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2016/11/09	3,018	13,017	<issue_start>username_0: I've just (accidentally) found that one of our colleagues in the lab (who is a graduate student) uses a cracked piece of software on his personal laptop (We were talking near his station and a pop up went up and warned about the fake license of the software). The software is an expensive one whose student version is freely available on our shared server; however, the student version's features are often not sufficient for our tasks. So I realize that he might have to do this to handle his job. I don't know if the supervisor is aware of this. All in all, as it's not acceptable to ignore the copyright, should I report this issue to any responsible sector?<issue_comment>username_1: I don't feel that general academic ethics obliges you to report this, unless you have reason to believe that it might be endangering the research of the lab (giving inaccurate results, introducing viruses to lab computers, etc). You will have to make your own judgment as to whether you are obliged to report by any of the following: your own personal code of ethics, your institution's policies, your lab's internal policies, your PI's expectations, threat of lawsuit from the software vendor, your local law, or likely consequences from any of the above for failing to report. You could also consider whether to warn your colleague and give them a chance to remove the cracked software before reporting them. But all of that is beyond the scope of this site. Upvotes: 8 <issue_comment>username_2: I suggest you talking with your supervisor about the case under wraps. Either she is aware of the case or not, you can rely on her to handle the situation. I'm a graduate student in a North American university, where utilization of such cracked licenses for personal use is not only common among students, but also between faculty members! It is not something deserving, but it's a fact. So, as I guess your supervisor is aware of the case, your report may make some trouble for your colleague and your supervisor, too. You better watch out... Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: Before telling anyone, consider what would happen if he, or other grad students, found out you were the snitch. You'll have to work with these people for years to come, and there is no such thing as "anonymous reporting." You'll have to make a judgement call as to if you want to get involved. If you choose to get involved, do not mention anything in email, go directly to YOUR supervisor. Explain what YOU have seen, and do not mention hear-say. After this, it's in your supervisors hands, don't mention it again. Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_4: I would stay away from his "personal laptop" in the future and avoid peeking at other people's "very personal" screens. It is not your job to report this. And you should not be looking at other people's screens. He decided to use the software on his personal station, not on the resources of the university, so it is none of your concern. It is a typical "none of your business" case. Upvotes: 8 <issue_comment>username_5: Are you sure it is cracked software ? A 'warning' popup could just be phishing malware and you might expect that a feature to detect piracy would just shut the application down rather than just issue a warning. Equally it could be a prompt to upgrade to a different version or just an expired demo version which is no longer usable. Perhaps a more immediate issue is if you aren't legitimately being given the right tools for that research you are doing. Equally you are not really under any obligation to report possible civil crimes on the basis of fairly slim evidence (what you have said here probably wouldn't stand up in court) and if it is a student using a commercial version of software which has a free student version we are talking about quite a fine ethical line in the sense that it may be just illegal but it is unlikely that anybody really cares. While I would certainly not advocate using pirated software this is still at the stage of an suspicion and any formal accusation is either going to result in nothing happening or a lot of trouble for your colleagues to no real constructive purpose. It is also worth considering that the software distributor may not really care about personal use of unauthorised copies by students as they are really in the business of providing bulk licenses and technical support to commercial users but would be compelled to prosecute if it was bought to their attention. As an aside we can also speculate that providers of software who want to make it the industry standard are fairly keen for students an academic researchers to use it and get to know it, which is why they provide free academic versions. We could even speculate further that this is why this is why they are not quite as rigorous as they perhaps could be in embedding anti-piracy features. while they can't be seen to give away the full version they may not care too much (an may not want to find out) if the odd junior researcher sneaks a cracked copy even though this is clearly wrong and not to be recommended. Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_6: The key here is 'personal laptop' which I assume means 'purchased with personal, not university funds'. Here's the reason: The penalty levied on any institution for evidence of pirated software can be huge, including fees and/or restricted access to said software. (Imagine Microsoft decided to revoke all license for Word. They likely wouldn't, but they can according to their license agreement). If it were an institutional computer, as a representative of your institution you'd be doing them a favor by alerting someone (anyone) above you. But this seems not the case. If it is a personal laptop, the onus is no longer on you. That person could still pay a penalty, though unlikely, but that would be outside the bounds of your duty to protect the interests of your institution. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_7: Have you considered simply talking to your colleague about the issue? I don't agree that this is "none of your business" case, since the computer is used in university lab, most probably connected to university network. So the university is affected by whatever risks cracked software may bear (viruses and such), and any piracy tracking will probably identify the offender as having university IP address. This may result in trouble for both your colleague and the university. However, without solid proof you should not assume anything. Ask your colleague about the software. Chances are, they have a reasonable explanation for the error message you've seen: they may have a legit free trial version which expired, connection issues preventing license validation, missing license token etc. If they admit using cracked software, tell them it's against university policies (it almost certainly is), and give them a chance to fix the situation. Escalating the issue right away and without warning will not win you any friends (not even your supervisor). Additionally, discovering cracked software on someone's personal laptop may lead to question about your own ethics. Depending on how you present the situation, you may be seen as either accusing someone without sufficient proof, or accessing someone's computer without permission. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_8: You're looking at the problem from the wrong angle. The problem is not with your colleague violating copyright on a piece of academic software. The problem is that your lab hasn't purchased the necessary tools to complete whatever line of research you're currently pursuing. Here's what I would personally do: 1. Ask the student what license they're currently using and if they need the lab to provide one. 2. Talk to your supervisor about purchasing a license for the lab. Since there's a free academic license for that particular software, I presume a full license for an academic institution shouldn't cost an arm and a leg. 3. Once the license is purchased notify the student and ask them to replace the license with the one from your lab. That's it. No need to point fingers or accuse anyone of misconduct. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_9: You should immediately contact the responsible authorities, and report what you have seen, otherwise you will definitely be complicit in a crime, and could yourself be prosecuted for failing to act. This is called 'accessory after the fact'. You should not put yourself at risk by remaining quiet. Remember <NAME>'s adage "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing". Nobody should be doing research with pirated or cracked software; it is unethical, and the results will be compromised. No cure for cancer was ever developed by criminal software thieves. <NAME> Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_10: It is not your job to enforce or report copyright law so you should not report it. Contrary to what others say here you are not complicit in a crime because it is a matter of civil law and not criminal law, so you have no obligation to do so. Legal matters aside, reporting a colleague will make it hard for you to find support in your future academic life, which is critical for all but the most trivial assignments. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_11: Report it to the vendor. They are the victim. If this is MATLAB, then it can be reported on the following web page: <https://www.mathworks.com/company/aboutus/policies_statements/report_piracy.html> Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_12: Ask yourself: Is it my business? If no, it's a sign that you might be procrastinating. Strictly forbid yourself to do anything in this case. If yes, ask yourself why? Would this fact affect you in a positive or in a negative way? Answering this question will provide you with a hint on what to do next, if at all. Just for the sake of an example, if it is the case that using the cracked software might really become visible over the net such that the police might come and seize the equipment including the one you need for your research, then you should probably talk to the colleague and then to his/her boss. But things might be different if software cracking is a part of research activity; then your colleague publishes on that and gets grant proposals accepted; you should support that to the extent permitted by the law! Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_13: I know there are a lot of answers here, and most of them are the same. I'm going to go a different direction. It is entirely possible that the software is a) demo b) just expired c) actually legally purchased and the warning is an error d) legally purchased, however the person cracks it to avoid a dongle, CD check or something else archaic and disruptive. e) something that they purchased from a non-reputable vendor and they didn't know f) some other plausible deniability. Thus the result is a recommendation the same as above. "Not my circus, not my monkeys." Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_14: I wouldn't care much if an individual has been using the software for the personal needs. Even software vendors themselves are not interested in punishing a single person. There is no real value for them in making a precedent: upon receiving a miserable surcharge they loose time, resources and often gain negative reputation (vendor vs institution is a different story though). Sooner or later this person is going to present the results of his/her work in a form of annual report, presentation, paper, etc. If a paid version of program has been used for conducting a research, it always shows, and people from the same field will always be aware of what piece of software has been utilized. Assuming you care about this person and you want to help, I'd suggest to show him/her some free open-source alternatives. Show the benefits of [reproducible research](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reproducibility#Reproducible_research). Sometimes people use the cracked version not because they are evil, but because they are lazy and don't want to check out for the optimal tools, downloading the first program Google spoonfed them with. If you want to make it public, on the next group meeting congratulate the person on the achievements and ask politely how this, that or the other has been achieved (which algorightm, how it's been plotted etc.), forcing the person either to lie, or to evade the questions entirely. If the people around are literate, invested and pay attention, they will get your message. If they aren't, your accusation-driven report won't change anything anyway. I see only one reason you need to report to your supervisor explicitly: if you have to collaborate with that individual and you cannot perform your part because you also need to use that pirated program to process the data. Otherwise I'd say it's none of my business. I get my own life and I'd better think for myself. Upvotes: 0
2016/11/09	530	2,430	<issue_start>username_0: Recently, I submitted two manuscripts in two different journals. The papers are related, but their contents and purposes are different; and they also made use of different data sets. One of these manuscripts got accepted for publication, but one of the reviewers for the second manuscript informed the editor the paper was a duplicated paper that he or she recently reviewed. Evidently, that the same reviewer has reviewed my both manuscripts. However, the editor has asked me to clarify and provide evidence that my paper is not a duplicate. So how should I respond to convince the editor and reviewer that this paper is a legitimately separate work?<issue_comment>username_1: Just enumerate in which ways the two papers actually differ. As you already do in your question above: they differ in (i) contents, (ii) purposes, (iii) data sets. The reviewer may of course still think that these differences are not large enough to warrant a second paper. In that case, you need to reconsider whether you actually think that the second paper can stand alone. But your first step is articulating how you think the two papers are different. Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: I have seen this happen a number of times. In the most recent situation, the authors cited a paper of theirs as being submitted and it had a very similar title to the manuscript we were considering. We asked the authors to clarify this and they said that the second manuscript was being reviewed by another journal and that it was different from the one we had. We asked the authors to provide us a confidential copy of the second manuscript so that we could be satisfied that the claims were accurate. They wrote informed the other journal that this was going to happen and sent us a confidential copy. We confirmed that the two manuscripts were different. Why did we go through all this trouble? Well, copyright for the manuscript we were considering rests with us and it becomes problematic if a second manuscript that was substantially similar were to be published under different copyright. What would have happened if we found that there was substantial overlap between the two manuscripts? We would have halted the manuscript preparation process and have asked the authors to clarify the situation. If the clarification is not satisfactory, then we would reject the manuscript outright. Upvotes: 2
2016/11/10	804	2,943	<issue_start>username_0: I'm writing an article and in one portion I give a brief historical overview of previous work on the problem I am studying. (In case this matters, it's a pure math article, specifically topology.) I include references to the articles where the prior work I describe first appeared. But I am trying to be brief, so in many instances I cite several articles in a list. For example: blah blah blah [A, B, C], except that my bibliography is numerical (as is conventional for where I'm submitting it). Now, I could order my citations so that this [A, B, C] becomes [1, 2, 3], but I like the idea of preserving the chronology of the development in the citation. For example, let's say my bibliography is like this. [1] Mike, 1980. [2] Sally, 1968. [3] Tamara, 1985. And let's say I write "A sequence of articles developed the concept...," and I want put in the citation for the articles I'm referring to. I like the idea of indicating the order of the development, but am not sure if it looks too weird. So is it better to put "A sequence of articles [2, 1, 3] developed the concept..." or "A sequence of articles [1, 2, 3] developed the concept...?"<issue_comment>username_1: If you adopt an official citation style, then this will dictate the rules for ordering in-text citations and end of document references. ### In-text citation ordering rules When multiple authors appear in one citation block, then there are various rules depending on the citation style: (a) alphabetically by first author surname, (b) arbitrary when using a numbered reference style, except are typically consecutive (e.g., 1-3, or 1,3,4), although based on @Jessica's answer ordering may not be required by all style guides. ### End of document reference ordering rules Two common rules are (a) alphabetically by surname and then by year for papers by the same author (e.g., APA style), (b) in order of appearance in the manuscript (i.e., when using superscript numbers). ### General points about showing historical development of ideas If you want to show the development of ideas include something in the text that indicates this development. For example , > > Jones (2000) was the first to propose the idea. Several researchers further developed the idea including Smith (2005), Brown (2007), and then Cooper (2009). > > > or euivalently: > > Jones (1) was the first to propose the idea. Several researchers further developed the idea including Smith (2), Brown (3), and then Cooper (4). > > > Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: It is perfectly normal in topology for lists of citations to appear with the corresponding numbers out of order, eg. > > This idea has been widely studied [21, 5, 13]. > > > You should give the citations in the order you want the reader to consider them (in this case chronological sounds most suitable), and beyond that leave the labelling to Bibtex. Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]
2016/11/10	665	2,561	<issue_start>username_0: I have been invited for an interview to a post-doc position. In the same time, I am applying for a post-doc fellowship to a different organisation. If that fellowship application will be successfull, I will have to quit the postdoc position (where I am going to do interview) somewhere in the middle, because I am more interested in that position with the fellowship. I know, I don´t have any clues whether any of the two positions will work out, but how should I address this fellowship opportunity on the intreview? Should I let them know in advance that I am applying for a fellowship and let them decide whether they want to interview me anyway? Or should I mention only at the interview, that I am applying for a fellowship? Or shouldn´t I mention it at all?<issue_comment>username_1: If you adopt an official citation style, then this will dictate the rules for ordering in-text citations and end of document references. ### In-text citation ordering rules When multiple authors appear in one citation block, then there are various rules depending on the citation style: (a) alphabetically by first author surname, (b) arbitrary when using a numbered reference style, except are typically consecutive (e.g., 1-3, or 1,3,4), although based on @Jessica's answer ordering may not be required by all style guides. ### End of document reference ordering rules Two common rules are (a) alphabetically by surname and then by year for papers by the same author (e.g., APA style), (b) in order of appearance in the manuscript (i.e., when using superscript numbers). ### General points about showing historical development of ideas If you want to show the development of ideas include something in the text that indicates this development. For example , > > Jones (2000) was the first to propose the idea. Several researchers further developed the idea including Smith (2005), Brown (2007), and then Cooper (2009). > > > or euivalently: > > Jones (1) was the first to propose the idea. Several researchers further developed the idea including Smith (2), Brown (3), and then Cooper (4). > > > Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: It is perfectly normal in topology for lists of citations to appear with the corresponding numbers out of order, eg. > > This idea has been widely studied [21, 5, 13]. > > > You should give the citations in the order you want the reader to consider them (in this case chronological sounds most suitable), and beyond that leave the labelling to Bibtex. Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]
2016/11/10	639	2,588	<issue_start>username_0: I'm writing my Master's thesis in a field where there exists a common misconception regarding the properties of a material, stemming from some papers published in the 80's and 90's and disproved in a more thorough study published in the 00's. While most of the serious publications in this field cite this newer paper, the misconception still thrives and is sometimes even used in the papers citing the article that disproved it. The properties of this material are of great importance for the field. The only reasonable thing is of course to use the new data in my thesis, which I will do, but since the misconception is so common I wonder if I should mention it in the report. I can think of three different ways to handle this: 1. Don't mention the misconception at all. 2. Mention it, but in a general way and not providing sources. For example "A common misconception is ... " 3. Mention it, and provide sources. "A common misconception, seen for example in [references]... " Usually, it is a bad habit to make statements without backing them up with facts, which makes me doubt option 2. But on the other hand, option 3 seems a bit too aggressive. (This is my first post on StackExchange, I hope I didn't mess things up to much.)<issue_comment>username_1: I agree that option 2. is not good. If you want to mention the misconception but avoid shaming anybody, you can write something like > > "While the belief in the 1980s and 1990 was … it was proven in […] that in fact…" > > > That way, no one is blamed. If, however, you feel that you need to explicitly mention that still some people follow the old belief, you should back this up by citations and I don't see a way around option 3. Upvotes: 7 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: If at all, I would add the reference to the now anachronistic misconception in a footnote. In my opinion, you should not introduce any obsolete information in the main body of your thesis as long as the actual misconception is not a scope of your work. Plainly use the correct data with source information. You do not need to keep old misconceptions alive. However, if you think you need to mention the misconception, I would add a footnote where you discuss the material properties. In the footnote, you can discuss the evolution of the material data in any level detail you think appropriate and back this even up with references to the now faulty sources. Thus, your thesis remains focused on your actual work but still does include the additional information for the suspicious reader. Upvotes: 3
2016/11/10	1,032	3,732	<issue_start>username_0: In my research, I interview practitioners/real users. One of them, a native english speaker, used a lot a swear words (basically the f-word). Question: how to deal with curse words in content you need to quote? Since I use transcripts for a content (and not formal) analysis, I sometime 'smooth' interviewee wordings (like removing "hum", "well", "you know", and other recurring verbal tics). In some case, I could remove the f-word: > > it's just super f\cking slow, and really f \cking annoying > > > However, in some cases it is less harmless, because it more deeply changes the perceived meaning: > > if you don't want to do things, just don't f\cking do it > > > oh f \ck, we'll just go back to do, as we were doing > > > and in some other, I simply cannot change interviewee's words: > > [...] he really tried and wanted to build up, but he completely f\cked up every single part of every single thing. > > > --- Since I am not a native speaker, I don't know how "bad" would using the f-word be perceived (which is why I tried to be careful here.) In some cases, I could do a cut quote, e.g. "it's just super [...] slow, and really [...] annoying", but it looks like I'm not accurately depicting the wordings. I've also seen on the internet people using 'f\ck' standing for the f-word. Could this be a solution? (I personally find this solution a bit prudish.) Otherwise, could I simply quote them? Should I put a warning somewhere?<issue_comment>username_1: If you're quoting someone, quote them as they said it. We're all adults. In the literature world, we quote swear words and other potentially offensive things all the time and no one bats an eye. I've no doubt other fields are the same. Personally, if I saw an asterisk or similar, I would presume you interviewed them via chat or email, and they actually self-censored. If it were a printed text, I'd think it a part of the edition you used. Upvotes: 8 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: In research, you should quote them verbatim. Editing, or censoring, swearing is wrongly representing your research subjects and is thus a form of scientific misconduct. If you need to edit the quote for specific audience you must make it clear that you have done so: > > It's just so [obscenity] slow, it really [obscenities] me off. > > > With a note saying that you have edited the text to remove swear words. Partial censorship such as you used above (e.g. f\ck, c\nt) is both utterly pointless and misleading; either completely remove the word (indicating where you have done so) or quote properly: > > It's just so fucking annoying; it really fucks me off. > > > Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_3: I'm a history student currently working with oral history. You should not smooth anything on a transcript — when quoting you should do exactly as said or written. There are certain ways to indicate that something is a grammar mistake or a phonetic(?) transcription to clarity that there's no mistake on your part; usually those things are put in foot notes. I'll edit this later to give you some resources for that, but for now if you put any notes make sure to do it as a footnote. You can use the brackets too, they indicate some comment of the author outside the context of the quote. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: If this is for publication, check with the editor. If this is for a working (non-published) paper that you, and perhaps som collaborators, will be working with, then you get to decide, based on subjective considerations, such as, will it be irritating for you to read the f-word 200 times a day? If so, you are free to choose a euphemism. Upvotes: 1
2016/11/10	2,196	9,563	<issue_start>username_0: In our research group we do many things, but have little time for writing papers. Sometimes things like formatting the manuscript for some specific journal or just writing the intro and methods sections can be very easy things if what you do is almost always the same, or you just need to rewrite some parts from one paper to other. This is always (from my opinion) straightforward but needs lots of time. Therefore I started to wonder how could I find people for just writing and formatting manuscript 100% of the time. How would you do this? P.S. I remember some years ago there were some websites where programmers could interchange between them "services" for free, for instance one would write some C# code if the other one could do a website for the other. Do something like this exist for academics where the services are "writing papers", "formatting grants", "getting bibliography", etc.<issue_comment>username_1: Writing the manuscript is a significant scientific contribution. Is your research so trivial that anybody can interpret the data that you give them and write to a high scientific caliber on them, with no further inputs from you? Most likely, you'd need to also provide them with a rigorous analysis of that data, probably in writing form, since they might no share an office with you, and also for record keeping. That explanation becomes the crux of a paper that you could write yourself in the first place. The time spent explaining the data to someone not involved in an experiment will be greater than just writing the thing yourself. You'd be only saving time on tiny matters of sentence formulation, if you'd even save time at all. Formatting a paper in my experience doesn't take that much time, so I'm not sure where you're coming from in on that point. Most journals provide you with a template that you can literally copy paste into. If something is straightforward as you say, it shouldn't take that much time at all. If by "getting bibliography", you mean compiling the bibliography, that will also be something that only you, being familiar with the experiment, can provide. A bibliography should be something that arises naturally from the need to reference previous methods/works for your analysis, not a chunk that you copy paste between papers without thoughts. If you mean that they also do the data analysis, then they just become a regular scientific collaborator, with full authorship rights. Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Not enough time to write papers ------------------------------- Producing papers is a core part of your job. You cannot avoid this. Delegating writing (to non co-authors) is surely plagiarism. Nonetheless, *you might be able to improve your* efficiency*. Writing introduction and methods sections. Presumably, you made some notes when you started work, e.g., you formulated some hypothesis. Instead of writing such notes, you could write the first draft of the introduction. Bibliography. I'm not sure what "getting [a] bibliography" means. Do you mean writing a "literature review"? If so, then that's something that also comes from your initial notes, when you establish the context of your proposed research in relation to the existing literature. Co-authors. You can distribute the burden of writing amongst the group. In particular, PhD students can do the vast majority of any writing when they are a co-author. Formatting manuscripts ---------------------- This task typically isn't time consuming. Nonetheless, you could always hire an undergraduate to the work. You could hire me too -- but I doubt you could afford me! Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: On the first look the problem of finding collaborators has to do with motivating people and to find people who are interested in a subject. For example, a group is formed around a robotics research project and now the question is why it is so hard to find somebody who likes to fix the typos in a manuscript or likes to write the introduction. But what exactly motivates people to contribute to a project? Is it only money or has it to do with the academic subject? The answer is a bit more complicated. It has to do why a certain project is done by a group of people. A research project doesn't start by itself. In most cases, the environment of a research group assigns a question to a group. A typical example is, that a university likes to figure out how to program a computer vision system for a biped robot and assigns this task to a workgroup. The reason why the people in the group are motivated is not because they are interested in the task itself, but they would like to do the job for the university. Answer the problem of how to find collaborators is possible by referencing to the external customer of a research project. A research group can announce, that they have the assignment of a concrete customer and then the question is which authors likes to do the job too. Individuals are not motivated by money or the subject, but they would like to contribute to a certain external customer. Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_4: The assumptions that you operate under, as revealed by your question, would be virulently opposed by the vast majority of academics. You might get a sense of that from the other responses here. I have come across a number of researchers who share your views. They feel that 'doing research' is more important than writing about it, and time spent writing is time wasted (especially introduction and such). This question [here](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/107878/rephrasing-and-reproducing-some-part-of-the-introduction-of-a-research-publicati/107882#107882) borders on such thinking. It's absolutely untrue that writing is less important. This may be a shield to cover up lack of clarity or less critical, inadequate language skills. You should introspect on whether this is the case at your group. If you want to hire people for money to write for you, those people are likely to be students looking to supplement their income or pay off a loan. The arrangement would probably work, but some people would find this exploitative, like a very mild version of a sweatshop. If you want to have these writers work for authorship, you are going down a very slippery slope. What happens if the writer disagrees with your research? What if they want to add something of their own? It's quite natural to develop a sense of ownership and accountability after some time; how would you deal with that? How do you 'fire' these people without them raising misconduct claims? Note that I'm on pointing out practical difficulties, the ethical considerations that make this a bad idea should already be quite clear to you. In summary, my advice is, don't. Make time to write, or wait till you have some downtime to write. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: > > In our research group we do many things, but have little time for writing papers. > > > Typically, a research group applies for grants, and the money pays for PhD students or postdocs who have a strong interest in publishing, so they often do the writing. But there's an ambiguity in the question about the scope of the "writing" task: Assuming that the literature review is done, the method is described and the results are analyzed, the job is mostly editorial and the person doing it doesn't need to be an academic: in this case your group can hire a research assistant or contract a company specialized in proofreading/formatting documents. This person wouldn't need to be a co-author (and they probably wouldn't care for it anyway since they are not in the academic system), but they would need to be paid. * If the task involves research skills, for instance the person is in charge of explaining why and how the research is being done, then they must be an academic of some kind and would be a co-author in their own right. It's common to assign this job to a PhD student or postdoc in the lab; if nobody is available, then it's worth extending your collaboration network through people met at conferences for instance. While it's probably possible to find academics just interested in having their name as co-author, most of them would want to participate in the research project from the start, not just helping writing the paper. This distinction is essential: if it's a real research job, then it cannot be outsourced this way. On the other hand if it's a proofreading/formatting job, then it's possible if there's money to pay for it, even though it's not common. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_6: Formatting of a manuscript to fit the requirements of a specific journal is a nasty work, I must agree. However, I do not know any service to provide that support. Have you tried the Overleaf platform for collaborative drafting of scholarly documents? It's based on Latex but can be also used by non-experts in TeX. Many publishers support their authors by providing them an environment for specific journals at Overleaf. It's then formatted automatically in the right style on the fly. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_7: There seems to be a consensus in the answers given thus far that you cannot hire someone to do the writing part for you. Yes, as a current PhD, I find this answer to be true in my field as well. We all have to do it. Writing will continue to be an important part of your research; you will need to write papers and grants in the future. In sum, it's part of your job. Just do it. Upvotes: 0
2016/11/11	483	2,045	<issue_start>username_0: I am a grad student TA and I proctor exams. I want to know, what is the best way to proctor? As in, paths to take while walking, when to stand, when to walk, etc. Is there any rigorous studies on what catches the most cheating? How does the algorithm change for larger or smaller classrooms? I am interested in scientific studies, not anecdotes. Are there any rigorous studies for this?<issue_comment>username_1: I believe that you can formulate the problem mathematically in a way which can lead to some well-known optimisation problem. However, I think the mathematical model you described is very restricted and the solution is not likely to work very well in practice, even if you find it. Your model only includes moving and observing a certain part of a room - plain and simple. However, in practice, cheating is prevented not only by someone who "polices" the situation. It is a more complex process, which includes some aspects of ethics, culture, community values, etc. Creating a proper culture within your School / University is much better way of preventing cheating, than walking around students following a super-optimal path prescribed by a supercomputer. Also, the efficiency of a proctor depends not only on their path through the room, but on a lot of psychological factors, e.g. how this person is perceived by students. A lazily walking person will not be very efficient in preventing cheating whatever the path is. A really "scary" proctor (with heavy looks, etc) can prevent all cheating sitting on their chair in a corner of the room. There is much more factors to this problem than trajectory only, and that's why I don't think the model you suggest is very useful for this problem. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Take a look at A Comprehensive Literature Review on Cheating, Simha and Cullen, and Detecting and Preventing Cheating During Exams, Yee and MacKown. I feel like I only scratched the surface. Not really sure why you need help with the literature search.... Upvotes: 1
2016/11/11	1,019	4,594	<issue_start>username_0: I am a Phd student in immunology. I was the first student of my supervisor. 4 months after my arrival to the lab, another phd student started to work with us. We work with samples that we obtain from mice (bone marrow, blood, etc.). My supervisor wanted me to work in breeding, weaning, genotyping and handling (injections etc) our mice for the whole laboratory in addition to my project. Although it was absolutely fine at the beginning, she did not want the other phd student to do any mouse work for 3.5 years. She told me that it would be considered as co-authorship. But when his paper was submitted, she excluded me even from ackowledgement. My supervisor blamed this on the student as he did not want to write my name. Then later told me it was just a help not a contribution. It is not a piece of data that i can claim in the paper. However, if this work was not done, paper would not be out. What would you advise?<issue_comment>username_1: I would suggest being candid with your supervisor, and express your concerns. However, make sure that when doing so you keep your concerns professional so it does not come off as petty in-lab competitiveness between graduate students (which is, unfortunately, quite common). Also remember that although you are working on the study, the study and all of its data belong to your institution and the principal investigator of the study. One of the responsibilities of a graduate student is to "give back" to his/her PI's lab in exchange for supervision. This often takes the form of data collection, analysis, coding, etc. -- from your description, it sounds like this is your role. These roles are not typically grounds for authorship. However, if you contributed to the hypothesis formulation, hypothesis testing, or had written portions of the paper, you would be well within your rights to request authorship. Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: I think there are two ethical issues here: 1) Authorship. By most definitions, the work you did does not qualify you for authorship, because you did not have a significant hand in drafting/designing the research or the manuscript (that doesn't mean some labs wouldn't assign authorship in this case, but that if you read the fine print for authorship requirements for journals or professional societies, animal husbandry would not be sufficient). It seems clear you did not have a role in the manuscript because you didn't even realize your name was not included in the authors list or acknowledgments until now. It would generally be good practice for the authors to at least include in acknowledgements somebody who did as much technical support as you did, and it would also be good practice for you to be offered to contribute to the manuscript and analysis to attain authorship privileges. You should not have been offered authorship as an incentive if the PI and other student did not intend to allow you to earn it. 2) Research ethics and appropriate use of graduate students. I think this area is where you have a greater case. It sounds like you were made to do way more work on another project than should be typical for a graduate student. A technician, sure, because your primary position would be as a paid assistant in the lab, but as a student, your primary position is as a student. I am unclear why your PI thought this other student should not learn to work with the animals when their project was so dependent on animal work - that doesn't seem to be full training, how is the student going to start an independent research career if they have not learned the basic techniques of their field? By no means should you expect to always work solely on your own project, but, unless you are overstating your contributions, which I understand is certainly possible, it seems like you were made to go beyond the normal level of assistance. I would consider carefully the technical contributions the primary author made to the project, and weigh how your efforts compared in terms of total hours. Have you also had time to work on your own independent project, and is that work progressing to your satisfaction? If yes, then maybe there isn't a major issue, and this is just an unfortunate situation you will learn from in the future and you certainly now have a good reason to stop doing this work for other students. If no, then you certainly need to address this with your supervisor, and if you can not reach an arrangement that is suitable to you, you may need to talk to your program or department to get further guidance. Upvotes: 2
2016/11/11	354	1,617	<issue_start>username_0: Would it be possible to publish in a decent journal (not ArXiv) without conducting experiments? I was thinking of conducting some correlational research based on existing data (Ex. statistics collected by the government available to the public). What are my chances of publishing as an undergrad based on existing data? Will journals accept this kind of publication? I am open to suggestions on how to go about doing this and whether it is a worthwhile undertaking?<issue_comment>username_1: First, anybody can potentially publish in journals, no matter the status, if the results are good enough. That said, there are special undergraduate journals (I only know a few examples from mathematics, e. g. SIURO which is SIAM Undergraduate Research Online). I can't comment on the actual topic you have in mind and it would probably be best for you to find a local advisor who can help you with that. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: In principle this is possible, however, when using data collected by somebody else you have to take great care not to produce bad science. Data collection is usualy performed with a certain specific application in mind, and when collecting data you have to make sure that the errors introduced in the collection process do not influence the final result in a way that is important for your purpose. If you use the same data for some other purpose your results will likely be affected by some bias. So if you want to corelate oil prices with GDP growth, you are fine, but with more complex questions you are in real danger. Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]
2016/11/11	4,176	16,669	<issue_start>username_0: I have an ex who has posted nude photos of me online in the past, linked to my online social media, and posted my full name and where I live. I am concerned he may do so again once he finds out I'm now in a PhD program (he's very jealous of any success I have), and may link to my school bio page, or worse. Revenge porn is illegal in my state, and the case against him is currently pending. I have also gotten the photos taken down with a DMCA letter (I hold the copyright over the photos in question). At this point, I am concerned with how a future attempt could affect my career. I can handle the embarrassment now that I've been through it once, so if that's the biggest concern, I can deal. I just don't want to lose a career over it, given how small academia really is and how a reputation might follow one around. My question is, if I don't change my name (I've considered this, assuming I can keep him from finding out) and my photos are circulated and discovered by faculty or students, how likely am I to be thrown out of my PhD program or later lose a job as an untenured prof? Is a name change worth it? (If it makes any difference, they are essentially just topless portraits; I'm not engaged in any sexual activity or anything weird, and were taken 10 years ago when I was very young and foolish.)<issue_comment>username_1: I think you can generally trust faculty to be adults when it comes to graduate admissions and a tenure track job. The biggest problem I would see is when you teach (future undergraduate) students. I'm not sure how you would want to deal with them. I would say that university administrators tend to be adversity shy and could be a problem. I would instead look to see if a lawyer might help you DMCA the sites hosting the images as well as file either a legal complaint or restraining order against you ex. This latter bit is best asked on [Law Stack Exchange](https://law.stackexchange.com/). University registrars and faculty are used to students having to change their name due to a variety of circumstances. You should be able to get new transcripts and letters issued under your new name without issue. But the abuser can also link images to your new name unless you can prevent him or he loses interest; so a name change is not a foolproof solution. Upvotes: 7 <issue_comment>username_2: > > My question is, if I don't change my name (I've considered this, > assuming I can keep him from finding out) and my photos are circulated > and discovered by faculty or students, how likely am I to be thrown > out of my PhD program or later lose a job as an untenured prof? Is a > name change worth it? > > > On the main question, consider the answers and comments on your question as a sample of academic reaction to your situation. I see lots of sympathy, support, and attempts to think of ideas to help you. That is what I would expect from your department if your ex were to try anything while you are a PhD student or professor. I don't think a name change would be effective in your situation. To continue your academic career you need to maintain some contact with your old life to get letters of recommendation, degree transcripts etc. However, if you are going to do a name change it would be best done before you start writing papers. Even if you are willing to abandon all connections to your early papers, you will still be publicly part of a network of collaborators, and your ex might be able to guess your new name from co-authorship. Your ex wants you to curl up and hide. Every day you spend living your own life, ignoring him, and succeeding at what you want to do is a victory for you and for everyone who thinks revenge porn is a contemptible betrayal of trust. Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_3: Frankly, we live in a time where no "misdeed" ever can be assumed to stay hidden forever; you can assume that there is simply a photograph of anything you do in your life; you can assume that anyone will be able to plant cameras or take drone photographs at any location and time, at a level that was previously only accessible to top specialists of the secret arts. As therefore unsavoury exposures become increasingly more common, my estimate is that minor slips will therefore, in future, be of diminishing importance and offer less potential of threat. My experience is that with the more boldness, chutzpah and/or indifference you would treat any confrontation of that kind, it sends a message that you are not influenced by that and that it's not an effective way for anyone to exert power over you. This is not a guarantee that it won't have an effect on a hiring committee, but, frankly, a hiring committee that is more worried about youthful misdeeds (if these should indeed be considered misdeeds) rather than the professional quality of a candidate is not worth its salt - and, as for students, you can remind them that you were one of them, once, too. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: First, I'm sorry this happened and that you've had to learn to "get over the embarrassment", which you never should have had to do. Second, I think you should consider just letting this go. You said the photos are already down, so I assume they aren't the top search that comes up when you google your name? And even if they are, that will fade over time. The reality is that as long as they're "hidden" from casual searching, you've covered the vast majority of concerns. If someone is really going to dig into your past, the sort of digging that might turn up old deleted photos, they might just as well turn up your name change too. Especially since I imagine you'll need to link back to your old name for transcripts, if nothing else. To address one comment I saw, I would absolutely not tell your department. This was a crime against you, and isn't anyone's business. If they find out about it on their own, I expect they'll treat it thusly. It shouldn't be an unpleasant surprise to them, because this isn't about you. The only ones who should be unpleasantly surprised to find this are your ex's future employers. You can't control what others might do, but recognize that if they respond negatively to this sort of thing that it's an indictment against them, not you. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_5: For your PhD program, the university rules should be pretty clear about what is serious enough to be chucked out. Normally that needs something like a criminal conviction. So it seems unlikely that you'd have problems there. Similarly as a professor/lecturer, you'd be an employee. At that point your employment contract will be relevant, and again you would need to be guilty of gross misconduct to be fired. It could be an issue if the pics surface during the hiring process though, because it's very hard to prove why you haven't been asked back for a second interview. Of course "at-will" employment is an issue, but most places would rather hold onto good people than train up someone unknown. Thing is though, it's not like you're the first person this has happened to. There's a laundry list of Hollywood A-listers who've had naked pics of themselves broadcast without their permission, never mind all the regular Joes and Janes who've been double-crossed by their exes. And more intriguingly, the wife of the President-Elect of the USA once posed for a lesbian photoshoot for a well-known porn magazine, with pictures publicly available and not able to be taken down. I've had a similar problem with my ex. In her case, she posted stuff to my company's Facebook page. My boss has enough class that his question was not "what are you up to?" but "please can you stop her doing this again?", because clearly it wasn't done with my consent! Luckily I didn't have to get the cops involved. And TBH, if the people you're working with are likely to be unprofessional about this, you really don't want to be working there anyway. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_6: I would be extremely surprised if any faculty or faculty member would look down on you for this, possibly unless their religion is involved, although for some topless portraits, I still think it would be unlikely. Even if some old fuddy-duddy did secretly harbour a negative view of it, they would not want to openly dwell on it. Revenge porn scandals are well known to all, and are disgusting to all, certainly of professional age, but the disgust is at the poster, not the victim. I really think if you have legal proceedings, you say photos are down, it is best to try to leave it alone, it is hard to see any other action not making it more likely that photos will be more of an embarassment for you. One suggestion if the ex was to do it again, and you feel he will continue, which is definitely wholly dependant on many factors that only you might be able to gauge, is, as silly as it sounds - tell his mum ( or family, whatever). legal proceedings are hard with stuff like this, but in a lot of family dynamics, family disapproval can be extremely powerful, especially around such a horrible crime. Dangerous game though, obviously. Really though, nobody is going to be against you on this, the media is full of this stuff constantly, some topless pics are very tame compared (I'm really not trying to play down your embarrassment, it is a very horrible thing). And academia, more than some fields, is not where you generally find the type that might mock you for it, maybe in wolf of wallstreet type environments. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_7: > > How likely am I to be thrown out of my PhD program? > > > ### Zero likelihood. You will not be thrown out. You would not be violating any rules or regulations; and while a few people might - unjustly - form a poor opinion of your character, well, lots of academics form poor opinions on the character of lots of PhD candidates - usually for more valid reasons. Others have elaborated on this point more, I'd say it's pretty obvious. > > How likely am I to ... later lose a job as an untenured prof? > > > ### Extremely unlikely. You can't be fired for this reason, as, again, you've not done anything that merits being fired. As an untenured member of faculty your employment does, however, often depend on good relations with administration or senior faculty, and that in turn - with very low probability, mind you may be impacted by your nude photos incident, if people start gossiping about it. Unless your job is at a super-religious super-conservative school, I really don't see it happening, and even at such a school its likely the effect would be not to want to give you tenure / promote you / socialize with you - at the worst. > > Is a name change worth it? > > > ### No, it won't help and it may have a negative effect. First, it's pretty easy for him to find you out - since he knows what you're doing in life, academically and until this time, geographically. It will probably not even be much of an effort (unless you avoid all social networks, all publicly-visible jobs including teaching, and so on). Second, if anything, changing your name signals you believe you have done something wrong, something you're ashamed of. And you have not done any such thing! The only wrong was for him to publish the photos, not for any of you to take them. > > they ... were taken 10 years ago when I was very young and foolish. > > > You were certainly not foolish for taking them. It's extremely common, especially these days. I would venture to make a two-bit psychological assertion and say that you should not conflate being ashamed of being seen topless by strangers with shame for having been the victim of your boyfriend's revenge. I would say the first kind of shame is wholly unnecessary - but that's a question of personal morals; what's definitely true is that the person who needs to be ashamed for the photos having been published is just your a\\\\\e boyfriend, not you! Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_8: If this happened with one of my graduate students, I wouldn't care about the photos. I would* care that someone with a personal grudge was harassing my research assistant, and I'd consider what might be done to see that the harassment stops. I think this view is shared by quite a few people in academia. We are concerned with the your contributions to research and teaching, and your personal life isn't our business for the most part. However, indiscretions as minor as those you describe can and have [damaged people's careers](http://community.edb.utexas.edu/socialmedia/node/61). So I think it is prudent to take reasonable steps to limit how these photos are connected with you. I would tread carefully with regard to acknowledging them at all, unless you know beyond any doubt that they are genuine unaltered photos and you are compelled to address them. How you approach the issue has a lot of influence on how others will handle it. If you can manage to take it in stride and not let it affect your activities at the university, that will probably be noted and appreciated. I think this is much less of an issue in a graduate program and in college teaching situations where we are all, ostensibly, adults. Unfortunately, all it takes is an administrator or person in a position of sufficient authority with the wrong attitude to make this difficult for you. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_9: Good for you for defending yourself and being in a PhD program. I wish you great success. I agree with the other posters that topless photos are unlikely to hurt your career, although I would add that you may have problems if you're at a religious institution. For example, topless photos could get you expelled from Liberty University, a Christian college run by <NAME>'s son. A professor [was fired](http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-wheaton-college-professor-fired-20160105-story.html) from Wheaton College after wearing a hijab in solidarity with Muslims, although the school claims it was for her views on Islam. According to [this article](https://www.thenation.com/article/the-schools-where-free-speech-goes-to-die/), professors at religious colleges "have been fired or forced to resign for coming out as transgender, for getting pregnant outside marriage, or for getting divorced". On the positive side, there might be sympathy for you as the victim of a crime from some religious colleges. Brigham Young University [recently announced](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2016/10/26/brigham-young-the-preeminent-mormon-college-announces-new-amnesty-policy-for-sexual-assault-victims/) an amnesty policy for sexually assaulted students, who "will no longer face the possibility of punishment for honor code violations, such as drinking or extramarital sex." To summarize, if you're at a secular university, you should be okay. (I assume you would have said so if you were at a religious university; correct me if I'm wrong.) You should think twice before becoming a faculty member at a university with religious requirements, although these vastly vary by denomination and geography. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_10: Apparently, you were good on these photos. So, in private talks, do whatever you wish, but in PhD matters, it's none of their business. Nobody will ever dare say a word if you do proper research. If asked, you can be witty or not, depending on your skills ("Ha-ha, you were not that good 10 years ago!"), but do change the topic immediately ("Could we speak about the zeta-function?"). Other than that, try to pay as little attention as possible to these matters; they will only take your time and make you procrastinate. Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_11: If you were to go and work in a situation where security is concerned, this may effect your suitability for the position. This is not about the fact that you let the photos be taken or the content of the photos, it is about the fact the photos exist and that you wish to keep them private. There is some risk that someone may pursued you to do things against the interest of security in exchange for them doing/not doing something with the photos. Depending on how high the security is for the position you wish to hold if this will effect you. In terms of academia, this will most likely effect what projects you can work on e.g. you will be unlikely able to get national security clearance so any law enforcement projects would be unlikely for you to work on. ps although this is like @DVK's answer the reason behind the answer is different. Upvotes: -1
