date
stringlengths 10
10
| nb_tokens
int64 60
629k
| text_size
int64 234
1.02M
| content
stringlengths 234
1.02M
|
|---|---|---|---|
2016/02/27
| 1,820
| 7,963
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am a Masters student in math, who loves teaching, and rather than go on for a PhD would rather teach at a community college. I've noticed in many of the schools to which I am applying the they emphasize the need to understand diversity and teaching to diverse ethnic, economic, and ability populations.
Now I'm just a simple boy from the farm, so can somebody explain why this is important to teaching mathematics? Aren't people, well people? And if a person knows how to do deal and relate well with others, knows how to respect other's differences and is a good teacher, what more is there to say really?
I'm not trying to be obtuse or controversial, but I just don't see what these factors really have to do with being an effective educator and they simply come off as being PCish to me, but I'm hoping someone can perhaps give me a substantive answer.<issue_comment>username_1: In the U.S. (which I assume is the context, from the term "community college"), community colleges often teach very different student bodies than four-year colleges and universities. The student bodies at community colleges often contain:
* More first-generation students
* More nontraditional students - older students, students with dependents, students with full time jobs, etc.
* More students from traditionally underrepresented minorities
Speaking somewhat stereotypically, faculty from more more selective institutions may not be familiar with these students, with the background they have, and with the challenges they face. It is not just a matter of "political correctness" to look for faculty who are able to work effectively with these students.
I have often heard community college deans lament the challenge they have with hiring effective faculty, because many of their applicants come from backgrounds where the average student was quite different.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: Community colleges especially *draw* from diverse ethnic, economic and ability populations, so it seems logical that they would be concerned about their prospective faculty being able to teach those students. And no, this is not just "political correctness", but rather making sure the needs of the students are being met.
Consider:
* At many universities, the average undergrad likely has had access to academic advising previously. They aren't likely working full time. They're probably less likely to be the first person in their family to be going to college. If you're a member of a different ethnic group, your references or examples might be out of context for them.
* No, people aren't just "people". They come with experiences, perspectives, and biases all their own. Context matters, and a community college is a particular context.
* They likely have very different goals and reasons for being at a community college than you had at a four-year institution.
The list goes on, but what they're looking for is your ability to work with students who aren't "like yourself", don't have the same expectations, background, etc.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: >
> Now I'm just a simple boy from the farm, so can somebody explain why this is important to teaching mathematics?
>
>
>
Sure, I'll give it a try. The "this" that is supposed to be important are the qualities of being empathetic to, and understanding of, and passionate about, the unique challenges facing people who belong to certain racial, ethnic, or other demographic groups. Although the primary role of a mathematics teacher is to impart knowledge about mathematics, there are many ways and approaches to doing this, some a lot more effective than others. Part of the philosophy of diversity is the belief that a teacher (of mathematics or any other subject) who has a good understanding of and empathy towards those groups will be a much more effective teacher to students who are members of those groups, and, for example, in addition to successfully imparting the desired technical knowledge, would also have the ability to inspire their students, teach them additional useful values and habits, and overall improve their educational and life outcomes.
>
> Aren't people, well people?
>
>
>
Yes, that is technically correct but is probably not a very helpful way to look at a question such as what makes someone a good candidate for a teaching position in a community college. The sad fact is that humans are programmed in many subtle ways to treat different people in different ways. The ability and desire to be aware of such tendencies and overcome them are very desirable qualities for a lecturer in a country as heterogeneous as the U.S.
>
> And if a person knows how to do deal and relate well with others, knows how to respect other's differences and is a good teacher, what more is there to say really?
>
>
>
I think this question carries a premise that a person either relates well to all "others" or to none. That is not the case. Many people who belong to a certain group A will be able to relate fabulously to other members of group A and could be great teachers for them, while having a very poor ability to relate to members of another group B. In fact, we all feel more comfortable with and have a much better understanding of people who are similar to us - that is just human nature. But imagine that you are a community college administrator interviewing candidates for a math lecturer position, and along comes a member of group A who is able to convince you that he/she has a very good understanding of the challenges faced by members of group B and is really passionate about helping students from group B overcome those challenges and succeed. Wouldn't you be impressed and see great value in the possibility of employing such a person - at least assuming his/her general math lecturing credentials are just as good as the other candidates you're comparing them to?
Note that those sorts of qualities the colleges are looking for are of a much more specific kind that just someone having generally good people skills and a general ability to respect others. So yes, there is a lot "more to say" than the level of generality you are addressing.
With that said, of course having exceptionally good people skills can be impressive in its own right, and to some extent I believe you can tick off some of the right boxes without necessarily going down to the level of showing that you are passionate about helping very specific groups of people. Certainly showing a general respect for all people, whoever they may be, is a very good starting point for selling yourself in a job application.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_4: Strong answers have been given, but there's one thing that was missing.
It's important to be sensitive to diversity and diversity issues so that you can support the educational institution's goal of diversifying the institution, i.e. increasing its diversity.
Yes, the other answers are correct that as a math teacher, you need to support diverse learners' success.
(I will add to what's already been said, that this includes supporting the comfort level and effectiveness of diverse co-workers. It includes ensuring diverse learners can find a safe place to bring problems and concerns -- including LGBT by the way. If your office is not such a safe place, that's not the end of the world -- but you should make sure you know a safe place to send your students when they need one. It includes learning about diversity issues so that you'll recognize one when it appears in your immediate environment.)
But it's more than all of that. It includes a commitment to changing the racial and demographic make-up of higher education.
As a rural student, you may find that you are able to relate to all of this extremely well. Perhaps you could start by auditing one course that allows you to enter into the history of an underrepresented group in depth. You may surprise yourself!
Upvotes: 2
|
2016/02/27
| 795
| 3,647
|
<issue_start>username_0: I have not published a scientific paper before. I am trying to understand the publishing process.
As far as I understand, no changes are made to the manuscript by anyone other than the author(s) until the paper is accepted, and only after the paper is accepted, copy-editors do formatting/grammar-checks/typesetting. Is this correct?
In particular, if I am correct, it means that the editor does not actually make any changes to the manuscript, but only makes decisions about whether it is accepted or not, and the reviewers also make no changes, but only give feedback.<issue_comment>username_1: The procedure goes as follows:
1. The authors submit a paper
2. The editor decides whether the paper merits a review (is aligned to the journal topics, is well written, etc.). Then, he selects reviewers and sends the review requests.
3. The reviewers get back with comments. Usually, these comments/corrections/suggestions are mandatory.
4. The authors make these corrections, new tests/results, etc. asked by the reviewers and return the corrected paper.
5. Points 3-4 are repeated until all reviewers are satisfied, or the procedure reaches a maximum revision number (set by the journal usually) at which point the editor makes the call (accept/reject)
6. Upon acceptance, the authors submit the source files of the paper according to the journal rules (latex, docx, etc.).
7. A copy-editor formats the paper and tries to make it look better, checking for typos, grammar, etc. Then, the paper is sent back to the author for one final check. The copy-editor is usually not a specialist in the field, so some times the mathematical formulas could get screwed up.
8. The final paper goes for publication.
These are the steps according to my experience as author and reviewer in the field of electrical engineering.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: In general, you are correct: in general the editors and reviewers can only make suggestions for changes while only the author actually makes the changes.
In practice, however, good and thorough reviewers (and occasionally editors too) may often make highly specific suggestions for changes (e.g., "Delete this sentence", "Change phrase X into alternate phrase Y", "Cite papers A, B, and C"). Authors are strongly motivated to accept these changes in exactly or close to their stated form, for two reasons:
1. Doing so is likely to please the reviewer and increase chances of acceptance.
2. The reviewer often has a good suggestion and there's little reason to choose an alternate phrasing.
Finally, note that in some cases copy-editors do significantly more than just formatting/grammar-checks/type-setting. In particular, for publications with very broad audiences, it is sometimes the case that the copyeditor will actually significantly modify the words and phases used by the authors in order to make the text more accessible and more in keeping with the publication's preferred "tone." In this case, though, the authors always have a chance to review the suggested changes and make corrections in case they introduce errors, though objections to style may not be accepted by the journal.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: Publishers send final PDF version of typeset manuscript to corresponding author for approval and addressing copyediting queries. If author feels correction are quite extensive and second review is needed, authors can request for revised version be sent to them for approval. Most of publishers would send revised version for author approval, if requested while sending correction of initial typeset proof.
Upvotes: 0
|
2016/02/27
| 983
| 4,364
|
<issue_start>username_0: A practical question:
I have now read a few times that to get a PhD position in the US you need 3 reference letters.
I assume most people apply for more than one position, so you need those 3 letters for every position.
Also, there are a lot of applicants.
So how does one get a professor to write more than one letter?
If I apply for say, 5 positions, I would need 15 different letters, 5 per person if I am always referring to the same persons, even if not probably more than one letter per person---and I am probably not that person's only student who wants letters.
I cannot possibly imagine professors in Europe going along with this (which is why it is becoming common here to just give the address of the referee, not send in a complete letter), so how is it in the US?
Do US students only apply for one or two positions and simply abandon the thought of grad school if they do not get it, or do they really get their professors to write that many letters?<issue_comment>username_1: The answer is simple: you generally only write one letter per person and only customize it insofar as changing the name of the institution to which it is sent (if even that: "Dear Admissions Committee" works pretty well). If there are very different types of programs involved, you might customize a bit more, but not much. That means the incremental work needed for many letters is not much more than is necessary for one.
If you think about it, it should make sense: a recommendation letter is primarily about the candidate, not the institution. If a recommender writes the best letter they can for one institution, how much *could* it vary and still be the best letter for another?
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: username_1's answer is spot on. I write (and send) virtually the same letter of reference to all places my students are applying. However, there are a few cases where I expect professors may write more than one letter for a student. In particular, I might expect a letter writer to prepare a substantially different letter to a program/department/institution/whatever where the letter writer has a personal connection or other inside information specific to that program. Perhaps you are asking your professor for a letter as part of a postdoc application, and you are applying to be a postdoc in the same research group where your professor did a postdoc ten years ago. I expect your professor will write a very different letter in this case.
For example, I write two letters for many of my students applying to PhD programs. I write a generic letter to most programs and a more specific letter to the program I graduated from. Since I am a recent alum of that program, I have the unique opportunity to connect my student's capabilities and aptitudes to the expectations of the program. I might send an even more personalized letter if the student is interested in working for my advisor or members of my dissertation committee.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: The *reason* they bother to write those letters is because they also ask for recommendation letters for applicants themselves. So if I am asking applicants to send me reference letters, it is only fair for me to put in the time to write them.
Also, it is in my best interest that my students get the best position they can after they graduate. This will effect the quality of the next generation students I get.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: I have recently written recommendation letters for my former undergraduate student who applied to 15 US PhD programs (including MIT, Harvard, Columbia, Chicago, and Berkeley). I think it's important to make changes in the letters when a student applies to top programs in order to emphasize some qualities of the applicant that a specific university wants to see. It really takes a lot of time even if you make small changes in those letters. The most frustrating part is when students don't even bother to send you a "thank you" email after all. I am not saying that all students are like that, but I've had a few who I wrote letters to, then they got admitted to their PhD programs without notifying me or expressing any gratitude for my time, and then some time after they emailed again asking for a new letter for some scholarships/conference invitation/etc. Should I bother to reply?
Upvotes: 1
|
2016/02/27
| 1,213
| 5,341
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am a mathematics student and have been extensively reading textbooks cover-to-cover in my own time. Thus, my transcript does not say that I have (for example) taken differential geometry, even though I know diffgeo as well, if not better, than if I took the course.
How would you suggest that I display such efforts so that grad schools can be aware that I am more knowledgeable than my transcript might suggest?
Thanks!<issue_comment>username_1: You could discuss your independent learning in your personal statements.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Formal Qualifications mean formal learning with various formal assessment methods.
For Example: BE electrical at University of Canterbury NZ.
Informal learning comes under a different sub-heading on your CV. This informal learning comes under two subcategories: Subject Related and Other.
An example of Subject related would be "CBFC101 a computer course with no Exam".
An example of other that is clearly not subject related is "lifting paraplegics in and out of wheelchairs". You can break down the qualifications into Academic and Non-Academic if you want because you may have a useful non-Academic qualifications that you want to mention.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: Another option is to take Credit By Exam or Competency-Based Education (CBE) credits. Credit by exam is pretty simple - you sit the final exam (or an exam equivalent to a final exam) and if you pass, you get the credits as if you had attended the full course. Competency-based education credit is a little more complex. You don't necessarily get to sit the final exam right away, but you can bypass the weekly homework and lectures and knock out unit tests and projects at your own pace.
The effect of this would be to translate your informal knowledge into actual credits. You would then be able to say that yes, you *do* have university credits in Differential Geometry and whatever else you have been learning on your own.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_4: I faced this exact problem when I was applying to grad schools. Here are three ways that worked for me (in order of importance):
1. **Include this information in your statement of purpose.**
I do not recommend going through a laundry list of all the books you have read, however, I would mention the new topics that you are familiar with, how you have been learning them (independent study), and how you are looking to continue furthering your knowledge (which is presumably by study at the university you’re applying to).
2. **Have your letter writers vouch for your independent study.**
Most universities require letters of recommendation as part of your application. It is a good idea to choose letter writers who can speak to your different strengths, and I think it would be beneficial to have at least one of them who is familiar with all of your self-study. I met with my professors who agreed to write letters for me so that we could talk about my application and preparation for grad school. One professor asked me specifically to prepare a list of topics I’d studied independently so that he could write about it in his letter to the university.
3. **Contact professors at the schools where you want to apply.**
Getting professors familiar with your background can be helpful so that they can point you to even more resources for self-study, and they may also be helpful when going through the application review process. There is no guarantee this will influence your application, however, it possibly has some bearing on it, and it more importantly will help you become better at self-study regardless.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: As an undergrad, I used to make lists of errata for texts I have read and [post them on my website](http://www.cip.ifi.lmu.de/~grinberg/algebra/#errata) (I still keep updating the list when I read new stuff with a nontrivial amount of errors). Back then I wasn't thinking of it strategically (it just felt like the obvious thing to do, like reporting bugs in software), but now that I've had some bits of experience with assessing students' applications, I have come to the conclusion that such lists of errata are fairly good evidence of actually having read and understood the books/papers you claim to have read. (I have seen my share of high-schoolers claiming to have read graduate textbooks, but somehow failing to remember much of use from them afterwards. It appears to be an inflationary currency, where everyone keeps claiming more and more achievements, just as with most other extracurriculars in student applications.)
Another thing that can help is posting collections of solutions to textbook exercises. But this is somewhat more hit-and-miss; the copyright status of such collections is unclear (they are derivative works most of the time), and some professors (older ones, in particular) might find it unwelcome (as they want solutions to not be easily available to students). A variant of this that lacks these drawbacks is posting little notes about the text, such as "a different proof of Proposition 2.4.1" or "why the second assumption in Theorem 2.5.2 is needed".
These days, you can also ask questions about the textbooks on forums like math.stackexchange, although of course these better be good questions.
Upvotes: 0
|
2016/02/27
| 3,086
| 13,090
|
<issue_start>username_0: I currently have a (graduate) professor who clearly does not understand the material she teaches at the level required by the course. This normally would not be a problem - I'm fine with educating myself via textbook - but unfortunately her inaccurate knowledge also extends to grading. I have no problem with studying hard for a difficult class, but I can't possibly know how to predict the exact incorrect ideas that the professor has and incorporate them into my work.
My first response was to *very, verrrrry diplomatically* approach the professor and talk to her about the questions - but she immediately became angry. I then talked to my advisor, who said that this isn't the first time she's heard of problems with this teacher. My advisor said that her only idea is for me to go to the head of the department, but I'd really prefer not to do this for two reasons:
1. Relatively small department; it's likely that this professor has
a good relationship with the department head, and I would look bad
2. It seems like a "nuclear option" and I would prefer to avoid it
(if possible)
This is my last semester of graduate coursework in molecular biology, and I have never had a problem like this before. I feel like my only option is to drop the course - without it, I would still have all my coursework requirements fulfilled - but I don't want to have a W on my transcript.
I have been unable to come up with a satisfactory way to resolve the problem.
**Possibly helpful additional information**
* I have talked to other students in the class; all (of the six I have talked to about the issue) have experienced similar problems in grading
* I have confirmation from other teachers that my answers are correct, but they don't want to confront a colleague (and I can't fault them for this)
* I don't *dislike* the teacher; she seems like a relatively OK person. I just wish she understood the content better
* The teacher can't possibly have a grudge against me, since I had never met her before the class
* I'm very interested in what this class covers, which is why I took it despite not needing to
* I have taught some of this material at the undergraduate and graduate level; I understand it's difficult stuff. It's more the teacher's attitude towards grading that is the problem.<issue_comment>username_1: Realistically, how much do the actual grades matter in your program? In many programs they do not matter as long as you pass. The main purpose of graduate courses is for you to learn so you can do better research, and it seems you have achieved that goal.
If this is the case, a reasonable option would be just to ignore it (you are about to finish your graduate coursework anyway) and just focus on the most important part - research.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Not a definitive answer, since I’m a postdoc with comparatively limited experience of such conflict situations, but I do have a few suggestions. They aim to:
* maximise the chance of getting better grading without ruffling too many feathers;
* give you solid documentation if you *do* end up escalating the complaint;
* minimise the embarrassment in case it turns out that you’re misunderstanding something and your lecturer’s grading is defensible after all.
**If you confront the teacher again, do so by email rather than in person.** This has several advantages. Firstly, it allows you to look over what you’ve written and make sure you’re phrasing everything as tactfully as possible. Secondly, it gives her time to (hopefully) get over any initial anger/embarrassment and give a considered response. Confronted on a sensitive topic in person, it’s easy to get flustered and defensive, and entrenched in a position it’s difficult to climb down from later. Finally, if she doesn’t respond constructively, you have the exchange in writing, so are on firmer ground for escalating the issue to the department head.
If possible, **phrase the question/request so that your desired outcome is also palatable for her.** If you argue that she’s fundamentally misunderstanding the course material, she’s pretty unlikely to accept that — admitting that one’s wrong about something is already difficult, admitting one’s incompetent is a whole lot harder again. Instead, you could say that (e.g.) you have learned some of the material previously, and so know it with a different viewpoint from hers (and maybe give a couple of examples here, ideally with sources in well-established literature) and you would like to check that this angle will also be acceptable for work on the course. I’m not saying you should say exactly that — but look for something that allows her to concede that your understanding is correct, without having to admit (to you or herself) that hers is wrong; and down the line this makes it easier for her to improve her understanding of the subject, rather than remaining antagonistic towards your suggestions. On the other hand, if she *does* defend her current approach, this gives her a chance to lay out her case more clearly and carefully.
**If you do this and she still doesn’t engage constructively, you’re now on very solid ground to escalate the complaint.** You have a written record of your good-faith effort to sort this out tactfully. You have specific examples where she has doubled down on her misunderstanding of the material. (I’d suggest double-checking these with your advisor or another faculty member to be absolutely sure you’re right about them.) Even if the head of department supports this teacher in general, it will be comparatively difficult for them to dismiss the complaint or paint you as a troublemaker.
Upvotes: 8 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: Beyond your department, your university most likely has an ombudsperson who can help you navigate this issue. They may be an essential resource, since they are helpfully outside of your small department, and should (hopefully) be knowledgeable and well-versed in the areas you need: grade disputes, university policy/procedure, academic politics, etc. Reasons why it might be good to get this person involved:
* You don't know what is going on in the professor's life. We don't have enough information to form a conclusion about the cause of the situation, but it's worth entertaining a number of explanations for conspicuous behavior, and the ombudsperson might be able to help.
* I've also once heard through the grapevine of a department head complicit in assigning a gravely unqualified teacher to a course, and it would almost certainly be unwise to try and force *that* issue by yourself.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: Find out the final-grade appeals process in your department/at your university. (Where I am the procedure is department-level, but that may or may not be the case where you are.) Keep every assignment your professor has graded; separately, write up where and how the grading is incorrect.
Follow the procedure to the letter. Be apologetic and accommodating (as you have here) rather than angry. Explain that you did try to raise this with the professor directly, and the result was not positive.
This deflects the situation into being about your grade, which is impersonal, rather than a personal dispute between you and the professor, which you (probably quite correctly, graduate departments being as clannish as they are) wish to avoid.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: Basically, I agree with @username_2. I wouldn't tell to the professor directly that she is wrong. It may be hard for her to realize that she is wrong if you directly tell her that. Also, I agree with you in a part of preferring of not going to the head of the department. She is a professor and it is a little bit sensitive topic.
Still, I think she should know that she teaches wrong because students have an issue with a wrong teaching, and she has an issue even though she doesn't know that (or she knows but she doesn't want to change?).
I would send her a mail. You may write that you are confused because you thought that some other thing is correct and now you don't know anymore which approach to take. Also you can ask her for a help. Of course you don't need a help but she should think more about the problem and at the same time she shouldn't feel that she is under attack because she may start to act "too defensive". You can be stubborn in your reply (e.g. "I really thought differently/ I would like to know which part of my approach is wrong so I don't make any mistake/ What should I change", etc.).
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_6: My recommendation would be to **withdraw from the course**. I'd almost go so far as to say you have a prime opportunity to do so in this case: it's not a required course, *and* you know you can learn it on your own, *and* you have other things that take priority with your time. Granted how defensive she got (and noncommittal your advisor was), the overall trajectory seems to be some combination of (a) getting into an ongoing and escalating dispute with her, (b) contending with department interactions over an extended period, (c) triggering end-of-course grade disputes, etc. This threatens to be a huge sink in your time and emotional energy, so I would recommend simply sidestepping the whole issue as the best option.
Now: The one thing that makes me hesitate with this advice is that I don't have very deep experience with what a effect a "W" has on a PhD transcript. Personally, I have a whole bunch of W's on my undergraduate transcript (albeit none in my major), and they have never been an issue or mentioned in any context: not on applying to graduate school, getting industry employment, or getting a full-time lecturer position.
**Edit:** Thanks to @vadim123 for the comment: "Nobody cares what you have on your PhD transcript. They care about (1) what you've published, (2) what's in your thesis, and as a distant third (3) your GPA. Oh, and (0) what your letters of recommendation say about you." Sounds about right.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_7: It is worth knowing that what is taught in coursework or printed in course texts, can be many years behind research frontiers.
If the coursework is in the professor's field of specialisation, there is a very good chance that her knowledge is years ahead of the text.
Google Scholar is your friend.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_8: In short: approach the professor with a **detailed, full and rigorous explanation** on why your solution is correct. Deal with it professionally, and base your claims on hard facts alone, not your personal opinions.
*Longer answer:* I am not *completely* convinced by your story. That is, I do believe that there might be an ambiguous marking criteria going on in your course, but I don't see how you drew the categorical conclusion that "the teacher doesn't understand what she is teaching". That's only your opinion. The fact your advisor said something about the professor also doesn't establish much. He/she might have said something without thinking much about it.
So I believe you should simply deal professionally with the matter: stick to facts, find out precisely where the marking is incorrect and send an email/contact your teacher. This seems like a quite simple story. You say that "the teacher got angry" when approached. I'm also not convinced this is the full story. People do not generally simply get angry when approached. You need to figure out the **precise** conversation that led to her getting angry, if indeed.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_9: ***This way having a personal tutor assigned by the department (or collage) to each student is very important.***
Go to your personal tutor, and explain that you are finding it hard to understand why your answers are being marked as they are. Ask your tutor to explain to you what you do not understand….
Make it all about your lack of understanding, including your lack of understanding of the books.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_10: Most universities have some sort of grading appeal process, so you can use that if necessary.
However, if you are wanting to do something a bit more diplomatic, the only suggestion I have is to try and get her to recognise that she is incorrect. Fin the most egregious error in her marking, preferably one that you can point to material that shows she is incorrect. Then you can do something like 'I really don't understand why this ... is wrong and would like to go through it with you'. Teachers usually have office hours exactly for this, explaining what the student did wrong. During that discussion, you can say things like 'how does that reconcile with ...' and get the supporting material out. Or, 'the textbook says ..., but I am having trouble integrating that with ... (whatever she said)'. If you make it about you trying to understand, as she tries to explain it, she may well realise that what she's saying doesn't make sense. Avoid saying 'you are wrong' and make it much more like 'but I can't see how that fits with ...'
Upvotes: -1
|
2016/02/28
| 568
| 2,637
|
<issue_start>username_0: If a company or any external organization collaborates with a University to fund research - perhaps even open a lab - who owns the intellectual property (IP) of anything that results from that research? Is it the company, the university, or both?
Do cases like these affect IP ownership:
* the university buys equipment/pays its professors and student researchers with money granted by the company
* the company uses equipment and funds available at the university to conduct research?<issue_comment>username_1: It should be negotiated and specified in a written contract. Each contract could be different.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: The division of intellectual property rights will be explicitly specified in *every* research contract negotiated by competent personnel, no matter who the funder is. In my experience, I have seen that the typical arrangements fall into five rough categories along a spectrum of control:
1. The researcher's organization retains all IP rights.
2. The researcher's organization retains all IP rights, but automatically grants a non-exclusive license to the funding organization.
3. The researcher's organization retains all IP rights, but the funding organization has an option to exclusively license all IP rights.
4. The researcher's organization transfers all IP rights to the funding organization, but retains an automatic license to the IP.
5. The researcher's organization transfers all IP rights to the funding organization.
Research contracts also often divide a project into different areas that mix and match these rights. For example, the researcher's organization might have non-exclusive licensing (#2) for all basic research work, but transfer all rights for a planned prototype (#5) to the funding organization.
Corporately funded research contracts tend to fall anywhere along the spectrum from #2 to #5, depending on the nature of the research and the motivation for the contract. More basic research tends to be viewed as "pre-competitive," and companies funding such research will generally be large and with a long view and happy to grant liberal rights, since they are more concerned with reshaping their strategic landscape (e.g., extending [Moore's Law](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moore%27s_law)) and trust their ability to build internally off of basic research breakthroughs. More applied research and research funded by smaller companies tends to be more immediately relevant to competitive advantage: it tends to have much more tightly restricted IP rights and at its most applied shades into consulting.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]
|
2016/02/28
| 440
| 1,828
|
<issue_start>username_0: I have received an acceptance email of my article from editor in August-2015 and I was told that my article will be published in their issue of XXXXX 2015/2016. Meanwhile one issue of the journal is published in january-2016 without my article and the next issue is expected in May-2016. Now I am going to write a reminder email mentioning to consider my article for publication in the forthcoming issue. Please guide me or share some gentle format, so that I may be able to communicate with editor well in time.<issue_comment>username_1: **Make it a question, not a reminder.**
I see no particular reason to worry that your paper has been forgotten. It seems more likely just that yours is scheduled for the May issue (or later in the year) because there were enough earlier-submitted articles to fill up the January issue.
On the other hand, asking politely “Roughly when should I expect my paper to appear?” is a completely reasonable question — there are many reasons you might want to know it — and contains no implied criticism that an editor might take offence at.
And in case the editor *has* forgotten your paper, this will have the desired effect of a reminder anyway.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: How about this :-)
Dear [Insert journal editor’s name]:
This is with regard to my/our accepted manuscript, [Insert manuscript reference number], titled “[Insert manuscript title],” submitted to your journal on [Insert date of submission].
We have not received an update regarding the publishing status of our manuscript. Could you let us know when we can expect notice regarding the time and the issue it will be published in?
Thank you for your time and consideration. We look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
[Insert author name and correspondence details]
Upvotes: 3
|
2016/02/28
| 1,970
| 7,226
|
<issue_start>username_0: I came across an article by X and Y that is a nearly 100% self-plagiarised from an article by X several years earlier. A couple of words were changed, but that is it. The figures and tables are the same and so is the list of references. The titles are different. The publishers of the two journals are different.
To put it mildly, I am disappointed by the authors' unethical behavior, by the failure of referees to uncover the earlier work when reviewing relevant literature to assess novelty, and by the editor/publisher for apparently not bothering to use plagiarism detection software.
My first reaction was that I should report this case to the journal editor. Based on what I've heard from colleagues, however, they appear to not always take self-plagiarism seriously, presumably because it's a lot of unpleasant work. Should I therefore report this to PubPeer instead? Or to the editor and PubPeer?<issue_comment>username_1: Taking the complaint public shames both the author and the journal, which may be counterproductive if the journal is responsible and willing to act promptly (mistakes do happen, even for very good journals).
I would thus recommend starting by reporting to the journal, which should have a procedure for dealing with such things. If the journal does not take you seriously or refuses to act, then take it public and shame both the author and the journal.
Upvotes: 7 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: I suggest that you report this to the journal or editor first. If they fail to properly react to it, you can still escalate this by making it public. While the journal is likely to blame for not using proper plagiarism detection mechanisms, they are also likely the victim here, not the culprit.
Also, keep in mind that there may be reasons for this duplicate publication, e.g., one of the papers being published at a predatory publisher (see also [this question](https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/54568/7734) which is essentially the same situation happening to a peer-reviewer).
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: The case sounds serious. I have reported in a blog post ([Plagiarism: everything but the title](http://laurent-duval.blogspot.fr/2012/04/plagiarism-everything-but-title.html)) an almost carbon-copy of a paper, but not by the same authors, which was withdrawn soon afterward.
First, check it is a regular peer-reviewed paper. Some "tutorial" or editorial papers may appear more than once: in [Imperfect impact](http://stuartcantrill.com/2016/01/23/imperfect-impact/), the author provides a case of such a paper published 9 times, and the outcomes on terms of citations, with respect to journal impact factors.
Then, I would suggest you to first report to the (area) editor responsible for publication (generally mentioned on the published paper page). (S)he should get in touch with the corresponding author, or hand it over to higher authorities.
If you have no feeback (say in one month), copy the same letter to the journal editors in chief, copy to the publisher.
If you see no action, a last mail to X and Y before making stuff public would be fair. They would have the option to withdraw the paper by themselves.
P.S. the impact for authors is one more paper on their list, and potential more citations on careless databases, as shown in this figure from the above blog post (same paper published in different journals):
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/y0JjX.png)
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_4: There is no such thing as self-plagiarism.
If you have written something *and the journals allow it and are aware of
it*, it is neither illegal nor prohibited by academic standards to
publish and recycle it in 100 journals if it is your work.
I think you mean some other problems by the term "self-plagiarism":
* The author tries to sell his old work as new results obtained by
paid work. *That* is fraud,
pure and simple, especially if the author was funded to get new
results.
* The author has published the work under the copyright terms of the journal. Normally the journal gets exclusive rights for publication and
violating this terms is illegal.
Even if it is not forbidden, people do not try it except for a very good reason.
You are aggravating your academic colleagues because place for publishing is precious and you are wasting this space (There is nothing against trying several publishers as long as you retract the other submissions). You are also indicating that you are past your zenith in your academic career if you need to fall back on old work (In fact, I think of it more as terminal illness) or you come off as having a massive ego problem if you try to push your invaluable contributions into several journals. So your indignation is justifiable, especially because Journals will normally not allow duplicate publication and your suspicion is legitimate.
So contact the journal editor of the first publication and clear that up. It may be perfectly explainable what the author is doing, so take no action until you know what is going on.
ADDITION: Just for curiosity: PLL's "But it’s well-established now with the meaning of “re-using one’s own old work and presenting it as novel”" convinced me to ask Goggle's [Ngram](https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=self-plagiarism&case_insensitive=on&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t4%3B%2Cself%20-%20plagiarism%3B%2Cc0%3B%2Cs0%3B%3Bself%20-%20plagiarism%3B%2Cc0%3B%3BSelf%20-%20Plagiarism%3B%2Cc0%3B%3BSelf%20-%20plagiarism%3B%2Cc0) because I was curious about its usage.
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/kkboK.png)
So the current usage in books is 45/100 000 000 instances.
If we compare that the usage of the domain-specific, non-English word "Camellia"
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/rQ7ys.png)
Camellia occurs (at maximum) in 40/1 000 000 instances. Which means that "Camellia" is used approximately 100 times more than the "self-plagiarism" term. For fun, "Camellia" is comparable in usage to "trichloride".
It was used sporadically during the 1990s ("Duplicate publication" is definitly preferred) and only after the 2000s it became more prevalent and also used in titles and abstracts.
The Wikipedia entry defined "self-plagiarism" 2005 and there it was specified later that this word was used mainly by biomedicine to summarize four categories: duplicate publication, copyright infringement, salami-slicing and use of *own* text modules. It must also be said that [its usage *is* controversial for exactly this reasons](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3024110/),because it tries to subsume salami-slicing and the use of own text modules under a term which contains much more serious violations like duplicate publication or copyright infringement. So "self-plagiarism" is according to the "Committee on Publication Ethics" not equivalent to duplicate publication.
Sorry, but "self-plagiarism" seems to be neither as widespread or well-accepted as claimed nor is its usage uncontroversial.
Upvotes: 0
|
2016/02/29
| 576
| 2,367
|
<issue_start>username_0: My university sent out the GHC 2016 emails recently. I have always wanted to go, because every year I see every single one of my female CS friends go there. The vast majority of them are sponsored by their companies, so they don't really have anything to present. My question is, is attending GHC in such a situation of any use at all? I have always felt that you get more respect in a conference and also more contacts (because of people wanting to talk to you) when you actually contribute something to it as opposed to being a passive observer. But I am not sure.
My second question, as the title says, I am a first year PhD student, so I don't really have any one big project I'm working on, just small projects I've been doing to get a feel for my field. So I can't present anything worthwhile. As a student, is there a way to go to GHC as only an observer (not presenter)? I mean, in case I conclude that simply attending will be useful too, I'd like to give it a shot, but can't find anything like on their website.
Thanks!<issue_comment>username_1: GHC is less of a research conference and more of a networking and educational event. They had over 12,000 attendees last year but only ~700 presenters, so clearly most people do not present anything.
I've known several people to go (Masters and PhD students) and none of them have presented. They all loved it and at least one got a job out of it.
You'll get to listen to some great talks, attend workship-like events, interview with many companies, and meet a lot of other students. It seems like a great experience so you should definitely consider it.
The [scholarship applications](http://ghc.anitaborg.org/2016-student-academic/scholarships/) just recently opened, which would cover your costs of traveling and attending the event.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: I signed up just so I could say: YES. Go to Grace Hopper. As a woman in tech it has been one of the most incredible experiences of my life. The chance just to feel represented -- to talk to random women and have them be knowledgeable about all sorts of aspects of programming -- it is something you will be hard pressed to find anywhere else in the world.
(I see the rules say to avoid "Making statements based on opinion". This is clearly based on my opinion... sorry :) )
Upvotes: 3
|
2016/02/29
| 487
| 2,221
|
<issue_start>username_0: I have been applying to some summer programs for undergraduates recently and I am seeing that some of them do not send rejection letters or emails, and instead only notify accepted applicants. I was wondering how wide spread of a practice this is in academia, meaning do graduate schools do this, do grants do this, et cetera?<issue_comment>username_1: All graduate programs with which I have been associated do send rejection letters. The same holds for all grants I have sought or reviewed. Paper submissions also receive rejection letters. The only exceptions I am aware of are some contests, such as the [Royal Society Publishing Photo Competition.](https://royalsociety.org/journals/photo-competition/)
**tl;dr** My problem is that I receive too many rejection letters, not too few.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Based on rumor, it is quite common not to send rejection letters at American universities. I would expect that this happens at a substantially higher rate for undergraduate summer research programs because they have an exceptionally high ratio of applications to funding. At many universities, the summer research programs are more competitive than the PhD programs but have zero administrative staff. PhD programs, postdoctoral positions, and faculty positions also may not send rejections. For some jobs, one will also find that nobody was hired at all.
Some Australian universities have an official no rejection letter policy.
I definitely recommend sending rejection letters, particularly if applicants paid an application fee.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: Yes it is common. Unfortunately universities need to deal with rejections in a politically correct manner (to don't get sued). Believe it or not, giving rejection letters is very hard for universities, and mostly need to be deal with or go through human resources. So because there are limited resources at the human resources department to deal with internal and external issues, sometimes the rejection letters are not sent, or just simply ignored somewhere in the pipeline.
I recently applied for two jobs at Cambridge and one at Oxford, and I did not receive any rejection letter.
Upvotes: 2
|
2016/02/29
| 1,237
| 5,365
|
<issue_start>username_0: Okay yes I know another 'I'm a bad candidate help me' post sorry.
I was in grad school years ago but I quit because the program wasn't good for me. The exact program doesn't matter. It was a small one on the USA west coast though, and for MS not PhD.
The problem was the people in the program didn't like my concentration field (lie groups). All the profs thought their own fields were more interesting, wanted me to focus on those instead (like discrete geometry). No other students were really interested in my concentration so important classes got canceled, "low enrollment" they said.
Now I want to apply to a new school that I think does not have this problem. I want to know though, how can I talk about this in my statement of purpose? I have to address the reason I left a previous program but I do not want to sound whiny or vengeful or make the admissions committee think the problem was my fault.
Note I made up some of the details here because in case some admissions person at my future school reads this forum. But the general point is still right. Thanks!<issue_comment>username_1: In my opinion you should not "go negative" at all in a statement of purpose. A vivid description of what turned you off to a previous program seems only to give those considering your admissions case something concrete to worry about, whereas just saying that you lost interest and have since regained it (and then talking extensively about the second part!) is not such a hard sell: by the way, most people lack the perspective to find graduate level mathematics (or whatever) interesting. But a certain percentage of students who do an undergraduate degree in mathematics (or whatever) slowly but surely find their interest and passion in the subject increasing until the point where they are motivated to go back to school for further study. As long as you sound interested and motivated **now**, how you felt in the past is not so relevant.
It may also be helpful to know that your specific story did have a mildly negative effect on me.
>
> The problem was the people in the program didn't like my concentration field (lie groups).
>
>
>
Having your heart set on one mathematical field while starting a master's degree is probably a mistake. At best you know something about your initial interest; you can't possibly know whether you are interested in everything else (and even what other things relate to your interest).
>
> All the profs thought their own fields were more interesting, wanted me to focus on those instead (like discrete geometry).
>
>
>
You were surprised by the fact that faculty are interested in their...interests?!? That surprises *me*. If you have your heart set on Lie theory, why didn't you go somewhere in which Lie theory was a major research focus?
>
> No other students were really interested in my concentration so important classes got canceled, "low enrollment" they said.
>
>
>
Lack of sufficient interest is exactly what causes courses to be cancelled. You didn't expect them to run classes for you and you alone *which lie outside the research interests of the faculty*, did you?
By the way, when I went to grad school I had my heart set on algebraic number theory...and ended up doing that (or one of many things that comes under that broad banner). In order to do algebraic number theory I had to learn some Lie theory and some discrete geometry, and these remain of interest to me to this day. Though I know relatively little in each of these areas, I know more than enough to know that they are fascinating fields, and that if I had studied them as a graduate student rather than algebraic number theory *per se*...well, that would have been fine. And of course my point is not that these two subfields (which I gather are not the "real ones" occurring in your narrative) are so specifically great: rather, believe that if you have the temperament for graduate study in mathematics, then you may just as well study any subfield -- or any subfield of interest to the faculty and your peers in a strong graduate program. So to me, your claim that you would have done well the first time if only you had been learning "the right mathematics" is a bit suspect. It might be true, but it might equally well be true that you just weren't into your studies as much as you needed to be to continue...and now you are. Again, I would go with the latter narrative.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: Don't go "negative" in a statement of purpose, or any other statement for that matter. Instead, turn your negatives into positives.
For instance, don't write, "I've had bad experiences with programs that don't offer courses in Lie groups." Just say, "I am very interested in programs like yours that are strong in Lie groups." People know that there are good and bad programs around, but they appreciate your not going negative on others, which saves them the worry of, "when will this guy go negative on us?"
On the other hand, if you cast your aspirations in a positive light, the feeling is more likely to be, "our program is a lot better, or at least more suitable for this candidate than those others that don't emphasize Lie groups." They'd worry much less about what you want that they don't have, because you haven't mentioned those things.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]
|
2016/02/29
| 996
| 4,132
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am an undergraduate student of Physics in Spain. This year I have to prepare my bachelor thesis and I also applied for a fellowship with the same advisor to do further research on the same topic.
I wasn't awarded the fellowship and I told my advisor about it but he wrote me an email a few days back telling me to try to finish the thesis early to be able to start with the collaboration.
Given that I wasn't awarded the fellowship I just want to finish my thesis and I don't want to do further work (which was discussed under the hypothesis of me getting the fellowship) for free. I thought that this was clear to my advisor when I told him that I didn't get the fellowship but it seems that it is not the case
I don't want to sound rude when telling him this because I still have to finish my thesis with him and I wouldn't like any kind of problem between us. How could I tell him that I'm not willing to work for free?<issue_comment>username_1: I think the famous *'Let the truth set you free'* applies here. If I were you I would handle the whole situation as following:
**Meetings**: I would have regular meeting with your supervisor to keep the conversation going and get the feedback from your supervisor.
**Mentioning The Collaboration**: Then, in one meeting I would say to him/her that ***I can not do the collaboration as I need to find a paid job***. I would say this face to face, and not through email; so he/she would get the whole thing without any false judgement.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: I would suggest that you repeat that you did not win the fellowship and ask if he has other funding available, "because I am still very interested in the work, but will need to find paid work instead if I can't get a stipend for this collaboration."
Upvotes: 8 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: I think you should act as soon as possible. There are other sources of funding, and there may still be time to get hold of one.
So, in that light, just send an email saying that you can't afford to work for free. Add that you thought it was clear from your previous discussions, so offer your apologies. And, finally, say that you are willing to try to apply for other grants.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: You might want to phrase it as "I can't afford to work for free" rather than "I don't want to work for free". It is probably more accurate, and leaves the door open for more work with your supervisor if there is funding in place in future.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: Don't tell him / her anything about your attitude toward the "collaboration" until after your undergrad thesis has been approved. Then discuss it with him. Or work on the collaboration until you find paid work. Too much honesty too early will just set yourself up for more abuse. Personal Experience with working in academia.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_6: As a professor/researcher who has mentored many students I certainly see this issue from both sides. I advise the following (from the professor's perspective)...a "collaborative" relationship between student and advisor typically means: (a) the student works their butt off (long hours), (b) the student learns a lot from the experience, (c) the professor/advisor benefits from "free" work, and (d) the professor/advisor works to promote the long-term goals and professional development of the student (e.g., networking, mentoring, co-authoring papers and presentations, etc.).
It should be a win-win situation. However, it is not the responsibility of the advisor to financially support the student. That is an ideal situation but not a requirement. Sometimes it happens, but when it doesn't, it's the student's responsibility to figure out how to eat and pay the rent while volunteering in a research lab. It's not the most pleasant arrangement but that's how it works. It's hard work training students (trust me) and it's hard work being a student!
tl;dr The suggestion to tell your advisor, "I want to continue my research, but I first need to find part-time work to support myself" is spot-on!
