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<issue_start>username_0: I came to know from a senior in my lab that he once submitted a paper in Applied Mathematics in one of SIAM journals and the review came after 9 months and the review was like the following:
1. *Reviewer 1*: The problem is well-motivated and the paper contains original results which deserve to be published.
2. *Reviewer 2*: The contribution of the paper does not satisfy the journal standards and should be rejected.
He showed me the reviews from his email.
Overall the paper got rejected saying that it is not good enough (quality wise, the paper is in the scope of SIAM) for SIAM. My question is that why to keep somebody waiting for 9 months for such rejection. Is the message that "Unless you are completely sure that it is a path-breaking work don't send to SIAM, otherwise you will not get any comment if the paper is rejected and hence it will be time waste ".
I am a PhD student, not aware of much about journals. Sorry if the question is inappropriate.<issue_comment>username_1: This is actually pretty common with high-standard journals as the SIAM journals and **this is one of the risks you need to know** (and your advisor should tell you early enough).
The SIAM journals are really top notch for applied math,
and the top journals try to maintain a high standard and to only publish papers *they* deem to be good enough. Unfortunately, it is hard to tell the quality of a paper in short time, even for the editors (although a desk rejection happens). So they send them to reviewers for an in depth check and the state of things is that it takes at least a few month (and nine month used to be standard, but e.g. SIAM if working hard to reduce the time). If the reviews are only slightly non-supportive, rejection is likely. This is what happens at the "upper end" of publication venues.
So, I'd say that your conclusion "Unless you are completely sure that it is a path-breaking work don't send to SIAM, otherwise it will be time waste" is quite accurate. So, unless your advisor is very confident, I would advice newcomers (read PhD students) to aim a little lower in the beginning of their career and aim for faster and *slightly* less prestigious journals - if their work is great, it will be read and recognized (but don't aim too low, too).
As to the question whether such a reasoning for rejection and little to no comments are common: No, this is not really the norm, but happens from time to time. I would guess that also the editors are not happy with such reviews, but their choice would be 1) to forward the reviews as they are, probably with additional comments from their side, 2) neglecting the reviews and write something on their own (which would really be a large waste of time for everybody) or 3) ask for more comments from the reviewer or more reviews. Action 2) has the downside, that the authors would not even see that at least some reviewer was involved and 3) would take even more time and the only benefit for the author would potentially more detailed feedback. So, the editors go with 1). I can not comment on the question whether such a review leaves a bad impression with the editor and may remove the referee from the "favorite referee list".
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: Based on your comments, you seem to really be asking whether the experience you have described is typical for high-quality papers submitted to SIAM journals. I can reply based on extensive experience as both an author and a reviewer for those journals (primarily SINUM and SISC, both considered to be at the top of their respective fields). The answer is unequivocally **no**, but I did have an experience similar to yours once.
Time for reviews to be completed
--------------------------------
As a reviewer, when I accept a request to review for a SIAM journal I am given a 2-month deadline. Of course, the journal cannot and does not enforce this, although they will send a reminder if I miss the deadline, which I sometimes do. I can say that get all of my reviews done within 3 months.
Based on my experience as an author, many reviewers do take longer. Nine months is not out of the question. I usually send a polite request for an update to the editor when 3-4 months have passed, and I often get the reports within a month after that request.
Length and quality of reviews
-----------------------------
The papers that I get to review from SIAM journals are almost always reasonably high quality. My referee reports are typically 1-2 pages long. I have on rare occassion written reports of 1-2 paragraphs for exceptionally good or bad papers, but those are probably less than 5%.
I submit most of what I deem to be my best manuscripts to SIAM journals. The reports that I've gotten on my own papers submitted to SIAM journals are usually detailed and of high quality (though, like any referee report, they usually contain some things I don't agree with!) I have occasionally had very short positive reports that were obviously based on a superficial reading. I once got a very negative report (leading to rejection) that was ridiculously short and superficial. In my case also, the same paper was later accepted by a good journal.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: >
> My question is that why to keep somebody waiting for 9 months for such rejection.
>
>
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You are mixing up two issues here, the rejection "without proper review" and the delay, and I think that's illogical and they need to be addressed separately. So first of all, it's not actually clear to me that it's fair or necessarily correct of you to say the paper was rejected "without proper review". There *was* a review -- two of them in fact -- you just don't like that one of the reviewers didn't think the paper was up to the standards of the journal. This is a perfectly valid and legitimate reason to reject a paper (one I have used myself on various occasions), and while the report could be a bit more detailed about why the reviewer doesn't think the contribution is important, it's quite possible that this is an entirely subjective matter and there's really nothing useful they could add in terms of justification. So in what sense exactly was the review "not proper"? Moreover, you seem to cite the facts that reviewer 1 liked the paper and that the paper was later accepted to a good journal as evidence that reviewer 2 was being wrong or unreasonable, but I see nothing of the sort; it is perfectly acceptable and reasonable (and common) for reviewers to hold different opinions. After all, if they always agreed, prestigious journals wouldn't have a need or desire to send a paper out to two separate reviewers, would they?
The second issue concerns the 9 month delay to get a decision. Again, I think this should be addressed entirely separately from the outcome of the review. It is in fact reasonable in my opinion to complain about such a long delay (and would be reasonable even in the case of an acceptance), but the conclusion you take away here is again incorrect. You ask:
>
> Is the message that "Unless you are completely sure that it is a path-breaking work don't send to SIAM, otherwise it will be time waste".
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>
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Well, no, in my opinion the message is rather "if you really care that much about your paper getting accepted (or rejected) fast, don't send it to the most prestigious journals, which are precisely the ones that have to handle the largest number of submissions from all the other authors competing to publish in them." Keep in mind that the editors of those journals are very successful and (as a result) very busy mathematicians, their workload is high, and the referees they approach to review papers are also very successful and hence very busy mathematicians, who despite their own heavy workload are nonetheless occasionally shamed into agreeing to increase their workload further by accepting thankless and uncompensated refereeing assignments, in many cases out of a sense of guilt or because they are bad at saying no (a very common problem among academics btw). Is it a surprise that some of them might drag their feet in completing their assignment? No, it really isn't.
The bottom line is that if you can't afford to wait 9 months for a decision on your paper, you are free to send your paper to a predatory journal that will reach a decision (that is sure to be positive, another advantage) in a few days, or to a legitimate but less competitive journal that might do an honest job in more than a few days but in less time than 9 months. Yes, it sucks that the academic publishing system in math sometimes (not always) works this way and we haven't been able to reach a point where authors always get detailed reviews and in a reasonable amount of time. But that's life, and that's the best system currently available, and it's precisely the most prestigious journals that suffer from it most (statistically speaking at least; I'm sure there are exceptions). The best that you and your friend can do to change this is to be the change you wish to see in this world, and make sure that when *you* get requests to review a paper, that you deliver a great report and do it in a reasonable amount of time.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: I had an experience when my manuscript was under "review" in a math journal for a much longer than 9 months timeframe before I received a rejection with a short absolutely noninformative and meaningless statement. In my opinion, it happens because many journals do not have Ethics Policy for Editors or something like Ethical Conduct for Editors. If journals will introduce and follow the Ethics Policy or Ethical Conduct for Editors, then these things will never happen again. I understand that many of us believe that it is unnecessary as it is supposed to be "by default" without any policy. However, this particular example explicitly shows that the manuscript may be delayed and improperly processed in review. If most journals have Ethical Conduct for Authors, then why it should not be for the Editors as well? Please leave your comments if you disagree with my point of view.
Upvotes: -1
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<issue_start>username_0: About two years ago I finished my master thesis. At our university we can only choose the topic to work on and mostly it is part of a Phd program.
My topic was a mess because the faulty study design did not allow me to draw any firm conclusions, i.e. I could not answer the research questions directly.
However I discovered other interesting facts which are directly related to these questions.
Two things happened:
My advisor did not want me to include these other interesting facts, presumably because one finding was a critic of a method he often used, and probably because I openly criticized the study design.
My advisor gave me the lowest grade which still passes for the thesis even though I incorporated all of the advice he gave me -- with the exception that I did not want to exclude the critique of the method he suggested.
He told me that I focused too much on the details and he had a hard time seeing the big picture. However I could not answer the research questions directly (i.e. the big picture) because of the faulty design. (Which I told him repetitively.)
A Phd colleague of mine read my thesis and thought it was great. Other students also had problems with this advisor and one phd student even quit partly due to this advisor.
I personally do not dislike this professor but he is grossly overworked to the point where he is not even able to thoroughly plan a scientific study, causing much disappointment and headache.
Should I inform the department administration on this matter even If I am not at this university anymore?<issue_comment>username_1: I don't think there's anything wrong with voicing your concerns, but if you're going to you need to find a way to do it constructively while sticking to the facts. "Much disappointment and headache" might be entirely correct, but this is more of an emotional comment.
Also: are there other students you can get to join you in voicing this concern? Maybe you could all approach the problem together.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: My answer would be yes, you can and should contact the university about your concerns. From personal experience, I've discovered that (both good and bad) things students notice about professors are either (a) not noticed by his/her colleagues or supervisors, or (b) noticed but ignored. If you do not voice a concern, it's possible no one ever will and this professor will continue to treat students as he treated you. It's also possible that he doesn't realize the extent of his disrespect as he is so stressed out.
In the personal experience I had, a group of students (including myself) realized after several years that we all had the same problems within our department. Individually, we each tried to raise those issues directly with our individual supervisors AND the department's graduate coordinator, to no avail. We finally wrote a letter to the graduate faculty and our dean expressing our concerns. In our case, the deans and associate deans we got involved were "sort of" aware something was amiss in our department, but they didn't have any specific examples as no one had approached them before. They were very concerned about how we were treated and completely understood that we would be frustrated about raising the issue again and again within the department.
Two important things came out of my personal experience. One, it's not a quick process. You've already left the university. Your experience may be used to help current students, but you may never hear of a final resolution. Two, there is probably nothing they can do for your personally since you've already completed your program. Two of my fellow students had already graduated when we wrote our letter, and there wasn't much that could be done for them after-the-fact. It was us on-campus students that attended meetings and met with the deans/associate deans in person. It was also us on-campus students that could benefit from any changes made within our department.
Don't be afraid to stand up for yourself, especially if you've been treated disrespectfully. As students, we hold professors and supervisors in very high regard, but they aren't perfect, and some of them are just plain awful at supervising students. You shouldn't be 'punished' for your supervisor's behaviour (if you have a legitimate claim).
p.s. If you do decide to approach your administration, do so using the same type of preparation you would use for a big paper or for an important exam. Make notes. Be calm and respectful. Revise, revise, revise. Act out the conversation with a friend if needed. Be professional. Don't get angry.
p.p.s. If your school has a graduate students' association of some kind, you might want to run the situation by them first. They may be able to provide you with some advice on how to handle the situation within the context of your specific university.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: >
> My topic was a mess because the faulty study design
>
>
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When did you discover the study design faults?
For a PhD program of about 3 years, it is normally expected that students familiarise themselves with the methodology during the first years, obtain the bulk of results in the second year, leaving the third year for the write-up. It is also advised to run some preliminary analysis during the first year (some say, first months) to reassure yourself that the chosen methodology is clear to you and produces sensible results. If you've done this, then surely there was enough time to correct the methodology or to choose a new one. If not -- why haven't you done this?
PhD project is an evidence of students' ability to perform independent academic research. Ultimately, it is the students' responsibility to choose the methodology, to plan, to conduct and to manage their study. Your supervisor is here to help and navigate you, but the responsibility for the project remains your own. As a sole author of the PhD thesis, you can always make a choice to adopt or ignore your advisor's suggestions. Ultimately, you can change your supervisor or ask your university to assign a co-supervisor to help.
>
> He told me that I focused too much on the details and he had a hard time seeing the big picture
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Having said the above, I tend to agree with most if not all of your supervisor's suggestions. As a student, you do need to have a clear vision of your project and the ability to tell it without burdening your reader with unnecessary technical details. There is no reason to believe that your colleague's opinion about your thesis is more valid than your professor's. There is no reason to suggest that the low mark for your project was due to the critique -- it might be due to poor argument to support the critique, or due to unclear writing, or messy execution. Normally, a grade comes with textual feedback explaining how your work can be improved --- did you read it? what does it say?
To summarise, with all due respect, from information in your question, there is not enough detail to suggest that your professor is particularly disorganised, unprofessional, and in any way more responsible for the poor outcome of your PhD project than yourself.
Upvotes: 1
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<issue_start>username_0: How to deal with fellow students who put little effort on their part while solving assignments, and sometimes ask you to spoon-feed them solutions. Lot of times these students end up scoring more on the assignments on average, because I don't generally feel inclined to get any sort of help on assignments, and am content with submitting my best solutions.
It is very difficult to avoid these students entirely cause grad classes are typically small and you don't want to end up alienating them.<issue_comment>username_1: Sometimes, as in your case, you want to protect your best interests without burning any bridges. That's understandable, as I assume some regions have a much higher culture of cheating than others. For example, I know of one nation where people used to hire proxies to take their exams. In this case, I assume you've already participated at some point, so the long-term goal is to protect yourself and wash your hands.
Make an excuse about how you haven't completed your assignment yet. You can easily extend this to the due date and claim you were working on it all night the day it is due. Any other excuses like not starting, and so on, while you have, to hide the fact that you've done so.
This also protects you from being further involved in academic dishonesty without making you look bad to your classmates. Your end goal should be to cover yourself, and lying about not being able to share your work is a significantly better endgame than being caught in a cheating ring.
As to reporting the academic dishonesty, I hate to say it, but I probably would not do so at this point. You're implicated, and if it's a small class, it'd be easy to track back to you.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Although it seems a bit hypocracy, I usually first talk to the professor saying that they want the assignment and I cannot say no, show my current work, and then give them what they want.
I also tell them that I have shown my current work to the professor and therefore they should use my work with caution.
If they get upset about me showing my work, then it's their decision. A true friend would never be upset about something that could harm me. I just say "well, it is best if he/she did not talk to me at all, then."
All in all, it is your own academic life that you have to deal with. You are not and should not be responsible what the others do/feel in these matters.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: To be honest, if I were you, I would not care about it! Why?
The deal is that the problem sheets are graded. But normally the number of points that you get does net get any better or worse if someone copies your solution. You still get the same amount of points. So your performance is graded as your professor said that he was going to grade it.
Besides that, you can always ask your fellow students to tell you if they find a mistake or find a better way to solve the exercise. Often, when I pass my solutions to somebody, they ask questions about what I made and I have to explain them what I did. This makes me think about my solutions and often I find errors in my solutions or I get aware of the fact that there are some things that I haven't understood as well as I have thought. So, this makes me improve.
I personally think that passing solutions to your fellow students is rather a good thing for you. You also profit and you are graded as they announced to grade you.
Besides that, one day you should be better than the guys who were just copying your solutions because they have never learned to solve problems on their own and you have.
Besides that: If you do not want to pass your solutions to anybody, just tell them. Why should you lie about it? It is always better to stand up for your opinion and tell them what youreally think about it. Sometimes you just hae to have the Courage to do things like this.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_4: The issue of peer pressure should be taken head on. I prefer not to tell white lies about last minute work. Answer honestly by starting with a simple statement "honestly, I really don't like sharing my work until after it is graded. I guess I am just very private about this sort of thing. Sorry, hope it doesn't offend you. I hope you can understand, I'm just like this."
If your classmates are reasonable adults, they will respect your preference. If they proceed to publicly ostracize you, give a retort along the lines of "In this day and age, we are supposed to be tolerant of each other. Your attitude is childish and distasteful."
Please stay away from being vocally judgemental towards these grad students. Instead, be a role model.
Moreover, in that in most graduate programs, there is a camaraderie that build while you are taking classes and before qualifying exams. Make clear that you are willing to work together with others in solving difficult problems. Alternatively, if you are way ahead in this particular subject, hold informal review sessions to help other grad students solve their learning issues. These two ideas will make clear you are a helpful person, and if they are just lazy, you won't need to do anything.
Eventually, there might be a course that you find difficult and need help. Then, you can lean on your peers. Alternatively, when you start performing research, there will also be tasks (paper writing? coding? math? oral presentation preparation? moving apartments?) that you will need help with. You will need your peers, so help those who help themselves (and maybe you too). As an added bonus, nothing helps learning like teaching at a black board before your peers.
As for grades, IMHO you can forget about those. You're already in grad school.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: This may be seen as a facetious answer, but why not give them some answers that are subtly wrong; have non obvious errors. After a couple of times they will see that the answers are not getting them the results that they want and will stop asking.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_6: Offer to help them, instead of either giving away your homework or declining to do so. Offer tutoring and showing them how to solve the problem.
You obviously care about both integrity and the social factor involved in this topic. This approach is a compromise that can actually lead to a win-win situation.
* Integrity: you don't have to break any rules by giving away your homework and aren't required to lie to anybody.
* You don't snub anybody by either lying to them or just blatantly saying no. Instead you actually appear willing to help, which is most likely an approach that will get you further than buying friendship with homework. In fact you may build up relationships that go further than "university stuff" this way.
* Teaching what you've learned is a great step to improve your own knowledge. You might also like teaching as well.
In addition to the points above you may also benefit by learning some skills that are worth quite a lot, show that you've got some capabilities that might come in handy later when you aim for a job and teaching skills and knowledge to other people is in the spirit of university itself. It can also serve as a nice extra allowance or get you a few beers for free at the pub.
Of course this option requires the number of people that actually are interested in that offer to be limited and you to be willing to invest a bit of time. Personally I've gone that path and made quite good experience with it.
P.S.: Sorry for any mistakes I've made. I'm no native English speaker.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_7: I studied in a Physics where cooperative work was the norm, assignments were done as a group. Within that group, work was not evenly done, but each member was expected to contribute to their fullest ability, and answers were discussed, not copied. If a member did not contribute, or distributed work outside the group, they simply were removed from the group. These were non-trivial tasks so none of us had any qualms of simply telling freeloaders no. In also worked in Comp Sci, where the opposite was true, work was, and needed to be individual. Yes, some get their nose out of place when the answer is no, but normal honor codes place the same level of honor on the person providing the answer as the one taking the answer. If the norm in the field is cooperative work, then cooperation is acceptable but is a two way street. If it is an environment to individual effort it expected, then anything else is an equal violation by both parties without regard to peer pressure in my experience. Hurt feelings heal much easier than honor.
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: Some instructors tell their students to ask the markers about the questions on assignments and exam papers after they are marked. But many markers are not quite familiar with textbook or other teaching material. Who do you think should take the most responsibility in answering students questions on assignments and exam papers, markers or the instructors?<issue_comment>username_1: That depends very much on the type of questions.
Normally a marker who is not the course supervisor / instructor should be given a sufficiently detailed marking schedule. However, even for a very detailed schedule there often is still room for a marker to make judgement calls, and the marker should clearly apply these as consistently as possible. When students simply want to understand why they got the marks they got, then that question should be answered by the marker, in particular when such judgement calls are involved. When a student does not agree, this should be escalated to the instructor.
Other questions, for example whether the marking schedule itself is correct, or whether an alternative answer got the right number of marks, should in my view be answered by the supervisor / instructor -- any dispute over such a matter will in the end involve him/her anyway.
And as a student, If I have reason to believe that the marker is not too familiar with the material, I would go straight to the instructor.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: In the end, **the instructor of the course is responsible for all the grading**. However, they can and do **delegate parts of the grading** to other people, e.g. t the people they hire to mark exams. These markers do their best, but if they are in doubt they have to inform the instructor, so the can decide.
What if a student complains about the grade? Of course, the instructor has the final word, but it still makes sense that the marker can be the first person of contact, since the marker has done the work, they should be capable of explaining the reason behind. If this does not solve the problem, the problem have to be passed on to the instructor who has the full responsibility for the final outcome.
So, some important considerations are
* The instructor has to ensure good quality of the grading (by hiring good people, giving assistance and support,…).
* The markers should know about their responsibilities, e.g. if the instructor expects them to explain their grading to the students. If you are hired as a marker you can ask the instructor in advance how this matter will be handled.
When I handle grading of larger classes, I usually tell the team of markers, that I will handle all complaints directly, but that's just how I handle it.
Upvotes: 0
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<issue_start>username_0: Today I was introduced in the cafeteria by a professor who I know to someone new by just their first name. Because of admissions season, I thought that the new person was a prospective grad student and I asked, "are you here for admissions?" and the reply was that "no, I just joined as an assistant professor here a month ago." I was already embarrassed enough but I think I stuffed my foot further in my mouth, when I said "oh sorry, sorry but you look so young."
The problem is that the person who I was introduced to is female, and I am afraid that I might have offended her. Am I just being paranoid or will some people really feel offended from such a comment?<issue_comment>username_1: I started working as a medical doctor when I was 24 years old, and it happened to me all the time, but mostly with patients. When I get introduced by a more senior doctor, they assume I'm an intern; when I do research I don't wear a doctor's coat and patients always wish me good luck "with my studies".
I'm only mildly annoyed by this, as long as they take me seriously after finding out my role. I'd advise you to do the same: just forget it happened and treat her like the assistant professor she is.
If she were offended the damage has already been done.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: Don't worry (too much), I think this happens to everybody at some point in their academic life. Your case isn't even particularly egregious, given that the new faculty member just started as an assistant professor, so likely she actually *was* a grad student not very long ago. I once idly asked a fellow conference attendant who she is working with, and she told me that she is a tenured associate professor. Embarrassing? Certainly, but not the end of the world. You apologize and move on.
>
> The problem is that the person who I was introduced to is female, and I am afraid that I might have offended her.
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I am not sure whether being female makes her more or less likely to be offended. However, I can't help but notice that most such stories are about female professors, so it seems to me that we jump to conclusions about them more freely than for males (or we guys just have trouble assessing women's age accurately). In any way, I have learned my lesson to be extra-careful before assuming that a young-looking female academic is a student, and you should too.
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> Am I just being paranoid or will some people really feel offended from such a comment?
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I would not worry too much. You can bring it up lightly on a good ocassion and apologize, if such an ocassion presents itself in the next weeks. However, don't make it a bigger deal than it is, and if she seems unbothered or hasn't even noticed, then let it go.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: I've been in similar situations, and I think there's one clear way to handle it. After you inadvertently underestimate someone's level of expertise or qualifications like this, the next thing you do after a quick apology is express interest in their work as a professional.
In this case the obvious follow-up questions after a brief apology look like:
* "What's your area of expertise?"
* "What are you researching?"
* "Any advice for me? I hope to be on the job market soon."
Then continue with as genuine interest as possible. In short, the way to rectify accidentally treating someone like they're not an expert is to then treat them like the expert they are.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_4: I don't think you should be the least worried. You cannot guess someone's qualifications from their appearance (even if it is commonly tried). I'm a full prof who doesn't look young at all, and to this day the library staff see that I'm faculty only when they see my file on the screen, but it doesn't seem to be obvious to them beforehand. And why would it be?
You made an honest mistake. The young prof would likely be flattered or amused. And if she isn't, the onus is on her to be less easily offended.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: Nothing really wrong has been done and you have already apologized for the part which you should apologize. Calling a female young is usually considered flattery, and your mistake could be maybe interpret as a "mistake", but I assume that you were not that smooth with it that anybody would consider your actions flirty. Based on the information and the assumptions I make to fill the gaps like your working culture, facial expressions and such, my advice is: **Move on, and never look back.** If you sweep the thing under rug it will be forgotten. Bringing it up, and dragging it further would be something that may rise suspicion or at least make things awkward.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_6: I'm a female professor in my late 20s and I'm pretty sure I look even younger than I am. I've been mistaken for a student a *bunch* of times and it's always been an honest and totally understandable mistake. I'm often assumed to be a grad student; heck, I discovered in front of my mirror three days ago that wearing the school logo T-shirt I somehow acquired is inadvisable because it makes me look nearly indistinguishable from an undergrad.
I know doing this is embarrassing for the person who messed up, but looking at me and concluding that I'm very likely a grad student is reasonable and something I know is going to happen unless I'm wearing a fancy-schmancy suit. Heh! I've even done it myself. One time when I was meeting a (male) colleague, each of us mistook the other for a grad student; we've been teasing each other about it since. The only circumstances under which this would bug me would be if the person doing it were *trying* to be patronizing, or covered it up in a way that introduced some creepiness.
But yeah. I'm accustomed to it and I know my status surprises people. When someone asks if I'm a student, I laugh it off and say, "I am a very young faculty member." Most of the time thereafter I forget it happened. You did everything you needed to in order to make amends; I'd say put the guilt aside and move forward with a professional relationship with your colleague.
Upvotes: 8 [selected_answer]
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<issue_start>username_0: Let's say I'm writing a set of notes on a specialized topic, based off of notes from a deceased professor, who he himself had a disclaimer that his notes (theorems, proofs, ideas) were not properly attributed and cited, due to time constraints. What should I do then, if I plan to distribute my notes / post it on a website? Should I have a disclaimer of my own?<issue_comment>username_1: I started working as a medical doctor when I was 24 years old, and it happened to me all the time, but mostly with patients. When I get introduced by a more senior doctor, they assume I'm an intern; when I do research I don't wear a doctor's coat and patients always wish me good luck "with my studies".
I'm only mildly annoyed by this, as long as they take me seriously after finding out my role. I'd advise you to do the same: just forget it happened and treat her like the assistant professor she is.
If she were offended the damage has already been done.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: Don't worry (too much), I think this happens to everybody at some point in their academic life. Your case isn't even particularly egregious, given that the new faculty member just started as an assistant professor, so likely she actually *was* a grad student not very long ago. I once idly asked a fellow conference attendant who she is working with, and she told me that she is a tenured associate professor. Embarrassing? Certainly, but not the end of the world. You apologize and move on.
>
> The problem is that the person who I was introduced to is female, and I am afraid that I might have offended her.
>
>
>
I am not sure whether being female makes her more or less likely to be offended. However, I can't help but notice that most such stories are about female professors, so it seems to me that we jump to conclusions about them more freely than for males (or we guys just have trouble assessing women's age accurately). In any way, I have learned my lesson to be extra-careful before assuming that a young-looking female academic is a student, and you should too.
>
> Am I just being paranoid or will some people really feel offended from such a comment?
>
>
>
I would not worry too much. You can bring it up lightly on a good ocassion and apologize, if such an ocassion presents itself in the next weeks. However, don't make it a bigger deal than it is, and if she seems unbothered or hasn't even noticed, then let it go.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: I've been in similar situations, and I think there's one clear way to handle it. After you inadvertently underestimate someone's level of expertise or qualifications like this, the next thing you do after a quick apology is express interest in their work as a professional.
In this case the obvious follow-up questions after a brief apology look like:
* "What's your area of expertise?"
* "What are you researching?"
* "Any advice for me? I hope to be on the job market soon."
Then continue with as genuine interest as possible. In short, the way to rectify accidentally treating someone like they're not an expert is to then treat them like the expert they are.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_4: I don't think you should be the least worried. You cannot guess someone's qualifications from their appearance (even if it is commonly tried). I'm a full prof who doesn't look young at all, and to this day the library staff see that I'm faculty only when they see my file on the screen, but it doesn't seem to be obvious to them beforehand. And why would it be?
You made an honest mistake. The young prof would likely be flattered or amused. And if she isn't, the onus is on her to be less easily offended.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: Nothing really wrong has been done and you have already apologized for the part which you should apologize. Calling a female young is usually considered flattery, and your mistake could be maybe interpret as a "mistake", but I assume that you were not that smooth with it that anybody would consider your actions flirty. Based on the information and the assumptions I make to fill the gaps like your working culture, facial expressions and such, my advice is: **Move on, and never look back.** If you sweep the thing under rug it will be forgotten. Bringing it up, and dragging it further would be something that may rise suspicion or at least make things awkward.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_6: I'm a female professor in my late 20s and I'm pretty sure I look even younger than I am. I've been mistaken for a student a *bunch* of times and it's always been an honest and totally understandable mistake. I'm often assumed to be a grad student; heck, I discovered in front of my mirror three days ago that wearing the school logo T-shirt I somehow acquired is inadvisable because it makes me look nearly indistinguishable from an undergrad.
I know doing this is embarrassing for the person who messed up, but looking at me and concluding that I'm very likely a grad student is reasonable and something I know is going to happen unless I'm wearing a fancy-schmancy suit. Heh! I've even done it myself. One time when I was meeting a (male) colleague, each of us mistook the other for a grad student; we've been teasing each other about it since. The only circumstances under which this would bug me would be if the person doing it were *trying* to be patronizing, or covered it up in a way that introduced some creepiness.
But yeah. I'm accustomed to it and I know my status surprises people. When someone asks if I'm a student, I laugh it off and say, "I am a very young faculty member." Most of the time thereafter I forget it happened. You did everything you needed to in order to make amends; I'd say put the guilt aside and move forward with a professional relationship with your colleague.
Upvotes: 8 [selected_answer]
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2017/02/17
| 539
| 2,271
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<issue_start>username_0: I am an Israeli researcher and am planning to submit my paper soon.
I noticed that an Iranian journal¹ has suitable editors and am considering submitting there. I wonder whether such a journal might accept my submission.
Are there are any general rules prohibiting Iranian journals from accepting submissions from Israelis?
---
¹ It is a journal of an Iranian society, published in Iran, and almost of all of its editors (but not all of them) are Iranians.<issue_comment>username_1: You should simply **ask the journal's editors**.
There is absolutely no problem or danger, to you or to them, in doing that, as Israelis and Iranians get in contact as academics all the time, all over the world.
(I would also bet an acceptance would be possible but that's pure speculation.)
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: As it is mentioned by others, it does not hurt if you contact the editor and simply ask. However, as an Iranian, **I am nearly sure that you are not allowed to do so**. It does not work to think logically about the question. Iran and Israel relation is in such a bad state that it effects all aspects of the society. I think that it creates a lot of unwanted problems for the editors that committed to it if they accept to review or publish your paper.
If you are curious about publishing in that journal, you may need to use other affiliations of yourself (e.g. IEEE member) and a non country-specific email domain, as in this case they probably do not notice to your nationality.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: The journal will not explicitly prohibit your paper based on your nationality as the academics in Iran, just like any other country, will judge the paper based on scientific merit. However, many government organizations are strictly against such behavior and will take action if they found out such a paper was published. These actions include forcing the journal to retract a paper or punishing the editor for accepting it in the fist place. This situation might sway the editorial board to reject the paper, just to avoid such troubles. However, if your nationality is not obvious based on your affiliation, I wouldn't expect any issues (even if the editorial board knows you're from Israel).
Upvotes: 2
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2017/02/17
| 1,177
| 5,087
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<issue_start>username_0: I just got a position as assistant professor in the USA. The university I am working at is one of the top 50, according to the U.S. News & World Report. I will be teaching and carrying out high-level research.
However I would love to attend a class in a discipline close to mine, to expand my knowledge. Surely I could read the book, but if I have a class to attend I will actually do it, while I will probably never be able to find the time to read the book. Would it be considered bad? Should I do it without mentioning it to anybody since it is in another department?<issue_comment>username_1: There's nothing bad about this; it's pretty common, especially for advanced graduate courses. You don't have to be secretive about it. But here are a few things to consider.
First, **time**. As a new assistant professor you are going to be busier than you ever imagined. Are you sure this is the best use of three hours a week? Keep in mind that taking this class isn't something that "counts" towards tenure, so the only career benefit for you would be if it helps improve your research productivity. Of course, if it's just something generally interesting to you that will make your life happier, that's a consideration too - but think about whether you can afford it.
Most people do this by "sitting in on" a class - you'd plan to attend the lectures, but normally you wouldn't turn in homework or take exams like a real student would, since that would create extra work for the instructor.
In all cases you should **ask the course instructor for permission**, by email or in person. "Hi, I'm Lupocci, I'm a new assistant professor in department X. I was wondering if it would be all right if I were to sit in on your course ABC 321. I have been meaning to learn more about this topic and this seems like a great opportunity to do it." Make sure there is available space and that you won't displace actual students.
You should ask the instructor how they would like you to participate in the class. Should you ask questions, participate in class discussions or activities, etc? Sit in the front or the back? There's a possibility for your presence to be distracting to the students, so you want to minimize that.
Some institutions might require you to formally register for the course as an auditing student, so check your regulations. Tuition would usually be waived, but you still might have to pay lab fees or something. At other places this sort of thing is done "off the books" as a professional courtesy between faculty. At still others, rules require you to register, but everyone ignores the rules and just does it off the books. So you might also ask your department chair or a senior colleague what the norms are.
Finally, as you take the class, be mindful that you **don't interfere with the learning of the students**. It might be tempting to ask lots of questions in class, bring up connections to things you are interested in, etc, but this may tend to derail the class, especially if the questions are too advanced to be useful to the students. This might also have the effect of intimidating students who worry that their questions are not as smart as yours. So you may have to stifle yourself in class. You could discuss things with the instructor outside of class, but try not to take up too much of their time either (see second paragraph).
Upvotes: 7 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Let me tell a story. I like stories, maybe you do too.
Once upon a time, there was a young German mathematician named... well, his name is irrelevant. Anyways, he revolutionized the fields of number theory and arithmetic geometry with his PhD thesis and subsequent work, and in March of this calendar year, there will be a conference (school?) dedicated to introducing and familiarizing people, whether they work in his field of number theory/arithmetic geometry or a related (but not too unrelated) one, with his work.
As such, many mathematics departments around the world this past Fall and Winter have had advanced graduate classes dedicated to introducing this young German mathematician's work and the preliminaries for understanding and circle of ideas surrounding his work.
I have heard that some of these advanced graduate classes were attended by quite a few postdocs/junior faculty, and in some cases, some senior faculty reared their heads. This stirred quite some gossip amongst the graduate students attending the classes.
So please feel welcome to attend the class you want to attend, keeping in mind some of username_1's advice (especially the one about you having enough time).
I would argue that it is not necessary to ask for permission to sit in on the class, at least based on my experiences within math departments. But if you feel compelled to do so because of some silly antiquated conception of "respect", please do not do it over email. Seriously, I'm sure you're flooded with loads of email every single day. It never stops. Would you like another almost pointless email to read and respond to?
Upvotes: 3
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2017/02/17
| 1,680
| 7,449
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<issue_start>username_0: I have accepted a PhD offer from university A. I have informed a not so prestigious university D that they should dismiss my application (they invited me for an interview, offered me to pay the flight, etc.). I am still waiting to hear from very prestigious universities B and C (which, as A, are top 10 in most rankings). Is it ethically acceptable for me to wait for the decisions of B and C and inform them about my choice of A afterwards? I am curious whether they would have taken me. Informing B and C late means wasting their time, but I paid application fees for B and C.
To clarify: I do not intend to attend either of B or C.<issue_comment>username_1: I think you should withdraw your applications from B and C.
By keeping your application active, not only are you wasting the committee's time, you are potentially hurting other students. Most graduate programs can only accept a certain number of students per year, but there may be many more applicants who would still be well qualified and able to succeed. If the committee accepts your application, that means they are denying admission to someone else who might be equally deserving. If you withdraw now, you open that space for someone else.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: If your only purpose is to just to see if you get in (presumably because getting into a prestigious university feels good and is rewarding, even if you ultimately attend a different prestigious university), then I would say that it's very ethically questionable, and recommend that you withdraw your application.
As mentioned above, if they decide to accept you, that typically results in another student being rejected or waitlisted. Even if you paid the application fee, you choosing not to withdraw is not simply "wasting their time" in return for your fee, it's wasting their time while also hurting another student for whom this university may be their first and best choice.
If you want to attend university A, then politely withdraw your application from B and C. If you aren't 100% sure that you want to attend university A, then it's perfectly acceptable to see if B or C accepts you, and then figure out which one is the best fit for you, but it doesn't sound like that's your intent.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: Since you write that you
>
> do not intend to attend either of B or C,
>
>
>
I would say it is ethically and morally wrong for you to delay your notification to those universities that you are no longer considering them.
If you wait until they decide and they offer you a place, that's an offer that could be made to other students who are still considering those universities (and potentially have it as their best shot). After you decline, those waiting-list candidates will be offered your place, but his introduces a delay in their applications process. Right off the bat, this says that you value your vanity more than the time of both your peers and the admission committees, so you're not coming from a great place.
More importantly, though, you have no way of knowing how the rest of the application process looks like for the waiting-list students on whom you're enforcing a delay. In particular, they might need to apply for funding or for a student visa (or for both) *after* having the university offer. This can quite often have a very constrained timing structure, and it is entirely plausible that a two-week delay between your declining and them being offered your place can mean that they are no longer able to take the offer.
All of this for an offer you have no intention of taking? That's what you need to ask yourself.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: I am sympathetic to your desire to get some feedback on your attractiveness as an applicant at prestigious universities. In the context of this debate, it's worth keeping in mind that in academia, getting formal feedback of this sort -- answers to graduate applications, and later paper submissions, grant proposals, job applications, etc. -- is really crucial to signal to us about the quality of the work we are doing, which in turn is helpful for us to later make actual decisions that influence the future course of our careers. Moreover, this sort of feedback can be quite infrequent and hard to come by, so your desire to take advantage of a potentially rare opportunity to receive it, even by employing a course of action that may be seen as dishonest in a small way, is understandable, even reasonable: if a small dishonest and essentially harmless act helps you fulfill your potential in life later on, that seems like a net benefit not just to you but also to the rest of the world.
With that said, I would still encourage you to inform universities B and C that you no longer wish for your applications to them to be considered. It's not really about the ethics issue, which I see as impossible to answer with any degree of consensus -- some people will think it's ethical because you paid the application fees and are therefore entitled to get the service you paid for in the form of an answer to your applications; others will argue that you are thinking of using the admissions system in a way that it was clearly not meant to be used, and causing a needless waste of resources. I see this discussion as relatively unimportant, because ultimately the stakes are very low: yes, you may waste 10 minutes of someone's time, but if you promptly inform universities B and C that you are declining their offer if and when they end up accepting you, there will be no harm done to anyone. So it's an abstract discussion with no real practical significance -- fun to talk about perhaps, but in itself a waste of time.
The real reason I think you should withdraw is that the information you will get by waiting to hear an answer is actually not very useful at all, and potentially even misleading. Mostly it will give you a sense that you have learned something about yourself and how the world views you, and satisfy some psychological need that we all have for knowing what people think of us, but that feeling will actually be illusory. The point is that admissions decisions depend on so many factors, most of which you have no knowledge of, that they have a very low [signal-to-noise ratio](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signal-to-noise_ratio). Moreover, in a situation like yours, where you have already been admitted to your top choice (and very prestigious) school, which is already very good positive feedback, the knowledge that you were also accepted to schools B and/or C, or rejected from them, would be worth even less. Again to use a math/engineering terminology (hope that makes sense to you), you can think of this as a situation where you are about to receive two bits of information that are essentially almost completely random, but the bits are labeled in a way that makes them seem like they carry real, useful information. So in my opinion the psychological satisfaction you will get from being told these bits is actually outweighed by the risk that you will incorrectly attribute too much real significance to the meaning the bits supposedly carry. That's what I meant when I said above that the answers from B and C could even be potentially misleading. Ultimately, these answers are simply not useful information.
Hope this helps, and congratulations for getting into your preferred school!
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]
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2017/02/17
| 364
| 1,661
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<issue_start>username_0: Which one will be given more importance? A strong recommendation from a new assistant professor or an average recommendation from senior professor?<issue_comment>username_1: You will want a recommendation from someone who is familiar with your work and who can speak to your strengths. Overall, I think the content of the letter matters more than the exact person writing it, provided s/he has the qualifications to write the letter in the first place (e.g., a professor or someone otherwise qualified to assess your academic and research work).
If you have had considerable interaction with the new professor through research, class time, et cetera, then s/he would be a good choice for a letter. Probably the only time you may even consider going with the senior professor (and weaker letter) is if the absence of the letter from him/her would be a red flag. For example, if the senior professor was your advisor, most people would find it concerning not to see a letter from him/her.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: The effect of multiple recommendation letters isn't additive (usually it's subadditive). So, it's better to have recommendation letters from different types of professors who know you in different ways. A strong recommendation from a new assistant professor could carry a lot of weight, but they don't have a lot of experience to compare your work with other students, which a more experienced professor would. So you do probably want a letter from a senior person who has worked with a lot of students, but luckily, you're allowed to get letters from multiple people, so you don't have to choose.
Upvotes: 0
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2017/02/17
| 911
| 3,841
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<issue_start>username_0: I applied to maybe 11 doctoral programs in neuroscience and biology last year and was rejected from all of them. So, I became very self-conscious (or even more self-conscious than I had been) about my science gpa and research experience. So, I decided to apply to and enroll in a post-bacc program for those planning to ultimately apply to medical or dental school, physician-scientist programs, etc. I myself am considering an MD/PhD or PhD to pursue a career in neurology and/or related research. In the summer of 2016, I only took one course, a neurobiology course (because very few of the courses I took as an undergrad were neuro courses while the majority were bio courses).
In the following fall, I only took 2 courses. One was orgo (a retake) and another bio class. Now, this spring I'm in orgo II, a neuro class, and a mathbio class.
The challenge I'm having is that I flunked the first orgo II exam (was many SDs below the average) and the mathbio class is turning out to be super time-consuming because I'm really struggling to grasp the material. I need to decide whether to drop orgo II or this mathbio class soon but I really don't know what to do. My indecision is compounded by the fact that dropping one of these courses would just leave me with two classes total. I wanted to use this program to position myself as a more serious candidate but a consistently low number of courses per semester in combination with the less-than-hoped-for lab experience I've gained over the fall semester makes me look, I think, either afraid (afraid of taking on too much and failing so much so that I swung in the other direction and took so few classes) or lazy. Part of why I've taken so few courses is because I simply do not have the money for a full course load but part of it is because I really wanted to minimize the time spent away from studying orgo as I didn't want to retake something only to mess up in it again.
I would really appreciate some advice!<issue_comment>username_1: The grades and recommendations you reap would be more important in your situation, I think. Sometimes a person goes to school part time because of family commitments or economic constraints.
Your anxiety is understandable; however, I think it might help you to focus on the material rather than your anxiety. Think about things like:
* What is fascinating about the topic I'm reading about?
* How does this work? How does it connect with something else I have studied?
* What would be the best way of explaining such-and-so topic to an interested high school student?
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: I think you are paying too much attention to how others will interpret your workload and grades, and not enough attention to what you can learn from them.
The money issue is irrelevant because you would be prevented anyway from taking more courses because of the time you need to devote to orgo II and mathbio. You are considering dropping from three courses to two because of the workload, not to save money.
Something needs to change before you would be ready for a demanding graduate program such as an MD/PhD. The question you need to ask yourself is what are the reasons for the difficulty you are having handling three courses, and are those reasons something you can change in the future.
For example, if the problem were a full time job you could solve it by planning to be a full time student.
If you can identify a fixable problem you should do two things:
1. Fix it ASAP, so that you can see and show what you can do with the fix in place.
2. Discuss the problem and its solution in your application materials.
If you cannot identify a fixable problem you may need to reconsider your career path to pick one that does not require the sorts of courses that are giving you trouble.
Upvotes: 2
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2017/02/17
| 740
| 3,315
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<issue_start>username_0: I really would like to know how to prevent a plagiarism of your idea or Research Proposal, when it is sent to several Universities and potential supervisors? What can I do if one of the potential supervisors did not respond to me, nor did consider my research important, but later I notice that they are using my idea with other possible investigators?
What can I do in that case?
I am really frustrated and disappointed with that lack of ethics. I feel that this person stole my idea and my possible place in the University, and the possible fruits of my work and idea as well.
I really would appreciate your advice.
Thanks a lot for your wonderful website.<issue_comment>username_1: I understand and completely share your frustration here. It feels awful when your application is rejected but later the same idea is used by a person you put some of your trust in.
I don't have a universal answer which helps to avoid such things. Sometimes people suggest to be vague in your proposal, but I don't think this is really a good idea. After all, when you have an idea, and you think it is good, you don't want to sound like you don't know what you're talking about. So, I don't think you should somehow tweak your proposal to make it less easy to plagiarise.
Instead, I would suggest to maybe do better research of potential supervisors before you send them your detailed proposal. Perhaps, do a small polite exchange of emails and check if they are even interested to have another PhD/postdoc at this moment? Look at their history of publications, read a few papers - are they really working in the area you want to work in? Look at author's lists - is there evidence that a potential supervisor was a guest/gift author in many papers? Are there cases when they re-claim someone else's idea as their own (by doing minor modifications and changing the name, etc.) If possible, get in touch with their current postdocs/PhDs and check what they think about the transparency and ethics of the research/publication process in their group. Or simply try to arrange a small chat with the potential supervisor - sometimes five minutes face-to-face tell you more about a person than a year of email exchanges.
Good luck.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Insert a copyright statement in proposal document and in your email footnote. Also, to be on safe side always keep record of email exchange, especially the email you sent with proposal document.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_3: To be successful, your proposal needs to be related to the expertise of the supervisors. So it is perfectly normal for the supervisor to do similar work if you do not end up working for them. If it is for a PhD position, then it would not be unusual for the supervisor to direct the student to propose a particular topic or methodology. It is common to find many people working on the same thing, but only those who make a good implementation get credit.
A research proposal, on its own, is not valuable research. It is the implementation of the proposal which creates the value. If you feel you have already completed the hard part of the project, what you have is not a research proposal, it is mostly finished research.
The answer to the question is: you do not need to do anything.
Upvotes: 0
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2017/02/18
| 1,024
| 4,093
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<issue_start>username_0: What do I tell the student in response to a request for graduate school recommendation from an otherwise-qualified student who cheated by copying homework in one of my classes? I am unwilling to write a strong recommendation for this student, based solely on the episode of misconduct. If it hadn't happened, I'd recommend him strongly.
**Edit:** I was searching for something less blunt than "no" and something a bit less accusative than "no because you cheated." With the help given below, I've decided on the following:
>
> While every recommendation letter I write is tailored to the particular student, all include comments on each of those things I believe are relevant to admissions committees. One of those is academic integrity. In your case, a comment from me on academic integrity would likely be fatal to your application. For that reason, I must decline to write such a recommendation. I am confident that you can find professors who can write strong recommendations, and I wish you the best in the future.