2016/11/11	4,247	17,497	<issue_start>username_0: Recently, I applied to attend a workshop of 14 days. I came to know about this workshop from colleague of mine. After a few days, I received an email saying I got accepted, along with that, some procedures that I need to follow. Among the points, one was > > Once you join the course, you will also have to sign (i) an agreement > that you will be present in each and every event (talk, discussion, > practicals, field trip etc.) and (ii) maintaining good conduct and behavior > throughout the course with fellow participants/ organizing personnel/ hotel > staffs/ speakers etc. Any violation of agreement or any kind of misconduct > reported to the organizer will attract strict academic as well as legal > action. > > > The agreement signature issue was not mentioned when I applied for the event. I mailed as there was a line saying "violation of the agreement would lead to strict legal and academic action". Seeing this point, I was a bit concerned, as this point talked about legal action. I have never been to any workshop, or nor have I known anyone speak of any workshop where one has to sign an agreement that he/she has to attend every lecture. I recently communicated a paper, and I feel I may get a review at that time. And right now I cannot afford to anger the reviewer. Hence I wrote an email saying: > > Respected Sir, > > > Thank you for considering me eligible for participating in the lecture > course. I had a query regarding the fourth point which says: > "Once you join the course, you will also have to sign (i) an agreement > that you will be present in each and every event (talk, discussion, > practicals, field trip etc.) and (ii) maintaining good conduct and > behaviour throughout the course with fellow participants/ organising > personnel/ hotel staffs/ speakers etc. Any violation of agreement or > any kind of misconduct reported to the organiser will attract strict > academic as well as legal action." > > > According to (i), there will be an agreement that I have to be present > in > each and every event (talk, discussion, practicals, field trip etc.). > Will > there be some consideration in the exceptional cases of physical > sickness > or if during that time I am asked to review an already submitted work > of > mine in some journal (since the review period will be time bound, in > such > a case I may not be able to compulsorily attend each and every event, I > may have to work for the review during that time). Since signing an > agreement is a serious business and violation of the agreement would > lead > to strict academic as well as legal action, hence I had to query about > this issue. > > Regard, > > > To this, I got the reply: > > Dear \\\\ > > > Thanks for your query. This course, unlike others is a prestigious and highly > demanding one. This is aimed to make every participant as beneficial as possible. This is the reason, why \\\* is spending this huge amount. This can only happen if the beneficiary participants like you will be alert, responsive and receptive. You should rather be happy and positive to get an opportunity like this, instead of thinking negatively in anticipation of being sick or reviewing papers with a challenging attitude. > > > I would suggest you to rather take care of your review of manuscript than attending this course. There are many deserving candidates out there who are willing to leave everything behind and simply be attentive to listen and grasp knowledge from world leaders. Think twice, if you are the one who is fit for such course or not. If not, simply withdraw your candidature and we will be very happy to send your participation fee back. > > > Your candidature will be withdrawn if I fail to hear from you within the next 24 hours on the acceptance of the terms and conditions. > > > I felt that the reply was a bit rude. Was this reply appropriate? Is there something wrong with my e-mail? I may be wrong, do let me know if you feel the same. I personally felt that the person could have just said that they will be sticking to the rules, instead of going into so much of details. Do correct me if I am wrong... P.S. I am just a student. I have been in research field for not more than 1.5 years, so I still may not be knowing the drills. My advisor thinks i am wrong in asking this. The \\\* stars are just used to replace the event name and the organizer name. My main email contains the real names...<issue_comment>username_1: You're overthinking this. It's perfectly reasonable for a workshop that is in high demand to expect full attendance from the candidates lucky enough to be chosen to attend. It's slightly unusual to be asked to sign an agreement, but I imagine that springs from long and bitter experience of previous workshops, on the part of the organisers. Viewed in this light, their email is a bit terse and cranky, but fairly reasonable. Reviews can be put off, especially if you write to the editor to let them know you will be out of touch for a few days. If you want to attend the workshop, you should write back apologetically, and let the organisers know you will be in full attendance. Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_2: I have never seen such a clause in any conference, and the answering letter is quite rude. However, the reasoning behind it is sound, and even applied internally sometimes. If there is a prestigious conference with limited capacity, and people know that you tend to show up for only a fraction of the time, chances are that you are not invited. I believe that asking about situations which force you to skip parts of the workshop was a mistake. Suppose you reserve a table in a very exclusive restuarant, and immediately ask what happens if you feel sick on that evening, or your car breaks down, or your cat gets hurt. The answer will likely be "Have you considered ordering pizza, Sir?". I can understand that "strict legal action" is shocking, but unless you live in a country with pretty strange legal system the worst that could happen is that once you miss a course, you are excluded from the workshop, and even that is unlikely. So I would answer that I want to attend the workshop, explaining that I only asked because the legal action frightened me, and that I am convinced that I will attend all courses. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: Should you be worried about "legal actions"? Maybe. I deem unlikely that any jurisdiction has specific laws for you not attending a workshop (of course I am not a lawyer and you never know, maybe North Korea's..). Any legal consequence must come from the agreement they make you sign, and you are at the very least entitled to see it before reaching the venue and be put in a position where you are pressured into signing it. In my humble opinion, I don't think there is any actual legal consequence awaiting you and this is most likely an empty threat. Should you be worried about "academic actions" The only thing I can think of is being somehow shun by that specific workshop community and maybe be blacklisted for future workshop from the same organizer. Is this a relevant thing to you? Maybe, if you are "caught" missing any of the talks, you might receive a reprimand. Other considerations Without further information I cannot say whether this is a good workshop or a bad one, but there are some obvious red flags. The language they use in their reply to you sounds unprofessional to say the least. I personally find it quite offensive. Furthermore, everything they write sounds extremely pretentious. Sentences like: > > This course, unlike others is a prestigious and highly demanding one. > > > and > > This is the reason, why \\\* is spending this huge amount. > > > and > > There are many deserving candidates out there who are willing to leave everything behind and simply be attentive to listen and grasp knowledge from world leaders. > > > make it sounds like they are desperately trying to convey the high quality of their workshop to you. This is somewhat inconsistent with what they are trying to project, though. If their course had really such good speakers, whose lessons are so invaluable, why do they have to put an unheard-of clause about attendance, threatening attendees with potential "academic and legal action"? Why, instead of politely replying to your legitimate query, do they write such a passive-aggressive letter, suggesting that you pass on this because maybe you are not the candidate they are looking for? Do you see that this, too, is a device to have you attend? If I had to guess, I would think that in the past people got so sick with wasting their time there with pompous self-proclaimed world leader that many left the venue. I am not saying that this has happened, I am most likely wrong, this is indeed a great workshop with a stricter than usual rule and the occasional rude guy answering email, but I would take time to reconsider whether this workshop is indeed worth attending for two weeks. Maybe your time and money are indeed better spent elsewhere. Were you wrong in asking ? I think you had a right to ask, but perhaps your email was a little misguided. Rather than providing possible motivations you could have simply asked explanations on what the clause meant and to see the agreement. If you want to go forward I'd ignore their considerations, as there is little point in arguing with jerks, and just stick with a polite email along the lines of > > Dear Sir, > I am planning to attend the workshop fully, but I'd like to understand the legal consequences of any agreement I enter into. I kindly request that you send me a copy of the agreement I will be required to sign beforehand and extend the deadline to allow me to read it before giving you a definitive answer. > > > Upvotes: 7 <issue_comment>username_4: Plain and clear: Turn around and run. We know, of course, nothing about your actual event, but that kind of language and mindset is absolutely impossible. Unless you are trying to get into such prestigious circles, of course (what do I know, it might be an Oxford or MIT event for the "best of the best of the best" students in the world...), but you would likely have mentioned that. This sounds more like a brainwashing event than an earnest academic workshop. As you rightly took good note of the terms in their first mail, you will very likely have either nagging doubts/fears during the event, or, will find that the athmosphere is one of much tension (which is hardly good for learning). Even though you are "only" a student, you are still an adult human, and a teaching organisation has no business talking like this. They are a service provider and you are the customer. They are nothing without you. You are not a serf labouring to meet a person higher up in the food chain, it should be the other way round. Even if there were some way to justify the legally binding agreement for attendance and behaviour, a professional would answer your question in a neutral/friendly way, explaining why they need the agreement. They are asking you to sign something (onesided, as well), with a clear threat attached. They do not see fit to explain why and how it exactly it works. This is clear fear-based intimidation, or at least, by their communication, it looks that way. So either they have bad intentions, or they are just not good at communicating. In both cases, this is in conflict with them trying to teach you something! Upvotes: 9 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_5: I'm not at your career stage, but I would be incensed if I got such a response. Granted, as already pointed out, your letter was sort of naive, but his level of rudeness was uncalled for. Unless this is the career opportunity of a lifetime, I would publicly withdraw. I wouldn't send the letter to him. I would withdraw by forwarding his email message to the leadership of whatever organizations run and fund this event, politely explaining that you found the reply offensive and suggesting that they find somebody with the appropriate level of civility to interact with trainees in your field. Of course, this might be horrible career advice. His appropriate response, by the way, would have been "Unfortunately, past experience dictates that we remind our attendees of matters of basic etiquette. We understand how this raises concerns. Attached are the agreements that we require of you for your review." Same message, without being an asshole. Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_6: The initial agreement is perhaps a bit heavy handed but not too strange and comes across a covering themselves against people who see the workshops as an opportunity to spend a few days in a hotel getting drunk. Threatening legal action for bad behaviors is understandable but it is odd that they would feel the need to make this point if it really is a respected academic course with stringent entry requirements. Legal action for non attendance is just odd, as long as you have paid it's no skin off their nose whether you actually turn up or not...unless the real point of the 'workshop' is to sell you something. However the reply to your reasonable query is worrying and has a lot of the hallmarks of very dubious hard sell tactics. It is entirely reasonable for them to say that they require full attendance and a minimum standard of behavior but equally it is entirely reasonable for you to query what would happen if you are ill or have to fulfil other commitments ans as such this reply does seem overly aggressive. For example you might expect a more professional reply to be worded like : 'This is a demanding course and we do expect all participants to attend all scheduled events in order to get the full benefit and missing some parts by individuals cannot be made up later. If you have other commitments you may wish to reconsider your booking.' Terse but polite the message being take it or leave it which is fair enough. Equally some of the language is a bit awkward and weird This course, unlike others is a prestigious and highly demanding one and You should rather be happy and positive to get an opportunity like this really do ring alarm bells indeed the phrase 'world leaders' is a very strange one to use in this context. Overall this sounds a lot like the language of a scam and I would recommend staying well away. A genuinely world class course would not remotely need to use this sort of manipulative and coercive tone. Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_7: The question refers to the event as a workshop, but within the description the term "lecture course" and "course" are used. The agreement the organizers want you to sign mentions field trips, practicals, as well as talks and discussions. It appears to me that this is a compressed or short academic course rather than what I would call a workshop. If attendees have the option to claim academic or professional credit for completing it, I can see why the organizers might require an agreement that outlines the requirements for successfully completing the course. I've seen universities have strict attendance/testing requirements for summer term courses because they operate on a compressed schedule. If you miss a few days of class, it's more like missing a week or more during a normal term. This looks like something similar. All that aside, I also think the organizer was rude in the response that was sent to you. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_8: SCAM! They avoid answering a valid legal question, try to make you feel bad for asking, and apply pressure to make you ignore the legal issue. If you run a con, that's how you do it. Bonus points for the random 24 hour time limit. Upvotes: 7 <issue_comment>username_9: TLDR; Instead of essentially saying, "This is the reason, why <NAME> is spending so g\dd\\\ much," I'd expect a seasoned organizer to say something more along the lines of, "Mr. Jones is making an investment in your career by having you join our seminar." --- As an aside from the behavior release, his reply scares me. The wording, "this huge amount," is a red-flag to me. I see that he's trying to convey there is great quality in the programming, but "huge amount," just sounds off and is not wording that would be typical from a highly seasoned event organizer. I'd expect the organizer would be better versed in describing the high pricing as a pro versus a con as he did in the email. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_10: After reading the two clauses a couple of times i think "strict academic as well as legal action" might be taken if you voilate clause (ii). In that case I may have no reservations. The response from organizers makes me suspect that your university is financing course fee for you or this is a university sponsored conference. If these not being the case I think you try to contact your head of department (and anonymously if you think his remarks would be just like that of your advisor). Lastly I will never attend a conference with such "attitude" peoples as there is a risk of voilation of clause (ii) :-) Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_11: I definitely would not go. Legal actions are potentially very serious. I assume this conference was troubled in the past, but it looks unusual to me to have these requirements. Upvotes: 0
2016/11/11	598	2,379	<issue_start>username_0: This is the position I am currently in: I finished a Master's a couple of months ago and I plan to start a PhD in a year's time. In the meantime I have applied for jobs and got a very decent and fixed-term one as a research assistant (so, perfect). Before I start working I will have had to submit at least one PhD application which asks for a CV. My question is: should I mention this job at all in my CV (clearly stating that I haven't started yet), or just omit it? This question is slightly similar to [this](http://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/how-to-put-an-internship-which-hasnt-started-yet-on-a-resume), except that for a job instead of an internship, and the answers were quite mixed. The way I see it, listing it would mean that (i) a good institution has accepted me to work in a good post, and (ii) unless things go very wrong, I will have gained valuable experience before I start the PhD. The possible drawbacks of listing it are (i) it's not really experience I have in the moment, so I can't be favourably judged on something I don't have, (ii) potentially not looking humble enough.<issue_comment>username_1: You could compromise by not stating it in your CV since you have not started the job yet, but mention it in other places of your application. There will either a motivation letter or an email sending the application itself, in which you could mention it. However, it is relevant that this new job is mentioned somewhere since it may impact in logistic decisions of when to start your PhD. A group/program might need/require someone to start within a time frame. Having a knowledge of time constraints from the student might weigh on their decisions. Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: If you have formally accepted the position, you can use the word "starting" with your start date to indicate it. Either way, you will probably be asked about what you're actually doing while you're applying for a program, but adding it on there ensures that, at the very least, if you forget to update your CV or accidentally provide an older CV for some reason, your bases are covered and the viewer is able to see that what was a prospective job is now likely your current job. Example: > > Underwater Basket Weaver, Foo Inc., Oahu, HI > > > Starting July 2124 > > > Don't add in stuff you do not 100% own. Upvotes: 1
2016/11/11	580	2,513	<issue_start>username_0: I'm an international student applying for college in the US. I asked subject teachers from my current school to write me recommendation letters, specifically telling them not to just copy one from the Internet. I'm using the Common Application for four out of the eight colleges I'm applying to. My recommenders submitted their letters to CommonApp and only then did they show their letters to me (which was okay, because I waived my right to review the recommendations) and when I checked online, they had ended up copying 99% of the letter from ones found online. My question is, will this affect my chances of getting into these colleges? I'm not entirely sure if copying recommendation letters from online counts as plagiarism, and I'm also not sure if colleges check for plagiarism in LORs. Thanks for your clarification!<issue_comment>username_1: Yes, it counts as plagiarism on the part of the teacher. There are 2 possibilities if they check the letter and find the plagiarism: 1. the university thinks your teacher copied the letter from an online source. This will make them be highly skeptical of the teacher as an academic and it will probably negatively reflect on you as a consequence. They might think you have worked in an environment where plagiarism is pervasive for example. 2. They think you forged a letter from your teacher by copying one from the internet and sending it in their name. This is of course even worse for your chances. Either way, even if the universities don't check all letter for plagiarism,you must consider the possibility that the reader at the university will recognize the letter. Or they might suspect plagiarism after reading it and check this specific letter. My advice would be: ask for an original letter, but whatever you do, don't send this letter. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: My question is, will this affect my chances of getting into these colleges? * Yes, obviously. I'm not entirely sure if copying recommendation letters from online counts as plagiarism * Not really, and they are not going to check, the problem here is not ethical. More likely the person reading the letters will recognize it instantly as boilerplate and put your file into the rejected stack. Thats all. It is still possible that you will be admitted somewhere if you have something interesting as part of your education, or if your school is known to the admissions officers in the US as having a rigorous program. Upvotes: 1
2016/11/11	628	2,738	<issue_start>username_0: I'm going to a conference in December and I will have a 20 minute talk there. Originally, a colleague of mine was supposed to go, but personal circumstances resulted in my taking part instead. My colleague and I cover the same area, so this is not the problem. But since my colleague handed in the title of the talk we have reevaluated our use of field-specific key words. Therefore, I think the title as it stands is a little misleading. Is it common practice to adapt conference presentation titles? [I found one topic](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/26214/my-papers-content-is-slightly-changed-from-the-abstract-i-have-submitted-to-a-c) covering a similar matter, but it hasn't got much attention.<issue_comment>username_1: Given that, officially at least, the title of your talk will still be the old misleading one, I'm not sure how much there really is to be gained by changing the wording of your first slide, which seems to be effectively what you're thinking of doing. In fact, having a title for your talk that doesn't match what's in the programme could be potentially misleading anyway (for example, if the chair reads your title from the programme, rather than the slide, or if the title on the screen isn't what your audience had expected). If you feel that your title is misleading then what I think I would do would be to begin the talk by making it clear that the title is potentially misleading, and then clarifying what the talk is actually about. You could even, before the audience's eyes, swap your old title for a new title. As long as the programme has the old title then to a certain extent the damage is done. I think the best approach to take is simply to make clear from the outset that the title is misleading, and explain what you're really going to talk about. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: It is quite normal that in a conference with 40 talks, several speakers change the titles of their talk on the spot. Common reasons are that there was some success after registration, or during the preparation of the talk the speaker found out that he cannot cover everything in the prescribed time. Sometimes it happens that a mistake was found to late, so the content of the talk has to be changed substantially. Usually this is not a problem. However, people either come to your talk because they are attracted by the title, or because they just want to appear polite. It would be unfair against the former if you change the content of your talk, in particular if there are parallel sessions. So if after submitting your title and abstract you find some much more interesting results on some other topic, you should still stick to your original talk. Upvotes: 1
2016/11/11	237	980	<issue_start>username_0: What should I do if I need to use part of a previous researcher's work (e.g. an instrument or a questionnaire) who passed away?<issue_comment>username_1: Find out who inherited his copyright, and ask them for permission. If he's long dead, his copyright may have expired and the work entered the public domain, but this period depends on governing law, jurisdiction, and numerous other variables. A century since the death of the author is probably a safe buffer but not infallible (and gets riskier the more well-known the author or work is). Better to find the copyright notice for the work and follow the thread from there to the current holder. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: If you wish to use published results, contact the publisher. If you wish to use unpublished results, contact the relatives. After 60-70 years after the author's death, depending on the country, you can use his/her stuff freely. For patents, it's less. Upvotes: 2
2016/11/11	3,387	14,123	<issue_start>username_0: In a programming in-class test, one of the problems was to write up a certain famous program in Maple. However, I had already written up this program prior to the test just as a hobby, and it was in a folder on my desktop [we were using our own laptops, no internet access]. I just copied that code into a new file, cleaned it up, and uploaded this file to the course website. I left an hour before anybody else [the exam lasted 2 hours, and I sat around pretending to be busy for 45 minutes before I left the class and went to the canteen]. Question: Is this cheating? Self-plagiarism? Have I done anything wrong here? Should I admit this to my TA?<issue_comment>username_1: Unless it was an open-book test, yes, you cheated. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: I would say no, unless this was explicitly prohibited beforehand. Look, what's the purpose of a test? To gauge the extent to which one has comprehended the material. The fact that you did the work indicates you do. Hell, the fact you did it on your own for fun deserves recognition. What's the point of re-doing the work while sitting in class during a test? Worse yet, suppose you did and made a mistake due to nerves/time pressure. You still did and comprehended the material, thus you pass. Others will disagree, but in my mind, I just want to know if you do or do not understand the material. Upvotes: 7 <issue_comment>username_3: In general, the rules and norms of a test - what is expected, what sources can be evaluated, if any, etc - should be known before the test is taken. This usually takes the form of a syllabus or verbal instructions at exam time. A typical set of norms is along the lines of: open book, open notes, no cooperation; closed book, open/limited notes (like 1-page hand-written sheet, or index card, or "anything that fits on a letter-sized sheet", etc); closed book, closed notes; and so on. In an electronic lab, there is usually also a policy on general internet use, and you noted no internet access - so obviously some rules and norms were in place. These rules and norms are what makes fairness and useful evaluation possible in the academic context. If no one cared when or how you did the work, then of course the rules would reflect that; if people do care specifically to know how, when, and/or who did the work, then the rules are made to reflect that. We don't know what rules were in place at the time, but as a student it's your job to find out what they are - and if you don't know, ask as early on as possible so there are no possible misunderstandings. I will close with my general advice on all matters of honesty: if you feel like you need to hide it, you should think very carefully about what exactly it is that you are doing. If you pretended to be busy during the exam so it didn't look like you finished impossibly quickly, that suggests that at the time you thought something was fishy - or ambiguous - about what you were doing then. In the future you should ask in advance what the rules are if you don't know them, and if an unexpected scenario comes up - ask the person in charge right then! I cannot really offer advice on what to do now, though, as that is going to be a pretty personal decision. If you have a good relationship with the teacher I'd especially advise you to contact them to talk about the issue, noting how you thought it wasn't against the rules but now you are concerned that you should have said something at the time and had no idea that the solution you had - which was your work in full - was going to be on the test. As a final note, if you wonder why using the solution might not have been allowable: the solution you had was not completed in a verified time limit, and you obviously would have had access to the internet, other people's potential help, etc, in preparing your solution. No other students had such an opportunity, so when the person is grading it would certainly not be fair for other student's work to be compared to yours when your work was not prepared in the same environment (and the grader has no idea you had advantages the other student's did not have in the exam). Ultimately how you handle the current (past) situation is up to you, but I hope in the future that you'll act differently so you don't end up in such an uncomfortable position - when in doubt, ask. Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_4: One important distinction here is that when writing software, it isn't the actual writing that's the time consuming part, it's the thinking and verifying that your solution does what it's supposed to. No matter what else, you've already done this. In this context it wouldn't take you half-again as long to write it from scratch compared to your classmates that haven't, even if you didn't reuse any of your actual code. That is not your problem. Every experience we get and project we do gives us the resources to solve problems we are faced with. The only thing that may be an issue here is whether or not you should have copied your previous code, or written it from scratch as all your classmates did for a more fair comparison. We can't really answer this, as it is dependant on what rules your college / university / class set. If you feel nervous about this, bring it up to your TA or professor as a question for the next exam: > > If we get a problem that I've solved on my free time, can I reuse > that solution? > > > Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_5: The fact that you are asking others about whether you cheated is a sign to me that you feel guilt. Though you are not considered liable for cheating simply because you feel guilty about your actions, your conscience tells you that you had unfair an advantage over other students. Because you have such a desire to learn, you effectively studied for an un-study-able test, which is a huge and fair advantage over other students, but to use your previously written material for an exam (it sounds like a closed notes exam), I think is an unfair to other students. The question that you have asked is about morals. There are many different standards of morals, and every person has his or her own set of morals (including the authors of the answers written above), but to me it seems that your set of morals is asking you to talk to your TA/ Professor. I agree with [BrianDHall](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/79736): > > " If you pretended to be busy during the exam so it didn't look like you finished impossibly quickly, that suggests that at the time you thought something was fishy - or ambiguous - about what you were doing then." > > > Many others have answered your question not regarding the ethics of the situation, but whether you merit justice. Ultimately, the decision is up to you, but I wish that you had considered asking the professor/ TA during the exam, rather than feel guilty afterward, and that you will more carefully consider consequences before making your decisions in the future. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_6: It depends on what type of test you were in. if your test result depends on how much time toke to achieve result , obviously you cheated. but if time not matters and test was made to evaluate your programming skills you done your best. You 've made it with Reusability feature of your code. Reusability is one of the most important subjects in programming context. Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_7: They allowed you to use your laptop. Were offline materials (pdfs, notes) prohibited? If not, you IN FACT did not cheat, regardless of what anyone else may say. This is no different than a situation which I experienced multiple times when working on my CS degree, where well-known code-golf/basic theory questions were asked and I had already seen them. That's just good fortune, there's nothing to do but enjoy it. And, regardless of the ethical contortions you might go through to conclude that you acted wrongly, don't turn yourself in. Academic disintegrity is taken very seriously and depending on who received your admission, a series of needless escalations later, you could find yourself at the business end of an uncaring and unthinking bureaucracy. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_8: No this is not cheating in any way. If the professor allowed laptops to be used, then obviously offline materials were allowed. Otherwise he would have given explicit instructions to the contrary. It is not the student's job to read the professor's mind and second guess his own actions. All a student can do is follow the rules set, and that's what you did here. It is not the student's responsibility to gauge what's "fair" and "unfair" in the middle of a test. What if I learned a shortcut method of solving a problem... a method that wasn't discussed in class, and I use that to get an answer to an exam problem, and nobody else does. Have I cheated? I had an "unfair" advantage. Should I be punished? Makes absolutely no sense. To consider this cheating is getting into loony territory. What if I find an online resource that explains material better than the text we use in class? I have an "unfair" advantage now. Am I cheating? Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_9: Yes, this is cheating. Imagine it was a hard problem that you set out to solve on your own time at home. You would not be under any time pressure to solve the problem. You would have any resource you wanted to research and solve the problem--textbooks, google, etc... You then work on the solution, find bugs, refactor, and come to a final working solution. Now, during the test you simply cut and paste your solution and you're done in 60 seconds on a 2 hour test. Since you intuitively know this is wrong you fake working for 45 minutes until boredom overcomes you and you leave. The proper thing to do, would be to derive a solution given what you already learned working on the problem at home. If this were not the intent of the test, it would have been a take home test with lenient deadlines. It's rather appalling that the most upvoted answers here seem to think this behavior is ethical. To solidify my argument, consider the following scenarios: 1. Your professor assigns you a homework assignment during the semester. At the end of the semester he puts the same problem on the exam. You pull out your homework during the exam and transcribe your answer word-for-word. 2. You write your program at home. Anticipating various programs will be asked for on the exam you transcribe your programs to little pieces of paper. During the exam you pull out the hidden paper and transcribe the solution for the exam word-for-word. 3. No internet access is allowed. Therefore, you write a web scraper to download all of StackOverflow's content to your personal laptop for offline use. During the exam you reference your local copy of SO. The crux of the ethical argument, hinges on the intent, or spirit, of examinations. It seems as if many people are simply arguing for technical loopholes to avoid the actual intent of the examination for personal advantage. The spirit of an exam is to test your mastery of the material and to see how you can regurgitate and apply that information under time-limited conditions. The method of copy and paste violates the spirit of the exam. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_10: In my opinion it you did not cheat on your knowledge of your programming concepts but exams are conducted to also test how under a stressful condition (like an examination) a student will be able to cope with it and still come up with a solution. If you already programmed it as hobby it should have been easy for you to do it on your own and still finish early (may be not as early as you did but still). Also consider another scenario. If few days before exam while revising for it I made a note and by mistake that was left in my pocket and by luck or chance that note related question is in the exam and I copy it from my self-made note which was by mistake left in my pocket is it cheating? If copy-pasting is not cheating then why is that cheating while in both cases I'm simply copying my own content? Just because it will take more time than copy-paste? The only thing which classifies your case as no cheating is the test was poorly designed because usually before entering exam room they ask you to leave behind any paper or note outside the room and in your programming test they should have clarified it in advance to not use your material on your laptop or made sure everything was cleaned before entering exam room. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_11: > > one of the problems was to write up a certain famous program in Maple. > > > What do you mean by "write up"? Convert a famous piece of code in (say) C++ to Maple? Perhaps it was "eratosthenes sieve"? If you had already done that you were ahead of the pack anyway. And if you were allowed to use your laptop, and there was no requirement for it to be wiped of extraneous information prior to the exam, then you didn't break any rules. That would be like if you were doing an English Literature exam, and you knew one of Shakespeare's plays might be asked about, and you just happened to spend the night before the exam studying the exact play that was in the exam. That just shows good preparation. I don't see what the alternative is. "Oh, I knew the answer, but because I did I had to pretend I didn't". Imagine the question was something you could memorize. Like, "what is the principle crop grown in Bogotá?". If you happened to have memorized that in advance of the exam, well, good work! --- This, if anything, shows a flaw in the examination question. If the question had been about some code that no-one had seen before, and it had to be converted to Maple, then no-one could possibly have worked it out in advance. But if the question was about converting a function that does a random shuffle of playing cards, then there would always be the possibility that someone would happen to have already have such code on their laptop. Upvotes: 0
2016/11/12	899	3,760	<issue_start>username_0: I'm currently approaching the end of my undergrad, and I'm faced with a dilemma (my field is computer science). On the one hand, I have a professor that I've been working very closely with on some promising research, and he's pushing very hard for me to go into grad school. On the other, I have the (extremely lucrative) world of industry beckoning. I don't really have a chance to get into grad school anywhere but with this professor, because my grades are terrible (I'm a better researcher/programmer than student), and I would very likely do it if I wasn't trying to get away from the town I'm going to school in (which is also my hometown). Being in CS, I know that productive long-distance collaboration and research is possible. My question is, what are the potential pitfalls of essentially doing a Master's "on the side", while working a full-time (or possibly part-time) industry job in a different location?<issue_comment>username_1: I think what you're forgetting is that a master's involves a lot of coursework, not just research. Your idea is only likely to work if the courses are designed to be taken remotely. Take into account that even when you are attending the classes in person, you had some trouble. It wouldn't be fair to put you in suboptimal conditions and suddenly expect a strong academic performance. One might be able to get by in an undergraduate program with C's, but that wouldn't fly in a graduate program. You're considering a binary choice right now, work full time or work full time and pursue a master's at the same time. There is a third option -- get started in industry now, and go back to school later on at some point. By the way, there is no rule that you must be enrolled in a degree program, or even that you get academic credit for doing research. If you are interested in a research project for its own sake, you can always work on it for the satisfaction itself. However, it might be wise to wait to get started with such a project until after you see how much time and energy you really have to spare. In other words, allow yourself to get in the swing of the new job before committing. Perhaps you could leave things open with the professor you have in mind working with. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Well I'm doing literally exactly this right now - working in industry while pursuing a distance masters in computer science part time - so I should probably try to answer. Bluntly, you are right that this arrangement will produce a strained relationship with your professor. As far as I can surmise, you are at a point in life where you cannot have it both ways and you have hackneyed a solution to avoid making a choice. You are going to start your industry job, more or less enjoy it, be somewhat passionate about it and sometimes not, and develop other hobbies and activities. I'm not sure if you know what it's like working 9-5 or 9-9 as the case may be, even in a relaxed environment. I'm not going to call it "soul-sucking" but it is a very different way to spend most of your time each day and you will need time to decompress in one form or the other. And you seem to have no idea what a masters degree is. If you really like this idea, just research with the professor without getting a masters degree. The focus is, usually, almost exclusively on coursework, and you pay a lot of money to do it. It usually serves a specialized purpose in one's career, such as: a path to immigration, an assistant tool in a late career pivot, a hobby and nothing more, a backup plan after not getting a job after college. Research is something you usually get paid to do. You are proposing paying, and also having to complete a bunch of coursework. Upvotes: 0
2016/11/12	584	2,573	<issue_start>username_0: I am citing [this publication](http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2016.09.058) in my thesis using the author-date citation format. The article is fully accessible, however the Journal apparently placed it into an issue that will appear next year. Therefore, the citation information (BibTex) says that the year of publication is 2017. I find it a bit strange to cite future work. When citing research articles to which year should the citation refer to? The year it appears in the Journal or the year it appeared (online)?<issue_comment>username_1: Most journals take as formal publication date the date it appears on their printed version. The online version is considered a pre-publication. Thus, despite how weird it may look, it is ok to cite an article from the future (as long as it is accepted and in press or the online preview). Journals with only online presence would not have this issue or the time span might be smaller. What is probably important is to provide the DOI of the article (if available) as this will make it easier for people to find its online version before and after it has been published on paper. Edit: Just to add that the citation and its details is decided/provided by the journal and not by you. Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: I agree with @George. There's no problem at all with citing a publication date in the future. The more difficult case in when an article is available online now, but there's no publication date yet provided. Then I believe you should cite the online version, with the date that it appeared online, but change the citation if you can at a later time. For example, if your paper is finally being prepared for publication, the production staff might ask you to update citations of this kind with actual publication dates. If they don't, you should do so anyway. There are some odd cases. Some books published and available for purchase late in the year may have a copyright date for the following year. A journal in my field once had editorial delays and ended up not publishing an issue dated one year until several months into the next year. So in March, you could cite a paper as appearing the preceding year--it was known which articles had been accepted--but you couldn't yet provide page numbers, because the journal issue had not in fact been published and page numbers weren't publicly available. In all of these cases, you should use as much of the official publication information as possible, I believe, and follow George's other advice. Upvotes: 2
2016/11/12	815	2,573	<issue_start>username_0: How can I add a author-date citation to a sentence that ends with parentheses? That can occur when using [parenthetical remarks](https://english.stackexchange.com/q/6632/134032) or when an abbreviation is introduced: > > However, methane has a higher Global Warming Potential (GWP)(IPCC 2013). > > > Most environmental impacts were due to methane emissions (which has higher GWP factors)(IPCC 2013). > > > Having two parentheses next to one another sure looks awkward. Is there a "workaround" or should I work harder and restructure the sentences. Update: I am writing my thesis and the university does not recommend any citation style.<issue_comment>username_1: Might look awkward but you're on the money. No need to restructure. After all, it's not because of you those sentences end in parentheses. Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_2: If you are citing word-for-word, you can (and should) use quotation marks, like > > "However, methane has a higher Global Warming Potential (GWP)" (IPCC 2) > > > Otherwise you can rephrase the sentence to remove the parentheses from the end of the sentence Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: I would make sure that, if you go with the two parentheses option, you put a space in between: > > However, methane has a higher Global Warming Potential (GWP) (IPCC 2013). > > > Most environmental impacts were due to methane emissions (which has higher GWP factors) (IPCC 2013). > > > But if it visually bothers you, you can just set off with commas: > > However, methane has a higher Global Warming Potential, or GWP (IPCC 2013). > > > Most environmental impacts were due to methane emissions which have higher GWP factors (IPCC 2013). > > > You could also rewrite the sentence if you want to make it a bit clearer you're not citing what is effectively your parenthetical: > > The Global Warming Potential (GWP) of methane, however, is much higher (IPCC 2013) > > > Methane emissions, which have higher GWP factors, caused most [of the] environmental impacts (IPCC 2013). > > > Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_4: This depends on the writing and citation style you are using. In APA you should use a semicolon to separate the citation from the acronym: > > However, methane has a higher Global Warming Potential (GWP; IPCC, 2013). > > > Most environmental impacts were due to methane emissions (which has higher GWP factors; IPCC, 2013). > > > Source: <http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2013/05/punctuation-junction-parentheses-and-brackets.html> Upvotes: 2
2016/11/12	710	2,305	<issue_start>username_0: I am writing a report based on activities performed during my internship as a webmaster. It is to be written in the format of a thesis in APA format. In the report I reference examples that I found on the Internet. However, I have been asked to include references to books. Is it okay to include references to books in my thesis-style report even if I have not quoted these books?<issue_comment>username_1: Might look awkward but you're on the money. No need to restructure. After all, it's not because of you those sentences end in parentheses. Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_2: If you are citing word-for-word, you can (and should) use quotation marks, like > > "However, methane has a higher Global Warming Potential (GWP)" (IPCC 2) > > > Otherwise you can rephrase the sentence to remove the parentheses from the end of the sentence Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: I would make sure that, if you go with the two parentheses option, you put a space in between: > > However, methane has a higher Global Warming Potential (GWP) (IPCC 2013). > > > Most environmental impacts were due to methane emissions (which has higher GWP factors) (IPCC 2013). > > > But if it visually bothers you, you can just set off with commas: > > However, methane has a higher Global Warming Potential, or GWP (IPCC 2013). > > > Most environmental impacts were due to methane emissions which have higher GWP factors (IPCC 2013). > > > You could also rewrite the sentence if you want to make it a bit clearer you're not citing what is effectively your parenthetical: > > The Global Warming Potential (GWP) of methane, however, is much higher (IPCC 2013) > > > Methane emissions, which have higher GWP factors, caused most [of the] environmental impacts (IPCC 2013). > > > Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_4: This depends on the writing and citation style you are using. In APA you should use a semicolon to separate the citation from the acronym: > > However, methane has a higher Global Warming Potential (GWP; IPCC, 2013). > > > Most environmental impacts were due to methane emissions (which has higher GWP factors; IPCC, 2013). > > > Source: <http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2013/05/punctuation-junction-parentheses-and-brackets.html> Upvotes: 2
2016/11/12	1,940	7,760	<issue_start>username_0: I'm currently in my first semester as a tenure-track faculty in a small liberal arts college. I also finished my dissertation and defended about 5 months ago. While I'm grateful that I've got a tenure-track job as a newly minted Ph.D., I'm struggling to do research at the moment. Of course, I've been busy adjusting to the new lifestyle, but honestly, it hasn't been bad at all. So, to cut it short, making time for research or lack of energy isn't really the issue for me. I consistently have at least 3-4 hours of writing time everyday. I think I'm just burned out from research after finishing my dissertation. When I sit down to do research, I spend hours doing nothing on my computer. I can't get myself to focus and write. I thought resting for 3 months after my defense was enough, but this state of unproductivity in research makes me very anxious. Sometimes, I even think that I might not be apt to do research anymore. Is this normal? What was it like for you? Does it get better? How do I get over this? --- Added: Thank you for your answers. They were all helpful to read. I know I'm not the only junior faculty suffering from a burnout after getting the degree. I've seen more people taking at least a year off after they finish than continuing with productive research. I needed to acknowledge that my 3-month break was not enough. I'll take it slow for now. I need to find my passion for research again from within, and it will happen soon. Another problem is that I still haven't quite figured out what kind of scholar/teacher I would want to be. I'm not sure if I want to pursue my career in an R1 university or a teaching school. I come from a very large R1 university and didn't want to live a research-oriented lifestyle that would make me work 70 hours a week. And at that point, I was already burned out from my dissertation even before I finished it. But now that I'm in a teaching school, I miss the environment of intellectual conversations and academic discussions. I'm not sure if I'll be content in teaching-focused environment. How did you guys decide or know which environment you wanted to work for?<issue_comment>username_1: You may be suffering from burnout. You've been running at full speed for well over 20 years (K+12+4+7). You may just need a break. First, check your department and college expectations for tenure. Talk to newly minted associate professors about their experiences before tenure. You may have to only do a modest amount of additional post-dissertation research in order to clear the tenure bar at your institution. At a small liberal arts college, it could be a book based on your dissertation and a few peer reviewed journal articles combined with some college service and not pissing off your colleagues ("collegiality"). This is eminently doable even if you take off your first year to recharge your research batteries by focusing on teaching and a recovery of some modicum of sociality. Finally, you might ask if your university welcomes you taking a leave of absence to do a postdoc somewhere. A writing fellowship in the Berkshires can do wonders for mental health as well as ones’ publications list. Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: I also graduated from my phd a year or so back. I was exhausted after I finished the sprint to complete my dissertation and find a job. So I was working at half capacity for over a year and having fun. Recently I have starting "thinking" again.. I have been reading a book called [Writing for Academic Journals.](http://hum90.cdf.udc.es/bdu/downloads/writing-for-academic-journals.pdf) While the title suggests its merely for writing articles, it goes into a lot of depth on strategies/routines to do research and write articles. I am finding the suggestions very useful. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: My own experience in mathematics is surely different in various ways from other academics... while, yes, still similar ... but: Yes, "being fried" after working too hard for at least a few years to get that thesis done, while suspending one's own critical judgement (since, after all, it's only one's superiors' judgements that will get you the PhD, and publications, and jobs, or anything else...) it is utterly reasonable to find oneself "deadened" in some way. This is not a good feature of academe... But to over-appraise this as "not liking research" is wildly inaccurate, and self-destructive. That is, what one (reasonably!) does not like is being dictated-to, being infinitely vulnerable, and so on. The "apprentice-research" situation is very wonky, and many academics are stunningly bad at deconstructing the disconnects between "genuine intellectual practice" and "getting papers published and getting a job". Genuine "research" is "trying to understand things better". Really, very many people do this as a matter of course. (The recent election makes me wonder a bit about how widespread this is, but, still, ...) I imagine that if you went to grad school because you had an affinity for "trying to understand things (better)", you are not actually allergic to that process. Almost a tautology. Allergy to the game-playing involved in acquiring peer-review-status-points is completely unsurprising. Duh. So, please, don't confuse the professional game-playing, that administrative bosses impose on intellectuals (a.k.a. "thinking, curious people") with "research". :) Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_4: username_1 is very right, you need to check with the expectations of your department and school. See how much research was required for the most recent tenure cases, and even better, see if they have explicit guidelines. In addition, the AAUP (American Association of University Professors) supports tenure-track jobs which might not have the three common areas required for tenure. They imagine a "tenure-track teaching position" to be within the standards they've set for academic freedom and tenure. Of course, none of that matters if your position (like most TT-positions) requires research, scholarship, and teaching. The fact is, you are having trouble with part of the requirements for the job. But everyone has their own path to tenure - you have some time, use it to figure out what kind of scholarship you can participate in. Depending on your field, it can be a great many things, not just papers and articles. What about data collection, textbook projects, research in teaching pedagogies? Maybe find a collaborator - organizing a project might help you become more interested in working on the project, and splitting the work might make it more interesting as well. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: Two thoughts: (1) Did you run into any side interests in grad school...maybe an area you didn't know much about? Maybe you could pursue one of those for a while. (2) At some schools, especially smaller ones, 'research' may be interpreted rather broadly. Sometimes things like the scholarship of teaching and learning count; or perhaps you can work on something a bit lighter, but that leads to good student research projects. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_6: Read the late <NAME>'s book Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman. In it, he described how, taking a teaching position at the end of WW2 and his work at Los Alamos, he found that he just couldn't get up any interest in doing research. He felt completely used-up and worried that he might be finished as a scholar already. As he reported it, one day he was in the caf watching someone spin a plate on their fingertip, and he tried to figure out how to describe the wobble mathematically. Trying to work out that problem "re-ignited" him, and everything else followed. Upvotes: 4
2016/11/13	757	3,182	<issue_start>username_0: I'm interested in applying to pharmacy school and programs for a PhD in chemistry. The PhD programs only admit less than 10 people a year and it's more likely that I won't get in to one of these compared to pharmacy school. The issue is that the pharmacy programs provide admissions offers earlier than when the PhD interviews start. Is it acceptable to accept an admission from the pharmacy school and then later reject that offer in favor of an offer from a PhD program? I feel bad for potentially taking up one of the spots in a pharmacy program if I won't be going there.<issue_comment>username_1: Read the fine print on the acceptance letter and any links provided. I doubt you'll find a problem there. By double-checking, you will be able to proceed with more confidence. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: There's probably nothing wrong with doing this from a technical/legal standpoint. That said, to echo StrongBad's response [here](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/64024/73), when you accept a position in a program the tacit understanding is that you are removing yourself from consideration elsewhere. In the eyes of the program, acceptance is equivalent to commitment. To that extent, you risk burning some bridges. Your case is slightly different, given that you're in two different fields. The risk of burned bridges may mean less to you. Still, you are effectively reneging on a commitment, which is something you may or may not feel comfortable doing. Upvotes: 2 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: If you are pursuing your degree in the US or Canada then there is a good chance your institution belongs to the [Council of Graduate Schools](http://cgsnet.org/institutional-members). Some international schools also belong to this organization. Many of the best graduate schools in the US/Canada have explicitly endorsed the [April 15th Resolution](http://cgsnet.org/ckfinder/userfiles/files/CGSResolution_Sept2016.pdf), which states that students should not be obligated to accept a position (or specifically, an offer of financial aid) before April 15th. This is specifically to avoid putting people in the uncomfortable situation you describe, and to maximize the chance of good matches for all students and schools. I would reccomend this: if the department that sent you the first offer is affiliated with any of the schools listed in the April 15th document, and your acceptance comes with any offer of aid (such as a TA or RA position) then write to the graduate admissions coordinator and ask if they are aware of the resolution and if it would be OK to delay your acceptance until you hear back from the other programs. If the department that sent you the first offer is not affiliated with any of the schools listed above, then write to the graduate coodinator explaining your situation. Explain that you are hoping to do a PhD in chemistry at a competitive school and it is widespread practice to delay final graduate admissions decisions in that realm until April 15th. Ask if it would be possible to have an extension on the decision, or if it would be possible to accept the offer contingency. Upvotes: 0
2016/11/13	689	2,899	<issue_start>username_0: One of my manuscript was submitted to a journal in one year and four months ago, and after two rounds of reviews, its status was changed to "Awaiting EIC Decision" two weeks ago. As far as I know, the "Awaiting EIC Decision" status is the final time when the chief editor to decide whether to accept or reject the paper, but it seems the editors handled with my manuscript a little slow. Is there a chance the CE(Chief Editor) overlooked the status change of my manuscript? and should I send a requesting e-mail to speed up the process? I am not sure my e-mail will affect the final decision of my manuscript, and whom should I sent the e-mail to, the AE or the CE? since the manuscript is in the "Awaiting EIC Decision" status.<issue_comment>username_1: I am encountering the same situation and I fully understand that how it feels when it comes to a final decision. 1. There must be many papers awaiting EiC's decision. The request to jump to the queue is a bit impolite. 2. I think it has small chances that the requesting email would affect the final decision because I think AE already has a decision or recommendation. But it would have a negative effect for your next submissions; 3. I would suggest to send email to EiC directly after 4 weeks. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: I wouldn't be too precious about this. That is to say, if you feel like emailing the journal about clarifying the status of your publication, please do so. As long as you do it in a professional manner, space your requests appropriately over time and are reasonable about timelines, then there shouldn't be a reason for journal staff to react negatively about this. This is the situation in the Journal I help manage. If you choose to write to the journal, I would suggest that you write first to the associate editor who's handling your manuscript. Writing to the Editor-in-Chief is tricky because you close off your final avenue of reply right away. You need to be able to escalate things, and this can't happen if you shoot an email to the Editor-in-Chief. We suggest that our authors contact the associate editor in the first instance, escalate things to the managing editor and only then write to the Editor-in-Chief. Writing to the associate editors may provide them with the added evidence they need to poke the Editor-in-Chief into action. During staff meetings when manuscripts are discussed, it is common for us to bring to the attention of the people around the table delays such as these. Despite @username_1's misgivings, writing to journal staff does not produce a negative effect on your present or subsequent submissions. I'm not aware of a single journal belonging to the [ICMJE](http://www.icmje.org/) so petty as to have this policy (written or unwritten). Certainly, make sure you that you are professional about your contact. Good luck to you. Upvotes: 0
