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2016/08/21
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<issue_start>username_0: I'm looking for a reference manager with note-taking/quote-storing capabilities. I don't need a full knowledge management suite, but I want to find a program where I can store and search long notes/lots of quotes, attached to entries in my bibliography.
So far I've used:
* Bib(La)TeX + pen and paper
* Zotero
* Mendeley
* Paperpile
* (Not sure about Endnote, but at least I haven't seen it used for what I need.)
Pen and paper obviously isn't searchable, and funnily enough, neither are the notes in Zotero. All of these programs treat notes as negligible, focusing on PDF metadata import and annotations, PubMed or Google Scholar search and whatnot. Which is all fine but not what I'm looking for. Since I work in the Arts & Humanities I still have my fair share of books accompanying the PDF articles in my work routine. For those I don't need any online specialties but rather a way to attach lots of quotes, notes, summaries and so on.
From what I've heard, Citavi can do some things like that, but I'm nowhere near a Windows computer to try it out. Ideally I'm looking for Linux programs, I could try Mac, and give bonus points for a web interface.<issue_comment>username_1: I use BibTeX / BibLaTeX with Jabref.
I make use of the Annotation Field.
See [this TeX.SE answer](https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/30510/how-can-i-access-specific-elements-of-a-bibtex-entry-in-my-latex-document/324142#324142) for some details on how to enable the annotation tab on all entry types.
In JabRef, the search bar allows you to search all fields, so that gives you searching. I particularly like getting search results from my annotations and from the abstracts.
And you can store by each of the fields -- including the timestamp of when you added it.
It also lets you easily link to the PDF and/or URL/DOI. I suggest if you can link to the URL/DOI in preference, since that will work on any computer if you transfer the entry.
To add things to Jabref is just a matter of pasting the BibTeX entry code -- or it has a number of other options.
Jabref just fronts the BibTex file, which is really nice if you need Bibtex to use latex referencing -- but I guess for most fields of humanities this is not so significant.
BibTeX is also really nice because it is just plaintext field, so you can version control it cleanly.
See this [Tex.SE question](https://tex.stackexchange.com/q/297075/5834)
Even if in humanities, version controlling your referencing is a great idea, since it makes it centrally available (if you use hosting), and gives you backup, and merging.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: To provide another answer myself, [Sente for Mac](http://www.thirdstreetsoftware.com/site/Sente.html) does have a "Notes" tab, where you can input individual notes per reference, complete with a field for page numbers and comments.
However it was super slow on the Mac I could test it. So I'm still open for other suggestions before settling in, especially for programs where the "quotation management" takes center-stage rather than being an aside.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: Even though you mention it, I think Mendeley actually solves you problems. It doesn't actually ignore notes, and you can actually search through them, so it seems like it should satisfy your needs.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_4: I spend most of my time working in Linux, so that colors this answer. I'm a strong believer in the Unix philosophy of "each program should do one thing and do it well".
To that end, I use Zotero to track my bibliography, but I use Microsoft OneNote (running in a Windows VM on my machine or on my laptop) to take notes.
Zotero nicely syncs across my various machines, so it's trivial to copy and paste either the title or the DOI of an article to OneNote regardless of what computer OneNote is running on (unfortunately, Zotero doesn't seem to support links directly to the Zotero entry).
I'd love to have a free/open-source notetaking program (and even better would love to have one integrated with a reference manager). But I have yet to find a single program that can track references *and* take notes better than the combo of these two.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_5: I have tried Mendeley and investigated others like Papers (for Mac) or Sente. I actually came back around to Endnote for reference management, pdf annotations, and note taking. I like Endnote's integration with Microsoft Word so I can quickly insert citations and I don't have to worry much about formatting a bibliography or reference list. You mentioned a few things you're looking for: 1) storing and searching quotations and notes and 2) some pdf annotations.
1. For note taking, or quotations, there is a field in each reference type called "Research Notes" which is used for this purpose. It won't appear in reference lists but is searchable and you can display it in Endnote easily. You can also search within your Endnote library by "Any Field + PDF Notes," "PDF," or "PDF Notes" meaning that these annotations are easily searchable.
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/VFmeQ.png)
2. For note taking with Endnote I tend to prefer attaching the pdf after doing text recognition. I'm not sure if newer versions of the program do it automatically but most journal pdf downloads already recognize the text. I highlight or add comments in the pdf. (This can be done through Endnote but I prefer opening the document in Adobe Acrobat Pro by right-clicking on it.) Any OCR'd text or comments are searchable.
You mentioned the interfaces - I've used Endnote on Windows or Mac and they are identical interfaces. On Mac the Word integration was a little more difficult, though I'm not sure if recent versions have fixed it. There is a web interface, Endnote Web, that allows you to synchronize everything as well, so my libraries stay up-to-date no matter what computer I'm on. The web interface is a little slower but the research notes work just as well. The PDF attachment process requires downloading and re-uploading the pdfs and PDF text is not searchable.
Upvotes: 0
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<issue_start>username_0: I want to acknowledge a retired professor. How do I specify his name? With just Prof. or something particular?<issue_comment>username_1: I usually see acknowledgements in papers with just the full name of the person, regardless of their degrees or academic status. No "Prof." or other honorific would be used at all. "We would like to thank <NAME> for helpful advice regarding our data analysis."
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Where a person who previously held rank or position has now left through retiring from the position (as opposed to resignation or termination), it is not uncommon to see them listed as **Rank (ret.) Person Name**.
For a professor, this would be **Prof. (ret.) Person Name**.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: In USA, a retired professor is not probably called a professor. A retired professor with doctorate can continued to be called as Dr. and identified in bio or intorduction as a former professor.
Upvotes: 1
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2016/08/21
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<issue_start>username_0: Shall I use my university address to contact professors in other universities who are specialized in the field of my dissertation?<issue_comment>username_1: I personally use my university address any time that I am conducting academic business, as, in my experience, people place more trust in .edu email addresses and web domains. Also, it is more professional to use a university email address as opposed to a personal email address.
However, keep in mind that your university likely has access to your email account, and they could track what you are saying and to whom. So, if you need confidentiality from your university, it may be better to go with another email provider. Also, some universities will 'expire' email accounts when students graduate (or faculty/staff leave). This likely won't be an issue for you, though, as you are still working on your dissertation.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: That is actually a fair question. (Some commenters here have possibly missed the point that for the beginner in academia even the most obvious things may cause confusion).
And the answer is: **yes, you can**.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: >
> Yes, of course
>
>
>
From the description of your question, the intent of your email is to contact with academicians within the same or of another institution. That *is* what an institutional email address mainly for.
Institutional email ids (such as a university email) provide an identity for the user as a member of the institution in addition to be able to separate his professional mails from his own personal email. Certain institutional email ids even give you the facility to automate term leave timings to send a polite reply to the sender if you are away on a vacation.
Upvotes: 1
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2016/08/21
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<issue_start>username_0: Arum and Roksa (p. 7) say:
>
> Research on course evaluations by <NAME> has convincingly demonstrated that "higher grades do lead to better course evaluations" and "student course evaluations are not very good indicators of how much students have learned. "
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>
>
I don't have access to Johnson's book, but a [review](http://mtprof.msun.edu/Spr2004/estyrev.html) states:
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> [Johnson] found the "grade-attribution" theory the most useful: "Students attribute success in academic work to themselves, but attribute failure to external sources" (96). Regardless of the reason, the analysis provides "conclusive evidence of a biasing effect of student grades on student evaluations of teaching" (118).
>
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Johnson did his work in the US. If I'm understanding correctly based on the fairly brief descriptions I have available, he managed to get permission to spy on students' actions over time, so that he could actually detect not just correlations but the time-ordering of events, which could help to tease apart questions of causation.
Johnson says that evaluations are "not very good" indicators of learning. My question is basically on what the available evidence is as to what "not very good" means. It's possible that someone could answer this simply by having access to Johnson's book and flipping to p. 118.
If "not very good" means low correlation, then it would be interesting to know whether the correlation is statistically different from zero, and, if so, what its sign is. My guess, which encountered a very skeptical reaction in comments [here](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/75515/1482), was that the correlation might be negative, since improved learning might require higher standards, which would tend to result in lower grades.
If the correlation is nonzero, it would also be interesting to understand whether one can infer that learning has any causal effect on evaluations. These two variables could be correlated due to the grade-attribution effect, but that wouldn't mean higher learning caused higher evaluations; it could just mean that better students learn more, and better students also give higher evaluations.
If we had, for example, a study in which students were randomly assigned to different sections of a course, we might be able to tell whether differences between sections in learning were correlated with differences between sections in evaluations. However, my understanding is that most of these "value added" analyses (which are often done in K-12 education) are statistically bogus. Basically you're subtracting two measurements from one another, and the difference is very small compared to the random and systematic errors.
My anecdotal experience is that when I first started teaching, I was a relatively easy grader, I got very high teaching evaluations, and my students did badly on an internationally standardized test that I gave at the end of the term. Over time, I got confident enough to raise my standards, my teaching evaluations went down, and my students' learning got dramatically better, as measured by this test.
*References*
<NAME> Roksa, Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses
<NAME>, Grade Inflation: A Crisis in College Education, 2003
related: [Do teaching evaluations lead to lower standards in class?](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9140/do-teaching-evaluations-lead-to-lower-standards-in-class)<issue_comment>username_1: Only commenting on your own experience, I can say that mine corresponds (roughly, very roughly) with your second-half. This is so even though the students were (literally) Ivy League material. I did notice a tad more interest and engagement than in a state university, but only for a few. The group was more concerned with checking boxes for the class, and if I got too critical-thinky, the bad comments came out.
That said, better learning does lead (arguably) to better grades, and so this can help the evaluations. But here we may have to distinguish between the immediate learning that leads to grades, and the longer-term one that produces better thought.
Don't kill yourself - simply mix-in short- and long-term concerns in your teaching. But the latter may cost you some points, although it is the right thing to do.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: The answer, from new research approaches dating from 2010, seems to be that increased learning tends to cause *lower* scores on students' evaluations of teaching (SET), but this is a complicated issue that has historically been a bone of contention.
There is a huge literature on this topic. The people who study this kind of thing the most intensely are psychometricians. There are many things on which they seem to agree universally, and many of these areas simply represent the consensus view of professional psychometricians on their field in general:
* The surveys used for students' evaluations of teaching (SET) should be designed by professionals, and are basically useless if created by people who lack professional expertise in psychometrics. Certain common practices, such as treating evaluation scores as if they were linear (and can therefore meaningfully be averaged), show a lack of competence in measurement.
* It's a terrible idea to use SETs as the sole measure of a teacher's effectiveness. Multiple measures are always better than a single measure. But, as is often the case, administrators tend to prefer a single measure that is cheap to administer and superficially appears impartial and scientific.
* SETs are increasingly being given online rather than being administered in class on paper. This is a disaster, because the response rates for the online evaluations are extremely low (usually 20-40%), so the resulting data are basically worthless.
* The difficulty of a course or the workload, as measured by SET scores, has nearly zero correlation with achievement.
* SET scores are multidimensional measures of multidimensional traits, but they seem to break down into two main dimensions, professional and personal, which are weighted about the same. The personal dimension is subject to biases based on sex, race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation (Calkins).
Getting down to the main question: *does better learning affect teaching evaluations?*
Before 2010, the best studies on this topic were ones in which students were randomly assigned to different sections of the same course, and then given an identical test at the end to measure achievement. These studies tended to show that SET ratings had correlations with achievement of about +0.30 to +0.44. But Cohen says, "There is one study finding of a strong negative relationship between ratings and the highest rated instructors had the lowest performing students. There is also one study finding showing the opposite, a near perfect positive relationship between ratings and achievement." This lack of consistency is not surprising, because we're talking about different fields of education and different SET forms. A typical positive correlation of +0.4 would indicate that 16% of the variance in students' performance could be attributed to differences between teachers that could be measured by SETs. Although 16% isn't very high, the sign of the correlation in most of the studies is positive and statistically significant.
But starting in 2010, new evidence arrived that turned this whole picture upside-down (Carrell, Braga). In these newer studies, students were randomly assigned to different sections of a class such as calculus, but they were then followed later in their career as they took required follow-up classes such as aeronautical engineering. The Carrell study was done at the US Air Force Academy, and due to the academy's structure, there was low attrition, and students could be forced to take the follow-up courses.
Carrell constructed a measure of added value for each teacher based on their students' performance on a test given at the end of the class (contemporaneous value-added), and a different measure (follow-on course value-added) based on performance in the later, required follow-on courses.
>
> Academic rank, teaching experience, and terminal degree status of professors are negatively correlated with contemporaneous value-added but positively correlated with follow-on course value-added.
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>
> We find that less experienced and less qualified professors produce students who perform significantly better in the contemporaneous course being taught, whereas more experienced and highly qualified professors produce students who perform better in the follow-on related curriculum.
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>
Braga's study at Bocconi University in Italy produces similar findings:
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> [We] find that our measure of teacher effectiveness is negatively correlated with the students' evaluations: in other words, teachers who are associated with better subsequent performance receive worst evaluations from their students. We rationalize these results with a simple model where teachers can either engage in real teaching or in teaching-to-the-test, the former requiring higher students' effort than the latter.
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>
*References*
Abrami, d'Apollonia, and Rosenfield, "The dimensionality of student ratings of instruction: what we know and what we do not," in The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education: An Evidence-Based Perspective, eds. Perry and Smart, Springer 2007 - [link](http://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/1-4020-5742-3_10.pdf)
Braga, Paccagnella, and Pellizzari, "Evaluating Students' Evaluations of Professors," IZA Discussion Paper No. 5620, April 2011 - [link](http://ftp.iza.org/dp5620.pdf)
Calkins and Micari, "Less-Than-Perfect Judges: Evaluating Student Evaluations," Thought & Action, fall 2010, p. 7 - [link](http://www.nea.org/assets/img/PubThoughtAndAction/TA10CalkinsMicariR.pdf)
Carrell and West, "Does Professor Quality Matter? Evidence from
Random Assignment of Students to Professors," J Political Economy 118 (2010) 409 - [link](http://faculty.econ.ucdavis.edu/faculty/scarrell/profqual2.pdf)
Marsh and Roche, "Making Students' Evaluations of Teaching Effectiveness Effective: The Critical Issues of Validity, Bias, and Utility," American Psycologist, November 1997, p. 1187 - [link](https://oira.utk.edu/sites/default/pdfs/assessment/sais/Marsh.pdf)
Stark and Freishtat, "An Evaluation of Course Evaluations," ScienceOpen <https://www.scienceopen.com/document/vid/42e6aae5->‐246b-‐4900-‐8015-‐
dc99b467b6e4?0 - [link](https://www.stat.berkeley.edu/~stark/Preprints/evaluations14.pdf)
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]
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2016/08/22
| 1,318
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<issue_start>username_0: I asked my ex-professor for a LOR almost a week ago and I have got no response yet. It is making me pretty nervous and I am not sure what I should do now. I was thinking about visiting him at the department and asking him in person, but I am afraid that his silence means "no" and it will be quite an awkward situation when I ask him.
I know that maybe he is on holiday, or the mail could fall into the spam folder, but I do not think so, because it never happened with any mail I sent him before.
Is it good idea to see him in person and ask him like that? Can no response mean "no"?
EDIT: He knows me - when he was my teacher we talked several times outside the class and I wrote him an email one month ago and he answered it, so I guess there shouldn't be a problem.<issue_comment>username_1: Receiving a null response doesn't necessarily mean no. There could be other reasons for the delay than to just say no.
I strongly agree with @CaptainEmacs (see comments); you ought to understand that professors would have other priorities too. It could also be possible that he might have missed out in the mail, or it being sent to the spam section.
It would be alright to send a follow mail as [Frank suggested here](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/32256/no-response-from-professor-how-should-i-write-a-follow-email-for-recommendation?rq=1). It would be even better, if you are able to meet up with him in person to request the LoR.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: **No**, it doesn't mean "no". The most likely scenario is that your email is one of many waiting to be dealt with.
I would suggest politely and non-presumptively following up on the email. Reply to yourself to maintain the thread and **include the date you need the letter by**.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: **Start making arrangements for an alternative letter of recommendation**. It might mean no, it might mean a bunch of more likely things, but these are *functionally* identical for you.
You need the letter of recommendation for a fixed date, so you should plan to get a letter by that date. This means you should assume you will be unable to get the letter from your chosen professor and should make sure you have an alternative in place. They might come through for you in time in which case all is good but you need to make sure that if they don't you have the letter you need.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: I would absolutely go in and talk to your professor, if that's in the cards. If not, go with a follow up email.
First off, **writing letters of recommendation is part of the job** of being a faculty member. You should in no way feel bad for asking for one, unless perhaps the professor is a complete stranger to you. What you're doing is completely appropriate for a student who has taken a class, met with during office hours, and communicated with over email to do.
Therefore, even if the professor **is actually trying to avoid you as a way to say no, it is they who are being inappropriate**, not you. Professors of all people know full well how important LORs are, and that they need to be timely. Declining to write one when approached should be handled promptly and professionally. Yes, it may be awkward to force the issue, but it should be they who feel bad about it, not you.
However, as others have said, **the vastly more likely scenario is that they're busy or travelling and just haven't seen/gotten to it.**
So in *either case*, the correct course of action is to politely follow up with them. In person would be best if it's viable, since they might recognize you and connect you to previous work/relations better that way, than by name over email.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: As a professor, I can tell you that this is not an uncommon situation. I wouldn't read too much into a no-response. Personally, I get somewhere between 30 and 60 emails a day. I'll try to check it regularly, but sometimes I'm not able to reply immediately (e.g., needs a longer reply and I'm on my phone). I mean to reply, but then actually doing so gets lost in the continuing stream of emails.
I advise students who are contacting professors and other busy people to use my **2-email method**.
1. Email the professor with the request. Make it clear and self contained.
2. After about a week with no reply, send a followup email politely checking back with them.
Almost always, you'll get a response in the next day, if not sooner. What happens is that we've been meaning to get back to you, but other things have come up. The second email prompts us to reply again, and we feel guilty for not having done so sooner, so try to reply right then so as to not fail to do so again.
A second solution that others have recommended above is to **go and meet with the professor** at their office. A two minute in-person conversation would often have taken an hour to type up in email, so if there is something they needed from you, or wanted to discuss with you, it can be handled quickly and with low mental workload.
Finally, once they have agreed to write the letter for you, give them the information they request (I like drafts of application materials and resume) and clear deadlines and submission instructions. **Follow up with them 3-5 days before the deadline.** Most will appreciate the reminder if we've not yet written the letter.
Upvotes: 3
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2016/08/22
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<issue_start>username_0: I have an article accepted in a journal, providing I make certain revisions. I have now made the revisions and sent them off, but am awaiting the journal's confirmation that the reviewers are satisfied. How do I reference my own paper in this limbo situation? 'Accepted'? 'In press' seems a bit ahead of myself. But 'In prep' seems to not do it justice, as it has been accepted. Does anyone use 'under revision'?
It is likely the case that by the time I finish the piece in which I cite myself, the situation will be clearer. But for this point in time (and for ongoing conference presentations) it would be good to know what the style is here.<issue_comment>username_1: The most closest thing you could refer to would be to consider your article as *unpublished* or *submitted for publication*.
In [APA style](http://linguistics.byu.edu/faculty/henrichsenl/apa/APA14.html):
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> Authors. Manuscript Title. Manuscript submitted for publication
>
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In [IEEE style](https://www.ieee.org/documents/ieeecitationref.pdf)
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> Authors, “Title of paper,” unpublished
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>
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: "**In revision**" might be a good option for some venues, say when referring to the work in a presentation.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: IMHO, the best strategy is to upload the preprint version to an open archive such as arXiv or archives-ouvertes. Almost every journal accepts this (check [sherpa.ac.uk/romeo](http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/index.php) in case of doubts).
This way, your work is accessible to everyone instantly and freely, nobody can steal your work and, more importantly in your case, you can cite it. Just mention *Preprint* and provide an url or, nicer, a clickable link. You can also mention *Submitted to ...* for example.
Of course you can upload the author version or even the publisher's version if allowed (check the above link to know), once the article has been reviewed and accepted.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: I often cite papers as
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> <NAME>, Semi-automatic arithmetic quasi-algebras, to appear in *Journal of Algebra*.
>
>
>
You will need to decide based on the specifics of your situation whether "to appear in" is actually accurate.
If there is some chance that your paper might still be rejected, this is probably not a good idea. But if it has indeed been accepted, it is probably fine. (Your description makes it sound like both of these are true, which I find rather contradictory!)
Note: I am in mathematics, where there is no official style that must be adhered to. Also, most papers are on the arXiv, so it's more likely that I would actually cite them as
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> <NAME>, Semi-automatic arithmetic quasi-algebras, to appear in *Journal of Algebra*. arXiv:1601:56789.
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>
>
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: Each journal has its own rules about citations/references. You may find an "author guide" in the journal's website and look for your case.
Upvotes: 0
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2016/08/22
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<issue_start>username_0: I want my PhD thesis findings to be presented as a scientific pager and get it published in a journal which uses "iThenticate" as plagiarism detection software. When I present my findings, it's unavoidable that I'll use many exact sentences and exact findings from thesis to the paper. So, as I have already published my thesis to the university (the thesis is not available to the public so, only me, university and the turnitin only knows that the thesis exists in this world), will the iThenticate detect my own thesis as self plagiarism? Does "iThenticate" go through the academic thesises submitted via "turnitin" to the university? Because iThenticate only state following as their databases which is not clear for me
* 60 Billion Web Pages
* 144 Million Content Items
* ProQuest Dissertations
* Internal Documents
The only option I see is pay $100.00 USD and buy their one paper credit and check if my thesis is detected by them, but it's a waste of money just to check. Can somebody tell me if they go through thesises? And any other advises for me?<issue_comment>username_1: iThenticate might check your paper against your thesis. Many universities send theses to Proquest, which shares them with iThenticate, as you mentioned. However, you have no problem. Most journals allow you to publish parts of your thesis as journal articles. If iThenticate tells the journal your paper is a copy of your thesis, they will ignore this information.
You should check the policies of the journal before you submit your paper to it.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: You may have to deal with some restrictions on how you publish your thesis. In some fields it's not uncommon to publish a thesis in book form; you may lose this option or get mired in copyright negotiations.
Make sure your name is given in *exactly* the same form on your paper submission and your thesis; this will make it easier for an editor reviewing the output of the system, and (as said in the comments) tell the editor up-front. You don't want the editor getting the impression that their software has flagged a previous paper.
Some choice phrases crop up again and again. Certain descriptions are the clearest way to put things and any paraphrasing would only make it harder for the reader to follow. These can be recahed independently so you don't have to worry about the odd sentence matching.
The opposite approach also takes place - it's known as a "stapler thesis". A
search here might prove helpful. I had published a paper for each of my results chapters before I wrote the thesis, and from that I can say that in general you have to write it in a rather different way. Most of these were short papers, which does affect the writing style. I wrote the thesis with the paper source files open, but I don't think a single whole sentence made it across intact. Some fairly large chunks of text were copied over but then edited to fit the context. The thesis needs more explanation of points that you can just cite in a (short) paper. In a thesis, where you're not subject to a page limit, you can draw out more details from results, including a wider range of implications than would fit with the message in a paper.
Upvotes: 0
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2016/08/22
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<issue_start>username_0: Over the years, I have had experiences at some conferences where more senior faculty members have been—shall we say—less than appropriate to women in the field. The same can be said about colleagues being heterosexist and/or racist, but I digress. Sometimes, these are isolated incidents and I didn’t feel comfortable having the confrontation at that point in my career so I let it slide. I am in a field that has a serious gender inequity problem and I am a junior member of the field.
Flash forward a few years and a colleague (of the gender/race/sexuality that the other person disparaged) is going to a conference with the same person. In my field, the conferences are small, so there's little chance they will not interact.
Does one forewarn one’s colleague about such a faculty member? Part of me desires to forewarn, but part of me worries that it will just add drama to the community, preconceived notions to the colleague's experience in the conference, and possibly unnecessary dread during the time interacting with the faculty member. What if the faculty member has gotten better about this? What if it gets back to the faculty member that I’ve said that they’re sexist?
If one doesn’t tell a colleague and then experiences said sexism, then does one confirm their experience about that faculty member to help one’s colleague process that experience?<issue_comment>username_1: If this person is "merely" boorish, I think you're best off letting your colleague experience and handle the situation themselves. Presumably they're also professional adults who can take care of themselves, and as you said, it's possible the other person has gotten better about it, so maybe it's a non-issue. But more importantly, since you're all in the same field (which you suggested was small), being the one to spread the word like this (even if it's justified) can have repercussions for you. Whether you want to take that on probably depends on just how bad the person is and on how comfortable you are with your position within the field.
On the other hand, if you think this other faculty actually rises to the level of a danger - anything from sabotaging your colleagues work or relations, to not being safe to have drinks around - you should absolutely warn this person.
Obviously there's a judgment call here. @whrrgarbl suggested it depends on how friendly you are with your colleague too, and I think that's true around the margins of this question. **In a totally general way though, I think when you're contemplating meddling in affairs between two other people that the default answer should be no.** Especially in a professional setting.
Upvotes: 7 <issue_comment>username_2: Are we talking about sexist behavior/comments ("women shouldn't be president, they'd let their hormones make all the decisions") or sexual harassment (e.g., unwanted sexual advances, showing/giving sexual photos to you)? The latter is a Title IX violation and you are required to report it to the administration.
You might also consider about reporting this behavior to the Chair or Dean, especially if you have tenure. You state that you are in a field with serious gender inequity. Administrators cannot address the problem of sexist colleagues if they don't know about it.
Imagine if you had a number of female students in your introductory courses, but noted that most of them dropped out before continuing on to the major. You bump into them in the hallway and ask why they didn't continue. They chime in with comments like "I felt like I didn't belong", "I didn't feel like my professors respect me", "a professor kept making inappropriate comments in class, and I felt very uncomfortable". Would you immediately know who they were referring to?
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: I commented on this question but I decided to put my thoughts into an answer.
If you're friendly with the colleague -- enough to know that they won't feel "unnecessary dread", or gossip about what you said -- I would say it is fine to tell them what you saw, as a friendly warning. If nothing comes of it, that's great news, and you can rest easier knowing the faculty member has apparently gotten better about it. If the faculty member is still bad about it, hopefully your heads-up gave your friend more time to mentally prepare.
Based on your question, I'm guessing that's not the case, which makes it more difficult.
Feel free to offer your support against sexism in general (even a casual "I went to that conference a few years ago and was one of only x women, it was a little awkward! Let me know how it goes for you!") -- but I would be extremely hesitant to say anything specific in advance, for the reasons you listed in the question -- especially since it sounds like you don't know the colleague well and haven't interacted with the faculty member recently.
One thing you could do is try to address the issue indirectly. For instance, do you know of any "good eggs" going to the conference that you could suggest your colleague meet up (and be safe hanging out) with? Ultimately, you have to recognize that your colleague is an independent adult who has probably dealt with sexism before, especially if they're in a very imbalanced field as you've described. It is unpleasant, but if it's not someone you know well, you have to trust that they can handle themselves.
As for your last question:
>
> If one doesn't tell a colleague and then experiences said sexism, then does one confirm their experience about that faculty member to help one's colleague process that experience?
>
>
>
If you are both comfortable with such a discussion, this would certainly be appropriate. If something bad does happen, perhaps you can find strength in numbers to report the offenses to the appropriate people, or at least come up with a plan to make things better next time around.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: You describe someone's behavior as "less than appropriate, shall we say," but one approach to consider here is to be much more specific when you talk to your colleague. You are worried about being accused of mis-labelling someone, so **don't label** or explicitly warn anyone. You have a right to your experiences, and you have the right to tell people about them. **Say what happened**, say how it made you feel, have a conversation, and **let the other person draw conclusions**.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_5: **Regarding "Should I warn colleagues of another colleague's sexism?"**
I think the question is ill-defined, given that "sexism" is both a broad term and is (at least partly) subject to interpretation, i.e.,
* there are some cases in which (nearly) everyone agrees that something is sexist,
* there are cases that depend on interpretation, in part based on personal perspective and context (or even cultural aspects like self-deprecating humor),
* and there are instances in which only people looking through a particular lens see something as sexist.
To make matters worse, some people really want to point out "-ist" behavior. Ostensibly to fight for people who cannot fight for themselves (which is a bit condescending when they do it for adults), more likely to feel moral by (publicly) caring for others. Thanks to these concern trolls and "social justice warriors", terms like "sexist" or "racist" have lost nearly all meaning.
So if someone told me a person is "sexist" without any context, I would be very skeptical.
Thus my first advice would be to avoid terms like "sexist" or "racist". If you address something you see as an important issue, I would recommend to use an as objective as possible description of the behavior that concerns you. Give people a neutral description of the situation and let them judge for themselves. And remember it is still influenced by your interpretation.
In general, I also think the people whom you should talk to are not your colleagues, but the people who did show the "sexist" behavior. It's better to go after the actual cause. If there were misunderstandings (always possible in social situations), going in inquisitively ("I noticed you did behavior x ... why?") will clear them up.
I would also strongly recommend to never say anything behind a person's back that you would not say to this person's face. And ideally, you should say it to their face *first*.
**Regarding: "having to help a female colleague extract herself from unwanted sexual advances from another conference goer when he would not take no for an answer"**
Your comment puts a different spin on the question. First off, how is this behavior *sexist* (i.e., prejudice/stereotyping/discrimination based on sex)? It might be the dance of ambiguity which protects both parties, it might be harmless stupidity, it might be obnoxious social inept behavior, and it even might be a criminal act.
And if this really was a case of sexual harassment or assault, the people to inform are (were) not your colleagues but the police. However, the person to do so would be the colleague who was harassed/assaulted. She would have to see the event as serious enough.
(Again: Social behavior is rarely clear cut. Much depends on an individual's perspective, their personality, etc. What people say and what they feel does not always match.)
As to whether to inform your colleague about that person's behavior — here: ostensibly not accepting no — personally, I see nothing wrong in informing a colleague that you personally do not like the person because of situation x you have witnessed. However, it is hard to say whether that behavior generalizes. Also, the warning might imply that you think that your colleague is also not capable of saying no and needs help/rescuing.
Frankly, if I were you I would contact the colleague whom you did "have to help". And ask her what she thinks you should do.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_6: Here's the thing. Perception of sexism tends to vary widely by gender. I'm not surprised to see that some of the responses appear kind of reluctant to believe that something is sexist. In general, you really should address this behavior through the administration. Don't assume that anyone else has noticed anything - especially if most of your colleagues are male. There was a guy on one of my teams who was totally toxic and sexist and I thought that it was obvious to everyone (dude literally told me that I belonged at home with a baby once) but it turned out that only the people in his immediate vicinity were aware of it, and because they were not the subject of said sexism never really felt like it was their place to address it.
The issue here is that when things like this go unaddressed, they are given validation and the person who is doing these things will not only keep doing them, but think that they are absolutely right in continuing to do them. If this person is exhibiting sexist behavior to the point where you even feel like you might need to warn someone, it needs to be addressed. Use the structures set in place to protect your rights. Go through the administration. Do not address this person alone. In all honesty I wouldn't even be anywhere near this guy alone.
The truth is that for something to be sexist, all it has to do is make you uncomfortable and for there to be a gender association involved, which it already obviously is. There should never be a situation where you say "I feel that this is sexist and it makes me deeply uncomfortable" and the response should begin with "but..."
Good luck with this - I'm kind of having slightly PTSD thoughts about my own battles with sexism now. For what it's worth, I went through the appropriate channels to deal with my own tormentor, and while most of my team hadn't been aware of the problem, as soon as they found out about it they immediately agreed that the behavior was unacceptable and would not be allowed to continue. I never thought that I would have had so much support from them.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_7: Does your school have something like an Office of Equal Opportunity, which would be responsible for enforcing policies regarding affirmative action, non-discrimination / anti-harassment, and accommodations for employees with disabilities? If so, you could consider consulting with the people there for advice.
If such an office exists at your school, you'll very likely also be able to call in your concerns *anonymously*
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_8: A simpler approach that encompasses various concerns:
* Make a general statement to the colleague: explaining what he/she should know about general attitudes prevalent among old-timers in the field, and to let you know if it happens with anyone in particular at the conference.
* As a bonus: explain you have some people (or someone) in mind, but don't want to fan the fires unless it continues. Keep it confidential for now.
* Your colleague will simply go with a general sense of caution, which helps if things escalate, and can always go and see you afterwards. You don't need to discuss the person in advance, but you can also fulfill your duty of warning people about potential trouble.
Next problem?
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_9: There is an old saying in French that goes like that "On lave toujours son linge sale en famille", which can either means we always clean our dirty laundry between ourselves (e.g not with strangers) or we keep it quiet between ourselves.
There are a few things I would take into consideration before acting:
* If the person you want to help, is facing grave danger, then you should alert that person. Except than that , do you know enough about the person you are trying to help? Will that person be trustworthy of your confidence or not?
* If it backfires, how will the person who is making disparage comment will react?
* Academia is a very very small world: If the first two points mentioned above happen (the person you are trying to help stab you and the person who is disparaging you, holds a grudge against you), will you garner enough support to not lose your position and still be able to become a senior researcher (if you want to carry on in this field)?
Unless you want to definitely leave your current field or until you have discretionary power to change things, sometimes no approach is the best approach.
**Update**: My answer may seem based on self conservation and mild paranoia about others and it is. Probably because I learnt the hard way that being idealistic and jumping into helping without understanding the context ,can backfire. Nevertheless, if you want to induce change and as Daniel mentioned accurately in his second answer, sometimes you need other people to experience it too and not act is still the best answer, for the person to learn something and say enough is enough. The more people will react, sooner sexist attitudes will stop.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: Given the comments which include lots of different aspects (some very different scenarios and motivations were addressed), another — sorry, rather long — take on the question.
**What to do when you see sexism everywhere and want to do something against it?**
There is a basic psychological process called confirmation bias. People usually look for information confirming their beliefs. This heuristic makes sense in everyday life, but is bad for getting an objective picture of a given situation. Regarding the current topic, it's actually very easy to see sexism everywhere — the hammer-and-nail thing. We have pretty much built science to combat that tendency.
So if you work in Academia, do better. Act like an empirical scientist. Do not let fears/wishes/expectations determine your perception, but gather actual data. Try to be objective and protect yourself against your confirmation bias. This means that the stronger you believe something, the more strongly you have to be wary of being influenced by your expectations.
For example, when it comes to interruptions, count the number of times it happens, and also count the number of times women interrupt (no matter how well it was 'justified') and how often (usually low-status) men are interrupted. I am pretty sure it's a status thing, not a sex thing.
Same with criticism. There is the soft bigotry of low expectations and there is benevolent sexism in the sense that women "have to be protected" — which might lead some people to see criticism as more harsh when it is directed at women. However, harsh criticism is just normal in science. And yeah, sometimes unfortunately. But it is also very much needed. We need bullshit detectors — and the ability of science to cull bad ideas is what makes science great. Feedback that addresses the quality of the work is great — no matter the motivation. It's the only way to improve.
So, when it comes to instances of perceived sexism, an empirical scientific mindset is helpful: Question, gather data, then judge. Social interactions are fraught with misunderstandings. Yes, sometimes one person is at fault, but usually both contribute to the situation. In general, use the **principle of charity**. Assume an honest misunderstanding (or fuck up, humans are not machines, and even those have glitches) — not evil intent.
Also, with few exceptions (which are cases for the police), "The person felt it so it must be true" is very bad reasoning. I've encountered too many people — men and women — who take any criticism of their ideas as an attack on themselves as a human being. That's a bad way to live and makes it impossible to do science.
And above all, deal with potential situations individually, not collectively. Treat people as individuals, not as members of groups. If you really think specific groups (like old white male academics) are a problem think about what this makes you. Don't use individual cases to vent your frustration about perceived general injustice. Displaced aggression helps no one.
Also don't focus on exaggerated cases or cases where you'd need a magnifying glass to see the sexism. That hurts the fight against actual sexists. And let's face it, there are some — both men and women — who are sexist against men or women. And yeah, in science, the quality of the work, the strength of the evidence and arguments should matter, not the sex of the person who does science.
And although it's hard, don't take the cases personally. Try to maintain some distance. Humor is great for this. There is a reason for gallows humor.
And above all, don't instrumentalize other people (usually women) as victims you have to fight for in order to feel moral. Cases of sexism are not there to make you feel morally good.
If sexism happens to you, address it with the person who acts sexist. Again, question, don't immediately assume the worst. If you always assume the worst, you will confirm your belief, and while you might feel righteous, you will never be happy. The world we need is one in which when one person fucks up, others give feedback and the issue is resolved without a fuss. And a competent human being has to deal with problems in human interaction.
If you perceive a person encountering sexism, then stop. Is the situation really as you perceive it? Do you really have a clear grasp what people actually feel (quite a degree of empathy needed) and think (hello mind-reading)? Do you really have all the facts (e.g., other factors that might influence a course of events)? Consider that *post hoc ergo propter hoc* is a fallacy, no matter how true it feels. There might be other reasons for a strange turn of events. So by all means, question. A university where you cannot question is a strange place.
And if it is really sexism, does the "victim" really not have the ability to deal with the situation on his/her own? Don't remove the perceived victims agency — their ability to learn to deal with these situations or demonstrate their ability to do so. It's very condescending and disempowering. Consider that helping in the short run might impede the person's ability to deal with other situations in the long run. Almost all people want to do good. But wanting to do good and doing good aren't necessarily the same.
Again, we should strive for competent individuals. Not only when it comes to sexism, but also when it comes to speaking truth to power. After all, a university is the one place that looks for truth (without ever finding it). It requires a professional environment in which merit counts and all other aspects (e.g., sex, race, etc.) are neither a positive nor a negative. And to actually go looking for the truth without being influenced by political or social opinion does require strength. And you don't gain strength by being protected all the time.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_10: Be wary of self-fulfilling prophecy.
====================================
If you tell person X that person Y is sexist, X will expect Y to be sexist, will look for sexism and will tend to interpret Y's actions as sexist even if they are only bordering and would pass unnoticed otherwise.
I am not going to tell that you are wrong on Y being sexist. But other people may have thicker skin than yours and just don't care enough about the issue. They may interact with Y without even thinking about sexism.
Your warning would be much more justified if the situation would be long-term and/or of great consequences, eg. your friend was considering a job supervised by Y. But with something as brief as a conference I advise you let your friend make own opinion about Y.
Upvotes: 3
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<issue_start>username_0: I wonder, which one of these structurings is to prefer for a thesis.
---
1. To write text between a topic and subtopic, e.g.
A. Main Topic
=============
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse viverra lobortis semper. Donec ultrices ante eu ex interdum, eget eleifend tortor iaculis.
1. Subtopic X
-------------
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse viverra lobortis semper. Donec ultrices ante eu ex interdum, eget eleifend tortor iaculis.
2. Subtopic Y
-------------
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse viverra lobortis semper. Donec ultrices ante eu ex interdum, eget eleifend tortor iaculis.
---
2. To write no text between a topic and subtopic, e.g.
A. Main Topic
=============
1. Subtopic X
-------------
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse viverra lobortis semper. Donec ultrices ante eu ex interdum, eget eleifend tortor iaculis.
2. Subtopic Y
-------------
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse viverra lobortis semper. Donec ultrices ante eu ex interdum, eget eleifend tortor iaculis.<issue_comment>username_1: Both of such instances are common in practice. It is only a matter of preference and context based necessity that determines what to use. Your advisor would be the one to consult if in doubt in this case.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: This likely depends on the style guide that your field or your program follows. For example, I know that the first option is preferred (but not strictly required) in APA style.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: In any narrative document, including a thesis, it is best to have text in a section before the first subsection heading. This applies for *every* level of organization (sections of a chapter, subsections of a section, subsubsections of a subsection, etc).
The reason is simple: if you simply hop into a subsection, then you haven't given the reader any "connective tissue" to understand how the larger section fits together and how the subsections are organized. It may not take much text to do this, but you should always give at least a sentence or two to explain how things are arranged and perhaps also something of why.
This will make things significantly easier for your readers, thereby improving their comprehension and appreciation of your manuscript.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]
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<issue_start>username_0: I am going to apply to several US universities(for 2017 session),mostly ranked within top 25 places,and I will apply for PhD positions in Pure Mathematics(Representation theory,to be precise).I took GRE with a week's preparation and scored 326(verbal 161,quant 165)-top 88 percentile,although I sucked at AWA-with a meager 3(out of 6) on board.I haven't yet taken up my TOEFL and math-gre,but I am confident to score over 110 in Toefl and a high(>90) percentile in math-gre.I hope to obtain decent recommendation letters,and a GPA above 9 in my masters from a reputed research institution of India.Should I therefore retake the gre?I should add that if I reappear,then I have a good chance at increasing the score by 5 points,and not to mention definitely scoring >4 in AWA. But does this high score worth that much at all??<issue_comment>username_1: Take a look at Grad Cafe.
<http://thegradcafe.com/survey/index.php>
Search for the programs you will be applying to and try to get an idea of what scores you need to have.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: I would not worry about your verbal and AWA scores at all. They are quite decent and frankly, most math departments do not care too much about them, as long as they show that you are sufficiently proficient (which your scores do). Indeed, given how tightly constrained your schedule will be in the next couple months, I think it would be a waste of time to attempt studying more for these sections.
Getting a 170 in Quant is the only reason I would retake the GRE. However, even then I do not really think it's worth it in your case. Since you expect to get the GRE-math subject test with such a high percentile, this will clearly demonstrate your quantitative abilities. In other words, because of your subject test score (plus your transcripts/letters of recommendation), it will be obvious that the 5 points you missed were due to a lack of concentration or because of anxiety during the GRE, rather than lack of quantitative understanding.
Also note that for many departments, GRE scores simply serve as pre-filters; i.e. some universities might not consider your application if your scores are below some threshold, but otherwise the scores won't make too much of a difference.
In summary: There are more important parts to your application, and I think it would be a waste of time and money to retake the GRE.
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: I am a postdoc in a US university (Rank A, edit: [R1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_research_universities_in_the_United_States)). I tried to get an academic faculty position in the US, but was unsuccessful. I got an offer (lecturer in the UK system) from the UK university (say, Rank B, edit: "[new university](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_UK_universities_by_date_of_foundation)"). Is it worth to accept the offer, and again try from the UK to get a faculty position in the US? Or I should try to get another postdoc in the US only? Would it be difficult to get the position once I move out from the US?
I have gone through [In order to get a CS faculty position in the U.S, should I have a Ph.D. from an "American" university?](https://www.quora.com/In-order-to-get-a-CS-faculty-position-in-the-U-S-should-I-have-a-Ph-D-from-an-American-university), [Is it more difficult to score a Tenure Track position in the US when applying from outside?](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17694/is-it-more-difficult-to-score-a-tenure-track-position-in-the-us-when-applying-fr), and [What should a faculty member outside of the US do to move to a top-tiered American university?](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17951/what-should-a-faculty-member-outside-of-the-us-do-to-move-to-a-top-tiered-americ). But still not sure in my case.
One of the reasons of not short-listing is that I do not have a PhD from the US, (I thought). I got only two on-campus calls (from college/new univ. only) for the interview out of many.
Any suggestions? Thanks in advance!<issue_comment>username_1: One important issue is being able to get to an on-campus interview. Although prestigious research universities would often be willing to pay the cost of flying from the UK to the US for an interview, many other institutions (regional comprehensive universities, four year colleges, and lesser ranked research universities) might not be willing to reimburse you for the cost of travelling to the US for an interview.
If you're interested in positions at these less prestigious institutions and aren't prepared to pay for your own travel expenses then you might have trouble applying from the UK.
I think the more important question for you to consider is whether this lecturer position in the UK would give you better experience than continuing as a postdoc. That depends on what other teaching experience you have and the kinds of positions that you're applying for.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Of course it is possible to switch from a UK lectureship to a TT, or even tenured, position at a [US Research University](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_research_universities_in_the_United_States). Being at a lower ranked "new university" in the UK, however, means that you likely not get a lot of research support and have a heavy teaching load. Further, the obsession with the [UK REF](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Research_Excellence_Framework) will likely push your CV in directions that are not ideal for getting a job in the US. You don't mention your citizenship, but there is currently a lot of uncertainty regarding immigration and access to funding for non-UK citizens.
Overall, I would say that it will be easier, or more accurately, less difficult, to get a US TT position by spending another year or two as a post doc than as a lecturer with a high teaching load. US research universities just do not care that much about teaching and if you really need teaching experience you can always get a little as a post doc.
While a lecturer position might put you at a disadvantage, assuming it is a permanent lectureship in a UK city that you do not mind living in, having job security is a major benefit.
Upvotes: 3
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<issue_start>username_0: Is there any established clause to make a note of the fact that a paper is not meant to be published yet because part of the research is still pending and thence the final conclusions may prove inconclusive.
A case being a solid piece of work within reasonable framework and submission bound to happen. However, it should be secured with some kind of notification that would delay it as published material so not to prompt any rapid response.<issue_comment>username_1: You should only submit that which you would be willing to publish.
If you want to publish part of a piece of work, you should only submit a manuscript about that part of the work. If you want to publish the data but say the conclusions are tentative, then the manuscript you submit should say the conclusions are tentative.
If you don't want to publish what you submitted, then you are wasting everybody's time and should withdraw your manuscript.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Don't let anyone see the thing if it's not ready. If that means you miss a publication deadline, that's it. There's no going around it - either it's ready or it isn't. I guess that if someone had it you could file an injunction against them forbidding them from publishing it, but I don't think that would really go over well with... anyone.
Upvotes: 0
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<issue_start>username_0: I'm applying for a reserach internship at a company at which I just finished a software internship.
I also want to go to grad school to get a Master's degree in computational neuroscience.
Does anyone have experience with where the legal boundaries are for this? The company obviously has private intellectual property that I might be working with, and I'm concerned that working with them would put me under non-disclosure agreements that would conflict with my research interests.
