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2016/05/13
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<issue_start>username_0: I've seen [this question](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/60576/can-i-as-a-reviewer-tell-authors-to-get-a-native-english-speaker-to-proofread) on suggesting someone get a native speaker to edit and check. But my situation is rather different.
Several colleagues and I wrote an article for a special volume of a journal. The initial review was R&R with some pretty severe changes requested. We've made those changes. After that we received an odd e-mail from the editor for the special volume (via her assistant -- but via subsequent e-mail confirmed to be under her direction):
>
> We have carefully read it over, and in order to move forward, we highly recommend that you kindly consider seeking out academic editorial services in order to meet ... standards.
>
>
>
Then later in the message:
>
> We recommend that authors have their manuscripts checked by an English language native speaker before final approval of their submission; this will ensure that submissions are judged at peer review exclusively on academic merit.
>
>
>
The publisher and journal are not known for being predatory.
As a native English speaker, I was rather surprised that the journal said this. So I reread the article and there aren't any gaping grammatical or structural issues (I actually edit papers for others who are non-native speakers in addition to my own publishing, so I'm rather accustomed to the sorts of mistakes they make).
What is a good way to respond to this request?
---
Edit to make clearer, I absolutely agree that part of what one should do when told `find an editor` is to find and get some objective checks done on the writing itself (non-author parties and other forms of third parties competent to check). My question is assuming *you've cleared that hurdle* and have received this sort of comment.<issue_comment>username_1: While one should avoid antagonizing editors where possible, I think it would be reasonable for you and your coauthors to respond with a matter-of-fact email that includes the following points:
(1) one of the authors, namely yourself, is a native English speaker;
(2) said author has re-read the revised manuscript, and did not find obvious defects in the grammar or idiom;
(3) it would be greatly appreciated if the editors or the referees could point out the exact places in the revised manuscript, where it is felt that further correction is needed to meet the desired standards.
If they are being picky in good faith, point (3) should not cause a problem. If they stall or ignore point (3), then at this point it might be worth asking other people in your field or related ones if they have had similar experiences with this journal or its editors.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: In some cases reviewers have nothing to say about the content of the manuscript, so they request general language editing. In other cases the **language you choose** may be grammatically correct, but very distracting. I've read papers with perfect grammar, but the word choice was so bizarre that it distracted from the idea.
In this case you should:
1. Re-read the paper yourself - fix any problems you see (there must be some)
2. Have another, non-author, academic read the paper.
* If your colleague could understand the work, and the language was not
distracting, then email the editor for clarification. For example "My work has been reviewed by native English speakers, and no major issues were found. Can you please elaborate on what changes you would like to see to this manuscript."
* If your colleague could not understand the work, rewrite or use an editing service.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: It could be that the second quotation is simply boilerplate that is sent to every submission. In particular, it is written in the abstract "We recommend that **authors**", rather than "you" or "the authors". The journal may find it easier to send this to everyone rather than trying to work out the native languages of the authors.
The first quotation is more direct, and may indicate that there are issues of style (perhaps relating that particular journal's house style), rather than a problem with the level of English.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: This happened to me but by one of the peer-reviewers. I am a native speaker and as it happens I also have a masters in English Literature as well as a medical degree. What we did was to write a concise response to that comment which said we confirm that the manuscript has been checked by a native English speaker with a masters degree in English. We did not mention that this person was one of the authors all along. I think that the reviewer just saw non-English names in the author list and fired off that comment quickly as it's no drawback for him/her to say it and it then ensures the authors make really sure their language is up to standard.
Upvotes: 2
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2016/05/13
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<issue_start>username_0: It seems to me that there is a preoccupation within academia to getting published in venues which are highest-ranked in terms of some sort of metrics rather than venues most suited to one’s subject area albeit not high-ranked.
It occurred to me that any reason for this must be self-serving. I don’t feel comfortable with this idea. As opposed to self-interest as the actual motive, are there any better reasons for submitting to top-tier journals/conferences rather than low-tier ones?<issue_comment>username_1: Assuming that your publication is indeed sufficiently exceptional to be published in the respective journal:
1. As [already mentioned in a comment](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/68637/what-are-some-altruist-reasons-for-submitting-to-top-tier-journal-conferences#comment167095_68637), high-ranked journals have a higher visibility *outside* your specific subfield. This applies to scientists of related disciplines who may translate your work to their field, but also to news coverage and similar that communicates the achievements of science to the general public. Indeed many high-ranking journals have a criterion that your work is of general interest beyond your specific subfield.
While this attention benefits you, it also allows the scientific community and the general public to benefit from your insights more than a publication in a lower-ranking journal does. Moreover the additional attention may benefit your field or subfield by highlighting its usefulness to funding organisations and students who might venture into this field. Finally, it slightly benefits science in general by communicating it usefulness to the general public.
2. If your results are not entirely based on luck, they may indicate that you are indeed a comparably capable scientist and funding you is more likely to advance mankind than funding somebody else. Thus your egoistic interests are to some extent also altruistic. Or with other words: The academic system’s evaluation mechanisms are based on high-ranking publications and getting people properly evaluated helps science and academia. By not participating in this system, you are harming it.
Now, there is some criticism on the idea of ranking journals at all in times of the Internet where hardly anybody reads articles by journal anymore, and one may consider it more ethical to fight and boycott this system than participating in it due to the above reasons. But that’s a decision you have to make for yourself and this platform is not fit for discussing it.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: [username_1's good answer](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/68643/24098) hints at this, but I want to make it explicit:
**If you are doing beneficial research, your self-interest and the interests of beneficiaries of your research are aligned.**
If your work is important, then the visibility of your work and your own career success benefit others, since they maximize the impact of your research and ensure that you will have resources and freedom to do the best work going forward.
Ambition is neither good nor bad. What matters is: *to what end is your ambition directed?*
I agree that simply getting recognition, as an end in itself, is not a worthy goal. But if you are in your career in order to make a difference in the world with the research you conduct, then trying to advance your own career to achieve that goal is worthwhile (and necessary).
**What about submission to top journals specifically?**
There are pros and cons of aiming for the top, in terms of maximizing the impact of the work. The pros are well covered in other answers, but in summary, the main ones are:
* Wider visibility.
* Better basis on which to build your own future work.
* Higher review standards.
However, *there are also downsides to aiming high:*
* **Delay in publication**. If you aim for a top journal, and then try a sequence of high impact journals until you find one that accepts it, this can delay publication by many months. Meanwhile, your work is not being read by anyone and not having an impact. And you can't apply for further funding based on the work until it is out there.
* **Perhaps not the best use of your time.** Is it a good use of your time to endlessly revise a paper and tweak your analysis in response to reviewer suggestions? Or would it be better to get on to the next research question?
* **Papers may be less accessible than if published as open access.** Some top journals are not open access, and publishing in a lower-impact (but open access) journal may increase the accessibility of your work.
Ultimately, you have to weight the costs versus the benefits, particularly in light of the likelihood that your work will be accepted at a top journal. Personally, I don't like the all-too-frequent practice of starting at the top journal and working downward, even if the paper has little chance of success. I think this is a big waste of time and resources. But for a result that is really noteworthy, it may be worth submitting to high-impact journals (not just for your sake, but to maximize the benefit of the work).
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: By submitting your work to highly ranked, prestigious journals, you are typically confronting it with the strictest scrutiny and highest standards in the profession. You also accept that the novelty of your work will be judged by experienced researchers of your field. That's how journals get their reputation and rank.
The consequences are that you will have the very valuable opportunity to improve your work by receiving reviews or rejections. When your work will be accepted you'll have made a significant contribution to your field.
Submitting your work to journals that have lower acceptance standards, or pay-to-publish megajournals with no desk-rejection, you are possibly (and I mean possibly because I can't judge your work) watering down the literature with redundant or irrelevant material.
So yes, by aiming high and accepting that your work could eventually not be worth publishing there, you are doing the scientific community a favor. That's altruistic.
Also if you're an established researcher who do not need the exposure and prestige anymore to secure your career moves, you might have co-authors that are not that far yet. Making sure your common work gets the attention and scrutiny it deserves is common sense to me but also altruistic.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]
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<issue_start>username_0: I am a PhD student in life sciences. My PhD project's goal is to analyze specific data and to check a totally new idea in the field I am working in. This project is risky, however, very promising. With my supervisor, we planned all the studies and experiments before the start of the PhD, and he did promise that this would be my project. However, just as I started the PhD, he asked me to finish other experiments as I am the only one in the department who knows methodology and that work was crucial for the lab funding.
At the same time, he gave my project to another student claiming that he wants to know results and to publish this as early as possible. This student started the experiments and to analyze data. Moreover, my supervisor presented him to our collaborator (well known and influential scientist in the field) as the main researcher.
At this point I am desperate. Yes, I am jealous, but just don't know what to do in this situation. I came to this lab only for this project. I tried to mention this to my supervisor, but he just said: "Well, these findings are very important to us and I want to know the results as soon as possible".
It's only 4 months into experiments and I hope that someone could suggest how can I change this situation.<issue_comment>username_1: You know for the most part supervisors are smart enough to handle their students and their research groups. However, once in a while, there will be a problem either with the student and/or supervisor. So two things here:
**Know You Rights and Hierarchies**: Simply know what your rights are in your institute. Moreover, know the hierarchies. For example, who is the boss of your supervisor, or even, who is the boss of the boss of your supervisor? You know where I'm going with this? This bring me to the second point.
**Be Vocal and Express Yourself at the Meetings**: If you sit at your desk and pretend everything is fine, and your supervisor manipulates the situation (assuming you are telling the truth here), then YOU are the one responsible, because you didn't speak your mind. Have a meeting with the head of the group (your supervisor's boss) and speak about it. Tell him/her your story and situation and he/she should sort this out. If you couldn't sort it out, have a meeting with someone higher. They are there to help you.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: If this was really the way you were treated - by which I mean that you have to be sure not to misinterpret statements or promises of your supervisor - then you should run.
A PhD requires trust between the supervisor and the student. After such a breach of trust, you need to find a new supervisor.
Upvotes: 4
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<issue_start>username_0: I have a research article that has been accepted in reputed journal and is in final stage of publication. Now I want add acknowledgment in my article, as I independently written this article so nobody has academically contributed to my research. But I strongly believe that my research could been effected very badly if my close friend had not been there for my help(not academic of-course).
Can I add his name in acknowledgment?<issue_comment>username_1: This sort of thing is quite normal in books. In articles, one frequently sees the author(s) thanking a colleague for fruitful discussions and such. If you really feel so strongly about your friend's impact on your work, I think it would be perfectly appropriate to include it. Just avoid specifics such as "X helped me deal with the effects of my depression and drug dependency". (In other words, use common sense.)
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: You can thanking anyone (besides grant provider and maybe lab technicians) in acknowledgment because that section is not related to your manuscript. This is particularly true if you think him/her contributing much to your research but not as crucial as to put them as co-authors.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: Some journals expressly forbid acknowledgements for assistance that is not related to the substance of an article. That would mean funders are OK, colleagues you discussed the work with are OK, but somebody who only provided emotional or personal support would not be. So you ought to check the submission guidelines for the journal you are interested in. If it doesn't mention anything, then I would conclude that are purely personal acknowledgement should be fine, but it should be kept brief.
For longer works like books, this should certainly be fine as well. Personal thanks are commonplace in academic textbooks and monographs.
Upvotes: 2
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2016/05/13
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<issue_start>username_0: I want to visit certain laboratories at *Tokyo Institute of Technology (TITECH)* when I go to Japan three weeks from now to get a feel for the research they do and if I would be a good Master's candidate for their labs.
My advisor has offered to contact the professors directly so as to give my request more visibility.
However, TITECH has a Center for Public Affairs and Communications.
I'd much rather contact the professors directly since I'm on a rather short notice and I feel as a less formal visit would accelerate things up.
Here's some other information that could be relevant:
* I will finish my undergraduate degree in about two years.
* I am NOT asking for any monetary compensation, theses visits are on my own vacation time and at my own expenses (unless that would be unusual?)
* I'm mostly looking for simple tours of the labs, discuss their research a bit and talk about employment possibilities.
**Would it be innapropriate to bypass the "official" process and contact professors directly?**<issue_comment>username_1: I know people in Japan, have friends in Japan doing research, and traveled to Japan several times. One thing to remember: Obey the rules and hierarchy. Their system is based on respect for one another. Do not bypass a rule even though in your mind it sounds stupid/lame/waste of time.
So in your case, contact the center and wait for their response.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: If you're unsure who the right person is, don't agonize over it: Just contact the professor(s) in question and let them tell you who to write to to make arrangements. They will know the organization and who is in charge of what.
Upvotes: 2 [selected_answer]
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2016/05/14
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<issue_start>username_0: I have come across working papers in economics. I have seen 'papers in progress' listed on some researchers website but have never seen the idea of working paper as is common in economics. Just curious if this is practiced in some sub branch or was used at some point of time in history.<issue_comment>username_1: They are not common in my field(s) (numerical methods, high performance computing, etc.), but where journals are the primary, high prestige publication venues, we sometimes use conference talks to present works in progress. These talks are often accepted to the conference or one of its minisymposia on the basis of nothing more than light review of a one-paragraph abstract. This gives the author room to be a bit speculative in their abstract and talk about work that may or may not be complete by the time of the meeting. Later, if it works out, the material is turned into a journal article for publication.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Papers publishing work in progress are pretty common in conferences (considering most of the computer science conferences I've been to). Adding on to username_1, they are done so to check for any feedback that could help tune the methods that would hence give rise to a finer result for a journal.
Upvotes: 1
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2016/05/14
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<issue_start>username_0: I have a PhD viva next week and have (very) recently that my examiner has no knowledge of the UK viva system
My first question is what is the PhD defense failure rate in Canada? (I'm not sure if I really want to know this).
How much weight is put on the defence in Canada?
Is there anything that examiners usually look for in PhD defence in Canada?
I have four Journal Publications from my PhD work. I know my work very well.<issue_comment>username_1: This may be different in different disciplines, and can vary between different universities in Canada. I think that the conventions in your own discipline are a much bigger factor than the overall "PhD defense failure rate in Canada".
Based on my experience (PhD obtained in UK; supervised a PhD successfully in Canada) I would say that the *viva voce* itself carries **slightly** less weight in Canada, in the sense that the examiner makes more decisions based on reading the thesis rather than on what is said on the day. Indeed, I have heard of some cases of PhD theses being examined purely by an external written report, together with comments from the candidate's own graduate committee, although I don't know how common this is.
I cannot think of any reasons why examiners in Canada would look for anything different from examiners in the UK. Overall, I would not expect an examiner from Canada who is examining a UK thesis to be more adversarial than a UK examiner. From what you say about your own PhD it does not sound like their should be a problem -- but I must add the caveat that I work in a different area from you, so I might not know what is "usually expected" from a PhD in that area.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: My background: Doing a PhD in Canada, Biology. Also I've visited Australia and learned a bit about difference with UK, Australia and generally speaking european PhD.
>
> My first question is what is the PhD defense failure rate in Canada?
> (I'm not sure if I really want to know this).
>
>
>
In my field, I've never seen or heard about anyone failing. I've heard about such things in other fields, but as a surprising evil.
>
> How much weight is put on the defence in Canada?
>
>
>
Well, it's the pinnacle of the PhD, but I think it's mostly seen as a ritual. No advisor is supposed to let his/her student defend if he/she is not ready.
>
> Is there anything that examiners usually look for in PhD defence in
> Canada?
>
>
>
As I've never examined a thesis, this is only guess from the multiple defences (>10) in biology I've seen. They generally try to push the student further into the interpretation, they ask questions about why the student chose this method and not this other. They will also look at how the different chapter fit together and are linked by the general introduction and discussion.
I would tell you "no worries". Canadians are almost as laid back as Australians. Every researcher I know who is going to a defence in another country expect difference and will make enquiries before the defence.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: Many academics and other subjects experts from all corners of the globe are invited to be external examiners for PhD degrees. It is not uncommon, and the process is designed for this situation. In the UK it is also common that a viva panel is governed by a neutral chair who ensure that all the examiners are familiar with the procedures and regulation for conducting the examination and that the questions and conduct are fair for all parties concerned.
Those panels that do not use a separate chair, then it is often the internal examiner that ensures the external understands the scope and process of the examination.
It is important for the (world-wide) standard of PhD's that the foremost experts at any particular field can be called on to participate in the PhD examination process. You should feel it a compliment to your work that the university reached out to find a suitable specialist to read and comment on your work. The fact that they are willing to cover the not inconsiderable expenses to bring this examiner to your viva demonstrates the regard they have for your work. It is a positive thing for you.
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: I am going to submit a paper in these days. I dedicated to it a lot of time, and a lot of effort to check that all the theoretical results in it are correct. Anyway, I am still afraid of having written something wrong without even realizing it, as the deadline is very sharp.
So my question is: how common is in the academia to find submitted papers with minor errors? If there is a minor error that is not invalidating the results, will the paper be rejected, even if the content is considered interesting?<issue_comment>username_1: That's what peer review is there for: to tell the author about the minor, but correctable mistakes in the paper.
The way I see it is that, of course, I spend a lot of time writing my papers and making sure that everything is correct. But pragmatically, you will have to come to terms with the fact that no paper will ever be *perfect*. There comes a point where you just have to take the plunge, submit it, and hope for the best.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: The phrase "in the academia" in your question needs clarification. Papers submitted in the Humanities would be expected to be error-free; in the Social Sciences, some tolerance for minor errors may be tolerated; in the Sciences, many universities will allow considerable latitude in quality of English, provided always that the science itself is trenchantly clear. Scientists who are not good writers will often hire grad students in the English Dept. to proofread and edit the text of their papers. Fees for such editing services are modest, and the fact that the English grad student probably knows nothing about the science, does not affect his/her ability to tidy up the text.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: As long as your concept remains sound and your results are verifiable, it's a good chance your paper will get selected. The basic job of the peer-review process is to assess the concepts theoretically.
If there are minor mistakes that caught the reviewers' eye, it would be more possible that you will be asked for a *minor revision* as long as the overall concept remains intact. Otherwise, if you happen to find such errors later by yourself, you may make the edit in the camera-ready paper.
Having stated above, there are a wide range of journals and hence a diverse range of reviewers. The strictness of evaluation differ from one reviewer to another. Some won't even bother to evaluate results as long as the flow of concepts seem fine to them. It will take more than carefully evaluated results to get through some others. So, as Bangerth stated, hope for the best.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: Almost all math papers have minor errors (e.g. sign errors, misphrased definitions, a wrong entry in a table, using different conventions in one part of the paper than another, etc.).
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: It is very common for published papers to have still minor errors. Some are sometimes even introduced during the publishing process. So yes, submitting a paper with errors is common too. When submitting to a conference with website closing at a precise time, I do check (and find) errors up to the last minute.
Errors can be irritating to the reviewers. Generally, if they are minor and rare, they are not a cause for rejection, but can be a catalyst. Take a borderline acceptable paper. When the reviewer has 10 of them to review fast (for a conference for instance), it can be accepted if error-free, and rejected (with basically the same content) if containing a proportion of errors.
Clean papers are generally appreciated, reviewers may feel the authors have done some effort to help them review.
As it is difficult to re-read again a paper that you have written, suggestions:
* use your co-authors generously, make them explain to you the theory you have written,
* use your colleagues, friends or family, they can have a critically eye on what you cannot see anymore, notations undefined, etc.
* read the paper backward, aloud.
Upvotes: 3
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<issue_start>username_0: For a course with a final exam, is it more common to: (a) require that the final exam be passed to pass the course, or (b) allow for a student to fail the final exam and still pass the course?
How could we estimate the relative proportion of the two policies? If someone argued that case (a) was "rare" in higher education, how could we respond?
**Edit:** Consider restricting to mathematics classes at American universities, with a comprehensive final exam, if that's clarifying.<issue_comment>username_1: If someone argued that case (a) was "rare" in higher education, respond by:
1. asking for the data they used to come to that conclusion
2. determine if sample size is large enough to make any reliable conclusions
3. determine what 'rare' means
4. measure if the number of pass/fail final exams is greater than or less than the rare threshold
If they don't have data, then respond by saying that their personal experiences probably do not represent a national average.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: I'm a little confused by the question. Are you asking the question in your first paragraph, or how to respond to a claim about that?
Anyway, most undergrad math classes in the US with a final exam I know about have the exam as one component of the course grade, as in Nate's comment. The grading policies should be written clearly in syllabi and occasionally there are clauses like the final exam grade is a lower bound on the course grade, but I have not often seen the other way around.
If you want to respond with data, you would need some sort of survey, but you also need to clarify meanings as there need not be an inherent meaning of "passing a final exam." The instructor may set a cut-off and call exams over certain scores passing (though this is sort of artificial if the instructor "curves"), but I never assign passing or failing grades specifically for the final exam, so for me "passing the final exam" means doing well enough on the final exam to make one's cumulative average high enough for me to assign a passing grade.
Upvotes: 1
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<issue_start>username_0: I am a M.Sc. student in Machine Learning, about to finish my thesis this month. My advisor wants me to meet him in person to reproduce my results under his control. It is obvious that the main reason for this action is to be confident that I didn't manipulate the diagrams, etc.
I didn't do any cheating and I have no problem with that. But it is a little annoying for me that my advisor doesn't trust me. I want to know whether this is the norm in academia or is my adviser just a little skeptical of me?
I should mention that I am the lone M.Sc. student in the lab and I am nearly sure that the advisor doesn't do that with PhD students in the lab.<issue_comment>username_1: As many have pointed out in the comments (<NAME>, <NAME>, <NAME>, etc.), the point is not to catch you cheating (as if you were intentionally trying to manipulate your results), but rather to verify your process of obtaining such results. We all should be so lucky as to have an adviser take the time out of his/her schedule to verify our processes.
I would also like to add that -- and this assumes your thesis could/will lead to an academic publication at a journal or conference -- that your adviser's reputation is potentially on the line by attaching his/her name to such a document. In other words, by becoming a co-author on your [future] publication, your adviser is essentially saying, "Yes, I helped work on this, and I am sure of the methods and the results contained within."
The bottom line (tl;dr) is that you shouldn't take this as a personal attack. You should be thankful to have someone who can invest the amount of time necessary to ensure the correctness of the work you've done.
Upvotes: 9 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: There may be another reason your advisor wants to do this: perhaps the work can be continued in the future by another of their students, and your advisor wants to be able to explain the details to that (potential) future student.
Regardless, I think it's praise that your advisor is giving you.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_3: In the field of machine learning, there is a plenty of ways to mistakenly do things incorrectly that make your results look better than they really are. An easy example is cross validation: if you do model selection based on the results of your validation dataset, you are going to be downward biasing the error in your validation results.
In this light, your advisor is likely somewhat surprised at your results. Before just completely accepting what you've done, they want to verify this wasn't a result of a mix up. If your advisor watches what you do, and everything is correct, then that's great and you've probably got some great results on your hands. If you are doing something that's not quite right, then your advisor will presumably help fix the error.
You shouldn't take this as criticism, but rather as being critical. Being critical is what makes science reliable and is vital to the academic process.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_4: In part, you are correct, but more than likely it's a lot of other factors. Once you leave the gates of college, whether it's your peers, your colleagues, or your professional community. If there is ever anything new or of significant value being claimed, than it MUST be reviewed. So definitely get used to people behaving skeptical initially.
In part it's to confirm your results. It can also be to potentially mimic results for future research or education. At the end of the day, his reputation lies on signing off on your work as "valid". Or at least to make sure that what you did is not mimicked work with minute, insufficient contributions to your field. Plus, if there's good stuff in your results, he might try and assist in finding you some serious grant funds or can help assist with private research funds.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: I would say you are lucky!
The main goal of science is to deliver something insightful to others!
Therefore, when discovering something, make such results reproducible to them. Otherwise, it's "an accident" that happened only to them. Science is about understanding reason and the cause, therefore about reproducibility of processes. As the goal is to make it reproducible by others, the best test is to try out if others can reproduce it.
I am personally a great fan of "reproducible research" (there is a whole movement around this, just to mention: <http://reproducibleresearch.net/> , <https://reproduciblescience.org/> , and open science in general). Making sure that others can reproduce your effects, confirms that you've transmitted over paper all artifacts important to achieve your goal. Communication (also over papers), relies always on a big pile of assumptions. One might have to skip some details, steps, obvious to her/him in a paper, while actually not that obvious to others, then making whole work sadly lost and non useful to anyone else. Therefore, if someone with the skill/knowledge level of the desired audience is not able to reproduce it, maybe the paper should consist of more/better references, or more introduction to concepts/procedures/tools used. Again, all serves the purpose of transmitting over paper to others, to humanity, how to do something not done earlier, therefore to move the whole of humanity forward. Checking if it's reproducible by others is the best way to check whether it is reproducible by others :).
After all, mentioning in a paper, or notes for reviewers, that results were successfully reproduced by others, could IMHO even increase the value of the paper. Making notes (even blog post) by those others, would be even better to confirm.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_6: People willing to spend time on you is almost never bad. It proves that you or what you have done is important somehow. Try to unlearn that being checked is bad and try and view it as you are important enough for someone to care about. It is when no one cares any longer that you should be concerned, not the other way around ! This sure can be confusing for some personalities with high personal integrity.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_7: While I agree with other commenters that it might be for other reasons, we cannot invalidate that this person might just be checking that you did not cheat. Think about the recent Michael LaCour scandal: he falsified his data, and his senior co-author (Green) did not catch him; this obviously raised some eyebrows.
After that, I'm sure many senior academics have taken a closer look at their supervisees data/process.
Upvotes: 2
|
2016/05/14
| 769
| 3,312
|
<issue_start>username_0: I recently reviewed a paper that made some very strong claims that were *not* supported by the data. However, it was much more than that. These claims were so extreme that that were actively misleading: e.g., "The present results represent the most important findings in personality psychology to date." (Not as bad as this example, but not too far off..)
I wrestled with two options in my review.
A.) I could respond in a scientifically disinterested manner: e.g., "These strong claims are not supported by the data. Please revise them."
OR
B.) I could go beyond that and politely "critique" the authors for their questionable practice: e.g., "These strong claims are not supported by the data. In fact, they represent such an "overselling" of the manuscript's findings that they are actively misleading. Please revise them and we urge the authors to avoid such hyperbolic claims in the future."
In the end, I went with something like option B.) because I think that there is inherent value in stating firmly that these kinds of practices are not okay. As a scientific peer, I did not at all appreciate these obvious efforts to oversell the results for the sake of "a top publication." As reviewers, we are the guardians of scientific literatures, and when appropriate, perhaps we should scold our fellow researchers for questionable scientific practices to deter them against such behaviors in the future.
This begs the intriguing question: Do academic reviewers bear a responsibility to critique authors for engaging in questionable practices that undermine the validity of scientific literatures?
Very interested to hear the views of others!
Edit: "Reviewer" is intended to refer to one's role as a reviewer of publication submissions for journals.<issue_comment>username_1: Be a professional, and be helpful. What's the point of chastising the authors? will they think you are 'smarter' than them? No, to them, you'll sound clueless or/and arrogant. Hence, it is a waste of your time and frankly, doesn't help the editor because he/she will think you have some axe to grind. Your ONLY job is to help the editor make a decision, and if you are kind, provide constructive comments to the authors.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_2: My feeling is that rather than explicitly telling the authors what to do in a context other than the present submission, it would be better to explain your objection to their present submission in a way which would make clear to any moderately receptive party that the advice would apply more generally. E.g. something like
>
> In my opinion, the authors overestimate the significance of their work to a degree that becomes actively misleading: virtually no work in the field has the level of significance claimed by the authors here. In general, work which is described in such hyperbolic terms can be hard to take seriously. Those who do make major breakthroughs tend to describe the advances in more sober, factual ways.
>
>
>
This is plenty heavy-handed. Anyone who is listening will get the message not only to tone down the language in this submission but that such language is never appropriate. Still, you aren't telling them what to do, but only giving your (expert) opinion on the consequences of their actions.
Upvotes: 5
|
2016/05/15
| 838
| 3,089
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am writing a PhD dissertation that contains two main themes/topics. These topics are fairly different from each other, but they do have (some!) common threads.
Within each theme, I have two rather related sub-themes. Each sub-theme is substantial enough to form a chapter.
How should I structure the dissertation. I was thinking about having two parts, as follows:
```
Ch.1 - Introduction (discussing general structure & motivation)
Part I - Theme 1
- Ch.2 - theme 1 - topic 1
- Ch.3 - theme 1 - topic 2
Part II - Theme 2
- Ch.4 - theme 2 - topic 1
- Ch.5 - theme 2 - topic 2
Ch.6 - Conclusion
Appendices and References
```
The above structure seems a little odd to me, though. Are the purpose of parts to partition the paper completely? That is, should each chapter belong to a part? In the above structure, Ch.1 and Ch. 6 are not in any part.
In addition, would including an introduction and conclusion for each part be appropriate?<issue_comment>username_1: My recommendation is to consider "parts" as an auxiliary notion. The thesis should make sense to the reader even if he ignores the division into parts.
That's fairly doable with your proposed solution, it just needs clever organization of introductory and preliminary texts.
Actually, I don't think you can do much better if your 4 chapters are too long to become 2 chapters.
---
The only alternative I can think of is the following:
```
Ch.1 - Introduction (discussing general structure & motivation)
Part I - Theme 1
Ch.2 - theme 1 - deeper introduction & preliminaries
Ch.3 - theme 1 - topic 1
Ch.4 - theme 1 - topic 2
Part II - Theme 2
Ch.5 - theme 2 - deeper introduction & preliminaries
Ch.6 - theme 2 - topic 1
Ch.7 - theme 2 - topic 2
Ch.8 - Conclusion
Appendices and References
```
Also, as a last remark, if you realize there's nothing to put into the conclusions, I'm quite sure you can create the thesis without them, but better ask your supervisor.
**Actually, have you discussed this with your supervisor?**
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Normally, it is not mentioned explicitly in thesis write-up guidelines. Therefore, it depends on the situation and the nature of your work.
In my PhD thesis, which I am currently writing, I first decided to arrange it into four parts:
```
Part-I: Two chapters
Part-II: Three chapters regarding literature review
Part-III: Two chapters on development and evaluation
Part-IV: Two chapters on conclusions
```
This way, the thesis resulted into more than 350 pages, with several things still missing.
Then I realized to organize it into two parts:
```
Chapter 01: Introduction
Part-I: Literature Review, three chapters
Part-II: Methodology (including results), two chapters
Chapter 07: conclusions and future directions
```
And, now it looks much better now with reduced number of pages as well. Also, it seems more concise.
Therefore, **I suggest, do experiment with multiple options and see what suits you the most.**
Hope this helps and answers the problems
--username_2
Upvotes: 1
|
2016/05/15
| 478
| 2,213
|
<issue_start>username_0: It seems that for PhD programs the research is more important but, which is more important for masters programs?<issue_comment>username_1: Undergraduate GPA will normally matter more. If you have contributed to a research paper as an undergrad, but your GPA is very low then it may look like you can't manage your research and studies well, or someone else did most of the research.
That being said, for a **research masters** if the GPA was passing I would still have an interview to let the student explain their situation. That interview would likely involve an in-depth discussion about what research they carried out to see if they actually know the area / research. Depending or your country, your advisor may not give interviews.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: As far as I know, US universities carry out weighted average values for taking in admissions. The factors for admission include General Point Average, Research Experience, Experience, Professor's recommendations, Test results, and Project experience. They come at a weighted average of all the above factors and then give you admissions.
Which college gives more weight to which factor is college dependent and that requires you do a lot of internet search, write to people from the department that you are planning to apply for, find out which factor they value the most and hone your curriculum vitae to suit the situation.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_3: The answer, here, is that it really depends strongly on the individual program, since Masters programs vary much more than Ph.D. programs in both their purpose and organization.
For some programs, you can essentially get automatic entry based on grades alone (my own Masters was that way, for example). For others, research and recommendation letters may weigh in significantly, especially if students are funded rather than self-funding. Research does generally weigh much less than for a Ph.D., however, particularly since a Master is often expected to be a terminal and industrial-focused degree.
Thus, in general, GPA is significantly more important than research, but the degree to which this is true varies wildly by program.
Upvotes: 1
|
2016/05/15
| 493
| 2,254
|
<issue_start>username_0: I've got admission for MS in Computer Science in a US university. Which option is better Non-thesis or thesis ? How do I decide which one I should take ?<issue_comment>username_1: Undergraduate GPA will normally matter more. If you have contributed to a research paper as an undergrad, but your GPA is very low then it may look like you can't manage your research and studies well, or someone else did most of the research.
That being said, for a **research masters** if the GPA was passing I would still have an interview to let the student explain their situation. That interview would likely involve an in-depth discussion about what research they carried out to see if they actually know the area / research. Depending or your country, your advisor may not give interviews.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: As far as I know, US universities carry out weighted average values for taking in admissions. The factors for admission include General Point Average, Research Experience, Experience, Professor's recommendations, Test results, and Project experience. They come at a weighted average of all the above factors and then give you admissions.
Which college gives more weight to which factor is college dependent and that requires you do a lot of internet search, write to people from the department that you are planning to apply for, find out which factor they value the most and hone your curriculum vitae to suit the situation.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_3: The answer, here, is that it really depends strongly on the individual program, since Masters programs vary much more than Ph.D. programs in both their purpose and organization.
For some programs, you can essentially get automatic entry based on grades alone (my own Masters was that way, for example). For others, research and recommendation letters may weigh in significantly, especially if students are funded rather than self-funding. Research does generally weigh much less than for a Ph.D., however, particularly since a Master is often expected to be a terminal and industrial-focused degree.
Thus, in general, GPA is significantly more important than research, but the degree to which this is true varies wildly by program.
Upvotes: 1
|
2016/05/15
| 352
| 1,457
|
<issue_start>username_0: Does all definitions need a reference? Is there any rules to when you need one(or more) and when you don't?<issue_comment>username_1: You need to make crystal clear what is your contribution and what isn't. In general, all definitions that are not your contribution need the proper reference.
In practice that could get cumbersome, so you end up not citing what is considered common, basic knowledge. However, that line is somewhat blurry and one needs experience to do it right.
You can check good papers in your field to guess what is/isn't common knowledge. Another interesting tactic, that I often use, is to say:
>
> "Since we are using XXX, we will briefly review the involved concepts [X]".
>
>
>
That way it is clear that they are not your contribution and that reference [x] can be consulted for further details, without too many references and unnecessary text...
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: To add clarity, I am assuming there have a set of terms you wish to include in a publication (be it conference, journal, or thesis), but confused whether or not to cite the definitions for which.
>
> You may cite a term if it isn't too common in your research topic.
>
>
>
If you are pretty much sure that the term you included do not stray far from the common sense understanding within the domain in which your research concerns, you do not need to cite any relevant material for that term.
Upvotes: 1
|
2016/05/15
| 619
| 2,723
|
<issue_start>username_0: BACKGROUND
I was previously an engineering PhD student but I left the program. I was really too inexperienced for the commitment of a PhD. Further, my wife wanted me to leave and pursue an engineering job with a salary.
A while back I submitted an abstract to a relatively prestigious conference/forum, where the corresponding paper was suppose to be submitted 3 months after this acceptance. Since I was leaving the program, I basically neglected this responsibility while applying for jobs throughout the semester. However, my adviser expressed anger on this saying I must submit the paper because they already accepted the abstract and I could be barred from the forum in the future. Thus I submitted a paper.
As of now I've left the PhD program. However, there is a conference/forum for this paper in the upcoming week, and there is a speaking slot for my paper. I know that my advisor (the paper's only other author) is busy and overseas and will not attend. This means nobody plans to attend the conference for the paper. Thus, I feel I must attend the conference. However, I really don't have the funds and time, and cannot easily attend. I checked the schedule, and there is a speaking slot for my paper.
QUESTIONS
What are the consequences for not attending an academic conference (for your accepted paper) in which you are slotted to speak? I would assume not attending (complete absence) is common due to money and air travel problems (connecting flights, weather, etc). Would one be barred from future conferences for not attending? Is it impolite to not attend (I've already successfully submitted the paper)?<issue_comment>username_1: It is unlikely there would be any consequences for failing to present at a conference. It would be impolite and disappoint your former adviser. You should notify the conference if you decide not to attend.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: The consequences for not attending a conference to present your paper will depend on the conference.
The best thing to do now is contact the conference organizers and explain your situation and ask what the consequences are for not showing up. Also, ask if the conference allows for a non-author to present in your absence. If they do, maybe you can find someone that can present on your behalf.
Since you are in an engineering discipline, I can say that the IEEE conferences I'm familiar with have a clear policy on handling cases where nobody shows up to present the paper. A quick scan of some IEEE conference pages yields the commonly-found disclaimer:
>
> Failure to present the paper at the workshop will result in the
> withdrawal of the paper from the Proceedings.
>
>
>
Upvotes: 2
|
2016/05/16
| 1,910
| 7,967
|
<issue_start>username_0: I'm a rising second-year PhD student at a big state university in the US. I'm seeking advice regarding the possibility of disputing a grade received this past semester in one of my core PhD courses. Here's the background:
The course involved is one of the pre-qualifying exam courses we're expected to take prior to taking the qualifying exam in August. The professor who taught the course is a full professor in the department and one of its lead researchers. However, his teaching record is atrocious. He receives complaints from students pretty much every semester. This largely has to do with the fact that he doesn't like to teach (as he actually told us in class multiple times). He doesn't prepare lectures (because it takes too much work, as he's told us), so typical lectures are just him scribbling random things on the board, then consulting the textbook when (not if) he gets confused. We have no idea what he's even covering in class most of the time because he never says what section of the book he's covering or even what the topic is. Worse, the subject he had to teach us this semester wasn't even his field. He said the department threw the course on him because it was his turn.
The real problem I have, however, is the grading scheme. In his original syllabus, he stated grades would consist of regular homework, a project, a midterm, and an in-class final. However, this wasn't followed at all. We had no homework the whole semester. The project was changed last minute to a one page summary of a section from the book because he didn't bring the topic up until the last class before the final (and he went out of his way to say not more than one page and not to put much effort into it). The midterm turned into a take home exam that consisted of problems assigned from the book (where those problems were determined literally by drawing numbers out of a hat, and we all had different problems often of substantially varying difficulty). The final exam was changed to a take-home exam last minute as well, and consisted of problems that he made up out of his own head (he admitted this). We never received a single graded assignment back once in the course. He also admitted he hadn't graded the midterm yet when he gave us the take-home final.
As frustrating as this is, (especially given this is a qualifier prep class and hence we should really know the material well) neither I nor the other students (around 7 in the class total) said anything to anyone during the semester because our understanding was that we'd all likely receive roughly the same grades anyway in both the class and on the qualifier. However, at the end of the semester this didn't happen. Two got an A, 4 got a B+, and 1 got a B (the B being me).
Now, to me, getting a B in a grad-level class looks really bad, like getting a C or a D in an undergrad class. But what really erks me about it is that based on extensive conversations with others in the course and comparing answers on exams afterwards is that it doesn't appear as of yet that these grades were assigned based on course content at all, but on some other (perhaps even arbitrary) metric (which this professor has been accused of in the past multiple times). I contacted the professor to talk about this, but he brushed me off and said to talk to him about it in a few months when he's back in town.
This leaves me with a real dilemma. What should I do now? Do I just suck it up and let the dispute go? This is a full professor, after all, and he is the one making the qualifying exam in that subject. But on the other hand, I have a very strong reason at this point to believe that something is amiss, and that myself and others are victims of an arbitrary (perhaps even discriminatory) grading scheme. Should we stand for this on principle?
Now, I'm not the type of person who's complained every time I've gotten a bad grade. Usually I know it was my fault and just suck it up and do better next time. But this time really feels different. However, this is obviously complicated by the delicate political situation of grad student vs full professor.
I want to bring this up first with the graduate director. He's a reasonable man who's helped with things like this before with others. But before I did that I wanted to seek advice from you all to see whether this is worth pursuing, and if so, what myself and others in the course should do about this. Thanks for reading this long-winded rant.<issue_comment>username_1: There are three basic options with respect to grade disputes that you could pursue:
1. Pursue through formal channels. You could either appeal to the department by by filing something with the DGS or chair. You could talk the graduate school and complain formally in that way.
2. Pursue through informal channels. Again, there are several variants. You could talk to the professor and see if s/he is willing to change the grade. You could talk to the DGS, graduate student representative, or some other intermediary and see if they could help sway the professor to change the grade.
3. You can do nothing about it.
You can also talk to your ombudsman to get general advice (without trying to enlist their assistance in a formal complaint).
Pursuing it formally (and to a lesser extent informally), there may regrettably be negative consequences for you within the department. This might be because not going with the flow can breed animosity, and the additional oversight may annoy powers that be. This is not to say don't consider it, but it is to say that being in graduate school includes a lot more relational management (with your advisor, with your peers, with faculty) than being in undergrad does.
---
Separately, you're asking about this because you're interested in switching disciplines and worried that they will care about grades. One avenue is changing the grade. Another idea might be to insure that one of your letter writers explains the arbitrariness of the grade. A further and final resort is to explain it yourself in a supplementary note. (If you end up going for the last one, I'd recommend substantially rewriting it and compressing it down so that it sounds like a more professional explanation than bits like "when (not if!)").
Given your goals, I think the ideal thing would (a) to check some of the less formal resources and see if the grade could be changed and in lieu of that (b) have one of your letter writers address this in passing within a stellar recommendation.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: I'm not sure what program you are in (I'm in computer science), but I would say just let it go.
First, in grad school, at least in the computer science and computer science-related disciplines I'm familiar with, grades no longer *really* matter. When you are on the job market nobody is going to ask for your transcript. The factor that is most important, and that individuals will use to hire you, is your research (as well as letters of recommendations, how well you interviewed, how well you fit in with the department, etc.). The point is: grades don't really matter. Don't believe me, then look [here](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42323/grades-in-a-phd-program), for instance -- searches will turn up more than this.