Upvotes: 0
|
2016/02/29
| 1,644
| 6,885
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am doing a PhD in physics / applied math and have just started writing the theory section. A large-ish part (5-10 pages, estimated) will be setting the scene with some theoretical tools that I am using but did not invent. These tools will eventually be used as the basis for analysing data.
I will say the word so you don't have to think it: plagiarism. I have absolutely no desire to plagiarize so am very careful about citing my sources - however while writing I get the feeling that I am simply copying off of others.
Question, in two parts:
1. Can anyone give a strategy for how to write a theory section and make it ``your own'' while clearly citing relevant material?
2. Is this feeling actually normal and am I just over-reacting?<issue_comment>username_1: This is a totally normal...ish :)
Once upon a time, scientists were almost universally humble, and for a person to single-handedly contributing even a speck of new information to the body of information that humanity had accumulated over millennia was considered quite the achievement.
As <NAME>, Commissioner of US patent office in 1899 famously said:
>
> "Everything that can be invented has been invented."
>
>
>
It is only in recent times (but still before you and I were born) that the notion of a "rockstar-scientist" existed. Before that, Scientists were typically wealthy noblemen who dabbled in Science because they didn't need to work for a living. So the idea of doing science as a profession also wasn't really anything like it is these days.
So why do you feel like you are plagiarising the work of others when setting the scene in your PhD thesis? Speaking from my experience of currently writing a PhD Thesis in Biology, it may be because you are internally conflicted that on the one hand we are but little cogs in a big engine; yet on the other, if we don't make ourselfs out to be the biggest/bestest cog ever, we fear we'll be replaced by ones that are.
Yet the format of a thesis has not changed in centuries - and perhaps that's a good thing :)
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Although I'm not in "physics/applied-math", but, rather, "math", I see the same or similar issue arise. Let's consider the point that, by this year, the "context/background/set-up" has very likely been *highly* *optimized*, both for effectiveness and for succinctness. Nothing wasted, nothing superfluous, etc. So it is likely to be hard to "improvise" much on its description without making it worse in some way. This may be the case even down to small notational conventions, wording, etc.
So, be absolutely scrupulous in citing, and *try* to have it all in your own head so that you can write it yourself (not literally copying), even while citing, ... and remarking something like "we recall some standard facts/ideas/set-up, e.g., from [X]."
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: If you feel that you are copying too much from "standard" sources (in your subfield), chances are you are. Keep in mind that your audience is mostly people in your field (generally), they should be familiar with the area. Just cite (the best/a few) reference(s), give the result you need (for benefit of somebody from outside the field stumbling on your thesis, or as a reminder to others), and move on.
Most of the "underlying theory" discussion should be more or less contained in the chapter on state of the art anyway. There detailed discussion of what has been done, were it fell short or left problems open is the bread and butter, and will be spiked with copious references.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: Given that you've almost finished a PhD in your field, it's fair to say that you should have a solid grasp of the basic definitions and concepts you're trying to write up at the moment. So I suggest you do the following. Close all your textbooks and papers and write that section on your own, without looking at any other sources while you're writing it. That should ensure that you express the ideas mostly in your own words. Then, go back and check your version against the standard references to make sure you didn't get anything wrong and that you've included any relevant citations. If you see that one of the standard sources has explained one of the concepts much better than you did,
consider explicitly quoting that source: e.g., "Symplectic widgets were defined by Widgetmeister [Wid83] as [...]".
At the end of the day, though, you don't need to worry too much about this. As long as you cite sources clearly, I don't think anyone's going to complain that your description of the standard material looks a lot like other peoples' descriptions of the same thing, especially if it's not word-for-word the same. Standard material always looks standard and a lot of readers will skip over it anyway. The real contribution of your thesis is in the later sections.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_5: username_4's answer is a good one. In addition, you can make it more your own by adding some commentary. How do the theoretical tools that you are using compare with others that have been proposed? What are their weaknesses? What are the alternatives? Why have you chosen these particular tools for your particular problem?
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_6: These are similar questions any researcher faces while writing articles/ publications/ thesis. But what I feel different is the perspective of looking the problem. Maybe everyone's trying to solve the same thing now and then. Certainly, there are many contributions which have lead us to pursue the field you are in today. We indeed have to cite adequately as the future researchers would see the origins of our work. This is also establishing yourself in the field you are working along with established contributors.
What matters most is the following:
1. How do you show the problem/How did you see the problem?
2. Your perspective to tackle the issue with all necessary tools. You should clearly put your ideas to work for connecting all the dots.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_7: This is actually very simple ethically:
You did research work which - by your description - is experimental. You ran experiments, you're analyzing data, you're making conclusions based on the data.
**Your research contribution is your conclusions.** (and possibly your raw results and experimental setup as well.)
The theory section is not plagiarized because you're not claiming this is your original (theoretical) work. You're summing up what other people have done and discussed.
That's it. Other answers have good suggestions regarding how to approach writing this section.
PS - Sometimes, the cogent presentation of the theoretical background can itself be considered a contribution. But this happens more in textbooks or in review papers, less in theses.
Upvotes: 3
|
2016/02/29
| 3,807
| 16,232
|
<issue_start>username_0: Sleep deprivation is a common problem among college students that has become so serious that universities in the US have taken measures to help their students overcome it.
As a particular example, the curriculum of Ateneo de Manila University was planned taking into consideration what would constitute a healthy student-life in a Philippine setting, however its students still experience the same sleep deprivation problem. With this in mind, we would like to gather ideas on what measures or projects can be taken to help students in our community cope with this problem.<issue_comment>username_1: From the point of view of a student, one way is to start classes later, preferably after 10am.
Another way is to limit the amount of homework given by professors to a realistic amount.
Lastly, one can spread pamphlets detailing the harms of sleep deprivation and excessive use of Internet. For undergrads the major reason for sleep deprivation is probably internet usage or late night partying.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Unless the university is requiring students to become sleep deprived in order to complete assignments (which i'm sure it is not), then changing the course structure, reducing the number of lectures, etc, will have very little impact.
Sleep deprivation is often actually a cultural issue. Cultural in the sense that every Institute/Company/University has a culture, and new students are always brought into that culture, taught "how things are done here", and in 3 years they teach it to the next intake of students.
If the culture at your university is to work all day and play all night, or simply just work all day and all night because to be seen working is to be a good student - then you need to change that culture.
Ideally try informing the students of the dangers of sleep deprivation. Try to promote efficient learning, and a balanced lifestyle of work and rest. Try to explain that being in the library 18 hours a day, does not make you a good student. Alternatively, if you play MMORPGs all night instead of sleeping, you will fail the course, and that is your own fault.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: Often sleep deprivation or stress have their root cause in overcommiting by the student (need to graduate on time, that means taking 150% class load, ...) or, very often seen here, bad time management or inefficient studying. I.e., play all day (and party through the night) until just before midterms, (try to) cram in two days what just flew by for three months, rinse and repeat. Or study irrational hours, but do not recognize you are stuck, don't seek outside help, don't look for additional material (today there are tons of lecture notes, blogs, and discussion sites like this!), ... Results (in horrible grades, in high stress levels) are predictable.
Some suggestions that helped me are to review each class shortly afterwards, at least the same day, and jot down any doubts to resolve next time; reserve a few (more or less fixed) hours each week for resolving problems, exercises and homework; keep one day a week for other activities (go hiking, go to the movies, whatever), disconnect; *never* study for an exam the day before, arrange to do a last sweep two days early, leave the last day to e.g. study something else altogether, make sure you go to bed early and are rested for the exam.
If you get stuck studying (or while doing homework, or whatever), switch over to something else. Staying stuck is just a waste of time, often you just need to have your subconcicious mull it over a night or a couple of days, and the solution (or at least some alternative lines of attack) will be obvious next time you pick it up again. So it is useful to have several tasks pending (to have something worthwhile to do always).
Yes, you won't always be able to keep it up, but try to do so. Your sanity will thank you. Yes, I recommend my students to do this each term; yes, only a tiny minority heeds the advise.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: I'd like to echo some of the thoughts already posted and add my own experiences and ideas into the mix.
As noted by JJ, this tends to be a cultural thing first and foremost. But it's not easy to change cultural norms, it will take time and creativity. Perhaps one of the faster ways to do it is to "short-circuit" the root behaviors in the culture that cause students to become sleep deprived. If, for example, you observe that students spend all night in the library studying, you need to analyze *why* they are doing that. Social pressure? Too much course work? Extremely strict exam grading? You may need to do things like institute a new policy that the library closes promptly at 7PM, and combine that with mandatory classes/seminars to teach students effective time management.
If students are becoming sleep deprived because they party too much, then you'll need to find ways to dissuade them from such behaviors. Possibly institute stricter policies on noise disturbances and unregistered guests in dorm rooms, disallow alcohol in dorms (at least those that allow students who are not old enough to drink), or provide some kind of large bonus for students who maintain a certain GPA so they may take studying and exam prep more seriously.
In some cases it may not be possible to change cultural norms. For example if students staying up late and studying too much is caused by the job market being extremely competitive (not enough jobs for all the students, so only the best/luckiest get employed) then you can't do anything about it directly. You would need to somehow provide them with more opportunities so they aren't scared about getting a job to support their families.
Ultimately you can't control their behaviors, but the more you *encourage* them in the right direction, the more effective it will be. From my experience, the most effective way to convince people to change their behaviors is to show them *tangible proof* of the good that can come from it. What works in the Philippines will likely be unique to the Philippines, so you'll need to know and understand your own culture and society to spot the core problems.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: Summary: **Ask your students**.
There may be different factors involved, but as a former UK college student, these are some of my own observations and experiences:
Stress is often one of the major contributors. A lot of students feel under pressure to get good grades so they spend half their nights playing games and partying to forget their stress and troubles and the other staying up late to try make sure their work is perfect before they hand it in. My advice on that front is to talk to your students, ask them how they're feeling and if any look particularly worried at any point remind them that you're there to help them. Also be sure to inform the class that there are counsellors available to help them with any emotional worries. Personally I think all students should be given at least one or two mandatory counselling sessions as a precaution because counesellors are better qualified to spot stress and other various problems students might be reluctant to share with their teacher (e.g. depression, anxiety). Others may disagree.
Another problem was that there were subjects we were covering that students just weren't enjoying. The parts of the course that were enjoyable (e.g. 3D modelling) would typically be the first thing students started working on because they had fun doing it. The boring stuff (e.g. business systems) would be avoided like the plague until it was no longer avoidable.
So my advice on that front would be to make sure students are interested or enjoying things. If they aren't enjoying learning then they're probably not taking in as much as they could. Find out why they aren't enjoying it and try your best to change that. In some cases that might not be possible because the curriculum forces them to do subjects they don't like alongside the ones they actually want to do (as was the case of me and my fellow students), but there are usually ways you can make it less problematic. For example by only doing the required material in class and making any additional material (i.e. that would only be necessary for highest marks) optional.
Sometimes it's related to the teaching establishment's practices. In the course I did the deadline for online submission of work was typically either midnight or the early hours of the morning (and most students would upload very close to the deadline so they could work up to the last few minutes). On one or two rare occaisions we had a 9am submission time, which would lead to students deciding to stay up all night working on the submission. Also it was common to have two deadlines at once because teachers never spoke to each other about when they were setting coursework. So my advice regarding general practise:
* Think carefully about deadlines - the time you set your deadline has
implications.
* Always ask students how they're coping with the work in the weeks
leading up to a deadline. Sometimes a large number of students have run into the same problem and you can address all their problems at once.
* Try to discuss deadlines with other teachers in order to prevent
double-deadlines (two deadlines on one day).
The bottom line is: **talk to your students**.
(Incidentally, one of the students in my class was an adult student from the Philippines who sadly had to return when the flood hit a few years back.)
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_6: Just my 2 cents but there is a touch of cultural responsibility here. Filipino parents who send their kids to university/college and live away generally put a lot of pressure on them to succeed. Pride in academic and athletics is important for those attending their college, so a lot of time is spent studying or practising.
However, this is also the first time for many young filipinos to be independent from their family (no maid, no mother/father to help them out), and use it cooking, cleaning, socialising (A LOT OF SOCIALISING, if you don't believe me check out the streets at night during the end of a school day). Students are torn between a mix of doing well, and enjoying their life...as they revel in new found freedoms and independence.
On the other side of the spectrum, those that struggle to pay fees in university spend their time doing other jobs just to support their degree and maintain independence. This leads to cramming and finding time to study decreases, with the only sacrifice being sleep (same thing that happens with those that want to socialise).
On top of being kind, helpful, and generous, Filipinos are also proud people, they will try not to accept handouts or help where possible if they feel the person feels sorry for them, especially if they are not close to them. Their response is more work to catch up (financially or academically).
Additionally, course material may also be too hard, but in order to catch up, students will work extra hard, put in more hours.
In my opinion, if you're not even a bit sleep deprived, then you're doing college/university wrong :)
However, to solve sleep deprivation, make it more well known what an issue it is. Do posters, talks, and adverts about how ill health and poor academic performance are affected by lack of sleep. Additionally, try to keep lectures at normal times (9am to 5pm latest) and avoid weekends. I've known some lectures to take place at 7 or 8pm for 2 hours.
Source: ex-Student, filipino, friends who are filipino at colleges
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_7: I'm answering this question as a student based on my experiences in a U.S. college; I can't speak to any specifics of Ateneo de Manila University.
There are 2 main reasons that I stay up late:
1. Multiple assignments/tests due on a single day
2. A large assignment due soon that should have been started earlier
As an individual instructor, this is what you could do to help with those two issues.
1. Allow students 1 or 2 day extensions on assignments/projects as long as they ask a few days in advance. This allows students (who plan ahead) to spread out their workload so they are not overwhelmed
A personal example: I had a large project, a test and a homework assignment in 3 different classes all on a Friday. On Wednesday I asked for an extension on the homework assignment and turned it in on Saturday. Overall I spent more time on both the homework and the project.
* Announce this policy at the beginning of the semester; I would never have dared to ask a professor this if my first year English professor hadn't mentioned the possibility.
* I have only done this twice in my approximately 2 years of college.
* If you're worried about students taking advantage of this policy then set a limit on the amount of extensions they can make
2. Break large projects/assignments up into multiple smaller assignments or checkpoints. Requiring students to distribute their work on a project means that the entire project will never be done at the last minute.
A personal example: For a software design course, we had a semester-long project that involved applying concepts learned in class to build a video game. The professor split up the assignment into 12 milestones, one which had to be completed and demo'd to a TA each week.
* If a long assignment cannot be split up then giving students 20 minutes of class time to plan out their own deadlines and ask general project questions goes a long way to accomplish the same thing.
I do understand the concern that students should be responsible for managing their own time. Most of us are still transitioning into adulthood and taking on increasing amounts of responsibilities. Don't let us off the hook for failing to plan ahead; instead encourage us to allocate our time efficiently so that we can give you our best work.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_8: I think that encountering an all-nighter every once in a while is part of university life. The problem rests in if this happens too often.
From my experience and the experiences of my friends, it has become normal to stay up all night and sleep in the early morning. If we finish what we have to do before 10 P.M., we take this as "We have 2 more hours to do whatever we want."
Essentially, it's a bad habit. We forget that sleep deprivation causes serious health problems in the long run. Because we don't see the effects now, we don't really care. So I guess a good solution is to make people care. Find a way to make the community see lack of sleep as unhealthy as drinking soda. In the end, the change can only happen if the people themselves will want to change.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_9: Sleep deprivation is a serious detriment when it comes to a person (or in the context of this questions a students) Academic, extracurricular and social life. As a university its job is to mainly offer a conducive working environment that helps students achieve their goals and develop their full potential.
With this "duty" of a university in mind, we also have to factor in the individual sensitivity of a student and as to how best we can cater or create a policy (in your case project) that best caters to the biggest amount of individuals.
<http://time.com/3211964/nap-rooms-at-universities/> Time provides a look at one of the projects colleges have resorted to tackle this problem. The idea of a "nap" is also something that could be a universal answer to this whole sleep deprivation scenario because again, the school does not have control over what the student may do at most it can gives suggestions through workshops, but one thing that appeals to most if not all individuals is a nap that allows you to feel refreshed.
Taking the context of the Philippines into account (with a tropical climate) I'm assuming the best course of action would be to hold a 'nap station' in a cold maybe dimmer environment and record people's willingness to participate in said station. This can give incite to further projects and perhaps even help motivate the idea of the "need" of such stations. Hope this helps!
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]
|
2016/02/29
| 335
| 1,433
|
<issue_start>username_0: While my Elsevier in-press article shows up on the journal website, it has not yet appeared in Google scholar after a week. Is this normal and part of the process? If not, what's wrong with it?<issue_comment>username_1: Google Scholar updates on its own unpredictable schedule, based on whatever sort of web-crawling and internal processing schedules Google happens to be running with it. Sometimes I find that it updates almost immediately, other times not for more than a month.
In short: don't worry about it. If it's on the website of a reputable publisher, then it will show up sooner or later, and usually within just a couple weeks of publishing.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Have patience! Google scholar will find it. Give it some time!
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: I recently had that issue with a paper and decided to add it manually. When I hit the "Add" button (which appears at the top of your publication list if you are logged in and viewing your own profile), I found that the paper was already in one of the groups under "Select groups of articles that you have authored from the list below," it just hadn't actually been added to my profile. I selected it and it was added with no further hassles.
On another occasion, I did add the article manually. Months later, it was also added automatically by Google Scholar, and I was able to merge the two versions.
Upvotes: 0
|
2016/02/29
| 5,001
| 19,980
|
<issue_start>username_0: I'm dealing with a student essay that references three books in support of a claim. None of the books referenced have authors listed, and, based on the contents of the student's essay, I can't find any information on these books online. I'm fairly certain they don't exist, but I'm not sure what to call this beyond *academic dishonesty.*
I read this from the [Nebraska Methodist College](https://my.methodistcollege.edu/ICSFileServer/cp/EdTech/Plagiarism/PlagiarismTutorialNOemail_cc1-0/PlagiarismTutorialNOemail/PlagiarismTutorialNOemail_print.html):
>
> Other acts of plagiarism are more limited in scope, but are nonetheless cheating. If you decide to make up a quotation or other material and an associated in-text citation, this is plagiarism. If you change or invent the author of a quotation, an idea, or a statistic to make your paper appear to contain more numerous sources, this is plagiarism.
>
>
>
I've run into a few other university plagiarism guides that mention the citing of fictitious sources as plagiarism, but I'd like to know if this is standard, fair, or legitimate to label this practice *plagiarism* and not just *academic dishonesty.*
The conflict is this: the student isn't citing these presumably falsified texts directly, but they are referencing finer plot points and characters in them. That is, they are talking about the fictitious dilemmas of the fictitious characters as a way to support their thesis. To me that's dishonest and shows a lack of integrity. I'm grading students on a rubric that awards points for organization, analytical treatment, and language use. If I treat this as *academic dishonesty* maybe I knock the person's grade down in the rubric criteria related to analysis, but if I treat it as *plagiarism* I'd give the student a zero.<issue_comment>username_1: For example, Merriam–Webster defines [*plagiarism*](http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/plagiarism) via [*to plagiarize*](http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/plagiarizing), which it defines as:
>
> : to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one's own
>
> : use (another's production) without crediting the source
> intransitive verb
>
>
> : to commit literary theft : present as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source
>
>
>
This does not include inventing a quotation, which is in fact sort-of the opposite of plagiarism: passing off one’s own idea as somebody else’s. Other dictionaries agree on this and so does my understanding of the word *plagiarism.*
Moreover, defining *plagiarism* so broad makes the term rather useless and almost equivalent to the umbrella term *academic misconduct.* The reason why we have a word for *plagiarism* is to differentiate a specific kind of misconduct, not a specific severity.
>
> The conflict is this: the student isn't citing these texts directly, but they are referencing finer plot points and characters. To me that's dishonest and shows a lack of integrity. I'm grading students on a rubric that awards points for organization, analytical treatment, and language use. If I treat this as *academic dishonesty* maybe I knock the person's grade down in the rubric criteria related to analysis, but if I treat it as *plagiarism* I'd give the student a zero.
>
>
>
I fail to see why you would be more lenient about academic dishonesty than about plagiarism. I don’t fully understand what you mean by “referencing finer plot points and characters”, but I would classify what you are describing as *fabricating evidence,* which is roughly as grave as plagiarism. I say *roughly,* because I see no point in ranking the severity of those misconducts in general and the severity distributions of individual instances of those misconducts strongly overlap.
What is important at the end of the day is whether you are reasonably convinced that the student in question did not just work sloppily, but intentionally deceived the reader (i.e., you). The aspect of intention alone suffices for awarding them zero points, in my opinion.
Upvotes: 8 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: [plagiarism.org](http://www.plagiarism.org/plagiarism-101/what-is-plagiarism/) says that "giving incorrect information about the source of a quotation" is plagiarism. Claiming that something was written by Einstein when you wrote it yourself is giving incorrect information about the source of a quotation but, to me, it's not helpful to use the term "plagiarism" for this kind of academic dishonesty. Plagiarism, to me and the dictionaries, means specifically passing somebody else's work off as your own, and things get muddy if we start using the same word to mean "all kinds of bad behaviour when writing."
Having said that (and this is why I originally posted a comment rather than an answer), we should be careful to allow the language to evolve. If a large number of people call making up fake quotes plagiarism, then we kind of have to go along with that.
This also leaves the practical problem of what to do about this behaviour, regardless of what we call it. The question specifically mentions grading and the fact that "plagiarism" means the mark must be zero, whereas "academic dishonesty" has more leeway. Now, there are two options. One is to say, "I don't care whether this is technically 'plagiarism' or 'academic dishonesty'. It's so bad that I'm awarding a grade of zero." The second option is to say that it's not so bad that it deserves an automatic zero. However, if you do want to go down that path, you need to find out exactly what your institution's policy is. As we've seen, some institutions do think that faking quotes is plagiarism and, if your institution is one of them, you need to be awarding some zeroes.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: I kind of like <NAME>'s (Chair of [ICAI](http://www.academicintegrity.org/icai/home.php)) definition of plagiarism from her paper [“We know it when we see it” is not good enough: toward a standard definition of plagiarism that transcends theft, fraud, and copyright](http://www.bmartin.cc/pubs/09-4apcei/4apcei-Fishman.pdf):
>
> Plagiarism occurs when someone
>
>
> 1. uses words, ideas, or work products
> 2. attributable to another identifiable person or source
> 3. without attributing the work to the source from which it was obtained
> 4. in a situation in which there is a legitimate expectation of original authorship
> 5. in order to obtain some benefit, credit, or gain which need not be monetary.
>
>
>
I agree with username_1: let's not muddy the water and include all sorts of academic misconduct in a definition of plagiarism. Plagiarism is one form of academic misconduct; all forms of academic misconduct should incur a sanction, which will, of course, differ according to the individual circumstances.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_4: Plagiarism refers to a specific kind of dishonesty--in a nutshell, pretending to have written something that was actually written by someone else. Fabricating sources doesn't meet that definition, but it isn't necessarily a less serious offense.
Plagiarism in academia is wrong primarily because it is fundamentally an attempt to gain a grade that wasn't earned. Grades are typically given for a student's writing, and if a student tried to deceives you into believing that a paper is the student's work when it really isn't, then that is a serious offense worthy of a zero.
So what was the effect of the deception in this case? If you were giving grades primarily for doing research, and the student tried to deceive you to into believing that research had been done when in fact it hadn't, then the offense has essentially the same effect as plagiarism, and it merits a similar penalty.
If, on the other hand, the research itself was only a minor factor in the grade, then it might be a lesser offense. I believe that the penalty still needs to be sufficient to deter dishonesty in any form, but you might reasonably decide that reducing the grade to zero is harsher than would be necessary in this case.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_5: [](https://i.stack.imgur.com/0WOdp.jpg)
Source: [The Visual Communication Guy](http://thevisualcommunicationguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Infographic_Did-I-Plagiarize1.jpg)
According to this chart (I'm not sure how credible it is, but my school uses it), citing a source that does not exist constitutes a Ghost Citation, rated “Very, very [serious]” on the plagiarism scale.
In case you can't see the image, the decision is:
>
> Did you cite a source that doesn't exist or did you make up what the source actually said?
>
>
>
If yes, that constitutes a “Ghost Citation” violation.
**TL;DR:** Citing a bogus source constitutes a Ghost Citation, about half of the seriousness of full-blown plagiarism (identity theft) on the plagiarism severity scale. So yes, it is plagiarism.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_6: No, it's definitely not a plagiarism! It is a *misguide* or *clear lies* - because the source does not exist at all. If the source **does** exist **and** it is *used but not mentioned as a source* - only then it's a plagiarism.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_7: In direct answer to the question, as it addresses the definition of plagiarism and consequent marking decisions...
NO, this is definitely not literally *plagiarism*, because that necessarily involves the non-attribution of real work by others. What you describe is a smokescreen of nonexistent work that a student is using in order to give the impression of having consulted sources. That is certainly academically inappropriate, but it is not plagiarism. It is intellectual fraud. This might constitute an indication that the student concerned in some sense really does understand the idea of analytical practice and structure, but thinks that a cosmetic short-cut is just as good as doing any actual work.
That *might* in fact mean that the student is essentially promising, but has misunderstood the game. He or she might benefit enormously from discussion as to how one legitimately gains academic credit, and how to direct energies more effectively than inventing sources. In any case, this particular assignment sounds like a Fail.
Your documentation from Nebraska Methodist College uses the term 'plagiarism' with unhelpfully unprofessional latitude. Plagiarism is the act of taking someone else's work and pretending that it is one's own. The [etymology](http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/plagiarism) derives from the idea of kidnapping. This privileges the idea of *theft* and subsequent *misidentification* of intellectual effort, with the underlying concept of credit properly belonging elsewhere. That is not what you are describing here.
What you describe is certainly against the spirit and practice of scholarship, however. In a legal context (in UK terminology; I don't know about Nebraska courts) it would be called 'fabricating evidence', and would lead to a jail term.
This behaviour should be specifically marked-down, and the student should be told why. You say that your criteria include 'organization, analytical treatment, and language use'. If the student's essay is more or less argument-shaped and comprehensible then it should probably score on the first and third of these. Academically, however, the second factor by far is the most important.
Inventing an intellectual landscape is certainly creative (Stanislaw Lem and others have written impressive collections of reviews of nonexistent books, for example, and JRR Tolkien invented an entire world to play-out the development of his invented languages), but it is not scholarship of the sort that your student is being asked to display.
To put it another way... Given the marking criteria that I have used most recently, this essay sounds as if it boils down to personal opinion with no core of analytical substance and no suitable bibliography, with the added *pretence* of scholarly effort. That might be wonderful fun for a chat over a drink, but it does not attract academic credit.
If the essay is generally well-written, I would give it a high-ish Fail on grounds of technical competence, because a pass of any kind is impossible without real academic engagement and substance. I would point the student towards whatever resources your institution has concerning the construction of valid intellectual material, and make myself available for discussion of effective scholarly practice. I would be very pleased if the student turned up for that, but would also be braced for disappointment: it sounds as if he or she knows exactly what is required, tried to blag it, and will know that he or she has simply been caught out.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_8: I would not call this plagiarism, because it's not copying or passing someone else's work off as your own. The word *fabrication* is closer, but does not quite fit either, because that makes one think of fudging experimental data. I think *falsification of sources* is a good phrase to describe it.
In my opinion it is academic misconduct almost as bad as plagiarism or result fabrication because it leads to the propagation of bogus results just like outright fabrication does. It's much like the [Woozle effect](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woozle_effect "Woozle effect"), where a work containing a reference to a nonexistent or misinterpreted other work gets cited itself, until the bogus claim becomes "common knowledge" despite being wrong.
I do know of PhD students who, as a joke, might have a reference to a paper by McCartney, Lennon, Harrison, and Starr (1969) in the bibliography without being cited anywhere in the text. I think that kind of silliness is completely harmless.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_9: Clearly it's not plagiarism *per se*, but it is wrong and misleading in a formal essay.
I'm more alarmed that both the Nebraska Methodist College and another school using The Visual Communication Guy's diagram assert such sloppily incorrect definitions of plagiarism. What plagiarism is is such a basic and important piece of information, that it's disturbing to see it mis-defined by schools in their documents where they attempt to explain and assert their policies about it. In holding others to a rule, it seems vital to use language accurately.
I'm adding another answer here because it occurs to me that the specific context (an essay about fiction) seems potentially relevant to the degree of the problem. Certainly for history or science, for example, inventing sources would be completely wrong and a kind of cheating.
But in fiction itself, and in non-academic articles by some fiction writers, sometimes writers have invented authors and books to refer to, not trying to deceive, but to be creative and/or entertaining, or to illustrate an idea or make a joke at the expense of an imaginary author rather than a real one. I can imagine there could be a case (although I expect not the one asked about here) where it might be fair to invent an example for the sake of making a point in an essay about fiction in general. If necessary, one might even write a short story and then refer to that, for the purposes of illustrating something generic that is possible in fiction, rather than the point being that someone specific other than yourself had someplace written some sort of fiction that you want to discuss in an essay. Of course, that's a peculiar case, and one should be clear that's what one is doing, and not just being lazy and foolishly hoping the professor won't check. It's probably a terrible idea and unlikely to fly outside a creative writing class and/or with a very indulgent teacher, but it does seem to me that it would be theoretically possible in an essay about fiction to honestly invent works.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_10: I’m posting an answer to my own question just to describe how we handled this at my school. The situation transpired in a mostly positive way, excepting a few tears. I’ll just describe the steps in brief. Hopefully, this helps someone in a similar pinch.
1. Before speaking with the student regarding the validity of the sources, I asked my initial question (the question of this post) to my supervisor. They directed me to our department head.
2. I arranged a meeting with my head to first address our school’s academic-honesty policy. As I expected, our school’s plagiarism policy is fairly detailed and traditional (based on a dictionary definition – Merriam–Webster). It mentioned nothing about fabrication of data as a form of plagiarism. The closest form of plagiarism to our situation was the following:
>
> The rewriting or re-wording of text or information from documents not originally written by you and turning it in as your own work without proper citation
>
>
>
We decided that this definition did not fit our needs because there was no “document” that had been re-worded. Our campus also has guidelines on “cheating”, but nothing dealt explicitly with fabrication of data.
Plagiarism and cheating merit a zero on our campus (as I mentioned in the question), but other types of academic dishonesty referred to in our campus's honor code have no explicit punishment tied to them. They have only the stipulations that students will have their assignment confiscated and be required to meet with a dean or director. Therefore, my director decided that, in the event that the student had fabricated sources, we could not give a zero. Instead, I would give the student a zero in the rubric criterion related to analysis. We decided that this was appropriate because it would guarantee a fail for the assignment, and it would target the specific infraction for what it was: an attempt to dishonestly show analytical skills, as the assignment described them. The decision was also reached that our academic-honesty policy is woefully inadequate as regards fraud and fabrication of information and will need to be revamped.
3. I met with the student at this point. I asked them to provide a full citation for the sources, at least an author so I could verify the texts. The student, at this point, came clean and explained that they used these fictitious sources knowing they were “not correct” (student’s words). The student did not have a sense of the gravity of the infraction. Without interpreting too much, I would say that the student saw the falsified sources as textual support in the way of saying: “We can see this is valid because, hypothetically speaking, if a person were to...” I explained the importance of an academic reputation – that, at the university level, a person could get themselves black-balled for such behavior. I explained the concept of data falsification and explained the consequences of it in a few different disciplines: science, history, journalism. The student accepted that this was a grave problem in this situation. I took pains to reminded them, though, that in other instances, this type of creativity could be rewarded and celebrated. I then explained how I would demote the student’s grade. While this conversation happened, I had another teacher present, quietly working in the back of the room, as a witness, just in case.
4. The student had a meeting with their dean after their meeting with me. The dean explained that the incident would go on the student’s record, and it would be considered if further academic infractions were made.
5. My next step will be to work with this student, encourage their creativity, which they obviously rely on, and help them put this experience behind them.
Ultimately, I learned that most students have a vague notion of the boundaries of academic honesty, and this is something that should be taught to incoming students. Moreover, academic honesty policies must evolve as technology evolves.
Upvotes: 3
|
2016/02/29
| 3,995
| 17,898
|
<issue_start>username_0: I recently attended an average international conference in Computer Science. This was the first time I actually attended an international conference.
The level of English that I heard during the talks ranged from average to extremely bad (ignoring the native speakers/people that lived a long time in an english speaking country).
I am not a native English speaker, and I do not expect other researchers in the same situation to be as fluent as a native speaker either. But I have worked hard to improve my accent and my elocution to a point where I feel very comfortable speaking the language without stuttering every two words or mispronouncing a lot of things.
As such, I felt extremely frustrated during the entire conference: a speaker with bad English would quickly annoy me, because I felt as if they did not work hard enough on their English elocution, which I believe is an inherent part of being a scientist (especially in Computer Science, where conferences are very common). Therefore, I ended up not being interest in the vast majority of the presentations, even if the subject might have sounded appealing.
How can one improve at looking (or rather, hearing) past the researcher's English, and focusing on their actual contribution?<issue_comment>username_1: The researcher, given their poor English skills should have made the presentation more understandable by using other media. Whether this be referring to a Powerpoint, using websites, video, whatever.
I once managed a group of engineers that traveled the world to teach our other engineers. Quite a few of them from Asia had trouble with English, some did great.
I for one had to travel all over. Easy right because I am native speaker? No because in each region they had different English levels, used slightly different terminology, and had certain expectations.
Things the speaker needs:
* preparation - as mentioned above using cheat sheets, materials and media as aids.
* self-awareness - the speaker needs to understand their abilities. Don't use words that you don't fully understand, speaker louder, speak slower, and so on. There is nothing worse than someone butchering any language mumbling at a million words a minute.
* know your audience - if you have that much comment on your speaker's English skills part of the problem was them trying to cover too much in a short time frame for too big of an audience. The focus should have probably been narrowed and more interactive.
* the speaker has to care - I have gone up in front of many groups and watch their eyes glaze over. Sometimes I was not explaining something well, sometimes too fast, sometimes at too complex of a level, whatever. But as a speaker you can see your audience hit the wall. If you don't care enough to stop and change course or to ask questions to see where people's heads are then you are just clicking a checkbox and the session was useless.
* the speaker needs to confirm - once you have made major points make sure that your audience understands them and confirms that when you made point XYZ that they understand that was XYZ. Sounds simple but using slightly different wording or terminology/slang can put a 180 spin on things quickly.
The answer is you cannot fix bad communication, especially at a large conference. It is painful to watch anyone that is a poor communicator and language skills are just a piece of the pie. What you probably witnessed was a person with poor English skills but a few other presenting issues too.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_2: I would deal with this as I would any talk: Concentrate on formulating a question to ask the speaker after the talk.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: You need to get over this feeling, if only because there is nothing you can do about it.
The point of a presentation is to convey information and meaning. It is certainly true that some presenters fail at this, though more often than not these are issues of presentation and structure, rather than language. Indeed, while language issues are sometimes distracting, great pronunciation and use of elaborate grammar are not necessary to convey what you want to say. Most scientific papers are (often purposefully) written in relatively simple language. Most rap songs use grammar that would get at best a D- grade when used in high school. When you talk to friends, you say things like "say it ain't so" or "ain't no sunshine" and other sentences that are grammatically wrong. Yet, in all of these contexts, we communicate what we want to say just fine. In other words, while there clearly is a level of language discomfort beyond which a speaker is unable to convey meaning, this level is actually quite a distance from being a fluent and elaborate speaker of a language.
So, focus on what a speaker wants to convey, using his spoken words and what's on slides and other props, and less on the speaker's level of language.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_4: Learn to understand English better. The less effort you have to spend understanding the language, the easier it is to understand the contents as well.
Learn the speakers' native languages. The language of scientific conferences is usually not US English, British English, or any other form of English spoken natively somewhere in the world. The so-called International English is full of idioms borrowed from other languages. The better you understand those languages, the easier it is to understand what the others are saying.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: You master the English language, but the language used often in conferences is the so called IBE (International Broken English), and the problem is that you don't fully understand it. Most non native English speakers have the opposite problem: broken English is easy to understand for us, but we had to work hard to understand actual English - specially when spoken from native speakers. Anyway the solution for us is clear: practice listening a lot. You can use the same solution: listening as much broken English as you can. Now Internet makes it easy and you can find a lot of videos in Youtube with academics speaking in broken English about a lot of things.
Another problem might be that you don't like broken English. Again, a lot of people has had the same problem with actual English and had overcome it. The solution is to practice listening until you stop noticing it. Maybe this won't make you to like it, but it could help you to stop worrying about it.
---
Edit: I suggest reading in Rob's good answer the example of a conference where a Chinese, a Pole and a Russian could understand each other in different brands of poor English while he, a native speaker, couldn't. My point is that with very little practice the native speaker could improve his understanding of bad English and he would benefit from being able to understand a very larger pool of scholars.
Of course, non native speakers can benefit from improving our English, but that point is unrelated to the question.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_6: So I'm a native English speaker, and I used to be kind of a snob about people whose spoken English was poor. I got over it. I remember the exact instant that I got over it, in fact. Here it is:
I was an undergraduate, and I visited a seminar on a subject that interested me but that I didn't know very much about. The speaker at the seminar had an impenetrable Chinese accent, and I wasn't able to focus on the talk at all because I could barely understand him. "This is terrible," I thought. "No one can possibly be getting anything from this."
The talk ended and the speaker took questions. The first question was long, thoughtful, and detailed: the questioner was trying to related something from a slide early in the presentation to a slide from late in the presentation. I did not understand the question because the gentleman who asked it had an impenetrable Polish accent.
After some back and forth, it became clear that the speaker thought the question was interesting but didn't know the answer. But someone else in the audience did: a long, thoughtful answer that I did not understand because the answerer had an impenetrable Russian accent.
Then it hit me: everyone in the seminar room had just learned something interesting, *except me*, because I was distracted by being an English-language snob. That was *my* problem, not theirs.
I eventually figured out to concentrate on what's maybe called "active listening": constantly rephrasing what the other person is saying into my own words, and inquiring occasionally whether I'm summarizing things correctly.
You might not like to interrupt someone with clarifying questions during a presentation. Within reasonable limits, you should get over that --- if you're flummoxed about something, chances are that other people in the audience are confused about the same thing.
Active listening has helped me to deal with native English speakers just as much as with speakers of broken English, in fact. For instance, when you argue with someone, they have a lot more respect for you if you can correctly state their position before you take issue with it.
(The happy ending of the story is that the Russian and the Pole both ended up on my PhD committee --- good people, both of them, from whom I learned a great deal. No recollection of who the original seminar speaker was, though.)
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_7: Contrary to the many other answers here, no, you don't need to learn to "get over it". If you don't enjoy the presentations, you are under no obligation to enjoy them, or even attend. Clear and eloquent presentation is something that improves a talk *in any language* and English is no exception. People who are not native English-speakers are naturally going to take a substantial amount of time to develop their command of the language, and since it is unlikely that you have knowledge of their circumstances, there is no need to assume a lack of effort, or get annoyed by a presumed lack of effort. But results are results, and if the language of the talk is stilted and unclear, you don't have to like it.
An obvious thing to do here to get directly to the content and substance of material is to read published papers rather than attending conference talks. Published papers have gone through peer review and so they are likely to have at least a baseline level of clarity and accurate grammar, and most should be written to a reasonable standard. Conference presentations are massively over-rated anyway, and you can almost always learn much more by using that time to read high-quality peer-reviewed published papers in your field.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_8: >
> How can one improve at looking (or rather, hearing) past the researcher's English, and focusing on their actual contribution?
>
>
>
Writing and looking up published papers or materials during the presentation may help in filling in the blanks and reducing your level of frustration. Usually the frustration when listening to poor English is due to misunderstandings, so written materials may be able to help overcome this.
Drawing concept maps and outlines may help illustrate the wrong assumptions and help you recover in a less frustrating way rather than just doing it all mentally. Juggling concepts in the mind can be much more strenous than just going back and fixing the assumptions in your mindmap.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_9: As Wolfgang mentions in his answer, poor language might not be the only reason a talk is hard to follow. It can be hard to follow a talk that is outside your expertise, and many talks are just poorly prepared — cluttered slides, too much or too little technical detail, lack of narrative or motivation, etc.
My first suggestion is to remember that regardless of your comfort with the language, giving a talk is hard! The speaker may be nervous, embarrassed, or scared. Empathizing with the speaker (I’ve certainly been nervous, embarrassed, and scared while speaking) can help you be more patient with the weaknesses in their presentation.
My second suggestion is to remember that you can learn something from everyone. Even the worst talks will contain a few lessons for you. <NAME> has a [great suggestion](https://math.stanford.edu/~vakil/threethings.html) for extracting these lessons from a talk. It might be a little harder to do if the speaker’s language is forming a barrier for you, but you can also learn these lessons from questions that you or other seminar participants ask.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_10: I'm a researcher based in Japan which has some of the worst English language education in the world. The average Japanese university graduate cannot hold a conversation in English. I've attended many conferences and seminars here and overseas, I've organised meetings for students who've never given a conference talk before (in Japan and my home country). Suffice to say, I've sat through some talks in absolutely terrible English, not just from students without experience but also tenured professors who postdoc'd in the US or Europe and who really should know better. Some had redeeming qualities in terms of the content, others did not.
Here is what I've learned from my experiences.
* There is a difference between poor communication skills and a lack of effort to prepare or deliver your message
* A well-structured talk can still convey that message (and entertain your audience) even if your language skills are poor
* There are things that you can do (besides learning your target language you are presenting in) to help your audience follow you
As an audience member you should still be respectful and pay attention. It should be clear whether the person delivering the presentation really makes an effort or not. Someone with poor language skills or who is nervous is different to someone going through the motions and doesn't care if you follow along. Try to understand the key points, make eye contact with them, non-verbal communication is important as well. Let them try get their message across. Ask them questions to clarify points others may have missed too and give them feedback on how to improve *privately* afterwards. Yes it's easy to zone out through a talk in a thick accent but you know they've travelled a long way to do this and they're trying.
Do not mistake bad language skills for a poor talk. Often the real reason you can't follow is less obvious than they're talking to fast or too quietly in a strong accent. The structure of the talk matters, the visual aids matter, the logical flow matters. Giving them feedback on these is immensely more helpful that "your English is bad" because they probably already know that. This is especially common in Asian countries where they study *written English* and their spoken English is often really poor. They also lack experience with presentations as it's not required curriculum in their home country up until Masters courses. Even in their native language, they can give a terrible rushed mess of a presentation. Given the environment to practice, they catch up impressively quickly.
I know a conference doesn't feel like the best time to do that but these people often get little opportunities to speak out or present elsewhere. They often come from a hierarchical culture where the head of the lab presents their work and even Assistant professors rarely speak out. They're very hard-working, potential future collaborators or staff. Dismissing their work because of poor English skills or a lack of experience is a missed opportunity for both of you. An international conference will have people from a variety of cultural and scientific backgrounds. You chose to attend that instead of a more specialised regional meeting. Your job there is to engage with the international research community, not hang out with your mates.
