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<issue_start>username_0: I am working on my master thesis in software engineering. I am going to present the idea of my thesis in a hackathon (startup competition), so most probably, we will make a team and develop a minimum viable product based on my thesis.
The question is:
**Can I mention to this minimum viable product as the validation of my thesis?**
Or it would be considering as plagiarism since i have not developed it alone, but in a team.<issue_comment>username_1: I think that if you are able at your level in your career to convince others to work on your own projects, be them academics or practitioners, you definitively deserve recognition. Let me elaborate my view:
* a MS degree is NOT supposed to be research-intensive. That's PhD work.
* MS dissertations typically either summarize other's people work, or provide limited original work on top of other's people work.
* in case there is original work being developed, it is guided by the student's supervisor, and mostly executed by supervisor's team composed by research scientists/postdocs/PhDs.
A MS thesis is NOT an individual's homework. Even research at the highest levels is almost never done individual - I find it surprising that us faculty perpetrate the fictitious nineteenth century lone-genius narrative. I authored hundreds of papers, and the only work that bears my only name are my MD and my PhD thesis. And that's only because of the dissertation rules that were imposes to me - in a dissertation, the student is forced to relegate other's people contribution in the "acknowledgments", when they really are co-authors.
So if a MS student picks his own topic, and he/she self-assembles his own team to develop it and complete it rather than following semi-blindly the supervisor's (or her/his assistant's) direction, he/she should be highly praised. That's not plagiarism, that is leadership/entrepeneurial attitude at a very early stage.
Of course, just as in any academic work, you should refer to other people's contribution. In this case, you should make it clear you brought up the idea and encouraged others to collaborate with you, and try to assess in the most objective manner what is your own contribution, and what is not.
EDIT: thanks for the first upvote. I believe the downvotes were due to my first, short, in-your-face version of the answer. Hope my point is clear now.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_2: Strictly speaking it is not plagiarism to mention this minimum viable product in your thesis. That said, however, there are two considerations that require further attention; first, though, a point of clarification concerning "plagiarism":
Per [Oxford University Plagiarism Guidelines](https://www.ox.ac.uk/students/academic/guidance/skills/plagiarism?wssl=1), "Plagiarism is the presentation of someone else's work or ideas as your own.[...]by incorporating it into your work without full acknowledgement"
There are many forms of plagiarism, some intentional, and some unintentional, but while varied, plagiarism refers to a practice of attribution concerning some intellectual work; plagiarism is not however automatically conferred by a mode of authorship. Simply because a project, as your hackathon represents, involved a group does not preclude your ability to cite that project, properly attributing and crediting the efforts and works of each contributing group member. Such an instance of a group project, one that is directly instigated by a lecture presentation that you made would be permissible to cite as a project with discrete elements and scope. Similarly it would be irregular to cite the entire group in reference to the lecture you made.
Any work that is relevant in scope, or impact, to an intellectual endeavor or to an academic end arguably must be cited, regardless of whether it is convenient; the point is that it could be argued that leaving out the group project, as in not mentioning it at all, would constitute an instance of plagiarism.
Given the scope of your thesis and your stated acknowledgment that the lecture presentation you made and the group project are relevant to that end, you should acknowledge both, including contributors/collaborators.
Per internationally recognized [ISO7144](http://www.iso.org/iso/en/CatalogueDetailPage.CatalogueDetail?CSNUMBER=13736&ICS1=1&ICS2=140&ICS3=40) standard, to varying extents, a thesis generally is a theoretical, research-based, or clinical work that is prepared with the aim of demonstrating its creators qualifications.
While your project is important and relates to your theoretical work and research (and as such should be cited with credit to all participants), your project represents an instance of a theory you've developed, relating thus to your presentation in turn; in the same way that it would be difficult to submit a project that was merely practical, lacking research, as the thesis itself, it would follow that the project, which acts a supporting instance of your theory, would not undermine the research you conducted or the theory you promote.
Simply because there are collaborators on a project inspired by your research is insufficient by any count to be considered unfair or unoriginal work to the whole thesis.
Ultimately only you can know the extent to which any of this applies, but keep in mind many academic works are the fruit of collaborations that may or may not be part of a much larger researcher's canon or research field without rendering the whole of his research a group activity.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: I believe it would be fine and acceptable as long as in your thesis writing you name who helped you and how they helped you.
I doubt anyone will think less of your thesis for having people help you. As long as it is still clear that you did a lot of work yourself... this team isn't completely doing your project and thesis for you!
You could ask your thesis advisor to be certain.
Many PhD students hire research assistants to help them code software engineering projects.
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: I got an offer for a tenure-track assistant professor position in USA, Department of Engineering. The university national ranking is between 35th and 65th at the US News website. I was offered a single PhD, fully supported for 2 years (partial support for the remaining 3 years) and then I was asked how much I need for equipment. I have two questions:
1. Should I ask for a second PhD or a post-doc (I think for 1 year)? Some people told me to get a PhD since supervising a post-doc does not really count much for getting Tenure, while it matters a lot if one is mentoring PhDs. Other people say: get a Post-doc, he/she will be much more productive and he/she will get you papers out fast, and your mentoring effort will be on the PhD. What is your suggestion?
2. I am actually also debating if I should also try to ask for a third person (in that case surely a PhD) since I am not asking too much money as for equipment (just computing cores in the supercomputer). And I need workforce since I have various good research ideas. Would I sound too greedy?
So basically, should I ask for a total of 3 persons (2 PhDs + 1 post-doc or rather 3 PhDs?) or 2 persons (2PhDs or rather 1 Phd + 1 Post-Doc?)?<issue_comment>username_1: There are a number of factors to consider.
PhD students take an indeterminate amount of time to finish. Committing yourself to getting funding to cover the last "few" years for 2 or 3 PhD students is a stress you may not want your first year.
The cost to a department of a PhD student and Post doc can be vastly different. In some cases a PhD student means allocating a student from a general pool directly to you, such that there is no change in the schools budget. In other cases the stipend, tutuion, and fees all show up on the school budget. In other cases the number of PhD students may be limited (e.g., the department may not attract lots of good students) in which case a PhD student is way more "expensive" then a post doc. You ideally want to ask for whatever is cheapest (which includes money and political capital), for the department.
Another thing to consider is what is typical for a startup package. Also what can you justify. Often startup package negotiations are between the department chair and the dean. While it may seem like you are negotiatin with the chair, you are often equipping them with the information to battle the dean on your behalf.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: The advantage of a postdoc is that s/he is more independent, so you invest less and gain more. Also a postdoc can help you set up a lab, if you are going to have a lab. If there are experiments that require having someone in the lab at odd hours, you can take turns covering -- that can be a big plus. And you may publish some papers together -- that will help you both build your careers.
If you had asked, one postdoc or one (or two) PhD students, that would be trickier to advise on, without a lot more information. But in your situation, you get the fun of a PhD student regardless of which scenario you go with.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: You should ask the department chair. As username_1 said, the department chair will want to negotiate with administration to bring as many resources as possible into the department. The chair can help you figure out what resources you can get. The chair can also tell you about the importance of PhD supervision to your tenure case.
Random people on the internet do not know your institution's goals and funding situation. The department chair does know.
Upvotes: 1
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<issue_start>username_0: I am trying to write a research papers that applies the [ELK stack](https://www.elastic.co/products) to visualise social media data (twitter API). How can I make sure that my work was not done by someone else before? I searched in different repositories for the two titles but did not find any paper that deals with them combined. How can I assure my work is contributing in that area?
My professor is really busy person outside the campus and I can't meet him regularly so emails is the only way that I keep him informed about the progress, once I asked this question he answered, "we'll get the answer when conference reviewers send you the feedback."
Isn't that too late? How should I proceed?<issue_comment>username_1: The only thing you can do to ensure that your contribution is original, i.e., nobody has done the same thing before, is **extensive literature research**.
Use Google Scholar or Scopus to search for keywords related to your field and try to find something similar. You will notice that there is only so much literature that is closely related to your topic. If you are thorough, you should be able to say if you have done something original.
Your advisor doesn't seem to be keen on talking to you regularly. In the case that you want to continue working for him, you should probably do the literature research, write the article, send it to your advisor for corrections and hand it in. I doubt your advisor will take much time to correct your article, so you should have more experienced colleagues read your article before sending it to him. If he agrees, submit it to a journal and wait for the outcome.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: >
> [...] once I asked this question he answered, "we'll get the answer when conference reviewers send you the feedback."
> Isn't that too late?
>
>
>
Strictly speaking, the answer is no: you can always resubmit the paper to another conference.
However, arguably, this way of delegating your job of doing a proper literature research to the reviewers is both **inefficient** and **harmful**. Inefficient because there's a chance that the reviewers do not tell you all relevant references, and you will have the same issue when you resubmit the paper somewhere else. Harmful because you will communicate the impression that you didn't do your job properly. Based on this impression, you will have an even harder time getting the paper accepted when the same reviewers read the paper again for another conference.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: To address you concern that it is too late once it has been submitted to a conference.
**Acceptance**: Conference reviews are not the be all and end all. Getting accepted does not make it a good or correct paper. It does not mean that the paper makes a novel contribution. Acceptance reflects the *views*, *knowledge* and *biases* of the reviewers. This type of peer review is useful from the view that it is a a final last check on paper quality, novelty, etcetera. before being put out in the wild to see if your ideas are useful/deepen understanding/correct.
Therefore, you should only rely on the reviewers as a last line of defense against publishing something non-innovative, etcetera. and do a thorough literature search beforehand. You can never be sure, of course. Some authors put "to the best of our knowledge" before making claims of novelty.
**Rejection**: If you are rejected because it is not seen as novel is not as detrimental as you might think. Firstly, the next time you submit to a conference you might get ignorant but positive reviewers, or the reviewer who thought it was not novel may be someone who thinks everyone is copying them.
Therefore, if it is rejected for not being novel you should not worry too much. Most likely your paper might claim to be the first to do X and Y, but another paper already does X and Y. However, X and Y might be a very broad general contribution. Perhaps the existing work does X and Y using method M1 whilst yours uses M2. Or perhaps existing work makes a more specific contribution than X and Y, X1 and Y1, whilst yours makes X2 and Y2 and both pieces make contributions that could be described as X and Y. In other words, you would need to rephrase how your work is different by making comparisons on the specific details. Now, if the specific details are also the same (never seen this happen, personally), you can at least do a little bit more research to make it different.
To summarise, even if after doing an extensive literature search (which is necessary to make a contribution) you can always adjust how you sell your work (which is sufficient to make a contribution).
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_4: Tactic #1: Keep up with the literature
======================================
I once wrote [a blog post on this topic](http://www.davidketcheson.info/2011/10/27/searching-scientific-literature.html); here is the summary:
* Use search engines, especially Google Scholar
* Link forward through the literature
* Learn how to do effective keyword searches
* Use review articles
* Use RSS or email notifications for new journal issues
* Check preprint servers (like arXiv) and key author websites
The details are in the post linked above.
Tactic #2: Talk to people
=========================
Talk to everybody you can about your research topic. Ask them what they know about related research. Do this at your university, but especially at conferences or when you visit other institutions. When you have new results, email your close colleagues about them. Once you know a few people, this approach becomes even more effective (and much more efficient) than #1, since you are leveraging your colleagues' collective knowledge of the literature.
Upvotes: 3
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<issue_start>username_0: I recently received the following invitation to act as a reviewer for an unknown journal. Is it ok to just ignore it?
>
> **Subject:** Invitation to Review Manuscript for Asian Journal of
> Current Research
>
>
> Dear Colleague,
>
>
> 1. I am approaching you with the peer-review request of the below mentioned manuscript, submitted in Asian Journal of Current Research
> Title: X I would be grateful if you would kindly find some time to
> review the above mentioned manuscript and send your valuable comments
> within 10 calendar days (13 Mar’2017). Abstract of the manuscript is
> available in this link (<http://[]>). If you require the file as E-mail
> attachment kindly let us know. If you accept our invitation, we’ll
> send you the full paper. Authors’ affiliation will be supplied, if
> requested by the reviewer.
> 2. After completion of timely quality peer review, we’ll be pleased to provide you Official Certificate of peer reviewing from the journal
> (signed PDF copy). You are requested to submit your full affiliation
> in review comments forms to facilitate the preparation of the
> certificate.
> 3. Please inform as early as possible if you agree to accept our invitation to review. Would you not be able to find time to act as a
> reviewer this time, please let me know through an email. We hope as
> part of academic community you’ll appreciate our efforts to complete
> quality peer review within stipulated time period. Comments received
> after stipulated time (as mentioned above) may not be utilized. Here
> we politely want to mention that, if we do not receive any
> communication within next 7 calendar days, we’ll be approaching to
> alternative reviewers to complete this peer review.
> 4. Useful Links: Journal scope link: Editorial Policy link: Thanking you
>
>
> Mr. <NAME> www.ikpress.org EUROPE: International Knowledge
> Press, S107, 3 Hardman Square, Spinningfields, Manchester, M3 3EB, UK,
> Fax: +44 (0)161 667 4459, Email: <EMAIL> ASIA PACIFIC:
> International Knowledge Press, N. S. Road, Tarakeswar, Hooghly,
> PIN-712410, West Bengal, India, Email: <EMAIL> (Editorial
> Office)
>
>
><issue_comment>username_1: The title of the journal is very suspicious. You cannot even tell whether the journal is within your area of expertise.
This is probably one in the sea of many worthless journals. I am the editor of the SCI indexed journal and have trouble finding reviewers, so they are probably essentially spamming everyone.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: I googled for "Asian Journal of Current Research" and got a website. When I tried to go to this website from the computer in my university office, I was redirected to [this webpage](https://eits.uga.edu/access_and_security/infosec/malicious_dns/), which contains the following message:
>
> Website Blocked
> The website you tried to reach has been blocked by IT security because this website is known to distribute malicious software.
>
>
>
So that's not a good sign. Combined with the name of the journal (which makes it hard to believe it's a reputable journal of X for any reasonable value of X), I would myself certainly not agree to referee papers for it.
Should you respond at all? I don't see the harm in writing a brief reply explaining that you are not interested in refereeing papers for this journal: e.g. it won't take any more time to do that than it did to post the question here. Based on how they respond to this email you could get a better idea of exactly how disreputable/spammy/predatory they are. Also, having responded once I think you can send future emails to the spam folder with a clearer conscience.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: It is perfectly reasonable not to respond this request. As the email says, if no response is received within seven days, they will approach other potential reviewers.
The journal itself does not seem to have a specific focus area. They seem to accept manuscripts in sciences, arts and technology!!
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: >
> I recently received the following invitation to act as a reviewer for an unknown journal. Is it ok to just ignore it?
>
>
>
It's always "ok" (i.e., ethical and socially acceptable) not to respond to unsolicited email from anyone you are not officially required to provide service to as part of your job. So the answer is **yes**. But a less obvious question is: what are some reasons why it would be good to ignore the request, and what are reasons why it would be good to not ignore it. The ones I can think of are:
**Reasons why you should ignore the request:**
1. You will avoid wasting your time responding to what is obviously spam.
2. Conversely, you incur a cost to the spammer of waiting for an answer from you, making their operations less efficient and reducing their incentives to spam. If everyone ignored reviewing requests from such spammers, they might go out of business.
3. You will get a good feeling (assuming that's the case) that you are helping fight spammers and in a small way retaliating against people who annoyed you.
**Reasons why you should answer the request:**
1. You are a person who really hates making people angry or upset (if that's the case) and can't fathom the thought of ignoring an email from someone. To clarify, I don't think that would be a *good* reason to answer, but it's a reason.
2. You are worried that by not replying and annoying the senders, you might hurt your career in some way. Given that these are obvious spammers who have no real connection to academia, that is not a real concern, so you can safely ignore it.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: In the last few days I have received three invitations to review papers in the physical-computer sciences (3 different journals) (out of my field).
When I checked a link to "decline" after the third contact I was returned tinstantly to an old version of Yahoo mail (inbox page with the questioned letter), asked to sign up for the new Yahoo Mail (using my android cell phone). I was not certain that pressing the link did not open access to my Yahoo Mail and quickly changed my password and signed out.
Upvotes: 1
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<issue_start>username_0: There are many people who pursue a thesis-based master's degree but do not want to pursue academia after graduation. If people just want to have a good job, is thesis writing helpful to them? My major is electrical engineering.<issue_comment>username_1: I can think of two reasons you might want to write a thesis.
1. If you would inherently enjoy the challenge.
2. If digging in and writing up specialized knowledge in a particular topic might be *related* to your future work on the job.
Either of these would be a good reason -- you don't need both.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Actually having a Ph.D. can be seen as a **disadvantage** in industry. I have met this attitude from a couple of employers / potential employers. They see you as an academic, and not wanting to do real work.
I think it would be less of an issue with big employers, but certainly smaller ones, at can be an issue. It may be worst in my case, as I spent a number of years as a post-doc at university.
If you don't want to do academic work after university, and just want a good job, I'd personally suggest the case for doing one is rather weak.
Others experience may be different, but I personally think the main thing you get out of a Ph.D. is the ability to do research properly. That is a transferable skill. My Ph.D is Medical Physics, but I work in a completely unrelated field (I'm director of Kirkby Microwave Ltd, developing vector network analyzer calibration kits) The skill of doing research I learned during the Ph.D. are very relevant to the products I develop, and hope to develop, despite they have nothing to do with what I actually did during my Ph.D.
If you go into industry after 3 years spent studying for a Ph.D, you will probably find your manager does not have one, and is earning more than you!
I can't recall where I read it, but there was an analysis somewhere of what it costs to do a Ph.D. If you consider a "good job" one where you gets lots of money, you will probably find the loss of income for those 3 years is significant and you may never make it up in your lifetime.
Upvotes: -1
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<issue_start>username_0: I'm thinking of doing a maths degree at the Open University. This course
"BSc (Honours) Mathematics"
The problem is, I'm expected to do the most basic of courses, starting with "Discovering Mathematics"
<http://www.open.ac.uk/courses/qualifications/details/mu123?orig=Q31>
Considering I have
1. BSc in Electrical and Electronic Engineering
2. MSc in Microwaves and Optoelectronics
3. PhD in Medical Physics
this seems a bit of a waste of my time and money. Unfortunately I got my Ph.D in 1999, so whilst the OU permit "credit transfer", they will not count the Ph.D, or any earlier degrees.
I did their online test to see if I was ready for the next course "Essential Mathematics 1", and got every single answer correct. You have to select what your highest qualification was, and there was HNC/HND, but no choice of any sort of degree. Doing *"Discovering Mathematics"*, which is said to be **"*Introduces and helps integrate key ideas from statistics, algebra, geometry and trigonometry into your everyday thinking to build your confidence in learning and using mathematics."*** really is a waste of my time and money.
I have telephoned, and asked about this credit transfer, and I was told there's no flexibility - the fact my last degree was more than 16 years ago, means it does not count.
I run an engineering company, doing fairly advanced maths. In fact, the reason I want to do the degree is that my maths is not good enough for some of the things I wish to do. But it is certainly much better than needed for a really basic course called "Discovering Mathematics"
Has anyone had any success in negotiating credit transfer after more than 16 years?
[Results of doing their test to see if I'm ready for Essential mathematics 1 (MST124)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/jks9B.png)<issue_comment>username_1: I don't have the commenting functionality available, so will have to put this as an answer.
To be honest, given your background, I think the whole degree will be a waste of your time. I took essential math 1 and 2 two years ago, both are very easy and highly superficial. They claim to teach advanced material but in reality only go through very few and very basic examples in each, so in the end you don't really learn anything. I got like 100% in essential math 1 and 95% in essential math 2 and learned nearly nothing. You'd be better served by buying a good calculus book and studying it.
And more directly to your question - it is possible to negotiate with them directly. I was allowed to take essential math 1&2 simultaneously because I needed that background for sth else and couldn't wait a year. You just need to email their support team and explain your circumstances.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Have you considered enroling for an MSc in Mathematics? <http://www.open.ac.uk/postgraduate/qualifications/f04> That seems like it might be more your speed. Anything that you're missing from the BSc portfolio you could presumably catch up on via self-directed study, but the MSc would reveal points where you need more work, and would simultaneously provide structure.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: You really do not need another degree. Anyone who is going to be impressed by degrees, will be impressed by a Chartered Engineer with a PhD.
You do have good reasons for studying more mathematics, but, considering the rest of your situation, you need to do it efficiently. That means taking exactly the courses you need. Generally, that will conflict with getting another degree - any responsible degree-granting body is going to require you to cover a specific range of topics.
Looking specifically at the Open University, near the bottom of, for example, [Undergraduate courses in 'Mathematics'](http://www.open.ac.uk/courses/find/mathematics) there is a tab "Modules". The purposes include "study individually for interest or professional development." which sounds like you. They include quizzes for deciding if you are prepared for a given course.
You should consider costs and benefits of various distance learning options, including but not limited to the OU, and plan your own studies. As far as structure is concerned, anyone who is running an engineering company should be able to construct and manage a project plan for one student's studies.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: I am a bit late answering, but I am also a current Q31 student so perhaps my specific knowledge of the course can help here.
I will prefix this answer by saying that in 2014 or so, the Open University decided to "modernize" its courses and one effect of this was to mandate 120 credits at level 1, not letting you move to level N+1 until you've done level N, as well as dropping things like Topology and Mathematical Logic as possible separate modules. They're moving to a scheme of mostly unavoidable 60-credit modules that cover everything to a reasonable degree, with far less flexibility. I don't like the changes, I believe the OU are dumbing down the maths degree and more broadly [I am not alone in disliking the current direction of the OU](https://www.theguardian.com/education/2018/apr/05/open-university-staff-pass-vote-of-no-confidence-in-vice-chancellor).
Ok, contextual rant out of the way. I started on the previous degree programme B31, which only mandated 60 credits of level 1 study. I filled in 30 of these credits from the worthless "using statistics" module and have an exemption to use level 3 30 credit modules as level 1 modules. I suggest you ask for the same thing.
What this means is that you will be paying more for your degree and further, that you will be doing harder work for credits that only count in the sense of completion but have no weight for your overall grade. On the other hand, that for you might be (and for me definitely was) a worthwhile tradeoff instead of doing something mind-numbing.
I can't promise they'll let you do this and they certainly won't like it because "distance learning is difficult" (it is) but if you feel you are up to it I would insist as much as you can. You won't be able to replace the whole of level 1 either, but you might be able to get out of doing the full 120 credits. I suspect they will likely want you to do Discovering Mathematics, which I suggest you blow out of the park and then ask to move onto the level 2 modules, with your intent to substitute some of the level three modules for level 1 ones at a later date.
To give you an idea of topics covered, at level 2 you will do M208, which covers:
* Linear algebra
* Sequence, series and Real analysis
* Basic group theory
* Calculus
* Some foundational material needed for the above i.e. limits
MST210 covers:
* First and second order ODEs.
* Vector algebra and statics.
* Basic motion physics.
* Matrices, eigenvalues and eigenvectors again).
* Linear differential equations.
* Physics like oscillation, damping, modelling, multivariate functions, rotating bodies, angular momentum.
* Vector calculus
* Fourier series
You then have choice of level three modules in the mathematics curriculum, which is where the fun actually starts since much of what I've listed above is basically first year and maybe second year mathematics for many full time undergrad students. The modules at level 3 are generally quite in depth and quite good and the material is well written, if a bit repetitive at times (useful though for distance learning).
So I guess it depends how much this material matches the level you want to read mathematics at. You should also realize that even if the course isn't that hard, the mechanical work of completing the exercises, assignments, exams and studying the material is quite time consuming. I am sure you can do it, but you should plan on this taking you 6 years to complete at 60 credits per year. If you are organised and only care about passing, you might manage more than this with a full time job, but it will not be easy.