>
>
>
**Edit:** The question identified as a possible duplicate whether *whether the professor is obliged* to write a recommendation for the student who cheated. My question is about the best way to decline.<issue_comment>username_1: If you are willing to strongly recommend the student for graduate study, despite his past cheating offense, then tell the student you are willing to write the letter, and then write the letter.
Otherwise, tell the student you are unwilling to write the letter, and then don't.
---
Your edit clarifies that you are unwilling to write a strong recommendation letter, because of the student's past academic misconduct. I suggest telling the student, "I am unwilling to write you a strong recommendation letter, because of your past academic misconduct."
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: >
> Dear (name of student),
>
>
> For complex reasons, I would not be the best person to write you this recommendation. However, I think you will be a good match for that program and wish you all the best in your future endeavors.
>
>
>
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: I'm gonna write an answer picking up on mkennedy's comment.
>
> "If it hadn't happened, I'd recommend him strongly."
>
>
>
Okay, you get to think about why you'ld recommend him strongly, if this homework copying hadn't happened. Is he/she **that** good (from other work that you have seen) that, not only the student, but the department the student is heading for would be better off with him/her than without?
In a [previous answer](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/81581/writing-a-recommendation-letter-for-a-student-i-reported-for-academic-dishonesty/81593#81593) to a similar question I recommended to the prof to:
1. Talk to the student. (I would have done this the moment he/she approached for a recommendation.)
2. Warn the student that the recommendation might include this incident (including any positive outcomes), but maybe not.
3. The prof needs to search his/her own soul about *"crime and punishment"* or *"infraction and redemption"* and how he/she feels about the student's rehabilitation,
4. and, **independently of the incident**, the prof needs to search his/her own *head* about this student's performance in *your discipline*.
5. Ultimately this prof needs to decide whether or not [the cosmos would be better off](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utilitarianism) writing the letter or not. That is not synonymous with whether or not the student would be better off or if the academe or in *your discipline* would be better of, but may be very closely related to that.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: Why not tell the student that, if you would were to write a letter it would be strong but you would also feel obliged to mention the issue of academic misconduct?
After all, the point of letters of references is to provided additional information beyond what’s on the transcript, so you’re on solid grounds when not limiting your discussion to final grades.
Upvotes: 0
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2017/02/18
| 929
| 3,625
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<issue_start>username_0: Going through the application process for several Master's Degrees, I have come across universities that ask what other programmes I am applying to on their application forms. It has been [already discussed](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5446/phd-application-asking-what-other-insitution-i-am-applying-to-how-to-answer) that there is no obligation on the applicant's part to answer them, but what is the best thing to do from a strategic standpoint?
Do universities frown upon applications to a lot of other places because of the risk that a candidate they admit will accept another offer? Do they gauge the level of confidence/ambition based on how selective other programmes are? How does it affect one's chances? Are there any other considerations?<issue_comment>username_1: If you are willing to strongly recommend the student for graduate study, despite his past cheating offense, then tell the student you are willing to write the letter, and then write the letter.
Otherwise, tell the student you are unwilling to write the letter, and then don't.
---
Your edit clarifies that you are unwilling to write a strong recommendation letter, because of the student's past academic misconduct. I suggest telling the student, "I am unwilling to write you a strong recommendation letter, because of your past academic misconduct."
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: >
> Dear (name of student),
>
>
> For complex reasons, I would not be the best person to write you this recommendation. However, I think you will be a good match for that program and wish you all the best in your future endeavors.
>
>
>
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: I'm gonna write an answer picking up on mkennedy's comment.
>
> "If it hadn't happened, I'd recommend him strongly."
>
>
>
Okay, you get to think about why you'ld recommend him strongly, if this homework copying hadn't happened. Is he/she **that** good (from other work that you have seen) that, not only the student, but the department the student is heading for would be better off with him/her than without?
In a [previous answer](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/81581/writing-a-recommendation-letter-for-a-student-i-reported-for-academic-dishonesty/81593#81593) to a similar question I recommended to the prof to:
1. Talk to the student. (I would have done this the moment he/she approached for a recommendation.)
2. Warn the student that the recommendation might include this incident (including any positive outcomes), but maybe not.
3. The prof needs to search his/her own soul about *"crime and punishment"* or *"infraction and redemption"* and how he/she feels about the student's rehabilitation,
4. and, **independently of the incident**, the prof needs to search his/her own *head* about this student's performance in *your discipline*.
5. Ultimately this prof needs to decide whether or not [the cosmos would be better off](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utilitarianism) writing the letter or not. That is not synonymous with whether or not the student would be better off or if the academe or in *your discipline* would be better of, but may be very closely related to that.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: Why not tell the student that, if you would were to write a letter it would be strong but you would also feel obliged to mention the issue of academic misconduct?
After all, the point of letters of references is to provided additional information beyond what’s on the transcript, so you’re on solid grounds when not limiting your discussion to final grades.
Upvotes: 0
|
2017/02/18
| 2,256
| 9,787
|
<issue_start>username_0: I'm a grad student and TA.
I was playing pool on campus and met some people who happened to be in a frat. We played together and they invited me to their frat party. Long story short, I got really drunk and ended up having sex with someone. I didn't realize that they were in my class until the morning (I have a lot of students).
What do I do? How do I make this right? I'm sure this is bad, but just how bad?<issue_comment>username_1: Assuming you are in the United States, **you are currently in an extremely vulnerable situation from a legal and academic perspective.**
If I were you, I would immediately report yourself to your professor -- and then to the university Title IX office. I would ask to be reassigned out of grading or having any other academic contact with that student.
The reason you should report yourself immediately is if the student for vindictive reasons files a sexual harassment suit accusing you of offering to have sex with them in exchange for a good grade, you have very little protection. You did in fact have sex (and I assume you'd admit that), but it's harder to prove that you didn't offer anything for that sex. That makes a defense difficult to impossible.
Furthermore, even if the student doesn't report you, they can now blackmail you.
By reporting yourself and taking yourself out of any academic relationship with the student is pretty much the only way you can assure that there was no promise or offer of any exchange in lieu of sex -- and there is no possibility in the future.
However, you'd still be in violation of most campus codes of conduct and likely face some reprimand. Fortunately, just plain consensual sex between instructors (including TAs) and students is viewed much more leniently than exchange of favors for sex.
The moral of the story is not to place yourself in any situation where this type of thing might potentially happen.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: You could either go see a department administrator and tell him or her the basic outline. Or you could wait and see.
Personally, if I were you I would do the preemptive thing.
This weekend, you can be reading up on university policy, code of conduct, graduate employee handbook, employment contract, etc. This can help you decide; and it will also help you understand the technical discussions that may ensue.
If you are a member of a union, ask for a union representative to go with you to any meetings.
*At the same time, if you are not already working with a medical or mental health provider about healthy use of alcohol, I'd suggest getting started on that as well, so you can avoid destructive and self-destructive behaviors in future.*
**Edit**:
I forgot to answer your last question. How bad is this? It is impossible to say at this point; however, nothing is gained by panicking. I don't want to offer false reassurance. I think you must realize that statistically speaking the chances of something bad coming from this are fairly low. If you think there is no police car in sight when you make the illegal U-turn, the chances that you will get in trouble are statistically low. But you might be observed by a police officer and you might get a warning or a ticket; if you already have a lot of points, your license could be suspended. In this case, the possible negative repercussions are: an accusation of sexual harassment, possible pregnancy, possible decision to abort a pregnancy, possible decision to carry a baby to term and place it in adoption or raise it, possible spread of HIV or other sexually transmitted disease, possible jeopardy to your TAship, possibility of being unable to continue in the program due to financial repercussions of the loss of the TAship. I don't want to alarm you, but if you want to know how bad this might be, those are the possible negative consequences of what happened.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_3: Note: I'm a department chair at a US university. The following represents my thoughts about your question assuming you are in the US. I will stick to comments pertaining to university policy. I am not a lawyer and am unqualified to offer any legal advice of any sort.
---
>
> What do I do? How do I make this right? I'm sure this is bad, but just how bad?
>
>
>
This is awkward, but if indeed you are telling the truth and you didn't realize the person you had sex with was your student at the time it happened, and assuming it was consensual and both of you are of legal age, I don't think it's that bad, *if* you now proceed to handle the situation correctly and with maturity.
The important thing (and I mean really, really, really important) is that **you must immediately act to remove yourself from any position of authority over the student** to avoid ending up in hot water over what is certain to be (if you fail to act as I am suggesting) a pretty bad violation of university policy, and potentially even legal trouble. That means speaking to the instructor for the class, telling them honestly exactly what happened (yeah awkward I know), and asking for their guidance about what needs to be done. (It's a good idea for that request to be documented in writing/email.) The department chair will likely need to become informed of the situation as well. My guess is they will either have to remove you from your role as TA for the class, or arrange for the student to switch to another TA if that is a practical option, and find ways to ensure you are not involved in grading or other assessments related to the student in question.
If the instructor and chair are sensible people, I don't expect that there will be any disciplinary action or other formal repercussions to what happened, although you should certainly expect some unpleasant discussions, possibly having to be interviewed by campus officials who handle sexual harassment and discrimination, receiving unpleasantly-worded memos counseling you about university sexual harassment policies, and similar headaches. It's also quite possible that the incident will cause the instructor for the course and/or the department chair (hopefully no one else in your department will need to learn about what happened) to form negative opinions about you. As I said, if they are reasonable and professional people they will keep those opinions to themselves and move on.
Finally, if the people who handle the incident are not reasonable people, well, all sorts of things may happen, so you'd better make sure you protect yourself against unfair treatment by not committing any missteps that could end up making your situation worse. Such missteps may include trying to keep the incident secret from your department; telling about it but lying about some details (out of embarrassment or because you think those details make you look bad) or omitting important details; or any other immature/unethical/foolish behavior. Ultimately, as I said, you have a reasonable case to argue that you essentially didn't do anything (at least not knowingly, and not so far) that violates any university policies, so if you handle this with maturity chances are you should be fine.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_4: Others have already outlined the appropriate steps to take -- mainly to come clean to those who make the assignments between TAs and students. I'll just focus my answer on why this is the right thing to do. In reality, if the professor who runs your class or the department head are reasonable people, you are not likely to suffer much from this -- these things happen, and reasonable people can find reasonable solutions without making too much of a fuss about it.
So let me tell you how I would handle this if I were in charge and you came to me to tell me the story:
First, I'd tell you that you did the right thing. And that that is because there are two things that could happen that would reflect poorly on you, the department, and the university: (i) the student in question could blackmail you and threaten to tell everyone if you didn't give him good grades; (ii) the student may in fact be good and deserve all of the good grades, but others who know will claim that you played favorites with him and that he got better grades than he deserves. We call these situations *conflicts of interest*: you are -- or equally bad, you may -- have a conflict between your job duties of being an impartial grader and teacher, and your interest in protecting your reputation in a situation of blackmail. What is necessary in this situation is that, with speed, we remove you from your role as someone who assigns grades to the student so that neither of these situations can happen.
Second, I'd tell you that I don't actually need to know any of the details. It happened. Let's move on and find solutions. I don't need to know where it happened, when it happened, what exactly happened, if anyone else knows, whether you used protection (though I'd quietly hope that you did), etc. You had sex. Students do. Let's just assume that everyone knows by now -- whether or not that's the case is immaterial, I'm just going to plan for the worst case.
Third, let's resolve the conflict of interest. For this, you would need to be removed from your position where you grade or instruct the student in question. The quiet way would be to move the student to another section of the class. The less quiet way would be to move you from the section you teach right now to another one. Practicalities may dictate which way is feasible, but one or the other needs to happen.
I would end by repeating that I appreciate your coming to me and coming clean. We all know that students have a life, and these things happen. It is incumbent on all of us to deal with it with reason.
Upvotes: 3
|
2017/02/18
| 2,080
| 7,824
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am a PhD student in genetic epidemiology. When I started my PhD, I was certain I wanted to be a professor - three years into my degree, I am seriously rethinking that choice.
There are parts of my work now as a grad student that I love -- reading articles, putting what I’ve learned together to design studies, doing the analysis, writing code... I am aware of job titles like "research scientist" and "staff scientist" that sound like they might get to spend more time on these things than professors do, but I have some questions about how this works.
(These questions refer to positions in academia or similar settings like NIH intramural - I know industry is very different so I won't try to cram that into the same question!)
1. When/why do people hire research scientists/staff scientists instead of postdocs, and how do the positions differ from being a postdoc?
2. How is job stability? By this I don’t mean job *security*, so much as “How often do people end up having to find a new job?” “How easy/hard is it to find a new job when that happens?” and “Can you usually find a new job at the same university/in the same city?”
3. How is geographic flexibility? Would I still have to be willing to move anywhere in the country like I would if I were looking for a tenure-track job, or would I be able to choose where I wanted to live and then look for jobs there?
4. Do people in these positions first-author papers?
5. You do get paid more than a postdoc... right?<issue_comment>username_1: This is my personal experience:
>
> When/why do people hire research scientists/staff scientists instead of postdocs, and how do the positions differ from being a postdoc?
>
>
>
Most "research scientists/staff scientists" are actually postdocs. Do you mean **research assistant**?
* Assistants are cheaper
* They don't have a PhD and thus more tolerable to dumb jobs
* Many smart candidates fresh graduated from university
* Postdocs shine in research (e.g. writing papers), otherwise there's no reason to hire them
>
> How is job stability? (as a postdoc)
>
>
>
That depends. Generally, academics is competitive. If you can't publish good papers, you won't survive. If you fail in your grant applications, you may need to find a new job. Not many full time positions, unfortunately there is not much job stability.
>
> How is geographic flexibility
>
>
>
As a postdoc, you should be prepared to relocate yourself.
>
> You do get paid more than a postdoc
>
>
>
Who is "you"? I don't think postdocs are well paid. If you want money, don't do a PhD. Being a trader!
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: >
> When/why do people hire research scientists/staff scientists instead of postdocs, and how do the positions differ from being a postdoc?
>
>
>
People in sense of institutions, like research institutes. At institutes you for as your own PI and at postdoc you work for another PI
>
> How is job stability? By this I don’t mean job security, so much as “How often do people end up having to find a new job?” “How easy/hard is it to find a new job when that happens?” and “Can you usually find a new job at the same university/in the same city?”
>
>
>
so many answers on this question
>
> How is geographic flexibility? Would I still have to be willing to move anywhere in the country like I would if I were looking for a tenure-track job, or would I be able to choose where I wanted to live and then look for jobs there?
>
>
>
Ideally good, honestly, I dont think anyone have that chance as you assumed, especially in your field. only if you published good articles.
>
> Do people in these positions first-author papers?
>
>
>
first and senior,
>
> You do get paid more than a postdoc... right?
>
>
>
yes
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: In my experience there are two types of staff scientists.
The first are people who go out and get their own grants. Basically, if an institution thinks you have a legitimate shot at acquiring funding, they will give you access to their grants office to allow you to submit a grant to cover your salary and lab space. If you are good enough to bring in your own funding, life is good. You can live/work wherever you want and more or less name your own salary (of course you need to bring in the grants to cover the salary). As your salary is tied to your grant(s), there is a lot of stress associated with going down this road. A six month funding gap can be disastrous.
The second are people who work on the grant of someone else. This puts you at the same risks of having a funding gap, but know you are not responsible for getting the money, but someone else it. It requires a good working relationship with the PI as they have to be able to justify why paying more for a staff scientist is needed. It terms of flexibility/security, if the PI loses funding, leaves, or retires, getting another job can be really difficult and you should not expect to really have choices in where you will end up. Often grant funding, especially NIH funding, needs to be planned 18+ months out. People just don't have unallocated chunks of funding large enough to cover a staff scientist.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: Answering as an epidemiologist who knows a fair number of staff scientists, and took a good, hard look at the option myself.
>
> When/why do people hire research scientists/staff scientists instead
> of postdocs, and how do the positions differ from being a postdoc?
>
>
>
Postdocs are supposed to grow into independent researchers and eventually leave the nest to become PIs in their own right (or do whatever else they want to do). A staff scientist is someone who will stick around presumably for a longer term. As such, they have the time to build very intimate expertise on *what your lab does*. For example, they might know the workings of a long running cohort study, or a complicated code base inside and out. A postdoc, on the other hand, I'd have to retrain every two years.
>
> How is job stability? By this I don’t mean job security, so much as
> “How often do people end up having to find a new job?” “How easy/hard
> is it to find a new job when that happens?” and “Can you usually find
> a new job at the same university/in the same city?”
>
>
>
This will depend very much on the lab you're working with. I know some staff scientists who have worked in the same position for essentially their entire professional lives, as the lab itself is stable. I know some who have been "inherited" as one PI retires and another takes up their lab, long running studies, etc.
*Good* staff scientists are often extremely valuable, and may be able to find new jobs in the same university, but this is highly variable. For example, if you work in a somewhat specialized lab it might be somewhat harder than if you do something lots of faculty in the school work on or near.
>
> How is geographic flexibility? Would I still have to be willing to
> move anywhere in the country like I would if I were looking for a
> tenure-track job, or would I be able to choose where I wanted to live
> and then look for jobs there?
>
>
>
Technically, you can pick where you like and look for a tenure-track job there, you just might not be successful at it. The same is pretty much true for a staff scientist position - they're not often open enough that you can just rely on bunches being available in your area, depending on where "your area" is and what the demand in your field is there.
>
> Do people in these positions first-author papers?
>
>
>
Depends on the lab, but I have known a number of staff scientists with either first or last positions on papers.
>
> You do get paid more than a postdoc... right?
>
>
>
Usually.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]
|
2017/02/18
| 1,975
| 7,510
|
<issue_start>username_0: Ten years ago my colleagues in a grad program (at a US university) produced a paper but it was never published (in a formal journal or website). It was only distributed by email to the department and friends at other universities. Last week a professor contacts a member of our group requesting for a copy of the paper, but it turns out none of us have the final version (but we're all in agreement to share it). After some googling we find it's hosted on [Scribd](https://www.scribd.com/). I sign up for a free account (with ccard info), use the free trial to download the paper, then delete my account before my ccard is charged. I believe this professor wants the paper only as a survey reference and maybe to use for teaching, but I'm worried about a worst case scenario that my downloaded copy gets uploaded to another repo service.
Questions:
1) It was never published, so are there any copyright issues and our group can share as we please (as the original authors)?
2) Does Scribd have any domain over the particular copy since they provided access as paid service? (Would they embed some unique token that could track to me, or does #1 override this?)<issue_comment>username_1: This is my personal experience:
>
> When/why do people hire research scientists/staff scientists instead of postdocs, and how do the positions differ from being a postdoc?
>
>
>
Most "research scientists/staff scientists" are actually postdocs. Do you mean **research assistant**?
* Assistants are cheaper
* They don't have a PhD and thus more tolerable to dumb jobs
* Many smart candidates fresh graduated from university
* Postdocs shine in research (e.g. writing papers), otherwise there's no reason to hire them
>
> How is job stability? (as a postdoc)
>
>
>
That depends. Generally, academics is competitive. If you can't publish good papers, you won't survive. If you fail in your grant applications, you may need to find a new job. Not many full time positions, unfortunately there is not much job stability.
>
> How is geographic flexibility
>
>
>
As a postdoc, you should be prepared to relocate yourself.
>
> You do get paid more than a postdoc
>
>
>
Who is "you"? I don't think postdocs are well paid. If you want money, don't do a PhD. Being a trader!
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: >
> When/why do people hire research scientists/staff scientists instead of postdocs, and how do the positions differ from being a postdoc?
>
>
>
People in sense of institutions, like research institutes. At institutes you for as your own PI and at postdoc you work for another PI
>
> How is job stability? By this I don’t mean job security, so much as “How often do people end up having to find a new job?” “How easy/hard is it to find a new job when that happens?” and “Can you usually find a new job at the same university/in the same city?”
>
>
>
so many answers on this question
>
> How is geographic flexibility? Would I still have to be willing to move anywhere in the country like I would if I were looking for a tenure-track job, or would I be able to choose where I wanted to live and then look for jobs there?
>
>
>
Ideally good, honestly, I dont think anyone have that chance as you assumed, especially in your field. only if you published good articles.
>
> Do people in these positions first-author papers?
>
>
>
first and senior,
>
> You do get paid more than a postdoc... right?
>
>
>
yes
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: In my experience there are two types of staff scientists.
The first are people who go out and get their own grants. Basically, if an institution thinks you have a legitimate shot at acquiring funding, they will give you access to their grants office to allow you to submit a grant to cover your salary and lab space. If you are good enough to bring in your own funding, life is good. You can live/work wherever you want and more or less name your own salary (of course you need to bring in the grants to cover the salary). As your salary is tied to your grant(s), there is a lot of stress associated with going down this road. A six month funding gap can be disastrous.
The second are people who work on the grant of someone else. This puts you at the same risks of having a funding gap, but know you are not responsible for getting the money, but someone else it. It requires a good working relationship with the PI as they have to be able to justify why paying more for a staff scientist is needed. It terms of flexibility/security, if the PI loses funding, leaves, or retires, getting another job can be really difficult and you should not expect to really have choices in where you will end up. Often grant funding, especially NIH funding, needs to be planned 18+ months out. People just don't have unallocated chunks of funding large enough to cover a staff scientist.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: Answering as an epidemiologist who knows a fair number of staff scientists, and took a good, hard look at the option myself.
>
> When/why do people hire research scientists/staff scientists instead
> of postdocs, and how do the positions differ from being a postdoc?
>
>
>
Postdocs are supposed to grow into independent researchers and eventually leave the nest to become PIs in their own right (or do whatever else they want to do). A staff scientist is someone who will stick around presumably for a longer term. As such, they have the time to build very intimate expertise on *what your lab does*. For example, they might know the workings of a long running cohort study, or a complicated code base inside and out. A postdoc, on the other hand, I'd have to retrain every two years.
>
> How is job stability? By this I don’t mean job security, so much as
> “How often do people end up having to find a new job?” “How easy/hard
> is it to find a new job when that happens?” and “Can you usually find
> a new job at the same university/in the same city?”
>
>
>
This will depend very much on the lab you're working with. I know some staff scientists who have worked in the same position for essentially their entire professional lives, as the lab itself is stable. I know some who have been "inherited" as one PI retires and another takes up their lab, long running studies, etc.
*Good* staff scientists are often extremely valuable, and may be able to find new jobs in the same university, but this is highly variable. For example, if you work in a somewhat specialized lab it might be somewhat harder than if you do something lots of faculty in the school work on or near.
>
> How is geographic flexibility? Would I still have to be willing to
> move anywhere in the country like I would if I were looking for a
> tenure-track job, or would I be able to choose where I wanted to live
> and then look for jobs there?
>
>
>
Technically, you can pick where you like and look for a tenure-track job there, you just might not be successful at it. The same is pretty much true for a staff scientist position - they're not often open enough that you can just rely on bunches being available in your area, depending on where "your area" is and what the demand in your field is there.
>
> Do people in these positions first-author papers?
>
>
>
Depends on the lab, but I have known a number of staff scientists with either first or last positions on papers.
>
> You do get paid more than a postdoc... right?
>
>
>
Usually.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]
|
2017/02/19
| 2,530
| 10,961
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am a Ph.D. student in mathematics, and I'm supposed to finish this year. I've been looking for a position next year (not so much in the USA, but mainly in Germany and the UK). While I haven't exhausted all my options, I do feel that maybe it would be a good idea to have a backup plan.
Since I can afford it, I was thinking about taking myself somewhere "productive" and living there off my savings for a year, whilst working with the research group in that university to produce new results. In the meantime, to continue to apply to positions and hope for the best.
My advisor said that this is not a very good idea, but at the same time mentioned one or two people from our field who had done something like that (albeit in the 1970s or 1980s).
How bad of an idea is this? And what sort of strategy I should be considering if I want to move forward with a plan like that?
The alternative, of course, is to go out to the industry for a year or two until I find a position. But leaving and coming back seems like an even worse idea to me.
(I have money for a year in a reasonable place, maybe two if I also work a bit during that time. I also don't have an American, Canadian, British or European citizenship; although my passport is versatile enough that I can move around.)
**Clarification.** While the question is somewhat general, my field is mathematics. I don't think that not having an affiliation will cause me to be inaccessible to my current network of peers. I have seen several people who did not have an affiliation with any mathematical establishment, but nevertheless continued to collaborate with professors, students and all in all conduct interesting research.
As far as my personal case goes, I also don't think there are others from my field of research who got the positions "and might feel nervous if I'm around". More than implausible, it sounds unlikely.<issue_comment>username_1: Certainly, more publications would be feathers in your cap.
Trailing spouses do this with reasonable frequency (more often women than men but that's neither here nor there). It is not too hard to get an office at a department you have affinity with, even without a spouse connection.
You might be able to apply for some grant money yourself. I have seen some independent researchers do this.
It might be helpful, before deciding, to see what group you might visit, and test out the relationship a bit, ahead of time.
Also, you could shadow a couple of people in industry, as a career exploration project.
These two things can help you decide what feels right.
Have you asked your advisor why s/he doesn't think it's a very good idea?
---
**Edit**:
Some further thoughts (some gleaned from or inspired by others' contributions here, but included here because I think they're important). If you go ahead with your idea of working on your research projects in another department next year without pay:
* get a title of some sort from the hosting department, such as "visiting scientist" (this would solve the problem of lack of affiliation)
* go with your current advisor's blessing (meaning, you would need to get your advisor on board with this before you go; I think step one toward this goal is to ask your advisor why s/he said it's not a good idea, and what *s/he* thinks you should do instead)
* find a secondary math-related endeavor to pursue while you are there, either paid or volunteer, for example, some sort of math-related community outreach (this would make you a more attractive job candidate in the US at least, and could help you justify the move to future hiring committees)
* make sure you'll have at least one mentor in the hosting institution, and some co-workers to interact with
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: In theory, this is not a terrible idea, since you could get yourself to anywhere you wanted, which might allow you to add the name of a prestigious institution on your CV.
But I'm concerned, because you would not have an official mentor. The thing about being a postdoc is that someone cares about you enough to get you one of the very limited positions within the university, so someone is very interested in advancing your career, and working with you. By showing up to an institution by yourself, you would be given minimal support from the institution (you might get an office if you're lucky, but it's also possible that people will think that you're a crazy and shun you; I've seen both cases happen), and no one is obligated to work with you, which might mean that there was no point to moving there in the first place.
So I would follow your suggested course of action only if there's someone who feels strongly about having you around (although this will be hard to distinguish from someone just being polite!) I actually think it might be better to try to aim for some of the teaching postdocs at good universities in the US (some are still accepting applications), because at least you're there on an official capacity, and you'll likely be treated better than just showing up to a place on your own dime.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: I think it's a bad idea. I think you should try and arrange something with your institution. For example, perhaps your advisor could create a temporary postdoc position for you with minimal or no funding.
It also depends on how competitive you are, which is something your advisor and yourself can assess. If you think you have little chance of getting a position (admittedly hard to assess!) then it might be worthwhile to extend your PhD for one year with minimal or no funding (since that's already taken care of) and just publish more papers and attend conferences.
Finally, look for positions in any place where the standard of living is acceptable. Just UK and Germany sounds way too restrictive with regard to getting an academic position in math.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: The job market is *extremely* competitive, and not having had an official position will not help your CV. This is not the 70s or 80s. Academia is a very different place to what it was then. You should be aware that there is a high chance you won't be able to continue in academia, whatever you do with the next year. Would you be comfortable with running down your savings and then finding you have to change course anyway? If you want to do so, I would strongly advise talking to some tenure-track and newly-tenured professors (or equivalent) about what it is *really* like. I know some people now are deciding that academia in its current state isn't worth the effort.
For a strategy if you do decide to self-fund:
You need your CV to show the benefit of your extra year. However, applying for maths positions, you don't actually have an extra year, because of the length of the application cycle. To some extent that will help you - you'll roughly still be applying as a new PhD. But you should be looking to have a longer list of *good* papers. Since getting anything published in that timeframe is basically impossible, I would suggest getting work up on the arXiv, and finding a well-respected researcher in your field as a referee, who feels able to say that they think the paper is of the standard of X journal (or words to that effect). I don't think that's massively easy though.
In addition, I would suggest getting at least one more 'thing' on your CV beyond its current state: organising a conference, writing a grant application, or some solid teaching experience.
The relative merits of going into industry instead will depend on what your field is. For pure mathematics is unlikely you'd be able to move back from industry to academia. In statistics or some applied maths, you can still be seen as a credible researcher on the basis of work in industry. The difficulty is being able to demonstrate your personal contribution to the results. Also, many potential positions will want someone who can teach as well as do research. Demonstrating that would be difficult, but I think not impossible (eg. by supporting colleagues or by tutoring as a part-time job).
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: In my view, you need to explain why you would rather move somewhere else for a single year than stay at your current institution. As others have said, the way the academic job market works, you would have to apply for jobs within a couple of months of your arrival, so there is essentially no time for the intellectual benefits of your visit to positively influence your application. However, your lack of formal institutional affiliation at the time of applying could be a real negative. Perhaps you could arrange to *visit* some other institution for a couple of months while still keeping an employment at your home institution. That would look much better.
Also -- it seems to me that it is way too early to know that you don't have a job for next year. In the US alone there are hundreds of academic jobs that won't have been posted yet. These are temporary positions heavy in teaching and light in financial recompense -- but they are academic jobs, and I know people who have taken such jobs and thereby "stayed academically alive" because of them. I suspect that you are not looking nearly widely enough. It also sounds like you are in one of those unnamed countries that seem to be so popular among questions on this site. Well, you didn't name it so we don't know where you are, but indeed if you want to stay in academia you may have to move around. To my mind, applying for postdocs in the UK but not the US looks rather eccentric.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_6: What you are describing is generally not a good idea, nor should you really call it a post-doc.
First, purely in terms of semantics, I wouldn't refer to what you are proposing as a post-doc so much as a gap year since your CV will not reflect a institutional affiliation. Remember that at the end of the day the intent of the post-doc is for you receive additional mentorship and training beyond your doctoral studies. In short, if your doctoral studies were considered to be an apprenticeship, then your post-doc is the beginning of your journeyman years.
Second, in terms of the academic career pipeline, this can put you at risk compared to your peers. Besides the remuneration that you should receive as a post-doc, you also have the advantage of having increased access to peers and an official affiliation. While you might be quite capable of completing the necessary work for the publications on your own, there is a difference between having a built-in support and peer network and needing to network to build your own.
If you are able to find a research group that is interested in working with you, I would work with them to see if there are any grants or other sources of funding with them you can acquire. Otherwise you are effectively proving them with additional labor at your own expense.
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: I will begin with a disclaimer, I am not an English native speaker, but I can speak fluent English and understand English in ***almost*** all research papers I read.
However, occasionally I come across some papers published in peer reviewed journals with ridiculously complicated sentence structure using relic non-technical vocabulary that no one in the past century has heard of!
Here is one of my favorites:
>
> The algorithm fathoms in a synergetic manner globally, and an antagonistic depth quest locally.
>
>
>
Whatever that means!
Don't get me wrong, the content of such papers can sometimes be informative, but I can't help but get frustrated over such over complication in language! I can spend days trying to decipher what the author was trying to convey and I occasionally give up on the entire paper.
So my question is, why do authors feel the need to hide their amazing ideas/contributions behind such language barrier? Would it hurt to write the paper in a simple fashion such that any reader with the required technical background can understand it?
>
> auth'rs, wherefore thee doth this?
>
>
><issue_comment>username_1: A few things I've seen in my young career:
1. Age – A researcher who is nearing retirement age today would have been learning the ropes in the late '70s to early '80s. If they stay past retirement age they could be older still. The language changes over time.
2. Language proficiency – There are many researchers for whom English is a second language. When both the authors and the readers are using a non-native language there is bound to be some difficulty in communicating. Consider what happens when a German author is trying to translate the German in their head into English, and the Chinese reader is trying to translate the English on the page into Chinese in their head.
3. Background - One of my advisers was a literature undergrad. He didn't let the language get out of hand, but also wasn't afraid to use less common vocabulary if it was particularly suitable for the situation. Even with non-language backgrounds someone might find a concept or jargon term from an earlier part of their life to be particularly appropriate, without realizing how specific it is.
4. Laziness - Lastly, and most unfortunately, is that there are many papers that are just poorly written and poorly edited. Everyone understands that papers submitted for review are not totally finalized, but some have glaring typos or things like sentences that end
It's obvious that some of those papers had not been even cursorily proofread.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: I don't know any such papers, so I would argue they are at least not common in Computer Science (the example that you are apparently using). However, I have on occasion stumbled upon similar sentences in a slightly different context, namely when reviewing statements of purpose or job applications.
My bet is that nobody is actively *"trying to hide their contributions behind language barriers"*, but that instead the writers are not native speakers and those sentences are an artifact of translating idioms, common sentence structures, or generally what "sounds good" from their native language into English. Common such "idiomatic translation errors" include overly long sentences for German speakers, omitting articles when they shouldn't for various Asian speakers, and using flowery and over-the-top language for Persians. I am sure there are many other examples.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_3: I've run into variations of this a lot in economics, and have a few observations.
* **Being good at research in your field is an entirely separate skill from being able to communicate ideas clearly.** Two Nobel laureates really embody the extremes here for me, both with brilliant research. One the one side is <NAME>, who, regardless of what you think of his public persona, is an excellent writer. His skill comes across even in his research papers, and even in his work from the '70s. On the other hand is Amartya Sen, who it often seems to me can't express an idea clearly in one sentence if it could equally well be conveyed in fifteen. Granted, Sen wasn't born in an English speaking country, but he left for school in England in 1953, so he's hardly new at this.
* **There appears to be some institutional momentum.** That is, you learn to be a researcher in your field by reading the work of past researchers. That frames your concept of what quality writing in your field looks like, which you then adopt to some degree.
* **It can be a signaling method.** This is related to the previous point. For professionals used to reading papers written with heavy use of jargon or unnecessarily-big words, writing this way can make your work seem like it belongs. I often feel like the use of latin phrases really falls into this category. I myself enjoy the occasional *ceteris paribus*, for example, but it really isn't a very defensible practice over writing *all else equal*. It isn't even shorter!
I think many of us could benefit from thinking about writing more clearly, but it also makes sense to know your audience and write for them.
Upvotes: 7 <issue_comment>username_4: While it is possible that the outcome might be problematic, oftentimes I find that there are some concepts that are difficult to explain succinctly. I would not call these terms Jargon, but rather very contextual and specific.
Insofar as those words are appropriate for the audience, and maybe even clarified for those who are unfamiliar, then there should be no issue.
I don't think that the meaning is hidden, but it comes down to the depth of the topic. What may appear to be one word is actually representing 20 words and several ideas. As long as the sophistication of the word is a measure of the depth of the issue. I would say that the author is being masterful, rather than doing a disservice to himself or herself.
Whenever I see such a term, I actually think of it as a marker that the topic is more nuanced and complex. The additional time you spend, is not merely a 1:1 translation, but could actually involve understanding many different meanings.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: Some scientists do tend to overuse jargon and complicated language in their writing, for various reasons. Some might do so because they think it looks more impressive and "professional", or because they're so used to their own jargon that they don't realize others might have trouble following it, or simply because they've seen others writing in the same way and think that it's how you're *supposed to* write scientific articles.
However, the example sentence that you cite:
>
> "The algorithm fathoms in a synergetic manner globally, and an antagonistic depth quest locally."
>
>
>
is much, *much* worse than just typical over-complicated academic writing. Indeed, that sentence looks as if it was deliberately obfuscated to hide its meaning, or possibly the lack of any. I can only assume that it was either:
1. badly translated from another language, possibly by a computer;
2. plagiarized from someone else's writing, with words randomly replaced by (near) synonyms to throw off automatic plagiarism detectors; or
3. actually generated entirely by a computer algorithm such as [SCIgen](https://pdos.csail.mit.edu/archive/scigen/).
In any case, I have never seen such writing in any reputable academic publication, but only in pseudo-academic "fake journals" that try to pass themselves off as legitimate academic journals, but have no peer review or other quality control whatsoever, and thus will publish any nonsense sent to them as long as the author pays them for it. Basically, the point of such bogus publications is to let people *pretend* that they've done real scientific research and published it (and so hopefully qualify for degrees, grants and positions requiring evidence of past research), even though they lack the skills to actually do it.
If you find that a paper you're reading contains garbled writing like this, I would suggest treating it as a strong hint that the entire paper may in fact be meaningless nonsense, and not worth even trying to make sense of.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_6: Take a simple concept C, that has two connections A and B to related concepts.
Now if you take two concepts C, you can connect them in four different ways: {A-A}, {B-B}, {A-A,B-B}, {A-B,B-A}. So using combinations of those two simple concepts, you can express only 4 other different concepts (and only two of those other concepts have free connections to build even more concepts).
You can thus understand that the combination of concepts to build more complex or more refined concepts is relatively limited: when you start with simple concepts, you won't be able to express an infinite number of concepts with them.
Once you've used up all the combinations of simple words, you're left with more complex words, identifying more complex concepts, to establish or describe your new ideas.
The sentence given in example, is actually very concise and clear, while transmitting a good high level picture of the described algorithm, which has a uncommon and surprising structure. I cannot find a simplier way to express it. Using "smaller" words would imply having to use multiple sentences, perhaps a whole paragraph to give a similar description of the algorithm in question.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_7: In peer reviewed journals you have to communicate your results in a very precise way. You can't just say things, for any statement made in the article it has to be immediately clear how that statement is arrived at. It's not allowed for this to become clear later, not even a sentence later. Either references are given at the end of the sentence or it is pointed out in that sentence (e.g. by saying "as we shall demonstrate in the next section"). It should be clear that writing in this way consistently throughout an entire article will inevitably lead to many awkward sentences.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_8: These are some personal findings on this topic:
* The word must not collide with the use of other words. In normal speaking, you know... (hand waving)... it's like... In a journal a word must have a clear specific meaning, which is something that the normal speaking is not and English is one of the worst languages for various reasons. The good thing in the wide vocabulary is that there is likely to exist a word that is more specific about what you mean like proffer which is a bit similar to offer, but not quite. The another thing is that you often end up saying things like: "from now on we shall mean with the word humpty a state of being dumpty" You then may not use the word humpty out of this definition. You may want to use a word that means something similar, but such that will not be used elsewhere.
* Being specific means that one often needs to explain the idea more, which may end up making really long, in the case of a journal about 59 words, sentences, in order to convey the meaning in the manner that follows the procedure found appropriate in the journals, and which then having been used for a long time is customary.
* Non-linear complexity of reasoning and concepts; something that a human languages were not indeed made to convey.
* Non-native speakers make awkward translations. Something you may see probably already in this message. While being highly trained to write their thoughts in grammatically right English, the sentence may end up being a mess, but still right.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_9: Precision.
Writing a lot by myself I find that I tend towards long, complex sentences whenever it is important that I communicate a point as precisely and correctly as possible.
The use of difficult terminology is not really an argument here, as papers are usually geared towards an audience that can be assumed to understand the terms. Sure, as a non-expert in the field half of them will be like chinese to the reader, but such a reader is not the target audience.
On the contrary, specific terminology is used for the express purpose of precision. It has a well-defined, specific meaning within the field. If you read RFCs in computer science, for example, even seemingly simple words like "shall" and "must" have exactly defined meanings. Same in legal texts, where seemingly normal english words have a specific, precisely defined legal meaning. Every branch of science has its own terms that are understood by those practicing it.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_10: As the other answers show, the reasons for using complex language are diverse. A good reason is that the author's idea is itself complex, and needs precise language involving many qualifications to express it. A bad reason is that the author doesn't have much original to say, but hopes to give an appearance of deep up-to-date knowledge by packing sentences with technical terms—the aim being, perhaps, to impress a reviewer who doesn't have the time to delve into the meaning (and possibly ascertain that there isn't much to be found), and thus possibly get the paper passed for publication. Nowadays, to secure an academic post, the publication count is all-important; whether what is published is actually worth reading is secondary. (As for citation scores, authors of this type typically generate impressively long lists of references by generously citing each other.)
Thus, each case of complex language needs to be assessed separately. In your example sentence "The algorithm fathoms in a synergetic manner globally, and [in] an antagonistic depth quest locally", I am inclined to give the author the benefit of the doubt. I seems to be about an algorithm for minimization: a field at the intersection of numerical analysis and applied theoretical computer science. The sentence would make sense in the context that the algorithm operates either with reference to other algorithms functioning in parallel or as a parallel suite of algorithms. An analogy could be the deployment of a team of geologists prospecting for ore over a wide region: They cooperate as a team in planning the whole search; but, when a "hot spot" has been located, each of them goes off and competitively uses her own method to dig at an isolated patch in the hot spot.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_11: In my field, computer science, papers are typically 7 to 12 pages long. That means authors have to take very complicated ideas and compress them into only a few thousand words! In my experience, our first drafts usually go significantly over the page limit. In our first revisions, we pick out a few ideas that aren't necessary to express our main point and cut them, saving us a page or two. Then, we're a handful of paragraphs over the page limit, and in order to keep all of the rest of the paper - which we've decided we really need - there are only two things to do: Play with the formatting, and reword sentences to be shorter.
When we shorten our sentences, it is oftentimes very difficult to avoid making them dense to the point of being a little difficult to understand. It's a careful balancing act between aggressively editing down the length of our paper and still keeping both the full meaning of our paper and an acceptable level of readability.
(I understand that computer science's short papers are rather unusual for an entire field, so maybe this isn't the case in other fields.)
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_12: I edit and translate papers, mainly in the social sciences. I see a tremendous amount of writing that the author thought would make the work look more authoritative and convincing, and would make himself look more *hirable*. I think that much of convoluted academic writing stems from what some people anxiously believe is necessary. People think, *When in Rome, do as the Romans do*, and since they see a lot of fancy-looking writing, they try to make their writing fancy too. More often than not, when I chop up their sentences and propose simpler, clearer versions, they are please and relieved to see their ideas coming off the page better.
*Please* give us a link to the paper you quoted ("The algorithm fathoms in a synergetic manner globally, and an antagonistic depth quest locally").
Without reading the context, it's impossible to really know, but -- perhaps they used "fathom" to mean *determine the depth*, and when they wrote "antagonistic," they meant to make some kind of contrast.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_13: Let me mention some points from two articles on this topic, with a request for more such sources:
* <NAME>, *Why Academic Writing Stinks*, Chronicle of Higher Education, September 26, 2014. ([Paywalled link](http://www.chronicle.com/article/Why-Academics-Writing-Stinks/148989/), [download link](http://www.chronicle.com/article/Why-Academics-Stink-at/149105).)
* <NAME> and <NAME>, [*The Science of Scientific Writing*](https://www.americanscientist.org/issues/pub/the-science-of-scientific-writing/99999), *American Scientist*, November–December 1990.
---
In the first article, Pinker considers three explanations commonly given, and gives three of his own.
The cynical **Explanation 1** is that there are certain fields, and certain academics, in whose case the bad writing is *intentional*: to bamboozle the readers, or as "emperor's clothing". (For likely examples, see Dennis Dutton's [*The Bad Writing Contest*: 1996–1998](http://www.denisdutton.com/bad_writing.htm) and [*Language Crimes: A Lesson in How Not to Write, Courtesy of the Professoriate*](http://www.denisdutton.com/language_crimes.htm).) Even in the *unfathomable* example given here, this is a possibility. But having recognized this, we can move to the more interesting cases, where the obscurity is unintentional.
Then Pinker considers **Explanation 2**, academics’ “self-serving” one: that there is inherent complexity in what is being discussed, and therefore difficult writing is unavoidable. Although this is true to some extent (every field has its jargon), it is not a complete explanation. Even expert readers are baffled by articles from their own sub-sub-subfield. Pinker gives this example:
>
> Participants read assertions whose veracity was either affirmed or denied by the subsequent presentation of an assessment word.
>
>
>
which he considers "not as concise, accurate, or scientific" as the plain:
>
> Participants read sentences, each followed by the word *true* or *false*.
>
>
>
He also mentions an **Explanation 3**: that gatekeepers of journals expect difficult language. This is not true: every field has some papers that are well-written.
Instead, Pinker comes up with three other explanations (which I reproduce here in reverse order).
**Explanation 4** is that academics simply have few (or no) incentives for writing well. Clarity requires practice, showing drafts to readers, and a toolbox of skills. This is a lot of work and the profession does not reward it (directly, at least). (And there are even some incentives *against* writing well, along the lines of the recent article on [perverse incentives in academia](http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/ees.2016.0223).)
**Explanation 5** is the Curse of Knowledge: once you know something, it becomes hard for you to imagine what it is like for someone else to not know it. (Related terms: “false consensus”, “illusory transparency”, etc.)
For example, jargon and abbreviations that you personally use frequently can become second-nature to you while remaining opaque to readers (even your colleagues). There are names in cognitive psychology for two phenomena that explain *why* authors fail to think like their readers: “chunking” and “functional fixity” (jargon, but he explains them).
>
> The amount of abstraction a writer can get away with depends on the expertise of his readership. But divining the chunks that have been mastered by a typical reader requires a gift of clairvoyance with which few of us are blessed.
>
>
> […]
>
>
> They are not trying to bamboozle their readers; it’s just the way they think. The specialists are no longer thinking—and thus no longer writing—about tangible objects, and instead are referring to them by the role those objects play in their daily travails.
>
>
> A psychologist calls the labels *true* and *false* "assessment words" because that’s why he put them there—so that the participants in the experiment could assess whether it applied to the preceding sentence. Unfortunately, he left it up to us to figure out what an "assessment word" is.
>
>
>
The other explanation from this article (the first and longest one given by Pinker) is based on a theory of different styles of writing, in terms of what kind of conversation authors imagine themselves to be having with their readers. Instead of writing in "classic style" (writing as presentation, for directing the reader's gaze towards the truth, successful when clear and simple), academic writing is often in a blend of two styles: a "practical style" (writing in a fixed template, for satisfying a reader's need for a particular kind of information) and "self-conscious style". This is **Explanation 6**, but it needs a bit of elaboration on what this "self-conscious style" is, and how it manifests.
In self-conscious style, "the writer's chief, if unstated, concern is to escape being convicted of philosophical naïveté about his own enterprise".
