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<issue_start>username_0: There's a maths conference coming up and the whole thing amounts to about $1K, which is not the problem. I'm not going to be presenting, and I'm just going to be attending. I am planning to go next year to present a project I've currently started. Is it worth going this year?
Thanks!<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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<issue_start>username_0: The Wikimedia Foundation initiated an education program at U.S. universities that in 2010 encouraged government, law, and public policy students from 33 classes at 22 programs to contribute to Wikipedia (<https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Education>). Surveying 463 students in the public policy program revealed that they were motivated to work on Wikipedia articles that could reach a larger audience and could impact the society more than traditional class paper. In addition, classroom characteristics, and level of class engagement were strong motives to engage students to contribute in the future. You can find more information about this research at:
>
> <NAME>. Student contributions to wikipedia. Tech. rep., Wikimedia Foundation, 2011.
> <NAME>, et al. "Classroom Wikipedia participation effects on future intentions to contribute." Proceedings of the ACM 2012 conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work. ACM, 2012.
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In addition, the following paper shows that researchers in collaboration with the Association for Psychological Science (APS) involved 640 students from 36 courses in editing scientific articles on Wikipedia. As a result, students improved the content of over 800 articles and both students and faculty endorsed the benefits of the writing experience that would be read by a large number of people.
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> Farzan, Rosta, and <NAME>. "Wikipedia classroom experiment: bidirectional benefits of students' engagement in online production communities." Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. ACM, 2013.
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Before relying on these studies and defining Wikipedia based assignments for my students, I want to consult with you about pros and cons of this idea.
For which types of courses does it work and for which it doesn't?
For which types of assignments does it work and for which it doesn't?
Will it improve students' motivation to learn?
How can one define a rubric for this type of assignment?
More importantly, I was thinking asking students to contribute to Wikipedia for credit, might mitigate the altruistic nature of contribution to the public good.
Is there any study investigating the behavior of these student accounts on Wikipedia after the end of the semester? Does in absence of the personal incentive, the contribution decrease?<issue_comment>username_1: >
> For which types of courses does it work and for which it doesn't?
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I think it probably works best for seminar-type courses that will be exploring (potentially) less well-trodden topics. For example, there is probably little that a student could add to the wiki article on Shakespeare, Carbon, the Rwandan Genocide, or the Pythagoream Theorem. On the other hand, there is probably quite a bit that could be added to the articles on the multitude of animal or plant species, or of lesser known authors or historical events.
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> For which types of assignments does it work and for which it doesn't?
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I think it basically would be the assignment. You have to take into consideration that Wikipedia is not a place for original research. Thus, while in a traditional paper a student needs to argue their points, making their own judgments as to the validity/bias of a given source, that is not generally considered acceptable Wikipedia writing. As such, it could almost be seen more as a literature review or history of criticism, which is more of the first step of a paper. If you have students do papers in stages, then after compiling a bibliography and what not, it might be opportune to then have them compile their research into an straight-forward presentation for Wikipedia.
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> Will it improve students' motivation to learn?
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That will depend on the student and how the assignment is doled out. If you tell a student "write on any topic you want", it probably will, but realistically, you're probably not going to give them that wide of a berth unless, say you're doing a translation class and you really don't care the base material much. If a student has no interest in your course's material to begin with, I doubt adding a Wikipedia-writing component will do much at all for them.
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> How can one define a rubric for this type of assignment?
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I would begin with the background research and bibliography as a major component, the quality and readability of the prose produced as the other major one. A small, but not insignificant part would revolve around conforming to Wikipedia's standards for writing/editing.
Also, consider not just contributing to Wikipedia but to other similar projects. For example, a friend of mine has had her translation class working on the excellent [Encyclopedia of Alabama](http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/), although they still haven't posted any of the translations just yet.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: I have on several occasions given students assignments (in math classes I was teaching) to contribute to Wikipedia, either for bonus credit or in lieu of a traditional final paper. Both I and the students were very happy with the results and with the fact that our efforts (which included fairly substantial involvement on my part, see below) resulted in the creation of a valuable resource for the community. I am therefore inclined to view this idea very positively.
That being said, in my experience this type of project would definitely not be suitable for all students and in all circumstances, so one should consider carefully (as you are indeed doing by asking the question) the various implications and factors involved.
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> For which types of courses does it work and for which it doesn't?
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The idea is suitable for advanced classes where you cover topics that are not currently well-covered on Wikipedia. E.g., something like a calculus class is a bad idea, but a graduate class on differentiable manifolds would almost certainly involve several topics that Wikipedia needs help with.
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> For which types of assignments does it work and for which it doesn't?
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The first rule should be "do no harm". What I mean is that some students do not have the writing skills to make a positive contribution to Wikipedia with a reasonable effort of the sort that a course assignment should involve, and we certainly don't want them making *negative* contributions. Thus, my philosophy is that a Wikipedia assignment should be elective - i.e. either being for extra credit or being an option the student can choose instead of a traditional paper/essay.
Another reason for this rule is that some students would feel self-conscious about writing material for public consumption, and I think it's wrong to force them to do it, even if the contribution is anonymous. Finally, submission to Wikipedia requires agreeing to its Creative Commons license which means giving up certain rights to your creative work. For legal and ethical reasons I think it's untenable to make this a grade requirement unless specifically agreed to by the student who prefers this over alternative assignments.
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> Will it improve students' motivation to learn?
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I've definitely seen students who became very enthusiastic about the writing project and after creating a page on a new topic continued to expand it, which ended with them adding quite a bit more material than was the minimum I required. I'd also like to hope (but don't know if it's the case) that some of them might have caught the Wikipedia bug and continued contributing "for free" later.
On the other hand, some students were clearly just doing it for the grade and didn't do any more than the minimum, so I guess for them there wasn't any improvement to their motivation.
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> How can one define a rubric for this type of assignment?
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Good question. I was using my own subjective judgment to assign grades. Those were small graduate classes and in practice almost everyone got an A or A-, so that wasn't too much of an issue, but for a larger-scale project one might have to give this question some more careful thought.
---
Let me add a few thoughts about things you didn't ask about. A key thing to keep in mind is that **writing for Wikipedia is very different than writing other kinds of content**, both technically, stylistically and philosophically (in particular the collaborative aspects). Good Wikipedia content has to be extremely neutral, unopinionated, well-referenced, and written in clear and error-free language. Frankly, in my experience very few students would be capable of producing by themselves a draft for a new Wikipedia article that would not be either outright deleted or heavily modified (possibly to the point of becoming unrecognizable) very soon afterwards by other Wikipedia users/editors -- needless to say *that* would be quite bad for motivation... For this reason, in the projects I assigned I ended up taking on a fairly substantial role of reviewing and helping polish up the original article drafts before they were officially submitted. This was done in a sandbox page. It was practical for me to help out in this way, first of all because I was happy to do it, and second of all because only a small number of students were involved (4-5 in each of the courses I tried this at). At the same time, there is an obvious problem of scalability here, and I would be very reluctant to attempt such a project in a large class. The bottom line is be prepared to put in quite a bit of work yourself if you want the project to be a success.
A final thought (sorry for the long answer) to consider is that it would be wise for you as the instructor to propose to the students a list of possible contributions they can make (in the form of either new articles or new sections in existing articles). Some students can also come up with their own ideas for what to write about, but I feel that most would prefer being offered a list to choose from. Good luck!
**Edit:** as @Thunderforge helpfully pointed out in the comments, Wikipedia has [a dedicated page](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Student_assignments) with guidelines to students and instructors for Wikipedia-editing course assignments.
Upvotes: 7 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: Adding to the excellent other answers by expanding on what I wrote in my comment earlier:
**You should definitively supervise such contributions.** Please be aware of that. While providing your students the possibility (even if elective) to get credit for their contributions is IMO a good idea, there'll probably always be students who think of such a possibility as an easy path (even if it isn't) to pass your class.
This *may* result in some students producing qualitatively low content. That, in turn, is doing harm to Wikipedia.
Furthermore, if the amount of "trash" generated by your students gets too much, Wikipedia will notice and (probably) take action against you and your students. (In the past, Stack Exchange has [completely blocked access to students from one University](https://meta.stackexchange.com/a/53807/297364) as a reaction to bad contributions from them, so this can happen.) You don't want your institution being blocked from Wikipedia.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: The festering elephant corpse in the room is Wikipedia internal politics.
While you can go for quite a while reading and contributing to Wikipedia without running up against it, attempting to contribute to seemingly arbitrary topics can quickly embroil you in the seedy underbelly of Wikipedia, if you're not careful.
While there are certain articles where conflict is expected (e.g. articles on religion, politics, and controversial or popular public figures), you can run into pushback even on obscure academic topics. Often this takes the form of a some established editor self-appointing themselves as a "guardian" of certain pages or topics, and then maintaining things exactly the way they want by exploiting Wikipedia rules, their position as an established editor, or even just their ability to sink more time into it than anyone else.
For example, an academic might feel that the current level of use of a rival academic's technique doesn't rise to the required level of notability for mention in a Wikipedia article, and adding such a mention gives that technique "[undue weight](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Neutral_point_of_view#Due_and_undue_weight)". Therefore any contributions mentioning the technique will be reverted/deleted. - While there are certainly ways to contest such an assessment, doing so would likely require you to become intimately familiar with the nuances of Wikipedia policy and would probably require a substantial investment of time in order to pursue the issue. (On Wikipedia it seems that the people who prevail are often the people who can spend the most time on things, rather than those who have the best arguments.) This is particularly true on obscure topics, where few people will care enough to join the conversation, and it will just be your student versus the established editor with an axe to grind.
The [article](https://dynamicecology.wordpress.com/2014/05/05/using-wikipedia-in-the-classroom-a-cautionary-tale/) linked to by z\_dood in the question's comments is one such example, but you can find others as well.
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My main point is that while it's probably safe to have an assignment to *propose* a contribution, it's probably a bad idea to ***require*** that your students contribute. That is, to have actually have your students' contributions be accepted to Wikipedia. It's unlikely that the standards you have for acceptable work in your class will match Wikipedia's standard. Having part of the rubric (or even bonus points) for acceptance by Wikipedia means that the students who - through no fault of their own - blunder into one of those Wikipedia political minefields will either not get the points, or will spend a substantial chunk of time on Wikipedia politics rather than on academic content creation.
You probably should collect their contributions independent of Wikipedia, and submission to the site should be an optional, ungraded step they can take if they want. That way you still get the motivation of possibly contributing to Wikipedia, but avoid some of the downsides of running up against Wikipedia internal politics.
Upvotes: 4
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<issue_start>username_0: I'm in the UK and graduated with 1st class honours. Should I write my name as:
* FirstName Surname Bsc(Hons) (1st class)
* FirstName Surname Bsc(Hons)
or something else when writing a CV and on business cards?<issue_comment>username_1: No. The class of a degree is not written in your post-nominal qualifications. You can add it in he educational details on your CV.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_2: Here is a slightly different answer, you shouldn't write anything (even if you are very proud of your achievement) *in most fields*. Your education is for your CV. Normally people put their doctorate and if they have it, habilitation. Any titles, such as Professor go before the name. Most people do not put masters of bachelors titles after their name, check if it is normal for your area of work.
Edit: taking into account comments
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: When writing it in full, you should write whatever your university specifies you should write. This should be specified on a letter sent to you when you completed your course, or you can probably find it somewhere on their website. It would be unusual, to say the least, for the grade to be included like that.
However, in general, I would prefer either not including them or including only the most minimal form, e.g. *<NAME>, BSc* rather than including the full length post-nominals as, for most purposes, it comes across as pretentious.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_4: Say it... be proud of it.
BSc (Hons) "Disipline" (1st class).
You've worked hard so put it where you like. Well done.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_5: In the UK a degree with hons requires 360 credits, whereas a degree without hons only requires 300 credits of modules, that's equivalent to a deficit of one half of a full time year of study (120 credits).
The class system is a convoluted but comprehensible method of determining the level of excellence you have achieved in said 360 credit hons level of BSc/BA undergraduate degree undertaken.
The first years studies don't count towards the class system. The second year counts but only by a fraction that I cannot recall at present. 50% or something. The third years classes contribute 100% to the resulting class level. If I remember correctly its a golfing type system, whereas the lesser points achieved results in the higher class of honours.
Again if my mind serves me well (and it usually doesn't) you need approximately 65%+ in second year classes and 90%+ in third year examinations.
This was at the Open University where the level for top marks in an exam was 85%+ whereas in brick uni's its 75%+.
I achieved a first in molecular biology based largely on my excellent year 2 grades which offset my mediocre (but sufficiently passable) year 3 examination results.
I'm doing a double major (to use US vernacular), 180 credits in mol. Bio. which involves every module of that subject available, and 180 in classical chemistry, which also covers all available classes in the subject.
I would add that I am intensely proud of my first class achievement, I worked above and beyond to achieve it and earned the right to be proud of said achievement.
I'd include it on a CV/resume but not a business card, letter, email or on a first date...!
Upvotes: 0
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<issue_start>username_0: I am seeing many people doing postdocs for years, or even nearly a decade, well into their late thirties. Do they usually have progressive salary and responsibility, as one could expect in a job? Is your fifth or sixth year as a postdoc essentially the same as your first month after PhD., but with some extra publications?
For clarification, this is what I mean by progress.
In your later years, do you get to build and lead a small team of junior researchers who you hire from your grant, whom you can give some instruction, or you divide the tasks of a more ambitious project and you take some supervisory role in addition to your own hands-on research? I do not expect it to be completely managerial because I know postdocs love the actual research…but at least some mark of seniority and experience?<issue_comment>username_1: Of all the kinds of academic positions, the postdoc is probably the most variable. The common ground across (almost) all postdoctoral positions is: you should have a doctoral degree when you start the position, and the position should not be permanent or tenure-track. That's really about it. (**Added**: I agree with @username_3 that most postdoctoral positions have an expectation of "advanced training" of one kind or another.)
It is rare for a single postdoc position to last more than 4-5 years. In my understanding, the ones that do are soft-money positions and thus are more explicitly doing specified projects for the PI / grantholder. I am not aware of any kind of formal seniority across multiple postdocs: generally the reason that someone does a second postdoc is because they want a permanent academic job and haven't gotten one yet. They may also want additional specific training / the chance to work with other researchers, but this really is "additional" rather than on top of.
In terms of salary: in my experience [mathematics, US], postdoc salaries are rather flat across the period of employment. (I previously had more detailed information, but I am less confident that it is representative even among math postdocs in the US.) In my department we have one kind of postdoc that pays about $10K per year more than another postdoc is funded by an NSF grant, and the salaries for the latter postdoc are set by the NSF, so will be the same unless / until we get a new grant (or an updated version of the same).
When it comes to skilled labor, wherever you work for a year or more, you gain knowledge, experience and seniority in some informal sense. One might say that a postdoc is a process of laundering a student into a faculty member, so late-career postdocs resemble faculty members more than early career postdocs. Most postdocs in mathematics find their way from a combination of completing / continuing their thesis work and starting new projects with their new supervisor to developing a distinctive and independent research program. Although the particulars differ across fields, I think that something like this is the goal of most postdocs: if a postdoc *only* does their supervisor / PI's work then it will be difficult for them to portray themselves as a valuable faculty hire.
For math postdocs, the only formal seniority comes from teaching obligations: namely most math postdocs start out teaching freshman / sophomore level courses. If they are competent at their teaching and interested in teaching other courses (not all postdocs are), many postdocs move on to teach a junior/senior level course for majors in their second year and some postdocs teach a graduate course in their last year. (In my fifth semester as a postdoc I was able to teach a topics course in the arithmetic of Shimura varieties. I have since taught about a dozen graduate courses, but none as advanced as that.)
>
> In your later years, do you get to build a small team of junior researchers who you hire from your grant whom you can give some instruction,,
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Some postdocs are not associated to a grant in any way; they are rather temporary faculty funded by their department. Some postdocs work under their PI's grant, in which case the answer to the question is up to the PI (and the grant proposal). Some postdocs receive grant funding of their own, in which
case some kind of money for junior personnel may well be included. Also some postdocs work with graduate students, in a variety of different ways. My current postdoc is for instance a member of the dissertation committee of one of my students.
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> or you divide the tasks of a more ambitious project and you take some supervisory role in addition to your own hands-on research?
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That could happen. Some large research groups employ postdocs in a kind of managerial role.
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> I do not expect it to be completely administrative or managerial because I know postdocs love the actual research…but at least some mark of seniority and experience?
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Keep in mind that any seniority you acquire *as a postdoc* is ephemeral. Spending too much time doing administrative / managerial work as a postdoc sounds very risky if you are aiming for a permanent faculty position. Some departments somewhere must be hiring some faculty largely for their administrative skills...but I confess I have never seen it with my own eyes.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: At a UK institution, pay is often set to a single pay spine system where pay goes up annually (this can be automatic or based on merit).
In terms of supervisory roles, a PI may ask for help supervising student or postgraduate projects. But this is usually informal.
It would be unusual for a postdoc to be PI on grants big enough to hire from, and the postdoc would be able to get a lectureship with ease off such a grant.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: In order to answer this, we first need to define what a post doc is. I have talked about how the NIH defines a post doc in [this answer](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/23898/929). Both the [NIH and NSF](http://grants.nih.gov/training/Reed_Letter.pdf) define a post doc as
>
> An
> individual
> who
> has
> received
> a doctoral
> degree
> (or
> equivalent)
> and
> is engaged
> in
> a
> temporary
> and
> definedperiod
> of
> mentored
> advanced
> training
> to
> enhance
> the
> professional
> skills
> and
> research
> independence
> needed
> to pursue
> his
> or
> her
> chosen
> career
> path.
>
>
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In terms of salary progression, the NIH has a scale: <http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-16-047.html>. It starts at $43,692 for a new post doc and progresses to $57,504 after 7 years of experience.
Within the NIH framework post docs are either funded through a grant to a PI (e.g., R01) or an NRSA postdoctoral fellowship (e.g., F32). The post doctoral fellowships do not provide funding for hiring staff. After finishing their training, many post docs choose to stay in the lab of their mentor as a research scientist on soft money. They can then apply for research grants and hire and supervise staff.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: This varies quite a bit from country to country, field to field and even group to group.
In the US and Canada, I've never seen a lab where the postdocs are officially ranked (e.g., Sarah is a senior postdoc and has some sort of authority over Nick the Newbie and Jamie the junior postdoc). However, it's not uncommon for an informal hierarchy to arise, where a senior postdoc does his own research and works closely with newer staff interested in a very similar topic.
This is partly a matter of seniority and experience (a postdoc has a PhD + a few years of experience, versus a brand new masters' student). It is also influenced by how research happens: new projects often involve a lot of work that is difficult to parallelize, but once they are up and running, there is often a surfeit of directions one could take: existing data could be analyzed in many new ways; it might also suggest obvious follow-up experiments using the existing setup. Having new students/postdocs work on this can be a great way to get new staff up to speed (or could even be a complete project for undergrad/masters' students), while helping the postdoc get publications out.
The postdoc probably would not independently hire new staff, but they might get some say in choosing between potential lab members.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: As others have said, it varies. In Australia, I have seen:
* Postdocs on insecure soft money go from one postdoc position to another for years on end, with only cost of living salary increases and no change in title or responsibility;
* Postdocs on more secure soft money gradually working their way up the academic ranks, with job titles changing from "research associate" to "research fellow" to "senior research fellow", or from "postdoctoral fellow" to "research projects officer", and becoming more and more involved in writing grant applications and managing stakeholder relations as they go;
* Postdocs who are told in advance that they have three years in which they will be given advanced research training and financial support, but with no chance of extension;
* Postdocs moving from one institution to another either at the same level or with an increase in pay and job title.
I've never personally seen a postdoc given official management responsibilities, but it is common for even first-year postdocs to unofficially be managing postgraduate students and technical staff.
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: The IEEE holds yearly elections for senior positions in its societies. Every member of the IEEE has the right to vote in these elections, including me. My advisor, however, has candidates who, for one reason or the other, he supports and wants to get elected.
The issue is that he is forcing all of his students to vote for his candidates. Voting is done online. He even asks his Assistant Professor to personally stand next to the students and watch them vote on the specified candidates.
This makes me extremely uncomfortable, as I find it morally incorrect. However, my professor is in a position of power over the students and I am afraid of standing against him and losing my graduate course and scholarship.
Has anyone gone through something similar? What should I do?<issue_comment>username_1: This is extremely unethical. Do you have **any proof** of what he asked for ?
If he can't check for who you did vote, there is no problem for you (but the moral problem is still here), you might just say you did it alone, without the Assistant Professor. (You do it, then that's it.)
The ethical way would be to **inform your university**. But that is **really dangerous**. You might want to wait until the end of your graduate program.
It is hard to find a good way to solve this problem without harming you.
In your position, I would certainly tell the teacher that I don't want to do it without a good reason and the certitude that is a good choice, but if you're not confident you can't handle the consequences, don't do it.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: It would be even more powerful to inform the IEEE (if the OP can muster the proof that this coercion is going on). But, unfair as it is, it will probably damage the OP's career irreparably. Utterly despicable - I heard such stuff only from hearsay (or from infamous examples in 20th century history). Collect evidence if you can, and, at some point in the future you may be in the position to dispense justice.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: I would start by contacting the IEEE professional ethics team (or ask for the most senior director related to that area you can get through to). State when they ask who you want, *"I'm not sure: it's a serious issue of professional ethics, I really need to speak to a director or someone that sort of level, or their PA, someone very senior, not an ordinary customer facing person or service staff."*
You'll be asked your name/number - perhaps told they can't put you through without it. State that you want this on a "no names" basis, and please just find such a person and put me through. Be polite but firm, and expect a long time on hold, this won't be usual and they will have to check what to do and who to put you through to.
If the person is in fact senior, you can add that this is because you are fearful of repercussions. In my experience people will very easily agree to this - if not it's the wrong person. Getting put through to the right person is usually the hardest step, if needed Google and figure who you want to talk to (and direct phone?) and then be prepared to push hard. Example: *"Something's happened which I need to discuss with the director responsible for ethics. Can you put me through please"*. Then *"sorry, I need the director responsible for ethics. As you can understand, I don't feel the matter can be told to other people for passing on, or I'd have left it with the customer services team"* followed by *"can I speak with the manager in charge"* or *"please just find who I need to speak to and put me through"*. Be prepared for a few conversations like this, repeated escalation, and understand it's unusual for them, too.
A good trick is to ask for the person's PA, instead - PAs are usually very good for this sort of thing, and if you get to them, you can be more open, and they are easier to get to as well.
Eventually, assuming you get through to someone who sounds senior and willing to talk/listen, tell them the situation without names or institution/university details, and tell them you feel they should know but fear consequences, and this is far beyond what you are used to. You don't know whether or not the IEEE rules forbid or allow it even. But you feel ethically bound to report it. You don't however want to formally report it as you would have to provide names, dates, testimony, or proof (voice recording etc?). So you are in a quandary. Can he/she advise.
Then see what they say. They will surely want to know more, which you can't tell them, so ask them what else can be done. Can they consider it and call you back (friends phone) or email you (use a throwaway email address). That might be best.
In my experience directors etc often care passionately and want to hear if something's wrong enough to merit their attention - and forcing students' votes to manipulate the election almost certainly would be.
But if at all possible get proof.
You don't say what country you are in, and IEEE is worldwide. If legal in your country (and allowing for legal exceptions related to professional misconduct/coercion/abuse of position of power by professionals, as some countries consider this to be criminal misconduct not just "bad conduct"), you may also be legally allowed to take a voice recording app and a phone loosely held in the hand (just saying " 'bye" when he/she opens the door as if it's end of a call may also help) when you ask your supervisor is all it takes: *"please, I'm not really sure it's okay to tell me who to vote for, in the IEEE, can you retract the direction, I feel very conflicted and stressed over it"* or *"would it be okay to vote privately"*?, and try to capture them saying you have to do as told (if they do).
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: Let's start from the bottom line. Regardless of anything else, don't vote for his/her candidates. If push comes to shove, remember you're an academic and an IEEE member and you have a moral responsibility to your community which comes before spoiling your relations with your advisor or even your personall career advisement. Unless you are blackmailed with threats of physical violence, obliging your advisor on this is completely intolerable morally.
Now let me make some suggestions you might consider regarding how to fend off this forced drowning in the sea of turpitude.
* Talk about this with your fellow slaves, umm, I mean, Ph.D. candidates of that advisor. While resisting your advisor alone is dangerous, doing it as a group is less so (although there would still be risks). Also, if you're all coordinated, and something is done anonymously by one of you, your advisor can't know.
* Like others have suggested, gather iron-clad hard evidence, as much as you can. Get him to email you about it, get him to talk about it while you record him on your cell phone, then transcribe what was said, etc. Save copies of this evidence off campus, in several places where he is unlikely to reach. Remember a person like that is not beyond accusing you of fabricating accusations if this becomes public knowledge. @username_3 mentioned this in the context of contacting the IEEE, but evidence is important regardless, and you should get it before or in conjuction with anything else you do, not later.
* You mentioned power relations. Are the graduate researchers in your university unionized? If they are, then you are probably in luck. Go to the more seriously active union officials (at the faculty level or the university level; it's not always the head of the union who's the most trustworthy and militant on these matters), ask for their help and explain you've got evidence. If they are not completely spineless, they will have your back in the sense of being willing to go very far if you are harmed in any way - public protests and even a strike until you are restored to previous employment conditions in research and teaching. And it will not come to that, since if a union delegation pays a visit to your advisor, telling them they have evidence of his coersion attempts and will not hesitate to bring the public's full power to bear if he doesn't cut it out immediately, he will not dare touch you. If you're not unionized, then at least you now realize why that's important regardless of whether you get enough pay/benefits.
* An alternative to proper confronation is the sick-out: On election day (is it a single day?), be sick, asleep, at home. Go to the doctor that day and get a note, or a prescription or something, which you could show him if he claims you're lying. An even better alternative to the sick-out is getting called away on some fabricated emergency.
* If you are willing to confront him, but are just worried about the reprecussions, then - I would say that you should present as big a stick as possible. That is, if you have a "I won't do it" talk with him - try to have it in front of his other students; tell him he's breaking IEEE and university bylawys (having taken the trouble to figure out what these are, so you can cite exact articles to him), and if at this point he does not retract his demand, tell him if he insists you will publish an open letter to the IEEE, to his collaborators, to the dean of the faculty, to the president of the university and to the press, and will consider making a formal disciplinary complaint in the university and within the IEEE. He might not like you, but it should scare him enough. Oh, by the way, this is another conversation worth recording.
* Another option regarding power relations. Are there any senior faculty members, preferably not friends or even acquaintances of his, with which you are on a friendly basis? If so, consider consulting them.
Note again that the above are suggestions to consider rather than out-and-out recommendations.
Finally, and not as a method of avoiding this specific issue - consider switching advisors or finding a co-advisor. This does not sound like a person I would want to be dependent on too much for my academic future. I realize switching advisors is often completely infeasible, but if it isn't, it might be worth it for ethical and psychological peace of mind. This doesn't address your immediate problem, though.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: First I would suggest against complaining too loudly against your adviser in public. When bad things happen they flow downhill and you don't want to be a target.
Second, don't "tell the university" whatever that means. What you want to do is find a specific person at the university called the ombudsman. His or her job is to act as advocate for students in weird situations and also deal with administration issues. If you prefer to be completely silent and comply then that is probably also a correct choice. But if you want to change the situation, the ombudsman is the person in the university that can be most directly said to be working for the students. I would take his advice, whether to be silent or to stand up seriously because he knows not only the theoretical best thing to do but also the history of the campus you are at, and in your case, unfortunately, "whether it will work" is tied heavily into "whether you will receive fallout".
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_6: Allow me to hypothesize a different tack from most of the other answers: Simply don't engage in this issue at all. As my mentor said once, "You constantly get institutional demands for some action, in some cases it's best to ignore them, and you'll find that many just go away."
This request is so incredibly unethical, and also so completely orthogonal to your responsibilities as a graduate student, that it's hard for me to imagine your advisor spending time on tracking you down and taking revenge over it. If you think you might receive more pressure later on (e.g., I've sadly cracked under such circumstances), go ahead and cast the online vote in the privacy of your own home, and then later on say, "Oh sorry, I got a notification and cast the vote immediately."
The request is so inflammatory that I don't see any use to "politely having an open discussion with your advisor". I think that only opens the door for defensiveness and retaliation. As wildly unacceptable as it is, I don't see it as being a good use of your time tracking down where to lodge a complaint over this matter (which your advisor seems canny enough to avoid documenting except verbally, so it would be just your word against his, according to comments above).
At least consider the null action as a possibility.
Upvotes: 7 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_7: Walk, don't run, away. What your advisor is doing is obviously ridiculously unethical, especially considering how inconsequential the election is. Unfortunately, I would caution you against switching advisors without first ensuring that you'll have a safe landing. Honestly, it is worth putting up with something as petty and dishonest as this voting scheme in order to secure your degree and future career; academia really is that competitive. You should switch advisors; someone willing to act that unethical on something that trivial would presumably be willing to do worse on things that do matter. Just make sure that you don't do so hastily or without protecting your own career.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_8: After forwarding a link to this posting to the IEEE Elections Committee, I received the reply below:
>
> Thank you for the reference. We had concerns of this sort presented to
> us in the past and we are aware of this issue. We are working on a
> reporting mechanism of such infractions but, as you can imagine, it is
> not straightforward.
>
>
> If you have answering privileges on the site where the question was
> posted, I would be grateful if you directed the student to write to me
> (<NAME>, Chair of IEEE Election Oversight Committee, <EMAIL>).
> The intricate requirements of the site where the question was posed
> necessitate that I gain "reputation points" first before I can answer
> the student directly. I am a member of the site (under my name, Moshe
> Kam) but can't get to the person who posed the question.
>
>
> Regards,
>
>
> <NAME>, Ph.D., P.E.
>
>
> Dean, Newark College of Engineering
>
>
> New Jersey Institute of Technology
>
>
> University Heights, Newark, NJ 07102-1982
>
>
> Email: <EMAIL>
>
>
> Alternate Email: <EMAIL>
>
>
>
Upvotes: 4
|
2016/05/30
| 1,169
| 5,154
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am currently reviewing a computer science conference paper. I like to give constructive feedback both related to the content as well as for language issues, such as typos or grammatical mistakes.
The paper I'm currently reviewing has significant language flaws. Mentioning each and every typo, wrong word order, and grammar issue would take me about an hour. The paper will likely be rejected anyway, so I am not sure if these language suggestions will even be used. It would be different if the paper were likely to be accepted, because improving the language would further improve the quality of the paper.
Does it make sense to give thorough and detailed feedback on a poorly written paper's language quality in a review if the paper will likely be rejected?<issue_comment>username_1: Your question isn't about the level of language in fact. If I understand well, your real question is
**"Is it worth it to take 1 hour to correct a paper, since it will certainly be rejected ?"**
At this question, I will always answer yes. I am personally a non-native english speaker and I love when people correct my work. I can then improve my English, which is always good.
What do you have to lose by doing it ? Nothing. And the person will even maybe be grateful to you.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: I'll answer the question with a different interpretation: **Is it worth it to cite every single typo, if there are many of them?** IMHO, no.
If there are two or three typos that you saw, then you should list them. Otherwise, it is not only a significant waste of time, but the authors can end up relying on your list and missing stuff that you also missed. I usually say that it needs to be reviewed, because it contains several typos/errors.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: My interpretation of the question is as follows: you are asking if in your report you should spend time correcting all the grammar errors, spelling errors, etc., of which there are many of, especially since the paper will be rejected anyways.
First of all, the answer is completely independent of whether the paper will be rejected or not. The effort you put into a review should not depend on whether you intend to reject it or not - that defeats the entire purpose of a review.
Secondly, you claim that the paper will be rejected *anyways*, which implies that the errors in writing have no significant influence on the scientific content of said paper. If true, **state this explicitly in your review.** This ensures that no unwanted misunderstandings occur (since you shouldn't reject a paper due to language errors alone, at worst you should require a major revision prior to accepting it).
Now, should you list all/most of the errors? No. That would come off as quite condescending and probably not useful at all. Instead, you should mention what tendencies you see and use one or two examples to explain what you mean. Since there are so many mistakes that it'd take you an hour to write them all down, chances are that the authors' language skills are so bad that they need to consult a professional, potentially hire an editor to write the paper for them: **mention this**, again in a polite way, emphasizing that neglecting to do so is likely to harm their future papers as well.
You should also remember that if your feedback on their writing takes up more space than usual, perhaps you should consider giving them even more feedback on their actual content to balance things out, even though you've already clarified that their language errors aren't the reason for their rejection. This is because authors can sometimes be so vain that if you focus too much on their writing, they'd automatically assume that *"oh yeah, they must have rejected me for my writing, look how much they focused on it"*, even if you explicitly state otherwise. You are not responsible for their assumptions, but a good review should be well-balanced and give off the proper signals.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: From <NAME>'s [The Task of the Referee](http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/mckinley/notes/reviewing-smith.pdf):
>
> Refereeing a paper can require considerable time and effort; don't waste that effort on a detailed critique of a badly flawed paper that can never
> be made publishable. Finding one or more fatal and uncorrectable flaws excuses the referee from checking all subsequent details.
>
>
>
The trick is to determine what is indeed "fatal". If you believe that your corrections have some non-trivial chance of improving a published paper at some point (possibly in a less-competitive venue), go ahead and make them, as you are contributing something to the body of literature. Otherwise, do not waste your time.
As an addendum, you are not a copyeditor, but a scientific reviewer. Ways to deal with papers with many language/grammar issues include:
* If grammatical errors are very numerous, point out classes of errors, instead of individual ones.
* Focus on errors which actually obscure scientific meaning, and let ones which are merely poor or nonstandard style go.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]
|
2016/05/30
| 1,046
| 4,040
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am a PhD student in statistics/math in the U.S. I go to a large, state run institution. I am currently hired for the summer as a research assistant for a professor.
On the department website, an RAship is listed as being a 20 hour a week job, paid at $21 per hour. This is what she and I agreed to before my starting researching with her. However, now my professor wants me to work 40 hours a week for $7.34 an hour. (She is actually going to pay me $14.68/hr, since only 20 hours are bookable for legal purposes. Well, and the fact that $7.34 is below minimum wage). I never got the $21 in writing, so that is my error.
Working 40 hours per week is in essence requisite to retain the job (since the workload she requires to keep the job necessitates such). She is offering me no dissertation credit for my work, only this pittance of a grunt wage. Outside of a weekly hour long meeting via Skype, she does not have any time to mentor or guide me. Her promise is that at some point the research I do for her will become a dissertation topic. But, as of right now, I am just reading papers she is too busy to read and then telling her what they say.
This professor is not from the U.S. and I believe is somewhat unfamiliar with U.S. practices in fair wages. (For example, she offered me $10/hr to do some other things related to her research for her. I earned more than that as an undergraduate TA for a sophomore level class). I am not asking for $15/hr for flipping burgers, just a fair compensation for the work I am doing for her. She has a large NSF grant that she might end up losing if I do not produce results for her to show them.
She justifies requiring these hours at this pay because she says that I will end up possibly, maybe, hypothetically, if the moon lands on earth, theoretically finishing a third of my dissertation.
I am aware that I need to pay my dues so to speak. Naturally, I know that I need to put in a lot of time to a PhD that is not monetarily compensated. Nevertheless, I feel a bit like I am being taken advantage of. Is this pay structure/workload normal for an RAship, or should I take it up further with her?<issue_comment>username_1: Being given a TA/RA position that only pays for 20/hours a week, but being expected to do 40+ hour of research is normal in the STEM fields.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: I only have two US experiences to offer for comparison, one from a public university and another from a private.
The public university pays it's TA/RA's ~$8000 for a 9 month stipend. The private university pays TA/RA's $19,000 before taxes for a 9 month stipend. Both have stipulated that the expected workload is 20 hours a week. While the public university pays significantly less than the private university, the hours for a pure math graduate student rarely exceeded 20 hours per week (new teachers sometimes spend more prepping, but any hourly help session positions were strictly 20 hours). Paywise, I think the rate you're being offered *for a 20 hour work week* is not unheard of, especially for a public university. However, being told you actually *have* to work 40 hour weeks means you're working for a rate less than the legal limit. That certainly counts as getting screwed in my book.
Personally, I would say *run like hell*. I know that academia has a history of overworking/underpaying graduate students, but I would find an alternative arrangement even if it means finding another school to attend or delaying a year. Another consideration is that working 40 hours a week makes it difficult to actually do well in your studies and it wouldn't be ridiculous to consider picking up a side job just to make ends meet (meaning you're potentially working 60+ hours a week). If you enter this arrangement, I suspect you'll be back here asking how to deal with burn out or how to recover from a mental breakdown from stress. If you seriously want to be successful in your program, you need to find something better.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]
|
2016/05/30
| 718
| 2,994
|
<issue_start>username_0: I have submitted my paper to Proceedings of the AMS one month ago and we haven't gotten a response yet. Can I upload my paper to arxiv despite of this? Would there be any conflict? About accepted ones, they have written that there is no conflict and so: Can I deduce from this that there wouldn't be any conflict for submitted ones as well?
Thanks<issue_comment>username_1: Yes, in mathematics you can absolutely upload both submitted and accepted papers. I am not aware of a single reputable mathematics journal that would take issue with this. (If it helps, within the last few months I uploaded a paper to the arxiv after I submitted it but before acceptance.) What I do not recommend is to upload to the arxiv papers which have been formatted in the journal's style file or which incorporate copyediting done after acceptance by the staff of the journal.
If a journal is published by a big academic publisher and you are the kind of person to worry about this at all (honestly I didn't, for many years), you should be able to find online a relevant policy for uploading preprints. In all of my experience, even big publishers like Elsevier are quite reasonable about this...because they have to be in order to do business with mathematicians. The Proceedings of the AMS is published of course by the **A**merican **M**athematical **S**ociety. The [current managing editor](http://www.mathcs.emory.edu/~ono/) of this journal [posts his preprints to the arxiv](https://arxiv.org/abs/1503.01472). The linked-to preprint was submitted to the arxiv and for publication on the same day; a modified version was uploaded to the arxiv after the paper was accepted and before the paper was published. So I think you have nothing to worry about here.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: As mentioned in <NAME>'s answer, you can absolutely arXiv your paper before submission, after submission, after acceptance (in the post-referee, author formated version), or after publication in any AMS journal.
Most publishers have equally liberal policies with respect to arXiving papers, which is summarized at [SHERPA/RoMEO](http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/index.php). However there are some pitfalls (which to the best of my knowledge have had no practical implication whatsoever) with some publishers.
Elsevier has an habit of mudding its policies, so it is safer to arXiv papers before submission, to retain the right to update it according the referee's requests.
Some publisher officially forbid the authors to publish the post-review version of a paper in repositories such as arXiv. This is the worst policy I know, as it implies forbidding to correct errors or inaccuracies in available preprints. Unfortunately, even some academic publishers such as Oxford University Press, engage in such nonsense. In practice, I did violate this clause of a copyright transfer agreement I signed, and nothing happened. Maybe they'll go after me know that I confessed.
Upvotes: 3
|
2016/05/30
| 2,749
| 11,643
|
<issue_start>username_0: In some fields, authors of a paper are not ordered alphabetically; rather, their order carries some meaning related to the authors' contributions to the work. See [What does first authorship really mean?](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/2467/what-does-first-authorship-really-mean) for more details. In these fields, readers of a paper make certain assumptions about the role of each author, depending on their placement in the author list.
For example, in my field, the first author is typically the person who was the "main" contributor, and the last author is typically the person with the greatest supervisory role or the head of the research group where the research was carried out. The middle authors are the least important. Thus if my name is first in the author list, readers of my paper who are familiar with conventions in the field will assume that I was the main contributor to the work.
Under these circumstances, is it ethically problematic to use a different author order, assuming this is acceptable to the authors? (Putting aside issues of who does and doesn't deserve to be an author; let's assume all of the authors have sufficient contribution to be considered authors, and we are only concerned with order.) Do I have an ethical responsibility to protest if this happens on a paper where I am a co-author?
For example, suppose I co-author a paper with an undergraduate research assistant, and I do most of the work. According to conventions in my field, I should be listed as the first author. But maybe I don't really need this first-author paper, and my undergraduate student does (it would really help him get into graduate school), and I'd happily give up first authorship so that he can have it. Is this ethically problematic?
Or, suppose a senior author, Prof. Z, wants to be last on the author list. If Prof. Z is listed as the last author, the paper will be thought of as having "come from Prof. Z's group". The author who really *should* be last (based on having been the main supervisor contributor), Prof. Y, is OK with this arrangement (as a favor to Prof. Z, or to avoid an argument). Is it problematic to give last authorship to someone who doesn't really deserve it in this case, and should other co-authors insist on the conventional ordering?
The potential ethical issue is that readers may be misled about the role of the authors, if the order doesn't reflect the contributions that will be assumed based on conventions in the field. I'm not sure if this is a real problem, or if I'm overthinking it, though.<issue_comment>username_1: I don't think you're overthinking this. If your authorship decisions are made with the intention to mislead others about the respective roles and contributions of the various authors, then yes, I'd say that is pretty clearly unethical. For instance, your first example can be reasonably interpreted as a mild form of gift authorship.
It's also important to remember that authorship of papers can have real consequences to people's careers. An example that comes to mind is the [Alpher-Bethe-Gamow paper](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpher%E2%80%93Bethe%E2%80%93Gamow_paper), a famous paper in cosmology that provided one of the early theoretical analyses supporting the big bang theory. The work that led to the paper was part of <NAME>'s dissertation work under <NAME>. Gamow, who was already a well-known physicist at the time, had the idea to add the name of his friend <NAME> (an even more famous physicist) as a coauthor purely as a joke to make the list of authors sound like "alpha-beta-gamma". This didn't work out so well for his student Alpher. The Wikipedia article I linked to above says:
>
> Alpher, at the time only a graduate student, was generally dismayed by
> the inclusion of Bethe's name on this paper. He felt that the
> inclusion of another eminent physicist would overshadow his personal
> contribution to this work and prevent him from receiving proper
> recognition for such an important discovery. He expressed resentment
> over Gamow's whimsy as late as 1999.
>
>
>
<NAME> (in whose wonderful book "Big Bang: The Origin of the Universe" I originally read this story), also writes [in this article](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/3334045/The-forgotten-father-of-the-Big-Bang.html):
>
> Gamow and Bethe were then both famous names in the world of physics, so scientists assumed that it was they who had done the bulk of the work, which meant that young Alpher was ignored. In the decades ahead, the formation of helium in the wake of the Big Bang would become one of the key pieces of evidence to support the Big Bang hypothesis, but few would remember Alpher's contribution.
>
>
>
To summarize, since the conventions surrounding author order vary across disciplines and are inherently somewhat vague, someone who wants to manipulate author order in one of their papers to give a small boost to someone's career will probably have enough plausible deniability to get away with it without anyone making a fuss. But it shouldn't be done without a very good reason, would be unethical if done out of a dishonest motivation, and can be potentially harmful even if done for innocent or whimsical reasons.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: It's certainly unethical to deliberately give the wrong impression in order to obtain, or to offer to someone else, a career advantage that would not be available if the truth were known. This is a general principle, not restricted to author ordering, but it includes offering first authorship to a junior collaborator who could really benefit from it but does not meet the usual requirements for first authorship. This is not as bad as offering authorship to people who didn't contribute at all, but it's a smaller misdeed in the same continuum. (I'm assuming the field doesn't have a well-known tradition of making junior coauthors the first author, in which case this could be fine. The issue is whether readers would be surprised if they found out the truth.)
It's less dramatically unethical, but still problematic, to allow a misleading situation to occur for other reasons, such as an eccentric desire for a particular author ordering that is not based on career considerations.
One partial solution is to include an explicit discussion of the ordering (in an author contribution section if that is standard in your field, or perhaps in a footnote on the first page). For example, "The authors are listed in alphabetical order" or "The authors are listed in order by seniority, with the junior author first". The ordering could still mislead people who see only a citation, so this is not a perfect solution, but it at least makes the meaning publicly known to anyone who actually reads the paper.
It also puts pressure on people to avoid situations that might look bad. I would be suspicious of anyone who wants a non-standard author ordering but is unwilling to explain the rationale behind it in the paper.
>
> Is it problematic to give last authorship to someone who doesn't really deserve it in this case, and should other co-authors insist on the conventional ordering?
>
>
>
For the latter question, it depends on the costs of doing so. I'd say it's worth objecting if the only cost is a mildly awkward conversation, but not if the cost is serious career jeopardy; where to draw the line between these extremes is a personal judgment call. Estimating the risk on this scale of course depends on the particular people involved.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: I think that yes, there is an ethical obligation to make the author order reflect the conventions of the field in order not to mislead about the relative contributions of each author. I would make an exception, though, to err a little on the side of generosity when calculating the relative contributions of students.
I personally know of a few cases where convention has not been followed, and it always causes problems. Examples include:
1. The main contributor was asked if she minded being second author so that a colleague who was coming up for a tenure assessment could be listed as lead author. In return, she was assured she would be given a similar favour when it was her turn. She agreed, not wishing to offend. The colleague won his tenure but after that relations between the two broke down and she never did have her "turn". Victims here:
* the main contributor, whose career suffered from not having this
important paper recognised as her work;
* the colleague's employer, who was misled about his contibution when deciding whether to award him tenure;
* Other young scientists in the field, who might have had an opportunity open to them had this man missed out on tenure.
2. A greedy PhD advisor listed himself as the lead author on the papers prepared by his student. The student "agreed" with the proposed order of authorship, but did not understand the conventions of the field or the degree to which not having first-author publications would affect his job prospects after graduation. Even had he understood, he would not have felt able to say "no" to his advisor.
3. A generous PhD advisor lists his students as lead authors of all his own papers, even if their contribution has been very small. He has tenure, and no-longer needs lead authorship. His PhD students benefit from the extra lead-author publications on their CVs and he benefits from the subsequent success of his students. Who loses out here? The students competing with those students for academic positions after they graduate, who do not have the benefit of artificially inflated CVs.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: I want to somewhat disagree with what others have said. If we always follow conventions, then we can never change them, even if we think they are wrong.
My field has the same credit based author order convention as you describe, but many people are agitating to get rid of it in favour of alphabetical order (sometimes with micro-attribution of particular parts of the paper).
What is important is not to mislead people. If authorship is indeed alphabetical, this should be indicated on the paper (most journals will allow an \* with a note that authorship is alphabetical).
For last author it is formally which author is "corresponding author" that matters, not which is last. I've seen cases where one author is listed last, but a different author is marked as corresponding. Again, as long as this is upfront, I don't see a problem with it.
The final point is that all authors should agree the order. If you feel you are being forced to give up credit that you don't want to, you should not agree to the order proposed.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: There's a more general form of this question, and then your specific examples.
Is there a *general* obligation to make sure your papers are in the authorship order for your field: I think there is an obligation to abide by the norms of your field - while there is some give and take if you're publishing outside your field (for example, some biomedical researchers and some CS researchers working together) that might mean that some of your work uses a different authorship scheme, in general if people are expecting a thing to be one way, and that thing is important, then you need a good reason for it not to be that way.
In your specific examples, both are depending on field-specific norms in order to deceive or imply something different, and definitely qualify as "lies of omission". I'd argue both are inappropriate.
Upvotes: 1
|
2016/05/31
| 814
| 3,239
|
<issue_start>username_0: My professor has not and will not hand out a syllabus (I have asked as well as others). I have a very vague idea about how grades will be calculated and no idea what the class schedule looks like (I don't believe the prof knows until the day before, either). He has also said that he has no office hours and will not answer email. I have no idea how to handle this because I have to have this course this semester and cannot drop it, but I also cannot that I will make a bad grade because of lack of preparedness on the prof's part.
Any suggestions?<issue_comment>username_1: Let's give you the benefit of the doubt, and assume that the professor you are talking about is in fact a "bad" professor. You have two choices, each of which will give you experience in claiming your rights as a paying customer (via a student loan or from your family paying the expenses).
**Contact Student Services**: First, you can go to the student service of your university, and ask for help. Don't drop all the information on them, just in general terms tell them that you are not happy with a professor and ask them who you should talk to. Then take it from there. They don't have the power to talk to the professor but they might point you in the right direction.
**Contact the Head of Department**: Many people here might not agree with this, as it might look like 0 to 60 for no reason. However, I beg to differ. If people like you didn't pay for the courses, no one at the university would have a job. So, you can send a polite email to the head of department or his/her secretary and ask for a meeting. Then, go there and express your feelings about the professor in the question. You can also ask for a solution as well, like changing or dropping the course.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: I suggest going to the department secretary. In every department I have been involved with, this is the person who handles the mechanics of things like getting profs to submit a syllabus, grading scheme, calendar, and so on. Simply ask
>
> Do you have the [missing item] for [course] by [prof]?
>
>
>
If you thus receive what you want, mission accomplished. If the answer is "no, I understand [prof] was going to hand them out in class" or just "no" you can go on to
>
> We didn't get them in class and I have emailed and asked for them but no reply.
>
>
>
Typically at this point the secretary will swing into action. I've seen profs called while students are standing there, I've seen heads visited, emails sent, all kinds of things. This is what this person does and the ones I know all do it very well indeed.
If the secretary just kind of stares at you in a "sucks to be you" way, you could try
>
> Is this something I can raise with [head] because I have no idea what the class schedule looks like and only a very vague idea about how grades will be calculated.
>
>
>
You will now get a yes or a no, if it's yes the secretary will set you up an appointment, if it's no then you need to ask why, take notes, say thank you and leave. After you leave the office check to see if you have an Ombud or someone in Student Services who can help you. But I actually doubt it will come to that.
Upvotes: 3
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2016/05/31
| 2,699
| 11,497
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<issue_start>username_0: I find that a not-so-insignificant number of my students could benefit from coming to talk with me during office hours about homework assignments, their exam preparations, etc., and I'm looking for ways to encourage them to do so. I am a big proponent of students being proactive, and figuring out on their own that they need to seek out help, but I am not seeing enough progress on this front and am, thus, looking for alternatives.
One of the main problems I am observing is that, on homework solutions, some students clearly don't know what they are doing, and coming to talk to me about how to proceed could potentially be very beneficial for them.
>
> Since good students already utilize office hours, when needed, what are some effective ways of getting the relatively weaker students to attend office hours?
>
>
>
---
One idea I am toying with at the moment is to make office hour interactions with me grade-able, and worth a certain percentage of the grade. As an example, consider the following:
Say a homework is assigned, student W is the "weaker" student, student S is the "stronger" student, the homework is worth 10 points, and the "interaction-with-me" component is worth some amount of points, say, 10.
Student S turns in a solution, which is correct/mostly correct [say, 85% or more correct]. In this case, student S would receive anywhere from 8.5 to 10 points on the homework grade and, since their score on the homework is greater than or equal to some threshold, say, 85%, they also score 10 points on the interaction component, whether or not they utilized office hours.
Now, consider student W: ***If*** student W utilizes office hours, and it seems like they are really trying to understand how to tackle the homework assignment, then this student would receive 10 points for the interaction component [student W's homework score, though, would reflect their performance on the homework]; ***else if*** student W does not utilize office hours, and they scored below some threshold on the homework [again, say, 85%], student W would then receive whatever they earned on the homework and zero points for the interaction component.
The above is just one idea I have at the moment. One thing I don't like about it is that it increases the documentation burden on my end. One possible solution to that would be to require students to document their office hour interactions with me on their solutions such that it would be a relatively quick check for me at grading time.<issue_comment>username_1: I have found personal (email) invitations to be very effective at getting certain students to come to office hours. (After attending once by personal invitation, they seem to be much more likely to come again without an invitation.)
The emails typically look something like this:
>
> Hi Jane,
>
>
> I noticed that some students, including you, had trouble with the theoretical basket weaving questions on Homework 3. I would be happy to review this topic with you during my office hours this Monday, 3-6PM in room 901. If you have class or other obligations during that time, you can email me to set up an appointment at another time.
>
>
>
Upvotes: 7 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Sometimes students are intimidated at the idea of going to a teacher during office hours. I think we have all been "cross-examined" during such an experience even though we know it was beneficial.
Instead of inviting them one-on-one perhaps requiring them to come in pairs or small groups would be helpful. This saves a lot of your own time as you work with several students at once. In addition, it removes some of the discomfort of having to go alone to the instructor's office for the students.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: In Comp. 2, our first graded assignment was rough. (Spelling errors counted as significant grammatical errors so I flunked it.) Prof. told everyone who got an F to schedule time to see him.
