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2016/03/20	422	1,829	<issue_start>username_0: I am writing a homework at the moment. One of the authors I cite, changed his name from A... to B... due to marriage (I know him personally). In the Bibliography I clearly should use the name given in the papers (sometimes A..., sometimes B...). But how should I refer to him in the text? "B... also mentioned...[1,2]" or "A... also mentioned...[1,2]", where [1] lists him as A and [2] lists him as B. I could imagine calling him B and remark in a footnote, his former name was A. What do you expercienced authors think about this?<issue_comment>username_1: I would distinguish between narrative and citation. In narrative text, it is best to refer to a person by their current most preferred scientific name. In citation, on the other hand, it is best to provide the information that will best guide lookup of the document in various search and databases. When the two are not clearly connected, giving a footnote or parenthetical note will help make it clear to the reader that the difference is intended and not accidental, but it is not strictly required. Upvotes: 7 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: I agree with the answer above. Cite papers using the names they were published under, and add a footnote or other indication in the narrative tying together the apparently different authors in the citations. I once wasted a lot of time chasing a reference because the paper I got it from used the author's currently preferred scientific name in the bibliography, but the paper was actually published under a different name (the author had changed her scientific name in the meantime). It would have been much better if the citing paper had given the correct name that the paper was published under, with a note explaining that the two names belonged to the same person. Upvotes: 2
2016/03/20	792	3,438	<issue_start>username_0: Often, when taking a course at the university level, I amuse myself by Googling phrases from the instructors' slides, assignments, and other materials. I have found, without exception from any instructor, that the material is more or less identical to some resource I can find online, often course materials posted by a professor at a highly prestigious university (e.g. Stanford). In some cases I will find material that is 10 - 15 years old; other times it is undated. Sometimes I can find the same material posted by a dozen different professors at a dozen different universities. A few times in the past, I've entertained the idea of reporting the professor for possible plagiarism, but I've never followed through on it because 1. If the material is undated, there's no way to know who published it first 2. For all I know these slides and assignments can be purchased from vendors. I have occasionally had a professor use a complete course package, where the publisher of a textbook also offers the assignments and tests to accompany the textbook. 3. I have been unwilling to risk having to re-take the course, if the instructor is suddenly fired mid-semester for plagiarism (In some cases the materials are sprinkled with enough informal language that it's obvious that they were not purchased from a vendor.) Since it seems like all of my professors get all of their slides and assignments from somewhere else, I am curious how common it is to share course materials between instructors. Do college professors commonly purchase their lesson plans and assignments from vendors? Do instructors and universities share premade courses with each other?<issue_comment>username_1: It is common for college professors to use teaching materials from outside sources. There is generally no an expectation of originality when it comes to teaching materials. > > Do college professors commonly purchase their lesson plans and assignments from vendors? > > > Many textbooks come with a set of slides, distributed by either the publisher or the author of the textbook (often for free). Instructors may choose to use these exactly as they are, or adapt them. Some books come with other materials too, including assignments. Personally, I often don't like the textbook authors' prepared materials and prefer to develop my own. But that's my preference. > > Do instructors and universities share premade courses with each other? > > > Yes, this is also common. I have shared my course materials with instructors at my own university and at other universities. Many of my course materials are hosted online with an explicit Creative Commons license allowing others to use them. I have also participated in projects that received NSF funding specifically to develop course materials and other resources to share with other instructors. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: I have always shared my course materials with (younger and other) colleagues, and others have shared some materials with me. I have also jointly developed material. This happens all the time -- and it's also a good thing because, obviously, if one person is doing a good job at teaching a particular course, it would make no sense for everyone else who starts teaching it to start from zero. Reasonable faculty help each other out. Only poor colleagues insist that a new faculty needs to develop their own materials. Upvotes: 3
2016/03/21	9,098	38,202	<issue_start>username_0: I am a computer science freelancer who takes on medium-sized projects I can complete in a month or less. I was approached by someone who wanted a set of 12 tutorials at least 500 words each about certain programming topics with code examples and workouts. We talked payment and I accepted this project and got to work. I have been using GitHub to write the pieces and publish them privately on my account. Here's where things get tricky. After I had completed the tutorials, but before I sent them to him, he disclosed to me his full name and the institution that he attends. It turns out that this was his honors project for an undergraduate major in Computer Science. He has already paid me. My dilemma is this: I would like to return his money and not send him the tutorials and have him fail his school project. However, I have worked on this for 3 weeks, and I obviously need the money. In our original conversation, he made no such mentions of secrecy, so at the very least I could make the GitHub repository public and still accept his payment. My question is this: What is my best course of action? I don't want him to submit that work as his own. However, I still would like to get paid as he did not confine to me he was planning on plagiarism until the very end.<issue_comment>username_1: I think this is one of the more interesting ethical questions I've ever seen on this site. The answer is really not clear to me! I think this depends upon the ethical principles on which your business is based. Why are you freelancing medium sized CS projects for pay? Because you need or want the money? To improve your skills? To build your reputation as a programmer? To help the world? These are all reasonable answers, but the amount of weight you give them should inform your response. > > Here's where things get tricky. After I had completed the tutorials, but before I sent them to him, he disclosed to me his full name and the institution that he attends. It turns out that this was his honors project for an undergraduate major in Computer Science. He has already paid me. > > > First of all, I think there's a lesson here about doing business for pseudonymous clients. Many mainstream businesses require identifying personal information from their clients. Some don't, but one presumes they are founded on different ethical principles than the ones that do. If you have any qualms at all about how your product will be used, you should exercise some due diligence in finding out who your clients are and how your work would be used. In this case: what did you think the work would be used for? Did you ask? I think that matters: if your client actively was dishonest or misleading with you, then he is behaving unethically even in his transaction with you. However, if you never asked then -- given that you actually care -- it seems that you have made a mistake. > > My dilemma is this: I would like to return his money and not send him the tutorials and have him fail his school project. However, I have worked on this for 3 weeks, and I obviously need the money. > > > Maybe you need the money, but it's not obvious. Just because you've worked on something for three weeks doesn't make it ethically justified to take the paycheck. Clearly one can imagine conditions under which upon learning the purpose of the work, the only ethical action would be to not provide the product and take the loss of pay. On the other hand, if you would suffer sufficiently dire consequences from not receiving the money -- e.g. being evicted from your home or being unable to provide food and clothing to yourself or your dependents -- then in this case taking the money becomes the lesser evil. I would like to say that you are only ethically justified in taking the money and turning the student in if (i) you need the money for serious reasons as above and (ii) the student was deceptive in his dealings with you, as above. Absent these two conditions, it looks to me like you are not dealing in good faith with someone who is paying you. The fact that the product is username_18wing a student to gain a degree dishonestly is definitely an ethical concern (to me, in particular) but it is not clear that it outweighs the other ethical concerns so as to username_18w you to "turn the tables" on the student after payment. One should also point out that the ethical obligation not to commit academic dishonesty lies with the student; although it hurts me a bit to say so, I don't think that the rest of the world is ethically obligated to refrain from helping students cheat. I admire you for wanting to refrain from doing this, but I think that if you are really serious about this then you should seriously entertain not accepting the payment. Added: Some others have suggested that the OP has an ethical obligation to complete the business transaction with his client. @Mehrdad says in a commment: > > Food for thought: if you refused to give the code and refunded him but he sued you for damages (because of, say, a broken contract + lost time/opportunities), do you think you would win the case? I don't know about you, but if I were the judge, I would likely rule against you. > > > I am not a businessman, lawyer or judge but I find the prospect of a lawsuit extremely far-fetched, and even the underlying principle seems suspect. A business contract is, in my understanding, an agreement to receive payment for certain services rendered. In all of my experience, a willingness to forego the payment releases the business from the obligation to perform the services: in other words, the contract is probably not being broken. (In the TV show [Catch a contractor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catch_a_Contractor) -- a reality show that enacts sting operations for shady contractors -- when the contractor is "caught" they are presented with three options: completing the work, giving the money back, or being sued. They never give the money back.) In terms of suing for lost time and opportunities: the business has lost the time and opportunities as well. In this case the business would be refusing service for a clear ethical reason so public exposure would make the OP look much worse than the business...in my opinion, of course. Further Added: I seem to have missed the part where the OP said he has already been paid. In that case I agree that it is likely that according to the contract, the OP has a legal obligation to provide the services. He could still feel personally that his ethical obligation to not be part of academic dishonesty is higher than his legal obligation...in which case he should be prepared to weather some loss on the legal/business side. I am not counseling him to do so, of course. Another option is for the OP to confront his client and say that he believes his services have been contracted for academically dishonest reasons. Perhaps he is wrong about that and his client can set him straight. If not, then he and the client may well agree that the best thing is to dissolve the contract and stop the mutually known instance of academic dishonesty from taking place. From a purely ethical standpoint, this seems like a better outcome than taking the money and wondering whether to turn the tables on the client. Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_2: I think you should take the money, try to retain as much of my copyrights as possible (the law may help you do this implicitly rather than explicitly, which may be helpful), and refrain from doing anything else until after the student misuses your work. Why? Consider that: * Plagiarism is not a crime. * Copyright violation is a crime. * Neither has occurred yet. * You have done the work in good faith. * You are not responsible for preventing others from plagiarizing your work. Refunding him and keeping the work would be unfair to you because you have already done the work. You have every right to keep the money for the work you have done. Refunding him and keeping the work would be unfair to him too, since he has every right to obtain the work from you that he has paid you for and waited for. Even if you refund his money, you can't refund the time that he has spent waiting for you to do the work, so you would arguably be liable for damages too. If your work is actually plagiarized, then you will have a basis for complaining academically and/or legally, and it will be more difficult for your client to view you as a "snitch", etc. if he violates your copyright. If you let his institution know before the deed occurs, then I'd argue you're doing something morally wrong: you're getting him into trouble for an act that he has not even committed yet. (This might be fine for dangerous actions, but this isn't one.) --- ### Clarification: I should clarify that my answer is only intended for a "generic" freelancer, not someone who has something else at stake too. For example, if you yourself were e.g. a professor/graduate student/public figure/etc., then you could earn yourself a bad reputation among your colleagues by giving him the work even if most other people would consider what you do to be entirely ethical/moral/righteous. In that case, the wisest career move for you may not be the same thing as what a typical freelancer might or should do, so keep in mind I'm not addressing such situations. Upvotes: 9 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: I'm really sorry you got conned into unwittingly helping someone cheat. I feel it would be unfair to offer you specific advice about whether you should or shouldn't take the money from my comfortable position of not having to suffer the financial (or moral) consequences of each decision. But your question brings to mind some general insights from economics that would perhaps be helpful to you. Specifically, two concepts that come to mind are the [sunk cost fallacy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunk_costs#Loss_aversion_and_the_sunk_cost_fallacy) and [loss aversion](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loss_aversion). If we compare your situation to a different situation in which a hypothetical dishonest student approaches you today and offers to pay you the exact same amount of money as you are owed by the real-life student, and all you have to do is to complete a short programming homework assignment he was given so that he can submit it as his own (let's say it will take you 30 minutes), it seems very likely to me that you would refuse to participate in such cheating: it would be much easier for you to forgo a profit you haven't earned yet than it is to accept a loss of a sum of money you have been imagining for some time you will be receiving and have become emotionally invested in. Such is the nature of loss aversion. Nonetheless, behaving differently towards sunk costs than future costs (or forgoing a hypothetical future profit) is called a fallacy because it is considered by economists as irrational behavior. The point is that a rational decision-maker should (in theory at least) behave consistently when faced with two decisions that involve the same payoff, the same amount of future investment of work (as in my example, where the 30-minute time investment in the homework assignment doesn't really make a material difference), and the same moral consequences, and not take into account irrelevant information about things that happened in the past. So perhaps one approach to thinking how to proceed would be to imagine a parallel situation like I described in which you need to make a fresh decision about becoming complicit in someone's cheating, and thinking how you would react to that. This is assuming that you agree that loss aversion is indeed irrational, which I think is only one way of looking at it. After all, we are all human beings, and no one can blame you for being upset at the possible loss of a considerable amount of money you thought you had earned through honest work. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: Consider the possibility that the work that you did, while being good craftsmanship (I hope), may not be considered a scientific work, and may be used and properly attributed by the student. The normal way of quoting someone is to find a publication that supports your work, and citing it. If it just happens that you need something to support your work but nobody has ever written it, if you are a professor you might encourage a student to write a paper about it and then cite it. If you are a student with enough cash you could hire someone to write that paper or do that work, pay them, and then cite them correctly. If he takes your paid for work and claims that he wrote it, sure, that is plagiarism, and you should tell the relevant people. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: You should deliver the work you have accepted to do and were paid for. Doing otherwise (even if you refund your client) is unprofessional and damages your reputation. For example if you two got connected via a freelancing platform, you will probably get a bad review scaring your future clients, and rightfully so. You may choose to contact the institution your client attends, warning them about the situation before the actual plagiarism happens. I don't see anything legally wrong with doing so (IANAL), it's up to you to decide if you want to report the student before they actually misuse your work. Of course, you can (and should!) retaliate after the fact: if the said institution publishes the works of their students, and you discover parts of your own work in it, it is your right to send them a notice stating the attribution violation. The institution will, in turn, take actions against the student. Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_6: I think the exact terms of your licence agreement with the client will be important here. Do you retain ownership and copyright on the code, and simply provide a licence to the client to use it, or do you transfer ownership of the code outright? If the latter, then there's not much you can do (and you probably should stop doing this, seriously). If the former, then the terms of the licence agreement should stipulate what attribution is required and whether or not the source code can be subsequently distributed without your permission. It's one thing to provide code as a service, which your clients are free to use in their projects, but your clients should probably not have the right to re-distribute your (commercial) code without your consent. I hope you have a licence agreement that makes this clear. If you do have a licence agreement that makes this clear, then this is an open-and-shut case. If the code is for a thesis then the compiled executable will absolutely not be sufficient. The code must be published and this is where you have leverage. Either you have not granted them the right to re-publish that code (in which case you can make a legitimate protest after a violation has occured), or you have granted the right to re-publish the code but with stipulations (ie: inclusion of the licence, attribution, etc). In either of these cases, this checkmates your student as it would either immediately give away the fact that they outsourced their entire project (by inclusion of attribution and licence) or would initiate a legal complaint that would reveal the same. Given that the student has now notified you of his intentions you can preemptively reiterate the terms of your licence (again, assuming you have one) to make clear that any republication of the code must be in compliance with said terms. This should not affect whether or not you have a right to be paid for the work because, presumably, the student agreed to these terms when you negotiated the job (you did do this, right?). If you didn't negotiate clear licencing terms and you don't have a formal licence agreement then you're at the mercy of whatever defaults the law provides where you live. IANAL, so good luck with that. Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_7: Here is what I would do: separate your concerns. First, accept payment and deliver the work you did, because that's what you promised to do (and may indeed be your legal obligation, depending on what kind of process or agreement you had). Secondly, forget your professional connection to this case and consider what you would do if you discovered by some other means that a stranger had outsourced work for their school project. Most people, I suspect, would decide to stay out of it, because they'd rather not have the conflict, or because they think it's beyond their duty. That's a choice that they are welcome to make, but I think the right thing to do is to inform their educational institution of the facts. They are overwhelmingly better-placed than you to decide what the appropriate response is, both in the sense of whether or not the student's behaviour was appropriate (maybe it was totally fine, maybe what you produced was actually not the focus of their assessment), and the broader context of that student's education, record, and what the school's policies and procedures are that this student has presumably already agreed to. You are not (should not be) telling the institution to punish or otherwise cause problems for this student, and they would probably ignore your opinion on the matter if you did, so it doesn't seem like you need to take responsibility for the consequences of their actions. You're only breaching a secrecy that, actually, no-one asked you to keep, and for a very small amount of effort and risk (you can ask the institution not to identify you, if you're worried about that) you can make a substantial contribution to ensuring that the fairness and accuracy of our educational assessment system is maintained. In other words, judging what should happen to this student when they do what they did is a job you are neither qualified nor expected to do, nor is it one you need to take on. Just enable the people who do have that job to do it properly. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_8: There is legal precedent for the comparable service of professionally writing essays for students, so-called [essay mills](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essay_mill). At the very least, one seems to tread muddy waters; some cases quoted mention states tend to hold the service provider responsible. The California law, say, apparently can hold the seller responsible if they "know or should have known" that their work will be used by the student as you say - and now know - it will. You never intended for this to happen, and your question here speaks well about you. You are not a professional "github mill," just find yourself in a bad situation. It is very unlikely that you'd be prosecuted for this; it would probably go unnoticed. However, considering the legal context mentioned above and discussed more in the link, if you can return the money, I'd do it. Your client is likely going to protest, but what are they going to do: take you to court as you refused to write their thesis as soon as you were informed of their plan? As this would make their intent certainly public to their institution, I don't see that happening. As others have said, do make sure to add related disclaimers to your work in the future. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_9: Nonetheless I do not like people with diploma who have no knowledge behind it, I would say that you have to do everything that you obliged to provide without trying to screw someone up. You can't tell a person: "now after one month of work I decided that I do not need your money", because if he would know this beforehand he would have chosen someone else, or may be have done it himself. Giving him work and contacting university is even worse. It is like backstabbing him, or inserting a backdoor in his program. --- How would you feel if some plumber started to fix your water system couple of weeks ago, then noticed that you have a hamster in a cage and has his own moral dilemma. He is one of this ultra PETA people and believe that hamsters should be free, so he decided to break everything he fixed for you, leaving you without water for a couple of weeks (gracefully returning you the money). --- Some things to consider * university honor code is not a crime * you can't out of a sudden add additional copyrights that makes all the work unusable * you have to negotiate your contract beforehand and stick to it. Otherwise you will be a freelancer who has a whim and screws up people based on his moral judgements (a lot of people has different and strange moral judgements, so it is impossible to predict the next one). Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_10: I'm afraid you should probably give him the work he paid for. However, there are several points to take into account. Your country will matter a bit. As the original author, you have the [moral rights](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_rights) on the work, and other people cannot claim it as their own work. These will hold in many countries, and may not even be waived (eg. in most european countries), so no matter the licensing terms they can't claim your work as their own. OTOH the situation in US is quite different, and your contract could have given away such rights (though I doubt they cared to include such clause). Even then, you should remind the client that he has to keep the copyright notices in the work you gave him (unless your contract authorizes him to remove them). A nice remind is appropriate so if they proceed in an infringing path, and you take action your position was clearly established in that you didn't expect them to be misattributed. Next, I would ensure that the tutorials have clear copyright notices. This kind of work is great for that, as in addition of the explicit ones, there's ample room for hidden ones: your name could be read in acrostic on some paragraph, an example code could output when run "One of anonymous\_display great tutorials", etc. Those would be very clear indicators of authorship should you had to prove if it was really your work or not. Additionally, I would take digital evidence of possessing the code at the given point. For instance, you can hash the zip of what you are handling, and have a public timestamp server sign that. This way, a public CA is vouching that such zip (containing your © notices) existed at time X (so you couldn't have added them later after retrieving the PhD of your client). You mention the possibility of publishing the work itself in Github. That would also help (I would still take the previous steps), and has the added benefit that you are making your work searchable without you having to be involved pointing out at this guy (it could have been found by any professor reviewing the honors project). Albeit publishing on your own the work you were hired to do might not be username_18wed (explicitly or implicitly). I have to mention the excellent [point by loneboat](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/65485/moral-dilemma-in-unwittingly-being-paid-to-complete-a-students-work/65509#comment157971_65485) that his use of your work may be legitimate, even though you have to prepare for the case it's not. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_11: A moral dilemma indeed! I do believe there is a solution. 1. Give the code and they give you the money, according to your contract. 2. Warn the university of your dubious business partner. It is their own fault that they paid you for nothing. They choose to act immorally. There are four variations of the above: 1. Tell the university the person's name and the fact that he planned on plagiarizing. It then entirely up to the university what they do. * Some have voiced concerns over the fact that he hasn't plagiarized yet. Well, tell the university that. It is up to them whether plotting to plagiarize warrants sanctions against the student. 2. Tell the university that one of their students may use their code, but don't tell them who. Now the outcome is fully determined by the student's decision. * To give the student a fair chance, comment on how fairly he dealt with you, and that his honesty is refreshing. This will cause internal conflict within him, as he considers his own values. If he chooses incorrectly, he will have caused his own fall. 3. Tell the university. `CC` the offender. * This option puts everything to light. Light is the best moral disinfectant. 4. Tell the university (but not who). `BCC` the offender. * This option forces the offender to make the right choice. He will be angry, but you can note that the money is sunk cost, and you have in fact saved him from moral decay. You may even ask for more money for this additional service, but expect to get stiffed on this fee. Also, in the options where you don't tell the university who did it, make sure to prepare a moral defense as to why you are withholding that information. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_12: This one is easy. You did work for money. You keep the money. As <NAME> so wisely pointed out it is the same situation as if a deli sold a ham sandwich to an observant Jew. (Assume the deli did not misrepresent the ham sandwich as something else.) The deli is not responsible for the violations of Jewish kosher rules. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_13: Since you posted your dilemma in Academia section, most will tell you to act to punish the student. In academia, the student must have violated a set of serious rules that normally should be followed up by a punishment. You are a software developer though and you must abide first of all by your contract, agreement with the client and your intermediary (freelancer website), and the general law. Unless your work has some sort of a license that requires the end user to acknowledge the original author (like MIT license), then the student may not be breaking the law here. If you feel mistreated you can send an e-mail to his institution reporting his breach of academic ethics. You will feel better but face a risk that the student will contact the freelancer intermediary and try very hard to spoil your reputation there to get back at you. My advice would be just to make sure you explicitly discuss copyrights with your future clients. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_14: The advice is to take the money. And let me explain why. If not you, he will find another contractor to write a work for him for sure - don't even doubt it! You will be unable to prevent an IT industry from one more asshole-with-money entering it. He will fail later and for sure, and be tainted by it's fail on a practice. It's not a question, it's just a question of time. You did your job, a good result must be paid well - respect yourself and honor your skill : you are definitely not the person who should suffer from the fact that someone is a money-minded dick, who thinks that can just buy everything Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_15: [Edit: I seem to have misread the question, and thought you had already been paid prior to starting work (since you said "discussed payment" and "accepted the job"). Hence my original response. I've edited under the assumption that the asker has not been paid yet.] In my opinion, you should: 1. Withhold the work from the student, telling him in detail why you do so: a. It is morally wrong for him to submit your work as his own. b. You did not know about it earlier otherwise you would not have done the work. c. You have no obligation to him since he purposely had not revealed his intentions. d. He wanted to pay money for a dirty job, and you cannot give him your work without becoming complicit. 2. Still ask for a token sum that you feel you deserve in light of the whole situation, based on: a. The amount of time and effort and other costs you spent on the work done. b. The amount you feel like returning to him since you do not give him the work after all. c. How much you feel it was your mistake that you did not find out earlier. 3. Not tell him your exact reasons for how much money you decide to ask for, but just tell him that: a. He has wasted your time and effort because he knows what he is doing is wrong (almost every student has to sign some kind of agreement to uphold academic honesty). b. If he wants proof that you actually did the work, you will upload your work to GitHub publicly and inform his school that you were recently made aware that someone might pass it off as their own, without revealing the identity since the potential cheating offense has not yet been committed. 4. If he refuses to pay you, then you have no choice but to accept the outcome. The reason for all this is simple. If we do not know that what we are doing is wrong or intended by others to be used for immoral purposes, then at that point we are not guilty of the wrongdoing itself, and this does not change when in the future we can look back on the situation with hindsight or with a different viewpoint. However, we are still responsible for doing our best to make sure that whatever we do is not misused for wrong purposes, to a reasonable extent. If we give enough thought to how our work is being used, we can at the end of the day say honestly that we did our best and had sufficient reason to believe that it was for good. This explains why one has to take into account his own responsibility in not perceiving the possibility of cheating, when expecting payment. I do not agree with some other people that it is alright to give him the work and get paid but secretly inform his school of the potential cheating offense (even if you do not reveal his identity), because by doing so you will be not be giving the student any impetus to change his mind about cheating. If that is your goal, namely to get the student into trouble, then indeed it would serve that purpose well. However, I do not think it is the goal of anyone who wants to make this world a better place. (Doesn't it sound like biting the hand that feeds you?) Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_16: To everyone who's suggested OP should abide by the contract despite what the products might be used for: Shame on you. Are you so devout in your fetish of commercial contractual relations as to put them before fundamental moral considerations? I would pontificate more, but that wouldn't answer OP's question. --- Now an answer for OP: ### Issue 1: You bear some responsibility - you should have known better This contract was strange from the get-go. Usually when someone is contracted to prepare educational material it is by an institution, not by an individual. It is also unusual, if I am not mistaken, to contract a freelance SW developer rather than someone with a teaching background. Finally, you said you were "approached" by that person, i.e. you physically met. Did he strike you as a person who would need this strange kind of service? Also, when you were discussing the work - you must have asked about the context of the tutorials' use; the target audience; what they are assumed to know; their typical experience; the goals for audience members after the tutorials are through, etc. If he answered these questions, you had probably figured out what this was going to be used for - enough to realize this was funny business; if he refused answer these questions, that's even more suspicious. Or, I mean, ok, he could tell you: "This is work I need done no questions asked." - but then you cannot be surprised there are moral, ethical or perhaps legal issues with this work you're doing. So, at any rate, you knew there was something amiss with this transaction. I'm not saying that means you're not entitled for compensation for your work, but it's not like he sprang something on you completely out of the blue. Now, be honest with us: Isn't it the case that you're feeling guilty about going along with what you were contracted to do, and are, shall we say, semi-consciously forgetful in presenting the less-than-pleasent details? I suspect the answer to be yes. If you want moral or ethical advice, the first piece of advice is be fair in how you tell yourself, and us, the story. That very often leads you to conclusions you may not like, but you already know are right. ### Issue 2: An honors project - or perhaps misuse of honors' students by the university? It is quite strange that preparing 12 tutorials on a subject would be a honors program project for anyone. These are tasks for (tenured or untenured, regular or temporary) members of the academic faculty. I believe one of the following holds: 1. You've misunderstood or misheard what he's told you. This is not so unlikely, since I'm sure he was uncomfortable discussing his transgressions and may not have related them coherently and accurately. 2. The tutorials are not the honors project, but perhaps part of what happens to honors students is that they are given a one-off teaching position on a subject of their choice. 3. (and this is what I'm the most worried about) The university may be manipulating honors students into preparing teaching materials for it instead of actually paying junior/senior academic staff to do it. I've encountered many cases of option 3 in my experience as a graduate teacher/researcher union organizer. We considered this part of a process of "Juniorification" (rough translation from Hebrew): Adjuncts are used to do tenured faculty work; PhD candidates to do young faculty's / post-docs' / adjunct teachers' work; M.Sc. candidates to do PhD candidates' work; and senior undergrad students used as teaching assistants for peanuts. If this is the case, I'm not sure it's your problem to have to deal with, but perhaps it would be useful to try to contact the university's academic staff union(s) and discuss the situation anonymously (if they're active and don't have their heads stuck up their asses, which is not impossible considering what I suspect may be going on.) ### Issue 3: This is a social/group dilemma, not just a personal dilemma This situation is not just about you, or you and that student. It's about: * His university * His fellow students, who may be adversely affected by underhanded activity (by him or by the university, or both, see above) * His parents/family, who may well be footing the bill for this project * Teachers or other members of faculty who may be affected (see above) * His fellow non-honors students, who might be held to standards of competence/capability which this person is unfairly inflating Don't try to deal with it just by yourself, or yourself-and-him. Even before acting (disclosing what he did, taking the money etc.) try to get in contact with several of these parties. The parents option might be particularly useful if he is indeed young and living with them. Now, it's true that there is increased risk of him avoiding payment if you do that, or the deal getting otherwise canceled, but the more you do that the better your chance would be to receive compensation without having to resort to legal means. Also, this would reduce the chance of him trying to get money back from you. ### ... don't return money for the work you've done, but take no more You did do work. And you should have been able to do more work and get paid for it, and must now look for another job. On the other hand, you have some responsibility for the way things ended up. So, without making an exact judgement, I would say that what you got so far is probably fair... But do keep an open mind about how much you should get additionally, or return from what you've received, when talking to third parties. I really hope this works out - for you and for him and for everyone else involved and am sorry you got into this mess! Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_17: Α supplier contracts with a customer to produce some goods. The agreement is to get paid before delivery, and this happens. Then the police appears and tells the supplier that the specific customer is prohibited by law to get these goods (they' re bad for the customer's health). Something that the customer has not disclosed to the supplier. Then rightfully, ethically and educationally, the supplier keeps the money and the goods, and the buyer hopefully learns a lesson. Or not. The customer got himself into this predicament, purposefully withholding vital information, and since he is not a child or mentally incapacitated, he should bear any concequences, intended or not, of his course of action. The fact that in your case the customer himself acted as the police, does not change anything. Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_18: You have a contract, I think you need to fulfill it. You're not at fault, but you're possibly breaking the contract to do this in time, if you do not give him the results, even when you're refusing the pay. Possibly a lawyer could even make something up that you need to pay for loss (more likely in other cases than this one), because the person could have hired somebody else if they knew you would step back in the last minute. The other point is his fraud against the university. This is not okay and I think it would be fair to inform the university (assuming you have no NDA with the student). To be fair to the student, you may offer him not to inform the university, if he does not use the work as his own, but this is hard to verify. And you should make sure, that anything you do about this cannot be interpreted as blackmailing. Do not say "pay me or I will tell them immediately", but say "pay me, because you hired me, even when you probably cannot use it because I will inform the university, or I will sue you to get my money". Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_19: Always consider: he is the one signing the declaration to his university that he did not get help, not you. * Take the money * Give him the code * Obviously: Stop working for him * Inform his institution that you strongly suspect that a student used your services to plagiarize, paraphrase what you delivered (e.g. 12 tutorials), ask them how to proceed. Upvotes: 0
2016/03/21	529	2,464	<issue_start>username_0: I'm mainly interested in the level of fact-checking of computer science conference papers. Do reviewers normally read the entire paper and exhaustively check the correctness of proofs, algorithms and claims? I have read papers at top conferences where implementation details are sketchy and conceptual claims are inaccurate. My guess is that an exhaustive level of fact-checking is often not done particularly in cases where the reviewer might not be familiar with all the concepts in the paper. Is this true? If this is so, then it seems unfair that the merit of a paper is essentially just based on how well the paper is pitched in the first one or two pages.<issue_comment>username_1: I'm afraid there is no one-fits-all answer to your question. It highly depends on the tier of the conference. There are some that examine more into the work than others. However, the level of scrutiny in CS conferences are generally less than that of a journal of comparable reputation. This is because, such journals go through multistage reviews and edits before the final print is published. Most conferences look only into the conceptual matter and usually have insufficient time to exhaustively implement and test the proofs of each of its candidate papers with limited reviewers. Having said the above, there are some journals that scrutinize lesser than some conferences. Like I stated before, it all depends on the tier and reputation of the publisher. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: I review papers in CS and I would say that it depends on the conference. If you submit to a very specialized conference, you have more chance that the reviewer will be very familiar with your topic. Thus he might check your paper carefully. But it always depend on the reviewer. Some reviewers will read a paper very quickly because they are busy (even for top CS conferences sometimes) or because they are less familiar with your topic. And some other reviewers will actually spent a good amount of time to understand your paper. So there is not general answer to this question. It depends on the conference and the reviewer. Besides, often a reviewer will first check your paper and if it is not good enough based on the introduction, conclusion and experiments or some other criteria, the reviewer may reject it without further checking the other sections. So this may also be a reason for not checking the details of you paper. Upvotes: 0
2016/03/21	703	2,987	<issue_start>username_0: I am writing a paper about a problem that involves solving a certain equation. The problem is that the solution is very long and there are a lot of terms. My question is: Is there a way to present the solution in an attractive manner instead of just typing the solution, which is about a page long? Also, would the fact that the solution is long and looks unattractive affect whether the paper get accepted or not?<issue_comment>username_1: This happens not just in mathematics but in many other disciplines as well: modeling of biological systems, for example, often involves a vast number of terms in the equations. The best approach that I have found for these sorts of situations is to look for the structure in the system and to build your presentation around that structure. In most cases that I have encountered, it is not true that there are simply a bazillion essentially unrelated terms. The true story of the equation, then, is not the expanded mathematical form but the process and relations that generate it. This opens up a number of approaches for factoring out the equations in order to make them more tractable to present, including: * Abstracting sub-structures as variables (e.g., X^2+XY+Y^2, where X and Y are complex terms presented separately) * Separating variables from parameters (e.g., a reaction network where each reaction uses one of several standard Hill equation models, with the parameters of the models presented in a table) These sorts of factorings also lead to a much more informative and interesting presentation of the equation as well. In fact, the Big Equation itself may often end up being relegated to an appendix, where its page-busting form is of little concern. There may be, of course, certain systems in which such factoring is impossible---and that fact is quite interesting and worth clear discussion! Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Quite often, following @username_1, a formula with many terms can be factored, or split into groups with similar interpretation: terms with similar powers, or groupings that are consistent (for instance in convective and diffusive terms with differential equations). You may put the emphasis on the most important terms, and group the negligible ones. If you are a LaTeX user, you may use different font sizes: [How can I change the font size in math equations?](https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/5148/how-can-i-change-the-font-size-in-math-equations) to help the reader focus on important parts. Or if your equation is parametric, and your paper only requires a subset of solutions, those can be given in the text, the rest can be, as suggested, put aside in an appendix. If you want montruous examples, you can have a look at [What is the longest equation known?](https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-longest-equation-known) [![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/UwGvu.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/UwGvu.jpg) Upvotes: 2
2016/03/21	688	2,875	<issue_start>username_0: I am in a terminal masters program in the Humanities. I will have to write my masters thesis at some point and have been told that I will have 3 meetings with my professor. I have never worked on a thesis or with a professor as closely as this (I did not write a thesis as an undergradute), so I am a bit worried about the whole process. What am I expected to do exactly? Am I allowed to email my professor with emails? Is it even expected? And if so, how often and much is appropriate between the meetings, and what can I expect to get out of the emails (as opposed to the meetings). Sorry if this seems basic to some of you - it surely is. But it would be great to know if there are certain academic standards or rules I might not be aware of.<issue_comment>username_1: There is no standards about contacting your professor. I think the proper answer to this is : ask your supervisor about it. Only he can tell you what he expects of you and how available he is. If you keep your email or contact with him civil and polite, their is nothing more to do. Depending on how many student he has to supervised and his working habits, he might tell you whether he prefers emails or meeting, or if he is able to make extra meetings with you should the need arise. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: I largely concur with username_1's answer (and upvoted it), but I think it might also help to think of this in terms of a supervisor-supervisee relationship; you aren't precisely employed by your thesis advisor, but the power relationships are not entirely dissimilar. There are a few different kinds of emails you might send (and want to discuss with your thesis advisor at the outset): * The simple project-management-style update. "This week/fortnight/month I was planning to accomplish X, Y, and Z; X and Y are done, but Z fell a bit behind, so during the next week/fortnight/month I will finish Z and..." The key questions for your thesis advisor are whether and how often you should send these emails. * The non-urgent question, the thing you leave a note to yourself about in your writing, and (probably) address en masse with your thesis advisor at intervals. The agreement will likely turn out to be that this is the kind of question that you deal with at scheduled meetings, but again, ask your thesis advisor about how these should best be handled. * The showstopper question that stops your work dead in its tracks until it is answered. Your thesis advisor will want clear boundaries around these (some students are prone to unnecessary levels of panic) and a clear understanding of how quickly it is reasonable to expect a response (some students... yeah). I suspect that understanding this taxonomy of questions from the get-go will mean a much more cordial and useful relationship with your thesis advisor. Good luck! Upvotes: 2
2016/03/21	722	2,929	<issue_start>username_0: I'm about to graduate with a BS in computer science, my question relates to even higher education. I generally found most of the topics (Aside from the post calc 2 math) pretty easy and am graduating with a 3.5 GPA. I had the chance to get into an early entry MS program but applied over winter break and 2 of my instructors didn't send their recommendation in time. Now I don't have enough credits to double count as masters level credits for the next semester. I plan on working and letting my employer pay for my Masters degree after a few years, but they won't pay for a PHD. Would it be worth the extra time, work, and money to get a PHD? I don't want to be "overqualified" and denied jobs because of the extra salary and I'm not super interested in working in academia (At least not until I'm about to retire). If there is someone with a PHD who would offer their input I'd love to hear from you. Thanks!<issue_comment>username_1: A master degree and a Ph.D are two completely different things. The master degree has the intention to specialise you in a field, to know what is already there and allow you to build new things (applications, webservices, ...) The Ph.D has the intention of teach you how to do proper research (in a given field, but the main idea is to know what is research). This includes how to experiment and treat data to come to a conclusion about a problem, publishing papers etc. Ph.D are not specific to academia, in fact, many doctors are working with industry or leading their own firms. At the end, the choice lies in what kind of job you want to work. A master level job will probably be about creating innovative product, manage a project, whereas a Ph.D level job will mostly involve managing a research project, dealing with specific problems and looking for ways to solves them, then eventually coming up with a product. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: By looking at the wording of your post, I suggest you to run away from a PhD degree as fast as you can. A PhD degree is one of the milestones in an academic's life and is not something to pursue if you don't know it's worth it. Getting an extra salary and having a PhD is two different things. A salary is based on your value for the company. A PhD is something that you earn by conducting quality research. It seems you try to have a PhD degree just for some extra money. That is not the way to go. PhD would not teach you how to be a good employee and an inevitable member of the company. If you want to earn more in the industry, you should keep away from academia and start putting all your effort into your job. Your employer of course would not pay for your PhD because i) it is usually 4 years long, ii) a PhD student will have numerous opportunities to earn scholarship and iii) pursuing a PhD will require some time, which means your productivity for the company will drop. Upvotes: 3
2016/03/21	1,879	8,080	<issue_start>username_0: I am at the final point of my pretty satisfying PhD. I like working alone and I did not need constant supervision, and I had a pretty good relationship with my supervisor until now. I noticed in the past that when it was time to proof-read papers, it took EXTREMELY LONG TIME to do it, and almost always waited until the day of the deadline (however, it was always corrected at the end). Now that it is time for my thesis, though, things are getting difficult. I sent the first experimental chapter more than one month ago, and it still hasn't been read, every time saying that there has some other deadline. I have been asking three times a week, and every time the the same thing is said. Of course, I don't find any pleasure in keep pressuring my supervisor, and I wish it was understood that it HAS to be done. I am afraid that it he takes 1+ month to check a chapter, it will take a year to read the whole stuff! In the meantime I have kept working on the thesis and I will finish writing the first draft soon, but it hasn't been corrected yet. I am not sure about the course of action here. How to deal with this situation? Should I talk with the director of studies? Should I keep pressuring my supervisor? Should I give a deadline? If I decide to talk with the director of studies, should I tell my supervisor first? The main point is that until now I have had a good relationship and I don't want to ruin it just now. However, I need to find a way to push to get the supervisor to complete the job. --- Edit to add some related details from the comments: * I'm in the UK, and my research is in a field related to psychology. * My second supervisor is not involved in my project, and it wouldn't be appropriate for me to contact them for this question. * My scholarship ended a few months back, and I'm now being paid as a research assistant with my supervisor for a few more months. * All research work has been completed, the analysis are done, and I'm almost finished with writing. Changing departments is not an option. EDIT: Thank you to everybody for your help. This is the way I proceeded: without mentioning to my supervisor about this chapter again, I just discussed about the timing to complete my PhD, mentioning that I plan to finish writing in around one month. This requires me to complete some bureaucratic paperwork soon, which means that we have to set up some deadlines, find examiners etc., which also means that my thesis will be corrected before a deadline. Since my supervisor works better with deadlines, I think that this method will work. Therefore, I ignored the particular problem about correcting the single chapter, and I used the main topic (finishing my PhD) as a way to get things rolling. Not sure if this is the best solution, but I think it may work for me. Thank you again, your support has been very appreciated.<issue_comment>username_1: A good starting assumption is that your supervisor has good intentions, but like many of us, has trouble getting things done because of workload and/or procrastination. Artificial deadlines may help. Perhaps your supervisor is too busy right now but would be able to agree on a date several weeks in the future by which he can read the chapter. Or even better, perhaps you could agree an overall schedule for completing your thesis, including deadlines by which you will send each chapter, he will review it, and so on. This could help prevent the problem from recurring in the future. If this doesn't work, I would have a chat and share your concerns with him about how you feel this is needed for your own successful completion of your thesis. If all of this still doesn't have any impact, you are in a tough position. You are dependent on your supervisor, but outside of extreme situations, there is no real formal mechanism requiring his action. You could try getting your second supervisor involved. Even if you have had no contact so far, you do have a formal relationship with this person, and that is a good enough basis to do so. Talking to the director of studies would be a last resort. It probably isn't worthwhile until the continued inaction is clearly going to delay your PhD completion. If you want to maintain a good relationship, I would discuss this with your supervisor first, making it clear that the delays are about to have a big impact on your life, and you feel you have no other choice. Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: While dan1111's answer is good, I have a different perspective. * First, calm down. Asking him 3 times a week about something is way too often. To calm down, see the points below. * Second, it sounds like you didn't agree on any timeline for the thesis writing process and feedback, but you're concerned about it so you should have this discussion. * Third, it's perhaps not a big deal if your advisor doesn't give you critical feedback during the initial writing process, and I don't know that this is so common. Possibly when you write later chapters that you will realize some ways you want to revise your earlier chapters anyway. Your advisor and committee will give feedback before or at your defense, and maybe your advisor should provide feedback once or twice before you arrange the defense just to make sure the thesis is reasonable (this should be discussed in your conversation about the timeline). I don't think I gave my advisor drafts of my thesis chapter by chapter, but just a full draft when I was done (though he had given me feedback on paper write-ups beforehand). Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: I concur with username_2's first suggestion: calm down. My second observation is that it appears you feel entitled to have your supervisor help you: "I wish he just understood that he HAS to do it" and "I need to find a way to push him to do his job." These statements have a very egotistical tone to them. Your supervisor doesn't have to do anything. His taking you on as a student is adding more to his workload so you should be gracious he took you on in the first place. I think a lot of PhD students misunderstand this (I know I did). Editing your drafts is a small part of his job, just remember that. My suggestion, go and meet with your supervisor and explain your concerns. If you want to be done by a certain date, let him know. I met with my advisor once and we had this exact conversation about when I was going to graduate and we set some tentative deadlines. My advisor was ridiculously slow at getting back to me with written feedback but he eventually did and all was fine. Now that I'm on the other side, I know why he was slow and I have no problem with it. The bottom line, talk with him and do not go above his head. If you go above him without telling him first, depending on how spiteful (and tenured) he is, you may have to find yourself another supervisor. He may have a lot of work just pop up and might not have time to have you as a student anymore or the work you are doing is no longer good enough to earn a PhD. Probably won't happen but why take the chance of potentially angering your supervisor. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: Do you feel satisfied with your work and your writeup? If the advisor doesn't want to read it (yet?), you might try bouncing individual chapters off other students in the group (in exchange for looking over their work, obviously). If it is an almost finished version, you could try the second advisor instead. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: > > If I decide to talk with the director of studies, should I tell him > first? > > > Never do this with PhD supervisors unless you want to change the supervisor. I don't think you want to change the supervisor at this stage. You can take a different route to pressure him. Ask him about requesting an extension for the PhD as it takes a long time for him to review. You can say, it will take you X number of weeks/months to refine once you get his comments. Usually this will pressure him to priorities your review. Upvotes: 3