>
> Their goal is not so much communication as self-presentation—an overriding defensiveness against any impression that they may be slacker than their peers in hewing to the norms of the guild.
>
>
>
Pinker considers many common flaws in academic writing to be symptoms of this style: *metadiscourse* (writing about the writing itself, as in "The preceding paragraph demonstrated…" which could be "As we have seen…"), *professional narcissism* (talking about the world of their profession, rather than about the world of the things they're studying: "In recent years, an increasing number of psychologists and linguists have…"), *apologizing* (about how complicated/controversial their topic is), *shudder quotes*, *hedging*, and *metaconcepts/nominalizations*.
This last one is especially interesting: academics really do bucket their ideas using certain abstractions, but forget to unpack them for the reader. Plus, English makes it easy to make nouns out of verbs: instead of *postponing* something you can implement its *postponement*, and so on. The example from Explanation 2 above has many instances of this, as does this:
>
> Prevention of neurogenesis diminished social avoidance.
>
>
>
rather than
>
> When we prevented neurogenesis, the mice no longer avoided other mice.
>
>
>
The point is that the authors may actually be thinking in the former terms and categories, and fail to write in "classic style" for the reader from the reader's point of view. I believe this is important enough to count as a separate **Explanation 7**.
And regardless of whether authors are thinking/writing in classic style or self-conscious style, it seems to me that many of these bad habits are things one can easily pick up from reading other academic writing, which is **Explanation 8**.
---
In the articles included in the same download, there is an overlapping explanation (**Explanation 9**): academics have many reasons for using jargon, and not all of them are good for the reader:
>
> Academics turn to jargon for a wide variety of reasons: to display their erudition, to signal membership in a disciplinary community, to demonstrate their mastery of complex concepts, to cut briskly into a continuing scholarly conversation, to push knowledge in new directions, to challenge readers’ thinking, to convey ideas and facts efficiently, to play around with language.
> (Hel<NAME>, *Inoculating Against Jargonitis*)
>
>
>
---
The other article ([*The Science of Scientific Writing*](https://www.americanscientist.org/issues/pub/the-science-of-scientific-writing/99999) by Gopen & Swan) is very valuable on some precise ways in which academic (especially scientific) writing is harder to understand than it needs to be. Its main point is that there are certain structural cues that readers unconsciously use for interpretation, but authors do not always satisfy those expectations. (Some of its points are also in [this video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLPCdDp_LE0), accompanied by [this handout](https://www.cmu.edu/student-org/pcr/media-files/pcr-sessions/swan_summary.pdf).)
For example, they consider the following paragraph:
>
> The smallest of the URF's (URFA6L), a 207-nucleotide (nt) reading frame overlapping out of phase the NH2-terminal portion of the adenosinetriphosphatase (ATPase) subunit 6 gene has been identified as the animal equivalent of the recently discovered yeast H+-ATPase subunit 8 gene. The functional significance of the other URF's has been, on the contrary, elusive. Recently, however, immunoprecipitation experiments with antibodies to purified, rotenone-sensitive NADH-ubiquinone oxido-reductase [hereafter referred to as respiratory chain NADH dehydrogenase or complex I] from bovine heart, as well as enzyme fractionation studies, have indicated that six human URF's (that is, URF1, URF2, URF3, URF4, URF4L, and URF5, hereafter referred to as ND1, ND2, ND3, ND4, ND4L, and ND5) encode subunits of complex I. This is a large complex that also contains many subunits synthesized in the cytoplasm.
>
>
>
If you asked people why it was hard to read, most would mention the technical vocabulary and background knowledge required. These are obviously necessary, so one might consider such paragraphs impossible to improve. However, that is not the whole problem.
At the level of sentences, the article discusses some rough principles:
* In the first sentence above, there are 23 words between the subject ("The smallest") and the verb ("has been identified"). Readers tend to treat what comes between them as an interruption, and pay less attention to it.
* A sentence is expected to make a single point, or serve a single function. It is best if this appears at the end of the sentence (the "stress position").
* At the beginning of sentences (the "topic position", what the sentence is about), the reader expects perspective/linkage and context.
* So, readers are helped most when sentences consistently start with old information (linkage) and end with emphasis on new information. “In our experience, the misplacement of old and new information turns out to be the No. 1 problem in American professional writing today.”
(The above is a crude summary; you can read the article for nuances.)
Based on some of these principles (and with some guesswork about the authors’ intentions), it rewrites the above paragraph to:
>
> The smallest of the URF's, URFA6L, has been identified as the animal equivalent of the recently discovered yeast H+-ATPase subunit 8 gene; but the functional significance of other URF's has been more elusive. Recently, however, several human URF's have been shown to encode subunits of rotenone-sensitive NADH-ubiquinone oxido-reductase. This is a large complex that also contains many subunits synthesized in the cytoplasm; it will be referred to hereafter as respiratory chain NADH dehydrogenase or complex I. Six subunits of Complex I were shown by enzyme fractionation studies and immunoprecipitation experiments to be encoded by six human URF's (URF1, URF2, URF3, URF4, URF4L, and URF5); these URF's will be referred to subsequently as ND1, ND2, ND3, ND4, ND4L and ND5.
>
>
>
This still has all the jargon, but readers who understand it are more likely to arrive at the same interpretation as what the author is trying to say, and more easily.
But many authors consistently violate these principles and do the exact opposite (putting new information first without linkage, and old information at the end where it receives emphasis), for which the article has the following (continuing my numbering in this answer) **Explanation 10**:
>
> The source of the problem is not hard to discover: Most writers produce prose linearly (from left to right) and through time. As they begin to formulate a sentence, often their primary anxiety is to capture the important new thought before it escapes. Quite naturally they rush to record that new information on paper, after which they can produce at their leisure contextualizing material that links back to the previous discourse. Writers who do this consistently are attending more to their own need for unburdening themselves of their information than to the reader's need for receiving the material.
>
>
>
Upvotes: 5
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<issue_start>username_0: I recently submitted an article to a math journal and got a response
from a reviewer, with an attachment. In it, I have found some good
advice that could improve my article tremendously.
I am a bit suspicious of its accuracy since it could resolve
what I have been working with for some months in a few
sentences.
But anyway, it was enough for me to ask the reviewer for
coauthoring with me.
My question would be, does it often happen that
an author asks a referee for coauthoring during
the review process? Or could it even be possible?
I was given a month to revise my article, but
the chance that I could revise successfully
by myself seems to be fat.
I would be looking forward to any advice.
Thanks in advance.<issue_comment>username_1: The answer to this kind of questions cannot be absolute or definitive. All depends on details (how much did the referee improve your proof, does it make sense to ignore the proof of referee, etc).
I've not direct experience but I have a friend to which this arrived at least three times in the last years. At each time it was the occasion to start a new and fruitful collaboration.
So I see this in the positive.
Hope this can help...
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: I can't answer your question directly I'm afraid, as I'm just not 100% on how the process would work in this situation.
But for sure, a new reviewer would need to be found for the revised manuscript. Potentially, you might need to withdraw the submission and start from fresh. It's a unique situation and I'm sure the editor would be understanding.
(My experience is in engineering journals, however I imagine the 'no conflict of interest' requirement between authors and reviewers would be applicable here too.)
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: **Yes, it is possible.**
If you want to invite the reviewer to be a coauthor, send a request through the editor. If the editor agrees, they will forward your invitation to the reviewer. If the reviewer accepts, they will reply to the editor, who will introduce the reviewer to you, and off you go.
Upvotes: 3
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<issue_start>username_0: Initially I asked this question on [math stackexchange](https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/2149990/is-the-gap-between-lower-and-higher-ranked-graduate-programs-in-math-really-tha) but it seems academia stackexchange is more appropriate place for this.
Note: a question similar to that I'm going to ask was discussed [here](https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/8652/does-it-ever-make-sense-not-to-go-to-the-most-prestigious-graduate-school-you-ca), but answers to the questions I'm going to ask were not covered there.
Basically, I'd like to understand how significant is the gap between lower- and higher-ranked graduate schools in mathematics. I'll be referring to the [USN graduate schools ranking](http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-science-schools/mathematics-rankings). Let me fix the notation straight away. By 'higher-ranked schools' (which I will also refer to as 'top schools') I will mean top 10 (or if you want top 20) and by 'lower-ranked schools' I will mean schools ranked 20-40 (all according to USN).
What I understood from the question I provided the link to above is that being amidst 'top students' at a higher ranked school is more beneficial than being amidst 'average students' at a lower-ranked school. Also, higher-ranked schools may be more diverse and provide more opportunities in meeting people from other top schools as well as in obtaining a job in the academia.
But I still have a couple of questions.
The first one is about the first two years of the study. Is, in general, the instruction level at lower-ranked schools worse than that in higher-ranked ones? Also, are graduate corses at 'top schools' more difficult to master and to pass? If so, does it imply that one needs a better preparation (i.e., a stronger mathematical background) to succeed in a top graduate program? Also, does it imply that the students enrolled in a top program will eventually have a better mathematical background that will make it easier for them to conduct research? If you have anything else to say about the coursework at top universities in comparison to that at lower-ranked universities, I would appreciate it.
Secondly, in the question I referred to above (or elsewhere), some people mentioned that exposure to new ideas in various branches of mathematics (which is one of the advantages of top programs) is a consequence of the size of the department and the 'quality' of faculty/post-docs/students. Whereas I do agree that students at top universities are more knowledgable and creative, I cannot see why the other assertions hold. Correct me if I am wrong but the the math department of say Stony Brook or Indiana (ranked 25 and 34, resp.) is not smaller than that of Chicago or Columbia (ranked 5 and 9, resp.). Furthermore, the vast majority of professors in all of the places mentioned are alumni of Harvard/Princeton/Berkeley/MIT/Chicago/Stanford (i.e., a top school in my terminology); post-docs also come from very prestigious places to all of the four mentioned universities. So what makes Chicago or Columbia 'better' than Stony Brook or Indiana? Just their name? (Of course Chicago may have more publications than Indiana but I don't think that graduate students feel it.)<issue_comment>username_1: Looking at the problem as someone who has been on a variety of hiring committees and grant panels,
I would say that in general, having someone with a good reputation in the field writing a strong letter of support is the most important factor, together with the journals where you have published.
In view of this, the school doesn't really matter: if you do your PhD in a small school but with a supervisor with a solid reputation who produces a multi-page letter highlighting well your contributions to the field, you will usually fare better than if you come from a very well known school with very little endorsement from your supervisor. Of course, some people tend to get a little bit star struck, but the dynamics of a hiring (or funding) committee usually smooths things out. Actually, contrary to what <NAME> was saying, I would argue that the school matters less in academia, more if you want to venture out into the real world, where name recognition is more important and might help you land your first job.
So why favor a good school? Well, there will be more visiting speakers of a high caliber. There might be a wider variety of grad courses to choose from. Overall, probably a more enriching experience. The difficulty level will not be very different, if at all, once you have been admitted.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: I know I'm quite late to the party, but I disagree rather strongly with part of the other answer, namely:
1. Yes, the level courses are taught at can vary quite a bit between first tier schools, second tier schools and third tier schools. (Also though the drop off is probably steeper going from second to third tier.) Consequently, it may be much harder for someone to succeed in the first couple years at a top school than at an "average" school, particularly if one does not have adequate preparation. This is not to say it's impossible---I've seen PhD students need to start with undergrad courses in a top 10 school and then successfully graduate. In fact, I think the success (PhD completion) rates tend to be higher higher at top schools, because of course they try to only accept the students who seem likely to succeed.
2. Generally top schools have the professors doing the most impressive/popular (subjective, I know) research. It's not the size of the department or the number of publications that varies so much, but it's the quality of research. It's not just the name. That said, rankings themselves are rather imprecise---certainly departments are not linearly ordered by quality---and some schools are better in certain fields than others: maybe a second tier school is actually one of the top schools in your field of interest.
In summary, you will certainly have a different educational experience at Chicago than at Indiana. This does not mean you will have a *better* experience at Chicago---this is highly circumstantial/individual, or that you would get a better job coming out of Chicago, but the readily available resources will be different. Interactions with the leaders of your field is a very valuable thing.
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: In research and publications there are database maintains good quality list of journals, Maintaining a reliable good impact factor too. But on the other side there are list of journals who publish anything for money. They give misleading information about their indexing and even some unbelievable Impact factors.
We find difficulty in publishing one quality paper in a quality journal .while the other hand there are people publishing plagriazed text and repetitive papers in regular way and just dumping the research papers in databases with such unethical journals. Its annoying for me to see these kind of habits been followed.
HOw could you handle such thing. Give our suggestions?
Avoiding is always better but you cant avoid when you see a man publishing 10's of papers for year with these kind of journals and you publishing papers in single digit but its a quality research.
comment name of such unethical journal<issue_comment>username_1: Looking at the problem as someone who has been on a variety of hiring committees and grant panels,
I would say that in general, having someone with a good reputation in the field writing a strong letter of support is the most important factor, together with the journals where you have published.
In view of this, the school doesn't really matter: if you do your PhD in a small school but with a supervisor with a solid reputation who produces a multi-page letter highlighting well your contributions to the field, you will usually fare better than if you come from a very well known school with very little endorsement from your supervisor. Of course, some people tend to get a little bit star struck, but the dynamics of a hiring (or funding) committee usually smooths things out. Actually, contrary to what <NAME> was saying, I would argue that the school matters less in academia, more if you want to venture out into the real world, where name recognition is more important and might help you land your first job.
So why favor a good school? Well, there will be more visiting speakers of a high caliber. There might be a wider variety of grad courses to choose from. Overall, probably a more enriching experience. The difficulty level will not be very different, if at all, once you have been admitted.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: I know I'm quite late to the party, but I disagree rather strongly with part of the other answer, namely:
1. Yes, the level courses are taught at can vary quite a bit between first tier schools, second tier schools and third tier schools. (Also though the drop off is probably steeper going from second to third tier.) Consequently, it may be much harder for someone to succeed in the first couple years at a top school than at an "average" school, particularly if one does not have adequate preparation. This is not to say it's impossible---I've seen PhD students need to start with undergrad courses in a top 10 school and then successfully graduate. In fact, I think the success (PhD completion) rates tend to be higher higher at top schools, because of course they try to only accept the students who seem likely to succeed.
2. Generally top schools have the professors doing the most impressive/popular (subjective, I know) research. It's not the size of the department or the number of publications that varies so much, but it's the quality of research. It's not just the name. That said, rankings themselves are rather imprecise---certainly departments are not linearly ordered by quality---and some schools are better in certain fields than others: maybe a second tier school is actually one of the top schools in your field of interest.
In summary, you will certainly have a different educational experience at Chicago than at Indiana. This does not mean you will have a *better* experience at Chicago---this is highly circumstantial/individual, or that you would get a better job coming out of Chicago, but the readily available resources will be different. Interactions with the leaders of your field is a very valuable thing.
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: I have recently joined a research group, where everything was excellent until two weeks of my joining.
My supervisor was very friendly when I met him for the first time at a conference. He was very interested in conducting work similar to mine in his lab. He showed interest in the subject and insisted that I make an application for a vacant position in his group.
He was very happy when I cleared all formalities (completed the application, was shortlisted, performed well in the interview and received an offer letter). After joining, I felt that I had joined a very good group that could help me enhance my research skills, as my colleagues are very friendly and helpful.
However, two weeks later, when I met my supervisor to discuss my work, he suddenly gave me many difficult tasks, many of which are very new to me and out of my skillset and told me that everything should be finished within another two weeks. He also told me that I should do everything by myself and never disturb my colleagues.
When I discussed this with my colleagues, they told me that he is very strict, not a good person, and he intends to dominate.
My question is how would I know about these things before joining his group?
For now, I can’t imagine how to continue to work in this group.<issue_comment>username_1: >
> ...never disturb to other colleagues. When I discussed with other colleagues...
>
>
>
Good for you!
>
> My question is how would I know about these things before joining his group?
>
>
>
By talking with other members of the group, *away from faculty*, during your interview visit (or some other time before accepting the offer).
Conversations with students outside the professor's group would also have been useful. Also with the clerical staff. Even if unhappy group members themselves are hesitant to talk with strangers, for fear of reprisal, people know who the unhappy research groups are.
If the professor didn't *actively encourage* such conversations, that's already a red flag.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: I would guess that the people that work the closest with professors are typically PhD students. They are also very much "exposed" to the professor's leadership style.
Often times the website of a research group lists the finished PhDs. Recently, I contacted former PhDs of a certain professor, because I consider joining his team. People were happy to share their experiences and I got a multi-faceted picture. Of course there may have been personal conflicts, so take their opinion also with a grain of salt.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: In addition to discussing with current members of the research group, it is often a good idea to discuss with students/researchers who left the group for another group in the same university (i.e., switched labs).
* Current members may be unwilling to give negative feedback regarding their advisor, especially if you do not know them well. If you're a prospective PhD student at a visit weekend, beware that current graduate students are sometimes asked to convince prospective PhD students to join.
* Members who left may have had a good reason to leave, and you probably want to understand it (is it because of the advisor/colleagues/funding/willingness to explore some of the research directions/etc).
I think that research departments should keep track of students/researchers flow between labs and make it available to new students/researchers, but unfortunately this is uncommonly done.
Upvotes: 4
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<issue_start>username_0: I'm an undergraduate electrical engineer. I have studied up to 80 percent of a masters in electrical engineering program and have two IEEE published papers. Is there such a thing as a PhD entrance exam that I can take to prove my ability to pass advanced electrical courses and get admitted directly into a PhD in a university in Europe?<issue_comment>username_1: In Germany, it is possible to start your PhD without a master [since 2000](http://www.kmk.org/fileadmin/veroeffentlichungen_beschluesse/2000/2000_04_14-Bachelor-Master-Promotion.pdf) (text only in German). You have to find an advisor and pass a qualifying examination, which differs by university. So, you first have to choose where you want to do your PhD.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: Admission and funding in European PhD programs depends a lot on the university and the country's regulations. You should search for the programs you are interested in applying to and read their specific requirements.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: The Dutch (eg. Eindhoven) situation is that a PhD is normally funded (or done as an external PhD with a company). As such anyone will have to go through what amounts to a "job" interview. Within the system a masters is normally expected, but exceptions can be made, especially for candidates from countries where a masters would not be required to start a PhD.
A PhD in The Netherlands will always have a full professor who will function as promotor (under whom's responsibility you would work). You may in addition have a daily supervisor with less experience. You will basically need to convince your interviewers that you can do the research. A common question would be for you to present your Msc thesis (or bsc thesis) as an example of your ability to write, the papers you published could be a good alternative, especially if you were the main (or only author). Be prepared to answer the question why you didn't finish the masters (in this case time can be in your benefit)
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_4: In Spain it is in general necessary to have an "Oficial" Master's degree to enter a PhD program. The "official" qualifier means that some master's programs are formally recognized as conduits to doctoral programs, whereas others are not. In general a foreign degree would have to be recognized as equivalent to a Spanish degree, usually by the administration of the university offering the doctoral degree. Although there are lots of qualifications to this general statement, applicable in special cases, basically you need to have a master's degree already. [Here](https://www.ucm.es/requisitos-de-acceso-doctorado) and [here](http://www.ucm.es/informacion-adicional-para-alumnos-con-estudios-extranjeros-1) is information (in Spanish) about the requirements at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, which is probably typical. For someone who does not have an official Spanish master's degree or a foreign degree recognized ("homologado") as such, there is a process to apply for admission, but the details probably depend on the particularities of the applicant.
Admission and funding are generally separate matters. The summary with respect to funding is that there isn't much, what there is pays poorly by the standards of northern Europe or the US, and it's competitive to get what little there is.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_5: In France, they count it in years of study. My Bachelor in Engineering was 5 years, so that was "equivalent" to a MS in France. I had an MS as well, but I didn't even bother ($) translating it, because it wasn't necessary.
Upvotes: 0
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<issue_start>username_0: I am a researcher in Mathematics and I have recently found that it has been published a paper X whose main result is a (very) special case of a result of mine, which has been published more than an year ago. From the journal log, I can also see that paper X has been submitted after my paper has been published.
However, the author of the paper X was not aware of my previous result, indeed she did not cite my paper.
I am wondering if it would be possible to make the journal of paper X acknowledging my priority on the result, and in such a case how to do so.
I have often seen journals publishing short notes with the title "Acknowledgement of priority", in which it is explained that a published result was already proved by someone else, but I have no idea of how it works.
Thanks for help.
**UPDATE:** I wrote to the author of the paper and I have got no response.<issue_comment>username_1: Sorry to disappoint, but since paper X has already been published, and assuming your result is not some earth-shattering discovery like, say, a proof of Goldbach's conjecture, where there is an obviously compelling public interest in having an accurate historical record, there is no way for you to make the journal take any action to acknowledge your priority. Your best hope is to email the authors of paper X, point out your earlier result, and hope that they will be motivated by professional integrity to acknowledge your priority whenever they give talks about their results, and possibly on their web pages. My experience suggests that this yields mixed results, but I have been on both sides of such communications, and on a few occasions when I've published results that turned out to have been published earlier by others, I've certainly acknowledged it in informal settings such as talks, and if I learned about it early enough when my paper was still a preprint, I would update it to add an acknowledgement.
As for updating an already published paper, that's something I haven't felt necessary to do (and I wouldn't expect most other authors to feel compelled to do either normally), both because there is no obvious mechanism for doing that, and since in the cases I'm referring to the results were not very important and/or the amount of overlap between my results and those that preceded them was not great. If there were ever a case like this involving a really important result, I would most assuredly go out of my way to make the historical record as clear as possible, since doing otherwise is ethically untenable.
**Edit:** as you pointed out in the OP and comments and other answers elaborated on, it seems to be possible to submit to journals a short note with a title along the lines of "Acknowledgement of priority concerning the paper `[...]'" in which an author can formally acknowledge that their already published result has been preceded by a result published earlier by someone else. This seems to be quite an uncommon thing to do, but can apparently be done. My advice is not to take the view that the author of paper X is *required* to publish such an acknowledgement (since doing this is clearly not a norm, otherwise I would have known about it and probably followed it myself on one or two occasions), but something they can voluntarily do if they choose to. You may want to consider asking them to publish an acknowledgement of priority when you email them, but I would only do this if the result was sufficiently important to be worth the trouble, otherwise you run the risk that the request will come across as petty and mildly offensive. Anyway, good luck!
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: I agree with @username_1's answer. I also want to say that in this set of circumstances, it does not really seem necessary to take any heroic actions in order to acknowledge priority: since the OP's paper was published more than a year earlier: okay, as the record lies, the OP **has** priority.
I agree that the OP should make sure that the community knows that s/he had the stronger result first, and that contacting the authors of the later paper is a good idea. But I think the OP should do this with a winner's grace: this is going to be much more awkward and painful for the authors of the later paper.
I also want to mention that this kind of thing happens in mathematics all the time. For instance, a few days ago I found out that the main result in a paper I published a few years ago appears, in much stronger form, in some "Lecture Notes" from 1974 (that were apparently never formally published: they are not listed on MathSciNet). Well, gosh. I haven't decided exactly what to do about this, but please be assured that I am not rubbing my hands greedily at the thought that my too-complicated-partial result has "priority" in some formal sense.
**Added**: Concerning the author's
>
> I have often seen journals publishing short notes with the title "Acknowledgement of priority", in which it is explained that a published result was already proved by someone else, but I have no idea of how it works.
>
>
>
I did MathSciNet searches for "acknowledgement of priority" and "acknowledgment of priority" and got 62+25 hits. When you remove double counting, false positives and papers analyzing priority disputes from long ago (e.g. Euler versus d'Alembert), you get about 70 genuine instances of the sort the OP describes. Restricting to theoretical mathematics over the last 30 years, I found 9 genuine acknowledgments of priority. Moreover, among the entire group of 70, only a few are written by someone other than the author of the original paper.
From this, I would suggest that "the way it works" is that the author herself must be moved to make an acknowledgment of priority, but that this is done only in a small minority of cases. As I said, above, I am myself considering writing an acknowledgment of priority. If I do so, then in view of the above numbers I will be a world expert on the subject, and I will add more details to this answer.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: It has happened to me twice that I published a result and then learned that someone else had published it earlier. In both cases, I published an acknowledgment of priority in the same journal that had published my paper. From the other answers, I infer that I wasn't really obligated to do this, but I thought and I still think that it's the right thing to do. At the very least, it helps maintain friendly relations in the community.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: Does the journal where paper X is published accept letters / short notes? If so, you could write a note showing how Proposition T in paper X is a special case of Theorem Y in your paper (assuming it's not completely trivial) and maybe a generalization. Keep it professional though -- it should be a service to the reader providing new insight over the theorems, not a dispute over "scientific priority" which readers may find petty. These things happen all the time in research, there's no need to make a big scene.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_5: Both of you made independent discoveries. Yours turns out to be more general. There is not much to this issue, since the timing of the publications does not really matter, given that they were independently done.
There is not much to worry. Ideally, people will cite both results when needed. You only need to make sure to advertise your result on conferences and forthcoming publications.
Upvotes: 0
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<issue_start>username_0: For instance, there's currently a great deal of attention towards the theory of "spin glasses" in probability theory. But how does a research direction gain its importance so quickly? Does it simply start with one researcher who declares that this research direction should be given a lot of attention?<issue_comment>username_1: In my (limited) experience in academia, I've noticed that the research topics that gain the most importance & attention tend to be the ones that impact the most people.
Sometimes (often) it takes a while for new research to become important. For example, in my field of computer engineering, *machine learning* has been researched for decades. But only in the last 5-10 years has it truly caught fire, as computational power, software libraries, etc. finally reached the point where the average researcher could quickly and easily make use of machine learning techniques. Now, you see its use in everything from engineering to the social sciences because of its power in extracting useful information from large datasets.
Sometimes new research topics become important because they *disrupt* a large amount of research. Einstein's theory of special relativity (eventually) opened up vast new fields of research -- but not before facing criticism from classical physicists who saw their life work as being under attack.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: One somewhat counterintuitive thing in mathematics seems to be that a topic A attracts new attention whenever someone finds an application of A to a topic B (this is, of course, understandable), but also whenever someone finds an application of a topic B to A (this is the counterintuitive part). The reason, I guess, is that applications are rarely one-way roads in mathematics, and usually point to deeper connections which can then be walked down both ways (although one of the directions is often easier). The other reason is that people want to be useful and thus like to explore fields where their experience could help, even if they don't care that much about these fields on their own.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: The current answers are both good answers to the general question, but neither really applies in the particular case singled out by the OP or other situations like it. Spin glasses have been studied by physicists for decades, but until relatively recently the most popular mathematical models of spin glasses appeared to be beyond the reach of rigorous mathematical analysis. Following some breakthroughs circa 2000 (due particularly to Talagrand), probability theorists now recognize that this is a fruitful area to research, full of problems that are hard enough for progress to be interesting, but possibly within reach of current mathematical techniques.
This kind of thing happens a lot in mathematics. Many so-called pure mathematicians are much more interested in real-world phenomena than they are made out to be, and are always on the look-out for interesting problems inspired by real-world phenomena. But most real-world phenomena are simply too complicated to be amenable to proving theorems about them. So if someone shows that some physical model --- possibly a highly simplified toy model, but complicated enough to reflect something of what might go on in the real world --- is within the reach of rigorous mathematical analysis, then mathematicians often flock to work on it. If it's just the right level of difficulty, so that new theorems keep getting proved, but it's hard work, then it can hold mathematicians' interest for a long time.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]
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<issue_start>username_0: I am writing a report on Fusion energy as an assignment. It contributes to a sperate qualification in Physics which is simply a Pass/Fail. Further studies will often not accept students who do not pass this section.
In this report, I have briefly looked into the current state of electricity generation, including the emissions from coal power plants, and the mining of coal. I found some excellent sources, but also one that had been deleted from the state.gov website. It was available [here](http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/219038.pdf). It is still available on archive.org [here](http://web.archive.org/web/20161223091651/http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/219038.pdf).
Archive.org shows it was removed sometime between 12:45 and 19:54 on the 20th of January 2017. This does not seem to be a coincidence as many news sites reported on [Trump ordering the EPA to remove climate change data](http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-epa-climatechange-idUSKBN15906G).
Personal politics aside, I feel attempting to remove/removing any data from the internet is disgraceful, and I want to express that in my report. Currently, at the end of my bibliography I have this text:
>
> Note on Citation 30: UNITED STATES CLIMATE ACTION REPORT 2014. The Available URL provided is from archive.org’s WaybackMachine, a project which aims to archive public facing sites for the future, protecting them from removal. On the 20th of January 2017, this report was removed from the state.gov website. This appears to have been under the instruction of President Trump, as news sites reported data on the EPA website was removed. The provided archive.org link is the most recent version, from 23 December 2016.
>
>
>
Is this appropriate in the bibliography, or should I simply leave it at the first 2 sentences?<issue_comment>username_1: >
> This appears to have been under the instruction of President Trump, as news sites reported data on the EPA website was removed.
>
>
>
Speculation usually doesn't belong in a scientific paper. This is especially true when it does not further the scientific purpose of the paper.
The rest of the statement - about the document no longer being available at its original link, and a note regarding its availability on archive.org, is fine because it is not speculation and serves an academic purpose. However, you actually don't need to resort to archive.org, because [the document is still available](https://2009-2017.state.gov/documents/organization/219038.pdf) on the archived state.gov site.
Like whitehouse.gov, the entire State Department website is routinely [archived](https://www.state.gov/misc/112234.htm) at the end of each administration, and the new administration can put whatever they want on their new site. (For example, at the beginning of the Obama administration, they replaced the [Bush-era State Department site on climate change](http://web.archive.org/web/20090113205754/http://www.state.gov/g/oes/climate/index.htm) with [their own](http://web.archive.org/web/20090124153057/http://state.gov/g/oes/climate/index.htm).) The state.gov material from the Obama administration is still available; you just have to replace "www.state.gov" in the URL with "2009-2017.state.gov".
(P.S. an archive of the EPA website immediately before the transition, created [in response to numerous FOIA requests](https://techcrunch.com/2017/02/16/the-epa-posted-a-backup-of-its-website-dated-just-before-inauguration-day/), is also available: <https://19january2017snapshot.epa.gov/>)
Upvotes: 8 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: >
> Personal politics aside, I feel attempting to remove/removing any data from the internet is disgraceful, and I want to express that in my report
>
>
>
Well, that isn't putting personal politics aside, is it? That is literally going out of your way to put personal politics into your report. It doesn't belong there. Don't do it!
Instead, use your blog or local pub to vent your frustration on the matter. Meanwhile, cite the source material as succinctly and as factually as you can, without veering into unnecessary speculation.
As a general rule, if you have to ask whether something's appropriate then the answer is usually "no".
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: As username_1 mentioned, speculation should not belong in scientific paper.
However, I do want to add that in this or similar kind of cases, mentioning that document availability (or its removal) is depending on political powers might be somewhat relevant. Papers, data or documents could be removed because huge error was found, or data was deemed outdated.
If the reader has no knowledge why the document has been removed, I believe most likely conclusion would be that the removed document is faulty and should not be used as source. Especially for those outside USA who might not know the practise of removing stuff when government changes.
I would not try to take political stance here though, and keep the statement of removal as neutral as possible. In this case it seems that you can link to the archived government site, so statement might not be necessary at all.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_4: It is Fact versus Speculation.
Fact: The report was available but it was taken down.
Speculation: The report was available and [Walter Plinge] had it taken down.
If you write scientific article about technology, stay apolitical and stick to the facts.
If you want to comment on the fact you are referring to `archive.org` instead of `state.gov` servers consider this way:
>
> Note on Citation 30: UNITED STATES CLIMATE ACTION REPORT 2014. The Available URL provided is from archive.org’s WaybackMachine, a project which aims to archive public facing sites for the future, protecting them from removal. On the 20th of January 2017, this report was removed from the state.gov website. This appears to have been under the instruction of President Trump, as news sites reported data on the EPA website was removed. The provided archive.org link from 23 December 2016 is the most recent version.
>
>
>
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: 'appears' is [subjective/argumentative](https://law.stackexchange.com/questions/1375/what-is-the-opposite-of-argumentative). The 1st 2nd and 4th sentences are objective/factual.
I think the 3rd sentence is okay if you can concisely defend your claim.
Of course, 'concisely' may be subjective too :P
Upvotes: 0
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<issue_start>username_0: I would like to study for a PhD and hopefully become a researcher. There is nothing I can think of that I would like to do with my life more. However, my social and communication abilities are bad. They are bad beyond the point where it could be dismissed as me being a 'quirky professor'. People assume that if you want to go into academia, you want to teach. However, I don't think I could do it. I have Asperger syndrome, so there's a limit to how much I can improve my social skills. No matter how much I try to be 'normal', it doesn't work and it's massively draining, to the extent that I find myself struggling to do basic tasks because I get burnt out. There are staff at my university who seem to like me, so it's not as though it's impossible for me to form positive relationships with people in academia, but that's very different to being able to teach classes. Is there any point in me trying to pursue an academic career? Can I focus on research and do minimal or no teaching? I know that there are autistic people in academia, and that I'm pretty 'high-functioning' for an autistic person (i.e. I have it easier than a lot of autistic people, even though I do struggle a lot), but I don't want to set myself up to fail.<issue_comment>username_1: Staying at the university, i.e., eventually becoming a professor, will be hard / impossible without teaching. There are, however, research facilities that are usually financed half by industrial projects and half by funding from the state. If you get a job in one of these, you will have to aquire money by getting research projects accepted, and are then free to do research without any teaching obligations. Note that your contract there will probably never be any longer than 2-3 years at once. I will then hopefully be refreshed, but you will not have a lot of stability.
The main question may be whether you think you can do your PhD. That involves giving several presentations (at conferences and during your defense), a rather high level of stress tolerance, and probably occasional preassure from your advisor, especially during the last year.
I had a colleague who might have a slight form of Asperger, and he quit about one year before finishing his PhD, because it got to overwhelming. But there were several factors involved there, including him not being happy with the direction his research was going. So that might have nothing to say!
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: I have Asperger Syndrome as well, and I have thought about this question before.
>
> Can I focus on research and do minimal or no teaching?
>
>
>
You are very unlikely to find a permanent position at university that does not include teaching. Some people stack postdoc upon postdoc spending decades on time-limited contracts that do not involve teaching. By "postdoc" here I do not mean a literal postdoc, but any research funded position for a period of typically anything between 6 months and 4 years. Some PIs are good at finding funding and will try to keep postdocs already working for them before advertising externally; in this case, you might be able to remain for decades. The catch is: you'll never have job security and you might stagnate in career development (including salary).
You may be able to find a permanent research position at at national or supranational institute, but again, this might come at a price. You might not have the academic freedom that you have at university; in some positions, you would essentially research the topic that you are told to. Your research will likely be applied; most likely no blue-sky science, although it does depend on the institute. You might not have time to write papers, but rather be delivering products and associated reports. Perhaps one should rather call it development than research. One place where such happens is [within the ground segment of meteorological satellites](http://www.eumetsat.int/website/home/Satellites/GroundSegment/Safs/index.html). Such applications may or may not exist within your field, but changing fields is possible and probably easier when moving into development/applications as the "return on investment" on training a new arrival is larger when the expectation is that the new arrival stays for a long time (for example, the Met Office in the UK regularly advertises positions for which no prior knowledge of atmospheric science or meteorology is required).
The reason for this is: permanent money is given to stuff that funders consider useful or stable. Teaching is pretty secure; although student levels fluctuate, there will be a need to teach Gauss law today and this need will certainly still exist in 10, 20, 30, or 40 years. Applied research/development at govenment institutes may also be pretty secure; the next generation of meteorological satellites in Europe is planned until 2043. A calibration develment expert for one of those instruments is in a pretty good position to have long-term job security.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: Although not to a pathological level, my social skills are fairly poor. What I can comment, after 30 years in academia, is that they have hurt my research career more than they have hurt my teaching.
To expand, as requested by Gerrit:
* as for my research, my feeling is that there have been many lost many opportunities because of not being able to get close to people at conferences, visits, etc. I see people with similar talent compared to mine, that get way further because they know how to connect.
* In my teaching, had I been able to get to my students better, their experience would have possibly been more satisfactory. But it is not clear that they would have learned more, as my outcomes are similar to other profs.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: Contrary to what other answers are suggesting, there exist some countries which offer permanent research positions that do not feature any teaching and yet give very high freedom to researchers. For instance, in France, we have [CNRS](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centre_national_de_la_recherche_scientifique) positions, which have no teaching and are rumored to offer essentially the highest level of academic freedom you could think of. There are other such positions in France, for instance at [Inria](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Institute_for_Research_in_Computer_Science_and_Automation) in computer science. I think this model also exists in other countries.
The catch is that (in France) these positions are [not very well paid](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/32439/452) (by international standards), and they are extremely competitive (much more so than standard university positions), in particular because there are many people who are interested in positions without teaching! Given the very high level, I would think it unwise to do a PhD and have such positions as your only goal. Yet, the possibility exists.
As other answers have pointed out, however, research does involve giving oral presentations of your work, which are very much like teaching; and it also requires stress tolerance, social interactions, etc. So it's not the case that these skills are just useful for teaching. Last, keep in mind that, when applying to academic positions, you need to pass an oral interview, which serves (among other purposes) to evaluate your communication skills.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: Even research-only positions require good academic communication skills, and sufficient ability to work well in teams with others. But these are different things from the social skills needed in order to be comfortable in less formal social settings. If you want it enough, and have the toughness and ability to do research well, I bet you can find a way to handle what is needed, even for teaching positions.
My informal impression is that academia is full of professors who do fine in that setting, but simply do not have the intuitive social skills to (say) sell used cars for a living. Of course, there are some professors who are just great at everything, including social skills. But also many who do some things exceptionally well and others no better than just OK.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_6: You should simply go forward with your ambition and avoid overthinking the matter. Yes, as pointed out by others, it would be difficult to avoid teaching, and social skills may be even more essential in research collaborations than in teaching. But everyone has their strengths and weaknesses (yours may simply have a name which tends to be on everyone's lips), and it is just impossible to predict the outcome, in absolute or relative terms (what's your plan B?). I've encountered people with noticeably autistic traits who were working and teaching in academia, and I'm quite certain that their outcome there was better than it otherwise might have been. Also, I'd avoid thinking that you can't improve substantially. Around 15% of children diagnosed with AS do not even meet the diagnostic criteria in adulthood. You should just give the project your best shot, and if it does not work out, don't think it as a failure. Think it as an experiment.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_7: In the United States it's actually a huge issue where we've create a permanent postdoctoral fellow position, where is basically incredibly unlikely to get a professorship, and all these people do is do research. It's extremely common in biomedical science. You need a PhD though to do actual research. You can be a lab tech with some independence with just a M.S. but the pay may be a bit lower ,you are basically running someone else's experiments though.
Upvotes: 1
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2017/02/20
| 425
| 1,592
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<issue_start>username_0: Do American universities typically help male professors transition into fatherhood by offering (paid) paternity leave? If so, what is the standard amount of paid time off that is offered?
Feel free to compare with maternity leave benefits for female professors, but my question is mainly on the availability of paternity leave.<issue_comment>username_1: The answer varies wildly across university to university, even within the same class of university. This can go from the mandatory FMLA minimum of 12 weeks (unpaid) to 12 months, with some pay. I've attached a comparison table from a 2009 survey by <NAME> and <NAME>, Parental Leave and Modified Duties Policies across the Big Ten.
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/8CyhA.png)
I found this from the AAUP's page on family leave, which is fairly useful: <https://www.aaup.org/issues/balancing-family-academic-work/leave-policies>
In addition to the formal leave offered, there can also be varieties of teaching relief and tenure clock stoppage for both mothers and fathers. All of this seems to vary from place to place, and probably some details could be negotiated at the time of a job offer.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: As username_1 said, there's no "standard." I can't vouch for the reliability of this source but [fairygodboss.com states](https://fairygodboss.com/parental-leave/yale-university) that the average paid paternity leave for colleges and universities in the U.S. is two weeks.
Upvotes: -1
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2017/02/20
| 548
| 2,353
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<issue_start>username_0: I use a "bonus program" for train tickets, which (allows me to buy tickets with lower fares and) provides for each ticket some "points" which are worth around 2% of the ticket value. I make use of this also when I travel for academic purposes (otherwise the funders would need to reimburse a higher amount). However, for each reimbursement I feel the moral obligation to explain that in some sense I actually paid less for the ticket than what is on the receipt.
How should I deal with this situation? Is there a common practice regarding this? (I guess some institutions may have official policies regarding such situations because many people who are traveling often take part in such programs.)<issue_comment>username_1: Unless the funder has a specific policy (which they should tell you about), common practice is that "reward points" (including frequent flyer miles, etc) are yours to keep, and don't deduct from your reimbursement.
You're right that there is something a little shady about this, but basically, nobody has figured out a better way to handle it, and travelers are used to keeping their points and would get mad if they weren't allowed to.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: I've never encountered the idea of doing anything other than pocketing the bonus and counting one's self lucky. In the US, it's normal for credit cards to included similar bonus programs, so any time I make a purchase on my credit card and am reimbursed, I profit. I'm not sure how I would even avoid it, since all my credit cards have this feature, and most reimbursed purchases have to be made by credit card.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: Ask yourself: would you have chosen a different service/product if the reward hadn't been there?
If you would have chosen the same, then keep the reward. If not, then ask your funder what to do.
Rationale: It's the same as cash back on a credit card. Would you have used a different credit card that didn't offer cash back on the same thing, or would you have chosen something else instead? Or alternatively, would you have chosen a different service if it hadn't been eligible for cash back?
If you would have chosen the same service, then it is none of your funder's business what credit card you used. But if you would've chosen something else, then it is.
Upvotes: 1
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2017/02/20
| 570
| 2,532
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<issue_start>username_0: I am a third year PhD student in a US business school. A this moment I have a couple publications in a totally unrelated field which are not important for my career. Regarding my PhD research, I just submitted my first paper in my field to a journal (we haven't received a response yet). This submission was done using my complete legal name. I have also done a conference presentation using my whole legal name and I have been accepted for at least 1 more in the next few months.
I happen to have a 4-word last name (two Spanish last names, one of which is compound) and I was thinking of shortening it (as I have found it is difficult to pronounce and confusing for most people in my field and there is always some issue locating my badge, etc.). My idea was to contract my first surname (the compound) into an initial, like a middle name, so I would be "Name S. Lastname". I am not thinking about changing my legal name, only using this contraction in my publications, conferences, etc.
Is it too late if I have already presented in conferences and have one submission (not publication)? Is there any social perception that name change is bad? Is there a way of making this name change effective in this first paper submission (i.e., when it comes back for revision, submit it back with my new name), or once submitted it is too late? Will it be a problem to use a name as a researcher that is not my whole legal name? Will it have an impact in the job market?
Thank you.<issue_comment>username_1: Lots of people publish under things that aren't their legal name (nicknames, middle name, one last name instead of two), and I've never heard of it being a problem for anyone. As for the timing, in all the cases I'm familiar with (and other fields may be different from math), there's a time after acceptance where you can make minor revisions and I think it shouldn't be a problem to modify the name you're using then.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: I just went through a similar process last year. Before submitting our revision (this was my first publication), I contacted the editor and said that I was about to change my name and asked whether it would be accepted to simply change my last name in our manuscript. The editor gave me a green light and also contacted the journal's administrator, and that was that. For obvious reasons, editors are much happier that you do such changes before the actual publication takes place than come asking for it afterwards.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]
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2017/02/21
| 1,486
| 6,368
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<issue_start>username_0: With so many first-world universities upgrading their academic buildings with state-of-the-art classrooms that have advanced technology, eg, capability to record lectures and post them on websites shortly after, why don't these universities consider utilizing similar technology to catch in-class cheating on exams?
Implementing a procedure where the classroom exams are videotaped and audiotaped could reduce cheating dramatically, in turn reducing any huge headache cases that department chairs and university deans would have to deal with.
If appropriate notice is given beforehand, I don't see that such procedures violate any privacy laws for students.
Or is utilizing technology to catch cheating a really impractical idea?
ETS, the organization that administers the GRE exams, already videotape and audiotape their exams, at least in American test centers.<issue_comment>username_1: This is one of those problems which may seem like they can be relatively easily alleviated, but in practice they face many challenges.
For example:
* properly videotaping and audiotaping a classroom would require the careful placement of many cameras and microphones; you also have to consider the testing and maintenance of all the equipment
* signal processing is not yet at the level where it can catch all the inventive ways students cheat, so your system would still need substantial human involvement
* many legal/ethical/moral considerations
* students will always find ways to circumvent anti-cheating systems
Given that typically only a small percent of students cheat and that examinations are held just a few times a year, it seems unreasonable to sink so much time, money, and effort to catch some, not even all, of the cheaters.
Also, there are many easy "tricks" which can be used to discourage cheating, e.g.
* make exams challenging enough so that students don't actually have time to cheat
* include problems which require working out and which cannot be readily copied (or whatever)
But most importantly, instead of trying to catch cheaters, it's much better to actively try to educate your students why cheating is never a good idea and why cheaters only cheat themselves.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: I think generally cheating, while certainly despicable, is a sufficiently marginal activity that it's difficult to argue for investing much money and efforts to fight it. Much of it can be detected or prevented with very low-tech strategies. It seems much more important to focus on teaching honest students in the best way possible.
A few more detailed points:
1. **Budget allocation:** Universities typically have many other things that consume their budget which have a much higher priority. Just because some buy fancy presenting tools and audio systems doesn't mean they have a blank check to buy all the other gizmos one could think of for a classroom.
If I were in charge of deciding where the budget should go, I'll be voting for equipment to allow visually or hearing impaired people to better understand lectures, better demonstration material, funding for field trips and labs, etc. instead of a CCTV system to catch cheaters.
2. **Unclear educational value:** (cf. point 1 above) Assuming good faith is the soundest basis for teacher-students relationships and scrutinizing students with high tech surveillance is the antithesis of trust. Also, a well-designed exam should be relatively robust to cheating.