Since you really seem to be looking for the content rather than the actual qualification (since you already have several degrees!), if you want to get up to speed with the sort of material on MST210 it might be better to buy a copy of [Jordan & Smith's Mathematical Techniques](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mathematical-Techniques-Introduction-Engineering-Physical/dp/0199282013) first, which is "the" reference textbook for, well, mathematical techniques, for maths, physics and engineering degree students as the book says. It'll give you the basic grounding for the applied side of mathematics up to about second year mathematics undergraduate in the UK for most courses if you read the whole thing (you'll miss out on the more theoretical courses, which will likely be real and complex analysis, group theory, ring and field theory, number theory and you'll also miss out on statistics).
On the other hand, if you already have this grounding, you won't get beyond it until 240 credits into OU study and I'd second other answerer's comments about finding a suitable masters programme as a probable starting point.
The Mathematics Institute at Oxford [also helpfully publish all their course summaries](https://courses.maths.ox.ac.uk/overview/undergraduate) and most importantly of all reading list recommendations which are pretty good. If there are specific areas you need to know about at a more advanced level than Jordan & Smith, this is a good place to start looking for book recommendations.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_5: Answering a bit late here but there are other options with the OU including postgraduate certificate/diploma and indeed the masters in mathematics course.
Upvotes: 0
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<issue_start>username_0: Apparently the original tone of the question offended some people so I have it edited.
My field is highly multidisciplinary and so each of prospective committee members although great experts in their own particular field, may not be greatly familiar with other parts of the project that are outside of their expertise.
1- The project may end up commercially valuable, so I need to protect myself against competition, not necessarily academically but commercially.
2- A committee since constitutes a great place for discussions of great experts of various field may end up to a point where I could not solely pursue it as the leader and creator of the idea. I want to make it clear that the idea was mine, so it is not hugely disrespectful if I want to be the only person who is in charge of pursuing the idea.
3- I do want to have great professors on my committee, I want to have the best of the best on my committee. I do not want to compromise the quality of the feedbacks I receive out of being protective of my idea.
4- I do not want to waste my time on some side project and hide my best ideas out of fear that I may create competition.
How should I choose, and interact with my committee to achieve the above goals strategically? Should I trust that every university professor is absolutely dedicated to helping, mentoring and guiding students? Is that a reasonable assumption, given that there are policies that force students to give up all their rights to any invention and hand it over to university and faculty? Should a student not feel fearful?<issue_comment>username_1: Your question is, in my opinion, written in a tone that is entirely contrary to the spirit of academia. You might be better off doing some self-study with perhaps a class here and there, and pursuing your business interests. That way you need not fear getting scooped by any of the university professors dedicated to mentoring, teaching and guiding students.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: I should begin by saying that my academic field -- pure mathematics -- sounds like it is far away from yours. On the one hand, it is *not* interdisciplinary; on the other hand, excepting writing books and (a few) other academic materials, I believe that approximately 0% of academics in my field seriously contemplate the commercial applications of their work. Maybe this gives me a good vantage point to analyze your situation; maybe it means I am wholly unqualified to analyze it. *Caveat lector*.
Anyway, my reaction to your post is that you are somehow misunderstanding the purpose of a PhD program and PhD thesis. The goal of a PhD program is to train yourself to the point where you can make a significant, original academic contribution and then to make that contribution. It has nothing to do with commercial value. By that I don't mean that it is completely antithetical to commercial value, but rather that it ought to be rather independent of it. A PhD candidate can have commercially viable ideas for sure; in certain circumstances it may even be appropriate to explore or pursue them in parallel to the PhD studies. But the commercially viable idea should not be the PhD project, because that's not what a PhD project is for.
I admit the possibility that a student has an idea which is a good idea academically and also a good idea commercially -- indeed, that has certainly happened in several cases. On the one hand though, I suspect that only a small percentage of such "double threat" ideas actually pan out, because (i) it takes double effort to implement something commercially and academically and (ii) the point of a PhD program is to get the increased training and personal research that gives one a better vantage point afterwards than was available before. In other words, maybe you have a good idea now, but if that idea has a strong academic component, then you will be much better equipped to evaluate the value of your idea *after* having done the conventional work.
As is, I suspect that you do not actually want to do PhD training and write a PhD thesis: the latter especially almost invariably involves close supervision and help from a supervisor, to the extent that the idea and work is probably *not solely your own* when it comes to dividing up potential commercial profits. Rather, it sounds like you have a commercial idea in mind and are hoping to use your PhD training to implement the idea. As you yourself recognize: that is just fundamentally awkward bordering on untenable: you are in the program to get the expert help from faculty, but at the same time you are worried about getting too much expert help from faculty. I think this is fundamentally problematic.
Among the points you raise, perhaps the main one is:
>
> I do not want to waste my time on some side project and hide my best ideas out of fear that I may create competition.
>
>
>
I think that if you want to do a PhD program at all, you need to be open to intellectual growth in a broader sense. If you really think that you have your best idea now, before you even begin your PhD work, then a PhD program is not for you. (If you think: "I have a great idea, and all I need is the technical skill to implement it, but my idea is the innovation and the technical skill is routine." Well, then I think it is likely that you are wrong. In technical fields, an unimplementable idea may be worthless. It may also be worth something, but here's the key point -- without the technical skill of implementation, how do you know the value of your idea? It is most likely that you cannot evaluate ideas for future promise nearly as well as someone with PhD level training.)
It's not a matter of wasting your time on a side project. If your idea truly has a worthy academic side, then you can pursue your PhD on the academic side alone, and then you can really develop it. In my opinion it is very likely that this intellectual development will change your commercial plans, so the "side project" could become more important than the commercial application. But you will have to give up the highest level of security on your commercial application. Again, if that is unacceptable to you, maybe you want to start a business and hire these "best of the best" to work for you.
Good luck.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]
|
2017/03/03
| 634
| 2,977
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<issue_start>username_0: I'm editing a volume and I am responsible to obtain permissions for figures and photographs the authors wish to use in their respective chapters.
Now I have an author *A* who included several of his own photographs within his chapter which is great. My problem is that most of them have been previously published - in several different journals under several different authors (*A* is always among the authors). The author stated explicitly that these are his photographs but I'm not so sure. [Do journals not normally claim figures](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/76124/6444) along with the text and require even the authors to ask for permission to reuse "their" own content?
Does this apply only to figures or also to photographs? I checked the image caption in several of the publications and it never explicitly states "Photograph taken by *A*".
Do I need to obtain a permission from the copyright holder/owner of the journal? Should I just create a statement along the lines of 'Photo taken by *A*, previously published in *A et al. 2010*'? Should I make *A* sign a document stating that he always retained the copyright and can therefore license it for use in the present chapter? Should I contact our publisher instead of asking this on StackExchange? Probably, but you guys are much faster ;)
Context: The edited volume will be published in the U.S.A. by a STM-signatory.<issue_comment>username_1: The responsibility of certifying and negotiating copyright issues is typically the responsibility of specialized staff at a publishing organization, not that of the scientific editor of a work.
The responsibility of an editor here is just to make sure that the authors follow the process the publishing organization asks the editor to have them follow, which typically includes making copyright assertions or providing contact information to the people who will actually ask them to make copyright assertions.
Thus, if you have concerns, you can convey them to your contacts at the publisher to be sure that they are aware of these concerns and can sort them out. If you aren't the legal personnel responsible for sorting out the details, however, you shouldn't be trying to make any arrangements yourself: that is likely to create more problems than it solves.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: When authors publish their work in scientific journals the copyright is almost always transferred to the publisher as a condition of publishing. Therefore the author no longer has copyright on their images. To republish the same images in a new work, written permission from the copyright holder (journal publishing house) is required. In practice all of the journal publishing houses I am aware of have simple webforms to fill out for obtaining such permission. Sometimes you can get this for free in as little as a week, in other cases there could be a delay of a few months and a fee imposed. Depends on the Publisher!
Upvotes: 0
|
2017/03/04
| 651
| 2,525
|
<issue_start>username_0: I'm finishing my undergraduate degree this year, and I'm deciding which PhD program to attend: School A, or School B. I do have other offers, but these two stand out to me. My background and current interests are in topic X.
* School A has exactly one professor working on X, but my would-be initial advisor works on topic Y. I don't oppose doing research in Y, but my background and current research interest really is X. This initial advisor is recruiting me *very* aggressively, so it'll really hurt turning him down.
* School B has 2-3 professors working on X, but I can't see myself working with anyone here whose research is not in X, which would be bad if I lose interest in X someday. If the would-be initial advisor at School A weren't recruiting me so aggressively, I'd choose School B.
All of the aforementioned professors are quite productive, though the students at School A are slightly more productive than those at School B. If it matters at all, I prefer the location of School A slghtly.
**tl;dr:** School A is aggressively recruiting me and may be the better place overall, but for my current research interests, School B is *the* place to be.<issue_comment>username_1: If you want to do research on X, you should go to a place where you can do that! Going to school A, working on Y, and hoping that you might be able to switch advisors does not sound like a good idea. How much the professor at school A wants you should not really matter, you have to do what is right for *you*; he will find someone else. Moreover, I would not already think about what to do if I lose interest in X. This is hypothetical anyway, and in this case, there might be some topic Z that is more interesting than Y etc.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Before you decide, you need to
1. Ask the recruiter to give you some space to think on your own. Insist if necessary.
2. Figure out how compatible you are with the professors in your target field (X) at both schools. (Look at some papers, try both some email and phone communication.)
3. Make a chart of pluses and minuses of the other schools. If any are reasonable candidates, include them in #2.
4. If money is tight, make a careful comparison on that aspect.
5. Similarly with respect to health coverage.
6. (Optional) You might want to add some other criteria to your chart, e.g. if you like cross-country skiing, that's a minus for "free time" for a school in a warm climate.
You may wish to plan one or two campus visits.
Upvotes: 0
|
2017/03/04
| 570
| 2,642
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<issue_start>username_0: I have two articles under review. In first round of review both got decision of "minor revision" within 3-4 months. I submitted the revised version 5 months ago but since then the status of both articles is "Under Review". I sent follow up emails but always I got response from Journal Manager that the article is under review and he sent an email to Associate Editor to prompt the review process.
During the course of time I submitted another two articles in IEEE journals; both were accepted and came online within 5-6 months of time. I am thinking to withdraw both under review articles form Springier and Elsevier and submit them to IEEE Journals.
Is it possible to shift review history of those articles to IEEE?
Will it be helpful for further accelerating the review process in IEEE if I submit both articles as new submission and provide review reports as a supporting documents?<issue_comment>username_1: At this point, it will not be fair to the reviewers that are currently refereeing your paper to receive a notification that the paper has been withdrawn.
Although you might think they are not doing their job properly, reviewers are busy persons and a lot of things can happen in the between. Given that 5 months is not that much time even fr a revision (at least depends on the fields. I my field of applied math/TCS it's OK) I would suggest to wait a little bit more but also bring the issue to the handling editor (which you already did).
On the other hand, even if you decide to withdraw, which is your right, I think that supplementing the current reviews to *another* journal is way off and I would *strongly* recommend against that. For start, the new journal would have *no idea* who is behind that reviews, not to mention the ethical levels of such action.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Five months for a review of the revision when the revisions are minor is way too long, IMO. Typically, the revisions are reviewed by the same people that reviewed the first submission. Given that, I suspect the Editor might be having difficulty in getting the reviewers to submit their reviews and might even be looking for alternate reviewers.
I don't recommend withdrawing the manuscripts from review right away. Instead, it may be better to write to the editor explaining your concerns and when he thinks the reviews will be done. You can check the previously published papers in this journal and see how long the submission-publication periods typically are. If your manuscripts are taking much longer than these periods, you could point that out to the editor as well.
Upvotes: -1
|
2017/03/04
| 967
| 4,216
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<issue_start>username_0: I found an error in two figures of my published paper. They are part of the main results of my PhD dissertation.
I am in the writing step of my PhD dissertation, and I put the new version of those figures. However I have to cite the paper (with the error) in the volume. I am concerning if the committee would ask about that.
What should I do?
Best<issue_comment>username_1: You should inform your advisor/PI/whatever of the error. And you should submit a corrigendum request to the editors of the journal where it was published (probably directly to the editor that handled it during the review process), which details the nature of the error and its implications, and clearly specifies the correction to the error and all corrections/adjustments that must be made to the paper as a result. The journal probably has specific policies about corrigendums that you can consult for exactly how to proceed.
If the error renders the paper invalid you'd have to request a retraction, instead, which is a pretty big deal. A corrigendum that corrects a non-critical error is less major but is something I'd say you should proceed with asap.
If the editor agrees that a corrigendum is needed and will be published, you have fixed your problem: you can now cite the corrigendum (as "to appear" if necessary) specifically for the relevant matters. Just be prepared to address why the problem happened to your committee (if they bring it up); they may want assurances that this was an honest error you've learned from, and not an indicator that you are prone to bad research practices and scholarship.
If the editor does not feel a corrigendum is necessary, you can place the corrigendum (or fully corrected version) online in some fashion (your personal webpage, for example). You may need to consult with the publishing journal's policies to make sure you do not violate your agreement with them by doing so. This makes a suitable follow-up question to the editor if he rejects the need to publish a corrigendum.
In any case, especially if it appears that the editor will not decide on the corrigendum before your defense will occur, you should include a copy of the corrigendum to your committee. Preferably well in advance of the defense, so that they can properly incorporate the changes into their opinions and so they do not end up asking questions that are resolved by the fix. You may wish to consult with your advisor on exactly how to phrase things to the committee.
Your worst case scenario would be if the editor (or your committee) decides that the problem in fact warrants a retraction. What you describe does not sound like it would fall into this, but I can't guarantee anything. It would be hard to predict the consequences of a retraction without a lot of specific details on your situation. They are potentially significant. And not just for you; your advisor can be impacted, as well.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: I've come across **one** Ph.D. that I read, where the main body was just a collection of past published papers by that author. The subject was interesting to me, but I got a bit bored reading the same introduction many times over, as naturally many of the papers published had the similar introduction. Is your Ph.D likely to be like that, where the published paper is included in an unedited form?
If it not, then I don't see what your problem is. Just present your graph, and you can add a footnote that a similar graph, but containing an error was published in journal XX.
Unless your Ph.D. is similar to the one in the first paper I described, then you will be judged by the content in your thesis - not on what you may have published before.
Whilst publishing material before you complete a Ph.D. is nice, certainly where I did my Ph.D (University College London), there was no requirement to have published anything before getting a Ph.D. I myself had published some papers, but it was not a requirement.
I think you are worrying about nothing to be honest. But it is worth letting the editor of the journal know about the error, but as for it being a problem in the Ph.D, I really don't see it as an issue.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]
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2017/03/04
| 369
| 1,502
|
<issue_start>username_0: I recently finished a MSc and I was looking for a PhD. I noticed that some positions offer a PhD only through a MRes of 1-2 years, for a total of 4 years.
Does it make sense applying for another master or is it just redundant?<issue_comment>username_1: You are more likely to be able to bypass the MSc if you have a good first degree. Where I did my Ph.D (University College London), it was a requirement that you registered for an M.Phil, than transferred to a Ph.D, but you could do the Ph.D in 3 years. I think the main point was, if you were doing badly, you had a good chance of coming out with an M.Phil, which is essentially a failed Ph.D in many cases - about not all.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_2: The MRes degree teaches you the basics of how to conduct research and use research methods according to your chosen field. Depending on the field you select, you use different types of research methods and you get a chance to put them in practice. If you choose to do the MRes degree, it will be considered a higher degree than a taught or research based MSc degree, but lower than the MPhil. The MRes would be seen as a good foundation for you to progress to a PhD and produce original output using the research methods that you have learned during your MRes degree.
As an example, in Computer Science, you only need a 1st class honours bachelors to get into the PhD route and you learn which research method you will use whilst on the PhD route.
Upvotes: 1
|
2017/03/04
| 352
| 1,458
|
<issue_start>username_0: I have a submitted manuscript to IEEE transactions. The paper was under review for 4 months. Then, it has been with associate editor" for 2 week now. How this status can be explained?<issue_comment>username_1: You are more likely to be able to bypass the MSc if you have a good first degree. Where I did my Ph.D (University College London), it was a requirement that you registered for an M.Phil, than transferred to a Ph.D, but you could do the Ph.D in 3 years. I think the main point was, if you were doing badly, you had a good chance of coming out with an M.Phil, which is essentially a failed Ph.D in many cases - about not all.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_2: The MRes degree teaches you the basics of how to conduct research and use research methods according to your chosen field. Depending on the field you select, you use different types of research methods and you get a chance to put them in practice. If you choose to do the MRes degree, it will be considered a higher degree than a taught or research based MSc degree, but lower than the MPhil. The MRes would be seen as a good foundation for you to progress to a PhD and produce original output using the research methods that you have learned during your MRes degree.
As an example, in Computer Science, you only need a 1st class honours bachelors to get into the PhD route and you learn which research method you will use whilst on the PhD route.
Upvotes: 1
|
2017/03/04
| 905
| 3,990
|
<issue_start>username_0: I have been in contact with a potential supervisor in one of tier two US universities before applying and all the way to receiving my rejection letter a few days ago.
The individual department I applied for has seven faculty members including my potential supervisor and as I know he is not on admission committee.
I try to quote his responses to me in our email exchanges.
When I first contacted him in October to show my interest in applying for Fall 2017 semester he replied: "I am interested to have you as my PhD student. But, you should apply fast to be here by Spring Semester. I can get you on a research funding that I have for next semester on \*\*\*\*\* Project."
I couldn't prepare my application materials on time and I was told: "It is too hard to get the I-20 in a timely manner that you can be here for Spring semester. So, I am changing my plan of the project to be able to support you for the next fall."
I updated my application for Fall 2017 semester.
Last time before receiving my decision he replied, "Your application has come to college and is under consideration, I supported your application strongly. We should see the result soon." to my email regarding application status.
After receiving my rejection letter I emailed him to let him know I was rejected and thanked him for his support during this period.
But I think he was as shocked as I was on hearing that I was rejected.
He replied: "Why, your application was rejected!!
Please let me know, I should be able to help you."
and "Everything were positive on your application from my last communication. I am thinking that your application may not have gone from \*\*\*\* Department to college of Engineering and to Graduate school, I will check on that tomorrow morning and I will let you know."
Do you think is it possible a rejected applicant being accepted when their potential supervisor really wants them?<issue_comment>username_1: Yes all sorts of things can happen. While the response seems positive, I would suggest not getting too excited. There are lots of reasons why a student would not get accepted even when a supervisor wants to work with them.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Yes, it's possible.
Practices vary, but in most US universities, graduate admissions are not decided by individual professors, but rather by a committee of faculty. Their decisions often must also be approved by a graduate dean or another higher-level committee.
There are many possible reasons why an applicant could be rejected, even if they have the support of a potential supervisor:
* The committee might disagree with the supervisor's assessment of your qualifications.
* The professor might have a record of questionable judgment in recommending PhD students.
* Many PhD programs include coursework and exam components before beginning to work on dissertation research with an advisor. It could be that the committee isn't confident that you would pass those components.
* The program, or the university, might have strict minimum GPA or GRE score requirements, that you might not have met.
* The committee might not feel that the professor would be a good supervisor. This could happen if he does not have a successful record with previous students, or if they feel he already has too many students to advise well.
* The program might have a limited capacity for students, or a limited amount of funding. Even if the committee agrees with the professor that you are well qualified, there might still be more qualified candidates than they can accept. Maybe there are even too many candidates who have the support of particular professors. If so, some good candidates have to be rejected. This is probably the most likely reason.
* It could be, as the professor seems to think, that a mistake has been made, and his recommendation has been unintentionally overlooked. If that is so, it is possible, though not certain, that the decision could be changed.
Upvotes: 4
|
2017/03/05
| 2,602
| 11,112
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<issue_start>username_0: I teach at a top undergraduate college of a highly ranked university in India. We have a centralized system where the syllabus is designed at the Central level (with some input from teachers) and exams are set and evaluated centrally as well. We have an attendance policy, wherein students are required to attend at least two-thirds of the classes to sit for the exam (for all courses).
Some students are engaged in extra-curricular activities and miss a lot of lectures. While a lot of students don't bother, some want me to "teach" the portion they missed, by meeting them separately. Is it reasonable for them to ask me to teach everything from scratch because they couldn't attend the class? I teach a rigorous microeconomics course.
Edited:
I forgot to explicitly mention: since it is a centralized system, teachers can't specify their own attendance policies for a course. Moreover, I teach a compulsory course, and it can't be dropped/taken in any other semester. Further, students go for competitions scheduled outside college during lecture hours, and I have no control over that. We are not a residential University, so extra-curricular activities can't be held after class hours.<issue_comment>username_1: >
> Is it reasonable for them to ask me to teach everything from scratch because they couldn't attend the class?
>
>
>
No, it's not.
If a student wants to engage in extra-curricular activities during lecture hours, they had better be able to keep up with the course material independently.
Upvotes: 7 <issue_comment>username_2: >
> Is it reasonable for them to ask me to teach everything from scratch because they couldn't attend the class?
>
>
>
In most cases, the answer is NO. Furthermore, it would be good if you can find official university policy on this issue, stating something like that students should not participate in too many extra-curricular activities unless they are also able to cope with their work.
>
> Do I risk appearing as "unapproachable" or "unhelpful" if I specify in my class policies that those who miss lectures will be responsible for the course material on their own?
>
>
>
You can avoid this problem by telling your students that you would be glad to answer any specific questions that they may have about the course material (assuming you prepared notes for them). In particular this means that they cannot just ask you to teach all the content, but are expected to go over the material themselves and ask to clarify their understanding about specific points. Doing this has the significant advantage of making students aware of exactly what they know or do not know, and helps you to be aware of and able to address common or serious misconceptions with the rest of the class as well.
>
> Should the same policy apply to students who miss several lectures due to illness or other circumstances?
>
>
>
I would personally be very lenient with students who miss lectures not due to any fault of their own. To accommodate such cases, you could always add to your default policy that students who need any further help are welcome to ask, and you will see what to do about it on a case-by-case basis. This of course requires some subjective judgement on your part to differentiate between the truthfully sick and the pathological liars.
---
But there may be exceptions, for example if the students are officially required to attend certain training sessions at a level beyond university activities, like say the national level, then they may reasonably request one or two sessions to skim the material. They should still be responsible for going over the material themselves prior to any meeting with you, since after all learning is their responsibility, not yours.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: Have you considered recording your lectures?
Doing so and giving free access to your students allows them maximum agency in trading off attending lectures with other social/academic activities, and obviates the concern of having to repeat yourself -- simply refer students to the video/audio and move on.
(Moreover, personally, I've been through courses where this allowed me to learn more efficiently by skipping familiar units and/or watching lectures at, e.g., 2x speed to save time)
Upvotes: 7 <issue_comment>username_4: What if you tell them: " If you want better knowledge then you need to come in time. And if you want to learn something you missed 5 minutes of googling wont kill you." Otherwise you ar letting them use you.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_5: I would give them an "outline version" of what was discussed that day -- reciting, if my guess is correct, the lecture *notes* you use yourself to give the lecture. One minute maximum. While not giving them the entire lecture, you are at least telling them *what* they missed
Once they know that, they know what to look for to find out about the topic themselves; either from books or asking another student for their notes.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_6: You could try what one of my current professors does. He specifically points out that he does not have the time to re-teach his hour long lecture to multiple people when they miss class, and that if someone anticipates missing class then they should read up on their own and ask someone else (another student) to share notes with them. If you say at the beginning of the year that you do not have the time nor the patience to re-teach a lecture you won't appear rude, especially if you also mention that you have no problem answering questions for the people who missed class if they brush up on the subject material in their own time.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_7: I would tell them the truth, honestly and openly:
"This is the real world. And as such there are consequences to your actions. You come to a fork in the road and you have two choices. You can take the path of desires, or you can take the path of responsibility. If you take the desires path, the path the what was covered in the lecture (responsibility) is closed. You are not children any more."
Sure you could record your lecture, but that is in essence saying that skipping class time is not important.
My generation (I was born on the leading edge of the Millennial generation) has this idea that everything needs to be made easier for them, if not handed out on a silver platter entirely.