2016/11/13	2,802	12,005	<issue_start>username_0: ### Background I’m 25 years old and have recently started the second year in my PhD. I’m from Brazil, where most people start their PhDs at 24 and finish them at 28, so I’d say I’m following the classical schedule quite closely. I’ve graduated in physics and did my masters in a field of mathematical physics called quantum chaos. I’m currently working in the same field. I had my first article almost ready from my masters, but then found out another guy had already published something very similar. ### When I identified the Problem During my undergrad years I took courses on measure and integration and differential equations in the math department, having studied real analysis and linear algebra on my own. On several occasions I almost left physics to go to math. During my master’s I had to take physics courses again, and they made me feel exactly the same way I felt when I was in undergrad: I didn’t understand what those people were talking about, basically because most of them were not interested in defining well enough what they were doing. People were talking about S matrices and Feynman diagrams, while I was extremely uncomfortable with the fact that no one had even defined what an inner product was; people were taking limits of series they didn’t prove were Cauchy in spaces they didn’t prove were closed and applying opperators they didn’t prove were continous to get results they didn’t prove were unique. I couldn’t figure out what the hell they were doing. I turned myself to functional-analysis and spectral-theory books, studied a lot, and was able to make sense of some things they did, correct some logical mistakes, understand that some of those problems they were ignoring are actually very hard and at least grasp what they were doing. I then resumed my usual undergrad behavior: I quit going to classes, studied the subject on my own and only met the class to deliver exercise lists. While most student’s lists had x pages, mine had 3 x: I needed to prove everything I was doing made sense, and this consumed a lot of time and effort, and was – probably – ignored by the teacher and useless to everyone but me. I then talked to some teachers and they said that studying the maths behind physics was very useful, but that I shouldn’t spend too much time on it, otherwise I wouldn’t be able to do research. In their words: > > a physicist should know enough math to be able to do his research, and no more > > > I had a very hard time processing this, since 90 % of my time was devoted to study mathematics. I thought about leaving academia. ### Attempted Solution Leave physics and go to math. Do what I was reluctant to do in my undergrad. If I like math so much, why am I still working with physics? I spent almost six months thinking about this, unable to do my work, after all I was apparently a useless piece of gear in the non-Cauchy, non-continuous and non-unique mechanism of physics research. But then I noticed even though I liked studying math from math books – that is, working on exercises and proving theorems –, I would be very unhappy if I had to prove theorems for a living. I only used mathematics to be able to clear my view regarding physics, and although it did allow my to see deep into many physics problems (“rigour clears the window through which intuition shines”), I think this clear, rigorous view might lead me to a bitter, unfruitful place inside academia: a place where I understand very well what is done, but cannot create new physics by myself. I might just not have been born for research, only for studying. My advisor is not at all interested in math, although he does respect and see some advantages in having a student that is. My work with him is mathematically ill-defined and has a lot of programming (which I learned to like), but when I attempted to try to make it rigorous he only cared about the end conclusion and didn’t pay attention to the process. In a word, he doesn’t care about rigour, but allows it. I would like to work exactly in the same field when I finish my PhD, but touching more profound problems which could only be accessed with the use of heavy maths – which I still cannot actually fathom. ### Actual Question Sometimes I feel terrible about my interest in mathematics, since it is not very well accepted between people in my field, besides being probably useless to create new knowledge. I would like to apply mathematics to physics from inside physics, that is, I like rigour to understand, but I don’t like rigour to explain (I don’t want to prove complex theorems, I want to see new problems in mathematical physics and expose – perhaps study – them). Is this possible? Is there a place for someone like me inside academia?<issue_comment>username_1: I have a somewhat similar background: I primarily studied physics but also did roughly a bachelor in mathematics (a “Vordiplom” to be precise). I never liked regular theoretical physics much because the mathematical background was never properly explained, if it was mentioned at all. I did my master’s-thesis equivalent and PhD in complex systems / chaos theory. So far, my mathematical background was an enormous benefit to me. I published three papers which clearly wouldn’t have been possible without it, and in the rest of my work, it often helped me to understand things much quicker. The main impact of mathematics on my work is that it allows me to identify and formulate problems, draw connections, know the keywords to find the relevant literature and understand it. While I did prove things at times, this was only the icing on the cake – and I would consider most of my proofs not very challenging. The main exception was the proof of a number-theoretical statement that I had already confirmed very well empirically. If I had not eventually found the proof, I would probably have consulted the next-best expert on number theory at my university. Still, I am more proud of finding the right statement to prove than of proving it. Almost everything that I proved is published. So, I really do not see a problem with your interests. There is almost certainly a workgroup that is interested in the same questions, though it does not seem to be the one you are in right now. However, if your supervisor accepts your mathematical inclination, they may also be able to connect you to the people who care about these issues to give you feedback. Bringing a new background to your workgroup is an asset that is very likely to make you see new connections or identify and solve new problems, which can eventually lead to new physics. You may need a proof on the way, but I would not worry that this will consume most of your time. At the end of the day, even most mathematicians do not spend all day at their desks trying to prove something, but also have to understand existing concepts, find connections, and so on. And should you stumble upon something that you cannot prove, you can still collaborate with mathematicians or leave it as an open problem/conjecture. Another perspective could be to simply establish a mathematical framework for what your workgroup does (which then may contain open questions for you or others to fill). Depending on the relevance and extent of what we are talking about, this may already be worthy of a PhD or even enough work for an entire research career. Finally, some random asides: * You probably are at a stage of your career and a field, where few people care about whether you are actually a mathematician or a physicist. * Beware of the [impostor syndrome](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impostor_syndrome). If your master’s thesis could be turned into a paper, that’s already a good start. That somebody else managed to publish it earlier, is bad luck for you, but still shows that you produced publishable work. * If you are doing a lot of programming work, it can be very helpful to understand more about the methods you are using. Moreover, you may find yourself developing new numerical methods – where a mathematical background is extremely helpful. * > > a physicist should know enough math to be able to do his research, and no more > > > While there is some truth to this for some areas of physics, most physicists do not actually know enough math to do their research, or they are limited in what they can research by the math they know. Most importantly, in the more mathematically inclined fields of physics, I disagree with this due to the reasons stated above. Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Do not worry about leaving the field, there is plenty of work to be done in physics using a more mathematical approach. From my opinion, finding and applying new mathematical techniques in physics help us advance - great advances in physics in the past have come by using new ideas and concepts from mathematics. Take the famous example of general relativity, or new modern theories of gravitation. Without mathematical techniques it would be impossible to find new ways to describe the universe. Developing and introducing new mathematical concepts in physics could potentially redefine modern physics. Hence, pass the 8a/8a+ grade and go beyond! Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: So far, you've been reacting. You sign up for a course, maybe it's required, maybe it's not. You're given a homework assignment. The hand waving approach in the lectures bothers you and you spend a lot of time building up the mathematical background, and you fill in the blanks. If you successfully managed to keep your instructors happy enough to give you good grades while you were engaged in this intensive self-study, good for you! At some point in the not too distant future, you are going to want to start taking the initiative to give shape to your studies. Here are some ways to do that: 1. Search for papers that really, really intrigue you. One of these might give you an idea for a direction you'd like to go; at the very least, such a paper can give you a mental image of what a math-friendly physics project can look like. 2. Find out how you feel about other aspects of physics. You mentioned that you enjoy working out the mathematical underpinnings of the assignments you're given, and you enjoy programming. But I wonder if you have figured out how you feel about working in a lab, designing experiments, carrying them out, analyzing experimental results, writing programs to analyze experimental results, choosing and installing new equipment, designing a new or modified experimental apparatus, communicating with the engineer and the machine shop technician, testing a new experimental set-up ("commissioning").... This is good information to have about yourself. Please don't forget that you are studying in the Third World, not that one should look down on science in the Third World, but just to reassure you that it is forgivable that your instructors might do more hand waving and less rigor than is at least sometimes found more commonly in the developed world. My spouse is an experimental physicist, who uses math very, very frequently, and sometimes writes a theoretical paper, using mathematics to explain, as you have been doing so far, but also to create, as you are dreaming of doing. Note 1: At some point you may want to correspond with an author of a paper you've identified in your search. Science as become incredibly international. Note 2: I wasn't sure from your post, whether you might sometimes have a bit of trouble keeping your eye on the big picture (getting the assignments done, without getting so sucked into the mathematical underpinnings that you might have trouble making your deadlines). If so, take a look at [Is there a place in academia for someone who compulsively solves every problem on their own?](https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/78068/32436), which is a rather extreme example of what I was describing. If not -- have fun in your explorations! Upvotes: 2
2016/11/13	513	2,182	<issue_start>username_0: I have looked at Geology jobs but only oil and gas or engineering comes up which I have no interest in. I'd rather do something more academic. I'm currently a student in a UK university and am hoping to become a researcher at a UK university in the future. Do the universities employ researchers who don't need to fulfil a teaching post?<issue_comment>username_1: Such roles definitely exist in U.K. universities. For example the University of Southampton has 4 different types of Professorial Grade post, which depend on the balance of education, research, and 'enterprise' which a member of staff might undertake. It's possible to have a 100% research appointment under this scheme. However, I don't know if every field uses all the types of post. I could believe that the more specialised research only posts are only available in disciplines where these is a reasonable expectation of very high value grants. I'd expect similar arrangements to exist in other universities in the U.K. However, relying on 100% research is a bit of a risk - with a role entirely reliant on outside funding you never know when those funds might dry up. Some teaching or service component, paid not out of grant funds, could add a bit of consistency and predictability to a role. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: I have seen two general approaches to accomplishing this. One has already been described in an answer and a comment -- apply for a position that is explicitly designed for doing just research, or doing primarily research. There is another way people sometimes use to accomplish the same thing, and that is to get hired as a professor to do both teaching and research, and then to use grant money to "buy out" the teaching obligations. When I have seen this done, it didn't completely eliminate the teaching duties, but it reduced them to the point that the professor taught as few as one course every other semester. The people I've seen do this were at the top of their profession. Some of them taught their occasional course well, some didn't. At any rate, in the short to medium term, you might want to think in terms of a post-doc. Upvotes: 2
2016/11/13	572	2,323	<issue_start>username_0: Without going into the details, I got a little irritated and frustrated with my advisor today. I've been feeling myself slowly losing respect for her as a manager, but have remained professional and friendly. Her micromanagement and unpredictability have had some negative impacts on my project. We had to work closely together today on something under what I would say is a high pressure situation. She really didn't lead very well. I just snapped a few times and was pretty irritated. I wasn't full on mad, but since I'm normally the opposite of confrontational (I've never even gotten mad at a coworker before), it definitely is something that would stand out. She's been really nice after this, and complimenting me on small things, but I'm not sure how to go forward. Should I just pretend like nothing happened? There's been some long-term frustration that led up to this, but it still feels wrong to have lost my temper with my advisor. Is it common/rare for grad students to show anger towards their supervisor, and how negatively do you judge them for it?<issue_comment>username_1: Are you fairly advanced in your program? It's common for these kinds of conflicts to arise as students become more and more independent. I got into it with my advisor too, when I was ABD. We met afterwards and he assured me it was normal for 'children' to rebel against their 'parents' when coming of academic age. Still, you may have been out of line. There's a clear power structure. I would apologize to the person that signs off on your dissertation. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: > > She's been really nice after this, and complimenting me on small things, but I'm not sure how to go forward. > > > It shows that she realized you have been stressed out, and she is willing to be helpful to make you feel better as a new student. Do not think too much. Work well. Respect her and be nice to her (really mean that. not pretend). As time passes, the event will be forgotten and forgiven (if needed). Since you are fairly new, you will eventually get to know her more. At that time, you will be in a better position to see what went wrong and what made you lose your cool. Also offer to proactively fix the situation. Apologies by word mean nothing. Show it in action. Upvotes: 3
2016/11/13	1,203	5,048	<issue_start>username_0: I taught a large class last summer, and one of my students asked me to write a letter of recommendation. I said yes, and at this point I think it is too late in the application process to change my mind. The student got an A in the class, but never came to my office hours or talked to me at all before she asked me for a letter of recommendation. She also hasn't done anything specific to distinguish herself. At this point I'm really not sure what to write about her, although she did give me a "brag sheet" with information about her interests and previous projects. How should I go about writing the letter?<issue_comment>username_1: From a comment by the OP: > > Well, she's mostly applying to masters programs in computer science, and she did well in her classes, so I assume she would do well in future classes. > > > Great, that's an important piece of information. Now, since you are saying she didn't do "anything specific to distinguish herself," you can probably use more general information to support her application. E.g., * How do you assess her intellectual capabilities compared to other students who you've supervised or worked with? * Can you say anything good about how well she interacts/works with others? * What do you think of her commitment to postgraduate study; do you think she genuinely likes the field(s) she is choosing? * How do you rank her ability to organise a workload, resilience, creativity, etc. compared to her peers? If you are really struggling to write anything else besides, "She is a good student," it may be worthwhile to have a brief talk with her, to discuss how you can strengthen her application. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Here's my understanding of the issue: A student, who you do not know very well outside of the classroom, asked you for a recommendation letter, and you said "yes." So, assuming you thought highly of the student's performance in your course, you write the strongest letter you can under these circumstances. This means you focus on the student's performance in your course, and compare the student's performance to the performance of others who have taken the course. If your course is particularly challenging in some way, you may also extrapolate on how the student's performance is indicative of some key strengths which are relevant to the student's target grad programs. There is no need to overthink this, and if the student is not successful in getting into a good grad program, and they think it is because you weren't able to vouch for them the way that they would prefer, then, if they're a fast learner, they'll ask someone else next time. Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: Simply be open and straightforward with the student. Pose this as a problem that you need to solve together. You can ask her to come by your office during your office hours so you can talk more. Draw her out about why she wants to go to grad school, or what she thinks is an exciting current problem in computer science. Learn about her life. Is she the first in her family to go to college? Did her 6th grade teacher discourage her from her dream of being a US senator because she was a girl? Is she a veteran of the war in Afghanistan? You can ask her for more materials to help you learn about her, such as a copy of her statement of purpose. I had a professor when I was an undergrad who asked students who wanted a letter to write a first draft of the letter -- it was surprisingly hard, and a surprisingly good exercise. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: username_2 already covered most of the content you should include in your letter, but I'll add an extra point that you can develop. You could explain why your recommendation actually matters. Any student can ask for a letter from a professor and will most likely get one. Explain why your letter is a big deal. An example : "This Class is one of the most challenging in the entire College, as it is the best way/one of the best programs to enter [Category of job the student is looking for]. I only accepted to write [Your question seems to imply One] letter for all [100 ? Add the exact size of your class] students, since this person has shown special capabilities/talent." Then you can discuss the person's quality, as per username_2's answer. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: > > The student got an A in the class, ... She also hasn't done anything specific to distinguish herself. > > > I would say that getting an 'A' in the class might be considered distinguishing enough - unless an unusually large proportion of the class normally gets an 'A'. You can say that she is an independent learner requiring little support to get to her current standard. You marked her work: you can comment on its readability, suitability, conciseness and other qualities. In other words, it shouldn't be a difficult task for you to write an academic recommendation for an 'A' student! (or what's the point of the student getting the 'A'?) Upvotes: 2
2016/11/14	1,009	3,219	<issue_start>username_0: Some journals put author pictures and short bios at the end of the articles. Do you know of published examples in which the authors used humorous pictures of themselves, for instance with funny poses or unusual hats?<issue_comment>username_1: So far, I haven't come across any pictures in the short bio section which I could call 'funny'. However, I have seen quite an odd picture of a co-author which seems like a infrared imaging of the author. That paper is quite popular in its field. It is called "The HumanID Gait Challenge Problem: Data Sets, Performance, and Analysis." It contained a photo of Prof. <NAME>; [this was his short bio picture](http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/mediastore/IEEE/content/freeimages/34/30027/1374864/1374864-photo-6-small.gif) in the paper. I'll also like to add that this paper is published in the IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: You might want to look at Poizat's "Groupes stable", although a reviewer of the English translation wrote > > As the author is no doubt aware, his tasteless joke > in the French edition of this book crossed the line between offensive and insulting. > > > Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: Yes, a group of authors (Đurić, Delibašić, Radišić, or Đuirić, Delilbašić and Radisic, as they signed themselves in the paper) trying to debunk the Metalurgia International journal provided outrageous pictures in their paper entitled: Evaluation of Transformative Hermeneutic Heuristics for Processing Random Data. The, up to that point "respected", journal published the paper without any comments about the photos. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: <NAME> at Rice University has co-authored several papers that I've come across in my research that qualify, to some degree: 1. <NAME> and <NAME>, [“Regime change: Bit-depth versus measurement- rate in compressive sensing,”](http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/TSP.2012.2194710) IEEE Trans. Signal Process., vol. 60, no. 7, pp. 3496–3505, 2012. The author photos in this paper seem to be a play on "regime change" mentioned in the title: one author's photo appears to be that of a political candidate after hearing that they've lost an election, while the other author photo is presumably of the "victorious" candidate. 2. <NAME>, <NAME>, <NAME>, and <NAME>, [“The pros and cons of compressive sensing for wideband signal acquisition: Noise folding versus dynamic range,”](http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/TSP.2012.2201149) IEEE Trans. Signal Process., vol. 60, no. 9, pp. 4628–4642, Sep. 2012. There are four author photos: two authors have "sad" faces, two "happy." 3. <NAME>, <NAME>, and <NAME>, [“Tuning support vector machines for minimax and Neyman-Pearson classification,”](http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/TPAMI.2010.29) IEEE Trans. Pattern Anal. Mach. Intell., vol. 32, no. 10, pp. 1888–1898, Oct. 2010. In this paper two of the authors have the word "minimax" (from the paper title) in the background of their photos, which appear to be on signs of some sort (the third author has a street sign in the photo background; what it says, I'm not sure). Upvotes: 3
2016/11/14	398	1,517	<issue_start>username_0: After submitting a paper, I uploaded it on arXiv, to give it immediate visibility. After a few months (more than six months), the article has been accepted and finally published on IEEE Xplore. However, Google Scholar only shows the arXiv version, without pointing to the IEEE one. How can I manually make Scholar recognize the presence of the published paper?<issue_comment>username_1: Google Scholar will eventually find the IEEE version of the paper. Just give it some time. See the last item of the ["coverage" page of the Google scholar FAQ](https://scholar.google.com/scholar/help.html#coverage) and the second item of the ["search tips" page](https://scholar.google.com/scholar/help.html#corrections). Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: In such a case the best way to make Google scholar give more intention to your paper is by adding it manually using My Citation (scholar.google.com/citations) section in your Goole scholar account (you can create one if you don't have using your institution email). Press on Add button. [![press on add button](https://i.stack.imgur.com/xqBcS.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/xqBcS.png) Click on "Add article manually". Fill the form and press Save. [![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/evEOp.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/evEOp.png) After you add the paper details successfully, wait for about month until Google index your work. Can I know if your IEEE paper appears in Google.com? Upvotes: 0
2016/11/14	967	3,968	<issue_start>username_0: This may seem a bit mundane or silly to many but I figured it might be useful for others besides me, hence the question. My boss (postdoc mentor) is a very kind person, who pretty much exclusively writes in grammatically correct, well articulated sentences and ALWAYS have a nice but relatively formal greeting at the end of the mail. No matter how many times we mail each other in a given day. Even though we are not formal at all when we talk to each other. As per usual in Scandinavia, we have a very flat hierarchy here, so everyone (from project students to professors and indeed the dean) is on a first name basis with each other, and there are little formalities that may be commonplace elsewhere. We have been working very closely on this project, with almost daily meetings and near 10-15 mails exchanged throughout the day. My previous experience has always been so that once the formalities have been observed, the communication defaults to shorter, more direct mails. Given the high-paced exchange between us, I was wondering if it would be rude to write shorter mails that are straight to the point. Specifically I often find myself signing off a mail with a shorthand greeting, e.g. "mvh" instead of "(med) vänliga hälsningar" (which is significantly more formal) or just by writing my name. [The Swedish expressions roughly correspond to "BR" - "Best Regards", respectively]. I thought of asking him if he prefers a more formal tone in our written communication but I don't wanna come across as a pedantic person. Suggestions?<issue_comment>username_1: As long as you address the receiver properly, I don't suppose this would be much of a problem. I see both assistant and senior professors use these sort of short hand mail signing all the time. It is just a matter of preference. Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: (Am also currently working in Scandinavia, have previously been in universities in the UK, US, and Canada.) Abbreviations are almost certainly fine; but look at what others in your department do. In most departments, you should be able to see a wide range of colleagues’ emails (thanks to admin lists/announcements, etc). Look at what they do, and the range of ways they write. Additionally, note that emails between close colleagues (e.g. within a research group) may tend to be slightly less formal than emails to wider audiences. You will probably see a fair range of styles. So long as you are within that range, you are probably fine; you don’t have to exactly match every individual correspondent. In case everyone at your department writes particularly formally, then it may be worth doing so yourself — but even then, I would be pretty surprised to hear of anyone in Sweden taking offence at use of “Mvh” as a signoff. I’ve received it in emails from students, professors, and administrators, so at least in my department, it’s considered fine for a wide range of professional relationships (though definitely towards the more informal end of the spectrum). Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: Have this conversation with your adviser! You seem to be getting along quite well. This would make for a nice question on etiquette in your community over a cup of coffee! Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_4: I have also worked in Scandinavia and also in other places in Europe. After a couple emails in the day, I switch to not using a greeting at the end of the email. In the first e-mail, I would probably use a "Best,". I never liked mvh, it felt like being bored to write all the sentence, and to write all the sentence, it would seem too formal. In general, given the flat hierarchy, I wouldn't worry too much about how I close the emails. I don't think they mind as long as you are polite. PS. On a sidenote, I remember how awkward it felt when I learnt that the common salutation is "Hej", only to realise later on that it refers to "Hello" rather than "Hey". Upvotes: 2
2016/11/14	1,068	4,536	<issue_start>username_0: I'm shortly going to a conference which is held at a centre pretty much in the middle of nowhere (or, to be more precise, in the middle of a hiking region). The suggested way of reaching the destination is by taxi, and the public transportation is nearly non-existent. Me and a group of other junior researchers (PhD's and PostDocs) have decided to hire a car to make transportation easier and to take full advantage of the attractive region. Split four ways, the cost is quite affordable. I am wondering whether it is acceptable to ask my university for reimbursement. We have an allowance for travel expenses, so there is certainly an available source of money. However, I have two problems with making the request. First is a moral one - can I ask the university to reimburse a car which we'll partly use for our own enjoyment? Second is more practical - is the university likely to agree? Will they be able to process the kind of receipt car hire company will issue? How do I explain that I paid exactly 1/4 of the quoted price?<issue_comment>username_1: Yes, this is acceptable. At many universities, adding a few days stay at your conference location in a far-away country (using your own accommodation arrangements) is allowed and sometimes even encouraged. Especially when this allows you to take cheaper flights. This would be something similar, using the car because it's required anyway, and adding a few extra recreational km you'd pay for yourself. Renting a car might be an issue for some European universities, as they have rules to encourage public transport usage. The 1/4 share of the car is something you'll have to discuss with your administrative staff. They might want to reimburse 1 person for the whole thing, or split it over multiple projects. Just ask to clarify, they'll also be happy to know exactly how and what they're reimbursing. Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Speak to your department in advance. While this is a very sensible thing to do, there may be rules to follow, ignoring which would add to the cost and/or complexity. These may include: Hire cars have to be booked through the university; the university's insurance will cover you so don't take it from the car hire company; or you must take the full insurance; or you must take the insurance abroad... It's much easier for them to process one receipt once, so you may find it easier to use other methods to split the cost between projects (such as some projects paying for susbsistence). Again this will be easier if the budget-holder(s) are involved up front. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: As a general rule, this is acceptable and common. All universities I have had experience with consider rental cars a reimbursable form of transport-related expense. But since we don't know about your specific university's policy, the sensible thing to do would be to ask them in advance of the trip to avoid unpleasant surprises. (E.g., at my university I once discovered after a trip in which I rented a car that I was supposed to use a specific rental car company my university has a special contract with; the department's staff then had to scramble to find some clunky workaround to help me get reimbursed.) As for splitting the cost, I am sure your department's staff are capable of dividing numbers by four and other such simple arithmetic operations related to the fact that you are splitting the expense with other travel companions and are renting the car for a mixture of personal and work days. Just explain to them what you are trying to achieve and they will help you get reimbursed for the correct amount. Again, doing this before the trip would be good to ensure everything goes smoothly. And as for the moral issue you mentioned... I have two comments: first of all, having fun while traveling to conferences is both moral and highly recommended. (Would you offer your university to pay part of the cost of the airfare because you enjoyed looking out the window during the plane ride? And have you considered why people bother to hold conferences in the middle of a hiking region?) Second, even on the days when you are only hiking with your friends/colleagues, I'm sure you'll be discussing your academic work, and who knows what will come out of it? Indeed, I've had many fruitful scientific discussions on hikes. So depending on who you're hiking with, even from the moral point of view one may legitimately consider this a form of work as well... ;-) Upvotes: 2
2016/11/14	438	1,756	<issue_start>username_0: The recent open science/source/access movement has put pressure in publishing not only in open access journals, but also in sharing raw data/figures/etc. That being said, given the volatility of our current sharing platforms, how can that be done successfully in a way that will last for a significant amount of time and not die out with obsolete technology? For instance, some people suggest (for instance, [1,2]) sharing and uploading data to ResearchGate, figshare and other platforms, run by companies that are likely to go bankrupt, disappear, be outcompeted or become obsolete in the near future. If we dig a little deeper, the recent boom in open access journals is also likely to die soon and it is possible that only a few publishers will survive. What happens with the published papers that die with the publishers? What about the software to read the published data/research notes? How can we guarantee that data will be readable a few years in the future? Is there a way to publish data/papers that is not subject to the uncertainty of time, making it time-resistance, in some way? [1] <http://science.sciencemag.org/content/354/6308/142> [2] <https://gsnmunich.wordpress.com/2016/11/05/how-to-legally-re-use-your-own-figures/><issue_comment>username_1: You could publish the papers and raw-data on the platforms available now, but also store both yourself. Then you could re-upload when platforms change in the future. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Publishers of subscription journals can participate in backup schemes that archive the journal content and will make it available if the journal publisher goes out of business. See the CLOCKSS project: <https://www.clockss.org/clockss/News> Upvotes: 1
2016/11/14	324	1,438	<issue_start>username_0: In developing countries like Nepal, people don't usually carry research activities during undergrad studies, but I want to get into it from undergrad itself. I am currently studying research articles, consulting professors and will be contacting governement research organisation to ask for support for devices required.<issue_comment>username_1: Since you specified Nepal, I'd like to make a suggestion - there are some excellent research institutes in India where you can apply to be a 'Junior Research Fellow' after completing your Bachelor's. You won't get a degree, but you will get a modest stipend and the chance to boost your research profile. I had some friends from Nepal during my undergraduate studies, and a few of them applied to these places, got selected, and after a year and a half of doing research there, went on to top-notch European and American institutes to do graduate studies. I hope you look into it. Good luck! Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: I've never heard of any US university requiring an "experience certificate". I don't even know what that would mean. There's certainly no organized system for "certifying" such things. If you have had research experience that is relevant to your field, you can write about it in your statement of purpose, and get letters of recommendation from people familiar with your work, and universities will take it into account. Upvotes: 0
2016/11/14	2,887	11,502	<issue_start>username_0: Is it possible to have a double PhD even if the university you are originally applying for doesn't focus on this category? A double PhD is not the same thing as two PhDs. For example, the medical school at the University of Groningen describes its [double PhD program](https://www.groningenbiomed.com/research-and-funding/faqs/double-degree-phd-programs) as follows: > > A Double Degree (DD) PhD means that you will obtain your PhD degree from two different institutions, i.e. a double diploma, sometimes also referred to as a "dual award". A double degree (two diplomas, each of which issued by a single university) should not be confused with a "joint degree" (one diploma issued by multiple institutions). > > > I'm applying for a PhD position on a university and it does not have a explicit double PhD program (although I know there are some people on another field that held a double PhD from this same university). However, this double PhD degree would be very helpful to me considering my future plans. From this, I was wondering: could I receive a double PhD if I find a second advisor from another university? Or the universities need to be associated upfront? In this case, if the university I'm apply on does not have an explicit double PhD program, it is possible (for legal issues of diploma printing) to just associate with another university? My second question is: for an advisor, what is the advantages of having a part-time student? For last, the thesis needs to be approved for both universities... how this happens? I would have to present for both?<issue_comment>username_1: First, a note for those who are not familiar with the terms. In general, double degree or joint degree are degrees awarded by two different universities within a student mobility agreement. They do not refer to the pursue of two independent degrees, as described in [this question](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17232/is-doing-two-phds-a-good-path). At the Master's level the tradition of double degrees is well established within the EU, and has been going on for more than twenty years, probably 30, since the establishment of the [Erasmus programme](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erasmus_Programme). Currently, the major EU programme supporting joint degrees is the [Erasmus Mundus](http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/erasmus_mundus/). The [Erasmus+ guide](http://ec.europa.eu/programmes/erasmus-plus/sites/erasmusplus/files/files/resources/erasmus-plus-programme-guide_en.pdf), p. 109, describes the framework of the Erasmus Mundus Joint Master degree. Of course, individual universities can set up joint degrees outside of this programme, especially when one of the partner universities is outside the EU. At the PhD level things are much less established. As far as I know, the idea of a double PhD degree has emerged only in the last 3-4 years. Before, it was totally unheard of, at least in my country (Italy). Though students are usually encouraged -- and funded -- to spend a period abroad (typically from 6 months to 1 year), this is done within an agreement between two research groups, and not at the university level (though it should be approved by the PhD programme committee). Usually, to obtain a double PhD degree a student should follow a shared path between two partnering universities. For instance, the two universities might agree that the student shall spend two consecutive years in one university under the supervision of X, and two other consecutive years in the second university under the supervision of Y; that the coursework should be divided equally between the two universities; that the student should defend their thesis in front of a joint committee (or in front of two committees separately); etc. Since at the PhD level things are much less established with respect to the Master's, I will answer on the basis of my experience: I have a student who is pursuing a double PhD degree; one who initially asked me to do that; and I know a couple of other students from other advisors who are pursuing it. None of the universities I know of have an explicit double-degree programme for PhDs. In fact, the double degree is usually proposed by a student who thinks, in this way, to strengthen their PhD or to facilitate the immigration in another country. This means that the double degree should be set up on a case-by-case basis, which usually brings about a bureaucratic nightmare, especially for the PhD schools and the advisors. This nightmare comes from the fact that different countries, even within the same region (e.g., EU), have different requirements for what concerns programme duration, funding, coursework, publications and assessment, and finding an agreement is quite complicated. For instance, if the PhD in one country has a duration of 3 years, and it is funded for that period, who is going to pay for an additional year in a country where the "standard" PhD duration is of 4 years? If there is an ongoing collaboration between two groups it might not be that difficult to find the money, but it could be almost impossible to set up such an agreement out of the box. As I said, in my experience, the double degree is usually proposed by a student who thinks to strengthen their PhD. I strongly disagree with this premise, and I usually discourage my students from such an idea. A double degree is not stronger than a single one done working hard and with a good publication record. Then, whether it can facilitate or not immigration to another country is questionable: I don't think that, to date, there is sufficient statistics to know this. As for your last questions: > > for an advisor, what is the advantages of having a part-time student? > > > There is an advantage if there is a collaboration between two groups, otherwise there is really no advantage. > > For last, the thesis needs to be approved for both universities... how this happens? I would have to present for both? > > > These details are really decided on a case-by-case basis, and sometimes the outcome depends on whether one university wants to appear stronger than the other and impose its criteria. Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: I have two peers who have such double PhDs in physics(one in experimental physics related to ALICE experiment and other related to nuclear theoretical physics). They have both "doubled" the PhD in France. They have worked formally with two supervisors, but in practice only with one of them. The double PhD had the advantage of training with the group in another country, and of course the funding came from both Universities, which doubled their salary. The only problem were the thesis evaluation system, since the standard was different in the two universities(in one of them the thesis is evaluated strictly by the number of publications and their impact, while in another the standard were related more to the advise of thesis committee). Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: I think that the main question that you have to ask yourself is: what will I gain by doing a double PhD thesis. If, e.g., it will give you access to a (second) lab with unique assets, complementing your first lab, or provides you with a second supervisor who has complementary knowledge to your first one, then there might be some benefits. It will certainly give you some extra headaches, since you will be the one dealing with two university bureaucracies, trying to align two (probably conflicting) sets of PhD regulations. (I am speaking from experience here, since I performed a double PhD thesis). Now for your questions: > > From this, I was wondering: could I receive a double PhD if I find a > second advisor from another university? > > > Yes, but you will make need to make sure that both universities support the double degree. > > Or the universities need to be associated upfront? > > > While it certainly would help, it is not a strict requirement. You need to make sure that both universities support the double degree, and you need to assert this at the very beginning of your PhD program. It is advisable to have a statement from both in writing. > > In this case, if the university I'm apply on does not have an explicit > double PhD program, it is possible (for legal issues of diploma > printing) to just associate with another university? > > > While this certainly makes it more difficult, it might still be possible (unless they explicitly prohibit it in their regulations). You will need some agreement. Contact the supporting professor, who can direct you to the appropriate person(s) to talk to. > > For an advisor, what is the advantages of having a part-time student? > > > It really depends. If there are some nice complementary properties to either the second lab or prof, then the first prof might benefit from this as well. Also for his/her network it might be beneficial. > > For last, the thesis needs to be approved for both universities... how > this happens? I would have to present for both? > > > The thesis needs to be approved by both universities. Personally, I presented only at one of them, and had the members of the committee of the other one attend (Actually I followed the protocol of the first university, while presenting at the second). Anyway, you will need to align with your supervisors on this matter. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_4: What you are asking is often called "sandwich PhD". It's a European thing, and all programs I know are funded by Erasmus Mundus (which also has a lot of sandwich Master programs). > > From this, I was wondering: could I receive a double PhD if I find a > second advisor from another university? Or the universities need to be > associated upfront? In this case, if the university I'm apply on does > not have an explicit double PhD program, it is possible (for legal > issues of diploma printing) to just associate with another university? > > > When you submit a PhD thesis, you often have to state something like "this thesis has not been previously submitted for the award of a degree by this or any other university". Therefore, in order to apply to this program, the two universities need to have an agreement before you can apply. Never assume that you can convince the administration of a university to have this agreement for you. > > For last, the thesis needs to be approved for both universities... how > this happens? I would have to present for both? > > > Yes. You need to be approved by the advisors from both universities, and need to submit the thesis to both universities. And this can be very awkward. I know a person who were in this kind of program. He had worked for two years in the Netherlands, before coming to my university in the UK for the final year. However, the two advisors did not collaborate at all, and did not work on the same topic (although in the same field). During the time in the UK, he could not produce any paper in 1 year in a different topic, while still working with the supervisor in the Netherlands (this is unknown to the advisor in the UK). After 3 years, the advisor in the Netherlands had 3 papers with him and thought he was good enough to graduate. The advisor in my department had no paper with him, and wanted him to work for another year without scholarship (the scholarship from Erasmus Mundus is fixed). In the end, he had no choice but to quit PhD. Upvotes: 2
2016/11/14	835	3,227	<issue_start>username_0: [I don't want to kill any more mice, but my advisor insists that I must in order to get my PhD](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/67897/i-dont-want-to-kill-any-more-mice-but-my-advisor-insists-that-i-must-in-order) I read the above post and I realized that I will be sailing in the same boat. I am planning to get a PhD admission in molecular/cell biology/genetics. I cannot stand the sight of mice. I get scared even looking at pictures of mice. My questions are: 1. Is it possible to complete the course without having to work on mice? 2. Will it be very difficult to do? 3. How should I go about finding labs that don't work with mice?<issue_comment>username_1: Coursework that uses live animals is exceeding rare (unfortunately, IMO), so you should have very little trouble completing PhD coursework without using live animals As to your research, this is an entirely different matter, but not all labs do in-vivo work. I suggest looking up faculty in the specific departments you are interested in, and seeing if there are enough labs that don't use mice to offer you a fair opportunity to land in a lab that doesn't. Also, I recommend giving the animal work a try, possibly through a rotation. Some students really change their minds once they start doing animal work. This goes in both directions. Some students find it to be not so bad as they thought it was going to be, and others who really thought they were to have a career doing animal research just have no taste for it when they actually try it. Try not to let preconceived notions about how you will react dictate your research career. Find a way to expose yourself to it in a small amount, and see if you're right about how you actually will react. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Good news. It is possible to overcome your fear and distaste. There is a treatment for specific phobias, called "Exposure and Response Prevention." Please see the relevant portions of another answer I wrote: <https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/78073/32436> I realize I'm not answering the question you asked, but I thought you would want to know -- there is a solution to the underlying problem! Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: Yes, of course it's possible! I'm not sure why everyone here seem to be pushing you to mouse work... Anyways, there are many model organisms in molecular/cell biology/genetics other than mice. C. elegans, zebrafish, and bacteria to name a few. All of these are perfectly legitimate systems to work with. In fact, I would argue that most break throughs in basic science are made using non-mammalian models. small RNAs and CRISPR for example. A very large proportion of genetic labs also study plants. Genetic engineering is huge. Even if you want to work on a clinically relevant project, there are always cell lines and in vitro work to do. I'm not sure where the idea that molecular biology = mouse work comes from, but it's totally inaccurate. There are TONS of labs out there that use other model systems. Even if you flip through any of the top biology journals (cell, nature...), you'll see the diversity of models used. All you have to do is find one of those labs :) Upvotes: 3
2016/11/14	684	2,956	<issue_start>username_0: This question is about best practices of writing manuscripts in mathematics. Q. How much "storytelling" in the introduction section of a math paper is "appropriate"? To clarify what I mean by "storytelling" let me give an example but of course one can find numerous of such cases: In the introduction of a math paper(which I'd rather to keep the names anonymous) almost half of the first page is dedicated to saying what happened in friends gathering and that the author bet on bottle of wines that certain problem has solutions and what not. It was really annoying to me. I wondered why readers need to know all that and how are these stories are even relevant? Side note: It seems to me sometimes journal editors demonstrate double standards and approve/disapprove this "story telling" matter depending who you are and where you stand in the field.<issue_comment>username_1: I propose the following guideline as a basis for answering your question: what is "appropriate" is for the author(s) of the article to try to write the best paper they can write, and for the journal editor and reviewer to make helpful suggestions about small changes the authors can make to improve the paper even more. In my humble opinion, the editor should generally not require changes to the paper unless they feel that they are seriously necessary to keep the quality of the paper at the standards of the journal. Thus, there should be a bit of room for authors to impose their creative vision on the work, which also includes the freedom to make wrong judgment calls that annoy some readers. If you accept the premise above, it follows that if the authors of the paper thought the story with the wine bottles makes the paper better, the editor should let them include it, even if he/she personally disagrees with the decision. TL;DR: within reasonable limits (and half a page sounds reasonable to me), it is the authors who should decide what is appropriate. Some readers may be displeased, but that is true about almost anything that one writes. Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Seconding @DanRomik's answer, I think that it is generally harmless to inject anecdotes, even if silly or frivolous, but vaguely connected to the issues at hand, if only to avoid the other (extreme) tradition of "austere formality". At its worst, the latter implicitly includes a pretense that we are trans-material entities without human failings, etc., which might in itself be off-putting. The point is that people who don't want to read (small) frivolous bits can skip over them, while people who might be soothed by small frivolous bits may not be easily able to imagine them in the context of a cold, austere discussion. I certainly do not wish to pretend to mandate chattiness for those disinclined, but (if it does not compromise the precision of the mathematics) in small doses it's surely harmless. Upvotes: 3