3. **Legal issues** you dismiss the idea that it could be illegal but in fact I think it would be in many jurisdictions. Also, the existence of such a system might lead to dismissal of actual cheating claims made on the basis of other evidence in the absence of video/audio evidence to back them up.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: **Overarching Idea**: In every university I attended and worked at in America, the idea that was shared by faculty and students was that students were there to learn from professors who are subject matter experts, whether those classes are general education classes or classes in their major. And that graduating from that university reflected not just having majored in a single field but being well rounded and having achieved a standard of learning to make one worthy of the degree.
**Corollary 1**: for most fields, if someone can cheat on your exam easily, then you're doing something wrong in terms of teaching university-level material.
**Corollary 2**: a university *should not* be a war between students trying to cheat and faculty trying to catch them.
**Consequence 1**: Try to attract students who actually want to learn to the maximal degree of selectivity your university can handle.
**Consequence 2**: When cheating might have happened, once it's been confirmed it did, then severe consequences follow.
In nearly all the universities I worked in, the consequences for plagiarism and other forms of cheating were severe. I think the most lenient was a two-strikes policy (as in get caught cheating twice and get kicked out of the university with one or two academic misconduct marks on your transcript).
---
Based on this idea of the university, it doesn't make much sense to do a lot of video surveillance to ferret out cheaters. (Who would watch it? Who pays for installing it?) Moreover, the stakes of a very small percentage of people effectively cheating are high for the individuals but low for the instructors and the university's reputation.
In the case of ETS, there are other reasons why it makes some sense for them to do so. First off, they are in the business of assessing particular individuals' abilities both with the GRE and TOEFL, and they have little contact with the people outside of the tests. If cheating scandals occur, the stakes are high for both the individuals and ETS, because the security of their tests is a big piece of their business.
To put that another way, University X's reputation as a good place to go is largely a function of the sort of faculty it has and the research and teaching they do. Minutely, it also includes that you can't buy your way to a degree there. Conversely, ETS's reputation is all staked on them being able to help universities figure out whether students can succeed on the tests they offer (regardless of the validity of those tests).
Upvotes: 1
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2017/02/21
| 324
| 1,226
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<issue_start>username_0: I am looking for a PhD position. Sometimes professors give me information about their projects via emails. How can I thank them for their explanation in a polite way, show my interest and impress them?<issue_comment>username_1: Hint: professors are people too. You can thank them just like thanking anyone else. Your email may go something like this:
>
> Dear Professor X,
>
>
> Thank you for the information about your PhD project. I look forward to submitting my formal application to your department.
>
>
> Best wishes,
>
>
> maryam
>
>
>
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: <NAME>'s answer is spot-on. I want to address a further aspect of the question:
>
> How can I thank them for their explanation in a polite way, show my interest and **impress them**?
>
>
>
While impressing your potential advisor is certainly a desirable goal, the chances of impressing a professor with a thank-you e-mail are close to zero. A professor is more likely to by impressed by an applicant if the application itself is impressive, for example, because it includes convincing arguments why your particular skills and experiences will help their work group produce good research.
Upvotes: 2
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2017/02/21
| 1,136
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<issue_start>username_0: Long story short: Submitted a paper to a very respectable (but not TOP) journal in the TCS community. Received 2 reviews. The one was alright, not extremely enthusiastic but a decent review.
The problem is with the 2nd one: The reviewer failed in the most obvious way to even understand the statement of the problem, and said that "I cannot convince myself that the paper is correct". The misunderstanding is on the definition of the problem.
for the TCS people: its a standard resource allocation problem where we want to optimize some objective function. The reviewer's objection is that *if we assign the same item multiple times to different users we could achieve a very different objective value thus the analysis on its bounds we give could not possibly be correct!*
This does not any make sense since on the definition it is said explicitly that each item must be assigned once. In any case, it's the most standard definition of a very well known resource allocation problem!
Anyway, after the rejection of the paper based on the above reason, I contacted the Editor in Chief of the journal, asking for a 3rd reviewer to resolve the issue (I was not offensive to the 2nd R). The EiC responded immediately saying that a 3rd R could indeed resolve the issue but there is nothing the EiC could do because the handling editor communicated to the EiC that the Com. Editor trusts the expertise of the reviewers, and thus the rejection decision is irrevocable.
I want to ask:
* How normal is this situation? We are talking about an old and very well respected TCS journal, not some hocus pocus unknown journal.
* Is there any safety net for such kind of obvious mis-managed cases?
* Any particular advice for the incident? I am not very interested in the obvious "deal with it, it happens" answer. But observe that I am in a point of my career that an extra journal publication could mean a lot, since I am trying to find a permanent position and I cannot wait another year for this paper to go through such a process.
***Note:*** I see few people misunderstood my comment. My comment is not targeted to the reviewer who might have made an honest mistake. It happens and I do not blame her/him. My point is mainly on the way the journal handled the situation, even when the very serious and very easy mistake was brought up to their attention. I was mainly interested if such a reason is valid for straight rejection (usually there is some revision needed which we have the chance to explain to the reviewer and the editor where they have been mistaken), and what to do when this happens. As mentioned again, I do not have 30 journal papers so that I could say this won't make any impact in my CV. I am applying for permanent positions and a +1 (very good) journal might make some difference. Thus my main question: is there any *safety net* that prevent non-professional *editors* make such unjustified and arbitrary decisions with such huge impact on us? And how this affect *only* us as authors? Is there any way to make journals (in general) act more professionally (without making a war against them): sadly, from the comments below, I guess not, besides boycotting the journal, but they couldn't care less.<issue_comment>username_1: It is pretty normal for a reviewer not to get the gist of your article and then the article gets rejected. I find that the best way to deal with that is to remember that the reviewers are reading the article more carefully than the future readers. So if they don't get what I want to write, the future readers are surely not going to get what I want to write.
Sometimes reviewers are just wrong: they are humans too and typically do this with a limited time budget (a larger time budget than future readers will want to spent on your article, but still pretty small). That is bad luck. Just improve what needs improving and submit your article to the next journal.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: >
> Is there any safety net for such kind of obvious mis-managed cases?
>
>
>
Well, if there is a Board of Editors you could write to them individually explaining exactly how (in your opinion) the Editor-in-chief has not dealt adequately with your concerns. (I have had it done to me, and had to justify my actions to the members of the Board, coughing up all the correspondence and paperwork. Happily the Board agreed everything had been properly dealt with; but if things had gone wrong I would have expected to be told off to get things sorted, pronto.)
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: This happens all the time. I have sometimes raised it with the editor. Doing so has always been a waste of time. The best thing you can do is move on.
I have had a reviewer say it would be good if they had done X, but since they haven't, reject it. Except that we had done X. I got absolutely nowhere. This was at a very prestigious journal.
Upvotes: 3
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2017/02/21
| 1,054
| 4,418
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<issue_start>username_0: This question doesn't seem to have an answer anywhere, which makes me suspect I'm missing a fundamental point.
Is it possible to do 2 separate Master's theses on topics related to your degree, but for 1 degree? Are there any benefits to doing so? I'm really not satisfied with the one I'm currently working on. It started out optimistically, but my advisor chose to take on something in which he has no specialist knowledge.<issue_comment>username_1: No one cares about your masters thesis.
Stated differently, your masters thesis will serve a single, time-bound goal: earn you a masters degree. To that extent, the amount of work you put into the *thesis itself* should be just enough to get that goal, and no more.
That said, you should definitely look to publish your work in as many reputable journal articles as you can. Rather than focusing on writing a second thesis, I recommend (a) writing up your first thesis topic as a paper, and then (b) writing the alternative thesis that you want to write as a second paper.
Please *please* PLEASE talk to your thesis advisor before taking the above advice. He or she will know whether your research is at journal-level quality and can save you a lot of unnecessary work if the answer is "no".
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: This was originally a comment but it might serve as an answer:
The important thing here is your adviser to be happy with the work you have done.
If the adviser is happy with the work, even if you think it's shallow, it doesn't matter a lot given that your adviser will write a good recommendation letter so that you can be admitted to the PhD program. Of course a good publication can help, but it is not always necessary.
I understand that you might think that a master thesis is a "preparation" for the research you will do during your PhD. At least in my field, you won't dive immediately in research during your PhD. You will have a lot (depending) of time to study related material that you feel you missed because you should/could learn that on the Master thesis. From my point of view, you won't have any problem given your motivation.
So, I suggest, try to make the best out of your current thesis, while talking at the same time to your adviser about potential issues regarding your PhD application. If they are happy with your work, it will be reflected with a good recommendation letter which is the key for getting into a good PhD program.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: Can you write two separate theses for the same degree? Probably not. The regulations for your course probably implicitly require you to write exactly one and, even if they don't, the department will feel under no obligation to grade a second thesis.
Writing a second thesis makes no sense. If the thesis you're working on at the moment really is inadequate, there are two possibilities: either you make it good enough or you abandon it and start a new one on a new topic. If you make your current thesis good enough, there is no need for the second one. If you start a second one, continuing to work on the bad one is a waste of your limited time and you'll end up with two bad theses instead of one.
You need to talk to your advisor about your situation. It is literally their job to... advise you.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: I gather you mean that you'd like to do two theses to the same department. If so, then you really should instead think of politely talking to your advisor and change the setting somehow. If you feel that the original work has promise then is it possible to change the advisor? Or change the topic? I've known a guy who became a PhD doing something he didn't like and it was consuming for him (to say the least). In fact he was a person who could've asked precisely the same question you did.
From that I gather that you're enthusiastic and want to do your best. Probably you don't want to hurt your advisor's feelings by doing something that would seem like you don't appreciate him/her. Don't worry about it. Have a talk and tell about your concerns and see what you can come up to. I'm quite sure you'll end up regretting it if you do your thesis when you're not comfortable with it.
And I'm pretty sure that they won't let you do another thesis, because it's a lot of work to everyone else too (even if it's not forbidden to do so).
Upvotes: 1
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2017/02/21
| 1,118
| 5,035
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<issue_start>username_0: One of the oddities of working in an interdisciplinary field is that PhD programs - and ultimately departments where you would like to work in the future - are often offered under different departments. For my personal example, my field is Human Computer Interaction (HCI), and I have the option to join a PhD program in (that is, have received admission offers from) departments that are housed within colleges of Computer Science, Engineering, or Information. "Rankings", to the extent that anyone cares about them, exist separately for each classification, and so they are all "top 5" within their own classification and have a good reputation in the field.
**My question is**: in considering a plan to seek future academic jobs after earning a PhD (especially as a professor at an R1), is the name of the home department/college that hosts their program something that one should weigh in their decision making? How might the type of department that one gets their PhD from effect one's future career?
**Bonus:** If department type impacts availability of internships (especially those valuable to an eventual faculty application), or just having the alternative to go into another area of industry/consulting, that could be important for a person to know and consider. "Plan A" is primarily positions in academia, so an answer need not address this to be a good or accepted one.
**Note:** The focus of research, topic, equipment, and even coursework will be largely comparable, faculty working in every program have degrees in widely differing topics (including some in Psychology, Art/Design, and Business/Management), and current faculty even often publish in the same conferences.
For example, if you've been involved with a hiring committee in Computer Science, have they evaluated applicants differently if their degree was not specifically in "Computer Science" and instead in Information or Engineering? Or similarly, do Engineering hiring committees have a preference for people with degrees from other Engineering departments? Issues at the administrative culture level? Have you found that informal cliches or hierarchies form between groups?
Ultimately I'd like to know if this a distinction I need to seriously consider in picking a program, or if I can instead focus on the dozen-other factors one should consider to compare options instead.<issue_comment>username_1: My short answer is that if you're staying in academia, it probably doesn't matter much at all. If you're considering leaving, then CS > "Engineering" > IS (for many tech companies, at least), to a mild-to-moderate extent.
My longer answer is that it depends how you sell yourself. The material you learn will likely be very similar, but different communities will focus on different aspects of HCI. This will probably be most evident in the research coming out of each group. To that extent, I recommend taking a good look at the research coming out of each program. The focus of the researchers will give you a good idea about the differences between the programs.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Regardless of the field it can be hard to get a full idea, as a PhD applicant, of what a given department will *really* be like once you are there, and of how you may be perceived compared to those in similar departments elsewhere once you are nearing the end of your program and applying for jobs in academia or industry. Schools paint a certain picture on their web site, in recruitment materials, etc., but it's not always a completely honest one and may miss particular facets that will impact your career. Outside of *aparente001*'s recommendation of site visits in the comments, if there is time to do so you might consider contacting current or recent PhD students at each of the schools you've been accepted to who seem to share your interests, to talk about their own experiences, perceptions, and career plans. You may then be better able to assess whether your intended career plans and research interests within HCI would be a better fit with the information school, or the computer science school, or the engineering school.
More generally, my own sense (as an information science PhD graduate with some HCI knowledge, albeit it was not and is not my focus) is that information and computer science schools are probably a little closer together when it comes to how they treat and perceive HCI, whereas most engineering schools would take a different tack. Of course, even within information schools with a focus on HCI not all are as appropriate spaces for the same kinds of HCI research, nor do they necessarily have the same perception on the job market. Of course, this isn't an absolute make-or-break decision; if you find a department and PhD program that is a good fit for you, based on the best assessment you can provide, then you should be able to sell yourself appropriately (as *username_1* answered) as you get near the end of that program to academia or industry. Good luck!
Upvotes: 2
|
2017/02/21
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| 1,930
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<issue_start>username_0: Is it useful to add excerpts from teaching evaluations in a teaching statement included in a faculty application?
A fair amount of teaching statements seem to contain some, but since excerpts are typically cherry picked I wonder whether the admission committee cares about them.<issue_comment>username_1: Here is an article that surveys how teaching is evaluated in a mathematics faculty search (YMMV in different fields). Based on this, in general, teaching evaluations are valued, even if they are not asked for. This leads me to think that including information from evaluations (e.g. comments but also summarized numerical ratings) is a good practice.
<http://www.ams.org/notices/200710/tx071001308p.pdf>
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: I think that including excerpts from teaching evaluations alone may not that valuable since, as you say, the excerpts can be cherry-picked. If you also add the mean ratings along with standard deviations, the excerpts will have more weight, IMO. In addition, if these numbers and excerpts can be used to support that your teaching philosophy is contributing to improved learning in the classroom, that would be even better.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: The question is best approached by looking at how sales and marketing organizations work; after all, you're selling yourself by applying for a position on the faculty and the way to be successful is by using proven sales strategies.
Marketing organizations know that customer testimonials are probably the MOST effective way to earn a new customer's business. The evidence is everywhere: TV commercials, online advertising, print media, etc. Present a client talking about how your product or service went beyond expectations, and new clients will feel a level of confidence in signing on with you.
So, YES, include testimonials, but do so in a way that's understated - NOT cocky!
Upvotes: 0
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2017/02/21
| 464
| 2,200
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<issue_start>username_0: As a part of a PhD application process I have to give a talk about a project that I did a couple of years ago for an institution I no longer colaborate with.
I was thinking of putting the logo of my current institution in the first of my slides as a support when introducing myself and explaining my background to the people who are going to listen to my talk.
Is this considered a good practice? I have doubts because the work I am going to talk about has no relation whatsoever with my current university.<issue_comment>username_1: Remember that the application process is about pitching YOU to the selection committee / other powers-that-be. Part of that pitch is introducing yourself -- and hence using your current uni logo would be appropriate. You should also explain that the work you're discussing was done elsewhere. That is, make sure anyone listening would not walk away with the wrong impression.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: When doing presentations that are joint with other institutions/individuals (or are supported by them), the other parties should be acknowledged, usually at the beginning and end of the talk. Presumably you are working on the presentation at your current institution, even if it is just fine-tuning the presentation and making other small changes. Because of this I don't think it's a problem to acknowledge your current institution and use their slide templates. But, I would recommend having the name and/or logo of all institutions that have contributed to the work in the slides.
Personally, I list collaborators and sponsors on the first slide and I acknowledge their contributions to the work being presented before I actually do the presentation. In your case I would say something like "I'm currently in position X at institution A; this is research done collaboratively with institution B along Y and Z who are at institutions A and B respectively." Putting this on the first slide allows everyone to see this before your start your talk. But, I usually try to put it again at the end as well. It is very hard to do research without other support, and so that support should be generously acknowledged.
Upvotes: 1
|
2017/02/21
| 1,045
| 4,400
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<issue_start>username_0: What are the advantages and disadvantages of taking an Erasmus exchange semester abroad, and will it have an effect when it comes to finding a job?<issue_comment>username_1: Going for an [Erasmus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erasmus_Programme), an EU student exchange progamme, *may* be a plus, not only "the obvious cultural advantages" (like learning a language better than in the lab / during holidays) if you watch out for similarities and differences in your field, comparing your home and your hosting institution. Hopefully you will recognize both the odds and the benefits of different teaching / learning cultures and mint benefit for you. Use it as a chance to learn differently, including different topics than at home.
If possible, look for *integrated programmes* (like the ones by the French-German University, for example), where two institutions are partners who mutally agreed on the curricula. Otherwise upon your return, if there is no recognized equivalent of what you did at your host institution at your home institution, you may have to attend lectures and lab classes a twice and hence, delay completion of your studies.
Going for an Erasmus is a potential obstacle, be prepared some won't understand you this well anymore, as your horizon of experiences may diverge from theirs. At your host institution, at least at the beginning, you will be a foreigner; at your home institution you may be earmarked as "thinking different" or "s/he once left the boat". You may somewhat "tainted" like a foreigner, or become a pacemaker returning with new ideas.
Is it better for getting a job? Again, it depends on the where you want to go, if the potential employer recognizes, appreciates and supports the benefits of someone who left the nutshell. Some do their studies including a PhD and beyond, promptly find a job, never even thinking about getting into an Erasmus; all staying in the same city. Some face the difficulties of "you no longer think/act as we expected as a true/pure (insert your nationality) physician / biologist / .... would do."
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: While in general, studying a semester abroad will likely make a positive impression in your CV (even if you 'lose' half a year on the way), I have experienced that some of my colleagues would regard an 'Erasmus' stay slightly less valuable as opposed to organizing your foreign semester all by yourself (outside of such a program).
I am not going to say that it is particularly 'easy' to go abroad with Erasmus, but I think this sentiment originates from the perception that some Erasmus students primarily get in contact with other Erasmus students (e.g. from their home country) and not so much with their local peers and local culture. This is of course strongly dependent on your own dedication and in general may just be a prejudice.
Overall I'd say, studying abroad with Erasmus is still much more valuable than no foreign cultural experience at all.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: Other answers aren't wrong, but I think an important point is where you are going to search for a job upon graduating. If you are going to work in your own country in a job not related with international relations, an Erasmus may be just a plus, as username_1 says.
However, if you plan to work abroad an Erasmus may be a very useful experience, specially an Erasmus in the same country you are going to search for a job. It can be useful both to gain skills to live and interact abroad (that can be shown in a resume) and to test if you are suited for the experience of working abroad. In addition to that, an Erasmus in the last years of your studies is an opportunity to start networking in the target country.
Furthermore, in countries where professional proficiency of English or other foreign language can't be taken for granted, an Erasmus is a good practice and a good evidence of your language skills.
I've meet an Spanish engineer working in Finland after an Erasmus in Finland and a German engineer working in Spain after an Erasmus in Spain, and as far I know the Erasmus were an important step in deciding to work there and in finding a job there.
To summarise in two examples: for an UK student planning to work in the UK, an Erasmus would be just a plus; for an Spanish student planning to work abroad, an Erasmus would likely be a must.
Upvotes: 1
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2017/02/21
| 574
| 2,362
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<issue_start>username_0: I just graduated with a computer-science bachelor’s degree and accepted a job offer as a data scientist with a well-known company. It is a research role; so I’ll presumably be working towards goals that are also academic in nature.
Now is it possible for me to find an advisor who would be okay with me working full-time? I’ve interned for this company and they have no issues with sharing any research as long as no confidential data is involved; so I will be able to publish and share some of my work with an advisor.
I am really enamored with the idea of having a PhD – for the sake of having a PhD (which is silly, I know). However, I’m hesitant to put my life on hold or quit my job so this is the only option left to me.<issue_comment>username_1: There cannot be a definite answer to your question, because we lack basic information regarding the project, arrangement etc.
I think the best way to find out if something like that is possible is to consult your local department where you finished your BSc, the people with expertise as close as possible to your future project, who will be able to judge if this makes a valid and potentially fruitful research plan. If yes, then I do not think you will have big problems admitted to the PhD program.
As a side note, observe that you might be asked to deal with some Master level courses/exams etc which, if you work full time, and depending how difficult is your department, will not be a piece of cake.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Should you pursue a PhD? This is something that only you can make a decision on.
Can you accomplish a PhD whilst working full time? This falls under the wide umbrella of things that cannot be answered by others. There are too many variables at play. The only one who can know if you can accomplish this task while working full time, is you.
Opinions can be shared on if setting out on the PhD journey is a good one at this time, or what struggles you will face may be when working on said PhD but these will not be answers.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: The best thing to do is talk to the computer science department at your old university and/or if you know which university you want to attend. It would not be easy having a full-time job, and studying for PhD, even if you only take one course per semester.
Upvotes: 0
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2017/02/21
| 671
| 2,790
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<issue_start>username_0: A group of PhD students and young researchers (where I belong) is preparing a symposium, a single day meeting, for other young researchers, PhD, master and students.
I don't have any previous experience with advertising this kind of events and I haven't received other advertisement, to an event similar to this one, than a place and a date with a link for more info. However, this was from a better known organization (and I get to know this organization through a friend) and our organization is not well known so I doubt this way would work to attract new people.
Which is the best way to increase registrations to the symposium? What information would you like to know before going for a registration or looking for more information?
Some important information I thought to include in a leaflet/ad:
* Place, dates, duration (done)
* Where to register and how much does it cost (done)
* Key speakers (At the moment we don't have confirmation of all the invited speakers)
* Sponsors and support (done)
* ...
[There's a similar question](https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/72678/18238) question for a similar event, but I am in charge of advertising.<issue_comment>username_1: There cannot be a definite answer to your question, because we lack basic information regarding the project, arrangement etc.
I think the best way to find out if something like that is possible is to consult your local department where you finished your BSc, the people with expertise as close as possible to your future project, who will be able to judge if this makes a valid and potentially fruitful research plan. If yes, then I do not think you will have big problems admitted to the PhD program.
As a side note, observe that you might be asked to deal with some Master level courses/exams etc which, if you work full time, and depending how difficult is your department, will not be a piece of cake.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Should you pursue a PhD? This is something that only you can make a decision on.
Can you accomplish a PhD whilst working full time? This falls under the wide umbrella of things that cannot be answered by others. There are too many variables at play. The only one who can know if you can accomplish this task while working full time, is you.
Opinions can be shared on if setting out on the PhD journey is a good one at this time, or what struggles you will face may be when working on said PhD but these will not be answers.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: The best thing to do is talk to the computer science department at your old university and/or if you know which university you want to attend. It would not be easy having a full-time job, and studying for PhD, even if you only take one course per semester.
Upvotes: 0
|
2017/02/22
| 579
| 2,486
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<issue_start>username_0: I am curious to know if articles posted on [academia.edu](https://www.academia.eu/) can be regarded as scholarly publications? In other words, can someone list them in his/her publication list or resume? This question may be expanded to foster a discussion of what constitutes a scholarly publication in the online literature era.<issue_comment>username_1: It does not matter where it is published, it matters (as someone already commented) whether it went through the peer review process.
There are number of outlets to "publish" your work without peer review, the one I am most familiar with is [arXiv](http://arxiv.org/). The distinction matters, because:
1. The research that has not been peer-reviewed may be of poor quality, biased, not up to scientific standards, or simply fake. Note "may be". Scientific conferences and especially scientific journals are assumed to do peer review before accepting the paper.
2. The review process is time consuming for the reviewers, so scientific community tries to prevent "double submissions" or even double publication. The "publications" with no peer review are not considered scientific *publications* in strict sense, therefore they are not counted towards "double submission" criteria (at least for the conferences I know).
So the answer is, yes, you can put it in your CV, but the reader may view it differently than you, e.g. the impression may be that you are unable to publish peer-reviewed paper, and resorting to this instead.
Now, *specifically* to Academia.edu, due to their model as "review along the publication, not before it" makes the point moot. But nevertheless, since you CAN publish stuff on Academia.edu without **prior** review, no one can be sure whether the work is of high quality or junk just by the fact that you managed to publish it. Granted, sometimes junk research gets through the peer review process as well, but there is reasonable assumption that the research is good, if peer-reviewed at a decent conference or published in a decent journal, while with Academia.edu it is fair to say it is probably exactly the reverse situation: one has to assume it is junk, unless proven otherwise by going to the site and reading the comments (if any).
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Although I have read some of the papers,those of interest to my field of research I have found to be riddled with errors and assumptions. Does not incorporate any form of peer review.
Upvotes: 0
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2017/02/22
| 3,224
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<issue_start>username_0: This question pops up every time I write an article (in the computer science domain), and I am unable to find a British English style-guide providing a proper answer.
Where should citations be placed within the sentence and its punctuation?
Where to put white space?
E.g., which options are preferable:
1. More coffee is always better. [XY]
2. More coffee is always better [XY].
3. More coffee is always better[XY].
4. More coffee is always better.[XY]
5. According to [XY], more coffee is always better.
6. According to XY[XY], more coffee is always better.
7. According to XY [XY], more coffee is always better.
8. According to XY, [XY] more coffee is always better.
9. According to XY,[XY] more coffee is always better.
10. According to XY, more coffee is always better [XY].
11. According to XY, more coffee is always better. [XY]
---
In the [IEEE editor's style manual](https://www.ieee.org/documents/style_manual.pdf) it says on page 34:
>
> References in Text: References need not be cited in the text. When they are, they appear on the line, in square
> brackets, inside the punctuation. Grammatically, they may be treated as if they were footnote numbers ...
>
>
>
I would interpret "inside the punctuation" as ruling out options 1, 4, and 11, even though the grammatical treatment of footnotes is not quite clear to me.
The [Springer guide](ftp://ftp.springer.de/pub/tex/latex/svproc/guidelines/Springer_Guidelines_for_Authors_of_Proceedings.pdf) does not appear to comment on the question.
Any other hints / links / viable styles?<issue_comment>username_1: I would go for 1, 7 and maybe 11, since the citation is used to back the whole sentence.
Type 2 citations seem to refer to the end of the sentence, especially in more complex sentence structures like:
"Research has shown that coffee is dark, hot and always better [XY]."
In such a sentence, I would assume that only the "always better" statement is backed by the source.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_2: As others have mentioned, all sentences should be grammatically correct. The citation marker of the form [X] may play the role of a noun, or of silent word.
1, 4 and 11 are never correct - they put the citation into the next sentence, where it doesn't belong. Similarly, 8 and 9 put it into the wrong phrase of the sentence.
3, 6 and 9 combine words incorrectly. Spaces can't just be ignored.
That leaves 2, 5, 7 and 10. These are all used, except that the exact form of 7 will depend on the referencing style in use. You could have 'According to Smith [3]', but not 'According to Smith [Smith, 2017]', The latter would become 'According to Smith [2017]'. Also, for 10 you need to think about how long the second phrase is.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: What does your prefered journal say and do?
-------------------------------------------
*(I'm not in Computer Science, so I'm attempting a general, non-field specific answer.)*
Each journal is going to have its own style guide as to how to format the citations. There are likely to be generalities, but each journal and publication venue is likely to have slightly different preferences.
Taking a look at the "instruction to authors", as you have with the IEEE journals, is a good start, but as you mention, there's likely to be a bit of ambiguity in how to interpret those instructions.
The way I would approach this is to take some of the articles by big names in your field in the journal you're considering, and see how they do things. (This would be in the actual finished, formatted papers as published in the journal, after it's been through the copy editors - not preprints.) If you're not targeting a specific journal, then pick one of the big name journals in your field, preferably one which exercises good editorial control, and see how papers there are formatted. You would likely want to survey a number of journals and a number of authors, to see how much is field-specific style versus journal-specific or author-specific preferences.
There really isn't a formal way how citations are treated "grammatically", as they're not really grammatical elements. Claims otherwise are really just *post hoc* rationalizations. Instead, the treatment of citations is a stylistic one, rather than a "grammatical" one, much like the treatment of the Oxford/serial comma, or whether to put punctuation inside of quote marks or outside of it.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_4: Since you specifically mention British English, one useful style guide for academic writing is [New Hart's Rules The Oxford Style Guide](https://global.oup.com/academic/product/new-harts-rules-9780199570027). I bring this book up not because it is necessarily your authoritative guide, but because the book tries to describe varied styles in use and not just the their particular in-house style, so it may give you some general idea. Of course the most relevant style guide to follow is one used by your publication venue.
In the section about author-date references, i.e. (Author 2017) or Author (2017), the guide states
>
> The reference is placed immediately after the statement to which it relates. If this happens to be at the end of a sentence the closing parenthesis precedes the closing point (but a reference at the end of a displayed quotation follows the closing punctuation).
>
>
>
This should correspond to option 2 in your list if the author's name is not mentioned in open text, or a variant of 7 if the author's name is part of the sentence.
For numbered references, which I believe is more common in computer science, the guide does not specifically mention the placement, but from the examples given, brackets are placed before the full stop, like this [1]. On the other hand, a superscript number (like a footnote cue) is placed *after* the full stop.2
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: One crucial difference between people's preferences on the matter, seem to be how we interpret a citation. **Is it a word or is it a mark/reference?** A word should be part of the sentence. A mark/reference may mark the sentence itself and should therefore not be a part of it. A citation has the purpose of referring to further reading elsewhere, and therefore sends you off to some other text. The citation is not a word, in my opinion, unless it is a subject or object as part of the sentence. In options 5-7 the citation is an object, while in options 1-4 it is not a subject/object, but a reference marking the sentence or the last word. Citation may be treated or read as a word in some formats, like APA, but not in formats where the citation is just an index in the bibliography. Footnotes are common behind punctuation (without white space), and I think references should be treated similarly. (Some formats even use superscript for citation, just like footnotes are marked.)
Option 4, 7 and 11 (without whitespace after punctuation) are preferably. Here's my reasoning: What is intuitive and **what can cause confusion**?
When citing/refering to a word or expression or person in a sentence, it makes sense to refer to it immediately after. with a list of different words to cite, it is easier for the reader to follow which citation refers to which word. Citing a person would look like options 6 and 7. Choosing between them would be a matter of aesthetics. Maybe option 11 is a good choice (but without the white space after full stop), as a citation mid sentence tends to make the sentence harder to read.
To quote user1101674 in a comment on this thread:
>
> As mentioned, they [options 1 and 11] allow for the distinction between backing the
> entire sentence, or just a specific part of it. So if they were
> commonly understood in this way (apparently they are not), they would
> indeed reduce ambiguity.
>
>
>
Using the citation as a word in a sentence looks a bit untidy. Specially if you are going for the citation format of superscript number: According to ^1, more coffee is always better. (This is option 5.)
When paraphrasing a statement (like options 1-4) it makes sense to put the citation behind the punctuation (i.e. option 1 and 4, but I would choose option 4 because it connects the citation even tighter to the sentence). This is intuitive for three reasons. First of all: You first make a statement, which should end with punctuation. Then you cite it. In my view the citation is not a word. You don't read it out loud. The citation is not part of the sentence, but refers to where the reader can read more about the sentence.
Secondly it is less confusing and more consequent and neat if there is no difference between citation location for quotes "bla bla."[XY] and paraphrases: bla bla.[XY]
And don't forget if you are quoting a sentence with citation: "bla bla.[AB]"[XY]
Thirdly it would be very confusing if readers cannot distinguish a paraphrased sentence from a referred word. If the last word in a sentence is a referred word, it would look like option 2 or 3. How can you tell it apart from the case where option 2 or 3 are paraphased sentences? Does your citation regard the word "better" or the sentence "More coffee is always better."? Therefore option 2 and 3 show confusing citation sites for paraphrased sentences. We are left with option 1 and 4.
Choosing between option 1 and 4 is for me a matter of aesthetics, so I opt for option 4. Maybe someone can come up with a case where it is natural to have citation first in the sentence? If so, there may be a semantic reason for option 4 as well.
Language exists in order to understand and be understood. Therefore language and grammar ought to be designed so that confusions are avoided. That's the purpose of language.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_6: As [explained](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/87265/22768), 1, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, and 11 are incorrect, which leaves 2, 5, 7 and 10. Let's consider those.
5 I dislike, it reads as, *According to [manuscript]...*. I favour 7, *According to [authors [manuscript]]...*. But prefer 10, *According to [authors], more coffee is always better [manuscript]*, because the citation no longer obstructs my reading. Whether to opt for 2 or 10 depends on the message you want to convey:
* More coffee is always better [XY],
suggests you agree, whereas 10 does not,
* According to XY, more coffee is always better [XY],
it clearly attributes the claim to XY.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_7: This may depend on referencing style. According to the University of Manchester, for Vancouver-style referencing, which is very common in the UK:
>
> If you do not mention the author’s name within your text, you should
> place the number in brackets at the end of the sentence, eg.
>
>
> There are six distinctive conditions, which need to be satisfied, in
> order for a whistle-blowing case to be justified. (2)
>
>
> Multiple Authors: Provide the numbers in brackets as they appear in the text after the sentence, eg.
>
>
> Several drug trials proved that the antibody was released immediately.
> (2, 3, 9- 12)
>
>
>
Source: <https://subjects.library.manchester.ac.uk/referencing/referencing-vancouver>
The British Medical Journal (BMJ) likewise places the numbers after the full stop, but without brackets and in superscript, and without commas between reference numbers.
For example: <https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/10/2/e034056.full.pdf>
The Lancet also puts the numbers after the full stop and in superscript, with commas without spaces and without brackets. They require you to:
>
> • Cite references in the text sequentially in the Vancouver numbering
> style, as a superscripted number after any punctuation mark. For
> example: “…as reported by Saito and colleagues.15”
>
>
> • Two references
> are cited separated by a comma, with no space. Three or more
> consecutive references are given as a range with an en rule.
>
>
>
Source: <https://www.thelancet.com/pb/assets/raw/Lancet//authors/lancet-information-for-authors.pdf>
You need to style according to where you intend to publish, or according to your institution (e.g., for a Master's thesis or PhD thesis) or employer.
Upvotes: 2
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2017/02/22
| 383
| 1,604
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<issue_start>username_0: I've got many papers which are not on Scopus, but are picked up by Google Scholar. How do I include all those other papers into Scopus?<issue_comment>username_1: Scopus uses its own sources for publications in the form of publisher provided content. Their selection procedure is explained here: <https://www.elsevier.com/solutions/scopus/content/content-policy-and-selection>
There is no procedure to add individual documents to Scopus that I could find on their help pages. You should also be aware that it can take several weeks for a published paper to end up in Scopus. Some publishers (smaller publishers typically or new open-access publishers), conferences, technical reports might never make it to Scopus though.
On a related note, the citation count will probably lag behind Google Scholar.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: It sounds like you don't understand what Scopus is. Scopus is a database of quality-curated journals and the articles published in those journals. It isn't meant to be comprehensive, and because it's quality-curated, it doesn't mean that all your papers will automatically end up in the database. Comparatively Google Scholar goes for comprehensiveness. It doesn't have a quality bar, and it'll index literally everything and anything. You should be able to find all your papers in Google Scholar, but not in Scopus.
To get your publications into Scopus, publish in a journal that's indexed by Scopus. It's as simple as that. If you've already published elsewhere, it's too late (unless the journal becomes indexed by Scopus).
Upvotes: 3
|
2017/02/22
| 531
| 2,324
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<issue_start>username_0: I am writing my PhD thesis within the natural sciences (ecology), following the typical structure of introduction, literature review, material & methods, results, discussion, conclusion.
For some of my analyses I am using a method which was developed about 90 years ago and has become the "standard" method in my field. I'd like to outline the origin and development of that method, along with some downsides that have become obvious in the past decades (and which I am trying to overcome by extending the method).
Is it appropriate to do so within the methods section (instead of just having a plain description of the methods I have applied)? Or would I rather include that in an extra chapter in the literature review (where I am so far rather focussing on describing the existing knowledge rather than methods)? Or even put it in the introduction?<issue_comment>username_1: Scopus uses its own sources for publications in the form of publisher provided content. Their selection procedure is explained here: <https://www.elsevier.com/solutions/scopus/content/content-policy-and-selection>
There is no procedure to add individual documents to Scopus that I could find on their help pages. You should also be aware that it can take several weeks for a published paper to end up in Scopus. Some publishers (smaller publishers typically or new open-access publishers), conferences, technical reports might never make it to Scopus though.
On a related note, the citation count will probably lag behind Google Scholar.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: It sounds like you don't understand what Scopus is. Scopus is a database of quality-curated journals and the articles published in those journals. It isn't meant to be comprehensive, and because it's quality-curated, it doesn't mean that all your papers will automatically end up in the database. Comparatively Google Scholar goes for comprehensiveness. It doesn't have a quality bar, and it'll index literally everything and anything. You should be able to find all your papers in Google Scholar, but not in Scopus.
To get your publications into Scopus, publish in a journal that's indexed by Scopus. It's as simple as that. If you've already published elsewhere, it's too late (unless the journal becomes indexed by Scopus).
Upvotes: 3
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<issue_start>username_0: I have a paper accepted in an Applied Mathematics journal. My question is that should I submit the accepted version to editors for publication or I can make some minor corrections (for example, some remarks to a Theorem in the paper. )<issue_comment>username_1: Scopus uses its own sources for publications in the form of publisher provided content. Their selection procedure is explained here: <https://www.elsevier.com/solutions/scopus/content/content-policy-and-selection>
There is no procedure to add individual documents to Scopus that I could find on their help pages. You should also be aware that it can take several weeks for a published paper to end up in Scopus. Some publishers (smaller publishers typically or new open-access publishers), conferences, technical reports might never make it to Scopus though.
On a related note, the citation count will probably lag behind Google Scholar.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: It sounds like you don't understand what Scopus is. Scopus is a database of quality-curated journals and the articles published in those journals. It isn't meant to be comprehensive, and because it's quality-curated, it doesn't mean that all your papers will automatically end up in the database. Comparatively Google Scholar goes for comprehensiveness. It doesn't have a quality bar, and it'll index literally everything and anything. You should be able to find all your papers in Google Scholar, but not in Scopus.
To get your publications into Scopus, publish in a journal that's indexed by Scopus. It's as simple as that. If you've already published elsewhere, it's too late (unless the journal becomes indexed by Scopus).
Upvotes: 3
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2017/02/22
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<issue_start>username_0: Say I am person A who has built up some degree of expertise in mathematical topic X. Person B works on mathematical topic Y and realizes she needs a result from topic X. She asks me if I know how to prove this result. I work for a bit and prove this result, which person B works into their paper.
Now, I'm confident about my work on topic X, and am confident that person B is not manhandling its use for topic Y - i.e., they're very clear about the assumptions my result uses and what it implies. However, my knowledge of topic Y is not very deep, and it would take a significant amount of time for me to comfortably grasp exactly how the paper's use of topic Y works.
Is it then dishonest to proceed as an author? Is it expected that every author knows every aspect of the paper?<issue_comment>username_1: By most standards, authors of a scientific paper need to have made substantial intellectual contributions to the paper (e.g., coming up with the idea behind it, proving a required result, etc), made contributions to the write-up of the paper, and ultimately approve of the paper draft when it is submitted to a journal. As such, I think both you and your collaborator meet authorship criteria even though your grasp of topic Y is not as deep as your collaborator (and presumably your collaborator's grasp of topic X is not as deep as yours). At the very least, it is not dishonest to proceed as an author.
As for whether an author should be able to explain every aspect of a paper, I would think not necessarily. My field is very interdisciplinary, and it is not uncommon for clinicians to work with statisticians on papers. They are all experts in their respective fields, but their knowledge of the other person's field is almost guaranteed to be less than their collaborators. Yet, it is still possible for them to write papers together because their knowledge bases are complementary.
Upvotes: 7 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: >
> Should all authors on a paper be comfortable explaining every aspect of the paper?
>
>
>
**No.** And if you replace the word "should" by "can" then the answer would still be (for some collaborations): No.
Quite often the reason papers get written by multiple authors in the first place is that two or more people pooling together their expertise are able to say something more novel and profound than a single author. That means, almost tautologically, that each of the collaborators possesses some knowledge and expertise that the other does not. Sometimes this knowledge gap shrinks during the writing of the paper as one or both of the collaborators go to the trouble of learning and internalizing the ideas of their coauthors, but often the gap is so large that this is simply not possible. So if you don't feel like you understand everything that your coauthors are doing or saying in your joint papers, don't worry too much about it. Of course, you do need to have some basic level of trust in them to do a competent job, otherwise you may not want to put your scientific credibility on the line by being a coauthor on a paper containing their ideas that you don't fully understand.
Personally, several of my coauthored papers contain some ideas that I don't fully understand and wouldn't necessarily feel comfortable explaining. I see this as normal, unavoidable and not dishonest in any way.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: On the contrary, every author needs to know when to be honest about the limits of their knowledge, and to pass the question on as appropriate (assuming a question is asked just as an example). An overview understanding of fellow authors' contributions is wise, especially for the lead author or one who presents the work.
A corollary could be that if the work based on two distinct fields is being presented to an audience made up of members of one of those fields, the author from that field would be best placed to present it.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: Authors of a paper, at least in my field (mathematical physics), are not always capable of explaining every aspect of the paper. There is a notable paper that sticks out in my mind which presents a rather *tour de force* calculation by one of the authors but it is responsible for a tiny result necessary for a much larger calculation spanning the entire paper.
However, this particular co-author is known among physicists for his prowess in this specific type of calculation and was specifically sought after to perform it - he did not make other contributions and though probably aware of other content of the paper, his work could be done in isolation.
This provides an example demonstrating that authors needn't be comfortable with the entirety of a paper and simply being listed as a co-author does not imply contributions that span the entire paper.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: It is simply not realistic to expect this. For instance, the paper on detection of gravitational waves published last year has 100s of authors, some of which specialize in instrumentation, some of which specialize in numerical relativity, many of which fall in-between those expertise. It is inconceivable that people who designed and ran the detectors can have a deep knowledge of the kind of signal resulting from binary black holes collision.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: Think about the famous [Large Hadron Collider paper](https://journals.aps.org/prl/pdf/10.1103/PhysRevLett.114.191803) which has [more than 5,000 authors](http://www.nature.com/news/physics-paper-sets-record-with-more-than-5-000-authors-1.17567). Should every single member of the research team be able to explain every single part of the research process? Of course not! That is literally beyong the capabilities of any human being.
So don't worry and proceed with your research.
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: My PhD supervisor is co-editing a Journal Special Issue, in a good journal, even if not top-ranking, with double blind peer-review (three reviewers are asked for the review). And I'm tempted to submit a paper (which fits with the topic of the Issue).
I've recently obtained my PhD, and I see that in order to apply for prestigious grants (such as the ERC grants) a requisite is "having produced at least one important publication without the participation of their PhD supervisor" ([ERC starting grant](https://erc.europa.eu/funding-and-grants/funding-schemes/starting-grants)).
In this case, it would be a solely authored paper (not invited by the Supervisor but submitted to blind review).
Is it worth to try and publish it there? When the paper is evaluated by a judging panel, will the fact that the Issue is edited by my supervisor be a negative factor?<issue_comment>username_1: It's not surprising this might happen. That your advisor is on the board (or equivalent) for a journal you might submit to is a situation often encountered. If you want to make sure no conflicts exist, ask your advisor to recuse himself from all decisions regarding your particular contribution. He might already have planned to, given the obvious conflict.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: I think it is in fact a smart idea to publish in a specal issue edited by your supervisor. The conflict of interest supposition is something best left to your Supervisor, and he will and can be very explicit in what needs to be done thru the usual communication channels.
You must focus on how it looks to the scientific/management community at large that is your audience. And That is positive , not about the conflict of interest.
Anyone that reads your work will recognize your supervisor and people at your phd university without much effort, because the dissertation would also be available online, but mostly because you and him write on the same pain points and have illuminated research together in a particular field. You are already joined at the hip whether you like it or not, it is best to use it constructively and shine in the work you do together.
Even though you are not doing the piece together, and maybe you should even explore doing it together to make it more relevant, your work will be especially relevant in the right context and this special issue is likely to give you that right context for others like me looking for your work on that subject at a later time.
It is not at all surprising to find the context having changed on you in two years and then you may not have the opportunity.
Upvotes: 0
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2017/02/22
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<issue_start>username_0: I applied to a junior faculty position in a certain university. They asked me to provide a list of recommenders with the following requirements:
* Each recommender should be a professor.
* No recommender can be someone with whom I wrote a paper.
The second requirement rules out not only my Ph.D. advisors, but also most professors who know me as a researcher. I thought of several ideas for recommenders that meet both these requirements:
1. Professors who meet me regularly at department seminars. They can (hopefully) testify that I can ask good questions. But this is only a small part of being a good researcher.
2. Professors whose courses I took as a graduate student. They can testify that I can learn well. But again, this is only a small part of being a good researcher.
3. Professors for whom I did some technical work, e.g. computer programming (for research purposes); same comment as above.
4. Editors of journals for whom I reviewed a paper. They can (hopefully) testify that I can write good reviews; same comment as above.
5. Editors of journals in which I published papers. They can (hopefully) testify that my papers are good. But, the fact that they published my papers already shows that they think it is good.
6. Professors for whom I worked as a TA. They can (hopefully) testify that I know to teach. But for this, it may be much more relevant to bring recommendations from students (which I have).
What other options do I have?<issue_comment>username_1: I don't know what kind of institution this is, but if it's a research institution, presumably they want references that can evaluate the significance of your work "objectively." So I would think of names of people who you haven't worked with, but should be interested in and capable of mostly understanding your work. It need not be anyone you know personally. (Of course you should email them to see if they are willing.)
If it is a teaching institution, then they probably want references from people who know how you will be as a teacher and as a colleague. (And a research institution may want at least one teaching reference anyway.)