I did and it was quite helpful. He explained his grading rules, his view on what he wanted, and so on. He pointed out that people like me really need to spell check and use any tools that help. The biggest benefit of that meeting was that we got to a comfortable place to discuss the course material which made in-class discussons actually work.
I suggest something along those lines, then: just tell those below a threshold to come see you.
You might even consider asking the strong students to come by and explain where *they* are struggling and what kind of backgrounds they have on the topic. In *that* case, you should just ask every student to come and note their responses. You might discover useful patterns.
Another thing to consider is how to get the strong to help the weak.
In-class discussions or group study *can* help. That depends on material a bit. In the comp class, prof. had us edit select errors from our submissions as a group and discuss alternatives. An engineering prof. once told us he *expected* us to work our homework in groups so we should form teams. I normally flew solo, even in classes where hardly anyone did so, but I found a partner immediately after that class session.
Don't underestimate the power of declaring your preferences/expectations.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: how about you announce a policy where, if a student receives below a 70% on an assignment, they are required to attend your office hours. When they attend the office hours, they receive 50% of the missed points (for example, raising a 70 to an 85). To me this is an effective solution because students are able to understand what they missed about the assignment as well as raising their grade on the assignment which will help them to stay motivated and increase engagement in the class.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_5: It might not apply to you, but here's my 2 cents.
One reason I rarely come to a teacher's office is that I take too long to figure out that I'm sinking - and coming in the day before it's all due resulted in a "You should've started earlier" lecture, which was not the least bit helpful. Like I don't know what I *should* have done, I'm asking what's *now* that's in my control...
The embarrassment tends to outweigh any help I might receive. I never mind the cross-examination regarding my knowledge, but cringe at the mere mention of "Why didn't you [do it earlier, come to me before, ask in class, etc...]?" and "Didn't you listen to the lecture?" (I might've missed one sentence out of the thousand you've spoke, which, alas, turned out to be the key one - or I might've missed the sentence in question because I was late. I can't tell what I've missed if I've missed it!)
So, if you find yourself asking one of the above "Why?!" questions in sheer exasperation ("Why do you do something so silly?" is the general gist of things), please don't. Unless it looks like the answer is along the lines "my life is hell and I think of running away from home", of course. However, if you're certain you'd just get a shrug of similar exasperation ("As if I know!"), I'd recommend ditching moralisations and "should have"s and focussing on the assignments themselves. That won't help with people coming the first time, but it is likely to improve repeat visits. Students are timid creatures and might take failure over "making a fool of themselves".
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_6: The purpose of office hours are to help struggling students and to see everyone get the most out of the class. In my experience, when a student is struggling they do one of two things. They either give up entirely, or they fight for any point they can to pass the class. To help them aim for the latter, I would offer just a few points of extra credit. I know not everyone feels the same way I do about extra credit, but it can be a great incentive to help those who struggle. On top of that, you will get the students that aim for %100 to come and visit with you because they want every point possible.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_7: I agree with the two top answers: invitations, of one sort or another, are the most effective way. However I've noticed a large variation in how many students come to office hours by course, by instructor and by school, and I suspect what techniques are effective will depend on your situation, so it's probably good to experiment with different things.
Here are a couple of other ideas, not exactly covered in other answers:
* Most obvious: try to make your office hours convenient for as many students as possible, based on their schedules and when assignments are due. This may involve scheduling more office hours, having office hours Sunday nights, or having office hours in a different building from your office.
* One thing I have done for some classes, has been somewhat effective, is to try to make office hours like a study room (which may be a different room from your office, or organize a study room close to your office). Let them know they can come and work on problems there, solo or with each other. Then, since you'll right there or nearby when they're working, they'll be able to ask questions right then (similar to group work in class). A lot of students don't realize they'll need help, don't start the homework early enough, and don't want to come without a question in hand. This also alleviates some intimidation they may feel about coming to OH.
* Something a colleague has done, and found somewhat helpful (I have not tried it myself): make all students visit you in your office within say the first two weeks (scheduled appointments, just for a few minutes, which can be in small groups), to help encourage the habit of getting students to see you in your office. I do think building a habit and a culture is important. Many students don't even know where their professors' offices are, so at the least, they learn where your office is, and increases the chances they will drop by if they have a last minute question, say.
* Make reminders about OH in class, with sincere encouragements to come try it out.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_8: I will try to put forward a heretical suggestion. Why would you want to?
Having TA'd a number of math courses in the US and obviously had many office hours I've learned one thing. If a person doesn't want to spend time and effort on learning the material no amount of forcing them to do so will help.
In general you have two types of weak students. The ones that have really bad foundations and the ones who aren't willing to put in the effort. These might overlap but essentially if the student can't be bothered to show up to your office hours without being penalized/rewarded in some way then chances are they will just end up wasting both their and your time.
Worse yet they will end up wasting the time of the students that showed up for the office hours and are actually trying to learn something!
In summary hold office hours. Announce it in class at the beginning of the semester and make sure to point out these are both for catching up on what the students want to learn and for learning things beyond the curriculum (this has the effect of both getting the good students in so they can learn more and mitigating any possible feelings of "If I go to office hours it will look like I'm a loser who can't learn it on their own") and leave it at that. Don't waste anyone's time by forcing them to do something they don't want to.
Upvotes: 2
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2016/05/31
| 461
| 1,792
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<issue_start>username_0: I am in the final phase of my Ph.D. research. I need to defend my thesis before my fellowship funding runs out in a few months.
I won't have time to carefully prepare and polish my results for journal papers before I defend. I need to include some preliminary, unpublished results in my thesis, as per the work I agreed to do in my thesis proposal.
But is submitting results (to a journal) that are already "published" in my Ph.D. thesis an issue? One issue I'm wondering about: journals run a "plagiarism" check, and I wonder if "self-plagiarism" will be an issue.<issue_comment>username_1: Good question! No, your thesis does not count as published (yay). Self-plagiarism is definitely not an issue here. Good on you for clarifying though!
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Most institutions will allow you to embargo your thesis publication for a period of time (in my university, up to 2 years) if there are grounds for commercial sensitivity or if you have a publication pending. This facility exists precisely for this reason, it's likely your university will let you do it. When I requested it, it was an option on the final thesis submission form, I ticked a box and that was it.
Even if you can't do this (and virtually all universities will let you), you'll probably be fine. Embargoing is really for if you've got some super sensitive results (e.g. if you're a known researcher in a hot field and you're afraid someone is going to gazump your work) or if there are IP issues with your work (e.g. you're starting a business based on your results).
This shouldn't affect your award date in any way. In my case I asked for 6 months to write up a paper, that time hasn't elapsed yet, but I've got my bit of paper already.
Upvotes: 0
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2016/05/31
| 2,002
| 8,539
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<issue_start>username_0: I received a doctorate from an online school Walden University. I have not had any luck finding a full time college teaching position. Should I pursue another Ph D from another reputable college? Can I use any of the coursework I already have to defray the expense?<issue_comment>username_1: Without knowing the accreditation your University has, it is safe to expect a lot of schools to question it. With Master's programs sometimes, you can get away with online because it is very knowledge specific, however, PhD's have other factors that are expected of recipients that almost always require a physical institution.
Sometimes you can transfer course work, but many Universities won't accept it.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Looking over the Walden accreditation page, it appears that not all of their PhD programs are even accredited. If your PhD was in one of the non-accredited field, that is a complete career killer.
As far as starting over in a new program, I don't think that would be very easy. At least not in any of the programs in the US that I'm familiar with.
Other universities wouldn't count any of your coursework from a non-accredited degree towards a PhD somewhere else. (Why would they?)
You wouldn't be formally disqualified from an academic job at a community college with your Walden PhD, since most community colleges don't even require you to have a PhD in the first place. Note, however, that competition for academic jobs is fierce, even for community college positions. I know several recent PhDs in philosophy from top 10 programs who teach in community colleges. So while I think it is possible that you could get a community college job in the US, I don't think it's very likely.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: There are many people who attend far more reputable institutions than Walden and accomplish significant amounts during their PhD program and *still* have problems finding meaningful teaching positions. It's unfortunate that you went through the entire program without realizing this.
Unfortunately, a lot of people think the process goes like:
* Get PhD (in 3-4 years!)
* Apply to a few great teaching jobs
* Have to decide between multiple great offers
But the reality is often more like:
* Get PhD... eventually
* Apply to many jobs
* Have a few interviews if you're lucky
* Get rejected from most desirable positions
* Decide to do a post-doc to get more teaching/research experience
* Repeat while applying for post-doc positions
The academic job market is fairly saturated in many fields and so even if your degree was from an accredited and reputable institution, you may not have a simple case for getting a teaching job at a college. Particularly if your PhD experience did not lead to any teaching experience or publications.
I would recommend looking into local community colleges. It sounds like you did this online, which means you may have been working fulltime during your study - community colleges often have courses you can teach which you may be able to combine your academic study and work experience to be a desirable candidate.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_4: >
> I received a doctorate from an online school... Should I pursue another Ph D from another reputable college?
>
>
>
Based on the underlying assumptions of your question - which is that PhD's are like some kind of car, so if the one you got doesn't cut it then maybe you should get another one - I would say that your PhD has not been good enough, and your next one, if you obtain it somehow, will probably also be no good.
You've got it all wrong. A Ph.D. is a title; don't fetishize it. Are there subjects you are interested in researching? If so, go find a job doing that kind of research, under whatever title it may come (post-doc, PhD program, tenured facutly position, or even a job in a commercial enterprise or public institution with a research aspect to their activities).
Or if you're filthy rich, no need even for the job. Just write papers, conduct experiments, or whatever researchers do in your field.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: "Online doctorate" raises big red flags. I've never heard of one of these programs being legitimate, because it would be really difficult to complete the functions of a PhD online. A graduate student is supposed to work closely with an adviser on an intensive research project, often leading to multiple publications. It just isn't possible to build that type of relationship if you're not interacting with someone in person. The letters of recommendation that you get from your adviser and other faculty members can be just as important as publications when it comes time to look for a job.
I'm sorry that you were taken in by something kind of scammy. As some people said, your best bet might be community college (or maybe even high school teaching).
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_6: Walden is an accredited university, some of the Psychology programs may not be fully accredited, but they also have a number of other specific accreditations.
I was a doctoral student in a brick and mortar university a few years back before transferring to Walden as I was not happy with the program at that more traditional university. I found the online school to offer much more of a well-rounded education than what I was experiencing in the traditional school and I also found it to be equally if not more robust and demanding than my first school. The school from which I transferred, was not Ivy League. I do however, have experience with other schools, professionally and as a student, including the Ivy League schools. I have found that **reputable** online schools such as Walden do provide researchers and would be PhD's experience and education that is equivalent to traditional in-person programs. While the Ivy League schools do provide a good education, it is not to the exclusion of any other school.
While there is definitely a prejudice among some (and this is decreasing quickly) employers as to the pedigree of your degree, functionally I would argue that good programs are good programs and that as a holder of such a degree, that success should not be ruled out simply because there is a prejudice among certain people. I personally doubt the qualifications of someone who would judge my work based on where it is from without looking at the substance of it. I mean if this is the status quo, how different is that from not hiring someone because you think they may be of a certain race, religion, gender, etc.? Somehow that is not acceptable so why would discrimination based on the name of the school be acceptable, particularly when none of these people ever take the time to validate their claims. Online schools are not all degree mills. They often differ in the fact that they give an opportunity to most who apply, however, you still must succeed based on your own work.
Your PhD is valuable and respected. If you had one from Princeton there would still be detractors saying that Yale was better, to a lesser degree, but there would still be those who would find some reason to look down on it. The bottom line is what you do with your research and education.
I was where you were for a while, but I found that networking is key. People meet you, they see your work that is what they hire you for. How many people have good jobs and don't have a doctorate? Having a doctorate is not something that you should allow to discourage you even if it seems as though things are stacked against you. I suspect that your concern with the name on the degree is influencing how you present yourself. That is not to say that there is not real discrimination out there, but let those simple people live their own lives. Their small mindedness will be their own burden.
Education is more than just a one time brand name accomplishment. It is what you make of it. I know a lot of people with Ivy League degrees that finished school thinking the world would fall at their feet. That was not the case. One of the advantages of the lesser known programs and schools is that you really have to work hard all of the way through and for that you are in a better place.
Again, not to detract from Ivy League schools, just want to address the perception that they are the only places to get a good education.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_7: Walden is just a scam like the Trump "University".
The degrees from these bogus schools aren't really worth anything.
Upvotes: 1
|
2016/06/01
| 2,246
| 9,255
|
<issue_start>username_0: I'm working on paper discussing protection of National Park in Tatra Mts., splitted between Slovak republic and Poland: TANAP (Slovakia) and TPN (Poland).
I want to include the indication of laws declaring protected sites - however, those are the abbreviations in Slovak or Polish, respectivelly. Thus, for to say that TANAP has been declared by law **SNR č. `11/1948 Zb .** (in Slovak)
meaning is:
---
* S - Slovenska = Slovak
* N - Narodna = National
* R - Rada = Council
* c.- number
* Zb. - Zbierky Zakonov = Collection of laws
---
thus **SNR č. `11/1948 Zb == SNC n 11/1948 Cl ?**
If I will not translate law abbreviation, everyone can easily find a specific law. If I translate it, it would be (maybe) more comprehensible to reader, but really hard to find a law if needed.
Thus, in english written paper, should I translate law abbreviations/annotations in origin in non-english or not? What is the common practice?
Thank you a lot, I really appreciate your help.<issue_comment>username_1: Without knowing the accreditation your University has, it is safe to expect a lot of schools to question it. With Master's programs sometimes, you can get away with online because it is very knowledge specific, however, PhD's have other factors that are expected of recipients that almost always require a physical institution.
Sometimes you can transfer course work, but many Universities won't accept it.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Looking over the Walden accreditation page, it appears that not all of their PhD programs are even accredited. If your PhD was in one of the non-accredited field, that is a complete career killer.
As far as starting over in a new program, I don't think that would be very easy. At least not in any of the programs in the US that I'm familiar with.
Other universities wouldn't count any of your coursework from a non-accredited degree towards a PhD somewhere else. (Why would they?)
You wouldn't be formally disqualified from an academic job at a community college with your Walden PhD, since most community colleges don't even require you to have a PhD in the first place. Note, however, that competition for academic jobs is fierce, even for community college positions. I know several recent PhDs in philosophy from top 10 programs who teach in community colleges. So while I think it is possible that you could get a community college job in the US, I don't think it's very likely.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: There are many people who attend far more reputable institutions than Walden and accomplish significant amounts during their PhD program and *still* have problems finding meaningful teaching positions. It's unfortunate that you went through the entire program without realizing this.
Unfortunately, a lot of people think the process goes like:
* Get PhD (in 3-4 years!)
* Apply to a few great teaching jobs
* Have to decide between multiple great offers
But the reality is often more like:
* Get PhD... eventually
* Apply to many jobs
* Have a few interviews if you're lucky
* Get rejected from most desirable positions
* Decide to do a post-doc to get more teaching/research experience
* Repeat while applying for post-doc positions
The academic job market is fairly saturated in many fields and so even if your degree was from an accredited and reputable institution, you may not have a simple case for getting a teaching job at a college. Particularly if your PhD experience did not lead to any teaching experience or publications.
I would recommend looking into local community colleges. It sounds like you did this online, which means you may have been working fulltime during your study - community colleges often have courses you can teach which you may be able to combine your academic study and work experience to be a desirable candidate.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_4: >
> I received a doctorate from an online school... Should I pursue another Ph D from another reputable college?
>
>
>
Based on the underlying assumptions of your question - which is that PhD's are like some kind of car, so if the one you got doesn't cut it then maybe you should get another one - I would say that your PhD has not been good enough, and your next one, if you obtain it somehow, will probably also be no good.
You've got it all wrong. A Ph.D. is a title; don't fetishize it. Are there subjects you are interested in researching? If so, go find a job doing that kind of research, under whatever title it may come (post-doc, PhD program, tenured facutly position, or even a job in a commercial enterprise or public institution with a research aspect to their activities).
Or if you're filthy rich, no need even for the job. Just write papers, conduct experiments, or whatever researchers do in your field.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: "Online doctorate" raises big red flags. I've never heard of one of these programs being legitimate, because it would be really difficult to complete the functions of a PhD online. A graduate student is supposed to work closely with an adviser on an intensive research project, often leading to multiple publications. It just isn't possible to build that type of relationship if you're not interacting with someone in person. The letters of recommendation that you get from your adviser and other faculty members can be just as important as publications when it comes time to look for a job.
I'm sorry that you were taken in by something kind of scammy. As some people said, your best bet might be community college (or maybe even high school teaching).
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_6: Walden is an accredited university, some of the Psychology programs may not be fully accredited, but they also have a number of other specific accreditations.
I was a doctoral student in a brick and mortar university a few years back before transferring to Walden as I was not happy with the program at that more traditional university. I found the online school to offer much more of a well-rounded education than what I was experiencing in the traditional school and I also found it to be equally if not more robust and demanding than my first school. The school from which I transferred, was not Ivy League. I do however, have experience with other schools, professionally and as a student, including the Ivy League schools. I have found that **reputable** online schools such as Walden do provide researchers and would be PhD's experience and education that is equivalent to traditional in-person programs. While the Ivy League schools do provide a good education, it is not to the exclusion of any other school.
While there is definitely a prejudice among some (and this is decreasing quickly) employers as to the pedigree of your degree, functionally I would argue that good programs are good programs and that as a holder of such a degree, that success should not be ruled out simply because there is a prejudice among certain people. I personally doubt the qualifications of someone who would judge my work based on where it is from without looking at the substance of it. I mean if this is the status quo, how different is that from not hiring someone because you think they may be of a certain race, religion, gender, etc.? Somehow that is not acceptable so why would discrimination based on the name of the school be acceptable, particularly when none of these people ever take the time to validate their claims. Online schools are not all degree mills. They often differ in the fact that they give an opportunity to most who apply, however, you still must succeed based on your own work.
Your PhD is valuable and respected. If you had one from Princeton there would still be detractors saying that Yale was better, to a lesser degree, but there would still be those who would find some reason to look down on it. The bottom line is what you do with your research and education.
I was where you were for a while, but I found that networking is key. People meet you, they see your work that is what they hire you for. How many people have good jobs and don't have a doctorate? Having a doctorate is not something that you should allow to discourage you even if it seems as though things are stacked against you. I suspect that your concern with the name on the degree is influencing how you present yourself. That is not to say that there is not real discrimination out there, but let those simple people live their own lives. Their small mindedness will be their own burden.
Education is more than just a one time brand name accomplishment. It is what you make of it. I know a lot of people with Ivy League degrees that finished school thinking the world would fall at their feet. That was not the case. One of the advantages of the lesser known programs and schools is that you really have to work hard all of the way through and for that you are in a better place.
Again, not to detract from Ivy League schools, just want to address the perception that they are the only places to get a good education.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_7: Walden is just a scam like the Trump "University".
The degrees from these bogus schools aren't really worth anything.
Upvotes: 1
|
2016/06/01
| 1,993
| 7,664
|
<issue_start>username_0: Due to health problems, I wasn't able to study well enough during my teenage years + 20s and I did not study or pursue something that truly interests me; instead I just graduated with a degree because it was easier for me at that time. My passion has always been in science - especially Robotics/Engineering or Physics. It has been bothering me for years and I know I can't get this thought out of my head unless I give it a try. I've been saving up money to study again and now I have the chance to do it, but I don't know how or where to start, not to mention I don't even know if it's "wise" to do it in my 30s.
My thinking is to ultimately get into a graduate program at a decent school; but before I do that, I'll need to have a foundation in math and science, and possibly a second degree in engineering or some relevant field. I tried so hard to find a school in the US that offers second degree in engineering but still didn't have luck, except for the ones that are less reputable in this field, and I'm not sure if it's going to be a problem when I try to apply for a more reputable grad program. So I assume it would probably take me 5-6 years. And by the time I graduate, I will be in my late 30s. I'm not worried about how much time I'm going to spend but I need to know if it's a field that welcomes older people to seek entry level employment after they graduate. Is there anything wrong with my "plan"? If so, what would be a better approach for me to do this? Any recommendations on schools/programs and how to go about it is highly appreciated! Thanks a lot!<issue_comment>username_1: >
> My thinking is to ultimately get into a graduate program at a decent
> school; but before I do that, I'll need to have a foundation in math
> and science, and possibly a second degree in engineering or some
> relevant field.
>
>
>
You are blowing the requirements a bit out of proportion. If you want to be a bonafide engineer, what you really need is a [B.E.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diploma_in_Engineering): an engineering diploma accredited by [ABET](http://www.abet.org/accreditation/) or another respected accreditation agency. A B.E. generally takes about a year or a year and a half, not counting the prerequisite material. Generally speaking, the pre-reqs aren't that bad, if you are a naturally mathematically inclined person and can work hard: you'll need about 2 terms of multivariable calculus, 2 terms or so of college level physics, maybe a term of chemistry, and probably a computer science class. You can complete all of this and the B.E. in 2.5 years or less if you work hard - I know a number of people who have done it.
Let's say you're dead set on graduate school, but you want to get there as quickly as possible. You realize that once you're in grad school you'll be there a while, but you don't want to wait a long time to get there. I recommend the following:
1. Apply to the B.E. program at an accredited college. For expediency, you won't want a liberal arts college. Maybe a decent state college with a fair sticker price and a staff willing to work with you to get you in and out as quickly as possible. You are not applying to do an A.B. or a B.S., just the B.E.
2. Do you want a Ph.D. or a Master's? There are many 5-year B.E.-Master's programs out there, such as [this one](http://www.cmu.edu/epp/), [this](http://pratt.duke.edu/undergrad/degree-programs/bse-masters), [this other one](http://soe.rutgers.edu/master-science-or-master-engineering), and [this](http://www.me.berkeley.edu/graduate/degree-programs/five-year-bsms-program), and also [this](http://www.colorado.edu/even/current-students/5-year-bsms), among many others. If you want a Ph.D., then do the B.E. and then apply for a Ph.D. program somewhere. I'd bet they'd appreciate that you are more adult, and experienced.
One last thing. When you think about what you want to do in life, it's important to think about what you want to **do**, as opposed to what you want to **be**. Do you want to **be** an engineer, or **do** engineering?
I am a mathematics major, and I think my future occupation(s) will be what most people would call "engineering." In my case, an undergraduate education in mathematics is, I think, more useful for the "engineering" which interests me than an orthodox engineering diploma would be. The trodden path is not always the best one, and especially when forced into unconventional positions as you are, thinking outside the box is a good idea.
I'd definitely encourage you to reflect on whether or not spending 1.5-2.5 years on a B.E. and another 1-3 on a Master's or 3-6 on a Ph.D. is necessarily the path to a job and life where you will be able to **do** the sort of engineering you want to do. You can always find [awesome](http://defcon.org/) [learning](http://iecc.com) [material](https://www.reddit.com/r/engineering/) [for](https://diy.org/skills/hardwarehacker) [free](http://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm) [online](http://tutorial.math.lamar.edu). A good diploma will do 2 major things for you: **prove** that you know a decent amount about something hard to learn, and **teach you** a decent amount about something hard to learn. Once you have those two things, you can always learn hard things on your own, and prove to anyone who asks that you do indeed know how to learn hard things without help.
Good luck!
**EDIT:** Apparently the "BE" program, or at least the BE nomenclature, is not as common as I had been led to believe. That said, in much the same way that there are licensure requirements for "pre med", there are licensure requirements for meeting the criteria of a Professional Engineer in the US. I think that if you can figure out what those requirements are (for example by asking any engineering department), you could probably take those specific classes but not complete an entire bachelor's and then apply to graduate school. That said, I'm not in graduate school yet (I'm an undergrad), so I'm not sure. I know people who have taken that type of route, but it may be a result of an unusual system at my college.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_2: You have a Bachelor's already, which already makes you nominally qualified for graduate school! What comes next is figuring out how to make an entrance into the field when you don't have a background in it. The Bachelor's system currently in existence generally requires a basic education requirement, so I wouldn't suggest going for a B.S. in physics or engineering. I would instead suggest one of two things, combined with a healthy regime of self-teaching:
1. Simply take courses at a local institution
2. Get an associate's in physics or engineering
Would this make you a non-standard applicant, having your most recent degree be an associate's, or a bevy of post-bac coursework not for a degree? Well, yes, but you're still qualified. You're really quite young within the camp of non-traditional, older students. If you can back up a shorter (cheaper!), more focused set of courses with some experience doing applicable work (volunteer at a lab, try to land a position as a tech at a nearby school), that makes you just another applicant, albeit one with very different life experiences.
There is a guy in my research group who has a wife and kids who transitioned into engineering when he was 30, and he swept right into an M.S. and then a Ph.D. program without getting a transitionary degree after eight years of no classes. It's definitely possible for top programs, as we're at a Top 15, but I would advise trying to get some experience and insight on the field at local institutions.
Upvotes: 1
|
2016/06/01
| 1,930
| 7,535
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<issue_start>username_0: I am currently preparing some case studies written by Harvard Business School professors. The case is a 'real marketing' case; based on a true story. It is mostly compiled from many sources such as newspaper articles and books. Aside from common knowledge, the authors sometimes provide information (i.e. factual) without any reference, other times they do. I, sometimes, try to 'find' an original source for their un-referenced claims (and always track the referenced ones).
My question: If I don't bother to find a primary source by myself and simply cite the case writers for the information they are presenting (the ones without references), is this a bad practice? Is it plagiarism? (Since the information could have belonged to someone else)
One more thing I noticed which is really confusing is that, sometimes, the authors write an idea without a reference and then, by accident, I discover that such an information belonged to reference #24 (for example) which is like 5 pages away (How did I discover it? By tracking the reference #24 and reading it and discovering that this information is the same presented in page 1 for example (which was without a reference))! How should I handle such a situation? Can I, again, simply cite the authors for whatever un-referenced information they are presenting? (Assuming that they are HBS professors and know what they're doing)
I am just worried about plagiarism and crediting the wrong people.<issue_comment>username_1: >
> My thinking is to ultimately get into a graduate program at a decent
> school; but before I do that, I'll need to have a foundation in math
> and science, and possibly a second degree in engineering or some
> relevant field.
>
>
>
You are blowing the requirements a bit out of proportion. If you want to be a bonafide engineer, what you really need is a [B.E.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diploma_in_Engineering): an engineering diploma accredited by [ABET](http://www.abet.org/accreditation/) or another respected accreditation agency. A B.E. generally takes about a year or a year and a half, not counting the prerequisite material. Generally speaking, the pre-reqs aren't that bad, if you are a naturally mathematically inclined person and can work hard: you'll need about 2 terms of multivariable calculus, 2 terms or so of college level physics, maybe a term of chemistry, and probably a computer science class. You can complete all of this and the B.E. in 2.5 years or less if you work hard - I know a number of people who have done it.
Let's say you're dead set on graduate school, but you want to get there as quickly as possible. You realize that once you're in grad school you'll be there a while, but you don't want to wait a long time to get there. I recommend the following:
1. Apply to the B.E. program at an accredited college. For expediency, you won't want a liberal arts college. Maybe a decent state college with a fair sticker price and a staff willing to work with you to get you in and out as quickly as possible. You are not applying to do an A.B. or a B.S., just the B.E.
2. Do you want a Ph.D. or a Master's? There are many 5-year B.E.-Master's programs out there, such as [this one](http://www.cmu.edu/epp/), [this](http://pratt.duke.edu/undergrad/degree-programs/bse-masters), [this other one](http://soe.rutgers.edu/master-science-or-master-engineering), and [this](http://www.me.berkeley.edu/graduate/degree-programs/five-year-bsms-program), and also [this](http://www.colorado.edu/even/current-students/5-year-bsms), among many others. If you want a Ph.D., then do the B.E. and then apply for a Ph.D. program somewhere. I'd bet they'd appreciate that you are more adult, and experienced.
One last thing. When you think about what you want to do in life, it's important to think about what you want to **do**, as opposed to what you want to **be**. Do you want to **be** an engineer, or **do** engineering?
I am a mathematics major, and I think my future occupation(s) will be what most people would call "engineering." In my case, an undergraduate education in mathematics is, I think, more useful for the "engineering" which interests me than an orthodox engineering diploma would be. The trodden path is not always the best one, and especially when forced into unconventional positions as you are, thinking outside the box is a good idea.
I'd definitely encourage you to reflect on whether or not spending 1.5-2.5 years on a B.E. and another 1-3 on a Master's or 3-6 on a Ph.D. is necessarily the path to a job and life where you will be able to **do** the sort of engineering you want to do. You can always find [awesome](http://defcon.org/) [learning](http://iecc.com) [material](https://www.reddit.com/r/engineering/) [for](https://diy.org/skills/hardwarehacker) [free](http://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm) [online](http://tutorial.math.lamar.edu). A good diploma will do 2 major things for you: **prove** that you know a decent amount about something hard to learn, and **teach you** a decent amount about something hard to learn. Once you have those two things, you can always learn hard things on your own, and prove to anyone who asks that you do indeed know how to learn hard things without help.
Good luck!
**EDIT:** Apparently the "BE" program, or at least the BE nomenclature, is not as common as I had been led to believe. That said, in much the same way that there are licensure requirements for "pre med", there are licensure requirements for meeting the criteria of a Professional Engineer in the US. I think that if you can figure out what those requirements are (for example by asking any engineering department), you could probably take those specific classes but not complete an entire bachelor's and then apply to graduate school. That said, I'm not in graduate school yet (I'm an undergrad), so I'm not sure. I know people who have taken that type of route, but it may be a result of an unusual system at my college.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_2: You have a Bachelor's already, which already makes you nominally qualified for graduate school! What comes next is figuring out how to make an entrance into the field when you don't have a background in it. The Bachelor's system currently in existence generally requires a basic education requirement, so I wouldn't suggest going for a B.S. in physics or engineering. I would instead suggest one of two things, combined with a healthy regime of self-teaching:
1. Simply take courses at a local institution
2. Get an associate's in physics or engineering
Would this make you a non-standard applicant, having your most recent degree be an associate's, or a bevy of post-bac coursework not for a degree? Well, yes, but you're still qualified. You're really quite young within the camp of non-traditional, older students. If you can back up a shorter (cheaper!), more focused set of courses with some experience doing applicable work (volunteer at a lab, try to land a position as a tech at a nearby school), that makes you just another applicant, albeit one with very different life experiences.
There is a guy in my research group who has a wife and kids who transitioned into engineering when he was 30, and he swept right into an M.S. and then a Ph.D. program without getting a transitionary degree after eight years of no classes. It's definitely possible for top programs, as we're at a Top 15, but I would advise trying to get some experience and insight on the field at local institutions.
Upvotes: 1
|
2016/06/01
| 450
| 1,897
|
<issue_start>username_0: I have a bachelor's degree in Oenology and Beverage Technology and I would like to apply for a master's degree in Brewing Science and Technology. However, my bachelor's ECTS in mathematics and statistics are far fewer than those required by the M.Sc. Is there a way to add more ECTS to my degree? Could I take a course to reach the minimum requirements?<issue_comment>username_1: Adding ECTS to your degree after you graduated is probably not possible.
However at least some European universities will let you enrol to a single course/module: you can attend one or more courses without being enrolled for a degree and earn a certificate for the ECTS you need.
You are after some generic not-too-advanced Mathematics/Statistics training which you can find in many scientific (Biology?) degrees at most institutions, so it should be quite easy to find something suitable for you.
For example you can find information about this at [University of Milan](http://www.unimi.it/ENG/admission/31184.htm "Milan") or [London](http://www.londoninternational.ac.uk/distance-flexible-learning/individual-courses-modules "London").
Depending on the circumstances this could be expensive, demanding and takes some time (if you really need the credits before applying you need to wait at least one semester, possibly one year), so it is probably better to contact the department offering the MSc you are interested in to try to decide whether it's worth doing.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: I agree with the other answer that it most likely is not possible to add credits to your current degree.
However, sometimes pre-master courses are offered, specifically to fill any gaps between your background and the background expected for the master's program. You should check with the department/institution where you want to do the M.Sc. if they offer such an option.
Upvotes: 1
|
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| 2,741
| 11,038
|
<issue_start>username_0: Recently, we had a lecture about Reproducible research on of the slides was:
>
> * **Reproducibility:** start from the same samples/data, use the same methods, get the same results.
> * **Replicability:** conduct again the experiment with independent samples and/or methods to get confirmatory results.
>
>
> Replicability = Reproducibility + Conduct experiment again
>
>
> * Replicability might be challenging in epidemiology (recruit again a cohort) or molecular biology (complex cell manipulation).
> * Reproducibility should be a minimum standard. One should strive to at least make his/her own research *reproducible*.
>
>
>
I find many articles that use software and when they hint what kind of analysis did they don't provide the code nor the data. There are public free ways of storing data and code of studies, and even with a DOI.
So far, I thought that some data might not be freely available because it has some private information (my field is bioinformatics), or the authors intend to use it for further investigations and want to keep for themselves the data.
The same happens with the code is the intellectual property of the lab or principal investigator, but retaining the rights of the code don't goes against the replicability.
Why are these papers accepted and publicized, even if they don't allow reproducibility?
Related: [Reproducible Studies?](https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/45499/18238) and an example of the problem it causes [Can up to 70% of scientific studies not be reproduced?](https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/a/12521).
**Edit:**
Some other papers about replicability: [1](http://www.nature.com/ng/journal/v41/n2/abs/ng.295.html), [2](http://www.nature.com/nrd/journal/v10/n9/full/nrd3439-c1.html).
* Excel case: in [this paper](http://www.peri.umass.edu/236/hash/31e2ff374b6377b2ddec04deaa6388b1/publication/566) we can see an example. Reviewers of [Growth in a Time of Debt](http://www.nber.org/papers/w15639.pdf) estimated
(note that this is not measurable/checkable afirmation) that the
analysis could bring the results presented.
(I couldn't find a description of the methods used for the analysis on the paper, but it is a different field of mine and I have skimmed through).
But in new methods without prior experience/validation how can one estimate it without looking to the analysis itself?
And in "old" methods, how bad would be to share them if they are already checked?
* "Understand why replicability is important, and you'll understand
which guidelines and rules should be applied, and how to deal with
research where guidelines are skipped.":
Replicability is important because science is about finding **objective** *mesurable* relations. This makes the relationship independent of who performs the study. But this can be discussed/answered on another question :)
I am aware that we do our mistakes, (see my other question here on academia), but we should aim for the best behavior and the best science.
* "Put another way, there are finite resources so the more you rerun
the same code the less scientific progress you make overall"
I don't think that we make less scientific progress overall rerunning the same code. Checking that we know for sure that A is true is far better than work for 3 years or more and then discover that A was wrong.
How many finite resources are/were used on studies based on those the ALS Therapy Development Institute couldn't replicate?
At the same time the induced pluripotent cells were hard to reproduce and replicate, but this isn't a software based, or the recent [example](http://arxiv.org/abs/1605.04339) of @tpg2114, 3 years to replicate their own study in 4 new settings.
* Quality of academic software when sharing it, [here](https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/37370/18238) it seems that it is better to share the awful, crapy code rather than hide it.
* Necessity of the reviewer of the code and data was answered [here](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/13623/18238). In short:
>
> Of course, the degree to which a referee is expected to verify the correctness of results varies greatly between fields. But you can always choose a personal standard higher than what's usual in your field. Just realize that good refereeing takes a significant time investment.
>
>
>
It seems that the comments are extending, and from the answers it seems that it is not the job of the reviewers or the journals, it might be a job for the reader (and of no one), or it doesn't worth it to make articles reproducible because it is too hard.<issue_comment>username_1: Sometimes reproducing results is as much work as producing them. If I give you my code, you not only have to check whether it gives the results I published, but also whether it is correct. Reading poorly written code is a pain, so it might be easier for you to write it in your style again. Also I might have used a language like Fortran or some obscure computer algebra system.
The same is true for certain computations, in particular if they involve a lot of case distinctions, or if there are many different ways to obtain the result.
So I would leave the reproduction to the reader if I have the feeling that my guidance would not be helpful. The problem with this view is of course that it is open to rationalizations: Writing the code in a reader friendly way is too much work, so I invent a reason not to have to do it. Preventing this would be the job of the reviewer, but why should they be less lazy than me?
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: There are multiple answers to your question.
1. **Academic publishing assumes good faith.** At least in the circles where the majority of people are genuinely interested in the advancement of science. This is the only viable mode of sharing scientific information between adults, although it sometimes fail as we all know it. Publishing should firstly serve the purpose of communicating results in a fast and convenient manner and second provide some sort of quality control.
2. **Sharing code and data is not a necessary condition for a study to be reproducible.** It surely lowers the threshold of work that has to be done by other groups to reproduce the results, but clear and comprehensive descriptions of the methods and algorithm, as well as how the data was gathered, suffice. In fact, it's even better since starting from scratch will avoid the reproduction of results that are due to artifacts in the implementation or the original data.
3. **Acceptance standards vary vastly between journals.** Nowadays anything can be "accepted and publicized" providing you pay the "article processing charge". The question is *where* was it published and by whom. The most prestigious journals in my field have strict guidelines about the study design and sharing of materials and methods, the other ones don't.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: It's often technically difficult to recreate the same runtime as another person used, so the code may not do the same thing on your machine. In practice, we're usually not talking about tested, portable, production quality software. You may need a certain operating system, certain libraries to be installed, the correct compiler or interpreter version etc.
Reproducible computation is something the SciPy community was deeply interested in a few years ago, and seemed close to getting a handle on. I'm not sure how far they've come since (I'm not a scientist, so it was off my radar), but I know it was an important issue for IPython Dev, and Continuum Analytics were working on it as well.
You need to share the whole setup, maybe as a machine image for Amazon Web Services, or use Docker or something like that. You basically do your work in VMs, then share whatever people need to reproduce the VM.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_4: On top of the existing answers regarding the current state of reproducibility in peer review, it is important to consider that **norms regarding reproducibility are rapidly changing** in peer review and publication among:
### Peer reviewers
The Center for Open Science endorses a [standard disclosure request](https://osf.io/hadz3/#!) that [you can add to any peer review](https://osf.io/hadz3/#!)
to request that the authors provide minimal information on
reproducibility:
>
> I request that the authors add a statement to the paper confirming
> whether, for all experiments, they have reported all measures,
> conditions, data exclusions, and how they determined their sample
> sizes. The authors should, of course, add any additional text to
> ensure the statement is accurate. This is the standard reviewer
> disclosure request endorsed by the Center for Open Science [see
> <http://osf.io/hadz3]>. I include it in every review.
>
>
>
I use this myself and have found that at least a handful of journal
editors will press the authors on this front.
### Journal Editors
* Several top journals in psychology are leading the way in terms of incentivizing replication-friendly publications by providing
"[badges](http://www.psychologicalscience.org/index.php/publications/journals/psychological_science/badges)" indicating that the paper has released raw data, had
its protocol preregistered, and/or has released study materials.
Recent empirical evidence has suggested that [such incentives are
effective](http://www.psychologicalscience.org/index.php/publications/observer/obsonline/psychological-science-badge-program-encourages-open-practices-study-shows.html).
* Numerous journals now require a statement about whether data are publicly available, or an explanation of why they cannot be made so (e.g., due to sensitive information). There are too many to list, but here's a commendable example from *Science*:
>
> After publication, all data and materials necessary to understand,
> assess, and extend the conclusions of the manuscript must be available
> to any reader of *Science*. All computer codes involved in the creation
> or analysis of data must also be available to any reader of *Science*.
> After publication, all reasonable requests for data or materials must
> be fulfilled.
>
>
>
### Authors
Even when submitting to a journal that does not have any requirements regarding reproducibility, some authors are choosing to make this information conspicuous anyway. On my own papers, I now add a "Research Transparency" statement before the Acknowledgments, saying simply:
>
> All raw data, materials, and R code are publicly available at [my
> Open Science Framework repository URL].
>
>
>
I also say something to this effect in my cover letters when submitting papers. These voluntary disclosures may help promote new community norms, hopefully eventually making poor disclosure a red flag rather than the status quo. In fact, I experienced a small example of this when a reviewer recently commented:
>
> I appreciate the authors *[sic]* releasing all their data and protocols
> online.
>
>
>
Upvotes: 3
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| 1,276
| 5,914
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<issue_start>username_0: I was wondering what kind of correspondance should one have with persons denominated as corresponding authors ?
Let's assume one was reading through a paper and did not understand a specific point. Is that a reason to mail the corresponding author ?
I've read through the different answers that it is in general the main contributor of the work. So, what are the reasons one can encounter being sufficient to make contact ?<issue_comment>username_1: I don't know how it is in other fields, but in Mathematics and Theoretical Computer Science, any questions pertaining to the paper should be addressed to the corresponding author, that is if you don't have particular reasons for contacting any of the other authors.
And whether you should contact the corresponding author depends on many things. If there is no other way, or if it is, e.g., much more invloved, to get an answer to your question, then yes, contact the corresponding author. However, if the information is easily available out there, then perhaps you will just be wasting the time of the corresponding author.
If you are fairly certain you've found an error in the paper, then I believe you should definitely try to get in touch with the corresponding author.
Also, be prepared to not get a reply. Corresponding authors are often too busy.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: It's not uncommon for the corresponding author *not* to be the first¹/major author. This is especailly true if the paper was written by a postgrad or even a postdoc close to the end of a contract -- the supervising/most permanent author may be a better point of contact.
There's "did not understand" and "did not understand". Only you can judge (having worked through the refernces and possibly with the aid of more experienced colleagues) whether you couldn't understand because of a gap in the paper, or a gap in your knowledge. Only in the former case is it generally worth contacting the author.
¹Assuming author order matters.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: All correspondence regarding the paper should go to the corresponding author (with very few exceptions).
If you should contact them with requests for clarification is a judgment call. If you are a student not understanding it, you should probably first discuss it with your supervisor. If you are an experienced scientist and believe that there is insufficient information or even an error, asking them would be appropriate.
Me and my colleagues have also (successfully) contacted corresponding authors with requests for access to data for a meta analysis or to invite them to a workshop (all expenses paid).
So there are a number of legitimate reasons to contact a corresponding author. That's why the contact data is given in the manuscript.
However, from the perspective of a corresponding author, most correspondence you receive is usually with the journal (and spam from other journals and conferences).
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_4: In my experience (from an HCI-related CS subfield), the only messages that go specifically to the corresponding author are the ones related to organisational aspects during the publishing process.
All questions about the *content* will rather be sent to all authors (in the vague hope that at least one of them is still reachable by means of the indicated e-mail address).
This experience (from talking to other researchers and receiving enquiries myself) fits with some additional observations:
* The corresponding author flag can usually be set in the submission system, normally at the time of manuscript submission. It is not necessarily visible to readers of the paper.1
* Accordingly, requests for formatting changes are sometimes sent only to the authors marked as corresponding authors.
* Also accordingly, as such technical details are often dealt with by the more junior researchers among the authors, it is likely the corresponding author is not in a permanent position yet, so they might not be reachable at the indicated address for much longer, just about long enough to complete the publication process.
* I have come across copyright forms that required the corresponding author to sign as a representative of all involved authors. Hence, the corresponding author in such cases will be the author who happens do complete the manual steps of submission, not necessarily an author who will be available for questions about the content of the paper in the future.
With this background, as a direct recommendation in response to the question, I would suggest to e-mail all authors for any questions of understanding. Do make sure they know they have all been e-mailed, though, as this allows them to agree who will answer (if they are still in touch) rather than wasting time by each of them writing essentially the same answer. For this purpose, simply put all of them into the recipient field of the same e-mail without hiding the other recipients.
1: And frankly, I usually do not remember who was the corresponding author in any given paper of mine for long after publication.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: As corresponding author, I have had people contact me for a few reasons:
1. Much the most common has been to request a PDF copy of the paper.
2. Twice, someone has contacted me to tell me about a potential error or something they didn't understand.
3. A couple of times, people have contacted me to tell me how much they enjoyed and appreciated the paper - this was great to hear!
I have contacted authors myself for reasons 2 & 3 and also:
1. To ask whether they wanted to collaborate on a project that I had good reason to think they'd be interested in, given their work
2. To ask for more information (data behind published figures, details of methods that weren't fully described, or whether they'd be willing to share their code or database).
Upvotes: 2
|
2016/06/01
| 495
| 2,267
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<issue_start>username_0: I am presenting a poster at a conference and need to include a figure as background information. Given that it is properly cited, is it okay to include a figure I did not make in an academic poster for a conference? Should posters contain only figures made by the presenter? Would it be seen as unprofessional?<issue_comment>username_1: If there's something essential in the figure that you're including that you and your research group can't reproduce on your own, then it's justifiable to include a plot or other figure produced by someone else and already published in the literature. However, such usage should be restricted to only what is essential for your poster—you should never use others' work merely to "fill out" your poster.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: It might be legally defensible (via a Fair Use defense at trial in the US), but without a license or other permission from the copyright holder, it's a copyright violation in the US. Whether it comes from a journal or conference publication where the publisher owns the copyright or some other venue where the authors retained the copyright, you should ask for permission. Most journals have an online mechanism for requesting permission to reuse something they published (e.g. [IEEE's Permission to Reuse IEEE material page](http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/reqperm.html) links to their copyright permission request page where they have partnered with a clearance firm).
You should do this rather than ignoring the problem. Do not simply assume that citing the original publication is enough or that Fair Use (in the US) is enough to protect you. You could get sued and face an expensive lawsuit that you might win anyway. You would still have to pay a lawyer to defend you. I don't know of any cases where a publisher has sued and lost or won over reproduction of copyright-protected material that was either ruled a fair use or not, in the US, but I assume those cases are out there.
No matter what you do, you also must cite the original source. But, please, please, please, get permission. My understanding is that permission is routinely given, though it may take a little while to receive the required sign off.
Upvotes: 2
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2016/06/01
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<issue_start>username_0: I am currently enrolled in a PhD programme in a north American university and I am considering quitting my current PhD and applying for a PhD in another institution.
The reasons for me doing this are:
1. My advisor (Who is excellent in his research area) has very little knowledge in my research topic and avoids technical discussions with me in the group meeting because of this.
2. Assigned me multiple time-consuming projects. One of the projects is just performing measurements for a company from which he is getting funding. The measurements are time-consuming and the results are not publishable and will not be part of my thesis. Our group is heavily understaffed.
3. When I mentioned that this project is not a research project and is more of a job and does not interest me, my advisor used my stipend as a leverage to make me continue working on it and that the project brings funds to the group. This was not in my "Research" PhD admission offer. This makes me feel like a cheap labour rather than a researcher which I do not accept.
4. Asked me to write journal and conference papers with a very little contribution. For my advisor, quantity matters more than quality.
5. My advisor is not open minded to any ideas I come up with. Forces me to work in a direction that I think will lead to project failure. It takes me months to convince him that the ideas are not valid and do not achieve what is required, and when I make my point clear eventually he still wants me to work on that because he promised funding agencies to pursue that direction. This resulted in more than one heated discussion with my advisor. I also found that some claims in the previous publications of the group related to my research are not correct.
6. I mentioned that I am interested in working on a certain topic and he used me interest as a leverage, that I need to "make him happy" in order to allow me to work on that topic and that I have to finish other projects.
7. Poses unrealistic deadlines for which I worked extremely hard to achieve very little and with little return. He thinks by doing this he is making me work harder, however, this led to lower work quality which annoys me.
My question: Are these reasons reasonable for quitting the PhD and starting somewhere else? Will the fact that I left a PhD programme and applied somewhere else in a better alignment with my interest negatively impact my appication? I am motivated and I want do good research and a PhD.
Note: Changing advisor is not really an option. I am not able to think of an advisor with whom my interests align.<issue_comment>username_1: I will offer a very unsatisfying answer, but having been through similar experiences, it is the best I can do.
Only you can really decide if the above reasons are reasonable reasons to leave. Everyone will give you their own experiences and opinions, but in the end, it is your call. My advice is to present all of your reasons to your advisor and be honest with your concerns. If he respects you and your work, he may allow you some more self-direction.
Take some time off, do something fun, and really think about what will happen if you leave. Are you willing to risk not getting into another PhD? There is life outside academia, are you willing to give it a try? What if you get a similar advisor in your next program?
As for the impact it will have, this is too difficult to answer. If your advisor understands your reasons, he may help you find another program. If he does not understand, you may not be able to ask for a recommendation from him. In that case, find someone else from your program who appreciates what you've done.
People often change PhDs, there's nothing inherently preventing you from it, it just depends on your individual situation.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: My thoughts on this:
**Stay or Go**: You said the following, so just by that, it is a big red flag and it is time to move on.
>
> My advisor (Who is excellent in his research area) has very little
> knowledge in my research topic and avoids technical discussions with
> me in the group meeting because of this.
>
>
>
**Future Applications**: Actually I saw many cases like this who doesn't move on quick enough and stay in an unhealthy situation. So it is good that you figure out the situation and want to change that. As long as you can present yourself in an interview with the new supervisor and explain your situation, you should be fine.
**Main Drawback**: Obviously the time is a huge issue here. Can you financially take a hit and spend 6 months to a year to find another position?
**Alternatives**: You can either find another supervisor from the same university or even research group, or you can find a supervisor from your old university were you did graduate for your Bsc/Msc.
Upvotes: 3
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2016/06/01
| 5,152
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<issue_start>username_0: Relevant info and background:
I'm an engineering Post Doc at an American university. One of my roles is to basically function as a 'project manager' for a couple projects that have a number of Graduate-level RAs working on them. I have a good relationship with all the RAs and all are hard-working.
I'm convinced that one of the graduate RAs is falsifying computational results/data (also called "rigging data" by many) in some cases. Note that the individual appears to be doing this for only some cases, not all. I have many reasons to believe this, but here is a few: (1) inability to replicate various results, (2) finishing the work at a pace I think is not feasible, (3) finishing his work at home where he surely does not have the software environment to actually complete the work. There are also other reasons I believe this to be the case, but you get the point. I'm also convinced this has occurred for over 1 semester, so I probably need to report this since I am responsible for overseeing all the work. However, the student in general is a good person and hard worker. He has passed the preliminary exams and is finished with all classes - I'd hate to see him expelled from the university since he's this far into the program.
I have some questions:
1. What do you think could be the maximum punishment for this grad student/researcher? I'd feel terrible if it resulted in expulsion. I would *think* that you would have to receive at least one warning from the university before an expulsion, except in very extreme cases. I'd be fine if this resulted in suspension, and even losing funding, but for anything more I'd feel bad. What is the standard maximum punishment for these cases? Also, what is the most likely punishment?
2. What is the punishment for me if I don't report this problem? For instance, say I just pretended ignorance. It is extremely unlikely I would do this, but it's worth asking.
3. How common is this? I would think this happens once in a while - a grad student decides to be lazy and fabricate a small portion of the overall results to avoid working the weekend or something. An experienced professional would know this is seriously wrong, but not necessarily a mid-level PhD student.
Any advice from people with experience in this, professors, grad students, principle investigators, etc would be great<issue_comment>username_1: This misconduct is considered the ultimate misconduct in the research community. The offender is often stripped of his credentials and because of the tight knit nature of the scientific community, even if the credentials are not stripped the researcher may never find work as a researcher again. It will impact the ability to secure funding in the future.
If you are aware of it, as you claim to be, you can also be affected, ESPECIALLY if your name is on or associated with the paper. Additionally, if you are the one who secured the grant, this could backfire for you trying to secure grants in the future.
This is not common or uncommon, some people purposefully falsify data to support their hypothesis, but it is not always inaccurate. Sometimes researchers choose to only highlight some information and not other so that their hypothesis is supported and this is a more grey area.
BOTTOM LINE: If you know your student is falsifying data, then don't allow them to do so, for their career and for yours.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: If this person is falsifying data now, this person will continue to do so later as a PI. While you're sure to feel bad about it, science as a whole requires you to address the situation. When the public loses faith in science, we all suffer.
There are many ways to address this in a discreet manner (to ensure your intuition is accurate). Why not have this person walk you through the data/analysis step by step from ground zero?
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: You have suspicions, but the evidence, as you sketch it here, is circumstantial. You need hard proof. Then you can (and must) act.
Falsifying data is a capital crime in academia. It wastes time, possibly years of other people's work. Don't let it get through. This person, if they indeed falsified data and would come through with this, will taint anybody and anything they had to do with - you, your group, your department, your university. Their results will be worthless, and so will be the degree you bestow on them.
You would feel sorry for that person if expulsed; but how sorry would you feel for a person who for 2 years will try to reproduce this grad student's results and fail for no fault of their own? How about their life and career? An honest mistake is one thing, but faking data? You are feeling sorry for the wrong person here; you'll spare the guilty and will let the innocent being impaled? A grad student is sufficiently mature to know better than to produce "synthetic" data.