2016/11/14	4,149	17,887	<issue_start>username_0: I have been working on my doctoral thesis with a very well known professor in the field. I am going to finish 1 year of my study with him. As usual, we have been meeting every week at least once on the problem. Problem: No matter how much I do prepare about the possible discussion on any topic, I have been losing confidence in front of him almost in every discussion. This is probably has something to do with me thinking that I am not capable of working with him. My standard is not that much. I don't know whether is this normal? How do I get over this problem? Sometimes, I can't even speak properly when he sends me to the whiteboard for any explanation. This is weird. I feel really bad after that. I keep messing up discussions. However, he gives me time. Can I get a few suggestion on this? Note: English, which is not my native language, is the language of communication during these discussions.<issue_comment>username_1: I experienced something similar at the beginning of my PhD. It was mostly due to the fact that as I was verbalising my ideas, I'd realise their flaws, that they don't quite make sense, or that I hadn't it as figured out as I thought. I suggest you try to verbally explain your ideas to someone else (if no one else, plushies are great listeners) before you talk to him, that'll give you extra confidence. It is important that you speak out loud, and from the beginning: don't skip right to the meat of the question, your problem may be in the fundamentals. If this is your problem, once you get the hang of it, you'll quickly learn how to weed out some of these bad ideas, and gain confidence on your explanations. Something I have seen my students struggle with (and probably myself too, but I don't notice it so much) is that when I ask them a question, they try to answer it as soon as possible, so they get stuck in suboptimal explanations, increase their confusion, get more stressed, and lastly blocked. He is giving you time, so take it, think carefully about what you are going to say, and explore different ways of expressing it before you start saying it. And furthermore, if you find a better way of explaining it, feel free to scratch what you just said and start all over again. Another option is to set the the ground for a discussion by sending a long email taking your time to explain everything. And if you feel you didn't manage to get your point across, never hesitate to send it after the fact. Lastly, for a few weeks I got the feeling that my supervisor wasn't really understanding what I am trying to do; but after I gave a 30 min presentation of my work in the department, from the bottom up, he got very excited, and now his comments are, I feel, much more spot on. The presentation included explaining my tools for people completely unfamiliar with them (to be specific, a specific technique built on deep learning for machine [but not deep] learning practitioners). For your case, consider asking for some time, thinking on it on your own, and coming back with an explanation whenever you have it. Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: I have not tried this, but I have seen that some people are able to increase their confidence in public speaking by taking some acting classes. I don't mean you would need to make a full hobby of it, but maybe one semester would be helpful. If you are not very comfortable talking while working out some math on a whiteboard in general, then -- it's time to form a study group! In my opinion, there are very few things in life as fun as working out math problems on a board with a friend or a small group of friends. Try out various levels: problems you could do in your sleep, problems where you're just making up nonsense as you go along, and everything in between. Edit: Food for Thought About the Language Aspect 1. I had a study partner in grad school who was from China. One day he mentioned that he had to go home in order to study his Russian before we could get together. I didn't understand why he had to go home in order to do that. He explained that when he did his Russian study he would pronounce all his exercises in a very loud voice -- actually, he said that he shouted -- and he wasn't comfortable doing that in his office. 2. My first six months living in a foreign country I was very quiet. People who met me at that time thought I was just the quiet type. Actually, I was still getting comfortable using the language. Over time my natural personality came to the fore. It just took time. Eventually I became completely bilingual. 3. Some years later my family situation changed and I needed to learn some German in order to communicate with my new in-laws. But I only saw them twice a year, and without the immersion, my German never really took off. I've always been a perfectionist, but at some point I decided that German grammar was never going to make sense to me and it was more important to just crash through a sentence and get my point across as best I could. I decided that functioning in family life during visits was more important than getting it right. I discovered that you can actually train yourself to allow mistakes. I was able to come to terms with speaking pidgin German. 4. In grad school, in the summer, I organized free "English for Public Speaking" classes for my international fellow students and their spouses. Each student chose a poem to work on and, inspired by my friend's experience studying Russian, I asked them to recite their poems very loudly. I gave them warm-up exercises to loosen up, such as the following: "Give me a breaaak" while shaking one's head. We had a short exercise for each vowel sound, such as "How now, brown cow." Students were supposed to use a small mirror to check proper mouth shape. Even though they were already using English at a sophisticated level in their studies, I noticed certain patterns of grammar errors. We practiced those basics quite a bit, so that it would become second nature to form negations, questions, and indirect speech, with the correct auxiliary and the right word order. By making sure that these grammar basics and pronunciation basics were correct, the students' confidence really grew. (I'm not sure that they had ever had individualized feedback, when they were learning English in their home countries; and once they were in the U.S., others felt it would be impolite to correct them.) Another thing we worked on was: in preparation for the thesis defense and job talks, each student wrote a short presentation about a non-science topic, for example, one student wrote a one-page description of his home country, Singapore. When a student read his presentation to the group, the most important part was the Q & A at the end. Everyone was encouraged to ask questions. The presenter was supposed to repeat each question before responding to it. 5. A conversation partner might be helpful. Some universities facilitate matching people up, for example, someone from France might want to polish his English, and he would be matched up with someone who wants to improve his French. 6. Some towns have literacy volunteer programs, and some of these programs are set up for international students who want to improve their English. 7. Reading equations, and talking about math, involves some special expressions that aren't obvious from looking at what's written on the page, for example, [(x + 3)^2 -1]/x would be read "x plus 3 quantity squared minus 1 all over x." It's easier to relax when you know you're saying things in a natural way. Questions: are you more out-going in your first language than you tend to be in English? Do you sometimes feel doubtful whether you're saying something correctly? Do you think you have a noticeable foreign accent? If so, how do you feel about that? Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: What you are lacking is confidence in yourself. What I see commonly is a student who has such respect (rightly so, I'll assume) for their advisor that every debate is interpreted as 'I am wrong'. This isn't correct. Academics love to debate, and fruitful discussions question every answer. So, when your advisor questions your stance, know that he or she is engaged by you, not necessarily questioning your thesis per se. Secondly, it is important that you become confident enough to say 'I don't know'. You can't know everything, and your advisors job is to push your boundaries. Feel confident, and admit when you don't know something but retort with 'excellent point, I need to look into that'. Those who admit a lack of knowledge often glean more respect than those who feign knowledge or become combative. To gain a foothold, prepare well for your next meeting. Read 5 or so papers on the topic and know them well; refer to them during your discussion. Having that armory will give you more confidence than you think. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: Prepare for the discussions As <NAME> points out, ideally you shouldn't have to prepare for a discussion. But we're living in a real world. The following might help you being more confident in front of your supervisor, and at the same time progress in your PhD. Each time before a discussion, take yourself half an hour and do the following: 1. Think about what you want to discuss. What have you found out since the last discussion? (Even small things count.) What are the open questions? What did you not understand? Are you missing resources on a particular topic? Do you need your supervisor to explain something to you? 2. Write it down. Make a list of all your findings and questions. Organise it. If you want, make little tick boxes next to each point, so you can tick them off in the discussion. Sort your topics in a way they can lead you through the discussion. If you have a bigger finding or train of thought, think about how you could present it on a blackboard. 3. Fix holes. Maybe there is something you didn't understand that you suddenly start grasping now that you've written it down. Maybe you suddenly see a flaw in one of your findings. Being aware of that is already a great step forward for not getting thrown off balance when your supervisor points it out. 4. Use your cheat sheet. The list you've just written is your friend during the discussion. Bring it, hold it, look at it, write down your supervisor's comments, look up things you can't remember from the top of your head, let yourself guide by it. It will give you confidence and make your discussion more productive. davidmh has made another good point on which I'd like to elaborate: At some point, you will be the expert on your research topic. No, really. There might be lots of bigger experts in vast areas around yours, but at least in one howsoever small part, you're the expert. Your supervisor might actually understand less about that part than you, even if there are lots of other topics he knows better due to his experience. I had this point in my PhD, and you will reach it as well, or have already reached it. At this point, you need to explain your topic to your supervisor, and explain it well. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: Yes, this is normal, not only in academics but everywhere you meet a superiour. Some practical un-academic tips: * Get in the habit of regularly searching for things (in private) that you did very well. For example, make a list of personal successes of the previous week, every Sunday. This will teach you that you are not as bad as you think you are. Of course, don't put in things like "washed laundry in time", but things related to the topic between you and your superiour. * When you start to feel the tension building up, breathe deeply and calmly. If breathing calmly seems to make it worse, practice some basic breathing meditation at home. Buddhists are best at breathing - they are mind specialists after all. If you search for videos on basic buddhist breath meditations, you can get a lot of very practical advice even if you may not subscribe to the religious parts. Here is one I can wholeheartedly endorse: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLvU7ppM4vE> * Often, if you have "emotional trouble" during such an occasion, you will actually feel something in your body, not only in your mind. Usually in the stomach (butterflies or clenching) or in the shoulders (tensing up as a defensive reaction). Try to breathe "into" that region to relax. I don't know how to really describe it; just try it, you will see. It works for any body part, even where there's no lungs around. ;) If you manage to relax that body part, often the actual mental tension goes away too. * Frequently try to imagine them as a normal person. Imagine yourself and them in normal conversation (maybe not at your meetings, but on a beach or whatever). Remove all aspects of them being superiour to you. * Make pauses before answering; ask back if you didn't understand the question (or even if you did, just to give you time). * Try never ever to impress them. Be yourself, be neutral. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_6: I actually "suffered" from a very similar phenomena - I stressed out way too much over each meeting with my professor, to the extent that I felt that I was developing an obsession to be able to simply pass a meeting without overly stressing and flushing. It even felt like I was defining my self worth (or at least my academic one) not according to my abilities and character, but solely according to these meetings, despite being aware of how silly it was. The thing that made it even more ridiculous is that I didn't even feel that inconfident academically about myself, it was just some kind of weird and depressing dynamic that arose from the situation and that I felt I had no way to stop. It was very depressing. This is no easy fix, but for me what eventually helped was going to therapy. Talking about it infront of a psychologist helped me frame the problem in words, and eventually helped me treat the interaction with my professor differently, which led to more productive research. In hindsight, I can definitely say it was more about my issues (childhood, parents, etc..) then anything that really related to my abilities or to my professor - I imagine this would probably be the case with most people that have similar reactions. Another thing that helped my overall social confidence towards superiors and large groups of people was doing improvisation acting classes, as someone else suggested in a different answer. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_7: A lot of answers have focused on having confidence in your work, and practicing what you're going to say. Obviously that's all good, but I'm skeptical that will solve your problem. This seems to me to be, essentially, feeling nervous while speaking in public. Plenty of perfectly confident and competent people struggle mightily in front of an audience. Granted, your audience is 1 instead of one hundred, but I don't think that necessarily makes it different. Nervousness is this context is largely independent of how confident you are in what you'll be saying, and it's that nervousness that makes you unable to express yourself clearly. It is, however, entirely normal. So normal, in fact, that I guarantee there's some sort of presentation group available near you that would allow you to practice in front of an audience. Either on campus, or via meetup. Is there a business school, or communications school, on your campus? They probably have something. And even if by some long shot there isn't, you could probably make one. Talk to your fellow grad students and see if they're interested. Get together and do short presentations of your research to each other, followed by critical commentary. The only way to get better presenting and speaking to audiences is to practice in front of audiences. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_8: Talk with other people. Debate with others. Start working on defending your ideas on a regular basis. Get used to the idea of defending your ideas and being passionate and articulate about your concepts and thoughts. Join a debate team if you want more formal practice, but you can do this with friends, just try to tear each other's arguments apart. You will learn to build confidence. Just remember to be cordial and respectful and not get angry or flustered. Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_9: Start writing an email to your supervisor, summarizing what you are going discuss for today's meeting. Whether you will actually send the email to them or not depends on the communication style between you and them. But at least just pretend you will indeed send the email. Now, as you write, you will start to realize the flows in your argument. As you write, you will naturally get doubts or perceive questions that may arise. Prepare answers for that. This also gives you to think of the potential discussion flow. As the supervisor sends you to the whiteboard, it is obvious that they expect you draw something, or write something down. If you have already prepared in writing, probably drawing in google draw or a paper, that will help. Nothing prevents you from taking notes with you to the meeting. We read hundreds of papers. It is not always easy to remember the names and theorems proposed in them. You can write them down in a piece of paper and take them with you to the discussion. By this way, you may support your certain claims when necessary. Also it will help you with your confidence as well. Just always remember that supervisor is there to help you. You are preparing for a bigger audience - a conference audience or the thesis jury/committee. There is nothing to lose confidence on meeting the supervisor, though it is often normal as the others have already pointed out. Upvotes: 0
2016/11/14	671	2,882	<issue_start>username_0: I am UK national applying for a PhD (microbiology) in the USA. The application process requires a statement of purpose which includes, among other things, a section on recent / current work activities that are relevant to the application. I am a Master's student and have plenty of relevant details to talk about from an academic perspective (there is a separate section for this), but I also run a successful IT business and the transferable skills that I have learned from this form a core part of my relevant work experience for this section. To illustrate my motivation and potential for success at graduate level, I was going to mention that I essentially started my business from scratch a few years ago and now earn a six-figure income. However, I am worried that the selection committee might view this unfavorably (talking about income is quite a taboo subject here in the UK), or worse they might question my commitment to a graduate program if they think I have a comfortable job to fall back on. I should also mention that the PhD program I am applying to is fully-funded, but the cost of living in the area is notoriously high and most grad students have to supplement their income by teaching. I wouldn't need to do this as I have enough savings to be financially secure for the duration of the program. Should I mention my income to demonstrate my aptitude, or will it do more harm than good?<issue_comment>username_1: No, don't mention income here. This just looks smug. But ofc you should mention that you are running a successfull buisness and explain how this can contribute to your Phd (experience, skills,...). The problem I see is that you want to do a microbiology PhD while running your own buisness? This could be a big problem because they don't want to fund people who are not 100% focused on their work here. Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: You may mention your successful business venture in your CV, but it's not relevant to your SOP -- unless it's directly related to what you want to do in your graduate studies in microbiology. If you were applying to business school, the answer would be different. In the CV, take the usual approach -- use lots of verbs to describe the types of tasks you have carried out. In this way, you will be able to subtly convey the general level of success the venture has enjoyed, without being crude. (Yes, in this regard, what would be crude in the UK would be crude in the US as well.) Re your ability to support yourself without a teaching assistantship, just don't apply for one. If there's any ambiguity, you may mention in a cover letter that you will not be applying for one. HOWEVER: if you have aspirations to be a professor later on, it might be helpful to have some teaching assistant experience under your belt by the time you graduate. Upvotes: 1
2016/11/15	903	3,692	<issue_start>username_0: My friend recently moved to Canada and she holds a BSc from an overseas university. Her school wasn't world-famous but wasn't bad either. For the past year she'd been studying English and preparing for the GRE to get ready for admission into a North American university. Apparently there is this professor in the US who'd found her on LinkedIn and is interested in having her as one of his grad students. He has been very encouraging, even keeping in touch via Skype while my friend was on vacation. He's told her that if she gets a good score on the GRE he will be able to admit her. He has also made promises of grants. My friend is married but she is young and quite attractive. While she had a decent GPA her university wasn't all that amazing. Also her command of English isn't very good. All of this is making me suspicious about the intentions of this professor. I have worked with some very nice professors but none of them took time on a regular basis to voluntarily stay in touch with a prospective student. I could understand why one might look for bright and amazing students on LinkedIn, but the fact of the matter is my friend did not have her full academic records published on her profile (just a few examples of her projects and volunteer work, but no grades or GPA). Do you find this scenario normal? I am having a hard time giving this professor the benefit of the doubt.<issue_comment>username_1: The Linkedin channel is unusual, but not suspicious per se. Does your friend have common connections with that professor? If that is the case, she might have popped up in the "people you may know" list that he gets. Or he did a keyword search. The one relevant thing with Linkedin is that he saw a — presumably flattering — picture of her. > > He's told her that if she gets a good score on the GRE he will be able to admit her. > > > On that point again, I'd give him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe it's a wording issue and what was really meant was that with a good GRE score, admission in the local program is likely. > > He has also made promises of grants. > > > This is rather standard for grad students to have their tuition and stipend covered by a grant. > > keeping in touch via Skype > > > This, this. I have a hard time finding sound reasons for a professor to invest time and effort into communicating with a potential grad student, who did not even apply, by videoconferencing. This being said, Skype offers free international calls so it might be just for this reason. So, there are sketchy aspects to that story, but nothing decisive. If the position is really of interest to her then maybe she should try investigating further. For example contacting the local graduate program admin and ask about the admission process, ask the alleged funding body for grant criteria, etc. in order to have multiple channels of communications. If she sees mismatches in the prof's story and theirs, that could give an additional warning. Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: I agree with a lot of the commenters, that this situation as you've described it raises red flags. However, I do wonder if your friend will appreciate your involvement. Have you discussed this with her? There may be more going on here than you're able to describe to us, because you're not involved in the situation. If you've talked with her about your concerns and she seems receptive, then great. Otherwise I would tread very cautiously, particularly if you were thinking of using a SE post to make your point after she's disagreed with your assessment. Regardless, I applaud you for your friendly concern. Upvotes: 3
2016/11/15	996	3,464	<issue_start>username_0: I was an undergrad student with Professor X a few years back. Prof. X used to be a co-author in all the publications with Prof. Y. Prof. Y is very popular in the field. Now, I am working in a university. I have keen interest to work with Prof. Y on a few problems of interest. I have less idea on how to collaborate in such a situation where I don't have indirect contact apriori. The option that I have is to send a mail to him which looks as follows: > > Subject: Request for collaboration -- Problem A and Problem B > > > Dear Prof. Y > > > Greetings! > > > I have learned about you from Prof. X during my works with him. > > > I have gone through your recent papers: [this] and [this]. I am good in Method1 and Method2 which could suitably address your problem. > > > My recent works can be found in [this profile link]. > > > Looking forward to hearing from you. > > > Sincerely, > > > me > > > -- > [my signature] > > > Is this approach a suitable for my collaboration with Prof. Y? Update: I had sent an email to Prof. Y after incorporating the suggestions from the fellow academia.SE community members here. I got a response from Prof. Y and looks like he is also interested in working together.<issue_comment>username_1: Of course it can work, it is done all the time. Right now we got several projects running with other groups all around the world, some of them started with a mail basically saying "hey, you are doing nice work, we got an idea and would need your help, are you interested?". For your situation it depends on what you want from this collaboration. Do you want them to do a part of that project because they can do it (better)? Or do you want to go there and learn how to do it yourself, which is more like an internship. Or do you have a solution to a problem they are having, which is in my opinion not a common reason to start a cooperation. I agree with @ian\_itor that your mail basically doesn't say anything about what you want from that Prof. Y. And especially this part is kind of strange: > > I am good in Method1 and Method2 which could suitably address your problem. > > > Is beeing good in that method something special? Couldn't they do it alone/find someone else? Do they really need YOU? Did they explicitly stated that they have this problem? And do you need them? Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Let's elaborate on my comment in this answer. Here are the issues: 1. There are just statements in your draft, no actual question. 2. The tone of the mail is a bit informal for the case you don't know Prof. Y (at least in my opinion). Leaving out the "Greetings" will make it better. Here's my proposal for the mail: > > Subject: Request for collaboration -- Problem A and Problem B > > > Dear Prof. Y, > > > I have learned about you from Prof. X during my works with him. > > > I have gone through your recent papers: [this] and [this]. Recently, I have worked with Method1 and Method2 which could suitably address your problem. Would you be interested to (Removed: collaborate on [thing] with me?) talk with me about the topic in a phone call or meeting? It would be a pleasure to work with you on this topic. > > > My recent works can be found in [this profile link]. > > > Looking forward to hearing from you. > > > Sincerely, > > > me > > > -- [my signature] > > > Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]
2016/11/15	810	3,599	<issue_start>username_0: You did very similar work on your own before, and now you happen to have stumbled upon a similar assignment. Why exactly would reusing your previous work be unethical? If the university has such overlapping courses and lets you take them, why should the student be punished for optimising his time/resources?<issue_comment>username_1: That's not that easy to answer because it really depends in my opinion on what is plagiarised and why and what's the impact. For example we submitted a paper and the publisher found a plagiat in our introduction. Turned out we had written the same sentence in one of our other papers on a very similar topic. We had around 15 papers in that field and well, the introduction is always basically the same so sooner or later you will write down the same sentence. It's just stupid to forcefully rewrite the same introduction over and over again and it has nothing to do with the actual scientific work. And while I feel it's unethical to use previous work in university courses the even more interesting question is: why? Why would I reuse my previous work for classes at university rather than learning something new/training my skills. Why would I study, if I'm not interested in the subject. You really should take courses at university as an opportunity to learn something, rather than an annoying obstacle on your way to your degree, which you want to avoid/manage with the lowest effort possible Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: The main reason behind banning self-plagiarism is the implication that any research you publish/hand-in is not only original but also new. Whether the second part is indeed implied is dependent on the context. However in a scientific paper it might be very relevant for the reader to know where and when something was first published. For a professor, it might be very relevant to know that parts of an assignment were already written, so the student didn't learn anything new from writing that part. Given that it can be relevant, I'd suggest a "better safe than sorry" approach here. Also: if the work can stand on the merits of only the new work, why not cite? If it can't, why rely on adding previous work without citing it? Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: This is specific to coursework, not journal publications. Atleast part of the credit for any assignment is for the efforts and/or time put in. In a pedagogical context, the output is not as important as the process and what the student learns by following the process. I should also mention that optimizing time/resources is not something that overrides learning effort, atleast for a student. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_4: The reason - at least at our institution - is that you cannot earn points twice for the same work. Imagine an extreme case in which you take three courses, all of which require writing an essay. The idea (and that's what's in the approved curriculum) is of course that by the time you graduate, you have shown to write essays on three different topics. If you manage to "trick" the system by finding a topic that is at the intersection of all three courses so that you handed it in three times, then you obviously have done only a third of what was expected (and thus have less experience in essay writing than the diploma you get suggests). Of course, there are less extreme cases, but the same reasonig also extends to, say, copying half an assignment. Obviously, I am not talking about trivial things (like using occasionally the same sentence) here - that's quite unavoidable. Upvotes: 2
2016/11/15	2,654	10,489	<issue_start>username_0: I am applying for assistant professor positions in the U.S. and Canada, and I often have to fill in forms of voluntary self-identification disclosing my gender, race, veteran status, disabilities etc. I usually do that, even though I am not certain whether and how this information could affect my prospects of getting the job. However, recently I have been asked to a fill in a form and choose whether I make this information available to the hiring committee: > > Please indicate whether you > > > * DO NOT wish to self-identify (in which case we request that you make no indications in Sections A through D below and simply return the form with your name and the date only); > * Wish to self-identify FOR STATISTICAL PURPOSES ONLY (in which case the information you provide below will be used only by the Equity Office and will not be shared with the Appointments Committee of the Unit to which you are applying); OR > * Wish to self-identify FOR THE APPOINTMENTS PROCESS AND FOR STATISTICAL PURPOSES (in which case the information you provide below may also be used in the Appointments process, in accordance with Article 24 of the Collective Agreement) > > > (boldface emphasis is mine). What should I do to increase my chances of getting the job and avoid standing out in a bad way? I guess that by choosing to make the information available, * a Male, Caucasian, Non-disabled person might lose an edge due to preference towards minority candidates; while * a Female, Black, Disabled person could gain an edge? But it could also go the other way around if the hiring committee has preferences that do not quite align with the official policy of supporting minorities etc. Two somewhat related but different questions are * ["Should all voluntary self-identification forms for faculty positions be filled?"](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/37935/should-all-voluntary-self-identification-forms-for-faculty-positions-be-filled) and * ["What “Applicant Confidential Data Form” has to do with tenure-track positions?"](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16243/what-applicant-confidential-data-form-has-to-do-with-tenure-track-positions?rq=1).<issue_comment>username_1: > > I guess if I were Male, Caucasian, non-disabled etc I might lose an edge due to preference towards minority candidates; while if I were Female, Black, disabled etc I could gain an edge? > > > There are limits to how protected characteristics can be used in affirmative/positive action. By authorizing them to use this information, you can benefit from permitted affirmative/positive action if you qualify. If you do not authorize the use of the information, then you cannot benefit. In regards to permitted affirmative/positive action there is no benefit to withholding information. There is also a possibility that this information would be used for un-permitted/illegal discrimination. In general, however, illegal affirmative action where minorities are given an advantage does not happen. Rather, there are all sorts of documented implicit and explicit biases that help white male applicants. In my opinion, if you are not a minority (e.g., a heterosexual white christian male), there is no risk in making the information available. If you are a minority the choice is more difficult. You could benefit from affirmative/positive action, but you could also open yourself up to implicit and explicit biases. Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Quite frankly, I would suggest to fill in the data and be done with it. I assume you are male, and I guess if there was something "interesting" to tell about you, you would have done so. I assume that the final decision will not be based on that form alone, either, but will be found after they got to see/talk to you in person. Hence, everything you can fill in will then, finally, be revealed anyways. If "gaming the system" is of interest to you, look no further than statistical data about the place you are applying to. Are there a high percentage of women/black/disabled people there? Do you clash against the description? Then you may want leave the data off. But you never know how they discriminate (speaking neutrally). The fact whether the data is hidden may even influence them, if not officially, then at least subliminally. Same with every other fact. In general, I would assume - from a pure psychological viewpoint, and some first-hand experience - that very few to zero deciders are truly and utterly free of prejudices or bias with regards to at least some aspects on that form. Your problem lies in the fact that you cannot know where the bias lies, again assuming that you do not know the people who will read your resume/form. I'm not talking about obvious things like "we cannot decide based on skin colour" or "we need one more disabled to fulfill our quota", but deep-rooted opinions, maybe unconscious ones. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: [A 2015 study](http://www.pnas.org/content/112/17/5360) demonstrated that women that faculty members from biology, engineering, and psychology departments prefer female applicants over male applicants: > > Men and women faculty members from all four fields preferred female > applicants 2:1 over identically qualified males with matching > lifestyles (single, married, divorced), with the exception of male > economists, who showed no gender preference. Comparing different > lifestyles revealed that women preferred divorced mothers to married > fathers and that men preferred mothers who took parental leaves to > mothers who did not. Our findings, supported by real-world academic > hiring data, suggest advantages for women launching academic science > careers. > > > We also know that [African Americans and Hispanics are typically favored over European-Americans & Asian-Americans](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-harvard-discrimination/harvard-records-show-discrimination-against-asian-americans-group-idUSKBN1JB1UF) in college admissions: > > In court papers, Arlington, Virginia-based Students for Fair > Admissions said an Asian-American male applicant with a 25 percent > chance of admission would have a 35 percent chance if he was white, 75 > percent if he were Hispanic and a 95 percent chance if he were black. > > > Also, there are [numerous campaigns](http://www.womenintech.com/hirono-unveils-plan-to-increase-stem-opportunities-for-women-minorities/) worldwide to increase the number of women or "minorities" in STEM, offering scholarships, and other opportunities to women or minorities that are not offered to white men. There are even some academic jobs where only women are allowed to apply, like [this Assistant Professor Position](https://euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/251320) for the Vienna University of Technology or [these three senior positions](https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/may/19/university-of-melbourne-mathematics-school-advertises-women-only-positions) at the university of Melbourne. Therefore, as a white male, I would be inclined to not mention race or gender on my applications for tenure track job applications, especially with respect to positions in a STEM field. For the same reason, I would be inclined to explicitly mention my gender as a woman or my race if I were black of Hispanic. Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_4: In many countries, it is actually illegal to make this kind of data available to the hiring committee, and there is a whole class of questions which are forbidden in interviews. This is explicitly to prevent any (conscious or unconscious) bias on the interviewer side to cloud their judgement. Generally, most people will tend to select applicants who are most like them, but this is obviously not desirable because it leads to "mono-culture". I don't know the laws in the US or Canada, but generally, I would not recommend disclosing this data to the hiring committee. This means that the HR department will not show the information to whoever decides to invite you for an interview or not, and makes it most likely that you will be judged on your merits rather than any other traits. In some places (the really good ones), HR will not even tell your name, age, gender, or show a picture of your face(\) to the person making the decision. Especially with disabilities, there's always a financial incentive not to hire someone because it may mean you'd need to have a disabled-friendly toilet, step-free access to all facilities or something like that. In most decent places, such information is withheld (as far as possible) from the hiring committee, and HR has a separate fund to deal with any resulting costs, after the hiring decision was made. ==> I would be very* reluctant to make this information available to the hiring committee. These are not criteria anyone should be selected for, and the only way to ensure that is if the decision is made without access to this information. The statistical data, on the other side is used to test, after the fact, if every group of the population is given equal chances: Do men/women/PoC/disabled people with equal qualification have an even chance of being invited for interviews, and of actually landing a job? Especially in larger organisations, is often easy to spot if you have e.g. some racist person making hiring decisions. For any single job, it's often easy to explain why you preferred this person to that one, but if success rates for one group in your place are significantly above/below their success rates in the next department, that's a pretty good indicator... Some universities in the UK actually publish the demographics of student admission ([for](https://www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/files/publications/ug_admissions_statistics_2017_cycle_2.pdf) [example](https://www.ox.ac.uk/about/facts-and-figures/admissions-statistics?wssl=1)), but I'm not sure if you'll find this for academic hiring in the US ... you may have to dig a little, and you're probably more likely to find news reports about the numbers than a simple PDF. Comparing this data across countries and universities, though, can give you some good information about the realities of discrimination of minorities in the academic world today, as well as how a prospective future employer treats minorities. (\*) attractiveness has subconscious effect, as you might imagine... though not always in the way you'd imagine Upvotes: 0
2016/11/15	545	1,931	<issue_start>username_0: Is there a web service that retrieves all of the ORCIDs for the authors associated with a DOI? I've looked at crossref.org, but I can't seem to find information on how to do this with their service. I am currently using their HTTP-based API to query information about a publication given its DOI. It returns the names of the authors, but not their ORCIDs. (An ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID) is a unique identifier for an author of a publication. A DOI (Digital Object Identifier) is the same thing, but for the publication itself)<issue_comment>username_1: Well an ORCID is made for distinguish persons, and it really become useful precisely in case of homonyms. So with an ORCID you can get the matching author, but how could you get an ORCID from an author name, ie let's say, <NAME>? The best you can get in a simple way would be a list of ORCIDs, with no mean to determine which one is correct. A more developed system could relate authors between them or use some other information (subject area, location, ...) to disambiguate and get back the correct ORCID. I don't know if such a system exists. So the answer to your first question is "no". The simpliest way to get ORCID associated to an author would be if your "information about a publication given its DOI" would include ORCIDs itself. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: For biomedical publications it is possible to do using Europe PMC [API](https://europepmc.org/RestfulWebService) (I work for this database). You can query the database using the DOI like [this](https://www.ebi.ac.uk/europepmc/webservices/rest/search?resulttype=core&query=10.1038/s41598-018-21886-w) and extract (authorId type="ORCID") field. Here is the [same query using JSON](https://www.ebi.ac.uk/europepmc/webservices/rest/search?resulttype=core&format=json&query=10.1038/s41598-018-21886-w) is you prefer. Upvotes: 2
2016/11/15	563	2,272	<issue_start>username_0: "A definition is a statement of the meaning of a term... In mathematics, a definition is used to give a precise meaning to a new term, instead of describing a pre-existing term." - Wikipedia. Suppose, I have mentioned a standard definition of a mathmatical term, exactly copied from a textbook, in my research article. May it be considered as a plagarism? Similarly, I use an earlier proved theorem in my article. I mentioned its statement exactly as it is stated in the original artile along with its proper reference. May it be considered as a plagarism? Is there any standard rule regarding plagarism?<issue_comment>username_1: > > Suppose, I have mentioned a standard definition of a mathematical term, exactly copied from a textbook, in my research article. May it be considered as a plagarism? > > > If the term is really standard, no plagiarism has been committed. But cite the source you got the definition from. Even such a standard term as the set of natural numbers can be introduced differently: either including zero or not. There are also notational reasons: as an extreme example, there are researchers in the wild who don't associate ℕ₀ with the former and ℕ₊ with the latter (or at least, they say they cannot parse these symbols and reject your paper on these grounds). > > Similarly, I use an earlier proved theorem in my article. I mentioned its statement exactly as it is stated in the original article along with its proper reference. May it be considered as a plagarism? > > > The same applies here. If the theorem is really standard, no plagiarism has been committed. Again, cite the source. Some theorems have subtleties (the zero, the empty set, up to isomorphism, etc.) which you understand only when you dig deep into the cited paper. Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Plagiarism is passing someone's text as your own. If you quote the sentence and cite the source, you are fine. If you quote a very standard definition or a very famous theorem (e.g. Pythagoras), you are fine as well. Make sure your writing clearly separates the facts you borrow (and cite), and the things you propose yourself. If this simple rule is followed, you will have no problems with plagiarism. Upvotes: 2
2016/11/15	2,648	9,067	<issue_start>username_0: Using Google's search operators, [guide](https://bynd.com/news-ideas/google-advanced-search-comprehensive-list-google-search-operators/), we can restrict our search to that of a particular web domain, eg: `site:twitter.com <NAME>` Within Google Scholar, can we perform a similar in nature search but for articles within a particular conference (or journal)? I am looking an operator specific to Google scholar which I expect would resemble `conference:NIPS <NAME>`<issue_comment>username_1: To search within a particular conference, open the navigation menu on the Google Scholar start page, using the hamburger button (☰) on the top left, and click on "Advanced search". This will open an extended search dialog where a field "Return articles published in..." exists. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: From the main [scholar.google.com](http://scholar.google.com) page you can select "Advanced Search" from the menu on the top left side (hidden behind hamburger menu button) Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: You can use the `source:` operator. For example, search by `source:NIPS` to restrict to documents published by sources containing "NIPS" in their name. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: Search by site -------------- When we search for a keyword, on the right side of the search results we get for each entry something like `[PDF] acm.org`. This is useful to find the websites you'd like to add. We can combine these sites: `memory site:ieee.org OR site:acm.org OR site:usenix.org` Search by source ---------------- The search results have the name of the conference below the title of each entry. This might be a full title instead of only an acronym and that's what you need to use. For example, `attack source:ASPLOS` returns nothing. But we get results using `attack source:"Architectural Support for Programming Languages and Operating Systems"`. Using a more broader term for source such as `attack source:"Operating Systems"` gives you results for multiple conferences, namely ASPLOS and SOSP because both have operating systems in their name. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: A complimentary, programmatic approach to all of the all great answers above using Python and [Google Scholar Organic Results API](https://serpapi.com/google-scholar-organic-results) from SerpApi. It's a paid API with a free plan that bypasses blocks from Google and does all the hard lifting so the end-user only needs to think about what data to extract. Code and [example in the online IDE](https://replit.com/@DimitryZub1/how-to-search-in-google-scholar-within-a-particular-confere#main.py) to extract data from all pages: ``` import os, json from serpapi import GoogleSearch from urllib.parse import urlsplit, parse_qsl params = { "api_key": os.getenv("API_KEY"), # your serpapi API key "engine": "google_scholar", "q": "AI source:NIPS", # search query "hl": "en", # language # "as_ylo": "2017", # from 2017 # "as_yhi": "2021", # to 2021 "start": "0" # first page } search = GoogleSearch(params) organic_results_data = [] papers_is_present = True while papers_is_present: results = search.get_dict() print(f"Currently extracting page №{results.get('serpapi_pagination', {}).get('current')}..") for result in results["organic_results"]: position = result["position"] title = result["title"] publication_info_summary = result["publication_info"]["summary"] result_id = result["result_id"] link = result.get("link") result_type = result.get("type") snippet = result.get("snippet") organic_results_data.append({ "page_number": results.get("serpapi_pagination", {}).get("current"), "position": position + 1, "result_type": result_type, "title": title, "link": link, "result_id": result_id, "publication_info_summary": publication_info_summary, "snippet": snippet, }) if "next" in results.get("serpapi_pagination", {}): search.params_dict.update(dict(parse_qsl(urlsplit(results["serpapi_pagination"]["next"]).query))) else: papers_is_present = False print(json.dumps(organic_results_data, indent=2, ensure_ascii=False)) ``` Part of the output: ``` [ { "page_number": 1, "position": 1, "result_type": "Pdf", "title": "Nuts and bolts of building AI applications using Deep Learning", "link": "https://media.nips.cc/Conferences/2016/Slides/6203-Slides.pdf", "result_id": "-x2la-_xce0J", "publication_info_summary": "A Ng - NIPS Keynote Talk, 2016 - media.nips.cc", "snippet": "Given the safety-critical requirement of autonomous driving and thus the need for extremely high levels of accuracy, a pure end-to-end approach is still challenging to get to work. End-…" }, ... other results ] ``` --- Custom solution: ``` from parsel import Selector import requests, json, os def scrape_conference_publications(query: str, source: list[str]): if source: # source:NIPS OR source:Neural Information sources = " OR ".join([f'source:{item}' for item in source]) # https://docs.python-requests.org/en/master/user/quickstart/#passing-parameters-in-urls params = { "q": f'{query.lower()} {sources}', # search query "hl": "en", # language of the search "gl": "us" # country of the search } # https://docs.python-requests.org/en/master/user/quickstart/#custom-headers headers = { "User-Agent": "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/100.0.4896.127 Safari/537.36" } html = requests.get("https://scholar.google.com/scholar", params=params, headers=headers, timeout=30) selector = Selector(html.text) publications = [] for result in selector.css(".gs_r.gs_scl"): title = result.css(".gs_rt").xpath("normalize-space()").get() link = result.css(".gs_rt a::attr(href)").get() result_id = result.attrib["data-cid"] snippet = result.css(".gs_rs::text").get() publication_info = result.css(".gs_a").xpath("normalize-space()").get() cite_by_link = f'https://scholar.google.com/scholar{result.css(".gs_or_btn.gs_nph+ a::attr(href)").get()}' all_versions_link = f'https://scholar.google.com/scholar{result.css("a~ a+ .gs_nph::attr(href)").get()}' related_articles_link = f'https://scholar.google.com/scholar{result.css("a:nth-child(4)::attr(href)").get()}' pdf_file_title = result.css(".gs_or_ggsm a").xpath("normalize-space()").get() pdf_file_link = result.css(".gs_or_ggsm a::attr(href)").get() publications.append({ "result_id": result_id, "title": title, "link": link, "snippet": snippet, "publication_info": publication_info, "cite_by_link": cite_by_link, "all_versions_link": all_versions_link, "related_articles_link": related_articles_link, "pdf": { "title": pdf_file_title, "link": pdf_file_link } }) # or return publications instead # return publications print(json.dumps(publications, indent=2, ensure_ascii=False)) scrape_conference_publications(query="anatomy", source=["NIPS", "Neural Information"]) ``` Outputs: ``` [ { "result_id": "hjgaRkq_oOEJ", "title": "Differential representation of arm movement direction in relation to cortical anatomy and function", "link": "https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1741-2560/6/1/016006/meta", "snippet": "… ", "publication_info": "<NAME>, <NAME>, <NAME>… - Journal of neural …, 2009 - iopscience.iop.org", "cite_by_link": "https://scholar.google.com/scholar/scholar?cites=16258204980532099206&as_sdt=2005&sciodt=0,5&hl=en", "all_versions_link": "https://scholar.google.com/scholar/scholar?cluster=16258204980532099206&hl=en&as_sdt=0,5", "related_articles_link": "https://scholar.google.com/scholar/scholar?q=related:hjgaRkq_oOEJ:scholar.google.com/&scioq=anatomy+source:NIPS+OR+source:Neural+Information&hl=en&as_sdt=0,5", "pdf": { "title": "[PDF] psu.edu", "link": "http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.324.1523&rep=rep1&type=pdf" } }, ... other results ] ``` You can also have a look at a dedicated, step-by-step blog post [Scrape Google Scholar Papers within a particular conference in Python](https://serpapi.com/blog/scrape-google-scholar-papers-within-a-particular-conference-in-python/) at SerpApi just about it. > > Disclaimer, I work for SerpApi. > > > Upvotes: 1
2016/11/15	468	2,017	<issue_start>username_0: Is it acceptable to put your nationality on a CV when applying for a position at an American university? For your interest, in some countries it is customary to put your date of birth, marital status, or even your religion on your CV. As far as I understand, this gets an application binned immediately in the USA. But what about nationality?<issue_comment>username_1: I've seen it many times on applications, and it made not a shred of a difference. We did occasionally have Iranian applicants, which is probably the most problematic case, but again it made no difference -- if we wanted to hire someone because of their qualifications, we still did not care about visa issues because that's someone else's problem. For any other nationality, it was a non-issue that wasn't even talked about. To show you what else doesn't matter: Because I'm German, I put my nationality, birthday, and marital status on my CV for all my postdoc and assistant prof applications. It made no difference: I got invitations to interviews and offers regardless. I don't do it any more because I've learned that that's not typically done in the US. But it really made no difference one way or the other, neither legally nor as far as the hiring committee is concerned. In summary: You're overthinking the issue :-) Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: No, don't include it. Generally, for a US position, your nationality won't be directly relevant to the decision. There are a few cases in which nationality might be indirectly relevant is if the institution wants to know if you already have authorization to work in the US, or if you would need a visa. There may also be positions (especially postdocs) which are funded by the government and reserved for US citizens or permanent residents. But if one of these is the case, they'll ask that question directly on the application, and you just have to answer yes or no. Either way, the CV isn't the place to put that information. Upvotes: 2
2016/11/16	2,631	10,533	<issue_start>username_0: Most (probably all) universities attribute to each subject a fixed number of credits, which in turn are [most of the time] related to the time spent in classes. In Brazil, the majority of courses are worth 60 credits and lectures are 120 minutes long. During my undergrad (physics) I've watched several lectures from all over the world to help me study, many of them from the US, India and the UK. I've noticed that the lectures in the US and UK were rarely longer than 85-90 minutes, while in India they had most of the time the same duration as in Brazil (120 minutes). I felt that teachers in the US/UK covered less subject in their lectures, but at the same time it seemed as if they had covered exactly what could have given you a hard time studying on your own: intricate details of a proof, obscure references, hints to particular exercises, etc. In Brazil/India it just looked as if they were reading the book and explaining each and every little detail. The result was that, even though the 85 minute lecture covered specifically less than the 120 minute one, I had the impression that I learned more from it, and that it [obviously] made me feel less tired. I've taken several courses in physics and mathematics and, from my experience, I simply cannot stay focused for more than ~75 minutes in a lecture. I'm therefore wondering how does it work in countries all over the world. Studies like [this one](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7665025) show that an even shorter lecture might be as effective as a longer one, and [this layman review](http://ideas.time.com/2012/10/02/why-lectures-are-ineffective/) points out that people can only focus for 15 minutes in a row. This suggests that the optimal length of a lecture should not exceed one hour (perhaps much less), with breaks such that students can assimilate what's being taught. Is there a country where lecture time approaches such patterns, or where other strategies regarding lecture length optimization are employed?<issue_comment>username_1: I've studied in 2 places in Europe and one in the US and the shortest lectures were 1hr 15mins, which again in my opinion is too much. Like yourself I also can't pay attention for so long. What is more, a lot of the material shown in a lecture that lasts more than an hour is unnecessary. Sometimes I feel that lecturers may even struggle to fill in so much time with meaningful material (at least in business) - there are only so many facts that students need to hear from you, which is why I avoid teaching responsibilities. As a student I didn't even see the point in attending lectures - why be there so that someone reads to me off slides, when I can do that myself whenever and wherever I feel comfortable? Your question is interesting - perhaps you can conduct a study about that? :) I would add that perhaps on-demand online lectures are an even better solution than shortening the lecture time. Just my €0.02. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: Well in the UK we usually have 50 minute lectures of which we might have 2-3 per week on each subject. The evidence from educational research that I have read is that you can't stay focused listening for more than 20 minutes in a lecture so even in a 50 minute lecture it is good practice to break it up with something a bit different in the middle. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: The 15 minutes timespan fits pretty well to lecturing on blackboards in several classrooms I taught. If usually takes me about 15 minutes to fill the blackboards (larger rooms have larger blackboards but need larger writing, leading to a constant scaling of the time) and since our blackboards in Germany often have an abrasive-blasted glass covering they are cleaned best with water and a squeegee. This takes some time and I happily invest that time with the benefit of clean blackboards, no dust in the air and a little bit refreshed students (downsides: smudgy hands, dirty shoes and sometimes slippery grounds…). For a 90 minutes lecture, as we have here, this gives about 5 cycles of 15 minutes teaching and some minutes cleaning. On a different note: First year students who come from school are more accustomed with 45 minutes lessons and one sees that most student need some weeks to adapt to the longer lectures (even though there are the cleaning breaks) but most students in fact do adapt. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: I would highly doubt that any large universities regularly utilize a nominal lecture duration of less than 1 hour. Typically in the US and UK, a nominal 1 hour lecture is only 50 minutes with the extra 10 minutes allowing students to get from one class to the next. Within the 50 minutes of teaching time, 5-10 minutes is generally lost to students and instructor getting settled, course administration, and lecture review and lecture wrap up. What this means is that for every lecture session 15-20 minutes of lecture hall time is wasted. While learning outcomes are important, lecture hall time is a limited resource. Students generally do not like early morning classes or classes on Fridays. Faculty often do not like evening classes. To split a 45 minute content lecture into three 15 minute content lectures would increase demands on the lecture hall time by 50% (1 hour to 1.5 hours). There just isn't that type of capacity. Splitting a 75 minute content lecture into five 15 minute content lectures is even worse (1.5 hours of lecture hall compared to 2.5 hours). Using really short lectures would also likely cause a faculty uprising. At research universities (and all universities) teaching is only one aspect of the job. Teaching once a week for 3 hours is much more efficient than teaching ten times for 30 minutes. Any inefficiencies in student learning can be offset by the students spending more time reviewing material. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: In an ideal world, the duration of the lectures would be commensurate to the attention span, and the schedule would be geared toward the maximum learning efficacy. In a real world, duration and schedule are frequently determined by other constraints, e.g, the structure of the education system which can impose a minimum amount of credits or hours, the available rooms in a university, or the tradition. And these constraints make it difficult to adapt duration and schedule to the continuously changing attention span. If twenty years ago the attention span was around 45 min, nowadays it is around 20 min: how to deal with this variability in a practical way? Moreover, determining whether a certain system is really more efficient than another can be quite difficult: after all, in the long run, several different educational systems, with different lecture duration and schedules, have been able to produce a steady flow of good graduates. In my country, Italy, the duration of the lectures and the number of lectures per day vary in a wide range depending on the faculty. Duration typically ranges from a minimum of 1 h to a maximum of 4 h. The number of lecture hours per day can be up to 8. In my university, up to a few years ago, there were two possible durations: 2 h or 4 h. Then we moved to a schedule with 1.5 h or 3 h lectures. In the old system there was usually 1 break for the 2 h lecture and 2 or 3 breaks for the 4 h lecture (it is not clear from your question whether your 2 h hour lectures have, too, a break in the middle or not). In the newer system there is usually no break for the 1.5 h lecture and 1 break for the 3 h lecture. As a student, I experienced the old system; as a teacher I have experienced both systems. When I was a student I also attended lectures in another faculties (e.g., humanities, maths and physics) where the lecture duration was of 1 h. Comments: 1. 4 h lectures are exhausting and inefficient from both point of views, that of the students and that of the teachers. 2. At the other end, 1 h lectures can be too short in certain cases. For instance, if I have to explain how a complex instrument works I want to have enough time to complete the main parts, drawing the complete block diagram. For this, sometimes, 1 h is not enough. 3. The 2 h lecture with a 10-15 min break in the middle seems to me the best option for both parts for many subjects. Students were relatively fresh at the end of the lectures and 2 hours gave me enough flexibility in the arrangement of the topics. With a 10-15 min break, each part of the lecture has an effective duration of about 50 min, longer than the present attention span, but not overwhelming with a bit of habit. This duration seems almost in agreement to the pattern you suggest. 4. The 1.5 h hour lecture without breaks is a bit too long, and I can see the students drifting toward the end (for various reasons, I cannot put a break in the middle). 5. Independently from the overall duration, many students use breaks to ask questions, thus keeping concentration. 6. Finally, it is my impression that a lot depends on the structure of the whole path, from elementary school to university. I was used to 4 h lectures also at the high school so, though exhausting, I didn't considered anomalous finding 4 h lectures at the university, and I was trained for that. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_6: In Scandinavia, many lectures are timed roughly like a football match: 2x45mins, with a 15mins break in the middle. I have generally found this pretty effective, both as a lecturer and as an audience member. (My first-hand experience of this is just in mathematics at Stockholm University, but I’m told by colleagues that this is pretty standard in other subjects and departments in Scandinavia.) Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_7: I only have experience with the USA. Here, it depends on both the course and the weekly schedule. The most common two time patterns for a "normal" course, in my experience, are three lectures a week of (nominally) one hour each, and two lectures a week of (nominally) an hour and a half each. As others have said, the actual time will be five to ten minutes shorter, so that students have time to get from one lecture hall to the next one. Many, but by no means all, professors will give the class a short break in the middle of the hour-and-a-half lectures. Sometimes you'll have a course that meets only one day a week but for three to five hours; those are usually not lectures, though, but either "seminars" (small-group intensive discussion) or labs. Upvotes: 2
2016/11/16	2,204	8,815	<issue_start>username_0: Most of the universities in the US [use abbreviations](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/7362/can-i-use-abbreviations-in-the-title-of-a-research-paper) on their websites. Can it be considered a good practice to use abbreviation of the same university I am applying to?<issue_comment>username_1: I've studied in 2 places in Europe and one in the US and the shortest lectures were 1hr 15mins, which again in my opinion is too much. Like yourself I also can't pay attention for so long. What is more, a lot of the material shown in a lecture that lasts more than an hour is unnecessary. Sometimes I feel that lecturers may even struggle to fill in so much time with meaningful material (at least in business) - there are only so many facts that students need to hear from you, which is why I avoid teaching responsibilities. As a student I didn't even see the point in attending lectures - why be there so that someone reads to me off slides, when I can do that myself whenever and wherever I feel comfortable? Your question is interesting - perhaps you can conduct a study about that? :) I would add that perhaps on-demand online lectures are an even better solution than shortening the lecture time. Just my €0.02. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: Well in the UK we usually have 50 minute lectures of which we might have 2-3 per week on each subject. The evidence from educational research that I have read is that you can't stay focused listening for more than 20 minutes in a lecture so even in a 50 minute lecture it is good practice to break it up with something a bit different in the middle. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: The 15 minutes timespan fits pretty well to lecturing on blackboards in several classrooms I taught. If usually takes me about 15 minutes to fill the blackboards (larger rooms have larger blackboards but need larger writing, leading to a constant scaling of the time) and since our blackboards in Germany often have an abrasive-blasted glass covering they are cleaned best with water and a squeegee. This takes some time and I happily invest that time with the benefit of clean blackboards, no dust in the air and a little bit refreshed students (downsides: smudgy hands, dirty shoes and sometimes slippery grounds…). For a 90 minutes lecture, as we have here, this gives about 5 cycles of 15 minutes teaching and some minutes cleaning. On a different note: First year students who come from school are more accustomed with 45 minutes lessons and one sees that most student need some weeks to adapt to the longer lectures (even though there are the cleaning breaks) but most students in fact do adapt. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: I would highly doubt that any large universities regularly utilize a nominal lecture duration of less than 1 hour. Typically in the US and UK, a nominal 1 hour lecture is only 50 minutes with the extra 10 minutes allowing students to get from one class to the next. Within the 50 minutes of teaching time, 5-10 minutes is generally lost to students and instructor getting settled, course administration, and lecture review and lecture wrap up. What this means is that for every lecture session 15-20 minutes of lecture hall time is wasted. While learning outcomes are important, lecture hall time is a limited resource. Students generally do not like early morning classes or classes on Fridays. Faculty often do not like evening classes. To split a 45 minute content lecture into three 15 minute content lectures would increase demands on the lecture hall time by 50% (1 hour to 1.5 hours). There just isn't that type of capacity. Splitting a 75 minute content lecture into five 15 minute content lectures is even worse (1.5 hours of lecture hall compared to 2.5 hours). Using really short lectures would also likely cause a faculty uprising. At research universities (and all universities) teaching is only one aspect of the job. Teaching once a week for 3 hours is much more efficient than teaching ten times for 30 minutes. Any inefficiencies in student learning can be offset by the students spending more time reviewing material. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: In an ideal world, the duration of the lectures would be commensurate to the attention span, and the schedule would be geared toward the maximum learning efficacy. In a real world, duration and schedule are frequently determined by other constraints, e.g, the structure of the education system which can impose a minimum amount of credits or hours, the available rooms in a university, or the tradition. And these constraints make it difficult to adapt duration and schedule to the continuously changing attention span. If twenty years ago the attention span was around 45 min, nowadays it is around 20 min: how to deal with this variability in a practical way? Moreover, determining whether a certain system is really more efficient than another can be quite difficult: after all, in the long run, several different educational systems, with different lecture duration and schedules, have been able to produce a steady flow of good graduates. In my country, Italy, the duration of the lectures and the number of lectures per day vary in a wide range depending on the faculty. Duration typically ranges from a minimum of 1 h to a maximum of 4 h. The number of lecture hours per day can be up to 8. In my university, up to a few years ago, there were two possible durations: 2 h or 4 h. Then we moved to a schedule with 1.5 h or 3 h lectures. In the old system there was usually 1 break for the 2 h lecture and 2 or 3 breaks for the 4 h lecture (it is not clear from your question whether your 2 h hour lectures have, too, a break in the middle or not). In the newer system there is usually no break for the 1.5 h lecture and 1 break for the 3 h lecture. As a student, I experienced the old system; as a teacher I have experienced both systems. When I was a student I also attended lectures in another faculties (e.g., humanities, maths and physics) where the lecture duration was of 1 h. Comments: 1. 4 h lectures are exhausting and inefficient from both point of views, that of the students and that of the teachers. 2. At the other end, 1 h lectures can be too short in certain cases. For instance, if I have to explain how a complex instrument works I want to have enough time to complete the main parts, drawing the complete block diagram. For this, sometimes, 1 h is not enough. 3. The 2 h lecture with a 10-15 min break in the middle seems to me the best option for both parts for many subjects. Students were relatively fresh at the end of the lectures and 2 hours gave me enough flexibility in the arrangement of the topics. With a 10-15 min break, each part of the lecture has an effective duration of about 50 min, longer than the present attention span, but not overwhelming with a bit of habit. This duration seems almost in agreement to the pattern you suggest. 4. The 1.5 h hour lecture without breaks is a bit too long, and I can see the students drifting toward the end (for various reasons, I cannot put a break in the middle). 5. Independently from the overall duration, many students use breaks to ask questions, thus keeping concentration. 6. Finally, it is my impression that a lot depends on the structure of the whole path, from elementary school to university. I was used to 4 h lectures also at the high school so, though exhausting, I didn't considered anomalous finding 4 h lectures at the university, and I was trained for that. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_6: In Scandinavia, many lectures are timed roughly like a football match: 2x45mins, with a 15mins break in the middle. I have generally found this pretty effective, both as a lecturer and as an audience member. (My first-hand experience of this is just in mathematics at Stockholm University, but I’m told by colleagues that this is pretty standard in other subjects and departments in Scandinavia.) Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_7: I only have experience with the USA. Here, it depends on both the course and the weekly schedule. The most common two time patterns for a "normal" course, in my experience, are three lectures a week of (nominally) one hour each, and two lectures a week of (nominally) an hour and a half each. As others have said, the actual time will be five to ten minutes shorter, so that students have time to get from one lecture hall to the next one. Many, but by no means all, professors will give the class a short break in the middle of the hour-and-a-half lectures. Sometimes you'll have a course that meets only one day a week but for three to five hours; those are usually not lectures, though, but either "seminars" (small-group intensive discussion) or labs. Upvotes: 2