This all started with the notion of "everyone is a winner" in the late 1980s, and has gone downhill since.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_8: Tell them about the importance of networking, and especially of having contacts in the class who can go over missed material with them. Point out that this is a life skill they will need long after college. Tell them you will not just repeat the lecture.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_9: I am a big believer in textbooks. Find an affordable textbook that matches your material reasonably well. One way to ensure affordability is to choose a textbook that is one or two editions old. There are some classics that can be bought for $0.01 plus shipping. Make sure the library has several copies for check-out and a couple for use in the library only ("on reserve").
Create a simple blog where you post basic information for each lecture, stating what portion of the textbook will be (or was) covered, any additional notes that are not in the textbook, and what the homework assignment is. By this means, you will be making it easier for students who have missed a class to keep up.
Let your students know that your office hours are such-and-so or by appointment. Schedule your office hours at a couple of different times. For example, don't schedule them on Tuesdays and Thursdays at the same time.
Encourage the students to help each other. There are a number of ways of doing this. For example, assign a small group project early in the semester. Allow students to form their own small groups, but also assign groupings to those students who have not formed their own. This will encourage the formation of student groups. Also, if a large number of your students come to office hours, you can ask one of the stronger students to work with a small group of students. This delegating wouldn't just give you a break, and wouldn't just enable you to get more students serviced during your office hours; it would also help the students who are in the helping role. They will solidify what they learned; and they will gain experience in teaching and tutoring.
You might also want to organize a walk-in tutoring service on campus.
It is through your efforts, and the efforts of other dedicated professors, that the educational system in your country will improve. You are helping hundreds of today's students to achieve greater rigor. When the best of them are teaching and continuing in your footsteps, they in turn will also reach hundreds of students.
You have to start somewhere. Hopefully, at some point in your lifetime, your university will figure out how to schedule the extracurriculars in such a way as not to interfere with attendance at lectures and labs.
The university I attended in Mexico was so disorganized, at least a third of our classes were canceled, with no advance notice, because of an instructor just not showing up. So -- things could be worse!
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_10: >
> Is it reasonable for them to ask me to teach everything from scratch
> because they couldn't attend the class?
>
>
>
No. Students need to take responsibility for missing classes. You are required to teach during scheduled days/times, probably hold office hours during the week, and respond to student emails. You are not required to repeat lectures on your own time because students missed your class.
Do you make your course materials available online (e.g. [Edmodo](https://www.edmodo.com/))? Do you have teaching assistants who could help these students during recitation hours?
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_11: Many, many years ago I got my master's degree in CS through an evening class program. Most students had full time jobs as programmers or in related occupations. Many of us had to sometimes travel or work late for our day jobs, so the lecturers expected some missed lectures.
The main accommodation was to provide lecture notes that contained the material covered in the lecture. They were useful for study and review even if I got to the lecture, but really helpful if I missed a lecture. At the time, they were distributed on paper, but now would probably be on-line.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_12: ### I'm going to disagree with people here.
I assume they are asking during your office hours.
If so, then **yes**, do explain anything they want to them. *But make them your lowest priority.*
After all, your office hours are meant for students to take advantage of. Some of them might need entire lectures repeated to them. The reason should be irrelevant. Prioritization is something you can and should do, but your hours are dedicated to the students; you should be helping them.
Upvotes: 2
|
2017/03/05
| 1,189
| 5,498
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<issue_start>username_0: I am an assistant professor at an undergraduate college in India. I teach a rigorous compulsory course in microeconomics, requiring some intermediate-advanced math knowledge. There is no add/drop option at my University/college, nor is there an option to take a course in a later semester. I don't decide the syllabus or the final exam--it is set centrally. We are a publicly funded University and have a diverse set of students.
General math preparation in my country is low, due to poor schooling standards and sometimes, students are not clear about basic concepts: for example, in a third semester intermediate microeconomics course, some of them don't know how to write the (linear) equation of a budget frontier (something taught to them in the first semester). Unless they understand such things, it is impossible for them to grasp the rest of the material, since all topics are related. Is it my responsibility to explain concepts taught in introductory-level courses? I welcome all questions and have a generally amicable attitude, so students don't feel intimidated in getting a clarification.
However, I do get frustrated sometimes when having to answer something very basic, that too repeatedly. I get glowing feedback for most of my courses, but despite being appreciated for my effort and the clarity of explanation, a group of students (around 20% of the class) repeatedly under-performs, which upsets me a lot. How much should I hold students responsible for their learning?<issue_comment>username_1: I do not think you can solve this problem alone. As such I would suggest collaborating with the teachers who teach the prerequisites to your courses. Knowing what is happening in colleagues classes can help you to know what the students needs our in addition to the governmental requirements.
By working together you can determine how much review and overlap should be a part of each course as students move from one course to the next.
This kind of joint cooperation is common at the k12 level where there is often a similarly centralized control curriculum that ignores the unique characteristics of students.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: I would suggest that you offer your assistance to the student body, and give them a little push, perhaps, as well, to organize peer tutoring. There are many ways this can be set up. There might be an existing student organization that would get excited about this, but there might not be -- that's okay.
You don't have to start big; it's okay to start small.
You could create an incentive for participation by giving some points toward the final grade for a block of 10 hours logged in peer tutoring.
You can create a print tutorial outline with worked problems which the peer tutors could use as a framework.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: Well first underperform could mean different things to different people. Typically grading schemes and the difficulty of the class are set up to have a standard curve with about 20% of the students performing slightly above the fail cut off. That way you can distinguish between the "good", the "average", the "weak" and the students who should find something else to do. I'm not a big fan of that educational philosophy but that is pretty standard. Attempting to get everyone to a high level of competence would be ambitious and I wouldn't beat myself up trying to hit that standard.
As far as your role, I'm assuming the school has some way of checking that the students are ready to enter the class, otherwise any decent university should have other resources to take the pressure off of you. There should be tutors, set office hours, and a way to set up study groups. Beyond human resources there should be books, recorded lectures and access to self paced lessons on the internet either through something like Khan Academy or some internal software. If the student is taking advantage of all of those resources and still failing there's probably something wrong with the system, assuming the student isn't handicapped in some way, and being that you asked for a measuring stick this here is when I would expect the teacher to pick up the slack. That could mean creating a better resource or providing extra time. If you are frequently getting asked similar questions it might be easier to start recording your responses, or have a specific resource to point to. Eventually you could start referring to previously answered questions. If you're concerned with them wasting their time and money it is probably easier to start the class by giving them a list of concepts that you expect the students to know and when you expect them to know them by with resources explaining them. That way they can do a self check to see if they're ready, or if they can get ready by the time those skills are needed.
On repetition in general though, people don't retain everything they hear and they don't remember everything they once retained so you should expect to repeat information pretty frequently. I'm sure you're aware of that but repetition is how you strengthen the neural connection that form the memory and creates the mastery over the information. It is a valuable tool especially for people who are struggling. The only reason teachers typically don't repeat is because of time constraints, but ideally given enough time you would schedule repetitive drills into the lesson plans until the students start dreaming about your lectures.
Upvotes: 1
|
2017/03/05
| 1,878
| 7,844
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<issue_start>username_0: I know it may sound somewhat out-of-order (if not outright crazy) to suggest it, but has anybody tried to use sites like Mendeley or the arXiv or some "social media" where you can upload PDFs to spread his or hers research even before publication? Has it ever been successful?
I know many scientists make profiles in diverse social medias to upload PDFs of their work (at least the ones they are allowed to) but I wonder how effective can it be if some "outsider" do the same? If I just create a Mendeley account and/or group and upload several PDFs there, write a short description what I am dealing with and the problems I face finding the right audience, do you think anybody will notice them or am I just making my situation worse? Do you think it will work? Or uploading them to the arXiv? Or just making a Google+ account? Or anything of this kind of "group sharing" of PDFs? I'm talking about papers turned away from journals because they are outside-scope and the journal is having problems to find proper experts to review them or outright deciding it isn't worth it to expand in this field. The more time passes the more I feel like I'm create a new field here and since it is brand new no journal is well-adjusted to take on it. Don't think I'm **intentionally** running away from the peer-review because I want to smear the academia. If enough people agree to at least view them (I'm not talking about agreeing with them just saying that there is something of a worth in them) can it spread enough to cause at least one journal to review it seriously? Can such a "buzz" strategy manage to spread awareness of an issue even if no one wants to publish it?
P.S.Please, be considerate to me and just tell me should I try it or not. Don't judge me, please, I'm just considering my options. I just want to reach somebody who can take me seriously, not get pushed back by the system because the reviewers can take the no-scope option.
P.S.2.What I am trying to publish s a paper laying the foundation of a brand new concept how complexity can arise. One which (as far as I know-I can't claim I have read everything about complexity which has ever been published-as you may know this is so **HUGE** field one can never claim such thing even if he reads about it all his life) contains ideas never researched before and has to include by basic thesis (3-5 pages of my **core** concepts) and a particular example how they are used. If I can get even one paper with the **core** in any journal, it will be very easy to start submitting many other papers in other journals citing it. Then I will be within the scope of these journals, but the big problem is this **first one** I must get in. I simply need a place which can accept my methodology and core ideas together with my example but it's this methodology which is so hard to understand and put in scope anywhere!<issue_comment>username_1: In my experience, even peer-reviewed publications are rarely read. There are a handful of influential papers in each field (from what I have seen) which are read and cited. But beyond these, a lot of work is only cited to keep people happy.
Therefore, I think that the chances of people reading the work without it being peer-reviewed are very slim.
If you want your work to get reviewed and it is being rejected before being read (this is what you're saying, I think), then you perhaps need co-authors that know the field better.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: One part of your question is very easy to answer:
>
> If enough people agree to at least view them can it spread enough to cause at least one journal to review it seriously?
>
>
>
Journals only consider papers submitted to them. They will not review your work because it is popular on social media.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: I'm sorry to say that I do not think your idea will get much traction as far as spreading your work or results. The unfortunate reality is that most researchers already struggle to filter out "the noise", i.e. try to avoid reading unhelpful manuscripts, and peer-reviewed literature is one efficient way to do this. ArXiv is not peer-reviewed: not everybody goes there and - given the volume of submissions - it is unlikely that your paper will get widely noticed unless you are already well-known in your field of research.
Placing papers on social media works if you want to give post-publication access to articles behind a paywall, but if your manuscript has been rejected it's very unlikely to generate any "buzz": rejected papers have an infinitesimal chance of going "viral".
I believe the right audience will almost certainly be found by submitting to the right journal. For all its faults the peer-review process is overall fair (at least in my field), in the sense that good contributions are usually eventually recognized and published, even if significant corrections are sometimes required (see [here](https://rd.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11192-017-2241-1) for the perspective from a different field). I am not aware of reasonable contributions that are systematically rejected because of technicalities, i.e. I do not believe in conspiracy theories about small biased cliques controlling enough journals in a field to prevent serious work from being published. Presumably one can find anecdotal exceptions but I cannot imagine this is the rule.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: **Try conferences instead**
You seem to have an underlying goal of getting in touch with researchers. Writing papers is not a good way to do this and "social media" for papers, like Mendeley, Arxiv etc are paper-centred. You don't get to know people there and "feedback", which is a social interaction, will be scarce.
If you have the guts for it, you should instead try to submit your work to an academic conference. Conferences typically only review your abstract prior to the conference. If your talk is accepted you may get to stand before an audience, present your work and get feedback, however harsh. You may also be relegated to a "poster session" where you put up your research on a wall and hope people come up and look at it. This too involves direct contact with researchers.
Note that rather than present all your postulates, you should give a birds-eye view of your *project*. What are you trying to accomplish, where are you heading, what is the main gist of the postulates? If you think this is hard, spare a thought for mathematicians working on the "Langlands project", trying to explain what *they* do.
Some conferences will also publish a conference proceeding, with or without peer-review. This gives you a chance at "real" publishing.
When choosing your conference, forum or workshop, you should consult the proceedings from past years and look for a good match. You say that you have some core postulates that overlap both science and philosophy.
It sounds like you are looking for something on the "theory of science", but other keywords may apply too. See for instance <http://ccs17.unam.mx/> for a receptive audience on interdisciplinary "complexity science".
**A word of advice on getting accepted**:
The first question people will have about your postulate is: How does this relate to [insert a century's worth of work on the topic]. Researchers want to see you put your work into the context of the work of others. The bad thing is that you may have to read up on <NAME>, Prigogine, <NAME>, <NAME>, <NAME>, <NAME>, <NAME>, Maturana & Valera, <NAME>, highlights from the Santa Fe complex systems group and even <NAME> to answer such questions. The good news is that at the end of it, you will be in a much better position to select the right conference or even journal for you.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]
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2017/03/05
| 1,694
| 6,564
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<issue_start>username_0: If a paper has four or more authors, it is common to use the style "Firstauthor et al. discovered that the sky is blue.".
I do not like this style, as it is unfair to the other authors. In my field, authors are always listed alphabetically. So being first author is an accident of birth, rather than an indication of being the main contributor.
One option is to list out all the names, but this can be impractical. (A compromise is to list out all the names at the first mention, and then revert to "Firstauthor et al." when mentioning the same paper again.)
I often see no names used e.g. "[1] discovered that the sky is blue." However, this is bad grammar -- parenthetical citations should not be treated like proper nouns. (The passive voice is one way to avoid this issue. i.e. "It is known that the sky is blue [1].")
Is there a style that avoids these problems? Is it acceptable to refer to a paper by an acronym, as in "ABCD discovered that the sky is blue." or "ABCD [1] discovered that the sky is blue"?<issue_comment>username_1: I'm going to advocate for using the style "[1] discovered that the sky is blue," even though you dislike it for grammatical reasons. I don't think that citations written like this need to be considered as parenthetical comments - they are just references, and can be used in place of the authors' names. Sometimes I will also see "Ref. 1 discovered that the sky is blue," which at least avoids putting the citation at the beginning of the sentence.
I agree that using "X et al." for an alphabetical paper is often misleading, and even though people are aware of this, it is difficult to avoid that bias. I have seen, in related cases, people refer to, e.g. "work from the group of Y" to avoid this. However, I do not recommend this, as it attributes more importance to the supervisor's contribution, and it is very easy to misunderstand the roles of people on a given project. (This also intersects with seniority, gender, etc. - big shot authors are more likely to be credited in this way.)
Author names as an acronym also seems quite useful, but I've mostly seen them used in cases where either A) there is a paper or idea that is classic in the field, or B) a single paper is a subject of focused discussion, and is discussed in depth by many other papers. For an example of B, there is the AMPS "firewall" paper in physics: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firewall_(physics)> - they are also not compatible with giant author lists more common in some fields!
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Let's go over the alternatives proposed so far, plus one of my own:
>
> Foo et al. proposes that the sky is blue [ 1 ]. This is in contrast to Fizz and Buzz, which maintain that the sky is more greenish [ 2 ].
>
>
>
The most clean alternative, but I see where the OP is coming from. If everybody does that, and assuming that especially in large cooperations alphabetical ordering of authors becomes natural, it certainly becomes an advantage to have a [last name starting with "Aa"](http://wwwis.win.tue.nl/~wvdaalst/).
>
> [ 1 ] proposes that the sky is blue. This is in contrast to [ 2 ], which maintains that the sky is more greenish.
>
>
>
This is the solution proposed by username_1 in her/his answer. Many "style purists" don't particularly like this writing, as it essentially uses references as nouns rather than as annotations to the text. I personally don't mind this style, as I think it communicates intent fairly well, and that should be what it's all about. However, be wary that some might find this style of writing to be "wrong" and complain about it.
>
> The paper [ 1 ] proposes that the sky is blue. This is in contrast to the paper [ 2 ], which maintains that the sky is more greenish.
>
>
>
I see no real advantage of this phrasing in comparison to the previous approach - it's only longer. Note that even in this version the references are not really annotations, but part of the text itself. That is, if you remove the references from the above sentence, it does not actually make much sense anymore (unlike in the first variant).
>
> Ref 1 proposes that the sky is blue. This is in contrast to Ref 2, which maintains that the sky is more greenish.
>
>
>
I have seen this variation maybe two or three times in the wild so far, and I am not sure why you would use it over the second variation. The only advantage I see is that it "looks" more like a regular English sentence, but it still has the problem that the reference is part of the sentence rather than being an annotation.
>
> A common thought in research is that the sky is blue [ 1 ]. However, some challenge this by arguing that the sky is more greenish [ 2 ].
>
>
>
My personally preferred option is to *rephrase the statement* to focus on the thought or result itself, rather than on who produced it. If you do that, the problem tends to go away naturally. Even independently of writing style, I have always found texts to read better once you remove all the "A said, B said, C said" boilerplate and focus on what has *actually been said*.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: **Stick to the journal's rules.**
Most serious journals have a style guide that will cover this issue. Focus your creativity on the content, not on the form.
The purpose of citations is simply to give an easy an convenient way for readers to locate the earlier work you relied on. It is not to show deference or to "pay tribute" to other researchers or to indicate who you think contributed most to a given paper. Let epistemology scholars and historian worry about who discovered what first.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: I would emphatically oppose username_2' suggestion of
>
> [ 1 ] proposes that the sky is blue. This is in contrast to [ 2 ], which maintains that the sky is more greenish.
>
>
>
or
>
> The paper [ 1 ] proposes that the sky is blue. This is in contrast to the paper [ 2 ], which maintains that the sky is more greenish.
>
>
>
Instead, I believe that
>
> Ref 1 proposes that the sky is blue. This is in contrast to Ref 2, which maintains that the sky is more greenish.
>
>
>
is the way to go if you would like to avoid *First et al.* Yes, the reference here is a part of the sentence, not just an annotation, and that's OK since it isn't parenthesized. In the same spirit, it is common to also write
>
> Figure 3 shows the XYZ dependence of ABC.
>
>
>
where "Figure 3" is also clearly a part of the sentence, and not just annotation.
Upvotes: 2
|
2017/03/06
| 235
| 1,043
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<issue_start>username_0: One of my journal article was submitted to a journal last year. It has been under review for more than 3 months now. I want to send them a mail asking for my article status. It is given in the website of the journal that the average time for first decision after the article goes under review is 8.5 week. Is there a chance that this mail may affect the journals decision, like they may think that I am being pushy and might just not even go through the paper and reject it?<issue_comment>username_1: It most likely won't. I think it is normal to push the editor if there is a significant delay. Check what the average time for receiving reviews is first.
I have done it when there has been a significant delay and it hasn't been a problem.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Usually , three months needed for a journal to find a reviewer, collect their opinion on your paper and make decision. Afterward if you didn't receive news , you need to ask about the status of your article .
Upvotes: -1
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2017/03/06
| 234
| 1,049
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<issue_start>username_0: I am not a professional teacher but I have students that seek me for clarification and knowledge. At times I use their personal real life experiences like how they relate to others to simplify the answer. Is it right professionally?
In the case of programming, when teaching of classes, using their families to signify inheritance. For example your father was tall so will you be... your mother is intelligent so will you be... with no interest of motivate them but educate them.<issue_comment>username_1: It most likely won't. I think it is normal to push the editor if there is a significant delay. Check what the average time for receiving reviews is first.
I have done it when there has been a significant delay and it hasn't been a problem.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Usually , three months needed for a journal to find a reviewer, collect their opinion on your paper and make decision. Afterward if you didn't receive news , you need to ask about the status of your article .
Upvotes: -1
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2017/03/06
| 786
| 3,354
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<issue_start>username_0: I am a new lecturer in a sciences department, this is my first academic position. There is no one telling me what to do which is great, but I am not sure how to maximise my chances of doing well here. What would you think is the most important actions to do and not to do in your first 6-12 months of a position like this? Some people suggest to apply to all grants possible, but I am tempted to get my backlog of papers submitted instead. I was given a lab which is currently empty, and I have limited internal research funding but I can hire one PhD student. Any tips from more seasoned academics?<issue_comment>username_1: As commenters already point out, ultimately this is a question that only people within your department can answer. However:
>
> Some people suggest to apply to all grants possible, but I am tempted to get my backlog of papers submitted instead.
>
>
>
In general, and assuming you are in the sciences, the people that say that you should be focusing on grants are probably right. I kind of understand the temptation to write up all the things that you did not yet have time for due to needing to wrap up your dissertation, but this seems like short-term thinking to me. Sure, you will appear fabulously productive for some time, but then your backlog is empty and you have not acquired funding for new students nor started any other longer-running new initiatives.
As a faculty member, you will now need to start focusing more on the longer term, and sadly this often means that grants are more important than individual papers.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: Step 1 should be to **network within your department**. Go to as many formal and informal events as you can (seminars, discussion groups, coffee break chats...) and get to know the other staff in your area. This will enable you to:
* Gather local advice that is tailored to your situation
* Look at what other lecturers, particularly those early in their career, spend their time on
* Gauge the culture of your department (are they primarily interested in big grants? Very teaching-focused?)
* Find opportunities to develop collaborations, get involved in current initiatives, etc.
I don't know what Steps 2+ should look like, as they will depend on your particular situation (as discussed in the comments). But hopefully when you get started on Step 1, you can get the local advice you need.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: In many Eurogames, and in the stock market, the key to success is often to *diversify*. If you find that you achieve optimal productivity by working on one or two papers while also working on a grant application, then diversification could be a good strategy for you. Also, there may be some chaining possible by diversifying.
Request a mentor. Look around for one on your own as well.
And ask the department whether you should emphasize grant applications, completion and submission of papers already in the works, or a balance of the two. Keep the question succinct with low emotional tone. I understand that this is an exciting and rather anxiety-provoking time for you, but by projecting a cool image, you will get better results, and also the cool tone will help you keep calm. Amazing but true.
Consider that in some departments, grant applications are done as a group effort.
Upvotes: 2
|
2017/03/07
| 785
| 3,382
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<issue_start>username_0: I saw the following abstract submission guidelines:
>
> * Please submit a 500-word text abstract for technical review purposes that is suitable for publication. Accepted abstracts may be published
> with the printed Technical Program for distribution at the meeting.
> * Please also submit a 300-word text abstract suitable for early release. If accepted, this abstract text will be published prior to
> the meeting in the online or printed programs promoting the conference
>
>
>
My question is, how close to the prescribed word count do you have to be? Would it be possible to send one abstract for both requirements?<issue_comment>username_1: As commenters already point out, ultimately this is a question that only people within your department can answer. However:
>
> Some people suggest to apply to all grants possible, but I am tempted to get my backlog of papers submitted instead.
>
>
>
In general, and assuming you are in the sciences, the people that say that you should be focusing on grants are probably right. I kind of understand the temptation to write up all the things that you did not yet have time for due to needing to wrap up your dissertation, but this seems like short-term thinking to me. Sure, you will appear fabulously productive for some time, but then your backlog is empty and you have not acquired funding for new students nor started any other longer-running new initiatives.
As a faculty member, you will now need to start focusing more on the longer term, and sadly this often means that grants are more important than individual papers.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: Step 1 should be to **network within your department**. Go to as many formal and informal events as you can (seminars, discussion groups, coffee break chats...) and get to know the other staff in your area. This will enable you to:
* Gather local advice that is tailored to your situation
* Look at what other lecturers, particularly those early in their career, spend their time on
* Gauge the culture of your department (are they primarily interested in big grants? Very teaching-focused?)
* Find opportunities to develop collaborations, get involved in current initiatives, etc.
I don't know what Steps 2+ should look like, as they will depend on your particular situation (as discussed in the comments). But hopefully when you get started on Step 1, you can get the local advice you need.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: In many Eurogames, and in the stock market, the key to success is often to *diversify*. If you find that you achieve optimal productivity by working on one or two papers while also working on a grant application, then diversification could be a good strategy for you. Also, there may be some chaining possible by diversifying.
Request a mentor. Look around for one on your own as well.
And ask the department whether you should emphasize grant applications, completion and submission of papers already in the works, or a balance of the two. Keep the question succinct with low emotional tone. I understand that this is an exciting and rather anxiety-provoking time for you, but by projecting a cool image, you will get better results, and also the cool tone will help you keep calm. Amazing but true.
Consider that in some departments, grant applications are done as a group effort.