Non-native speaker or not, there are ways to improve your presentations. My own presentations were once irredeemably terrible. With preparation, practice, experience, and feedback this can be improved. I know I have a soft voice so I include a lot of visual aids and summary text on my slides. A clear structure and well-timed breaks, anecdotes, or summaries helps to break up the pace of a talk and get your audience back in. You can do this to break up the "monotony" whether you have a strong accent or not.
Yes, I'm a native English speaker but I've employed the same techniques to give presentations in Japanese. I got help to put key terms in Kanji, I prepared relatable stories, a pop quiz, and even got some laughs from my audience. The biggest trap is to become to reliant on your notes or cues. I find this can lead to students reading from their notes and rarely using gestures or looking at their audience. Another key sign of this is that they will struggle going off-script during questions. They'll often need more time to answer and questions asked in simple vocabulary.
In the long-term, I think non-Native English speakers can become fantastic communicators. We should not discourage them when they are new to the research community. They understand what non-Native listeners are struggling with. They tend to speak slowly and clearly. If you are a Native speakers you *can still* have a strong accent. If I'm speaking in a New Zealand accent at my natural pace in Japan or the US, very few people will understand me. This did not occur to me as a student my home country until a professor pointed it out. It's easy to blame your own poor presentations (or someone else's) on language skills when there's a lot else we can do to improve our communication and presentation skills. I find complacency more common in Native speakers and they’ve given some of the worst talks I’ve ever seen in English.
Upvotes: 2
|
2016/02/29
| 955
| 4,271
|
<issue_start>username_0: I applied for a faculty position. One month later they asked my references for reference letters. I have not heard from them for a few weeks. I have not been asked for a phone interview yet. Is it appropriate to touch base?<issue_comment>username_1: I don't think it's unreasonable to touch base, but let me be a devil's advocate: my rule of thumb is that you contact people about the status of applications when you have new information for them; the best example would be an offer somewhere else, but that isn't the only possibility. If you don't have new information for them, what purpose is going to be served by contacting them? What could they tell you that will change how you're going to live your life?
Given that they haven't contacted you directly (I'm assuming since you don't mention it), you should probably just assume you are not in serious contention for this job. Maybe you will be at some point later in the process, but if that does happen, it can be a pleasant surprise.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: In my experience, it is not unusual for universities who are interested in you to wait 3-4 months or more before contacting you (or to never contact you if they are not interested in you). It's perfectly fine to touch base politely. Chances are they were planning for a distant start date and haven't yet put together the search committee, started reviewing applications, shortlisting, etc.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: In what country did you apply for the position? In Germany it can take months between signs of life from search committees. You are not out until your application is sent back to you, I've seen this take multiple years. It could be that the people on the first shortlist all turn down the offer, so the search continues with the same group of applicants.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_4: You can certainly contact the department (or whoever from the search committee who contacted you asking for recommendation letters) and politely ask where the search process is.
For the search process that I'm currently involved in, you'd be told "We've invited candidates for on-campus interviews, but you weren't on that list." You might ask why others who weren't invited for an on-campus interview haven't been notified. One answer is that we might (in case someone declines to interview or people turn down our offers) go back to our short list and invite someone else. Another reason is that the human resources office is ultimately responsible for sending out "We had lots of very well qualified candidates, we're sorry that we didn't hire you this time." messages, and they'll wait to do this until after we've actually hired our candidates.
At a certain point it's likely to become public who will be interviewing on campus. If the department has a colloquium calendar, you can check to see if any presentations by faculty candidates have been announced. The field specific "X jobs wiki" pages often have useful information (although the rumors can also be incorrect.)
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: I am the chair of my department's faculty recruiting committee. Yes, you should definitely feel free to contact the search chair to ask about the status of your application.
My department started accepting applications last October for faculty positions beginning in Fall 2016. We automatically solicit reference letters for all assistant professor applicants, usually within a few days of the application. We have invited almost all of our interview candidates at this point, but we may still invite more, and in principle, we can even continue accepting new applications. Except for interview invitations, we normally do not contact applicants until the search formally closes, which will probably happen in mid-April.
It's probably safe to assume that if you haven't heard from a department (at least in the US) by now, they're probably not interested, but there are certainly exceptions. My own job search is an example. My current department invited me for an interview in late April, *three weeks after sending me a rejection letter*. ("We changed our mind; we'd like to interview you.") The framed rejection letter is hanging on the wall in my office.
Upvotes: 3
|
2016/03/01
| 1,485
| 6,262
|
<issue_start>username_0: I applied to graduate school (masters programs) for an engineering major. It is not the most common type of engineering like electrical (my undergrad field) or mechanical. I applied to about 9 schools and heard from the 4th one today (accepted in all 4 so far). Three of these four are top 10 program (in the specific major) in US. Two of the four are top 15 graduate engineering schools in US according to [published rankings](http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-engineering-schools/eng-rankings?int=a74509).
The caveat is that all four of them have said that no funding/financial aid is available at this moment. If aid becomes available at a later date, we will notify you as soon as possible. Schools I applied to stated, if you apply before certain date you will be considered for funding and I did apply before this date. I read the post on this [here](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31679/graduate-school-without-full-funding/31682#31682) and [here](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/18755/implications-of-being-accepted-without-funding?lq=1).
What I interpreted from these two posts is that if they really like you they will offer you funding or sometimes it is offered after you accept to attend the program (does this hold any merit?). I am just slightly disappointed. It is just surprising to me that none of the school offered any funding. One of the school's professor contacted me first, after looking at my application, which I looked at as a plus (and I didn't feel like I messed up our conversation). Another school had a application deadline in January and I got positive news from them at the end of January which is unusually early (this was the most competitive university I applied to).
My question is, if they offered no funding in acceptance letter does this usually hold true or should I even consider that it might change and I might get some funding? Usually how much percent of tuition is covered with funding? Is it true that you get funding as you accept the offer?
---
I would not be a international student. I could be out of state, but not international. In US.<issue_comment>username_1: In most US grad schools, funding is provided only for PhD candidates. But I have heard that few universities have waived tuition fees either 100% or partly from 2nd semester if you top the exams. Apart from that if you need monthly stipend, either you need to apply to a proper international graduate scholarships or TOEFL graduate scholarships. You can find details on appropriate scholarship suitable for you in US News website.
Good luck.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: Yes it is possible, but more likely during the PhD level (it happened to three friends of mine). So basically they got the acceptance letter, they might even gave an initial fee (e.g., for first 3 months); and then, the supervisor worked out how to apply for a funding from the university or put them in a funded project.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: It's really, really hard to say with any certainty, or even give a vague statistic. Some people - and we've had some posts here to this effect - entered a program with the hope of getting funding later, and just never got it (at both the Master and Phd level, sadly). This is very US-centric, by the way.
Meanwhile, some people do enter with no funding and receive funding in the second semester or even the second year. From everyone I've talked with about this, everyone said they had no idea for sure until they actually got the funding - and often the funding is only semester to semester with no promised/guaranteed renewal.
Ultimately I do not advise you to start a degree that does not offer funding if you cannot, at least in principle, finish it entirely self-funded. If it's a PhD in STEM, I generally suggest you don't take it at all if they want you to pay for the privilege of attending. Too many people go through a year+ of a program hoping something will become available, and ultimately have to drop out or switch to another program because the funding just doesn't come in. If the program doesn't guarantee you anything, that's just it - there is no guarantee. I'm also not aware of any statistics that are kept on such a situation, and doubt they'd be useful anyway. You just don't know, at all - some people get funding, some don't.
With all that said, you should generally know that at the masters level funding generally is available at the University, Department, and Professor level - and University/Department stuff is commonly quite limited. Each department is different in how they run their budgets, but most people I've known who went to a masters and arranged funding did so by working with professors in their first semester, often working in some research unpaid for the semester or at least working closely with the professor, in an attempt to convince the professor to hire them officially as a research assistant and fund them the following semester. This can work, but you should be relatively open about your interest and intention so that there is actually the possibility of being actually funded if you get along well together. It seems to work best with professors who have available funding and aren't maxed out on PhD students, so they are willing to spend some funds on anyone with the right skills and match to the research they have going.
Again, I must emphasize that such financial uncertainty only makes sense if you would be willing and able to pay for your degree program and living expenses entirely out of pocket (and/or with loans) if you could not obtain funding at all. Any other method will expose you to some potentially very unpleasant situations.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_4: What I saw was that becoming a TA is more likely than funding. Especially at the end of a year when they try to sign up TAs for the next year. You get a part time job with just enough to survive on while living near school and finishing your degree.
The other more common situation was people working in EE and going to school for one or two classes that their employer paid for. The income is a lot more but you do a lot more work hours too.
Upvotes: 1
|
2016/03/01
| 1,270
| 5,442
|
<issue_start>username_0: I have a student who has handed in a term paper from another class, only changing the title page, and he claims that he only put the due date for the current course's term paper on the cover sheet of the old term paper to remind him of when the new term paper was due. He claims he was then cutting and pasting (appropriately, of course) between the old paper and the new paper and must've gotten the two files mixed up. Of course, the "wrong" file (old term paper with new due date) was "accidentally" uploaded to our learning management system and he did submit the "correct" file two days later (that was extremely poor quality), but only after I pointed out the problem to him.
Now he is claiming I am unreasonable because I don't believe him and have failed him for the course. We are about to go to a grade appeal at the department level. I was wondering if everyone on here could provide suggestions for why it is reasonable to stick to my decision, despite the student arguing very vigorously that I'm unreasonable, unfair, and even irrational for not believing this was "just an honest mistake". (Given my university's fondness for "student friendly" I may not be supported very vigorously by the committee.)
Any help is greatly appreciated.<issue_comment>username_1: I might be having a completely different stance on the topic, however I feel it needs to be thought about. The primary goal of a school would be to asses whether the student in question has achieved a certain level of competences.
In order to test those competences you'd give all sorts of assignments to see whether the student has both competences AND skills required for their studies.
As @Significance and @DanRomik mentioned before, filing the other paper can be seen as self-plagiarism. However, if you consider that filing this paper is invalid you could also say that he never filed any valid paper in the first place. Meaning he crossed the deadline that was given for this paper.
School is a place to prepare a person to work at companies and more. So it would not be a bad idea to treat a student as if he were an employee. He filed his work late, couldn't meet the deadline and would obviously be penalized. Now since school is a place to learn from your mistakes you could throw him a lifeline. Rather than smashing him down, I'd accept his paper that was of extremely poor quality, but penalize the grade of this paper based on crossing the deadline.
Now, in the end he may still fail due to the poor quality + crossed deadline. But at the very least he would have learned to be more punctual about his work.
After all, being able to deliver good quality work on a timely way are some of the most important competences a student has to learn.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: In case of such doubt, I'd ask the student to show evidence. I.e., show me on **your** computer the file that by mistake didn't get uploaded, and I'll check if it wasn't written yesterday (yes, that can be faked, but...) and I'll consider grading that one. In any case, whatever grading penalty there is for sloppy work or similar *will* apply, and probably also the penalty for turning it in late (as applicable).
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: Here is my problem with the student's story: Every LMS I've ever seen allows you to review your submitted documents. We learn as a function of not wanting to fail our classes *very quickly* that **we need to make certain** that the docments we submitted are free of technical fault. This includes making sure that: you submitted the *right* document, there are no formatting issues, that our file isn't actually broken or inaccessible.
In all those cases, regardless if the student had plagiarized or not, he would still be penalized. If I make the assumption that he did *not* want to fail this assessment, and that his due effort still resulted in the submission of a fraudulent document, I would undoubtedly hold him as accountable for academic dishonesty. If I assume that he was *careless*, and that his lack of attention resulted in the submission of the wrong document, I have to dig deeper:
Compare the quality of paper 1, and paper 2 (the poor quality one). Does it look to you like he threw paper 2 together hastily in an effort to cover his tracks, or does it look characteristically like his attempt at a term paper? There should be marked differences between a paper he took the time to polish and something he attempted to churn out in the two days that he knew there was trouble.
Now, as serious as the offense may be, I don't believe in derailing on-time graduation or graduate school prospects. I believe in instilling values that down the road when, for example, he contends to self-plagiarize something that he no longer holds copyright or publishing rights on and ends up in a bit of legal trouble, it just doesn't happen.
I think that instead of failing him, you can work this out giving him an honest grade on his final submission, penalized for the late days, at a larger percentage of the final grade.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_4: In the absence (or even presence) of a clear policy statement about incorrect submissions, just let the department committee sort it out. If your department wants to be "student friendly" let them be. If you really want to fight the "student friendly" approach, take it up at the next faculty meeting.
Upvotes: 2
|
2016/03/01
| 1,168
| 4,863
|
<issue_start>username_0: I really like the institution where I'm working on my PhD, and I enjoy the city that I live in. I have shown that I am a strong research, and I am really starting to make a name for myself. I was wondering if people ever really get recruited for a tenure position at the institution where the received their PhD. (I don't go to one of the top 5 universities where they kind of have no choice but to recruit from within.)<issue_comment>username_1: I was hired on a one year teaching/research contract at my institution even before my PhD corrections were ratified.
I ended up leaving halfway through (though saw out the rest of my teaching duties) for a 2.5 year research contract in a research centre I had my eye on the past year.
So it's definitely possible, but as to whether it'll be a tenure position, depends on your university. I'll put it this way, at my university, we had a tenured position come up in my department with a few very strong internal candidates who had PhDs from that university, and I mean very strong (big grants, books, tons of publications) apply. They didn't even get interviews.
Someone from overseas was hired, and I think at my old university in particular there is a want for 'international' talent.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: **Yes**, but it is rare, for most schools.
It is usually frowned upon, however, the top schools have to hire from *somewhere* so it is common for them to at least swap graduates. My anecdotal evidence is that low ranked universities also tend to hire a higher proportion of their own students.
A notable [exception](http://jeffhuang.com/computer_science_professors.html) is MIT, where **39%** of the CS professors received their PhD degrees from there.
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/8Y8nZ.png)
Table is from <http://jeffhuang.com/computer_science_professors.html>
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: Attitudes towards a department hiring their own PhD students as tenured academics varies quite a bit across institutions and departments (from my observations as an Australian academic). For many it is discouraged, for others it is sometimes an advantage, and for others, it just takes an extended postdoc typically somewhere else in order to be competitive for a position.
There are a few general principles that are operating:
* Departments often want to see that you have your own independent program of research which is often more evident once you've made it on your own. In particular, departments often want to see that you are able to work independently of your supervisor.
* There is often a desire to lead to a proliferation of ideas which is more likely to occur if people leave their PhD institution.
On the flipside, some departments value hiring their own PhD students.
* They know your skills and temperament and if they see a lot of potential you can be an attractive candidate.
* Their PhD students may also get experience with teaching that means that they understand the culture of the university.
One scenario that I've seen occur a few times is an academic getting a PhD from an institution, then spending a few years doing a Post Doc or lecturing position elsewhere before returning to the original institution to take a continuing position. This often satisfies many of the requirements of showing that you are an independent researcher.
Another scenario is working at the same university but in a different department. This is often applicable if your research is in anyway cross-disciplinary.
Also, my casual impression is that high ranking universities are somewhat less likely to hire their own PhDs for continuing academic appointments straight out of their PhD.
If you're interested in getting a continuing academic appointment at your PhD university, you should gather some more specific information. Look at where current academics in the department did their PhDs. If there are such academics see whether they left and came back or went straight through. If you can, try to find out about the politics of such appointments and whether they were purely on merit or whether they were supported by existing staff keen to build up an area. Talk to your PhD supervisor. Even better, if you're able to, talk to the head of department or someone else who is likely to be involved in hiring decisions.
Finally, academic appointments are very competitive and the frequency with which jobs come up at your level in your area and at a given institution may be low. For this reason alone, it pays to consider other universities. Even if you want to get a position at your own institution and your institution doesn't have a bias against hiring their own, you still need to be better than all the other applicants which include a much larger pool.
Upvotes: 4
|
2016/03/01
| 614
| 2,662
|
<issue_start>username_0: Some journals such as the *IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems* (randomly picked) require a biography and sometimes also a photo of the paper authors.
Currently I have the case that a co-author working in the industry does not want this. He says (and I can totally understand this) that he does not want that possible future companies will find a photo of him when using a search engine. He also does not like the biography part but would accept this, if there is no other solution.
**Question:** Is it uncommon to ask the Editor-in-chief whether the biography and/or photos may be omitted? The journal would be a perfect match so that I do not want to pick another one just because of this.<issue_comment>username_1: I can't really say that I "get" the concern of the co-author here, but I am aware that different people have dramatically different views on privacy than I do.
In general, this is definitely a question that you can ask the Editor-in-Chief without concern. However, depending on how many submissions the journal in question gets, it is possible that the EiC may be rather uncompromising upfront. For some top-level journals, submissions are a dime a dozen, and I have seen editors that see little need to engage in potentially time-consuming discussions with authors prior to even seeing an acceptable manuscript. Hence they may just point to an existing policy if there is one, without much further thought.
Hence, another possibility would be to just submit the paper regularly, and delay the problem until the paper proofing phase. If your paper is deep enough into the process that the question actually becomes urgent, it seems exceedingly likely that the editor and/or responsible persons from the publisher's side will be willing to compromise over such a triviality rather than reject the paper. For instance, they could allow your co-author to have a placeholder rather than his photo, and/or have a very short bio text along the lines of "Dr XY is currently a research engineer at GoodStuff Inc. For privacy reasons, no other information is given."
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Rather than trying to determine whether it is common or not to get the EiC involved in this matter, I would like to suggest that you ask a more "productive" question: are there established ways of handling the case when a co-author does not want to include a bio and a photo? The answer to this question, as far as the IEEE is concerned, is "yes."
Next to the author's name, simply state:
>
> <NAME>, photograph and biography not available at the time of publication.
>
>
>
Upvotes: 5
|
2016/03/01
| 823
| 3,516
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am a final year PhD student in a EU country (in bologna). I have already completed my MSc and Advanced studies diploma (MPhil eq.).
I am self-funding my project and I have been doing research since 2013. Some time ago, my supervisor was sincere with me and told that he is very overloaded with work that he will most likely take 2-3 years to read and correct my thesis. I am paying a LOT for my tuition fees, and I am not willing to lose another 2-3 years of my life. I am thinking of alternatives, such as going to Germany, where PhD programs do NOT have a tuition fee (If I read right) and just complete all the formalities, have a supervisor read my thesis, then present it. I would be working in the meanwhile (I can speak German)
Is this possible? Do universities accept transference of PhD programs while keeping the same topic? I know that a workplan examination may be needed, and this is not a problem. Please let me know.
Thanks,
KingBaboon<issue_comment>username_1: In the USA it is a fairly common practice though normally a student follows his adviser to another university rather than runs away from him. I'm not so sure about Europe (the rules of the game are somewhat different there) but in any case you should make a few inquiries: first, you should talk to the graduate program director (or someone equivalent) at the place you intend to transfer to about whether they currently accept transfer (or any) graduate students and on what terms (the answers may vary dramatically from one university to another) and second you should contact a potential adviser to make sure that it is fine with him/her (I guess you do not want to start it all over again because otherwise you may just as well wait 3 years where you are, and not everybody would be interested in reading and correcting a thesis on the topic given and supervised by somebody else). Normally, if these two key people give you the green light, the rest is fairly routine (again, in the States).
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: From what I have seen in Europe, and in Germany in particular, PhDs are treated like jobs. So normally, to do a PhD in Germany, you'd have to find an open position and apply to it. If the research description is close enough to what you've already been working on, it may be possible to transfer progress from your current project. But then you'd be at the whims of a new PI.
Germany universities do technically allow people who are not currently employed in a PhD position to complete their doctorates thorough the university; but there are usually special circumstances underlying these situations. For example, I have a dual-degree, awarded jointly by a German and an American university. Although I had been employed as a researcher at the German university, I never held a PhD position there, and I was only enrolled as a student on paper when my degree was awarded. This whole thing was only possible because my American and German advisors knew each other well and jumped through lots of paperwork hoops for me. I also know of a guy at a German university who had started off in a PhD role, transitioned into a sort of limbo-researcher role, and then a long time later (10 years maybe? whenever funding ran out) actually completed his degree and moved into industry.
Moral of the story: while want you want is technically possible, I would say it's highly unlikely unless you already have connections or a perfect open position in mind.
Upvotes: 2
|
2016/03/01
| 429
| 1,733
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am currently doing my MS thesis and I have to include an appendix to describe a mathematical subject. However, I added extra details in that appendix and it is now too long.
My Prof. suggests I better not include it "at all", or if necessary just make it shorter (though he admits that it is very well written and referenced).
Is it unusual to include a very long appendix in a thesis?
* **My thesis is now 150 Pages; 20 pages are for that appendix.**<issue_comment>username_1: From my knowledge, it is unusual, but you are missing the most important question: is everything you put there absolutely needed for any other person to understand the value of your work?And does removing any part of it decrease the value of your thesis? Try to see your thesis as an impartial, but knowledgeable person. If you answer these two questions, you will know what do do!
Edit: The number of pages of your appendix compared to your thesis is not much important. But I would like to let you know that my MSc thesis has 200 pages of which 50-60 are from several appendix
I hope I have helped you!
Thanks,
username_1
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: This does **not** sound unusual to me. Just ask yourself, is there a possibility that the reader would need this?
I have seen theses and dissertations with no appendices and some with over 50 pages of appendices. In my field, these are often filled with user study materials, source code, or raw data which can easily eat up many pages.
I don't see any harm done with being conservative and including everything. In this case, I have seen people list two versions of their thesis online, one with and one without the appendices.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]
|
2016/03/01
| 2,710
| 11,826
|
<issue_start>username_0: I teach physics at a community college and have been on a number of hiring committees for tenure-track jobs. Usually we interview about 6 people for such a position, and of those, usually something like 3 of them show a lack of knowledge of the subject in the interview. When I say a lack of knowledge, I mean that they can't do easy freshman stuff. We will ask them a question that is posed as a request for them to pretend we're a class of students and give a short explanation of something, so it's nominally a test of their ability to teach it, but in reality we find candidates who simply don't know it. These are people who have a PhD from an accredited school. (We hardly ever interview people who only have a master's.)
[EDIT] (To clarify, I'm talking about very basic knowledge, such as understanding what Newton's laws mean. We're not asking candidates to recall obscure trivia. Personally, I don't really care whether they know which is Newton's 1st law, 2nd, or 3rd. I'm talking about candidates who actually demonstrate elementary misunderstandings of Newton's laws. Since a lot of academia.SE users are in math, I think a good analogy would be if someone applied to teach math, and that person didn't know the chain rule -- which I have heard from colleagues in math departments at community colleges is also common. Continuing this analogy, the issue is not that they fail to remember the term "chain rule." The issue is that if they're asked to differentiate sin cos x, they can't do it. They do silly things like attempting to use the product rule, as if the sine was multiplied by the cosine. Or they throw up their hands and won't try, even if the committee tries to help them out.)
Are there good strategies for screening these people out at an earlier stage, without needlessly losing too many good candidates from our pool?
Here's what we're already doing:
* We require applicants to submit undergraduate transcripts, and we are less likely to interview people who have poor undergraduate grades (such as Ds and Fs in math and physics).
* We prefer applicants who have graduate degrees from more prestigious schools.
* We prefer a candidate who has taught a wide variety of courses to one who has only, e.g., taught mechanics.
Undergraduate grades do seem to correlate with what we see in the interview, but it's also possible that someone started out their undergraduate education with a weak high school background and then overcame that disadvantage. There is also the difficulty of comparing different countries' grading standards. We require graduate transcripts, but I find those hard to extract useful information from.
We are currently only asking them to give the names of references, but not to supply letters of reference along with their applications. Would it help to make them send letters?
You would think that someone with really weak competence would never get into a good graduate program, and therefore we could just not interview people who have degrees from low-prestige programs. However, our pool doesn't usually include a ton of people who have degrees from the best graduate programs, and we have also seen people in the past with degrees from renowned universities who nevertheless displayed major gaps in their knowledge, as well as highly competent people who got their degrees from no-name schools.<issue_comment>username_1: Learning about a subject is not so much about being able to reproduce that knowledge at any moment, as much as it is about being able to re-learn more quickly the next time around. At some point all it will take is a quick look at the materials, or a little bit of time to re-think the steps involved. It would be a pity to lose out on good candidates because they can't pull up knowledge immediately - and in a stressful situation.
I would suggest giving them a list of possible topics in advance. But a big list, and not much in advance - so that knowledge still plays a major role. Or, alternatively, giving them the option to briefly consult a textbook on the spot. The ability to understand things deeply should still shine through.
I guess this is the opposite of what you asked for - it's not about how to screen people out, but how to screen them 'in', in case they do know the materials and the particular interview situation is not well suited to assess that.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: Presumably your interview is doing a good job screening out the individuals who you feel "don't know the subject" and you are trying to screen them out prior to the interview. I think a reasonable screening tool could be a a phone interview. You should probably conduct between 10-15 phone interviews to find the 6 candidates you want to interview.
While I say "phone interview", it is most often now a "Skype" interview. These interviews could be as short as 30 minutes and should be no longer than 1 hour scheduled back-to-back such that they all get completed in two long days. The phone interviews I know about have had 3-6 people (presumably the majority of the committee) present, but I think depending on department politics that you could reduce it to a smaller group (maybe even just the committee chair).
While you could simply focus the phone interview on the questions that cause candidates the most trouble during on campus interviews, given 1/2 your candidates have difficulties recalling key concepts of "random" classes, you may want to help them out a little. If you require that applicants submit a sample syllabus for freshman physics and another for an upper level elective, then the phone interview should focus on the teaching statement and sample syllabus.
During the phone interview you should also mention some of the other key classes of you department that they might teach on. If a candidate is truly clueless, this will not matter, but good candidates will realize that they need to brush up on those classes for the on campus interview.
In summary, an inability to talk about a syllabus the candidate has written would be your screening tool and the hints during the phone interview will help you minimize throwing out potentially good candidates.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: There's a famous test in the CS world called "[FizzBuzz](http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?FizzBuzzTest)" that companies these days are using to efficiently screen out candidates that managed to get degrees without actually learning anything. FizzBuzz (and its variants) focus on what are considered to be core concepts that *any* programmer *regardless of language* should be able to do in a matter of minutes. As reported, [the results are astounding](http://blog.codinghorror.com/why-cant-programmers-program/). While material on the effectiveness of FizzBuzz in recruiting has never been extensively peer-reviewed (to my knowledge), coming from that world and even being a self-taught programmer I can tell you that anyone worth their salt should be able to complete the test in *at least* one language, even if the solution is inelegant.
It sounds like you're running into a similar problem in your neck of the woods, and are already onto a similar solution. I'd recommend trying to find that **core** set of problems that **any undergrad** should be able to solve one way or another and use that as your screening. Let them use a textbook, maybe hint at a list of possible problems ahead of time as others have mentioned so they aren't caught off-guard, and be willing to help the way you've been doing. But make the first interviews (possibly over Skype as was also suggested) quick and to the point so you don't waste time. Establish either the base knowledge, or at least the ability to pick up on it quickly while under pressure, before proceeding to full, in-person interviews.
Those tricks have worked in my industry, hopefully they can help you in yours. We've seen that it doesn't matter who graduated with what degrees and has what recommendations or grades, the ones who can actually live up to their title and do their job are sometimes the least-decorated.
**Edit:** These "quick" interviews can be done on Skype in *at most* 30 minutes, possibly more like 15 depending on the questions. You can knock out a lot of candidates in a short period of time before dedicating serious resources to second-round interviews (which may still be online and only last an hour), assuming you think the process through in the beginning.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: To distill some of the other previous comments, I would suggest having a low bar that you expect *any viable candidate* could do over the phone. The important part is making it easy enough that you don't screen out nervous competent candidates, but it looks like this isn't an issue for your specific situation.
You might frame it in terms of "an initial phone screen"; it also provides an additional opportunity to get to know the candidates.
Also note this doesn't have to be direct questioning, but can be included in other questions (such as "How would you teach Newton's laws").
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: You think that asking one or two questions on the spot in an interview is a good way to assess an applicant's knowledge of basic concepts in the discipline. However, this sounds like a relatively poor approach to me.
There are basic principles of psychometrics that are relevant here. Basic principles of item response theory are relevant. First, people differ on a distribution in latent ability (i.e., knowledge of the domain). Second, items differ in difficulty. Third, even with these two bits of information, there is a random component. So if you want to measure latent ability in applicants, then you can improve your assessment by having more items. For example, give them a written test with a bunch of items.
More importantly, I think you need to be be careful with assuming that most people can recall basic facts from the undergraduate curriculum. If you teach that curriculum, then you are likely to recall many such details. If you don't teach such material, even if you've learnt the material and would know how to look it up and solve problems when required, it may not be available to immediate working memory. It might be easy to relearn and if you were given the task of teaching a class related to that content, you may still be able to do a good job presenting it.
In summary, you may want to think about the degree which being able to recall undergraduate knowledge at the time of hire is predictive of job performance. I imagine that it might be relevant, but I also think that a whole range of other indicators would be relevant too. So in addition to trying to measure the construct better, I'd recommend that you treat it as one of several indicators of potential job performance.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_6: So you have a set of screening techniques, but they are not enough, and you may need to add another one (most probably a phone screen). You have a concern that doing so will alienate the candidates, which is totally understandable.
What you should do is not only introduce a new screening, but **remove the ones which don't work**. If undergrad transcripts show a correlation with the quality of candidates, keep that requirement. If candidates with PhDs don't show significantly higher quality over people with Masters, dump that requirement.
And don't be afraid that non-standard requirements and tests will be perceived as offensive. What is truly offensive (or, I'd rather say annoying) is wasting too much of someone's time over too small of a probability that you'll actually hire them. Asking to fill an hour-long form before even talking over the phone is offensive, asking to derive `sin(cos(x))` is not.
Upvotes: 3
|
2016/03/02
| 896
| 3,297
|
<issue_start>username_0: How much weight does a department's hiring committee give to the prestige of a candidate's PhD program when looking to hire tenure-track professors?
Does someone coming from a top 5 university with a short publication record have a better chance than someone from a ranked ~50 school with a better record?<issue_comment>username_1: In philosophy in the US, graduates of the top 5 programs got 37% of the total jobs. Graduates of the roughly 75 programs not ranked in the top 50 all together got 12% of the total jobs. The impact of prestige on hiring is overwhelming.
<http://philosopherscocoon.typepad.com/blog/2014/04/on-sample-data-on-this-years-tt-hires.html>
**Edit**
Spurred by xLeitex's comments below, I did a bit more research and thus am
editing my answer to provide a few more links I've found, since I think the topic is both important, and it comes up somewhat regularly on the site.
First, [Baldi 1995](http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1533-8525.1995.tb00464.x/abstract) found that "job placement in sociology values academic origins over performance."
Second, [Burris 2004, 250](http://www.cunyawards.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Burris-2004.pdf) argues that the "social capital" involved in coming from a prestigious department affects not only one's placement into a first job, but also one's subsequent academic career.
Third, [Long 1978, 902](http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/2094628.pdf?acceptTC=true) argues that scholarly productivity is "facilitated by department location" but that "productivity, as indicated by measures of publication and citation, plays an insignificant role in the selection process."
Certainly the picture that these three articles present makes it looks like prestige of one's PhD granting department isn't merely correlated with getting a successful academic career, but is an important causal factor.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: I haven't been on a tenure-track hiring committee, but while I was on the searching end, I was told that pedigree was *a* factor (not necessarily a big one), because people in other subfields had trouble judging how good a candidate's work was, even given their publication history, but could evaluate their pedigree.
This effect may be more pronounced in fields like math, where there are big variations across subfields in how much people publish.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: I've been on search committees several times (in math at a large state university in the US) and different people look at different things, but I personally give almost no weight to where someone got their PhD, and I think this is mostly true for most of my colleagues. (Note: in math, you essentially have to do about 3 or so years of postdocs before getting a tenure-track research position, so we have more data about applicant than fields that hire tenure-tracks straight out of PhD.) What I give the most weight are publications and letters of recommendation.
That said, being at better institutions tends to expose you to more ideas and current research, good collaboration opportunities, and can often make it easier for you to get stronger letters. See the posts linked in the comments for more about advantages of "prestige schools."
Upvotes: 2
|
2016/03/02
| 2,329
| 10,024
|
<issue_start>username_0: I'm a female student in some huge and popular university in my country.
I have a supervisor who is much older then me. He is a very respected person in our community.
We worked together a lot, it was fine. We communicated about personal issues as well, but nothing sex-related and/or inappropriate. No physical contact, hugs or even handshakes.
There was nothing special until the day we were celebrating something along with a lot of other teachers and students. I had drunk more then I should and stopped realizing what was happening. Then I found myself face to face with my supervisor and he started to harass me. I waited for a lucky moment and ran away.
Now we are ok with this and go on working together. This episode is ignored but not forgotten. I feel responsible for this but not guilty. I know that I'm not the first student he had close relationships with. And I know that he thought I would not mind it, so, now he is sorry. I know about two very alike situations with my friends in two other universities in my city.
Should I blame myself for this episode? I think that only for my careless and non-professional behaviour, not for the sexual issue.
Do you think I had to leave the university or communicate to the authorities or something?
How can you prevent yourself of having such a person as your supervisor? In my opinion, if he wasn't interested in me that way, I could drink even more and nothing would happen.<issue_comment>username_1: First, I would recommend that you put away any feelings of guilt and responsibility, and instead begin planning to protect yourself. Unfortunately, it appears likely that your supervisor is a predator and abuser given several red flags in your story. In particular:
* Your supervisor waiting until you were impaired by alcohol before making unwanted sexual advances. This is a massive red flag of abuse: safe and respectful people talk with prospective partners when they are sober.
* Your supervisor appears to have sought an isolated environment in the midst of a group event where he could assault you and where you could run away without others noticing.
* Your supervisor appears to be manipulating your interpretation of his sexual assault on you: you say things like "we are OK with this" (taking a collective view) and "I know that he thought" (taking his view) and "he is sorry" (how did you feel?) that indicate that your view of the situation is being strongly influenced by his view. To be blunt: it doesn't matter what he thought or felt; what matters is what *you* thought and felt when you were sexually assaulted. Making you feel responsible for his feelings is an abuse tactic.
* It sounds as though your supervisor engages in [grooming for abuse](http://www.abuseandrelationships.org/Content/Behaviors/grooming.html), by picking certain "favorite" students and violating professional boundaries with them (talking about personal issues). Some people just have minimal filter with everybody, but the picking favorites is a red flag: abusers often do this in order to identify people who will be good victims for their abuse, and then may wait quite patiently for an opportunity to switch into their preferred mode of abuse.
* Your supervisor chose to make a sexual advance on their student, over whose life they have a huge amount of power and control, rather than waiting until you were no longer their student and could be more of a peer as a partner.
Now, it's possible that your supervisor is not a predator and abuser, but that's a lot of red flags, including an actual sexual assault. Furthermore, most abusers do not believe that they are abusers, and can often be very persuasive to others, including the victims that they ensnare.
So, what would I recommend that you do? Unfortunately, the student/advisor power dynamics make this a tricky situation to navigate without doing harm to yourself and your career. I would thus recommend that you start by protecting yourself and then find resources or otherwise get professional support to help decide how to proceed.
1. Never drink or otherwise impair yourself when you may encounter your supervisor, even if there are other people present. He has isolated you for assault once, and may do it again.
2. Find some good resources on abuse and familiarize yourself with their information and recommendations. One site that I would recommend as helpful is: <http://www.abuseandrelationships.org/>. Even though you are not in a sexual relationship with your advisor, a) your supervisor just attempted to start one, and b) you *are* in an important relationship due to the student/advisor connection.
3. If you can, begin consulting with a professional therapist or counselor with a good reputation for helping victims of assault and abuse. Having a trustworthy and professional third party will be very valuable for helping you get a clear perspective on your situation and figuring out what is the right path for you, as well as helping deal with any emotional repercussions of your assault.
Once you've taken all of those other steps, you will need to decide which of several paths you want to take, ranging anywhere from filing formal charges against your supervisor to quietly changing supervisors to simply protecting yourself and carrying through to graduation. Unfortunately, all of the choices you make are likely to risk serious negative consequences to you, and only you (hopefully with aid from an experienced and supportive therapist or counselor) can decide which path and which risks are the best choice for your situation.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: Let me express how sorry and embarrassed I feel (as a male) that you have been put under such stress for no other reason than being a young female, which behaved exactly as some her male co-students would have done (socializing on a faculty party).
There are In my opinion 3 aspects of this: Professional/etiquette, Legal and emotional. I wont discuss about legal, since you were not specific on the country and specifics of the harassment, and since I feel that this is not the direction you want advice. I will skip emotional, because to judge what has happened I don't need to understand the emotions behind. For that I have to say it does not contribute if you (seem, pretend or believe) to like each other (in one direction or two) or not.
Let's gather the facts:
* He is your supervisor - he has the objective power
* He is an employee, he gets paid for his work, and you are a student. In some sense, his customer.
* He is older, in an environment where he believes that it's acceptable to get sexual with students in the presence of other teacher and students (This tell me that something is wrong with the faculty ethics there) - he has control
* It seems normal for him to have relationships with his female students, who are in a insecure emotional state of transition - if that is a habit, it is clear that he is experienced in abusing his position (This again tells me that something is wrong with the faculty ethics there)
* I could imagine that something like this incident would have been a misinterpretation of him, but in that case, i would have expected an sincere apology towards you
* It is clearly unacceptable from an etiquette viewpoint to skip hugging and other more personal forms of interaction in a social relationship and wait until the other person is drunk enough to touch him/her in a sexual way.
So these are the facts as I see them, and my summary is clear: He behaved unprofessional, irresponsible, and as it seems intentionally abusive, with a lack of professional and interpersonal ethics. While you being drunk may have allowed him to do what he did, the failure is on his side.
I reinterpret your questions to:
*I have a supervisor, which seems to be intentionally abusive if he believes he can get away with it (and I assume that this may be true). Given the asymmetry of power, what is the way with the least further harm for my life to get away from there and avoid future harassment for me from such nonprofessional and abusive people.*
* I assume that he is not emotionally involved in this (given his history), so there are good chances that he at least does not take your "rejection" personally and has some hidden issue with you (and e.g. takes revenge when grading). So I don't expect his behavior to be a recurring thing (towards you). However, if you have the feeling that the grade of your work was affected by it (or he make strange remarks indicating that he expected different from you), you should evaluate further steps.
My first advice: Try to walk away from it as unharmed as possible, as a student in a university you will fight an uphill battle in such contexts. Clearly separate you own good (getting away with a decent grade and without being harassed any further - if he tries it, walk away directly and go to the faculty) from the good of the others (i.e. telling the responsible person at the University about this - possibly do this later, after getting away.). Don't let people tell you that "women are at fault because they would need to go after such persons stronger" - in such a situation it is not your responsibility to clean up other peoples mess.
The second advice (as much as i hate to give it to you in this context): The world is full of seemingly nice and close people (students, teachers, colleagues) who lie to you, and will exploit your weaknesses. Some people are psychopaths and these are very good liars. Getting drunk (since it weakens you temporarily) among people you don't know is not a good idea, so only get drunk with people you know well enough.
The third advice is: look for the publication record when selecting a supervisor. If you see a stable pattern (e.g. Master students which are still there as Postdocs) of coauthors around him/her on the articles it means usually that he/she does not cause people to run away for emotional, sexual or other (workload) abuse.
Upvotes: 2
|
2016/03/02
| 517
| 2,219
|
<issue_start>username_0: Being updated with new ideas in many research fields is impossible, seen the diversity of research topics and the strong relations that exists between them. Most of the researchers in the world, are needing to interact with many fields and to be up to date with the trending ideas in each one of them.
Example: if one researcher is specialized in remote-sensing. Being up to date in this field is possible with some effort. But, this field is related to many other fields ( computer vision, image processing, machine learning, artificial intelligence..). Any new idea in any of these fields could directly impact remote sensing as well. The problem is that this researcher cannot cope with the high speed changes that occurs in these fields.
This example is applicable to many cases as well. And many of you are facing the same situation.
I am in the beginning of my PhD, my thesis interact with many research fields. I have to summarizes the trending ideas in many fields to conclude the state of the art of my thesis. Following the traditional method by accessing the literature of each field may out passes the goal of my thesis.
I want to know if there is a mean to know the trending research ideas in one research topic and the statistics related to them that are gaining some interest.
Is there any mean to track advancement in a research field?<issue_comment>username_1: There is no easy way:
First step would be to talk to your advisor.
Second step would be to look at recent issues of the main journals in your field.
Third step would be to attend some of the main conferences in your field, listen to the talks and talk to the people.
After that you make up your mind what your opinion the trending issues are, and repeat steps 1 and 2 (and maybe 3) to try to confirm that.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: I'd hardly say it is easy, or even possible, in any field to keep up with mounds of new research.
However, I find it best to narrow down your area of research as much as possible. Find a few niches within your field, and become an expert on those; I have found that much easier to keep up with. Anything outside of that is usually useless toe anyway.
Upvotes: 1
|
2016/03/02
| 3,940
| 16,181
|
<issue_start>username_0: I'm an Advanced Level math teacher in my country. I teach two courses Pure and Applied. Its duration is 3 years. At the end of three years, there is one exam for the whole three years. Only 1200 students are selected for universities out of 50000.
I told (Privately) two of my students that they are going to fail the August AL exam if they are not going to work hard.
They have no knowledge of their syllabus. (They joined my class three weeks ago). I myself told them the truth and they stopped the class telling me that I'm a very discouraging teacher. I could have told them "Yes you can," but as a teacher I told them the reality.
Is it better to tell them that "You will get an A" or to tell them the truth?
This course contains 40 lessons and it is a 3 year course from which now only five months are left.<issue_comment>username_1: With only three weeks you can already tell they are bound to fail in five months? Yes, that is too discouraging.
There is a middle ground between "you will get an A" and "you will most certainly fail", i.e.,
>
> If you want to pass, you'll need to strengthen this and that and do a lot of exercises on the material of the class. I know August looks far away, but actually, it will come sooner than it seems, so I suggest you start working on this right away.
>
>
>
By assuring them they are going to fail you have discouraged them from even trying, and possibly planted a predisposition: they know they will fail, you know they will fail, so they will fail (or you will fail them, or they may think you graded them too strictly to fulfill your prophecy).
