then don't mention that (and for the same reason, don't make it prominent in your CV especially as your career advances).
Similarly, if it's need based rather than merit based, then that's not really a recommendation of you and your ability per se. So don't write 'Received Need-based grant'
Also, depending on your field, you may want to include the dollar amount.
tl;dr -- at the graduate school application phase, include it -- and include any positive details: explain if it is competitive, external to your program (even if internal to you institution), merit-based. Do not include details that detract from its value: need-based, really high acceptance rate, non-competitive, integral to current program.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: Giving a poster talk at a major conference is certainly important in your CV. If the travel grant to go to the conference was based on academic excellence, then it should also be included in the CV. If it was a lottery, or based on non-academic merits it might be irrelevant. Nevertheless, even in the latter case, it doesn't harm to put it on your CV as it shows some initiative and dedication.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]
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2016/02/23
| 5,855
| 24,624
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<issue_start>username_0: I got a surprising email from the department chair today, saying that one student has made a complaint against me. It seems that one of my weaker students felt that my tone in an office hour was mocking, and felt uncomfortable because of it.
I have not yet heard the details of the incident. So I have no idea who this student is (I'm teaching several hundred students this semester), or what it was that I actually said. I'll arrange a meeting with the chair soon to figure out the details. As far as I remember, I have never been angry or annoyed with a student, and I can't even begin to guess at the particular incident.
Nonetheless, I can't help but feel hurt and defensive at this allegation. I have received a prestigious teaching award just a couple of years ago, and my teaching evaluations have always been stellar. In fact, I have never received a negative feedback from students until now. Furthermore, the one common thing that all students have said is the fact that I'm very friendly and approachable.
I can feel it in my current classes that I'm teaching well, because multiple students who are enrolled in other sections show up to my 8am classes (I regularly have my classroom overflowing, and students often have to stand or sit in the floor to listen to my lectures), and I've gotten the students to a point where they feel comfortable asking even trivial questions in class (I feel that the majority of students are unafraid to speak up when they're confused about something, etc.)
So I feel that this student must have some sort of a personal grudge against me (midterms were just handed back last week), and decided to elevate this to a never-experienced-before level.
And even more hurtful is that my colleagues might start viewing me as a cruel person who mocks the weaker students.
I'd like to fight this allegation to the end to prove my innocence, and I'm not sure what the right way to do this is. Obviously, I realize that despite all this, I'm still in the position of power, and that I need to be very careful not to make this student feel retaliated or singled out (that is not my intention at all; I just want to prove beyond any doubt that I am a competent professor and a good person). So I am thinking of offering to do the following:
* disclose all of my teaching evaluations that I have received from the beginning of my teaching career
* offer to have representatives from the department visit my classes/office hours to see the kind of environment I have created for my students
* offer to make recordings of all of my classes/office hours and other interactions with students
* offer to conduct a mid-year teaching review/survey from my students, collecting anonymous comments to see if I am indeed unconsciously being thoughtless towards the weaker students
* I did have a couple of students be very rude to me over emails; although I was courteous towards them in my responses, I wonder if the complaint came from one of them. Thus, gather all offensive emails that came from the students and give this information to the chair, to see if he can check if the complaint came from one of them
My question to you is, what else can I do to get myself completely acquitted from these allegations, while staying professional? I think that maybe I'm overreacting a bit, but I also don't want to let the students walk all over me in such a fashion, especially if the allegation turns out to be unwarranted or false. I am quite young (younger than some of the TA's that work for me, actually...) and sometimes do have these authority issues in the classroom, where students see me as their equal.
**Update:** I met with the chair to figure out exactly what the complaint was about. It seems that the student (who I remember to be completely lost) did not like that I was not giving out answers (I conduct my office hours by posing small step-by-step questions for my students, and never give out direct answers, instead guiding them to the answer), and that I smiled while he felt lost in my office hour(!!). I expressed my regrets at the misunderstanding, and the rest of the chat consisted of the chair saying encouraging things to me, and that I should continue what I am doing with my students. I do not plan on changing anything, but it is still upsetting to me that students can just fling off these wild allegations, though. Anyway, thank you for your overwhelming support.<issue_comment>username_1: First: No matter what you do, you will get some complaints, especially if you deal with large student populations. That's simply impossible to avoid. Your institution will probably have some formal requirements for dealing with such complaints, and your chairperson is compelled to follow through with those.
The practical response is going to depend on your department chair and institutional environment. Hopefully your chair is someone who weighs your prior excellent track record, and gives you the benefit of the doubt (student complaint has burden of proof for any action). This has been my experience, but I've heard from people in other situations where the reverse may be true (e.g., institutions where there is no department chair, or maybe a Dean or Provost of particular persuasion). Probably the face-to-face with the chair will make this clear, and your word will be taken at face value, and that can be the end (barring some kind of hard evidence on the part of the student).
One thing I would point out is that if this or any other case veers into accusations of sexual misconduct, then you have to be very careful indeed. If you are part of a union in the U.S., then you have an ironclad right to have union representation during any investigatory interview (see: [Weingarten Rights](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weingarten_Rights)). The advice I've received is that if anyone from a potentially unfriendly bureau asks for an interview about a student complaint (e.g., in my case, certain places outside the academic department), definitely say that you'll want union representation with you; in some cases the requested interview is then called off. Also I have colleagues who only meet with students with the office door open, or within the department office where they have witnesses at all times.
Hopefully you have a reasonably supportive chair/department, and if your experience matches mine then likely you'll have a 2 minute discussion of your side and it will be over at that point (and none of the prior paragraph will be necessary). But be aware that there will be occasional unjustified complaints from upset students over any otherwise long and successful career.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: Sorry to hear that and calm down. I think the suggested approach is destructive and will only serve to highlight the property of being overly sensitive, defensive, and irritable.
First, this is a small complaint possibly caused by miscommunication. It's not serious charges such as assault or sexual harassment. Miscommunications happen even we aren't intended to, and it's a two-way process. Even you are 100% communicating well, the other may still misunderstand. If you're upholding your best friendly behavior you claimed that was loved by the other students, then you're doing something that is right for most but one student. The effort you'd need to put to prove the you're innocent and the output of nullifying that accusation don't look like balanced to me.
Second, don't care too much about how other lecturers view you on this issue. First, you found this out because it's reported. But how do you know if the same rumor has not been spread to everyone informally? A sensible well-educated adult (like, I hope, your colleagues) does not usually just believe or even propagate unsupported claims. Sensible students do not just skip taking your class because they heard that you mock people. Instead, they'd look at the publicly available evaluation reports and know that you are a decent teacher.
Third, just re-read your own question. The department head has not claimed that the complaint is from a weaker student, and you also have no proof that the rude e-mail senders had any motivation to taint your reputation, and yet the stereotypes, extrapolations, and unsupported claims in your post are immense. This is not to say I think you're a bad teacher, I want to point out that you may not be as objective and just as you may want to believe. And the past successes in teaching might indeed have biased how you see your teaching self.
Fourth, good records imply one is less likely to have committed wrongdoing. Good records do not guarantee no wrongdoing. Piling up all these positive records only serve to prove that you're not likely to mock people, but anyone can also ask "so what?" and you'll be left speechless. What if they think you have become too confident and full of yourself? What if there are other what ifs?
I have only taught for 10 years so I can't say I am very experienced, but one thing I learn is that just by random distribution some students are bound to dislike me, but deep down I know I learned my subjects, I am passionate about teaching them, I made reasonable teaching goals and make sure to best facilitate my students to get there, I am open to new evidence-based teaching methods and experiment, I yell "Okay class, let's start!" happily in every class. I am happy. A couple "neutral" or "disagree" in my course evaluation? A couple complaints about me being condescending, or annoying, or not pronouncing English 100% right? I'd reflect on them and see if I can improve, but I will not let them drag on; there are just too many other more important tasks to attend to.
My suggested approach is to present your record to your department chair and express your confusion about this comment. Escalating it may draw even more attention than it is now. (But I do agree that some of your measures such as peer observation will be a good learning activity among faculty.) Ask for his/her advice on how to deal with abnormal evaluation or complaint like this in future. I'd guarantee any experienced teacher (including your department head, I bet) will say something along the line of "We've all been there." If he/she becomes very negative about this one complaint and ignores all your past positive records, then you probably should evaluate if this environment will allow you to thrive.
However it turns out, I hope you and the said student will find peace and understanding soon. Remember to chill, and good luck.
Upvotes: 8 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: I think you've already worried far too much about this.
Malcontents are a fact of life and whining is often their ultimate revenge against the competent simply for being competent, never-mind stellar. While it is reasonable for you not to immediately dismiss these complaints in your own mind - pondering if anything might have any validity however exaggerated by the student, it is not constructive to dwell on it too much. Life is too short already.
The praise others and recognition by them of our efforts and accomplishments is a spice of life, but it is not a nutritious meal for the soul. The locus of our identity should be within ourselves, not external and beyond our control. That is to say: We should **NEVER** outsource our own happiness. Sometimes we will be castigated for doing the right thing or merely for being an ethical person. That or the envy of others owing to one's own excellence is no reason to retreat from excellence or from what you love to do.
Unless there is something more that comes out during your meeting with the department chair, all you really need to do is point out your previous performance and student reviews. (And abib abib... That's all Folks!)
Do be prepared - mostly emotionally. If a third party you are not expecting is in attendance when you meet with the department chair, especially the dean, a university attorney, or someone from Human Resources; ask immediately, firmly, but without defensiveness **WHY** they are there. And if it is indicated to you that there is more to the complaint, then just matter-of-factly ask them to get it out in the open directly and if it is a more serious accusation (like sexual harassment) calmly and **IMMEDIATELY** state on the record that you deny (assuming that is the truth otherwise the issue is out of my league) this and ask for any information you need so that you can present your side of the story. I'm not trying to scare you. Probably nothing like this will happen because if that were in the complaint I think you would have had this conversation already.
But in such a situation you want to neither appear reluctant (easy if they say something that shocks you) nor defensive - just matter-of-fact, direct, to-the-point, no repetition of account.
If all there is to this is what you have already been told (likely I believe) then you don't want to come across as having fretted too much about this.
And for goodness sake, don't spend any more time worrying - especially over things you have no control.
Good luck to you.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: Unpleasant people are best handled via a low-pass filter. You give things a long delay, and significant time to build up and do not act on short-duration events. More opportunities for them to make mistakes. If it's an irrelevant blip, or simply a momentary outburst of disgruntledness, it will pass, and people, including themselves, will forget. As Fontane said: "Happiness is a strong stomach and a bad memory."
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_5: I agree that you're over-reacting, and I think once the shock wears off and you take it a bit easier you'll see for yourself what's wrong here.
It's definitely *not* professional to prepare your defence before you even know what you're accused of. Just because you have an award, and almost all your students like you, doesn't prove you're infallible and doesn't prove you didn't do this one thing wrong that's been complained about. You're not accused of *always* being wrong or of being a certain kind of person, you're accused of *one incident*. If you act as though your general good character proves you innocent of a single incident, then you would be presenting yourself as arrogant, entitled and, frankly, clueless.
So don't go in with the attitude that "I don't know what it is you think I did wrong, but I've never done anything wrong in my life and I can prove that because most people like me". Don't think, "I'd like to fight this allegation to the end to prove my innocence" before you even know whether you're innocent or not.
Instead, listen to the complaint.
It's possible the incident is *completely* invented (in which case perhaps you can call *specific* witnesses who were present in the same class it was alleged to happen, rather than *general* testimony that you're a good teacher). More likely something happened that you thought at the time was fine (perhaps even still think is fine) but the student didn't like. In which case you can probably apologise, learn the lesson that not everyone likes it, and move on. If a student feels mocked or belittled, then chances are what they need to know is that you respect them and that making them feel otherwise was a mistake. That is the professional thing to do, but unfortunately you can't start doing it until you know the details, and you don't know the details yet.
For example, if your friendly and approachable style includes a certain amount of joking around, you have to be prepared for the possibility that not everyone likes being joked around, and it's possible that you did mock something they did or said. That would be fine if they thought it was funny, not so much if they didn't, which is out of your control. And just because someone laughs at the time doesn't mean they really enjoyed it -- people try to cover embarrassment or discomfort. So having separate feedback outside the class is helpful to you, to learn things you otherwise can't, it's just a shame that it's coming in the form of a complaint.
If you go in assuming you did some small thing wrong, you'll be pleasantly surprised if you didn't, or if you did but you can make amends. If you go in assuming that a person with good teaching evaluations cannot possibly have done anything wrong, then you'll get a nasty shock because others disagree.
Try *very hard* not to form a picture in your mind of your accuser or what you're accused of, because if you go in with pre-conceptions then you will naturally project them onto the actual situation. You think that it's probably a student with a grudge? Well, then when you find out about the incident you'll *see* a grudge instead of seeing a genuine complaint. Think it was probably a weaker student? Then you'll *see* an idiot and dismiss their opinions. The professional thing is to control that urge.
In effect, your professional responsibility between now and the meeting with the chair, is to do nothing and think nothing. That's really hard, but there it is.
>
> even more hurtful is that my colleagues might start viewing me as a
> cruel person who mocks the weaker students.
>
>
>
That would be bad, but it's unlikely that a single minor incident, handled in confidence and settled to the satisfaction of whoever is in charge, will get you that reputation. Again, this is not about what kind of person you are, it's about one incident. And it'd still better than them viewing you as a cruel person who mocks the weak, refuses to accept even the possibility of being wrong, and keeps an exhaustive defence argument ready to go at a moment's notice.
Don't let your (natural, understandable) worry over the accusation, turn you into an even worse person than what you're worried you might be accused of.
Short version:
1. Try to remain calm. This is not a major incident until your boss says it is.
2. Prepare yourself in the expectation that you've done some (relatively) small thing wrong.
3. Don't guess what the complaint is or anything about the person who made it.
4. Go to the meeting, find out what's wrong.
5. Do whatever you can to fix the problem once you find out.
>
> From past experiences (with cheating) I know that students almost
> always win ... [we should require] the students to prove that the
> professor indeed acted in a problematic way
>
>
>
Be wary of confirmation and selection biases, and be sure to remember in future that your past experiences now include this case, which was settled to your satisfaction. There doesn't need to be a cast-iron case against you before you're even asked for your account of what happened. Are you really saying that in past cases where you raised concerns of cheating that in the end were not proved, that you should not even have been permitted to raise the concern for further investigation until you'd assembled a convincing proof? And that's with you in a position of some authority and with access to the student's work. A student is not the right person to have to put their sleuthing shoes on and assemble all the evidence in the case: your chair is.
In your case there was no proof of wrongdoing and you were not punished. You shouldn't see that as a *failure* to apply a "beyond reasonable doubt" or other standard of proof. It's a success, the system worked. Generally speaking there should *not* be a standard of proof for students to even raise concerns, because if there were then students would be unable to get help establishing the evidence when they genuinely have been wronged. At this stage of proceedings it's an inquisitorial not an adversarial system. Even in a serious case that moves to an adversarial venue, the student is not the prosecuting attorney and isn't responsible for proving the case.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_6: Everyone here had excellent responses. Let me just put it more concisely: **the student has the right to complaint about whatever he/she likes to.
And you have the right to simply *ignore it*.**
(By the way, it is your right to have a general mocking tone. As long as it is not mocking on personal basis, you are entitled to your own style. (I personally don't like mocking tones, but I also don't like people who wear, e.g. sandals. That's a matter of taste.))
---
*Edit clarification:*
Mocking on a personal basis is not okay. But here the student seems to claim something else: "a mocking tone". This can be interpreted as the student trying to formalize his/her discontent with the professor into concrete allegations. Since the professor did not mock him/her, the student allegedly has decided to base his accusations on something that is subjective or vague: a "general mocking **tone**"; which can in fact refer to many things.
My claim is that a tone alone cannot be a justifiable basis for a formal complaint.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_7: I'm not an academic, but I am a professional. You need to handle this professionally. What is the primary difference between a professional and an amateur? Well, okay, aside from the amount of time invested... It's discipline!
**Professionals are disciplined**. The approach you're taking is anything but disciplined. To be perfectly frank, you're kind of freaking out a little. I'll grant that it's better to freak out to US than to your department chair or the student, but it's best to remain rational the entire time.
You need to do three simple things:
**1.** **Get the facts.** Don't make any plans until you understand what you're being accused of, what the student wants done about it, etc. You seem to be assuming the worst, but honestly if it was seriously bad, you would already be in meetings to get to the bottom of it. But you're not, so it can't be that bad...
**2.** **Accept that you were wrong.** "Wrong?!" you're thinking. "I've done nothing wrong!" Well that can't be true or this complaint wouldn't have happened, logically. Just view this as a way to improve. What if you've been doing something that has been making students feel uncomfortable for years and you didn't know because they all just never said anything? Wouldn't you want to fix that?
**3.** **Move past this.** It's a small bump in what appears to be a road filled with accolades. Use this to influence both how you handle criticism in the future and how you interact with your students.
One last comment: your post seems to be an awful lot about you. You weren't the one who felt uncomfortable. Don't make this about you. This is about them. **Keep it about them.** If your passion for making a positive impact on students lives is as true as your post makes it out to be, you'll make sure you keep this one about the student that (for whatever reason, whether it's reasonable or not) felt you had a negative impact on theirs. You're the only one who can turn it around for them!
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_8: I agree with the answers that say you should stop worrying so much. You're planning to meet with the department chair to find out what's going on. You might well find out that nothing is going on. Perhaps the chair knows perfectly well that you're a great teacher but some university policy requires him/her to inform you when there's a complaint. Many years ago, I was the associate chair in charge of handling complaints about faculty; how I handled them depended on what I already knew about the person's teaching. A known problem teacher got a visit from me immediately after a complaint; a known excellent teacher never even knew that there was a complaint --- I wasn't going to bother him about one student's complaint, and there was no policy requiring me to bother him. Of course, if I got more complaints about the excellent teacher, then I'd have to do something (and revise my opinion about his excellence), but there were no more complaints about him. Your department chair may well have a similar attitude; the message you get when you meet with him/her may well be the same message you're getting here: Don't worry about it.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_9: >
> I smiled while he felt lost in my office hour.... I do not plan on changing anything.
>
>
>
Students are sometimes quite vulnerable. Sometimes we make things worse for them, unintentionally. That doesn't make us a bad person -- unless we don't allow ourselves to feel any empathy.
Have you thought about utilizing mentorship and other university resources for honing and fine-tuning your teaching skills?
We *all* have room for improvement.
Upvotes: 1
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2016/02/23
| 549
| 2,235
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<issue_start>username_0: I'm a doctoral candidate in Biomedical Engineering. I've finished my coursework and I'm in my first year of PhD research currently - I had 3 more yrs. to graduate. My PhD adviser has decided to move to another university (50 places lower-ranked). I will not need to be a TA after the move, and can fully concentrate on my research, a perk offered by my adviser.
Setting up the equipment all over at the new place will cost me 6 months. But since I can concentrate only on my research, I am expecting I will make up for it.
In my current university, there is no other adviser working in the same field as my current adviser. If I choose to find a new adviser at my current university, I may spend an yr. extra, learning about the new subject area. I will also have TA duties all throughout, which will ultimately push back my expected graduation date by at least 1.5 yrs.
I am unable to decide between
1. a more valuable peer group at the current university (better overall experience and exchange of ideas) and
2. earlier graduation possible at the new university.
Please share your advise and help me decide (I see the benefit of extra 1.5 yrs. towards post-doctoral experience, but I may be missing something).<issue_comment>username_1: Based on your description about your new situation I would like to suggest moving. Ihe cons of moving clearly outweights by the pros. 6 months is good enough against a 1.5 years delay.
And your risking also on losing a good adviser which far more important than a university you are in.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: Having a good advisor and working on a subject you're interested in are the most important things during a PhD in my opinion. I've seen many fail because they were fed up or just didn't click with there advisor for whatever reason.
Also consider your long term goals. If you moved, set up a new lab and worked closely with your advisor for the next few years, could that be the beginning of a research group at the new university, which you could be a part of? Otherwise if you're looking to move out of academia afterwards, does either university have partnerships or close contact with employers that you'd be interested in?
Upvotes: 3
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2016/02/23
| 2,743
| 11,772
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<issue_start>username_0: [This article](http://www.browndailyherald.com/2016/02/18/schoolwork-advocacy-place-strain-on-student-activists/) from the Brown University Daily Herald describes a number of student activists who claim to have suffered due to excess levels of student activism. Some excerpts from the article are included:
>
> “There are people breaking down, dropping out of classes and failing classes because of the activism work they are taking on,” said David, an undergraduate whose name has been changed to preserve anonymity. Throughout the year, he has worked to confront issues of racism and diversity on campus.
>
>
>
[...]
>
> Sampedro worked alongside the group that presented the demands for the diversity and inclusion action plan’s revision. It was a Thursday, she recalled, and she had a research presentation that needed to be completed that week. “I remember emailing the professor and begging her to put things off another week,” she said. The professor denied her request.
>
>
> “I hadn’t eaten. I hadn’t slept. I was exhausted, physically and emotionally,” she said. After hours of work to compile and present the demands, she forced herself to stay up to complete the project anyway.
>
>
>
[...] (emphasis mine)
>
> Deans’ notes helped Gaines to complete academic work while staying involved in student activism.
>
>
> In writing such notes, deans acknowledge the difficulties faced by a student on campus and demonstrate their support for the student’s requests, said <NAME>, assistant dean of student support services.
>
>
> Though it is ultimately up to a faculty member to accept a dean’s note, Ferranti estimated that notes are accepted over **90 percent of the time**. Students who take issue with the rejection of a note can discuss the incident with a dean, Ferranti added.
>
>
>
I was under the impression from my personal experience that extension of deadlines are generally only awarded for reasons such as personal illness or family issues such as divorce, death, or serious illness.