How separate should the things I research at the internship be with what I plan to study at university be? Should I just avoid taking on an a research internship?<issue_comment>username_1: You should take the internship - congrats on that. Yes, you may learn some stuff that is proprietary to the company - it will be quite specific, and far more application oriented than anything you are likely to do in grad school. Working there will give you some good ideas about how things work in the real world (the fanciest ideas don't always produce good results). Finally, they know you are an intern - the probably won't have you working on the deepest darkest proprietary stuff.
You are not now, and will not be, the first or last student intern at a company that has proprietary information. Just be clear, before you go, what they consider as 'theirs'.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: I don't think that they can put you under an NDA that would prevent you from doing research. What I would be concerned about is if there is a non-compete clause in your contract. THAT could really put a damper on your plans (I'm under 2 non-compete agreements right now for the next 2-5 years that prevent me from working in certain fields due to previous employment). Regardless, you won't be able to take the company's IP with you but you will be able to learn a lot of other things that won't violate an NDA but will be beneficial to you in a lot of ways later. Just keep the company's IP at the company and you'll be fine.
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: I am currently in the process of finishing up my Master's thesis which requires me to disclose the exact word count.
My thesis contains a lot of mathematical symbols and equations and I am not sure whether those, together with table and figure captions, should be included in the final word count or not.
I know how many words, inline math and display math (in LaTeX terms) elements my document contains, but I am just not sure whether to count them or not.
My university has not given any guidance on what to include in the word count, so I am wondering if there are any general rules that apply in this situation? The only thing I could find on the internet was from APS Journals:
*"The word equivalent for displayed math is 16 words per row for single-column equations. Two-column equations count as 32 words per row."*
Any guidance on this would be greatly appreciated!<issue_comment>username_1: To me, the key question is this: what is the purpose of the word count?
If the purpose is to fill in a blank that says: "word count goes here", then just take the simplest approach that will give you a number and don't sweat the details. Personally, I would run "wc" on my LaTeX source in such a case.
On the other hand, in some cases word count is being used to determine how the length of your document relates to a minimum or maximum length. If it's actually strict, then they'll generally provide clear guidance; if it's an approximate guideline (which is usually the case), then again, just take a reasonable approach that will let you conform and don't sweat the details.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: The best thing to do is count all the words including those in the table and also count the words again leaving those in the table and include all of them in the thesis report.
Upvotes: -1
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<issue_start>username_0: If I understand it right, Graduate school means MS, PhD, or both, but a
Doctoral program means just PhD. Is this correct?<issue_comment>username_1: In general, a Doctoral program ends in a Ph.D ("doctor of philosophy"). If the program does not grant doctorate degrees, it cannot be doctoral. However, a doctoral program may end in a master's degree. For instance, if I chose not to finish my doctoral program, I could instead get a master's degree on the basis of the coursework and research I've done so far.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: You are correct that "graduate" study is the broader term. As I understand it, "doctoral" study leads to an academic doctorate, such as a PhD or an EdD -- not to a doctorate of professional practice such as an MD or JD.
Upvotes: 0
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2016/08/23
| 1,013
| 4,389
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<issue_start>username_0: If a professor is *very* famous for his research and belongs to the most prestigious academies of science for his lifetime work, I find it unusual that the math department would ask us to evaluate him. We did so anyway and submitted the evaluations to the director of academic affairs.
Is this typically done at most American universities, irrespective of a professor's age, status or fame? I would think that after a certain point in a professor's career, student evaluations aren't necessary.
Is it sort of a sanity check? He was 85 years old. Is it done to try and find reasons to force retirement of professors?<issue_comment>username_1: Being a good teacher and being a good researcher are distinct skills. If someone has a job that requires both skills, they should be being evaluated on both.
Upvotes: 7 <issue_comment>username_2: That "Regular Full-time Tenured Faculty ... Shall be evaluated at least once in every three academic years" is part of my institution's faculty contract (collective bargaining agreement). I doubt this is an unusual provision. If they are public, check out the terms under which your professors work!
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: I'm in Australia, and from my experience, almost every unit is evaluated every semester that it runs in pretty much all Australian universities. There might be a few exceptions, but this is just standard practice. The standard survey consists of a bunch of closed ended questions and then some open ended questions for more qualitative feedback.
From this perspective, there's nothing special about whether the instructor is a famous professor or a relatively unknown academic. Student evaluations are just a standard component of university life. It would be strange to make an exception, just because the professor is famous.
More generally, student evaluations serve a wide range of purposes and the relevance of most would not change whether or not the instructor is a famous professor. Such evaluations give the instructor feedback about how the unit was received by students. It can highlight areas for improvement. From a university perspective, it creates some accountability and some metrics that can be monitored.
Of course, there are also plenty of issues with student evaluations. And there is the potential if they are used inappropriately that they can create perverse incentives for instructors: e.g., simplifying education, grade inflation, and so on in order to have "happier students". But that's another issue.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_4: >
> Is this typically done at most American universities, irrespective of
> a professor's age, status or fame?
>
>
>
Yes. It's likely a required process of the administration, as negotiated in the faculty contract. It's probably not something your department has any say over; and in a case such as you describe, the resulting product is likely to be mostly ignored.
It's probably not worth anyone's time to hammer out every imaginable exceptional case to such procedures (the faculty contract and handbook, outlining procedures, is usually already mind-bendingly long). This is what work is like in a large institution; rules apply to all, and have many stakeholders, and not everyone gets their every whim or convenience satisfied.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_5: I have known professors who with good justification were extremely famous for brilliant research done in the past, but (a) they were hopeless lecturers, and/or (b) they were clearly in decline and not keeping up with the latest developments in the field: in some cases even teaching ideas that were now superseded.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_6: Let's follow that thought for a bit:
Your goal is to only evaluate the bad teachers, but not the good ones.
**How do you tell the bad teachers from the good ones?** I suggest you use evaluations. Any other suggestions are welcome.
Because some people who run universities think that way, student evaluations are often somewhat standardized and required for all teachers.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_7: When newer faculty members come up for tenure, their teaching evaluations are compared against the department average. So, it makes sense to administer the same questionnaire to everyone to obtain the full population sample as a baseline.
Upvotes: 3
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2016/08/23
| 1,194
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<issue_start>username_0: What is the correct term for a PhD student who does entirely research and is paid through third-party funds?
One can see that sometimes people doing a PhD call themselves a Research Associate or Research Assistant (in a very few cases also Research Fellow). I am looking for clarification regarding which term would be appropriate and also why the others are not.
I can't find a clear definition. If this is country dependent I would like to know this for the UK and Germany.<issue_comment>username_1: How about "PhD student"?
Since you also asked about Germany: in German you can call yourself "Doktorand" or "Promovend". But also in Germany, "PhD student" would be perfectly fine.
If you want to leave out the "student" part, you might call yourself "PhD candidate".
Be careful to avoid calling yourself something you are not (e.g. "Dr."), since particularly in Germany that might be illegal.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: I'm not sure if it is the same in the UK and Germany, but in the US, "Research Assistant" typically means a person is being paid by a professor (typically using 3rd party funds) to work on their project, while "Research Fellow" typically means the student is being supported directly in their studies and/or research.
Fellowships are thus generally more prestigious, since they are a direct recognition of the student's value and potential by an organization, whereas assistantships simply mean that a particular professor thinks the student might be a good worker for a particular purpose.
Note that these titles are somewhat orthogonal of the question of being a Ph.D. student, as they are essentially describing one's "job" and means of support rather than one's educational program: a Masters student may also hold them, and a Ph.D. student may also hold other "job" titles (e.g., "Teaching Assistant", or even none at all).
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: In Germany, the payment (be it from 3rd-party sources or not) usually comes as a salary for an employment. That position is typically called *wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter* ( *research employee* ).
You should note, though, that the "only research" part is not included in that title, as there is no real distinction to teaching duties, as it exists, for instance, with "RA/TA".
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: I see that this question has been inactive for almost two years, but I notice the asker was specifically interested **in the UK**, and none of the answers cover that country specifically.
From my last three years of experience in the UK academia, those two positions are fairly well defined, and refer to the following:
A **Research Assistant (RA)** is typically neither a PhD holder nor a PhD candidate. These positions are aimed at people holding a Master degree in the relevant field, and are common in short, 1-year, research projects (such as feasibility studies). They do not count for direct progress towards any degree (but could result in publications and therefore straighten one's PhD application in the future). Additionally, they are typically one pay grade lower than the *Research Fellow* positions.
A **Research Fellow (RF)** is what one would informally call *postdoctoral researcher* (or just *post-doc*). These are typical positions one would aim at after their PhD (and usually encourage PhD candidates close to finishing to apply as well). They typically rely on funding from longer projects, and last for 2-3 years. They also do not count for direct progress towards any degree (as the holder is expected to have a PhD, the highest possible degree in the field, already), but are a logical and expected step for a young career researcher aiming at a permanent academic position. They are also better paid than *Research Assistant* positions, being one pay grade higher.
For immigration purposes, universities will always have the ability to sponsor non-British applicants and support their immigration application for RF positions, while some universities and some positions are unable or unwilling to do that for RA positions. (This might be restricted to sponsoring EU-immigration, unsure about this bit).
A **PhD student**, *PhD candidate*, or just *doing one's PhD* are all valid terms to refer to somebody working towards obtaining their doctoral degree, regardless of their funding source. (Sometimes even just *"I'm a PhD"* is used, but that's common more than valid in the strictest sense.) Additionally, PhD students doing only research, as opposed to having some teaching duties attached to their contract or funding, are often times referred to as *lucky*.
---
I use the word *typical* a lot in my descriptions, as exceptions do exist, and I was one of them, but the details go far out of scope of this question.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: In Germany and Spain, if you're a PhD student who gets paid via assisting professors in their projects, typically the position is regarded as Research Assistant. I rarely see who wrote it down in CV as Research Fellow, while research associate sounds more of a postdoc.
Upvotes: 2
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2016/08/23
| 1,270
| 5,318
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<issue_start>username_0: I do not have any particular situation at hand but I am about to start in a new short-term (research assistant) position. The thing is, I will be working on a topic that is very controversial. There are papers (appearing in top journals) explaining how my supervisors and their colleagues got it all wrong. On the other hand, there are reviews (in top journals also), summarizing how many important insights have been learned, and how things are progressing very nicely. It appears to be a kind of battlefield.
I have not yet started in the position, but I have been reading several articles about the research topic. I already know that I will disagree with my supervisor about many things. There will probably be difficult conversations. If we get everything right, maybe we could resolve some of the major issues, by discussing both perspectives thoroughly.
I think I will need very good negotiation skills. If we have exact opposite views with my supervisor, I must do what he wants, but I also want to do what I want. I want us to succeed. How do I prepare for this? How does one convince her supervisor that he is wrong about something? Of course, I will be wrong many times as well. So I should also think how to quickly realize that I am wrong about something.<issue_comment>username_1: You might want to have a look at the Toulmin Model of argumentation: <https://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/documents/Toulmin.pdf>. While it's not necessarily a good tool to use during conversation, it will (over time) allow you to recognize when arguments are lacking, and be able to pinpoint what's missing (both in your own arguments and those of others).
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: The whole point of scientific debate is to refine our knowledge. **Go into the discussion with a mentality to learn, not to win**. Keeping this in mind will help you keep the discussion not adversarial and not emotional. On unresolved disagreements, try to find a way to falsify either hypothesis. If it is not possible, consider that which option is correct is probably not that important.
Listen to what they have to say about the criticisms, maybe they disagree with them, maybe they agree (and maybe even that is why the brought new people in). Probably, it is somewhere in the middle.
If (or when) your relationship is good, and you have a good understanding of their position, you can even propose playing devil's advocate.
Of course, I am assuming that they are decent people and not tyrannic professors. You should assume the same until proven otherwise (and if so, consider if you want to shut up and obey, or walk away).
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_3: Do not go in head-first, do not argue the main point. Your professor is comitted to his side and the more you argue logically, the more he'll dig his heels in.
Look for **small commitments**. Don't ask him to jump into the water, just ask him to dip his toe in.
Here's an example: in the 90s, many people were vehemently anti-Apple. There was a huge Microsoft/Apple divide, and there were great religious debates going on. How do you convince someone to switch? Not by extolling the virtues of the system. Because the harder you argue, the more they'll dig in. The way to convince them is to buy them an iPod shuffle for their birthday. That's a small commitment. A tiny little step that forces them out of their black and white worldview. They can keep their Windows laptop, and its ecosystem, but one tiny device in their life now comes from Apple. And suddenly the idea of owning Apple products doesn't seem so inconceivable anymore.
This is easiest to achieve if you don't have the religious debate beforehand, so they won't be suspicious of you. You have the luxury of planning your strategy before your professor knows your position. So avoid the religious debates at all cost, and take the position of not having a position. Then look for the tiniest little commitment you can get him to make: maybe that the research is not conclusive yet, that in certain cases, his method is not optimal, that it would be good to have a constructive discussion with the other side, etc.
I actually had this with my supervisor, and we managed to change his view towards the end of the project . Here are some more tips that will make your life easier:
* Maintain an agnostic position. Without undermining him, discuss *your* view of the research at all times. Let him make his ambitious promises, but don't go along if you don't agree.
* Be up front about your agnostic position. You are going into the research with an open mind, and you may not end up seeing eye to eye.
* Find an ally. If it's you versus him, the power differential will make it difficult to maintain your position. If there's a postdoc arounds who can also put a dissenting position forward, the whole thing becomes a open discussion.
Basically, you're in a difficult position. You also have a PhD to finish, and that's a difficult task even in supportive surroundings. However, you're going in with the right attitude. Your aim should be to take no sides, and to investigate the question fairly, and to ultimately resolve the debate. If you manage that, you will have made a solid contribution to the research, and your career will be off to a good start.
Upvotes: 3
|
2016/08/23
| 798
| 3,344
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<issue_start>username_0: I'm thinking about leaving my current lab, since it's moving to a field that I'm not really interested in.
I am thinking of contacting other PIs that work on topics that are a closer match to my research interests, to see if they are interested in starting a project together.
I am concerned that if I talk to my current PI before taking any steps, she could bad mouth me to prolong my staying in the lab, and to prevent leakage of the lab's knowledge. So from this point of view it would be my best interest to inform her as a *fait accompli* when I find a new lab (while still giving proper notice).
I still have some reservations about doing things behind her back though. I would like to leave on good terms, and since academia is such a small community doing this could affect my reputation.<issue_comment>username_1: In my experience, people who have been in a field a long time *all know each other*, even if only peripherally. If you do apply to another position, there is a real possibility that the the new PI will simply call up your current PI and ask about your qualifications etc.
To me, it seems completely reasonable to tell your PI exactly what you say in your first sentence. You could even ask for her help -- if you are this uninterested in your current position I doubt she will go out of her way to try to retain you. (Also, if you are indeed looking to move to a lab that does not compete with the current one, can she legitimately be concerned about intellectual property "leakage"?)
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Three major points:
First, either you are very paranoid, or you are working in a very unhealthy situation. I want to highlight three things that shouldn't be considered normal: 1) You're worried about your advisor lying in your recommendations, 2) Your advisor is trying to restrict, not disseminate their techniques, and 3) You seem to think you won't be supported in your interests when the lab goes in a new direction. All of these argue that you're not in a healthy spot.
Second, what you are proposing is possible. People can get postdoc offers without advisor recommendation letters. [disclaimer: in many cases, I don't know if there was an informal call - but I don't think so.] It helps to have a strong CV/case for what work you want to do, and how it links to your new PI's plan. Some of it is also luck - some PIs just always ask for letters, and if they do, your explanation is not going to sound great unless your current advisor is well-known as an asshole. (The other possibility is to lean on your own network: people who already know you as a scientist will be willing to skip an advisor's letter.)
Third, it is possible you will burn some bridges by leaving. Having seen this from the side of people left behind in the group, the less notice you give and the more projects you leave unfinished, the more likely you are to burn bridges. However, unless your advisor is particularly spiteful and well-known in the field you want to work in, this probably won't follow you around: academia is a small world, but it is also insular, and big wheels in one field are unknown in another.
Basically: assess if you are really in as unhealthy a situation as it seems, and if you are, it might be worth burning a few bridges to get out of there.
Upvotes: 2
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2016/08/23
| 1,311
| 3,825
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<issue_start>username_0: I am looking for the percentage of total scholarly literature available in open access repositories by year of publication broken down by discipline.
I am aware of the following figure, however it is old. Are there any more recent statistics?
<NAME>. [Policy guidelines for the development and promotion of open access](https://books.google.com/books?id=ptsR-DIXX-AC&pg=PA26&lpg=PA26&dq=Percentage+of+total+scholarly+literature+available+in+open+access+repositories+by+year+of+publication+broken+down+by+discipline&source=bl&ots=4Bl_7XTuwm&sig=ygB4srJqK6zwYBWnIeSYbltR5rk&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiU26jb9dfOAhWEVh4KHRiaBY8Q6AEIHjAA#v=onepage&q=Percentage%20of%20total%20scholarly%20literature%20available%20in%20open%20access%20repositories%20by%20year%20of%20publication%20broken%20down%20by%20discipline&f=false). UNESCO, 2012.
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/1rwWp.png)<issue_comment>username_1: Ask the research team at Open University. Contact [<NAME>](http://people.kmi.open.ac.uk/petr/#projects). This is what he and his team are working on.
'It is now the world¹s largest collection of Open
Access research papers and we are working to popularise it as a dataset
for text-mining.'
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: As far as I see, to answer this question based upon a more recent data set one has to create the needed data set in advance.
An overview [article](http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/asi.22963) ([open access version](http://www.openaccesspublishing.org/apc8/Personal%20VersionGreenOa.pdf)) published in 2013 is the most recent work I could find. Even an [article](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/75685/percentage-of-total-scholarly-literature-available-in-open-access-repositories-b) from 2016 analyses only articles published between 2010 and 2012.
Unfortunately, neither the data set behind the [shown picture](http://www.informationr.net/ir/21-2/paper712.html) nor the method used to create the data set is given in the [report](https://books.google.com/books?id=ptsR-DIXX-AC&pg=PA26&lpg=PA26&dq=Percentage+of+total+scholarly+literature+available+in+open+access+repositories+by+year+of+publication+broken+down+by+discipline&source=bl&ots=4Bl_7XTuwm&sig=ygB4srJqK6zwYBWnIeSYbltR5rk&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiU26jb9dfOAhWEVh4KHRiaBY8Q6AEIHjAA#v=onepage&q=Percentage%20of%20total%20scholarly%20literature%20available%20in%20open%20access%20repositories%20by%20year%20of%20publication%20broken%20down%20by%20discipline&f=false) (see footnotes 63 and 64) but I found the corresponding [pre-print](https://arxiv.org/abs/1206.3664).
The needed data set has to include all published articles, the publication year, the information of the access state on article level (gold/green) and a consistent classification.
One could start by using [google scholar](http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0013636) or the [Thomson Reuters list](https://arxiv.org/abs/1206.3664) to collect all published articles and [repositories](http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0013636) or a [web trawler](https://arxiv.org/abs/1206.3664) to find corresponding green open access versions. One could also use a data collector as [BASE](https://www.base-search.net/about/en/about_sources.php?menu=2) (Bielefeld Academic Search Engine). BASE offers [browsing using the DDC](https://www.base-search.net/Browse/Dewey) which should help to identify the publications of the different disciplines, if one has no access to the Thomson Reuters list. Additionally, each article has an access state. The access state of an article can also be collected from [oaDOI](https://oadoi.org).
There are definitely several ways to get the needed information. Unfortunately, it seems that no one has done this work recently.
Upvotes: 2
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2016/08/23
| 326
| 1,267
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<issue_start>username_0: I inquired a professor at a reputable university regarding the per-requisite for his research group and if a certain knowledge is required, with a CV of mine. He asked for my transcripts. I mailed him my transcripts but have not got any reply yet. It has been 4 days.
How should I approach the matter?<issue_comment>username_1: Keep waiting. 4 days is not very long. If you have not heard anything in 3-4 weeks, send another email asking politely if he has had a chance to think about your request.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: In my "career" in academia, I have found that some professors will only reply if they want you. On the other hand, four days is usually not enough time to warrant emailing the professor again. I would wait at least 10 days.
Sad to say, professors sometimes will not be bothered by tying up all the loose ends of research assistant, lab help, etc. type jobs they offer. They find their person and move on. I have had professors reply (very belatedly) to my inquiries about applications with terse emails like "I don't need you currently," or "The position's filled."
I would email the professor a week from now. If he still does not reply, he probably has deemed you unworthy of his time.
Upvotes: 2
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2016/08/23
| 1,132
| 4,707
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<issue_start>username_0: [In answer to a question about moving between employment in the UK and the US,](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/75640/58418) user StrongBad suggests that "the obsession with the UK REF will likely push your CV in directions that are not ideal for getting a job in the US."
This point struck me as interesting, as in some respects it appears counter intuitive. When I asked why this was the case, he suggested that it would make a good question. I'm now asking that question.
For those unaware of the [REF](http://www.ref.ac.uk/), it is a regularly occurring (and not uncontroversial) nationwide assessment exercise which is used to guide the distribution of funding amongst UK universities.
In order to perform well in the REF, there is a pressure on researchers in the UK to produce a number of publications (four, to be precise) which are deemed to be of a high level. In assessing quality, reviewers are guided to consider whether a piece of work is "world-leading in terms of originality, significance and rigour". Furthermore, since the most recent REF another consideration for assessment has been whether research has "an effect on, change or benefit to the economy, society, culture, public policy or services, health, the environment or quality of life, beyond academia."
What's therefore not clear to me is why would building a CV containing publications deemed by peers to be world-leading, and conducting research which peers deem to have benefit outside of academia, not be ideal for job prospects in US academia?<issue_comment>username_1: I believe you are correct, and that the statement:
"the obsession with the UK REF will likely push your CV in directions that are not ideal for getting a job in the US."
is mostly incorrect.
On the contrary, the UK REF is likely to have a good impact on the publication habits of UK scholars, as it specifically favors **small amount of very high quality** (i.e., 4 per four/five years) publications, over high amount of medium or low quality publications.
For instance, to my understanding, for the REF and excellent paper is possibly a *technical* paper. E.g., a paper that merits publication in the Annals of Mathematics, or Trans. of the AMS in the case of a math department. To my knowledge it is **not** meant to be papers that are, say, Nature equivalents.
Indeed, you can see that many schools according to the 2014 REF metric had produced many top papers (and had it been required to have Nature equivalent publications this would not have been possible).
Note that in the US you will find it hard to get into a good research school without at least some such top papers.
One thing that may hinder a bit basic research is the need to have "impact cases", i.e., research that leads to practical/social/policy-wise impact. But not every academic should have an impact case, and so this may not be a very big problem.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: The REF credits departments for grant capture and not the individual. This means that large grants with multiple PIs tend to be prioritized over smaller grants to individuals. In terms of the US job market, being able to demonstrate grant capture at the individual level is important in many fields. For example, generally in the US being the only PI on a $200,000 grant is viewed better than being one of ten PIs on a $5,000,000 grant.
The REF "requires" academics to "produce" 4 high "quality" publications over a 4 year period. Only the 4 "best" publications matter. This results in a push for splashy, as opposed to solid, research. The goal for the REF is to make your work look important to people peripherally related to your field and not the people who specialize in your subarea. Authorship across the 4 publications can also be shared so teaming up with a more senior colleague and being a secondary author is very desirable for the REF. For the REF, someone who is a co-author on 4 Nature papers with colleagues at different universities, and nothing else, could easily get a position as an associate professor, if not a full professor. In the US, search committees want to see a body of solid work that is clearly done by the applicant.
Being able to demonstrate impact is also important for the REF. This requires wider engagement with people outside your field. Having research that can be link to a "change in process" is key for the REF. For example, a clinical trial that shows X is better than Y would be considered "high impact" while the development of X would have less impact. Blue skies basic research has essentially no impact and is discuraged. US job searches do not really care about impact.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]
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2016/08/23
| 508
| 1,802
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<issue_start>username_0: I have the translation of a work in front of me and want to quote it. The translation reads:
>
> "This is the right decision, and yet it is the wrong [one]"
>
>
>
The translator added the 'one' in brackets to make sure to indicate that he added this for comprehension etc. but that the original did not have this word. Fair enough. Now to my question.
* How do I cite this? I want to take it over completely like it reads here (that is, incl. the translators note). Will I have to somehow indicate that this was added by the translators and not me?
Also, out of curiosity: Do these bracketed explanatory words in translations have a certain name?<issue_comment>username_1: The bracketed annotation is a gloss to support readability. When you quote this translation, verbatim, just cite the quote and have the bibliographic entry identify the translation (rather than allowing the reader to conclude that you did the job).
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: The content in the square brackets it's not necessarily part of the translation/transliteration but added for clarity. Cite the translated document as you would do normally.
In [APA style](http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2012/12/citing-translated-works-in-apa-style.html):
>
> Original Author (Year). *Translated article title* (Translator, Trans.). Place: Publisher
>
>
>
E.g.,
>
> <NAME>. (1969). *The psychology of the child* (<NAME>,
> Trans.). New York, NY: Basic Books.
>
>
>
If you are concerned about attributing the added content in favor of the translator, you may do so as a footnote right after the square brackets.
You may refer [this post](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/43484/how-to-cite-sources-written-in-a-different-language-than-english).
Upvotes: 1
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2016/08/24
| 820
| 3,309
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<issue_start>username_0: I know that it depends on where I publish whether I am allowed to upload my paper to an online repository like [ResearchGate](https://www.researchgate.net/ "ResearchGate") (cf. [here](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/54397/when-can-cant-i-upload-full-text-to-researchgate "When can/can't I upload full-text to researchgate?")).
The question is, however, *when* I would upload the paper.
* Can I upload the abstract before the actual publication?
* Can I upload the paper (e.g. preprint) before the actual publication?
* Or should I wait with both until the paper has actually been published?
For example, [Springer](http://www.springer.com/gp/open-access/authors-rights/self-archiving-policy/2124 "Self-archiving policy") only allows you to make your work *publicly available 12 months after official publication or later*. The policiy does not say anything about abstracts, however.
Since I think that making the abstract available beforehand is good publicity for my paper, I´m interested in
* common practice -- when do you upload what?
* legal restrictions.<issue_comment>username_1: Springer's self-archiving policy states:
>
> By signing the Copyright Transfer Statement you [may] deposit ... the article in any repository, provided it is only made publicly available 12 months after official publication or later.
>
>
>
Thus, you may deposit the article in any repository *before* signing the Copyright Transfer Statement.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: My main experience is with publishing papers at IEEE conferences (the kind where a conference contribution counts as full paper), so I'll stick to that for my answer, although it probably extends to IEEE journals all the same. IEEE are pretty explicit about their rules, this is an excerpt from a document called [author\_faq.pdf](https://www.ieee.org/documents/author_faq.pdf):
>
> Can an author post his manuscript on a preprint server such as ArXiv?
>
>
> Yes. The IEEE recognizes that many authors share their unpublished manuscripts on public sites. Once manuscripts have been accepted for publication by IEEE, an author is required to post an IEEE copyright notice on his preprint. Upon publication, the author must replace the preprint with either 1) the full citation to the IEEE work with Digital Object Identifiers (DOI) or a link to the paper’s abstract in IEEE Xplore, or 2) the accepted version only (not the IEEE-published version), including the IEEE copyright notice and full citation, with a link to the final, published paper in IEEE Xplore.
>
>
>
There is more including the definition of accepted vs. published version (published version is "with copy-editing, proofreading and formatting added by IEEE") and uploading the paper on a personal website (also allowed), but since that's not the focus of the question, I won't copy it here.
Which brings me back to the core of the question: **when to upload the paper?**
Actually, in the case of ArXiv, it's already in the name: ArXiv is a *preprint* server, as the name indicates, uploading happens before printing / publication. At what point exactly is up to the author, I usually uploaded a paper once it was accepted, others uploaded their papers when they submitted them for review.
Upvotes: 2 [selected_answer]
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2016/08/24
| 735
| 3,176
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<issue_start>username_0: A professor asked from me to send one of his books I've had. Because I've had to leave for some days from the country I've arranged with a relative to send the book. However, he ignore it and now the professor sent me an email asking for what happened. In my reply should I mention that the fault is not mine?<issue_comment>username_1: It was your task to ensure the book gets returned. You need to take responsibility and apologize. You can mention that you had made arrangements, which failed unfortunately.
It's unlikely that the professor cares about the details. What he cares about is that he didn't get the book (that's why you apologize) and that he can rely on and trust you (that's why you promise it doesn't happen again and make sure it doesn't). This is a learning experience, i.e., you know now that your relative is not reliable and as a consequence your professor trusts you slightly less (but that's not permanent damage). Obviously, make sure he gets the book as soon as possible.
Upvotes: 7 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: I disagree with the accepted answer. Yes, it was your task to return the book so, yes, you need to take responsibility and apologize.
However, you should also mention that you delegated the task to somebody else and they have let you down. Suppose you don't mention this, your relative doesn't send the book for another week and the professor sends you another mail. How are you going to explain that you still haven't done what you said you'd do?
And suppose that you later want to borrow another book. If the professor thinks it's completely your fault that the first book was late, they'll be reluctant to lend you another. But, "I'll never get that person to return another book for me!" is a concrete and believable plan for getting the next book back on time.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: I believe too many assumptions have to be made in order for the above answers to be completely valid.
Starting from the moment the professor requests this book, he has sent you a task. Since you said you are out of the country, you can either be on vacation or on university work. If it's the first case, your responsibility to even answer in the first place is reduced unlike the second. Anyway, after you accept to do this, the task of getting the book to the professor is now your responsibility.
Since you are not physically able to perform the task, you delegated said task to another agent, which failed to complete it. Did you get initial feedback from the other person that they would follow up on the task? If so, they have drawn the responsiblity to themselves and then failed. If you never had any confirmation this would be performed, then you never passed on the responsibility to complete said task.
Since the professor asked you "what happened", if you think the guilt distribution on the third person is of relevant value, you shouldn't conceal it because the professor would be blaming you whilst you aren't responsible. If he "doesn't care" about the facts that led to the delay, he isn't a very reasonable person in the first place and he should apologise.
Upvotes: 0
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2016/08/24
| 851
| 3,690
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<issue_start>username_0: I'm an undergraduate in CS and I had a class in Adv. Data Structures & Algorithms in the spring of this year. Near the beginning of it I was pressured by a fellow classmate to "google pseudocode examples" and use them to do my labs. I guess the point here was that it wasn't copy and paste (being pseudocode) and still had to be adapted to the language for the class. I did something like that once to finish an assignment in that class (most of the code was my own that I solved myself). None of this did felt right to me, but again I felt pressured. I heard a lot of chatter from fellow students concerning the using of pseudocode. Again I didn't feel this was right.
Time passed and I forgot about it. The school recently sent out an email survey regarding plagiarism. That's what got me thinking about the previous semester. I want to note that I've never plagiarized in my life and I make every effort to avoid it [I have principle's]. I also have a good definition of what plagiarism is, to a point I think I understand this better than most.
So my questions are: is using pseudocode examples an act of plagiarism? If so where do I go from here? Shall I email the instructor openly and honestly tell them what happened?
Honesty is one of my principle's. I'm posting this here in the hopes that some of you will understand that. Logically it sounds like using said pseudocode is an act of plagiarism (the idea's are the same). Its still ambiguous to me, I need to know what others think.<issue_comment>username_1: Plagiarism is when you claim somebody else's work as your own. We most often hear about it with regards to words or images, but it can just as easily be applied to other types of intellectual work as well, including pseudocode.
The critical question, then, is whether what you have done can be reasonably understood to be claiming the work as your own. This depends on the particular assignment, but the cases here fall into two general categories:
* If the assignment is asking you to create a piece of code, then finding a piece of pseudocode that does the same thing and translating it would be plagiarism because you are pretending to have created the code yourself, when in fact you have not.
* If, on the other hand, the assignment is asking you to create a complex system, one component of which happens to be implemented using a subroutine that you have translated from elsewhere, then it is essentially the same as finding an appropriate library call and entirely acceptable (unless there were rules clearly intended against such). In this case, the creative work is the assemblage, and you are not representing that particular fragment code as your own --- though it is best practice to be explicit about your sources in comments, for copyright and license reasons.
Given that your professor was encouraging the use of outside resources as part of the project, it seems to me that what you describe is both ethical and normal practice.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: You've got a category error.
If using outside references isn't allowed, it isn't only plagiarism, it's cheating.
It doesn't matter whether online or other resources are allowed to be consulted: If you didn't *reference* where you got the pseudocode, it was plagiarism (your course may still allow this, although in my opinion -- I'm a professor, too -- it shouldn't!).
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: No, it is neither plagiarism nor cheating. During the algorithms course you're supposed to learn about existing algorithms, and there is no way to study an existing algorithm other than by looking at its pseudocode.
Upvotes: -1
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2016/08/25
| 1,514
| 6,526
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<issue_start>username_0: I will be teaching a course that has a significant programming component.
I would like to evaluate students' programming skills
using a computer-based quiz/exam,
because it seems to me that this is a better way
to evaluate students' programming skills than a paper-based quiz/exam,
given that in the real world,
people write code on a computer, not on paper.
Unfortunately, I have never attended a quiz/exam
where programming was done on a computer,
and the computer was connected to the Internet.
(I think I did take a computer-based SAT or GRE exam many years ago,
but I don't think the computer was connected to the Internet.)
I am worried that in a computer-based setting,
students may be tempted to cheat
using e-mail or Internet messaging software.
Is there a reasonable setup that I could use
that allows students to work on the computer,
and submit their work online,
while limiting the ability of the students to use Internet communication?<issue_comment>username_1: A feasible solution would be to use firewalls that can be configured to allow only certain sites, such as the ones required for the exam, to connect over the Internet and block all else. This would be able to thwart Internet based messaging and web referencing.
If you are concerned about the possible communication over the *intranet*, for instance a telnet connection which is to be part of the programming examination, there *are* software which could control code plagiarism. For example, [Moss from Standford](https://theory.stanford.edu/~aiken/moss/) is an automated system that determines the similarity of programs. I've also heard of some that would be able to check the similarity at the opcode level in such a way that even renaming variables wouldn't allow perpetrators to escape.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: If you have control over the lab software
-----------------------------------------
Have your IT dept install software that will allow you to monitor the activity on each system. I think the term is Classroom management software. Sit back and watch for suspicious activity.
Otherwise - adapt
-----------------
I like the strategies discussed in this question about take-home exams ([How to prevent cheating on take-home exams](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/38073/how-to-prevent-cheating-on-take-home-exams))
The TL/DR - think about how you might test learning of the material in a situation where students ARE going to collaborate and ARE going to access materials on the subject.
My two cents on the concept of computer based exams
---------------------------------------------------
>
> it seems to me that this is a better way to evaluate students' programming skills than a paper-based quiz/exam, given that in the real world, people write code on a computer, not on paper.
>
>
>
I don't agree with this statement, because in the real world people also have access to other supports like references and peers while writing code on a computer.
I don't think writing a coding exam on a computer actually tests knowledge of coding any better than writing code on paper. In fact, in some ways it hampers student performance because they must focus on creating properly formatted, compilable, code instead of getting their knowledge of the concepts on paper.
Pseudo code is faster to write and easier to evaluate.
If you want to test their ability to write executable code, give them assignments.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: >
> it seems to me that this is a better way to evaluate students' programming skills than a paper-based quiz/exam, given that **in the real world,** people write code on a computer, not on paper.
>
>
>
If you want your exams to better approximate the real world, then speaking as an IT professional, let me make a few comments.
The Real World
--------------
* In the real world programmers **have access to documentation.**
Not only do they have access to documentation, they are expected to use it and refer to it regularly, if not constantly. It is a red flag to any good technical manager to have a programmer waste time trying to "figure something out" by trial and error rather than consulting the documentation or other online information.
(Of course, it is also a red flag if the programmer can't write a simple "for" loop without consulting the documentation.)
Yes, it is an advantage to know your language so well that you can use all the standard library features without consulting any references or examples. But few programmers are that good—and the ones who are, got that way *by practice* (experience), not by reading textbooks or doing classroom assignments.
* Writing the actual code is a **very small part** of designing a solution.
Design questions are *important* in the real world. Vast books have been written on the subject. It's not enough that your code *works*. It must be sufficiently robust for the conditions it will actually run in; it must be maintainable; it must be possible to modify it to accommodate new requirements without throwing the entire codebase away and starting from scratch.
Design also includes *understanding the requirements* and can even include querying them (proposing alterations) or surveying the source of the requirements to be sure they are *really, truly* understood before a solution is implemented. A classroom setting almost never simulates this accurately. In class, you are given a precise assignment, and you must solve exactly the use case precisely (even rigorously) stated. The real world isn't like that.
* In the real world, [**collaboration is highly desirable.**](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/38225/46356)
---
A standardized exam to be taken during class should probably not focus on practical programming. Take-home extended assignments would be a much better gauge of ability to write code, as [username_2 states in his answer](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/75791/46356).
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: Ask your students to copy an honor statement, e.g., "On my honor, I will neither accept nor give unauthorized aid", then add their name.
I report students for academic misconduct every quarter but I have never had to do it on a test where I've asked them to copy an honor statement. When people are reminded of their ethical obligations, they become more honest, consistent with what Dan Ariely at Duke reports in the (excellent) documentary, "(Dis)Honesty: The Truth About Lies".
Upvotes: 1
|
2016/08/25
| 1,386
| 5,981
|
<issue_start>username_0: During the U.S. admissions process to PhD programs in the STEM fields, are the admissions committees typically notified by university administrators, if one of the applicant's family is a generous donor to the school?
If the answer is yes, does this cause PhD admissions committees to consider that candidate more favorably, assuming that he or she has the qualifications to be admitted?<issue_comment>username_1: I would guess that the answer is typically no. The administrators themselves certainly aren't looking through the list of Ph.D. applicants, and I doubt that they have any system for staff flagging such applications.
That said, they do schmooze a lot with donors (actually department chairs also schmooze more with donors than I realized), and if a donor had a child/relatively applying for a Ph.D. at the school, it would be totally natural for them to mention that to the chair of the department as an interesting fact. It would also be totally natural for the chair to mention that to the committee, though some probably wouldn't, precisely to avoid any appearance of pressure on the committee. I suspect that application would get a more careful look due to just curiosity. I doubt there would be any conscious attempt to tilt the scales, but simple attention might give them a small boost, but no more than if the parent was a friend of someone in the department, a well-known researcher in the field, or a famous person who hadn't made a donation. There are a lot of unfairnesses in the system based on how good the networks of your LOR writers are; I think that's a much bigger issue.
Since the admissions decisions are made by faculty, most of whom have tenure, rather than professional admissions staff, I think there's much less possibility for this sort of corruption; probably the indirect effect of donations getting students into prestigious undergrad institutions, and thus having an enhanced application is bigger.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: My guess is that this probably happened at least once, but that it is rare, and for it to have a non-negligible effect on admissions is *very* rare. Let me give a few reasons:
1) Admission for an undergraduate program at a US university is a very different process from an admission for a graduate program at the same university.
In the former case, most of the people handling admissions are *admissions officers*: these are staff members of the university that are in direct contact with the administration. They also meet students and parents of students in large quantities. They have a variety of motivations for admitting students, and they admit such a large number of students that any one admission decision could be chalked up to breadth / desire for (e.g. geographic) diversity / individual taste.
In the latter case, all of the people who are materially involved are faculty (usually tenure track faculty) in the department. As a tenured faculty member in a research university, my communications with students' parents outside of a quick handshake at graduation day (if I attend, which I most often do not) are exceedingly rare. When we admit a student into a graduate program, it's because we think that they are (i) likely to successfully complete the program and (ii) likely to be more successful than other students whom we did not admit. One wrongly admitted student can really drain a lot of departmental resources.
In some STEM fields, admissions are not even done by a committee; they are done by the PI who wants the student to work with them. Whether this situation is more or less susceptible to generous family donations, I can't say.
2) The idea of a "legacy student" makes less sense at the graduate level. In most cases that I know about, large donations to universities are made by alumni of that university. Moreover, a successful alumnus of university X often wants their children to go to university X, spends a lot of time telling their children that when they are growing up, is a generous donor to university X over a period of many years, and so forth. It is less likely that a child of someone who attended university X is going to want to attend a *graduate program* in university X: the best graduate programs in a given academic field are only mildly well correlated with the best undergraduate programs.
3) While it is very surprising to many, there really is infrastructure in place for "legacy admits" to undergraduate programs at many universities. There is no such infrastructure in place in graduate programs, so far as I know (certainly not in *my* STEM US graduate program). Most faculty are by nature highly independent and not very amenable to being influenced by administrators. In fact many faculty are quick to spot the possibility of influence and push back against it. If a dean in my university came into my office and told me (I am the graduate coordinator of my department) that a certain Mr. Y was the son of an extremely generous donor and that I should take that into account accordingly...well, suffice it to say that I would have to steel myself not to allow that to have a *negative effect* on Mr. Y's admissions.
**However**:
4) At the graduate level, the decision is not just admit / reject, it is admit with funding / admit without funding / reject. Most departments *do* have lower standards to admit students without funding. If someone came to us and said "We'd like you to admit this student to the program. His funding will be totally covered for as long as he's here. Moreover, we will give you [enough money to be able to fund another student, say]" then...well, this has certainly never happened. But would we give it some consideration? Probably we would, if the student had a broadly suitable background in absolute terms. In the field of mathematics in the US at least, being a graduate student *and paying your own way* is not a position of prestige.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]
|
2016/08/25
| 2,027
| 8,711
|
<issue_start>username_0: I'll be starting my 4-th year of post-secondary education, in a few weeks, and during my first 3 years, I've had problems with attentiveness. My latest problem was last year, where I don't think I've been able to follow a single lecture during more than 30 minutes out of the 2 to 4 hours (There is one break during the 4 hours lectures).
I don't think it's my teacher's fault because it has always been an issue with me and, for instance this year, even though many students such as myself had problems with attendance and attentiveness, about 25% of the students felt the lectures were satisfying and managed to follow most of them.
It might be due to the fact that the courses are not always, the one I would like to attend, but I won't be able to chose until my 5-th year so this option won't work for me.
The thing is I've managed to fall through the cracks so far by simply working by myself with the textbooks we were given but I now realise it was a mistake, first of all because several times the textbooks we've been given were either obsolete or not related at all to the knowledge and skills we were actually expected to get and a few times we were simply not given anything besides the lectures.
I usually get enough sleep, 8 to 10 hours. I also play sports 3-4 hours a week.
Second of all I'm pretty sure my understanding of the course was pretty much limited to me getting good grades on the tests but not actually understanding the essence of the courses. I'm supposed to be an engineer in two years and I feel like all I know is how to get good grades but without proper actual engineering skills, and I'm pretty sure it's mostly due to me not having the right approach on lectures.
Basically, I would like to know if someone had the same problem and what approach they took or if anyone has pieces of advice or tricks to improve attentiveness during lectures ?<issue_comment>username_1: I think that a key question here is why and how you stop paying attention. If you can understand what's happening, you can try to address it. Two main routes that I have seen (and experienced) are:
1. Availability of distractions: if you start reading email, browsing the web, etc., then a good strategy is to start taking notes on paper by hand. Lock your devices away from yourself and make sure you take notes, as the act of note-taking forces you to follow along more closely.
2. Physical impairment: long sitting in a warm and poorly ventilated room can impair your ability to pay attention for physiological reasons. If you find yourself falling asleep, zoning out, or daydreaming, this is likely to be a cause. Here, a good strategy can be to seat yourself in the back of the classroom, and then when you start having difficulty with attention, stand up and move around. Getting your blood circulating and your body in motion can do wonders for your ability to pay attention, particularly if you are generally physical or restless person.
Note that in a small class or a country with more formal classroom etiquette, it may be useful to have a conversation with the professor before doing the second strategy. In a big lecture in an informal place like the US, however, you can probably just go for it.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: In general, if you aren't "pumped up" about major classes and not fully engaged with the lecture, you're probably in the wrong major, however, with some research, you can see that the average attention span of an adult is around 20 minutes, so your situation is totally normal.
I've struggled with ADD my whole life, so learning how to zone in while I'm zoned out was a full time job for me. I've gotten to the point where I'm pro at being attentive during lectures, here's what I've learned:
1. Lectures are much more interesting when you apply a purpose for them. For me I'm a computer science major, so what I did was compiled a "reference bible" of useful things that I could use in the future. Another thing I did was continuously develop a game. I tried to incorporate everything I learned into the game, it was pretty much a challenge, so that made programming lectures much more fun.
2. Invest in a smart pen. I swear I will never live without one of those things ever again. It kind of forces you pay attention to the lecture so that you can mark important topics down to make it easier to reference. Be carful though, it's easy to get lazy while using it, but just keep in mind that having to listen to a lecture twice isn't fun nor is it a good use of time.
3. Force yourself to ask questions. I ask at least 5 questions per hour before the end of a lecture, which for me is a question every 12 minute; well below the average attention span.
4. After you do homework, look up the next chapter online. Use everything at your disposal: YouTube tutorials, blogs, research documents, forums, etc. Not only will you be prepared for the next lecture, you'll already know what you're having trouble understanding which is huge, especially for #3. If you're book is outdated and you find new information on a topic, use that to challenge the professor's lecture. Not only will that keep you engaged, it will make you look like you actually care about what they are teaching (hopefully you actually do!) and that you are taking the initiative to activly learn more than just what they are lecturing about; nobody likes a yes-man!
Overall, just getting rid of distractions never did it for me, so the way I bought of it is "solve the root of the problem, not the effects," because technology is a great thing to have when used correctly, so give yourself a reason to pay attention. Hopefully this helps!