How about the person abetting such a fabrication? Frankly, if caught, depending on the power structure that person may get away with a milder penalty "for not knowing what was going on", but in principle they should get the same, if not a harsher penalty, because they certainly cannot claim they didn't know that this is wrong; and they know the repercussions.
How common is it? Hard to say, but there were a number of large scandals (<NAME> comes to mind), there is probably a halo of minor such attempts. From my own anecdotal stock: I once heard the conspiracy theory that spectroscopists would intentionally introduce "innocent" wrong factors into published formulas that could be interpreted as honest mistakes to prevent competitors from progressing. I didn't believe it, however, once I had to use such a formula from a paper, and to be satisfied I rederived it and some of its "brothers" myself in a tortuous process taking several weeks; lo and behold: I found that one of them had an integer factor wrong. It goes without saying that I have no real reason to assume it was intentional, but the conspiracy theory still lodges in the back of the mind.
Bottom line: if he really fakes data, letting this happen is **not an option**; but the evidence must be carefully and (important for fairness to the accused) confidentially vetted to establish whether this is indeed the case.
Upvotes: 7 <issue_comment>username_4: >
> What do you think could be the maximum punishment for this grad student/researcher?
>
>
>
Whatever the maximum punishment is, that punishment has been decided by the people running the university. If you consider your university to be a reasonably well-functioning institution (and I would hope you feel this way about the place where you have decided to spend several years of your career), you need to remember that the people making such decisions have much, much more experience than you in handling all different kinds of academic misconduct. Thus, the punishment is likely to have been well-calibrated over many years and based on a large amount of cumulative experience. What makes you think that your personal judgment on this question is more wise or likely to be correct than such a body of accumulated knowledge and experience?
By not reporting your suspicions, you would essentially be saying "I know better than everyone else what needs to happen to this student, so I will usurp the institution's right to properly bring the student to account for his actions and just act based on my own gut feeling to save myself from the feeling of guilt over the punishment that the student would receive (even though any such punishment would be 100% the student's fault)." This line of thinking is simply wrong. The punishment is not, and shouldn't be, your decision. You have a duty to report the misconduct, and by not doing so you would be making yourself complicit in all its many potentially harmful consequences, which were described quite well in the other answers.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_5: In terms of immediate authority, I assume you and the student in question both ultimately report to a professor. I expect that professor is one or more of the PI on the supporting grant, the student's thesis advisor, and your supervisor. I really hope you have a strong, trusting relationship with this professor, for a few reasons:
* they will be the first line of investigation and response in dealing with this situation, and likely carry more personal/reputational and institutional responsibility for it than you do
* the student has likely worked with them longer than you have (postdoc there maybe 1-2 years, vs ABD student)
Basically, you don't want to end up in a position where your actions lead the professor to hold this against you. That could lead to withdrawn/non-renewed funding for you, withheld or weakened recommendations for future positions, and so forth. You *really* need the professor on board with the suspicions before any wheels of process start moving.
If there's some administrator responsible for this sort of issue that you know and trust not to jump the gun, you could potentially speak to them first to get your concerns on record before bringing them to the professor, to avoid the risk of the professor trying to sweep them under the rug and/or throw you under the bus.
Edit to add 1:
Ultimately, though, resolving this situation now, while the student is still pre-PhD, is in their best interest. If they aren't doing anything wrong, then they'll learn how to conduct their work in a more traceable, transparent, supportable, and reproducible manner. If they are, there's at least a chance that they can get straight without a permanent black mark on their career. Once they've gotten that degree, any such allegation could lead to it being revoked, grants they've received being suspended or cancelled, etc. This is the last point in their career where they can learn appropriate boundaries and reasonably hope to rehabilitate themselves.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_6: You don't need to kick up a big fuss about it.
----------------------------------------------
While it is definitely the case that **any** case of data fabrication is worthy of the levels of punishment it incurs in academia, it is not very clear that this is actually happening here. And in any case, the repercussions of scientific falsification should be very clear at any level, even for undergraduate students.
Inability to replicate results is extremely common in all scientific fields, and the overarching likelihood is that the analysis or experiments were carried out incorrectly for some reason. In the *vast* majority of cases, that is all there is to the story.
Simply deal with this problem as you would with any other inexplicable scientific result. Walk through the entire protocol, troubleshooting all potential issue spots, and exclude variables as required. In the *extremely* unlikely case that you find that the student was actually falsifying data, you *must* report it, but it seems unlikely to me that it is going to be the case.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_7: Communicate with the student. Let the student know your concerns.
The question seems rigged to determine what penalty may be appropriate, and how to kindly dish out the pain.
However, if we show good faith, then maybe we don't need to be quite as secretive. Say, "This resembles trouble. Here are the concerns." Then, if the student is innocent, the student may be able to explain things, and learn importance of proactively make things more clear so that suspicions don't grow into bigger problems than warranted.
If the student did do something wrong, maybe the student can correct things before they get further out of hand. The situation may be more correctable before more resources (including time) get spent on a road that may be wrong.
In education, the goal is often to help people do better. A common assumption is that people are typically inexperienced, and mistakes may be made. The goal isn't to try to maximize penalty for people who may be struggling with new skills. The goal is to try to get people in a good situation, including experience doing things desirably (including doing things properly, and successfully).
So, to re-cap this quite simply:
* if you're absolutely convinced that something is completely wrong, then go through the formal steps of handling such problems (reporting the issue, and whatever consequences follow through).
* If you're not, then communicate the observations that bring concern.
+ (If this communication results in more trouble being discovered, be ready to shift over to the first bullet point, as needed.)
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_8: I think three statements that you make are just your impressions and as you know that these are your impressions, you are not completly sure that student in question falsifies the data. Otherwise, I think you would not have asked the question here.
The best thing to do in order to be sure 100 % is to replicate all results with this student in your office on your computer. Otherwise, I think your statements are just your own impressions, without any solid evidence.
If you see that data is falsified, then you should report it.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_9: Falsifying data is a big no-no. It's on par with (and possibly worse than) plagiarism. It can ruin careers, and can lead to a whole host of huge problems (we don't need any more <NAME>). So if the student is doing this, you absolutely must report it and cannot feel bad.
That said, from the information you provided, there really isn't strong evidence. If I were on that jury, I would acquit without a second thought.
1) Working from home: Can he connect to a network to access the needed software? Can he run the program in the lab, get the raw data (say in a text file, or spreadsheet) take it home and do post processing/analysis there?
2) Not replicating data: I've written programs and ran simulations that performed beautifully and satisfied all the tests. But when I get to the group meeting, it fails. Why? Because I changed something that "wouldn't affect the results or the existing tests" (Ha!) between the time I originally got it working and the meeting. Or maybe an initial guess was changed. It might only take a few minutes to fix on my own, but in a meeting/high pressure environment I can't fix it right there. To me, that seems like a plausible explanation. (And I'm assuming there's no randomization in the code, I've had Monte Carlo approaches give significantly different results depending on the seed used).
3) Working faster than you expect: I see two possible explanations for this: a) The student is better than you think. b) The student is worse than you think. For (a), perhaps the student is able to crank out code fast, when he hits his stride and has a good mental map of where to go and how things should fit together (this "gunslinger" approach can be effective, but also can let bugs show up that make data replication difficult). Or he has written scripts to run several computations simultaneously or overnight. For (b), perhaps the student "hacks" everything in the code. Hardcodes things that should not be hardcoded, for example. Messes with things that shouldn't be messed with. This can give the illusion of working fast, but results in unmaintainable or inconsistent code, essentially borrowing time from the future.
Obviously, you have access to more information than we do, so perhaps these explanations don't apply. I would suggest talking to the student about the results, though not in an accusing way. Ask him to explain the results, explain what he did, and how he did it. Look through the code that he uses with him, make sure you both understand it. Perhaps there's honest mistakes to be corrected. Maybe there isn't a problem. If he seems to have no idea what he did or can't explain the procedure, then you probably want to bring up your concerns with the PI. But, under no circumstances can you let data falsification continue.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_10: I agree with *username_3*'s answer, but there is something missing that I feel is important, namely:
>
> Ask the RA directly whether he is fabricating any data, and while asking tell him why it is wrong to do so, and also that if he really does it and anyone finds out he can be expelled. At the same time tell him that at this juncture the best thing to do now is to redo all tests properly, meaning that he **records all the random seeds** used so that his data is completely reproducible.
>
>
>
After that it is likely that the problem will be resolved more or less satisfactorily, because it is generally difficult to write a program that looks normal and yet find a special random seed that causes it to have special behaviour. (It is possible but increasingly improbable for larger-scale tests.)
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_11: Tell the student that this doubt exists but in a one-on-one situation
---------------------------------------------------------------------
To clear this doubt, ask him to make his results **fully reproducible**. It is in his own interest to show that he did not falsify anything. Show him that there is "immediate danger" that this gets investigated.
If he did not falsify anything (and your doubts were wrong), then this is a viable route. It requires some effort, but of course it can be done (and should be done, anyway). Then no damage is done, you only force him to work more transparently.
Allow him to redact work, if no harm has been done yet
------------------------------------------------------
This is the only "easy way out" that is in my opinion acceptable. In particular if nothing has been published outside of the university, you can allow him to redact falsified material, in order to replace it with real work. This *may* be punishment enough at this stage: It may set him back half a year towards graduation! But it may also require additional measures, depending on the severity.
He may then learn a key lesson here: while you may get away in highschool and maybe even undergrad, once the work gets more closely reviewed, misbehavior, copypasting and data fabrication is likely to be discovered, and this is not a good way of working. A backlash could come any time, and may ruin his reputation.
In the case that he admits cheating on this project, I would consider also reviewing earlier work, too.
If harm has been done, you want to redact anyway
------------------------------------------------
If anything of this has been published yet, your name or your professors name is likely to appear on it, or at least be associated with it. In this case, you really will want to have this resolved...
At this point, it may be necessary for your own reputation to trigger a formal investigation; partially to clear yourself from any responsibility.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_12: In a nutshell,
1) you must get a decent proof of misconduct, and
2) if/when you get it, you should report it immediately, even if this means the definite end of his career
Falsifying data is a **cardinal sin** for a scientist, and as many others remarked, it may waste years of work for other scientists try to replicate (and possibly improve) the faulty results. I was once caught in a situation where my student was trying to replicate somebody else's results, and it seriously impacted her PhD work, since the original authors' selective reporting (they later found that their solution works only in very limited cases, but did not share that finding until much later).
Now, **before you rush to your superiors**, I would advise you to talk to student about his methodology. Explain him that as (de-facto) project leader you have responsibility to guarantee that all results conform to scientific standards and that after you went through his work, you suspect there might be a problem with his results, as a result of **unintentional** mistakes or inexperience on his part. Start with this - if he made unintentional mistake (or even multiple mistakes), he will probably more than glad to learn from them and work hard to correct them. For a PhD student, this is sufficiently vague and yet serious that, if he is honest, he will work really hard to correct the problems (and redo the experiments). In that case it is your decision whether you trust him enough to have him on the team, and if you don't want, you should simply explain to your superiors that he does not fulfill your criteria, since he makes too many mistakes, and you do not need such people on the project, period.
I understand that this is a very difficult task for you, since you will have to waste your own time to go through his work and make sense of it, and probably you have your hands full with other work.
On the other hand, **it may be pretty easy to spot if he is really dishonest** or trying to hide something, because if he took a shortcut the first time by falsifying the results, I very much doubt he will "waste" his time correcting them - more likely he will try to weasel out or start making excuses, which then really means a red flag, and gives you a really good grounds to either confront him directly (usually it won't be necessary, as he will probably start digging his hole deeper and deeper) or just go and report him to the superiors. Because, if his mistakes were unintentional or result of carelessness but he does not feel he needs to correct them, he still deserves to be reported and sanctioned - refusing to learn from mistakes that others point out and refusing to correct them is almost as bad as falsifying data.
I do advise against going to superiors based only on a hunch, because an accusation of falsifying data may ruin his career even if he is not guilty, and further graduate students may become reluctant to work with you, fearing the same treatment (and some may even interpret your actions in a way that you got rid of competition down the road, which is the last thing you need).
And, since you are his superior, you are guilty if you do nothing, and the problems get discovered in his further career. You must act.
Upvotes: 1
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2016/06/01
| 838
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<issue_start>username_0: Currently I am in my third year in engineering - applied mathemathics. I have been thinking about what I would want to do after I get my master. I have concluded that I have 3 options.
* Work as an engineer.
* Study one year pedagogics, then work as a high school teacher.
* Apply for a PhD.
In my country you can, if you have a master in engineering - applied mathematics, study one year where most of the studies are pedagogics, and then be considered as any other high school teacher (in math). You will have a master in Teaching.
Since I am not sure of what I really want to do, all three options are "exciting". I want to have as many doors opened as possible.
So, for example, I could get my engineering degree, then a teaching degree and after that either work as engineering/teacher or apply for PhD.
Therefore I would like to know if it is an advantage in terms of admission, when applying for a PhD, if I have studied pedagogics for one year (right after I have finished engineering school and right before applying). Or would it be preferable to go direct from engineering to PhD, if that is what I want to do.
My location is **Sweden**. I have not given any thought to which university I would want to do my PhD, but the country would be in Sweden or Germany.<issue_comment>username_1: Practical teaching experience combine with an actual knowledge of teaching methods and learning theories is a priceless asset for anybody who is planning to study for a PhD. This is because earning a doctorate often leads to teaching in some form or another. In addition, studying teaching will provide you with insights into how you learn and think and should help you to improve in your own skills as a student.
There are many brilliant scholars who have not truly studied the art of communicating complex ideas in a simple way that actively involves the students. Instead, they wonder why their students "don't get" when there may have been issues with the instructional design and assessment. Having any exposure to concepts found in education at all will benefit you in an academic career. I have personally seen friends giving teaching opportunities during their doctoral studies because they had prior teaching experience at the high school level.
If children can understand you and are engaged with the learning experience, you should not have major issues with adults understanding you and being engaged when you are teaching grad courses at a later stage in your career.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: While I have little familiarity with Sweden or Germany, for most technical fields I would see taking a year off to study pedagogy and teach high school would generally provide no advantages and perhaps even be a slight disadvantage for PhD admissions. I see how it could be an advantage if you want to pursue a PhD in education for example as it gives you relevant practical experience and perspective, but not for most subjects as **the primary goal of a PhD program is to train you to be a researcher.**
As such, for a PhD, you want to demonstrate passion and dedication to research. Pursuing another career path first may make some professors question this, and indeed from your question it sounds like you are not totally committed to the research track. Of course, applying for a PhD program right after a master's doesn't guarantee commitment either and many great researchers got their PhD's after doing other things first. Pursuing teaching next may be the right thing for you if it helps you figure out what you want to do, but I would not recommend it as a way to help you become a PhD student.
Upvotes: 2
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2016/06/02
| 748
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<issue_start>username_0: I've recently been awarded a graduate school dissertation fellowship which (unlike many other fellowships) is awarded directly to me personally rather than to my institution. Normally, when fellowships are awarded through my institution, the amount of the fellowship is deducted from the stipend that my lab pays me. For example, when I received an [NRSA (National Research Service Award) Fellowship](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Research_Service_Award), my actual take-home pay didn't change -- the NRSA money was used to cover my tuition, and to pay my stipend, instead of my lab paying it.
In this case, since the fellowship is being awarded directly to me, I have the option of asking my PI whether I can keep some or all of it -- in effect, giving myself a raise. The fellowship is $20,000 annually, and I was considering asking for $10,000 of it, and allowing the other $10,000 to be applied against my tuition. Does that sound reasonable to you? I haven't heard of other people doing it, so I'm not really sure what the rules around this are. I also don't want to annoy my boss.
I'm a graduate student in biology.<issue_comment>username_1: If money is awarded to you personally as a gift, you may do what ever you want with all of it. You should consult with the awarding agency to determine if the award is a gift or if it comes with contractual obligations.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: This relates to two things:
**Conditions on the fellowship about how you must use it.**
In this case, since the money is given to you with a wide latitude of allowable uses, there probably isn't any restriction here from you just keeping the money. But you should check.
**Conditions on your existing funding from the university.**
Since the university is already paying you a stipend, there are probably conditions attached to that. These conditions may prevent you from receiving another funding source, or may mean that your university stipend is reduced by an equivalent amount based on this fellowship.
Here is one example which I found with a quick Google search, [the rules for students on fellowships with Ohio State University](http://www.gradsch.ohio-state.edu/fellowship-award-conditions.html):
>
> Fellows are expected to devote full-time attention to their academic
> studies. Therefore, fellows may not hold other types of
> employment/appointments/awards, such as graduate associateships,
> fellowships, and/or traineeships. Any requests for an exception to the
> conditions of the fellowship must be submitted, in writing, by the
> graduate studies chair (GSC) in the fellow’s graduate program...
>
>
>
You need to check with your institution about this. I suspect that the award will result in a reduction of your university-paid stipend, unfortunately. But it depends on your institution and the type of funding.
Upvotes: 2
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2016/06/02
| 1,559
| 6,926
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<issue_start>username_0: In my subfield of computer science I observe that workshop papers often are not thoroughly reviewed. It even appears (attention, possibly controversial assumption incoming) that workshop-paper acceptances are used to increase the number of participants at the conference, because authors of accepted workshop papers are required to register for the conference. Moreover, workshop organizers are often desparate to get enough submissions in order not to be forced to cancel the workshop. Hence, they are happy to accept submissions even if they do not completely fulfil certain quality standards.
Speaking about the quality of the papers, they often do not contain rigorous evaluations, hence, the presented results possibly are not really reliable (please note, that, of course, there are many terrific workshop papers out there!). I have a feeling that these papers would not get accepted at a (good) conference due to lack of maturity etc. I am aware that (especially in computer science) the publication path is often like this: early/initial work in progress is submitted to a workshop → if the work gets more mature it is sent to conferences → after some more work it is probably sent to a journal.
My question is: **Given the above circumstances, should workshop papers be cited?**
Since the quality (hence, the results) of such papers is often lacking, I ask myself whether it's a good idea to make a reference to it. One further thought is that references are often used to show that something has already been done or addressed. Therefore, the reference is used to argue that the *problem* addressed by the workshop paper should not be addressed anymore which is probably a wrong assumption if we assume that the work done in the workshop paper is sub-par.<issue_comment>username_1: **Don't cite bad quality work as evidence. Judge the quality yourself.** Only cite things if you think they are of a sufficient quality to demonstrate the claim you want to reference. Don't rely on peer review (whether in a journal or conference). Lots of poor quality work gets into journals, too.
**Work in progress and early results do not equal bad quality.** Something that is still in progress, or hasn't been rigorously demonstrated yet, may still be worth reporting. This doesn't make a bad quality paper, as long as the paper is honest about the interpretation of what is presented. Falsely claiming that early results are definitive is bad, but "Our early results seem to show this, but we aren't sure yet" can be a perfectly good paper. There is nothing wrong with citing such results, as long as you similarly are honest about what (and how much) they show.
In short, **There is no reason for a blanket refusal to cite conference papers.** Such a practice might make you miss important evidence. **Do consider the source and the quality of the work, and try to cite the strongest source(s) when possible.** This will often (but not always) mean preferring a journal article.
*I'm assuming you are thinking of cases where you are searching for evidence in a particular area and can choose what to cite. Of course you also have an obligation to cite anything your work relies on or uses, regardless of the source.*
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: dan1111's answer is good advice, and I thought I'd add a complementary perspective.
First, as a CS researcher, at least in systems or architecture, conferences are basically the top of the food chain. Journals are rarely more novel than the conference version. Usually a journal version has a specific reason: too much data to fit in the conference version and it's actually interesting, proofs/implementation that don't fit but are interesting, or (you'll like this one) a small piece of work that gets tacked on *instead* of being submitted to a workshop. I think your perspective on workshops is basically correct, except that---speaking as a previous workshop organizer---I don't care how many people attend the main conference at all. Organizers, at least in my experience, are usually just researchers who are trying to promote more discussion and interest on a specific topic they care about (and yes, we sometimes scramble for submissions so we don't have to cancel, but usually because we just want people interested and talking). But I'd like to add that there's also a number of decent workshop papers that exist because they're just not quite big enough to be competitive in a tier-1 conference. So instead of writing a rather dull, stretched 12-page paper, you write a neat, self-contained 6-page paper. Some of these can go on to get a decent number of citations, and deservedly so. So workshops can be more than preliminary work. You're probably well aware of this, but I thought I'd point it out.
Second, I think there's a somewhat more productive way of looking at related work: they're not your *competition*, they're your *context*. Let's say you've written X. It's great. It has novel contributions A, B, and C. Two years ago, someone published Y in a workshop. It's written kind of poorly, and it proposes a weaker version of A and B, but not C. Do you cite it? I think there are two strong reasons in favor: (1) they thought it was a good idea, too, so leverage them as motivation. Their paper exists as evidence that someone else thought the idea was interesting, too. If you've solved the problem in a better or more clever way, that is a great contribution which is not diminished by other people working on it, just like your work won't be diminished if someone builds a Z that extends your ideas later. (2) I feel it's far more common to get a negative review because you *didn't* cite a paper ("the authors fail to cite author et al., 2004. This is clearly the same idea") than becuase you did ("they mentioned author et al., but is this really different?"). If anything, citing a paper is a chance for *you* to choose the terms on which the paper will be discussed. I.E.- if you don't cite it, then a reader might think that your paper is different is some small way over in one area, but overlook bigger differences in another. If you do cite it, you can highlight exactly the differences you want. You can drive the discussion.
So I wouldn't worry about people thinking less of your work because you cite a weak paper. Obviously, don't spam citations into your paper, but take the opportunity to discuss, on your terms, why your work is so awesome.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: Be open to cite any paper or source you consider to have had constructive value to your work. Sometimes reviewers aren't as good as the impact factor or acceptance rate might imply. (Acceptance rates are an artificial metric anyways, considering those conferences that extend the deadline until they have the critical amount of papers to pose with a low acceptance rate - only a side note).
Upvotes: 2
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2016/06/02
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<issue_start>username_0: * Institution in a **non-English**-speaking country.
* I do not speak the native language of that country.
* I studied entirely in English language and all of my educational documents are originally issued/generated in English, therefore there is no possibility of receiving the document of interest in a language other than English (**<NAME>'s answer is thus absolutely irrelevant [[this answer]](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/69659/36315)**).
### Types of errors in the transcript of records
* Grammatical
* Incorrect course titles
* Initial letters of some of the course names are capitalized, some are not
* **Margins, line spacing**, and the overall format/style of the document (pure chaos, ...)
* Incorrect usage of `the` in course titles (e.g. `Introduction to the Mathematics`)
I have been dealing this issue for more than a year. My BA degree's transcript of records is full of mistakes, not one or two, but dozens of them.
Last year, when I received the transcript for the first six completed semesters, there were so many errors in the document that I simply could not believe some other student might not have noticed it throughout the years. Thus, I went to discuss this with the person issuing the transcript. I delineated all of the mistakes one by one. However, they were absolutely reluctant to modify any part of the transcript at first, and they even went on to tell me that `I am wrong`. I then decided to provide examples of transcripts issued in the US and use online resources and dictionaries to prove my point, which all in turn made the said person annoyed and yet more reluctant! More surprisingly for me was their reaction when I explained the margins/line-spacing/style/format issues, their simple reply was whether I have ever been diagnosed with OCD.
Nonetheless, I was able to fix quite many of the mistakes. Now, a year later, I have received my final bachelor's degree with the complete transcript of records encompassing eight semesters. And, there are still a lot of mistakes: grammatical, spelling, and incorrect course names. **The format of the document looks terribly unprofessional, with different margin sizes on different pages, inconsistent line spacing, and unnecessary white spaces/blank areas**. It looks like a cheap document issued by a '*nobody*'. If it was not for the huge seal of the university and the Ministry of Education on each page, anyone would have considered this document to be fake.
The person in charge is so selfish they do not want to admit that their English is insufficient. Their lexicon is extremely limited. Once they were so enraged when I mentioned a simple mistake that they actually had to call the `English Language Center` of my university. However, the center affirmed that indeed the version I have provided is correct and the one written on the transcript is wrong. However, even after that incident the person in charge of issuing the transcript were still reluctant to follow many of my corrections.
How should I deal with the incompetence and reluctance of this person?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Should I create the document neatly myself in LaTeX/Word, clearly highlighting all the changes I have made, and then ask him to consider issuing the document that way?<issue_comment>username_1: I would recommend going to his immediate supervisor. Whether that is the head of student affairs, the department chair or the dean, whoever signs his paycheck should be able to do something about this. In the end, it is the universities reputation and by association theirs. If this is unacceptable to a student who got a degree from there, it should be unacceptable to the people running it.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: I suggest requesting a copy of the transcript in whatever language the issuer writes best.
For some purposes, such as graduate admission to a foreign university, you may need to pay for a certified translation by a professional translator.
Upvotes: 7 <issue_comment>username_3: It sounds like you're in a non-English speaking country, and I assume that the reason you need an English-language transcript is for use in job or college applications to an English-speaking country. In that case, one reasonable option would be to do nothing and simply use the current transcript. My reasoning is that in an English-speaking country, seeing an official document with grammatical errors coming from a non-English speaking country (especially if it's a country whose people are well-known to not speak very good English) is not likely to surprise or trouble anyone. I personally read many documents written by people from such countries and don't recall ever thinking that the writer of the letter is incompetent or unprofessional *because of grammatical errors* (though I might think this because of the content of what they write, even when they express themselves in flawless English ;-)...) And, of course, you are not even the author of the transcript! So, if I were you, the only errors I would seriously worry about are either factual errors or grammatical errors that are so bad that they create a risk that some facts will be misunderstood (or not understood) by the reader of your transcript.
With that said, if you are still concerned about the errors posing a danger to you, some additional options I can think of are:
* Getting a transcript in the language of your country and having a certified translation made (great suggestion by username_2!).
* Creating a correct English transcript yourself in Word/LaTeX as you were suggesting and attaching it (together with the original transcript) to your applications with a note saying that you have corrected the grammatical errors in your original transcript and include it for the reader's convenience. I would only recommend this if your unofficial corrected transcript doesn't seem to suspiciously "correct" (in a way that may appear dishonest) certain facts that are ambiguous in the original ungrammatical version.
* Attaching a note to any application you submit that includes your ungrammatical transcript, in which you apologize for the grammatical errors in the transcript and explain that you made a good-faith effort to get the errors corrected and was unsuccessful due to an incompetent service provider at your university. Possibly include a list of clarifications to correct ambiguities or small misstatements arising out of the grammatical errors in the transcript.
* Finally, there's always the option of continuing to pursue the quixotic quest to get an error-free English transcript from the unprofessional clerk by complaining to their supervisor or to a more senior administrator. It sounds like you've wasted enough time and effort doing that, so I wouldn't recommend it (in particular since I've suggested several other courses of action that seem adequate to address the problem), but only you can decide how important this is to you.
Good luck!
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_4: Print it out, take it to your school administration office and show them what needs to be fixed. I've used this myself as I was in a similar situation. As long as you do no alter the grades/gpa, there should be no issues for them to stamp their insignia on a fixed transcript due to typo errors.
**I edited this from my previous statement since Ben was right, my original method can be seen as a bit unethical**
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_5: Honestly, you need to pick battles that are worth fighting. Inconsistent capitalization of course titles, poor margins and poor line-spacing are not at all significant. Concentrate your energy where it might actually benefit you, such as errors in course names.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_6: Depending on the country, you may be able to take it to court. With your tuition you paid for a certificate, and an English grad course obviously needs an English certificate, not a Pidgin English one. But I wouldn't recommend that approach, it takes time and outcome is unknown.
To get the bureaucrats working, you can take it to the local media. Media usually likes stories such as "administration is incompetent". Some tabloids even have a whole section that assists their readers against the monsters of bureaucracy (and of course reports on these fights). Furthermore, silly season is approaching, I guess they take any story they get.
Then there may be school media. My university has an own student radio broadcast and a student newspaper, and both would be interested in such stories. But then, my English certificate seems to be flawless.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_7: My university (non-English speaking country) doesn't issue any document in English. The option is simply not available, and universities in non-English speaking countries do NOT have a duty to issue documents in English.
You can have the original document in its original language translated by a professional translator. In my case, the Embassy of the country where I was applying to recommended a registered translator to me. In the end, I submitted a copy of the original document with its official translation. This kind of translator provides you translated documents with a stamp and a tracking number.
It may cost a little, but especially it would avoid you the hassle of having to deal with administration completely. Just ask them for the transcript in their native language. Accompanied by an official-looking translation, it will look more professional than the kind of document you have got, and this kind of arrangement is widely accepted.
Educated people are aware that English is not the main language at all universities in the world.
Upvotes: 2
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2016/06/02
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<issue_start>username_0: I am not talking about whether I can submit a paper on subject A to a journal on subject B.
My question is:
How do I know *how good* my paper is? I could of course just send it to the best journal in the field, and see what they say, but I also don't want to embarrass myself and waste their time. If, however, it is very good and would be accepted by such a journal, it would be unwise to publish this in a lower ranked journal I would think.<issue_comment>username_1: There is no clear cut answer to this question; however, my suggestion would be that if you *don't know* how good your paper is then it is not good enough for the best journals in the field.
As an author I have always known what weaknesses my paper may have but it is not always possible to address such weaknesses in a timely manner. For the most selective journals in your field you should try to submit a bullet-proof paper. One that, at least in your own opinion, is not failing to address any possible issues.
Another point to consider is that top journals often expect more novelty than other journals and it is possible that they will not be interested in publishing work that is not significantly novel.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: As a couple of others have noted, generally speaking you will get a feel for this as you read the literature in your field. However, your target journal may have published criteria for publication. For example, PLoS Pathogens [states](http://journals.plos.org/plospathogens/s/reviewer-guidelines):
>
> To be considered for publication in PLOS Pathogens, any given
> manuscript must satisfy the following criteria:
>
>
> * Originality
> * High importance to researchers in the field
> * High importance and broad interest to the community of researchers studying pathogens and pathogen-host interactions
> * Rigorous methodology
> * Substantial evidence for its conclusions
>
>
>
For most journals now, the reviewer is asked to score your paper against areas like this as well as provide general comments.
For comparison *PLoS ONE* [states simply](http://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/criteria-for-publication):
>
> 1. The study presents the results of primary scientific research.
> 2. Results reported have not been published elsewhere.
> 3. Experiments, statistics, and other analyses are performed to a high technical standard and are described in sufficient detail.
> 4. Conclusions are presented in an appropriate fashion and are supported by the data.
> 5. The article is presented in an intelligible fashion and is written in standard English.
> 6. The research meets all applicable standards for the ethics of experimentation and research integrity.
> 7. The article adheres to appropriate reporting guidelines and community standards for data availability.
>
>
>
Basically, as long as it isn't fundamentally flawed it stands a good chance with PLoS ONE.
The biggest differences between journals are typically how important your findings are, and to how many people. From personal experience the 'broad interest' criterion (where you are asked as a reviewer to comment on it) is the one I most often find myself scoring papers badly on; most people don't think about this enough.
Without wishing to sound negative: as the others have said, if you genuinely can't tell whether your own paper is 'good' then it probably isn't going to set the world on fire. Then again, nothing ventured, nothing gained; you won't generally get 'blacklisted' for submitting a low-quality manuscript to a journal, and it doesn't cost anything. So if you're being modest but are secretly quite proud of it, you might as well give it a chance with a high-impact journal first. You can always resubmit somewhere else if it gets rejected.
One final word of advice, since it sounds like you're fairly new to this: don't get upset, embarrassed or disheartened if your submission is rejected or torn to shreds by a reviewer. Rejection is common (especially if you're ambitious about the journals you submit to), harsh and apparently unfair reviewer comments even more so, and the editor will normally take the reviewers' side unless they're clearly in the wrong. (And if you stick with academia, you'll find this last bit this goes double for grant applications!)
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: Two things to know:
1. The top journals have very fast turn-around times. Instead of submitting your paper and waiting 6 months for a reply, you can submit it and find out in a few days that it has been rejected, and send it somewhere else.
2. Rejection rates are almost completely uncorrelated with journal impact factors: <https://blog.frontiersin.org/2015/12/21/4782/>
These two points combined suggest that the best strategy is always to go ahead and submit your papers to high-impact journals first.
This isn't advice that I have followed in my own career, but I saw it recently work for a young colleague who led a paper on which I am a co-author. He sent it to Nature, had it rejected in a few days, sent it to Science, had it rejected in a few days, sent it to Nature Geophysics, had it bounced back after a very quick review, and sent it to Nature Communications, where it was accaepted. All in all, it was published faster than any of my last few papers, all sent to mid-ranked journals. It was published in a journal that has (relative to the lead specialist journals in our field) a very high impact factor. It has had media releases put out about it as a result, and attracted some attention. And yet I would rate the quality of the content as no better or worse than any of my other last few papers.
Upvotes: 2
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2016/06/02
| 1,578
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<issue_start>username_0: Usually during our meetings my advisor will complain a lot and tell me I am doing stuff wrong. How can I tell if he thinks I am a bad student or if he is just trying to give me direct feedback?
Keeping this general so this question becomes a reusable resource.<issue_comment>username_1: He's probably giving direct feedback. If your adviser really hated you, he wouldn't spend the time in improving you.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: If your supervisor is old and established, chances are they are just being short and to the point. It isn't about what they think about *you*, its more about what they think about the thing you just handed them.
If your supervisor is younger though, then all bets are off. It could mean anything. My supervisor went to one these "How to be a good manager that gets the most out their workers" type 3-day courses, which he and other PIs at my place of work were encouraged to go to. They hold them every year, but last year the notes of the in-house management course was "leaked" (well, left in a bin..) and it suggested PIs try using tactics like "tough love" on at least 1 student in the coming year so you can see if its a good management style for you/your lab, plus its an important skill for a manager to know how to do, and it sends a clear message that you're the boss, etc. There are numerous books on how to manage a lab -- I encourage anyone who feels like they have a strained and unnatural relationship with their boss to read one.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: There is a third explanation: your advisor does not know how (or lacks the motivation) to give feedback that is not complaining.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: *Know his style.* There are advisors who think that it is better to be direct and tough with their students. At the end, they are preparing you to the real-life after PhD and don't want you to waste your time (and theirs) with something they see as incorrect. There are other advisors who are very polite. "You are wrong" is their last resort. This also depends to the student's culture and how he/she perceive such criticism.
When I first visited my advisor's webpage, I thought he is rude. At least this is what *others* have told me about him: *tough and rude. Very hard to work with*. Now, After 5 years with him, he is just a serious guy. Loves research and wishes students to be serious like him.
On the other hand, some advisors care about every detail you give to them while others are very hands-off. Knowing your advisor's style would help you very much.
So how can you tell? Act as a professional. If *your* personality is involved within the criticism then he might have some prejudice against you. IF it's all about the work, then most likely he is just a serious guy that wants you to proceed fast. The best thing to do is to stick with one of his criticism, fix it, do your best in addressing it. And check with him again. Then compare what he's saying now with before.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_5: **Get a second opinion**
Try to get some feedback on your work from someone other than your main supervisor. Maybe you have a secondary supervisor you can talk to, or you could offer to give a talk at an internal research meeting. If people bring up similar points (perhaps in a politer way!) then this points towards your supervisor being harsh but fair.
**Is the criticism constructive?**
Is your supervisor bringing up points that are useful, and possible for you to act upon, or just putting your work down without any indication of how to improve it? If it's the latter, try pushing your supervisor for constructive points. Something along the lines of: "OK, that's a good point, can you suggest a way that I can get around the problem?" If they avoid the question, then that's not a good sign.
*The previous two points won't distinguish between a poor supervisor who is not good at giving feedback and a supervisor who has something personal against you. So, you also need to find out:*
**Are they the same with everyone?**
If your supervisor has other students, chat to them. Have they had the same experience as you? If so, then it's probably nothing personal and is just your supervisor's style.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_6: I would question why the advisor's intention is even relevant. Many times in my own life I have been presented with antagonistic attitudes / individuals. The question that I always asked myself was:
"Is this helping me?"
If the critiques were aiding my quest to better myself, if they were helping me to be better at the task at hand, then I allowed for the harsh criticism that I was receiving. Sometimes in my life I have found that kind of criticism to be highly motivating. At other times, it has been detrimental to my mental health. This judgment call has to made irrespective of the intent of the criticizer. An overzealous coach can be just as emotionally draining as a belittling advisor.
The key determining factor is how *you*, the target of the criticism, feel about the message being received. Does it inspire you to do better? Does it make you want to curl up and cry? This feeling may even vary day by day based on your own emotional state.
In summary, I would offer that the important question is not the intention of the advisor, but how you receive the criticism. What better way to handle an advisor wishing to do you harm than to transmute that negativity and better yourself with it.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_7: I would say you should just ask him.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_8: I'd ask.
"What do you think about me as a student?"
Aside from being a mind reader, this is your most direct route to the truth. The "as a student" part is optional really. It could open the floor for a more communicative relationship. You might find out some good things. You might find out some bad things. But in the end, you'll learn *something*. If your advisor's replies are equivocal, ask a more specific question. The mere asking of a personal question like this could soften your advisor up a bit, at least momentarily, or have them reflect on your working relationship.
You could pursue second-hand information, either about yourself or about the instructor's previous relations with students, but anything you hear is likely biased. Anything negative you hear this way could merely stem from your instructor's natural venting process and may needed to be digested with a grain of salt.
Upvotes: 2
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2016/06/02
| 1,639
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<issue_start>username_0: What is the general viewpoint held in academia regarding patents, as opposed to published papers? Are patents regarded as similar in credibility to papers?
As a software engineer returning to graduate study after a long professional career, I have collaborated with colleagues on a number of patents. But I do not have any published papers. Since I want to resume my academic pursuit, how important is publishing?<issue_comment>username_1: Patents and papers are not adversary in general. One can patent and then publish. And kill two birds with one stone. Both get public after independent examination. Each settles some ground, and both can be cited. Working on a useful patent is generally harder than on a useless paper. Both papers and patents can serve very different purposes.
I have been working in industrial research for 15 years. I have about the same number of patents and papers (altogether is compared to academia).
I have observed a shift in academia. It used to consider patents were useles. It now regards patents with a gentler look. The (bibliometric) value of a single patent can be estimated, on average, between half or twice the value of a single journal paper.
Whether your patent has generated money, been cited in other patents or papers, or proved a collaboration, those are figures you can claim as an innovative value.
Having no paper at all might be an issue though. It suggests that you have not passed peer review. For some, 7 patent + 1 paper is better than 8 patents.
If you can convert part of your patents into papers, at least once, that could be a plus.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Ok, I can answer this because I went through this personally in the same field.
So my thoughts on patents vs. publications and future academic career in computer science:
**Academic Currency**: If you look at the university you want to attend, and then check the difference between a head of research group vs. a senior lecturer in the same research group, you will see, the publications play an important rule. People argue with me sometimes on this, but the buttom line is, you need to have a stack of publications to become a profesor.
**Think About it the other way**: Now in terms of intelectial properties, not all the universities have the staff to pay, so that they can draft the IP, and chase if for X amount of months to see the results. However, the publications keep the name of the university in conversations, as each author need to writes his/her affiliates; and it does not cost the university, because the academics/academics' students, who won their grants, will attend the conferences.
**Get Ready To Be suprised!**: From the quality of the papers to quality of softwre the academics produce, your mind will probably force you to go back to industry once in a while; because you will see lecturers who kissed programming languages goodbaye BUT they keep publishing papers and get promoted, because the game is not writting a solid backbone application for your database cluster, it is about producing research through publications.
**What About Patents then?** Well, there are academics I know personally, who mastered the patents' workflow by hiring other people, and they do produce a number of patents, once in a while. However, all of them are outside computer science field. It might help you to convince a good professor to take you for his/her research project, because you understand the logistics of uniquness and freshness of an idea. Also, it is also impressive to have it on your university profile, however at the moment at least, publications are still the main check point for each individual academic.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: They are totally different, and thus there is no way to compare them.
It is no different to saying you won an award for some outstanding work, or showing how you turned a poorly-functioning company into a profitable one. There is certainly value - and to the right buyer perhaps even tremendous value - but it will not count for any sort of credit in lieu of a publication. If anything, a patent is the antithesis of a publication. In one you are trying to be as general and all-encompassing as possible in order to maximize your patent's coverage and/or protect yourself from other patents; where as a paper is supposed to be a very specific and target thing so as to not encroach on other people's niche.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: >
> What is the general viewpoint held in academia regarding patents, as opposed to published papers? Are patents regarded as similar in credibility to papers?
>
>
>
I think the answer depends on which academic career phase you're talking about. Being a named inventor on several patents in my opinion says very good things about you, so it would be fantastic for a grad school application and is likely to significantly boost your chances of getting into a good graduate program (if you haven't already passed that stage) in a way that I think is probably comparable to having published several papers. It can also help you later at the postdoc phase and possibly even with tenure-track applications. However, for those later stages (and beyond - tenure and promotion to associate and full professor) the main metric by which your productivity will be measured will be publications. Even then, in disciplines like engineering with an applied emphasis, the patents (especially if you continue to produce them) may give you a certain "street cred" that can help you stand out relative to other more "boring" academics who only publish theoretical work, but again they'll only be useful as an extra thing that you do in addition to publishing traditional academic papers. Papers will remain the primary output you will be judged by, and you will not have the option to not publish if you want to stay in the academic game.
Another thing to consider is what your patents are about. Almost anyone with enough persistence and money to hire a lawyer can become the author of worthless vanity patents. In order for your patents to be helpful to your academic career they have to be related to your research area, or at least clearly seen to be about serious things related to some advanced concepts in engineering or technology (as opposed to, say, a patent for a new device to scoop dog poop or similar kinds of "innovations" that hobbyist garage inventors often come up with).
I'll finish with a small disclaimer: since you mentioned you are a software engineer I geared my answer towards areas like computer science and engineering. I'm a mathematician myself so I can't be completely confident that the way people in a CS or engineering department view patents is how I imagine they do. However, I do have one patent to my name and am sufficiently familiar with applied areas of academia to have a good level of confidence that at least a reasonable number of academics, particularly in applied areas, will have the attitude towards patents that I described in the answer.
Upvotes: 2
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2016/06/02
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<issue_start>username_0: I'm a UK post-doc working in Computer Science -- specifically, Computer Vision and Robotics. For the next stage in my career, I'm aiming to apply for some very competitive post-doctoral research fellowships. Reading through the application guidelines, they list the metrics which are used to judge each candidate's ability.
Now, two of these metrics are related to publications. The first of these, is called "*Number of peer-reviewed papers (not including conference papers)*". The second of these is called "*Number of papers presented at conferences*". My understanding of the reason for this, is that in most academic fields, conferences papers are often not peer-reviewed, sometimes exist only as an abstract in written form, and are generally considered to be inferior to journal papers.
However, in my field of Computer Vision and Robotics, conference papers are in fact the dominant medium for publication. Typically, a conference publication consists of an 8-page paper, which is thoroughly peer reviewed by a number of reviewers, together with a rebuttal stage. The acceptance rates for these papers range from around 20% to around 40%. My peers and I always publish our work as a conference paper first, and then sometimes combine a couple of conferences papers into a journal paper. However, these journal papers are almost always just an extension of a conference paper, and usually act as an archive rather than the release of your latest research.
Therefore, in my field, conference papers are far more common than journal papers, and often have lower acceptance rates than journals. For example, I only have one journal paper, but I have eight first-authored conference papers, and this would be considered a good CV.
So, my question is, how should I fill out the application form for this fellowship? If I abide by the strict wording, then it will appear as if I only have one "serious" publication. However, if I put all my publications in the first section (number of peer-reviewed papers), then this will technically be incorrect, because most of them are conference papers. The fellowship I am applying for covers all areas of engineering, and I do not want my application to appear weaker than it actually is.
Thanks!<issue_comment>username_1: I think, based on my experiences, the most important thing here is to 'don't put all your eggs in one basket', and do not focus only on a very cempetetive fellowhsip:
**Have Plan B**: Competitive fellowships are hard to get, but also it is very easy to be missed, due to the high valume of submissions, and not to be the chosen one. There are sometimes 1000 submissions, not all will be read by the same person. I see a student with 20 publications who didn't get the fellowship but another one with 5 publications who did. You are somewhat in a good position with 8 publications, just simply write that you have 9 publications. If the right person sees it, you probably will get it. So the advice here is to also look for other positions while applying for this as well.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: ObViously, you should follow the rules: put your journal publications under the "Number of peer-reviewed papers (not including conference papers)" section, and the conference papers under the conference section paper, but add a line stating something like **\*Please notice that in my field (computer science) conference proceedings publications have the same value of the journal publications.**
Then, from tomorro, stop publishing in conference proceedings, and **start to publish ONLY in journals**.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_3: **Discuss this with the contact person for the fellowship.**
Pretty much every job posting and funding call has a contact person listed, who you can call or email to actually discuss what they are looking for. This is an underutilised resource.
If you talk to this person you can find out the best way to fill out the form, and it is also a great way to alert them to this issue, put you on the map as a candidate, and find out anything else about what they are looking for in this fellowship.
Upvotes: 2
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2016/06/03
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<issue_start>username_0: Assume the tenure track faculty members has produced worthwhile and well published research, has shown potential to attract outside funding and has above average reviews for classroom instruction.
Is the mere fact that this person treats other faculty members (not students) with varying levels of hostility, is generally uncooperative and largely disliked by department faculty enough to deny tenure?
The positives are pretty strong and I would normally assume they would be sufficient but I am concerned that other department faculty could strongly disagree and some may even choose to seek employment elsewhere if he is granted tenure.<issue_comment>username_1: In practice, "collegiality" is often a consideration in tenure decisions, whether or not it is a factor identified in the university policy on tenure and promotion.
The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) has come out with a statement against the use of collegiality as a an explicit factor in tenure decisions:
<http://www.aaup.org/report/collegiality-criterion-faculty-evaluation/>
However, this report also makes it clear that a faculty member who is hostile to the other faculty in his/her department would typically not be doing an adequate job in service and teaching, because working with colleagues in these areas is a necessary part of the job.
Thus "We're not granting tenure to John because no one likes him" wouldn't be a good reason, while "We're not granting tenure to John because he doesn't work productively in departmental committees" would be a reason to deny tenure.
As a practical matter, if the tenured faculty in the department don't like you and don't want you to get tenure, they'll probably find an excuse to deny you tenure. Any tenure track faculty member would be well advised to get along with the other faculty in the department.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: The question addresses a range of conflicts, which vary enormously in relevance (in my opinion).
Certainly simply disliking someone "for no particular reason" is not a reason to deny tenure. But what about "disliking" the misogynists who don't want women in math departments (well, supposedly because they "can't do math"...)?
What about "disliking" people with racist biases about who can or cannot do math? (I've heard claims that U.S. kids are much lazier and less capable than kids from outside the U.S., for example?!?!) Meanwhile, as already commented, it still does happen that people from traditionally under-represented groups are judged to "not fit in". That's certainly inappropriate, I would say, though I have recently been shocked to hear some people defend the traditional biases as being allegedly reason-based.
And immediate personal abrasiveness, rudeness, incivility are not things easy to overlook, if one has to function on a committee with such people, count on their cooperation, and trust in their reliable, honorable behavior.
But, yes, the question of what qualifies as this-or-that behavior or bias is in the end subjective, perhaps, and it's certainly hard to codify these things.
Upvotes: 2
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2016/06/03
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<issue_start>username_0: I had to take a standard ethics seminar at my research lab (everyone in my lab must take the seminar). As one would expect, I learned that the charges associated with falsifying data are serious.
Whether you falsify data or make a stupid mistake, the end result is that the published work is wrong. But the charges of falsifying data are much more serious than the charges associated with human error.
My motivation for making this post is as follows. Researchers must be allowed some leniency on accuracy, otherwise one would not progress at a reasonable pace. Nobody is right 100% of the time. Some of the best papers and discoveries have inaccuracies (some are in fact 100% wrong). However, if your data is innacurate, and the allegation is that you falsified the data, your career takes a major hit.
Question
What are the specific differences between falsifying results and making a human error? How does one decipher between erroneous results (due to human error, or negligence, or incompetence, or an early career mistake, etc) and falsified/fabricated results? How does one prove results are falsified? Conversely, how would a researcher prove his/her innocence?<issue_comment>username_1: The clear difference is **intent**.
Human error occurs when people make mistakes accidentally. For instance, in my first paper, I submitted a graph that was physically implausible because of an error in a code I had written, without realizing it at the time.
However, if I *knew* the work was wrong or, worse still, if I **intentionally** made up results, we would cross the boundary from human error to fraud.
Unfortunately, it can be very difficult to detect intentional fraud without some assistance from the perpetrators themselves. A major example of this was the [<NAME> scandal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sch%C3%B6n_scandal) of the early 2000's. Schön's fraud was discovered because he was reusing the same figures to different ends in papers in various journals.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: You should document what you have done while you are doing it, e.g. in a research log. You should make that documentation available at the same moment that you publish your results. If a wrong result happens, then it will usually be possible to track down in the documentation where the mistake happened. That will make it more plausible that it is an honest mistake.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: As @username_1 says, the difference between falsifying data and just being wrong is intent.
As for how one can judge this, often you simply can't, and your own question provides a rather nice example. <NAME> in a comment mentioned that he suspected your question was posted out of a desire to learn how to game the system so that you can apply what you learned to actually game the system. On the other hand, it seems totally possible that the question is legitimate and motivated by a genuine desire to understand how science works and how fraud in academia is detected and handled. So you see, we cannot judge and cannot accuse you of having bad intent with a high level of confidence, but can only raise suspicions.
Similarly, when wrong results in science can be plausibly attributed to error, that is usually the interpretation that will be assumed. People usually don't go around accusing others of fraudulent intent to falsify data unless they have some pretty convincing and damning evidence. Smoking guns are rare, which is why you don't hear about such cases very often. On the other hand, we do occasionally have such cases, since people who falsify data are usually not very smart or sophisticated to begin with, so often they will be sloppy and careless and go about their data falsification in some very obvious and easy-to-detect manner, and then they are discovered.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: Goldfinger's law:
* Once is happenstance
* Twice is bad luck
* Thrice is enemy action
Intention is something that can be proven over a lingerer period; an isolated mistake in a development is usually not interpreted as intentional. Nevertheless, even isolated honest mistakes can cost you your reputation, especially in high-stakes research results. Fleischmann & Pons in "cold fusion" is an example; I do not know what happened to the reputation of the Gran Sasso "Faster than Light Neutrinos" group, but I am sure their mistake didn't help.
Sometimes, there are tricks to make intentional scientific fraudsters reveal themselves, but I won't mention them here to not render them ineffective. But a famous example you can read up about are the N rays. Also, some nice chapters in the (first) Freakonomics book about made up results and rigged fights.
For anyone contemplating faking results: what'd be the point of it? Why not going to politics, stock markets, poker competitions, army - that's where generating misleading information is desirable and part of the job description. But in science, we are in the business of truth-finding.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_5: There are circumstances where incorrect results are published and it is *clearly* and unmistakably the result of academic falsification (although I would concede that perhaps only a small percentage of all academic falsification ever gets caught). Of the instances of academic falsification that gets caught, they fall into a few (but growing) catagories:
1. Image manipulation. There is no logical or scientific reason for copy/pasting a band in a gel other than to mislead. This is the closest thing we have to a smoking gun, because the data is obvious without any kind of statistical analysis needed. Here is an excerpt from a recent anonymous peer review via pubpeer:
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/WqNdy.jpg)
2. Unusual statistical practices. This is particularly true in RNA-Seq experiments, when there are multiple ways to skin a cat. However, every now and again someone conducts their analysis in such a convoluted way that one can only assume it was an attempt to deliberately mislead. I'm not talking about applying the wrong statistical test, i'm talking about using different statistical tests in the same paper for the same type of data. I'm talking about arbitrary cut-offs to 3 decimal places which just-so-happen to produce a statistically significant result, but any other value for that cutoff would have produced a non-significant result (p-hacking). Essentially here we imply motive due to incredibly improbable actions taken by the authors in how they reasoned about their data.
3. Whistleblowers. Occasionally, and more frequently, we see collaborators or individuals who left academia for one reason or another coming out and proclaiming that they know such-and-such a publication was fraudulent because they actively participated in it. Unfortunately, this scenario is not very effective at getting a fraudulent publication retracted, as many publishers and academic integrity investigators can brush off such reports as hear-say or that the whistleblower has some ulterior motivation. This method, however, does have the ability to expose types of fraud that are impossible to detect in a publication - such as samples excluded from the analysis that would have otherwise contradicted the published result.