Your task as a teacher is to help them learn as much as possible, and at the end, assess if they have learnt enough and grade them. I was recently teaching some programming courses, and some of my students were really bad. I knew one of them wouldn't be able to finish the tasks on time, but he took a bunch of tutorials and painstakingly went through them, trying to understand every step of the way. At the end, he didn't know enough to pass, but certainly learned more than if he had just given up at the first try; and he knew that was a possible outcome.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_2: In general, it is not a good practice to make negative remarks about a student in front of others. Any such feedback should be provided in private. Also, since your course is only three weeks old, you may not have enough information to gauge a student's ability.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: The response to such a case is almost always: "Yes, but...". You present a clear and present picture of what their problem will be, make clear that it is going to be more challenging for them than for anyone else at the course, as they started late, and they thus have to work much harder than anyone else to achieve the standard. You may be quite right that they are not the students that end up with an A, but it is not for you to decide at this stage whether they are, only to demonstrate to them what they need to do to achieve it.
Maybe they will surprise you, maybe not. But present to them their available choices, and there is always the chance of a "Kobayashi Maru" (unexpected solution of a seemingly impossible dilemma).
TL;DR: make them appreciate the difficulty of what they aim to do, but don't tell them that getting an A is impossible, because you do not **know for sure** this at this stage, as well-founded as your estimate may be.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: You may use the same trick that support staff and sales representatives use: avoid using expressions like "no", "cannot", "sorry but...".
Instead you turn it around like so: "In order to achieve this goal, we need to do the following...", and then list all the things that are required for it to happen.
If you follow this pattern you have been honest and given full disclosure about what they need to do, without explicitly discouraging.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_5: Many students lack the emotional maturity to understand you are telling them this for thier own benefit, but they will eventually realize it. A high schooler doesn't typically take a graduate level physics course, nor should someone who does not have the rudimentary math skills necessary to effectively complete an advanced class be taking it. Their time is simply better spent on progressing in area of math they have a base knowledge in. I wouldn't feel bad about telling them this, even if they get mad at you for saying so. It is, what it is. The field of mathematics is very linear as you know; you can't just jump from pre-algebra to econometrics without a hiccup, it will be a foreign language.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_6: When I was in college I had long hair, wore a bandanna and workout clothes to my classes, if I ever showed up. The fact is I learned faster on my own.
I was in an advanced Calculus class my freshman year due to me testing out Calc I-III. I showed up the first class and grabbed the syllabus and then a month later, the class before the first exam.
The professor asked me a question, I misheard, and he basically told me the same thing you told your students.
I came to the test two days later, turned it in a half hour later - he asked to talk to me in the hall. He said he rather not fail me and asked me to drop his class. I just told him to grade the test.
I got a 97% on the test (points taken off a problem for not showing work). I grabbed my test and left the class right after.
The next test, same deal, he asked to talk to me in the hall. This time asked me if I thought about switching my major to mathematics (I was taking his class for an elective).
My point is - you do not know who you are talking to. By making assumptions you will just make yourself look like an ass. If you want to get your point across make a really simple (very simple) pretest that anyone that has a chance passing should get a 100%.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_7: Teachers should make every effort for students to learn, but in some professions, you also have to weed-out those who don't qualify.
In this case, you should have a conversation with these students and give them your honest assessment. If they really want to pass this course, you may want to set some intermediate goals. Could you prepare a sample test to cover a subset of the material? If they're able to do what it takes for them to learn it, they may have a chance.
This just seems like a very rigorous program that many students cannot handle. You owe them your professional opinion. It's up to them to heed the advice and either do what it takes to improve or drop out.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_8: Kudos to you for wanting to honor the truth. Now:
>
> I myself told them the truth and they stopped the class telling me
> that I'm a very discouraging teacher.
>
>
>
Question: Are you *happy* with this interaction? If you continue with the same tactic in the future, do you think that you'll get a different result, or the same result? Some observations:
* There's a difference between "telling a lie" and "being diplomatic" (it's not entirely a black-and-white relationship). You could say something like, "Yes, it's possible to pass. It's going to take a lot of work. In your case, we know that there are some gaps that are going to make it more challenging for you. In my experience, few students in your situation pass the final."
* Due to the [Dunning-Kruger effect](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect), the worst students will also be the ones least capable of honestly assessing their situation, or interpreting your advice. Regarding the suggested line above, they may hear the first word and then zone out on everything after that. Being brutally honest with these students is more likely to cause more conflict. Maybe you're okay with that.
* I've personally been wrong about predictions like this in the past. I actually had a disagreement with an administrator in which I said of a particular student "She obviously has no chance of passing the final" (had failed 2 of 3 tests to that point, skipped the 3rd). Then she did actually pass the final, and I had major egg on my face. So there's at least some margin of error in our predictions that you have to account for in your statements.
* Depending on your situation, your employer may also possibly sanction you or say that it's not your place to encourage students to leave the institution (actually, there's a famous case today where the [President of Mount St. Mary's College](http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/mount-st-marys-university-president-resigns-amid-furor-37296210) in the U.S. was forced to resign over similar comments). But this needs to be balanced with possible complaints on the other end regarding how much people "blame you" for their failing.
* A great idea, as others have mentioned, is to use/highlight a first-day diagnostic and later in-class quizzes (or tests, or test previews, or whatever you call it). This gives documentation you can point to, that the student in question was deficient all along, even on the first day before you had any interaction with them. This at least gives a stronger trail of evidence if a student or administrator complains in this regard.
I would encourage you to broaden your skill set and *find a way to be diplomatic in this regard*.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_9: Instead of telling the student that he or she will fail, and thereby making a judgement of them at your own prerogative, you could delegate this difficult judgement to the student's own mind.
Doubtless you do not baselessly decide a student will fail or not on a whim, you have some sort of logic. Even in your question you have hinted at the logic: They have poor knowledge of even the syllabus and seem to be at such a low level that they are unlikely to cover all the material in the time that remains. Also, sometimes instructors who have seen dozens or hundreds of students develop an intuition for the sort of student who will do well or badly, just based on how the student is acting. This may not always be 100% correct, but in my experience is often quite informative. Rarely have I seen an instructor claim that student X will do badly, after which student X will perform well in spite of expectations (note, I say "rarely", which means exactly that - not never, but not often).
Take the logic, and the facts you are basing your thinking on, and explain these to the student. Do not conclude that they will fail or not, let them judge for themselves how likely they are to succeed, how much work it will take, and whether they are willing to do that work.
For instance:
* "*You were consistently in the bottom 10% of the class in the last 5 quizzes - in my experience, it is very uncommon for a student to suddenly improve in the exam after a run like this - I have never seen it happen having taught about 400 students.*"
* "*You have missed 60% of the lectures - in my experience, students who miss that many days have a lot of difficulty dealing with the exam, because class discussions are directly relevant to the exam questions.*"
* "*You don't seem to know the syllabus very well, but this is a very comprehensive exam. Students who don't know the syllabus would have a lot of trouble getting up to speed with the material in a timely manner.*"
* "*The exam is soon and there is a lot of material to cover - do you think you will be able to manage it all in time?*"
After explaining your reasoning, make sure to finish with something like "If you want to succeed in this course, you would likely need to work very hard, based on what I've told you".
Advantages of this:
* It is honest and treats the student like an adult, not a child, letting them make their own decisions about their life. The responsibility for the decision is likewise placed on the student, not you.
* If the student is a genius who can succeed anyway, they are free to disregard your advice, and nothing you said is falsified even if they do since you only advised them of heuristics and probabilities.
* If the student indeed fails as you suspect, you have not told them a comforting lie about how they will "get an A".
* Limited self-fulfilling prophecy effect - you do not tell the student that they cannot succeed, thereby killing their motivation and thus ability to succeed, you are only giving them an idea of their odds.
* If the student is enlightened by the information you provide, they have the opportunity to steer the discussion in a direction they are comfortable with: Those who feel they have the mental fortitude can say "I'm gonna fail, won't I?". Those willing to rise up to the challenge can say "This sounds like it will be a very tough exam, what do you think I can do to improve my odds?".
The disadvantage is that some people may feel that full, unconditional confidence in a student's potential (even in spite of the facts) is necessary for optimal learning outcome. If you subscribe to this notion, you are effectively doing a disservice to the student, by not giving them the most optimistic version (and instead giving a sober, realistic version). The decision here is *whether* you subscribe to it, which is for you to resolve.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_10: It is not your responsibility to tell them if they are going to pass or not (in your view) unless they ask you explicitly.
Your responsibility is to teach, theirs is to learn. If they don't learn it is their responsibility, if they don't care to figure out how they are doing, it is their responsibility.
Your responsibility is to teach them, help them when they ask, be available, and be honest to them (when asked a question).
If they are disrupting the class it is your responsibility to tell them to stop, but you are not responsible to tell each and every student if they will pass or not, just to do your best so they can understand the material.
You could, if you have already given them partial grades, make a general statement such as "whoever has a grade so far of less than xxx better work harder or he/she may fail the exam", but make it general, not personal.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_11: Never underestimate the power of motivation, goal setting, and breaking a task down into "bite sized" chunks.
The word "educate" comes from Latin "e" and "ducare" - "[to draw out that which lies within](https://educarenow.wordpress.com/)". As a teacher, you may think it is your job just to cram knowledge into your students; but as an *educator*, it is your job to "find what lies within the students, and bring it out".
That means that you have to get to know your students and their innate motivations; shape those motivations towards the goal; and then leverage their talents and passion to help them prepare themselves to meet the challenges they will have to overcome along the way.
While giving an honest assessment is an essential element of this, it should be cast in the context of the bigger goal: "at the rate you are studying, you will only cover half the modules needed to pass the exam" is an objective statement, and the student who hears that feedback can decide "work harder", "plan to take the exam next year", or "drop out". On the other hand, "you will fail" is not objective, and does not permit the student to make adjustments that will get them closer to (your or their definition of) success.
I moved to a different country when I was 17; the school I attended had a special course to prepare for the very tough entrance exam of the most prestigious universities. I was told that, as a foreigner with little English, my chances were extremely slim - almost no pupil of that school had ever passed the exam, even after being "in the right syllabus all their life", and having English as a first language. But the way they phrased it, it became a positive challenge to try where others had failed. Nobody stopped me from studying harder than I had ever done - and I passed.
Realism is good - but focus on bringing out the best in your students. They will amaze you.
Upvotes: 0
|
2016/03/02
| 564
| 2,121
|
<issue_start>username_0: Is there any research/study/survey that looked at how much publishers charge authors if they want to make their books (textbooks or research books) open access?
I am most interested in the field of computer science, and English-speaking venues, but interested in other field and languages as well.<issue_comment>username_1: [*The Costs of Publishing Monographs: Toward a Transparent Methodology*](http://www.sr.ithaka.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/SR_Report_Costs_Publishing_Monographs020516.pdf) was published earlier this year. It looks at the actual costs to publish rather than charges made by the publisher, but given the very limited size of the OA monograph market at the moment, this may actually be more useful. Given the relative rarity of OA monographs from mainstream publishers, it's likely that many are specifically negotiated on a case-by-case basis and general numbers are not available.
In terms of published charges, Ubiquity offer some indicative figures [here](http://www.ubiquitypress.com/site/publish/), with the caveat that they will vary in practice based on length and other issues. These are probably at the low end of the market, and a traditional publisher is likely to charge more. There are more indicative figures in [this report](http://oapen-uk.jiscebooks.org/files/2015/07/Guide-to-open-access-monograph-publishing-for-researchers-final.pdf) from OAPEN, ranging from under £3000 (Ubiquity) to above £10,000 (Palgrave).
As noted in the comments above, this will vary a lot by discipline and by the type of book - a scientific textbook and a humanities monograph are very different things with different markets, and this will influence what publishers are willing to arrange.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: For [SpringerOpen](http://www.springeropen.com/) to publish an open access book, author fees vary according to page length, where 525 words = 1 page, and costs start about €7,000.
One option to publish a book for free would be to self-publish it using the open-source, free [Open Monograph Press](https://pkp.sfu.ca/omp/) software.
Upvotes: 2
|
2016/03/02
| 1,446
| 6,162
|
<issue_start>username_0: A relatively old professor from another institute "forwarded" to me, using his work email, a work-related message he had received on his Gmail account.
However, he actually saved the entire Gmail webpage and attached it. A saved Gmail webpage may contain personal information and should not be shared with others.
He is based in a distant city and I didn't meet him in person (yet), but we work remotely on the same project.
Should I care and tell him about this bad security practice? How?<issue_comment>username_1: If this was a one-time thing and you don't know this person very well, I would avoid bringing it up.
Once you know this person fairly well or communicate with them on a semi-regular basis, then sure, in your next email to the person just put as a note at the end of the email that they might be cautious about including the entire webpage.
The concern is that it might be off-putting to someone if they don't know you well and perhaps this professor actually verified that no personal info was included.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: If you have to send him an email in reply anyway, I would.
Just write your email, and then as a PS something like "Maybe it would be better not to forward a saved Gmail page, since it might contain private information."
That way you have mentioned it, and if the professor is interested in improving his security, he could ask you what would be a better way. Otherwise he could just ignore it.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: I think it is first necessary to evaluate the actual risks involved in such practice. Forwarding an entire email web-page is indeed a bad habit in terms of security, but it does not necessarily point to specific vulnerabilities (like remote code execution, injection-based attacks...) with a clear risk assessment.
My point from the above is, given the circumstances, it's hard to articulate the exact risks caused by this incident. If this is an isolated incident, especially if you don't have a relatively close relationship with this professor, I would strongly discourage you from bringing it up. Keep in mind that it's hard to express the right degree of sympathy through an e-mail, and therefore, you might come across as picky, arrogant or even rude. (This is especially true if you're emailing someone who isn't familiar with you personally)
**EDIT:** I also agree with @username_1's answer, especially the last part: "he might have actually verified that no personal info was included"
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: You shouldn't do this, because there's no point in doing so. If this person isn't tech savvy enough to be able to properly forward an email, they're certainly not going to be able to understand a subtle security risk like this one. As long as he's not doing something egregious (like sending you his password in plain-text), don't worry about it and just be glad that he didn't print out the email and snail-mail it to you.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_5: I think that there is no need to worry about protection risks because google gmail solved this problem already. And HTML page contains text content + tags + css + js etc. Important information is located in browser cookies which is impossible to be sent to each other by `save page`. The most important user session information located in cookies but not in HTML.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_6: I concur with username_2. Writing a email (or even giving a call) centered around the potential security risk might have negative impact on your relation. Or might not, but who can tell?
Some professors really hate when it when they got "taught" something by a student.
Or you may get a response like "Why are you hacking me?", after presenting results of an (unasked for) security risk assessment.
Adding a harmless side note ("PS") to a conversation dealing with something else entirely might be more palatable.
Still, there's a risk that a recipient misunderstands your message or motive, even when the wording is, in theory, totally clear. Especially when the recipient believes that he indeed has some deficiencies in that area you discuss. He might even consider it as a hidden insult. Write your mail, think about it for a day or two, then send it. Or not.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_7: I don't think you're in position to educate people you don't know very well about computer security. So, **unless the professor actually shared some information he shouldn't have**, you shouldn't express your concerns.
If the Gmail page you have received does contain sensitive information, then it's entirely appropriate to give him a fair warning. In that case, I would also reassure the sender that I have deleted the sensitive part and didn't transfer it to anyone else, if that is the case. And of course, if there's a password or pin code in plain sight, I would advice him to change it ASAP.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_8: The best gift to a person is to let them know about their faults, but give it to them in the same way that you give gifts to people. You wrap it up in a gift wrap, you don't just say " Hey you! You are very uneducated with the way you are sending mail" instead you use the best and most humble worlds. Most of the times when you do such people are pleased with it.
Don't you ever remember when you had some coffee on your face from the morning and no one told you till you got home! The same day you walked into 3 different meetings that day, You would want to bang your head on the wall that why didn't someone tell me!!!?!???:|
People would love to know about their faults so they could improve theirselves all the time. Unless if the person is very childish.
I would go indirect and say: " ...btw How are you avoiding the security risk when doing such..."
Either **he** would admit that he doesn't know anything and would just ask you more about it. [ The whole point is for you to just ask a question, and let him conclude his mistake]
Or he would say that he knows what he's doing.
Obviously your tone in the moment that you say such should be be very humble.
Upvotes: 1
|
2016/03/02
| 182
| 737
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am the second author of three, and the only one who does not have an active membership. I have little need for the other services provided by IEEE, as I already have access to XPLORE through my work.<issue_comment>username_1: Nope, and I doubt anyone would notice or care.
Everyone can be a member, all it takes is a bit of money.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: As mentioned, I doubt anyone cares, except if you or co-authors are Fellows, then it'll carry some weight. It might convey the following message: the paper has been vetted and informally approved by esteemed member(s) of the IEEE and therefore all reviewers+editor should accept the paper with a grain of salt.
Upvotes: -1
|
2016/03/02
| 929
| 4,107
|
<issue_start>username_0: My mathematics department (a research-oriented department at a non-top school in the United States) has recently made a postdoctoral offer to a strong candidate, and I very much hope the candidate comes.
I have learned that the offer doesn't include any money for travel. Since his eventual success on the job market would presumably depend on how widely his work is known (among other factors), I believe that he (and essentially any other postdoc) should travel extensively to conferences. At least, he should have the opportunity to do so.
Some conferences have funding for attendees, but many don't. Unfortunately, none of us have much grant money we could spare for this purpose, and in any case my feeling is that this should come from my university.
Is it typical that postdoctoral offers are made without any travel funding? And if yes, is it typical that candidates are able to successfully negotiate for some funding?<issue_comment>username_1: None of my postdoctoral positions had travel funding in them, nor have I heard of anyone getting such funding. There are several factors to mitigate this, not all of which may be available in all situations.
* The postdoc can learn how to apply for grants and other things, which can provide the necessary funds for travel or other research needs.
* If he is invited to give talks, then the inviting institution/department/professor will often cover travel expenses and offer a per diem.
* He is likely coming there to research with specific people. These people, being experienced, established professors who can attract promising postdocs, likely have grant money of their own, some of which could be allocated to the postdoc's travel costs. This is often what pays for the previous point: professors can often use grant funds to cover the costs to bring in speakers.
* Exceptional postdoc candidates are likely to be offered exceptional postdoc positions, with fancy names like The <NAME> Postdoctoral Fellowship in Dynamical Systems. These often come with bigger paychecks, making it easier for the postdoc to afford such outside costs.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: My postdoc in math at a top-ranked U.S. school did not come with any dedicated travel funding. Some amount of funding was still available through the department, but not much - perhaps one domestic trip per year. This was not advertised as part of the job, it was just something that the department chair could arrange.
The postdoc was not funded by a grant, nor was it one of the "premier" postdocs at the school, which was large enough to have several "levels" of research-oriented postdocs.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: I did two postdocs (in math), and I had some travel money with both of them. One was an NSF postdoc at Columbia. I do not recall if the NSF provided travel money then, though as mentioned in the comments they currently do. In any case, the department provided some travel money to postdocs. The other was in Japan funded by the JSPS which had explicit travel money attached, though it was barely enough for a single conference. Most conferences I wanted to attend as a postdoc provided funding so I don't think I used most of my travel money from Columbia.
The department where I am now (a large state research university in the US, but not a "top department") provides some travel money for our postdocs (and faculty and grad students), which we can also supplement from our own grants. I'm not aware of any conventions that say the department should or should not provide travel money, though I don't think it's typical that travel money is made as a part of an offer.
If your department normally provides some travel money to faculty, it seems reasonable to provide some to postdocs as well (maybe a smaller amount, or under certain conditions). I think it's a reasonable thing for a candidate to ask about before making a decision, but I wouldn't try to negotiate for it to be put into the formal offer (which is usually made by the university/college rather than the department anyway).
Upvotes: 2
|
2016/03/02
| 691
| 2,887
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am a graduate student in Computer Science (in the U.S). I did my undergraduate study in India.
My fundamentals in Math and CS importantly are shaky. I often feel insecure in class where my peers seem to understand in depth about fundamentals that I have been taught differently (now I think about it -- mediocre standard at best).
I have been working my way through math using Khan academy. For CS I study them as and when needed. But I still feel a major gap in my approach and would like to get some suggestions on this.<issue_comment>username_1: That you realize this is good, but the appropriate approach depends on lots of individual factors. The people who are likely to be able to give you the best advice are your professors/advisor. They probably know best where you are at and what is most important for you to succeed in their program. Also, informing them that you are aware of your deficiencies and are trying to make up for them should improve their opinions of you, and also make them more willing to help you succeed in the program.
That said, here are some things that can help: start tutoring or TAing for lower level math/CS classes (I first really understood eigenvectors when I was tutoring other students in linear algebra), going through texts on your own (exercises are the most important!), taking/sitting in on undergrad classes (some of our grad students with weak backgrounds do this), typing up your own notes on this fundamental material, finding people (students or faculty) you can ask specific questions.
Also: read up on the impostor syndrome (on [wiki-p](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impostor_syndrome) and [here](https://academia.stackexchange.com/search?q=impostor%20syndrome), say). You may have it.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Take the relevant (even low-level) courses to fill out your knowledge is probably best. You might consider asking the teacher to attend classes without grading, or ask them to suggest material for self-study and self-assessment.
There are lots of freely available lecture notes, even classes with complete homework and exams (sometimes over several years) and often complete solutions.
One thing I found out the hard way about self study is that (as far as viable) just-in-time learning is best. Seeing where you will apply the material helps with motivation, avoids getting lost in unproductive side branches, and "hands-on" learning is more fruitful. Besides, "learn this because I might need it" can be a mistake (it is never used), happens too soon (when the use comes around, you have all but forgotten about it), or (even worse) a better technique comes by, and you'll have to learn that on-the-job anyway.
Yes, this will take time. Perhaps even lots of it. But as I tell my students, better leave late with a degree than soon with nothing.
Upvotes: 2
|
2016/03/02
| 521
| 2,316
|
<issue_start>username_0: I'm a student at a university of around 20,000 students (using the semester system, just to be clear) and it's currently summer/fall registration planning time, a time for me which is more stressful than any of my classes, with all of the various requirements that must be met, especially since I must fit in gened, major, and honors courses in my schedules.
As hard/stressful as it is for me, it must be an absolute nightmare for the university. It's not a large enough school that they can just offer 20 slots of a specific course (this happens, but only for nearly universal courses like comp I), and the majority of courses required for my major are offered once per year, in one section only.
How on Earth do schools deal with the logistical nightmare that must be planning hundreds of courses while avoiding conflicts which would make it impossible to meet requirements on time and making sure enough slots for each course are open?<issue_comment>username_1: Typically universities use commercial databases such as Banner. Sometimes the database is home-built. There are also lots of committee meetings to plan these things out. Sometimes errors or compromises are made.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: At my institution, this planning is done separately by each department, which reduces the number of courses from "hundreds" to "dozens".
In my department, it's done by hand, by the chair and a couple other experienced faculty members, with the aid of some spreadsheets. They are familiar with the requirements of the degree programs offered within the department, and some of the most common conflicts with other departments. (For example, calculus is taken by many first-year physics majors, so we try not to schedule it at the same time as the intro physics lab.)
Over time, various courses have settled into "traditional" time slots which are known to work reasonably well together, so we use caution when deviating from tradition.
This does mean that students with more unusual programs (double majors, etc) may find conflicts between required courses which can be difficult or impossible to resolve. These have to be handled case-by-case; in some cases the department may waive or modify requirements that can't reasonably be satisfied.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]
|
2016/03/02
| 566
| 2,372
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am an undergraduate interested in applying for graduate school in a physical sciences program. I have a good relationship with a few of my professors (it's a very small department). I would like to ask if they would be willing to write a letter of recommendation for my application.
There is one professor who I respect greatly and who has told me in the past that he would be willing to write a glowing letter. He has a great academic reputation; he publishes the most out of all the professors in the small department and in (what I have heard) are top journals in his field.
The trouble is that he has a poor non-academic reputation. For instance, a quick Google of his name will yield a page full of news articles regarding his troubles with the law. These are the top results from the search.
Would a poor public reputation like this have a negative impact on the effectiveness of the reference? In theory, I know it shouldn't. Yet I am aware that real life hardly ever works as 'in theory'.
EDIT: the "troubles with the law" involve an impaired driving conviction. For context, this is in North America.<issue_comment>username_1: I can't say I have ever checked up on an applicant's recommender in quite a few years of reading applications.
I suppose if this person is a byword within the profession for poor behavior or thoughtlessness, that could be a strike against you. That the apparent issue is with mind-altering substances does set off some faint alarms in the back of my head; it might be worth checking (quietly) with others in the field to see if this person has a poor reputation (e.g. at conferences).
But on the whole, I don't think this is likely to cause you a problem.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: To me, the key question seems to be whether the *type* of misbehavior is something that is likely to be seen as impinging on their judgement as an academic.
For example, if the person was known to have been prosecuted for fraud in a company they ran, that would be quite likely to affect perception of their honesty and judgement in recommendation letters. In the example you give, however, I think that an impaired driving conviction is likely to be viewed as a form of misbehavior largely orthogonal to conduct and judgement as an academic, and therefore not likely to be any problem for you.
Upvotes: 3
|
2016/03/02
| 603
| 2,630
|
<issue_start>username_0: Do I need to name a source (a website for example), which lists grammar rules for a language? I would like to know if this is considered one of these goods, which cannot be owned and thus needs no quotation.
For example a website lists prepositions, which cause a specific casus in a language. If I take those prepositions and list them in a document for that casus, do I then have reference a source, or can I assume this to be something not owned by anyone?
What about example phrases? They're also part of daily language and should not be owned by anyone.
Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with having to quote, but I'd probably prefer inventing my own example phrases and such. I don't lack the creativity.<issue_comment>username_1: A routine list of basic information does not need a citation: for example, you would not need to cite a list of capital cities of US states, nor would you need to cite the source of a simple list of English prepositions. However, if you cited them in order of frequency of use, you would cite the source from which you took that information, since it is likely not to be considered "basic information."
However, citing examples that you have taken from another source is good practice, and something you should probably do. (Again, the exception is something so basic or so short that it can't really be considered plagiarism: for example, you can't really claim plagiarism to not cite "the book is red"; but if you use a hundred such examples from the same source without citing, it gets murkier.)
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: >
> I would like to know if this is considered one of these goods, which cannot be owned and thus needs no quotation.
>
>
>
Academic citation isn't about ownership. It's not about copyright. It's not about intellectual property. It's about allowing the reader to know where you got your ideas. It's about recognizing other people for their work.
In many cases different people might describe the grammar of a language a bit differently. They might even describe different dialects of the same language. Different dialects of the language might treat the same prepositions as treating a different casus.
<NAME> wrote "The Cognitive Perspective on the Polysemy of the English Spatial Preposition *Over*" – a whole book over a single preposition and what it does in different cases.
If you cite a specific source for your list then a reader can understand of why your list looks the way it does. If the care they can go to the original source to understand how the list got created.
Upvotes: 3
|
2016/03/03
| 397
| 1,936
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am researching on spinlock synchronization method used in parallel applications. Unfortunately most of the standard benchmarks in the parallel computing area use another type of synchronization method called mutex locks. I am thinking to replace mutex locks in these benchmarks with spinlocks and get the results? Will the results be still considered by the scientific community if I inform the modifications done to the benchmarks? Will that be a valid claim? Any pointer in this matter is highly appreciated.<issue_comment>username_1: You can always *propose* a new benchmark and demonstrate that it measures what you want. Once you've done that, you can show how your new thing compares. The scientific is not guaranteed to care, but if your methodology is good, it may catch on.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: As always when using code you do not own, you need to check the licensing terms for the benchmark. Do they prohibit what you want to do?
Assuming that is OK, I would distinguish two uses of a benchmark:
1. Report and publish results as results of the benchmark. That should only be done if you have conformed exactly to all relevant requirements, which will probably prohibit the type of change you want to make.
2. Publish a paper in which you compare and contrast the standard form of the benchmark with your spin-lock variation. You could treat the spin-lock version as a new benchmark based on the standard one, documenting your changes.
I know I would be interested in the results. If the number of threads the hardware can run simultaneously is at least as high as the number of application threads, do we need all the overhead to let a process sleep while waiting rather than just spinning? This sort of question becomes more interesting as hardware improvement becomes more a matter of adding hardware threads than of making each thread run faster.
Upvotes: 2 [selected_answer]
|
2016/03/03
| 900
| 3,554
|
<issue_start>username_0: I'm not sure whether this is such a great question, and I'm not looking at illegal ways, but is there any way to obtain textbooks for free (legally)?
Answers very much appreciated.<issue_comment>username_1: Here are a few ways that you should look into:
* Check your university library
* If your library doesn't have it, ask them about doing a interlibrary loan
* Talk to your professor. They can be insightful and understanding about these things so they might be able to lend you a copy.
* Search online for ebook/PDF versions. I found that an old edition of a statistics book was available on the author's website for free.
If you are out of options with obtaining it for free then you can usually find a used copy at your book store or online for cheaper.
Books certainly can be pricey, so in the future it helps if you factor these costs in when you apply for student loans/scholarships.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Search around. There are initiatives distributing free (even open source) textbooks, like [Free Tech Books](http://freetechbooks.com), there are many others. Ask friendly Google.
Some people arranged with their publisher to be able to distribute their books for free, like Anderson's ["Security Engineering"](http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/book.html), I know of several others. (Yes, I own that book in paper too. Two editions, even. Worth every penny.) Sometimes you'll find that the book went out of print, and the author now distributes the last edition in electronic form.
Other than that, looking around you'll find (more or less) complete lecture notes. I'm partial to [<NAME>'s](http://rutherglen.science.mq.edu.au/~maths/notes/wchen/contents.html) notes on undergraduate mathematics, but there are many others. Quality (and completeness) obviously varies enormously, and sometimes you'll only find incomplete, short documents. Best of all is that rummaging around in the webpages for classes you'll often find homework and exams, likely with solutions.
If there is a (at least vaguely related) SE site, chances are that somebody already asked for free texts, search (or ask) there too.
For any more focused answers, you'll have to ask about precise contents.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: From the point of view of teaching staff: sure there are, I get them all the time.
If you are the person in charge of a university course, you can often ask the publishers for an **instructor's (or evaluation) copy**.
Some of them will only give you (time-limited) online access, some will ask you to send the book back if you don't adopt the book officially in your syllabus, but most of the times it's a free copy for good. Sometimes I even had sales reps come to my office, or send new editions to me unsolicited.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: **Move to Switzerland.** It is [legal](http://www.ip-watch.org/2014/08/06/switzerland-continues-work-on-changes-to-online-copyright-rules/) up there in the middle of the Alps to download copyrighted material for private use. The definition of "private use" includes (according to the linked article) "any personal use of a work or use within a circle of persons closely connected to each other, such as relatives or friends" and "any use of a work by a teacher and his class for educational purposes".
It is still illegal to share copyrighted material using Bittorrent, because it works in a peculiar way: it does not simply download the files, but also *uploads* parts of it for other users of the network.
Upvotes: 2
|
2016/03/03
| 937
| 3,992
|
<issue_start>username_0: As the title suggests, it's not a usual practice but should one do it? All I know that one can study for an exam and simply write the answers needed in order to succeed, no one tells us to include the names of authors of the ideas we memorized to write (except rarely).<issue_comment>username_1: Proper citation? No. I couldn't even give you a citation of one of my own papers from musername_3.
Should you be able to recall a name of some prominent figure that is relevant to your exam? Probably, but that depends on the type of material your professor expects to learn. I've taken plenty of exams like this.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: In most technical university exams, there is no expectation of citations since the concepts are typically "textbook-level" material and thus established as part of the "common knowledge" of a subject. Such information is rarely cited in the scientific literature, as it taken to be part of the shared background knowledge that has been so accepted as to no longer require explicit crediting. For example, Newton is almost never cited when discussing basic physics.
In a literature or similar humanities course, on the other hand, the subject of an exam may explicitly be discussion and analysis of ideas presented by others. In this case, one would be typically be expected to at least informally cite the people whose ideas are being discussed, e.g.:
>
> Rawls' theory of justice, while more sophisticated than the simple utilitarianism of Locke, is considerably more difficult to comprehend"
>
>
>
Full formal citation, however, is typically both impractical and not useful within the scope of an exam.
Where business courses fall on this spectrum will depend on the course: when discussing case studies, I would expect informal citation to be appropriate, whereas an operational research and statistics course would more likely fall into the technical end of the spectrum where there are no citations.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: Perhaps we should consider that the exam is just a piece of a larger work - the course itself - which already has a reference section: the syllabus.
If during the exam you feel compelled to use material from outside the assigned reading of the course, then you should cite it in such a way that the marker can easily find it.
Or perhaps you should confine yourself to the assigned reading.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_4: Building on username_2's excellent answer, let's consider that citation has two *purposes*:
* Let the reader know what ideas and findings are your own original contributions.
* Inform readers where they can find the stuff that doesn't belong to you.
As others have mentioned here, #2 is practically infeasible in a standard exam venue, at least to the standard of most academic writing. Do you have a photographic musername_3 of every article and book you have read, including page numbers and full bibliographic data (I think Smith and Johnson found that x > 3 when p < 5, but was that <NAME> and <NAME>, or <NAME> and <NAME>? Or maybe it was <NAME> and <NAME>? Was this in the May issue or the April issue?)? What remains, then is to *inform your readers that you are basing part of your answer on someone else's work*, quite possibly in the form of a *disclaimer*. So, you could say something like:
>
> According to a study in the late 1970's, quantum hypotunneling was found to have a statistically significant benefit in trimming the positive ion matrix when the average manifold area under the curve is finite. As I have shown above (using Jackson's Stepwise Theorem) that this area with respect to the problem at hand is, in fact, finite, we can conclude that quantum hypotunneling is likely an effective solution. McFielding's theory that the positive ion matrix is a purely sociopolitical construct and ineffective for practical engineering work does not apply for the following reasons....
>
>
>
Upvotes: 1
|
2016/03/03
| 3,144
| 12,601
|
<issue_start>username_0: I hear a lot of people brag or complain about how many hours they have to work for their PhD. Is this the norm? And if so is this really a wise choice to make? Do students really 'work' during this period of time (as would be expected in a corporate office), or do many also spend their time goofing around?
I've read that it's only possible to do 4 hours of deeply creative work everyday. Since energy often depletes over the day, I've personally found that outside of a small number of hours in a day, the rest of my time is spent doing mechanical tasks or straining myself in vain to think about a problem.<issue_comment>username_1: The answer is **no**.
There are a lot of factors in play. With my work, a lot of it is creative so it is hard to say when I am working or not.
Do people expect students to work that many hours? Maybe, but it isn't healthy (and maybe not legal).
Do people really work the entire time they are at work? Probably not. Your productivity certainly goes down the longer you work. Whether people goof around or not isn't specific to Academia and can happen anywhere (I don't find goofing around to be a negative thing).
I too have read several studies about the limited number of hours that people have for mentally demanding tasks. In fact, I read a study about programmers that said they were lucky to get 1-2 hours of solid work done in a day. This info can help you organize your day so that you work on difficult tasks in the morning and then mechanical tasks in the afternoon. Also, studies have shown that taking breaks and going on [walks](http://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/xlm-a0036577.pdf) can help improve your productivity.
There isn't a cookie cutter answer for everyone. It depends on yourself, the type of work, your advisor, and your coworkers.
Upvotes: 8 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: My experiences suggest the answer is: **possibly**. Or perhaps more accurately **sometimes**.
A lot depends on the field you're in. I studied for a PhD in life science, where a lot of time at the lab bench was required. This is skilled work, but it's not "creative" nor does it involve much mental effort. So it's certainly possible to be productive at it for longer than four hour stretches.
In addition I often had to go in at the weekends to observe the results of my experiments. Cells don't grow to a useful 9-5 weekday schedule, unfortunately! I imagine other areas of science will impose similar time pressures.
I treated my PhD as though it were a job. Although I did work longer than 8 hours a day and I did work weekends when necessary, I viewed this as an annoying imposition and tried to minimize it. Other students and postdocs in the lab did longer hours and were more productive.
When it came time to write up my thesis, I discovred I simply did not have enough material to make it worthwhile. Ultimately I was forced to apply for a lesser research degree (an MPhil) and when it came to the crunch, I was not even able to obtain that with the evidence I'd gathered. Part of this is unquestionably down to lack of bench-hours.
I cannot speak about non-practical subjects, but even there I would imagine the amount of reading, learning and documentary research required would be significant, and would not involve creative mental effort. But my experience suggests that while ten hours a day, seven days a week is likely excessive, a successful research degree does involve time and effort well beyond that required for a regular highly-skilled job.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: Most people who brag about how many hours they work are inefficient. Because they are inefficient, they feel a *need* to point out how many hours they work - rather than pointing to the quality of work. Keep this in mind.
Some PhD programs will allow you to be more isolated from non-PhD related work than others. If you have to teach, for example, that might take a considerable portion of your week - preparation, class, grading, etc. This might cause you to *have* to work many more hours if you want to make progress on your dissertation than someone who does not have to teach.
If you are unlucky and have your "paid research" different than your dissertation research the same thing can happen - you have to split your time into different buckets. The quality of your advisor and their expectations thus has a big effect here, too.
How quickly you want to graduate can affect this too.
That being said, how you work affects how efficient you are.
* Quality of your working hours
+ Sitting at a desk for 12 hours straight is most often bad.
+ Working 12 hours, taking 10 minute exercise breaks every hour? Much less bad.
* How deliberately you work
+ Do you sit aimlessly without tasks?
+ Do you have a system to keep track of what you need to do?
+ Do you manage your energy (doing high energy tasks when you have energy, low energy when you don't) or do you just blindly do tasks?
* Do you know when to call it quits -- or keep going?
+ If you have a high energy task you are doing great at, do you keep that momentum going?
+ Conversely if you feel burned out, do you just take a break? Or keep going anyways?
* When do you work?
+ Some people rock 5am-7am. Some people rock 1am-3am. Some people are afternoon people (my prime time is about 4-6pm - I can accomplish insane amounts in this time compared to the rest of the day). Figure out when your times are.
* Do you have distractions?
+ An hour with no distractions during writing might be better than 4 with continuous interruptions.
* Read [this article](http://www.paulgraham.com/makersschedule.html) and apply it ruthlessly to your life. You are a maker, your advisor is *probably* a manager.
You will likely find that the better you work, the less you have to work. But simultaneously realize the more you *could* work (so if your goal is more X then it's great).
The how, when, and what for when we work dramatically affects our ability to work tons but also whether or not we have to.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_4: It really should not be the norm. Like Austin already pointed out, there is no universal answer to that.
When I did my PhD (in computational chemistry), I also had a commitment to look after students as a teaching assistant. This was certainly my main work during the semester and not a lot of research could be done while simultaneously preparing the next day with the students, grading protocols, discussing related things with the supervisor.
When you are finally at the point where you can do the research for your PhD, you may as well do not consider it as work any more. There are plenty of ways, how you can boost your own productivity. If the environment is right, co-workers, supervisors, friends, equipment, then you should be able to find your way of getting the most out of it.
I personally prefer staying long at my workplace, while goofing around (primarily on the network). I like the quieter hours during the evening, where I can concentrate better. But that is certainly my own choice, so I might end up staying longer than 10 hours, but I would neither complain nor brag about it.
In any case, it should not be a requirement and it is certainly different for any individual.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: I would like to present how I think about my productivity as a PhD (note: it's Computer Science & Political Science). It might help getting an understanding about the hours and numbers.
**My work is divided into "Thinking" and into "Doing".**
**"Doing"** is the stuff that you can work on for 8 hours per day. Dull research assistant jobs involving filling out excel sheets, having to write the literature review, reading literature for taking notes and getting background, office hours, teaching and preparing teaching. Writing emails, applications, funding requests, finishing off papers, going to conferences. "Doing" is the stuff that I can plan and that usually has an end in sight.
**"Thinking"** is the hard work of which might not happen on a daily basis at all. It involves actually sketching out and developing my models and my hypothesis, reading difficult literature with challenging methods/theory that is crucial to my own work, thinking about how to convert theory into a computer program. "Thinking" is the stuff that happens when I read a completely unrelated book, when I am cooking, in the shower or on the train. I can plan to try, but I cannot plan to succeed. I cannot say "On Thursday I will have my theoretical argument". I can say "On Thursday I will work on my argument doing x and y. No promises".
It is the second category that makes it so difficult to break down a PhD into simple numbers. Sometimes it takes a day to make huge progress, other times (most of the time) you grind on a seemingly simple problem for weeks, even months.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_6: Just to add to what is around:
Dr <NAME>, famous speaker and researcher in "high performance psychology", has a very interesting course that is given to PhD students around the world, "The Seven Secrets of Highly Successful Research Student", with research that has been published in [Nature](http://www.nature.com/search?article_type=comments-and-opinion&order=relevance&q=Hugh%20Kearns).
I was lucky enough to have the chance to go to this workshop, and one of the secrets that all successful PhD student share is "**Treat it like a job**".
He mentioned (as conclusions of his research), that if you do a PhD and work (but really work, not procrastinate) 8h a day, 5 days a week, thats enough to have a successful PhD.
So the answer is no! Just, treat it like a job.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_7: I'd be careful with social comparison. While it can be helpful to see how other fare, the work time alone is a really bad measure for a couple of reasons:
* often based on subjective impressions (not, e.g., time studies with automated measuring)
* often no differentiation between "being there" and "actively working"
* ignores discipline
* ignores difficulty of topic
* ignores state of the PhD thesis (usually there are ups and downs)
* ignores time to think (incubation phase, time where you do something else)
* claims are sometimes used for ... [strategic reasons](http://dilbert.com/strip/2000-06-27)
* ignores efficiency of the work ("Don't count the days, make the days count.")
* some work is difficult to classify -- could be PhD work or not (e.g., teaching, doing stuff your adviser wants you to do that might or might not be relevant to your work)
* some PhD students are exploited to do irrelevant work (costing them time to do their PhD thesis)
* etc. pp.
In short, the PhD is not a prison sentence (although at times it might feel like it). Time doesn't cut it.
Instead, I would recommend to focus on what is needed to do a successful PhD (look at those PhDs that came before you, esp. those in the same department/with same adviser). Find out what people need to be successful in your discipline (likely: publications, publications, publications). Much more useful than time alone.
P.S.: Regarding creative work, yes, you need ideas, lots of them. But that's why you need time off work. And not all work is creative -- usually there is a lot of routine work involved.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_8: Ideally, a PhD student should work 0 hours a day. If you do the work you love, you won't work a day in your life.
Of course, most people have to overcome tough obstacles in the beginning of their scientific careers, but it is what you make out of it. I personally enjoyed the hardships because I learned a lot from every difficult problem I had to solve. I spent almost every hour I was awake and sometimes even dreamed at night thinking about my research, but not because I wanted to get it over with or get a degree to show off or even start making real money quicker. I just wanted to know how things work, to know the truth.
But even though you might not feel like you are working, others will. Friends and family will get much less of you when you spend weeks in the lab or in front of computer.
I've seen peers for whom PhD program was a toil. Most of them dropped out. They didn't seem to be spending too much time working on it either. I guess the key is what everyone says: pick the right topic. If you do something you are passionate about, the time will fly and you will wish it would just freeze so you can keep working on what you do forever until you find what you are looking for.