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: I have been in this situation several times throughout my educational career. One thing I have found that can be helpful depending on how much free/study time you have outside of school is to invest in a recorder that can plug into your computer. This way you can keep logs of your classes while taking notes. Then, when you are studying and feel lost on a concept, you can go back and listen to the lecture again.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: Take notes. Even if you are perfectly able to follow along and the lecturer hands out the slides, actually write (can type, but not as good) because the act of writing activates your brain in different ways. It doesn't matter if you never read the notes again, writing notes helps you pay attention.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: There are two simple principles you can follow here, rooted in experimentally confirmed behaviours of the brain.
* **Active summarisation**
* **Repetition**
**Active Summarisation:**
Your brain finds it easier to engage for longer periods if it is active, rather than passively receiving information. Also, once your brain begins working in a particular way, there is a momentum-like phenomenon whereby it will continue with the same behaviour.
So the key to attentiveness is to start your brain actively working. The best way I have found to do this is to summarise what is being said in my own words (in a shorthand). Even things that I already know - because if I start that way, it's easier to continue that way. I personally use pencil and paper rather than smartphone etc. - I remember seeing that there is some evidence that pencil and paper notes are more effective than digital notes. But honestly try things and see what works for you. The point of these notes is only superficially to have material you can refer back to later (which is why I think most digital apps somewhat miss the point). The main effect is that you are more engaged, and absorb information better the first time. Whatever technology you use the goal is to form the right information structures in your brain.
**Repetition:**
Another strategy is to skim-read material relevant for the lecture ahead of time - even if only for 15 mins. Attention requires anchors - even if you barely understand the material first time you will have created references that will work as anchor points. When you hear related concepts repeated in the lecture you will find it easier to absorb them. After the lecture skim your notes again to help it stick.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_6: One break in a 4 hour lecture is a bit little. Teaching experience shows that most students struggle to keep on paying attention after about 45/50 minutes. Your 30 minutes is short (for university students), but the other answers should help (prepare the materials so it's easier, make notes, try to come up with questions - even if they get answered by the lecturer before you get a chance to ask them) as well.
Upvotes: 0
|
2016/08/25
| 3,936
| 16,432
|
<issue_start>username_0: About 3 months ago, my co-author and I submitted a mathematical paper to a journal. Yesterday, we got the editor's response and the paper has been rejected. The reason is that the referee thinks that our results are wrong or trivial.
However, we carefully read the referee's report and we conclude that the "errors" pointed out by the referee are not errors at all and that our proofs are correct. In all modesty, we think that the referee understood very poorly even the statements of our theorems.
Personally, this is the first time that such a situation occurs to me.
I already have four papers published in such journal and the reports I got from the referees have been always really accurate.
What do you think is the best thing to do?
Forget about and try another journal? Write an e-mail to the editor explaining why we disagree with the decision? Other ideas?
**EDIT:** Thank you very much for all your answers. At the end, we submitted our paper to another journal with only some slight edits we have already planned to do independently by the referee's report.<issue_comment>username_1: While you might be able to appeal to the editor, once you've been rejected, you're probably not going to get a change in decision. I would instead recommend focusing on a new submission to another journal.
Before you do so, however, I would strongly advise performing a major revision on your presentation of the proofs. Assuming that your proofs are in fact correct, you clearly did not convey them in such a way that their correctness and significance were obvious to the reviewer. The reviewer may have been a sloppy or shallow reader, but so in fact will be many of your other readers after publication.
In short, take the feedback as an indicator of how your paper needs to be improved before you submit it to another journal.
Upvotes: 8 <issue_comment>username_2: >
> ... try another journal? Write an e-mail to the editor explaining why we disagree with the decision?
>
>
>
I would pick up on this. I do not know how compact or concise or how *deductive* your proof is. I don't know how concise and deductive (rather than inductive) it *can* be. Let's suppose it is both concise and deductive, then spell out each step to the editor. Make sure each step is undeniably justified and spell that out.
If the result is *"unimportant"*, make the case for how it **is** salient. What other mathematical work does this influence? How does your result help some other mathematical effort? If your result serves only **your** mathematical effort (like in previous papers of yours), then you have the problem of making sure those are salient as well.
I used to be a reviewer for the Audio Engineering Society. There was a guy from Hong Kong that submitted and published paper after paper after paper on the topic called *"Wavetable synthesis,"* but they were only continuations of his own work and quite self-referential. Finally the editorial folks got tired of it, because it got to the question of *"Who the hell cares?"* or *"Who gives a rat's ass?"* You need to be able to answer that question.
Saying, *"This work is important to increase my publication record so that I can get tenure"* might not impress them. (I'm not saying you're saying that.)
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: >
> The reason is that the referee thinks that our results are wrong or trivial.
>
>
>
This first caught my attention. Trivial and wrong are two *completely* different things. How did you come to that conclusion?
>
> the "errors" pointed out by the referee
>
>
>
This leads me to believe that the issue is mainly about errors. But:
>
> In all modesty, we think that the referee understood very poorly even the statements of our theorems.
>
>
>
has, *two* possibilities:
* you are right. Math is quite hard and he did not invest enough time to understand it. Or maybe he does not even have the ability to. Which should not be "your" problem.
* He is very good in the field you are working and sees your results really as trivial. He therefore did not read it properly and marked wrong errors (it may looked to him like a "trivial paper with errors"...)
In both cases, I'd really recommend, to
>
> Write an e-mail to the editor explaining why we disagree with the decision?
>
>
>
That's the most "academic" solution in my eyes as problems should be discussed until you agree on the same conclusion (even dough this is surely not possible everywhere, it is in math). Regarding the second case, it is may even possible, that *you* missed a point. You know, we all make errors all the time. But submitting a paper where someone (who actually should understand the topic) spotted errors and just *ignoring* (not *able* to convince him otherwise) his opinion is quite, let's say, self-confident (especially in math), and in general not advised to do;)
Don't get this wrong; most probably you are right and he is wrong. Ok. But you surely don't want it the other way around. Better make sure it is not.
Instead of writing directly to the editor, it is may a good advice to let your paper check by a colleague in your field, who is neither the referee nor the author to check for a third opinion.
Others suggested to rewrite your paper for more comprehensibility. I would not conclude that already; too many other factors may play a role. Depending on the editor's answer (say he did not get the points as he find it confusingly written) I might rewrite the parts.
Another journal is surely a good idea if that somehow won't work out, but I don't think you are in a hurry, right?
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: To complement username_1's answer, I want to explain why I think that appealing to the editor is not the best choice.
As username_3 said, there are (basically) two possibilites: either the referee is wrong or you are. If the referee is wrong or even not qualified to judge your work, as you suggest, then this journal is probably not the place where I'd want to see my work published (of course, bad referee choices can happen, but sill). If you are wrong, you are already in an embarrassing situation. You don't want to make it worse by arguing with the editor.
No one here can say whether you are wrong or the referee. As others pointed out, try to make sure that it's not you before taking any other action.
In any case, you should at least make some minor changes. Academic communities are small, and it's not too unlikely that your next referee knows the one you're complaining about. You want him to take at least a second look before outright rejecting your paper as 'the same wrong stuff again'.
I once heard this story about someone submitting a paper with a serious flaw in one proof. One referee pointed it out, but the author just submitted the same version to another journal. It ended up in the office right next to the first referee's. As you can imagine, this did not improve the chances for acception.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: The editor and the referee are not the people you need to be talking to in this situation. Their jobs involve managing many submissions and they likely lack the time or inclination to reconsider every person who's been rejected. For every paper published, many other papers must not be, so even when not making mistakes you can fall victim of being less novel than the most novel papers submitted recently.
You have two potential problems. One is that you may be in error, in which case the peer reviewer was correct to reject you and you really need to fix your paper before resubmitting it anywhere. Given your proximity to the paper, it's easy to get too close to the problem and become blind to such errors, so getting new peers involved to openly review the paper or leaving it for a period of time and coming back to it with a fresh pair of eyes after a break might help. Not knowing you nor the peer reviewer, all an objective observer should see is two peers of similar standing in disagreement with no way to judge who is correct without factual details.
The other is presentation. If we assume the paper is correct and novel, it may not have been sufficiently presented as such. Even if the peer reviewer was a lazy reader, their misunderstanding of the paper may have been helped along by lack of clear communication. The only real solution to this is further iteration and, again, external input. Open review is the best way to constructively improve your paper at this point.
If you want to double down on the paper being perfect in every way and just misunderstood, submit to other journals. This is a gamble, as they may just as easily accept it having missed what the peer reviewer saw or reject it for a variety of reasons out of your control. As others have stated, those involved in rejecting your paper may not be impressed if that succeeds, may not care or never find out, or they might recognize that they got it wrong because everyone makes mistakes.
One submission of one paper to one journal being rejected is not a big deal, it's normal, so don't let that demoralize you.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_6: "Wrong" proofs may be wrong in the sense that
1. some small step is logically incorrect, or
2. what is written there is not a Bourbaki-style proof (Bourbaki-style = small-step, well-formulated), or
3. there is a typo, or
4. bad, incomprehensible English,
or a combination of 1.-4. holds.
Items of which kinds (1.-4.) does the referee mention? Strictly speaking, any reason 1.-4. is a valid reason for rejection. E.g., I really, really hate to read a paper with a typo in a formula which makes me ponder a whole day long until I notice that a typo is the culprit. Regardless of the case, you should take the chance to improve the proof. However, a strong rejection might be objectively too harsh a measure; it really depends on the case whether a weak rejection would be more justified. If any of 1.-4. holds, don't complain as it would not contribute to your reputation. Only if neither 1.-4. is present and the referee's report is bogus, you can complain.
A related aside: recently, some people started asking for a machine-checkable proof in a theorem prover (e.g., Isabelle, just to name one). If you want to immunize your paper against the "wrong proof" claim completely:
* write a machine-checkable proof, and
* make it available to reviewers somehow [put it online, supply a file, etc.], and
* submit to another venue or resubmit.
Whether you submit elsewhere or resubmit would be the next issue; it really depends.
Notice that above, I abstained from speaking about "trivial proofs" or "trivial results": these would be too hard to formalize. Even trivial theorems might be published, but only if they are really genuine and are of great importance.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_7: I've had this happen several times. These papers were all in a technical subject where it was hard to find a referee. I would get a referee report making elementary errors while accusing me of making elementary errors. Often the referee had poor command of the English language. In one of the cases I even had an email back-and-forth with the referee through the journal editor. This was a total waste of time, as the referee was simply not able to understand basic concepts as he was accusing me of the same.
I have found that it's best just to resubmit the paper to another journal. On one of these papers I did substantially revise the exposition, but in the other cases I did not. I will have to disagree with <NAME> over the value of revising.. I don't think the exposition is usually the issue in these cases. As the asker pointed out, such referees often don't even understand the statements of the theorems.
In all cases the next referee behaved normally. That is not to say the next referee always accepted the paper, but the referee always understood what the paper was about and when a referee rejected it he/she always had intelligible reasons.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_8: I must disagree with some of the answers.
Some assume that it is a problem with the person asking the question and giving suggestive answers with a very limited number of fixes ("I would strongly advise performing a major revision on your presentation of the proofs"; "two potential problems. One is that you may be in error, [...].
The other is presentation[...]").
If we are attentive enough, we all know well what the source of our problems are: The magic word is *feedback*. If people complain consistently that our papers are hard to read, the suggestion to work it over has a point. If again and again referees find errors in the manuscript, we will take much more care to avoid errors (proof-read, double-check, triple-check).
But if we get an outlier answer and cannot fathom what exactly should be the problem, it is *very, very likely* that we are **not** the source of the problem. Working the paper over in this case is a waste of time.
The reason(s) that a referee rejects a paper are virtually unlimited. He is wrong, she does not care, he is busy, she is right, but explains it badly.
Whatever.
But what you can do is to read very carefully the answer and ask yourself under what circumstances a person would give the answer. Is it aggressive, dismissive, bored, sad? It is rather short or more detailed? Does it look like the referee invested time or it is hastily written with boilerplate passages? From this you could often discern what the real reason for the rejection is.
Everyone will sooner or later have a paper rejected for inexplicable reasons, it is normal. Nothing to be afraid of.
That said, the best strategy already mentioned by other answers is to cut the losses and simply go to another journal. I would advise to challenge the decision **if and only if** the editor made it clear that the decision is not final and then **if and only if** it is objectively important to have it published in this specific journal. In that case do everything in your ability to check and recheck your paper and hone it to perfection because you will only get exactly one chance to convince the editor.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_9: You should not revise your paper as Jakebeal suggests just because of the negative outcome of the review process so far. Revisions should only be done if upon taking another look, you think you can improve the paper, or if the paper has pretty much been accepted on the condition that you make certain improvements. In the latter case you may face the difficult decision of making reversion you don't fully agree with, you then have to balance the option of publication with such revisions against the possibility of a rejection.
I have had a mathematical physics paper rejected on totally flawed grounds once. I did appeal the decision, but this went nowhere. I submitted the paper to another journal, where it was again rejected directly by the editor. I later found out that this editor also worked for the journal I originally submitted my paper to, he had probably seen the appeal there. I then submitted the paper to another journal (with a similar impact factor as the original journal) where it was accepted without even a referee report sent to me to address problems.
The paper was not revised, the referee report did not contain any useful information for me to act on. The misunderstanding that led the referee to think that my paper was flawed was caused by the referee not being familiar with the jargon used in my field. It was also quite clear to me that the referee had skipped all of the sections about the physics and had only read the section where the results are derived. There the referee was misled by the jargon. If the referee had just read the entire paper the problem would not have occurred. Adding more explanations would in principle be possible but this has to happen at the start of the paper that the referee didn't read.
So, while you should always consider if the paper can be improved, and not hesitate forging ahead and make changes even if it inconvenient (e.g. if the paper is already under review), making revisions by guessing what an incompetent reviewer got in his/her head to try to get to a different decision the next time your paper is reviewed in that incompetent way, is not a good way to go about revising your paper.
Upvotes: 2
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2016/08/25
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<issue_start>username_0: I sent a proposal for public sector transformation to the Ministry of Economy and received a reply from the Federal Minister, who highly appreciated my suggestions. I would like to know this: can I put "Email of Appreciation" by the Federal Minister of Economy in my CV?<issue_comment>username_1: "Thank you, I appreciate your suggestions" can mean anything from a true and deep appreciation to "I am politely throwing your work in the trash."
As such, I would strongly advise against including it in a CV, as it will essentially be meaningless padding.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: As a general rule, a CV should tell about qualifications and accomplishments. Most people can show a piece of paper to guarantee the formal qualifications, a degree or similar, but it is much harder with informal qualifications or accomplishments which did not result in a visible product: Essentially you could be lying through your teeth! This is why you usually have letters of recommendation, to let other people verify your accomplishments and informal qualifications.
Ask yourself the following question: Does the letter do any of the above? Is it an accomplishment in itself to receive such a letter? Do the minister know the nature of your work? If yes, then you should describe how the letter is relevant to the CV, if no, leave it out.
Personally I highly doubt that it is relevant.
Upvotes: 2
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2016/08/25
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<issue_start>username_0: I am in math and I am fairly new in supervising PhD students, so I need some advice. I have a fairly good student who has made very good progress initially. But after a promising start, he's been stuck at the same problem for over one year, without making any progress. I have at a few occasions suggested that he should try another problem. He would then spend one or two weeks on another problem, but then he would always get back to the original problem with some new approaches/ideas (which still haven't turned out to work). He seems to have grown attached to this problem and feels that it would be a waste to abandon on something he's been working on for so long. I obviously admire his persistance and I always feel bad to discourage him from working on something he feels passionate about. But at the same time, I am worried that the longer he spends on this problem, the less likely he would be willing to move on and eventually give up altogether. What would you do in this situation?
Thanks in advance.<issue_comment>username_1: From the student perspective, and also a teacher. It would be good to have an informal meeting along with tea and discuss the matter. You can tell your honest opinion about the problem, the timeline and the progress. Ask him that instead of working in this problem it will be better if we go for that problem so that we both have interest as this probkem is taking too much time and i feel bad that you are working alone on that problem and my supervision is of nonuse in this case.
Dont tell him that you wasted time with no result/progress on this problem as he will try to prove his self and work on the same problem just to prove that he did it or will give up considerin him self a low performing student.
The more friendly environment you keep the better results you can expect and control as well.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: **Is the problem solvable?** Maybe it isn't, and the student just needs to stop working on it.
**Is the problem divisible?** Taking any problem and breaking it down into multiple steps can help.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: Is it something he can set aside and come back to later, when he's completed his PhD?
It might help to remind him that he doesn't need to accomplish everything he wants to research as a graduate student. If there are areas more likely to bear fruit, he may be well-served by focusing on what will get him to his degree and into a research position first, *then* coming back to his unsolvable problem, when it's not holding up his career. This way the work he did actually *isn't* wasted time.
You might also tie that into issues of funding and such, although you didn't say anything about whether that's a constraint.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: I have a professor who was very good friends with <NAME>; Erdos had a room in my professor's house and actually flooded the basement one morning.
The first time they met, my professor was in graduate school and presented a graph theory problem to Erdos and asked for his input. My professor wanted to solve this problem for his dissertation. Erdos stroked his chin and thought for a moment and finally said: "young man, you should consider a different problem."
My professor went back to work and eventually wrote his dissertation on a different problem. About ten years later he reminded Erdos about that and Erdos asked, "has anyone solved that problem yet?"
"No."
"Well, see, I saved you ten years."
I know my professor continued to work on the problem, I don't know if he ever solved it, but he got a few papers from the work that came out of that problem.
Tell your grad student they're lucky they found a good, hard problem. They do not have to abandon it; they can certainly spend a couple hours a week on it during graduate school, if they manage their time well. But grad school is about efficiency. It's about learning what problems can be solved quickly and what takes more effort and time. Don't tell them to abandon their problem, tell them to keep at it, but spend most of their time on something more reasonable. Balancing short term and long term goals, that is a skill worth learning.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_5: This is one of the hardest questions a math PhD advisor can face. (Perhaps it is *the* hardest question. It is certainly the one whose failure to adequately solve has caused me to feel most, um, inadequate as an advisor over the years.) Here are some ideas:
1) You say the student is fairly good. I'm not sure exactly what that means. For me, a *good student* can make substantial progress on problems of interest if the advisor sets things up very well: by choosing the problems well and by providing help when needed. You don't want to watch a good student waste much more than a year working on something that is not going to come to anything. Within this category, a better student will be faster, more successful and independent, and a worse student will need so much help from the advisor that although the student does solve his own problems, the advisor must put at least as much thought and energy into the situation as would be needed to solve the problems herself.
So for me, "fairly good" would mean a student who can be quite successful with a very hands-on advisor. I would not want such a student to spend a substantial amount of time on a problem that I didn't have some idea how to solve. That's a strategy for a higher grade of students (a really *excellent* student can carry the risk of failure of working on truly difficult problems and can also learn from the experience of choosing the wrong problem).
2) One year is too long for almost any mathematician to work on a problem *without making any progress*. Certainly I have never done anything close to this (although I have spent many years writing certain papers: progress was being made, just slowly and there was always more to do).
>
> I obviously admire his persistance and I always feel bad to discourage him from working on something he feels passionate about.
>
>
>
To be honest, I don't really feel the same way. Working on something for a year without any payoff sounds irrational, maybe a bit obsessive to me.
3)
>
> But at the same time, I am worried that the longer he spends on this problem, the less likely he would be willing to move on and eventually give up altogether.
>
>
>
To be honest, you don't sound quite worried enough. The fact that he has nothing to show for a full year of work is *already* a problem for him and his future career. A student can no longer graduate with "one theorem" and expect to be competitive in the academic job market: increasingly, successful graduates already have a body of work. Moreover, most successful graduates draw on the knowledge and skills of their advisors in very deep, substantial ways: without enough of this access, they may not be competitive.
For a student who has been spinning his wheels for a year, I think you need to step in and give him a new problem in which you know exactly how to solve some initial segment of it. Starting in a place where you are essentially telling them what to do seems like a good remedy for the situation: even implementing exactly what your advisor is telling you is more than one or two weeks work for a good student. If you make clear that you do expect him to work and make progress on this new problem -- with your help -- he is likely to do so. If you have a meeting with him in which he tells you that he worked on the other problem instead, reiterate what you want him to do and schedule another meeting only a couple of days later. If you can keep on him closely enough, he'll get the idea: you fully expect him to make progress on this new problem. If he wants to work on his own problem in his spare time, great, but *you* are making sure that doesn't interfere too much with his new day job.
I hope it doesn't sound like I am scolding you. As I said, advising is such a hard job that most people I know don't feel they are doing as well as they should. Anyway, good luck.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_6: I think that in every work we should consider the deadline. You can set a deadline and if your student won't progress, change the thesis topic very quickly.
Based on "fail fast" strategy, you should always have an alternative plan and if the primary plan didn't work, fail fast and go to alternative plan. It could save you a lot of time.
Upvotes: 1
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2016/08/25
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<issue_start>username_0: I am a graduate student in an interdisciplinary psychological field. With the help of a paper I have read today, I have realized that a result of mine is now invalid: I missed a covariate in my analysis and when I include it, my result is non-significant. Fortunately it was not that much about the main point of my conclusion, but the non-significant term happens to be in my abstract title (and my abstract is printed on the abstract book of the conference now!).
I told this to my advisor and he said: “you cannot control every single thing, it is not that important”. But I have controlled it and it did affect my results, and I actually had that particular covariate in my analysis while I was writing the abstract and my advisor told me to exclude it.
I do not know what to do now. I cannot pretend like the result is still there; that conference is very important in my field and I do not want to regret it later. I do not think that it is ethical. I cannot pretend like I did not know that particular covariate is actually important for my analysis, because I have read the paper! I do not know what to do if someone asks me: “why you did not include this covariate?” I do not know whether it is okay to change the title and exclude some results from the poster, even when the abstract (in the abstract book) says another thing.
What should I do? I am very confused and hopeless.<issue_comment>username_1: Of course you shouldn't pretend that the result is still significant, when you know now that it isn't. As you have noted, that would certainly be unethical.
Prepare your poster using the results that you believe are correct now. If anyone asks about the difference between the poster and the abstract, just explain what happened. (You aren't the first to make a mistake and catch it later, nor will you be the last.) You can also email the conference organizers to find out if they can update the poster title and abstract (online at least).
Occasional mistakes are common in science, as in everything else; don't stress about it too much, just learn from it for the future. It's great that you caught it now, before your poster presentation, so that you can correct it.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: No reason to be confused and hopeless. Your question shows integrity and an ethical mindset, so ... own it. After all, science corrects itself and scientists should do so too. And you're right, integrity and trust are too important -- so never try to cover up mistakes.
I highly recommend Sternberg's "Psychology 101 1/2" here:
>
> There is no room in your career for cover-ups. As a lawyer who defended clients accused of various misappropriations once said, it is usually not the original offense but the cover-up that does people in. No one will live a life free of mistakes. You are far better off facing up to these mistakes than trying to cover for them. At times, you may need to issue an erratum to an article you publish, or admit to a serious mistake in your handling of other people, or worse. Covering up is, in my experience, always a mistake.
>
>
>
and later:
>
> My experience in academia is that one can get by just fine being honest. There will be times when it may be embarrassing to be honest, as when you have screwed up. [...] In my experience, it is almost always the cover-up, not the original mistaken act itself, that really cooks people's gooses!
>
>
>
The only thing that still bugs me about your question is the role of your supervisor. If he told you to exclude the covariate and sees excluding it as a non-issue, does he have a different agenda or a conflict of interest? For example, does the marginal point in your findings invalidate major points in his? Is it important for him to ignore that covariate or doesn't he care either way? If the former, then this would be a different problem and then it's not what you do regarding the conference, but what you do regarding your supervisor. If the later, correct the mistake (like @username_1 said, contact the organizers).
Upvotes: 2
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2016/08/25
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<issue_start>username_0: I am going to finish my PhD in the Netherlands within one year. Ideally I would like to get a postdoc here. However, due to competition or other factors I might not find a postdoc position. Then, there are two options:
1- Searching for a postdoc outside of the Netherlands which is not the best option for me currently.
2- Doing a second PhD here.
I want to know if doing a second PhD makes it harder to get a tenure track position later.
Edit
I am asking about the effect of doing a second PhD after I finished my first PhD regardless if I extend it for some period of time or not. Will people see it as a failure? To me it does feel like failure!
One good point in the Netherlands is that PhD students are employed as research assistants. Thus, I think when I am able to search for postdocs in other countries it might not look as bad as I think.<issue_comment>username_1: Nobody will care how many Ph.D. do you have when they consider you for a tenure track position. What will matter is number and quality of your papers/conference presentations after your PhD. If you want to change a field of your studies then it makes sense to do a second PhD. But if not, then it is a waste of time. It makes sense to delay your PhD defence rather than go for a second degree and use this time to focus on research.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Your question assumes that you would be able to find another PhD position in the Netherlands. I would be surprised if there would be another university hiring you as a PhD candidate if you already have a PhD, in particular if it is in a related field. There have been other questions on this site on the merits of doing a second PhD, and it appears that the general consensus is that it would not be worth it in general.
International mobility becomes an increasingly important factor, in particular in small countries such as the Netherlands. This somewhat depends on the field, but not being able or willing to do a postdoc or otherwise outside of the country could seriously impact your chances of obtaining a permanent position in many fields in the Netherlands.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: I don't know how it is in your country, but typically in Germany (and I expect also in other countries) the following holds.
**You cannot get a second PhD in the same field as you already have a PhD awarded.**
Hence, you'd need to swap to another field, say to Mathematics from Computer Science, which might be hard to impossible.
---
There *are* ways for a further education, however.
* Some people still manage to get a second PhD in a different field.
* A honorary title, "Dr. h.c.", might be viable, but it's more a political thing.
* Germany and some further European countries have a notion of a Habilitation or a "higher Doctorate", it's basically the second, "wider" PhD in the same field, that qualifies you (in old German tradition) for a professorship. An Assistant Professor on a tenure-track is roughly the same.
* A Habilitation for a Dr. med. is sometimes called a PhD to mimic the anglo-saxon manner.
---
Finally, is a second PhD really the thing that would advance your career? I'd think about it similar to a second MSc. It not really does.
Upvotes: 0
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2016/08/26
| 1,141
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<issue_start>username_0: I recently attended a conference and met a professor who I would be interested in working with for my PhD. One of his students introduced us, and I mentioned some of my research interests, and he asked me about my GPA and GRE scores, and encouraged me to check the school website for application instructions and more information. He didn't seem very interested in talking more then, and I was not very familiar with his research, so I ended the conversation by asking if I could email him if I had any more questions.
Now that I am back from the conference, I am wanting to follow up with him. I have read some of his papers now and was planning to ask a question about his research, but I was wondering if I should try to get a more committed response as to whether he would be interested in having me join his group? How should I bring this up?<issue_comment>username_1: Simply ask. Of course, your email should take in consideration PhD application instructions at his institution. If you can be admitted without an advisor, it changes the context.
"Dear Dr. X,
It was a pleasure to meet you at conference Y and to discuss about Z.
Since we met, I have read about your research area and [Insert question or comment].
Would it be possible to meet/skype to discuss the possibility of pursuing a PhD in your lab?"
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Follow up on researchgate, there you can see his work and co authors of him. You can reach them as well in case you need more info. You can request him for his latest projects which the researchgate has option.
You can mail via email or researchgate, and inteoduce your self with conf reference and your friend who introduced you. And further write your interest like "my interest for research is in X field and i want to pursue it, but my capabilities are not limited to X only, if you have any better area i am willing to participiate if you have any opening".
Dont forget to append your academic documents with thr email for verification and also do mention your key favtora in email like.
I have a gpa of A overall with B,C and...as 4 further i also have gre score of that percentile and ielts/toefl score of D. Mentiin Your achievement and medals if any in a brief lines, so you get his attention and he read through all email and documents.
For them its a daiky routine to check such emails so dont be shy for sending one
He might not reply, may reply positively or may excuse politely. In the later case do reply for thanking for reading like
Thanks for reading the email it was so kind of you, i really wished working with you will excel my research and creative skills. I hope if you have any oppertuinity in near future, i will be glad to hear about and apply. Once again thanks for your time.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: The introduction you made was great and may prove to be valuable in the future. But you are getting ahead of yourself. Let me explain.
It would help to learn more about how that particular school handles graduate student assistanceships first. Call the Department graduate student office and ask about that. How and when do students normally become GRAs? In some schools, it is possible for first-year students to obtain a GRA with a professor. In others, students are expected to work as TAs for at least a year, sometimes more, or even pass a qualifying exam.
Why? You need to learn the time-frame when the professor can make a decision to support you. The professor does not want to waste too much time talking to anyone who is not even admitted to the school yet. If it is a school where students are expected to TA for a year, the professor might not want to waste time talking to anyone who might be "weeded out" later.
I infer that you will be applying to graduate schools this year, for admission next year. The school you mentioned should be high on the list. You will want to find schools with one or more professors whose research interests you, and, more importantly with happy graduate students like the one who introduced you. Financial constraints play a role when professors can take on GRAs, as well as the graduation of current GRAs the professor is supporting.
In short, making the introduction you already did is perfect for now. Seek to make more such introductions with more professors at the same school, and at additional schools. This way, when you attend, you will have multiple options. Once you get to the right place (for example, finishing up your first year as a TA, with good grades in your core classes), it will be easy to talk to the profs you've already scoped out about GRA positions.
If you are accepted to a school where everyone TAs the first year, you can approach the professor about volunteering. This is a great way to get started at the lab. Make yourself valuable and you'll most assuredly get a GRA there when one becomes available.
Upvotes: 0
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2016/08/26
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<issue_start>username_0: I recently completed a course project with some other students in my department. In this project, we discovered a few novel results that might be of interest to others in the field. I would like to revise and submit this project for publication (with the consent of my coauthors, of course).
The problem lies with one of the coauthors. The portion of the project that they wrote and sent to the rest of us was nonsensical. When reading their draft, it seemed as though they had not even read the reference material our project is based on. As a result, I and the remaining coauthors had to rewrite that portion from scratch, and the final report contains nothing written by that particular coauthor. (We left their name on the report since it was too late to change groups by the deadline.)
What should I do if we choose to publish these results? I worry that excluding the one coauthor might offend them if they saw the published paper. At worst, it might be considered academic dishonesty.<issue_comment>username_1: Based on what you write they did not contribute to the manuscript or the results described therein either due to lack of ability or due to laziness. I also assume they did not contribute any useful ideas. Thus, they are not a coauthor. It's as simple as that. The [ICMJE criteria](http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities/defining-the-role-of-authors-and-contributors.html#two) are useful for assessing if someone is an author.
In principle, this is independent of any considerations regarding their conduct in the course project. However, you should have reported their lack of useful contribution to the teacher since they would probably benefit from repeating the course. The problem now is that they could claim to be a coauthor since you put their name on your report and didn't tell the teacher. If the teacher sees the publication they could indeed assume academic dishonesty. Thus, I see two options:
* Include this person as a coauthor and ask them to make a meaningful contribution since you probably have to rewrite most of your project paper to make it suitable for publication.
* Explain the situation to your teacher, so you can move forward without getting in trouble with your school.
They chose to not make a valid contribution. Not being a coauthor is a consequence of that choice. Why do you care if that offends them?
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: What discipline?
If you are the first author, then adding a middle author won't take any credits from you. And as classmates, I think he is able enough to (non-significantly) contribute at something to the paper, like proof reading, checking results, uploading the paper, and present the paper somewhere.
You could email him to shortly meet for a discussing of paper submission. If he ignores your email then you just exclude him from the paper. If he comes to the meeting then you ask him these:
"Hey, we are submitting the paper, and if you can do XYZ, you will be included."
If he disagree to contribute, then just exclude him.
Upvotes: 0
|
2016/08/26
| 285
| 1,118
|
<issue_start>username_0: A person claims to have earned a PhD from Harvard University, but is offering no credible proof. How can I verify their claim?<issue_comment>username_1: If he got his PhD [after 1970](http://asklib.hcl.harvard.edu/faq/81789), then his dissertation should be available through proquest. [Go here](http://dissexpress.umi.com/dxweb/search.html) enter the name and see if anything comes up.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: [Harvard has a page on their website dedicated to this exact question](https://www.harvard.edu/degree-verification/), and the answer turns out to be simply "contact the specific school and request verification of the degree."
To speak to the general case, just call the university registrar and ask how they go about verifying degrees. This is a very common scenario and they will almost certainly have a process in place for it.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_3: Research universities tend to archive their PhD dissertations and list them in the online library catalogue. The institution named in the question [does that](http://library.harvard.edu).
Upvotes: 3
|
2016/08/26
| 740
| 3,094
|
<issue_start>username_0: There is a hypothetical situation I've wondered about. When an undergraduate student receives an undesirable class grade, that grade is typically left on their transcript (with the exception of sparing "grade forgiveness" allowances) for the rest of their academic endeavors. Naturally, this allows the student's Grade Point Average to be viewed as a decent reflection of the student's academic aptitude.
It is my understanding that if an undergraduate student leaves a university for some years before finishing their degree program, but returns at a later date, the old class grades will still be on the student's transcript and factored in with the new grades to derive the new GPA for the student. However, this new GPA does not appear to reflect the student's current academic aptitude to me; the student may now have far more experience and skill now than the years before when those old grades were given.
Although I understand that universities typically do not remove select class grades from a transcript, is it common for a university to allow an undergraduate student to simply restart a degree program tabula rasa, with a new blank GPA and no previous class credits?<issue_comment>username_1: I'm not sure whether it's common, but my university has a policy like this, called [Fresh Start](http://unco.smartcatalogiq.com/current/Undergraduate-Catalog/Undergraduate-Information-and-Policies/Student-Policies-and-Procedures/Fresh-Start-Programs-for-Freshmen-and-Returning-Students). A student who returns after an absence of at least five years can have their GPA recalculated, omitting all classes with grades of C− or lower.
As far as I know, they still get to keep credits earned for those classes, and those grades still appear on their transcript; they just aren't included in the GPA calculation.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Many schools have a policy known as [academic bankruptcy](https://www.google.com/?ion=1&espv=2#q=academic%20bankruptcy).
Yours might as well.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: One important thing to consider with these "fresh start" programs is that the only place that guarantees honoring them is the institution that grants them. Your transcripts will still include the previous bad grades (probably with a notation about the forgiveness policy), and employers or other universities or graduate schools are free to consider them however they wish.
That said, **most faculty who have sat on admissions committees that I've spoken with weigh past grade problems very little, if at all, as long as they are overshadowed by a solid body of more recent good work.** In that sense, an official "fresh start" isn't really very relevant - outside places are going to get the same info either way.
Obviously if what matters revolves around within-university criteria, or if you only ever need to report your school GPA, this won't be a relevant issue for you. But if you'll need to send transcripts elsewhere, a "fresh start" won't hurt anything but also isn't likely to change much.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]
|
2016/08/26
| 2,938
| 11,424
|
<issue_start>username_0: I've heard anecdotally that some mothers will list the dates of birth of their children on their CV, but I've never seen it done myself. The intended effect seems to provide a kind of excuse for lower output around those dates, I suppose. Is this common? Am I totally misinterpreting the motive?<issue_comment>username_1: Well, I uncovered a few via Google search, so they definitely exist. It seems to be more of a European thing - which is probably because maternity/paternity leave here is often more generous than, say, the States - so taking your six month entitlement will result in a more noticeable gap in your CV. I wouldn't describe it as an 'excuse for lower output' though - more an explanation of what would otherwise be a gap in the CV. Also, it should be noted that it is not limited to mothers.
If you conduct a search on a term such as 'academic cv "child born"' you will find a number of examples of male and female academics who provide the dates of birth of their children in their CV.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: This is common in Europe. Parents are not supposed to (and to some extent not allowed to) work during maternity or paternity leave. Thus, such periods are deducted from your phd-age, tenure clock etc.
Quoting from the [ERC Starting Grant 2017 call](http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/data/ref/h2020/wp/2016_2017/erc/h2020-wp17-erc_en.pdf):
>
> For maternity, the effective elapsed time since the award of the first PhD will be considered
> reduced by 18 months or if longer by the documented amount of leave actually taken for
> each child born before or after the PhD award. For paternity, the effective elapsed time since
> the award of the first PhD will be considered reduced by the documented amount of
> paternity leave actually taken for each child born before or after the PhD award.
>
>
>
And from one of the largest [commercial foundations supporting basic research in Denmark](http://www.carlsbergfondet.dk/da/Ansoeger/Sog-Stotte/FAQ#q19-1), which explicitly states that the CV should contain this information:
>
> In the case of maternity leave, the number of months on leave, times two, will be deducted from the seniority.
> The specific dates for the period of maternity leave must be clearly stated in the CV/resume.
>
>
>
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_3: An alternative that I've seen (though not often) and which feels a bit less weird to my American eyes, is to list the time of parental leave under the employment section. These are the [two](http://people.duke.edu/~jto10/documents/CV_Duke.pdf) [examples](http://services.math.duke.edu/~pierce/documents/Pierce_CV.pdf) I remember, and which made a positive impression on me as handling this point very nicely. Including the details of employment status (change of title, travel leave, parental leave) seems clearly relevant to me, while listing birthdays of children feels like it's mentioning things I'm not supposed to be considering during hiring (family status) and comes off as strangely European in the same way as putting a photo or your age on a CV.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: ***Here in the US***, unless you're a politician running for office, *this is not common* and it's hard to imagine a worse idea for a professional woman's CV. It needlessly invites male stereotyping of women as unreliable workers because they leave their careers to have children.
From [*'Motherhood Penalty' Can Affect Women Who Never Even Have a Child*](http://www.nbcnews.com/business/careers/motherhood-penalty-can-affect-women-who-never-even-have-child-n548511), NBC News, April 11, 2016:
>
> In a 2013 study, <NAME>, professor and co-director of the Center for Economics & Family Security at the University of California Berkeley School of Law, revealed some alarming outcomes for women in academia: Women graduate students who are pregnant or mothers with young children are 132 percent more likely to be working in a contingent position, while men with a young child are 36 percent less likely to be in a contingent position. Contingent positions are non-tenured, adjunct, or temporary jobs that are not secure. ...
>
>
> "Pregnant women and mothers are assumed to be less committed to their careers, and every time they leave the office or ask for any flexibility, that commitment is further called into question," Slaughter said.
>
>
> "This kind of discrimination is institutionalized," said <NAME>, a policy adviser with the American Association of University Women. "It's a part of the culture, it's a part of the decision-making process. Right now the assumptions about women's roles, as stereotypical as they may be, are driving decisions and those decisions disadvantage women."
>
>
>
In an earlier comment since moved to chat, I was asked to consider a hypothetical case, that *"a woman 5 years past PhD applying for an academic position who reports having 2 children would have her output judged as if she were 2 years post PhD"*, possibly allowing her to qualify for a grant with a time-since-PhD cutoff. But putting this on a CV also reminds readers that she still has two children under 5 who will be competing for her attention for at least the next 13 years. In a situation like this, I would try hard to disclose this information in some way other than my CV, e.g., an email, a cover letter or explanatory note on your application that puts them on notice why you're disclosing this information and isn't likely to be circulated as widely.
The best strategy for professional women is a CV that minimizes any personal information that isn't directly supportive of why you're the best for the job you want. If you have a break because you had kids, especially here in the US, ***make them ask***. You will both recall the exact moment they received information they cannot consider in a hiring decision.
From [*Pre-Employment Inquiries and Marital Status or Number of Children*](https://www.eeoc.gov/laws/practices/inquiries_marital_status.cfm), US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission:
>
> The following pre-employment inquiries may be regarded as evidence of intent to discriminate when asked in the pre-employment context:
>
>
> * Whether applicant is pregnant.
> * Marital status of applicant or whether applicant plans to marry.
> * Number and age of children or future child bearing plans.
> * Child care arrangements.
> * Employment status of spouse.
> * Name of spouse.
>
>
>
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_5: Many European countries have strong law-bound parental leave benefits - **also for the kids' fathers** - it is likely there to provide explanation to future employers for past gaps of employment - or for parental leave.
And there is also a completely different mentality regarding these matters. Calling parenting an "excuse" for the presumed higher value of employment will definitely give some eyes on you so to speak.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_6: **Australian perspective:** There are many situations in academia where family commitments would be taken into consideration when evaluating academic output. A few obvious contexts include: grant applications, job applications, and promotion applications.
**Grants:** As with the European example, most Australian early- and mid-career grants which are defined in terms of years post-PhD allow for that date to be extended based on parenting commitments.
For example (quotes thanks to @Joel), the ARC (the main government grant giving body in Australia for non-health related grants) state that:
>
> "Periods of unemployment, or any career interruptions for child birth, carers’ responsibilities, misadventure, or debilitating illness will be taken into account." - [source](http://www.arc.gov.au/arc-research-opportunity-and-performance-evidence-rope-statement)
>
>
>
Or for this year's DECRA grants (i.e., a major early career grant in Australia):
>
> "A DECRA Candidate must at the closing time of submission of Proposals: have been awarded a PhD on or after 1 March 2010 or ...The ARC may grant an Eligibility Exemption for the DECRA Candidate who has been awarded a PhD on or after 1 March 2006, together with periods of significant career interruption... The following types of interruption will be considered... maternity or parental leave..."
>
>
>
**Employment:** Many universities would have HR policies related to employment and promotion that look at what is sometimes called "achievement relative to opportunity". In such cases, time off due to parenting responsibilities reduces the "opportunity" part of the equation.
**Legal/cultural context**: More generally, Australia (as with many countries) has anti-discrimination legislation. This creates legal obligations, and it also forms part of a broader cultural initiative. Universities (who award jobs and promotions) and the government (who award the big grants) tend to be progressive on such matters. Anti-disrimination legislation include many categories, but of particular relevance here are parental status and sex (i.e., females are more likely to take leave and have more of the primary care responsibilities, especially in the months leading up to birth and the year or so post-birth).
**Implications for CVs**: I think it would be more common to have a couple of sentences explaining the timing of parental leave and noting that consequently academic output was reduced during that period. That way, the relevance between the birth dates and the CV is made more explicit.
**Language and the word "excuse":** Finally, I wanted to comment on your statement (my bolding):
>
> The intended effect seems to provide a kind of **excuse** for lower output around those dates.
>
>
>
It is not meant to be an excuse. I think the word "excuse" implies that reduced output needs justifying. Rather, the legal context and the associated cultural change is trying to frame parenting commitments as fundamental to a functioning society. So instead, evaluating output relative to opportunity is framed as "the default". Therefore, for some people opportunity is indexed by time. But for people who have had major parental obligations, it is indexed differently to incorporate the time away due to parenting commitments. Perhaps, this is a subtle distinction, but I think it is important.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_1: I was thinking that it was a shame that we hadn't had any comments from people who have included their child's name and birthdate in their CV, as it would be helpful to get their perspective in order to understand the 'motive' part of @pburg's question.
Today I came across [this blog post](https://tenureshewrote.wordpress.com/2016/08/30/guest-post-on-being-productive-and-reproductive-at-the-same-time/) written by <NAME>, Assistant Professor at Carleton University, Canada, who has included her children's names and birthdates in her tenure file (she doesn't specifically say CV). It's hard to distill the post down to a few words, but the gist seems to be that she considers her pregnancy and subsequent transition to parenthood important enough in her life to be relevant to those seeking to understand her as a professional.
While acknowledging that it *is* just one person's perspective, it is well worth a read, I think, as it gives some idea of her reasons for so doing.
Upvotes: 3
|
2016/08/26
| 2,953
| 11,456
|
<issue_start>username_0: Quick question for the collective.
1. Is it appropriate to list completion of online courses (eg. Coursera) on your academic CV? I'm in medicine, but want to articulate that I am expanding my skill set by completing work in data science and analytics.
2. If so, where would you put it in context of your other CV sub-headings?<issue_comment>username_1: Well, I uncovered a few via Google search, so they definitely exist. It seems to be more of a European thing - which is probably because maternity/paternity leave here is often more generous than, say, the States - so taking your six month entitlement will result in a more noticeable gap in your CV. I wouldn't describe it as an 'excuse for lower output' though - more an explanation of what would otherwise be a gap in the CV. Also, it should be noted that it is not limited to mothers.
If you conduct a search on a term such as 'academic cv "child born"' you will find a number of examples of male and female academics who provide the dates of birth of their children in their CV.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: This is common in Europe. Parents are not supposed to (and to some extent not allowed to) work during maternity or paternity leave. Thus, such periods are deducted from your phd-age, tenure clock etc.
Quoting from the [ERC Starting Grant 2017 call](http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/data/ref/h2020/wp/2016_2017/erc/h2020-wp17-erc_en.pdf):
>
> For maternity, the effective elapsed time since the award of the first PhD will be considered
> reduced by 18 months or if longer by the documented amount of leave actually taken for
> each child born before or after the PhD award. For paternity, the effective elapsed time since
> the award of the first PhD will be considered reduced by the documented amount of
> paternity leave actually taken for each child born before or after the PhD award.
>
>
>
And from one of the largest [commercial foundations supporting basic research in Denmark](http://www.carlsbergfondet.dk/da/Ansoeger/Sog-Stotte/FAQ#q19-1), which explicitly states that the CV should contain this information:
>
> In the case of maternity leave, the number of months on leave, times two, will be deducted from the seniority.
> The specific dates for the period of maternity leave must be clearly stated in the CV/resume.
>
>
>
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_3: An alternative that I've seen (though not often) and which feels a bit less weird to my American eyes, is to list the time of parental leave under the employment section. These are the [two](http://people.duke.edu/~jto10/documents/CV_Duke.pdf) [examples](http://services.math.duke.edu/~pierce/documents/Pierce_CV.pdf) I remember, and which made a positive impression on me as handling this point very nicely. Including the details of employment status (change of title, travel leave, parental leave) seems clearly relevant to me, while listing birthdays of children feels like it's mentioning things I'm not supposed to be considering during hiring (family status) and comes off as strangely European in the same way as putting a photo or your age on a CV.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: ***Here in the US***, unless you're a politician running for office, *this is not common* and it's hard to imagine a worse idea for a professional woman's CV. It needlessly invites male stereotyping of women as unreliable workers because they leave their careers to have children.