Upvotes: 0
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2016/06/03
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<issue_start>username_0: I am close to entering the fifth year of a five-year Concurrent Education program. What the program involves is four years spent working on a bachelor’s degree, while “on the side” taking education courses and doing placements contributing to a bachelor of education and teaching certificate. The final year of the program is regular Teacher’s College, which is a combination of education/curriculum courses and, in total, about 14 weeks of placement.
I’ve thought about dropping the education part of the program a few times since it started, but stuck with it because it left teaching open as an option, while only requiring one education course and a 3-week placement each year (which is good experience anyway). About 2 years ago, I started considering going to grad school for math, but by the end of last summer, still wasn’t 100% sure, so I didn’t write the GREs. This year I took a graduate-level algebra course, and about halfway through, realized that grad school for math is definitely something I want to pursue.
As the deadlines for applying to grad schools had passed / were soon approaching, my plan then became to finish the program and get my teaching degree, and apply for math graduate programs this December/January for entrance in Fall 2017. Spending the next year in Teacher’s College, I’ve been thinking, might actually be a good thing, as a way to set me apart on applications for grad school and for jobs in the future, as well as a way to develop good teaching and other related skills. On top of that, it would leave teaching as a back-up just in case.
I would sincerely appreciate hearing the opinions of those who are in or who have been through graduate school in math. Do you think it will it be worth it, in terms of a future as a mathematician (ideally as a math professor), to finish the teaching program? I fear that the final year of this program will be painful for me, as it will require a lot of placements, which I already mostly dread. Alternatively, if I didn’t do Teacher’s College, I could spend the next year taking more graduate courses at my university, learn more math independently, focus on the GREs and honing my applications, and try to see if any professors at my university are willing to supervise me in some research experience before entering grad school for math.
In case it’s relevant, I come from a smallish university in Canada, which is probably not very well-known in the US, and I am graduating top of my class in math.
I’m sorry if this question is not general enough.<issue_comment>username_1: *Spending the next year in Teacher’s College, I’ve been thinking, might actually be a good thing, as a way to set me apart on applications for grad school and for jobs in the future, as well as a way to develop good teaching and other related skills.*
If you want to get into a research Ph.D. program in pure or applied math, this will do extremely little to set you apart. Taking more graduate courses and doing well on the GRE (especially the math subject GRE) would certainly do more than education or curriculum courses.
The most basic reason for this is that Ph.D. programs are essentially only worried about your ability to complete research in that discipline. Any life experience or preparation that isn't relevant to that is likely to be ignored. I suspect education courses are particularly likely to not be helpful, since (at the risk of way over-generalizing), many mathematicians have a pretty low opinion of the way classes in education are taught. I suspect, for example, actual experience teaching in a school would be more helpful.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Nobody in the university system gives a crap about your teaching ability (with rare exceptions from small liberal arts colleges which pay nothing). They care about how much money you can pull in and prestige- that means how many papers and grant proposals you can write, how well they are received by the community. Teaching isn't even secondary's as a concern in most places- tertiary perhaps at best.
Do you want to teach university math because you love teaching math or because you think it will let you live a life of puffing a pipe with tenure and doodling on paper? Because if you think either thing, you're in the wrong business.
Being a university professor is hellacious work involving very long hours and non-stop skull sweat as you desperately try to push yet another article out or get yet another grant. It is thankless because people don't know the work involved, and it is increasingly rare as ever more positions are replaced with much cheaper Adjuncts.
Go into the job because you are passionate about devoting yourself to math and have both the desire and ability to stand on your own. Go into it because you're fine with cramped offices, bad air conditioning, stained carpets, and students whining/arguing to get better grades CONSTANTLY even though they don't deserve them.
So, yea, don't bother with the teacher college. Unless you want to teach primary or secondary schools, in which case you need the license.
I'm sure there are those who will disagree with me, so I would finally suggest that you talk to some of your math professors, especially the younger ones more recently hired, about what went into getting their job and keeping it. Even if they ended up in what you describe as a tiny school, they will still describe the system pretty similarly I would bet. But ask nonetheless.
Be wary of older professors- many of them may simply have no idea what the field is like, having had tenure for 50 years. I had one math professor who was offered a position when he was still an undergrad about to graduate and stayed since the 1970s. Great guy, great professor, lousy source of information for this sort of thing.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_3: From the body of your question, the genuine question is about getting into a good-enough graduate program in mathematics, *and* whether the "education" program would be more helpful than taking higher-level math courses. Especially if the latter two are essentially mutually exclusive, taking more math courses (and interacting with math faculty as you suggest) is vastly more relevant to admissions criteria for grad math programs. "Education" work itself is not. If the education work displaces math work, that would hurt your application.
Nevertheless, experiences beyond the typical *can* distinguish applicants. When I am on our grad admissions committee, often the interest, commitment, drive, and maturity of slightly older people (as opposed to fresh baccalaureate degrees) is visible in their applications. Being able to think about grad school in comparison to other things (e.g., real-world jobs) can be clarifying, and this clarity can sometimes be seen in applications.
It is true that most funding of grad students in math in the U.S. (and, I think, Canada) is as Teaching Assistants, and it is certainly true that part of the job of math professor is teaching. But teaching experience is rarely decisive in post-doc or tenure-track hiring (post post grad school). A really awful teaching record can have a bad marginal effect, but still would not be likely to be the dominant effect, in comparison to "research". Further, "math education" or "eduction" coursework and/or training is not at all necessarily the same thing as experience in teaching. It's an academic subject, aimed mostly at k-12, licensure, etc.
To my perception, the significant point in your situation is the either/or. If pursuing the "education" stuff excludes some math, that would have an adverse effect on your applications to math grad school.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_4: On one hand, an education certificate will not directly help you in a PhD program in pure math, and will not help for jobs that are unrelated to pre-university education.
However, if you are interested in pre-university education, there *is* a path where the certification could be helpful. Many "regional" universities have a strong teacher education mission, and some faculty from their mathematics departments are often involved with educating pre-service teachers. This is a niche that many PhD mathematicians do not fit, because we have no experience with pre-university education, licensure, etc.
If you are interested in schools such as those, you could certainly use, or attempt to use, your background in pre-university ed as a selling point. You would need to do your legwork and also watch the job ads closely. Many universities have a habit of hiring a few faculty with EdD degrees for these positions, but you may be able to build a case that you have the background needed along with the stronger research credentials of a PhD.
Of course, this is just one path that a career could take. One of the challenges at the beginning of grad school is that you need to start thinking - well before you graduate - about what kind of school you would like to work at, and groom your vita to fit that kind of school.
Upvotes: 0
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2016/06/03
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<issue_start>username_0: I *think* I can, if I'm understanding the rules right, but I was wondering if anyone had done this/could give advice.
I recently completed a JD. My dream in college was always to get a PhD in literature, but for several reasons, some good some bad, I chose to go for the JD instead (it isn't completely unrelated to my literature interests, so it isn't a total wash). I am working in the public sector after graduation, and will be paying down my JD loans using Public Loan Forgiveness, so when I sat down and thought about it I realized I might not have to abandon my PhD dream after all. After a year or two breather from school, I'd like to go back and start working towards a PhD, because if law school and working in the legal field has convinced me of one thing it is that literature (and hopefully a professorship) are where I will be truly happy.
As an overview of PLF: after 120 monthly payments made on my loans while working in the public sector (10 years) the government would forgive my federal loans (which make up 90% of my loans). I can pay income-based repayment while working towards PLF as well. I will never be able to pay my loans off on a gov salary otherwise, but 10 years and then they are forgiven is actually a pretty sweet deal.
Basically to qualify for PLF I have to be employed in a public sector job--generally government or a nonprofit--working full time, or two public sector jobs that combined mean at least 30 hours/wk. As most TA or RA positions for funded programs (MA or PhD) seem to be about 20 hours a week, doing 10 hours a week in another public position would, if I'm right, qualify me for public loan forgiveness. Probably I'd look at doing 10-15 hours of legal aid through a nonprofit or government agency to keep my legal skills up.
Has anyone done PLF while finishing a PhD? Is this dream possible, or am I crazy? I don't mind not making a lot of money--I never have, and am not making much $$ now. But I really want to go back to literature. I'm just hoping the JD won't have killed that dream for me. :/<issue_comment>username_1: My understanding is that you can only participate in PSLF when you are *required* to make a payment; as at least a half-time graduate student, regardless of your employment at the time, you are not required to make a payment, so you cannot participate.
Source: <https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/repay-loans/forgiveness-cancellation/public-service#qualifying-payment>
Student aid reps at your institution might be a better source for clarification on this; perhaps you can declare yourself not a student for the purpose of your undergraduate/JD loans, and begin making payments? However this would also prevent you from using your student status to limit interest accrual on some of your loans.
If you have friends in tax/financial law this might be a good time to call in a favor on a 5-minute consultation.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Came across this post as I was researching the same question (4 years later). My understanding is the same as yours: as long as you get up to 30 hours between two qualifying employers, you are eligible.
Per the [PSLF FAQs page](https://studentaid.gov/manage-loans/forgiveness-cancellation/public-service/questions), you are eligible "as long as the combined number of hours you work for each employer equals at least 30 hours per week. Each employer must be a qualifying employer for the employment to be included in determining whether you are employed on a full-time basis. For example, if you worked for one qualifying employer for 10 hours per week and you concurrently worked for a second qualifying employer for 20 hours per week, this would meet the 30 hours per week requirement."
Regarding whether the university is an employer (per the same FAQs page): "If a qualifying employer hired you, pays you, and sends you a Form W-2 (Wage and Tax Statement) at the end of each tax year, you are employed by the qualifying employer." I think this means an assistantship would qualify, but a fellowship (which usually provides a 1099, not W2) would not.
Can I ask - did you end up pursuing this option, and have you gotten confirmation that your payments qualify?
Upvotes: 0
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2016/06/03
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<issue_start>username_0: Recently I sent a manuscript to a high-level IEEE journal (Transaction on Cybernetic, IF=3.45). After my first submission, I received “reject & resubmit” as a response. I resubmitted my manuscript. This time, all reviewer’s answer were “accepted with minor revision”, but the editor decided “reject & resubmit” again.
I want to ask:
* Is this situation normal?
* How much is my chance for being accepted in a new resubmission?
* With a new submission, is it possible that the editor does not send the manuscript to the reviewers but decides by him/herself?<issue_comment>username_1: Multiple possibilities:
1. the journal (esp. as it is a high-level one) does ever only one round of corrections possible. If a second round is required, it turns automatically into a resubmission. Fix the issues and resubmit and you'll be fine.
2. Or the editor does really not like the paper - but usually you get the editor's detailed comment who tell you whether there are complaints there.
If 2. is not the case, you probably are in case 1. Fix the issues and resubmit, stating that you hope that the amendment according to reviewer's comments are now satisfactory.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Depending on the editorial system, it could very well be that *reject & resubmit* comprises all cases where the paper was neither accepted as it is nor finally rejected. So, in your case, it could just mean that the paper was rejected in its present form (because you need to make the minor revisions requested by the reviewers).
Of course, if the editorial system offers finer-grained status messages, it can also mean that the editor sees more need for revision than the individual reviewers do or estimates the revisions requested by the reviewers to be more substantial than the reviewers did. The editor’s letter may give you more information on this.
Either way, I would not worry too much about it, improve the manuscript as much as you can, and resubmit it. This way has almost certainly the lowest expected waiting time to a final publication.
>
> With a new submission, is it possible that the editor does not send the manuscript to the reviewers but decides by him/herself?
>
>
>
Yes. If you replied to the reviewer’s comments in a satisfactory manner and did not insert a lot of new material, it may very well be that the editor expects that a new round of review will not yield any further input and accept the paper. Of course, the editor could also reject your paper without further review if they think that you did not even attempt to address the reviewer’s comment or similar.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: I do not wish to sound cynical, but some journals (and their editors) are not above issuing a *reject and resubmit* well into the review process even though the manuscript is pretty close to its final form, and they themselves consider the manuscript to be almost acceptance worthy.
Their *modus operandi* is to to issue a *reject and resubmit* late into the review process, assign a new manuscript number to the re-submission and then accept it after one round of quick reviews. As a consequence,
(1) The journal seems more exclusive because it has one more rejection on record for the same number of accepted papers.
(2) The processing time (submission to acceptance) appears much shorter.
This happens across disciplines.
Upvotes: 3
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2016/06/03
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<issue_start>username_0: There is an article which contains a section describing preliminary materials, that is, results which have already been published elsewhere and on which the current work is based.
This section is not supposed to contain any new result.
It appears that part of this section (one to two pages) is, up to minor modifications, a copy-paste from another published article.
The other article is from a collaboration of the author of the present paper with other authors. It is cited somewhere in the current article but not as the source of the copied part.
The context and methods of the articles are very similar (hence the need for similar tools), but beside the copied part, the contents and results are different.
In particular, there does not seem to be any plagiarism in the actual novel part of the article in question.
Is this a case of acceptable self-plagiarism?
There are a lot of questions in academia.SE about self-plagiarism but I couldn't make my mind about this case from what I've read.
EDIT: Thank you for all this helpful contributions. As referee for this article, I've chosen the option to ask directly the editor's opinion.<issue_comment>username_1: Lots of people would object to this. LOTS. I think somewhat differently. If this section doesn't cite the original, I think that's pretty bad. I don't think that it's career-ending, but I also don't think that we should be slavish to not copying ourselves when the material is rote or nearly so. Methodology sections that don't change much from paper to paper are places where I think reproducing text and saying so and citing yourself are particularly acceptable to me, but lots of people disagree vehemently with me. I'm aware of this propensity, so I don't copy text in my own papers as much as possible. I rewrite such sections and cite my old work for alternative descriptions.
In the case you mention, both articles appear to have been published, so unless you have a vendetta with this author and want to try to ruin their career, it's probably not worth saying anything to anyone about it. In other words, what would you do if we all said it was bad self-plagiarism? The only thing you can really do is tell the journal or their department chair and hope for a retraction or firing. If it doesn't change the result, then there's not much point in bringing it up. That being said, it's probably best if you don't follow their example. It's also probably worth being wary of future articles from this group of authors since there might be other aspects that aren't exactly above board.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: I am one of those people that username_1 mentions that will object to this. I agree rewriting what essentially is the same thing is not the answer, but neither is copying the text verbatim. I think a much better approach is to summarize the content with a few sentences and say "for a much more detailed description, check ref. (my paper that I published last year)".
In terms of doing something, I agree with username_1 that it doesn't serve you much to challenge this.
Bottom-line, I would say this is not an acceptable form of self-plagiarism.
Upvotes: 3
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2016/06/03
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<issue_start>username_0: I just got the page proofs of an article I wrote that is to appear. In it I cited a book, like this:
>
> Author, *Title in Italics*, Cambridge University Press, 1891.
>
>
>
In the page proof it looks like this:
>
> Author, *Title in Italics*, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1891.
>
>
>
Obviously that's wrong and I will so notify them.
But I wonder: Does the renown of this particular publisher justify omitting to identify the city after the publisher's name when the city's name is actually a part of the publisher's name and everybody knows *which* "Cambridge" it is? (This came from a "production company" that contracts with the journal, so maybe "everybody" doesn't include "production companies"). If the city must be named separately I'd be tempted to write
>
> Author, *Title in Italics*, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1891.
>
>
>
which still relies on "everybody" to know this.
"MA" is an abbreviation promulgated by the United States Postal Service. I had the impression that in England, postal addresses typically put the name of the county after the name of the city, separated by a comma, but that that probably wouldn't be done with Cambridge. If I did that, then "Cambridge" would appear three times in one line. An alternative would be what I would do if I were sending a letter the old-fashioned way from America to someone in Cambridge and put "England" or "United Kingdom" after the comma (although for a letter I'd probably put the postal code after the city's name on the same line and "England" would be on the next line). (Somehow I feel more comfortable with "England" than "United Kingdom" since it's not only an entity created by politicians but also a geographic name that will persist even if the UK becomes defunct. Or as someone once said "There'll always be an England." But maybe that's just personal taste.) I suppose "England" would be harmless and probably no one would notice, but I would feel silly thinking someone would have to be told that's where Cambridge is.
What do people normally do when citing stuff from this particular renowned publisher?<issue_comment>username_1: There's really no harm in adding clarifying information. Obviously, we need a city name if we get "University of Georgia Press" because there are two *very different* University of Georgias in the world. One located in Athens (Georgia, USA — not Greece!) and the other located in Tbilisi.
Likewise, if we see a publisher we're not familiar with, and the citation is only "Athens", it's nice to know at a quick glance whether we're talking about the American Georgian city, or the Greek one. The topic of the paper make dictate which one is the "expected" one — if we're talking Atlanta politics, we can assume Georgia, unless otherwise specified, and if we're talking Plato, we can assume Greece.
Ultimately, though, it depends on the house style. If the house style includes the city, they'll do it for all publications, no matter how obvious one would think. In your specific example, it's undoubtedly an overzealous copy-editor who is probably accustomed to having "Harvard University Press, Cambridge" and fixing it to "Cambridge, MA" to clarify.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: I always make it a point *not* to include the city name of the book publishers in bibliographic references in my articles. Including the city name in today's globalized world is a pointless and archaic tradition that should be abolished, along with fax machines and similar anachronisms.
Thus, I would write "Cambridge" if and only if the journal copy-editor insists on adding this redundant and pointless information. In that case I would ask them to remove "MA" since that's factually incorrect, and aside from that I couldn't care less if they want to also add "United Kingdom", "England", "Cambridgeshire", "in the general vicinity of Hogwarts", GPS coordinates, instructions for delivering mail via homing pigeons, etc.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: I would say this comes down to which referencing style you are using, not logic. If it calls for a city then you include the city, regardless of how obvious this is. Similarly, you include the publisher in some styles, even when the publisher is the same as the 'author' of a booklet or similar, and you include both the authors of a chapter and the editors of the book, even when they are the same (sometimes long) list.
When I put preprints of my papers online, I use a referencing style I am happy with. Once it's in a journal, I sometimes wince, and then forget about it.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: Well, either way, concerning citation style, it's the journal that is right, unless they are wrong. If they prefer to include the city and the state, it's their choice, not yours; if they include ISBN and ISSN for everything, it's their choice, not yours; if they remove them, again, the same thing. Of course, unless the modification is plain wrong, like removing substantial data (think removing number in a journal volume when the page numbering becomes ambiguous) or unless it means extra charges on you (e.g. if this additional data adds another page you'd have to pay for).
You can of course ask them whether it's necessary, but as others mention in their answers, it is an important field. You can also of course withdraw the article, that's your choice :-)
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: Does there exist applied mathematics research that involves primarily pencil-to-paper work, without the use of computers? Or, are computers quickly replacing everything that an applied mathematician can once do by hand / traditionally does by hand?
Anything in academia in applied math research that computers *can't* do?
For instance, do PDE theorists use computers or strictly pencil and paper / chalk and chalkboard -- and leave the numerics of PDEs to numerical analysts instead? Is there such a distinction, or is there instead always some sort of collaboration between the two types of applied mathematicians?
Another example that I can think of is the work of probability theorists.
Any insight to my very naive question would be greatly appreciated :)
Thanks,<issue_comment>username_1: I am an applied mathematician and **I can't work without paper and pencil** and in most cases **I can't get things done without a computer**.
My computer can't tell me in advance if my algorithm will converge, at what rate and what the error will be. My computer can't figure out how to discretize some new problem (unless I tell him how). My computer (up to now) never had a great idea.
On the other hand, I can't invert matrices with pen and paper and I even can't multiply a large matrix like that. In fact I can't even store most data I use on paper... (and also access rates for data on paper are pretty slow).
**tl;dr** I basically always use paper, pen and computer.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: In addition to @username_1's excellent answer, which I wholeheartedly concur with, I will also note that many types of applied mathematical research are done entirely without aid of a computer.
Consider, for example, [this well-cited paper on Brewer's conjecture](http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=564601), which is all mathematical reasoning about the nature of distributed computations. At the more theoretical side of any applied field, you can find such papers, where the conclusions are in the symbolic mathematics that is still best carried out by hand, most typically on paper, whiteboard, or blackboard in its crucial early stages.
Of course, basically nobody submits physical paper to journals any more, so I guess a computer does get involved eventually...
Upvotes: 3
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<issue_start>username_0: As a background, I am a PhD student in Physics. I have published 3 papers with my supervisor and 3 without my supervisor,as an independent work. After all these, I reached a point where I don't have any good ideas anymore. I don't know what direction I should approach. I have some ideas, some of them are not so good being too simple, and others too complex and might be done in long periods of 2-3 years. the question would be on how to increase productivity and find new good paper ideas?<issue_comment>username_1: In my experience a major point is to **engage with other's research.** The most common occasion is to attend regularly seminars, and go to conferences. By listening to research talks, you will learn about tools which might apply to some of your questions, and about questions for which you might have the right tools.
Another possibility is simply to read other's research, but it is quite difficult to decide in what direction to read, while when you have a weekly seminar to attend you get in touch with ideas regularly without having to be proactive.
Maybe there is a subfield, with connexion with what you already know, where you heard things are happening and someone wrote a nice survey? Then read that and see if it leads you somewhere.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: The existing answer is a good one, and essentially recommends that you look inside academia for research projects. Another way to approach the problem is to look outside academia. I find this approach to be more fruitful, and questions originating outside the discipline tend to have higher general impact, although it can sometimes be more challenging to find an outlet or a relevant research program to tie into.
Stack Exchange is a great way to find ideas. Find the stack or stacks related to your field, and just start answering questions. When you find questions that don't have answers in the literature, think of a way you can answer that. If it could lead to a paper, then do that and your drought is over.
Another option, closely related to the recommendation to interact with other people's research, is to talk to smart, educated people outside your discipline. This works best if your research area is not something highly specialized. It doesn't take long, in most cases, for a smart person to ask a question for which there is no accepted answers. Follow that question until you find the answer and then publish it.
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: I'm a post-doc who has been the primary supervisor for two master's students this year (computer science, UK). Their theses are due in soon, and I have asked for a draft beforehand so that I can give some feedback. However, I am now wondering how typical this is, and whether it is fair on other students in the year (because more senior supervisors would have less time for this than me.) It has been so long since my master's that I cannot remember how it was for me!
I believe that this is slightly different to a PhD thesis. Whilst my PhD supervisor was rather uninvolved with my PhD thesis, I know that some PhD supervisors are very hands-on, even to the point of correcting spelling and grammar. However, it seems to me that doing a PhD is more a collaborative process with the supervisor, whereas a master's thesis should be more independent, and a more rigorous evaluation of the student's own abilities.
So -- how much feedback should I be giving to my master's students, if any at all?<issue_comment>username_1: As their primary supervisor,I would expect you to give them as much feedback as you can (whithin reason).
I also think that getting a draft when their theses are soon due is too late.
As to your comment that masters students should be more independent than PhD students - wouldn't you expect the opposite?
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: As noted [in a comment](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/69774/how-much-feedback-to-give-for-an-undergraduate-masters-thesis#comment170602_69774), this is probably highly dependent on the university culture and field. My answer is based on my impressions from **CS in Germany**.
In my subfield (HCI-related), it was most usual for doctoral candidates to supervise between one and four Bachelor/Master theses a year, maybe a bit less for post-docs (each of which took exactly 6 months). (Depending on the topic, supervision occasionally took place in groups - i.e. two or three supervisors for one student, taking turns at supervision tasks or focusing different aspects of the work.)
As a rough guideline, the **"amount" of supervision** provided was usually a weekly meeting (typically, between 10 and 60 minutes in length) with the student to give them advice and answer questions. And, realistically, in some phases and for some students, to remind them that they should get some work done because they cannot work on their Bachelor/Master thesis forever. As a secondary channel of supervision, students were free to ask urgent questions whenever they came up, via e-mail or by just dropping by in the supervisor's office whenever it was convenient.
The **kind of supervision** covered a wide spectrum - essentially, everything from high-level advice (decisions about the content and how to proceed, developing some basic ideas for solutions together, scientific best practices, ...) to low-level operational details (technical issues in the code and in the LaTeX document, stylistic writing and layouting questions in the document, ...) could come up.1
As for **looking at drafts**, I agree with [username_1's answer](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/69775/14017) in that it's likely too late if the thesis is almost due. Personally, when I knew the student was in the phase in which they had already scheduled some writing, I would ask my students on almost every meeting whether there's a new or revised section that I can read and comment on (not necessarily because I was so keen on commenting, but first and foremost as another means of urging students to do the part of the task that most liked the least - writing the thesis document). Moreover, at least at my home department, we usually required students to use the department's [Subversion](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apache_Subversion) version control system, which was another way how supervisors could look at the students' progress and the current state of their thesis when they had a feeling progress wasn't as smooth as it should be.
Lastly, concerning **fairness**, I must admit the thought that there could be anything unfair (in a way that should be avoided) in this never crossed my mind. Of course, supervisors in different institutes may hold very different opinions as to what amount and kind of effort is optimal and feasible in their supervision. But then, students are not assigned to supervisors in my place; they usually pick a topic they like and they know beforehand who is going to be the supervisor for that topic. Anyway, as a result of the different opinions, supervision between institutes differed. Students could have bad luck with their supervisor, or with the typical style of supervision in the institute that focuses on the subfield they like. But the question is: Should you do anything about it? I'd say *no*. First, because I consider it part of a university graduate's skills to also get along with supervision that does not ideally suit their personal preferences. And moreover, because I firmly believe that unfairness should not be countered by removing any advantages until every option is as bad as the original quality minimum.
1: This does not mean that students would have supervisors do all their work. The goal was rather guiding the students towards a balance between working out problems autonomously and not being shy to actively contact the supervisor about any current roadblocks.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: One other note that I would add to the existing good answers: **the quality of your students work reflects on you as well.**
I would never even consider graduating a student whose thesis I had not carefully reviewed and given sufficient feedback on to ensure that it was not embarrassing to have my name associated with. This is lower stakes for an undergraduate or Masters thesis than it is for a Ph.D. thesis, because there is less expected of the student.
Nevertheless, one of your important jobs as an supervisor is to ensure that sufficient standards of academic quality are upheld. In practice, this will generally require some degree of feedback and mentoring in order to get the students to a level of quality that you are comfortable with.
Upvotes: 3
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<issue_start>username_0: I recently applied to the CERN prestigious [Fellowship program](https://jobs.web.cern.ch/job/11857) (Programme des Boursiers).
A few words on my background: I am a PostDoc in Algorithms/TCS/Network Systems. I have > 10 papers and 2 years of PostDoc experience and I really thought I am a very good fit for that position. I was asked to provide 3 recommendation letters and my advisors where very happy to provide them. I provided a detailed letter on why I consider my expertise fit for the purpose of CERN.
I received a message "*After very careful consideration of your application, we regret to inform you that we are not able to offer you a position at the present time*."
The rejection e-mail did not include absolutely no evaluation information, in the form of a score or text, as to why my application and my file were rejected. After sending an e-mail to the Recruitment Service, I received the unclear answer that “*we don’t have any personal feedback to give, but this decision in no way reflects your abilities*.” At this point, I kindly protested to this very vague answer for the following reasons:
* This is a job description for highly qualified candidates. It is a common practice, even in private companies, to give a small personal feedback. This serves many purposes, for example to consider the possibility to apply again or not, and also on a personal level so the candidate does not feel completely ignored. Given the profile and the importance of the job, I would have hoped some short explanation based on some evaluation criteria, but absolutely nothing was given to me.
* I still do not know if this is a matter of fitting in the needs of CERN, or that my qualifications were considered low, with respect to the other candidates, or both, or any other reason. I have absolutely no clue regarding whether or not I should considered re-applying to this position in the future.
After that, the Recruitment Service hinted that my profile was not as good as the other candidates, and that “*Fellowship positions cover a wide spectrum of projects and scientific domains for which there are different suitable profiles so the selection criteria can vary depending on the project. Not being selected doesn’t necessarily mean that your qualifications aren’t suitable for CERN but that the projects currently available require different profiles so I encourage you to reapply in the future if you wish to do so*.” At this point, it is natural to ask, which are these mentioned project? Why they were not mentioned in the job description page so I can judge in a better way if I am a good fit or not (and so that the professors that provided the letters and a better clue on what to write to support my application). I asked to provide a complete list of these projects but, unfortunately, the recruitment service decided to completely ignore my request.
* At a relevant point, it is not known to me who is the “Selection Committee” that decided to reject my application. I have no idea on which are these members (and also which are their criteria of acceptance a file).
Given that this is a job offer from a public founded institution, I expect that claims and hints that “The number of post-doctoral applicants exceeds by far the number mentioned in your email and most of them come from distinguished universities around the world with very high qualifications”, that directly hints that my qualifications are low with respect to other candidates, **to be supported by concrete evidence, otherwise this directly raises an issue of transparency**, which is of the utmost importance in such public institutions.
Still, I have no clue (among other things) on how I compare with the selected candidates both in fitting and in qualifications.
The Recruitment Service wrote that “ *Transparency is a value highly appreciated at CERN so if you have any more questions don’t hesitate to come back to me.*” After I raised my particular and above mentioned issues, my queries were completely ignored, so this statement made by your service is completely worthless.
* A more serious issue is that the 3 professors that provided me recommendation letters ask me why I was not selected and I do not have any answer to give them. I invested a respectable amount of obligation by asking these people to support my application so I assume that they deserve an answer for the decision. By not giving any feedback, either on the personal or on the professional level, these people will hesitate to provide again the same letters for a potential future application for obvious reasons.
* The Recruitment Service politely encouraged me to re-apply “if I wish to do so”. I wonder, how it would be possible a rejected candidate to re-apply when crucial information is hidden from that candidate. How can I convince the professors that provided the recommendation letters to re-write them, when they have absolutely no clue on the criteria imposed by the selection committee and on the particular projects (that the committee decided that I am not a good fit for)? How could I improve my file and my CV so I can increase my chances? This is crucial and important information that your Organization decided, deliberately or not, to hide from me.
Unfortunately, 3 or more weeks after the rejection letter I was in complete dark as to why my application was rejected and which are the criteria of acceptance/rejection of the application (among other issues raised above). By just sending extremely vague and multi-purpose messages, that seemed completely automated to me, the service thought that they fulfilled their obligation. But given the profile of the job and the nature of the organization, I am afraid that these practices are not in due course with what is expected from an International Public Founded Organization.
Personally, I consider these issues extremely important for me, on a personal development level, as well as for CERN.
* After that, I sent an official complaint to the HR department of CERN. I told them that I am willing to publish my experience with CERN so that everybody knows the treatment that I have received from such an international and public institution that takes pride from it's scientific discoveries.
3 weeks after sending the letter, I received an e-mail from an HR responsible person saying "*After reviewing your application in detail and bringing your concerns to the attention of the Chair of the Fellows committee, I am able to inform you that the major weakness in your application was in its motivation. I stress that you were applying for a programme and not for a specific position. There is a huge amount of information about CERN, its activities, and the kinds of projects we do available on the CERN web site. We consider it essential that a candidate has informed themselves, and can show how their research is linked to the research at CERN. Unfortunately, you did not demonstrate that you had tried to inform yourself of our mission and activities and did not explain how your proposed research in applied mathematics could be relevant.*"
Right...
**My Question:** Is the behaviour of CERN normal? Is it OK (from a transparency point of view) that I have no clue who the Committee was, even after many mails exchanging? Is it normal that even after requested a list of successful candidates, I still have no info about it, so I can personally compare myself to the profiles of those they are accepted? Is it normal that still I have absolutely no clue about their selection criteria (besides the "motivation" part, which seems just like a poor excuse to me)?
**EDIT** most of the people confuse this situation with the admission system in US Universities. The situation is slightly more different in EU. For all public calls and openings, there should be a record of who applied, what are the criteria, how individuals scored under these well defined and known criteria and who was selected. This is true in virtually ALL European countries. I (apparently wrongly) assumed that I should be given at least a minimal feedback **and** information (that should be nevertheless available) on how I scored and which are the criteria, so that I could see if I could apply or not, on next round. The answer that I have received (after some mail exchanged and after stating that I would publicize my experience) does not satisfy me the slightest and seems just an arbitrary excuse to "get rid" of me. It saddens me that these practices are going to go unaffected and people at CERN can continue their, seemingly, arbitrary hiring process, not being accountable to anybody.<issue_comment>username_1: Yes, this is considered both normal and ethical.
------------------------------------------------
Perhaps the most salient reason is that hiring/admissions decisions are based on direct comparisons between applicants, and application materials are strictly confidential. If my department doesn't hire you, we are forbidden to tell you that it's because we thought X, Y, and Z were better fits for the position — although that might very well be the precise reason — because **we are forbidden to reveal who applied for the position**. Of course, you might eventually notice that we eventually hired Y, but we are forbidden reveal Y's application materials, *especially* their reference letters, which we can't even reveal to Y.
(I'm deliberately using "better fit" to encapsulate all the metrics that people use to make hiring/admission decisions: GPA, standardized test scores, research statements, recommendation letters, teaching experience, publication and citation records, awards, specific research interests/skills/results, "pedigree", constraints imposed by funding agencies or university bureaucrats, demonstrated familiarity with the institution, behavior at the interview, and so on. Ultimately, **every academic hiring decision is a judgement call**; there isn't and can't be a hiring algorithm.)
We *could* legally say "Other applications were a better fit for the position than yours", but that's a rather obvious conclusion from the fact that we didn't hire you, and we're legally forbidden to provide evidence to back up that reasoning. If you don't find that explanation satisfying, there's really nothing we can do.
Another reason is that direct criticism in this context is just considered *rude*. The academic job market is highly competitive; for almost all applicants, most applications end in rejection. Unlike publications, where brutally honest feedback *on the work* is a necessary part of the process, critical feedback on your application is really about **you**, or at least your professional persona. Direct personal criticism, no matter how accurate, is much more likely to lead to hurt feelings (as demonstrated by your post) and possibly even lawsuits than criticism of any specific piece of work. (This argument is sometimes oversimplified as "[CYA](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cover_your_ass)".)
The right people to give you direct critical feedback on your application are your advisor and/or close senior colleagues, not your prospective employers.
>
> A more serious issue is that the 3 professors that provided me recommendation letters ask me why I was not selected and I do not have any answer to give them.
>
>
>
Actually, you have at least two reasonable answers:
* "I don't know."
* "What? Why are *you* asking *me*? You know these people better than I do!"
>
> How could I improve my file and my CV so I can increase my chances?
>
>
>
Do better research. Publish better papers. Give better talks. Apply to more positions. Get brutally honest feedback on your application from your advisor and other experienced colleagues, and take that criticism seriously. Contact colleagues at your target institutions *in advance* to get a clearer picture of their needs, goals, and culture.
Accept that you will not, and cannot, have complete information about hiring criteria at any particular institution; you can only increase your chances *on average across the field*. Accept that neither you nor anyone else *deserves* any particular position.
>
> *Unfortunately, you did not demonstrate that you had tried to inform yourself of our mission and activities and did not explain how your proposed research in applied mathematics could be relevant.*
>
>
>
Your response ("Right.") suggests that you don't find this explanation credible. That is a very serious mistake.
[I am the recruiting committee chair at a highly-ranked computer science department, at a public university in the U.S. Our hiring processes are scrutinized to ensure compliance with state and federal employment laws, in particular: (1) that we have a fair, consistent, and *internally* well-documented decision process, and (2) that applications are strictly confidential.]
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: Yes, as someone who is a professor and university department chair (in the U.S.) and who is directly involved with recruitment processes, I can tell you that it is normal and, at least according to currently accepted norms, ethical. I can't address your complaints in detail, but you seem to be very misguided about many of your beliefs concerning academic recruitment processes, how they are and should be carried out, and how you as a job candidate should be treated. A few points that I think need to be clarified are the following:
* Academic employers are not required to, and often have strong legal incentives not to, provide any feedback to applicants about their applications.
* I am not aware of, and have never even heard of, any academic employer who uses an "evaluation matrix" or anything similar for a recruitment to an academic position at the postdoc level or higher. Evaluation for these positions doing very specialized kinds of research is highly subjective, with different applicants often being completely incomparable to each other in almost any imaginable parameter, and often members of the search committee and other academics participating in the search may disagree strongly about the ranking of applicants. Somehow, a decision is eventually reached, but there is a lot of arbitrariness in the process, which is something that (as I have witnessed on many occasions) is often hard for the people on the other end of the process to accept.
* Even if the evaluation was less subjective and arbitrary and truly meaningful feedback could in theory be provided, in many cases the sheer number of applicants can make it completely impractical to respond to each one individually with this kind of feedback. Imagine being an overworked search committee chair having to review something like 700-800 application files (each one containing 30-40 pages of materials) to fill 3-5 positions, and you may start seeing what I mean. That is why many search committees will not even send rejected applicants an email notification to tell them they were not selected.
* There is absolutely no reason for you to feel humiliated or embarrassed by not having feedback to relay to your letter-writers. If they are experienced academics, they must know that this is how the system works and will not be expecting any such information, or even if they are then surely they will understand that you cannot be blamed for not receiving such information to relay to them.
To conclude, I should add that there is nonetheless a kernel of philosophical, and perhaps legal, truth in your complaint and frustration. It is true that it is regrettable that employers can't offer job applicants useful feedback that helps them calibrate their approach and perhaps do better in the future, and having been in similar situations myself in the past, I certainly empathize, but that's how things currently stand. It is also true that having such a low level of accountability creates an opening for abuse of various sorts, which I'm sure does in fact exist in some places. Legally speaking, in some countries job applicants may have certain rights to demand disclosure of at least some of the information you ask for, either through filing a request or, in an extreme situation where they feel they have been gravely wronged, by filing a lawsuit. Even when the information is not provided, employers will often keep on record some information of this type for use in the event that they are called upon to defend their hiring decisions. My university certainly does. You may want to look into what legal rights you have and see if you have in fact treated in accordance with the law in your jurisdiction. At the same time, I think you need to understand that your current views about how much feedback you should be entitled to get are misguided and, frankly speaking, mostly wrong. In any case, good luck and I hope you have more success with future applications.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]
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<issue_start>username_0: Can I change statistical results (mistakes) a discussion section with new results in a major revision stage? I corrected all the comments of reviewers but I don't know what should i do in this case. Might this situation affect the editor negatively?<issue_comment>username_1: In addition to making changes according to the reviewers' comments, you may also make other corrections and changes that improve the quality of the paper. However, you should indicate to both the editors and the reviewers that you have made such changes, and explain why they have been made. Given that it's a major revision, the paper would go back to the reviewers anyway, so it makes sense to correct everything possible.
As a caveat, however, such corrections should not be made in an attempt to skirt around flaws raised by the reviewers. I recently reviewed a manuscript where there were several anomalies in the data, and I mentioned these in my review. The authors completely removed the offending data, and replaced them with new results that better "fit" their conclusions. Such behavior is **not** acceptable, as they did not explain why the previous results were wrong; they just replaced them.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: A major revision can potentially involve quite a large magnitude of change. As long as it remains essentially the same paper, you can add whatever makes sense to strengthen it and make it a better work than before. You can also drop material if, for example, you discover a mistake or you decide that it is distracting. Dropping material is much rarer than adding material, however, except in the case when you are up against a length limit and you have to drop something to make room for new material.
The test that I would propose for determining how much is to much for a major is as follows:
1. If the changes might require different reviewers, it's probably too much.
2. If the subject of the main result changes, it's probably too much (though the main result might be substantially strengthened or weakened).
As @username_1 says, however, make sure that you explain all of your changes clearly in your response letter, so that the reviewers understand what you have done and why.
Upvotes: 0
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2016/06/04
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<issue_start>username_0: Who should I ask to proofread my MSc dissertation? Is proofreading required?<issue_comment>username_1: There's no formal process that you are required to use for proofreading, but it's certainly required in the sense that your dissertation should not be full of typos.
You are the most important proofreader. You care the most and have special expertise on the specific topic you are writing about, and eliminating errors is your responsibility. However, it's worth getting assistance from someone else, since some errors can be tough for the author to spot.
You should not expect your advisor to do proofreading. It's possible that he/she will provide a list of typos, but that's really not the advisor's responsibility. Ultimately you'll benefit far more from higher-level advice about content and writing, so it's in your interest to provide drafts that you have already checked carefully.
One good way to arrange proofreading is to swap dissertations with a friend, with each of you looking over the other's draft. If you can't find anyone to do this, you could try asking friends or relatives to help you proofread, but you'll have to be careful not to let it become a burden for them.
I would not recommend trying to hire a proofreader, unless you have clear approval from your university for exactly what you plan to do. (If I heard that a student had hired someone to help proofread, I would worry that "proofreading" might be a euphemism for an inappropriate level of writing assistance.)
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: **Easy and Rewarding Solution!**: First, find a trust worthy class mate who DOES NOT do the simillar dissertation. Second, offer to read his/her dissetation, in exchange he/she read yours. Third, discuss each other dessertation after the reading is done. Fourth, fix your issues. Fifth: repeat if you have more time until you are confident with your dessertation.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: I'm now reading the Msc dissertation of a friend but being brutally honest in my comments which she happens to like. It does help that I once was an archaeology student myself. But I think that the more people who read your dissertation before you hand it in, the better. The process of writing up a dissertation isn't just about writing it all up. It's also about being able to form up your own opinon, being critical, being able to work together with other folks and work on your own at the same time.
Upvotes: 1
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2016/06/04
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<issue_start>username_0: In a journal article, is it advisable to insert a colour bar (i.e. an explication of the colour scale) in a figure if arbitrary units are used?
If the colour order is already stated in the legend, does a colour bar add additional information in this situation?
An example can be found in [this abstract](http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jbio.201500305/abstract). Imagine that this figure was generated by colour-mapping a signal in arbitrary units, if the legend had specified that the colour scale goes from red (disordered) to green (ordered), would the colour bar have been useful?<issue_comment>username_1: I would definitely include the color bar. It just makes things easier to read, since you can compare the displayed values directly with your eyes, rather than having to refer back to a written explanation. The bar also lets you see how the colors shade into each other as you move along the scale.
If it seems awkward to have the color bar in arbitrary units, you can explain exactly how you came by the arbitrary units (such as "data scaled by the maximum deviation from zero"). Then you can give the bar scale a more quantitative meaning. Or, you might go the other direction and just labels the ends "low" and "high."
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: An arbitrary unit is still a unit and while the absolute values of whatever quantity you are depicting are meaningless, their relations to each other are. For example, it may be relevant that a certain value is ten times as high as another one. A diagram without any scale does not only imply arbitrary units but also an arbitrary scale, which is not only useless in most cases, but it also makes me suspect that some sort of borderline beautification that was hidden from me.
This applies in particular to colour axes, for which there is no default scaling such as for geometrical axes, where I can at least suspect the axis to be linear if no further information is given.
For example take this colour axis from a paper of mine:
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/SGzlT.png)
As you can see, the white and pink region are more narrow than the green ones and moreover the scale is logarithmic for values larger than 1 and linear for smaller values¹. While this makes sense as it allows the reader to better see certain phenomena, it only becomes legitimate through the numbers on the colour scale that inform the reader what is going on. Otherwise I would consider this choice of scale misleading regarding the intensity of certain effects.
For these reasons, I would only use a colour axis without a scale when I would do the same if the axis were a geometrical one, which in turn I would only do if I am not actually presenting data, but illustrating a concept. But even then I would prefer a colour bar with indicators for high and low to describing such things in the caption, as it is easier to read.
¹ To be precise, all values are integer, so the exact nature of the scale between 0 and 1 does not matter.
Upvotes: 2
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2016/06/05
| 920
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<issue_start>username_0: Lately, and after long time of work in my PhD, I was able to get a result that is brand new, very strong and important. My supervisor though seems jealous and wants me not to publish before finishing my PhD. But I sense he wants to scoop me once I leave. The time is short and I haven't enough time to work in lab that will guarantee a paper. I insist on publishing though, can he contact any of the journal editors and affect their opinion?
I can't take the risk, so what should I do to avoid this?<issue_comment>username_1: >
> can he contact any of the journal editors and affect their opinion?
>
>
>
To answer your direct question first: this is very unlikely. If he doesn't know the journal that you are planning on submitting to (and if you choose to go ahead as a single author there is no reason he would) then there are just too many possible editors out there. He would have much to lose in terms of reputation if he were to contact dozens of editors and warn them against accepting a paper that he doesn't even know has been submitted to them. Even if he does know which editor is handling your paper, unless that editor is a mate of his and has questionable ethics, they are likely to judge the paper on its merits rather than be swayed by a third party butting in.
>
> But I sense he wants to scoop me once I leave.
>
>
>
If he were to do this, surely it would be very easy to prove that this was your work? Even before it is included in your thesis, don't you have lab notes etc. that show you have been working on this topic? If he tried to publish it without your name on the paper, you would have a strong case to demonstrate his misconduct.
Finally, is it possible that you have exaggerated the issues in your head? Much of your question is based on "My supervisor *seems*...", "*I sense*...", "*I guess*...". Have you actually talked to your supervisor about these things? I think that by far the best outcome, for both of you, would be to publish a joint paper. Do you know for sure that he will not accept that option? Or perhaps there is a good reason that he thinks you should delay publication. I would suggest addressing these questions first before jumping to conclusions.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: In a biology / bio-engineering discipline, the authorship standards almost certainly dictate that you must have your supervisor as a co-author.
As such, worrying about contacting journal editors is beside the point: you *can't* ethically publish without your supervisor's permission---not because they're your supervisor, but because they're your co-author.
The biology focus also may help explain your supervisor's reluctance to publish, as it's (unfortunately) common for biologists to spend years building up a "perfect publication" with no incremental publications in order to try to get into a "glamour" journal like Nature or Science.
Given this context, I would recommend simply including the work you've done in your Ph.D. thesis (which does not preclude glamour publication). That will make it very clear that you have done the work, such that your name must remain attached to it. Beyond that point, I would recommend not worrying about the author order either: in biology, it is typical to put the student first and the supervisor last; since "last author" is also a significant and prominent position, I would expect that your supervisor is unlikely to have a problem with you being first.
Finally, I would recommend that you have a clear discussion with your supervisor about the criteria for publication. Not "when will we publish?" because the answer to that will probably be "when it's ready," but "what else needs to be done before we publish?" Get that agreement clearly worked out between you, then confirm it afterward via email to create a timestamped written record, and then you can also feel it is less likely that publication can be delayed by shifting goalposts.
Upvotes: 2
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2016/06/05
| 496
| 2,212
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<issue_start>username_0: I am currently writing a paper for the thesis work I did last year along with my advisors. (I successfully graduated last year and currently work in a software company.) I am confused regarding what organization I should mention in the author's section. Should I mention my university name since I completed my thesis work when I was a university student or the name of the company I currently work for?<issue_comment>username_1: There is some ambiguity here, particularly since it sounds like you have headed into a non-research industrial job.
If you were in a research-oriented position, you would probably want to put down your current affiliation as your organization, and possibly the university as a secondary affiliation (some publication venues allow multiple affiliations).
If this paper is instead from a phase of your life that you are setting behind you as you depart the research community, however, it's entirely reasonable to leave your current non-research company out of it and simply claim your old university as the relevant affiliation.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: I will take a somewhat different view from @username_1's answer.
The primary question is: **when did you work on the paper**? Did you do all of the work while you were a thesis student, and then the paper has slowly made its way through the system? Or did you actively work on it *as part of your new job*? Did you use institutional resources from your new position to do any part of the paper?
If the answer to the latter is *no*, then you should only list the old institution in the actual affiliations, and then list your new job as a "present address", if you so choose. If you worked on the paper as part of your new job (beyond rote submission and minor edits), then you should list both workplaces as "active" affiliations.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: When I was in the same situation, I used my current affiliation with a footnote "work performed while at ..." (my previous affiliation).
However, you need to ask your employer whether they accept using your current affiliation. In certain cases, they might ask to read/approve the paper.
Upvotes: 0
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2016/06/05
| 793
| 3,309
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<issue_start>username_0: In my CV I want to know whether the following ordering of the categories is suitable. I thought of giving prominence to research work because I am applying for a PhD.
1. Personal Details (name,address,e-mail)
2. Career objective
3. Education
4. Publications
5. Conference presentation
6. Research Interest
7. Skills
8. Work Experience
9. Co-curricular activities
10. Extra curricular activities
11. References
Is the placing of **Research Interest** okay? Should I move it up? Where should I keep it?
As **Career Objective** should I write in general what I plan to do i my career once I finish my PhD or should it include the particular area that I am trying to research as my PhD. Say the specific field in applied mathematics.
For example: Should it be,
1. Applying for admission into X university’s Doctor of Y program.
or
2. Career objective : Become a leading researcher in the area of Z and contribute to the betterment of society<issue_comment>username_1: Your proposed order looks fine to me as a default. If you think you really shine in one category it is okay to move things up or down based on that.
I am assuming most of your experience has been academia. Someone who spent a lot of time working outside of academia would want to prioritize that experience instead.
Research interest placement is fine subject to my above comments about what your want to emphasize.
Your second career objective sounds much better:
"Become a leading researcher in the area of Z and contribute to the betterment of society"
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: * Firstly, the *Career Objective* section is a thing of past and should not be present in a CV or resume. Not only it is old-fashioned, it actually makes one change their CV or resume every time one applies to different organization and position. It is much better to place relevant position-focused information in a *cover letter*, which should be adjusted to a particular position anyway.
* Secondly, do not put *personal details*, like mailing and physical address, on CV or resume. An e-mail address and, maybe, a phone number is more than enough. You don't expect potential employers to send you postal mail, do you? Plus, the physical address would jeopardize the security of one's identity.
* Thirdly, the section *Research Interests* should be higher in the list - I would say, even prior to the section *Education* (or, at least, right after it).
* Fourthly, I suggest you to create two versions of your CV (the following is not applicable to resume) - one with *references*, for organizations that require them as part of initial application, and another without ones, for those that require them later or using different communication channel (say, *Interfolio*).
* Fifthly, go ahead and search Internet for examples of *academic cover letters* (there are plenty of them - stick with the ones from reputable universities). Hope this helps. Good luck!
P.S. I would *reword section titles*, as follows: Conference Presentations => Talks & Presentations; Research Interest => Research Interests; Co-curricular Activities => not sure it makes sense to extract them in a separate section - why not list them below relevant educational info; Extra-curricular Activities => Extracurricular Activities.
Upvotes: 2
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2016/06/05
| 615
| 2,841
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<issue_start>username_0: I am a master student in computer science and am working on a static program analysis project as my thesis. I used *existing* platforms and frameworks along with *existing* approaches for static analysis of a program.
However my work would solve a problem in the area I am working in. In better words, for Android OS there is not yet a good work on static analysis of native binaries. This is what I am working on.
I think my work is not a good *research* work, because my work is all about implementation and dealing with *existing* tools. As far as I know, a good research work should not engage itself in implementation complexities and should be as abstract as it can be with a great degree of novelty.
In my opinion my work is novel, but it is not an abstract solution as it is mostly about technological stuff. So, I am in doubt if I am thinking right or not.
PS: By "good research work", I mean it can be published as a good research paper.<issue_comment>username_1: In my opinion, academic research work should be focused more on **learning** in general and learning *how to perform research correctly* in particular, rather than on doing grandiose, novel or even "the right" research. This is especially applicable to the Master's level research, where implementation-focused work and theses are very popular (obviously, it is quite field-dependent, but here I imply the software engineering / computer science areas of research).
I don't see any reasons for why an good implementation-focused research work could not be published as a research paper in a solid journal. In fact, I have seen a lot of such papers (of varied quality), especially in the above-mentioned domains, published in respected peer-reviewed outlets.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Good scientific research is anything that increases the knowledge of humanity. Sometimes that involves creation of new things, sometimes that involves putting together existing things in a way that creates a new capability.
What you have described might or might not be scientific research, depending on the particulars of the work.
* If there is an interesting reason *why* Android static analysis hasn't been done yet (e.g., something incompatible between Android's organization and typical static analysis approaches), then explaining that reason and how you overcame it can be the core of a good scientific paper.
* If, on the other hand, it's just technical drudge work (e.g., like rewriting an application from C to Java), then even if it is difficult and valuable it will not be particularly scientifically interesting.
Even if the application itself turns out not to be scientifically interesting, however, what you *learn* once you start applying static analysis to Android programs might well be...
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]
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2016/06/05
| 1,592
| 7,002
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<issue_start>username_0: Public outreach is an important part of being a researcher, in my opinion, and blogging is the method of choice for many researchers. Is it okay to share recent research progress, explain publicly what you are doing, what kind of experiments/simulations you are running, why you chose these kinds of simulations, and the main conclusions you could draw from the simulations, and what you think comes next? I am not sure if research group leaders are keen on such being made "publicly available" before a paper is published. Of course, some might read your idea and realize something huge, do it themselves and take credit, and claim they came up with it independently.