So, granted that grades aren't such a big thing (a B is fine -- if you get a C people may start to worry), you are really only left with the fact that this professor is was horrible, didn't do what he said, etc. He is, however: (a) a full tenured professor, and (b) a full professor in your department. Regarding (a): there's nothing to be done here. He's tenured. He will continue on one way or another. Regarding (b): your actions regarding this individual could come back on you. That's all I'll say regarding the matter, but I just don't think it's worth stirring things up within your department over a B grade. My two cents though.
Upvotes: 1
|
2016/05/16
| 2,244
| 9,140
|
<issue_start>username_0: A bit of a controversial question here. I am a PhD student currently away from campus on an internship in another state (in the US). I left campus with my advisor-provided laptop and some dataset I collected while working in my advisor's lab. We had the mutual understanding that me taking the official lab's laptop to the place of my internship was in the spirit of me being able to do my research effectively while I am away from campus.
For the past four months, I have been working at my leisure hours at my place of internship and during weekends to investigate an algorithm with respect to the dataset I collected while working under my advisor -- in his lab. I should mention that since I am away on an internship, I am not his Research Assistant at least for now (until I return to campus).
Aside from using the dataset I collected from his lab, I have scraped publicly available datasets from other research labs online and used them to rigorously test my algorithm. My algorithms are starting to yield promising results which I think are about right for a publication. Because my advisor has made little or no contribution to my work so far, I am not sure how appropriate it is to put his name on the paper I am writing which reports my findings so far. I have tacitly brought this up with him in emails so far but he has not expressed any enthusiasm about whatever work I am doing remotely (perhaps he doesn't trust what he hasn't seen?).
Since the deadline of the conference is coming up soon, how would you suggest I do not cross him if I write the paper as a sole author?<issue_comment>username_1: If you don't know whether your advisor expects to be a co-author or not, just ask him.
If you feel that the advisor shouldn't be a co-author, you can present that as the "default":
>
> I am planning to write up my work with X, to submit to conference Y. You haven't really been involved in this work so far, so I guess you won't co-author this paper with me. Is that right?
>
>
>
If based on the specifics of the situation you *don't* have any strong feelings against co-authoring this paper with him, but you just aren't sure what *he* wants, you can just ask him:
>
> I am planning to write up my work with X, to submit to conference Y. Are you interested in co-authoring this paper with me?
>
>
>
As you have said, you can't read minds. The only way to know what's in his, is to communicate.
And it's *really* important that you have this discussion as soon as possible; authorship disputes are much trickier to resolve after publication (when they can potentially lead to retraction) than before submission.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: I had passed through similar situations, and my conclusion is that if your advisor is a good scientist, he will understand that you need to work on some projects by yourself to develop your scientific skills. The only thing that I would advise you to do is to make him aware that you plan to submit the paper to a conference whose deadline is soon, or that you have already submitted it to conference. If your paper gets accepted without him knowing even that the paper was submitted, this could potentially leave him with the impression that you don't trust him. But even in this case, if he is a successful scientist, I bet he would only be happy for your accepted paper.
In your situation I would write the paper and send him the best draft you have explaining that you plan to submit the paper to conference X. Or if the deadline is really close, I would submit the paper to the conference and send a copy to him saying that you have submitted this paper to the conference. In the title page of the paper you should put only your name, since so far he doesn't even know about the existence of the paper anyway. This would in my opinion be a clear message that you want to write the paper by yourself.
Dear professor X,
during my internship here at place Y I started working at project Z. I have wrote a paper about this project (attached) with the intention to submit it to conference W whose deadline is really close. Would you mind making some comments, if you have some time? If you don't mind I would like to try to finish this paper as a sole co-author.
Best Regards,
Blabla
Asking him for comments does not turn him immediately into a co-author. In fact even the most senior scientists ask for the opinion of their colleagues.
The good think about this approach is that he can potentially suggest improvements, or correct errors. In this case, you could put him in the acknowledgements if the paper gets accepted. If the paper does not goes through, you could still ask him for more suggestions and if he contributes enough, you can submit it to another conference/journal as a co-author.
All in all, the only thing you should avoid is an atmosphere of mistrust.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: Before answering, allow me to highlight some additional details OP posted in the comments below their post.
First, I asked OP if listing an advisor as a co-author is the default in his/her group, to which OP replied:
>
> Yes, listing the advisor's name as the last author is the default in the group.
>
>
>
I also asked OP if the algorithm (s)he developed is related to his/her PhD topic, to which OP replied:
>
> The algorithm is definitely related to my PhD topic, yes!
>
>
>
So, to summarize, your advisor's policy is that he/she expects to be an author on your papers by default, and the paper you are currently working on is relevant to your PhD topic.
Thus, in the absence of any additional information, the only logical conclusion is that **it is not possible for OP to avoid crossing their advisor** by excluding the advisor as a co-author on the paper.
---
*Some additional things to consider ...*
Several questions on this site have addressed automatic co-authorship for advisors, such as [How to explain to a student that it is common to include a supervisor as a co-author](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/54874/how-to-explain-to-a-student-that-it-is-common-to-include-a-supervisor-as-a-co-au) and [When should a supervisor be an author?](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/644/when-should-a-supervisor-be-an-author)
Now, in the second linked question above, user JeffE provided an answer, which to me is an interesting take on the advisor co-authorship problem. In [his answer](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/651/11192), relating to advisors being co-authors on papers that result from projects for which they obtained a grant, JeffE writes:
>
> In practice, writing a good grant proposal requires at least as much intellectual novelty as writing a good paper. Most of the good ideas that PIs pour into their proposals also appear in papers; as long as those ideas constitute novel intellectual contributions, the PI merits co-authorship. But that only works once per idea; once an idea has been published, it's no longer novel, by definition.
>
>
>
Does your advisor subscribe to the above philosophy, some other philosophy not mentioned above, or does "by default" mean that your advisor is *always* listed as a co-author? **The only way to find out is to ask.**
Whether it is advisable to approach advisor with these types of questions will depend on your working relationship with them, how important it is for you to exclude your advisor as an author from the paper, etc.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: Based on your comment
>
> The algorithm is definitely related to my PhD topic, yes!
>
>
>
and that
>
> the work would form part of my dissertation, yes.
>
>
>
I think you are thinking about this incorrectly. You want your advisor (and committee members) to have buy-in in your work. You want them excited about your work, contributing to your work, etc, as soon as possible. In other words, you should **want** your advisor (and maybe even committee members if time allows) to be co-authors.
The approach should be to schedule a phone call with your advisor (or if you aren't too far away, go visit him/her). Show them the results you are seeing with graphs, etc, and start strategizing how you two (or more if a committee member is involved) can best publish the work.
Based on things you have written, it sounds like you have not written the paper yet, but have a target conference in mind. Get your advisor's advice on if the conference is appropriate (maybe you should aim higher). Discuss with them the outline for the paper you have been considering. **Get as much out of your advisor as possible so that there is no doubt in your mind that they should be a co-author**. They may even be willing to let you charge some hours remotely, and you'll start getting paid for writing up your results and publishing them. Then your research paper would have a footnote about how it was supported in part by research grant XYZ.
All of this is a good thing and in no way diminishes the fact that you developed the algorithms that got the promising results on your own free time during summer employment.
Upvotes: 2
|
2016/05/16
| 1,248
| 4,704
|
<issue_start>username_0: I study in the UK. I just received an email from the academic registrar of my university regarding my forthcoming graduation ceremony.
Contained within the email was this disclaimer:
>
> Please ensure that you have paid any outstanding study related fees and charges to the University no later than 16:00 (BST) Thursday 16 June 2016 (this includes library fines). If you do not do this, I regret that you will cease to be eligible to graduate this summer.
>
>
>
I have an outstanding library fine of £0.15 which of course I intend to pay but it seems far fetched to me that an academic institution would withhold a degree costing at anywhere between £21,000 to £100,000 due to an outstanding payment of up to £10 (the fine limit after which you cannot withdraw any more books). As I understand it, this stipulation is not confined to my university.
**Could I be prevented from graduating due to a trivial fine? Has this kind of rule ever been enforced by a university? Is it legal?**<issue_comment>username_1: This is called an **administrative encumbrance**, it is indeed very standard.
The general notion is that if you owe the university money, then the administration will deny you *things*.
These *things* may include: unit results, the ability to graduate, exam timetables, or the ability to enrol in new units.
In what was certainly a bug, students at my wife's university were even denied access to the payment webpage while under-encumbrance -- which did not help them get paid.
There are often many ways to get encumbered, depending on the university and country. As well as library fines, there are often things like amenities fees, student union fees, parking fines, tuition costs.
Is it legal? Probably. You almost certainly agree to something along the lines of "I will suffer the effects of being encumbered if I fail to pay any fees or fines, and may not be allowed to graduate", as part of your enrolment or financing paperwork/online form tickbox.
Is it a legally binding contract, though? Who knows, we will probably never find out as the cost of a lawyer to take it to court and actually prove it through contest is far more than the cost of just paying it.
I would bet it is legal, as universities tend to have teams of lawyers on retainer.
### Now the real question is will a <£10 fine actually make you encumbered?
That is a question to look to your university rules for.
I suggest that it probably won't.
That there is a clause saying that encumbered will only be enforced in cases where the debt is >£X.
My own experience with this was that in my last semester of undergrad,
I accidentally had a 3 hour loan book out for several extra hours.
I got a $9 fine.
So I went to the administration to pay it off.
And I found out that I couldn't.
They only do EFTPOS/Credit card transactions of at least $15,
and they do not accept payment via cash. (These two rules came in separately several years apart and I'm not sure anyone noticed that they clash).
But I also found out that encumbrance at my university doesn't occur until you have $24 or more owed.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Yes, they can do it and yes, they do actually do it.
If you look at the rules for your university it probably states something similar to this [from the University of Leicester](http://www2.le.ac.uk/offices/sas2/regulations/documents/sr-3-fees):
>
> 3.42 A student may be required to pay for certain services or facilities, including compulsory study elements of optional modules,
> optional residential activities, printing from computers in the
> open-access computer laboratories, and photocopying. Details are
> provided at the point of service or in departmental literature as
> appropriate.
>
>
> 3.43 No degree, diploma or certificate will be awarded to a student who has an unpaid fee, fine, or charge which is associated with the
> delivery of academic (rather than commercial) services. The University
> will not certify academic credit or previous awards for a student who
> has any such unpaid fee, fine, or charge. A student may make a subject
> access request under the Data Protection Act 1998 for data relating to
> his/her academic studies; such requests will be met but the data will
> not be presented in a certified form.
>
>
>
and you formally agreed to follow the rules as part of your registration. However, in 2014 the Office of Fair Trading [warned universities that this may be illegal](https://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/feb/18/oft-warns-universities-higher-education-groups-student-sanctions) so it's not clear whether they're on legally solid ground if they do so.
Upvotes: 4
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2016/05/16
| 959
| 4,292
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<issue_start>username_0: I have been contacted by an individual with a request to remove their name from an article our journal published two years ago. The individual was identified as a Culture and Foreign Language Advisor of the U.S. Army; their post location (city) was also mentioned. This person claims that the author of this article did not asked their permission to include their name in the article, and did not give informed consent to do so.
**Is this a valid request?** I mean, it may be valid ethically as it may put this person and their relatives at risk, by associating their name with a military program, but since two years have passed since publication and our journal is open-access, this article has been archived on a number of other sites we do not control. So, the info is already out there, no matter how we proceed. Do you think this is also a legal problem? (The journal is located in Central Europe)<issue_comment>username_1: There's probably nothing to be done here in the US, but I'd check with your journal's in house or general counsel. If the authors have stated true facts about a real person that they obtained through legal means, then they and you are probably in the clear. I'm not a lawyer or your lawyer, but in the US, the publication of facts is pretty liberally allowed by law.
As a courtesy to the Army guy, you might ask the authors to submit a revised version that removes his name, but you probably have a First Amendment right not to go down that slippery slope if you want to stand on principles.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: This seems like an unreasonable request to me. The copyright to the text rests with the publisher, and the "moral rights" with the authors of the paper. I don't think anyone who is mentioned in the article has a legal right to request removal from the article. Certainly, this would morally require consent from the authors.
In general, I do not think that there is a legal right to not have one's name mentioned unless that violates state secrecy rights (think, the name "<NAME>" appearing in newspaper articles about the CIA). If the local newspaper mentioned my name in the context of the local cycling club, then this seems to me to be a fair use of their journalistic priviledge that I can not reasonably challenge.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: It is not clear on what basis the individual in question is asking for his name to be removed from a paper written by other people. Assuming your Central European country has freedom of speech protections more or less similar to the U.S. and Western Europe, people generally can't go around telling other people what to write or publish. Even information that potentially puts military personnel at risk is frequently published in newspapers when there are compelling reasons to do so. And in any case, given what you've told us it's impossible to estimate how credible the claim of putting this person at risk is.
So, when you ask if this is a "valid request", I would say yes, but only in the sense that he has a right to request that you remove his name; and you have a right to refuse. At least this is my not-completely-conclusive impression given the somewhat vague information you've provided.
Now, if you want to be extra nice and comply with the request, ethically speaking (and possibly legally speaking) you would probably have to get permission from the authors of the paper. As an author, I would be very upset if a journal editor decided to change the content of a paper I published without getting explicit approval from me.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: If this person was interviewed and was aware they were being interviewed then it's safe to assume that choosing to provide information was an agreement for it to be published unless explicitly requesting anonymity or for certain things not to be repeated.But yes there is potential for legal trouble because military bodies are not always fair and rational and have ties with top people in other governments. However it is unlikely. Your only option is to omit any street addresses and names identifying this person individually and then tell them that it won't change the fact that the information remains unchanged and untouchable in the www.
Upvotes: 0
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2016/05/16
| 397
| 1,529
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<issue_start>username_0: I submitted a 3-paged paper to a journal of MAA at November.
I did not get a responce from the editor until the fifth of May so I decided to send an e-mail to the editor to ask (in a very polite way) if my paper is still under review.
But, I still did not get an answer and now I am not sure what to do.Send another e-mail?
Maybe I am wrong ,but how long should I wait to get a responce for a note which is 3 pages long?Forever?
So, my question is:
Is it appropriate to send another e-mail to the editor or should I wait?<issue_comment>username_1: Yes, it is appropriate after some time. You don't say what the May 5th email said. May 5th was only 11 days ago, so maybe now is not the time yet, but in early June surely you're within your rights to ask what the status is.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: For what it's worth, May 5 was likely in the middle of the end-of-semester rush of projects, make-up student work, writing and giving and grading final exams, meeting with students who need at least Grade X to graduate, etc. In addition to this, your email could have gotten lost in the avalanche of student and administrative emails during this time. On the other hand, presumably an editor would have weathered this many times before . . .
I suggest looking at the calendar for the college/university the editor is affiliated with, and after the spring semester has been officially over about a week, I think it would be reasonable to send another (polite) email.
Upvotes: 2
|
2016/05/16
| 563
| 2,426
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<issue_start>username_0: As a graduate student, I often discuss the performance and abilities of undergraduates in very frank terms with fellow graduate students. However, I would never do so in front of other undergraduates. To do so seems clearly unprofessional. My question is, should faculty members have the same code of conduct towards graduate students? Is it inappropriate for a professor to discuss negative intellectual or personal qualities of their graduate students in front of other graduate students? I ask because a faculty member at my institution routinely criticizes the abilities and progress of one of their students in front of other students. I wonder if someone should have a discussion with the faculty member to stop this behavior.
**Note:** I can imagine scenarios in which it is appropriate for a professor to speak frankly, in confidence, with one student about another student's abilities, for example if students are having issues working with each other or there are concerns about the quality of work. But this is not what I'm talking about. To give a specific example, imagine a faculty member at a dinner with several other faculty and students, and loudly saying things like "Johnny can't even come up with testable hypothesis", "I'm probably just going to have to hand him a project", and "he'll get his PhD but he won't be successful in academia."<issue_comment>username_1: The answer to your two question are: YES! - Faculty members should have the same code of conduct towards graduate students? Why should an undergrad be treated with any less (or more) respect than a grad student.
And...
NO! It is not appropriate for a professor to discuss negative intellectual or personal qualities of their graduate students in front of other graduate students?
This all falls under the realm of basic human decency.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: It depends. In academia, rigorous criticism of a person's ideas and intellectual qualities is an integral part of the job. As the saying goes, "if you cannot take the heat, get out of the kitchen". The presumption should be that academic work is **not** a private matter, although there are, of course, some exceptions (such as peer review of a manuscript). On the other hand, "personal" qualities are a private matter, except insofar as they bear upon one's academic work. In general, *ad hominem* attacks are frowned-upon.
Upvotes: 2
|
2016/05/16
| 1,123
| 4,457
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<issue_start>username_0: I am a first-year psychology doctoral student (PsyD) and am forming my dissertation topic. I am having trouble finding a really good book or article that outlines the guts of what makes a good dissertation. Really understanding the core purpose of this requirement for my degree is important to me (instead of just ping-ponging through the process until it's done) because I am creative and have some unorthodox ideas that I'd like to fit into the dissertation framework. So knowing the limits will help me be creative within them. The faculty in my program are great but I am a bit of an anomaly with my goals and need to gather all the resources I can.
FWIW, right now I am looking at an integral lit review between <NAME>'s "emotional system" in Family Systems Theory and the core Buddhist teachings of Vipassana. The goal will be to show that they were "proposing" the same core construct of human functioning. Should be very challenging.
Thank you!<issue_comment>username_1: I can easily suggest you some articles, which enlighten me a lot about puuting my ideas into theoretical framework which is one of the most important part to create outline for dissertation.
* <NAME>, <NAME> (2014). Understanding, Selecting, And
Integrating a Theoretical Framework in Dissertation Research:
Creating the Bluepring for your "House".
* <NAME>, <NAME>
(2011). Developing a Theoretical Framework
If you wish to dig in more, those articles will be great startpoint for you, "Research Methodology" is one of the most important issue you have to understand deeply, in order to develop your research perfectly from beginning. So for this point, I can suggest you "reverse engineering" minded approach, do critique for your own research, here is an amazint article guideline for critiquing research in both quantitative and qualitative research approaches:
* <NAME>, <NAME>, <NAME> (2007). Step-by-step
quife to critiquing research. Part 1: quantitative research.
* Michael
Coughlan, <NAME>, <NAME> (2007). Step-by-step quife to
critiquing research. Part 2: qualitative research.
I'm sure they'll give you a lot idea about how to develop your framework and what details you should consider. Additionally, try to look for a Research Methodology course from your university or over internet!
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: If on a first year you know what your thesis' title would be, you could either be hallucinating or you are genius and a postgraduate degree is pretty easy for you. Kidding aside couple of things:
**Put a Title On a Work That is Done**: Ok, I have a thesis with the title: "Internet 4.0, Where Digital Horses are Running Wild". Does this mean, I did any of that? Absolutely not! So you see put a title that it represents your work; the one that you already achieved. This brings me to the second point.
**Writing is Challenging**: Writing of a thesis is a challenging process, and not everything will come full circle, so sometimes you will need drop things, which means your thesis' title needs to be modified. More than that, you might start in one domain and you realize you were wrong for the last N months. Yes I know the supervisor need to monitor you through your path, but not all the time they come through.
**Narrow Things Down Over Time**: You choose a domain, and as you go along, you should narrow things down. Don't be so sure at first, keep working at it and see where your contribution will be. Then when you are done, put a title on it. The whole idea is flexibility and not pinning yourself down from the start.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: >
> The goal will be to show that they were "proposing" the same core
> construct of human functioning.
>
>
>
You should consider starting with a question, rather than a preselected answer. For example, consider the goal of
>
> Analyze the similarities and differences between the constructs of
> human functioning proposed by <NAME> "emotional system" in
> Family Systems Theory and the core Buddhist teachings of Vipassana.
>
>
>
The difference lies in how you will view anything that suggests differences. With your current goal you could be tempted to ignore or downplay differences. With a more open-minded goal you will be more able to give balanced treatment to everything you find out during your research.
Upvotes: 2
|
2016/05/17
| 1,783
| 7,604
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<issue_start>username_0: BACKGROUND
I am attending an academic (engineering) conference where I am schedule to speak for my paper which was accepted, using MS PowerPoint/videos to assist my talk. This is my first conference. Currently I'm only bringing nice clothes and my lap top and the basics. Due to lack of money, I'm only arriving on the day I'm scheduled to speak, then leaving immediately (cheapest roundtrip available).
QUESTION
Am I expected to bring a poster presentation to the conference? Or is it typical to only give a talk (with a powerpoint, etc)? I've checked the website and it says nothing about posters - but I don't want to be embarrassed and not have one. I tried calling but couldn't reach an informed person. Am I expected to be at the conference the entire time, or just for my talk?<issue_comment>username_1: Usually if you are presenting a poster, it's because you
* submit a poster abstract to a call for posters, and it is accepted, or
* submit a paper, and you are informed that it is accepted for a poster presentation instead of a talk, or
* are otherwise informed by the organizers to bring a poster.
If you don't fall in any of the categories above, then in my experience, you aren't presenting a poster.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: *Am I expected to be at the conference the entire time, or just for my talk?*
Many people arrive late, skip sessions, and/or leave early. However there are several reasons to minimise this:
* You can pick up a lot from the other talks. Not necessarily specifics but things to consider, that might be relevant to your own work.
* If everyone only attended for their own talk, there'd be no audience.
* Timing tends to slip, but if someone's missing you can end up speaking earlier than planned - if you try to cut it too fine you could make things tricky for youreself or the session chair (who you should consider your friend).
* The break sessions could be called "networking sessions" by career-focussed optimists, i.e. good informal discussions happen there.
So *as an absolute minimum* you should be there in good time for the start of the session in which you're scheduled to speak. You should also stick around for the whole session, which is likely to be a group of talks more or less related to what you do. Some conferences require you to upload your presentation onto their system before starting (to avoid fiddling with laptop cables every few minutes) so you need to allow for this, checking the instructions.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: While username_1's answer covers the relevant cases here - and your letter (e-mail) of acceptance should clearly point to the kind of presentation you're supposed to give - if still in doubt, contact officials from the conference. If neither said e-mail or the web page of the conference tells precisely what you need to do (which is quite sad) get in contact with someone like a *Conference Program Coordinator*, a representative of the chairing committee, or your responsible session chair (if known yet) and kindly ask to provide this information.
If your paper abstract was accepted for a talk (*oral presentation*) you're most likely not required to bring a poster. On the other hand if presenting a poster some venues/conferences might chose to additionally do a *Poster Preview* that require the authors to prepare a very brief presentation (1..3 minutes, just three slides) along with the poster.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: Seems like other answers have already covered the bit about the why you would want to attend other sessions that the one you give a talk on. I can add one more bit there, that is if you only are only there for your own talk it *may* give the impression that you do not consider other people's work worthy of your time.
Besides that, regarding the main question of bringing a poster or not: all conferences I have attended so far (about half a dozen) and conferences I have considered applying to considered poster and oral presentations as separate forms of presentation, which makes most sense to me.
So I'd say **unless** it is specified somewhere (letter/mail of acceptance, conference guidelines etc) that speakers are expected to have a poster presentation as well, I'd assume that you are **not** expected to bring a poster.
But of course, when in doubt, check with the organizaton committee or conference administration, that's what they are for.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_5: Your talk will usually be one in a block of four or five talks (a "session"); in my field (mathematics), it usually looks bad if you do not attend the rest of the talks in your session. As far as attending *all* the talks, it can be very mentally exhausting to attend and try to concentrate on every talk so in some ways it is wise to plan to attend the talks that might be interesting and skip the others. However, if you are attending only one day of a weeklong conference, you should attend and make yourself seen throughout the day (especially if the conference is funding your attendance in any way).
If your are giving a talk and it is described as such, plan to show up with a powerpoint presentation. Unless a poster is explicitly mentioned, it will not be needed.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_6: >
> Am I expected to bring a poster presentation to the conference? Or is it typical to only give a talk (with a powerpoint, etc)?
>
>
>
It depends on the form of your presentation of your paper and the conference rules. I won't say that it applies for all conferences, but as far as I know (and was involved):
* If you have **oral presentation** you are supposed to have you slides with you in form of `.pdf`, `.ppt`, `.pps` or any other form defined in conference rules. Sometimes you are expected/allowed to use your own laptop. Sometimes you are allowed to use only the PC provided by the organisers.
* If you have **poster presentation** you are supposed to bring your poster with you on your expenses (you = they who paid the conference fee, tickets, etc.). It is recommended to bring one "big" poster to be displayed, several A4 versions and visit cards.
You will be informed about the mandatory details when your paper will be accepted. Some conferences can be attended with flash disk, clothes and wallet only without any discomfort. When returning from some conferences you will mutter "I should have taken all the stuff with me." I strongly recommend asking someone who attended the conference before for details...
---
>
> Am I expected to be at the conference the entire time, or just for my talk?
>
>
>
It depends on you and on the one who you represent (your advisor, your faculty, university, employer).
You are expected to be there to present your work. Some conferences maintain blacklist and whitelist of organisations based on presenters attendance on their speeches/poster sessions.
Keep in mind that conferences are there to present your work (and proof it was presented is mandatory to get funds), to know what the other groups are doing and to be in contact with them. I think second and third shall not be neglected.
You wrote It is matter of lacking money. Who is lacking the money, you personally or your faculty? If *you* are lacking money, don't bother - the conference fee and living cost shall be covered by your faculty - you are representing them on regular business trip. If the faculty has limitted budget they will pay you at least one whole day at the conference so try to push as much as you can out of it. For you personally, obviously.
Upvotes: 0
|
2016/05/17
| 1,074
| 4,665
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<issue_start>username_0: **When corresponding with administrators and/or academics regarding graduate school/PhD applications, are there any guidelines about which e-mail address to use (personal vs. professional)?**
In the non-academic world, it should be fairly obvious that [you shouldn't use the address of your current employer to look for a new job](http://www.askamanager.org/2013/07/not-a-good-idea-applying-for-jobs-from-your-current-work-email-address.html), but this doesn't necessarily translate to academic positions.
On the other hand, an address associated with a position with hard time constraints (such as an address at the university you're doing your Bachelor's/Master's at) seems like a no-brainer, because the people at your department probably *hope* you get a job somewhere else.
However, what about positions with "soft" time constraints, i.e.: "If we manage to find money for you by `date`, we might take you on"?-- On one hand, everyone knows that your future is uncertain and so constantly being on the lookout for future opportunities should be understandable if not even supported... but on the other hand, it entails you don't have "faith" that you'll get an extension at your current place... which means you either don't have faith in your own ability, the ability of the department to get funds, or the ability for *anyone* to get funds (e.g. in times of general cutbacks).
Lastly, irrespective of whatever stigmas (incorrectly) using one's current professional address may be, [using an address at a well-respected organization *does* have an impact in the academic world over compared to using a personal address](https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/2872/50609) despite that academic quality should be based only on its own merit.<issue_comment>username_1: I am not aware of any guidelines on this, and doubt it will have any impact whatsoever (after all, your current position/university should be clear from your CV). However, there is another reason for using your personal email: access. If you apply for a job somewhere else, there is a good chance you will eventually lose your current professional email adress. And this type of correspondance can be useful to hold on to.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: It's not clear what you mean by "professional" email address - are you saying, should you contact universities you're interested in applying to using your current work email account?
Generally no, both for the reason @username_1 stated, but also because that's not "your" email account, and you should have no expectation of privacy. If it's public knowledge at work that you're applying to grad school then perhaps it's a non-issue, but we've heard of at least one case where an applicant's plans to go back to school were "outed" by an IT administrator who was looking through his emails, and told his manager.
Also, if you're using your work email to do personal stuff, most would assume you're using work TIME to do it, and that's considered stealing.
Maybe I've misunderstood the situation completely though.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: There are professional email addresses that have no connection with a place of employment. In many professions you can have an email address at your professional society, which serves both purposes. It shows a separation of your professional and personal life, does not link you with your employer, and also shows you to respect your profession enough to use the appropriate professional body.
In the case of computing the ACM and the BCS (in the UK) offer email addresses to members, which can then redirect to your personal or employment address.
I am not sure how many professional bodies do this, but this would be the proper way to go.
I have a number of email addresses, each one associated with a different aspect of the many roles that I play as an employee, a professional, an officer of my professional body, a parent and a private individual. I use the relevant address as appropriate in each situation. Just having two addresses is just not enough for busy well connected professional.
When I see applications to university I certainly note if inappropriate addresses are used. Inappropriate addresses are more usually seen in undergraduate applications that postgraduate ones, but they do make indications of professionalism in the subject.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_4: Does your academic institution provide alumni email addresses?
That would be a good balance of emphasize the credibility of your academic institution while ensuring your permanent access and control over the email account.
Upvotes: 0
|
2016/05/17
| 1,562
| 6,558
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<issue_start>username_0: How was funding of research done in the medieval universities?<issue_comment>username_1: A lot of research during the Middle Ages was funded through the patronage system. Scientist and other scholars would receive financial support from aristocratic families, royalty, and even from clergy. For example, Galileo, out of appreciation of the support of the Medici family, named the moons of Jupiter after several members of the Medici family. Unfortunately, these names did not stick. This is act is similar to a stadium taking the name of a sponsoring business.
Another method of research funding was self-funding. Entrepreneurial scientist would find personal sources of income. Kepler supposedly published horoscopes while Galileo built scientific instruments for income. Scientist who were rich either by birth or through savvy business practice were called "Gentlemen Scientist." Among such gentlemen scientist includes <NAME> and <NAME>
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: I'm not a History scholar but I think there are two questions since a lot of what we would call research nowadays was conducted, and thus funded, outside of the few universities (like Bologna and Oxford) that existed in the Middle Ages and that were mainly teaching institutions in the fields of law and theology.
Major contributors to "research" funding were:
* **The Catholic Church**, even indirectly as many scientific discoveries were made by members of the clergy during the long idle hours their occupation offered them.
* **Monarchs of various kinds** funded work that was likely to put them at advantage in **military** power, especially in what we would today call engineering, chemistry and ballistics, as well as **trade** and in particular, navigation that was a lead motivation to study astronomy, mathematical modeling, geometry, as well as **agriculture** (precursor to today's botany) and other forms of natural resources extraction such as mining. The list wouldn't be complete without **arts and architecture** that preoccupied reigning powers pretty much everywhere on Earth and that triggered discoveries in geometry, engineering, "classical" physics (that wasn't quite classical yet).
There were also privately or self-funded scholars who investigated occult subjects, such as alchemy and astrology. Astrology in particular was a profitable activity if you counted rich individuals in your "portfolio". These disciplines that seem frivolous to us actually drew a lot of attention and triggered developments that we would today recognizes as scientific discoveries, for example in chemical methods and mathematics.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: Your question is based on a wrong premise: There was **no** funding specifically for research, because there was no research at medieval universities. Initially, they were created as "self-help" groups of students wishing to learn, first and foremost, the practice of law that was becoming more and more important to urban life. For this purpose, they banded together to pay teachers. (You can find detailed accounts of this in the [Wikipedia page](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieval_university) or the answers to [this question on History.SE](https://history.stackexchange.com/questions/28819/why-were-the-first-universities-created)). This quickly included also canon law, which brought increasingly many theologians to teach at universities (who, as <NAME> points out in his comment, did make many significant contributions to the knowledge of the time).
As username_1 points out, the first research in the modern sense (that cannot be described as doing philosophy) was carried out in the Renaissance by individuals not affiliated with any institution of learning, who were funded either through private means (inheritances, church postings that left them ample free time) or patronage -- in particular, by dedicating self-published monographs to various members of nobility. These later organized themselves *outside of the universities* in learned societies such as the Royal Society (founded in 1660, but the first seems to be the Sodalitas Litterarum Vistulana, founded in 1488 in Cracow). These initially received no funding (apart from the wealth of their members; for example, <NAME>, who built many of the experiments for the Society, became very rich by his involvement in the rebuilding of London after the Great Fire), but later received (modest) grants from the government (hence the name, Royal Society). The role of the universities (as opposed to individual researchers, which might or might not hold posts at one) was seen as that of *disseminating* the new knowledge.
The idea of universities as a place where research *should* be done (i.e., professors being hired and paid specifically for their research in addition to teaching, rather than research just being what a good teacher did on their own) is a modern one, arising in the beginning of the 19th century with the foundation of the German universities based on <NAME>'s ideal (which also strongly influenced the new American universities). To quote:
>
> Just as primary instruction makes the teacher possible, so he renders
> himself dispensable through schooling at the secondary level. The
> university teacher is thus no longer a teacher and the student is no
> longer a pupil. Instead the student conducts research on his own
> behalf and the professor supervises his research and supports him in
> it.
>
>
>
Much like modern universities, they were funded by the state: A portion of the tax money was distributed among the universities, which distributed their portion among the departments, which distributed their portion among the professors to pay for their salary and any staff or resources they might require for their research. (Needless to say, there was heavy fighting at all levels about *how* the money was distributed.)
Funding of *specific* research via grants is an introduction of the 20th century, when technical and scientific innovation increasingly required expensive equipment. Initially, this was done by corporations and private industrialists, but World War II lead to increasing government support of science and technology. This lead to the creation of national funding agencies after the war. (For example, the NSF was founded in 1950, although the German DFG, founded in 1949, actually has their root in the "Notgemeinschaft der Deutschen Wissenschaft" founded in 1920.)
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]
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2016/05/17
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<issue_start>username_0: I'll be starting as an adjunct professor soon at a smaller university, and I'm starting to prepare lectures and slides for teaching there.
In the future, I'm also thinking of publishing a textbook based on the lectures and slides I prepare.
I'm trying to find out who owns the copyright to the lectures, slides (and possibly textbook) that I prepare. It doesn't seem clear to me who owns the copyright - is it the university or the professor?
One of my professor friends told me that she prepared the slides for her own course over many years to replace the publisher slides, and she has a copyright on the slides, though of course not on the standard textbook she's using.<issue_comment>username_1: That's more a legal question than an academic question. I've taught for two universities, both in the University System of Georgia, and their policies seem to say that the professor owns copyright to material he prepares.
In the absence of a stipulation to the contrary in your contract or the university's IP policies, if incorporated into the contract by reference, my non-legal advice is to put a copyright notice in your name on each slide set. (I do that anyway to try to discourage students from uploading my slides to the various "help" sites, and to provide a basis for a DMCA takedown notice if they do.)
Edited to add the bit about policies, and a hat tip to ff524!
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: This answer is about the US only. United States copyright law has a concept called "[work for hire](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Work_for_hire)." The copyright of a work for hire belongs to the employer, if the work fits in one of the following categories:
>
> 1) a work prepared by an employee within the scope of his or her employment; or (2) a work specially ordered or commissioned for use as a contribution to a collective work, as a part of a motion picture or other audiovisual work, as a translation, as a supplementary work, as a compilation, as an instructional text, as a test, as answer material for a test, or as an atlas, if the parties expressly agree in a written instrument signed by them that the work shall be considered a work made for hire.
>
>
>
Materials such as lecture notes or scholarly papers have traditionally never been considered works for hire. This is sometimes referred to as the "[teacher exception](http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10755-009-9124-1)." For some history and explanation, see [this AAUP page](http://www.aaup.org/issues/copyright-distance-education-intellectual-property/faculty-and-faculty-unions-2005). There are a couple of legal precedents described in the same AAUP article, Weinstein v. University of Illinois and Hays v. Sony Corp. These court decisions say that materials like scholarly papers are not a "requirement or duty" of the job, and that a school doesn't "supervise its faculty" in writing this kind of thing. A later Supreme Court ruling in 1989, [username_2 for Non-Violence v. Reid](https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/490/730/), was not specifically about academic work, but is important because it changed the criteria that had been assumed in Weinstein. The 2006 case [Bosch v Ball-Kell](http://www.ncte.org/cccc/committees/ip/2007developments/boschvballkell) reaffirmed the teacher exception, but may have had a negative effect on teachers' rights because it held that fair use applied to lectures. The AAUP article also describes some good reasons why the school probably doesn't even *want* ownership of the copyright. It is not well positioned to benefit from ownership, and ownership could entangle it in legal disputes.
Many schools have policies in which they attempt to lay out what they consider to be a work for hire. These policies have little legal force, because under US law, work for hire is defined by the law. A work cannot be made into a work for hire by the unilateral declaration of an employer that it is so, and even an agreement between the employer and employee may have no legal effect. Usually a school's policies simply reads like a summary of the law and historical practices.
All of this was basically settled law for many decades, until distance education became a big thing. At that point, many schools started to envision an online course as a type of commodity that they could own and exploit, and they started to get more aggressive about trying to call online course materials works for hire.
But in general, any lectures, slides, textbooks, or scholarly articles you write belong to you and not your school, and this is true regardless of whether the school posts a policy on its web site claiming otherwise, and possibly even regardless of whether they get you to sign a contract stating otherwise. You are on the strongest ground if your work is not written to the school's specification and if the school never had any say over whether the result was OK.
Putting your byline or a copyright message on materials such as lecture slides has no real effect on anything. You own the copyright automatically as soon as an original, copyright-eligible work is written down, assuming it's not a work for hire. By modern copyright law, the only real purpose of a copyright notice is that if you have to sue an infringer, it makes it harder for them to make the defense that they didn't know the work was copyrighted -- but that's a flimsy defense in any case, since copyright is automatic these days.
If you want to prevent the university from using your materials under the fair use exception to copyright, an [analysis](http://www.ncte.org/cccc/committees/ip/2007developments/boschvballkell) of Bosch v Ball-Kell gives the following guidance:
>
> This case also suggests that publishing teaching materials, documented plans to use them in research or a textbook, or other demonstration of market value can give faculty greater control of their teaching materials if a dispute arises over them.
>
>
>
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]
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2016/05/17
| 1,845
| 7,621
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<issue_start>username_0: In particular, besides the more obvious fact that your courses and qualifying exams are going to be in different fields, are there any subtler reasons to prefer one department over another? Some possible refinements of my question are:
1. Is there a significant difference in resources available to logicians in one department over another? (Perhaps philosophy departments tend to be more well-funded than mathematics departments, or perhaps there are more fellowship opportunities available to students in math departments.)
2. Are there any significant differences in academic expectations? For instance, are there perhaps greater expectations to publish more frequently when in one department versus the other, or does perhaps one department take its language requirement more seriously than the other?
3. Related to the previous question, are there any significant cultural differences between the two departments?
4. Does choice of department have any impact on postgraduate academic job prospects?
5. Is it possible at all, once you are in one department as a graduate student, to switch to the other?
I ask these as general questions, though here's some information about my personal circumstances if they make any particular answer more apparent:
I am currently a third-year undergraduate math major interested in graduate study in logic. I have the dubious and unsavory distinction of having a departmental GPA lower than my overall GPA, but outside of a course in ethics and a (spectacular) course in philosophical logic, my philosophy-related coursework has tended to focus more on continental philosophy. In short, it is not clear to me that I do better in one field than another (I have done well in all my philosophy/philosophy-related classes, while I have done either spectacularly well or spectacularly horribly in my math classes), and I deeply enjoy learning about both. I have also heard rumors that philosophy graduate admissions tend to be, by virtue of self-selection and small entering class sizes, much more competitive than math graduate admissions, but given my own record, it's not clear that admissions to one department will be easier than admissions to another (though this has little to do with whether one type of program is better than the other).<issue_comment>username_1: That's more a legal question than an academic question. I've taught for two universities, both in the University System of Georgia, and their policies seem to say that the professor owns copyright to material he prepares.
In the absence of a stipulation to the contrary in your contract or the university's IP policies, if incorporated into the contract by reference, my non-legal advice is to put a copyright notice in your name on each slide set. (I do that anyway to try to discourage students from uploading my slides to the various "help" sites, and to provide a basis for a DMCA takedown notice if they do.)
Edited to add the bit about policies, and a hat tip to ff524!
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: This answer is about the US only. United States copyright law has a concept called "[work for hire](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Work_for_hire)." The copyright of a work for hire belongs to the employer, if the work fits in one of the following categories:
>
> 1) a work prepared by an employee within the scope of his or her employment; or (2) a work specially ordered or commissioned for use as a contribution to a collective work, as a part of a motion picture or other audiovisual work, as a translation, as a supplementary work, as a compilation, as an instructional text, as a test, as answer material for a test, or as an atlas, if the parties expressly agree in a written instrument signed by them that the work shall be considered a work made for hire.
>
>
>
Materials such as lecture notes or scholarly papers have traditionally never been considered works for hire. This is sometimes referred to as the "[teacher exception](http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10755-009-9124-1)." For some history and explanation, see [this AAUP page](http://www.aaup.org/issues/copyright-distance-education-intellectual-property/faculty-and-faculty-unions-2005). There are a couple of legal precedents described in the same AAUP article, Weinstein v. University of Illinois and Hays v. Sony Corp. These court decisions say that materials like scholarly papers are not a "requirement or duty" of the job, and that a school doesn't "supervise its faculty" in writing this kind of thing. A later Supreme Court ruling in 1989, [username_2 for Non-Violence v. Reid](https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/490/730/), was not specifically about academic work, but is important because it changed the criteria that had been assumed in Weinstein. The 2006 case [Bosch v Ball-Kell](http://www.ncte.org/cccc/committees/ip/2007developments/boschvballkell) reaffirmed the teacher exception, but may have had a negative effect on teachers' rights because it held that fair use applied to lectures. The AAUP article also describes some good reasons why the school probably doesn't even *want* ownership of the copyright. It is not well positioned to benefit from ownership, and ownership could entangle it in legal disputes.
Many schools have policies in which they attempt to lay out what they consider to be a work for hire. These policies have little legal force, because under US law, work for hire is defined by the law. A work cannot be made into a work for hire by the unilateral declaration of an employer that it is so, and even an agreement between the employer and employee may have no legal effect. Usually a school's policies simply reads like a summary of the law and historical practices.