From [*'Motherhood Penalty' Can Affect Women Who Never Even Have a Child*](http://www.nbcnews.com/business/careers/motherhood-penalty-can-affect-women-who-never-even-have-child-n548511), NBC News, April 11, 2016:
>
> In a 2013 study, <NAME>, professor and co-director of the Center for Economics & Family Security at the University of California Berkeley School of Law, revealed some alarming outcomes for women in academia: Women graduate students who are pregnant or mothers with young children are 132 percent more likely to be working in a contingent position, while men with a young child are 36 percent less likely to be in a contingent position. Contingent positions are non-tenured, adjunct, or temporary jobs that are not secure. ...
>
>
> "Pregnant women and mothers are assumed to be less committed to their careers, and every time they leave the office or ask for any flexibility, that commitment is further called into question," Slaughter said.
>
>
> "This kind of discrimination is institutionalized," said <NAME>, a policy adviser with the American Association of University Women. "It's a part of the culture, it's a part of the decision-making process. Right now the assumptions about women's roles, as stereotypical as they may be, are driving decisions and those decisions disadvantage women."
>
>
>
In an earlier comment since moved to chat, I was asked to consider a hypothetical case, that *"a woman 5 years past PhD applying for an academic position who reports having 2 children would have her output judged as if she were 2 years post PhD"*, possibly allowing her to qualify for a grant with a time-since-PhD cutoff. But putting this on a CV also reminds readers that she still has two children under 5 who will be competing for her attention for at least the next 13 years. In a situation like this, I would try hard to disclose this information in some way other than my CV, e.g., an email, a cover letter or explanatory note on your application that puts them on notice why you're disclosing this information and isn't likely to be circulated as widely.
The best strategy for professional women is a CV that minimizes any personal information that isn't directly supportive of why you're the best for the job you want. If you have a break because you had kids, especially here in the US, ***make them ask***. You will both recall the exact moment they received information they cannot consider in a hiring decision.
From [*Pre-Employment Inquiries and Marital Status or Number of Children*](https://www.eeoc.gov/laws/practices/inquiries_marital_status.cfm), US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission:
>
> The following pre-employment inquiries may be regarded as evidence of intent to discriminate when asked in the pre-employment context:
>
>
> * Whether applicant is pregnant.
> * Marital status of applicant or whether applicant plans to marry.
> * Number and age of children or future child bearing plans.
> * Child care arrangements.
> * Employment status of spouse.
> * Name of spouse.
>
>
>
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_5: Many European countries have strong law-bound parental leave benefits - **also for the kids' fathers** - it is likely there to provide explanation to future employers for past gaps of employment - or for parental leave.
And there is also a completely different mentality regarding these matters. Calling parenting an "excuse" for the presumed higher value of employment will definitely give some eyes on you so to speak.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_6: **Australian perspective:** There are many situations in academia where family commitments would be taken into consideration when evaluating academic output. A few obvious contexts include: grant applications, job applications, and promotion applications.
**Grants:** As with the European example, most Australian early- and mid-career grants which are defined in terms of years post-PhD allow for that date to be extended based on parenting commitments.
For example (quotes thanks to @Joel), the ARC (the main government grant giving body in Australia for non-health related grants) state that:
>
> "Periods of unemployment, or any career interruptions for child birth, carers’ responsibilities, misadventure, or debilitating illness will be taken into account." - [source](http://www.arc.gov.au/arc-research-opportunity-and-performance-evidence-rope-statement)
>
>
>
Or for this year's DECRA grants (i.e., a major early career grant in Australia):
>
> "A DECRA Candidate must at the closing time of submission of Proposals: have been awarded a PhD on or after 1 March 2010 or ...The ARC may grant an Eligibility Exemption for the DECRA Candidate who has been awarded a PhD on or after 1 March 2006, together with periods of significant career interruption... The following types of interruption will be considered... maternity or parental leave..."
>
>
>
**Employment:** Many universities would have HR policies related to employment and promotion that look at what is sometimes called "achievement relative to opportunity". In such cases, time off due to parenting responsibilities reduces the "opportunity" part of the equation.
**Legal/cultural context**: More generally, Australia (as with many countries) has anti-discrimination legislation. This creates legal obligations, and it also forms part of a broader cultural initiative. Universities (who award jobs and promotions) and the government (who award the big grants) tend to be progressive on such matters. Anti-disrimination legislation include many categories, but of particular relevance here are parental status and sex (i.e., females are more likely to take leave and have more of the primary care responsibilities, especially in the months leading up to birth and the year or so post-birth).
**Implications for CVs**: I think it would be more common to have a couple of sentences explaining the timing of parental leave and noting that consequently academic output was reduced during that period. That way, the relevance between the birth dates and the CV is made more explicit.
**Language and the word "excuse":** Finally, I wanted to comment on your statement (my bolding):
>
> The intended effect seems to provide a kind of **excuse** for lower output around those dates.
>
>
>
It is not meant to be an excuse. I think the word "excuse" implies that reduced output needs justifying. Rather, the legal context and the associated cultural change is trying to frame parenting commitments as fundamental to a functioning society. So instead, evaluating output relative to opportunity is framed as "the default". Therefore, for some people opportunity is indexed by time. But for people who have had major parental obligations, it is indexed differently to incorporate the time away due to parenting commitments. Perhaps, this is a subtle distinction, but I think it is important.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_1: I was thinking that it was a shame that we hadn't had any comments from people who have included their child's name and birthdate in their CV, as it would be helpful to get their perspective in order to understand the 'motive' part of @pburg's question.
Today I came across [this blog post](https://tenureshewrote.wordpress.com/2016/08/30/guest-post-on-being-productive-and-reproductive-at-the-same-time/) written by <NAME>, Assistant Professor at Carleton University, Canada, who has included her children's names and birthdates in her tenure file (she doesn't specifically say CV). It's hard to distill the post down to a few words, but the gist seems to be that she considers her pregnancy and subsequent transition to parenthood important enough in her life to be relevant to those seeking to understand her as a professional.
While acknowledging that it *is* just one person's perspective, it is well worth a read, I think, as it gives some idea of her reasons for so doing.
Upvotes: 3
|
2016/08/26
| 2,977
| 11,626
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am looking at applying to a couple of schools abroad (for math grad school), and outside of the fact that they are fairly well known, I have little idea about how competitive they are to get into. Internet searches haven't really helped me out, so I am wondering if it is it acceptable to email a school about what the school's expected/average GRE general and subject tests scores are for a given Ph.D. or Master's program are and how the school feels about a student coming from my background.<issue_comment>username_1: Well, I uncovered a few via Google search, so they definitely exist. It seems to be more of a European thing - which is probably because maternity/paternity leave here is often more generous than, say, the States - so taking your six month entitlement will result in a more noticeable gap in your CV. I wouldn't describe it as an 'excuse for lower output' though - more an explanation of what would otherwise be a gap in the CV. Also, it should be noted that it is not limited to mothers.
If you conduct a search on a term such as 'academic cv "child born"' you will find a number of examples of male and female academics who provide the dates of birth of their children in their CV.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: This is common in Europe. Parents are not supposed to (and to some extent not allowed to) work during maternity or paternity leave. Thus, such periods are deducted from your phd-age, tenure clock etc.
Quoting from the [ERC Starting Grant 2017 call](http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/data/ref/h2020/wp/2016_2017/erc/h2020-wp17-erc_en.pdf):
>
> For maternity, the effective elapsed time since the award of the first PhD will be considered
> reduced by 18 months or if longer by the documented amount of leave actually taken for
> each child born before or after the PhD award. For paternity, the effective elapsed time since
> the award of the first PhD will be considered reduced by the documented amount of
> paternity leave actually taken for each child born before or after the PhD award.
>
>
>
And from one of the largest [commercial foundations supporting basic research in Denmark](http://www.carlsbergfondet.dk/da/Ansoeger/Sog-Stotte/FAQ#q19-1), which explicitly states that the CV should contain this information:
>
> In the case of maternity leave, the number of months on leave, times two, will be deducted from the seniority.
> The specific dates for the period of maternity leave must be clearly stated in the CV/resume.
>
>
>
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_3: An alternative that I've seen (though not often) and which feels a bit less weird to my American eyes, is to list the time of parental leave under the employment section. These are the [two](http://people.duke.edu/~jto10/documents/CV_Duke.pdf) [examples](http://services.math.duke.edu/~pierce/documents/Pierce_CV.pdf) I remember, and which made a positive impression on me as handling this point very nicely. Including the details of employment status (change of title, travel leave, parental leave) seems clearly relevant to me, while listing birthdays of children feels like it's mentioning things I'm not supposed to be considering during hiring (family status) and comes off as strangely European in the same way as putting a photo or your age on a CV.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: ***Here in the US***, unless you're a politician running for office, *this is not common* and it's hard to imagine a worse idea for a professional woman's CV. It needlessly invites male stereotyping of women as unreliable workers because they leave their careers to have children.
From [*'Motherhood Penalty' Can Affect Women Who Never Even Have a Child*](http://www.nbcnews.com/business/careers/motherhood-penalty-can-affect-women-who-never-even-have-child-n548511), NBC News, April 11, 2016:
>
> In a 2013 study, <NAME>, professor and co-director of the Center for Economics & Family Security at the University of California Berkeley School of Law, revealed some alarming outcomes for women in academia: Women graduate students who are pregnant or mothers with young children are 132 percent more likely to be working in a contingent position, while men with a young child are 36 percent less likely to be in a contingent position. Contingent positions are non-tenured, adjunct, or temporary jobs that are not secure. ...
>
>
> "Pregnant women and mothers are assumed to be less committed to their careers, and every time they leave the office or ask for any flexibility, that commitment is further called into question," Slaughter said.
>
>
> "This kind of discrimination is institutionalized," said <NAME>, a policy adviser with the American Association of University Women. "It's a part of the culture, it's a part of the decision-making process. Right now the assumptions about women's roles, as stereotypical as they may be, are driving decisions and those decisions disadvantage women."
>
>
>
In an earlier comment since moved to chat, I was asked to consider a hypothetical case, that *"a woman 5 years past PhD applying for an academic position who reports having 2 children would have her output judged as if she were 2 years post PhD"*, possibly allowing her to qualify for a grant with a time-since-PhD cutoff. But putting this on a CV also reminds readers that she still has two children under 5 who will be competing for her attention for at least the next 13 years. In a situation like this, I would try hard to disclose this information in some way other than my CV, e.g., an email, a cover letter or explanatory note on your application that puts them on notice why you're disclosing this information and isn't likely to be circulated as widely.
The best strategy for professional women is a CV that minimizes any personal information that isn't directly supportive of why you're the best for the job you want. If you have a break because you had kids, especially here in the US, ***make them ask***. You will both recall the exact moment they received information they cannot consider in a hiring decision.
From [*Pre-Employment Inquiries and Marital Status or Number of Children*](https://www.eeoc.gov/laws/practices/inquiries_marital_status.cfm), US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission:
>
> The following pre-employment inquiries may be regarded as evidence of intent to discriminate when asked in the pre-employment context:
>
>
> * Whether applicant is pregnant.
> * Marital status of applicant or whether applicant plans to marry.
> * Number and age of children or future child bearing plans.
> * Child care arrangements.
> * Employment status of spouse.
> * Name of spouse.
>
>
>
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_5: Many European countries have strong law-bound parental leave benefits - **also for the kids' fathers** - it is likely there to provide explanation to future employers for past gaps of employment - or for parental leave.
And there is also a completely different mentality regarding these matters. Calling parenting an "excuse" for the presumed higher value of employment will definitely give some eyes on you so to speak.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_6: **Australian perspective:** There are many situations in academia where family commitments would be taken into consideration when evaluating academic output. A few obvious contexts include: grant applications, job applications, and promotion applications.
**Grants:** As with the European example, most Australian early- and mid-career grants which are defined in terms of years post-PhD allow for that date to be extended based on parenting commitments.
For example (quotes thanks to @Joel), the ARC (the main government grant giving body in Australia for non-health related grants) state that:
>
> "Periods of unemployment, or any career interruptions for child birth, carers’ responsibilities, misadventure, or debilitating illness will be taken into account." - [source](http://www.arc.gov.au/arc-research-opportunity-and-performance-evidence-rope-statement)
>
>
>
Or for this year's DECRA grants (i.e., a major early career grant in Australia):
>
> "A DECRA Candidate must at the closing time of submission of Proposals: have been awarded a PhD on or after 1 March 2010 or ...The ARC may grant an Eligibility Exemption for the DECRA Candidate who has been awarded a PhD on or after 1 March 2006, together with periods of significant career interruption... The following types of interruption will be considered... maternity or parental leave..."
>
>
>
**Employment:** Many universities would have HR policies related to employment and promotion that look at what is sometimes called "achievement relative to opportunity". In such cases, time off due to parenting responsibilities reduces the "opportunity" part of the equation.
**Legal/cultural context**: More generally, Australia (as with many countries) has anti-discrimination legislation. This creates legal obligations, and it also forms part of a broader cultural initiative. Universities (who award jobs and promotions) and the government (who award the big grants) tend to be progressive on such matters. Anti-disrimination legislation include many categories, but of particular relevance here are parental status and sex (i.e., females are more likely to take leave and have more of the primary care responsibilities, especially in the months leading up to birth and the year or so post-birth).
**Implications for CVs**: I think it would be more common to have a couple of sentences explaining the timing of parental leave and noting that consequently academic output was reduced during that period. That way, the relevance between the birth dates and the CV is made more explicit.
**Language and the word "excuse":** Finally, I wanted to comment on your statement (my bolding):
>
> The intended effect seems to provide a kind of **excuse** for lower output around those dates.
>
>
>
It is not meant to be an excuse. I think the word "excuse" implies that reduced output needs justifying. Rather, the legal context and the associated cultural change is trying to frame parenting commitments as fundamental to a functioning society. So instead, evaluating output relative to opportunity is framed as "the default". Therefore, for some people opportunity is indexed by time. But for people who have had major parental obligations, it is indexed differently to incorporate the time away due to parenting commitments. Perhaps, this is a subtle distinction, but I think it is important.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_1: I was thinking that it was a shame that we hadn't had any comments from people who have included their child's name and birthdate in their CV, as it would be helpful to get their perspective in order to understand the 'motive' part of @pburg's question.
Today I came across [this blog post](https://tenureshewrote.wordpress.com/2016/08/30/guest-post-on-being-productive-and-reproductive-at-the-same-time/) written by <NAME>, Assistant Professor at Carleton University, Canada, who has included her children's names and birthdates in her tenure file (she doesn't specifically say CV). It's hard to distill the post down to a few words, but the gist seems to be that she considers her pregnancy and subsequent transition to parenthood important enough in her life to be relevant to those seeking to understand her as a professional.
While acknowledging that it *is* just one person's perspective, it is well worth a read, I think, as it gives some idea of her reasons for so doing.
Upvotes: 3
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<issue_start>username_0: *This question is about my attempt to give the administrators at my institution some feedback on how to better help **them** assess faculty teaching effectiveness.*
My institution is soliciting input from faculty on how to improve the way teaching effectiveness is evaluated and assessed **at the administrative level** (e.g., by department heads, deans, etc.). Currently, as is probably fairly common at many institutions in the US, the administrators at my institution rely mainly on student evaluations of teaching to gauge whether an instructor is effective in the classroom or not.
One of the main problems with having administrators relying solely on student evaluations of teaching to gauge teaching effectiveness is that the average student is not equipped with the necessary skills to adequately assess an instructor's teaching effectiveness. Further, as highlighted in [this question](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9140/do-teaching-evaluations-lead-to-lower-standards-in-class), if an instructor wants to boost their student evaluation ratings, one possible way to do that is to lower the standards in the course. The problem with that is, for those instructors who actually care that their students come away from the course with some tangible benefit (e.g., better prepared to move on to the follow-on courses, better prepared to enter the workforce, etc.), lowering standards is obviously not the correct course of action.
What's more, in [this question](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/75573/does-better-learning-affect-teaching-evaluations-if-so-how), research is cited which basically concludes that student evaluations of teaching are not accurate tools for assessing an instructor's teaching effectiveness.
While I am a bit skeptical that my institution is really sincere in their claim that they want to improve this situation for faculty, I would nevertheless like to give some good feedback on how the teaching evaluation process can be improved such that the administrators more accurately assess faculty teaching effectiveness.
>
> Are there any practical alternatives to relying solely on student evaluations of teaching, which are better at giving administrators a more accurate measure of whether a teacher is effective in the classroom?
>
>
>
Note:
* **I am not** asking for how to evaluate my own teaching in the classroom, or even how to improve my teaching.
* **I am** looking for alternatives to student evaluation of teaching that will help **the administrators** at my institution more accurately gauge faculty teaching effectiveness.
Both personal accounts and research references of better teaching effectiveness assessment alternatives are welcome. If one provides an answer with several alternatives, a listing of the relative upsides and downsides of each would also be very helpful.<issue_comment>username_1: I am a recent part-time faculty at community college level. In our campus students as well as peers evaluate faculty teaching.
We have only one student/peer evaluation per year. In my case, I got feedback from a professor who taught that course for more than 25 years. His recommendations were not that different from what student's suggested in their evaluation.
Another option would be to test students understanding by assessing [Student Learning Objectives](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Student_Learning_Objectives) (SLOs). For example, I give my class a questionnaire assessing their knowledge in SLOs on the very first day of the class and plans to give the same SLO questionnaire at the end of the course.
Hope this helps!
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Our university has something called Teaching Triangles for PhD students. It could be applied to faculty as well.
In this program, you form a group of 3 with PhD students from other departments (it is best to find people you don't know personally from related fields). After a session where you learn to give good feedback, you specify for your group the topics on which you are hoping to get feedback. Then you take turns observing (one time) and evaluating each other's courses. You meet with each member of the triad to exchange written suggestions for improvement. I have found both the observing and receiving feedback helpful.
The university does not give negative consequences for poor performance on Teaching Triangles, but does give credit for successful completion.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: As it turns out, teaching is actually a teachable skill, and there are entire schools dedicated to either teaching teachers how to teach or improving their teaching technique. As such, it would probably be a good idea to borrow from their appraisal techniques when working on improving your own skill. I am not a teacher, but my wife is, so my knowledge comes from watching her having gone through education school.
* If you do nothing else, I strongly recommend you do **observations**. Almost any elementary/secondary/high school teacher will regularly be "observed" by someone from the administration or another faculty member. The person observing will often just enter an ongoing class/lecture/lab/what have you—sometime having notified the teacher beforehand, sometimes not—and simply watching their technique. They will take notes on what they see and then speak with the teacher afterwards about the good and bad. This is a regular process and is done for *all teachers*... the brand-new ones and those who have been doing it for 30+ years.
If done properly, this is an immensely valuable tool. Someone *with sufficient teaching knowledge themselves* watching you teach and giving feedback is critical to improving your skill. As with many other areas in life, its very difficult to tell whether you're doing well. Unlike other areas, you're talking to a class, and there are things you will certainly miss. Another person in the classroom—who after five minutes will be invisible to the students, particularly if the students have sat through numerous observations before—will definitely see things you miss. If done improperly, it can be highly damaging, as the person giving feedback either doesn't know what they're talking about, is insulting, doesn't give useful feedback, or what have you.
If just starting this I strongly recommend finding people from your university's education department to perform the observations, as they'll likely have the most useful feedback. Your own teachers may not know how to perform one properly or usefully.
* On the topic of education school, have you every actually studied the science of teaching? Yes, it is a science, and there's a lot there. Maybe just take a class or read a book on teaching. There are a lot of them. I won't make a recommendation because I'm not an expert here, but there are this who are. Find them and read their stuff.
* I'm not sure whether this is implicit in your question, but **student grades** should definitely factor in. Not just the final grades... grades from assignments, labs, tests, etc. Effective teaching will definitely be visible in effective knowledge transfer. Obviously there are lots of confounds here—assignment difficulty, self-study, bad students, the material being taught—but generally speaking, more effective teachers will be transferring knowledge better than ineffective ones.
Upvotes: 0
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<issue_start>username_0: I graduated with a Ph.D. in Physics (specialized in studying protein dynamics via laser light and coherent X-rays) from a U.S. university in May 2014. However, could not continue with research/post-doc due to a medical condition with my infant child. We had to move to a different state for his medical treatment. Over there I did not have any contacts to secure even a post-doc position and ended up as a part-time community college instructor for more than two years.
Now my child is okay, and I want to continue my research, but when I submit my CV to research positions, no one seems to care about it. My Ph.D. supervisor has no funding, so no hope there. As a result, I was thinking of doing a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering specializing in biophotonics and/or optical radiology. Is this possible ? Will graduate schools in U.S. accept my application since I already have a Ph.D. in Physics ?
Hopefully, someone can shed some light on my concern.
Thank you in advance!<issue_comment>username_1: The time you will spend in second phd will be far much greater then finding a job.
Phd will require your 3 more years minimum while job hunting might not take much time.if not in states try dubai, oman or other gulf countries where you can have your free medicle, free accomodation, free air travel and other facilities along woth awesome salaries.
In my opinion second phd doesnt add any experience to your skills as you have done one already you know the research work. Just pay attention to job hunting.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: A second Ph.D. is generally a bad idea, [as noted elsewhere in other answers](https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/17232/22733).
Instead, there are several other paths that you can pursue to get back into research, depending on your goals. The main ones that I would think of are: getting a postdoc, joining a lab as research staff, or joining an industrial lab. All of these will lead you back into research in some form or other, thought probably not your same line of research that you were working on in your Ph.D.
You've got a gap on your CV, but not an unusually large one, so I don't think that needs to be a major barrier. More concerning is the fact that you don't seem to have a professional network: the thing that you want from your old advisor is not for them to hire you, but for them to connect you with other different professors or industrial folks who might be interested in hiring you. Going to conferences in your field is another good opportunity for networking, but it will be more effective if you can get help from your advisor or other professors who you have gotten to know during your doctoral program.
Upvotes: 3
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<issue_start>username_0: My question is similar to this - [Rude to ask a book chapter](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/15413/is-it-rude-to-request-a-book-chapter-from-the-academic-who-wrote-it-if-you-dont?rq=1).
I have bought the first of two parts of a research monograph. The second part is even more expensive (around $150) and in my currency it is prohibitively expensive. I do not know the professor and he does not know me either. On the other hand it is possible we may collaborate in the future as we are in the same field. Is it appropriate to send him an email and ask him for a discount on his book? Would it harm a professional relationship later on in my career?<issue_comment>username_1: I don't think it is rude to ask for the preprint of the book. In fact, many authors publish the preprint for books on arxiv(I can give examples of this). However, the rudeness depends on the culture and has many dependencies. Finally, you can use [Libgen](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_Genesis) for downloading/uploading books, and many authors put their book also here, although they would not admit it.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: Authors usually don't and cannot sell directly copies of their books, and the price is decided by the publisher.
Of course, an author has their draft copy in electronic format, but they might not even have the final electronic version as published. Authors typically receive a few courtesy copies of their books, but they have no access to other copies for free.
My suggestion however is to borrow the book from your university library: that's what library are for, after all.
If the library doesn't have a copy, depending on your position, you can:
1. Suggest the library to buy a copy. Many university libraries buy books according to the suggestions of their faculties: if you cannot do this directly, probably your adviser can.
2. Ask your library if they can loan it from another library. In many countries there is a system of interlibrary loans, and sometimes it works even across different countries.
Upvotes: 7 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: I was in same situation and found that the author was on research gate. I message him about my financial constraints and politely asked for favor to which he replied with the copy of whole book.
I think you can also ask him, as they are well aware of student problems and might help you out. In case of refusal thank him and understand his position.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: As username_2 said, authors don't directly decide the prices on their books. The publisher does, and authors have no direct control over that price (it's possible an author can negotiate the price before signing the contract, however).
That said, you can ask the professor anyway to help you acquire a (relatively) cheap copy of the book. Here're some ways he can do it:
* He could give you an earlier version. Depending on how much earlier it is, the text could be largely the same. The danger of this is that, the preprint probably won't be in printed form, and if he gives you an electronic copy then he could also damage sales of his book. Specifically asking for this could put him in a difficult spot.
* He could have some free copies left behind. Book contracts I've seen typically say the publisher will provide the author some complimentary copies of the book after it's been published. These could range from a few (~5) to a lot (~20). It's possible the professor has some left over.
* There's also a good chance that the professor will have donated some of his complimentary copies to your university's library, or your university's library will already have purchased some copies of the book (it's written by one of their academics; naturally they will buy). You can check with them.
* Finally, the professor could purchase some copies of it for cheap. Again, book contracts I've seen typically say that if you author a book for the publisher, you get to purchase both further copies of your own book as well as other books in the publisher's collection for a substantial discount (~30%).
Upvotes: 1
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<issue_start>username_0: Technically, plurals shouldn't be indicated with apostrophes.
However, in maths and computer science textbooks, I've often seen people write things like "if we combine the x's and y's" or "string A is the same as string B xor'd with string C".
Is that right? Should I adopt this convention when writing an academic paper, or is there a better way?<issue_comment>username_1: *The Cambridge guide to English usage* by <NAME> has a long discussion on the usage of the apostrophe in the case of plural nouns. For what concerns your example, under the section *Apostrophes*, it says:
>
> Single letter in lower case still usually mark the plural with apostrophes, as in *Dot the i's and cross the t's*
>
>
>
The purpose is that of highlighting that you have the plural of a word composed of a single letter. However, under the section *Letters as words* there is the following remark:
>
> Yet even the apostrophe is unnecessary if italics are used and the plural *s* itself is in roman.
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>
>
Though the above remark is probably meant for ordinary text, in mathematics variables are commonly typeset in italics, and I think that the above remark can be applied as well.
According to the above, I'd say that the apostrophes in your first example cannot be considered wrong, but they are actually unnecessary.
In LaTeX, I'd then write
your first example as
```
if we combine the $x$s and $y$s
```
Instead, in the past tense of your second example the apostrophe marks the elision of the letter *e*, and in this case it is required: *xored* -> *xor'd*.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: The plural.
===========
Pluralization with apostrophes is relatively common as you have noticed, but some authors find it distasteful and some readers find it jarring. Still, it is widespread enough not to be viewed as erroneous, so it is up to you to form your own view on the matter. One work-around is to enclose the variable in quotes, for instance,
>
> If we combine the ‘*x*’s and the ‘*y*’s, we obtain ...
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>
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This has the disadvantage of introducing inconsistency with unpluralized variables.
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> Notice that there are many ‘*a*’s but only one *b*.
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>
A second option is simply not to use the apostrophe, but if your italic type is similar to your Roman type (or if it is merely an oblique of the Roman), then it may introduce ambiguities.
>
> Compare the many *c*s with the C-sum, *cs*.
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>
>
This can also cause problems for blind users who rely on screen readers.
Alternatively, it may be preferable to rewrite the sentence entirely.
>
> By taking each *x* in turn, we find that ...
>
>
>
---
The past (specifically the preterite) tense.
============================================
Historically, in English, **-'d** (or **-'t**) is how the preterite tense was spelt on all (regular) weak Germanic verbs, with the use of **-ed** (sometimes **-èd** in older works) only a relatively recent phenomenon. (It is logical, since we only pronounce the ‘d’ anyway, and using -*ed* leads to confusion, between words such as [learned](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/learned#Adjective) and [learned](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/learned#Verb).)
For instance if you read any Shakespeare, you will see he preferred to use **-'d**.
>
> What's in a name? That which we call a rose
>
> By any other word would smell as sweet;
>
> So Romeo would, were he not Romeo **call'd**,
>
> Retain that dear perfection which he owes
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> Without that title.
>
>
>
As you say, it remains relatively common in modern English where an author has taken a noun, formed it into a verb, and then rendered it into the preterite tense.
>
> The bottleneck was where he `pop`'d the variable off the stack.
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>
>
If we wanted to write this with **-ed**, we would have to spell it as `pop`ped (as `pop`ed is pronounced like *pope'd*). But the assembly instruction is `pop`, not `popp`, so this could lead to ambiguity or confusion.
Upvotes: 3
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<issue_start>username_0: My school policy for PhDs does not require any publications, but it's good to publish anyway. Recently my advisor asked me to write a journal paper, but I have more experiments to focus on.
Should I refuse him or just put my work on hold for a while? Personally I want to publish, but this time I am really not in position to write quality paper as I need focus on my work to finish my PhD on time.<issue_comment>username_1: You should sit down and have a talk with your adviser about this. It's your responsibility to ensure you're going to graduate on time. It's also important for you to publish your work. Publishing is an important part of research and getting a PhD is learning how to do research.
How a frank discussion with your adviser about the time restrictions you have and how to balance both commitments.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Publishing journals is an important part of being a PhD student and researcher. A PhD without publication would be detrimental for your career even is it is considered to be optional by your institution.
You can't be to sure when your ongoing project will come to completion. Research results are better published as soon as they are obtained. Your advisor knows this fact. Your ought to follow your advisor's induction in this aspect. In fact, it would be even better to discuss this issue with your advisor to come to a consensus.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: I suspect that the time you invest in writing any papers now will be *mostly* paid back because it will make it much easier to write your dissertation.
I published several papers during my PhD research, and am currently writing my dissertation. My first step was to copy the introduction from each paper into my literature review chapter, and put the body of each paper into a separate chapter of my thesis. Of course, I have to write segues and reorganise the information a bit, but that gave me a *big* head start on the dissertation. Of course, you'll need to check that the copyright agreement you sign with the publisher allows you to include content from your paper in your PhD dissertation (most do), and also verify that your institution allows this as well.
Another tip: If you write a paper, hang onto any material that you cut out to meet space requirements. You may want to include that material in your thesis.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_4: You should also ask yourself whether your advisor might know better than you on this one.
Assuming they're an experienced researcher, someone you're looking to as you learn to be a researcher yourself, and someone who is familiar with your abilities and what you're doing, they've probably suggested this to you for a good reason.
If any of the above assumptions about your advisor *aren't* true, you might have broader issues than just this publication.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: Investing that time now will pay off in the long run. When you eventually come to write your thesis, and indeed defend your thesis, you will know that a considerable portion of this has already undergone the peer review process and has been scrutinised in detail.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_6: If you're absolutely sure the extra experiments are necessary for a good paper, write a sketch of that good paper and pitch it to your advisor. If you can see it, surely s/he can as well. Or s/he might change your view of things.
However... even if the PhD program does not require publications, as other answers suggest they're pretty important, so may be you should have written the paper even earlier, and your reservation is more appropriate for your *second* paper.
Upvotes: 1
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<issue_start>username_0: I'm not sure if this question would be more appropriate here or on SO. My hope is that someone has already had this need and found a solution.
Periodically, I search for a specific research topic on arXiv. Unfortunately it doesn't correspond to a specific arXiv subject: papers of interest can be found under very different subjects, since it's somewhat multidisciplinary. Currently, arXiv only supports sending periodic emails concerning either an entire archive, or one or more subjects inside an archive. There's no way I know of to receive only the results of a specific keyword search. However, I've heard of someone who has been able to get that, but I couldn't get them to explain me what they did.
Have you ever had this need? Did you find a solution?<issue_comment>username_1: You should sit down and have a talk with your adviser about this. It's your responsibility to ensure you're going to graduate on time. It's also important for you to publish your work. Publishing is an important part of research and getting a PhD is learning how to do research.
How a frank discussion with your adviser about the time restrictions you have and how to balance both commitments.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Publishing journals is an important part of being a PhD student and researcher. A PhD without publication would be detrimental for your career even is it is considered to be optional by your institution.
You can't be to sure when your ongoing project will come to completion. Research results are better published as soon as they are obtained. Your advisor knows this fact. Your ought to follow your advisor's induction in this aspect. In fact, it would be even better to discuss this issue with your advisor to come to a consensus.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: I suspect that the time you invest in writing any papers now will be *mostly* paid back because it will make it much easier to write your dissertation.
I published several papers during my PhD research, and am currently writing my dissertation. My first step was to copy the introduction from each paper into my literature review chapter, and put the body of each paper into a separate chapter of my thesis. Of course, I have to write segues and reorganise the information a bit, but that gave me a *big* head start on the dissertation. Of course, you'll need to check that the copyright agreement you sign with the publisher allows you to include content from your paper in your PhD dissertation (most do), and also verify that your institution allows this as well.
Another tip: If you write a paper, hang onto any material that you cut out to meet space requirements. You may want to include that material in your thesis.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_4: You should also ask yourself whether your advisor might know better than you on this one.
Assuming they're an experienced researcher, someone you're looking to as you learn to be a researcher yourself, and someone who is familiar with your abilities and what you're doing, they've probably suggested this to you for a good reason.
If any of the above assumptions about your advisor *aren't* true, you might have broader issues than just this publication.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: Investing that time now will pay off in the long run. When you eventually come to write your thesis, and indeed defend your thesis, you will know that a considerable portion of this has already undergone the peer review process and has been scrutinised in detail.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_6: If you're absolutely sure the extra experiments are necessary for a good paper, write a sketch of that good paper and pitch it to your advisor. If you can see it, surely s/he can as well. Or s/he might change your view of things.
However... even if the PhD program does not require publications, as other answers suggest they're pretty important, so may be you should have written the paper even earlier, and your reservation is more appropriate for your *second* paper.
Upvotes: 1
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<issue_start>username_0: In a modeling paper I am writing, I know that there are some limitations.
Is it a bad idea to point out the limitations? Am I just giving the reviewers more straw for them to reject my paper?<issue_comment>username_1: Science is not about getting papers published; it's about writing papers that move a field forward. So don't let worries about reviewers prevent you from adding content that you feel should be there. Indeed, modeling papers that hide their limitations are much less effective at advancing a field than those that clearly explain them.
Good reviewers recognize this and often look in the Discussion for a clear exposition of the model's limitations as well as its strengths. That said, to be worth anything a model must make useful contributions despite these limitations, and it's your job to explain how your model does that.
Upvotes: 7 <issue_comment>username_2: Personally, as both and author and a reviewer, I strongly prefer papers that are clear and honest about their limitations. I typically see good declarations of this sort take one of several forms:
* The results are limited to a specific class of cases, but those cases are quite interesting and important.
* The results are limited, but they are still a major improvement over the prior state of the art.
* The results are limited, but the work needed for necessary extensions to broader coverage is clear and unlikely to pose major scientific obstacles.
Clearly, if you are submitting a manuscript, you believe your work is interesting and valuable despite its known limitations. Explicitly stating those limitations gives you a chance to make that case for value clearly and directly.
If, on the other hand, you attempt to hide your limitations, many reviewers may notice them in any case, and may hold them more harshly against you.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: I would like to add to the other answers by looking at this issue from another perspective. Sure,if the reviewer realizes you left out certain parts on purpose, he might have a hard time trusting your honesty on other parts of the paper (making the review process more difficult).
However, even with the premise that you did not leave out these parts ***on purpose***, failing to see and mention relatively obvious limitations of your work can give the impression of inaccuracy and oversight in your research. Naturally, this can create doubts about the accuracy of other sections of the paper.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: From my experience reading chemical literature, there is nothing more suspicious to my eyes than a paper which contains nothing but a recipe and a few successful results. That works if you are going to bake cookies, but chemical syntheses of that caliber are always a gamble.
Any really good scientific paper will discuss not only what succeeded, but also what failed, and why. There is absolutely no requirement that papers be written as if you were trying to sell something and therefore only contain positive points. The really good chemical journals (e.g. Organic Syntheses) will contain discussion of any pitfalls or possible failure points as well as discussion of potential hazards, etc. - and that's what sets them apart from other less reputable sources!
I would rather have a 15-page review that exhaustively covers the mechanism of some exotic chemical transformation - rather than a two-paragraph paper which frankly could have been written on the back of a napkin at lunchtime.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_5: Pointing out the weaknesses will definitely make the paper higher quality and more useful.
It may make it either more or less likely to be published. That's definitely something to consider even if you are altruistic - the paper isn't going to help many people if it's not published. But all things considered I'd say including the caveats will make it more likely to be published.
If the reviewer realizes the limitations himself, and they are significant and worthy of mention, their omission would make the writing appear either clueless, negligent or dishonest.
If the reviewer doesn't realize them himself, their inclusion would still give the paper more credibility, make it clearer and better framed, and give the sense that you know what you're talking about; and the paper would still be worthwhile for the results it does have. Omitting the limitations could make the paper seem "too good to be true" and make the reviewer wonder what he's missing.
And there's the remote chance that the reviewer would buy into a paper that appears to have fantastic results, and reject it if he is hinted the results are a bit more mundane. Such a reviewer is probably gullible and uninformed about what makes a good paper, and it's a bad habit to assume your reviewers will be such.
So, however you look at it, **mentioning the weaknesses is definitely the way to go**. You shouldn't overplay it though, it is expected that you will be mostly positive about the paper and not go out of your way to discredit it. No need to write "Ultimately, the analysis in this paper is totally useless, because the model makes assumptions X, Y and Z which are completely unrealistic."
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_6: **Write about them**
It is not about selling a product but adding knowledge to the community. Especially in science, knowing its *errors* and *limitations* is a **crucial** part of every result you provide.
Every (good) reviewer knows that.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_7: You must include all of the parameters in which your model operates including any that you don't understand or have a possible confounding effect.
This is science. To not include them is evangelism.
Including the limits and known issues of your work shows that you have thought the subject through and still consider your work to add to the topic. To NOT include limits will force reviewers to do this work for you and they will not be appreciative.
There is nothing wrong in noting the edges of your work. Science is the exploration of things we don't know. If we knew them there would not be limitations and you wouldn't be writing about them.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_8: Finding a useful model is craft, art, and skill. Very important, quite valuable, not science. How and what this model fits and when it stops fitting for what reason: that's science.
You are contemplating omitting the one thing that makes your paper worthwhile as a paper. "I thought I'd do it this and that way, and it worked." is not an academic paper but a lab report. It provides no insight.
If you are handing in a lab report and skip the science, you may or may not get your paper accepted. But then others will get the credit for actually working out the science, and it will be to your detriment.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_9: High moral standards & selfless service to the greater good of humanity aside, there is still a very good *selfish* reason for pointing out the limitations of your work: if you do it yourself, you can then discuss it on your terms right there, whereas if reviewers find it, you couldn't. What I mean is something like "My method has such and such limitations, BUT it's still good, because
* There are still many important cases where it DOES work...
* ... or it covers a few cases not covered by any existing methods
* It may be possible to overcome some of the limitations in our future works
* It looks promising because of blah-blah-blah
* Etc."
In every research paper I've read (or written), there was a "Discussion/Limitations" section, composed more or less like that. If you don't write it yourself, a reviewer would kindly do that for you, although it would probably look more like "the proposed method seems to have such and such limitations, whether it's still good I have no time to research - *reject*."
Furthermore, unless your field is completely new and revolutionary, a typical reviewer has already read tons of papers on the subject, has probably done some research of his/her own, and knows quite well what are the typical problems and difficult cases - they expect you to know and discuss them, including *inevitable* failures of your approach with some of them. If they don't see such discussion in your paper, it gives them impression of you being incompetent, or dishonest, or both.
Upvotes: 1
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<issue_start>username_0: Are there books/writing on project management as applied to scientific research (for PhD students and higher)?
I am looking for something synonymous to <NAME>'s "Making Things Happen", which was written for software developers.
Other interesting and useful practices I am familiar with include Agile and Extreme Programming. Maybe I am looking for sources on comparing research process to product development.
Just to be clear, this is not question about software, but about practices.<issue_comment>username_1: A while ago I read a paper [1] about SCORE, an agile method for managing research groups. I have not really tried to apply it at my research group, but we had good experience with using Scrum for the software development aspects of our research projects.
[1] <NAME> and <NAME>, “SCORE: agile research group management,” Commun. ACM, vol. 53, no. 10, pp. 30–31, Oct. 2010. <http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1831407.1831421>
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: A number of things spring to mind. The first is communication of goals and time lines, and I'd just point to Gantt and PERT charts. Each has advantages and disadvantages, but the key is to make sure that everyone knows and understands what needs to be done, when it needs to be done by, and who is responsible for what.
The second is the amorphous management trees that come up in research environments. A great discussion and treatment of this is in Project Management, by Heerkens -- [https://www.amazon.com/Project-Management-Second-Briefcase-Books/dp/0071818480](http://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/0071818480). It doesn't speak to research, but projects in general, and a project is a project. I really like his treatment of the "accidental manager", where you find yourself in a position of responsibility managing people who you have no real control or influence over.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: A free book full of useful insights for coordinating research within teams is ["Enhancing the Effectiveness of Team Science"](https://www.nap.edu/catalog/19007/enhancing-the-effectiveness-of-team-science) (2013).
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: It is not project management exactly but more general you can read "Getting Things Done" by <NAME>.
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: Context: I am a PhD student in mathematics currently applying for tenure-track positions at small colleges throughout the US.
In general, most openings I've seen are asking for what they've termed a "Teaching Statement," while the remainder ask for a "Teaching Philosophy." Is there a difference between these two documents? If so, what is it?
I've posed this question to a wide variety of people (colleagues, panels, etc.), and they can't seem to arrive at a consensus. Some say that there is no difference whatsoever, whereas others say that a statement is supposed to be much more concrete and give more specifics than a philosophy.
I realize that this question was already addressed in some of the answers to [this question](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23429/how-to-write-a-teaching-statement-without-any-classroom-teaching-experience), but I'd like to hear a little bit more detail, if possible.<issue_comment>username_1: One of the confusing aspects of the various fields of academics is that within one field there can be many terms that essentially mean the same thing. People may try to state that there is a difference but normally the differences are so minor that it is essentially hair-splitting.
The difference between a "teaching philosophy" and "teaching statement" is basically the second word used in both terms. If there is more difference then this it is so nuanced that the average person would fail to notice.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: There are two ways to describe your attitude to the teaching: to tell what you think should be right and why (a very dangerous thing for a recent postdoc to do on a job market, by the way) and just to list your formal experience and methods to deal with common classroom problems (how to motivate the students, what amount of workload to put on them, etc.). In normal world the first would be called "teaching philosophy", and the second "teaching statement", but in reality administrators just use whatever word sounds nicer to them. So, do not pay any attention whatsoever to the wording, but rather think if you have a friend out there who could tell you what exactly is expected (a small liberal art college would have a very different way to evaluate your teaching statement/philosophy than a big research university and there are plenty of "shades of gray" in between).
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: They both are definitely different.
Teaching Statement consists of:
1. Statement of Teaching Interests. (Don't reproduce your CV)
1.1 Some history of your teaching
1.2 Institutions taught in, along with Courses
1.3 What do you love teaching?
etc., etc.
2. Statement of Teaching Philosophy. (Don't reproduce your CV)
1.1 What do you think should be outcomes of your teaching?
1.2 What teaching methodology do you use? Pedagogy, means "leading children" or Andragogy means "leader of adult men". etc.
1.2 What technologies - OHP, Slides projector, Computer hardware and software; Conventional Blackboards, white boards or An interactive whiteboard (IWB) or Smart board?
etc., etc.
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: I'm a statistics student at the undergraduate level, writing an undergraduate thesis about genetics. I already have the objectives well defined and I will write the introduction lined with those objectives.
I found a text in a website with authors name and publication date that would be nice to put in my introduction. Is a bad thing start an introduction with a citation?
**EDIT:** Is a direct quote.<issue_comment>username_1: While I am not aware of any hard and fast rule against it, I would find it off-putting to read a scientific document that started its prose with a direct quote. There are just so many ways to start with one's own words that it feels lazy and lacking in self-confidence to me to use another's words for the first impression of a reader.
Note, however, that I am speaking of using a quotation as the first piece of one's prose, as distinct from the practice of putting a separated "thematic" quotation at the start of a document of chapter. I see this somewhat more often, and though I find it a bit "cute" in scientific work, I don't have a problem with it the way I would if somebody starts their prose with a quotation.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: I generally am not crazy about starting anything with a direct quote unless it absolutely adds value. It's easy when you use this particular trope to just use a quote for the sake of using a quote, and often it comes off as cheesy. In the context of a scientific paper I would probably shy away from doing this, unless you have some sort of reason that you want to "lighten up" your content. Honestly, I really only have found it to be done tastefully with fiction.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: It depends a lot on the purpose of the quote. If it is there to replace your own explanations and thoughts, then it is bad. However, a short quote from a respected source that emphasizes the importance or the difficulty of the problem discussed in the thesis can look way more convincing than any of your own blah-blah-blah in this respect, especially if you have something to say about the problem later that other people could not. In general, use your own words when speaking about the nitty-gritty of what you do, but refer to other people opinions, if you can, when you discuss the meta-issues like why it is worth doing, etc. In the first case, excessive quotations create an impression that you are just parroting somebody else's work, and in the second case absence of any appeal to the external opinion may make you look like if you are desperately trying to sell something no one else cares about, especially if you use a lot of standard buzzwords (another thing I would rather abstain from unless they are a part of a direct quote).
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: The introduction of any document should provide the readers the importance and necessity of this work. If the quote is relevant to the importance you can use it by a presentence of yourself.
Overally speaking the direct quote in academics is not generally acceptable with an exception for pioneers of that field.
You can use an implication of this qoute and write in your language with a citation to the original document.
Upvotes: 0
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<issue_start>username_0: I am taking an Introduction to Differential Equations class. There is assigned homework. It is specified that we must turn it in on paper.
Is it wrong or odd to use LaTeX and turn it in as computer generated instead of handwritten? I am in fact using a computer to do the assignment so it would be extra work to write it on paper.<issue_comment>username_1: I've seen it done by some students at Utrecht University, while I was a fellow student, and as Master/PhD teaching assistent. I think this was never frowned upon, and personally I'd have a slight preference even for LateX-ed homework, because it is guaranteed to be legible (although I've also seen homework that was poorly LaTeX typeset).
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: It's pretty hard to imagine any instructor being upset because your submission wasn't handwritten, especially if you're using online submissions as PDFs. Pencil doesn't always scan very well and the cellphone-to-PDF images are worse. I teach EE and I warn my students that if I can't read it, I'm not grading it and I'm not asking a grader to do it, either.