As professors, is it generally considered acceptable to provide deadline extensions or other accommodations to students who have fallen behind on their coursework due to their involvement with activism?<issue_comment>username_1: Much would depend on the concrete situation. But, by default, I would think that activism is part of student's life that the student needs to learn to manage themselves; if they do not have the resources or ability to manage their activism effectively so as not to have them interfere with their studies, then, largely, I would consider this to be their responsibility. One would probably not see any concessions given for extracurricular sports/music activity, and the question is why political activism should be exempt.
Some may argue that political activism is important as a part of society and therefore of a higher rank than, say, sports or music, but how this is evaluated would probably depend on whose side of the activism one sees oneself.
That being said, times which are more tolerant of studies as an opportunity for character development would probably give more leeway to activism, while times (such as ours) where studies would be considered more a means to an end (development of employment skills) would probably be less tolerant. I would see the former as an ideal of times past, but the latter as the reality today.
Upvotes: 7 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Another issue is that it is difficult for the professor to evaluate the level of engagement of the student. Some activists are working long and hard on noble causes; it would be easy for a lazy student to show up for the parties to get an extension.
The personal opinion of the professor in the matter may also influence the results. So, someone may decide that racism is a worthy cause of a week of extension, but the same effort for gender equality (or the welfare of the campus' trees) is not.
As username_1 says, time management is one of the things you should learn at University, and if delaying the deadline a week would have made it possible, they could also have postponed their activities for one week, after doing the assignment.
So, all in all, I believe most cases don't merit special dispensations, and if a student believes something does (for example, participation on an event with fixed date), it should be requested in advance, so that the student can act on a rejection, show they aren't just running out of time, and arrange what would be s suitable proof if the professor requires it. This also gives time for the professor to rearrange the schedule, as they may have been planning to, for example, go through the solutions of the problems once they were handed in.
Finally: some of my friends were very active in different activist movements (and me too, to a lesser degree), at times, to great personal sacrifice; and yet no one of us ever thought to be entitled to any special treatment for this.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: Lots of good and lengthy answers here: put concisely **the answer is a resounding no**.
A huge benefit of choosing to do something extracurricular in college is learning the consequences of failing to balance responsibilities. By giving extensions to a student that chooses to spend time doing something outside of coursework, you fail to help them find this balance.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_4: It is up to the professor's discretion whether or not this is a reasonable justification for an extension.
Ideally, said professor has already outlined the criteria they will accept for academic extensions - usually as you said, serious family issues and illness/death - but individual cases should come down to the professor's own discretion.
This may seem a petty way of handling a situation, but a professor cannot be expected to anticipate all possible reasons for a student to request an extension, and when a student comes to them asking for one, it is up to that professor's judgment whether one is justified or not.
Some professors are more lenient and will allow for occasional (or frequent!) extensions on personal matters, others are strict and will not allow any extensions past due dates (professors typically lay out the exact time each assignment and exam is due on the first day of class, so that there is no question whether or not the student should have been prepared for the exam/due date).
For this particular case, professors may handle it differently - some more lenient than others - and that's perfectly acceptable. It is a personal matter, and unless the academic body itself has a policy on such events (which the professor *should definitely adhere to if one exists*) then it falls upon them to decide, based on the circumstances of an individual event.
That being said, a dean's letter would certainly override a professor's decision. But this does not invalidate the professor, nor does it mean they should necessarily excuse students in the future for similar reasons (unless said letter has explicit instructions to do so). This just means the individual student has sought a specific exception to this rule, and got one.
**Important Exception**
That being said, if *many* students request such an extension, it may be in the best interest of the professor to offer one - the nature of today's socio-political society makes it very dangerous to take on students, especially a large body of students, on moral grounds. And for the sake of the professor's academic career, they should consider picking their battles carefully.
This is not to say that students are justified in choosing to fight a professor on their deadlines (in fact they are probably not if all the above laid out facts are true) but that the professor, unfortunately, will probably not be able to force these students to accept their deadline, and should not sacrifice their position for it.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: I try to always spell things out like this in my syllabus, and I would hope others do, too. For me, I would excuse a small number of minor things, so long as warning is given in advance, but it wouldn't be a valid excuse on a test or especially major assignment.
I don't have a specific clause for activism, nor have I gotten excuses from that activity, but I've given leeway for other legitimate student activities (sports, coding camps, etc.) and this would be no different.
Other teachers in my department would feel differently, not giving excuses for anything but medical or religious leave, but the point is that this is spelled out in advance, which is the only way it ever should be. Students should understand the consequences of their choices and be bound by them.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_6: I would like to offer an alternative, possibly unpopular answer: **professors should try to err on the side of making accommodations for extracurricular activities.** This includes allowing extensions for student activists when the requests are reasonable.
Of course academic work should always be students' first priority. However, for better or worse, colleges and universities in the United States are not exclusively academic institutions. Universities frequently promote themselves as offering students the opportunity to learn and develop in and out of the classroom, and many students feel that success in college depends extracurricular activities in addition to academic performance. This may frustrate professors, but it isn't entirely baseless; post-graduate success may result from extracurricular involvement such as internships, volunteer experience and yes, activism.
None of this is to say that students should focus exclusively on extracurriculars. If a student is consistently incapable of completing coursework due to nonacademic obligations, they should either scale back their competing interests or suffer the academic consequences. However, in the event that a student requests a short extension because they are organizing a protest, playing a concert, training for a big game, or completing a task for their job or internship, I believe the request should be granted (provided it does not seriously inconvenience the instructor or disadvantage other students). After all, even a student who seriously prioritizes academics and manages their time excellently will experience an occasional deadline conflict and time crunch.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_7: Student activism would not be something that I would normally grant an extension for. If however, my Dean asked me to grant an extension (either for an individual student or the entire class), I think I would side with my Dean well over 90% of the time. If the Dean made a habit of "interfering" I would likely talk to my Department Chair and complain. I would also consider making a "letter from the Dean" an official avenue of getting an extension similar to a "letter from the doctor".
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_8: Having attended Brown (long ago, but still...) I am not the least bit surprised. That school has a long history of considering diversity and activism (both) as more important than scholarship. Though, as I recall, in the late 80's <NAME> was expelled from there "for academic reasons," specifically because she had spent too much time in jail and not enough in class, as a result of her activism. Today, she would be more likely to receive a special President's award.
So, it certainly depends on the School. I doubt the same consideration would apply to a student at [RPI](http://rpi.edu), for example.
*I added this "answer" because I believe it is an important bit of context that was missing from the discussion.*
Upvotes: -1
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2016/02/23
| 879
| 3,887
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<issue_start>username_0: What if I conduct a study and suggest a hypothesis to test but later find out that this hypothesis was already tested before in a different industry/country. Can I still continue? In other words, is there such a thing as plagiarism in stating the same hypotheses?
I find it a burden to go and check the web for every hypothesis I write to see if someone else tested it before. Even though I am sure there are some common hypotheses and studies (like: customer loyalty leads to customer retention, albeit in different industries and/or countries) but I still have doubts.<issue_comment>username_1: To begin with, it's not plagiarism if you properly cite your sources. There's absolutely nothing wrong with many people testing one hypothesis many times - in fact, an important part of good science is that it *can* be replicated. Just do a reasonable literature search for similar studies first, and cite the relevant literature. It would be wrong to pretend that you're the first to posit a link between smoking and lung cancer, for example, but it's perfectly fine cite other studies on the matter and then confirm or refute them with your own study.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: If you want to present science as new, it has to be new. If the setting is sufficiently different, then you can present it as new, but you still need to cite the research that took part in other countries.
For example, if there has been research in the relation between air quality and chocolate consumption in Canada, nothing stops you from performing the same research in India. But you should still cite the Canadian team.
Plagiarism is when you present work as your own, whereas in reality you took it from somewhere else. If you inadvertently repeat research that has been carried out before, your work may be rejected for publication for not citing previous work properly, but it's not plagiarism.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: I think you have a big misconception of what plagiarism is. Passing other people's work as your own is plagiarism; doing something and later discover that it was done before is not. It is not even unethical.
The worst case is that your work is rendered redundant, but this depends on how different your settings and results are.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_4: It is not only perfectly acceptable, but also encouraged in some fields. For example, some social sciences like Sociology and Demography, which study phenomena that are contingent on the characteristics of the country where the data come from, value studies of a new country case.
Depending on your field and topic, you may even be able to motivate your study precisely because it is conducted in a different country than the previous ones.
Edit: as indigochild suggested in the comments, it is important to note that the new case has to add some value. For example, you can motivate your study by saying that your new country case has a certain characteristic that is relevant to the theory being developed, but that has not been studied in the extant case studies.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: If testing the same hypothesis again is plagiarism, then the reproducible science folks are in trouble.
You seem to have a very flawed notion of what plagiarism is - it's the wholesale copying of writing without attributing it to a source. What it isn't is performing the same experiment in a different setting.
Not only can you continue, but you should. Testing the same hypothesis in a different population helps to uncover the variability of the effect, its generalizability, etc. Testing the same hypothesis in different settings is *good research*. In some fields, this is even recognized as important enough that "Someone else did this elsewhere" isn't even particularly grounds to consider your work not important.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]
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2016/02/23
| 2,765
| 11,886
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<issue_start>username_0: I would like to start publishing scientific papers soon. This issue pertains to the name I will use when publishing.
Basically, I would like to keep my personal and academic life separate and my question is "how can I do this?".
To make it clearer why I want to do this, I'll mention that my current legal name is associated with a certain subculture which is quite unconventional. I want people searching/Googling my professional name to only be exposed to my "academic identity", and people searching for my legal name to only be exposed to my "social identity". There is nothing illegal going on. I'll give an example which is close to reality but I'll refrain from giving exact information. The example is that my "social identity" is an author of erotic novels while my "academic identity" writes papers in mathematics. That's not too far from the reality.
I would assume I am not the first one to have unconventional interests outside academia, the issue I guess is that my legal name is already tied to such an interest, which is a problem. And yes, this is quite amusing; feel free to laugh
I would be thankful for any ideas which would allow me to fulfill both my passions, despite their disharmony.
Basically, I don't want the names to mix together when someone searches for one of them, but I still want to be able to prove that I wrote the papers (in case I want to use them when applying for a job or for grad school). Hopefully there is some way to achieve this.
Other creative ideas to solve this issue are always welcome; maybe I am focusing too much on the name thing and there are other solutions.
I'll wrap this up with some ideas that I had:
* I could just use a pen name for my academic papers I guess. I have finished my BSc lately. Problem here is that if I later want to apply to grad school, and I want to show that I have published papers, it could be hard to prove that I have written them (will it? maybe I'll have a pen-name on the papers but prove ownership by other means? like the email address on the paper?).
* I could use a different spelling of my legal name on the papers (my legal name is not in English anyway, though I graduated from an English speaking university so my BSc has my name in English). That seems like they could still be linked relatively easily though and one could potentially show up when someone Googles the other name.
* I could take on a new middle name (e.g. I could use a variation of my late grandfather's name, which I would gladly do) and use that as the first name in published papers (that seems like it could potentially work).
Some more comments
* My last name is very common; my first name is very uncommon
* I am aware of course that if I go to grad school they'll probably Google my legal name as well, and of course people who know me personally would be aware of what I do. It would be nice to limit it to those scenarios though.
* Yes, I know I should have thought of this before linking my legal name to unconventional topics. I did not tell the whole story though and there was a reason for that.<issue_comment>username_1: Generally speaking, it is possible to use a "pen name" for academic writing, or really for your entire academic career. I think using a different last name would be considered somewhat strange, but assuming your last name is common enough not to be an issue ("Smith") you could easily just use "<NAME>" rather than "<NAME>" for all your academic affairs (except official statements) without raising too many eyebrows. This should largely alleviate your immediate problems, as long as your "unconventional topics" are not also linked to your face (if it is - think porn starlet - your problems are bigger; in this case I would suggest dropping all hopes of keeping it a secret for any amount of time and being super upfront with your past / side project).
However, be prepared that it's likely going to be a leaky secret anyway. Using a vastly different first name will divert the casual name googler and your random conference acquaintance, but I would assume your cohort in grad school is going to find out at some point. There just are places where you pretty much *need* to use your legal name, such as some forms. And once a few persons know, the message is going to spread with a speed proportional to how raunchy your secret is. Another problem is going to be that the places where you maybe would *really* want to keep things secret, such as grad school or job applications, are also the ones where you sooner or later really need to use your legal name. In that sense I am wondering how much you will actually win by using an academic pen name.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: How much effort you put in differentiating your social identity to your academic identity they will still be connected by the people around you. I think you could just accept the reality and embrace your weakness and make it your strenght.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: Here are a few considerations:
Using a common name in place of a unique name will look unusual, since people who choose to publish under a variant of their name typically go in the other direction, to make it easier to identify their papers. Everyone who learns about this will assume you either made an unwise decision about which variant to use, are trying to avoid prejudice based on your name, or are trying to disguise your identity. In any case this change may attract attention, which is the opposite of what you want.
To separate your identities, you need to use your professional name in all professional contexts. I.e., your university web page should use it, your colleagues should call you by this name, you should use it when you give talks or attend conferences, etc. To have a successful academic career involving research you need to develop a scholarly reputation, and that can't happen unless everyone connects you with your publications. That means either they connect the two identities or they know you under the name from your publications. (In particular, it's not enough for you to be able to prove that you are the author. In order for you to have a successful career, in the long run everyone must already know you are the author. This is not such a big issue for graduate school applications, but it's a major factor in getting tenure.)
I wouldn't worry too much about proof of authorship. This is not so easy to determine from the name anyway: even if you published your under full legal name, how would anyone know you weren't claiming papers that were written by someone else with the same name? One big clue is your letters of recommendation. If the letter writers discuss your papers, then everything will be fine. (While if they don't discuss your papers, then that's a problem regardless of the authorship issue.) At that point all you need to do is include a sentence in your publication list saying "My publications are under the name X." You don't need to explain why, just to clarify the facts so nobody is confused.
Once you have started publishing, substantially changing the name you publish under is highly disruptive. It can be done if necessary, but it may hurt your career by fragmenting your reputation, and the only way to combat this is by loudly and publicly connecting the two names. This means you should try your best now to choose a variant of your name that you would be happy using for the rest of your career.
It's worth thinking about whether you need to do this. In my experience, academia is tolerant of eccentricity and impressed by confidence. If you treat this situation like it's no big deal, then I'd guess that most people will ignore it and anyone who tries to gossip about it will risk looking provincial or small-minded. However, this of course could depend on the details of your situation. (And there's also the issue of students: first-year university students are on average quite a bit less mature than faculty.)
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: Do you have a middle name? There are precedents for initializing away your first name. May look a bit pretentious, but not that terrible.
So if your real name is <NAME>, and your unconventional community knows you as <NAME>, start going by <NAME> in your papers. It is not a complete change, so it will cause less people to go look you up than if you had started to publish as <NAME>.
Similarly, if you have another type of name which is *not* a middle name, you can take it up even if the convention in your country makes it weird. AFAIK, a Spanish man <NAME> would consider "<NAME>" the proper name to put on a scientific paper - you could use "Urbano Ventura" instead, even though it goes against tradition. A patronym from some Slavic countries would work too, if it is not reserved for other purposes like a Russian patronym.
In the end, if you only have a first name and only a surname in your passport, invent a middle name and you can still use the initialized version. If your first name is Avdo and the last one Rian, write <NAME> on the paper and tell your coauthors you are really <NAME>. If they know about your hobby, they will probably understand. If they don't, you could make up some story, or tell them the truth. Or just refuse an explanation - they will think you pompous and excentric, but you may feel better with that than either risking being exposed as a liar, or having your coauthors know your true hobby.
If you go the "middle name" way, you may want to start introducing you by middle name - surname at conferences too, so the community will get to know you under that name. If somebody overhears a close colleague calling you by your first name and asks why, the explanation that one of them is the first name and the other your middle name will be enough.
And in the end, having your hobby known may not be all that problematic, depending on the discipline you publish and the exact nature of the hobby. Scientists tend to be broad minded people socially, and especially the less traditional disciplines can easily accept something which a young person might be afraid to share with professional contacts. You might want to ask people who know you, are outside of your community, if they would advise you to try to hide your hobby. Also note that as a scientist, other scientists are more likely to search for your name in specialized databases like Pubmed or DBLP than just type it into Google.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: More of a comment but too long.
**I don't get it.**
If it's okay to use the legal name among your colleagues:
>
> they'll probably Google my legal name as well, and of course people
> who know me personally would be aware of what I do. It would be nice
> to limit it to those scenarios though.
>
>
>
then why do you care if the readers, who are people so distant away, from next school to five continents apart, know what your another passion is? Didn't you just rank the contact rates and degree of importance in the wrong order?
If I read a paper and tried to Google the author to know more, and then I found out a person with the same name does some very eccentric thing, to be honest I'd probably just dispel that as a coincidence or "ha, interesting" and then move on. Researchers just don't do research and nothing else. To me you will just be an author whose article interests me, whether you do other gigs or not does not affect how I see your paper, unless your other gigs were about how to fabricate data or something along that line.
If you do feel so strong about this, I would suggest changing your legal name instead. Keep your former legal as your passion-related name, and use the new name in all other settings including jobs and publications, etc.
Upvotes: 3
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2016/02/23
| 811
| 3,301
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<issue_start>username_0: I think I understand the general difference between US and European PhD.
**US**
1. GRE is compulsory to get admitted to any PhD programs.
2. First we get admitted to the institution.
3. Need to do extensive course work though if one has masters.
4. Will decide about the area of PhD only after completing the course
work.
**Europe & Australia**
1. GRE is not compulsory, but might help to improve the chance of
getting an admission.
2. We will know the research area in the beginning.
3. Most seems to have no course work or little course work.
If I am right it seems both have its own advantages and disadvantages.
I want to apply for a PhD with extensive course work (in the beginning of PhD) but I must know which area I'll be doing my PhD when i get admitted and the PhD duration must be more than ones without any course work (i expect around 1+4 years of funding).
What are my best options considering the above concerns ?
**Note:** I am looking for PhD in Theoretical Physics<issue_comment>username_1: I have a PhD in theoretical physics obtained in Germany: in particular
>
> GRE is not compulsory, but might help to improve the chance of getting an admission.
>
>
>
GRE is totally irrelevant.
>
> We will know the research area in the beginning.
>
>
>
this is mainly true all across Europe but however there are some departments whose research projects are to be decided on your way throughout graduation (it happens in Italy, for example). I had a very strict and detailed project to fully adhere to, but it might not always be the case (with corresponding advantages and disadvantages). Also notice that sometimes, for whichever reason, PhD students change projects along the way (mostly because they do not like it or because it is a dead end line of research).
>
> Most seems to have no course work or little course work.
>
>
>
Wrong. I had heavy teaching duties (three-four semesters), mandatory classes to attend and corresponding exams to take (it happens in other European countries too). Besides that, compulsory seminars and conferences to take part to.
As a general rule always determine with the department you are applying to what the local rules are: it is *very* department dependent and even in the same department different scholarships may get treated differently and have different loads. I would personally go for a research project I like and then manage the extra curricular activities accordingly: after all, the chances to get a position afterwards will **only** depend on your final PhD thesis (and related papers); nobody ever looks at the exams marks and classes you have taken.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Depending on the area, you might be required to take an MPhil or Research Master. This is the equivalent to the coursework in the US, and then some electives related to your research area. Again, depending the Area, you will find that there are many universities that (at least try) to implement the US standard. In Business and Economics for example you have BGSE, Bonn, Toulouse, EUI, among many others that have a very "US" style doctoral program, just hidden by a (almost always mandatory) Master of Research plus the Doctoral Program which is mostly research.
Upvotes: 0
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2016/02/23
| 1,135
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<issue_start>username_0: I want to cite the [following paper](http://kaner.com/pdfs/metrics2004.pdf):
>
> <NAME> & <NAME>, “Software engineering metrics: What do they measure and how do we know?” 10th International Software Metrics Symposium (Metrics 2004), Chicago, IL, September 14-16, 2004.
>
>
>
Most of my citations of papers in proceedings contain page numbers.
The [PDF file](http://kaner.com/pdfs/metrics2004.pdf) does contain page numbers from 1 to 12. However, I cannot find any contribution from the author in the table of contents for the proceedings. Other citations cite the paper without page numbers.
What should my citation look like? And in case I encounter something like this in the future: what explains the apparent mismatch between the author's website and official proceedings?<issue_comment>username_1: First off, the function of bibliographies is to make whoever reads your work can get hold of the referenced material, be it to check you didn't misrepresent anything, to drill down on some particular point, or something else. With this in mind, you owe it your readers (and yourself, later on building on the previous work) to make this as easy as possible. I.e., give as complete and detailed references as possible.
There are several possibilities. If this work was just presented, but not published in any proceedings, there just might be no "page numbers" at all. Some conferences just publish the papers as separate files e.g. on their webpage, again no page numbers. I've also seen (sloppily done) proceedings in which each paper had their pages numbered from 1.
I'd make an effort to get hold of a copy of the final version (as published) and check that one. How much effort really depends on how important it is to you. I have several BibTeX databases collecting what I've cited and used, and even documents I've checked but never used. From time to time I go over them and try to fill in missing details, check if the URLs I keep for my own use in there are still valid, and so on.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: I have double checked in IEEE Xplore. The paper does not appear in the [table of contents](http://laurent-duval.eu/_Share/01357880.pdf), the authors do not appear in the author list. Additionnaly, I cannot trace it in ISI Web of Science (which mentioned other conference papers by <NAME> in 2004).