Upvotes: 2
|
2016/03/03
| 1,312
| 5,649
|
<issue_start>username_0: I know that as a student with dyslexia you get all kinds of benefits such as extra time for work, exams, access or licenses to spell checkers, etc. (Never used or been offered any, not that I needed it.) However, I cam imagine that by the time you graduate you would be expected to have a competence level of at least a certain degree. I myself am currently graduating for a bachelor's degree in Business IT. While the focus here mainly lies in IT, I have been told that my use of language is seriously sub-par for the degree despite knowing of my dyslexia.
Now, I have been told that my work is well above average (average of 8/10) but that due to my use of language, the grade doesn't reflect the work. Having teachers fail me fully based on language has become quite common for me. In particular my use of the Dutch language; I should note English is my second language.
Just to clarify, the spelling is not the problem, the way I build up my sentences is (think of starwars-yoda). While the text can be understood, it's not something you can breeze through with a martini like some other papers.
So as the final question here: How should students with dyslexia be handled? How would one get them to improve on their language? Should we even need to help them improve their language? Other than just redirecting them to some dyslexia institute. And, how should their work be looked at?
Edit:
To clarify, I'm interested into how both students and teachers alike could approach this. Not just myself personally.<issue_comment>username_1: Universities typically invest a lot of time developing policies for disabilities, but they aren't always communicated well to staff and students. You should check that your marks and feedback are in accordance with your university's own policy, as your teachers may not be aware of it.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: Most universities have a disability support office. They have staff who are trained to help students with dyslexia, which is not rare. You should go and seek their help. In the United States, the university would be obligated to help by law.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: The disabilities office at my Univ (large state univ in the U.S.) strongly advises that instructors not attempt to improvise accommodations for students with disabilities, whether self-declared or documented through the disabilities office. Their point is that we (outside the disabilities office) are not at all experts in such things, in the first place. Rather, the disabilities office will discuss with faculty the possible sensible accommodations, and in effect negotiate something. Faculty should not "get creative" and take initiative.
A significant point is that, although the circumstances or environment or timing or... for exams can accommodate, there is apparently never any notion that the grading rubrics should accommodate. That is, it's absolutely not that lower standards are applied to the output, but that the situation in which the output is produced can be modified. Indeed, it is not that we expect less in such cases, after all!
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_4: I would like to add to the existing answers, that besides the disabilities office it good to have some fellow students willing to help.
The student affected by dyslexia could benefit from a second pair of eyes checking their text and improving before submitting. Perhaps it would also help for future writing if you get to know how other people word or structure sentences. It would certainly make sure that everything that is submitted fits the quality standards.
I would not expect too much of teachers, professors or TAs. Often they will not be aware of the situation the student is facing. So it would help to communicate the problem not just through the disabilities office but in person.
IMHO if the information and arguments that you provide in your work are accurate and scientifically sound and it is only for course work, then the dyslexia should not be affecting your grade.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_5: For the student perspective, I would put forward that a learning disability will not stop you from becoming an expert in something you are currently bad at. The notion that if you cannot spell or write at 17, you will never publish a best-selling book is just not true. Speaking from experience as someone who's parents were told "he will never go to university", but is now about to submit his PhD thesis, you can literally learn anything if you spend enough time on it.
And let's be honest, you can sugar-coat it as much as you like at school, but out of academia you ***will*** be penalised for being deficient in some area. The best thing you can do is work on it to bring whatever it is that you are not so good at up to par. For example, I was terrible at spelling, my handwriting was not legible even to myself, and my sentences were confusing. I suffered a lot in exams as a result, particularly the handwriting since no one ever asks you for clarification on a word.
However, after typing into a computer for every day of my life since then, and learning from the autocorrects by manually re-typing them, my spelling is near-perfect, and my sentence structure - well, i'm not going to be writing any novels any time soon, but it is ok. My handwriting still sucks though. In short, the best tools to improve your written communication is website comments, a pen pal you can e-mail, and IRC. If you cannot write in those three scenarios, you will be abused, embarrassed, and ignored, respectively. (and you will learn!)
Upvotes: 2
|
2016/03/03
| 439
| 1,907
|
<issue_start>username_0: I wrote my bachelor thesis but now I saw that from one source I mixed up a term, instead of term that was used I accidentally used a different one. this happened because I translated that from a language. And I saw that I put my quotation marks at the wrong place, I quoted only the last half of a sentence but I accidentally put my quotation marks more at the beginning of my sentence, even tho the beginning was not a direct quote from the source. Can they now accuse me of plagiarism?????<issue_comment>username_1: Technically someone could accuse you of plagiarism, but I don't think that it is likely
It seems you currently submitted your thesis and spotted the mistake. You (only) misplaced your quote in the text and did not do it intentionally.
Perhaps you can still change it. Talk to your advisor and see what you can do.
Judging from the situation I think that it would not make you fail or get you in big trouble. After all you are trying to fix a mistake not covering it up. This of course assumes you are on a friendly footing with your advisor.
For future scientific publication I suggest checking every source and quote before submitting.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: Screwing up a single small quotation in the manner that you describe could not reasonably be considered plagiarism.
While yes, it is true that you did not correctly attribute some words, from your description is appears that the attribution is not so much *missing* as *misplaced*. Moreover, while I cannot entirely judge without reading the actual text, it seems likely that any reasonable reader would likely be able to tell from the context that you are not attempting to claim the quoted text as your own.
It's still good practice to go back and correct, if your institution allows it, but don't worry about being accused of plagiarism over a single typo-level error.
Upvotes: 2
|
2016/03/03
| 801
| 3,296
|
<issue_start>username_0: I have a few papers, one of which is on a topic that, after thorough checking, has not been researched from this particular angle before.
My question is where can I publish this without going through peer reviewed academic journals? I only have my undergrad, and am looking to publish the work to make myself competitive for a PhD finance program. The paper is on real estate finance.
I just need a quick- one, two, you're published! Will finance programs look highly on this, or will they ignore it completely?<issue_comment>username_1: You could put it on your blog, but it will probably be ignored. Part of the point of peer review is to help make sure that what you have published is new knowledge and not just a rehash of old things. So some experts in the field are asked to check. There are other reasons for peer review, but those might not be relevant here. Why do you want to avoid it?
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: >
> "…a quick- one, two, you're published!"
>
>
>
That's not how it works.
What works is:
1. Make it a publicly available preprint (online repositories like
arXiv, a preprint series of some institute, university, maybe via your personal website or blog…).
2. Submit to some peer reviewed journal that complies with papers that are available as preprints (and there are journals that do not cost you anything; you will not get "open access" for free, but in many cases the preprint can stay freely available).
3. Put the paper in your CV and add "submitted for publication".
Then the paper will be visible and checkable and it also shows that you know how scientific publishing works.
Upvotes: 8 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: To the real question behind this, "will such non-peer reviewed papers count towards getting into a PhD program?", the answer is "probably not at all" (I'd be interested in *proof* that you can do worthwhile research that is regarded as such by people knowledgeable in the field, i.e., reviewers), "and it might even be harmful" (it looks an awful lot like trying to game the system, and cheating in any form is frowned upon).
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_4: **I strongly advocate against this solution** (beware, unethical scientific behavior), just answering part of your needs.
There exist low-standard journals (predatory publishers), that publish "anything": they claim they have peer-review, but you just have to pay fees and bam, your paper is published in a (so-called) journal and often open-access.
If you are lucky, your targets won't bother or won't check the quality of the journals. And you will get the payback of your investment in low-standard publishing.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: Publication without peer-review isn't really publication, in any real academic sense. Might as well just print it up and send them a copy, or stick it on a web site.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_6: I recommend github or something similar. It is a format that is more conducive to collaboration.
Graduate committees are not going to consider this to be research, but it does show research interest. This should count for something (though probably not much).
Way more importantly, the sooner you get started collaboratively researching the better.
Upvotes: 1
|
2016/03/03
| 1,764
| 7,306
|
<issue_start>username_0: I have been reading about several cases in which a co-author submitted a paper without the consent of another author (for example in [What to do after I was named as co-author on a paper, without my consent?](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/49573/what-to-do-after-i-was-named-as-co-author-on-a-paper-without-my-consent)).
Consider a situation where one co-author goes on to publish without my consent when I am the first author.
I know the rule for most publishers would **legally** prevent a co-author from doing this as the submitting author requires consent from all authors.
However, it seems that in practice many journals have no practical processes in place to prevent this. The co-author would likely submit to an Elsevier journal. It seems that the Elsevier submission system (EES) would allow them to submit and go through the whole process by themselves without informing me if they wanted to.
Moreover, it seems that for Elsevier journals, only the submitting author is informed of advancements through the process, so that the co-author could indeed go through the whole process without other authors knowing.
If I only find out when it is published, it also seems that I have nothing to do about it. It seems that a retraction would only do more damage to my career as the paper will just stay online with my name and also be tagged as retracted. There seems to be no way if disassociating yourself with a published paper.
I am a bit worried to see that in fact there seems to be no real barriers to a co-author doing something like that.
Note again that I am referring to the Elsevier process, though there may be other publishers with a similar process (and potentially the process is not like this for all Elsevier journals).
To summarize, it seems that, at least for certain journals:
* A co-author could submit a paper without the consent of other authors and the journal would not inform or ask explicitly for consent from other authors.
* The co-author could go through the entire process, even up to publication, without any other author explicitly being asked for confirmation.
* Other authors in such a case would not even be informed of the submission or status changes of the paper
* If eventually the paper is published, the only option unaware authors have is retraction, which is likely to do even more damage to their career than the fact that the paper has been published prematurely.
Am I correct in my assessment? it seems like if this is true for even some journals, then the publishing process for such journals has been designed quite poorly.
I would like to know how, as an author, I could prevent such a thing from occurring to me. How can I prevent a co-author from publishing without my consent?
I am aware that the best means is having a good relationship and communication with the co-author in the first place and I will do the best I can in this regard. But I would like to know what other practical means I have of preventing this.<issue_comment>username_1: Write an email to the editor.
As you said, submission needs formal aproval of all coauthors so if you tell the editor or publisher that this is not the case, the paper will not be published.
Publishers usually assume academics are grown ups and the likelihood of person naming people as co-authors against their will is very low and thus the hassle of sending multiple emails or having everyone involved in the online submission is not worth the trouble. Keep in mind that some articles have up to 1000 authors.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: I have recently received an e-mail from an Elsevier journal, which went like this:
>
> Dear Dr. username_2 [...],
>
>
> You have been listed as a Co-Author of the following submission:
>
>
> Journal: [...]
>
>
> Corresponding Author: [submitting author]
>
>
> Co-Authors: [all co-authors]
>
>
> Title: [the title of our manuscript]
>
>
> If you did not co-author this submission, please contact the
> Corresponding Author of this submission at [e-mail address of the
> submitting author]; do not follow the link below. ...
>
>
>
There is a number of journals which send out similar e-mails (although Elesevier does this to advertise [ORCID](http://orcid.org/) and not to ensure that all co-authors are aware of the process). I agree that the editorial systems of all journals should send out automated messages to all co-authors (and demand a confirmation), but unfortunately that's not the case.
If I didn't agree with this submission, I would of course confront the submitting author as advised, but I would also inform the editor-in-chief ASAP.
There is no way to protect yourself against other people attaching your name to a manuscript without your knowledge. However, something like that is actually quite rare.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: I haven't had any bad co-author experiences like this (thankfully), but have friends who had, and have had some "less than optimal" experiences of a similar nature.
The best single piece of advice I've come up with (for myself) is to address co-authorship expectations early and often. If there are plans to turn an analysis into a paper, talk about who will be on it, the order, the expected roles, etc. the first or second time you meet about it. That gets expectations out in the open. If it's a multi-person project with several papers, talk about that (who will use which variables, co-author which papers, etc.).
Then, stay connected with the group (particularly if you're junior). Check-in with the leads often, do whatever work you can with/for them, etc. So they know you're still interested, active, and available. Sometimes, people fall off papers because they just lose contact with their team. Other times it's for poor performance. So don't hesitate to ask your seniors and peers what else you can do to help (and if what you did was helpful). For example, you might feel like you're being helpful by giving a lot of comments on a draft, but if none of them are useful, and all you do is comment (not edit), you might start to be seen as the person who just drags out the writing process without adding much to it. If you're senior or the money-getter, you can do that and stay on the paper. Not so much if junior or in the middle.
Another thought is to make yourself indispensible. Learn one part of the data, one technique for analysis, one lit area better than everyone on your team. That will make you the go-to person for that element for all papers to come.
I hope this is answering your question. I've been assuming that your co-authors are all working in good faith. That is, that if you get dropped it's because they accidentally dropped you or you really weren't doing your job well. There are malicious people out there, too though. Short of literally holding their hand, there's not much you can do if they wan't to publish without you. If that happens, take it up with the journal immediately. If you're at the same institution, take it up with your department head or other ombudsperson. If you have a close friend on the paper, ask them what happened. You may find out it's an oversite, and they add you to the paper. But it's better not to let these things fester.
Good luck!
Upvotes: 2
|
2016/03/03
| 447
| 1,935
|
<issue_start>username_0: In single blind paper submissions, reviewers can see the author names and affiliations. Suppose two papers are submitted in a conference, one of them is fairly well written and the other one is a low quality paper. Also, one or two authors are common in both the papers. If both the papers go to same reviewers for review and reviewers review the low quality paper first, do they become biased while reviewing the fairly well written paper? Do the chances of selection of the good paper become less?<issue_comment>username_1: In psychology, there is the phenomenon of "anchoring" - a first impression colours the rest of a transaction, whether it is negotiating a price, opinion about personality or other issues.
This indicates that, yes, a bad first paper which captures the attention of the reviewer can have a detrimental effect on how subsequent work is seen. If it is a novel researcher, the memory of the name may not be retained, so, the effect might be milder, but if there are two papers in one conference from the same author, and reviewed by the same people, that effect may indeed hold.
This is a reason why many conferences espouse double-blind reviews (although I am not a friend of this for other reasons which are outside the scope of this question).
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: I would distinguish between two papers in parallel (as in your example) versus a history of bad papers.
If I'm seeing a good paper and a bad paper that share an author, and I don't yet know that author well, then the bad paper probably won't affect my opinion of the good paper too badly (unless we are talking *really* embarrassingly bad). I'll have a mixed opinion, but I'm still forming it.
On the other hand, there are certainly some authors who have built up a history with me such that I see their paper and think: "Oh no, I hope they've learned from last time."
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]
|
2016/03/03
| 597
| 2,581
|
<issue_start>username_0: I'm a student of computer science amd I've written a reseaech review article on Fibonacci Sequence which will be published next month in a math journal. All I wanted to know is how will it help in my academic profile and what affects will it make in my CV?<issue_comment>username_1: Any work of quality adds value to your profile. If I refer to your question, even the act of writing a review paper, if performed by the rules of the art, is something that you can show and discuss about.
Addtionnaly, if the work has received some sound academic validation (published in a reputed journal) of course this adds to your resume. It adds sometimes more if the topic of your work is close to your background, which seems to be the case here.
Beware though: it is not common for an undergraduate to be able to write correctly a review paper, esp. on a well-paved topic such as Fibonacci numbers. So, to be blunt, if your paper was accepted almost without review in a local university journal, it might weight less. Or even negatively.
This really depends on who reads your CV: some will be impressed by the: "published in the Mathematical Journal of Mathematics". Some others may have a look at your paper precisely. If they find that the content is of low level, they might have a more negative opinion than if they were not aware of your paper.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: ANYTHING you do as an undergrad helps your professional trajectory. Even if it's just running subjects in experiences or gathering articles for a professor. You get to add that project to your CV, you get the experience, and you get a letter of recommendation (if you do a good job of course). Any writing you do is seen as as a super plus and writing independently would be super super plus. At your level, people are looking to see that you can work and get things done, not that you have the most original ideas (those help, too, but aren't as essential as they are for your profs).
So if the question is "write a review paper v. some other kind of paper" I'd assert that you get a main effect of either and the difference between the two types isn't much. However, writing a review paper will greatly expand your knowledge of the field, which helps you in a lot of ways, and will show that you have pretty sophisticated understanding of a topic for a UG.
Computer science isn't my field (statistics and social science), but at your level people want to see you can do academic work (at least with an advisor, even better independently).
Good luck! :)
Upvotes: 2
|
2016/03/03
| 1,530
| 6,711
|
<issue_start>username_0: I have been searching and applying for funded PhD positions in Europe specially in Germany for a long time to no avail. I think, what pushes my applications back the most is the lack of proven prior research experience and also academic references. Each time I spend a good time researching the position and reading relevant publications and meticulously preparing my application.
A brief background on me: got a course-based master's degree in CS (3 years ago) with a fairly good GPA (not top of the class, from a competitive university in my home country), familiar with major theoretical subjects (e.g approximation, CG, randomization etc.), 30 years old and +3 years work experience in industry.
I had no master's thesis but instead took more courses than a research-based program. Despite being confident that I can manage a research job well, still couldn't convince a single professor to choose me over other candidates.
I love algorithms and their analysis and I want to grow my knowledge deeper and contribute with my best hard work. But it seems to me that high motivation and a good background and potentials is not worthy and maybe a hard proof of prior research is necessary. Although I had few research activities, but they were no close to a full research which ends up with publications.
I quit a software development job in Germany only for the purpose of finding a PhD position. I find pure development soul sucking and short of the challenges like in CS and too mundane. I know at this point of life it's late (if not too late) to think of these stuff but you should know things are not normal in my country and I had a difficult life during my education, otherwise for sure I could have had a more appealing CV.
Here is the question. Could it be more than a lack of research experience? maybe my age and not looking fresh compared to recent graduates? could it be my works in industry?
For some reasons I feel there is something that depicts me not DESERVING the positions or tagging me as a tech enthusiast with little respect for theory.
I read other similar answers but they didn't quite match. This has become very frustrating and thinking of going back to basic coding jobs would be like throwing away all I strove for. There might be folks reading this with similar experience or those involved with candidate selection. Any help will be very much appreciated.<issue_comment>username_1: I have been in your situation, my first instinct tells me that you need to look into some developing jobs that pays and are challenging. So here are my couple of points:
**How Well Is Your Personal Life?**: I did obtained PhD in Computer Science and worked both as a lecturer and developer; and let me tell you that the "soul sucking" thing, needs to be deal with as a personal life solution and not professional. I did seen both academics and developers to be out of touch in personal wellness, and lived a very dark and sad life; that is nothing to do with what they are doing professionally.
**Age/Industry Isn't the Issue**: While I was doing my PhD, a friend of mine who was 70 years old, built 2 software companies and sold them all, retired; and start doing PhD because feels like it. So, neither age or industry isn't a problem.
**What sort of developer?** Ok, this might look funny but actually it is important to know what sort of software developer job you are doing? Were you dealing with old legacy software that you needed to maintained so it made you frustrated; or you were doing Web front-end stuff, which is a combination of taste and coding and not too much "science". If you are into logic related stuff, have you ever tried back-end development jobs? This is something you need to think about.
**Challenges As a Developer**: You mentioned the developing jobs is not challenging. I was shocked! There are so many challenges today in industry, that people are trying to figure out. Look into cluster/distributed computing, containers, operating systems, wearable technologies and all their overall networking paradigms, and so on. You can also try to get some jobs which are challenging; so you could feel to void you are feeling, instead of spending the next year betting on being a lecturer. This brings me to the next point.
**Lectureships**: You might think, well I study couple of years as a PhD student and then Boom! I'm a lecturer in Germany or Europe. This is not true. Right now the trend in Europe is close to madness, to become a lecturer you should do some serious research, or coming from a huge research-based company (e.g., Google, etc.). Moreover, compare to industry, the payment is not very well; and the hours you have to put up with students, meetings, etc. are too much.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: The reality is that you can speculate all day long, but without evidence one way or the other, you are unlikely to elucidate what sank your applications. This is because you have never been in a situation where you had to evaluate applications yourself, so you lack the experience of what those who evaluate applications look for. Since we do not know your application, we can also not tell for sure.
There is nothing you can do about this by yourself without outside help. The only way you can find out about the factors that spoke against you is if you talk to someone who makes these decisions, and show them your application. One possibility would be to see if one of those who you applied with is willing to talk to you.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: **References** Do you have academic references? You did not mention this. The fact that you have not done research beforehand is detrimental, but it is not the be all and end all. You need references, from researchers known in the field you want to work in. Your experience in industry can be beneficial, but my feeling is that you want to do theoretical work then your prior experience will not help you.
**Research** You probably do not have any papers. This is not a problem for all areas, but for algorithmics I suspect it will be. For example, you will need to demonstrate your analytical skills. You can, however, write a paper for a workshop. I would suggest try getting in contact with any academics you know in the area you are interested in and ask if they have any non-paid internships. You will need guidance for writing your first paper and it might be the extra thing you need on your CV. Many places want a sample of your writing/research.
Also, have a look outside of Germany. In particular: Sweden, The Netherlands - and - the UK (because I have seen the entry requirements are a bit lower here).
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]
|
2016/03/03
| 854
| 3,546
|
<issue_start>username_0: There was a weekly quiz in a TA discussion section I led today. During the quiz I was writing things I planned to talk on the board and didn't pay attention to students.
Then one student suddenly said to public "Frank, we're not allow to use note in the quiz right? These(point to a region that contains 2-3 people) people are using notes."
I looked back and confirm with that students about where she points to, but the people she accused cheating(if accurate) already put away the notes so I got no direct evidence.
Should I do anything in this scenario?
Quiz only worth 0~2%(0% if it's lowest quiz grade, 2% if not) of overall grade if that matters.
>
> Update: The case was also reported to the Professor today and according to Professor's email it looks like the case is more serious than I expected and I'll have to explore a little more. Thanks for all responses so far.
>
>
><issue_comment>username_1: You're the teaching assistant. Inform the professor and let them handle the matter or offer you guidance. That's their job. In this case the evidence for cheating is tenuous at best, so I suspect nothing will be done against any of the students. I've known more compelling cases of cheating to go reasonably unpunished, and one case of very blatant (and easily proved) cheating that was handled with just a stern admonishment and warning from the professor. But you (and the professor) would rather the professor hear of the matter through you, than the possibly salacious gossip of the students.
So what what really needs to be addressed is:
**Always keep your eye on the students during exams/quizzes.**
As much as you want to believe that they're all perfectly moral and self-policing people (and quite probably most of them are), or that they can't possibly fit in cheating during "brief" windows, there will always be exceptions, and you owe it to the students who are such from giving such a clear opening to those who aren't (for whatever reasons). You can't prevent all cheating all the time—it comes in a lot of forms, and some people are really good at it—, but this was easily preventable.
You may find yourself needing to apologize to the professor for this lapse, though I wouldn't get too worked up over that. Most of us have made such a mistake at some point (although not all of us may be aware of it), and the minor value of the quiz helps take the edge off, such that a simple apology and recognition of the error is sufficient to make things right.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Perhaps my opinion is less valid given I have only tutored groups of students, and have not yet had formal teaching experience. But, again, perhaps a recent undergrad student opinion would be helpful. In my opinion, you can not reprimand students for cheating without witnessing it yourself, or having a very good reason (backed up by solid evidence) to penalize them for cheating.
Obviously, it seems likely this student that called them out was probably not lying, unless she's a sociopath. So, they either were using notes, or this other student saw what she thought were notes, but actually weren't. Either way, you can not really punish the students without further evidence. Academic dishonesty is a serious accusation that can tarnish a student's reputation for the entirety of their academic career. Evidence is a must. However, I don't think it would be a problem if you just point-blank asked them if they were using notes and deliberately cheating.
Upvotes: 2
|
2016/03/04
| 370
| 1,640
|
<issue_start>username_0: I joined a university in US for master's program two months ago as a GRA and it turns out my adviser had a lot of expectations from me, which are beyond my reach. He wants me out, though he hasn't explicitly made such a comment and I am also finding myself a liability for a program I don't deserve. I will run out of funding for next semester (or sooner) and it won't be possible for me to continue studies here because tuition fee are awfully high. I am planning to join another less competitive university without transferring credits from here? Do universities accept students who have already started in another university and want to change?<issue_comment>username_1: Yes, it is possible to transfer to another graduate program but often not very easy. It's typical for graduate programs to limit the number of credits that they'll transfer (no more than 12 at my institution), and you may end up having to retake courses that you've already taken.
A much bigger issue can be getting admitted to another program. If you have not done well in your courses (say a GPA of at least 3.5 or so), then you could find it very hard to be admitted to another graduate program. It is also very important to have at least one positive letter of recommendation from a faculty member at the institution you're currently attending.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Check carefully. As I remember, my visa to the US was linked to a specific university and for a limited time. You might get into trouble by switching. The financing arrangements from your origin country might also have similar restrictions.
Upvotes: 0
|
2016/03/04
| 1,418
| 5,750
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am currently a master’s student hoping to shift into a PhD. The thing is, I hate the lab work. I love all the literature review, designing experiments, troubleshooting problems and data interpretation.
Is there some sort of work around or is this just part of paying my dues?
The most likely answer that comes to mind is: “suck it up and pay your dues”, which I totally get, but is there an area somewhere that negates the benchwork, or is that just years of climbing until I get to be a PI (well, **if** I get to be a PI).<issue_comment>username_1: **I don't think it is ~~possible or~~ constructive to avoid lab work in your field at PhD level.**
The point of a PhD is to train you as an independent researcher, and therefore you need to be familiar with all stages of the research process, including data collection. There are plenty of fields for which data collection does not involve lab work, but unfortunately for you, cell and molecular biology are not among them.
Going through the process of lab work is not just important in terms of getting the data, it informs the rest of your work. I don't believe you will design an experiment as effectively if you are not familiar with exactly how long the different processes will take, where the challenges lie, where errors might creep in, and so on. Likewise, you are better able to interpret the data if you understand how it was collected. This stuff can be learnt to some extent by reading/talking to people/being given a demo, but by far the best way is to do it yourself.
"Paying your dues" may be a part of it - certainly, someone needs to do the legwork! - but I would encourage you not to look at it that way. At this stage in your career, it is highly valuable to you to gain an overview of the research process, even if later on (and you might not have to wait until you are a PI) you specialise in a particular phase of research.
EDIT: Others have pointed out fields, such as bioinformatics, in which it is possible to avoid lab work. Perhaps I was considering "cell and molecular biology" too narrowly. Nonetheless, bioinformatics still ultimately relies on data, and so I still believe that gaining experience of how that data is gathered is highly valuable.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: You may have already seen this [](https://i.stack.imgur.com/MguZe.gif)
And although it's meant to be a joke, there's a rather large element of truth to it. Science is built on a foundation of cheap labour. It's not about paying your dues - because that implies you already owe it, and it implies that once you've paid it, you're morally free to do it to many other people.
Rather, think of it this way - if you want to be in a situation in 10 years time where you can boss 10 people around and not do any labwork, you have to be bossed around, and then beat 9 other people for the bossing-around job (or hope they drop out of academia altogether).
This might sound a little negative, but it's important that you see the road ahead clearly before you walk toward it. Too many people enter academia expecting the PI position after paying their dues, but the reality is that most people who enter a PhD never make it to academic independence ever. I don't know anything about you, so I would say there's a 9/10 chance that will be you too. If you feel you're the 1/10, then go for it! But realise it's not something you can afford to simply endure. You **have** to excel!
(As a side note, if you can use Linux and program a bit, you could do a PhD with some Bioinformatic element to it - but this will be no less intensive. In many cases, it's more hours per day since you can work from home.)
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: If you want to avoid laboratory work, you need to go into an area of the field where you develop a valuable expertise that is not laboratory work. That may then put you in a position to be a valuable collaborator for people who *do* engage in laboratory work, rather than a parasite upon them.
Fortunately for you, in this computational age there is quite a lot of such work. Examples include molecular modeling, \*omics, bioinformatics, metabolic engineering, sequence optimization, and many others.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: >
> I am currently a master’s student hoping to shift into a PhD. The thing is, I hate the lab work. I love all the literature review, designing experiments, troubleshooting problems and data interpretation.
>
>
>
You've just described a couple potential directions you could go in, depending on your inclinations. Someone in the comments suggested bioinformatics, but I don't think that's quite right.
For me, the fundamental question here is "How strong is your math background, and do you like theory work?", neither one of which is *really* answered in your question. But there's some paths potentially open to you:
* Biostatistics: Biostatisticians are (ideally) involved in the design of experiments stage, and in analyzing data, while someone else is responsible for actually collecting it. Their expertise is concentrated in analysis, and being able to work in the areas where the usual tools used in a field start not working any more.
* Computational/theoretical biology. There's *lots* of modeling work to be done that's informed by experimental work, but isn't actually based on wet-lab experiments. You can fairly productively collaborate in this field, and having a little lab experience is a plus.
The latter is the path I took in my own field - I'm a computational epidemiologist. If all goes according to plan, I never see the inside of a lab, nor talk to a study subject.
Upvotes: 2
|
2016/03/04
| 464
| 2,063
|
<issue_start>username_0: If a paper was published with an author's name without that author's consent, what can be done about it?
It there a way to disassociate oneself with a published paper? is retraction the only way?
If the paper is retracted, does it still stay online and is associated with that author's name?<issue_comment>username_1: All journals that I've come across require the submitting author to certify that all authors have consented to publication. I would think that therefore if an author gets in touch with the publisher to indicate they have not given consent, the publisher would be forced not only to withdraw the paper, but also instigate investigations into misconduct.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: Yes username_1 is somewhat right. However, many journals require consent through signature on consent form that needs to be scanned and uploaded during submission. If you did not get signature or somebody signed behalf of him/her, you need to contact editor and they make correction in the next issue and the editor also make necessary arrangement for the journal.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: It is possible, and possible routes have been given in other responses. However, I'd like to give another facet. Before you go down this route, consider the consequences:
1. a likely investigation into misconduct of your fellow authors
2. you will not be exempt from the investigation, namely "how did it get that far", and inhowfar your role in miscommunication contributed
3. furthermore the authors will be exposed and you will be likely shunned by them (and a "halo" of their friends).
This is not to say you should not pursue it; it may be perfectly justified - but, as you did not inform us of the context behind your question, you should understand that retracting authorship is a massive step to take and you should be aware of its consequences. You will lose a lot, so I only see the upholding of ethical principles or the threat of a massive loss of reputation as plausible scenarios for such a step.
Upvotes: 3
|
2016/03/04
| 1,833
| 7,974
|
<issue_start>username_0: I refereed a manuscript and recommended a major revision. Now, almost three years (!) later, the manuscript has come back to my desk. The editor told me to treat it as a revision and not as a new submission. However, since I don't remember the details, I'm re-reading the entire manuscript.
I'm noticing things that I consider need to be improved. That includes things that were identical three years ago, but that neither me nor the other referees commented on. There could be several reasons why I didn't comment on it the first time:
1. I had less knowledge and experience than I have now, or
2. the field has moved on since it's been so long, or
3. I simply didn't notice something I noticed now.
Is it fair to comment on it now, or did I lose my chance to suggest this improvement when I didn't suggest it in the first round?
On the one hand: I genuinely believe this needs to be improved.
On the other hand: if I were submitting a revised manuscript, I would not expect referees to comment on things they should have commented on the first time. If nobody comments on a particular paragraph, I would assume all approve.<issue_comment>username_1: You certainly shouldn't refrain from **suggesting** improvements or corrections simply because it is the second round of refereeing. Go ahead and include them, as it can do no harm. It's also fine to point out minor things like typos or awkward sentences that you didn't catch the first time. And if you have just now discovered that the paper's main result is wrong -- or likely to be wrong -- you have an obligation to communicate that fact.
On the other hand, I would usually refrain at this stage from **insisting** on major new changes to the manuscript that I hadn't requested previously; especially things like
* A major reorganization or rewriting
* New experiments or analysis
If there have been new developments in the field that significantly affect the status of results in the paper, then it might be appropriate to insist on substantial rewriting or additional research, but otherwise I would say it was really your job to catch these issues the first time around.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: I believe that it is entirely reasonable to make major requests of a manuscript on second review, as long as it is maintaining your basic standard for acceptance rather than moving the goalposts.
For example, I have had the experience where things about a paper were very unclear to me in the initial review because of shortcomings in the authors' presentation. Upon revision, those things became much clearer---but not in a good way. The extra information shed light on serious flaws in the authors' work, which has led me to in some cases recommend further major revision and in other cases recommend rejection.
On the other hand, some reviewers seem to like asking authors to do entirely new work, not because it is necessary for publication, but because the reviewer wants to know the answer or thinks it will make "a more interesting paper." This happens most frequently with "glamour" journals. I believe this sort of "moving the goalposts" on publication is not appropriate even in the first review, and doubly so in a revision review.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_3: If there are things genuinely wrong with the paper, you should definitely ask from them to be improved. If the issues are with things that could probably be handled better, yet which are not fatal errors, you might want to go easier on them. However, even in the latter case, there is no reason not to send back the paper for additional minor revisions before recommending acceptance.
When I review a paper with a lot of problems, yet which I feel could probably be published with major changes, I try to include an explicit statement in my first review that looks something like this: "At a minimum, the authors need to make the changes that I have suggested in order for this paper to be publishable. However, given the major problems that I have identified, it is not possible at this stage for me to judge definitively whether the paper's conclusions will be justified once the changes are made; it is possible that a heavily revised paper will still turn out not to be satisfactory." This makes it clear that I cannot adequately judge the correctness of the paper without the major changes being made. In my experience, such papers usually are publishable after the major changes are made (although often with another round of minor revisions), but it a significant number of cases, the revisions only serve to make clear that there are fundamental problems with the paper, and I ultimately have to recommend rejection.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: >
> On the one hand: I genuinely believe this needs to be improved.
>
>
>
**That is the only relevant consideration here.** Your job as referee is to provide honest, accurate feedback to the journal and the author about what conditions need to be met in order for the paper to be up to the journal's publication standards. There is simply no question of fairness here. Even if we ignore the 3 year delay, which seems like it was the authors' fault and no doubt helped create this situation, and imagine a scenario in which you as a referee simply made a mistake and overlooked something important in your original review, I would argue that as long as you haven't given your final seal of approval and recommended the paper's acceptance, it is not only your right, but actually your *obligation* to insist that the things you "genuinely believe need to be improved" to make the paper acceptable actually be improved. It may be a bit awkward and might cause some disappointment or hurt feelings on the part of the authors, but if you are acting in good faith I see nothing unfair about it - on the contrary, you are in fact acting to prevent a different kind of unfairness whereby a paper is accepted for publication despite having some major flaws.
I should add that such behavior may appear to bear some superficial resemblance to a "moving the goalposts" type of behavior, as alluded to in username_2's answer, but what you are thinking of doing is in fact different, since the moving the goalposts idiom implies someone acting in *bad faith* with the express purpose of preventing an adversary or subordinate from getting credit for attaining a goal. As [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moving_the_goalposts) says:
>
> The term [moving the goalposts] is often used in business to imply [bad faith](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bad_faith) on the part of
> those setting goals for others to meet, by arbitrarily making
> additional demands just as the initial ones are about to be met.
>
>
>
To summarize, yes, it is fair, and quite reasonable in my opinion, to comment on the aspects of the paper you did not notice the first time around, especially considering, but also independently of, the three year resubmission delay.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: Of course. Your duty is to the field, not to the author, or even to the journal. If you have noticed things that are wrong the second time, point them out. If they are stylistic, or extras, refrain.
Lets say you found something wrong the first time, and then when you reread the paper you discovered it was not wrong at all, but the comment had been due to your misunderstanding. Do you think you have an obligation to stick by your original criticism? Of course not. Mistakes, positive or negative, of the reviewer deserve to be fixed when recognized.
Think of all the graduate students who may waste their time on the mistakes you did not point out the second time.
Also remember that you are providing advice to the editor. Thus the editor if they feel you are being unreasonable have the right to ignore your advice. That is not the a license to be unreasonable, but rather a perspective on your job.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]
|
2016/03/04
| 540
| 2,466
|
<issue_start>username_0: I'm in Western Europe doing a Master's degree, and I expected the education quality to be much higher then what I've seen in my previous school which was in the Middle East, but some professors here still do this (taking exam and exercise questions from the internet) and they don't seem to understand the subject very well.
Now how common is this in European and North American universities? Is it even considered an accepted practice?<issue_comment>username_1: *they don't seem to understand the subject very well.*
You sound like you are in a level of expertise that you could judge the quality of the lectures. You may then ideally speak to the professor about your allegation *they still do this.* I am ignoring the regional limitations and considering the question in a general context.
>
> Is it even considered an accepted practice?
>
>
>
Assuming that there are no institutional guidelines that goes against assembling questions from the internet(which you must check if you haven't done already!), from a logical perspective viewing this as a student, the practice is similar to posting questions from the text book or peer reviewed journals. The professor in any case is responsible for the question and its relevance can be questioned with supporting evidence.
From the point of view of a student, you could also do a student peer review about the quality and relevance of the question supported by discussions and critical reasoning. If the result of such an assessment goes against the question, you could then report him/her with proof your views about the practice.
NOTE - This is not limited to *internet based* questions but also any questions even from the sources you think are authentic.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: You get questions (and ideas for questions) from many places. Some you cook up yourself, others you water down from a step in a paper (even a very old one), or filch from a published exam, or a textbook, or even adapted from StackExchange. It varies. One of the selling points of textbooks is precisely that they provide lots of questions.
You should make up an exam by combining questions that (more or less, probably weighted by importance) evaluate the material covered. In my case of some 5 questions 2 or 3 are self made (probably inspired by previous ones or external sources), while the others come from different sources, often severely modified.
Upvotes: 1
|
2016/03/04
| 969
| 4,097
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am currently a tenure track faculty in a college and I plan to look for a position somewhere else. A problem is that, I can not get a teaching letter from my department (in fact I would like to keep my search confidential). Teaching letters are required in my field and I am wondering what should I do in this case? Thank you for your suggestions in advance.<issue_comment>username_1: As noted in my response to @strongbad, I recommend against being open about job searches if you're in a T-T position. You don't have to look far to find a lot of horror stories about chairs and senior faculty making life difficult for the 'uppity' young faculty member "who thinks s/he is too good for this school." Best to keep plans close to the chest until you're at a more definitive place in a search.
So that being said...
First, if you have a trusted friend at a nearby college who is in the same or related discipline, you might ask them to do an observation and evaluation of your teaching.
Second, your college's teaching center may be able to do an evaluation but this involves you trusting them not to spill the beans.
Finally, if this is a middle or senior position (i.e. Associate or Full) you can ask in your cover letter that because you the need for discretion because you are already in a tenure-track position, that the request letters be delayed until you make the long short list. This at least buys you time and puts you in a difficult situation only if you're a serious candidate.
I've seen this done and it's not an unusual request. You can suggest that you will provide your full teaching evaluations and portfolio in lieu of a letter until you make the long-short list.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: You say you cannot get a teaching letter from your department. Presumably this is because you want to keep the search confidential. You should consider if it really matters if colleagues find out. The only case I think it is a big deal is if you are trying to escape a toxic environment and taking a step down. Most reasonable colleagues will understand if you are trying to get a promotion, raise, better school, or better location.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: >
> How to get a “teaching letter” when I don't want my department to know
> I'm looking for a job?
>
>
>
At the risk of stating the obvious: **you can't** -- at least, not if you want your letter to reflect current information about you, and not if by "my department" you mean "even one person in my department".
More optimistically however, the logic that says that it's highly undesirable to let your current employers know about your job search plans is not entirely watertight, as I explained in a [past answer](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/55929/40589) discussing a somewhat similar question. Your department chair would be the most appropriate person to ask for a letter about your teaching. Assuming he/she is a trustworthy, professional and ethical person, you should simply ask them not to disclose your plans to your colleagues within your department. Department chairs quite regularly deal with sensitive information of this sort, and those who are reasonably good at their jobs will have no trouble respecting your wishes.
With that said, I recognize that there are probably some unprofessional department chairs out there who would fail to respect your confidentiality in such a situation, or may even be tempted to sabotage your plans by writing a dishonest letter. If you are worried about not being treated fairly by your chair, I would suggest finding some other colleague within the department to ask for the letter from. The bottom line is you would need to be able to identify at least one person who is qualified to evaluate your teaching performance in your current job and whom you can trust to keep your plans confidential and not to act vindictively against you because of the slight conflict of interest inherent in your situation. If you can't find such a person, I'm not really sure what else to suggest. Good luck!
Upvotes: 2
|
2016/03/04
| 2,017
| 8,531
|
<issue_start>username_0: I have received feedback from reviewers on my latest conference paper (this is in Computer Science).
It was an acceptance, which is nice.
I feel I really need to consider in depth the reviewer feedback.
I have consciously noticed I have a emotional reaction.
Which is not rational, practical, or useful.
**How can I clear myself from it, and handle the review on a factual basis?**
*Is it better to sleep on it? Perhaps it would help to strip the acceptance from it. Or maybe to rewrite it in my words as if I were reviewing the paper?*
Overall I guess I should feel happy, but of course the written reviewer feedback only points at the weaknesses in the work. Which is reasonable, since they can indicate it was generally good with their accept statement. (At the end of the day, an accept is an accept, right?)<issue_comment>username_1: Personally, I find that the following process works well for me:
1. Complain together with my co-authors about the blindness and foolishness of reviewers, the sorry state of publishing, and the general existence of injustice in a world not ready for the pure angelic beauty of our work. Remember not to take this too seriously.
2. Ignore everything for at least 24 hours, letting my initial emotional response settle and giving space for rationality to return.
3. Copy the review responses into a template for a response letter, separating each statement for its own response. This effectively forms a checklist of work to be done (or at least to be clearly explained why it should not be done). I do this even with conference papers where there is no response letter, because of the organizing benefit.
4. When revising, focus on only one statement at a time, taking it in isolation and working until the comment has been fully addressed and I can write a clear and non-emotional response explaining what has and hasn't been done and why. Depending on the overall tone of the situation, sometimes I will start with the little things and work up to the bigger ones, and sometimes I will do in the opposite direction.
Finally, as I work, I always remind myself that every statement by every reviewer can teach me something that will improve my paper, even when I disagree with it. Sometimes, the reviewer has valuable insight. Other times, their apparently "crazy" or "ignorant" reactions are instead actually showing me how I have not spoken well to the community of readers, have opened myself up to misinterpretation, or have allowed my work to be viewed as part of an intellectual battle that I do not wish to participate in.
We are emotional beings, and we have emotions. Over time, you will hopefully learn to read the curve of your emotional response so that you can ride with it and manage it rather than fighting it or amplifying it when that would be counterproductive. The process that works best for you may vary, but one way or another I think that it is best to acknowledge emotions and then find a way to let them settle before trying to work with the criticism.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_2: I would say, try to understand why they did review that way. Except if the reviewer knows you, it makes no sense to blindly throw arguments just to destroy your research.