2016/03/21	942	3,904	<issue_start>username_0: A quick question, which I'm asking out of curiosity rather than an actual problem. Plagarism and how to detect/combat/punish it seems to be a common topic on this SE. When I was an undergraduate, 20 years ago, I don't remember ever plagerising a book or other student, or any of my classmates doing the same (at least not that I knew of). However, I did a practical science in which we had 1 or 2 full-day lab workshops every week. It was very common for most of the students in these labs not to get the "expected" result, due largely to inexperience and poor technique. It was equally common for all the students to then copy, and subtly modifiy, the results of the few students who did get it to work. They would then independently use this in writing up the assignments by themselves. Would this be considered a form of plagerism in a modern academic environment? If so, what should science students with poor practical results do to write up their assignments? EDIT: after comments, I feel compelled to make clear these were undergraduate labs with previously verified results. We were not undermiming scientific process here.<issue_comment>username_1: Plagiarism is typically defined in terms of taking the work of another person and passing it off as your own (see, e.g., [the Wikipedia page](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plagiarism)). It does not matter whether the material that you steal is words, data, pictures, etc. Thus, I would classify the practice of copying lab results that you describe as plagiarism. It could also be categorized as other types of academic dishonesty as well, such as falsification of experimental results. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: The definition of plagiarism and academic misconduct has not changed substantially over the years. In some cases there is more awareness and edge cases like self plagiarism are more well defined. Copying results has always been academic misconduct, although I am not sure that it would ever be labeled plagiarism. Modifying the results is not plagiarism, but is academic misconduct. As for how to write up the results, it really depends on what the instructor wants. It could be the instructor wants the students to explain what went wrong, or maybe interpret the result in light of what is known. They might also want you to collect the data again, or be fine with sharing of data, or even have an example dataset that they will share. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: Some universities seem to have started using the term plagiarism more broadly, to refer to almost any kind of misconduct that has something to do with sourcing. (See some of the references cited in [this question](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/64249/is-it-plagiarism-to-reference-a-fictitious-source) for examples.) Especially in that context, copying someone else's lab results certainly might get treated as plagiarism by some schools. But that doesn't really get to the heart of the matter; for instance, I don't see a difference between copying someone else's results and just making up numbers (say, based on calculations of what should have happened). The actual misconduct here is the fraudulent reporting. But perhaps this is splitting hairs: this is unambiguously misconduct, it's just not clear that it's specifically plagiarism. As for what students who get poor results should do, I think this is case where it's pretty clear that one should just ask the professor or TA. I expect the answer would usually be to write up the results as they are, with the inevitable conclusion that the data didn't match the theory. In some cases the course might have some "typical" results on file, and might ask students to write it up based on those rather than their results. (Which is almost the same as what students were doing anyway, but without the dishonesty.) Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]
2016/03/21	1,401	5,341	<issue_start>username_0: I'm a little confused. The [ACM Author Rights and Publishing Policy](http://www.acm.org/publications/policies/copyright_policy) states: > > ACM authors hold the right to post copies of their own peer-reviewed accepted ACM works on any non-commercial repository or aggregation that does not duplicate ACM tables of contents, i.e., whose patterns of links do not substantially duplicate an ACM-copyrighted volume or issue. Non-commercial repositories are here understood as repositories owned by non-profit organizations that do not charge a fee for accessing deposited articles and that do not sell advertising or otherwise profit from serving articles. > > > However, the [ACM Fair Access](http://www.acm.org/publications/fair-access/acm-fair-access?pageIndex=4) site states: > > Can I publish the published version of my publication on arXiv? > No. An ACM author cannot grant arXiv.org or any other publisher rights to distribute their works that have been published by ACM. > > > SHERPA/Romeo shows ACM as being a "Green Publisher", which would support the case that I can upload to ArXiv. [Dissem.in](http://dissem.in/publisher/19/) states that I can upload pre- or postprints under certain circumstances, but does not explicitly mention Arxiv, positively or negatively. So, what is it? Can I submit a paper I published with an ACM Conference (ACM WiSec, if that makes a difference) to ArXiv or not? As I understand it, ArXiv is a non-profit, so it would fit the terms of the publishing policy. Or is this related to the rights you have to grant ArXiv upon submission? If I can only publish a specific version of the paper, which one?<issue_comment>username_1: This is a matter of obsolete documentation. The [current version](http://www.acm.org/publications/policies/copyright_policy) of the "ACM Author Rights and Publishing Policy" you linked to is v9, last revised in 1/2016. This version says that authors have the right to: > > Post the Accepted Version of the Work on (1) the Author's home page, (2) the Owner's institutional repository, (3) any repository legally mandated by an agency funding the research on which the Work is based, and (4) any non-commercial repository or aggregation that does not duplicate ACM tables of contents, i.e., whose patterns of links do not substantially duplicate an ACM-copyrighted volume or issue. Non-commercial repositories are here understood as repositories owned by non-profit organizations that do not charge a fee for accessing deposited articles and that do not sell advertising or otherwise profit from serving articles. > > > (emphasis mine.) The [previous version](http://web.archive.org/web/20151213144527/http://www.acm.org/publications/policies/copyright_policy), v9 with a 5/2015 last revision date, only gave authors the right to > > Post the Accepted Version of the Work on (1) the Author's home page, (2) the Owner's institutional repository, or (3) any repository legally mandated by an agency funding the research on which the Work is based. > > > The [Fair Access FAQ page](http://web.archive.org/web/20150920175717/https://www.acm.org/publications/fair-access/acm-fair-access?pageIndex=4) is from before January 2016, and reflects the old policy. The current policy as of January 2016 does allow the accepted version of the work to be posted on "any non-commercial repository or aggregation that does not duplicate ACM tables of contents" such as arXiv. malexmave [confirms after contacting ACM](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/65531/submitting-acm-conference-papers-to-arxiv/65535?noredirect=1#comment158746_65535): > > FAQ was indeed outdated. Posting the peer-reviewed / accepted version to ArXiv and other non-commercial repositories is fine (but not the final version). Policy change does not apply retroactively, only to new papers under the new policy. > > > Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: The ACM offers guidelines for [Prior Publication and Simultaneous Submissions](https://www.acm.org/publications/policies/simultaneous-submissions). Information there (from April 2018) extends [this answer](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/65535/94523) if the paper is a technical report prior to submission or under review as opposed to being already accepted. The guidelines state > > Issuing the paper as a technical report, posting the paper on a web site, or presenting the paper at a workshop or conference that does not publish formally reviewed proceedings does not disqualify it from appearing in an ACM publication. > > > I assume for the case that the manuscript is not yet submitted or still under review, arXiv would count as "issuing the paper as a technical report, posting the paper on a web site." I understand the following: Overall, ACM usually allows researchers to archive their manuscripts prior to submission, during review, and after peer-review/acceptance as long as the manuscript is not equal to the official ACM publication and, after publication, contains a corresponding link to this official (i.e. formally reviewed) publication. Please, let me know if this is incorrect. [Some philosophical background](https://robjhyndman.com/hyndsight/working-papers/) on why publishers should be less restrictive anyway. Upvotes: 1
2016/03/22	381	1,636	<issue_start>username_0: I have submitted a paper to a conference with a rebuttal phase. I have received the first round of reviews, and should be writing an answer which addresses issues raised by the reviewers. I have received two very positive evaluations, with one accept and one weak accept. The third review however was -2 (reject). The reviewer that rejected the paper did so under the argument that the paper defined a nice problem, but "without interest for the community of the conference". He also tried to shift the focus of the paper from the main result to a very auxiliary result by treating the auxiliary result as if it were the main. 1) Would it be worth to send an email to the conference chairs asking for a fourth review? 2) What would be the likelihood that the chairs would do that? 3) In case the fourth review is positive, would it have the potential to be taken into consideration when accepting/rejecting the paper?<issue_comment>username_1: I don't think it's worth it. I've seen conference program committees accept papers with such scores many times. I think if you address this reviewer's concerns, perhaps offering some changes in the introductory parts to reemphasize the main result, you've got a better chance of acceptance than if you ask for special treatment. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: If needed, the PC will assign a 4th reviewer. I've had this happen a couple times. If the reviews are borderline, there's a big discrepancy, or a reviewer gave a low quality review, you may get another reviewer. You just won't have the opportunity to provide a rebuttal. Upvotes: 0
2016/03/22	628	2,494	<issue_start>username_0: From time to time, I cannot access a reference of an article that I am reviewing, either because my university did not [subscribe](https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/29923/452) to some journals (and I failed to find it myself on [sci-hub](https://opendata.stackexchange.com/q/7084/1652), Google, and other places), or because the article doesn't seem to be available online. Pinging the authors of the article (either the one that I am reviewing or the one that was cited) may work, but not always: legal issues (some publishers do not allow sharing papers online), unanswered emails, blind review preventing from contacting authors, etc. Shall I just ignore the cited article in that case, even though it could be useful to review the article? Or are there other options, aside from asking my library to pay for it (hoping they would agree)?<issue_comment>username_1: While online access is very useful, it is not the only access. Every university I have been affiliated has provided an [ILL](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interlibrary_loan) service either at no cost or a nominal charge (e.g., a $1 processing charge). US University libraries can make requests to both the [Library of Congress](https://www.loc.gov/rr/loan/loan-news.html) and the [National Library of Medicine](https://www.nlm.nih.gov/psd/cas/illhome.html). I am less familiar with the ILL system in the UK/Britain, but I believe ILL requests can be made, possibly through a university, to the [British Library](http://www.bl.uk/reshelp/atyourdesk/docsupply/productsservices/loan/). There are of course some articles/books that are truly hard to find (e.g., not held by the LoC with deceased authors). In these cases, it seems reasonable to request a copy through the handling editor. You should never contact the authors of a manuscript under review directly. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: So far, all my invitations to review contained an offer for access to publications via the publisher, i.e., they provide you with a temporary account allowing you to access papers. However, I have no experience with such a service as I’ve never required it. If the publisher does not provide such a service or it does not cover the publication in question, you can still ask the publisher directly for it. This way, you do not break the anonymity of peer review and ask somebody who has a direct interest to supply you with the article – as you cannot properly peer-review otherwise. Upvotes: 2
2016/03/22	879	3,888	<issue_start>username_0: I came from India to UK for my PhD as I hoped to work in a team and learn from others. However, I am all alone as other students of my professor are. As I inspected this is the case in all UK universities. I understand that a PhD student is responsible for completing his project but I expected that my project is part of a bigger project and people who work on different parts have regular scientific discussions. I want to quit and apply in the US but now I am pessimistic if this is the case in the US too.<issue_comment>username_1: The answer to this question is partly dependent on the field and the dynamics of the research group you are in. I used to work in a spectroscopy lab (in the US) where most of the work was experimental. My impression of the office was that periods of silent concentration were always interrupted by lively discussions, be it scientific or otherwise. We had white boards all over the office and they were never under-utilized. On the other hand, I've also worked in a lab with a more theoretical/computational focuses. There were more international students in the lab, and overall people in the lab were more reserved and largely focused on their own problems. However, I also know of theory labs that have a more lively atmosphere, so I hesitate to say that theory people are more prone to feeling isolated. I think the solution to your problem is not necessarily moving to a different country. For whatever personal or external reason, collaboration may not be easy for you. But ultimately it is your responsibility to reach out to other people and build collaborations. The easiest targets are people in your research group and your cohort who entered graduate school at the same time. But also consider going to departmental talks and conferences to network with external researchers. As you learn more about your own projects and other people's research interests, it will become easier to start a conversation and explore the possibility of collaborations. It may not come easy to you, but it truly is a necessary training for you as a scientist. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: To be honest, it depends on the adviser. Mine has an open door policy where I can meet him everyday, but most of the time he passes my office (two doors down from his) and asks how things are going. Basically, we do things on daily deadlines. I find this very effective! You stay on top of your research and gets fast feedback whenever you need it. Keep in mind my adviser is superstar in our dept. He is a very active man (perhaps that's why this method work well for him). So, in a way, you do most of the research on your own, he gives it a quick look, then asks you why it makes sense or what's wrong with it.. Of course, one can argue and say a student may abuse this method and become dependent on the adviser. I beg to differ since doing so would make such a student a very bad research! However, in my case, it keeps me up to date, very focused and have my answers and justifications ready for his questions! He also makes me and his other PhD students work in groups for joint project and still utilizes the above method, successfully! Other Profs. in my dept do the usual one/week meeting appointment to discuss the outcome of a week's finding. From my interaction with their students, I found that some of them starts working on their projects on Wed, to get something done by Friday! While some other work the whole week but either with minimum output or doing something completely wrong and been wasting their time. Then, you have those who are really good and very dependent! To answer your question, it is a very case dependent!! My advise is, do your best, make mistakes but always try to optimize your work, and never do the mistake twice. You are a PhD students => Prof. in the making!! Act like it :) Upvotes: 0
2016/03/22	1,236	5,113	<issue_start>username_0: Currently, I am a history student (MA) from Europe. I plan to pursue further education in Asia. Initially, I applied to university X (a 2-year research program (MA) with full funding). I also applied for a 1-year language acquisition program (also with full funding). I was shortlisted by uni X and accepted for the language program. I, then, wanted to withdraw from the uni x's shortlist, but my potential supervisor encouraged me to stay on the list and wait for a final decision. However, after some thinking I realised that I look out to take that language program for academic (learn an extra language), personal (get some time off) and financial reasons (save some money) My question is the following: do I, as a (potential) admitted student, have certain bargaining power to delay my possible admission for a year for example? I'm not a potential employee, post-doc or whatsoever. I'm just a potential research student and I'm definitely not the only candidate on the waiting list Which points do I have to consider prior to send an e-mail to uni X when dealing with such an issue? Thanks<issue_comment>username_1: > > delay my possible admission for a year > > > In theory, yes, you can delay the admission for up to a year but you need to know the rules. As mentioned in the comments, this is called `deferring`. Each university/institute has certain rules regarding the deferment. At some places, you may not be able to defer the offer so long. While others, which allow the deferments for up to a term or two, it might be easier to delay for one semester/term (4 to 6 months) by providing a reasonable excuse. However, this can be extended for one more term (3 to 6 months) but in special cases and may require the agreement of the prospective supervisor, HoD etc. > > Which points do I have to consider prior to send an e-mail to uni X when dealing with such an issue? > > > Try to know their rules through the website or by email. See what is the maximum period (P) they can allow you? `4+3=7` or `6+6=12` or `...` Does (P) satisfy you? If yes, then what would be the special conditions for the extension? Would you be able to manage to deal with those special conditions? Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: If you propose to start the program at one of the standard entry times, such as the beginning of the first semester one year from now, then such a delay is a common request and is often granted. The term is "deferment". Typical reasons include misalignment of the academic calendars between countries, military service, and medical problems. From the point of view of the institution, by granting a deferment they lose a small amount of predictability in filling their class this year and gain a similar amount of predictability in filling the next class. If they received too many acceptances of their admission offers this year, then you might be doing them a favor by deferring. Game-theoretically you lose nothing, and might gain something, by asking about the possibility of deferment before making a final decision. The school may require an enrollment deposit now to reduce the possibility that you apply elsewhere in the deferment year. It might provide them with some (very slight) further reassurance if you state that that you don't intend to apply for admission to other programs, or provide reasons that make it clear you do want to attend their program one year from the original date. Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: The funding is probably tied up in some project's results, if you don't show up to do the work on time it is very likely that it will be given to somebody else. You can still attend, sure; but no funding. Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_4: > > Which points do I have to consider prior to send an e-mail to uni X when dealing with such an issue? > > > If possible, it can be useful to try to phrase things in terms of their interests and goals, rather than just yours. For example, in U.S. mathematics departments my impression is that it's easy to get a deferral to do something that will make you a better-prepared or more successful graduate student, such as spending a year on Part III of the Tripos in Cambridge, while it can be harder to get a deferral for personal reasons (volunteering, taking time off, earning money, pursuing other interests, etc.). You might still get one, or you might not, in which case you would need to apply again next year and risk not getting in. In particular: 1. If spending a year studying Chinese would provide important preparation for your MA at University X, you should emphasize this. They might prefer the deferral, actually, if insufficient Chinese language skills was one reason you are on the waiting list. 2. If it is not crucial for the MA but important for related professional goals (such as your future PhD project), that's also worth mentioning. Of course all this depends on how the department handles deferrals. Whether a deferral would even make sense depends a lot on the circumstances, but it can't hurt to ask. Upvotes: 0
2016/03/22	1,506	6,076	<issue_start>username_0: I am a PhD student. In the past I have met with an assistant professor for some general advice about my research, both times he has made off the cuff comments on my lack of competence as a researcher and overall career suitability in academia. During my continuation, he made further comments in this area. I prepared for 3 weeks solid for my continuation (or transfer or confirmation, in my case, it's like the defense of the first paper) and it went terribly. I can take constructive criticism and I welcome it, so as to better my paper. However, his behaviour I feel is inappropriate, as the focus should be my paper, and not my personal qualities. I am not sure what to do, if I should even do anything at all. In general, I consider my PhD progress to be very good, and my supervisor as far as I know shares the same sentiment. I'm cautious to respond to the assistant professor, because he tells me I am being defensive, but then I am cautious of being too silent because he tells me I am not contributing enough. I have not spoken to my supervisor since my continuation or told him about my past encounters with this professor. Do I express my disappointment and confusion in our next meeting, or do I just leave it? I am lost on what to do, and I feel very deflated now.<issue_comment>username_1: He may be competing with your supervisor. He may not like your general topic. He may not like you. Or, he really believes what he says. Or he wants to test you. You don't know. You have to live with people who confuse what's going on with prejudice- or agenda-coloured "truth". Practically all successful researchers have encountered such put-downs. Schechtman (later Nobel winner) got a "Introduction to Crystallography" book put on his table when he first reported that he got a 5-fold symmetry, hence quasicrystals, in his experiment. Feynman got put-down big time initially by Oppenheimer and was only saved by Dyson's aggressive intervention. You think your progress is good? Your supervisor does, too? That's enough for you to go on, then. This guy may be a big shot, but for you, it doesn't count. Big shots are usually right when they think something is cool/great. They can be awfully wrong when they think something is not good. Trust your instincts. Upvotes: 7 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: username_1 already gave a great answer, I'd like to address this point specifically: > > I'm cautious to answer back to the professor, because he tells me I am being defensive, but then I am cautious of being too silent, because he tells me I am not contributing enough. > > > I suggest the following strategy: * If he criticizes you personally: Ignore it. * If he criticizes your work: Answer back, but use questions. Don't defend your work, try to find out why we criticizes it and what alternatives he suggests. If he is right, you get valuable feedback. If he is wrong (and others are present, like at your continuation), he will make himself look bad rather than you. Example: "And you call yourself a scientist? This section is rubbish." * Bad answer: (Get angry) "Of course I am a scientist! And this section is great because..." * Good answer: (Take out a pen and paper to take notes) "Why do you think it is rubbish? How can it be improved?" > > I have not spoken to my supervisor since my continuation or told him about my past encounters with this professor. Do I express my disappointment and confusion in our next meeting, or do I just leave it? > > > Sure, mention it! Your advisor's job is not only to help you write a great thesis, but also to help you find your way in academia and guide you through the process. Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: Kelly, if you have had a chance to meet with your supervisor since you asked this question, you may not need any further advice. I'm male, so maybe not qualified to speak to this topic. You call yourself Kelly, which where I am (geographically) is usually but not exclusively female. A male professor is criticizing you personally and telling you that you are not suitable for academia, so it's even more likely that you are female. If I've guessed right on that, then since I see you also used a male pronoun for your supervisor, you should discuss this with women on the faculty in your department. My other comments are gender neutral. I'm worried because you said you prepared for three weeks and the exam went badly. If that's just because an assistant professor asked inappropriate questions, that doesn't reflect badly on you. But your supervisor is supposed to intervene for you if something inappropriate happens in an exam, and it sounds like he didn't. If the rudeness was coming from an assistant professor, then your supervisor should be at least of equal rank and it isn't obvious what power dynamic would keep him silent when you were being mistreated. If the exam did go badly, your supervisor should bring it up without prompting, I think, but I wouldn't count on it. I think you need to know if your supervisor thinks it went badly, and if he shares your view on why it went badly. If you agree that this one assistant professor is the problem, then you supervisor should agree to keep him off your committee in the future, and all is good. You say you view your PhD progress as very good and "as far as you know" your supervisor shares the same sentiment. I wish you were more confident in that. Maybe you and your supervisor need to agree on milestones and deadlines to reach the milestones so you can judge that you are making good progress. It's 99.9% likely the other professor is wrong in his assessment of you. But you're probably not the next Feynman or the next <NAME>, because they wouldn't need to ask the question you've asked. They succeeded no matter what anyone else said. The rest of us might be suitable for academia but still slip through the cracks without support from mentors and colleagues. In your question I see red flags that say your supervisor isn't supporting you. Upvotes: 2
2016/03/22	244	1,072	<issue_start>username_0: I have my thesis abstract translated by an Italian friend (from English to Italian). Therefore, I'm wondering if I should mention it somewhere in the abstract or acknowledgment that the Italian abstract was written by him. What is the common way in academia? The whole thesis is in English, but I wanted to add an Italian abstract as well, since the the thesis is submitted to a university in Italy.<issue_comment>username_1: A small piece of translation like this should be clearly credited, but is not large enough that I think that it should be considered a significant piece of independent work. As such, I think that a statement in the thesis acknowledgements would be sufficient. Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: I would strongly advise talking to the university you plan to submit the thesis to clarify both whether it is acceptable to include an abstract translated by another person and if-so how it should be credited. They are the ones who get to decide what is and isn't acceptable in the thesis. Upvotes: 0
2016/03/22	667	2,950	<issue_start>username_0: I am going to be teaching a workshop on Julia for data science and scientific computing soon. I came up with a plan that has a lot more than we will be able to do (just in case), but was wondering about how to come up with a good estimate for how far along we will get. I find this hard to estimate since for most of the assignments I could do them really quickly, but that's because I am experience in the language and the biggest hurdle will be learning the documentation, syntax, and all the special issues of a new language. That said, do you have any good heuristics for how long projects will take in a workshop? It's hard to know the exact number of students right now, but I think it will be anywhere from 10~30, and I'd assume more students would make it go slower. I thought of doing something like "this takes me 5 minutes, so plan 20 minutes", but the number 20 has no basis in reality because I have never done this.<issue_comment>username_1: Test drive ---------- Grab a couple of local students of comparable level and have them do the assignments. Your own speed is not indicative - something that takes you five minutes may take ten minutes or may be incomplete after an hour; only practical experience can show how it will turn out. In addition, usually setting up a working development environment can be a major time sink - if people use their own hardware and various operating systems, then some of them can waste a lot of time until they are able to run a 'hello world' program; you should have a clear plan on how you will handle it. Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: I am not very good at judging how long things take. To work around this, I prepare a number of different versions of each exercise. From hardest to easiest, I provide * A statement of objectives (i.e., write a function that does X, Y, and Z) * A detailed description of the objectives, input and output arguments, and some helpful functions * Some framework code with comments describing what needs to be done and where * Nearly complete code which only needs a few lines of additional code * Complete code with instructions on how to run it and an explanation of what it does Depending on the specifics, I often start with a simple exercise to gauge the level of experience that the students have. If the experience is fairly uniform, I then try and provide the appropriate level exercise. I make the first real exercise too hard, I provide a hint to speed things up. If it is too easy, I choose a more difficult level for the next activity. If there is a lot of diversity in the students, I let them know that they can choose the difficulty. I do this both for ungraded workshops and graded programming/practical classes. In my graded classes the students just get a statement of objectives for the final project. During the course of the class I let them build up to that however they want. Upvotes: 1
2016/03/23	1,053	4,692	<issue_start>username_0: (I consider this question to be an extension and complement of [this one](https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/1275/8575)). My field is Economics. It is not uncommon for a published research paper to reference a (third-party) "technical report", or a "mimeo" or a "manuscript", usually accompanied by the name of a University only (apart of course from author and a year as date). I know the meaning of these words, and that they represent something different from a "working paper" - the latter is almost always part of an instituted series of publications by a research or academic institution. My question asks help in clarifying how such documents come about as part of the activity of a professional academic, and why they are "left" at that "status" and not, say, "advance" to at least "working paper" status. After all, they are referenced because they contain research results. I can imagine some situations: for example a "Technical Report" could be the very detailed presentation of a large-scale econometric or simulation study, that was then condensed to a working paper and then maybe to a published one. Or some very specialized theoretical/mathematical result which has value but it is too narrow to even be published as a "note" (and perhaps belongs to some future monograph or textbook). Or even, these are works that have been submitted and rejected, but their author thinks they nevertheless have value, and it so happens that he stops trying to publish them and decides to keep them public in his university and/or personal website, as proof that he is fulfilling his obligation to do research. Am I off the mark? How publicly accessible and referenced scientific works (even from recent years) come to settle in a "manuscript/mimeo/Technical Report" status?<issue_comment>username_1: Most often I find that these are works in progress, unfinished or otherwise unsuitable for regular academic publication. I've written technical reports as an undergrad as part of an internal project for a non-research entity that simply described the progress we made on a project. There was little context for publication outside the organization itself, and not enough novelty to try to pull some context together. However, these documents were referred to internally to justify further work in the area due to the feasibility that we showed for the project. Sometimes, when they're not too proprietary, some organizations will put these kinds of reports up on their website to show the kinds of things they are working on. Maybe several will be combined at a later point as the foundational parts of a proposal or a "real" paper. I haven't seen "mimeo" used ever in my life except in the context of the output of a [Mimeograph machine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mimeograph) which was an early way to duplicate documents. It's possible that mimeos of technical reports in the scientific report context used to get passed around the big national and industrial labs so that people could find out what was going on internally well before there'd be an internal website or wiki to browse for like-minded researchers. Otherwise, that's not really a common term that I encounter. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Technical reports are internal documents, often with some serial number to identify them. They go through at most a light check that they are on-topic for the institution, and (particularly for companies) don't divulge any secrets. Often technical reports are extended versions of later papers (including full detail, experimental data, ...), sometimes they are just reports of internal work. I believe I still have a technical report that was the user manual for a LISP system I used while studying. Companies used this to share results of internal reasearch more or less informally. They are usually published (before the Internet it used to be that you could write somebody asking to send you a copy of the document, today they are usually on the webpage). They don't suffer from the page limit of journal papers, and have a much faster turnaround (a week or so to get published instead of perhaps even years). A manuscript is just something I wrote. I might share it with some close friends, keep it locked up in a drawer, or publish it widely. There is no more or less regular way to request a copy. The last term, mimeo, might refer to mimeograph, an old (pre-photocopy) way of printing short runs of documents. The quality was poor, and required a lot of setup. It might refer to a manuscript that was reproduced in up to a hundred or at most a few hundred copies and handed out, e.g. at a conference. Upvotes: 0
2016/03/23	268	1,209	<issue_start>username_0: I am writing a paper which is building up on the work I have published earlier. It includes experimental results which were used to further develop the model. To show that the model has improved I would like to include a graph of one of my experimental work showing the model predictions before and after the implementation of the improvements. The graph of the data has not been published and will be included in my PhD thesis. I would like to publish that data together with a similar series which I will use to evaluate my model (can can be used to evaluate similar models) in a separate paper. Can I use the graph and reference it as my unpublished thesis. I have a thesis title already. Many Thanks<issue_comment>username_1: You can state that " according to the (or based on yet) unpublished data collected in our lab or by xxx .....". It is widely used with no problem. (I am assuming you got permission from your advisor) Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Why not just use this paper as an opportunity to make the first publication of the data? Why do you need to cite some other work for it when you can introduce it and publish it here? Upvotes: 1
2016/03/23	727	3,049	<issue_start>username_0: I have a LOR from my previous employer and I want to use it for the MSc application I'm preparing. However, there is a certain sentence in this LOR that even though I understand its meaning (based on facts I know of course), I don't know if it will be good for my application. "Major characteristics of his job were the clean, well commented code and the smart, yet often unorthodox solutions." How bad can it be for my application?<issue_comment>username_1: If I were reading this statement, I'd take it as quite positive. * Clean, well-commented code is a very good thing, especially in a young programmer * Smart solutions are good * Unorthodox could be good or bad, but going into an academic context it's probably more good than bad. Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: > > "Major characteristics of his job were the clean, well commented code > and the smart, yet often unorthodox solutions." > > > I don't see any way in which one could reasonably interpret this statement negatively. If the solutions were smart, then by itself obviously that's a good thing, whether or not they were orthodox. And if they were both smart and unorthodox, that's even better, because: 1. the fact that they were unorthodox shows that you came up with them independently rather than just regurgitate some smart but unoriginal idea that everyone is taught in freshman year; 2. the fact that they were unorthodox and smart means you are not only creative and think independently, but your independent thinking actually leads you to smart solutions that haven't been thought about by (many) others. What's not to like about someone who has such characteristics?! I think only in some crazy place like North Korea would this be considered a bad thing. Finally, the use of the word "yet" can be either a subtle logical error on the part of the writer, or a reference to the (probably correct, IMO) fact that if a solution is unorthodox, statistically speaking it is likely to be less smart than an orthodox solution, since if the unorthodox solution were superior then there would be room for someone to popularize the unorthodox solution so that it would eventually become orthodox. In other words, a situation in which there is a smart yet unorthodox solution is a kind of "market failure", or an opportunity for "methodological arbitrage", and hence somewhat rare. With that said, such situations clearly exist, and any person who has the ability to discover and exploit them is in my opinion worthy of high praise. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: I know I'm going against the grain, but I wouldn't hire you and I think the one who wrote the sentence was trying to warn future employers without writing down something obviously negative and actionable. I interpret the sentence, especially the ‘unorthodox’ bit, as saying that you don't play well with others, don't really function in a team, and don't always deliver what was asked of you or what the situation demanded. Upvotes: -1
2016/03/23	481	2,093	<issue_start>username_0: Should I email the editor and resubmit the corrected version of the chapter? I have been trying to meet a deadline so I worked very hard on my book proposal. It was polished and ready to be submitted. In the last minute, I decided to write a new introduction for one of the chapters that I submitted together with the proposal. I did not print the chapter again, so I did not see the typos, and some of the extra words left hanging in the text. Those typos are only on the first three pages of the chapter--the rest had already been edited. Should I email the editor and let him know? He told me he already submitted the materials to the reviewers.<issue_comment>username_1: I have never been in either pair of the shoes, but I will try to break this down: To me, it's better to lose a book deal because I reported an error in my proposal than to lose a book deal because a reviewer commented "glaring grammatical errors in the introduction." I would suggest sending the corrected version to the editor with an apology, explaining what the errors are and invite the editor to decide if it needs to be delivered again to the reviewers. That way, you did your job as a responsible intellect, and the editor remains in control. And even the editor decides not to resend another version and later a reviewer found the errors, you're already covered from the editor's point of view. That's why I really see no harm reporting that. Best of luck to your publishing endeavor. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: If the proposal has already gone to reviewers, then it's late in the game to be messing around like this. Let it go. Publishers do not expect 100% clean copy. One of the functions of the publisher is copy editing. The typos might have a slightly negative effect, but what would be much more negative would be if you came off to the editor and reviewers as an author who is pesky and is going to be a pain to work with in the future. Acquisition editors are busy people, and they don't want to spend a lot of time dealing with anxious authors. Upvotes: 0
2016/03/23	753	3,072	<issue_start>username_0: An industry conference in my field of research (medical) is being held soon. I am wondering is it typical for academics to attend non-academic conferences? Several academics have been invited as keynote speakers but it is predominantly aimed at industry professionals. The talks sound interesting and relevant to my work and it would be a useful networking event. There are no similar academic conferences being held that I am aware of. This is an area of research that is more active in industry. However, the fees are very high compared to an academic conference. Is it normal for travel funds etc. to be spent on non-academic conferences? If I cannot attend are they other ways to make connections to industry? I am a postdoc currently.<issue_comment>username_1: I'm not in the medical field (my field is Engineering related), but my advisers have always encouraged me to attend conferences (both academic and industry). I believe that one of the many benefits of attending a conference (other than learning and getting up to date knowledge) is to network and make new connections. Keep in mind that even in industry conferences, one can always brainstorm or come up with ideas/solutions/problems that can help you as a student or even an adviser (maybe even get some funding!). Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: In several fields (for instance exploration geophysics), "conferences and exhibitions" (e.g. [SEG](http://www.seg.org/seg) or [EAGE](http://www.eage.org/)) may have a mixed audience, industry and academy. Such situations are not uncommon for scholars (to spend travel funds). So during sessions of little interest to you, you can meet industrials at their booths. You can also meet speakers that take some time off, and may be more prone for discussion. As you are a post-doc, you should bring your resume (even if you want to stay in academia), this gives you an opportunity to discuss about their needs, and what you have to offer, and sometimes there is a match, that could spark collaborations, topics of research. Plus, in conferences with industry, you can get goodies or corporate gifts quite easily. Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: I occasionally attend non-academic medical conferences, or attend the industry-focused sessions at mixed conferences. In my experience, these conferences are excellent for generating a couple things: 1. Contacts. Even if you want to stay in academia, knowing people in industry is occasionally useful - for example, if you want to be a PI, someday you will have students. Presumably those students willl need jobs. 2. Ideas. I actively refer to one conference I go to as a "hypothesis generating conference" - I leave it with a notebook full of ideas, and some followup emails to send. 3. Funding. Following from 1 and 2, industry contacts are a decent way to drum up industry funding. That being said, they are more expensive to go to, and in my experience using travel funds for conferences where you're not presenting is a very hard sell. Upvotes: 2
2016/03/23	933	3,823	<issue_start>username_0: There are some websites like [topuniversities](http://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings) and [times higher education](https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings) that rank universities based on several criteria. I don't know if the ranking of a university is directly proportional to its actual reputation. It is obvious that top universities such as MIT, Harvard and Stanford in US or ETH, Uppsala, KTH in Europe should be considered apart from the rest, but at what point is having a PhD from one university no different than having another? Is it after 100? Between 300-400? Or is it due to another criteria than the ranking?<issue_comment>username_1: It's worth keeping in mind that the overall university ranking is not synonymous with how they are regarded in the field. Even the breakdowns by discipline are not always going to reflect how the university is perceived in a specific field. For example, a university may not be in the top 10 in these overall rankings or even in a discipline (e.g., Computer Science), but they may be considered in the top 10 or even the top 5 for specific research fields (e.g., Database research). For a PhD, the ranking in the field will probably carry more weight than the general ranking of the university (depending on the field), as will the overall quality of the research. Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: *For many purposes, it isn't so much about the school that gave you the degree as it is your reputation in the field, which is a function of many things (including your alma mater).* This can include your advisor, your graduate work, the number and quality of peer-reviewed publications, patents or copyrights you've generated, your research area, scholarships or grants you've been awarded, and so on--basically all of the things you'd include in your CV. The ranking of your PhD program influences your reputation, but it is still one of many factors. Many successful grad students who were accepted to a more highly-regarded program choose to attend a "lesser" program because they believe they can do better research with a particular advisor, for example. Rankings are an average of many things and may not reflect the research you performed or the education you received. Different programs are known for different things. Some physics programs, for example, are better at mathematical or theoretical astrophysics. Others are known for their work in quantum mechanics or optics. Still others have an excellent reputation in biophysics—or condensed matter physics, or plasma physics, or a particular type of engineering, etc. If your program you got your degree from excels in your area of research, that can often look better to those who are familiar with your field than if you got a degree from a higher-ranked program that did not specialize in your area of research. I suspect most of the rankings have quite a bit of variation and unreliability. Aside from the annual changes, most rankings probably vary by 20%: a program ranked 30th could vary by 6 rankings (between 24 and 36). The programs in the top 10 likely only vary by 1-2 rankings. This estimate likely varies with field, the entity publishing the rankings, and sample size. I doubt there's really a cutoff point, however. Imagine if there are 100 biology programs in your country. Differences between the programs ranked 45th and 48th probably aren't particularly significant, but you should expect differences between a program ranked 45th and another ranked 80th! Or suppose your country has 500 programs in biology. You should expect a difference between one ranked 350th and another ranked 500th! However, I would expect little difference between one ranked 450th and one ranked 490th. Upvotes: 3
2016/03/23	876	3,744	<issue_start>username_0: I finished my undergrad in Electrical Engineering at the end of 2014, and since 2013 then I've been working on a startup that is soon going to fail. I would like to apply for a Masters in 2017, and to strengthen my research profile in my resume, as well as earn letters of recommendation (which I sorely lack), I'm considering working under a professor/ at a lab for a year or so (in a research area similar to that I worked on at my startup). However all research assistant/research associate positions seem to be advertised only towards students currently already studying in a graduate (masters/PhD) program. Is it common/normal/acceptable for people to work in a university lab between their undergraduate and masters, like I wish to? If so, what are these positions usually called in the US/Europe, if not Research Assistantship? To clarify, in addition to gaining experience, my main motivation would be to have a well known professor/someone at a well known lab recommend me, since I have a only one professor from my undergrad who would be willing to give me a strong letter of recommendation. I cannot expect anything from my present colleagues. Most applications seem to require 3 such letters.<issue_comment>username_1: Sure, it is normal to work for a university lab with only a bachelors or masters. However, none of the people I knew did this as a transition between undergrad and grad, rather they did it to transition out of research. The job titles range widely though, especially across fields. I have seen job titles of "Research Programmer", "Research Engineer", "Software Engineer", "Systems Researcher", etc. This is in Computer Science so other fields may have something along the lines of "Lab Technician" or other domain specific titles. If you want to do research, then apply to graduate programs that are relevant to you and attempt to contact potential advisors. Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: I know several people who have done this, but all of them worked at their undergraduate institute under a professor they knew or had worked with. It is not very common in general and I think it would be very unlikely for you to find such a position posted online. I think you would have to contact professors directly for this. An approach I have seen work though is one where students identify a research group they are interested in joining for their graduate education and start working there as a volunteer and apply for admission to the program in the meantime. If the volunteer is doing good work during this time period it could help them in the admission process and sometimes the PI would offer to start paying a salary. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: It can be rough. Hiring options for such positions can be limited, at least in the US, because hiring a matriculation student is a different process than hiring a non student - which is what you are until you start your Masters. It can be done, of course, but the faculty who hires you, as well as the department, must be willing to go to the trouble. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_4: Often assistantship positions are used as (partial or extra) funding for graduate students (or undergraduates transitioning to graduates). This means that as a non-student you'd have to compete for (limited!) positions with them. And then there is the hassle of hiring a non-student. Here assistantships aren't considered "work" if the assistant is a student, hiring a non-student for such a position would mean a lot of extra hassle and significantly higher costs (even if the assitant ends up getting the same money), so it won't be done (except for very, very special cases, if at all). Upvotes: 0
2016/03/24	852	3,661	<issue_start>username_0: Would potential employers (for academic or non-academic R&D positions) care about who is on my thesis committee? Basically, I'm asking if there is any benefit in having more well-known professors on my committee who would provide me with little guidance, as opposed to assistant professors or research professors who are not well known but could possibly provide me with some guidance. I'm asking because I have been discouraged by fellow graduate students from including a research professor on my thesis committee. Their reasons are that if a potential employer looks him up online and sees that he is not a tenured professor they may think that I tried to put together an 'easy' thesis committee. The reason I would like to include this person is that he was the only member of my qualifying exam committee who read my paper carefully. He seemed to have a good understanding of my research and after I passed the exam he emailed me a list of suggestions for my future work. I think he may serve as a better committee member, although I could probably discuss my research with him even if I leave him off the thesis committee list.<issue_comment>username_1: The exact composition of your committee will probably weigh much less than the results you get (and any publications out of your thesis). Help in doing the work is more important than some final ceremony. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: For academic positions, what is relevant for your application is your letter of recommendations. Who is on your committee does not matter (except the head). Your job applications will not even list the members of your committee---this will only be seen by someone who looks at your thesis. In academia, it's common that non-tenured (sometimes even non-tenure-track) faculty are on PhD committees. This is not viewed in any negative light. You want the most relevant people on your committee, so they can give you the best feedback, and will have a better sense of what you are doing to be able to write you recommendation letters. Often your supervisor can suggest who to put on your committee. I imagine that non-academic employers will care even less, as they are (typically) not interested in your research. Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: I do not think it should matter that much! Keep in mind that a lot goes behind the scenes when choosing committee members (joint funding between your adviser and members, future funding possibilities..). Also, in many depts. there will always be some lobbying i.e., Prof. X works with Y and Z all the time such that X is the adviser of student A which makes Profs. Y and Z be part of A's committee. Then for student B (student of Prof. Y), Profs. X and Z become members of B's committee. I now for certain that some of my friends mentioned that they have met with their committee members for at their comprehensive exam and 30-45 min before the final defense. In other cases, committee members seem to be very involved and require a monthly update. It is really up to your adviser to choose. He knows who will understand or can relate to your problem, who can help you in certain areas of your research if you get stuck, who has certain equipment in his/her lab that you can utilize in your research, who will be a headache and who is less likely to ask for additional testing, analysis etc. Even if you decided to go with certain profs. The adviser usually has the upper hand (most of the time) in picking the committee members. I agree with username_2 that committee members can be helpful in drafting recommendation letters and networking. Upvotes: 1
2016/03/24	767	3,179	<issue_start>username_0: There is a professor in the city I am currently living in who does some interesting work. I would like to sit in on his lectures, but I do not know how to ask him. What is the best way for me to ask him to attend or audit his lectures or seminar? I don't want to come across as rude or imposing myself on him, esp. when its about seminars which are maybe not so big. Also, relatedly: I am not sure if I would be able to attend every single lecture because I will have a lot of work to do the upcoming weeks. So I am not sure how to best ask with this in mind. If he says yes and I am not coming to one of the lectures -although I would love to- will it maybe look very bad?<issue_comment>username_1: First I would check if the school has a formal procedure for auditing. For example, my school wants auditors to pay as if they were attending the class, and they also have insurance concerns if, e.g., a student is hurt in a chem lab and it turns out that they weren't enrolled. You can get this info from the school's web site or catalog. If that's not an issue, then I would just send a brief email and ask permission. There are unlikely to be any objections, but it would be polite to ask. Some conceivable problems: 1. There might be a shortage of seating. 2. In certain subjects (e.g., languages) or in classes using certain teaching methods, it might be expected that students will participate actively. The quality of the discussion or activities might be worse if there is an auditor who isn't taking the course seriously. 3. The professor might want to talk to you for your benefit to see if you have enough of a background to get anything out of the class. Personally it doesn't bother me if an auditor's attendance is irregular. Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: If it's not too inconvenient, I would suggest asking in person. Send an email first to set up an appointment to drop by to discuss the possibility of attending his class. Then at the meeting you can easily explain your interest and situation. An in-person meeting will make it easier for the professor to get a sense of how appropriate it would be for you to attend the course. As Ben indicates, universities generally want auditors to pay, and different departments may have different policies about auditing, but many professors don't mind someone "learning for free." Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: If someone not associated with my university wants to sit in on one of my classes, I have no objection to that. It would be nice if the person asked first, but my answer would be yes unless the manner of asking convinced me that he or she would be a problem in the classroom. So far (my first 46 years on the faculty) I have never said no to such a request. This presupposes that the student just wants to learn the material and doesn't need any sort of official record of having been in my class. For an official record, you'd have to go via the university administration. It's also relevant that I'm in mathematics, where I don't have to worry about things like having enough space and supplies in a lab for an extra student. Upvotes: 2
2016/03/24	669	2,961	<issue_start>username_0: Some universities have ethics codes that require (whatever that might mean) members to report misconduct within the community. Are there universities where such a requirement extends to reporting misconduct within the "larger academic community"? For example, if someone at school X learned that someone at school Y had falsified laboratory data, the X person would be required to report the person at Y. The example of falsified data is imperfect as it may be covered under legal and contractual rubrics not local to a university, such as a government grant agency requiring recipients to report any known misuse of government funds. A better example is plagiarism in student papers, that usually does not violate any legal codes (unless additional scholarship money is earned through the plagiarism), and is treated as a reportable crime only within universities' internal ethics codes. The question is whether any of those codes purport to protect the integrity of other institutions. I'm asking only about reporting of academic or institutional misconduct, especially the kind where the only effective means of reporting is to the other university.<issue_comment>username_1: I have to believe that at least one school's ethics policy says to report without specifying that misbehavior should only be challenged on their own campus. Indeed, professional ethics suggest you should do so no matter where it arises. But it seems you are looking for specific examples. In that case, I really believe you are going to have to do some research to get a solid answer. Should be easy to send out a bunch of letters to various schools saying your investigating differences between written ethics statements and you'd appreciate it if they could send you a copy of theirs. Heck, these days many are probably available via the schools'websites... Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_2: 1. in case of publications and falsified data you are first and foremost responsible to report it to the publication. They need to first approve or review the technicality of the matter which can become material for the ethics committee. 2. The Honor Committees of universities keep a record of students and faculties, and when students or professors apply to other universities they are generally being asked about the previously notable issues with ethics in the previous institution. Lying in those form can by itself be lying to the second institution even if the matter can not be investigated with the first institute. That being said Honor committees in university X might have a threshold and limit before noting an offense or violation on the record subject to citations and referral for future. In some cases in universities, some mandatory 6 session therapy is being recommended as a way to remove an item from someones active record.Those therapies are subect to confidentiality and therfore can not be cited by university Y. Upvotes: 1
2016/03/24	690	2,895	<issue_start>username_0: Can a University professor post a grade on web-campus or blackboard and then change the grade the next day? Yesterday I received a B and today I it had been changed to a C... C's do not pass the class in the masters program.<issue_comment>username_1: In the US, universities generally have a policy that describes under what conditions a professor can change a grade that has been officially posted to the student's record. For example, in my university, the official policy is that an instructor may change a final grade that has been officially posted to the student information system if there was an error (e.g. in the calculation of the grade) or if the instructor overlooked some work that the student submitted1. The web interface asks me to supply the reason when I submit the grade change request: [![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/i6lfv.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/i6lfv.png) When I submit a grade change request after grades have been posted, it goes through another layer of approval (department head) but barring exceptional circumstances, these changes are routinely approved. "Intermediate" or "unofficial" grades (e.g. grades that are posted in Blackboard but not in the official student information system, midterm grades, grades on assignments that aren't the final course grade, etc.) typically are not subject to those rules, and can be changed more easily. --- 1 Although students persist in asking me to change their grades for [all kinds of other reasons](https://i.stack.imgur.com/52pXO.png). Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: Your school may also have a policy that, while the grades posted to the student information system are "released," they are not final until the final-exam period (and its grading window) has officially ended; say, the Monday after exam week. The posting gives students an early glimpse of their assessment should they desire to launch an appeal (formal or otherwise), while also giving the instructor a holding area in which to post the final summation of the students' grades without the clutter of the many components composing it that might have clouded the waters on the learning management system, for example (and thus a chance to double-check them one last time). There may also be an in-between option: that they are "released but not final" when posted, but become finalized 24 hours after whatever point they are posted (at which point it does become a bit more engraved, and thus a little more difficult to formally downgrade, or even upgrade). This can then lead to deliberate delays, wherein instructors withhold the "official" grades for days at a time lest they lose their prerogative to change their minds amid student complaints. It's all easier if you just keep your gradebook separately, take your time, make your decision, and stick to it. Upvotes: 1