There are three options (in general):
1. A mistake in the proceedings for a regularly accepted paper,
2. The paper is more a tutorial, a keynote, a late breaking paper that has not been through the standard review process,
3. A paper that was not published in the conference, and which was put online carelessly in the conference paper shape.
As I am really unsure, and know that papers sometimes cite papers they have not read (and papers that do not exist), I would cite it only as an online document, or a preprint, with the url, without page number, and a potential note like "(often refered to as published in Metrics 2004)".
Most of all, I would suggest you not to cite it, unless it is really useful for your work. Or cite a paper really "published " by the authors instead (good luck with that).
EDIT: after a long search, I have found using the Wayback Machine that this paper could have been part of [Metrics 2004 Late Breaking Papers](https://web.archive.org/web/20041205084654/http://swmetrics.mockus.us/metrics2004/lbp/Metrics2004_LBP.html):
>
> The purpose of the late breaking papers session is to give authors the
> opportunity to present work from on-going projects, new ideas and
> papers not complete at the time of the original call for papers. Each
> paper has been peer reviewed by at least 2 independent experts.
>
>
> The late breaking papers sessions allow authors to make a short
> presentation of their work in the main programme. Printed copies of
> the extended abstracts are circulated in delegate packs and, due to
> the timescale, the full papers will be published electronically on the
> conference web site.
>
>
>
Finally, I observe that with some online journal, it gets more difficult to have standard page numbers. Sometimes each paper gets a number. As much as I like citing papers correctly, may be page numbers are becoming useful when the work only exists in paper-like form: a DOI is an interesting alternative.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]
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2016/02/23
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<issue_start>username_0: My friend earned her PhD in Tehran Iran, I assume from the primary university. She received many awards and published several articles in Condensed-Matter/Cosmology. However when she applied to several post-doc positions in the United States, she was denied, not because of her experience, but because her PhD was earned in Iran. I do not understand why this would cause a problem in the United States. She was forced into a situation to either chose to be admitted as a graduate student and earn her PhD again, or simply stay in Iran. She is currently admitted as a graduate student in the US.
1. Why is getting your PhD in Iran invalid for obtaining a post-doc position in the US?
2. Is there away around this problem? Can she bounce off from her graduate position?<issue_comment>username_1: I think the answer is simple: your premise is false. There are no rules/regulations forbidding an Iranian earned PhD from being a postdoc in the US.
It might be hard to get a postdoc in the US for anyone whose academic background, and PhD earning institution, is not perceived as highly ranked.
---
Note: I have answered this a year and a half ago. Things may have changed since then through the presidential ban against Iranians entering the US. I have no specific knowledge of the current situation with respect to Iranian students.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: I am going to differ from username_1's answer a little bit. While I would not say that a degree from Iran is *invalid* for study in the US, being an Iranian citizen in the current political climate of 2016 poses some significant hurdles for study in many other countries around the world. Applicants from Iran face heightened scrutiny and substantial delays when applying for visas; in some disciplines, such as nuclear engineering, it may be even impossible. Moreover, the process will very iikely impose additional paperwork and other bureaucratic burdens on the hiring faculty member and institutions. Consequently, many faculty choose to deal with these obstacles by simply excluding all Iranian candidates from consideration.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: As with the other people answering this question, I don't think your friend's problem is that her PhD is "invalid". I've worked with a number of Iranian researchers and graduate students, and it's never been brought up that Iranian PhDs are looked at as any way "lesser" or invalid compared to any other degree.
Which leaves one of two possibilities:
* *Her* PhD is invalid, not because she is Iranian, but because of some element of the PhD itself, her institution, etc. Without knowing more, of course, we can't really come up with a reason why this is. There are some *American* PhDs which are invalid, but that doesn't imply that they all are.
* Regardless of how well respected her degree is, an Iranian student may still fall in the "More trouble than they are worth" pile, either due to immigration issues, perceived political instability ("Every time you go home for break, there's a risk you won't be able to get back), or funding issues. This isn't universally true for all universities, but may be true for a particular admissions/hiring committee.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_4: In many fields (perhaps most), finding a successful postdoc position, like finding a faculty position, is a networking thing. People will take postdocs from groups that they know and like, and will not risk taking people that their immediate community can't vouch for. It's not a policy, just small, fairly closed communities that draw from within, not from outside
If I were an Iranian predoc hoping for a US postdoc experience, I would make serious efforts to attend international conferences that US colleagues participate in, trying to arrange collaborations and similar experiences.
Upvotes: 3
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2016/02/23
| 723
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<issue_start>username_0: I am really looking for some very open-mind answers here.
So here is the scenario. I have finished my undergraduation in Visual Communication Design from a premiere institute from my country. I couldn't get a chance to make it for post-graduation or further for any phd program, due to some health and financial issues.
But I have been working on a research paper that I started as a project during my design school days, that would come under psychology, art and design.
Given the fact, that I currently donot have much chance in terms of further formal education, what can I do best? I have been working on the research for few years now and would want to continue without any hesitation but what are my options as an independent researcher? Can I apply for phd programs later in life without a masters degree if my research is good enough? Can I send my papers to conference to get reviewed by people from the field?
What are the resources available for someone like me? What are the platforms where I can interact with other researchers?
Initially I was very upset about the situation, but now I think I have decided to do something about it. And I am looking for answers to make things better or rather find a direction, to make the best when life gives you lemons.<issue_comment>username_1: I think you can't get a phd without masters degree.
Regarding your Independent Research well if it some kind of out of this world research like <NAME>'s General Theory of Relativity where it can be a world changing research it may get some support immediately.
Also the content of your research will not prove that your grab all the necessary requirements to be a master's degree.
If you can't get further, I suggest you should take another path. It's not that really important to get a PHD just to be the best in your choosen career.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: This answer comes late, but I hope it is still relevant to you, or maybe to others in a similar situation.
You don't need degrees to do research. Anyone can do it and anyone can publish their research, provided it is acceptable to reviewers and editors.
The difficult part, however, is to get feedback on what you are doing so that you get some assurance of both its correctness and its value. That is easier for graduate students and faculty members at universities and institutes. But it isn't impossible for an independent researcher.
The key is to build a circle of people (or even a single person) with similar interests, who is willing to read your work and give you feedback. One way to do this is to contact some professors at a local university and ask for assistance. Some will be willing to help, even to collaborate, but others won't want to make the effort. So it may take a search.
One of the most important mathematicians of the 20th century, [Srinivasa Ramanujan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Srinivasa_Ramanujan) working in India and with little formal education, made contact with <NAME> in England, and it was that association that brought his work to the fore.
Upvotes: 2
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2016/02/23
| 427
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<issue_start>username_0: I'm currently enrolled as a graduate student pursuing my masters. I'm wanting to eventually pursue a PhD, but in order to do that, I believe I need to do a thesis for my graduate degree, and for that I need a thesis adviser. What would be the best way of going about this?
There is a long list of professors, and it would take a long time to go through all of them to see what they are currently researching. I thought someone might have some experience with this and be able to offer some thoughts.<issue_comment>username_1: The list of professors *can't* be that long to just see their general research interests. This is just something you'll have to do. I've looked through all the profs at various schools with large departments and it probably took a max of 30 minutes.
**But** just reading about them isn't enough. If you can get your list down to 2-4 potential advisors then you can (A) ask for a meeting with each or (B) try to take a course with some of them.
If you have a general idea of what you want to study, it should be relatively easy to find a few that you are interested in. The harder part is convincing them to take you on :)
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Do as username_1's answer says, but make sure to explain you want to go on to a PhD (and be prepared to be asked *why* you want to pursue a PhD, and a master's for that matter!). There might very well be paths to a PhD without a master's, or after a master's without thesis. Which ones do exist (or even might be created just for you, as an exceptionally bright student) is very much a local matter, which we know nothing about.
Upvotes: 0
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2016/02/24
| 2,934
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<issue_start>username_0: This term I'm taking a (graduate) course which is crucial for my degree. The teacher's plan for the course is quite ambitious and all along he's been following the structure of a given text, but he doesn't follow it completely and quite often omits (what I consider) key results from it, e.g. results which motivate or deepen the understanding of definitions or other results. To put it bluntly, he leaves a lot of gaps that the book covers nicely.
It's been a frustrating process and we're soon going to start with a very important topic and I've been wondering how to approach him about this. My idea at the moment is to ask him to follow the textbook more closely, even if by doing so we sacrifice how much we cover, but I'm looking for suggestions.
**Final edit (concluding remarks):** I've chosen the answer which I think gave me the best course of action and I think summarizes some of the most important points in comments and other answers. Anyone reading this thread in the future should definitely check all of them anyway. They all provided valuable feedback for me.
I'd also like to point out that [Shane's comments in chat](http://chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/message/27872104#27872104) are spot on. I believe said comments capture the exterior root of my problems, which I was unable to see at the time when the question was written. On my end I also learned a couple of important things on how to deal with these kind of situations.<issue_comment>username_1: I'm seeing a general disdain for postdocs (who are simply more junior than the professors; one day, some of them will be the hotshots of your field), and I can't decide if your feeling superior comes from the actual bad teaching, or from your disdain. Are you sure that the postdoc is omitting important results? Are they important in your opinion, or did you get this information elsewhere? In any case, a bit of respect would go a long way, when you ask the "postdoc" to follow a single reference.
I am more concerned by your attitude than your professor's plans, however. It is quite common to not recite an entire book, and pick and choose the important topics from a text. This leaves room for your proactivity: if you want to learn the material in more depth, you can do so by reading the text, including the part the instructor has left out. That's really what grad school is for. You take control of your own studying.
That being said, most postdocs are very receptive to feedback, as they have not been teaching for very long, so if your comment is a valid one, and if you can do it without hurting his feelings, he should be open to your suggestions (however, don't say things like "you should sacrifice the material you intend to cover for clarity", as the power to decide on the syllabus rests entirely with the postdoc.)
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: >
> How to ask a teacher to follow a single reference?
>
>
>
In the same way as you would ask him anything else: *respectfully*, and in a way that makes it clear that it is a *request*, that is, that you are aware that he can say no and accept his authority on the matter. For example, if you wanted to do it in an email, the following may be appropriate:
>
> Dear [*title/name*]
>
>
> My name is [*your name*] and I am a student in your class [*name of class (useful to mention in case he is teaching more than one class)*].
> I wanted to give you some feedback about our class. I noticed that you sometimes skip results from the textbook that seem to me to be an important part of [*topic*] - for example, the other day you did this with [*insert a recent example*].
> I'm not sure if you were expecting us to read those results on our own, and I'm prepared to do that if necessary, but my feeling is that this part of the theory may be important enough to justify covering in detail in class. I realize that would take more time, and I would hate to miss out on [*some advanced subjects the teacher is trying to get to*], but at the same time I feel like covering the material in such a way may have the effect of leaving me and the other students with somewhat shaky foundations, which would make it difficult for us to handle the more advanced material when we get to it.
>
>
> If you feel my feedback is reasonable, would you perhaps consider covering the textbook material in a more uniform way and not leaving out important results like the one I mentioned? I feel that would be helpful, at least for me personally. Of course, I know that I don't have enough of a perspective on the subject to be able to tell for sure which results are the most important, so I completely understand if you think it's preferable to stick with the current approach. I also wanted to tell you that generally speaking I'm really enjoying the class - thanks!
>
>
> [sincerely, regards, best wishes etc.]
>
>
>
Finally, I'd like to add that although I see nothing wrong with you making such a request (and for all I know it could be a very sensible and reasonable one), you should keep in mind that what I wrote in the second paragraph of the template email could very well be true: your teacher, although he may not be very experienced, still likely has a much better understanding of the subject of the class than you, and generally speaking is better equipped than you to judge which results are worth covering in detail in class. So be prepared for him to say no. At the same time, even very experienced teachers can still benefit from feedback, so I think this email can only lead to an improved quality of teaching, whether your specific request is granted or not.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: You may certainly ask -- politely! -- but you should expect to be told "no", and you should accept that answer if it is given. In most graduate courses, **it is the privilege of the instructor to decide what are the important points and how to organize them**.
If the course is preparation for a qualifying exam (for instance), then there may be a more rigid syllabus that needs to be adhered to. In such a case, if the instructor were deviating strongly from the expected objectives it would make sense to complain.
As an aside: since the book presents things so well (from your perspective), you can learn the material from it and consider the lectures as supplementary. It then seems to me that having lectures that approach things from a different perspective than that of the text is a benefit. An instructor who parrots the text would be redundant.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_4: <NAME>.'s suggestion that it's up to the professor and you are responsible for any additional study that is required is essentially correct; however, I do not think his approach of asking politely and expecting a "no" is all there is to it. I would suggest a different approach. (Also, I would *not* follow Dan R.'s advice.)
Rather than assume that you know how the course should best be taught, figure out why the professor does it the way he does. See your professor in office hours and say that, because you may yourself have to teach this material in the future (doesn't matter if teaching is actually in your plans), you would like to know more about his approach to the material. At that point, you can say something like, "I noticed, for instance, that you didn't cover some cases and skipped some sections. How do you make those choices?" That's still a rather broad question, so be prepared to give examples of specific things that the prof. skipped that you thought would have been interesting to cover. Do not tell him that he should have covered them. Simply ask how he made the choice to skip those particular ones and not others.
This way, you'll come across as an interested and motivated student, not an overconfident, whiney type. Good luck.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_5: Wow. I deliberately "leave a lot of gaps that the book covers nicely" in advanced courses. I say "this is in the book." And I actually aim to leave them especially in the parts that the book does best.
Now, I always ask for any questions from the class, about anything I say, whether it is in the book or not. But I do believe advanced students should get what is in the book from the book unless they have specific questions they want to raise in class.
So, if your teacher does not even take questions about textbook material that he does expect you to learn, then that is your problem. Ask the teacher to take questions -- and of course ask it politely.
If the teacher does take questions, though, then rather than ask the teacher to better anticipate your questions maybe you should work on asking more questions yourself.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_6: I would suggest you ask indirectly. The first thing I would is look at the skipped sections and decide if they are useful or not. For the ones you think are useful, try and learn the material on your own. When you get stuck, go talk to the instructor. At that point you can ask about the sections whose importance you are not sure about. By showing the instructor which sections are important to you and that you are not equipped to handle, you will be indirectly telling him where he should go in greater depth next time. The instructor may even be able to extrapolate to what he should do in the future.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_7: Personally, I would expect the lectures and the text-book to complement each other rather than to duplicate each other. If the lecturer was merely reading from the text book I would feel cheated. It's good that there is material in the book that's not covered in the lectures, and vice-versa.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_8: (Student here)
In my experience, books and lectures are meant to complement one another.
In some courses, lecture follows the book to a T. In others, the book is unrelated to the main idea of the lecture and is really just helpful material.
This being said, I don't want to take a course where the instructor just reads the book to me. This is kind of insulting -- I know how to read. I go to lecture to get information from a different angle or to get the main points.
If I don't understand a concept in lecture, I read the book and likewise, if I don't understand concepts from the book, I get more detail from the lecture or just ask the professor.
Since your course *has* a book, perhaps it should be assumed that it is required reading and should be used in conjunction with the lecture instead of following an approach where one or the other will suffice.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_9: First, my advice is to not ask him to change his teaching technique. I'll give you 8:5 that you will get nothing more than a dirty look and some form of "No. If you don't like the way I teach, then there's the door."
Some reasons that teachers will do this:
1. They want you in class! If they just teach from the book, then you don't really have to attend lecture, do you?
2. They have their course materials set up a certain way, and they don't want to invest the time into overhauling them.
3. They have tenure.
4. They don't really want to teach, they want to be working on their research. They will put minimal effort into teaching; enough to satisfy their job requirements.
5. They don't really know `how` to teach. There is a huge difference between being a good Mathematician, and a good Math Teacher. Example, a Ph.D. may have taken years of advanced mathematics, but not a single course in Education! They really don't have a grasp of pedagogy.
Some options for you are:
1. Switch sections, and take with a different teacher. I used to do this when I was in school. I would scout out all teachers for a specific class, and take with the one that I liked best. If you have the foresight, do this the semester before, so that you can audit a class and see them in action.
2. Perhaps you can defer this course next semester, if a different teacher is available.
3. If it's really that much of an issue, or even take an equivalent class with a different school and transfer the credits.
4. Knuckle under, and take the best from both sources of information. This is also a good reason to team up with others in class. Strength in numbers :)
Upvotes: 0
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2016/02/24
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<issue_start>username_0: I am about to submit my master's thesis **report** and writing a **research paper** along with it to submit in CHI conference. While writing I got stuck when I had to mention the references. Here, I have few questions for while referencing the material in the report and research paper.
1. How to add a research paper references in the end of the report as
well as in the research paper? Basically I am asking the format of
reference. There are so many format and I don't know which one to
use.
2. How to add a website references in the end of the report and
research paper? Again I am asking the format.
3. How to mention these references in the paper or report? What I mean by this is how to include these references inside the report and research paper?
I have read couple of papers and I am extremely confused what to use where
and how.
**EDIT:-** I forgot to mention here that I also wanted to reference the images I used in the report or research paper. I am not sure but can we reference the images as weblink. Also how to mention the images with reference in the middle of the text?<issue_comment>username_1: Most conferences with peer-reviewed proceedings specify a particular format for their papers. Among other things, such a format generally constrains you to a particular manner of presenting references, answering all of the questions that you have. To find this information, you typically need to find the call for papers and then look down near the end somewhere in the submission instructions, where there will typically be a link to a standard format specification. Most will provide both a Word template and a LaTeX template, as well as a PDF example of what things should look like.
CHI is no different, and their formats for this year may be found at [this link](https://chi2016.acm.org/wp/guide-to-submission-formats/).
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Adding to Jakebeal's answer, get a few papers from the same journal (ideally in a field near yours). That might give hints on how to handle e.g. discussion of previous work (how much detail), and other such non-explicit rules.
Upvotes: 0
|
2016/02/24
| 5,606
| 24,526
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<issue_start>username_0: I am a TA for an introductory computer programming course at a university in the US. There is one student in particular who, during lecture, will argue with me about every point I make, which eats up a lot of lecture time and becomes un-enlightening for the students, as I am mainly repeating myself to answer the question/respond to the argument.
The student doesn't have previous knowledge in the programming language, so I don't think he's some conceited maniac trying to prove that he's better than me. Simply put, I think the best inference is that he has a sort of mental condition.
For instance, if I show an example on the board, he might blurt out that it's wrong, and try to explain why. While I appreciate students double-checking me, almost 100% of the time, the examples and points that I make are not incorrect, and after explaining it, he becomes quiet for a little bit to process what I said, and tries to point out another flaw. Essentially, he would try to challenge me if I said "1 + 1 = 2", if he could.
These debacles can go on sometimes for up to two minutes before I have a chance to move on. Very frequently, he asks questions/challenges me on things that I *just* explained or went over, so the class doesn't benefit from this, and it's generally a non-productive use of time. Often times, I will say something like, "If you'd like to discuss this more, we can during office hours," which is a statement that he seems to ignore completely, and will continue his questioning even after I've said this.
Additionally, when I am helping individual students in the classroom during work time, he will shout out to me from across the room to tell me something or ask me a question, and when I say "I can help you shortly when I'm done with Sally here," he will sometimes leave his seat and approach me directly, interrupting my conversation with the student.
How do I deal with a student like this? It seems like he has a mental condition of some sort, based on his interactions and mannerisms, though I've never received a notice from the university's disabilities department. The reason why I bring up the possibility of a mental condition is because he is set off very easily, so I'd like to handle the situation as delicately as possible.<issue_comment>username_1: As a fellow TA, I would definitely recommend that you discuss this issue with the professor in charge of the course as taking matters into your own hands without his knowledge (especially with special cases like these) could cause problems. When discussing the issue with the professor, I would refrain from using the phrase "mental condition".
Upvotes: 7 <issue_comment>username_2: I have responsibility for students with alternate needs within a Computer Science department and thus have professional experience of the situation you describe. It is not uncommon in our subject.
Our experience is that computing attracts a higher proportion of students on the Autistic Spectrum than do other disciplines. We are operating with about (my personal guess) 2-3% (of total cohort) diagnosed and perhaps double that number undiagnosed.
Some of these students are often not aware of the rest of the class being present and treat teaching as a personal one-to-one dialogue with the teacher. They act as they would sitting with you across a desk. Sometimes it is more extreme and the social norms and boundaries of even working one-to-one are not clear to them. Although, as a spectrum condition, each person may be different, it is common that they wish to understand every point of minutiae before they can build the big picture understanding; becoming detailed obsessed is often a common trait. This leads to question after question as a form of quest.
You should seek advice from a more experienced professional in your institution. It is likely that the student's condition is known, but details are often considered confidential and perhaps not shared with you, because that is what the student may wish. The student may be receiving support elsewhere, perhaps in the form of mentoring. If that is the case then the mentor may be able to assist in explaining the social situation to the student and also give you guidance on how to reply.
Sometimes such students are not diagnosed with any specific condition and are not receiving support as it has never been needed. They are likely to have achieved high grades in earlier studies and the good results have propelled them through to your class.
For a student who is unaware that their behaviour is different from others in their class it is more difficult to handle. I ask such a student to speak to me in a one-to-one appointment in my office. I do not assume that they have any named condition, as this is not really relevant. I just talk to them to explain how lectures work, clarify my role and how I can answer questions. I often have to explain, sometimes in great detail, what makes a good verbal question in class, what makes a good verbal question, what makes a good written question for email, what makes a good question for the class VLE, what makes a good question for StackExchange and so on. It is often the case that no one has ever explained how information is obtained. It does take a degree of tact and experience to do this, which is why I suggested seeking more experienced advice.
Remember, some of the achievements in our subject have been made by people who others found difficult to work with. Look at the movie "The Imitation Game" and you can clearly see (in a fictionalised portrayal) Alan Turing is shown displaying tendencies similar to those you describe. I'm sure if you had a current student with similar attributes you would have been pleased to have had the opportunity to have someone so similarly gifted in your class.