It is possible that the reviewer did not understand the experiment, then explain it better.
If the weakness is recognised, you have to be able to explain the limitations of your work in the paper. If the reviewer can pinpoint weaknesses you did not elaborate on, they will put them in their report.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: Start out with the recognition that:
* Somewhere around 50% of the people generally disagree with the actions of the president.
* Christ himself (who is generally considered a pretty decent guy despite your personal religious convictions), was crucified on the cross.
* There are countless stories of very successful entrepreneurs who were told there ideas were fairly worthless.
* I get honked at regularly for not tailgating in rush hour traffic - as if that were going to move us along any faster
The point is that opinions are just that, opinions - and some people frankly are just idiots. Even if they are not, no human has a hold on the "truth" - and many very, very smart people disagree with one another on critical matters. Just because someone provides a critique doesn't mean it has merit --- sometimes even the professor.
Your job is to decide whether the critique is valid. Did you do your due diligence? Did you write a document that you can be proud of? Are your positions defensible? If so, then take critique with a grain of salt - recognizing that the reviewer may indeed be the one that is unreasonable. Look at the specifics of the critique - are the arguments reasonable?
Even if the critique is valid, understand that is what critiques are for. We are all learning, all of the time. If someone points out something that you didn't know - don't take it as an affront - simply be grateful that you came away from the experience with more knowledge.
If the critique is just mean, recognize that there are simply mean people in the world and that has nothing to do with you.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: Before even discussing with co-authors I do the following:
1. **Print out the review.** Yes, I print the report on good old paper. In this way the review becomes something you can touch, put away, crumple, burn, frame, do whatever you want… It looses some of its emotional content by becoming a real world object; it's not just some statement anymore that can stick in your mind for hours. If you want to stop thinking about the review, put the paper away.
2. **Work with the printed review.** I go over the review and highlight:
* Praise.
* Comments that I totally agree with and where I just do what reviewer suggest.
* Comments that seems reasonable but it is not totally clear what should be done.
* Comments that need more thought, seem unfair or unclear.
After that I try to get in contact with co-authors and start working on a revision.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: One-line answer: **Don't try to "clear the emotions away"; but do things which might make it easier for you to process them better.**
The assumption that there is a marked distinction between "rational" and "emotional" thought, that people can "clear" themselves of emotions etc. is not - AFAIK - grounded in scientific fact. Our motivations are emotional, even our intuitions are emotional, our sense of what's "nicer" and what's "right" about abstract concepts is partially emotional.
Why do you think you need to detach from your emotions in order to process criticism? If that's a problem you feel you have a lot, you might need to work on that regardless of research. At any rate, I would recommend:
* Doing some physical activity which has an element of monotonicty, or a meditative effect, like jogging, or yoga.
* Reducing your effective workload for a while and, yes, getting more sleep than you usually do.
* Go do something that has a humbling effect with respect to your capabilities, but does not poorly reflect on your sense of self esteem. Something entirely unrelated to the (partially artificial) competitiveness or your field of academic pursuit. For example, ask a friend or a family member to let you try out something that he/she likes to do and you're not particularly good at, or some kind of craft.
While doing all of that, don't try to force yourself to think on the reviewers' notes/criticism; and don't try to force yourself not to think about them.
I realize this is not particularly "clever" advice. But: 1. It's based on my experience; 2. I think it should help and 3. At worst you'll have spent a couple of days doing harmless stuff.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_6: Its because your also enormously happy when you get things done.
You got high ups and low downs, and feeling very personal about it.
Some people try to push themselves all the time as heroes.
Centrally to this is the brain rewarding system.
And maybe a lack of a normal comfort state, you should try to focus on other less exciting things as well. Try to take the moment, enjoy it. Because if value your normal life as well as your super presentations. Then those will standout less and you get more balance in your life.
You might as well reduce coffee, cola, sugar, as those non natural foods also cause peeks in your energy, and drain your brain from the steady balance it needs.
Upvotes: 0
|
2016/03/04
| 1,056
| 4,416
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am a first year math phd student. I could get a scholarship from my government and notified the director of graduate studies of my department (which is now my provisional advisor) that I wish to decline my TAship position for the next term. He advised me to think more about it and told me to think about it 2 more weeks. He told me that I should keep being a TA.
Well, my TA duties are a burden and I do not learn nothing of math from it. Besides that, it drives me crazy. I do really detest having to deal with those undergrad students. I prefer to devote myself to learn and then do my research. But my advisor wants me to think more about it, Why? If I am not a TA, I could have more time to work on my advisor's projects. Besides that, I do not think my department would have any trouble to find another TA. My school is not Harvard but it is ranked among the 30 best of USA, so there is a lot of people that want to be a TA there.
Why does my advisor want me to keep being a TA?<issue_comment>username_1: Why not just just ask your advisor? They said something and you don't understand it - asking them for clarification is the obvious next step, whether it's about mathematics or anything else.
With that said, your program might have a requirement that all grad students serve as a TA for some number of courses, and your advisor wants you to get the requirement out of the way now; if nothing else, they are probably trying to help your career by ensuring your teaching record is not empty when the time comes to apply for jobs.
P.S. While your temperament about teaching seems to have improved since (what I assume is) [your previous post](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/64165/is-teaching-assistanship-a-form-of-academic-prostitution-what-do-you-think), I strongly recommend you reconsider using the word "detest". If I were your student and were on the receiving end of such an attitude, I'd feel quite bad and certainly not motivated to learn anything more about mathematics. On a more selfish note, if it becomes known in your department that you have such a negative attitude about teaching, it can affect the teaching letter that will be sent as a part of your future job applications.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: You need to ask your advisor, since nobody else can say for sure what his reasoning might be, but here are some possible explanations:
1. You do a great job as a TA, much better than whoever might replace you, and the department would be unhappy to lose your services.
2. You do a poor job as a TA and need to take this opportunity to improve your teaching skills before they interfere with your career.
3. Having more teaching experience on your CV or better teaching evaluations may help when you apply for jobs, even aside from whatever you might learn in the process.
4. If you "detest having to deal with those undergrad students", you may be miserable working in academia. It's much better for you to figure out now whether/how you can handle teaching successfully without having it feel like a huge burden. Delaying confronting this issue isn't necessarily in your best interests.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: The other answers so far are good, but there is another possibility.
"so there is a lot of people that want to be a TA there."
Elite universities still get TA shortages. They compete for the best qualified graduate students. Sometimes enrollment falls below projections, and sometimes alternative funding for graduate students exceeds projections, resulting in a TA shortage. University rules may limit the power of the director of graduate studies to acquire additional graduate students in this case, so the director might ask students to TA when they do not have to.
If you agree to TA when you are not obligated to do so, try to get something in return. Beware that your government scholarship may run out at a time when your department has a TA surplus, leaving you without funding. I was threatened with this situation once (I resolved it by winning some outside funding).
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: Another potential reason is that you said you *could* get a scholarship next year, but could is different from will. Is this scholarship guaranteed? If not, your DGS might be advising you to wait until you are 100% sure you have funding before you decline the TA position.
Upvotes: 3
|
2016/03/04
| 941
| 3,962
|
<issue_start>username_0: I'd like to understand scientific journals' pricing model.
For example, in the case of Nature, one single article bought as a unit costs $32.00. But a personal subscription is only $199.00 for 1 Year (51 issues, Print and Online). That is 6x digital articles cost slightly less than all articles in one year and 51 paper magazines.
What is the reason of the disparity between the article price and the yearly subscription? Wouldn't they obtain a better return rate if they priced the articles at a reasonable amount? (maybe $4-$5)<issue_comment>username_1: Why not just just ask your advisor? They said something and you don't understand it - asking them for clarification is the obvious next step, whether it's about mathematics or anything else.
With that said, your program might have a requirement that all grad students serve as a TA for some number of courses, and your advisor wants you to get the requirement out of the way now; if nothing else, they are probably trying to help your career by ensuring your teaching record is not empty when the time comes to apply for jobs.
P.S. While your temperament about teaching seems to have improved since (what I assume is) [your previous post](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/64165/is-teaching-assistanship-a-form-of-academic-prostitution-what-do-you-think), I strongly recommend you reconsider using the word "detest". If I were your student and were on the receiving end of such an attitude, I'd feel quite bad and certainly not motivated to learn anything more about mathematics. On a more selfish note, if it becomes known in your department that you have such a negative attitude about teaching, it can affect the teaching letter that will be sent as a part of your future job applications.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: You need to ask your advisor, since nobody else can say for sure what his reasoning might be, but here are some possible explanations:
1. You do a great job as a TA, much better than whoever might replace you, and the department would be unhappy to lose your services.
2. You do a poor job as a TA and need to take this opportunity to improve your teaching skills before they interfere with your career.
3. Having more teaching experience on your CV or better teaching evaluations may help when you apply for jobs, even aside from whatever you might learn in the process.
4. If you "detest having to deal with those undergrad students", you may be miserable working in academia. It's much better for you to figure out now whether/how you can handle teaching successfully without having it feel like a huge burden. Delaying confronting this issue isn't necessarily in your best interests.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: The other answers so far are good, but there is another possibility.
"so there is a lot of people that want to be a TA there."
Elite universities still get TA shortages. They compete for the best qualified graduate students. Sometimes enrollment falls below projections, and sometimes alternative funding for graduate students exceeds projections, resulting in a TA shortage. University rules may limit the power of the director of graduate studies to acquire additional graduate students in this case, so the director might ask students to TA when they do not have to.
If you agree to TA when you are not obligated to do so, try to get something in return. Beware that your government scholarship may run out at a time when your department has a TA surplus, leaving you without funding. I was threatened with this situation once (I resolved it by winning some outside funding).
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: Another potential reason is that you said you *could* get a scholarship next year, but could is different from will. Is this scholarship guaranteed? If not, your DGS might be advising you to wait until you are 100% sure you have funding before you decline the TA position.
Upvotes: 3
|
2016/03/05
| 506
| 2,096
|
<issue_start>username_0: I've been admitted as a grad student to a US university. There's a preevent for admitted students, which seems to be a weekend of introductions and minor social events (I don't have that much information yet).
Is it worth traveling from Europe to such an event? Do you have a feeling for how important these events are for building social relations with students/faculty?<issue_comment>username_1: If by "admitted (accepted)" you really mean "those who accepted their offer," it's just a nice, welcoming gesture. During course work, you'll work so closely with and next to your future fellow students that you needn't worry about falling behind socially if you don't attend.
If people have been admitted but still weigh offers from different schools, it's a marketing event in which faculty and current students will try to present their program - and the campus it's on, and the city and state it's in - in their best light. While it would certainly be nice to get to know other prospects, it is probably more helpful to use such events to get a feel for how you might get along with professors and such, and if the city is too busy - or not busy enough - for your taste.
If you're not rich with extra time to spare, it's probably only necessary to fly in *from Europe* if it's case 2, and you have genuine questions or concerns. These can be nice events, but I'd think twice before flying for 6-10 hours each way on your own money - as long as you can't combine it with a longer vacation or so.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: I definitely wouldn't go just to "build social relations". You can do that when you start school in the fall.
The reason to go is to help *you* decide whether you want to attend. If you're already decided, then going is not worth your time or money. If you're undecided and they're paying for travel, go. If you're undecided and you have to pay for travel, you must weigh the cost of airfare against the benefit of seeing the place firsthand and meeting people before you decide which school to attend.
Upvotes: 4
|
2016/03/05
| 825
| 3,763
|
<issue_start>username_0: Today in developed countries technology and innovation has reached its optimum level. But in least developed countries like Nepal, Bangladesh, etc, the scenario for research is different. Here the education syatem is also in learning phase. Few university exists and barely research oriented activities goes through academic.
We neither have any research grants to follow or enough datasets and technologies for analysis and comparision. Even the governmemt is still functioning on paper. So in such absurd situation what kinds of researches are suggested and how to do it?<issue_comment>username_1: There are ways to get research done on publicly available data.
However, I would be silly to not mention that I left the UK for Germany to conduct my research, because the UK, as optimum as it is, wasn't the best in the world for the specific type of science I wanted to do. More importantly, it wasn't nearly as well funded for my particular area of science (its much better now though). Transferring to greener pastures is not only recommended, it's extremely normal in Science.
What did it take to get into a top German institute? Knowledge and determination. And I know for a fact that Nepal, Bangladesh, etc have plenty of knowledge and determination, because students from these countries are working side-by-side with me.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: As far as equipment is concerned, in computer oriented fields I can assure you that the only thing equipment can affect is time and performance. I have done most of my personal work on an 8 year old laptop, and since half that work was on game development you can understand that lack of processing power has very visible results, but that doesn't mean you can't make anything, it will just run slow! Just mentioning it because one may argue that in developing countries equipment is scarce.
As far as datasets are concerned, I propose four options:
-You use public datasets already out there. That's not the best because you have to pick one of a few options rather than gather data fitting your needs. Also having original data is considered a pretty good thing in research, though I personally don't consider it that crucial.
-You collect your own data either within the country (it always makes an impression when you get out of the lab and get your hands dirty collecting data) or online, with the help of other institutions that may make it easier for people to complete answer forms etc.
-You collaborate with an institution in another country, or even form a network of institutions within your or similar countries, and use collective data. Forming an official research network will also have a nice ring to it and may attract some publicity.
-The final option is to contact other departments that are not working exactly on what you are working on, but may be interested in collaborating, if you can offer them some common goal. An example would be creating a database with advanced search capabilities on ancient literature, where the department of philosophy (or equivalent) would provide datasets and you would provide the framework. Note that you may have to develop software that will be easy for them to use before they can start building a dataset, but this will pay off eventually.
I personally would go for option 4, as it would also broaden the scope of interest in the project. 3 will give you some recognition outside the country, and 2 doesn't really have any specific bonuses, but it may establish the institution as self-relying and productive, especially if you do this again in the future. There are probably a couple more options I haven't thought of, but there are probably the most notable, best of luck.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]
|
2016/03/05
| 902
| 3,967
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am having a one-week research visit in a far east country.
I was asked by the head of the hosting group to give a presentation. I have never done this before, hence I am quite confused about the content of this presentation.
To provide you some extra context: I am the first member of our group visiting this group, at the same time I am the most junior member in our group. As I am visiting this time, we expect in a reasonable amount of time to have a member of their group visiting us.
Some information that I could include in the presentation are:
* information about our group (history, group members, research focus, ongoing projects, methodologies, tools...)
* information about myself (personal info, academic experience, research focus, detailed explanation of most recent work, desire to learn from the visit...)
* information about the city we are located at (to make the case that it is worth sending a student...)
I think the list is too extensive. What would be a goldilocks in terms of duration and content to include in the presentation?
I have to make the most out of this visit and presentation, to be able to build upon it later on. The hosting PI is top 5 in the world in his respective field.<issue_comment>username_1: Short answer: ask them to clarify; ask your PI.
To offer my own opinion, I would expect that for a research visit the appropriate contents of your presentation would be your latest research results. As you are visiting on behalf of your group, start with an overview of the group's main research areas and latest results (ask your colleagues to each make you a slide about their work). Then you could go into more detail about your own work later in the presentation. Perhaps pose some research questions that you think your two groups could work together on (take advice from your supervisor here).
If you get to set the time, a one hour slot with 45 mins + 15 for discussion will be plenty.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: The talk should focus on your research. If you run short on time (which may happen if you're very new to your PhD), you can mention what the work of the larger lab is. I don't think you should talk about the city you're coming from, or get into too much biographical information about yourself.
And, as pointed out by the other answer, you should talk to your PI. Presumably s/he has an interest in your visiting this other lab, you should find out what it is.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: Of course ask your PI, maybe he has some specific things he would like you to mention, and if he would be very interested in getting some exchange students / further collaborations or not.
Most of the presentation should be focused on one or two research stories. You can then use these to elaborate a bit more about techniques and people, and the focus of the group should be clear from the project. Depending on how early in your PhD you actually are, these don't have to be your personal projects (ask your PI).
Don't talk too much about yourself, or at least not more than you would get when you would be introduced. You can leave that for the coffee breaks.
Usually the advertisements for the city / university are limited to the last slide, with some pictures and just shortly saying that it's awesome there and if anyone considers visiting they can ask you everything.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_4: It should primarily be a *research* talk - and given you've said your research interests align closely with the visiting group's, and you're giving the talk (and as such will have to ask questions, socialize with people, etc.) I'd mostly talk about your work.
A decent structure might be to start out with the broad-strokes concept of what your lab works on, followed by illustrative examples of your own results that touch on those themes, and then some future directions you're going in to tie things back to the "Big Picture".
Upvotes: 0
|
2016/03/05
| 354
| 1,340
|
<issue_start>username_0: This is related to [Co-author does not want biography+photo in paper submission](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/64288/co-author-does-not-want-biographyphoto-in-paper-submission) but specific to Elsevier journals. In the mentioned question, answers showed that for IEEE they have a policy where a biography/photo could be omitted.
Can a paper be published with Elsevier, in journals which ask for an author bio/photo, without the author photo?
You can find several journals which ask for this on <https://www.google.com.au/search?q=site:elsevier.com+passport-like+photo><issue_comment>username_1: As the author, you are certainly free to refuse to share personal details (be it the picture or biographical details). What the particular journal (or publishing venue, more in general) will do in case of refusal is up to them. They might refuse publication (unlikely, in my ignorant opinion), publish with a summary bio and no picture (i.e., "(author) is reachable at <EMAIL>" and nothing else) or just leave it out altogether (I'd guess this, if asked nicely).
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: **ASK THE EDITOR** prior to submission.
In practice, some Elsevier editors do accept the absense of a photo.
(That's all, folks; there is not much more to be said about it.)
Upvotes: 2
|
2016/03/05
| 854
| 3,706
|
<issue_start>username_0: In a course we have a lot of hard homework. We are allowed to share solutions etc, as long as each student's doesn't just copy but understands what he/she writes.
Is this acceptable to hire a tutor help me solve the homework I can't solve?<issue_comment>username_1: >
> We are allowed to share solutions etc, as long as each student's
> doesn't just copy but understands what he/she writes.
>
>
>
This is the only information we have about your instructor's policies, so this is the only answer we can give to your question. It's OK to hire a tutor for help with the homework, as long as you don't just copy but understand what you write.
It's also possible that your instructor intends different rules for paid tutors than for cooperation with your fellow students. However, we would have no way of knowing that from the information provided in your question.
There are also general expectations about plagiarism and originality, and these are ethical norms that you're responsible for understanding and following, regardless of your instructor's policies. Your description of your working relationship with your tutor isn't specific enough to make it clear whether you have a problem here or not. As JeffE has pointed out, "fixing" your mistakes might entail plagiarism, if it means that what goes on your paper isn't actually what you wrote yourself.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: There is only one person who knows whether it is acceptable, the instructor for the course who is the one doing the accepting or rejecting. Ask them, explaining clearly what sort of help you would be getting from the tutor.
There are big differences between students discussing a homework and hiring a pro. When processing suggestions from another student, you have to apply your own judgement to determine whether you agree, you can't count on them being right. To continue to get help from fellow students you would also have to supply help to others, not just consume help the way you could with a paid tutor.
I think you are aware there is a significant difference. If not, why waste money on a paid tutor rather than discussing the homework with one or more of you fellow students?
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: In a well designed course there shouldn't be a problem. What matters is that the performance at the exam won't be a lot worse than how you did on your homework assignments. The instructor has no way of checking if you stick to any rules, other than to measure your performance at doing the homework exercises and at the exam. So, all you need to do is make sure you have mastered the topic of the homework exercises well enough to be able to reproduce whatever you hand in all by yourself.
Just imagine not sticking to this rule. The instructor may notice that STUDENTZ who looked like such a brilliant student who should become his/her new Ph.D student, flunked the exam. For all the instructor knows, there can be many causes, like illness, even extreme nervousness for which there are remedies. So, such students who unexpectedly flunked the exam can be asked to meet with the instructor. By talking things over in a relaxed setting, the instructor can get an idea of what is going on. If the instructor notices that you have not mastered the topic to a degree that is remotely consistent with your homework performance, then you will be in trouble.
In contrast, if you choked up during the exam while during the meeting it is clear that you have completely mastered the subject, the instructor may be inclined to give you another opportunity to pass the exam, e.g. an oral examination right during that meeting itself.
Upvotes: 0
|
2016/03/05
| 613
| 2,547
|
<issue_start>username_0: I'm trying to follow some of the best practices of the "open science" movement. In my thesis, I've performed all of the analyses in R (a non-proprietary, open-source program for analyzing data), and my datasets are in the non-proprietary CSV format.
I would like to be as transparent as possible, by sharing my datasets and R analysis/code files with my thesis committee, and ultimately with the public once my thesis is finalized and placed in a repository. How can I best do this?
I was thinking about uploading my files to the Open Science Framework (<http://osf.io>) and citing them with a regular HTTPS link. Once my thesis is finalized, I would then "freeze" them on the OSF website (as I understand, this would prevent post-hoc changes), then get a DOI that points to the frozen files and cite that.
Are there any better options?<issue_comment>username_1: First, best compliments for your intent on open and reproducible research!
Your code and datasets ought to bring you better visibility for your research. GitHub is a good alternative to publish your code. If your datasets involve elements of machine learning you may donate it to the UCI Machine Learning Repository.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Check [figshare](https://figshare.com). I have no complaints, but I still under the free quota.
Recently, I came across more 3 interesting data repository:
* [The Dataverse project](http://dataverse.org/);
* [mlData](http://mldata.org/); and
* [OpenMl](http://www.openml.org/).
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: I understand that this question is old but allow me to share my opinion. The OSF is one of the stable open data repository, just like Figshare, Zenodo, and many other similar free services. Many scientists have used it and I heard no complaints so far regarding its link or DOI stability over time. So it is very good for students or any scientist to post their dataset and code separately in this repository.
I know that you can also do it the old way by embedding the code and data directly in the document (paper or thesis), but by making them available separately is highly advised to increase the visibility of your work. Other scientist can cite it just like they cite other scientific document, by adding the link and the DOI.
You can always contact OSF team to seek for advise on how to maximise your OSF account or how to cite documents on OSF properly.
Just do it again for your future research, considering you must be graduated by now.
Best wishes.
Upvotes: 0
|
2016/03/06
| 671
| 2,718
|
<issue_start>username_0: Today I ran across the wording *"post-print version"* of an article (on *ResearchGate*). I'm aware of terms *pre-print*, *in preparation*, *under review*, *published*, etc., but I have never seen the term *"post-print"* before. **What does it mean and what else should we know about it (i.e., when to use it)?**<issue_comment>username_1: A **postprint** is the final version that is given to the journal for copy editing and typesetting. It includes changes made in the refereeing process, but not the journal's typesetting. It is often referred to also by the phrase "**author's final version**".
In contrast, a **preprint** most specifically refers to a manuscript as it was before peer review. However, the term preprint is often used more generally (for instance, when referring to a *preprint server*) to refer to any version of the manuscript besides the journal's final typeset copy. Thus it is common to find postprints on arxiv.org, which is commonly referred to as a preprint server.
Postprints are mainly used as a way to provide [green open access](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_access#Self-archiving:_green_open_access). Many publishers allow authors to distribute postprints through their own website, an institutional website, or a preprint server. Many institutions (e.g. [Harvard](https://osc.hul.harvard.edu/policies/gse/)) assert a non-exclusive right to distribute postprints written by their employees, regardless of publishing agreements.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: A standard definition comes from [SHERPA/RoMEO](http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/definitions.php):
>
> [...] this listing characterises **pre-prints** as being the version of the paper before peer review and **post-prints** as being the version of the paper after peer-review, with revisions having been made.
>
>
> This means that in terms of content, *post-prints are the article as published*. However, in terms of appearance this might not be the same as the published article, as publishers often reserve for themselves their own arrangement of type-setting and formatting. Typically, this means that the author cannot use the publisher-generated .pdf file, but must make their own .pdf version for submission to a repository.
>
>
>
For green open access purposes, self-archiving the post-print is preferable to self-archiving the pre-print, as it is the post-print that contains the content improved after feedback from reviewers.
Publishers may use different terminology: For example, Elsevier uses ["Accepted Manuscript"](https://www.elsevier.com/about/company-information/policies/sharing) instead of the word post-print in its sharing policy.
Upvotes: 1
|
2016/03/06
| 860
| 3,658
|
<issue_start>username_0: I know there are already a lot of "should I quit my PhD" questions on this site. But I have a specific dilemma and I'd like to get some external thoughts.
After my Bachelor in mathematics, I didn't hesitate and started a PhD in pure math. After 7 months in the program, I'm having second thoughts. Research is not as enjoyable as I thought it would be. And I'm afraid that I might be missing out on other potential careers that would fit me better than academia.
So I'm thinking of quitting my PhD, get a Master in applied math and try to get a job in the industry. I'm 20 years old, so I feel that this is the last moment to try another line of work without too many consequences.
However, if I do that but don't like working in industry, what are my chances of being accepted in another PhD program? I'm afraid that quitting a PhD once will severely reduce my chances. Are the graduate admission comitees likely to understand the "if you love it, let it go" flavor of my experience? Or will they dismiss my application thinking that they can't trust someone who has already quit once?
It may seem weird that I'm already thinking of coming back to academia while talking about quitting my PhD. The thing is that I have very little motivation to continue, and I feel like if I hang on, I will end up with a bad PhD after 5 miserable years. That's why I think of quitting. If after working in the industry I want to go back in academia, I think I will have a lot more motivation, knowing that there are no alternatives.<issue_comment>username_1: Congratulations!
Thinking of quitting or moving elsewhere is one of the important milestones in graduate studies.
We can't answer your question, as it depends on lots of personal and local particularities that we can't possibly know about. But one thing I ***can*** tell you: Don't take the decision lightly. Studies, particularly graduate studies, tend to stress you out, decisions taken under stress are very often regretted later. Wait until you have had some time to really relax (i.e., near ending term break, after taking holidays). Treat it as you would any other project evaluation (you had a class on that somewhere, right?): Set up your evaluation criteria, how to measure them (be it estimated time to graduation in years or personal satisfaction in a scale from 1 to 5), and define some weight for each. Then write down your value for each, and compare.
Never underestimate discussing this with your significant other, family, friends (on and off school), or even your advisor or other faculty.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: One way to ensure that you are able to continue PhD studies if industry turns out not to be for you is to **arrange a leave of absence from your current program instead of quitting**. They may even help you reach the Masters milestone before you spend your year in industry.
You'll probably have to cast this as why 12 or 18 months of industry experience will make you a stronger PhD candidate (might be hard in a purely theoretical program, but even theoreticians can be motivated by knowing their work will contribute to applied areas and help with important problems at some point in the future). You should certainly explore the "What if I like it a lot better than my PhD work?" question when you ask your advisor for leave, but you can cast that as an unlikely outcome.
Also, it will be natural for such an experience to affect your research focus if/when you do return -- but you can probably still continue with your current department without having to start graduate-level classwork over again.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]
|
2016/03/06
| 1,906
| 8,461
|
<issue_start>username_0: My question is whether anyone has advice for dealing with difficult students. Specifically, if a student is taking up your time/mental energy and you can no longer justify this investment, how do you distance yourself while still remaining supportive?
Apologies in advance for the length of this question.
I am a PhD student currently supervising an undergraduate student completing a short lab project as part of their bachelors degree in a lab where the main supervisor has been unavoidably absent recently. In addition to this we are a small lab with broad research interests, as such I am currently the only lab member apart from my supervisor who is qualified to oversee the project designed for the student.
I have found the undergraduate student very difficult to work with, a fact I brought up with my supervisor quite early on. My supervisor asked me at that time if I would be willing to continue with the student. I was optimistic and believed that I could reason with the student about their difficult behaviour but that now seems to be off the table.
Their behaviour is surprising to me and I have a difficult time resolving it as it seems quite bizarre. I have had several 'talks' with the student now regarding their behaviour which includes a range of single incidences that caused problems in the lab. Additionally the student does not handle unforeseen situations very well and so, I have been supervising them closely at times, which costs me time and has resulted in me working later and on weekends. Finally, the student has, despite assurances to the contrary, made it clear by their actions that their priorities lie elsewhere. This final point is perhaps the one I find most bizarre as this project is 4 months out of a 4 year degree but will affect the final grade significantly.
I feel that I have been open and honest with the student, I have given them a chance to address behaviours which may not be suitable (I had assumed that they may not understand that they were now in a place of work, not a teaching lab). I have also informed the student that if they feel I am being too cold or they need a break from work to let me know - as the student often seems to become quite visibly stressed - and I could try to accommodate this. Overall I don't feel there is anything more I can do.
I have recently been informed that they have messaged my supervisor implying that my apparent 'harsh' behaviour is the reason for their lack of progress. This doesn't worry me as I have a good relationship with my supervisor and have supervised students before without issue - though never as closely as this.
At this point I feel I should cease close supervision of the student and my supervisor agrees. However, I worry that left alone the student will not be able to deliver a good project and will attempt to justify this - citing for example a 'sudden' lack of supervision. I am also reluctant to leave the student alone to perform large experiments required to finish the project as they have previously shown themselves to react quite badly in stressful situations.
In summary I feel between a rock and a hard place, do I continue to guide the student and possibly suffer the 'consequences' of their apparent belief that their slow progress is a result of my supervision and not their lack of commitment. Or do I leave the student to their own devices and risk them failing - a very real possibility from what I have observed and something I wish to avoid as it is a good project and I want the student to do well.<issue_comment>username_1: First, a student must meet you half way. Otherwise, there is nothing much you can do. In this case, you walk away. Not everyone can be 'saved' no matter how much you care.
(1) is the issue lack of respect? Maybe he/she sees you as a PhD student only or that there is some cultural issue. The former can be remedied by involving your supervisor. As for the latter, there is no solution apart from asking the student to change supervisor,
(2) are the tasks too vague or big? Maybe break it down a bit more; start with 1+1 and build up to ODE for example. Setting a task that is well above a student's ability will kill his/her motivation.
(3) is he/she suffering from any mental issues or has personal problems? How is his/her score in other subjects? Usually these issues will affect all subjects. If the student is poor academically, you need to adjust your expectation
(4) have you discussed with the student how to work in a project based subject? Maybe he or she is at lost how to 'study' and get high mark, especially with a student supervisor.
Edited: based on your comment above, sounds like you have an incompetent student. So I would set an easy task and get him/her out of the lab! On this I have had students who have observed their teachers in their home country perform an experiment but never done one themselves! So when they are asked to prepare something it is like flying a plane after just having read the manual; so it is not unreasonable your student will want to cover up any incompetencies.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: I would strongly consider revoking the student's laboratory access (or recommending this action to the appropriate authority; in some labs everyone has this authority). This student appears to be unprepared for laboratory work and may be a danger to themselves or others. Of course, this depends on the degree of hazard associated with your laboratory. Mine has substantial dangers which require lab workers to commit to follow procedures. If you do not feel permanent sanctions are warranted, you could offer the student the opportunity to earn their access back by performing safety/ethics/classroom training elsewhere.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: If an undergraduate, the student must have a home department with administrative staff and academic directors that you could approach. If the student is truly incapable of good work, then the department should know about it so that they can deal with it. It should be neither your nor your advisor's job to make sure that an uncooperative student succeeds in their degree work. Especially you. Your advisor must have agreed to take on this undergraduate student and their project, so ultimately, I think it should fall on your advisor to have those difficult discussions.
I think it is inadvisable to simply "abandon" the student without telling them why you are making less time for them. If you are trying to make distance between you and the student so that you can succeed in your work, because of how the student has seemingly disrespected your time and the lab, then this should be stated in no uncertain terms for their information. "Either fix the standing issues, or else do something else not here."
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: First of all, people are not mind readers; so first tell the student that he/she needs to work harder. and then:
**Longer Time Intervals**: This worked for me for number of students. Basically double the time intervals between meetings. So for example, if you meet the student every week, tell him/her that his/her progress is not satisfactory so meet me in two weeks time and tell me what you did.
**Warning With a Help of a Senior**: Then give a warning for the next time interval, and tell the student if he/she keep working like this, you will not support him/her anymore. For this, it is better to have a senior lecturer (e.g., head of a group) in the meeting as well.
**Refuse of Support With a Help of a Senior**: Then, if the student progress is not satisfactory, have another meeting with the student and with the help of a senior lecturer let the student know that you did you best and because of the student's lack of progress you are not willing to work with him/her anymore. So, he student needs to find another supervisor to work with him/her.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_5: If I was the student and I read this:
"I have recently been informed that they have messaged my supervisor implying that my apparent 'harsh' behaviour is the reason for their lack of progress. This doesn't worry me as I have a good relationship with my supervisor and have supervised students before without issue - though never as closely as this."
about myself, I would think I had better lift my game ASAP or I am in trouble.
So why don't you let them know?
Upvotes: 0
|
2016/03/06
| 426
| 1,919
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am wondering the qualitative difference between a printed journal publication and E-journal? Whether both have same impacts. I understand that impact varies from journal to journal and publisher to publisher. But I am talking about the reputed publishers only e.g. Springers, Elsevier etc. I would also like to mention that the said printed journals here are elecronically availalbe first while e-journals have no printed version.
So how good to publish a paper in an e-journal? Whether papers published in e-journals give same impression as in printed journals?<issue_comment>username_1: You appear to be confusing together two different issues: open-access vs. paywalled and printed vs. electronic.
Let us start with printed vs. electronic: the difference between a article available electronically vs. an article available only in print is that the article available electronically will be read and a paper article generally will not. With a very small number of exceptions, for the most part electronic access is the means by which scientists access journal articles these days. If they journal is not open access, then the researcher will be using an institutional subscription.
Now, as for open access vs. paywalled: some studies have shown that open access articles tend to be read and cited more than paywalled articles in similar quality journals. For both open access and paywalled articles, however, the primary determinant in how they are viewed is the quality of the journal in which they are published, and in both cases there are excellent journals and terrible journals.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: I think a lot of scientists don't know whether a journal actually appears in print. So it's not about that they don't care, it's also a lack of knowledge. In 10+ years of research I've only seen paper copies of maybe a dozen journals.
Upvotes: 2
|
2016/03/06
| 1,850
| 7,598
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am currently doing some research for choosing a topic for my M.Sc. thesis.
A week ago I sent an email to an external professor (I mean, not one in my University) asking about whether we could discuss about the topic I chose. The mail was (I believe) properly structured - not spammy and personally tailored on the prof, citing some works on the topic I took a look on, explaining my motivations on why I would like to study this topic, maybe a bit lengthy but not that much and divided in paragraphs - yet I had no answer.
For what I know it seems that this is not necessarily a "no" and a common suggestion is to write a reminder.
Now, I would really like to work on this topic and taking contact with this professor would be a great chance for me, especially in order to continue my studies with a PhD. At the same time, this professor is quite important and maybe he just doesn't care too much about a M.Sc. thesis, so I was thinking to write a reminder asking, in short, if he could send me the contact of one of his PhD/postdoc students that may be interested in helping me with my work.
My question is: is this considered a bad etiquette? writing first to a prof and then rolling back to one of his students...may sound like I underestimated his position or I am just not motivated enough.
In case, how could I structure the message? It seems to me that "if you are too busy" is a bad way to start (sounds like I don't know whether the professor has anything to do or that he could be doing nothing). Also "I know you are very busy but..." sounds bad (but what? but I don't care? but I think it is more important to stop and talk with me?). So what could be a polite way to go for it?<issue_comment>username_1: I'm not in the best position to advise you, but, perhaps, he/she hasn't answered you back, because he/she was busy to do so.
Thus, you definitely should e-mail back. Quoting a professor, maybe something like this:
"My e-mail server has been acting up lately, so I'm not sure whether my previous message was delivered properly; here it is again, just in case. Thank you!"
Read the following before:
* [Email Writing Tips](http://www.pgbovine.net/email-tips.htm)
* [Read This Before Cold-Emailing Me](http://www.pgbovine.net/email-policy.htm)
* [Examples of Good and Bad Cold Emails](http://www.pgbovine.net/good-and-bad-cold-emails.htm)
Best of luck!
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Let me start with my personal experience from similar situations: professors rarely respond to emails of this nature.
This is partly because many people bombard professors' inboxes with emails about joining their research group every day. So it is highly likely that he has not read your email carefully or at all.
Here are my suggestions:
1. At the beginning of your email mention that you tried contacting him before. This simple act has been very effective in my experience. Possibly because the professor might take time to read your email more carefully knowing that you've been trying to contact him for a while. I sometimes mention that I understand that they get a lot of emails from potential applicants every day and that I suspect that they may have missed my previous email.
2. Choose the topic of your email wisely. If the topic says something like "interested in your research" it would garner less interest from the professor than if you mention that you are interested in some sort of collaboration on a research project.
3. Try to keep your email short, and try to put the information that may make him interested at the beginning of the email. For example, it may help to let him know that you are not looking for admission to their university or a funding opportunity.
4. Since this person is likely the corresponding author on the papers published by his group you could use this for a different approach. For example, read the articles he has published that are close to the research project you wish to work on and ask questions you may have in that context. Maybe this could be a way to open the communication line.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: A week is not a very long time to wait for a response from a busy professor. Unless or is urgent, wait two weeks before getting in touch again. After two weeks, contact the professor again, saying "I hope you don't mind me following up. I realise that you are very busy, but I am very keen to hear your response. If you do not have the time at the moment, I would be grateful if you could direct me to a colleague or student who might be able to help. Thank you for your time and thank you in anticipation of your help."
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_4: I'm afraid this is really subjective to the Professor you are approaching. If he/she is well known in the field of study, as you said, then it's likely he/she is having many similar enquiries and can't respond to all of them. Also as others have said - Professors don't always reply immediately. In either case, sending a second e-mail doesn't hurt and the Prof. won't generally get annoyed at you for sending "already a second email".
In my opinion, there is also nothing wrong with contacting the PhD / PostDoc person **most relevant to your question**. Don't spam the entire lab, but write to someone and suggest that you asked the Professor earlier, but didn't get a reply (yet) - probably because he/she is too busy.
In our lab it is common that these sort of e-mails do get forwarded (from the Prof.) to the entire lab - you won't know about this, but I guess it's not uncommon.
Since, as you said, this is concerning a Masters Thesis and you are not at the same university as the Professor, unfortunately, your enquiry will be pretty low on the priority list. Why? Because, the Professor has to attend his/her students at the local university first. They also have to write their Masters Thesis and the Professors have an obligation to take them on (at least where I went to university). So don't be disappointed, but don't expect this to actually go anywhere.
**[EDIT]**
Depending on the popularity of the Professor, you may also have to assume that they never read your mail in the first place, because they simply can't read all their mail. In an ideal world, they would hire assistants / secretaries to help out, but that costs money and not every Professor ca do that.
So, a probably not uncommon approach for Professors is, to simply delete all mail that is older than X days, because they can't possibly go through them and if it was important, the person would have written back or called. In my own experience, even the PhD students and PostDocs wouldn't always get a reply from their own Professor, unless they send the same mail 3-4 times. Of course that's counterproductive, but if it's the only way to get a reply, you don't have a choice.
In the end I would include "Reminder" or something like that in the Subject-Line. The Professors I know are more concerned about efficiency, than etiquette. They want to get to the point quickly and don't have to read through apologies.
The most polite way I would come up with would be to say something like:
>
> Please allow me to remind you of my request...
>
>
>
No need to tell Professors that they are busy ;)
I also often see the request to forward something to their lab, actually being honoured. But as I said before, if you can reach one of the lab members - they all conduct their own research and surely have conversations with different people all the time - no need for the Professor to approve.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]
|
2016/03/06
| 924
| 3,850
|
<issue_start>username_0: I'm going to a conference in a few days. Among the presentations I'd like to listen to, there's one paper that is nicely written but is extremely flawed methodologically. In short, the authors violate at least three assumptions of causal inference like it's no big deal - and they don't even discuss these assumptions. Due to that, any attempt to interpret the results is laughable. (I'll edit in more details, if needed).
The point is, if it were a good paper, I'd love to keep contact with the authors. I'm familiar with their previous work, they are usually good in doing what they are doing. We work in neighboring sub-fields. It's unlikely we'd work together - we just happen to use similar methods for different things. But it is likely we'll keep bumping into each other at other conferences or will review each other's papers.
Right now I see three options:
* go to their panel, raise my hand during the Q&A time, list everything that's wrong with their paper. The presenter is really not going to like it (I know I wouldn't).
* talk to the presenter before or after the panel over coffee, list everything that's wrong with the paper, but save him public humiliation. Problems: we are not presented to each other, so he might go on the defensive and stop listening to my comments right after the first "Man, you can't do it this way." Obviously, if he reacts like this, any "let's stay in touch" would be impossible, too.
* say nothing, hoping that reviewers would say it instead. Problems: I don't establish any contact with the authors; it might be quite some time before the paper goes through the review process; the reviewers might not be that rigorous and familiar with the methodology (the latter depends on the submission venue, I guess).
**If I decide to give feedback, how to use these options to make this feedback useful without sounding like I'm trying to trash these authors' work?**
Additional details that might affect the responses:
* Quick googling shows that the paper now has a "working paper" status and is under submission somewhere. And the results have been already featured in The Financial Times. Oh, well...
* Seniority: both the presenter and I are at the post-doc/assistant professor level. Two other coauthors of the paper are senior professors.
* "Are you sure you got the flaws right"? I'm sure.<issue_comment>username_1: The key idea in a conference is to publish your research findings *and* get feedback from the panel and those participating in the conference who are related to your research area.
If you do *believe* that there are certain assumptions that are made with fundamentals blatantly violated, then you do have the right to clarify the basis on which such assumptions are made during the query session. What if they *do* have justifying reasons for their simplification I their assumptions? Due to their limited time and space, it might not be possible to explain all the details.
Being **diplomatic** is the key here (as pointed in the comments). State your points not as judgements of facts but rather as doubts for clarification. The panel may take the line and ask for further clarification as necessary.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: First: Cromwell's Rule applies. You're absolutely sure that you're right, and they're wrong. That sureness should be a huge warning sign *for you*. So, accept the possibility that you are wrong.
Second: ask, don't tell.
So not this:
>
> You say C causes D, but actually D causes C!
>
>
>
But rather, something along the lines of:
>
> Do I understand correctly that you've assumed A and B and that you've then shown that C is correlated with D, and conclude that C causes D? How did you exclude the possibilities that D causes C, or that C and D have a common cause E?
>
>
>
Upvotes: 3
|
2016/03/06
| 661
| 2,644
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am a working student (working in software engineering) and this year I'll be completing my CS Bachelor's degree in Italy. I am doing the online degree as I can't attend lectures, due to my job.
I would like to continue my studies with a Master's Degree in CS so I googled a bit and found out that [GaTech is offering an online master's degree](http://www.omscs.gatech.edu/) I am interested in.
Here in Italy the online degree has the same value as the on-campus degree: we take exams on campus, study online with videos and materials provided by the professor, we have conference sessions with the professors for any questions or we can go visit them in their office. The exams are exactly the same as the on-campus degree, so are the professors.