2016/11/16	1,068	4,058	<issue_start>username_0: Very recently, I received an email from a student (probably, undergrad) from some country asking me for an endorsement for his/her paper to be submitted to arXiv. I do not know the student. I have never cited his/her work in my publications and possibly not vice-versa. Basically, there is no link at all. The mail to me was also cc-ed to some big persons in top-ranked universities. The email was similar to the following along with the forwarded mail from arXiv. > > Hello, > > > I would kindly like to ask your help to endorse me to submit an > article. My research is already published on [some unknown journal]. > > > I appreciate your kindness, > > > Thanks in advance > > > ---forwarded message from arXiv. > > > However, I didn’t understand how it works? Somewhere in arXiv page, it was mentioned that we are not supposed to review the article. – Then, how am I going to take this endorsement request? Is it somewhat based on the hypothesis that if you know a person A and you have already published in arXiv before, then the work of A is also publishable in arXiv?<issue_comment>username_1: ### First of all > > The mail to me was also cc-ed to some big persons in top-ranked universities. > > > For me this would already be a red flag and result in not endorsing them. The Arχiv explicitly [instructs you not to spam when seeking endorsement](http://arxiv.org/help/endorsement): > > Please note, however, that it is inappropriate to email large numbers of potential endorsers at once, or to repeatedly email the same endorser with a request for endorsement. > > > ### Endorsing somebody you do not know Endorsing somebody you do not know is somewhat equivalent to saying that the article would pass the initial check of some (reputable) journal, i.e., with endorsing you confirm: * That the article adheres to basic standards of scientific writing. * The article is not complete bogus (e.g. neglecting well-established facts). From [the Arχiv’s help pages](http://arxiv.org/help/endorsement): > > We don't expect you to read the paper in detail, or verify that the work is correct, but you should check that the paper is appropriate for the subject area. You should not endorse the author if the author is unfamiliar with the basic facts of the field, or if the work is entirely disconnected with current work in the area. > > > ### Endorsing somebody you know > > Is it somewhat based on the hypothesis that if you know a person A and you have already published in arXiv before, then the work of A is also publishable in arXiv. > > > Not exactly; it is based on the assumption that if you have published on the Arχiv and know person A, you are qualified to judge whether person A is likely to attempt to publish sub-standard content on the Arχiv. If you know person A and also know that person A is not remotely capable of proper scientific writing (and research), you should not endorse them. For example, you should probably not endorse the ghost-healer who happens to live next to you. ### Explicitly not endorsing somebody It may be helpful to explicitly not endorse (instead of doing nothing) if you think that somebody should not be allowed to publish on the Arχiv. Otherwise some sloppy endorser may unilaterally allow them to do so. If you do not want to endorse somebody, you have to select either “I do know […] personally” or “I have read the paper […] intends to submit” (at least this was the case half a year ago), even if neither applies and you refuse endorsement due to them spamming their endorsement request, publishing in predatory journals, or similar. (This was confirmed to me by the Arχiv when I had this problem.) Upvotes: 7 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: I would say the default response should be the same as your default response to any other spam: just ignore, as you don't know the requester and owe them nothing. Your response may be different if the topic of the requester's article is of some interest for you. Upvotes: 2
2016/11/16	2,229	9,285	<issue_start>username_0: I have read a lot of tips on how to give a good conference talk: know your audience, give context, don't talk too fast, give your talk a clear structure or story, minimize text on slides, etc. However, more often than not, presentations I've been to break most of these tips (quickly flipping through walls of text and equations while droning on in monotone), and I find it very difficult to concentrate on the talks. Any tips on how to pay better attention and be able to learn something from these types of presentations?<issue_comment>username_1: You can probably look at following possible ways to concentrate and keep yourself motivated: 1. Ask questions: Let see you see a text/equation where you may not be interested in getting a top class answer. Just ask it. For example, you may ask what is the use of that parameter in this context? Does it have an effect on the underlying problem? -- You may also get an awesome answer. 2. Write ideas in a paper: When someone of other field is giving a talk, although you find something uninteresting, you may sometimes relate your research problem with the presenting one. Keep notes, try to formulate new ideas. And, possibly at last, during break you can open scope of collaboration with the presenter. 3. Take a short break: Although people around you may not feel so formal about it, but still you can go for a small break or a walk. Then come back for the presentation. Remember the following talks: 1. Many authors think that the presentation in the conference is just a formality. Anyway, the paper is going to be published in the conf. proceedings (I am talking here about Comp. Sc.) 2. Talks in conferences should not be storytelling conferences. Because you are there to share ideas and findings with other experts. Sometimes, it is okay. However, some serious people just ignore these small things and just get moving with the flow like teaching in classroom. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: When I attend talks where the quality of the presentation is poor, I like to use it as an opportunity to learn about what not to do in a presentation. I have an ongoing list of "things not to do in a presentation", with examples from talks I've attended. I just take out the list and add to it whenever I attend one of these presentations. I find it helpful for improving the quality of my own presentations - more helpful than just reading tips others have written about presenting, because when I refer to my list I am reminded of exactly why and how a presentation is made worse by [insert bad thing here], from personal experience. Usually as a result of taking notes on the presentation technique, I end up also paying attention to the content of the presentation, which is a nice side benefit. P.S. I also have a list of "effective presentation techniques" and I add to it whenever I attend a talk where the quality of presentation is very good. Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_3: Just a couple of tips that have been useful to me: * Take notes, even if you aren't going to keep them. Taking notes helps me to keep concentrated. In fact, if the presentation is boring or I'm very tired, taking notes helps to keep me awake. * If the speaker is failing at communicating his knowledge but his knowledge is actually interesting to you, then you can try to ask questions to get as much as possible of that knowledge. Doing it in a way that also benefits the audience - as username_1's answer says - is great, but often difficult. Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_4: You can: * Take notes, related to the talk or not; * Translate what the speaker is talking to a foreign language. This is a very good exercise and helps your concentration; * Pay attention on the delivery, not on the content of the speaker. How is the posture, rhythm and the voice of the speaker? If they are also poor, at least you can learn about what not to do for public speaking. * Chew some gum, for staying awake. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_5: My daughter was in the army for a while; when class got too long or too boring, it was permitted/expected/encouraged that you stood up, walked around, did knee bends; anything that would keep you from dozing off. You were there to learn; and you did what it takes to do that. Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_6: For me the best approach depends on whether you can actively pay attention to the speaker’s voice or not. There are two very different methods to get the most out of those two scenarios: ### Problems with the speaker This is the case where the speaker is monotone, has nothing interesting to say, or at the very worst, just has absolutely no clue about public speaking (fills sentences with awkward "um"s, stutters, or loses focus and goes off on tangents). In this case, it's probably best to get as much as you can from the presentation. Focus specifically on that and tone out the speaker, which if monotone shouldn't be all that difficult. While doing this, take notes and work out some of the problems or exercises, if any, for yourself. Make up an exercise if none are given, or otherwise start trying to make sense of the material and put it to use in any way you can. This way you will have something to do and stay engaged, while still learning the material. And there's always caffeine. ### Problems with the presentation/content Maybe you have a great speaker, but nothing being spoken goes with the slides, or (my personal pet peeve) the font on the slides is too tiny or poorly formatted to get anything from anyway. In this case, just ignore the slides altogether as they will only serve as a distraction. Focus on the speaker, take good notes on what is being said, and really think about the concepts in your mind. Mull them over and write down questions you might have, even if it's not an open format where you can ask them during the lecture. This way your mind stays engaged. Take on thought experiments with the material – if this happened, what would the result be? Or: if I used this idea here, how might it help? Find ways to immediately apply what you are learning, and if that's not possible (if it's more theory-based stuff) just follow along the best you can. If chewing gum helps you to think, do that. Grab an energy drink or whatever helps you stay focused. I find it's a lot harder to pay attention when the speaker is boring than when the presentation is boring. Problems with both In your worst case scenario, the speaker is lackluster and the content is dull and dry, with a presentation that is difficult to follow. You can try the following tips: * Use an actual pen and paper for notes. The act of writing can help you remember things better. * Try to remember earlier parts of the presentation, especially any bits that you found interesting or wanted to go back to later. The act of remembering solidifies concepts in your mind. If you go a week without using a password, that's when you forget it. The same applies to anything you learn. * If it's a Q&A format, ask questions. Don't make up nonsense if you can't think of any, but it will help you concentrate just by trying to come up with some. * Act as if you are the official meeting notes taker. Record any dialog that goes on if questions are asked. This can help you organize your notes, and will also serve to jog your memory when going over it later. * Put away your phone or anything that might provide a distraction. Turn your laptop or other device on airplane mode to keep it from buzzing or blinking unexpectedly. * Close your eyes. This is a known technique for helping your other senses get more information. Sure you might be lulled to sleep, but depending on the situation, it might help you concentrate on the speaker better. Listen to the speaker's exact tone and phrasing. * Breathe deeply, through your nose. If you are feeling sleepy, this can help you stay awake. Make sure when you breathe, your stomach expands and not your chest. When you take good, deep breaths through your nose from your diaphragm, you get much better breaths and feed your brain with oxygen. * Other answers mentioned taking a break. Go grab a bottle of water or energy drink, or take a short walk. Read some of your notes aloud while on your break. Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_7: Your question really resonates with me. I have a terrible time at conferences. Maybe I'm highly distractible, but id rather recall that scientists are experts at science, not communication. Echoing colleagues above, learn what not to do. Aside from that, when a talk is unintelligible or boring to tears, keep in mind that it's their fault, not yours. There are many TED talks on trivial topics that hit home due to eloquent presentation, and vice versa. When you find yourself disengaging, make it an effort to jot down one important fact. At least you'll have that. If it seems relevant to you but you are just 'done' (last day of conference? Late dinner with colleagues?) write down their info and request their talk after the fact. You can review on your own time. It's not just you. We're all battling an assault on the senses. Some people just don't want to admit it. Upvotes: 2
2016/11/16	1,092	4,583	<issue_start>username_0: Possibly a very amateur question, yet I think is the best to know the answer as simply and as soon as possible. Let me use a (not yet IRL, but only hypothetical) example: I want to write either my thesis, possibly even my PhD in the field of video games: construction, psychological relations and so on. I know a man, who's actively working on a successful indie game, and was working on Bioshock games as well - he has a great book in the matter, that is not only easy to read but I found it insightful, too. What determines, if I'm allowed to use it as a credible resource of game design? In general, what a resource should qualify to not cause controversies using it in any kind of publication? Or, if the question is too broad, let's focus on a BSc thesis.<issue_comment>username_1: It depends on how you are using the source - what claims you make based on the source. For example, if you cite the results of some experiment written up in a paper as accepted scientific fact, then that paper should ideally be in a peer-reviewed publication, and be written by someone who is qualified to perform that experiment. (Or it should be something that you can - and have - verified independently yourself.) A blog post written by someone with no credentials in the field, describing an experiment he did, that you cannot replicate, is not a credible source. On the other hand, if the claim you make is that "one mistake sometimes made by non-professionals studying X is lack of consideration of Y", then it would be perfectly OK to cite that same blog post as evidence that someone studying X failed to consider Y. To take your example, if you say "Some professional game developers say that X increases user engagement with a game" or "Contributors to Y say that X increased user engagement" and cite the book, that would be fine. On the other hand, if you state "X increases user engagement with games" as a matter of scientific fact, you need to support that with reference to a credible experiment that studies the effect of X on user engagement using science (not just personal experience). Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: It's hard to address the field of video games specifically, since I wasn't actually aware you could do a PhD in that. But broadly speaking, there is some ambiguity with citing books as authoritative sources in professional research since they aren't peer reviewed the way a journal article is. I would look for a few things: 1. Is it canon? In my own field of economics books are frequently cited, but they're often old and seminal. Keynes' General Theory, Smith's Wealth of Nations, and so on. They have essentially been de facto peer reviewed over the course of time. Did, I don't know, [Sid Meier](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sid_Meier) write a book? 2. *Is the author* peer reviewed? Citing a book by an established academic may lend even their non-peer reviewed work sufficient credibility. 3. Is the book based on peer reviewed work? It's not unusual for a journal article to be expanded into a book, or even in some cases for a portion of a book to turn into a journal article. This is true of the General Theory, and more recently Thomas Piketty's Capital. Obviously you should cite the peer reviewed work instead if possible, but it would still help the case of the book portions. 4. Is the author prominent in the field? If you want to cite, for example, <NAME>'s 2015 book in your research, the fact that he's a famous economist with a Nobel prize lends it credibility. The last point may be particularly relevant for the field of video games, where I suspect the first three will be harder to meet. Unless there's a more robust peer-reviewed network of video game journals than I'm aware of, which is certainly possible. You say this person has some experience in the field, but it's not clear to me that amounts to "prominent". Was he a lead designer? Is he a recognized expert on the topic of relevance? If he's only played a normal contributing role as a member of teams doing these things, I'm leaning toward skepticism. The bottom line: since books aren't peer-reviewed, the credibility of the work needs to be firmly established in some other way. And as @username_1 said in her answer, it's also going to depend on just how central this source is to your argument or results**. If it's just background rather than a central supporting piece, you can relax these requirements. The more central it is, the higher the bar should become. Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]
2016/11/17	1,923	8,258	<issue_start>username_0: Is there a lower value to publishing with other co-authors instead of just oneself? Why are some people so reluctant to acknowledge your participation and contribution?<issue_comment>username_1: This is, in my (admittedly limited) experience, heavily dependent on your field. In some fields, single-authorship is the norm; I believe a lot of highly-theoretical mathematics and some social sciences go this route. In other fields, such as astrophysics, this is almost never the case, as the work is often conducted among dozens of researchers working on multiple continents. From what I can tell, publishing with co-authors tends to signify one or more of the following things: * The work is highly multidisciplinary (even within a single field) -- some research requires many experts in many different domains working together. * The work is "labor-intensive" -- some research requires a great deal of preparation that would be infeasible for a single researcher. For example, in my field of computer engineering, there's usually a significant amount of coding that goes into the research, which is most easily/quickly accomplished by many students and postdocs working together. * The work is large in scope -- larger, more ambitious projects require a higher level of support and more minds working together. * [The work involves someone famous and everyone wants a piece of the pie](https://www.xkcd.com/599/) -- okay, admittedly I made this one up. That's not to say that single-author paper don't fit into one or more of these categories. These are just some rules of thumb that I've seen so far. --- As for why some people are reluctant to "acknowledge your participation and contribution": well, this ranges the gamut of everything from the evils of: * Narcissism * Ego * Desire for fame/prestige to the more mundane/less evil problems of: * Disagreements on what constitutes a large enough contribution to claim authorship * Misunderstandings as to what is being contributed (by one or both parties) * Traditions on what is deemed worthy of acknowledgement in publication. In short: human nature. If you're concerned that you aren't being credited for your work, you need to speak with the other party ASAP and set out clear guidelines moving forward as to where credit will be given and for what. Get this in writing -- timestamped and signed preferably, email is great for this. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: here is a grad student perspective: I actually find that it is more time consuming in my field to work with co-authors. I have to wait for feedback, navigate busy schedules, navigate diverging perspectives and approaches. It takes me a couple months or so to draft up a solid empirical paper but then it can take months to progress its way through the inner working of a large R01 research center. I actually think that for student's the trend toward large research teams is a double edged sword. Having 4-8 co-authors significantly extends the time it takes to get it out for review. 1-2 co-authors is perfect I have found. I also think it is quite silly to penalize or raise questions over sole authorship or even judge students who can see a project through from start to finish. Say you have a dataset and you know how to code the data and run the statistical analyses. If you have an outside person look over the code and read the study to verify accuracy this is sufficient I believe to publish a sole piece. As a grad student we are in our mentor's shadow constantly. It can be extremely difficult to differentiate yourself from your mentor. THis is not the case when using secondary survey data and can truly carry out your own study. I am a very productive grad student (16 publications) where about 40% have been solo authored work. I would have never been able to get through the bureaucracy that is large research centers and sustain this level of productivity. On the other hand, all of my papers benefit significantly from co-authors and the final product is always extremely refined. So I think we cannot establish hard and fast rules to govern this type of process. As researchers we are burdened by so much unnecessary hoopla. It is so cumbersome, especially the needless paperwork, self-promotion and negotiating that is academia. I am always shocked because it seems to me that tenure committees are intent on establishing as many obstacles as possible to get in the way of our work while also expecting more. A good CV in my eyes should show a mix of high and low collaboration work. With a clearly demonstrated path that is focused and shows independent thought. A big problem with grads now in public health, applied sociology to an extent, social welfare and these other professional fields is that they have become producers of globs of students all doing similar work with about 2-5 publications (2 or so first and the rest co-authored). And it is expected to do a post-doc on top prior to entering the tenure track. So it is increasingly difficult to differentiate yourself from other students. My opinion as a solution to this is a return to a BALANCED approach. Demanding students to produce 1-2 SOLE authored pieces during graduate school that firmly establishes their voice as a scholar. Then 3-5ish additional pieces that demonstrate collaboration with primary mentor and others in the field. A similar composition with greater quantity should be expected in the TT and PD tracks. The last thing I would say is that it is important to emphasize a career stage approach to this. I think for grad students producing several sole/first authored papers is particularly important. In the TT it is important to be first author on a lot with grad students and a smaller number of first author pieces. Then in the Tenure position placing your name last on many publications with 1-3 authors is ideal and for very large productions can have more authors. These are not rules but rather how I would recommend we shift moving forward. Just my own perspective as a grad student. This would allow for committees to better understand who they are getting with grad students. All in all the existing standards/norms around publishing to just glob out as many co-authored papers as possible is significantly hurting the social and professional sciences. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: > > Is there a lower value to publishing with other co-authors instead of > just oneself? > > > This will vary heavily by field - and indeed a lot of fields struggle with interdisciplinary research because of it. For example, in my field it is routine to have very large authorship lists. This occasionally causes issues with fields where single-author papers are more common in how they parse the value of a particular paper. Similarly, in my field single author papers are not usually "mainline" findings that would drive the field forward, but interesting side musings, methodological papers, etc. > > Why are some people so reluctant to acknowledge your participation and > contribution? > > > There are, as with anything, a number of possible reasons that are all non-nefarious: * They have a different notion of what your participation and contribution were * They have decided that the formal author guidelines put out by some journals are what they're going to stick to, come hell or high water, and they don't think you qualify * "Stretching" to include you would also necessitate the inclusion of a large number of other people whose qualification for authorship is marginal The first is, in my experience, the most common reason who someone who thinks they should be an author isn't. Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_4: There is one and only one reason to not include someone as a co-author. If the prospective co-author did not contribute any vital input to the work then they should not be included. Not all agree with this, including a former post-doc 'advisor'. Back story: I refused to include him as a co-author on work that he had no involvement in. He reciprocated by scrubbing me from a paper for which I generated all the experimental data. (I quit the lab prior to work up. I don't handle charlatans well.) Upvotes: 0
2016/11/17	287	1,252	<issue_start>username_0: I'm writing the related work section of a paper and the survey paper X does such a wonderful work categorizing the existing approaches in the field, that I'm thinking on using the same categories in my paper (I have already cited the survey). * Is this consider plagiarism? * If so is the case, how can I use the same categories without incurring in plagiarism?<issue_comment>username_1: If properly cited, I would not consider this plagiarism, but you should be very explicit in your citation that the categorization you use is specifically from paper X. I would be more concerned about reusing the categorization if you are going to essentially discuss the same works that the survey paper has already done; if so, you are probably better off citing that paper and only summarizing what is most applicable to your own paper rather than trying to recapitulate an already wonderful work. Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: If you've already cited the article, I don't understand what the issue is. If necessary, adding a sentence like "I am using the same categories used by (reference) will avoid any issue of plagiarism. It appears the earlier responses to your question are in agreement. Upvotes: 1
2016/11/18	489	2,089	<issue_start>username_0: My major field in undergraduate studies was `A`, whereas my current graduate field has been shifted to `B` (at a Canadian university). I'm in trouble to find a TA position, as following: * At our department, `B`, faculty members prefer to choose the fellows, who had been in this field from their undergraduate studies. Because they themselves had passed these course within their studies, so are able to handle the case, more properly. * I'd just given a try for TA positions at department `A` (with which my background is compatible). Actually, the main source of funding at this department is TA. Therefore, the department does not accept unsolicited applications from the other departments for TA positions. Furthermore, my tendency to catch at least one TA position stems from two things: 1. Funding, 2. Teaching experience. Now, as I found that there is no potential chance at our university to hit the mark, I thought there might be some chances to be TA at adjacent universities. I realize that the same issues may be occurred about such cases, too. But, I'm wondering whether such attempt is ethical or not. Any suggestion about resolving this problem is highly welcome.<issue_comment>username_1: You state that funding is a major motivation for your desire to get a TA position. In my time, TAs would get a small salary and a significant discount on their tuition fees. If you TA at another university, you will miss the tuition fee discount. Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: Based on the other comments & answer, there appears to be significant regional variation regarding this topic. TAing in another university is certainly not uncommon eg. in Northern Europe, and in fact universities regularly cross-post TA advertisements to other universities, especially for lower-level courses that don't need special expertise and need a lot of TAs. There are generally not a lot of volunteer TAs. Based on the other answer, my guess is that this might have something to do with the lack of tuition fees in this area. Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]
2016/11/18	473	1,927	<issue_start>username_0: Can a reference list for a research paper contains references for resources that are never cited in the text but was useful for the research?<issue_comment>username_1: ~~I think it's technically ok, but~~ It's defininitely bad style. How was it useful and yet not worth refering to in your manuscript? It also leaves unclear which part of your research it supported. Elsevier e.g. actually state in their author guidelines that cited references must be mentioned in the text and vice versa: <https://www.elsevier.com/journals/learning-and-instruction/0959-4752/guide-for-authors#68000> Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: No, a reference list only provides the list of references that were cited in the main text. If additional literature was useful for the research, it should be cited accordingly. Unlike a syllabus, a reference list is not just a collection of literature on a certain topic. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: No, it can't. This is actually checked during the proofreading step and you are asked to remove all items from the reference list that have not been cited in the text. That is actually pretty common to happen (as is the opposite of missing items in the reference list) since it's easy for citations and reference list to be out of sync if you don't use a reference manager and have a lot of revisions. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: A reference list is the list of things that are referenced. A list containing other items that were used is called a bibliography. Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_5: Yes, all references in a reference list need to be cited at least once in the text. If you wish to include other sources that were helpful but not cited, you need a bibliography, which can include references, as well as sources not referred to. A useful source on this is Cite Them Right by Pears & Shields, from Bloomsbury. Upvotes: 1
2016/11/18	3,209	12,805	<issue_start>username_0: I’m afraid this question is mostly opinion-based, but I was wondering if there is any piece of material out there that covers the spectrum of opinions. What exactly is a post-doc? Is it an education, an employment or something in between? This question is particularly bothering me, since in Sweden post-docs may be financed either through stipends – not paying taxes nor receiving social benefits (remember, in one of the most socially-oriented countries in the world) – or salary. One could argue that, on one hand, post-doc is an education towards becoming an independent researcher, on the other hand, a post-doc is expected to already produce knowledge for the benefit of humanity. I tend to ask myself the same question about PhD students. Why would PIs bother recruiting PhD students for doing research, if an “army of post-doc-like researchers” would probably be more productive? For example, our university tends to recruit PhD students on H2020 calls which are for research, in addition to H2020 calls targeted for research training.<issue_comment>username_1: The distinction between postdoc and PhD student is orthogonal to that between employment and education. First, both PhD "students" and postdoctoral "researchers" may or may not live on stipends. In Germany, for example, both PhD students and postdocs are in most cases employed by their university or research institutions. In some cases, PhD students live on a grant that is paid directly to them, without the social benefits etc. that come with a work contract. Less frequently, even postdocs may live on a grant. AFAIK, the prestigious Marie Curie grants are paid out directly as a stipend. On the other hand, many postdocs are indirectly living on research grants, but these are paid out to their host institution, which in turn pays their postdocs a regular salary. Second, both PhD "students" and postdoctoral "researchers" continue their own education while, at the same time, preforming work in research and (often) teaching. A defendable PhD thesis is not only the "final" assignment in an education program. It also has to make a real contribution to its field and contains the published (or to be published) results of a research project. A postdoc does real research, but she will also have to continuously broaden her knowledge of the field she works in and her experience with the latest methods in order to make a living in academia. Regarding your last question: PhD students are less expensive and in less scarce supply than postdocs. Moreover, the education of (many, talented) PhD students is part of a professor's assigned job, and it adds to their prestige. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: Broadly speaking, A PhD is something you need to embark on your journey of research in your field. It will teach you everything you need to have in order to be a good researcher. Its duration varies from 3-5 years. Usually in Europe, you are offered a 3-year PhD and it is viewed as a job. On the other hand, in countries like the U.S. and India, it is a 5 year course. Starting two years are usually devoted to coursework and it helps you understand the basic as well as advanced topics in a better way. After two years, your complete focus is on carrying out research and publish at least 3-4 research papers and defending your thesis in the last year. A post doc is something you can do after your PhD, as obvious from its name.In this way you can continue to work in your field with a supervisor and broaden your knowledge and experience. Usually 2-3 post docs are considered good. Speaking of duration, it can take around 18-24 months. Hope it gives you a basic understanding. Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_3: I am fully with the statement by username_1 that "The distinction between postdoc and PhD student is orthogonal to that between employment and education." I would argue that this holds for a lot of positions outside of academia as well. If you are hired by some company, there is often a large learning component in your job for the first years. If you are in research and development this component may never really go away (buzzword "lifelong learning"). However, some things are special about academia: * Almost all contracts/employments/position are time limited (except tenured professors and a few more positions). * On top of that, most positions provide something that is seen as a necessary step to take to get to the next level. So you are expected to learn something and develop further in each career step. Also, there are several distinctions between a PhD and a post doc (all of them having nothing to do with a distinction of education vs. employment): * As a PhD student you work towards one specific goal, namely the PhD. In that endeavor, you work on a project your supervisor formulated and work under his guidance. The goal (besides the PhD) is to develop skills to do independent research. * As a post doc you work on projects, often in teams and often more than one. You are expected to be able to do research independently. But you also should learn how to develop and plan your research independently. A goal is to develop skills to lead a research group. One consequence is that "an army of post docs" is not necessarily more effective in achieving a specific goal since they are supposed to work more independently (and are also motivated to do so, since showing independent research work is crucial to proceed to the next career level). But what is also true is that these distinction do not always apply. Some PhD students may also work on several projects, and some post docs will not be able to work independently… A last thing: Being tenured does not mean that you are not educated anymore. You may not have a mentor research wise but you still may receive training (e.g. for administration or teaching) and of course you keep developing skills and acquire knowledge for your field. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: Practices vary between countries. Here in the UK PhD students usually get a tax-free stipend provided through the University (but ultimately funded by either a research council or sometimes an industrial partner), this stipend is not considered employment. They may also work for the University on the side doing lab demonstrating and similar tasks. The PhD is mostly research-based culminating in the assement of the thesis, some programs may also require students to take courses. "Postdocs" (or PDRAs to use the technical term) on the other hand are employees. There is an expectation that postdocs will have either completed or be close to completing their PhD. From the point of view of a research funder PhD students are cheaper than postdocs but obviously less experianced. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: The legal situation in Israel ----------------------------- I mention Israel first since am involved in a legal case before the Israeli national labor court on this very question: Arguing that those PhD candidates who are required to work all week long, who are forbidden from working outside the university, who can be required to teach up to a limit according to the needs of their academic departments etc. etc. - who contribute significantly to the research (and teaching) "outputs" of the university, should be considered its employees, and the monthly "stipends" that they get should be recognized again as their salary. This is case ע'ע 5439-04-16 (Labor Appeal 5439-04-16). I've authored a booklet on the history of this struggle, which has an English version: ### ["These are student recipients of prizes": On the erasure of the Technion's junior researcher class](https://app.box.com/s/osnf6xfqgqgvmnat6ldq) Or get the [Hebrew version](https://app.box.com/shared/l3iypqd2yi); in fact, if you can read Hebrew, you can find the court case documents [here](https://app.box.com/shared/fs37rmftsc). The legal situation in the US ----------------------------- Another, perhaps more relevant, legal treatment of this matter can be found in the recent ruling of the National Labor Relations board, in the case of Graduate Workers of Columbia University, UAW, AFL-CIO vs the University of Columbia (NLRB 364-90: HTML [PDF](https://www.aaup.org/sites/default/files/ColumbiaNLRBDecisionAug2016.pdf), [all case files](https://www.nlrb.gov/case/02-RC-143012)): The court has found that, indeed, Graduate students who perform meaningful research or teaching work as part of the course of their PhD program (and are paid), are considered university employees to the extent of the applicability of US labor law, especially the laws governing unionization and collective bargaining. That decision reversed the unfortunate (3-to-2) decision in the 2004 case of Brown University (NLRB 342-42: [HTML](http://www.lawmemo.com/nlrb/vol/342/42.htm), [PDF](http://apps.nlrb.gov/link/document.aspx/09031d45800076ac)), which had itself reversed the 2000 decision in the case of NYU (NLRB 332-111: [HTML](http://www.lawmemo.com/nlrb/vol/332/111.htm), [PDF](http://apps.nlrb.gov/link/document.aspx/09031d45800c0b35)). See also the AAUP [description](https://www.aaup.org/brief/columbia-university-364-nlrb-no-90-august-23-2016) of the Columbia U case and their position. The actual answer ----------------- I can talk for hours, literally, about this subject, and I actually have... but in a nutshell: * Being an employee and being undergoing a process of education are not mutually exclusive; and you always learn when you're starting out in a new career path, be it in industry or in academia. * The common labor-legal criteria for being considered an employee can and do apply to many/most/all PhD candidates (depending on which state in the world, which kind of PhD work etc.) * A university is an organization whose ongoing objectives are to produce research findings and to teach students. If you contribute towards those goals (by performing research and teaching), even if you're also undergoing a process of education yourself, you should be recognized and remunerated as such. * Post-Docs only undergo any sort of education through their practical research work (which, of course, involves learning - but that's the case also for the most high-ranking Professors); they don't take classes, get homework and take exams to see whether they've studied well enough. so about them there should not be any doubt of being in relations of employment. as for why have PhD candidates when you can have Post-docs - I've already written enough, let others discuss that :-) Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_6: In the United States, post docs fulfill an important, but legally nebulous role, which is why you often see such confusion over tax status <http://www.sciencemag.org/careers/2002/11/postdocs-and-law-meet-irs>. Some institutions refuse to give advise about tax status, some do. Many note that, basically, your income will not be reported to the IRS so the onus is on you. Moving on... To answer your questions directly: A post doc is a Phd who's role is primarily research. In many cases, a young Phd takes a post doc both to increase publication record as well as learn new techniques, theory, and analyses. Some take a post doc as a sort of continuation of graduate school, due to lack of adequate job opportunities, but the former is considered more fruitful, and more promising from a hiring perspective. It is becoming quite rare for a graduate student to migrate into a TT position without a post doc, unfortunately. On why a PI should even consider graduate students over post docs: If you haven't already suspected (h/t @username_1), post docs are actually often cheaper from a financial standpoint. At least at top universities with graduate apprenticeships, PIs are responsible for paying grad student tuition on top of stipend. So grad students are more expensive and less productive. But, it's part of your duty as a PI, and newer faculty often receive some subsidization from the university until tenure comes up. Also, graduate students often become the front line labor that post docs make use of as they lead lines of research overseen by the PI. They are indispensable, and honestly a lot of fun to have around. Furthermore, the 'half life' of a grad student might be longer than a post doc -- I'm speculating-- but in my experience true. If a PI wants to pass on a theoretical lineage it'll be through grad students foremost, less post docs. You can convince yourself the above is true by comparing new vs established PIs. In many cases, the new PI has an army of grad students, a couple post docs, while the established PI has an army of post docs and a few graduate students. Not always true, but in my experience quite common. Upvotes: 2
2016/11/18	1,732	7,520	<issue_start>username_0: I have always been on a courses where lecturer teaches something and then gives the exercises on that subject. Is that a better way than reveal all exercises when the course begins? I mean, why I should always have only one week time to write solutions and then wait until the next set is revealed? I understand that this gives equal amount of time to think every problem but is it always necessary, as people learns by various speed?<issue_comment>username_1: Because the time span, and tedium, spent on the subject matters. Cramming, trying to learn as fast as possible, on the other hand does not work well. Our brain just values things by the amount of time and effort we spent on learning it. But also because of practical time constraints. For example repetition works best if you repeat over many sessions. If I release all exercises in all go I have no way to control over repetitions, you can do them all in one go, which defeats the point. Second, there might be reasons for the teacher to tell the story in a certain order. In some cases you want to introduce a concept that is superseded by a different concept making the concept obsolete except in corner cases. But since that technique can be critical for something else it is introduced nonetheless. Forcing to show all does not help, as a student might skip this step. Certainly one of the reasons is that the material is not ready. But even if it is the teacher might reserve the right to change it. They often plan to do so, secretly in their mind anyway. Why dont students return their assignments well before the deadline? Well the reasons are often same. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: The instructor may not want the students to work far ahead in the class. If the student does go on ahead and is doing exercises incorrectly (due to lack of knowledge of the subject), then it is may be harder for the student to learn the subject matter correctly due to the bad habits he or she has developed. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: Why do instructors allow a short period of time between assignment and due date of homework? Here are the reasons I am aware of: 1. The instructor feels that the assignment will not be understood properly if it is shown to the students prematurely. In my opinion, even when there is some objective truth to this, the instructor could still provide a preview-level version of the assignment ahead of time. 2. The instructor is not well organized. 3. The instructor has not thought deeply about how people learn, stress levels in undergraduate and graduate studies, etc. 4. The instructor is concerned that far-away due dates might contribute to students getting behind. In my opinion, if this is a true concern, then interaction with the instructor (or with TA's if it is a large course) should be built into the course, to enable problems to be caught and positively addressed. I am convinced this can be done, even in classes with 200 students. I had such an experience once as an undergrad, in a large music theory class, and once in a graduate level class in a large film history class. In both cases, students were enrolled in both the 200-student lecture and in 20-student "discussion" sections led by well-trained TAs. 5. The instructor has (explicitly or implicitly) bought into his department's or institution's decision to use competition for grades as its philosophical and management foundation. In other words, give students a short amount of time for each assignment as part of a general effort to crank up the sink-or-swim pressure. Think about the whole concept of grading on a bell curve. This builds in* a certain expected failure rate. (Not to mention a mediocrity rate.)* 6. The instructor has explicitly or implicitly bought into the general philosophy so prevalent in higher education of trial by fire. The reasoning, probably unconscious much of the time, might go something like this: "I survived the pressure when I was in school, look where I am today... therefore academic pressure creates positive pressures on students to work hard and succeed." Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_4: The reason is that the assignments are meant to be closely paired with the lessons. If a student is going to work through the book and the material far in advance of the lecture, they might as well not even be taking the class. It is quite possible they did all the problems wrong; in this case, after learning more from the lecture, they are unlikely to go back and redo the problems. Even if they did the problems correctly, if it is done too far in advance it might not get paired efficiently in their mind with what they do in lecture. When they are done in close proximity, working through the exercises helps reinforce learning about the conceptual ideas presented in the lecture, As far as the speed of learning is concerned, a student can always read ahead in the book to be better prepared. But a big part of your education is learning to complete assignments in a timely manner. That means not only meeting deadlines, but also being able to complete them in a given timeframe. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: First of all, that it isn't always the case. I've seen many syllabi distributed on the first day of the class in which the homework was assigned for every chapter to be covered. I almost never do it myself though (except the most routine classes that have common final, uniform grading, etc.). Why? Here are my 3 top reasons (not necessarily in order of importance): 1) If somebody wants to study ahead and is capable of it, he doesn't need me to tell him what exercises to try. Normally there are just two or three different kinds after each chapter in the textbook and all he needs to do is to practice each kind until he gets comfortable with it. For some people one problem is enough, for others six may be too few. There is no "one size fits all" solution when the individual study is concerned, so why should I even try? 2) I prefer to have complete flexibility when running the course, so if I see that it is better to skip, to rearrange, or to add something on the fly, I do not hesitate to do it. This, of course, affects the assignments as well. Combined with the students' eternal quest for "fairness" and the crazy administrative idea that "the syllabus is a legal contract", this prompts me to fix in advance or promise as little as possible. 3) Sheer laziness. Preparing a few lectures a week doesn't bother me too much but planning one hundred lectures in a month between the semesters is quite another story, not to mention that I'd rather spend my free time on something if not more useful, then, at least, more interesting to me. Of course, I'll not be surprised if somebody else comes with his "3 top reasons to assign everything on day one" and those will sound equally or even more compelling. The teaching styles differ and if there is any "general rule of teaching", it is "do what works for both you and your students and don't what doesn't", and that is a purely empirical function of many variables. I am, probably, quite a mediocre teacher myself, but some people around me are really good at it and, believe it or not, they have quite diverse opinions on what is a "must" and what is a "no-no" (big classes/small classes; individual assignments/group assignments; grading homework/doing weekly quizzes; one midtem/three midterms; and so on, including the issue you raised). Upvotes: 2
2016/11/18	534	2,303	<issue_start>username_0: Most community colleges and universities ask for PhD / Master's in Mathematics in order to become a Assistant Professor / Instructor in mathematics. I know that this will greatly depend on the particular school, but do people in academia view theoretical physicist (someone with a PhD in theoretical physics) as equivalent to someone who has a PhD in mathematics? It's not mathematical physics, but I would expect theoretical physics to be a mathematical science too.<issue_comment>username_1: As you said, every School is different, but generally it is not unusual that a Professor in Theoretical Physics to belong to a Mathematics school. In my limited experience, though, it is perhaps more common for these faculty members to focus on research (as Theoretical Physics is in fact a very advanced mathematics), rather than on teaching, particularly on undergraduate level. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Can somebody with a PhD in physics become a mathematics professor? Yes. My department has (at least) four such people. Is this common? No, not particularly. I think my department is rather unusual in that respect. do people in academia view theoretical physicist (someone with a PhD in theoretical physics) as equivalent to someone who has a PhD in mathematics? No, as a general rule I don't think anybody will say that they're equivalent - theoretical physics is certainly very distinct from math, and most theoretical physicists will not be seriously considered for a position at most math departments. Nonetheless, some theoretical physicists publish work that is close enough to pure math, or even outright do a career change after their PhD and start publishing exclusively in math journals, to make them a good fit for a position in a math department. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: I have definitely seen folks with PhDs in physics work as lecturers in math departments, where they typically teach things like the calculus sequence, introductory linear algebra, and Boyce & DiPrima differential equations. I think it would be much harder, today, to get a tenure track positions in a math department without a math or statistics PhD, though I can think of a few senior figures in the field whose degrees are in physics and not math. Upvotes: 1
2016/11/19	649	2,874	<issue_start>username_0: I am a masters student and recently I got a paper of mine published in a journal. The paper contains my name and another authors name that helped me with some minor things. I didn't know that this paper was going to be published but after it did I told my professor about it and he said that the paper could be part of my thesis. The problem is that for that to happen the paper has to only include my name and my professors name. After telling the second author about this he said that he doesn't mind if his name is replaced with my professor's. Can I ask the journal to do this during page proofs or is it too late?<issue_comment>username_1: This would be up to you, your colleague, the professor and the editorial rules of the journal - if you decide to go down that path, read up on the rules or ask the editorial team. However, @polfosol makes a very important point in his comment, that to do this would potentially be unethical, primarily due to your co-author contributed directly towards the paper, your professor did not (I assume based on your question). A major consideration is that this publication also adds to your current co-author's research profile, not just yours. A possible solution to this is to write another paper, building on and citing the research in this published paper. Another possible solution is for your professor to contribute to reviewing the proofs and having him added as another co-author - once again, if you decide on this, then you must check to see if it is alright with the journal (but this may also be stretching ethics a bit). Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: I don't understand why for your paper to be included in your thesis, it should be co-authors only by you and your advisor. I have not heard of any such demands for any PhD thesis, or any thesis, seems unethical. But do not worry, even if you can not include this in your thesis, it is your paper and counts more than a thesis for PhD applications or any application if you want to go to industry, and so on. Regarding the author changes, it may or may not be possible. I know one professor who have changed the name of the authors at the final stage of publication, which lead to a very confusing paper. The journal staff have used the first version of authors for the manuscript when index by ISI web of knowledge. So when searching in databases for this paper the authors list includes the first version of the authors, while in the online version of the paper from the journal web page the authors are listed as the final list of authors. The best option would be to ask the journal editors. However, if you are planning to do this, read carefully the publication ethics of the journal. Also, you can ask for another opinion of another professor at your university. Finally, congratulations for your accepted paper! Upvotes: 2