2016/03/24	1,113	4,957	<issue_start>username_0: Many say that > > A good paper is a paper which is easily understandable by a reader. > > > Actually when I am reading lots of papers in good journals, however, they are written with a sort of pedantic vocabularies, even though I can find simple and easy words which can replace the former. Should I use a pedantic vocabulary but clear sentences in order for other people (reviewers, readers) not to underestimate me? I think the previous statement (clear sentences with pedantic vocabulary) sounds like contradiction, or irony. What do you think about it? FYI, I am EE/CS graduate student and good journals can be IEEE TMC, TWC and so on.<issue_comment>username_1: There is a paper about that. It draws some surprising conclusions. According to Fig. 1 R3A, using unusual words (jargon) is correlated with getting more citations. <http://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1004205> However, I would recommend you ignore these correlations and write to be clearly readable. Most likely after you have put a lot of effort into explaining things simply, reviewers will still say it is confusing, because things that were just figured out tend to be difficult things to understand. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: There is a third way: Be pedantic about your vocabulary in the right way to make your paper more readable. Using established, clear, and consistent vocabulary and defining it when necessary is the best way to ensure that you are not misunderstood. The main advantage of “simple and easy words” is that they do not need to be explained to the reader, but this also entails that you rely on the reader interpreting these words the same way as you do, which may be not given surprisingly often. Defined vocabulary does not have this disadvantage. Moreover, you need to at least need to mention the established, “pedantic” vocabulary for context and to avoid the impression of reinventing the wheel. By consistently sticking to it, you avoid switching between different terms for the same thing, which usually impedes intelligibility. However, you should also bear in mind that readers unfamiliar with this vocabulary may want to read your paper. For these readers, define the more uncommon words and cite papers explaining the basic underlying concepts. Papers are not difficult to read because they contain new words, but because these words are not properly explained or because the reader does not understand the concepts represented by them. For example if you write a paper on theoretical particle physics, readers will have to understand some elementary aspects of quantum theory to follow your thoughts. Using vocabulary that can only appeal to readers without this basic understanding of quantum theory is pointless and only raises false expectations. Finally, if you get to introduce new concepts, you can try to choose words for them appeal to intuition, but this does not mean that you are relieved from the burden of explaining these words. Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: Most journals these days focus on readability.You should definitely not use pedantic vocabulary just to sound more knowledgeable. However, that said, you should use technical terms wherever applicable, and explain them, rather than use an oversimplified vocabulary that caters to a lay audience. At the end of the day, you are writing a paper for the scientific community who have a basic understanding of the subject matter. One heuristic would be to think that you are writing for an audience who are not from your specific field but belong to a related field. This will help you understand which technical terms you would need to explain. However, I do think that sentences should be kept simple as far as possible and unnecessary use of jargon should be avoided. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_4: There are lost of "simple, everyday" words which have a precise technical meaning in some areas (velocity, force in physics) which often has little relationship to the common term's meaning, and there are many otherwise obscure and not at all used words that describe specific, common concepts in an area. A paper, say, in theoretical physics will be next to unintelligible to someone who isn't familiar with the subject, while being crystal clear to a colleague of the writer. Or a paper might be full of common words, but with meanings far removed from the everyday use. And the second one might be clear to one familiar with the area, or completely opaque. What does matter is if the author uses the right words to express the intended meaning to the intended audience, and strings together the concepts and explanations in logical, natural way without either over- or underexplaining. In my experience, writers who command a more rich (and thus complex) vocabulary tend to do a better job. But there are outliers either way... Upvotes: 0
2016/03/24	357	1,650	<issue_start>username_0: A relatively big conference will take place in my neighborhood, but I haven't noticed of it until now. I'd like to attend some lectures done by young researchers who recently made a breakthrough. Unfortunately, the deadline of registration is over. Thus, I have this question: do conferences accept entry of those who didn't register before the deadline?<issue_comment>username_1: Most large scientific conferences will allow you to register at any time, even while the conference is running. In this case the "deadline" is instead one or more deadlines for getting reduced rate registrations: they charge you more, the later that you register in order to get most to register early and have a good estimate of attendee numbers. Some conferences, however, have size limits or require advance planning of other sorts, and so actually do have a strict deadline. This is more often the case with small meetings than large ones, but the only way to know for certain for a particular conference is to check their website and, if it doesn't have information, contact the organizers. Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: I am not sure if it is completely ethical or not, but for meeting people you can just go there and see the couple of lectures or friends. As long as you are not using their food and etc. I know you might make couple of presenters very happy with your presence or feedback. Most conferences are very sensitive about making sure people do not by-pass registration on their first day. Dress professional and have business cards just in case, and you will be fine to go see friends. Upvotes: 1
2016/03/24	1,777	6,829	<issue_start>username_0: Let's say I'm writing a report about sociological consideration of Aurora borealis in hipster communities. I want to support the value of my paper by showing that the way in which people consider Aurora borealis is a major and recurrent question. I have found a paper saying in its literature review: "Aurora borealis have been written about for at least 4000 years, starting with Chronicles of a Minoan watching the sky by Ithurts Myneck (~ 2100BC)". So this is a perfect example of an information I want to report in my paper. However, this paper turns out to deal with the physics of charged particles in solar wind - that means neither the scope of this paper, nor the scientific discipline it belongs to are related to my topic. Moreover, the reality of the book Chronicles of a Minoan watching the sky is evidenced by other means (i.e. this paper is not the only one that is talking about the book). But I cannot access the book to read it. Question: I want to write in my report that Aurora borealis has been a concern for a long time, and prove this assertion by giving the example of the Chronicles of a Minoan watching the sky. Should I credit (i.e. cite) the paper where I found this information, even if it is not related to the core/added of the paper? I want to give credit for the information I found, however, [it is sometimes said](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/57/50010): "When you cite a paper, you will be citing from [result] section. If you find yourself citing a paper based on something in the Intro [= literature review?] , you're just citing another citation."<issue_comment>username_1: > > Of course you should cite the paper. > > > The content of the paper should be focussed on your topic and its field. But, this does not apply to the citations within the content. There is no such rule stating that the papers you cite should be within the scope of your topic. Anything you refer in any domain deserves to be cited as long as you utilise its information within your publication (be it paper or thesis). Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: I'd cite it, noting that this paper on a different subject mentions in passing that... Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_3: There is more controversy on this topic than I expected, so I've done some further digging. The results of this surprised me! Institution, Program, and Journal requirements ---------------------------------------------- The rules of your neighborhood may differ, so you'll want to follow whatever more specific rules are given to you in your program. For example, [Columbia College demands secondary source citation](https://www.college.columbia.edu/academics/whentocite): > > Indebtedness > > > You must cite any text you read that helped you think about your paper > even if you do not reference it directly in the text of your paper. > > > However, the [OWL APA style reference gives differing advice](https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/02/): > > Work Discussed in a Secondary Source > > > NOTE: Give the secondary source in the references list; in the text, > name the original work, and give a citation for the secondary source. > For example, if Seidenberg and McClelland's work is cited in Coltheart > et al. and you did not read the original work [emphasis mine], list the Coltheart > et al. reference in the References. In the text, use the following > citation... > > > So if you merely were directed to the original work, but then attained the original work and read it, there is not necessarily any need to cite the secondary source - but the guide doesn't prohibit it. However, the IEEE has a stance as strong as Columbia, but in the opposite direction! As noted by [York University](https://www.york.ac.uk/integrity/ieee.html) in their IEEE style guide (page 5 of the pdf): > > Should I use secondary references? > > > A secondary reference is given when > you are referring to a source which you have not read yourself, but > have read about in another source, for example referring to Jones’ > work that you have read about in Smith. You should avoid using > secondary references and locate the original source and reference > that. > > > [Murdoch University](http://libguides.murdoch.edu.au/c.php?g=246207&p=1640691) has an even stronger interpretation: > > • IEEE style does not allow for the use of secondary source. > > > • Locate the original source of information which is cited in a work > which you have read. > > > • If an original source cannot be located, it should not be cited. > > > --- Jeeze, no wonder there are so many different answers! So it would seem there cannot be a one-size fits all answer - *it depends. What is required in one field and style is forbidden in another, and optional in a third (and apparently even then people differ). Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_4: As witnessed by the varying answers, there are varying opinions on questions such as this. My opinion is that one should be honest about one's methodology and sources, including intermediate sources. In particular, acknowledgement of the sort of sources that have been helpful in finding more-primary sources. One sort of extreme case is acknowledgement that one has used Wikipedia in various way, e.g., to get started looking for things in a possibly somewhat-unfamiliar direction. No, wikipedia is not a primary, and maybe not even secondary, source, but to acknowledge its use serves several positive purposes. More modestly, but similarly, to acknowledge the helpfulness of survey/review/expository parts of papers is to acknowledge the utility of such things to the scholarly community. This is in contrast to the general editorial and stylistic pressure to not* give context, not give too many external pointers, etc. It seems to me highly desirable to encourage/legitimize a broader scholarly writing style in STEM (science, tech, engineering, math, the latter my field) in contrast to a narrow technician's writing style that is nevertheless often adequate for "publishability". In summary, honesty both in sources and in methodology. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: Absolutely cite it. If reference is second you can check maybe check this site which gives an example based on Harvard Guide for referencing and in the example [second referencing](http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/nursing/sonet/rlos/studyskills/harvard/2.html). If possible and if it is from another author try to find original work, if not or if original is the one you are looking cite this one. But in short, absolutely yes, it gave you information you are using and no matter the genre it is part of your project and your genre since it is relevant to you. Upvotes: 1
2016/03/24	1,364	6,192	<issue_start>username_0: Let's say I'm writing an original research paper about the design process in the helicopter* industry. In the literature review (or context/related work) section, I want to talk about: 1. the various design processes that exists; 2. specific features of design processes in aviations; 3. specific features of design processes in helicopter industry; 4. how to study a design process; 5. etc. I have found a major paper that deals with the design process in the airplane industry. This paper is recent (= references are up-to-date), frequently cited and published in a major journal (= acknowledged for its scientific quality). Its literature review is top-notch: clear, concise, well written, etc. It tackled the topics #1, 2 and 4 of the review I want to write. Question:* How to write my review, since this papers does almost all the job in a perfect manner?<issue_comment>username_1: I would use the other literature review as a baseline, and focuss on how helicopters are different from airplanes. So I would start with mentioning the other literature review, and saying that the basics are discussed there, and here I will focuss on how those apply and/or differ for helicopters. Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: I have recently written a paper which addresses a particular angle of a fairly common topic. Although I am presenting a new perspective, since the topic is a common one, I came across several papers during my literature search which has near perfect literature reviews. It definitely does help if you get one or two such exhaustive literature reviews: you will have pretty much covered everything if you can go back to the sources cited in these reviews and read them as well. I don't know if the procedure I followed in writing my literature review was correct, but this is what I did. Once I had read whatever I could of the existing literature in the field (not in great detail, just read the abstract and results well and skimmed through the rest of the paper), I created an outline for my literature review - a basic framework with the key points that I would include. I started with a broad topic and gradually tried to narrow down to the angle I am covering. I then started writing the literature review based on this outline. For each of the points on my outline, I did a search on google scholar and came up with one or two most relevant articles (didn't take much time as I was already familiar with them) and cited them. I did not cite every single article in the field, nor did I go back to those perfect literature reviews while writing. My aim was to convincingly narrow the discussion down to my core topic and ensure that this particular topic had not been covered before. Later, one of the reviewers pointed out a couple of relevant articles that I had missed and I added them. I have seen the other questions that you have posted. I feel you are overthinking and getting overwhelmed by all your reading. The best thing you can do now is to take a break from your reading. Let the ideas settle down for a day or two and then create your outline and start writing. Search as you write and cite the relevant articles that come up in your search. In fact, don't read the literature review of the other article at all. Even if some of the ideas are similar, you should be able to present them your own way. Also, try to reference the primary sources and not the secondary source. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: Unless the "perfect literature review" is very recent, there will be new developments that warrant discussion, if only to contrast to what was already described. I'm not familiar with helicopter design, but I'd hazard the guess that larger supercomputers build on different architectures require new approaches to numerical modelling; larger/faster supercomputers means more detailed or precise models can be tackled; there are new requirements, like less noise or even less radar cross-section. Or you could focus on some specific aspect(s), doing a more in-depth study of that. Or even do a sort of history instead of discussing the current state of the art. Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_4: In principle, for academic articles, you should only write things that are new and have not been published before. From this perspective, you should not rehash what others have already done if they've already done a good job doing it. This makes your work easier. That means that you shouldn't spend the time writing up what others have already done, but rather spend your time on discussing your own new unique contributions beyond what others have already done. That said, so that your article can stand on its own, it is necessary to do some kind of repetition so that your readers can sufficiently read and understand your article in its own right without having to read other articles for background reading just to follow your article. Based on these principles, here is my recommendation for the scenario you described: * Since points 1, 2 and 4 have already been done nearly perfectly, do not redo it. However, do summarize these points in your own words in as much detail as necessary so that your readers do not need to read the other literature review to understand what you are talking about. In your summary, not only should you certainly cite the other literature review, but freely quote it as ncessary to get the message across. Then, you should explicitly ask readers to read that other article for further details. (However, I repeat, make sure that all absolutely necessary detail is included in your own summary in your own article.) * Develop point 3 in detail, since that is clearly different from the treatment in the other literature review. Make sure you highlight this difference so that readers can appreciate that although you borrow from the other article for points 1, 2 and 4, you are making a contribution above and beyond what has already been done. With this approach, you not only benefit from the other work that the other article has done, but you use it as a platform to highlight your own valuable contributions. Upvotes: 1
2016/03/24	504	2,108	<issue_start>username_0: I applied to a university in Canada for a MSc. As part of their requirements, I needed to have a supervisor in order to be granted admission to the program. So I did contact a supervisor and he took me in as his student with the condition that I brought my own funding. I said yes. However, the university has not yet offered me admission, I am still waiting for their decision. This was not my only option of course and last week I got accepted to a MSc/PhD program in a Max Planck university in Germany. Because it is much better ranked and students are given a monthly stipend, I took the offer because I thought it was a better option for me. How do I reject now the professor who accepted me on Canada? Should I tell him the truth? Is this a very bad move on my side?<issue_comment>username_1: Skip the "better-ranked" part (don't be petty); say you couldn't hold up your end of the bargain - to find your own funding -, and Max Planck offered a fully-funded position. I don't foresee any issues or grievances after a short, to the point mail to this sort. Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Do inform the professor as soon as possible. I have had students sign on with me, and then disappear on extremely short notice. Since I only advise a set number of students a term, I had already rejected other students because of workload. I'm not mad when people let me know what is up as timely as possible. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: I followed the advice of the answers above and I sent the corresponding emails to the professor and the program administration office and everything went great! The professor just answered with a short "thank you" and a " wish you all the best", which is a lot better than what I had expected (i.e. a very angry response!). The program administration office also thanked me for letting them know as soon as possible and even asked me what were my reasons for not choosing their university. To anyone who has the same question as me, be sure to let them know about your decision as soon as possible. Upvotes: 2
2016/03/24	3,074	13,494	<issue_start>username_0: It seems that many universities are rotating professors who teach a subject. I was talking with a friend and he mentioned that as a result of this, he is struggling with a professor who is teaching a subject outside his area and is still learning the materials. My question, is why do schools apply such strategy? Wouldn't it be better to focus on few related topics, instead of assigning professors to some random courses?<issue_comment>username_1: Most programs I've ever heard of don't randomly assign professors - but the typical system in the US I'm aware of has each professor required to teach X number of credits. The department has requirements for what class must be taught (like standard intro classes, courses required for the major, etc), as well as the opening for a variety of specialty courses (often called "electives") - but the core courses have to be taken up first. While departments differ, it seems the most common system is one where professors pick the classes they will teach (sometimes by seniority or department rank getting their first pick, sometimes by some other method). The natural order of things is that it's easier to teach a class the second time than it is to teach it the first time (since you already have so much material prepared and you have had some practice now), so professors naturally end up teaching many of the same classes year after year. However, most departments have comings and goings nearly every semester - retirements, people leaving, sabbaticals, medical leave, changing course load amounts (buying out of teaching, becoming a department chair, not being the chair anymore, winning a big grant, having a big grant run out). Thus things are constantly in flux, so even if you really, really wanted the same courses taught by the same professors every semester - you can't have it, it isn't possible. There is a downside to having things static, even when you somehow manage to have so much stability that it's possible. Some examples: * Many professors get comfortable with the material enough that they don't make large updates, and it can get stale and out of date over time (both materially and in method used). * Professors, being human beings, get bored of saying the same thing over and over and their excitement, passion, and patience can begin to wear thin even with classes they once enjoyed. * Some students aren't a good fit with some professors, and if a required class is always taught by a professor they don't get along with this may interfere with academic progress. * Professors can lose sight - or just not have a good idea to begin with - what the goal of teaching some material actually is. Most programs have courses that build on each other, like Introduction -> Research Methods -> Stats -> Advanced Research Methods. If you only teach stats and don't ever run an advanced class, are you sure you are teaching the stats students will need - and are you emphasizing applications that best prepare them for the advanced material? If you teach a Calculus I class, are you making sure students get all the groundwork they need for Calculus II? I've had students tell me "the Professor assumed we all had JavaScript in the previous class and designed the whole class around it, but half of us had never seen it before!" - with not very encouraging results. However, there are downsides to moving people around a lot too: * The first time is always the hardest. No one knows what to expect, every question asked will be one you might not have answered before, the teacher's idea of pacing and time required to complete assignments will basically be wild guesses, etc. * Sometimes someone is asked to teach a class because no one else is available. I talked with a visiting academic who was a statistician, and he said in his first semester they came to him and said, "Hey, have you ever used C++ before?" He said, "Well, I guess a little bit in undergrad..." And so they said, "Great, don't have anyone else to teach this required class - will you teach a C++ class for us?" So he just had to figure it out as he went. It isn't ideal, but the alternative: no class offered that semester, which may mean students can't take required key classes or they will just miss out on learning important material entirely. Sometimes everyone just has the make the best of a non-ideal situation - come to think of it, that's what most of us have to do most of the time! In the end, there is a first time for everyone. Experienced professors had to teach a class for the first time too. Sometimes this can even be a positive experience for everyone, if the professor and the student choose to handle it that way. One of the hardest things about teaching people is when you've forgotten what it was like to not know. You can all learn together, and it can be easier to have empathize with students confusion and anticipate their questions when you are confused and have questions too! The job of a teacher isn't always to be an expert bestowing their grand accumulated wisdom, but instead sometimes they are just a guide and skilled companion to help you through difficult territory. ...and sometimes neither of you want to be there, but it's a required course and the department is making them teach it so you suck it up and move on. :) Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: > > It seems that many universities are rotating professors who teach a subject. Why do schools apply such strategy? > > > One instance why this may happen is for core courses that need to be taught, and for which no clearly matching faculty is available. My department, for instance, has a very clear focus on applied and practical computer science. For some fundamental courses, we simply do not have obviously matching faculty, and no plans to hire people for this profile either. This leaves us with the options of either finding external people to teach the course (preferred if said people exist and funding for paying the external person is available), or making one of our faculty from a different field teach the course, fully knowing that (a) the faculty will not be happy and (b) that (s)he will probably not do an outstanding job either. Part of convincing said faculty is usually also a promise that (s)he needs to teach this "foster" course only one or two times, before passing the token on to somebody else. An alternative reason for rotating teachers is that there is more than one faculty that can teach a course, but the course is highly disliked and an agreement was established that multiple people take turns teaching it. I have seen this happen for courses such as "Introduction to Programming", that many people are in principle qualified to teach, but few really want to teach. Finally, it may be that the school (correctly or incorrectly) assumes that rotating a course will indeed improve the quality of the course or add in some way to it. For instance, in my old alma mater, we had the concept of "AK courses" ("selected topics in SOMETHING"). These courses were advanced courses with no fixed content, only a sort of framework or direction. Every year, a different professor would be teaching it, and give it a completely different spin depending on his own current research interests. You could do the same AK multiple times, assuming that the professors agreed that those years were indeed sufficiently different. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: I think there are two very different questions here: one is about having faculty teach courses that they are apparently either incompetent to teach or too disinterested to bother to take the trouble to teach competently. The other question could be about having "non-expert" (but competent) people teaching courses. For the latter: for introductory graduate-level courses in math in the U.S., for example, some of which may be effectively "required" regardless of students' professed interests, there might be some reason to avoid the "expert-blindness" (or sheer jadedness) of most-expert faculty as instructors. At best, this can certainly get out of cliched ruts. Regarding the question of incompetent instructors... At least in mathematics, it is not so easy to get a PhD while being completely ignorant of basic graduate-level math outside one's "specialty", in the first place. Second, an experienced mathematician should be able to get a grip on basic graduate-level math even if they've not seen it recently, or maybe never. Specifically, some of the "practice" of being a mathematician is learning to cope with new things effectively. Yes, some exertion might be required... so that the only sure way to be incompetent with relatively basic things is by not caring enough to exert oneself. This is always a possibility. But, to repeat, at least in mathematics, it is simply not the case that a seasoned professional is innately unable to teach some mathematics even if it's unfamiliar... Rather, I'd think that only sufficient disinterest so as to allocate essentially zero time-and-effort would give a truly bad outcome. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: Your question suggests that you are viewing a professor's teaching as "just a job" they have to do. However, this picture is missing a key aspect of our jobs and why we do what we do. For many professors, teaching is a deep source of personal satisfaction, learning and growth. Many if not most of us love to learn new things and expand our knowledge, and teaching a class on a topic we are somewhat familiar with but haven't taught before is a great opportunity to brush up old skills or sometimes master an entirely new area, including on occasion an area that we would like to expand our research to touch upon in the future. This opportunity to learn through teaching and later apply what one has learned to one's own work is one of the great synergies that makes the research+teaching combination such a successful model for academics. To summarize, it may be helpful (and not entirely inaccurate) to think of professors as "professional students" or "students who never grew up"; that is, students who never got tired of being in university and have made learning more and more about their discipline (and sometimes about other disciplines) a lifelong goal, and were eventually able to turn this passion into a source of employment as well. When you look at it this way, it makes perfect sense that professors would not be very happy teaching the same old basic courses about their main subjects of expertise over and over again. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: A big drawback I haven't seen mentioned here is that students use courses to find faculty advisers. If you have other professors teaching the probability courses but the student never has a probabilist as a professor, it can make it harder to meet the appropriate faculty. For undergraduates, this may mean that they won't take courses in their field of future research with the faculty who they are doing their honors projects with, which in turn may weaken a letter of recommendation. For graduate students in large departments, many students will take certain courses just to meet the faculty in the area to find an advisor which is harder if the professor rotations are more random. Also, while most professors can teach a course outside their expertise, it can limit what students learn. For the best students, learning what's in the textbook is not enough: becoming prepared for research is what matters. These students may be asking a professors questions like "can this proof generalize to the case where ..." which, with the right faculty, is the start of a research project. Or, in open-ended projects like in many graduate courses, an advanced student may finish the project and start adding new ideas, which the right faculty use as a lead in to a new lab member and research project. There's also a large drawback in fast-moving fields. For graduate/upper division courses in things like computational biology, if you're using a textbook you're years behind. Some subjects need to be taught from the latest research articles. There is a big upside though: sometimes faculty can be awesome researchers and horrible teachers. Or even more likely, great researchers but not good at teaching students who aren't interested in going the extra mile and doing research. Some people just don't teach lower/middle division undergraduate courses well since half of the problem in these courses is motivating the students. In these cases, it can be good for a department to give this job to people who are good at teaching younger students even if the subject is not in their area of expertise. Of course, the strongest students in the course (those who will become majors) will recognize this issue due to the problems mentioned above, but for the larger courses you do have to cater to the crowd. Lastly, something mentioned by other commenters, is that sometimes a course just needs to be taught. Maybe there's a new subfield that undergraduates are requesting an upper division course in, but the department hasn't adapted yet. A faculty member who is looking to pick up this expertise may start by teaching a course on the subject. Not everything is a con in that situation, since the faculty member will likely be using books and other materials that are easier to comprehend than someone "more established" in the area. Upvotes: 1
2016/03/24	3,057	13,409	<issue_start>username_0: I am just wondering if I can legally use a nickname or not to use my official name (Passport name) as the author's name of a conference or a journal publication? My official name is quite long and I am planning to change it in the future. Is it possible to put the name that I am going to call myself in the future as the author's name?<issue_comment>username_1: Most programs I've ever heard of don't randomly assign professors - but the typical system in the US I'm aware of has each professor required to teach X number of credits. The department has requirements for what class must be taught (like standard intro classes, courses required for the major, etc), as well as the opening for a variety of specialty courses (often called "electives") - but the core courses have to be taken up first. While departments differ, it seems the most common system is one where professors pick the classes they will teach (sometimes by seniority or department rank getting their first pick, sometimes by some other method). The natural order of things is that it's easier to teach a class the second time than it is to teach it the first time (since you already have so much material prepared and you have had some practice now), so professors naturally end up teaching many of the same classes year after year. However, most departments have comings and goings nearly every semester - retirements, people leaving, sabbaticals, medical leave, changing course load amounts (buying out of teaching, becoming a department chair, not being the chair anymore, winning a big grant, having a big grant run out). Thus things are constantly in flux, so even if you really, really wanted the same courses taught by the same professors every semester - you can't have it, it isn't possible. There is a downside to having things static, even when you somehow manage to have so much stability that it's possible. Some examples: * Many professors get comfortable with the material enough that they don't make large updates, and it can get stale and out of date over time (both materially and in method used). * Professors, being human beings, get bored of saying the same thing over and over and their excitement, passion, and patience can begin to wear thin even with classes they once enjoyed. * Some students aren't a good fit with some professors, and if a required class is always taught by a professor they don't get along with this may interfere with academic progress. * Professors can lose sight - or just not have a good idea to begin with - what the goal of teaching some material actually is. Most programs have courses that build on each other, like Introduction -> Research Methods -> Stats -> Advanced Research Methods. If you only teach stats and don't ever run an advanced class, are you sure you are teaching the stats students will need - and are you emphasizing applications that best prepare them for the advanced material? If you teach a Calculus I class, are you making sure students get all the groundwork they need for Calculus II? I've had students tell me "the Professor assumed we all had JavaScript in the previous class and designed the whole class around it, but half of us had never seen it before!" - with not very encouraging results. However, there are downsides to moving people around a lot too: * The first time is always the hardest. No one knows what to expect, every question asked will be one you might not have answered before, the teacher's idea of pacing and time required to complete assignments will basically be wild guesses, etc. * Sometimes someone is asked to teach a class because no one else is available. I talked with a visiting academic who was a statistician, and he said in his first semester they came to him and said, "Hey, have you ever used C++ before?" He said, "Well, I guess a little bit in undergrad..." And so they said, "Great, don't have anyone else to teach this required class - will you teach a C++ class for us?" So he just had to figure it out as he went. It isn't ideal, but the alternative: no class offered that semester, which may mean students can't take required key classes or they will just miss out on learning important material entirely. Sometimes everyone just has the make the best of a non-ideal situation - come to think of it, that's what most of us have to do most of the time! In the end, there is a first time for everyone. Experienced professors had to teach a class for the first time too. Sometimes this can even be a positive experience for everyone, if the professor and the student choose to handle it that way. One of the hardest things about teaching people is when you've forgotten what it was like to not know. You can all learn together, and it can be easier to have empathize with students confusion and anticipate their questions when you are confused and have questions too! The job of a teacher isn't always to be an expert bestowing their grand accumulated wisdom, but instead sometimes they are just a guide and skilled companion to help you through difficult territory. ...and sometimes neither of you want to be there, but it's a required course and the department is making them teach it so you suck it up and move on. :) Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: > > It seems that many universities are rotating professors who teach a subject. Why do schools apply such strategy? > > > One instance why this may happen is for core courses that need to be taught, and for which no clearly matching faculty is available. My department, for instance, has a very clear focus on applied and practical computer science. For some fundamental courses, we simply do not have obviously matching faculty, and no plans to hire people for this profile either. This leaves us with the options of either finding external people to teach the course (preferred if said people exist and funding for paying the external person is available), or making one of our faculty from a different field teach the course, fully knowing that (a) the faculty will not be happy and (b) that (s)he will probably not do an outstanding job either. Part of convincing said faculty is usually also a promise that (s)he needs to teach this "foster" course only one or two times, before passing the token on to somebody else. An alternative reason for rotating teachers is that there is more than one faculty that can teach a course, but the course is highly disliked and an agreement was established that multiple people take turns teaching it. I have seen this happen for courses such as "Introduction to Programming", that many people are in principle qualified to teach, but few really want to teach. Finally, it may be that the school (correctly or incorrectly) assumes that rotating a course will indeed improve the quality of the course or add in some way to it. For instance, in my old alma mater, we had the concept of "AK courses" ("selected topics in SOMETHING"). These courses were advanced courses with no fixed content, only a sort of framework or direction. Every year, a different professor would be teaching it, and give it a completely different spin depending on his own current research interests. You could do the same AK multiple times, assuming that the professors agreed that those years were indeed sufficiently different. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: I think there are two very different questions here: one is about having faculty teach courses that they are apparently either incompetent to teach or too disinterested to bother to take the trouble to teach competently. The other question could be about having "non-expert" (but competent) people teaching courses. For the latter: for introductory graduate-level courses in math in the U.S., for example, some of which may be effectively "required" regardless of students' professed interests, there might be some reason to avoid the "expert-blindness" (or sheer jadedness) of most-expert faculty as instructors. At best, this can certainly get out of cliched ruts. Regarding the question of incompetent instructors... At least in mathematics, it is not so easy to get a PhD while being completely ignorant of basic graduate-level math outside one's "specialty", in the first place. Second, an experienced mathematician should be able to get a grip on basic graduate-level math even if they've not seen it recently, or maybe never. Specifically, some of the "practice" of being a mathematician is learning to cope with new things effectively. Yes, some exertion might be required... so that the only sure way to be incompetent with relatively basic things is by not caring enough to exert oneself. This is always a possibility. But, to repeat, at least in mathematics, it is simply not the case that a seasoned professional is innately unable to teach some mathematics even if it's unfamiliar... Rather, I'd think that only sufficient disinterest so as to allocate essentially zero time-and-effort would give a truly bad outcome. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: Your question suggests that you are viewing a professor's teaching as "just a job" they have to do. However, this picture is missing a key aspect of our jobs and why we do what we do. For many professors, teaching is a deep source of personal satisfaction, learning and growth. Many if not most of us love to learn new things and expand our knowledge, and teaching a class on a topic we are somewhat familiar with but haven't taught before is a great opportunity to brush up old skills or sometimes master an entirely new area, including on occasion an area that we would like to expand our research to touch upon in the future. This opportunity to learn through teaching and later apply what one has learned to one's own work is one of the great synergies that makes the research+teaching combination such a successful model for academics. To summarize, it may be helpful (and not entirely inaccurate) to think of professors as "professional students" or "students who never grew up"; that is, students who never got tired of being in university and have made learning more and more about their discipline (and sometimes about other disciplines) a lifelong goal, and were eventually able to turn this passion into a source of employment as well. When you look at it this way, it makes perfect sense that professors would not be very happy teaching the same old basic courses about their main subjects of expertise over and over again. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: A big drawback I haven't seen mentioned here is that students use courses to find faculty advisers. If you have other professors teaching the probability courses but the student never has a probabilist as a professor, it can make it harder to meet the appropriate faculty. For undergraduates, this may mean that they won't take courses in their field of future research with the faculty who they are doing their honors projects with, which in turn may weaken a letter of recommendation. For graduate students in large departments, many students will take certain courses just to meet the faculty in the area to find an advisor which is harder if the professor rotations are more random. Also, while most professors can teach a course outside their expertise, it can limit what students learn. For the best students, learning what's in the textbook is not enough: becoming prepared for research is what matters. These students may be asking a professors questions like "can this proof generalize to the case where ..." which, with the right faculty, is the start of a research project. Or, in open-ended projects like in many graduate courses, an advanced student may finish the project and start adding new ideas, which the right faculty use as a lead in to a new lab member and research project. There's also a large drawback in fast-moving fields. For graduate/upper division courses in things like computational biology, if you're using a textbook you're years behind. Some subjects need to be taught from the latest research articles. There is a big upside though: sometimes faculty can be awesome researchers and horrible teachers. Or even more likely, great researchers but not good at teaching students who aren't interested in going the extra mile and doing research. Some people just don't teach lower/middle division undergraduate courses well since half of the problem in these courses is motivating the students. In these cases, it can be good for a department to give this job to people who are good at teaching younger students even if the subject is not in their area of expertise. Of course, the strongest students in the course (those who will become majors) will recognize this issue due to the problems mentioned above, but for the larger courses you do have to cater to the crowd. Lastly, something mentioned by other commenters, is that sometimes a course just needs to be taught. Maybe there's a new subfield that undergraduates are requesting an upper division course in, but the department hasn't adapted yet. A faculty member who is looking to pick up this expertise may start by teaching a course on the subject. Not everything is a con in that situation, since the faculty member will likely be using books and other materials that are easier to comprehend than someone "more established" in the area. Upvotes: 1
2016/03/24	1,611	6,797	<issue_start>username_0: I've been trying to cope with a very abusive and mentally unstable advisor. In a recent clash she has been spewing lies and threats. It has become clearer and clearer that despite the four years of manipulations, borderline extortion, and five publications that I've survived through, I will never receive a degree from this advisor. I have decided to accept a job offer and I want to just close things up at the school in the best possible way. If possible, I'll leave a door open by taking a leave of absence for a year to come back to a different advisor. How should I go about my next steps? Do I email the Department Chair directly asking for a meeting? I have been warned such an email would probably reach my advisor first. Do I just walk into the student affairs department with a leave of absence form? If I should email someone, who should it be, and what should I write there? I'm funded by an NSF grant, so should I write them now in conjunction or after I finalize my leave at school?<issue_comment>username_1: If you're in good standing with faculty overall, a leave of absence justified with a desire to temporarily join an exciting industry option might quite possibly be granted. Justifying it with "personality clash" strikes me as poisonous, so don't do that - at least not in a public request. You say you plan on coming back to another adviser; but it doesn't sound as if you've worked on finding one. I don't think you've thought this through: you leave for a year, with only a vague idea of coming back to "someone else" who you must believe you'll find while not even on location. If you don't have one, or several mentors behind you (other than your adviser) who you know have always been very fond and supportive of you, you'll have to explain to some other faculty, while away, why you don't want to come back to your old adviser. A person neutral in the matter will naturally want to hear the other side of the story, and talk to your old adviser who is likely to have similarly ambiguous feelings about you. This is anyway the right approach for faculty as the new adviser will not want to act behind the back of a colleague. This has only some remote hope of working out if the new adviser does like you a lot, and it's certainly made harder by - apparently - planning on tackling this while working in industry. This is to say that - in my opinion, and absent a powerful other ally among faculty very fond of you - you should first switch to another adviser; then consider if you still want a leave of absence, and see if this is cool with your new mentor. If either the former or the latter don't work out, you should accept the very real possibility that your temporary leave will mean the end of your Ph.D. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: Four years is a lot of time to just throw out, and 5 publications seems like you should (at least) be close to having enough completed for a Ph.D. Could you switch advisors to someone who would count your past work? Does she have any previous students you can talk to about what they did? Are there faculty with whom you are on good terms who could give honest advice? If what you say is true, you might not be the only one who has noticed this behavior. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: Five publications? Good God, you deserve a PhD more than me and anybody else I have known. FábioDias is absolutely right. I know of an identical case where the advisor wanted the student to do more work after six years and four publications...and refused to fund him AND wouldn't get him a TAship. He finally, talked to the graduate chair in our department. He was ready to go to the department chair and even the dean of the college...but it didn't come to that. The graduate chair immediately took charge, switched his advisor, emailed his thesis to three other faculty members to judge if his thesis was sufficient. He scheduled a defense. Half of the department (students and faculty) showed up. The abusive advisor was also present because he was kept as part of the committee, he was just not the chair nor the "advisor". He successfully defended and even the abusive advisor passed him. He defended and left within a month. You have done a lot of work and invested a lot of time and you definitely deserve your degree if you have so many peer-reviewed publications. I wouldn't recommend taking a leave because only rarely I have seen someone coming back after a break (whatever the reason may be for the leave) and finishing. And as you said, it will have financial complications and NSF wouldn't like it very much. In addition, would you quit your job a year later to come back to school? Or work part time? Start fresh with a new advisor, or continue the same project? Will you spend another four years with the new advisor? I would say that finish this as quickly as possible in your own favor. And how specifically would an email to the department chair reach the advisor first? Does he or his/department's secretary play golf with your advisor? I would say, without writing anything, just drop by the office of the grad chair. Talk to him first. Tell him everything verbally. You should think very hard before putting anything in writing as in an email. Ask him for help. See what he does. If he takes control, then good. Otherwise just drop by the department chair's office and talk to him. This also avoids the danger of your advisor seeing your email first because there never was an email. At the very end, I would compose a very careful email and send it to the dean of the college and/or the dean of the graduate school, making sure to CC both the department chair and the grad chair. These are all different levels of escalation. You should start at the bottom, give them a fair chance and a reasonable amount of time to resolve this in good faith. But if it doesn't work, then don't be afraid to escalate it to the next level and repeat. If you want to take it even further, there is the division of student affair and conflict resolution which is usually under the chancellor or the vice-chancellor. There is also the ombudsman office. At the very end, I would talk to the legal counsel at your school. In the US, even the hint of a possible litigation can have miraculous effects. The school's counsel will of course look out for the school but they might convince the school/college/department to behave rationally because the bad publicity is not worth a grad student. I'd say hang in there. Research these offices in your university. Read up on some of these policies. Be reasonable and fair but also firm and assertive. I know you have put up with so much abuse but you have to start at the bottom and move up fighting for what's rightfully yours. Upvotes: 6
2016/03/24	729	2,471	<issue_start>username_0: I have a definition like the following: Definition System of sides is ... conforming to axioms: 1. ... 2. ... 3. ... Definition Monotone system of sides is a system of sides conforming to additional axiom: 4. ... Definition Distributive system of sides is a system of sides conforming to additional axiom: 5. ... My question: Should I continue numbering of axioms as above, or should the additional axioms be numbered from one (not from four or five as above)? Also note, that every distributive system of sides is a monotone system of sides.<issue_comment>username_1: I would recommend thinking about this presentation problem in the following way: if you were inclined to be verbose, it would be perfectly correct to say: > > Definition Monotone system of sides is a system of sides conforming to the axioms: > > > 1. ... > 2. ... > 3. ... > 4. ... > > > As such, it is not so much that you wish to continue a list of axioms, as it is that you wish to take advantage of the similarity of the two lists of axioms to present this information in a way that is more streamlined and easier to understand. As such, I would recommend making the elision explicit, as in: > > Definition A monotone system of sides conforms to the same axioms 1-3 for a system of sides, plus an additional axiom: > > > 4. ... > > > Definition A distributive system of sides conforms to the same axioms 1-4 for a monotone system of sides, plus an additional axiom: > > > 5. ... > > > Notice also that I have extended the italics to the whole statement "X system of sides," rather than just the adjective, since you are not defining e.g., "monotone" but rather "monotone system of sides." Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: I think this if fine. But you could also label them differently: ``` A system of sides complies with the axioms: SS1: ... SS2: ... SS3: ... A distributive system of sides is a system of sides with: DSS1: ... DSS2: ... A monotone system of sides is a distributive system of sides that: MSS1: ... ``` Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: If you can give the axioms reasonable names, then you could use those instead of numbers. The LaTeX environment for doing this is called "description". You already have good names for the last two axioms, namely "monotone" and "distributive", so it remains to check whether your axioms 1, 2, and 3 can be given good names. Upvotes: 2
2016/03/24	1,883	8,101	<issue_start>username_0: As far as I know, some research involves group-work. If a PhD student is either introverted, bad at interpersonal communications or both. What difficulties might they encounter?<issue_comment>username_1: Of course interpersonal skills are important in completing a PhD. As you note, a PhD some fields involves working in small to very large teams, where interpersonal skills are essential. Even in the few fields were individuals typically work alone, interpersonal skills are necessary to navigate relationships with peers, graduate advisors, other members of the community, etc. This is not to say that with poor interpersonal skills one is doomed. Such skills can be learned, and one can improve substantially with effort. It may even be true that in some areas of science, interpersonal skills are less important than in other jobs. But to say that they are not needed would be a gross misrepresentation of what it is like to get a PhD or work in academic science at any level. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: > > Suppose, a PhD student is either introvert or bad in interpersonal > communications or both. > > > Would he find any trouble? > > > All of us, in academia and outside of it, are better at some things and less good at other things. People who are very poor at interpersonal relationships are often astonishingly good at many things. To be successful, one tries to exploit one's talents while at the same time overcoming or learning to work around one's deficiencies, or even turning one's worst liabilities into assets in some surprising way (e.g., a comedian making a career out of making fun of themselves for being a neurotic slob with bad habits). Some people have even become famous for completely overcoming a significant adversity in the form of a physical or mental disability that stood in their way of becoming successful at something. The case of [Oscar Pistorius](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscar_Pistorius) is one example from sports that comes to mind (notwithstanding his later downfall into infamy by being convicted of the murder of his girlfriend), and there are many other examples. In the context of academia, unquestionably the most famous person who can be cited as an example in connection with your question is [<NAME>](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_Grandin). I saw her speak a few years ago when she came to my university, and she is a remarkable and awe-inspiring woman. I couldn't begin to give a good description of how amazing she is, so I recommend checking out her books, or watching the movie (starring <NAME>) made about her. Suffice it to say that she grew up with autism, and having a fairly extreme case of being "either introvert or bad in interpersonal communications or both", and yet became a stunningly successful animal scientist (her main job is as a professor at Colorado State University). She is a great inspiration to many people who are either on the autism spectrum or are just extremely introverted or different from what is thought to be "normal" in some other way, and part of her advocacy is in convincing such people and their families that they are often capable of achieving a lot more than the society around them assumes. Bottom line: if Temple Grandin could succeed, so can the PhD student you are asking about. And besides, many other less famous people in academia are both introverted and not especially good at interpersonal communications, and become very successful anyway. I'm not saying it's necessarily a good thing to be, and it may make sense for your friend to work on getting better at those things, but I absolutely wouldn't assume that it will be a career-killing problem. Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: The answer is simple: Yes, someone who is heavily introverted, has bad interpersonal skills or both will have trouble doing his PhD. Someone who has these social issues will have trouble doing anything in life. Even the simple act of existing in modern society requires at least some modicum of interpersonal skills. This doesn't mean it's impossible at all! In fact, although I have no data to support my claim, I would estimate that the chances come out about equal for such a student to complete their PhD compared to the average student. It will simply require more effort from them. Every student has their weak points and strong points, most weak points can be strengthened and some can be partially or even entirely covered for with their strengths. The most important thing is to have the will to succeed. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: First of all, being an introvert is not a problem, except when dealing with some people with poor interpersonal skills. People in the academia are used to dealing with people with vastly different personalities and cultural backgrounds. They generally don't assume that everyone should behave according to the social norms in where they grew up. Working in the academia requires some interpersonal skills, but less than in most other fields. Researchers in particular interact with less people than those working in most other fields. The interactions are often long-term, and the other people tend to assume that you have something worthwhile to say, reducing the need for interpersonal skills. Even people with relatively poor interpersonal skills get along just fine, as long as they make an honest effort and respect the others. It's important to realize that successful working relationships are everyone's responsibility. In particular, having good interpersonal skills implies that you can work effectively with people with less good skills. As long as everyone makes an honest effort, the differences in degrees of interpersonal skills aren't such a big deal. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_5: I am now in the final few months of my 7 year PhD adventure. My five cents are that a) interpersonal skills are helpful but will not get you your phd...only working your a\\ off will. And b) academic excellence alone will not get you a tenure track job, and interpersonal skills DO seem to play a large role further up the ladder (past your phd). When you're a grad student schmoozing won't really help you much, since your task is to get from undergrad level to being able to analyze data and produce journal papers. However, past that, you do see a noticeable group of people that are good schmoozers/politicians/collaborators, etc, who end up excelling....sometimes ahead of those with better 'hard' technical skills. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_6: I'm 28 and in my early twenties I was quite introverted and bad at communicating a lot of the time, even though that was much less so than it had been at certain times in my teens. I'm now right at the end of my 4.5 years as a PhD student and I would definitely say my communication skills have improved. I've had to discuss/explain/question plenty of things both in person with my supervisor and over the internet in group skype calls with powerpoint slides, as well as countless emails and and the occasional presentation, poster or formal write-up. And I've been to conferences, summer schools, extended stays at labs etc. across the world that have involved plenty of interaction. Then there's the fellow students and other staff that you see often and get to know and be friendly with. So yeah, I definitely have an introverted side to me but being comfortably communicative feels a lot more natural to me now, not something I feel apprehensive about anymore. And I'll bet it's been the gentler option compared to working a job in the 'real world' (even though it felt like a normal job anyway at times). Looking back the entire undergraduate & postgraduate experience has felt like a comfortable way to develop. My own narrow experience is no guarantee it'd be a good place for you, but what I can now say is this would have been an unjustified reason for me not to go for the PhD. And it's quite possibly a thought that did cross my mind at the time. Upvotes: 2