All of this was basically settled law for many decades, until distance education became a big thing. At that point, many schools started to envision an online course as a type of commodity that they could own and exploit, and they started to get more aggressive about trying to call online course materials works for hire.
But in general, any lectures, slides, textbooks, or scholarly articles you write belong to you and not your school, and this is true regardless of whether the school posts a policy on its web site claiming otherwise, and possibly even regardless of whether they get you to sign a contract stating otherwise. You are on the strongest ground if your work is not written to the school's specification and if the school never had any say over whether the result was OK.
Putting your byline or a copyright message on materials such as lecture slides has no real effect on anything. You own the copyright automatically as soon as an original, copyright-eligible work is written down, assuming it's not a work for hire. By modern copyright law, the only real purpose of a copyright notice is that if you have to sue an infringer, it makes it harder for them to make the defense that they didn't know the work was copyrighted -- but that's a flimsy defense in any case, since copyright is automatic these days.
If you want to prevent the university from using your materials under the fair use exception to copyright, an [analysis](http://www.ncte.org/cccc/committees/ip/2007developments/boschvballkell) of Bosch v Ball-Kell gives the following guidance:
>
> This case also suggests that publishing teaching materials, documented plans to use them in research or a textbook, or other demonstration of market value can give faculty greater control of their teaching materials if a dispute arises over them.
>
>
>
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]
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2016/05/17
| 1,413
| 5,873
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<issue_start>username_0: Are there mathematics seminars to attend in the summer, or do they typically only occur during the academic year? I am referring to American universities.
An idea I had last night was to YouTube some math seminars to see what talks I can watch quickly - talks are about an hour long. I found a good PDEs talk from a Princeton seminar. I hope to find more talks that are available online.
Is this not advisable? These are talks given by experts, and as a lowly master's student, I naturally do not understand about 90% of the mathematics being talked about and written on the chalkboard. I am mainly just trying to get some sense of purpose of, say, studying PDEs, its difficulties, etc.
I am also making progress on a master's thesis, but my gut feeling is that this problem is too narrowly focused and in the end may not help me figure out better my research interests in a PhD program.
What else could I do?<issue_comment>username_1: If you want to figure out if a PhD in a subject is right for you, get involved in research. PhDs are about doing research, not taking classes or attending lectures. A PhD program is an apprenticeship for becoming a researcher and the only way you'll know if you like it is by gaining experience with research.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: In pure math, research seminar talks are notoriously specialized, and not always well done. To give you an idea, I'm a postdoc doing research in PDE, and I've gone to many a PDE seminar that left me in the dark after the first slide, because the subject matter was too far from my own corner of PDE, or because the speaker did a bad job of introducing his work to non-specialists, or a combination of the two. At the very least, as someone who's "looking to get into PDE", you're very far from being in the target audience of these seminars.
You're better off looking at graduate-level textbooks in various subjects. This isn't really a window into the research world, but it's likely the best thing you can do right now to get a sense of what you like. For PDE, Evans's book is a standard choice.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: I think it's entirely reasonable for you to be at the point you are "but still wondering"... Indeed, of necessity, most master's theses in math are pretty narrow or specialized or not-entirely-"research", and that's fine, but that experience is different from the "more genuine" version that should happen in a PhD.
Not clear that you'll find YouTube videos of everything you'd want to see, but it can't hurt anything, unless you simply get discouraged.
Also, I'd bet that you'll find more instances of advanced graduate course notes by major contributors/experts than you'll find videos of their lectures. This would allow you to examine the stuff more calmly, and at your own pace. Maybe more coherent than lectures, too.
It is certainly difficult to make choices with insufficient information, but/and there's sorta the "meta" question of "which information to try to acquire?", which makes it worse. Thus, the perhaps-better coherence of advanced grad course lecture notes might be both grounded in more careful (less time-constrained) discussion, but still try be aiming forward and touching contemporary issues.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: >
> Are there mathematics seminars to attend in the summer, or do they typically only occur during the academic year?
>
>
>
I think none of the answers thus far actually addressed this. At most US universities, seminars don't happen, at least not regularly, during the summer. One reason is many faculty will be traveling. However, sometimes some people, possibly grad students, will organize an informal seminar to read through some books or papers. If other people aren't doing it, you can ask around to see if people are interested and organize it yourself.
>
> What else could I do?
>
>
>
In place of seminars in the summer, there are usually lots of conferences and workshops as well as summer schools specifically geared towards young people. Look around for what's available (you can try asking some professors if they have suggestions) and go to what you can. Many of these have funding for students, but unfortunately most of the funding may have already been given away by now.
**Edit:** By the way, it's not expected that you know what you want to research when you enter PhD programs (in math in the US, say). Many people who start aren't even sure if research is for them. Most programs are designed so that you can use the first couple of years figuring out what you want to do. (And even later, research interests may change---I may be doing something completely different in a year or two from what I'm doing now.)
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_5: Try reading the Princeton Companion to Mathematics. The editor insisted that the articles were actually comprehensible!
The fundamental problem in selecting research areas is that how an area looks from the inside once you actually know it, is very different to how looks from the outside. This is particularly the case when people tell you about the applications or nice pictures -- these really tell you nothing about what doing research in the area is like.
What sort of problems do you like to solve? What sort of techniques do you like to choose? can you see yourself fiddling with an integral all day? do you like abstract nonsense or prefer things more concrete?
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_6: I have a Ph. D. in electrical engineering. Most people would think my dissertation was full of math -- applied mathematics (linear algebra). Most math professors [at least my U.S. university] were mostly interested in infinite dimensional work and the like, so a distinction should be made between PhD mathematics and mathematics in general.
Upvotes: 0
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2016/05/18
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<issue_start>username_0: Is there any data for the average number of papers published per year by individuals at different career stages (ph.d. student, postdoc, tenure-track, tenured associate/full professor)? It would obviously be dependent on research areas and I also realize that such data may not be easy to obtain - hence the question to put it out and hope to get some direction for my study. I am interested in data from the Computer Science and/or Applied Mathematics fields, but answers for other research areas could also be interesting. In absence of data, anecdotal experience in one's branch may also be helpful.
UPDATE:
- Obviously, the number of paper per year is highly field specific. So is citation counts (which includes all the analysis it comes with such as average citation counts, h factors, impact factor of a journal and so on).
- Several countries such as the New Zealand, have their own research evaluation system in which one of the important evaluation criterion for research-groups or even individuals is the number of papers published in one to six years span. The data for average number of papers by individuals in different disciplines may put these evaluations in perspective with the global averages. e.g., individual publishing two paper per year in a sub branch where the average number of papers per year by individuals is one should not be directly compared to those publishing 10 papers a year in subbranches in which 15 papers per year is the average norm.
In short, the purpose of obtaining such data is to provide corrections to the evaluation systems in such countries.<issue_comment>username_1: <NAME> tried to answer a similar question in a blog post [The Single Number that Best Predicts Professor Tenure: A Case Study in Quantitative Career Planning](http://calnewport.com/blog/2013/02/17/the-single-number-that-best-predicts-professor-tenure-a-case-study-in-quantitative-career-planning/). He is a computer scientist (and therefore values conference proceedings rather than journal articles).
His main findings were that:
>
> 1. **The successful young professors published a lot.** On average, they published 25 conference papers during their first four years. The non-successful professors published only 10. (Recall, in computer science, it’s competitive conference publications, not journal publications, that matter.) There was, however, high variance in these numbers. I was struck more by the floor function: the successful professors all published at least 4 conference papers a year (with some, but not all, publishing quite a bit more)....
> 2. **Neither the successful nor non-successful professors strayed far from the key conferences in their niche.**
> 3. **The biggest differentiating factor between the two groups was citations.**
>
>
>
More broadly, I do not know of any systematic study or dataset that would answer your question across other disciplines.
**Edit based upon clarification of the question**
The Computer Research Association has a white paper, [Evaluating Computer Scientists and Engineers For Promotion and Tenure](http://cra.org/resources/best-practice-memos/evaluating-computer-scientists-and-engineers-for-promotion-and-tenure/) about promotion and tenure for CS and engineering faculty. The authors note that:
>
> Relying on journal publications as the sole demonstration of scholarly achievement, especially counting such publications to determine whether they exceed a prescribed threshold, ignores significant evidence of accomplishment in computer science and engineering.
>
>
>
Another source of information on this topic is a a presentation by [<NAME>](https://www.amstat.org/education/caucuspowerpoints/2010/kathryn-chaloner-pandt.pdf) that is on the American Statistical Association's webpage and lists expected publication counts for Statisticians/Applied Mathematicians (who obviously focus on statistics).
For promotion
>
> 1. to Research Associate Professor: 25-30 publications total, with at
> least 5 statistical methods papers, at least 5-10 health science
> publications, at least 3-5 first authored papers (or first-author
> equivalent publications), and at least 3 top-tier publications. The
> required numbers of papers can be lower, provided the impact is
> higher. Well funded on grants, but do not need to be PI on any.
> 2. to Tenured Associate Professor: Same minimum numbers of
> publications as Research Associate Professors, except that about
> twice as many statistical methods and top-tier publications are
> expected. Have similar funding requirements.
>
>
>
This presentation also goes on to talk about quality of publications rather than quantity.
**In summary,** publication count can be important, but quality is also important. If you're looking for career advice, strike a balance between publishing high quality and high quantity papers. Also, other products such as patents and conference proceedings may also advance your career.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: Italy introduced a few years ago a habilitation process which involves heavy bibliometric evaluation, and in the process they computed median values for all the professors in Italian universities for:
* number of papers published in 10 years
* citations per year
* a sort of normalized H-index: the number h such that the person has h papers with score >=h, where a paper published Y years ago with C citations has score 4C/Y. (more precisely defined [here (Italian)](https://web.archive.org/web/20160412235005/http://www.anvur.org/attachments/article/253/normalizzazione_indicatori_0.pdf) and [here](http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11192-007-1722-z)).
The medians are separate by discipline and academic role (associate and full professor only --- not for assistants, unfortunately). You can find them here: [associate](https://web.archive.org/web/20180403144338/http://www.anvur.org/attachments/article/253/Tabella_3_mediane_candidati_abilitazione_PA_BIB.pdf) [full](https://web.archive.org/web/20180403143930/http://www.anvur.org/attachments/article/253/Tabella_2_mediane_candidati_abilitazione_PO_BIB.pdf), and a legend for the codes of the scientific disciplines is [here](http://attiministeriali.miur.it/media/174798/allegato%20a_def.pdf). The documents are in Italian, but you can google-translate them (or guess the meaning of most words, it's not too difficult for an English speaker).
For instance, in computer science (01/B1) the medians for an associate professor are
* 10 journal papers / 10 years,
* 9.15 citations / year
* "contemporary H-index" 5.
and for a full professor
* 12 papers / 10 years
* 14.8 citations / year
* "contemporary H-index" 6.
The calculations are of course imperfect, but they are very interesting to browse and give an idea of how wildly these numbers vary across different fields. For instance, the typical professor in nuclear physics (02/A1) publishes 59.5 papers over 10 years and gets over 104 citations per year, while one in mathematical logic (01/A1) publishes 5 papers in 10 years and gets 1.74 citations per year.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: In regard to the **data**, I would suggest you to look at NSF's [Survey of Doctorate Recipients (SDR)](http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/srvydoctoratework) (select Data tab for data sets). A potentially more convenient or flexible way to access and select data of interest might be via NSF's [SESTAT Data Tool](https://ncsesdata.nsf.gov/sestat) (provides access to the SDR data as well).
Some data (or data sources) might be extracted from relevant **literature**. In particular, the study [Comparing Research Productivity Across Disciplines and Career Stages](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/236885624_Comparing_Research_Productivity_Across_Disciplines_and_Career_Stages) uses the 2003 SDR dataset (see Table 3 for some ready-to-use numbers). Beyond the above-mentioned direct and indirect data sources, I would recommend to review related studies that might potentially contain of refer to relevant data. In particular, check the following papers (obviously, a non-exhaustive list).
* [Age effects in scientific productivity](http://www.akademiai.com/doi/abs/10.1023/A%3A1025427507552)
* [Research Productivity Over the Life Cycle: Evidence for Academic Scientists](http://www.jstor.org/stable/2006790)
* [Research productivity by career stage among Korean academics](http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13583883.2014.889206)
* [How are collaboration and productivity correlated at various career stages of scientists?](http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11192-014-1323-6)
* [Career Research Productivity Patterns of Marketing Academicians](http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296397000994)
Upvotes: 3
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2016/05/18
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<issue_start>username_0: I was recently accepted into an applied math Ph.D. here in the U.S., and being the 1st in my family to graduate from university, I had a hard time explaining to them why my university will be spending close to 50k on me per year (stipend, tuition, health insurance, fees).
I know that I will be working for the university as a TA, and that perhaps that will go towards covering some of the costs outlined previously, however, it hardly seems to justify the full expenditure.<issue_comment>username_1: A good question. Why would the school make this investment (which could be closer to $100K/year)?
1. As pointed out, if you are TAing/grading/teaching, you are providing services that the school charges undergraduates for.
2. The funding of a university is not entirely like that of a business. Some of the money is a direct investment in purely academic pursuits, especially that from grants. Educating people and doing basic research is part of what that money is allocated for.
3. Averaged over all the graduate students, the direct value that they provide to the university in terms of research which goes on to get grants/prestige/donations/patents is substantial.
4. There is a non-trivial chance that you will become a wealthy donor to the school.
Upvotes: 8 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: I think another point worth considering is that two of the costs you list this as covering, tuition and fees, go back to the university. So while they might technically be losing money on paper by giving you these things, you could see it more as a form of creative accounting. They are not actually *losing* it, but rather not *making* it.
Depending on the university and how they operate, they might expect to regain more of the money you are given in your stipend via other means (housing, food, parking, etc.).
Once you account for the difference between on-paper spending on you and how much you are actually getting in real money, you can start explaining the rest of it as the fact you are in fact doing work for the university. Working as a TA, doing research, and other tasks involved in the Ph.D process.
It's worth considering that Ph.D students are in the same job market as other bachelors / masters holders, and that the university needs to compete with the non-academic market to an extent. Depending on the field, you might be foregoing a substantial salary by obtaining a Ph.D. Not everyone is necessarily going to be willing to do that, so offering a lot of freebies can encourage people who might go straight to business to remain in academia, at least briefly.
As such, it's probably more helpful to view this money as a combination of discounts and payment for TA/research work. Trying to build favor with you should you become a successful researcher no doubt plays a part as well.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_3: An answer already given is a good one, but an advisor once summarized funding and degrees in a rather pithy way that bears repeating here:
>
> Universities want money from professional degrees, so they hope you go out into the world, become wealthy, and donate to them later, but charge you up front in case you don't
>
>
> Universities want prestige from research degrees, so they cover your expenses so you don't have to worry about making money and can go out in the world and become famous, but make you do menial labor for next to nothing, in case you don't
>
>
>
For those unfamiliar with the dichotomy:
* Professional degree are anything that leads to a specific job: MD, LL.D., MBA etc.
* Research degrees are degrees in specific subjects that don't necessarily lend themselves to any job: MA, MS, PhD etc.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: **Universities don't "fund" Ph.D. candidates. They pay them *salaries*** - or what should be recognized as salaries - to do research. In more normal states (such as the Netherlands), nobody is trying to deny this fact, and PhD candidates are formally in a employer-employee legal relation with their university. In other states (such as the US, or rather individual states within the federation) there are on-again-off-again legal struggles regarding this question.
As an example, look for the US NLRB decisions 332-111 (October 31st, 2000, NYU) and later decision 342-42 (July 13 2004, Brown U) **edit:** and the recent and *excellent* [364-90](https://www.aaup.org/brief/columbia-university-364-nlrb-no-90-august-23-2016) (August 23 2016, Columbia U).
By the way, even employment in teaching isn't always recognized, and occasionally (again, in the US specifically, but less so in recent years) universities try to pass off the teaching work as training/learning experience and not pay PhD candidates for it.
Now, of course it's not quite that simple: The relation of a PhD candidate and his/her university is not entirely the same as that of the line worker and the factory, or the typist and office etc. When you're in a PhD program you are still learning and acquiring skills; however, unlike an undergraduate student, you do this mostly by carrying out actual research work (and perhaps also teaching work). These two types of activity are what a university is supposed carry out, so you are significantly contributing to realizing the university's (ongoing) objectives. A PhD candidate is a trained professional in his general field already when s/he is inducted, and s/he gradually acquires expertise, hones skills, and trains in the research aspect of his/her discipline, as opposed to other applicative aspects of it.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_5: I don't think the accepted answer really addresses the question and want to put forward my own opinion. STEM PhDs are funded for a few reasons:
* **Military:** Investment in STEM fields is an investment in technology that the military wants. Think about how much R&D came out of the Manhattan Project, the Space Race, Cryptanalysis of the Enigma, etc.
* **Health care:** cancer, Ebola, Zika, etc. are important problems that society agrees need to be solved. At least in the US, the NIH invests heavily in biomedical research, and many fields try to align themselves with this funding, e.g. a computer scientist or mathematician turned computational biologist.
* **Tech companies:** Most major universities now have entrepreneurship-support programs, and no one wants to miss out on the next Google.
Compare this to someone getting their PhD in theology. I am not arguing that their work does not have *social value*, but I think we can safely say that society at large is not willing to invest as much—if any—money.
Fair or not and right or wrong, I think this is why STEM PhDs are funded: **we want the innovative technology that is built on top of basic scientific research.\*** In lieu of this, I'd argue that PhD students are pretty cheap labor.
\* *I think an interesting question is why do STEM fields have such immense practical value? [<NAME>](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Structure_of_Scientific_Revolutions) and [<NAME>](https://www.dartmouth.edu/~matc/MathDrama/reading/Wigner.html) both address this topic. My favorite answer is one that I think is fairly parsimonious: Scientific fields are practical because if a field is practical, we call science.*
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_6: If you're starting your applied math graduate studies at the University of Texas at Austin, you may well end up working at the [Center for Subsurface Modeling](http://csm.ices.utexas.edu/), a research group devoted to the mathematical study of underground fluids. You'll be doing this in a state that gets an enormous amount of [revenue](http://www.texastransparency.org/State_Finance/Budget_Finance/Reports/Revenue_by_Source/revenue_hist.php) from underground fluids, and a state where lawns and cattle and people depend on underground fluids to [survive](http://res.dallasnews.com/interactives/drought/waterdriller/). Many Americans depend on underground fluids, which is why the US National Science Foundation just gave the Center for Subsurface Modeling [$1.5 million](http://csm.ices.utexas.edu/dr-wheeler-and-collaborators-receive-1-5-million-nsf-grant/) to keep studying them. Many Ph.D. students worked very hard to help bring in that $1.5 million grant. You will work very hard to help bring in the next one.
In general, universities pay for graduate work in the sciences because they think graduate work in the sciences pays off. Sometimes the [payoff](https://www.nsfgrfp.org/fellows/profiles/sergey_brin) is a huge jackpot that everyone notices. Sometimes the [payoff](http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?doid=800116.803773) is a huge jackpot that few will ever [understand](http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1481024). Sometimes the [payoff](http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2015/12/the-rear-admiral-who-invented-the-compiler-amazing-grace-hopper/) builds up slowly over fifty years and quietly remakes the world. Sometimes the [big payoff](https://www.quantamagazine.org/20160330-sphere-packing-solved-in-higher-dimensions/) looks too surreal to be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars of actual money, but there are other [little payoffs](https://arxiv.org/abs/1009.4407) with more [practical](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spherical_design) benefits. Sometimes the [payoff](https://www.quantamagazine.org/20151208-four-mathematicians/) is so deep that it's hard to guess what benefits it might bring.
I don't know why universities and their funding agencies seem to value graduate work in the sciences more than graduate work in the humanities. After all, humanities graduate students also go on to [bring down](https://psmag.com/the-organ-detective-a-career-spent-uncovering-a-hidden-global-market-in-human-flesh-b10832c31ccd#.pzp1lo7m1) international crime rings, [serve](http://www.atthelectern.com/recent-article-assesses-mariano-florentino-cuellars-judicial-outlook-and-temperament/) on state supreme courts, [organize](https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/table-contents-and-headnote-comparison-conceptions-god-thinking-paul-tillich) major social movements, and [change](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_hooks) the way we see the world. Maybe it's because the payoffs of graduate research are less immediate in the humanities: I can't point to any humanities Ph.D. theses that led directly to practical applications, the way I can in the sciences. (Of course, the humanities are far outside my area of expertise.) Maybe it's because the government and industry stakeholders who drive investment in sciences graduate studies are more wary of the [returns](http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/04/alexandra-elbakyan-founded-sci-hub-thwart-journal-paywalls) humanities graduate studies can bring.
Whatever the cause of the funding gap between sciences and humanities, you can at least assure your family that applied math Ph.D.s are widely considered a solid investment. Applied mathematicians often work on pretty practical [problems](http://blogs.siam.org/category/research/), and they sometimes collaborate directly with industry [partners](http://csm.ices.utexas.edu/industrial-affiliates/). Your university will be spending 50 grand a year on you because they convinced some funding agencies that your training and research will be worth it, and their industrial affiliates will be laughing all the way to the gas station.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_7: Because you will be a source of **incredibly** cheap highly skilled labor. This is especially the case if your field involves lab work.
As an example, I was a statistician at a major research institute shortly after graduating. This institute included graduate students. When any of the research cores needed my help, they were (internally) billed $160/hour. Alternatively, the PI's could try to get their graduate students to do the work instead. Of course, there's no direct bill involved in asking a graduate student to do your work, but you do have to fund their $50k a year. If they were to work 40 hours a week, this would amount to $25/hr...except I would guess that most of them averaged 50 hours a week (at least). And then some of the students were funded by outside money, which saved them even more!
So you can see that the institute saved a whole bunch of money by having grad students.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_8: The other answers nicely address the direct relationship between the university and the graduate student, and why the university might want to fund the graduate studies. While all true, in my opinion, this largely misses the point of STEM graduate students.
At a research university, the STEM stars are the faculty, who bring in a lot of grant money. The primary purpose of graduate students is to provide those faculty with research (and teaching) assistance. Creating a graduate program is considered a benefit for faculty.
If graduate students are paid at below-market rates, then the faculty will not get good students, they will not be happy, and their research (and, more importantly in the eyes of the university, their grant money) will suffer.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_9: Because that number of "$50k per year" is imaginary. Anyone they are charging "$50k per year" is essentially paying for **your** education and being rewarded with a place at the university.
I know others had similar answers/comments, but they were too long and complicated.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_10: Many universities consider research (as much or even more than teaching) to be their core business. PhD students drive research. They help academics to remain research-productive and before the end of their PhDs, they are productive researchers in their own right. By publishing papers and helping academics to win research funding, they help to draw extra funding into the university and also help to keep the university's research ranking, and hence national and international reputation, high. This in turn helps to increase the numebr and quality of undergraduate students who want to study at the university, which also brings in money. Universities may also receive direct government funding for graduating PhD students.
Upvotes: 0
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2016/05/18
| 816
| 3,401
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<issue_start>username_0: The title says it all. One thing to mention though, is that I am not too bad - I have B+ marks. Another thing to mention is that a lot of my doing bad had to do with mental health and family in war.
I am not sure what to do now, I wanted to apply to top universities, but fear I am not competitive anymore, and explaining the circumstances also won't make my marks better, so I am still a less attractive candidate than others who have better grades and no such history.
What do you think about doing a second master in this situation? (I know this is not possible in the US, but would be possible for me in the UK)?<issue_comment>username_1: The decision of what to do with your life is ultimately yours to make, but I can outline the opportunities in front of you.
You can go for another Master's. If you know some area of knowledge you've always wanted to learn but never had time, this can turn into a decent option. However, as ff524 noted, if your life and family circumstances remain the same, you're unlikely to get a better grade.
As I understand from your question, you've planned to go for a PhD in a top university. Option 2 is to go for a PhD to a lesser university, work hard on your research for a year (aim to have a paper published by the end of the year) and apply to the major university. You'll have research experience and a better understanding of what you want to research, which can compensate for your lower-than-perfect grades.
Actually, in the process, you might realize that a lesser university also suits you, be it a good relationship in a research group, a convenient location, or something I can't even think of.
It also goes without saying that you should try and apply to the top university this year as well. It can't hurt to try and get some admission experience.
Finally, if you are extremely concerned with your grades being less than a perfect A, some good news for you. Industry cares little of the grades you had in your Master's as long as you perform well in your job. So, finding a job can be an option, more viable if you need higher income, less viable if you aim to become a professor.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: Your explanation of being in the humanities with no 'industry' for you begs the question... why are you pursuing advanced degrees or maybe asked another way... what do you hope to do with your life once all degrees have been attained? If you can focus on that instead of focusing on attaining the grades to get into the prestigious university vs. a lesser known one; and how it will be perceived by the respective schools you may come up with the answer on your own. A PhD at any respectable university is an accomplishment in and of itself, and one that you would/should be proud of. Inevitably, whether you get into a top tier university or a lower tier one, what you get out of it depends on what YOU put into it. Whether it is an 'industry' or a career or a profession or a job, that is what will await you when schooling is done. Try to focus on what you want to be doing after school then pursue any school that can give you a credible education towards that end, and then move forward and don't look back! So in answer to your original question... don't waste another two or three years on an additional Masters degree, move forward, and take what is available to you. Good luck!
Upvotes: 2
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2016/05/18
| 490
| 2,094
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<issue_start>username_0: Is it possible to withdraw authorship almost 2 years after the paper has been published in a journal? Reasons could be anything ranging from disagreement on data interpretation, new data contradictory to the original one, etc.<issue_comment>username_1: I wouldn't retract authorship, science is all about revising research based on new data or a better explanation. I'd suggest publishing a new paper, and explaining what you disagree with or have found better interpretations of from the old paper. A withdrawal of authorship (even if possible) would be interpreted as some form of manipulation of data in the prior paper.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: >
> Is it possible to withdraw authorship almost 2 years after the paper has been published in a journal?
>
>
>
No, as a general rule you can't. You can publish an erratum if there's a clear-cut mistake in a paper that needs to be corrected or noted, and you can retract the paper if the mistake is so significant that nothing of any value can be salvaged. Retraction is a big deal, which you should resort to only if you have to. In practice, papers are retracted either for fraud or for shockingly big mistakes.
Other than that, you can't make any changes to published papers. In particular, you can't withdraw as an author just because you changed your mind or regret having been an author.
>
> Reasons could be anything ranging from disagreement on data interpretation, new data contradictory to the original one, etc.
>
>
>
Reasonable disagreement on data interpretation would not be viewed as a compelling reason. If you disagreed at the time, then it should have been handled then; if you previously agreed but now disagree, then the paper correctly reflects your prior agreement.
New data contradictory to the old could be grounds for an erratum or retraction if it indicates fraud or serious methodological error in the original paper. On the other hand, the fact that the conclusions should be updated in light of new data is not in itself an error in the original paper.
Upvotes: 4
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2016/05/19
| 1,243
| 4,995
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<issue_start>username_0: Recently, I submitted a research article in the journal ["Applied Mathematics and Computations"](http://www.journals.elsevier.com/applied-mathematics-and-computation) and fortunately my work got accepted with a very good response from reviewers.
However, I made the mistake of submitting this paper without the knowledge of my coauthor (who is my advisor). When I told him that our paper had been accepted, he became really upset with me and warned me that he would withdraw his name from the article.
Nothing is wrong with the article except that I did not ask him before submitting it. The reason I did not ask him was because he took an unnecessarily long time (2-3 months) to edit the draft of the manuscript.
How should I convince him now?
PS. Please also see this ["Query"](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/19362/is-it-ethical-for-advisors-to-automatically-coauthor-papers?lq=1).<issue_comment>username_1: You are wrong for putting the name of someone on a paper and submitting it without asking them for permission. Having them as an author communicates to the world that they approved the content and agree with the conclusions. Implicit in that is that they signed off on the manuscript. Some people get angry when this happens even if the paper is fine and they agree with the conclusions. Some don't. This happened to me recently, and even though I didn't agree with the recommendations of the paper, they weren't wrong, scientifically, so I decided to let it go.
You need to figure out a way to smooth this over with your advisor and to work with them to get edits turned around more quickly. That being said, don't lead the discussion by bringing up the turnaround time issue. That's combative.
Upvotes: 8 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: To complement username_1's answer, here's some concrete tips on how to move ahead in this case:
* First, you need to come to terms with the fact that a very likely outcome is that you do in fact have to retract the paper -- your primary objective here should be to get back on good terms with your advisor, not to publish the paper, because the former is *much, much* more important for your career in the long run. (If he relents in the end, that's a bonus.)
* Second, what you need to convince him of is that you fully understand how utterly and inexcusably wrong your action was -- no ifs and buts. He needs to be certain that in your (hopefully) long career to come, you will never, ever, do such a thing again.
* Offer to do anything he feels necessary, up to and including writing a very apologetic letter to the editor-in-chief explaining your mistake and requesting to withdraw the paper. No arguing.
* Then, you can try to (carefully) find out if there is any additional reason why he reacted so strongly in this particular case (beyond justly being upset over your scientific misconduct). Does he disapprove of the choice of journal? Does he think the paper is not good enough to be submitted (yet)? All of the above? This way, you might get some constructive feedback out of this mess.
* (If your advisor is not the only coauthor, repeat the above steps for the remaining coauthors -- the earlier, the better.)
Upvotes: 7 <issue_comment>username_3: This basically is the counterpart of the question:
[Is it ethical for advisors to automatically coauthor papers?](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/19362/is-it-ethical-for-advisors-to-automatically-coauthor-papers/19396#19396)
In fact, the same ethical standards apply here. Authorship is only justified by a significant contribution to the actual work. The supervisor role by no means automatically qualifies for that – in neither direction.
The following is – again – from the ["DFG Proposals for Safeguarding Good Scientific Practice"](http://www.dfg.de/download/pdf/dfg_im_profil/reden_stellungnahmen/download/empfehlung_wiss_praxis_1310.pdf) (pp.82f, emphasis added):
>
> Authors of an original scientific publication shall be all those, **and only those**, who have made **significant contributions** to the conception of studies or experiments, to the generation, analysis and interpretation of the data, and to preparing the manuscript, and who **have consented to its publication, thereby assuming responsibility for it**. [...]
>
>
>
So putting his name on a paper he did not consented to is actually a case of scientific misconduct.
However, if we assume that your supvervisor has high ethical standards, the situation is even worse: The unfortunate, but way more common system of misconduct is that *professors* insist on "automatic coauthorship" on their students papers (which, in some cases, they do not even *read*). By automatically putting his name on the paper, you leave the impression that he is a supporter of this unethical practice!
If you want to thank somebody or underline their great support, you can safely do so in the Acknowledgements section of the paper.
Upvotes: -1
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2016/05/19
| 1,047
| 4,662
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<issue_start>username_0: I'm writing my undergraduate thesis (~25 pages) on a computer program I've developed. Naturally, I'm expected to explain what the program does and how it is implemented. However, the algorithm is quite complex and I simply cannot afford to include a full description.
What do you think, should I:
* Lay out the general contours in writing and leave out the semi-obvious implementation details. The amount of detail should be enough to reproduce my work, but it would look rather vague and hard to read.
* Include main pieces of the algorithm (written in pseudo code) in the body and use comments to explain what is going on. I'm leaning towards this one, as the work looks more readable this way. However, cumulatively these bits and chunks amount to 3.5 full pages of code.
* Put pseudo code in the appendix. But in this case the major part of the explanation would be done in the appendix and the body would look kind of empty.<issue_comment>username_1: **Use block diagrams**
Block diagrams are effective for conveying the functionality of the program and abstracting away complex and/or banal code. For my dissertation (novel implementation of controller for exhaust gas recirculation), I used block diagrams to cover the overall functionality of my code and subsequent sections to explain non-trivial implementations.
If you are not pressed for a page/word count and feel like the only way for the program to be understood is a full explanation: fully explain it. For the sake of the sanity of your reader, your second bullet point seems most prudent: Explain rather than disclose simple and obvious code in the main body and disclose it in the appendix. Novel code implementations should be disclosed and explained in the main body of the report.
For my undergraduate dissertation I opted for this method. For example, my code modelled the control system and a DC motor. The DC motor model was trivial and unoriginal (the governing differential equations can be derived or looked up easily) and so a simple mathematical explanation of the torque and armature current equations in the main body was sufficient.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: There are couple of things need to be mentioned here. The following holds from your undergraduate thesis now, until the end of your PhD thesis:
**Clear Introduction**: I want to see a solid introduction in your thesis. Here I want to know the problem, aim and solution in a very clear format. Do not dump any main stream code (e.g., Java, C++, etc.) here, I want to see if you can explain the big picture clearly. You could however use under 10 line of pseudo code for each section (problem, aim, solution) if necessary. Do not go overboard and way too much into details. Obviously here, you could use screen shots of your work or figures that demonstrate the overall scenario.
**Your Work**: In the chapter(s) that explain your work, you still use pseudo code but you bring the depth of your work here. If the reader can't get it, they can go back to your introduction. Do not mess around in this one. Still solid and clear but it should show you know your work. You can use algorithm, work flows, user interaction flows, and other related topics here. If you are good with word processor or Latex, and know how to print you can add A3 pages here and there if your figures becomes huge.
**Appendix**: Moreover, for having a solid thesis, you can use Appendices section to introduce your code in more details. For example you can just use the main classes, objects or functions and explain each individual ones. **Do not add any boiler plate code here.**
**Related Repository Link**: It is very easy to ask the university to grant you an access to the university student repository so you can add all your code over there and add the link to your thesis, so if the reader really wants to go through your code they can. You should also put your code within a CD and submit it with your thesis to overcome any doubt the reader might have about your code.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: **Use examples**
Nothing is wrong with pseudo-code, but it shouldn't be the only tool to communicate what's going on. The brain of many readers, including myself, it wired to understand complex concepts (like algorithms) from concrete examples. Ideally, you should have a running example and show the input, output, and the result of all intermediate steps using this example. Sometimes there may be edge cases where a single running example is not enough. In these cases, it is still better to introduce additional examples than to avoid an illustration altogether.
Upvotes: 0
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2016/05/19
| 1,723
| 6,270
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<issue_start>username_0: As some of you may already know, family names precede given names in Eastern Asian culture, and furthermore given names (e.g., `Lingfeng`) are more differentiable than family names (e.g., `Li`). This is quite the opposite of Western names.
As an Eastern Asian who just started my career in academia, I am seriously considering publishing my future papers under `Li Lingfeng` instead of `Lingfeng Li` (just an example). To me the benefits are two-fold.
* This preserves my culture better, and I don't think nowadays Westerners will have problems identifying my family name is actually `Li`. I guess they are already familiar with this name format, given that in mainstream news (such as BBC or CNN), Chinese names always appear in its original form, e.g., `Mao Zedong` rather than `Zedong Mao`?
* Citation `Li et al., 2016` is way less distinguishable than `Lingfeng et al., 2016`. It's every researcher's dream to get famous. I think this at least helps clear some ambiguity?
Will this unconventional way of writing my name cause trouble in my future academic career? What are the foreseeable hassles that it may bring?
It will be even more amazing if someone could also help me with this bonus question: for immigration purpose, will it cause me any trouble if my publication records don't match exactly my foreign IC that writes `Lingfeng Li`?<issue_comment>username_1: >
> family names precede given names in Eastern Asian culture
>
>
>
... and in Hungarian, and possibly some other languages.
>
> As an Eastern Asian who just started my career in academia, I am seriously considering publishing my future papers under Li Lingfeng instead of Lingfeng Li (just an example).
>
>
>
I am not sure this is possible: I have come across various paper styleguides that explicitly requested the given name to come before the surname (or, equivalently, to list the given name first, but then add a comma, to indicate the "original" order of name parts has been changed). For example:
* *Springer* says: [*Chinese authors should write their given names in front of their surnames*](http://www.springer.com/cda/content/document/cda_downloaddocument/Springer_CS_Proceedings_Author_Guidelines_Jan_2013.pdf?SGWID=0-0-45-1121537-0), i.e. *<NAME>*
* *Nature* says: [*Authors should be listed surname first, followed by a comma and initials of given names.*](http://www.nature.com/nature/authors/gta/), i.e. *<NAME>.*
* *Elsevier* says, at least for some of its journals: [*Author names should be in Western format, with family names (surnames) last.*](https://www.elsevier.com/journals/quaternary-research/0033-5894/guide-for-authors), i.e. *<NAME>*
Now, if you switch the order based upon whether adherence to a specific order is required, this can easily create more confusion than always going with the given name - surname order.
>
> I don't think nowadays Westerners will have problems identifying my family name is actually Li. I guess they are already familiar with this name format, given that in mainstream news (such as BBC or CNN), Chinese names always appear in its original form, e.g., Mao Zedong rather than <NAME>ao?
>
>
>
While BBC and CNN might do so, there are many news outlets that are "mainstream" in their respective countries or language areas. Are you sure they all follow this convention?
In any case, I am not convinced this is evident at all to a "Western" audience. I wouldn't be surprised if quite some people interpreted a mention of "<NAME>" to mean that "Mao" is the given name and "Zedong" is the surname, thus remaining oblivious to the (from their point of view) "unusual" ordering *and* getting the name wrong.
>
> Citation Li et al., 2016 is way less distinguishable than Lingfeng et al., 2016. It's every researcher's dream to get famous. I think this at least helps clear some ambiguity?
>
>
>
I am not sure about *famous* as such (which somewhat implies a general audience), but let's say most researchers would wish for their name to be known in their community and associated with certain findings.
While I agree with the issue you outline, my understanding is that you use the surname in citations, no matter in which position it is shown. So, the citation for a paper by "<NAME>" would still be "Li et al., 2016". (And then, some might not recognize the ordering and indeed cite "Linfeng et al., 2016", thereby creating confusion again).
To conclude, I fully agree with the problems you outline1, and I do think this is a problem that to date does not yet have a satisfactory solution in the academic publishing world. However, just using the surname - given name ordering as an individual will probably just create new problems rather than making everything nice and tidy.
1: with the restriction that I find terms like *Asian* and *Westerners* overly generalizing in this context. As mentioned above, there are also Western cultures with the surname - given name ordering, and also, while many Chinese surnames may allow for relatively little distinction, I am not sure the same can be said about Thai surnames, for instance.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: I know a former colleague, who publishes all his
work under the name
*<NAME>dddd Eeeee*, even though he comes from a part
of India where the family name comes first – so his family name
is in fact *Aaaaa*. In his case, that works: academically, he's known as *Prof. Ddddd Eeeee*. But it works only
because nobody outside of India and few people in India
know the real story.
For Chinese names, the situation is different. Even in the
Western hemisphere,
there are quite a number of people who know that in any
trisyllabic Chinese name the one-syllable part is the family name,
and who would therefore cite *Li Lingfeng* as *Li, L.*
or perhaps *Li L*.
Others don't know it, and they would therefore cite
*Li Lingfeng* as *Lingfeng, L.*
This kind of confusion, however, is
clearly undesirable.
You could try to make it clear (to those unfamiliar with
Chinese culture) by using all-caps for the family name,
i. e., *LI Lingfeng*,
or by abbreviating the given name,
i. e., *Li L.-F.*,
but that may interfere with journal formatting styles.
So, in the end, it's probably not a good idea.
Upvotes: 2
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2016/05/19
| 394
| 1,742
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<issue_start>username_0: My supervisor emailed me asking if he can work on trying to publish my masters thesis, with me being the first author. I have said yes, is it common for supervisors to approach students asking to publish students research?<issue_comment>username_1: There are in all likelihood differences between fields of study. In mine, it is uncommon, but if it happend it would be a good sign: You have produced something that is worth publishing, which is rare for a Master thesis in my field. Turning that research in an article that can be published is an art, which I would not expect a master student to master. So having the supervisor help you in that would be necessary in my field. It is right, that your supervisor immediately cleared who would be first author, and also right that you are the first author. That to me is a sign, that (s)he has the best intentions.
When I make such offers, I consider this as offering those students an opportunity to get an advantage very early in their (potential) academic career, or at least to get some inside experience of what working in academia is really like.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: I would say depend on the personality and interests from the adviser. I have worked with adviser that loves to push a certain idea and anything that you worked on would help lead to a published paper that enhance this certain idea, he'll jump right on it and gives me plenty of journal contacts and help me publish it. I also have some that are not very helpful, and half-hearted but wants his name added to the paper without doing any work or helping in any way.
In your case, it looks like your adviser wants to help you and appreciate the quality of your work.
Upvotes: 1
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2016/05/19
| 438
| 1,812
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<issue_start>username_0: I have a few papers that have already been accepted and published.
I recently signed up for an ORCID.
Is is possible to add my ORCID to these already published papers,
and if so, how do I do this?
**Response to comment**
Ideally, I would like my ORCID to be listed on the paper itself or on the official website of the journal article.
Nevertheless, I would consider having the paper listed on my ORCID profile to be a good partial solution.<issue_comment>username_1: I don't know if it is possible to add your ORCID directly to the paper in question (probably not), but it is possible to link to the paper from your ORCID profile.
* Go to [your ORCID account](https://orcid.org/my-orcid "ORCID") (signing in if necessary)
* This should bring up a page with your "Biography", which consists of several collapsible tabs (Education, Employment, Funding and Works).
* Next to the Works tab, click on the button for "+ Add works".
* You then have several different options to proceed. The quickest is "search and link" which allows you to search a database such as PubMed or CrossRef, find your paper, and add it to your profile. I won't go through the full details of each step, but if you follow the instructions on screen, it should hopefully guide you through.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: This would have to be done by the journal itself. The journal would need to embed your authenticated ORCID iD into the article's metadata, and amend the online version of the article in order to include your ORCID iD.