2016/11/19	1,895	8,120	<issue_start>username_0: I'm an undergrad with hopes of entering academia. My transcript isn't stellar, and the general sense I get is that I can make up for this with good references. How do I find which professors have the best reputation, so I can try to establish a relationship and hopefully get references from them? If the subject is relevant, my area is mathematics.<issue_comment>username_1: Every university instructor is a potential rockstar in terms of their ability to help you in your studies, and in terms of their ability to influence an admissions committee. So, how do you find your personal academic rockstars? 1. Consider the instructor of every single class you take as a potential rockstar. Visit office hours. You don't know whether the instructor will give you extra help, or whether the extra help will be targeted to your needs, until you try. 2. When choosing courses, look for courses where other students say the instructor is highly effective. Here are some ways of collecting opinions: visit the drop-in homework help room. There you should be able to find students who are a bit farther along than you, who can talk freely about who are the best instructors in the department. 3. Try all the tutoring options at your school. Some are better than others, so don't get too frustrated if your first attempts don't work out very well. Try any and all options. 4. Don't be afraid to look at ratemyprofessor.com -- but do take what you read there with a grain of salt. 5. Sit in on a potential class or instructor one semester ahead. This will help you in your choice of classes for the following semester. 6. Make an appointment with your undergraduate dean or advisor. Ask for recommendations of courses and instructors. The suggestion made in a comment by @lemon is good too. I like your attitude. Everybody has their own rate of development. Late bloomers are welcome in academia too. Do make sure you are solid on your foundational math skills. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: I'm very skeptical that this approach will net you stellar recommendations, but here's how: (A) Enumerate the professors in your department and any related ones. (B) Search Google Scholar for each and see who has a relatively high [h-index](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H-index). Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: You have two issues: deciding who to approach and then what to do to make them support you. I'll focus mostly on the second part. But first, the upper level students in your university will have a pretty good idea who the best teachers are. In some (smaller) places that might be all you can hope for. But you can also ask any professor, including your academic advisor, about their own research and a general question about who on the faculty does a lot of effective research. For math, however, you might need to specify a field within math so as to match your own skills. And a combination of the two approaches (ask students and faculty) might be best. My further suggestions will depend on finding someone who is willing to do actual research with undergraduates. Finding a superstar who won't work with you will bring no benefit. And some such people are too focused on their now research, which is probably above your level anyway, to provide any help. But once you find someone who does interesting research in a field that also interests you and has some track record of working independently with undergraduate students, approach them for an independent study research project that they would be willing to guide. You probably don't need a specific topic, but a field (algebra, topology, ...) would probably be essential. Then, spend a lot of effort on that project. If you do a good job of it, then they will be impressed and will probably be willing to write you good letters of recommendation for further study. But it is your work than matters more than the (international) reputation of the letter writer. If you can get a publication along the way, even a joint publication, even a modest publication, all the better, but as an undergrad this isn't essential. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_4: To me, the way you ask this question sounds very mercenary, OP. I for one would not be willing to put any effort into a student if I had the impression that they were merely after my name on their reference letter rather than genuinely interested in learning from me. At your stage of your studies, shouldn't you be more interested in learning exciting maths and getting good references because you do good work, rather than whose name will look best on your letter? (Good work does not have to equal good grades in exams; it could be research projects, reading courses, student seminars...) My advice is also to establish relationships with faculty whose research genuinely interests you and who put effort into mentoring students (ask older students!); that will get you somewhere in terms of making you a better mathematician. Enthusiastic references from any such professors will serve you well. You need to give someone a reason to actually write you a good reference. Simply approaching whoever has the most citations/ won the most awards/ published in the most high-impact journals will not cut it by itself. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: Academic "rock-star-ness" is a factor in reference letters, but not that big a factor, especially at your level, for a few reasons. * As others have said, if you had to choose between a letter that could speak in detail about your work written by a less famous professor, and a generic letter by a famous professor, the former letter is much, much more valuable. (After all, the admissions committee will evaluate you, not your letter writers!) * If you do a PhD, you will specialize in a certain subfield. You want to use undergrad to find the subfield(s) that most interest you. Having a letter from someone in or adjacent to the subfield where you want to work, is much more important than having a letter from someone "famous" in abstract terms. + If you are tempted to choose your subfield based on the interests of the professor with the most "rock-star-ness", keep in mind that this is very institution-dependent. You will build a career by going to many different places. If you choose to study X because rock-star professor Y studies it at your undergrad institution, but you don't really love X, then you will be in for a long lifetime of misery when you go to other places where the people who study X are not rock stars. An academic career is long and difficult; a pre-requisite for starting one is that you are genuinely passionate about the subfield you are studying. * Entering graduate school, you will be judged much more on your potential for success in research, as opposed to your previous accomplishments. Of course your grades and undergraduate research experience are important evidence of potential. But, you are not applying for a faculty position, where you would be expected to be well connected in your field. At that point in your career, it does matter what famous and well respected people in your field think of your work. But, you are not at that level yet. No one expects famous people in your field to know who you are at this stage. Where "rock-star-ness" could matter, is if you are deciding between doing a research internship between two (or, a small number bigger than one) of groups in your area. Then, one factor that weighs into the decision is which group is more successful. However, even then, that is not the only factor. Oftentimes, choosing to work in a "famous" and well-established group over a new and up and coming group can lead to a situation where you get less personal attention from your advisor and need to compete more with others in the group. Therefore, I would strongly advise focusing on (a) doing quality work and (b) seeking out professors who work on things you find interesting, and not put attempt to do a generic ranking of professors in the abstract that doesn't account for your specific interests. Upvotes: 0
2016/11/19	1,760	7,242	<issue_start>username_0: I have been thinking about this question for a while and did a few googling here and there; but, didn't get anything good. Probably, academia could help. I am early in my teaching career as a lecturer (I am just 25 now) and also working towards my PhD. My classes are very interactive and I sometimes become very friendly with my students. Sometimes, I make difficult theory so simple for them to understand in their own language or sense. Maybe that is good for students. However, it kills a lot of my time inside the class. Sometimes, I can feel that students are trying to take undue advantages of this friendly behavior of mine. They try to become very frank when the papers are evaluated. They just sometimes make my time horrible so that they get a better mark than they deserve. Is it the outcome of my style of teaching? In general, should a young lecturer be friendly with his/her students, either inside a class or outside of class? I have felt that here students are more focused on grades than learning something new. (I am making it generalized; however, ratio-wise it is true)<issue_comment>username_1: Krantz in How to Teach Mathematics does actually want to become friends with his students (Sec. 3.1, Breaking the Ice): > > Since I so enjoy a class once we have all become friends, I find the > period of tooling up to that happy steady state generally too long and > too painful. What usually happens is that there is a period of two to > five weeks during which the students look at me as though I am from > Mars... You should consider ways to make yourself seem like a human > being to your students... Find some way to open up to your students so > that they will open up to you... My view is that you should show > students from day one that you are a person, and that you are going to > spend the term doing your best to communicate with them. > > > But elsewhere gives this warning (Section 2.10, Grading): > > You do not want to develop the reputation among students as an > instructor with whom grades can be negotiated. I've had this rep, and > I don't know how I got it... This process is unpleasant and (can be) > degrading both for you and the student. Doing a careful job of grading > in the first place, and posting carefully written solutions for > students to see, can help to assuage much of student discomfort with > grades. > > > Now, Krantz is a teacher "of long experience" (Sec. 3.1), and I can see this being interpreted differently/incorrectly if you are close in age to your students. Also, this will vary based on your institution and quality/maturity of students that you're getting. In my experience at community colleges, the strategy I was forced to start using early on was to be relatively strict at the start of the semester (adamantly not allowing any bit of variation from the course policies when students test them), and then becoming a bit more flexible and friendly later in the semester. Added: More Krantz (Section 5.9, Begging and Pleading): > > It really is true that if you look and/or act like a student then > students will find you more approachable. They will more readily come > to you with propositions that they wouldn't consider broaching with a > more wizened (or older) faculty member. In short, younger faculty are > more vulnerable. This is one reason for dressing differently from > students and maintaining a slight distance. Again, this may sound > cold. But I speak here from hard personal experience. > > > Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: There is certainly nothing wrong with being friendly with students; all other things being equal, it is desirable to do so. However, it is important to ensure the being friendly does not detract from your authority and objectivity as a teacher/assessor of their work. In regards to reviewing marking of assessment, you should make it clear to students that you are open to considering questions/objections on your marking, but once those questions/objections are made, you will make a professional judgment and decide on an appropriate response (including the possibility that there is no change in marks). Frank objections to your marking are fine, but frankness is a two-way street --- you are the subject-matter expert here, not them. In terms of process, you should correct your marking if you genuinely believe you did it wrongly (i.e., if the student gives a convincing explanation of a problem with the mark), but you should not allow yourself to be brow-beaten into raising marks simply because a student is upset, or unreasonably persistent. Listen to their explanation, make a professional judgment on its merit, and respond in a calm but firm manner. If the student seeks to persistently argue the point ---beyond what is reasonable--- you can calmly state that you are not convinced by their explanation and you do not propose to change the marks you have allocated. In the rare case where a student escalates to the point of rudeness, you should try to remain calm and friendly, but let them know they need to take it down a notch. As a secondary point, take note of the laws of economics: if you incentivise students being horrible to you (by rewarding this with unwarranted increases in marks) then they will respond to this incentive by increasing the supply of horribleness. If you allow students to argue with you in a belligerent manner, and do nothing to draw attention to this, they will hold steady the supply of belligerence. Now, since you're only twenty-five, you're not that much older than the students you are teaching. This is inherently going to mean that you have more in common with them, you may be seen as more approachable/soft, and you are more likely to be seen as a friendly figure with less authority. (And indeed, since you are junior, you probably do have less authority than the senior professors.) That comes with benefits and drawbacks. I recommend you try to maintain your instinct for friendliness, but ensure that you maintain professional objectivity and authority. Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: I am more or less the same with you. I am in my thirties however the majority of our master program is taken either by professionals or by students who are doing a second master program, so in general I am around the same age as my students. I maintain my distance all the way. I rarely use names to address people for example, always Sir/Madame and formal you (this would probably sound very awkward in English, but it is not so much in French). This keeps me relatively unbiased during the evaluation of assignments, and grading. The distance is not so wide to keep students from approaching when there is a problem with an assignment or a deadline, or from frictions when they thought they got a grade that they did not deserve. They feel this not due to my relationship with them, but due to my teaching style and general pedagogical approach. I would say keep your relationship with students as formal as possible, and keep the teaching as pedagogical as possible. Your time is better spent not managing their feelings, but making the course better. Upvotes: 0
2016/11/19	568	2,375	<issue_start>username_0: Is it necessary to have many slides when presenting in conference, if the speaker can clearly present his or her research with only just a few slides? How to decide when to use or not to use the slide? Science and engineering fields of research are preferred.<issue_comment>username_1: In my field (mathematics) and in my experience it is more common to use slides for conference talks than not, but a significant number of talks use a chalkboard or whiteboard, so it is certainly not necessary to use slides. (By `slides' I mean projected electronic files, such as beamer or powerpoint, not acetate sheets) I might add my impression that if anything talks that eschew slides are considered better than those that use them. However whether a speaker uses slides depends on other factors such as the duration of the talk: the longer the talk the better the opportunity to give a board talk. (And I agree with comments above that applause per se is rarely the primary aim of a speaker or the measure of a good talk.) Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: Slides serve the following purposes: * If the title of your paper is too long, you don't have to write the title on the board, losing time. * They keep the audience up-to-date. Gives an idea on what you are doing now, what you are going to do some time after. * Contains hard-to-draw figures. Therefore, you are able to talk to-the-point without losing time on drawing figures. * Contains experimental results. These, if extensive, literally cannot be drawn accurately onto board in about 10 minutes. Maybe they can be, but then there is no time to talk. * May serve you as reminder cards, therefore you don't forget what to talk about 2 minutes later. * In the Q&A session, if someone asks you about a table, a figure or a graph, you don't have to draw them again. Rather, you can just go back and answer the question. * If you are a junior researcher, you are able to write your name and affiliation on the slides, and avoid the awkwardness of writing your name on the board as if you're an instructor and if audience consists of students. * You can always support slides by using the board, and explain your points better. These being stated, I think slides are crucial for a presentation where the time limit is considerably low (10-20 minutes including Q&A). Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]
2016/11/19	668	2,725	<issue_start>username_0: Question from my professor : While filling in a request for Recommendation Letter, portal said > > Please upload PDF File. Do not print recommendation and scan as PDF > > > My professor had printed the letter on college letterhead, signed it, scanned and saved as PDF well in advance. And now he is confused about what should be done. Kindly advise 1. Upload the Scanned PDF 2. Save the letter from docx to PDF and upload. This document won't have letterhead or the signature. I was under the impression that most universities use OCR to process letter, hence scanned documents would suffice.<issue_comment>username_1: In my field (mathematics) and in my experience it is more common to use slides for conference talks than not, but a significant number of talks use a chalkboard or whiteboard, so it is certainly not necessary to use slides. (By `slides' I mean projected electronic files, such as beamer or powerpoint, not acetate sheets) I might add my impression that if anything talks that eschew slides are considered better than those that use them. However whether a speaker uses slides depends on other factors such as the duration of the talk: the longer the talk the better the opportunity to give a board talk. (And I agree with comments above that applause per se is rarely the primary aim of a speaker or the measure of a good talk.) Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: Slides serve the following purposes: * If the title of your paper is too long, you don't have to write the title on the board, losing time. * They keep the audience up-to-date. Gives an idea on what you are doing now, what you are going to do some time after. * Contains hard-to-draw figures. Therefore, you are able to talk to-the-point without losing time on drawing figures. * Contains experimental results. These, if extensive, literally cannot be drawn accurately onto board in about 10 minutes. Maybe they can be, but then there is no time to talk. * May serve you as reminder cards, therefore you don't forget what to talk about 2 minutes later. * In the Q&A session, if someone asks you about a table, a figure or a graph, you don't have to draw them again. Rather, you can just go back and answer the question. * If you are a junior researcher, you are able to write your name and affiliation on the slides, and avoid the awkwardness of writing your name on the board as if you're an instructor and if audience consists of students. * You can always support slides by using the board, and explain your points better. These being stated, I think slides are crucial for a presentation where the time limit is considerably low (10-20 minutes including Q&A). Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]
2016/11/19	689	2,965	<issue_start>username_0: Does GRE play as a cut-off point in one's Economics Phd application even though s/he has a strong profile including 4.0 GPA, strong recommendation letters, good SOP, and relevant research and teaching experience?<issue_comment>username_1: You can contact the admissions department at the schools you are interested in if their website does not explicitly indicate a cut-off. A strict cut-off is rare, but does exist. If you are not getting a straight answer from them, your only option is to just go for it. There is a lot of unpredictability in PhD admittance decisions. In my case (social sciences PhD), I had a GRE score that was less strong compared to my GPA, and it was mostly a factor in whether or not I would be offered a scholarship. At the end of the day, my GPA and recommendation letters were strong enough and I was offered the funding. Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: In my experience with economics, it's all over the place. Some departments do seem to use it as a cutoff, but increasingly more seem to be coming around to using them only at the margins. This especially holds true if you have good recommendation letters and research and teaching experience; it's difficult to get those things before you start your PhD. They likely make you stand out well above the crowd. Heck, it's not unusual for full PhD graduates on the job market to lack teaching experience. If a GRE quant score is going to be a problem, I anticipate it would matter more at the most highly selective institutions. Places that only accept a tiny fraction of near-perfect students have few reasons to compromise on any attribute, and GRE scores are an incredibly convenient standardized way to compare everyone. I've spoken with faculty on admissions committees at both large public research universities and small, selective private universities, and while you can't use my anecdotes as the whole story, the responses I get are invariably that they rely as little as possible on the GRE. Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: Yes, it does, at a large number of, although certainly not all, top economics departments in the United States. Indeed, they have a lot of applications to read from perfect applicants (at least on paper). Why should they give any exceptions? But they do give exceptions. I don't know entirely your circumstances, and certainly mathematics isn't economics. But from my own experiences, having 1. written letters for people with bad mathematics subject test GRE scores and 2. being swayed when I've been on committee to admit people with bad mathematics subject test GRE scores, I would encourage at least one of your letter writers to contact someone at each of the schools you applied to to keep a lookout for your application/not throw it out immediately presuming a GRE cutoff, especially if other parts of your application are quite competitive for the schools you are applying/have applied to. Upvotes: 1
2016/11/19	1,412	4,356	<issue_start>username_0: Have any studies been done of students' motives for being students at universities? At one extreme there are those who want to study at a university in disregard of the disapproval of their parents and friends and everyone else. At an opposite extreme are those who are there only because of the expectations of others. And there are those who regard study at a university only as a price of a job they hope to get later. Do any hard data exist on the proportions in each of these groups or on whether some other motivations exist?<issue_comment>username_1: It's quite likely that students entertain a collection of motivations (and de-motivators) rather than just one, so if such data exist they would probably be highly specific (to particular regions, economic conditions, personal circumstances and so on...) and difficult to extrapolate to other settings. That said, in terms of general or potential categories, this [study of students in HUNGARY AND SERBIAN VOJVODINA](http://oaji.net/articles/2014/457-1420055524.pdf) lists the following motives, with interest, employability and economic reward covering most of the sample. > > * I wanted to study in this field because I am interested in it. 45% > * I believe it is easy to find a job in this field. 13% > * I believe I can make good money in this field. 12% > * I have professional connections in this field. 8% > * My parents decided that I should study in this course. 8% > * I had no other idea what to study. 4% > * I had no particular reasons. 3% > * This was the course I could afford financially. 3% > * This was the only available course nearby. 2% > * Other 2% > > > Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: This is an active area of inquiry in US academia, as market research for admissions departments and also as part of the larger investigation into student "success". Our dean likes to remind us that the main reason for going to college used to be "to get an education" but now it's "to get a job" (and thus we need to be more get-a-job focused). I don't actually know which study he's quoting, but an article out this month seems to support his contention. Twenge and Donnelly have published a retrospective study of students entering college between 1971 and 2014 surveying the students' reasons for pursuing higher education. From the abstract: > > Millennials (in college 2000s–2010s) and Generation X (1980s–1990s) > valued extrinsic reasons for going to college (“to make more money”) > more, and anti-extrinsic reasons (“to gain a general education and > appreciation of ideas”) less than Boomers when they were the same age > in the 1960s–1970s. > > > (<NAME>., & <NAME>. (2016). Generational differences in American students’ reasons for going to college, 1971–2014: The rise of extrinsic motives. Journal Of Social Psychology, 156(6), 620-629. doi:10.1080/00224545.2016.1152214) Other articles that may be of interest (by no means an exhaustive list): * <NAME>., <NAME>., & <NAME>. (2015). Undergraduates’ personal circumstances, expectations and reasons for attending university. Studies in Higher Education. Advance online publication. doi:10.1080/03075079.2015.1099623 * <NAME>. (2002). First-generation college students at a four-year university: background characteristics, reasons for pursuing higher education, and first-year experiences. College Student Journal, 36(1). 3+. * <NAME>., <NAME>., & <NAME>. (2011). The Importance of Directly Asking Students Their Reasons for Attending Higher Education. Issues in Educational Research, 21(1) 65-74. * <NAME>., <NAME>., & <NAME>. (2013). The impact of reasons for attending university on academic resourcefulness and adjustment. Active Learning in Higher Education, 14(2). First published on June 10, 2015. doi:10.1177/1469787415589626 * <NAME>.; <NAME>.; <NAME>. (2006). Reasons to attend college among ethnically diverse college students. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 12(2).347-366. doi: 10.1037/1099-9809.12.2.347 * <NAME>., & <NAME>. (2007). Reasons for Attending College: The Student Point of View. Research and Teaching in Developmental Education, 23(2), 69-76. Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]
2016/11/19	654	2,679	<issue_start>username_0: I published a master's thesis through some online system through my university. They said they would post it online, but I'm not able to find it online. For a few months, it was hosted on my personal page on the university domain, so it was downloadable in Google Scholar, but that's no longer the case. How can I make my paper more accessible to people searching for the topic? Is this a common thing to do?<issue_comment>username_1: arXiv is the de facto way of publishing papers online. Considering that arXiv allows publishing theses as well (see [Is it advisable to upload theses to the arXiv?](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/10451/is-it-advisable-to-upload-theses-to-the-arxiv)), I would consider arXiv a good option for long-term public storage of your thesis. However, you have to be aware of certain things. Firstly, things posted to arXiv are public forever. This means you cannot remove your thesis from there once it is published. I would consider this to be the case for all information posted to the Internet (it is theoretically possible someone has a copy), but it may be the case that nobody is interested enough in your thesis to have a copy. Secondly, your must be aware of your university policy. Some universities may not allow posting your thesis online. However, I wouldn't choose to attend such a university if I had a choice. Thirdly, arXiv requires you to post the full LaTeX source code if your thesis is made in LaTeX. This means all of your university's LaTeX style files that may be copyrighted by your university need to be posted too. Fourthly, arXiv covers only some fields. I was lucky to have my thesis in the field that arXiv covers. If your thesis isn't within arXiv's scope, you have to find a suitable repository from elsewhere. I'm not sure if the LaTeX source requirement is valid anymore, but it was valid when I posted my thesis in 2014. I actually just was lazy and didn't check with the university if posting the university's .sty files is permitted. I don't expect to be sued because of this. With some amount of work, you could eliminate the use of your university's .sty files, but then the thesis wouldn't look like a thesis made in your university. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: You can create a simple home page for yourself, for example at wordpress.com, and publish your thesis there. You can link to your home page from various other places. For example, if you have a google profile, you can link from that. Also, if your department or group lists former students, it may be possible to include a link. Finally, you can create a Google Scholar profile page. Upvotes: 2
2016/11/20	446	2,004	<issue_start>username_0: We had submitted a research paper (graph theory related), which included a set of theorems, lemma, and proofs, to an international Mathematics conference around 2 months back. The decision on our manuscript has come just a couple of days back. The decision is 'rejected'. However, we do not understand why there were no comments associated with the decision. We are not worried about the rejection, rather, we are worried about what are the possible comments for the decision so that we can probably improve our work to fit in next venue (journal or conference). We have emailed a few times to the conference chair about the comments; however, not heard anything great. Does anyone here with this type of experiences? Is it really possible that they rejected the manuscript without peer-review?<issue_comment>username_1: Remember that for any journal or conference, it is ultimately the editors (or organizers, program committee, etc) who decide whether to accept a paper. The editors assign reviewers to help them make that decision. But if the editor is already convinced that the paper will not be acceptable for publication, then they may reject it without sending it to a reviewer. This is called a "desk reject". In such a case, it can happen that no further comments are given, or only vague comments such as "not of sufficient interest". This is certainly frustrating because you get no indication as to how to improve your paper. But keep in mind, ultimately it is your job to write a good paper, and it is not the job of editors or reviewers to help you do that. About all you can do is to reread the paper afresh, address any shortcomings that you find (or already knew about), and submit it somewhere else. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: I've submitted to multiple types of professional conferences and I've never received comments on a rejection. Usually they have so many submissions that it just isn't feasible to comment on all of them. Upvotes: 1
2016/11/20	1,187	4,933	<issue_start>username_0: We wrote a case report (1 + 2 co authors). The case report was not accepted. I tried to convince the other co-authors to re-write and submit. I waited for 3 years and 6 months. The co-authors showed no interest after repeated calls. I wrote the case report completely fresh with review of literature. Can I send for publication without the co-authors as they did not take part in preparing this revised manuscript?<issue_comment>username_1: All persons that made a significant intellectual contribution to the paper need to be included as authors, even if they were not involved in the writing of the actual draft. To still publish the paper without the co-authors, you need to remove all parts that contain a significant contribution by one of them. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: It depends what the co-authors did. If they were involved in the work they should normally be authors of the paper. I think the important questions you need to answer are: * What exactly do you mean by "showed no interest after repeated calls"? I have never heard of someone who does not want a "free" paper published, unless they disagree with the methods or conclusions in the paper. What is the reason they are not interested? * Did you ask them if they agree to not have their name on it? If they agree: problem solved. If not, that means they do agree to be co-authors: problem solved. Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: It is not ethical to remove them as co-authors if they have made an intellectual contribution, no matter how long ago, but nor is it ethical to include them as co-authors if they have not explicitly consented. This presents a conundrum. The way I have dealt with unresponsive co-authors has been to give them an ultimatum and deadline. Something like: "I will be submitting this manuscript on Tuesday next week. If I do not hear from you by them, I will assume that I have your consent to publish with the author list as attached." Depending on which way you have gone, add either "If you feel you should be included as a co-author, please let me know before then," or "If you would rather be taken off the author list, please contact me before then." Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: I think the question is deep rooted. Always happens between the seniors and juniors. In my opinion the co-authors should be removed as second time around they did not participate in the writing up. It appears the co-authors gave up thinking it is not publishable. Moreover >3 years is a long time to wait to get an answer. My vote go ahead and publish without their name. Consultant Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_5: Well, you can't include someone else's name on a paper if they don't want it to be included. And their acceptance must be affirmative, i.e., there must be no doubt that they are OK with that. Sending them an ultimatum won't be enough if you can't prove that they read it (for example, you can't be sure some e-mail was delivered and read). It might even become a legal case, and laws might be different in your country/state, since in some cases it's required that an action must be done signaling that they are OK – simply not answering the ultimatum isn't enough to say that they agreed. You can't take authorship for something that you didn't write. So if someone wrote a paragraph, you can't use it literally, but you could rewrite it. Results, au contraire, are public to who was informed about it, and that person can do anything they want about it. If someone paints a wall blue, anyone can write a paper about the wall becoming blue. If someone tells you "I painted the wall blue and 53% of the viewers said it was better", you can write about that. Of course, you can't say that you did the painting and observation. The exception to that would be some non-disclosure agreement, where you explicitly had to agree that you won't disclose the information you are about to receive. It's expected that you offer the co-authorship to everyone that was involved in the analysis and conclusions of the research. For example, a laboratory technician that just measured some variable and gave you a table with values won't be a co-author. But if the person isn't interested in doing so, well, use the result and publish your paper. Edit Also found this piece of interesting information: > > But until the results are so widely known and familiar that they have become common knowledge, people who use them are obliged to recognize the discoverer by means of citations [1] > > > [1] <https://www.nap.edu/read/12192/chapter/10> Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_4: The matter is simple. Two authors did not want to participate or further improve the manuscript. They made the third one wait for 3 years. If the third one wants to report the case without copying the matter from the first manuscript, then it is ethically and morally acceptable Upvotes: -1
2016/11/20	673	2,040	<issue_start>username_0: I am editing a dissertation that has a single research question with multiple subquestions, and where every question has a null and alternative hypotheses. The current numbering and lettering scheme looks like this: ``` RQ SQ1 SQ2 SQ3 Ho H1o H2o H3o Ha H1a H2a H3a ``` An anonymous reviewer (name and role unknown) insists that the RQ must be numbered, even though there is only one RQ. The reviewer offered no suggestions, and I was unable to find guidance in the APA manual, in the university's style guide, or by searching online such as at Purdue OWL on how to number for this specific situation. 1. Is it feasible to use RQ0, as in: ``` RQ0 SQ1 SQ2 SQ3 H0o H1o H2o H3o H0a H1a H2a H3a ``` 2. If it's not feasible, then we could abandon the subquestions, and bump all questions "up" to RQ, which (to me) seems an unnecessary and misleading contrivance. ``` RQ1 RQ2 RQ3 RQ4 H1o H2o H3o H4o H1a H2a H3a H4a ``` So what would be another feasible solution?<issue_comment>username_1: I can't tell whether this would work, but here's a possible way out: Number all your research questions, as follows: Question 1.1 (~RQ) Question 2.1 (~SQ1) Question 2.2 (~SQ2) etc. You can treat this as a hierarchical outline, for example, within 2.1 you could have (a), (b), etc. Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Similarly to @Aparente's scheme, I would suggest using a . delineated numbering scheme to regularize all of your headings. This would look like: ``` 1.0 Research question (RQ) 1.0.1 Null Hypothesis (Ho) 1.0.2 Alternative Hypothesis (Ha) 1.1 Sub-question 1 (SQ1) 1.1.1 H1o 1.1.2 H1a 1.2 SQ2 1.2.1 H2o 1.2.2 H2a ``` and so forth. It's a little odd that there will never be a 2.X, but it should satisfy your reviewer while preserving and regularizing the hierarchy (sub-questions remain subordinate to the main question). --- Edited—I figured out the formatting. Upvotes: 1
2016/11/20	1,062	4,410	<issue_start>username_0: I read somewhere in this Stack Exchange that it's best to not make strong statements (such as stating the previous method is completely wrong) etc. In my paper, I thought that stating this the model I am presenting is the first model for this type of device would bolster the chances of publication. It is true that there hasn’t been any model for this type of device, at least not to my knowledge and extensive search. But is claiming that this is the first model too strong a statement? Is this looked down upon in academic publications?<issue_comment>username_1: In 1988, in their paper Quantum Hall effect devices as circuit elements, <NAME> presented a first circuit model for quantum Hall effect devices [1]. Here is how the model is presented in the abstract: > > The electrical behaviour of a quantum Hall effect device is described > in terms of an equivalent circuit. This circuit is able to model the > principal electrical characteristics of an ungated Hall bridge device. > > > In the Introduction: > > In this paper we describe the behaviour of a QHE > device in terms of an equivalent circuit. > > > And in the Conclusions: > > An equivalent circuit has been presented that can represent the DC > electrical behaviour of a Hall bridge device under QHE conditions. > > > This is just a random example, but I think that it aptly shows the right way to present a first model: review what is known about that device and its behaviour, so that it becomes evident that, to your knowledge, there isn't any model of that kind currently available; tell the reader what kind of model you are going to describe and what phenomena it can model. Then, let the reader decide if it's really a first one. [1] <NAME> and <NAME>, J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys., 21, 483, 1988. Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_2: You can say, "to the best of our knowledge after reviewing the literature, this is the first model of its type." Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: Instead of saying "this is the first model", ask yourself the following questions: 1. Why is this model useful? 2. What is the limitation of not having such a model? I assume you have valid reasons for both questions, otherwise this model should not be published at all. Then say something like: Previous work on analysing this device failed to provide a sound guarantee on some property for lack of a formal model... To address this problem, we present a model for this device, which allows us to express the property A.... The novelty is clear, if it is the case, without saying it is the first. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: A model is a thing that is used to describe and predict the behaviour of a system. If it is worth creating then there is a thing that it aims to describe which has value and which others would find useful. It therefore stands to reason that others have done work in the field where this model would have utility and it should also stand to reason that their efforts in making other types of progress in this field have been frustrated by the lack of a model of this sort. What is far better is to summarize efforts in the field to date - it's fine to include citations of work which are beyond the scope of the model itself and rather focus on the types of work that would use, or could use, the model you are presenting. Include citations that demonstrate the state of the art and it should be clear that the methods currently in use by others leave a gap in descriptive, predictive, or functional capability that could be serviced by the model you are presenting. By telling the story this way, you not only make it clear that you are presenting something novel, you also frame the context in a way that demonstrates why it is important. This also keeps the focus on the topic itself rather than on irrelevancy and trivia. "I'm first!" is a side effect - let others make that observation and focus on the work. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: As the other answers here attest, it's not universally looked down upon, but there are better ways to say it. For example, instead of simply saying that it's the first of its kind, explicitly contrast it with the other popular models. This lets the reader know that your model is different while you tell them why they should care about this fact. Upvotes: 1
2016/11/20	3,573	15,772	<issue_start>username_0: Questions related to this in a not specifically academic setting have been asked elsewhere, notably [Should developers have administrator permissions on their PC?](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/701214/should-developers-have-administrator-permissions-on-their-pc) and [Should dev be admin on their computer?](https://serverfault.com/questions/232416/should-dev-be-admin-on-their-computer) My question relates to my job as an academic at a (UK) university. I moved to using Linux at work so that I did not have to have my computer managed by my university's IT service. This is purely because they are poorly resourced/managed and so addressing small problems takes a very long time. I might, for example, have to wait several weeks for a piece of (free) software to be installed. This imposes unacceptable (to me) delays on my research. They are now changing University policy such that all PCs connected to the network are managed by IT (reasonable), backed-up (reasonable) and local admin privileges are restricted to those who can demonstrate a genuine need for them (reasonable, but I am unwilling to go back to not being able to make progress because of them). I am confident that one way and another in the end I can persuade them of my need -- but I would like to avoid the delays, meetings, and aggravation this will involve. What are good, unarguable reasons, that I might need local admin rights. I'm currently thinking 'compiling code written by my co-author' but I might need something more concrete. They will not know enough about my research to know what I might actually need or not.<issue_comment>username_1: Actually, I don't think the most important thing to convey to the powers that be is that you have a valid reason to have admin rights. More important is to convince them that you will handle the admin rights in a responsible way. The trick is to convey the latter while ostensibly writing about the former. Think about it from their point of view. They are tired of distracted professors causing security risks and decided to draw a clear line in the sand. In your one or two paragraph request, you need to come across very knowledgeable and with excellent judgment. Also indicate you would ask for help if in ANY doubt about anything. It would be ideal if you could find an ally on the inside to support your request. Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: The best reason for needing admin rights (ran IT for large company for 3 years) is that you have a program that needs to run and be changed often, and this requires admin rights. What you have outlined in your second paragraph, well it is why we want to keep admin rights from users. I would certainly not tell this to your local school's IT department, as it could cause you to have a harder time in gaining admin rights. The most troublesome part is the free software bit (which many times could have attached trojans or malware), to go along with the fact that you might use your admin rights to turn off your security software. You are much better off coming up with a specific piece of software that you must be admin to run or make config changes (often). A better way to handle this - and this is up to your local IT's ability - is to set up a VM and have admin access to this VM environment. For instance when I used to compile a lot, I liked to do so in my old XP VM environment with 512MB allocated. This might take longer but I could do other things while compiling. As for everything else you said, it doesn't make sense. The risk of working on projects is losing information. Find a way to back things up through drives or online. I don't see how this has anything to do with your IT. Acting like your IT's lack of ability is hurting your research or projects just sounds far fetched. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: The following makes excessive assumptions about what your work entails, but... 1. Get computing time on an external HPC resource (in the UK that would be [Archer](http://www.archer.ac.uk/) or a field specific resource such as [DiRAC](https://www.dirac.ac.uk/)), as you need compute resource beyond that which your university can provide. 2. Say to the university that, as HPC systems run on Linux and they update software on their own release cycles, it's necessary for you to have your own Linux-based system that you can update to match so you can effectively develop and maintain the code to run on the HPC system. This argument is much more convincing if you've already got point 1, or a history of using HPC or similar computing resource, of course. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: At my institution, anyone in the C.S. department can get admin access under the assumption that we need to develop, compile, and test new software (including assessment of various packages). I just got this access last week, in fact. Support/request from the chairperson helps. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: So far, I have only come across one reason for needing something close to administrator rights on a fixed department machine: using scientific software. When you start using a new scientific piece of software, you often have its source code, and need to build it first. Typically, there is no documentation of what exact packages in your Linux distribution are needed (as this changes over time, and there are many Linux distributions as well). So the process is: 1. Try to build 2. Identify the cause of error (installing new software, updating the compiler, ...) 3. Fixing the cause of error (requires administrator rights 4. Repeat steps 1-3 many times until done. You can only move towards the respective next issue when one has been resolved. It is unrealistic to assume that you can give an admin a list of required packages upfront, Without admin rights and an admin reaction time of, say, ~6 hours, this process may easily take a week. With admin rights, the process will be much faster. BTW: When you start using scientific software professionally, there may be more packages that you need to install (LaTeX, screen, ...), so the process continues. If you tell the IT people that this is the (unavoidable) process with most scientific software, and you will need to work with ~10 such tools during your PhD, then you should have a good point. On a technical level, there may also be the possibility for "admin light" access, namely by whitelisting your username for "sudo"ing a package installation request. Perhaps that is an option as well in your case. Upvotes: 7 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_6: I am an academic at a UK university. What you are requesting is not unusual and others have given good answers. There is however another solution which we have for research computers which is that the users have admin rights on their local research machines and have limited internet access on a different subnet which gives these machines the same access to internet resources as guests but does not give priviledged access to internal university systems. This provides the level of internal network management and control which is necessary these days but gives flexibility for researchers. It does also mean that a researcher who also does teaching/admin may need a separate desktop computer as well as their research computer. The other issue you have to realise is that admin rights are a privilege not a right in this environment. If they are misused you can expect to lose them. I have known this to happen where researchers have set stupid root passwords on their machines or where research students have downloaded illegal cracked software rather than asking for properly licensed installs. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_7: What bothers me most in this IT policy is the requirement that "all PCs connected to the network are managed by IT". Since you claim to have installed Linux on your computer without the help of IT, I doubt it is managed by university's IT service at all. Since you've had unrestricted admin access to to your machine for some time, there is no reasonable way for the IT to enforce any policy without reinstalling whatever system they are able to manage (even if it's Linux, it has to be installed by them to make sure you cannot get admin rights in spite of their restrictions). Note that if your IT support is unprofessional enough to simply change your `root` password, you'll still have admin access to your system via [`sudo`](https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/18224/how-to-add-a-user-to-sudoers-file) or by setting `setuid` attribute on commands which need admin rights. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_8: Writing from the perspective of an IT professional (and former academic) who worked for a major University creating a managed operating environment to try and stop this thing - there isn't one. There is a faux-administrator access that gets around virtually any legitimate use of real administrator access so that's probably the best you can (should be able to) expect. The amount of pain to IT support caused by incompetent administration of computers is incalculable. The number of machines they had to deal with that had been compromised by viruses, malware, bootleg software and a whole host of unpleasantness that you can probably imagine that is a consequence of attaching admin level users to minimally filtered and monitored high speed internet connections. In order for a University to protect itself from criminal proceedings, it has to be able to control the computers attached to its' network. The "good old days" sadly are over and it is no longer acceptable for academic staff to run torrent software committing massive levels of IP violation / theft from a university owned computer. Your fundamental problem is not that you need Admin rights. What you need is not to be delayed when installing software. So, what that means is you need a better funded IT department. That is what you should be pushing for. The IT department should have the resources to "package" software quickly. This means preparing it for safe installation and uninstallation along with any dependencies - like Linux package management but centrally administered. Good package management allows for self service installation so that would mean you'd be piggybacking off of the efforts of the whole University - if anyone else requested a piece of software, it would then become available to everyone and if it was free you could self install with a click. If it wasn't free you could provide approval to release the funds and get it installed automatically. On a more practical note, if you absolutely have to play with admin level privileges - do it in a virtual machine. Preferably on a cloud based server. Commercial IT is moving heavily in this direction and if my experience is anything to go by the computer science academics are very out of date in this regard and are not preparing their students for the real world. Look at tools like "Docker", "Bitnami" and "Eclipse Che" to see various examples of the sorts of tools that are available to pretty much eliminate the need for bare metal admin access. EDIT A few more points. 1) Academics (generally) do not appreciate how proactive you have to be to secure a network. It's poor use of their time to scour CERT looking for reasons to patch stuff so they don't - with unfortunate consequences. 2) If you have admin access, you will be able to cause much more damage. Click on an e-mail link from a non-privileged account and it's no big deal. Click on one as root and your account be sending a phishing e-mail to the entire University address book within half an hour - causing man-weeks of clean-up for the IT department. 3) There really are no real legitimate requirements for full admin access these days that I can think of:- Compiling software -> Isolated VM Running old software -> Virtualized bubble (research "App-V" for example) 4) The advantages of a properly managed desktop are not just one-sided. If your IT department gets it right you will be able to:- * Log into any machine on campus and access your data (and your data will be regularly backed up and reside on a secure fail-safe infrastructure). No more USB sticks with critical and confidential data on them. No more academics in tears because the only copy of their work was kept on a single external HDD that failed. * Have access to that data from a home computer should you need it. Possibly with some caveats (having the right anti-virus installed maybe). * Have a LOT of available space if you need it. * Therefore if your machine fails you will be up & running less than fifteen minutes after the delivery of the replacement (depending on how many non-standard packages you have installed). Boeing has had this for YEARS. It saves them a fortune. * The ability to install (and uninstall) common software without involving IT. * Access to temporary (isolated from the internet) VMs in a secure University owned cloud with admin access to do tasks that absolutely need it. You should be able to stand up a virtual PC in less than 5 minutes and then discard it when you're done. * This technology can also be used to create virtual teaching labs with just the software you need for the class rather than expecting your IT staff to get 9+ units worth of required software to "play nice" with each other in the two weeks before the first semester starts. * Need a long-lived VM to do significant compute over several days/weeks/months? - service request. Possible cost to you if your need is excessive but the cost will be competitive with AWS or MS Azure equivalents. * Less stressed IT support because they're not overloaded cleaning up the fallout from the latest phishing scam so response times should be much better. In fact, you should have a published service catalogue from IT detailing what services they offer, how much they cost and how quickly you can expect a response. This is all standard stuff they should have time for if the environment becomes more controlled. Seriously, this is a positive move. Embrace it, support it and you will be better off. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_9: As a system administrator working in an institute there really is no reason why users should have admin privileges. It is possible for users to request specific privileges in exceptional cases, but this is a whitelist approach and won't give you full admin rights (e.g. users may get the privilege to restart a pre-defined service, but won't get enough permissions to start a privileged shell). If the workstations are under IT management this likely also means that any changes you perform as an admin will be overridden anyway (e.g. when using Puppet or Chef for configuration management). For the installation of scientific software I recommend GNU Guix, a reproducible, user-controlled functional package manager. We use it at our institute on the HPC cluster and user workstations to enable users to install all sorts of scientific software. To install software with GNU Guix a user does not need admin privileges. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_10: > > What are good, unarguable reasons, that I might need local admin rights. > > > One bulletproof reason for having admin rights is that you develop and test new OS kernels. Even if they only give you access to modify the boot loader you can get bonus points for writing your own system call that sets the current process ID to root. Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_11: Just say that you want to install Linux and that you will waive any requirements for technical support in writing to their superior and to yours, though you hope they might help if the need arises. Upvotes: -1
2016/11/21	895	3,803	<issue_start>username_0: I may or may not 'drop' my Point Set Topology course since I performed very poorly in it (also I am partially inclined to 'drop' the course so as to avoid a low GPA ), but I do not have any idea whether it will be a problem during my PhD application or interview. I want to know how much it matters.<issue_comment>username_1: (I am the graduate coordinator of the math department at UGA.) Point set topology is a good course to take for an undergraduate hoping to go to graduate school in mathematics, but it is not a required one for admission to any program that I know of. If you are asking whether it looks better to have a transcript containing point set topology with a poor grade vs. a transcript not containing point set topology at all, I would say: if it doesn't appear at all, it looks much better. Point set topology is an introduction to the abstraction / generality of graduate level mathematics, perhaps more so than any other undergraduate course because nowadays we don't really have separate undergraduate versus graduate offerings in the subject: the point set topology that you learn as an undergraduate is in many cases the point set topology that you take with you through your graduate career. So doing well in that course looks like a good predictor of success in graduate level coursework. Thus by doing badly in it, you're showing a clear data point which is not in your favor. I should say though that dropping the course is not helping out your education or graduate preparedness at all: at best, it's papering over the problem. Are you sure you can't redouble your efforts and actually do well in this important course? Or the flip side of the same question: are you sure that you can truly drop it with no stigma whatsoever? E.g., will it show up on your transcript as a withdrawn course? Will faculty who write your letters know that you really struggled in this important course and responded by dropping it? (If I were writing a letter for such a student and had this knowledge, I would probably feel honorbound to mention it.) These are things to think carefully about and discuss with faculty advisors. Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: Is there an extenuating reason (e.g. illness) why point set topology was difficult for you? If not, I'd rather be blunt about this: you're probably not cut out for a Ph.D. in mathematics. One of the purposes of grades is to figure these things out. Depending on your program, point-set topology is likely one of the first courses in which you are expected to be fluent in the level of abstraction that mathematicians work in all of the time. If you were able to adapt quickly and more or less enjoyed it, that's good. If you were not able to adapt or did not enjoy it much at all, then you probably do not want a Ph.D. in mathematics and would not do well in it. There are many other things, Ph.D. and non-Ph.D., to do with one's life. Undergraduate education should inform you for which of these things you will want to do. Large struggle in point-set topology does not indicate a good fit with mathematics research. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: Does time permit retaking the course? I remember from my undergraduate days that I failed Calc II, but when I repeated the class the next semester I got an A. Clearly you need a little more time and effort to master the course material. So much of mathematics is foundational: you have to master A before moving on to B, and so forth. If you think you understand foundational topics early in a course, and then find out in mid-course that nothing is making sense, then you know you're in trouble; I've been in that situation myself. My advice, then, is to repeat the course if you can, and do what you have to do to ace it. Upvotes: 2
2016/11/21	344	1,434	<issue_start>username_0: The status of my manuscript is "Awaiting AE decision", and it has lasted for nearly four months. I have sent two pieces of mail to AE to inquire of the status, but I have not received any reply. What does this situation mean? What should I do? ..While, I am still waiting, no reply.<issue_comment>username_1: It could mean they're overworked or disorganized. Four months seems substantial. Maybe you could try a phone call. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Four months seems unreasonable. Either the AE is on leave or having a holiday trip with family or health issues. Anything is possible. However, it is the responsibility of the Editor-in-Chief to deal with such delays. I would email (a final reminder email) to EIC, AEs and journal support staff regarding this and wait for a week to hear from them back on my email. If still, they are not responding, I will email them saying that "I am withdrawing the paper from your esteemed journal. Thank you for your earlier consideration." Please note that there is no bottom by clicking which you can withdraw the paper. So, be careful about it and try to make it as transparent as possible that you are withdrawing the paper because of the valid reason. Don't be greedy that if the paper is accepted after your mail, if at-all it gets accepted, you will go with acceptance. No, you can't. You should stick with your decision of withdrawl. Upvotes: 0