Upvotes: 9 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: The tactic to use "in the trenches" is to just say "That is an interesting point, but goes beyond (or to more detail, or...) what I'm prepared (able, have the time here, ...) to cover right now. Please check back with me after class, and we'll agree to meet to clear up your doubts". If they are really bright (but just socially inept), you might suggest more advanced study material to work through and discuss, or direct them to the teacher to do so.
You have an obligation to your other students in the first line, and wasting their time (or boring them, or even confusing them by going into intricate details they don't grasp) isn't in their (or your!) best interest. But you should also consider the outlier. Maybe you can help them by guiding towards more social behaviour.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: Don't forget to take care of yourself. I had a similar student a couple of years ago, and decided I just had to gut it out. That was the wrong choice, of course. I almost didn't make it through the class! I'd sit in the parking lot for 30 minutes dreading what was ahead of me. As a part timer, I didn't know what resources for support and advice were available to me.
Your instructor, and your fellow TAs, can help, as well as the resources mentioned in the other answers.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_5: *Note: This started out as a comment to [username_3's answer](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/63926), but grew a bit too long, so I turned it into a separate answer of its own.*
While asking students to defer any distracting (irrelevant, too advanced, based on a quirky misunderstanding, etc.) questions until after class can indeed be a good way to deal with such interruptions in general, it may not work very well for some students with autistic spectrum traits or other behavioral patterns like those described by the OP.
Not only can such strongly detail-oriented students get fixated on the apparent error, and become unable to process further material until it has been resolved, but if they also have poor social awareness, they may not even find it easy to realize that others in the class *don't* necessarily share their inability to get past the (apparent) error. From their viewpoint, they may actually feel that they're doing the whole class a favor by insisting that you resolve the issue *now*, so that it won't undermine the validity of everything else that you're about to teach.
(It should be noted that, in *some* cases, this *could* actually be a valid reason to interrupt your presentation. If you were presenting a deductive argument, following a novel line of reasoning that had not already been independently verified many times, and if there really was an error in one of your early steps, leaving it uncorrected *could* indeed cause everything built upon the erroneous step to be meaningless. This is, of course, not a very typical scenario in undergrad teaching, but it may *seem* that way to the student who is new to the subject, and having a hard time accepting your presentation of it.)
What might help, if your problem student seems unwilling to defer their questions until a more suitable time, is speaking with the student one-on-one and suggesting that, if they spot what they think is an error, they should *write down a note of it* (to let them switch their attention to other things), *briefly* mention it to you, and then try to set it temporarily aside and concentrate on other things until you both have time to look into the matter more closely (which might be e.g. after class). Do reassure them that, while you don't have unlimited time especially during class, you *will* at some point (it may be helpful to be specific here, e.g. reserving up to 15 minutes after class for such things) at least take a look at any potential mistakes they've noted down.
You might want to also suggest that, if the student *still* thinks there's a mistake even after you've looked into it and found none, they should go over it using their textbook at home, carefully prepare a written analysis of where the error is and what the correct answer should be (with test cases, for a programming class) and submit it to you and/or your professor. (Obviously, get your professor's OK before involving them here!)
On one hand, this will help reassure the student that the issue they noticed will not get forgotten or swept under the carpet. Also, the odds are that, if they do carry out that analysis, they'll eventually find their *own* mistake without you having to spend excessive time and effort chasing it down with them, quite likely producing less stress for *both* of you.
Finally, if the student *does* find and document an actual mistake, do remember to thank them, note the mistake during the following class, and briefly present a corrected version of whatever material the mistake was in. In the (perhaps unlikely) case that this does actually happen, it will help raise the student's confidence that you're not trying to hide or brush off any *actual* errors in your presentation.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_6: *Note: I'd comment but I can't due to this being my first reaction on this part of StackEexchange.*
I fully agree with Ilmari's answer, and I'd like to add that you should be wary of your approach to his "Mental Condition". It may just be him struggling to understand, and forgetting that he's disturbing the class.
And although many people here suspect an Autism Spectrum Disorder (And they're probably right) I'd like to emphasize that this is a very broad spectrum, and Autism is one of them. I'd advice you to **not call him an Autist** at any time, especially don't call him that when his disorder is something else in the Autism Spectrum. As someone who has Asperger's Syndrome (An ASD) himself, there is nothing I hate more than people calling me an Autist because they think it's the same thing.
And educate yourself on the broadness of this spectrum, especially when you actually find out his disorder. Some can be handled with ease, others require a very delicate approach. There is also the odds of Perpetual Development Disorder Not Otherwise Specified (PDDNOS) which is the hardest to deal with as it is (as the name suggests) almost literally the "None of the above" checkbox (No offense to anyone suffering from this disorder).
Remember that most of these disorders do not actually make it impossible for him to function properly, it just makes certain situations harder to deal with for them, as they do not always realize their actions are different from others.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_7: Above all, be patient. Being an introductory computer science course/lab, realize many others will be interested in what is going on in your head and will further learn from you how you approach things in a professional manner. Try to be a role model for him and others. Yes there will be many who will be unstimulated. Realize given your knowledge things may appear rudementary to you, however are far from it for them. Try to adapt to your audience, they are different each and every time; a one-size-fits-all approach is not optimal.
I would strongly advise on keeping any classification of a mental condition to yourself. If speaking to him, a professor, or others be very careful not summarize the behaviour as some sort of disability. Consider speaking informally to your university's title IX coordinator about how to behave before doing something you may regret! Both from a liability standpoint and the well-being of the student. Just drop by their office and chat.
I am not sure how to delicately handle him interrupting your dialog with other students, beyond being firm with him each and every time so that he learns. I encourage you to seek counsel from your department there.
As a personal aside in a similar situation, a consistently conceited/rude student had asked for help one and one, their phone rang, they held up their hand in a "talk to the hand" manner and proceded to talk to whomever on their cell phone. That student was permanently moved to the end of the queue for the remainder of the semester (and future grading in later courses).
As another aside from the vantage of a student, in Calc 2 there was a female as you describe, with at least a dozen questions every lecture. Eventually the instructor embraced her willingness and would call on her, and intermittently check to ensure she understood things. Some of her questions were rudementary, however I didn't understand much of the new material either; eight years later I am still thankful for her inquisitive nature and remember her with fondness. In a later course, I remember the instructor consistently reacting in an inhibitory manner and so she didn't speak up nearly so much; I worry that she didn't do so well there.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_8: What can we change?
===================
First off, let me say something which will keep you out of hot water: *different people have different learning styles* and this is not necessarily any sort of "mental condition" -- it could be, but it might not be. Therefore tact requires that you completely **stop being suspicious** of the latter: if you are sneakily telling yourself "it's okay, she's just autistic" then you strongly risk accidentally blurting that out to either a friend or a colleague, and once that's out of the bag your job could be impacted by the results. Just admit honestly to yourself that you don't know, and that it is one of the possible explanations for why your student is a "problem student".
Now, I agree that the student's learning style shares some similarities with some aspects of Asperger syndrome or possibly something on the autistic spectrum, regardless of whether or not he/she has those. So, **what changes can you make** that would be friendly to that sort of learning style?
Use more neutral language.
--------------------------
If you are saying "Here is how you solve that problem" then you might be silently implying that either (a) there is only one way to solve it, or (b) your way is the best way. There's usually a lot of different ways to skin a cat.
For instance, in my field of physics, very often there is some thermodynamic property which you can easily see by looking at fuzzy things called "total differentials" but which would have to be more rigorously made by appealing to certain definitions of certain limits -- someone who has done all of the needed rigorous work will probably come to the easy way and say "yes, but that's a load of crap, you do not know that these properties hold!" and indeed they're right, it's a heuristic rule (not a proof) to re-derive the property.
Similarly in computer science, e.g. we do amortized analysis by appealing to "potential functions" which we choose to make our proofs work; someone who has actually carefully analyzed the algorithm and the time costs of every little part will probably think that your approach is full of crap. Opt instead for vocabulary like "Here's one way to see that this is the right answer..." that makes it more clear that you're not telling people how it has to be done, but just how you like to do it.
Make the class a little more predictable.
-----------------------------------------
This learning style benefits from being able to review material in advance, on their own. Don't be afraid to ask them to review the material in advance to understand how it all works.
Make the class a little more structured.
----------------------------------------
Right now, you have **advertised** that you're open to all questions at all times, and you're getting upset with a student for asking all of his questions whenever he has one! I get that you're also upset with his tone and whatever, but you need to change that tendency.
To fit with the last point: **always** introduce this by saying "hey, at our next class, as a heads up, I am going to slightly change the rules of this recitation section...". Remember, if you're making a change it has to be predictable!
Try to either make a slideshow or write on a board so that you never have to erase anything; if there are multiple slides/boards, number them. This gives a consistent way to reference what's already been said and when, and removes the pressure to get in a question before the board is erased.
Have clear rules about how questions will be asked and when they will be answered. For example, tell everyone that whenever someone has a question, you'll judge whether you can answer it in less than 30 seconds or not; if not then you'll write it down in a notebook with the slide number and the asker, and then you'll keep going -- 15 minutes before the end of class you'll have an alarm go off to remind you to go into "questions mode" where you go back and answer these questions in sequence. If this does not reduce the number of questions, again, give advance notice that each student will receive a maximum of 5 questions to ask during that period. The important thing is that this remains consistent for everyone -- if any question takes longer than 30 seconds to answer, write it down, come to it at the end of class. They must be firm rules: "If you have more than 5 questions that I have to write down, I'll take photos of these boards with my phone and will answer them during my office hours."
If you can get a 30 second hourglass that's even better, because then you can advertise it to everyone else as a sort of game: tell people "I'm trying to get better about quickly and concisely getting to the heart of the problem!" and people will respond well.
Try to set up an incentive system.
----------------------------------
For example, maybe you will **always** try to resolve every question in 30 seconds with your little hourglass timer, but you will up-front either say that a question is "easy" or "hard" for you. Now buy a big bag of candy or some other sort of reward (stickers are still fun, right? Or whatever). Then the rule can be: if someone says that their "hard" question was resolved after 30 seconds of explanation, you both get a candy. This encourages the student to still ask their question, but to maybe try to "boil it down" to some essential basis that can be answered much more quickly.
What do the above approaches center around?
===========================================
Those sorts of changes encourage that the "problem student" gets to study your approaches on his/her own, chooses 5 questions that really speak to their own conceptual difficulties with your approach, and has a set time where they get their questions answered. In addition they will hopefully try to reduce the scope of their problem to something precisely wrong with what your approach is, rather than trying to advocate their approach in place of yours.
This student's learning style is actually really refreshing! They are not a robot -- but they do really just want things to be *simple* and *consistent*. To understand the human side, think of it as a "cut through the BS" type of learning style: all of these extra rules and social considerations are a huge extra mental cost where you're trying to negotiate certain social relationships as well as get your questions answered to your satisfaction -- but why accept that sort of extra mental load if you don't want to?
Rituals and rules help to structure that social-relationship-negotiation and make it cognitively easier. Yes, it is added administrative cost up front, but it can also pay off in giving you more freedom with your limited resources later. This learning style is refreshing precisely because it challenges you to essentially always "do the dishes right after you eat" -- it sucks because you have to interrupt your TV show or whatever to clean up, but it turns out that it is more efficient (the dishes are much easier to clean before the food dries onto them) and has a certain aesthetic benefit (your apartment is cleaner on average). So take this as a time to try and learn from them, and to pick up skills that will better help you teach people in general in the future.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_9: I have had experience in similar situations (University Classroom). I would advice implementing a strict "Hold questions until after lecture" policy. If possible, ask the student who is disruptive to wait until you have spoken with the other students because you want to pay particular attention to his points and questions. In essence, invoke the principles of good <NAME>. Good luck.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_10: All the current advice is very good. Talk to your Professor. Talk to student services/disability services. Experiment with different approaches. Defer all the questions until after class. And I especially love username_5's [answer](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/63997/11434), which is the most likely to succeed I think (don't just skim that one, read its last four paragraphs especially).
That being said, if worse comes to worse, talk to your union rep/HR, and see what support they'll give you to kick him out of your classes (either temporarily as a response to his disruptions, or permanently as a final solution to his behavior).
Obviously, this last approach is not to be considered lightly, and you'll want to find out what the protocol is before you do anything. However, that option should be on the table. Even if you do not care about your own well being, you should consider how those constant disruptions will affect the other students. It's your responsibility to make sure your other students also get what they've signed up for.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_11: One challenge of being inexperienced is that, by definition, you don't have a sense of the "normal" variation in student behavior. There are several good answers already, but I am not sure if any of them have mentioned this:
>
> Invite a more senior professor to sit in the class for one day, observe silently, and then talk to you in private afterwards.
>
>
>
This way, you can get a second opinion about whether the student is truly unusual and disruptive (in which case you need to handle it outside of class) or whether they are challenging but relatively typical (in which case you need to adjust your teaching).
In a typical department, there are several people who you could ask: your advisor; your teaching mentor, if that is a different person; the course coordinator, if there is one; the administrator in charge of undergraduate courses; or the department chair (particularly in a smaller department).
Upvotes: 4
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<issue_start>username_0: In one course I got a lower than expected grade. If the professor wants, he can give me a non passing grade and this won't be on my transcript (non passing grades are not on our transcript). Of course I have to retake the course.
Many of our professors do it, but a few usually doesn't.
How I can polity ask him to give me a non passing grade?<issue_comment>username_1: I cannot say I agree with the practice: students should be responsible to know what they're doing as regards their studies, which, among other things, implies that they must have a sense as to how well-prepared they are for an exam (and they should also bear the risk and the consequences of occasionally making a wrong assessment). By setting a grade-threshold and ask the professor to give a non-passing grade if the threshold is not reached, the student effectively sheds this burden of responsibility off him or herself.
That said, the usual practice is to ask such things before grading (for example if the exam is in paper and not electronic, students note that on the paper they hand in). Asking for it afterwards... well, if the professor is friendly to the practice, start by apologizing for not letting him know in advance and then ask what you want to ask.
But if the professor is not friendly to the practice, consider living with the consequences of a lower-than-expected grade in your transcript.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: First, let's clarify the situation here. When you say "*If the professor wants, he can give me a non passing grade* [...]", do you mean that your institution has a specific policy that allows the professor to give you a non-passing grade at his discretion (based on a specific request from you, I assume) and without regard for your actual performance in the class? I would be very surprised if that were the case, but in the unlikely event that I'm wrong about this and there is such a policy, by all means go right ahead and ask (politely, while doing your best to pretend that the professor is human, as @Davidmh said in his funny comment).
In the more realistic case in which by "*If the professor wants*" you simply meant that the professor, being the person in charge, appears to you to have the authority to give you a failing grade, I would say that your interpretation of the situation is incorrect. Your request is unethical, and the professor actually has no right to give you any grade except the one that he/she thinks you deserve based on your performance in the class. Doing anything else would be dishonest and unethical. Think about it: what you are asking the professor to do is to
1. lie
2. breach the confidence of his employer, who pays him to assess your performance and output a grade that reflects his honest opinion of that performance, and
3. to subvert the policies of the university, which, whether your professor agrees with them or not, were put in place by people who are in a decision-making authority and it is not his/her place to undermine, certainly not in such a surreptitious, dishonest way.
Given this, I am afraid that your request is highly inappropriate, and obviously there is no "good" way to make it. The policy that leads students to make such bizarre requests may or may not be a sensible one, and it would be appropriate if you wanted to ask the professor to help you fight it by, for example, writing a letter asking for an exception to the policy so that you can try to improve your grade in the class. But I don't see how you think it is even remotely reasonable to ask the professor to submit a dishonest grade. By the way, I had a student once make a similar request of me, and needless to say I refused, with the same reasoning as I explained above.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: Grading your work costs my time. I am not willing to give you a non-passing grade so that I can grade your exam again. Anyway, who cares about grades? The important thing is what you know, not what grades are entered in someplace.
Upvotes: 0
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<issue_start>username_0: I recently took up a job at my Alma Mater as an adjunct professor teaching an undergraduate embedded systems course. Due to the nature of the school, and this being my first teaching assignment, I work in conjunction with a more experienced professor; he handles the lecture and one of the lab sections, I handle the other lab section.
I find that my students seem to grasp the concepts discussed in the lecture, but fail to connect what they have learned to actually, practically writing code to solve the problems presented to them. It is as if they can describe what needs to be done, but they can't actually do it on their own. Now, I did some tutoring as well when I was an undergrad, and I saw a similar effect. I know the students are capable, because I have seen them do very similar things before, however as soon as they get stuck on something, they freeze up and even the most basic, prerequisite concepts (programming, in this case) seem to leave their heads.
It is very frustrating, and I have to resist the urge to just hand them the answer, but I feel that as the semester progresses and we encounter more difficult topics, we are going to have issues completing the labs. How can I inspire my students to realize that they *do* possess the knowledge to solve the problem and that they do not need me to take them to the answer one step at a time? It seems callous to just say "You know this, I'm not helping you" (obviously with less harsh words), but I really don't know how else to get that point across.
**Other Thoughts:**
Based on some of the answers (which are great, by the way), it seems like I may be mistaken in my assumption that my students know how to program, and that may be related to the fact that this course spends a lot of time trying to teach the important parts of embedded systems, without stressing the programming piece as much, because hey, the students already took a programming class. They already know how to to it.
This is actually something I plan to discuss with my dept. chair. Unfortunately, since I basically handle the lab section for now, and the semester is under way already, I can't exactly modify the course curriculum.
I think we as an institution need to alter the course to have more general, thought provoking programming assignments in addition to the "easy-code hard-implementation" of embedded programming. For example, have the students write a prime number generator in C (for a homework assignment), even if this week's lab is as simple as blinking an LED. Or maybe not even a direct programming assignment, something more like "Explain what could happen if a function that declares a variable calls itself from within itself (recursively) 1 million times?" Its open ended, but with a little research and critical thinking it should be apparent that you'd eventually have a stack overflow/stomp on memory somewhere else. Its hard to make programming assignments that are compact and can't be found on Google.
Thank you all for your answers.<issue_comment>username_1: Sounds like you need to train problem solving strategies, like those described in Pólya's "How to solve it" (dated, but *very* relevant; problems discussed as examples are easy to grasp with minimal mathematics knowledge).
Perhaps the question [How to teach perseverance?](https://matheducators.stackexchange.com/questions/10234/how-to-teach-perseverance) is also relevant.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Let me give you a student's perspective on things. This may make you very sad to hear, and it may be different elsewhere but, like Kimball touched on, perhaps your students may not know how to code.
It's a sad truth that most of my peers do not know how to program basic tasks, much less more difficult concepts such as linked-lists, binary trees, etc. For most lower level programming courses a lot of the course work can be found online. When I attempt to engage my peers with group study sessions or peer programming I find that most of them seem to be content just copying source code from online and posting it as their own.
Now, professors of higher level programming courses check the source code and grade you on format, structure, readability, variable and method names, and so on; but, many professors for my lower level courses simply checked to make sure the output was correct. My peers are having a *very* hard time in upper level CS courses, and many of them simply do not understand what is meant by "multi-threading," "dependency injection," "listeners," "interface," "abstract class," "visitor," etc.
I fear that there will soon be a generation of programmers who simply will not know how to program and will have simply skated by in university. I'm interested to hear other people's thought and opinions on this trend. Is my college the odd-man out? Or is this a trend elsewhere as well?
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: >
> How do I inspire my students to work through problems on their own?
>
>
>
By giving students assignments that they truly work on their own, with minimal hand-holding, then assigning the appropriate grade. Some students will be upset enough with their less-than-desirable grades such that they become "inspired." The other students who fail to keep up with the pace of the course will earn the grades which truly reflects their lack of ability/skill/etc.
Sitting down with the under-performing students, and explaining that they may benefit, for example, from retaking the necessary prerequisites may be in order. It's not easy to tell a junior/senior that they should probably go back and retake a sophomore-level class, but that's life, and it's better for everyone in the long run.
Although I've not been in my current faculty position for very long, I've already seen the consequences of dumbing down the assignments, and the effect that it has on the quality of the follow-on courses, both in student capabilities and my ability to teach the things that need to be taught at the appropriate pace.
The way I see it, you can either make your assignments easier, or be tough: I have (somewhat reluctantly, at first) grown to prefer the tough route.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_4: I agree with bss. As an almost computer science grad I can attest to how many people can skate by the first few years of classes.True, the answers can be found online but another big issue is that so many people can luck into the solution. Something isn't work? Keeping changing a variable in a while loop until poof! It works. Or they get a hint from another classmate or TA or friend and after that they can piece the pieces together. Then they get to higher level classes and even if they genuinely want to succeed, they don't have that basic understanding, yet they got an A or B in the class. It's a big problem.
However, back to your question. Assuming you know they can get there (or really believe they can) and they are just doubting their abilities (something I have a terrible habit of) I would suggest the Rubber Duck Method. I'll leave the wiki link below but the gist is: you talk to someone/thing explaining what the issue is. So often just talking out loud going step by step of what is happening can result in a "ah ha!" moment. Even writing out the issue on sites like overflow can result in figuring out the solution just by taking the time to specifically lay out the problem.
I do have to say, the worst thing you can do is tell them "come on! It's easy, the answer is so clear!" They are already frustrated and annoyed they can't figure it out and telling them it's easy just discourages them even more. If it's so easy why can't I solve it? Do I really just suck at this? I'm not saying you, OP, are doing this. This is just in general for anyone else in a similar situation.
Good luck!
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber_duck_debugging>
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: For me all inspiration comes from my internal drive for knowledge. At the age of 12 I was told, and I learned, that the best way to learn is to teach. Have your students tutor other's in their class and to ask for help. Most people believe they must do everything completely on their own or simply were taught that asking for help is weak.
Please contact me with any questions.