Retroactively adding an ORCID iD to a published work is no easy task. Like Andrew, one cannot recall any journals or publishers stating that they will retroactively add authenticated ORCID iDs to the metadata of existing published works.
Upvotes: 1
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<issue_start>username_0: A paper on arXiv can have multiple versions. It is rather frequent (at least in math) that the first version and the latest version are even from different years. When citing such a paper, is it better to put in the year in which the paper was first published on arXiv, or the year of the latest version (and probably explicitly saying which version is cited then)?
Assume that neither the journal nor the publisher have any written guidelines about this particular scenario; for example, when one is themselves putting a paper on the arXiv.<issue_comment>username_1: In this case I would likely go with the date of the original posting, unless there are fairly significant differences between versions (a paper might have its title changed, or results noticeably broadened or restricted from the original posting, for any number of reasons). One way or another, it is highly recommended to have an "accessed on" date in the bibliography entry for any citation of online materials, such as arxiv preprints. It would be naturally assumed that you were consulting the most recent version of the posting available at that time, and not later or earlier ones, which is easily determined and accessed (at least in the case of the arxiv). Without this the reference can otherwise be problematically ambiguous, as it is entirely possible that the cited preprint will get a new version at several stages during the process of getting your own published, and the cited article may get published and get new arxiv versions *after* your own has been published and given a "final" arxiv update.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: I would **cite the exact version you are referring to in your work**. Therefore the year should be the year of that version. You should also [use the actual arxiv identifier in the citation](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/68951/when-citing-an-arxiv-paper-what-year-should-one-write#comment168073_68951). This is to minimise the effect of potential changes in the cited work on your paper. Moreover, your goal is to provide the reader with a precise pointer to the cited work so that they can easily find it.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]
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<issue_start>username_0: In my Master's thesis I use a theorem that is recent enough that I could find the article where it is proved, but I've actually learned the theorem and its proof in two books by other authors. Is it necessary to cite the original article, knowing that I haven't actually read it?<issue_comment>username_1: You should read the original paper and then cite it.
Citations exist for many reasons.
1. You should cite articles to show that you've done your due-diligence in learning the background information. Like the infamous [Van Halen brown M&Ms](http://www.snopes.com/music/artists/vanhalen.asp), this is a quick way for your readers and reviewers to check that you actually know what you're talking about.
2. You cite other articles to allow readers to find the relevant background material. Research papers create a web of information and providing signs pointing to the important previous work is important for those not immersed in your paper's field.
3. Finally, you cite other work to give recognition and "props" to those who have done important work in the past. This is especially important to any work that you're actively building off of.
All three reasons I mention above are relevant to your question. This is your Master's thesis. You need to show that you've down the background reading, give an overview for future readers, and cover the important previous work. Sure you can cover secondary sources, but primary sources are better. If you're already familiar with the theorem and its proof, skimming the original paper shouldn't take much time and citing it is the more correct thing to do. Doubly so for a thesis.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: It depends how well-known and wide-spread the result is. If by now it is a very well-known result and the publication already happened quite some time ago, it may not be necessary to quote the original paper.
In doubt I'd quote the article and the books, or at least one of the books. A possible formulation could be:
>
> The result below is due to Paul [reference to article]; we recall it in the form given in a monograph by Miller [reference to book].
>
>
>
I do not think it is *necessary* to have read the original paper to be entitled to write this. If it is not too much work to track it down, it could still make sense to at least take a peek at the article you quote.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: When I cite a theorem, I typically have three goals.
1. To point the reader to a precise statement and proof of the result.
To accomplish this goal, I cite the clearest source I know of, or the one best-suited to the way I'm using the theorem. In my experience, the clearest source is often not the original one. As people use a result, they often notice places where the statement or proof can be clarified. As a result, the presentation of a theorem often improves with age, even if its mathematical content remains the same.
2. To point the reader to a trusted statement and proof of the result.
I must admit that I've cited many theorems whose proofs I don't fully understand—especially considering that, to really understand a proof, you also need to understand the results it depends on, and the results those results depend on... If you have read and understood a proof of the theorem you want, though, I might encourage you to cite that proof, on the principle that the best proof is a trusted proof. As a bonus, since clear proofs are by definition easier to read than confusing ones (in most circumstances, at least), this tends to support goal 1.
3. To give the prover credit for the result, if necessary.
In some cases, the attribution of a theorem is already carried in its name, so there's no need to use a citation to give credit. In other cases, however, the history of a theorem can be hard to track down, so it's nice to cite a proof by the people the theorem is attributed to. Unfortunately, this often conflicts with goal 1, since the first way something was done is rarely the best way it can be done. A nice solution, if available, is to cite a later, cleaned-up proof written by the result's original authors. Another solution is to cite the clearest reference up front, but add an attribution citation later in the sentence, or in a footnote.
Upvotes: 4
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<issue_start>username_0: I have just finished my PhD thesis defense in applied mathematics. My supervisor suggested me the initial problem. He was not an expert in the small area that I was working, and thus the assistance from he was minimal. As we had so many disagreements in the research direction, our relationship was rather uncomfortable. The good thing was that I finally got the problem solved, with assistance from some external experts.
After I finishing my PhD, I extracted a paper from my thesis. My supervisor insisted that he should be authored as we had discussion on most of the result, and if I submitted without his name, he would appeal to the journal editor. But on the other hand, he deliberately holds on to my paper. He keeps on saying the paper is not clear and is thus not ready for submission, but there is no revision comments from him for several months.
Should I submit the paper alone with only name? It seems each side is highly risky for me.<issue_comment>username_1: *Disclaimer: When I first read the unedited version of the question, I assumed that, since OP recently finished his/her PhD, they more or less figured out how to write papers during their studies, and that the question was more about an authorship conflict.*
>
> Should I submit without him?
>
>
>
You seem to present two options: wait for your advisor to review, possibly modify, and approve your manuscript, or submit the paper as the sole-author. It is not entirely clear that you should be rushing things on your manuscript at this point, whether or not you truly believe that your advisor deserves co-authorship, what the advisor co-authorship norms are where you are at, etc. *Anyway, moving on* ...
Unfortunately, I cannot say which course of action is the best one for your particular situation. As with anything, it helps to understand the consequences of any potential actions you take.
If you submit your paper without resolving this conflict with your advisor, then that could irreparably damage your professional relationship with him. This, in turn, could lead to no support from him for your future career endeavors, such as in the form of letters of recommendation, networking and collaboration opportunities, etc.
If you are OK with the above outcomes, then, if you do decide to submit, you may face some additional challenges. As highlighted in [an answer](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/25818/11192) by user <NAME> to [this question](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/25817/what-might-the-editor-do-if-my-supervisor-contacts-a-journal-to-claim-authorship), if your advisor decides to contact the journal, then this could result in a long, drawn-out dispute. You may emerge from the dispute with a paper, with either you as the sole author, or with you and your former advisor as co-authors. You may also emerge from the dispute without a paper published in that particular journal at all.
From your post, I get the sense that you are worried that your advisor is dragging the review process out needlessly. However, if you are willing to entertain the idea that your advisor deserves to be a co-author, my "advice" would be to attempt to rein in your advisor's manuscript review time, by sending them frequent reminders, that you are going to submit by such-and-such date, etc. And, who knows, you might end up with a stronger paper as a result of his feedback.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: The first things that jump out at me from this question are these:
1. Why do you think that your advisor is dragging his feet?
2. Why do you think your advisor is incorrect about your paper not being clear?
3. What is the time schedule on which you expect to publish?
Now, this may in fact be the case, but in my experience, in most cases even graduating Ph.D. students are not very good at writing effective scientific papers. Your writing here does not argue you are particularly different: I am not speaking of grammar (which is relatively minor), but the fact that you have made strong assertions without presenting supporting information or giving key pieces of contextual information.
I would thus guess, a priori, that your paper is indeed unclear and not yet ready for submission. Moreover, I would guess that your frustration is coming not from your advisor "dragging feet," but from you feeling unclear on what steps you need to take in order to edit your paper into a state that he finds satisfactory.
That is what I think you need to address in your plan to move forward. Focus on one piece of the paper at a time, e.g., start with the abstract and ask for specific and concrete feedback on how it is problematic and how to improve it. If you can meet regularly with your advisor and start learning the pattern of what is missing and what you need to do to improve it, then you can likely get the paper into a submittable state in a reasonable time.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: >
> He keeps on saying the paper is not clear and is thus not ready for submission, but there is no revision comments from him for several months.
>
>
>
The main problem is that we cannot decide whether the opinion of your advisor is reasonable. May be the paper is poorly written, and he expects you to clear up the structure of the paper before really reading it. Or he is just lazy and uses this accusation as a pretext. We cannot tell, and you are biased, since you have no problem understanding things you found out yourself.
I think you should try to explain your results e.g. in a seminar or in a more private surrounding to see whether your style of explanation is actually understandable.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: Patience is a very valuable virtue, especially in science, and especially in literature publication. A couple of months is not a long amount of time. I would suggest that you need to get more irons in the fire so you stop focusing on just this one. Perhaps 3 months is a long time in your field - it took me almost 3 *years* to push out my last paper from my PhD work.
As mentioned by username_1, what you decide to do depends on whether you want to maintain your professional relationship with your PhD mentor.
Another solution is pre-print, like <http://biorxiv.org/about-biorxiv> . Perhaps there is an equivalent for your field. Present this option to your mentor - you could get additional feedback from peers before you submit to a journal.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_5: If you really believe he/she is deliberately delaying submission, here are two suggestions:
1) relay your frustration at a seemingly unending process and ask to make a list of objective goals that, once accomplished, ends with publication. That way, it will be clear what needs to be done
2) ask to add a 3rd party reader. You'll benefit from another set of eyes and it will be more difficult to delay 'just because'. Perhaps the 3rd party will agree it's not ready.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_6: Any supervisor has obligations towards the institution and society, must uphold certain standards and his performance is being evaluated.
If you truly deem that your supervisor is showing incompetent, inefficient, undercutting behaviour or any blend thereof, it can be useful to report these allegations to the supervisor's supervisors (head of department, head of human resources or the like). You could do this in a mild form by asking to have a confidential conversation to gauge where you are. Perhaps your supervisor is a re-offender, so to speak.
There, be prepared to bring arguments as to why, when, where, how, and to which extent you perceive your supervisor to be incompetent, inefficient, and so forth. A list of significant facts and circumstances that have steered the development of your studies so far, can help with this. Doing this will not be different from what other answers suggest. I am positive that making this properly will greatly help your professional standing, although it can take some emotional energy. The hope is that this process will help you revise your situation, by making it more objective, and find acceptable compromises.
---
Also, you need to hope that the person you speak to is of a better league than your supervisor in any regard that matter. Assuming this is the case, he/she will be motivated to encourage agreement and progress between a member of his/her staff and a young researcher.
---
In general, ghost and guest authorship should not be regarded as acceptable, although they occur. Your supervisor might be under the pressure of justifying a grant on a topic about which he is not competent, and it is not your responsibility to fix this magically. And your department may be ranked according to the research outcomes. So there are several factors at play. The thinking that your research is not just your own and that you are contributing to the overall progress of your institution may also help relativise the situation.
It might help to add as co-authors the other people who effectively helped you.
Upvotes: 0
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<issue_start>username_0: If you're a writer and you pull other words from an author's work to apply to your own vocabulary and work, just words, not full on sentences, is that considered plagiarism? I'm trying to learn and improve as a writer so when I'm reading other books from other authors and come across words I've never used, and from there, begin to use and apply them to my own vocabulary, is that plagiarism? I just want to ensure I'm not violating any rights or incidentally plagiarizing. I'm very torn on this. Can someone help?<issue_comment>username_1: Simply put, plagiarism is copying someone else's work and trying to pass it off as your own. If you only pull isolated words, you aren't copying anyone's work, because the "work" is deciding to use that word in a given context, and your context isn't the same.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Plagiarism comes into play only when use use the work of another without proper attribution. I don't suppose would be called *plagiarising* the work of another by merely utilising the vocabulary.
The following are the things you should watch out for:
* Copying whole sentences
* Copying the base/novel concepts themselves (even with rewording/rephrasing)
* Copying figures
* Copying tabulation
If any of the above is done *without citation*, it could be recalled as plagiarism. Furthermore it is always advisable to use figures and tables with permission from the publisher and first author (depending on the copyright policy of the respective article).
Upvotes: 1
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<issue_start>username_0: I am not sure if this is the right StackExchange to post this kind of question. If not, I apologize.
I currently have a problem in choosing a undergraduate program to study. I am mainly interested in software engineering, life sciences and mathematics. As a result of this, I have bought multiple undergraduate text books for these subjects to teach myself all basics of these fields. This includes things like programming, theoretical computer science, data structures, algorithms, ... , set theory, linear algebra, real analysis in one and several variables, complex analysis, abstract algebra, ... , zoology, chemistry for biologists, genetics and so on.
Now, when I look at those many different degrees available, I am kinda stumbled. Because all degrees have kind of 'nothing to offer', as I see it. By this I mean that I feel like I already know 66% of the course's content, especially in mathematics. Of course, such programs can offer more things like help from tutors (which kinda became irrelevant due to the internet), field works, expensive laboratory experiments and so on. But I don't think that programs like for mathematics or software engineering have much of such things. And I am not sure if I really want to pay 9000£ a year for such a degree then. So a degree in biology would be the best.
But then again, I am just afraid of taking a biology degree, because I fear people (both in industry and academia) will deny me because this particular degree I have pursued did not include a programming course or fundamental mathematics, even though I did teach such things myself.
Now I have no experience in how people might react when I write in a CV things like 'I might have a degree in biology and not your desired degree in computer science or mathematics, but I do think that I fit your job as statistician very well, because I taught myself modern mathematics, methods of statistics and programming. (even though I do not have a certificate proving any of the listed skills, just believe me.)'
---
Edit 1 'To the Dunning-Kruger effect':
Well, you can often view course structures and syllabus' for the courses included in your degree online. Let's take for instance the [Bsc Mathematics (G100)](https://www.imperial.ac.uk/study/ug/courses/mathematics-department/mathematics/) program from the Imperial College. Under 'Structure' you can read what you'll learn in during this degree and you can even see all the syllabus' for all individual courses, such as for '[Mathematical Methods I](https://wwwf.imperial.ac.uk/~kb514/M1M1.pdf)'. When you now have different books covering the topics listed plus other sources from the internet (like videos, papers, articles), I **do** think that you can teach yourself a lot of the degree. You even have people on StackExchange you could ask for help. Despite all of that there is even a list 'Appropriate books' in which the Imperial College recommends you books to read for that course!<issue_comment>username_1: Since the sentiments already appear in your question, let me make this extremely clear:
**Modern university degree programs serve at least two distinct purposes: education and certification**
I entirely agree with you that a if you already know the material, for the education purpose of the degree it seems redundant to take a course on a subject you have already mastered. But as you have already indicated in your question, employers, graduate schools, and other agencies may choose to use your university transcript as evidence of said mastery. (Though, in some fields, the professional society provides their own certification function. For example, the [society of actuaries](https://www.soa.org/education/exam-req/) have their own pathway toward membership. Those fields may be more "friendly" to someone without a formal degree.)
But I do wonder how you came to the assessment that you already know most of the material in offer for the degree programs. The [Dunning-Kruger effect](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect) is a well-documented phenomenon in which practitioners of low expertise tend to overestimate their competency. While I am not saying that this necessarily apply to you, frequently in a classroom scenario one of the most difficult things is to first break down the students' existing misconceptions before actually teaching the material.
That said:
From your post I gather you are based in Britain. One option for you is to pursue a degree outside the United Kingdom. The liberal arts type education in the United States, for example, give greater flexibility in the choice of coursework toward a degree program, and frequently you can make special placement arrangements to participate in higher/graduate level coursework in lieu of the introductory courses. Additionally, given you interest, maybe you should investigate degree programs in mathematical biology. Modern math bio tend to combine theoretical and computational mathematics (which involve a good deal of programming and simulations) with life sciences.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: I don't have enough reputation for a comment, hence the answer.
I'd like to address this comment of the OP:
>
> Biomathematics may be an option, however in a 3-year program one cannot teach the same amount of biology/mathematics that would have been taught in a single-degree program for biology/mathematics. So how do I certificate the extra knowledge I might will gather on my own?
>
>
>
In software engineering, it's actually relatively easy to show your expertise, namely by having a portfolio in GitHub/GitLab/BitBucket/etc. Not only that, but also on most job interviews for positions where there is coding involved, you will be asked to show your coding skills. But to get these job interviews, you need a degree.
In mathematics and biology, you typically mention any extra knowledge in your CV, cover letter, statement of purpose, etc. And then, if that knowledge is pertinent to the position you are applying for, you will often be given a chance to demonstrate that knowledge in interviews. But again, without a degree, you most likely wouldn't reach the interview phase anyway.
There are also many advantages to going to university, even if you "know" the material.
For example, in university you often make connections (be it with other students, people from academia, people from industry) that greatly expand your options.
You also get opportunities that you otherwise wouldn't be able to get, e.g. internships and such, which are specifically for university students, and these internships not only provide amazing boost to your CV, but often give you invaluable experience that is hard to get otherwise.
And finally, something that a lot of people don't realise, in university you get exposed to many different ideas and points of view, many (I'm actually tempted to say most) of which you wouldn't be able to think of by yourself. And this can be really important.
My advice to you: go to university, even if you think you "know your stuff".
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: You're likely aware of this option, but I thought I'd flag it up just in case. Have you considered taking a **dual honours degree**?
Although in theory taking a degree is two subjects leaves you a specialist in neither, your dispensation toward teaching yourself suggests you'd be more than capable of making up the shortfall. And besides, the knowledge you miss out on as part of the syllabus tends to be more the cutting edge material, more relevant to specialist research.
If this worries you, perhaps take a look at Keele University. They specialise in dual honour degrees and offer the option to switch to single honours part way through your course if you so wish. Biology and Mathematics are one of the combinations they offer.
Finally, as someone who is themselves a biologist who eventually became interesting in statistics and computing, take a look for universities with active research interests in areas that combine the two like **population genetics**. It's not a particularly popular topic but if memory serves Trinity College in Dublin and Nottingham University both had a high profile in this area. Other areas of biology with a high amount of crossover into maths and software include Crystallography and Biophysics.
You will likely find that biology degrees at these sorts of institutions have the options to take modules in relevant areas of maths and computing, and you will find staff sympathetic to helping with your broad-based learning interests.
Finally, don't underestimate how much there is to learn. I'm sure you're very clever and competent but modern science is terrifyingly rich in knowledge. You will certainly benefit from learning in a structure, supportive environment such as a university course and you may be surprised how much material there is to get through. It's certainly worth considering, especially given the certification angle that others have mentioned.
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: I saw an offer in a research group described as 'Research position at master 2 level'. Can anyone clarify for me what that means? Is it a 2nd masters or anything else? Does it always need a masters degree for applying (sorry, it's not clear in the requirement, that's why I am asking).<issue_comment>username_1: In many European countries they have a three-level degree system for BA and masters below is a quote from [wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_degree)
>
> Italy uses the three levels degree system. The first level degree, called (Diploma Accademico di) laurea (Bachelor's degree), is obtained after 3 years of study and a short thesis on a specific subject. The second level degree, called (Diploma Accademico di) laurea magistrale (Master's degree), is obtained after two additional years of study, specializing in a particular branch of the chosen subject (e.g. particle physics, nuclear engineering, etc.). This degree requires a more complex thesis work, usually involving some academic research or an internship in a private company.
>
>
>
The school you are looking at in France appears to be using the same terminology. As such, if it is a second level master it would be the equivalent of a master degree in the US, which requires 4 years of undergraduate study first and not a only 3 years degree as in the example above.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: At least at the universities in Paris where I took courses, there is a strong distinction between the first and second master year. In the first year you still take general courses in a variety of topics, whereas in the second year you really specialise. Someone explained to me that this is a remnant of how it was a while ago: first 4 years of undergraduate (which is now 3 years of bachelor, then the first year of the master), then 4 years of graduate (second year of master and 3 years of PhD).
I know that some of my friends in physics had something which could be called a research position at the master 2 level, i.e. they were integrated in the research group, doing some type of research, whilst not yet being PhD students.
So no, it should not be a second master degree, it should mean that you are in the second year of your master.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: **The Master 2 is the French academic way of saying the second year of your Master's degree.** According to the [Bologna process](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bologna_Process), students are expected to complete 90-120 ECTS credits to obtain a Master's degree. This can take either 1 or 2 years, depending on the country, course and institution. In France, Master courses usually last two years. So the selection committee is basically looking for students who are about to obtain their Master's degree.
The fact that the ad mentions a research position at Master 2 level could mean that they are looking for candidates in their second year of a Master de Recherche. This is a research-oriented master, somewhat comparable to a UK MRes maybe, which is meant to form students towards research careers rather than industry. Quoting from [the Wikipedia page on Master's degrees](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master%27s_degree):
>
> In France, the equivalent of master's degrees is the combination of two individual years : the master 1 (M1) and master 2 (M2), following the Bologna Process. Depending on the goal of the student (a doctorate or a professional career) the master 2 can also be called a "Master Recherche" (research master) and a "Master Professionnel" (professional master), each with different requirements. To obtain a national diploma for the master 2 requires a minimum of one year of study after the master 1.
>
>
>
Nevertheless, I am sure that the people posting the ad are looking for exceptional candidates regardless of their educational country of provenance. If you have a Master's degree that is compatible with the Bologna process, or with a comparable number of credits and experience, with some research experience gathered along the way you should fit the profile.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: In France, Master’s students in they second (and last) year have to1 intern in a private or public institution. As France make a distinction between Master’s degree which lead to academia and Master’s degree which lead to industry, there are many short-term internships (say, 5 to 7 months) in research institutions aimed at Master’s students. My guess is that’s what the offer is about. When I was a student, these offers had to provide the student with a meager pay, around a third of the minimum wages.
---
1. Well, its the norm in science, at least. Some other branches might just require a memoir.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: Just for additional (and slightly contradictory!) information regarding a Level Two Master's Degree in Italy, this from the website of the Italian Ministry of Education:
3.2 New Academic Degrees and Qualifications (SCROLL TO BOTTOM)
The reform has abolished the old three year degree (diploma universitario) and the old four year degree (laurea) and has introduced the following new academic qualifications organised in three cycles.
Degrees
Credits
Years
First cycle – Undergraduate studies
First degree - laurea
180
3
Second cycle – Graduate studies
Second degree – Laurea specialistica
120
2
1st Level Master degree – Master universitario di 1° livello
60+
1+
Third cycle – Postgraduate studies
Research doctorate degree – dottorato di ricerca
------------------------------------------------
3+
Specialisation degree – diploma di specializzazione \*
60-300
1-5
2nd level Master degree – master universitario di 2° livello
60+
1+
Upvotes: 0
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<issue_start>username_0: My question stems from this paper: [An analysis on the validity of the lexicon required by GRE® test takers](http://revistaseletronicas.pucrs.br/faced/ojs/index.php/belt/article/view/10333).
According to the paper, "the great majority of these words are too infrequent to be deemed as useful tools for graduate life". Only 15 out of 302 analyzed words (about 5%) found to be frequent in academic corpus.
So why do they exist in the ***Graduate*** Record Examination?
My experience is that those words are especially helpful when you read articles from reputed **newspapers** and **magazines**, where the demand of complex language is high. Sometimes I do meet a GRE word that I've learned in a scientific paper, and thanks for my studying in GRE I don't have to look up the dictionary. I do use those words to show off in my TOEFL test, and I have a high score in writing and reading skills. In short, I am wholeheartedly advocate to learn advanced vocabulary, for the sake of getting fluent in the language. However, I don't understand why the GRE requires the test-takers to learn words which are too infrequent for their academic jobs.<issue_comment>username_1: The vocab in the GRE is a measurement of verbal reasoning. The GRE never makes any claims of being practical. It strictly wants to know how well you can do on a general test that measurements several factors related to graduate studies.
Naturally, there have been complaints about the GRE's ability to predict graduate school academic performance. However, as of now, this is a required test for admission to many graduate schools
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: I think it helps a lot here to understand the American cultural context, and in particular the liberal arts model of education that is quite common in the US.
The GRE, and the departments and universities that care most about them, thinks of graduate training as pointing towards a career as a professor, not as a researcher. In the US, the majority of jobs as professors have teaching (at the university level) as a valued component, and in the US, students at university are supposed to take a broad range of courses rather than courses focused on a single area of study. This means that professors are also teaching an audience that isn't solely focused on their subject but rather students with a wide range of interests (at least in the ideal case - in non-ideal cases, they may be teaching students with no interests).
Even though I'm a mathematician and teach only mathematics courses, I think I am a better teacher (and academic advisor) because I know a fair amount about philosophy, religion, history, literature, economics, sociology, computer science, and so on. I'm not an expert in any of these things, and I make this clear, but I can make analogies to a broad range of ideas and use them in conversation with students.
For an American, the vocabulary section of the GRE is meant to test, not whether you can memorize the meaning of a large number of words for the GRE, but rather whether you are a widely read person who has already encountered many of these words in the course of their life and studies.
Certainly the verbal GRE scores are generally taken into account much less seriously (or not at all) when making graduate admissions decisions for non-American students, particularly when the student has no plans to remain in the US after their studies.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: The point is not to "study for the GRE", but to have a good vocabulary, so that if/when other people use subtle words, subtle concepts, figurative phrases, and/or references to things outside the immediate textbook, it's intelligible. I say this as a mathematician, who often finds reason to make analogies to things more obviously part of the external world, and sometimes in terms that are not inside a small vocabulary. Thus, students, especially grad students doing more sophisticated mathematics than most undergrads, would benefit from acquaintance with a larger vocabulary (and with the referents of those words).
(Still, let me be clear, I am not a fan of the GRE itself, for a variety of reasons...)
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: I think there are a lot of issues in the methodology of the paper that you linked. Not in terms of what they did, but what it means to the GRE.
The GRE verbal section tests whether you can read academic writing. Like the math section, this varies a lot from discipline to discipline. For example, if you don't get just about perfect without studying in the math section and you're applying to math programs, then something is wrong. The verbal section is like that as well: if you've done undergraduate philosophy, creative writing, or English, this part of the test is a shoe-in where it's easy to expect close to perfect without studying. Because, with the proper background, these parts of the tests are truly pushovers, I don't see why they would lower the ceiling on the difficulty (if anything, they could raise it so it's not so truncated by 100%s).
However, it's not expected that someone in the sciences does well on the verbal section of the GRE because scientific writing, though containing a lot of jargon, does not contain as much "high vocab" as these liberal arts disciplines. That's why low verbal scores are accepted.
But the paper you linked didn't take into account how many journal articles are in different disciplines. If you look at publication volume, I am pretty sure that the broad biology/chemistry/medical field accounts for the vast majority of the literature output. There are reasons for this, including the fact that the departments are larger and generate more function, much of liberal arts research is published in the form of books instead of in academic journals, acadmeic articles in the liberal arts usually much longer with the first publication/book being published at the end of a PhD, etc.
Compare this to how often people in Bioinformatics/CS are publishing and it's pretty clear that the study favors "academic section" to mean the sciences (especially since it they did not include academic books), and then it's clear how it gets a conclusion that the tested words are not used very often in their sample. But again, I don't see why a broad mix of "spoken, fiction, popular magazines, newspapers, and academic journals" should be used as the high end marker for GRE vocab instead of 19th/20th century continental philosophical writings.
Upvotes: 2
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2016/05/20
| 2,657
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<issue_start>username_0: Should the fact that a journal's editor is 'human' be a factor in submitting manuscripts?
Example - say I'm writing 4 manuscripts. The first three are 'bad' and the fourth is good. Then I submit them to the journal, one every 6 months or so. The first three will be rejected. But will they affect the ruling of my 4th submitted manuscript, even it is much better?
I.e., should I keep in mind that the journal's editor gets my manuscripts and by the time I get to my 4th and 'good' manuscript, will they already have a biased opinion on my works?<issue_comment>username_1: >
> Funny question - should the fact that a journal's editor is 'human' be a factor in submitting manuscripts?
>
>
>
You don't have to take into account the journal editor as human being -- e.g. there is nothing wrong with submitting to an editor you have never heard of or met but whose credentials look relevant -- but in my experience (I am in mathematics) I get better service from editors with whom I have a prior acquaintance and a prior (positive!) professional relationship. So my answer to this would be **If possible, yes, try to make this work in your favor.**
>
> Example - say I'm writing 4 manuscripts. The first three are 'bad' and the fourth is good. Then I submit them to the journal, one every 6 months or so. The first three will be rejected. But will they affect the ruling of my 4th submitted manuscript, even it is much better?
>
>
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Like @Davidmh, I am wondering why you are submitting three manuscripts that you describe as 'bad'. (Admittedly you call them "'bad'", not "bad", but still...) I am also wondering why you are submitting manuscripts that you know will be rejected, but I gather here you are setting up the premise of a hypothetical. Finally, I wonder whether you have a good reason for submitting four manuscripts in such rapid succession to the same journal, whether they are accepted or not.
But let me answer your question first: **yes**, having three manuscripts rejected from the same journal can conceivably affect the way your fourth manuscript is received, even though in theory it should not, and you have already identified the reason: editorial boards consist of human beings. Three 'bad' manuscripts is enough to establish a pattern that you don't understand the value of your own work. People who are involved in processing your fourth paper will find it very difficult not to view it with that lens. Of course this does not at all mean that your paper will be rejected: if it's *sufficiently good* it will almost certainly be accepted by that journal or by some other journal of similar quality. (But that would happen no matter what...)
So I do not recommend the practice you propose. Just to address a few side issues:
1) Unless you have a clear reason to do so, publishing too often in the same journal also looks (moderately) bad.
2) Some journals turn out to have quotas on papers from the same author. Once I resubmitted to the same editor of the Proceedings of the AMS within a year after getting a paper accepted there, and he told me that he couldn't consider the paper. Another time I had a paper accepted at a leading combinatorics journal with a large backlog, and within a year of acceptance I submitted a followup paper (with a different set of authors) which went deeper on the same topic. The editorial board discussed the matter, decided that with their large backlog they didn't want to publish two papers on the same topic in such rapid succession...and then asked me whether I would be willing to combine the newly submitted paper with the already accepted paper! (Needless to say, the answer was no.) These stories show that editors of journals certainly do have memory of authors of past submissions, and even past successful submissions can be a reason to want to submit elsewhere in the short term.
3) <NAME> quipped that the mathematical community calculates the worth of a mathematician by taking their best paper and dividing by the total number of papers they've written. This is deliciously cruel and obviously not to be taken literally -- in fact one needs to show a certain level of research activity in many hiring and promotion decisions at most research universities -- but there is more than a grain of truth to it. At this point in my career I write about 3-4 papers per year. If I were (quite counterfactually, obviously) in a negotiation to trade X past publications for one publication in a journal which is one level higher than the best journal I've published in so far, then my starting offer for X would be more than 10. Rota is right that it could actually help to increase my research profile in certain elite circles *by removing most of my publications that do not contain major breakthroughs*. This is something to think about with regard to your "three 'bad', then one good" proposal.
**Added**: When I left this answer, I thought the OP was in the field of mathematics, based on his SE activity. Then I found a comment which says he is in computer science. So it would be useful to him to have an answer located in CS, as well. Some of what I say should carry over, but maybe not all.
**Further Added**: In the first version of this answer, I wrote "better service *and also better results* from editors with whom I have a prior acquaintance." After having thought about the italicized passage, it is not clear to me that it is true (so I took it out). For instance I can think of two journals that have rejected at least two and accepted none of my papers in recent years, and in each case I had previously met the editor and had positive professional relations with them. In fact when I get even one rejection from an editor I don't really know, all else being equal I will probably not resubmit to them: maybe they're not biased against me at all, but if I don't know them at all, why not just take my chances elsewhere? What I think is true is that an editor who knows me is much more likely to know where I am coming from professionally and (i) find me a competent and fair referee and (ii) expend some effort to make sure that the referee process is done in a reasonable amount of time. Also, when I talk about "knowing editors," of course I mean professionally: I'm not talking about spending time on their yacht. Someone whom I have met and talked to at a conference, whom I have done a good refereeing job and gotten thanked for makes a good choice for an editor to submit to. I am not a journal editor, but I do a lot of service-related academic tasks, and I will say: I never set out to do a bad job, but knowing that an especially good job would help out someone who has helped me out in the past can make me want to work a bit harder than otherwise. I imagine that many if not most people are similar: this is a positive form of social reinforcement.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: A steady stream of rejected submissions can definitely leave editors feeling annoyed, assuming the papers are definite rejects and not borderline or debatable cases. I rarely see this in practice, but when I do it leaves me speculating uncharitably about the authors. Are they so clueless that they have no idea how likely their papers are to be accepted, even given the clearly established pattern? Are they submitting as a protest, knowing that the papers will probably be rejected but feeling that we deserve to waste time rejecting them if we are going to be so unfair? Are they trying to game the system by submitting papers they know most referees will not recommend for publication, in the hope of slipping in by getting a careless or sympathetic referee?
I don't actively hold this against the authors, but I do try extra hard to make sure consistent standards are upheld and random fluctuations don't reward this submission strategy.
Of course I know these speculations are unfair, and I don't necessarily believe them about any particular case, but I have to wonder. What particularly annoys me is that conscientious, hard-working referees are a limited resource, which I'd rather not spend on scattershot submissions. I've never actually reached the point of explicitly suggesting to the authors that maybe they are submitting too many papers, but I've considered it.
Note that this might be field-dependent, and I'm in mathematics (where publishing practices differ somewhat from other fields, and where refereeing is a much more difficult task). I've sometimes heard people in other fields describe an iterative submission process where you always start at the top journals and move one step down with each rejection. If this is common in your field, then maybe editors are used to it.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: *Should you keep in mind that the editor is human?* If I interpret your question literally then the answer is vacuously "Yes," since undoubtedly the editor *is* human, so if you want to achieve the best results then surely you would take that into account, along with any other information that can help you reach good decisions.
But I assume that what you really meant to ask was more along the lines of "*To what extent should the fact that the editor is human play a factor in my submission decisions? Discuss.*"
Well, in that case I would say: to a very large extent. More generally, in academia **reputation is really, really important**. Your reputation is shaped over time by the quality of the products (papers, talks etc.) you deliver. A bad reputation from writing and submitting multiple poor papers will almost certainly result in a negative bias against you that could easily translate to a less kind and more judgmental treatment from editors and (in areas like mathematics that don't have double-blind reviews) reviewers.
It's worth mentioning that the effect also works in the other direction, and someone with a very good reputation after publishing a series of brilliant, groundbreaking papers could come up with a mediocre paper and still have a reasonable chance of being treated more kindly by the editor and reviewers. Is this unfair? Maybe -- or, one might argue, maybe not, if you consider that the editor and reviewers have limited time and need to invest them in the papers that they think are statistically most likely to advance science in a meaningful way. A paper from an author who has a good track record is statistically a safer bet. Of course, one should not get carried away with such reasoning and still give the paper you are reviewing a careful reading and do the best you can to stay impartial in your evaluation.
The moral of my answer is that there are many ways in which the three "bad" papers in the example could be turned into "average" or maybe even "good" papers by putting in additional work, and that it's very worth going to the trouble of doing this, because **there is much more at stake than just those few papers** - indeed, the quality of the three papers can have a significant effect on one's future submissions and career as well.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_4: While one could get too worried, I would say even one bad paper can sour a journal editor. If you believe the paper has no real chance of being accepted, or has major issues, then you are wasting the editor's and reviewer's time. If the editor remembers your name when your next paper comes around, while they won't reject out of hand, they may treat it with less respect, or be more suspicious of any minor issues, now you have proved to produce very low quality work.
Upvotes: 0
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2016/05/20
| 951
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<issue_start>username_0: I sent a paper to a top-tier computer-science conference, it was rejected and I got several useful suggestions for improvement. I improved the paper accordingly and I consider to submit it to the same conference in the following year. It is likely that the paper will be reviewed by the same referees.
When sending a revised paper to a journal, the authors should indicate where exactly they revised the paper, so that the referees do not have to read everything again. Should I do the same in this case? If so, how can I indicate to the referees the locations in which I corrected the paper according to their comments from previous year?
My concern is that, if I do not indicate where I revised the paper, the referees might think "we have already reviewed this paper and rejected it last year, and it looks similar, so we should reject it again".<issue_comment>username_1: I would not recommend stating that it's a revised paper for several reasons:
1. Contrary to your assumption, it is *not* likely to be reviewed by the same people. Typically, each topic in a large computer science conference may be covered by many reviewers, and they get assigned either arbitrarily or by a bidding process. With a few reviewers assigned from a large pool, there might or might not be overlap, but the majority will likely not have seen the prior version.
2. Computer science conferences, unlike journals, do not tend to provide a "comments to reviewers" section in their submissions. Trying to wedge that in will likely make your submission stand out in a bad way, putting the idea of rejection in your reviewers' heads.
3. If you've really done a strong set of revisions, it should be pretty obvious that the paper has changed a lot even to a reviewer who's seen it before.
In short: I see no particular positives and several negatives for such a declaration.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Having to review the same paper a second time happened to me personally. we are a small phil. journal and thus have (so far) only a very limited pool of reviewers.
On one hand the submitter might have decisively improved his paper and thus it absolutely deserves to be treated like any other submission. Anything else would be unfair.
On the other hand I also have to be aware that also I, as a reviewer, can make mistakes. So even if it is precisely the same paper I read last time, I work as diligently as if I saw it the first time. What if it was my misunderstanding that made me reject it the first time?
Long story short: Every paper submitted has to be treated the same, anything else would be very unprofessional for a reviewer.
Include the reviewers' suggestions but be daring enough to also discuss them. After all, also I, as a reviewer, am but a human being and can be wrong. The one thing I love most about reviewing papers:
**I, the reviewer, can learn a lot from the submitters and get the chance to rethink my own position!**
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: In some CS areas the conferences are very competitive, so it's a little surprising that just by addressing previous comments, the paper will be good enough for next year. It would need to show it's better than the literature published this past year as well.
That said, if this is a largely experimental field, then it's reasonable to assume that if you weren't better than, say, the state-of-the-art before, and you are now, you will be accepted even if it's a revised paper. After all, in journals they ask whether or not the manuscript has been rejected before, and in conferences they do not. If they wanted to know - they would ask.
As a reviewer, even if I might recognize the name from last year's conference, I would check it again thoroughly and possibly try to see where you improved. So as the author, I would try to do my best to ensure that my paper has all minor issues fixed. If the same mistakes are repeated, then in the off-chance you will get the same reviewer, you might get an ill favored response - even more so than if it had been an original paper.
Upvotes: 2
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2016/05/20
| 874
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<issue_start>username_0: I think my advisor may have done this to me. Initially he hired a master's student to "help me" with the project and he told me I would be supervising him. But now he wants the master's student to work on core parts of the project, and he says that since I will be busy this summer, the master's student might be the primary person working on the project.
I am thinking of quitting the project because it looks like I am being replaced. Am I overreacting here?<issue_comment>username_1: I would not recommend stating that it's a revised paper for several reasons:
1. Contrary to your assumption, it is *not* likely to be reviewed by the same people. Typically, each topic in a large computer science conference may be covered by many reviewers, and they get assigned either arbitrarily or by a bidding process. With a few reviewers assigned from a large pool, there might or might not be overlap, but the majority will likely not have seen the prior version.
2. Computer science conferences, unlike journals, do not tend to provide a "comments to reviewers" section in their submissions. Trying to wedge that in will likely make your submission stand out in a bad way, putting the idea of rejection in your reviewers' heads.
3. If you've really done a strong set of revisions, it should be pretty obvious that the paper has changed a lot even to a reviewer who's seen it before.
In short: I see no particular positives and several negatives for such a declaration.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Having to review the same paper a second time happened to me personally. we are a small phil. journal and thus have (so far) only a very limited pool of reviewers.
On one hand the submitter might have decisively improved his paper and thus it absolutely deserves to be treated like any other submission. Anything else would be unfair.
On the other hand I also have to be aware that also I, as a reviewer, can make mistakes. So even if it is precisely the same paper I read last time, I work as diligently as if I saw it the first time. What if it was my misunderstanding that made me reject it the first time?
Long story short: Every paper submitted has to be treated the same, anything else would be very unprofessional for a reviewer.
Include the reviewers' suggestions but be daring enough to also discuss them. After all, also I, as a reviewer, am but a human being and can be wrong. The one thing I love most about reviewing papers:
**I, the reviewer, can learn a lot from the submitters and get the chance to rethink my own position!**
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: In some CS areas the conferences are very competitive, so it's a little surprising that just by addressing previous comments, the paper will be good enough for next year. It would need to show it's better than the literature published this past year as well.
That said, if this is a largely experimental field, then it's reasonable to assume that if you weren't better than, say, the state-of-the-art before, and you are now, you will be accepted even if it's a revised paper. After all, in journals they ask whether or not the manuscript has been rejected before, and in conferences they do not. If they wanted to know - they would ask.
As a reviewer, even if I might recognize the name from last year's conference, I would check it again thoroughly and possibly try to see where you improved. So as the author, I would try to do my best to ensure that my paper has all minor issues fixed. If the same mistakes are repeated, then in the off-chance you will get the same reviewer, you might get an ill favored response - even more so than if it had been an original paper.
Upvotes: 2
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2016/05/20
| 635
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<issue_start>username_0: I recently contacted a professor whose field of study is something that I really want to work on. He replied, that frankly his lab was pretty full at the moment, but he'd love to hear about my plans for graduate school. Since I have already secured funding, I guess this does not automatically disqualify me from working in his lab. My only concern is that in such a large group of people, and not as a student working off of funds the professor secured, I would not get the kind of mentorship I would get in a smaller lab. Just looking for any insight that could help me in making some choices in the future.<issue_comment>username_1: Being part of a big lab has pluses and minuses, and whether it's a good thing for you is likely to depend much on your personality and circumstances.