2016/03/25	1,976	8,573	<issue_start>username_0: I've written a classification algorithm that does a pretty good job at classifying some datasets. However, I compared my algorithm to other classification methods, and their results exceed my results by a little. For instance, when classifying a dataset from a repository, my algorithm is getting 95% correct while another algorithm usually gets 99% correct. Should I continue to publish my results although 1) my algorithm is a little slower, and 2) my algorithm's results are not as good as the other results. I'm a little torn. I'm excited as my paper and results are a contribution to the classification field as the algorithm is novel. Also, I'm of the stance that you can't beat EVERY algorithm. If we only published algorithms that could (loosely) beat other algorithms either A.) we'd never have new innovations, or B.) eventually every dataset would be 100% classified each time, or C.) every algorithm could instantaneously classify a dataset (speed). I hope that my algorithm will continue to grow and others will pick it up and extend it. I hope that one day -- with tweaks -- my algorithm can reach 99% too. I'm afraid of being rejected by the journal again. Yes, my first submission was rejected. One of the reasons for the rejection was that my dataset was small. However, when the dataset was small I was beating the other algorithms. Now, as the dataset has grown, the other algorithms are now beating me. I'd like not to be rejected again.<issue_comment>username_1: If you want to get technical, [in general no learning algorithm performs any better than any other](http://www.no-free-lunch.org/). The question then, is what can be learned from your algorithm. In your question, you speak of it as a fond intellectual child that you wish to grow and nurture, and you speak of your personal concerns about acceptance and rejection. Here is the thing, though: none of that matters for a publication. What matters is this: what new knowledge or capability is brought into the world with your work on your algorithm, and how can this be objectively evaluated? Here are some possibilities that I can see: * Your algorithm may perform better on an interesting and useful class of problems, and thus be of practical interest. * Your algorithm may perform worse, but have some other desirable property, such as executing very quickly or using very little memory, in which case the performance comparison just needs to show that it is sufficient, and you can show much better performance with regards to those other properties. * Your algorithm may perform worse, but do so in a way that is enlightening, e.g., taking a more human-like approach, or showing how something can be accomplished by a very unusual and unexpected route. In this case, the performance comparison is simply showing that your algorithm does not perform too badly to be interesting, and the narrative should focus on the path taken to achieve your results and why that is interesting. * Your algorithm may only have taught you personally some interesting things about classification and scientific research, in which case you should mourn the passing of a fine research idea and move on with your life. Only you and those who know your work well will be able to tell which category it truly fits into. Upvotes: 7 <issue_comment>username_2: [<NAME>](https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/42749/simon-richter) wrote in a comment: > > I'd say the paper is interesting nonetheless, because it contributes a new insight on the performance of algorithms. Also, if you don't publish it, the next person who has the same idea will need to investigate it fully, probably with similar results. > > > If "this idea doesn't work as well as one might hope" is the main conclusion then I also see value in publishing it, but you need to consider carefully the venue. Is there something like a Journal of Negative Results in your field? Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: Let's take a look at a very common and studied problem: sorting. There are lots of algorithms, starting from very inefficient ones, such as bubble sort up to more efficient ones such as quick sort or merge sort. Of course, in practice, I would like to use the most efficient one, but there are some reasons for which I might choose another one. For example, merge sort might be more appropriate for a machine with sequential access memory. Also, even if I would never use it in practice, there was a point in my life when I studied bubble sort, since it created a softer learning curve for me. Also, I studied merge sort initially not for the actual problem that it solves, but for the method it uses. Bottom line is, there are many reasons why an algorithm is interesting for somebody, even if it has a lower average performance in practice. Moreover, somebody might find some application for your algorithm where it is better than others (for example, bubble sort is quicker than quicksort on sorted lists). Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: I'll have a go at this with a softer perspective. You write: > > I'm afraid of being rejected by the journal again. > > > What is the worst consequence of being rejected? Most of us get rejected from time to time, and you are not alone in being worried about that: [How do I overcome fear of rejection when writing academic papers?](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3242/how-do-i-overcome-fear-of-rejection-when-writing-academic-papers) You obviously have a logical mind. My guess is that if you put that good head of yours into thinking about the Worst consequence, you will find that it isn't that bad. You might even learn something useful along the way. Life will go on. If not not in the sphere of academia, several famous writers have been rejected: <NAME>, <NAME>, <NAME> to mention a few. Close your eyes and press send! (and if you get rejected: blame it on someone else, that helps ;) Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: Accuracy is not the only measure for an algorithm: yours may work blazingly fast, be implementable on a microcontroller, classify in real-time or online, serve as a good preprocessing to other algorithms, be robust to noise, who knows. Perhaps it is just very elegant. With a little wit, you can find a way to assert its efficiency. Many of nowadays standard algorithms (for instance in sound/image compression) contain parts that where not quite state-of-art when published first. But work great in conjunction. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_6: A lot of good points supporting publication have already been listed but one seems to have been missed, even if it might not be relevant for your algorithm: that it is a different algorithm. I'm working in the numerical department from time to time (for fun, not profit) and just now I'm implementing a function to compute a big-integer nth-root. Although the algorithms I use had been proven to be correct sveral hundred years ago any implementation will have errors: tests are mandatory. I could have used a second library with a well tested implementation but to avoid errors in the translating of the data types I just implemented two different algorithms: a recurrence (Halley) and a linear function (binary search). The chance that both err in the same way and outcome is very low because the two algorithms are sufficiently different[1]. If your algorithm is also sufficiently different it, too can be used to verify the results of other algorithms. That is not the worst thing, to say the least. TL;DR: publish! [1] NB: you may use both for large integers because the binary search algorithm is not very fast for small indices and the Halley recurrence is quite slow for large indices starting at about 300 bits radicand size with my implementation. So your algorithm might even be useful in production, although that point has already been made, if I remember correctly. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_7: It is possible that your algorithm isn't quite as good as other published algorithms right now, but it may have easy improvements that other people could find that makes it better than other algorithms. If you publish it, someone might figure out such improvements. If you don't publish it, they won't. Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_8: Research is not always writing about how your experimentation works perfectly. It's about contributing to the global body of knowledge. Such knowledge can also include what was attempted and why it did not work. Upvotes: 1
2016/03/25	551	2,197	<issue_start>username_0: I am looking for the correct way to write the caption name of figures in the response letter for a submission to an Elsevier journal. In the manuscript, the name is > > Fig. 1. This is caption > > > I need add some figures in the response letter as well as revised manuscript. The figure number of these files will be different. So, if I refer to "Fig. 1" in the letter, the reviewer will not know which one I am referring to, the Fig. 1 in the manuscript or the Fig. 1 in the letter. I am not sure about using > > Fig. L-1. This is caption > > > Fig. L. 1. This is caption > > > to label figures in the response letter, or any solution...<issue_comment>username_1: Call it "Figure 1" or "Fig. 1" as in the paper. Otherwise how will the editor or reviewer know which figure of the paper you are referring to since that is the subject of your response? Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Just label and caption as in a regular paper, and talk about "figure 1 in the paper is clarified by figure 2 in the response" or some such, and state clearly which document's figures/tables/... you are referring to each time. I believe that is the least confusing, and least prone to misunderstandings. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: I am going to take a contrary opinion to what has been suggested so far, and strongly suggest that you do not put figures in your response letter. My reasoning is this: as a reviewer and an editor, I often see an author put material into the response letter that would be better put into the manuscript. If you need to explain something clearly and carefully to a reviewer, you probably need to explain it clearly and carefully to your readers as well. That goes not just for text, but for figures and tables and references also. Rather that writing it twice (and typically ending up with significant differences between your two instances, since they're in different contexts), write it once in the manuscript and just refer to it there from the response letter. In short: if you think it's important enough to put in the response letter, it's important enough to simply put into the manuscript. Upvotes: 2
2016/03/25	368	1,621	<issue_start>username_0: I am trying to contact with professors to showing them a research proposal that I want to work on for master degree. Some people advice me to not do this, because professors get fund for their ideas not mine, so if my research proposal was incredibly liked by a professor, then he will have no fund to do this research project. So, I should contacting to offer working on their research ideas. I am not insisting to work on my idea, and to be honest my main goal is to reach a research project in brain computer interface field(I'm interested in any research project in that field) and I'm sure that I will show a great effort, hard working and innovative thinking, Which will supporting me to get a PHD position. Have saying this; how to know future research projects for a professor to offer working on? or it's possible to work on project in progress.<issue_comment>username_1: Professors can get funding for projects if they write proposals for funding and the proposals are accepted. There are sources for funding for student projects in many places. I do not know about your specific situation, but I don't see why you wouldn't be able to approach the professor about your idea. If it's really good, the professor will help you find funding for it. If it is just good, the professor may have you find funding for it. Full disclosure - I am a professor. :-) Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Professors are primarily interested in people working on their projects... that is what they get funding for. They might be interested in your idea, and help you find funding. Upvotes: 0
2016/03/25	1,381	6,184	<issue_start>username_0: Suppose an instructor is teaching a course on a particular field in computer science. He uses a language that is popular for said field, but itself is not the topic of the course (though its use is still required). The instructor provides a code base he wrote that the students may base their course project upon. However, this code base is very buggy and does not follow many accepted "best practices" in the language's usage. You are not technically required to use this code base, but to use anything else is most likely impractical given time constraints. Is it justifiable to expect students to use a buggy code base you prepared, or is it lazy? Or neither?<issue_comment>username_1: The answer to this question is "Sometimes." Given that an instructor has roughly X hours/week to devote to this course (given their other responsibilities), sometimes the best way to utilize that time may be to write a code base for students to use in some fraction of those hours (even though it will be buggy and not up to best practices) and devote the rest of those hours to other things. Sometimes improving the code base isn't the best way to utilize instructor time - sometimes that time is better used offering more office hours to answer students' questions, or writing better lecture notes, or something else that is of greater benefit to the students' learning than making the code less buggy. It's usually up to the instructor to make that determination of what will best serve the pedagogical goals of the course. (I'm assuming the professor isn't intentionally trying to give students some experience working with a buggy code base. But that's also a possibility.) As a student, I didn't think about the time and resources my professors devoted to preparing their course materials. As an instructor, I gained a very different perspective. For example, the first course I taught as instructor of record was a course that I was only assigned about a week before class started, in a subject outside my area of expertise, and I had very limited time to prep the first few lectures and assignments. I agreed to teach it despite knowing that my teaching would be underprepared (by my own standards) for the first part of the course, because I thought it would be better for my students than the alternative (the course being cancelled because the department couldn't find any other coverage.) As a student, I would never have thought about my professors being put in situations like that. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: The instructor's expecting you to use poorly written code with known bugs that you might have to work around? Sounds like he's doing a good job of preparing you for real-life programming work. I'm only about 25% joking - while I wouldn't think he's inserted the bugs intentionally, having to work with existing buggy codebases is something that every programmer faces routinely, whether in academia or industry or elsewhere. So it's certainly not unreasonable to expect students to be able to handle it, or learn to do so. Evidently the professor has decided that having you work with this code, although it has issues, will be a better educational experience than an alternative. That's a matter of his professional judgment, and we here on this site are in no position to second-guess it. We have no way of knowing what alternatives exist, what their pros and cons might be, and what other constraints the professor has. On the basis of what we know from your post, I think it would be irresponsible of any academic to judge someone "lazy". If you think you can improve the code, or know of alternatives that would be better, this could be a great opportunity for you to contribute. You might be able to earn independent study credit, or money, by working on the code or helping adapt the curriculum to some alternative software. At a minimum, you can write useful bug reports for the professor, which should make it easier for him to fix them, and save some hassle for future students. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: I have been that instructor. When I was a TA in graduate school, we were trying some innovations to improve a class that I was teaching. Overall, they worked, but the reality of the situation was that the first time around there were a lot of bugs because: 1. We didn't have time enough to get everything perfect before the semester began, and were in fact racing against the clock trying to improve the code for each problem set before we hit the point in the semester where it was released. 2. Being academics rather than a professional software QA team, our imagination in testing was much more limited than the range of interesting problems and abuses of the codebase that the students invented, particularly those who were shaky programmers or poorly understood the course material. The second time around, things were a lot better, thanks to the discovery of problems the first time, but there were still bugs --- either because they were low-triage issues that we hadn't been able to fix or because the students were quite inventive in finding new ways to work with our codebase. Interestingly, this whole situation was in fact partially created by an attempt to improve away from another buggy code base, which had been created by a former instructor and which nobody teaching the course at the time could improve because it was a large and poorly documented codebase that we were all too scared to touch in case everything broke. In short: sometimes it might be laziness, but, as @username_1 notes, other times its simply the realities and constraints of development with limited resources. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: If a codebase had to be perfect before using it in a classroom was pedagogically appropriate, the number of codebases that could be used in classrooms would approach zero. (Adding my $0.02 to the other stories: I'm teaching very basic PHP this semester. I have zero experience with PHP, and am far from a phenomenal programmer to begin with. My students are lucky anything I give them WORKS. Of course it's not ideal code.) Upvotes: 2
2016/03/26	1,166	5,112	<issue_start>username_0: In the US, can a student who is already enrolled in a course grade homework assignments of all other students in the same course (but not actually accessing and changing academic records)? Is it legal and compatible with academic integrity? Two of several issues that I'm concerned about are: 1. He has not actually done his own homework (because homework submissions are not recorded). 2. By comparing my paper with other students I wasn't able to observer a consistency in grading. Actually initially I found who has graded our homeworks based on a pattern of inconsistency in grading and also inappropriate comments on my paper. However the professor rejects my concerns by stating that he has overseen and reviewed everything himself. In [this page](https://studentblackboardhelp.usc.edu/blackboard-basics/enrolling-as-a-teaching-assistant-ta/) from USC.edu it is stated that "Please note that it is not possible for you to be both a student and a TA within the same course. Federal law [FERPA] and University policy both specifically prohibit students enrolled in a class from being able to modify their own grades or to view or modify the grades of other students enrolled in that same class." However as pointed out by <NAME>, Supreme Court [allowed](https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/00-1073.ZO.html) in-class peer-grading.<issue_comment>username_1: Actually, students also learn when they evaluate others' writing and it also helps to improve the feeling of integrity and responsibility. Do not worry to much about the grade since you can always ask to see your paper. If he says he reviews the paper there is no problem. Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: A student grading other students in the same course is unusual, but certainly not illegal. As to whether it is inappropriate, I would consider two cases: 1. Sometimes professors ask all students to do part of the "teaching" responsibilities for a course, whether that be lecturing, grading, creating course notes, etc. The theory of this is that it forces a deeper engagement with the material, and may help prepare further skills. When grading or similar is done by a student or other students for a pedagogical reason like this, I see no problem, as long as the professor takes into account the potential for quality variation. 2. If an individual student is simultaneously a class member and a TA/grader, that is much more unusual, and generally a bad idea. In this case, the pedagogical value of having all students engaged with the process is not there to balance the expected decrease in grading accuracy and quality. There may be certain unusual circumstances where it is appropriate, and a professor can, in fact, organize things to compensate for the issues that you raise, but in general I would be highly dubious about this practice. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: between username_2, <NAME> and your edit, you seem to have much of the first part of your question addressed. I would add though, an addressing of the second part about academic integrity. It would seem that from your description, it is more a case of a single student performing this grading, rather than a pedagogical exercise in which all can partake. I also get your sense of frustration at a seeming lack of response from the professor. So what to do? It seems (from <NAME>'s link) that it is not illegal. If your institution has a policy in place however, (based on the page to which you linked), regardless of what the law of the land says and what justification the university provides for their policy, their policy is their policy. If they say what is happening in your class shouldn't be happening, then it shouldn't be happening. If there's no official opposition, then your only recourse is to make a case based on the personal discomfort you feel about having your assessments, whether official or not, being prepared/(gossiped over? shared?) by a peer. And I don't at all mean to minimize it, if that's what you're feeling. You mentioned a couple of things, including grading inconsistencies and inappropriate comments. These are potentially more serious, particularly with regard to academic integrity (what happens to these grades? recorded? even if not, you won't be helped in learning if the feedback is not consistent/constructive). As the professor has said he is reviewing this grader's work, he is then also responsible for what this person does. Depending on the severity, it may be something that needs to be taken to a higher power, depending on how strongly you feel something wrong is happening. If you do go that route, you might also want to be sure to stick to inependently verifiable observations (eg. you can get your hands on those other papers to demonstrate these inconsistencies, and unless you can prove he's not doing his homework, it might come across as a petulant accusation to just throw that out). Be aware though, that for the former, getting your hands on the papers of others, may itself weaken any argument about discomfort in marks being shared. Upvotes: 1
2016/03/26	961	4,353	<issue_start>username_0: I am currently writing my Master's thesis in Math and part of my results involves using running simulations to test for certain types of algebraic properties of parameterised equations. The theoretical basis for these simulations were derived from a paper, in which the authors published their code online. I wish to copy this code and put it in the appendix. My reason for doing this is that I don't trust the link to always be available and the interested readers of my thesis will always be able to view said code which makes it easier to reader the thesis, as opposed to looking it up.<issue_comment>username_1: Actually, students also learn when they evaluate others' writing and it also helps to improve the feeling of integrity and responsibility. Do not worry to much about the grade since you can always ask to see your paper. If he says he reviews the paper there is no problem. Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: A student grading other students in the same course is unusual, but certainly not illegal. As to whether it is inappropriate, I would consider two cases: 1. Sometimes professors ask all students to do part of the "teaching" responsibilities for a course, whether that be lecturing, grading, creating course notes, etc. The theory of this is that it forces a deeper engagement with the material, and may help prepare further skills. When grading or similar is done by a student or other students for a pedagogical reason like this, I see no problem, as long as the professor takes into account the potential for quality variation. 2. If an individual student is simultaneously a class member and a TA/grader, that is much more unusual, and generally a bad idea. In this case, the pedagogical value of having all students engaged with the process is not there to balance the expected decrease in grading accuracy and quality. There may be certain unusual circumstances where it is appropriate, and a professor can, in fact, organize things to compensate for the issues that you raise, but in general I would be highly dubious about this practice. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: between username_2, bob brown and your edit, you seem to have much of the first part of your question addressed. I would add though, an addressing of the second part about academic integrity. It would seem that from your description, it is more a case of a single student performing this grading, rather than a pedagogical exercise in which all can partake. I also get your sense of frustration at a seeming lack of response from the professor. So what to do? It seems (from <NAME>'s link) that it is not illegal. If your institution has a policy in place however, (based on the page to which you linked), regardless of what the law of the land says and what justification the university provides for their policy, their policy is their policy. If they say what is happening in your class shouldn't be happening, then it shouldn't be happening. If there's no official opposition, then your only recourse is to make a case based on the personal discomfort you feel about having your assessments, whether official or not, being prepared/(gossiped over? shared?) by a peer. And I don't at all mean to minimize it, if that's what you're feeling. You mentioned a couple of things, including grading inconsistencies and inappropriate comments. These are potentially more serious, particularly with regard to academic integrity (what happens to these grades? recorded? even if not, you won't be helped in learning if the feedback is not consistent/constructive). As the professor has said he is reviewing this grader's work, he is then also responsible for what this person does. Depending on the severity, it may be something that needs to be taken to a higher power, depending on how strongly you feel something wrong is happening. If you do go that route, you might also want to be sure to stick to inependently verifiable observations (eg. you can get your hands on those other papers to demonstrate these inconsistencies, and unless you can prove he's not doing his homework, it might come across as a petulant accusation to just throw that out). Be aware though, that for the former, getting your hands on the papers of others, may itself weaken any argument about discomfort in marks being shared. Upvotes: 1
2016/03/26	1,767	7,662	<issue_start>username_0: It seems a rather odd thing to emphasize, but I thought my past experience as a broker could be turned into a positive rather than a moot point. Do PhD admissions committees take into account soft skill development as a factor, and how heavily do you think they wieght this? Should I note my sales experience in the application, or ignore it? My field is finance, or potentially economics depending on which program I can get in; I'll have degrees in both at the time of application.<issue_comment>username_1: I'd think that having real world experience in finance should help you a bit in your application for PhD work in finance or economics. The question is just how much should you emphasize this. For a PhD program, you want to reinforce that you have a solid foundation and know what you are getting into (this you have), that you are committed, and that you are truly interested in advanced study. So, do make a strong case that you have a solid foundation. But spend the rest of the time reinforcing your passion for the subject and your burning desire to learn more and contribute to pushing the boundaries. Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: Yes, it would help to have a brief but powerful mention of your past experience. Break down the benefits of working as a broker and what skills you learnt, then compare these against the strengths and personal qualities you are going to need. Showing that your experience is worth something helps paint a picture of your skills as an individual. Experience is one of the least often mentioned things when applying for PHD's but it really shouldn't be as it shows that you have an idea of how to apply your knowledge in real-world situations. You've not simply "ended up" doing a PHD as part of a series of next steps after school; you'd made the conscious decision to pursue a PHD and knowledge over a career in brokering. This is a huge advantage for your application. With every application it's important to put it into perspective: Who will see your application? Who is running this PHD? Have you met them? With their background, how will they view your past experience, and which aspects of that should you exemplify? Having a meal with a potential mentor / supervisor, doing some real networking is a fantastic way to get to know who you feel you can get on with or work well enough with. It also puts a face to your application; you're no longer "app number 245" you are "oh it's James! He had some great views on my recent paper.". Look at their results as that's the biggest truth you can find. You get to choose your supervisor in most cases so network. I should add here that as this is my first post on this site, that my experience comes from helping run a family business which focuses on training people to apply for positions in medicine, mostly medicinal and surgical applications for PHDs in the UK. I also train people for interviews and take them through highly competitive, multi-stage processes. Recently our business helped one of our clients achieve their lifetime goal of becoming the Lead Paediatric Surgeon at one of the UKs most well known children's hospitals. Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: Adding to excellent other points: If you could explain succinctly, the challenges you faced as a broker and how you overcame them and give an insight into any kind of data retrieval, management and analysis you employed to overcome those challenges, these could be good points for a potential PhD position. Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_4: By itself, "selling," experience isn't much an advantage, and may be a disadvantage in a PhD application, since the required skill sets are almost the opposite of those used in research. If you sold a financially complex product such as options or derivatives, that would work in your favor. In that case, emphasize the product, rather than the selling. You might write, "I successfully marketed financial products with Greek-letter references to "derivatives," or rates of change, to people with limited mathematical backgrounds, because of my ability to explain these products in clear, standard English." That would speak to your teaching ability, and be a plus. Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_5: TL;DR: Don't over emphasize work experience, It doesn't "speak for itself" in academia like it does in business. Think instead of using it as examples of how you will make a good PhD student This is a very interesting question because the answer depends pretty heavily on the field you area looking at, the university you are applying to, and the program that is looking at your application. I and a current Computer Science PhD student, and my path here involved a Masters Degree, then working in my field for 3 years, and applying to PhD programs twice, the first time after 2 years of work ( failing to get accepted anywhere) and the second time after 3 years of work. After I didn't get in, I reached out to one of the professors (at MIT) that I had shown interest in working under in my application. He read my resume and said, "Well theres the problem right there: you haven't done research in 3 years!" I worked at an R&D company all those years, and was surprised that what I thought would be an advantage was actually a disadvantage. The next year, the only time I mentioned my work (which was still pretty often, after all it was most of what I had done since I finished my Masters) was to exemplify how it made me a good researcher...and the rest, as they say, is history. Really what it comes down to is, just like in business, how are you going to present yourself? You can highlight your business or not, but from my experience detailed above, it seemed to matter much more how you use your work history as an example, and less how much. The people reading our application are likely contextualizing it with their own experience as a person who once-upon-a-time was trying to get into a PhD program and is now a researcher, and the successful cases from their past students. They are going to look at your application and think, "Does this seem like a person who could really contribute to this field?" For me, when I focused on work experience as a part of what made me an applicant, set apart from other applicants coming straight out of school, it actually hurt me in the top schools. This is because all of the people reading my application were researchers and they wanted to cultivate more researcher from their students. As such, my emphasis on work experience hurt me. The following year, when I emphasized what research I had done at my job, as opposed to the general experience I gained at it, I got in to a bunch of top schools. From what I understand, PhDs in Econ and Finance have very different goals internally (e.g. People who do a PhD in Econ want to do research on markets, trends, and math, and influencing policy vs. People who do a PhD in Finance want to work in finance, maybe do research in Finance, and get job in Finance). Knowing this, what the goals of your PhD are, and the goals of the application readers will help a lot in deciding what is the best way to use your work experience in your application. Last piece of advice: don't be afraid to reach out. The worst you'll get is a silence or a "I don't talk to prospective students;" no one will hold it against you. You think that some school or someone's research is interesting? If you can get them on the phone or email they will tell you exactly what they expect of their incoming applicants. Was the best decision I made in this long journey of mine... Good Luck! Upvotes: 1
2016/03/26	1,288	5,165	<issue_start>username_0: A student from another university is planning on taking a class I'll be teaching this fall and will be doing it as a transient student. Apparently, in order to have their transient status approved, they need a copy of the course syllabus, and so requested it from me by email. I don't normally finalize my syllabi until a few days before classes start — certainly not five months in advance —, and the course itself is not one that is identical each semester so I don't feel comfortable just sending an old syllabus. (And even that wouldn't exist if it were a new class or a special topics class) It seems odd to need the syllabi so early — AFAIK the normal process is for his home institution to review the syllabi after taking the classes to determine credit given. So two parter: 1. Is this a normal request that somehow has just never come by me before? 2. If it is, how do you handle for courses that don't have syllabus ready to go?<issue_comment>username_1: > > Is this a normal request that somehow has just never come by me before? > > > I've never heard of such a request either, and I've being writing syllabi at American universities for a good while now. So...not too normal, anyway. > > If it is, how do you handle for courses that don't have syllabus ready to go? > > > In my local academic culture, a course syllabus is a good faith effort to inform students of key course procedures and requirements. It does not absolutely bind the instructor to do what the syllabus says; I would say only that an instructor has an ethical requirement to make changes in the course syllabus for good reasons. In fact, at my university it is a standard practice to include the following sentence in course syllabi: The course syllabus is a general plan for the course; deviations announced to the class by the instructor may be necessary. Thus I would say that the most helpful thing you could do would be to make a tentative syllabus for the course, which includes language at least as strong as the above. You should be clear to the student that this syllabus need not be the same as the one you'll give out on the first day of class. However, if the student needs a syllabus in order to take the class (no, not a practice I recognize, but there is a lot of academic bureaucracy out there), this seems to be the best way to accommodate the request. By the way, I think you are certainly within your rights to say, "Course syllabi are simply not available five months in advance. Based on the conditions you mention, it seems that you will not be able to enroll in the course." That is, you are certainly not obligated to hack together a tentative or pseudo-syllabus in order to accommodate someone else's bureaucratic requirement. Whether it is worth your time to do so is really up to you. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: 1. It's not so unusual in the U.S., for example when the student is coming from abroad, with their own funding, for one semester or so. I've had to do this a handful of times in 30+ years. 2. I approximate a syllabus, and in a cover-note say that it is approximate. There's no real loss in doing some part of that work months in advance, hopefully. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: When I was a graduate student representative, we tried to get the faculty in our department to publish something course descriptions, including very rough syllabi, for a year or two in advance, with the understanding they are not necessarily committing to actually giving those courses. This was intended to help people plan which courses they intend to take - as with undergraduate courses you could know with relative certainty which courses would be given about when - but also because some Professors knew for certain they were going to teach a course on some subject but nobody would publish that information anywhere so you had to guess. So, regardless of whether it's a common thing to ask, it's certainly a reasonable request - and the student obviously realizes that syllabi given far in advance are subject to change. Of course, as @PeteLClark [suggest](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/65785/7319) it's better to make that explicit. PS - The dean and department management promised to do this, but never actually lifted a finger to get the faculty to submit such prospective plans. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: 1. Normal? Yes. Common? No, but it is becoming more frequent. At the two-year college where I am employed, students are being required to develop a study plan for their semesters before transfer. If a student wishes to substitute a course, or needs to repeat a course (ugh) and we don't have it at a time that suits their plan, then they need to find the course at some other institution. That substituted course needs to be approved. If we do not have an articulation agreement with the other institution, then the syllabus is a part of the process. 2. Excellent answer: "I approximate a syllabus, and in a cover-note say that it is approximate. There's no real loss in doing some part of that work months in advance, hopefully." Upvotes: 2
2016/03/27	1,406	5,956	<issue_start>username_0: I am an M.Sc. student in computer science, working on machine learning. Recently my supervisor assigned me a paper on biomedical signals field to review. The review task is assigned to my advisor who is a referee of a journal and he assigned it to me to do it for him (I am sure he will not check my review and will submit it directly). However, the paper is weakly (if not at all) related to my field; I don't even have an idea about its title. What should be my approach? Particularly in judging if the paper has properly covered background works and if it's novelty when I am not familiar with the field at all? The best option is to decline but I have not that opportunity. That is a "must" to do work for me if I don't want to ruin my relation with my advisor. I should mention that this is the first time I was assigned to review a paper.<issue_comment>username_1: I agree with all of @N<NAME>'s comments. If you have a good relationship with your advisor, you should be able to say "This paper lies outside of my field of expertise. I don't feel qualified to review it; in fact, even to understand it at a basic level would require me to spend substantial time familiarizing myself with the terminology of a different academic field." According to your comments, you do not feel comfortable saying this to your advisor. So here is what I would suggest instead: do the reviewing together with your advisor, in person. So for instance you could begin by saying "I started reading the paper you assigned me, and I have some questions I'd like to discuss with you. When can we meet to talk about it?" Then when you meet you can begin to engage with all the unfamiliar stuff and see for yourself how far away it really is from your interests and those of your advisor. If it turns out that your advisor doesn't understand the paper either, I would try to subtly lead him to the conclusion that neither of you should be reviewing it. If he tries to shove it onto you, reiterate that you are doing it but that you want to get his input. If necessary, ask a question of the form "How would you handle this review job if you were in my place?" The point being that the advisor is in your place since he is the one who has been asked to do the reviewing. To pull this off properly may require some verbal aikido. The worst case scenario is that after all this your advisor makes clear to you that he doesn't care that neither of your have the expertise to review this paper; he wants you to do it anyway. At that point he is asking you to commit academic dishonesty, and you will be in a tough spot: you will have to decide whether turning in a noncommittal review of a paper that you don't understand is the least evil. Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Unfortunately, this happens all the time, This is quite normal, and your priority as a student is to graduate, not to try and fix the utterly broken peer review system. In this situation, if discussing with your advisor is going to cause stress, read the paper, and review to the best of your ability without spending forever on it, or pretending you know things you don't. If it's title is incomprehensible, then this is frankly a comment that could go in the review - since the purpose of a paper is to make your results intelligible to the academic community - at least what they are about even if not every detail. This alone would be a more constructive review than many. I really wouldn't worry about reviewing for novelty - nobody knows every single piece of literature out there, and a reviewers job is to give an opinion, at least on whether the paper makes sense - not to do a vast literature search for the editor of the journal. On the flip side of the coin, have this out with your advisor, and the most likely result is that the student who wrote the paper will have their publication delayed through no fault of their own. Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_3: I agree that your professor's act is not ethical (if his purpose is for you to ghostwrite the review) and you should politely decline to review it. However, I have seen this happens a lot. Not just with peer-review papers, but with MS and PhD dissertations, book chapters, proposal etc. If it was to up to me, I would do the following. Read the paper, try to do a short research and see if you can understand its concept and/or purpose. Since it is outside your field, most likely it will be very challenging and you won't get it, but that is totally fine. Remember, maybe your adviser wants to see how you would handle such task, or if you willing to dig outside your comfort zone and come up with solutions (in this case, a review!). Remember, some professors like that. Also, I would like to point out, that even if you ghostwrite a review to your adviser, that does not mean that he is going to submit the EXACT document you prepared. I have witnessed many cases in which the professor uses such document as a base or blue-print and then add/edit as necessary after s/he reviews the paper. This is exactly what my advisers used to do. They would give me a paper, I will review it then they would discuss my review (while I'm in the office with them) to teach me how to and/or not to think, review, write and analyze. Finally, you might find this tip useful. If you couldn't review the paper because it is very hard, outside your field, too complicated or any other reason. All you can do is to go over the language, editorials, referencing, citations, formatting and base you review around such observations. Maybe doing this would send a message to your adviser that you could not review paper because (as you might have told him), it was outside your field. At least doing so can be interpreted in way that shows that you tried and did your best (although it can also be interpreted in a way that you were lazy, [let's hope not!!]). Upvotes: 0
2016/03/27	768	3,134	<issue_start>username_0: Suppose some author provides his original research article to a journal for publication. In this way, he is disclosing or revealing his confidential research work to that journal. Now, consider the case that his article gets rejected. So, is it not possible that whoever reviews that article can publish that kind of work and say that it's theirs? Since the original author's work has not been published and he is disclosing his confidential work to somebody, how could the author get assurance that if his article is rejected, his work will not be leaked by the journal staff in any form? What happens if this kind of thing happens?<issue_comment>username_1: It is unlikely that a reviewer or other participant in the peer review process will outright steal the work he/she is reviewing and publish it as original work, because it is easy to get caught. If the "real" author of the work accuses the thief of plagiarism, the editor of the journal can verify that the work was originally submitted by the "real" author before it was published by the rogue reviewer. (Also see: [What to do if a referee plagiarises the result after rejecting a paper?](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3124/what-to-do-if-a-referee-plagiarises-the-result-after-rejecting-a-paper)) If the rogue reviewer is caught, the paper will be retracted (which is damaging to his professional reputation) and there may also be other consequences for the reviewer. See e.g. [this recent example](http://retractionwatch.com/2016/02/18/peer-reviewer-steals-text-for-his-own-chemistry-paper/). Upvotes: 7 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Let me add to @username_1's excellent answer. If you are paranoid, one way to add an additional safeguard would be to post a preprint on arxiv.org or a similar site. Then you have a public version with a verifiable timestamp, so even if all the journal's staff colluded to steal your idea, you could prove to the community that it was originally yours. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: Here is the advise I got in a creative writing course a while ago: Print out your article, book draft or whatever. Put it in an envelope and send it to yourself by registered mail (yes good old paper mail). Of course you keep all receipts and administrative documents you get at the post office. Don't open the letter when you receive it. That gives you a formal and legally binding proof that your text existed at the time you posted it. In case of a formal dispute you have it opened in the presence of notary or whatever legal person can formally confirm the content of the document and the date. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: If you will submit to good leading journals of the field, you shouldn't be bothered by this question. If someone is good enough to be a reviewer, she/he has has the ability to produce respectfully publishable papers, and is likely to be a honest person. Only enclosed minds would do such a thing, anyway. Moreover,the journals keep their correspondence up to 5 years, so a legal process could in principle be done if would be the case. Upvotes: 2
2016/03/27	3,343	13,760	<issue_start>username_0: I recently defended my master thesis. One thing only went wrong: I said a certain method was rather new (which it was!) and the most senior professor in the room (my supervisor was not there, he had an unexpected meeting) contradicted me, telling me that it was old and had been done in the lab for ages. Honestly, I just gave in. He seemed so sure and I did not dare contradict him. However I was sure before and of course I have since checked, the method is indeed new, the professor was just plain wrong. What should I have done in the situation?<issue_comment>username_1: Did you pass your thesis defense? If so, it's all water under the bridge. If it is eating you up inside, you could send a polite note to the senior professor (cc:ing your advisor) thanking them for the question and that now that you've had a chance to re-check things, that you are ever more certain that your method is different from the suggested prior method because of x, y, and z; but perhaps you misunderstood his question and there was another earlier method he was referring to, and if so -- could he please send the reference? (tip of the hat to @gnometorule) If you go this route, I would frame it as a letter of thanks, appreciation, scholarly inquiry, and to keep the tone as non-accusatory as possible. As @guifa notes, some jerks professors view thesis defenses as a type of hazing -- a no-holds-barred opportunity to test your mettle; and what happens in defense should stay in defense. You do not want to drag this out. It can easily blow back in your face or the face of your advisor if the senior faculty member has a thin skin (which unfortunately many academics seem to have). Again, if you have your Masters, then I would just be happy with that and just make rude gestures towards that senior faculty member from the safety and privacy of your own home. And don't ever do this when you become that person in a position of power. --- You changed the question slightly from the initial posting from [what to do after the fact] to [what you should have done at the moment]. As note above, all questions at thesis defenses are fair -- even ones that are built on false or falsified premises. It is, after all, a "defense" and as a scientist you should be able to defend yourself from both truthful and false/falsified statements without having to resort to ad hominem counter-attacks. You respond based on your training and experience what you believe to be correct. And obviously given that you passed the defense, the examiners thought that you gave satisfactory responses on the whole. As Queen Elsa teaches us, let it go. Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_2: People (including professors) make mistakes. I have been mistaken myself in similar situations as you described, and would not attribute any kind of malice to the professor's remark during your defense. As @username_1 pointed out, you got your degree, and it is mostly water under the bridge now. In case it irks you a lot, I would recommend not to send an email to the professor, but to talk to him personally, maybe phrasing it as a misunderstanding regarding the scope of the method. An email might come off as somewhat aggressive. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: * Option A - Argue about it in front of an audience and focus attention away from your real presentation. Focusing on proving the senior professor wrong in front of an audience is not going get you anywhere. * Option B - Let it go. Go research it again thoroughly on your own. If you think it's a new approach, gather your research papers that support your claim. After you do your specific research, kindly ask the senior professor for examples of clarity on his comment. (Don't go in his office and slam a paper in his face proving he is wrong.) Go see him in person. Don't send an email because emails have no vocal tone to them. Overall, I bet that it is not a 100% black or white issue. Perhaps the professor or you are thinking of a "similar" method or a method that goes under a different name. You may call it binary and he calls it base-2. It's no big deal. Some people just like to speak up and make comments no matter what the situation. The senior professor probably won't even remember what he said after one week. Nevertheless, it is a good learning experience. You get to practice how to deal with confrontations that you were not prepared for. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: Forget about it and go on with your day. Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_5: Generally, when faced with questions or comments like this one, you need to respond in a way that is open to the possibility that the professor is right, but that nonetheless demonstrates your belief in your own position. Don't give ground too easily, but don't get too entrenched either, since you need to be open to new information. How you do this depends on how specific the professor's comment is: * If it was just a vague contradiction - "That's not new, it's been around for ages" - then you need to probe for more information. "That's interesting, I've not come across any previous use of this method - could you tell me more about where it's been used?". * If prof responds in detail ("It was done by Professor X in paper Y") and paper Y is not one you've come across, then your response is similar. "That's really interesting, I will look into that. Perhaps we can discuss this further after the talk." Or you might be able to second-guess the method used even if you don't know paper Y. "If they used method Z, then it's related, but our is different because..." * If paper Y is one that you are familiar with, then you have something concrete you can discuss. "That's certainly an important method, and provided inspiration for our work [if it did], but I referred to our method as new because it has these important advances/differences..." However rude the professor is with their comment, it may still be a valid point, so try not to take it personally. Ignore the tone and just respond to the substance as politely and scientifically as you can. Finally, it's easy to say all this in hindsight, but when it's early in your career and you're faced with an imposing figure contradicting you, it is only natural to give ground under pressure, and the fact that you successfully defended your thesis shows that you coped well with the overall situation! Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_6: Two actions should be taken: A- Forget about it. Say Thank You and move on during the meeting. B- Make very well sure that you're right and he's wrong before just assuming you're right. I've seen (and refereed) many cases where someone just knows something is novel when its not. This can happen for many reasons. Keep in mind that this person has been around longer than you have, may well have a wider understanding of the literature than you have, or have an inkling that something that has historically been presented in a slightly different way is exactly what you're talking about but is a little difficult to make the jump. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_7: "Honestly, I just gave in. He seemed so sure and I did not dare contradict him." You have answered your own question - you shouldn't have done this. If you were sure of yourself and your facts then you wouldn't have given in and you would have contradicted him. You are allowed to disagree with "senior professors" - they make mistakes too. That you did not suggests to me that you weren't sure of yourself or the facts. Part of these occasions is to test whether you have the self-confidence to know your discipline, know when you are right and to argue your case. Of course, if you were wrong... Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_8: When people disagree about facts, the only useful procedure to solve the disagreement is to appeal to an outside source that is accepted by both parties. Typically this is not feasible to do in the middle of a presentation, either because such an accepted outside source is not available, or even if it was (say through an internet connection that is active on the spot), it will take away time that is scheduled otherwise. To the degree therefore that rebutting the claim is not essential and/or critical for the purpose at hand, you, as the presenter (and so the one with the higher stakes in the situation), should wisely let it pass. But it would be a peaceful way to go about the world if you contacted the other party afterwards, by say, an e-mail that would supplant the necessary information about the matter. It is not about you triumphing over him or truth triumphing over falsehood, -it is about helping another person to not make the same mistake again. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_9: While I believe [username_5's answer](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/65834/20166) should be the preferred way to handle this kind of situation, I think the safest path would be to acknowledge the contradiction and quickly move on. > > That's interesting, I've not come across any previous use of this method, but I'd love to know more. Could we discuss this afterwards? > > > If they decide to press the issue, [username_5's answer](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/65834/20166) has the details how to handle that, but I'd be willing to bet they won't. If they agree, then obviously do approach the professor sometime later (preferably in person, during their office hours, after double checking your facts). It should be noted that this only works if the method isn't central to your thesis and the contradiction doesn't directly threaten the validity of your results. If that is the case, then you have no choice but to push back. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_10: > > the most senior professor in the room contradicted me > > > This may happen due to any reason. > > (my supervisor was not there, he had an unexpected meeting) > > > Probably, your supervisor was clear about his decision regarding you and the rest was just a formality (which actually happens in some cultures). So he chose to skip that ceremony (and attend that unexpected meeting) because he knew his decision would matter alone. > > What should I have done in the situation? > > > Assuming that your supervisor had a green signal in his mind for you (which, of course, you can guess from the situation), you should have done nothing but tried to pass on with any reasonable negotiations. Even if the above assumptions are wrong, you should have still done the same, because, considering your this statement: > > I said a certain method was rather new (which it was!) > > > Especially, which it was! part, nothing can go wrong. Of course, the reasonable negotiations would involve, you trying to defend that with solid arguments and references, while at the same time humble enough to listen to his criticism and show respect to get along. Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_11: This was your defense. You should expect senior faculty to give you challenges and questions like this, because they want to test the limits of your knowledge and usually won't be satisfied until they've gone beyond them. How far can they go before they reach "I don't know?" When you get there, do you have what sounds like a reasonable strategy for how you would find out or resolve a question? When you get a challenging question like that, the first thing to do is listen and make sure you really understand what the question is asking. Reflect it back to the asker to be sure and to demonstrate you've got it. Then, figure out if the challenge/question is something that is core to your thesis, or a side/auxiliary point. If your main claimed contribution is this allegedly novel method, and the method not being novel would mean you don't have a contribution left, that's a core issue. If you just used the method and the results of it are what's important, and you only mentioned in passing that the method is relatively new, then it doesn't matter so much. Consider saying what you know and offering to continue the conversation "offline" or afterward, when you can find out more details about the citation. With other sorts of non-core questions e.g. about your method or result you can use a response like "I'll have to look that up and get back to you on that." This helps keep the conversation focused on the core elements of your thesis. More important for the defense, *consider and respond to how it would affect your work if* the questioner's point is accurate**. For example, > > As far as what I found < maybe add, and this is what I did to look >, I believe the method is relatively new. If it's actually been used for a while, that increases my confidence in the reliability of the results it produces and could help make the conclusions even stronger. Thank you for letting me know about this and I'd be glad to continue the conversation afterward to discuss more details." > > > If he takes you up on the offer to get more details, try to get pointers to authors or papers where you can check. Claims of novelty are much easier to disprove than to support, conclusively. You may still be right, but you're not going to prove that in the moment of the defense presentation nor do you necessarily need to. You need to show how you respond to this potential new information and what knowledge you assert in your response, including some analysis of how that (counterfactual or not) would affect your thesis. Finally, if you already passed the defense, you can just view the professor's challenge as part of the challenge of a defense, and congratulations on having passed through that process successfully. Upvotes: 1