Gracias,
username_5
Upvotes: 0
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<issue_start>username_0: I have received an admission **offer\*** from a US University for PhD program with full tuition waiver plus a TA offer. The deadline of accepting the offer is April 15. Graduate coordinator wrote me that
>
> Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or
> concerns. We are looking forward to your response.
>
>
>
I have applied few other universities too and have not received their decisions. How to write the coordinator in a best way that, I'm very much interested but I would like to notify them (acceptance or declining) regarding admission offer around the middle of March? Will they take my view in a negative way?
\*The official certificate of admission will come from the university, after all official transcripts and other necessary documents and test scores are received; until then, this offer is considered unofficial. You will be contacted by the university with a request for documents and for other details, but in the meantime here are the specifics of this offer.
Students who are offered a graduate assistantship are required to accept or decline by April 15, 2016. This common deadline is based on an agreement of all institutions that are members of the Council of Graduate Schools, as described in the April 15 Resolution, a copy of which can be obtained from <http://www.cgsnet.org/april-15-resolution>.<issue_comment>username_1: You just write "Thank you very much for the offer. I'm very interested, and will definitely contact you if I think of any questions. At the moment, I'm waiting to hear back from some other institutions, but I will contact you as soon as I come to a final decision." Graduate coordinators understand that you've applied other places, and there's a relatively low probability they are your first choice. They've also probably sent out dozens of these offers; they're not that emotionally invested in any particular one. Honestly, they would probably appreciate knowing where else you are considering for informational reasons.
I hope you've informed all the places you're no longer considering that you've withdrawn your application and that you've contacted places you want to hear from to find out the situation. There's no need to commit yourself to a timeline (what if you find out you are high on the waiting list somewhere else).
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: It is best to let them know that you received the email and that you will make a decision after you hear from some other schools. No one will think badly of this. In fact, it is part of the game. A short email of the type
>
> Thank you for the admission offer to University of XXX. This is very exciting news. I am still waiting to hear from a few schools and will let you know when I have made my decision or by April 15th at the latest.
>
>
>
You should also let any school that you are no longer interested in know.
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: [Many](https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/63619/452) authors do not intend to make much revenue from books (textbooks or research books) they contribute to, yet they don't make it open access. Why?<issue_comment>username_1: ff524 basically answered in the comment: publishers don't usually allow it. Just as with journal articles it might be possible to negotiate publishing under an open access license for a fee. Sometimes it is also possible to negotiate being allowed to publish a "preprint" version on your homepage or a preprint server such as the arXiv. Typically this is a version without the editing and layout work done by the publisher.
Of course authors can just decide to not publish with a publisher (or self-publish) and just upload the book to their homepage, as many people do. You will miss out on royalties (not a big deal, as noted in the question) and marketing efforts of the publisher.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: There are a number of reasons why not to, and they stem from the reasons one might want to publish a book, even if you aren't making much if any money:
* The prestige of the publisher matters. For many tenure committees, professional organizations, etc. "A Book from BigDeal University Press" > "Some Markdown Files on Github" or what have you in terms of evaluation. In effect, you are getting paid, but in prestige and reputation rather than money.
* Publishers take care of a number of things that, if you're self-publishing an open access book you have to do yourself, including copy-editing, layout, and most importantly, finding peer reviewers.
* Seeing a book adopted widely (another part of the whole prestige aspect) will likely be more difficult for an open-access book, at least at present, where they are fairly common. Who is going to do the marketing? Has it actually been properly peer reviewed? Are there nice, hard-bound copies available (some of us like reading things on paper), etc.
That is not to say that there are not some very successful efforts in my field to do open access books. Hernan and Robins causal inference book, for example, has drafts and code available online: <http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/miguel-hernan/causal-inference-book/>
But neither one of those authors is in the position to *need* much benefit from a book publication, and it's still being placed in a traditional press when it's finished.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_3: >
> Many authors do not intend to make much revenue from books (textbooks or research books) they contribute to, yet they don't make it open access. Why?
>
>
>
First, while authors may not "intend" to make much revenue, that still does not mean that they will happily give up whatever revenue they are actually going to make (and keep in mind that the actual amount of revenue is impossible to predict with accuracy at the time an author needs to make this decision). So if an author feels that making their book open-access will lead to a loss of revenue, then unless that author is sufficiently generous, passionate about open-access, and/or financially well-off, not insisting on making the book available as open-access would be a completely rational decision, regardless of whether the publisher would give permission or not.
Second, and more importantly in my opinion, after you have spent a few years and a huge amount of labor and creative energy writing a book, the idea of giving it away for free is simply ... uncomfortable, even for purely psychological reasons. I decided to make my book open access and am quite happy with my decision, but I can completely understand and respect authors who have made the opposite decision, and don't think such a decision should be criticized by anyone who hasn't gone through a similar creative journey themselves.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: As the entry level for self-publishing is now very low, there is a whole swamp of the low quality content. Once you join this swamp, it is very difficult to raise above it, as nobody can find you. A good quality content initially belonging to this swamp takes long time to be noticed, if ever.
It is critical to have the public reviewing system not for picking best of the best but first for discarding the really low quality junk. Automated search tools, even Google technologies, cannot do this properly, as the junkwriters are often much more experts in "search engine optimization". Hence they trash with lots of revenue generating ads around somehow always takes if not the first then at least a second place in the search results.
The only way known for me to mitigate this is to link (or publish in) the official website of the notable university. Web search will take this into consideration, but the option is not easily available for all potentially good publishers.
It is the lack of the serious public reviewing system that hinders publishing of the free content.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: There is a point about human nature - people tend to value things according to how much they have to pay to get them. An author might well feel that if people can download something for free from a website that it will not be valued. As a user of some excellent free software and the recipient of some excellent free advice here, I know that this is not always true, but other users and other authors might not agree with me.
There is also the obverse to this - that some people will ask, "If it's that good, why is she giving it away?" This meshes with the belief that anything which is valuable can be "monetized" and anything which cannot have a numeric value put on it, does not have value.
Again, I think that the internet is changing these perceptions, but not for everyone and not in every circumstance.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_6: I'm surprised at all the answers given because they all seem to miss the point.
**If you publish something open-access, you need to pay for it.** An author publishing a non-OA book receives author royalties. The same author publishing an OA book has to pay the publisher. The price is *not* cheap. Check out [Cambridge University Press's website on OA books](https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/open-access-policies/open-access-books/gold-open-access-books).
>
> **How much are your Book Processing Charges?**
> Our standard charge for a monograph of up to 120,000 words is £9,500/$14,500/€13,000 (excluding any applicable VAT or local sales tax), and £55/$84/€76 per additional thousand words. We are usually able to offer a discount of £2/$3/€2.5 per page for camera ready copy.
> We do, however, consider each book individually. Additional fees may apply depending upon the complexity of the work.
>
>
>
It's one thing to write a book and make little/no money. It's another to actually *lose money* writing the book. Yes, CUP's website also says you will continue to receive royalties, but OA means the content is available for free. How many people will pay for the book when they can already read for free?
tl; dr: authors don't make books OA because it doesn't make economic sense.
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: Upon acceptance, some journals offer open access through an *optional* fee. This model differs from the usual open access model in which *all* authors pay a fee and *all* accepted papers are accessible *without* restriction. **Addendum**: the latter is referred to as simply open access, while the former is referred to as *hybrid* open access.
My question is as follows: I publish (most of) my papers on the [arXiv](http://arxiv.org), and as such, the preprints are picked up by search engines. When the corresponding camera-ready journal version appears, anyone with an internet connection can still access my arXiv paper, and hence I always opt *not* to pay the optional fees to make my paper open access.
In fact, most respected researchers in mathematics/computer science/physics/etc. also publish to the arXiv. As such, I am confused as to why this model of open access exists. What demand is it satisfying? Is there some advantage to paying these optional fees that I am not seeing?
P.S. -- The journal I have in mind currently is a SIAM journal. Their [open access policies are listed here](https://www.siam.org/journals/oa.php). Their open access fee is $2,500 USD (this is not an unusual number for publishers following this approach). This (at least to me) is a substantial amount of money per paper.<issue_comment>username_1: If you work in a field in which people use and trust the arXiv, then there's little reason to pay fees for [hybrid open access](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hybrid_open_access_journal). One reason would be if your funding agency requires open access publication and does not consider the arXiv to be an acceptable substitute. Another would be if you wish to encourage the journal to transition to fee-based open access publishing. In your case, I doubt either of these reasons would be compelling.
From the publisher's perspective, it's a no brainer: why not offer authors this option? It can't do any harm, since it pays for itself. If few authors choose to pay the fee, then the publisher can use this as evidence that there is little demand to change their business model. If many authors do, then it smoothens the transition to becoming a fully open-access journal.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: >
> In fact, most respected researchers in mathematics/computer science/physics/etc. also publish to the arXiv. As such, I am confused as to why this model of open access exists. What demand is it satisfying? Is there some advantage to paying these optional fees that I am not seeing?
>
>
>
Because not all respected researchers work in mathematics/computer science, etc. For example, posting on arXiv or an arXiv-alike is *extremely* uncommon in my field, and preprints are not readily accepted - nor necessarily searched for. My only two preprints are there, for example, because a co-author insisted. However, these authors may still value open access - especially if they don't have a funding mechanism like the NIH that will mandate it become open eventually. In that case, why not pay for it?
For why it exists for fields where arXiv is a substitute? Likely because it's a publisher wide program, and there's very little reason not to offer it on the off chance someone wants to pay.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: Our lab has a portion of its budget allocated to publication costs. If we don't spend it, it looks like we haven't been publishing enough. Having nothing else we can actually spend it on, we've been paying for open access recently (e.g. some of my recent open-access papers: [1](http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10623-015-0123-1), [2](http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00373-015-1643-1)).
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: Keep in mind that there's open access and there's open access. Let's compare for example the different **self-archiving** models (yellow, blue, and green open access according to the [SHERPA RoMEO classification](http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeoinfo.html)) with the **hybrid open access** you're asking about or the otherwise commonly used [**gold open access**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_access#Journals:_gold_open_access) model.
With self-archiving, the copyright is typically transferred to the publisher, but they permit you to post preprints or maybe even post-prints to a publicly accessible repository. The license that these repositories typically require simply permits **them** to distribute the paper (e.g. the [arXiv non-exclusive distribution license](http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/license.html)), without giving any rights to persons who download the paper from there.
In contrast, with **hybrid** or **gold open access**, typically the authors put their paper under an open license like the Creative Commons License. This is also the model that the [SIAM Open Access policy](https://www.siam.org/journals/oa.php) proposes. In that case, everybody can use the paper under this license. That implies that **other researchers and teachers may distribute the paper**, and can legally reuse figures or excerpts in their works (presentations, posters, blog posts), with attribution, but without getting special permission from the publisher.
And then there's strange open access policies like [the one from the IEEE](https://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/authorrightsresponsibilities.html), where authors pay a fee just to have their paper downloadable by everybody: essentially the same thing that arXiv or self-archiving provides, just with the official publisher's version...
In the end, the authors can (and have to) decide which open access model is best suited for their situation.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: Prestige and branding. Publishers are well aware of the power of brands and many academics are obsessed with the prestige of having work accepted to a ‘high impact’ journal and the associated positive effects it has on their career and their ego. So much so they are willing to hand over tax payers (the majority, but not all research, is funded from taxes, at least in the UK) money as well as the copyright of the work to publishers in order to publish their work in these venues. RCUK (the body responsible for overseeing the different research councils in the UK) awarded £22.6 million in funding (2015/2016) for Universities to publish in open access journals. Or thought of another way, scientists have handed £22.6 million to publishers for the privilege of access and reviewing their own data. One can argue that the publishers operate a service, which they do, however with profit margins of some major publishers nearing 50% I am astonished that this practice continues given the potential ease of distribution using something called the internet. We can blame the publishers for charging high fees but we basically let them and it needs a large cultural shift of academics to stop this as the £22.6 million (and that is not counting the money from charities etc.) that is given to the publishers is lost from science and would be better spent on funding science rather than lining the pockets of publishers. For this we need to stop valuing the name of the journal in which the information is published more than the actual information in the scientific papers.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_6: I believe the short version is that some journals do not actually permit this. Many Elsevier journals, for instance, have [embargo policies](https://www.elsevier.com/about/open-science/open-access/journal-embargo-finder "List of Elsevier journal embargoes") that appear to disallow uploading the article to your own website or to a site like arXiv/BioRxiv for a period of time following publication, usually 12-24 months. In "hybrid" journals such as you describe, I believe that paying for open access means that the article is available immediately.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_7: **It depends on the copyright transfer agreement.**
Some journals require you to transfer the rights to the pre-print. Other than book chapters, in my humble opinion, this is a predatory behaviour and such journals should be boycotted, but as soon as you sign the copyright transfer agreement, you can't upload your manuscript to arXiv or personal repository. Some journals might even ask you to take down versions from arXiv or personal repository, even if you uploaded your work to those media before submitting to the journal. I am not well versed on the IP laws to tell you whether this is legal, but they can still ask you to take them down.
If the copyright transfer agreement gives you the pre-print or even the post-print, I guess, you can even upload them to scribd. Normally, since editors and reviewers are generally unpaid, the expenses of the journal starts after the post-print, so it makes sense that they retain the full rights to the final version.
**What is the downside of not paying open access and uploading it to the repository?**
* The uploaded version will probably be poor in writing, as it did not go through a detailed script checking.
* The visibility of your article might reduce. I am very sceptical of this, as Google scholar indexes personal repositories and arXiv. But I am not sure whether Web of Science indexes personal repositories too. Still, although it is largely depending on the field, I assume the reduction will be infinitesimal.
**Addendum:**
* Since this question is asked on academia.SE rather than law.SE, any legal precedence carries little weight here. This is because **suing an editor/journal might have unprecedented implications for an emerging academician.** Winning such a lawsuit can easily turn into a pyrrhic victory, while you can easily resubmit it to another journal after the rejection.
* Journals distinguish between for profit repositories and non-commercial ones. **It is never a good idea to put your work in a for profit repository.**
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_8: The major open source licenses are irrevocable˟. And arXiv's policies are in accord with this. (Thanks, to visionaries like [RMS](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Stallman), [LLL](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Lessig), and allies.)
>
> "Articles that have been announced and made public cannot be completely removed." [Source: arXiv's Withdrawal Policy](https://arxiv.org/help/withdraw).
>
>
>
So if you've submitted it to arXiv, the journals can require you to transfer your rights, but even if you do, they will be unable to get arXiv to take them down.
I'm reading Elsevier's Article Sharing Policy
and they are -- **shockingly** -- VERY liberal with respect to sharing of both **Preprints** *AND* **Accepted Manuscripts** - at any time - but *not* the actual **Published Journal Article**.
The Article Sharing Policy and the Quick Definitions of those terms in bold, above, is at the following link, which brings you to the part of the page with the latter:
| *<https://www.elsevier.com/about/policies/sharing#definitions>* \* |
| --- |
| Hmm! The above previews as a [clickable link like this](https://www.elsevier.com/about/policies/sharing#definitions), but doesn't save as one. |
So I think most of what's holding people back from changing with the times is inertia.
\*For example, here's one definition:
* An **accepted manuscript** is the manuscript of an article that has been accepted for publication and which typically includes author-incorporated changes suggested during submission, peer review, and editor-author communications. They do not include other publisher value-added contributions such as copy-editing, formatting, technical enhancements and (if relevant) pagination.
˟Yes, there's even been [court precedent](https://www.technollama.co.uk/us-court-declares-gpl-is-a-contract) to further establish this.
Upvotes: 0
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<issue_start>username_0: I'm new to academic writing. From what I read on other posts, would the "133" be the volume number? And the 46-54 be the page in the journal?
J Surg Res. 2006 Jun 1;133(1):46-54. Epub 2006 Apr 21.
From: <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16631200><issue_comment>username_1: Journal of Surgical Research
Volume 133, Issue 1, June 2006, Pages 46–54
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: You are right. 133 is the volume number and (1) is the issue number of the journal, while 46-54 indicates the page numbers. Since you are new to academic writing, a little bit of information on referencing and citation styles would probably help.
There are several style guides such as the APA, MLA, Harvard, and CMS style guides. Of these, students and researchers in the sciences and the social sciences generally follow the APA style guide. The APA style uses in-text citations as well as a separate reference list at the end. Typically, when referencing journal articles, the format used is as follows:
Author, A.A.. (Publication Year). Article title. Periodical Title, Volume(Issue), pp.-pp.
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<issue_start>username_0: I am going to start a postdoc at a Dutch university. This is my second postdoc, and my contract says I am on salary scale 10, level 8. I am assuming that they counted 5 years of PhD and 3 years of my first postdoc to arrive at the level 8.
However, I took more than 5 years (actually closer a decade) to finish my PhD. Also, I had a couple of short-term bridging postdocs over a year, before starting my first postdoc. Do these years not figure in the determination of level on the salary scale?
If there is anyone familiar with Dutch universities' [salary scale](http://www.vsnu.nl/files/documenten/CAO/November%202015/Salarisschalen_per_1_januari%202016.pdf), I would appreciate any feedback. I wanted to ask here before contacting the university, so as to not sound demanding to them.<issue_comment>username_1: I'm post-doc'ing at [CWI](https://www.cwi.nl/) now; it's not a university but I'm sure it's the same pay scale - I'm also on scale 10. What I can tell you is:
* Your slot/rank on the scale is, AFAICT and as @Niko suggests, equal to SOME\_CONSTANT + calculated years of experience after the conclusion of your PhD. It doesn't matter what happened before you concluded your PhD. However, I got started on level 9, having only 3 years of calculated experience. So I can't verify that SOME\_CONSTANT = 5. Or maybe it's an NWO-vs-universities thing.
* The calculation of the number of years of experience is to some extent negotiable. In my case, I got my 3 years in industry after my PhD counted as 3 years of experience; and it was not clear from the get-go that this would indeed be the case.
Finally, I've not actually read it, but perhaps the [collective employment agreement](http://www.vsnu.nl/files/documenten/CAO/Januari%202016/CAO_NU%20ENG%20jan2016.pdf) for Dutch universities has the official wording on this matter. (I've linked to the 2015-2016 version but I don't think this point has changed.)
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: My PI, while hiring me was flexible on this. I was assistant professor for 3 years before coming to PostDoc (I know, I know, long story :D) and they calculated it for my favor.
Surprisingly though I got my degree on August, at the moment of hiring (July) I had 3 years of experience and from this my scale was calculated. Sadly, I went to next level not in August (after a month) but after 12 months in the Next July :/
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: The first thing to note is that in the Netherlands the step in which you enter the scale is a fully negotiable thing. There are guidelines based on experience, but unlike for example in Germany, these guidelines are not set in stone rules. Ultimately, your (negotiated) offer is determining the step. This also means, that you trying the negotiate your step will not be viewed negatively.
Now what would be a fair step to ask for? Lets consider the step that a post-doc who has been continuously been employed at the university would be in. The basic principles are that you would advance one step each year, and that when taking a position in a higher payscale, your pay should not decrease.
PhD students in the Netherlands are paid in scale "P". The last step of scale "P" is equivalent in pay to step 2 in scale 10. So a postdoc hired freshly out of their PhD is expected to get step 3 in scale 10. After 3 years, you would be in step 6.
Since you are being offer step 8, that seems more than reasonable and fair.
Of course, there are other arguments you could be bringing to the table. For example, it is not unreasonable to suggest that they should at least match your the pay in your previous position if that was higher.
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: My project work which i was planning to publish somebody else published just 1 month before. what should i do? Is my total research work of 8 months going to be a waste?
I was working for a novel phytochemical and planned to publish my paper. When i submitted the journal manuscript in December, the editor replied in the month of January that some other Chinese group published paper for the same product in January. Is my whole research of 8 months going to be a wastage. What other options do i have? Please suggests.<issue_comment>username_1: This is a common problem that researchers face. The fear of being scooped partially explains the publish or perish culture in academia. This is definitely a setback for you, but there are a few options which you can consider to make at least some use of all those months of research:
1. You can try to build on the published paper. If required, conduct a few more experiments and move over to the next logical step in the idea.
2. Using your original idea as a base, try to come up with a related but new research question that allows you to use some of the old data.
3. Go through your paper again and see if there is any secondary finding that you might not have focused on at that point of time, but which could be developed into a new research idea.
Now that you have been scooped once, you should try to get your results out before anybody else does. Since the publication process of journals can take up a lot of time, one thing you can do to avoid getting scooped is post a pre-print or present at a conference as soon as you finish your research. Also, make sure that you do not take too long to write your manuscript. You should actually start writing certain sections, such as the methods and results section as and when you perform the experiments. That way, you will be able to save up on the writing time.
Most importantly, do not lose motivation. The fear of being scooped is part of a researcher's life and there is no foolproof system in place to avoid it. So just keep your spirits up and move on.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: Some journals (like PLOS One) specifically accept papers like this ("scooped research") as long as it has only been a short time since the first paper came out. It is certainly not a wasted effort, because two people independently getting the same results on an important problem only increases the confidence that the solution is correct. But you should carefully go through the other paper before you try to just publish your work - you will probably find some hole or assumption or other imperfection that you can base another paper around that came from your own work.
Upvotes: 3
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<issue_start>username_0: Manuscripts should provide new contribution in the particular field which is listed as the scope of the journal. But is it necessary to cite papers from the particular journal for which I am going to submit my paper?<issue_comment>username_1: >
> is it necessary to cite papers from the particular journal for which I am going to submit my paper?
>
>
>
No.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: The two questions you have asked are actually not the same, so I'll answer them separately. To answer your first question, it is not necessary to cite papers from the journal where you plan to submit. You should cite only whatever sources you have used or are relevant to your work, irrespective of where they have been published. If, during your literature search, you happen to come across relevant articles published in your target journal, you can cite them. If not, it is still fine.