* Cons: you've put your finger on the key fact, that students in big labs are likely to receive much less attention that students in small labs. You also might end up as a just small part of some big project, or even just a glorified lab tech.
* Pros: in order to support so many students, a professor generally needs to have good funding and being doing research that lots of people find exciting. This means that the projects you are working on are likely to have people paying attention to them, and that if you do well, you may have a powerful backer.
For somebody who thrives in a big, competitive environment, a big lab may be good. For somebody who wants a more personal relationship with one-on-one tutorial, a small lab is probably better. All sorts of labs and advisors can be routes to good careers, however, and it's a matter of figuring out what works best for you.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: most important questions on my opinions are:
* average time to get the diploma in that lab? You might not realize it, but as you get into grad school, you are slave labor: you are at the mercy of the prof who decides when you graduate. If you're really good, s/he might want to keep you around for a while... don't be over zealous!
* following up on this topic, a small lab may mean longer time too: if the prof has a hard time getting students, you might get a lot more attention than you wanted!
in short, i think a big lab is not a bad thing: whatever you end up doing, if the lab does hot research, you were part of it, even if you spent most of you time doing petty tasks, and in the eye of employers, that's all that matters. Nobody is going to call your prof to ask what you achieved: if he's such a hot shot he won't pick up the phone anyways.
Upvotes: -1
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2016/05/21
| 2,111
| 8,555
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<issue_start>username_0: I'm currently finishing up a master's thesis in computer science/applied mathematics and have for the last few years been sure of my goals: to pursue a PhD.
The decision to do a PhD or not should largely be a function of your research potential. There's a lot of questions of the "am I good enough for a PhD" sort, but my concerns are of the opposite flavor. I'm fairly convinced that I would make an able researcher, based on discussions with several members of faculty and my output record thus far.
Lately, I've gotten a taste of academia's backside. There's the general record padding done by a fraction of faculty: publishing/coauthoring stuff they KNOW have no novel content, blatant reciprocal out-of-context citations and stuff like that. This strategizing almost seems to spill over into the problem selection process as well - a good problem is one that has potential for publication *quantity* first and foremost.
Not all professors do it, so I guess I could live with it. What's worse is the attitude from what is supposed to be peers. PhD students who I've proposed ideas to pitching them as their own to their supervisors. Others acting threatened and stand-offish, leading to awkward social situations. There's much less free exchange of ideas and much more politics than I thought.
It seems like such a cynical culture at times. Most of the professors are great, but I don't know if I'd want to enter academia if this is a typical situation between peers. So my question is: is this really typical? Am I being unreasonable in expecting less politics between peers? Is it possible to work in this sort of atmosphere without becoming part of it?<issue_comment>username_1: When it comes to a workplace, *politics is inevitable*. There are always bias in opinions, bureaucratic criteria that are bendable to some, possible hierarchical influence. These are all common in almost any workplace (at least AFAIK). Academia is no different in this case. There are people who prefer quantity over quality and some others the other way around.
At times, the level at which you could be a part of this depends. You may be able to avoid in being a part of this to some extent, but you may have to witness this nonetheless.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: I wanted to pursue a career in academia because I thought it was cleaner than the corporate world. Somebody told me that academia is not free from politics either. I only learned much later how true this is.
Nothing is free from politics. It is exactly because of this that academia need people like you who are willing to stand up for what is right. Even Academia.SE is not free from politics. But at least you'll know that there are people here who care about what is right.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: There is this well known quote saying something like:
>
> Academic politics are so vicious and bitter because the stakes are so low.
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Don't know who said it, I heard it in an episode of The Mentalist.
I tend to disagree, while the stakes might be low from Humanity's standpoint, at the individual level the stakes are *very high*: the perspective of cosy government jobs, well-paid academic positions (in many countries, professors enjoy salaries and job security that people in other branches would only dream of), etc. will bring the worst out of the best people.
The answer to your question is yes, it's common. It's increasingly common as the number of people working in academia exploded in the previous decades. But it's basically a two-gears system: there's academia of the serious, hard working and brilliant people who get the funding they deserve because of the excellent output they generate, and there's the academia of the "me too" crowd where much of what you described happens: people who try very hard to have an output that looks like the one of brilliant academics.
Here's a quote from 1963 cited in recent [comment](http://www.nature.com/news/the-pressure-to-publish-pushes-down-quality-1.19887) published in Nature:
>
> Scientific eminence [is] concentrated in a very small percentage of researchers, and that the number of leading scientists [grows] much more slowly than the number of merely good ones, and that [yields to] “an even greater preponderance of manpower able to write scientific papers, but not able to write distinguished ones”
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In any system where funding is attributed on subjective criteria, or bad objective ones, politics will be preponderant. In that I disagree with several other comments that say academia is no different than a commercial business. Of course it is.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: >
> So my question is: is this really typical?
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Whether or not this is typical depends on the field and depends on the environment. The local environment is probably the most important - the department and the university.
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> Am I being unreasonable in expecting less politics between peers?
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I would argue that yes, you are being unreasonable.
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> Is it possible to work in this sort of atmosphere without becoming part of it?
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Yes, it is possible.
Ultimately, one can argue that the fundamental mechanisms of academia are not unique from any other workplace. Thus, it is a business - the inputs and outputs are just different. Also, people are involved, so politics will naturally occur. Here, though, politics kind of blends with the mechanisms of collegiality - is it due to politics that you were written into the grant, or is it because you can contribute to the project? Or is it both?
Despite these similarities, there is one striking difference between academia and other fields - a meritocracy does exist and eventually the literature will weed out the crap. This just doesn't occur on the timescale of careers usually.
The key is to do the science that aligns with your passion. This will help you keep your head above it all.
And its also important to keep in mind that you don't need to be in a top-tier position (where cut-throat politics usually occur) to do good science. Good science can happen anywhere. Fast and expensive science usually only happens at top tier places, but that doesn't mean its good.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: >
> What's worse is the attitude from what is supposed to be peers. PhD
> students who I've proposed ideas to pitching them as their own to
> their supervisors. Others acting threatened and stand-offish, leading
> to awkward social situations. There's much less free exchange of ideas
> and much more politics than I thought.
>
>
>
It sounds like you just got into a bad situation. For instance, maybe your advisor assigned you to a project that actually "belongs" to one of his PhD students, and the student wants to maintain ownership of his project. Unless your work is clearly separated from the PhD student's work (i.e. you are assigned your own independent subproblem), it's possible that the PhD student could be in danger of losing first authorship, or losing control of his project. Sometimes advisors make these decisions without getting permission from the students, and the PhD student might not actually want an extra person helping with the project, especially if your role on the project is not clearly defined.
Before you start a new project, it's useful to get a sense of where you stand with everyone on the team, and where people stand with each other in general. Not saying this is your fault, but you may have inadvertently crossed professional boundaries, just by being on the team. You probably want to avoid being on those sorts of teams if possible.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_6: In academe you have more freedom than perhaps anywhere else to choose your intellectual partners. Not all professors engage in ugly behavior, and good work is a great strategy, and so many good intellectual partners are available as you move up. Some of your peers will certainly succeed through cheating and bullying, and they will be your neighbors. Some disciplines are better at fighting this than others, and even within disciplines different tribes form around this dynamic: consider the subfields around you. Bottom line: if you can live next to ugly behavior, even push back against it, without it hurting your own quest for understanding, you can likely be happy in an academic setting. This is, in my own experience, more difficult in industry and government career paths, where your partners are more often picked for you.
Upvotes: 1
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2016/05/21
| 801
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<issue_start>username_0: Some journals let authors to suggest who should handle their submission. How should one choose the suggested editors? In my particular case, I struggled with selection because
* One of the possible choices was an editor who was one of my co-author's opponent when his dissertation was publicly examined
* One editor was affiliated with the same institution as one of my co-authors
* One editor had published with one of my co-authors
* Two editors were well known by my co-authors (no shared projects)
* Two editors I had never heard about
Our paper had about 10 authors from 6 different institutions. I selected an unknown editor because I felt there was some kind of potential conflict of interest (even if just perceived) in selecting someone else. However, I have been wondering whether I did the correct choice? My paper got eventually rejected but I got some nice feedback to improve the work. Therefore, I might face the same situation soon again, when I get to the point of resubmitting the paper to some other journal.<issue_comment>username_1: You are correct, selecting an editor the authors have not met avoids perceived conflict of interest, which is a good thing. I think "editors were well known by my co-authors (no shared projects)" is also a good choice.
It's not always possible to eliminate all potential conflicts of interest. I would prioritize avoiding selecting an editor whom I had coauthored a paper with, since that is a very important form of professional relationship. Ultimately, assigning the manuscript to an appropriate editor should be the journal editor-in-chief's responsibility, not the author's.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: If you are not sure whom to suggest, just do not suggest anybody. You seem to have a good reason: it is complicated. The editor-in-charge is able to see your co-authorships with other editors and stuff like that, and then choose whatever he prefers. After all, unless it's a scam journal, its their ethics in these matters that are important, and not your perception of the correct ethics.
If you wish, you could explain your lack of choice of a communicating editor in the note to the editor, but equally, you can omit this.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: My preference would be the "editors well known by my co-authors (no shared projects)"
The two editors I had never heard about could change my mind if I learned more about them
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: There are some things to consider when choosing an editor:
* The editor should not have a conflict of interests himself.
* The editor should know who is qualified to review the paper.
It's an advantage if he knows some of these people personally
(because that makes it a lot easier to recruit them as reviewers),
and it's also an advantage if he knows which of those people might
have a conflict of interests.
* And finally, the editor should have an idea what to do if the
reviews are inconsistent.
As a consequence, one should not pick close friends, current
collaborators, or researchers from the same department,
but one should also avoid to choose somebody who is known to be
overly critical of your research as a whole.
On the other hand, it's usually a good idea to pick an editor who is
at least remotely familiar with the topic. Which means that,
if I have been working in this area for quite some time, the editor
whose name I've never heard would not be my first choice.
Upvotes: 1
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2016/05/21
| 483
| 1,891
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<issue_start>username_0: I am currently writing my master's thesis, which contains a lot of equations and figures referred to in the text of the report. I use Latex for my writing thus making it easy to refer to the figure/equation numbers, but it is also possible to refer to the page on which the figure/equation is to be found. For instance I might have some text on page 34 saying:
>
> ... which is shown in figure 2.1 on page 5.
>
>
>
or with shorter distance (page-wise):
>
> ... as seen in figure 3.2 on the following page.
>
>
>
My question is whether this is useful to the reader. Is there any consensus about how/when to refer to the pages? Is it better not to do it?<issue_comment>username_1: If the distance between the figure and the paragraph that mentions it is only about one page, such an aid would be overkill, but for longer distances, I would perceive it as useful.
If the distance is very long, you might even consider repeating the same figure, or some excerpt of it, near the paragraph where you refer to it.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: A suggestion (and this really is a matter of style) I first saw written down by <NAME> in [What's Wrong with These Equations](http://www.pamitc.org/documents/mermin.pdf), which he calls the *Good Samaritan Rule*, is
>
> When referring to an equation identify it with a phrase as well as a number.
>
>
>
The idea is that you want the text to flow: the reader shouldn't *need* to refer back to the previous equation as long as the idea comes across, unless and until they're trying to reproduce your detailed calculation. The quick hint as to what the equation you're referring to *means* is far more important than where the equation actually is. So use the words to name the equation or figure, or the principle that's behind it, rather than giving its page number.
Upvotes: 1
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2016/05/22
| 1,248
| 5,223
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<issue_start>username_0: Assume the student
1. recently graduated but works nearby;
2. has not been my student for over 1 year;
3. has never expressed any interest in dating until very recently;
4. has a father who is a coworker at my institution (different department).<issue_comment>username_1: I guess it shouldn't be a problem, a famous example can be found [here](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Palais) and [here](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuu-Lian_Terng) :). Both are highly respected in their field.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_2: I don't see any inherent ethical problems here: the key word is *former* student, so there is no present power dynamic, conflict of interest or anything like that.
However, you should be prepared for those in your department to find out that you are dating a former student, which could create a certain amount of push back. For instance:
1. The one year gap between the student being in your course and your romantic relationship will not be apparent to all who know about the relationship. Even if you tell them, they may not believe it. Even if neither of you *expressed* an interest in dating until recently, people may still suspect that you had romantic feelings for one of your students while they were your student.
2. There is presumably some age differential. If it is small enough, people will probably ignore it. If it is large enough, a lot of people will try to figure out "Why is s/he dating him/her?" This will motivate them to find out that your romantic partner is your former student.
3. If you date more than one former student, people may view you as using your classroom as a hunting ground for future romance. If this sentiment is held widely, it could make your future students uncomfortable.
I hasten to add that none of these point to any clear ethical lapse or mistake on your part. In particular, the idea that it is disturbing for a much older (adult) to date a much younger (adult) may be more of a societal taboo/hangup than anything that can be rationally justified. It is also true that most romantic relationships come with a certain amount of push back, and some kinds of romantic relationships still get a lot of push back for things that many/most of us feel strongly are absolutely unproblematic: e.g. inter-racial relationships, same sex relationships. (In fact, I am very sorry to say that if your relationship is not inter-racial or same sex, any push back you get will probably be mild compared to that, and if it is, that will increase the push back considerably.) I recommend weighing the possible costs of such a relationship against the possible benefits.
Upvotes: 7 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: The professor-student relationship does not end when the course ends, and indeed might not end a year later. Professors are asked to write letters of recommendation for former students. Sometimes they publish papers with their former students as coauthors, based on work they previously did together. Further, if "student" means that this student completed a thesis under OP's direction (and not just took a class from OP), then this relationship is a [lifelong](https://www.genealogy.math.ndsu.nodak.edu/) one.
So long as the professor-student relationship continues to exist, a potential power imbalance exists, and an ethical problem arises. Whether your colleagues consider this a serious ethical problem is addressed by <NAME>'s answer.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: No. This is not unethical. Consider the alternative.
If I am single, I reserve the right to pick off a member of society to be my mate. The very notion that I must temporarily restrain myself from choosing such a relationship with the people whom I actively have direct authority over... is an idea that makes some sense. The idea that anyone is permanently blacklisted from being a potential candidate, just because I have ever encountered that person in a class which I taught, is way too unfairly exclusionary. Such a requirement would be unethical.
I remember a college class which was required for all students in the college. Would it be a sensible expectation that a college professor should be required to seek a mate from among the less educated, or from a remote town?
When I signed up to be a college professor, I never agreed to limit my long-term life options in such a way. Once I am done with the short-term scenario where I have influence over a person, such an expectation would impose notable cost/harm without really providing significant benefit.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: Assuming you are on the receiving end (it's also possible to read (3) as "despite my prior attempts") I think this may be unethical only if you are accepting the relation **knowing** (or having reasons to suspect) that the datee has other than romantic motivations for it (or that the datee mistakes student-teacher bonds for romantic bonds, which I guess (3) is supposed to rule out).
Otherwise you may consider social implications as other answers suggest, but behaving in accordance with social conventions has nothing to do with [ethics](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics#Defining_ethics).
Upvotes: 3
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2016/05/22
| 4,057
| 15,710
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<issue_start>username_0: There are many publications explaining advantages of spaced repetition. I found a summary of some of them [here](http://www.gwern.net/Spaced%20repetition).
While a lot of studies show many advantages of spaced repetition, it is not formally applied to higher education. Why is that?
**UPDATE 1:** In order to clarify my question, I added a quote form [this publication](http://www.gwern.net/docs/spacedrepetition/2012-son.pdf):
>
> Furthermore, even after acknowledging the benefits of spacing, changing teaching practices proved to be enormously difficult. Delaney et al (2010) wrote: “Anecdotally, high school teachers and college professors seem to teach in a linear fashion without repetition and give three or four noncumulative exams.” (p. 130). Focusing on the math domain, where one might expect a very easy-to-review-and-to-space strategy, Rohrer (2009) points out that mathematics textbooks usually present topics in a non-spaced, non-mixed fashion. Even much earlier, Vash (1989) had written: “Education policy setters know perfectly well that [spaced practice] works better [than massed practice]. They don’t care. It isn’t tidy. It doesn’t let teachers teach a unit and dust off their hands quickly with a nice sense of ‘Well, that’s done.’” (p. 1547).
>
>
> <NAME>. (2009). The effects of spacing and mixing practice
> problems. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 40, 4-17
>
>
> <NAME>. (1989). “The spacing effect: A case study in the failure
> to apply the results of psychological research”. American
> Psychologist, 44, 1547 (a comment on Dempster’s article?)
>
>
>
By the way, I am not trying to defend this publication or the quote. I just want to figure out if people believe this is true. If yes, why policy makers do not formally incorporate spaced repetition in education systems.
**UPDATE 2**: I really appreciate your interest in answering my question. I think there are still some unclear points that I want to mention here:
Please read the article in my question. Then you'll see the difference between "active recall" in spaced repetition and being exposed to concepts by reading books or attending lectures in our education system. Here are a couple of quotes:
>
> [active recall](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/active%20recall) is a far superior method of learning than simply
> passively being exposed to information. ... There are many studies to
> the effect that active recall is best. Here’s one recent study,
> [“Retrieval Practice Produces More Learning than Elaborative Studying
> with Concept Mapping”, Karpicke 2011 (covered in Science Daily and the
> NYT)](http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2011/01/19/science.1199327.abstract) ... [“Forget What You Know About Good Study Habits”. New York
> Times](http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/07/health/views/07mind.html).
>
>
>
While "spiral learning" is basically the foundation of spacing, in addition spacing heavily relies on active recall. Furthermore, spacing takes advantage of [chunking](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chunking_(psychology)) in designing flash cards.
Moreover, there are well-defined spacing algorithms, designed by famous psychologists like [Dr. Leitner](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leitner_system), that significantly improve the efficiency of learning. Please look at [studies by Professor <NAME> and Dr. <NAME>](http://www.memrise.com/science/).
Finally, in response to those who think spacing only improves memorizing, please read about the results of Professor Bjork's many years of experiments, specifically "Kornell, N., <NAME>., <NAME>., & <NAME>. (2010). “Spacing as the friend of both memory and induction in younger and older adults”. Psychology and Aging, 25, 498-503."
Now, do you believe schools should leave students on their own to discover efficient ways of learning, or do you believe it's better to incorporate these well-studied methodologies into the education system? As a student, I pay my school to provide me with motivation, pathways, and efficient ways of learning, rather than merely providing me with a competitive environment to prove myself for a better job in the future.
Let me clarify this: I love education, research, and even just being at school. However, I believe in considering all improvements that technology has provided for us in different aspects of our lives, and I believe our education system is too old. I believe we can apply well-studied theories of learning, knowledge, neuroscience, and psychology to our education system, through the use of technology, and really improve our education system. I am trying my best to play my small role in this regard. My main purpose of asking this question in this forum is to brainstorm with you to collaboratively and learn how to improve our education system.<issue_comment>username_1: In higher education, if there is information to be memorized, students are generally expected to do that themselves, in their own time and their own way. This is unlike primary education, for example, where teachers may use class time to help students memorize things.
So spaced repetition "is not formally applied to higher education" because generally, in higher education students are responsible for learning the concepts presented in class on their own, outside of class. I'm not aware of *any* technique for memorization that is "formally applied to higher education."
Most universities do offer students some *advice* on how to study more effectively, and this advice often includes information on spaced repetition (though it may not use that exact terminology.) See e.g. [this UW page](http://www.uwlax.edu/catl/readiness/study.html) or [this NYU page](https://www.nyu.edu/students/undergraduates/academic-services/undergraduate-advisement/academic-resource-center/tutoring-and-learning/academic-skills-workshops/study-skills.html).
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_2: Spaced repetition is indirectly present in higher ed. We have all heard the humorous phrase that an ms is "more of the same" and a PhD is "pile higher and deeper". This implies that there is indeed some repetition from undergrad to grad school.
However, it's not enough to just memorize the content. Students are expected to go "deeper" in their expertise and to critically apply this knowledge through extending through conducting research.
At each level of education familiar themes are explored again at a more sophisticated level. By default old simpler concepts are reviewed before adding the next layer of knowledge. This reviewing of familiar material is an opportunity for spaced repetition and perhaps an example of constructivism
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: Whether students in tertiary education continue in academia or move out of it, if they want a successful career then (self)-education will continue for the rest of their working lives.
Working in the engineering industry, I am now using theoretical concepts on a daily basis that were too "recent and cutting-edge" to even be formally taught at university level when I graduated - indeed, some of them had not even been discovered.
Since educational theorists seem to invent a revolutionary new version of "educational best practice" every few years, it seems to me that the best chance for life-long students is to figure out something that works for them personally, rather than blindly following the path of the latest pedagogical fashion. After all, the most basic "learning experience" is discovering *how to think for yourself.*
Outside of the classroom there is usually no time for ideas like "spaced repetition". Either you get your head around new information faster than your competitors (whether they are inside and outside of your own workplace), or you watch their career progress overtake your own.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: In tertiary education, it is the responsibility of the students to pick appropriate learning methods. It is simply not the task of a university to incorporate spaced repetition or any other learning technique, because revising and repetition is something that students have to do on their own. Bluntly put, if students "exhibit [an] illusion", that's something students must fix, not the university.
What could be done at universities is *inform* students *about* techniques such as spaced repetition (and I am not convinced this isn't already happening one way or another).
As you say, some universities pay attention to assessments of education quality. Certainly, such assessments are not looked at for their own good, but because some other decisions are based upon them. For instance, funding for a university might be influenced by results from an assessment, but if the respective funder does not take into account retention of learning, there is no motivation to try and influence this aspect. Likewise, some kinds of assessments may be paid attention to by marketing and PR departments of a university, while they are of little to no interest to the actual teaching staff.
Then, if an aspect is not covered by any assessment the institution considers relevant, the decision will be made based upon what the teaching staff considers most beneficial (usually in an uncontrolled process, by each teaching staff member individually). And this can well mean to give students some more responsibility in order to help them evolve into autonomous professionals.
Now, if you ask why external assessments do not take into account retention a lot, that is quite a different question, and its answer has to do with a mixture of ignorance and convenience:
* Ignorance because the people who set goals for such assessments know little about the individual subject areas, and also design the assessments in a subject-agnostic way, as the (possibly unrealistic?) expectation is to also make very different subjects comparable. Depending on the assessment, it may also be a design goal to make the assessment results comprehensible without knowing anything about the subject.
* Convenience because "We do not know." or "We will see in X years." are too impractical answers, even though they might be accurate. The assessments are probably designed with the idea that once the assessment is over, there is a final and definitive result about the current state/quality of the university. This in turn favours a disregard of aspects that need to be measured over prolonged periods of time, such as retention long after an exam.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_5: In support of other answers (and a comment above by bmargulies): One argument is that using class time for repetition takes away time from thinking about new, and likely harder, skills. Apparently it's common for "spiral" approaches like this to generate resistance from parents. For example:
>
> Some parents, like Ms. Demond, questioned the efficacy of the spiral
> structure and sequence of the *Everyday Math* curriculum:
>
>
> "But I know, in her grades, we did have, like, more time, for
> everything, as far as addition, subtraction. We might have two weeks,
> or... I just know we spent more time than a week... Then they cram
> different things each day. Because each different day they might come
> home with something different. We had a set time to learn how to tell
> time, and… what’s the other stuff? ... We might have spent two weeks
> on that. Two weeks spending on something, that’s different. Other than
> just a week. Because, you’re not gonna learn how to do the rows and
> maybe money, in just a week, and then move on down to something else.
> They’re not gonna learn it. Can’t learn like that." (SCS, 2nd grade)
>
>
>
Schnee, Emily, and <NAME>. "Parents Don't Do Nothing: Reconceptualizing Parental Null Actions as Agency." *School Community Journal* 20.2 (2010): 91. ([Link](http://www.adi.org/journal/fw10/SchneeBoseFall2010.pdf))
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_6: >
> Why doesn't academia incorporate spaced repetition in higher
> education?
>
>
>
Because
1. the majority of educators have not given much thought to how the brain works in learning, or about best practices in teaching;
2. few educational institutions have much in the way of quality control or improvement mechanisms in place; and
3. few educators take the initiative on their own to observe each other's classes or discuss teaching practices with colleagues.
I once worked in a small, private-pay school in Latin America that taught English as a second language, in one-hour long classes, of 3 to 12 students per class. The school was part of a franchise. The director and the teachers were highly motivated to use teaching methods that *work*, because the school's continued existence, and thus the teachers' continued employment, were on the line. We were given articles about best practices in language teaching, and encouraged to read and discuss them; and observation of each other's classes, and feedback from colleagues, were built into the job.
These pedagogical improvement practices were effective, on a short time scale. I have not seen them in use in any other educational institutions I, or members of my family, have been involved in. What I've seen, for the most part, is a lot of hamsters happily spinning on their own exercise wheels.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_7: There's a guy named btilly (<https://stackoverflow.com/users/585411/btilly>) who used SR to teach linear algebra and it went very well.
He wrote a short post about it (<https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=818367>) and a longer one too (<http://bentilly.blogspot.co.il/2009/09/teaching-linear-algebra.html>).
A guy named wsprague wrote this in reply (<https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=819181>):
>
> The question of why is there so much crappy education is interesting.
> I think part of the answer is that society is well-served by the
> failings of the educational system in that widespread educational
> crappiness helps support the class system. I think it would be fairly
> straightforward to turn 90% of the population into well educated upper
> middle class types, using techniques like btilly describes...
>
>
> ... But if we did that, who would drink Coors and drive forklift for
> Walmart and not complain about it?
>
>
> So I think that a huge function of the educational system is to
> educate a large part of the population badly. I think that the teacher
> training system serves this is as well, by selecting for mediocre
> teachers and then making them more mediocre via training.
> Additionally, in the schools themselves a lot of effort is made to
> classify young people into dumb and smart categories, usually unfairly
> (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pygmalion_effect>), and this
> classification stamps them for the rest of their lives and creates a
> population of hopeless lower class workers.
>
>
> If there are SOME good teachers in the system like btilly, then SOME
> kids go on to get out of their class, which is perfect in that (1) we
> need to claim that it is possible to pull yourself up by your
> bootstraps, and (2) we need to recruit SOME kids to grow up to fill
> management positions, but not too many that they all can't find
> careers. Historically, underemployed educated people are the people
> who become union leaders.
>
>
> The beauty of it is that the people who fail think it is their fault!
>
>
> (Sorry to rant about the educational / class system in general, rather
> than the topic of how to teach advanced math, but I couldn't stop
> myself.)
>
>
> Call me paranoid, but there you go.
>
>
>
Upvotes: 1
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2016/05/22
| 419
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<issue_start>username_0: If a amateur researcher believes that he has a result (average result,not ground breaking result), what should he do to communicate an academic (who is a stranger)?
How should one approach?<issue_comment>username_1: There are some general facts to consider here. First, researchers are always busy. This means you only have a few seconds to attract their attention. Second, they're usually knowledgeable in very specific areas of interest. This means, they will be more willing to consider your idea if they know its background already. The "crank" should consider these facts to improve her chances to attract the researcher's attention:
1. Choose a researcher who has investigated the specific problem addressed by the result before.
2. The initial e-mail should be brief as well as terse. 3-5 sentences. One sentence should state the problem. One sentence should intelligently summarize the researcher's previous work on the problem. One sentence should summarize the novel idea to solve the problem.
3. Any more detailed explanations should be attached to the e-mail in a readable and well-organized form, preferably as a PDF file.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: **Learn the language of the field**. If you speak with property of research matters, you have many more chances that people will take you seriously. If you seem unaware of even the basic results and notation, your e-mail is very likely going to end in the trash.
To learn the language, you will have to **study** a lot: follow undergraduate- and then graduate-level courses. You are not ready to tackle a research problem until you know what people before you have done, at least to the level to which a university student does it. You need to know which theorems are already known and which results are new / interesting / open problems.
Upvotes: 3
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2016/05/22
| 2,390
| 9,173
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<issue_start>username_0: I have just discovered that the (psychological) instrument I've been reading up on for my research team has never been, itself, published, though research into its validity and reliability etc has been; one of these research papers says in a footnote that the instrument and the manual are available from the author.
In writing the author, how should I phrase my request?
Issues I am wondering include:
* Should I assume that he charges money for these and ask the price he charges? Should I simply ask if he would be willing to send them to me electronically, and allow him to indicate if there is a fee?
* Is requesting soft copy vs hard copy more or less polite?
* I don't know the author's title; he is not at an academic institution, but a government agency. Should I address him as "Dear Dr. Authorname" by default?
* Is there anything else I should know about the etiquette of this sort of request that it might not have occurred to me to ask about?
In case it matters: what I really want is to see the instrument itself, to start. Some of the example items included in one of the research papers I read suggest they may be phrased in a way which, alas, makes the instrument inappropriate for our project, but I gather that since then the instrument has been revised. Obviously, I don't want to sink money into resources that we won't be able to use. Is asking for a review copy a thing that is done in this field?
---
Edited to add: Ah, we've moved! Hello, Academics.stackexchange.com! This question was migrated from CogSci.stackexchange.com, which is why it was as cryptic as several of you found it. It lacked the explanatory context you needed, because it's reasonable to assume the original audience of cognitive scientists know, e.g. what a psychological instrument is.
The answers posted here so far have been from people who have said they're unfamiliar with psychological instruments, but proceed to answer anyways. "What's the big deal? It's some sort of questionnaire, right?"
If you're not familiar with psychology and cognitive science – if you don't know what a psychological instrument is – you probably don't know about the intellectual property status of psychological instruments.
In research psychology, it is a reasonably common practice to **commodify** instruments. [That means *sell them for money*](http://www.pearsonclinical.com/psychology.html). In this sense, they are less like research articles, and more like textbooks: made by academics, but sold as products.
For instance, if you want to administer the Beck Hopelessness Scale, you would need to [buy the manual at $83.00, a pack of 25 forms (the actual questionnaire) at $58.00, and the scoring key at $10.50, or buy the whole package for $131](http://www.pearsonclinical.com/psychology/products/100000105/beck-hopelessness-scale-bhs.html?Pid=015-8133-609&Mode=summary).
As you can see from those prices, instruments can be big business. Publishers can be pretty fierce about protecting their intellectual property. In 2012, Pearson got the entirety of Edublogs shut down by serving a DMCA takedown notice to the Edublogs' host, because *one* of those 1.5 million bloggers [posted the Beck Hopelessness Scale.](https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20121013/18332220701/textbook-publisher-pearson-takes-down-15-million-teacher-student-blogs-with-single-dmca-notice.shtml)
In other instruments-as-big-business news, [there was the conflict-of-interest scandal](http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/neuroskeptic/2014/01/19/psychiatrists-another-dimension), where the head of the APA’s DSM-5 task force, who had driven the adoption of dimensional scale measures in the DSM-5, was discovered not to have disclosed that he was involved in a business preparing to sell a computerized dimensional assessment instrument.
Contrariwise, very many instruments are made widely available, essentially for free. Usually that is done by either just including the instrument as an appendix to the article when the substantiating research is published, or it's slapped on a website somewhere ([e.g.](http://ipip.ori.org/)). In this era of trivial self-publishing, it struck me as a little odd that the author requires direct personal contact to source his instrument and manual, and is one of the things which makes me wonder if that is because he is selling it.
In any event, now that I've explained to you how psychological instruments are situated as intellectual property in psychology, perhaps you can see my confusion.
It *may* be that in asking him for a copy of the instrument and manual, I would be doing the equivalent, as I think some of the answerers to date have assumed, of asking for a copy of a research article, or data. But it also may be that asking for a copy of the instrument and manual, I am doing something much more like *asking for a digital copy of a textbook*, in that it may be a product priced equivalently, and as zealously guarded. I suspect that most academics here would not consider asking *for a copy* of a textbook a "reasonable request", but would consider it more reasonable to ask *how one might buy one*.
That was why I was hoping researchers in psychology would answer my question, based on their direct knowledge of the occupational-cultural norms around the "reasonableness" of requesting instruments.<issue_comment>username_1: I do hope this psychological instrument detects how likely someone is to over-think an e-mail ;)
* Don't call people Dr if you don't know they are a Dr. This goes or Mr, Mrs, Lord, Lady, Your Majesty, Mother of Dragons, etc.
* A request is impolite if it is unreasonable. If you don't know what is more reasonable, a hard copy or a soft copy, just ask for "a copy".
* Do not assume this person wants money. Assumptions can be offensive, even if correct. Leave it up to them to stipulate the conditions of use. If they do want money, you'll be in a better bargaining position anyway if you come from a position of not expecting to have to pay anything.
If this person is a non-academic, they will probably be excited that their work is still being put to use by academics. My advice would be to write this e-mail from an abundance philosophy rather than a scarcity philosophy which is the impression I get based on your listed concerns. Just relax!
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: According to [this link](http://www.lib.sfu.ca/help/research-assistance/subject/psychology/psychological-tests), a "psychological instrument" is another term for a "psychological test". (So I understand now what it means to "publish the instrument".) However, usually one does not publish a test while it is being used or may be used again, and I don't see why psychological tests should be any different, so the lack of publication is not very surprising.
The rest of your question is making quite a mountain out of a molehill. According to Mr. So-and-so, the test is available if you write to him. So write to him and ask for the test. Just for peace of mind, let me quickly address your concerns:
1) No, you don't need to do either of those things. Just ask for a copy.
2) No. If one version is preferable, you can ask for it. Just make clear you'll be happy either way.
3) It really doesn't matter that much. If you care, you might try googling the name to see if you can find out whether he has a doctoral degree. If you don't know, then since you ask, for me in academic correspondence I tend to assume that the correspondent has a PhD until they tell me otherwise. But it is no big deal.
4) Just don't be weird. The entire request shouldn't take more than five lines.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: I'm no psychologist (but from another quantitative social science). But I am very sure that your request is not unreasonable at all. In fact, to the opposite: **not** sharing the instrument with a fellow researcher would border academic misconduct, I think. Just think of the recent scandals in the field of social-psychology (Stapel, Förster, ...): In these cases, the researchers were unable to produce their data - and were in the end declared guilty of fraud. Sharing an instrument is the least one can do.
Given the fact that an instrument is basically just a text document, and the only reason why it is not published is often a lack of space (though this is a weird argument in times of online appendices), there is no reason for the researcher not to share it with you. In fact, it is in their own interest, as it generates citations.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_4: Here is for your inspiration:
>
> Dear Dr./Mr./Ms./...,
>
>
> recently I was reading your paper "..." in Journal. I am very curious
> about the unpublished ... Test that you used in some of the described
> experiments, as I am currently planning a study and am looking for a
> test like that. So I was wondering if you could provide me with the
> task material and allow me use that test for an experiment on ...? In
> that experiment I plan to .... Please let me know if there is a chance
> to use that test. Looking forward to hearing from you.
>
>
> Kind regards, ...
>
>
>
Upvotes: 0
|
2016/05/22
| 856
| 3,472
|
<issue_start>username_0: I've finished my Bachelor thesis, and it's been a fairly independent work since it was a very niche topic that I didn't really have anybody to talk with about other than my advisor. I also don't want to thank any friends or family for "support", it seems a bit silly and melodramatic.
Almost all of the theses that I have read have acknowledgement sections with several people being thanked. Is it a requirement? Should I include it, and just write a sentence or two about my advisor? Is there another appropiate way to thank just him without dedicating a section to it? Should I not thank him at all? Does anybody read this stuff, or is it just skipped? Will not acknowledging anyone give the reader a bad impression of me, in the sense that I am an arrogant jerk, or of my work, in the sense that since I am not thanking anybody, I must not have used all of the ressourcess or given it a lot of effort?<issue_comment>username_1: You would of course need to check with your university/department specifically, but I can't imagine anyone *requiring* it.
That said, consider what part of your thesis people will actually bother to read. Bachelor theses (and even masters theses) will rarely, if ever, be read for their content except by your advisors. Maybe someone will glance at your conclusions or use your bibliography as a jumping off point.
If your family or friends were to take a look at it, they're going to see your Vita (they probably know that already) and your Acknowledgements. And they are far more likely to glance at your thesis than anyone else (just being honest).
I've on occasion, though, found the acknowledgments section very useful. It will often point out scholars who have helped out, libraries that have manuscripts, funding sources etc. and while *technically* that's probably mentioned somewhere in the paper and/or bibliography, but frankly seeing something like this
>
> Much thanks to the Mr. I, the rare book collections specialist at J Library for having given me such wide access and assistance in research, and to the J Fund for Study which so graciously enabled me to spend the summer at K Library, and to Prof. L from M university, whom I met during that time, for her constant insights to N things.
>
>
>
can, in one paragraph, give more information that can help a young scholar interested in a similar field than the entirety of the thesis.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: I highly recommend including an acknowledgement section, as it is the unsung hero of any publication, for the following reasons.
1. Thanking someone for their contribution, or your family for their help is literally *the least you can do*. Failure to do so is a huge *faux pas* and can be rightfully hurtful, just look at this list of [actors who didn't thank their significant others](http://www.etonline.com/news/183180_5_oscar_winners_who_forgot_to_thank_spouses_acceptance_speeches/) during their oscar acceptance speeck.
2. It is something of a record of the ways in which you wrote your dissertation and can help reconstruct some of your research, if needed. This is less likely a problem with a BA thesis, but if someone—including you later—should want to recreate your research it can be helpful to know who you were talking to.
3. It shows the ways in which the department worked (or didn't as the case may be). In fact, you can search by acknowledgements in the proquest dissertation database.
Upvotes: 2
|
2016/05/23
| 1,574
| 7,030
|
<issue_start>username_0: I have been tasked with writing an exam for a student who wishes to receive credit-by-examination for an upper-level course in my department.1 While the department head suggested just using the final exam as the basis, I don't really think that works as it misses out on a lot of the material that was assessed via other means (e.g. paper writing, presentations, etc) as an integral part of the course. In contrast to many lower-level courses that cover wide swathes of basic material that is very conducive to comprehensive examinations, this course has both a wide and shallow (assessed via tests) and skinny and deep approach (assessed via papers and presentations).
Given a course that approaches the material in both broad and deep ways, how should an exam that is supposed to represent having done both styles of learning be designed? Or would it be fine to give a student credit (presuming passing) despite not demonstrating competency in an integral part of the regular course?
I freely admit being completely against this CbE procedure in principle, but since I couldn't get out of it, I want to do this correctly.
**Update:** Thanks for the answers everyone. After making the exam, the student never bothered to show up to take it. Hooray for wasted time.<issue_comment>username_1: There is a lot missing information here that makes it difficult to provide an fully informed response. For example, the subject, whether this is a theoretical or application class, the way it is taught, the number of topics, the scope and sequence etc.
At many universities, credit by examination is only possible if the student wants to prove that they already have mastery of the subject. In other words, unless the student is completely lying, they should already be highly familiar with the content of this subject and the simply want to prove that they already know it.
If the current final exam is comprehensive in nature it should be suitably for credit by exam, regardless of one's philosophical position. The reasoning being is that the student needs to demonstrate mastery of the entire subject and not just a portion of it. If the current final exam is not comprehensive, mixing it with the mid-term should help to develop a comprehensive exam.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: I have done this "credit-by-examination" as a student. This was called "challenging a course".
The precise rules can vary between different schools (colleges/universities). There is commonly a maximum limit to how much can be challenged (number of credits/courses). Not all courses can be challenged; this may be up to the department (e.g., perhaps the department chair).
For instance, I was once coerced into challenging a course. This satisfied the bureaucratic requirements which were being imposed, despite the detail that the requirements were an unwritten update that didn't match the course catalog. Had I done things the way the department recommended, I would have needed to graduate 15 months later (due to when courses were made available).
I got full credit for the course, despite doing nothing but reading a book and taking an exam (and paying tuition, and filling out a form). My record simply shows that I took the course and got an A.
In no way do I suggest that I had the exact same experience as if I went through the entire course, including delivering presentations and completing the projects. Yes, the challenged course was a streamlined experience, and I am basically getting full credit for far less work.
I've received credit for some other courses by having industry certifications (which required I take an exam, which can be taken in exam centers other than colleges...) My mother has received credit for prior "work experience".
Should this be allowed? Maybe not. However, many universities do allow this. Is it unfair? Well, an argument could be made that this is fair, because the college student catalog may describe policies including the ability to challenge a course, or get credit via other means. I think that some students could reduce overall workload by exploring such options, although they are often simply unaware of the options. The educational institutions often don't go out of their way to promote such non-traditional approaches, because it involves a bit more work by staff, perhaps some more expense, and may produce graduates with a bit less experience. So they have no particular incentive to promote such familiarity. Personally, I do try to tell people about such options, because I am not a fan of people failing to benefit from available options just because they were unaware of opportunities that were technically available and even published (at least partially) in their student catalog.
>
> I don't really think that works as it misses out on a lot of the material that was assessed via other means (e.g. paper writing, presentations, etc) as an integral part of the course.
>
>
>
This sounds true.
Don't expect that everybody who gets credit for the course has had identical experiences. Staff may have some ability to influence the requirements to get credit for a course, or even a degree. (I recall once when a university lost staff and was unable to teach a required course. Until the university was able to adjust the requirements, students were routinely told to just file a waiver asking for an exception, and graduating without taking the "required" course.)
The head (or other staff) of the college/university/department staff might be able to impose additional requirements. Maybe not in this case, if there is an official "credit-by-examination" process. Even if the staff is able to impose some additional requirements, they still might make decisions (different than what you might make) about what the student should (or shouldn't) be required to do, in order to receive credit. If the student gets credit for the course, or not, is really a decision that is quite separate from the task of making this exam.