2016/03/28	706	3,100	<issue_start>username_0: I would like to do a second masters, because I would like to change focus to a certain subfield within my field (not changing fields) and have the best shot of getting into my favourite program. I also had some personal problems both during my BA and my first MA, and think I could do much better. I am worried though that having 2 masters will set the bars slightly higher for me in the application process. Is this true? Phrased differently: are admissions people more likely to look at the my CV in a 'absolute' way, or do they judge it 'relative' to the amount of time spent in academia maybe?<issue_comment>username_1: In the parts of academia I'm most familiar with (mathematics, US), even one master's degree is not a necessary prerequisite for a PhD program. Some students do improve their application and chances by doing a separate master's degree, but (when a master's degree is not a necessary prerequisite) I would advise any student to also apply for PhD programs and see what they get into. In your case, having completed one master's degree in your field and having the desire to go on to a PhD program, I think you should certainly apply to PhD programs. If there is a second master's program that you are extremely excited about -- in particular that you think is prestigious, would improve your academic record and offer you critical new skills that you would not necessarily pick up in the PhD program -- then you should apply to it as well. If you get into a solid PhD program with funding, I advise you to take that over any master's program. This is your life, and at some point you will want to have your student days behind you while you are still somewhat spry. However, if you get in only to PhD programs that are substandard and you get into a very good master's program, then yes, taking that is probably a good investment for the future. All this is definitely something to discuss with your current thesis advisor, by the way. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: I would echo <NAME>'s answer and also add, succinctly: it won't necessarily hurt, and it won't necessarily help. Depending on your field and the program, admissions committees are far more likely to put stock in exam scores and samples of prior work before anything else. Whether or not additional accolades give you that precious edge over some other candidate will really depend on the attitudes of the admissions committee members, which are impossible to know in advance. You could certainly approach people in the department you want to get into and ask, but it's always a bit of a mystery (and a bit political) how individual opinions and preferences are transmuted into a collective decision. It may make a difference if you're working on something relevant to the interests of the department's research activities. It may not. In any case, the better programs are not necessarily going to give you "credit" for your masters work anyway, which is something you may want to look into before you end up doing a whole bunch of redundant course work. Upvotes: 2
2016/03/28	721	2,766	<issue_start>username_0: Does the US department of education publish a list of universities that they've approved for Competency-Based Education? I've only discovered articles where they've approved a couple schools at a time. I'd love to find a complete list so that i can do a thorough comparison prior to choosing a program. Competency-Based Education can be generically described with these bullet points: * Classes do not have a set end date. They end as soon as you're able to pass the necessary assessment test(s) for that subject. This could be in as little as 2 days if you're already knowledgeable on the topic. * You don't pay per class. Rather, you pay a flat fee for a block of time (typically 3 or 6 months). * You're able to take as many classes as you want within the 'subscription' timeframe. The only requirement is that you pass the assessment of class1 before starting class2. * Competency-based programs are typically in an online-only setting and do not require any time to be spent on a campus. One benefit of this style of program is that efficient students can acquire a degree in a much shorter timespan than if they enrolled in a typical structured program. The end cost also has a high probability of being significantly cheaper than a structured program. Competency programs are commonly between $6000-$9000 per year.<issue_comment>username_1: Currently, there are over [200](http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/10/grading-adults-on-life-experience/382077/) universities in the US that offered Competency Based Education. The challenge is that the majority of these programs are not [approved by the Dept of Ed](http://www.educationdive.com/news/7-competency-based-higher-ed-programs-to-keep-an-eye-on/328382/), which means that students cannot apply for financial aid through many of these programs. The main [obstacles](http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/oig/auditreports/fy2014/a05n0004.pdf) to approval involves * Receiving credit for life experiences * little interaction with faculty * Issues with credit hours Therefore, as of now, you have many choices in terms of where to study but you would probably have to pay yourself until the Dept of begins approving these programs. Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_2: There's a preliminary list [here](https://experimentalsites.ed.gov/exp/pdf/CBEContactList.pdf) of experimental sites with programs participating in the DoE's Competency-Based Education experiment. (Via [this page](https://experimentalsites.ed.gov/exp/approved.html) about current DoE experimental initiatives.) The list is watermarked "Preliminary" and is dated 4/16/15, so keep this in mind in how you use it - it may not be completely reliable or up to date. Upvotes: 2 [selected_answer]
2016/03/28	1,188	4,983	<issue_start>username_0: I know for those wishing to have a career in academia that branding is key for securing a tenure track position. Branding is also key for certain industries at the undergrad level. I was wondering if that bias softens a bit at the PhD level, specifically for life science roles. How many doors shut if one gets a degree from a Top 30 instead of a Top 10 institution? I figured HR recruitment would not have a clue how great your PI is in whatever field. Moreover with software based resume screening being so prevalent, searching for MIT, CalTech etc... may be a shortest route to get resumes down to reasonable number. As a follow on question, say one gets a postdoc at an elite institution does that have any effect on said bias? Any comments are appreciated.<issue_comment>username_1: Ok, get it now. I don't think we are talking about a 'bias' here: you fear that the ranking of your Ph.D. granting institution will not play in your favor with industry; if you get a Postdoc at a higher ranked school, will this help in industry? And does ranking at the graduate level matter in industry? As a Ph.D. (PostDoc), and in many industries, you rarely come in through HR. It's probably more common to rely on contacts, friends, academic collaborators, and recruiters. This already somewhat dampens the impact of where you studied. If you hope to get in through HR, expect trouble. What I say next assumes that you largely stay near your field of study (you're not a biologist seeking to do momentum trading). Not quite dissimilar to JeffE's answer to a related question, at the PostDoc level you are expected to have some research to show; and as you probably won't show it to HR, the people you talk to quite possibly understand what you did, or maybe even are familiar with it. They also might know, or have heard of, your PI, which you mention as well you wonder if they do. A famous alma mater is certainly nice, but it will matter much less than how highly they think of what you did, and how it fits into your possible job there. Applying as a Ph.D. (only) in industry will put much more emphasis on your graduating institution: in many fields, even if you publish, it might not yet be printed; and the breadth and number of your contributions tends to be naturally fairly small. I think hiring, in industry, based on name makes more sense then; but your field of specialization, and what you did, still matter quite a bit. Finally, the further your potential job is from your field of expertise (and that is common too: I've seen people go from CERN to building user interfaces), the more names matter - as is probably no surprise to you. It also matters in just making people curious about you - in the stage of getting an interview; whereas what I wrote before is you discussing a job at a desk or lab. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: The following is based on my experience as both a hiring manager and as a participant in the hiring process in industry. I'll say "not so much", with the slight caveat that it slightly depends on the type of position to which you're applying. When we were hiring at the bank, we gave a lot of weight to the undergraduate institution. For those applying with PhDs, weight was given if the advisor was well known in the field, but beyond that not so much. We placed a lot more importance on the ability of the candidate to actually explain what they did quickly and concisely. A few times we had candidates who were from outstanding programs and outstanding universities, but that really only got them the initial phone screen... if they couldn't broadly explain their topic in three minutes or less they went in the reject pile like anyone else. The same was true for postdoctoral fellowships. I will say that there were a few candidates who got a leg up simply because they had collaborated extensively, and they had some connection with someone on the team. Again, though, that just got them in the door... we never hired someone simply because they had a performed research at a respected university. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: The answer is that a better PhD program is better for your "industry" prospects, all other thing being equal. But as you noted, this tendency "softens" for PhD students. That is because people who interview PhDs are more technically oriented themselves. PhD resumes tend to "short circuit" HR and go directly to hiring managers. These managers will want to know what you've done in your program and how well. So pick the school that best matches your aptitude and interests. If it is a Next 20 program that you will do particularly well in, that will make up for the supposed quality of the school. Bottom line: You'll probably want to be a better student at a "Next 20" school than a mediocre student at a Top 10 school. But if you figure to be about as good at one school or another, then the Top 10 school is better for the resume. Upvotes: 2
2016/03/28	4,760	19,873	<issue_start>username_0: I'm currently taking a required class where attendance is counted at 15% of the grade. The policy is that if a student misses more than 2 lectures, they lose all 15% of those points. The class itself takes place 5 days a week, and attendance is taken daily and uniformly. I currently hold a 91% in this class, but I missed my third class today and I'm trying to decide how to proceed from here. I feel like all of the time and effort I've put into the class has been totally discounted for a reason that has nothing to do with my knowledge of the course material. Am I wrong to feel as though this is an unfair mark? On one hand, I knew that this policy existed and the consequences for missing 3 classes. On the other hand, dropping a grade from an A to a C for such a small reason feels absolutely unacceptable to me. How should I approach this situation to help repair my grade?<issue_comment>username_1: You do not currently hold a 91%. You may have held a 91% percent yesterday, but now you hold a 76%. > > Am I wrong to feel as though this is an unfair mark? > > > Given that you knew the policy in advance and the teacher seems to have been consistent in taking attendance, you seem to have no logical reason to feel the mark is unfair. You state that attendance is a "small reason", but for whatever reason the teacher feels is is a big reason (15% to be exact). If you felt that the grading policy was unfair, you should have discussed this at the beginning of the semester, not after missing 3 classes. Realistically, the only thing you can do now is beg (aka grade grub). Your mileage may vary, but most professors do not look kindly on grade grubbing. It is important to realize that to an outside, the policy seems fair. For example, in a typical US semesters of around 17 weeks each class accounts for between 1-2% of the taught material. Further, missing a class likely means you are not at the right point in further classes so each absence is like missing 2-4% of taught material. That sets a minimum of 6-12% of missed material for 3 absences. Multiple absences probably means you have missed even more material. In other words, without knowing the specifics of the class, a penalty of 15% for 3 absences seems reasonable. Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: Given the asymmetric power dynamic of instructor-student relationships, your routes for recourse are limited. As username_1 mentioned, you are basically at the "mercy" of the instructor. Though, I would not go so far as to call this "grade grubbing" if you have a rational explanation for your decision making and/or if you think you can challenge the underlying assumptions for the attendance requirement. Here are my thoughts: If the purpose of the attendance requirement is to make sure you learn material from the lectures and to test this, the course makes use of homework and exams; I would challenge the value of mandating attendance if you are able to complete the knowledge assessments with 91% ability. If the attendance requirement is about in-class participation; I would challenge the value of removing 15% of the grade for two missed classes. It would be more equitable, in my opinion, to proportionally decrease the 15% based on the fraction of attendance vs total participation course days. For example, if there were 90 days of instruction, and you missed 2, your grade value for "attendance" would be 88/90 \* 15%. I quote "attendance" because at this point, it would be more appropriate to call this participation. To the "well, you knew this going into the course" point some people are making, I would balance this against a few factors: 1. Were there other offerings for the same course by different instructors? 2. If so, did those instructors offer a different "attendance" policy? 3. If not, could you have taken this course another semester from a different instructor with a different policy? If not, I do not believe it is fair to blame you (or a student in general) for ending up in this situation. As mentioned above, the instructor-student power relationship is not symmetric. For an example in another area of life: the landlord-tenant relationship shares a similar power dynamic. Given a person looking for housing is usually in such a disadvantaged position when compared to the person who has excess housing to rent, traditionally landlords are able to request unreasonable requirements of those renting. We have created laws to put limits on these requirements to protect those in such a disadvantaged position. The instructor-student relationship is not much different: especially if the above three alternative options do not exist. In my time in education systems (K-12, Undergraduate, and Graduate), where I have both learned and taught, I have seen many cases of completely unreasonable grading policies adopted by instructors. Many based on good intentions who's net effects were unreasonably burdensome: sometimes to all students, sometimes only to a few. In my opinion, it behoves us as educators to focus on the root value of our grading policies: do they measure what we are intending, are they balanced, do they take into consideration how many people come to class with different world-views? This isn't to say we should have no rules (or complete open rules), but from what I have seen, attendance requirements are rarely needed and are frequently unfair to students who are otherwise capable of learning the material but who have different day-to-day life demands. From this perspective, I can completely see where you are coming from. However, outside of trying to use reason with your instructor, a route I have seen fail for many, I'm afraid you may be out of luck. Though, as a last resort, you could always approach the department chair or dean if you feel they may be sympathetic to your situation. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: > > Am I wrong to feel as though this is an unfair mark? > > > Yes. You only concluded it was unfair once it applied to you. Prior to this moment, you accepted it as reasonable. Since the "fairness" never changed, then only your perception of it has changed, and only that once your circumstances did. > > How should I approach this situation to help repair my grade? > > > First, focus on getting exceptional grades for the rest of the class. You apparently already lost 9% (over one third of your total loss so far). You may or may not be able to affect the lost 15%, but you still have the rest of the semester and a lot more to lose if you don't renew your focus on your work. Second, discuss this with the teacher. I advise you to 1) not suggest that it's unfair and 2) don't ask for a reprieve. Instead ask it as though you accept the penalty, but would like to see if there's anything you can do - extra credit, an additional paper covering the subject discussed on the days missed, etc - which the teacher could take into account when finalizing grades. By accepting the penalty and not suggesting it's unfair, you are showing that you are responsible, and that you don't want to erase the penalty, you want to prove to the teacher that you are interested, engaged, and willing to work harder to show your effort. This should allow the teacher to avoid being put on the defensive, and they may open up paths for you to take that will help you recover some of the loss the penalty cost you. Humility and patience will often work better than accusations and whining. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: > > "I feel like all of the time and effort I've put into the class has been totally discounted for a reason that has nothing to do with my knowledge of the course material." > > > Yes, it has been discounted. And, yes, the reason for that discount has nothing to do with your knowledge of the course material. > > "Am I wrong to feel as though this is an unfair mark?" > > > Whether it is fair, or not, may be a quite highly subjective question where people may be very opinionated. Regarding whether you have a right to feel certain emotions: you may. > > "`dropping a grade` [such a large amount] `small reason feels absolutely unacceptable to me`" > > > Again, you're welcome to feel however you like. However, such a requirement was probably not created for the purpose of being popular with students. So, frankly, you aren't expected to feel like this is acceptable. However, this is likely beyond your power. > > "How should I approach this situation to help repair my grade?" > > > First, don't just try to figure out how to proceed, based only on your desire to reach a certain end result. Before going through the effort and dealing with the stress of even trying, make sure you're understanding your situation and what your likely obstacles are. Before looking further at "how should" you proceed (which is what you actually did ask), first consider looking at: should you proceed? Realize that you may not be able to get the desired adjustment, and that may be due to circumstances beyond your control. Circumstances may even be beyond your instructor's control. This [academdia.stackexchange.com](http://academia.stackexchange.com) question (that is being looked at right now) seems to have spawned another question, “[Why do some instructors care so much about attendance?](http://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/65868/why-do-some-instructors-care-so-much-about-attendance/65877#65877)” Some information on that question may describe some of the position that your instructor may be dealing with. (Specifically, the information I added to [my own answer](http://academia.stackexchange.com/a/65877/30772) discusses why the instructor might not even have some flexibility in this matter.) Then, if you decide you wish to proceed, affecting your grade will need to be done by someone with the proper power to do so. Most likely your instructor will be involved. If you wish to have the college take action based on your instructor being unreasonable, then you might need to involve some other part of the college's administration. That may result in some other staff getting the instructor's perspective. So, don't expect that this is going to happen without your instructor finding out. Start by determining why you missed class, and whether any of those reasons seem rather justifiable. (In other words, were were they caused by some sort of officially-backable causes, like a medical reason tied to a doctor's note?) Check official writings, especially including your class's syllabus but also your college catalog, for details about attendance policies and final grades and how you may be able to challenge undesired results. There might already be policy. If so, that policy probably will need to be followed. The policy might be very favorable or very unfavorable. The only way to know is to look up what policies exist. Once you understand the process as best as you easily can (at the start of the process), come up with the best arguments that you can, so you have the best knowledge you can imagine. You may be tempted to feel empowered by seemingly-compelling logic of your own favorable arguments. That may temporarily be okay, in your effort to get yourself as prepared as possible. After all that is done, prepare to approach the situation humbly. Start by contacting the instructor to see if mercy is available, or some other recourse (like if the instructor has a pre-designed way to achieve some lost points). Going through the instructor is most likely to be the easiest route. Alternatives may be more troublesome, which could unnecessarily add workload (to yourself, to the instructor, and to other staff) and may even be a bit offensive, particularly if you didn't even bother to go through the expected common process of trying to work it out with the instructor first. If the results of contacting the instructor did not go as you had hoped, consider whether you wish to just accept this as a costly learning experience (many learning experiences do have costs), or if you wish to pursue some other alternative. (This is where you need to check into the policies of your "student catalog", if such policies exist.) If you can't find any such policies, consider contacting a department head, and/or a college dean. A friendly receptionist might also have some advice about what other resources may be available. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: > > Am I wrong to feel as though this is an unfair mark? > > > In my opinion, no, you are not wrong. Furthermore, the arguments that "since you knew about the policy to begin with you don't have a leg to stand on", and that "since the policy applies equally to all students it cannot be claimed to be unfair", are simply invalid and miss a key point (which I'll address at the end) about where the unfairness comes from. Let's examine these two superficially compelling arguments more closely. 1. "You knew about the policy" You yourself say: > > On one hand, I knew that this policy existed and the consequences for > missing 3 classes > > > and username_1 in his/her answer says > > Given that you knew the policy in advance and the teacher seems to > have been consistent in taking attendance, you seem to have no logical > reason to feel the mark is unfair. > > > a sentiment that is also echoed in some of the comments. To this I would reply: if the policy was unfair at the beginning of the semester, it is still unfair now. Conversely, if it was in fact fair to begin with, it would still be fair now. Why on earth should it matter when you come forward to complain about the unfairness? It actually makes a lot of sense to me that you, being a busy student with many things to worry about, would not devote much time and energy to thinking about (or even noticing) this unfairness and thinking what to do about it until you found yourself in a situation where you saw yourself personally harmed by it. So yes, perhaps it would be more commendable if you had the foresight to step forward at the beginning of the semester and complain about what seemed like an unfair policy, either out of concern that it would hurt you personally, or out of an altruistic concern that some other student might be hurt. So what? That does not change the fact that the logical question regarding the fairness or unfairness of the policy has nothing whatsoever to do with the timing of the complaint. Note that I do agree with the that from a practical point of view, complaining now certainly stands less of a chance of achieving anything, but the point is that that's not because the policy has stopped being unfair (if indeed it was unfair to begin with). 2. "The policy applies equally to all students" This argument was raised by @user37208, who says in a highly upvoted comment: > > Unreasonable? Maybe. Unfair? Certainly not, as long as it's the same > attendance policy for everyone. > > > But this argument compares you to the reference group of the other students in your class. What about all the other students all around the world who have more reasonable instructors who do not penalize their students so severely for missing three lectures in a semester? If we assume the premise that such a grading policy is simply a poor way to evaluate someone's knowledge of the material the course is designed to teach, then by comparing yourself to this much larger reference group (or even focusing on a smaller group of students in your country or region who would be competing with you for jobs, or even just students in your university who took the same course but with different instructors who had more sensible grading policies), clearly you would have pretty good cause to find yourself discriminated against based on what you see as an irrelevant grading criterion. We can further illustrate the falseness of the "applies equally" argument by taking the same argument to an absurd extreme. What if the grading policy said that 15% of the grade would be given for the ability to recite the first 10000 digits of pi? (Let's assume that memorizing those digits was not one of the goals of the class, which seems like a fair assumption.) And let's assume that all the students except the OP managed to perform this feat and got the 15%, and he alone failed. Well, the policy was the same for everyone, so it is "maybe unreasonable" but "certainly not unfair" - right? Clearly that's nonsense, because the point is that (as I explained above) such a policy is grading based on completely irrelevant information, and hence discriminates against the OP compared to all other students everywhere who are evaluated on their knowledge of the same material as covered by the course. --- Now, I still need to explain why the policy is unfair (I only explained so far why two specific arguments saying it is not unfair are incorrect). In fact, that is somewhat more debatable, since grading for attendance is clearly more commonplace and at least slightly more logical than grading for one's ability to memorize digits of pi. Nonetheless, I think ultimately it comes down to the question of whether the grading policy, however well-intentioned it may be, is evaluating you for the right things, or for anything valuable at all, so that the grade will contain at least some minimally informative value about you to future employers or decision-makers. I argue that it simply doesn't, and hence is just as silly as the digits-of-pi policy in my example. The bottom line is that you have missed three of the course lectures. I don't know why you missed them, but one would be hard-pressed to convincingly argue that that says anything negative about you whatsoever. When I was a student there were many courses in which I missed such a number of lectures, and I did just great and am now a successful academic (and am probably considered an expert on some of the subjects those courses I missed lectures in were about...). Many of my students today are making equally reasonable and good decisions about when they want to come to class and when not to. They are grown-ups, and are using their time at university to acquire not just concrete knowledge but also to learn productivity and work skills, which include developing the judgment and self-knowledge to be able to make those sorts of decisions. Occasionally they make mistakes and learn from them. This is precisely as it should be. On my part, I give them exams and other assignments to learn whether they learned the material. Again, this is precisely as it should be. Nowhere in the process does it make sense for me to abuse my grading authority by requiring them to learn in a specific way, whether it be to do their homework between 8:17 p.m. and 9:44 p.m. every night (which I'm sure everyone reading this would agree would be outrageous and unreasonable) or to sit on a chair in a specific room in specific hours of specific weekdays. --- Finally, this answer is already too long, but let me briefly address your other, more practical question: > > How should I approach this situation to help repair my grade? > > > The other answers already addressed this. I share their somewhat pessimistic view that in practice there's not a whole lot you can or should do. In any case, since the main part of your question was about the principle of whether you're reasonable to feel that you are being treated unfairly, I thought it would at least make you feel a bit better to have someone agree with you and give a reasoned answer. My recommendation is to treat this as a learning experience and hopefully show your instructor through your excellent performance (and even more importantly, show yourself) that you indeed mastered the material, which is the main thing that counts. Upvotes: 3
2016/03/29	7,824	33,000	<issue_start>username_0: It seems that in higher education, some instructors either do not care at all whether students attend, and others care minimally (often resulting in a 1-5% attendance grade or tie-breaker rule). However there are also many instructors who seem to feel very, very strongly about attendance, and take it upon themselves to enforce this in various ways. For instance, I was shocked by a [recent question claiming that 15% of the grade would be lost](https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/65857/244) for missing 2 lectures - according to the question author, the class meets so frequently that this would constitute missing less than 3% of the lectures! While this seems like an extreme case, it seems like it's not uncommon to find professors who may deduct 10% or so for missing a small fraction of lectures. Why are these professors so preoccupied with making students attend? If attendance is so crucial to doing well in the class, wouldn't the students who don't attend do poorly in the exams anyway? Why additionally punish those students who did not attend, but did well regardless?<issue_comment>username_1: Let me start off by saying that it is very unlikely that attendance requirement is purely to protect the professor's ego, as one comment suggested. Any serious educator would understand that the goal of education is not so that the students become increasingly reliant upon the education system. Rather, the goal is to produce students that are increasingly independent, critical, and confident in their own reasoning. If I were a professor, I would be glad that the student can succeed without my help, rather than the other way around. To punish a student for being able to succeed without the help of lectures is simply contradictory to the goal of education. With that being said, here are some more plausible reasons: 1. The class is discussion based. This is quite straightforward: if you don't attend the class, then you do not learn. The in-class learning experience cannot be compensated by self-study, and exams may not be an ideal measure of such experience. 2. The class meets very infrequently. There are certain classes that meet only once per week. Missing one class means missing a significant amount of work. A related example is science lab requirement. In my undergrad institute missing one lab (without advanced notice) means that you automatically fail the class. 3. The lectures contain information not otherwise (easily) available. This is more relevant for higher-level classes, where there are no standard textbook and the way the professor teaches the material may be unique. The professor may want to make sure that students attend lectures to get the information they need. 4. Culture. In some culture regular attendance is associated with deference to the system and/or the lecturer. One finally note: contrary to what OP stated in the question, it is my personal experience (in the US) that very few professors would deduct a significant amount of points due to a lack of attendance. Instead the focus, if there is any, is usually on participation of class activity (which, of course, can only be fulfilled if you attend the class). What OP have described seems like rare exceptions rather than the rule. Upvotes: 7 <issue_comment>username_2: One theory is that it serves as additional motivation for students to attend class, which in turn helps increase their success in the course. It gives them a short-term incentive to do something which is hopefully also in their long-term best interest. > > If attendance is so crucial to doing well in the class, wouldn't the students who don't attend do poorly in the exams anyway? > > > In many cases the instructor has found from experience that this is true. But the student (who has less experience) may not be as convinced. Consider a student who wakes up in the morning and doesn't feel like going to class. In a class with no explicit attendance requirement, the student may rationalize: "I will just study harder tomorrow to learn the material that I missed, and I'll still be able to do well on the exam, so skipping class will have no consequences." But they overestimate their ability to do that, and end up not learning it as well. Or tomorrow they put off the studying until the next day, and so on, and fall behind. As an eventual result, they do not do well on the exam. In a class with an attendance requirement, the student knows for sure that not attending class will have negative consequences. The biggest consequence (failing the exam) is very likely but not guaranteed, and the student may not be able to impartially evaluate just how likely it is. But loss of attendance points is guaranteed. So the student cannot pretend that skipping class is harmless. Thus the student is more likely to actually attend, which is in their long-term best interest anyway. Hopefully, the ultimate result is that a higher percentage of students are able to meet the standards of the class. The flip side is that some students who have good attendance but poor performance otherwise may get better grades than they "deserve", but the instructor may feel that this tradeoff is justified. Upvotes: 7 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: So here are some observations from my perspective: I teach at a large, urban, community college. We are open admissions (no starting prerequisites) and the students have many challenges (graduation rate 15-20% in the university at large; ~25% for our own college). I'm very much an outlier in that I'm one of the few faculty who don't want to be tracking attendance closely. I'm constantly trying to understand why other faculty are so adamant about this; and frankly I have yet to receive a super-coherent account of it. But some bits and pieces that I get at times: * Students may be so weak that they are subject to the Dunning-Kruger effect; they have no idea how in trouble they are, or what it takes to remediate their weaknesses. Perhaps they are not in a position to make a rational choice about their academics, and at this point need some enforced guidance in that regard, esp. in a linked-knowledge STEM discipline. (To me, this is the strongest argument, the one that allows me to at least entertain the thought once in a while.) * There may be a legacy/cultural aspect; for example, at our school we are given paper rosters with calendars marked out on them for each class, with the direction to mark it a certain way for attendance every day. I've never seen a contractual/handbook requirement that we do this, but the paperwork says so, and they are required documents to be filed at the end of the semester. * There may be institutional reporting metrics at stake. For example, if a student misses 4 classes (course meets twice a week), then the college lets us drop them from the course, and my department quasi-mandates that we do so. I think part of the reason is that the student then counts as an "unannounced withdrawal", which makes our "failure" statistics look better (to very high-pressure stakeholders higher up in the university administration). * Some instructors may do this to make the course easier. I've heard at least once that an instructor in another department had, say, a 70% grade component based on attendance. That is: a student is not required to perform any work whatsoever; as long as they are physically present, they can pass the class (and thus relieve some amount of pressure on the instructor, I presume). * "Remember, the attendance rosters are legal documents. Years ago there was a student accused of a crime. They were proven innocent because of their being marked in class that day, which counted as an alibi." (I've heard this lore multiple times.) * "Attendance is important to reporting for financial aid; we must confirm that students are attending for certain financial aid requirements." (About 75% of our students get federal/state grants?) * "Don't you think attendance is important? Don't you want students to succeed?" Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_4: Well, the simple correct answer is probably this: answers vary. There are multiple instructors, and with them there may be multiple reasons. When I was a college instructor, I was told that the college had made certain promises about what the college would do, which included having students physically on the premises for a certain number of hours. Students who did not show up were hurting the percentages that the college needed to keep high in order to fulfill its obligations. Edit: adding this paragraph, since I suspect this might not be easily implied by everyone. Checking attendance and following up with non-attenders, even of a single class session, may be an *expected requirement* of the job. For me, they were. Class sessions were 4+ hours long each, and instructors were even expected to try calling students' cell phones during the first class break, if they didn't attend. Different instructors, like many types of employees, had different levels of how much they may have fulfilled an individual requirement. Still, this simply demonstrates that "pressure from above"/administration may be one reason that may influence some instructors. Attendance was not directly graded (due to some government-related regulation), but there were requirements about how attendance would negatively impact grades under the category of class participation, and attendance could also affect the final grade by impacting additional grade percentages such as in-class quizzes. Some details may have been simply encouraged at some times, while being requirements at other times, and the simple way to be compliant was to just be strict (resulting in this being a significant requirement on students). Even in an institution that doesn't have as strictly enforced policies, there may still be requirements, or suggestions (which might be received as requirements), that might have influence on some instructors. (These influences may come from a certain college president, or department head.) Such influence might impact many years down the road, even after the instructor is no longer under the same supervisor. Another reason is that students who don't show up are, well, not attending. This means that they are basically one step away from dropping out. (The only step away from being a drop out is not what they do, but how often they are doing it.) Another reason is that a key purpose of the college education system is to provide the students with the preparation that they will be needing. As I've read this site, I've learned more and more that the precise goals may vary a bit between different institutions, particularly those that describe themselves as "research institutions" vs. those that describe themselves as "career preparation"/"technical colleges". Maybe some have some more philosophical/altruistic goals rather than corporate culture. Regardless, an element that is likely to be quite common is to want people to be successful in the organizations that they join after college. Most organizations do not want people to be failing to meet attendance requirements. If students can be exposed to a certain level of expected discipline, such as an official demand of attendance, that may result in certain character building that may serve them well after graduation. Some argue that final exams would have their grades harmed by students who aren't learning, and so we can just rely on the final exams as a useful, accurate way of measuring knowledge. The counter-argument is that a student who skips classes may be a good test taker, and may effectively manage to demonstrate knowledge, while not managing to successfully demonstrate the discipline of needing to meet requirements other than just knowledge. Some employers don't treat the diploma only as a demonstration of accumulated knowledge and understanding of related principles. Instead, they treat the diploma as a demonstration of students being able to meet whatever requirements were placed on the student, which may involve some life skills (like scheduling) and not just accumulating certain pieces of "head knowledge". The educational institutions (or individual faculty members within educational institutions) may be choosing to cooperate with such methods. Again, I refer back to my initial paragraph. These are simply some reasons, and one or more of them might be part or all of the reasoning that gets used by some instructors, while other instructors may have their own different reasons. So consider these various arguments as just being a sample, and not as the single clear-cut absolutely-right universal answer that everyone, everywhere, is actually using. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: > > Why are these professors so preoccupied with making students attend? If attendance is so crucial to doing well in the class, wouldn't the students who don't attend do poorly in the exams anyway? > > > I am an instructor who sometimes makes attendance or participation part of the grade. There are several reasons for this (many of which already appear in other answers). The main ones are: * I'm at a large state school where most of my students are under-prepared for the class academically (these are math classes and officially meeting the prereqs is very different from knowing the prereqs), and need all the instructional help they can get. * Most of the students are taking the class as a requirement, not because they want to be there. In addition, many of the students are not super responsible, and benefit from psychological incentives to attend class and keep up with the material. (The Dunning-Kruger effect is also a concern here.) * The material is cumulative so getting behind makes it harder to catch up, especially for weak students. * We face a lot of pressure from the university to ensure most students do not do poorly in their classes. In effect, we are blamed for not keeping our students on track. It's not a matter of, "it's the students' problem, not mine" if they don't pass. * The complete content of a 15-week course cannot be assessed in a few hours of exams throughout the semester. I want my students to learn and understand more than what's on the exams. > > Why additionally punish those students who did not attend, but did well regardless? > > > The point is not to punish students who did not attend, but to motivate students to attend to give them opportunities to do well in class. In my experience, very few students who skip most classes do well on the exams. Personally, I don't usually make attendance worth a lot (except in classes where in-class work/discussion is a crucial part of the class) and I make my grading policy flexible, so I can bump people up for doing well on the final exam, say. This way, poor attendance, or doing poorly at the beginning of the course does not ruin the student's final grade. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_6: One reason for requiring attendance is for international student visa eligibility. In the United States, students on F-1 or M-1 student visas must maintain [full-time student status](https://studyinthestates.dhs.gov/maintaining-your-status) in order to stay "in status", i.e. keep their visas valid. Note the emphasis below on attending classes, passing classes, and taking a full course of study (i.e. being a full-time student taking a normal semester's worth of credit hours). > > While studying in the United States, both F and M students must: > > > * Attend and pass all your classes. If school is too difficult, speak with your DSO [designated school official] immediately. > * If you believe that you will be unable to complete your program by the end date listed on your Form I-20, talk with your DSO about requesting a possible program extension. > * You must take a full course of study each term; if you cannot study full-time, contact your DSO immediately. > * Do not drop a class without first speaking with your DSO. > > > Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_7: Disclosure: I am a lecturer, and I do care about attendance, however I have only limited experience. I don't enforce attendance, because I don't have leverage to do so (at least not in a way that would not upset students to the point which will hurt my chances further career). But I would very like to follow the example of the professor you mention. There are several reasons, why the lecturers care about the attendance. 1) Dunning-Kruger effect. Often many students, who are enrolled in a class, are totally unaware of difficulty of a course, appear at introductory class (which is usually less difficult) and start skipping others. Then they start getting a clue in the middle of the semester, when they appear at the lectures, and their only experience is that they do not understand anything (so, then they deduce, the lecturer has to be responsible, since they should understand anything and any time). Because of that experience, they then skip the rest of the lectures and get a blow when they are unable to solve a single task in an exam. Finally, more often than not, they still think that it is not their fault, and if the university grades their staff based on students' feedback, it really becomes a problem of a lecturer. So, forcing them to start attending at the beginning of the semester may avoid this problem. 2) Insufficient support of the university for keeping the standards from sinking to the bottom. Nobody would care about <NAME>, if a lecturer could flunk everyone who does not satisfy the minimum standard at the test. At many universities you probably cannot grade 80% of the class negative, and then expect to retain your position. Sad but true. It is probably worse in for-profit institutions. So if there is some minimum, yet unspoken target of how many students should be graded with positive grades, then a lecturer will try to ensure that at least this many actually attend the lectures and have chance to pass the exam, so the lecturer can fulfill HIS unofficial quota of how many students must pass. Not much to do with ego, but a lot to do with experience. Really no problem for me if people do not attend and do well, but then it means that they did not need to take the class anyway. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_8: The following isn't a general answer, but it is one good reason for grading based on attendance in a wide variety of courses. There is [extensive evidence](http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2014/05/08/1319030111) that active learning is significantly better than lecturing, at the 95% confidence level, in essentially all STEM fields, as measured by success rate or normalized gain. If you're doing active learning, you need your students to show up on time and prepared for class. It's not like a lecture. If you're lecturing, and a student slips in 20 minutes late and quietly sits down in the back of the room, that student is only hurting him/herself. If you're doing active learning, then the student is disrupting the whole process, and will likely need to be brought up to speed by their peers on what is going on. There is a similar issue if you have students who have not been making any effort to keep up with the course. If you're doing active learning techniques, those students are holding back the rest of the class. For example, if you're doing think-pair-share, the student has nothing to contribute, so the "pair" part doesn't work at all. So if you're doing active learning, you can't just make vague threats to your students that if they flake out, they'll fail the final. Personally, I don't have an explicit attendance grade, but attendance is required, and the way I enforce that is by giving an easy 5-minute multiple-choice reading quiz at the beginning of every class. This is a technique advocated by [Mazur](http://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/0135654416), for use with flipped classroom techniques. It enforces the requirement that students actually do the reading before coming to class, which is a requirement for a flipped classroom to work. Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_9: At least here in Switzerland there's one more reason (nobody mentioned yet...). The attendance is part of the credits you get for the course. Each point equals roughly 30 hours of work. Some courses have only small exams, then the actual attendance is an important part of these 30 hours. If you don't show up, you didn't do the work expected for that certain number of credit points. However, I don't care that much as a TA here. Only people regularly being absent are reported. Generally I think they're old enough to know, how to pass their exams. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_10: I used to be an assistant professor, and occasionally would have an attendance requirement. The reasons for having such a requirement are as follow: 1. Students whose attendance is paid for by the military must attend lectures. 2. Student athletes must attend lectures to maintain their eligibility, and if applicable scholarships. 3. In full courses, students who don't attend are dropped so students who can attend may join the course. 4. The course has a heavy group-work or active component that requires the student to be present. In such a course, a student who chooses not to attend may hurt the educational outcomes of their classmates. 5. In some cases the student may not be prepared to take the course, for whatever reason, and should drop as soon as possible. If I track their attendance I may have been able to suggest to them that they should drop in time to get at least a partial tuition refund. Students who do not come to class, for whatever reason, have poorer educational outcomes on average than students who do come to class. Frankly, it's in the interest of a student to come to the class they've paid for. On a strictly personal note, I don't care to be a convenient excuse. Students who habitually skip class tend to blame their instructors for poor grades, even though their grades are poorer in large part because they pissed away the opportunity that they, or someone else, paid for. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_11: My experience is mostly in mathematics, where there often aren't (even at the undergrad level) regular problem sets or exams. Professors want some indication that a student has covered and understood the material, and classroom attendance is a decent proxy for it. I've never run into a math or science class (as opposed to humanities ones as an undergrad) that formally had an attendance component, but it's not like students could skip literally every lecture and still expect an A. I've seen professors try other method of grading with varying degrees of success: having students rotate in writing up and distributing notes to the class, having students do a bit of research and give a brief presentation at the end of the class on a related topic, etc. After a point, though, students are assumed to be there because they want to be there, and they're responsible for handling their own education. That having been said, as a student, I never found classroom lectures particularly helpful. (I'm distinguishing ordinary lecture-based classes room things like colloquia or random topics classes, which don't have textbooks and are designed to be more participatory). I learned better from textbooks or papers, rarely had questions to ask the professor during the classes themselves (whether because I had more involved questions to ask over email or because I could work out the answer myself), and didn't enjoy the classes (as opposed to the material in them). Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_12: Particularly in the early years of university, students are overwhelmed by the freedom of university compared to high school. They can be late, skip classes, even miss the odd assignment, and nobody will take them aside and scold them for it. On top of that, there are parties somewhere every day, and a wealth of social events. Many people who were A students in high school get overwhelmed by the change in university, and end up not succeeding. Some professors want to ease this transition, by taking away an element of choice, or at least reminding students that there's a reason to go to class, even if it's not mandatory. Sure, there are students who will succeed without going to class, and students who will fail even if they do go to class. But many professors weigh this, and see it as worthwhile to "waste" class on these people, which has really very little harm, if it results in others succeeding where they otherwise would not. At the end of the day, it is very unlikely that someone will fail because they attended class, but far more likely they will fail because they did not. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_13: In Poland, almost 90% professors I've met required attendance on their class (only 2 lectures can be missed and only with good excuse). I think the main reason behind this behavior was that they often presented expanded material (that wasn't included on the slides or docs) which was required on exams. Some of the professors doesn't provide any materials at all, so without own notes (or copies from others) You just don't have any sources of knowledge to learn from. Very often lecture topics was really difficult and there was even no sources to learn from in the Internet. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_14: * A. Some profs are evaluated by their management by student performance. Non-attendance is not good for performance. * B.1. Most all profs are rightly annoyed by students who ask questions about topics covered in the missed class. This wastes the prof's as well as the other students' time. * B.2. as in B.1, but during the prof's office hours. It wastes the prof's time as well as other students waiting outside the prof's office. 15% seems a bit severe, but whatever it takes to get recalcitrant students to put on some clothes to get to class... Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_15: Some instructors do actually care very much about attendance. Others may seem to, but I don't know that they have a personal belief in the importance of attendance as much as they intend to follow the rules set by various college administrators. While the following too-long story is very much anecdotal, I would like to suggest with the moral to this story that while many instructors are "preoccupied with making students attend," they do not themselves "feel very, very strongly about attendance" despite presenting a front that suggests that they do feel this way. With so many good answers already I'd normally just pass this question by, and this approach is somewhat strange I admit (downvote bait?), but this issue has some personal importance to me. > > When I began co-teaching as a graduate student, our English department > had a rule that missing more than three classes would result in > automatic failure in that class. The English department was the only > department with this rule in place from what I understand. > > > I had studied English as an undergraduate student at the same > university, and the rule had been explained to me in every English > course I had, at least on the syllabus and often vociferously by the instructor. I missed more than three > classes a few times, and would receive warnings, and wouldn't miss any > more, but also wouldn't get kicked. > > > One of the two professors that I "co-taught" under, who showed me the > ropes in the beginning, was new to the university and the policy, and > I always thought that he was somewhat iron-fisted due to the fact that > he failed several students for missing a 4th day. It bothered me, but > I didn't say anything at the time because I had a rather cowardly > mortal terror of any direct superior at that point in my life and had > been warned by professors as an undergrad that one is very much > supposed to enforce the three-absences-or-less attendance rule. > > > The next semester, as I began teaching on my own, we ran into each > other and he said: > > > Why didn't you tell me that nobody actually enforces the attendance > rule?! > > > When he was enforcing the rule in the presence of the violators he seemed > adamant, even angry, and he seemed to think he was justified in enforcing it; he acted the part of the stereotypical lawful-good paladin, not sadistic but self-righteous. I thought that he > actually felt "very, very strongly about attendance" as you put it. > > > He > didn't; he was just enforcing policies put in place by administrators > who didn't care about the life-wrecking consequences of policies they themselves wouldn't have to explain face-to-face, who hadn't > even made exceptions for classes that met three times a week vs. two. And he did so with an expression on his face that brooked no argument, but apparently not because he was actually angry; it was a stony, defensive expression, expecting hostility and confrontation. > > > I taught my final two semesters on my own, and I didn't bother anyone > about attendance, ever, and aside from a few students who failed > themselves out of college through other means everyone kept showing > up, even without the threat of the giant stick of doom. > > > Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_16: I see a lot of answers here about ensuring that students don't fail, that professors are adhering to university strictures, or that professors don't want to be inundated with idiotic questions from students who skipped class and then ask basic questions that were covered. All of those have merit and may be true, but they are not the reason that I assign a high proportion of my course grade to attendance and participation. I am an assistant professor at an R1 in the USA. I teach political science. Attendance and participation are weighted very heavily in my class because one of the core skills I focus on teaching is critical thinking. I don't give tests or quizzes. Rather, students are graded on their in-class participation (which demonstrates mastery of the assigned readings and the ability to engage the ideas in those readings) and several written assignments designed to prepare students for policy-oriented jobs "in the real world." Moreover, while I understand that some people view college courses as simply a means to an end, that is neither my philosophy in teaching nor my goal in providing a class. To my view, class meetings are precisely when the real learning and work gets done. I organize my class so that midterm and final written assignments are an application of the knowledge and skills we covered in class. It is the exchange of ideas in real-time between students and professor that I care about the most. A student who wants to simply write some assignments and submit them without coming to my class misunderstands completely the purpose of my class. When people treat class attendance as a nuisance, they overlook the important epistemological benefits of being in a classroom setting where questions can be asked in real-time and students can challenge one another and the professor. There's a dynamic element that is lost. This may be different in other fields - I wouldn't know. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_17: Honestly, it's just about making our lives easier. If you never come to class, we expect you'll eventually have a panicking moment where you realize you're far behind, and you need personal help from us to get back on track. Everyone can avoid this unfortunate situation if we just make attendance mandatory. On the other hand, actually keeping track of attendance is a huge hassle, so some of us would prefer not to manage all that. I personally don't take attendance, but I do feel sad when students don't attend. I just don't feel it's my place to police and penalize adult behavior. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_18: I'm surprised no-one went for the "pedagogic high ground" answer: that in some cases, the published intended learning outcomes, either at institutional, programme, or module level, include one or more outcomes for which an attendance check is a valid (albeit perhaps incomplete) assessment. For example, there are a [bunch of institutions](https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=%22institutional+learning+outcomes%22+%22punctual%22&btnK=Google+Search&source=hp&ei=5JaBYIXHHa-blwTl2qugCg&iflsig=AINFCbYAAAAAYIGk9MHMbWaVE5aUEMLV9ffpPu3ED8_K) where the institutional learning outcomes include being punctual; and any engineering programme whose programme learning outcomes are based on the [UK-SPEC](http://www.engc.org.uk/engcdocuments/internet/Website/UK-SPEC%20third%20edition%20(1).pdf) Chartered Engineer Standard will include among them something like "Reinforce team commitment to professional standards" and something like "Create, maintain and enhance productive working relationships". Upvotes: 2