Deciding on a suitable journal based on the papers in your reference list is a good idea. This is not because you will have more citations from the same journal, but because the chances of your work matching the scope of the journal is higher. Since the works on your reference list will mostly be closely related to the topic and subject area of your paper, the journals which have published these works will probably have an interest in publishing works on a similar topic. This is a good way to select target journals which will be interested in your work.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: You have two different questions here.
>
> Should I decide the “suitable journal” for submission based on the papers in references?
>
>
>
"Yes you should" seems overly strong, but "**yes, this is a decent strategy**" as a starting point to figuring out where you might want to send the paper. You should look at other factors like how well that journal is rated/cited and respected by people in your field (as a starting point to understanding this, ask your advisor).
>
> Is it necessary to cite papers from the particular journal for which I am going to submit my paper?
>
>
>
**Not strictly "necessary" but a very good idea.** What's important is that you show how your paper fits in to the work that already exists in the specific field you're contributing to. Probably, some of that work is in the same venue, so you should cite that work and show how yours is related to it. Some reviewers may feel more at ease if they see citations to the same venue and are convinced you've described how your paper is related to the cited works. *You should at least be checking your target venue for papers related to yours*, so that you aren't seen to be missing on-topic work in that field in that venue, which reviewers may be more likely to be aware of and thinking of as they read your work.
Be aware that when you're describing those prior papers in the field and the gap that leaves, which your paper fills, that you do so respectfully; the authors of those papers (even if the papers are not in the same venue) may be your reviewers.
You should also look at papers in that journal and see how they are structured (in addition to looking at how they are formatted). Is there a particular set of section headings that most or all papers in that journal have? Are they typically in the same order? Is there a common series of points that are made, especially in introduction sections? If so, give your paper the same sections and sequencing, so that you overcome the antibodies that might reject it thinking "this just doesn't look/feel/read like something that gets published here." *For formatting, follow the journal's style guide/templates.*
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]
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<issue_start>username_0: For example, let us consider that I write a manuscript which is to be submitted to one of the prestigious journals such as PRL, PRB, etc. In this manuscript, is it OK to cite from some journals which are generally considered as not-so-prestigious journals? If I cite more papers from low impact factor journals, does it play a negative role?<issue_comment>username_1: **Of course**, you should cite any relevant work.
You can't ignore work just because it is in a journal that someone believes to be lesser. That doesn't mean the work is bad.
As long you do a thorough literature review and avoid *predatory* journals, there should be no negative impact on your paper.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_2: Your own work is not based on the impact factor of your cited work. The quality of your argumentation and thesis you discuss in a paper mainly builds on a coherent discussion of the state of research, independent from where it is published. Only referencing high-impact factor journals indicates that you only did a shallow literature search in the more well-known journals, which is not very professional in my opinion.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: The impact factor (IF) is a metric of citations. If enough manuscripts from a low-IF journal get cited more often, the journal's IF will improve.
In general, you should consider any manuscript independent of the journal it got published in. However, there is one caveat: If you suspect that a journal doesn't follow a good review process (such as [predatory journals](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/17380/9482)), you should examine the manuscript with extra caution. Furthermore, there is usually some correlation between the quality of a manuscript and the work described therein and the quality of the journal it got published in.
As a reviewer, I have no problem with a few citations from low-IF journals. However, I will be very critical if there are no citations from mid- to high-IF journals because that is an indication that your work might not be very relevant or innovative.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: Academic research is based on citing other relevant work that you used or inspired your work. Omitting those sources is a practise that should be very strongly discouraged, and you could be accused of plagiarism. There may be reasons why that work was published in a less prestigious journal, despite its relevance (or not), for example having been written by a student in a less prestigious institution who is not yet known, or who is publishing work that may be controversial (but not necessarily invalid). As the authour of your article, you should view yourself as the "expert", and be able to ascertain the validity of the papers you are referencing, regardless of where they were published in. If you are using some of their results, or referring to views contained therein, you have an obligation to referencing them.
You need to be confident in your work, which should be evaluated only by its content, and not by the other articles it is referencing.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: Impact factor (IF) is a quite debated metric for journal quality. But in no way it addresses the quality of a single paper in that journal, and especially the quality regarding your needs. So you can cite this paper, as long as it effectively contribute to the work your are performing.
Beware though, since some journals tend to increase their IF, some editors may favor papers that cite a lot (or a sufficient quantity) of papers from the same journal, or even from the same society or publisher group. It is unfair un general, yet this exists.
The number of citations received by the paper can sometimes help balancing the IF of the journal it was published in.
Finally, aside from the IF, which is not relative to the field (some fields tend to have weaker IF than others), the [journal search at Scimago](http://www.scimagojr.com/journalsearch.php) provides a ranking of journals in different fields.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_6: Yes, cite it. For sure.
Anyway, you can differ between low impact factor and a low quality paper.
A low impact factor does not imply always a low quality paper (if that was a concern of you).
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_7: A low impact may not say a lot about a journal. In my field, one of the lowest ranking journals is in fact the best journal for my work. Because of the extreme narrow scope, it has a low impact, because its readership is restricted. However, like its readership, the journal's referee pool consists solely out of dedicated experts in this exact field. In turn, throwing your work in there is like throwing it into a lions den. If it survives, the paper is definitely strong and worth surviving.
In other words, when an important argument in your manuscript all hangs on that one citation from a low-ranking journal, you may want to familiarize yourself with that journal, before labeling it as a “not-so-prestigious journal”. Judge and see if it is a valid paper. Look at the author list. Authors often say more than the journal. Research groups can be prestigious too, universities can be too, single authors can be too.
In general, when it's just a side-note in your MS that needs a reference, I would definitely not leave out work based on IF only, and in fact not even bother with all this.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_8: Of course, you can and should cite a paper from a low IF journal if it is relevant to your argumentation! IF changes overtime, the ideas in the paper stay and can be worth using later on.
To base your decision for citing a paper on the impact factor is definitively anti-scientific!
Upvotes: 1
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<issue_start>username_0: I have written a few manuscripts so far, and those have already been published in some ordinary peer-reviewed journals. However, I feel stressed so much when I write my new manuscript. How should this stress be handled or overcome? I feel that other researchers also feel similar to me.<issue_comment>username_1: Your problem is common to many researchers, I think. However, the solutions are very different for each and everyone. My key concepts to avoid stress while writing, especially articles at the moment, consists of the following steps and ideas:
* Strict time management. I set deadlines for every step I have to take. Like 1 week literature search, 1 week literature examination and reading, 1 week to construct a thesis and a research question etc. (or how long you need)
* I try to create a structure of the article beforehand and extend it during the process of writing the paper. In the structure (I make a table of contents) I add bullet points to remember what important things I have to go through.
* I continuously read and revise the mansucript I have already written.
* When writing with co-authors I try to work together with them in one space, rather than skyping now and then. However, your time management is only as good as theirs, when you have to cooperate. So: direct communication with opennenss and honesty is important.
* Never ever I plan to use extensions of deadlines. I only make use of extensions if things really are in trouble. Inform the persons who are awaiting your manuscript in time that you won't make the deadline.
All in all, the strategies against stress can also include recreational sports after an afternoon of writing. Or explicitly doing other things so that no other tasks are left behind. The perfect strategy is quite individual I think.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: I find it really helps me to start by doing a really bad draft version. The aim of it is just to get your ideas and points down on paper but you give yourself the permission for it to be terrible. Use bad spelling, bad structure, bad diagrams - it doesn't matter. It doesn't have to make sense to anyone but you at this stage. The focus is just on what you want to say and the message/conclusion you want to get across.
Once you've got all you points written in a bad draft, you can focus solely on fixing up the language, diagrams, structure and make it in a nice, publishable paper.
Breaking it down into these two stages helps me because I find trying to do both things (get my message across and write something of publishable quality) at the same time is really hard and stressful without years of experience (which I don't have yet).
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: I find perfectionism to be the thief of time in most cases whenever I get to work on a paper.
It is less stressful and more productive to prepare manuscript iteratively.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: A few things that have really helped reduce the stress in writing for me:
* Writing the introduction first and the abstract last. **Hopefully**, the background to your research won't significantly change during the writing process, so your introduction should be pretty static during the whole writing process. On the other hand, I've found that as I write a paper, what I believe to be the important aspects of the paper often changes with the writing process. As such, my first idea of what the abstract should be is often completely different than the final abstract.
* Starting with a skeleton of the manuscript (i.e. titles of sections and subsections, with an explicit plan of what should go where). This allows you to break up all the writing and work in separate chunks. I found that I was surprised how much stress is involved in moving paragraphs around and trying to keep a good flow to the paper.
* Starting with putting words on paper (that is, LaTeX, Word, etc.) with little concern for quality! My first draft is always going to be horrible, so my first goal is to put all the ideas down, just to get all the ideas on the paper. I'll worry how it looks later. Plus, there's nothing more frustrating than putting a lot of work in the "perfect paragraph", ultimately to decide it is not necessary for the manuscript.
* Working in consistent, but divided blocks. I have to take the train for 2 hours everyday to get to work and back. But I'm amazed how much using these two blocks of time seems to help the quality (and reduce the stress) of my writing! When I try to write everything in huge blocks, my patience and attention to detail drops, leading to a sloppy writing. But when I consistently work in small blocks, my overall patience level is *much* higher.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_5: This is something I learnt from my advisor and was very helpful for me (as I consider myself a big picture person and am more scared of words than tables and figures):
1. We used to first put all the story which we are going to tell by only putting together final tables and figures
2. Once we know what story we are telling from data it becomes very easy to have coherent theme
3. Another big thing was create an excel sheet where I put in just broad overview of literature I reviewed. It contained column on relevant feature and one comment on what and why were we doing things differently. This was done prior to even starting the analysis.
4. Once I had these two items, writing the story became very easy
This comment might only be relevant for people working with data rather than theoretical papers.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_6: Along the lines of other answers, I would suggest two things:
1. Devoting oneself to just outputting a really horrible first draft--just keep typing without worry over quality and generate an outline or draft that one can build off of—is the way to break through writer's block, in my experience, additionally getting organised is so helpful, I make lists of what all I need to get done in a day using my calendar (time blocking) to make sure I'm making steady progress.
2. hobbies: for me, this is exercise or lifting, which takes up my excess energy, anxiety, or mental space, leaving me less space for worry
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_7: Note: this answer to an old but newly bountied question may be properly deleted as self serving shameless commerce, but I think it's still worth posting.
Check out <NAME>'s *Writing Your Dissertation in Fifteen Minutes a Day*.
It's not just about writing a dissertation, and doesn't prescribe strategies. Its goal is to help you discover what works for you.
Upvotes: 1
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<issue_start>username_0: You address a new Professor by accident with half-typed name in an email. The professor is from US but working now as a professor in Europe. This was my mistake. Rest of the mail was done except half of the name -- the name had unique alphabets not finding in my keyboard so he may have similar experiences. Anyway my mistake can make me look very ignorant the expression I don't want to create.
*How should you deal with the issue? With apologies email? Just forgetting the mistake and in the next email making 100% sure to have correct spelling?*<issue_comment>username_1: Forget about the mistake. If you want you can apologise in the next email. First names are more than enough for most academics unless you are culturally inclined to be very formal with a professor of the same back ground.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: >
> How should you deal with the issue? With apologies email? Just forgetting the mistake and in the next email making 100% sure to have correct spelling?
>
>
>
Unless you have reasons to believe that the professor is in some way miffed (rather unlikely), you deal with this by laughing and moving on.
Upvotes: 3
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<issue_start>username_0: This is not my current situation. However I've heard similar stories from different people (along with my own past experience) a few times. Therefore I want to ask a general question(the title).
For example, suppose you're a graduate student in one of the following scenarios
1. You believe you prove a theorem but later find out it's wrong because one of the lemma/theorem you cite from another published paper is wrong.
2. You spend long time setting up experiments and finding out an published experiment result is not reproducible and is likely to be wrong.
3. You rely on co-workers' code to run simulations but it turns out that there are errors in the code that makes the simulation inaccurate, therefore the conclusion based on that is wrong.
and let's further assume you find out those problems when it's closed to advancement or dissertation time of graduate study. You've spent a few years, only to get a faulty result that is not likely to advance you to the next stage of a researcher.
Q. Are these scenarios hopeless (i.e. a student in that scenario must terminate graduate study)? Should the student be the only one responsible for the issue?
If not, what's the best thing one can do in those scenarios?
If so, how to prevent them? (You can still answer this question even if your answer to Q. is no.)
Highly appreciated if anyone can discuss this from either student's or advisor's point of view.<issue_comment>username_1: This is not really a problem at all. As a matter of fact, correcting previously published results and refining applied methods is part of research. Such an honest mistake is not an offence or ethnical misconduct in any way.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: One thing to consider is that showing fault in an "established" result is, in itself, an important result. If a student spent years working on a project, only to find that the results from their new work disprove earlier accepted results, that's worth telling other researchers (i.e. publishable). Especially considering there's probably dozens of other graduate students all working off those same results until someone tells them the results are not reliable. In fact, my father, an emeritus professor of mathematics, lists "counter-examples" as one of his areas of research.
In the case of proofs and lemmas (i.e. case 1), this is clearly publishable. In the case of experiments, it's a little harder: you would need to make a strong case for your new experiment being substantial evidence that the previous results were wrong, rather than you just botched your experiment. But if you can make a solid case, it is well worth publishing.
Sadly, the third case is not so good for the student. Assuming the student's colleague has not published yet, the research community does not benefit much from the student saying "hey I just realized my friend messed up". They should still tell their colleague and advisor so that the situation is communicated.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]
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<issue_start>username_0: I was offered admission into a graduate physics program in February. I was given 21 days within which to accept the offer and pay the admission deposit.
Now I was sent an email from the program offering me a prestigious university scholarship to motivate me to accept the offer of admission. I had not yet received any other offer of admission, so out of desperation, I accepted the offer of admission and paid the admission deposit.
Now, if I am offered admission into any of the upper grade universities I applied to, I will write to the graduate program director from the former program and politely mention that I cannot enroll in their program because the upper grade university is a better fit for me.
Will this cause a serious problem for me, i.e., in terms of my future academic career and the graduate program director's denial to let me go?<issue_comment>username_1: If you do it early on in the process the first university will have time to call/recruit someone in their shortlist, in that case you shouldn't worry about it. Depending on how you handle the situation you might or might not burn your bridges at this university, but I wouldn't worry too much about it, just act right away and give yourself a deadline by when you will refuse other offers.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Traditionally, the recommendation is that as soon as you are accepted you withdraw your applications to schools that are out of the running. Then as soon as you accept an offer you withdraw your remaining applications. If a school make a decision early and requires a decision before you hear from schools you may find more desirable, it is best to ask for an extension.
I go against the norm a little and believe that if a school/employer will not give you and extension and wishes to put you at a disadvantage that it is not unreasonable to reneg on your acceptance. As this is not the norm, it will burn bridges.
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: I am teaching a large undergraduate class this semester. One day a week (same day every week) we have a quiz. The syllabus doesn't specify at what moment of the class period the quiz will be given. It does say though that students who missed the quiz aren't allowed to make it up. So, I've had the following situation since the semester started. First and second week I gave the quiz at the end of the class. During week 3 I already had a few students coming more than 20 minutes late, but early enough not to miss the 15 min quiz, which I gave again at the end. So, this week (week 4) I gave the quiz 10 minutes after the start of the class. The actual time of the quiz wasn't announced in advance. And yes, I've had many students coming late and some came when the quiz was already over. These students couldn't have 15 minutes like others if any time at all. Now these students are claiming that I needed to tell them in advance at what time the quiz was supposed to be or emphasize that it can be at any time, or otherwise they follow the pattern.
All students who came in late were the ones who were late the previous week except one student.
I repeat that it's a big lecture hall, and I don't want to take notes when a specific student actually started his or her quiz and add 15 minutes to that time. Also, after quiz I want all of them to concentrate on the class material. And I don't want to give it at the end all the time as some students will come in late, and that disrupts the flow of a lecture, distracts other students and generally erodes class morale.
I drop quite a lot of lowest quiz grades at the end of the semester to meet those cases when students do have to be absent. So, a good student's grade won't be affected if he or she will miss a couple of quizzes.
I am currently facing lots of negative emails from students who were late and didn't get the grade they would get if they had the same time as everybody else. Do you think it's me being unreasonable? Their main argument is that it should be clearly stated when a quiz is given or emphasized that it can be given at any time, which I find unnecessary.<issue_comment>username_1: My only concern about what you've done is how clearly the policy of "the quiz can happen at any time" was articulated. If you've not said that explicitly at some point, I would show *a little bit* of leeway—but not much. Students who are regularly tardy for class do impede the learning process for everyone, and therefore I don't have much sympathy for their claims.
What I would do in this case is let those students know that this bad grade will count against their allocation of dropped quizzes, but that in the future the quiz can occur at any point in class, and that there will be no prior announcement if the quiz will take place at the beginning or end of class.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: Unless there's some institutional policy against it, then you're well within your rights and you're fine. The fact that some quizzes get dropped give you additional buffer in this regard.
In the future you can consider refining your syllabus by mentioning "quizzes can happen at any time during the class meeting". That would give you a third layer of authorization/documentation for that fact, if it's something that students are disputing.
**Edit:** Here's some supporting documentation on the issue.
In Washington State, this issue rose to the level of asking for [input from the State Attorney General](http://seattlecentral.edu/username_9name_9s/crc/Course/policy_attendance.htm) on the advisability and legality of attendance and related grading policies. The 1989 advice was somewhat restrictive on faculty (suggested not penalizing grades until attendance was below 80%). The 1992 and 1996 guidance was relatively more empowering to instructors, in permitting dropping students from a course for not attending in the first two days, and recognizing faculty authority to set attendance policies.
>
> [1992] ... faculty members should be free to adopt the attendance
> policy as they choose. Some faculty members may feel that a mandatory
> attendance policy interferes with their academic freedom. By allowing
> them to accept or reject the school's policy, this concern should be
> obviated.
>
>
> [1996]... it is not discriminatory to reduce student grades for
> noncompliance with a standard of attendance, "provided that students
> are given advance notice of the policy; that the instructor applies
> the policy evenly to all students; and the instructor is reasonable in
> his/her application of the policy by allowing excused absences for
> good cause."
>
>
>
Some research in 2013 found overall [increased results from having daily quizzes in a large lecture class](http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/21/education/frequent-tests-can-enhance-college-learning-study-finds.html), and considered increased attendance to be a desirable side effect. Note that while grades went up, students still complained about the practice. (A point that <NAME> has made in the past; students usually dislike the style of pedagogy that they learn the most from.)
>
> Most students hated it at first, Dr. Pennebaker said. “Sam and I
> usually get really high course evaluations” from the students, he
> said; “these were the lowest ever.”...
>
>
> By the end of the course, however, the class had outperformed a
> previous Psych 301 class of 935 students that used midterm exams —
> scoring 10 percent higher on a subset of 17 questions that appeared on
> both classes’ tests. The quizzed group also got slightly higher
> grades, the study found.
>
>
>
Minnesota State's review of research on the topic found that [class attendance was the most valuable of all time](http://www.mnsu.edu/cetl/teachingresources/articles/classattendance.html) that students spent interacting with course materials, and correlated well with final grades. Item #4 on their list of "Conclusions and Recommendations" for the university was:
>
> Certain course practices can be used to encourage attendance. Testing
> extensively from material presented in class rather than material from
> the text can encourage better attendance. **The use of in-class quizzes
> and other exercises will reward attendance.**
>
>
>
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: Since this is an undergrad class, take a few minutes the next session and explain why we show the "politeness of kings" by being on time for a class and committing to stay until the end. You are not a TV show. I sometimes will stop talking entirely when latecomers enter, and wait until they are settled. This so irritates those who were on time, they let the latecomers know that they are being disruptive. Peer pressure is much more effective!
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: Time for a little story?
I was teaching in a foreign country for a class with 55 students. Around 20 of them felt being gangster and they came like 15 minutes late. So calmly next week I ***closed the damn doors***. So "gangsters" came late, and start knocking on the door, and the on time students start laughing. I repeatedly did the same and the number of "gangsters" dropped to none around week 4 or 5.
**Note**: Doors were closed but not locked.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: In my opinion, **yes**, you are being unreasonable.
I don't know the specific regulations of your institution, but I firmly believe that attending classes should not be mandatory, and students are entitled to do self-study or otherwise learn the material without your help. They may even be forced to do so by external factors (say, other classes taking place at the same time, or a day-time job). Either way, this is no business of the teacher.
In that spirit, I think it is just unfair to do the quiz without setting the time in advance, *doubly so* if you have not given them any sort of heads-up, and only decided to change a set schedule after a few weeks. Moreover, given the tone of your post, it seems like this change of schedule is intentional retaliation against the students for coming in late, and again, in my opinion, this is not the right way to prevent this sort of behaviour. Even if it is not the case, I would not be surprised if they felt that way.
I see how it can create a disturbance, especially in a big class. The simplest solution I can see is to **do the quizzes at a set time** (preferably at the very beginning or the very end of the class), and, if you are afraid of the disturbance, make a short (2-3 minutes would be enough) break before and after the quiz so that those students who only want to take the quiz can come and go without making too big a commotion.
This way, those who actually *want* to attend your class can do so without much of a hassle, while those who don't or can't will have a predictable schedule. As an added bonus, it makes for fewer students who would not be paying attention.
If late arrivals are still a concern even after that, you can try to simply explain, politely, how big a problem that is -- assuming that it is indeed such a big problem -- are a few people arriving late to take the back seats really a big deal? I am in no position to judge that, obviously, but if the only thing that suffers because of that is your pride, perhaps you should just swallow it.