>
> While the department head suggested just using the final exam as the basis
>
>
>
I suggest reviewing the final exam. Then, see if there is anything major missing (maybe the final exam tends to focus on only later topics, and crucial earlier comments are entirely absent). However, don't try to use the exam to re-create aspects of the "skinny and deep approach (assessed via papers and presentations)". Just make the exam so that it fulfills what the exam is expected to do: ask questions about what is normally "assessed via tests" throughout the course.
Trying to make the exam into something unusual may be something that wasn't expected by the person who decided what a student should be required to do to satisfy the course's requirements. I suggest not trying to subvert the process by crafting an unusual exam. At least, don't spend a lot of time and effort doing that before finding out whether that would even be desirable by whomever provided you with this task.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]
|
2016/05/23
| 1,436
| 5,911
|
<issue_start>username_0: Here's my dilemma. I met a post-doc at a conference a while back, and told him about the project I was working on at the time, and he subsequently invited me to give a talk in a session at an upcoming (next week) conference. I accepted, since it was my first invitation to speak at a conference, and overall I was/am excited at this prospect, and at the prospect of collaborating with him in the future. However for various reasons (mostly time commitment on my part), this particular project - which is really a side-project to my main dissertation work - hasn't panned out like I hoped it would when I accepted the talk. Needless to say, I don't feel confident that my talk will make a good contribution to the session, since my results are very lack-luster and my expertise in other aspects isn't enough to make up for this. Since I'm a PhD student and this is a side project, I don't have old work to "fall back on" and my advisor is impartial.
So which is better: cancel the talk and apologize to the organizer profusely, perhaps suggesting a future collaboration, or suck it up and give a woefully under prepared talk, risking embarrassment to myself? I'm leaning towards cancelling, because I feel like a poor talk makes me look bad to everyone who listens, while cancelling only makes me look bad to the session organizer.<issue_comment>username_1: I agree that you should cancel the talk, for pretty much the reasoning that you explained, except that I think you are overestimating the extent to which canceling the talk will make you look bad to the session organizer. And I don't think you need to apologize "profusely" (although an ordinary apology is certainly in order).
As you said, things simply didn't pan out the way you had anticipated - this is quite normal and understandable in cutting-edge research, and I'm sure the session organizer will not find this very unusual, will appreciate your setting high standards for yourself, and in any case would consider a canceled talk (which at least leaves him with a small chance to fill the slot with another last minute speaker) much preferable to a lousy talk by an unprepared speaker, which may also reflect poorly on his credibility as a session organizer.
Overall, a canceled talk is a fairly minor snafu of the sort that conference and session organizers have to deal with pretty frequently, so don't worry about it too much.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: Perhaps you could try option 3: send your colleague the slide deck of your presentation, or a detailed summary, and ask him whether he thinks it would be "good enough."
Obviously, you wouldn't just drop this on your colleagues lap; you would explain your situation, much like what you have explained here, and see what he thinks. I have no idea whether this is a good idea in your neck of the woods or not; however, I certainly wouldn't hesitate to ask for an opinion before canceling outright or not holding up my end of a perceived bargain.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: When this happens to me, I just describe it as "work in progress" or a "research attempt" and present what I can with what I've got. What's wrong with that? That's how research works.
"...hasn't panned out like I hoped it would when I accepted the talk." You can say this during your talk, and explain why it didn't pan out, and ask the audience if they can help. Maybe someone in the audience (your next co-author perhaps?) knows how to proceed, and has the expertise you're lacking. If nobody can help, maybe that's an indication that there is an obstacle (which is important to know).
You've said you're a PhD student, without expertise in the side-topic. Feel free to mention it in your talk "I'm a PhD student in [some subject] at [some university] under [someone]."
You said a post-doc invited you to give a talk (which I expect is not in the sense of an "invited speaker"), who presumably knows you're an early PhD student, and presumably knows what early PhD student talks are sometimes like. My suspicion is that this question is more about inexperience and lack of confidence than an inability to give a reasonable talk due to the work being unfinished.
Upvotes: 7 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_4: I would encourage you to reconsider your premise. In many cases it is possible to give an excellent, polished talk on unfinished research. This would be appropriate and welcomed by the audiences at many (not all) conferences.
As others have suggested, I think it is worth contacting the session organizer. If you do proceed, I would spend most of your time talking about the problem you're working on, why it's interesting, and give an example or two. You could then spend a limited amount of time discussing the progress you've made.
Circumstances may vary, but when I've gone to conferences I've often enjoyed talks like this, and gotten a positive impression of the speaker.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_5: While it is not impossible to give a beautiful talk on unfinished research, I personally feel acquiring such qualities is NOT a natures' gift. You need to have a lot of experience and in-depth understanding to give such a talk. If you DO have all such qualities, you should GO AHEAD. Otherwise, ending up with a sloppy presentation will let your audience under-estimate your potential.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_6: My opinion is that you should give the talk.
1. You've made a commitment to the organizer. Keep it.
2. It will be great experience for you.
3. As others have pointed out, it's ok to let the audience know the research isn't finished or as you envisioned. Share that. They understand.
4. Be open to finding help and/or connections among the extraordinary resources that will be your audience.
5. It's normal to be scared before your first (or fiftieth) presentation. See 2.
6. You can do it.
Upvotes: 2
|
2016/05/23
| 1,171
| 5,144
|
<issue_start>username_0: This is a matter of concern that a friend of mine has been dealing with for quite many many years. They have done much research on the topic using a lot of different online resources and have emailed numerous different universities all around the globe but still have not found an answer. Therefore, I wish to discuss this here to know if anyone has any ideas or experience related to this.
A friend of mine has been an autodidact in many different topics and has been researching on many topics on his own. Due to financial problems, has never been able to afford studying in a good university and a major of interest, is now finishing the last year of Bachelor's of Economics. They have few research ideas that are not related to their studies, and have been working on this idea for at least 8 years, and know quite A LOT about the topic, however, have not got an academic degree or any paper to show that they have the knowledge. A few years ago they discussed one of their ideas with a big company working in their field of interest and gave them a lot of information about the idea and how to realize it, and the company said they had no interest, but unfortunately after a year the company had stole the idea and had already realized it under their own name.
They have been emailing many different universities for many years and contacting anybody they can think of, but no one shows any interest. Universities they have talked to just ask for a PhD or at least a Master's degree in a field related to the project. Is there anyway for someone who has research ideas to carry them out without having that academic "paper"? After the stealing scenario they is also extremely afraid to talk about their research ideas in detail with anyone.<issue_comment>username_1: You can write a paper and attempt to get it published. If your friend has researched the subject exhaustively, they will know exactly which journal they should use for publication.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_2: Intellectual property theft is prevalent, and this is why one often learns the hard way how to deal with it.
I'm going to assume that your friend isn't inventing an unprecedented new branch of science but instead an off-branch of an existing one. With that as the case, he might want to consider looking up professors at nearby universities whose field of research is similar. Especially less expensive school where he might attend part-time. Those places often have research programs for their students, and professors are often happy to take on students who are self-starters. However, he should be ready to have his triumph shared. That's the nature of the game.
Is your friend more concerned with his research going out into the world to help people or for himself to get ahead? That's not to disparage either and it's rarely all one over the other. If you put the work into it, you expect some form of compensation for your efforts. But is he willing to share the limelight in order to get traction?
You say he contacted universities- I don't know what that means, but I guarantee that any schools I attended, if I called he general help line and said I had a research idea, they would have been useless. Tell your friend to look up the professors and if possible find some of their former grad students and ask what that professor is like. You don't want someone who seems nice on the outside but is actually nasty and scheming.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: There is a world of difference between a research *idea* and a research *result*.
For an actual research *result*, the right thing to do is to write it up and publish it in an appropriate peer-reviewed journal. If one is concerned about intellectual property theft, then put it on a preprint server like [arXiv](http://arxiv.org) first.
Research *ideas* on the other hand, are a dime a dozen, and there's often no way of judging their value until somebody has executed them. Moreover, most scientists have more ideas than they have opportunities to execute, and are frequently offered new research ideas of dubious value. For example, as a graduate student, I was contacted by a man who wanted help implementing his research idea: all he needed was somebody to get his trash-can robot to understand ["All in the family"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_in_the_Family) episodes better so that it could irrigate the Sahara desert and solve world hunger.
If you have a research idea, then, there are really only three basic paths that you can take with it:
* Work on those aspects of it that you can work on, given the resources you can get access to (personally, in a community lab, through collaborators, via a startup, etc.)
* Keep it in reserve to work on later.
* Give it away to others.
Note that none of these actually have any requirement of any particular credential or affiliation. It is just that credentials are strongly correlated with having gained sufficient scientific skills to construct and present a solid result, and credentials and affiliations make it easier to get access to resources for executing on ideas.
Upvotes: 3
|
2016/05/23
| 973
| 3,864
|
<issue_start>username_0: Keeping the need for my sabbatical secret is not realistic. Finding a replacement instructor and delays in my research will cause inconvenience to multiple parties.
What steps can I take to reduce embarrassment and protect my reputation as much as possible? This request will surprise most people in the department.<issue_comment>username_1: This is a tough question, and you have my sympathies.
A **sabbatical** is time off from on-campus responsibilities given to enhance your long term scholarly life. It varies in its implementation from place to place (and in fact they do not exist at my institution), but most commonly you propose travel and research plans.
Alcoholism and mental health issues are two kinds of recognized **medical problems**. It is my understanding that you do not take a sabbatical because of medical problems; rather you go on medical leave of one kind or another. Trying to hide medical problems under cover of a sabbatical sounds, at the least, to be very risky, and you seem to recognize that this is not practical in your case. So I would recommend that you look into going on medical leave instead of sabbatical.
Treatment of either of your medical issues will probably involve a psychiatric / counseling component. I am not a psychiatrist or a counselor (rather, I am a mathematician: really not close!), but I would humbly and tentatively suggest that even before you go on medical leave you seek some counseling. In particular you mention the embarrassment of being sick in the way that you are. I think it is completely normal and understandable for you to feel embarrassed / ashamed about these problems, but those kinds of feelings could lead you down very unproductive paths, so I suggest that you concentrate some of your earliest counseling sessions on dealing with that. In particular, a counselor probably has very helpful things to tell you about disclosing your problems to others: whether, when, how much, and to whom. As far as I know, it should be possible for you to get the same medical leave and considerations as someone with less socially stigmatized medical problems without having to disclose the details of your medical issues to anyone in your department, unless you want to.
I wish you all the best. I hope you do take medical leave and get knowledgeable, helpful care.
Upvotes: 8 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Pete has the right answer, but I want to just ask whether you're sure that you want to use a "sabbatical" for this. Do you have tenure? Are you in the United States?
A sabbatical is a research leave. At many/most institutions, you'll be expected to do research or publications during your sabbatical leave. If you don't have tenure, you may be losing valuable time off that you need to publish for your tenure dossier.
Rather, I recommend that you work with your dean and ask for FMLA (<https://www.dol.gov/general/topic/benefits-leave/fmla>) leave -- if you can afford it. Although it is not paid leave, FMLA maintains your health benefits which means you can use it to seek counseling or treatment. Verify that your tenure/promotion clock is stopped for the duration.
I don't see treating alcoholism as any different from treating any other serious medical condition and I hope your dean is similarly inclined.
As for embarrassment, just as depression rates are [astoundingly high for graduate students](https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/04/22/berkeley-study-finds-high-levels-depression-among-graduate-students), there is considerable [alcoholism in faculty ranks](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/19893261_A_survey_on_the_prevalence_of_alcoholism_among_the_faculty_and_housestaff_of_an_academic_teaching_hospital). No reasonable person will criticize you for treating a life-threatening disease while you still can.
Upvotes: 5
|
2016/05/23
| 582
| 1,923
|
<issue_start>username_0: I recently graduated with the highest GPA in my undergraduate class of 350 students. My current CV reads -
GPA: 3.x/4 (Ranked 1st out of Undergraduate Class of 350 students)
However, this feels slightly forced and awkward. Is there any better way to write this?
Thanks!<issue_comment>username_1: I don't know if this is applicable in your case, but another way to emphasise that you were at the top of your class is to ask the people writing your recommendations/references to include this piece of information.
Not only does it sound much better coming from someone else (and supposedly that someone is a reliable source), but also recommendations/references are typically the place to brag about such things.
That doesn't mean you shouldn't include it in your C.V. as well, though. Unfortunately, I don't think there is any way to write it so that it doesn't sound (at least a bit) pretentious.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: using both highest GPA and ranked 1st is an overkill because they pretty much say the username_2e thing..id say
GPA : 3.X/4
Rank: 1st in class
I'd use some other place in the CV / professor recommendations to give the class size of 350
if not, itll surely come up in the interview
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: This is how I have mentioned in my CV under the section called "Educational Details". As the earlier answers suggest, it is preferable to get it mentioned in the recommendation letter.
>
> **Doctor of Philosophy, Computer Science**
>
>
> *University of PDAC, Country*
>
>
> Thesis title: Investigation of ....
>
>
> **Master of Science, Computer Science**
>
>
> *University of MSAC, Country*
>
>
> Thesis title: Bound of the Algorithm 1
>
>
> GPA: 3.78/4 (Rank: 1/25; Medalist)
>
>
> **Bachelor of Engineering, Computer Science**
>
>
> *University of BACK, Country*
>
>
> GPA: 3.56/4 (Rank: 5/120)
>
>
>
Upvotes: 0
|
2016/05/23
| 1,407
| 6,189
|
<issue_start>username_0: I teach programming, and it is painful to watch my students slowly arrow around the screen, backspace over something, then retype it. It would take less than a second for him to have grabbed his mouse, double-clicked the word and started typing the new word, all without looking down.
I taught them about editing and keyboard shortcuts at the beginning of the curriculum, yet they do not all take everything on board (who does?). So now months later I am left with the question of whether to urge improvement on them like a mother bird, or just let it go. As programmers, their time will be valuable, and their enjoyment of work improved by the ease of getting work done. But is it up to me to reinforce this after having made it thoroughly clear early on? This is not just about editing, but all sorts of practices like naming conventions, coding standards and so on, which I did in fact present already and have said that the industry expects these things. Editing is simply one obvious example.
Addition: It is not for me to *dictate* how students should work, but I would be *remiss* if I did not point out better ways to accomplish things. **The question is: to know if I have made the point or when to stop trying to make it.** "*A word to the wise is enough*", but how many of us are wise, especially while learning many new things at once? An example of coding standards is a student who doesn't like Properties. Well... They are useful or they would not have been invented. I couldn't convince this person.<issue_comment>username_1: Ah a fellow traveller! Welcome friend.
I agree it is so painful to watch, and there is such a professional dilemma on wether to grab the keyboard or not. I have developed my own attitude over the years, in that my time is sometimes precious and is spread thinly over many students. To remain polite I sometimes say "Do you mind if I quickly fix that for you?" and then just do the magic edits. Voila! I then move on to the next student.
Other times, when I am less short of time I let them work through it. Having me smiling and waiting patiently at their side is intimidating enough to remind them that they need to up their game. You have to do both as it can sometimes be demoralising if you **always** grab the keyboard. You want them to improve and not give up in despair!
One things I find is essential is not just to teach the quicker mechanisms, but to demonstrate them yourself. I sometimes "code live" in a lecture. I throw some code up that I know is bad and needs an edit, and pretend that I have to make some heavy changes. I use all the tools at my disposal like regular expression replacements, keyboard macros and IDE code re-factoring in a blur. Bish, Bash Bosh - loads-of-code. The smart ones get it when they actually visualise how long it would have taken them to do the same task. I also make (fantasy) hints that the faster you cut code the faster you can earn the dosh when a **real** coder. This annoys them because they all thought they were real coders before coming to class.....
Another tool I find useful are screen capture videos of me doing it. Helps the slower learners catch on, and is easier for them to emulate than some dry hints sheet. My stuff is on YouTube BTW (under my name).
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: I'm not a coder but I am familiar with learning something for the first time. As a teacher, you have reached a level of mastery that allows you to do things automatically. As such, you are able to monitor your learning and catch mistakes that you make.
Students on the other hand, are completely overwhelmed with learning the basics of your field. We all remember learning to tie our shoes and or driving a car. There were many things that were not done in the most efficient manner when we learned these skills. Now however, these skills come second nature and we all have are own shortcuts to do them that we expect are children to acquire the first time we teach them, which of course they don't to our frustration.
In short, your students are experiencing cognitive overload just learning the basics and cannot process doing more than what they are doing now. Once the learn it the hard way they will start looking for ways to be efficient and fast. At this point, you can stretch them by showing them the faster way. To expect industry standard from a rookie is perhaps asking for too much from cognitive perspective.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: I strongly agree with Darrin: if you're teaching "Algorithms 101", the spend their time learning about algorithms, not IDE's, etc. If the students go on to become developers or researchers, trust me, they will pick this up along the way when it truly becomes useful to their everyday life. And with much less effort than when first being introduced to the core concepts of computer science.
My graduate school experience had a slight permutation of this issue. I was getting a statistics PhD and almost all of my classes used R, in a fairly intensive manner. At one point, I mentioned to my professor that it would be really helpful to myself and other graduate students to hold some sort of "R bootcamp"-like course. He said that they intentionally do not hold this course: it's part of their trial by fire plan. If you can't figure out R while learning about statistics, you probably won't do well as a statistician.
Fast forward 8 years (wow, seems like it was yesterday...), I guess I passed the trial and I consider myself a competent statistician and programmer. But I still strongly disagree with this approach! The extremely valuable skill I was developing at that time was understanding the fundamentals of statistical methodology. Sure programming in R's important, but it's not what I was in those classes for. I can't help but think that distracting us from the core of the course with the development of somewhat orthogonal skills was not the best structure.
It may well be helpful to expose them to various tools which they can pick up if they work out well for them if they like. But if you start insisting they use these tools, you start to water down your course.
Upvotes: 2
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2016/05/23
| 3,516
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<issue_start>username_0: **Instead of the typical 4 classes every 10 weeks, why not 2 classes every 5 weeks?**
Condensed courses usually means:
* Taking less courses at the same time which makes compartmentalization for memorization easier.
* You (typically) take the same course every day, thus actively refreshing the neurons on that topic.
* Taking the same course every day over a shorter time makes cumulative exams much less intimidating.
* You see the same students everyday. This encourages a more natural stimulation of getting to know your classmates and seems to result in more collaboration outside of class.
* If you're doing poorly in a class, for whatever reason, only the last 5 weeks of your academic life are wasted (as opposed to 10).
*Overall, the same material is taught to students whether it's in 5 weeks or 10. The difference in that in the 5 week plan, students take half the classes they normally would per 5-week term, and the lecture for that class is everyday of the week.*
An example being instead of taking intro to biology, chemistry, calculus, and psychology over 10 weeks, you take biology and psychology during the first 5 weeks and then calculus and chem the second 5 weeks.<issue_comment>username_1: There are in fact two colleges (Cornell College in Iowa, not to be confused with Cornell University, and Colorado College in Colorado) that have students take one class at a time, with 9 3.5-week terms over the course of an academic year.
One reason more colleges don't do this is that most students seem to be not like you and tend not to like summer classes. This is particularly true for students who are not well-prepared for the class they are taking and hence need more time to work on catching up, and also for students who want to be able to slack off for a few days once in a while without falling irretrievably behind.
Another reason is that this schedule is incredibly hard on professors. At most universities, professors are teaching fewer classes than a full-time student is taking, because teaching a class (including all the grading) is usually more work than taking one. When a student is taking one class at a time, the professor for that class has to work extra overtime. Professors at both Colorado and Cornell get terms without teaching assignments, partly so they can do some preparation ahead of time, but there is only so much you can do ahead of time. (Even with 4 terms a year and two classes at a time, it's still hard on professors since teaching a large class is frequently more than twice as much work as taking one.)
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_2: Short answer: you can't teach some things if you have short terms.
Some colleges do that. The University of Chicago and Dartmouth, for example, are on the quarter system where classes are 10 weeks long, and students usually take 3-4 classes per quarter. Colorado College has a 3 week system where you only take a single class per week.
The main reason why schools have shorter classes is that it is *amazing for research!* You can get so much done during the remainder of the year, although that makes the time you are teaching *insane* with course prep. Most faculty I know love that schedule though, and I am on a similar schedule, and love it.
The main reason for not doing it, other than tradition, is that it is not good for a lot of kinds of learning. Many concepts require a little time to percolate for students to really understand. Things that are skills, such as language, mathematics or art also require practice which can be built into, and assumed, during longer periods, but the shorter the coursework, the less that you get outside.
The quarter system can be a happy medium, depending on how it is administered, but if you are taking a 5 course semester and one language course per semester than language learning is only 20% of your class time, and only needs to be 20% of your extra-course study *and* you are taking the course all year long. In order to get year long language training in the quarter system (or math, etc.) You'd need to bump up the level to 30% of your coursework, or go half the year without language training. It is essentially impossible to do under any shorter courses. That may seem desirable if all you want to do is that, but such focused training is not the point of a university education.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: From an information processing perspective, it is much more beneficial to have four classes over ten weeks than two classes over five weeks. This is because the mind needs the extended time to digest the material that it is being exposed to.
The two class approach is highly beneficial in allowing students to focus. However, the reduction in exposure to the content over time makes it difficult for retention and to acquire in-depth mastery of the ideas of the curriculum.
I have worked at several institutions that offer "intensive" courses for working graduate students. The students will take one class over the course of one week (about 8 hours a day). In such an intense format the students remember very little and demonstrate limited mastery of the content. This is due to the rushed nature of the course. Even though the students were able to focus, the average individual just cannot digest that much content so fast.
Sadly, there is more to learning than just seat time. Students need time to discuss and apply the knowledge they are exposed to in a course. This only becomes more challenging as the number of weeks a course lasts is reduced, even if the number of hours stays the same.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_4: Taking from when I was a student, there are a few reasons.
* Connecting material covered in different courses is important
* Each student found some courses harder than others, by taking 5 courses at the same time, it is possible to spend longer on what you find hard.
* Some days I just did not feel like learning some subjects, so having flexibility on time planning is useful.
* It is never nice having homework you must do for the next day, as it stops you being flexibly on how you use your time.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: I realize high school and college/university are very different levels of education and different age for most students.
I have been exposed to 2 to 3 different teaching periods. In High school I started out with taking the same 8 course all year long with 3 classes in the morning 3 in the afternoon. The next day the last class would not be taken, all classes would be shifted up a period and the classes that were not there were added to first period in the morning and after lunch. Loved this system with classes being only about 45 minutes long, mid term exams at Christmas and end of year exams covered the full year with a bias towards second half of the year.
Later I switched to yet another high school and it was a semestered system. 4 classes for the first half of the year 2 in the morning and 2 in the afternoon. Then after Christmas it was 4 new courses. I really hated this system. The first problem was the length of classes being over an hour and a half. Unfortunately for me my attention span does not last that long and I stopped absorbing information around the 1 hour mark. The second problem I had with the system was if you took say MATH 1 in first term first year, you might not see math again for over a year when you take MATH 2 second term second year. In my opinion, it was too long away from the topic and a lot of information gets forgotten.
My university was more of the later system with first semester and second semester. However classes tended to be short in duration, about 1 hour long. I think the worst case was a surveying class where the class was the entirety of Monday afternoon (3-4 hours straight). This was incredibly tough on the staying focused part during the initial pure lectures, but was required for the outdoor labs. The nice part about my university aside from being incredibly structured were the set class schedules. Monday to Friday 0800-1600. no evening or weekend lectures.
As an aside I also think my final class size of 11 (french class was 4) also gave really good interaction with the professors.
In addition to what other have said about the consequences of missing classes, the amount of homework your need to do, running your mind excessively with out, and more than a few other things, I think that longer classes over a shorter period of time CAN be harder for some people if they have difficulty staying focused for extended periods of times. Would your really want to take it to the extreme and have 1 classe over 2.5 weeks? I think I would eventually tune out. Some people need variety.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_6: While I think there are a variety of great, more pedagogically-relevant reasons given in other answers, I also see a serious logistical reason. My own alma mater would, I think, be farcically inept at attempting to implement this, and I do not think it would be alone.
The problem I’m referring to is that *developing schedules is exceptionally difficult*. At my school, there were always numerous serious problems and **no one** wound up happy with the schedule, but there were just too many conflicts and it took an entire office devoted to the subject enormous amounts of time to even develop the poor schedules we ended up with.
If asked to do so twice as often, I don’t think they’d even know where to start. Simply hiring more staff isn’t an answer, because many of the delays come from conflicting needs outside their own office, and the various departments aren’t going to get twice as fast at arguing about why their needs are greater than others’.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_7: I attended a University which offered (many of) the same courses in either a full-time study or part-time study program format.
The full-time option offered the course in 3 one-hour sessions over the semester.
The part-time option, depending on on the term came in either:
* one 3-hour session one day a week
* 5 weekend sessions, typically, Sat and Sundays, 1/2 day each
* 1 full week (5 days) of full day (ie 8 hr day) instruction
In all cases, the total classroom time worked out to be the same. I experienced all the forms (different courses :) ). That did not make the classes equivalent by any means. While the full-time program was essentially geared to "classical students", the part-time stream was typically geared to "professionals" looking for further education.
My experience reflects many of the other poster's comments.
There was simply no way to deliver a "term" project in 1 one week course, even the 5 wknds was a stretch. There was also simply no was to truly absorb and comprehend the material in the span of a week and be properly tested on it. The tests essentially get reduced down to memorization of the readings or constructed questions.
Was I was in first-year in another "classical" university, the professors suggested it was necessary to spend 3 hours outside the class for every hour inside in order to comprehend the material and succeed. Simple math says that is not viable when the course is now 8 hrs/day for 5 days straight.
Consider too, Medicine is akin to applied biology, is to appl. chemistry, is to appl. physics, is to appl. calculus, etc. Taking these subjects in parallel strengthens the learning process. It is also very challenging to pick up where you left off after not studying that subject for some time (ie: skip a semester) vs the continuity of continuous learning.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_8: There are many reasons why this won't work in general.
1. People have different learning abilities and shortened duration for a class would alienate those that have difficulties. What if a student falls behind, with a longer semester it is possible to recover, and much less so with a shorter one.
2. This idea rules out classes where in-depth projects are necessary. Some times it just takes time to perform the necessary tasks set out to the students.
3. You assume that the material taught by the professor is fully prepared before the semester starts. While this may be possible for many courses, some courses reflect the real world and can't be pre-prepared, making it difficult for the professor to ensure a quality learning experience. (Think current events, popular culture, technology, etc).
4. There are many non-taught educational experiences that are very difficult or impossible without class overlap. For instance, many STEM courses require math as a prerequisite for understanding the interesting material. Without overlap, students would likely have to have a VERY math-heavy first two years. Not really fun and doesn't allow the students to realize why they need to understand Calculus/Differential equations/Linear Algebra, etc. At least until it is long forgotten or seemingly irrelevant.
5. Shortened semesters also seriously focus the students' perspective. On the material, but also on their social interactions. Part of college/university is to broaden your perspectives.
6. In order to have pre-requisites work, classes must be more carefully scheduled if there isn't any possibility of overlap. This means that the institution is forcing a sequence of classes (and removing the possibility of the student to tailor their own education). This in turn reduces the possibility of a broad educational experience, which in turn leads to the institution dictating how and what students will be learning. Breadth of education diminishes and we end up without students with varying knowledge making the workforce less imaginative.
7. College also teaches you some hidden skills such as time management and balancing conflicting workloads. These skills are essential for real-world employment and not forcing students to learn to manage their time is a disservice for employment later.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_9: Lots of great answers here already, just want to chime in with a point I'm surprised no one has mentioned.
Not all students are full time, or capable of taking a full courseload. Many students working part-time, or even full-time, need the ability to take a much lighter courseload. The closer you get to taking one intense class per quarter, the less that students (and faculty!) have the ability to control their schedule.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_10: I went to WPI, which runs on a system of four 7 week terms where the default load is 3 courses. I loved it.
Advantages:
Only 3 courses, so it's easier to manage time between them.
More flexible to schedule pre-requisites.
A course that sucks is over soon.
Compressed time schedule makes reviewing for exams easier because you don't have to look back as far.
Disadvantage:
Workload can be heavy squeezing certain courses in to 7 weeks.
If you get the flu for a week, you're in deep trouble.
Upvotes: 2
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2016/05/24
| 643
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<issue_start>username_0: One of my math professors (in a U.S. university) retired this semester. He was one person that I had planned on asking to write my letters of recommendation this coming fall semester, when I send out PhD applications in math / applied math.
He is very old and he seems anti-social and seems to not communicate with our math department very much. I am just basing this on some stuff that he says, which scares me, e.g., "tell them (our math dept.) that I said this..."
So, I wonder whether anyone *external* to our own math department would even know who he is - or whether admissions committees even value his opinions about grad students, at this point in his career.
Would it be best to find someone else to replace him as one of my letter writers? Someone who is younger and currently active in research? I do have replacements in mind, but I am somewhat attached to this particular professor, since I feel that I got my start in rigorous mathematics with him.
**Edit:** To add a bit more context, he is a full professor and has served on admissions / doctoral committees at our department numerous times. So, he's very much qualified, of course. My main concern is that perhaps he no longer communicates actively with people internal and external to our department, but that is only my best guess.
Thanks,<issue_comment>username_1: Your letter writer will be judged based on reputation (Ignoring the unlikely possibility they have a negative reputation). The faculty with the best reputation will
1. Travel frequently
2. Be an active researcher
3. Be older
The letter content is more important. A letter from a famous scientist is no good if they do not say anything of substance about the applicant.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: >
> So, I wonder whether anyone external to our own math department would even know who he is - or whether admissions committees even value his opinions about grad students, at this point in his career.
>
>
>
First, it's not necessary or even expected that admissions committees will know (of) all or even any of your letter writers. Second, you will be getting several letters, so they do not all need to come from "research active" professors. Third, there's no reason to undervalue someone's opinion because they've retired.
Yes, it's a plus if you can get letters from people who are well known, but the most important thing is to get letters from people who know you best, so I don't see a serious concern from what you've told us. (Though now that he's retired, it's *possible* he is harder to contact or less inclined to write letters.)
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]
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2016/05/24
| 447
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<issue_start>username_0: Let's assume that 10 empirical studies have been done for topic x. If I want to mention the following: Several studies have been conducted to deal with topic x (study 1; study 2; study 3).
My question: when I mention the word 'several', am I obligated to cite ALL the 10 empirical studies in the citation? Can I just cite a few? Should I use 'for example' to tell the reader that I am citing only 3 related studies, however others studies do exist?<issue_comment>username_1: Your letter writer will be judged based on reputation (Ignoring the unlikely possibility they have a negative reputation). The faculty with the best reputation will
1. Travel frequently
2. Be an active researcher
3. Be older
The letter content is more important. A letter from a famous scientist is no good if they do not say anything of substance about the applicant.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: >
> So, I wonder whether anyone external to our own math department would even know who he is - or whether admissions committees even value his opinions about grad students, at this point in his career.
>
>
>
First, it's not necessary or even expected that admissions committees will know (of) all or even any of your letter writers. Second, you will be getting several letters, so they do not all need to come from "research active" professors. Third, there's no reason to undervalue someone's opinion because they've retired.
Yes, it's a plus if you can get letters from people who are well known, but the most important thing is to get letters from people who know you best, so I don't see a serious concern from what you've told us. (Though now that he's retired, it's *possible* he is harder to contact or less inclined to write letters.)
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]
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2016/05/24
| 1,147
| 4,863
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<issue_start>username_0: to give a stupid example of a rounding error: on a test, the student is asked to calculate the circumference of a circle with radius 6.2. You personally did the math with π rounded to 3.14 and calculated 38.936, but one of your students rounded to 3.14159, and because of that their result is 38.955716.
Now, I doubt any decent teacher would discard this result as wrong, since the math itself was correct. However, what if this calculation was part of a much larger series of calculations for an academic paper, and the resulting rounding error throws off the entire result? It's easy to just come out and say "if you round X to 15 places instead of 14, your formula makes the English channel 10 meters wider" or "you rounded to 5 places, but if you round Y to 6 places, your result is no longer statistically significant", but it just seems like such a cheap way to give feedback for academics. Another example: "by rounding X to Y+1 places (or Y-1 places) in our formula to determine whether an event happened, we managed to shift 90% of our test group from 'happens 25% of the attempts' to 'happens 75% of the attempts'". It's an extreme example, but something like that
I know that such a remark can be seen as a meaningful one since it's a viable concern, but it's still quite a nitpick, and there's probably a reason why X was rounded to 14 places. Still, I can't help but think that a formula should work regardless of how many places you round X to.
If an academic paper you are reviewing could change result or even be invalidated due to rounding differently, how should that be handled in a peer review?<issue_comment>username_1: >
> Now, I doubt any decent teacher would discard this result as wrong
>
>
>
I'm generally considered a decent teacher, and, yes, I'd consider that result *partly* wrong and I'd remove a mark or two, because students, especially from certain fields (e.g. engineering), should learn to get the values right, also, not only the math.
There are mathematical tools that allow to evaluate the effect of rounding errors and to deal with uncertainty of parameters in general: if in an academic paper, the authors overlooked the effect of the rounding errors (getting the wrong result or suggesting a model excessively sensitive to the parameters), I'd suggest to reject the paper asking for major revisions, pointing out at the proper literature.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: 1. The underlying measurement precision is a key element of the rounding of any calculated number. In your circumference example, the radius is stated as "6.2" units (and not "6.20" or "6.200"). The sensible convention is to use only one more decimal place in the calculated answer as the least precise underpinning measurement. So, the circumference should be 38.96 units. Any other answer should lose marks, (assuming this is secondary/high school or beyond!).
2. It would often be difficult to establish that authors had not followed the normal conventions of rounding, though stating results to unreasonable numbers of decimal places, given the reviewers knowledge of the likely measurement error, would be sufficient reason to suggest the paper be revised.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: When reviewing a paper, one keeps an ear tuned for red flags. Mishandling of precision issues could be a red flag. It could go either way (too little precision or too much). Frankly, if the authors use way too many significant digits for the context, that might catch a reviewer's attention most easily. Once a reviewer has noticed a red flag, then the fine-tooth comb comes into play and one starts checking the work at a greater level of detail. This is not desirable from the author's point of view, and it makes the reviewing work much more time consuming.
(The researcher will have chosen an appropriate level of precision, i.e. number of significant digits, based on an error analysis. But this is background work, not explicitly presented in the paper.)
If the authors did not use enough precision when doing the work, then what happens? They'll run into trouble before getting to the writing up stage. Calculations lead to other calculations, etc., and rounding errors build, to the point that the final result is meaningless and then there's no paper to write.
By the way, there is no need to keep this in the purely hypothetical realm. There's no reason a non-researcher with a reasonable math background can't dip a toe in the water and read some journal articles. A nice way to get started with this is to take a look at *Nature*. When you find an article that piques your interest, then you can take a look at some of the works cited. You may find that there are some topics and techniques you aren't familiar with, but you can look into any you feel interested in.
Upvotes: 0
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2016/05/24
| 733
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<issue_start>username_0: I'm in my first year of a PhD programme in the UK. In this year of the programme we do a few short projects with different supervisors and then choose a supervisor and project for the next 3 years.
My current supervisor is fantastic - I work really well with him and he also thinks highly of me. I am making great progress with my work, everything is going well. Of the ~4 supervisors I've worked with in the past, this experience is by far the best I've had. My supervisor is very keen to have me continue with him for my main project, and I am too.
The problem lies with the head of my supervisor's department, who also happened to have been the head of my master's programme that I took last year (before becoming head of dept this year).
He taught me for a total of three weeks during that master's. I made a bad first impression in the first week when he called on me in class with a question that I didn't know the answer to and I replied with something silly. The second week I was seriously ill and had permission to be absent, but when I came back in the third week he was angry with me for having missed a week. At the end of that short course he gave me a failing grade. I appealed the grade unsuccessfully.
My supervisor has told me that before I started working with him the head of department "warned" him about me and said "I don't want a person like that in my department".
Now my supervisor, having worked with me for a few months, disagrees completely and doesn't understand why the head said that. But, perhaps unsurprisingly, my supervisor doesn't have a very good relationship with the head of department either. I worry that the head will not take his opinion with much weight.
I'm worried that I won't be allowed to continue in this department with my supervisor, and that even if I am there will be trouble down the line. What can I do?<issue_comment>username_1: You shouldn't worry so much about political issues in the department. What is important to you right now is to focus hard on the research and publish in significant journals with your supervisor or collaborators. Hence, in this way you can justify that are a serious student in the department, and you can established connections for you career after graduation the PhD program.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: The key message here is: your work ethic and productivity will be the determinants of your success.
If anything, use this "bad start" to motivate yourself to prove him wrong. I'd be very surprised if the Head of Department thinks too much about his initial assessment, and likely will be pleased to see you succeed.
However, you clearly are concerned that he will act to evict you from the department at some point. I think this rather unlikely, but the only academic trigger would be a failure to demonstrate sufficient progress at a progression board (which may be titled differently at your institution). This will be determined on your output, not his views, and in any case there will be appeal mechanisms within the university and at the [OAI](http://www.oiahe.org.uk) which protect you.
-> Don't worry and work hard!
Upvotes: 2
|
2016/05/24
| 480
| 2,058
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<issue_start>username_0: If I 'publish' something online -say on my blog as a blog article, or on my website as a pdf for people do download it and give me feedback- will it then be less attractive to publishers to take that on? Am I shooting myself in the foot?
**background for anyone who is interested:**
I wrote a 'book' which introduces a certain topic, because out of interest mainly. I think I did a good job, but I am not in a position (academically) to publish this because I am not expert in the field, haven't got the credentials etc. So I am thinking of just offering it for free, and maybe contact publishers later, after my PhD. This way, I could also revise and improve it. But I am worried now that this will affect my chances.<issue_comment>username_1: Yes, it will be less attractive to (most) publishers.
Most publishers operate as businesses and seek to maximise profits [citation needed]. The availability of an earlier edition on the Internet will reduce the demand for the publisher's version and thus the potential revenue that could be gained from publishing your book.
The extent to which your self-published version could impact on a publisher's revenue (and therefore their willingness to publish) will relate to how readily available it is and how similar it is to the version that the publisher would produce. If it is stored in a dark corner of the Internet and only loosely resembles the newer version then it may have little influence on their willingness to publish.
However, there are some publishers that operate on a not-for-profit basis; for example [Open Book Publishers](http://www.openbookpublishers.com/section/4/1/our-vision). These kinds of publishers probably would not mind the reduced profitability of your book due to previous publication.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: You may try an online publisher for that. For example, [leanpub](https://leanpub.com/authors). This way you can benefit from the material being widely available, and you still can improve the text whenever you want.
Upvotes: 1
|
2016/05/24
| 470
| 2,047
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<issue_start>username_0: I will talk about computer science.
Which is the difference between doing a research job in an industrial research lab (as Google, Facebook or microsoft Research) and in a university?
Looking at my field (artificial intelligence) I can see many big shots moving from university to private R&D labs, so I am wondering which are the main differences, say under the point of view:
* Salary
* Freedom of investigating what you actually like
* Competition (is more difficult to get a job in a university or in a R&D lab?)
* Stability of the job<issue_comment>username_1: I suppose the private research labs are more driven by the research and development of their own products or features or sometimes methods.
whereas university labs are more focused on generic development of theory or sometimes applications of existing methods.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: Salary: Private labs will 90% of the time pay more (with slight variances when comparing small companies and large university labs).
Freedom: Unfortunately freedom isn't vary high no matter where you UNTIL you become well-established. At Universities, you have to research where you can get grants and people won't give grants unless they like what you propose. Companies obviously need you to be doing research that is their best profit interest. When you get well-established some universities and companies will want you so much that they will give you the liberty to do what you want because of how successful you have proven to be. This doesn't happen very often.
Competition: They are about the same actually. A renown university like Carnegie Mellon is just as competitive as places like Apple and Google.
Stability: Typically, companies are more known to give out longer contract agreements, so even if your project fails, you are guaranteed to be moved around to other research areas. Sometimes at Universities, if the project you are working on tanks, there goes your grant and sometimes there is no where else to transfer to.
Upvotes: 2
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2016/05/24
| 429
| 1,973
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<issue_start>username_0: My department is becoming more and more annoying by posting everything in Facebook group, from exam results, seminar schedule, to private information about students ( telephone numbers, addresses, emails, etc.)
I don't know how to explain them that I care about safety of personal information and that privacy of my personal information are important to me, but please be aware that I don't want to sound pretentious. Is there any way to address this issue correctly?<issue_comment>username_1: I suppose the private research labs are more driven by the research and development of their own products or features or sometimes methods.
whereas university labs are more focused on generic development of theory or sometimes applications of existing methods.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: Salary: Private labs will 90% of the time pay more (with slight variances when comparing small companies and large university labs).
Freedom: Unfortunately freedom isn't vary high no matter where you UNTIL you become well-established. At Universities, you have to research where you can get grants and people won't give grants unless they like what you propose. Companies obviously need you to be doing research that is their best profit interest. When you get well-established some universities and companies will want you so much that they will give you the liberty to do what you want because of how successful you have proven to be. This doesn't happen very often.
Competition: They are about the same actually. A renown university like Carnegie Mellon is just as competitive as places like Apple and Google.
Stability: Typically, companies are more known to give out longer contract agreements, so even if your project fails, you are guaranteed to be moved around to other research areas. Sometimes at Universities, if the project you are working on tanks, there goes your grant and sometimes there is no where else to transfer to.
Upvotes: 2
|
2016/05/24
| 890
| 3,665
|
<issue_start>username_0: I'm doing an internship as a high school student in a lab and am wondering about etiquette in research/life. The problem is that I interrupted my supervisor while he was having a meeting to tell him someone from another country was on the phone (I know he regularly collaborates with researchers in foreign countries). I'm wondering whether this would be perceived by him as rude. He is still in his meeting so I want to know what to say to him when he ends it.