2016/11/21	2,069	8,544	<issue_start>username_0: I am referring to a situation described in a previous question of mine: [How to deal with an abusive advisor?](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/55803/how-to-deal-with-an-abusive-advisor) To summarize for those who don't want to read the lengthy story: I had a difficult relationship with my previous Master's advisor, who was psychologically abusive towards me. I was also dealing with (unrelated) clinical depression at the time, which affected my productivity. Eventually I decided to switch to a different advisor in an unrelated field. I am happy with my new advisor, and am being more productive, and the split from the previous advisor was on decent terms (that is, he still had a bad impression of me as a student, but he supported the decision). Due to the previous issues and the switch of field, my degree took twice the "standard" time to finish (4 years instead of 2, although at my university/in my country even the top students often don't finish in 2 years). In addition, my previous advisor's name will appear on my graduate transcript (along with the period of time during which he was my advisor). In my PhD application (specifically, the "Statement of Purpose") I will probably have no choice but to address this issue. Since there is no option for anonymity, the story is not just about me, it is an "accusation" against him, which means the committee might want to hear his side of the story, in which case it will of course not go in my favour. Also, while he is not very famous, he is friendly and popular with colleagues, so if someone knows him personally they might simply not believe me. What should I do? Should I actually mention it? For those of you who are a part of admission committees, would something like that be a red flag? Would you investigate further, or take it as a reasonable explanation given positive letters of recommendation from other professors (and current advisor)? Also, is past depression which caused lack of productivity considered as a red flag?<issue_comment>username_1: Congratulations on the switch, I'm so glad to hear your update. There will be an ongoing need to heal from the trauma you underwent. The SOP will be separate from that. If you are concerned that an admissions committee might raise a red flag for the extra time you spent in your program, you may address that briefly in a cover letter. For example, "You might notice that I spent longer than customary on my degree. That was due to some health issues exacerbated by an uncomfortable advisor fit." That's enough. You might also alert your new advisor to your concern, so that s/he may choose to consider this when writing letter of recommendation. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: I would probably take one of two approaches. To begin with, in my experience it's very hard for a student to complain about about a faculty member and not sound like they're making excuses, which a lot of faculty have an instinctive allergy to. The legitimacy of your complaint has almost no bearing on this, unless the people reading it are familiar with the problems from another source. There's just a perhaps understandable tendency to give other faculty the benefit of the doubt, I think. I would instead either: 1. Don't mention the other advisor in your SOP at all, or 2. Mention the other advisor only in the context of your switch to a different field and your health issues In general, I would suggest simply saying that you struggled with, and then overcame, health issues during your MA work. Don't hide this part; you're far from the only graduate student to struggle with this, and the overcoming of it is an important positive. This way you explain what they'll clearly see, that it took you 4 years instead of 2, while casting it in light of something you surmounted. If you do choose to mention the other advisor, I suggest leaving out the mention of personality conflicts. The reality is that we often have to overcome personality conflicts in life and work, and the committee likely has no way to empirically judge the truthfulness of your side of the story. *If they* press you for more information about it, you can mention that your health issues exacerbated some personality conflicts, and you mutually agreed on switching advisors.** I think this feels like a safer approach than offering up an excuse unsolicited. Especially when coupled with successful graduate work post-switch and a presumably positive LOR from your new advisor. Regardless, glad you were able to improve your situation and be successful! Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: I went through something similar. Like the other answers you've received so far imply, the key is avoid saying anything negative. I would go further than the last answers and suggest that you don't even mention the health problems. Instead just treat it as a previous research experience and then you moved on to do the next thing. Here's how I did it: During my first year as an M.A. student in Dr. XXXX’s laboratory, I tested the influence of AAA on BBB. One goal of this research was to test whether CCC. As part of that work we quantified predictions of competing hypotheses by instantiating them in a computational model. We found that DDD. During this time I developed managerial and technical research skills. I learned how to write IRB proposals and prepare study protocol. I was responsible for managing a team of undergraduates and blah blah blah. Subsequently, I joined Dr. YYYY’s laboratory and carried out my master’s thesis under his supervision. I continued pursuing my interest in QQQ, this time in the VVV domain, by examining ZZZ. .... I didn't bring up the fact that Dr. XXXX was awful, and I didn't address the fact that my master's took longer than outlined by the program. I just discussed the things that the reader cares about, which are: 1. Can this person write well? 2. What research skills do they have? (Not in this paragraph, but they also want to know: 3. Why does this person want to come here? 4. Does this person want to work with me? Do they mention my name?) In other words, minimize the drama. Do not let it become a story with accusations and his side/your side. Avoid all of that. You worked in a lab; then you discovered your research interests were better aligned with a different lab and so you pursued that. This is your story. It’s about the science/scholarship and not about anything personal or any difficulties you had with Prof. <NAME>. I don’t mean to sound insensitive, I get that the drama you went through was a big deal. It feels gigantic, and you feel like you’re wearing a Scarlett letter. I assure you, that is hardly the case. This happens more often than you may think, and plenty of very successful people have dealt with this same issue. The key is to move on. Your career goals are more important than some unsupportive advisor you worked with along the way. I encourage you to completely take on this new narrative about that experience. Not everyone, not even most people, will have the straightforward A to B to C path that you seem to have imagined or expected of yourself. It takes time to know what specialization you want to pursue for your career and, for you, changing labs was part of figuring that out. If it does come up during interviews you should discuss it to the extent that the research wasn’t a good fit for you and so you switched labs. Yes professors might sense that there is more to the story, but IMHO they will respect you more for not going there, for focusing on the work, and for doing what you had to do so that you could pursue the line of work that makes you happy. Finally, I will mention that if you REALLY think there is something more that needs to be addressed, I highly recommend that you are not the one to address it. You focus on being a rockstar, staying positive, loving your work, and being excited about the future. What you can do is have a letter writer address it for you. Hopefully someone who is writing you a letter of recommendation is someone you trust enough to talk to about this. Discuss it with them. I hope you will find this answer helpful. While I do not serve on any admissions committees, I am a 2nd year Ph.D. student at a top ranked R1 institution. I applied to 10 schools and received 5 interviews and 5 offers. I did not mention any difficulties I had with Prof. <NAME> (nor did it ever come up). Best of luck! Upvotes: 3
2016/11/21	1,174	4,962	<issue_start>username_0: I'm planning to get double honours in CS and Pure Math. I'm confused what's the biggest benefit of Ph.D. will be for me? People say you learn to do research, but I can do research(as I have the appropriate background, CS and Math) sitting at home or in industry. Then what's the biggest benefit of Ph.D.? Why should I do Ph.D.? EDIT1: The only thing that is stopping me from getting a PhD is time. EDIT2: [Link](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/80227/will-a-phd-help-me-as-a-startup-founder) to my new post.<issue_comment>username_1: In pretty much any field you need a terminal degree (usually but not always a doctorate) to get a teaching position. But you can indeed do research without a terminal degree --or even no credentials at all-- though you probably won't be able to get paid for it, or published, unless you have a Master's. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: Benefits of PhD: * an expert advisor training you to do research. * a workgroup and peer students to collaborate with. * a salary/stipend (hopefully) while you do it. * shiny title on your business card. * being a student, you can obtain discounts in conferences. It is often assumed that all "early-career participants" are students, because it's the most likely path. * in the industry, having a phd might unlock higher salaries. * if you want a career in academia, it's a sort of certification that you had some research training. Not having one is unusual. Of course, once you have a few journal papers published it starts to matter a lot less. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: > > I can do research sitting at home > > > Read a few research papers published in highly regarded venues in your field of interest. Are you capable of producing that kind of work at this point in your training? * Do you know how to identify important and original research questions? * Do you know how to select an appropriate methodology for answering a particular research question? * Do you have a "toolbox" of methods you can apply to different research questions as appropriate? * Are you able to critically evaluate your own and others' work as experts in the field would? If not: a PhD is an apprenticeship in which you learn how to do the things mentioned above under the guidance of an expert advisor, in an environment that is designed for learning those skills, hopefully with a salary that allows you to focus on improving your research abilities. Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_4: In general: Research is a social process. Hypothetically, you can prove theorems at home and submit them to journals and review journal papers from home. The industry is unlikely to support pure maths during your work time. But there are not so many people worldwide who are able to do research without verbal communication. The majority of researchers need a social working environment to some extent, at least every while and then. And get financed as well. (Submitting a paper without an institution name on it looks strange, btw.) PhD is sometimes related to science (always in pure maths). PhD is something you cannot do without being associated to a university. What you get from a PhD degree has been mentioned in other answers. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: Within a startup as you suggest you may hit a problem that requires research. Without research training you may not have enough breadth or depth in your field to estimate the scope of the problem i.e whether the solution is well known in the field, the solution is at the edge of current knowledge or whether the solution is currently intractable. The issue that bedevils all computer science / software engineering problems both in academia and from an entrepreunurial perspective is estimating how long it will take to solve a given problem and how much it will cost. Typically the issue here is the less knowledge one has about a given problem domain the lower the time estimate given and the higher the potential for getting the estimate wrong. Development time estimation is an almost intractable problem in it's own right for various well known reasons, that the agile methodology has grown up to address. So what are the benefits of a PhD: wider and deeper domain knowledge obtained from the literature review, a set of research tools, ability to formally present solutions, a measure of mentoring and having been able to tackle a problem in a relative "soft environment" of academia, together with the enhanced credibility of the qualification. If of course the problem you want to solve is not at at or beyond the current research wavefront for your field, has a tractable solution you may be able to achieve a quick implementation and get to market in short order. Clearly only you can asses that in first instance. However if you have no commercial experience and no higher academic qualification where will you get your venture funding from? Upvotes: 1
2016/11/21	2,564	10,407	<issue_start>username_0: I'm planning to get double honours in CS and Pure Math. ([Link](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/80220/do-i-still-need-a-phd-to-do-research-if-i-have-double-honours-in-cs-and-pure-mat) to my previous post.) But I'm very confused about getting a PhD. Will it help me as a startup founder? The only thing that is stopping me from getting a PhD is time. I have excellent grades(almost perfect GPA). I'm very motivated to launch startup after graduating(maybe after working for a year or so). The only thing that's worrying me is that if I get stuck on a problem while working at my startup and the problem involves some sort of research, Will I be able to do research and solve that problem with my background(CS and Pure Math)? Say that problem is related to machine learning and involves creating a more intelligent machine.<issue_comment>username_1: It's impossible to say whether you personally getting a PhD will help you personally as an entrepreneur, but I'll give you some anecdotal insight into the level of educational attainment typical of Silicon Valley startups. I'm unaware of any research of the success rate of startups and associated founder educational attainment. So - I expect anecdotal evidence is the best we can do. I have worked in 5 Silicon Valley startups, and am familiar with many more from tiny two person shops to billion dollar unicorns. In Silicon Valley, it is unusual for startup founders and early employees to have PhDs. Of the 5 startups I have personally been involved with around 1 in 10 founders has had a PhD. Of those 5 companies, 1 grew directly out of academic research, 1 had some relation to academic research, and the other 3 had nothing to do with academic research. I would estimate the percentage of early employees in startups I am familiar with having a PhD at 5-10%. You can get a feel for this by looking at lists the startups funded by a various VCs, and then looking on LinkedIn to see the educational attainment of their founders: Here is <NAME>'s portfolio of startups: <https://a16z.com/portfolio/> Let's take a look at a few of their companies and founders highest educational attainment: * Actifio - MS * Airbnb - BS, BFA, BFA * Asana - Both founders are somewhat unclear, either no degree or a BS/A * Box - No degree, BS * Buzzfeed - No degree Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: No. Disclaimer: I am an academic. I have zero experience with startups. 1. A PhD can be a great way to develop cutting edge ideas, but a startup is not the place to conduct research, it's the place to translate proven research into a business. Major conceptual roadblocks should be sorted out and methods proven before you start a company. Consider the difference between Google as a startup and Theranos. Google had a working research artifact that they needed to develop into a commercial platform. Theranos is apparently going to implode because their basic concept has never been proven even after $400 million dollars of funding. 2. Startups generally aren't founded on an amazing technical idea. A well-motivated undergrad could build the basic technology platforms behind successful startups like Facebook (databases), WhatsApp (sockets programming), or SnapChat (databases plus sockets programming). There are definitely some startups that are successful because they have a great technical edge that no one else has figured out (see again Google for an example), but they're probably the exception. The bigger value of many tech startups is the fact that they serve an unrecognized need. Their future value comes from their mature systems engineering and user base. For example, Twitter serves about 350,000 tweets per minute, which is not a trivial system to create. WhatsApp and SnapChat have a user base that makes them incredibly valuable. 3. Research conducted in a PhD program tends to be "basic research". Research conducted for business purposes tends to be "translational research" or "development". They are related but different things. 4. A PhD program is probably not going to afford you the opportunity to work on a project of your choosing related to your business. 5. If you are able to work on business-related research there will be a minefield of legal questions over the ownership of the intellectual property when you want to monetize your venture. Unless very specific conditions are met and agreements are made before you start your program, it is guaranteed that the university or your adviser will have some claim to the intellectual property that results from your degree. This isn't necessarily a deal breaker, but it's probably beyond you if you don't currently have the resources to hire a lawyer. And you're not going to get the university to sign away its rights. 6. There are huge opportunity costs to getting a PhD. You will only have time for a business alongside a PhD if you are extremely dedicated. It is not uncommon for PhD students to work 50-60 hour weeks. If you work on federal research your stipend will be around $25,000-$30,000 per year, which you can easily double as an undergrad doing low-level CS stuff at a company. If you are a hard worker in the right place you could easily triple that number after the five or six years it would take you to get your degree. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: > > Will it help me as a startup founder? > > > I am going to consider this question as "Will doing a PhD help me as a startup founder, as opposed to having any other job?", based upon what I have observed with various startup-founding colleagues during my doctoral candidacy in Germany1. One way how it might help is by giving you an opportunity to build up a start-up while working towards your PhD. This only works with PhDs that you can get in such a way that you have an income to cover your living costs (e.g. when doing the PhD is connected to a job at the university, or similar). If that precondition is met, however, here is how the opportunity works out: * Working in research often allows you to manage your time very flexibly. Evidently, this is beneficial for preparing another project such as a start-up at the same time. (That does not mean you'll spend less time working as such than in a job in the industry. However, it can mean that you'll have the chance to attend a talk about founding startups in the middle of the day and come back to work later, or possibly even as a part of your working time if your supervisor thinks the knowledge gathered at that talk is also beneficial for the university department.) * It depends on the person, but some PhD supervisors are quite eager to help their advisees with endeavours such as building a start-up, certainly more so than commercial employers who couldn't care less about their employees' spare time activities and may even be opposed to the possible transfer of knowledge to a possible future competitor. * While working in research, chances are you have some influences on the direction your research goes towards, making it possible to somewhat align your research and startup topics. In most other jobs, you do not have much choice about the tasks you get assigned. * Unlike commercial entities, universities are often not that "protectionist" about their resources. In fact, transfer of acquired skills and knowledge into startups is a part of their mission. Hence, obstacles imposed by the university for using some research results will probably be much less of an issue compared to obstacles from a commercial employer. * The university brings you in touch with plenty of people with similar interests as yours, both among your fellow PhD candidates/colleagues and among the students you might be teaching. That is an excellent opportunity to find partners for jointly founding the startup, get in touch with who might become your first employees a few years later, or even just to discuss and exchange ideas. 1: Note that when we hear "startup" over here, we do not think "Google, Facebook, the next breakthrough product that will change our daily lives, the first step to what will soon become a multinational corporation". Rather, we think "a small consultancy that does contract work for a special niche subject, which might grow to a size of 10 to 50 employees in the next 5 to 10 years, another one among thousands". Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: You totally dont need a phd for starting a company. You need * friends * a vision * enthusiasm * a cheap place to sleep A guy makes an interesting point [comparing advantages and disadvantages](http://www.proandkon.com/484/of-doing-a-phd?show=486#a486) Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: Given that most of the answers ignore seemingly related and important aspects of your question, I'll provide another view on it: > > Will it help me as a startup founder? > > > It depends, of course. Reasons why it might not: * you will mostly be preoccupied with your research for which there is only a slight chance it might be connected to the focus of your potential startup * it might be better for you to devote the time you would spent on getting a Phd to the startup directly Reasons why it might: * potential ideas -- as you gain knowledge and expertise in an area, you might recognize a potential problem that could lead to a startup * startup culture -- depending on what your startup is doing, you might need more experts which you might be able to attract easier if you have a Phd * connections -- grad schools might be a good place to get them > > Will I be able to do research and solve that problem with my > background(CS and Pure Math)? > > > You will definitely more likely be able to recognize and solve a particular problem if it's in the area in which you are pursuing your Phd in. However, related to the previous question, it is less likely you will have time to do your research and apply it. (It's doable, but very hard.) > > The only thing that is stopping me from getting a PhD is time. I have > excellent grades(almost perfect GPA). > > > This is perhaps a minor thing, but just to mention that having good grades might be required for doing a Phd (at a particular place), it is by no means sufficient for a successful Phd. I suggest deciding to do a Phd only if you are familiar and fond of all (or most of) the aspects about it. Upvotes: 0
2016/11/22	2,733	11,225	<issue_start>username_0: I am currently the course leader of an introductory course for undergraduates. Each semester, more than 500 students take the course. One of the course assessment tasks is a multiple-choice quiz which is held twice a semester. One of the problems is that the quiz is currently paper-based, which makes the quiz logistically challenging. For example, we have to reserve multiple large lecture rooms, we have to print question papers, we have to collect multiple-choice answer sheets and scan them. In addition, it is not environmentally friendly to print and destroy such a large number of pieces of papers (our quiz consumes a few thousand sheets of paper!). I am thinking of moving to a computer-based multiple-choice quiz, which will be held in a computer lab in the university. Unfortunately, the maximum capacity of a computer lab is about 80 people, and due to the limited number of computer labs available, we would not be able to give the quiz to all of the students at the same time. In order to avoid the students who take the quiz earlier leaking the questions to the students who take the quiz later, I would have to design a test bank, so that the computer system would randomly draw questions from the test bank to assign them to students. Questions: 1. Would such a system be "fair", given that each student is taking a "different" test? 2. Do I need to design a very large test bank to protect against students who take the test early sharing the questions with students who take the test late? I would especially appreciate it if teachers who had successfully administered computer-based quizzes could share their best practices.<issue_comment>username_1: It's impossible to say whether you personally getting a PhD will help you personally as an entrepreneur, but I'll give you some anecdotal insight into the level of educational attainment typical of Silicon Valley startups. I'm unaware of any research of the success rate of startups and associated founder educational attainment. So - I expect anecdotal evidence is the best we can do. I have worked in 5 Silicon Valley startups, and am familiar with many more from tiny two person shops to billion dollar unicorns. In Silicon Valley, it is unusual for startup founders and early employees to have PhDs. Of the 5 startups I have personally been involved with around 1 in 10 founders has had a PhD. Of those 5 companies, 1 grew directly out of academic research, 1 had some relation to academic research, and the other 3 had nothing to do with academic research. I would estimate the percentage of early employees in startups I am familiar with having a PhD at 5-10%. You can get a feel for this by looking at lists the startups funded by a various VCs, and then looking on LinkedIn to see the educational attainment of their founders: Here is <NAME>'s portfolio of startups: <https://a16z.com/portfolio/> Let's take a look at a few of their companies and founders highest educational attainment: * Actifio - MS * Airbnb - BS, BFA, BFA * Asana - Both founders are somewhat unclear, either no degree or a BS/A * Box - No degree, BS * Buzzfeed - No degree Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: No. Disclaimer: I am an academic. I have zero experience with startups. 1. A PhD can be a great way to develop cutting edge ideas, but a startup is not the place to conduct research, it's the place to translate proven research into a business. Major conceptual roadblocks should be sorted out and methods proven before you start a company. Consider the difference between Google as a startup and Theranos. Google had a working research artifact that they needed to develop into a commercial platform. Theranos is apparently going to implode because their basic concept has never been proven even after $400 million dollars of funding. 2. Startups generally aren't founded on an amazing technical idea. A well-motivated undergrad could build the basic technology platforms behind successful startups like Facebook (databases), WhatsApp (sockets programming), or SnapChat (databases plus sockets programming). There are definitely some startups that are successful because they have a great technical edge that no one else has figured out (see again Google for an example), but they're probably the exception. The bigger value of many tech startups is the fact that they serve an unrecognized need. Their future value comes from their mature systems engineering and user base. For example, Twitter serves about 350,000 tweets per minute, which is not a trivial system to create. WhatsApp and SnapChat have a user base that makes them incredibly valuable. 3. Research conducted in a PhD program tends to be "basic research". Research conducted for business purposes tends to be "translational research" or "development". They are related but different things. 4. A PhD program is probably not going to afford you the opportunity to work on a project of your choosing related to your business. 5. If you are able to work on business-related research there will be a minefield of legal questions over the ownership of the intellectual property when you want to monetize your venture. Unless very specific conditions are met and agreements are made before you start your program, it is guaranteed that the university or your adviser will have some claim to the intellectual property that results from your degree. This isn't necessarily a deal breaker, but it's probably beyond you if you don't currently have the resources to hire a lawyer. And you're not going to get the university to sign away its rights. 6. There are huge opportunity costs to getting a PhD. You will only have time for a business alongside a PhD if you are extremely dedicated. It is not uncommon for PhD students to work 50-60 hour weeks. If you work on federal research your stipend will be around $25,000-$30,000 per year, which you can easily double as an undergrad doing low-level CS stuff at a company. If you are a hard worker in the right place you could easily triple that number after the five or six years it would take you to get your degree. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: > > Will it help me as a startup founder? > > > I am going to consider this question as "Will doing a PhD help me as a startup founder, as opposed to having any other job?", based upon what I have observed with various startup-founding colleagues during my doctoral candidacy in Germany1. One way how it might help is by giving you an opportunity to build up a start-up while working towards your PhD. This only works with PhDs that you can get in such a way that you have an income to cover your living costs (e.g. when doing the PhD is connected to a job at the university, or similar). If that precondition is met, however, here is how the opportunity works out: * Working in research often allows you to manage your time very flexibly. Evidently, this is beneficial for preparing another project such as a start-up at the same time. (That does not mean you'll spend less time working as such than in a job in the industry. However, it can mean that you'll have the chance to attend a talk about founding startups in the middle of the day and come back to work later, or possibly even as a part of your working time if your supervisor thinks the knowledge gathered at that talk is also beneficial for the university department.) * It depends on the person, but some PhD supervisors are quite eager to help their advisees with endeavours such as building a start-up, certainly more so than commercial employers who couldn't care less about their employees' spare time activities and may even be opposed to the possible transfer of knowledge to a possible future competitor. * While working in research, chances are you have some influences on the direction your research goes towards, making it possible to somewhat align your research and startup topics. In most other jobs, you do not have much choice about the tasks you get assigned. * Unlike commercial entities, universities are often not that "protectionist" about their resources. In fact, transfer of acquired skills and knowledge into startups is a part of their mission. Hence, obstacles imposed by the university for using some research results will probably be much less of an issue compared to obstacles from a commercial employer. * The university brings you in touch with plenty of people with similar interests as yours, both among your fellow PhD candidates/colleagues and among the students you might be teaching. That is an excellent opportunity to find partners for jointly founding the startup, get in touch with who might become your first employees a few years later, or even just to discuss and exchange ideas. 1: Note that when we hear "startup" over here, we do not think "Google, Facebook, the next breakthrough product that will change our daily lives, the first step to what will soon become a multinational corporation". Rather, we think "a small consultancy that does contract work for a special niche subject, which might grow to a size of 10 to 50 employees in the next 5 to 10 years, another one among thousands". Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: You totally dont need a phd for starting a company. You need * friends * a vision * enthusiasm * a cheap place to sleep A guy makes an interesting point [comparing advantages and disadvantages](http://www.proandkon.com/484/of-doing-a-phd?show=486#a486) Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: Given that most of the answers ignore seemingly related and important aspects of your question, I'll provide another view on it: > > Will it help me as a startup founder? > > > It depends, of course. Reasons why it might not: * you will mostly be preoccupied with your research for which there is only a slight chance it might be connected to the focus of your potential startup * it might be better for you to devote the time you would spent on getting a Phd to the startup directly Reasons why it might: * potential ideas -- as you gain knowledge and expertise in an area, you might recognize a potential problem that could lead to a startup * startup culture -- depending on what your startup is doing, you might need more experts which you might be able to attract easier if you have a Phd * connections -- grad schools might be a good place to get them > > Will I be able to do research and solve that problem with my > background(CS and Pure Math)? > > > You will definitely more likely be able to recognize and solve a particular problem if it's in the area in which you are pursuing your Phd in. However, related to the previous question, it is less likely you will have time to do your research and apply it. (It's doable, but very hard.) > > The only thing that is stopping me from getting a PhD is time. I have > excellent grades(almost perfect GPA). > > > This is perhaps a minor thing, but just to mention that having good grades might be required for doing a Phd (at a particular place), it is by no means sufficient for a successful Phd. I suggest deciding to do a Phd only if you are familiar and fond of all (or most of) the aspects about it. Upvotes: 0
2016/11/22	715	3,084	<issue_start>username_0: I am in my third year of PhD in Finance program, and I still haven't found a topic yet. I almost got burned out searching for topics. Stuff that I can think of are either trivial or have been done by the others before. Recently, I start feeling overwhelmed and self-doubting. Coming from an eingeering background, I used to solve problems, but not really good at asking problems. I am in need of some plan to overcome this, or else I will probably quit the problem for good.<issue_comment>username_1: Coming up with a proper, well-formed, sane, attackable research problem is challenging and part of the job of a researcher. It isn't always easy. Elements of a plan for you: Talk to your advisor/supervisor As others have mentioned as comments, you haven't indicated what your advisor has said to you or what guidance he or she has offered in finding a topic. What has he or she said/done/advised? Talk to your final class teachers Presumably over the previous three years you have been taking classes in your subject field. If this is true, and since your institution is a PhD-granting one, the teaching at this level should be research-informed. This means that the people teaching the subject material at graduate level should know what the limits of knowledge are in the field, and where there may be interesting questions to ask. Note --- they may not know what the questions are themselves (that's part of your job) but they should have some ideas where interesting work might be done. Talk to your peer group Who is in the same or similar field as you and doing research? Bounce ideas off them. Get to a conference/workshop/summer school If there's little to be gained in asking people around you (which is unlikely), see what summer schools are offered in your subject area and proceed as above: ask lecturers there what are the interesting areas in which to work. Ditto conferences --- whose work is interesting to you? Go talk to them. Find where your interests or skill sets overlap with what they consider areas of interesting opportunity. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Read more articles! You must gather a critical mass of information. You select some relevant topic to your field, then collect and critically analyze related background information. In other words, read tons of articles. Don't force an idea, instead you will eventually reach a critical mass of information. Things will fit together and it will look shimmery in your mind's eye. All of a sudden the critical mass becomes your idea. The beautiful thing about this approach is that depends on the work of those around us/in our field. As well it should! Speaking for myself, before I learned this technique, I was quite arrogant to think I could just come up with a brilliant and fresh idea on my own. We're in graduate programs for a reason! You got this! Discovery is hard because what you're looking for doesn't exist yet, self doubt is the totally appropriate reaction to that. ... go read a bunch of papers and good luck! Upvotes: 1
2016/11/22	587	2,424	<issue_start>username_0: I'm currently in my fourth and final year of my UK masters degree in Physics. The course is accredited as an MSci, equivalent to doing a 3 year Bsc followed by a 1 year Msc. I'd like to apply to study nuclear engineering at Universite Paris-Saclay in France. The masters available there consists of a Masters 1 and a Masters 2, 2 successive years of study. I'm trying to find out if it's possible to start directly in the Masters 2, but it's difficult to figure out what exactly my MSci will be equivalent to. The course states it requires a Masters 1 or equivalent, but with no information on what it considers sufficient. Under the bologna process, the UK masters is equivalent to the French (nominally), so in theory I'll already be above the required level. Does anyone know of a student starting a French masters in the second year?<issue_comment>username_1: As Ian\_Fin commented, you should simply contact the person in charge. Search for the name (and possibly e-mail address) of the academic in charge, rather then administrative staff, faculty have the decision power. You usually also can make an application directly following any guidelines there. There is no legal ground to prevent you to register, but you are not entitled either. I think your grade, motivation letter and possibly recommendations will be the most important parts. Try to add as much information as possible for grades, which are quite different in France (anything that makes clear what your grades mean to an outsider). Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: Yes, your integrated masters from the UK counts as a "Masters Européen"in France. Source: I directly began a PhD immediately after finishing my MPhys in the UK, at Paris-Saclay, last year. If I was able to do that, I have doubts (although it's possible) that you would have trouble doing a M2 here. As others have said, and as the other answer said, you should contact the university / admissions team as a first contact, to verify this. During the admission process you'll have to send your transcripts, and so in the end, they'll decide this for themselves. If it's anything like my admissions process, you will also have to send your MPhys dissertation, because it proves that you have done M2-equivalent work and a project with a significant time commitment and research result. However, I'd be very surprised if you had any problem. Upvotes: 1
2016/11/22	652	3,084	<issue_start>username_0: I was chosen as a reviewer for a conference in the field of computer science in which the authors can also submit some extra materials like proofs and additional implementations separately (until a week after the deadline), but their papers should be understandable and self-contained without considering these additional materials. The paper I’m reviewing has a good scientific contribution and I like the way they tried to solve the problem, but some parts are not so understandable unless you read the additional submitted PDF file. For example, their pseudo-code for their algorithm has some mistakes, but they provide the correct algorithm in the additional material. Also, they provided more implementation results in the extra PDF file, which I think are important to support their claim. The proof and in-detail explanation of their method is also provided there. The organizers have emphasized that the authors shouldn’t use the additional documents as way to submit a more complete version of the original paper. So to be fair, if they add some of the parts from their supplementary document to the main paper, then the resulting paper would be perfect and I’d definitely accept it. However, I’m not sure whether it is better to accept it with feedback on the lacking parts, telling them to move these parts from the additional PDF to the main one to make it complete, or to only consider the main paper to be self-explanatory, in that case I’d more likely reject it!<issue_comment>username_1: Your job is to provide critique and suggestions by which the authors can improve the paper. The published paper should be self-contained; that does not mean that as a reviewer you should ignore the supplementary material. It sounds to me like you already know how to advise the authors to improve their paper. I would definitely ask them to make improvements and submit a revision, rather than reject — especially if the paper would be "perfect" with your suggested changes. Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: You say that a paper should be self-contained and understandable in its own right, and as this paper isn't there could be grounds for rejecting it. However, it's not the case that you've been sent a flawed paper and have no evidence that the authors can do better. The supplementary material demonstrates that the paper could relatively readily be improved to make it self-contained and understandable. As username_1 has highlighted, one of your roles as a reviewer is to provide guidance on how a paper could be improved. Take this opportunity. Accept the paper (if the only options are accept or reject, as your question suggests) but strongly suggest that the authors improve the manuscript by bringing the relevant content from the supplementary materials into the paper. If the authors choose to ignore your advice, and it's far from obvious that they will if the material exists in some form and there's enough space in the paper for it to fill, then it's really only their paper that suffers. Upvotes: 3
2016/11/22	501	2,160	<issue_start>username_0: I have replicated a method of interpolation recently proposed by certain author, and I want to tell him that I have done so. I suppose the author is interested in knowing that students are engaged with his work and are using his findings. But I'm unsure on how should I address him. * Should I just write to him saying that I have applied his method to new data and found the same results? * Should I also send him my work? Or is it too rude to send him the attachment (it is my thesis actually) because he may not be interested in reading it? * Should I also comment the results in the same email? I don't know to which extent do I have to show him my results, because I don't wan't to overwhelm him but neither should he be the one asking for more info.<issue_comment>username_1: I have had a similar situation a few times. In your thesis, it is crucial to cite where your method comes from and how you are applying it to your study. As for writing to the academic, there is nothing wrong with letting them know that you have successfully applied their method to another dataset, but even for this and to ask for them to verify your results, it is very important to seek advice from your advisor first. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Don't send your thesis unless requested. You may write to the author and say that you were interested to read his or her paper, that you applied the method to data from Argentina and you obtained similar results as described in the paper. You may give a little hint about any interesting quirks you found along the way but that is optional and if you do it, you must be very brief in this initial email. The author may be interested enough to write back enthusiastically, asking for more information, and then you can send a summary and your thesis. You may get a conference invite out of it. You may get an invitation to collaborate. You may get a reference to your thesis in this person's future work. You may get some new ideas for future work of your own. This email you will send will be a fun bit of icing on the cake for you, after a lot of hard work! Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]
2016/11/22	1,494	6,498	<issue_start>username_0: I spoke with a research professor who informed me that I may be able to work with him on a systematic review. However, he warned that it can be very tedious and frustrating so I should think about it. I understand that a systematic review involves looking through many papers, however, I would appreciate if someone could tell me, from their experience, how it is tedious. I would also have other classes in addition to this research so would be able to work on it for about 10 hours a week.<issue_comment>username_1: A review article can be a massive undertaking. There might be no co-authorship if your contribution is not significant enough, if the scope of the review paper is very large and your contribution is a very small proportion of the work involved. Check whether or not you may expect authorship credit. I am concerned that this might end up being grunt work for you. On the other hand, even without co-authorship, if you are really interested in the subject, and if you are able to put clear limits on how much time you put in, and stick to them, it could be worthwhile for you. It can be tedious in the sense that there can be so many articles to include in the review that it starts to feel like you're crossing the Atlantic Ocean in a rowboat. (Not that I have ever written one. But I typed one in LaTeX for my advisor and even that started to feel rather endless after a while. I am still astounded how he managed to keep track of so many different papers.) Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: Tedious has a negative connotation. In many ways systematic review is meticulous, which to some people may appear tedious. One who enjoys reading, inspecting clues, and putting puzzles together to reveal hidden patterns would enjoy doing a systematic review. The first hurdle is perhaps setting up the research question and search criteria. If the set of keywords is not close to perfect the resultant articles may not be exhaustive, and being exhaustive is a spirit of systematic review. In addition, all searches need to be documented through writing or using codes, so that the search can be replicated by other people. The second hurdle is combing through moderate to large amounts of abstracts in order to identify the right targets. A set of carefully developed selection criteria will help. But a good handful of the retrieved abstracts may still fall into the gray zone and require some meetings to sort them out Then it comes the actual reading and data extraction. This can take months and months of reading, re-reading, tabulation, and revision. Again, if the authors know what to extract very clearly, the process can get less iterative. Notice that for the previous two hurdles, some research team may require two or more researchers to do them independently and then compare their results for agreement before divvying up the work. Be prepared for frequent team meetings or communications for troubleshooting. The last hurdle is to put all the tabulated information into use, through grouping, sorting, summary, and synthesis. This requires a great deal of understanding from the reading process and one's experience. The process can often be iterative. Making a good conceptual framework will help setting up a more robust draft. Keeping the research questions in mind as the north pointer can also prevent getting lost. And, all of the actions above need to be documented so that anyone can pick up the review and conduct a similar search (say, maybe 5 or 10 years later) in order to compare with what you found. In a way, systematic review can be viewed as an exhaustive, planned, and replicable literature review. Now back to your case. If it's 10 hours a week for a semester, chance is you will not see the fruition of the article, but you can definitely take part. The important part is to get a very clear idea which part of the process you're taking. Article searching and downloading may work for more flexible schedule, even 10 hours on a day per week is fine as long as you keep good searching notes. But if it's the later stage, it's better to work on it by small amount, like 2 hours every day, as the later stage requires more consistent immersion and regurgitating. And if I may make another suggestion, ask if the supervisor needs anyone to do a more general literature review for a grant proposal or a journal article. That should give you a smaller, more defined task and you can use this chance to see if you like this kind of work and, more importantly, if you and your supervisor work well together. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: > > tedious and frustrating > > > Systematic reviews are tedious and frustrating. There is a high level of transparency and accountability in every stage of the review process, which can make it very complex. Many "big" reviews are a product of a series of articles as the result. Some reviews publish there methodology as a separate article, BMJ Open is one I have seen, and then their review in another. Ultimately, you are setting up and defending a process that another researcher can hopefully pick up, rinse and repeat when they want to pick up new articles from when your review finished. Setting up a search strategy, usually with an academic librarian is important. Then strategising and documenting the tedious process before the next step of sifting through the sometimes enormous numbers of articles. I have seen reviews which included nearly 10K to 20K title elimination. That is probably where the frustration levels hit the roof (and you haven't even started the analysis and write up process!). I thought this is worth a new contribution because there are now plenty of systematic review tools that can help reduce the tediousness and frustration. So more time can be spent on the "meatier" sections of analysis and write up, but there is no consensus on the tools as yet.Most of the systematic review tools are developed by the health disciplines, so understandably some are open source are available to all. So you can hopefully adapt them to whatever field that you are in. My simple Google found these sites, but I am sure you can find more appropriate ones for yourself (Google adapts to your preferences). Personally, I was keen to use Covidence for my review, but my supervisors were keen to stick to their tried and trusted Excel, argh. <https://ktdrr.org/resources/sr-resources/tools.html> <http://systematicreviewtools.com> Upvotes: 0
2016/11/22	1,138	4,665	<issue_start>username_0: I was just handed a paper for review (official review request by an editor of a journal) written by my current supervisor (the guy with the grant). I have not been involved in this work, and I don't feel inclined to dish out any free goodwill on behalf of him being my supervisor. I'm well qualified to review it, and I think I would do a good job of it, but I'm worried that this constitutes a conflict of interest, and that I should decline. What is common practice around reviewing co-workers' papers?<issue_comment>username_1: If this is an informal request for internal review -- definitely go ahead. It is common practice to have close associates review work, and your thoughtful comments will gain you respect. If this is a formal invitation from a journal -- it is a clear conflict of interest. It probably should never have been sent to you, quite honestly. This is not to say you couldn't provide an unbiased, thoughtful review, but to an outsider this would really be questionable. I suggest you take the high road, decline the invitation, and send a letter to the action editor reminding him of your close association. Upvotes: 7 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Definitely don't do it. Write to the editor and decline. Often, journals will have some explicit guidelines on who appropriate referees are and what conflict-of-interest rules apply. Even beyond being able to give an unbiased review is a related standard, which is, "Would this give the appearance of major conflict if this were openly known?" To that end, I would suggest it is always inappropriate to referee papers by: * Your supervisor (or, the other way around, probably also former trainees) * Anyone in your department who could be voting on your tenure * Family members * Direct competitors (i.e. where there could be a possibility to compete to publish a result first, or where you know you are both applying for the same fellowship). I think the first three are examples where there is no way to avoid the appearance of conflict of interest. The fourth has a lot more wiggle room, of course, because there can always be some competition if you are close enough to referee the paper well! Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: The problem is not so much that you couldn't be objective: probably you could. However, it is also for your protection to argue a Conflict of Interest. Imagine you give a good review, then your judgement will be in doubt, even if justified. The review will not be considered very informative. Imagine you give a bad one - if that comes out, you can be in a lot of trouble, being in a dependency relation to your superviser. There are very good reasons to refuse. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: The question not asked yet is: Do you want to review the paper? If you don't then refuse it on behalf of conflict of interest. If you are confident you will do good job and you want to do it, then inform the editor that one of the authors is your supervisor and that there might be conflict of interest. And let the editor to decide. Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_5: I agree with other answers that you should not do the review. Here is an example of conflict of interest: <http://www.sigmod2015.org/calls_papers_sigmod_research.shtml> > > A paper author has a conflict of interest with a PC member when and > only when one or more of the following conditions holds: > > > * The PC member is a co-author of the paper. > * The PC member has been a co-worker in the same company or university within the past two years > * The PC member has been a collaborator within the past two years. > * The PC member is or was the author's primary thesis advisor, no matter how long ago. > * The author is or was the PC member's primary thesis advisor, no matter how long ago. > * The PC member is a relative or close personal friend of the author. > > > Papers with incorrect or incomplete conflict of interest information > as of the submission closing time are subject to immediate rejection. > > > Another concern is that your supervisor can recognize your writing style in the review, and this can lead to awkward situation. This is very likely since you and him/her probably co-authored a paper before, you send him/her emails everyday. You may have a habit of language usage that you yourself don't recognize, but everyone else do. Sometime, I do review for conferences that adopt double-blinded review, and I can correctly guess the authors. Because I read a lot of their papers in the past, and unintentionally train a classifier in my mind to recognize their writing style :). Upvotes: 2
2016/11/22	1,310	5,574	<issue_start>username_0: I'm applying to programs in Computer Science and Robotics and would feel very uncomfortable working on defense-focused or funded projects. Is it unrealistic (in terms of funding opportunities) to refuse to work on such projects? If not, at what point in application/admission does it make sense to make this expectation clear?<issue_comment>username_1: You may lose a position, but be open about not wanting to work for defense-oriented projects. Don't hide it, you do not gain anything by that (as mentioned above in the comments). Some people may not want to work with a "picky" person, anyway, so you do not lose anything, but it is better than unsaid suspicions about why you would not get clearance. Some bosses may have understanding and offer you non-defense-based contracts, but you need to decide beforehand whether you are happy to work in a group with mixed funding sources, where, while you won't, others may be funded by defense contracts. Some academics will welcome your attitude. It is an idea to check on the websites of your prospective employers for hints of whether the funding sources are mixed, or whether the academics possibly even explicitly avoid defense funding. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: This answer is for the US, based on my experience with US admissions. I would say that this is generally not an applications/admissions question, only because it's unlikely to be meaningful to admissions committees. Many graduate departments in computer science work on a cohort-admissions model, where a group of students are admitted each year and then are expected to find a faculty adviser once accepted. In this model it is up to you to find a research program that personally motivates you and then to persuade an adviser to take you on. It is at this stage that you would (and should) make it clear to a potential adviser that you're not willing to work on defense related projects. However, at this point it's probably moot because you're going to be talking to potential advisers based on your perceived compatibility. What might be a better thing to do during the application process is to ask whether a candidate department conducts any defense related research. Then you can just not apply to defense-related organizations rather than make it a point of contention with programs that you're interested in. Additionally, most CS research is not defense related, and most all broad-based research departments will have plenty of research opportunities that are not defense projects. Consider that [about 60% of US PhD students in Computer Science are foreign nationals](https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/07/12/new-report-shows-dependence-us-graduate-programs-foreign-students) and ineligible for this kind of work anyway. You will have no problem finding non-military projects to work on. Some places are well-known as defense-related institutions- for example the MIT Lincoln Laboratory, the Naval Research Laboratory, or the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. It is usually obvious from these organization's websites that this is a focus of theirs, and you can just avoid them. However, if you wanted to apply to a place such as this I would definitely discuss your personal ethics eariler rather than later, and your ethics definitely don't disqualify you. These labs do a lot of research that is "defense-related" in the sense that it provides for the common defense of the country, not because it's a military project. They work on everything from actual weapons systems to civil defense projects like weather satellites, making the energy grid more robust, and information security. Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: <NAME>, a Michigan faculty member that does not take military money, has some advice on this topic in ["Why don't I take military funding?"](http://web.eecs.umich.edu/%7Ekuipers/opinions/no-military-funding.html): > > ...there are plenty of options for supporting yourself through graduate school without military funding. You can be a teaching assistant; you can be a research assistant to a faculty member with other kinds of funding; you can find work maintaining computers for a lab in another department; you can get a part-time outside job; and so on. Generally, rejecting the single largest funder will require you to be more creative about looking at other funding possibilities. This creativity will serve you well. One of the fortunate things about working in computer science is that you have a practical skill that is needed by people in many different areas, and they are often willing to pay for your services.... > > > On finding faculty with similar beliefs, I would suggest just asking. A quick scan of each faculty member's web page, and especially the acknowledgements on publications, will tell you where they get their funding. Find a few people whose research you find attractive who have non-military funding, and talk to them. > > > Personally, I find it most productive to be clear and straight-forward, without being judgmental or confrontational. You will very likely find plenty of people who are very sympathetic to your values, but who aren't willing to make what they perceive as too large a sacrifice. In my personal opinion, it is more important to encourage people to see their choice of work, how it's funded, and what it's used for as an important moral decision that must reflect their own fundamental values, than to pressure them to make the same moral decisions that I have. > > > Upvotes: 2
2016/11/23	1,323	5,405	<issue_start>username_0: My son, 25, just got notified that he didn't pass his qualifier the second time around so he's been dropped from his PhD program. As a parent, I only want my child to be successfully happy, both in his personal and social life. It's disheartening and heartbreaking to know that all his hard work and countless hours of studying and burying deep in papers can all fall apart just like that because a committee wills him not good enough for them. He wasn't even pursuing a PhD. He was working on his MS in EE and one of his professors saw potential in him so she encouraged him to pursue a PhD with full funding. He will leave the program with a terminal MS (which he had already earned before entering the PhD program). On the exterior, he says he's fine with the outcome and can't wait to get into the real workforce. However, internally, I can sense he is battling with disappointment and alienation from his advisors and department, preferably the people he works with. I can only advise him to rethink his future 5 years from now where he'll be an accomplished Engineer with loads of work experience under his belt or a recent PhD graduate looking for a job. On the phone, I assured him, "you didn't fail, they failed you." My son will remain with his department until the end of the academic school year. However, how will being dropped from his program affect his transcripts if he should want to reapply at another university?<issue_comment>username_1: As mentioned in the comments, the official transcript will not give any hints about the failed exams, so future grad school admissions should not be affected. Your son would do well to speak frankly with his references. Probably their own good judgment would lead them not to mention the false start to a PhD in their letters of recommendation (for either PhD or employment). But it wouldn't hurt to verify that they will take this approach. With academic references, my impression is that there is generally no follow-up phone call. But for employment, which I believe was originally one of your concerns, it is fairly common for the potential employer to phone a reference for follow-up. Thus, it is possible that in such a conversation, the failed exams might come up... although I would guess that the probability of this occurring would be about 10%. (This really is just a guess.) Now, typically, the sequence goes like this: you send your CV to a promising job announcement, they ask you to interview, maybe there is a second interview, if they like you they check your references, and then they make you an offer. This means that if the false start is discovered in the reference check step, and you didn't mention it in the interview, that might raise a small red flag for someone in the company. Therefore, it might be a good idea to mention the false start in the interview, to be on the safe side. It is nothing to be ashamed about, however. I'm only suggesting this because companies sometimes get a little uncomfortable when something that comes up in a reference check wasn't mentioned in the interview. I have a parent-to-parent comment (this may already be obvious to you, but just in case it hadn't occurred to you already): the conclusion you came to, that great sentence about who failed whom -- very well put! And now, having found the perfect bon mot, and having shared it once with your son, you'll want to relegate the failed exams to the role of the elephant in the room that you don't talk about. You should also be careful not to talk to others about them in your son's hearing. That's probably the most helpful thing you can do at this stage. It will be easier for you to stay away from that topic if you consciously steer your thoughts elsewhere every time the thought of those exams starts to creep toward the front of your mind. (Of course, if your son introduces the topic, then it's okay to talk about it with him.) Do you know the joke about the mother on the ocean liner who needs to sound the "Man Overboard" alert as quickly as possible, but she is so bursting with pride that she sacrifices speedy action because of her need to brag? "Help, help! My son, the doctor, fell overboard!" Okay, so maybe you won't be the mother of a "my son the doctor." But here's the silver lining: chances are, you'll become a grandmother that much quicker now! (A PhD can really slow you down with other aspects of life.) Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Just because your son failed a qualifying exam for university X doesn't mean he's not qualified to get a PhD at all. The chances of this affecting future PhD admissions are slim as they would only consider the current qualification and skill-set of the candidate. > > ...you didn't fail, they failed you. > > > This reminds me about [<NAME> Mother's Letter](https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/thomas-edison-mothers-letter-changed-world-joseph-lynn). You said the right thing to your son! Because, more than anything else, he shouldn't lose his self-confidence. You believe in your son and so does his MS advisor. However, whether he has the potential or not, talk to him and find out whether he has the passion for research. PhD requires more of perseverance than skill. If he still got the interest, then by all means encourage him to apply again to another university. My best wishes! Upvotes: 3