I was wondering if this is the case in the USA and if doing an online degree will be a limit for me to pursue, in a remote future, a PhD. Should I move to the USA to study (I can work remotely) or I can study here, in Italy, and just go to the USA to take exams?<issue_comment>username_1: In my opinion, Georgia Tech's Online Master of Computer Science will not help you get a computer science PhD in the US. Not because it's online, but because it's a *professional* master's program.
There are two types of master's degrees in computer science in the US:
* Thesis (aka research) masters degrees have a significant research component, in close collaboration with an advisor, leading up to a thesis. These are generally seen as useful stepping stones to a PhD.
* Professional (aka class-based, aka "taught", aka terminal) masters degrees consist entirely of classes. These are generally *not* seen as stepping stones to a PhD, because there is no expectation of (and therefore no resources for) research.
Moreover, because of the huge scale (>3000 students) of the OMCS program, having any kind of sustained on-on-one interaction with faculty—which you would need to get strong recommendation letters—is almost impossible.
(I regularly serve on the graduate admissions committee in a top-10 American CS department.)
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Perhaps the best course of action is to ask the faculty/graduate admissions at GaTech (or other school you are interested in) if if would make a difference to get into their PhD program, given your background.
A group of random gals and dudes on the ńet can't answer this with any certainty. If by chance somebody here *can* answer (by personal experience, ...) you won't be able to distinguish that from somebody posting compulsively with little or no knowledge of the matter.
Upvotes: 2
|
2016/03/06
| 998
| 4,400
|
<issue_start>username_0: I have just been offered a spot in a 2-year full-time masters program at a university in the US. It is very research-focused with a requirement of only a few courses. In the admissions letter they also offer me a full research assistantship (RA) for up to 12 months and say that graduate students typically receive RA support for 2 years contingent on satisfactory performance. The work from the RA is integrated into the graduate course of study. It is somewhat confusing to me why the RA and the Masters program are kept separate as it seems like almost all students would also be a RA. I have two questions related to this:
1. What are the benefits of this separation from the university's point of view - Is it mainly the ability to kick out students with bad performance?
2. I may be able to acquire substantial external funding. The offer letter states that the stipend that I receive as a RA would only supplement any external funding to a specified level, meaning that my overall salary would remain unchanged. However, if I get substantial funding this could perhaps allow me to not have a RA/TA position for 3-12 months. Would this be of any use to me? For instance, could I perhaps not have an RA position over the summer to allow me to get some time off?
**Edit:** This is a prestigious university and my sense is that the department/research group does have good enough finances to provide funding for both years.
**2. Edit:** The funding is unconditional in the sense that it is simply awarded towards the masters degree without any specific requirements. It is a tradition in my home country to award young students with scholarships to assist them in taking education elsewhere. The organizations providing the scholarships then hope that these students return to their home country after their studies abroad (which many do).<issue_comment>username_1: This is very difficult to answer authoritatively because each program is different but here are some reasons:
1. As @Brian Borchers noted, sometimes the admissions and RA funding committees are separate. At some universities, admissions is handled by the department while the RA funding has to be petitioned from the graduate school.
2. At some places, the lack of funding in the 2+ year is a weeding mechanism. Weaker students aren't offered funding, so they are disappeared (or they pay full fare which is even better than disappearing).
3. University or department finances may be such that they are not permitted to make a 2 year commitment. They hope that funding will continue but they are being cautious.
4. They may hope that rather than a university RA position, you will be switched to an external grant funded RA position. They can make a stronger case for funding "unfunded" students this way.
5. Something else.
The best thing for you to do is to talk to the director of graduate studies AS WELL AS to current graduate students in the program. People on the internet can't tell you which scenario it might be.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: The university funding bodies have their own conditions on the use of the money. Id est, it is probably tied to certain projects, it can only be used for certain expenses, and so on. Plus, each professor would get a certain number of students, and you may not get to work with Prof. Smith, the coolest guy in the department.
If you bring your own funding, your possibilities grow. Your supervisor only needs time for you, as opposed to both time and money. Your funding would have different rules, but hopefully it would allow you to work on a topic of your interest (why would you apply for it otherwise).
Also, the conditions may be more beneficial, for example, you may have more travel funds available to you.
Why would you want to skip the university's RA altogether? I can think of two cases: their stipend means you have to work on something you don't like, or that the combined workload of both your grant and the university's is too much.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: By offering an RA-ship you are being given something additional, which is in the package. You can't avoid it. This additional will also determine the length of your annual contract which is tentatively considered as two years long.
After graduation, you would have gained two separate things MS degree and RA experience.
Upvotes: 0
|
2016/03/06
| 286
| 1,265
|
<issue_start>username_0: Is it ethical to withdraw a conference long version paper after being accepted as a short paper?
Just recently we got an accepted short paper at a decent Computer Science conference. However, we submitted as a long paper and there is not a single instruction cautioning us that the PC could demote the paper.<issue_comment>username_1: It is up to you to withdraw.
But consider that if the conference asked for a major revision (cutback, in this case), they'll have their reasons (sure, space is an issue, but they are telling you it is *not* worth a full paper as it stands). I think it is unlikely you'll be able to publish the full version elsewhere, at least not without significant further work. Perhaps the best course of action is to shorten this, and rework into a full version for elsewhere.
[Note that the above is just from what OP tells us, not even knowing the area. Further details could change my assessment radically.]
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Yes.
----
Publication requires both the consent of the publisher (via the editor or program committee) and the consent of the authors. If you do not consent to publish under the conditions imposed by the publisher, you can just say no.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]
|
2016/03/06
| 2,785
| 10,838
|
<issue_start>username_0: **My "problem":**
I am from Austria and currently in the process of applying for a PhD position in Brisbane, Australia. My supervisors said that I might be eligible for an
[APA (Australian Postgraduate Awards) stipend](https://www.education.gov.au/australian-postgraduate-awards) which is supposed to cover my living expenses in AUS. Receiving this scholarship would also mean that I wouldn't be paying any tuition fees.
The total stipend amount is **26,288 AU$ / year**. And as far as I know, I would be allowed to work up to 8 hours a week to earn some extra money (I.e. as a teaching assitant).
I don't know how much the hourly rates for this type of job are, but if I speculate and say it's about **20AUS$/h**, this would result in a total **weekly budget** of approximately **660AU$** (including wage and scholarship).
**My question:**
Can I make a living with this amount of money in an expensive city like Brisbane? Could I maybe even safe up some money to fly back to Europe once a year to visit my family and friends?
Any experiences or useful links of (international) PhD Students in Australia are appreciated (I.e. on insurance costs, etc.).
**Note:** I know that the Australian Government says that the average living expenses per year are **AU$18,610**, but they don't explicitly state how they calculate this sum. When I checked the costs for housing, food, insurance, etc., the sum exceeded this official number by far.<issue_comment>username_1: Yes, you can do it but do not expect it to be similar with PhD salaries in Europe. The APA should be roughly enough to cover your expenses on a week to week basis.
Better do all your calculations with the $500 number and not the $660 per week as the TA money would be only for half the year and it is less common for PhDs to have TA With that money and no other income you are realistically looking into sharing a house or apartment (2-3 people) and in Sydney that would be in the range of **$250-$400 with bills included**, depending on where you choose to leave, how old or new will the flat be and how long you are willing to commute every day. Rents will be slightly less (or closer to the lower range) from the above numbers. (My recommendation would be to choose somewhere closer to the uni so you can walk or cycle and avoid using public transport on a daily basis)
The rest should be enough to cover your daily expenses, shopping, cooking, transportation and the occasional eating outside ($150-$200). The money from your TA should cover a flight back, but count it as an extra and do not include it to your weekly estimates.
For insurance, you will have to get "Overseas Student Health Cover" or **OSHC** which should be roughly $2500 to cover 4 years of study. You can do the calculations for yourself here: <https://www.oshcallianzassistance.com.au/#anCalculate> and you will need to buy that as part of your student visa application before you even arrive in Australia.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: Australia, New Zealand, the UK, etc. have standardized rates for stipends - and in fact for minimum wages in general - that's also inflation-corrected and increased accordingly every year. Though the minimum wage stuff also is there in the USA, there is no inflation correction in any government jobs/public (and most of the times private) universities. The stipend you have mentioned is calculated from a standard Australian government agency that governs (indirectly) the APA awards. Hence I would not worry about its calculation as it would be correctly calculated to the precision of the inflation-correction till this year. I used to get around 18,500, 18,800 and 19,150AUD (approximate figures) back in 2007 to 2009 in Perth, and my wife and I had a happy life (we didn't have kids then though)! I could afford to rent a 1living room+1br+kitchen apartment (called unit in Australia) some 7kms from the city center. If you want to live quite close to the campus, then you will have to pay quite a bit - or share an apartment with others. I could buy and drive a used car. There is not too bad (much better than any city the USA except NYC, for example, but not so great compared to Europe) public transportation. The tickets and monthly passes were discounted for the students.
My wife and I went back to our home country just once in 3 years but that's not because we couldn't afford it but for other personal reasons.
One more thing - you don't pay tax on this stipend. So you get the full in your pocket.
You obviously can't afford too much partying, eating out, etc. with this money. But for a student with usual studentsy life-style, the stipend is calculated well. Or, the other way around, if someone is spending more money than this stipend, then he\she is living a bit more expensive life than the 'average' student - not passing any judgement here, just giving a practical financial comparison.
The health insurance was covered by my award for me and my wife as well. I don't know if and why they have changed the rules recently about covering the health insurance.
For the other paid work such as tutoring. It may very well be even more than 20AUD/hour. The academia is (mostly) unionized there and the union negotiates the wage-range for each job in academia including tutoring every year to make sure that the inflation-correction is correctly implemented in the wages.
I was also an international ph.d. student in Australia, and working in the USA these days. And I am ready to say on record that Australia has been the best thing that has happened to me - and I would love to go back for a permanent job there if there is any such opportunity! I really wish you get the time of your life both academically and personally.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: I'm a current PhD student at the University of Melbourne. I can *just* support myself and one other person on my $30,000 of scholarships. I also live with just my partner (no housemates), our rent is just under $400/week + bills. So if you are OK with a more student-like experience you are likely to be fine, and use TA work to save for flights you need to take back to Europe.
Your estimate is quite low for TA work: the minimum wage for casual cafe or fast-food workers in Australia is over $22/hr. I get $44/hr for TAing, though this may just be Melbourne Uni. Also scholarships are tax-free, meaning you may not have to pay any income tax (as it would be nearly impossible to earn over the $18200 tax-free threshold given visa restrictions).
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: I am based in another Australian city that has a similar cost of living to Brisbane. I had four students working with me over summer, and asked them what they were spending on living expenses so I would be in a better position to advise the next batch of students. They were spending betweek $150 and $200 per week each on accommodation (for rooms in houses shared with other students) and between $35 and $100 per week on food.
Regarding health insurance, if it is not included with the scholarship, you will need Overseas Student Health Cover, <http://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/Publishing.nsf/Content/Overseas+Student+Health+Cover+FAQ-1#insurersofferoshc>, which costs only about $437/year and covers all the necessary basics. Private health insurance on top of this can be much more expensive, but is not really necessary unless you want faster treatment for non-emergency care.
The amount provided by Australian PhD scholarships is intended to cover basic costs of living. It's about at the poverty line: you can certainly live on it, and most of your PhD student peers will be doing the same, but you won't be well off. If you are a single, healthy person living frugally, you can save enough to cover occasional trips home. Your scholarship will also include an amount (in addition to the stipend) to cover at least one overseas conference during your candidature, and you might be able to make a side-trip to visit family after the conference.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: I am also from Austria and currently based at a university in Queensland. My personal experience is that the scholarship plus the extra income from casual teaching contracts (42-62 AU$/hr at my institution) is enough to make a living and even save some money. But this depends on your lifestyle of course. Unlike in Austria, you will get the student consession for public transportation in Queensland as a PhD student. On a side note, as an international student you will not be eligible to apply for the APA scholarship but only for a Postgraduate Research Scholarship (PRS) or International Postgraduate Research Scholarship (IPRS), which pay the same stipend as the APA but are typically more competitive. The latter one covers health insurance and visa costs as far as I know.
As others have pointed out, consider that you have to pay your health insurance upfront (depending on your scholarship), and be aware that the scholarship does not contribute to your superannuation or retirement fund. This is different from most paid PhD positions in Austria in my experience.
Some departments at my instition also award top-up scholarships of AU$10000 p.a. to their PhD students, and I would encourage you to discuss this with your prospective sueprvisor or department.
Good luck with your application.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_6: it is very difficult to make it work, in most parts of AU. I'd be careful about attempting it without some savings, guaranteed uni work, or the possibility of family assistance--which is how most people make it work. The APA is less than minimum wage, and most of Australia has crazy high rents--even for shared housing. Your budgeting is correct--the numbers just don't add up. I don't know where the poster lives who says it is cheaper to eat out than buy groceries--in the Sydney and Melbourne areas, a salad out is 30 dollars. Grocery food is fine--expensive by European standards, but you can live on noodles and beans. it is the rents that are, and some of the health care that can be, expensive. Even with insurance, there are additional health costs for many doctor visits, tests, etc--not covered by insurance (either for Australian nationals or international visitors/students). Again, the APA award is less than AU minimum wage--which itself does not cover basic costs of living in much of Australia--so no, the award is not enough, unless someone lucks into bizarrely cheap housing, or has existing savings to supplement the award. Do not think you will automatically get work on campus at $44-62 dollar/hour rates. Jobs are few and far between on many campuses. If campus work is your supplementation plan, get a commitment from the Uni for that work before accepting.
Upvotes: -1
|
2016/03/06
| 947
| 3,453
|
<issue_start>username_0: There is a big push in the PhD program I'm headed into for candidates to apply for NSF grants (in fact, one of the required classes for the first year is a class on writing grant proposals, and as a final project, every candidate submits an NSF proposal). I'm assuming this is the same for any Science/Math PhD program, as funding is tight for many departments, and a grant basically makes you free for the University.
Are there any other options for Science PhD-level grants I could apply for?<issue_comment>username_1: A few government fellowships come to mind:
* [DoE Office of Science Graduate Student Research (SCGSR)](http://science.energy.gov/wdts/scgsr/)
* [DoD National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship (NDSEG)](http://www.onr.navy.mil/Education-Outreach/undergraduate-graduate/NDSEG-graduate-fellowship.aspx)
* [DoD Science, Mathematics & Research for Transformation (SMART)](http://smart.asee.org/about/eligibility)
There are also many fellowships from industrial research labs that you could look into, depending on your field (Intel, IBM Research, Microsoft Research, Facebook, Nvidia, etc.)
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Don't forget about:
* [NIH Individual National Research Service Award (NRSA) predoctoral training fellowships](http://www.ninds.nih.gov/funding/areas/training_and_career_development/pre-doctoral-fellowship.htm)
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: For the international students, there aren't a lot of external funding opportunities. But do check out the HHMI international student fellowship. You can apply for it during your second or third year and it supports the student for the third to the fifth year. Unfortunately, only institutions with an HHMI investigator can nominate students for the fellowship, and only students in natural sciences are eligible.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: I think all the answers given so far (and several others) are included in the list at gradschools.com.
Start with the list here:
* [Federally funded portable fellowships](http://www.gradschools.com/financial-aid/graduate-fellowships-scholarships/fellowships-for-graduate-students#Federally_Funded_Portable_Fellowships)
It includes DOE CSGF, NASA, DHS, CDC, NDSEG, and NIH. Almost all the fellowships listed are primarily for STEM students.
A few of these are also relevant:
* [Portable Fellowships from Independent Organizations](http://www.gradschools.com/financial-aid/graduate-fellowships-scholarships/fellowships-for-graduate-students#Portable_Fellowships_from_Independent_Organizations)
In particular: Hertz, NPSC, and a couple of others that have more narrow eligibility requirements.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: Some other funding sources include:
* [The EPA STAR Graduate Fellowship](http://www.epa.gov/research-fellowships)
* [The Ford Foundation's Fellowship](http://nationalacademies.org/ford)
* [NSA Fellowships](https://www.nsa.gov/ia/academic_outreach/student_opportunities/)
* [Google Research](http://research.google.com/research-outreach.html#/research-outreach)
* [The Data Incubator](https://www.thedataincubator.com/)
If you want to work for a Federal Agency, I would suggest searching their webpages for Fellowships/Internships. Some state agencies might also offer fellowship/scholarship/internship opportunities.
**Note: Edited to add new fellowships that I learned about after the post**.
Upvotes: 2
|
2016/03/06
| 399
| 1,625
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am interviewing for employment in academic labs as a computer scientist, one of which a childhood friend is in and has some position of seniority. According to my friend who has spoken with the PI on the spot, the PI loves my letters of recommendation, my CV, my cover letter, etc. and the PI is willing to offer me the position on the spot if I don't screw up the interview. However, I am still wishing to keep my options open as there are other labs who have given me interviews during the same week as my interview with this current lab. How do I politely tell the PI I want some time to think about it? There are other factors that I want to weigh in like money, relative interest in the projects, my perceived contribution/role, etc.<issue_comment>username_1: Usually, no one expects you to respond to an offer on the spot.
An important distinction to make is that the PI may offer you a *verbal* offer on the spot but generally it takes some time to get the *formal* offer. Accepting the verbal offer does not necessarily mean you have the job.
If the PI gives you a verbal offer, then just respond with a compliment (e.g., "Thank you, I am very impressed with your lab") and then ask when to expect the formal offer and when you should respond by.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: In Academia (for TT positions), usually the Chair or head of search committee will send you the offer letter with 1-3 weeks to respond to the offer. However, if you know that you are not going to take the position, its better to respond right away so not to waste the search committee time.
Upvotes: -1
|
2016/03/07
| 478
| 2,150
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am wondering how it is treated if a post-doc researcher writes a recommendation letter for someone applying to get PhD admission.
Will the selection committee evaluate it properly?<issue_comment>username_1: Academic rank varies by country. But I would expect in most places a letter written by a postdoc would be considered. Selecting letter writers is often a compromise between getting a letter writer who is highly ranked and well known and getting a letter writer who is well informed. Typically one gets both when a postdoc assists a senior faculty member in writing a letter.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: If the postdoc has a very good understanding of you (ie: you worked together on a research project), it may actually be better than run-of-the-mill "She was an A-student in my class ..."-letters. I would ask the postdoc to really reflect on your skills; as someone that is still very active in research, the postdoc's opinion may be very worthy.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: Since the question asks about "a" recommendation rather than "the" recommendation letter, I think a post-doc letter is likely to be very helpful (assuming it's positive of course). Committee members are likely to give more weight to the comments in such a letter under the assumption that a post-doc is likely to have had more close contact with the candidate and can give a better assessment of their abilities than a professor.
However, I think that if the *only* recommendation letter was from a post-doc, that would be less good, because they'd also like to see a faculty member's opinion. A professor may not have as much contact with the applicant and can't do as good a job evaluating personality and technical ability, but they can probably do a better job of comparing this particular applicant to many others in a similar position, while a post-doc can do a more detailed assessment but probably has fewer similar people to compare to.
Including letters from both would cover both bases and, I suspect, would be a stronger application than having two letters from professors.
Upvotes: 2
|
2016/03/07
| 1,109
| 4,915
|
<issue_start>username_0: I recently discovered that a paper I reviewed a while back and rejected as a result of major methodological flaws had been resubmitted to another journal and published without addressing any of the significant errors that required the paper to be rejected in the first place. Is there anything I can do that doesn't violate the confidentiality of the peer review process to address the problem?<issue_comment>username_1: There are plenty of similar cases where a rejected paper gets published in some other journal. But if a reviewer had pointed out some mistakes, then it is a bad attempt to submit to another journal without making a correction or giving proper evidence. In my point of view, the author must have disobeyed the statement during journal submission, if they have anything like,
```
"whether this manuscript was rejected by another journal. If yes, then why?"
```
So inform the methodological flaws you noticed to the editor of the published journal with a request to being confidential. And let the editor to reply in that matter.
Another best way would be you can write a commentary note to the published paper to make a discussion. In this case you will have to justify the drawbacks of the used methodology.
Another possible way would be to remain silent.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: Two things are unclear about your question *Is there anything I can do that doesn't violate the confidentiality of the peer review process to address the problem?*:
1. What is the goal of any intervention?
2. Why do you think that anything should be done?
If, for example, you aim for retraction, I guess this could be difficult. You may go for this on the ground that you can prove that the authors were aware of the flaws you pointed out and submitted the paper knowing that there was something wrong. The journal may have some rule that the authors have to certify that the results are true to the best of their knowledge. If this really is so, you may have some angle of attack. If you aim for correction by the authors, it could also be difficult. However, you could consider writing a letter to the editor, pointing out what is wrong and then ask if the journal would publish such a letter. Some journals I know have such formats. You could also do follow-up research on the same topic and write a paper yourself where you refer to the paper with flaws and describe what wrong there.
For the second question, it sounds like you feel that "What's published and peer-reviewed should be true." While this resonates with me, it's not something that is close to true now and probably never will be. Mistakes happen. You may then trust in the scientific community that the flawed paper will be perceived as such in the long run and find peace with this particular paper.
Finally, the premise that confidentiality of the peer review process may permit some actions is not totally clear. As I wrote in a comment, I asked a [question about this on MO](https://mathoverflow.net/questions/98308/when-if-ever-disclose-your-identity-as-a-reviewer) and got very different responses.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: I think the first question you need to ask yourself is what have the authors done wrong. Disagreements between authors and reviewers about methodology are fairly common. I see two situations. The first is you believe the paper is wrong and needs to be retracted. The second is you believe the authors have intentionally mislead the reader (since you told them about the error in your review).
You should be able to make the claim that the methodology is flawed from the published manuscript. As that claim would only be based on the published manuscript, it would not violate the confidentiality of the peer review process. You should follow whatever procedure the publisher has for reporting issues.
If you believe the authors engaged in ethical misconduct by ignoring your review, you should be very careful. You should talk to colleagues to make sure that the methodology is in fact flawed. Once you are sure of the flaw, you then need to approach colleagues about the "hypothetical situation" of whether it is potentially unethical if the authors knew about the flaw prior to publishing the work. Once you are confident that there is a flaw and that it was potentially unethical to publish the work, you should go through the editor at the journal you reviewed for. Let the editor know about the misconduct and hopefully they will follow up on it. If the editor chooses not to follow up on a claim of misconduct, then you should follow up on that. In this case, where the journal refuses to follow up on a claim of misconduct, I think it is reasonable to violate the confidentiality of the peer review process to the extent required to show the misconduct to an outsider (e.g., [COPE](http://publicationethics.org/)).
Upvotes: 3
|
2016/03/07
| 1,242
| 5,731
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am second author of three on a recently published conceptual paper (i.e., no data). The first author is a a student I co-supervise, although the paper did not stem from his thesis but is a contribution we were invited to submit for a special issue. Authorship order accurately reflects paper contributions.
We had discussed submitting an abstract to present this paper jointly at an international conference. The submission form allows multiple presenters but one must be named as the lead. My thinking was that this should be the student, since he is first author on the paper, but that I would contribute at least 50% of the preparation. However have found out that the conference funding from my department is only available to lead presenters. The student has funding for travel to the conference regardless, as he will also be separately presenting his thesis work. He has also stated it is no issue for him if I submit the abstract as lead presenter (I would of course credit him and provide the accurate citation for the paper with him as first author, or even present jointly as per the original idea if he wants to do this).
BUT - as a relatively new academic I would really appreciate opinions as to:
1. Whether this is not the right thing to do even if he says he is ok with it - perhaps I should just sit this one out and leave that material to the student to present at a later conference if he chooses; and
2. Whether it would actually just be weird for the second author to be taking the lead on the conference presentation i.e. being the named lead presenter, particularly if the first author is also present at the conference and/or involved in the presentation?
As a little bit more context, I am interested in attending this conference for the networking and learning opportunities, and don't have anything else to submit as an alternative being so new in the job. I have previously presented all my previous work.<issue_comment>username_1: As far as I see there is nothing particularly strange with any of the authors presenting while any other authors also attend the conference. (Well, I am from mathematics where there is no such thing as "order of the authors" but I also work with people from other disciplines which do have this notion.)
So having the second author presenting while the first authors is in the audience seems totally OK for me. (It could just be that the presenting authors is the "best presenter of the group" or, by contrast, should train presenting…)
Also it is totally OK for you to be first presenter, especially since the student agreed. There are many different things influencing who presents some paper/poster (some of which you already stated such as funding, time to attend) and I think the audience would not even think about the issue much. In general, all authors should discuss who should be presenting and as long as all authors agree, the outcome is OK.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: As mentioned before: if he agrees there's no problem. Just like your PI could present your work, you can present the work of your student. If you contributed more than only supervision: even better. But I answered especially to say that usually there's no such thing as "leaving the material to present at a later conference". In my field at least, some work is presented on multiple conferences, recycled in big presentations by PIs and incorporated in the presentation on the follow-up publication. Of course he'll not be invited to present the same thing at the same conference next year, but somewhere else he could very well be.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: If you have a department head you could consult, I would consult them on whether or not this would violate any standards and practices for your department or academic field - just briefly summarize what you and the student intend to do, and ask if there are any restrictions on it.
Also review the requirements for 'lead presenter' at the conference you are attending - make sure there aren't any qualifications necessary to be considered lead presenter (there might not be any rules at all - just so long as you are part of the paper itself).
If both of these check out, and as you said before you've talked it over with the student and he's fine with it, then I see no problem with representing your paper as the 'lead presenter'. You did after all contribute to it, so it's not as if you aren't familiar with the content.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_4: I think there are two different issues here: (1) the learning experience for the student, and (2) academic politics.
The best learning experience (assuming the student doesn't have a track record of being terrified by doing presentations!) is to let them do the bulk of the preparation and presentation work themselves, but give advice on the first draft(s) of the presentation material and be around at the conference to pick up any hard (or hostile) questions from the audience if the student gets out of his/her depth. You can't learn how to do presentations without actually doing them, any more than you can learn to ride a bike by watching videos or reading books.
I wouldn't see anything particularly strange in the lead author of an *already published paper* being less involved in a conference. Quite likely the student would be working full-time on this single problem, but the lead author would have other responsibilities that might conflict with even attending the conference. Of course if the paper was written *only* for the conference itself, that would be a different situation.
I'm not qualified to comment on (2), except for the general observation that "here be dragons".
Upvotes: 0
|
2016/03/07
| 776
| 3,201
|
<issue_start>username_0: I have submitted a paper to a conference in theoretical computer science in China, whose deadline was today 06/Mar/2016, 11:59 EST. It is not one of the mainstream conferences, but I have heard some serious computer scientists advertising it. In some conference ranking sites, this conference is ranked B. On the other hand there are some prestigious specialized conferences that are also ranked B. So I decided to submit to it.
Looking for the historic of the conference in previous years, I have seem that the average acceptance ratio is 30%, and that the number of submissions each year is above 100 (some years way above 100).
Now for my surprise, I submitted my paper something like one hour before the deadline, and my paper received a number below 10. The submission system was easychair, and there were some boxes where we could chose the subjects of research related to the paper.
My questions are:
1) Is it normal to have such few submissions at easychair
just one hour before the deadline?
2) Is it possible that this conference is artificially increasing the statistics for the previous years? One weird thing that I noted is that
in previous years the proceedings were published at lncs. However this year,
there is no information about where the proceedings will be published.
3) I'm seriously thinking about withdrawing, since I can't imagine how the conference will reach a reasonable number of submissions, even if the deadline is extended. Do you think I should do that?<issue_comment>username_1: >
> 1. Is it normal to have such few submissions at easychair just one hour before the deadline?
>
>
>
Well, it may happen.
>
> 2. Is it possible that this conference is artificially increasing the statistics for the previous years? One weird thing that I noted is that in previous years the proceedings were published at lncs. However this year, there is no information about where the proceedings will be published.
>
>
>
Yes, it is absolutely possible. There are some [scams](https://www.waset.org/Conferences) also.
>
> 3. I'm seriously thinking about withdrawing, since I can't imagine how the conference will reach a reasonable number of submissions, even if the deadline is extended. Do you think I should do that?
>
>
>
Well, thinking to withdraw is okay, however, the reason you've mentioned is alone not good enough to do so.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Statistics could be artificially increased, but also the advertisements of the serious computer scientist could be faked (if they are on the website of the conference). Almost all of the scamming conferences use real, "famous" scientists that are supposedly chairing sessions and giving lectures, even though they themselves don't know anything about it.
If you really think it's a scam you could withdraw, however I don't think they will actually remove your abstract from the website.
I personally think the best way to avoid scams or second tier conferences is to just talk to colleagues / mentors / professors in your field, as you might also end up at conferences that seem interesting but are actually not completely about your field.
Upvotes: 3
|
2016/03/07
| 720
| 2,977
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am doing my PhD and presenting a paper at a conference, which I have already done a few times. However, I just saw an email from the organising committee asking if I am willing to chair one or more sessions. How should I decide whether to accept this offer? What are the reasons to accept, and what are the reasons to decline? Is it a very common thing to do for a graduate student, who does not even have a Ph.D, to be invited to chair a session? While I feel honoured, I am also somewhat overwhelmed and not sure if I should accept it.<issue_comment>username_1: **Yes, you should.**
Whether this is common depends very much on the conference. The last time I was at a conference, I was invited out of the blue by someone I didn't know to chair a session, in a [very short](http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=1047) and *very* informal e-mail as if it was coming from a long time friend in a hurry. This was less than a year after I obtained my PhD. A PhD student in our research group did the same.
All it means, really, is that you sit on a chair in front of the room, make sure the presentations are on the presentation computer, announce the speakers, etc. You will get detailed instructions. Unless you mess up (and why would you?), you really have nothing to lose.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: The typical duties of a session chair are:
* Before the session, make sure all of the presenters are present and check A/V to minimize problems during the session.
* Convene the session at its start, getting the audience to sit down and be quiet.
* Introduce each presenter and their talk.
* Keep the session on time, warning a presenters when they approach the end of their allotted time and cutting them off if necessary. This is especially important for big conferences with many parallel sessions, where people may be switching rooms in mid-session. You should typically ensure that about 5 minutes is reserved for Q&A, but the time may be shorter with very short talks (e.g., 3 minutes of a 15 minute talk).
* Moderate the question and answer period.
* Formulate a couple of interesting and respectful questions of your own for each talk, in case the audience doesn't have any questions. This is sometimes the hardest part of moderation.
These duties aren't too hard, and it's not too unusual for senior graduate students, postdocs or young faculty to be asked to chair. It's a nice little low-grade visibility and networking experience, and can be a first (small) step towards becoming involved with other aspects of conference organizing.
The only reason that I might recommend against accepting is if the session is early in the conference and you haven't been to conferences and seen how sessions are typically run before. This is something where I would recommend making sure you've watched others before you do it yourself---though you will see many bad examples as well as good.
Upvotes: 5
|
2016/03/07
| 1,161
| 4,859
|
<issue_start>username_0: This question is related to [this](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/7493/how-to-deal-with-advisor-not-allocating-time-to-me?lq=1) one and [this](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5839/supervisor-keeps-showstopping-defense-with-nit-picky-grammar-errors?lq=1) one. My Masters' thesis supervisor is incredibly superficial as in he doesn't respond to messages in a timely manner; I am not talking about understandable delays such as a few days or perhaps even a week but 15 weeks all in all.
What I have tried up to now is to have a professional discussion about my progress so far, feedback and future directions. All seemed well, I received feedback regularly (for two weeks) and then I had to redo the discussion. This wouldn't normally count as an issue but he is incredibly inconsistent in his feedback. For example, the suggestions I have received this week are inconsistent with what he requested the week before, but consistent with what was needed two weeks back. There is always this back and forth between what I should modify within my thesis (he doesn't keep any records of what he suggested and always ends up in giving advice that contradicts what he mentioned previously). I've resorted to taking pictures of the sheets (sometimes feedback contains figures and tables) and actually including them in my thesis draft prior to sending it to him. Another issue is related to his organization of these drafts. Somehow, he never seems to read the latest submitted version the thesis draft, doesn't sort files by date, etc.. As a solution, I am now prefixing the thesis name (the name of the .pdf file) with the date in which I submit it. Unfortunately, it didn't help (I'm still at square one).
Sometimes feedback is lackluster, he regularly takes a week to read two pages and give advice on them. The problem is that they are from a chapter that has long passed review (and was agreed upon by him that it is correct, both theoretically and grammatically).
Any help as to how I may actually complete this thesis? It's pretty infuriating because I've finished with moderately high grades and am now stuck because of this supervisor at the end.<issue_comment>username_1: First of all, any relationship is a two way street. You can not blame everything on your supervisor, you are the one who chose him/her; and you are the one that should have request regular meeting with him/her in the past. You have two options:
1. **Managing the Situation**: You can start managing the situation and start requesting regular meeting with him/her. He/she is not responsive on email? Well, you can see him/her on his/her weekly office hours. Doesn't have office hours? Well you have to pop in into his/her office and see if he/she is there and kindly ask him/her to respond to your email. You see what I'm trying to say here?
2. **Find Another Supervisor**: You did take classes, and you saw the lecturers. You can always find a supervisor that does have the "common sense" part and kindly ask/her to do the master thesis with him/her instead. There are always young and talented lecturers (and not yet popular) that do take such cases at least because to gain some experience and also help such students.
**Note**: At the end of the day, you need to write your own thesis, and you are the one that present/defend your thesis at the end. So also pay attention to your own work and try to finish it ASAP as any supervisor has some limitation to help you figure out your own path.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: First, you need to accept that you **can't make them** anything (nor anyone else for that matter).
With that out of the way, let's discuss what you can do in the situation. Your adviser is obviously either way too busy or just too easy-going. You made some good attempts to remedy the thing. (I'm not going to suggest to find another supervisor, because you won't be always in a situation where you can afford to do so and you'll rather often encounter such people you need to collaborate with)
I had a somewhat similar situation regarding the conflicting requirements a while back. After the meeting, I would just compose an email with the bottom line(s) of the meet-up. This email would contain a list of action items that need to be addressed before the next meeting, with the person responsible for them:
subject: action items
1. read XYZ paper, see how it relates with ABC experiment (you)
2. extend x.y table with something (you)
3. check with prof. someone to schedule you a slot on the lab equipment (your adviser)
This needs to be short and concise. Before long, you will have a steady email stream of a written trace of your requirements and their progress. It is in one place, chronologically ordered. Feel free to include your thesis versions along.
Upvotes: 1
|
2016/03/07
| 753
| 3,120
|
<issue_start>username_0: A really cool professor is invited to give a seminar in my department, and I would like to ask him/apply for a postdoc position in his lab. I do not know, if he has any openings, but I do have a meeting/lunch scheduled with him, since my project is related to his research interests. I want to know the best way to handle this. Do I send a short email with my CV/cover letter before he arrives on campus or do I ask him in person? Thanks!<issue_comment>username_1: First of all, any relationship is a two way street. You can not blame everything on your supervisor, you are the one who chose him/her; and you are the one that should have request regular meeting with him/her in the past. You have two options:
1. **Managing the Situation**: You can start managing the situation and start requesting regular meeting with him/her. He/she is not responsive on email? Well, you can see him/her on his/her weekly office hours. Doesn't have office hours? Well you have to pop in into his/her office and see if he/she is there and kindly ask him/her to respond to your email. You see what I'm trying to say here?
2. **Find Another Supervisor**: You did take classes, and you saw the lecturers. You can always find a supervisor that does have the "common sense" part and kindly ask/her to do the master thesis with him/her instead. There are always young and talented lecturers (and not yet popular) that do take such cases at least because to gain some experience and also help such students.
**Note**: At the end of the day, you need to write your own thesis, and you are the one that present/defend your thesis at the end. So also pay attention to your own work and try to finish it ASAP as any supervisor has some limitation to help you figure out your own path.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: First, you need to accept that you **can't make them** anything (nor anyone else for that matter).
With that out of the way, let's discuss what you can do in the situation. Your adviser is obviously either way too busy or just too easy-going. You made some good attempts to remedy the thing. (I'm not going to suggest to find another supervisor, because you won't be always in a situation where you can afford to do so and you'll rather often encounter such people you need to collaborate with)
I had a somewhat similar situation regarding the conflicting requirements a while back. After the meeting, I would just compose an email with the bottom line(s) of the meet-up. This email would contain a list of action items that need to be addressed before the next meeting, with the person responsible for them:
subject: action items
1. read XYZ paper, see how it relates with ABC experiment (you)
2. extend x.y table with something (you)
3. check with prof. someone to schedule you a slot on the lab equipment (your adviser)
This needs to be short and concise. Before long, you will have a steady email stream of a written trace of your requirements and their progress. It is in one place, chronologically ordered. Feel free to include your thesis versions along.
Upvotes: 1
|
2016/03/07
| 518
| 2,280
|
<issue_start>username_0: In this fall 2016 I have applied for graduate admission (PhD, Physics) few universities and I have received an admit from one of them. The university gave me a deadline (April 15) to accept or decline the offer.
On the other hand, I emailed the other few universities(my priority university selection where I would love to join.) to know my application status. They have put me on a waiting-list.
What is the possibility of these university that they will send another round offer letters within the 15th April ?<issue_comment>username_1: There is certainly a possibility that you will get moved from the wait list to acceptance before April 15th, but there is absolutely no guarantee or requirement of further contact. By "possibility", I mean this happens to students every year and it isn't particularly unusual - but I also mean that this only happens to a minority of students, and is hard to predict due to the nature of statistics and small numbers per program. Some programs might admit 2 students and both admitted students accept, while others might admit 20 yet go 2+ full rounds of wait list contacts before admission decisions are officially finished.
The general advice in the US is that you are safe to wait until close to that April 15th deadline for acceptance if you are not certain that's where you want to go, even if you are just holding out to see if any wait listed programs might accept you. Waiting past that deadline is risky unless you request and obtain an extension, as programs are well within their rights to rescind their offers and move on to their own wait list after the dead line.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: having served on an admissions committee and observed this from inside, sometimes a program will keep students waitlisted until very shortly before april 15. as it continues to get closer you can politely express enthusiasm and inquire, although you don't want to be too pushy. offers are often sent out on a rolling basis for a variety of reasons, such as higher priority recruits declining offers. you can safely hold out until the 14th or 15th before you make a decision, but do follow up one last time with your first choice before accepting anything. good luck.
Upvotes: 1
|
2016/03/07
| 696
| 3,133
|
<issue_start>username_0: My advisor has suggested that I should send a poster version of an already accepted full paper to the same conference. He suggests that I should do this because he thinks this will trigger more discussions about this work and make it known by more people. The intention is good, but I have a concern since it is a poster version of the same paper in the same conference. I feel weird.
Can anybody give me more suggestions? Should I do this?<issue_comment>username_1: Some conferences explicitly encourage (or even require) poster presentation of papers. In this case, there is typically an option to simply request that your existing paper also be given a poster slot. Thus, it may in fact be quite reasonable to seek to present in both ways, if the conference supports this.
It would not, however, be appropriate to submit a separate poster paper that pretends to be different than the accepted paper. That would be self-plagiarism, and the conference organizers might look very badly upon you for doing that.
I would thus recommend getting in touch with the poster chair and asking if they allow accepted full papers to have an accompanying poster as well. If so, that's great, and you probably don't need to submit anything more than a formality at most. If not, then accept that there will be no poster and don't submit anything!
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: The answer to this hinges on what is meant by "the same". If the gist of the poster is the same as that of the full conference paper, this would be some kind of double submission, which is usually not acceptable.
Posters can, however, be, and at least in my CS subfield, routinely are, complementing the paper by focusing on aspects of the same research endeavour that are more suited for a poster, such as:
* **a test prototype**, which is only a side-note in the main paper, can be in the focus of the poster
* **the generic methodology used for an evaluation**; while the paper might be describing the concrete case in order to focus on the problem, the proposed solution, and the results, the poster can be used to document details about the evaluation of the solution and instruct others how to use the same method for other, similar problems (usually too far out of scope to fit in the main paper, and too "thin" to warrant a regular paper of its own)
* **possible future work** building upon your paper, in order to incite a discussion during the poster session, gather new ideas, and taking advantage of the circumstance that poster sessions often explicitly invite work in progress
In any case, you should reference the poster from the paper and vice-versa, both in the papers and during the conference, to avoid allegations of self-plagiarism, and even more importantly, because you want to make sure people who are interested in your research are aware of both published facets thereof.
If you have an opportunity to inform the conference chairs about the way in which your submissions are linked, it cannot hurt to do so, but this is not always possible or even customary in some fields.
Upvotes: 0
|
2016/03/08
| 1,180
| 4,844
|
<issue_start>username_0: There's a department at my university where the head of department is routinely put as author on papers he didn't contribute to, and where researchers from overseas who had no input (but who provide funding to the department) are put on papers.
As a pragmatic matter, how should a PhD student respond when they are told to put three names on a paper, when those people didn't contribute? Assume that refusing to put the co-authors on is not an option, because:
1. There will be bad consequences if they do not, and
2. This practice is routinely done at a high level, and there is nobody at the university to complain to about it.
*This is not a duplicate of [this question](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/20899/my-advisor-wants-me-to-include-a-name-of-someone-who-has-no-contribution-to-the), because its answer assumes that it is practical for the student to refuse.*<issue_comment>username_1: This is a bit field-specific, but in some areas of study most of the credit goes to the first author of the paper. I would say that if it is not possible to refuse, make sure that you are the first author.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: This is a dicey situation.
What is your relationship with your advisor like? Have a conversation and try to resist a bit or let him/her know you don't like the idea. Sometimes people try to see what they can get away with but will give up when they are called out on it. Or, ideally this is all a misunderstanding.
Is there an ombudsman or a professor/administrator that you trust somewhere in the university (not necessarily your department)? Try to talk to them and see if they have any advice for you.
If all else fails and you aren't willing to switch advisors or universities, then just do it and move on with your life. It is horrible that your advisor put you in this situation and I'd be worried about what else your advisor is willing to do in the future. This certainly isn't an easy predicament to be in.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: The other answers are good already, especially the point that "If you can't change it, do it and move on."
I wanted to add that it should be OK to ask a question. You may politely ask a question like
"I wanted to make sure that person A and B shall be added as authors to the paper P. As far as I remember, both people did not contribute to the research or the writing of said paper. However, there may be reasons to add A and B that I do not know and I would be glad to learn them."
It is not impossible that there are fields in which giving funding or providing facilities are accepted reasons to be a coauthor. This may sound strange, but at least if this is agreed upon in the community and the contribution of the different authors can somehow be estimated (e.g. by the order of authors, but I have also seen footnotes explaining different contributions such as "designed research", "performed research") this would be OK.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: I agree with most of the other respondents in that you are stuck. Mitigating this is that authorship beyond the first author is often deprecated (unless you're in a field with alphabetic ordering of authors). In any case, you'll soon graduate (inshallah) and be out of those snake pit.