Upvotes: 2
|
2017/03/07
| 260
| 944
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am looking for useful websites like "findmyprof.org" in which I can search and find professors who work on specific field, categorized by country. The problem with "findmyprof.org" is that it does not separate European country.<issue_comment>username_1: Whenever you use findmyprof.org website, the search query result list down the websites that matches your request. Note that you can set a window size for the first 10 or 50 professors in that domain. From that list you can lookup the hyperlinks and by looking at the end of that links, you can assume if it in uk or us ...etc.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: The instruction of *findmyprof.org* states:
>
> the structor is "keyword +country website code"
> example: Climate change +ac.uk --> search only websites located in england
>
>
>
I searched for
>
> atmospheric science +.ch
>
>
>
and received results only for Switzerland.
Upvotes: 2
|
2017/03/07
| 1,163
| 4,842
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<issue_start>username_0: I'm not aware of any PhD candidates patenting their novel work/product. Is it not ok to patent something you worked on?<issue_comment>username_1: This will likely vary from university to university. At Carnegie Mellon University it is very common for students (and professors) to patent their work. I suggest you talk to your department chair about how the university handles intellectual property. For what it's worth, you may be able to find information online (e.g., [CMU's IP guidelines](https://www.cmu.edu/policies/administrative-and-governance/intellectual-property.html) are online).
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: There is no generic rule that PhD students can't patent their work. When they do, usually, the university or research institution has rules about who owns the IP of what's being done in their labs. My *alma mater* had a 3-thirds rule where the student, the supervisor and the institution all held a third of the IP.
I don't find it particularly surprising that only few students end up patenting their work. Patents are much less useful than good scientific publications when applying for academic positions or grants. It seems normal that the focus is set on the later.
Also relevant: patenting costs money to file and money to maintain. It only makes sense to secure future sales. Students rarely have the funds for this and institutions usually prefer to spend on other things more closely related to their mission. Most of the time the decision not to patent is motivated by the low potential gain vs. costs ratio.
Universities are usually a bit generous in what they accept to file, but then eventually drop the payments later on if it's evident that the work does not bring any profit.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: No advice on 'yes go patent it' or 'don't patent it' will suit your case.
Couple of points to think about:
1. **Location**: Country, and then university and department you are in.
2. **Funding**: Are you fully funded by the university, is there any clause in your contract about this?
3. **Supervision**: What your supervisor(s) wants/recommends. Maybe he/she is more like to publish journals instead of dealing with patents. Maybe he/she likes the idea and supports you on this. You need to discuss this with him/her.
4. **Publications**: Your previous publications, are they part of your patents? When did you submit them; and so on.
5. **IP Department**: The group/department that deals with intellectual property. If your university does not have it, then can you afford a lawyer/firm to do that?
6. **Waiting time**: How many years you have to spend to see if the patent goes through.
7. **Ph.D Defense**: How do you defend your thesis if no publication and the best case scenario 'patent pending' situation.
So best advice would be to think about those points and talk to someone at your university that deals with IP submissions.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: If you are working with industry during your Ph.D., it can be maybe of interest to do some patenting in collaboration between industry and university, but this is depending on legal matters. It can or not be possible.
Usually universities are more interested by writing papers rather than patenting.
Impact factors... and so on. Reaching Nature Journal... <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impact_factor>
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_5: Yes, Ph.D. students can usually patent their work -- meaning that they can be one of the Inventors, or even the sole Inventor, on a patent application (if that's appropriate, and the student is the only person with intellectual contribution). That's not the issue. The issue is who is entitled to the licensing fees. That will vary from institution to institution by policy, and may also involve agreements on Sponsored Projects (which might actually preclude a patent application if the University screwed up and signed a bad document).
In many cases, the University is the assignee of the intellectual property, and doles money out to those involved. Often this is a pretty fair deal. Patents can be expensive, and if the school is willing to do the heavy lifting, that's not bad. Corporate inventors on a patent might get a hearty thank you and a small token bonus or gift.
In and of itself, publications have nothing to do with the ability to file a patent application, but are often considered to be DISCLOSURE, which starts a clock ticking -- so if a patent is a consideration, don't publish without speaking to the university intellectual property people to guide you.
Just because you CAN apply for a patent, that doesn't mean that you should, or that the patent will be granted. Talk to someone with expertise, who will work with you on a prior art search, and discuss the business case.
Upvotes: 1
|
2017/03/07
| 419
| 1,973
|
<issue_start>username_0: Recently I got a paper accepted in a high impact journal. The acceptance letter came to me with a few reviewer comments, and it was recommended in the letter to take care of those comments. I submitted the final version with incorporating those revisions in the paper and due to one particular comment, I had to change a paragraph almost entirely.
But now after the proofreading, the journal says only formatting changes can be made, and other changes need further approval from Editor in Chief. Can this anyway jeopardize the paper and result in its rejection? Also, is there any way to communicate with the journal to settle this issue?<issue_comment>username_1: What you've described sounds like a 'conditional acceptance', but I'm confused how you got to the proof stage without addressing the comments suggested. How did that happen? Also, no, do not make major changes during the proof stage.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Reviewers sometimes have further complaints, even when the editor has decided to accept a paper. If the editor issues an acceptance, you should not attempt to respond to the remaining reviewer comments.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: You need to ask the journal what you should do. And then do it.
If you represent everything as it happened, then the journal gave you the wrong instructions. Maybe you misunderstood. It does not matter.
Presumably, you are dealing with a person at the journal who is in charge of typesetting and no longer with an Associate Editor. Explain to them that you were trying to follow the instructions in the acceptance letter, but in case you misunderstood them, offer to submit the version of the paper you submitted before acceptance, with the small corrections that needed to be made, but without the alterations to that paragraph. You might include the acceptance letter. As long as you are willing to cooperate with them, your article will get published.
Upvotes: 2
|
2017/03/07
| 1,536
| 6,515
|
<issue_start>username_0: A striking difference between being a student following courses and a PhD student doing research is the independence and lack of rigid structures such as homework and exams. I started a PhD in biophysics in the Netherlands a bit over a year ago and so far it has been a good experience. However, I found it hard to gauge how well I am doing and whether worries about my progress are justified.
My supervisor is supportive and provides frequent feedback. Despite the clear benefit of getting feedback in person over getting it through a graded exam, personal discussions can have a subjective feel to it, which makes it less clear cut than getting a mark. As students we were used to getting seemingly objective, quantifiable measures of our progress. The academic equivalent would be papers, but my supervisor has stated clearly that he goes for quality above quantity and as a result there will likely few if any papers until perhaps the final year of my PhD (also because we are a very new group). I also support his vision of not focusing on churning out papers but on doing good quality research.
How do PhD students and young researchers know how well on track they are? Let's say that the objective is to finish the PhD on time and continue doing research (in either academia or industry, not necessarily on a faculty position).<issue_comment>username_1: I think the most straightforward metric is how many chapters for your thesis you have, excluding the Introduction, Background (if you will have one) and Conclusions. You are not writing papers, but I assume you are writing. Each piece of writing be it a paper or not should be either a chapter or contribute to a chapter significantly, purely to make writing the thesis easier but also aiding you in measuring your progress. You should find out how many core chapters you need in your final thesis, what is the norm in your area/group? (my guess is four) Now, taking into account your comments, it may be that you're not writing much yet, but you can perhaps try to think of how many chapters you will get from the results you've gained experimental or otherwise (e.g., you have tested X related hypotheses and so that's one chapter).
On the softer side, getting a PhD is also about becoming an independent researcher. From what I have seen, those that continue as researchers during their PhD develop from being dependent on their supervisory team, where they tell you what to do, to be independent such that they tell their supervisors what to do. The ultimate goal, is to actual become interdependent with co-authors, so that you need each other equally. You can assess this by seeing how much of the work is your own idea, I expect during your final two years most of it will be, and how often it is you demanding your supervisors to read/comment over them telling you to do X, Y or Z.
I base these two above metrics based on courses I have taken, and my own experience doing a PhD and observing other successful (or not) PhDs.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: I can tell you how *I* measured my progress in an area (Theoretical CS) where the few papers arrive on the final year of the PhD. The first year of my PhD I studied a lot. I mean *a lot*.
And I realized I was making progress when I could follow arguments and expositions that were too alien for me in the beginning. When I was reading a description of a theorem (not the proof) or an algorithm and thinking "Ah, this is not surprising because of such-and-such reason". When initially heavy subjects became part of my everyday routine.
When I arrived to that point, I was confident I was on the right track *even without any publication*.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: In my observation over some decades (in mathematics), I think it is nearly impossible for a PhD student to gauge their own progress. Sure, it is possible to know whether one feels discouraged or encouraged, etc., but these are mostly artifacts of one's own temperament and of the general environment, *not* indicators of one's progress.
If you have an engaged, perceptive, competent advisor, they will by-far be the best judge of whether you're on-track or off.
Even then, the real goal is not to measure up to some scalar-valued "good/bad", but to \_become\_what\_you\_can\_.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_4: It also depends on the PhD program you are in. Who is deciding when and if you get your PhD, and what are the requirements? Is it just your supervisor who decides? In my case the supervising team had nothing to do with the evaluation of the thesis and the defence. So get to know the official and unofficial requirements and then measure your progress accordingly. I think its very important to always keep that in mind, and focus on finishing. Its easy to get distracted by side-projects and learning new tools.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_5: >
> Ask your advisor.
>
>
>
I mean, you can even forward the question to him in an e-mail... That's what advisors are for. Ask him if is there anything else you could be doing, what can you do to improve your performance. Literally nobody else would be as informed as him at this point.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_6: Something that was missing in previous answers is the opportunity to apply for a PHD Symposium. You can basically do that at any stage of your PhD. There will usually be a three people panel, evaluating both your presentation and your presented research.
If you find one that is associated with a relevant conference, the panel will be from your field of expertiece. In early stages of a PhD, they will give you advice on possible research directions, in later stages they will tell you what research they see is still missing, in order for you to graduate.
In such a setting you can also directly ask for feedback about "being on track".
One more remark:
>
> I also support his vision of not focusing on churning out papers but on doing good quality research.
>
>
>
Just keep in mind, that every paper you publish includes 1) meeting relevant people at the conference, 2) getting feedback (both by the reviewers and the audience), 3) getting training in holding presentations, and 4) a trip to a usually nice location ;)
So yes, good quality IS very important. But that does not mean, that you can't publish some workshop papers, or B conference papers, with preliminary results. That will only improve the quality of your main papers.
Upvotes: 2
|
2017/03/07
| 1,452
| 6,104
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am often bothered by the fact that interesting information pertaining a manuscript ends up in the supplemental information because of constraints of space, formatting and narrative. It feels like wasting hard-earned results.
I am about to submit a paper which will be accompanied by supplemental information where I will put a very detailed analysis of some specific bit of the paper. This is too detailed to make it to the main text. Because I think they are nice results nonetheless and I would like to squeeze some juice out of them, I was thinking about putting the supplemental info as either an arXiv or Zenodo submission, which would assign it a DOI and thus make it citeable. It would make this info also more discoverable and accessible by someone who is interested in this part but not in the journal paper itself.
Is this a good idea or should I simply submit my extra data as regular supplemental info instead?<issue_comment>username_1: I think the most straightforward metric is how many chapters for your thesis you have, excluding the Introduction, Background (if you will have one) and Conclusions. You are not writing papers, but I assume you are writing. Each piece of writing be it a paper or not should be either a chapter or contribute to a chapter significantly, purely to make writing the thesis easier but also aiding you in measuring your progress. You should find out how many core chapters you need in your final thesis, what is the norm in your area/group? (my guess is four) Now, taking into account your comments, it may be that you're not writing much yet, but you can perhaps try to think of how many chapters you will get from the results you've gained experimental or otherwise (e.g., you have tested X related hypotheses and so that's one chapter).
On the softer side, getting a PhD is also about becoming an independent researcher. From what I have seen, those that continue as researchers during their PhD develop from being dependent on their supervisory team, where they tell you what to do, to be independent such that they tell their supervisors what to do. The ultimate goal, is to actual become interdependent with co-authors, so that you need each other equally. You can assess this by seeing how much of the work is your own idea, I expect during your final two years most of it will be, and how often it is you demanding your supervisors to read/comment over them telling you to do X, Y or Z.
I base these two above metrics based on courses I have taken, and my own experience doing a PhD and observing other successful (or not) PhDs.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: I can tell you how *I* measured my progress in an area (Theoretical CS) where the few papers arrive on the final year of the PhD. The first year of my PhD I studied a lot. I mean *a lot*.
And I realized I was making progress when I could follow arguments and expositions that were too alien for me in the beginning. When I was reading a description of a theorem (not the proof) or an algorithm and thinking "Ah, this is not surprising because of such-and-such reason". When initially heavy subjects became part of my everyday routine.
When I arrived to that point, I was confident I was on the right track *even without any publication*.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: In my observation over some decades (in mathematics), I think it is nearly impossible for a PhD student to gauge their own progress. Sure, it is possible to know whether one feels discouraged or encouraged, etc., but these are mostly artifacts of one's own temperament and of the general environment, *not* indicators of one's progress.
If you have an engaged, perceptive, competent advisor, they will by-far be the best judge of whether you're on-track or off.
Even then, the real goal is not to measure up to some scalar-valued "good/bad", but to \_become\_what\_you\_can\_.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_4: It also depends on the PhD program you are in. Who is deciding when and if you get your PhD, and what are the requirements? Is it just your supervisor who decides? In my case the supervising team had nothing to do with the evaluation of the thesis and the defence. So get to know the official and unofficial requirements and then measure your progress accordingly. I think its very important to always keep that in mind, and focus on finishing. Its easy to get distracted by side-projects and learning new tools.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_5: >
> Ask your advisor.
>
>
>
I mean, you can even forward the question to him in an e-mail... That's what advisors are for. Ask him if is there anything else you could be doing, what can you do to improve your performance. Literally nobody else would be as informed as him at this point.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_6: Something that was missing in previous answers is the opportunity to apply for a PHD Symposium. You can basically do that at any stage of your PhD. There will usually be a three people panel, evaluating both your presentation and your presented research.
If you find one that is associated with a relevant conference, the panel will be from your field of expertiece. In early stages of a PhD, they will give you advice on possible research directions, in later stages they will tell you what research they see is still missing, in order for you to graduate.
In such a setting you can also directly ask for feedback about "being on track".
One more remark:
>
> I also support his vision of not focusing on churning out papers but on doing good quality research.
>
>
>
Just keep in mind, that every paper you publish includes 1) meeting relevant people at the conference, 2) getting feedback (both by the reviewers and the audience), 3) getting training in holding presentations, and 4) a trip to a usually nice location ;)
So yes, good quality IS very important. But that does not mean, that you can't publish some workshop papers, or B conference papers, with preliminary results. That will only improve the quality of your main papers.
Upvotes: 2
|
2017/03/08
| 1,410
| 5,986
|
<issue_start>username_0: According to editor guideline on springer website "Accept with minor revisions is actually a commitment to ultimately publish the paper, provided the authors answer the remaining concerns (which should be relatively minor) in a timely and proper way."
However, one of my article which was accepted with minor revision is now under "Editor Invited" status after the submission of revised version. I sent an email to editor, who was handling my article, he said he can not see revised version on system.
Is it possible that an article might be handed over to another editor at final stages by journal office without notifying the handling editor?
How it can affect the overall review process? Should I expect more delay and more chances of rejection even the decision was Accept with minor revisions?<issue_comment>username_1: I think the most straightforward metric is how many chapters for your thesis you have, excluding the Introduction, Background (if you will have one) and Conclusions. You are not writing papers, but I assume you are writing. Each piece of writing be it a paper or not should be either a chapter or contribute to a chapter significantly, purely to make writing the thesis easier but also aiding you in measuring your progress. You should find out how many core chapters you need in your final thesis, what is the norm in your area/group? (my guess is four) Now, taking into account your comments, it may be that you're not writing much yet, but you can perhaps try to think of how many chapters you will get from the results you've gained experimental or otherwise (e.g., you have tested X related hypotheses and so that's one chapter).
On the softer side, getting a PhD is also about becoming an independent researcher. From what I have seen, those that continue as researchers during their PhD develop from being dependent on their supervisory team, where they tell you what to do, to be independent such that they tell their supervisors what to do. The ultimate goal, is to actual become interdependent with co-authors, so that you need each other equally. You can assess this by seeing how much of the work is your own idea, I expect during your final two years most of it will be, and how often it is you demanding your supervisors to read/comment over them telling you to do X, Y or Z.
I base these two above metrics based on courses I have taken, and my own experience doing a PhD and observing other successful (or not) PhDs.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: I can tell you how *I* measured my progress in an area (Theoretical CS) where the few papers arrive on the final year of the PhD. The first year of my PhD I studied a lot. I mean *a lot*.
And I realized I was making progress when I could follow arguments and expositions that were too alien for me in the beginning. When I was reading a description of a theorem (not the proof) or an algorithm and thinking "Ah, this is not surprising because of such-and-such reason". When initially heavy subjects became part of my everyday routine.
When I arrived to that point, I was confident I was on the right track *even without any publication*.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: In my observation over some decades (in mathematics), I think it is nearly impossible for a PhD student to gauge their own progress. Sure, it is possible to know whether one feels discouraged or encouraged, etc., but these are mostly artifacts of one's own temperament and of the general environment, *not* indicators of one's progress.
If you have an engaged, perceptive, competent advisor, they will by-far be the best judge of whether you're on-track or off.
Even then, the real goal is not to measure up to some scalar-valued "good/bad", but to \_become\_what\_you\_can\_.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_4: It also depends on the PhD program you are in. Who is deciding when and if you get your PhD, and what are the requirements? Is it just your supervisor who decides? In my case the supervising team had nothing to do with the evaluation of the thesis and the defence. So get to know the official and unofficial requirements and then measure your progress accordingly. I think its very important to always keep that in mind, and focus on finishing. Its easy to get distracted by side-projects and learning new tools.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_5: >
> Ask your advisor.
>
>
>
I mean, you can even forward the question to him in an e-mail... That's what advisors are for. Ask him if is there anything else you could be doing, what can you do to improve your performance. Literally nobody else would be as informed as him at this point.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_6: Something that was missing in previous answers is the opportunity to apply for a PHD Symposium. You can basically do that at any stage of your PhD. There will usually be a three people panel, evaluating both your presentation and your presented research.
If you find one that is associated with a relevant conference, the panel will be from your field of expertiece. In early stages of a PhD, they will give you advice on possible research directions, in later stages they will tell you what research they see is still missing, in order for you to graduate.
In such a setting you can also directly ask for feedback about "being on track".
One more remark:
>
> I also support his vision of not focusing on churning out papers but on doing good quality research.
>
>
>
Just keep in mind, that every paper you publish includes 1) meeting relevant people at the conference, 2) getting feedback (both by the reviewers and the audience), 3) getting training in holding presentations, and 4) a trip to a usually nice location ;)
So yes, good quality IS very important. But that does not mean, that you can't publish some workshop papers, or B conference papers, with preliminary results. That will only improve the quality of your main papers.
Upvotes: 2
|
2017/03/08
| 405
| 1,823
|
<issue_start>username_0: I applied to a Masters program and unfortunately, I was rejected.
I intend to re-apply to another school and another program by the end of April, and I haven't had the chance to find other referees.
When I re-apply, should I simply email my previous referees and request for another reference letter? or should I email them now casually and update them that my application was rejected?<issue_comment>username_1: I think the answer may depend on the exact relationship you have with your referees. I would think that if they were willing to write you a reference letter in the first place, they are invested in you and your academic success enough to warrant an update on your graduate admissions status. I think if you just emailed them for a new letter, they may wonder why you're requesting more letters relatively late in the application cycle, or they may ask about the status of your past applications. In either case, it is likely that you will need to disclose your rejection, so perhaps disclosing it first is a better strategy.
Plus, this may be a good opportunity to solicit feedback from them on your past application so you can incorporate any feedback given into your April application.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: I think you should email them now just as a matter of politeness. They took their time to write a reference letter and deserve to hear an update.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: I think if you failed and requesting letters again you must explain to them.
Sometimes they invested a huge amount of time in you and your letters, especially if they are personalized. If they did whatever they can, they will be really angry if you failed due to your own lax. You must make sure that your failure is reasonable and you deserve another chance.
Upvotes: 0
|
2017/03/08
| 599
| 2,270
|
<issue_start>username_0: We are two students in computer science doing our term project for B.Sc. in computer science.
Now I wonder if it is alright or advisable to make inline hyperlinks in the report e.g.
>
> We look at the [specification](https://www.altera.com/content/dam/altera-www/global/en_US/pdfs/literature/ug/ug_embedded_ip.pdf#page=68), it should report the memory mapped
> registers (which are input/output and can affect the state of the
> UART).
>
>
>
Or should there be a footnote instead? Or both? If somebody prints the report on physical paper then obviously an inline http link won't work.<issue_comment>username_1: I would say that at least a footnote, preferably a reference. The rules how it must be vary between universities, but the rules are old, and generally there may be a rule that some physical copies must exist and such, so I would play safe and do it always as if it would be printed.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: No. Your thesis is its own piece of academic work, and one should be able to read it stand-alone. This means that you should take the relevant information, and present it to the reader, not just refer to the specifications, and give a citation.
When you need to refer to any other work, be it articles, textbooks, technical specifications or http-pages, you should follow a standard citation scheme applicable for your field. Your supervisor can help you with the relevant details regarding its setup. Note also that the example you give is actually a piece of published literature, that just happens to be available online. Also: When including http pages as references, one usually notes the date when it was accessed. This is, however, not needed in this case, as you are citing a static publication with ISBN number and everything.
In the example you give, you should write something like (modulo field dependent citation standards - also I am not a computer scientist :)):
>
> From the UART Core specification (ref. [1] p. 68-69) we know that the memory mapped registers...
>
>
> [1] ALTERA Corp (2011) Embedded Peripherals IP User Guide , Altera, e-print: <https://www.altera.com/content/dam/altera-www/global/en_US/pdfs/literature/ug/ug_embedded_ip.pdf>
>
>
>
Upvotes: 1
|
2017/03/08
| 1,011
| 4,335
|
<issue_start>username_0: My question is about submitting a paper to a venue (journal or conference) when some of the authors of the paper are also members of the program committee (PC) of the venue (i.e., they will review papers for the journal or conference). I call this a PC paper.
In any modern conference or journal management system that I have seen, PC papers don't seem to pose any particular issue: when logged in as a PC member, you do not see pending submissions of which you are an author, and of course you are never given one of your own papers to review. I have never participated to a PC board meeting (to decide on which papers to accept or reject), but I assume that PC members would be excluded from discussions about their own papers (as is routinely done for conflicts of interest). In conferences where the accept/reject decision is taken by a PC chair or editor, of course they are not allowed to submit papers, and this of course I can understand.
However, in my field (theoretical computer science), I have heard that submitting a PC paper is generally frowned upon. Further, there appears to be a tradition that, on borderline papers, papers by PC members will be rejected in priority.
Hence my question: **Is there indeed a bias against PC papers in academia? If yes, is there any ethical or practical justification for this?**<issue_comment>username_1: No is not frowned upon, at least in our field (TCS). I can provide numerous examples for that. I saw it many times. PC members submit their papers, but they are handled of course by other members and, afaik, the whole process is not visible to them until the notification date.
Note that, *some* conferences (like IPCO) have strict rules. They explicitly say that no PC member shall submit a paper, alone or as a co-author. But if the Call for Papers does not mention, I guess a PC member is free to submit the paper.
What I have heard though is that even if a PC member submits a paper, it is claimed that higher standards apply to that paper (but I am not sure).
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: >
> If yes, is there any ethical or practical justification for this?
>
>
>
Especially if the venue only attracts of small number of submissions, one justification is **reviewer anonymity**.
In some conference systems, PC members can see all reviews except for those of their own papers. Based on this information, it would be easy for a PC member with an own submission to infer the identities of the reviewers of her paper.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: Adding my own answers to add some other reasonable justifications I heard from colleagues about why PC papers are discouraged:
* If a conference has a significant proportion of PC papers among the accepted papers, it gives to outsiders the impression of being a closed "mutual gratification" community, where the PC is accepting their own papers. Of course, this perception is also tied to other signs of how healthy a community is (e.g., does the PC rotate sufficiently, etc.), but a simple way to avoid giving this impression is to reject PC submissions entirely or at least discourage them. This seems to me like a reasonable argument.