I hope to get a PhD in computational chemistry in the next few years, and I would very much like to share ideas, share my thoughts, and explain concepts as an attempt at public outreach. This would, naturally, lead to sharing of some group-specific ideas and progress. Is such behavior generally supported by research group managers (or the university in general)? How would journals respond to publishing papers where some progress figures and ideas have been "published" on personal blogs?<issue_comment>username_1: Blogging is very common and appreciated in mathematics. For example, here are some blogs maintained by well-known mathematicians: [<NAME>](https://terrytao.wordpress.com), [Quomodocumque](https://quomodocumque.wordpress.com), [<NAME>](https://gowers.wordpress.com). None of these blogs are devoted exclusively to mathematics, although each of them contains plenty of math. Each of these links to tons of other math blogs, so you can see many more examples.
I think that what you propose is a very good idea, subject to some caution. As Alexandros suggests, I would only discuss other people's ideas if you get their permission. (Or, perhaps, if you are discussing something publicly available. In mathematics this is certainly considered okay but you should check with someone in your discipline.)
Most importantly, I would suggest waiting to blog about your work until after you have completed it and made your results publicly available. (In math it is typical to post a preprint to the [arXiv](http://arxiv.org) at approximately the same time that you submit your paper for publication, and at this point your work is considered public. But in some disciplines a paper is not considered "public" until it is formally published.) There are several reasons for doing this. One is that you avoid the risk of being scooped. Another is that, by waiting, you get to advertise your finished work. Typically, math blogs contain links to PDF copies of the papers they discuss. When I get interested, I often want to click through and read the paper!
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: There can be another reason to maintain a blog: *public outreach*.
A well-written blog that communicates not just with other research personnel, but can also be accessible to younger students and primary and secondary teachers, as well as the public at large, can serve as evidence of community outreach under the "broader outcomes" criterion when applying for [National Science Foundation](http://www.nsf.gov) funding.
Maintaining a blog for other researchers that cover *current* results is a part of what has been called the "open science" movement, which values reproducibility and transparency over the traditional closed model of scientific research. It is still a very niche field—in large part because of concerns over "scooping" and idea theft that have already been mentioned.
With respect to how journals will react, this is entirely field- and even journal-dependent. For instance, in the field in which I work, the [American Chemical Society](http://www.acs.org) is one of the largest and most significant publishers, and they take a very expansive view of what constitutes "prior publication," which would mean that a blog post containing a figure that is reproduced verbatim in a journal submission to them would probably be a no-no.
As far as your advisor goes, this again is something that you have to bring up with the particular advisor you are interested in. I suspect most advisors will be against you maintaining a blog that captures "live" results, but would be OK with stuff that has already been sent out for review.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: Personally I think its great to share your ideas as well as research progress.
But! It might be problematic. From two points of view.
Firstly the research institute you might be working at, could have you sign a **non-disclosure agreement**. Which means you cannot talk about the work being done at that institute.
This is to **prevent scooping**. It might happen you share partial results and the idea, and someone else finishes and publishes it before you do. The institute would maybe want to **patent** something, and if you leak it, they would have trouble doing so.
*In terms of science as a human endeavour, there is no problem.* But in terms of your career (in the real world) you just lost a possible publish opportunity and since grants depend on you publishing, you might not want to do that.
Often research institutes have their own **PR departments** who do the "public outreach". This also prevents leaking of incorrect or overly inflated information about the research being done.
You might write in your blog that you are near discovering a cure for something (near being subjective) and a journalist might **blow it out of proportion**, making a sensation story out of it.
This can be problematic for the research institutes funding and is a bad idea.
>
> However sharing your "own" ideas, that you do not intend to see through as some research is perfectly fine.
>
>
>
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_4: Much like everyone else has mentioned, being too detailed can risk scooping. So sharing progress and new ideas, specifically, is probably not a good idea.
However! That's not to say there isn't anything research-related to blog about for the sake of public outreach if you haven't published. At least on Tumblr, there are many blogs in the scientific community who post pictures of what they're doing in the lab and generally discuss what it's like to be a researcher without giving details to the projects they're working on. I do it even as an undergrad, and following blogs of grad students helps give me a perspective of what to look forward to when I graduate. Much like my blog likely does for high school students considering research in college. You don't have to be specific for it to be public outreach and to encourage interest in science!
But if you *do* want to explain things... You have to do literature research in order to understand your field and advance your own work. So you could summarize that sort of information without giving away new ideas that you have yet to publish. It's tricky, but it can be done.
*When in doubt, ask your advisor.*
Upvotes: 1
|
2016/06/05
| 426
| 1,800
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<issue_start>username_0: I am attending a conference with my PhD supervisor! So, I was a little bit nervous how to treat for example in welcome cocktail, during the conference time and at the gala dinner! Do I need to accompany him most of times? Or only need to be around? It is such a long time doing research with him, but never able to communicate easily! This is hopefully a chance for me to improve my relationship.<issue_comment>username_1: There's no ethical dilemma here. You might tag along with him at first to let him introduce you to some people in the field he knows, but after awhile of that, you should feel free to introduce yourself to people who look to be more your age or status (younger looking people are more likely to be students like yourself). Also, at the dinner, you should feel free to introduce yourself to people whose talks you attended and the people at your table.
The above assumes you are comfortable in such social situations. Not everything at a conference is business. Network and enjoy the social aspects of the events if you can.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: You will most likely also hang out with other phd students and post-docs. Here you can do a lot of networking and have some fun after the lectures during the day. Sightseeing together or enjoying local activities, such as karaoke, is huge fun.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: Let your advisor advise you, i.e. ask.
At which occasions does he/she expect you close by? It is far better to discuss this once before the conference than you having to bother him/her five times a day.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: you are both there to network -- that means he want to talk people other than you, and he expects you to talk to people other than him.
Upvotes: 3
|
2016/06/06
| 769
| 3,306
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<issue_start>username_0: I am a pet and Nat gas engineering student. I am graduating in six semesters (three yr) and this fall will be my fifth semester. I did not apply for an internship my freshmen year because I was under the impression no one hired freshmen. Therefore I assumed a rather standard summer job and figured I would certainly get one the next year. Now the oil and gas markets have completely crashed and there are almost zero internships right now. This was my last summer to find an internship before graduating and sending in graduate school applications. How much of a detriment will not having had any serious work experience be to my application?
I began college right out of high school. I have a 3.5 gpa and though I have not taken the GRE yet, I imagine I will perform 95+ percentile judging from my SAT and looking at a few problems.
I do not necessarily want to go to a top 20 graduate school for engineering, but I want to leave the door open because I am not quite sure what discipline I will be pursuing (but it will be some type of engineering or mathematical field). Do you think a six semester graduation in eng. (which judging from lack of online posts about it is almost unheard of) will be enough to be accepted into top 20 schools?
**One more question**: I have both a stock and Foreign Exchange account which I do profit from. I write backtests and apply statistical analysis to determine what to buy. I do not usually list these "jobs" on resumes or applications because I'd find that pretentious, but do you think I should include it in my graduate school application since I am lacking serious work experience?
EDIT: My question is not answered at all by the recommended question. I am seeking advice from ACADEMIA on this matter as I am not quite sure what to do. I am applying for a masters, not a PhD<issue_comment>username_1: The lack of professional or industrial experience will likely not significantly influence graduate admissions committees, particularly if you're planning to apply outside of your undergraduate field. However, what **will** matter is that you don't mention any real research experience that you've acquired in any field, whether your own or another. When applying outside your "home" area, this will almost certainly raise alarm bells for committees, because they will have little solid ground to decide whether you will succeed in *their* program or not. (For instance, they may have a hard time deciding if you can successfully complete the coursework phase of their program, and they may not be able to tell if you will be able to become a competent researcher in that program, if research is part of the degree.)
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: No, lack of work experience will not affect your application to graduate schools. Perhaps focusing on a research project or successfully completing a [Research Experience for Undergraduates funded by NSF summer program](http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=5517&from=fund) will really help your future applications. In addition, I believe the Forex/Stock broker account may be worthwhile in mentioning IF you are going into finance (maybe quant) AND you were moderately successful at trading, or you developed some type of new algorithm in the field.
Upvotes: 1
|
2016/06/06
| 1,192
| 5,005
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<issue_start>username_0: Recently I had my paper reviewed for potential publishing. With no big surprise I need to make some adjustments to my paper. One of the criticisms was that my work lacks "textbook explanations" (e.g. what is BETA, alpha).
To further clarify, this is the first ever work I ever plan to get published (academic context is finance). But I am surprised I should be required to explain basic concepts.
Would you have any recommendations as to what is the best way to incorporate these explanations in a work (e.g. footnotes) and what should be explained (of this really basic stuff/how to identify it) and what not?<issue_comment>username_1: A rule of thumb is: The **article (including its references) should be self contained**. Of course "self contained" is pretty hard to pin down exactly but as an example: If you use some β, then either define it or (at minimal) write something like "we follow the notation of X" with some standard book X. Also note that this usually does not cost you too much space because either something is very simple to define (e.g. writing the "*c* is the speed of light" is enough) or there is a good reference.
Another rule is that **if the notion is uniquely defined in your field and taught to every undergraduate** than you don't need to define it. From above: *c* can be something different from the speed of light, even within Physics, but a continuous function does always mean the same thing (once the topologies are fixed which should be from the context) as also "electric field" always means the same.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: Symbolic notation must *always* be defined in a paper. The reason is that there are not that many symbols and lots of things they can be used to represent. Thus, even if every class you ever took used *v* to represent voltage, other people are using it to represent velocity, vertices, values, etc. See, for example, [this far-from-complete Wikipedia list of how Greek letters are used](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_letters_used_in_mathematics,_science,_and_engineering).
At a minimum, each symbol should be defined the first time that it is used. It is also helpful to your readers to provide a table of important symbols and to refresh their memory on definitions of critical symbols from time to time. This can often be done quite simply and efficiently within the sentence where the symbol is used, e.g.:
>
> we consider a particle traveling at velocity *v* through a magnetic field of strength *B(x)*, where *x* is the position of the particle in space.
>
>
>
Upvotes: 7 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: The other answers here address some general principles in useful ways. My thought in answer to your question is "it depends". You need to think about your prospective audience and what you expect your typical (perhaps casual) reader to know.
It might help to look at other papers in the journal you're submitting to, to see what authors do there. Match their style and level of exposition.
Finally, thank your editor and reviewers for their help, and do what they ask.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: >
> *What is too obvious to explain in a scientific paper?*
>
>
>
**It all depends on your audience.**
In [The Structure of Scientific Revolutions](https://books.google.com/books?id=xnjS401VuFMC), p. 20, Kuhn laments how scientists pick up where textbooks leave off and specialize their writing into "brief articles addressed only to professional colleagues," those "whose knowledge of a shared paradigm can be assumed, and who prove to be the only ones able to read the papers addressed to them."
In general, it is better to broaden one's audience by simple explanations and definitions that do not individually require significant expansion of the paper length (including by citation to longer explanations that would significantly lengthen things), than to limit oneself to a smaller audience whose actual knowledge matches your assumptions.
Here, you're getting clear feedback from the editor/reviewers about things that need to be clarified, so definitely do those things. The editor knows your audience better than you do, and the request is quite reasonable (even much more light than requests for changes often are).
Symbols should almost always be defined, and acronyms should be spelled out on first use, even if well known. This can be done within a sentence (e.g. ", where *c* is the speed of light in a vacuum") or parenthetical (e.g. "the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE)").
For other terms with specific meanings, it is helpful to define those specific meanings, to make it clear in your paper and help readers distinguish your specific meaning from all the other misuses of the term they've heard. Where specific definitions vary (and they do, a lot more often than you'd expect), it's helpful to cite a source for that definition just as you'd cite a source for any other fact you've included from the literature.
Upvotes: 2
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2016/06/06
| 353
| 1,495
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<issue_start>username_0: I am wondering about review articles. Where to get them? Google scholar or Researchgate or other such sites does not provide any option to separate out the review articles. It is very hard to look into all the articles and separate out.
Is there any way to separate out the review articles only?<issue_comment>username_1: If you're looking for biomedical reviews, [Pubmed](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/) allows you to filter reviews after searching for keywords. This option is available in the sidebar, under "Article Types". Depending on your field, there might be other search engines that allow this type of filtering.
On Google Scholar, you can refine your searches by using Google search operators. For example, if you search for *insubject:"obstructive lung disease" intext:"review"*, Google Scholar will return results that have "Obstructive Lung Disease" in the title and the word "review" somewhere in the text.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Depending on your field, there may also be journals dedicated to reviews. For example, sociology has the "Annual Review of Sociology." Check out <http://www.annualreviews.org> to see if your field has a journal. There is also a handy search bar where you can search for a topic within a journal.
This does not, of course, get you a comprehensive set of review articles on a topic, but if you're just looking for a starting place to learn about a topic it could be helpful.
Upvotes: 1
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2016/06/06
| 6,869
| 27,849
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<issue_start>username_0: I have studied in an Australian university and throughout my university studies, I declined all prizes awarded to me. It is not that I have had something against my university but it is due to my own ethical values. I believe that a true scholar should have no interest in fame and prizes and that is exactly the reason I declined all the prizes given to me so far (I want to remain a true scholar).
It's not that I see myself superior to others in any way; indeed, I always claimed to be the dumbest student in my university. If it takes someone 10 minutes to understand a math theorem, it would take me at least 3 hours to understand it properly. Some people unfortunately misinterpret my statement:
>
> I believe that a true scholar should have no interest in fame and
> prizes and that is exactly the reason I declined all the prizes given
> to me so far (I want to remain a true scholar).
>
>
>
I did not mean in any way, that someone who accepts prizes is not a true scholar and if that is the message conveyed by my statement, then I apologize from the bottom of my heart. This statement only applies to me; if I accept prizes, then I think that I am better than others and because of this I decline prizes because I want to remain a true scholar. I do not want to feel superior to others. This will make me not work hard. Some people said that I am following Perelman's footsteps. I honestly do not even consider myself a successful student; how could I dare to compare myself to Perelman. I am only an ordinary dumb student.
I just received an email from the university that this July (my graduation ceremony), they will award the university medal to me. I am going to decline the university medal but I am not sure what is the best way to do this politely so that the academics at my university will not be offended.
**Update**: After discussing this with the dean of my faculty, I agreed to accept the university medal. It will be annotated in my academic transcript, record, and testamur. This helps my Phd admission chances in the top 10 universities (something I was told by academics at my university).<issue_comment>username_1: The problem is as @WetlabWalter says: the medal is not just for you - it is for everybody that supported you and, in fact, indirectly for your class, and lecturers.
You have a good reason (for yourself) to decline it, which is commendable.
But you might offend those who recommended you, those who taught you (who would be indirectly honoured) and possibly your classmates.
If on weighing your principles against this you still stand by your decision to decline the prize, send a letter as long beforehand as you can, explaining your position and emphasise your history of declining prizes (to indicate that they are not the only one on the receiving end of the rejection).
Don't decline on the event itself, this will be a major embarrassment.
Finally, if you develop a reputation for declining prizes, grant managers may decide that they'd rather not put glamourous, funded programs your way, so be prepared for limitations of funding in the future. For anybody as brilliant as a Grothendieck or Perelman, that should not be a problem, but if that's not the case, take that into account.
**PostScriptum**: The balance of prize distribution is very fine. A prize is supposed to honour the recipient. But if the recipient is absolutely outstanding, the recipient would add as much glamour to the prize as the other way around. Therefore, a rejection penalises also the prize-giver.
Why are prizes at all relevant? You have a point in that a true scholar should not be motivated by prizes and honours. However, in today's very crowded fields, a prize is like a flag that demonstrates "this is how things should be done". It sets a signal of example for others. By rejecting the prize you send the message that you do not care to be an example; which is entirely your right - but you must be aware of that.
Interestingly, Sartre was one of the few people declining the Nobel prize (literature). It was claimed that, some years later, he decided that he'd rather be in need of the prize money and asked whether he could get it retrospectively (after this story, he couldn't). Whether this anecdote is true or false, it makes clear you have to think hard whether there could be a constellation whether you could regret your decision - it doesn't have to be for the money, of course.
Upvotes: 7 <issue_comment>username_2: I don't know precisely which university you are at, but at least at the University of Sydney the University Medal is not merely a medal or an award. Its also a *grade* and is printed on your degree as such. So for instance, possible grades for an Honours degree are "2nd class honours", then "1st class honours", then "1st class honours with university medal" (source: the latter is what is printed on *my* degree). So to reject the university medal is about as absurd as trying to reject "first class honours" on your Honours degree.
EDIT: I am elaborating in response to a comment below. From [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_Medal)
>
> In some universities, the University Medal is treated as a distinct division or class of the Honours degree ("First class Honours and University Medal").
>
>
>
This includes the biggest university in Australia. So, at a minimum, make sure you are not at such a university, or else your question does not make much sense. For Americans, it is like asking how to turn down a grade of Magna Cum Laude on a Bachelor's degree. And even if the OP is not at such a university he should hesitate to turn down something which is, *at least on a de-facto level*, simply considered as a division of an Honours degree. Employers will simply assume he was in a lower division.
EDIT 2: I am updating this again to provide more context on the university medal. The university of Sydney explicitly lists this as a *grade*: [honours grades at University of Sydney](http://sydney.edu.au/engineering/it/current_students/undergrad/honours/grades.shtml). Depending on the institute, in Australia the university medal often goes to several students. For example, here are [the university medal guidelines](http://www.gsu.uts.edu.au/policies/utsmedalguide.html) from the University of Technology Sydney (UTS). The Science faculty at UTS hands out from 3 to 6 of these in a year. Moreover, they are usually given to the students with the highest average grades, and the latter is typically the main (or sole) criteria for them. An average of 85% (High Distinction level) across the subject is a typical prerequisite.
Grade inflation is a pretty serious problem in Australia, and my feeling is that more university medals are handed out now than in the past. At least in academia, some employers or potential PhD advisors really do look for, *or even expect*, potential students to have a university medal. Either explicitly or by default, **in the Australian university system the university medal plays mostly the same role that the top Latin Honours plays in other countries**. Especially if the OP wants a career in academia, I encourage him to think again before insisting on receiving a lower grade on his Honours Degree.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: I think the short answer is GautierC's comment: Send them a letter politely explaining why you reject the prize. Make clear that you are not rejecting it because you have some problem with the people awarding it, i.e. it's not "I don't want to be associated with people like you who do X", but a general principle you follow. Do it far enough in advance so that they can give the prize to someone else.
But on a larger scale, I question the premise of your question. "I believe that a true scholar should have no interest in fame and prizes." Personally, I haven't sought any sort of awards or prizes since I was in high school. But when on occassion someone offers me some award or honor, I think it's simply polite to accept it and sound grateful. Telling people, "I don't care about your awards" sounds arrogant and rude. You're telling them that their opinions don't matter. Imagine if you paid a compliment to someone -- whether it's "that was an excellent paper you published in that prestigious journal" or "that dress is very pretty" or whatever -- and the person replied, "I don't care about your opinion." You would surely feel insulted.
You don't have to be scrambling after fame and posing for the cameras to accept an award that is offered you. Just say "thank you", accept the award, and put the plaque or certificate or whatever in the closet and don't worry about it. Then the people who gave the award are happy, and you are not hurt in any way.
I think this position of yours could ultimately lead to others not wanting to work with you. They will feel slighted and insulted at your rejection of their offers.
When you apply for a job, being able to list awards and honors on your resume will surely help. Similarly when applying for a research grant. I guess you could say, "I rejected numerous awards because accepting awards violates my eithical standards", but if I was evaluating the application, I'd suspect that was an excuse for not earning any.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: The discussion here about your question provides an interesting microcosm of the sort of responses you are likely to get to your decision to decline the medal from people at your university who learn about it. Already here we are seeing a lot of people who don't even know you telling you to reconsider your decision, implying that you have a moral duty to accept the medal as a service to the university and to the other students who ostensibly are meant to be inspired by your excellent academic performance (which seems like a very weak argument to me personally), and offering other kinds of unsolicited advice that doesn't answer the specific question you asked. I sense in these responses a fair amount of indignation and possibly offense, and I think it's interesting to try to understand what is causing it.
My feeling is that what's going on is that for most people it's hard and even offensive to see someone turning down a great honor or privilege that they themselves would be happy to have and maybe can only dream of achieving. It feels to people like a waste, like seeing something very valuable being casually thrown away, or like seeing a rich person lighting a cigar with a $100 bill. As much as people may be able to understand your reasoning at an intellectual level, at the emotional level it feels that not accepting the medal is an act of condescension on your part, as if you are saying that you are so much better than everyone else that you don't even need earthly benefits like awards or medals to feel superior.
With this analysis in mind, let me answer your question. If you have indeed decided not to accept the medal, there is nothing you can do other than to explain your decision and the reasoning for it to the people at your university as clearly as you can, just as you explained it here. You should fully expect that some of them *will* be offended, and some of them *will* try to convince you to change your mind and offer the same kind of advice and moralistic arguments that are being offered to you here. I don't think that can be avoided, but I don't necessarily think that it needs to be avoided either. I have great respect for people who follow their beliefs at the risk of being unpopular or angering others and would like to encourage you to ultimately do what you think is right, after carefully weighing all the relevant information. Good luck!
Upvotes: 7 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_5: My answer to your question is that I think that you should seriously rethink your opinion about "True Scholars" (I will expound on the reasons below) but if you are unable or unwilling to do so then rather than refuse to accept awards in your own name, accept them on behalf of all students at the university and use whatever prize money may be attached to create a scholarship program for the benefit of future "true scholars". Who knows, you might be able to set up the scholarship for "true scholars" only and require recipients to pledge to refuse all awards in order to be *awarded* the scholarship.
As for the idea that a "True Scholar" accepts no awards/rewards, respectfully that is *poppycock!* It is correct that a true scholar ***seeks*** no award but that is not the same thing.
When a colleague says "*Thank you*" or "*Good job*" do you decline that? If not then you are a hypocrite because those too are awards of an informal nature. Tell those pesky colleagues to knock it off.
What about *merit scholarships*? Those are also a form of award based on accomplishments, should those be refused by students needing funds to complete their studies? or should they only be for merit in fields unrelated to the student's studies?
A true scholar *seeks* no awards and does what he or she does for the love of the work, but *accepting* kudos is part of the human experience and unless you plan to be a [**hermit**](http://quotesgram.net/quotes-about-being-a-hermit/#LfnJVF5Foj) you need to be part of the human experience.
Furthermore, awards signify *reputation* and reputation is **part of the work** because it allows your work to be considered more seriously by others. It is part of the work because without peer review and collaboration the work cannot progress. A paper is published on the merit of the work, but it is considered (*moved to the top of the review stack*) on the reputation of the author(s). Without reputation a paper can be delayed and possibly ignored for a great deal of time. Getting published is part of the work of a modern scholar because that is how the work is shared and expanded on.
In a bygone era when scholars were few, a scholar's reputation could be established by word of mouth or letters of introduction. But in a world with millions of scholars spread globally in multiple languages, the reputation of a scholar is crucial to being able to separate the wheat from the chaff. People's time is valuable so why would they bother reading a research paper or proposal from an "unknown" with no reputation. A person who does not have a reputation may very well have a wonderful insight into an important matter but if his or her insight is never considered by others so what?!
Finally, I propose to you that saying no true scholar accepts awards is part of the [**NTS fallacy**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zzSqL--d_I). Saying this means that any scholar who *dares* to accept an award for the work they have done is not a "real" scholar, thus by that logic <NAME> was a fake. Poppycock I say again!
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_6: Get over yourself.
------------------
This isn't about *you*. And this isn't really even about your work. This is about a community celebrating its own values, by recognizing the individuals that best represent those values.
"True scholars" don't exist in a vacuum. We are part of a *community* of scholars. We use resources created by that community, most obviously in the form of the work of our predecessors ("shoulders of giants"), but more indirectly through the efforts of colleagues, teachers, students, advisors, committee members, letter-writers, department chairs, librarians, referees, editors, conference organizers, and funding agencies that make our work possible. We owe that community an incredible debt. **Accepting recognition gives you an opportunity, which most people never have, to display the gratitude that you owe that community.**
It's noble and selfless not to *pursue* recognition, but by actively *declining* recognition, you are making a clear and public statement that the offered recognition—and by extension, the community that offers it—is either inappropriate or beneath your notice.
If you actually believe that the university has selected you inappropriately, either through incompetence or malice, or that the ethical and intellectual standards of the university are so compromised that you don't want to support them, then of course you should refuse the prize. Otherwise, refusal is simply selfish; the appropriate response is to accept the recognition with humility and gratitude, and then get back to work.
---
Let me add a response to a specific comment by @CaptainEmacs:
>
> As a scientist, all you agree to is to join a scholarly activity, and publish, and, if your head of department squeezes you, gain grants. Some introverted people or people from "introversion"-primed societies really do not want the extra attention from a prize.
>
>
>
I respectfully disagree with the first sentence. Becoming a scientist entails more than just doing research and publishing the results of that research. We also have an ethical obligation to evaluate our colleagues' work (because they evaluate ours), to write recommendation letters for our students and junior colleagues (because our advisors and senior colleagues have written them for us), and to make our work visible (because we work for the benefit of the community, not just for ourselves). And yes, I believe we have an ethical obligation to help promote our communities/organizations/subfields, because we have materially benefited from others' promotion of our communities/organizations/subfields.
Yes, I understand agree that some people *really do not want* the extra attention from prizes. For similar reasons, some people *really do not want* to submit their results for peer review, or *really do not want* to present their work to a live audience, or *really do not want* to write grant proposals to obtain the necessary resources for their work. But sometimes we all have to do things we really don't want to do.
Upvotes: 7 <issue_comment>username_7: hmm, I went to a high school which had no academic prizes because the head thought they were wrong. I received a prize for being top of my year as an undergrad at a well-known English university.
I am now a professor at an Australian university and regularly participate in deciding the award of the honours medal for my subject.
If you wrote me a letter thanking me for awarding the honours medal and saying that you did not want to accept a prize or medal since prizes conflict with your values, I would think you were a bit odd but I would not be offended.
For what it's worth, I think that honours medals tend to be awarded very objectively, but prizes, in general, in academe are very political and taken far too seriously. Academic careers are unfortunately about building prestige in various ways to land a prestigious job. If you get a non-prestigious job you will probably have a heavy teaching load and little research money and so not much time for scholarship.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_8: As you can see from the other answers, a lot of people will get offended by your refusal to accept the award. Most academics greatly value the endless list of awards and honors that they give to each other, and no matter how you say it, they will interpret a refusal to accept an award as saying you're better than them in some way. Trying to explain that it's nothing personal and is part of a belief system of yours will likely be like talking to a wall. My suggestion would be to just accept the award, not because it's the right thing to do, but because of the damage it would do to your career and reputation by refusing it. Sometimes you have to do unpleasant things to further your career, and this is a relatively minor one.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_9: Just a few minor points in light of the useful answers already given:
* If a True Scholar should not have interest in fame and prizes, that does not necessarily mean s/he would decline them, it means s/he would not mind them when studying/researching. So your conclusion does not seem to follow from your ethical stance (which I am not judging). At least, it does not necessarily follow. Going to a lot of trouble to refuse an award seems to indicate some level of interest.
* If you had not already decided how to act, I would have encouraged you to give a moment's thought to the following question: Do you believe *another* person should get the award, or *no* person should get the award? Assuming it's the latter, I think that a refusal to accept the award phrased not as personal humility but as a principled objection to the system of awards would be less offensive. However, as @username_2 [suggests](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/70869/7319), in Australia things are more complicated.
* When I was a Teaching Assistant I would often argue against grading students. I mean, obviously you want to mark errors in homework and make comments about the content, and a pass/fail is reasonable (usually) - but I didn't approve of putting people on a scale of who's best, for multiple reasons which I won't go into. Of course I was never made the TA-in-charge of any course I was in.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_10: To show that the other opinions are not shared unilaterally, not even in the US, here a statement by Feynman, the Nobel Prize winner, himself:
*"I don't like honors. I'm appreciated for the work that I did, and for people who appreciate it, and I notice that other physicists use my work. I don't need anything else. I don't think there's any sense to anything else. I don't see that it makes any point that someone in the Swedish Academy decides that this work is noble enough to receive a prize. I've already got the prize. The prize is the pleasure of finding the thing out, the kick in the discovery, the observation that other people use it. Those are the real things. The honors are unreal to me. I don't believe in honors. It bothers me, honors. Honors is epilets, honors is uniforms. My poppa brought me up this way. I can't stand it, it hurts me. When I was in High School, one of the first honors I got was to be a member of the Arista, which is a group of kids who got good grades. Everybody wanted to be a member of the Arista. I discovered that what they did in their meetings was to sit around to discuss who else was worthy to join this wonderful group that we are. OK So we sat around trying to decide who would get to be allowed into this Arista. This kind of thing bothers me psychologically for one or another reason. I don't understand myself. Honors, and from that day to this, always bothered me. I had trouble when I became a member of the National Academy of Science, and I had ultimately to resign. Because there was another organization, most of whose time was spent in choosing who was illustrious enough to be allowed to join us in our organization. Including such questions as: 'we physicists have to stick together because there's a very good chemist that they're trying to get in and we haven't got enough room...'. What's the matter with chemists? The whole thing was rotten . Because the purpose was mostly to decide who could have this honor. OK? I don't like honors."*
He actually played with the idea of not receiving the prize ("Surely you are joking, Mr.Feynman"), but he grudgingly acceded that there was no way to get out without having more hassle. So you are not alone in your way of thinking, Perelman who declined the Fields Medal is another example.
So what is the problem ? If you are declining something, you are sending always the message "It has for me not such a value that it something to strive for". If someone offers you then a prize or honor, people are forced to reason for themselves if a prize or honor is really something to be proud of, you are subconsciously attacking their judgement.
Back to the counterarguments:
>
> " the medal is not just for you - it is for everybody that supported
> you and, in fact, indirectly for your class, and lecturers."
>
> "This is
> about a community celebrating its own values, by recognizing the
> individuals that best represent those values.[...] Accepting
> recognition gives you an opportunity, **which most people never
> have**[bold by me], to display the gratitude that you owe that community."
>
>
>
I think the reason is simple: The western world, especially the US, has two conflicting values: Everyone should be treated equal *and* people should strive for the best and leaving the competition behind. This is per definition impossible.
One acceptable solution may be: People are striving and fighting, but the collective must approve the final result. This "most people never have" is particularly telling: Why should people base their decision on what many other people *which they have nothing to do with* get?
By declining you are essentially denying them their power to influence you which gives them the illusion to have some control over the situation. That may be the reason people are arguing "that he thinks better of himself" and acting hurt and angry.
I find it particularly strange that here in Academia people are unaware of invisible filter bubbles. We have a huge number of different and known cultures (Deaf, LBGT, religious rights) who have a decidedly other viewpoint than the consensus. Why have people here so much trouble to understand that denying honors may have reasons which do *not* imply negative judgement of other people and that there people and cultures out there which even value such decisions?
>
> However, in today's very crowded fields, a prize is like a flag that
> demonstrates "this is how things should be done". It sets a signal of
> example for others.
>
>
>
Counterargument: Why not simply celebrating the content of the research itself? Time will tell always if a discovery has any worth. And how embarassing for the prize giver if the prize and acknowledgment reward bad or offensive research. It may send "We were so blinded that we did not see the true nature of the research" and it gives an incentive for the prize giver to sweep bad decisions under a rug.
>
> People's time is valuable so why would they bother reading a research
> paper or proposal from an "unknown" with no reputation.
>
>
>
Because it is good science.
Sure, we have now the situation that there are so many people in the academic environment that you need to filter and choose, so your position has strong merit. On the other hand: If everyone *never* read anything apart from a specific group assigned with merit and good research is never capable to enter the academic mainstream: *Is such an academic system not broken by definition?*
>
> We also have an ethical obligation to evaluate our colleagues' work
> (because they evaluate ours),
> to write recommendation letters for our students and junior colleagues
> (because our advisors and senior colleagues have written them for us),
> and to make our work visible (because we work for the benefit of the
> community, not just for ourselves). And yes, I believe we have an
> ethical obligation to help promote our communities/organizations
> /subfields, because we have materially benefited from others' promotion
> of our communities/organizations/subfields.
>
>
>
If you view the history, some countries give or gave away university education essentially for free (which is still practised in some countries), provide research opportunities without grants and with less competition there was no pressure to write recommendation letters. So many arguments you mention are much more culture-specific than you may have thought.
I accept that not receiving honors will make live a lot more difficult and the decision to do this should be carefully considered, but I do not accept that declining honors is a bad thing.
Upvotes: 3
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<issue_start>username_0: I spent 10+ years in industry before going back to grad school to pursue a PhD, and therefore I have extensive industry experience, as well as ongoing academic work.
Is there a good way to represent this on my CV? Does anyone know a good CV format or template that would allow me to show this?<issue_comment>username_1: The problem is as @WetlabWalter says: the medal is not just for you - it is for everybody that supported you and, in fact, indirectly for your class, and lecturers.
You have a good reason (for yourself) to decline it, which is commendable.
But you might offend those who recommended you, those who taught you (who would be indirectly honoured) and possibly your classmates.
If on weighing your principles against this you still stand by your decision to decline the prize, send a letter as long beforehand as you can, explaining your position and emphasise your history of declining prizes (to indicate that they are not the only one on the receiving end of the rejection).
Don't decline on the event itself, this will be a major embarrassment.
Finally, if you develop a reputation for declining prizes, grant managers may decide that they'd rather not put glamourous, funded programs your way, so be prepared for limitations of funding in the future. For anybody as brilliant as a Grothendieck or Perelman, that should not be a problem, but if that's not the case, take that into account.
**PostScriptum**: The balance of prize distribution is very fine. A prize is supposed to honour the recipient. But if the recipient is absolutely outstanding, the recipient would add as much glamour to the prize as the other way around. Therefore, a rejection penalises also the prize-giver.
Why are prizes at all relevant? You have a point in that a true scholar should not be motivated by prizes and honours. However, in today's very crowded fields, a prize is like a flag that demonstrates "this is how things should be done". It sets a signal of example for others. By rejecting the prize you send the message that you do not care to be an example; which is entirely your right - but you must be aware of that.
Interestingly, Sartre was one of the few people declining the Nobel prize (literature). It was claimed that, some years later, he decided that he'd rather be in need of the prize money and asked whether he could get it retrospectively (after this story, he couldn't). Whether this anecdote is true or false, it makes clear you have to think hard whether there could be a constellation whether you could regret your decision - it doesn't have to be for the money, of course.
Upvotes: 7 <issue_comment>username_2: I don't know precisely which university you are at, but at least at the University of Sydney the University Medal is not merely a medal or an award. Its also a *grade* and is printed on your degree as such. So for instance, possible grades for an Honours degree are "2nd class honours", then "1st class honours", then "1st class honours with university medal" (source: the latter is what is printed on *my* degree). So to reject the university medal is about as absurd as trying to reject "first class honours" on your Honours degree.
EDIT: I am elaborating in response to a comment below. From [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_Medal)
>
> In some universities, the University Medal is treated as a distinct division or class of the Honours degree ("First class Honours and University Medal").
>
>
>
This includes the biggest university in Australia. So, at a minimum, make sure you are not at such a university, or else your question does not make much sense. For Americans, it is like asking how to turn down a grade of Magna Cum Laude on a Bachelor's degree. And even if the OP is not at such a university he should hesitate to turn down something which is, *at least on a de-facto level*, simply considered as a division of an Honours degree. Employers will simply assume he was in a lower division.
EDIT 2: I am updating this again to provide more context on the university medal. The university of Sydney explicitly lists this as a *grade*: [honours grades at University of Sydney](http://sydney.edu.au/engineering/it/current_students/undergrad/honours/grades.shtml). Depending on the institute, in Australia the university medal often goes to several students. For example, here are [the university medal guidelines](http://www.gsu.uts.edu.au/policies/utsmedalguide.html) from the University of Technology Sydney (UTS). The Science faculty at UTS hands out from 3 to 6 of these in a year. Moreover, they are usually given to the students with the highest average grades, and the latter is typically the main (or sole) criteria for them. An average of 85% (High Distinction level) across the subject is a typical prerequisite.
Grade inflation is a pretty serious problem in Australia, and my feeling is that more university medals are handed out now than in the past. At least in academia, some employers or potential PhD advisors really do look for, *or even expect*, potential students to have a university medal. Either explicitly or by default, **in the Australian university system the university medal plays mostly the same role that the top Latin Honours plays in other countries**. Especially if the OP wants a career in academia, I encourage him to think again before insisting on receiving a lower grade on his Honours Degree.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: I think the short answer is GautierC's comment: Send them a letter politely explaining why you reject the prize. Make clear that you are not rejecting it because you have some problem with the people awarding it, i.e. it's not "I don't want to be associated with people like you who do X", but a general principle you follow. Do it far enough in advance so that they can give the prize to someone else.
But on a larger scale, I question the premise of your question. "I believe that a true scholar should have no interest in fame and prizes." Personally, I haven't sought any sort of awards or prizes since I was in high school. But when on occassion someone offers me some award or honor, I think it's simply polite to accept it and sound grateful. Telling people, "I don't care about your awards" sounds arrogant and rude. You're telling them that their opinions don't matter. Imagine if you paid a compliment to someone -- whether it's "that was an excellent paper you published in that prestigious journal" or "that dress is very pretty" or whatever -- and the person replied, "I don't care about your opinion." You would surely feel insulted.
You don't have to be scrambling after fame and posing for the cameras to accept an award that is offered you. Just say "thank you", accept the award, and put the plaque or certificate or whatever in the closet and don't worry about it. Then the people who gave the award are happy, and you are not hurt in any way.
I think this position of yours could ultimately lead to others not wanting to work with you. They will feel slighted and insulted at your rejection of their offers.
When you apply for a job, being able to list awards and honors on your resume will surely help. Similarly when applying for a research grant. I guess you could say, "I rejected numerous awards because accepting awards violates my eithical standards", but if I was evaluating the application, I'd suspect that was an excuse for not earning any.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: The discussion here about your question provides an interesting microcosm of the sort of responses you are likely to get to your decision to decline the medal from people at your university who learn about it. Already here we are seeing a lot of people who don't even know you telling you to reconsider your decision, implying that you have a moral duty to accept the medal as a service to the university and to the other students who ostensibly are meant to be inspired by your excellent academic performance (which seems like a very weak argument to me personally), and offering other kinds of unsolicited advice that doesn't answer the specific question you asked. I sense in these responses a fair amount of indignation and possibly offense, and I think it's interesting to try to understand what is causing it.
My feeling is that what's going on is that for most people it's hard and even offensive to see someone turning down a great honor or privilege that they themselves would be happy to have and maybe can only dream of achieving. It feels to people like a waste, like seeing something very valuable being casually thrown away, or like seeing a rich person lighting a cigar with a $100 bill. As much as people may be able to understand your reasoning at an intellectual level, at the emotional level it feels that not accepting the medal is an act of condescension on your part, as if you are saying that you are so much better than everyone else that you don't even need earthly benefits like awards or medals to feel superior.
With this analysis in mind, let me answer your question. If you have indeed decided not to accept the medal, there is nothing you can do other than to explain your decision and the reasoning for it to the people at your university as clearly as you can, just as you explained it here. You should fully expect that some of them *will* be offended, and some of them *will* try to convince you to change your mind and offer the same kind of advice and moralistic arguments that are being offered to you here. I don't think that can be avoided, but I don't necessarily think that it needs to be avoided either. I have great respect for people who follow their beliefs at the risk of being unpopular or angering others and would like to encourage you to ultimately do what you think is right, after carefully weighing all the relevant information. Good luck!
Upvotes: 7 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_5: My answer to your question is that I think that you should seriously rethink your opinion about "True Scholars" (I will expound on the reasons below) but if you are unable or unwilling to do so then rather than refuse to accept awards in your own name, accept them on behalf of all students at the university and use whatever prize money may be attached to create a scholarship program for the benefit of future "true scholars". Who knows, you might be able to set up the scholarship for "true scholars" only and require recipients to pledge to refuse all awards in order to be *awarded* the scholarship.
As for the idea that a "True Scholar" accepts no awards/rewards, respectfully that is *poppycock!* It is correct that a true scholar ***seeks*** no award but that is not the same thing.
When a colleague says "*Thank you*" or "*Good job*" do you decline that? If not then you are a hypocrite because those too are awards of an informal nature. Tell those pesky colleagues to knock it off.
What about *merit scholarships*? Those are also a form of award based on accomplishments, should those be refused by students needing funds to complete their studies? or should they only be for merit in fields unrelated to the student's studies?
A true scholar *seeks* no awards and does what he or she does for the love of the work, but *accepting* kudos is part of the human experience and unless you plan to be a [**hermit**](http://quotesgram.net/quotes-about-being-a-hermit/#LfnJVF5Foj) you need to be part of the human experience.
Furthermore, awards signify *reputation* and reputation is **part of the work** because it allows your work to be considered more seriously by others. It is part of the work because without peer review and collaboration the work cannot progress. A paper is published on the merit of the work, but it is considered (*moved to the top of the review stack*) on the reputation of the author(s). Without reputation a paper can be delayed and possibly ignored for a great deal of time. Getting published is part of the work of a modern scholar because that is how the work is shared and expanded on.
In a bygone era when scholars were few, a scholar's reputation could be established by word of mouth or letters of introduction. But in a world with millions of scholars spread globally in multiple languages, the reputation of a scholar is crucial to being able to separate the wheat from the chaff. People's time is valuable so why would they bother reading a research paper or proposal from an "unknown" with no reputation. A person who does not have a reputation may very well have a wonderful insight into an important matter but if his or her insight is never considered by others so what?!
Finally, I propose to you that saying no true scholar accepts awards is part of the [**NTS fallacy**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zzSqL--d_I). Saying this means that any scholar who *dares* to accept an award for the work they have done is not a "real" scholar, thus by that logic <NAME> was a fake. Poppycock I say again!
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_6: Get over yourself.
------------------
This isn't about *you*. And this isn't really even about your work. This is about a community celebrating its own values, by recognizing the individuals that best represent those values.
"True scholars" don't exist in a vacuum. We are part of a *community* of scholars. We use resources created by that community, most obviously in the form of the work of our predecessors ("shoulders of giants"), but more indirectly through the efforts of colleagues, teachers, students, advisors, committee members, letter-writers, department chairs, librarians, referees, editors, conference organizers, and funding agencies that make our work possible. We owe that community an incredible debt. **Accepting recognition gives you an opportunity, which most people never have, to display the gratitude that you owe that community.**
It's noble and selfless not to *pursue* recognition, but by actively *declining* recognition, you are making a clear and public statement that the offered recognition—and by extension, the community that offers it—is either inappropriate or beneath your notice.
If you actually believe that the university has selected you inappropriately, either through incompetence or malice, or that the ethical and intellectual standards of the university are so compromised that you don't want to support them, then of course you should refuse the prize. Otherwise, refusal is simply selfish; the appropriate response is to accept the recognition with humility and gratitude, and then get back to work.
---
Let me add a response to a specific comment by @CaptainEmacs:
>
> As a scientist, all you agree to is to join a scholarly activity, and publish, and, if your head of department squeezes you, gain grants. Some introverted people or people from "introversion"-primed societies really do not want the extra attention from a prize.
>
>
>
I respectfully disagree with the first sentence. Becoming a scientist entails more than just doing research and publishing the results of that research. We also have an ethical obligation to evaluate our colleagues' work (because they evaluate ours), to write recommendation letters for our students and junior colleagues (because our advisors and senior colleagues have written them for us), and to make our work visible (because we work for the benefit of the community, not just for ourselves). And yes, I believe we have an ethical obligation to help promote our communities/organizations/subfields, because we have materially benefited from others' promotion of our communities/organizations/subfields.
Yes, I understand agree that some people *really do not want* the extra attention from prizes. For similar reasons, some people *really do not want* to submit their results for peer review, or *really do not want* to present their work to a live audience, or *really do not want* to write grant proposals to obtain the necessary resources for their work. But sometimes we all have to do things we really don't want to do.
Upvotes: 7 <issue_comment>username_7: hmm, I went to a high school which had no academic prizes because the head thought they were wrong. I received a prize for being top of my year as an undergrad at a well-known English university.
I am now a professor at an Australian university and regularly participate in deciding the award of the honours medal for my subject.
If you wrote me a letter thanking me for awarding the honours medal and saying that you did not want to accept a prize or medal since prizes conflict with your values, I would think you were a bit odd but I would not be offended.
For what it's worth, I think that honours medals tend to be awarded very objectively, but prizes, in general, in academe are very political and taken far too seriously. Academic careers are unfortunately about building prestige in various ways to land a prestigious job. If you get a non-prestigious job you will probably have a heavy teaching load and little research money and so not much time for scholarship.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_8: As you can see from the other answers, a lot of people will get offended by your refusal to accept the award. Most academics greatly value the endless list of awards and honors that they give to each other, and no matter how you say it, they will interpret a refusal to accept an award as saying you're better than them in some way. Trying to explain that it's nothing personal and is part of a belief system of yours will likely be like talking to a wall. My suggestion would be to just accept the award, not because it's the right thing to do, but because of the damage it would do to your career and reputation by refusing it. Sometimes you have to do unpleasant things to further your career, and this is a relatively minor one.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_9: Just a few minor points in light of the useful answers already given:
* If a True Scholar should not have interest in fame and prizes, that does not necessarily mean s/he would decline them, it means s/he would not mind them when studying/researching. So your conclusion does not seem to follow from your ethical stance (which I am not judging). At least, it does not necessarily follow. Going to a lot of trouble to refuse an award seems to indicate some level of interest.
* If you had not already decided how to act, I would have encouraged you to give a moment's thought to the following question: Do you believe *another* person should get the award, or *no* person should get the award? Assuming it's the latter, I think that a refusal to accept the award phrased not as personal humility but as a principled objection to the system of awards would be less offensive. However, as @username_2 [suggests](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/70869/7319), in Australia things are more complicated.
* When I was a Teaching Assistant I would often argue against grading students. I mean, obviously you want to mark errors in homework and make comments about the content, and a pass/fail is reasonable (usually) - but I didn't approve of putting people on a scale of who's best, for multiple reasons which I won't go into. Of course I was never made the TA-in-charge of any course I was in.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_10: To show that the other opinions are not shared unilaterally, not even in the US, here a statement by Feynman, the Nobel Prize winner, himself:
*"I don't like honors. I'm appreciated for the work that I did, and for people who appreciate it, and I notice that other physicists use my work. I don't need anything else. I don't think there's any sense to anything else. I don't see that it makes any point that someone in the Swedish Academy decides that this work is noble enough to receive a prize. I've already got the prize. The prize is the pleasure of finding the thing out, the kick in the discovery, the observation that other people use it. Those are the real things. The honors are unreal to me. I don't believe in honors. It bothers me, honors. Honors is epilets, honors is uniforms. My poppa brought me up this way. I can't stand it, it hurts me. When I was in High School, one of the first honors I got was to be a member of the Arista, which is a group of kids who got good grades. Everybody wanted to be a member of the Arista. I discovered that what they did in their meetings was to sit around to discuss who else was worthy to join this wonderful group that we are. OK So we sat around trying to decide who would get to be allowed into this Arista. This kind of thing bothers me psychologically for one or another reason. I don't understand myself. Honors, and from that day to this, always bothered me. I had trouble when I became a member of the National Academy of Science, and I had ultimately to resign. Because there was another organization, most of whose time was spent in choosing who was illustrious enough to be allowed to join us in our organization. Including such questions as: 'we physicists have to stick together because there's a very good chemist that they're trying to get in and we haven't got enough room...'. What's the matter with chemists? The whole thing was rotten . Because the purpose was mostly to decide who could have this honor. OK? I don't like honors."*
He actually played with the idea of not receiving the prize ("Surely you are joking, Mr.Feynman"), but he grudgingly acceded that there was no way to get out without having more hassle. So you are not alone in your way of thinking, Perelman who declined the Fields Medal is another example.
So what is the problem ? If you are declining something, you are sending always the message "It has for me not such a value that it something to strive for". If someone offers you then a prize or honor, people are forced to reason for themselves if a prize or honor is really something to be proud of, you are subconsciously attacking their judgement.
Back to the counterarguments:
>
> " the medal is not just for you - it is for everybody that supported
> you and, in fact, indirectly for your class, and lecturers."
>
> "This is
> about a community celebrating its own values, by recognizing the
> individuals that best represent those values.[...] Accepting
> recognition gives you an opportunity, **which most people never
> have**[bold by me], to display the gratitude that you owe that community."
>
>
>
I think the reason is simple: The western world, especially the US, has two conflicting values: Everyone should be treated equal *and* people should strive for the best and leaving the competition behind. This is per definition impossible.
One acceptable solution may be: People are striving and fighting, but the collective must approve the final result. This "most people never have" is particularly telling: Why should people base their decision on what many other people *which they have nothing to do with* get?
By declining you are essentially denying them their power to influence you which gives them the illusion to have some control over the situation. That may be the reason people are arguing "that he thinks better of himself" and acting hurt and angry.
I find it particularly strange that here in Academia people are unaware of invisible filter bubbles. We have a huge number of different and known cultures (Deaf, LBGT, religious rights) who have a decidedly other viewpoint than the consensus. Why have people here so much trouble to understand that denying honors may have reasons which do *not* imply negative judgement of other people and that there people and cultures out there which even value such decisions?
>
> However, in today's very crowded fields, a prize is like a flag that
> demonstrates "this is how things should be done". It sets a signal of
> example for others.
>
>
>
Counterargument: Why not simply celebrating the content of the research itself? Time will tell always if a discovery has any worth. And how embarassing for the prize giver if the prize and acknowledgment reward bad or offensive research. It may send "We were so blinded that we did not see the true nature of the research" and it gives an incentive for the prize giver to sweep bad decisions under a rug.
>
> People's time is valuable so why would they bother reading a research
> paper or proposal from an "unknown" with no reputation.
>
>
>
Because it is good science.
Sure, we have now the situation that there are so many people in the academic environment that you need to filter and choose, so your position has strong merit. On the other hand: If everyone *never* read anything apart from a specific group assigned with merit and good research is never capable to enter the academic mainstream: *Is such an academic system not broken by definition?*
>
> We also have an ethical obligation to evaluate our colleagues' work
> (because they evaluate ours),
> to write recommendation letters for our students and junior colleagues
> (because our advisors and senior colleagues have written them for us),
> and to make our work visible (because we work for the benefit of the
> community, not just for ourselves). And yes, I believe we have an
> ethical obligation to help promote our communities/organizations
> /subfields, because we have materially benefited from others' promotion
> of our communities/organizations/subfields.
>
>
>
If you view the history, some countries give or gave away university education essentially for free (which is still practised in some countries), provide research opportunities without grants and with less competition there was no pressure to write recommendation letters. So many arguments you mention are much more culture-specific than you may have thought.
I accept that not receiving honors will make live a lot more difficult and the decision to do this should be carefully considered, but I do not accept that declining honors is a bad thing.
Upvotes: 3
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2016/06/06
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<issue_start>username_0: I am currently a PhD student studying robotics at university A in my third year, and I've recently finished my qualifying exams and advanced to candidacy. My professor has been in contact with another university B, and they want to offer him a position there, so now I have two choices: stay at A, and finish up my PhD; or move with him to B, help set up the new lab, and finish my PhD there. BY the time I take this decision, I'd have finished three years into my PhD. The pros and cons are somewhat like this.
1. University A's PhD program is more research focused with minimal coursework. If I move to B, I am looking at an extra year/more of coursework, that probably will not be relevant to my research at all. Few schools seem to offer coursework that's directly in line with my research.
2. University B is better ranked; and if I move there, I will be part of a new research group that's just being set up. That could be a better platform, and I'd gain a lot of valuable experience being involved in a lot more projects.
3. Obviously, university B is a completely new place, new people etc. I've already spent about 5 years (master's+PhD) at A.
4. Based on what the university website says, there don't seem to be a lot of course equivalents of what I'd already taken in my master's/PhD so far in the new university.
5. Personally, given the amount of time I'd spent in this city, and other such factors, I would prefer to stay at A.
Given these parameters, would it be worth moving to B, how it would set me back timeline wise and the possible advantages from the move?<issue_comment>username_1: There's no simple answer here. Contrary to "The Fire Guy," when I moved, all of my students stayed at their old institution—primarily for financial and personal reasons. However, I received approval from the department at my old university to continue advising the students who remained.