2016/11/23	1,677	7,337	<issue_start>username_0: I am hesitating whether to apply to some of the "University of California" universities. The problem is, many of them ask for a "personal history statement": > > Describe how your background, accomplishments, and life experiences led to your decision to pursue the graduate degree for which you are applying. Include any educational, personal, cultural, economic, or social experiences, challenges or opportunities relevant to your academic journey. In addition, please describe any aspects of your personal background, accomplishments, or achievements that will allow the department to evaluate your contributions to the University's diversity mission. Contributions to diversity and equal opportunity can take a variety of forms, such as efforts to advance equitable access to education, public service, that addresses the need of a diverse population, or research that explores inequalities. > Your department may have special prompts and directions for the Personal History Statement; be sure to check the requirements. > > > (Note that the Personal History Statement is not the Statement of Purpose; it is a separate statement that is required in addition to the Statement of Purpose. See e.g. [these application instructions](https://www.psych.ucla.edu/graduate/prospective-students/application-instructions). ) Honestly, as an Asian male international student, I really have nothing to say about this. I have a very happy family, so I really don't have "challenges". I honestly just want to study math because probably that's the only reason why someone would want to get a PhD in math. I've been struggling with this for days but still have absolutely no idea how to write this. I mean, I live a happy life. My parents are divorced but I was not particularly "challenged" per se. Does that mean I cannot contribute to the diversity? I don't even know what they are looking for. Should I market myself being overcoming huge difficulties (even though I did not face huge difficulties)? Or should I pretend that I am really under-represented? :/<issue_comment>username_1: The dreaded personal statement! Put yourself in the shoes of the people reviewing your application. They will have a large pile (50-100+) of applications. They will be tired. They'll probably do some skimming. This is your audience. Your goal is to attract their attention. You can attract attention in your statement with simple and clear organization, and by bolding the major points that you want to make. Think of the statement more like a sales pitch. Make the argument simple. Then bold the main points. This will help the reviewers literally "see" your application. Also, think of the questions that a reviewer will have. They will be reading your application looking for the answers to these questions: 1. Can this person write well? 2. What research/scholarship skills do they have? 3. Why does this person want to come to this university? 4. Does this person want to work with me? Do they mention my name? Your statement should be an argument that answers these kinds of questions. Tips for organization: Come up with a simple story-structure for your statement. For example: 1. Section 1: Very brief intro. Hi, I'm Misakov... Here are my general interests, let me tell you why I'm an excellent choice for your program. 2. Section 2: Previous training/experience. In this section, write a short paragraph for each experience, highlighting the relevant skills you learned in each. Also, having some parallel structure across the paragraphs will help the readers find the info they are looking for. For example, each section could tell the same story: I worked with X person, we worked on Y conceptual issue and found Z result. I learned A, B and C skills. 3. Section 3: Here's why your program is a good fit. * Why this program? I'm interested in this program because... * People I would like to work with: Mention some specific faculty that you would like to work with. You don't need to say more than a couple sentences about each person. (This may be unnecessary in Math, I come from a different field) Now for some specific comments: * I want to point out that when they say challenges, they don't mean they want to hear about your parents divorce. They mean that time you couldn't find software to do X for you, so you wrote an app that could. * Do not pretend anything (I'm going to assume that comment was made out of desperation and not with any real intent to do something so unnecessary and unethical)! Your story is enough. You are an international Asian student. Mention this. It need not be dramatic, but yes that is considered an increase in diversity. * Other things they are looking for/other things that can relate to you increasing diversity: Do you mentor or tutor students? Do you do any volunteer work? What efforts have you made to disseminate research findings to the broader public? Have you received any scholarships or awards that demonstrate your commitment to Z? Are you in a math club of some kind and do you go to grade schools once a year to get young children excited about math? * Increasing diversity is not just about you. It's about the people and community you support as well. Bottom Line: Despite its name, the personal statement is not personal. It's professional. Hope this helps! Good luck. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: The previous answer was great, but since it didn't assuage your doubts, I'll try a different approach. I will rewrite the instructions for you, removing the parts you're having trouble with. > > Describe how your accomplishments led to your decision to pursue the graduate degree for which you are applying. Include any educational opportunities relevant to your academic journey. Your department may have special prompts and directions for the Personal History Statement; be sure to check the requirements. > > > Sample response: I always felt that my math teacher and I were on the same wavelength. I always loved going to math class, and my math assignments were always my favorite part of doing homework. I had a wonderful opportunity in 9th grade when I was invited to participate in \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_. It was an honor to represent my school, and participating in the event, with scores of other math geeks, was thrilling. You have my permission to stop there. Now, if you decide to make a stab at addressing the diversity question, consider this: what is the demographic make-up of the state of California, and how did that come to be? (I will let you find the answer to those questions, as homework.) Has there been a historical gender imbalance in your field? Is there anything about you that would make you an effective graduate student instructor, mentor or outreach specialist, enabling you to effectively support the success of underrepresented groups in your field? Perhaps you have had experience communicating with someone with a different dialect. Perhaps you had more patience with this than some of your fellow students. Perhaps you have been lucky enough to be educated in a system where women were not underrepresented in your field, and this experience left you with a firm belief in the role of women in your field. (These are just examples to give you an idea.) Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]
2016/11/23	1,902	6,559	<issue_start>username_0: In [this comment](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/26455/what-should-i-do-if-i-submitted-an-article-to-a-predatory-journal/78916?noredirect=1#comment198048_78916), it was claimed: > > Predatory publishers thrive because when you apply for a job or a grant, few read your papers. They check the papers you pinpoint and the number of publcations. That's where these publishers step on and that's why people choose them. Not because they don't know. Of course there might be a few accidentally doing it, like the OP in this question, but most of the people who are in academia for a while select them only to increase faster their publication list. > > > By contrast, I cannot remember a single case of somebody reporting their experience with such publisher on this very site that submitted a paper to a predatory publisher knowingly (except for exposing them). Now, there is no denying that there is a strong bias here since people who intentionally choose a predatory publisher are less likely to admit it or ask questions here. So, I am curious: Is there any data or good argument to support the claim that people who publish with predatory publishers are aware that they are not publishing with a regular scientific publisher?<issue_comment>username_1: There is some circumstantial evidence against the claim that most people who publish with predatory publishers are aware that they are not publishing with a regular scientific publisher. 1. Many authors of papers published in predatory journals are inexperienced with academic publication. From [1]: > > The majority of authors who publish in predatory journals have no other publications, whereas the second largest group consists of authors with fewer than five journal publications elsewhere; very few authors have published more than 10 articles. In contrast, the histogram reveals that group 2 authors, those who publish in OA journals that have a robust review process and subsequently rejected Bohannon's false submission, generally have a stronger publication record. With the exception of a few new authors, most group 2 authors have published journal articles previously; in fact, some authors have published more than 30 articles. > > > [![diagram from paper](https://i.stack.imgur.com/CrAsU.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/CrAsU.png) > > > (Group-1 journals are open-access journals with low-quality or no peer review; group-2 journals are open-access journals that have more rigorous peer-review process than the journals in group 1. All are biomedical-science journals.) 2. Many prospective authors are unfamiliar with predatory journals and unaware of predatory practices in the academic publishing industry. In a survey of 145 medical and veterinary science participants in a scientific writing workshop [2]: > > Thirty-four of 142 (23.9%) respondents were aware of the DOAJ; 7/143 (4.8%) were aware of Beall’s list, 33/143 (23.0%) were aware of the term “predatory journal”, and 24/142 (16.9%) were aware of the Science article about predatory journals. > > > In another (very small) survey of U.S.-based authors who published in criminal-justice journals on Beall’s list [3]: > > Just under half (44%; 4 respondents) of the respondents had heard of the “Scholarly Open Access List” and one-third of the respondents had heard of the term “Predatory Journal.” Furthermore, all but one of the respondents was not aware that they had published an article in a journal associated with the predatory journal list. One respondent questioned the accuracy of their association with a predatory journal, and stated > > > > > > > … should not be on the list. They had more referees than any other journal I’ve pursued and I’m [the] author of 20 peer reviewed papers (sic). > > > > > > > > > --- References: [1]: <NAME>, <NAME>, <NAME>, <NAME>, <NAME>, <NAME>. Who publishes in “predatory” journals?. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology. 2015 Jul 1;66(7):1406-17. DOI: [10.1002/asi.23265](http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/asi.23265) [2]: <NAME>, <NAME>. Awareness of “Predatory” open-access journals among prospective veterinary and medical authors attending scientific writing workshops. Frontiers in Veterinary Science. 2015;2. DOI: [10.3389/fvets.2015.00022](http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2015.00022) [3]: <NAME>, <NAME>, <NAME>. Predatory Journals in the Criminal Justices Sciences: Getting our Cite on the Target. Journal of Criminal Justice Education. 2016 Jul 8:1-8. DOI: [10.1080/10511253.2016.1195421](http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10511253.2016.1195421) Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Considering there are hundreds of thousands of papers published in predatory journals, it stretches belief that all the authors of those papers aren't aware of what they're doing. Increasingly, it seems like there's a supply and demand situation here: academics need to get published (demand), so predatory publishers provide the means to do so (supply). See this article by the [New York Times](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/30/science/predatory-journals-academics.html) about it, and references within (especially [this one](https://ottawacitizen.com/opinion/columnists/pyne-are-universities-complicit-in-predatory-publishing)). [This article](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2017-08-29/medical-journals-have-a-fake-news-problem) has a section about big pharmaceutical companies that publish with OMICS, a publisher widely regarded as predatory. The author was not able to ascertain if the pharmaceutical companies are aware of OMICS' shady reputation, but finds it's not impossible that they are, and are just looking for quick and easy ways to publish. For example, Pfizer published an article about the costs (in dollars) of severe back pain, which would probably have been rejected by the leading medical journals because of cost studies are notoriously unreliable. [This article](https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/german-scientists-frequently-publish-in-predatory-journals-64518) claims "[some German] scientists appear to have taken advantage of the lack of editorial oversight ... to report their results quickly and without the risk of rejection." As one might guess it's not an easy topic to get accurate data on, because nobody is going to claim they knowingly published in a predatory journal because they wanted to report their results quickly and without risk of rejection. Upvotes: 1
2016/11/23	573	2,477	<issue_start>username_0: I'm currently investigating a subject that has theoretical and algorithmic aspects. I have my theoretical background that I think is novel enough. As for the algorithmic aspect, I found paper X (not written by me or anyone I know personally) to be genuinely very good, but I think that using my theoretical advances I can improve it further, especially for my own application which slightly differs from the one the authors of X had in mind. Now, after I analyzed and scrutinized X's algorithm in practice (i.e. obtained the source code and performed numerous experiments), I found that some of their assumptions and declarations are inaccurate. [E.g., if their algorithm consists of stages A->B->C->end, and they claim A makes a big difference and is their novelty, I find that it is in fact a good implementation of C that makes that difference.] I certainly don't mean to undermine or criticize them because it is a good paper. However, I do find some discrepancies. So, in my paper, should I also include some subsection in which I specify these issues (with suitable justifications), or will it just look as nitpicking or otherwise negative behaviour on my part? Thanks. EDIT (clarification): even though it seems to be a specialized case, it's really about etiquette regarding criticism of other authors' papers.<issue_comment>username_1: If you make choices that only make sense if the article contains mistakes, then point out those mistakes to justify your choices. Then it becomes a matter of necessity to point out the mistakes, not one of nitpicking. However as a matter of courtesy and due diligence, you could contact the original authors to ask them about the mistakes. Be sure to approach the subject gently. Along the lines of: "in the article you state that A was the cause of the performance gain, but in my tests I found the performance gain in C. As you see in these results. Do you know what I did differently than you?" Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: There are ways of stating things which do not call the quality of the original work X or its authors into question. I have read many a paper containing inaccuracies. If you cannot describe your enhancements to X without citing the discrepancies you found, then by all means include them. However, it would be good form to only state that which is necessary and make it clear that you discovered these discrepancies through your own empirical analysis. Upvotes: 1
2016/11/23	829	3,753	<issue_start>username_0: My research paper was published as a conference document. I signed the copyright. In accordance with it the publisher is a copyright owner. Now, I found that my abstracts is written (literally) on the website of some organization which is unknown for me. The abstract on the publisher's website is open and can be copied without restriction and without payment. So, as I understand the abstract is considered as an open access publication and can be borrowed by anyone and without my or publisher's permission. Right? Or there is some rules which can regulate such issue?<issue_comment>username_1: If the publisher now holds the copyright, they would have to provide the permission to reproduce it. The "law [that] protects such right" that you referred to in your comment is [copyright law](http://www.whatiscopyright.org/). The publisher can explicitly allow everybody to replicate the work, e.g. through a [Creative Commons](https://creativecommons.org/) license (although this often includes the clause to also reproduce the license information), or by a general waiver on their site. So you'd have to look for something like that at your publisher's website, and otherwise you might want to notify them of the reproduction - assuming you don't agree with it. (Do consider that more publicity for your work might not be a bad thing.) Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: There are two distinct questions here: 1) Does the website have permission to publish your abstract? You no longer own the copyright to your work, your publisher does. They undoubtedly have many agreements allowing other businesses to publish your work. This website may or may not have permission, unbeknownst to you. In my field it is not uncommon for online search engines to index the papers available at the other online sites. 2) If the website does not have permission, does their usage of your work fall under any of the exemptions to copyright law? This is called "fair use", and allows others to use copyrighted work without explicitly negotiating a license with the copyright holder. It's a recognition that strictly enforcing copyright in all circumstances would inhibit creative expression. When deciding whether or not a particular instance is "fair use" there are four general principles: 1. Is the nature of the work non-profit or educational? 2. Does the nature of the work have any bearing on how it is used? 3. How much of the work is reproduced in relation to the whole? 4. How does the unauthorized reproduction affect the market value of the entire work? (These are not the only factors that may be considered, but they are by and far the most prevalent.) In your situation, factors 2, 3, and 4 would strongly suggest that there is an argument to be made for fair use in this case. With respect to point 2, the only part of the work that has been reproduced is the abstract. The whole purpose of the abstract is to summarize and advertise the work for the benefit of others. In considering point 3 the abstract is only a small fraction of the overall work. For point 4 it is unlikely that reproducing just the abstract is going to affect the overall market value of the work, as again the purpose of the abstract is to advertise. As a final note, you should go read the copyright release you signed with the original publisher. Typically these releases say that the publisher has the sole right to pursue action against a copyright infringer, but that they are not obligated to do so. If this is indeed the case, then the only legal recourse you have is to notify the publisher and hope they do something about it. It would be illegal for you to pursue your own remedy (such as filing a DCMA takedown notice). Upvotes: 1
2016/11/23	594	2,066	<issue_start>username_0: I read on <https://ropengov.github.io/r/2016/06/10/FOI/>: > > Finland becomes to our knowledge the first country where annual subscription fees for all individual publishers and all major research institutions have been made available. > > > […] > > > Limited access to detailed pricing information and agreement details are likely to result in suboptimal contracts (Cockerill, 2006; Shieber, 2009). Improved access to subscription costs can hence be expected to lead to better deals and lower costs for the universities. It can also facilitate transition to the Open Access (OA) publishing model. > > > Why don't major research institutions systematically publish their subscription fees to scientific journals? --- References: * <NAME> (2009). Equity for Open-Access Journal Publishing. PLOS Biology 7(8): e1000165.DOI: <http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.1000165> * <NAME> (2006). The Economics of Open Access Publishing. Information Services and Use 26(2): 151–157. Available at: <http://content.iospress.com/articles/information-services-and-use/isu499> [Last accessed 28 October 2015].<issue_comment>username_1: Presumably an important reason is that publishers contractually forbid libraries from disclosing this information, see for example <http://access.okfn.org/2014/04/24/the-cost-of-academic-publishing/>: > > And then libraries are not allowed to tell anyone what these costs are. Libraries are placed under huge amounts of pressure not to release this data, and in the case of Elsevier, they are explicitly forbidden to by non-disclosure agreements in the contracts they have to sign. > > > This is a reference from 2014, so perhaps meanwhile things have changed (but I would guess not). Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_2: Perhaps it's because if many universities had enough backbone to do this, they would already have started a full-on "war" against journal publishers and their outrageous contracts, and the prices would have come down to something reasonable and uniform? Upvotes: 3
2016/11/23	1,856	7,911	<issue_start>username_0: Recently, I got a paper to review for a journal (Elsevier) which is very reputed. The fact is that this journal had rejected two of my earlier works after keeping it under review for more than a year approximately. I understand that in science, it is good to forget the past; however, it still keeps me haunted when I think that my works became obsolete because of unnecessary delay in the review process that resulted in no satisfactory comment on rejection. Is it weird that the journal is now thinking that I am capable of reviewing a manuscript? Anyway, past apart, how should I respond? Should I accept the review invitation? Or, should I just say that I can't do the review, which will be like Tit-For-Tat. I don't know, I am confused.<issue_comment>username_1: These two issues are separate: if they reject your paper without comments, that's where you have to complain. They did not do a good job, reputable or not, and you are entitled to an explanatory review, especially since they wasted your time. But you should not link the issues. If you think the journal is not as good as it used to be, you can decide not to review. If you think it is good, then, depending on how much time you have, you can offer to do the review. And if you do, do it with as much goodwill as you would for a journal that gave your astounding reviews. But you should not link your rejection and your review - it is tempting to do so, but it is not a professional attitude. And you want to be just that: a professional. Upvotes: 8 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: > > Is it weird that the journal is now thinking me capable of reviewing a manuscript? > > > Not really. Almost all scientists have their papers rejected on a regular basis and if this disqualified them from reviewing, journals would be running out of reviewers extremely quickly. Moreover, highly ranking journals reject papers mainly for their lack of importance, not for being technically bad. So, assuming that you have some publications elsewhere to advertise your qualities and your paper was not rejected for outrageous problems (such as plagiarism), I do not find this weird. > > Should I accept the review invitation? Or, should I just say that I can't do the review, which will be like Tit-For-Tat. > > > Only you can make this decision, but consider these points: * Seeking revenge on a journal because they rejected your paper is neither ethical nor professional. * On the other hand, if you think that the journal or publisher are generally practicing bad behaviour, you can refuse to review on that basis and should state your reasons. It is even okay if you make that judgment on basis of your own experiences – there is a crucial difference between “I refuse because you rejected my paper” and “I refuse because of how you rejected a paper (which happened to be mine)”. However, I think that if you do, you should have complained about these issues when your paper was rejected – after all whatever you experienced could be bad luck or due to a single bad editor. Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_3: I suspect you ticked the "available for reviewing" box when you submitted your earlier work via Elsevier's editorial system. Your name then showed up in a list of potential reviewers based on the keywords you entered at that time. It's possible that the people who handled your papers are different from the ones asking you to be a reviewer. While I understand the frustration, I don't think it's wise to "rage quit" a journal you consider reputable on that ground. If you don't feel qualified because of the rejections or some other reason, then it's best to politely decline. If not, it's actually a great exercise for you and an opportunity to be part of the community that publishes in your field. Also, by completing your review in a timely manner yourself you can "be the change you want to see [in your field]". Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_4: > > Is it weird that the journal is now thinking me capable of reviewing a manuscript? > > > No, it isn't. Rejecting your papers was a judgement about those specific papers, not about your personal abilities as a scientist. It doesn't indicate that the journal somehow thinks you, personally, aren't good enough for their journal, it just means those particular papers didn't make the cut. If your experience with the journal has actually poisoned your relationship with it - in particular, if you wouldn't submit again for fear of the same thing happening - then that's probably a reason to decline (perhaps just politely responding that you don't have the time, which is always a valid response). Answering that question probably means deciding whether you think the journal really mishandled your papers, and in a systematic enough way that you don't trust them to handle others, or if they just happened to reject them, or just had a one-time mess-up by a single editor. Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_5: One fact that hasn't been mentioned in the other answers is that a "journal" is not a homogeneous entity. A typical reputed journal (at least in the engineering domain that I am familiar with) consists of 15-20 associate editors (AE) who handle the reviews. It is quite likely that the AE who handled your paper(s) is different from the AE who is asking you for a review. When I am handling a paper as an AE, I never check if the reviewer has had any paper rejected in the past. As others have said, almost everyone receives rejections for top journals. As an AE, what is important for me is to find reviewers who will be able to provide a critical evaluation of the manuscript under review...it really does not matter if the reviewer has published in that journal in the past. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_6: There is no dilemma here and no argument for revenge. Being asked to peer review is a complement at its best and at worst an honor. It would also seem to me that if you take the revenge route, you are not only taking this out on an innocent party who is waiting patiently for his or her paper to be reviewed. But you are also running the risk of damage to your reputation with this publication. My advice is that you take the risk of showing some academic integrity by submitting the most honest review possible as quickly as you possibly can. Where's the harm in committing a random act of kindness. Especially when it's the right and only thing to do. Short of washing your hands of that publication where under such a circumstance you would decline the review as soon as you can for the sake of that writer so that they can find another reviewer quickly. So, do the review and submit your updated paper as well to the same associate editor. Take this opportunity to build a relationship. Don't shoot yourself in the foot. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_7: How to proceed: Review the paper honestly and objectively, just as you would hope someone would review yours. This really should not be a question that needs to be asked in my opinion, as the ethical way to proceed is crystal clear. Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_8: Your papers being rejected is not the case for a grudge against the particular journal. The longevity of the process could be. If you have been invited, it is quite possible that one of the editors thinks that you are capable of evaluating research at the (apparently) high level the journal strives for. Partially, it is a badge of honour (of course reviewing papers is hard work and reviewers are needing everywhere), since now you have the option of participating in the "old boys club" that rejected your papers, and applying your judgement to other people's works. You can influence the outcome of the reviews. If you think they handled you unfairly, you now have the option to contribute to fairer handling of other manuscripts. Upvotes: 2
2016/11/23	1,762	7,564	<issue_start>username_0: I'm giving a talk on scientific conference in a couple of days and I have prepared my concept and my presentation. Because what I'm going to talk about is not done in practise in my country, I have included in my presentation examples and research results from the past from other academics and researchers. Is this okay? I will also give credits underneath each slide to the respected researchers.<issue_comment>username_1: These two issues are separate: if they reject your paper without comments, that's where you have to complain. They did not do a good job, reputable or not, and you are entitled to an explanatory review, especially since they wasted your time. But you should not link the issues. If you think the journal is not as good as it used to be, you can decide not to review. If you think it is good, then, depending on how much time you have, you can offer to do the review. And if you do, do it with as much goodwill as you would for a journal that gave your astounding reviews. But you should not link your rejection and your review - it is tempting to do so, but it is not a professional attitude. And you want to be just that: a professional. Upvotes: 8 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: > > Is it weird that the journal is now thinking me capable of reviewing a manuscript? > > > Not really. Almost all scientists have their papers rejected on a regular basis and if this disqualified them from reviewing, journals would be running out of reviewers extremely quickly. Moreover, highly ranking journals reject papers mainly for their lack of importance, not for being technically bad. So, assuming that you have some publications elsewhere to advertise your qualities and your paper was not rejected for outrageous problems (such as plagiarism), I do not find this weird. > > Should I accept the review invitation? Or, should I just say that I can't do the review, which will be like Tit-For-Tat. > > > Only you can make this decision, but consider these points: * Seeking revenge on a journal because they rejected your paper is neither ethical nor professional. * On the other hand, if you think that the journal or publisher are generally practicing bad behaviour, you can refuse to review on that basis and should state your reasons. It is even okay if you make that judgment on basis of your own experiences – there is a crucial difference between “I refuse because you rejected my paper” and “I refuse because of how you rejected a paper (which happened to be mine)”. However, I think that if you do, you should have complained about these issues when your paper was rejected – after all whatever you experienced could be bad luck or due to a single bad editor. Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_3: I suspect you ticked the "available for reviewing" box when you submitted your earlier work via Elsevier's editorial system. Your name then showed up in a list of potential reviewers based on the keywords you entered at that time. It's possible that the people who handled your papers are different from the ones asking you to be a reviewer. While I understand the frustration, I don't think it's wise to "rage quit" a journal you consider reputable on that ground. If you don't feel qualified because of the rejections or some other reason, then it's best to politely decline. If not, it's actually a great exercise for you and an opportunity to be part of the community that publishes in your field. Also, by completing your review in a timely manner yourself you can "be the change you want to see [in your field]". Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_4: > > Is it weird that the journal is now thinking me capable of reviewing a manuscript? > > > No, it isn't. Rejecting your papers was a judgement about those specific papers, not about your personal abilities as a scientist. It doesn't indicate that the journal somehow thinks you, personally, aren't good enough for their journal, it just means those particular papers didn't make the cut. If your experience with the journal has actually poisoned your relationship with it - in particular, if you wouldn't submit again for fear of the same thing happening - then that's probably a reason to decline (perhaps just politely responding that you don't have the time, which is always a valid response). Answering that question probably means deciding whether you think the journal really mishandled your papers, and in a systematic enough way that you don't trust them to handle others, or if they just happened to reject them, or just had a one-time mess-up by a single editor. Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_5: One fact that hasn't been mentioned in the other answers is that a "journal" is not a homogeneous entity. A typical reputed journal (at least in the engineering domain that I am familiar with) consists of 15-20 associate editors (AE) who handle the reviews. It is quite likely that the AE who handled your paper(s) is different from the AE who is asking you for a review. When I am handling a paper as an AE, I never check if the reviewer has had any paper rejected in the past. As others have said, almost everyone receives rejections for top journals. As an AE, what is important for me is to find reviewers who will be able to provide a critical evaluation of the manuscript under review...it really does not matter if the reviewer has published in that journal in the past. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_6: There is no dilemma here and no argument for revenge. Being asked to peer review is a complement at its best and at worst an honor. It would also seem to me that if you take the revenge route, you are not only taking this out on an innocent party who is waiting patiently for his or her paper to be reviewed. But you are also running the risk of damage to your reputation with this publication. My advice is that you take the risk of showing some academic integrity by submitting the most honest review possible as quickly as you possibly can. Where's the harm in committing a random act of kindness. Especially when it's the right and only thing to do. Short of washing your hands of that publication where under such a circumstance you would decline the review as soon as you can for the sake of that writer so that they can find another reviewer quickly. So, do the review and submit your updated paper as well to the same associate editor. Take this opportunity to build a relationship. Don't shoot yourself in the foot. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_7: How to proceed: Review the paper honestly and objectively, just as you would hope someone would review yours. This really should not be a question that needs to be asked in my opinion, as the ethical way to proceed is crystal clear. Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_8: Your papers being rejected is not the case for a grudge against the particular journal. The longevity of the process could be. If you have been invited, it is quite possible that one of the editors thinks that you are capable of evaluating research at the (apparently) high level the journal strives for. Partially, it is a badge of honour (of course reviewing papers is hard work and reviewers are needing everywhere), since now you have the option of participating in the "old boys club" that rejected your papers, and applying your judgement to other people's works. You can influence the outcome of the reviews. If you think they handled you unfairly, you now have the option to contribute to fairer handling of other manuscripts. Upvotes: 2
2016/11/24	480	2,123	<issue_start>username_0: I have a couple of published works, and I have received, so far, three review requests from three different journals. I have decided that reviewing service will help my resume at this stage. How can I increase my chance of receiving review requests from good journals? Is it appropriate to contact an editor and offer my service? Is it appropriate to contact the editors of the same journals that have already asked me to do review, and offer them that I would be willing to do more in future?<issue_comment>username_1: I think being a reviewer can round out your overall scholarly portfolio, but that is definitely not the big ticket item for a CV, especially if you are on or seeking a tenure track position. If you are an early career investigator, focus on publishing high-quality articles, and then the request for reviews will start to flow. You can reach out to editors and offer your services. But, to be frank, I would invest your time in producing, rather than reviewing, scholarly works. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: username_1 is entirely correct that this is the sort of service that is valuable to the field, but does not make your CV/resume stand out. Most people view reviewing as a combination of altruism and self-interest in choosing what the field should care about. If, however, you still want to gain more opportunities to review: 1) Ask your collaborators or advisors. Assuming they are more senior, they will probably get more requests than they want to handle, and can suggest you as a potential referee. 2) Do a clear, thorough, and timely job with your reports. 3) If you have reviewed for a journal before or submitted there, you may have a "referee profile" there, which will include keywords for paper topics you are qualified to handle. Make sure these are correct and up-to-date. 4) You can create a public review profile with Publons, which could let editors find you more easily. [I haven't done this, so I can't speak to its effectiveness, but unless you are publicly posting terrible reviews, it probably wouldn't hurt.] Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]
2016/11/24	521	1,718	<issue_start>username_0: I'm looking to get an MBA at University of Texas at Austin. I'm planning on working full-time while going to school, so I'm interested in their Evening MBA program. I'm trying to understand costs. According to their website, the program takes 2.5 years to complete, that's equivalent to 5 semesters. The program costs $15,320 per semester, which should mean that the total program costs $76,600. However, on [this page](http://www.mccombs.utexas.edu/MBA/TEMBA/Cost-Aid/Cost) they have 3 semesters per year, which doesn't make any sense to me. Add up all those numbers together, and you end up with a total cost of $107,240. So which one is it? Is a semester not really a 6-month period in academic lingo?<issue_comment>username_1: Each institution defines the length of a semester differently. Even within a university different programs may use different calendars. A semester is usually shorter than six months, but often there are two a year. Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: The program is designed to include two summers. Spring, summer, fall, spring, summer, fall, spring. That's two full years (spring, summer, fall constitutes one year) plus an extra spring semester. Here's the [tuition cost](http://www.mccombs.utexas.edu/MBA/TEMBA/Cost-Aid/Cost) for the 2019 cohort. Here's the [actual schedule in PDF format](http://www.mccombs.utexas.edu/~/media/Files/MSB/MBA/TEMBA/TEMBA%20CO19%201st%20year%20Calendar.pdf) for the 2019 cohort. What @SeanRoberson said is true in general but is irrelevant in this case. $107,240 is correct. (May I suggest you talk to their advising people to find out how feasible it is to work full time while enrolled in their program?) Upvotes: 1
2016/11/24	1,563	6,683	<issue_start>username_0: I am a postdoc in computer science. At the end of my first year I have submitted a paper to a reputable conference, co-authored by me, a PhD student and my adviser. It was recently rejected. Reason: it was a rushed submission at the insistence of my adviser, the project simply needed more time. Our submission was published as technical report on which he is a co-author. At the beginning of 2nd year we have agreed that I will continue my work on this project and will turn it into a strong submission. Now, midway this project he gives me an "offer I cannot refuse": either I produce 2 papers or he fires me and expects me to finish the paper on my own. To be short, he believes I cost him too much and is desperate to do some salami slicing. He wants to cut our planned strong paper into 2 weak halves. This could work, but could also lead to another round of rejects and wasted effort. In addition, the pace at which he expects me to work is unsustainable. Poor judgement and abuse, if you ask me. In addition, I quite disagree with his style of editing which emphasizes overstatements and "selling" over accurate technical contributions. I expect to be fired any day now. His participation in this work, at least from my side, was financing me, supervising and editing the draft. By supervising I mean weekly meetings, listening, asking questions, mostly agreeing. The research design and implementation is entirely mine. The original idea was proposed by some external collaborators who didn't wish to participate in this research. My plan at this point is to remove the work of the PhD student (because it doesn't fit well the rest of the paper), add all the work I have done so far, re-write the whole paper and publish as sole author. According to [ACM](http://www.acm.org/publications/policies/policy_on_authorship/) policy he won't have any substantial contributions left. As you can see from above, I question the quality of his contributions at all levels and am quite confident I can finish this work on my own. He insists he still qualifies for co-authorship because he financed most of the research. However he is unwilling to finance me until the submission and expects me to finish the work on my own. Question: What repercussions do I risk if I exclude him from co-authors? I don't expect to get any good recommendation letters from him anyway, so this is not an issue.<issue_comment>username_1: > > His participation in this work [...] was financing me, supervising and editing the draft. The research design and implementation is entirely mine. The original idea was proposed by some external collaborators. > > > From what I see, I think that your supervisor deserves an authorship of this paper. I think that you also should at least offer the external collaborator a chance to contribute to the paper and become a co-author, too. * Your supervisor (PI) was working on a particular topic and presumably is an expert in this field. * Your PI has an established network of connections, and was able to realise that the idea of external collaborator can work for the problem you are working on. The decision to apply a particular idea to a particular problem is a risky decision, and (in case of success) a significant contribution. * Your PI hired you. This is a risky decision, which itself is a part of a wider research process. The choice of people working on the research project is itself a part of "research design". * Your PI listened to your ideas (at least during the interview) and approved them. This is a part of "research design". * Presumably, you had a few research meetings with your PI, in which he listened to your ideas, corrected them and approved them. This is a part of "research design" (which is a continuous process). The fact that your original manuscript was rejected (for which you are the principal author, I assume) can indicate that you are not yet prepared to write to a standard of independent academic researcher. That's why an advice your PI gives you is important and valuable. For this supervision process, and also formal editing on the manuscript, he (or she) deserves to be included as an author. Now, to answer your question. If at this stage you decide not to follow your PI's lead, you will not benefit from his advice and support any more. Based on what you've said, it looks like this decision can significantly reduce your chance of becoming a successful academic researcher. A particular repercussion take a form of bad recommendation letters, cut off funding, lack of support in internal promotion process, cut off access to your PI's network of collaborators. But most importantly, it is lack of his personal support and advice. Academia is a complicated world, and many early career researchers (including some young professors) can not navigate themselves through it efficiently without a help of their mentor/supervisor/PI. The lack of this help is the most serious repercussion. Do not underestimate it. Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: "He insists he still qualifies for co-authorship because he financed most of the research. However he is unwilling to finance me until the submission and expects me to finish the work on my own." I think this is the most relevant part in your post. From this, I am assuming your advisor agrees he made no contribution to the paper, aside from financing you. That, in my opinion, does not deserve a co-authorship, just a mention that this work was partially financed through ... blah and blah. Also, you should be thanking him for his feedback in the paper itself (he still spent some time doing that). Of course, it is hard to know what repercussions you could have. He may simply know people and make your life difficult. Even if you don't ask him for letters of recommendations, people will know he was your advisor. You need to contact another experienced researcher in your area, and get some feedback about your paper, and possibly enlist him(her) as a co-author if he/she can help you improve the paper to the level you like. Unless your paper is excellent, you need some senior researcher to help you moving forward, and your best chance is to use the quality work you accomplished so far to find another excellent researcher if you decide to un-list your current advisor. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: Start searching for a new job immediately and don't invest time into this paper any more before you get a new job. As soon as you have signed a new job contract, do with the paper what you suggested earlier. (Sorry, that's all, folks; nothing more to be said.) Upvotes: 1
2016/11/24	458	2,021	<issue_start>username_0: My question is regarding applied Math journals (for example SIAM). Is there such a thing that a bad paper gets rejected very fast? Also if a paper is under review for more than 6 months, then should one expect at least a reasonable review (Although it may get rejected at the end)?<issue_comment>username_1: No. There are tremendous differences across journals. A "bad" paper can get rejected within hours after submission, or 6 months after submission. Good papers can also get rejected within the same timeframe. Some reviewers are very conscientious and complete the reviews quickly, but the paper can still sit with the editor for a long time. Or, more often than not, you have multiple reviewers on much different time schedules. Some journals do a very good job of triaging papers, so a rejection of a bad paper may happen quickly. But you will learn that "bad" is a very subjective viewpoint. I suggest that you do not associate the quality of the paper (i.e., good vs. bad) with the time under review. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Compared to APS journals (e.g. Phys Rev), SIAM journals do not manage their review process very well. There are no clear guidelines on how long each review step can take, and a lot depends on the attitude of a particular associate editor. On average, SIAM reviews are quite long, and the quality does not necessarily justify the time spent on it. One particular frustrating aspect is that some SIAM journals tend to offer "Reject and Resubmit" decision where a "Major Revision" would previously be offered. This is probably to improve some internal statistics (average review time, maybe). However, it is fair to say that there are journals in applied math with even much worse review process. Ultimately, I think, this is a question of who we are as a community, and how much we want to change things. Clearly, from the editor/reviewer point of view a lazy workflow has its benefits, especially because we all have other commitments. Upvotes: 2
2016/11/24	660	2,838	<issue_start>username_0: One of our recent submission has been suggested to be revised by a journal (CS). However, we could not at first believe that we have to address the comments or points raised by 11 reviewers plus the editor's comments. The comments are very diverse and conflicting. Is it quite difficult to address all the comments and satisfy all the reviewers. Everyone is a human being, even us. How and why should a paper be reviewed by so many reviewers? Now we are not in a situation to withdraw the paper and probably it is quite difficult to address all the comments because of computational issues. For the how question, I have this possible answer: Yes, the editor might have sent reviewer invitation to more than required number of reviewers; and to the surprise, all accepted it.<issue_comment>username_1: 11 reviewers seems excessive to me too, but that is the situation you are in now so you need to find a way to deal with it. My starting point would be that it is the editor that makes the final decision not the reviewers, so it is her or him you need to convince not all 11 reviewers. Sometimes the editor gives hints one what (s)he thinks the main comments are. In that case you know what to focus on. If that is not the case you just have to make reasonable decisions and justify them. So if there are conflicting comments you need to show that you have taken them seriously and made a reasonable choice on how to handle that. If all the suggestions are too much, i.e. it would result in a book rather than a article, then the editor (and the reviewers) can see that as well. Just mention that and justify the choices you make. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: (Answering the question about how papers end up with this many reviewers.) Take a look at [this question](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/116712/what-does-0-3-1-3-1-4-1-11-etc-mean-in-the-context-of-assigned-reviews-in-a/). If the answer is correct, then there were 11 reviewers invited of which one has submitted. However, the invitations to the remaining ten reviewers are still outstanding. They haven't been uninvited - it's a hassle to do, not to mention potentially a problem since there are reviewers who finish their reviews before accepting the invitation. There's literally nothing stopping the remaining 10 reviewers from suddenly agreeing to review the paper followed by submitting a review. If that actually happens, then the editor can scarcely tell them that they should stop writing their reviews. Result: 11 reviewers. Having said that, it's extremely unlikely this happens. I've certainly never seen more than ~5 reviews for a paper. I would guess that the editor handling your paper was new or was dealing with a strict deadline, and was paranoid about the paper not being reviewed on time. Upvotes: 0
2016/11/24	730	3,160	<issue_start>username_0: I am a prospective PhD student in the humanities and I have already got in touch with a potential advisor in the university I would really like to work in. I have drafted a research proposal (as I have to submit one with my application) and sent it to him for feedback. At the same time, I am planning to apply at other universities as well, my first choice being very competitive. I have already found a couple faculty in other uni's I'd be also happy to work with (same research interests etc). Problem is they both require a research project draft when making first contact. My question is: is it OK or 'ethical' to send the very same research proposal to a few different potential advisors? How common is it? Am I really free to contact as many advisors as I want, hear from them and then pick the one I want to work with (assuming more than one are willing to take me in, on their part)? I know this might sound anxious but I really don't know how it works when it comes to the 'application etiquette.' Thank you all!<issue_comment>username_1: If you wrote the proposal entirely yourself, I see no problems with trying multiple universities. Do note the deadlines: you don't want to be in the situation that you need to choose between accepting an offer of a "lower-tier" university while still waiting for your first choice university to respond. If you incorporate the suggestions of the faculty member of one university in your proposal to other universities, I'd at least let that faculty member know. Something like: "your university is my first choice, but as you know it is very competitive. Do you mind if I use this proposal to apply to other universities as a fallback"? This achieves 2 things: first of all it prevents a possible faculty member that might feel taken advantage of by using his/her comments to get into a different university. Second of all the advice you get might predominantly apply to his/her university, and might not generalize to other universities. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: You don't say which country/cultural context the applications are for. I'm familiar with the UK setting in particular. Here, there is no problem using the same research proposal for different applications -- it's even expected. There is the additional wrinkle in the situation you describe that one potential supervisor might be investing significantly in the development of your proposal. If you were to go to a different institution, having made good use of that contact's input, then it would also be reasonable for that contact to be a teensy bit hacked off -- unless there were mitigating circumstances (e.g. appreciable difference in funding levels). Generally, however, it will be expected by potential supervisors that applicants will be testing the waters at more than one institution (they ought to advise applicants to do this in any case!). Transparency should not be a problem in most cases (i.e., inform your contact that you are, in fact, applying elsewhere too). Unless you're dealing with a prima donna/primo uomo, that shouldn't be an issue. Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]
2016/11/24	1,311	5,547	<issue_start>username_0: I am an undergraduate student in the Netherlands (and non-EU citizen). For some reason I feel research assistantships (at my level, or even once you graduate) are more common in the US than in Europe. Perhaps I am not familiar with the lingo here though. I was wondering where to look for, or what should characterise an RA position in Europe and how to find one at my level. So far, all I have been able to do is volunteer at a lab (doing grunt work and getting some crappy data to play around with in return). But nothing serious that involves me in one of the projects of the laboratory, gets me close to collaborating in a publication (even if my name is not in it), or resembles what I think the definition of RA should be (since I am not collaborating on any research). I am looking for a bit of clarity on where and what I should be looking for. Thanks!<issue_comment>username_1: The Dutch term you are looking for is Studentassistent. My experience in the Netherlands (some time ago and in the social sciences) is that these positions are fairly rare. Moreover they were rarely advertised. If someone had funding for such a position, a student was directly asked. At my current institution in Germany we have so much funding earmarked for "HiWis" we have trouble filling all the positions. So I don't think it is a European thing; there are huge differences between countries and disciplines. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: "what I think the definition of RA should be...." It's possible you have a fundamental misunderstanding about research assistantships ("RAships"), at least as they are structured in the U.S. I hope others will post to describe what the definition of "RA" is in other parts of the world. Perhaps you could post some links if there's something you read on the internet that shaped your thinking about them. I will describe what I know about the most common research positions for students in the U.S., for comparison purposes. 1. Here's my understanding of how RAships most typically work in the U.S. My understanding of an RA position is that it is offered to a grad student. Typically a professor with grant money would offer an RAship to a student he feels is very promising. Typically, the student accepting the RAship would move from a teaching assistanship (TAship) to the RAship, and this would take 20 hours of grading and office hour duties off his To Do list each week, enabling him to focus more intensively on his research. Most often, this type of RAship is offered when the student is a well-known quantity, for example after passing the basic (but substantial) PhD exams (which have different names at different institutions). However, sometimes a professor will offer an RAship to an entering first-year student. The RAship, similar to the TAship, comes with a stipend and a tuition deferral. Meaning, you get a bare bones salary, and you get to register for classes at a cost of $0. This is extremely important in the U.S. My impression is that this tuition deferral is of much less importance (or relevance) in Europe. An RA might be assigned to do very specific tasks for the advisor, to a greater or lesser degree, but never more than 20 hours per week (averaged out over the semester). In any case, he will be expected to work hard on his own studies which are supposed to lead, eventually, if he's a beginner, or directly, if he is farther along, to a PhD thesis. He will be expected to reporting regularly on his progress. His advisor is supposed to be actively involved in mentoring and guidance throughout the research endeavor. 2. Separate from that, there are REUs in the U.S.: Research Experiences for Undergraduates. I see these taking place in the summer, but I'll let you [read about them](https://www.nsf.gov/crssprgm/reu/) to see if they are actually only done in the summer or not. An REU, to be a successful experience for the student, needs to be carefully structured by the scientist mentor. I imagine there are questions here at Academica SE about how to choose an advisor and how to choose a research project, that could be useful for you. My guess is that this is the important thing for you. (I am not sure that focusing on the financial aspects would be particularly helpful.) Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: Such positions are likely to be extremely rare in The Netherlands (this possibly extends to a number of other European countries with similar bachelor-master structures). As an undergraduate you are not expected to do much in terms of research. It is not unusual for the only research to be part of a bachelor's thesis, if that. This likely stems from there being no use in this from the perspective of Dutch higher education. You usually don't need research experience (never mind publications) to get into a masters program and it would be highly exceptional if you landed a PhD position without a masters degree. Once in a masters' program (assuming it is research oriented) you will find more opportunities, though these may simply be research projects that are part of the program and not RA positions. If you do well in such a research project you should find your professor happy to work with you. And while at this level funded RA positions exist I don't believe they are common. And as @MaartenBuis mentions, a professor is likely to know who they want for such a position. Moreover, usually there will be plenty of students looking for a thesis topic that will work for free... Upvotes: 1