If that fails as well, you may follow @DaveRose's suggestion and just keep the doors locked except during the test (after giving them a heads-up in advance). In my opinion, this is still excessive, but as long as it is completely clear to everyone involved, I guess it is an acceptable policy, if at all allowed/possible.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_6: If your institution has a good LMS like Canvas, consider offering the quiz online. You'll want to make sure it's (1) reasonably timed, (2) ensured to close within a reasonable time frame, and (3) the grade and answers to questions don't become available until the quiz closes.
So say 10-15 questions, 15min limit, ~48hr to complete. You'd basically let them know at the end of the relevant lecture that the quiz will be open after class until the start of the next lecture, or what have you.
If this isn't possible, you do need to clearly state your intentions regardless if it's reasonable or not because especially undergrad students, they take advantage of a lot of the leeway they get and fall into habits (sometimes it's bad habits, we get it). The effect of being ambiguous is they're going to reluctantly accept that failure and learn from it, or they're just going to give you a bad rating as an instructor.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_7: >
> Do you think it's me being unreasonable?
>
>
>
Sadly, yes. I see two problems here:
1. You said in a comment that *the policy of "the quiz can happen at any time" was not articulated at all*. You gave the quiz near the end of the class a couple of times, and the students naturally assumed that that's when you'll always have it. Now you are trying to argue legalistically that since you didn't say when the quiz will occur, you were reserving the right to hold it at any time. However, in my opinion if you are going to argue based on legalisms, the burden is on you to dot all your i's and cross all your t's and make sure that you gave your students such amazingly clear information that they couldn't even imagine arguing with you.
The thing to keep in mind here is that you are an educator, not a prosecutor trying to entrap a criminal in court. The students deserve to have clearly articulated rules so that they can focus their time and energy on the material; in particular, if there's a quiz, they deserve to know the precise time when it will be held, or at the very least to have an explicit announcement that the quiz can be held at variable times. Overall, your approach to dealing with the students who came late as I'm understanding it from your question seems to me to place you in an adversarial, combative position relative to your students, which is not where you want to be as a teacher - it can only serve to distract from your educational objectives and provides for a poor learning environment for your students.
2. A second problem is that I'm getting a strong feeling from reading your question that you're trying to use the quiz as a crowd control mechanism, which feels wrong to me (and partially as a result has gotten you into the current messy situation). You've devised an elaborate strategy that consists of holding a quiz at a randomly selected time during the class as a solution to the problem of making students come to class, and come on time. The problem of students coming in late may be a very real concern, but random quizzes are simply an inappropriate and ineffective way to address it (and one that can potentially be perceived quite negatively by the students).
A quiz is a form of assessment, and is a legitimate device to use for that purpose, but let's keep things in their right place: deal with the problem of disruptive late-coming students in the appropriate way, and have your assessment in the way that makes sense from an educational standpoint, whether it be quizzes, exams, homework, or even mandatory class attendance if that's important to you and your institution's policies allow it.
Upvotes: 7 <issue_comment>username_8: If the quiz is to test the students' academic abilities rather than their alarm clocks, then you should hold it during the last 15mins.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_9: You are NOT being unreasonable. You never said the quiz would be at the end and I assume none of those students asked you if the quiz was going to always be at the end. You just need to clearly answer you never implied that the quiz was going to be at the end, that lowest scores will be dropped, and that if they have questions they should ask in advance, not complain later. Also, make sure they understand that they are responsible for doing well, and they cannot blame you for giving a quiz DURING class. Add that you do expect attendance, if that is important for you. Whether or not that is important for other teachers or the students it is irrelevant, YOU are giving that course and only you should decide what you want to expect from students.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_10: I personally believe this drastically depends on what country you are based in and also what your Universities culture is like?
Coming from the U.K. and from my past experiences (though I graduated a few years ago now) The University set out a clear lecture structure timetable at the start of each semester and as students we were obliged to attend those lectures, and tutorials, at that specific time. This, as well as other University obligations were disclosed to us in a students handbook at the start of the year. Whether you hold the quiz at the start middle or end of the class does not matter and is entirely up to you, as long as you hold it within the planned time slot for that lecture I don't see how any student has the right to complain?
Perhaps in other countries, and quite possibly even other UK Universities, students obligations are not so stringent when it comes to attendance and punctuality and there could be many good reasons for this. Certainly in my University it was important and the way our lectures were structured, I fully understand this and completely agree. Do you have any (specific to your university) student handbooks or official guidelines which contain details of any obligations or suggestions around attendance and punctuality for students, that you could refer to to support you?
I understand that some have opinions around students flexibility, for those who undertake in part time work to support their studies for example, but I strongly believe that if a student is struggling to be on time for classes due to part time work then he or she needs to have a discussion with the lecturer and/or a student liaison to discuss the best course of action (if any is required).
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_11: I grew up in what in the U.S. would be called a ghetto. Respect is a word and value that matters to you a lot there, and you go out of your way to retaliate to perceived slights. I had to dissuade a very intelligent and educated and caring friend with a similar background from filling the convertible of someone who had been hostile to him with sand, decades after leaving the ghetto. You are unlikely to go that far, but you used a quiz to teach those who didn't respect you a lesson.
It can be hard to lose that attitude, no matter where and how far you go in life; but it's very destructive for your own mental health. Some people are perennially late (certainly among mathematicians I know), but they don't "disrespect you." They're just late, that's all. Maybe it's cultural (despite the country's reputation to the contrary, people of my home country quite frequently are), maybe it's because they couldn't make it despite best efforts, or maybe it's just the way they are.
For your own success and happiness, try to work on learning to not relate other people's actions to you when they are not clearly targeting you (e.g., you don't have to put up with rude talkers). I suggest you mention in class that you appreciate reasonable punctuality, but if people don't follow suit, set a fixed time for quizzes, and shrug.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_12: Either attendance in lectures is a required and graded component of the course or it isn't. If it is, then make sure everyone is aware of this, take attendance, and deduct grades from students who are late or absent. If it is not, then simply *do not expect students to be present during your lectures*. If there are lateness issues or if students coming late are disruptive then deal with this on its own merits. It should have no bearing on when you schedule formal evaluations.
Frankly, giving students grades in a course simply for being present at a lecture (or deducting them for being absent) sounds insane to me. It's easy to show up to a lecture and learn nothing. It's also easy to not show up to a lecture and learn everything.
This isn't elementary school - the primary purpose of a higher-education course is to provide to the student an objective, quantifed, and certified evaluation of their competence concerning the material in scope. Lectures are one of several services provided to assist students to that end, but **they are just that - a means to an end**.
If there are graded tests, quizzes, examinations, etc, you have a professional responsibility to let your students know in advance where and when they need to be to take that test. How else can you expect them to organize their time?!
In most higher education I've ever seen, attendance at lectures is strictly optional. Your lectures are there as a service to the students who feel that they help them learn the course material. **Many students do not.** Lectures consume a considerable amount of time and, quite often, are paced so slowly that for some they constitute an inefficient use of time. For those who can teach themselves the material covered in a lecture in much less time, forcing them to attend is nothing short of *forcing them to waste their time*.
Playing ridiculous games of bait and switch with randomly timed tests feels rather unprofessional. Your students are adults - treat them as such.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_13: Part of the inherent agreement of a class is that the student attends during the time of the class and fulfills all learning obligations determined by the instructor. In return the student receives the benefit and gain of knowledge as specified by the class. The students who do not attend the entire class abrogate this contract and therefore have no claim when they are not present for the quiz.
This is reflected also in real life and should also be viewed as one of the added instructions a student receives that adds up to far more than the classroom instruction.
Simply tell your students that you will give half the quiz at the beginning of the period and half at the end!! This should absolve you from any misunderstanding or claims of unfairness.
For those of you who may have misunderstood the penultimate paragraph I mean that if a quiz is 10 questions, 5 are to be posed at the beginning of class and 5 at the end!
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_14: Some answers to this question have been amazingly different than others. Clearly this issue demonstrates a deep split in culture, with most answers seeming to support students being permitted to make their own decisions.
The opposing view is that students do not have a "right" to be late, and there is no reason to honor that. For instance, username_9name_9name_5's comment, "Either way, this is no business of the teacher."
That stance seems to not take into account that different teachers have different requirements, and it very well may be the business of the teacher. At the college where I had my first job, the college made a commitment to train students a certain number of hours, and there were major financial repercussions if students were absent. The college imposed rules on teachers, so attendance absolutely was the teacher's business.
I was also trained to use quizzes to effectively motivate attendance. Always pop a quiz if attendance was low. It could be a simple quiz, like "is it sunny outside today?" (in a windowed classroom).
We were, interestingly, forbidden from grading based on attendance. However, our grading methods were required to consider things like attitude and professionalism, and we could certainly use quizzes.
Since this was impressed upon me by my department chair (who was involved in hiring me), and later on by the new president of the college, it certainly wasn't unreasonable for me, as an employee, to follow the instructions provided by my supervisors.
Regarding the question poster (Vika)'s comment about dropping the lowest quizzes, these quizzes could simply be in a different category.
Regarding the comment by "J...", "This isn't elementary school - the primary purpose of a higher-education course is to provide to the student an objective, quantifed, and certified evaluation of their competence concerning the material in scope." If that is your goal, then using quizzes to track attendance is wrong. However, if your goal is to train people, preparing them to be ready to be useful members of a productive workforce, then abusing quizzes in this way is a way to achieve those means. Some people will not appreciate the approach's harshness, but this type of method may be more effective at achieving the ultimate aim. So, the desired goal may be a worthy consideration, and the answer might be different among different educational institutions.
Letting people know what to expect is a great idea for multiple reasons. One is because some people may feel entitled to sufficient warning, and I think that some legal actions (court cases) may back up that attitude. Another reason is to do the decent humanitarian thing. In America where I'm at, many of the young people are genuinely so unfamiliar with the expectations of older professional culture that the ideas seem unreasonable, which I've determined from reading numerous public postings on websites. The humanitarian thing is to, at very minimum, make sure that you close the cultural gap in a way that is clearly fair, by making sure that expectations are clearly communicated. Let people know things in writing, so that if anyone does come late, then they can see the note on the syllabus even if they miss in-class comments.
Once you let them know, then **it's fair game** (which is my concise answer, in case that wasn't clear among the other commentary). The instructor (and certainly not the students) should have control over how the class sessions operate. They (the students) might not like you (the teacher) doing things like scoring based on attendance. Heck, for that matter, even you (the teacher) might not like doing such things. However, in the interests of achieving the ultimate goal, demonstrating successful application of authority may be worth the discomfort of the students, and even yourself. Sometimes a good person simply has to do what's right, even when it isn't very pleasant (for them, or for you).
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_15: Students who are late should be allowed to start late, and take the quiz at a disadvantage. (The quiz ends at a certain time but no one says that you have to start on time.)
Students who are absent should be excused if they have a [reasonable excuse,](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/32997/why-would-my-teachers-dean-care-when-i-took-the-final/33020#33020) such as illness or death in the family. They should fail if they have no reasonable excuse for being absent.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_16: >
> I drop quite a lot of lowest quiz grades at the end of the semester to
> meet those cases when students do have to be absent. So, a good
> student's grade won't be affected if he or she will miss a couple of
> quizzes.
>
>
>
I assume they don't know that yet.
Concede that you were wrong not to tell them in advance about the time.
Then tell them that because of this, at the end of the course, you will allow everyone to drop that grade (or if they elect to keep that particular grade, that you'll allow them to drop a different quiz grade of their choosing).
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_17: I'd like to have you see yourself through the eyes of the student. The student may or may not know all about your classes and about all the things you're teaching. So I can imagine why they would want to stay away from your classes as it doesn't seem to be introducing anything new to them. However at the same time they still need to "prove" that they possess the skills and competences needed to complete the course. And that's where the tests, essays, papers, and other stuff come into play.
Now that see the great outline we can look a bit deeper into what a student would do in class if they are forced to attend. They will get in class, listen to whatever you're explaining and then get bored as they already know the material (This obviously doesn't go for everyone). There was a good picture I read saw before that pictured this in an entertaining way. Here : <http://oddlydevelopedtypes.com/content/potential>
What a school should want to do is assess the student based on their skills and competences. This is also where things get a bit complicated, depending on the school you will want to have the student be very independent. If the school wants to encourage students being independent, you'd want to give them the option to just show up for the tests and then get out. If they fail, then they themselves are to blame for it as they have had ample opportunity to get help if needed.
However, in order to do this, they need to know when the tests are. Is it the responsibility of the teacher to tell the students when these tests are "exactly"? No. The student is responsible for their classes and made the unjust assumption that the tests would be at the end of the classes. The kicker here being that they made an "assumption". The first thing you should learn is to NEVER take assumptions if you can help it. These students should have "ASKED" you when those tests would be held. I believe they had not done this. As a teacher you can expect a student to attend your whole class unless the student indicates otherwise.
If a student wants to not attend classes and just take tests. I don't see much of a problem. However it should still be the student's responsibility to ASK.
If a student wants to take responsibility of their own time allocation, then they should take FULL responsibility for it. Not half-ass this and then point fingers towards the teacher when they themselves don't plan their time correctly.
Also, this is coming from a student, Not a teacher. And as a student I feel you're being taken advantage of if these students can get away with something like this.
Upvotes: 0
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2016/02/25
| 882
| 3,679
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<issue_start>username_0: I am doing a literature study, and I would like to identify published research papers that report results on Reuters dataset RCV1-v2 (as comprehensively as could possibly be expected). The results should preferably be comparable (i.e. use the exact same subset of this dataset, e.g., some tend to use only a smaller subset)
How should one approach this problem?
So far, this is what I did:
The dataset was introduced in this paper: Rcv1: A new benchmark collection for text categorization research.
I went to scholar.google.com, found the paper, clicked on "citations", then marked "search within citation", and used keywords such as "results", "comparison", "evaluation". Is there a better way?
There are 1651 citations (according to Google scholar...), at what point should one feel reasonable comfortable that one has (comprehensively) identified the papers which have reported (comparable) results on this dataset?
The goal of the literature study is to motivate my choice of method (I want to inform myself of what methods have been applied, and how they compare to each other).<issue_comment>username_1: In principle, I think your approach is good, but I have a few suggestions to make your search hopefully more feasible:
* Rather than using Google Scholar, I would use a more focused scholarly database that also tracks citations. In general, [Web of Science](http://wokinfo.com) is best for these purposes, but since this particular article is available on the [ACM Digital Library](https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1005345), then that might possibly be a better choice. If you're interested in computer science and related literature, then ACM Digital Library is the way to go; if you want to be more broad in your range of disciplines, then I would go with Web of Science.
* There are two advantages to using a more focused database rather than Google scholar:
1. Practically speaking, you have much fewer citations to deal with, and so the task is more feasible. Yet, these focused databases have fairly stringent quality standards, and so although most citations are not included, those that are are widely recognized as high quality. It is a compromise for the sake of feasibility, without meaningfully sacrificing quality. To me, this works for your particular purpose because surveying methods doesn't require an exhaustive search; a comprehensive search is sufficient.
2. These focused databases usually have much more fine-tuned search options than Google Scholar (e.g. abstract only, keywords, etc.). Thus, you can more precisely focus your search to exclude the articles that you consider irrelevant. (The reason that Google Scholar is not as fine-tuned obviously has nothing to do with their engineers' capabilities; I guess it's probably a matter of copyright licensing to archive and search the journal databases. Google Scholar is free, whereas the others have to pay the journals, so I guess they place a limit on what they consider "fair use" for Google. This is my speculation; I'm not certain.)
Upvotes: 2 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Wikidata has the ability to describe datasets and scholarly articles that use datasets. The annotation has been used sparingly and is far from complete.
An example of a scientific article that annotates with a data set is <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q62428109> It records use of MNIST, ImageNet (as well as the programming libraries PyTorch and TensorFlow).
The Wikidata Query Service can be use to query this data across pages. You will see an aggregation of the data in Scholia. Here for MNIST: <https://tools.wmflabs.org/scholia/use/Q17069496>
Upvotes: 0
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2016/02/25
| 589
| 2,578
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<issue_start>username_0: I am currently a PhD student. I have a previous publications on my field in a top tier conference. Now my adviser wants to extend the work. The problem is when I started working on that again, I found some results were not correct in the published paper. I did mistakes unintentionally interpreting the results previously, but somehow the reviewer did not notice that. Now I am too worried telling about this to my adviser. Can you please suggest me how to approach this to my adviser? What can be the consequence of this to the published paper?<issue_comment>username_1: One way or the other, you will have to build a relationship with your adviser in which you can discuss such questions. In this regard, your relationship with your adviser is no different than with your wife or girlfriend: waiting too long doesn't make the problem go away.
This might just be the right time to start talking about difficult issues.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: Unfortunately there are no two ways about it. Mistakes can and do happen. It is better to go forward with it to your adviser than try to tip-toe around/through it. Ostensibly, your adviser is on your side. If there really was a mistake perhaps both of you can try to understand what went wrong. Perhaps there is a way to redo your analysis or solve the issue you are having.
The consequence to the published paper might be that it is retracted. This will depend, was it a conference paper or a journal article? I think it is unfortunate that a lot of people look down on being wrong. Obviously the goal is to be right more often than not. But letting known false findings linger can only harm your career and field. And you don't want to get into a scenario where someone else finds it and then your honest mistake comes into question as being nefarious.
I suggest that you approach your adviser in a one-on-one meeting and clearly explain your old findings and how you got them, compared to your new findings and how you realized there was an error. Suggest that perhaps both of you can look into fixing the error some how. Or if not ask them to suggest how to approach dealing with the mistake.
If the paper is on your website upload a corrected version with a note about the mistake. If this was published in an academic journal you are going to have to contact them most likely as well. They may decide to publish a note or retraction. Its best to be open and honest about what happened, as you say it was a mistake. So you have nothing to hide. Hope this helps! Good Luck.
Upvotes: 4
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2016/02/25
| 1,573
| 6,846
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<issue_start>username_0: I have written multiple opensource programs as part of my PhD, and some of these programs require a dedicated server somewhere on the internet to work. Mainly it is online databases, but also things like project homepages, version update checks, usage-metric logging, etc.
I currently host all these website/databases for free from my own stipend, but as the services have grown, I'm now paying about 10-20% of my monthly stipend on hosting bills. It's not much, only about €100 a month, but you certainly feel it when you're main source of nutrition is unguarded coffee and biscuits.
So my question is how best to monetize software to academics if you're a one-man-band. I could set up a paypal account, or something similar - but never in a million years could I see my PI setting up a lab PayPal account. Donations for server costs would then most likely come from generous students/post-docs, and I don't really see that as a fair or acceptable system. I want people to pay from their grant money, as it should be. What is the best way to do this?
---
**EDIT:**
In light of the answers, I feel that "pay for it with your own grant money" is somewhat of a non-starter. Here's two reasons why:
1. The software developed was not a requirement or goal of the PhD. It was created as a side-reaction of the PhD as the software I wanted to use to analyze my data was difficult to use, expensive, non-existant, etc. Based on no real data, just my observations from working in the Open Source community, 99% of OS software is written to solve the author's current problem, which then gets generalized to solve other people'e problems too, so I don't see my situation as being unusual. Still, I cannot reasonably ask my PI for money on something that was never originally part of the PhD plan. One would even have a hard time justifying that the software was required for the PhD, if the original plan did not foresee using it. For example, one program gives highly-detailed Quality Control reports. Our data passes all of these strict/new QC tests. Therefore, was it even a requirement?
2. Following on from point 1, but really this is a separate issue, what my PI would be paying for would be for *other people* to use the software. To handle just the needs of my project, I don't need any online servers - I could make do with just local services and disk space. In fact i've already applied all this software to the project, so now it could just be deleted. No need to register domain names, no AWS hosting costs, no evenings spent making sure the community around my software is happy and productive, etc. In short, if my PI was generous enough to see my software as an integral part of the PhD and worthy of funding (part 1), he would also have to come to the conclusion that it's worth spending his grant money on other people's projects, which I am confident he not only would do out of principle, he might not even be allowed to.
So - I really only see two possible options going forward:
1. I apply for a new grant, totally separate from my PhD project, to cover the costs of hosting.
2. The community using the software/services pay directly, using some mechanism that I currently do not know about. Some way a PhD student can buy software online and charge it directly to their grant, rather than with personal funds.<issue_comment>username_1: You should let your PI know what resources you need to carry out your work, and discuss how such resources can be provided. You should not be footing the bill in the first place, so there should be no need to monetize to recover.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: You have three options, choose the following based on your budget, time, and expertise:
1. **University**: You could kindly ask the university's system administrator to host your files on a permanent address. This is very possible, and seen this before many times. In this case the users could either download them without permission (university credentials) or with permission.
2. **From Home**: Other solution would be to get your own server, and host your files from home. Here is the catch: you don't need the usual 19" servers, all you need is an old computer that lays around or get a cheap one and put your host over there. You will need to pay for a domain name (~10$/year), and figure out the DNS either by figuring out yourself or pay another 50$/year for easy to configure solutions. Other software (OS, HTTP, FTTP, DB like MySQL) are all free; all you need is to choose a Linux distribution and go from there.
3. **Free and Public Online Repositories**: You can look into websites like Github and put your code with the instructions on how to execute them and its documentation.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: There is an easy solution. Turn off the services. If your services are important (to someone else), then that someone else will figure a way to finance them.
This is not your problem.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_4: I agree with the other answers that it is unreasonable to expect you to pay it from your own budget. However, since you stated your software is open source, it might be possible to use existing solutions such as github to distribute your code and host a homepage for the project with instructions.
There is stil the issue that your software apparently uses other resources such as online databases. It depends on the details of your software, but perhaps you could provide the necessary information for other groups to setup their own infrastructure (e.g., minimal database dumps, or other server code). If server names are not hardcoded in your code, it should be fairly easy to make this configurable. This gives other groups the possibility the use your software, while at the same time releasing you from hosting the infrastructure.