The big question that you haven't addressed is what you'd have left to do to finish at school A. Are you one or two years out from graduation, or more? And how much extra time would you need to spend at school B completing requirements? And are there other issues, such as teaching load and organizational duties, that may extend your time beyond what you'd have at school A?
As far as being involved in a lot of projects, that's a double-edged sword: you end up with an experience profile that's a mile wide, but not very deep. It's not something you tend to be able to convert into a PhD thesis relatively easily.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: For the most part, if you have already invested 5 years in your current university and have an advisor, then it is not worth relocating. In general, the following hold true at that point in your career, although if not for you the answer may be different.
* You already have an advisor, so any additional classes are not really going to help you that much. Faculty will not treat you the same as if you were eventually a potential student, which is not to say the treatment will be bad, but they won't put to much time into you.
* You are coming "pre-programmed" with your older schools viewpoint, mannerisms and ideology, and you're not likely to shake that. At this point in your career, you are half-baked as a grad student, meaning that you are already representing the school you are at. You *might* be able to fit in at the new program, but if it isn't that different then all the new work isn't worth it, and if it is that different, then you are not likely to succeed.
* You most likely will be thought of as being from your original school anyway. The relationships that you build in grad school are part of your success later on, and you already missed the boat with the cohort you would hope to graduate with. Things like ongoing projects can help that, but in the end, when you are on the market and in the field, you will be a student of your first program.
* There are a lot of costs associated with moving that can really set your timeline back *outside* the costs of changing a program. Now you know the library. You know the labs. You know the people in the department. Once you move that will no longer be true, and that is a cost. Add into all of that the actual time and monetary costs of a move, which will kill at least several thousand dollars and a month of your time. A month over a summer can mean the difference between being ready to go on the job market in the fall, and having to wait another year, which can be fatal on the job market, depending on your specialization.
* There is a lot of attraction to trying new things, but in the end grad school is a means to an end, not the end itself. Get a job/post-doc and go through that there, not as a grad student. In fact, there is no reason you cannot graduate from your current school, and then go work with your advisor at his new program as a post-doc, or better yet Asst. Prof! Get the degree done.
There is one thing that could veto all that however: **sometimes when your faculty advisor leaves, it is like they were kidnapped by aliens, and you never hear from them again.** That can really put a kink in completing the program at all, and has ended many promising careers. Ensure before you faculty departs that you have a plan to graduate.
Ideally, in my field, I would say that you have a proposal complete with a couple of chapters of your dissertation written. If you are in the natural sciences, you should already be running your experiments and collecting your field data. **If you are still developing your project, you may not be able to complete that work if your advisor is too far, or difficult to get ahold of.** Make sure you have a long conversation with your advisor about this *before* you make any decisions.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: username_2 is giving you great advice. For a less scientific answer, I say go where your head and heart are telling you. I think you answered it yourself when you said you'd rather stay where you are. If you don't believe yourself, try this little trick. Take a coin, heads you stay, tails you go. Now flip the coin. Look at the result. Were you happy or disappointed in the toss of the coin? Therein lies your answer.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: Let me point other possible pros, which you should factor in:
* If you go to B, you will get almost certainly have more interaction with and guidance from your advisor. Though being forced to be more independent can also be beneficial sometimes, most likely this would be a boon for you. (cf Pompitous's answer)
* If University B is significantly better ranked, graduating from there may help you find a job, particularly if you choose to leave academia. Unfortunately "brand names" can make some difference on the job market, and tend to make a difference in industry more than academia. Some people may say it makes no difference in academia, but it can help make a little better impression for you, which might turn out to be important given how competitive the current market is. See also [University rank/stature - How much does it affect one's career post-Ph.D?](https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/90/19607) (in particular JeffE's excellent answer) for related considerations.
* As @<NAME> points out in a comment, your con about needing an extra year or so may be mitigated if your advisor can negotiate away some of the different requirements. However, even if you do take longer, the extra time you spend at University B could end up being beneficial for you, if you learn a lot and become a better candidate on the job market. (Even helping set up the lab may be a good experience.)
Even though my comments lean in this direction, I'm not saying you definitely should go to University B. I've seen people be successful (and not) doing both things. However, I suggest having a discussion with your advisor, and perhaps a few other faculty in your department once the issue is publicly known, about what he thinks about the pros and cons for you would be, and try to go into this discussion with an open mind.
Upvotes: 3
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2016/06/06
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<issue_start>username_0: I'm a postdoc in computational biology. I've been given the opportunity to choose if I want to be co-first author (listed second) or a co-corresponding author (possibly listed next-to-last or third from last) on a manuscript based on my contributions. It has been beaten into my head that postdocs looking for a job are judged by their first author publications, but I've also recently heard that having corresponding author papers highlights your ability to plan and supervise a study and may help you get a job. Which option is better and why? I'm already listed on a separate manuscript as the last (and co-corresponding) author.<issue_comment>username_1: If possible, you should aim to have both in your portfolio. Your goal as a postdoc is to show that you are as versatile and as talented as possible. First-author publications demonstrate your ability to do research; "last-author" or corresponding author publications show an ability to oversee research (although the former effect is stronger than the latter).
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: **I would say co-first author:**
* First authorship is more important: if a professor both led the work and made the biggest contribution to the paper, they will generally choose first authorship rather than last authorship.
* Early in your career, making a big contribution to the research itself is likely to be most important, and first authorship shows that.
* The "last author" signifying the leader of the work is less widespread ([one discussion here](https://www.wageningenur.nl/en/article/Recommendations-for-authorship-in-scientific-publications.htm)). Even in fields that use this convention, it is not always used. Thus, your last authorship might not mean as much. Especially if someone knows you are not a professor leading your own lab, they might not give you much credit for this.
* "co-first authorship" is a clear idea: you are one of two people who equally made the largest contributions to the work. But "co-last authorship" is not so clear. What does it mean? Especially if the other last author is the professor who runs the lab? It's not clear what this would say about your contribution.
*Of course this is referring to fields where authorship ranking by contribution is used; this isn't universal.*
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]
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2016/06/07
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<issue_start>username_0: There is an open math problem that I am interested in. There was a lot of progress in fully working out the problem in low-dimensions and progress towards sub-problems of the main question up until the 1980s, but it seems that the research activity has mostly stopped since then. Newer papers just essentially reiterate previous results.
A pretty well-known professor in my department also published a few papers on this problem in the mid-80s, so I reached out to him and told him that my thesis adviser and I are currently studying this problem. He confirms that his work on the problem is very old, so I'm guessing he hasn't done anything newer with the problem since his last papers.
The problem itself is known to be quickly intractable for higher dimensions, say, for n>5.
I'm taking his words as an indication that there is not much interest in this problem, and that I should probably abandon it and find another problem to work on, for my master's thesis.
Am I making the correct interpretation of this professor's remark?
Should I still stick with the problem, even though it might be true that it is not currently being actively studied?<issue_comment>username_1: Based on your brief description, I'd say a more likely explanation for the lack of work on this problem is that people are stuck. Not that there's no interest in it.
Still, I wouldn't recommend this problem for a masters' thesis (or a PhD thesis). At least at the start, you should work on something manageable. If you hit a manageable problem or two out of the park, then you can start trying things professional researchers have attempted and failed.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_2: There are two possible interpretations:
* It may be that the problem is really just that hard that with the knowledge we have today, no progress can be made, and consequently no progress has been made in the last 25 years. If this is the case, it's probably a bad problem for you to work on as it seems rather unlikely that you will be able to squeeze useful results out of the general area (either for your personal satisfaction, for writing a thesis, or to build a research career on).
* Or, it may be that simply nobody cares about the research area any more. There are many areas of the sciences that have been abandoned over the decades and centuries, simply because the circus moved on. There can be many reasons for this. In pure math (it sounds like this is your area), a possibility is that in the 80s people thought that working on question Q would open a way to prove open problem X in a certain way, but then someone found a completely separate approach to prove X, and so question Q has now lost its previous status and people don't care about it any more. Of course, if this is the case, you may be able to squeeze some results out of problem Q for a thesis, but it's again not a good problem to work on because nobody cares about it any more.
Upshot: If an area is dead, let it rest in peace.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: To my mind, there are two critical questions to ask here:
1. Do you and/or your advisor have any ideas for making progress and/or any new results on the problem?
2. In general, what does your advisor advise?
Regarding (2): In mathematics, the single most important role a thesis advisor can play is helping a student choose a good problem. Problems are good because of a combination of interest on the part of the student and the advisor, community interest, potential or actual applications, and perceived difficulty level (i.e., tractable but not trivial). Asking a bunch of random internet academics whether to attack this problem seems a bit weird to me: what does your advisor think?
**Interregnum**: I would like to respectfully disagree with @Wolfang Bangerth's answer. A problem which was studied in the past and on which many papers obtaining partial results were written is a problem of interest to the mathematical community. In my circles at least, solving longstanding open problems is at least as good as solving problems that were posed last year, because the older problems have a higher level of demonstrable difficulty. If the papers in question had been written, say, 80 years ago, then one might have some concern that no living mathematician cares about it (still, you can *make us care* by doing something sufficiently nice), but problems from 30 years ago that are still being mentioned in contemporary papers are likely to be viewed as having a strong pedigree.
Regarding (1): if you have some traction on this old, unsolved problem, it sounds like a great thing to work on...at least for a while, to see what happens. Conversely, if you have no ideas....tell me again why you and your advisor started studying this problem? Or rather: ask your advisor again.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_4: >
> Am I making the correct interpretation of this professor's remark?
>
>
>
All you've told us about the professor's remark is "He confirms that his work on the problem is very old, so I'm guessing he hasn't done anything newer with the problem since his last papers." And what you said about your interpretation of his remark is "I'm taking his words as an indication that there is not much interest in this problem". While this may very well be a correct interpretation, there are certainly other possible interpretations. For example, I worked on problems 15 years ago that I no longer have any interest in. If a student came to ask me about them I would probably shrug and not show much enthusiasm, but those problems are still very interesting to many other people.
In other words, your description of the professor's remark (and possibly also the remark itself) is too vague to be able for anyone here to be able to meaningfully say whether the problem is still of interest to anyone or not. You and advisor might want to get a second opinion from another person who is knowledgeable on the subject.
>
> Should I still stick with the problem, even though it might be true that it is not currently being actively studied?
>
>
>
I'm currently writing a paper on a problem from the 1960's that has been the subject of only very few papers since then, the last of them being from the early 1990's. I don't know for sure how the world will react to my paper, but I think I've made very nice progress on the subject and have hopes that my new results will excite new interest in the problem, which is intrinsically very appealing. I am also a tenured professor and can easily afford to risk the scenario where this doesn't happen. Nonetheless, I am of the opinion that pure math research shouldn't be about following fashions or fads (which math is very much susceptible to, much like other areas of academia) but should be driven by an innate desire to understand a structure one is interested in and finds beauty in. See also username_3's comment on [username_2's answer](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/70907/40589) for examples where working on an unpopular or archaic subject paid off bigtime.
With that said, a lot of people prefer working on popular topics and think that working on such topics is a safer route to success in math, especially for someone who is just starting out. I don't have a strong opinion that that's false -- it's simply not my style -- and I completely respect someone who makes their decisions based on such a belief. So keep in mind that working on a subject no one else is working on is a somewhat lonely pursuit with a very uncertain payoff. But if that where your heart tells you to go, you should know that it is certainly possible to find success working on unpopular subjects.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_5: Being a researcher is, like anything else, a job. It's a great job, and (I assume from context that you're in mathematics) academia is literally the only place where you can work on nontrivial pure math. Unfortunately, in order to eventually get the awesome post as a university professor, you need to jump through the various hoops beforehand: publish a ton of papers, get prestigious postdocs, publish a second ton of papers, etc. If you don't do so, then you'll be stuck deciding working in insurance or finance. (Not that there's anything wrong with either, but I assume from the fact that you're doing a PhD in math that you'd rather be doing academic math research.) If you have what you think is a promising approach, go ahead and take the time to work on the project; resurrecting a moribund field and solving a problem that was thought to be intractable is a great feather in your cap. On the other hand, if you simply think that the problem is interesting but don't have a specific plan of attack, I'd suggest you work on something else instead.
Of course math and research are supposed fun and interesting, and they are. It's irresponsible, though, to suggest that you should simply work on whatever project you find most interesting. Being a grad student is a job like any other; your task is to churn out awesome papers. If you don't do that, then you won't be allowed to be a mathematician, and you won't have an opportunity to work on math at all. I'm not saying that grad school, post-docs, etc. should be a joyless slog; I am saying that you always need to keep in mind that this is just the preliminary stage of your nascent career, and that you need to consider that the ultimate goal is to move up the ladder. You need to show results. If this new project isn't generating results, dump it and get another.
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: **Applying to the US:**
I just finished my master's in mathematical finance. I want to apply for a PhD in math (but not in mathematical finance).
Can I start applying this year while studying and taking exams (GRE, subject GRE, IELTS, TOEFLS), or might my time be better spent on the latter?
I'm fluent in English, it's my only language, and I have a master's in math so I don't expect the GRE, IELTS or TOEFLS to be too difficult, but **I may have to spend a lot of time studying for the Math GRE**, which appears to be the equivalent of an LSAT/MCAT for master's or PhD and a bar exam/USMLE for bachelor's or master's.
**What is the common practice in this matter?** Do graduate school applicants first focus on studying and taking GRE, subject GRE, IELTS, TOEFLS, etc and then worry about applications after?
Suppose a graduate school applicant intends to study for one of those. On average **how long does it take** to study for, apply for, take one of those exams once (for the sake of example) and get the test (just one, for example) score?<issue_comment>username_1: IELTS and TOEFL are equivalent English proficiency test. As such, you normally take one or the other. It is strange you have to take either of these tests if English is your only language. This implies that you may originate from a country were English is not the mother tongue.
I would advise studying diligently for the IELTS/TOEFL even if English is your only language. I have seen too many people who only know English do poorly on the IELTS/TOEFL because they took it for granted. They did not even study how the test was setup and were unprepared. In addition, many people possess native speaking ability by their mastery of the language is unconventional for an academic setting. This has left many students frustrated as they understand everything in English but still score poorly. Familiarizing yourself with the test should significantly reduce the risk of being surprised. You don't want to miss out on a dream because of poor assumptions.
I think you already know you need to study for the GRE. Again you must be familiar with the content and expectations of the exam in order to do even better.
English proficiency is more important than GRE. If you cannot demonstrate English proficiency your GRE score will mean very little. After basic English proficiency comes a closer look at your GRE score.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: For grad school, the GREs and TOEFL are treated more as thresholds. Once you cross the target score it may not have much of a bearing on your admission. For the general GRE, do some of the sample exams provided by ETS and see how far your score is from the prescribed targets. You can count on improving at about 5 points per week (so if you score 310 and your university needs 325, plan to study for three weeks). The TOEFL shouldn't be an issue for you based on your other Academia posts. The subject GRE requires at least 2 months of serious preparation. Again, try to see where you stand.
Try to do the exams at least a month before the application deadline, as that is how long it could take for the scores to reach their destination. If you are applying for a competitive program, you will need all your scores in place. Since it is only June, you have enough time to apply this year (to join next Fall).
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: Quite a few threads have already discussed the issue of publishing articles under a pseudonym, such as
[Is pseudonymous publication ethical?](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5408/is-pseudonymous-publication-ethical)
[If I publish under a pseudonym, can I still take credit for my work?](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8603/if-i-publish-under-a-pseudonym-can-i-still-take-credit-for-my-work)
among others. My question is: with journal submission being what it is today, what should one write under e.g. "Address" and "Affiliation" when writing under a pseudonym? For most journals, one has to write something in that field.<issue_comment>username_1: You have to make your own decision on that issue and accept the impact it may have on your chances of publication.
My recommendation would depend on your field. If you are dealing with a cryptography journal you might be able to share your PGP information (or encrypted email address) and "anonymous researcher of topic XYZ"
For other Journals you may be forced to provide the name of an actual organization with a mailing address where you can actually receive mail. Whether or not a pseudonym is acceptable will depend on the Journal and whether your organization will vouch for you in some manner (perhaps least by accepting mail addressed to your pseudonym and confirming your affiliation with the organization without revealing your identity).
If you want specific advice, the name of the Journal may help (if someone here is knowledgeable about their policies). What you want to do may or may not be possible.
I will ignore any taking credit and ethical concerns since you have already read those discussions.
Of course I am assuming you have a good reason to do this, otherwise you are making things much harder on yourself than they need to be.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: The [Encyclopedia of Types of Algebras 2010](http://dx.doi.org/10.1142/9789814365123_0011) was published in the *Nankai Series in Pure, Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics* under the name "<NAME>", a fictitious mathematician – the name was formed by taking the name "<NAME>" and reversing the order of the letters in the last name (really it was [Jean-Louis Loday](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Louis_Loday)). As you can see, the affiliation is the famous "Zinbiel Institute of Mathematics, France"... an inexistent math institute (I heard it was located in Loday's apartment in Strasbourg).
From this example (published in 2012, so it certainly reflects modern practices), my guess is that as long as the editors accept it, you can pretty much put anything you like in the "affiliation".
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: I had missed deadline for a reputable conference (Computer Science). Now I see that a workshop is being organized with the conference which exactly aligns with my area of research. The workshop proceedings will be published with the conference proceedings. (It is the first workshop in this series)
Does a workshop publication holds same value as a conference publication for PhD work, future employment opportunities etc. ? (I am a PhD Candidate as of now)
**Edit**
* My field is Computer Vision
* The conference is [ECCV](http://www.eccv2016.org/)<issue_comment>username_1: No, workshops are generally (at least in my area of CS) of much lower value than full conference proceedings. (Especially when held before a more major conference.) Even though workshop proceedings are published, they are not always considered archival, and usually are stepping stones to full publications later on. A workshop is a good place to get feedback on ideas that can then be upgraded to a "full" publication in the future.
But, I'd strongly advise you to attend the workshop in order to meet and interact with people in the area! You can get great feedback for taking a weak conference submission and making it a strong accept.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: The answer of that question depends on the quality of your work, how it aligns with the workshop (very well it sounds like) and the conference alternative you are comparing it to.
Not all workshops and conferences are equal but generally conferences are much more important. Workshops are often informal and less academically significant. Ask someone in your field which would be more prestigious in your situation.
You are asking a hypothetical question without the specifics needed to provide you a quality answer.
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: **IELTS/TOEFL**
I haven't read up on IELTS/TOEFL, and I don't want to waste time on that if I don't have to. As far as I know, they are testing your fluency in English.
**Generally:**
Is a significant amount of north american/first world universities really that stubborn as to require their applicants to take IELTS/TOEFL without any substitutes to demonstrate fluency in English?
Well if you graduate bachelor's or master's from an English speaking country like Canada, the US or the UK, I'm guessing there wouldn't be need to take IELTS/TOEFL if you haven't already, but what about graduating bachelor's or master's from a country whose primary language isn't English?
**My case:**
I was born and raised in a first world Asian country but then later on moved to a third world country (where my parents were born and raised) where I got my bachelor's and master's.
It's sad but despite the above, I'm monolingual. I even got to a foreigners class for the (third world country) language classes in my university even though I wasn't a foreigner.
The school where I got my bachelor's and master's says its medium of instruction is English. My thesis in master's was written in English. All my papers and exams in bachelor's and master's were in English.
Given all that, do I still have to take IELTS/TOEFL?
Actually, doesn't a subject GRE or the regular GRE assume fluency in English? I'm planning to take the math GRE.
---
**Regular GRE**
Do a significant amount of north american or first world universities require applicants to take the regular GRE even if they are going to take the subject GRE?
I don't know about the rationale behind taking the regular GRE. It seems that you take such if your intended study doesn't have a subject GRE such as political science or economics?<issue_comment>username_1: If I were you, I'd write a letter to the admissions' departments at universities you're interested in to figure out what they'll want you to do.
I'm in a similar situation (graduated middle school, high school, and college in a non-English speaking country, but grew up in the United States until age 13), and I've already sent emails explaining my situation to universities that interest me. So far I've received a range of answers from I have to do TOEFL to I need to show evidence of living in America to they trust me and I don't need to show anything.
In regards to GRE's it differs from each university and country. In mathematics, you only need to do the GRE's (both regular and math subject), if you're planning to apply to the United States. If you don't want to do the GRE's, check out universities in Canada or Europe which don't require them.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Test exemption is a program-determined issue. You should explore the website for a program of interest to see if you are eligible for a test waiver. Many institutions do not require the TOEFL/IELT if your undergraduate program was in English. Check with each program!
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: The "language proficiency" is likely to be a requirement for a study visa to be granted. Even if University agrees to make an exemption, the Home Office (or similar immigration office) most likely will not.
So, you still need to pass an IELTS or TOEFL exam.
Upvotes: 1
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<issue_start>username_0: I am planning to apply for Ph.D programs in mathematics in U.S. and I am thinking about which professors I should ask for letters of recommendations from. In order to get "strong" letters, I need to determine which professors believe I am really strong.
Although I do well in most of my classes (I am always trying to get full marks on my homework and tests), I do have a "bad" habit of asking stupid questions frequently. I can see from the **faces of professors that they dislike students who always ask stupid questions, while welcoming students to ask questions.** (If you are a professor and don't think this is the case, please let me know...I really appreciate it.) I feel like professors prefer the questions that will **make them have a better understanding about the subject** instead of the questions that they will **waste their time** on.
What do professors think of a student who has good grades but always asks stupid questions? Should I expect good letters from them? Or I should go to the professors whom I seldom ask questions (but still do well in their classes)?<issue_comment>username_1: Students often have a highly distorted perception of themselves with respect to the feelings of their professors. The differential in both power and experience between student and professor is just so large that it's quite common for a student to confuse the very distinct attributes of professorial attitude, personal affection, and intellectual respect.
As such, I would suggest that you really don't know what your professors think of you until you ask them. Maybe you are reading them correctly, but maybe not: many professors are quite pleased to have a student who carefully advocates to improve their understanding of material, even if they might wish to be getting on with the lecture in the moment.
My recommendation is to tell the professor you're thinking of applying to Ph.D. programs and ask them something like:
>
> Do you think that you would be able to write a strong letter of recommendation for me?
>
>
>
The "strong" is important here, because that's what will get you the honest opinion of whether the professor thinks well of you or not, and you don't want letters that are not strong.
Upvotes: 7 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: >
> *Although I do well in most of my classes, I do have a "bad" habit of asking stupid questions frequently. I can see from the faces of professors that they dislike students who always ask stupid questions while welcome students to ask questions. (If you are a professor and don't think this is the case, please let me know...)*
>
>
>
I don't think you've provided enough context to really say for sure whether or not your questions would be annoying.
Here's what I'd need to know: Does the professor (or the syllabus) say that you should read from the textbook before you come to class? If so, do you read the book as assigned?
If you constantly interrupted me with a barrage of questions that indicated you hadn't done the assigned reading, then my face might also show some of the consternation that you claim you see.
>
> *How do professors think of a student who has good grades but always asks stupid questions?*
>
>
>
Generally speaking, I like it when students ask questions. It shows me they are engaged. It shows me they are interested in learning the material. It helps provide feedback when I haven't explained something clearly. Quite often, the one student who is brave enough to speak up is asking for help that other students probably need and appreciate.
That said, though, there are times where there can be too much of a good thing. If one student's questions are so frequent and incessant that it becomes distracting for everyone, that might be viewed negatively. But that's perhaps more of a timing issue than a "stupid question" issue.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: While username_1's answer is good for what you should do, I'll expound on your titular question:
>
> How do professors think of a student who has good grades but always asks stupid questions?
>
>
>
First, there are a couple of things you could mean here by "always": you're incessantly asking stupid questions or all (or most) of your questions seem stupid to you in retrospect. username_2's answer addresses the first, so I'll ignore that aspect except to say you can always ask your professor outside of class if you are asking too many questions during class.
Second, I ask "stupid questions" all the time also, though I don't vocalize most of them, just some of them. I think this is normal for researchers, and it's especially common when you're thinking about something for the first time, or thinking about something in a new way, and trying to understand something in a short amount of time, such as a class meeting. So just because a question has an easy answer, doesn't mean it's sounds stupid to a teacher. It may or may not, so as the other answers say, you may not be able to accurately judge a professor's opinion of your questions without explicit feedback.
However, if these questions are coming long after you should have learned the material (e.g., asking something that's obvious from high school algebra in an advanced math class, or only now asking something that was crucial for understanding what's been going on in the class for the past 10 weeks), then probably the professor will think you don't understand the material as well as you should.
Finally, I get lots of students in math classes who ask lots of questions that make me think they don't understand what's going on very well at all, but then surprise me by doing great on the assignments and exams. This sort of thing seems to be what you're concerned about (though may in fact not be the case). Without knowing anything more specific, generally my impression is they're good students, though probably they didn't have a strong background coming in and/or they're not exceedingly quick. By not quick, I don't mean they're not smart or that they wouldn't do well in grad school--you can be quick and smart or slow and smart. While thinking quickly can be impressive, I view thinking deeply as more important.
I would generally be able to write a good letter of recommendation for such a person, though I would probably be writing different things from "Ti has one of the fastest minds I've ever known."
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: First, even if your questions annoy your prof intensely, you may still get a good letter. And conversely even if your questions demonstrate your commitment to learning and are actually welcomed, you may not get a good letter. So the only way to know is to ask,
>
> Do you think you can recommend me strongly for [whatever] in a letter?
>
>
>
And if they say no, don't push them because they are telling you it wouldn't be a positive letter.
Now let's tackle those questions. There are so many reasons why I might make a small face when a student asks a question. Imagine we're doing non-university level material and I say "there are five vowel letters in English: A, E, I, O, and U." Up pops your hand and you ask:
* isn't that 4? No, it's not 4, you've interrupted me for no reason. It's 5, right? Now where were we?
* What about A? I said A, that was the first one. Oh, sorry, wasn't listening
* What's a vowel? Either that's what this whole lecture is about or it's in the material I asked you to read before class, or I just covered that on the three previous slides but you were zoned out, or in some other way, a person who doesn't know what a vowel is shouldn't be trying to find out by interrupting a list of them to ask
* In [some other language] there are 7! Fascinating, but not interruption-worthy. Thanks for sharing.
* What about Y? I was just breathing in to explain Y, it's a little more complicated. On this one my annoyance is just that you've broken my rhythm, it's actually a fine question and leads to my next point, so I need to relax and keep going
Think about the questions you tend to ask. Are they the first kind, where you are correcting or contradicting the prof, pointing out an error, when there is no error, you made a mistake? Try not to do that. Are they overly broad, or do they show that you came to class unprepared? Try not to do that. Are you just randomly sharing your thoughts in the middle of someone else's sentence? That's not a question. Do that only in discussion parts of class. But do keep in mind, there are questions that irritate me that don't make me feel less about you or not recommend you. They are just a little annoying.
But if your question is none of these, it's you genuinely seeking clarification on something you just heard and don't understand, then you're probably doing fine. You can always approach the prof after class and ask if your questions are ok. That will clear things up for you, I'm sure.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: I find that if a student is brave enough to ask a question, there will likely be at least one other student that has the same query but lacks the confidence to ask. Also, I am not perfect, sometimes I may assume some prior knowledge that not all students have. In these instances, I always welcome questions.
If I am at a part of the lecture where I feel a question will be distracting, I simply acknowledge the raised hand and make it clear I will come back to it (I make sure I do come back to it).
The only times I would ever find questions irritating would be if the student had missed a previous session and failed to catch up (my notes are always posted on the VLE so there is never any excuse for this) or if they regularly failed to complete their prescribed reading. I would hope that a student would deal with any queries arising from their preparation before they turned up for class but there are always some who will leave it until the last minute!
If asked to provide a letter of recommendation, I consider academic performance, potential, attendance and punctuality, in that order. These are all things that a student can control. I would never base a reference on a student's personality. That would be unfair.
Incidentally, I asked tons of questions as an undergraduate and one of my lecturers gave me a job!
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_6: It is simple. Tell the professor you're thinking of applying to Ph.D and ask his opinion. If he suggesting Yes, you can go for and ask.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_7: Speaking as a professor, the problem may not be "stupid" questions but rather "too many" questions. When a student interrupts the flow of a lecture, it can be annoying, but when it is the same student that interrupts the flow on a frequent basis, the dismay you recognize is not because the question is stupid but rather that others do not appreciate the frequent interruptions.
So yes, ask frankly if a strong letter would be proffered.
And, perhaps, take some of your questions to office hours.
another username_7y lecturer
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_8: Stupid questions exist. There is the occasional student who often asks those. Do not be that student!
Fortunately, most questions are not stupid. For most questions, a significant, silent fraction of the class appreciates that the question is asked. (How do I know? Several ways. For instance, when a question requires a long answer, before answering, I will sometimes gauge interest by inviting all interested students to show their hands. More often than not, several students will want the answer.)
Also, if the instructor is teaching the course in question for the first time, sometimes students who are not otherwise troublemakers ask questions merely to slow the lecture down, because the lecturer is inadvertently covering too much material too fast. Such questions represent valuable feedback.
Occasionally you get a student who just probably isn't smart enough to pass the course. If you politely invite that student to bring his or her questions to office, that student usually gets the hint and stops stalling the lecture with questions his or her classmates don't care about. The student may or may not then come to office, but that's for the student to decide.
*The problem student is the student who asks questions because he or she likes attention.* Every class of a certain size seems to have one or two of those. The classmates usually don't like that student, either.
All you can do with a student who asks questions because he or she likes attention is (a) call on other students first whenever possible, (b) give the troublemaker curt answers and smoothly move on with the lecture without inviting further discussion, or (c) in the final need, affect for a while not to see the student's raised hand. Unfortunately, most such students won't take the hint. Oh, well.
Fortunately, most questions asked are worth answering, or at least worth respectful deferral, in my experience. Moreover, depending on an instructor's lecturing style, *good* questions (which often arise) really help a lecture to move along. Some of the best questions come when the instructor has briefly glanced upon some point the instructor thinks is obvious but the students don't. The instructor needs to know that.
Upvotes: 1
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<issue_start>username_0: As some students know, sometimes [it is not easy to determine](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/70929/how-do-professors-think-of-a-student-who-has-good-grades-but-always-asks-stupid) whether a professor (restricted to the professors in U.S.) will write a strong letter of recommendation for a student. So the question is, is it appropriate to ask questions like:
>
> 1. What do you think of me compared to other students you taught in the previous semester?
> 2. Am I one of the best students in your class? Top 10%? Top20%?
>
>
>
I know these questions are sensitive. Maybe they will dislike me immediately once I ask these questions. I don't know, but I believe that most professors are kind and will be honest to students.
By the way, if I were the professor, I would certainly answer the questions honestly and let the student know if I should be in the their choices. I would not only say something like "you did well in my classes" or "you did better than most of the rest", but also tell them directly if they are in top 1%, 3%, 10% in my mind, but I still wonder what most professors in U.S. universities would think of this.<issue_comment>username_1: Closely related to [my answer to your linked question](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/70932/22733):
I don't think it's either necessary or particularly productive to try to interrogate a professor and determine what letter they will write. Simply tell the professor you're thinking of applying to Ph.D. programs and ask them something like:
>
> Do you think that you would be able to write a strong letter of recommendation for me?
>
>
>
The "strong" is important here, because that's what will get you the honest opinion of whether the professor thinks well of you or not, and you don't want letters that are not strong.
If you try to ask the question indirectly, by asking things like "Am I in the top 10%?" then you are dancing around the question. You know you're asking for a strong recommendation, and so does the professor, so you might as well just ask.
Only the most nasty and deceptive of professors will answer dishonestly---and they probably wouldn't have given you an honest answer to your other questions either.
Upvotes: 7 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: First, I 100% agree with [username_1's answer](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/70934/94).
I just want to elaborate a bit more on why questions of the type "how do I compare with my peers" or "am I in the top 10%" are entirely the *wrong* question to ask. Consider the following three cases:
1. Jason enrolled in a small, intensive seminar course. The class is known to have a heavy workload with lots of student participation and input. The professor is known to grade on an absolute/uncurved scale, and is happy to fail the entire class or give the entire class A+'s as the situation merits. The course has 10 students in it this semester. Jason worked really hard and impressed his professor, earning a well-deserved A-. There were two students who earned As, Maria in particular also won a Rhodes Scholarship for next year.
Would the professor say that Jason is in the top 10 or 20% of his class? No. But what would the professor write in the recommendation letter? He will explain that the course Jason took is a small seminar course, that even though his grades do not place him in the top 20%, this should not be counted against Jason, and that Jason is in fact a very hard working student that he regards highly.
2. Marshall enrolled in a large linear algebra course. He did great, his grades are consistently in the top of the class. He comes to office hours regularly and asks great questions. Through chatting with him, his instructor found out that Marshall had in fact enrolled in the Honors version of the same course last semester, but decided to drop the Honors version halfway through the semester because "he made a few dumb mistakes and got only a B+ on the first midterm".
When the undergraduate studies director came asking the instructor whether Marshall should be given an A+ for his stellar work in the linear algebra course, the instructor responds that she does not believe so, since Marshall only excelled because he already "knew" the material, and rather than challenging himself with the honors material he decided to go for the "easy A" for his transcript. And while he has certainly demonstrated work deserving of an A, she does not think Marshall should be rewarded with an A+ which is only given when student work goes above and beyond what is expected.
3. Tony took a large biochemistry class. He goes to lecture regularly, works very hard, and got perfect scores on pretty much every assignment and almost every lab. At the end of the semester Tony goes to the professor in charge of the course and ask where he places among his peers.
Prof: "What's your name again?"
Tony: "<NAME>"
Prof: "Let me check" ... clicks away at a computer ... "just a moment" ... clicks more at a computer ... "ah! You seem to have the highest grades in my class. Congratulations."
Tony: "Will you write me a recommendation letter for Y Scholarship?"
Prof: "Well, I don't really have a reason to say no. But I don't really know you that well. Tell you what, let me check with your TA to see if we can say something nice about you. What's your name and which section are you in again?"
Sure, it would make everybody's life easier if you happen to be the best student your professor has ever taught. But if you are really a strong student, and the professor is willing to write you a strong recommendation letter, then he or she will definitely be willing to bend over backwards to justify your possible lower rankings when compared to your peers. On the other hand, if you are really not that strong a student, but merely a giant among midgets, then if you choose a professor entirely based on comparisons with your "peers" you may end up with a recommendation letter reflecting just that.
---
The moral of the story really is this: your ranking among your classmates in the class you took with a professor (or any of these sorts of peer comparison) are at best proxy metrics for how the professor think of you. But proxy indicators are only useful when the "thing" you really want to measure cannot be measured. In this case, however, the "thing" you really want to know is whether the professor will write you a strong letter, so don't go about playing with proxy indicators which can have all sorts of false positives or false negatives and ask the right question already.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: I agree with WW that your question is far too broad to have a serious answer. The moral of the questioner's need to post this question is that if you're thinking of grad or professional school, you need to get to know a couple of professors during your junior and senior years, blah, blah, blah. If you have had little interaction with the prof, then asking him/her for a letter is quite an imposition and you certainly are way off base to ask what s/he will say. If you've had a good amount of back-and-forth with him.her I think it's great to make an appointment and discuss your plans and what they think your chances are. This should give you a pretty good idea of what they think of you. From what I am reading, Letters of Recommendation are a large fraction of the typical profs workload, so my above comments seem a bit archaic. If the prof has no other information than your grades and a couple of question/answer exchanges during lectures, then you should expect a direct correlation between your RELATIVE grade and the strength of the recommendation. Given what I just said, I'm wondering why you are asking the question...
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_4: I would find it more than presumptive and too pushy to ask this right before, or in the midst of requesting a letter of reference.
My preferred approach was always where students would visit with me during office hours, engage me in thoughtful banter and dialog in class, perform favorably on written assignments, and ask for a letter of recommendation in the last half or last third of the semester.
This gives me a sufficient scope of the quality of your work, your character and personality, and importantly it should give me plenty of time to complete and submit the letter prior to whatever institutional deadlines you've communicated to me. Moreover, after you've invested your time in this, you will have a great sense of the favorableness of my letter, without putting me on the spot to verbalized it to you.
Upvotes: 2
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2016/06/07
| 1,902
| 7,221
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<issue_start>username_0: When I first began applying correct citations and referencing, I followed methods such as placing a citation at the end of the paragraph if I am paraphrasing for one person and not following a citation for each sentence. For example:
>
> One can use this website to write about various activities and interests such as music, art, science, etc... and one can also get in touch with the founder. However, to use the website, a person has to register and pay a fee. The website founder is known for his IT expertise. More people are joining nowadays than ever (Smith 2010, pp. 1-2) and those people can be great contributors to the website. Contribution is an important aspect of online communities (John 2014, p. 5).
>
>
>
Now I am reading about how each one complete sentence should be cited instead, and by using lead-ins to help the readers. In my above example, I want my readers to understand that the first 4 lines are Smith's ideas and the last 2 lines (from 'and those people') are John's ones. Now I realize that such a practice is a poor one as it may confuse the readers.
It should be something like (using lead-ins or ibid. for more readability, of course):
>
> One can use this website to write about various activities and interests such as music, art, science, etc... and one can also get in touch with the founder (Smith 2010, pp. 1-2). However, to use the website, a person has to register and pay a fee (Smith 2010, pp. 1-2). The website founder is known for his IT expertise (Smith 2010, pp. 1-2). More people are joining nowadays than ever (Smith 2010, pp. 1-2) and those people can be great contributors to the website (John 2014, p. 5). Contribution is an important aspect of online communities (John 2014, p. 5).
>
>
>
My question: Can what I did in the past be considered as plagiarism (as in not making it clear whose ideas are for whom (like readers may think that unreferenced sentences are mine) crediting wrong persons, etc...) or just a bad style of writing? (Field is business and using, obviously, author-date system)<issue_comment>username_1: Not sure about your local citing conventions, but in Germany you'd wrap exact quotations in double quotes, which makes beginning and end of the quote clear.
>
> "One can use ... than ever" (Smith 2010, pp. 1-2) and "those people ... communities" (John 2014, p. 5)
>
>
>
Citing every single sentence would only be required if they were spread all over different pages of the source ... which could make putting them next to each other a bit questionable.
That being said, by omitting the delimiters it is not clear where your original content ends and quoted content begins. So you're leaving the judgement open to the reader. While you should be fine with a "benevolent" reader, you could run afoul of somebody out to make trouble for you.
If you paraphrase, it would be customary to lead with something like
>
> According to Smith one can use ... that ever" (cf. Smith 2010, pp. 1-2), and John affirms that those people ... communities (John 2014, p. 5).
>
>
>
Again, the leader and the source nicely wrap the outside content.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: **Referencing your source, but in a somewhat ambiguous way, does not open you to charges of plagiarism.**
It's good to want to get this right, and the first example you give is slightly less clear than it could be. However, given that you have referenced your source right in that paragraph, no one is going to think you are plagiarising. This is an minor issue of style and clarity; it comes nowhere near academic misconduct.
The repeated references in your second example remove the ambiguity, but they are rather annoying and distracting to the reader (though it is less of a problem in more concise style conventions).
**To cite a source for a whole paragraph or section of text, add an introductory sentence and then put the reference there.**
This will make it clear that the source was used for the whole discussion, without needing to repeat yourself. It also tends to be clearer, better writing in general. For example:
>
> **The blah blah blah website is one example that illustrates this phenomenon (Smith 2010, p. 1-2)** One can use this website to write about various activities and interests such as music, art, science, etc... and one can also get in touch with the founder. However, to use the website, a person has to register and pay a fee. The website founder is known for his IT expertise. More people are joining nowadays than ever...
>
>
>
Or something like.
>
> **Smith et. al. provide a description of the website functionality (Smith 2010, p. 1-2).** One can use this website to write about various activities and interests such as music, art, science, etc... and one can also get in touch with the founder. However, to use the website, a person has to register and pay a fee. The website founder is known for his IT expertise. More people are joining nowadays than ever...
>
>
>
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: I would say what you've done in the past is probably acceptable, with one caveat. According to the [Bodleian Libraries' Guide to Referencing and Citations](https://weblearn.ox.ac.uk/access/content/group/cd464c28-e981-4dcc-af89-945b50a3ef48/Referencing%20and%20plagiarism/SHU_Guide_to_referencing%20NEW%20TO%20USE.pdf), page 23, you should acknowledge the source of the material you're paraphrasing (as was just done, for example).
Paraphrasing though, is only okay when you understand the material. Paraphrasing is putting things into your own words. Paraphrasing is NOT copying a block of text and changing a few words. In other words, the idea will be the same; the style will be your own.
As long as you've been on the right side of the line drawn in the in the latter paragraph, you're covered. I would still give that entire guide a read though, whether or not it quite matches one you've been told to use is iffy, but the general points are still valid.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_4: Not once did I ever downgrade a student's paper for over-citation. Conversely, quite a few failed assignments for shorting citations. With more severe cases I submitted them to the academic review board for disciplinary action for plagiarism.
Citations are easier to keep track and manage now with software like Endnote and there are tools built into modern word processors. Get into a habit of citing all the time and you'll do yourself huge favors.
My rule in class was always, if it has quotes around it -- cite it. If it doesn't have quotes and the thought did not originate entirely within the confines of your brain, cite it. Everything else I will expect is your own work and analysis.
If one citation source effectively leads to additional citations within that source, but those are cited in the same source by the author and point to secondary or tertiary sources (other/older books and articles by the same or new author) -- my preference is that you track down these additional sources and get the original author's context. Thus, you would ideally cite deepest sources whenever appropriate. I'll refer to this idea as deep-source-citation.
Upvotes: -1
|
2016/06/07
| 1,167
| 5,157
|
<issue_start>username_0: Last year I took a class where we had to work with a partner on programming assignments. Apparently someone's solution from this year has a 50% match with our solution from last year. I did not share my code with anyone but I would not be surprised if my partner did. What should I do?
Edit: I just talked to my partner and apparently he posted the code on Github so he could show a professor his previous work. But then he deleted it later.
Update: We talked to the professor and he says my partner and I will not get in trouble.<issue_comment>username_1: I am sometimes involved in panels that investigate unfair means. I am also in the position of checking my own students' code for suspected plagiarism, often by comparing code from a large pool made from the current and past submissions. There are several tools that assist with this, such as Moss and JPlag. I have experience with both these but there are others, and some that academics have made for themselves for local use.
It is quite possible, therefore, to get a match between a current student's submission and a previous student's submission without the lecturer or university knowing how that occurred. All they can do in this situation is to convene an investigation to determine the facts. Often these investigations are formal affairs, mainly to protect the interest of the students concerned and to ensure that the decision makers are impartial.
This is highly likely to be the position you are in. At the moment they do not know how another student came in possession of your code. If the investigation is organised properly you will be given the opportunity to explain your position, just as you did here. Most investigations should allow you to submit written and verbal statements. You should ensure you do this. I also suggest you seek advice from others who can assist you locally, such as a students union or student association or other student advisor. They will have assisted other students in the same position as you before and help you make the best of the procedure that you have become involved with.
Although it may not be your fault, at the moment the university does not know this. Help them to understand.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_2: For someone possessing only the facts that the code you (plural) submitted last year and the code someone submitted this year have 50% overlap, here are some possibilities:
1. You gave the code to the student from this year expressly for the purpose of letting him or her submit it as their own work. At most universities this would be a violation of academic honesty rules. In my undergraduate institution they can get you both for facilitating cheating, and for not reporting cheating when you are aware of it.
2. The student got the code from you, and submitted as his/her own, *without* your permission. This seems to be the case you have here: your partner posted it on GitHub. This would also be the case where someone ask for your help on a homework and you send him/her something for reference, but not to allow him/her to copy.
3. Both of you copied the code off of some forum, and you just happened to have found the same one because that's how Google's indexing works. In this case both of you would be guilty for plagiarizing, as you are both submitting others' works as your own.
You are being investigated because the University/instructor does not know whether it is case 1, 2, or 3 (or something else entirely). There's no need to freak out, since as many have said, your code is your intellectual property and unless it is expressly forbidden in your academic regulations you probably haven't done anything wrong by posting it on GitHub. What you need to do, however, is to convince whoever is doing the investigating that your situation is that of case 2 above. You do so by submitting evidence: tell them that you have never shared the code with anybody. Tell them that your partner had posted the code on GitHub to show a professor. Ask that professor to say something on your behalf (a simple "yes, so-and-so posted some of his previous work on GitHub for me to see") would be also quite good. It would be even better if your partner had saved the commit logs showing when the code was publicly viewable.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: This happened to me while a student at Georgia Tech. I posted some code (that incidentally included an active lab report) on github because a potential employer wanted to see my work. I posted it, not realizing that it defaulted to being publicly accessible. Another student found my homework assignment before the due date and submitted it as their own. We were flagged for cheating and the other student pled guilty. I did not accept the plea deal and was eventually found guilty of:
1. Unauthorized Access - Possessing, using, or exchanging improperly acquired written or verbal information in the preparation of a problem set, laboratory report, essay, examination, or other academic assignment.
Which, quite frankly, doesn’t make any sense, but the decision was upheld on appeal so I had no further recourse.
Upvotes: 3
|
2016/06/07
| 974
| 4,383
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<issue_start>username_0: After leaving school I set myself the goal of completely digitalizing my note-system. Because of this I now scan all hand-written notes and make digital notes while in lectures and keep them nicely ordered on my laptop.
After a couple of days I realized, I could as well share these notes with my co-students having the same courses, which is what I am doing right now.
I've now (sometimes) observed an attitude among them along the lines of "I don't need to go the lectures, X will take notes anyways and I understand them better than the actual lecture". This also resulted in most of them taking (nearly) no notes on their own at all, however I'm not 100% certain they would have without my notes.
So I'm no longer sure this is the right thing to do, so I wanted to ask here:
**Should I share my course notes with my co-students having the same courses?**
A few notes on what they have access to: They have basically everything (e.g. notes on the lecture, public lecture slides, lab notes, assignment solutions, assignment corrections) where I enforce the policy of not sharing assignment solutions before the end of the admission period.
The notes in question are current, e.g. they are not ahead of the courses and we all have the courses (largely) together.
Everything is shared via the university-run OwnCloud service from and the actual process of uploading / sharing is no more than doing one addition conversion and making a bunch of copies.
If it matters: I study computer science in Germany.<issue_comment>username_1: You have just discovered some of the seemingly irrational ways in which students sabotage themselves and behave contrary to their own interests, and how they sometimes do this precisely in response to an attempt to help them by offering them useful resources.
Professors constantly struggle with this issue: do I offer my students lecture notes? A practice exam? Homework solutions? A detailed outline of the topics I covered in each lecture with precise references to the textbook? Etc. What one observes is that sometimes by the very act of offering such resources you paradoxically hurt the students by reducing their incentive to come to class or take other action that is important for their educational success.
What makes these decisions especially tricky is that almost always, offering these resources does in fact help many students while at he same time hurting others who have the inclination to respond in this counterintuitive and self-defeating way. So it is a real dilemma about whether you insist on helping the "deserving" students who are not tempted to slack off because you made their lives a bit easier, or take a more "social engineering" approach that tries to optimize the success of the class as a whole without getting drawn into moralistic judgments about which students' needs are more deserving of being addressed.
To summarize, I don't have a good answer to your question. All I can say is that you need to think what goal exactly you are trying to achieve by sharing your notes, and then consider (keeping in mind my analysis above) whether the sharing actually helps or hinders that goal.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Your main concern appears to be the pedagogical aspect of posting your notes so widely. Is it your responsibility to worry about whether it is doing your co-students a disservice? @DanRomik is pretty articulate in his answer about faculty struggling with this same question in all aspects of course design and administration.
You are a student, the more relevant concern should be; Is posting the lecture and class notes as you do supporting the faculty's methods for the course design or not. Are you are working with him or counter to him? (This is only coming up in my mind because it sounds as if you have a rather large operation going that large numbers of students are counting on! and is affecting how they interact with the course/professor).
If I were your professor, I'd prefer if you eventually came by to ask me whether I found it helpful or not. I'd likely welcome that the notes are posted. I may have some requests to tweak the timing or type of information you post because of other administrative bits that you don't know. Or I may tweak what I do in class to use it to better advantage for all students.
Upvotes: 2
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2016/06/07
| 537
| 2,170
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<issue_start>username_0: I am currently a Computer Science/Mathematics student going into my 3rd year of a 4 year program. I spent a year in a different program at a different university and was able to transfer those credits, but I was not able to take courses in a way that I could graduate quicker. However, these credits do allow me to take 4 courses for some semesters instead of the usual course load of 5. Would taking advantage of this reduced course load to work on personal projects affect my chances of pursuing graduate studies in Computer Science?
Aside: I have good/strong grades so far.<issue_comment>username_1: I don't think it should be a problem, provided that you are taking some challenging Math/CS classes among your 4 classes. If it looks like you're trying to skirt by with the bare minimum difficulty of classes, then taking a couple fewer classes could reinforce that negative narrative. But as long as it looks like you're taking a challenging course load and doing well, I don't know that people will even notice the 4 vs. 5 issue (since there are schools where 4 courses is a normal load).
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: From my experience, not at all.
It took me three years to complete my bachelor's after transferring from a community college, reason being that I was working full-time and could only fit 2-3 classes a semester. In those three years I only had one full-load semester (4 classes), and this shows in my transcript. I still managed to get into grad school with full support.
Also, as someone mentioned already, it's not so much how many classes you take, but how challenging they are. So, taking:
1. Theoretical basket weaving
2. Functions of a funny variable
3. History of math
4. Mathematical history
5. Mathematical finance for cashiers
6. Object oriented programming for Mathematica.
is not the same as taking:
1. Complex Analysis
2. Topology
3. Advanced Mathematical Modeling
So make sure you take challenging classes. Also, in hindsight, taking 2-3 classes a semester gave me some freedom to work on research, which was an important component of my application.
Good luck!
Upvotes: 1
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2016/06/07
| 1,524
| 6,645
|
<issue_start>username_0: Basically, my supervisor wanted to measure variable X. X is very important to him due to some other projects we are working on. So he wanted me to give a talk on measuring X at an upcoming conference.
I was skeptical -- I thought that maybe X wasn't a real variable, but just a mathematical effect that would cancel out if we did our measurements right. My supervisor gave me some compelling arguments and convinced me that X was real and we should measure it, so I submitted an abstract to the conference and got accepted.
Now, having done the work and taken the data, I am once more convinced of my old idea that X isn't a real physical thing. The talk is coming up soon and despite the enthusiasm that appears in my abstract the best I can honestly say is that we took some measurements and got no results. I know my supervisor would be upset if I give a talk to the effect of "X doesn't matter" because that reflects negatively on his other projects. Should I cancel the talk, change the content so it's drastically different than the abstract, or something else?<issue_comment>username_1: I would say don't cancel the talk. Mathematics, Science is built on the foundation of Theories many of which remain unproven today. The important thing is you are making a Case for the existence of X, you probably have not got there yet but what is to say that speaking about it at the conference wouldn't spark a conversation that invariably helps you see the path to the solution.
In Academia, we don't give up we push through.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_2: Do a practice talk with your advisor before going to the conference. Do it early. It will be a good time to discuss how the talk should be organized in order to highlight the context of your measurement in the whole project and its relative importance.
It is common for a student working on a small piece of problem (and not necessarily looking at its entire context), to go back and forth between feeling A) the piece is obvious or unimportant; to B) the piece is pretty cool after all; then back to A again.
At worst - if it seems as if your piece really is not so relevant, then I expect he will help you organize the talk so that it still engages the audience. (Not a bad skill to practice. And, if you don't pull it off - at least in my field, if the topic of the talk seems unimportant to the audience, the bad smell lingers longer on the professor/advisor than on the student).
(Of course, also in my subfield, giving a talk at a conference or workshop usually means that we are giving a talk about work-in-progress still unpublished. So strategies may be different if there is a required paper involved for every talk).
But more likely, with working on the practice talk and the discussion with the advisor - you will develop more of an appreciation of how that small piece of work fits and may even develop an appreciation of its other subtleties that interest the professor. In a situation as you describe, I place my bets on the professor instinct on the topic.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: This is not a bad position to be in! and yes you should give the talk. Couple of things here:
1. **To Be or Not to Be**: Yes, it is important to find "X" holds in your research, however finding the "X" is actually not holding is not a bad thing; all you need is to have an explanation for it.
2. **Ambiguity Is the Problem**: It raises a red flag when the researcher doesn't know what he/she is talking about. You are not in this position so I suggest to go ahead with your presentation.
3. **Transparency Is the Key**: You might said in your submission that "X" matter, but now when you go to your presentation be transparent. It raises another red flag when the speaker wants to BS his/her way through presentation.