2016/03/29	494	2,097	<issue_start>username_0: Often researchers publish their work incrementally. Abstractly speaking, let's say, in 2010 the researcher publishes version 1.0 of his algorithm/system/framework. Two years later, he publishes an improved version 2.0 of the same algorithm/system/framework. If I want to cite his work, should I a) cite his oldest work (advantage: typically, older works have more citations), b) cite his newest work (advantage: my readers will be directed to the most uptodate version of the author's work), or c) cite both?<issue_comment>username_1: If you know why do you need a citation, it is usually easy to determine which papers to cite. * If you want to give credit for a contribution, you cite the original paper. * In computer science, journal papers usually supersede earlier conference versions of the same paper. If a journal version of the paper exists, you cite it instead of the conference version, because it is now the original paper. * Subsequent papers by the same authors often contain new contributions to the topic. If the contributions are relevant to your paper, you cite those papers for the contributions. * If you want to tell the reader what the state of the art is, you cite the most comprehensive papers on the topic. This may include survey articles or papers describing version 2.0 of the result, even if the specific contributions in 2.0 are not relevant to your paper. * There are obviously other reasons for citing a paper. For example, you may want to cite historically important papers in a literature survey, even if the results are no longer relevant. So, in general, you cite (the journal version of) the original paper for the contribution, and give the reader some relevant pointers to the state of the art. If the topic is central to your paper, you may also want to cite the intermediate papers for their specific contributions. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: You might cite both by saying "Idea X, originally developed in [1] and extended in [2], shows that ..." Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]
2016/03/29	842	3,274	<issue_start>username_0: I was just wondering how this is possible, there are some 50+ year old people who are 'Dr. X Y', and others who are maybe "only" 40 years old , but they are 'Professor Dr. X Y'.<issue_comment>username_1: Academia, like any other organized human profession, has a system of ranks and advancement on which those particularly talented or ambitious tend to rise quickly, while others may rise much more slowly or eventually stop. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: In a colloquial sense, may simply refer to a group of educators/teachers at a university/colleges. However, in more strict sense, the formal designation of Professor is generally obtained by rising through the ranks. You can find lots of details regarding how this system works out, and even some technicalities, in [this link](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professors_in_the_United_States). (N.B. US-specific, but generalizable to some extent.) Quoting verbatim from the article: > > Educators who hold a formal title of "Professor" (referred to as tenured/tenure-track faculty) typically begin their careers as assistant professors, (or "lecturers" and "senior lecturers") with subsequent promotions to the ranks of associate professor and finally professor. The titles are historical traditions; for example, it is not implied that an assistant professor "assists" more senior faculty. There is often a strict timeline for application for promotion from assistant to associate professor, most often 5 or 6 years following the initial appointment. Applicants are evaluated based on their contributions to research, teaching, and administration. The relative weightings of these contributions differ by institution, with PhD-granting universities usually placing more emphasis on research and liberal arts colleges placing more emphasis on teaching. > > > Now, until one has risen through the ranks to formally hold this title of professor, technically that guy can't/shouldn't use the title "Prof." in front of his/her name. But, if he/she holds a Ph.D. (i.e. Doctor of Philosophy) degree, "Dr." can be used as a prefix before the name. Later in the career, when this person becomes a formal Professor, he is free to replace that "Dr." by "Prof." (or rarely, even use both at once.) Also, while there may be correlations between age and rank, there is absolutely no reason why a more aged person can not be academically junior to a younger person who might have made it further in the hierarchy. It all depends on satisfying the requisite criterion (see linked article). This explains you observation: > > there are some 50+ year old people who are 'Dr. X Y', and others who are maybe "only" 40 years old , but they are 'Professor Dr. X Y' > > > Hope that helps :) Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: It is possible that some older Drs may not want to be profs. As an academic rises through the ranks, their duties tend to migrate from active teaching and research into more of a managerial role, which doesn't suit everybody (and [the activities that merit your promotion do not necessarily imply you have the abilities required to flourish in the role into which you find yourself promoted](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_principle)). Upvotes: 1
2016/03/29	578	2,245	<issue_start>username_0: I have a large diagram that does not fit into horizontal space of my A4 book manuscript (see below). * What to do to make the diagram easier to read? * Should I replace big formulas with numbers or letters to label the arrows with numbers or letters and describe the corresponding formulas below (or above) the diagram (so called, "legend")? * If yes, what to use as arrow labels: numbers or letters? [![a bigger diagram](https://i.stack.imgur.com/JIYyk.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/JIYyk.png)<issue_comment>username_1: First, I do not consider your diagram is too big unless your layout has ridiculously big margins. That does not mean that you cannot improve its layout such that the type is bigger and thus easier to read. > > What to do to make the diagram easier to read? > > > Your biggest problem is that the individual formulas are all horizontal and very close together, which forces you to make them rather small. Thus, I suggest to replace most of your straight lines by curved ones and rotate your formulas appropriately. Also, use more vertical space (which you should have). Finally, you can make your texts narrower by using more line breaks: A quick sketch to illustrate this: [![Sketch of suggested changes](https://i.stack.imgur.com/qracX.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/qracX.png) Note that I increased the size of all formulas while maintaining the width. > > Should I replace big formulas with numbers or letters to label the arrows with numbers or letters and describe the corresponding formulas below (or above) the diagram (so called, "legend")? > > > That sounds like a very bad idea to me. This way the reader would have to jump between diagram and legend all the time. The whole point of your diagram (as I understand it) is to have all these relation in one place. If you use a legend, you might as well skip the entire diagram and use text instead. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: My final solution is this (I labeled the arrows of diagrams with short labels, so that I can easily refer to a particular arrow in my proof.) [![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/RCe3B.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/RCe3B.png) Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]
2016/03/29	774	3,254	<issue_start>username_0: Picture the following scenario: X finished his PhD. X is also quite rich and can support himself (as well as his research) independently. What do you think about this: Would X's time after the PhD be well spent if he would just work 'independently'? Would this make things more difficult for him if he ever wanted to move back to an institution? Is it in a way, in this particular scenario, not actually a very good idea, to focus solely on research and not bother with teaching and all the administrative stuff? Wouldn't he be more productive? What would hold him back? Note: I am assuming that X is in the Humanities, that is, he does not require a lab or anything & has access to a academic library / or has his own etc.<issue_comment>username_1: In academia, he might have * more exposure to interesting ideas (especially cross-field pollination), * better access to students and colleagues to exchange and refine ideas with, * as well as external pressure to be productive (which might be a good thing.) While administrative work has never inspired me to have an interesting idea, teaching and mentoring students certainly has. It all depends on the context he's able to set up for himself as an independent researcher. If he works better in isolation, maybe he'd be better off. If he can afford to hire other researchers and create an interesting intellectual environment, that might help. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: If this person wants to move to an institution later, having a strong research record (since he didn't have other duties, research expectations might be high) is important and, depending on the school, some teaching experience would be valued. (This is more important if the person is out as an independent for many years.) In addition to the issue username_1 mentions, being independent may be counter-productive for some people. I have had no teaching/administrative duties at different points in time, and the lack of structure can make fit harder to be consistently productive at research. In addition, you can start to feel a bit isolated without a good academic community to be a part of. Personally, I think the ideal teaching load for research for me would be one course per semester most semesters, and then occasionally 0/semester for long trips etc. I know a couple successful research mathematicians who do not have research positions, but they do have some sort of affiliations (one I think with no requirements, but can teach classes if he wants). I would say if you don't need the salary, something like this would be ideal, and you could teach a little, with minimal service requirements. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: Yes, definitely. If he has set a clear course and has a vision. In academia he will be dragged down / have to split his focus between many duties not related to research : 1. Administration. 2. Teaching - many who are employed at universities have teaching as part of their duty. Almost everyone except self-funded post-docs have some teaching duties. 3. Representation - representing his group for example. 4. Acquiring grants. 5. Supervising MSc and PhD students. All of these eat away some time, energy and focus each. Upvotes: 0
2016/03/29	233	908	<issue_start>username_0: Here is my situation. I am looking for a post-doc position. I have two choices, A and B. My first choice is A. And I already got an un-official offer from A. I was told that A is working on a official offer. But I haven't got the official offer yet. Now, my second choice, B, also send me an email. B tells me that he would like to give me an offer if I am interested in joining his lab. How should I reply? Is it appropriate to tell him that I am interested?<issue_comment>username_1: If you're interested in both, then email each of them and say so. If you don't have the formal offer then you don't have the job and shouldn't make decisions without it. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: IMO- Tell the 2nd professor guy B, in your own words, that you are very curious about what the offer is, and that you are awaiting a separate offer from another professor. Upvotes: 1
2016/03/29	524	2,145	<issue_start>username_0: I have a new algorithm which I would like to publish. I'm not a student, so I wanted to know a few things: 1) What should I publish? Just the algorithm with explanation? an academic paper? What are the principals of writing such one? 2) Where to publish? 3) What are the outcomes of publishing the algorithm? Legally or any other aspects I should be aware of. Any other tips and helpful things I should know will be welcomed<issue_comment>username_1: I suggest you to go for [arXiv](http://arxiv.org/). However, you cannot just publish a plain algorithm. You need to format your document as a research paper. [This](http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~bioslabs/tools/report/reportform.html) link might give you an idea of what to include. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: Making an algorithm public is easy: you can put it on your webpage. By having it published as an academic paper (either conference or journal), you can get reviews, which is interesting. Reviewers may help you evaluate the novelty of your approach. I thus suggest a paper, with at least: * a motivation for your algorithm, * a review of the related approaches and the explanation for its novelty, * the algorithm with explanations. It is always a plus if you implement it also in a common computer language, so that others can check its efficiency, find bugs, allow improved versions. A working version of your algorithm in the shape of a code (compilable with instructions) can be put on [GitHub](https://github.com/) for instance, for better versioning. There are several [algorithm](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algorithm) related journals and conferences, for instance at the ACM Society: * [ACM Transactions on Mathematical Software](http://toms.acm.org/) * [ACM Transactions on Algorithms](http://talg.acm.org/) and you can easily find many more, depending on the subfield your algorithm belong (combinatorics, optimization, real-time computing, etc.). Some are listed at the [List of computer science conferences: Algorithms and theory](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_computer_science_conferences#Algorithms_and_theory). Upvotes: 3
2016/03/29	780	3,579	<issue_start>username_0: Is this ethical? Researcher A asks Researcher B, "Where should I submit my paper?" Researcher B says, "If you submit it to Journal X, I will almost certainly be the reviewer and I think highly of your paper." All journals in the field have single-blind review policy. That is, the reviewer knows who the author is, but the author does not know who the reviewer is. If it is unethical, is it only unethical if researcher B actually submits to Journal X and gets researcher A as a reviewer? Or does the ethical problem disappear if researcher B submits to a different journal, or submits to Journal X but gets a different reviewer?<issue_comment>username_1: From an academic standpoint- it is very dangerous. It is better not to do it, and it may backfire in a big unseen way. Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_2: If we replace the word "reviewer" with "editor", this would typically be seen as normal behaviour. I.e., editors often have pre-submission discussions with authors about the suitability of a manuscript for their journal. In the case of editors, it is a standard part of their role to have discussions with authors about submissions and in some cases encourage authors to submit their work to their journal. In addition to "editor in chief", many journals have associate editors and the like who act as editors for submissions related to particular topics. They also often have some scope, although typically less than the editor in chief, to encourage submissions. Finally, the person you mention sounds like they might be a very active reviewer for a journal and quite often get asked to review submissions on a topic related to your paper. I think the ethical issues relate mostly to whether everyone is acting honestly and in good faith, and that conflicts of interest are not perceived. Editors are allowed to solicit submissions, and they almost always know the identity of the submitting authors. They are meant to be well-regarded members of the academic community and are trusted to make publication decisions based on academic merits and not based on friendship or other bases. Reviewers are a little different. Reviewers are meant to review in good faith and base their decision based on academic merits. For journals that expect double blind review, I think that encouraging authors to submit to a journal where they are likely to be a reviewer is problematic. For journals that only have single blind review, the issue is more one of honesty. Specifically, the reviewer should generally inform the editor if they encouraged the authors to submit the paper. That way, the editor can integrate that information into the assessment of that reviewer's review and assess it for bias. More generally, the implications of the reviewers comments are problematic. A more appropriate comment would be "I think your paper is good and it would be a good fit for journal X." or "I know that the editor of journal X would be interested in your paper." By focusing on the idea that they might be a reviewer, it implies that they might give a more favourable review than a random reviewer, which from some perspectives implies a biased review process. If you are submitting the paper to that journal, you could remove most ethical issues by acknowledging in your cover letter that your colleague and potential reviewer recommended that you submit the manuscript to this journal. This would allow the editor to consider whether they want to let your colleague be a reviewer, and if so, how their review should be treated. Upvotes: 3
2016/03/30	478	1,947	<issue_start>username_0: I'm planning to apply for US's PhD program in Political Economy, and a writing sample of maximum 20 pages is part of the application requirements. The problem is I don't think that I have any recent high-quality writing to submit. I didn't write a thesis for the B.S. as my university didn't have that kind of requirement. I've been working for an international research center, but most of my works are mostly applied econometrics and I didn't really get to do any writing. Bottom line is my writing sample will most likely be the weakest link in my application. If so, how bad will it hurt my chance? Is there anyway to get around this?<issue_comment>username_1: Of course this can vary from one department to the next, but in the humanities, the writing sample is generally considered very important. According to the [Department of Politics at Virginia Tech](http://politics.virginia.edu/graduate-admissions-and-financial-aid/), > > Your writing sample is the most important part of your application. > > > Political science types are likely to weigh the writing sample more heavily than economics types, at least according to [this political economist](http://chrisblattman.com/2011/07/14/aspiring-phd-students-should-you-become-a-field-research-assistant-for-an-rct/). If you do not have a thesis, you should at least have a relevant term paper or similar paper from your coursework that you can use as a starting point. Your writing sample should demonstrate critical and analytical writing (not merely descriptive). Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Your writing is important if you are going to political science department. However, if the department or the program is focused on the economy part enough, your math background can be more important. Also, keep in mind to use a writing sample that actually articulates a political theory argument if possible not just any writing sample. Upvotes: 1
2016/03/30	1,313	5,537	<issue_start>username_0: I manage a research group and need to track, for all manuscripts I am going to submit soon, things like funding agency I need to add for that manuscript, authors for the other, potential journals for submission, etc, etc. Currently I build an excel sheet but things are getting very complicated due to all details I need to add, and wonder whether you have the same problem and which solution did you find, if you can share it, or if you use any other software for this.<issue_comment>username_1: Well, there might be a middle ground between spreadsheets and relational DBs. A couple years ago I signed up as a trial user for a tech startup called [Fieldbook](https://fieldbook.com/), which aimed at making data storage and manipulation in RDBs simpler and more intuitive. Admittedly, I didn't have the time or need to play around too much so I don't know if it's good enough for your use case (for that matter you haven't really given any detail specs) but give it a go if you like (I believe they have a free trial). The advantage here that it appears to be easily scalable and always available through online access, so no other software besides a web browser is necessary. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: I've found that a carefully formatted spreadsheet (Excel or otherwise) is extremely useful and effective for managing my publication workflow. To illustrate how I organize myself, here is a screenshot of a de-identified snapshot of my spreadsheet from late last year (there are also some removed columns, e.g., regarding internal processes): [![Screenshot of sample spreadsheet](https://i.stack.imgur.com/CrVzN.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/CrVzN.png) In particular, this is organized as follows: * Each entry begins with the title, venue where it is submitted and type of publication (My type key is: J=Journal, C=Conference, W=Workshop, A=Abstract, BC=Book Chapter, TR=Tech Report, Tut = tutorial, E=Editorial, P=Patent) * I sort by date of initial submission, adding a new sheet each year. When a manuscript is rejected, revised, and resubmitted elsewhere, it gets a new entry. * The main workflow is submission, revision, final; each gets two columns, one for date and one to mark completion. After that, I track when it appears and if I've put it where it needs to go. * For an easy "at a glance" understanding of the sheet, I color things green when complete, orange or yellow when I've got an impending action (depending on urgency), purple when I'm awaiting action from the other side, and blue for rejection. All together, this lets me see at a glance where I stand in the publications process for a potentially large number of active manuscripts, and what I need to deal with most urgently at any given time. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: I would consider looking at what project management tools there are which might meet your needs. [Trello](https://trello.com) is one free tool I am very fond of. I do not use it for keeping track of paper submissions, however I do use it for managing course development. Trello divides work up in to separate boards (which can be named for a specific topic or type of activity) and then each board is divided into a number of lists. Then you can create cards which you can add a title and content to, and move between different lists. 'Lists' isn't really the best name of it, I think of them as stages. Most of my boards are divided into 'Ideas', 'To do', 'Doing', 'Done' and 'Backburner'. Once I complete a task, I will move it's corresponding card from 'Doing' to 'Done', for example. Another invaluable aspect is that you can add checklists to each card, so you can break the task down into manageable chunks. You can also collaborate with other people, set deadlines to calendars and its used in your browsers, so you can login anywhere. One approach you could take is to have a 'Research papers' board and divide it into lists 'Ideas', 'Planning', 'Researching', 'Final draft', 'Peer-review', 'Edits' and 'Presented/published.' Then you could create a card for an idea of a paper and move it along each list until published. [Trello shares lots of ideas and introductions in their blog.](http://blog.trello.com/trello-board-best-practices/) Good luck! Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: Why not consider using source control through something like [bitbucket](https://bitbucket.org)? I use it for personal writing and coding projects as well as for a few small collaborations. Features which it offers that meet your use case: * Unlimited private repositories (where each would correspond to a particular manuscript) with up to 4 collaborators per repository (Free tier). * Per repository issue list, each of which is a running dialogue that can be assigned to one or more collaborators, to which files can be attached, with task type, importance and resolution status built in. Issues can be cross-referenced. Custom filtering can be made for the issue list. * Unified issue list for all repositories, similarly searchable/usable. Good for overview of which manuscripts are at which stage and what tasks are most urgent. * Draft versions and revisions are submitted as 'source code' changes, and revisions can be submitted with comments. Diffs between drafts readily available to compare language in sections of manuscript. Interaction with bitbucket can be through a web interface, the command line or their client application, depending on which is easier to integrate into your existing workflow. Upvotes: 2
2016/03/30	914	3,958	<issue_start>username_0: For most university classes I have come across, the professor teaching the class is also responsible for making (and usually grading) the exam, or holding an oral exam. As far as I can tell this is true in most (at least Western) countries. There are a few exceptions, e.g. some (but certainly not all) universities do not allow the supervisor to be part of the examining committee during a PhD-defense, and many high school educations have a centralised exam at some point. Does combining "teaching" and "evaluating" in a single person not create a conflict of interest - and why is this so prevalent at universities? EDIT: As people were wondering which conflicts of interest I was referring to: all of them :) I was mainly thinking about the fact that teachers are usually evaluated based on their performance, which is either measured through e.g. student pass rates and/or student evaluations. Both of these provide an incentive for the teacher to make the exam easy to pass, either by making an easy exam or by preparing students on very specific questions in a hard exam. But there are also arguments to be made that this system is not particularly good for the student-teacher relationship - I personally find it a lot easier to teach and motivate students when I am not evaluating them, because it has more of a "I am helping you to pass the exam", and less of an "learn this or I will fail you" atmosphere.<issue_comment>username_1: In my understanding, the conflict of interest actually goes in the other direction: if the teacher is not the examiner, then the teacher has a conflict of interest because their job depends on the performance of the students on the exam. In the United States, tying lower levels of education to test scores has created quite a bit of ["teaching to the test,"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teaching_to_the_test) as well as other ethically problematic practices like schools cherrypicking good students and attempting to expel special-needs students because the funding of schools and the careers of individual teachers are both closely tied to how their students perform with external examiners. As such, I think that it is a very good thing that at the university level and postgraduate level, most education is allowed to be much more customized. Note, however, that in professions where there are strong ethical and safety issues involved, such as law and medicine, there are still external testers but these tests are more holistic certifications rather than individual class evaluations. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: At least at the university level, I think the biggest issue is practicality: who is going to write and grade the exams, if not the professor in charge of the course? I think this is especially true in things like humanities courses, where the content is so often individualized according to the professor's interests and preferences. (The same thing also happens in STEM courses, but there's often much less freedom in what can be covered, often for "continuity" within a larger degree program.) For example, say I'm teaching a French literature course with a specific set of goals (at least in my mind). How much information do I have to communicate to someone else, so that this other individual can write an exam that fairly assesses what the students have actually studied, as opposed to what the examiner thinks they should have studied? Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: In most of my student life I have been graded by my teachers, and in most of my lecturer life I've graded the students I teach to, and I never heard complains of my students nor my fellow students that exams were too easy. In fact, I can remember the opposite: students claiming that exams were too hard. Therefore, I don't see any generalised conflict of interests that teachers grading their own students unfairly raise grades. Upvotes: 2
2016/03/30	553	2,355	<issue_start>username_0: Poster author added me as coauthor after its abstract has been submitted to a conference. As a result, on the conference website I'm not listed as an coauthor, but my name is on the actual poster. Assuming that it's not possible to update poster authorship info on the conference website, should I still list this poster on my CV, or would it just create confusion or misunderstanding?<issue_comment>username_1: A poster of which you're not the first author is such a minor thing I wouldn't worry about it (even if it is listed on the conference website). I don't have a huge publication list but still only include posters I presented (aand only at major conferences). They don't have anything like the CV impact of a peer-reviewed paper. Either: * You were accidentally omitted and should be included. In this case the author should contact the conference organisers (but it's probably too late). * Or your contribution was rather minor -- perhaps it only became apparent that your work made it onto the poster at all at the last minute. In this case while you're named as an author it's closer to an acknowledgement in practice. Listing it as a publication, if the title can be searched for but you're not named, doesn't seem like a good idea. Realistically no one is ever going to look. But if you just happen to come up against someone who's interested in something very specific about the poster that you don't normally do, it isn't going to help you. Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: I don't support posters any longer for my personal academic career, but there are eminent examples of major breakthroughs which were presented as posters, for instance Gruntzig seminal invention of angioplasty (in particular, look at [Gruentzig's Poster Exhibit at 1976 AHA](http://www.ptca.org/archive/bios/gruentzig.html)), so we cannot discard their value altogether. Regarding your question, I think you can add the poster details on your CV. The best thing is however to also write an email to the publisher of the proceedings (putting in cc the corresponding author) to have the author list amended (this can be done in the online version). Finally, try to also obtain the final version of the poster (eg in pdf), and possibly a photo taken of the actual poster when and where it was hanged. Upvotes: 1
2016/03/30	1,210	4,957	<issue_start>username_0: Let's say there is a physicist who is merely 21 years old, has no relation with academia and is only beginning, but has came up with a contradiction/refutation in the theory of relativity. His 25-page and extremely complex paper has no grammar/mathematical mistakes, is written in LaTeX. However, it is 25 pages and extremely complex, and its title is modest, not cranky. Q: Just how well are the editors of Nature at reading and understanding papers? Would it be possible to describe the accuracy of their decisions? Assuming Nature receives more than 10,000 papers each year. And surely, one may say that they would first look at the name and if it is unknown and the paper itself is concluding revolutionary matters, they could say to themselves, "Ah! Another crackpot! I received 25,000 of these already. Time to throw it in the bin." But since they are professional, I assume that they would read it. But how much? Even if the author was to submit the paper double-blinded, considering the amount of papers they receive and the realization that since it's double-blinded it is surely from a newcomer, can doubt be casted upon Nature's consideration of such a paper? Planck said that revolutionary paradigm-shifts are not immediately accepted but are rather brutally opposed and rejected in the beginning, and as time passes little and little, only then the world bows down to them. Academia today is too complex, there are too many people, too many papers and too much "drama" (many things going on). Would people really consider such a paper in the future, would they really not forget? Who knows, there could very well be such a paradigm-shifting paper out there published, but nobody ever cared about it! P.S: Such a physicist, I would say, is expected to be a great nonconformist. Einstein himself ridiculed academia in saying that they kill curiosity. (Source: <https://newrepublic.com/article/117028/carl-sagan-albert-einstein>)<issue_comment>username_1: I can't say for Nature in particular (being from Computer Science myself), but no "top-journal" editor would reject a paper for being too complicated. The editor normally takes a first read to filter out spam, very badly written papers, or out-of-topic submissions, and the rest goes through peer-reviews. So in your example, the paper would be reviewed by several physicists who can understand what is being told in there. Their experience will tell them that most papers breaking down a well-established theory contain a flaw (this is statistics, not prejudice), so they will probably go through the paper once looking for said flaw. If the paper has one, then it will be pointed out to the editor and the paper is rejected. If the paper has none, then the reviewers will make the effort of understanding every little detail of the paper until they are convinced it is correct. Then the paper will be accepted. --- As an addition, in physics, I assume that any paper claiming an accepted theory is false must come with a reproducible experiment showing the flaw in the original theory. If anyone can come up with such an experiment without the support of a research lab, then most probably it's simple enough to be reproduced by the reviewers, so that they directly see the flaw by themselves. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: Let's ignore for a fact the length. A paper must communicate, or there is no recipient. So, if there is some message in the paper and the message reaches editor or reviewer, it has a chance of being read (not necessarily agreed with, but read). Nature/Science are probably the wrong journals for this, as they are more interested in compactly to describe results, but there are good journals for that purpose. "Extremely complex"? Well, the problem is not complexity (see Perelman's work), as long as there are people who are experts in the general language you use. The question is, is there a community that is able to connect with what you aim to say? You argue about revolutionary discoveries, but often, the revolution isn't realised until after the fact. I am not sure how much Einstein was intending/expecting to upset the existing framework in 1905. Things could have gone: "Oh, yes, dispensing with the ether is a good idea, why didn't we realise it ourselves?" and return to daily business with a new framework. Or consider Galilei: he wrote in Italian, precisely to avoid his language being a hurdle to understanding. If you look for real revolutionaries of the kind you seem to think about, your best bet is probably Galois. The good news: he was not a crackpot. The not so good news: it took some decades for his stuff to be understood (basically, because he never bothered to explain so that others could follow). The bad news: he was killed (not because of being a scientific revolutionary, probably not even because of being a political revolutionary, but because of a woman). Upvotes: 2
2016/03/30	461	1,914	<issue_start>username_0: I had noticed a sudden change in the quality of the essays submitted two of my students. When I confronted them, they were quite frank and admitted that due to lack of time, they had assigned their papers to be written by an outside source, an essaywriting service (a booming business that must be). What is the proposed penalty? If I take this on an administrative level, they face a pause of educational activities for 6 months to 1 year. But since this is the first incident, I do want them to learn their lesson, but at the same time taking into account that they were honest with me, not being punished too hard. What do you propose? Is there something I can do to keep this from an administrative level and at the same time punish them?<issue_comment>username_1: Offer a ceiling grade -- perhaps a maximum possible course grade of B. They were honest; this would be fair. Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_2: The official punishment already has a fork, being the first time and honest can help them to get a suspension closer to 6 months than to a full year. Also, you can help them get a speedy process, so the penalty starts counting as soon as possible. It is important that there is an official record of this event, so they can't pull the "it is the first time, I promise" again. They now have a record, and they know it. This said, I can't believe they didn't know they were doing something wrong, so I don't think one should be very forgiving. Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: If I were you I would give them 3 more assignments and ask them to turn them in within a crazy time-frame and in case they fail to do that; they'll be reported. This way they'll get to learn more about subject and understand that corner cutting can lead you to run several extra laps. After all your objective is to make them learn and not damage their academic career. Upvotes: -1
2016/03/30	1,428	6,433	<issue_start>username_0: I'm on the waitlist of a top 2 program in my field which has a good track record of accepting waitlisted applicants. They told me to wait until April 15 and then I would hear from them. Interestingly, I got rejected by every other program I applied to, so I have no other place to go to. This is my second admissions season - I applied to PhD programs last year as well, got waitlisted from a couple top programs but it didn't work out. I'm going to give up after this season if this waitlist doesn't work out. Is there anything I can do to maximize my chances of being admitted off the waitlist? I don't want to seem obnoxious when I email the director of graduate studies at the university, so I don't want to talk about how I don't have any other plans or something like that, but what else can I do?<issue_comment>username_1: Being in the waiting list means you haven't been selected, but you came close. If some of the selected applicants declines the offer (because they got somewhere else), they start going down the waiting list. At this point, there is nothing you can do to change the outcome. The ranking has already been set by Admissions, and the offers have been sent out to the lucky candidates. Just sit tight. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: You would need to wait till the selection/funding process is finalized. Don't forget that there is a chance that you might not get in, so you need to keep applying elsewhere. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: @username_1's advice is spot on, but I will definitely add that now is time to review your backup plan. (Of COURSE you have a backup plan, right?) There's always the possibility that you won't get into any of the schools you applied to; it sucks, but it happens. You should have a solid plan in place to make sure that your resume doesn't go stale in the interim. This could involve working as a lab tech/research assistant for a lab in your field, applying for internships in industry, taking on academic teaching positions, or even just finding any job to ensure you have income. Whatever your plan is, now is a good time to start making sure it's feasible, and if it involves applying to jobs or the like, you should probably start doing that as well. You can always state that you cannot start working until after whatever the last date you can expect to hear from the university happens to be. The worst thing that can happen is that you have too many options. That is far better than the alternative. Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_4: There is a special case where it may be worth contacting the graduate department - more on that in a moment. First, by being informed that you have been put on the waitlist for admission, they are saying that you have not been admitted at this time - but they aren't saying you are officially rejected yet. So you should indeed keep your options open to the extent that you can, but most of the time you cannot rely on admittance. The reason they stated the date of April 15th is because in the US this is a special national date, where the vast majority of institutions have agreed (or been required by federal funding agencies) to allow anyone admitted with a funding offer to respond by April 15th without fear of losing their spot/funding by not responding right away. It's probably the nicest part of the application process for applicants, as if you receive multiple offers you can wait until you receive responses from all your preferred institutions before making a decision by the shared deadline. The downside, of course, is what you experience with the waitlist - institutions are often in the position of not having heard back from all the offers they've made until very near the deadline, so they can't let waitlisted people know of their final status until past such a date. Generally there is not said to be an advantage to contacting the programs to re-affirm your interest, especially at very popular/highly ranked/prestigious programs, because just saying "I'm still interested" doesn't change anything. When You Should Consider Contacting Waitlisted Programs ------------------------------------------------------- The big exceptions to the general case is when something new has happened that isn't properly reflected in your application. The most common such case is when you have received an offer of a fellowship offering significant funding, such as the NSF graduate fellowship (or any non-trivial funding source of the kind). In such a case if you receive such a recognition, I'd encourage you to notify any programs where you are still in the waitlist. While there is no general rule about how programs handle such a situation, some seem to care and many people claim they were moved from the waitlist to acceptance after receiving such a major award. However, given the extreme competitiveness of such major awards and the fact that they are often more competitive than PhD programs are themselves, this can't be relied on and there is absolutely no guarantee the program will decide to accept you with outside funding. You could potentially also want to contact them if other major improvements have happened to your profile, such as receiving other national recognition, major important/prestigious publications, etc. This may be of limited usefulness as I don't know any departments that will reconvene an admission committee to discuss your new achievement, and I don't know that any department will just adhoc re-arrange the waitlist order based on such a thing. If you aren't super annoying about it I suppose it couldn't hurt. The potential here is further limited because anything that could result in such a situation should have already been talked about in your application materials (including in submission/preparation papers, the experience that led to such papers, etc). Regardless, if you choose to contact the department I'd personally advise you not mention the "if it doesn't work out this time I'm giving up on the whole thing". I don't think mentioning that will help your situation any, even if it's how you feel. YMMV. Above all, any contact you make should be respectful and professional. Repeated calling (hour after hour, day after day), email after email, or anything similarly negative could actually zero out your chances entirely. Reasonable timely correspondence will not carry any such danger. Upvotes: 3
2016/03/30	567	2,542	<issue_start>username_0: I am doing a research in a field of psychology and I would like to do almost the same research (just with different groups) as one other published research. I can make similar research but actually I want to compare my results with already existing ones. The thing is, that researchers made one simple application, more like a game. In their article they put a link for that game but if I want to use their game in my research I need to have theirs other application for recording each test session. I know for sure that I will ask them to use one part of application but if it's rational, I would like to ask them and use the whole game and the other application for the data collecting. I know that this is more individual question, but I would like to know what is the common practice in computer science. Do people usually/ rarely ask someones applications/ programs for they own research? Unfortunately, I don't have a time to collaborate with someone in computer science to make other similar game. And even if I had a time I wouldn't be able to exactly compare the results with that published research which I would like to do. Anyway, I don't know the researchers but I thought to send them an e-mail to ask them.<issue_comment>username_1: I am a researcher in the computer science field, and I'd say it's not unusual to ask authors of published papers for their code/applications. Sometimes, however, people might be reluctant to give you the software, because research code is often unstable and badly documented, and they might be ashamed (or worried that you will find bugs that could invalidate their previous publications!). You should surely contact the authors, explain the situation, and stress that you are (of course) going to cite their paper. There's no harm in asking. In my experience, the worst-case scenarios are: a) they will not reply; b) they will reply, and ask you to be included among the authors of your future paper, in exchange for the software. You could try to prepare for these two outcomes, while hoping for a positive answer :-) Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Yes, you should go ahead with that. It's exactly rational and wise, even from CS research point of view. Just ask the author in the best possible way. Otherwise, even if you successfully manage to collaborate with someone in CS and compare the results too, for doing the exactly same thing, your research contribution would be zero. So, why should one reinvent the wheel? Upvotes: 2
2016/03/30	571	2,417	<issue_start>username_0: I have presented posters at poster sessions at a few large conferences in pure mathematics. Is it worth putting these down on one's CV? For context, I am a PhD student and have also given talks at several seminars and (smaller) conferences, so my CV is not especially in need of bulking up. Currently I do not have them on my CV. Moreover, my feeling is that posters in pure maths are not peer reviewed at all (in contrast to my impression of other areas), though I do not know this for definite.<issue_comment>username_1: Regarding the peer-reviewing process, in conferences in my field (civil engineering), sometimes we receive 100-200 papers. After the review process is over, typically, the top 10% get to be presented in key sessions. Then, top 30-50% of accepted papers will be presented in regular sessions. Finally, the rest will be presented as posters (due to lack of time/rooms) or declined! So, you can say that there is some sort of a peer reviewing process involved. In my case, I have always added the posters under "Presentations and Poster contributions in Conferences" section in my resume (and I can assure you that I really do not need to do that). This section falls right after "Articles published in conference proceedings". I do not see the point of doing some work and spending time on preparing a poster or an abstract and not take credit for it. Every small contribution is valuable. I doubt that whoever is interested in your resume will consider posters as a major contribution. Most likely they will skim through it or completely skip it. Peer reviewed journal articles are the most important part of a researcher's career (in my field). Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: Given that you are a PhD student (in math; I am also in math), I think you probably should put this on your CV. Going to conferences shows some professionalism and interest, and giving poster presentations does too. I don't want to suggest that this will be a key piece of information for your job search and/or early career, but...it certainly can't hurt. You may want to take them out later when your CV has filled out in other ways. The fact that they are not peer reviewed does not seem directly relevant to me, as long as you don't lump them together with publications (why would you?) or suggest in some way that they are something they were not. Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]
2016/03/30	722	2,896	<issue_start>username_0: The [American Physical Society Ethics Case Studies](https://www.aps.org/programs/education/ethics/upload/Ethics-Case-Studies-Student-Edition.pdf) presents the following case study: > > You are a faculty mentor for a graduate student in your department. The student is taking some classes in another department that requires written essays. He asks you to read his essay before he submits it. > You routinely google his work and discover that large parts have been lifted, verbatim, from the web with no quotation marks or citations. > > > 1. What should you do? > 2. Is there a way to monitor this student’s future behavior without irreparably damaging his career? > > > Unlike many of the scenarios, this one has no discussion. What are the answers to the questions?<issue_comment>username_1: 1. Perhaps the "graduate" student does not know the proper use of referring and citing others' work (especially if he is just started his studies). Hence, he is providing you with the (copied) essays to review them! 2. However, I doubt that since almost every school teaches the importance of ethics in the academic field. Keep in mind that there is a section on plagiarism in almost each syllabus and undergraduate/graduate handbook. Still I'm not familiar with this student's background, so maybe different institutes (outside Europe/ US) do not explicitly discuss plagiarism (I doubt that but maybe?)! 3. If I were you, I would confront him/her and explain that this is not the right way to write essays. After all you are a "mentor". I will explain the concept of plagiarism, citing and referencing. To be honest, I would have done this the first time I found out that some of his/her work was copied from somewhere else. I'm not an expert on Academic penalties so maybe somebody more experienced can provide a better insight on how to address this issue (either documenting it in his/her record, or providing him/her with a second chance). Keep in mind that a graduate handbook should provide the official procedure. Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: "Your paper looks like it has some citation problems. Do you have any questions about when and how you should cite the work of others?" Provide help if asked. (There's a lot on the web.) That ought to be enough warning. After the due date of the paper, contact the professor in the other department, explain that you counseled the student about correct citation, and volunteer to look at the final paper. If the student took the hint, that was a teaching moment. If not, and the student's career is "irreparably damaged," well, he did that to himself. You can expect that the professor in the other department will watch future papers closely, which is probably all the monitoring you can do unless there are similar essays in your own department, in which case, talk to your colleagues. Upvotes: 2
2016/03/30	632	2,699	<issue_start>username_0: I submitted a paper to an ISI journal almost a year ago. The submission date of the manuscript was May 20, 2015. I received a referee report on January 15, 2016. The report was quite positive but asked for some major revision. I made all the required changes and submitted a revised version of the manuscript on March 10, 2016. Ten days afterwards I received from the Editor a message that the manuscript would go into the refereeing process and Date received: March 10, 2016. Is it normal to change the initial submission date of the manuscript?<issue_comment>username_1: The current refereeing process is about the revised version of your manuscript that was submitted on March 10, 2016. This is why the editor message refers to this date and not on the initial date your first version of the paper was submitted. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: In my field, for a time, a very brief time, the time between submission and publication was a factor for people when submitting to journals. Some journals the time between submission and publication was close to two years while for other, equally reputable, journals the time between submission to publication was less than 3 months. When people started complaining about the time to publications, the slower journals began to cheat. The outcomes of the review process used to be Accept, Revise and Resubmit, and Reject. To "speed up" the process they changed "Revise and Resubmit" into "Reject and Resubmit". The resubmission was treated as a new revision, although you got the same reviewers, so the submission clock was reset. While this did nothing to speed up the process for authors, it reduced the time between submission and publication (it also made the journal look more selective). As I said, it is cheating. In regards to if it matters, while it would be nice for authors to have access to meaningful statistics, it is not something the publisher needs to provide. Some might argue that "time stamping", but realistically, in fields where articles are infrequently published in the first journal they are submitted to, time stamping does not exist since I have never seen a time stamp based on the first journal an article is submitted to. One thing to be concerned about when the submission date changes is if the process has gone awry. It is possible that the resubmission is being treated as a new submission and not a "Reject and Resubmit". If that is the case, then you may get a new batch of reviewers (and editor). Unfortunately, the way the automated systems work, sometimes it is difficult to tell what is going on. In these cases, a quick message to the editor is not out of place. Upvotes: 3
2016/03/30	969	4,117	<issue_start>username_0: I have found links on academia-SE pertaining to translation of documents [here](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/18258/should-we-translate-non-english-university-names) and [here](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/1913/translating-transliterating-foreign-bibliography-references), but those were not for a CV. Please tell me if my question is a duplicate. I have just moved to France from an English-speaking country for a PhD. My French is not amazing currently; this is a work in progress and I'm going half-time on my research to take an intensive language course in May. However, in June I hope to attend a school which will be taught in French, and for this reason I need to translate my CV into French to apply. Question: When translating my CV from one language to another, should I: * translate the names of past works e.g. the name of my masters and bachelors dissertations? Or leave them in English, as they were submitted to my past university? * translate the names of publications (and leave the name of the journal as-is)? * leave the names of the university and the qualification as-is per link 1, or put in parentheses the French name equivalent of my prior qualification? And mostly: Are the rules different between translating a CV and translating a publication/bibliography?<issue_comment>username_1: I think this will be field dependent. If the common language of publication in your field is in English, I would say you are not obliged to translated, but it might look better. If English is not the main publication language, I would definitely advise to translate. Personaly, I did and I would translate. The goals of a CV is to show off what you can do. If the person reading it can't tell if you have or not the abilities they seek, you miss the goal. Thereby, if they don't read English, you need to give them something they can read. Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: I personally would use the original names/titles, and provide translations when appropriate. That is, write the titles of publications as published, with between brackets a translation, to help out the reader which does not speak the original language. If the original language is English it might not matter that much in practice, but if it is in a smaller language such as Dutch, it at least gives the reader an idea what the content of the paper is. Keeping the original name makes it much easier to track the publication down, which is ultimately the goal of a publication list. Qualifications I would translate only if it is not some internationally recognised degree (e.g. MSc or BSc), and would indicate roughly equivalent qualifications from France, if necessary. I wouldn't translate journal names or other proper names, such as the name of the university. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: Things can be different in the humanities, but English is the language of science and, in a STEM field, you can reasonably expect whoever will read your CV to be able to understand the titles of your works (if they are in English). However, if, as a courtesy to the reader, you wish to translate the titles anyway, don't eliminate the original titles, but put the two versions side-by-side. Your last point is more critical: > > leave the names of the university and the qualification as-is per link 1, or put in parentheses the French name equivalent of my prior qualification? > > > 1. The name of the university should be absolutely left as-is, unless the university itself does not provide an official French translation, which I doubt (on the other side, universities from non-English speaking countries sometimes issue statements about official English translations of their names or department names). 2. It's not always easy to find equivalences among qualifications in different countries, and it's almost impossible for grades. Thus, if you want to provide a translation, leave the original qualifications and grades too, so that the application committee can employ their equivalence rules, if they have any. Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]
2016/03/30	1,036	3,974	<issue_start>username_0: I occasionally receive emails inviting me to present in a predatory conference. These are usually easy to identify, given that they call me a "Dr" or a "Prof" (only a PhD student at the moment), never heard of them (6th conference on something.. What were the first 5?), weird English, bizarre locations, organised by an organisation outside the field, etc. When you're publishing a predatory journal I guess it's not too hard to actually publish the journal eventually. Just put some PDFs on a website. What about conferences? Organising a conference is harder: you have to arrange a venue, audio/video gear, food and a bunch of other things. Let's say that I do end up submitting and paying the abstract fees. Is there an actual conference happening somewhere? EDIT - let me focus this a bit.. 1. Is it possible that one signs up to such a conference, arrives, and then there is nothing on site? 2. Are the (sometimes famous) keynote speakers aware they they are listed? Do they show up to the conference? If there is an actual conference, and people end up attending it, what is predatory about it? Eventually, it's a meeting of people discussing science about a particular topic.<issue_comment>username_1: So far as I can tell, and [have read online](https://scholarlyoa.com/2013/01/25/omics-predatory-meetings/), predatory conferences typically are associated with an actual event. To my mind, this seems to be a key difference between "predatory" and "fraudulent." If a conference takes your money and no event is organized, then there is clearly false advertising and grounds for legal action, perhaps even criminal charges. If a conference takes your money and organizes a horrible, worthless, CV-staining joke of an event, on the other hand, there is no regulatory body that you can complain to: scientific quality is considered to be a matter of judgement, and there is no way to easily distinguish between an honest-but-poor-quality conference and a intentionally predatory conference. Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Yes, in these cases the event is organized but the quality is poor, since no one important in the field goes to that conference. An example from this [website](http://quantum.info/conf/) with scam conferences to be avoided. From [here](http://quantum.info/conf/): > > "waset are a known predatory publisher, run by a former science > teacher in Turkey (and his family). Readers have complained to this > site about their fradulent behaviour, inclduing <NAME>, who > wrote: > > > "I would also like to alert you that this particular organization has been using my name as their conference committee > member. I am not involved at all with this organization and their > conferences and have not consented for my name to be used. My > university legal office has been informed and is looking into the > matter. I hope you will inform your colleagues if they happen to > associate me with these conferences."—2 April 2015 > > > See the comments at the end of this post for other experiences; or this warning. Comments from the former include: > > > * "In 2012 I > organised an international conference ... our list of working group > titles has just been copied and pasted for a WASET conference (15–16 > May 2013)" > * "The conference is a complete scam. I know I have been on > several hiring committees and if we see someone list a paper published > at WASET on their CV we immediately stop evaluating their > application." > * "I went to a WASET conference and it was a complete > joke. There were virtually no people there in my field, and the talks > were completely unrelated to each other. Basically each person got up > and spoke about their work to a completely unrelated audience. For > example, the person before me talked about boat design, I talked about > quantum mechanics, and the person after talked about Halal meat!" > > > Upvotes: 4