For your own usage I agree with username_1: ask your PI if your institute can provide the necessary services.
Alternatively you could try asking money for the services, but in my opinion this will likely lead to a bigger hassle than is worth it. Aside from legal issues, if people pay for something they expect something in return. Are you willing to provide support? Fix your server if it crashes at 3am while your users are trying to make a deadline?
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_5: An option here is to go down the route of virtual private servers. There are a number of sites to host these. Digital ocean, Rackspace,Amazon Web Services (AWS) a few others. Monetization can be done in a number of ways and it is worth researching how exactly to do this. Advertising for example (e.g. Adsense or affiliate marketing), if you want to get paid for software however Payapl is an option because it is simple. Another option is something like Stripe Atlas which allows incorporation.
Upvotes: 0
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2016/02/25
| 923
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<issue_start>username_0: Here's the question: is university a sound investment? I'll be clear, since I know that this situation and this questions are experienced by many people. I'm going to face very soon the choice of where to go attending my Msc courses and obviously, after having decided which universities suit my tendencies better, financial considerations come on the way. I don't want to hear considerations like "yeah,it's all about your dreams, if you really want to go there then it's a worthy investment" because let's face it, even with your dream job life with 1000£ a month isn't easy. I'm not even complaining about how this world can be elitarist due to the high fees and life costs, I'm just pondering the best opportunities.
The choice is between staying here in my country where costs are way lower or trying for the upgrade in the best (and expensive) foreign university (namely I'm now considering Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial and Eth). I was wondering then if the 20000\50000£ investment is justified by a better salary and effective enhanced working chances? And in case of the decision to pursue an academic career, is it amortised in a reasonable amount of time?
Has someone experienced this path or similar one and can tell me something about it?
Just to give some feedback: I'm from one of the good italian universities and with grades making possible a decent (hopefully) prospect of career even here, either in or outside the academic world.
EDIT since it might be useful, I'm studying mathematics and planning to have my master in applied mathematics. The options are to get a specialization in financial mathematics or a general applied mathematics Msc that could yield to further academic continuance or to job in industry.<issue_comment>username_1: Ok, I have answer to this as I did finish all my higher education in the UK, and still living/working here.
**Money Buys you a Place But Not a Future**: Yes, you can spend money and get to very decent universities; but:
**Exceptions**: The Oxford, Cambridge, and Edinburgh are very wealthy and well known and funded, so they don't care much about anyone's money to be honest; however this might differ based on your field. But, the general rule, don't count on getting a place over there by flashing money.
**University**: Not so many universities currently looking for hire from postdoc level, yet alone PhD level. There is a mayhem over this, just talk to an academic living in the UK.
**Conclusion** Back to your question, no by paying extraordinary amount of money you will not get a better financial future compare to finishing your studies within Italy.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: In short I believe this all depends on which country you would like to work in and what sort of industry you would like to aim towards. I can't really comment about academia jobs as I have little experience with them, though I would edge towards the view of: the greater the prestige the greater the opportunities.
Speaking from experience within the UK job market outside academia related jobs however, I would say that having a prestigious name on your CV underneath your education section will certainly help you to get your foot in the door (get noticed), and these universities do have great industry related relationships that can help you even more to get noticed, but when it comes to business line interviews/assessment centers/competency based interviews/aptitude tests, solely having Oxford University on your CV/Resume will not help you in the slightest and it will be your skill and ability that is being focused on here.
It is worth pointing out that I personally believe studying outside your home nation (after undergrad) gives you a broader range of learning and perspective that will surely not go unnoticed by any prospective employers, regardless of the prestige of the foreign university you attended.
Upvotes: 2
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2016/02/26
| 565
| 2,456
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<issue_start>username_0: Is it worth it to coauthor a book with my advisor in place of spending time publishing resrarch in journals or conferences?
Would the fact that the book is a much larger piece of work contribute more to my academic reputation? Or not as much because it won't contain as much novel research.<issue_comment>username_1: I think it depends on your goals really (and your field).
With books they generally tend to be long term single use projects to discuss the current subjects in a partiular field and reference a lot of papers.
Obviously papers tend to focus on cutitng edge research and practices within the field. SOme people prefer the relatively fast pased research environment of submitting papers and others prefer the slower pace of authroing. Again it primarily will be determined, by field, goals, and your own time as well.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: Since he is your advisor, co-author the book (as in your name will be up there on the cover with his). Because you are still a student, you need papers (maybe he doesn't or he can delay them for sometime; you can't!). So, you will need to do both! That's my advise.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: No, you should focus first on publishing journal papers in journals with high impact, these are the "real" things , while a book should be for later. The most important goals on any PhD would be becoming sufficient independently in order to ask questions in the field, see the connections, and publish the "played" results.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: It would all depend on your focus and how well it would correlate with that of your advisor.
*In general*, standard textbooks would receive more citations than research papers. It would have a wider outreach (still dressing on the *general* case here). It would be pretty effective on the long run.
Coming back to your degree fulfilment, research papers would bring you closer to your immediate goal. This would quantify your achievements as a researcher and eventually qualify you for the degree.
Having stated above, the final decision is yours. If you are bent on finishing your degree quicker, resort to publishing research papers. If you wish for your career to develop in the future, then publishing a book would be a better option. This would accumulate your popularity while you work on your research papers afterwards. Also keep in mind the wavelength of your advisor.
Upvotes: 0
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2016/02/26
| 841
| 3,494
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<issue_start>username_0: So far this year, I have been asked to be an assessor for proposals submitted to three different international funding schemes, with the value of the proposals ranging from $0.5M to $10M. I acceded to the first two requests (one of which has me assessing 7 proposals, the second only one proposal) because I thought it would be useful experience to see how proposals are assessed, in case it brought insights that would be useful next time I submit a proposal of my own. The time commitment is starting to become an issue, though, and starting to clash with my other commitments, so I am hesitating about the third.
So: apart from the small honorarium that some of these schemes pay assessors, is there anything in it for me? Is assessing grant proposals simply seen as part of one's academic community service, to be performed as a good citizen like reviewing papers, or is it seen as a measure of esteem that is therefore worthy of putting on a CV?<issue_comment>username_1: You performed a valid service and gained valuable experience. You should definitely include this on your CV.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: username_1's answer is good. Just to add a bit to it, many universities in the U.S. at least require service as a portion of your duties. In my field, it's not unusual to see jobs described as 50% research, 40% teaching, 10% service. It's extremely important when applying for these jobs to be able to demonstrate experience in all three areas. Reviewing, whether for grants or for manuscripts, is one of the few areas where early career people have a real opportunity to get some service experience, and so you absolutely should have it on your C.V. Just don't do so much that it's significantly impacting your research!
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: I think that you should keep at your little job because of the extremely valuable skills it will give you .Putting it on the CV is a nobrainer. Assessing grant proposals tends to go to very senior people in my country so it would be held in high esteem that such a young person is entrusted with such an important task.Many employers are confused with the grants system and would complain to me about it being a "paperwork nightmare" and want some of thier staff to know the ropes in this regard . I remember that the research job that I got in 1986 payed less than working on the door of the Students Association .I did not get the job on the door .For me it is clear that that research job was the best thing .It led to one thing and another and another ...
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_4: I think you have a bit a mismatch between the title and the actual question, which has lead to you getting answers that don't address your real question. You say:
>
> Is assessing grant proposals simply seen as part of one's academic community service, to be performed as a good citizen like reviewing papers, or is it seen as a measure of esteem that is therefore worthy of putting on a CV?
>
>
>
But that's a false dichotomy. Reviewing papers should go on your CV (not the individual papers, of course, but the list of journals you've reviewed for), so the answer is yes and yes. If you're asking whether the sort of grant review you're doing will be seen as a research accomplishment like publishing a paper, winning a grant or an award of some kind, it won't (at least by most people). If you find yourself inclined to say no to doing it, say no.
Upvotes: 1
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2016/02/26
| 2,541
| 10,656
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<issue_start>username_0: So far I have worked on papers by myself and have been the sole author in all of them. There is one project that I am interested in and have been working on it for a while with no significant progress. It seems, I'm definitely going to need some fresh thoughts. In our department there is absolutely no one interested in that subject.
My question is how exactly am I supposed to ask someone to collaborate with me on a joint paper?
In case it matters, I work in field of Mathematics.<issue_comment>username_1: I'm not a mathematician, and in my field sole-authored papers are unusual, so my answer might not be entirely relevant, but for what it's worth:
You don't usually ask someone to collaborate on a paper because you are stuck. Either the collaboration arises naturally through a joint project, or you ask someone to join your paper because they have some specific expertise or experience that you think can add to what is already going to constitute a good, publishable paper. In the latter case, I have had success by sending an email briefly outlining the goals of the paper, its importance, and the timeline on which I intend to have the paper completed. I finish the email by stating what I think they could add to the paper and asking them if they are interested in a co-authorship on this basis. I might already have a draft of the paper ready, and if so, I will attach it so that they can see that I am serious and the paper has a good prospect of timely completion.
Also: a bit of flattery doesn't go astray. Refer to "your important work on..." or "your extensive experience in..." among the reasons for approaching them.
If in fact, you are not approaching someone to collaborate because of something specific that they can add to an already solid paper, but merely looking for someone to help with a work in progress, I suggest approaching someone at a junior level who already knows you, and asking for help.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: How mathematicians collaborate depends (among other things) on their career stage. At the student level, the most common kind of collaboration could be more accurately described as a form of *mentorship*: you are working with a more senior guide, and that *they mean to help you with your work and professional development* is a key feature. This is different from the kind of collaboration you do (in most cases) one you get past the student / postdoc stage. At that point it is fair and only natural for someone who is considering collaborating with you to ask "What's in it for me?"
The path of most graduate students is one of decreasing collaboration of the mentorship type (in math, mentorship collaborations do not always result in the mentor being the coauthor, so e.g. it is not necessarily viewed as inconsistent for an advisor to talk about "our work" when the final product is a paper written only by the student) and increasing independence from your mentors. Your trajectory sounds a bit different in that you already have solo papers (although, as in the previous parenthetical, that may not describe the whole story). Another feature of student research -- the key feature, really -- is that whether your advisor is joining you in doing the mathematics or not, she is supposed to be involved in helping you *choose problems* to work on that she finds, by virtue of her greater knowledge / experience / cultural familiarity / political savvy, to be especially worthwhile and significant. A student who works on a problem for a while with no significant progress raises a little red flag in my head. One must ask: why are you not working solely on problems that either you know you are making progress on or your advisor is there to help you make progress on?
>
> In our department there is absolutely no one interested in that subject.
>
>
>
Another little red flag. What you are doing is not inherently bad but seems more risky than normal. I fear you are getting less than the standard amount of "mentorship collaboration" and I think you should consider moving somewhere else (as a student, or possibly graduating ASAP and taking a postdoc) where you can benefit from that.
Anyway, there is a different kind of mathematical collaboration. (By the way, @username_1 has done a good job of describing it in her answer. But I want to write as a mathematician and in some more detail.) If you want to start a collaboration with someone of this other sort, then typically this is founded on either **significantly overlapping research interests** or **complementary skill sets, approaches and/or partial results**.
* Maybe while reading a draft of a paper you see how to strengthen one of the results. In this case you can (perhaps) get added as a coauthor on a later draft, and especially if you are joining more than one other author this can be a good way to piggyback onto a longer term collaboration already in progress. [Here](http://alpha.math.uga.edu/~pete/Clark-Forrow-Schmitt_March_3_2015.pdf) is an example of mine.
* Maybe you have a draft of a paper and you see that your Theorem 2 is a variant of their Theorem 5, so joining forces is a natural choice, if only for reasons of smoothing out the publication process. [Here](http://alpha.math.uga.edu/~pete/cx6.pdf) is an example of such a collaboration of my own, in which we each had overlapping manuscripts that we combined. I was happy with the resulting paper, which is a little more than the sum of its parts, and remain on good terms with the coauthor, but that was the extent of the collaboration.
* Maybe you discover that someone whom you previously did not know (e.g. a recent PhD) is working in the same area as you, or even on the same problem. Learning that someone else has been working on the same problem as you and that you each have partial results which have been obtained using (even mildly) different ideas and techniques can be immensely helpful. If each person's perspective is rich enough so that the other cannot readily incorporate it just by reading the other's work, then this is often the beginning of a very fruitful collaboration. [Here](http://alpha.math.uga.edu/~pete/ClarkSharif2009.pdf) is an example of mine. Or maybe you run into "someone new" and discover that you both have *aspirations* to work on the same thing, and though you don't have finished product, you each like the sound of the other's ideas and think it will be better to work together. This is one of the purer forms of collaboration, but it seems to require a rather fortuitous set of circumstances. [Here](http://alpha.math.uga.edu/~pete/triangle-012116.pdf) is an example of mine.
* Maybe you have a really attractive *half* of a result, and you're looking for someone with distinctly complementary skills and/or results to form an attractive whole. Again, this can be hard to swing, but it's satisfying when it works. [Here](http://alpha.math.uga.edu/~pete/Brunyate-Clark_final.pdf) is an example of mine. In this case, I had 2/3 of a new proof of a theorem, so I wrote a mass email to my own mathematics department asking if everyone could help me out. One of the other students in the department wrote back within a few weeks with an answer. I added a lot of other material, wrote the entire paper myself, and still feel like I really lucked out.
* Maybe you have a *question* that's truly attractive: a question that no one else thought to ask and that you happen to know that the answer would be very interesting...but you really can't answer (or anyway, aren't trying to answer: it comes to the same!) yourself. In this case you can try **asking the question** as widely as you can, and if the answer comes, you can try write a paper together. This is the least likely scenario yet. It seems that a lot of amateur mathematicians think mathematical research works this way...but it usually doesn't. "Here's what I want to do, just tell me how to do it" is usually not a route to publication in mathematics. (Maybe this is what people on this site mean when they say "An idea is worthless" and I start to flip out in response. In mathematics "an idea" doesn't mean an idea *for a problem*; it means an idea *for a solution*!) I do have [an example](http://alpha.math.uga.edu/~pete/Clark-Diepeveen14.pdf) of this. In fact this originated with [a question I asked on math.SE](https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/111164/in-which-ordered-fields-does-absolute-convergence-imply-convergence). This was quite an unusual situation. Among other things, my coauthor is not a professional mathematician or academic, so he would never have written this up for publication on his own. The journal we published in accompanies the articles by little author bios. His was: "[NJD] is a private citizen of the Netherlands." But he is a private citizen of the Netherlands who has the skills and abilities of a clever research mathematician.
I don't claim that the above list is exhaustive, but it is certainly long enough. When I look back over it, I am struck by how many highly positive collaborative experiences I have had, but also how large a role chance and serendipity played in allowing these collaborations to be realized (and it makes me wonder how many collaborations didn't come to pass because I *was not* luckily connected with the right person at the right time.) I hope it gives you some ideas about how non-mentorship collaborations can get started. Good luck.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: The other answers are good, but I'd like to make a few other points. (Like Pete, I'm also a mathematician.)
1. Some problems are just hard, and you may be ill-equipped to attack them. Sometimes is just best to put them on the back-burner. Lots of projects get abandoned, or at least put to the side, and if people didn't do this, many would be stuck forever.
2. If you're a grad student/postdoc, maybe you should try to work on problems people around you are interested in.
3. If you do want to still pursue this problem, try to either visit people who might have ideas and talk to them about it or invite them to come visit you. Special semesters/summer schools/conferences are also great. Then talk to them about your project, and see if they're interested or if they have any ideas. Many times, a good suggestion from an expert, rather than a full-fledged collaboration, is all you need to make a break-through.
I know the first two are non-answers to your question, and I can't tell how much energy you are putting into this particular problem, but it's good to take a step back and think about what you are thinking about doing.
Upvotes: 3
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<issue_start>username_0: I recently joined a technology startup company where a key business value-proposition depends on solving certain various problems that no current business competitor solves. There is one particular sub-problem we're looking to offer a commercial solution to - and it has been already solved by an academic team who published a paper describing an algorithmic solution about 15 years ago. To our knowledge, no commercial operation employs their approach. We would like to capitalize on this.
The team-members are still working at the original university and fully contactable.
The problem is the solution as described in the paper is beyond the current academic-ability of the startup's employees - and given time constraints I'm considering the possibility of contacting the team to ask them to implement it for us - as paid professionals, of course.
Is this appropriate? Is there a good way to frame this? Would paying them for their work introduce any kind of conflict-of-interest or other consequences?<issue_comment>username_1: It is definitely appropriate to ask. University policies on outside work for employees vary. But typically it is allowed. There are at least three possible approaches to this.
* You hire the academic directly, and it is a side job for them.
* You provide the university with research funding, which is then used to pay to make the implementation. This might have tax benefits, it will make the academic look good, and will allow the university to take a cut of the money.
* You partner with the university to obtain funding from a third party (probably a government program). Your company pays for the commercial part of the project and the third party provides pure research funds the academics want. This makes everyone look good but can be slow.
The key thing here is that you need to convince the academics that there is a benefit for them to participating. This is a matter of their personal preferences.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_2: This is definitely something you can ask the researchers, and something that's quite common in many fields. Paying them for their work can create some minor conflicts - there are often guidelines about how *much* outside work a faculty member can do, rules about hiring grad students, etc. There's also likely some IP concerns surrounding the work. But most universities have offices to set up these kinds of things, and a simple email to the team is probably a good way to get going. There are a couple ways this can happen (there are more, but these are the ones I'm most familiar with):
* Consulting. You hire the researcher (or a student, etc.) at a negotiated rate as a consultant. Usually this means they can't access university resources while they do their work, but this is often the fastest and most direct way to get something done. The limits here are that it's hard to make a tenure case (for example) out of consulting work, and if the problem needs specialized equipment, it needs to be *your* specialized equipment (or you need to buy it for them). It's possible, as @AnonymousPhysicist notes, that equipment from the university may be available for a fee. In my experience however, once you start hiring both researchers and their "stuff", the university starts asking why this is a consulting gig.
* Some sort of work-for-hire contract with the university. This will likely be slightly more expensive and complex, but may be necessary, and is the best way for the faculty member to get "credit" for their work within the university. This is often distinct from giving the researcher a "grant" - at my institution at least, the university is much pickier about IP, publication rights and overhead rates for grants than they are "Here's a problem, we need you to solve it."
* As mentioned in a comment, there are both funding mechanisms and often resources within the university to facilitate tech-transfer, licensing and spinoffs. This may help if they already have an implementation, and you just need to license it.
The easiest framing is just "Hey Dr. So-and-so, I work for XYZ Incorporated. We're really interested in your work, and think it might have some commercial applications we'd like to talk to you about..."
Just be direct, open and honest. Many researchers like consulting - it's a good way to supplement their income, work on some small but fun projects, etc. Work-for-hire contracts, similarly, are a decent way to get unallocated funds into a lab, or keep a graduate student or lab tech employed.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: Previous answers were about how to structure the formal relationship. I'll focus on how to make it be productive, given the "academics can't code" concern from the comments on the question.
The academics in question clearly implemented enough of their method to produce the results shown in their publications. Hopefully, they even still have that code somewhere. It may not be a complete implementation of the theoretical material their papers describe, though - if the experiments they ran didn't need that, it's quite possibly absent or much more likely to be buggy.
So, here's some things you could consider asking for in this partnership:
* The original code, appropriately licensed from whoever holds rights to it (maybe the individuals, maybe the university, maybe some other funding source)
* Test data (ditto on licensing)
* Their knowledge of omissions in the code or test data
* Knowledge of limitations of generality, performance, applicability to your problem, etc
* Ideas on how to make their method more applicable to your problem, and research effort to test those ideas
* References to related work done by them or others that's applicable to your specific problem, or other problems you may have a business interest in
* Full participation or technical assistance of various people involved in productizing the necessary code
* Cooperation in seeking funding for the work from various sources - e.g. SBIR/STTR grants from government agencies
For all you know, some of them may actually be excellent developers, and happy to have funding to put their ideas into practice. Ask a lot of questions, keep an open mind about what each side can get from the relationship with the other.
The biggest take away from my answer is that the code in question may not be the most important thing in achieving your desired results, if it's even important at all.
Upvotes: 3
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<issue_start>username_0: I'm designing curriculum that involves many steps and a correlating animation to go with it. The end goal of this curriculum will be to turn into a video where it might end up on Youtube (or something similar) for self-study.
Each animation has text that goes with it that describes it. My question is, **Between the Animation and the Text, what should appear first?** Please also include *why* you think it should go first.
I am not concerned on whether I should or shouldn't have animation or text. For the sake of this answer, both must be there.
To help frame the question, I created two simple slides/videos:
### **A. Bullets before Animation**
### **B. Animation before Bullets**
Which of these two options leads to better learning/retention? If one is better suited for video and self study, and the other is better suited for in-class live-teacher presentation, please let me know and why you think so.<issue_comment>username_1: You want to be understood. That means as little distractions as possible, i.e., no animations. No gimmicks.
Short, sweet, to the point.
The very best presentation I've ever seen was just images (photographs, cartoons, drawings of penguins). No text whatsoever. Strangely, the images were precisely on topic to what was being presented.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: Here is what I would do:
* I would move the ball first. Show them what is happening then use the text to support/explain it.
* Only change one thing on the slide at a time. There should be a delay between the ball moving and the bullet being added. Too many things moving is confusing. But one thing moving is a great way to guide someone's eyes to the important information.
* Possibly gray out the previous bullets. If you end up with a wall of text then it may be unnatural to dart your eyes from the very top (where the figure is) to the very bottom (where the new bullet is). Putting them side-by-side might help too.
Slide design is an art so don't feel compelled to follow any strict rules. Try it out and see how it works.
Upvotes: 1
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