**Main Lesson Here**: I think the main lesson here is that, you learn to think more independently about your problems, becase it might be the case where the supervisor is not right about the problem/solution; and you are the one that needs to have explanations about your problems/solutions.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_4: You shouldn't cancel the talk if you've proved a smart idea wrong, because negative results are as important as positive results. You also shouldn't cancel it if you can give a "work in progress" talk if you still haven't proved it right or wrong. But you shouldn't give a talk that just panders to your conception of what your supervisor wants. It's impossible to be sure from the outside, but I think there are at least three possible scenarios:
1. You still haven't found the effect or fully understood what your supervisor is teaching you, but it's existence is still an open question. Be very aware this could still be true. You should give the talk about your current status of the project, and hope to get feedback that helps you find the answer. It's OK to say in the talk you consider it still an open question and that you and your supervisor have different ideas about what the final outcome is likely to be. In fact, you'll probably get more feedback if you say that.
2. You were in fact right before, and now you've proved it. It doesn't sound like you're here yet, but this would be a great thing to do. Your supervisor may be more willing to help you demonstrate this than you realise. First, your supervisor may be more interested in truth than you realise, or second, your work may help clarify your supervisor's other contributions in ways you don't see yet. But the absence of proof of an idea is not the same as proving the idea is wrong; this takes real work.
3. You are being asked to promote academic fraud. If you really think this is the case, then you might want to cancel the talk and change supervisor. Or you might want to give the same talk as talk 1, show all the sides of the issue that you can, and get feedback on what other people think.
Academic fraud makes the papers, it does happen, and so does self deception even by famous PIs. Nevertheless, the solution being one of the first two options is far more likely, and you should probably work towards one or the other.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: Ultimately I agree with username_2. If you trust your supervisor, you should make sure you and them are on the same page. Relay your concerns to your supervisor, and they can use whatever has convinced them to help make your talk engaging to the audience.
In other words, you might be wrong that the results are uninteresting, and if you're not wrong, your supervisor can help you figure out what is interesting for an audience.
Upvotes: 0
|
2016/06/08
| 1,683
| 6,818
|
<issue_start>username_0: I'm in charge of putting together an event program, for a non-academic (business) event. We have several academics presenting, from mainland Europe and the UK.
In the agenda is it appropriate to write, for example,
1. Topic Title - Dr. Firstname Lastname, Professor of xyz at XYZ
University
2. Topic Title - Prof. Firstname Lastname, Professor of xyz
at XYZ University
3. Topic Title - Prof. Dr. Firstname Lastname, Professor of xyz at XYZ University
4. Topic Title - Whatever is in their linkedin profile...
(as seems to be typical on the continent)
I ask because I would like to use appropriate titles without sounding too academic and without insulting anyone. All are full professors, one emeritus. I'd like to use the same for all if possible, for consistency.
And, I am assuming that I should use at minimum a Dr. before the name even though the job title will be listed after the name, even though speakers with MBAs etc. will not have their titles listed, and will just be Firstname Lastname... not Ms. Firstname Lastname, MBA.<issue_comment>username_1: I would personally omit titles in such a place at all, and just list the profession, which shows clearly that they are professors:
>
> Topic Title - <NAME>, professor of nothing at University of Neverland.
>
>
>
If you do the same with everybody, you're fine: you can't insult people this way. I would say that the only people who really need a proper salutation always are Her Majesty and people of similar kind. With the others, it's just a matter of consistency.
Note that this may be field-dependent. As usually, in math and related field, people are more relaxed, in other field, this may be different.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Specifically in the UK, "Prof. Dr. Firstname Lastname" is not used. Also, "Dr. Firstname Lastname" is only appropriate if you didn't know that person was a professor.
That being said, I think there are generally two ways to list names and affiliations:
* (honorific) Firstname Lastname, Professor of xyz at XYZ University
* Prof. Firstname Lastname, Professor of xyz at XYZ University
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: For most people, insult and offense comes more from lack of care and respect than from mistakes. I would thus recommend the following procedure:
1. Prepare a draft, making your best guess for each speaker based on their web presence.
2. Send out the draft agenda to all speakers, saying that this is the draft and you'd like corrections in case you have made mistakes in how anybody is listed. (You probably want to run the schedule by them anyway for other purposes as well.)
3. Make any corrections requested by the speakers.
This way, if you get anything wrong, you're doing it in private, acknowledging possible errors, and giving them a chance to correct you in private as well. It will be a rarely sensitive person or an unusually significant mistake that will cause offense in this way.
Upvotes: 7 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_4: This strikes me as more an English usage question than an academia question.
In American English, "Doctor" is a [personal honorific](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_honorifics), whereas "Professor" is merely the name of a job. "Dr. Firstname Lastname" is the correct formal introduction in AmEng for anyone possessing a doctorate-level degree (PhD, MD, etc); the academic position they hold (if any) is irrelevant. As a native speaker of this form of English, "Prof. Firstname Lastname" sounds stilted to me and "Prof. Firstname Lastname, Professor of ..." sounds redundant.
However, as pointed out in the comments, in British English, "Professor" *is* considered a personal honorific, so some of your speakers may prefer to be introduced as "Prof. Firstname Lastname". The only way to be sure you don't irritate anyone is, as username_3 suggests, to draft the program and then run it by everyone and ask for corrections.
In all forms of English (that I know of), honorifics are **never** stacked. "Prof. Dr." will read as a non-native speaker error. (Multiple [postnominals](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-nominal_letters) - "Dr. <NAME>, M.D., Ph.D." - are not unheard of, but they read as egotistical. I would not put *any* postnominals on anyone's name in this context unless they themselves insisted on it.)
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_5: Note: This answer was originally intended as a clarification to a comment I created on username_3's answer that was well-received, but I ended up expanding it significantly during the writing process to the point that it can mostly stand on its own.
As username_3 mentioned [in his answer](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/70995/11593), it is probably best to ask for feedback from the participants (hereafter referred to as authors) themselves so they can clarify how they want to be attributed. However, you need to ensure that communication between you and a certain author does not interfere with the other authors. In essence, this means there are several ways to go about this.
The first way is to send a mass mailing to all parties, with the addresses in BCC. This means that if one of the authors inadvertently presses "reply to all" on his mail client, his email does not reach the other authors. However, using BCC in this manner might mean that they don't reply. There are certain mail clients and mail servers that mark emails sent to a BCC mailing list as spam, and your authors might not notice it. Indeed, many companies send spam marketing mails in this way, but this isn't a marketing mail, but rather a transactional mail. You are asking for the person to take an action, not just inform them about the latest addition to your website.
In addition, such a mass mailing would have to be worded in very general terms and probably would appear obviously mass mailed. Some authors might not like that, which could have a negative effect on your relationship.
Because of this, a better alternative might be to send the emails individually. this allows you to make the email look slightly more personal and avoids most spam filters because you can put the party in the To field. It does take more time, though, so be prepared for that.
As username_3 mentioned, a good starting point to help the authors save time clarifying their honorific and lecture is through their web presence: either their website, the website of their primary institute, or on the honor list of any award they might have won.
One final note: most academics are quite busy and some of them might not want to "waste" their time on clarifications like this. If the academic or their department has a secretary or a general administration, they might be able to help you with simple actions like their honorifics.
Upvotes: 2
|
2016/06/08
| 2,716
| 11,244
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<issue_start>username_0: I am less than half way through a five year postdoc/fellowship in mathematics. Some places have talked to me about possible tenure-track positions over the past year. As the years go by, I am getting conflicting opinions on whether I should stay put for the full five years and then go with momentum on the job market or put out applications selectively each year. In the latter case, I don't know how selective to be as I don't know what "level" of institution I should be focussing on. My mentors give conflicting advice on this, so I don't know where to go with this. The places that have hinted at positions are solid, but not perfect for personal reasons.
My questions are as follows with regards to going on the market early:
* How do you know when you are "ripe" for the tenure-track market?
* Will I be shooting myself in the foot applying this year for a position that may have a position in my last year of postdoc?
* If I take a permanent position early, will this make it much more difficult to obtain a better position later?
* How can you tell what level one should look to shoot for when applying early and not wanting to take too low of a position on your (personal) ranking?<issue_comment>username_1: Some thoughts:
>
> * How do you know when you are "ripe" for the tenure-track market?
>
>
>
The easiest thing to do is to try. If you get interviews, then you are ripe. (But the reverse is not true! The way the market is, in many fields you may be ripe but still not get interviews.)
The second easiest thing is to ask your postdoc mentor.
("Wait, but I am working for them! Wouldn't they want to keep me there?" Having a postdoc placed into a well-regarded tenure-track position is good for your mentor's reputation. It is in his/her interest to maximize your chances of getting a permanent position.)
>
> * Will I be shooting myself in the foot applying this year for a position that may have a position in my last year of postdoc?
>
>
>
Yes and no.
If you are obviously underqualified now, your application file will be passed over and forgotten by the time you try again in two or three years.
If you are somewhat qualified, but not the tops, they may remember your earlier application. Then in addition to judging you on how you compare to other applicants the committee may also try to compare your new file with their impression of your file from before. In other words, you need to show growth in the intervening years.
If you are good enough to get a position now, why not take it?
>
> * If I take a permanent position early, will this make it much more difficult to obtain a better position later?
>
>
>
Only your personal investment and inertia at your new permanent position.
I would advise against the thought of "shopping" for the best position at this early stage in your career. Unless you are one of the superstars, your goal should be just to get a job first. Worry about better opportunities when they actually happens. Or as the saying goes: A bird in hand is worth two in the bush.
>
> * How can you tell what level one should look to shoot for when applying early and not wanting to take too low of a position on your (personal) ranking?
>
>
>
Realistically, the calculation goes something like this:
* Final year at postdoc: apply for everything, take whatever you get.
* Year -2 at postdoc: If I get this job, I stay employed for three more years! I'll happily take a pay-cut for that.
* Year -3 at postdoc: I have two more years to polish my files. Let's just feel the water and only apply to places I would really want to work at.
If you are really unsure: more than two years from the end of your postdoc you can afford to be a bit more picky (and err on the side of thinking that you are a superstar). You really don't want to be offered a position that you have to reject because your postdoc is "better".
One last comment: if you are good enough to attract a tenure-track offer during the earlier part of your postdoc from a large enough institution, there is a non-zero chance that you can ask for a later start date in order to "finish things up at your current position".
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: >
> How do you know when you are "ripe" for the tenure-track market?
>
>
>
This is the wrong question. The right question is "What value do I get out of doing this postdoc, and what value would I get from a tenure-track position now?" In general, getting a bunch of papers, colleagues, research methods etc. in place now will massively help you with tenure, but great / perfect opportunities won't come every year. So **great / perfect: apply now**; good: expect there will also be good most years and wait til your fourth year. You probably want to apply twice, so I'd do fourth & fifth year, unless somewhere you really want to go invites you to apply earlier. *Don't waste time applying and reading advertisements every year!*
>
> If I take a permanent position early, will this make it much more
> difficult to obtain a better position later?
>
>
>
Yes. You have to prove yourself in that position before people will look at you. Also, you will get no novel research done the first two years you are teaching.
>
> How can you tell what level one should look to shoot for when applying early and not wanting to take too low of a position on your
> (personal) ranking?
>
>
>
**Fourth year**: only apply the places you want. **Fifth year**: apply everywhere.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: I don't really disagree with the other answers, but there are a few points where I couldn't resist putting in my two cents:
1. You don't know how ripe you are. I would recommend speaking to more experienced people, though as you've already found, you may hear conflicting things. How ready your letter writers think you are is a somewhat self-fulfilling prophecy, so it's worth deciding who those will be an asking them. You can also reach out to people are schools with jobs you're interested in and ask them if they think you have a chance. That's not foolproof either, but if you really need a year to ripen, then there's a decent chance they'll tell you.
2. Job-hunting is a skill. You will only get good at it by practicing. I think there's no question that you should apply for some jobs in the year before your last just to gain experience. It's also important because the set of jobs available in a year varies a lot, so you might miss out on some jobs you want if you wait for your last year. This is even a decent argument for applying 2 years "early" though assuming you're reasonably productive, two more years will give a much stronger CV. If you're picky about location though, you might want to start applying in your desired location whenever something good comes up. Having applied in an earlier year is quite unlikely to be to your disadvantage. Either your earlier application won't be noticed (so no issue), or people at the school will become aware of your existence (an important first step).
3. Some, but not a lot. I accepted a position a year "early" in my postdoc, which was a good fit mathematically, but the location was a poor fit for me personally. I have since gone to two other tenure-track jobs (based on personal reasons again), so clearly it's possible, and I've seen from the inside plenty of examples of people in TT jobs being recruited. You do have to put a bit more effort to making sure people know you are serious about moving though.
4. How selective to be is a tricky question, and one no one can answer for you. There are just too many variables. One important point though: sending in an application is not an irrevocable commitment. Even going to an interview is not a commitment to accept an offer if you have no others. Part of the point of the interview is to find out about a place and whether it's a good fit for you (however, if you decide a place won't work for you, tell them as soon as physically possible. The later they get into their deliberations, the more disruptive you pulling out will be). So, when you're not sure it's better to err a little on the side of applying broadly.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: Here are my thoughts on the matter. (The OP and I know each other, and I think by now he has figured out to take me seriously but not *too* seriously.)
The worst part of the academic job market is the randomness and uncertainty. In any given year, there will be a pool of desirable positions and a pool of candidates who desire them. The second pool is unfortunately *much* larger than first: more than an order of magnitude larger. But within that pool there is a much smaller subpool of candidates whom most people agree are deserving of a position of the desirable sort. More or less by definition, this subpool has approximately the same size as the pool of desirable positions: but what sucks is the "approximately." So every year on the job market there are candidates that don't get the desirable positions essentially because they lost a game of musical chairs.
Because of this phenomenon, having longer postdocs is a **mighty gift**. The difference between a two year postdoc and a three year postdoc is already considerable (and the difference between a one year postdoc and a two year postdoc is almost cruel). I advise all postdocs who are interested in research jobs in mathematics to do everything in their power to arrange to apply for jobs *while they still have the option of one more year on their postdoc*. This smooths out the randomness and uncertainty considerably, and as @username_3 says, it's actually better than that: when you apply for jobs in year N and don't get them, you get very useful information for year N+1. Ideally you will get specific feedback on your application itself, but even if not: if you apply for 20 jobs in year N and get 3 interviews, then you should be okay applying for not many more jobs in year N+1. If you apply for 20 jobs and get no interviews, you better apply for a lot more jobs in year N+1.
The main counterargument that I can think of against applying for jobs is that it takes a lot of time to do it in a solid way. Most people that I know do not apply for jobs in the first year of a three year postdoc, in part because they're slightly traumatized from their recent job application cycle, their research program is just starting to take off (that's when you should graduate!) and they really want to burn midnight oil on that rather than more job applications.
A five year postdoc: wow, that's nice. I would suggest not applying for anything in the first year and spending your second year expecting not to apply but keeping an eye out for perfect jobs (including jobs that people are trying to recruit you for). Whether to apply for jobs in your third year depends on how well your research has been going recently: if you just landed a big result or big publication that you don't see yourself topping for a little while, maybe do it. If you feel like you need the time to build up to where you want to be, maybe don't do it. **I would strongly recommend that you apply for jobs in each of your last two years.**
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]
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2016/06/08
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<issue_start>username_0: I need to cite different pages for the same source in Harvard style so here's an example of what I am doing (a hypothetical example):
>
> John (2010, p. 10) notes that marketing should not be confused with just the idea of selling people goods and services as it's misleading. The same author claims that marketing is really about value (p. 11) so he coined the term 'relationship marketing' (p. 12).
>
>
>
Is this an acceptable format? I need to find a way to cite specific pages (to pinpoint specific information) instead of simply mentioning all pages as in 'John (2010, pp. 10-12)' at the beginning.<issue_comment>username_1: To avoid reinstating the fact that the author is the one who made these statements, I would develop something in your first sentence that establishes that and makes it clear early on. For example, you could say that John (2010, p. 10) made a series of statements about marketing. That would set the platform to then elaborate on his *ideas* about marketing, rather than repeating in every sentence that he coined those ideas.
Instead of saying "the same author," I would suggest saying "the author" or "he". The reader should be able to pick up on the fact that unless you are mentioning a new author, you're talking about the same one.
You could also write it out raw, then go back and edit to make connections and develop a 'flow'....example "The same author claims that marketing is really about value..." you could maybe shorten this into "He mentions that it should be about value, leading him to coin the term..." See how this develops a 'flow'? It goes from describing what the author thinks marketing should NOT be, to what he thinks it SHOULD, and then into a term that he developed to explain that. Think of it as a conversation you had with the author. If you had to turn around and explain that to someone who's never heard of any of this news, how would you best explain it?
Paraphrasing, in my thoughts, should sound less like a listed bullet-note, and more of a concise explanation that would make sense to the reader **in your own words.** I hope this helps!!
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: (At @jakebeal's request, these are my comments turned into an answer.)
Is there a particular reason why you can't do John (2010, pp.10-12)? I would hope most readers could understand that any information you were citing came from one of those 3 pages and could go and search for it themselves.
In my mind it's a matter of readability over specificity. Part of that comes from my background in computer engineering - I subscribe to the belief that when writing code, it's more important that a human can read the code than its conciseness (with exceptions, of course). Similarly, when writing a paper, I personally think it's more readable to combine the 3 pages into a single citation and only interrupt the reader once.
Imagine critiquing an author's argument that spans 10 pages - it becomes a mess after a while:
>
> Smith (2nd Age, pp. 389) claims in his book "The Art of Dragon-Ryding" that red dragons are the easiest to ride. He backs this up by pointing out their smaller stature (pp. 390), their powerful hindlegs (pp. 391), their intelligence (pp. 392-393), their natural resistance to werewolves and other such creatures (pp. 394), and so on.
>
>
>
Much simpler would be to use a single citation and allow readers to go searching for specifics - so long as they know it's not YOUR idea and where they can go to find the idea. Note that (at least in my opinion) this is easier to read with little if any loss of accuracy:
>
> Smith (2nd Age, pp. 389-94) claims in his book "The Art of Dragon-Ryding" that red dragons are the easiest to ride. He backs this up by pointing out their smaller stature, their powerful hindlegs, their intelligence, their natural resistance to werewolves and other such creatures, and so on.
>
>
>
As a final note, remember that not every field of academia uses the same citation style (and not even every subfield within a field). When citing papers or books, the standards may change even from journal to journal within a particular subfield. So when in doubt, talk to the authority in charge - be that a course instructor, a journal editor, a conference organizer, etc.
Upvotes: 0
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2016/06/08
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<issue_start>username_0: I can't seem to find the answer online.
If no, can I assume no one would ever need to? I haven't looked at sample GREs yet because I haven't tried any yet, and I don't want these exams compromised when I take it in the future. I tried a 10-number GRE and thought it would be helpful to have a calculator for
$$\binom{5}{3}$$<issue_comment>username_1: I believe the answer is No.
From [GRE Subject Test Web Page](https://www.ets.org/gre/subject/test_day/)
>
> Dismissal from a Test Center
>
>
> ◾Using any aids in connection with the test, including, without limitation: mechanical pencils, mechanical erasers, pens, pagers, beepers, digital watches, calculator, **...**
>
>
>
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: It depends on which test you are taking. If you take revised general test it will allow onscreen calculator. But personal calculators are not allowed.
[Source](https://www.ets.org/gre/revised_general/test_day)
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: The GRE allows you to use an on-screen calculator during the math sections. It only allows for addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and square root functions. [Source](https://www.ets.org/gre/revised_general/prepare/quantitative_reasoning/calculator)
Upvotes: 2
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2016/06/08
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<issue_start>username_0: I have been toying with the idea of becoming an independent researcher, raising money by working very long/hard hours for a year, then taking a year off for solely for research. This would be partially for financial reasons (Post-Doc salaries are really awful), but also because I think my research would benefit if I could pour my undivided attention into algorithm design for a year.
The biggest problem with this plan however is that in order to publish my research after a year or so of intensive work, I would need to be affiliated with an institute - even journals like arXiv require this.
This got me thinking - what actually *is* an institute? From the little bit of research into it I have done, it seems to be no different to a standard company, although most have charitable status and are tax-exempt or non-profit.
If other people would also like to work for-profit for a year, then for-research for a year (or at some other frequency), then a virtual institute to publish under would be quite a useful thing. In fact I'm surprised such institutes don't already exist: we have scam journals and scam conferences - why no scam institutes?
Of course if I did set up an institute to publish under it wouldn't be a scam, (there are numerous benefits I can see a virtual institute providing for members), but the idea of a on-paper-only institute is applicable to both.<issue_comment>username_1: If your research is valuable then you should be able to find an institute to affiliate with. If there is a lack of interest in for temporary or part time affiliations in your field (that would work with your research needs) then perhaps there is a demand for institutes more welcoming to non traditional relationships.
There is no reason why such an institute would need to be a scam as you refer to it. Find others in your situation and form an institute together. Depending on the research you are able to produce, perhaps you can attract funding at some point.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_2: I know a number of independent or semi-independent researchers who have set up a small company for themselves to affiliate with (e.g., the whimsically named [Turing Ate My Hamster, Ltd.](https://www.linkedin.com/company/turing-ate-my-hamster-ltd)), for various different reasons.
This is pretty easy to do and, I believe, achieves everything that you are looking for from a virtual institute. It also has the advantage of not being fake in any way---just very small.
Upvotes: 2
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2016/06/08
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<issue_start>username_0: Background
----------
A friend of mine submitted a very original presentation proposal to the largest academic association in her field for their annual conference about 10 months ago. About 7 months ago, she heard back that her topic was rejected (according to her, it was probably because her proposal was about a project that didn't have data yet, which is nonstandard but sometimes acceptable in her field if certain other criteria are satisfied).
She is now attending a similar conference in ~2 months. She was looking over the list of topics and found one researcher's abstract that was almost identical to the idea she had proposed.
A little digging told us that this researcher had been one of the anonymous reviewers for the proposal-call my friend submitted to, and that the researcher has a publication-in-progress for this project. This researcher's previous work is not in line with this new project at all.
My question
-----------
Obviously scientists independently come up with good ideas and perform similar research all the time. In many fields, research groups working independently on similar projects can even mutually support each other if they come to similar conclusions. Still, it's not always innocent.
Are there any ways to determine whether an anonymous reviewer may have stolen ideas from one of the submitted proposals and published them -- as opposed to two researchers coming up with the same ideas independently?
If so, how serious is this?<issue_comment>username_1: If your research is valuable then you should be able to find an institute to affiliate with. If there is a lack of interest in for temporary or part time affiliations in your field (that would work with your research needs) then perhaps there is a demand for institutes more welcoming to non traditional relationships.
There is no reason why such an institute would need to be a scam as you refer to it. Find others in your situation and form an institute together. Depending on the research you are able to produce, perhaps you can attract funding at some point.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_2: I know a number of independent or semi-independent researchers who have set up a small company for themselves to affiliate with (e.g., the whimsically named [Turing Ate My Hamster, Ltd.](https://www.linkedin.com/company/turing-ate-my-hamster-ltd)), for various different reasons.
This is pretty easy to do and, I believe, achieves everything that you are looking for from a virtual institute. It also has the advantage of not being fake in any way---just very small.
Upvotes: 2
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2016/06/09
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<issue_start>username_0: More than once, I have found myself with a curious ethical dilemma. Due to the nature of the dilemma, however, I have waited quite some time to ask this question, in order to increase the anonymity of those involved.
Here is the dilemma: a colleague of mine sent me a copy of a paper currently under review, saying they thought it would be of interest and wanted to get my feedback, since it is a subject on which I am known to have expertise. The only problem was that I was one of the reviewers for the journal (and indeed had already turned in my review before my colleague approached me).
There was no ethical conflict for me performing the review, and no impropriety on the part of my colleague for sharing the manuscript either: we have similar research interests but have never collaborated closely, and the circumstances of the sharing mean there is no reason to think this could be an attempt to influence a possible reviewer. Still, I found it challenging to interact in such a way that it would not breach my anonymity as a reviewer.
What do you think is the best way to handle such a situation?<issue_comment>username_1: "Still, I found it challenging to interact in such a way that it would not breach my anonymity as a reviewer."
Either:
1. Breach your anonymity as a journal reviewer (if doing so would not help deanonymize the review of the remaining journal reviewers and the journal has no policy preventing you from doing so) and share your honest opinion with your colleague
2. Tell you colleague that as a journal reviewer that you cannot ethically share your opinion because by doing so you would weaken the anonymity between the remaining journal reviews and their reviewers.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_2: It seems to me that there are several options:
1. You don't admit having reviewed the paper and say that you don't have time to read the paper at the moment (or make up some other excuse). It appears to me that this is unlikely to be a good option because you can expect him/her asking you about your opinion again at some point.
2. You don't admit having reviewed the paper, but nevertheless provide feedback to your colleague. To protect anonymity, your feedback should not be too similar to your review, especially as far as details are concerned.
3. You admit having reviewed the paper. Technically, you/we shouldn't do this, but I don't think much or any harm is done to the system of anonymous peer review provided this is done after the editor has made a final decision on the acceptance or rejection of the paper. Of course, you need to consider (a) whether you can stand behind your comments without the shield of anonymity, (b) how your colleague might react, and (c) how this might impact your relationship (which is likely to see a reversal of the author/reviewer roles). It might be that your colleague is open-minded and well-adjusted and can therefore take constructive criticism from a positive review well. On the other hand, it might be that even minor points in your positive review will cause him/her to become annoyed or enraged at you. Of course, if the review was mostly negative, even an open-minded and well-adjusted colleague is unlikely to be pleased.
If I were in your position, I would go for option 2 or 3 depending on how you think your colleague will react to your review.
I have been in the position that a colleague came up to me admitting that they had reviewed a paper of mine (after a final decision had been made). The review was detailed and positive, but also made some critical comments that improved the paper. Thus the peer review process worked and was not impacted by the reviewer revealing his identity. The critical comments by the reviewer were entirely reasonable and have not changed my personal opinion of him. Actually, to the contrary: My opinion of him has increased because he demonstrated excellent understanding of the subject matter and took the time to write a detailed and constructive review. I have also heard of several other cases in which anonymity was breached after a decision by the editor.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: Have you considered writing a fresh answer to the colleague without caring that you wrote (or are writing) a review? What I mean is, just write the answer on your knowledge of the paper without caring that you are also writing a review. I think this is a natural approach and does not really have a downside.
You know the paper quite in depth, and you can provide valuable feedback. You will do so (or already have done so) in a formal way through the peer-review system, but now you have the opportunity for formulate the feedback in a more casual way (compare it with writing down results for a formal publication in a journal or at a conference and a discussion of the results on your personal blog - you describe the same things in a different way of communication). The only downside I see is, that the person will get some more clues that you may be a reviewer but I am not sure if this really is a downside at all.
Another downside may be that it costs you more time and that you don't want to allocate time to provide feedback twice. In this case, you can politely answer something like "Thanks for the paper - I try to find time to read it soon and come back to you in case I have any feedback." I guess most people understand that this can also mean that they won't hear anything more from you on that matter…
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: You could simply go for the half-measure: tell the colleague you are one of the reviewers, but not which one. If they are reasonable, they will be able to understand your position, and will not dig into the issue anymore. If they're not reasonable, well...why would you care then, i suppose.
Upvotes: 1
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2016/06/09
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<issue_start>username_0: I am first author on a paper about my research from last summer. Due to a busy school year and a bout of severe depression, I have taken FAR longer to finish this paper than originally planned.
When I send the draft to my coauthors, should I apologize? Thank them for their patience? Promise to be better in the future?
As a very young researcher, my primary concern is seeming professional and reliable to my coauthors.<issue_comment>username_1: In general, you should.
Especially if you are decidedly the main author of the paper, the delay itself should not be a major issue for the others (unless you have caused a "hard" problem, such as missing a deadline), but you may still have caused some inconvenience. For instance, your co-authors may have allocated some time for the paper that they couldn't work on due to your delay, and they might not have much time left now and have to squeeze it into their schedules again.
Whether the apology as such will be expected depends on the culture you're working in. Different cultures have vastly different stances on what "on time" means and whether it is expected in the first place.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: **Delays on this sort of thing are extremely common.** So, unless there is some specific reason that this work is time sensitive, it's unlikely that anybody is going to be surprised or upset by this: don't worry too much about it. Certainly, don't beat yourself up about it, especially when you had legitimate reasons for the delay.
That said, **a brief apology is a good idea.** All you need is something like:
>
> Sorry for the delay with this; the last few months have been really hectic.
>
>
>
Don't make too much of it; just acknowledge the delay and move on.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: Important information would be if someone ever complained to you, asked you for a draft, something like that. In this case, you should apologize.
If you did not hear from your coauthors during the last year, I think it would be polite, when you send your draft, to include a short statement acknowledging your delay. Do only say sorry if you mean it and if there is a reason for it. Your coauthors will have been busy with other things as well, so there is no reason to thank them for their patience.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: In addition to the answer's by dan1111 and O.<NAME> (which basically say something like "an apology is a good idea and will not hurt") I'd like to add the point that it is good working practice to inform co-authors if
* you can foresee that you won't be able to work on the paper in the near future (if can say how long, even better) and also if
* you couldn't work on the paper in the past (if you think that they expected that you do something) and also indicate when you can pick up the work again.
Related to
>
> my primary concern is seeming professional and reliable to my coauthors.
>
>
>
is the following:
Communicating a schedule and also goals/milestones can be really helpful for a collaboration, but it's even more important to communicate if can't keep up with the schedule and think that rescheduling is necessary.
Upvotes: 2
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2016/06/09
| 2,055
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<issue_start>username_0: I have the following problem:
I want to write an indirect citation of a passage in a specific book. The problem is that there is a literal error. Normally this would not be much of a problem (if I would quote it directly I could also write [sic!] to tag it as an error).
But the thing is that the literal error changes the whole meaning of the sentence.
To provide an example of what I mean (obtained from [1, p. 497]):
>
> Nonpolynomial approaches, like dispatching, may not work well.
>
>
>
The thing is that dispatching is a polynomial and not a nonpolynomial approach.
Two pages before it is even described as a polynomial approach (obtained from [1, p. 495]):
>
> For comparison, we now consider problems that do not grow
> exponentially. These are called **polynomial** problems because [...]. As
> a specific example, consider the job dispatching problem [...].
>
>
>
What would be the proper way to handle this?
---
**Edit:**
Because some made the valid supposition, that this is just a bad wording: As it was ascertained in the comments below this question, it is indeed a literal error.
The error was not documented in the Errata of the 2nd edition (can be found [here](https://factoryphysics.com/factory-physics-3rd-edition)). But in the subsequent edition (the 3rd edition) on page 525 the sentence was changed to:
>
> Polynomial approaches, like dispatching, may not work well.
>
>
>
So the example above is indeed a literal error.
---
**[1]** <NAME> and <NAME>. Factory physics; foundations of manufacturing management. 2. ed. McGraw-Hill international editions: Management & organization series. Boston, Mass. [et al.]: Irwin McGraw-Hill, 2001. ISBN: 0-256-24795-1.<issue_comment>username_1: If you want to quote the sentence, use [sic] (without any exclamation mark, there's no need for that), and then explain what's wrong, e.g.,
>
> Wallace et al. [1] state that [sic]:
>
>
>
> >
> > Nonpolynomial approaches, like dispatching, may not work well.
> >
> >
> >
>
>
> We should note, however, that [...]
>
>
>
(I'm not sure I've clearly understood the question, though)
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: If the purpose of quoting the text is to discuss the error, then quote the error. However, in this case, it seems that your purpose is to discuss the real situation. Quoting the error just makes things confusing. Instead, I suggest something like:
>
> Wallace et al. [1, p.497] say that polynomial approaches, such as dispatching, "do not work well."1
>
>
> 1 [1, p.497] erroneously described dispatching as nonpolynomial; compare [1,p.495].
>
>
>
The footnote explains that the literal quote from the source is incorrect but attempts to downplay this. The point of the footnote is only to stop the reader being confused if they look up the quote, not to criticize the authors for the mistake. You might be able to phrase the footnote better than I have, to make this point more effectively.
But be sure that it really is an error. The phrasing "Nonpolynomial approaches, like dispatching, may not work well" is ambiguous and could mean any of the following things:
* "Nonpolynomial approaches, such as dispatching, may not work well." (That is, nonpolynomial approaches may not work well; dispatching is an example of a nonpolynomial approach. This is the interpretation that you've used.)
* "Nonpolynomial approaches that resemble dispatching may not work well" (That is, among the nonpolynomial approaches, those that resemble dispatching may not work well; other nonpoly approaches might be fine.)
* "Nonpolynomial approaches, which resemble dispatching, may not work well." (That is, nonpoly approaches resemble dispatching; nonpoly approaches may not work well.)
* "Like dispatching, nonpolynomial approaches may not work well." (That is, dispatching may not work well. Nonpoly approaches have the following commonality with dispatching: they also may not work well."
Also, as dan1111 points out in [his answer](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/71055/10685), you need to be sure that your correction (changing "nonpolynomial" to "polynomial") fixes the error.
Upvotes: 7 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: **Avoid referencing this sentence altogether.** It is just too confusing. Whether you quote it directly or not, someone who looks at the source will not find support for what you say, but will have to read and try to figure out what it is supposed to mean. This means that **the reference is not serving its purpose of providing support for your statement.**
* **If the source has other text clearly making this claim, reference the other text.** This is the content that actually supports the claim you want to make.
* **If not, look for another source entirely.** I would not base anything on a single sentence that appears to have an error like this. Because: how can you or the readers be sure of the intended meaning?
+ As username_2 suggests, perhaps it was a poorly worded sentence, and another meaning was intended grammatically.
+ If there is an outright error, how do you know which word is wrong? You assume "polynomial approaches, like dispatching" was intended, but couldn't the intended meaning equally be "nonpolynomial approaches like X"? Where X is a nonpolynomial approach?
+ Even if you are sure, your readers might not be convinced. Questions about whether what you say is supported undermine the strength of your work.
*Note: if the error has been corrected, as it turned out to be in this case, then it's clearly ok to reference the corrected version.*
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_4: You should consider the possibility that you are misunderstanding the text.
It's possible that the author doesn't mean "Nonpolynomial approaches, of which dispatching is an example, ..." but rather he means "Nonpolynomial approaches, just as in the case of some polynomial approaches, ..."
In other words, his "like dispatching" doesn't mean that dispatching is an example of a nonpolynomial approach, but rather that it too suffers from the same problems as nonpolynomial approaches.
Simpler example: "Boys, like redheaded girls, have faces". This doesn't mean that redheaded girls are examples of boys. It means that boys, along with redheaded girls, share this property (having faces).
Just saying.
The author could clarify which is meant by using either "just as" or "such as" instead of "like".
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_5: I am not at all sure if this should be considered an error by the author. It may represent an error in understanding by the reader.
An earlier mention was made of "dispatching" as a polynomial approach:
>
> ... polynomial problems because [...]. As a specific example, consider the job
> dispatching problem [...].
>
>
>
Shortly thereafter (just two pages later), the author references dispatching in this *seemingly* contradictory fashion:
>
> Nonpolynomial approaches, like dispatching...
>
>
>
The key here is to recognise that the sentence construction:
>
> The A and C strategies, like strategy B, are unlikely to work well.
>
>
>
can very reasonably be taken to mean that none of the strategies (A, B, or C) are likely to work well.
It does not imply that strategy B is a member of the group of strategies A and C.
Note that that little comma before the word "like" is highly important. If it had been omitted, the sentence can definitely be considered erroneous and misleading:
>
> The A and C strategies like strategy B, are unlikely to work well.
>
>
>
The strong implication here is that strategy B is part of the A and C group of strategies.
Given that the line you quoted does have that critical comma, I don't think it's reasonable to conclude that it's in error.
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: The Wikipedia page for “[Curry–Howard correspondence](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curry%E2%80%93Howard_correspondence)” has a section on ”[Synthetic papers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curry%E2%80%93Howard_correspondence#Synthetic_papers)”.
What precisely is a synthetic paper?<issue_comment>username_1: Synthetic papers are sort of critical reviews that describe important concepts in, often, multidisciplinary fields. These papers are often structured and written in a (slightly) different way than typical reviews (or normal papers).
For example, the synthetic papers in your post describe important concepts that link together mathematics, logic, and computation.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: The term *synthetic* can have different meanings. In this context the definition of the word "synthesis" is helpful:
>
> 1. The combining of separate elements or substances to form a coherent whole.
> 2. The complex whole so formed.
>
>
>
A synthetic paper is a paper that summarizes results and ideas from various origins to form a (hopefully) coherent statement or conclusion.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]
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<issue_start>username_0: I'm to write my MSc thesis soon, and am a bit worried that I will get stuck in a rut. By that I mean that I will have very little variety in my daily (work) life, and that it will not only be stressful, but also that I will sort of stare myself blind on the same problems every day.
Any advice? Do I even need to worry about this?
EDIT:
I probably didn't explain myself very well, because everyone seems to have misunderstood my question (don't get me wrong, I really appreciate the feedback, it's useful nonetheless).
I'll be working on the same problems for about 6 months. I'll probably get so tired of it. I'm wondering what I can do to avoid that making me crazy. RasterImage mentioned changing the work environment once in a while, that might do some good.<issue_comment>username_1: The biggest factor is to find a way of working that suits *you*. So when you read advice (and there's lots around including here), filter it through your own experiences. When writing my PhD thesis I found a few things helpful that could apply to you. They're meant to be indicative rather than strict advice.
* A morning routine so that I got down to work consistently. Knowing when your day is *planned* to end can help as well (don't stop if it's flowing unless you have to).
* Starting the day by writing, because I find doing figures easier and more pleasant.
* Keeping a notebook (a real one made of paper) to note figures/sections/tables that I thought of, rather than getting distracted by starting them straight away.
* Falling back to figures, formatting, LaTeX tweaking when the writing wasn't flowing that day.
* Not feeling too guilty if I had a day that just wasn't going anywhere much
Something that happened too late for me but some of my friends did and found beneficial was to have a writing retreat for a few hours or a day, when they got together and structured some of the difficult bits in a supportive environment. Here it helps to have friends who know your work just enough that you can explain it to them.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: My adviser said to just "Get er done". I found that the biggest hurdle, as you alluded to, was how do I make real progress. Here are some ideas:
* Decide on the sections of the thesis. (This may already be predetermined by your department.)
* Write an outline of the thesis.
* Get a template for the thesis.
* Look at how others from your department organized/formatted their thesis.
* Write an outline for each section of thesis.
* Pour your knowledge into the thesis without worrying about sentence structure, spelling, thought flow, grammar, etc.
* Use Mind-mapping tools to get your thoughts in writing.
* Set small intermediate goals. (i.e. I am going to write the description of x result in 30 minutes.)
* Make a game out of it. (i.e. I got x words written yesterday, today I am going to write x + y words.)
* Listen to music that has no lyrics.
* Get a good night's rest. (I know this can be hard, but it does help.)
* Change your work environment every now and then.
* If you don't feel like writing on a certain day:
+ Refactor what you have already written.
+ Create a graph of your results.
+ Take a break. (Many times I was able to clear my head while walking away from the computer.)
Most of all keep in mind that what you write down is probably going to be modified, changed, added to, moved, or removed many times. Celebrate your successes, and let your failures educate you.
I had the same anxieties that you are having when I was writing my thesis. Many of my peers had the same struggles well. I would say this is a normal part of the process.
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: In Australia, when you want to do a PhD, you only would need first class honours (some universities even accept second class honours upper division). For instance, please see [the self assessment for the Australian National University](https://cecs.anu.edu.au/study/graduate-research):
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/AngR5.jpg)
I guess that most of the UK universities have the same requirements (at least Cambridge and Oxford).
Why do almost all US/Canadian universities make you do a Master's (before doing PhD) even if you have a first class honours from Australia?
I think the time that is spent for studying masters, can be saved for postdoc; on the other hand, UK/Australian PhD programs takes 3-4 years but US/Canadian PhD programs are much longer.<issue_comment>username_1: The principal difference between degrees in the US and Canada and those obtained in other countries is that the bachelor's degree in the US typically contains fewer "technical" courses than a comparable bachelor's degree from other countries. For instance, a student in economics may only have twelve courses total across four years that are economics courses; the typical international student may have twice as many. This is because most US and Canadian schools incorporate a "general studies" requirement into their degrees, which reduces the amount of credits available for the major.
Consequently, the coursework phase of the PhD program is to bring everybody up to the same level—also a necessity, given the diversity of undergraduate curricula—before moving on to the research phase.
Also note that this is not a universal requirement. Some programs will admit directly to the PhD with only a four-year undergraduate degree, with no expectations or requirements of acquiring a master's degree. (This is my case—I have no master's.)
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: This answer is not based on data but rather on my experience of both systems. I've recently spent 3 months in an Australian university as an internship in my Canadian PhD so I was able to compare.
Master degree in my field (Ecology/Biology) in North America are big research projects. They do not equal coursework even with first class honors. And honors projects I've seen would not be enough for a master degree either.
Also, in French-Canadian universities, we do not have the honor system, so I'm not surprised that first class honors are not recognized.
Edit: The previous answer also points to important difference in coursework that can explain the difference.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: My experience suggests that the premise of this question is not correct. In general, US universities do *not* require that Australians with an honours degree to do a Masters before entering the PhD program. I did an honours degree (in pure Math) in Australia less than a decade ago, and about half of my class went on directly into a PhD program in the US or UK. I have classmates or friends who did PhDs at University of Chicago, Stanford, Northeastern, University of Oregon etc, all with nothing but an Honours Degree. In general, the same is true for the most schools in the UK. For instance, one of my classmates went on to do a PhD degree in Warwick immediately after finishing Honours.
Cambridge is an exception, as all students usually take the Part III first, which is a one year long Master degree. In other places in Europe, such as Germany, you definitely need to do a Master first. The reason for the difference between the US and European systems is that more coursework is typically required in a PhD system in the US. Whilst an American PhD involves several years of coursework, a European PhD often involves no coursework at all (rather, one is expected to do research immediately upon starting the PhD). The coursework is instead done in the required Master program. As a result, a PhD in Europe takes just 3 years in total, whereas one in the US takes around 5 years. Once you add in the required Master program, the time required to get a PhD is roughly the same in either system.
Let me also add that the top schools in the US and UK are *very* competitive. A first class honours in Australia is by no means enough to guarantee one entry. In some cases a good Master degree may improve one's chances. But it is certainly not a requirement and most top US schools will and do accept exceptional Australian students with only an Honours degree (which is only logical, since domestic US students are only required to have a Bachelor degree).
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: *(expanded and edited from an earlier comment)*
This pertains to mathematics programs. I've been in several Ph.D. programs (long story) and none of them required a Masters for entry or a Masters to be completed at some later time, whether the student was domestic or foreign. What you did have to do was pass the Ph.D. qualifying exams within a certain time constraint and/or within a certain number of attempts. There were course requirements as well, but these were generally not much of a concern (unless you thought you wouldn't pass the Ph.D. exams and needed a Masters to fall back on), and the course requirements would probably be waved or altered (e.g. by allowing advanced graduate level courses to substitute) if a student passed the exams upon entry to the program.
For the vast majority who were not so fortunate to pass the exams upon entry, the courses mostly acted as vehicles for you to study for the qualifying exams. In math at least (and in the U.S.), the exams are pretty much your primary concern until they are passed. When I passed the qualifying exams, there were 15 people taking the exams and only 5 passed, and this does not include several other people who decided to bail and not take the exams after some experience in graduate level courses (and the realization they would likely not pass the exams).
Incidentally, my experience is that as a general rule (in math), the more prestigious a department is, the more relaxed they are about course requirements and the less meaningful course grades are.
Leaving math, I suspect much of what I said varies quite a bit with the field of study.
Upvotes: 1
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<issue_start>username_0: I am a German student at a German university. I and everyone I know usually addresses my professors with "Herr *Lastname*" or "Frau *Lastname*". Sometimes I wonder whether they would prefer if I addressed them as "Professor *Lastname*".
On the one hand it sounds way too formal, especially after I heard them addressing each other using their first name only. On the other hand I sometimes feel like I am not showing them enough respect. I would like to hear some **personal opinions of actual professors** teaching in Germany:
* **Would you prefer being called "Professor *LASTNAME*"?** Please differentiate between normal and written conversation.<issue_comment>username_1: I am not a German professor, but when I studied German my (female) professors always preferred "Frau Lastname" for both oral and written communication.
The preference will vary from person to person but the generalization you made appears to be the most common preference.
Hopefully a German professor will appear to give us a more thorough explanation and context for that preference.
"In Germany, the most common doctoral degrees are Dr. med. (medicine), Dr. med. dent. (dentistry), Dr. med. vet. (veterinary medicine), Dr. rer. nat. (natural sciences), Dr. phil. (humanities), Dr. iur. (law), Dr. rer. pol. (economic and political sciences, also as Dr. rer. oec. in Switzerland), Dr.-Ing. (engineering), and Dr. theol. (theology). All holders of doctoral degrees are appropriately addressed as "Herr/Frau Dr. \_\_\_\_\_" in all social situations."
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_(title)>
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: I am not a professor myself, but I am going to report my observations from **CS in Germany** as a native speaker:
Basically, this depends on personal preference. However, there are some more and some less frequently accepted ways of addressing, so I'll compile a little list of options (centering around a fictional person named *<NAME>*):
* **Herr Professor <NAME>:** While formally correct for most professors, this is rarely used in spoken language and should be reserved to written letters - and even to the more formal ones among these.
* **<NAME>:** Usually acceptable. It's the default way of addressing a professor, and even if the professor might not prefer it, it's a safe way that won't offend anyone.
* **<NAME>:** This is not a typical (I would even say: correct) way to address someone in German. Titles such as *Herr* and *Frau* (*Mr.*/*Mrs.*) are used even when the degree (or position) is indicated - the addresses *<NAME>*, *<NAME>*, and *<NAME>* translate to *<NAME>*, *<NAME>*, and *<NAME>*, respectively. (Only when talking about oneself, such as on one's academic website, *Herr* and *Frau* are dropped.)
* **<NAME>:** I have never heard about addressing a professor "only" as a doctor. The higher title always supersedes the lower one, and in this respect, *Professor* is definitely considered higher. Calling a professor *doctor* would seem quite odd to me, maybe comparable to addressing an *M.Sc.* holder as a *B.Sc.* (even though they have an M.Sc. in the same field as the B.Sc. as a direct follow-up). It feels like ignoring/neglecting some of the progress they have made in their career.
* **<NAME>:** This is very commonly used, and quite some professors seem to prefer it. I have heard various justifications, such as avoiding overly long titles, and *professor* being merely the position, not a part of the name. Some professors also prefer being addressed like this by their/other university staff (post-docs, doctoral candidates, ...), while expecting to be addressed as *Herr Professor Müller* by students.
* **<NAME>:** Using the full name (given name + surname) is not a usual way of addressing people in German.
* **Thomas:** It is rare for professors to allow this form of addressing to students, though within their own institute, first-name policies are not uncommon, especially with younger professors.
Note that for female professors, you can also use the female forms *Professorin* and *Doktorin*, although this might make your words sound even a bit more formal (as in writing).
EDIT: As correctly guessed by [<NAME>](https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/20058/massimo-ortolano), the name can be skipped in *Herr Professor*, although for some reason, this sounds quite old-fashioned to me. Probably, you would just say "Entschuldigung" (Excuse me) to call for attention, rather than directly addressing the professor nowadays.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: I am a professor in Germany and in normal coversations I prefer to be called "Herr Lastname" instead of "Professor Lastname" (well Lastname is in fact *not* my lastname but you get the point…). "Herr Professor Lastname" sounds too formal to me and is (at least spoken) worse than the first two options (well, it's close to "Professor Lastname"–but in any case I would not be anrgy or disgruntled by any means).
In written communication I am happy with all three forms and in fact I do not really care too much. The rest of the email/letter is much more important. Does it has a sign-off with a full name? Does it address all issues clearly and provides all necessary data? (Not like "When do you upload your lecture notes? CU") Are there full sentences with correct punctuation? [Note that I do not care too much about typos as I myself produce a lot of them myself…]
With colleagues it really depends but usually we do not call each other "Professor …" but "Herr …" if we say "Sie" and use the first name if we say "du".
Oh I forgot the "Dr. Lastname" case… Basically, I am never called like that in conversations, emails or letters and I am fine with that. Sometimes I read "Herr Prof<NAME> Lastname" or (more often) "Herr Prof. Dr. Lastname". It's correct and ok, but "Herr Lastname" would be equally ok.
Things are a bit more formal when communicating with higher levels of administration and e.g. with the (vice-)presidents and her/his staff. There titles are regularly used and German presidents sometimes like to be called "Magnifizenz" and some Deans like "Spektabilität" in formal contexts.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: Being a German professor I would say that anything but Herr/Frau Lastname is uncommon, unless you are writing an e-mail to someone you do not know personally. In the latter case you might include titles, because you never know whether the other person is touchy, and you might want to be on the safe side. Looking at the answer will usually tell you that using the title was not necessary, i.e. your e-mail "Dear Prof. X, ... Yours Y" will be answered by "Dear Y, ... Yours X".
However, I heard rumours that law and medicine are governed by rules different from sciences and humanities.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: Adding a few aspects to the very good responses above:
I'm a German professor in CS and I prefer "Herr xxx" as well. In fact I'm becoming suspicious if a student adresses me with "Professor xxx" in spoken conversation ;-). For written conversation of unknown students, it would be ok. It doesn't matter to me if it's "Sehr geehrter Herr Prof. xxx" or "Sehr geehrter Prof xxx".
But this is me and it is CS! I assume, that professors who are active in SE are more open-minded then others, so answers here might be biased.
The answer is completely different, when you are talking about law, economics or medicine. Here it is much more likely to find professors who are really obsessed about titles and it would be a huge no-go not to use all available titles in written conversation. Better check their website in advance. Really.
In the medical field, "Herr Professor" without last name is quite common, even in spoken conversation.
Fun fact: You can have your "Dr." title in your passport, but not the "Prof" title, so my passport says "Dr. XXX".
Upvotes: 1
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<issue_start>username_0: A [recent question](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/70996/when-to-apply-for-permanent-positions-while-having-a-lengthy-postdoc) asked about applying for tenure-track jobs before the end of a postdoc. I'm in a similar position, also in math, and would like to ask the same question with an additional twist.
I'm in the middle of a postdoc. I've been advised to apply to places I'd definitely accept offers from this year, but my wife will also be looking for a job. She is not quite looking for an academic job, but the ideal outcome would be for her to work at the same institution as me, in a non-faculty job. (Let's say she wants work in the registrar's office.) The hiring for her sort of job doesn't take place so far in advance.
I would be very reluctant to accept a job a year early if I did not know for sure that my wife would also be able to find something there, especially if we were not moving to a big city (and we would prefer not to, if we can help it).
I'd be grateful for any general wisdom, but here are a couple concrete questions:
1. If I get an offer and turn it down because she can't find anything, and finish out my postdoc instead, would this be a very bad move?
2. If I get an offer and she can't find anything, is it possible I would be able to defer a year to help her job hunt?<issue_comment>username_1: I'm a little confused about your thinking on this matter: given that hiring for the sort of job your wife has generally happens on a shorter timeline, how could you ever know that your wife will have a job when you have to make a decision about an offer? I think you may just have to go for it and hope for the best. You can always apply for jobs again if things don't work out (I've done this twice); if you can afford to be choosy about jobs now, then likely you can get another. The one wildcard is that if you get an offer, you may be able to negotiate a job for your wife before you accept. A non-academic position is an unusual request, but on some level its a smaller ask than, say, a TT position for her. The situation might be clearer if you said more about your wife's experience and skills. About your specific questions:
1. Well, it's not a good move. Probably the interview and offer process will move too quickly for your wife to reasonably expect to have found a job for six months hence, and people in the department might reasonably ask why you applied and went through the interview stages if you weren't willing to take the risk of moving there.
2. If you make the decision before you accept the job, this is a reasonable (and often made) request, but probably not after (and I'm a bit confused as to why you would ask). As with 1., the timeline on TT job offers (often 1 week) is too short to really know anything about her job prospects, so I assume you mean after accepting. Negotiation about start dates should happen before you accept the offer; of course, you can try to organize it after, but that is more likely to be received poorly (of course, it all depends on the situation, how much they are counting on your teaching, etc.), and you've lost all your leverage. Given that your wife's job search will be easier once she's in the location (and can network, etc.), it will seem like an odd request and will likely give your colleagues the sense that you already have one foot out the door.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: 1) You absolutely have to start applying! The job market in math is better than in other fields, but can never rely on being able to obtain a tenure track position in any given year.