* If the conference is not double-blind, reviewers of a PC paper may be influenced by the fact that authors are members of PC, and may also be influenced from their interactions while discussing reviews of other papers (where you may get a positive or negative impression of other reviewers). This problem can be patched, of course, by making the conference double-blind.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_4: It does seem to vary depending on subdiscipline. In systems conferences, it used to be acceptable for PC members to submit, but they were often discouraged from submitting too many. But I remember one conference where the chair said specifically that PC members shouldn't be discouraged or discriminated against -- hurts young faculty in particular.
Modern review systems do a good job of handling anonymity, but any conflicts make any face-to-face meeting more challenging. HotCRP is *way* better than easychair for this by the way.
With cochairs, even a program chair can potentially submit to their own conference, though it still can look bad when it gets in. But it does help with institutional conflicts.
Upvotes: 1
|
2017/03/08
| 4,649
| 19,505
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am a lecturer of a computer course in a university. Two months (almost 20 hours) of lectures have already finished. Very recently, I planned to get some feedback from my students on my lectures.
* I asked a couple of questions such as 'how motivating the course is ...', 'how do you rate yourself on topic X', and many more.
* I also asked them to fill a comment box that would improve my teaching.
* This feedback is open to all the students registered for the course that also includes those guys who never attended a lecture.
* I used a Google form for the process and made the responses anonymous.
From the multiple-choice feedback questions, I learned a lot of things and actually, I got to see a few strengths and weaknesses of my lectures. However, the comment section of the feedback has made my life difficult for last few days. I am really disturbed after going through and thinking over a few comments.
Here are some examples of comments:
>
> You do not teach what is in the book. Plus, you ask very difficult questions in the test. What do you want to prove?
>
>
> Who recruited this guy to this university?
>
>
> One should learn how bad to teach from this faculty?
>
>
>
At the same time, other comments look like the following:
>
> He is the best in the field.
>
>
> He explains the most difficult concepts in a very simple and clear way.
>
>
>
The students (all are undergrad) are pretty straight-forward and have been really not-so-formal about it. I don't want my frustration to reflect on my lectures. I am new to teaching and that is why I wanted to get feedback.
How should I deal with this? Is it normal for an early-career academic?
**Update:**
After going through the comments (discussion) on this question, one may find out that the students are confused, probably during the discussion. However, there are two more points one should consider:
* Since the feedback is anonymous, it is difficult to track a student and personally talk with him/her regarding his/her confusion.
* If the students that have given such comments just came for one or two lectures, and they are judging the faculty's strength just based on that, then it is unwise.
* If the above (second) point is true, then the concerned instructor should not take seriously those comments.
Is it a good summary?<issue_comment>username_1: This is the sad reality of anonymous evaluation.
If you give them the choice to rate something on a scale, they will be more or less honest. But when it comes to comments, students will say the nastiest things about you.
The only thing that helps is to force yourself to think that only constructive feedback is feedback you consider. Personal attacks or insults should not make you feel bad.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: >
> Could I get some suggestion on how do I manage in such time? Is it normal for a early-age academia?
>
>
>
No, this is common for academics of **any** age. Anonymous evaluations are notoriously a valve for students to express their dissatisfaction without having to be reflective, fair, or even truthful about it. If you ask for anonymous feedback, you will need to be prepared for things that you don't want to hear. This can include very harsh judgments of your teaching quality, ad hominem attacks, or even tangentially (if at all) teaching-related comments to your person, your appearance, etc. Browsing [Ratemyprof](http://www.ratemyprofessors.com) will give you a good idea what kind of statements students are willing to utter about their professors.
How you "manage" is by keeping in mind that **(a)** what you read is likely not the opinion of the silent majority of students, **(b)** that even the students that actually post hurtful feedback will often not *really* feel like this about you, but rather be frustrated because of a bad grade, a bad experience with your school in general, or just a difficult time in their life, and that **(c)** in reality, most teachers get a wide range of feedback from very bad to very good.
Also note that especially in smaller classes there can be tremendous differences between years, so having a bad evaluation in one year can still lead to a better evaluation in the following. Further, I have taken to basically ignore any feedback that has been mentioned only once or twice, and only start to take a specific complaint serious if it becomes a pattern.
**TL;DR:** In short, you will need to learn to not take the feedback personally.
Upvotes: 8 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: I have a different view on such feedback and here is how I deal with it.
First of all, the anonymous comments are a great feedback and they are generally true.
Second, students, especially younger ones, are pretty bad at wording their thoughts on paper. They tend to exaggerate, be offensive or aggressive, focus on seemingly irrelevant things, draw wrong conclusions, etc.
To get the most value out of anonymous comments, I learned to ask very specific questions. My favorite ones are "What did you like the most about my class?" and "What do you think can be improved about this class?". No matter how ADD your students are, this will focus them dead on point.
If you ask anything general like "What do you think about my class?", students will get so creative and off-topic, they will blow your mind. 60 people watching you for half a year will know A LOT of things about you, you yourself don't know. If you want to learn more about yourself, go ahead, you will rarely get a better opportunity. As for me, at the age of 30 I already have a long list of things I want to improve about myself and don't want anything added to it. I especially don't want to hear about things I can't or don't want to change, like my receding hair, accent, or fashion preferences (lack of thereof).
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_4: Difficult questions in the test is not necessarily a problem, so long as the questions are genuinely a good assessment of the student's understanding of the course.
The more worrying assessment is that they think your teaching is going outside the course notes, which of course means they'll be examined on something they can't easily revise for. That feels like something I'd be concerned about.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: It's not uncommon to get a few negative comments for even the best instructors. Some of the comments I've gotten have been so bizarre that it made me wonder about the sanity of those students.
One student, in particular, went on a 3 paragraph rant about how it offended him that I used a Barbie car to demonstrate inertia for my physics class. (I tend to use a lot of toys.)
In another case, I got one very negative evaluation and in the comments the student said that I wasn't good at teaching C++. Since I teach physics and not programming, this was more than a little strange.
So don't sweat it.
If you want to take the feedback seriously, one thing you can try is running a problem from the chapter for each class. This can hook in the use of the book, and give the students some traction when running the rest of the problems. This is something to try anyway.
Additional:
One of the tricky things is to bridge the gap between 'how' and 'why'. Some lecture instructors will only explain the overarching concept (the 'why') and leave the detail work of running the problems for the students to figure out (the 'how'). But this often leads to a disconnect, so the students will spend a lot of time spinning their wheels, trying to see what the lecture has to do with the actual problem sets that they are asked to work.
With physics and math (the topics I typically teach) it's possible to construct problem sets for most topics that include the 'why' in the 'how'. That is, the procedure for doing the problem involves a conceptual approach to problem solving. Making a connection between the big concepts that we talk about in lecture and the problem solving strategies that the students have to develop for their homework sets is key
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_6: In the examples you gave, one stood out as maybe actually useful; I hope to use it as an example for my suggested approach:
>
> You do not teach what is in the book. Plus, you ask very difficult questions in the test. What do you want to prove?
>
>
>
This isn't the most well-constructed feedback, and certainly isn't polite, but I think there is a useful criticism you can extract from it. My translation:
>
> I was confused about the importance of the assigned textbook versus what you taught in class, which made it difficult for me to prepare for the tests.
>
>
>
Does that sound like feedback you can maybe use? I am making some assumptions about what the student's actual complaints were, but I think you can take from this "I could make some improvements to my syllabus; maybe I need to specify more specific sections of the textbook for emphasis. I could review the textbook I am assigning and make sure it fits with how I am presenting the material, otherwise I should consider assigning a different textbook or assigning standalone reading." None of this is an indictment of your teaching ability, just a reflection that anyone can improve their teaching, and students' needs will vary. The magnitude of the changes you make should probably correlate with how common a given complaint is - if this is the only student that complained about textbook/classroom differences, probably you do not need any major changes.
In summary:
Extract useful feedback from the comments, try to ignore the emotional content as if you are a third-party observer, ignore everything else that is just rude. Most of it probably comes from your students frustrations with themselves that they have decided to direct towards you - that's mostly a sign of their own immaturity (not that all grown adults are masters of self-reflection, either). Good luck! Just being concerned about your teaching can make you one of the better professors your students will have.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_7: Think of it as the results of a experiment with a *lot* of outliers. Ignore anything too far away of the mean, in both positive and negative sides. And, as said by @ian\_itor, ignore all purely destructive comments.
Keep in mind that those "outliers" regions are more represented than the average, because they are more motivated to speak than the students that have nothing to say and believe that everything is ok.
I usually make available this kind of anonymous "say what you want" feedback. Sometimes I even encourage them to say nasty things so they can get it out of their system. I replicate all the meaningful comments into a public page, with my answer/comment for it, so everyone can see it. Once the first wave of nasty things subsides, they mostly use it to point out things they didn't understand, potential errors in the material, ask for extended deadlines, this sort of stuff....
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_8: If you have a supportive department chairperson, or other trusted colleague, it may be helpful to have him or her review the comments with you. From there that person may be able to give you some good advice on a plan to improve your teaching. Note: I am not assuming your teaching is bad, but we all have room for improvement.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_9: I deal with it in this way:
* They are always true. Anonymity will let the students tell what they really think.
* If they fail in the exam, they will think negatively. If they succeed, they feel great and praise you.
* The feedback will be focused on the end of the course. You should ask it before exams, because after it they will focus on the exam.
And to the concrete part:
* Find patterns. If many say about something, then that will be a problem or a good point to keep.
* Find contradictions, did you meet your target market. In your case the people that learned seem to be happy, while the ones that did not are frustrated to you. Did you mind every different kind of students when teaching? In math, there will be some finance people. They do not care about the beauty of the proofs. Same goes to intuitive visual mathematicians that like to get an intuition and see things. Did you deliver value for those people? Like show them visuals, tell them examples of applications and such.
* If the personal thing is not your fault, then do not mind. They can be, as in one of the answers there was about barbie car. Using toys can feel belittling, university students are adults. Of course feeling offended by a barbie car is not mature, but the students can still be in that age where they still feel the need to compensate for their youth, by playing stereotypical adult.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_10: In situations I asked for anonymous feedback, I rejected the extremes (praise or hate) and concentrated on the middle-ground, which usually had the most constructive, pragmatic comments.
Do not worry about the "I hate you" ones, do not inflate your ego with the "I love you" ones either, just learn from the "you speak too fast" or "you explained A, B C just great and I lost you at D and E"
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_11: >
> He explains the most difficult concepts in a very simple and clear way.
>
>
>
You seem to have your good sides and connect to some students. You can't win them all. Everyone has a different learning style, need for audio, visuals, excercises. Try to add more variety. If it's all chalk on the whiteboard students will vote with their feet and go with the books. The most intelligent rightfully consider that a waste of their time.
>
> Who recruited this guy to this university?
>
>
>
Lot of work for you to move a away from your predecessors 1960ies script maybe. Some people think lecturers should be up to modern teaching standards. not neccessarily your most experienced colleagues. Find and stand by your own way.
>
> You do not teach what is in the book. Plus, you ask very difficult questions
> in the test. What do you want to prove?
>
>
>
Maybe going in the same direction. People manage their time by not intending to copy donw the whiteboard chalk and learn nothing from it. If you write fast to push the topics through, students can't focus on understanding. They try to pass your exam by using the books at home. Forcing them to attend via exam specifics questions that come up in last lectures Q6A is really unfair, self-serving and really direspectful of their time.
Having studied aviation engineering, being a renewables start up founder and working as self-studied IT freelance based on a part-time MBA, i can tell you any student with some brains will be totally disaffected by "chalk physics" w/o meaningful exercises or progress in deepening the understaning. I don't need to write down 2 pages of math to get to the last single useful line. 80% of classes is junk you never need. Get away from any self-serving academia image projected. Some students will bring work life experience to the table and may be really offended being misjudged as slackers.
From that part-time high-speed pro lectures in the MBA, I knew it can be done very differently using Power Point slides etc. to save chalk time. Sometimes it's ignorance or the professor who is the real slacker in the room.
just telling from my experience here what digital natives may expect from you in IT classes.
One easy reccomendation is hand out sample exams early for the book readers that hold up to self-teaching and passing with a good grade. Everyone will know what it's about and has no excuses for wasting a semester. Keep in mind wasting big ressources and failing when trying hard is deeply demotivating. Don't assume anyone to be a slacker. They all have their own tough choices on a hairstring budget or very judgemental parents at home. Such frustration may result in a very personal or harsh critisism. Try to find the gold in it too. Some still have to learn organizing a study or not to take up too many classes in a semester. Some may have structural limits to take the full plate scheduled offcially or retrain basics from long ago or bad teachers in their high schools. Or have a night job in a bar.
You can only improve some way every semester. No past exams on the campus black market make it hard with any first timer.
Your university should offer an assistance programme aimed to improve and reflect on your teaching. They all do today for beginners and thats safely outside of asking colleagues. Actually being open for change is a very good move from you.
Maybe you take this as goals: "making it more motivating to attend for different learning styles" and "more accessible to take home and self-study to manage their own time or catch up after not attending" and "fair to pass by clear expectations reg the exam questions" and "dish out one or two small exercises / follow up questions" be careful not to overload on these and post them online too for people who missed out.
Does your administration offer an optional excercise tutor for your course? That may address some issues reg exams questions.
What I ask for is a lot of work and can only be improved gradually by carefully managing your time and get assistance where you can grab it from budgets.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_12: >
> Since the feedback is anonymous, it is difficult to track a student
> and personally talk with him/her regarding his/her confusion.
>
>
>
Someone already suggested more precise questions to get more constructive feedback but I wanted to clarify that you can still ask follow up questions to anonymous responses. You can reword the questions in the context of how you were criticized, and the person who wrote it to you will probably give more details for instance, and maybe even the better performing students will have details on how they're learning that you could use. It's hard to offer advice to criticism that isn't specific but in general I have some things I would caution against.
>
> If the students that have given such comments just came for one or two
> lectures, and they are judging the faculty's strength just based on
> that, then it is unwise.
>
>
> If the above (second) point is true, then the concerned instructor
> should not take seriously those comments.
>
>
>
If they're anonymous you may be jumping to conclusions assuming that the feedback is from those students though right? They may get more from learning outside of class also.
Also just because some students are learning well and others aren't doesn't mean that they have contradicted each other so I would be wary of concluding that you can brush off the criticism. There are a lot of variables to how people learn, from cognitive processing power, to financial stress. For example there's research on how the oldest students in a grade, born slightly after the cutoff date perform better throughout grade school because their brains are more developed. In practice your plan may work for the majority of students but you may need to create an individual lesson plan for some others. If you plan on doing this long term you will build up a toolbox for the special cases.
TLDR: Get better data on the struggling students to find out how they learn best. Attempt to emulate that learning environment for them while continuing to offer the same quality lesson to your other students.
Upvotes: 1
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2017/03/08
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<issue_start>username_0: I am a physics student in the UK.
A university (university A) has made me a PhD offer. The email from admissions was very clear that there is a 30-day time limit on this offer. As it happens I am likely to accept the offer, but do wish to take advantage of these 30 days. This is because my partner has also applied to university A, and their application is going well, we think it probable that we may both get offers from this university. However, there is a second university (university B) who has already offered my partner a place and will get back to me in 24 days.
In fact, we will both accept the first of A or B to make us both an offer. Perhaps this is not the best reason to chose a PhD place, but that is beyond the scope of my question.
The professor who would be my supervisor at university A has emailed me to encourage me to accept A's offer sooner. Clearly, I wish to remain on good terms with this professor, in case I do end up at university A. I'm not sure that telling A about the two-body problem is a good idea. How can I politely tell A that I will not accept yet?
Edit; I did inform A of my reasons for hesitating. Not only were they very sympathetic, they did their best to get my partner interviewed sooner, and helped them find an intern-ship with the relevant people.<issue_comment>username_1: In my opinion, since you are already accepted, there is no harm in telling about the two-body problem; if you end up going to University B, <EMAIL> would likely feel better about that reason than some negative impression of them personally or of University A.
You are well within your rights to take the full 30 days to decide. Certainly not all professors are equally versed or sympathetic towards the two-body problem, but most have experienced it, if not personally, through their colleagues, friends, etc.
Ultimately I think it is your choice whether or not to explain your reasoning, but I would personally lose a bit of respect towards your <EMAIL> if they were unable to accept you stating simply "My offer gives me 30 days to respond, and I would like to take that entire time to ensure I make the right decision for me. I will inform you immediately of my decision once it is made."
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: I would encourage you to tell your potential advisor, the department, your partner's potential advisor, and their department, about your situation.
I was in a similar situation (in the US), and not only were the advisors and departments sympathetic, they were actively supportive. They helped introduce us to other potential advisors, sought additional funding, etc.
In my situation, we had spent multiple years applying to PhD programs to find a good fit for both of us. In the first year, we did not mention the two-body problem to anyone until after the decision deadline. When I mentioned the challenges we were facing, one professor expressed regret that I had not informed the department sooner. He explained that they try to help in such situations, as it is often beneficial to the university to compromise on joint hires.
The following year, we were more up front about our two-body situation. We experienced no negative reactions and a lot of support. It took us an additional year to find funding for both of us, but we are now both in the PhD program at the same university.
Many academics have experienced 2-body problems. It is becoming more common in the US for universities to joint hire, and it looks like this might be extending to the PhD level as well. I would welcome commenters who can assess whether this is also true internationally.
Upvotes: 4
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2017/03/09
| 1,243
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<issue_start>username_0: I'm interested in working with Professor X for my Ph.D. My first meeting with X went very well. I like him and I get the impression that we would work well together in the graduate school environment. Moreover, the research is in a field that I am extremely interested in and I think it would be a good fit for my skills.
In speaking to the graduate students privately, I heard nothing but praise for Professor X. However, one student disclosed that he (the professor) suffers from a disability that required him to be on medical leave for over a year. The student said that this slowed the progress of research and probably delayed his Ph.D by a non-trivial amount. Otherwise, he said that he was very happy working with Professor X and would even make the same decision again.
Obviously, I think it would be inappropriate to ask Professor X about this. However, I am concerned that such a situation may arise again during the course of my Ph.D. I also don't want to discriminate against someone due to a medical condition.
So my questions are:
1. How problematic is it for an advisor to be unavailable for research consultation for a long period of time?
2. Is it unwise (or unethical) to make such a decision based on the disability of an advisor?
3. Would it be inappropriate to ask other graduate students about his condition and how it has affected their work?
I know that the choice of advisor is often considered the most important decision about graduate school. Professor X would be my clear first choice but I'm just having second thoughts due to potential uncertainty in the future of my Ph.D.<issue_comment>username_1: If you think that you are the sort of person who would be pretty vulnerable to an advisor's extended absence, and if you don't see someone else in the department who could mentor you to some extent during such an absence, then you might want to ask the professor something like the following:
>
> I understand you had to take an extended leave of absence once. [Pause; if the professor speaks about a health issue at this point, do the usual empathetic listening before proceeding with your question.] Do you expect a similar problem in the future?Do you anticipate having an extended leave of absence from the department for a sabbatical or other reason during the next few years? If yes, do you have a colleague whom you could ask to fill in and provide some mentoring?
>
>
>
This would give the professor an opportunity to be up front with you. If he doesn't rise to the occasion, then the next step could be to ask a department administrator. This would probably work better as an in-person or phone conversation than email. I would not use the word "disability," but "health concern."
Whether your questions are met with honest responses or not, you should be looking around for other sources of mentoring, just in case; and you need to do some weighing of the various options open to you, and the relative pluses and minuses, just as you would do with a potential advisor who might be about to retire.
I want to reassure you that it is not discrimination to ask for information from the person with the disability, regarding how the disability might affect the work you might do together, or regarding how you and he might, together, work on accommodating the disability.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: I'm a big fan of saying "donkey" when it's a donkey, rather than beating around the bush and calling it a grey-colored, short-legged horse.
The thing is: Everyone, including the professor, understands that any leave of absence he's going to take *will* affect you in a number of important ways. It's not like anyone can be mad at you for wanting to bring this up. So that's what I would do, acknowledging the awkwardness of the situation, in a personal conversation:
>
> Professor, I would really like to work with you, but I have one last, awkward topic I'd like to ask you. When talking to others in the department over the past couple of weeks, someone mentioned that you may take an extended leave of absence for personal reasons. It's really none of my business to ask you about this, or the reasons for this, but if I signed up with you, it would be something that clearly affects me as a graduate student. So I wanted to bring it up and see whether that was true or not.
>
>
>
That gives the professor an opportunity to tell you how it is. He will understand why you ask, and tell you about as much as he chooses to share. If there really are medical reasons, you're not likely going to get any better answer by going around his back and asking others in the department.
I'll also mention that over your career as a grad student, you're likely going to have a number of awkward conversations with your adviser anyway. You may have to talk about money issues (grant runs out and it's not clear if the follow-up grant will be approved), breaking up with your girlfriend and falling into a hole for a number of months, being sick for an extended time, etc. Professors have awkward conversations with students all the time, and the better ones have figured out how to have them without it being that big a deal. So talking about something you have a legitimate concern about should be par for the course.
Upvotes: 3
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2017/03/09
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<issue_start>username_0: When some function library licensed under BSD is used in simulations, should it be acknowledged in Bachelors/Masters Thesis, which have no length restrictions?
In this particular case the functions are implementations of commonly known algorithms like k-nearest neighbors, A\* and such. Similarly how MATLAB/Python standard libraries are seldom acknowledged, should the third party code that does not contribute theoretically be not acknowledged?
EDIT: In OR, code and the implementation is often left off. But I do not know whether it would be unethical to not cite it in a case where the algorithms used are bread and butter, without any contribution. For the journals these would not be mentioned, but the Thesis has no length restrictions, so there is no similar reason not to.<issue_comment>username_1: Generally in a thesis or in an academic paper in my field (numerical modeling, engineering) people try to mention which languages and library they have used to implement an algorithm or a method. If you use a commonly known algorithm which was implemented in a library (whatever the license of that library is) I think it would be most appropriate to mention which implementation of the library is used in your methodology section.
The are numerous reasons for this. First it gives credit to the people who wrote the library. You will often see on library website a paper to cite which is the "defining paper" of the library. It is good to acknowledge that. Second, if there were to be a bug found in the future in the library or some limitation, this could then be easily traced back to your results to justify surprising results. Thus it is more rigorous to state which implementation and which version you are using.
In all cases, I believe that crucial libraries that implement complex algorithmic elements should be acknowledged in the methodology section, along with the library version and a reference to it if such a reference exist.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Yes. In science, we cite the sources and tools we used because it helps others replicate what we did. It also gives credit to those who developed these tools. We have come accustomed to this for citing papers, but it is equally important to give credit to those who develop software as part of their scientific work -- it's a different *kind* of publication, but it's a publication nonetheless.
Upvotes: 0
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2017/03/09
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<issue_start>username_0: At first glance seems more interesting to submit your work to a conference, but a lot of people are still interested in workshops.
Which is their motivation?
I have also heard that to use your new material in a workshop paper is "a waste". How true is that?
Which are your criteria to choose your paper target?
Thank you.<issue_comment>username_1: Workshops are specialized and you can meet the "gurus" in your field. This is important for networking and also for very good feedback/discussions etc. Notice also that *some* workshops (at least in TCS) are at least as highly ranked as high ranked and prestigious conferences.
Basically, at least from the quality point of view, it does not mater a priori is a venue is classified as Symposium, Conference or Workshop. It depends on the quality of papers in attracts and what is your goal. Do you want your work to be visible in the specialized community? Or to be put in a wider spectrum?
Personally if given the choice between two equally ranked venues, one being specialized and the other being general, I would prefer the former for the reasons I outlined above. This also guarantees better visibility (because at the end of the day, only people close to your area would care about the result unless is really some huge breakthrough).