LaTeX is one way to do it but most of my students now type their work (for me and for other instructors) in Microsoft Word using the built-in equation editor. A small number are using the MathType addin (which can generate LaTeX). All of our lab instruments are networked, so if they need an oscilloscope screenshot, they just copy and paste from their browser. If they need a graph or a table analyzing their results, they do it in Excel or Matlab. If they need a schematic, they draw it in SPICE or Multisim. Handwritten submissions are disappearing.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: LaTeX is good. No one will object.
Since the industry standard in math is currently some dialect of TeX for producing PDFs, there's certainly no harm in learning how to do this, or in doing it.
Indeed, for upper-division math, certainly for graduate-level math, and absolutely for professional academic math, do not try to get by with whatever kludges "Word" offers. It just does not work as well (at least for the time being... who knows what the future holds?)
Even if one might reasonably claim that details of formatting don't matter too much to actual mathematics... first, they kinda do affect readibility... second, deviation from current standards both impedes readibility and makes one look like an outsider.
In particular, I'd think your instructors would surely tolerate "Word" documents from lower-division undergrads, at some point they'd recommend switching to (La)TeX. To get one's foot in the door, a certain amount of conformity can be helpful, as otherwise-meaningless as it may be.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: To contrast with the apparent consensus; I was a math teacher at a university in the US for several years. Periodically I would have someone turn in their homework in LaTeX. This sounds good, except about half the time they didn't really know how to write LaTeX, so there were a lot of using words in math mode, not knowing the appropriate symbols, jot formatting properly, and so on. Those students' work was very hard to read and I would much prefer to have gotten handwritten assignments from them, even though their handwriting was pretty terrible.
So I would say, if you're good at LaTeX, great! Go for it. Almost certainly the teacher only asked for paper to save the trouble of printing them out - grading is easier with a paper copy. If you're bad at LaTeX, learn it on the side if you like, but handwrite your assignments.
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: Prof. A and I were working on a proposal which we intended to submit to a current call. Upon learning from my ex-supervisor Prof. B that she was also preparing a similar proposal to submit to the same call, I told Prof. A about it, and he suggested that we submit to another call, whose deadline is about two months later. Recently, however, Prof. B invited me to join her team for the current call.
I am considering the following scenarios:
1. I decline Prof. B's invitation. What should I do in this case? I think I should let her know that I have been working with Prof. A on a similar proposal but planning to submit to a future call. Is this the right thing to do? How do I decline Prof. B's invitation without disappointing her?
2. I accept Prof. B's invitation and do not continue my plan with Prof. A. Under what circumstances can this be justified?
3. I join both teams. Under what circumstances can this be justified?<issue_comment>username_1: Whatever you do, both Professors A and B will certainly find out. So why not just ask them now how they feel about this dilemma? Perhaps you could even get them into the same room for a discussion. You obviously like them both and would like to work with both. Now you're simply trying to do right by both of them. Who knows. Unless A and B don't like each other, maybe there's a fourth option where all 3 of you work together.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: There is no unique right answer as to what course of action to take in any but the most trivial moral dilemma even if all circumstances is fully known (which, as the story with the previous answer shows, is not even the case). So, you are technically free to do whatever you want, provided that you keep open and honest with all parties involved about your decisions and take into account their concerns as much as your own principles and circumstances allow you to.
The only thing you certainly should do is to tell A about the invitation from B and discuss the situation because you clearly caused his decision to postpone the application by having told the previous story, so now you are sort of responsible for that flow of events. On the other hand, you have no formal responsibility towards B: she hasn't changed any of her initial intentions because of your actions or words, and an offer to join is just an offer to join: you always have a right to decline politely and if somebody gets grumpy over it, it is her problem, not yours.
Upvotes: 1
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<issue_start>username_0: Some universities do not publish the list of persons who obtained a degree from their institution. In order to verify whether an individual obtained a degree there, one needs to call them, for instance.
[Example](http://www.harvard.edu/about-harvard/frequently-asked-questions/faq-verify-degree):
>
> Contact the Registrar's Office of the appropriate school to request degree certification or enrollment verification.
>
>
>
Why do some universities not publish the list of persons who obtained a degree from their institution? Among other advantages, this would allow to check claim of degrees more easily.<issue_comment>username_1: Scumbags like me could include that information when I calculate a mortgage or credit card interest rate.
That's not a huge deal except I could implicitly include race in those calculations, because, for example, most people who go to a historically black college are black. And it'd be easy to hide behind a mathematical model by saying, "that's the model that reduces the sum of squared errors, not me breaking the law."
So universities shouldn't make that data easy for anyone to access.
(Disclosure: I wouldn't do this but I could easily see someone else doing it.)
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: This would generate a false sense of security and potentially violate students' privacy and would be controlled by data protection (so they would need to opt in).
The way you verify whether someone has obtained a degree from an institution is to look at a hard copy of their certificate and/or transcript or verified electronic equivalent.
If you have questions then you ask the university's registrar.
A list of names on a website is just a list of names. What if a student's name changed because they got married? Or what if I changed my name so I suddenly got a degree from Oxford? Also, I'd be pretty unhappy if my name was up on a website somewhere saying I got a 3rd from some second rate institution.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: Because a list of names is almost useless for verification. I'm very probably the only username_3 in the world, but there were two <NAME>s in my cohort of about 150 at university; there are about 290,000 Wei Zhangs in China, and another 280,000 Wei Wangs; or try to figure out how many different Xi Chens are presented as one person in the [DBLP](http://dblp.uni-trier.de/pers/hd/c/Chen:Xi) computer science bibliography. I've never changed my name, but a large proportion of people in the west do (most of them are called "married women"). I would never change my name to agree with the name on some university's degree list, but some people would (even though it would be fraud).
And, if you give more identifying information than names, there are huge privacy issues.
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: Is there any specific rule that requires someone supervising and awarding a Ph.D. to have a Ph.D. themselves? I learned recently in some parts of Asia it is possible to have a Masters degree and award a Ph.D. One point made was, in the example of Korea, there was no education system and as such it was required for this to be the case at some point. This seems to have continued. Does this exist in United States or Europe as well?<issue_comment>username_1: No, there isn't any general rule.
First, a PhD degree is awarded by a university, not by an individual.
The education system of a country or the university rules usually define which positions can officially act as supervisors. The same education system or the university rules establish which titles should have a person to be eligible for those positions: if the PhD is not required, which is not uncommon, there can certainly be PhD supervisors without a PhD.
Another case is the following: in Italy the PhD degree has been established some thirty-odd years ago. This means that most of those who became professors in Italy before that time don't have a PhD (as Federico rightly observes, some might have taken it abroad), but they surely can supervise students officially.
Upvotes: 7 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Different systems are in place in different universities and countries to govern who can formally supervise PhD dissertations. This is sometimes called *promotion rights*. There are, as far as I know, two ways how one can conventionally acquire promotion rights:
* Due to holding a position that grants promotion rights, such as being a Full Professor in Germany, being an Assistant, Associate, or Full Professor in Switzerland or the United States, or being a faculty member on any level (I think?) in the UK. Note that, in some cases, promotion rights can also be negotiated even if the position *per se* does not grant them. I know a case in Austria of an Assistant Professor who negotiated promotion rights as part of his job package when accepting his post, even though Assistant Profs. typically do *not* have promotion rights at this university.
* Due to having habilitation or whatever the national equivalent is. This seems to be a bit of a historical residue primarily in central and northern Europe (e.g., Austria, Germany, Sweden, ...). Habilitation can be earned not unlike getting a PhD degree (with a thesis and a public defense), and pretty much by definition grants the holder not the job of a professor, but all the "rights" associated with being one (primarily advising graduate students and teaching courses and giving lectures). Historically, to become a professor in countries that had habilitation one was expected to get habilitation first. This is not necessarily the case anymore, but habilitation still exists. A person that has habilitation but no professor position is, in German, called a "Privatdozent" (private teacher). Such a person is able to advise PhD students, but without close collaboration with somebody within the university, the formal proceedings are cumbersome for all involved.
Note that both versions not necessarily require a PhD (one could for instance be appointed Full Professor without a doctorate, and there are indeed disciplines and cases where this happens). However, in practice, you can assume that all typical and realistic career paths that lead to promotion rights include doing a PhD yourself first.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: I'll speak from my experience in research in France and in Canada.
As pointed out in other answers, the supervisor do not award the diploma themselves, it is the university that does, and it only happens after a comittee made of different people decide that the thesis and defence are worth a PhD. So, there are two goups of people whose diploma we can consider here: the supervisor(s) and the comittee.
Supervisors: it is fairly common to have more than one spervisor, officially or not. The official supervisor has to comply with official rules: in France, they need a PhD + a "HDR" (*habilitation à diriger des recherches* = authorization to supervise research, which you obtain with yet another thesis); in Canada, I think you need to have a PhD + be a professor. On the other hand, the daily supervisor (the one that interacts the most with the student) may be this official supervisor, but they may be someone else, and in this case I don't think there is any official rule, as I've seen professors, postdocs, or people with Masters having this role.
Comittee: the composition of the comittee depends on the countries and on the universities, but I'm fairly certain you need PhDs for at least part of the comittee members. In France for example, you need to follow strict rules with a certain number of professors, a certain number of people from outside you university, etc.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: The Swedish mathematician [<NAME>](https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan-Erik_Roos) never completed a PhD thesis. He has advised [several students](https://www.genealogy.math.ndsu.nodak.edu/id.php?id=20546).
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: [<NAME>](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Casson), a renowned geometric topologist, never received his PhD. And the institutions where he worked have (gladly, and proudly, I suspect) bestowed degrees on his PhD students.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_6: >
> Are there rules dictating that a Ph.D. supervisor must have a Ph.D.?
>
>
>
Yes, there are rules, at least occasionally. I am aware of one Australian university which requires supervisors to have a PhD "or equivalent" qualification. These rules are not available to the public.
Most universities do not have these rules, as the other answers mention.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_7: Echoing answers already provided: no, that necessarily isn't the case (at least in North America -- I cannot speak for Europe). In clinical research and experimental medicine, for example, it is not uncommon to see an MD supervising a PhD student or even a Post-Doc. Examples of a similar nature may exist in other fields.
Upvotes: 1
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<issue_start>username_0: I'm working on my bachelor's thesis to get my bachelor's degree at a German university. I am not sure about the situation in other countries, but German universities are very sensitive when it comes to gender-neutral language. Some professors mark it as a mistake if you use gender-specific terms instead of gender-neutral ones. For example, instead of *Studenten* (students) you are expected to write *Studentinnen und Studenten* (i.e. naming both female and male students specifically) or *Studierende* (the participle form of *studieren* (studying)).
While I don't want to be sexist, most variants of gender-neutral language in German are (in my opinion) verbose, disturb the text flow and make the text harder to read. This is why I want to put a disclaimer in the introduction of my thesis stating that I will **not** use gender-neutral language for the reasons mentioned above.
Here's what I want to put in that disclaimer:
* Throughout the thesis, gender-specific terms *may* be used in order to ease the text flow.
* Whenever a gender-specific term is used, it should be understood as referring to both genders, unless explicitly stated.
* This is done solely for the purpose of making the text easier to read, and no offense or sexism is intended.
Is such a disclaimer generally acceptable in a bachelor's thesis (or any scientific text)? If so, are the three points stated above both adequate and thorough to state my intention, or what should I add/remove? If not, how can I go about not using gender-neutral language without having it possibly be regarded as sexism or influence my grade?
If you can give any examples of a disclaimer like that (either in German or in English), it would be helpful as well (but not required for a satisfactory answer). Thanks!<issue_comment>username_1: The preface to the book
>
> <NAME>., <NAME>.: **Software Engineering - Grundlage, Menschen, Prozesse, Techniken**. dpunkt Verlag, 2007.
>
>
>
can serve as an example. On pages vii and viii, it contains a section dealing with the issues, from which I'd like to cite the most important parts:
>
> **Rollenbezeichnungen**
>
>
> Auch in diesem Buch bleibt das Problem ungelöst, eine befriedigende Form der Rollenbezeichnungen zu finden, die nicht suggeriert, dass die Person in dieser Rolle ein männliches (oder weibliches) Wesen ist. (...) Wir gehen den üblichen Weg, alle Rollenbezeichnungen in ihrer Grundform zu verwenden, und das heißt, da wir nicht von Hebammen und Krankenschwestern reden, in ihrer männlichen Form. Es dürfte überflüssig sein, darauf hinzuweisen, dass es nach unserer Kenntnis keine einzige Rolle auf dem Gebiet des Software Engineerings gibt, die vorzugsweise oder ausschließlich mit Männern oder mit Frauen besetzt sein sollte. (...)
>
>
>
In English:
>
> **Role Designations**
>
>
> The issue of finding a satisfactory form of role designations, which do not suggest that a person occupying a role is a male (or a female) being, remains unsolved here, like in other books. (...) We take the conventional route of using the basic form for all role designations. As we are not talking about midwives and nurses1, this means, in their male form. It is probably unnecessary to point out that, to our knowledge, not a single role in the area of software engineering should preferably, or exclusively, be occupied by men or by women. (...)
>
>
>
1: Remark by translator: A common German word for *nurse*, *Krankenschwester* (literally: *sister of/for the sick*) suggests a female, comparably to the term *midwife*.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: I am going to respond to various parts of your question step by step.
For those unfamiliar with German, I am going to add a brief description of the gender-neutrality issue at the end of this answer, because things are quite a bit more complex in German than in English.
>
> German universities are very sensitive when it comes to gender-neutral language. Some professors mark it as a mistake if you use gender-specific terms instead of gender-neutral ones.
>
>
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I am not convinced that statement is true for German universities in general, especially as there still is no single true agreed-upon consensus on what *is* a good way to navigate around the issues. Much rather than that, I can imagine that certain professors make it a point to enforce gender-neutral language (just like I could imagine some other professors to make it a point to enforce what they perceive as stylistically and grammatically correct language, even though it is in turn not considered gender-neutral by all).
>
> While I don't want to be sexist, most variants of gender-neutral language in German are (in my opinion) verbose, disturb the text flow and make the text harder to read.
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While in your Bachelor thesis, your stance on this issue carries little weight, this is by far not a rare opinion, and exactly one of the reasons why some people (including professors, see my paragraph above) vehemently oppose some variants of gender-neutral language.
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> This is why I want to put a disclaimer in the introduction of my thesis stating that I will not use gender-neutral language for the reasons mentioned above.
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In my opinion, a disclaimer is a good idea, as it kind-of puts you on the safe side by making your intentions explicit. In fact, I would see the following benefits:
* It gives you some freedom to pick the style you'd like to write in.
* It might satisfy even some of the readers who would personally have chosen a different writing style.
* The mere existence of the disclaimer shows you care about the document as a whole, not only the specific technical aspects of your Bachelor project.
* It defines something that will be used later. In technical subjects, or at least subjects that are somewhat related to maths, choosing definitions in a convenient way, explaining them first, and then using them accordingly throughout the document, is a **good practice**.
Now, there is no guarantee these points will be picked up positively, but at least, there is some chances for it.
This notwithstanding, you should ask your advisor for their preferred style, if any, or check past theses (successfully) written for the same advisor.
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> Is such a disclaimer generally acceptable in a bachelor's thesis (or any scientific text)?
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As meanwhile shown by the other answer, yes. In fact, most things that clarify the contents are acceptable in Bachelor, Master, and Doctoral theses.
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> If so, are the three points stated above both adequate and thorough to state my intention, or what should I add/remove?
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The three points sound fine. I would indeed advise against expressing you are "not using gender-neutral language". You could try and focus on stating that some terms "can be understood in a gender-specific way".
---
**Remarks on issues with gender-neutral German**
At least according to my impression, gender-neutral language is a much more controversial topic in German than in English (for some further illustration of this, also have a look at a [related question on German SE](https://german.stackexchange.com/questions/20325/gender-neutral-singular-third-person-pronoun)):
In English, a large part of gender-neutral language is replacing exclusive uses of *he* or *his*. In German, in contrast, gender-neutral language primarily tackles any noun describing a person, because these usually come in a male and a female form, the latter of which is usually formed by adding the suffix *-in* to the male form.
This opens up two issues that make the topic so controversial in German:
* On the one hand, there is no general agreement that the male form is, in fact, not gender-neutral. It has commonly been (and still is) used when both genders were meant, and (as noted below) there often is no synonymous noun that is gender-neutral.
* On the other hand, there is no commonly agreed-upon solution for how to express things in an explicitly gender-neutral way:
+ For a start, truly gender-neutral nouns for persons are really rare in German. Replacements such as the English *steward/stewardess -> flight attendant* do not produce gender-neutral terms in German. (Curiously, the terms are someusername_4es copied from English nonetheless, so Germans have replaced *Stewards und Stewardessen* with *Flugbegleiter und Flugbegleiterinnen*.)
+ Offering both alternatives every username_4e a person is mentioned can make a text hard to read (imagine a text about *actors and actresses*, or *actors/-resses*, or *actorsResses*, and imagine that split happening for every single noun referring to a person). Hence, this variant is opposed by some native speakers.
+ There is also the suggestion of using the neutral gender for all gender-neutral nouns. (In English, this would be akin to generally referring to persons whose gender is not specified as *it*.) While this sounds logical, it can also be perceived as disrespectful, as (unless the person noun specifically calls for neutral gender) using neutral gender on a person is like treating the person like a "thing".
+ Another approach is, as mentioned in the question, using a grammatical form that is (for many words) not normally used as a noun, but that does not change by gender, and that arguably has the same meaning as the role name - the present participle. If we transfer this back to English, a sentence such as "Participants pay attention to the instructor before their conversation with the student." becomes "Participatings pay attention to the instructing before their conversation with the studying." This is opposed by some native speakers as featuring abysmal style and bordering on being ungrammatical.
Therefore, a disclaimer expressing the author's intentions can be seen as preferable compared to any of the "gender-neutral" variants, all of which are controversial and cumbersome in some way.
Upvotes: 7 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: A common approach is to alternate genders each chapter. Chapter 1 would default to female-specific terms. Chapter 2 would default to male-specific terms. Etc.
You could explain why you choose to not include both genders at every mention, and that you've chosen this alternative.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_4: Reasons against a disclaimer
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>
> If not, how can I go about not using gender-neutral language without having it possibly be regarded as sexism or influence my grade?
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>
In my opinion, a disclaimer is not going to help you here.
Either the people reading your thesis are already fine with the generic masculinum - in which case you don't need a disclaimer - or they are not.
If they are not fine with it, your disclaimer is not going to convince them that it is fine to use the generic masculinum. People who are against it already know your arguments for it, and have dismissed them. Without a disclaimer, they will not assume that when you for example speak of doctors, that you actually mean that only men can be doctors. But with a disclaimer, they may think that you thought about the problem, but came to the conclusion that you will not make an effort to not exclude women in your writing.
Either way, a disclaimer just seems like rubbing it in: "I know you would prefer it differently, but I'm not going to do that".
Improvements of your disclaimer
-------------------------------
Your first and third point are essentially the same. The third only adds that no offense is intended, which isn't really helpful, so you might as well combine your points:
>
> Throughout the thesis, gender-specific terms may be used in order to ease the text flow. Whenever a gender-specific term is used, it should be understood as referring to both genders, unless explicitly stated.
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I'd also be interested in how the explicit stating would work in practice ("männliche Ärzte"?), but that would be a different question.
Examples of disclaimers
-----------------------
If you do plan on using a disclaimer, I would just put it in a footnote, no need to draw too much attention to it. An example:
>
> Es sind stets Personen männlichen und weiblichen Geschlechts gleichermaßen gemeint; aus Gründen der
> einfacheren Lesbarkeit wird im Folgenden nur die männliche Form verwendet [source](https://www.hni.uni-paderborn.de/fileadmin/Fachgruppen/Produktentstehung/Lehre/Beispielsammlung_Deutsch_fuer_Profis.pdf)
>
>
>
Here is another example, it's placed after the content overview:
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> Aus Gründen der besseren Lesbarkeit wird auf die gleichzeitige Verwendung männlicher und
> weiblicher Sprachformen verzichtet. Sämtliche Personenbezeichnungen gelten gleichwohl für
> beiderlei Geschlecht. [source](https://www.htwk-leipzig.de/fileadmin/ordnungen/amtliche_bekanntmachungen/studien_und_pruefungs_ordnungen/Master/Medieninformatik/Neu_Pruefungsordnung_MI_MA.pdf)
>
>
>
Your arguments for the generic masculinum
-----------------------------------------
In case you are not aware of this, there have been studies regarding the readability of text without the generic masculinum, and [it doesn't seem to have a negative effect](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geschlechtergerechte_Sprache#Verst.C3.A4ndlichkeit_geschlechtergerechter_Sprache). There have also been studies showing that readers to not process generic masculinum as [referring to both genders](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generisches_Maskulinum#Geringerer_gedanklicher_Einbezug_von_Frauen).
Other solutions
---------------
Looking at your disclaimer, the generic femininum seems like an equally good solution. It doesn't disturb text flow, and it can be understood as referring to both genders. And if your professor actually does have a problem with the generic masculinum, it might be a good solution that makes you both happy.
And as you didn't mention it, there is always the gendergap (Student\_innen), gender star (Student\*innen) or binne-i (StudentInnen). They may be less disturbing to your reading flow than naming both forms separately (Studenten und Studentinnen).
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_5: A simple solution is to just use female terms throughout. Since male-default is so often used, switching everywhere will give you:
* easier to read flow of text.
* only offend people who want to be offended, and would probably have found a way anyway regardless of what option you chose.
* additionally, you won't have to worry about switching back and forth (which can be annoying, especially in editing if you move sections around).
You might not even need a preface, especially if you are not female. Using female terms throughout a text is becoming common enough (though still pretty uncommon) that it's unlikely to cause real offence.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_6: This should really be a comment, but it's far to long to be a comment, so meh.
Strictly speaking, the term "gendered nouns" doesn't mean what a lot of people think it means, specifically, sexual gender. All the romance languages that derive from Latin have or had [Noun Classes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noun_class) where essentially all nouns fall into one of a number of categories - typically two or three.
The idea, for English speakers who are not familiar, is quite simple. If I want to write/say something like "I brought a chair, a cup, and a sofa from Ikea, but then I dropped it.", you have no idea which of the three "it" is.
Along comes noun classes to the rescue. Lets arbitrarily assign each object a class, say `1` `2` and `3` to chair/cup/sofa respectively (as they are in German), and have the pronouns `itx`, `ity` and `itz` for each class. Now you can say --"but then I dropped ity.", and it's very clear which object was dropped. The cup.
This system helps make language more reliable, however, redundancy always comes at a cost. The cost here being that the more classes you have the more difficult it becomes to remember which class objects belong to. Certainly, it is a case of diminishing returns. Many languages therefore dropped their 3rd class and just stick with 2. Some languages like modern English dropped all 3 and just have 1 (or none, depending on how you look at it). Linguistic experts often attribute this to the invasion of the Vikings into the British Isles, where Old English and Old Norse both had the same number of noun classes, but the classes had different nouns in them, and so the benefits of noun classes were nullified and actually hindered communication, so they slowly lost popularity.
But the number of noun-classes is not at all as important as what nouns you put into what class, and here lies the paradox. If you put nouns that are similar in form or function into the same class, it will be easier to remember which class they all belong to, however, the probability of sentences where multiple nouns all have the same class increases, and the utility of noun class for clarity decreases.
If knife, fork and spoon all had the same class, then classification of these nouns is kind of useless in any given sentence, which is why that is VERY rarely the case in any language that uses noun classes. However, the more divergent or random the assigning of nouns to classes is, the harder it becomes to remember an individual noun's class.
As for 'men' and 'women', well they are also nouns, so they also need a class. Unfortunately, this is where the confusion about 'gender' springs from. The fork, in German, is not female. It is simply in the same class as female. Why would anyone think our ancestors were so illogical as to assign sex to inanimate objects? They just gave their classes the names of the two big classes seen in nature - men, women, and if you need a 3rd class, neither.
---
None of the above has absolutely anything to do with the OPs problem. The only reason I mention it all is to draw a line under the issue of noun class - something English *does not have* - with the true issue in the OP; the use of collective nouns for a profession or activity that was almost entirely done by one gender, now being done by the other gender and a new word being coined to highlight the fact that the person described is not of the typical gender, as well as the issue of what to do when gender is ambiguous. This is a phenomena that *does still occur in English and is part of an on-going debate in English-speaking communities too*. In short, **this is not a German-specific issue at all**.
The obvious example is Actor. An actor was once a profession only men were allowed to perform. When women started performing, the term Actress was coined to raise awareness that an unusual gender was performing the role. But what if you want to refer to the profession without consideration to the sex of the performer? Is it Actor or Actress? Is assuming one over the other sexist?
Modern society no longer finds this gender distinction to be relevant or fair, and so all gendered collectives are falling out of fashion. Just exactly how this is done depends very much on the activity in question, the people involved, what gender was traditionally the dominant one, etc. And of course, it's a bumpy process. The basic outcomes ordered by how stable they are in society are:
1. A new term is coined to highlight the unusual gender. Businesswoman. Servicewoman. Actress. Priestess. If the default gender was traditionally female, male versions are unlikely to stick, for example 'murse' for male nurse, 'mid-husband' for male midwife, 'manny' for male nanny, as they are often (unfairly) seen as derogatory.
2. One of the two collective nouns becomes the default. Actor. Nurse. Model. More stable than segregation method above, but still not that stable, else this entire thread wouldn't exist.
3. An entirely new construct is used for both genders simultaneously and/or neither gender, but always with no gender having more of a claim to the term than the other. stay-at-home-mum, stay-at-home-dad, stay-at-home-parent, care-giver, etc.
Going back to the OP's question, if you were to go with the ***Studentinnen und Studenten*** option then you're basically opting for the level 1 solution. To forcibly use one over the other and insist that you are not using it in a sex-specific way, as was your quite sensible solution, would be to opt for a level 2 solution. To entirely change your personal vocabulary to use words which imply 'gender unknown or no gender' would be level 3, allowing you to use the gendered nouns when needed.... but i'm told by the numerous Germans sitting around me that making up new words is not something people like to do here. Thanks to Shakespeare this is far less the case in English-speaking communities where seemingly anyone can conjure up a new word if it's catchy enough. I suspect in the years to come, and as languages mix more than ever before, there will be a significant rise in 'new words' in German... however unpopular that may seem at first.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_7: You already got long and good treaties about gender neutrality in Germany, so let me go on a bit of a tangent.
Don't explain, don't complain
-----------------------------
General discourse: Never write any sort of disclaimer. You are doing nothing wrong (at least in the eyes of a substantial amount of Germans). If you feel that you have to explain your actions, you can *always* either chose to not explain ("their fault if they don't *get it*") or to act differently ("it's wrong, so I will not do it"). Doing it wrong and then trying to explain it away is never good. It's like saying "I do not want to sound rude, but *...insert rude stuff here...*". Don't do that. Either be rude and man (sic!) up to it, or do not be rude.
But unfortunately, you are not asking "should I write gender-neutral or not", or "should I include a disclaimer", so the previous would not be a good answer.
So, to answer at least *one* of your subquestions:
>
> If not, how can I go about not using gender-neutral language without having it possibly be regarded as sexism or influence my grade?
>
>
>
Pick *your* side
----------------
Pick the variant that you *want* to pick, put a little sidenote somewhere which makes your stance on the topic clear, and be done with it. You are not committing a crime here, you are just chosing a style.
When you are an established writer, you can do it by quoting some funny Goethe poem or thinking of a tongue-in-cheek paragraph; in a bachelor thesis, where you are in a rather junior position, you likely want to keep it short and to the point ("in this thesis, the gender of any term is not related to the gender of persons but is solely used in the most readable fashion" / "Die Verwendung des Maskulinum/Femininums in diesem Werk steht nicht in Zusammenhang mit dem Geschlecht von Personen, sondern dient ausschließlich dazu, die Lesbarkeit des Textes zu steigern."). Don't make it stand out, put it in a footnote at the first occurence of a non-neutral word.
As you found out, gender neutrality is a contested field, so you cannot please everybody, anyways. Using one of the schemes mentioned elsewhere is just effort which is not even appreciated by half of your readers - waste of username_4e on their end as well as yours; and it distracts from the actual content of your work.
Or pick *their* side
--------------------
Since your thesis will quite likely be read by exactly one person - the one that grades it, the most important part of your question is probably:
>
> without ... influence my grade
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>
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That is a totally different question that has nothing to do with gender-neutrality disclaimers. If you mainly want to make sure that your grade is as high as it can get, then go find out what *exactly* the person that grades your paper wants (ask them directly), stop fussing about it, and do what they say.
This argument may sound overly pessimistic/defeatist, but the same will be true if you later write papers that you want to have published - you better write them in the way the publisher expects them to instead of disclaiming your own preferences. As you seemingly do not care *that* much yourself anyways (or you would not lower yourself to add a disclaimer, in the first place), it's not like you are "giving in" to a morally bad thing, or something like that.
Upvotes: 3
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2016/08/29
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<issue_start>username_0: How long before you need them should you ask for letters of recommendation for academic jobs? I've heard the etiquette is to ask 3-4 months in advance, but haven't found much corroboration for that. Honestly, that seems like quite a long time. Would asking as late as 6 weeks in advance come across as rude?<issue_comment>username_1: I can't speak for everyone, but 6 weeks would be fine for me personally. Less than 2 weeks I'd be grumpy about, if there weren't a good reason.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: I would like a month or two advance warning, because a coherent, helpful letter requires at least a half-day's work, I think. EDIT: and, just to explain, usually all my days are over-committed (note: *over*) several months in advance, so it's not that I can happily re-allocate any significant part of a day on short notice.
I also do *not* think that it's about providing other material, because I strongly think that my letter should refer to my first-hand experience with a candidate. After all, their transcript and other activities that I've not seen myself ... will be documented otherwise... and my comments on such things will be worth nothing, in fact, contrary to many traditional beliefs. That is, my praise of a transcript means... srsly... what? Or praise of a summer project, or other projects done out of my sight, etc?
I *read* letters, on our grad admissions committee, and I *write* letters, focused on first-hand experience, *NOT* on commentaries on transcripts. Such commentaries add nothing.
Therefore, there is scant point in giving your letter-writers your larger CV... although it is traditional. If (heaven forbid) all they can do is wax eloquent over the wonders of your CV, they're not adding anything, not helping you.
(But, still, apparently lotta people can be fooled lotta the time. Still, further, I myself would not want to count on fooling people.)
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: I want to say that what follows is more of an exception than a rule and that you should give your letter writers at least two weeks of notice in advance of writing a reference.
This year alone, I have had two students ask me for rec letters with about a week in advance of the deadline. They were in a bind, whether due to other professors never writing them back or suddenly realizing they needed four references instead of three. In general, I would say "No" to such a short timeline. However, I ended up writing them brief letters anyways because I don't want them to be unable to submit grad school applications due to not having enough rec letters. I only did this because these were students for whom I could quickly write a letter. To be honest, the letters were not as well written or as thorough as they could be had I had more time. This is yet another reason why you should ask your letter writer with plenty of time in advance--they probably won't be able to write a well considered reference with short notice.
Upvotes: 0
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2016/08/29
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<issue_start>username_0: There is an intern sharing the office with me. Once day his PI came to talk to him. Since there were only 3 of us in the office, although I didn't pay attention, their conversation just automatically went into my mind.
The story is like this: the intern had worked for 2 months, and he was going to leave. However, he would not let the university know that he was leaving. Instead, the PI would tell the university that the intern would work for another month. When the intern received the paycheck of the last month, he would send it to the PI.
At first, I think this was not right, the PI was stealing project money for personal use, and I needed to do something. However, in second thought, I think he might be the best one to deserve that money.
After all, he is the sole PI of the project, and there is no co-PI. The funding of the project comes from a (very competitive) external grant that he has spent a lot of effort to write proposal etc.
I think it is not very fair for the intern, since he has worked really hard, even in the weekend, so that the project can be shorten. He is going to start his PhD, and has promised to continue to work on that project in his free time.
Although it is not very fair for him, he will not benefit at all if I take any action. In contrast, he may still really want to continue the collaboration that way. This PI is friend of my boss (PI), I haven't talked much to him, but he appeared to be a nice guy. This is surely none of my business.
**TL;DR**: I know the PI cheats the system, but is it still right ethically given the fact that he has to fight really hard for this grant money? What should I do in this situation?<issue_comment>username_1: The person who owns the money for a project is not the PI, nor even the university, but the funder who has supplied the money. The university, and through that organization the PI, is essentially granted custody of the money, and it is their responsibility to ensure that it is disbursed to the appropriate persons in compliance with their contract and the rules of the funder and university.
What you have described is pure and simple embezzlement, and needs to be reported to a responsible authority. It's possible you misheard, but if you're certain about it, you have a duty to report, or else *you are aiding and abetting the embezzlement*.
Now, how to report safely is a potentially difficult issue. If there are people in the university administration that you can trust to take action, that would be one route. In the United States, you can also often report directly to the funder, often including through an anonymous hotline designed for just such occasions.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_2: I think it should be either prevented or reported. It is quite likely that the intern assumes that anything the PI says to do is OK, and yet could be the one who gets all the blame for accepting pay for time not worked.
I suggest discussing the matter with the intern, making sure you understood the conversation and, if so, warning him of wrongness of what he is being asked to do.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: In your shoes, I would talk to a lawyer. That's what I did when a similar thing happened to me about twenty years ago.
What my lawyer told me was that "overheard" didn't make me an accessory to the crime, and that I should only "speak when spoken to," (I'm assuming that neither the PI nor the intern addressed you directly about this matter.) "Overheard" things can be too easily misunderstood, miscontrued, etc., presumably you didn't get to see facial expressions and perhaps not body language that would support or weaken your belief.
My own lawyer said that what I heard would be treated as "hearsay" in a court of law, and not allowed as evidence. He did say that if an investigator made the rounds, that would be the time to step forward, basically to guide the investigator, as opposed to providing "solid" evidence.
There is one difference between your situation and mine; that is, you actually work for the same university as the people you overheard, (In my case, the conversation from employees of another company took place in a common area.) Because of that fact, you might want to report it through your own "chain of command," that is, your own boss. Perhaps, the lawyer will tell you differently, e.g. to use Human Resources. One thing you do want avoid at your place is reporting this to someone who is sympathetic to the PI, and possibly being "frozen" out as a result. A good lawyer will tell you how to avoid this.
What you probably *don't* want to do, is to talk to the intern, at least not without "help." Then you *would* be a party to something, without the means to resolve it. Let higher authorities handle this, unless they want you as a witness during the likely confrontation. *That's* the time to step forward.
Upvotes: 6
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2016/08/30
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<issue_start>username_0: I seem to have reached the phase of my career where I receive regular requests to **externally evaluate** faculty: this means that I am evaluating the research program of tenure-track faculty (so far always at US institutions, so let's concentrate on this case) and writing a letter to be used in some ways for the pre-tenure / tenure / promotion processes. If it makes any difference, I would be more interested in answers that apply to the field of mathematics.
Well, sometimes I have reasons that I might not want to do this. Here is a list of reasons that either have occurred to me or seem plausible that they might occur with others:
1. I feel that I am too busy: either too busy to do a good job in the time allotted, or just so busy that it would make my life easier to decline.
2. I don't have much insight into the candidate's work, and I feel that many other people could do a better job.
3. In order to do a good job I would have to investigate certain things, e.g. whether and why a certain paper has not yet been published. It's hard to investigate things in academia completely anonymously, and whether this type of investigation would be well-received or even appropriate is not completely clear.
4. I feel that the candidate's work is not very strong. (Note: not very strong *compared to what* is a key question here, but a sticky one. I have found that institutions which are more teaching focused often ask their candidates to be evaluated by standards which sound very rigorous and exacting to me, a faculty member at a major research university.)
Especially in the last case, it's not so clear "what's in it for me" to write an evaluation that says that a candidate's work is not as good as that of many other people I know in the field. They are still working in *my* field, so I would rather have them there than not. I have no idea what the chance is that my letter would be taken seriously in a failure to hire/promote them. Either way, there are reasons for concern on my end.
My main question is: if I decline to write such an evaluation, is the act of declining likely to have implications for the candidate? (E.g. is it likely that the declination would appear on the candidate's dossier?) The subsidiary question is: if I have reasons like the above that would make me prefer not to write an evaluation, is it nevertheless important to write one? Is it "the right thing to do"? (Of course one wants to do a certain amount of service to the academic community. On the other hand, many/most academics get offered *so many* service obligations that they have to turn some down. This question should be understood as relative to doing other service tasks, not doing less overall.)<issue_comment>username_1: Chairs / deans / provosts will tell you that declining will have no effect. This is **the official and morally as well as legally correct answer.**
However, I've had the great pleasure (not) of serving on a committee (at a private, elite R1) where the promotion review chair did not like the candidate and raised the issue that there were a certain percentage of declines to strengthen their tenuous case against the scholar ("no one likes/respects this scholar thus they are declining to serve as reviewers).
This was counter to policy and in my mind immoral and possibly illegal depending on the circumstances.
If you do decline, please include a phrase that you are declining due to personal / workload reasons and that the committee must absolutely not use your declination to in anyway prejudice the candidate's case.
---
Now as to your subsidiary question as to whether you should feel obliged to write, this is more of a moral question. As a tenured full professor, I do feel an obligation to my discipline to do these reviews.
However, I will only do a review if I can do it well. If a candidate's work is out of my field of expertise or if my workload prevents me from doing a good job, I won't write. My first obligation is, after all, to my research agenda and my students.
Furthermore, there have been cases where I know too much about a candidate to write an objective review. In those cases, I ask to be relieved due to a conflict of interest.
There are varying opinions on whether one should write negative letters and this should really be a separate question. My own philosophy is that my letter is a third-person's neutral observation of the **strength** of the candidate's application for tenure. I thus write about the strengths that I see for this case, but whether the strengths are sufficient for tenure is ultimately a decision that should be made by the tenuring committees.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: As a preface to this answer, I've only been involved in the promotion process at relatively elite private R1's. Things might be different at more teaching oriented schools.
With that said, I disagree with username_1's answer. At the places where I've been involved, the promotion dossier includes a list of all people who were asked to to write letters. For those that declined, the reason for their declination is also listed. University administrators have been very explicit that a low acceptance rate is bad for the case. That's not to say that any single declination is going to have much of an effect, but a large number will. Though I've never sat on a university wide promotion committee and thus have only seen mathematics dossiers, I've been told that the acceptance rate in math is higher than in other subjects, so this mostly hurts non-mathematicians.
As far as your scruples about writing a letter, please do *not* write a negative one unless you have a very strong opinion that the candidate should not be promoted. A single negative letter can torpedo a case. It is better to decline.
For the letters I've written for people at teaching institutions that have limited time for research, my strategy is to make comparisons to people I know at similar kinds of institutions (perhaps at places that are slightly better and thus are aspirational peers rather than actual ones). There is no reason to compare them to people at R1's. Sometimes the university will try to box you in on that (eg they will ask you point-blank "Would you support tenuring them at your institution?"). I always just side-step such requests (eg with a statement that if I were at their institution, I would enthusiastically vote to promote them).
A final comment. You say that one problem for you is that you might have to investigate things like whether or not a paper has been published. I see no reason to do that. I just take the cv/publication list/research statement at face value unless I have a really good reason to not do so. You shouldn't make writing these letters in a big ordeal for you. I usually give myself a single afternoon (say 4-5 hours at most) to write the letter and try to keep it at that.
Upvotes: 3
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2016/08/30
| 1,258
| 5,594
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<issue_start>username_0: As an undergraduate, I did some group research a little over a year ago which is now being compiled into a paper. My advisor at the time is contacting us to request feedback and help writing it. I am especially important to the effort, because I am the only one who knows some of the results (and proofs) well enough to be able to explain them and structure the paper around them.
However, I am just beginning a PhD, in a completely different field than my undergraduate research. This comes with a new set of challenges to focus on, including that I have to find an advisor here within my first year. I would like to be primarily focused on making the most of my PhD program and thinking about current research, rather than having to worry too much about this old research I did as an undergraduate, which I do not feel will impact my career. Even if our research gets published (which it might not), because it's not in my current field it does not seem that it should be my top priority.
In summary, I do not think that assisting with the writing of the paper is in my personal best interest. However, I also understand that I have some obligation to the research group I was in and the research we did, and that it could be rude and irresponsible, even unethical, to drop out of the picture entirely. **What exactly are my obligations to writing this paper? What is the most ethical thing to do in this situation, which also preserves my interests as much as possible?**
Finally, **if I should avoid working too much on this paper, how do I communicate this to my undergraduate advisor and to my fellow researchers**? It would be rude to cut back on the work without any explanation.<issue_comment>username_1: I don't think you have any formal obligations, and if you don't want to work on it because you have more pressing obligations, then don't work on it. It is usually a good idea to talk to the people you work with: tell them that you have little time to spare since you have a new job. That is perfectly reasonable, and reasonable people should understand and accept this. If your former co-workers want to publish, and you don't care, then they can do the work.
However, journal papers is academic gold. It always looks better with more papers on your publication list. Very few people actually read the papers when assessing your credentials; so even if the paper is in another domain, it will still look better on your CV. Something to consider.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: I think the [Golden Rule](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Rule) applies here. While you have no obligation to act against your own self-interest here, if you were in your former collaborators' position, you would probably be rather unhappy at being blocked from publication because one co-author is no longer available.
Is your preference to not work on this paper at all, or just to limit the amount of time you spend on it? From your collaborators' point of view, a few hours of your time might be sufficient to avoid blocking the publication, while not placing much of a burden on you. It's perfectly OK to tell your collaborators, "I'd like to help, but I have many other demands on my time right now. I can devote 4 hours this Sunday to helping you get this publication ready, please let me know how I can use this time in a way that is most helpful to you."
On the other hand, if a few hours is really unmanageable to you right now, just tell them this, and let them know if you expect to have a little more time in the near future.
I suggest that you learn from this experience going forward, and make sure to document your work in sufficient detail for others to follow before you leave any research project.
Upvotes: 7 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: I think you're wrong about it not being in your best interests. Having a paper from your undergraduate work will help you when you come to apply for jobs in the next stage of your career, and gaining experience of the writing and submission process now will help you when you come to publish papers from your PhD work and in writing up your thesis when it comes to that. Having work from more than one area published shows flexibility and is a useful asset if you want to move into a different area later.
Publishing your work is a key part of science, without it your work will be for nought. There is no hard obligation on you to publish but your previous advisor would be within his rights to be upset with you for walking out on your earlier work at this stage. If you're struggling for time, then explain the situation to your previous advisor and see whether you can reduce the time commitment needed while still providing the necessary work to get the paper published.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_4: I've faced this situation several times as an adviser. I'd recommend your continuing to contribute within your own time limits: this collaboration will be a credit to you in future. Whichever way you choose, remember that in order to be listed as an author in a reputable journal you must be available to read the final submitted manuscript and sign a declaration that you contributed.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: If I were you, I would welcome the opportunity to publish this early in your career. You are getting a PhD so it sounds like you are considering academia as a possible career path. If you believe that the research you did contributes to the body of knowledge in whatever field and was done in an ethical manner..publication can't hurt.
Upvotes: 2
|
2016/08/30
| 996
| 4,306
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<issue_start>username_0: What free programs/software are best for creating publication-quality scatterplots?
I'm looking for something like this:
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/x9wN0.png)
Square, small (take ups about 1/4 to 1/3 of a single column in a two-column paper) but high resolution. Preferably with ability to add axis title and trendline.
Thanks<issue_comment>username_1: I don't think you have any formal obligations, and if you don't want to work on it because you have more pressing obligations, then don't work on it. It is usually a good idea to talk to the people you work with: tell them that you have little time to spare since you have a new job. That is perfectly reasonable, and reasonable people should understand and accept this. If your former co-workers want to publish, and you don't care, then they can do the work.
However, journal papers is academic gold. It always looks better with more papers on your publication list. Very few people actually read the papers when assessing your credentials; so even if the paper is in another domain, it will still look better on your CV. Something to consider.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: I think the [Golden Rule](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Rule) applies here. While you have no obligation to act against your own self-interest here, if you were in your former collaborators' position, you would probably be rather unhappy at being blocked from publication because one co-author is no longer available.
Is your preference to not work on this paper at all, or just to limit the amount of time you spend on it? From your collaborators' point of view, a few hours of your time might be sufficient to avoid blocking the publication, while not placing much of a burden on you. It's perfectly OK to tell your collaborators, "I'd like to help, but I have many other demands on my time right now. I can devote 4 hours this Sunday to helping you get this publication ready, please let me know how I can use this time in a way that is most helpful to you."
On the other hand, if a few hours is really unmanageable to you right now, just tell them this, and let them know if you expect to have a little more time in the near future.
I suggest that you learn from this experience going forward, and make sure to document your work in sufficient detail for others to follow before you leave any research project.
Upvotes: 7 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: I think you're wrong about it not being in your best interests. Having a paper from your undergraduate work will help you when you come to apply for jobs in the next stage of your career, and gaining experience of the writing and submission process now will help you when you come to publish papers from your PhD work and in writing up your thesis when it comes to that. Having work from more than one area published shows flexibility and is a useful asset if you want to move into a different area later.
Publishing your work is a key part of science, without it your work will be for nought. There is no hard obligation on you to publish but your previous advisor would be within his rights to be upset with you for walking out on your earlier work at this stage. If you're struggling for time, then explain the situation to your previous advisor and see whether you can reduce the time commitment needed while still providing the necessary work to get the paper published.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_4: I've faced this situation several times as an adviser. I'd recommend your continuing to contribute within your own time limits: this collaboration will be a credit to you in future. Whichever way you choose, remember that in order to be listed as an author in a reputable journal you must be available to read the final submitted manuscript and sign a declaration that you contributed.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: If I were you, I would welcome the opportunity to publish this early in your career. You are getting a PhD so it sounds like you are considering academia as a possible career path. If you believe that the research you did contributes to the body of knowledge in whatever field and was done in an ethical manner..publication can't hurt.