There is, however, one option: some journals do not allow **courtesy co-authors**. All authors must have contributed meaningfully to the research in question. If you published in one of those venues, you could ask the journal editor to send you a note to that effect, which you could share with your courtesy co-authors.
This way, it's not you forcing the issue, it's the journal.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: Have you thought about engaging these people in some minimal amount of work? For example, arrange to have teleconferences with these "authors" and try to get at least one substantial piece of advice from each of them. If you can do that, the dilemma becomes one of *degree* rather than substance. Crediting someone as an author when it is unclear whether they contributed *sufficiently* to the paper is much more of a gray area than when the issue is whether or not they contributed *at all*.
It can be as easy as giving them a call, saying something like, "Hey, my supervisor asked me to include you as an author. Could you take a look at my curve here and let me know if you think it fits or not? Also, are there any additional papers you think we should mention in our literature review? Thanks!"
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_6: I really don't like this practice and fought it at one point (was on my way out the door so it was easy to take a hard stance). All that said, for a junior person, I think you are better off just chalking it up as a minor moral failing of the system that you have to live with.
Upvotes: 0
|
2016/03/08
| 1,353
| 5,866
|
<issue_start>username_0: My advisor is a full professor nearing retirement age. Although he does not seem to be planning to retire anytime soon; he has this "been there/done that" attitude toward publications. He says that he has published enough significant work to be happy and that he only wants to publish breakthrough papers from now on. My issue is that I need publications to build a good resume. As of now, I have no publications from my PhD research.
My research project is structured in a way that any other professor would see it as an opportunity to get multiple publications out of it because each stage of the project has enough significance to be published separately. My adviser however wants only one comprehensive paper. I have several issues with this:
1. This reduces the number of publications appearing on my resume. I know that this really shouldn't be important, because I would still be publishing the same content. However, this is important when applying for competitive R&D positions in tech (the types of jobs I'm interested in) where during the first stages of screening applicants the number of publications would matter (since no one will actually read them at that point).
2. This also means that I will not be able to submit anything until close to my graduation which would mean that unless I delay my graduation until after the review process is over, I would have no publications when I graduate. Several people in industry who would be hiring for the types of jobs I'm interested in have told me that they do not consider PhD applicants who have no publications.
How would you propose I handle this situation? Today I told him that I'd like to submit an abstract to a conference but he would not permit it, saying that he is afraid that someone at the conference will steal our idea and publish it in a journal before we are able to. I really think he was just using that as an excuse though.<issue_comment>username_1: This is a bit field-specific, but in some areas of study most of the credit goes to the first author of the paper. I would say that if it is not possible to refuse, make sure that you are the first author.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: This is a dicey situation.
What is your relationship with your advisor like? Have a conversation and try to resist a bit or let him/her know you don't like the idea. Sometimes people try to see what they can get away with but will give up when they are called out on it. Or, ideally this is all a misunderstanding.
Is there an ombudsman or a professor/administrator that you trust somewhere in the university (not necessarily your department)? Try to talk to them and see if they have any advice for you.
If all else fails and you aren't willing to switch advisors or universities, then just do it and move on with your life. It is horrible that your advisor put you in this situation and I'd be worried about what else your advisor is willing to do in the future. This certainly isn't an easy predicament to be in.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: The other answers are good already, especially the point that "If you can't change it, do it and move on."
I wanted to add that it should be OK to ask a question. You may politely ask a question like
"I wanted to make sure that person A and B shall be added as authors to the paper P. As far as I remember, both people did not contribute to the research or the writing of said paper. However, there may be reasons to add A and B that I do not know and I would be glad to learn them."
It is not impossible that there are fields in which giving funding or providing facilities are accepted reasons to be a coauthor. This may sound strange, but at least if this is agreed upon in the community and the contribution of the different authors can somehow be estimated (e.g. by the order of authors, but I have also seen footnotes explaining different contributions such as "designed research", "performed research") this would be OK.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: I agree with most of the other respondents in that you are stuck. Mitigating this is that authorship beyond the first author is often deprecated (unless you're in a field with alphabetic ordering of authors). In any case, you'll soon graduate (inshallah) and be out of those snake pit.
There is, however, one option: some journals do not allow **courtesy co-authors**. All authors must have contributed meaningfully to the research in question. If you published in one of those venues, you could ask the journal editor to send you a note to that effect, which you could share with your courtesy co-authors.
This way, it's not you forcing the issue, it's the journal.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: Have you thought about engaging these people in some minimal amount of work? For example, arrange to have teleconferences with these "authors" and try to get at least one substantial piece of advice from each of them. If you can do that, the dilemma becomes one of *degree* rather than substance. Crediting someone as an author when it is unclear whether they contributed *sufficiently* to the paper is much more of a gray area than when the issue is whether or not they contributed *at all*.
It can be as easy as giving them a call, saying something like, "Hey, my supervisor asked me to include you as an author. Could you take a look at my curve here and let me know if you think it fits or not? Also, are there any additional papers you think we should mention in our literature review? Thanks!"
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_6: I really don't like this practice and fought it at one point (was on my way out the door so it was easy to take a hard stance). All that said, for a junior person, I think you are better off just chalking it up as a minor moral failing of the system that you have to live with.
Upvotes: 0
|
2016/03/08
| 1,489
| 5,985
|
<issue_start>username_0: I have a situation. I have got GRE score of 324. My academics are pretty strong as well (5.1/6.0). I am applying for MS to US universities. In the process of gaining letters of recommendations, I do not have too many options. One of the professor at our department has pre-written letters, because he is busy most of the times. He makes rudimentary changes to it to make it suitable for each candidate, but the gist remains the same. From the experience of past students, he asks the GRE score and he somehow thinks that it is the only "good" metric of evaluation. So he has some 3-4 versions of these letters and based on a GRE score he selects a theme. I also came to know that if student is under 320, letter is excellent, that is, it is more balanced. And over 320, there is more of a high pitching.
I am not targeting many 1st class universities. I am more selective and I really do not want this bluffing. Obviously, I cannot reveal to him that I know his procedure of writing the letters and I need one for below 320. My question is, may I lie about my GRE score to him? When he gets emails from universities, can he see my GRE score? I definitely do not want him to know that I lied, at any point in time, even after admission. Are there any other options?<issue_comment>username_1: I am tempted to say: "Never ever lie on an issue like that." Actually, I say: Never ever lie on an issue like that. First of all, it's wrong, plain and simple. Second, from a more practical point of view, you never know how it's going to bite you back.
It can taint you forever, even if here you are downplaying your achievement. It will be difficult for people to believe that you actually did that, and they will start believing that you are untruthful in other aspects, too. Frankly, it will raise more than a few question marks if it should come out.
You'll have to live with the exaggerating letters, or else to find someone else to write you a sensible one.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: The best thing to do is just **talk to the professor** about this.
If you're worried that the recommendation letter might be too strong or too weak or too generic, just talk to him. Express your concerns and see what he says.
If you don't think his letter will benefit you then try to find an alternative letter writer, but **don't lie**.
Side note: I find it odd that you know this information considering recommendation letters are usually never made available to students.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: No, you may not lie about your GRE score. Because:
>
> ACADEMIA IS A VERY SMALL PLACE
> ------------------------------
>
>
>
Seriously, let me say it again (in normal letters this time):
**Academia is a very small place**.
Really, you have no idea how small of a place academia is. Trust me, this *will* come back to bite you, as username_1 said. People talk, and one way or another, because of some unexpected set of circumstances that you cannot control or predict, your lie will be discovered and you will pay dearly for your mistake, possibly with irreparable damage to your career. So remember this: lying is in general a bad idea, but lying in such a small place as academia about a crucial thing like your GRE score is just inexcusably foolish and risky.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: I was tempted to write <NAME>'s "When we ask advice, we are usually looking for an accomplice." but your case is actually quite interesting as you are ostensibly lying "not in your favor". I agree with the others that lying will come back to haunt you, perhaps immediately if the prof asks to see proof of your score. Personally I'd be pissed about being lied to, no matter in which direction the lie goes.
So perhaps two other options:
1. You write that you do not have too many options, but you also write "**One of the professor at our department** has pre-written letters" -- so there are others? Is this prof really the right one, both in the sense that you had to lie to get the letter you want (now), and in the sense that his practice is apparently known? If he is busy and these are his practices, then how much value does this letter have? And are other profs not a better choice?
2. If you really want a letter from this prof, can you talk to him about the letters, not his process of selecting them? Can you, for example, say that you have seen both letters "low" and "high" and that you'd much prefer the "low" one? It's walking a tightrope here, as you cannot tell him what to write and he might be convinced you deserve the "better" one (and avoid "low" and "high"). But if it does not blow up in your face, it might work.
There are also two other aspects:
1. If this prof is known and his procedure (or letter of recommendation) as well, perhaps the issue isn't as large as it appears to be. You might be shooting yourself in the leg here when you go for the one you consider to be "better" here. It also reminds me of the practice to exaggerate a little in applications. It's a practice I abhor, so I understand the concerns, but truth is, if everyone exaggerates and everyone knows about it, being honest is actually lying in that situation. Yep, sounds strange but true. You might be going against social conventions without others knowing, so they get a wrong picture of you and your qualities. In being "formally" honest you might provide a wrong picture of yourself and undersell yourself.
2. It appears as if you want to match the quality of the recommendation to the level of the university you want to apply to. It seems like a fear of being "overqualified". But if these universities have two applicants and one spot, which one will they chose? Do they really go for the one that is on their level (that would be brutally honest) or will they go for the one that can best improve their research? I don't know the answer but perhaps it's something to think about.
Upvotes: 2
|
2016/03/08
| 1,825
| 7,793
|
<issue_start>username_0: He's clearly a very nice man, but his delivery is reasonably monotonous, and his lecture material is reams and reams of definitions and rules.
I make sure to attend every lecture, and try my best to concentrate, but do find I have had to use other sources (generally online) to be able to answer the questions he sets.
All my peers that I have asked, say they find him very boring.<issue_comment>username_1: Yes you should! That's when head of department comes in. Have a meeting with a head of department and explain to him/her about the situation.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: The poor old lecturer may be a bit hurt about the incredible lack of attendance. He must know that about 90% of the class think that he is very boring. If you turn up you will be more likely to ask him lots of questions because there wont be many others asking questions. This is actually a great oppertunity for you to learn stuff that the other 90% probably wont. Remember that grades at the end of the day are relative so you could get a decent grade for the boring course. If the lecturer really gets the pricker which depends on his human nature which I cant guess then he will at some of his most poorly attended lectures basicley tell you what is going to be in the exam. I have seen this done but I was too niave probably due to learning disability to work this out.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: In my experience with classes having such low turnouts, student-teacher were a bit more informal in the interaction. Try to get your point across to him in a subtle way in any such moment you might have. Anonymous mail could be a good idea in case you wouldn't want him to find who the person was. Whatever you chose, don't just tell him the problem, but solution which you think might work. eg. Sir, it would be cool if we could have more group discussions / movie related to the course etc.
If not anything else, at least consider filling up that year end feedback form, properly mentioning the reasons why you think people don't attend his lectures and what all can he improve upon. This will at least give the Prof. a chance to reflect upon his teaching, if he really wants to, that is.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: >
> All my peers that I have asked, say they find him very boring.
>
>
>
I had a similar situation, where I ended up failing the course (literally with **F** grade) while all my peers passed with reasonably good grades.
I think, you should try to get along and, at least, pass that course.
If you don't gain much you won't lose either.
Focusing on his monotonicity or the class turn up will not bring any good to you.
**EDIT:**
After all, that's one course out of many. There are professors who are not monotonic and interesting too, yet they do not deliver what they are supposed to, which we only recognize down the road over years.
However, if you are really interested in learning (which actually is *not bounded* by the issues you have mentioned), there are many ways out there, some of which have been mentioned in other answers too.
Bottomline: Fixing the problems you have mentioned is neither your responsibility nor you can do. Why not take them as challenges and figure out ways and learn to survive in such situation with flying colors.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_5: That you asked the question shows that you feel that there *is* something that you can do, and that you somehow *should* do something. However, the question lacks motivation. The lecture is boring - OK. Many things in life are boring. Here are some different motivations you may have (certainly not an exhaustive list):
* **You would like to have better lecture for yourself to facilitate your learning.** That's a good motivation. Especially, you can bring this point across without judging the lecturer or the lecture. Focus on what you experience and what you perceive. Note the difference of "I can not focus for the whole lecture." and "The lecture is boring."
* **You feel with the students not coming, think they skip the lecture because they find it boring, and wish they would have better opportunities for learning.** Note that students skip lectures for all kinds of reasons. I myself skipped lectures because I did not like the lecturer (although the lectures were anything else but boring), because the lecture were indeed boring, because I did not like the lecture style (e.g. it being to fast and reading from a book suited me better), because I was just "not in the mood" (although anything else was OK with the lecture). But it seem that you checked the premise. Then here be sure to stick to the facts when formulating your suggestions/feedback. Note the difference between "The students find your lecture boring." and "Other students I talked to agreed with me."
* **You want to help the poor lecturer.** Also a valid motivation, but quite tough to deduce some action here. First, it's hard to be sure if the lecturer really wants help or could do something.
So, there is no general advice in this situation. Some points to consider: Do not judge persons, do not blame anybody. Describe your experiences, suggest changes that would help *you*. Be prepared that nothing will happen and do not insist. Think twice before involving a third person.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_6: You are doing the right thing by attending. Even if those lectures are far from optimal, you will learn about the specific parts of course literature that this professor finds to be the most important. This will make it easier to pass the exam later.
And maybe you can suggest to him, in a nice way, how he can improve the lectures? I would. If it is difficult, do it anonymously after the course is completed.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_7: What the lecturer thinks about the turnout rate will depend a lot on the lecturer and their work environment. In many places teaching is not valued, whether explicitly or only implicitly (it can count very little towards pay/promotion/social-standing). So some lecturers simply do not care. Others will care, but may not know what the problem is or what to do about it, since many will have little or no training in how to teach.
Also, be aware that what students want and what student need are not necessarily the same thing. Just because you and your course-mates agree on what you don't like, that does not automatically mean you are right. In the end, most students will want their degree to be valuable more than fun.
My suggestion would be to propose a discussion on what the purpose of a lecture is, and what part it is intended to play in the learning process (and indeed what you are meant to be learning). This is often not discussed explicitly, since each person may feel the answer is set in stone, but in fact the answers in people's heads may be very different. It may be that just having such a discussion will get the lecturer thinking (which might not result in change within the time-span of your course, because change takes a lot of effort, and is also prone to being unpopular with students), and it may also show you a different side of the lectures that means you can make better use of them (which admittedly won't help the students that have already chosen to leave).
As an anecdote, every single one of my lectures consisted of the lecturer writing on the board, which we copied down (with some minor variations). The content was all abstract mathematics. Yet I never felt the need to label the lectures boring. A couple of my friends did consider one class boring, because the pace was too slow. But the lectures were what we expected, gave us what we needed, and covered some interesting topics (and others I was less interested in).
Upvotes: 2
|
2016/03/08
| 256
| 1,078
|
<issue_start>username_0: This is a little bit hypothetical question… Let's assume I finished my PhD in math in my country but I am dissatisfied with it (assume I live in a developing country). Also I have enough money and time. Can I apply for a similar PhD program in an another country? Is it theoretically possible?<issue_comment>username_1: No, it's generally not possible. Almost all Ph.D. programs have a rule against admitting someone who already has a research doctorate. Under special circumstances, one might be admitted as an unfunded Ph.D. student in a completely different field; but in the same field, never.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: If you want to obtain a PhD from a 1st world country I think your best bet is to go to another country as soon as possible. It will be a lot easier to get into a PhD program with a masters degree from a similar country, and it will be easier to continue your career abroad if you have followed a funded PhD program (as opposed to paying yourself / getting a grant from your home country).
Upvotes: 1
|
2016/03/08
| 770
| 3,228
|
<issue_start>username_0: I finished an integrated masters program in physics last summer, and I plan on doing a PhD on the coordination of autonomous agents, particularly in the field of automated vehicles.
I was excited after having a discussion with a top professor in the field at a university I wanted to go to. I was told to read some more of his work to see if I could understand it, and get in contact in a few weeks. I did the reading, with some basic understanding afterwards, but the position I was pursuing was given away while I did this reading before I had the chance to prove my knowledge.
When I read papers in this field, which incorporate set theory and graph theory as well as other areas I have no background in, **how much of the material do I need to 'get' before I can seriously apply**? I find myself understanding the ideas and the processes, but I get tangled in the maths. How much training would somebody with a good academic record, but from a different field, get on a PhD program like this? Would I get time to get up to speed by reading seminal textbooks?
This sort of move into a new field is scary, and even with my good academic record, I am terrified of being completely useless.<issue_comment>username_1: First of all, do you have enough time to change your topic? If so, I would strongly recommend to talk to your supervisor first. If he/she knows you and your abilities, he/she can guide you on choosing a topic; you can finish up and get a PhD. Second of all, with a good help of your supervisor and your commitment you can finish a PhD.
**Note on "Scary Parts"**: Nothing is scary!. I myself had no idea about a subset of computing semantics, and it felt like jumping from an airplane when I started to learn about it. However, at the end of the learning period, I realized why I was so afraid? Don't be scared, it will take your focus away, on doing your job. Your new slogan should be: *Keep calm and learn!*
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: One way to approach this would be to look at the program's first year courses, and see if you have the prereqs to take them. If you can walk into the first year courses without problems, you probably have enough background to get started.
Beyond that, pick one or two active researchers in the department, maybe the ones doing work along your desired career path, and start reading their work. Do your own research to try to catch yourself up before interviews, and maybe before writing your personal statement.
I think it may be important for you to develop your story about why you want to change fields.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: I changed fields between my master's degree and my PhD and I also found it scary. From my experience, there is no reason to be scared. Most students entering the graduate program will have little experience and you will have enough time to learn as you take classes or start your research.
I would say that with a background in Physics you would be ready to 'seriously apply' right away.
I will refer you to a somewhat similar question I answered a year ago, and the comments below it for some more info: <https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/42326/31255>
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]
|
2016/03/08
| 591
| 2,596
|
<issue_start>username_0: I have just submitted my review of a manuscript to a journal, which allowed me to see other reviewers' comments once I submitted mine. I have points of disagreement with this other reviewer, but I am sure this is normal. What alarmed me was that, his/her review comments ended with a suggestion for the authors to cite additional references which, in my opinion, are not directly relevant to the manuscript, but were suggested on the pretense that they were published in the same journal, which is weird. These references have something in common in them: they are authored by the same group of people. Although I cannot be sure that this reviewer is one of them, I have the feeling that h/she may be, and that this practice may be common. In the past, when I was the author, a reviewer also suggested me to include additional references, but these references were not authored by the same people, and anyway I ended up not including them as I thought they were not directly relevant. But as a reviewer, what should I do in this case?<issue_comment>username_1: I would recommend raising your concern to the editor. If the editor is honest, they will not ask the authors to follow the citations en masse.
Given that the citations are all in the same journal, however, it is possible that the editor is part of the same citation cartel and may blow off your concern. In this case, it may be worth raising the concern to the publisher and/or one of the major indices. Citation cartels have been gaining attention in recent years, and if this is part of a systematic pattern of coercive citation, then those larger organizations may be motivated to investigate and sanction.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: My answer depends on where in the review process the manuscript is.
If you believe the manuscript will come back to you for a second round of reviews, I would wait until then. At that point, see how the authors handled the issue. If they included irrelevant citations, tell them in your review. Something along the lines of:
>
> While reviewer 2 suggested you cite everything ever written by Smith, they do not seem to be appropriate in the cited context.
>
>
>
I would then add a confidential note to the editor saying that they may want to comment on if the cited work is needed.
If you believe the manuscript will not come back to you (either because the authors will give up or it will be accepted), then you may want to tell the editor directly. I tend to defer to the editor on these issues, so would not say anything.
Upvotes: 2
|
2016/03/08
| 528
| 2,352
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am preparing my Bachelor thesis (it has to be around 20-25 pages long in case it makes a difference) in Biophysics and I want to put some images at the very beginning as a way of introducing and making clear the physical processes and systems that I'm going to consider through the whole thesis.
I am writing my thesis using LaTeX and a one column style and I don't really know where and how to put the figures. For the figures that contain results of simulations and similar things it is easier because I can almost always put two of them together so they cover the whole width of the text, but if I put a schematic drawing of some process I feel that there is a lot of blank space around.
What I have done so far is to change the style to two columns in that part of the thesis and use one for the image and the other one for text. Is this acceptable? What is usually done to avoid having a lot of blank space around the figures?
Also most of my figures are interspersed thorough the text (I am using LaTeX automatic positioning so far) because I feel that it is easier to understand the process if the schematic figure that I'm referring to is next to the text. Should I continue doing it or should I put all of them at the end of the section or of the whole thesis?<issue_comment>username_1: The basic guideline for this should be your institute's guideline on how to layout bachelor or master thesis.
From a typographic standpoint you should never mix one column with two column layouts. LaTeX offers packages which you can use to wrap text around figures to reduce white spaces.
Like you said and did, I also would put the figures around the spots where they are mentioned in the text. LaTeX arranges them automatically (you can however specify some positions in your figure environment). But from my experiences, it does a very good job at finding the right positions.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: Unless two images really are about the same general thing (and should be handled as subfigures) I'd leave them alone.
Remember, your goal is to get your point across as clearly as possible, bunching up figures to save whitespace on the page is counterproductive. If your images leave too much (sideways) space, perhaps they are too small, or at least enlarging them could improve their clarity.
Upvotes: 0
|
2016/03/08
| 1,803
| 7,798
|
<issue_start>username_0: Around a year ago, I reviewed a paper for a journal. The originality of the paper was questionable, and content and presentation were severely lacking throughout. Consequently, both another reviewer and I recommended rejection and gave detailed explanations with which the associate editor agreed. The decision, including the review reports, were sent to the authors.
Now, a colleague of mine just told me of a review request from another journal. Briefly summarizing the content of the paper, I realized that this sounded quite familiar. Expressing my concerns to my colleague, we compared the authors and the papers, and realized that this was exactly the same paper that was reviewed and rejected earlier; nothing has been changed (apart from some journal style-specific things).
How should we proceed?<issue_comment>username_1: "One Man's Ceiling Is Another Man's Floor". A paper unsuitable for one kind of journal might be suited to another. While non unethical, submitting the same paper suggest a lack of critical thinking by, at least, the submitting author.
[EDIT] I do undertand, though, that, depending on the domain, authors may consider their paper could be resubmitted, without changing a line, to another journal. This really also depends on the reasons for rejection.
[EDIT] I agree that the peer review system requires confidentiality, and independence. Authors deserve several chances to get published.
[EDIT] Yet, some misconducts are becoming apparent. [Redundant publications](http://www.oxfordjournals.org/our_journals/jpepsy/for_authors/multiple_publications.html), plagiarism, for instance. This is not the case here. However, some authors do not hesitate to resubmit again and again, sometimes to journals with putative lower expectations, with hope they will finally go through, with some chance and unwary editors and reviewers.
Such practice floods the peer review system.
Since the paper already made it to the reviewers (and was already reviewed in the past), there are two options:
1. let it flow without interference,
2. interfere.
I am in favor, in the OP case, of the second option. I feel important to let the editor know about the situation, while performing the review. This would warn him from accepting the paper solely based on other lacky reviewers (which might be the intend of the submitting author: to get lucky with reviewers). I do feel an editor should be, at his place, capable of critical judgement on such a warning.
1. What would be optimal is to have Journal 1 editor inform Journal 2 editor that he got aware of the situation, and inform Journal 2 editor about his decision for rejection. It is possible if you know well Journal 1 editor.
2. Summmarize the main traits of the evaluation (including those from your co-reviewers for Journal 1), to save some time for your colleague, and invite him to write these concerns in the section "information to the editor only". I believe non-so-ethical to provide all the initial reviews to your colleague, yet, in extreme cases...
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: If you were asked to re-review an "unchanged" manuscript there are a number of things you can do (e.g., [Asked again to review a paper, when the authors don't wish to modify it](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/7200/asked-again-to-review-a-paper-when-the-authors-dont-wish-to-modify-it)). The issue is that this is not the case. You are no longer part of the review process.
The first thing you should do is STOP. The behavior you have engaged in so far has been completely unethical and a clear violation of every reviewer agreement I have ever seen.
* Your colleague should never have told you about the paper under review.
* You should not have mention that you reviewed a similar paper in the past.
* Neither of you should have mentioned authors or the title.
* The actual manuscripts should never have been shared and/or compared
To a lesser extent, it is not even clear why you still have your copy of the manuscript.
The Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) provides [Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers](http://publicationethics.org/files/Peer%20review%20guidelines_0.pdf) which can be thought of as best practice. These include:
* respect the confidentiality of peer review and not reveal any details of a manuscript or its
review, during or after the peer-review process, beyond those that are released by the
journal
* not involve anyone else in the review of a manuscript, including junior researchers they are
mentoring, without first obtaining permission from the journal; the names of any individuals
who have helped them with the review should be included with the returned review so that
they are associated with the manuscript in the journal’s records and can also receive due
credit for their efforts.
* keep all manuscript and review details confidential.
Upvotes: 8 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: Between the two reviewers, you've created quite a nasty situation. First -- the author did NOTHING wrong.
Second, you and your colleague have done something very wrong. The fact that you know nothing substantive has changed means you were essentially handed the manuscript, which is very bad behavior on both your parts.
My recommendation is that the new reviewer should probably contact the editor that sent him the manuscript and say simply "for reasons I choose not to discuss, I suddenly find myself in conflict, and can't provide a review", delete the paper, and never discuss it again. Your colleague is not in a situation where he should try to provide a fair review, as he's obviously poisoned.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_4: >
> The goal of the review process is to fairly and accurately evaluate the merits of the submitted manuscript, while making sure no one gains an unfair advantage through knowledge of the manuscript before it is available publicly.
>
>
>
I see no issue about unfair advantage here, since you and your colleague were both already in possession of the same manuscript. That being said, ethical boundaries are very field dependent, and the culture in your field may be different. For example, I have reviewed a number of papers and have never been explicitly asked to keep submitted manuscripts confidential (though it is generally understood that I should).
As for your colleague's responsibility of evaluating the paper, there is some unfortunate tension between the goals of fairness and accuracy, and you need to make a judgement based on the specifics of the situation. But here are the main points I think are important:
1. It is unreasonable to expect every reviewer to understand every tool used in a submitted paper. Discussion of papers (which both parties already have access to) is to be encouraged (though the fact that one is reviewing the paper being discussed should perhaps be kept confidential, depending on the situation). From this point of view, I would consider it unethical **not** to let your colleague know about a serious logical error in a paper they are reviewing.
2. On the other hand, your colleague should form their own critical opinion about the paper. Their knowledge that the paper was previously rejected and then resubmitted without any revision has (probably) already biased them against it.
So, if there is a serious issue in the paper which absolutely has to be pointed out, then by all means do so. Otherwise, I would do as the other answers suggest and let your colleague form their own opinion about it.
The fact that the authors have not addressed your original reasons for rejection is unsettling and could be a reflection of unethical behavior on their part, but without more information, we (and perhaps you) cannot know for sure.
Upvotes: 3
|
2016/03/08
| 822
| 3,340
|
<issue_start>username_0: **Background**:
I'm in a precarious situation.
I'm currently in the sixth semester of a ten-semester (five-year) combined bachelor's/master's program in engineering. So far I've had two relevant industry internships and have been getting stellar grades, but I lack research experience in my field. I am still unsure if I want to pursue a PhD, and I'm a bit apprehensive to make that life decision now.
All six semesters I've been taking classes and conducting research in a not-so-relevant field (mainly because research in my field is hard to get as an undergraduate) - suffice it to say after three years of this, I've somewhat burned out.
I'm currently signing up for classes for my seventh semester, which is the first semester I'm required to take graduate classes. Because I've felt a lot of academic pressure, I decided to sign up for less classes than usual to give myself a respite.
In response to this, my academic adviser recommended that I conduct research at a lab near campus to prepare me for a prospective PhD. I'm reluctant to agree because I wanted to take the semester to relax and pursue various interests I've fallen out of touch with since the start of university.
I voiced my concerns to my adviser and he is continually trying to pressure me to conduct research, citing that not doing so would be a huge missed opportunity and might hurt my chances of applying for a PhD.
Question
--------
I don't want to leave this as an open-ended question (a la "what should I do?"), so I'll try to make it more structured:
* How important is having research in a relevant field when applying to PhD programs?
* Would PhD programs look unfavourably upon taking a semester to "relax," considering that a PhD requires a great deal of dedication?<issue_comment>username_1: Wanna relax, then do so. Don't be somewhere you don't want to be. You have to be mentally ready to do a research. I have seen many cases of young intelligent individuals who started doing PhD, and then for various reasons gave up, because some serious work needed to be done and they want to have well... some fun (rightfully so)!
I would recommend do not burn the bridge with your supervisor as you might start doing PhD in upcoming years. Tell him/her in a meeting that you would like to finish your studies and enjoy life a little bit; before committing yourself to doing research.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: >
> How important is having research in a relevant field when applying to PhD programs?
>
>
>
Very. The more quality, relevant research, the better. The more researchers you can work with who can write you a good letter of recommendation, the better.
>
> Would PhD programs look unfavorably upon taking a semester to "relax," considering that a PhD requires a great deal of dedication?
>
>
>
It's not a bad thing, but a lot of your competition isn't doing this and it'll be to their advantage. Although I think "the heaver workload of graduate classes" is a perfectly acceptable reason to cut back on classes for a semester. ;)
Ultimately, you have an obligation to yourself and your wellbeing. Doing this research is in your best interest if you want to look the best on PhD applications. But you have to figure out how to balance this with your physical and mental wellbeing.
Upvotes: 1
|
2016/03/08
| 272
| 1,172
|
<issue_start>username_0: I met an important scientist in my field in a scientific meeting last week. We agreed that I should write a project draft and send it to him, so we could set up a collaboration. Because I want to take as much advantage as possible from this opportunity (I am a PhD student), I want to be very careful with the project draft that I sent him. But this week I have been very busy with other work, and I have not been able to write the draft. My fear is that the interaction will 'cool off' as the days past. It's not been a week yet, and I am planning to write this in at most 2 more days. But in general experience, how long is it ok to wait before sending an email like this?<issue_comment>username_1: This is about a professional relationship; so, as soon as possible you can finish your task, you should send him/her your email.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: It will not cool off that quickly. Doing it right is more important than doing it soon.
If you are a PhD student you must talk with your mentor/supervisor before establishing a collaboration or even sending this draft project. You don't know the political background.
Upvotes: 3
|
2016/03/08
| 640
| 2,910
|
<issue_start>username_0: What is the difference between an academic department and a program in U.S. colleges and universities? I am attempting to model the relationship between Departments and Programs. Thanks!<issue_comment>username_1: I am not sure everyone uses the words the same way, but here is the difference at schools I have been at:
* A department is a collection of faculty who are organized into a unit for management and course planning purposes. Some departments have faculty from just one area, while others have faculty from many areas. The division into departments is used in particular for hiring and tenure decisions, which often begin with at the department level. Several departments are collected together to form a division, school, or college, which is the next level up the management hierarchy. Different schools use different divisions, but the smallest one is almost always called a department.
* A program is a collection of courses that lead to a particular degree or certificate. These courses (ignoring general education) may be taught by one department, or by many. For example, a degree program might be "bachelor's of science in mathematics" or "bachelor's of arts in management". The mathematics program will require predominately courses from the mathematics department, while the management program may require courses from the management department, the accounting department, the economics department, and maybe a computer information systems department also.
Some departments offer a single degree program, while other department offer multiple degree programs. On the other hand, some degree programs are interdisciplinary and are offered jointly by several departments in collaboration.
Each faculty member will work for one or more departments; these assignments are called "appointments". A student will not be part of a department in the way that faculty are, but a student may "declare" one or more degree programs, and in that way each student is typically "advised" by faculty of one or more departments.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: In my experience in one case. Departments group the faculty for purposes of finances, hiring, promotion. Programs group the students, especially graduate students, according to what they are studying. In many cases, each department houses one program. But not in all cases.
Two hypothetical examples:
The program in Biochemistry has no department of its own, but draws faculty from three departments---some from Chemistry, some from Medicine, and some from Microbiology.) A professor may be a member of the Department of Chemistry, but may teach courses in both Chemistry and Biochemistry.
The Department of Romance Languages and Literatures has programs in French, Italian, Spanish, and Portugese. A professor may be a member of that Department, but teach courses in only one of those programs.
Upvotes: 3
|
2016/03/09
| 899
| 3,868
|
<issue_start>username_0: I want to write: *"A recent study ..."*,
The particular study I want to cite was published two years ago. I don't think that this is very recent in terms of journal appearances. But it is the *most* recent I could find compared to similar studies, which is what I want to emphasize.
But what are the general semantics of "recent" when referencing sources?<issue_comment>username_1: It depends on the area. If you are talking about slow moving areas, "recent" could be a decade ago; for something that moves fast, what was published last year is old hat.
Perhaps the easiest way out is to be more specific, "a study three years back..." (besides, the study might be several years back, or be a decade long study, but the journal issue just came out, so the publication date isn't necessarily telling).
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Good question. The semantics of the word "recent", in general, and in academic writing, in particular, is not clearly defined (that is, fuzzy), which makes its practical use quite tricky, as evidenced by your question.
While @username_1's answer offers some valuable insights, such as considering the *fluidity* of a particular scientific field or domain, I would suggest a more practical solution to this problem, as follows. Consider *literature* that you reference in a particular paper. What is the **temporal range** of the sources? I think that this aspect could guide you in to where the word "recent" is appropriate and where not so much.
For example, if you cite sources from the current century as well as 1930s, then a paper from 2010 should be considered recent, but not one from 1950. If, on the other hand, your temporal range of references is rather narrow, say, recent 20 years, then you should refer to as *"recent"* for sources that are from approximately last 4-5 years. You can come up with your own *rule of thumb* (10-20% of the total range sounds pretty reasonable). The most important aspect would be not the actual value (for the rule of thumb), but rather your **consistency** in applying it throughout the paper.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: As previously mentioned, the meaning of 'recent' depends on the topic of study. What is considered recent in mathematics may not be considered recent enough for computer science. My computer science professors have generally stuck with anything five years old as being the 'oldest' an article can be. Two to three years is generally better, especially in the tech field as things progress at a much higher rate. A good thing to look out for is when an article might pass the 5 year mark, someone will most likely have adapted the methodology or research findings in a more recent article. Best of luck!
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: It depends.
If you refer to something that has a precise date, you should be precise. I see no advantage in writing "A recent study showed..." over "The study X from 2010 showed..." The latter contains more information and reads as least as good (in my opinion even better, because it's more precise). A similar case is "The problem posed by X at the meeting Y in 2010..." (better than "The recently posed problem...").
One case in which "recent" could make sense is "The field X has attracted much attention recently" because usually one can not pin down an exact date for this event. However, in most cases this reads more like a self-perpetuating empty statement (if there is a simple reason why the reader should care about the field X then give that!). I have to admit that I myself also wrote sentences like this, but looking back it reads a bit weird. Nowadays, if I read "this field has attracted much attention recently" I really read that the authors do not know a good reason why their problem is interesting but feel that they should.
Upvotes: 0
|
2016/03/09
| 1,750
| 7,646
|
<issue_start>username_0: I happen to have worked on a Mathematical topic. The story is complicated.
It was not my original idea. My professor had already worked on it for a long time, intermittently. In fact, when we started out, I did not understand the concepts that well. Over a period of time, I picked up and managed to implement the algorithm myself; it proved to be even better than professor's implementation and speed was 10% faster.
We were to publish this paper, but it took a different turn. The professor has some different thought process, and wants to prove a substantial finding. He has linked it to a thought that it can be better further. We have a complete discord of thoughts on this. I do not deny what he is saying is true, but I think it should be the next phase. Our work till now produces best results, of course - under certain conditions.
I do not mind working with him further, and bringing it together to the research community. But I am going for a PhD. And I will not be physically available. I suggested an option of remote interaction, but the professor does not agree. He explained why meetings are important and why remote work cannot be carried out efficiently. After the discord, it is more of an ego issue, he did not directly indicate it. But I agree with most of his points on remote work being difficult.
But I have worked hard on the problem, sometimes 10 hours a day, for 5 complete months. And now I have to walk away without anything on my name. The nature of a professor is extremely dominating, and he will NOT mention my name in the paper once it comes to publishing after following his pathway. This is not my analysis, he clearly said this: *"If you are not working on it any further, your name will not be included in the paper"* He will probably find another student (MS level) and get it through.
Now my questions are:
1. Can I publish work till now, as it is also a major finding? I firmly believe I completely understand what is being proposed, under what scenarios finding is valid, simply put, I own the work, even though original idea is not mine. I indirectly talked about this with professor, he nullified that this is even possible, indicating I should not.
2. Will this be termed as plagiarism? I am ready to mention professor's name, but he does not even agree to idea of publishing it at this stage. So I have two options:
a. Mentioning his name as an author without his consent.
b. Mentioning him only in the acknowledgements, and also mentioning it was his idea and we worked together, but he does not agree this should be published without future additions.
3. Will this come back to me in a bad way, possibly unimaginable to me at this point of time. I am just starting out my research career and do not want it to be hampered because of my behavior/attitude.
4. Could you suggest any better way of resolving the situation? Talking to the professor is not really helping, yesterday we spent five hours discussing it. He is acting stubborn, uncooperative and because of that I have a feeling of wasting my six months. Of course, I learned lot in the process, my programming is much better now, my research methodology has improved. But unless I publish something, it remains only with me. I genuinely want to demonstrate my work, my abilities through a publication.
Pl suggest.
**Edit\_1\_after\_~20\_months**
I ended up not attempting to write a paper. At that time, I had a feeling that I did SO\_MUCH work but have gained nothing, and wanted some output. I was wrong though, I learned how to approach a problem, how to carry out research iteratively, my programming improved a lot. The professor is still in touch. I have moved to different country and working on my PhD. Not having that work on my name does not matter a bit, but learnings do make a positive difference. I thank people who put out their thinking and suggestion. It was a vile effort from a bu\*\*hurt person and that thinking does not make sense now.<issue_comment>username_1: There are a number of other questions on this site relating to these issues, although I'm not going to search for them now.
There are different issues going on here:
Firstly, you want to publish the bit of research you have done so far, but the PI thinks it should instead be turned into something more substantial before publishing. In this he is almost certainly right. It is not considered good practice to slice work into small pieces to get more papers.
You are considering publishing work with someone else against their wishes. Don't. Especially if you want to stay within the research community.
I take it you are concerned about having material for your PhD. Unless you are somewhere where publishing is a requirement for graduating, this is actually irrelevant. A PhD thesis should contain what you have done, and the normal progression of research is considered when assessing it.
You want to work remotely. I am confused as to who your PhD supervisor is. If he is your supervisor then you should expect to see him in person. If you are doing a PhD elsewhere, then how do you expect to have time to work on this project while also working full-time on your PhD topic?
Note also that writing a faster algorithm does not in itself really constitute new research in maths. Is there a particular theoretical change that made it faster? Or is it just that you coded a bit better? Does it actually make a difference in practical computational time, such that it allowed you to test some new examples that gave you the key insight for a theorem (or at least conjecture, or counter-example)?
The professor has said your name won't go on the final paper if you do no further work. It's possible that the professor is being unreasonable, and you can look up other questions along those lines. But the more likely situation is that your name won't go on the paper because what you have done doesn't count for authorship. Generally in mathematics the authors are only those who have contributed to what appears *in the paper*. It sounds unlikely that that would be true of the work you have done.
An unconventional solution, but one that would perhaps be more to your liking, might be to agree to release your write-up of your algorithm alongside the final paper, either as an appendix or as a separate paper. It probably won't do that much for you career-wise, but it might make you feel better and preserve your relationship with the professor. Also, by the time that happens you may be in a better position to admit that he's right. I know for myself it's hard to admit that your work isn't really that valuable, because it matters a lot to you. Over time you will become a little less emotionally involved.
Also, remember that this is someone you will want a reference from, if you are to stay in academia.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: The only possible way is asking him to publish your name as one of the co-authour when the paper comes to pubish. It takes time to get publish, but you should wait as you beive it is a significant finding. meanwhile, start applying same mathedology to some other algo for furthur improvements. As you abilities in programming are enhanced, you can achive this fastly.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_3: It is more difficult now that there seems to be arguments between your advisor and you. You would need to improve your communication with him before making progress. Five months is not enough to have the perspective your advisor has. If you submit a paper with him, it will be his name that will get it accepted, not yours.
Upvotes: 0
|
2016/03/09
| 755
| 2,869
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am writing an article for publication in **English**. It is necessary to include references to articles written by Russian authors in **Russian** language. Do I have to translate their names and titles of their articles to English or I can leave their names and titles of the articles in original language (Russian)?
In the Russian-language articles, I see that foreign authors (their names and titles of the articles) are not translated into Russian and left in the original language (English). However, I have not seen articles in English, where Russian/foreign authors and articles were referenced in the original language (i.e. Russian).
---
For now, I am following [**IEEE**](https://www.ieee.org/documents/ieeecitationref.pdf) citation style.<issue_comment>username_1: The purpose of a bibliographic reference, from your reader's standpoint, is to be able to find the original work. So, if I have any hope of finding it, you must provide the original title, as it appears on the publication.
Now, since I don't speak Russian (and unless your paper is on Russian literature, most of your expected audience won't either), your reference is, for me, just a bunch of weird symbols. So, I will benefit if you provide a translation of the title and authors. That would, at least, give me the topic of the article, and if the authors have any international projection, I'll get a rough idea of their work. The different citation styles dictate how to exactly refer to the original and translated title. This is an example for [APA style](http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2012/12/citing-translated-works-in-apa-style.html):
>
> <NAME>. (1966). La psychologie de l’enfant [The psychology of
> the child]. Paris, France: Presses Universitaires de France.
>
>
>
In your case, you would also transcribe the name of the author, and possibly translate the name of the journal, so I know what kind of work is it (it wouldn't be the same a paper published in a Psychology journal than in a pure Maths one).
Note that sometimes, work is published in national venues, and later translated into English. Having the names of the authors and translated title can help me find it, if it were published after your paper.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: The [IEEE Editorial Style Manual](https://www.ieee.org/documents/style_manual.pdf) contains the following example (Sec. V, p. 35):
>
> [9] <NAME>, “On a modification of the Rayleigh–Schrodinger perturbation theory,” (in German), *<NAME>.*, vol. 53, p. 475, 1935.
>
>
>
Though they do not give an explicit recommendation, the example above suggests a translation of the title with an indication of the original language.
It should be noted, however, that many authors leave the title in the original language.
Upvotes: 2
|