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: In my research area (software engineering), points why people submit to workshops include the following:
**Lower barrier for acceptance**: Some works are inherently hard to get accepted at top-notch venues, for example, because they are hard to evaluate properly. A paper that was rejected multiple times at higher-level venues might eventually end up at a workshop, so that the authors can still make a (albeit less valuable) publication out of it.
**Publication strategies**: Some researchers actively try to build a prolific track record of many small (including workshop-level) publications, rather than a few big ones. While it's debatable whether such strategy is best for advancing science, and even for convincing a selection committee, there are certainly some associated benefits, for example, plenty of opportunity for self-citation. Strategic publications may also be used to show an association between two authors (to convince a grant committee that they can work together well enough to write a paper), or to establish an association between the authors and the topic (to show a grant committee that they have some early work in the field).
**Getting feedback:** Sometimes, people have a nice idea, but are stuck in an early stage of implementing this idea. Workshops are a perfect opportunity for gathering feedback, since they (i) are designed to enable a focused discussion (small audience, specific focus), (ii) usually have a faster review cycle than conferences, and (iii) sometimes allow for short *discussion* or *problem statement* papers.
**Opportunity to visit the host conference**: Workshops are usually embedded into the ecosystem of a larger host conference or conference series. When a researcher wants to visit the host conference, but didn't get a paper accepted there, a workshop paper can be their entry ticket. (It's usually easier to get a conference trip funded if you have a paper at the conference or one of its workshops.)
**Warm-up publishing**: When joining a new field, a group of authors might want to get accustomed to the associated community to understand their culture, values and standards. Workshops are particularly suitable for this purpose due to high acceptance rates, interactive formats and the opportunity to visit the host conference.
Upvotes: 7 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: I'm sure this is extremely dependent on field and perhaps specialization within that field. To give you an example, in Computer Science, there are lots of workshops, of varying competitiveness. Within the *systems* discipline of CS, most major conferences have at least one workshop that can be viewed as a "feeder": people publish early work, which appear formally as proceedings, but which are much shorter than conference papers. For instance, most limit papers to 5 pages, while conferences might be 12-14. So people publish the early work in the workshop, then expand on it for the major conference. The workshops are smaller (usually no more than about 100 attendees) and more interactive, providing lots of useful feedback.
Over the years the set of workshops on **Hot topics in** *XXX* has jumped from a couple (like Hot Chips and then Hot Operating Systems - HotOS) to dozens. A few are standalone, like HotOS, which even limits the attendees to those who have position papers accepted. Many are tied to a conference. A good example is the USENIX Hot Topics on Storage (HotStorage), which has taken place before the broader Annual Technical Conference each summer and often leads to longer papers submitted to USENIX File and Storage Technologies in the fall.
In other words, in some disciplines it's expected and useful to publish early work in a workshop and later work in a conference. Judging from other comments, there may be other fields where it's only OK if the workshop has no formal proceedings.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: I would like to add that, in some (smaller) fields in computer science, the major conferences are small and not numerous, so they can't accept a lot of papers, and thus the barriers to acceptance is high. Sometimes very good work do not get accepted to the major conferences because, perhaps, they did not target a "general" audience adequately. Also, the conferences have very long review periods and it is hard to find a time to submit papers except for a few times a year. However, that is not exactly how research works.
In this case, it is very important to have workshops that can accept high quality papers (perhaps with a smaller target audience) under shorter review periods. For example, the International Conference on Functional Programming (ICFP) is a rather small conference, and it accepted around 40 papers this year. However, it is simply not true that people in the field of functional programming produce only 40 pieces of good research per year. In this case, a lot of them are submitted to and published in the proceedings of workshops affiliated with ICFP. A lot of good and influential papers have come from the workshops indeed.
Upvotes: 3
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2017/03/09
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<issue_start>username_0: I'm a typical student in a 3rd world country working to pay for college. My monthly tuition is about 300 USD. Internships average pay is 450 USD for 30h/week of work...
As I get to end of my bachelor, i'm required to write a dissertation, and when i start looking for articles and references if found this amazing paper: "QODM: A query-oriented data modeling approach for NoSQL databases" which lines 100% with my thesis. But it costs whooping 33 bucks! for a single source that might turn out to be not useful at all...
Are there alternative sources? (besides piracy, which i'm strongly against but is becoming really tempting right now...)<issue_comment>username_1: Contact the authors of the paper you are interested in; most often, authors will gladly send you a copy.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: In addition to username_1's answer, here is a bit more extensively what you can do if you are lacking a subscription for a paper that you suspect you will need, roughly in order:
1. Google the title. Seriously. Many (most?) good papers nowadays are available as a preprint, also in Computer Science. Nowadays I strongly suspect if I can't find a preprint for a paper that the authors are in fact not very proud of it.
2. Check if the paper is available on [Researchgate](http://researchgate.net/). I am not a fan of the service, and strongly dislike getting "full text requests" there, but undoubtly many papers are freely available there that you can't get without subscription elsewhere.
3. Mail the authors. If they don't answer, mail again.
4. Ask a professor, advisor, or friend with institutional access to download the paper for you. I am not 100% sure about the legality of this, but personally I would not get sleepless nights about sending a paper to a friend via personal e-mail.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: I see that you're Brazilian like me.
So, you can access "[Portal Periódicos Capes](http://periodicos.capes.gov.br)", which grant you access to more than 21,000 journal and conferences publications. Btw, all IEEE articles are available there. Just select the "Base" and it will grant you access.
Besides that, most Brazilian universities and educational institutes provide access to even more journal and conference papers for free. If you aren't enrolled to any of those institutions you can go to their library and ask for the paper for free.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_4: Adding to @username_2's list (under the admittedly big assumption that you are travelling to a different university).
5. If your university partakes in the eduroam project, you have access to the local network of universities across the globe *if you are physically there*. Sometimes access to papers is behind a wall (ATHENS, Shibboleth, etc.), but sometimes access to papers is granted simply by having an IP from this university. This way you may also be able to access papers just like staff/students from that university, even though your home university doesn't pay for access of these journals. (I guess one could say you are a "visiting scholar" in a very loose sense.)
Upvotes: 2
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2017/03/09
| 2,709
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<issue_start>username_0: A colleague and I are both PhD students. We have conducted a project together that is unrelated to our respective theses. The project involved a bioinformatics analysis of public datasets, so we are not presenting any new experimental data (i.e., there was no overhead associated with the experiments). However, we have generated some very interesting results that we believe are suitable for publication.
A question that has arisen while preparing the manuscript is who to list as corresponding author. Our supervisors were not involved in the project. I designed the majority of the experiments, but my colleague and I are both concerned that listing myself as corresponding author despite the fact that I am a PhD student would be (a) improper or unethical, (b) likely to draw the ire of the university for listing it as our affiliation, as we do not have faculty appointments, and/or (c) likely to cause reviewers to dismiss the work. What is the appropriate course of action?<issue_comment>username_1: At least in my field (theoretical computer science), the corresponding author is often (but not necessarily) the person who did most of the work and prepared the final version of the paper. It is therefore completely normal to have PhD students as corresponding authors.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_2: I am a PhD student, and I was the corresponding author on a paper published during my postbac [and my supervisor was a coauthor]. No one will think of it as improper or unethical. You *are* university affiliated, so there should be no problems there. And as long as the work is high quality and is reasonable (has your supervisor/other expert/faculty read over the paper?), I can't imagine a reviewer caring. If you're worried you can submit to a journal with double blind review.
On the contrary, I can only imagine being a corresponding author on a quality paper so early in your career being a positive outcome, as it exemplifies your independence.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: Different fields have different conventions for authorship, but I've never heard of any of them that prevents or even discourages a PhD student from being a corresponding author. I've done it myself, at the suggestion of my advisor.
>
> (a) improper or unethical
>
>
>
No, it's totally proper and ethical, as far as I've ever heard.
>
> (b) likely to draw the ire of the university for listing it as our affiliation, as we do not have faculty appointments
>
>
>
Faculty or not, you are affiliated with the university, and thus it's entirely appropriate to list your university affiliation when publishing a work. *Not* listing it would be more likely to draw ire (not that anyone really checks up on this stuff in most cases).
>
> (c) likely to cause reviewers to dismiss the work
>
>
>
Okay, in rare cases there may be something to that. If the result you're publishing is unusual in some way, or especially noteworthy, having someone with an established reputation in the field do the submission may help. Crackpots also claim their results are unusual or noteworthy, after all, and the journal editors are probably less likely to dismiss an odd-sounding paper out of hand if they get it from a known expert. But this is unlikely to make a difference in the many typical cases where you are submitting a publishable but otherwise run-of-the-mill result.
And I would note that the important criterion here is that the submitter has a good reputation in the field, not that they are faculty. It's certainly possible to get your name known as a researcher while still in a PhD program, and then it should be no problem for you to submit a paper on a topic you are known to be experienced with.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: I cannot speak for all fields, but at least in physics, materials science and chemistry, I am not aware of any problem with a graduate student being a corresponding author.
Typically, the corresponding author indication tells the reader who can/should be contacted in case of questions, requests for data, additional information, etc, and for convenience offers the (then) current e-mail address. Moreover, in many journals, this designation is not mandatory.
Yes, I've heard opinions that the corresponding author should be either the faculty ("because the students will leave soon, but the advisor will remain, and thus her/his contact will be more prominent") or the "main" author (who is typically the first author). In my opinion, either way is fine, but not for the reasons listed. It should be the person who will be the best to communicate on behalf of all the authors (i.e. knowledgeable about the project and able to communicate).
Now, I am (and most other people responding here are) talking about "corresponding author" designation as it will be printed in the journal, which can be different from a similar designation in the article submission process (aka "submitting author").
When I was a graduate student, I designated my name as the corresponding author once or maybe a few times, - as I fell some sort of pride in that ("I've grown up enough to be able to do that!"), but then realized that it was mostly irrelevant. In the future, as a postdoc and a faculty advisor myself, I avoided this designation when possible.)
Usually, the corresponding author designation is helpful when authors from multiple groups are involved, and it is not clear for the reader who to contact. As an experienced reader myself, in the absence of that designation, I would try to contact either the first author or the advisor of the first author.
Re: affiliation.
Being a graduate student (or for that matter any student) is sufficient to list your affiliation with the university. Moreover, unless there are some special circumstances, you *should* list your university affiliation. It would look strange if you didn't.
Designation of the corresponding author (or lack of such) is very unlikely to affect the review process and the decision. What might however raise a red flag with the reviewer or the editor is the absence of a faculty member among the authors, especially if none of the authors has a recognizable publication record in the field. While it is not prohibited, and is not a barrier for publication by itself, it might be an indication of one of the following two situations:
1. A graduate student(s) is not doing something right.
I've seen several cases when students were attempting (successfully or not) to publish without the knowledge of their advisors (sometimes including them as coauthors, sometimes excluding): in one, the graduate student was misguided by some weird believe (in part, probably due to a different cultural background) that he had to publish some paper as the sole author, without his advisor or collaborators in order to become successful and find the next position motivation). In another case (IIRC), the student wanted to submit the publication against the request of the advisor to wait, due to concerns about the validity of the data.
2. The author(s) is(are) not a bona fide researcher(s) but a person(s) with some mental problems.
(I received plenty of "preprints", proposals, etc. about new perpetuum mobile design, alternative relativity theory, etc. from such people.)
However, there are legitimate cases when even a graduate student might publish without his/her advisor. I am actually aware of the situation where a very modest advisor was refusing to put his name on the publication of his student "because of lack of significant contribution", which was actually a problem for the graduate student, who wanted to have at least one publication co-authored with his advisor before he'd graduate. (For the most of the scientific world, graduating without **any** publication with your advisor would look weird, and could be an indication of some problems.)
In the follow-up comment, you mentioned some other faculty member willing to critically read your article prior to submission. Depending on the actual contribution of that person that *may* qualify as an authorship. But I had multiple occasions when I gave my manuscript to my colleagues for comments prior to submission, and no authorship by them was expected or assumed.
Now, just in case, let me offer a related advice of caution about the authorship. I have seen situations when graduate students were not realizing what type of contributions qualify for being listed as an author. And that led to very unfortunate omission of the authors from the paper. The authors who were omitted often include people from collaborator's group (if you interacted only with one person from that group you might not be aware of other contributors from that group, including that person's advisor), sometimes people from your own group (a person might not have crunched the data, but provided a crucial for the paper insight or hypothesis).
One other aspect is if you are a visiting researcher in someone else's lab using that lab's equipment, it means that the PI of that group (the faculty) has provided you with the opportunity to conduct your research using his/her, often sufficiently unique equipment (method, technique, etc.) without which you wouldn't be able to obtain your results. Depending on the circumstances, that can also qualify for the authorship.
Finally, the issue of including advisors. Sometimes, some graduate students do not realize the contribution of their advisor to the project. I've actually heard some graduate students expressing an opinion like this: "I did all the work, I didn't ask or get any help, I wrote the paper myself, why should I include him/her as an author?"
It **depends**. While in some cases, you might not have to (and an honest advisor will probably tell you if that's the case), in many cases, there are several legitimate reasons why the advisor should be a co-author:
a) The advisor is providing you with the opportunity to work in his/her lab, using his/her, often highly customized, equipment, methods, tools, approaches (e.g. software libraries developed in the group), etc.
b) If any part of your research project (including your RA-ship) was relying on the grant money obtained by your advisor. (Why that matters? Besides other debatable arguments, it most likely means that your project was a part of a larger funded project which in essence [and you might not realize that] was conceived by your advisor.)
c) If at any stage of your project you received valuable suggestions related to your research (including the initial idea for the project).
d) ...
It is hard to list all possible circumstances, - this is just a guide of how to evaluate this, not a comprehensive list.
HTH.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: This question is strange to me in the sense that the authors typically don't designate a corresponding author in my field of chemistry/physics. Typically, whoever submits the paper to the journal's online system is automatically labelled the corresponding author by the journal itself. It's not a big deal to be corresponding author, it just means you're the person who actually submitted the paper.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_6: Yes. It is totally proper and ethical, as long as you are one of the main person/people who understand well the work.
Indeed, almost all my publications during my graduate student time to obtain a PhD, I am the corresponding author for almost all these papers (around 10+ papers).
In reality, you do not even need to be a graduate student in PhD to be the corresponding author. There are both undergrads and amateurs who are the leading and the corresponding authors for their papers.
It is fairly common in my PhD institution to do so.
(p.s. My PhD institution is Massachusetts Institute of Technology.)
Upvotes: 2
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2017/03/09
| 2,614
| 11,468
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<issue_start>username_0: I have to write an abstract for a grant proposal's cover page.
Is there any shame in strategically copying/pasting *entire sentences* from the body of the grant proposal and arranging them coherently to form the abstract?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On one hand, it feels funny to have (e.g.) the opening sentence be the same, and if the reviewers notice it, it might look unprofessional. On the other hand, if it's a well-written sentence, why should it matter if it were reused?<issue_comment>username_1: At least in my field (theoretical computer science), the corresponding author is often (but not necessarily) the person who did most of the work and prepared the final version of the paper. It is therefore completely normal to have PhD students as corresponding authors.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_2: I am a PhD student, and I was the corresponding author on a paper published during my postbac [and my supervisor was a coauthor]. No one will think of it as improper or unethical. You *are* university affiliated, so there should be no problems there. And as long as the work is high quality and is reasonable (has your supervisor/other expert/faculty read over the paper?), I can't imagine a reviewer caring. If you're worried you can submit to a journal with double blind review.
On the contrary, I can only imagine being a corresponding author on a quality paper so early in your career being a positive outcome, as it exemplifies your independence.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: Different fields have different conventions for authorship, but I've never heard of any of them that prevents or even discourages a PhD student from being a corresponding author. I've done it myself, at the suggestion of my advisor.
>
> (a) improper or unethical
>
>
>
No, it's totally proper and ethical, as far as I've ever heard.
>
> (b) likely to draw the ire of the university for listing it as our affiliation, as we do not have faculty appointments
>
>
>
Faculty or not, you are affiliated with the university, and thus it's entirely appropriate to list your university affiliation when publishing a work. *Not* listing it would be more likely to draw ire (not that anyone really checks up on this stuff in most cases).
>
> (c) likely to cause reviewers to dismiss the work
>
>
>
Okay, in rare cases there may be something to that. If the result you're publishing is unusual in some way, or especially noteworthy, having someone with an established reputation in the field do the submission may help. Crackpots also claim their results are unusual or noteworthy, after all, and the journal editors are probably less likely to dismiss an odd-sounding paper out of hand if they get it from a known expert. But this is unlikely to make a difference in the many typical cases where you are submitting a publishable but otherwise run-of-the-mill result.
And I would note that the important criterion here is that the submitter has a good reputation in the field, not that they are faculty. It's certainly possible to get your name known as a researcher while still in a PhD program, and then it should be no problem for you to submit a paper on a topic you are known to be experienced with.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: I cannot speak for all fields, but at least in physics, materials science and chemistry, I am not aware of any problem with a graduate student being a corresponding author.
Typically, the corresponding author indication tells the reader who can/should be contacted in case of questions, requests for data, additional information, etc, and for convenience offers the (then) current e-mail address. Moreover, in many journals, this designation is not mandatory.
Yes, I've heard opinions that the corresponding author should be either the faculty ("because the students will leave soon, but the advisor will remain, and thus her/his contact will be more prominent") or the "main" author (who is typically the first author). In my opinion, either way is fine, but not for the reasons listed. It should be the person who will be the best to communicate on behalf of all the authors (i.e. knowledgeable about the project and able to communicate).
Now, I am (and most other people responding here are) talking about "corresponding author" designation as it will be printed in the journal, which can be different from a similar designation in the article submission process (aka "submitting author").
When I was a graduate student, I designated my name as the corresponding author once or maybe a few times, - as I fell some sort of pride in that ("I've grown up enough to be able to do that!"), but then realized that it was mostly irrelevant. In the future, as a postdoc and a faculty advisor myself, I avoided this designation when possible.)
Usually, the corresponding author designation is helpful when authors from multiple groups are involved, and it is not clear for the reader who to contact. As an experienced reader myself, in the absence of that designation, I would try to contact either the first author or the advisor of the first author.
Re: affiliation.
Being a graduate student (or for that matter any student) is sufficient to list your affiliation with the university. Moreover, unless there are some special circumstances, you *should* list your university affiliation. It would look strange if you didn't.
Designation of the corresponding author (or lack of such) is very unlikely to affect the review process and the decision. What might however raise a red flag with the reviewer or the editor is the absence of a faculty member among the authors, especially if none of the authors has a recognizable publication record in the field. While it is not prohibited, and is not a barrier for publication by itself, it might be an indication of one of the following two situations:
1. A graduate student(s) is not doing something right.
I've seen several cases when students were attempting (successfully or not) to publish without the knowledge of their advisors (sometimes including them as coauthors, sometimes excluding): in one, the graduate student was misguided by some weird believe (in part, probably due to a different cultural background) that he had to publish some paper as the sole author, without his advisor or collaborators in order to become successful and find the next position motivation). In another case (IIRC), the student wanted to submit the publication against the request of the advisor to wait, due to concerns about the validity of the data.
2. The author(s) is(are) not a bona fide researcher(s) but a person(s) with some mental problems.
(I received plenty of "preprints", proposals, etc. about new perpetuum mobile design, alternative relativity theory, etc. from such people.)
However, there are legitimate cases when even a graduate student might publish without his/her advisor. I am actually aware of the situation where a very modest advisor was refusing to put his name on the publication of his student "because of lack of significant contribution", which was actually a problem for the graduate student, who wanted to have at least one publication co-authored with his advisor before he'd graduate. (For the most of the scientific world, graduating without **any** publication with your advisor would look weird, and could be an indication of some problems.)
In the follow-up comment, you mentioned some other faculty member willing to critically read your article prior to submission. Depending on the actual contribution of that person that *may* qualify as an authorship. But I had multiple occasions when I gave my manuscript to my colleagues for comments prior to submission, and no authorship by them was expected or assumed.
Now, just in case, let me offer a related advice of caution about the authorship. I have seen situations when graduate students were not realizing what type of contributions qualify for being listed as an author. And that led to very unfortunate omission of the authors from the paper. The authors who were omitted often include people from collaborator's group (if you interacted only with one person from that group you might not be aware of other contributors from that group, including that person's advisor), sometimes people from your own group (a person might not have crunched the data, but provided a crucial for the paper insight or hypothesis).
One other aspect is if you are a visiting researcher in someone else's lab using that lab's equipment, it means that the PI of that group (the faculty) has provided you with the opportunity to conduct your research using his/her, often sufficiently unique equipment (method, technique, etc.) without which you wouldn't be able to obtain your results. Depending on the circumstances, that can also qualify for the authorship.
Finally, the issue of including advisors. Sometimes, some graduate students do not realize the contribution of their advisor to the project. I've actually heard some graduate students expressing an opinion like this: "I did all the work, I didn't ask or get any help, I wrote the paper myself, why should I include him/her as an author?"
It **depends**. While in some cases, you might not have to (and an honest advisor will probably tell you if that's the case), in many cases, there are several legitimate reasons why the advisor should be a co-author:
a) The advisor is providing you with the opportunity to work in his/her lab, using his/her, often highly customized, equipment, methods, tools, approaches (e.g. software libraries developed in the group), etc.
b) If any part of your research project (including your RA-ship) was relying on the grant money obtained by your advisor. (Why that matters? Besides other debatable arguments, it most likely means that your project was a part of a larger funded project which in essence [and you might not realize that] was conceived by your advisor.)
c) If at any stage of your project you received valuable suggestions related to your research (including the initial idea for the project).
d) ...
It is hard to list all possible circumstances, - this is just a guide of how to evaluate this, not a comprehensive list.
HTH.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: This question is strange to me in the sense that the authors typically don't designate a corresponding author in my field of chemistry/physics. Typically, whoever submits the paper to the journal's online system is automatically labelled the corresponding author by the journal itself. It's not a big deal to be corresponding author, it just means you're the person who actually submitted the paper.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_6: Yes. It is totally proper and ethical, as long as you are one of the main person/people who understand well the work.
Indeed, almost all my publications during my graduate student time to obtain a PhD, I am the corresponding author for almost all these papers (around 10+ papers).
In reality, you do not even need to be a graduate student in PhD to be the corresponding author. There are both undergrads and amateurs who are the leading and the corresponding authors for their papers.
It is fairly common in my PhD institution to do so.
(p.s. My PhD institution is Massachusetts Institute of Technology.)
Upvotes: 2
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2017/03/09
| 469
| 1,679
|
<issue_start>username_0: Consider the chart below:
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/C1eQA.png)
When writing *percent* in the title, and *%* on the axis marks, is this redundant? Is the word *amount* preferable?
I haven’t seen this addressed in any style guides such as the [APA guidelines](https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/20/).<issue_comment>username_1: *Percentage* (parts per hundred) and, more broadly, abbreviations like *ppm* (parts per million) or *ppb* (parts per billion) do not describe any quantity, they are just multipliers for dimensionless quantities.
In a graph, instead, you should accurately describe the quantity being represented. In the example given in your question, a more appropriate title would probably be: "Fraction of the widgets that are blue".
In the [SI brochure, §5.3.7](http://www.bipm.org/en/publications/si-brochure/section5-3-7.html), the document that defines the *International System of Units*, it is stated that
>
> In mathematical expressions, the internationally recognized symbol % (percent) may be used with the SI to represent the number 0.01. Thus, it can be used to express the values of dimensionless quantities.
>
>
>
and, furthermore,
>
> Phrases such as "percentage by mass", "percentage by volume", or "percentage by amount of substance" should not be used; the extra information on the quantity should instead be conveyed in the name and symbol for the quantity.
>
>
>
The percent symbol can, instead, appear in the tick labels.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: At least in physics, usually graphs do not have a title at all.