The details are as follows:
Due to some complications (unnecessary details) my supervisor and I have switched offices.
At some point while I was sitting in his office, the phone started ringing. Thinking that it could be urgent and knowing he was in a different office and so may not get to checking this voicemail, I picked up the phone. It ended up being one of his collaborators from another country who asked to speak with him. I went and found my supervisor talking to someone in person, likely another of his collaborators. I assumed that because this person on the phone was calling from another country, it was important; so I tapped lightly on the door and informed him that someone from country *X* wants to speak with him. He told me he'd call back the person later, telling me the phone call wasn't important enough.
In hindsight, I think I did two things wrong: (1) I picked up his phone, and (2) and I interrupted his meeting.
My questions are:
* Is what I did wrong?
* How should I approach him afterwards?<issue_comment>username_1: >
> Is what I did wrong?
>
>
>
Picking up his phone might not have been the best idea, unless he specifically asked you to do so. What if the call received was a personal one? How would you handle that? Then interrupting a meeting to relay this information was not a good idea. However, you will make many wrong decisions but it's important to learn from them.
>
> How should I approach him afterwards?
>
>
>
I advise open communication this case. Begin with an apology then continue by explaining your reason and end by asking what process he would like you to follow should this occur again in the future. Finally, ask for clarification if the answer is vague.
### Example:
"Apologies for answering your phone & interrupting your meeting"
"but I believed this call would be urgent."
"If someone calls again, what would you like me to do?"
"Should I answer & take a message? Should I ask them to wait? Should I interrupt you if you're in a meeting?"
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: >
> In hindsight, I think I did two things wrong: (1) I picked up his
> phone, and (2) and I interrupted his meeting.
>
>
>
*At most*, you did one thing wrong. Interrupting the meeting was a judgement call. It's perfectly reasonable to think that a long distance call from another country might be more urgent than a meeting. In an ordinary business environment, I might have interrupted the meeting too. However, academics tend to receive a lot more long distance calls than your average worker.
As username_1 says, it's usually not a good idea to pick up someone else's phone. But given that the supervisor had just moved and you thought he might not check that voicemail, it's an understandable faux pas.
I agree completely with username_1's description about how to approach your supervisor about this. And as <NAME> says, you are an intern. Part of the purpose of an internship is to learn how to navigate the business/academic world. You are expected to make mistakes... and to learn from them. So don't stress out about this. If your supervisor gets angry, he is being unreasonable.
Upvotes: 2
|
2016/05/24
| 811
| 3,491
|
<issue_start>username_0: I have my first supervision soon, but I don't really know what to talk about. I am working on a particular problem in the Humanities; my supervisor has given me a reading list, and well, I am currently working through it. I haven't come up with any novel ideas so far, but I also cannot think of any questions to ask her. I have not encountered any problems, but I am also not far enough to have anything written, or a table of contents ready.
What shall I do? What does my supervisor expect from me now? Obviously you won't know, but maybe you can *guess*? I am quite worried.<issue_comment>username_1: I would guess that your supervisor simply wants to stay in touch, in general. I am in mathematics, but/and in early stages and even during their thesis-writing, my students often have said that they have no coherent questions, nothing to show, etc. In recent years I've attempted to more forcefully make the point that our weekly meetings are not at all necessarily about "good questions" (in math, the usual joke is that to be able to ask a good question is often more difficult than proving a good theorem...) nor about "progress". Rather, it's to stay in touch, chat about the project and related matters. Often, by-the-way questions come to light, often disclaimed as "dumb", but *these* are really the only questions anyone every has, and mostly I can answer them.
In a subtler way, "chatting" about things related to your project, or even only very distantly related, helps your advisor get to know you in that context. Very-experienced people can make a lot of high-likelihood inferences from details of casual technical conversation.
Also, there's the pep-talk aspect. Assuming things are going even approximately alright, your advisor has that opportunity to encourage you, or reassure you, etc. For that matter, especially later, it may become rather difficult for you to see whether you're making good progress, or not. After all, you've not written sooooo many theses? In contrast, presumably your advisor *has* seen many examples, and can reassure you that, yes, everything really does take this long, even when one works very hard.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: Unless your supervisor is a jerk (possible, but a minority), *they want to see you succeed*. If you have come straight from school and undergrad, you need to transition from thinking of your supervisor as a schoolteacher whose job it is to rank you and grade you at every opportunity, and start to see them as a supporter who is there to help and to make sure that you achieve something. That doesn't mean they won't be demanding, of course, and it doesn't lesson your responsibility for your own work, but it hopefully means you can be honest with them about progress. There's a good chance that they're not expecting any stunning insight at this stage!
In terms of specifics, you say you haven't had any ideas for research, but was there anything in what you've read so far that you found particularly interesting? If the meeting turns into awkward silence (hopefully unlikely), perhaps you can talk about that?
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: You are going to be doing a lot of reading. Keeping track of what you read where, so that you can go back to interesting points later, is not trivial.
That gives you a useful topic to discuss. How are you managing your notes on the material you are reading? Can the supervisor suggest better ways of doing it?
Upvotes: 1
|
2016/05/24
| 779
| 3,035
|
<issue_start>username_0: If I am creating lesson plans, do I need to cite the various websites I use for my work? It is for math, and the information I have used is found in thousands of sites. I have not taken any lesson plans, nor have I taken their math problems and claimed them as my own. I instead used the different websites and textbooks as a placeholder of "what do I talk about next". For example, I am on a site talking about multiplying whole numbers. The websites example is "256 times 5". I see that, and go okay how about "163 times 3".
Whether I do or do not cite, can I have my name on the lesson plans? So far, I have read if I use citations I can; "This work has been collected and combined by name".
Which brings me to my last question. If I do need to cite, can I create a work-cited page and put all my references on that page, or do I HAVE to put in-text citations? This is not for any kind of class; I am making this to help my fellow students.
Thank you for your time,
Samantha<issue_comment>username_1: If you are sharing this document with students, then I would ask what information would benefit them. A link to further reading, sure; where you got the inspiration for a type of question? Probably not.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: >
> Do I need to cite the various websites I use for my work?
>
>
>
It depends on the *work* your are referring to. In your case, it is math lessons. One ought to cite for one or of the following [reasons](http://libguides.mit.edu/citing). Let's look at whether these points apply to you.
1. **To show you've done enough research**. You wouldn't have to prove to your students that you've done enough research; the study content should be sufficient.
2. **To give credit for the source of the work**. Is your work publicly available? Would it anyhow increase the citation count of the author you intend to credit? If so, it would be up to you.
3. **To avoid plagiarism**. You are not plagiarizing as you are not claiming the work to be your own; you are teaching what is established.
4. **To allow readers to track the sources for further information**. Do you feel that your students would have the need to go through the sources you've referred? If so, you wouldn't have to cite all of them, but only the ones you feel are important.
>
> Whether I do or do not cite, can I have my name on the lesson plans?
>
>
>
Yes, as long as you don't claim the work to be novel in any way (which you obviously won't be doing). It would be better to add a disclaimer as you stated in your post like *"This work has been collected and combined by name"*.
>
> Can I create a work-cited page and put all my references on that page, or do I HAVE to put in-text citations?
>
>
>
That would be actually useful, a work-cited page can be referred by avid students who would want to receive more information on the topic. But in-text citations would be have to be a matter of preference, that depends on the utility of the majority of your students.
Upvotes: 1
|
2016/05/24
| 807
| 3,326
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am considering a master's degree in Japan.
From a purely career oriented POV, I should be aiming for universities in the USA, Germany or Italy as these are the leading countries in my field. However, I have a great passion for Japanese culture and language. I have considered applying for the JET program, but I wish to avoid a 1-2 gap in my resume.
Would going for a Japanese university (instead of a stronger one) for personal reasons be seen as a bad thing? If so, would it leave a lasting mark and impede on my future career?<issue_comment>username_1: Assuming there is a negative stigma, why would you ever need to tell anyone *why* you picked the university you attended? Having a great passion for Japan and Japanese should be enough for anyone assuming you do an awesome project which you can and should do no matter where you go to school. This is especially true if you're likely to want to stay in Japan after your schooling to be an academic there, and it's a great reason to go to a Japanese university if you'd like to make a life there due to your passion.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: As someone on the ground in Japan, I would say that there's more to consider than just the supposed quality of the university if you choose to do a graduate degree in Japan.
First, there's the school year. With the exception of ICU and the University of Tokyo, the school year here starts in April -- meaning if you finish a degree elsewhere in May, you will have an 11 month gap. (the same time gap will hit you on the return but less so. Since programs finish in March, it would not be impossible to start up somewhere else the next fall.)
Second, the gap in quality between institutions in Japan and elsewhere may be larger (or possibly smaller I guess) than people realize. The language barrier in many fields means that it may be hard to grasp the lay of the land within Japan, so the institution you go to here maybe much worse in quality than you thought. On the flip side, when people think about how good your program was, they will have the same information gap. (So they may think "oh, I've heard of X university and professor Q from there, it must be decent).
Even in programs and areas that *publish* in English or ostensibly hold courses in English, the opacity may still remain.
Based on the second reason, I would say merely doing a degree in Japan leaves no negative mark on your CV. I don't think it's ever hurt to be able to say I got 1.5 years of funding to go study in Japan at a decently ranked university there.
BUT because of the above opacity, it may be hard to tell how good the program you come to really is. If it is poor, then the quality of instruction may genuinely hurt your ability to do further research, i.e. you may not receive the same quality of mentoring and thus not be as prepared for Western-style independent research.
At least in my case, it didn't particularly help much of my research being in Japan, and I didn't learn any new techniques. (But I'm in philosophy where this opacity barrier is huge and I had already started writing my PhD thesis before I came).
---
If you are considering an MA/MS/PhD or study in Japan, rather than the JET Programme, you should focus on the MEXT Research Scholarship.
Upvotes: 4
|
2016/05/25
| 2,434
| 10,475
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am applying to a master's programs right now and am in a bind.
My professor accused me of academic misconduct in one of my undergraduate classes. After I submitted my assignment I had asked a question on an online forum about an assignment and posted a short excerpt of my work. I was asking a question out of intellectual curiosity to better my work for the future.
This had not been an issue with other professors in our department. This professor was strongly against posting anything online, so he found my post online and stated that I violated his rule of knowingly or unknowingly making my solutions available to other students. I had no intent to cheat, and I didn't feel anything I posted was a solution since they were short snippets of code. I felt this charge was a stretch, but the school sided with the professor and he will fail me for the class.
My school says the records of this academic misconduct process are sealed, and there will be no notation on my transcript, just the failed grade.
Graduate school applications ask if one has been involved in any type of academic hearings and to explain the circumstances. The application also asks me to explain any failed grades. I fear if I disclose all this information it will hurt my application. As far as I know the graduate school will not be able to find out there was any misconduct, unless they contact student affairs and I permit them to see those records. The graduate school just requires the official academic transcript. I'm wondering if graduate schools also check other academic records.
Any guidance on what I should do?<issue_comment>username_1: I don't see what the "bind" is. You are being unambiguously asked to disclose something, so....you should disclose it. If you just mean "Oh no, behaving ethically may not be in line with my purely selfish interests": right, this is how ethics usually work. You shouldn't lie, cheat, steal, injure, rape, murder...even when you think you won't get caught. That's what "shouldn't" means.
That they also ask you to explain your failed grades is a good break for you: you should explain carefully what happened. If at all possible you should enlist a sympathetic faculty member to write something corroborating your story in their recommendation letter. If you are fully believable then you have a shot that those who are evaluating your application will actually believe you. They may well think that the professor went overboard and end up weighting the failing grade *less strongly* than a failing grade that was awarded because you (say) failed the final exam. In fact, if there is something objective you can do to show that you *have* mastered the material of that course -- e.g. doing a reading course with another faculty member -- then I strongly encourage you to do so.
[I'm kind of annoyed to add this but...your academic dishonesty is not in any way protected information. For all you know, your letter writers could bring it up independently of what you tell them. Or -- much worse -- when you are N years into your graduate program, your old professor could meet someone in your new program and happen to discuss you. If it transpires that you were dishonest on your application, that could be grounds for **dismissing you from the program**. You sure don't want that to happen. Sigh -- be good; big brother might actually be watching.]
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_2: It is difficult to be objective about ourselves, especially under embarrassing circumstances, but if what you say is true and accurate, it is possible that the school administration sided with the professor unfairly.
I was once shocked to be falsely accused of 'helping' a fellow student when I simply confirmed the question (NOT the answer) in an official community college online forum for a hybrid class. The question I answered resulted from a delay in receiving the textbook and the student was afraid he had jotted down the wrong question from the library. I never even hinted at an answer but was rebuked by the professor. This was early in the class and I don't recall any serious ramifications (incidentally, this teacher turned out to be so completely incompetent in the class subject matter that I chose to meet with the department head (CIS) and academic dean to discuss her 'teaching' style. She is now retired.) My point is that faculty are not omniscient nor infallible.
From professional experience, I have found it works out best to be up front and honest as soon as possible rather than leave things in a somewhat murky grey zone for extended periods. This is easiest if you have a sympathetic professor or counselor to help guide you thru any appeal process and are willing to do what is necessary to right the inadvertent wrong rather than justify the wrong doing however innocent.
From what you describe, you seem to have had little or no motive for posting what you did other than intellectual curiosity, a trait that should be vigorously encouraged in education. Assuming this to be the case, it still does not speak well of your judgement to presume that you could post something academic online and no one else would find it. Search engines are remarkably capable tools as you have discovered. Even if not mentioned, you must assume professors use plagiarism detection tools etc. Putting the best light on this rather big negative, one could argue that posting publicly is further evidence of your innocent intentions.
Given the apparent grey zone into which you fell, perhaps you could collect any policies on academic dishonesty published by your school as well as the class syllabus given out by your professor. Read them and summarize how well you complied with them (if you did).
The fact that other professors did not give you an 'F' for similar previous posting is not any more convincing than telling a police officer that you have been speeding in that section of town every day for a year before and never got a ticket. The fact that you have been violating the rules regularly might only add to your sentence.
However, if you feel singled out unfairly try to find similar precedent for online posting from yourself or other students that was endorsed or approved by the professor. Try to find an unbiased person (not family or close friend) or better yet, professor that you respect willing to review the particulars of your case and give you advice. Appeal any adverse decisions as appropriate. No truly innocent person willingly accepts guilt.
Most importantly, learn from this experience and become better, not bitter. Keep in mind the big picture: Academic dishonest is unethical not arbitrarily, but because it deprives you (and other students) of a full education and honest and fair evaluation of your accomplishments.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: Yes, you should disclose it, BUT you should frame it as in-your-favor as possible. Something like this:
>
> "I am not sure if this falls within the realm of what I am required to disclose, but in the interest of being completely honest I will include it here:
>
>
> There was an incident that occurred during the \_\_\_\_\_ year of my undergraduate degree. After turning in an assignment, I posted a portion of my answer in an online discussion forum, in hopes that the discussion would help me to reach a deeper understanding of the material. Even though I only made the posting after turning in the assignment, and the replies to my posting did not in any way affect my answer to the assignment, my professor for the class felt that this represented academic misconduct, and I received a 0 in the class.
>
>
> It was not my intention to violate any rules, and I truly regret that this misunderstanding occurred. I have definitely been more careful with what I post online since then. I have not had any further incidents or accusations, and I hope that this will not be counted against me in my future academic career."
>
>
>
The idea is to acknowledge what happened, and show that there was no intentional dishonesty on your part, but to do so in a way that shows humility and a willingness to learn from the experience. Don't try to argue your case, don't insult your former professor/university, just neutrally describe the situation (as demonstrated above) and trust that the reader is a reasonable person capable of making their own judgments.
The word "misunderstanding" can be your friend here -- even if you aren't sorry for what you did because you don't think you did anything wrong, you can honestly say that you are sorry that the misunderstanding happened and that you have been more careful since then.
(Just don't copy my example above word-for-word, that'd be plagiarism... ;-) )
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: The rule is to disclose everything, as has been pointed out in the most upvoted answer (by username_1). But, obviously, behaving ethically does not equal blindly following arbitrary orders, so this does not answer the question at all (I am surprised to find such a blatantly *wrong* statement being upvoted!).
So, to summarize: you believe the punishment to be unjust, and thus you don't want to suffer any negative consequences. This is not *necessarily* unethical, although it is prima facie questionable (by refusing to follow the rules you disagree with, even assuming that you are in fact "correcting an injustice", you are also disrupting the normal functioning order of academia).
Here's my advice: firstly, you should make sure that you are indeed innocent of wrongdoing, at least in the ethical sense. Can you point out how the professor discovered the code online? If the professor could find it, then other students may have been able to find it too, putting you at fault despite your claims, unless the professor made use of information that other students did not have access to; this would make your behaviour careless, even if your intentions were good. Secondly, you should make sure that you do not have access to other means of correcting the perceived injustice (appeal). Thirdly and more pragmatically, you should consider that the academic world is small, and there's a non-zero chance that you will be found out, at which point the system will show no mercy.
Weight your options carefully, both morally and pragmatically: you are offered a chance to argue your case. You say you have a good case. Maybe you should take that chance.
Upvotes: 0
|
2016/05/25
| 1,015
| 4,017
|
<issue_start>username_0: I'm a non-French-speaking mathematician submitting an English paper to a French journal that requires a French abstract (but publishes papers in English). I don't think I know anyone I'd be comfortable asking for help.
I took at stab at a translation using a combination of Google Translate and phrases found actual French papers. I think my attempt is probably not so far from the mark, but would be no doubt cringe-inducing for an actual Frenchman.
Should I submit with no abstract and hope for the best, submit with the bad one, or is it important to find somebody to help me with a proper translation?<issue_comment>username_1: I would not use Google Translate for this. I recently moved to France and I needed to do this a few times, and when I did a Google Translate (even a 'nice' one\*) it still sounded bad to the native French people around. In that particular experience, a French person editing my 3 page document took about 1.5 hours. GT leaves much to be desired. Even when things are technically correct, it will be obviously non-French, which can have a bad effect on the initial reception of the document.
One would think this isn't relevant to the scientific content, but in France, things like this are considered to be culturally important (which is why an English language journal requires a French abstract - PhD theses have the same requirement). I think your paper would have a better reception with a linguistically correct abstract, both from the people considering the submission and the people eventually reading and citing it.
There are services online which offer translations for a small sum of money. I'm not sure if I can link to some without it being considered spam, but they're easy to find. So based on my experience, this is what I recommend. They charge per-word so an abstract should be fairly inexpensive.
Like the commenter guifa suggested, speaking with your foreign language department would be another way to accomplish this without having to pay a translator.
\*If you HAVE to use Google Translate (which I don't recommend), I would translate the result back into English to make sure that words haven't been misinterpreted. I would also check with a good online French-English dictionary. My chosen one is [Linguee](https://www.google.fr/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwimr6G89_XMAhWJ3SwKHbzyDHoQFggcMAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.linguee.fr%2F&usg=AFQjCNH31R9ZLaN6uUUcdpU3R_Un1tiZYQ&sig2=562j35fNth5MssMxHvCCOg&bvm=bv.122852650,d.bGg). This is the most effective if you write your sentences very simplistically and concisely.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: My guess is rather different from what has been suggested/observed in *username_1's* answer; it comes with the caveat that I have not worked in France, although I did live in Quebec for a couple of years. On the other hand, I have passing familiarity as a reader with French mathematical journals.
Based on what I see published in journals such as Ann Inst Fourier, I think that as long as you make a *decent attempt* at providing an abstract in French, flaws in the language will not be held against you, and would not prejudice the journal against the paper. There is a decent chance that the referee's preferred language, if not their first language, will be English; and ultimately the referee and the editors will be concerned about the mathematics, not the quality of language in the abstract.
If one had to write the whole article in French, that would be another matter, because then the referee would have to be a fluent French reader and then might well get distracted or irritated by flaws in the use of language. But no respectable referee (or, dare I say it, journal) in mathematics would reject or accept a paper based on its abstract.
The worst that can happen is that if the paper is accepted, the editors will request that you improve the quality of French in the abstract before they formally accept the paper.
Upvotes: 2
|
2016/05/25
| 655
| 2,209
|
<issue_start>username_0: I need DOI number of the book with ISBN 9780723437512. There is a kindle edition so it should have some electronic identification.
---
How can you get DOI from ISBN?<issue_comment>username_1: [DOI](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_object_identifier) and [ISBN](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Standard_Book_Number) are two different identification numbers and can not be translated into each other. A (digital) book need not have a DOI number, and e.g. a journal article that has a DOI need not have an ISBN number.
If you want to look up whether a book (or journal article, etc.) has a DOI, you can query it at <http://www.crossref.org/guestquery>
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: Yes DOI and ISBN are separate. However there is apparently a way to get the DOI from the ISBN-A number which is described at this link: <https://www.doi.org/factsheets/ISBN-A.html>
Note: the ISBN-A means actionable ISBN so they are deriving some properties from the DOI. See <https://www.isbn-international.org/content/other-identifiers> for more details
---
Syntax of ISBN-A
The ISBN-A is constructed by incorporating an ISBN into the allowed DOI syntax:
Example: 10.978.12345/99990
The syntax specification, reading from left to right, is:
Handle System DOI name prefix = "10."
ISBN (GS1) Bookland prefix = "978." or "979."
ISBN registration group element and publisher prefix = variable length numeric string of 2 to 8 digits
Prefix/suffix divider = "/"
ISBN Title enumerator and checkdigit = maximum 6 digit title enumerator and 1 digit check digit.
---
The DOI website would inform you if
>
> The ISBN-A you are attempting to resolve has not yet been registered although there may be a corresponding ISBN. To find out about how to register ISBN-As, click here.
>
>
>
and 'here' is the ISBN website given above.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: For some special publishers, there is a relation between DOI and ISBN. For example Cambridge University Press’s online books have the format:
>
> 10.1017/CBO[13 digit ISBN]
>
>
>
Of course, if your publisher doesn’t have an equivalent or you cannot find it, that’s the end of the line ...
Upvotes: 3
|
2016/05/25
| 4,156
| 18,175
|
<issue_start>username_0: Rationally, I should not be concerned about building a well-designed academic website for myself. But academic websites are consistently so visually spare and poorly designed that I would feel like a peacock designing the site in any way. I don't mean anything crazy, maybe a web font or a non-`#0000ff` link.
I realize this is broad, but I'd be curious if others feel this stigma of trying too hard in this area—same probably applies to clothing—and how they approach it.<issue_comment>username_1: I went possibly a little overboard with the CSS on my own website and worried about this for a while. But all of the comments I've spontaneously received on my site have been positive.
As the comments suggest, I'd say as long as you prioritize straightforwardness in navigation, layout, etc., you'll be fine. If your site feels too much like a gimmick or a web-based game, then sure, your colleagues might get exasperated and/or start wondering if you've put too much time into that rather than your research. But as long as your site is easy to use and doesn't take half an hour to load, it should go over well, at a guess. (There may be field-specific factors here. I'm in linguistics, where enough people do programming that pretty websites aren't unusual.)
In particular, my opinion is that a bit of whimsy is okay if it isn't the *only* way of using your site. I have one colleague who has a fairly prominent CSS rotating cube with site-internal links on each face, but those links are also available via a conventional menu-bar. Another colleague of mine has a nifty little box with upcoming events scrolling through it, but the thing sits at the bottom of the page and isn't a crucial part of the site.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Lots of mathematicians are not especially organized. Also they will want to code their html by hand, and tend to program in a "well, it works so it's good enough" fashion. Some mathematicians have webpages that are full of weird flashy things, some are spare and minimal, some have bugs (and of course some are well-designed and visually appealing).
But no, no mathematicians will look at a well designed web page and say "Why did they waste all this time making a nice webpage?"
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: Your question is not only *too broad and opinionated*, but it is also *formulated* in such way that it is quite difficult to answer, in general. Simply because there is *no universal definition* of what attribute "well-designed" means. It could mean different things to different people. There are no clear and universal criteria for judging whether a website (or any other object, for that matter) *is* well designed or not and, if Yes, *how well*. Certainly, there are various heuristics and checklists for assessing the quality of design of a website, but they are not universal at all, as each criterion's weight is strongly dependent on the *context*, which, in this particular case, includes goals of the assessment, the website's audience, the assessor's judgement, the layout and essence of the site's content.
In addition to the above, the academic audience is likely to pay more attention to the *essence* of a website, rather then its design (unless it shows a clear *disrespect* to potential visitors - in a form of poor spelling, offensive language, excessive use of advertising, frequently appearing mailing list pop-up windows, extremely bright or dis-balanced colors as well as accessibility, readability and navigability issues, among others).
Having said that, I don't see any reasons for why academics would look down on a well-designed academic website (provided that it is somehow determined that the website in question is indeed a well-designed one). That is, of course, unless the site contains irrelevant or poor quality *content*.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: As has been stated several times, there is no such thing as a site being "too well designed." Of course the design should take into account the audience that will be viewing the site—i.e. if you are designing a website gallery for minimalist paintings, it would be very odd indeed to use as many buttons and links as Amazon.com, whereas for an online store that isn't a bad design at all.
However, in my view, the keynote is really not so much design as *implementation*.
There are two crucial factors: file size (also known as [website obesity](http://idlewords.com/talks/website_obesity.htm)), and overuse of scripts (which is closely related).
[The website you linked in the comments](http://jessicasvendsen.com/about.php) doesn't load *at all* in my browser, because I have scripts disabled by default. I enable them for sites that I *expect* to run scripts, such as gmail or youtube.
I grant that I may be in a minority of the general web browsing population...but I expect a disproportionate number of academics are aware of such things, and are more likely to be irritated by websites which require plug-ins, scripts and high bandwidth simply to display a bunch of text.
Do your design as well as you please, but try to keep it as minimal as possible on bandwidth, plug-ins and scripts.
---
(Note: My own personal settings aren't the main topic of this answer, but as several people have made noises of shock at my default blockage of scripts, I'll clarify: I don't block *first party* scripts that are served by the actual website I'm visiting.)
Upvotes: 7 <issue_comment>username_5: Academia is full of people who are deeply passionate about their work but sadly are less than deeply passionate about making an effort to communicate effectively about their work to the rest of the world. **That is a bad thing, not a good thing.** That is why we see poorly written papers, poorly prepared talks, and why we see poorly designed (or nonexistent) personal websites. Moreover, many academics lack the technical skills and design sense needed to create a good website. Again, that is a bad thing (well, the sky won't collapse because of it, but you know what I mean).
Thus, I think the premise of your question falls into a [logical trap](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appeal_to_tradition) of thinking that because something is the norm, it is good. That simply isn't the case. If you know how to build a really good website, and care sufficiently about making your work known and understood by others to spend the time doing it, **by all means -- do it** (and, of course, if you know how to write really good papers and give really good presentations, do that as well!). Be a leader rather than a follower, and show people the way to improving this somewhat pathetic aspect of academia. It will be a great investment of your time and a good way to set yourself apart from your (perhaps equally talented but less web-savvy) peers, as long as you don't go overboard and spend so much time on the website that it will seriously impact your research productivity.
For what it's worth, I'm not here to promote my own work so I won't include a link, but Google will show you that I at least try to practice what I preach.
**Edit:** To clarify, as far as the OP's literal question is concerned: no, academics generally do not look down on well-designed academic websites. As I explained above, in my humble opinion you have everything to gain and virtually nothing to lose by putting in a reasonable amount of work to build a clean, nice-looking website that effectively communicates to the world what you and your work are about. Moreover, by doing so you will be serving as a good role model for others and advancing the culture of academic dissemination of knowledge. At least one academic (yours truly) definitely approves of that.
Upvotes: 7 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_6: *Well-designed* isn't quite the same as *appropriately designed*. A simple example demonstrates this:
An academic puts up a publications page with links and full titles/author lists, everything on one page. It takes a bit of scrolling to get to the bottom, but find-in-page can instantly show you whether they've written with a certain co-author, or used certain keywords in the title. But the page looks old-fashioned (raw html) and the lines are too wide on modern monitors.
The university forces¹ everyone onto pretty, standardised webpages through a CMS. Line lengths are optimised for reading, but there are only 10 publications per page, and author lists are truncated with "et al." automatically. No "search this author's publications" feature is implemented to make up for it.
Which would you rather use if looking up a potential collaborator? (If the academic keeps on top of such things, ORCID or ResearcherID can make up for this, Google scholar generally can't unless their name is very rare)
¹They turn off the server hosting the old pages and anything else they don't lock down, so anything non-standard wouldn't be on the university's domain.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_7: In general, no.
Many world-class academics (especially younger ones who find this sort of thing more fun) have gorgeous websites.
I think that relevant points, in addition to your analogy with clothing, which speaks to a common lack of concern with superficial appearance, are
1. These people are almost certainly capable of learning to build a website, but many don't see the benefit. Academics become masters of efficiency, and not all require pretty-looking websites to further their aims. A simple web page is often the easiest thing to maintain.
2. Academics are suspicious of things which are oversold, spun, or otherwise made to look better than they are. While this might not make them think poorly of shiny websites (provided they have content), it goes a long way to explain why they are so tolerant of less-than-shiny ones.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_8: When the web first became popular around the mid 1990s, many computer experts learned HTML, and they learned that different web browsers can make the same HTML look different. There were some efforts to spread the word that web pages should be about content, and that web designers should not try to exert much control over what the web page looks like. For instance, using an header tag may have different effects with different browsers.
===============================================================
>
> I don't mean anything crazy, maybe a web font
>
>
>
You make it sound like "a web font" is a simple thing. Some people tried to use different fonts by having web pages download graphics that contained pictures of the letters. When support for fonts started to be supported by Internet Explorer, I recall there being significant challenges from common font files being unsupported by certain web browsers.
A lot of companies figured out that paying customers frequently liked pretty websites, and they could have such sites by getting "graphic designers" to be in charge of website design. Such people were often familiar with creating advertisement materials on other platforms, and so they were used to having lots of control over how things looked. They favored making websites that specified customized looks for everything, leaving very little room for a web browser to apply a different default setting than another web browser. Such control often involved loading more files, creating a slower web, and creating websites that really didn't work well on anything except for certain configurations, like computer screens that were over 12 inches tall and 800x600 (or larger, especially after typical technology improved over time).
When mobile devices, like phones, became far more popular, then suddenly a lot of professionally-created websites, created based on tons of assumptions, had problems. You might be surprised at just how many of these academics' websites kept working just fine, because their simplicity permitted lots of flexibility with browser rendering. Of course, the people were created atrociously beautiful websites had years of experience calling themselves professional web designers, so they actually benefited from the problems experienced by their creations, because they managed to have a built-in excuse for asking people for more money. After all, new web page designs were needed to accommodate mobile devices which have grown in popularity.
I, for one, appreciated the simplicity of having most websites use hyperlinks that are easily identifiable by having underlined blue text. You seem to have a differing opinion, and I'm not trying to pick a fight about the topic. (Such discussion may be more appropriate for the [webmasters.stackexchange.com](http://webmasters.stackexchange.com) site.) I'm actually just trying to answer your question. To recap, my answer was: simplicity.
I would rather have websites that can be loaded quickly and rendered quickly, easily parsed by automated tools like web spyders, so I can just find the desired information and move on. Although one of my websites has some more functional CSS than what I've encountered on most sites, many "scrap" sites are hand-coded and use minimal formatting. When I do use formatting, I tend to use browser tags like and **rather than trying to tinker with how the site will look with a specific browser. If you don't like how my site looks in your browser, then the most appropriate way for that issue to be fixed is for your browser to render things differently, not for me to waste a bunch of time trying to impose a specific look (which you happen to like, and which other people may not).**
============================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_9: "Looking down" on a well-designed website, whether academic or not, would be a severe character flaw, maybe caused by jealousy, by generally being miserable and hating nice things, or by other inadequacies.
There are many academics, so surely some will have this character flaw, but I wouldn't expect it to be more common among academics than among any other group of people. And since it's *their* character flaw, I wouldn't worry about it.
If you can create a well-designed website, and it is worth the effort relative to the benefit that the users of the website experience and your pleasure at having a nice website and hopefully positive feedback, then go for it. If it's well designed and someone looks down on it, that's their problem and not yours.
I think if you see academic websites that are not very well designed, the reason is not that the person responsible doesn't *want* a nicer website, it's because either they are not very designing websites (which is perfectly Ok, I want my brain surgeon to be good at brain surgery, not at web design), and perhaps that in their estimation, the cost / benefit ratio of good web design is worse than for you. If *you* like creating web sites and someone else hates it, then to you the cost is a lot lower. Spending eight hours on something you enjoy is a lot cheaper than spending eight hours on something you hate doing.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_10: Academics websites are usually not intended for people who like to browse, discover, or just look for interesting stuff on the web. Or perhaps I should say: the purpose of academics websites is not so much to have an "online presence" but to provide simple information: mostly contact details and publications.
I don't think I've ever been to one of those minimally designed, HTML-only websites of academics and experienced a problem that a better-designed page would have solved. That's because the typical interactions I perform is this:
* Open the page.
* Click on "publications" / `CTRL-f` for "publications".
* `CTRL-f` for the paper I'm after.
* Hope for a PDF link.
Done.
That is: in 99% of the cases I go to these pages with a very specific task in mind, and the minimal, everything-on-one-or-two-pages design is absolutely appropriate for that task. After I found what I was after, or didn't find it, I'm off their page.
And that is not because I'm not interested in their work -- but the main means of learning about the research of these academics is through their actual publications. Their web presence is only a means to an end.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_11: I think the main premise of your question is false. A visually sparse website is not inherently a poorly designed one. A website has to take its target audience into account.
The average person who reads this type website is likely not going to be all that impressed by CSS3 skills, even if your personal website is as basic as just a bunch of HTML, a person reading it can still get all the information he/she needs from at and with that it can fully serve its purpose.
The form has to follow function and when your function is simply to have a set amount of information set to a broad audience then a 'visually sparse' website may still be fine.
Then again people can have different views on web-site design. You may think of a website in the same manner as what certain people think of there work clothes.
It is the way in which you portray yourself to the outside world and that portrayel is important. I cannot say that your view is actually all that much wrong, it is just different strokes for different folks, I guess.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_12: You mentioned two specific aspects of website design: the choice of font in which to render a page, and the choice of colour in which to display links. I would say that, in the underlying philosophy of HTML, both of those choices legitimately belong to the reader, not to the content creator or the server administrator. Hence, I think I am *mildly* inclined to look down on content creators and server administrators who try to impose their will in these matters on readers.
Upvotes: -1
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2016/05/25
| 897
| 3,950
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<issue_start>username_0: During my master's studies, so far, I have taken quite many postgraduate-level courses (i.e. courses that are accepted as a PhD-level course for a PhD student at my university). Some of these courses were a part of my degree requirement, so I was obliged to take them, but few of them were my personal choices to take them. I am now wondering if this can be a positive point in the future in my CV, e.g. when looking for a job. In the transcript of records, it is not indicated anyhow that those particular courses were postgraduate level, except for a "P" in front of their names and that's about it, so even if I send my transcript to someone they probably won't realize those courses are PhD level courses. So was it really worth the trouble to take such courses which mostly took me twice as much time to complete? I am not talking about things I have learned from these courses, but merely talking about their benefit in the future when applying for a job or PhD program?<issue_comment>username_1: There are actually several benefits.
1. You don't need to wait for people to understand what those "P"s mean. You could just add a section to your CV named **Highlighted Courses** and indicate the grad courses explicitly.
2. If you are going to pursue a PhD, the message that "I have already took courses from PhD and I know what I am doing" is really a good message to give. It will put you one or two steps further.
3. Completing a higher level course (i.e. post-doc course in master's) mean you are a hard-worker and ready to take the challenges. This message might come in handy when you are applying for industry positions.
4. They indicate that you want to learn new things. You are not a person that sticks with the "maximum benefit with minimum effort" principle. You actually want to expand your borders. This indication puts you four steps further both in academia and industry.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: While it might make a small difference, I doubt that you will get all that much benefit from the courses based on how they appear on your transcript, even if they are annotated with information about their level. The simple reasons for this are that:
1. Courses cannot readily be compared from institution to institution, and
2. Even a high grade in a course doesn't really say anything about what you took away from it.
Instead, the main "resume" benefit you are likely to obtain from these courses is in their side-effects: higher-level graduate courses tend to give you opportunities that don't come in more stock courses, like doing significant projects (which sometimes even lead to publications!), giving class presentations, getting involved in research, getting to know faculty, etc.
Those are where I would recommend looking for benefit, and why it's often better to take less classes but invest more deeply in each at the graduate level.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: It depends on what kind of job you consider applying for.
If you want to stay in academia, taking advanced courses is clearly an advantage. Not necessarily because they show up with a "P" on your transcript, but because you will have gained more knowledge, challenged yourself, and learned about non standard stuff. For a PhD application, as well as for the PhD itself, this will be useful.
If you want to go to the industry, on the other hand, chances are that nobody will care what courses you took exactly. The knowledge you gained from these courses is probably too specific to be applied in any industry job. Even if the course was listed explicitly as "postgraduate", to anyone outside academia, this will not mean much.
In short: If it is only the effect on your transcript that you are interested in, it is not worth taking twice the amount of time to finish the same work load. If you are interested in gaining knowledge and learn about advanced stuff, it is definitely worth it.
Upvotes: 1
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2016/05/26
| 370
| 1,734
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<issue_start>username_0: I am a postdoc who has been supervising a Master's student, who is applying for a PhD. The application uses an online system, and I have been notified that I have been designated as a referee. In general, will this be entirely confidential, such that the student will never see the reference I have written? Or will the student then see my reference on their application, with the ability to download it and read it?
Of course, I could ask my institution about this directly, and also this may vary between different universities, but I am wondering what the expected rule would be. My university is in the UK.<issue_comment>username_1: If you are asked to submit letters via an online interface, there will normally be some indication of whether or not the candidate has waived her right to review the recommendation at a later date. If the letters are to be emailed to someone instead, then it's possible that such a waiver has not been made; in that case, you should contact the individual or organization requesting the letter if you want to ensure its confidentiality.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: In the UK all references can be revealed if the student makes an application to the University under the Data Protection Act for a copy of their application record. The record would contain full disclosure of their entire file including all correspondence, including emails, and minuted discussions of the application. This would have to be a formal application and would accrue a fee.
Normally, in all other circumstances, the references would be kept confidential. Most UK universities would warn referees about the Data Protection Act when requesting a reference.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]
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2016/05/26
| 413
| 1,881
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<issue_start>username_0: I recently submitted my manuscript to Journal of optics (IOP Publishing). Unfortunately,I noticed that I forgot to add one specific figure to the paper. The general quality of the manuscript is good. I was wondering if I would be able to add that figure maybe in the revision process. Do you think reviewers suggest a major revision or a minor one, or maybe a reject and resubmit? The exact question is that to what extent one can modify his/her manuscript while it is considered a minor change and hopefully an acceptance? (Is just adding a figure a big change?)
Thank you for your time and consideration.<issue_comment>username_1: As long as your paper is under revision, you can improve things. Those improvements are not limited to those suggested by the reviewers, however:
* The improvements should not change the nature of the paper too much, or you will annoy editor and reviewers. Make sure they haven't wasted their time by reading the first edition.
* Make clear that you have made this addition. Some reviewers may only look at alterations based on their own recommendations, rather than re-reading the whole paper from start to end.
Once your paper is accepted, you can no longer add new data, text, or figures.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: As I know, it it not always possible to add figure or data once you submit the manuscript through the submission portal unless the Handling Editor can approve your request. You can write an email to him. If the paper is in very early stage of submission, then he may allow to add or upload new version.
Regarding the next query, the acceptance totally depends on the quality of the version that the reviewers have with them. Since it is a peer-review process, you can add the extra figure or plot once the paper is either accepted or allowed for resubmission.
Upvotes: 1
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2016/05/26
| 1,102
| 4,425
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<issue_start>username_0: What is the level of work expected in the masters thesis of a student of maths?
I know some people's works are worthy of publications while some involve only studying some topic in detail from a book and submitting a summary (since this is akin to a couple of courses, a year worth of work, in that topic in terms of content covered, I would consider this,which I believe is called *a literature review thesis*, as an extreme opposite of independent research work thesis).
>
> But what is the "average" level of a MS thesis of a mathematics student? Is it usually closer to a literature review thesis or a research work thesis?
>
>
>
In particular, I would also like to know:
>
> 1. How much is it valued (if at all) when one applies for PhD?
> 2. I have heard that its value is more in Europe than America, which if I were to guess I would say, may be due to absence of GRE like criterion there. Is this true?
>
>
>
**Edit**: After the wonderful existing answer explaining the case in Germany, I would really like to know the situation in **US** too. I expect a drastic difference due to the presence of GRE system but would like to know how much importance the thesis has, there.
PS: Please excuse me if one can find answers to some of these questions in already existing questions. I have searched, but couldn't find them. Please provide the links in those cases.
Also, anecdotal details will also be greatly appreciated. Thanks!<issue_comment>username_1: I think this varies a lot. But for Germany your first question can be answers succinctly: In a Master's thesis you should **show that you have potential for research**.
On the other hand, expectations vary a lot between advisors. But certainly you do not have to prove a new theorem or develop a new theory.
>
> 1. How much is it valued (if at all) when one applies for PhD?
>
>
>
I can only answer for the situation where you apply in Germany. The thesis can be a door opener if it is topic closely related to the field where you want to do a PhD. Also a good mark is important. But also in Germany hiring professors will often contact your advisors or request a reference letter and this is much more important.
>
> 2. I have heard that its value is more in Europe than America, which if I were to guess I would say, may be due to no GRE like criterion. Is this true?
>
>
>
Not sure on this point since I can't provide a comparison with the US and also I am not sure if the situation is uniform with the EU.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: From my knowledge of the US system (I did my graduate work in the US, and am currently a professor in the US), the average level of a masters thesis is relatively low. (That said, it usually does involve at least some original research).