Upvotes: 2
|
2016/08/30
| 695
| 2,503
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<issue_start>username_0: When referencing to another work in a scientific paper, do we cite the paper or its author(s)?
This question is intended to clarify the conjugation of the verb that follows the reference -- especially in these cases:
* One author, two papers:
>
> <NAME> (2015a, 2015b) **list-s** the very specific conditions under which...
>
>
>
-> *lists* (singular: referencing to Jane Doe) or *list* (plural: referencing to both papers)
* Several authors, one paper:
>
> <NAME>, et al. (2015) **claim-s** this and that.
>
>
>
-> *claim* (plural: referencing to the multiple authors of the paper) or *claims* (singular: referencing to the single paper).<issue_comment>username_1: I would say that it depends of the citation format, and the point is to look what is the subject of the sentence. In the examples you present, the conjugacy would be with the authors and the parenthesis only provides a precision about which paper is concerned.
In math we usually cite like that:
>
> It is proved in [Doe15] that ...
>
>
>
>
> ---
>
>
> **References**
>
>
> [Doe15] <NAME>, "paper name" *Journal name*, 2015
>
>
>
Therefore, we tend to cite the papers. However I often write
>
> In [Doe15], <NAME> proves that...
>
>
>
where the conjugacy is obvious.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Personally, I would always cite the paper, for two reasons:
1. If a paper was written by 5 people and you only reference 1 of them (First Author et al., Last Author et al.) then I feel that is somewhat unethical. You cannot possibly know which author deserves to be named specifically, so there is no fair way to do this. It is particularly upsetting when people reference the last author because they are somewhat famous in the field. Many papers are conceived, carried out and written up by PhD students who had little to no help from their supervisor over a 4+ year period. To cite the supervisor in that instance could do significant damage to the perceived fairness of Science as a whole in the mind of that young scientist.
2. Following on from point 1, people often cite an author rather than the paper itself as a (typically) subconscious appeal to authority, and again this is particularly true for papers published by big names in the field. This is obviously not what Science stands for. Point to the paper, the work, the methods, the result. Not the fleshy sacks of carbohydrate and protein that claim they knew it first.
Upvotes: 1
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2016/08/30
| 1,261
| 5,029
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<issue_start>username_0: As an academic, my papers (I assume) have been cited. But only once do I remember a publisher, on behalf of a writer, contacted me to ask if they could reused (or republish) a chart I had created in one of papers - for a textbook. I gave them my permission and that was the end of it.
Now I am about to publish my first (non academic) book. I still have footnotes with citations, maybe 5-10 per chapter, but it never occurred to me to ask permission, as long as the citation was proper. The only time I asked for permission was when I printed a comic strip by a popular author.
So - for the other citations - do I need to get permission to publish a quote, or a small excerpt? (for instance if a sentence with an industry fact or statistic).
**Clarification:**
I am asking about both citations (paraphrased in my own words) ... but especially quoted material.
Three examples:let's say an author wrote a book about blogging.
1. In the first case his book is organized into 10 chapters, each with a title that colorfully describes his tenets of blogging. In my book, write:
Famous blogger <NAME>, in his book "Blogging for Fame and Fortune" writes the 10 tenets of blogging: (list follows)
2. Same example, except that, instead of chapter titles, inside the book, the author has the tenets listed explicitly. In my book. I write something similar, quoting the list.
3. Same example - except in my book, I only quote or cite 3-4 elements of the list.
Which, of any of those do I need to get the other writer's permission (or his publisher's permission)? Or is justy proper attribution OK?<issue_comment>username_1: You don't need permission to cite something. You will need permission if you copy too much of it. How much is too much will vary based on the length of the copied content and the length of the original (and their legal team).
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: Citations are how the academic world works. Any copyright law that I know of respects this system, and covers quotations under "fair use". Also, academics love to get cited - in the proper way. Presumably, they wrote the original source with the hope that they will get cited. Asking if they agree their text to be cited is as counterproductive as asking a supermarket employee if the peaches in the produce section, with the price tag on them, are meant for sale.
You still have to make sure that it is what academics understand as a "citation". That is, if you make a claim in your own words, you still mark it with a reference. If you reuse a snippet, you put it in quotation marks and mark with a reference. The boundaries between "a phrase" (you don't have to attribute it, because it's too short), "a snippet" (it is a quotation, you may use it as long as you attribute it) and "too long" (you reused too much to count as a quotation) are fluid. They depend on the actual length of the text copied, on the length of your text, and on the function of the text in both the original work and yours. Still, with something like 1-3 sentences (attributed!) you are typically on the safe side.
Images are a different beast. They don't "work" like quotations. Even if the author is not interested in pursuing copyright for them, their publisher may well do it. I don't know why this is the case, it may be because images are more salient than sentences, because they frequently contain too much information (often representing the core of somebody's theory), or because it used to be much more work to create an image than to type text. Anyway, the appropriate thing is to always get a permission to reprint images. You can even place a notice in the caption, for example "A concept for creating world piece, from [Smartass2016]. Reprinted with permission".
Bottom line, if you quote a sentence or two, that's OK, just add a reference and it is a proper citation. If it is an image, ask for permission. If it is something else, best to contact your publisher and ask for advice.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: Legally,this kind of "copying" falls under the heading of [fair use](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use), and does not require permission. Teaching and research (along with criticism and parody) are "protected" uses.
Basically, copying somebody's work is bad, but "talking about" someone's work is good, because it will increase demand for the original. A bit of "citing" or "copying" is necessary to give the flavor of the original. To be on safe ground, you need to do at least three things:
>
> 1) You must properly cite the original work.
>
> 2) You must limit your use of someone else's work to as little as is reasonably necessary to accomplish your purpose.
>
> 3) Your contribution must be "transformative" by putting your own work over and above the original.
>
>
>
Moreover, "facts and statistics" are not "copyrightable" so if you cite them from another source, with only the minimum of added text from it for clarity, you wouldn't be "copying" at all.
Upvotes: 2
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2016/08/30
| 415
| 1,910
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<issue_start>username_0: Is it possible to submit two papers to the same conference which are citing each other?
Both papers were accepted and they are both very related, so I think to cite the papers in each other, when submitting the camera ready version. Is this allowed or is it not a good idea?<issue_comment>username_1: It's unusual in journals, but allowed - it's more common in special thematic issues which tend to be prepared at the same time and cover similar topics, perhaps even with authors in common across some papers. There may be a specific form of citation for, eg, "in this issue" rather than a volume number (I've seen this once or twice). This is not to say that every editor will like it, but there's no absolute rule against it.
I would assume that published conference papers, generally speaking, are in the same boat - unusual, but no fundamental principle why not, and individual venues may have specific policies.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: This is actually quite common in some fields, for both conference and journal submission, particularly when you have coordinated submission from a number of different participants in a complex project.
The way that I have handled this when I've done so is to have the citations initially as "submitted" and either bundle the other submissions as supplementary information for reviewers (when possible), or with a note saying "available on request" when the venue doesn't support supplementary information. Another option is to make use of pre-print services like arXiv, though that can violate double-blind review.
Once the papers are accepted, you just change the camera-ready to the final information and the circular reference enters the literature without issue. It gets more awkward if one paper is accepted and the other is not, but this can be resolved with the help of a pre-print service.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]
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2016/08/30
| 369
| 1,637
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<issue_start>username_0: A journal with high impact accepted my paper after peer review. In the copy-editing phase I noticed some errors -- mostly mixed up references. Can the paper now be rejected due to these errors? What about if I want to update some references?<issue_comment>username_1: If you ask for too many changes on the page-proofs it might be that you are charged a fee for this. Various journals say they will charge for too many changes as it increases the production cost; but I have never heard of a situation where it actually happened.
Mixed-up reference, especially if these are clerical errors, does not sound that dramatic a change, so this should be a non-issue.
Updating reference is perfectly fine; journals will even actively ask for more complete data if available in the page-proofs if the original manuscript only quoted a preprint for example.
Generally, once you are in the copy-editing phase the *scientific* decision to publish your paper was already taken. A reason for it not to be publish typically could only be procedural (e.g., you do not agree to sign the copyright form or otherwise mess up the process completely) or possibly very severe problems with the paper that emerge.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Formally, a paper can be rejected at any time, even after printing. E.g. IEEE describes such cases, which are mostly plagiarism-related. In your case of mixed-up references, a rejection is unlikely.
Updating references should be a non-issue in the early copyediting phase but problematic in the late stages. You might have to live with published wrong references.
Upvotes: 3
|
2016/08/31
| 783
| 3,278
|
<issue_start>username_0: Several journals have short digest articles highlighting specific research publications. One of the best known examples are the Nature News and Views articles.
They describe these articles like this:
>
> ... short, accessible articles focused on one scientific advance independent of the author's own research. They are almost always commissioned by the editors, but suggestions can be made. News and Views articles generally describe a published research report but sometimes take the form of scientific meeting reports. News and Views articles are personal views by specialists in the discipline, and are not usually peer-reviewed. See each journal's guide to authors for more details.
>
>
>
This is common also in other journals, sometimes they're called "Spotlight articles" or "Research highlights". Whether they are peer-reviewed likely differs, but their common ground is that they discuss and highlight a recent paper in the same journal. They always have doi nr and are citeable.
My questions are
1. In CVs, do people list them under publications, and if not where do they list them?
2. What about book reviews?
3. Do people add these type of articles to ResearchGate and Google Scholar?
4. Do people in general view them as a positive thing for your academic career or a waste of time?<issue_comment>username_1: First of all, I wouldn't generally recommend to publish in not peer-reviewed papers, although this is obviously just my personal opinion. If they are counted as publications, this depends on multiple factors, such as your research field, university standards, or the research stage you are in.
>
> 1. In CVs, do people list them under publications, and if not where do
> they list them?
>
>
>
Publications can be fine, but *not peer-reviewed publications* is more accurate.
>
> 2. What about book reviews?
>
>
>
No. These are not book reviews.
>
> 3. Do people add these type of articles to ResearchGate and Google Scholar?
>
>
>
It depends. If you are a college student or starting your PhD, yes, it can be better than nothing (or not, depend who you ask). If you are an experienced researcher with a good number of publications, I don't think so, at least, I wouldn't do it.
>
> 4. Do people in general view them as a positive thing for your academic career or a waste of time?
>
>
>
Same argument than before, in my field and my country are generally considered a waste of time, since they are not positively evaluated in any way and they are not peer reviewed, so you will not get any feedback of the quality of your research.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Articles like this are essentially a form of review article (review articles, likewise, are sometimes peer-reviewed and sometimes not, depending on venue).
Just like other reviews, when they appear in a significant publication venue they can be extremely high-impact. They are part of the scientific dialogue and they get cited, just like other articles. Moreover, even if not peer-reviewed, they are typically by invitation and still with editorial oversight.
As such, I do often see these types of articles listed under publications, on people's publication profiles, and being of value to a person's career.
Upvotes: 2
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2016/08/31
| 926
| 3,895
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<issue_start>username_0: Is it frowned upon to add slight humor and sarcasm to academic presentations? For example, I flip to a background slide and say "This is a typical slide used by researchers in (field) just to show off how difficult their work is." before going through the content of the slide. Is there a difference in doing that in different settings, like a department seminar vs an international conference?<issue_comment>username_1: I'd say you should know what audience you're presenting to. If you're presenting groundbreaking (or at the very least, important) information at an international conference full of notable researchers in the field, you might be able to get away with a single joke or sarcastic comment. Most people are there to learn, not to laugh.
On the other hand, if it's among people who know you well (e.g. department seminar or something of the like), you can add a *little* more humor to lighten the mood a bit.
One thing to take away from my answer is that you should reread your question: you're giving an *academic* presentation, not touring as a stand-up comic. A little humor can be well-received, but too much will make you seem foolish.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: I think it depends if it related to the content of your presentation. Nothing wrong with a little bit of humor. But in this particular example, it looks it only serves to rediculise other people their presentations. I think that is inappropriate.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: **There is nothing wrong with a little humor as long as you can pull it off well.** Lightening the mood is often welcome, especially in settings where the expected norm may be long, dry boring, content (such as a conference where people are attending session after session all day).
Besides making people laugh, a joke or two in an academic presentation can help make you and the audience more comfortable, make your presentation more memorable, and help you come across as a confident, competent presenter.
Of course, there are potential downfalls:
* **A joke could fall flat**, which may be awkward and embarrassing.
* **Jokes that might come across as insulting can be dangerous** (though gently poking fun at your own discipline can be fine--I have no problem with your proposed statement, especially if you make it self-deprecating, such as "I have made this slide extra complicated so I seem important". I have taken this approach and it usually goes down very well.)
* **Too much humor can distract from your message.** Use a little humor, and it helps engage people, and they will be paying attention to your serious point. Use too much, and no one will remember anything but the jokes.
But overall, I say **go for it**. Having a boring, forgettable presentation is a much bigger danger than a joke that falls flat.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: hmm.. I have mixed feeling about this...
Adding jokes makes it easier to get people attention and some time help to convey the message. However, there are many better ways to achieve this without using jokes or sarcasm. Having a clear, focused presentation is much better than adding jokes..
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: One thing to consider is that humour is subjective. Not everyone finds the same thing funny, and it's possible that not everyone will realise that a statement is a joke. As a comment on another answer points out, this is particularly true if the first language of the audience isn't the same as that of the speaker.
In particular, unless you know your audience very well, don't make hyperbolic statements on the assumption that your audience will realise they are untrue. 95% of the audience might find "and this identity can be used to solve five other grand challenge problems before breakfast" mildly amusing, but the PhD student who wastes a month following up on idea won't.
Upvotes: 0
|
2016/08/31
| 2,479
| 10,313
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am not sure about the incentive effects of websites such as ratemyprof.com, as Professors with tenure may or may not care about *undergrad* students. However, they may be more serious about graduate students (supervision, co-authorship etc).
**Does a ratemyadvisor type website exist?**
This is important (I think) because relationships between supervisor-supervisee are probably more profound (given the time investment) and have arguably more ramifications on the future (reference letters bear more weight).
Any thoughts are welcome!<issue_comment>username_1: As I knew such website doesn't exist yet. It would be a nice idea for creating an app for this work:)
Anyway about getting to know the professors in a given department is not a difficult task and you can do the following,
1. See the website of a given advisor to learn about recent publications, grants, and number of current students
2. If you can visit the depatment, go to it and speak with the current students and also his(her) students taken a course with the advisor
3. If you cannot go to the department, find the email addresses of the current students of that advisor and ask important questions about its course works, research process, active topics in their lab
4. If you are decided to work with a advisor based on your findings and interest to his works, contact with him and just ask some formal questions to see its rules on admissions (if a busy supervisor reply your email, you are luckyman!)
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: I spoke recently with someone who is building such a website/community, and I doubt they will mind me giving a brief overview of how they intend it to work.
Basically there are 2 issues that are difficult to overcome - assuming all the technological issues are minor:
1. Skepticism
2. Slander
Skepticism in the sense of 'Oh, I see this PI has a bad review from 2001, but who's to say that will happen to me. Maybe this one student is an odd-ball'. It also has parallels with the [TornadoGuard](https://xkcd.com/937/) problem.
And we see this a lot on academia.stackexchange too. We only ever hear 1 side of the story, and that story is rarely impartial. You know, occasionally people like to rant. People often omit the times they made mistakes. It's human nature. And so any website of this nature has to somehow overcome this issue of he-said-she-said, and theres simply no technological device we can implement to get around this. Particularly if you allow anonymous submissions.
The second, slander, is what I believe most people in the pubpeer.com debate are worried about. A deliberate attempt to hurt someone's reputation under the flag of mob-justice. Nitpicking and emotive words, but no real substance, etc. I actually only found out about pubpeer a week or so ago when a colleague at a party showed it to me, and I was shocked to see people I respect being picked apart on there for silly little things. Still, those anonymous criticisms do have some validity, and the concept of post-publication peer review is something I deeply agree with. I think only time will tell what impact sites like pubpeer will have on science. For a PI-review site, it could have disastrous consequences. Potentially legal consequences.
The website/community I referred to up top seemed to have spent a considerable amount of time fleshing out all the technological methods that could help here, and in the end i'm told they settled on the fairly low-tech idea for Skype-based interviews, potentially on a weekly release schedule. The idea is to mainly cater for people who hate their PhD and feel relief knowing they're not the only ones going through hell. So these Skype interviews generally are with post-docs or no-docs who had a bad experience, and they talk about what the end result was, what they'd do differently, if they still feel they were treated unfairly many years down the line (I watched 3 interviews and they were all totally different, so i'm finding it difficult to generalise here). But the big issue for the team putting all this together is finding PhD/post-docs/no-docs who are OK with talking about their experiences. They offered to interview me but I turned them down because, frankly, i'm not that brave. They offered to pixilate my face, but even so... as disappointed as I am with my treatment during my PhD, there's no one specific person that really let me down. It was a system of failures, I think, and one that is unlikely to happen again. So that particular PI-review project wouldn't really help me or people like me.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: To add to the issues mentioned in username_2's answer: one of the common reasons why advisors and student relationships break down is a mismatch between their personalities. It causes unrealistic and often unsatisfied mutual expectations.
Therefore one's perfect advisor can be another person's nightmare, and vice versa. Even a good track record with several past students does not reliably predict unqualified success with the next one - partially because typically the sample size is very small, but mostly, I think, because of the high degree of subjectivity about what a "good advisor" really *means*.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: **Yes**, there are such websites.
I know of the following two:
(i) <http://www.qcist.com>;
(ii) <https://www.ratemypi.com>
However, at least at this moment, these websites remain useless and mostly abandoned. Note (i) is free and (ii) is paid.
This is because to, in addition to a number of issues related by other respondents, *academics are remarkably overreactive* to criticism. This works directly against open criticism, as public relations play a central role in defining academics careers, and petty individuals are frequently empowered enough to take revenge on others. I am sure a number of PIs would exploit (public) institutional resources just to try and tear such websites down should they take root.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: Such a website will never work. Most professors have fewer PhD students in their entire career than they have undergraduate students in a single semester. They will never accumulate enough reviews to be useful.
However, you can get the information. Simply email the professor's former students asking them for advice. Often a list of these students is on the professor's website. If it is not, ask the professor for the list.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_6: I strongly disagree with the opinions here. If you're worried about people slander-ing their PIs, then implement one or more of the following ideas:
1. Allow them only a Likert scale of predefined queries about their relationship with their PI (i.e., no free response answers).
2. You can make them identify the top and worse qualities of the PI, and if they fail to select top qualities, not let them submit the form.
3. You can make the reviewer review more than just 1 PI to get a sense of their attitude/outlook tendencies. You can flag students who frequently underscore their collaborators so that viewers making judgments about prospective collaborators will contextualize the feedback.
4. You can make the reviewer specify how many hours or years they spent working with the PI being rated, which adds further context, and to label their relationship with them (advisor-advisee, collaborator, committee member, in my department, talked to them once, interviewed with them, etc).
5. Allow reviewers to report the **theme** of the abuse, but not free response details. Categories can include criminal-oriented offenses (sexual misconduct, physical harm), moral offenses (verbal abuse/yelling), personality disorders (narcissism, borderline), or something more subjective like "doesn't trust others", "doesn't show respect", "is controlling", "is a bad listener", etc.
6. Allow an optional identity verification for past students who don't care if their advisor knows it's them who reviewed them. For PhDs who leave the field after they graduate, I doubt they'd care if their advisor knew they rated them poorly.
It is sooo easy to implement a fair enough reporting system, and I resent the opinions that say otherwise. I feel you are just supporting the hazing, abusive nature of many advisors in academia. In fact, bosses should not be afforded more protection than their underlings (including tenure, imho, but whatever, it's not my money to disburse). If a PI behaves badly, **they behaved badly**. I don't CARE if the student made a mistake or was negligent, and that this elicited the PI's behavior. Mistakes do not warrant abusive behavior from a boss. Negligence could be a flight response to the PI's abusive nature, and fight or flight is a survival instinct. People in positions of power **must** be held to higher standards, and instead, we are protecting them.
A web app that allows students to give feedback on their PIs'/collaborators' leadership qualities will not fundamentally determine hiring/firing decisions - **but hiring managers should be given more accountability/motivation to do something with student feedback.** As a grad student, I did an exit questionnaire where I exposed my PI's abuse, and nothing was ever done. I suspect it was because this feedback was not made public. In fact, I don't think anyone but my graduation officer read it, and he has no motivation to do anything about it, nor the power to do anything about it. Did my PI commit a crime? No.. but abuse is a moral crime, and people should be warned against giving bad PIs more power, more money, and prospective employees should RUN FOR THEIR LIVES. We deserve that kind of transparency.
And it's simplistic to tell someone to ask current graduate students about their PIs, and ironic because one of the first criticisms for a web app feedback system in this thread was that it was likely not anonymous due to the small population size of possible reviewers. If a first year asked me about my PI prior to me graduating, I could not tell them the full truth because them changing their interest in joining the lab would have directly implicated me. You can't criticize an online portal for the same deficiencies your alleged solutions possess and call it a better system.
Upvotes: 2
|
2016/08/31
| 533
| 2,270
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<issue_start>username_0: I will introduce a well-known speaker who will give a lecture in his work in neurobiology in front of a large student audience. What is a good introduction and followup?
I have noticed people often give what I consider trivialities like the year he received his PhD degree and spend a long time listing their awards. I am planning to talk about his recent papers briefly, his areas of research, and just briefly mention his position now and who he worked with as a postdoc.
I would appreciate any input, particularly from profs on how they like to be introduced.<issue_comment>username_1: The long and boring introductions that you've noticed are probably due to people simply reading off the "speaker biography" paragraph that is typically included with a talk announcement. That, in turn, is usually prepared with little thought by the speaker, often by grabbing a recent bio blurb from a proposal or their website. Thus: boring list of dates and awards.
My personal preference is to ask the speaker how they would like to be introduced and to keep things quite short: any good speaker will begin their talk with a high-level perspective on their technical vision and work in any case.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: The most important thing is to highlight what matters about the speaker and avoid the the long boring list.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_3: I find **TIQS** very helpful here (found it online, Dale Carnegie Training I think, also recommend spending only 60 seconds for the introduction):
1. T - The topic or title
2. I - Importance to the audience
3. Q - Qualification of the Speaker
4. S - Speaker's Name
In general, have the audience in mind. They want to know that they are in the right place, hearing about an important topic (for them!), the person who presents is knowledgeable (key points, not a full CV!), and who that person is (name). So yeah, 60 seconds are a good guide.
Of course, it also depends on the **context** (you likely have to thank certain people, their contributions, esp. those "little green men and women" whose work you don't see as an audience member, or sponsors) and the **speaker** (what does this person want the audience to know about him/her).
Upvotes: 2
|
2016/08/31
| 900
| 3,724
|
<issue_start>username_0: I have finished my Phd in maths shortly. A few days ago, I have heard a revision decision from a very good journal where I submitted my paper. The comments from referees are generally fairly positive, and are not too difficult to address. However, I have found a mistake in a theorem proof, which the referees have not spotted. This mistake is difficult to fix, or may be unfixable. The theorem is the extension of the main result of the paper. I assume it is not an important result, as there are no comments or revisions from referees on this part. Then how to write to the referees to address this issue? I imagine it would annoy both the referees and the editor. When I am going to submit the revision, is it better to remove the wrong theorem or to keep it there? Many thanks.<issue_comment>username_1: You absolutely have to advise the editor and referees of the error, and either correct or remove the erroneous part. It doesn't matter how much it annoys them, or even if it leads to the rejection of your paper. Keeping it there would be totally unacceptable and unethical.
Just tell the editor straight out:
"I discovered an error in the proof of Theorem 1.2.3. It does not seem to be fixable, so this theorem should be removed from the paper. The rest of the paper is unaffected [assuming that it actually is]."
The editor will probably ask the referees to re-review the paper with this information. It might change their decision, or it might not. But even if it gets rejected, that's something you just have to live with: fix the paper and submit it somewhere else.
You seem to be assuming that the referees noticed the error but decided not to say anything about it in their review. I doubt that. It's far more likely that they didn't notice it at all. Referees are humans and not omniscient gods, and just because they overlook an error does not mean it is okay to publish it.
Upvotes: 7 <issue_comment>username_2: The responsibility for correctness lies with the author, not with the referees. So it is up to you to fix it. If the referees did not mention it, then there is no need for you to respond to them. You are only talking to the editor. But definitely the paper should be fixed before it is published.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: Referees are there to check quality of paper, contents of the paper, procedures, theorems and lot of stuff so they often miss here and there being humans.
Letting the error go to be published can have two outcomes.
1st in academia there is trust on authors, other refering your paper assume the theorem to be fine and that can lead other papers to have errors.
2nd some one can spot the error later on and can cite your paper im his work showing the error which can be a matter of shame for you.
So better inform editor that it is the case and removing this portion will have no effect or these these effects. Let them decide then.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: You should notify the editor, who will notify the referee. Much better to discover the error now, rather than after the paper is published, with your name on it. Then you'd have to publish a retraction, or worse, have someone point it out to you (and others) in their own paper.
Since it is on an "extension," it will probably be no big deal. Most editors would rather have a correct paper with one less extension than a paper with an error. The referee will probably be relieved as well; s/he was supposed to spot the error and didn't. It's barely possible (not likely) that the referee can suggest a way to fix it.
People make honest errors from time to time. But when one is discovered and not reported, it is no longer an "honest" error.
Upvotes: 3
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2016/08/31
| 1,151
| 4,261
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<issue_start>username_0: Currently it is my job to schedule (Date+Time) my PhD defense which shall take place in approx. 2 months from now. Hence, I have to ask all committee members about their availability. How should I approach this task:
1. Using a tool like doodle. I worry that this is too "modern" for some committee members.
2. Proposing some dates and hoping that all members will accept one or more dates?
3. Asking for their availability and trying to find an intersection set. But what if there is no intersecton set with respect to their time?
Any help is appreciated<issue_comment>username_1: I think that you should begin with part 3 of your suggestion and also take a phone number from each committee member. If you succeed in intersecting among these times then everything is solved!
If the intersection won't work then you should consider an order of importance for your committee members. You can get several times from the chief member and consult with the other members.
My strong recommendation is to speak very conservative and respectfully with the members. Also if the intersection doesn't take place then you should consult with your supervisor and request from your supervisor to talk with the committee members in hopes of solving your problem.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Scheduling anything with committee members is a big pain. The way I scheduled my defense and comps was to just send a doodle poll (like you mentioned) and have them select all the dates. Two of my committee members were very nice and checked all the dates going through almost 4 weeks and two of them never responded or even clicked the link. I just used these dates to check the availability for a conference room in the dept. and sent a final set of 4/5 days to the ones who didn't respond. After sending that a few times and reminding one of them in person, I just scheduled it on a day that I thought was OK and went ahead with that. Everything worked out great and even the person who never responded didn't protest when I picked the time and date. Good luck o
n this. I will celebrate the fact that I never have to do this again :)
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: Use doodle and for those do not respond, print the schedule and walk it to their offices.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: Step 1 -- rule out dates/times that are not possible
====================================================
Start by sending an electronic-mail message asking for each person to summarise his/her availability during the relevant few months. This may not immediately elicit an obvious date or time, but allows you to rule out dates and times which are definitely *not* possible, thus sparing everybody the hassle of keeping lots of specific options available.
Step 2 -- suggest some specific options
=======================================
Compile a set of numbered/lettered options, again by electronic mail. A message might read something like:
>
> Dear all,
>
>
> Further to our previous correspondence, it looks like one of the following options is likely to be best:
>
>
> a) 29th February 2100 in the morning;
>
>
> b) 29th February 2100 in the afternoon, finishing not later than 4pm (NB: Prof. X has a train to catch at 5.20pm);
>
>
> c) 31st April 2100 at 11am (NB: Dr Y is giving a lecture in the same building at 9.30am–10.30am);
>
>
> *[a few more options]*
>
>
>
The numbering/lettering of options is vital, since this makes life easier for writing quick replies, such as:
>
> Dear all,
>
>
> a) most convenient for me
>
>
> b) possible (but would need hotel that night as well as previous night)
>
>
> c) not sure, since it is around the time of the International Conference of Futile Studies, for which I am the keynote speaker
>
>
> *[comments on other options]*
>
>
> Yours sincerely,
>
>
> *external examiner*
>
>
>
Or even...
>
> Good -- a, d, e
>
>
> Possible, but not ideal -- b
>
>
> Impossible -- c
>
>
>
Crucially, numbered/lettered options are amenable to quick updates such as:
>
> Dear all,
>
>
> UPDATE: sorry, option c) not possible (unless the university can charter a private helicopter to take me to the conference immediately afterwards!?!)
>
>
>
Upvotes: 2
|
2016/09/01
| 1,555
| 6,512
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<issue_start>username_0: When I had joined the program last year, I was assigned an advisor who was the one I'd wanted to work with. However, due to things not working out (because she thinks I lack the background), I have had to start looking for a new one, and that's what I was working on all summer. I'm still in the process of finding someone by working on small projects with some faculty (in order to show them I can do the kind of research they do). This kind of puts me a bit behind my cohort. In my department, most PhD students have an advisor within two quarters. While a lot of other students I spoke with told me that it is perfectly normal to be finding an advisor a bit later than year 1, I'm very much embarrassed about being at this stage.
So anyway, my department's academic advisor just sent out an email saying she needed someone to take up the role of President of the grad student organization of the department, and I really want to go for it. In the past, I've enjoyed working with people and organizing stuff; I really enjoy talking to people and putting forward people's problems and finding solutions to them, especially the seemingly small ones that actually do make a difference.
My question is, would faculty members consider it strange on my part if I ended up as President when I don't even have an advisor and a research project going for me? I mean, would it look like I don't have my priorities set straight? I wouldn't want to do it if there's even the slightest chance of it creating a bad impression.<issue_comment>username_1: >
> would faculty members consider it strange on my part if I ended up as President when I don't even have an advisor and a research project going for me?
>
>
>
I think the better question would be whether or not the faculty would care to correlate those things. And the answer is, probably not. Faculty members, especially senior ones, are used to balancing multiple roles (PI, adviser, various department positions, etc.), so your's wouldn't stick out.
Further, in my experience as an undergrad and grad student, students that take on such responsibilities usually fall into one of two categories:
1. they are a kind of superhuman, and while fully being dedicated to their president role, they also find the time and energy to not let their studies suffer
2. they fully dedicate themselves to their role and are unable to focus enough on their studies
Interestingly, though again as my observation, the lower administrative roles (e.g. a member of the student parliament) tend to to "favor" the second category while higher roles (e.g. a student union president) fall in the first category more often. This obviously depends on the person, but persons who are elected to functions tend to be motivated (like you are) and also tend to exhibit political qualities, like being charismatic, communicative, "good with people". So, if you get elected, you could find yourself with more contacts and opportunities to talk with people (faculty and students). It could get easier for you getting to know faculty members, as you would be obliged to meet with them on "organization business". If you are good at those things, you could probably even help yourself find a more suitable adviser.
The other side of the story is, that you would probably also take longer to graduate. But again that is a sacrifice you should be prepared to make, when you apply for the experience. And also, no one would blame you for taking a bit longer to graduate if you held such a position.
>
> would it look like I don't have my priorities set straight?
>
>
>
It could also look like you were an ambitious student who is capable of battling on two fronts. There will always be people who will think that you don't have your priorities set straight and others that think that you are ambitious and capable, and also a whole spectrum of opinions in-between. That shouldn't matter if you are passionate about something. But, it is always advisable to ask for advice from some faculty member who you trust. However, keep in mind that their opinion falls somewhere in the above spectrum and it is ultimately up to you to make your decision.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: It very much depends on the quality of your PhD work. If that looks good, it can be a boost to your CV. However, if your work is middling, this may appear like escapism (or perhaps a political career is what you should pursue instead of a PhD).
This is always, as @username_1 said, your decision. What is unlikely to work well is to take up this job and getting even further behind on your PhD work.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: It's my impression that how activities that don't directly pertain to your PhD research are perceived depends entirely on the individual.
My adviser often "tsks" and shakes his head when my job comes up. I'm sure he understands that I need to work to support myself now that my stipend support period is over, but he's still always reminding me to focus on my research. One of my other committee members, however, is nothing but supportive and thinks my job is great experience.
What does this mean to you? In my opinion it means you *absolutely* avoid taking student government activities on. You don't yet have an adviser, and you need one soon. There's a chance this could be an obstacle, so don't do it. Justified or not, some people *will* judge it as a lack of comittement on your part to your PhD work. They'll think undergrad is the time for this sort of thing, and now you have to show you're serious about your research.
Again, I'm not making a judgment claim here, but the chance that *some* people in the department will seems like a near-certainty to me.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_4: This is a question about politics so I would approach it "politically?"
The academic adviser is someone to take notice of, so a big question is, will she take notice of you? Maybe she will help you resolve your personal adviser problem if you do this for her. Will others take notice in a negative way? (Perhaps not.)
Who do you stand to impress by taking the student body profession? Who do you stand to turn off? Which group will likely have the greater impact on your program?
In high school, I was a Student Council officer who had a chance to run for class president as a "favorite." I turned down the opportunity in favor of my studies, and deeply regret it even today, over 40 years later.
Upvotes: 0
|
2016/09/01
| 854
| 3,530
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<issue_start>username_0: My PhD supervisor claims being first author of all the work I do. I also write research proposals for his grants and the rest of our group, he just redirects their emails to me and pretends that he's writing it.
He refuses to start my PhD programme - no idea for a possible subject.
I'm depressed, because I do not get ANY training or advice from him, just "write something fast with a big impact". I haven't even got a specific subject to work on. We basically meet each other during conferences or holidays. He does not correct any mistakes and barely knows what I'm actually doing. I'm about to quit my PhD completely... or leave academia just afterwards.
For obvious reasons I can't compare this situation with other universities, so that I'd be grateful for your opinion.<issue_comment>username_1: *Assuming* all that you state of your supervisor is true, i.e.,
* Claiming primary authorship of all of your work
* Making you write grants and claiming it as his own
* Refusing to start your PhD programme
Then you met up with one of the classic cases of an *abusive supervisor*. If that is the case, then **continue no further as his student**. Spare no time in moving away as you won't make much progress (at all) with such an advisor.
I feel sorry for the situation that has caused you to despise the PhD degree itself. My honest advice would be to change your advisor, not your path. If the current advisor claims primary authorship over your writings and grant proposals, then it is only a proof that you are really a worthy candidate for a PhD! Quit your supervisor, not your PhD!
Think deep and make your decision wisely, as it is yours to make.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: Someone close to me was in a similar situation. He chose to keep the formal advisor but work informally with another person in his department. This might be an option for you to consider. (In addition to the obvious option already described, of switching advisors.)
Start with getting to know the people in your department. Try to talk to people about their work, about your interests. (Save the complaining for a later stage in the relationship.)
If you don't strike gold in your department, read an article that you are interested in, contact the author, strike up a conversation -- it might lead to a collaboration!
In short, pretend that you are a post-doc.
---
Edit to take comment into account ("Why I have chosen this one? He's the only true scientist in the whole University... Unfortunately"):
If I were in your shoes, I would be careful to arrange for a new advisor and a transfer institution *before* quitting. Thus, the advice in the comments ("walk, don't run") shouldn't be followed too literally. If there were someone good you could switch to in your own university, it would be different.
This is kind of like when you are in a bad job. It's usually best to find a different job *before* quitting the present job.
Note, if the university you are enrolled in is as bad as you say, then they may be rather lax in their requirements for graduation from the PhD program. Read some published theses in your field to find out.
Your strange advisor may sort of boot you out with a PhD after a certain period of time. That might leave you with a strange taste in your mouth. If that happens, no worries, just grab that piece of paper and run with it, to a two-year postdoc with someone who can give you plenty of guidance (almost as though you were his or her PhD student).
Upvotes: 0
|
2016/09/01
| 2,354
| 9,702
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<issue_start>username_0: When I was a graduate student in the 1980s, I translated a treatise written by an important artist into English. A person who at the time was an assistant professor approached me about it. Flattered by the professor's interest, I gave him/her a copy. Soon thereafter, I asked for my translation back, but the professor asked to keep it a while longer. Since I was a student, I was afraid to insist on its prompt return.
A few years later, the professor found a publisher for the translation. We signed contracts with the publisher in which we were both designated as co-authors. The professor claimed to have "reworked" my translation and we are both credited on the title page as translators. The professor wrote an introduction and edited the translation so the professor's name is also on the title page as editor.
Recently, it has come to my attention that the professor, who is now an emeritus professor, is claiming to be the sole author. I recently attended a conference where the professor gave the keynote address. The professor was introduced as the sole author of this book. I decided not to say anything at the time since the introduction was spoken and I couldn't prove that my name wasn't mentioned. However, I recently came across the professor's written biography on the internet where the claim is made that "[the professor's] book presents an edition, translation and . . . commentary" of the treatise.
Should the professor mention my name in connection with the translation in such a circumstance? If so, how do I go about getting the professor to do this?
I should mention that the professor has done many collaborative projects and in every case other than our book, the other collaborators are mentioned in the biography. Also, there is a long history of my having to remind this professor to acknowledge my work. Before our book was published, the professor gave a conference paper on the treatise and didn't mention that I had translated it. When I call it to the professor's attention, the professor said it was an oversight. The next time it happened and I mentioned it to the professor, I was told that the project could have been done without me. Every time it has come up, there is a new excuse.
There is no question in my mind that the professor is intentionally leaving me out. My question is whether it is worth pursuing since my name is on the title page of the book itself as a co-translator and other scholars will see it there. It really bothers me that the professor is claiming credit for my work by omitting my name.<issue_comment>username_1: This strikes me as a "borderline" or "shady" issue. Basically, the professor is trying to maximize his visibility at your expense, something he wouldn't do with a more senior colleague.
From the look of it, he's done the bare minimum for you legally. In other situations, I've advised the OP to "see a lawyer" but I'm *not* doing so here. To use a phrase made famous by a former American President, the professor's actions look to be "legally accurate but not volunteering information."
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Let's take some of these points in turn.
>
> My co-author is claiming to be the sole author.
>
>
>
That's not right -- *neither* of you is the author. By conflating the difference between author and translator, aren't you doing a disservice to the author roughly similar to what your professor is doing to you?
I should also say that in my academic field (mathematics), translating a text is viewed as service to the community rather than an intellectual or academic contribution *per se*. I know it is different in the humanities.
>
> The professor claimed to have "reworked" my translation and we are both credited on the title page as translators.
>
>
>
Why "claimed" -- did he or didn't he? You seem to be a bit breezy on your description of the work that the professor did on this project. Again, it would be better to be clear. If the professor didn't actually change your translation, then the translation should be attributed *only* to you, right?
>
> The professor wrote an introduction and edited the translation so the professor's name is also on the title page as editor.
>
>
>
So the professor edited the translation. I wonder if there is some subtle distinction between "editing" and "reworking" that I am not appreciating: does the latter imply a larger intellectual contribution? Again, how much of an intellectual contribution are you claiming the professor made? That seems important.
From my standpoint in a STEM field, it seems like editing a translation is a contribution of about the same order of magnitude as writing the translation...but again, I tend to think of translations as being somewhat routine work for those who have language skills. Maybe I am missing some nuances here. But certainly writing an introduction and finding a publisher is a big part of, um, getting a work published. So from what I understand it seems reasonable that you are both listed as translators on the title page.
>
> Recently, it has come to my attention that the professor, who is now an emeritus professor, is claiming to be the sole author.
>
>
>
That's a very strange claim to make when the book itself says otherwise. In my experience, academics are *highly* attentive to bibliographic information like this.
>
> I recently attended a conference where the professor gave the keynote address. I recently attended a conference where the professor gave the keynote address. The professor was introduced as the sole author of this book.
>
>
>
I'm not sure I understand what you mean. First of all: really as the **author** of a translated work? Second of all: do you mean "Professor X's book Y, which is [hopefully something about a translation of someone else's work!]" or "Professor X is the sole author of book Y, which is..." The latter would be a really weird thing to say even if it were true, and the former, while not very nice to you, need not be construed as denying your role.
>
> However, I recently came across the professor's written biography on the internet where the claim is made that "[the professor's] book presents an edition, translation and . . . commentary" of the treatise.
>
>
>
Again, this does not strictly imply that you were not also an author. Whether this is okay may depend upon how formal the document is. If it is formal enough to give bibliographic citations, then your name should certainly be included in the bibliography.
>
> Should the professor mention my name in connection with the translation in such a circumstance? If so, how do I go about getting the professor to do this?
>
>
>
Is this biography written by the professor or by someone else? If it's by someone else, you should just send them the bibliographic reference, perhaps accompanied by an electronic copy of the title page of the book.
>
> should mention that the professor has done many collaborative projects and in every case other than our book, the other collaborators are mentioned in the biography. Also, there is a long history of my having to remind this professor to acknowledge my work. Before our book was published, the professor gave a conference paper on the treatise and didn't mention that I had translated it. When I call it to the professor's attention, the professor said it was an oversight. The next time it happened and I mentioned it to the professor, I was told that the project could have been done without me. Every time it has come up, there is a new excuse.
>
>
>
That sounds horrible, and there is no doubt that the professor is behaving inappropriately. "[T]he project could be have been done without [you]" is by no means a justification for not including a coauthor's name! No reputable academic would accept that answer.
>
> My question is whether it is worth pursuing since my name is on the title page of the book itself as a co-translator and other scholars will see it there. It really bothers me that the professor is claiming credit for my work by omitting my name.
>
>
>
You raise a key point: you've described various venues in which your coauthorship was not mentioned, I believe inappropriately, but these are all rather informal. As I mentioned above, academics are very formal when it comes to bibliographic issues. When the work is cited in other academic works, both you and your professor's names appear, right? (If the work is not cited in other academic works, after this many years it might be best to let it go.) So I don't think there's a serious risk of loss of your academic reputation. (Note that you don't say whether you are currently an academic, so the consequences of a loss of academic reputation to you are a little unclear.)
Honestly, I think you should do something else if and only if you are very upset with the professor. If so, I would begin by writing to him along the lines of the current message: remind him of the facts of the situation, tell him that his behavior has been distressing to you for many years, and tell him that you want your name mentioned along with his. Be prepared for that not to go very well, of course. If it doesn't, well then you can fight webpages with webpages: you can make a webpage where you describe the situation in enough detail to firmly convince a reader that you are in the right. I *have* occasionally seen such webpages by academics, and if they are done well they certainly have an effect on the community's views. They also reveal to the entire world how upset the writer is with the situation, so definitely think several times before engaging in this.
Upvotes: 3
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2016/09/01
| 812
| 3,357
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<issue_start>username_0: I have the idea to commission a local artist to make an artistic version of a couple of figures I often use for presentations, and that I would probably use for my thesis cover. The figures does not present any numbers, but rather conveys the general idea behind the work (subject area is theoretical chemistry). The artist does not have an online portfolio, but a lot of his work is probably best described as "kind of abstract, bad for people who suffers from trypophobia".
I already know that most of the conservative seniors at my department would think it is a bad idea. Normally we go with quite bland figures and monochrome covers (there is nothing in regulations stating that we can't spice it up though). But I am interested in hearing what you would think, if you saw such a thing, a bit out of the ordinary.
I would, by the way, probably pay him out of my own pocket, as I don't think my grant includes art money. And I am perfectly fine with that.<issue_comment>username_1: It's your thesis, and so long as the work --- including the cover ---conforms to the requirements set down by your institution, then I see no problem with it. Yes, you might upset some of the more conservative of your colleagues, but if you continue in research no doubt you will in future perturb the status quo again.
The only concern I have is whether such an unconventional decoration would influence a grader. However, I suspect you are considering the final version of the thesis, after any corrections set down by your examiners, so this isn't an issue.
Naturally, you should give credit to your artist.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: If everything fine by the standards of your advisor, then it would be fine to include the artwork. Also consider including the artist in our acknowledgements section. It should be completely acceptable for your presentations.
Your thesis is graded for your academic content. Your figures are added to illustrate concepts. If the idea and the concepts behind the figure itself is yours then worry not for the critic of others. As long as those figures are not copyrighted or published by another author, it should be alright to include them in your thesis.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: I see no problem when it comes to presentations (eg on the first slide to give the general idea). As long as the "corporate design" of the academic institution is still recognizable. Otherwise slide 2 or 3 would work.
Thesis cover might work as well, as long as it's within regulations (eg cover not nitpickingly specified). And as long as there isn't even a hint that you want to put style over substance. Also, conform when it comes to the spine. If the thesis is in a library as physical copy, it's the spine that counts (and should look the same way as the rest). The cover is invisible.
As for figures to actually convey data in the thesis, I'd stick to the convention. There are reasons -- beyond a departments preference -- why graphs look the way they do. Any fluff is clutter that has no place in a scientific diagram. The primary aim is to argue, not to entertain.
But yeah, go for the cover. Reminds me of [Randy Pausch's ("Last Lecture") story about the color image in a article ("Are there allowed to do that?!?!")](https://youtu.be/ji5_MqicxSo?t=1710).
Upvotes: 2
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2016/09/02
| 1,144
| 4,828
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<issue_start>username_0: I reviewed an article for a journal, suggesting some revisions. The authors made revisions and now the journal has asked me to do a second round of reviewing. As well as the revised manuscript, the journal also sent me the report written about the original submission by the other referee of the paper.
I'm not a very experienced reviewer. This is the first time I've got to see someone else's report on a paper I've reviewed. When writing my report about the revised paper, am I allowed to discuss or respond to the other reviewer's comments? (When I've received referee reports on my own revised manuscripts, I've never seen referees discussing each other's opinions.)
In this case, reviewer 2 and myself wrote very similar reports, with reviewer 2 being a bit harsher. There is however one point in reviewer 2's report that I'd like to reply to directly. They criticise the authors' results X because they don't also show Y. Showing Y at the same time as X has been a long-standing goal in our field. But nobody has ever succeeded, and recent studies suggest that probably X doesn't imply Y after all. The authors do a poor job of defending themselves. There was no mention of Y in the original submission and I didn't mention it in my report either.