Upvotes: -1
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2017/03/10
| 6,518
| 28,111
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<issue_start>username_0: >
> Why would a student go to a lecture at all if everything was in the
> book already? The lectures make sense if and only if the lecturer
> tells more than in the book(s) and in more detail (or at least, in a
> better/more clear way). [not my comment]
>
>
>
Especially in light of the Internet in general, what is the added value of a lecture over a (hypertext)book?
Reasons I can think of:
1. spoken word might stick better, because our language is not primarily based on text,
2. the possibility to ask for clarification,
3. some material might not translate well to media
I dislike those arguments, because a huge class can neither run at a comfortable speed for all at once nor answer everyone's questions. The expectation seems to be that the students should be homogeneous and everyone nonconforming should be filtered out.
4. personal contact affects us on a deeper level, role models are important
Depending on the class size, even that is doubtful.
5. to form communities,
which would substitute or supplement the professors, but obviously at a different rate.
This is a trick question, because it depends on the style of the lecture. In my experience the lecturer is acting as a medium and I'm watching them half the time writing on the board, or someone is asking obvious or distracting questions.<issue_comment>username_1: Reading a book and listening to a lecture are very similar ways to learn. Neither of them are particularly effective. However, listening to lectures can be beneficial because being exposed to information twice is more effective than being exposed to it once. I would say the benefit of listening to a lecture after reading a book on the same subject is similar to reading a second, different book on the subject. Listening to a lecture may also be a lot faster than reading.
The greatest benefit of attending a lecture, however, may come from things other than listening to content. If the student applies what they are learning in some way during the lecture, then they are engaging in active learning which is much more effective than reading or listening.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: I like to visit lectures from different areas. If I am somewhat interested in X but not interested enough to read a 500 pages book, listening to an expert for 2 hours per week can be a good opportunity to get an overview of X.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: You are basing you arguments on an erroneous premise: not every person has equal *listening* and *reading* capabilities.
Just to give an example: while one is reading one can skim the text, for instance, which cannot be done while listening. To me, and to other people, this is vital in improving comprehension speed. During speech, one also uses body language to convey the meaning of what is being said.
There is a good read about this [here](https://www.google.it/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.press.umich.edu/pdf/9780472034598-myth1.pdf&ved=0ahUKEwj0ur2-7MvSAhUCbRQKHSodAgUQFggjMAA&usg=AFQjCNH-MKuu-loDSlIO8rY5GsmbnqKqvA).
Teaching and learning are made of communication, and different people tend to understand concepts more efficiently with communication modes that suit their personality and background.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: I don't know would it be of any use of you but I believe my country has an unique experience with educational systems based on both models-e.g. mandatory lectures and non-mandatory ones. About 30 years ago my country was part of the communist East European states and the lectures in the universities were mandatory. There was a special clause in the university codes requiring students to attend their lectures otherwise they could get expelled very quickly. You should know that then university education was a kind of dream for most of the people and students went to dormitories away from friends and families to study. Also, their expenses (for the most part) were covered by the state, so university student was "social position", not mere education and getting expelled could have ramifications beyond the university. Then even missing one lecture could be big deal if the professor decided to punish the student. This is why students went to lectures without caring what exactly the lecturer was saying and even what this class is all about. Our experience is that mandatory lectures always (I tell you this is for our country in particular, so I can't say it's universally true) led to lower interest in the subject, lower grades and even bribes. Yes, it was a common practice for someone to use his or hers "connections" (as we call them) to try to get some rare foreign goods for the university professor, give him/her money or even just some spirit drinks ( I have heard of such cases too, not joking) to manage to pass the exam regardless of what the student knows. Take into account the fact this was when lectures were *mandatory* and everyone was attending them. Can you imagine how low was the interest then to have people resorting to bribes instead of just listening to what the professor says?
Then, things changed and the system got progressively freer. Some universities tried to hold onto the "old ways" and punish students for not attending lectures but as the "exclusiveness" of university education got less and less privileges they started to understand there wasn't much effect of punishment. I still know of one university trying to impose fear on its students for not attending lectures, but the general trend is they don't care any more who goes and who doesn't. The reason is that when the borders opened many people fled the country and some started to bring foreign experience in to our (then outdated) education systems, some started to demand more rights and freedom and made the case no one should force anybody to attend anything and then some just made money but had no education and in order to get the social position of being educated, not the actual skills and knowledge they simply bought their diplomas. It was (and to some extent still is) big business in my country. But the results of these practices started showing in ever lower and lower quality of education and more and more "bought", rather than "deserved" degrees. I'm part of this generation and remember absolutely free classrooms where out of a nearly 150 students by names you had only **5 real people** in the room! I think you can imagine what the attendance rate was. But universities kept their lectures (sometimes only because the professors would otherwise lose their jobs and the unemployment rate was very high so they pledged their colleagues in the administration to keep the lectures) and now the students themselves are returning to the classrooms. My country had some really rough times the last 20 years but now it seems like the people themselves, not the authorities, the social position or even the economy are forcing them back in the universities. Now the clessrooms are again getting filled because some people themselves chose it is the better way to learn, than by themselves. Now, I could say our country's education system is as free as it can be-nobody forces anybody to attend anything, the professors can chose their curriculum, anybody can read anything and hold whatever opinion he or she thinks is right. The value of higher education has greatly diminished over time and those who have money even don't want to buy their diplomas any more (not because they can't, but because they don't see the point in having an education when you have money) but the people still return to the universities and now it's the people themselves who demand lectures. Now, I can see people in their 30s and 40s going back to school and attending lectures not because anybody demands them to, but because they simply want to, because they feel the need to know more and going to lecture and having personal contact with the lecturer is their own way of getting to know the subject, too. I can see now how my generation is starting to wake up for the value of education and especially this coming from actually knowing what somebody thinks about this or that subject and how s/he can teach it. I can say now people actually start to think of universities more like places where they can go, meet somebody who has knowledge and use his or hers skills to educate themselves or get an answer to specific question they may have. And having a good lecture course becomes essential to manage to satisfy this need. Now the universities are becoming ever more social rather than mere educational institutions and anybody can open university if s/he has the cash to do it. But people don't go to universities for the diploma, they go there to know something they don't and require the professors there to have the knowledge they need or simply desire. This is what a good lecture course is about (at least in my mind-you're free to disagree).
But you may wonder why I'm telling you all this @Troway Jestman. The reason is because I believe you aren't very old (please, forgive me for the personal intrusion here) and probably because you have only your country as an example (which I believe is a western country). But this isn't the only possible example. See, my country has been through both periods when lectures were mandatory and those who attended them had a higher social status than those who didn't and periods where almost nobody went to lectures and people were thinking about actually abolishing them. But in my mind **both** these alternatives are wrong! And I'm not talking here from some subjective *theoretical* point of view-I'm talking from **personal**(and national) experience. When higher education was seen as some "special privilege" to the society's elite and at the same time lectures were mandatory for students and the common people were excluded from attending them, the quality was poor and people didn't learn much from them. So you can see that even when you give incentives to people learning from lectures and at the same time make them mandatory it turns against you and you actually lower the quality of education, rather than increase it. On the other hand when you make everything free, yes, the attendance rate drops and almost no one cares to come but those who come are there for a reason and the dialogue and in general the very **quality** of education is increased when you have a lecture course parallel to the books and/or internet video course about the subject. And it also makes the professor him/herself do better job at assessing his field, educating him/herself on the novelties there and in general providing better services for society, not just for education. I can go on and tell you many things terribly wrong with my country and its education system but from the perspective of someone who has seen **both** the effects of mandatory lectures and lectures with almost no attendance at all I can tell you it's better to keep the lecture courses in, rather then abolish them-it's better both for professors and students and for the society in general. And this isn't an answer based on general knowledge but on personal observations. I firmly believe good lecture courses are a **must** for any modern university, if not for its educational role, than for its social role. Lecture courses can "filter out" those students who really care about some field, provide the professor with the environment to shape his/her course better and improve his/hers communication skills and in general provide the ability to create an environment for learning not only for students, but for everyone interested in this particular field.
I believe this is the true complete answer of your question :)
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_5: It depends, because not everyone learns the same way.
A live lecturer has the chance to demonstrate with **examples directly relevant to their class**. A good lecturer will also be able to give alternate examples from a different perspective if their students fail to completely grasp what the book outlines.
Conversely for a terribly bad lecturer the book may be a better choice.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_6: To paraphrase an excellent professor of mine;
"The traditional lecture, where the lecturer simply gives facts to the students, is like a medieval photocopier; the information goes from the lecturers notes, to the black board, to the students notes without passing through anyone’s brain on the way. Perhaps a few errors are added." SO it was probably quite useful, before we invented photocopiers.
This might not be true for everyone, but it seems to be the case for many people. I personally do not attend many of my lectures because I find the notes superior. However, sometimes a lecturer does something that makes the lecture more than just a stream of facts.
I am a physics student and really good lecture techniques I have seen include;
* Doing calculations while simultaneously discussing interpretations.
* Presenting a more abstract overview than the material in the notes, so that when the student comes to read the knows they already know the structure of the arguments in them.
* Asking a question, getting the class to vote anonymously on the answer (via an app). If more than 1/3 of the class gets it wrong, get them to discuss with their neighbour and then vote again. (This was particularly brilliant.)
It probably varies by subject, and perhaps by student, but I would say that the traditional lecture is not as effective as working through notes/a text book. There are, however, many lecture-like teaching methods that are very useful.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_7: Sometimes lectures explain in more detail and are easier to understand than a book. For example, I tried to learn Chemistry all by my self by just reading a book which got confusing because it totally skipped some details. But, when I learned it at school it was way easier since there was more detail. Plus, if you read a book you will be going at a way faster pace which makes it harder to learn the material, since you will read more faster than the lecture will cover it.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_8: I think something mentioned in a comment is far more important than usually acknowledged: the lecture, standing at a definite time and place, plays the role of a ritual: at that time and place, the students (should) only focus on learning. This gives a rhythm, a time frame to help pace one's study.
In my experience, having very lenient rules such as long delays to turn in homework leads most student to postpone until the very end, and thus to work less than expected (to be honest scholars often do the same with e.g. grant applications). Similarly, leaving students to work with books would probably not end up well unless there are periodic incentives to have finished some chapter by some time. In fact, it seems even MOOCs tend to have a schedule, with material released periodically and only available for a given period, to force students to work it in a given time frame.
Another point is that a lecturer in fact makes small adjustments to the lecture in response to low-level signals from the students. Very concretely, it happens even in large amphitheaters that I feel that students all got a bit lost, which leads me to repeat a point or slow down.
A comparison made by Krantz in his book on mathematical lecturing struck me: when one drives a car on a mostly straight road, one still steers the wheel, even if very softly. This almost imperceptible steering makes the difference between getting to the end of the road and getting off-road pretty quickly. Letting student only study on books would be like launching a car without a driver (nor a computer driver).
Last, any given course has a precise context (background of students, future study, other parallel courses, goal of the lecture, etc.) which is always even slightly at odds with any given book. The lecturer adapts the lecture to her or his precise goals and to the context. In particular, indications of the most important points to remind of every lecture can be very useful.
All that said, lectures in front of a large number of students are not a very adequate way of teaching - it is often the best we decide to afford.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_9: This is an excellent question - one that the humblest professors ask themselves infact. Please do take your time to see this excellent video from a physics Harvard Professor: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwslBPj8GgI&t=3798s>.
My personal experience as university student, then MOOC student, then lecturer and then MOOC student again, is that a lecture does not add value with respect to a book unless
* the students spontaneously self-assemble in groups, where they collectively discuss the topics being taught
* the professor engages them directly in discussions, either in person or via online resources
* the professors develop incentives for students to work in groups both in class and outside the class
* the professors tracks scientifically what are the most common hurdles in her/his subject, so to redesign constantly her/his course, and engage students more often/harder in those specific issues
The bottom line is that there is no fundamental difference between reading and listening. The main difference is that if you are alone with your book and you're stuck, you're stuck. While in class your professor or your peers might rescue you out simply be engaging you in discussing what you just learnt. That is a key lesson to learn once out in the real world - the ability to reach out to others and challenge your own assumptions in order to further your development.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_10: I like Benoîts answer most so far, but would like to add more than fits in a comment:
When you enter a lecture as a student, aside from it being a "ritual", you get these benefits:
* It is a definite time and place. If you learn on your own, you also would need to manage time slots for your different courses. If you are only accountable to yourself, it will be easy to miss a slot (do something else instead). This is a common problem in businesses - people get interrupted doing their planned work, and at the end of the day they have done a lot, but finished nothing. Whole methodologies have been invnted around this problem, google "getting things done" for an example.
* While not every lecturer might be doing a grand job, they do, by necessity, structure their content in some way or another, which is hopefully made so that it fits a sensible time scale over a semester. I.e., they give the students a frame in which to do their own home studies (deepening what they learned).
* It gives a common language. While content will likely be similar, the actual words/phrases used might be slightly different from prof to prof, from university to university, and from book to book. Having a central spoken "disemination" of the content gives at least the students at that place a common way to talk.
* It builds community. The students get to meet (are forced to), and it makes it easier for them to form circles. I still believe, even in these days, that some direct contact can only help them. There are more facets to working together than just knowing facts about your field.
* It gives the students a way to judge whether they are keeping up. If you sit in the lecture and don't have a single clue all the time, it is a clear signal. If studying alone, this may not be so obvious.
* In smaller, more intense courses my experience in the past (way, way past :) ) was that the lecture is not anymore 100% one-directional, but often students will interrupt if necessary (i.e., to clarify a point, to ask about perceived errors and such). This is incredibly powerful, to me; not necessarily because they can fix small errors, but because it fosters an athmosphere where the mind actually has to be engaged during the lecture. For me personally, while reading a (any) book, it is certainly a danger to get into "automatic reading mode" where you think that you got everything, but in fact are just nodding along.
* In my opinion, the lecture should be like the backbone of the actual studies (which take place at home, from the book, as necessary). If the lecture contains enough information to be done with it, then so much the better, but I would not assume that about every lecture.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_11: Two different textbooks can give two different viewpoints, which is very helpful. But a (good) lecturer doesn't just add a second viewpoint: they refine the first viewpoint in light of how their students digest the book's approach. The lecturer interacts with both the students and the book, in a way that a second book cannot.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_12: Generally speaking, people go to college to improve their career opportunities.
Networking isn't being considered here. College is a shared experience and some of the value of it certainly comes out of access to both talented faculty and other students.
A book can't give you a letter of recommendation or look you up to recruit you for a position it needs to fill years later. It can't help you form a startup or find investors. Consider the cost of high end colleges. Are the professors really that much better there that they justify the higher tuition or are students paying for the opportunity to share the college experience with other students that can afford to attend these colleges?
A strictly online experience limits options for group based course work. Interacting with the professor and other students exposes you to different ways of thinking about problems.
You get out of it what you put into it. If you don't interact with the other students or the professor and the professor doesn't provide their own insight into the book and related problems then by all means stop paying tuition, buy the book, and read it at home. I have had a professor who in a graduate level course spent large amounts of time reading directly from the book in lecture. However in that case the students found they had to hold their own sessions in the evenings to discuss the material and that did prove to be productive and an excellent networking opportunity.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_13: What Nick said:
**not everyone learns the same way.**
Observed over the years about 18-year-old students in basic mathematics courses. Perhaps who will not major in math or physics or engineering, but are taking math anyway. In some cases,
**the student is not able to read the book by himself**
I am not adducing a reason for that here. But it is not uncommon.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_14: Here are a few examples taken from my experience:
* Psychology 101 as an undergraduate with a huge workload in my major, which was completely unrelated to Psych: I didn't have time to read the book AND go to class. I chose to go to class. It was a good choice, because the instructor brought the material alive with a lot of visuals, and a lot of experimental results. The text was dryer, in comparison.
* An advanced graduate level math class: looking at the sketches and equations on the blackboard, and listening to the instructor walking us through proofs and examples, it was easier for me to see the forest, as opposed to getting bogged down with the trees, as sometimes happened to me when studying on my own. Also, attending class included opportunities to interact with other students. And what a shot in the arm it was to ask a question that got an "I hadn't thought of it that way" response from the instructor.
* A history class: the instructor read selected quotes from source documents. Yes, the quotes were taken from the reading assignments. But in class we got the gems, strung together with comments from the instructor. This helped me form a big-picture view that would have been harder to get from just reading at home.
Also: some math and computer science classes contained problems to work out during class. This is analogous to sight-reading in a rehearsal. You're forced to keep going (but without the pressure of an exam) and this can be helpful, to balance against slow, careful work at home.
In general, I benefited from interaction with fellow students, and the opportunity to form study groups.
Math classes taught me how to read mathematical symbols and aggregates of symbols out loud.
I found it helpful to watch the instructor work through problems, explaining the thought process all the while.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_15: I was a physics undergrad at [Imperial, London](http://www.imperial.ac.uk) from 1985 to 1988, and (at least at that time) it was a point of pride that *everything* that was examinable was taught by a lecturer, during a lecture, on a blackboard, with chalk. So I only bought one book during my entire undergraduate career, but I took a *lot* of notes. I still have about 10 lever-arch files full of notes, probably some five thousand handwritten pages, representing what is now a very expensive education.
I mention this because I'm sort of the designated physicist in the family, and now I have nieces, nephews, and Godchildren getting to exam age, I'm being asked to do physics tuition. That means I'm having to go back to my notes and remind myself about a bunch of stuff I haven't used for some decades, and I'm discovering that my notes are almost uniquely readable *to me* because they represent **my understanding of the material right when that understanding was forged**. I saw what was going on in front of me, understood it, and wrote down my understanding all in the moment. In some cases, being human, I failed to understand, and I could tell when that was because **I couldn't write it down meaningfully** - then I knew I had to chase up the lecturer afterwards and get my comprehension fixed, so that I could write it down.
So the handwritten notes functioned as a real-time comprehension check - and in addition, a priceless corpus of physics-as-it-makes-most-sense-to-my-particular-brain, the most efficient way possible of reloading/refreshing that knowledge later (which was necessary at the time, because nearly the entire degree result came from the end-of-year exams).
I'm unsure about the value of just sitting in a lecture hall, watching it all go by; but for me at least, **sitting in a lecture hall and attempting to codify in real time what I was seeing was a *very* effective educational technique**.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_16: Here are some reasons:
* Not everything is in the book. To make the book a reasonable size, sometimes the major issues are covered while details are deliberately overlooked. Very often, I will read a book and think I understand it all, but when I try to do the examples, I'll realize I'm missing a lot of the finer points.
* Some things can't be accomplished just by reading. Music education and phys ed are just two examples.
* You can't ask a book questions. (You can, these days, substitute asking on internet groups for classroom interactions.)
* Some things may be omitted from the book because the author thinks they are "obvious" or have been learned already from (allegedly) prerequisite courses. (That's what I like about the "For Dummies" series: they assume no previous knowledge.)
* Not everyone has the discipline to learn from the book. In a class, the teacher/lecturer/professor sets clear expectations for what must be accomplished by when. If you can get the job done and done well in a reasonable time without that, fine.
* The teacher/lecturer/professor may add a topic or two to what the book discusses, and considers the added topics to be part of the course that ze is teaching.
Having said all that, I am all in favor of skipping lectures to learn on your own. You can often get more done and faster that way. Of course, you're not going to agree with that if you believe that courseroom time,
not what you learn, is important.
Upvotes: 0
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<issue_start>username_0: Is it ethical to "group review" a un-published manuscript sent out for review?
For example, you received a manuscript for review and you shared it with your lab group or group of colleagues, with the permission of the journal but not the permission of the authors. Is this ok?<issue_comment>username_1: **Grey area, leaning towards unethical.** Confidentiality is an important value in the peer review process, and the usual understanding of confidentiality is that the paper will be distributed to the minimum number of people required to perform the reviews. Therefore, your case, where a group of people replaces a single person, can be seen as a violation of confidentiality.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Still not enough detail for a definitive answer, but here goes:
Confidentiality is fundamental for the review process and especially the **authors who submit their papers expect that their manuscript is treated confidential**. Hence, **all reviewers have to treat the manuscript as such** (and usually the editors informs the authors of the general review guidelines). If you as a reviewer asks the editor if other may help you with the review, this is totally OK. The editor may decide what to do, especially he may decide to allow this procedure but **all members of the group performing the review have to adhere to the review guidelines**, especially treating the whole review process confidential. Also **the editor should know all members of the group** who is performing the review. If all this is the case, there is nothing wrong with a group review.
Of course, **you may not extend the group of reviewer at will**.
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: Is it possible/ethical for PhD students to collaborate with a professor from different institution on a topic different from their dissertation research without telling their advisors.
Are PhD students limited to exclusively work for their advisors or it is legitimate for them to do research during their spare time to publish papers with other collaborators.<issue_comment>username_1: The answer to both the title and the second paragraph of the question is the commonest answer to questions about PhD studies: "Discuss it with your advisor.". The advisor knows about relationships between your department and other institutions, and may know more than you do about the history of collaborations with them. There is a serious issue of whether you can make fast enough progress on your dissertation research if also pursuing other research. The advisor is supposed to give advice about how to proceed with your research career.
The answer to the first paragraph of the question body, about not even telling one's advisors, is that it is just not going to work. As soon as you co-author anything with the other institution, the collaboration is public. Even if your advisor does not come across it, someone will mention it to them. At the best it will be something like "I see your student user2987 is doing interesting work with Professor X."
Maybe the advisor would have liked the collaboration if it had been discussed in advance. If they find out about it indirectly, they will know you have gone behind their back. That is likely to damage your relationship with your advisor.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: >
> Is it possible/ethical for PhD students to collaborate with a professor from different institution on a topic different from their dissertation research
>
>
>
**Of course it is!** The goal of any PhD program is to develop strong independent researchers. Limiting any PhD student's collaborations to one faculty member or group would be directly opposed to that goal. I consider publication of at least one paper *without* the advisor to be an iron-clad graduation requirement in my field, and in particular for my own PhD students.
However, if your advisor is paying you as a research assistant, then you do have an obligation to work on the specific project for which you are being paid. You can't ethically work on another project—research or otherwise—*at the expense* of the work you are being paid to do. But as long as you are fulfilling the terms of your funding, what you do with the rest of your time is up to you.
**Note: Your advisor may disagree with my opinion about independent work.** Working on research without their explicit approval *may* violate their expectations for you as their PhD student, possibly to the point of them refusing to work with you further. While I believe such a response is both deeply unethical and counterproductive, that doesn't mean it can't happen.
>
> without telling their advisors.
>
>
>
No, no, no. Don't even think about it.
If you feel the need to hide your research activities (the entire point of getting a PhD) from your advisor (the one person whose job is to help you succeed), then your relationship with your advisor is deeply broken. If you lie to your advisor, they will almost certainly find out later. If you can't trust your advisor, find a new advisor. If you think your advisor would disapprove of your independent work, either live with the disappointment or find a new advisor.
Upvotes: 3
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<issue_start>username_0: I've been asked to write a paper for someone else at my school and it has made me question whether I'd be doing a horrible thing by agreeing. I have done it and accepted pay before now. My papers are generally relatively good. A sizeable portion of my income in high school came from papers I had written for others.
I've written fewer things for people in college. My clientele has, to this point, consisted of old friends and friends of friends from the nearby community colleges and stuff. These essays take more than the fifty minutes to churn out than high school ones did, but they also feel more rewarding because I usually have to research and learn a bit before asking for a bit of a higher payment than I charged in high school. This whole thing didn't really feel morally unwholesome until a person at my college asked me to write an essay for her the other day.
We have an honor code that I thought worked well. While I wouldn't be breaking a rule by giving someone my intellectual property, the idea that they'd be signing the same agreement I always do about adhering to the school's policies on a piece written by me really freaks me out! Luckily it's nothing that would be published in any way, but it still opened me to what I guess is a common enough ethical dilemma. Do I sell out or do I pay attention to the "right" thing to do?
I have no scruples making people from other places pay. I'd still write a paper for a high schooler at the drop of their pretty penny. Doing it for someone here just feels perverse. I'm also gunning for a job as writing tutor --a flawed position in a crumbling part of the institution in which I'm still super interested. Right now it seems as though I'm teetering between becoming either the helper of or the worker for others.