Note: the institution may try contacting people not on your list, and if you have questions about what they are looking for, try asking them.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Other options:
1. Your PhD committee members
2. Your MS Thesis committee members (if applicable)
3. Department Chair or the Graduate Program Director
You can also take your work to a professor you are not familiar with (but he/she is familiar with your research area), request them to write a reference letter based on their evaluation of your CV/papers/TA work etc. I think this has as much a chance as items 4 and 5 of your list.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: This strikes me as they are taking a similar approach to references / recommenders for junior faculty hires as many institutions do -- at least in North America -- for the tenure-track; those going up for tenure are often asked for names of potential letter-writers who are familiar with their research / teaching / service but have not published a paper with them. Putting aside whether this is appropriate when hiring at the junior faculty level, for the situation you are in I think there are a few options:
1. As *hpc* answered, if you haven't published with one or more of your PhD committee members, they should make excellent candidates to ask to write a reference / recommendation letter. Most faculty and postdoc job applicants that I've seen (both previously as student colleagues during my PhD and now as applicants to my current university) have at least one of their committee members in the list of references they provide. Sometimes it can even look strange if you *don't* have at least one of them as one of your references, although in this case if you've published with all of them then you won't be able to do that (and nor will many other applicants, of course). If you haven't published with them, though, and depending on their role in your committee, they should at least be able to speak to your research, and possibly teaching or service as well.
2. Ask faculty at your PhD university who you have not published with, but that know at least part of your academic profile. Perhaps they are familiar with your research and research skills from your papers and presentations, or from talking with you. Perhaps they have observed your teaching or have had you work as a TA for them. Perhaps they know about your service from serving on the same committees or in the same associations and organizations. They may not be from the same research specialty as you, but hopefully they can speak to at least some of your qualities. If you weren't able to use a PhD committee member, it might be helpful to try and get at least one faculty member who is a full / named professor and/or has some form of administrative role (department chair, program director, etc.) at your PhD university.
3. Ask faculty from other universities whom you have met at conferences or other events and are in your area of specialty and/or your field. Think of those you might publish with down the road, should things work out, but that you haven't published with *yet*. Similar to those at your PhD university, if they have gotten to know about your research or service, they should be able to speak reasonably well to your achievements and potential.
There is likely some variance (as stated in the comments) depending on the country of the university you are applying to for a faculty role. That said, this is my sense based on my own experience in the US and Canada, and things may vary in Israel or other non-American/Canadian contexts. Good luck!
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: People who cite your papers
---------------------------
A particular audience that is suitable for this are people who cite your papers. It is quite likely that the committee wants to see what impact (if any) your research has on your field, so they would want opinions from people outside your team that have read your research and find it useful. One way to find such people is to look at citations to your papers - they (obviously) have read your research, consider it valuable, and you should be able to find their contact information from their papers.
Upvotes: 3
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<issue_start>username_0: I'm a career professional in the data science field and spent my career focused on information systems and data visualization.
I recently wound up with an adjunct professor role at a local institution. At first things were fine, but now there is a strong pressure for me to publish 'academic works' in scholarly publications and I'm not even really sure what that involves.
I don't necessarily do a lot of dedicated "new" research of anything novel, I just have a deep understanding of the industry and how to apply the practice to fields that others often over look. But, I don't think a really good tutorial on how to do something is a scholarly article.
So for someone who has **never** written or even read a scholarly publication in their life, and has no idea how to get involved in this, where do I start?
What types of articles merit publication?
Can I do critiques of industry practices? Or case studies? Or do I have to start running double-blind experiments with different businesses to keep my job?<issue_comment>username_1: This is either an abuse of an adjunct (I doubt they are paying you enough for this!) or they're grooming you to bring you properly on board.
If it's the latter, or if your interest is coincidentally piqued, I suggest you start with two things:
1. Find a mentor. This person doesn't have to be in your department, and doesn't have to be an expert in the same area as you. If you don't find one quickly by yourself, have whoever is pressuring you suggest someone.
2. Go to [Google Scholar](https://scholar.google.com/) and type in some key words from your area. Just start reading. Don't read anything you don't find interesting. After some reading, find out a bit more about the features of Google Scholar (for example, once you find an article you're really excited about, click where it says "Cited by").
It all starts with "I wonder...."
Have fun!
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Read. Talk to people.
Publications don't appear out of nowhere. They are informed by what current research topics are, and you will only learn about these if you start reading the current literature and talking to others who know what is happening. Reading and talking is a big part of what active researchers do anyway, and it's that much more important for you if you're not yet familiar with where the research currently is.
I think that there is *great* value in practical experience and knowing what happens in industry. It will inform how you approach asking the right questions, and it gives you a perspective many others don't have. It will lead you to ask *other questions* than what career academics ask, because you know that some things are just very important in practice, and that's a perspective that is worth bringing into papers you write.
Also pair up with others who have experience in writing publications. They can teach and mentor you in the process, and working with others is more fun anyway than trying to do research by yourself.
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: I'm more interested in answers from researchers in the field of computer science/electrical engineering. Having said that, readers in a different discipline observing such phenomenon are welcome to contribute.
I know of a few 'famous' individuals who have copious number of articles appearing in top journals/conferences every year without fail. Looking at their CV, it seems that they have a 100% success rate at these top venues.
**Question**: as we know, the review process is random at times, with 'dumb' reviewers rejecting papers for no good reasons. This in turn forces us to look for an alternative or perhaps lower ranking venue to publish our articles. Given this fact, how do the said individuals have such a consistent record? Is there a level one can get to where every idea is gold and every presentation is such that even a dumb reviewer can't recommend a reject? Or is it the case that there is a 'back door' or the individual or institution reputation is so bright that any reviewers are obligated to accept the article?
What is their strategy?<issue_comment>username_1: Since people rarely document papers NOT published, a 100% success rate for papers in a CV is kind of guaranteed.
It does often seem like some PIs have the 'magic touch' when it comes to publishing, and here are some factors that may contribute to this success:
1. they work on a very hot topic
2. they are very established
* [a] unfortunately publishing begets further publishing as ones name becomes associated with a high quality record
* [b] they are possibly personally acquainted with some of the reviewers, which could help grease the wheels
3. they are at a top institution (yes, this probably helps)
4. they are working on several projects in tandem and so *submit* more papers in general
5. they may be a pro at working the review process: invalidating certain dissenters by request or by inviting comments on a manuscript prior to publication (disqualifying them), or through fierce contest when papers are rejected.
The publication process is far from a perfect or even acceptable, and many factors contribute. Those that know how to exploit these factors will be more successful, deserving or not.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_2: You are trying to infer the ratio
(Papers accepted)/(papers submitted)
but you have information only about the numerator.
In other words, publishing a paper every year at conference X is not the same as getting 100% of your submissions accepted by conference X.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: >
> I know of a few 'famous' individuals who have copious number of
> articles appearing in top journals/conferences every year without
> fail. Looking at their CV, it seems that they have a 100% success rate
> at these top venues.
>
> ...
>
>
> Or is it the case that there is a 'back door' or the individual or
> institution reputation is so bright that any reviewers are obligated
> to accept the article?
>
>
>
Those 'famous' individuals have submissions being rejected much much more often than you think.
I know this because my boss and my collaborators are also kind-of famous, ACM Distinguished Scientist, more than 100 papers etc etc, one even has more than 20k citations.
>
> What is their strategy?
>
>
>
AFAIK, there is no such backdoor or reputation that can help you to get papers accepted, at least in my community. **The strategy is to submit a lot of papers** :) Last year, many people really got mad because ICSE, top conference in Software Engineering, only allowed 1 author to submit maximum 3 papers.
Think about it, while you think they are awesome because they have published a paper at ICSE, but behind the scene they got 4 or 5 papers rejected at the same time :)
Famous people often attract a lot of people who want to collaborate with them. They are often very successful in obtain funding, and have a big group to do research for them.
---
UPDATE
======
Answers to comments of [Prof. <NAME>](https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/47727/prof-santa-claus).
>
> What do they do with those rejected papers? Revise and submit next
> year? or do they dump them into lower ranked conferences? Is the
> strategy then to always push all rejected papers, given 'infinite
> time', into top venues?
>
>
>
Of course revise and re-submit, but why wait until next year? If your paper is rejected at ICSE, the next step should be to re-submit it to either one of ECOOP, ISTTA, FSE, ASE, ICST...(the list doesn't end here) which are in the same rank, or just a bit less. Famous people, with their vast experience, do not submit paper which doesn't stand a chance. After being rejected, they know where the problem is, and know how to improve the paper to be accepted.
>
> a 'back door' is simply to send a draft of your paper to likely
> reviewers for the conference. If you are famous, you tend to know most
> of the people on the program committee anyway -- birds of feather
> flock together. You get their feedback and if they hate it, don't
> submit. If they like it submit.
>
>
>
There are more than 20 PC members, who you should send your paper to? To the ones who work in the same problem? But they are direct competitors :) And you do this every time you want to submit a paper,i.e. 10-15 times per year, you will piss them off. If you think your paper is good, submit it regardless of what other people/reviewer think.
By the way, all the conferences I mentioned adopt double-blinded review. And you need to mark conflict PC members, who are your advisor/advisee, collaborators, institutional colleagues and so on. What you just said doesn't seem practical in the communities I know.
>
> Another backdoor is that you know the EiC of a journal and you can
> give him/her a call when there is a reject. I know of a prof who does
> this regularly. Also, look up 'guanxi'. If you have enough of this,
> papers get in, and this is the 'normal' practice of certain people.
>
>
>
Is this "quanxi" only a Chinese thing? I don't think you can do this for top journals/conferences.
>
> What is the success rate of your boss(es) at top venues
>
>
>
If "success" means eventually (even after some rejections) appear in top venues, then it would be more than 90% :) If you include also the rejections, then 60% is a rough guess.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: Except a very few number of people who have manipulated the system to work for their benefit, in most cases, there are some closely related factors:
**(1) Practice already made them perfect:** These people publish many papers in certain top venues. Probably they have had a lot of rejections in the past and now they have mastered the art of getting their papers published. This includes knowing the writing style of a certain community, as well as knowing the audience (reviewers) and identifying what contributions matter the most in these venues (in my area for example, the experiments, while in some other areas theoretical results are really important).
**(2) They have a lot of resources and academics working for them:** Not only they have big groups of PhD students working on similar problems, which results in larger number of publications. But they also have many post-docs and visitors who are usually professional in publishing. This comes down to being *resourceful*. They get grants and other resources, and fund academics to work for them.
**(3) The rich gets richer effect:** If you are famous and you have published a reasonable number of papers in your area, you are most likely to receive invitation to contribute to projects done in other groups and get credit for your (even minor) contributions. In fact, some people like to get these people involved, because they own a good record of publication, which means acceptable writing style for that venue, being familiar with the review process and reviewers and etc in (1). They may have a lot of graduated students who still publish with them because of (2).
**(4) They are good leaders:** Leadership has a lot to say, when it comes to productivity of a research groups. I know some academics who are really good leaders, so they can motivate and lead their (even though small) research groups to publish in an incredibly high volume. They is no limit in their productivity, because they posses leadership skills. This leadership helps them get to (3) from (2). Unlike them, there are some really smart, hard-working, focused, dedicated academics who reach a certain limit in productivity, because they have no leadership qualities and no strategies for leading their research group.
As I said, these situations are very closely related and influence each other. However, making impact does not always mean producing publication. Academia is sometimes viewed as a publication factory, but a genuine impact is usually different.
Upvotes: 4
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2017/02/23
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<issue_start>username_0: I was asked to supervise a team of undergrad students
who are taking part in a case competition.
I decided to look through the competition website
to find out more about what is expected of a faculty advisor.
The website writes:
>
> The primary role of the faculty advisor is to provide direction, advice and guidance to the student team.
> The faculty advisor should not contribute to the content of the presentation, nor should they provide or facilitate the assistance from other parties that contribute to the content of presentation.
>
>
>
How do I walk the fine line between
"providing direction, advice and guidance",
and yet "not contributing to the content of the presentation"?
(This is my first time helping a student team with a competition,
so I would appreciate the advice of other faculty who have done this before.)<issue_comment>username_1: I have only worked as a TA to help students on an individual exercise basis, but I think the idea is kind of similar to this. In the case of a competition like this I can only speak from my role as being supervised.
However, I would say that the most important thing is to ask questions, such as "Why do you think that step *X* that you propose here would be a good step?" or "What results do you expect by doing this thing *Y* you're doing?". This should make them think about what they are doing in this competition and why they are doing it.
Regarding the presentation, you can of course always give them advice about how to present, how to style their slides, and how to convey the information they are presenting in an efficient way.
All in all, with most things you help them with, just ask yourself if you're telling them how to do it. If not, you're probably fine I guess.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: The German project *[Jugend hackt](https://jugendhackt.org)* *(= youth hacks)* has a very similar approach. Mentors shall only support and provide advice and guidance but not contribute to the coding projects of the participants.
In practice this means, that you assist them by finding their topic/project by chairing the process and giving advice when you think the project might be too complex, out of scope or could not be finished within the given time period. If they nevertheless decide to go for a project which you think might fail, that's fine.
During the project, only help the students when they ask for assistance, you think that their time schedule will fail or you discovered a major problem the participants didn't figure out for themselves after an appropriate time period.
Regarding *<NAME>*, the most important rule for the mentors is: "Never ever touch the keyboard of a participant." It's up to them to **do** everything, correct their mistakes and to learn by experience. Maybe you can transfer this rule to being a supervisor in a students competition: "Never ever touch their keyboard/equipment/labware/texts."
Upvotes: 2 [selected_answer]
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2017/02/23
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<issue_start>username_0: Say I am a British academic, who happens to have a blog, where I comment on my research and other people's research. Naturally, I do not want to infringe copyrights on any type, including intellectual property (IP). Yet, [it seems](https://www.uleth.ca/lib/copyright/content/fair_dealing_week/fair_dealing_vs_fair_use.asp) that the IP law is "more loose" in the US than in the UK. In effect, whereas the US law is defined on positive terms ("this is what you cannot do"), the UK is defined on negative terms ("this is what you can do").
Just for the sake of minimizing potential, unintended infringement of IP copyrights in my blog, should I register my website in the US, or is that irrelevant?<issue_comment>username_1: If by "register the website" you're talking about paying for a domain name, it doesn't matter whom you register the website with. The convenient way to do it is to register the domain name through the webhosting provider.
**Rules of thumb:**
Don't plagiarize, i.e. don't quote other people's work without citing them; don't steal someone else's work and pretend it is your own.
Don't re-publish substantial portions of other people's work without permission.
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. For example, if you talk about <NAME>'s work, link to <NAME>'s home page.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_2: I think you are talking about 'hosting'. [Please take what I said with a pinch of salt and this does not constitute legal advice] Where the site is hosted does matter because the laws at where the site is hosted (Godaddy, bluehost etc) is subjected to that jurisdiction. But ultimately, if you're talking about 'copyright or IP' issues, it is the *country which you are operating out of* that matters rather than where the site is hosted so if you're based in the UK, it would be UK laws that is material.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: I can hardly see how writing your own comments on someone else's published work can come close to any sort of copyright infringement. Obviously, you would not re-publish someone else's papers in your blog? Small quotes are allowed in the UK under [fair dealing](https://www.gov.uk/guidance/exceptions-to-copyright#fair-dealing) exception (aka [fair use](https://www.copyrightservice.co.uk/copyright/p09_fair_use)). IANAL, but I would be surprised if it's any different in the US.
Obviously, if you republish someone else's papers in full, this is anything but a blog.
Upvotes: 1
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2017/02/23
| 707
| 2,789
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<issue_start>username_0: I want to use some images from the wikicommons in my thesis, some images state that 'Attribution is not legally required', but I understand that if I don't cite an image it's as if I'm claiming it as my own.
Let's say I want to use the google logo: <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Google_2015_logo.svg>
This is the attribution mentioned:
By Google Inc. [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
Do I just put that attribution under the image in the thesis?
Thank you!<issue_comment>username_1: So for any normal image you would need to do a few things:
1. Get permission to use the image from the copyright holder.
2. Cite the source.
3. Place text close to the image or as a footnote indicating copyright and permission to use.
You have probably come across such an example in your reading. With a Wikimedia commons image, there is a license that indicates how you must use it. See this ***[link](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Licensing)*** for detailed information on the licenses. From that link it seems that you don't need (1). To be a good honest researcher, I suggest you always do (2) (in this case it would be an electronic / web source) and with (3) indicate the license as a comment suggested.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: [The image you linked](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Google_2015_logo.svg) is a public domain one, because it's below [threshold of originality](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Threshold_of_originality). Therefore you don't need to cite nor acknowledge the source of the image.
However, the Google logo is protected as a trademark. You may need to acknowledge it by the trademark symbol or a disclaimer.
Furthermore, if you want to cite the origin of the image as a benefit to your readers, you should cite Chromium or Google as the original source (not Commons), as it's done in the Wikimedia Commons page for that file.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: Even if its in the public domain its always good to cite where you get your information from, be that data, images, or whatever, even if its public domain
When I use images that are governed by a license (including public domain, and "fair use") I identify
1. the source,
2. the original author/photographer/painter/etc, and
3. the specific license that governs its reuse.
Using thorough and accurate citations ensures that you've done everything that needed to **give proper credit where credit is due**.
It also allows the reader to verify that what you cite is really at the source you give, and is licensed for the use to which you put it.
It doesn't hurt to include in the source, links to the actual source, and to the license (say as defined by Wikipedia, or the specific source you used.
Upvotes: 1
|
2017/02/24
| 1,961
| 7,727
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<issue_start>username_0: This pertains to an American university graduate program.
A TA recently surprised me with a proposition to marry her (we've neither dated nor hooked up), so that she could obtain a green card to stay in the United States -- she wants to leave the STEM fields and go into the creative / artsy stuff (eg, dreams of having a creative career in Los Angeles), which means she likely won't earn a work visa to stay in the US.
She essentially offered a blank check from her family, so long as the amount is less than the investment green card amount of 500k dollars (something that I did not know even existed).
My question is: putting aside legal, personal and ethical questions, what are the academic implications of this situation? At what point could I get into trouble with the university; from having such discussions with her or later, if I actually did something? Could I be dismissed from the university or have my degree revoked later on? What about implications regarding any funding that I might have from the university or from the government (eg, grants, loans)?
Edit: Thanks to those offering marriage strategies and interpretations of the law, but I had hoped to stay on-topic and focus on the academic implications. Currently, I am reduced to voting for an on-topic answer that I have some qualms about, since, as mentioned in Dan Romik's comments, the answerer focuses on reporting harassment, when I have not been harassed at all. Perhaps the community can vote to reopen the question to allow for more, on-topic answers.<issue_comment>username_1: Since you have posted the question on here already, it means that you actually thought about doing so with her.
I advise not to, as this is clearly illegal ("get married so she can get a green card"). This could result in being fined and put in jail as well (like one comment mentioned about it). See [here](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegal_immigration#Sham_marriages) for more information.
With Trump being the new President, things have gone in a hard way for international students who want to become US citizen to obtain a green card. She clearly does not have confidence in her academic ability to stay here, thus trying to lie to the government by "buying" a green card. You should not deal with liar like this.
P.s: I'm international student.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: I am a U.S. citizen and happen to have a foreign spouse, so I've had some personal experience with this.
It could conceivably work if the two of you had known each other intimately for some time, even if you had a Ge<NAME>, separate bedrooms kind of relationship. But if you are just acquaintances, it is unlikely the two of you would get through the interview process successfully. In separate interviews, you would be asked an unpredictable set of questions about your shared personal history. There are sample interview questions posted online, e.g. <https://www.usavisanow.com/marriage-green-card/marriage-green-card-faq/marriage-green-card-interview/> and <http://www.alllaw.com/articles/nolo/us-immigration/what-happens-green-card-marriage-interview.html>.
In addition, USCIS (formerly INS) would need to see documentation that your finances have been shared and inextricably intertwined for some time.
You could enjoy the fantasy together for an evening, with the Dépardieu film *Green Card*.
---
P.S. I have heard about a businessman's visa, which her budget might be enough for, but I don't know much about it.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: You haven't specified what you role is in this university. If you are a professor/lecturer/instructor, then you are one level of power ahead of her, and any romantic or sexual involvement can be considered as harassment and can lead you to a huge problem and potential job loss. Moreover, it is highly unethical, as there is a power difference between both of you.
If you are a student of her, then she holds the power in your relationship, and so you could contact the Title IX office and claim she is harassing you because of such approximations.
In any case, as it has been already commented, her suggestion is something totally illegal, apart from unethical and irresponsible.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_4: As others have pointed out, you could go to the stripy hole for that.
Her family seem to have enough money, so let’s think about that artsy business she wants. Who would be funding that? Obviously her family are going to have to put in a few $100k for that, if it ever manterializes.
So – for you: run, don’t walk, to the nearest exit. Tell her firmly that the answer so “NO”, and that you won’t discuss the matter again.
That’s all that you need to do – for you. You can stop reading right here.
If you want to help her, try to get it through to her why this is a bad idea. Even if she did find a mug, they could both end up in prison, years later when they had long forgotten their “harmless white lie”; the marriage could be declared illegal & void, she could be deported (after leaving prison) and lose her lovely artsy business.
Perhaps if you explain it in those terms, her family will find that they can afford the full $500k to invest in the business and get her the green card.
(and I would not suggest to her that said business could do business with her family’s business back home, which benefits the family business to the tune of a few $100k ;-)
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: I'm going to more practical than the rest of the lot, and act as the 'devil's attorney'. In no way am I telling you to do something illegal. I'll be discussing a what if scenario, and maybe a possible book/film plot.
To marry there doesn't need to be love or any kind of other feelings. It'll depend on the amount of time she's willing to wait.
You definitely need to hook up with her, and have some sort of public relationship with her for at least 7-8 months. But by the way the world is heading, the youngsters these days don't even need to be publicly monogamous or faithful, so you'll just post on your face account something crass like as 'open relationship'. Stay with her, go the public events, share several photos on facebook and instagram and all that other crp millennials do. You'll need to know her a lot better, create joint plans for the future(kids, work,etc), even if you do not plan to go ahead with them. You'll need to fake every aspect of a married life. The key is to not over-fantasize. Be truthful in your planning, so as to better sell the idea. Your parents cannot know. In fact, her family should also not know. Do this in a way that she tells her family that she's in fact in love with you, and it's not a matter of a green card. It must look the part in every way. Go to thanks-giving with her, and all that things. You'll need to sell it to your and her family also. Visit her family a few times. If someone tells anything, then it's over.
After 7-8 months together, tie the knot. Afterwards, you'll have to wait for at least a year, year and half, so as not to arouse suspicions. During that period, with some joint account, you start to transfer some small random amounts, in a random time frame, until you get it done. Most divorces happen in two-three years within marriage, in the last months of your arrangement, move out, pretend she was tired of your infidelities. Make it seem like a rough divorce, but not so rough as to make you really mad and spill the beans...
It's never been easier to fake a marriage as in the time we live in.
This would be feasible only for those who would be in it for the long-run, and who knows... you might in fact fall in love with her.
Upvotes: 3
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2017/02/24
| 2,011
| 8,559
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am an undergraduate in my fourth and final year of getting a bachelor's degree. Next year I am thinking about applying to Phd programs in math (in any case I want to take a year between undergrad and grad school). However, I have a very questionable academic record in some respects.
My first year of college, I attended a liberal arts college known for its academic excellence. I did reasonably well the first semester, but the second semester I began to fall into a hole of depression and anxiety brought on what I will call a collision of being overwhelmed with coursework that I had never really been challenged by before and untreated brain stuff. I stopped going to class, stopped getting out of bed, and eventually ended up failing all of my classes that semester (like F fail).
I went back home and went to community college for the next year, and I got on medication for my brain stuff which, and this is not true in general but was and is true for me, was essentially a silver bullet that cured everything that was wrong with me and also unlocked a level of academic focus and ambition that I had literally never had before.
I was able to transfer to a state research university after one year of community college, and that is where I am now. I have a pretty/very good GPA, I have taken a lot of classes in the past two years because I keep on getting excited about things and I am on a very limited schedule (I have taken ~2 times the normal course load per quarter over the last few quarters). I have developed good relationships with faculty and have taken a couple of graduate classes, and I have taken or am taking pretty much the entire pure math undergraduate curriculum with more classes then required for the major. I haven't been able to take grad classes in math because I only have 2 years here though- the ones I have taken were in applied math and CS. I have the expectation that my GRE scores will be good enough, as I have taken a few practice tests and I am generally good at standardized testing.
Now to my actual question: how disqualifying is my first year of college, and do any of you have any suggestions as to how I would explain what happened, or even if I should attempt to explain?
I am willing to bite the bullet, but I will also say that I tend not to talk about that time in my life, or even really think about it. I am not the type of gal to dwell, and I thinking back to it is rather psychically painful. I have actually not mentioned the fact that I even went to the aforementioned liberal arts college to anyone at my current university as I have no interest in explicating the circumstances surrounding my exit from it. That is not to say that I feel that I am in danger of falling back into the same hole, just that I do not like to be reminded of my worst moments.
Thanks!<issue_comment>username_1: I believe that,as long as your present academic record & research capabilities are good, people won't bother about it.Even if they ask the reason,you can explain what happened. That will help them understand that you are a much stronger person now and worth giving the chance and that you will excel in research, if extra guidance is provided.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: I've had a somewhat similar rough start of college, with about three wasted years. I expected that it would very much be a problem as well. I'm now doing my masters and have a job that is very relevant to my field, and I've had some other relevant jobs as well.
In the interviews for those jobs, and during my application for my master, the subject of my unusual first years of college came to the table of course. However, I found that when you talk about it, it shows openness which is generally appreciated. What I also experienced, is that it can give you a good way to talk about how you have grown as a person and what you've learned from those experiences. In my case, it made me much more determined, and I could easily tell what I now am capable of, instead of focussing on what I was incapable of. It sounds like this could also hold for you! Because with your story about the load you're taking on, I feel like nobody will really care about that one year, and people can and will focus on what you're doing now.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: It's *very* common for grad-school applicants to have had a struggle early on in college. The step up from high school is a big one (academically and otherwise), and that's aside from sources of stress that might hit anyone at any age. If I see an academic transcript showing difficulties early on and not later, I assume I'm looking at someone who ran into some life challenges and has since bounced back. What's important in this kind of case when it comes to evaluating the student for admission to graduate programs isn't that there are some rough spots in their history. It's that they have been doing well lately and have shown noticeable perseverance in the face of some tough things.
Some graduate applications will give you the option of attaching an extra sheet of paper if you would like to add an explanation about extenuating circumstances (this absolutely counts) to be taken into account. But even if you aren't given that option (and/or don't feel comfortable sharing your story with anonymous committees), I wouldn't worry too much.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_4: Some of your comments indicate an additional issue that you did not raise in your OP: you are not planning to disclose your initial undergraduate institutions. ([here](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/27015/do-i-have-to-submit-transcripts-from-school-i-transferred-out-of-for-grad-applic/27019) are [a couple](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23403/applying-to-phd-programs-do-i-need-to-include-transcripts-from-unrelated-master) previous questions that address similar issues)
Usually, graduate schools will request full transcripts from all undergraduate institutions, not just a notation of the degree earned and GPA like you would have on a business resume. If you omit your transcripts from your first school, this could cause you problems down the road with severe consequences, even if you are initially accepted.
Although you say you are graduating in 4 years, therefore there is no "gap" to explain, your transcript actually will reveal a hole: it sounds like you are actually completing your 4-year degree in only two years, and a graduate admissions committee will certainly wonder what you were up to in the previous two years since your high school graduation if you don't provide any information.
As you see from most of the other responses here, the general consensus is that struggles early on are not weighted heavily, especially if they are followed by excellent performance.
It is up to you whether to disclose the causes of your struggles early on, but I think you should at least disclose that those struggles occurred. In my personal opinion, a student's ability to overcome a struggle says a lot about their character, whether assisted by medication or not. Your story certainly sounds like you have the type of dedication that is an asset in graduate school.
If I was in your position, I would state vaguely on your application that you were able to overcome your initial academic struggles after changing institutions, and I would approach this as a strength that demonstrates your ability to work through adversity. If you have a phone or in-person interview at a graduate school and you are asked explicitly about your early struggles, I would answer that you had some mental health issues that responded well to treatment (or, as @aparente001 suggested, "I had an undiagnosed condition which responded very well to treatment") - you don't need to make any mention that you are still on medication if you are uncomfortable saying so (though there should not be any stigma against it). Your more recent undergraduate performance supports that you are doing well so you have little else to explain.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_5: If you've taken double the normal course load in the past two years, you've done four years of work in two. That's pretty impressive.
You can show good grades for the last 30 (or whatever the number is) courses. Many schools will be happy to leave it at that.
Your bad first two years might hurt you at a few schools, but not many. Most would be impressed that you rose out of an unpromising start to a strong "finish."
Upvotes: 0
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2017/02/24
| 1,098
| 4,708
|
<issue_start>username_0: I already have an offer for a TT job at another institution, but I received an inteview offer from a school I'd really like to work for. I was told (twice) that they didn't like two of their first three candidates and that they'd like to inteview me if the one they liked fell through.
They told that they'd have an answer as to whether or not I'd interview on Friday by Wednesday. Which turned into Thursday. At about 5:45PM on Thursday, I was called by one of the committee members to offer me an inteview for Friday. (I am currently visiting faculty here, so the turnaround is possible if really inconvenient and hard to swing.) I agreed, excited. But it occurred to me during the conversation that I should ask if I could safely assume that the first candidate fell through, and I was told I could not!!!
I was flustered, continued the conversation, finished it. I then calmed down and emailed very shortly after and said that I could not accept the inteview until I could actually be considered in contention for the job and that I should have immediately said so upon learning that my assumption that the first candidate had fallen through was not correct.
Has anyone heard of such things happening? Getting a backup lined up outside of the first round of invites to campus interviews after an offer has already been put out?
They know my clock on the other offer expires soon, so I know they're scrambling to make sure that they could consider me should the other candidate fall through. But I was told that the interview would only happen if the candidate did fall through.<issue_comment>username_1: >
> Has anyone heard of such things happening? Getting a backup lined up outside of the first round of invites to campus interviews after an offer has already been put out?
>
>
>
It's not usual, but I have heard of such things here in Europe. And why not? If the search committee already knows that, or at least has the strong impression that, their originally preferred candidates are not going to work out, why not immediately line up backup interviews? I should also note that they seem to be playing with unusually open cards towards you, so I would certainly count this as a positive.
If I understand you correctly, your main problem seems to be that you already have an offer that you cannot delay until you will get a decision from this school. Note that it isn't *only* about whether the preferred candidate will work out or not - even if the preferred candidate cancels, you still need to ace your own interview and do better than the other backup candidates (typically, if a search commission goes through the trouble of inviting backup candidates, they will invite more than just one person!).
At the end of the day, your options are likely as follows:
* Try to delay your standing offer, and/or convince the school where you are interviewing to hurry up. Some schools seem to be fairly flexible with timing (I have heard from TT offers to be delayed for many months), others are not. There is only one way to find out.
* Cancel your standing offer, and take the risk with the interview.
* Cancel your interview, and take the TT offer.
* Accept your standing offer, go to the interview regardless, and back out of your earlier acceptance if you get the second job. You certainly *can* do that, but you should expect some backlash. I would not recommend that, even if it may appear like the approach with the highest short-term profit for you personally.
If you need to decide right now (option 2 or 3), you should ask yourself (a) how much better the second job is than the first one, and (b) how disastrous it would be for you if you ended up with no offer at all. Oftentimes, when making such decisions, it is better to take the offer that you already have than a slightly better offer that you may or may not get, but at the end of the day the decision is yours to make.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: The following is a possible explanation:
They are waiting to hear back from someone about something (e.g. they have made an offer but the acceptance is looking iffy; they contacted a reference who is slow to respond; someone on the committee is unhappy with the primary candidate, etc.). Someone on the committee said, "Look, we owe it to ourselves to talk to SDisaapoint, and we have to do it quickly, because of his/her other offer."
I understand that things have been confusing and contradictory and unclear. But if you have any interest in this job, and are able to go see them today, go! You've been given an opportunity to make your pitch ("I am the best person for this position"); now go make it!
Upvotes: 0
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2017/02/24
| 487
| 1,879
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<issue_start>username_0: I'm writing a manuscript for a journal that has a word limitation for papers:
>
> Papers should be no longer than about 6500 words to include Figures,
> Tables and References.
>
>
>
I am not totally sure, does it mean that Figures, Tables and References are not included in this limitation or does it mean that the entire paper must not exceed 6500 words?
**Update:**
Following your recommendations, I contacted the editors:
References are included in the 6500 words, words in tables and figures are not.
My references comprise about 1000 words, so now I have to shorten all other parts, which is not easy.<issue_comment>username_1: The wording here makes me think that the 6500 word count *includes* figures, tables, and references, as "to include" seems like a synonym for "including". However, it is always, always good to ask for clarification, especially when the wording, as in this case, leaves room for interpretation. I would email or otherwise contact the journal editor and ask for clarification. Contact information for the journal you linked in the comments can I believe be found [here](http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1365-2389/homepage/Contact.html).
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: The wording is obscure, and the only way to clarify it is to contact the editorial office.
Contra the interpretation given in the previous answer, the requirement could also be interpreted as follows:
>
> Papers should be no longer than about 6500 words, *in order for them* to *also* include Figures, Tables and References
>
>
>
This means the word limit does not include tables and figures.
I prefer this interpretation because
* it explains which subject the verb 'to include' belongs to.
* it is consistent with no word number equivalent being mentioned for tables and figures.
Upvotes: 1
|
2017/02/24
| 1,264
| 5,460
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<issue_start>username_0: I have applied for PhD student positions at different graduate schools.
During most interviews I was asked whether I have applied to other programs, which I affirmed.
One professor also asked me to inform him if I receive offers from other universities.
It seems like a sensible request to me and I confirmed that I would do so.
However I can't help but wonder:
Why did he ask me to disclose other offers?
Will it make me seem sought after and strong, if I receive multiple offers from other universities?
Or will the professor look for applicants that have not found a place elsewhere and disregard me, because an applicant who has received other offers would be more likely to decline an offer?<issue_comment>username_1: I don't have a definitive answer, but I can offer some interpretion: with such a question a potential employer, not matter whether academic or not, is probing how likely you are to accept an offer if you were to receive one.
What I suggest in this circumstances is to tell you have other offers, if you did receive them - it will make you look attractive - but not specify them. After that, hint to the fact that your other offers are not your first choice, unlike the present one - that will make you look committed.
Of course all of the above stands if you did receive other offers. Honesty first. But no need to be honest about what is your favorite choice, as it's probably impossible to be honest about it, at least until you know what the offers are anyway!
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: A possibility is that the professor might want to expedite the offer process if he knows that you already have an offer from another university.
I assume he doesn't want to know the names of the universities but rather just whether you have offers or not.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: Along with the other answers given: statistics about acceptance to different programs is used for some types of rankings of programs and can be part of certain grant applications such as [Institutional Training Grants from the US National Institutes of Health](https://researchtraining.nih.gov/programs/training-grants/t32).
It can be beneficial to a program to show:
1. A high matriculation rate among accepted students (i.e., accepted students most often take the offer).
2. Accepted students decide to come to that institution rather than other places they are accepted.
3. The program has a higher selectivity than other highly regarded programs, and rejects some students that are accepted to those other programs.
Therefore, it can be a disadvantage to accept students who are likely to choose a different institution, and an advantage to strongly pursue candidates who have been accepted at other institutions if they think they can convince you to attend their institution instead.
I haven't experienced programs that tried to mislead funding agencies on these issues, but its possible some programs might try to game the system more. Accepting students who decide to go elsewhere has another disadvantage, which is that it probably means other desired applicants are not admitted.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_4: These answers seem to suggest that instead of informing the places you've had interviews at/with that your dream institution (Oxford, MIT, Univ of Hawaii, whatever) has made you an offer - and you didn't immediately accept it, that instead you should play coy. This is, obviously, non-sense. Obviously, disclosing more information during the decision process will make it easier for them to decide. In general, it tells them that you've not yet had an acceptable offer. Or that perhaps the offer is to one of your "top" picks, but the terms (stipend, schedule, duties and responsibilities) isn't yet settled to your satisfaction. Keep in mind that there is some latitude for negotiating these things (often, but not always). So, in addition to giving information to them which may induce them to make you an offer earlier, it also gives them information which weakens your negotiation position. I can't tell you how best to approach them, it depends on how strong a candidate you are, and how strong you interview. But in general, tell them the minimum they need to know to get you to the position you want to be in. (Sorry, if this is just platitudes, but I didn't see it mentioned in the other answers)
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: When I applied, my potential adviser asked because he wanted to make a claim that I was a high-in-demand individual, and used the offers were for other universities to write an application for an extra recruitment grant. Needless to say, it was a really good offer. So it's not always nefarious.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_6: This is actually standard protocol for all of the universities of which I've been involved. We ask because we want to gauge just how sincere you are in actually attending this university. Universities have a limited number of fellowships to give out, and knowing that you've been accepted to a tier 1 first choice school will let the admissions committee of a tier 2 third choice school make a more strategic choice in offering these fellowships.
Quite often, too, it's out of sheer curiosity. To whom did we lose you? How can we make our program more attractive in the future? These are important questions, too, though, I suspect the interviewers want to know if you'll accept or not.
Upvotes: 2
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2017/02/24
| 1,520
| 6,545
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<issue_start>username_0: I am currently enrolled in a PhD program in electrical engineering in Europe (not in my home country). When I enrolled to this program, I was a little concerned about the research group, since it has very few publications about the topic for which I applied (they are not expert in my field). Nevertheless, I applied since I believe the value of a phd is up to yourself, not the popularity of the supervisor.
However, after 1 year I am thinking about quitting. My supervisor is not so much involved in my project and I am followed most of the time by an assistant professor that wants me to follow a certain path according with the interest of the institute. I am trying to convince them that I want to follow an other path, since the topic studied at the institute does not fit well with my topic, but they are stack with this topic, which is also studied by few niche researchers.
I asked them also to send me abroad to a research group more specialized in my field, but they are not so much interested in international cooperations (except the ones related to their topic).
Besides this, I don´t like the environment inside the institute. I perceive lack of communication and everybody is studying the same topic, with not so much differentation. There are no international students except me and other 2 people and everybody is speaking the local language. Also the other students are not interested in mobility and the research group itself does not produce many publications.
Thus, for all these reasons, I was thinking about quitting. I would like to have some advice. I don´t know if this can be a valid move for my career. In the same time, I don´t want to spend 4 years without believing in the quality of my research, in which I am also losing motivation.
I would like to apply to an other PhD program in an other university/country, but I am worried about the references/recommendation letters, since if I quit I don´t think I can ask for recommendation letters from my current situation. Moreover, I am worried that other research groups would not accept me, because they may think that I am low on perseverance (I am not really, I am not of the type to quit something easily).
Thanks for any help!!
I want to specify that this institute advertised a position related to my field, so in principle my research interest and the one of the institute matched. I would have like if they have been more honest with me regarding the direction of the research.<issue_comment>username_1: The problems seems to me to have started here:
>
> Nevertheless, I applied since I believe the value of a phd is up to yourself, not the popularity of the supervisor.
>
>
>
I think we can both agree that a research group in anthropology would also have very few publications related to your topic. But you can also see that doing an electrical engineering PhD in an anthropology group would be a horrible choice. They simply wouldn't have the expertise to help you and could offer no possibility to cooperate with your research.
To a lesser extent the same is true for different sub-fields of a large discipline like electrical engineering. If your topic of interest is far removed from the rest of the group, the rest of the group won't have the expertise to help you or the possibility to cooperate with you. This is a very bad thing.
One way to (partially) solve this problem is to modify your topic or switch topics to be more in line with the rest of the group. This seems to be what is proposed here to you.
Your proposed solution is to ask them to send you abroad and to continue with a topic that is not really related to their research. The question now is: why should they agree to this? They invested resources in you by either paying you or at least supporting you and spending time on you. In return you offer to do research at a different institution on a subject that doesn't really touch any of the research done at the group. That would mean that at the end of your PhD, the group would have spend (considerable) money into research they aren't interested in. That sounds like a very bad deal for the group.
If I were to summarize this: you applied and got a PhD at a group without looking at what that group does. After a year of doing a PhD there, you now realize what the group does and conclude that the group is a bad fit.
You have 2 options now as I see it: continuing with this group and focus your topic to be more in line with the research of the group. The other option is to quit now. In that last case the group would see (considerable) resources go to wast because you neglected to properly look into what the group does beforehand. This as you worried looks very bad, because why wouldn't something similar happen at a new group? If you quit, then I hope you can find a good answer to this question when applying to any future PhD.
As for the communication and language issues: I would find this a separate and smaller issue. Here an open and honest conversation about how you perceive the communication in the group and what problems you encounter could work wonders. The problems regarding research topics however is much more fundamental and more serious.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: >
> I am trying to convince them that I want to follow an other path,
> since the topic studied at the institute does not fit well with my
> topic, but they are stack with this topic, which is also studied by
> few niche researchers.
>
>
>
I wonder how you got the PhD admission in the first place. In most PhD ads I've seen, there is always a requirement for "*common research interests*". Some places even require PhD applicant to submit a research proposal.
The supervision you are receiving looks OK for most PhD students. The official advisor doesn't involve much, but the assistant professor is trying to work with you. You can't blame your colleague for lack of communication, since your interests are different from theirs.
In Italy and Denmark, PhD students are allowed to have 6 months internship abroad, and the trip is totally funded by the university. The majority of PhD students in other European countries do not have this luxury.
In short, there seems to be no problem in the PhD program at your group. The only problem is you don't fit them, you have different interests. Either you change yourself to fit them or you should leave. The latter option is much more difficult, and you know the grass is always greener.
Upvotes: 2
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2017/02/24
| 1,023
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<issue_start>username_0: For the last few semesters, I have taught a graduate-level course (mixture of Master's and PhD students) that has a very substantial data analysis component in which every assignment involves analyzing data based on what was covered in the prior 1-2 week's worth of lectures. The prerequisite is my university's introductory statistics course, which teaches students basic statistics (t-tests, z-tests, linear regression, etc). We recommend a particular statistical language to use and provide coding suggestions in that language, but students are also free to use whatever they feel most comfortable using.
Increasingly, I am finding that students in the course rely on me to solve every coding error or problem they encounter, and in many cases, the top hit of a Google search for the error/problem suggests more or less what I would have as well. Some students are "repeat offenders" in that even when I show them how to use Google to look for debugging help, they still come to me with Google-able questions.
I want to be sympathetic to students who may not have much statistical computing experience beyond the introductory statistics course we teach, but at the same time, I feel that graduate-level students need to be able to solve these sorts of questions on their own. In my field, you cannot survive without knowing how to write code to analyze data, and part of that is knowing how to debug your code when inevitable errors/bugs arise.
Has anyone run into this sort of issue before, and what, if anything, helped?<issue_comment>username_1: One way that could work is to open a forum or a place for the students do help each other. This would prevent posting incomplete or not clear questions (because no one would like to look dumb) and would help you to debug once for class (maybe you could also collect them and provide it for the next courses). You could then also grade the activity on the forum (at least that helped me to post in a forum for a lecture :).
As tonysdg suggest you could let them know the rules of the forum like in Stack Overflow. Or say that if they (or other students) can't solve their problems in a week (or two) you will step in.
The most important part is let them know how and what do you expect from them before coming to you.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Make sure you are explicit with your students that one of the primary goals of the course is for students to take an additional step toward independence.
Encourage them to get an early start on each assignment, so they can contact you as soon as they get stuck; then you can give a pointer to get them unstuck, and they'll still have time to do some more work and then contact you again, well before the due date.
Take some class time to elicit from your students a list of suggestions (to self and others) as to what resources are available to them for those times when they feel stuck. Once you've elicited a good list from them (with additions of your own as needed), review it more than once in class.
You'll need to hide your frustration, and be positive when you talk with them. For example: "As you gain experience with statistics, you will find that you still get stuck sometimes, but you will not freeze like a scared rabbit when that happens. You will start using the resources available to you without panicking."
I like the idea from @tonysdg. Next time, put in your syllabus (and review it from time to time), that when students come to you for help, it is important that they tell you what they've tried so far to get unstuck.
They may find that while drafting an email to you asking for help, they get a new idea of someplace to look (e.g. google, as you said). Perhaps the act of starting to email you in itself will sometimes get them unstuck.
Llopis's idea is also good.
One more idea. You could take some class time to model what the debugging process will look and feel like. Show what a problem looks like, and ask them how they might go hunting for the solution.
You could even give a debugging assignment! Give them some code with a specific bug, and ask them to hand in a printout showing their debugging efforts, tracking their detective work.
Debugging skills could even be included in quizzes.
I suppose in the long run you could talk with colleagues in your department about how students could come out of the introductory class better prepared for debugging in your class.
Upvotes: 1
|
2017/02/24
| 475
| 1,975
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<issue_start>username_0: I'm working on SIMDization and Optimization. I usually do some great jobs. But writing a good article needs a good knowledge of writing skill. I've implemented many programs. I can write and organize the paper. But editing the article take a lot of time for me, because of some silly grammatical mistakes. I just thought it might be possible to contribute someone who knows English well and add him/her name as the second author. Is It a good Idea? If yes how can I find someone? Preferred from Toronto Ontario.<issue_comment>username_1: This may vary in some ways by field, but it is generally not considered sufficient for an individual to be included as an author on a paper if that person's sole contribution to the paper is proofreading and editing. Readers, reviewers, and journal editors expect that each author has made a significant technical contribution to the material presented in the paper. If there isn't a monetary payment involved, credit to someone for editing a paper usually takes the form of written thanks.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Since you find yourself unable to spend money on editing services by publishers (in chemistry I know only about them by [ACS](http://es.acschemworx.acs.org/en/editing/) or [Wiley](http://wileyeditingservices.com/en/)) or local proof readers (like this example in [Toronto](https://editfast.com/english/editors/Canada-CAN/Ontario/Toronto-city.htm) lists 33 names/contacts) maybe there are programmers you know (because their work inspired you, or/and will be cited by you) you may reach out.
Or --- relating in analogy to R, Python, Emacs --- contacting a local usergroup (like this about [C++](https://www.meetup.com/Toronto-CPP-User-Group/)) of a programming language / software you use is an alternative; in contrast to an English student at the university they already know the technical terms of your field, and you could pay them not only by money.