In general, is it okay to write in a referee report "The other referee says... but actually...". Or should it be in a separate comment to the editor? Or should I try to rephrase so that I'm responding to the authors instead of the other referee (not easy in this case).
Maybe I'm overthinking this, but it seems to me (i) I'm supposed to be reviewing the paper, not reviewing the other referee, and (ii) if this should go to yet another round of revision, it shouldn't develop into an argument between the referees!<issue_comment>username_1: >
> In general, is it okay to write in a referee report "The other referee says... but actually...".
>
>
>
No, it's not okay, don't do it: referee reports are not forums of discussion between reviewers, they lack the mechanism for an efficient discussion, and it's the authors' duty to defend themselves. In addition, after the second round of reviews, reviewer 2 would probably not have any chance to reply to your remarks.
If you really feel that the second reviewer made a totally wrong comment, maybe you can report this as a comment to the editor, but take into account that the editor might choose to ignore it.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: Review are not an appropriate location for a direct argument between the referees.
There are, however, appropriate ways to respond to what you see as a mistake by the other referee.
* First, you can make a clear statement of the positive value in the paper, *implicitly* contrasting with the other referee. For example, in this case, you can simply talk about how significant and publishable the authors work on X is. If they now mention Y in their paper, you can note that you are not concerned about it, for the reasons that you stated above. In your open review, keep it purely about the paper.
* Second, however, every review form comes with a place for confidential comments to the editor. This is the appropriate place for you to respond directly to the comments of the other referee, saying things like "I think Reviewer #2 was too harsh, because...", since it is the editor's job to synthesize the disagreements of reviewers into a decision on the paper.
Finally, you probably don't have to sweat it too hard: since the paper wasn't rejected after the first round, that usually means the editor thinks it has the potential for publication, with appropriate revision.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: If the editor sent you the other referees' reports, it clearly means that you are expected to take them into account if you wish so. Otherwise, the editor simply wouldn't have made these other reports available to you.
Your duty is to the editor (and science, but this is more philosophical). Your report is addressed to the editor, not the author. Your goal is to let the editor, who may not be an expert about every single aspect of the paper or the field in general, have the clearest view of what the paper's strengths, weaknesses, contributions to the field, novelty... are.
If that includes clearing up possible misconceptions brought up in other referees' reports, then clear them up. Do it diplomatically and use all oratory precautions you deem necessary - a frontal attack is rarely convincing - but do it. If I were in your shoes, I wouldn't explicitly contradict the other referee, but I would definitely say something about how Y is something important but that its precise relationship with X has been a long-standing problem, paraphrasing (and quoting) the studies you mention.
Upvotes: 2
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2016/09/02
| 954
| 4,129
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<issue_start>username_0: So after all these crazy days of trying to finish my application and encouraging professors to finish the letters of recommendations (LORs) for me, there is the next thing - my professor sent the letter of recommendation (which he had to send just to the institution) also to me. I think he did it unknowingly, but now I am stressed again, because I should not know the content of the letter of course. I didn't open it, but this situation is quite crazy. If I can see that he sent it to two recipients, it stands to reason that the another recipient can see it too.
Uhh. Does someone know what should I do now?
EDIT: It was a letter related to the grant application<issue_comment>username_1: I have, on many occasions, received references/letters of recommendation from academics with their student copied in.
Some do it as a matter of course for transparency so that students know what's being said about them or to confirm that they have actually done it (profs are notoriously bad at getting refs in on time!). And some do it in error.
In the cases I have experienced, this hasn't been an issue at all. What is at stake, at least immediately, is the quality of the reference, not whether or not the student knows its content.
Unless there are some very stringent rules in place at the receiving institution, I think that this is a non-issue.
It would also be worth bearing in mind that, depending upon your jurisdiction, the content of references (ie personal data) may actually be admissible upon request. See the [University of Reading guidance](https://www.reading.ac.uk/internal/imps/DataProtection/DataProtectionGuidelines/Writingreferences/imps-d-p-references-dp.aspx) on this in the UK. So references aren't necessarily private anyway.
The only real issue I can foresee is if the content of the reference isn't great and your place to be declined. Although this one is up to you how you respond.
In answer to your question, if you are really concerned, I would suggest you send your professor an email to thank them for the reference and casually/politely to ask whether it is normal practice to cc the student in to these kinds of letters. The prof will then hopefully give you their view.
I would advise against contacting the receiving institution as you might risk sounding a bit silly/panicky (sorry!).
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_2: Recommendation letters are typically part of your academic records, which you have access to, unless you specifically waive your right to review them. If your letter writer wished to keep the letter confidential, he would have requested you to do so.
It sounds as though he sent you a copy of the letter as a courtesy. You are free to read it or not as you wish.
In my experience, knowing the letter contents is much more common than not in the academic application process. I've both reviewed letters written for me as well as effectively written letters myself for the recommender to review and send. Only once have I had someone request confidentiality.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: When I was applying for scholarship/grant there were some universities that needed me to provide email of referee OR to send them a sealed LOR by mail. But I think almost every one mentioned that the email/mail should be confidential. If that is the case then they may ask you to provide other referee rejecting this one. If they have not mentioned that it should be sealed or only to email then they can ignore it.
So mainly depends on the system followed.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: What you should do is delete the email you were sent without reading the letter, including deleting it from your deleted folder and all other copies that might have been made.
(Unlike, it seems, others here, in my experience there is a very strong expectation that you do *not* have access to your references.)
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_5: I never write a reference for anyone without showing them a copy. I would never say something about the person to a third party that I was not prepared to tell them to their face.
Upvotes: 3
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2016/09/02
| 1,384
| 5,627
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<issue_start>username_0: As the title states, I don't have Computer Science background (B.A. in Business Administration and Master of Social Work) but would like to do PhD in Computational Social Science (Data analysis or Information sci).
There are master programs, mostly professional programs, admit students from whole range of areas, such as Computational Analytics and Public Policy from U of Chicago or QMSS from Columbia.
But PhD programs don't. Although PhD programs state on their website that they accept students regardless of their backgrounds, it means that they accept students from mathematics, statistics, or linguistics, but not from Social Work.
My interest is solving social issues by using computational approach. I have taken MOOC courses, such as Linear Algebra and Statistics with R, and I learned R and Python(both intermediate). I also have been working as RA in ICT in Bangladesh project.
To me, it becomes clearer that what PhD programs want is those who have solid CS knowledge and the idea of doing PhD seems to be so unrealistic.
Is it really impossible to do PhD in Data Sci or Info Sci without direct/indirect CS knowledge? If it is possible what should I do?<issue_comment>username_1: After going through the admission criteria of a couple of universities, what I can summarize about eligibility for PhD in Computational Social Science is the following (they nearly all state the exactly the same points).
* Degree in any one of CS or SS and relevant fields
* At least one UG course in calculus
* *Knowledge* in computer programming language preferably object based
* Bachelors in biological sciences are accepted provided additional courses in CS or SS are taken.
* Others common for PhD applications in general (LoR, GRE/TOEFL, etc.)
If you go by the above criteria, you ought to get admitted. You may lack other *preferences* that the institution is looking for. Some may feel that it would take more effort for an non-CS to learn SS than the other way around. Seeing as you stated you do have the skills required, if you are certified in them, you may mail the concerned professors (prospective advisors) of the institution to get a better idea about you taking the program.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Based on your question and your comments ([this](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/76200/is-it-possible-to-do-phd-in-computational-social-science-without-cs-background?noredirect=1#comment185542_76200) and [that](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/76200/is-it-possible-to-do-phd-in-computational-social-science-without-cs-background?noredirect=1#comment185543_76203)), I do think you need to take more math and statistics before you apply for PhD. I don't think *MOOC courses, such as Linear Algebra and Statistics with R* are enough for you to be considered qualified to get into good Computational Social Science programs (You didn't even taken Calculus).
I would suggest you to apply for an MS in computer science first. Once you receive formal and rigorous math and CS trainings, then you apply for Computational Social Science PhD programs. You will have much better chance to get in first or second tier schools this way.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: Although the above comments are proposing to begin with MSc in computer science, I think that it comes back to your motivation and interest for doing the PhD work. As a real story, you can see the story of <NAME> who studied anthropology, then changed to Data science in PhD and finally get a highly ranked job in Google [For Today’s Graduate, Just One Word: Statistics](http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/06/technology/06stats.html?_r=0) , [Quora discussion about her](https://www.quora.com/How-could-Carrie-Grimes-get-into-Stanford-PhD-in-statistics-with-a-bachelor-in-anthropology).
I knew about the difficult task that you'll confront in your PhD at this major, but you save time and money for yourself.
Before the beginning of your decision, take some online course (or tests) in calculus and specially in statistics to know your abilities. The computational social science deeply depends on network science techniques that is totally correspondent to statistics, probability and computer algorithms knowledge.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_4: **Yes**, although having a background that involves computing methods (ex. computer science, GIS, statistics, etc.) will make you a stronger candidate.
Computational Social Science is still a very new field. If you look at the CV's of the big names in the discipline very few of them come from a computer science background. It is much more common to see things like geography (Crooks), physics (Grimm), political science (Axelrod, Epstein), and sociology (Carley, Gilbert). Most of the methods in computational social science are not extremely complex to code so computer science skills are not really a barrier to entry.
As always, the best way to resolve the question is to reach out the universities and departments you are looking to study with. Very few universities are offering the degree and [George Mason](http://www.css.gmu.edu/?q=node/43) is the only really big name program I can think of off the top of my head. They prefer that student come from either a computer science or a social sciences background which generally seems to be the trend. You may also want to look into various social sciences departments to see if they have anyone interested in computational social science since they might be able to guide you to a PhD in Social Science using computational social science methods.
Upvotes: 0
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2016/09/02
| 653
| 2,888
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<issue_start>username_0: I am an undergraduate student in Computer Science. I asked a supervisor for thesis and he must still send me the first materials for starting. The actual supervisor hasn't yet even told me exactly what I must do and is waiting for me to return from my Erasmus to start. In the meanwhile I discovered that another supervisor is doing something that interests me more. The research area is what I would like to study also in my graduate studies. Is it a problem if I change my supervisor at this point?
Thank you in advance for your answers<issue_comment>username_1: For the universities I'm familiar with, changing either supervisor and/or topic is possible, at least before you have started. I know of cases where the student has changed both topic and supervisor mid-way through their thesis as well, however, I can only say i would not recommend this. It's best you do something you are interested in.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: The relationship between a research supervisor and student is a relationship between consenting adults. While local cultures may differ somewhat between institutions, the general rule in academia is that you may change supervisors if doing so will advance your own training and professional objectives.
Indeed, changing early --- before the research relationship has even properly begun --- is the best time for everyone concerned. A supervisor/mentor could legitimately be annoyed, or worse, if you leave after s/he has invested substantially in you, and still has little to show for it.
There are at least two important questions to consider, however: *whether* you should change supervisors, and *how* you go about it.
On *whether*: the best source for information about supervisors is the community of other students, especially those further along in the program, including especially those who are current or former supervisees of your prospective mentor. If it is possible to do so, try first to contact some of these students and ask, "What is Dr. X like to work for? Any problems?" Do your research first, before switching.
On *how*: Mentors are human beings, too, and may not enjoy a perceived rejection. So: first make absolutely sure you have the new mentor's approval to join their group. Then, let the old mentor know. If possible, have this conversation in person, not via email. Emphasize the new mentor's research interests and how they match yours; even if part of the reason for the switch is the old mentor's shortcomings, you need not emphasize those unless pressed.
Good luck.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: Its your choice, your free will, your interest. Just do it before it gets too late to change. Changing supervisor doesn't matter unless your university have different rules.
but a good decision for your future now is better for your future studies.
Upvotes: 0
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2016/09/02
| 738
| 3,203
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<issue_start>username_0: In February-2016, I have undertaken my thesis. That was the topic proposed by my supervisor on my request. I started to work on the project and finding that I am actually short of various topics/knowledge(theoretical and practical). I still contacted the supervisor and he passed me in my lab and told me to continue the work.
The last date of my thesis submission is 2016–09–15.
I have been started to have a feeling that I wouldn’t be able to complete the thesis. Coz, my previous knowledge is not sufficient to complete the lab-project and hence the thesis.
What would be the consequence if I am unable to submit the thesis?
What would be the most appropriate measure I should take to save my thesis/career/semester/grade and so on?<issue_comment>username_1: The key question that you need to answer is "why".
If there are serious, unforeseeable circumstances that have effected your ability to progress with your research and/or submit on time (such as illness), then you should refer to your institution's policy and guidance on applying for an extension, mitigating circumstances etc. Hopefully these will be considered and you will be granted an extension or a late submission will be accepted without penalty.
Some institutions also accept work-related circumstances as mitigating.
If it's down to poor planning, failing to adhere to your supervisor's advice or meet key milestones, bad luck etc, then, alas, it's unlikely that you will be granted any kind of dispensation to submit late. Nonetheless, I'd advise you contact your supervisor to let them know the situation in the hope that they will help you unpick the situation.
In all circumstances, I'd suggest you talk to your supervisor as soon as possible or another adviser who might be able to help.
EDIT: Let this be a lesson to future readers - always ask for help sooner rather than later if you find yourself running into trouble and fear missing a deadline. Two weeks before due date isn't going to cut it.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: I just finished my master thesis. Let me put in my two cents.
Usually the first thing you should do is to talk to your supervisor. Before the commencement of supervision there is usually a signed contract that ensures supervisors to commit to supervise you and help you finish your thesis before the deadline. He has responsibility to help you. Of course, you should still take the responsibility to try your best and communicate with your supervisor because it is your thesis.
I met the same situation two months before my deadline, and fortunately my supervisor crafted the research topic broad enough, so I can lower my goals and still fulfill the requirement of the initial project proposal. Certainly it made me a little bit frustrated.
Secondly, if you can't finish your thesis on time due to some pardonable reasons, you usually can extend the deadline for a few more weeks. (check the regulation in your department)
In the worst scenario when you failed to communicate with your supervisor, there is usually a proof reader who you can turn to, or you can report to the committee board of your department to intervene the case.
Upvotes: 1
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2016/09/02
| 874
| 3,672
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<issue_start>username_0: I emailed a professor about possible openings for graduate studies in a certain research group and he answered me like this:
>
> Your background looks great. Unfortunately, I recently recruited a graduate student. I have been working on grant proposals. If they get funded, I will have money to support more students. I will let you know, if plan changes.
>
>
>
How should i answer this email?
Is it polite to wish him luck? or should I send a simple thank you for reading my resume? or combining both and also saying that I "look forward to hearing from you" or something in that matter? It's really important for me to make a good impression.
(I am not a native speaker by the way)<issue_comment>username_1: You're probably overthinking this... The professor's response looks like a polite refusal. If I were you I wouldn't get my hopes up.
If you're really intent on answering I would just say something like "Thank you for your time, and good luck for your grant proposals." but I would get out of my head the idea that if I make a "good impression" I would have a chance of getting in the program. (If I really were you I'm not even sure I would answer, not out of spite of course, but simply because it would be an unnecessary email that would waste both my time and the professor's time... I doubt the professor would notice a lack a response. Though a "thank you" never hurt anyone.)
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: "Take a number and get in line." Congratulate him on finding money for one student, and on finding the one student. Wish him luck on finding more money and more students and express your hope that you could be one of them.
Basically, you want to "mirror" his language. He has expressed goodwill to the point of saying "I like you, even though you were not my earlier choice." Make it plain that you want to work with him even though you will be "one of several."
Hopefully, your will be his nth choice for some number n, and he will have (at least) n slots open. The more successful you are in the communication, the higher ranked (lower n) you will be.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: If you do not need funding, and are simply looking for someone to guide your study and research, make that clear in your response. My reading of his email is that he would be interested in taking you on as a student if it weren't that he doesn't currently have the funds to support your study.
Now let's consider the case where you *do* need the funding. Even in this case, you may want to start building an advisor-student relationship on an informal basis with him over email (subject to his continued interest in you, of course), especially if you have a strong feeling that this person may be the right advisor for you. In this case, you could dip a toe in the water by, for example, asking about choice of courses for fall, or by sharing an article you found interesting, and a couple sentences about possible further work that could be done based on that article.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_4: I would reply briefly to make clear that you are interested in receiving the information that was offered (if this is the case). Something like:
>
> Thank you for the positive feedback and the kind offer to inform me about potential possibilities in the future, which I appreciate.
>
>
>
I would not wish him good luck. It does not add much if received well yet could be taken in a wrong way. But really I think it does not matter all that much.
The point is just that if you do not reply at all it might be taken as disinterest in the offer to be informed about future possibilities.
Upvotes: 0
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2016/09/02
| 970
| 4,460
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<issue_start>username_0: I'm working in chemical engineering field and being mathematician and programmer I'm conducting simulations and mathematical modeling problem solving. Basically the battery processes simulations. There is a problem with my chemists colleagues who can't really help in theory regarding the processes inside of batteries that needs to be modeled. The question is, is it my responsibility to learn chemistry, electrochemistry etc in order to be able to build the math model of the processes by myself not relying on chemists? What is the general practice in this case in the world? Or do people in other research groups and/or universities hire mathematician-chemists specialists for this purpose?
I'm kind of being blamed for making slow progress and I feel like I don't fit into this group as not knowing chemistry field. Publications though can be made using commercial software but ideally I want to be able to build the model of the battery without relying on other software that does it for you, as it is introducing some restrictions.<issue_comment>username_1: There are two aspects to your situation.
First, there's the working relationship. If fingers are getting pointed, or if you're getting the feeling that there might be, that is a red flag. I can't say whether your comment is a reflection of natural anxiety or whether the people you're trying to work with are not as supportive as one would like. But this is something for you to think about. Your own well-being is an important factor in any working relationship and I am glad to see some indications in your Question that you are taking this seriously.
Second is what you explicitly asked about. If you enjoy mathematical modeling, it is wise to give careful attention to the choice of application area. Is this field something you have a natural interest in? Do you enjoy delving into this application area? Perhaps this would be a good time for you to do some brainstorming and jot down two lists of application areas, those that appeal to you naturally, and those that don't.
It may be that this is not the right field of application for you. Or maybe it is, but you'd benefit from working with more collaborative or better prepared colleagues. Or maybe you need to assert yourself more with these people, and have more frequent conversations with them about the underlying science you would like to model.
Perhaps that last sentence gives you a place to start. As those conversations take place, the rest may become clear.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: **Yes, absolutely - up to a point.**
You do not need to be the world's greatest expert on the subject matter, but you will need to know enough to participate in the research process and make suggestions. If your role as an applied mathematician is "Subject matter expert gives you equations to solve, you apply numerical method," that is consulting, not modeling or research. Here are some things where more subject matter knowledge improves the life of both applied mathematicians and their collaborators:
With more chemistry knowledge you can know
* What approximations could be appropriate? What information do your collaborators really need?
* Do the results you have make sense? Being able to determine simple checks and analytic test cases yourself will save a lot of time.
* If you can answer this question, what is the likely next question?
* If the suggestion your collaborators gave you has a typo - this is obvious with more subject knowledge, but can be missed.
* When you report on your work (papers, talks) - you can be specific about why it is important
I have worked in many math/[other science] collaborations, and a very common failure mode is that a math student takes a couple of weeks, and comes back with a single result, with an error that could have been caught. Or that the student mis-interprets a suggestion, and it takes a long time to clear up. Or that the student spends a month optimizing a calculation that is only relevant to an order of magnitude. All of this happens a lot, and the best solution is more subject knowledge!
I do not know if this is happening with you. But if you are modeling a chemistry process, you will either need to learn a good amount of the chemistry, or you will need a more well-defined problem at the beginning. And as a modeler, you presumably know that defining the problem well is half of the battle!
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]
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2016/09/02
| 769
| 3,283
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<issue_start>username_0: Data are available publicly on several websites e.g. icpsr, databank, UK Data Archive. I am seeking guidelines, references and examples about using these open data for research. In other words, I want to publish a paper based on analyzing some publicly available datasets. Do I need permission first or they are available actually for me to use them in my research ?<issue_comment>username_1: A public data set is just that: public. They have been made available for the specific purpose of being used by other people.
Thus, you generally do not need permission, but you *will* need to appropriately cite the source of the dataset, thereby giving appropriate credit to its originators. For a well-curated collection, you can find appropriate citation information embedded within either the "packaging" or metadata of the dataset or at the online source where you obtain it.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: It's hard to speak in generalities: each database will be different.
Databases normally will have some sort of usage agreement associated with them. For example, [DrugBank](http://www.drugbank.ca/) posts the following prominently on their front page:
>
> DrugBank is offered to the public as a freely available resource. Use
> and re-distribution of the data, in whole or in part, for commercial
> purposes (including internal use) requires a license. We ask that
> users who download significant portions of the database cite the
> DrugBank paper in any resulting publications.
>
>
>
Other databases may not be as up-front about the limitations. Instead, they may have a usage page accessible somewhere on their website. (Usually there's a link in the header or footer.) For example, the NCBI provides their usage disclaimer at the bottom of each page, under a [Polices and Guidelines](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/home/about/policies.shtml) link. Likewise, the UK Data Archive provides guidance under a [Terms and Conditions](http://www.data-archive.ac.uk/conditions/) link at the bottom of the website.
Other resources may have limitations that apply per-dataset. ICPSR looks to be of this type. If you download the "Codebook" for each dataset, near the front there should be a "Terms of Use Statement", which may just be a link to a page. Here's the one for the [2010 US Census Data](http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/ICPSR/studies/34753/terms), most of which is limitations on redistributing the data. But other may have requirements regarding publishing and citation.
---
If I had to summarize, though, public data repositories are generally fine with you publishing academic work which makes use of their data - that's why they're providing it in the first place! Conditions on publishing, when present, are generally involved with to requiring appropriate citation, or things like not trying to de-anonymize personal data (both of which you should be adhering to anyway). The non-trivial usage restrictions tend to revolve more around redistribution of the data sets, either by as-is or in processed forms.
That said, you can't make any general statements about usage - each database will have it's own terms and conditions, most of which should be easily available from the same location you obtain the data.
Upvotes: 2
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2016/09/03
| 333
| 1,478
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<issue_start>username_0: For papers in disciplines where the authors are alphabetized, how does one decide which author of a paper to contact for more information? Suppose for the sake of argument that one doesn't know any of the authors even by reputation, so it's impossible to decide that way.<issue_comment>username_1: Some journals allow the authors to nominate a corresponding author and it's usually determined by a little envelope icon next to their name in the paper or on the journal's webpage. If you don't have this information, you might want to check which of the authors is still in academia (as opposed to, say, a graduate student who moved on to industry) and whether you have current contact info. Among those, just pick randomly.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: Purely alphabetical author-list conventions and no designated contact author tends to show up in theoretical fields that usually have fairly short author lists.
As such, if you're going to contact the authors and don't know which to contact, why not put them all in the "To" line of your email?
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: I agree with what username_2 said. That's what I usually do - I simply contact all the authors at the same time. In certain papers, it's sometimes obvious which part of the article was written by which author if you look at the other publications of the authors. In that case, you can probably decide more easily who to contact.
Upvotes: 3
|
2016/09/03
| 590
| 2,486
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<issue_start>username_0: I am a [deferred action](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deferred_Action_for_Childhood_Arrivals) student, meaning that I apply for in-state resident tuition but I am not a US citizen (non-permanent resident).
I have a work card that allows me to work like any other citizen and pay taxes accordingly.
However, due to me being a non-citizen, I'm concerned that I may not be able to receive funding for PhD. My family does not have a lot of money and we spent a lot of money for my undergrad education (I don't qualify for FAFSA either) so without financial aid, I'm not able to attend graduate school. Even with my part-time job, most of my earnings went into paying for GRE and application fees.
Do university departments offer financial aid to non-citizens (but not international) as well? Most of the departments I saw state that they offer guaranteed funding through the 5th year of a student's PhD but do not explicitly say if it's available to students such as myself.<issue_comment>username_1: It depends on what field you want to study. But, I would guess that in almost all instances, you qualify for teaching and research assistantships just as much as any other citizen. I personally know several international Ph.D students in science and engineering who are supported either by teaching assistantships or research assistantships, at many different public and private institutions across the United States. I myself am one of them! So generally I would say that the answer to the question in your title is "probably yes", but you will have to make sure in a case-by-case basis.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: The most common kinds of funding for PhD students in the US are research assistantships and teaching assistantships. Typically neither of these types of funding have rules about the citizenship status of the student. These types of funding would provide a DACA PhD student with tuition and a stipend for living expenses.
Some prestigious, higher paying fellowships offered by the federal government would not be available to a DACA student. For example, the NSF GRFP requires permanent residency. The NDSEG, being funded by the military, requires citizenship or national status.
On a broader note, if you cannot get financial aid including a stipend, you should not get a PhD. If the university thinks you will be a good PhD student, they will be willing to pay you. This advice does not apply to professional degrees.
Upvotes: 2
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2016/09/03
| 1,237
| 5,615
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<issue_start>username_0: I work for an organization that has some research restrictions -- for instance, we do not allow non-employees to have direct data access for security purposes.
I recently invited an academic collaborator to work with me on a new (social science) project that may get launched. It would involve data collection from a non-profit. The plan was for the non-profit to send the data to my organization. My potential academic collaborator and I were in very early talks over the ideas and direction of the overall project when I mentioned the data restrictions. His response was that not having direct data access is unacceptable (although I offered to try to facilitate an on site visit) and as such, he is going to directly contact the non-profit, thereby eliminating me and my organization from the project.
The original contact was made by another employee at my organization, meaning that he would have not had access to the non-profit without me.
My gut reaction is that this behavior is unprofessional and unethical. My understanding was that many organizations restrict data access to give preference to their employees, so that this restriction is not unreasonable. My question is whether others agree regarding 1) those restrictions and 2) the ethics of this professor's behavior. Thanks.
>
> Added:
> A follow-up question, given the response below, is whether we have any obligation (ethical or otherwise) to keep the academic on the project. We built the relationship with the non-profit for months prior to contacting the academic, so I certainly would feel comfortable moving forward with the non-profit on another idea (and possibly this one, if the logic holds on both directions).
>
>
><issue_comment>username_1: There is nothing unethical about this. You approached a researcher with an idea for a future project, which you both agreed would be a good idea. However, your employment situation makes it impossible to meet the potential collaborators entirely reasonable demands. (I would probably not get involved in any research project in which I could not, in principle, have access to the underlying data. I might never need to see it, but if there is some kind of problem, I would definitely want to be able to look at the raw data for myself and draw my own conclusions.)
Having suggested the research project but been unable to come to an agreement about how it should proceed, you are in a tricky situation. The other researcher has no obligation not to pursue the project without you or your employer. I would not consider it a particularly friendly thing to do, but there is no ethical problem. Your original idea should be acknowledged in the final publications (or whatever) based on this research, but that is as far as your contribution may go.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Whether or not you agree with the conduct of the academic, it seems the issue boils down to a non-profit interested in having their data used in some academic and beneficial way. If you have had contact for months and built a relationship with the organization, and a random person (from their perspective), contacts them with a proposal to do the same research you have been in talks with, I doubt they would not say anything to you. Rather, you can discuss the issue with them, propose that your organization alone has access to the data, and ignore what the failed collaboration would have been. If they want to pursue both opportunities, you can suggest your potential collaborator work together, where both your organization and the collaborator have direct access to the data. If they send a proposal to the organization around you, and use your proposal as the basis, you may be in a plagiarism situation. However, I would be cautious to jump to that conclusion, and even if this was the case, I imagine the non-profit would notice this and discuss it with you.
In the end, I would hope the academic you refer to would find his/her direct access to the data a method for everyone to collaborate. If not, based on the track record you described with the non-profit, the academic will not be able to pursue a research project with them without your knowledge/acknowledgement.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: I suggest you work within the hierarchy of your organization to make an exception to the policy that prevents non-employees to have direct data access, because in this case, it is not your organization's data. I think this is the underlying ethical problem. I personally would not feel it ethical to participate in this type of imbalance of power relationship.
If you respect the independent researcher, then please trust that his or her continued involvement with your proposal will be a good litmus test for the ethical validity of the project. In other words, if you get the parameters fair and clear enough for the independent researcher to continue his or her involvement, then you need have no qualms about whether your own participation is ethical.
(Not that that was what you explicitly asked.)
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: It seems to me that you need to "reroute" the data. That is, get the non-profit to send the data to the outside researcher's organization instead of yours. Then work with him on the project, riding his "coattails." instead of yours.
A possible solution is to try to get your organization to carve out an exception to the policy because this is really "third party" data, not proprietary. But the other solution may be more workable. In either event, try not to "miss the boat" if you can avoid it.
Upvotes: 0
|
2016/09/04
| 915
| 4,002
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<issue_start>username_0: I have a professor in my university. He has married his PhD supervisor, and students are now making fun out of it as he didn't work on his PhD. Instead they were in relationship and this and that.
I was wondering how this decision affects his academic life. Do people doubt his degree as being softly defended or can people trust the expert knowledge of such a person?
Especially if a student wants him as a supervisor and when the student knows about this, what can be the effects of such a relationship on the student's decision?<issue_comment>username_1: Let us call the professor A, his advisor B. Let T be A's thesis.
If T was finished before the relationship, and the examination rules of the university were complied with, then there is neither a legal nor a moral issue. Don't worry, A writing T and then sleeping having a relationship with B is a non-issue. It's none of our business.
If the examination rules were complied with, but T was not finished at the time point the relationship started, then T lost some of its credibility, and all lost some of their reputation (to an extent which is difficult to quantify without knowing the details): A, B, and the university department. One has a perfect right to doubt the credibility of T, the reputations of A and B, and the status of the university department. Prospective fresh students are right to raise such doubts. However, if nothing else has happened or will happen, the doubts must remain doubts and one should presume innocence.
To restore the reputation of A, of B and of the department and the credibility of T and remove the doubts, the department should evaluate T independently.
To evaluate the qualification of A, a prospective student should evaluate the quality (perhaps also the quantity) of the work of A outside A's collaboration with B.
If the examination rules regarding T were not complied with (e.g., B had a conflict of interest in a sense defined by the rules), one should insist on starting the standard procedure prescribed by the rules of the department.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: This situation would likely be a serious concern for the folks in the department where he graduated and for the first place that gives him a job. They would probably look into it and may or may not take issue with how things are done. Depending on the details it could certainly affect his ability to get a good placement.
Once this person has their first job I would think everyone subsequently will assume that there was no issue and will not care. By the time he is in a position to supervise students, he should also have a track record of work in the field since graduation and things that happened in graduate school are irrelevant. After your first few years of work, your credibility is based on what you have done while working, not on anything that happened in graduate school.
I find it hard to imagine a professor being in a position to supervise a student but the student basing his or her decision in any way on something that happened back in graduate school.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: Latest accomplishments matter
-----------------------------
Just as PhD students are not evaluated based on their high school grades, professors are not evaluated based on their PhD thesis. A PhD thesis is not your peak achievement (well, except right after defending it), it's simply a summary of your *first* serious research that should be superseded with more, better published research as you gain experience.
Any doubts about the "strength" of your thesis defence matter mostly for the purposes of getting your first post-PhD position (e.g. a postdoc placement). But for a *professor* it's mostly irrelevant (unless we're talking beyond simply a weak thesis and suggesting fraud or plagiarism), what matters is the results of their recent research and teaching work. *That* is what indicates their expertise or lack of it, not their thesis or its defense.
Upvotes: 1
|
2016/09/04
| 3,995
| 16,902
|
<issue_start>username_0: Our department is awesome. But every year, I think: "why aren't we getting more awesome applicants? They could be super happy here, and we could do a great job of jump-starting their careers."
Well, this year, I am on the PhD admissions committee.
What can I do to improve the quality of our applicant pool? Of course I realize reputation is a big component, but that is a long-term game (and we are already quite well-ranked by USN&WR I don't think that's the core issue here). I'm wondering more about short-term, actionable, guerilla mercenary acts I can execute in the next few months.
**If you have participated in grad admissions at your university, what (if anything) helped you get more quality applications?**
For reference I'm in North America, in the sciences.<issue_comment>username_1: You could kill two birds with one stone and target underrepresented groups. Make connections with undergraduate student organizations of color. Invite undergrads taking junior level classes in your department to meet with your committee at a barbecue to talk about what they have found most helpful in terms of supporting their academic success. If you ask the question that way, you may get some helpful constructive feedback, without actually inviting them to kvetch.
Make sure your department has an effective community outreach program to K-12 students, and ask them to target underrepresented groups in your town or city. Word will spread.
Co-sponsor, with the engineering department, and a student organization, a showing of the film "Underwater Dreams". Better yet, invite the people involved in making the film to your showing, for a panel discussion after the movie.
Make sure your faculty members' webpages are clear and inviting.
Recruit some peer advisors and give them some online profiles. Make sure the peer advisors have a quick way to get answers from the members of your committee in case there's something they can't answer.
I don't know if women are an underrepresented group in your field, but even if they aren't, make sure you have all the features that make a department women-friendly.
With respect to the GRE comment -- I don't have an opinion about this suggestion, but at least try to come up with an admissions policy that looks at the whole person, and make that policy clear to potential applicants. A public statement along the lines of "we encourage returning students to apply" is a helpful clue to women who have taken a child rearing break.
Make sure you have an undergrad and grad student prize in your department, for example best poster, best thesis, and really celebrate the winners. Feature different student bios on your department website on a rotating basis.
Get some funding for some upper level undergrads to go along to a conference. Set up peer mentoring to make connections between students of different levels.
Make sure there are fun things for students to do together in free time, e.g. soccer or volleyball or Eurogames or whatever your department's students enjoy doing.
Really nice administrative support personnel can do a lot to make a department attractive to students. (For example, "if you have any trouble getting registered for a class you need, let me know".)
Sorry if that was a bit disorganized -- hope these ideas get you thinking.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: I don't think eliminating GRE is helpful at all. Most good students will take the GRE.
From the perspective of someone who applied to graduate schools recently, the main things I looked for were reputation and schools I felt like I had a decent shot at. Also I looked for people I might theoretically want to research with. Another thing I liked was transparency. For example, having numbers. How much is funding, what is the acceptance rate, what are the acceptance statistics, how many graduate and in how many years, what do they end up doing, etc. The school I accepted had all of these things. They said they accepted a decent amount of people, and the ones who graduated all had jobs mostly in academia. That made me feel better about applying. Also, seeing funding information made me feel better. I could check Craigslist for apartments to see if the funding was livable.
I think interacting with individuals might be costly and difficult, but having a good website is not so bad. Make sure you have statistics, faculty profiles, etc. Make sure policies are written clearly. For example policies on quals, etc. While you're at it maybe post previous quals on the website. Make sure a few of the first year classes still have functioning webpages with homework/exams on them. Make sure the application is clearly placed and what is required is clearly written. Applying to grad school is stressful and confusing. The more clear you are the better.
Also an obvious thing is to make the cost of applying reasonable. $100+ application fees is very offputting. But then again too low and everyone regardless of interest or qualifications will apply.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: One method that my department has found to be quite effective
is to make outreach visits to universities.
We have relationships with professors in departments related to our own,
and these professors will often promote or recommend students to our department.
In addition,
colleagues from my department will make visits to other departments.
During these visits, my colleagues will give a short research talk
as well as talk about our department to the audience,
which is mostly undergraduate students in their second or third years.
Given that quite a few of the PhD students admitted to our department
have applied to our department because of these visits,
I would argue that this outreach program has been quite successful.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: You have to specialize. If you can do that, you will be the first choice of those interested in your area of specialization, so the best ones will come.
Today's globalization has created "winner takes it all" markets, and the education market is not so different. In this style of market, the top players get many times more customers than second-tier players, second-tier players do much better than third-tier players, and so on. The differences between the tiers are huge, and each place in the first few tiers of the global market is already occupied. The competition is ferocious.
So currently, you are getting two types of student: A) Those for whom you are accidentally special, e.g. they live in your city and don't want to move, and B) those who dreamed to get into Harvard. A will contain the usual mix of brilliant and average students, while from B, Harvard picked all the chocolate chips from the cookie.
The solution is that you become top player by getting into a niche which has been overlooked. It may be completely new, or it may have 1-2 players which are in it accidentally, so you can beat them easily. Suddenly, you'll start getting applications from C), the students who dream of being in that niche. Not only did you open yourself to a new set of students, but those who know early on what they know, and find out which university offers it, tend to be the best. This is a set of self-selected people who are motivated and effective.
The good thing is that, once your core excellence area builds you a reputation, it rubs off on the whole department. If you are a computer science department and become *the* place to study formal verification methods, many future students will not hear specifically about the formal verification methods, or know what they are. They will have simply heard that there are good people vying for admission at your department, and conclude that they want to go there too.
You asked for short-term tactics, and I'm talking about reputation. But you can certainly start now short-term. The thing to do is to pick your niche right now, and recast your PR material to support it. Maybe even try to make some lightweight changes to teaching to support the new orientation, such as changing the names of existing courses to better show how they are connected to the niche you are going to claim.
By the way, the currently most upvoted answer - attract minorities - is also going in this direction. It suggests that you occupy a social niche, instead of a discipline-based niche. The good thing is that you don't have to choose, you can do both in parallel.
I realize that any good intentions in this direction are likely to get mired in politics and stopped at many levels, so this won't succeed in many cases, unless championed by somebody with sufficient power. This doesn't mean that the answer is wrong, just that it is difficult to do it right.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_5: I'd recommend speaking with your marketing department/office, as it's a question of reaching the right market/audience for your department's subject area and standing.
I have worked on a new PhD programme previously, and we attracted very large number of excellent students; however, very few of them were anywhere near the subject specialism of the core academics available to supervise, so we struggled to recruit.
To remedy this, we went back to the drawing board and thought about 1) who is our ideal student, 2) what are our strengths (eg research activities, access to labs etc), 3) what are our weaknesses (what might turn off a potential student) and 4) what are our competitors other threats.
We also thought about in detail the kinds of subjects that we were able to supervise and came up with a succinct summary of these. And got some funding for a specific topic to shout about too.
In terms of raw tactics, addressing the points above, we did the following:
* Mail campaigns to relevant academic discussion groups (JISC and
ListServ) - to those who accept course announcements.
* Updating website to specify subject area requirements.
* Leaflets/bookmarks advertising the programme that academics can give
to prospective students they bump into at conferences etc.
There's no fancy trickery. Provided that there actually are people out there that are interested and able to study at doctoral level with your department (which is always worth research - avoid confirmation bias!), then it is only a matter of reaching them.
One tip: keep it short and sweet, don't bury the key information in superlative text. They will base their decision to come to you on the information you provide to them, not in how you dress it up!
EDIT: I will also add, we targeted 'in-house' MSc programmes that we felt could produce good candidates as well and set up an informal pathway from one to the other.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_6: As I applied to graduate school (in North America in the sciences) I felt some hesitation applying to the top programs in my field because I was afraid I wasn't the caliber of student they were looking for. This hesitation arose despite my professors being very confident that I was indeed the caliber of student the top programs were looking for. I then decided to apply to many of the top programs in my field (not just because they were the top programs, but because there were specific aspects of the program/department that were attractive to me) and got accepted at most of them. I am now attending the program that was my top choice of the programs I applied to and enjoying, as you put it, a great jump-start to my career.
**This high acceptance rate I had came as a surprise to me** (though not to my professors). I think that's a key aspect for an answer to your question.
I still often wonder if I actually belong in the excellent program I am enrolled in, as do the majority of my classmates (if not all). This is **[impostor syndrome](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impostor_syndrome)**, where high-achieving individuals feel like they don't belong in the circles to which their achievements have brought them. **Impostor syndrome affected me as I was applying to graduate school.** I almost didn't apply to the great programs that I was eventually accepted to because I did not feel like I belonged in such programs, although obviously the admissions committees felt different. I still don't know how I snuck in.
**I believe the great reputation that a top program has may discourage otherwise qualified students from applying to such a program**, precisely because of impostor syndrome and related feelings. Students gets scared away, thinking they have no chance of getting into a program when in fact they are very qualified.
**If you could somehow modify the reputation of your department so that it doesn't seem unachievable to qualified students, I believe you'll get a better applicant pool.** This goes for all top programs, not just yours in particular.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_7: Two suggestions:
1. Advertise on www.jobs.ac.uk and the academictransfer site in Europe.
2. Make a list of unis half a notch down from you and write to the professors telling them you are looking for students, should they have students they could recommend.
A less cheap suggestion --
Get funding. In the UK it is almost unheard of to pay for research based degrees. The expectation is that university gets the funding and pays itself fees and pays the student a tax-free amount that is quite livable. In Europe, students are employees of the university and paid quite well.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_8: Some suggestions moved from comments (if you have an urge to answer this question in a comment, please write an answer, or edit this answer and add your comment here instead. [Comments are not for answers](https://academia.stackexchange.com/help/privileges/comment).):
* Forgo GRE scores and the like (and make it known). That would have gotten me applying, and it is a huge financial investment. - [Davidmh](https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12587/davidmh)
* A summer research program for undergraduates is a good way to build relationships with strong students. Depending on the field, the NSF has funding for this. - [user37208](https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/37208/user37208)
* Exchange students with another Universities in different countries/regions might help. - [<NAME>](https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/51566/mikey-mike)
* If you teach courses, I would recommend showing excerpts of current research papers to your students and spending a bit of time explaining how they could get into research; maybe assign a literature survey for a class assignment in an undergrad course. As an undergrad I wanted to do research but I didn't realize I had access to journals, and I wasn't sure where to start. After a good course I got a taste of what research was like, and it made a big difference in my academic plans. – [jrh](https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/41807/jrh)
* Generous scholarships. Pay people to come, and suddenly you need to weed them out and pick the best because there are too much. – [Michael](https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22213/michael)
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_9: I'll also give a few perspectives as a former applicant. First of all, a key aspect is the demeanour of faculty and PhD students, as they interact with undergraduates at other institutions. To be more specific:
* As an undergrad I went to a few conferences. There I interacted with Professors from a diverse set of departments. Three of them recommended that I should apply to their department's PhD program and that I should e-mail them should I have any questions. I ended up applying to all three of these universities: Two of them I would never have applied at, one because it was relatively lowly ranked and the other because it originally seemed to be out of reach (tier 1).
* In a similar spirit, I occasionally interacted with faculty or PhD students from other departments who left a very bad impression to me, e.g. being extremely arrogant. When I had to choose where to submit my applications (given time and money constraints), I avoided such departments.
* Online media presence is also very important. I learned about many of the Professors whom I thought I would enjoy working with from their blog posts, online video lectures or even twitter activity. Such online presence really showcases the personality and style of individual faculty members, therefore being very informative. Note that the previous point also applies: Some blog posts I came across were extremely condescending and aggressively criticizing work from other labs. I did not apply to such labs.
Also, as others mentioned, one should also try to avoid adding artificial barriers to applicants. For example, I applied as an international student and some universities required a certified "conversion" of grades on my degree to the GPA system. I avoided the hassle by not applying there.
Upvotes: 0
|
2016/09/04
| 825
| 3,813
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<issue_start>username_0: I am an undergraduate student and while I was taking a class I happened to come up with some new concepts contrary to what my professor had told me regarding their possibility.
I have published in other journals but never in IEEE transactions, this could very well give a solid backing to any SOP I would write for my Phd studies. My professor is a Phd and he has various connections and stuff. He was impressed with the work and told me to publish it. However, I have heard that publishing in IEEE transactions is extremely hard: *would including my professor as a co-author, with his doctoral degree, help in the review process?* Not influence it or something, but would they at-least take me seriously? Normally, I don't fret about being published and stuff but to get a good school for Phd it's essential that I have this done. What are your thoughts?<issue_comment>username_1: It doesn't matter.
IEEE Transactions are using **Double-Blind Peer Review**, which means that the author identities are not revealed to the reviewers, and you will not know either the identities of your reviewers.
If you are wondering whether including your professor as a co-author will give you some advantage in the review process, the answer is no. However, He can surely contribute with your paper and help you address the comments of the reviewers, so it's definitely a good idea include him if he wants to be involved.
Good luck!
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: To be an author on a paper means that person has contributed to that paper. Your question as it is phrased is not properly answerable as a person cannot be added to a paper solely for a possible submission advantage.
But we can consider the hypothetical situation where this occurs (as there is nothing physically stopping someone from doing so). I've reviewed a number of papers over the years, and as a human being, I will start with a more positive outlook when reviewing papers whose authors have a consistent history of submitting good work. This is less to do with their listed degrees, but with my personal history of reading or reviewing their papers. This may result in giving them the benefit of the doubt on some issues, if unintentionally. Overall, however, I believe this effect to be minor; a listed well established name does not change whether the work is novel and a contribution or whether that claim is correctly supported. Adding an author in your proposed case will not lessen the chance of rejection.
As an undergraduate with a limited history of publishing papers, it is likely to your advantage to work with this professor to improve your work for a higher chance of acceptance. He should be able to direct you about typical paper contents and, with his greater experience, may be able to point out and help resolve aspects of your concept you have overlooked. This last component is important and worthy of an authorship. I would suggest considering offering a place as second author if he is willing to help you and contribute in this manner.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: Adding your professor as a co-author in name only won't help from the perspective of being taken more seriously in the review process.
Including your professor as a genuine co-author will almost certainly help in that your professor has a lot more experience in writing papers, knows how to write in a scientific way, how much background to include, what previous work by others is relevant, which results to highlight, how to format the paper so that it meets the requirements of the journal and is enjoyable for experts to read, and how to engage constructively with the review process. And don't under-estimate them: they might even have some scientific insights to add to your own.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]
|
2016/09/04
| 783
| 3,276
|
<issue_start>username_0: Are pure mathematicians, e.g., Algebraists, Number Theorists, Geometers, and Topologists, at good U.S. research universities expected to win research grants to fund their work, in order to gain tenure and be promoted?