2016/03/30	934	3,519	<issue_start>username_0: I'm finishing my bachelor's in physics and for my masters, where I have a few free choice courses (~5), I'd like to take math courses that would be relevant for a future as a theoretical physicist or applied mathematician. Rigorously (as in taught by mathematicians) I've had Calculus, Calculus in R^n, Complex Analysis, Linear Algebra, Probability and Statistics and just a small overview of differential equations. I've had more math in physics courses but not in a very rigorous way. I'm setting my eyes on the following courses: * Ordinary Differential Equations * Partial Differential Equations * Group Theory * Stochastic Processes * Functional Analysis Are all of these relevant? Which others could be added to this list?<issue_comment>username_1: So far as I can tell, and [have read online](https://scholarlyoa.com/2013/01/25/omics-predatory-meetings/), predatory conferences typically are associated with an actual event. To my mind, this seems to be a key difference between "predatory" and "fraudulent." If a conference takes your money and no event is organized, then there is clearly false advertising and grounds for legal action, perhaps even criminal charges. If a conference takes your money and organizes a horrible, worthless, CV-staining joke of an event, on the other hand, there is no regulatory body that you can complain to: scientific quality is considered to be a matter of judgement, and there is no way to easily distinguish between an honest-but-poor-quality conference and a intentionally predatory conference. Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Yes, in these cases the event is organized but the quality is poor, since no one important in the field goes to that conference. An example from this [website](http://quantum.info/conf/) with scam conferences to be avoided. From [here](http://quantum.info/conf/): > > "waset are a known predatory publisher, run by a former science > teacher in Turkey (and his family). Readers have complained to this > site about their fradulent behaviour, inclduing <NAME>, who > wrote: > > > "I would also like to alert you that this particular organization has been using my name as their conference committee > member. I am not involved at all with this organization and their > conferences and have not consented for my name to be used. My > university legal office has been informed and is looking into the > matter. I hope you will inform your colleagues if they happen to > associate me with these conferences."—2 April 2015 > > > See the comments at the end of this post for other experiences; or this warning. Comments from the former include: > > > * "In 2012 I > organised an international conference ... our list of working group > titles has just been copied and pasted for a WASET conference (15–16 > May 2013)" > * "The conference is a complete scam. I know I have been on > several hiring committees and if we see someone list a paper published > at WASET on their CV we immediately stop evaluating their > application." > * "I went to a WASET conference and it was a complete > joke. There were virtually no people there in my field, and the talks > were completely unrelated to each other. Basically each person got up > and spoke about their work to a completely unrelated audience. For > example, the person before me talked about boat design, I talked about > quantum mechanics, and the person after talked about Halal meat!" > > > Upvotes: 4
2016/03/31	415	1,395	<issue_start>username_0: How do I cite in APA format for an author who uses only a first name?<issue_comment>username_1: When there is only one name, simply use that name. The guiding principal of citation is to give a clear and unambiguous pointer for finding the work in question and related works. Thus, when dealing with a [mononym](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mononymous_person), the general APA dictum of ["author's last name"](https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/02/) (which is quite culturally narrow in any case) maps cleanly to "author's only name." Examples can easily be found for [famous ancient authors such as Plato](http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2009/12/happy-holiday-citing-citation-of-classical-works.html), e.g.: > > Plato. (1961). Meno (<NAME>, Trans.). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. (Original work published ca. 380 B.C.) > > > The same principles can be applied for modern mononymous authors. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: According to the [APA Style Blog](http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2012/02/how-to-cite-pseudonyms.html) you should cite what you see. While it does not specifically cover people/references with one name, it does cover the Dalai Lama (a single title) and Dr Suess (a pseudonym that cannot be separated). Based on the cite what you see principal, just treat the name as a last name. Upvotes: 3
2016/03/31	1,509	6,861	<issue_start>username_0: Multiple choice questions are nowadays very common in many of the world's institutes. Particularly in entrance tests, they use multiple choice testing. Why are these academic institutions now looking to judge their students using multiple choice tests?<issue_comment>username_1: Because they are graded easily and fast, and there is no room for subjectivity. The answer to question 1 is option b). If you marked b), you get points, if you didn't, you are wrong. The grader doesn't even need to know what the question is about, just that the right answer is b). Also, there is no middle ground, no partial credit, and no subjectivity involved. Of course, there are a whole lot of problems with this system: poorly phrased questions, the student doesn't show the process, just the final result... Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: > > Multiple Choice Questions are nowadays very common in many of the world's institutes, particularly in entrance tests they conduct MCQs for the students. Why are these academic institution now looking to judge their students in MCQ tests? > > > In my experience (graduate admission to mathematics departments in the U.S.), multiple choice tests are not particularly valued or respected. People use them because of a lack of better options, not because these tests are considered a suitable measure of student accomplishments. The problem is that course content and grading standards vary substantially between institutions. This makes it difficult to compare applicants to graduate school: how does an A- in a beginning graduate course at the University of the Middle of Nowhere compare with a B+ in an advanced undergraduate course at Caltech? Is it better to be the 4th strongest math major in your class at Princeton, or the best student in 25 years at Middle of Nowhere? For applicants from prestigious universities, letters of recommendation and comparisons with applicants in past years can provide plenty of information, but this doesn't work so well for applicants from less prestigious universities. Standardized tests help provide an objective measure that can level the playing field. (Of course they don't level it completely, but an applicant from the middle of nowhere who gets outstanding GRE scores attracts a lot more attention than one with mediocre GRE scores.) Keep in mind there are a lot of colleges and universities out there, roughly 2500 in the U.S. alone. This means in a typical year, about a hundred students in the U.S. will be the best mathematics major to graduate from their department in the last 25 years. Some of these students are amazing, but in some cases it's not so impressive, since the department just doesn't get strong students. There has to be some measure beyond comparison with unknown classmates. The reason why multiple choice tests are used (as opposed to essay questions) is because they are what's out there. If the GRE subject exam involved essay questions, that would be objectively better, but it would be nightmare to grade. For comparison, grading the Putnam exam takes a tremendous amount of work, and I'd estimate that an essay-based GRE would take at least ten times as many person-hours to grade, maybe more. I don't think anyone cares enough to want to develop the test, organize the test administration and grading, and pay for everything (with a combination of high test fees or outside funding). It's just not clear that it would be worthwhile. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: Multiple question tests are easier to grade. In a lot of cases they also make the test easier to take and therefore push the number of passing students up a little so the instructor isn't failing too many students and doesn't have to use a massive curve. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: ### Benefits * Administration is efficient. Grading with large numbers of test takers can be automated either by using computer administration or by scannable answer sheets. * Once the scoring system is determined, there is no subjectivity in the application of the scoring system. This increases the reliability and predictive validity of the test. It also increases efficiency in that test takers are less likely to query the scoring. * There are tools to evaluate the internal properties of the test. These in turn allow for a principled assessment of reliability and also options for refining the test. Using classical test theory or item response theory, you have a range of tools to identify problematic items or response options. You can also evaluate the overall reliability of the test. Simple steps include looking at the proportion of people answering the item correctly (good items are approximately in the 50 to 70% correct region) and the correlation between answering the item correctly and the total score on the test (good items have item-total correlations above say .20 or so). * You can administer more items. A general principle of reliability of measurement is that if you can get more observations of behaviour, you will get more reliable measurement. If you write concise items, people can often do one item every minute or so. This is much more than what you get with open response items. * You can maintain comparability across alternate forms. There are tools particularly based on item response theory, which allow you to draw on a test bank. As long as you have a certain number of common items, you can change a test over time while still being able to compare scores from different versions of the test (e.g., to compare scores from year to year). Or alternatively, you may be concerned about test security, so different people get exposed to different items. Either way, it's easier to ensure equivalence of scores using multiple choice items. ### Problems Of course there are many problems with multiple choice tests. * They do a poor job of measuring certain skills and abilities. For example, they are poor at measuring written skills and interpersonal skills. * Writing a large number of good items takes time and skill. In particular, designing multiple choice questions that require deeper analysis rather than surface level recall is often challenging and requires some skill. ### Concluding thoughts Given all of the above, it is understandable why universities might use multiple choice tests to make admission decisions. For certain skills and abilities, they are an efficient means of getting a pretty good predictor of academic performance, especially compared to alternatives (e.g., grades that mean different things from past institutions). That said, I'm aware of quite a few institutions at least in Australia that would combine a multiple choice section with a written component in an attempt to get a more complete picture of academic ability. Upvotes: 4
2016/03/31	367	1,446	<issue_start>username_0: I know that in most U.S. universities, most programs for graduate studies require a GRE score. 1- Are there any graduate programs in the U.S. which does not require this? 2- Is it required for graduate programs in Europe, Australia or other parts of the world?<issue_comment>username_1: I've studied in Australia and the U.K., and I believe that no universities require GRE for graduate admission. I don't believe that GRE is required in continental Europe either, but there may be exceptions. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Besides the United States, I have not heard of any country and any topic requiring it. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: ETS, which develops and administers the GREs, [maintains a publicly available list](http://www.ets.org/s/gre/pdf/gre_aidi_fellowships.pdf) of all of the institutions that are officially licensed to receive GREs. If you look through, you will notice that almost all of these institutions are in the United States. Now, there are a bunch of other universities around the world that at least are willing to receive a GRE. As noted in the other answers, however, the fact that an institution is willing to receive a GRE does not mean that it is required or even particularly helpful. It is primarily a US test, and even within the US it is not used by many departments and given little weight (unless one does horribly) in many others. Upvotes: 2 [selected_answer]
2016/03/31	548	2,148	<issue_start>username_0: Is it permissible to reuse a methodology in another context. e.g. One did a research on land surface temperature(LST) based on a model, say for [it](http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S003442571630092X). Now is it legit to follow all the procedures of this research for forest loss modelling? Care that just majority are same (in methodology part) but one uses for LST and another for forest loss.<issue_comment>username_1: Yes, it is possible - it happens a lot. Epidemiological methods that originated in health have been applied to other fields, for example. Doing it is easy. Doing it rigorously, in keeping with the standards expected in academia, is really hard. It's hard because the source field's methodology usually has a lot of tacit assumptions built in. Identifying those, and testing they're applicable to the application field, is difficult. Lazy researchers don't bother doing that testing, and produce shoddy work as a result. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Yes, you can use a good design used in other contexts. You will need to cite the article. In practice, you will need to be very careful when writing the methodology section: It will necessarily be very close to the original article. If it gets too close, you'll run the risk of being accused of plagiarism. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: Can is the wrong term. Must is the correct one. Research and science rely on the possibility to replicate and novel methods have always been the engine for new developments and achievements. If you don't use your own method when it is appropriate to do it, why should other people bother? Success in research and science often goes to those who have discovered new methods, rather than simply new ideas and theories. For instance, look at [The Top 1000 Papers](http://www.nature.com/polopoly_fs/1.16224!/menu/main/topColumns/topLeftColumn/pdf/514550a.pdf) by Van Noorden et al, in Nature 2014. It is clear that the most successful articles are those reporting methods which can be successfully replicated and exploited for further research and applications. Upvotes: 2
2016/03/31	910	3,401	<issue_start>username_0: I have heard the term "priority" used in regards to research ideas. For example, [How does one determine priority, prominence, and impact with regard to books, rather than articles?](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/56072/how-does-one-determine-priority-prominence-and-impact-with-regard-to-books-ra) asks about priority (and other things) in regards to books. From the usage I have seen in this community, priority appears to be established when you submit a manuscript (e.g., to a publisher or arXiv). This seems very weird to me, so I am worried that I am missing something. The time at which an idea is submitted for publication can be years after the idea was had, so it seems priority is not giving credit to the first individual who had the idea. Since the review process is confidential and it can take years for an idea to get published, priority is not being given to the person who first disseminated the idea either. What exactly is priority and why does it matter?<issue_comment>username_1: The way I use this term, "priority" means "who had this idea first". Of course, everyone can come up and say "hey, I totally had this idea to determine graph isomorphism in quasipolynomial time in 1990", so it is difficult to validate a priority claim unless there is some written material to back it up. But intellectual priority is the former concept; publication dates are just an imperfect way to measure it. In fields where research is routinely disseminated before formal publication (using arXiv, preprints, or conferences), such as mathematics, there are (in my opinion) fewer possibilities for issues such as "X had the idea one year before Y, but Y's paper was published earlier" or "Y was a peer reviewer and scooped X's idea". Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Part of the work in a scientific opus is to trace back the origin of the ideas the authors convey. This can be a difficult work, as many sources are barely available, and not always in a known language. Sometimes the original ideas were only eludated to, given away in private communications. It often takes armies of historians to recover the whole story. Think for instance about: * [the origin of relativity](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relativity_priority_dispute): Einstein, Poincaré, Lorenz, Young? * [the history of the Fast Fourier transform](http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF00348431), credited to Cooley and Tuckey, traced back to Gau{ss}, Good, Danielson, Lanczos * [least-square regression](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Least_squares#Context), based on Cotes, Gauss (again), Laplace Generally, a date of submission and a date of publication are public information that may stamp a priority, at least a prior date. For clear concepts, it is already complicated, see for instance in this [chirplet (a type of of harmonic analysis for radar signals) debate](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk%3AChirplet_transform) around the first pair of inventors (<NAME> Haykin or Mihovilovic and Bracewell). But in many cases, honesty and deep referencing are guides, as ideas are often unconsciously borrowed and blended. Even a sentence like: > > If You Steal From One Author, It’s Plagiarism; If You Steal From Many, > It’s Research > > > has [a debated origin (quote investigator)](http://quoteinvestigator.com/2010/09/20/plagiarism/). Upvotes: 2
2016/03/31	1,481	6,607	<issue_start>username_0: When hiring PhD students, what document is used most frequently for a 'first impression': the CV or the research statement/statement of purpose? Context: I am currently in the process of applying to several PhD positions. A constant factor seems to be the necessity to submit both a CV and a research statement-like letter. As I can imagine professors who get a lot of submissions cannot read all submitted documents entirely, I was wondering which document would be used more as a first impression, and which one as a more detailed insight into the candidate?<issue_comment>username_1: In my opinion, I would say "list of publications" (for PhD students as you have stated) which is generally found in the CV. When I think of hiring a PhD student, I think of a student who was able to publish 1-3 journal articles (maybe same number for conference proceedings) during his MS. A student who knows how to design/conduct an experimental testing (or at least was a part of one) and have a good grasp on his field. keep in mind that different students have different background and each field is different (for publication purposes). But, a good work at the MS level can result (most of time) in publishing in 1-2 journal articles. Even if he or she have had some help (most likely they would) from their adviser in writing and publishing. At least I know that they know the process and "been there, done that". For me, a student at PhD level should somehow be able to think independently and has his/her own scientific charisma! I'm not trying to disregard an industry experience (which is very valuable, depending on the field). However, it is my preference to see solid proof of academic achievement. I tend not to weigh academic awards such as "outstanding student of department X award" that much since a lot can goes into that. However, I would weigh other awards like "Best paper in a conference" more heavily. I would also like to consider students who I have interacted with or know their advisers. Also, I would not weigh GPA that much, especially at undergraduate level. I'm an example of a student with an undergrad GPA of < 2.6! Been admitted under probation couple of times too! But, in grad school, I was a completely different person. I would like to work with a student that can "think, analyze and be passionate about research" than working with a student with 4.0 GPA that can not figure out "stuff" if they are to be different than a text book example. I would not dare to generalize this statement, I would rather agree to the fact that there will always be that "odd" student who breaks the general norm. Still, I would read his/her research statement and consider it to some extent. As you can not be really sure if s/he wrote it on his/her own, had somebody to go over it etc. If you were to take your chances and only judge a 1-2 page research statement (that has been edited multiple times by couple of people to perfect it), rather than list of publication (if the student has any), awards, personal connection (that I trust and value a lot) and recommendation letters, you might not end up with a sound selection. I think one should evaluate the student as a "full package" rather than focusing on independent criteria. I'm interested in seeing what others would post and share. Especially with different prescriptive and fields. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: The first impression is, ideally, when you first talked with a prospective adviser and/or researchers in the department or lab before applying. Some people have small interviews (such as by phone or Skype) before application time, and it varies by person whether or not anyone will have even seen a statement or CV before/during this process. This naturally varies by region and field, but this is not uncommon in the US. Naturally this is not always possible, in which case you'll just have submitted an entire application packet and have no control of the first impression - so literally anything you submit with the package could be the first thing a member of the admissions committee sees. The typical routine is that an administrative department (generally "admissions" or a "graduate studies" coordinator) collects all the materials and puts all the information into files. Admissions committees then generally split up the applicants into sets and distribute them to individuals on the committee, with usually 2-3 people reviewing each applicant. It seems this particular handling of the process is very common (I've heard it from dozens of people in different fields throughout the US). The first read varies by committee member, and it seems that absolutely everyone has their own weightings and order in which they review packets. Some professors say they think the personal/research statement is silly and the first thing they look at is the reference letters. Meanwhile some say they look at the reference letters last, as they want to see what the candidates own words are and then only see if the reference letters agree with that image. Some people think the CV tells the true story, while others think the CV is little more than a laundry list and nutshell reminder of what's listed in the other materials. Some professors have been reported as saying "I only accept people I've already worked with in the past" so the application materials are really just there to make the bureaucrats complain less, and pre-selected candidates need to just not screw up too badly on anything. So in the end, in writing your materials you cannot assume any proper ordering whatsoever - everything has to be suitable if encountered first, last, only, or not at all! Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: In my opinion and experience, the CV is always more important than the statement (in some countries and specialties the latter is not even required). The CV appears in fact more objective, it is multidimensional, and it summarizes much more stuff than a statement. In addition, it is difficult (or impossible) to fake most of the stuff contained in a CV (unless you have an identical twin), whereas a statement could have been written by somebody else). The statement remains useful and may provide an original perspective, but it is mostly there to leave room for failure, in my opinion. In other words, I would never hire someone who presents a poor CV but an excellent statement, whether I could still consider someone who has an excellent CV but a poor statement (it could possibly imply bad communication skills or extravagant ideas). Upvotes: 0
2016/03/31	2,158	9,095	<issue_start>username_0: I am going to an overseas conference this year. The conference organizer provided two hotels that we can book from. But after a round of Internet search, I found generally better prices at other hotels that are closer to the conference venue. Obviously, I do not want to book so far away from everyone else that I cannot join any activities. What are other pros and cons of booking a hotel through the conference or on your own that I may have missed?<issue_comment>username_1: When I attend conferences, I rarely use the "official" hotels. Frequently there are better, closer, and less expensive alternatives nearby that are perfectly fine. The only reason to book at the conference-approved hotels is if your travel funding requires it as a condition for reimbursement. Otherwise, save some money and book elsewhere so long as it's within walking distance. Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: Sometimes it's worth booking one of the conference-suggested hotels because the conference itself is in the hotel and you won't have to traipse around the city to get to conference events. This doesn't appear to be relevant to you. When this happens, it's likely that the conference has signed a contract with the hotel to fill a certain number of rooms at a certain rate, and if they don't, then the conference is liable to make up the difference to the hotel. If you like the conference or its parent organization, you can be a good friend to them by booking in the conference hotel. This saves future costs for everyone, since next year's conference rate may be increased to help cover these losses or anticipated future losses. I doubt this is applicable to you either, so you're almost certainly better off booking one of the closer, cheaper hotels. Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: As you specifically mentioned that the conference is not being held in the recommended hotel: Typically, conference organizers will ensure that there's transportation to the conference from the conference hotel, especially if the hotel is some distance from the conference. Typically, this is handled via buses, although I did have one situation where they hadn't secured enough buses for the number of attendees, so some attendees has to wait quite some time at the end of the day for the buses to drop off passengers and return. (about an extra hour, as the hotel was a 15-20 minute drive away). This can in part make up for the expenses, but this can cause its own problems -- if you decide to sleep in and take a leisurely breakfast, rather than attend the 'opening ceremony' \\ , and you suddenly find that the '15-20' minute estimate to the conference is driving time, not walking. So you're then rather stuck with the conference's schedule until you can figure out the public transit system, or can find a taxi driver who speaks your language. \\\* \\ As it took almost 4 hrs from the time to plane landed to get to the airport the night before (long lines in customs, and you were in the one where the police inserted people to the front if they had detained them, then waiting for the shuttle that the conference had organized to fill up (as you had missed the expected time slot, so were waiting for the next batch of people), and then the 90 mins to the hotel) ... and you're now ~8hrs earlier than where you had started the day before. \\\* Because even after the hotel explains to the taxi driver where you're trying to go, they might not actually have a good idea where they're going to, and then you're stuck trying to show him conference materials you have with you that are in English ... which does no good in a Cyrillic language country. Another advantage is that conference planners will try to select a hotel that has accommodations for people speaking the language of the conference, or they'll assign some translators to the hotel to help. So if you don't speak the local language, and it's a country that's not well known for having a lot of speakers of your language, the conference hotel might be less problematic. And as you suggested, there's the social issues in being nearby (can stumble a short way back to your hotel), but there's another reasons -- it's only come up once (and not foreign travel), but I was at a conference when the whole city was shut down. (it was Baltimore, and a hurricane ... I think Sandy). A few of the attendees were staying at alternate hotels that weren't within a couple of blocks walk, and as the public transit & taxis had shut down, they had no way to get to their hotels. Personally, I rarely book the conference hotels (because they're rarely within the allowed per-diem, and I hate filing the extra paperwork for going over) ... but for international travel, if it's in a place that I don't speak the language, I make the exception. Although I will recommend that you get a taxi ride in Kiev at rush hour if you're ever there ... it was like lane markings were just suggestions for inferior drivers. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: Sometimes you can find one of the "official" hotels for a better price booking direct. This will give you some of the benefits of staying there but note that if they're laying on transport from the hotel, you may not be counted and there may not be room for you. When I've booked a recommended hotel direct, it's always been within walking distance. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: Pro: * Less searching needed. * Usually conveniently located. * Sometimes a reasonable rates via the conference (but well, in these days where a hotel price depends on your browser history (more on your cookies) and time of the day a "good rate" or similar thing does not really exist anymore). Cons: * Cheaper alternatives may exist. * Nicer alternatives may exist. * Conference hotel sometimes close to conference but not close to where you like to be after hours. I usually depend by hotel choice on various considerations: * How long would it take me to get to the conference cite and is it a nice commute (e.g. I was at a conference on the Lido and found the commute from downtown Venice to there very nice)? * How good can I reach possible after hours spots? * Does the price fit to what the university will reimburse? * Where do some some colleagues stay? Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_6: I often do not book thru international conferences for the following reasons: 1. The conference may not tell me what hotel it is putting me in, but only the number of stars. The hotel that the conference picks might be far away. When I book directly, I know. 2. When booked thru the conference, the hotel might not be cancelable. 3. The selection of hotels offered by the conference might contain only expensive hotels. However, your conferences may differ. Some conferences book a whole building so that you have to work with them. Domestic conferences often offer discounts for hotels. So, I try both and compare. Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_7: One thing to note is that when booking a hotel through a portal provided by a event, then the event is often getting a "kickback" in the form of some free (comp'd) rooms for every room purchased thought the portal. E.g. 1 free night, per every 30 nights booked. They will then use these to defray the room books costs of accommodating (say) the keynote speakers (if the conference is paying the accommodation of the keynote speakers.). This is arguably a good thing, it means the conference registration costs are lower (but the accommodation costs higher). Which gives some flexibility to people who can barely afford to attend. Things get a bit more fun if the conference is also renting function space from the hotel, especially if they have been there before. Then the conference when negotiating with the hotel, can say things like "Look, last time we were here, our attendees purchases 100 rooms, 1500 buffet meals, and drank your bar dry; so how about you knock 30% off of your floor charges?" -- this can mean saving tens of thousands of dollars. In the end, booking the indicated hotel though a provided portal, helps the conference. You also will often (always?) get a discount by going through the conference. This is part of the negotiations, but as a rule the venue will give its worst level of discount. They know they have a captive audience, and they have little reason to discount further. For this reason it is often cheaper to book the same hotelroom at the same time via other means. Eg if the hotel does a flash sale (because they have too many vacant rooms), or through a third party that can negotiate rooms on other grounds, eg a travel agent, or a bulk room reseller. Conferences in theory don't like it when you do this, as then it doesn't get added to their count for things like getting room's comp'd. But some conferences might not care (eg if they are not actually wanting comp'd rooms), eg the one I am at right now, suggested not booking through their portal; and even gave links to other places where the rooms could be booked for cheaper. Upvotes: 2
2016/03/31	2,099	8,819	<issue_start>username_0: What does a "List of publications" mean? I'm applying for a scholarship and it says I have to add that file, so I need to know what this file should contain and if it's necessary.<issue_comment>username_1: When I attend conferences, I rarely use the "official" hotels. Frequently there are better, closer, and less expensive alternatives nearby that are perfectly fine. The only reason to book at the conference-approved hotels is if your travel funding requires it as a condition for reimbursement. Otherwise, save some money and book elsewhere so long as it's within walking distance. Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: Sometimes it's worth booking one of the conference-suggested hotels because the conference itself is in the hotel and you won't have to traipse around the city to get to conference events. This doesn't appear to be relevant to you. When this happens, it's likely that the conference has signed a contract with the hotel to fill a certain number of rooms at a certain rate, and if they don't, then the conference is liable to make up the difference to the hotel. If you like the conference or its parent organization, you can be a good friend to them by booking in the conference hotel. This saves future costs for everyone, since next year's conference rate may be increased to help cover these losses or anticipated future losses. I doubt this is applicable to you either, so you're almost certainly better off booking one of the closer, cheaper hotels. Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: As you specifically mentioned that the conference is not being held in the recommended hotel: Typically, conference organizers will ensure that there's transportation to the conference from the conference hotel, especially if the hotel is some distance from the conference. Typically, this is handled via buses, although I did have one situation where they hadn't secured enough buses for the number of attendees, so some attendees has to wait quite some time at the end of the day for the buses to drop off passengers and return. (about an extra hour, as the hotel was a 15-20 minute drive away). This can in part make up for the expenses, but this can cause its own problems -- if you decide to sleep in and take a leisurely breakfast, rather than attend the 'opening ceremony' \\ , and you suddenly find that the '15-20' minute estimate to the conference is driving time, not walking. So you're then rather stuck with the conference's schedule until you can figure out the public transit system, or can find a taxi driver who speaks your language. \\\* \\ As it took almost 4 hrs from the time to plane landed to get to the airport the night before (long lines in customs, and you were in the one where the police inserted people to the front if they had detained them, then waiting for the shuttle that the conference had organized to fill up (as you had missed the expected time slot, so were waiting for the next batch of people), and then the 90 mins to the hotel) ... and you're now ~8hrs earlier than where you had started the day before. \\\* Because even after the hotel explains to the taxi driver where you're trying to go, they might not actually have a good idea where they're going to, and then you're stuck trying to show him conference materials you have with you that are in English ... which does no good in a Cyrillic language country. Another advantage is that conference planners will try to select a hotel that has accommodations for people speaking the language of the conference, or they'll assign some translators to the hotel to help. So if you don't speak the local language, and it's a country that's not well known for having a lot of speakers of your language, the conference hotel might be less problematic. And as you suggested, there's the social issues in being nearby (can stumble a short way back to your hotel), but there's another reasons -- it's only come up once (and not foreign travel), but I was at a conference when the whole city was shut down. (it was Baltimore, and a hurricane ... I think Sandy). A few of the attendees were staying at alternate hotels that weren't within a couple of blocks walk, and as the public transit & taxis had shut down, they had no way to get to their hotels. Personally, I rarely book the conference hotels (because they're rarely within the allowed per-diem, and I hate filing the extra paperwork for going over) ... but for international travel, if it's in a place that I don't speak the language, I make the exception. Although I will recommend that you get a taxi ride in Kiev at rush hour if you're ever there ... it was like lane markings were just suggestions for inferior drivers. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: Sometimes you can find one of the "official" hotels for a better price booking direct. This will give you some of the benefits of staying there but note that if they're laying on transport from the hotel, you may not be counted and there may not be room for you. When I've booked a recommended hotel direct, it's always been within walking distance. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: Pro: * Less searching needed. * Usually conveniently located. * Sometimes a reasonable rates via the conference (but well, in these days where a hotel price depends on your browser history (more on your cookies) and time of the day a "good rate" or similar thing does not really exist anymore). Cons: * Cheaper alternatives may exist. * Nicer alternatives may exist. * Conference hotel sometimes close to conference but not close to where you like to be after hours. I usually depend by hotel choice on various considerations: * How long would it take me to get to the conference cite and is it a nice commute (e.g. I was at a conference on the Lido and found the commute from downtown Venice to there very nice)? * How good can I reach possible after hours spots? * Does the price fit to what the university will reimburse? * Where do some some colleagues stay? Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_6: I often do not book thru international conferences for the following reasons: 1. The conference may not tell me what hotel it is putting me in, but only the number of stars. The hotel that the conference picks might be far away. When I book directly, I know. 2. When booked thru the conference, the hotel might not be cancelable. 3. The selection of hotels offered by the conference might contain only expensive hotels. However, your conferences may differ. Some conferences book a whole building so that you have to work with them. Domestic conferences often offer discounts for hotels. So, I try both and compare. Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_7: One thing to note is that when booking a hotel through a portal provided by a event, then the event is often getting a "kickback" in the form of some free (comp'd) rooms for every room purchased thought the portal. E.g. 1 free night, per every 30 nights booked. They will then use these to defray the room books costs of accommodating (say) the keynote speakers (if the conference is paying the accommodation of the keynote speakers.). This is arguably a good thing, it means the conference registration costs are lower (but the accommodation costs higher). Which gives some flexibility to people who can barely afford to attend. Things get a bit more fun if the conference is also renting function space from the hotel, especially if they have been there before. Then the conference when negotiating with the hotel, can say things like "Look, last time we were here, our attendees purchases 100 rooms, 1500 buffet meals, and drank your bar dry; so how about you knock 30% off of your floor charges?" -- this can mean saving tens of thousands of dollars. In the end, booking the indicated hotel though a provided portal, helps the conference. You also will often (always?) get a discount by going through the conference. This is part of the negotiations, but as a rule the venue will give its worst level of discount. They know they have a captive audience, and they have little reason to discount further. For this reason it is often cheaper to book the same hotelroom at the same time via other means. Eg if the hotel does a flash sale (because they have too many vacant rooms), or through a third party that can negotiate rooms on other grounds, eg a travel agent, or a bulk room reseller. Conferences in theory don't like it when you do this, as then it doesn't get added to their count for things like getting room's comp'd. But some conferences might not care (eg if they are not actually wanting comp'd rooms), eg the one I am at right now, suggested not booking through their portal; and even gave links to other places where the rooms could be booked for cheaper. Upvotes: 2
2016/03/31	835	3,447	<issue_start>username_0: It bothers me when I tries to remember how many highschools or universities use curve to adjust the final grade for their student based on the class average. I know failing the entire class would be unacceptable for the faculty that taught the class but watering down the materials or curving the grades to fit the standard was it necessary? What if there are few outstanding students that are ahead of the curve? wouldn't it be unfair to them if the curve was adjusted to the class average? Sometimes, I started to question education standard for grading. What are the standard? Knowing the materials and able to apply them? Putting all relevant summary on one test paper? Giving homework that count towards grade? Quizzes to remind student how well they do for that subject? If above are all taken into consideration. Why are instructors still applying the curve to adjust the class average.<issue_comment>username_1: Instructors often use some kind of curve to adjust for the varying difficulty of exams from one year to the next. The general idea is that if (for example) the class average on an exam is lower than it has been for the same course in previous years but the quality of the students' work is the same, then the exam given this year might have been more difficult than the exam in previous years. It would be unfair to students (and also reduces the signaling power of grades) if their grade is strongly dependent on the year in which they happened to take the course. An instructor might choose to adjust the students' grades to account for this. It's generally unwise to assign grades in a way that is strictly norm-referenced, without taking into account the students' demonstrated mastery of the course material, for reasons described in [this answer](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/61040/11365). For example, if the class average on an exam is lower than it has been in previous years, but the average quality of work submitted by students is also worse than usual, then the average grade of the class should be lower (to preserve "fairness" and also the signaling power of grades.) Some instructors might use a curve for other reasons, e.g. if their department has a policy about the maximum number of "A" grades an instructor can give out. (Like [this example](http://www.stern.nyu.edu/portal-partners/academic-affairs-advising/policies-procedures/grading-policies/grading).) Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Almost all classes (in the US) are "curved" in the sense that, at some point, a numerical score on tests and homeworks has to be converted into a letter grade. The distinction is between classes that are curved a priori—in which the function mapping numbers to letters is fixed in advance—and those which are curved a posteriori—where the function is picked after looking at the numbers. username_1's answer explains why many professors prefer an a posteriori curve. Many professors guarantee a certain minimum in advance: say, f(90) is guaranteed to be at least an A-. This is mostly customary, and students seem to like it. Furthermore, in many (maybe most) cases this promise is meaningless, because the metrics are written to guarantee that this would happen anyway. (Indeed, one advantage is that it reminds the professor that grades shouldn't "clump" too tightly: it's a bad thing if f(90) is a C+ and f(92) is a B.) Upvotes: 2
2016/04/01	1,318	5,659	<issue_start>username_0: I am a PhD student now in theoretical physics with applications to nuclear physics, astrophysics and chemistry and I am asking about how many papers are expected a PhD student to write in order to be accepted on postdoc program. I know that this varies from field to field. I know one PhD student who didn't write any papers during his PhD, but this didn't stop hip being a CERN collaborate postdoc. I also know that quality papers are not so easy to be written so it may take some time for a student to write good papers and to work independently on papers without his supervisor. Also, some people don't have a good opinion regarding a sole author papers because "they" think it may lead to some erroneous results, although many scientists have written sole author papers even when they were teenagers. I also asking if such sole author papers would weight more than the papers with the research group. It would be nice if people from different fields would answer since this question would be of interest for scholars in different fields.<issue_comment>username_1: "It would be nice if people from different fields would answer since this question would be of interest for scholars in different fields." In civil engineering, it really varies on the sub-field, but I would say at the PhD level, 5-7 journal articles (and few conference proceedings) will help boost your chances. In some sub-fields thu, having 2-3 articles is considered great! For post-doc, (still in civil engineering), your PhD adviser, research topic, funding (availability/ability to write proposals) and list of publications is what really matters. But, I did not hear of any minimum number of publications (in my field, not sure about other fields). Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: A post-doctoral position is not usually part of a "program." It is not like graduate school, leading some kind of higher certification. It is a job, doing research in a specific area. Hiring is done individually by the senior researcher overseeing a position, and what they may be looking for is highly variable. Some people may hire based primarily on people's publication output as graduate students; however, in most cases I am familiar with, hiring is done based on a holistic view of the candidate. For example, when I applied for a post-doc in theoretical particle physics, I had only one publication out (and another one submitted), based on my graduate work. However, I came from a top graduate program, and I had a very strong letter from my advisor. I had to apply for a lot of jobs, but the one I eventually got was with somebody who had research interests very close to my advisor's. (The two had collaborated once, briefly, some years in the past.) I had a very broad background (having taken a lot more classes than most graduate students at my institution), and based on this and my advisors strong recommendation, I got a job. One of my professors in graduate school had told me explicitly that it was much more important to learn a lot in graduate school than to publish a lot of papers. You are not going to get the opportunity again to broaden your base of knowledge in the same way, and how many papers you publish is probably less important than learning and networking and making a good impression on senior people. Once you have a post-doc, that is the time to really crank up your research output (to four or five papers a year in theoretical physics or applied mathematics, if you want to get a good faculty job). Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: I have a PhD in theoretical physics obtained in Germany and my department had as a compulsory statement in order to obtain the PhD to have submitted one paper to a journal. It was the only department I have come across with that rule, though. Most graduate students in theoretical physics manage to write 1-2 papers during their programme, but even no paper is very common. I have not heard of any having published decent papers, from a decent university with more than 3-4 (unless you are unbelievably gifted and lucky). To directly answer the question: PostDoc applications are usually decided on the base of a strong recommendation letter from your supervisor and, secondly, by the quality of your publications. Obviously the better the two above are, the more the chances to get a position; yet, there is no minimum statement required. Also notice that, especially in physics and mathematics, publishing too much and too often is usually seen as a sign of low quality research, as it feasibly takes a decent amount of time to actually find "new" results in those fields. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: In addition to the good answers from others, I should also point out that the number of papers that one can (by the average standards) publish is not only dependent on the particular subject/sub-subject etc. but also on which education system you are in. e.g., in the British system (Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, the UK), since the ph.d. is supposed to be done in 3 to 3.5 years, the number of papers is usually less than those systems where the ph.d. duration is 5-7 years (e.g., in the USA). I did my ph.d. in the British system and in theoretical/computational physics, and I had only one paper accepted. However, I did manage to get a good postdoc, again in a different country (but still a British education system following country) before I submitted the thesis. This was through a personal connection that I established during my ph.d. (and the person did have funding to hire me precisely when I was graduating!). Upvotes: 2
2016/04/01	1,630	6,657	<issue_start>username_0: I am a female PhD student in the end of my second year, and my supervisor has been acting weird lately. He asks me to run the experiments from my laptop and not from my PC in the lab (it does not affect the test), and he does that when it's 11 or 12 at night. We usually do a voice call to discuss work, but very recently he asked for a video call and it was late at night… and just today he insisted that I work from my room and not from the lab. I just want to know what you guys think. I don't know if it's a culture difference thing or that I should really be careful. I think it's really weird considering that I've been working with him for two years and he wasn't even nice to me.<issue_comment>username_1: This sets off all kind of red flags. In the absence of an extremely good rationale, this is very strange and entirely unacceptable. I would recommend that you make an appointment with your graduate program director and discuss the situation ASAP. That person will have more background about the situation and more perspective, and can offer you better advice than we can here. Upvotes: 7 <issue_comment>username_2: I had a similar experience during my MS. My adviser would call me all the time (multiple times a day even after 10-11 pm) to discuss ideas and check on progress. However, at that time he was an assistant professor and only 7 years older than me (he got his PhD at 28 and was my adviser when he was 31). It was awkward at first but then it turned out that this was his personality! He was and still one of my best friends. Regarding your case, you said that you are in your 2nd year (I assume that you are with the same adviser?), so if he did not act like this before, chances are that that not it his personality (I'm comparing my case to your case). So, this might rise a flag or two. One can assume the worst (to be safe), but let's consider these couple of scenarios first; 1. Did/Does he do that with other students (current of former)? 2. Does he treat you differently? 3. Is there a deadline to your research that you do not know about? (although you said doing the tests late at night won't change anything). 4. Are results from your research needed for a second round of a proposal (from an ongoing funding) that need to be reported soon. 5. What about your adviser, is he an assistant/associate professor who in trying to apply for tenure (maybe need your results asap to write a paper or include it in his portfolio)? Now, if any of the above (or others) do not apply. I would go with your gut feeling. Try to tell him that you can not work at night or you usually sleep early. Try to avoid video calls when he calls, then call him back with a phone call. Come up with excuses i.e., camera broke, lighting is bad, lag in signal, weak network etc. If he keeps on insisting, then discuss it with him. Hopefully you won't have to, as if he is smart enough, he should know that you are avoiding this type of communication. Remember that you can always discuss this manner with an academic adviser or dept. faculty. I understand that this is a very delicate situation for you as a student, and hope things work out fine for you. Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: The not wanting you to do stuff in the lab makes me think that he wants there to be no witnesses to your work. I get less of a sexual harassment vibe off of this than I do something else hinkey that he wants to keep secret. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: ### Relevant Facts: * You've worked for your advisor for around two years. * He recently asked you telecommute/Skype instead of use a lab PC for a task. * You have phone meetings late at night. > > I just want to know what you guys think. > > > *My thoughts are if any of these working conditions make you uncomfortable, you simply bring them up to him in person.* The information you've provided gives no basis for the insinuation that he is trying to see after-hours video of you for unscrupulous purposes. If he is a good advisor, after a brief conversation he will modify group conduct to suit you. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: I think there are various possible explanations for his behaviour, from purely innocent (but thoughtless) to really creepy. My advice for you: Do not agonise about it! You cannot look inside his head, but you can take action yourself and gain more control over the situation. About the PC and working from your room instead of the lab ---------------------------------------------------------- Ask him why he does not want you to use the lab PC and why you should work from your room. You could introduce that question by telling him you wonder about the changed rule/policy. Does he have a reasonable answer? 1. Yes > Good, then do so. 2. No > Then tell him, you see no reason in why not to use this PC in the lab and you will continue using it. About unwanted video calls -------------------------- If he wants to video-call you at a time or in a situation you are not comfortable with, just deny it and offer a phone call, a written chat or ask him to delay the video call. There is no need for you to justify! Just say, you prefer another time or a different way of communication now. In contrast to some other posts, I do not recommend making excuses (broken camera or so) and hoping he gets the hint, for several reasons: 1. Some people are really bad in getting subtle messages. They are not mean or stupid, they just lack this skill. If he belongs to that group, your situation does not change. 2. You might feel uncomfortable with lying, even if it is a white lie. So, you would exchange one bad feeling with another. (And if he sees you video-chatting with someone else, you will need to explain things - another unwanted situation.) 3. If he really is creepy, he might realise that his actions affect you and he might enjoy having power over you. That is the opposite of what you would want! Thus, no excuses, but a polite refusal. About working and calling late at night --------------------------------------- Well, working at night is common within academia. However, make sure you are the one to decide if a night shift is necessary. Furthermore, make sure you get the corresponding rest periods as well. One final remark ---------------- Since you mentioned possible cultural differences, I assume you have a different cultural background than your adviser. If this is the case, you could try to talk to someone from his culture and ask how to bring up the above mentioned issues to him in a way that is both clear and polite in his culture. Upvotes: 5
2016/04/01	561	2,207	<issue_start>username_0: I'm applying for a graduate school. In the application there is a question about academic history. So I have to key in the schools that I have attended previously. It's in form of: ``` School:... ... From: To: Grad: ``` Clearly it asks me to indicate my period of study and graduation date. It's not problem. However, I realized that my other applications for other purposes (employment, etc.) didn't indicate clearly like this, normally it was just From-To. Therefore, I always listed as: ``` From:(Start of study) To:(Graduation date) [A] ``` I'm worried that what I have done previously is not accurate. I think I should do as: ``` From:(Start of study) To:(End of study) [B] ``` Please share some advice in this case. Moving forwards, should I use form [A] or [B] if I'm asked only From-To? And please consider the case that if I change the approach now, would it cause confusion to the places that I have sent my other application to previously?<issue_comment>username_1: It's possible that your attendance dates might be September 2000-December 2004 with a graduation date (due to administrative issues) of May 2005. I expect that what you've done so far is fine, but this new form gives you the opportunity to show that you graduated (for some reason) after the date you last attended. I expect that your To: and Grad: dates will be identical for most of your academic history and that this is very common and expected. Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: The form might phrase it this way to allow for differences in national education systems. Not all PhD programmes work on a cohort system where people start and finish at the same time. For example, I did my PhD in the UK and my revisions to the thesis were accepted in December 2011, so I was allowed to carry the title effective December 22; but there are only two graduation ceremonies each year and so I graduated in February 2012. In answer to your specific question: Where data entry allows comments, I would go for Study start to Study end and manually ad a graduation date. For fixed fields, I would probably go with the date on your certificate as this would cause the least confusion. Upvotes: 1