Upvotes: 1
|
2017/02/25
| 955
| 4,018
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<issue_start>username_0: I am preparing the final document of my PhD and I would like to include some kind of identifier to my person – something like a DOI for people. My intention is to to make it easy for the readers of my thesis to get in touch with me and to have a look at my other work. As I don't know at what university I will work in the future, it shouldn't be something related to my current university.
I feel like [ORCiD](https://orcid.org/) or [Google Scholar](https://scholar.google.ch/citations?user=qc6CJjYAAAAJ&hl=de) could be good options, but there are many others out there, such as Mendeley, Scopus, etc. However, I would prefer to include only one or two links.
What are the most professional, persistent, and commonly used researcher profiles in academia?<issue_comment>username_1: >
> What are the most professional, persistent, and commonly used researcher profiles in academia?
>
>
>
**Name, surname and current institution.** :)
Everything else is just a new fad that may not stand the test of time. Although, among those that you cite, Orcid has the most potential because:
* it is explicitly designed to be persistent and used for disambiguation;
* its functioning and access model is more open than those of the competitors, and because of this many independent services have started integrating it;
* it is backed by a large consortium of publishers and organizations, including those who make Scopus and Web of Science and most of the other (currently) big players in the publishing business.
If you are worried about proving that you wrote the document and not someone else with the same name, consider including a short bio and a profile picture, like it is sometimes done in journals.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: ORCID ID is my recommendation. It's a standard amongst scholarly publishers, and its adoption is increasing. If you're planning on publishing, I think there's no question of competition. Publishers and bibliographic metadata systems have the infrastructure in place to deal with ORCID IDs. It's resolvable, so people can click on it to get to your profile. And you can include links to your other publications on your profile.
In terms of fads and persistence, unlike Google (which shuts down services left right and centre), ORCID has a plan for future sustainability, including what happens if the organisation shuts down. And you can take an ORCID with you when you move institution, and link it to other ORCID IDs if needed.
And regarding Federico's answer, lucky you if you're the only <NAME> at XYZ University. Luckier still if there wasn't ever a <NAME> before or after your time there. That's not true for a lot of people!
Disclaimer: I work at Crossref, who are the DOI Registration Agency for scholarly publication, and it is affiliated to ORCID. However I'm writing this in a personal capacity.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: Some professional societies provide email or web forwarding services to their members. For instance, the American Mathematical Society lets members choose an address `<EMAIL>` which the member can update indefinitely to forward to their current address as they change institutions.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: The industry standard identifier is email. It is unique, it is yours, it can be used to contact you. Just use some email that will stick with you not the institution :)
But if you want people to be able to get overview of your work without contacting you, you should set up a personal website. Don't worry if you don't know any coding - there are content management systems that allow you to make simple websites and put some information by pointing and clicking. And don't worry about costs. A domain name will probably cost you some 10-15 dollars per year and hosting goes that's perfect for your needs might go below 2$ per month. So by paying under 40$ per year you could have a website that's entirely yours and it might include email as well.
Upvotes: 2
|
2017/02/25
| 801
| 3,452
|
<issue_start>username_0: Recently I was reviewing a manuscript. I found that few cited papers of this manuscript are not freely available to my institute. So what should I do? Should I ask those papers to the editor?<issue_comment>username_1: >
> What are the most professional, persistent, and commonly used researcher profiles in academia?
>
>
>
**Name, surname and current institution.** :)
Everything else is just a new fad that may not stand the test of time. Although, among those that you cite, Orcid has the most potential because:
* it is explicitly designed to be persistent and used for disambiguation;
* its functioning and access model is more open than those of the competitors, and because of this many independent services have started integrating it;
* it is backed by a large consortium of publishers and organizations, including those who make Scopus and Web of Science and most of the other (currently) big players in the publishing business.
If you are worried about proving that you wrote the document and not someone else with the same name, consider including a short bio and a profile picture, like it is sometimes done in journals.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: ORCID ID is my recommendation. It's a standard amongst scholarly publishers, and its adoption is increasing. If you're planning on publishing, I think there's no question of competition. Publishers and bibliographic metadata systems have the infrastructure in place to deal with ORCID IDs. It's resolvable, so people can click on it to get to your profile. And you can include links to your other publications on your profile.
In terms of fads and persistence, unlike Google (which shuts down services left right and centre), ORCID has a plan for future sustainability, including what happens if the organisation shuts down. And you can take an ORCID with you when you move institution, and link it to other ORCID IDs if needed.
And regarding Federico's answer, lucky you if you're the only <NAME> at XYZ University. Luckier still if there wasn't ever a <NAME> before or after your time there. That's not true for a lot of people!
Disclaimer: I work at Crossref, who are the DOI Registration Agency for scholarly publication, and it is affiliated to ORCID. However I'm writing this in a personal capacity.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: Some professional societies provide email or web forwarding services to their members. For instance, the American Mathematical Society lets members choose an address `<EMAIL>` which the member can update indefinitely to forward to their current address as they change institutions.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: The industry standard identifier is email. It is unique, it is yours, it can be used to contact you. Just use some email that will stick with you not the institution :)
But if you want people to be able to get overview of your work without contacting you, you should set up a personal website. Don't worry if you don't know any coding - there are content management systems that allow you to make simple websites and put some information by pointing and clicking. And don't worry about costs. A domain name will probably cost you some 10-15 dollars per year and hosting goes that's perfect for your needs might go below 2$ per month. So by paying under 40$ per year you could have a website that's entirely yours and it might include email as well.
Upvotes: 2
|
2017/02/25
| 442
| 1,697
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<issue_start>username_0: I have found a basic mistake in one of the published paper in a top tier Applied Mathematics journal. I have told my research supervisor about it and he also agrees with me. I found the issue when I was working on one open problem mentioned in the paper. Please suggest what to do.<issue_comment>username_1: That depends on the consequences of the mistake. Does it invalidate the main conclusions of the article or is it only a side issue? If the former, you can write up what the consequences are and present the new results as an article an submit it. If it is only a side issue, you can mention it in a footnote when writing up your results for the open problem.
In the former case, keep the tone professional: don't use any adjectives to describe the mistake and certainly not when refering to the authors, i.e. it is a mistake not a basic mistake. Focus on the point you want to make, and let the strength of the argument speak for itself.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Here are a couple of previous posts on math SE and academia SE that are relevant to your question:
[Post 1](https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/180211/how-to-address-mistakes-in-published-papers) and [Post 2](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/18911/what-should-you-do-if-you-spotted-a-non-trivial-error-in-a-highly-cited-paper). The discussions following these posts are quite illuminating.
Although not an answer to your question, there is also this [article](http://www.nature.com/news/reproducibility-a-tragedy-of-errors-1.19264) that I found to be a very interesting read on addressing mistakes discovered in previously published papers.
Upvotes: 2
|
2017/02/25
| 2,730
| 11,620
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<issue_start>username_0: I will soon write a new article with new collaborators (my first paper with other people, I'm in math). For some context, I know one of them well, but I've never met the others in person.
I use [Git](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Git) to manage all my papers. I'm wondering if I should suggest the use of Git to them? If so, how much should I press the issue, what should I say when suggesting it?
I can use it alone and apply their changes manually, but it would be infinitely easier if everyone just used a VCS -- and not just for my own personal comfort, because Git (or any VCS) does make writing the paper easier, IMO.
The main issue is Git's learning curve. I can offer to make everything as simple as possible (set up the repository myself, help out with technical issues they might have, direct them to tutorials), but academics are busy people, and they might not want to learn a whole new system for just one paper (even though I believe that were I they, I would then use Git for everything...).
---
I've gotten a lot of answers that don't apply at all to my situations, so to clarify: I'm in (pure) mathematics, where all manuscripts are written in LaTeX. So
1. version control using, e.g., Git, is appropriate, since LaTeX is a plain text format (and not some WYSIWYG thing), and
2. it requires a little bit of technical know-how already, so it's IMO safe to assume that other collaborators are not completely tech-illiterate.<issue_comment>username_1: When you have a substantial publications list, you can start to push about something like this. But not at this stage.
You can put the versions in Git yourself, and give your collaborators access, and you can offer to provide guidance in case they are interested in uploading a version themselves.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: It may be better to approach this differently: you may want to ask them what they plan to use for version control. If they are not sure, you could suggest Git. But my guess is that you will face significant reluctance since the learning curve for Git is steep and your colleagues might not want to learn if they feel that it's not the best use of their time.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: Of course you can ask if all are happy with git but as soon as anybody is unfamiliar with it, do not push it. Then go with anything everyone finds OK (may it be svn, Dropbox, or even be sequential processing via Email - I had all of these). In my experience this will make the process much smoother (in other words: Your headache will be smaller this way than it would when there would be somebody on the team who can't work with git - but note that "smaller" may still be huge).
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: You should tell your collaborators to use [SourceTrees](https://www.sourcetreeapp.com/), and git will become a piece of cake. No need to learn anything.
It is also good for Mercurial.
Good luck with your paper :)
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_5: Unless they are software developers, then don't think that they'll have any clue what a git is and maybe not even what a command line is.
Something like Office 365, Google docs or a wiki would be much simpler. Not as powerful, but much simpler.
Simple and done beats powerful anyday.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_6: I recently was on the other side of this - I learned git to work with a collaborator on a paper (written in LaTeX). While git is fun, and it's good I learned it, I am not convinced the net time savings were that large, and I found the first steps very frustrating. I would not generally recommend you ask collaborators to learn git - but only ask if they already know it. For papers, maybe things like overleaf/etc might be better?
Giant time losses:
* Trying to figure out how to properly discard changes I made but didn't want to merge, when stash didn't seem to work right...
* Accidentally doing bad commits, etc, and trying to figure out how to move backwards.
This would obviously get easier the more you worked with it, but I found that in the first few months, there was some problem like that, and I ended up deleting everything and re-downloading - this xkcd sounds about right: <https://xkcd.com/1597/>
Upside:
* Fewer ugly email chains
* Made integrating small edits late in the process a lot easier - I was more willing to make tiny wording changes when it didn't require someone else to integrate it into the final draft, and that I could do it on my time.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_7: My experience suggests that few people are interested in using version control in general, and you risk reducing the number of people further by insisting on a harder to use system like Git. Even if you get your collaborators to use Git, the results might not be pretty. I'd recommend something simpler like SVN, which is probably still too complicated for most people. As others have recommended, Google Docs and similar software would be even easier.
More details from a particular case: Several years ago I took a class with several group projects including code and short reports. Using version control made sense, especially given that everyone in my group was a programmer (the class was not nominally related to programming). One member insisted on using Git, with mixed results. Git is powerful, but it's not easy for newbies. I got tired of re-adding lines of code and text because one member of the group didn't know how to properly merge. I doubt this issue would have happened with SVN because the process is much more straightforward.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_8: Git is an efficient tool for collaboration and version control if you work with others who know it. Given the steep learning curve, it may not be efficient at all if your collaborators don't know Git yet.
In particular if this is a one-off collaboration, you may not be able to recuperate the time that you have to invest in troubleshooting and teaching your collaborators how git works.
Only push someone to use your preferred tool if you are prepared to provide support.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_9: I'm not sure what the advantage to using Git for the entire workflow is and it can put a burden on a collaborators who are not as keen to learn it. My group does very heavy interdisciplinary work and generally the workflow is as follows:
1. The manuscript is written collaboratively in Google Docs which has revision history.
2. Citations are managed using citation managers such as [Zotero](https://www.zotero.org/).
3. Included items such as figures are kept in the same directory as the Google Doc.
4. Once everyone is happy with the manuscript, it is typeset in LaTeX to be submitted for peer review.
Since the computing skills in the group range from "comfortable using office productivity tools" to "advanced software engineer" this workflow seems to be the best in terms of overall productivity.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_10: You can try integration of git with [Authorea](https://www.authorea.com/). They are based on git but have a Google Docs interface. Thus, based on your preferred workflow you can achieve a push-pull workflow through git or a real-time collaborative environment à la Google docs.
[A new version control system for writing research papers](https://www.authorea.com/users/8850/articles/152212-a-new-version-control-system-for-research-writing)
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_11: Many people have already answered with good points. Let me add some insights from my collaborations where other co-authors were sometimes (convinced to) using Git, but other times not.
My advice is to explain to your co-authors the benefits of using Git and suggest them to use it, and offer help to setup things to minimize their effort and learning curve. However, don't insist on it if they don't want to.
I've done this once with a paper co-authored with a fellow postdoc, and this worked really well: I first suggested to him some graphical interfaces for using Git, but he actually quickly preferred switching to the command line tools. It was helpful that we were sharing an office, so I could easily help him, he picked up on Git quickly and things went smoothly. Since then he's been using Git for his papers too.
On the other hand, if your collaborators cannot be convinced, Git can still be helpful for yourself by keeping the history of your own modifications, and merging in their contributions via branching. This means that you can (more) easily offer to resolve conflicts due to simultaneous editing of the document. That way, your co-authors may see some benefits of using Git, even though they don't have to deal with it at all. I'm using this setup for some other collaborations, where either we share the paper back and forth by email, or it resides in Dropbox. In this case I make sure that in Git I strip off any version numbering in the paper's filename, to make difference tracking easier.
Finally, various online services such as [Overleaf](https://www.overleaf.com/) (or others already suggested) username_14w collaborative editing and at the same time offer a Git (or other VCS) interface. I'm using this setup in another paper I'm writing where one co-author also uses Git and a third does not.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_12: In my opinion, the learning curve with Git is worth the investment. It username_14ws multiple collaborators and provides versioning. Also, you don't need to learn all of Git to take advantage of its features. Even basic commands and a simple workflow will save time in the long run. Also, Git is cloud-based with a host like GitHub or Bitbucket (just make sure you create a private repo). One consideration is the type of files you are versioning. LaTeX works well, because it's in text format (like source code). So you can easily diff with previous versions, view raw files in GitHub, etc. A Word document doesn't work as well in Git.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_13: Git only works if your collaborators are actually willing to write plain text instead of WYSIWYG. In the biomedical sciences the use of MS Word is pervasive and people tend to love their tools just as much as we love using Git and $EDITOR.
To answer your question, you first need to know what your starting point is. Do you only have to convice them to use Git or do you also need to convince them to use plain text?
The idea behind plain text is simple, but still, many people find it hard to grasp. So do not underestimate the necessary education effort. Once people appreciate the advantages of plaintext, they might also have an easier time understanding the benefits and usage of Git.
And then there also other solutions like Authorea and Overleaf that other people already mentioned. If your main goal is to avoid sending manuscript drafts via e-mail, this might be a much easier solution that also works for less technical people.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_14: I would suggest to use some syncing application like Dropbox, Seafile or Owncloud. Many universities host an own owncloud belonging to the sciebo project.
This provides you with
* sychronization
* History and the possiblity to revert to an older version
* Diff to older versions
* Overview who worked in between and which paragraphs were changed by them
If you want to use version control it would be easier to use a linear system like svn to avoid explaining people how to merge diverged histories, which is really out of scope for writing a paper. If you prefer git you can use git-svn to use the svn with git.
Upvotes: 0
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2017/02/25
| 1,458
| 6,157
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<issue_start>username_0: As someone who is just starting to read in the field, I found that most academic papers are quite 'stuffy'. They seem to use a great deal of complicated language and jargon needlessly.
I read [Should academic papers necessarily carry a sober tone?](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9396/should-academic-papers-necessarily-carry-a-sober-tone) and understand that jokes should be kept to a minimum but what about:
* Simple language,
* Metaphors/Allegories/Similes,
* Casual language (speaking to the reader, using contractions, etc).
I think if you can contribute new knowledge to a field, and make it accessible to an 'average' educated user who isn't an expert in your field, then why wouldn't you?
Is casual tone unheard of in papers? Is it frowned upon? Do I ultimately need to learn to write in a more formal manner to get taken seriously in future works?<issue_comment>username_1: **It depends on the intended audience.**
There is no one rule for writing, academic paper or otherwise. You should always "mold" your content to the level of the average reader of the venue.
Think *Nature* versus *Scientific American*, for instance. While I often read SciAm as an undergrad, I didn't really understand most of the Nature articles I had to read recently, because they are dense and full of acronyms that don't mean anything for me. Am I stupid? Maybe, but surely I'm not part of the intended audience of these specific papers. Clearly, both venues are different, one is more technical, the other is focused on scientific dissemination in a broader level. Submitting a very technical paper to a dissemination venue would be a bad idea, and vice versa.
From personal experience, even between technical venues, there is a significant difference. For my research, I alternate between heavily mathematical theory and applications. When I send articles to the IEEE VIS (or TVCG), the reviewers mostly skip the mathematical parts and expect a very "digested", non-mathematical analysis of the results.
I recently sent an article to a more mathematical conference (ISMM), following somewhat the same format I usually use for VIS, with a more detailed mathematical section, but with the same "digested" analysis afterwards. While the mathematical part was accepted mostly as is, the analysis part was heavily criticized, for being "vague" and mathematically inaccurate. It was my fault, I didn't fully mold the content to the venue.
**EDIT**: Let me more clearly phrase my point: Sometimes reviewers will complain that the paper was *too accessible*. My example was exactly that, by aiming at a larger audience, writing in "digested" English, instead of harder to understand mathematical definitions, my text was "too vague"/"cryptic".
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Something specific to you points:
* *Simple language*: I haven't seen this in any scientific work. I guess it would sound odd but you may have heard of <NAME>'s book "Thing explainer". I also recall that some time ago there was this short trend where people tried to describe their recent work only using the 1000 most used English words. So, you can do it, but for a journal or conference publication it would be very strange.
* *Metaphors/Allegories/Similes*: Metaphors are in use. I think mainly native speakers and experienced writers use them. But note that metaphors may make it *harder* for non native speakers to understand the text and also note that some metaphors carry some connotation that not everybody will understand.
* *Casual language (speaking to the reader, using contractions, etc)*: I've seen "speaking to the reader" in some textbooks or monographs, but not in papers. For textbooks it makes more sense to me, because you can assume that the reader is indeed a student. For a paper, you generally have no idea if the reader is a grad student, a prof, or a senior scientists at a national lab, so it seems hard to get the tone right. As for contractions: I would avoid them as they don't help and they probably get edited out anyways.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: Complex language has a purpose. Journal articles often have length limitations and heavy use of acronyms and complex phrasing can be a very powerful tool for condensing similarly complex ideas into a short article.
Complex phrasing can also have utility in conveying highly precise ideas. Simple language and more accessible writing styles often have to leverage the reader's ability to interpret meaning and context. For casual reading this is fine, but for scientific publication it is typically most important to be extremely precise. Often this requires more dense and complex writing to achieve. This is similar to law, where legal language is equally dense and complex, but to the trained reader leaves little room for interpretation. The meaning is most explicit and unambiguous.
This, similarly, is the primary goal of scientific writing - to leave the audience without need to guess about what has been said. It may not be understood by an inexperienced reader, but when it is understood there is as little room for misinterpretation as possible.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: I am a medical/technical writer with 30 years of experience. While some technical terms will always be required, plain, simple language is always better because it will facilitate comprehension for ALL readers. Especially these days, when research papers are becoming widely available to the general public, it is better to make your paper understandable to as wide an audience as possible. Also, if a scientist has read many papers, all equally useful, the paper that was easiest to comprehend is the one most likely to be remembered ... and cited. Here are recommended, open source writing references:
>
> Strunk and White: The Elements of Style, http://[www.bartleby.com/141/](http://www.bartleby.com/141/)
>
>
> OPEN ACCESS Article on science writing - The Science of Scientific Writing, in American Scientist, <http://www.americanscientist.org/issues/feature/the-science-of-scientific-writing/1>
>
>
>
Upvotes: 2
|
2017/02/25
| 459
| 1,849
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<issue_start>username_0: I am a third year undergraduate Computer Engineering and last summer I tried to take a course while occupied with a full-time internship. Due to a work conflict, I missed an exam and failed the class. I retook it the following semester and received an "A". My schools course forgiveness policy replaced it in my GPA, but it is still shown on my transcript. Other than that I have a pretty good GPA (3.55 Overall, 3.75 in EE/CompE). I am also currently working in one of my professors labs and will hopefully have a finished paper when I am applying to grad school next fall. My question is this. Will that grade keep me from going to a top grad school?
P.S. By "top grad school" I mean a top 10-20 masters program in Electrical and/or Computer Engineering. Preferably a UC because I am eligible for in-state tuition.<issue_comment>username_1: You have several things going for you. The most important thing is that you retook the course and got an A, proving that the earlier grade was a fluke. Also, your college's "forgiveness" policy is encouraging, because the F doesn't factor into your grade point average. And your overall GPA is high.
One or two schools might play "gottcha" or use it as a tiebreaker, but in general, you seem to be well defended on this issue. A note from a professor explaining the circumstances would help.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: I agree with username_1. The one F you have will very likely not make much difference. Also, strong reference letters and high GRE scores can reduce the impact significantly.
When you apply for admission to a graduate program at a university, you could also try contacting a few faculty members to express your interest in working with them. If they show an interest, that will make it all the more easier to receive an admission offer.
Upvotes: 2
|
2017/02/25
| 713
| 2,983
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<issue_start>username_0: I am a M.Sc. graduated in Computer Science and I am going to continue my graduate studies abroad. There is one professor who I am in contact for a few months and now he states that he is willing to hire me as PhD student if he receives good news of the grant proposals that he submitted to funding organizations. However, there is another professor in that department that I think we have a considerable overlap in our interests and backgrounds too. I mentioned the name of those professors in my Application Form in order. So now, how can I let the second professor knows (e.g. by email) that I am serious about joining her lab if the first professor could not provide funding for me. I should mention that In this department, there is just a formality admission committee and professors (independently) hire students if they can support their students through sources of funds.<issue_comment>username_1: The simplest solution seems to be the best - just be honest with both. Everybody knows that funding can be very difficult, and no one would blame you for having more than one horse in the race. It is, in fact, expected of a good student to seek out options. But we can consider some options.
Logically there are four options. You discuss with both, you discuss with neither, you discuss only with your first priority (called A) or you discuss only with your second priority (called B).
Discuss with neither: Nothing good will come out of this - they cannot read minds, and don't know your intentions if you don't speak up.
Discuss only with A: If A's funding falls through, this risks becoming awkward with B. You don't, in fact, know if B for example has other plans if you don't discuss it.
Discuss only with B: If A's funding falls through and you get a place at B's team, this may be awkward as you still have to be in the same department as A.
Now ask yourself - are there any downsides from discussing with both? I cannot think of any.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: If it is already open knowledge that the first professor (prof A) is your preference / the better fit, then I do not believe there is any harm in being open with both. I would recommend saying to B "I really like the work you do, and I know I would be an excellent fit for your lab. I had a difficult time choosing whether to work for you or prof A. Due to [my prior experience working with prof A]/[the fact that prof A and I already had an understanding], I am hoping to pursue working with him/her. However, it is not clear at this time if the funding will not be available. [If it doesn't work out], I would be honored to work in your lab.
Preferably, I might try to avoid "Prof A's research is closer to my interests".
If, however, it's plausible that either could be your first choice, then the choice is a little more difficult. Here, letting B know that he/she is not your first choice does come at *some* cost, but may still be the right move.
Upvotes: 0
|
2017/02/26
| 639
| 2,789
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<issue_start>username_0: I'm a new full-time faculty member in the process of finishing my PhD. Because I have not yet graduated, Instructor is the only title I feel comfortable using until I defend.
A student has asked for a letter of reference to an REU program, and I've become concerned that a letter from an Instructor may not be as highly received as a letter from some rank of Professor. In particular the REU is a research position and Instructor doesn't make it clear that I've been involved with research in any capacity. (I did in fact mentor 6 REUs while a grad student and several more independent study undergrads, and think that this particular student is a fine candidate.)
I should note that I was asked for a letter based on having this student in class, and I feel I can write a strong letter for this individual on their qualities as a student. Another faculty member (Assistant Professor) is writing a letter based on an extracurricular project.
Two questions:
1) Will my Instructor rank cause problems for this student? Of course my letter will be less highly regarded in general due to my newness, but does being an Instructor present an additional hindrance on top of that?
2) If so, is there anything that can be done in the letter itself to mitigate this? Or, should I counsel the student to pursue a different recommendation?<issue_comment>username_1: Include the following information in your letter:
* You're a new full-time faculty member.
* You mentored 6 REUs while a grad student and several more independent study undergrads, and think that this particular student is a fine candidate.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: If your job title and academic rank is "assistant professor", then that's what you should put on your REU recommendation letter. This also applies if you don't have an official title, but your position is considered tenure track. It's not particularly relevant to the letter that you don't have a Ph.D.
More generally, it's fine to be a little insecure about not having a Ph.D. yet, since this is certainly not the norm for a starting full-time faculty member. But this letter isn't about you, and you have a professional responsibility to represent your academic rank accurately on a letter of recommendation. This means that you report the rank that your college has bestowed upon you, not the rank that you personally think that you deserve.
If your job title really is "instructor", you should make it clear in your letter that you have been involved in research. For example, you could mention as part of your recommendation that you were involved in mentoring a group of REU students at (insert college here), and that the student you are writing the letter for seems at least as capable.
Upvotes: 1
|
2017/02/26
| 505
| 1,894
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<issue_start>username_0: Is it possible for a student to sit for more than one GRE subject test in one sitting? For instance, back in high school, I was able to sit for multiple SAT subject tests in one sitting. I, along with other students, had the option of sitting 1, 2 or 3 tests of our choice. Is there a similar policy for the GRE subject tests?<issue_comment>username_1: I couldn't find an actual statement that only one subject test may be taken on a test day. However, in the [FAQs](https://www.ets.org/gre/subject/faq/), there is this question and answer:
>
> **How much time should I plan to be at the test center?**
>
>
> Plan to be at the test center up to three-and-a-half hours. Report to
> the test center no later than 8:30 a.m. If you arrive late, you might
> not be admitted and your test fee will be forfeited.
>
>
>
That implies that only one subject exam can be taken on a test day.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: No, you may only take one test during a single session. Unlike the SAT subject tests, you get three hours to do one test, not the other way around.
Source: I've took a GRE subject test last year.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: There is only one testing time per day, so you can't take more than one test in a day (ok, if you flew east across the international date line, you might be able to pull it off).
Theoretically, there are multiple testing times in the same week. The GRE does offer Monday testing in addition to Saturday testing, though this is supposed to be only for religious and cultural purposes. (I say 'supposed to be' because somehow my own subject test was scheduled for a Monday, which I realized after not being admitted to the testing center on Saturday.)
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_4: Generally, these tests are set at the same time. So it's impossible to take two tests at the same time.
Upvotes: 2
|
2017/02/26
| 563
| 2,464
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<issue_start>username_0: If somebody hold a PhD with good number of publications in high indexed journals and 2-3 years postdoctoral experiences, then is there any kind of research funding to carry out his/her own research as an independent researcher staying at home. If so, then would you please share some of such sources. Will a research proposal be sufficient to apply for such funding?
Please Note: The independent researcher has no affiliation except his home address and the background is in atmospheric science field.<issue_comment>username_1: I don't know which country you are in, but in the United States at least, a lot of grants assume you will be affiliated with a university or other institution (which is why there are things like indirect costs) and are not set up to be given to individuals with no affiliation.
That said, if someone has a decent scientific track record (eg. you're not a risk to the reputation of the university) it is fairly low-risk for a university to offer you some sort of 100% soft-money position (part-time research professor, etc.). Soft money means your entire paycheck has to be covered by grants, so the university doesn't risk any money on you themselves, they just give you a university affiliation so you can go hunt for grants. If you had a soft money position, and were able to get grants, you are pretty much your own boss and able to decide whether you want to come in to the office or work from home.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Typical academic grants are very hard or impossible to get without affiliation, in part because of the constraints noted by the comment of @David. You could try and think outside the box, e.g. try collaborate with a local business and see if there are innovation grants available through that route, or see if there is a rich person who wants to play maecenas.
This is certainly not an easy way to go, and you'll definitely not be "independent" in the sense that you'll be especially dependent on those funding sources and there are less safeguards against them taking influence on your research than when you go through the university system.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: Some associations promoting their own cause do give grants. For example association of Shakespearean plays could give grants for research about Shakespeare. The priority may though still be on the affiliated researchers, even-though not directly said so.
Upvotes: 1
|
2017/02/26
| 491
| 2,154
|
<issue_start>username_0: I got asked to review a systematic review in a peer-reviewed Pubmed-indexed journal. However, based on the author’s inclusion/exclusion criteria, they only review one article.
Isn't that peculiar? As a reviewer, how should I respond to this? Is this acceptable, only one article...?<issue_comment>username_1: If it’s a systematic review, it is weird that there is only one article to include. However I think it could happen. After having applied inclusion criteria to all articles first retrieved, only one was left. I also think there’s a lesson out of this issue that the authors of the review should address.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Is it peculiar? Yes. How should you respond? Ask yourself if the "review" of only one paper adds anything meaningful to the literature on the subject. Perhaps the answer is 'yes' -- e.g. if the authors make a strong case that the subject is very under-explored, such that only one paper on it exists though many important questions exist to be answered. Or perhaps the answer is 'no.'
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: If there are a considerable amount of other works which were excluded using the criteria, resulting in one included work, then I would expect a justification for the exclusion criteria (perhaps it was too extreme?).
If there are not a lot of other works in this field, I would expect a justification of why the authors conducted a systematic review in this particular field (as hinted by @username_2).
In any case, I would expect the author to clearly acknowledge and explain this odd situation somewhere in the paper.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_4: I think it depends very much on the exclusion criteria, and what the authors make of the single paper. For example, if it's just a review of that paper...it might not be particularly useful. However, many systematic reviews discuss the literature in the context of the field as a whole - is it surprising that this field only has one paper when a given exclusion criteria is applied? Is it possible the field is accidentally ignoring something because it's similar to something else?
Upvotes: 0
|
2017/02/26
| 667
| 3,049
|
<issue_start>username_0: My work has been rejected from a conference. I am working on it to get accepted. As the conference is annually occurred, I think at least 6 or more months will be required to make another submission.
However, I just noticed that my advisor shared my work with another student without notice. The other PhD student asked me how to apply my method into his project, which I was pondering for one of my next action items.
I am upset about my advisor, because he barely provided feedback on how to improve the outcomes. He does not copy his discussion with another student.
I felt like he just tried to share my ideas to have more publication.
I understood that students should discuss and collaborate each other to improve research. According to another student's email, he does not seem to have any intention for collaboration. He just mentioned that he read my draft of paper and considered applicable to his research, so he just wants to know the implementation details.
I understand the value of collaboration. However, I am not sure if another student and I are supposed to work together, since my advisor did not inform anything about discussion with this student. The other student does not seem to have any intention of collaboration.
Should I just talk to my advisor not to share my undergoing work without any notice and inquire if I am supposed to collaborate or not?<issue_comment>username_1: Seems that you are worried about the method authorship, right?
If so, perhaps you should consider to publish a preprint of the work, the rejected version for instance. Many conferences and journals accept papers with prior preprint on servers like Arxiv.org. But remember to ask the permission from your co-authors to publish the preprint.
About a colleague interested in using your method, I would say that this is great. I would even ask him to collaborate on his project. Your method is not even published in traditional venues, but it's already impacting the community.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: There are two things that you need to address here: your advisor sharing your work with the other student, and the other student's request.
Regarding your advisor sharing your work, you should talk to your advisor about this but do NOT express anger. S/he was probably doing what they thought was best and did not realize it would upset you, and it is VERY important to keep a good relationship with your advisor, so I wouldn't start a fight over this. Just a simple "I appreciate this opportunity to help them with my methods, but I would appreciate it if in the future you would check with me first before showing my drafts to someone." or something similar. Keep it low-key, do not go in angry or expecting an apology, just express your preference for how situations like this should be handled in the future.
Regarding the second situation with the other student -- ask them if they'd like you as a collaborator on their paper! It's never too early to start working collaboratively!
Upvotes: 3
|
2017/02/26
| 1,997
| 7,940
|
<issue_start>username_0: A friend with a B.S. in Mathematics and an M.S. in Statistics would like to teach math/statistics at a US university which is not research oriented as a full-time faculty member. To do so, it seems like it might be necessary to have a PhD. However, my friend is not interested in statistics research, so she's thinking instead about trying for a PhD in Math Education. Is this viable? Are there alternative routes?<issue_comment>username_1: Commonly universities are able to hire some "instructors" or adjunct faculty type positions. Many times such positions are open even to people with only an MS in stats or math.
These positions are good options for both parties: The university gets a "cheap" teaching option for lower division courses, and the teacher can get a job with only a master's degree.
A PhD in math education is another option. Depending on the school, math ed is a program focused on teaching in a secondary school setting ( Jr high, middle school, high school). These programs require much less graduate level math. Many times undergraduate math topics would be the highest type of math they cover. The math ed professors at my university probably would be unable to teach even a senior level math class on a topic like abstract algebra or complex analysis. Their research focuses on topics like using computers in a pre-algebra class, or the benefits of group projects in learning high school geometry.
One program I would look for is a PhD in collegiate math teaching. This type of program teaches students graduate level math, but with an emphasis in teaching.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: >
> A friend with a B.S. in Mathematics and an M.S. in Statistics would like to teach math/statistics at a US university which is not research oriented as a full-time faculty member.
>
>
>
I have some questions. First, do you mean a *specific* university, or will any university do? Second, do you really mean "university," or could it be a "four-year college" or a community college? Third, by full-time do you really just mean full-time, or do you mean tenure-track?
A few data points:
* In my department (mathematics, UGA) we have faculty with master's degrees who are teaching full-time, but they are not tenure-track. Some of these positions are "permanent" by any reasonable standard -- e.g. some of these faculty have been there for multiple decades. A friend of mine just got hired into one of these positions, so I know a bit about them and I don't think they're going away anytime soon. In fact my friend has a bachelor's in math and a master's in statistics.
* At my PhD program's Visitation Day on Friday, I met with a woman who is a faculty member in the math department at a four-year college relatively nearby. She has a master's degree and has been teaching there for about five years.
* In some regions of the country (e.g. New York City) even community colleges tend to hire people with PhDs. But there is a lot of variation. You can read [e.g. here](https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/gradhacker/receiving-your-doctorate-work%E2%80%A6-community-college) for more details. My understanding is that even in the community college scene having a doctorate makes a difference in your job titles and responsibilities.
>
> However, my friend is not interested in statistics research, so she's thinking instead about trying for a PhD in Math Education.
>
>
>
The "so" confused me. This makes as much sense to me as saying "physics" or "computer science" in place of "math education." In other words, these are all academic fields that are closely connected to mathematics but distinct from it. So far as I know (and I do know about the math ed PhD program at my university, although I also know it's one of the best in the US and therefore is probably not representative of all departments) being a math ed PhD student is much like being any other PhD student: you are being trained in research and implicitly/explicitly groomed for an academic research career (though many graduates will end up elsewhere).
So getting a PHD in math ed is an excellent idea *if your friend is deeply interested in math ed research*. Well, and also if she can find funding: in my experience, one of the main differences between math and math ed PhD programs is that the former are much better funded than the latter. But since you didn't mention any prior training in that area, I'm a little concerned that you are viewing this as some kind of degree for people who are interested in teaching rather than research. That might be true for certain people and/or certain programs, but it's not true for all.
The idea of someone joining a PhD program in field X because they don't like field Y makes me very nervous. I would certainly encourage your friend to learn as much as she can about post-secondary academic jobs available to people with master's. A combination of math and statistics sounds rather valuable to me, and it may well be that your friend is employable now.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: I have such a teaching position for statistics in the sociology department in Germany rather than the US. The route I, and others I know in similar positions, followed is to get a PhD in a substantive field we care about (in my case sociology), but give it a methodological/statistical focus.
So with this logic the PhD in Math Education would be a viable option if (s)he is interested in research on teaching mathematics and wants to give the statistics classes at departments in the field of education/pedagogy. If (s)he'd rather teach statistics at say a political science department, I would recommend getting a PhD in political science and give it a statistical focus.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: As others have also said, the field of mathematics education is very different from either mathematics or statistics. This should be clear after glancing at some research papers in a few of the standard math education journals, such as [**The Journal of Mathematical Behavior**](http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/07323123) and [**Journal for Research in Mathematics Education**](http://www.nctm.org/publications/journal-for-research-in-mathematics-education/).
On the other hand, the job market is quite a bit better for candidates in mathematics education than for candidates in mathematics, at least this was the case about 15 years ago:
[*More Jobs Than Job Seekers in Mathematics Education*](http://www.chronicle.com/article/More-Jobs-Than-Job-Seekers-in/46247) by <NAME>, **The Chronicle of Higher Education**, 19 February 2002. [Freely available text copy [here](http://mathforum.org/kb/servlet/JiveServlet/download/204-474265-1454160-72082/att1.html).]
If your friend is mostly interested in *teaching* mathematics at the college level, and not in *researching* the teaching/learning of mathematics, she may want to consider a Ph.D. program in mathematics designed for those mainly interested in teaching college level mathematics, such as the following:
[Ph.D. in Mathematics with a Concentration in College Teaching](https://www.cmich.edu/colleges/cgs/landing_pages/Pages/Mathematics-Ph.D.aspx) at Central Michigan University (Mt. Pleasant, Michigan)
[Ph.D. in Mathematics with Teaching Emphasis Requirements](http://www.math.wsu.edu/math/info/phd_teach.html) at Washington State University (Pullman, Washington)
There are probably other similar programs, but I didn't find any in the amount time I spent searching. I recommend asking about such programs in the [Mathematics Educators StackExchange](https://matheducators.stackexchange.com/). Make sure that when you ask the question, and also when you talk to your friend, that what is desired is a program designed for those who want to *teach* mathematics, and not for someone who is interested in *research* about the teaching/learning of mathematics.
Upvotes: 2
|
2017/02/27
| 756
| 3,264
|
<issue_start>username_0: If I had completed work on a certain idea, and would like to have it analyzed from an expert in the field. And shared it with a few professors, to get their opinions on my work... would that mean the university has contributed to my work? And somewhat has rights to the idea? Knowing that I never used the university's resources or facilities during the development of this concept.
I wont publish anything, just need an opinion on my work, if it has errors and overall worth pursuing.<issue_comment>username_1: This is a good question for the legal department at your university. At the university where I teach, there is a standard software license agreement form that I sign with students to basically ensure that software is owned by everyone at the end of the class. But your university will likely have its own rules and policies. If you have your own attorney, you can work with the university to modify such agreements.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: As others have said, ask a lawyer.
One general point worth making- undergraduate students and graduate students are very different in this regard. My university explicitly disclaims any interest in work stemming from undergraduate coursework. Graduate students are the exact opposite- work conducted at the university in the course of graduate studies is explicitly owned by the university. My understanding is that this is a fairly common situation, [but not always](http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/04/education/edlife/whoseidea-t.html).
With respect to your specific question, it sounds like you want to know how little has to happen before the university has a claim over your work. A university *probably* has a claim to any work that is related to your university work, or any work that was accomplished with university resources or any of the university's proprietary information. You're potentially putting yourself in legal jeopardy if you're using *any university resources*, even something as ubiquitous as a university-owned computer, a university-provided internet connection, or the the office you sit in.
One really good reason to consult a lawyer is because state laws vary on this issue. For example, California has [relatively strong protections](http://law.justia.com/codes/california/2011/lab/division-3/2870-2872/2870) for employee-generated intellectual property. Other states do not.
A good rule of thumb, especially in your position, is to document the current state of your work before you bring it into the university context so there is no question as to what you exclusively own. Then, as you work on your side-projects while at the university it is also important to document how your work was not performed on university time or with university resources. Note that if your side-project is related to the scope or content of your employment with the university then it will be extremely hard to argue that the university has no interest there.
If you are a graduate student or employee of the university then there is certainly a contract somewhere that spells out the university's rights and your obligations. If you are an undergraduate student then there is probably a policy that covers the same.
But again, ask a lawyer.
Upvotes: 0
|
2017/02/27
| 387
| 1,171
|
<issue_start>username_0: Has a STEM professor ever been nominated for - or won - an Oscar for their academic research?<issue_comment>username_1: Yes.
For example, a professor from Stanford, <NAME>, won an Oscar in 2015. You can read about it in the following article:
[Stanford professor wins Oscar for science of destroying things](http://abc7news.com/entertainment/stanford-professor-wins-oscar-for-science-of-destroying-things/527926/)
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: An example of a previous professor winning the *technical Oscar* is [<NAME>](http://ken.museth.org/Biography.html) (professor at the University of Linköping in Sweden) [who won it together with <NAME> and <NAME>](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FwOc4OSOR0) for their work on [OpenVDB](http://www.openvdb.org) in 2014.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: [<NAME>](http://mrl.nyu.edu/~perlin/), a professor of computer science at the NYU Media Research Lab, won a [technical achievement Oscar](http://mrl.nyu.edu/~perlin/doc/oscar.html) for the development of [Perlin](http://mrl.nyu.edu/~perlin/noise/) [Noise](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perlin_noise).
Upvotes: 1
|
2017/02/27
| 1,174
| 4,981
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<issue_start>username_0: I know this question may be seen as off-topic here or too trivial but nonetheless I would really like to know the answer. I am in an unique position-unlike most researchers I practically don't care about the impact factor I just want to get my work publish as easy as possible and available for as many people as possible but want it to go through the peer-review process. So what will be better, to go through the "standard"(pay-per-view journals)or the online free of charge(for both parties)ones?
If impact factor isn't the key which is better(and/or faster)-going through the big publishing houses who have a "well-oiled machine" and can handle my request with routine and speed or risking in the online-only free-of-charge community?
I know may be I will have problems for that but I think nevertheless I need to tell it. My topic is something quite out of "the mainstream" but I have been working on it for years and I have diverted a lot of from what is "standard" for this community so I am pretty much a lonely wolf and expect **enormous** troubles going through the peer-review(radical ideas). So what will be easy for me-the pay-per-view or free-of-charge online journals? Can you reflect on that?<issue_comment>username_1: You seem to be conflating two things, namely whether a journal is online and whether it is [open access](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_access_journal). I'll focus on the open access part of the question, since whether there's a print edition is basically irrelevant nowadays.
>
> So what will be better, to go through the "standard" (pay-per-view paper journals) or the online free of charge ones?
>
>
>
"Better" is not well defined, but in this case the situation is simple enough that the question can be answered: neither one is better, outside of a couple of specific factors.
Open access journals have one advantage, that anyone can easily read the official published paper, and one possible disadvantage, that there might be publication charges. Other than that, there is no significant difference between open access and traditional journals, at least among respectable journals. There are tremendous differences between specific journals (in prestige, rigor of the review process, speed of publication, etc.), but these things simply can't be predicted on the basis of whether the journal is open access.
I said "among respectable journals" in the previous paragraph for a reason. There are tons of obscure, predatory open access journals that will publish anything for a fee. (They often claim to perform peer review, but it's clear from the garbage they publish that the review process is meaningless. This problem is restricted to open access journals, because you can't make money selling subscriptions to a journal nobody wants to read.) You should absolutely avoid predatory journals, since they will actively hurt your paper's reputation.
>
> If impact factor isn't the key which is better(and faster)-going through the big publishing houses who have a "well-oiled machine" and can handle my request with routine and speed or risking in the online-only community?
>
>
>
You are oversimplifying things by supposing that big publishers have a well-oiled machine. Some do and some don't, and the same holds for small publishers. Furthermore, some open access journals are published by big publishers, and some subscription journals are published by small publishers.
>
> My topic is something quite radical I have been working on it for years now and I have diverted a lot of what is "standard" for this community so I am pretty much a lonely wolf and expect enormous troubles going through the peer-review(radical ideas). So what will be easy for me-the paper or the online journals?
>
>
>
If the difficulty is with peer review, then you can't expect an easy time with any journal worth publishing in (i.e., a non-predatory journal).
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: From your question I deduce that you would like to reach maximal impact (within the target audience). So you want your article to be easily accessible, but at the same time be conveyed through a medium that reinforces trust (hence the interest in peer review) and impact.
The former can be reached by making sure that your ideas are accessible without any (substantial) barrier. You might reach this by submitting a pre-print version to an open online venue, such as arXiv (provided that this does not conflict with the requirements of e.g. a prospective journal).
Then there is the impact aspect. Being published in a respected scientific journal may help to get serious attention from the scientific community, but also adds lead time and the chance of being rejected in the peer review process. Many publishers of top-tier journals also offer open access for an additional fee. You might draw even more attention if you send out a press release after you have been published.
Upvotes: 2 [selected_answer]
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<issue_start>username_0: Most papers (at least in maths, but I believe this applies to other subjects as well) don't have a table of contents (TOC), but dedicate the last paragraph of the introduction to essentially the same purpose. What's the rationale behind this?
I think TOCs are a much better solution. They minimise the burden on the author (no need to come up with creative ways of structuring a TOC in plain text) and are easier to skim as a reader (I know precisely what information to expect in a TOC, as compared to plain text where the author might hide additional information among the TOC stuff).<issue_comment>username_1: Of my limited experience with older papers I am inclined to conclude that papers used to be much shorter (most papers before 1980 I read were about 2 to 5 pages). At that length an additional table of contents was not necessary (in addition to the one of the journal issue - at that times an issue was an actual booklet and also would have needed additional paper to print and ship). So I suspect that there is a historic reason.
Note that some journals which usually publish long papers have a toc nowadays (e.g. Acta Numerica).
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: The purpose of an overview paragraph and a table of contents are different:
* The **table of contents** serves to quickly find a specific section of a document so you can start reading there or extract a specific information. This is something that rarely makes sense with most papers, except if you start at the conclusion/discussion, which is however easy to find anyway. Even if you want to do this, finding the table of contents would cost you more time than it saves you, given the shortness of most papers. So my answer to your titular question would be: Because there is no need for it.
The main exception to this are long review papers, which however usually have a table of contents.
* The **overview paragraph** serves to briefly summarise the paper and explain its semantic structure to the reader, usually somebody who is reading the paper from back to front. This serves to address certain expectations the reader may have had after the introduction (“don’t worry, we didn’t forget this important aspect”) and draw connections between sections (“our work in Section 3 provides us with a framework to evaluate our method in Section 4”). All of this is not possible in a table of contents.