I see a lot of questions here on Academia SE that talk about the need to win grant-funding, in order to survive in academia, but I'm not sure whether that applies to pure math professors.<issue_comment>username_1: At my large R1 state university in the U.S., it might be impossible to get tenure without having an active grant at the time, even with an otherwise excellent record, since mathematics faculty disinterested (or hostile to whatever the specialty or person in question might be) would use this as grounds for doubting the quality. After all, supposedly, all the best people are funded. Supposedly, endorsement by the NSF (or NSA) is an external, objective test of quality. This is certainly a convenient assumption for arguments in certain directions. EDIT: and since a strong super-majority is needed for a "positive" tenure vote, even irrational ranting can sway otherwise uninformed or disinterested people to scuttle the vote.
Issues of external funding are apparently even more identified with research activity by engineers (and experimental scientists), who often dominate the college-wide tenure (and promotion) committees. That is, it is sometimes apparently unimaginable that a person would be doing research without a grant.
Further, at my university, in other hard-science departments, often large grants are allowed to "buy out" faculty from any teaching at all. This is rare in my math department. EDIT: thus, in the minds of some engineers, "teaching" is stigmatized, since in their own depts it's only the disenfranchised who have to do any of it. And then there're the wildly different paper-count standards for experimental science/engineering versus mathematics.
The literal "funding of research" usually is less critical, apart from the expense of travelling to conferences, and extra summer salary.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: The expectation was clearly there in all three places I've been so far though the extent to which it was crucial varied a lot. From my perspective, it looks like the external funding is most crucial at the top tier places (where most people around just happen to have it, so why not you?) and at the bottom tier places (where the administration just doesn't understand any measurement units but dollars, so to sell somebody without a grant to the dean may be quite a headache) but not so crucial in the middle.
The good part about pure math. is that the grant support is not essential for performing the routine duties (you do not need to finance a lab, or anything else like that), and getting tenure is just a once in the lifetime event, so you do not need to be in a constant jeopardy as far as getting external funding is concerned. The bad part is that it looks like on top of general budget cuts, the NSF is currently also trying to give big chunks of money to few people instead of supporting more researchers (especially the young ones) with smaller amounts, so getting an NSF grant in pure math. gets harder and harder.
Upvotes: 3
|
2016/09/05
| 936
| 3,852
|
<issue_start>username_0: For my graduate studies my supervisor was assigned to me without me having spoken to him first. Now I am wondering if I should introduce myself via e-Mail and then ask for an appointment, or keep it short and ask for an appointment specifically to introduce myself. I don't want to waste his time or appear rude.<issue_comment>username_1: I would send mail suggesting you think it might be helpful to meet, just to get to know each other, and ask if your supervisor might suggest a time that's convenient.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: You can write email to him, i would go like this
Respected Dr/Prof/xyz
As you may already know that i have been assigned to do my project work under your supervision. I feel honored and motivated and i am confident that under your supervision i will excel my skills and will be more productive.
I am really looking forward to meet you at any time convenient to you, so we can discuss further and i may start my graduate work.
Please suggest me the time and date for the meeting, and also advise me if there is any thing i should consider preparing for the meeting e.g. some proposal or articles etc.
thank you and i hope i will do well under your supervision.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: First of all, you should try to figure out what the typical course of action in your department is. For example, in our department, MSc students are also assigned to supervisors (both students and supervisors can have some influence on that process, but the principle is the same as it seems to be in your case: It's not primarily something between the prospective supervisor and the student, but between thesis coordinator (who assigns) and the student on the one hand and thesis coordinator and supervisor on the other hand.
In our case, students get an email from the coordinator laying out the further procedure. In particular, this email states that it's the student's responsibility to set up a meeting with the assigned supervisor within a given timeframe.
The supervisor will know that you have been assigned to them, so just emailing them to say essentially the same does not help much. Every supervision trajectory will have to start with some meeting, so it is most likely that this will be the first ``real'' contact you have. Depending on your department, it is either you (most likely, IMHO) or the supervisor (less likely, IMHO) who takes the initiative to set up the meeting.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_4: Personally, I'd recommend going to their office and introducing yourself in person. Ask if they've got a minute and, if not, arrange a later time to meet. They may, of course, be busy or absent when you go in which case I'd fall back to e-mail, and write something like:
>
> Title: New MSc Student
>
>
> Dear Dr. Chappy,
>
>
> I am on MSc programme X, and I will be joining you to work on your
> project 'Project title' shortly. Could we arrange a time to meet up
> and discuss arrangements for this project, please?
>
>
> In the meantime, I am keen to get started. Could you recommend any
> relevant papers for me to read before we meet?
>
>
> Kind Regards,
>
>
> User61635
>
>
>
Note that there are cultural differences in how you address professors so you may need to adopt a more formal tone in some countries.
Also, be aware that when you've arranged what you expected to be an informal chat your supervisor may have different ideas and launch into a detailed technical explanation of the project. I suggest you prepare for this. Finally, and this is a key point, if you don't understand anything he says *stop them and ask for an explanation*. Don't think you'll impress them by feigning knowledge you don't possess, you will do far better to ask questions early so you understand what the project is clearly.
Upvotes: 2
|
2016/09/05
| 830
| 3,640
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am in the process of preparing various applications for postdoctoral positions in the US, and I need advice on what is the appropriate way to include contact information on my cover letters and CVs.
Presently, I am an international student studying in Australia. I foresee completing my PhD program (including conferral of the degree) by the end of Jan. 2017. Most of my applications will be lodged through the MathJobs system by early Dec. 2016. My Visa expires at the end of Feb. 2017, and I'm not sure if I can get a visa extension. Meanwhile, my current lease agreement terminates mid-Jan 2016. As you can see, there is a fair amount of uncertainty about my situation next year.
I have always thought that the purpose of writing addresses on any document is not primarily based on the desired affiliation with an institution but so that the recipient of the letter knows whom to reply to. However, and I might be wrong in this, it seems to me that putting your home address in your cover letter and/or CV, as opposed to your current departmental address, is deemed unprofessional. Bear in mind, though, that upon submission of my thesis, I am effectively no longer a student at the university, and hence, I think it somewhat dishonest to use the Maths department address for my mail. By the way, I expect to submit my thesis around mid-October.
So my first question is: *Is it considered unprofessional to put my home address as opposed to my institution address on my CVs and cover letters?*
My second question is: *In light of my situation and the answer to the first question, what is the best way to address my cover letters and CVs?*
I understand that I can update my application materials through MathJobs. Thus far, my plan is to use institution addresses (with a c/o Secretary of the Mathematics Department) throughout and then update forwarding addresses through MathJobs as things become more certain. What do you think?<issue_comment>username_1: As you probably know, your communication with search committees will almost certainly be via email until late in the process. So as long as you use an email address that you will retain access to through the spring, there's not much chance of a communication breakdown.
In fact, you would probably be fine not listing a physical address at all. But since it looks slightly weird not to have a mailing address, go ahead and use your address at your current institution. You will still officially be a student there at the time the applications are submitted, so there's nothing even arguably improper.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Don't list mailing addresses in your CV or cover letter. Since you're applying through MathJobs, you'll put an address in the AMS Cover Sheet in Mathjobs (and for other jobs, you can print off an AMS cover sheet). Note that there is a separate line for institutional affiliation, so this is **not** the purpose the address serves here.
The cover sheet (interestingly) doesn't specify whether they want a home or office address; my sense is most people put their home address, but looking at a few examples, I see there are plenty of people doing either one. Out of curiosity, I checked, and everyone my department made a postdoc offer to last year listed their home address in MathJobs (I assume from looking at the addresses). I don't think it matters much, but I would only put an address where you will actually receive mail sent there in a timely fashion, though it is true that with very high probability, all communications with you will be via email, Skype, phone, etc.
Upvotes: 2
|
2016/09/05
| 882
| 3,858
|
<issue_start>username_0: Quick background: I'll be applying for PhD programs and most likely want to study theoretical condensed matter (though I'm open to other theoretical and mathematical fields). I find experimental physics alright, but it really doesn't excite me.
I've heard that I should apply as if I'm pursuing an experimental physics track, though, because it's less competitive, and then transition towards a theory group once admitted. Is this sound advice? It came from a rather respected source. Still, I am wary about misrepresenting myself and also concerned about getting stuck in a path that I don't intend to be in.
Any insight into how admission committees handle the experimental/theory dichotomy would also be appreciated. Thanks.
Additional Info: I'm applying within the US as a citizen. I'm finishing a MS in physics at the moment.<issue_comment>username_1: It feels as if you are throwing darts at a dartboard.
How about you choose some departments to apply for, based on reading about what the people there are doing? Perhaps you could visit a couple of your strongest candidate schools, or at least email or phone them?
In other words, work on finding a good fit *before* submitting your applications.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: >
> I've heard that I should apply as if I'm pursuing an experimental physics track, though, because it's less competitive, and then transition towards a theory group once admitted. Is this sound advice?
>
>
>
Yes, it is, in general. A very high percentage of people applying to physics PhD programs say that they want to do theory, especially particle theory, but in reality only a very small percentage of grad students end up doing theory.
However, the number of people saying they want to do condensed matter theory is probably relatively small, so the usual advice may not apply to you if you're applying to schools that have a strong, established program in condensed matter theory.
>
> Still, I am wary about misrepresenting myself and also concerned about getting stuck in a path that I don't intend to be in.
>
>
>
Frankly, at this stage you simply have no experience on which to base any such expectations. That's why nobody really takes statements like this on grad school applications very seriously. That kind of statement is not binding in any way, and I doubt that anyone even remembers it once you start grad school. It may be relevant to your application mainly as an indication of whether you were serious enough about that school to find out what their research areas are. E.g., if you apply and say you want to do quantum gravity, but nobody at that school does quantum gravity, they'll probably circular-file your app.
What will typically happen to people who think they want to do theory is that they start their graduate coursework, and they find that there's stiff competition in courses such as field theory and general relativity. If you want to do a thesis in relativity, for example, you probably need to be the top student in the GR class. For condensed matter theory, the relevant course would probably be field theory, since a lot of the same methods are used.
I don't think it's exactly the same at all universities in the US, but at the grad school I went to, there was this initial sorting process based on performance in coursework, and after that students spent the summer as research assistants, which was a further vetting process.
There's just no way to predict the outcome of this process in advance. As an undergrad, you're comparing yourself to other undergrads at school A, while as a grad student, you're comparing yourself to other grad students at school B. Often it's the experience of moving from being a big fish in a small pond to being just one more fish. That's how it was for me, at least.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]
|
2016/09/05
| 563
| 2,389
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<issue_start>username_0: In [this question](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/76192/professor-wrote-me-a-letter-of-recommendation-but-sent-it-to-both-me-and-the-in), it seems that most people think it is acceptable for candidates to see their references. I find this very strange, as in the vast majority of case I have come across it is expected or required that all references are confidential.
What is the point of having a reference that the candidate is able to see?
The person reading such a reference has no way of telling whether any praise is genuine or simply included to please the candidate. Likewise, the chances of negative points being included are minimal, even if they are very important. Thus the reference becomes little more than a vague sign of support. I understand that in business that is generally sufficient, but in my experience academic references are relied on much more heavily to discriminate between candidates.<issue_comment>username_1: From the perspective of UK higher education, the 'point' of a non-confidential reference letter is that there is no such thing as a confidential one; any data held on that student (such as references) can be disclosed by the institution holding it.
How does the old saying go? Dance like no-one's watching, writing an email like it's being read aloud in a deposition.
References are a tricky grey area, and I do preach caution in case a student ends up seeing what you have written - which can be embarrassing, or even libelous if you can't prove statements that purport to be truth.
I do not think that this undermines the referencing process, however; if you can make true statements about a candidate, including your opinions about them, then, in my opinion, you are within your right to do so. After all, your student *has* asked you to do this.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Regarding the point of non-confidentiality eliminating negative comments: even when references are confidential, from the reference writer's perspective, if one can't write a positive letter one shouldn't agree to write a letter at all.
What can possibly be the point of a confidential negative reference letter besides career sabotage?
The other part of it is that it's useful for the candidate to see the letter to have a better sense of what impression they leave on the people they work with/for.
Upvotes: 2
|
2016/09/05
| 606
| 2,583
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am very interested in a particular PhD program that I feel is in line with my professional background. Specifically, I am thinking of doing a PhD in Communication Rhetoric and Digital Media.
However, I haven't been in academia for over 18-19 years. I was told by one of the program directors that I would need to have "academic" writing samples and if I didn't then it would be very difficult to compete for the program.
How and where could I write?<issue_comment>username_1: You don't need anyone's permission to write, but you do need a subject and a milestone. Narrowing in on your subject is deeply connected to performing your literature review (see [questions on LR](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/literature-review)). Reading published work will attune you to the concerns and norms that matter in your field. As you read, keep a list of open questions.
Developing writing skill takes time, so don't assume that you can rush through it. Outlines are crucial, because without them, you won't know what you are writing. Always seek feedback: peers or friends can reveal both important problems and new angles of attack.
The ultimate test of accomplishment in academic writing is publishing journal articles (see [questions on publications](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/publications)). While you might not need this achievement in hand to enter that PhD program, insofar as publishing is a main goal of academic endeavor, you can expect to work on it later on. Therefore, your proximate goal could be to produce writing similar in tone, finish, and advancement to what you see in your field's main journals.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: I would suggest you start a blog and read and write daily. That will get you into the swing of things and show a track record of diligence.
You didn't say your discipline. But you can possible put together a review article. There is something called systematic review these days. When you are 90% there, approach the professors you want to work with and ask them if they want to help you finish it off for publication. They will be very pleased!
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: You could ease back in by taking an isolated class in your field that requires a fair amount of writing. A strong letter of recommendation from the instructor would support your application.
If you want to save some money, you could formally audit the class rather than taking it for credit. When you audit, you can still do the assignments, labs, exams, etc.
Upvotes: 0
|
2016/09/05
| 827
| 3,500
|
<issue_start>username_0: I recently graduated from a university in Germany, and I would like to apply for a phD in UK. However, my university provides initial funding for me if I choose to do my phD in the university.
I will apply for my dream schools in UK. However, there will be a one year gap and I have no idea how to use it to enhance my chance of getting admitted in this year. I would like to take the initial funding to work as a phD student in my home university, and quit it if I get admitted. If I wasn't admitted, I can stay in the same lab.
Is it ethical to do this if I don't tell the supervisor of my home university before he accept me ? If I should tell him, how can I prevent hurting his feeling, and let him accept my proposal ?
Thanks !<issue_comment>username_1: As with most ethical situations, the answer is likely that it depends on the context, your relationship with your Ph.D. advisor at your home university, and the field that you are in.
For example, if you will be teaching or working in a lab at your home university, then you will likely be providing a valuable service to your professor and the university in exchange for funding. I don't know about Germany, but I know in the United States, students don't have any obligation to stay at one university, and I know people who have successfully transitioned from one Ph.D. program to another, without repercussion.
However, when you get to the Ph.D. level, the professional world often gets a lot smaller, and faculty members may have relationships with one another. If you were to unexpectedly leave the program at your home university, you risk damaging your professional reputation, and you could be seen as unreliable when you are looking for work.
I personally believe that it is more ethical to be upfront with your home university, although doing so could put your funding and your ability to stay at your home university at risk.
These conversations can be extremely difficult. As an educator, I personally care much more about my students than about the university at which I work, and I would completely understand if a student found an opportunity that is more congruent with their long term plans.
You could also intentionally time when you disclose to your advisor at your home university - wait until after you have started working at your home university and then tell them that you are applying to the program in the U.K. That way they will hopefully have a heads up that you may be leaving, but you will have already been admitted with funding.
You likely know your advisor better than anyone on here, and thus you are in the best position to decide what to do.
In summary: it is probably more ethical to tell your advisor at your home university that you may be leaving, although it is also not particularly ethical for a faculty member to act punitively against a student for pursuing a better opportunity.
This is an incredibly difficult situation to be in, and I wish you the best!
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: You need to be more imaginative.
Network the unis and the 'professors'. I mean sketch them out on a piece of paper.
Right from the beginning get Santander and Erasmus funding to link up with UK universities and spend time there.
Focus on getting something out of each year. Meet the unis requirements. Publish. Go to a conference. Build a network.
And don't 'jump the gun'. British universities are in trouble with Brexit. Build your network first?
Upvotes: 1
|
2016/09/06
| 548
| 2,424
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am submitting a paper to a computer science conference, can I submit it without author list? The submission guideline says: "submissions are reviewed following a single blind review process, meaning, you do not need to hide authors’ names and affiliations"
The names, affiliations and conflicts of interests will be mentioned when I am submitting the paper. But can I remove name and affiliations from the paper (pdf)? Does it mean that the reviewer will not see it?
Secondly, is there any point in hiding these information, or they will find it out anyway?<issue_comment>username_1: When I've been on the program committees of computer science conferences, the names of authors were always available even apart from the pdf files of the submissions. But other conferences might work differently, so you should probably check with the chair of the program committee.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: In a single blind review process, the author names are not hidden for the reviewers, but the reviewer names are hidden for the authors.
In a double blind review process, the author names are hidden for the reviewers, and the reviewer names are hidden for the authors.
In both cases you will have to submit the author names during the submission process (e.g., in a web form), and the organizing committee will be able to see your names. Typically, for a conference or journal with a double blind review process, you are asked to provide a manuscript without any author names and affiliations.
You cannot submit an anonymous manuscript to a conference/journal with a single blind review process, as it probably will be rejected straight away.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: In general, single-blind is single-blind. Full stop. Of course, you may try to negotiate with the PC chair, but the outcome is not guaranteed. A busy PC chair might disregard such a request simply because he/she would have no time for special regulations.
What you can also try to negotiate (or simply do without asking anyone) is to submit under a pseudonym. It is unusual, so I would not recommend it unless you do it right from the start and stick to that pseudonym for a long period of time. If you go for a pseudonym, you should ponder about how you would handle spending part of your life under another name, about citation counts, etc. In short, you should be knowing what you are doing.
Upvotes: 2
|
2016/09/06
| 8,102
| 33,861
|
<issue_start>username_0: As many of you probably know, almost all advice regarding doing better academic talks includes universal advice to *not* put too many words in any one slide, and to *not* read straight from slides (this is always thought to be a sign of a bad talk).
I used to agree with all of this because it sounds reasonable, and anyway that's how I've written my own talks so far. But I went to a conference late last year where a speaker did exactly the opposite of this advice (my field is mathematics). He was literally reading his slides verbatim, and each of his slides was packed full with long sentences. And yet, it was one of my favorite talks of the conference, and for me (a Ph.D student) it was clean, clear, and easy to follow despite the fact that the material was completely new to me. I do think a large part of the reason I found it so clean and clear was precisely because of the talk's structure, and not despite of it.
That experience made me rethink my prejudice against speakers who read out of the slides. *For some people, it may be a superior talk strategy to alternatives*, especially in academic fields where the details really matter.
So, I am not convinced anymore that it is general (or even, usual) good advice to *not* read from the slides. Why do people think it's such a bad idea? And please don't say "it's lazy" or "could just read the slides instead of listening to the talk" because in practice, neither of these perspectives demonstrate why an alternative is better at *communicating the information*, which is what really matters.<issue_comment>username_1: Research in the field of multimedia learning suggests that in most cases, "people learn more deeply from graphics and narration than from graphics, narration, and onscreen text". This is known as the *redundancy principle*.
>
> Previous research has shown students learn better from multimedia
> lessons containing graphics and narration than from graphics,
> narration, and redundant on-screen text (<NAME>, &
> Sweller, 1999, 2000, 2004; <NAME>, & Sweller, 2003;
> <NAME>, & Lonn, 2001; Moreno & Mayer, 2002a, 2002b;
> <NAME>, & Sweller, 1995). This finding is known as the
> redundancy effect (Mayer, 2001, 2005c). For example, in a study
> by Moreno and Mayer (2002b), participants viewed an animation
> about lightning formation. The first condition had narration accompany
> the animation, whereas a second condition received
> redundant on-screen text in addition to the animation and narration.
> The group that received the redundant on-screen text performed
> worse on subsequent retention and transfer questions than
> did the group that received animation and narration; thus, a redundancy
> effect was found.
>
>
>
(source: [1])
Why?
>
> Adding redundant on-screen text detracts from the learning
> processes highlighted in Figure 1 because it creates extraneous
> processing—such as inducing the learner to visually scan between
> the caption at the bottom of the screen and the graphic and to try
> to mentally reconcile the incoming spoken and verbal stream. If
> the learner has to waste limited cognitive capacity on extraneous
> processing, the learner will be less able to engage in the cognitive
> processing needed for learning—essential and generative processing.
>
>
>
(also from [1])
Are there times when it *is* good to include some of the narration in a slide? Yes. For example:
>
> The most straightforward contribution of this work is to add an important caveat to the redundancy principle “People learn more deeply from graphics and narration than from graphics, narration, and onscreen
> text” (Mayer, 2005c, p. 193). In revising this statement of
> the redundancy principle, we can add the following limitation:
> “except when the on-screen text is short, highlights the key action
> described in the narration, and is placed next to the portion of the
> graphic that it describes.”
>
>
>
(also: [1])
In a meta-analysis of the literature on the redundancy principle:
>
> [A]dvantages of spoken–written presentations over spoken-only presentations were found for low prior knowledge learners, system-paced learning materials, and picture-free materials. In comparison with verbatim, spoken–written presentations, presentations displaying
> key terms extracted from spoken narrations were associated with better learning outcomes and accounted for much of the advantage of spoken–written over spoken-only presentations.
>
>
>
(Source: [2])
You *perceived* the talk with redundant written and spoken text to be beneficial to you; this is consistent with the research as well:
>
> Research on metacognition has consistently demonstrated that learners fail to endorse instructional designs that produce benefits to memory, and often prefer designs that actually impair comprehension. Unlike previous studies in which learners were only exposed to a single multimedia design, the current study used a within–subjects approach to examine whether exposure to both redundant text and non-redundant text multimedia presentations improved learners' metacognitive judgments about presentation styles that promote better understanding. A redundant text multimedia presentation containing narration paired with verbatim on–screen text (Redundant) was contrasted with two non-redundant text multimedia presentations: (1) narration paired with images and minimal text (Complementary) or (2) narration paired with minimal text (Sparse). Learners watched presentation pairs of either Redundant + Complementary, or Redundant + Sparse. Results demonstrate that Complementary and Sparse presentations produced highest overall performance on the final comprehension assessment, but the Redundant presentation produced highest perceived understanding and engagement ratings. These findings suggest that learners misperceive the benefits of redundant text, even after direct exposure to a non-redundant, effective presentation.
>
>
>
(Source: [3])
Note that the results above refer to multimedia presentations, i.e. those that include graphics. Presentations that do not include graphics may benefit from redundant spoken-written text (see [4]). But presentations that do not use graphics violate the *multimedia principle*, which states that in general, "people learn better from words and pictures than from words alone".
For more information on principles of multimedia learning, see [The Cambridge Handbook of Multimedia Learning](http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139547369). If you're looking for something shorter, [here is a brief summary](http://hilt.harvard.edu/files/hilt/files/background_reading.pdf) of the major principles of multimedia learning, and [here is a presentation](http://hilt.harvard.edu/blog/principles-multimedia-learning-richard-e-mayer) by <NAME>.
---
References:
[1] Revising the redundancy principle in multimedia learning. <NAME>.; <NAME>.
Journal of Educational Psychology, Vol 100(2), May 2008, 380-386. <http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.100.2.380>
[2] Verbal redundancy in multimedia learning environments: A meta-analysis.
Adesope, <NAME>.; Nesbit, <NAME>.
Journal of Educational Psychology, Vol 104(1), Feb 2012, 250-263. <http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0026147>
[3] Learners misperceive the benefits of redundant text in multimedia learning . Fenesi, Barbara; <NAME>. Frontiers in psychology 5, 2014. <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4088922/>
[4] Verbal redundancy in multimedia learning: When reading helps listening. <NAME>; Mayer, <NAME>.
Journal of Educational Psychology, Vol 94(1), Mar 2002, 156-163. <http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.94.1.156>
Upvotes: 8 <issue_comment>username_2: The question is why I think it is a bad idea. In my case, I have attended over the years to a fair number of talks by "slide readers" and they were all atrocious (and boring).
I can imagine the possibility that a lecturer reads from very well-prepared slides and make a decent talk. But in all good slide-talks I have attended, the slides had very sparse, concrete and specific information that was complemented by the speaker's speech.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: From my experience of years of teaching young learners to make presentations; the reasons why a presenter should not read the slides are:
1. It is a waste of time, because the audience can be given a handout with that information.
2. Making a presentation is knowledge sharing. A slide is only a visual aid to support what you say as a presenter.
3. The audience is educated, they can read it for themselves.
4. Reading aloud to some people can be rather boring. It is not interactive, and the key word in any presentation is "interactive".
5. Generally you put the bullet points, supported with graphics or pictures and then share your knowledge and view on whatever is in the slides. They are there to support what you want to say.
This is my opinion based on what I have learnt and taught over the years.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: In addition to the counterproductive effect on the audience, when someone projects text and then reads it, I get the impression that he doesn't know it very well. Especially if, like some I've suffered through, he reads it sounding like someone else wrote it, i.e. as if it's new to him.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: When reading out loud, we (subconsciously) speak faster and with less intonation changes than when speaking directly. This makes the talk harder to follow and makes it much more likely for the audience to zone out. Yes, the presenter can fight this and read like they would speak normally, but it takes constant conscious effort on their part, and is easy to forget especially when stressed, running out of time, etc. (Notice that a similar thing applies when the talk is learned word-for-word by heart, which is also normally discouraged).
A block of text on a slide also occupies the listener's attention more; it's basically enticing the listener to read it. And if the presenter ever says something else than exactly what is on the slides (such as inserting a personal anecdote, a last-minute thought, a clarifying point), the listener can actually lose on that precisely because their mind is still focused on reading.
A slide with short bullet points also allows the listener to quickly glance it over as soon as it first appears, and gain a brief understanding of what the talk on this slide will be about. Just like we normally give an outline of the entire talk at the start of the presentation to help the audience understand where we'll be going and why, a bullet-point slide can serve as a mini-outline of the talk for that slide. It's always easier to follow a talk if you know where it's going(1).
Far be it from me to say that a presentation cannot be good (or excellent) if it consists of paragraphed text which the presenter just reads. But it requires much more skill from the presenter to keep the talk interesting and not lose their audience. This can be part of the reason why general advice is to do bullet-point slides; the average presenter is more likely to give a better presentation with that. Of course, the expert presenter can do what they want and what they know best, and they can pull it off. But until you are the expert, it's safer for you to work "the easier way." It's similar to other areas: when you start, you're best off following the common rules. Then you master them, and eventually you understand them and the subject enough to know when you can break them for the better.
---
(1) I have a personal anecdote to illustrate this (which may of course not be applicable to everyone). At university, when a math lecture had a theorem to teach, it generally followed the structure of "state the theorem, present the proof." One lecturer took an opposite approach: he would basically start with "Let us have group G. Let us have another group H. Let us define an isomorphism ..." He would present the proof first, and end with "... now we can see that H must be a subgroup of G." He would then formalise this into the theorem. For me, these were the absolutely *hardest* lectures to follow; it was next to impossible to keep track of where the ~~rambling~~proof was going without knowing what the goal was.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_6: I have worked both in pure math (topology) and very applied math (discrete optimization in logistics).
Much of the usual advice on "using only graphics and very little text" applies well to the applied fields where there is actually plenty to visualize and the theoretical machinery -- at least the part you introduce in the talk -- is not that deep.
In pure math, though, you often have so much notation, definitions and complicated lemmata that it is very hard to keep the slides clean. Furthermore, the speed of talk is often so high that losing attention for 30 seconds might be enough that you cannot follow anything anymore.
Nevertheless, people usually get bored by someone *reading* to them. While it might be a good idea to put some reminders on the slides to help people follow complicated and abstract stuff, it is not really advisable to read everything aloud.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_7: There are a number of good answers here, but I think there is a point that hasn't been so much emphasised.
On the one hand, the general/default rule is - don't read from slides, make them compact and keyword oriented.
However, the OP belongs to what I believe is a special class of listeners: they are a mathematician and they are (making an educated guess) still young and ambitious to learn a lot quickly. I remember myself preferring very detailed slides when I was not yet acquainted with the spectrum of techniques in the field and still curious about learning details. This is precisely the target group for very detailed slides (although, frankly, a blackboard talk, in this case, is even preferable if at all possible).
And no: not for everybody reading a paper/handout has the same effect as a talk - even with the precisely same content. A good speaker can emphasise and highlight in a way a written text doesn't.
In short: if your topic requires attention to detail (speak: mathematics or theoretical physics, mostly), and you speak to a very eager, but still inexperienced audience, you may consider reading from slides (if they - the slides - and you are *very well* prepared). If you speak to an experienced, or only moderately curious audience (which is the norm), stick to the default strategy. Or else, go for blackboard.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_8: Almost all of the talks I attended were in English while I'm not a native English speaker. Yes, I can read the words faster than the speaker talks, but I can't understand as fast, and definitely not when someone is talking about something else. By reading it out, the speaker gives me more time to digest, which is very helpful.
The main point is that you don't put EVERYTHING you want to say on the slides and read word for word and nothing else. Have some bullets points, read them out one a time, then expand each one vocally.
So write your slides clearly and concisely, then by all means, read the slides, and talk much more than that.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_9: People have this idea that there is a one-size-fits-all rule for giving a presentation. There is not, and I know this from having taught the subject in the real world for 6 years. I have critiqued every sort of imaginable presentation, from sales, chemistry, accounting, updating, etc. When a car salesman is "doing his thing" he is giving a presentation. When a magician is "doing her thing" she is giving a presentation. When a 15 year old is "doing her thing" with mom and dad she is giving a presentation. The audience is different in each example, as is the presenter. Most of the answers here are from the presenter's point of view, which is the usual selfish way presenters go about boring their audiences. "What do I need to do?" is the question most presenters start from. You need to do the opposite. Let me explain.
In general, it's a "bad idea to read off of slides" for a number or reasons. But then, who is the audience, and why is reading off the slides bad for that audience? If a car salesman read the brochure in front of you then it is "bad to read off the slides." However, at a math lecture It might not be "bad to read off the slides." I wasn't there, so I can't say what made this particular speaker's presentation good (or possibly "bad."). It seems you learned something, and thought the presentation style worked.
The kind of presentation you give depends on the audience. Let me say that again: the style of delivery you use depends on the audience. It depends on their purpose for watching and paying attention. There is no one-size-fits-all rule because there is no one-size-fits-all audience. The examples I gave above should make that clear. Ask yourself, as part of your preparation process two questions: what is my purpose and what is their purpose? There are always two purposes in any presentation. If you're just updating on some progress, then reading off the slides might be fine. If you're trying to persuade then it's best not to have a lot of info on the slides so that the audience can focus on you, and you can focus on being persuasive, which works much better when people aren't distracted. But then, if you are trying to persuade your audience that you have found a proof for the Goldbach Conjecture, then you're going to have lots of slides with lots of stuff...the audience won't expect less.
Part of learning is copying the teacher. The next time you give a presentation, do what you saw last time. Does it work? If so, try it again and again to see if the reason it worked wasn't luck but something else. If it doesn't work, then you will have to explore and find your own style that fits the particular audience to which you are presenting. The path to presentation excellence is through trial and error. There is no other way. In Ancient Greece and Rome, students spent years practicing the art of debate and presentation, and then went out in public to persuade others. The situations were real and oftentimes matters of life and death or stability of the state, so if you sucked at presenting it could cost you dearly. By the way, before I forget, what worked then, won't work now. Why? Because the audience is different.
BTW, let me add that at the end of your question you make a comment about "communicating information." Without context and purpose, information is useless. This is why most presentations are a waste of time. They are wastes of time because many presenters see themselves as information ambassadors or messengers. They don't give context, purpose, or meaning to their information. They expect the audience to "get it." This is a bad hope to have.
So to summarize, the question of whether it is bad to read off the slides is really a question of whether it is bad to read off slides for your particular audience. There is no general answer or golden rules on this. Ask yourself what the purpose of the audience is and go from there.
.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_10: I won't go into the reasons that you normally should not do overly verbuous slides; you already know about them.
But on the presentation that you liked so much: If the presenter simply read *exactly* the contents of his slides, then they were not so much slides but a kind of subtitle. If he was obviously consistent in it, then every listener was free to read the slides or not; or only read the slides and not listen; or listen and read at the same time.
The bad thing about text-rich slides crop up when the presenter does *not* just read them verbatim. Then you as a listener have to chose between listening and reading; and it is very easy to get confused. This has not happened here.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_11: BLUF: Being better than just reading the slides is a necessary condition for a talk to be worth giving. (being something different than reading slides, however, is not a sufficient condition)
---
As a listener, in my opinion, a talk that is nothing more than displayed text with a live reading is pretty much *the single worst method for communicating written information I have ever experienced*.
In this format,
* I cannot read and digest information at my natural pace
* I cannot go back to review prior material
* I cannot skip ahead to get an idea where the content is heading to
* I cannot search
* I cannot interrupt the talk if I want to work something out in the middle
* I cannot bring other materials to study along with the information in the talk
* I cannot sit in a comfortable chair in an air-conditioned room while consuming the content
* I have to deal with interruptions from others, any difficulties the speaker has speaking, and potential difficulty simply understanding the speaker's speech
If a talk has nothing to offer beyond a live reading of the written word, *the talk shouldn't be given*, and instead the written content should be made available in a convenient written form.
I will grant your point that you can give talks that are worse than just reading slides. However, *those talks shouldn't be given either*.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_12: Expanding on username_8's answer, "reading slides" can be helpful if you have an audience that struggles with the language you are presenting in or has problems with low literacy despite natively speaking the language of the presentation. [Here's an article](http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/408129) that mentions adding an audio track to a written presentation to enhance comprehension by people with low literacy.
Whether or not any of these situations apply is going to be very contextual. At a major international conference with attendees from throughout the world, reading skill may be an important issue and something that you cannot simply presume exists (or exists at a sufficiently high level for your presentation). At a university lecture with students who have all passed the university's required literacy test for enrollment, providing an audio version of the slides "just because" could be seen as patronizing.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_13: I am reluctant to add yet another answer to an already crowded page, but I feel there is an important point that has not been made (apologies if I've missed it).
Different people (even within the same discipline) have different preferred ways to absorb information. Some may take things in best by reading, some through engaging talks. It sounds as if OP may fall into the first camp. If all were the same, then we could probably dispense with talks and just read each others' papers, followed by a Q&A session. But this would be a great disservice to those like myself who find it easier to concentrate on listening to an engaging speaker rather than reading a block of text.
The bottom line: it would be wrong to say that "reading the slide" is a poor way of communicating per se, but it is a poor way of reaching a sizable proportion of the audience. Perhaps we should all consider how we can make our presentations appealing to **both** (or indeed all) types of audience member.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_14: I have attended several conferences, all in English and material-based, and there was always a slides-reader.
They have in common:
* English wasn't the speaker's native language, and they had problems speaking.
* Poor pronunciation, monotonous voice. Some were reading the values in tables!
* The slides were poor quality. Wrong colours, light serif font, low-resolution images.
* Slides overwhelmed by full sentences with few images and graphs.
* Awkward discussion time with one simple question, usually asked by chairman, and "Sorry, no understand" answer.
When reading from slides or from notes, the speaker usually have a monotonous voice and no contact with the audience. A good presenter adapts their speech to actual attention and the content, which is much harder when reading and a lot easier when talking offhand.
Personally, when someone reads it all loud it gives me impression that they cannot speak the conference language or their knowledge of the field of their presentation is not good. Some people are too nervous to speak offhand, but it is quite easy to distinguish them.
I was taught that presentation is dedicated to sell the results and attract the audience. For further exchange of ideas there are discussions, breaks, articles and letters.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_15: The short answer is "Because ***most*** people who do it do a terribly poor job presenting". You certainly *can* give a good talk this way but you have to think about 1 hour about what you want to put on each slide that will be on the screen for 3 minutes or so and then a few more hours about how to put them together. And since the result you get this way is pretty rigid, you should know your audience really well to make sure that the exposition is neither too boring, nor too fast for it. I've seen good "slide reading" talks too (the speaker didn't rush at all, used the capabilities of the beamer to make sure that even on each given slide, which was one full logical unit easy to digest, the sentences would appear one by one as the exposition went, and made sure that each next sentence or formula was both clearly related to the previous ones and containing some new idea or twist),
but they were like 1 out of 30.
Most good speakers prefer to use slides just to emphasize a few crucial points and to improvise with how to say everything else depending on the questions they receive from the audience, etc. It just saves time on preparation and gives more flexibility to the speaker.
This ability to improvise, however, is also a skill and if there were plenty of poor improvisers, the advice might be exactly the opposite: put everything on slides in advance and try to stick to them. However, as it happens, poor speakers are usually afraid of improvisation and have a false belief that doing things meticulously and in order can save an otherwise doomed presentation (doomed for many reasons, the top of which are being aimed at a completely wrong audience and requiring way more time to do properly than allotted), so we just do not see many bad improvisations, but plenty of terrible but meticulously prepared talks and a good portion of those are the ones by slide readers.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_16: Basically, people tend to get bored when you read text at them.
If you are going to just read them, the lecture becomes like a sort of audiobook of a paper. Or just a normal book, with a lot of noise distracting you.
The thing with books is you can blaze through the easy parts and slow down on the hard bits. You can leaf back and forth to remember bits you forgot. You control the information stream, and the text is prepared with this assumption. That's why it works.
In a slideshow, you don't control the slides. If you need extra time for a given slide, well, too bad. If you need to have understood that slide to follow subsequent slides, too bad. Everyone will find a different part difficult, so it's hard for the presenter to "just slow down on the hard parts". You end up with a Poisson distribution of "number of slides before the presenter loses them" over audience members, few make it to the last slide without getting lost.
Also, people tend to pay attention less when someone isn't engaging the audience. It's psychological. When reading slides, people look down or away (at the screen) and don't make eye contact with the audience. The audience does not get the psychological cue that "somebody is talking to me" and gets distracted more easily. Also, many people who do this slide reading seem to quickly fall into a monotone, droning tone that's even harder to stay with.
Not reading slides gives you freedom in pacing and managing your presentation in real time. If you are very good, you can actually watch the audiences reaction and adjust the presentation accordingly as you go. Since often at least some part of the audience is not terribly interested in the presentation to begin with, being more engaging helps maintain their attention (if that sort of thing matters to you).
username_1 has compiled a nice bibliography of the research. But here experience can also suffice: Think back to the presentations you've seen. Which ones were the most effective? Which ones were the most boring? Do you see a pattern of correlating presentation styles? What about your peers (after all, you are not presenting for yourself)? Don't just look at one case, look at the general picture. Perhaps in your field, reading indeed does work better (for instance, I think for poetry or literature it can), or maybe the people who like to read slides just happen to be much better presenters otherwise. Or maybe this one talk was an exception, and otherwise even you find most slide-readers tedious to listen to.
I have seen very few slide-readings that weren't boring. It doesn't help that often, it seems that people who do it are bad presenters to begin with, so they are making two errors. Presentations I enjoy, especially if we adjust for topic, are overwhelmingly ones with free-form talking and minimal slide reading. Likewise for presentations I've given and how well they were received. Thus, based on my experience, in my field, I try to avoid slide readings because I have personally seen it to be a poor choice. Your experience may be different, and thus also your conclusion.
However, as I said above, there is a fundamental reason (audience cannot control flow) why slide readings will necessarily be worse than their closest relative, the audiobook and the written book. Whether they can still be made to be as good as a more engaged presentation, is for you to decide.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_17: The obvious effect when reading slides verbatim is that slide and narration are redundant. Why that's bad depends on how you as an audience member are trying to follow the presentation:
* If you are just following the narration, the text on the slides and switching between the slides will unnecessarily distract you.
* If you are just reading the slides, the speaker's voice will unnecessarily distract you.
* If you are both listening to the speaker and reading the slides, you'll have to constantly keep both in sync, which increases your cognitive load, especially when you get distracted just for a second and then have to find the correct position on the slide again.
All of these lower your chances of understanding the talk. These effects don't happen if you have simple slides that supplement the oral presentation.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_18: **It's about using the right tool for the job.**
There are a variety of mediums and methods to convey information (written material, multi-media, human presenter, etc.). Each has strengths and weaknesses for different kinds of information, and a role to play.
Highly technical information and tons of facts can be absorbed by the recipient looking at written or visual materials at their own pace. A human presenter can be helpful, but more so with "high level" information than extensive detail. For example, relating the gist and concepts, or providing a framework the recipient can use to organize the information they subsequently read on their own. (I'm referring to a presentation scenario rather than a highly interactive educational setting.)
If a human presenter is simply reading the slides to the audience, the slides become the presenter and the human just their A/V aid as an annoying soundtrack. Why not just have an automated slide show, or even one with a recorded soundtrack if the recitation aloud is so important? What is the human adding to the process? **The biggest value provided by a human presenter is the human interaction.**
The recipient's ability to absorb and retain information is tied to emotion (their interest and desire to focus on it, the personal value of the information, the novelty of it, and the strength of emotions associated with it that affect retention); it's the role of the hippocampus in learning.
That applies to any information, including technical content. The recipient needs to want to acquire the information (and have a framework for organizing it); it isn't useful to simply dispense it in their direction. If the recipient is already interested and motivated, a human presenter can either add to, or detract from, the presentation's effectiveness.
The role in which a human presenter can uniquely contribute is to engage the audience, tapping into their attention, receptiveness, and emotions to get them involved and invested in the material. That's done through the human connection, using rapport, conversational language, vocal cues, body language, movement, animation and excitement, adding tidbits of interest, etc.; focusing on and talking to the people comprising the audience, rather than reading and providing audio for the slides. Conveying high-level information in this manner is the reason to have a human presenter, and the real value they can add.
The practice of someone present for the sole purpose of reciting material displayed on slides is even counter-productive. It can make the audience less receptive to the information than just giving them the materials to read (for the reasons described in the answers by username_1, <NAME>, <NAME>, username_14, username_4, username_17, and username_16).
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<issue_start>username_0: I have communicated my article to one elsevier journal. After being with editor for more than one month, the current status is "submitted to journal". I am confused regarding this status? What does it signify, kindly answer me?<issue_comment>username_1: Based on my experience, the review process in most of Elsevier journals are as,
1. Submitted to journal(Editor tries to find an associate editor or referees for your article)
2. With editor (Editor evaluation step)
3. Under review (Your paper is sent for referees (reviewers))
4. Required reviews completed (Minimum number of reviews for your article received)
5. Editor evaluation or with editor (Editor decision for your paper based on reviewers comments)
6. revised or rejected or recommended for resubmission based on reviews comments
This is the most common process for Elsevier journals. Also, the length of time in each step is totally dependent on the journal and especially on the editor in chief. You can find some info about the review process in the newly added feature in some Elsevier's journals named as journal insight e.g. see this one, [Journal insight](http://journalinsights.elsevier.com/journals/0031-3203)
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: **with editor** does not always mean that the paper with editor. It means that the editorial office has requested one researcher to take care of the submitted paper as editor. It is now the responsibility of that person to *accept or reject* the *request*.
In your case, probably the intended researcher has not accepted the request. So the status comes to 0 again. In few days the editorial office will again send a request to some other researcher to be *editor in charge or handling editor*.
Hope this helps.
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<issue_start>username_0: I am wondering, because she is the only one in the department who is specialised in the area I worked in. But then also she worked with me, so she will recognise the things I've written - apart from that there is probably noone else who tackled exactly my topic.
How is fairness ensured here? It does not seem possible to mark this anonymously really?<issue_comment>username_1: Bachelor and master theses are never graded anonymously, at least not to my knowledge. Usually your grade is not only determined by the thesis you submit, but to some extent also by your engagement, initiative and the general quality of work you delivered.
Here at my university in Germany it is common practice that the supervisor (usually a PhD student) proposes a grade to the supervising professor who in turn has the final word.
To the last part of your questions: In a perfect world there is no need to ensure fairness, because you will get a grade according to your performance. In reality, there can be differences with your supervisor of professor. If you think your supervisor treats you unfairly, you should carefully approach your supervising professor. You should have evidence, because such accusations are kind of serious and can get people in trouble.
If you think your professor graded you unfairly.. well, this is difficult. To my knowledge, there is not much you can do about that. But I can only think of your professor letting you fail the thesis as the only situation where you want to complain. If your grade is just bad, maybe your professor has a different reasoning or opinion on what makes a good thesis, which is his/her right as supervisor. This can be avoided by clearing general issues beforehand.
Edit: Just as a remark: Everything I said applies to what I know from engineering and similar sciences. It can be totally different in e.g. social sciences, about which I don't know much.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: On the topic of anonymous marking. Dissertations/theses are rarely, if ever anonymised, because students and their topics are easily visible.
What you are asking is really a matter of Quality Assurance, which will depend on the assessment policy relating to Master's theses at your department/institution.
It is worth saying that the bias you mention (of a supervisor's familiarity with your work and writing influencing their assessment of it) is recognized.
In my experience, to mitigate bias one of two actions are taken:
1. The assessment is double-marked, once by the supervisor and once by a second marker. Any difference in marks are then discussed and agreed.
2. The assessment would be marked by someone not related to your project at all, and it may also be double-marked by someone else.
For Master's theses, at least from what I have seen, the subject specialism and expertise of the assessor is less essential than it would be in doctoral study, so I would expect an assessor with good familiarity with the subject to be able to satisfactorily mark it.
Also, in the UK, all assessments are ratified by a Board of Examiners who have the power to alter marks at their judgement. The External Examiner in this Board would also have the power to read your dissertation and agree/disagree with the mark awarded - they, and the rest of the Board, won't necessarily be experts in the subject to the degree that your supervisor is.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: It's worth pointing out that the evaluation of MS/MA theses in the US is typically up to a committee of faculty headed by the advisor. If the committee approves the thesis (typically by signing a form), then you get to graduate. They don't typically assign a grade to the thesis.
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