2016/04/01	1,271	5,529	<issue_start>username_0: I am currently finishing my master in pure mathematics. I've studied mainly logic, mathematical analysis a bit of probability and I'm writing my thesis about Riemannian Geometry. I've been thinking about doing a PhD, but I am not so sure if I really want (and if I am good enough) to stay in the Academia for all my life. Even if I don't know anything about, I find the Artificial Intelligence field really fascinating but I know that my current background is inadequate. Do you think I could get I PhD in that area (possibly using also my mathematical background)? And what kind of career path could I follow after? I mean, is it easy to find a job related to AI?<issue_comment>username_1: You have some of the elements of an artificial intelligence major. Your background in logic is pertinent. And your background in mathematical analysis and Riemannian geometry is at least interesting. What's troubling about what I've seen of your background is your lack of computer science courses. Maybe that's not an issue, if you have the equivalent of a minor in computer science that wasn't featured in your question. Certainly, that would be an important "tool." And if you don't have it, you might consider going back to school for a five or six course minor or certificate program in CS. The most interesting part of your question was, "I find the Artificial Intelligence field really fascinating." Why is that? And how does that connect with the rest of your background? Or are you starting from scratch, which would be difficult, though not impossible. In any event, these issues should be addressed in your statement of purpose. Here's my experience in unfamiliar territory: In high school, I had four years of French, and none of Spanish (unless you count my one year of self-taught Spanish). In college, I bluffed my way into a second year Spanish class, and completed it successfully. Here's an example where my interest and natural aptitude compensated for my lack of formal training. Perhaps it will be the same for you and artificial intelligence. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: The short answer: definitely yes, if you pick the right topic. The longer answer: assuming you can catch up with some core programming based on Matlab or numpy/scipy, with your background you should have very good chances in theoretically oriented Machine Learning groups. Riemannian geometry will put you in a very good position for instance to pursue Information Geometry, which is a branch of information theory/probability theory of high relevance to learning theory which makes heavy use of differential geometry. I know of a student with with a pure math background who continued to do a PhD in AI, with great success and strong publications. He was a good programmer, though, without actually having studied CS formally. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: I just want to supplement other answers (I have a PhD in AI). If your background is mathematics, I do not agree with others that you need to code per-se. Aside from machine learning pointed above, there are some other sides you can look at that do not require - much - programming (if any). Logic - Symbolic AI is broadly focused around temporal logics, including those specifically formalised for game-theory, and non-monotonic logics. You can go in many directions with logic in AI: philosophical (i.e., thinking of how to capture certain types of common-sense reasoning, normative reasoning, etc.) or more solution-oriented (i.e., we need a logic to represent a specific problem X and then we will prove some general results about that logic). In the case that you work on logics to solve specific problems, you may need some Computer Science understanding (in particular, proving complexity for this kind of research is required for publishing in many top venues). In terms of the more philosophical aspects, you don't really need so much of a Comp. Sci. background, non-monotonic logics, for example, can be generalised in a graph-theoretical framework. Game theory - similar, to the problem-oriented logic research I discussed previously, many papers in AI capture some new game-theoretical concepts and aim to prove something. In this area are related topics, such as negotiation (and to some extent, argumentation, although that is more related with non-monotonic logic). For some game-theoretical papers that relax assumptions of heterogeneity in the participants involved in the game (for example), simulation is used to find support for properties that cannot feasibly be proven (often, properties with assumptions of homogonous participants are proven and simulation supplements these results with experiments on trickier cases). In short, I see no problem with you moving to AI, we have plenty of mathematicians (and philosophers and computer scientists) in the field. In terms of logic or game-theory, you may want to pick the topic carefully if you want to avoid spending time learning 'theoretical' Comp. Sci and/or programming. Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_4: The answer to your question is yes, if you find a proper PhD programe, or better yet a supervisor who is looking for such a student. Taking into account that Austrian Science Funds an unique PhD program which focuses on using logic in all the areas of CS, perhaps you can find yourself a match there. The Doctoral college Logical Methods in Computer Science - LogiCS, is currently hiring: <http://logic-cs.at/phd/> Upvotes: 0
2016/04/01	1,467	6,252	<issue_start>username_0: My mentor professor has threatened to take authorship of my work away from me because of a disagreement. Can she do this? Is this plagiarism on her part for not including me as an author? I wrote the original paper, before editing. She never provided a syllabus and kept tacking on more and more things for me to do. I told her she was taking advantage of me and was told to go to the head of the department. She now says that I can no longer get a grade above a D, even though I am an A student and won an award for my work at a symposium. I have no idea what to do about this situation.<issue_comment>username_1: Usually a university will have a policy specifically about publications and student projects. I'd recommend beginning by finding their policy. But in general, yes, she can do this (all personal ethics aside). Assuming she does not use any substantial part of what you wrote, it is not plagiarism. As a student project, your work is generally considered like that of an RA (again, this is legally, not morally), so you have no requirement to be listed as an author of the paper. Assuming, of course, that anything you wrote is not being used in the publication. My recommendation would be to try and discuss it with your previous advisor, and if they are not willing to discuss it, or you cannot reach an agreement, ask your advisor if they will get the chair of the department to mediate (she'll be less offended than if you just go over her head). If she says no to that, discuss it with the chair yourself. But be clear on exactly what you want to get out of it. Whether that's a chance to write it yourself (which doesn't legally make you first author as a warning), or merely inclusion as an author on any final publication. Always keep your end goal in mind in all conversations. Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_2: If you are the original author, you have authorship rights and your advisor cannot take that away from you. The worst that she can do is refuse to coauthor with you and take her own name off the paper, not yours, although if she did that, you should remove her contributions from the paper. At your school, there should be a number of people who will advocate on your behalf, and I would start there. The dean of students and the department secretary are usually good first stops. If that fails, you could consider going to the school dean, the provost, or conceivably even the university president (although if it got that far, you are likely in the wrong or have a terrible program). If your advisor publishes without you as a co-author, you can seek redress with the editor of the journal where she publishes. If you already know that this is an issue, you need to start getting your "ducks in a row." A first step would be to 'publish' your paper as a working paper somewhere. Where you do that is going to be discipline specific, but SSRN is a good choice if you are in the social sciences, and Academia.com has this ability as well. If you do that, make sure you give appropriate credit, too. Two wrongs don't make a right, as they say. Try to ensure that as many people as possible can attest that the idea is yours, and if you still have the original graded by the professor make digital copies, preserve the original at all costs. In the end, you don't want it to be your word against hers, and the more evidence and witnesses you have, the better. Rightly or wrongly, other faculty are more valuable than students, so show it to as many faculty as possible. A few words of warning. 1. What you are talking about is plagiarism, and could even be intellectual property theft. Universities take this very seriously, and it can end careers—both yours and your advisor's. Consequently, things can get very dicey very quickly. Be absolutely certain before you start making claims publicly that you are in the right: talk to someone you trust outside the department and outside the discipline and show them your work with the work you are doing jointly with your advisor; verify your sources; know your allies. Once this goes beyond you and your advisor, and perhaps a small cadre in the department, it is the intellectual equivalent of going to war. 2. Be prepared to come to the table. If this isn't published yet, then there is still hope for a negotiated solution. Know what your objectives are, and use your position to get those objectives, and don't get hung up on abstracts. For example, if you are really hoping to get into law school, then being author may not be as helpful as something else, and be prepared to accept that something else. Make no mistake, what I am talking about is corruption, but as an undergraduate, it is highly unlikely to be worth hanging yourself out to dry over something like this, if there is a negotiated compromise. On the other hand, if you are hoping for a PhD and a career in the field, then authorship can be crucial, and you may need to go to the mat over this so as not to be seen as a pushover or a flake in the future. 3. Don't get caught up in office politics. If your advisor has enemies, and she likely does—especially if this is typical of her treatment of others—departmental enemies will likely try to use you as a weapon to get to her. While it may be gratifying to do so at first, if you let that happen your interests will fall by the wayside as the whole issue becomes about whatever stupid issue is driving the office politics, and not about your intellectual and students rights. 4. Don't get steamrolled, but don't overstate your contribution. This is hard as an undergraduate, because you definitely don't have as much information about the discipline as your advisor, and it can be tempting to think "My idea changed the world!" whereas it is only a minor contribution. Know what you have done, and don't get pushed off that, but being seen as someone who is self aggrandizing or consistently over-estimates their own importance will hurt your cause. There are already people who devalue contributions because of who the contributor is, and you don't need to give them any ammunition, or give your potential allies pause because they are unsure of the reliability of your perceptions. Upvotes: 3
2016/04/02	1,752	7,458	<issue_start>username_0: Fresh from undergrad, I will be starting a math PhD program this upcoming fall in the United States. After several conversations with math professors and current PhD students, I noticed that several people advised having a sense of "urgency" right from the very start of your PhD program. Most recommended working to complete preliminary exams as soon as possible, but there was some variance in their opinions about when to jump into your thesis. One professor recommended "courting" potential thesis advisers by doing research projects with a professor or two during the first couple summers. Do you agree with this call for urgency? If so, how do your recommend attacking those first 2-3 years of a (pure) math PhD program? Is it ever too soon to decide on your thesis topic? Recall that I do not have a master's, although I have taken three graduate-level algebra courses.<issue_comment>username_1: I'll first state I'm only a first year student in a math Ph.D. program so it's up to you to decide how serious you want to take my words. I'd say yes to "sense of urgency" you describe in your question. Almost all professors I meet do tell me the first thing to do is to finish the exam requirements(preliminary/comprehensive, qualify) ASAP. They see passing exams as a "proof" of a student can do Ph.D. and will only take that student seriously after the requirement is finished. In addition, it's hard for Professors to give you any serious research work if they don't even know whether you will stay in the program or not. That being said, it's not saying that you should never think about your research, another common advice I got is attending many seminars to explore my interest and determine the direction of my future research works. It looks like you somehow already decide the direction of future works. Do you have a few potential advisors in mind? They are the people that can answer your "What to do in my first several years?" question accurately. Besides some common general advices and department's policy the answer of that question depends a lot on individual's condition and research field. I notice you mention you've taken three graduate-level algebra courses before. Have you considered taking qualifying exam in algebra in the very beginning of your graduate study if that is possible (Of course this depends a lot on departments' policy)? Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: I'm a third year, and I have found it immensely helpful to get started with research as quickly as possible. The thing is, a lot of times you get stuck in mathematical research, especially when you're first starting out. Also, you will have a harder time finding a concrete problem then you'd think. Additionally, you could use your research to guide which classes you take (at least after quals). Lastly, making progress is hard and takes time. This means that the best way to do research is to always have a research problem. It may not be your main focus, your main focus may be your exams, but if over your first two years you've spent random times thinking about a specific problem (and have geared your studies towards a problem), you can begin to make a lot of headway. So I highly suggest you start the research process. Talk to some advisers. Find something that interests you. Read some papers in your free time. Use this to find an interesting problem. Talk about this with someone who researches the area and now you have an adviser. And just start thinking about it. This is all pretty leisurely and can be done in your "free time" between classes, after classes, etc. Don't worry about the time consuming parts (actually writing down solid proofs), just get your mind churning. When exams are done, you'll be surprised how ready you are to write what you've come up with. Even if you haven't solved much, you have likely narrowed down a clear path of where you want to go and what you want to prove (and have an intuition as to why you think it's correct). Write down that path as a "homework problem" to yourself, and now you're full-time research. (Some people will tell you to wait until you can understand your project. Honestly, I didn't understand what I was doing (stochastic dynamics) for about half a year. After finally taking the classes on subjects related to the field, I can say that classes wouldn't've helped much. The only way to get into a research project is to just start doing it, and keep trying different books/resources until you understand all the background. Classes help, but less than you'd think.) Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: I think the relevant sense of urgency would reasonably be about engagement with serious mathematics, not necessarily keeping a pretense that one has "started research" at a quasi-expert level. Nor do I personally see urgency in "passing exams", since that is a typically very-limited enterprise, but might take long enough that one's original interests, enthusiasm, and motivations are forgotten, which would be a bad thing. And, yes, standard coursework tends to suffer from so much inertia that it is not reliably helpful. But that is not to say that there's little to learn. In principle, sure, one can learn everything needed from papers, books, etc., whether physical or electronic. However, there is so much of this material that some guidance is good. Preferably expert guidance, rather than novices-leading-the-novice. In particular, in terms of "choosing research problems", while it's good to follow up on one's enthusiasms, one should not be surprised to discover that, very likely, an enthusiasm based on just-a-little information inexpertly chosen is ... naive. Of course! Seemingly natural research problems are all too easily accidentally intractable, or perceived as routine exercises by experts, or of no interest to experts, etc. If one is independently wealthy and just doing math for personal satisfaction, none of this matters. However, if a PhD is in part warm-up to making a living as professional mathematician, the expert-standards do matter, however artifactual they may be. (The issue of "understanding" one's "project" is ambiguous! One may doubt on general principles that one understands fully, indeed, or suspect that one understands to-some-extent naively. That's entirely reasonable. I would claim that much of the work done to finish a PhD in mathematics these days amounts to getting up to speed on techniques and viewpoints that experts might declare "standard" or "routine"... since, after all, some facility with such methods does sometimes enable one to do things that would seem amazing or unbelievable from a more low-tech viewpoint. After all, that's most of the point of sophisticated methods and ideas.) So: the urgency is to interact with experts as early as possible, yes. But, again, it is not accurate to say that this excludes coursework, nor includes it, either. It does not exclude or include following one's own curiosity. It is a separate thread. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: A PhD program may prepare you for research. <NAME> in his talk “[You and your research](http://www.paulgraham.com/hamming.html)” asked the three following questions: 1. What are the most important problems in your field? 2. What are you working on? 3. Why aren’t they the same? They can guide you well, whenever you take a step in your first days of a PhD. Upvotes: -1
2016/04/02	930	3,807	<issue_start>username_0: It's nearing a six-month mark since I've submitted my proposal, and I haven't heard anything from them. Does this mean that I'm probably not getting the grant? When do people expect to hear back? There seems to be almost no resources online in this, which I find to be surprising.<issue_comment>username_1: The time to hear back on an NSF application is highly variable, both by grant vehicle and for individual applications. Since most NSF grants are peer reviewed by a panel of academics who also have to meet in person, there's a significant length of time naturally built into the system. Another part of the delay is that for most programs there are very few applications funded. As such, even though there may be many clear rejections with relatively fast responses, program managers may end up having a long fight to find sufficient money to accept a project that is right on the boundary of getting accepted. Still, if you're looking for a number, I have personally never heard of a NSF grant response taking less than 3 months or more than 12 months. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Oh my god why are you passively living in torment? Get to know the project directors for your grants!!! Rather than being a whiny beggar hoping they fund you, be a human, talking to another human, make a new colleague! In late August, when the grant agency buildings are so still and quiet you can hear your nerves firing in the stillness, make some appointments by email and go visit relevant project directors. It will cost you $400 for a plane ticket, a cheap motel, and a few Uber rides. Sell some plasma as necessary. Connect by e-mail afterward, and stay memorable. They can help you know up front if your ideas match what is being looked for in the RFP, and their outlook on your general approach is valuable because directors have some veto power over reviewers. It's okay to approach as a grad student, the granting agencies love fostering student involvement. I can call and email both my current project directors and they write back same day, one is funded, one is pending. I have spent at least 2 hours in person with each of them. I appreciate their talents and have carefully read their resumes and some of their publishings. If the delay is driving you mad, then you haven't plugged yourself into the system so you can have a better sense of what's going on and how the schedule work. Agency project directors are really generally awesome so they are worth getting to know whether or not have a submission that will get funded, and the insights can help make you a better writer for the next round and their journeys to their current role are usually super inspiring!! Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: As others have said, there is variability, but [here is an old internal document from NSF](https://www.nsf.gov/pubs/policydocs/papp/gpg_3ex1.pdf) that sets the time at 6 months post submission: [![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/Vga8d.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/Vga8d.png) You can also make a good guess of when your panel met by: 1. Looking up the PO for your proposal in FastLane 2. Going to <http://www.nsf.gov/events/advisory.jsp> to find their name and associated panel dates. You may need to use the [Wayback Machine](https://archive.org/web/) to search an earlier version of this page as old panels are periodically pushed off It occurs to me that an individual with a lot of submissions or an interested group could calculate some useful statistics on this. Just for fun I've [created a Google Form for this](https://goo.gl/forms/h7ZN9ryiGV3gPurJ3). You can edit after submission and see summary charts, etc. It does not collect email addresses or limit to 1 response, so you can use it over and over. Upvotes: 1
2016/04/02	1,064	4,377	<issue_start>username_0: In some countries like mine (Iran), you are asked to have at least two papers printed or accepted in an ISI journal before you can claim for your PhD thesis defense. 1. Is it like that in other countries? 2. Is there any world record for the number of papers extracted from a single PhD thesis?<issue_comment>username_1: Publishing papers is not a requirement in many places, but it usually depends on the specific university and graduate program. In the U.S. these things tend to vary from school to school. Sometimes research projects funded by industry prohibit the people involved from directly publishing results. As for a world record, I'm pretty sure nobody keeps track of that. It is pretty subjective. How would you determine whether or not the paper is from your thesis rather than just being in the same field? There shouldn't be that much value in the number of papers either. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: In my dept. (civil engineering), a minimum of 1 published journal article is required for defense. However, my adviser won't schedule any student of his for a defense unless they have published 4-5 journal articles. Keep in mind that other professors in the same dept. go with the 1 paper rule. It varies from a professor to another and from field to field. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: Even if there is no formal requirement, here in The Netherlands several Universities/Department in my field require 4 papers to be submitted before Ph.D. defense. Yet, the limit is somehow soft and depends on adviser and impact factor of the journals where the papers are published. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: The department of Computer Science of the university I attended in Italy had a requirement of at least 1 journal paper and 1 conference paper published (or accepted) by the end of the PhD. At the time, it was a pretty unique requirement and considered strict, but in recent years more and more Italian universities have implemented a similar policy. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: At my university, it is expected that there will be at least one publication-worth of work by the submission time, but there is no strict requirement for the paper(s) to be accepted. For example - I am in my third (hopefully final) year, and I have a joint paper out for conference review and a couple being re-worked after rejection (one journal, one conference). It may be a little different as I find that computer science tends to weigh conference papers quite highly. Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_6: At IIT Bombay (India) it is up to the department and the supervisor to have a certain number of publications. Otherwise, before a year or so even here it was the same scenario of a publication and conference paper. It is not mandatory, but to have up to date knowledge on current trends in the field of interest is very much needed and that it possible through this medium. Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_7: [In Sweden](http://studera.nu/startpage/doctoral-studies/third-cycle-studies/thesis/) the doctoral theses may be in the form of a monograph or in the form of a series of papers presented together with a summary to bind and tie them all ("compilation thesis"). Regarding the compilation theses, it seems, at [LTH](http://www.lth.se/) at least, that it is [not strictly required that the papers be published already](http://www.lth.se/english/education/phd-studies/study-system/): > > The articles should be of the quality required for publication in international journals. > > > Nevertheless, I remember distinctly that supervisors expected that, by the time you made your Licentiate dissertation (i.e., about half-way to the doctorate), at least two or three papers be submitted or ready to be submitted to a journal. By the time you are ready to defend the PhD thesis, the submitted papers might be already published or at least accepted, plus maybe two other papers at varying stages. This, of course, varies and depends on the thesis subject, the study plan, the supervisor criteria, the common practice in your academic Department, even on what's common in the discipline or field of study. Generally, as stated in the first link, many consider that > > there should be more emphasis on the content of what is published than on the number of articles. > > > Upvotes: 2
2016/04/02	2,324	9,849	<issue_start>username_0: I wonder what the upsides are of hiring assistant professors instead of more experienced professors. I am mostly interested in US universities and computer science departments.<issue_comment>username_1: For example: 1. Their salaries are far lower. (The discrepancy varies by department, high in the physical sciences, low in economics and business.) 2. In fields that receive startup packages, their startup packages are far lower. 3. Many schools cannot hire a proven superstar, but they can take a gamble on a bright young scholar and help her develop into a superstar 4. This doesn't apply in my department, but you could imagine that a disfunctional environment the senior faculty might like having junior faculty around to take advantage of: make them teach the big intro classes, do the unpleasant service work, etc. 5. Junior faculty often bring new bleeding-edge skills that are hard to find in senior faculty. 6. A range of career stages within a department creates long-term continuity. I'm sure others can come up with a number of additional reasons. Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_2: In addition to username_1's answer, part of a researcher's motivation to publish his/her research is to gain departmental promotions (associate professor, professor). By starting at a lower ranked position, the faculty member will more likely publish more papers under the university's affiliation during his academic career (on the premise that most faculty will have reached the professor rank by the time they retire). More publications under the university's affiliation will directly affect the university's ranking and external grants and funding. This of course depends on the department's promotion policy but most will weigh publications as the highest criteria. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: Assistant professors are not inferior versions of full professors. Aside from years of experience, there will usually be many differences between two candidates. Young does not mean not as good (it will when I celebrate my 60-th birthday later this year, though). The assistant professor may hold an advantage in a specific field or in general. A department may be intentionally focusing on a very specialized subject field that the assistant professor brings. That is to say, an assistant professor may be more proficient than a full professor in some departmental subject matter. For a more general illustration, I believe I was better at one aspect of teaching when I was a young assistant professor than I am now. I was better at helping students break through brick walls (such as clearly understanding the concept and point of calculus) when I personally could "remember not knowing". It is easier to explain how to go from *not knowing* to *knowing* when your own breakthrough was just a few years earlier instead of many decades earlier. Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_4: In addition to the other answers already given, there are simply not enough experienced professors on the market to fill the demand for professors. Let us consider the system of academia from a global perspective. * Every year, a significant percentage of current professors retire, shrinking the pool of experienced professors (probably 2-3%, depending on length of career and population distribution). * Therefore, unless academia is rapidly shrinking (which it is not), there must be a constant large influx of people who were not previously professors becoming professors. * Putting some numbers on it: in the US, there are around [1.3 million postsecondary teachers](http://www.bls.gov/ooh/education-training-and-library/postsecondary-teachers.htm), of whom I estimate around half are at an "assistant professor" or higher rank, based on salary, and academia is growing significantly. That means a reasonable estimate is that maintaining US academia requires about 20,000 new professors per year. * All told, the [US awards around 50,000 doctorates per year](http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/infbrief/nsf12303/). To maintain academia, 40% of those people need to eventually become professors in the US. * There are two general pools from which professors can be hired: 1. Graduate students and postdocs, who do not have sufficient experience to be hired at anything more than the assistant professor level. 2. People who have gained a significant postgraduate academia-equivalent experience in a non-professor position, such as industry, government, or soft-money academic positions. * Thus, the only way to increase the net number of professors enough without hiring a lot of assistant professors is if there are a large number of people with associate-professor-level qualifications, despite not having ever been assistant professors. Given that many people who get doctorates have no desire to become professors, it seems quite implausible to me that there would be such a large pool of people that can move outside of academia gain massive amounts of experience, and them move back in as higher-ranked professors. Moreover, such people would likely be higher age (since their primary job would generally not be gaining professor-type experience and qualifications), which would further increase the fraction retiring each year, thereby further intensifying the population pressure. Thus, from the point of view of pure population analysis, there is an extremely high pressure for academia to hire at the assistant professor level. Individual institutions may buck this trend, but overall it is likely to hold quite strongly. Note that the numbers in this analysis are US-only, but if we extend to international the impulse to hire assistant professors will likely be even higher, as academia is expanding much more rapidly in the developing world. In short: perhaps the biggest benefit of hiring assistant professors is that they are available to be hired, whereas [the pigeonhole principle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pigeonhole_principle) implies that for most institutions it will simply be impossible to fulfill their faculty needs without hiring many assistant professors. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_5: In a system like the US, a "more experienced professor" typically has tenure already. Someone who has tenure won't want to give it up. Therefore, if you want to recruit them, you have to offer them tenure as well, either from the moment they walk in the door or very shortly thereafter. Otherwise they are not going to take the job you are offering. This creates a significant risk for your institution. The decision about whether to hire this person and grant them tenure has to be made based on limited information: their CV and publications, some letters of recommendation, and a one- or two-day in-person interview (during which the candidate is of course on their best behavior). These materials may not be representative of how the candidate will actually perform in the job. Maybe their teaching turns out to be mediocre, or not a good fit for your student population. Maybe they shirk all administrative duties. Maybe some aspect of your institution makes them less productive than previously. Maybe they have catastrophic personality conflicts with their new colleagues. Too bad for you! You gave them tenure, and now you're stuck with them until they retire or leave voluntarily. On the other hand, if you hire an assistant professor, you have five or six years to observe their actual job performance close up, before deciding whether to tenure them. You don't have to extrapolate from what they have done at other institutions - you know exactly how they work here. You know how effectively they teach your students. You know how well they get along with people in your department. If any of this turns out to be unacceptable, or even if it's okay but you think you could find someone better, you can fire them (or deny them tenure). So your risk of getting stuck with an ineffective or toxic faculty member is quite a bit lower. (Note: "You" in this answer could refer to a dean, department chair, or to the faculty of a department or institution collectively. Basically, whoever has the responsibility of making hiring, retention, and tenure decisions.) Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_6: I think there are a number of excellent answers here and some interesting discussion. Let me add an additional point for the "middle tier" schools or department. If we hire an established professor, we have demonstrated that this person: * Is willing to switch departments * Has a specific "activation barrier" (i.e., start-up package, salary, etc.) In short, when a mid-tier school hires at the senior level, word gets out and other schools may try to hire instead. This might happen at the same time we try to move them, or at some point later. After all, if someone is willing to move once, they are likely to move again for the right offer. If you're at the top of the reputation ladder, you can easily find mid-career or senior talent at other schools and lure them to join your department. There's incentive to join your department because it's "better" for some definition of the word. You also likely have fairly deep pockets for start-up budgets and salary. Consider instead the case of a good-but-not top department. If we find a promising mid-career or senior candidate, we have to compete not only with other mid-tier programs but also with the possibility that a rising star may be poached by a top department. In short, when you hire assistant professors, in addition to the answers elsewhere, they start with some loyalty to the department and the school. (You gave them a chance!) *If you try to hire an established professor, you've already proven that they're willing to leave a school for a better offer.* Upvotes: 2
2016/04/02	1,226	5,376	<issue_start>username_0: This question is based on a paper I came across a couple of years ago written by a famous professor who had developed a method to solve a certain problem. His method was not the first or the only method but it has some advantages and it is widely used in industry. The paper I came across was written with sole purpose of finding flaws in a method for solving the same problem that someone else had published 15 years later. Regardless of who was right, is this the proper way to deal with a flawed paper? This seems a bit weird to me. Do journals even normally publish such papers? Aside from citing the (presumably) flawed method, he also specifically named the authors in the abstract. This worries me a bit because I plan to publish another method of solving the same problem soon, and although I have confidence in my work I don't think it's bullet-proof. I feel that if such a paper was written about my research it could have a significant negative impact on my future career if that was what popped up when you googled my name.<issue_comment>username_1: I have come across such papers. One notable one was written to show that the proofs in a handful of highly cited papers are wrong. He then proceeded to fix them. In general, I think every paper that solves the same problem MUST highlight the weaknesses of existing methods. Now, whether the 'highlight' is done with tact is up to the authors. Some are arrogant and their comments serve to show how 'smart' they are. In conclusion, yes such papers get publish because they contribute to the body of knowledge. How a paper is presented may irk some reviewers/readers, but if the contribution is significant, I doubt anyone cares. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: It depends. If a method is well-known, but flawed (be it widely used in industry or not), then someone should point out its flaws. Not only is this the right way to progress science, but - depending on the applications - not doing so can be downright dangerous - let's say the method is used in clinical trials, or to hedge risk. A paper that dismantles an old one strikes me as the right approach, naming authors necessary as the method is associated with them. If the new method might replace the old one, the proper rebuttal would be publication - ideally in the same journal. Where is the 'It depends?' The new paper should be civil, fact-based, and not personal, of course. It's about using a method properly, not about disparaging competing researchers. Additionally, if a new paper - like yours, say - is only an alternative method, not one that corrects errors, then the old paper should be part of the literature review, and the merits and dis-merits of the new paper highlighted, as well as situations where one or the other performs better, should this apply. Papers like this certainly exist, and can be famous. [Here](https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/faculty-research/publications/note-fulfilled-expectations-equilibria) is an example by <NAME> (Stanford GSB), which cast doubt not on a particular paper, but on an entire then-popular sub-discipline. It was certainly not written for any purpose other than academic curiosity, and a desire to question the current state of the art. While this is not exactly the same situation, I think it compares in spirit. Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: Whether papers like this will be published depends on the journal and the editor. It usually is preferable to show how a problem can be solved correctly. However, it might be well justified to solely point out weaknesses in existing work. Keep in mind that very few things are actually "bullet-proof". The more you know about a method (new or old) the more this will become obvious. Most methods have their limitations. Newton's laws are still "pretty good" although Einstein and others have shown their limitations. If you have confidence in your new method, you will probably highlight the advantages it has over existing methods in your paper. However, you should also be open about the limitations of your own contribution. Be clear about what your method can and cannot do and where and when it is applicable. In being honest about your own work you are making a true contribution to science. However, if you’re starting to have severe second thoughts about your method, it might be better to double check what you're doing. Talk to other people in your field and openly discuss your concerns before publishing. As long as you don't over-egg your own contribution you will be close to bullet-proof. It won't be bad for your reputation or career if somebody were to find a weakness in your work and improve your method or the knowledge of the field. That's part of how science works. You can only make contributions to the best of your current knowledge and move on when you have new information. The only thing negative for your career would be to ignore new evidence and trying to hide past mistakes. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: That someone tries to find flaws in your work does not mean they are trying to be "mean" or to belittle your work. It means you did something that seemed to be good and important enough for someone else to bother trying to investigate and improve it. Then the rational reaction is you should feel honored instead of sad. Upvotes: 4
2016/04/02	785	3,173	<issue_start>username_0: I read that a "Doctor of Science" is awarded for research well beyond a usual PhD degree awarded for a dissertation work and includes a portfolio of high quality papers in interdisciplinary fields. Does this mean that one cannot actively pursue this degree and one can never be certain of how close one has come to a DSc? How does career planning at such a stage look like?<issue_comment>username_1: I own a PhD, but it is the first time I've heard of "Doctor of Science". In the former Warsaw pact countries and some Western European countries there are two level of doctorate. First is the "canonical" PhD and second is called something like "habilitation" which allows you to have PhD students and conduct your teaching in an independent manner. I see two reasons you asked the question: 1. in your country, for a certain reason (for example, having own PhD students) you require this title. In this case, ask your Department of Education what are the exact requirements for this. If they legally require such a title, they also provide a clear path to get it. 2. you look for a title. Simple put, the simplest approach in this case would be to identify universities offering this title, join a program and earn it. The way you asked the question makes me thing you fall in the second bucket. Probably the following story will help you rethink your course of action: Legend has it that one of the founding fathers of Shotokan Karate-do is asking a student at a seminar what is her most ardent desire. The student replies that she wants to have the black belt. The master replied that he can easily confer the black belt, but would that make her a better karateka? Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: The meaning of a DSc degree almost certainly varies by country. In my experience in the commonwealth (i.e. UK, Australia, New Zealand) it is an [honorary degree](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honorary_degree). That means you don't "pursue" it; it isn't attained by being a student. It's more of a "lifetime achievement award" -- you get it as a result of a long and successful career in science. The usual course is that you get a PhD first, then become a Lecturer/Professor, and after, say, 20 years, if your research track record is sufficiently outstanding you apply/are nominated for one and get awarded it as a special guest at the graduation ceremony (usually from the same university that gave you your PhD). Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: The meaning of a "doctor of science" degree definitely varies by country. For instance, the standard degree in Germany depends upon what kind of program one studies. As an example, the doctorate for natural science is normally "Dr. rer. nat." (Latin for "doctor of science") while engineers get Dr.-Ing. degrees, and an engineer could not apply for Dr. rer. nat. Either could get a Ph.D. In the US, fewer schools offer the Sc.D. [At MIT](https://www.eecs.mit.edu/academics-admissions/graduate-program/degree-programs), the two degrees are interchangeable, but at other schools there may be slight differences, although there is no expectation of significantly more work. Upvotes: 0
2016/04/02	842	3,887	<issue_start>username_0: Someone I know is submitting her work to a scientific journal. As part of the submission process she is requested to include in the cover letter the reviewers' comments, should the manuscript had already been submitted to other journals previously. The journal's rationale for such a request is that this expedites the acceptance process. How is this information used by the journal in the acceptance process? What are the pros and cons of providing this information?<issue_comment>username_1: This is usually requested by many journals nowadays. In case a paper has been submitted to journal A, got rejected and the authors chose not to change the paper or fix it. Then, theses authors submit the same manuscript to a different journal for possible publication. This paper would have to go over the same review process (although maybe with different reviewers), this would waste time and effort and in a way not fair (to other manuscripts) since this manuscript got rejected for not having correct/solid results (for instance). Since this paper has been reviewed by 2-3 experts in that particular field, it is best to address any issues raised to arrive at a higher quality paper. In another scenario, the reviewers might request the authors to add additional analysis, literature review and/or redo an experimental testing (or even add some), then the authors chose not to change the paper and decide to try their "luck" and submit such paper to another journal. Again, this paper would go through another round of review that could result in raising the same issues(or even different issues) compared to that of raised by reviewers of journal A. Since editor of journal A does not have access to editor of journal B and reviewers can review papers from multiple journals, there is a chance that the manuscript would be sent to one of the original reviewers! Or even getting different or similar comments to that of the first review. In this case, this paper has been circulating around for two rounds of review (maybe for 4-6 months)! and did not improve academically/scientifically. Simply put, papers are meant to be published if they are of quality, merit and with minimum "issues", not for the sake of publishing! Hence the role of reviewers and peer review process. Remember no one can have a perfect paper, which is fine, but having a paper with questionable results or were flags are raised and have not been addressed is not acceptable! One more thing, if I'm not mistaken, I believe some journals now request reviewers to re-review the manuscript if it was rejected and re-submitted to a different journal. Maybe somebody can confirm this as I have heard it from a colleague. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: I haven't encountered this myself, but as an editor, I think it would work in the author's favour if: * The review comments were generally positive, but the first submission was to a higher impact journal with a very high bar for acceptance; or * The review comments were mixed, but the authors have convincingly addressed all the major criticisms in revision the manuscript before submitting it to the second journal. In this case, the author benefits because the editor and reviewers for the new journal are likely to treat the paper as a revision rather than an initial submission, so the re-review may be faster and requested revisions may be more likely to be minor. It would work against the author if: * The review comments were very negative or impossible to address in revisions; or * The authors have chosen not to revise the manuscript and respond to reviewers' comments; or * The original submission was sent to a journal that the editor of the second journal believes has low standards for acceptance. In this case, as an author, I would be inclined not to comply with the request. Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]
2016/04/03	1,374	5,544	<issue_start>username_0: If you have undergrad / master's degree student loans, but are fortunate enough to get into good PhD programs (with funding), how do you practically manage your debt situation?<issue_comment>username_1: In the US, if you have federal student loans, you can defer the loan during graduate school, meaning that you don't have to make payments as long as you're in graduate school. However, depending on the details of the loan, interest may still be accumulating, and you may end up making bigger payments when you eventually start paying off your loans. This kind of deferment doesn't apply to private loans, and you should think carefully about what it will mean in terms of your payments after graduate school, but lots of students take advantage of deferment. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: A few things to address. First, note that a Ph.D is not a good financial choice. There are plenty of articles you can Google for, [I'll link one but there's plenty more.](http://www.measuringu.com/usability-phd.php) Another thing to note is that the academic job market isn't that great, there is a [problem with many people getting stuck in postdoc and adjunct positions](https://chroniclevitae.com/news/655-the-rise-of-the-post-post-postdoc), though [there is data to show it's not as bad for mathematicians](http://www.sciencemag.org/careers/2013/07/want-be-professor-choose-math). If you are choosing to do a Ph.D, make sure you understand that it will not help you increase your wealth, but you're choosing this because it's a career path you wish to pursue. Keeping this in mind, you choose to do a Ph.D and it's hard to find money. Financial advice helps, but when your income is low, the best help is to find more income and spend less money. What can you do? One thing to note is that in many ways you have your hands tied. Many times fellowships and departmental funding will have a requirement that you cannot have other sources of income, so having a night job is usually not an option (speaking in terms of the US). Thus you have to make do finding small amounts of help every way possible (always check with the administration that it's okay!). Small savings add up. Here are some things I found: * Find free food. Find the seminars which have food, and go. You can also use this to network at the same time, and/or use this as your downtime. * Find extra teaching / tutoring jobs. If your funding is a fellowship, they may let you TA as well for a bit extra cash. If you are already a TA, you can tutor local K-12 students in math for quite good pay. Another good place to look is at on-campus workshops that could use your talent. You can tutor / help out with programming workshops and other on-campus initiatives. These normally will pay minimum wage, but it also adds to your CV and again, everything adds up. * At my university, there are some paid positions in the graduate student council. It's an interesting experience where you will have to take some time lobbying state governments and other outreach activities. Again, builds the resume and brings in some cash. * Live on-campus and don't have a car. Use the fact that you need rides as time to catch-up with people. You'll be doing math so often that it will be nice. * Try to get a living wage by doing something applied. This depends on your interests, but one thing that most mathematicians don't know is that salaries in different departments can be vastly different. At my university, students in the School of Biological Sciences get almost double the pay of math students. This is due to differences in salaries set by NIH vs NSF. Could you do the same kind of research in a Mathematical/Computational Biology program? Or find an adviser that could pay for you at a salary closer to bio students? This can make a huge difference. Even if you want to do something "pure", take a good look into this. There are applications for any math if you look hard enough, and so it's a balance between choosing to do what you want to do and what the general public thinks is more valuable (whether they are right or wrong...). It's at least something to think about. * Find award money. Many times there are monetary awards for best posters, best presentations, etc. Most of these are more "outreach" types of presentations, i.e. not for mathematicians, but some university-wide project partnered with industry. Look out for these and have a cool "my math for the general public" presentation ready. * Eat cheap. Get a big rice cooker and have that be the big part of each meal. It'll help cut down on costs. * Don't do it alone. Live with friends / family / significant other. Eat together. Buy in bulk from Costco with others and share the savings. * Plan ahead for summers. Plan to do extra teaching, or look into things like [GRIPS](http://www.ipam.ucla.edu/programs/student-research-programs/graduate-level-research-in-industrial-projects-for-students-grips-berlin-2015/) which can give a supplemental summer income if you have a summer fellowship. You'd have to check with your adviser and the administrators that this is okay with the terms of your fellowship. * Understand your health benefits. Many universities give you health care as part of the funding. In addition to the standard health benefits, my university has extra goodies like an on-campus dental care where you can get a free dental cleaning every 6 months. Using these kinds of services will help you stay healthy without spending much. Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]
2016/04/03	891	3,870	<issue_start>username_0: About a year ago I received a request to review a paper from author X in journal A. The paper uses a hype tool T to solve a common problem, which is good, but due to some shortcomings in the implementation I recommended to revise the manuscript. The editor followed my recommendation. About a month ago I was contacted by an editor in journal B asking me to review a manuscript from unrelated authors Y. They use the same hype tool T to solve the same problem. I accepted to review it, and mentioned that I had reviewed a similar paper for a different journal (without naming it). It is now due in a couple of days. Now to my surprise I just received a request to review a revised manuscript of author X from journal A (I thought X had given up on it since more than a year passed). I would like to accept but won't be able to deliver the review before 3-4 weeks. This is a "winner gets it all" kind of situation. The paper that gets published first wins, and I think would be ground to drop and reject the second paper as not really novel any longer. (No plagiarism here, and nothing unethical done by the authors; just an obvious answer to an old question with hype tool T. I had myself thought of it before hearing from A, and discarded it only due to lack of time.) How should I deal with that? Should I disclose to the respective editors that I am reviewing similar papers? I suspect that would be a breach of the confidentiality. Should I have refrained to mention to editor of journal B that I had reviewed a similar paper in the past? Would it be a conflict of interest to review the revised manuscript from X? Should I decline the review? Also, should I inform the editor of the other journal once the first paper gets published? If so, how can I politely ask to be informed when the manuscript gets published without giving away that there is a similar manuscript out there?<issue_comment>username_1: This exact situation is difficult to assess without detailed knowledge but the editors of the journals should be aware of the situation. Since each case is unique and we do not know the details it will be up to the editors to judge or take the matter further. The Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) has one case on [simultaneous publications](http://publicationethics.org/case/simultaneous-publication) that can be of interst to read. So the advice is: yes contact the editors and provide the information you can. They will then have to take action, compare manuscripts or whatever the deem necessary. Similar works have been published simultaneously before so it is not certain there is a violation lurking somewhere but it is unusual. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: There are many cases of simultaneous discovery. I don't think you need to interfere, unless there is reason to believe the second papers authors were referees on.the first, author overlap, dual submission or other plagiarism/unethical behavior. As far as I can tell, you have no reason to believe so? See: there is a good chance the first (or both) will be in print before one could have read the other. Then both have studied this "first" (does not sound like major breakthrough anyway). Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: Simultaneous or independent discoveries happen often. If the paper A has a first submission date published, that should ensure paper A being fairly treated. Apart from that, I do agree with the other responses that actually discussing the situation with the editors (without disclosing mutually the authors) may be a good idea here. My purely personal view (others may disagree) would be that independent results which overlap temporally due to an unlucky accident both deserve publication. It was pure coincidence that in your case they ended up going via a single-person bottleneck. Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]
2016/04/03	963	4,161	<issue_start>username_0: I am considering applying for US PhD Program. In the UK, at many unis the first year does not count towards degree classification. Is this known in the US? Will they be wondering why I stated I have X %, but they calculate Y % ? Shall I explain to grad school admissions that 'the first year didn't count' towards my degree classification?<issue_comment>username_1: For the benefit of non UK members, the first year marks of a degree at a UK university is not used for calculating a student's final grade. The only requirement to continue on the degree is achieve at least 40%. It is therefore not uncommon for students to achieve marks in their first year which do not reflect their full abilities, and while it does not affect their grades it can affect how future employer or post graduate admissions view their application! If this is the case you should address this in your personal statement. Tell them how you gained a new perspective and work ethic after your first year at university and demonstrate this with your improved results in your subsequent years along with appropriate participation in university clubs and societies. If however your first year marks are consistent with your subsequent years, there is no need to mention it. Your application is about you as a potential student, not about explaining the intricacies of UK grade calculations. Edit: The reasoning behind only requiring a mark of 40% for the first year is to allow students some adjustment to a more independent study style and also to give young adults entering university the freedom to have new life experiences outside of academia. The prevalent philosophy at UK institutions is that academic achievement is not the only goal of attending university (though it is obviously still important!) Since the progression of students enrolled on a degree is decided on a department by department basis its impossible to find a single decree stating this how all UK universities operate it is by far how the majority work. Provided below are links to progression guidance from 2 UK universities, stating that only pass marks (40%) are required and that this mark will not be used to calculate degree classifications. [University of York Progression](https://www.york.ac.uk/media/staffhome/learningandteaching/documents/Student_guide_to_rules_for_progression_and_awards_in_ug_programmes.pdf), [University of Durham Progression](https://www.dur.ac.uk/natural.sciences/faq/year1marks/) Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: I've served on a PhD admissions committee as a student member, and we considered many different kinds of extenuating factors that might explain low GPA. That committee would certainly have appreciated the info. I would mention it, being careful to frame it in a way that portrays myself as a successful future researcher. The concern of a PhD admissions committee is primarily, "Will this individual successfully complete our program?" and secondary, "Will they be a leader in their field of research after completing our program?" What you do not want to do is imply that you blew off the entire year because you didn't have grades to motivate you. No grad school wants someone who's primarily motivated by grades. Even if your PhD program puts emphasis on grades in the program (mine doesn't, but I think the more STEM fields might), you won't have grades to motivate you after you complete the degree. So mention it, but tell a valid story--something like: > > "I've always been more concerned about learning than grades, although grades are important. In the UK they do \_\_\_\_\_, and this was ideal for me because I could get settled and embrace all the learning opportunities of my university without having to worry too much about a summative assessment. [Give an example of something valuable you learned that first year.] So I can understand your need to look at grades, but I'd point out that grades weren't my primary concern my first year because of the UK system, and that my GPA after that point was \_\_\_\_\_. > > > I don't think this feature of UK higher ed is well known in the US. Upvotes: 2
2016/04/03	818	3,628	<issue_start>username_0: I have nearly 1750 papers in PDF on one folder, all pertaining to medical research. What's the best way to organize them? I have thought about creating one folder for every subject/sub-category, but I want to know if there's anything more efficient that many academics use.<issue_comment>username_1: I sort papers by author, since the main times I need to look at them is if either it is cited somewhere and I want to check what precisely the paper says (in which case I am handed the authors by the citation), or I need to look at a specific paper because I recall there being something useful in it (in which case I almost always recall at least one author). The more practical side of my system consists of a set of menus in my top bar, one for each of certain ranges of starting letters. Each menu then has an entry for each author belonging to that range, and each such entry has a list of papers by that author (so a paper with many authors will be listed once for each author). This way, any paper that I have already indexed like this is just three clicks away, and even when I only recall the author and not the precise title, it often helps to see a list of the papers by that author (especially as the list will be limited to papers I have added myself, rather than a full list of all the papers that author has ever written). A similar system could of course be set up by subject if that would be more helpful, possibly with major subjects separated into subtopics (again listing papers several places if it belongs to several subjects). Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: I highly recommend a software to manage this like Endnote, Zotero, or Mendeley. The last two are free if your library is small enough (depends on the size of the PDFs). That will make things much easier by cleaning up the metadata and helping you use search tools to find the right papers. In each of these software, you can also sort the papers around. The key is that within these software, you can put a paper into multiple folders/categories/groups/whatever else they call it. I use this liberally. Note that the software will keep the reference as one reference with multiple links, and so if you do things like annotate or add notes to the file they will be visible at all locations where you can find the paper. * Before doing anything make sure the metadata is all correct. You can always last resort with using the search bar if it is. * First put each paper into a field. So I would make a folder like breast cancer, and then have a subcategory like metastasis if I have a bunch of papers specifically on that subtopic. Finding odd papers reduces to remembering what subtopic it's from, and finding that subtopic folder within the right topic. * If a paper works in multiple different places, I put it in each place. * Then add the papers to project folders. I make a master folder for each project, and subfolders for different parts of the project, put the appropriate references. The software can now automatically generate a file with all of the references for the paper which helps with citing. Using this method, you can always dive down into a folder/subfolder that makes sense, either by project or by field, then sort by title/author/year/etc (and easily switch between these), or use the search in the subfolder, and always quickly find what you need. But... you will need to take a day or two to set this up. That's a long and tedious task, but definitely worth it. Then I usually just do a minor fix up for new additions every few months to keep it tidy. Upvotes: 2 [selected_answer]