Now, some papers just have a straightforward structure, and there is nothing about it that needs to be elaborated to the reader. In this case an overview paragraph would indeed be nothing but a written-out, tedious-to-read table of contents and should be skipped in my opinion.
Upvotes: 7 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: In fact, the idea that a math paper that is not short would be well served by having a table of contents (TOC) is one that I "discovered" at some point relatively recently. Based on a perusal of my own recent papers and preprints [here](http://alpha.math.uga.edu/~pete/papers.html), it seems that the threshold for a TOC being useful in a math paper is somewhere between 13 and 17 pages. (I believe that I put a TOC in a six page paper a couple of years ago and took it out in response to editorial comments that it was not necessary.)
Let me make some further comments:
1) Some structural redundancy in a paper is a very good idea. Often the introduction repeats things that were just said in the abstract and these same things occur later in the paper as well. Although there is a lot of room for good writing in making this repetition most useful for the reader, certainly such repetition is highly useful if done properly. I don't think having a TOC obviates having a part of the introduction in which you say what you will do in your paper. Rather, having a TOC frees you up from saying what will be in your paper in almost exactly the same comprehensive way as a TOC in paragraph form. Instead, in the introduction you can talk about *why* you are including the material you're including in each section. See e.g. [here](http://alpha.math.uga.edu/~pete/AlonFuredi_August_20_Pete.pdf) for a paper with a TOC in which the introduction nevertheless ends roughly as you say is not necessary. Here I think both are helpful because they serve separate functions:
if you want to know why we are including the Schwartz-Zippel Lemma in our paper, the introduction explains it. If you want to know exactly where each of several versions of this result occurs, you should see the TOC.
2) I have found that a TOC is perhaps even more helpful for the authors than for the readers, especially when there is more than one author. In a medium to long math paper, sometimes you get the idea of (e.g.!) taking subsection 2 of section 5 and inserting it in between subsections 3 and 4 of section 2 because you see something to be gained by such an adjustment of the logical sequence. But then you also have to worry about what else might be disturbed by such a change. It is then really helpful to have a detailed TOC, because rather than having to keep a mental picture of the intermediate pages of your paper, you can flip to the TOC and allow your eye to do some of the work. If you just wrote all the material yourself, maybe it is not so bad to keep it all in mind. But if some of it was written by your coauthors, this gets hard. Moreover, if you do this kind of thing more than once, then your encyclopedic mental picture of the paper does not update so easily.
3) A TOC is also more or less useful according to the titles of the various subsections of your paper. If you have no titles at all (which is not unheard of), a TOC would be ridiculous. If the title of Section N is "the proof of Theorem N," then a TOC does not seem necessary (and good for you for implementing such a simple, transparent format for your paper).
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: There are a *lot* of papers out there, and they compete for eyeballs. One common practice in mathematics (I do it periodically) is to skim the [arXiv](http://arxiv.org) and look at the first page or two of each of a bunch of papers, to see if there are any I want to read more closely.
If you want to promote your work, it is arguably in your best interest that the first page be "interesting", and many authors judge that jumping straight into the introduction serves this purpose better than a table of contents.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_5: A submitted Paper should not have a TOC, and even if it has one, it will be discarded by the publisher.
A Scientific Paper, is not a Book.
Scientific Journals which publish a collection of submitted, and previously peer reviewed Papers create their "ToC" by extracting Paper approved Abstracts.
Serious Journals will also publish Separats. Which are standalone articles of the current volume being published. Alongside they may publish a leaflet of abstracts which you can receive and make a decision if you're going to get the whole Journal or just a Saparat: a single Paper you are interested in, on the field of your research.
Because a Paper deals with one theme; one subject; or one particular problem alone. Two of them, make two separate papers. And will be reviewed separately. And therefore will require a separate entry on ToC of the journal being published.
**Why on earth should or would a Paper of a given scientific article have a ToC of its own?!**
A typical structure of a scientific paper will or should contain:
```
TITLE;
Author(s);
Institution(s);
[keywords];
Abstract.
Intro (to the subject);
sampling, material(s), method(s), and other technicalities.
Procedure;
Explication;
Discussion;
Result(s) (+graphs, tables, figures... ).
Conclusion(s) / Summary.
Bibliography.
```
of which, few are mandatory and an optional 2nd, or 3rd language abstract.
And that's all.
Upvotes: -1
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2017/02/27
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<issue_start>username_0: So, I came across this paper in my field (let's call it paper A) and there was a reference for an equation that they had borrowed from another paper (let's call this paper B). Everything well-cited and fine so far. While reading through paper B (the one that they referred to), I noticed that paper A had also copied over the conclusions!
Obviously, it is very common that 2 papers reach to the exact same conclusions, but shouldn't it have been rephrased somehow? I am talking about 3 bullet-points like: "Factor X is proven to be more significant than Y, where the results in tables 6,7 indicate method 1 describes interactions and square terms better than method 2".
Numbers and indices are different, but the words are EXACTLY the same. Is that allowed, am I just being paranoid?
=== **Edit** ===
To clarify, by "exact same conclusions" I meant to say that both papers study the effect of a set of independent variables on a response variable. Both follow the same methodology and conclude to something like "A affects the response variable Y the most. Using methodology Z proves that the experimental procedure is faster and more accurate than any other algorithm." and so on.
The conclusion is more sort of qualitative discussion of their results, more than quantifying "A affects the response 83%, whereas B only 4%". But this description of the quality of the methodology (which is not novel but well-known by the way) has been copied over word-by-word from paper A.
They have repeated the experimental procedure of paper A slightly modified (because of the different equipment used), so it is normal to report different numbers throughout the paper. My question is whether they should be allowed to use the exact same sentences in the conclusion to describe the very very similar results they came to.<issue_comment>username_1: Plagiarism in any form is never encouraged when writing a research paper, therefore it is true that the experiments were same but conclusion cannot be directly cited from any research paper and you are supposed to do your own analysis even if you are at the same conclusion it should be presented in your way
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: If the conclusions are written in exactly the same manner in both papers, and the conclusions themselves are sufficiently long that there is no way the repetition could be "innocent" (for instance, "X increases with temperature when Y is present" can only be said so many ways!), then plagiarism has occurred.
In such a case, you should report the situation to the journal in which the later paper appeared and indicate that you believe plagiarism has occurred.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: Unfortunately, in my area, I have come across similar situations; where there was only slight change but wording and conclusions are same. I have seen this from the same author and different authors. I believe if the author is committing self-plagiarism, this divide-and-publish-many-papers attitude comes from the stress of getting tenure track or being productive within short time; and sometimes honestly it simply comes from the fact that authors think they can use their own work however they please without acknowledging previous study they make. In any case whether self or not, it is plagiarism, and should be avoided at all cost.
Plagiarism is only considered as copying or borrowing another person's work or words, but it actually expands beyond that. It may be stealing the idea and presenting as yours, it may be a **total literary theft** as far as I understood from your case.
Sometimes, the experiment conducted may be totally the same, or the earlier version may be taken as a baseline model or experiment to introduce and compare the earlier version to the new one. Through this method, the conclusion may be different and contradicting, or may be complementary to each other; and that's where the contribution to the field lies, in my opinion.
If the experiments are same to the smallest point with different equipment, and the conclusions are the same, **but they were described by the exact same literary language and sentence flow, then it's a plain plagiarism.**
Upvotes: 1
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<issue_start>username_0: Suppose there is data that you as an author of a journal article wants to share with the readership of the article (e.g. raw experimental data, code, gold standard / ground truth data).
What would be the best way to do this? Possibilities include:
* Add a footnote that data is available upon request by e-mail.
* Make the data available for download on an institutional webpage.
* Make the data available for download on your personal webpage.
* Make the data available through the article's publisher.
* Something else...<issue_comment>username_1: The most common and sustainable thing to do is to deposit the data in a research data repository. Depending on which one you choose, the data will get a persistent identifier, e.g. a DOI, can be cited properly in publications, might be reused by other researchers, ...
You can find a list of available data repositories at [re3data](http://www.re3data.org), the registry of research data repositories. The number of repositories is still growing. Even your institution/university might offer an institutional data repository.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: If it is data that is of **general interest**, then go for a **public repository** as username_1 mentioned (of course, only do this, if you have the legal right to do so).
If it is something that is very **specific to the publication** (e.g. code that produces the results/graphics/tables from the publication), then use the **"additional resources" from the publisher** (if available and convenient).
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: It depends on a field. In my area, it is nowadays quite common to provide additional information in [GitHub repository](https://github.com/). GitHub, while being primarily software sharing platform, fits quite well to such task, as research (in a form of journal/conference publication) is typically supported by some code that was used to collect data and process/analyze it, datasets themselves and the description of these datasets (i.e. metadata). On top of that it is easy to create a set of web pages or even site using [GitHub Pages](https://pages.github.com/).
Sharing data on GitHub works like a charm if your datasets' volume is moderate (say, <100Mb). If larger, then a Github repo may contain code, metadata, some sample extracts from the datasets and, in addition, specifies how to access the datasets themselves. The latter might be direct links to the data stored in, e.g., Dropbox or some other online storage, in your department/organization storage system (if there is such), etc. And/or it might be just instructions on how to obtain the datasets (request by email, etc.). In addition, any other related information can be specified there - like copyrights, how to refer to a publication and/or its supporting materials, etc.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: The **Open Science Framework** is quite good. <https://osf.io/>
It's not commercial, which is a nice property.
It offers flexible, archived storage for a project.
It has many tools tailored for storing data, code, and materials in an academic environment (for example, you can even share a link that blinds the author names when submitting as part of blind review).
For more information, check out: <https://osf.io/support/>
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: Almost everybody can consume EXCEL (CSV) files, so host on google drive. Share links with emails you want to be with. No hassle of 3rd party servers or data service and universally acceptable CSV format will be here. For very large data split into files.
Upvotes: -1
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<issue_start>username_0: I'm a junior hoping to do a PhD. I'm in a graduate level class right now in a different field. I believe almost all the other students are PhD students. The first couple weeks of the course were just barely accessible, though very challenging. Now, however, I really find myself unable to complete the problem sets. There are no office hours either.
How bad would it look to pass/fail this class? It's not particularly related to my intended research focus in the PhD.
I believe I am a strong candidate aside from this class.
Also, I'm really not sure what grade I would get in this class. Probably a B at worst. I'd rather not mess up my GPA though. All of my other technical classes are A's or A minuses.<issue_comment>username_1: In short, this looks bad.
When I see a "Pass" or "S" grade on a transcript that I'm evaluating, my default assumption is that the student did work equivalent to the lowest passing letter grade (e.g. a "D" in the US system.)
I tell the undergraduate students that I advise that if they want to go on to graduate school they should avoid taking courses on the S/U grading scale.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: No one can predict how an admissions committee or anyone else, such as a potential supervisor, will interpret this, or any particular thing, really.
But, in general, it is the major courses (US system) that most people look at and care about for graduate study. A pass/fail in an upper level major course looks bad. But a pass/fail in an unrelated course, especially an elective, looks much less bad and other things in your application can overwhelm whatever negative aura there might be.
In the case here, dropping the course rather than changing to pass/fail might be another option (or not), and who is to say how a dropped course is viewed.
Elective courses outside the major indicate, to me, at least, that the applicant has a possibly valuable outside interest but didn't want to
"risk" GPA. Not a big deal and maybe a positive.
Upvotes: 1
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<issue_start>username_0: When I started my "quest for knowledge" several years ago I began in an already ill defined-field which was on the borders between science and philosophy but as I progressed I drifted further and further into something I can only classify as "something pertaining to many sciences but not really a part of any one field". It became some even I-can-not-tell-what field of science and although I have completed my quest and came with a sound paradigm it doesn't really pertain to the scope of any of the journals in my area which I use in my references. Or to be more precise, it pertains to **all** of them but only "a little bit", this is why selecting the proper journal seems so difficult now.
In order to solve the problem, and actually thinking this is a solution, I decided to write a small e-mail to journals explaining my situation and what I have done. It was something like a 200-300 word abstract so they know what my paper is about and then asked if this is within the scope of their journal. None have answered me!
Has anyone had a similar experience? Did I do the right thing writing their editorial boards these e-mails? Did I shoot myself in the foot by doing this? Any suggestions what the effect of these e-mails could have been (e.g. they think I am a crackpot, they just deleted them, they put me in a "forbidden list")? Am I doing something terribly wrong here? Can anybody give me advice as to how I can handle the situation from now on? Do such e-mails effect my chances of publishing there negatively or outright stop them?<issue_comment>username_1: Don't worry. There is nothing bad about what you have done, and it will almost certainly have no impact on consideration of any manuscript you may submit to any of those journals.
Most academics divide their time between large numbers of obligations, and they receive many unsolicited emails; this is even more true of those who are on the editorial board of a prominent journal. Many of them will not reply to an unsolicited message from someone they don't know.
They have not put you on a "forbidden list" or labeled you as a crackpot (unless the content of your message was such as to warrant that -- but even then they probably don't remember your name).
Let me add that it is sometimes a good idea to contact an editor before submitting your paper, and I have done so on occasion. This usually requires that you know the editor, or that someone who knows them can introduce you -- or that you can manage to bump into them at a conference. Asking informally if your manuscript is a fit for their journal can be helpful when the work falls between disciplines, and an immediate answer saves time for you, for the journal, and possibly for potential reviewers. When doing this you should usually contact the particular associate editor who is most likely to handle a manuscript like yours.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: Based on your description I think it's indeed possible that your email, or maybe even the content of your article itself, makes you appear somewhat like a crackpot - it's impossible to say without knowing what you wrote. But that is neither here nor there; a single email should not get you blacklisted or affect your chances of getting published, so I don't think you need to worry that you caused yourself irreparable harm.
With that said, the email doesn't sound like an effective strategy, and it doesn't seem very surprising that you are not getting any responses. Journals are busy enterprises and they like to work according to a specific workflow to maximize their efficiency. That workflow is quite simple and looks like this:
1. **The author submits the paper** by following the instructions for submission on the journal's website.
2. **The journal processes the submission**, gets the paper reviewed and eventually informs the author of the decision.
(In some cases there are extra steps involving revisions, but such complications are irrelevant for the current discussion so I'll ignore them.)
To summarize, you didn't get any responses because *you didn't follow the instructions for submitting your article*. Follow the instructions, and then the journal editors will have the information they need to make a decision about whether your paper is a good fit for them, and they will let you know (hopefully soon). Simple.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: Regarding the question
>
> Is it OK to send an abstract to an editor asking if the corresponding article could be considered for publication in the journal?
>
>
>
(my rephrasing).
My answer is: **Yes, it is ok**, but **this is unsusual** and I am not surprised that you did not get a response.
To give some advice: You can do a similar thing, but, **instead, send the whole paper and not only an abstract to an editor** and ask if this article is within the scope of the journal. I did this, and I got a reasonable response from the editor very quickly (a few days - the paper got rejected finally, but on the ground of well found reviews). I guess that just sending an abstract would not have gotten any response in my case, too. This is because it is virtually impossible for an editor to judge the content or contribution from an abstract without the paper - well, you can describe some contribution, but an abstract is much too short to argue in a proper way.
Regarding your further questions:
>
> Am I doing something terribly wrong here?
>
>
>
Not terribly wrong, but unusual.
>
> Can anybody give me advice as to how I can "handle the situation" from now on?
>
>
>
My advice: **Write your article** with a specific audience and journal in mind, then send it to the (associate) editor of said journal that fits best and ask if the paper would fit the scope of the journal. If he or she says no, rewrite the article for another journal and repeat (or find a journal for which you think that article does not need rewriting). If he or she says yes, but do take it for granted that the paper is accepted. The chance of acceptance is not changed by asking in advance.
>
> Do such e-mails effect my chances of publishing there negatively (or outright stop them)?
>
>
>
No, it would not get you blacklisted for the journal (I am not sure if such a thing actually exists) and your chances to publish an article are most likely not changed (unless you send multiple requests for an opinion of an unfinished work and really annoy any (associate) editor).
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: I don't think those emails will hurt you. But they won't be any good either, I think. The problem is that journal editors don't really act as an editor, in the sense that they are not expected to work with the author to improve the manuscript and/or define its scope. Most scientific journal editors receive (many) manuscripts, they find suitable referees for them, and then eventually decide whether the article will appear in the journal or not.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: I'm somewhat surprised at the other answers labeling this an unusual practice, since some journals invite pre-submission inquiries. For example, [Current Biology](http://www.cell.com/current-biology/presubmission) says:
>
> The editors strongly encourage authors who are interested in submitting work for potential publication in Current Biology to send a presubmission inquiry prior to any formal manuscript submission. Presubmission inquiries should include a clear abstract and a cover note explaining the significance of the advance and the potential general interest to the broad readership of Current Biology.
>
>
>
[Nature](http://www.nature.com/nature/authors/submissions/presubs/) does them, but a less formally, as does [Neuron](http://www.cell.com/neuron/authors). <NAME>, a editor from PLoS Biology, has [a longish post](http://blogs.plos.org/biologue/2012/06/28/whats-there-to-gain-from-a-well-explained-presubmission-enquiry/) describing how and why PLoS Biology uses these inquires. In general, this should help you determine if your paper is in scope and sufficiently "newsworthy" (for journals that care) before you rewrite and reformat your manuscript for a particular journal. It certainly can't guarantee anything, but it may save you some time and frustration.
However, if you are doing this, you should follow the journals' procedures (if any are published). *Nature*, for example, wants a specific format (essentially the first paragraph/summary of your paper), while *Neuron* wants the emails to contain "presub" in the subject line.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_6: I have two suggestions for you.
1) For books, authors are encouraged to submit a "proposal." Here are some [sample instructions](https://www.workman.com/work-with-us/author-submissions):
>
> Submissions Guidelines
>
>
> Please be sure to include the following items in your submission. Your proposal should not exceed 30 pages and should preferably be in the form of a Microsoft Word document.
>
>
> * A title and a subtitle.
> * A one-paragraph overview that explains the premise of your book, why you wrote it, and who you see the audience being (with any relevant demographic data you might have about the potential size of the audience).
> * A brief author biography (1–2 pages) that focuses on why you are uniquely qualified to write your book and what kind of platform you have to reach a wide audience.
> * A table of contents that outlines the book, with chapter and section titles, as well as brief descriptions of the material each chapter and/or section will cover. It should be no more than ten pages total.
> * A market analysis of the potential readership for your book, including a comparison to similar books. When comparing your proposal to other works, please briefly explain (just several sentences) how your proposed book differs from these titles. Please limit yourself to 3–4 books.
> * A sample chapter that is representative of the style and content of the larger work.
>
>
>
I will suggest that you take this as inspiration for how to pitch your article to journals. Try to reduce the 200-300 word pitch down to a more manageable size. Maybe your pitch will be a little bit longer than the sample I included. Imagine that you are writing to someone you know pretty well in one of these near-fields. Explain to this friend why your article will be interesting to its target audience.
Interestingly, when I have gone through this exercise, I have ended up with a clearer idea of what I'm trying to accomplish with my article, and it has enabled me to improve my article!
Your pitch may be a bit different depending on which area the journal you're submitting to covers. For example, if you submit to a chemistry journal, your pitch would be different from a submission to a physics journal. You would need to explain to the chemistry journal why your paper would be interesting and important to chemists. And for the physics journal, why it would be interesting and important to physicists. (Physics and chemistry are just examples.)
The pitch is written in a more down to earth way than the paper itself. And note that the pitch is not the same as an abstract.
The pitch is kind of like those short blurbs you hear as ads in the Fresh Air podcasts, where the advertiser tries to give you an idea in 25 words or less what kind of book is being advertised, so you can form a very quick idea of what kind of book it is.
Your pitch will function as a pre-submission query. As others have noted, this is unusual. The better you can prune this down, and really focus it, I think the better your chances will be.
If you are going to introduce a completely new animal to your circus, you need to *describe* this animal to people, so they will be receptive to it.
2) Find at least one person with a strong publication list of his or her own to put in a good word for you -- in whatever way that person is comfortable doing. In other words, do some networking. This person will not be recommending that the journal accept your article. Rather, this person will be requesting that the journal seriously consider your submission, despite its unusual nature.
Make sure that you and this person (~mentor) are on the same page about the thrust of your pitch, so that s/he can underscore some important parts of it, in a way that matches your description.
Last note. Please don't be tempted to start with the first paragraph of your question here, or anything like that. It was fine for Academia SE, but it wouldn't be an effective way to start your pitch.
**Edit**:
To clarify, adapt the above sample instructions to suit your needs. Specifically, I would enclose the manuscript itself along with the thing I have called the "pitch."
Upvotes: -1
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<issue_start>username_0: For graduate school classes, if a professor writes his own homework questions and creates his own problem sets, is he required to provide solutions to the homework problems, after the homeworks have been turned in and graded by his teaching assistant(s)?<issue_comment>username_1: No. The professor gets to decide if it would be more beneficial for students' learning to provide full solutions, partial solutions, or no solutions to homework problems.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_2: This is entirely up to the policies of the university or department in question, and is likely to vary between disciplines. In the areas I'm most familiar with (STEM subjects as taught in the UK and, to a lesser extent the US), I'm not aware of any places where professors are obliged to provide solutions, though, in my experience, they usually do in at least some form. That might be by handing out printed solutions, or holding classes to go through the problems, or both, or something else. However, in arts subjects, where assignments are typically "Write an essay about subject X", there isn't really any such thing as a "solution" and one would presumably expect feedback about one's essay, rather than being given an example of a "correct" essay.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: Once you're beyond undergraduate level I think that (at least in many cases) there can be a solid argument for saying to students "If you can't convincingly justify why your answer is right, why should it be considered an answer at all?". The student needs to progress beyond a secondary-school mindset at some point and actually move toward the world they're trying to prepare for -- one without a set of ideal solutions, where you have to convince people why what you did is correct.
That's not so say there's less work for the person teaching them; some kind of in depth feedback about the suitability of the justification of the answers is needed; in an academic setting the work and the value of the justifications offered should be discussed, either verbally (analogous to the feedback from a presentation or seminar) or in writing (analogous to feedback on a paper), albeit at a somewhat lower level than those activities -- such feedback can come from peers and people in the role of mentors (the professor and any assistants for example) - one or the other or both, as suits the nature of the activity.
There's not enough detail in the question to tell whether the nature of the particular activity is a case which is better fitted by requiring students to convincingly justify their answers as part of answering the question with no ideal solution to be provided, or whether it's better fitted by giving them solutions.
[Actually I think some of this kind of thing should come in much sooner, at least in the later part of undergraduate level work -- since many students who graduate and go into the workforce will be in a similar position of having to justify why their work is correct without there ever being "correct answers" available. They should have some actual practice at this in their education. On the other hand I recognize that sometimes there are policies in place which could make this more difficult with undergrads.]
On a somewhat indirectly related note -- at least for mathematically related subjects, giving students numeric solutions before they have answered the questions themselves often seems positively harmful. It very often leads students to abandon thinking about the characteristics of the problem in any deep way in favor of trying random things until they happen to match the solution, without actually coming to any kind of understanding of what they're doing; their focus is on getting the specific number in this particular instance rather than on the comprehension of ideas needed for dealing with that kind of problem.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: No! But considering that feedback is a important part of self evaluation you probably should give some feedback other than grades. Giving out at least some answers can be of great help.
This is a bit of a two edged sword. On the otherhand students should know how they were graded, to check for mistakes. So they should be able to evaluate this somehow, even in the case that they are failing badly. But then you can nolonger recycle the questions as easily and some students take the short route to passing.
In any case make sure the policy is well defined.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: If a student (almost finishing graduate one, but still one) can give his opinion, I think professors should give solutions, at every level.
If you consider them still students that have to do a homework, I think you will agree that they are still learning, still in the need for an explanation. So yes, after grading them, I think you should give the solution with the full reasoning that led to it, doing it live in a session if possible.
No, no rules are obliging you to do that, but as a professor I think your main interest is in how much the students learn, and the best way for them to learn is to let them try and after show what is the right way, to highlight their mistakes.
EDIT (to address the comments):
In Italy, where I study, every professor has a lot of liberty in the courses he gives. Every degree refers to a council where all the professors and some students (me and other two) decides about the rules and usually the content and the way a course is held (homeworks, written exams, oral exams etc) is decided mostly by the professor that gives the course. Some modifications, mostly about the content, can be started by the council, but it has really low power on the way the couse is given, on the material provided. If a professor would give homeworks without solutions, they could really do nothing about it because there is no rule that allow them to act, the professor has total control over his courses.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_6: The other answers have considered legal and pedagogical aspects, maybe sufficiently. I'd like to add another perspective: **resource allocation**.
Professors (at least in my country, might differ in yours) have a host of duties, including
* research,
* education,
* (university) politics,
* supervision of PhD students,
* writing various reports and reviews on all kinds of things
(scientific as well as non-scientific), and
* general management of the department.
It is simply impossible to pursue all these duties to perfection. Hence one of the most important decisions to be made by each professor is that of resource allocation: which fraction of his (and his employees') limited time does he or she devote to which of his duties?
**Even if the professor fully believes that providing comprehensive solutions to homework problems would be desirable from a didactical point of view, it may still be a completely valid decision not to do so in order to perform better at other tasks.** On a side note, I highly doubt that any dean would question such a decision.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_7: Here are my answers to each of the questions I think you're asking.
1. No, they aren't required, unless it's somewhere in your school policy--it's worthwhile to consider whom you think would do the requiring. I can't see most schools micromanaging their profs like that.
2. No, I don't think they should be required, either administratively or philosophically. After all, the real point of the homework is the process.
3. I do think it's wise for them to have the solutions ready, if they've made up their own problems, just to make sure they haven't flubbed something. Also, I think that, if I were teaching, I'd want to post the final answers. Again, the real point is doing the work to get to the answers, so posting the solutions gives students the chance to check their work and correct it before turning it in. That way the grade reflects what they've learned rather than where they started. (Along the same lines, I think that, ideally, homework should be attempted and graded at least twice, so the student can really engage in a feedback cycle with the material.)
4. While having the solutions available can give you reassurance, you have the whole Internet (including this site!) to forge your way, and I can't tell you how lucky that is. I think you're more nervous about letting go of that safety rope, and you don't need it. Strike out on your homework confidently, and know that, pretty soon, you won't be concerned if the solutions aren't available.
5. The best change I've made between graduating from undergrad in 2003 and starting grad school in 2016 is to use office hours like I'm the only student in the class. The difference between me at 21 and me at 35 is huge, and it's because now, I'm working full time and I have a family, so I'm paying for school with my own money and eking out every minute I can to spend in class and on homework. I do *not* waste my time, so if I don't understand, I ask a question in class. I don't care if it sounds stupid, or if everybody else knows it because my background is different than theirs, or if it's a little esoteric. If I need it to understand, I ask. Then I go to office hours and ask questions after class--last semester I went to my prof's office with questions after *every single class*.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_8: First, it depends very much on the level of the class.
When I taught junior high and high school, I naturally went over solutions to major problems and tests in detail in class. Not that many students take it seriously, but we try. Providing model solutions and teaching students how to write properly is a vital part of their education. Those of you who try to teach undergraduates, and those of you undergrads who have survived the trial by fire of leaving high school and meeting some slightly more real expectations, know that coaching students only to check the right box on multiple choice is deadly.
As has been pointed out above, giving numerical solutions and worse yet evaluating only those same numerical solutions is anti-educational; the learning process is directly short-circuited and the students go directly to copying the answer. "Giving answers" in that case means turning the whole process into a silly meaningless ritual and is to be avoided.
On the other hand, I took an excellent seminar in advanced combinatorics with the professor and author <NAME>, since tragically killed by a car. He was to be my advisor :-(
In that seminar, we used a book on "problems in combinatorics" and nobody, professor or student, knew the "right answer". The goal of the class was to explore problems and to develop methods of solution when faced with the unknown. I well remember one day when the professor had left us with four or five problems to work on over the weekend. He asked if anyone had found a solution to #2. Three of us, out of six, raised our hands. He asked the first student to share his results. This was a stellar student, winner of many prizes. He came up to the board and wrote out a solution containing many strange symbols and a new function of his own invention. As far as we could follow at that speed, it was a good proof. Then the second student shared his results. He was a very smart and hard-working guy and had clearly spent the weekend in the library doing research. He wrote out his proof and referenced five theorems by five different authors nobody had before heard of. As far as we could follow the twists and turns of reasoning at that speed it was a good proof. Then I, and adult student, single mother returning to school after a few decades, went up to the board. I drew boxes. And boxes within boxes. I did a placement and counting argument. The professor was happy with all the answers; so happy with my style in fact that he asked to be my advisor.
The point of the anecdote is that chasing after the mythical "right answer" is like chasing after unicorns. After you master rote arithmetic in elementary school -- and hopefully you get some problem-solving teaching even before that, starting early in primary school -- the topic of the math class is NOT chasing "right answers", the topic of the class is the PROCESS of using logical connections to solve problems. The answers in the back of the book are just a by-product of knowing how to solve problems.
Many people have reacted to this post more or less negatively. Clearly a lot of them feel a distaste with the question. They may not be able to articulate why they feel that distaste but it is there. Having spent my entire career in teaching at all levels, I have realized what the issue is. Elementary students and alas many secondary students being crammed for SAT's and far far too many underprepared teachers (most North American teachers last took a math class in Grade 10 and barely passed the terminal general level even then) and parents raised the same way. by poorly prepared teachers with bad curricula, all think that they must fill in "right answers" and do it snap-snap-snap at speed. This of course is antithetical to learning something in depth, to profound reasoning, to development of useful problem-solving skills for any career, or to any useful retention. Better secondary teachers and most university professors try to change this attitude but it is often too little, too late.
So the question is based on a false hypothesis. Hypothesis: Mathematics consists of a rigid set of procedures and formulas and there is a secret list of "right answers" to all and every question; Conclusion, professors, teachers and instructors must be forced to reveal the secrets to students instead of keeping them as a mystery that only they know, because we must nowadays be democratic and open up the sacred mysteries.
Answer: sorry, there is no secret book of "right answers". You are asking the wrong question.
The first question, as has been pointed out above, is "Is this person qualified to teach this subject?" This has to be judged overall; everyone has varied strengths and weaknesses and will be able to do more in some areas than others, but unfortunately yes there are some people out there who should not be in this position. If a high school math teacher cannot answer 90 percent of the questions in the textbook they are teaching, no they should not be there. Yes I have met several. And these are the people who seriously mislead students by rote copying of numerical answers.
The second question is "What am I supposed to be learning to do here?" I had one student in a college upgrading class who was brilliant in arithmetic and logic but absolutely refused to do algebra. He would never write an equation with an x, but instead wrote pages of closely argued logic and calculations. He got the "right answer" in the sense that his numbers agreed with the back of the text. He would have been a gem in a grad school class, if he could have gotten over this mental block. After the first test when he protested being marked down, I re-wrote every test question to be sure to say "Write an equation and solve it." No, he simply would not. I had to give him an F in Algebra because he would never do any algebra. A real pity and a great loss. It is the PROCESS you are meant to be learning, and in a calculus class you had better be using derivatives, in a linear algebra class matrices, in a Euclidean geometry proof theorems and deductions, and so on. So make sure you understand what processes you should know and how they are to be applied.
The third and final question to ask is "How do I know if my work is right or wrong, good or bad?" Way way back in elementary school, back in the Dark Ages when I was a child, we had an excellent arithmetic program which included plenty of problem-solving techniques and a host of methods for checking your own answers. When we reached basic algebra we were supposed to check our solutions to equations and show the check. Of course as children we hated it; it was so much writing and so tedious and what a waste of time. Luckily our teachers persisted. By the time I was in senior high school I was rarely dependent on either a teacher or an answer key to know what was going on. This dependence on an outside authority to validate you is another thing that irritates the people answering here.
So again, you are asking the wrong question based on a faulty hypothesis concerning what math and education are all about. It's a common enough false hypothesis. If you are a young student trapped in the system and it is your teachers feeding you this false hypothesis, very sorry, do the best you can, and read as much as you can outside of class and solve problems on places like SE to dop some real learning. It does get better. If you are already past the basics, well, sometimes we have to change our worldview. it is a real wrench at times but worth the effort. Anybody who has made it to advanced math probably remembers a wrench or two learning to look at things a new way and we are here to help.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_9: As a quasi-answer, I'd note that for all the (university, math) classes I've taught in the last 20+ years (that is, especially after the internet...) I've provided extensive "discussion/approved-solutions" to all homework and/or exam questions, at both undergrad and grad level. Mostly, this is to show an (attempted) *model* for writing style, format, tone, assumed context, etc. It is only incidental to make some point about why grading was as it was, which in my view is a very minor thing. E.g., I strive to resist publicizing "grade distributions" in graduate math classes, because it creates false goals, false comparisons. I do also try to emphasize the good features of attempted discussions/solutions, rather than "failings", although, of course, the latter have to be examined... and, hopefully, students *want* to learn why/how they're missing a/the mark.
Also, I did wish to demonstrate irrefutably that the issues I asked student to address could be easily, fluently, in-finite-time, no fudging, no weaseling, be *persuasively* answered from an expert viewpoint... hoping that I do manage that on most days. :)
It seems to me that implicit in the question is a sort of quasi-litiginous attitude, that there should be an objective standard [sic] against which students can compare the grading [sic] of their attempts, to possibly argue against loss of "points". Also, there's the confounding of "assessment" with "education/feedback". I am aware that in the UK the math exams are legally required to be vetted months in advance by people at other universities. Certainly an arguable cover-your-@$$ scheme, but really very silly and resource-wasting, apart from substantially insulting to very erudite and scholarly math faculty. But that's the kind of system you'd get if/when faculty prerogatives were sufficiently weakened (e.g., in comparison to most U.S. math situations).
Although I do try to remind myself, and my students, that education, not assessment, is the goal, The System (in the U.S., and let's not talk about current events) seems evermore to declare the opposite (since it is potentially rendered numerical, etc., I guess).
I have also been told by colleagues both local and otherwise that putting good solutions-to/discussions-of the standard, iconic questions on-line "ruins things". My response is that there will certainly be *bad* solutions/discussions on-line, and I'd like to further *education* by providing *good* solutions on-line... rather than perpetuating some cycle of bad-online-solutions-getting-bad-grades-for-incomprehensible-reasons...
But to *require* faculty to spend their time creating good discussions? Impossible, in research unis in the U.S., these days, where the main measure for salary raises each year has nothing to do with teaching, course notes, discussions/solutions, etc. To *require* a person to do a thing which is counted as 0 or negative in their "performance review" would be bizarre. If anything, spending time on course materials is viewed as a "loser" activity, low-status, etc. So, duh, certainly not "required".
But that should not have really been the question, I think. The question should have been about whether experts should divulge models for competent function, versus keeping them a "guild secret". To that, the answer is "yes".
:)
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_10: I'm sure the actual requirements vary. There isn't just one standard that applies worldwide. (Or even city-wide, in the city where I live.)
As the Lead Instructor of a college department, let me tell you what was required of me:
* show up
* teach students
* give students grades
* other minor amounts of requirements, like bi-monthly meetings which I viewed as nothing more annoying than relatively minor inconveniences
* Have a mid term
* Have a final exam
* have quizzes (the number of them were up to me)
I was given a list of topics I was required to discuss. I was required to discuss each of those approximately 12 topics for 5 minutes each. The rest of the class time was entirely at my discretion.
If I wanted to have more tests or fewer tests, that was okay. If I wanted to have sessions where I answered questions before an exam, or after the exam, that was okay. I could even give away answers during an exam, if I wanted to. I'm not saying that would necessarily be a good idea, but what I am saying is that I totally had the flexibility to handle things the way I wanted to. If I wanted to answer questions outside of class time, I could, but there was no requirement to.
If a student demanded answers, I could provide answers, if I wanted to. However, if I decided to do something different instead, I could. For instance, if I wished to focus on the college's goal of instilling professionalism, and discourage an unwarranted sense of entitlement, I could say that the student had no right to control me, and so I was not required to give answers.
So, based on my experience, I would assume that the professor has no such requirement unless there is a (probably written) policy that imposes such a requirement on the professor. Requirements could come other ways: there were people with authority over me, and if you got the college president to give me an order then I would be required to do that. But, otherwise, no. Instructors can potentially have a fairly large amount of freedom.
Just to give another experience, though, in a different college, I recall hearing a math instructor explain that she covered only the information that she was told to. Every math instructor in the college had the same orders from the Math Department, and every day each instructor was supposed to cover the exact same questions (from the book) as every other instructor. This instructor described a whole lot less freedom than what I experienced as an instructor (which is why I stated the first two sentences that I did).
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: I've recently submitted three papers to the same top journal over a period of two weeks. Can this fact alone impact on the chances of any of the papers being accepted? There is no overlap of content or dependencies among the papers, but I'm a bit worried that it may look odd from the editor's perspective and raise doubts on my work.<issue_comment>username_1: I imagine this may be field and journal dependent, but in mathematics (where we have lots of journals that can be good fits for the same paper, unlike some other fields), this can reduce the chance of acceptance. Editors are under pressure to reject lots of submissions (e.g., they may have quotas), and if you have two (or more) simultaneous submissions, and the decisions are not no-brainers, many editors like accept one and reject the other(s).
Note: in mathematics, there's a tendency (not a strict rule) for people not to publish the in the same journal too often, and one of my colleagues recently got a rejection because they has "published too recently" in that journal. (I don't think it's good to enforce this practice as a rule, but apparently some people do.)
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: I agree with @kimball and disagree with the comment from @prof\_santa\_claus. As an associate editor of several publications and a former editor in chief of an IEEE magazine, I think 3 is at least 1 too many. And it also depends on whether this is precisely the same author(s) or just OP is intersecting.
I'd be ok if A submits with B and C and around the same time submits with D and E...especially if it's for a special issue with a single deadline. But I wouldn't take 3 from ABC around the same time regardless, I'd pick the best one or two. And I'd be really careful to be sure that indeed, the overlap is minimal.
So I do think it hurts your chances, significantly, *if* all the papers stood a chance independently. If one was a <NAME>, you're just wasting your time and the reviewers, but it probably doesn't affect the others.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: I help edit a number of journals in general medicine and health. In those journals, we would accept these submissions but would look out for salami or redundant manuscripts. I suggest that you need to address this head on in your cover letter to the editors. You need to point out in what way these two manuscripts are different. Help us reach more accurate decisions.
In addition, we have an editorial procedure that provides that we don't normally allow authors to have more than one publication appear in a single issue (the obvious exceptions being special issues, supplements or theme issues). This decision would be made, though, after successful peer review.
Good luck!
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: Or is a computer science phd required? Is having a statistics phd a disadvantage for AI research positions or does the research you publish and work on during the phd matter more?
Although artificial intelligence research is interdisciplinary (math+cs+stats+logic, etc), I see mainly computer scientists working as AI researchers in industry at places like Google Brain, Open AI, DeepMid which makes sense since AI is an area in CS. Is it more because statistics phds aren't interested in working in AI or are these positions are mainly for computer scientists?
I am deciding whether to accept a statistics phd from a top school where a lot of good AI research is happening and the CS and stats departments are traditionally close. I believe I could work with an advisor who is in both departments or have one advisor in the stats department and the other in the CS.
Thanks!<issue_comment>username_1: *Late answer, but will take a stab at it. I can't speak for the big powerhouses you mention (Google, etc.), though I am a ML researcher and am involved in hiring for such positions*.
Yes, a statistics PhD is a great background. Recall, not all AI/ML is neural networks -- Bayesian Statistics (e.g., Graphic Probabilistic Models) are highly useful and poorly understood. Further, there are many programmers who can easily learn how to use ML packages; however, statistics PhDs have more mathematical maturity. So, even if you want to work on deep learning, the mathematical maturity is a great selling point, so long as you also have the software skills.
Comparing a statistics PhD to a CS PhD is more difficult; however, I would focus on relevant experience / projects / skills / publications / interests rather than weighing the PhDs against each other. Larger companies with HR departments might not realize this, however.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: **Nobody cares what species of PhD you have.**
If you publish research in machine learning venues, you are a machine learning researcher.
In particular, if you publish good research in good machine learning venues, you are a good machine learning researcher.
Just at my own university, I can think of machine learning researchers with PhDs in computer science, statistics, applied mathematics, pure mathematics, computer engineering, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, astronomy, linguistics, library science, operations research, aeronautics, and economics. I'm sure I've missed a few. They all do different *types* of machine learning, but whatever.
The correct question to ask is **Will a statistics PhD from [department] working with [advisor] support my ambition to work in machine learning?** And the answer to *that* question depends on [department] and [advisor].
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<issue_start>username_0: I was reading that submitting a research article to arXiv gives it better visibility. I was wondering if I can submit a research article that is accepted and published in the IEEE-JBHI, to arXiv?<issue_comment>username_1: If your paper has already been published then you were required to sign a copyright release assigning the copyright to the IEEE. As such, your ability to post your paper on arXiv depends on the language and wording of that contract. As with any such matter, it is best to consult a lawyer.
However, in my inexpert opinion, you are probably not allowed to do this unless JBHI has an unusual copyright agreement (and a quick Google search suggests this is not the case).
According to the [standard IEEE copyright agreement](https://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/copyrightmain.html) (emphasis mine):
*Authors/employers may reproduce or authorize others to reproduce the Work, material extracted verbatim from the Work, or derivative works **for the
author’s personal use or for company use**, provided that the source and the IEEE copyright notice are indicated, the copies are not used in any way that
implies IEEE endorsement of a product or service of any employer, and the copies themselves are not offered for sale.*
And later in the same document:
*Although authors are permitted to re-use all or portions of the Work in other works, **this does not include granting third-party requests for reprinting,
republishing, or other types of re-use.** The IEEE Intellectual Property Rights office must handle all such third-party requests.*
Posting your work to arXiv in this case looks to me like unauthorized reproduction.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: The policy of IEEE-JBHI allows the following according to [Sherpa/RoMEO](http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/issn/2168-2194/):
>
> * Author's pre-print on Author's personal website, employers website or publicly accessible server
> * Author's post-print on Author's server or Institutional server
>
>
>
But they have some very specific conditions what to do after the article has been published like adding a copyright statement to the pre-print. Please check the Sherpa/RoMEO link for detailed information.
Since they have no policy regarding arXiv, I'd suggest to contact the editor.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: Based on few research on the question, I found the following:
As per the IEEE policy,
>
> **Can an author post his manuscript on a preprint server such as ArXiv?**
>
>
> Yes. The IEEE recognizes that many authors share their unpublished
> manuscripts on public sites. Once manuscripts have been accepted for
> publication by IEEE, an author is required to post an IEEE copyright
> notice on his preprint. Upon publication, the author must replace the
> preprint with either 1) the full citation to the IEEE work with
> Digital Object Identifiers (DOI) or a link to the paper’s abstract in
> IEEE Xplore, or 2) the accepted version only (not the IEEEpublished
> version), including the IEEE copyright notice and full citation, with
> a link to the final, published paper in IEEE Xplore.
>
>
> **What other steps are necessary for authors who would like to post
> their accepted articles?**
>
>
> The following copyright notice must be displayed on the initial screen displaying IEEE copyrighted material:
> © 20xx IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission
> from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or
> future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for
> advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works,
> for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any
> copyrighted component of this work in other works.
>
>
>
And as per ArXiv,
>
> Note on IEEE submissions. Please note arXiv will currently take the
> 'Accepted' IEEE version but not the 'Published' IEEE version. For more
> information on IEEE policies.
>
>
>
More Info:
[IEEE Author FAQ 1](https://www.ieee.org/documents/author_faq.pdf), [IEEE Author FAQ 1](https://www.ieee.org/documents/author_version_faq.pdf), [arXiv Submission](https://arxiv.org/help/submit_pdf)
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: I am writing research paper following the ACM 2-column format in Latex. The conference is limiting the number of pages by only 6-8 pages. So far, my paper has a lot of figures and tables and would be impossible to fit them all in 8 pages.
So what I want to do, is to include an extra page as an Appendix at the end. will it be considered as 8 pages or 9 pages? Will it be considered that I am following the conference regulation?<issue_comment>username_1: >
> Are appendices included in the maximum page count for conference publications?
>
>
>
In my experience from CS, typically yes. That is because the page limit has (at least) three purposes:
* To ensure everyone gets the same space to make their point (whether that increases fairness or actually decreases it - different topics may require different amounts of space - is a different question).
* To limit the amount of information/contributions per publication, lest the conference talk be just an exemplary excerpt that fails to encompass the entirety of the paper.
* **To actually limit page size in printed proceedings.** I base this on the observation that I have come across conferences that would charge authors for extra pages, and even a few that would charge authors or put a (lower-than-total-pages) limit on pages with coloured content.
It is for the latter point that "bonus material" such as appendices also counts towards the maximum paper length.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: >
> Are appendices included in the maximum page count for conference publications?
>
>
>
The only way to know for sure is to ask the conference organizers, or look for *instructions for authors* on the website of the conference.
In my experience, the appendix will sometimes **not** be included in the page limit (8 pages + 10 pages of appendix is fine), but the appendix will not be published in the conference proceedings (if any). It will thus only be used during the review process. Therefore, you would want to fit important figures/tables in the main text, not in the appendix.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: In my experience, it depends; make sure to check the submission guidelines.
For example, from the top two database conferences, [SIGMOD 2017](http://sigmod2017.org/sigmod-call-for-research-papers/) research papers have the requirement "12 pages + 4 pages for bibliography/appendix", while [VLDB 2017](http://www.vldb.org/2017/submission_guidelines.php) states, "The maximum research paper length, inclusive of ALL material, is 12 pages. "
And, as you can see from the other answers, even within CS conferences, practices vary wildly. So, the only way to really know is to find the instructions for the conference you are targeting. If you cannot find specific instructions regarding an appendix, and cannot contact the organizers, you should probably assume that the page limit stated is strict and includes anything you might include in the paper, including appendices and references.
Upvotes: 0
|
2017/03/01
| 596
| 2,623
|
<issue_start>username_0: I received a book proposal review request from Elsevier. Despite some reasons to believe that it is credible, there are a few things that look suspicious to me:
1. A monetary compensation is offered. Is this common, and how does this work in practice?
2. The request is sent from a personal email account.
3. It says that I was suggested as an expert in the field, but in fact it is not closely related to mine.<issue_comment>username_1: Compensation for reviews is not common, but also not unheard-of. That in itself would not raise a red flag for me, and Elsevier is certainly a reputable entity in science publishing (despite their somewhat unfortunate role in the current struggle of academic publishers versus open access).