2) Two-body problems can be negotiated. This is very common these days. Indeed, the department chair at any university that you may negotiate with will be overjoyed that your wife does not need a tenure track position.
3) The tricky question is always at what time do you bring this up (when you apply, when you interview, or when you get an offer)? Typically not when you apply, but I tend to think you should bring it up when you interview. Given that this is not tenure-track (which requires more time), you can also wait for an offer.
4) The details of whether you defer, whether you and your wife defer, etc. can always be negotiated.
Upvotes: 1
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<issue_start>username_0: For a PhD student getting married in the middle of the degree, is there an established etiquette for invited your peers and/or your adviser to the wedding?
Obviously, circumstances of the wedding affect the answer. But for the sake of argument, assume we're talking about a medium-sized affair in the US that includes extended family and friends (i.e. it's not a small, intimate affair).
For a specific example, I'm talking about a small lab of 8-10 people plus the adviser, most of whom have at least 2-3 years of working together.
The issues I think need to be considered are:
* Does an invitation cross any boundaries?
* Similarly, does the lack of an invitation imply some offense?
* And lastly, is it all-or-nothing binary? That is, do you invite everyone or no one?<issue_comment>username_1: Just invite the people you would like to have come. If there are other students, post-docs, faculty, or staff that you are close enough to that you would want to have them at your wedding, then just invite them. There is no established protocol for who you should invite, and no one is likely to be offended if you invite some of your lab-mates but not all of them.
This is, fundamentally, a workplace issue, rather than an academia issue, although the laboratory workplace for a graduate student poses some unique challenges. Whether to invite your advisor is just a particular example of whether to invite your boss to the wedding.
I got married halfway through my Ph.D., and I invited a few other graduate students. I did not invite my advisor, and I know that he was not offended. When I got back from my honeymoon, he even gave me a small wedding present.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_2: Here's my take. I got married last summer about a month before my PhD defense. I invited 4/5 members on my committee, 0 from my cohort, about 3 from my grad program. My two PIs, because we had a good personal relationship and talked about matters other than just school frequently, and 2 of 3 other members because we regularly met outside of school for happy hours at the local pub. I also invited another professor not on my committee who was frequently at happy hour. Break down your lab/committee/fellow grad students as such:
1) As coworkers whom you have a personal relationship with
2) Coworkers who are just coworkers.
I would invite people in class (1), but not necessarily everyone in class (2). That being said, you do have the potentially awkward situation of conversation about your wedding in front of people you are not inviting if you invite some but not all of class (2).
You need to balance your concern about cost (lots of people invited) with feelings (who would be hurt if not invited?), with who YOU want to have there. If people are upset about not being invited, just cite economics - weddings can be expensive on a per-guest basis.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: I can speak only to my experience, where I got married (very) shortly after I defended, with a relatively small wedding.
* Peers: I invited only those people who I genuinely considered friends, who I wanted to be at my wedding. This was also what happened with most people who got married and invited me (or didn't invite me). There was always only a subset of people who got invited, and no one took offense at this.
* An invitation doesn't cross any boundaries that aren't already there. I have had advisors who I didn't have "that kind of relationship" with. On the other hand, I also had a former advisor who was very involved in my wedding. It entirely depends on the people involved.
* A lack of invitation won't necessarily cause offense, unless the person is of the belief that they're in the "close personal friends" category and it turns out they aren't. But that's a peril for *all* wedding invitations, and generally people are pretty understanding.
* It's definitely not binary.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: If these were your very best friends you wouldn't be asking, you'd have asked them anyway. If you ask one you have to invite all of them, so separate it and have an extra party.
If they all live locally you can have a separate party after work, maybe just pizza and drinks.
Or if you can only be together during work hours, bring a cake and share it at break time, or bring hot snacks or order pizzas in for lunch.
Adjust according to your budget, of course.
They will feel they need to club together and get you a small present, so have a suggestion handy for something you need. After the wedding you bring a thank you card and pin it on the notice board.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: If you'd rather not invite people at your lab/research group and are worried this would be interpreted as a declaration of antagonism, bring something like a cake and drinks, to the lab, either a few days before or after the wedding. Consider even bringing your fiancee with you (e.g. perhaps just to bring a cake from the car or something like that). That way you don't have them at the wedding but you haven't snubbed them.
I'm not saying that's my *recommended* option - that depends on your relationships with people - but it's *an* option.
Upvotes: 0
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2016/06/09
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<issue_start>username_0: I have a simple question about a math paper, since I don't have a lot of experience in reviewing papers. I have currently received a request for reviewing a paper for publication. I would normally have no problem in doing so.
The thing is that I am currently about to start a collaboration with one of the authors of this paper. This collaboration even appears mentioned at some point in the paper that I was asked to review (in the lines of "the author ... and ... are planning to ...", where one of the ... is me).
I wonder whether there is an ethical dilemma. Perhaps it's completely normal and standard and I'm just making a big deal out of it. I'm sure it depends on the discipline, so I wanted to hear about this from people in the math world. Thanks!<issue_comment>username_1: If one author is too close to you, you should decline. I do not review for recent co-authors and current collaborators of mine but I start collaborations with people I reviewed.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: Recent (5 years) co-authorship would constitute an official conflict of interest for reviewing their NSF proposal. I'd decline.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: username_2 is absolutely right concerning the rules for reviewing NSF proposals, but I don't see that the same rules need to apply to reviewing papers, especially if the editor is already aware of your acquaintance with the author and work. I'd suggest that you make sure the editor is aware of your planned collaboration with the author; if the editor still wants you to review the paper, then go ahead and review it.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: Decline the review request: the fact that you will shortly be working with one of the authors of the paper is a clear conflict of interest. In particular, you say in a comment you're planning to start working with the author in a couple of months; my experience of mathematics papers is that they typically take more than a couple of months to review so this will put you in the situation of reviewing a paper written by an active collaborator. Even ignoring the conflict of interest, that would not be a comfortable situation.
Unless the editor explicitly mentioned it, don't assume that they're OK with you reviewing a paper that talks about you as a planned future collaborator. There's a good chance that the editor didn't notice that, since they don't have time to read in full every paper that's submitted. To underscore this point, I know two different people who have been asked to review one of their own papers: editors make mistakes, too.
By the way, when you decline, don't mention that the paper says that the author plans on working with you. That looks too much like you're saying, "Duuuuh!" Just say that you're about to start collaborating with the author so you have a conflict of interest. If you can, suggest somebody else who might be able to review the paper.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: I am not that strict as other answerers; some fields are too narrow to provide reviewer without any relation to the authors. Inform the editor of the possible conflict of interest as soon as possible and suggest looking for another reviewer. Then they *are* aware that there is a chance of your opinion being biased and *they* are responsible to take into account.
On the other hand, the purpose of review is to rate, verify and improve the paper. The conflict of interest take place only in the first case; the other cases shall ignore author - reviewer relatioship at all. If the editor insists on you reviewing the paper I'd refuse to rate the paper, but verify and comment the paper to the authors.
In that case you can turn it to your advantage; you will se how your possible collaborators handle critics and you can decide whether "*the collaboration is about to start*" will turn to "*will start*" or "*will be refused*".
---
Rhetorical question:
Who would review new [Pál Erdős'](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erd%C5%91s_number) articles if he was alive?
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_6: Declining the request is the easy way out. However, once you have some experience, you will have personal relations with most active people in your field, so this attitude would leave the reviewing to incompetent outsiders, which would be really bad.
As username_5 mentioned, the job of a reviewer is to rate, verify and improve the paper, and verification and improvement are no problems. Unless you are not asked by a pretty good journal (say, Journal of the LMS and better), rating essentially means "Dou you think this article should be published at all?". So you have to check whether the authors do something genuinely new, or use standard methods to solve a standard problem. To judge this you have to have a good understanding of what is going on in your field, which is why outsiders make poor reviewers. In the end one has to rely on ones gut feelings. Do you think that within a few months you could have come up with the same result, or are you envious of their ideas? Or, in your concrete situation, makes reading this paper you looking forward to work together with such great people?
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_7: I once received a paper to review where I was a coauthor. No kidding. I obviously declined, and maybe you should do the same. In my opinion this is largely your choice: if you feel that there is a conflict of interest or that you are unable to provide an impartial assessment you should decline.
Having said this, the scientific community in a specific domain is not always very large, there are not too many experts able to provide a solid review, and it therefore becomes inevitable after a few years to be confronted with the evaluation of a project or a manuscript of a former or present coworker. It may also be a disservice to the community if the manuscripts are evaluated exclusively by the competition, who might not be very impartial either but could be less inclined to admit it.
If you feel that you can evaluate the manuscript in an impartial way, you might add a confidential communication to the editor, some kind of "full disclosure", stating that you provide this review in spite of a planned collaboration with the authors, and that you are convinced that this situation does not affect your judgment of the work.
Upvotes: 2
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2016/06/09
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<issue_start>username_0: I found a significant error in a paper with 1000 citations. My advisor agreed that it is a significant error, but discouraged me from telling the author.
It occurred to me that maybe other graduate students also found the error, and never told the author, or they did tell the author and he just never corrected it. I think an author would have very little incentive to correct his own work, especially if they were famous for that work, and readers are strongly incentivized against writing a correction paper, because the author would be mad at them.
How often does this sort of thing happen? Can we really trust the literature?<issue_comment>username_1: I'm not sure what you are looking for. I know for sure that the seminal paper that made one of my bosses famous had glaring mistakes in it. Despite the fact that his result was completely wrong, the paper started a new research field and is now highly cited (around 1700, I think). No one ever bothered to point out the calculation mistakes, without which the paper would have never gotten accepted, because his proposal got confirmed experimentally. More detailed calculations done by others showed his mistake, but confirmed his intuition. In any case, I can't find survey data in my field dealing with un(der)reported mistakes in papers. But, as you do research, you are bound to find quite a few.
On the other hand, I found this oncology paper on unreported mistakes in oncology papers <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3031354/>
Looks like less than 25% of those who spotted mistakes in the papers, actually went on to report them.
The practice in my field is to write the authors about the possible mistake. If they are willing to correct it, there is not much point in escalating. If not, you can write a comment on how wrong the paper was, post it on arxiv and send it to the journal editor. This, assuming you're sure they made a mistake. Most people aren't willing to go through all this pain, but I've seen this many times.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Researchers/authors are human.
Humans make errors.
Thus Researchers/authors make errors (if we assume transitivity is given).
So, can we trust literature? Well, being an agnostic I tend to never blindly trust any statement. I found dozens of errors in the lectures I attended and made the experience that lecturers respond very different to criticism. There are some that feel attacked, or those that simply do not bother, but there are also those that will really think about your criticism and will correct you or themselves after having carefully checked the issue in question again.
I think, that a researcher's duty should be to allow and work with criticism as this will lead to an even better understanding of the topic for all involved sides. Also, your criticism shows interest which is actually a good thing and should be rated as such.
A good criticism should focus on the research itself and leave out personal-related stuff.
So my conclusion is, that you shouldn't just do nothing because of those strange unspoken rules society has built up to underline the higher status of academic people. Remaining silent for social fears is a bad thing that leads to a vicious cycle and harms research in my opinion. You should be free to question whenever you feel like it is necessary to question. Consider for yourself for when it makes sense to consume someone else's time. If you are not sure about your criticism, make some own research. If you are sure your criticism is right, if you ask me, for research itself this is the best one can do.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: >
> Can we really trust the literature?
>
>
>
Let me point out here that "can a paper be trusted" and "all of the calculations in the paper are exactly correct" are not necessarily related. This is something that people get wrong about research, and in particular single papers, all the time. Academic papers are useful dialogue. They are not necessarily 100% accurate or unimpeachable.
Peer review is designed to catch methodological errors. It confirms that the authors followed sound scientific principles as appropriate to their field. Most peer review does not check for errors in calculation, and typically could not even if they wanted because the peer reviewer does not have access to all of the paper's data. However, peer review does confirm that a group of experts all read the paper and agreed that the methods and conclusion make sense.
A paper published in a good venue is not strong because it is guaranteed to be 100% accurate, it's strong because the expert community of reviewers thinks it is accurate. I would assume, though I can't cite any evidence, that academic papers at good venues have a much lower error rate than similar documents that do not go through a rigorous vetting process.
As to whether this error should be reported- it really depends. If this is a purely theoretical result, if it is empirically in doubt, if it substantially changes the result of the paper, then the error should really likely be reported. If the calculation is wrong but the intuition and the model are solid, and there is strong empirical evidence for the model, then the calculation error probably isn't that meaningful.
Here's a practical yardstick: if reporting the error substantially advances the scientific conversation, then it is a publishable result that should be published, just like any other publishable result. If reporting the error is just fixing errata and not substantially contributing to the body of knowledge, then it's not publishable and probably nobody cares.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_4: Slightly tangential (doesn't answer "can we trust the literature?"), but:
On several occasions, especially when working with a class of students to work through a paper line-by-line and replicate its results, I/we have found errors — nothing that changes the qualitative conclusions of the paper, but definitely large enough to be confusing to students. These kinds of errors are overlooked by most readers because they aren't going through the paper as thoroughly, but setting the record straight can save a lot of time and trouble for future readers — especially students, who won't have the courage of their convictions and will think that they must have made a mistake/be misunderstanding something.
It helps of course that (1) I was already reasonably well established in the field and knew/was known to the authors and (2) the authors were reasonable people who saw the value in correcting their minor (but confusing) errors.
For example:
<NAME>, <NAME>, <NAME>, <NAME>, <NAME> (2008) Correction: Understanding the Slow Depletion of Memory CD4+ T Cells in HIV Infection. PLoS Med 5(1): e11. <https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.0050011>
In another case, where there was a typo in a *single equation* that didn't propagate downstream, and the paper was older (>10 years from publication), the author confirmed the error but said (and I agreed) that publishing a correction probably wasn't worth the trouble.
Upvotes: 2
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2016/06/10
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<issue_start>username_0: Some people erased three author names including mine from a paper previously submitted (and rejected by three different journals) and got it accepted by Case Reports In Emergency Medicine.
I presented the publishing editor of the journal multiple clear proofs of the plagiarism. Although the journal declares that it complies with COPE, the publishing editor is dragging feet not to publish a retraction about this article despite the proofs. Instead, they are trying to overlook the situation by involving the politically driven hospital administration from where the paper was submitted from. This in turn caused violation of my rights both as a human and as a researcher. I am currently subjected to serious mobbing by the hospital administration secondary to the inconclusive behaviour of the journal. This mobbing includes the change in my workplace and an official warning because "I ruined reputation of the hospital by contacting the publishing editor".
I also sent a message to COPE but there is no response.
Would anyone suggest any further action?<issue_comment>username_1: Working with the editor, until that process is finished, is probably the only thing to do at first. It will undoubtedly be a long process, with delays, so patience and persistence will be necessary. Try not to let the mobbing get to you, and try to remain calm and professional at all times, despite any pressure others may exert.
If the editors, in the end, are unable to come to a resolution you accept, then the options will be (essentially) to escalate the situation or to let it go. But making an action of that kind while the editors are still working would be premature, in my opinion.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: I always get down voted for saying this, but outside of Academia, if there is a very cut and dry case of someone trying to take ownership of works that you hold copyright in, then it would go to court and be handled in about a month or so (in Germany).
I appreciate that going to court is something that is considered the absolute last option in Academia, rather than the first option everywhere else, but in my opinion this is a terrible mistake. We don't tell academic's to just "research the problem and fix it yourself" when their car breaks down. We don't ask academics to "go through the correct channels" if a teacher is caught abusing a student. No, we extend our arms out to the rest of society and get the professionals to sort it out. People who are experts in dealing with these issues. But for whatever reason, many academics think that because they are intellectual, they must by default know everything there is about intellectual property law, and can handle these sorts of issues in their weekly committee meetings. Or perhaps they think they can handle the issue with more grace and finesse than the justice system. Maybe. But I have heard the same logical argument used by both the military and religious groups, who ultimately put justice secondary to some other objective - like saving face or maintaining the hierarchy of power.
Regardless of whether the journal/hospital does come to the right decision in the end, by not exercising your right as the copyright holder to justice through the justice system, you are handing unwarranted power to the publishers and academic establishment handling your case, and disenfranchising the people who have spent their lives thinking about copyright disputes and their fare/proper outcomes. All to avoid some perceived stigma over using real lawyers.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: Search for legal help from an expert in I.P. , expose them publicly and hope for the best.
This doesn't mean that you'll be able to prove the rights if you didn't took enough precautions to protect your paper and ignorance by this side is hard to prove in court.
The next time though, you can publish your own thesis/essay/book and get an ISBN with total rights and you might still be able to publish your work before it gets published since "accepted" doesn't exactly mean "released" or "printed"(this isn't clear in the question).
After years of oppression, I find this as the only way to get proper recognition since many of those cheap "book makers with ISBN" can print your work "in hours" and you can begin to spread your own knowledge at your own pace and people will think twice before abusing with your intellectual property.
Upvotes: -1
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<issue_start>username_0: I recently graduated with a BSc in applied mathematics and considering on applying for a PhD. In fact, I contacted a supervisor and he seems some what interested in my undergraduate academic performance. He also sent some articles to read so that I get an idea of what sort of problem is there to be analysed in the PhD, and of possible methods to follow. I read them, however I do not understand everything in those papers as I am not familiar with some of the methods used. However, as I have a basic background knowledge from undergraduate coursework, I believe, I can study those methods in depth and gain knowledge. But it would obviously take couple of months for me to learn the material. Although my PhD wouldn't start (**if I get selected**) for another 6 months, I have to tell the potential supervisor about what I read in the articles he sent and how much I understand.
So, if I say like I didn't understand all the details, but I intend to learn them before the start of the PhD, does it look negative? Does supervisors expect us to know everything before the commencement of the research?<issue_comment>username_1: **The best way to respond to this specific question is to engage the potential supervisor about specific content in the articles.** You are not expected to know everything at this stage. But it is important to show you are interested, can engage with the material, and (not least) actually took the time to read what they sent.
A response like "I read them but I didn't understand everything" doesn't give them any information about you.
Be specific, e.g.
* I found the way authors applied X method in this paper to be really interesting. I was familiar with this but didn't realize it could be used this way.
* The authors did X but why didn't they use alternative approach Y?
* I don't understand what this statement means...could you explain it?
**Asking questions about things you don't understand can be one of the best ways to engage.**
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: PhD students are not primarily chosen based on their knowledge but on their potential to do research. It's pretty clear that you can't know everything when you finished a BSc. If you have firm BSc with relevant courses that's fine. However you may or may not have developed skills that help you to do research. One helpful thing is the ability to acquire new relevant knowledge on your own. Another one is to work towards a goal and not get drowned in details in the beginning. Also it's important to ask good questions, think about extensions, improvement and so on. In fact advisors should be good in recognizing these skills.
Upvotes: 2
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2016/06/10
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<issue_start>username_0: I'm on my senior year of college, and my professor and I have decided on an independent study where I will analyze and develop some method(s) for screening valid data sets for the 'selection' phase of data mining, where spam bots, dead accounts, and other irrelevant data sources are omitted from machine learning analysis.
The problem i'm running into is that I really want to use a data set that is from the real world, so I could truly discover something meaningful from the data that hasn't been discovered before.
My initial thought was to use the Ashley Madison hack dump from the summer of 2015, but I wanted to consider the ethical implications of using such sensitive data. Alternatively, I was thinking I could manipulate the data before analyzing it to provide some sense of anonymity to the victims of the hack (for instance, replacing all full emails with the first and last character of the name, as well as the @ and suffix).
**My question is NOT whether you think these practices are ethical, but whether there has been some professional work done in the past anyone is aware of that can serve as a model for my current work.**
For example, Facebook was caught manipulating the content of its users' Facebook feeds in order to measure the emotional reaction of the content on their future posts.<issue_comment>username_1: **You have no legal right to use this data in your research.** Basically what you are describing is gaining unauthorised access to sensitive personal data and using it without the permission of the data holder or the individuals. The fact that some hackers posted the data on the internet makes this unauthorized access really easy, *but it doesn't change what you are doing from a legal perspective*.
**Anonymising the data in some way doesn't change this.** There are certain cases where anonymising data makes it legally usable for certain purposes--but not in this case, where you have no right to use the data in any way.
**Using this data would put you at risk of prosecution and probably jail time.** And, if you plan to do some research and try to actually publish it, I'd say this is a very real risk. Even if you avoid legal consequences, it's quite likely this will affect your ability to publish the work.
*Caveat: I'm not a lawyer. Ask one if you want more information.*
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: The answer of @dan1111 covers very well the ethics/legality of using this particular data set. To answer the question: are there standard methods of handling the human subject aspect of the proposed research? (with respect to your instinct that you should anonymize the personally identifiable data in it). I will assume you have a similar public dataset that was legal and that you did get the permissions to use.
The answer is yes. But at least in US universities, what you propose is classed as human subject research because of the personally identifiable information. Your research plan would include strategies on how to protect the human subjects, (protecting the the personally identifiable data). And it would first be submitted to the university internal review board (IRB) before you touched anything. They might expect a plan that ensured that the PII be anonymized even before you get to 'view' the dataset. What you propose might be enough, but they may require more steps or protections in place.
There are several questions that are similar on stack exchange and the answers will also mostly jump to quickly point out the equivalent of IRB approval.
[Ethics of scraping “public” data sources to obtain email addresses](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/56598/ethics-of-scraping-public-data-sources-to-obtain-email-addresses), [Sensible measures to ethically use freely available, but personal web-based comments in research?](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42327/sensible-measures-to-ethically-use-freely-available-but-personal-web-based-comm/42359#42359), [Is it legal/ethical to use data grabbed from a Stack Exchange site in a paper?](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/10459/is-it-legal-ethical-to-use-data-grabbed-from-a-stack-exchange-site-in-a-paper/10466#10466)
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: Relating to just the AshleyMaddison data, there is a plethora of articles on your exact question. I will summarize the main talking points and provide links at the end.
**1. Can I download it?**
The data is *probably* public-domain, but it depends on where you live. In some countries like the US, the data itself is publicly accessible and part of a wider conversation about personal rights to privacy, whilst in others like Canada, is has been explicitly decided that AshleyMaddison still holds the copyright and downloading the data is akin to acquiring stolen property (note, AM is owned by AvidLifeMedia, a Canadian company, and people have said that this decision was to offer some degree of protection to ALM, as hacked users cannot use the data dump as evidence in court). Other countries say that fundamentally nothing that can be downloaded can be stolen, so this doesn't even apply.
**2. Can I share portions of the data with others?**
If you are in a jurisdiction that allows you to download it, you can by default share it - and many (perfectly legal) sites exist for just that. You type your name or e-mail address in to see if you are part of the hack (or your spouse was). For better or for worse, there is no crime for making public-domain data easier to access.
**3. Can I process the data and share summary statistics?**
Oddly, unlike the above 2 issues, this is legal in every country which offers protection for journalists and researchers - including Canada. Many researchers, particularly those researching infidelity, have asked lawyers this question, and they all say the same thing - yes it's legal. In fact, top US lawyers have gone as far as to say that journalists are probably in the clear if they publish a list of names of celebrities who appear in the hack, for whatever little public good/interest there might be there.
Many articles also point out that there is a big difference between the legality of this, and the ethics of this. Both the law of the land and what is considered ethical behaviour changes over time, and they don't always have to be in sync. Some say that in using the data you are condoning and even encouraging the hack - which may lead to more hacking/data dumps in the future. Other's say that your research may be the only grain of good to come out of the whole debacle.
I will summarize by saying what I would personally do, which is use the data, get the outcomes, then way up the pros and cons of those outcomes with the example you will be setting for others in using this data. Legality is really not the issue here at all, because even if it is illegal, you are incredibly unlikely to find yourself going to court from either Ashley Madison or hacked users, as both parties would have a very poor case. Those aren't my words, those are the words of <NAME>, a law professor at the Stanford Center for Internet and Society.
So if the real question here is the ethics, then this is something that is ultimately up to you to decide on. There may be all manner of real repercussions from your department - particularly if someone in the department turns up in the database... - but that's a very different question.
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ashley-madison-hack-creates-ethical-conundrum-for-researchers_us_55e4ac43e4b0b7a96339dfe9>
<http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2015/08/is_it_illegal_to_download_the.html>
<https://onlinejournalismblog.com/2015/07/20/ashley-madison-ethics-journalism-hacked-documents/>
<http://fortune.com/2015/08/19/ashley-madison-media/>
Finally, there are many stories that people have posted online detailing their experience at the hands of the hack. Some say it wasn't really them, some say it was. Some are outraged, some are just numb. I would suggest reading one or two of the longer blog posts to really get a sense of what this data means to some people. It's more than just a resource. People have committed suicide due to the shame or discrimination they faced as a result - most notably people from the LGBT community - so it's really important to not shy away from that when deciding to proceed, or not, with your research.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]
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<issue_start>username_0: I have enough credits to graduate a semester early, and will be soon. I know of the perquisites such as the GMAT, but when researching the school I wanted to go to (Fordham) I am worried now that most schools only have a fall intake. I noticed UMaryland has spring intake and Villanova has a summer intake. Will my pool of schools be limited if I want to start in the spring?<issue_comment>username_1: check the list below for spring intake colleges. dates may be different as the list is for 2015
<http://www.hotcoursesabroad.com/india/prepare-to-apply/how-to-apply-to-a-university/usas-spring-2015-admissions/>
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: I started in January at UT Austin in 1998 in Aerospace Engineering. I had just graduated from there in December as an undergrad and was already doing research with my eventual PhD supervisor. I don't know if these difference were a factor for me.
Upvotes: 0
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2016/06/12
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<issue_start>username_0: I'm in the process of selecting courses for my third year, and I wasn't planning on taking certain mathematics courses (in particular, "pure" courses, such as Algebra). However, upon speaking to come colleagues, I've found that I might want to substitute Advanced ODEs for Algebra, given that I could probably learn the former on my own, and the latter weighs more on the GRE Subject Test, so I should have a good handle on it.
This has made me ask two things:
1) Is the Subject Test even required for all Grad Schools? I'll be doing the GRE, and the schools I'm planning on applying to fall into sort of an "Applied/Computational" category, so I don't know how much of the Subject Test they'd be interested in.
2) Do courses (and their subsequent grades) matter more than scores on the subject test, or is it vice versa, or are they both pretty equal?
I'd love to hear any and all advice. I'm doing a combined honours in general sciences and mathematics, if that makes any difference. I'm close to course selection, and I'd like to have a good idea of what would be useful to take.
Thanks!<issue_comment>username_1: It's difficult to answer this question because a lot depends on the programs that you're applying to and on the undergraduate program that you're currently in (because not all undergraduate programs are equal.) The GRE subject test in mathematics covers a broad range of undergraduate mathematics that anyone going on to graduate study in mathematics should have mastered. Your grades in undergraduate math courses *should* provide similar information to an admissions committee.
However, the graduate admissions committee might not be able to interpret your undergraduate grades (e.g. because they have no experience with students from your institution.) At some places grades are now so inflated that even a 4.0 GPA in math courses with the appropriate GPA says little about what you actually have learned. A good score on the GRE subject test in mathematics will help to confirm your good grades. Highly ranked graduate programs will want to see both good grades and a good score on the GRE subject test and for the very best programs this is simply a bare minimum- they'll want to see something beyond this in your admissions packet.
The subject test is really written from the point of view of traditional programs in mathematics. For programs in computational applied mathematics, the test content isn't as relevant and the subject test is not always required.
To answer your specific question about taking an advanced ODE course vs. a course in Abstract Algebra, you'd probably be better off taking the advanced ODE's course. In the other direction, if you were applying to a mainstream PhD program in mathematics, than you would almost certainly want to have an undergraduate abstract algebra course on your transcript. Certainly if you were applying to my graduate program I'd rather see a second course in ODE's than a course in Abstract Algebra (although both would be even better.)
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: First, I'd like to give you some perspective. When I was beginning my fourth year and picking my courses in preparation to applying to Ph.D programs, I met with my advisor to go over my choices. Since I was in an "Applied Math" concentration, my course load was comprised of:
1. Combinatorics and graph theory
2. Advanced ODEs
3. PDEs
4. Operations research (I & II)
5. Mathematical modelling
6. Foundations of applied mathematics
My advisor suggested that I drop out of the concentration and stick to the regular math curriculum. The reason being that in grad school (even in the applied math program), you will be expected to have gone through a good range of subjects, including of course, pure math.
Moreover, the qualifying exams you will be expected to take and pass will include these pure subjects, so the idea is for you to have some exposure before you arrive. To this end, my final year ended up looking like:
1. Abstract algebra
2. Advanced Calc. (I & II)
3. Numerical analysis
4. Complex variables (intro to complex analysis)
5. Mathematical modelling
6. PDEs
His decision was seconded by a senior professor, and the chair of the department. Looking at my course load now, and the subjects to be covered in the exams, I'm sure glad I listened.
Now, to answer your questions:
1) No, not all schools require it. In fact, none of the schools I applied to required it (they recommend it). I was told by my advisor that if they don't require, it's because they don't care about it.
2) Depends on the school. Some schools weigh performance in grad level courses more heavily than scores on the test (this coming from a member of the admissions committee at my current institution). Other schools use scores on the test as a metric to determine how well you'd do on the qualifying exams. (<NAME> told a story about how in the U of Chicago, they found an almost perfect correlation between good scores on the Subject GRE and passing the exams. See this: [unsolicited advice](http://www.preposterousuniverse.com/blog/2007/09/26/unsolicited-advice-iv-how-to-be-a-good-graduate-student/))
I hope my answer is of help to you. Good luck!
Upvotes: 1
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2016/06/12
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<issue_start>username_0: When I look for a PhD position, they always write that they need a master’s degree. However, most of the times I see that I have all the experience they are looking for. PhD is a lab-based work, so what they will do with the degree? Shouldn’t they take someone who is more good at lab work?<issue_comment>username_1: A PhD is degree you receive for research. There are formal prerequisites that you have to meet, depending on the law of the country and the university regulations. Usually, the PhD advisor cannot alter these requirements. In some cases though, there might be room for lowering formal prerequisites if a committee approves this.
In some countries (including Germany), a masters degree is the usual "proof" that you reached the scientific level to work on a PhD.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: A PhD degree should indicate that you are ready to do research in your field. That requires a combination of skills, including understanding of your research area and related areas, not just lab work.
Typically, in the USA the PhD program includes coursework to build and demonstrate that understanding. An alternative, which makes the PhD program itself shorter, is to require a related master's degree.
Upvotes: 3
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2016/06/12
| 1,144
| 4,682
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<issue_start>username_0: A day before I am supposed to give an invited talk at a conference, I find myself battling an awful flu. Can someone help me figure out the right etiquette here? Do I tough it out and travel to the conference to give the talk anyway (and risk infecting dozens of people), or pull out of it citing bad health?<issue_comment>username_1: If you're seriously ill and risk either your health or the health of the audience, the correct course of action is to cancel. Just remember to add many apologies to the email/phone call.
It's up to the organizers of the conference to manage risks -- including cancellations, and if they did a poor job at risk management, they'll know better next time.
Edit: By 'many apologies' I mean 2-3. One at the beginning of the message/call, one at the end.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Perhaps ring them up and talk to them in person and see what they say to get an impression what the pressures are. It's not pleasant to forgo an invited talk, and reasonable organisers can assume that the invitee will not drop out lightly.
If you still decide to travel, nevertheless, try to stay out of clumps of people to - as you say - avoid infecting them.
That being said, being ill at a conference is very unpleasant (I am not talking even about risks here). I have fallen seriously ill on conference only once (as far as I can remember), but that was an experience I'd rather do without. You are away from people that can help you, all on your own, in a strange city, not knowing possible doctors/pharmacies, and you cannot even make use of the time to socialise with your peers (of course, an invited talk is in the stronger category of duty).
Some of the answer also depends on how long and tortuous the trip is. You say, it's one day before your talk. A single-day trip could be seen differently than a multi-day one, but the principles above still apply.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: How about trying to arrange to give the talk via Skype? It won't be as good, but for sure sounds preferable to disappointing the organizers and others who may have been hoping to hear what you have to say. You can also make it a bit shorter, citing your health. The point is to make the best of the situation and show you are making a sincere effort to deliver on your promise. If you do that, it's hard for me to believe that anyone would think less of you for not physically showing up in a situation like this.
**Edit:** to address PeteL.Clark's comment, I agree if the flu is bad enough then clearly it will be better to simply cancel the talk, and OP should not hesitate to do this if necessary for health reasons. I did not mean to suggest otherwise. My suggestion pertains to a scenario where OP feels well enough to deliver at least a short (say, half an hour instead of an hour) talk via Skype. After all, what one would describe as an "awful flu" in the context of a dilemma about whether to travel to a different city with an overnight stay, might not seem so awful that one cannot make it to a room in one's house with a computer and deliver a short Skype address.
It's also worth pointing out that staying in a good mood is also important for one's health and recovery. If missing the talk would cause OP an excessive amount of worrying or anguish, and if by contrast giving the talk would result in a good feeling that he has been able to do something worthwhile despite having the flu, that's another argument in favor of making the small physical effort (with a potentially large mental reward) of giving a short Skype talk.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: I assume you don't have anyone who could deputise for you?
If someone else from your group is going (or can take your place), is sufficiently familiar with the material, and has time/experience/willingness to adopt your talk, the organisers may be pleased to have them speak in your place.
This is not uncommon in ordinary talks. It's rare in invited talks but I have seen it done.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: If your illness is serious then, by all means, you need to cancel invited talk, but with proper explanation, of course.
You probably want to email/phone your contact, apologize, explain situation and (if you prepared slides or material) send it to them, as a proof of your preparation and good will.
Each serious conference board should be able to handle risks, such as invited guests not appearing for various reasons.
*p.s. Be aware that, depending on your health state and type of conference you might get proposal to appear "virtually", over Skype or any other means of communication.*
Upvotes: 0
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2016/06/12
| 778
| 3,177
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<issue_start>username_0: I've recently enrolled in an Introduction to Computer Science II course in which the professor allowed me to skip the prerequisites.The problem is, I don't have the textbook from the previous course, *Java How to Program 10th Edition Late Objects - Deitel & Deitel*. The course and the one before it both encompass the same book, so I would like to catch up before the course starts.
While browsing on online stores, this led me to two different books, the 'Global Edition', and the US edition. Seeing that the Global Edition was half the price of the US version and I was on a budget, I thought it was a steal. There are many choices online with international editions at around $60 and the US at $150.
Why would the global textbook be lower than half the price than the US edition? What's the difference? I've read around that there is not much of a difference except for the cover, but why would that call for such a lowered price? The US book comes with access codes and other features, will the Global also come with those exact features?<issue_comment>username_1: Often if not almost always, "International Editions" (the monicker I know them under) are copies of expensive text books printed in emerging market countries (often India), whose legality I question...at least they are not licensed by the publisher for all I know. Someone here might have more substantial comments on the legal aspect - in fact, [StrongBad does](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34407/is-it-legal-usa-and-ethical-to-use-international-edition-textbooks-when-i-pay) in his answer to an earlier question.
From the one I bought before understanding this, I would, in the future, stay away from them for their quality alone. I kept noticing that there were seeming errors where the text diverged in most cases from a supporting graphic; and there were graphics on almost every page. I carefully made a list of errata for the first 100 pages, and submitted them to the author. He was kind enough to reply fast, expressing that he was puzzled: none seemed to be true. I eventually figured out that the graphics and text of my book were from different editions of the original book...my version is essentially useless.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: The back cover of the Global Edition says ([from here](http://www.amazon.it/dp/1292019360)):
>
> [...] This Global Edition preserves the cutting-edge approach and pedagogy of the original, but also features alterations, customization and adaptation from the North American version.
>
>
>
Thus, it is not exactly the same book. Notice however, that this book cannot be sold in the US or Canada, as the back cover recalls in the bottom left corner (according to [this answer](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/34410/20058), though, it appears that it could be sold in the US too).
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: I suggest consulting the professor who is allowing you to skip the prerequisites. There may even be an entirely different book that the professor would consider a better preparation for the course you are taking, especially for independent study.
Upvotes: 0
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2016/06/12
| 679
| 2,845
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<issue_start>username_0: Upon retiring after decades with the same university and rank of full professor I did not realize that I would lose my faculty email account until it was too late to save years of correspondence including correspondence concerning a paper currently being refereed for publication. Are there any recommended policies on this issue for faculty retiring from colleges and universities?<issue_comment>username_1: I have a friend who retired from Swarthmore who said "emeritus means forever" in response to my assumption that his e-mail would expire. Whether or not that's technically accurate, his e-mail persists.
Policy from Columbia:
<http://faculty-retirement.columbia.edu/post-retirement/faq-post-retirement#email%20address%20internet>
Policy from Indiana:
<https://kb.iu.edu/d/dddx#email>
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: In my experience, most institutions do allow retired faculty to keep their email accounts.
The American Association of University Professors has issued a [Statement of Principles on Academic Retirement and Insurance Plans](https://www.aaup.org/report/statement-principles-academic-retirement-and-insurance-plans) which includes:
>
> Each institution should help retired faculty members and administrators remain a part of the academic community, and facilitate timely retirement, by providing, where possible, such amenities as a mail address, library privileges, office space, faculty club membership, the institution’s publications, secretarial help, administration of grants, research facilities, faculty dining and parking privileges, and participation in convocations and academic processions.
>
>
>
Although "email account" isn't specifically mentioned on that list, it would seem to clearly be in the same spirit.
Of course, your institution has the power to make whatever policies they see fit.
As to your correspondence, I'd suggest asking whether it can be restored from a backup. They might be able to give you the data even if they won't mantain the account. Your department chair might be able to support you in this, particularly if your correspondence included other department business that may be relevant to current faculty.
Another request you could make is whether your institution could set up a forwarding address, so that when your correspondents send mail to `<EMAIL>`, it gets forwarded on to your own personal email account. That saves the institution the trouble of having to maintain your account and store your mail, but you still get the benefit of being reachable through that address.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: I just retired from a private, liberal arts college. I may keep my e-mail account on the condition that I use it at least once each year, a pretty nominal requirement in my opinion.
Upvotes: 2
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2016/06/13
| 753
| 3,127
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<issue_start>username_0: I wonder when and why conferences picked up the habit of giving out conference bags to attendees.<issue_comment>username_1: For the at least the first few conferences I attended, the bags had a clear function.
The attendee packet included a lot of paper, often more than could be tucked into whatever bag one was carrying. There could be several separate documents, such as a schedule grid and the printed proceedings. Carrying them around loose was inconvenient and risked losing some.
Providing a bag big enough for the attendee packet contents was a thoughtful gesture.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: For the *why* part: One reason is **to make registration at the conference as smooth as possible**. Imagine the first morning of a conference and all the attendees at the registration desk lining up and for each and every participant the guy at the desk hands over the program, the book of abstracts, the badge, the ticket for the conference dinner, the ticket for the prebooked tour (if there is any), the receipt of attendance, the receipt of payment, the complimentary notebook and pen and, of course, the stuff from sponsors. Takes much longer than pre-packed bags. (And even with all things pre-packed, there are always queues during the rush hour.
As for the *when* part, I have no idea. But if you have ever sat at a conference desk you'll agree that it must have been no later than the first time one guy organized a conference with more than 100 people for the second time.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: The bag gives attendees a place to store all the advertising and marketing materials (such as coffee cups and notepads stamped with the company's logo) that are handed out by vendors at conferences vying for attention.
These marketing materials are often referred to as **swag**, and the bag for carrying all of it is called a **swag bag**.
Having the conference hand them out to everyone at the entrance saves vendors from the cost and effort of having to each make their own bags to hand out to attendees.
The bag also makes it more likely you will take the stack of promotional items home with you, rather than discarding them due to having your hands constantly full of loose items.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: Ah! I was just at an [expo](http://www.augmentedworldexpo.com/) where they only gave out plastic bags (which is super rare these days). I can tell you what I did with it.
I looked inside it, quickly flipped through some of the junk marketing materials, found a little toy, pocketed the toy, and then I immediately placed the bag still full of junk marketing materials in a large box where dozens of attendees had already left their plastic bag.
If it had been a tote bag, I definitely wouldn't have thrown it away. Usually with a tote bag, I wait until I am sitting down somewhere before I start sifting through its content. And I only start throwing away some of its content if I happen to be sitting next to a trash can, or what usually ends up happening is that I bring the tote bag back home, and I do the triage there.
Upvotes: 2
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2016/06/13
| 631
| 2,691
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<issue_start>username_0: Two months ago, I submitted a (mathematical) paper to a journal. On the journal's website, there is a status concerning the paper, e.g. "Rejected", "Awaiting reviewer selection" and so on.
About two weeks ago, the submitted paper's status was "Awaiting reviewer assignment", and then it changed to "Awaiting reviewer selection". This seems more like a backtrack in terms of statuses rather than a step forward to get the paper reviewed (correct me if I'm wrong).
Now my question is:
**What could be the reason for that step back in terms of statuses?**
(I always thought that if somebody declines to review the paper for some reason, then it will be rejected?)<issue_comment>username_1: It might be that the first status
"Awaiting reviewer assignment"
was referring to the organizing committee *assigning* a *reviewer* for you paper and the later status of
"Awaiting reviewer selection"
was referring to the waiting before the *selection* of your paper *by the reviewer*.
Also could be that the second status simply reflects a backtrack, but from my experience with submitting papers even if someone declines to review your paper it will have to be reviewed at least once before it can rejected.
I say this because for all of my rejected papers i have received at least one review in the rejection email citing the reasons for which the paper had been dropped.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: >
> What could be the reason for that step back in terms of statuses?
>
>
>
Without knowing the journal in detail, there is no way to know. Based on the names of the statuses, it seems possible that the editor has previously asked a few reviewers, but too many declined and the editor is now again on the hunt for more reviewers. This is not at all uncommon, and says nothing about the quality of your paper. Based on personal experience, **at least** 50% of all review requests are declined, and that is for reviewers that I know personally. When I have to ask reviewers that I as an editor do not personally know, the acceptance rate for reviews is closer to 20%.
That being said, for many submission systems the various author-visible statuses are just not very useful. I suggest you stop checking the status of your paper in the system and instead wait for mail from the editor.
>
> (I always thought that if somebody declines to review the paper for some reason, then it will be rejected?)
>
>
>
No, why would this be? Reviewers have not actually read the paper when they decline the review. And, as I said above, many or most review requests are declined, usually because the prospective reviewer simply does not have the time.
Upvotes: 2
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2016/06/13
| 1,242
| 4,888
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<issue_start>username_0: When visiting my old school to attend the graduation of a friend, I ran into my old tutor. Exchanging stories and ideas, she nearly immediately offered me the option of a PhD position under her.
Now, I have applied for such positions before at other institutions but never got accepted. To do it right this time, I was wondering whether there were any resources available (books, blogs) that cover the early PhD and application process experience so that I may learn from others.
If relevant: I will be pursuing this PhD in the field of modern media, part-time, in the Netherlands.<issue_comment>username_1: I started with my PhD two years ago, and I understand what you're asking. There is large number of things you want to consider before enrolling in PhD, I'll try to summarize my experience and some advises.
Bottom line, when applying to PhD you want to make sure that you have these things covered:
1. **Clear understanding of what your future research will be**. When you start working on your studies, passing exams (in case you have formal exams as I do) you'll want to link these subjects to your main research as much as possible.
2. **Make sure you found mentor.** I guess this will be professor who offer you PhD, but it can vary depending on field of studies.
3. **Check options of scholarship**, since PhD studies and research can be quite expensive, depending on your area.
Interesting resources and links related to this subject:
* <http://www.pgbovine.net/grad-school-app-tips.htm>
* <https://www.academics.com/prepare-for-a-phd>
* **<http://www.findaphd.com/advice/finding/phd-interview-questions.aspx>** <-- check this one
* **<http://postdoc.unl.edu/documents/interview_prep.pdf>** <-- Nice checklist
Related to funding/scholarships, inside a site findaphd there are 2 sections to be considered:
* <https://www.findaphd.com/funding/guides/phd-funding-guide.aspx>
* <https://www.findaphd.com/study-abroad/>
Now, about more important matter - choosing good PhD subject, mentor and defining a hypothesis. My biggest challenge was finding out what my specific subject will be (and what domain will it be applied to), cause every mentor expect you to have idea what you want to do. If you try to simply "Google it" it won't be of much use.
Few approaches helped me here:
* Open account on <http://www.academia.edu> , publish some of your earlier papers and works. After that connect to a people with a same research interests as yours and read their papers and current issues. You'll be surprised what you'll find after just couple of days.
* When you search for books use <https://scholar.google.com/> instead of simple Google, you'll find lots of interesting papers on your subject probably.
* Try to find "problems", cause your future work MUST provide new benefit, you must solve problem. In order to solve it, you'll first read about current state of that problem.
**To summarize it**, these are steps you probably want to take:
1. Define your field of research
2. Define domain and mentor
3. Find scholarship module
4. Open account on Academia.edu and upload your papers
5. Research Academia.edu and Google Scholar for issues and opportunities
6. Define hypothesis and general idea for your future PhD
7. Prepare everything in nice documentation and enroll
All best,
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: In The Netherlands, as a PhD Student (promovendus) you will generally be a salaried employee of the University with a 4 year contract (which may be terminated at the 1.5 year mark if things are looking bleak). On the website of the [University Association of The Netherlands](http://vsnu.nl/cao-universiteiten.html) you can download the CAO which contains information on the regulations under which you'll be working (articles 2.3, 3.1, 6.8 and E.12 are of particular interest). If you are working part-time then the length of your contract would reflect that (e.g. you'd get an 8 year contract if working 50%).
You can also do a PhD as employee of a company (buitenpromovendus) in which case these regulations would not apply. These generally take far longer (as you are performing regular work for the company, and your work on your PhD is tangential to this).
If your tutor has offered you a position, then the application process could be as simple as saying "yes". There is no formal admission process, though you must have a Master's degree in the relevant field before pursuing a PhD (if this is not the case, then it is still possible but more complicated).
In The Netherlands, applying for a PhD is the same as applying for any other job; if your tutor has offered you a position, then all you need to do is accept. If the offer is not yet formal (or contingent) then a normal application process would consist of submitting your CV and then (hopefully) getting a "job interview".
Upvotes: 4
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2016/06/13
| 629
| 2,790
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<issue_start>username_0: A rather prestigious mathematical journal asked me recently to referee a paper.
More precisely, they asked me to provide "a brief (but relatively quick) report".
Does this mean that this is only a pre-referee report? What should be included in such a report?<issue_comment>username_1: A very likely possibility is that they have already contacted two referees, but have received no answers from one of them, or conflicting answers. So what they want from you is a quick general opinion on the paper to help them make a decision; someone has already looked at the technical parts in more detail, so you should focus on evaluating the level of the paper. Since the manuscript has already been sitting on their desk for a while, they want it fast.
Another possibility is that the paper has just been submitted, the editor looked at it quickly and it seemed a quick reject, but he/she wants a confirmation. So in this sense it may be a "pre-report"; if you don't answer negatively, you may be asked to write a more detailed report. But the other possibility seems more likely to me.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Some years ago, a few of the top mathematical journals began asking for "quick opinions" (or variants of this wording) on submitted papers, and this practice has spread a little since then. A quick opinion is not a full referee report, but just an indication of whether the paper looks like it could plausibly meet the journal's high standards. For example, are the main results truly exciting and important? The idea is that separating the high-level evaluation from detailed examination of the proofs greatly speeds up the time until rejection for most papers. This is good for authors, since nobody likes to wait nine months to hear that their paper wasn't remotely exciting enough for the Annals of Mathematics to accept, and it makes it easier to recruit good referees (offering a quick opinion is relatively easy, while full refereeing is harder but at least the paper is likely to make it worth your while).
Given that you describe the journal as "a rather prestigious mathematical journal", I'd bet that this is what's going on. In that case, all you need to provide is a single-page report offering your conceptual evaluation of the paper (interest, importance, novelty) and whether it merits further, more detailed consideration.
However, I'd recommend asking the editor if there's any ambiguity, for example if they used the word "referee" to describe you (which to me would indicate a full report). As an editor, I'm happy when referees ask for clarification, since it indicates that they are taking the process seriously. And it's safer to ask than to spend time writing a report that may not be what the editor wanted.
Upvotes: 4
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2016/06/13
| 1,380
| 6,049
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<issue_start>username_0: A professor in the same department has asked my friend to collaborate with him in writing a paper which is close to his area of research. My friend is not sure what to tell the professor since he is afraid that his supervisor will not be happy that he is publishing papers without letting him know or without adding his name.
Should he ignore the invitation of this professor or let his supervisor know about this? What should he do in this situation?<issue_comment>username_1: In some cases, a supervisor will be happy to have a student work on independent projects as well. In other cases, the supervisor will be happy for the project to happen but want to be involved themselves as well. In yet other cases, the supervisor will feel the project is a distraction or problematic for some other reason and strongly advise the student not to take part in it.
Which case you are dealing with depends critically on the details of the people and projects involved, and the best thing to do is for the student and supervisor to talk. Don't make it a big scary deal, just let the supervisor know about the opportunity, say you're interested, and ask what their opinion is.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: **Your friend should consult his supervisior for sure**, explain situation and ask him to work on that paper as a side project. There is no reason for supervisor/mentor to have bad reaction to this. On the other hand, **paper is public thing, if he goes behind his back sooner or later his supervisor will find out** and that will seriously affect their relationship.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: **In an ideal world**, research collaborations with others would be none of his advisor's business. As long as your friend does not neglect his responsibilities that pertain to his thesis work, there should be no reason for his advisor to even care, maybe except for appreciating that they have a prolific student. As for adding his name, the advisor should certainly not get credit for work that he did not contribute to.
**In the real world**, things are more complicated. The answer, more than anything else, will most certainly be determined by his advisor's personal preferences. Some professors will be happy that their advisee is pursuing research on their own time, and some will be very upset. Your friend himself is probably in the best position to know the answer in this specific case. That said, most disciplines have conventions around matters of credit and authorship, which may influence the advisor's outlook. My understanding is that when the advisor is responsible for providing facilities (lab, office, equipment...) to their students, they will justifiably expect to receive credit for the work done by the student, even when they are not directly involved. If your friend is using resources provided by their advisor for this project in any way, he should definitely not act without consulting them. A similar code may apply if the work relates to a method etc. that the advisor is known for. Otherwise it is almost entirely a matter of personal preferences.
In addition, (as a commenter points out) it is interesting that the professor has come to the advisee rather than the advisor with the invitation. In a situation like this, most professors I know would ask the advisor if they could 'borrow' the student first.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: Your friend should consult with his supervisor for sure, this seems like a pretty trivial matter to me.
Just make sure the friend wants to do this themselves, and isn't just being pressured or motivated just because some professor asked them too. I mention this because a student afraid to mention something so trivial to a PI might be one who thinks they have to say "yes" to anything someone with a PhD tells them.
**If your friend wants to do this** then he should tell his PI. I'd tend towards informing the PI what you plan on doing, and asking what they think rather than *asking permission*. You do not, and should not, need permission from anyone to write a paper about whatever you want, especially if they're not really involved.
If the PI is very against this, for some reason, then your friend should feel free to try and be persuasive. Sure, it's going to take some time, but if it's not going to tank his primary research then he should do it. Having more publications is very much in his interest, even if it's not in his PI's interest. ***Many grad students are too timid with their PIs.*** They forget that they have rights as students/scholars/employees, and often PIs will give you their opinion *expecting* you to push back if you disagree, and timid people won't. In fact, students who do the latter will often find their PI confused when this kind of thing is discussed. For example:
PI: "Do this by Friday."
Student: "It will take longer than that."
PI: "Oh ok next week then."
If the PI commands this student "YOU MAY NOT WRITE THIS PAPER." Then he should consider getting a new PI (if possible) because this one is terrible. If he doesn't want to do that, then consider just doing it anyway or not doing it.
I have found that many times when a PI tells you "Don't waste your time on that" and you do it anyways, they often won't seem to remember they told you not to, plus if it ends up being useful they'll be happy you did it. I often did things I was told to not waste my time on. If it turned out being a waste of time, they never found out about it, and if it didn't he'd often just remember it as his idea anyway.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: Work with whoever you want to. You are a free man. Do things which you like. Work with people who you want to. Life is short. Opportunities run away fast! (telling from personal bad experience)
If your supervisor creates issues then he is not the right man to work for in the first place. Even if he has issues, you must have a relationship with him where is not sure if he can tell you anything about it, if he is not correct!
Upvotes: 1
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