The reason for this is the structure of Ph.D. programs in the US. Usually students are admitted to Ph.D. programs directly as undergraduates, and the first two years of the Ph.D. are similar to an MS program in Europe. Students who complete a Ph.D. don't generally write a masters thesis along the way. Rather, masters theses are usually written by students who decide in their second year not to continue with our Ph.D. program, but would still like to earn some sort of degree for their efforts. These theses are often weak (but sometimes are quite good).
Some students do use an MS as a stepping stone to Ph.D. programs elsewhere; indeed, I personally know students who successfully transferred to much stronger programs. Their MS-level work was much better than average.
In short: The degree itself won't be highly valued in the US, but doing an MS can lead to strong letters from your professors and research advisors, and these will be highly valued.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: A great resource I have used to understand the quality of final thesis work for my primary focus is the [Open Access Theses and Dissertations](http://oatd.org) which has thousands of master's and Ph. D. final publications. Research this website using your topic and you will see what amount of research is involved, differences and similarities between schools, methodologies, etc.
In addition, a great site for further publications is <http://Arxiv.org> . Many thesis in the U.S. are 'sandwich' publications, involving an assortment of publications published while student is performing research.
Upvotes: 2
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2016/05/26
| 1,678
| 7,225
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<issue_start>username_0: For the last few months I have been tutoring a student in a university math course and they just received their finally course grade which numerically was a 78, but to my surprise the letter grade they received was a D. The letter grade they received was due to a grading policy along the lines of the top 15% of students get an A,next 35% B's, then 35% C's, and the bottom 15% receive a D/F.
While a D is technically considered passing the student I am working with needs at least a C- for the course to count towards their program. Is it unreasonable for the student to request a list of all other students grades from the prof to verify that they were actually in the bottom 15%?
Normally for a student to verify their grade they can simply check their grades against the letter grade requirement in the course syllabus but that is not the case here.<issue_comment>username_1: >
> Is it unreasonable for the student to request a list of all other students grades from the prof to verify that they were actually in the bottom 15%?
>
>
>
Yes, it's unreasonable. It's perfectly fine to ask something like "My reading of the grading policy is that only the bottom 15% of the class receives a D or below. Is that correct, and is my grade of 78 really in the bottom 15%? I felt I was doing better than that, so I'd like to check that the D is correct." Requesting the other grades themselves offers no more assurance that it's right (the only situation where it really helps you is if the professor just isn't capable of computing 15% correctly), it's more work for the professor, and most importantly it leaks information about how other people are doing. For example, one of the top students in the class could use this data to make a good guess as to whether their rival had outperformed them or not. The particular risks here might not be a big deal, but at least in the U.S. grades are considered private and should not be revealed.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: It should also be checked if students were notified at the start of the semester that rank statistics would be used to assign grades. If not, that's likely more than enough reason for having the grades checked, since most schools will have a grading standard that says 78% is equivalent to a C or C+, not a D.
Also, while you, as the tutor, have no right to ask for a list or histogram of grades, the student has the right to know where they stood in the class overall relative to the various demarcation points, and what was the scheme used to assign grades. However, as pointed out, they don't have the right to ask for all of the numerical grades.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: **The request is not unreasonable, though privacy concerns may make it not possible, particularly for small classes. But this is a problem with the grading method, not the request. The student should be given *some* information about the grade distribution, or might reasonably request that an administrator or authorized party other than the professor confirm that the grade was calculated correctly and the grading is fair.**
As a professor, I think that my students have an absolute right to understand how their grade is calculated. If I make that calculation depend on the distribution of grades in a class, then I've imposed a requirement on myself that my students have a right to understand that distribution, even if they don't know who earned what grades. If I want to obfuscate exact scores as an additional measure of privacy, I could show just a histogram, or announce the mean and standard deviation of grades.
If the student were not given this information, there are two very serious concerns:
1. The student can spend the whole semester thinking they are performing adequately, only to find out that they were misled. To get a grade of D, the professor must think that student has exhibited a bare degree of competence, and is not ready to advance to higher level material. If the student was clueless earlier in the term because their numerical score indicated they were performing at a high C (what a 78 translates to in most American institutions), that student has not been served well by the course.
2. Grading the student based on hidden information opens up the possibility that a professor could lower a student's grade for reasons not related to the student's performance (personal dislike, unconscious bias, etc.), and the student would have no way of verifying.
In courses I have taken as both an undergraduate and graduate student (in American institutions), when exams or courses were "curved" (i.e., graded in relation to the distribution), the professors would *always* give us some summary statistics (such as the mean score, or number of students in each letter grade bucket). As a professor, when I have curved an exam, I also would provide information on at least the mean, and maybe some other summary information as well. No one has ever indicated to me that this violates privacy requirements. But if, say, an administrator told me that I could no longer do that because of privacy concerns, then it seems that a faculty advisor, department chair, administrator, or someone else with appropriate authority to review private student records would have to be given access to all student grades in the course so that a student would have recourse if they suspect they have been graded unfairly (point 2 above).
I have to also say that in my experience when student grades are based on the distribution of other students' scores, it usually means that grades are *raised* relative to what they would have been using an absolute scale. I have not heard of someone using the distribution to *lower* final grades relative to what they would have been on an absolute scale. I never experienced it as a student (and would have been unhappy if it happened), I wouldn't do it as a professor, and I have not heard of colleagues doing it in their courses.
In summary, although it was not part of the original question, I think it has to be said that this grading system is pedagogically unsound because it seriously impedes the students' ability to understand their mastery of the material prior to the assignment of the final grade. Be that as it may, **because the student has a right to understand how their grade is calculated, and in order to avoid the possibility of the professor assigning arbitrary or unfair grades, if this is the way a course is going to be graded, the professor has imposed upon themself the duty to publicize *some* information about the the distribution of scores in the course.**
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: Hard truth:
Grades are *subjective*, professors can give any kind of grade they want and there is little recourse. I've known more than a few cases where a parents whining to a dean will result in that dean leaning on the prof to change the grade, but if they're tenured the dead doesn't have that much leverage (go tenure!).
Also, by asking this you're implicitly accusing the professor of lying. Maybe they *are* lying, but you should be aware that this is what you're communicating and be prepared for what you get.
Upvotes: 0
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2016/05/26
| 619
| 2,444
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<issue_start>username_0: I am a PhD student. A few years ago, I won the best paper award at a conference.
However, they didn't post the list of winners on the conference website.
But when I google the name of the conference, the very first search results include someone who already graduated and claims on his personal webpage and LinkedIn profile that he won that award.
The only proofs that I have are the award itself and a congratulation email from the committee.
Currently he works at a company so I don't know how to handle this case especially after his graduation he may no longer care about consequences.
What can I do in this situation?<issue_comment>username_1: **Send him a message**
Even if you think you know the only truth, maybe there is something you don't know about this award.
If there is no response in.. let's say 48 hours, let's go to phase 2
EDIT : concerning the timing, @O.R.Mapper is right, if he is on a vacation... bad luck.
**Send a message to the committee**
They gave the award, so explain the situation, and ask them to put on their website the name of the winner for each year.
Explain why you want this.
**If the commitee is reacting** (if not, will be hard :/)
Send a (still) polite mail to the cuprit and tell him he MUST remove what he puts online.
No response ? let's go to the last part
**Write to his university**
Even if you think they might not care, it's still a graduate student, it's bad for the reputation of the university to have graduate student with a bad behaviors.
EDIT : as said by @CaptainEmacs , do NOT to accuse someone, even if you're sure it is the truth. Tell politely that you think he might have mistaken, that is all.
I think that's the proper way to do it.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Firstly, there is a chance there is a misunderstanding -- they have mis-written the year for example (I did exactly this on my website at some point. I won an award for best Phd Thesis at a conference, but wrote the wrong year). It is extremely difficult to politely ask someone if they are lying, and my advice is not to directly approach the person in question. If they are lying, I imagine they still won't change anything, and what could you do in that situation?
If you are concerned about someone thinking you cheated, asking the conference to put up a list of previous winners is a good idea, as that then gives you a reference point.
Upvotes: 2
|
2016/05/26
| 624
| 2,326
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<issue_start>username_0: So I am really looking forward to participating in math REUs after sophomore and junior years in college, but I just noticed that since I am on a quarter system I will only be done with finals at around June 14-15ish. Most REUs I have seen start like June 6-7 and some even (say like Texas A&M) start May 31. Are REUs accommodating of this problem?!
Thanks!
Originally posted in Mathematics Stack Exchange: <https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/1801319/starting-an-reu-late-because-of-quarter-system><issue_comment>username_1: **Send him a message**
Even if you think you know the only truth, maybe there is something you don't know about this award.
If there is no response in.. let's say 48 hours, let's go to phase 2
EDIT : concerning the timing, @O.R.Mapper is right, if he is on a vacation... bad luck.
**Send a message to the committee**
They gave the award, so explain the situation, and ask them to put on their website the name of the winner for each year.
Explain why you want this.
**If the commitee is reacting** (if not, will be hard :/)
Send a (still) polite mail to the cuprit and tell him he MUST remove what he puts online.
No response ? let's go to the last part
**Write to his university**
Even if you think they might not care, it's still a graduate student, it's bad for the reputation of the university to have graduate student with a bad behaviors.
EDIT : as said by @CaptainEmacs , do NOT to accuse someone, even if you're sure it is the truth. Tell politely that you think he might have mistaken, that is all.
I think that's the proper way to do it.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Firstly, there is a chance there is a misunderstanding -- they have mis-written the year for example (I did exactly this on my website at some point. I won an award for best Phd Thesis at a conference, but wrote the wrong year). It is extremely difficult to politely ask someone if they are lying, and my advice is not to directly approach the person in question. If they are lying, I imagine they still won't change anything, and what could you do in that situation?
If you are concerned about someone thinking you cheated, asking the conference to put up a list of previous winners is a good idea, as that then gives you a reference point.
Upvotes: 2
|
2016/05/26
| 665
| 2,607
|
<issue_start>username_0: I have dozens of papers in Mendeley. Most are filled with post-it notes, what Mendeley calls "**private annotations**". Unfortunately, these are not searchable.
Mendeley users have been asking this feature for years. It still hasn't been implemented.
There is a workaround: exporting the article as PDF. The private annotations are added in pages appended to the PDF. But it is tedious: it requires to manually export each and every paper one by one...
I know Zotero's annotations are searchable. So I exported my Mendeley Library to Zotero. But the private annotations don't follow. Furthermore, Zotero only has a 300 Mb capacity, whereas Mendeley offers 2 Gb. So back to square one.
Would anyone have found a way (maybe a programmatic way) to search Mendeley's private annotations?<issue_comment>username_1: **Send him a message**
Even if you think you know the only truth, maybe there is something you don't know about this award.
If there is no response in.. let's say 48 hours, let's go to phase 2
EDIT : concerning the timing, @O.R.Mapper is right, if he is on a vacation... bad luck.
**Send a message to the committee**
They gave the award, so explain the situation, and ask them to put on their website the name of the winner for each year.
Explain why you want this.
**If the commitee is reacting** (if not, will be hard :/)
Send a (still) polite mail to the cuprit and tell him he MUST remove what he puts online.
No response ? let's go to the last part
**Write to his university**
Even if you think they might not care, it's still a graduate student, it's bad for the reputation of the university to have graduate student with a bad behaviors.
EDIT : as said by @CaptainEmacs , do NOT to accuse someone, even if you're sure it is the truth. Tell politely that you think he might have mistaken, that is all.
I think that's the proper way to do it.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Firstly, there is a chance there is a misunderstanding -- they have mis-written the year for example (I did exactly this on my website at some point. I won an award for best Phd Thesis at a conference, but wrote the wrong year). It is extremely difficult to politely ask someone if they are lying, and my advice is not to directly approach the person in question. If they are lying, I imagine they still won't change anything, and what could you do in that situation?
If you are concerned about someone thinking you cheated, asking the conference to put up a list of previous winners is a good idea, as that then gives you a reference point.
Upvotes: 2
|
2016/05/27
| 1,299
| 5,372
|
<issue_start>username_0: Just to be clear: no, I don't believe in the flat earth theory.
However, a few years ago, I thought that the flat earth society forum is a good place to practice my debating skills and to have fun. Therefore, I joined it and made an online id that's close to my real name to debate on the forum. It just made me feel accomplished when I see people having trouble disproving my obviously faulty "theory". I posted a lot there in the past year.
I plan to apply to a master program in physics and I worry that people will find out my membership, think that I believe in pseudoscience, and reject my applications. Is this an issue I should address on SOP?<issue_comment>username_1: No, I do not think an admissions committee would check for this type of information. Nor would they assume the poster with the same name is the applicant.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_2: It would a pretty sad situation for an academic to be concerned by this. To me it would indicate an inquisitive mind - someone interested not just in physics, but the social implications of its discoveries.
A plus, if anything, and therefore something that (if framed appropriately) could be mentioned up front.
No need for front page coverage though - it's not a biggy.
Good luck :)
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: Very unlikely.
Plenty of people in the world have the same or similar names, so even when you would have used your real name in that forum you would still have plausible deniability. But as you said you didn't even do that, you just used an alias which was "close to your real name".
But in general you should be careful with what you post on the internet under your real name. Remember that the internet does not forget. Only use your real name when you are writing something you are sure you are willing to stand by. Not just today and on that forum you are posting, but also in 20 years and in front of anyone who searches for your name and finds that posting out of context.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: I don't see how it could hurt your chances. We are always looking for open, inquisitive minds, else there would be no field of "physics". If you took an adamant stand, and could not back up your claims with, at the least, logic, then that could not be good. If you failed to adequately explain why the moon does not fall to Earth, you would fail, even if you were a Graduate Astrophysicist. But both side of a good argument forwards our knowledge. Good on you.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_5: The problem is general and does not only apply to graduate school application.
It really depends how the interaction with "fringe" topics occur. If you are negatively inclined (skeptic blog) or sarcastic (CAUTION:[Poes's Law](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe's_law)), you will very likely experience no problems, the worst will be that some people scold you for wasting your time.
The most common, I would even say reliable, occurence that you will encounter in the open is a *pet theory*. Almost every scientist has one, these theories are stroked and caressed and their range is unpredictable. It could be inside or outside of a subject's area, from a curio to outright bizarre.
If you, on the other hand, are genuinely interested in a fringe topic generally *and communicate so*, you will very likely experience that **your reputation goes down very quickly**, especially in STEM fields. In contrast to their projected image to the public (openness to inquiry) scientists at large are acting within their community mostly intolerant to fringe topics. A person outside academia asking about a fringe topic may be tolerated, but for fellows the patience is very thin.
The worst thing you can do is engage in a public hot topic on the wrong side. Academic people may forgive your interest in an arcane topic like panspermia, but defending creationism or parapsychology (even if you only correct a false argument from a skeptic) paints a very big red cross hair on your chest. *It is not a wise thing to do.*
You may have noted that I said "acting". It is a curious phenomenon that actually many scientists *have interest* in fringe topics, have experienced something strange or, God forbid, do believe that something may be partly true.
The thing is that there are..."guardians". These are people from academia which have (surprise) no pet theory and which are glad to have finally found the pristine area of knowledge and truth in science. They also want that their peers share their enthusiasm of defending science against the common enemy. Their worldview about the non-occurence of fringe topic beliefs in academia is quite rosy *because they do not realize that their enthusiasm prevent people from telling them what they really think*.
People may believe that this cannot be true but there are strong indicators because it happens at very high levels: Newton was very interested in alchemy and theology, <NAME> was interested in parapsychology, <NAME> embraces the possibility of time travel.
If people get the impression that you don't rip off their heads or laugh at them, they are much more open in private. So I would recommend to abstain from dabbling with fringe topics in public and use private communication channels if you have interest in them (choose your counterpart wisely).
Upvotes: 1
|
2016/05/27
| 959
| 3,753
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am a PhD student. My advisor is great, but like all academics is very busy (administrative duties, other students, research...).
What happens almost every time I try to have a meeting, since the beginning of my PhD, is the following:
* We set some date, say Thursday at 10AM.
* He isn't in his office at 10.
* At 10:30 he arrives.
* It turns out Thursday isn’t great, actually, so let’s meet Monday instead.
* Comes Monday morning, and the meeting is postponed to Monday evening, and then to Tuesday.
* But Tuesday is a busy day too, so let's say Thursday at 10?
* But at 10 there are emails to be sent, and more meetings, so let's say 5.
* At 5 he isn't in his office, but at 6 we can meet, meaning I come to his office, sit, and wait sometimes half an hour until he's done writing emails, calling people...
* Then we can finally start talking. Six days after the initial meeting was set, at 6:30PM.
I think over the past three months I’ve been able to have a total of five to six hours of meeting with my advisor.
Writing all this, I realize I’m a bit upset, and I’m afraid it’s going to show if I try to talk to him about it. Because let’s be honest, I don’t want to continue like this. I cannot plan my work day, sometimes I have questions that could be answered immediately but I have to wait weeks, and it’s just generally an unpleasant experience. (And while I know some people are able to work very late into the night, I basically become useless after 6PM on a normal day...)
Of course the long-term solution is to become an independent researcher and not rely on meeting with my advisor. After all, I won’t have an advisor all my life. But right now, I’m not quite there yet. How should I approach my advisor about this, without sounding selfish or upset?
---
To clarify: yes, whenever I have questions I try to exhaust all possibilities before asking my advisor: internet, my advisor's other students, other people in my lab (though this is a very specialized field, few people can help me if this is about my research). But for some questions, either I am not able to find an answer elsewhere, or there is no alternative to asking my advisor, e.g. "do you think I should go to this workshop", "where do you think I should submit this paper", "is my abstract ready to go", "I found this and it looks promising, should I continue in this direction or stick to the original plan"...<issue_comment>username_1: Tell him you would like to have more guidance, and ask to have regular meetings with a fixed schedule, same time every week. This way he will have a permanent entry on his calendar, and be more likely to reschedule tasks around it.
Some weeks you'll have more results, some others you'll have less, but it will be good if you can keep having at least a short chat every week.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: Where is your funding from? If you have somewhat independent funding (NSF or other external fellowship) I would recommend making yourself less available. Set a firm meeting time that reoccurs once a week at the same time and place. If your adviser isn't there in the first five minutes, leave and don't agree to meet again until the next scheduled meeting time. This might annoy your adviser but if you are independently funded there is nothing he or she can do about it. They will eventually adjust to retain you.
If you depend on your adviser for funding you may be more forced to adapt to their way-of-working. If it really bothers you, you could change advisers and work with somebody more consistent. I know this isn't a good option. My adviser was the same way and it made everything much harder to get publications out. Luckily it is just a PhD and not a marriage.
Upvotes: -1
|
2016/05/27
| 476
| 2,119
|
<issue_start>username_0: How much budget do faculty members in US have to travel to conferences every year?
I am looking for the average travel support in CS or Engineetring departments (not out of my own contracts) across US top 100 schools, for tenured professors with accepted papers at conferences. Consider places like University of Washington.
The background of the this question is, I like to find out, once my tenure track funding package is finished, would there be a minimum research support from the department, or I am on my own. It makes sense that if my paper is accepted, the university pays for it (I present my work under the university banner). Before asking my department, I like to equip myself with prior information.<issue_comment>username_1: As mentioned in the comments, the question is too broad to be answered in a useful way. There might be a discretionary budget or a development budget which could be used for travel, but it could also be used for other things. There might be a travel fund, but it might not be guaranteed to any particular faculty member. But I will try to give a useful answer: Most faculty are employed in teaching positions where funding is limited and research is not a priority. In these cases travel budget is often zero.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Although I am a mathematician and not a CS or engineering professor, I would overwhelmingly expect that at a place like the University of Washington tenure track faculty members would be expected to secure external grant funding (for example from the NSF) and use this to cover their travel expenses.
Universities often provide startup funds which you can use for this purpose during the first couple of years -- but these don't get renewed when you run out.
In the long run, if you don't succeed in obtaining external funding, it is unlikely that your department would rush in to fill the gap. My department (less prestigious than Washington) provides a little bit of money to faculty members without grant support, but it is only enough to attend to one or maybe two conferences a year.
Upvotes: 3
|
2016/05/27
| 503
| 2,204
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am currently a PhD student in a EU country and recently I was advised to pursue a European Doctorate Programme.
I thought that, being "European", it was some kind of regulated, inter-country program with specific rules, but I cannot find any "official" documentation from any European institution. The only things I can find by searching on google are doctorate programs from various universities that claim to be "European".
I am aware that some EU students are encouraged to do 3-6 months of their PhD (or more) abroad, but I don't know if by doing this their PhD qualifies to be a European Doctorate.
So, what is a European Doctorate Program? Is there any regulation for it by a European institution? How does it relate with doctorate programs where students decide to spend some months abroad?<issue_comment>username_1: As mentioned in the comments, the question is too broad to be answered in a useful way. There might be a discretionary budget or a development budget which could be used for travel, but it could also be used for other things. There might be a travel fund, but it might not be guaranteed to any particular faculty member. But I will try to give a useful answer: Most faculty are employed in teaching positions where funding is limited and research is not a priority. In these cases travel budget is often zero.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Although I am a mathematician and not a CS or engineering professor, I would overwhelmingly expect that at a place like the University of Washington tenure track faculty members would be expected to secure external grant funding (for example from the NSF) and use this to cover their travel expenses.
Universities often provide startup funds which you can use for this purpose during the first couple of years -- but these don't get renewed when you run out.
In the long run, if you don't succeed in obtaining external funding, it is unlikely that your department would rush in to fill the gap. My department (less prestigious than Washington) provides a little bit of money to faculty members without grant support, but it is only enough to attend to one or maybe two conferences a year.
Upvotes: 3
|
2016/05/27
| 275
| 1,228
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am really needing help. There is a typo on my University Name, however the paper is already published. Is there any way to still change it? The paper has been published on ACM Platform.
I am very concerned about the reputation of my research with this minor typo. I spent a lot of effort to this research and just realize that...<issue_comment>username_1: First of all, *calm down*. This is not as big of a mistake as you think it is. Many if not most published work contains insignificant mistakes such as minor typos. If it would make you feel better, I once had a typo in my own name (I blame autocorrection).
Contact the editor. They are probably going to publish a correction or erratum. If it is already published, they probably won't fix the original published article even if it is online only. (I am not familiar with the ACM Platform.)
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Probably you cannot change it , usually journals inform authors to double check names and affiliation when they send galley proof because after publication it's difficult to change them , but the best approach is contacting editor in chief for explaining the mistake , maybe they fix it
Upvotes: 3
|
2016/05/27
| 928
| 4,015
|
<issue_start>username_0: I've been asked to give a seminar at an other research center about my work. Specifically about a device which was installed in an experiment.
I have an early prototype of it (Size is about 20x5x2 cm). The prototype was and never will be installed and as such safe for people to touch it.
I was pondering to bring it along flashing is shortly in front of the audience for them to better visualize it when I go over the layout of it. After that I would leave it on the table during the talk, as not to distract the audience by circulating it, and let everybody who's interested come to have a look afterwards. There is no subsequent speaker after me.
I was wondering if this is a good idea or considered unprofessional, since showing the device doesn't add any content per se (as it is too small to see for the audience) and only tries to engage the audience.<issue_comment>username_1: The goal of your seminar is to educate and inform your audience about your work. If showing the audience a prototype of your work will help them to better visualize and conceptualize what you are doing, then why *wouldn't* you want to take advantage of that during your talk?
So long as you properly integrate into your talk—make it an essential part of it, rather than just "for show" while you talk—then the prop will do its duty.
What you might want to consider is taking some high-quality photos of the prototype that you can show on the screen as you talk about the prototype while holding it. Then you can get the best of both worlds.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Personally, I've always been unable to clearly understand the arrangement of a complex device from pictures or drawings, and I much appreciate the possibility of observing directly a device after its description.
In addition, since you've been invited to talk specifically about this device, the audience should appreciate your idea of bringing it along.
Therefore, yes, I think it's a good idea.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: This is a terrific idea, and moreover you should also strongly consider passing the device around so that people can inspect it and hold it in their hands. The idea that the opportunity to have either visual or tactile contact with a scientific instrument or device "doesn't add any content" is simply false. At the very least, including a prop of this sort in your presentation will add an unusual and memorable element to your talk that would set it apart from the hundreds of other talks that come and go in a university department and are easily forgotten; at best, the prop will actually give the seminar participants some actual insight into your experiment and the related science. Either way, it can only work to your benefit.
As a small illustration, I recently brought some 3D-printed objects to a math seminar I was giving. Although one can make the same argument that showing pictures of the objects (which I also did) would contain exactly the same information as you could get from handling the 3D models, the psychological effect of being able to handle the 3D objects, and the reactions I got, were both very positive.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: There are several points to consider:
1. **Is it safe to pass it around?** If the answer is "no", then it's "no".
2. **Can you pass it to all?** It would be annoying to let only the front row get it in their hands, so consider this.
3. **Do you mind people getting distracted?** In general, most audience does not pay attention to the speaker anyway at a seminar, so from my experience, unless you're talking something extremely important, you just shouldn't care that people are distracted, but you may see it differently.
In general, the more different senses get involved the better, so passing it around has a big value. Actually, I even think you can be remembered as "the guy who passed around that funny yellow thingy" if seeing prototypes is not common at this seminar.
Upvotes: 0
|
2016/05/27
| 287
| 1,247
|
<issue_start>username_0: If I refer back to a cited source in the literature review while writing the discussion section, (undergrad dissertation) should I cite the author again or am I free to use the information that has already been cited?<issue_comment>username_1: Just cite the author again. It should be clear what your source is every time you use a source.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: There is no one-size fits all situation, so **for student work, you should always ask your teacher what is expected**.
In general, in scholarly writing that is meant for scholars to read, whenever you don't cite a source, you are implying that the idea in that sentence or paragraph is your own original thought. This is why scholarly articles include so many citations, including repeat citations--they are delineating their own ideas from that of other authors.
However, most other kinds of writing (such as publications meant to be read by the general public) are not that strict, and in fact, often don't like excessive citations since it gets annoying to read.
For undergraduate student work, you can always play it safe by adding the extra citation when in doubt, but again, it's best to ask your teacher what they expect.
Upvotes: 1
|
2016/05/27
| 688
| 2,964
|
<issue_start>username_0: I've recently began working as a research assistant (in the humanities), mainly helping a professor with a book she is editing and with lecture notes for a future course.
The problem is that it is sometimes very unclear to me what she wants me to do. For example, when communicating by mail (which we do often), instead of saying "Please do X" (which I realize only after asking for further clarifications), she might say "We will do X" or "There is some importance to doing X"...
It is quite obvious that she has very little experience in this kind of work relations. I, on the other hand, have some experience in managing people (i.e. in telling people what to do), and I think she could use a few pointers.
The question is, **is it appropriate (and if so, how) that I give her some specific suggestions** (such as the above) in order to communicate with me more clearly?
I'm on good terms with her and she will possibly be my advisor quite soon, and I don't want to ruin this.<issue_comment>username_1: For now, I would suggest with responding to statements such as "We will do X" or "It is important to do X" with something along the lines of "Agreed. Shall I start working on that now?" Perhaps she'll take the hint and start communicating more clearly, in which case the problem is solved. In any case, over time, you'll probably get better at understanding which of these statements are general statements about the future and which are implicit requests for action.
If asking for more clarity doesn't work, have a chat with her and explain that you find it hard to tell when she's asking you to do something and when she isn't and asking her to be a bit clearer. I'm sure she won't be offended and, if she *is*, that's a huge sign that you need to find another advisor!
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Which is the better way to communicate depends on your cultural norms and personal style. Many people find "please do X" too direct - even outright rude - in many circumstances. Women who use such a direct style also risk being viewed as bossy or abrasive.
She *might* also be choosing this style because she wants you to interact with her as an equal: even if she has final say, you can contribute to the discussion and planning about how to do the work. (Though "we will do X" sounds like a pretty direct final decision to me!).
Nonetheless, if you are having trouble understanding what she wants you to do, that is a problem. Feedback is likely to be better received if you frame it as being about communication *with you* rather than her communication style in general. Say, for instance, "We have different communication styles and I sometimes don't realise that you are asking me to do something: can you please be more direct with me and give me clear action items?" She might be able to generalise the lesson if she has been experiencing the same problem in her communications with other people.
Upvotes: 2
|
2016/05/27
| 1,818
| 7,933
|
<issue_start>username_0: I'm a PhD student in the math sciences. I've written a few papers, each officially coauthored with my advisor, although essentially all of the research and writing was my own. The story is the same for my advisors' other students; they regularly coauthor papers with my advisor on which all the work was theirs.
We are all unsure how we should feel about this. On one hand, we regularly hear stories from other students about their advisor chipping in on projects, or encouraging them to write solo if unable, and we would all appreciate this sort of freedom, guidance, and help. On the other hand, we all recognize that we are paid out of our advisor's grants, and we don't want to appear ungrateful or unprofessional.
I guess my question is: are we being taken advantage of, or is this a fairly standard feature of advisor/advisee relationships that we should just accept?
We've all tried to casually broach the topic of when coauthorship is expected or when solo authorship is okay, but we've mostly been met by blank stares and awkward subject changes.<issue_comment>username_1: I work in the mathematical sciences; specifically, I am a theoretical physicist (with a Ph.D. in applied math). And I can state that, in many cases, an student's advisor may do as much work as a student on a calculation, even if the student seems to have performed the whole calculation themself.
This may seem like a puzzling contradiction, but there is really a simple explanation. A student's advisor may be doing quite a bit of work that doesn't get noticed. When I give a student (particularly an undergraduate or even a relatively junior graduate student) a calculation to work on, I may need to do the whole calculation myself, at the same time the student is working on it. That way, when the student comes to show me their work, I can spot any errors and give them guidance how to get through the difficult parts. Sometimes the students may not even realize that I have done the calculations independently myself.
As students get more mature, and my confidence in their abilities grows, I don't feel that I need to do this as much. When I'm working with more advanced graduate students, I'm generally happy just to check over the calculations that they do first. However, it is still commonplace for me to find errors or points of confusion in the students' work.
Obviously, I also provide a guidance to students about what problems they should be tackling and how their results should be interpreted. Then the question becomes whether all these contributions are sufficient to make me an author on a student's paper. I generally leave this up to the student. I'm a tenured professor, and I publish enough that I don't need to worry about counting publications. However, even before I had tenure, I left the decision about whether my contributions were sufficient to merit authorship up to the students. We discuss the matter and how much each of us has contributed to a project, and in every case, the students have decided that I should be included as an author.
Other faculty may be less relaxed about this question and insist on being authors on their students' papers; and in many cases, I think this is fully justified. As I pointed out above, an advisor may need to do all the same calculations as a student (and possibly more carefully). Moreover, I don't think it detracts from other people's impressions of a student's work to see their advisor as a coauthor. If I see a paper by a student, I often presume that their advisor played a crucial role in devising, checking, and interpreting the results, unless I have a specific reason to believe otherwise. However, I do not view this as any kind of negative reflection on a student. Even the best students need guidance; that's why they are students.
Of course, there can be cases where an supervisor declines to be included on a student's paper. This happened to me once with my Ph.D. advisor. He had been working on a problem with another faculty colleague, and they asked me to look into it further. In the end, the published calculations were done primarily by me and other professor. My advisor contribute one small result, which, so far as I know, had never previously been published, but he felt that it was too obvious to earn him a place as an author. So the authors on that paper were me and my advisor's faculty colleague.
Ultimately, different faculty members may have somewhat different feelings about authorship in these situations. However, it is easy for students to underestimate the amount of work that their advisor has put into a project. And including the advisor as an author is not likely to change readers' evaluations of a student's work very much. So my advice is that you are probably worrying about this too much.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: I disagree with the given answer by username_1 in a few ways, especially since it does not address one decisive part of the question:
>
> We've all tried to casually broach the topic of when coauthorship is expected or when solo authorship is okay, but we've mostly been met by blank stares and awkward subject changes.
>
>
>
*If* there is a justification for the advisor being included as an author, then why has it not been brought up by said advisor when being confronted by his students? It would perhaps be understandable if the author just didn't pick up on the subtle clues his students were giving him, but that does not seem to be the case as per the indications of 'awkward subject changes' and 'blank stares'. It seems that the advisor is simply trying to avoid talking about the issue. Why would he do that? It certainly indicates that something fishy may be going on here.
Then, the other answer asserts that nobody is less impressed by a student who always has her advisor as a co-author\*. This is verifiably wrong, which you can prove, being a mathematician, by "contradiction": if nobody is less impressed by a student who publishes papers of a certain quality with her advisor, then a direct implication is that nobody is impressed more by a student who publishes papers of an equivalent quality independently of her advisor. This is wrong. It shows great promise to be able to do independent research as a young student.
But I hesitate to even make that point. This should not be about recognition but about a matter of principle: if your advisor did not contribute to the research (either through substantial amounts of guidance or by actively doing it) or the writing, your advisor is not an author of the resulting paper, and making him one is a direct **lie.**
In your situation, judging by your post, it seems clear that the students are doing all of the work (in fact, that's a direct quote from your post). If true, you should be worried, both by the ethical issues that exist if you continue this practice, and the potential aftermath (e.g, in regards to your relationship with your advisor) if you decide to take this further (which you should, but that's just an opinion).
Note that all of this is entirely dependent on the assumption that what's going on here is **not** normal. If it is, if advisors are usually co-authors on all their student's papers despite no contribution, if that is understood by everyone, then you are not lying, you will get all the recognition, and there's really no issue at all ... but how are you supposed to know whether this is normal in your field or cultural domain? We cannot really answer that for you without a bit more information. But your advisor can ... and this brings us full circle: why is the advisor not willing to explain to you whether this *is* normal?
\*.. *I now realize that I may have misread the other answer. It's not quite clear whether by "work" they meant "effort" or "actual quality of the mathematical content". Clearly, I took it to mean the former.*
Upvotes: 3
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2016/05/28
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<issue_start>username_0: I go to a government-owned school that has certain policies regarding a student's speech, namely:
1. That speech shall not be discriminatory/offensive.
2. That on-campus protests take place only at a "Hyde Park" location in the student center.
Suppose I decide to form a protest and violate rule #2, and perhaps unintentionally violate rule #1, incurring a disciplinary action of record. How would my doing so affect my ability to pursue a degree at a different school?<issue_comment>username_1: Probably not at all. Most academic institutions support freedom of speech. However, this depends on the goal of the protest and the type/location of the hypothetical institution. For instance, I imagine some religious institutions might not hire someone who had protested for abortion rights.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: These policies are at the same time repressive and ridiculous.
First, because the fundamental principle of protesting is causing inconvenience, annoynance, displeasure - so a designated "speech zone" is the same as "protest where we don't notice you and it doesn't matter".
Second, because any speech that management doesn't like (or that a student group which can put pressure on management to repress speech doesn't like) will be defined to be offensive. It offends them, after all.
Thus the only thing that happened is that you were involved in organizing a protest. If the regime in the state you live in is highly repressive, then maybe that means you'll have trouble getting into another school (although I kind of doubt it); if it isn't, then you won't.
Note that these policies are extremely repressive and are in my opinion contradiction of fundamental academic principle.
Upvotes: -1
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2016/05/28
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<issue_start>username_0: On a few occasions, I was asked to review manuscripts (for well-known, mainstream journals) with a 2-3 month deadline.
I found this to be a short period given that the papers published in these journals showed about a one year difference between the dates when the papers were submitted and the dates when the papers were accepted. So I was wondering - why is there this discrepancy?
Do reviewers usually request for an extension of the deadline? Or is it common for reviewers to not take the deadline seriously (i.e. to ignore the deadline and submit the referee report after several months when it is done, and perhaps the editor needs to take the initiative to remind the reviewer to submit the report)?
I assume this one year difference is mainly due to the referee's delay rather than the authors having to make revisions (at least with my own papers, it often took several months before I received any referee reports).
While I have met the deadlines in the past, I wonder if I am perhaps allowing myself to be pushed around a bit in the sense that maybe I shouldn't drop my other work just to finish the review on time. I have reviewed only a few manuscripts so far, so I am new to this. I'm not sure how bad I would come across (relative to the norm, that is) if I don't take the deadlines seriously.<issue_comment>username_1: As an editor, I can say that it is very common for reviewers to submit reviews late, or to ignore invitations without responding so that it takes a while to give up on them and find suitable alternative reviewers.
This doesn't mean that editors and authors don't notice and grumble about late reviews or notice and appreciate reviewers who submit their reviews on time or early! Please keep submitting your reviews on time if you can and ask for an extension rather than ignoring deadlines if you can't!
In my field, a 2-3 month deadline for reviews is longer than usual (my journal normally asks for a 21-day turn-around, and this seems typical of journals for which I am asked to review). But papers still frequently take a year from submission to publication due to delays in review, revisions, and final publication after acceptance.
However, I would also say that most papers are sent back for revisions if they are not rejected outright, and revisions typically also take months.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: To answer the question on why there is a discrepancy between "submission to acceptance" and "time for review":
* There are several other steps that are short, but add up. These steps may or may not all be present for a specific journal work flow - here are a few: After submission an editor has to be assigned. The editor checks if the paper is appropriate. The editor has to assign a reviewer. The editor has to read and evaluate the reviewer reports. The editor has to form a decision. Some steps may occur multiple times if there are revision round. If any of these steps may take from a few hours to a few days or even a week (think about delays due to different time zones, weekends, holiday, business travel...) you see that it's easy to get a total of more than a month.
* Often reviewers are invited but decline. It happens frequently that a number of reviewers decline before the editor manages to find enough reviewers willing to do the job. Delays due to declining reviewers can easily be in the range of more than a week. Sometimes I get an invitation to review and the online system indicates that the paper has been submitted several weeks ago.
Upvotes: 2
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2016/05/28
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<issue_start>username_0: In an editorial on the topic of Sci-Hub, <NAME> (Editor-in-Chief of Science Journals) [lists a few reasons why Sci-Hub may be bad for scientists](http://science.sciencemag.org/content/352/6285/497.full?IntCmp=scihub-2-12). One of the drawbacks she lists is (emphasis mine):
>
> Authors do not benefit from download statistics, for example, **which are increasingly being used to assess the impact of their work**.
>
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This surprised me, as I have never come across any mention of download statistics being used to measure the impact of papers / scientists. **Are download statistics really being used in any meaningful way when assessing the impact of scientists?**
I'm also asking because sites like ArXiv does not provide download statistics, and neither do other secondary publication servers (university paper repositories, private homepages, ...), which would hurt the impact rating the same way.<issue_comment>username_1: The argument is a ludicrous one, defending a [parasitic](https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/29923/452) system that should have been buried a long time ago, and written by an individual with a blatant conflict of interest.
In theory there exist some attempts to measure scientific impact from download data. [Example](https://www.researchtrends.com/issue-37-june-2014/downloads-versus-citations-and-the-role-of-publication-language/).
In practice, nobody cares, partly due to the fact that there are many ways to get an article without incrementing the counter. (and also because we already have enough stupid metrics).
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: As @Franck notes, people can access a publication without incrementing an official journal counter. These include: (a) pre-print server, (b) personal website, (c) institutional repositories, (d) sites like ResearchGate, and (e) indexing services that provide paid and independent full-text access such as EBSCOHost. Sci-hub simply adds one more source where download statistics are not linked to the original publisher.
So, any estimate from the journal will be an underestimate of total downloads. Adding one more source is not going to make much difference. And more generally, it should have a fairly uniform effect. In general, you are likely to interpret download statistics "normatively". I.e., To what extent is an article getting more downloads per year than a typical article? A general downward factor on official downloads does not prevent such normative statistics. There's also another reason why normative interpretation is key. The definition of a download itself is poorly defined. I.e., does it include people who scroll the full html listing? what about a person who downloads the same article more than once? What about indexing services? etc.
Upvotes: 1
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2016/05/28
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<issue_start>username_0: I noticed lately the increase of conducting shared tasks, what are they and what is the rationale behind them? why do we need them since we already have workshops and conferences?<issue_comment>username_1: The rationale is to get a bunch of smart people together to actually solve or at least make progress on open academic problems. I've never been to a "workshop" that actually did any work on the problem. Conferences are typically just people giving presentations and not really working on problems in my experience.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Shared tasks are organized to tackle specific problems which are challenging to tackle by spare research groups for several reasons. Typically, it's the availability of data. One key element of a successful challenge is the goal: it has to be challenging, specific and possibly lacking data. Natural Language Processing (NLP) is one of the fields that has a very long tradition of challenges, to the point where plenty of advances are made because of their organization. Why?
Take the case of clinical NLP challenges. As a researcher, it won't be easy to have access to authentic de-identified clinical records from hospitals. They are hard to get, legally challenging to manage and distribute, and very expensive to annotate (they can't be annotated using Mechanical Turk or similar, you want domain expert to do the job). Finally, in the era or Machine Learning (ML), you don't want 100 clinical records, you want much much more. This is a scenario that prevents almost any research group to invest months of data acquisition for the sake of tackling a specific task. Moreover, if a research group interested in this endeavor exists, it will hardly release such data for free. It's more likely it will keep studying those data and get as many publications as it can out of it. But this is a pity because is cutting out everybody else from the discovery process.
In those cases, shared tasks are the solution. They are sponsored by several institutions, each one contributing at some level: providing experience, data, secure hosting and distributing infrastructure. With those pull of forces, interesting unexplored but important problems become attractive to researchers. As a plus, almost always, at the end of the challenge, the data become publicly downloadable to everybody (not just the attendees).
In terms of work, as a participant, the major part of the work is done before the workshop in your own research group. You work for months on a methodology that would solve the proposed problem. You attend the workshop only to meet the other participants, to present them your results, and share your tricks.
I've played both roles: participant and co-organizer. It's tons of work in both cases, but it's also a great pleasure to crack problems nobody ever attempted before, or to declare problems solved. ^\_^
Upvotes: 3
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