That you sometimes get invited to as an expert for fields that are not actually that closely related is also not extremely uncommon. The people that select reviewers for books are usually not experts in your field, so what appears to you as a significant difference in e.g., research approach or community may look like a mere technicality to them. You should decide for yourself whether you will be able to conduct a high-quality review despite being in a different field, and if not reject the review.
The only aspect of the request that I also find highly suspicious is that the request came from a personal email address. This alone would not be enough for me to outright discard the email as spam, but I would certainly not e.g., forward them my banking information before I don't get anything a bit more official than a mail from a GMail account that says that the person works for Elsevier.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: I was asked some time ago to review a book proposal by a leading academic publisher, and offered to choose between receiving some token monetary compensation or having them send me a few of their textbooks of my choice (I opted for the latter option and remember feeling quite happy when the "free" textbooks arrived :-) ). So yes, publishers offering payment seems not uncommon.
I do agree that the use of a personal email is suspicious and not consistent with professional email standards associated with large and respected organizations like Elsevier. It could be completely innocuous, maybe due to an employee with slightly rebellious tendencies who refuses to kowtow to his corporate culture and insists on using a gmail account, or it could be a scam, who knows. Caveat emptor - obviously do your due diligence before compromising any bank account information. (And let us know what you find!)
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]
|
2017/03/01
| 817
| 3,427
|
<issue_start>username_0: I have in a few days a scientific conference and I will present my work in the form of a poster. Now I am in the process of looking for models of scientific posters, Please who can help me find some example.<issue_comment>username_1: See <NAME>'s advice on designing conference posters. You can find it here: <http://colinpurrington.com/tips/poster-design>
For more examples than you'll ever want, see the comment above by <NAME>.
(I know we frown on link-only answers here, but Purrington's pages have been very stable for a very long time, and the advice is too lengthy even to try to summarize here.)
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: For "offline" resources:
**Senior members in your lab** Unless your advisor is in their very first year, there's likely to be people in your research group that have given posters before. (And if your advisor *is* in their first year, *they* probably have given a poster in the not so distant past.) Ask them if they have an example of a poster they've given. As a bonus, you can talk to them about what worked well when they gave the poster and what went poorly.
This is particularly a good idea if your supervisor has strong opinions/ideas about what posters should be like, or how they should be formatted/structured. By using an example from your group, there's less chance your advisor will tell you to completely reformat things when they see it.
**Others in your department** Even if your group is new/small and there isn't a person in the group who has done a poster, there's bound to be someone (multiple people, probably) in your department who have given a poster session. Ask around to people you know to see if they have an example poster. Even if the only people you know are first-years who haven't even done a poster themselves, the senior members of *their* groups probably have a poster or two lying around.
**Walls** If you walk the corridors of most scientific research buildings looking for them, you'll notice that scientific posters are a main feature, right up there with yellowing article reprints and seminar announcements. Posters (after journal articles) are one of the primary methods of scientific communication, and after poster sessions there's not much you can do with the things, besides stick them on blank spots on the walls to insinuate to your colleagues that you're being vaguely productive. Wander the corridors of your building (or other buildings in your department or related departments) browsing the posted posters, and feel free to whip out your cell phone camera to take a reference photo if you see one you like.
If you're feeling particularly gregarious, you could even try knocking on the doors close to what you think are particularly good posters, and seeing if the person whose poster it is would mind talking about it or their science.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: Ask senior members of your group or members of other groups in your university. Each university usually has a template that has the university logo, or center logo, that they will want you to use.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_4: Lots of scientific posters (all fields) are stored at F1000 posters (<https://f1000research.com/browse/posters?&selectedDomain=posters>). Some of them have been presented in scientific congress. Just keep in mind that these posters have not been peer-reviewed.
Upvotes: 1
|
2017/03/01
| 390
| 1,732
|
<issue_start>username_0: A few years ago I graduated from a master program at a university. Since I since then has been working mainly in my own company and with granted projects, I don't have so many references from work life or post university activities, even though it's four years since I graduated.
When I apply for grants and jobs I am often asked for a reference, preferably a professor (which I have in my former professor) or a supervisor (which I don't have, since I'm not employed at a company).
**How long is it "normal" to use your former professor as a reference when applying for grants and jobs?**<issue_comment>username_1: There is no hard limit, other than the professor being alive.
Generally, it is useful to include only references that are relevant and can express something about your current abilities. So, if a professor can say something meaningful and relevant about you, even after a decade or more, then you can include them as a reference.
If, however, your abilities and skills have significantly changed in the respective area (e.g. you gained substantially more experience in this particular field), then the reference is outdated, and it is better not to include them.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: I have been asked for recommendations from students immediately after a course ends to up to about 5 years later. Some times for graduate school applications, other times for job applications.
To be honest, I see it as part of the job and generally do not mind giving them. I agree that there is not really a hard time limit so long as the recommendation is relevant to your skill set or character. The best thing that you can do is just ask them directly.
Upvotes: 2
|
2017/03/01
| 870
| 3,211
|
<issue_start>username_0: Effectively as per the questions title, are there grants and fellowships for PhD students past the first year, but before candidacy? From what I have seen, most are intended for first year students (i.e. those with no more than twelve months of study), after candidacy has been achieved, or are finishing fellowships for the last semester of work. For example, the [Hertz Foundation says the following](http://hertzfoundation.org/dx/fellowships/faqs2.aspx#):
>
> We generally do not award fellowships to students who are already
> beyond their first year of graduate study except in cases of
> "exceptional leverage". Such awards are very rare—only three have
> been made in the past 10 years. (Leverage here means what difference
> the award of the Hertz Fellowship is likely to make in the kind,
> quality, and/or personal creativity of the student's graduate
> research.)
>
>
>
Which seems to be a fairly common theme. As such, I'm looking for answers in two parts:
1. Are there open grants and fellowships for PhD students past the first year, but before candidacy?
2. Are there field specific ones (computational social science or computational science & engineering) that may apply?<issue_comment>username_1: One example is the [National Physical Science Consortium](http://www.npsc.org/Applicants/Applicants/fellowshipinfo.html), emphasis mine:
>
> Eligibility:
>
>
> NPSC welcomes applications from any qualified U.S. citizen who has the ability to pursue graduate work at an NPSC member institution. **Applicants at any stage of their graduate program may apply, as long as they will be available to accept two summers of paid internship.** Those who already possess a doctoral degree are ineligible.
>
>
>
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: Yes. Several of the fellowship and scholarship mentioned in a previous question ([Options other than the NSF for PhD level grants?](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/64671/options-other-than-the-nsf-for-phd-level-grants/64715#64715)) are open to non-first year graduate students.
For example, [The EPA STAR Graduate Fellowship](http://www.epa.gov/research-fellowships), [The Ford Foundation through the National Academies](https://sites.nationalacademies.org/pga/fordfellowships/), [NSA Fellowships](https://www.nsa.gov/ia/academic_outreach/student_opportunities/), [Google Research](http://research.google.com/research-outreach.html#/research-outreach), and [The Data Incubator](https://www.thedataincubator.com/) all allow people to apply past the first year.
The NSA, Google Research, and Data Incubators Fellowships all target computer science. "The Ford Foundation seeks to increase the diversity of the nation’s college and university faculties by increasing their ethnic and racial diversity, maximize the educational benefits of diversity, and increase the number of professors who can and will use diversity as a resource for enriching the education of all students." The EPA Fellowships target environmental science, which could include computational science applied to studying the environment.
**Edit note November 2019:** The EPA no longer offers their fellowship program.
Upvotes: 1
|
2017/03/01
| 1,060
| 4,290
|
<issue_start>username_0: From time to time (presumably because I have an academic address, or am listed on a university web site) I get an e-mail like this: "My son will be in your city next month for two weeks. He is interested in your subject. I would like to hire you to tutor him. What are your fees?" I assume it is some sort of scam, since it does not mention what my city is, or what the subject of the tutoring is.
Does anyone know what happens to the naive academic who responds to this?<issue_comment>username_1: This is usually a version of a "babysitting scam", where some generous out-of-town person wants to pay you a royal ransom for some minor errand or babysitting someone you've never met. It goes a few different ways, but it's usually some version of asking for a quote of what it might cost, and then wanting to pay you in advance. They'll usually want to pay with some sketchy method like needing you to sign up for an account on some website (they'll try to steal personal/identity information or give you a virus to steal more info), or Western Union/Money Gram or PayPal.
They will then inevitably try some variety of overpaying you and asking for some bizarre method of returning them a portion of the over-payment, like "oh just send me a money order/check" or asking you to Western Union the money back to them (especially if they paid you by check or some other such method). The key is the money you return is non-refundable, but the method they paid you with can be stolen accounts/funding, or reclaimed/cancelled (bouncing a check or counterfeit check/money order). You end up with less than nothing, because the income is gone and your "refund" to them is gone too.
Sometimes they'll just ask for your banking information to "deposit the money with you", but they will need illegitimate info to do it like your bank account and login, or information that can be used to steal money from you (bank account and routing information that can be used for payments), etc. Sometimes there'll be some crazy reason.
They'll also often have variants where they are out of the country, have some weird imaginary legal issue they try to rope you into, claim they are in the military for similar reasons, etc. They could also try to deposit fake/stolen funds and then try to rope you into an accompanying scam where they try to shake you down as if you violated the law (they'll pretend to be investigators, police, or organized crime, depending on the situation/scammer).
Sometimes they want money, sometimes they just want to steal your personal information so they can steal from you or sell your identity to someone else.
I've seen the same base scam in business, where they instead want a quote for some large order, often with some urgency and willingness to pay a premium, or for hiring a consultant, etc. All the same base methods, just with a different 'hook' to get you in.
Just replying will only waste your time and ensure you get more emails as you'll likely get added to "known potential sucker" lists. The danger is getting drawn in to the web of lies they use to scam - some of which are stupidly obvious, and some of which are really quite clever and drawn out.
Upvotes: 7 <issue_comment>username_2: It's a form of the [advance fee scam](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advance-fee_scam). I handle the e-mail for a martial arts dojo and deal with that style of inquiry often. The scam is that they will be paying you via check and will "accidentally" pay you far too much. They then will ask that you kindly return the excess. What you don't know is that the first check will be bouncing and that because it's on a foreign bank it may take months for it to actually bounce. In the mean time they have already cashed your refund check and disappeared.
My answer to those people has always been is that "I would be delighted to teach their sons (or whoever they wrote about) but that I only deal in cash. Please have your driver bring the cash payment on the first visit. It will be $1000. Thank you." The scammers never respond back. At times I've been bored and don't ask for the cash right off. I instead string the scammer out a bit before dropping the hammer which is that their payment must be in cash. At that point they vanish.
Upvotes: 3
|
2017/03/02
| 700
| 3,009
|
<issue_start>username_0: I'm working on a paper with someone from a different institution. I'm first author.
The data analysis has been done, but there are several ways to interpret the result. I proposed a survey of the population under study as a way to distinguish between mechanisms and his first reaction was that he liked the idea.
I then came up with the survey and have done all the programming. My co-author knows the population involved (as he comes from there), so I'm reliant on his connections.
The problem is, he keeps putting it off, saying "next week, I have commitment X" (where commitment X changes according to week).
I've talked to various peers at my current institution (not involved with my study), and all agree a survey would be a good idea. So it's unlikely that a survey is bad in the first place.
There seems to be a hidden reason for why he keeps delaying the survey release (all he has to do is to ask his contacts to distribute the survey).
How should I approach him? I intend to tell him, basically, that I'm uncomfortable about this situation, that I have difficulty understanding the reasons behind the delay, and that if there are hidden reasons why he appears to be reluctant to roll out the survey, he should let me know. Is this is good idea, and is there anything else I can add?<issue_comment>username_1: Collaboration is a tricky issue. Just bear in mind that he is probably a busy person, and this may not be his number one priority. On my experience, I'd suggest moving on to different projects while waiting for the collaborator to do his job, and next time, only colaborate with people that you know will do the job on a more reasonable timeframe, if it bothers you that much.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: I have been on both sides of that situation, so I know how frustrated you must feel.
However, the reality is that the number of "collaborative" research that fizzle out and never get finished due to lack of interest, willingness to actually do something, or time is a lot more than it should be. I could give you multiple stories from my experiences but I won't bore you with the details. Let's just say that there are over a hundred hours of my time sleeping in various people's desks and email accounts that will never come to fruition.
Your collaborator may simply be busy, or the worst case scenario is that he isn't able to actually deliver on what he promised and is stalling because they are embarrassed and/or don't want to admit to it (I've had this happen). Regardless of the reason, this is not a good situation, for both you and your collaborator.
Face-to-face and/or heart-to-heart conversations have resolved such situations (in one way or another) for me, but I can't say that it works for everyone. Still, it wouldn't hurt to try. Just let them understand you simply want to know whether the project is still alive or it's time for you to either find other ways to get the project finished or simply move on.
Upvotes: 3
|
2017/03/02
| 281
| 1,228
|
<issue_start>username_0: I recently emailed a senior professor in a neighboring state, that I've never met, with some comments on his recent paper and pointing to some of my papers with related results. It turns out he was aware of my research and invited me to give a talk at his University. I promptly agreed, but never heard back from him. Should I assume that he gave up on the invitation, or should I write back to him "inviting myself"? Several months have passed since our email exchange.<issue_comment>username_1: It's certainly reasonable to send another email just saying that you would really like to visit, and that you would like to take up the old invitation. By far the most likely thing is that the professor in question just forgot, and will appreciate being reminded.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Since several months have passed, it is more than reasonable for you to email the professor once again. I have been in a very similar situation, and the professor was very cordial in his response and apologized for his lapse in memory. Professors are usually quite busy so they will not be offended if you restart the email exchange. Don't worry one bit, you'll be just fine!
Upvotes: 4
|
2017/03/02
| 319
| 1,339
|
<issue_start>username_0: I got accepted into the Phd program at a Top 3 university in US.
However, as I have an external scholarship (full funding for PhD study), I have to defer my admission to work at the scholarship sponsor research institute for one year.
I wrote to the department explaining my situation, but was informed that deferral is not allowed and I have to reapply next year.
Anybody had a similar experience as me? Is there a chance to appeal for my deferral request?
As I have my own fundings, technically speaking I do not occupy a quota in current cohort.<issue_comment>username_1: It really depends on the programs. The best bet is to contact as high up on the chain of command for each department to get the clearest answer. In many cases, explaining your situation could be more than enough to grant you the deferral. The lines are a little blurred as compared to undergraduate admissions, so try to contact the head of the PhD program and explain the situation to them. Or, contact the admissions director for the graduate studies department that the program is housed in. Best of luck.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: You have no 'rights' in this matter. You apply, they accept you or not, under their own terms. So all you can do is ask again, maybe giving fuller details of your situation.
Upvotes: 2
|
2017/03/02
| 698
| 3,164
|
<issue_start>username_0: For journal article, does the number of references one has for an original research work have an influence on the reviewer? Like if I have say 11 references, in such a case, will the reviewer take it for granted that my work is incorrect?<issue_comment>username_1: There won't be any hard minimum or maximum number of references that a reviewer will be looking for. In my particular field (engineering/robotics) and in my experience, 20 - 40 references seem to be common, though twice or half that will not necessarily raise any eyebrows. The most important factors are that the author is covering previous work sufficiently (covering keystone papers in their area of research, as well as recent similar work) while well establishing their current contribution, and that any included citations are relevant. Too many or too few papers beyond a reviewer's general expectation in their field will probably prompt a closer examination that these are upheld, but won't necessarily lead them to immediately conclude the work is incorrect. The correctness of your paper is an almost completely separate issue that should be recognizable by a reviewer who works in your field based on your paper content.
As a reviewer, rejections I've given due to lack references were because of specific missing references that, if considered, effectively invalidated the author's claim of novelty or reduced their stated contribution significantly.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: This will, as other people have mentioned, vary wildly by both field and the purpose of the paper itself. I will however convey a number of experiences I've had as both a reviewer and an author:
* I did once have a reviewer comment on a paper that I was submitting outside my field that my references section was "sparse". Which does indeed suggest that some reviewers come into a review with an expectation of a certain (and unknown) number of citations. It was not their only, or indeed their most substantial criticism, so I don't know how much impact it had on the final decision.
* I have docked papers I have been reading for not having enough references, but that is usually because they have made either an unsupported argument, or one where there is a sweeping assertion followed by very limited references. In these cases though, it's not as if I came in with this idea that they needed between 25 and 50 references or it's a rejection.
Note there are also some journal-level requirements - in my field (epidemiology) I mostly encounter this as a limit to the number of references outside review papers.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: "Number" is not an issue, it's "currency", for sure, and possibly (in my world, math) recognition of prior art/history. Certainly there's no algorithm that rejects an ms based on number of references. Rather, when I am asked to referee/review/offer-an-opinion-on an essay, if it expresses (explicitly or implicitly) ignorance of standard background, and/or ignorance of current events, then I have serious doubts, from the outset, about whether-or-not the author has done anything useful.
Upvotes: 2
|
2017/03/02
| 1,331
| 5,412
|
<issue_start>username_0: In the faculty that I am currently working on we have contacted a Professor who would be giving a workshop in my city. Because of that we have invited him for a meeting for discussing collaboration issues for making research in his area of expertise. Also he would be willing to give a lecture to the lecturers of our faculty about the current trends in his research area.
The question that I have is how to know if this lecturer will charge us for the lecture? It is in the field of Computer Science. If this is the case we need to make the necessary administrative paperwork to cover this expenses (my place of work is very bureaucratic by the way). This lecturer has not mentioned anything about charges so how we ask him nicely if he would charge anything for this meeting and lecture? also what would be the necessary arrangements that we should do in this case?<issue_comment>username_1: By lecture, do you mean a "talk"? I assume that would last below one hour?
I never have heard of a Professor charging for an invited talk. Especially, if you did not talk about it first. He might need a bus/taxi to get to the university. Therefore you might tell him to keep the tickets, and refund these.
If your university covers this, you might also invite him to lunch / dinner before or after the talk. This would also give further possibility for collaboration.
And if the talk is up to / over two hours, having a bottle of wine or two as a gift that you publicly give him right after the talk, might be appropriate, depending on the size of the audience.
Maybe ask administrative staff whether there is a budget for any of this? At my university we had a budget for all small expenses, where this would have fit in well.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: The usual way is to state explicitly in your invitation which costs you are going to cover. For example:
>
> Dear Professor X
>
>
> I would hereby like to formally invite you to give a seminar talk at our university on a topic of your choice. We will of course provide you with a hotel for your stay as well as cover your airfare and all other reasonable travel expenses.
>
>
> <NAME>
>
>
>
This way, it is clear to everyone what exactly you intend to pay for. If Professor X wants anything else, he will have to ask for it explicitly, and you can then choose whether you think that you want to pay for that as well or not, but at least you put out there what you expect to pay for.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: I understand you might be uncomfortable asking, "Will you do it for free?"
But if you can't really afford to pay him, tell him that: "I hope you can visit our institute and give a talk about your work while you're in town. I'm afraid our budget is extremely limited and doesn't extend to paying honoraria. But there's a high level of interest here in (name of field)."
If you can afford to pay, ask him how much you should set aside: "If you can spare the time to come to our institute to give a talk about your work, we would be thrilled to have you for a visit. Would date 1 or date 2 suit? If you are interested, could you give me an idea what an appropriate honorarium would be? This is my first time organizing a workshop of this type."
I don't think you should talk about travel expenses since he's going to be in your town anyway.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_4: Usually professors don't charge for lectures to other universities, at least I have not heard of such case. They may charge for lectures to commercial entities, but no, not to universities. The invitation to professor to present lecture at other university is a sign of appreciation/honor.
However, the **good** speakers are in high demand, so if you are not attractive destination for the speaker to come (e.g. low grade university inviting someone from well established university) the speaker will probably kindly decline due to lack of time. You have to understand - they get a lot of these invitations and will be selective where to go. But I am certain they will not demand payment.
Having said that, **the usual arrangement** for someone's invited lecture is the offer of covering the cost. Well known, respected and/or older professors may request perks, such as 1.st class airplane tickets (which may be more than you ever expected to pay :). I have heard for case, where professor replied "I will come, but I want 1.st class tickets", and the reply was "We apologize, but this is beyond our budget, so we thank you for your kind offer, but we cannot accept it."
Now, it depends on how eager the person in question is to travel. If you invite someone to EU from US, and offer them 2 days hotel costs + airplane ticket at an attractive location, many professors will grab the opportunity to free visit to Europe.
In some cases, the speakers will cover their costs by themselves, either because they have some kind of grants for exact this purpose (spreading the knowledge, etc), or if they are young, not very recognized in the field, and are eager to get invited talk on their CV.
Sometimes it pays off to invite the professor who is in town for some other event (e.g. conference, business meeting), then perhaps you can get away with only a bottle of wine and/or polite "thank you", but you also risk that he will not be available, since he has other work to do during his stay.
Upvotes: 1
|
2017/03/02
| 6,525
| 27,526
|
<issue_start>username_0: I teach math with about two years of experience now. In general I have found that all the cliches about graduate school teaching you "how to research but not how to teach" are true. But I have also found many great resources (at my institution, online, in print, etc.) that are helping me, over time, work through my teaching deficits.
...in all things but grading.
I struggle with many grading decisions: from small things, like grading individual homework problems, all the way up to life-changing things like evaluating master's degree defenses. What I lack is a coherent philosophy of grading that might motivate my various grading policies/strategies/choices.
Interestingly, I have not found good resources for this. Yes, my institution provides a tiny bit of guidance, but it is very broad. This forum contains a hundred or so questions tagged with "grading", which is a good start, but I wonder if there are resources that provide a more cohesive treatment of the subject.
I want to hear about theories of grading. I want principles which flow naturally from the theories. I want applications and strategies which build on the principles. I want to hear different viewpoints on the issues so I can evaluate their relative strengths and weaknesses as I come to understand my own thoughts better. In short, I want it all.
Do any such resources exist? Can anyone point me in the right direction? If these don't exist, why not?<issue_comment>username_1: One principle is that the instructor should aspire to grade in a way that results in the grade being most closely correlated with those aspects of the knowledge and skills being assessed that the instructor considers important.
As an example, it is a common belief among instructors of university level mathematics courses that exam questions should test conceptual knowledge rather than facility with arithmetic and other low-level calculations. For this reason, most instructors would take off only a very small number of points, or not take off any points, for a small error of arithmetic in an otherwise conceptually correct answer. However, some instructors might consider accuracy to be an important skill to test in and of itself, and may impose a heavy penalty of points for even small arithmetic errors. So you see, the grading function chosen by the instructor reflects that instructor's view of what's important. Decide in advance what's important to you, and grade accordingly.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: Having taught in both the US and the UK there are different philosophies associated with assigning grades. In the UK work is compared to a fixed set of marking criteria. This means that everyone could get A's or no one could get A's. In the US most grading is done on a curve such that a predetermined distribution is achieved.
In the UK some portion of the work is double (and in some cases tripled, quadrupled, ...) marked. This means that someone else independently marks the work and the two markers meet to discuss any discrepancies. This provides direct feedback on your marking and the learning is rapid. That said, the process is time consuming since it doubles the work load (plus the time to resolve discrepancies).
In the US, assigning grades is really a two step process. The first is dividing the work into groups of roughly equal quality. To me this is the hardest aspect and requires the grader to understand what is important in terms of learning outcomes. Once the groups are made one then needs to decide how much variation from the desired distribution is acceptable. Sometimes there are clear break points and a bimodal (or trimodal) distribution more than a continuous normal distribution.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: My experience as a grader (TA): Let's say there are four problems in the homework set. The professor has established how many points each problem is worth. First, I work the problems myself, consulting the solution key if necessary. Next, I start looking at some student work for Problem 1. When I encounter a solution that is completely off base, that's easy -- the score is 0. I try to find a couple of representative solutions of "not quite right" and "deserves *some* partial credit." I use those as reference points and come back to them as needed, to make sure my calibration is remaining constant -- especially if I get interrupted or if I get tired. It's easy to get tired if you're grading 50 to 100 submissions.
To check my calibration, I would go back and check the first 5 to 10 that I did, to make sure I hadn't slid in one direction or another as I went along.
Once in a while someone would use a completely different approach than what I used, and then I would have to put on my thinking cap to make sure it held water.
Similarly with exams.
In conclusion, if the problem is worth 3 points, it's helpful to hold onto a sample one-pointer and a sample two-pointer to use as reference points.
In terms of feedback written on the papers... I often wished I had some rubber stamps, such as "Does not follow," and "How is this germane?"
If there was an extensive calculation such as matrix manipulations, I would circle the first value that was in error. Then I would assume it was correct and check if the subsequent calculations, and logical conclusions, followed. If so, I would take off a bit but not a whole lot.
If there were multiple errors in one problem, I would look at the paper from the opposite point of view. Instead of looking for meaningful errors for which to subtract points, I would ask myself, is there anything of value in this paper? If so, partial credit.
If the student was struggling in general, I would make a point of looking for something on his paper that I could fairly praise. It is so discouraging to get back an assignment with nothing but negative feedback on it.
I learned most of this by grading alongside more experienced TAs. The rest, by doing.
When I was grading technical writing papers, I would provide feedback on drafts and ask the student to make some improvements and hand it in again. Then in the final version I would mainly pick out some aspects to provide positive feedback on. I figured, this would help the student have a clear idea of what I was looking for, in preparation for the next assignment.
I was looking for growth in writing, ability to write a good outline (which I required that they hand in), ability to self-edit, ability to respond to developmental guidance. I didn't see it as my job to separate the A's from the B's or the C's.
Perhaps this is not as theory-based as you were requesting. But it worked for me.
---
My mother wrote up a true story about a professor or hers who looked for succinct essay answers. He said he graded by tossing the projects (each of which was neatly stapled) down a staircase. In other words, he gave the best grades to the shortest papers (assuming they all addressed the question to a reasonable extent, which they did, since it was a graduate level course).
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: When I was teaching maths in secondary school, I ran into an interesting issue: I was too precise in calculating grades. (our grades range from 1 to 10)
This might have been be due to the fact that I was a **math** teacher. I would have a very precise weighing of the individual part of the tests and the end grade would be rounded from an indefinite number of decimals to the nearest first decimal.
Until the moment I sat in a meeting to discuss the grades per student by all teachers. A PE teacher would adjust his grade by a full point on the fly to allow a student to have a nicer list... The contrast with my precision made me rethink my grading.
I ended up with giving whole grades and not going below 4. My reasoning:
1. Any weak student receiving less than a 4 would hardly be able to compensate a 1, 2 or 3 and a 4 would already fail them. A strong student would be able to compensate a 4 (a 7 or 8 would be sufficient).
2. I graded the exercises separately, assigning points to each exercise in ratio to the other exercises. Calculated the sum of all the points and made grade 'buckets'. E.g.: 0-20 points => 4, 20-30 points => 5, 30-40 points => 6 ... 80-90 point => 10
The effects
1. Students never felt locked into a bad year grade due to one or two low (<4) grades
2. Less 'living on the edge' by students: "If I can get a 5.75 or higher, my year's average username_6 be 5.5 so I username_6 pass"
3. A 10 was reachable even if you made a couple of mistakes
4. No fake precision; I didn't feel comfortable with comparing a student's skills in geometry to the student's skills in algebra and expressing the difference in one decimal.
5. Less discussions with students about their grades, in most cases getting a few more points for an answer would not change their grade.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: There are a couple of restrictions:
1. Everyone must be graded equally.
2. A better answer should get a more points.
These two do leave one with quite many degrees of freedom, but satisfying even these two is not trivial.
My methodology is as follows:
1. Solve the problem I am about to grade.
2. Start reading the answers. Try to understand them.
3. After I feel that I understand most of the answers (there are no more surprising answers), start using the red pen. Mark errors, problems and omissions; maybe write comments to the extent warranted by the context. Give the obvious zero points or full points as well.
4. Come up with criteria for giving points.
5. After having marked several answers with errors etc., and maybe only after going through all the answers with a red pen, I start grading them. I postpone any difficult answers and put them to the bottom of the pile. I keep track of all ad hoc scoring criteria I come up with (known as a rubric).
6. Done.
Grade one problem at a time for all students; then tackle the next one. This helps with consistency.
This algorithm tries to make the scores as consistent as possible.
For the scoring criteria, I try to divide the question into separate and distinct components, so that it is possible for a student to fail any of them while succeeding at the others. This is not always possible.
Depending on the answers, I give out criteria which are worth a point (6 points for a complete answer are common hereabouts) and then simply calculate how many the student got. Sometimes, this takes the form of assuming full score and giving negative points for missed portions of proof or for misunderstood concepts.
I usually do not give out penalties for writing complete nonsense in the answer, but sometimes I do give a maximum; say, a maximum of 5 out of 6 points if the response equals a false claim about continuity.
This all is mostly based on folklore (discussion with more experienced lecturers) and on own thinking.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_6: I have some experience in this. My view is that grading should be chiefly about *fairness* and *consistency*.
By fairness, I mean the exam should have enough questions to be marked out of 100. It should also be constructed so that the results username_6 form a bell curve around 60, for arguments sake, with the first standard deviation at 12.5
In this way, students can be compared against each other. The actual marks can then yield a "z score". This might look like 58 ± 10, meaning the test was actually harder than normal, but quite bunched. On the other hand It might look like 70 ± 15 which would indicate too easy a test, on average, but too many found it too easy.
In both cases, this z-score can be used to "standardise" the results.
so in the hard case (58 ± 10), someone who got 63 (above average), would get:
(60) + (63 - 58)\*12.5/10 = 66
in the easy test, someone who got 63 would get:
60 + (63 - 70)\*12.5/15 = 53.
This also helps fairly align groups of students from one school compared with another, provided they all sit one common exam - once.
The last point is about consistency. Was last years test harder than this years ? This is important to keep standards consistent across years, so that dilution or excessive rigour is also protected against. This is more political, but interestingly tends to be the case in more communist countries.
In cases where i've marked lab work for 20 students at university, I username_6 get the books and spend considerable time making a rough ordered list from best to worst. I username_6 start with the best work, and assign that the top mark, then work my way down, using the best one as the benchmark. The mark username_6 be pencilled in, just in case I need to move things around as I work through. Then I'll make a final run through to assign final scores.
One final thought - I always give full marks for the correct answer (in maths), regardless of showing the "working".
However it is in the students interest to show working, because marks can be awarded in this case, depending on how far through mistakes were made.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_7: Rubrics
-------
When developing an assignment, I always want a rubric to go with it. A rubric tells how you to grade the different results you would expect to see from a student.
Rubrics also help keep you on-topic for grading, to ensure that appropriate weights are applied to each of the areas. For example, a paper assigned in a literature class should demonstrate, with good grammar, that a student has read and understands the work, and is able to provide an analysis of the work at the appropriate level. A rubric here might assign point values to each of those areas: grammar, writing level, demonstration of content in the work, and literary analysis. An algebra assignment might use a rubric to allow an instructor to weight between using the right formula or procedure vs getting the arithmetic right. An assignment for a programming 101 course might weigh between stylistic concerns like comments and naming choices, correctness (does the program do what it's supposed to), and higher-level concepts targeted by the assignment (did they use an array with 10 elements like you told them, or did they declare 10 separate variables?).1
Rubrics keep you objective. They help you defend against charges that you prefer some students over others. A good rubric username_6 allow you to objectively demonstrate why a particular assignment received the grade it received.
When I first started building my own rubrics for assignments, I quickly figured out that I'm kind of bad at it. A rubric tries to anticipate the kinds of things a students username_6 do, to assign the appropriate results, and a new instructor just can't anticipate everything. I eventually learned **NOT** to build the full rubric in advance. You should know enough to have the category areas for the rubric done ahead, but how things break down within those categories isn't always clear at the outset, especially the first time through an assignment for a new instructor. Instead, I username_6 rough grade a few or several assignments, and then use my findings from those first few attempts to flesh out my rubric. At this point, I always go back and re-check those assignments using the rubric, once it's written.
Sometimes I'll find something unexpected late in the grading such that I need to revise a rubric. This means going back and re-checking papers with the updated rubric, because, again, objectivity is the goal. In spite of this, I view building the rubrics as a time-saving measure. It lets me grade by looking for more specific things in the assignment, rather than subjectively evaluate quality. The specificity really helps with being fast.
Eventually, you want to be confident enough in your rubrics that you can publish them to students (though not everyone agrees this is a good idea), so that students can also have a clearer idea of what you expect. In some subject areas, I've seen rubrics given to students to use as peer-review guides. Good students, with good rubrics, can produce the same grade that would be assigned by the instructor in a peer-review situation.
---
1 *As an aside, I remember being told in my own first programming class that a full **half** of the grade was dedicated to stylistic concerns, rather than correctness or assignment objective. Today I better understand some of the reasons for this: force students to develop good habits early, have some easier "soft" points to buffer the grades (see [this Erno de Weerd's answer](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/85891/how-do-teachers-learn-to-grade/85918#85918) for why that's a good thing), force students to spend time in design instead of just jumping into code, and because naming and style really is that important to programmers.*
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_8: This answer is about resources for understanding grading philosophies and how those can be practically enacted. This was my interpretion of the OPs main question.
>
> Do any such resources exist? Can anyone point me in the right
> direction? If these don't exist, why not?
>
>
>
One book that came highly recommended to me was *McKeachie's Teaching Tips* (<http://www.cengage.com/c/mckeachie-s-teaching-tips-14e-mckeachie>
) It includes three chapters on assessments and grading:
"Assessing, Testing, and Evaluating: Grading is Not the Most Important Function", "Good Designs for Written Feedback for Students", and "The ABCs of Assigning Grades".
The book stresses that the choice of assessment and non-grade feedback are just as important as the grading strategy. The philosophy and practice of these items should be complementary.
Other potential resources (which I have not read personally) are: the chapter "Grading Practices" in *Tools for Teaching* by <NAME> and the book *Effective Grading: A Tool for Learning and Assessment* by <NAME> Anderson.
In addition, you may want to google "grading strategy for teaching and learning", since many major universities have centers for teaching and leaning which include grading ideas and resources for faculty.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_9: Multiple interesting comments (including content in answers) on this one. e.g., I liked this part from <NAME>'s comment:
>
> There is no guide. Do what feels right and communicate it clearly so your students understand.
>
>
>
The "question" section asked these questions:
>
> Do any such resources exist? Can anyone point me in the right direction? If these don't exist, why not?
>
>
>
Those are excellent questions to which I am not directly answering. However, I do address the topic of the title question, "How do teachers learn to grade?"
Growing up, I heard that before a person becomes a teacher, they go through a process of being a "student teacher" where they learn things like this.
Well, let me tell you my experience. (I imagine this username_6 raise some eyebrows.)
A college reached out to me and asked me to become an instructor. I agreed. I don't recall ever being taught how to assign grades. So I did things by trial and error.
It turns out that the college department I joined was failing in multiple ways. The drop-out rate was high. For those that didn't drop out, the department chair taught courses and gave students solid As, but they obtained degrees without sufficient skill/knowledge. I decided to do something about this, and I gave lower grades when I determined they were deserved.
Sometimes, grades would end up being too low. A student once said that I took the Gandalf approach to making tests. ("You shall not pass!") I recall the time in my second set of classes where the top grades on the midterm were something like an 82, a 76, and a 58. Clearly I didn't want to flunk the vast majority of the class (which might have triggered numerous more drop-outs). My tests were not too hard: The intent of this department was to train people well enough to take industry certifications, and those were slightly harder than what I gave. So I had to be stern and have them rise to the challenge.
At the end of every quarter, after final exams were collected and graded, I looked at the grade of every student. Then I would make adjustments to the value of assignments and tests, as needed, so that the final grades made sense to me. I had some students who were clearly trying the hardest, succeeding at tests the best, and learning the most. I figured they ought to get an A, and any deviation from that would be a failure of the assessment system, not a failure of the student. So I made sure the people who deserved top marks got them, and I looked at the grades of every other student and thought about what their grade looked like and how well they were learning the material. I made sure that nobody got a lower grade than I thought they deserved, and the vast majority of the students got exactly what grade I thought they deserved. If that wasn't true, then I adjusted some assignment/test weights equally across the board.
In the end, I was usually satisfied with every student's grade, but sometimes a couple of students would end up with a grade that was a notch (or maybe two) higher than I intended, and I couldn't adjust their grade without making someone else look wrong (giving someone else a grade lower than deserved). In those cases, I just figured that the student, whom I thought was performing a bit low, must've actually done a bit better than I thought, and so I finalized things with them getting a slightly higher grade than I would have thought. (I figured that even if a student got answers right due to luck, I had no grounds to penalize them.)
There was some grumbling about people not getting solid A's as easily, and the increased workload I may have been expecting, and tests being much harder. Nobody ever actually challenged a grade of mine, or asked me why they got the grade that they did.
I view the results of my efforts as entirely positive. Grades were doing a better job of reflecting reality. I feel like I improved things as much as possible without causing so much student frustration as to skyrocket the dropout rate. Actually, as my involvement increased (particularly as I led the department, since the department chair left within 90 days of my start), drop-outs happened less. More accuracy, stronger resulting students, and better critical numbers all seemed like good things.
I do recall the college president speaking to the instructors, showing that too many As were being given out. In the entire college, over half of all grades were As, and most of the rest were Bs. He told us to make such good grades harder to get. (I happily thought about how I was doing exactly that.) Besides that one point of instruction, I don't recall other teaching about how to assign the final grades. There were some guidelines that had to be followed (relative weights documented on the syllabus, rubrics for some specific college-wide assignments), but we still had some flexibility (which I definitely utilized) and ultimately it was up to the instructor's authority to determine what made sense.
So, in my case, the answer was largely trial-and-error (but fixing the errors before the finalized grades got posted). I'm sure that at another university I've been a part of, graders had specific rubrics about everything and they had to follow those very closely, and be able to justify how every grade fit within the rubric they were assigned to, with much less flexibility.
Like [another answer of mine](http://academia.stackexchange.com/a/85909/30772), the ultimate conclusion is that specifics vary **A LOT** between different organizations (including different institutions, and possibly between different departments. Different instructors are very likely to have significantly different experiences. Although I'm sure people have written books on the subject (as well as all kinds of other subjects on the planet), that doesn't mean that instructors actually go through any sort of centralized/standardized training in practice. I know that the state I live in has some standardized test for teachers of Kindergarten through 12th grade, but ironically, there can be a lot more variance in the higher education.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_10: >
> **I had some students who were clearly trying the hardest, succeeding at tests the best, and learning the most. I figured they ought to get an A**
>
>
>
This part of another answer deserves to be highlighted. While I'm strongly for objective grading, we must realize that most educational institutes and societal expectations compare grades between courses, and some teachers close more eyes to serious conceptual errors than others, so I think fairness requires us to ultimately assign grades that convey to others the level of mastery of the course content that we feel the students have.
This has two implications. I personally feel it is necessary to give raw scores for assignments and tests that reflect objectively how much the students grasp the course content. However, I equally gladly adjust the final grades (maintaining the relative order) that would end up in their academic records so as to give others the right impression. For example, if we teach a course that involves much more difficult concepts than the average course, then it makes no sense to give a B to some student who normally achieves A+ in ordinary courses and has put in the same hard effort into this course, just because the raw score says so, since this would only give other people the incorrect impression due to not knowing the relative difficulty of such a course.
Ultimately, I think that one should give a grade that one can defend as being exactly what the student deserves to get on his/her academic record, but at the same time give detailed feedback totally apart from the grade, so that the students know precisely what they know and what they do not know. That pedagogical component of grading is far too often lacking, especially in mathematics, because a lot of graders faced with an incoherent answer try their best to figure out what the student means and even attempt to patch a fundamentally flawed answer, giving more credit than is usually due. This results in the students rarely aware of their mistakes, and worse still some of them realize (and tell others) that they can get away with handwaving.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_11: There are some great answers here so i'll try and be more direct about the question "how do teachers learn to grade?".
We learn to grade from observation, implementation, and feedback. It's crucial to see how others have marked in your subject area to get an idea of what is top level, mid level, etc. From there you can mark work and ask another teacher to take a look at some items and give you feedback which you can use when you mark the rest.
If this isn't an option and you're really flying by wire, then grouping work into piles based on a quick look "Good", "Average", "Improvement required" and then from there you can make each group into 3 piles of "top level, mid level, low level" and assign grades A\*- Ungraded (or however it is you do it at your end!). SHOW THE STUDENTS EXEMPLAR WORK. I cannot stress this enough! If they don't know what amazing work looks like, how username_6 they know where they are? If you show them "This is a grade A item from a similar question last year!" then they can understand your expectations.
Upvotes: 0
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<issue_start>username_0: I have demonstrated that some of the technologies derived from our research are marketable; I have offered services based on them to industry customers and have been paid for that. So as academic research group, I have received income, but which can only be used to buy lab equipment mostly and not for personal use (salary complement, a new mobile phone, etc). Therefore I am thinking to create a spin-off, but the policies of our university in that case do not allow income to go directly to the researchers, so that I feel a bit frustrated about that. From the other side, I can not create a company and manage it in my free time since my contract does not allow to do that, and all technology derived from my research belong to the company. This is a private university and very young (15 years) and there are not many cases like mine. So my plan is to go and talk directly with the main head and tell them I want to create this spin-off, since this will be good for the university, its reputation, and so on, but that I want to receive some part of the benefits in terms of personal (for me) income. For doing this I would like to give them concrete examples that this works in other universities, since I have heard this situation is typical in other academic contexts, etc. Therefore I wonder if you know of concrete and specific examples of spin-offs from universities, where the university allows the researchers to earn some money derived from the incomes.<issue_comment>username_1: I think [this one](http://www.antoptima.ch/site/en/aboutus/who.html) should count: It's called Ant-Optima and, as the description suggest, is a spin-off of a rather well known AI research lab affiliated with the University of Lugano, Switzerland.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: The policy at my university for managing patent licensing fees and the like, which is somewhat distinct from a spin-off but somewhat conjoined - for example, you could start a spin-off that then licenses the patent, or find a company interested, etc.
8. Division of Patent Royalties
a) All monetary proceeds from the commercialization of University-owned inventions are the property of the University or its assignee. The University or its designee will collect and distribute royalties, fees, equity interests, or dividends to inventors and the University in accordance with the procedures established by the University.
(1) The University or its designee will deduct the costs of obtaining and maintaining legal protection, for each invention, to arrive at “adjusted income” unless other arrangements, agreed to by all parties that share in the income, are made by the relevant branch campus, research unit or program in advance of the expense and agreed to with the OC. Such arrangements may include contracted marketing, licensing and business development. In such cases, any agreed upon expenses will be deducted to arrive at adjusted income.
(2) The Office of Commercialization will deduct twenty percent (20%) from adjusted income and the remainder will be “net income.” This deduction is directed toward covering the expenses (excluding direct patent expenses) for administering the OC and provides initial funds for patent prosecution for other inventions without obvious commercial partners.
(3) Net income will be distributed according to the following schedule.
University’s portion of the share will be distributed as follows: 30% to the University, 20% to the college and department (or relevant branch campus, research unit, or Program when appropriate) to be equally split between the two
```
Cumulative Net Income Inventor/Contributor University
$1-$10,000 100%
Above $10,000 50% 50%
```
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: [University spinoffs](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_spin-off) are quiet common, although setting them up can be quite complex. There seem to be [reviews of the process](https://timreview.ca/article/857) and lists of [successful ones](http://blog.ventureradar.com/2015/12/08/the-top-10-u-s-university-spin-offs/). Some of the benefits are described in this [Nature article](http://www.nature.com/nmat/journal/v5/n12/full/nmat1790.html). Spin offs are not just limited to the US, [UK spinoffs](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/industry/11625044/The-surprising-success-of-Britains-university-spin-outs.html) have also been very successful.
As an example, [<NAME>](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Boyer) progressed up the academic ranks at UCSF from 1966 to 1991. He also co-founded [Genentech](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genentech) in 1976 and served as its vice president. While I cannot easily dig up anything that says he received a salary, royalties, or a stake in the company, he did donated $10,000,000 to Yale in 1990.
[<NAME>](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Loren_Mauldin) developed [Lycos](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lycos) while at CMU. He left his faculty position to become the founder and chief scientist at Lycos, but maintained an adjunct position. Again I didn't find anything about his ownership stake or salary, but most adjunct professors do not retire to their own cattle ranch at age 50.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: Here is the Duke Policy:
<https://provost.duke.edu/wp-content/uploads/FHB_App_P.pdf>
Relevant exerpts:
Section IV, Part C: "Inventions resulting from research or other work conducted by University employees in whole or in part on University time or with significant use of University funds or facilities shall be considered the property of the University."
Section V, Part C: All income derived from inventions falling within Article IV, Section C shall be distributed in accordance with the following rules:
1. ...
2. The University will then pay and distribute the income remaining after payment of direct expenses in the following manner:
a. income from $0 to $500,000:
(1) fifty percent (50 %) thereof to the inventor;
(2) ten percent (10 %) thereof to the inventor's laboratory until, in the discretion of the President after consultation with the Chancellor or the Provost, this distribution equals the maximum amount which can reasonably be expended in that laboratory, after which any excess shall be added to and distributed as a part of share in accordance with V.C.2.a.(4) below;
(3) ten percent (10 %) thereof to the inventor's department/organizational unit;
and
(4) thirty percent (30%) thereof to be directed to the school of the
inventor’s primary appointment.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_5: Just to add another university to the list, Carnegie Mellon University has an [entire department](https://www.cmu.edu/cttec/company-creation/index.html) dedicated to managing spinoffs. The previous link ([here again](https://www.cmu.edu/cttec/company-creation/index.html)) lists a number of successful spinoff companies, as well as a brief blurb on each, with occasional links to more detail. They also have an extensive list of [forms, policies, disclosures, and other resources](https://www.cmu.edu/cttec/resources/index.html) that you may want to reference when speaking with your university. You may find that you can save a lot of time by simply using these forms and procedures rather than starting from scratch.
Upvotes: 1
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