Personal values aside it would probably be super awkward tutoring some people and doing the work for others, particularly if one of the professors who has recommended me for the tutor position were to discover that I had written papers for students taking their class. I imagine I'd be fired.
Still, writing papers pays well enough. This person has essentially agreed to pay by the page at a rate based on the grade the paper earns. Right now I'm expecting at least $100 for five or six hours of work, which is significantly more than any job I can get working for the school. She also indicated that she'd be interested in pursuing my services further should the first paper prove satisfactory. I could be making a decent bit of coin by doing something I actually enjoy while learning and developing is I wouldn't necessarily entertain under certain circumstances.
Do the many ethical implications necessarily outweigh the high potential monetary gains? Should it matter to me when I'm technically doing nothing wrong (apart from subverting some classic pedagogic practices and participating in small-scale soul sale among other issues)? Isn't this basically what professional speech writers do? Assuming I stop, where should I draw the line (i.e. should I stop writing for others entirely, or what)?
Can you think of any other comments, questions, or concerns for me to address?<issue_comment>username_1: The answer is no. Don't do it. The other person is committing plagiarism and you would be at fault as well, even though it is your work, because you essentially helped them plagiarize. Everything you asked points to you feeling guilty, so go with your gut. This could get very messy and you could be expelled. Where to draw the line? Don't do other people's homework. Period.
Not that I needed to find references to your question, but here's an [article](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gina-ciliberto/college-homework-essay-writing-services_b_5840080.html).
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: You are aiding others in breaking the rules of their college. Indeed, my old university, Texas A&M, had the Aggie Honor Code that says:
>
> An Aggie does not lie, cheat or steal or tolerate those who do.
>
>
>
Note the second part. While it may not be illegal from the perspective of the law, you are helping others lie and cheat. Don't do it, you're going to regret it in hindsight as you go through life and gain more of an appreciation why academic dishonesty is a problem.
But see it from a positive perspective: You are good at writing. There are businesses that are looking for people like you. For example, there are companies that specialize in editing other people's works -- e.g., editing scientific papers for people who are either not good writers, or whose first language is not English. There is a market for your skill set, and one where you can actually make a living doing the ethically right thing. Most universities also have writing centers that keep a list of people who are interested in helping foreign students edit their theses and similar things. All of these will be rewarding jobs where you learn something and can help others without moral dilemmas.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: >
> I'd still write a paper for a high schooler at the drop of their pretty penny.
>
>
>
And yet, those high schoolers are the ones you're damaging the most.
This is what I tell some of my younger relatives. For every homework that you do not do now, that same kind of work will become ten times harder once you're in college.
>
> Isn't this basically what professional speech writers do?
>
>
>
Professional speech writers can say what they do and who they've worked for on their resume. Will you be able to do the same?
Also, by getting in the habit of letting others take the credit for your work, you're actually devaluing yourself.
>
> Assuming I stop, where should I draw the line (i.e. should I stop
> writing for others entirely, or what)?
>
>
>
You already know where that line should be drawn. Writing for others teaches them absolutely nothing.
The next time you speak with this person (or someone else who wants your services), tell them that you won't write the essay for them, but that you'll be glad to lock yourself in a room with them for five hours to make sure they write their essay.
And then, you set your ground rules and ask them for the full cash payment in advance.
Your ground rules can vary, but I would personally include: Cell phones turned off. No wifi (unless research is required). This is a one-on-one session. They should sit next to you so you see what they're writing. No distraction (except for restroom breaks), unless they want you to walk out of that room and keep the remaining balance of the payment. The same goes if they're late or miss an appointment, you keep the money if that happens. And they should come to you at least three days before an essay is due otherwise your hourly rate is double.
The idea is that they wouldn't just be hiring a tutor, they would be hiring a task master. And even though, they may not be able to finish their essay in 5 hours, the work they accomplish in that time may motivate them enough to actually finish the work on their own.
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: I'm in a very unique situation. I have ideas of something potentially valuable for science and I want to get it published but I haven't been able to go through the peer-review process, yet. That is why I'm thinking about simply putting all I have on the Internet and leaving it be there to see would any "real" scientist (with the equipment and the position) be interested in them. I don't work in anything related to science and although I have a degree I don't have PhD so it's like I'm nobody.
What is my "protection" if one of those experts (who obviously know much better how to publish) just takes it and puts his/hers name on it even if I manage to show files containing the same ideas loaded on the Internet for **public** access (so I have the site administration to verify my publication dates) much before his/her work was submitted to a journal?
Does such obviously public documents have any weight against peer-reviewed paper or is the fact that s/he managed to go through the process but I didn't make these ideas his/hers? Is any value in the fact that a document is **publicly** displayed before the submission date or does the fact that it's publication anyways make it "the real deal" while the other document, even if it can be shown to be earlier by outside source (like the administration of the web site)? If I just "publish" it on the Internet under the Creatice Commons license does it give it any authority in any way measurable to a peer-reviewed publication or anybody who has one can claim ownership over the ideas?
P.S. Can the entire issue be "dissolved" quickly if the one who got it published in a peer-review journal just mentions my work in the acknowledgements and says these ideas were mine and s/he just "used" them. Then is the authorship of the ideas automatically transferred to me and the issue is non-existent? But what if I ask him/her and s/he refuses. Then, can I claim authorship of the ideas or are they out of my reach now and I would just have to be satisfied with the fact that at least now they have gained some form of recognition (although I'm not their author in the eyes of the community)? (The issue is I just want scientists to view my work seriously, I don't do it for the money, the job or the fame. I just want to know am I right or wrong, so what if someone just uses and claims authorship-should I be satisfied only with the fact that I was right all along or should I try to pursue him/her for non-proper use of my ideas.)<issue_comment>username_1: There are sites like [arxiv.org](https://arxiv.org/) where you can publish something, which isn't peer-reviewed yet, but which becomes public and stakes a claim to the idea.
However, that's usually what some people (usually at universities, not companies) do when they have a full-fledged paper to release. In your case it sounds, if I read this correctly, like you have some general ideas you have not yet had a chance to pursue in depth. You're considering putting them out and inviting others to run with them, but want some credit. I would say that if you simply put out a general idea, that is worth an *acknowledgment* in a paper, not **co-authorship**. Being an author means actually doing some of the work -- writing text, doing experiments, etc. I don't think what you describe rises to that level.
One thing you might consider doing is putting out enough information to tease people into inquiring for more information, then trying to work with anyone who inquires to be more directly involved in the work as it proceeds.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Two comments for you:
1. You commented that you found a journal that wants your paper but is asking you for $2000. Take care that this is not a "predatory journal," that is to say, a fake website imitating an academic journal in order to take your money.
2. If you really need to get credit for this idea ASAP, you can always post it to [viXra](http://vixra.org). This is virtually the same as uploading it to your personal website. At least it will be time stamped, which is proof you publicized your idea at a specific time.
It is up to you if you want to risk publicizing your idea on one hand, with the benefit of establishing precedent for yourself on the other hand. That is really an individual choice.
Upvotes: 1
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<issue_start>username_0: I am reviewing a manuscript which cites a study I published (yay!), but appears to misinterpret the results (rats!). This misinterpretation does not invalidate the manuscript under review, which is otherwise quite good - it occurs in the discussion section as somewhat of an aside, and does not seem to be an intentional misrepresentation. However, I'd prefer that my work is properly represented to avoid confusion on the parts of those who read this new paper.
I would like to know if anyone has good techniques to correct a mistake like this without making it quite obvious that you are the reviewer and inadvertently revealing your identity. (I am not necessarily opposed to revealing my identity since my review will be positive overall, just curious about ways to do this)<issue_comment>username_1: Give the corrections, referring to yourself in the third person where needed. You don't need to impersonate someone uninvolved, you just need to depersonalize your corrections. For example,
>
> In the introduction, the author is speaking of bla-bla; s/he motivates bla-bla by citing such-and-so.
>
>
>
Make sure you focus your corrections on errors that are relevant to the paper you are reviewing. That may mean that your list of corrections will not be a complete one.
For all the author of the paper you're reviewing knows, you might be an advisor or close collaborator of the author of the paper that was mis-cited. That's okay.
Note, if the author of the paper you're reviewing forms a conjecture that the reviewer is actually the author of the mis-cited paper... that's okay. Maybe someday you'll meet each other at a conference and enjoy a moment of mutual recognition.
*I am basing this advice on my own experience writing reams of legal documents about a family member, whom I got in the habit of not naming in my writing, to protect his privacy. I also wrote about myself in the third person in those documents. I found out that with a little practice it becomes second nature.*
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: It is very often the case that it is quite obvious (from his comments) to the author who a referee is. Many special subjects have just a handful of well-known experts in the world. You probably know them personally even, their educational background, the typical tilt in their English stemming from their mother tongue, etc.
With many journals, you *propose potential referees*, and the authors of that paper probably proposed you.
So: Don't worry about them deducting your identity. They won't mention it, and they likely won't be surprised. Pleased probably, to have gotten first-hand feedback.
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: This question is partially related to [this question](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/85891/how-do-teachers-learn-to-grade).
By trying to understand which one is the correct way to grade an exam I came out with this doubt. Should each exam be considered as independent or should a mark be assigned based on the other students' performance.
As an example
* if all the students final exams are from 80% to 100% correct should be considered the fact that the exam was too easy while grading it?
* if all the students final exams are from 30% to 60% correct should be considered the fact that maybe the exam was too hard while grading it?
To resume, while preparing/grading the exams should the results respect somehow the normal distribution or should each one be graded independently?
EDIT:
Based on my career as a student for every exam we had statistical results from all the students (min, max, avg) with the grades distribution. Most of them respected the normal distribution. So what it is not clear to me is if it depends on how the teacher create the exam, on how it is graded or just on how usually students perform.
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/mWi2n.gif)<issue_comment>username_1: I'm going to give this from a student perspective, so take it with a grain of salt. But I can say that **I would hope I was graded independently of any of my peers on a given assignment\***. Simply put, I want to be evaluated on *my* progress *relative to the course objectives*. I'm not interested in my progress relative to everyone else's.
---
\* That being said, once the independent grade is assigned, I don't care about or mind any post-grading corrections (a.k.a. "curves"). But again, that's *after* my exam is independently graded - so I can at least see the raw grade first.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: It sounds like you are describing [a grade curve](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grading_on_a_curve). That would mean you adjust everyones grades to reflect their performance relative to the rest of the class. Grade curves usually only skew upwards (IE you wouldnt lower someones grade because everyone else did well, but you would raise it if everyone else did poorly.) Whether or not this is right for you depends on the course, your tests and your students. I can say for sure that this is a common thing to do and would not be at all out of place if you were to make that choice. However unless an unusually large number of students is failing your course, it probably isnt necessary if you would rather not do it.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: In the ideal situation, exams should be graded independently. There should be an established, fixed threshold or rubric for demonstrating acceptable or mastery skill in the subject, and each student's assessment should be measured fairly against that for feedback and certification. (Some instructors claim that setting this threshold is overwhelmingly difficult, but I do not find that to be the case.)
Whether the whole class or none of the class meets that threshold does not change the fact that certain students have or have not achieved the necessary skills. Research shows that we should not expect skill levels to be normally distributed (e.g., see Gould's *Full House: The Spread of Excellence from Plato to Darwin*). For example: A few years ago I had two sections of the same algebra course (with identical schedules, lectures, exams, and meeting on the same days) in which on the final exam one section had a 48% median score, and the other section an 80% median score.
Unfortunately, many institutions politically find themselves pressured to show certain success/certification rates, and so mangle actual scores to match a normal distribution of values (with most in the success/passing region), regardless of actual student proficiency. This may be done to "smooth out" passing rates between semesters, instructors, and/or different sections of the same course. I maintain that this is effectively fraud and should be resisted as much as possible.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: If the goal is to help students learn, then you should grade against an absolute standard (often called a rubric), and you should not grade by comparing students to each other. Experimentally, it has been found that if students believe their grades are under their own control, they will learn more. If students believe they cannot control their grades (because it depends on classmates' performance) then they will learn less. The difference in attitudes is known as a locus of control in psychology. According to the locus of control research, grading against an absolute standard will help students.
If you goal is to limit the number of students who pass, you might chose differently from what I suggest. But I don't agree with that goal.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_5: Grading should never take all students performance into account. Course curriculum design and placement procedures should always take all students performance into account. Anyone can design a course or design a placement system where all students put into a given course pass or where all students fail. If you have absolutes like that happening that cause you to want to resort to a grading curve then the course curriculum or the placement procedures are at fault, NOT the grading.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_6: You didn't specify the motivation for your question. If I assume that you are a TA getting the hang of your job as a grader, then it would be safest to follow instructions given by the professor you're grading for, or your department -- unless you haven't been given any, in which case the safe thing to do is to ask for guidance, in general terms (not as specifically as you did here).
You can certainly have your own opinion, though, and once you have tenure in a department you can try to influence department policy.
Sad to say, I have seen an Ivy League math department shoehorn the final course grades in undergraduate courses into a bell curve. They do it openly and unapologetically, as department *modus operandi*. I heard this from department administrators. Student reports suggest that other STEM departments in the same university do the same.
I suppose they think they are upholding the quality of a Bachelor's degree from their institution.
Said math department additionally provides *no discernable* departmental quality control over the teaching quality of lower level math courses required for STEM degrees. The department turns a blind eye to disastrously poor teaching, and then quietly offers one well-taught catch-up section during the off-semester, by a known and proven instructor.
It would appear that the existence of the large number of throw-away sections is inextricably tied to the bell curve assignment of final grades.
Upvotes: 0
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<issue_start>username_0: What are the working hours per week for full time PhD students in Germany? Also, how many holidays are granted in a year? How is the work-life balance for full time PhD students? Thanks!<issue_comment>username_1: You are typically paid for 50 or 65% to do work on some project, but that just means that the university graciously allows you to write your dissertation unpaid in the remaining 50 or 35%.
How much you really spent is hugely dependent on the discipline, the department, the advisor, and yourself. The best case scenario would be when there is a huge overlap between the project and your dissertation, both the department and the advisor are very supportive, and you are very disciplined and get a lot of work done in a short period of time. This does happen, but not everybody is that lucky.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: Sorry, but there is not definitive answer to this question as it varies *a lot* between fields and even between different workgroups and then even between different students in a workgroup.
While "working fulltime" usually means 100% (which is 39.2h/week in my state but could be different in others), you may get a contract between 50% and 100% (I've heard about 16% contracts, but can not confirm this). If you are expected to be in the office for the whole time or not depends. Also, you may have teaching duties or not. You may have to work on a project which is not directly related to you thesis or not. The holidays depend on the state and on your age (or work experience) but in general there is plenty of holiday in Germany (should be somewhere between 25 and 30 days, so five to six weeks). The work-life-balance varies even more. You'll hear very different stories from "working my xxx of for a couple of years" to "had the best time of my life and managed to make great friends and learn another language"
Upvotes: 4
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| 1,717
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<issue_start>username_0: I am interested in answers to this question particularly as it pertains to mathematics.
To be more specific, I am interested in using the passive voice in mathematical proofs as I feel that this reinforces the objectiveness and universality of the proof as opposed to the specific instance of the proof or my own self. However, it is my understanding that the first person plural present tense active voice is the norm in mathematics. I want to use this uncommon style in papers and other proofs for these reasons. However, I am concerned this may tarnish my reputation. Would it be looked upon negatively to intentionally employ a writing style uncommon in my field to express what I see as key values in the field?<issue_comment>username_1: Some style guides (e.g. Knuth et. al. [[PDF link]](http://jmlr.csail.mit.edu/reviewing-papers/knuth_mathematical_writing.pdf)) advocate using the active voice over the passive voice. One reason for this is that some readers find the passive voice boring.
There are, however, many examples of mathematical writing using the passive voice, both in books and papers. If the goal is that mathematical writing should be engaging and lively then the use of the passive voice could be seen as a bad habit among some mathematicians.
That said, there is absolutely no way choosing passive over active would be perceived as "unbecoming". You may bore your readers (so much so that they don't even care to read what you've written), but that's about the worst you could expect.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: You are not very specific: on the one hand, there is more than one kind of mathematical writing; on the other hand, you write "I am concerned this may tarnish my reputation" and that depends (a little bit, at least) on who you are.
I will assume that you are a junior mathematical writer, i.e., that you have not yet published many (or any) mathematical papers. (If you have already written a few dozen papers, you have not only a lot of experience but have gotten *a lot of feedback*, so you know what kinds of writing variations referees, editors and other careful readers will pay attention to.)
Let me begin with some (unfortunately rather conservative, but still inherently sound) advice for the journeyman writer in any academic field:
>
> Don't try to be innovative or different in your writing style in your first papers or first years of writing papers. First learn how to write acceptably -- or better, well -- according to the most standard norms of your discipline.
>
>
>
It takes a while to master the standard conventions of academic writing. When I look back at some of my earliest papers, I see some weird stuff. In a few cases I was trying to be innovative, but most of the time I just didn't know what the standard convention was. About 50 papers in, I am still learning new things about the standard mathematical style.
What's so great about standard mathematical style? Nothing *inherent*. But as a culture, we're used to it.
>
> The cardinal goals of mathematical writing are precision and clarity. After that, the next goal is unobtrusiveness: good mathematical writing does not call attention to itself, because attention that is diverted to the writing is diverted away from the mathematical ideas and reasoning.
>
>
>
Again, what is unobtrusive depends on the culture. For instance, there are some mathematical turns of phrase that would be pretty weird in ordinary writing but are not weird in mathematical writing because they have been done so many times before. Examples include: "in the sequel," "by abuse of notation," "a trivial case"...And of course the best example is the use of "we" in mathematical writing. It looks pretty weird the first N times you see it...and then it doesn't. It is an entirely standard convention of mathematical writing, as can be seen by its approved use in virtually every mathematical style guide but even more strongly by its almost universal use in published papers. You don't have to use "we" in mathematical writing -- e.g. [this style guide](http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~uno/papers/cs1193.pdf) contains some tips from Paul Halmos on avoiding it -- but I can think of no good reason to avoid it.
Every mathematical style guide known to me denigrates the passive voice in mathematical writing in the majority of instances. So for a journeyman mathematical writer to insist on using the passive voice would be a violation of both of the above pieces of advice: on the one hand you are not learning to write in the standard way, and on the other hand you are writing in a nonstandard way that a lot of your readers are going to notice, get mildly distracted by, and therefore in some cases get moderately annoyed at you for writing in this way. Why do you want to risk this? You say:
>
> "I am interested in using the passive voice in mathematical proofs as I feel that this reinforces the objectiveness and universality of the proof as opposed to the specific instance of the proof or my own self."
>
>
>
Honestly, I am very unsure what you mean by that. In case you are suggesting that there is some logical or ontological difference between
>
> We will show first that A implies B and then that B does not imply A
>
>
>
and
>
> It will be shown that A implies B and then that B does not imply A
>
>
>
I can assure you that there is not. More to the point, readers of math papers are not going to be critiquing the proofs for "objectiveness": I don't even know what it would mean for an otherwise satisfactory mathematical argument to lack objectiveness.
Moreover, what are you actually trying to accomplish by using the passive voice in your math papers? It can't be to make your work easier and more pleasant to read...as you seem to understand already. You write
>
> "Would it be looked upon negatively to intentionally employ a writing style uncommon in my field to express what I see as key values in the field?"
>
>
>
What "key value" is expressed by using the passive voice? I don't think there is one. But if people get wind of the idea that you feel like you, as a junior person, are in personal possession of a clearer understanding of the "key values in the field"...Well, since you asked for feedback, my honest appraisal is that you sound a little nutty and a lot inexperienced. So it is a bit of a negative, yes. Of course, all mathematicians start out a lot inexperienced, and many, many of us are a little nutty, so your eccentric-sounding ideas about writing and mathematical values will not be a major sticking point in your career.
The largest issue I see, honestly, is the impediment to learning good writing that you've placed on yourself. Without meaning to be harsh: parts of your question remain obscure to me after repeated readings. The comments show that other readers feel the same way. This is a real example of your writing not being properly understood by others, perhaps to the point of your overall message getting lost. That's the risk you incur by not placing a premium on clarity. It's a big one.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]
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2017/03/11
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<issue_start>username_0: I have recently stumbled upon this paper on arXiv:
[Stopping GAN Violence: Generative Unadversarial Networks](https://arxiv.org/abs/1703.02528) ([mirror](https://web.archive.org/web/20170311232135/https://arxiv.org/abs/1703.02528)), which is a parody/joke paper.
Is it ok to upload joke papers to arXiv?<issue_comment>username_1: *The arXiv (pronounced "archive")is a repository of electronic preprints, known as e-prints, of scientific papers in the fields of mathematics, physics, astronomy, computer science, quantitative biology, statistics, and quantitative finance, which can be accessed online.*
So, *please* do not upload *joke* papers. These papers are not helping the community, and they are not helping the authors of such papers.
Having said that, if the paper has *any* scientific value, even if it is a funny paper, then it is more than welcome. TCS has a conference called [FUN with algorithms](http://www2.idsia.ch/cms/fun16/) the purpose of which is to publish amusing papers with certain algorithmic flavor.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: There is a long tradition of posting joke papers to arXiv on or around April Fool's Day, especially in astro-ph - see the list below. The fact that all these papers were approved for arXiv offers some evidence (though not proof) that joke papers are okay.
It's probably best to limit joke papers to around April 1, though, when people know to be on the lookout for this stuff - or at least provide some indicator which is very clear to experts in the field that the paper is a joke, such as listing it as being submitted to Acta Prima Aprilia, [SIGBOVIK](https://sigbovik.org/), or the [Annals of Improbable Research](https://improbable.com/).
A history of arXiv joke papers
==============================
(mirrored-ish [on my website](https://www.ellipsix.net/arxiv-joke-papers.html))
* [Superiority of the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory (LPL) over Steward Observatory (SO) at the University of Arizona](https://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0204013) (2002)
* [On the Utter Irrelevance of LPL Graduate Students: An Unbiased Survey by Steward Observatory Graduate Students](https://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0204041) (2002)
* [Cosmic Conspiracies](https://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0604011) (2006)
* [Natural Dark Energy](https://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0703783) (2007)
* [Down-sizing Forever](https://arxiv.org/abs/0803.4378) (2008)
* [Time variation of a fundamental dimensionless constant](https://arxiv.org/abs/0903.5321) (2009)
* [Galaxy Zoo: an unusual new class of galaxy cluster](https://arxiv.org/abs/0903.5377) (2009)
* [Orthographic Correlations in Astrophysics](https://arxiv.org/abs/1003.6064) (2010)
* [Schroedinger's Cat is not Alone](https://arxiv.org/abs/1004.4206) (2010)
* [Non-standard morphological relic patterns in the cosmic microwave background](https://arxiv.org/abs/1103.6262) (2011)
* [On the influence of the Illuminati in astronomical adaptive optics](https://arxiv.org/abs/1203.6708) (2012)
* [Gods as Topological Invariants](https://arxiv.org/abs/1203.6902) (2012)
* [The Proof of Innocence](https://arxiv.org/abs/1204.0162) (2012)
* [On the Ratio of Circumference to Diameter for the Largest Observable Circles: An Empirical Approach](https://arxiv.org/abs/1204.0298) (2012)
* [Non-detection of the Tooth Fairy at Optical Wavelengths](https://arxiv.org/abs/1204.0492) (2012)
* [Pareidolic Dark Matter (PaDaM)](https://arxiv.org/abs/1303.7262) (2013)
* [A search for direct heffalon production using the ATLAS and CMS experiments at the Large Hadron Collider](https://arxiv.org/abs/1303.7367) (2013)
* [Unidentified Moving Objects in Next Generation Time Domain Surveys](https://arxiv.org/abs/1303.7433) (2013)
* [Conspiratorial cosmology - the case against the Universe](https://arxiv.org/abs/1303.7476) (2013)
* ["Winter is coming"](https://arxiv.org/abs/1304.0445) (2013)
* [The CMB flexes its BICEPs while walking the Planck](https://arxiv.org/abs/1403.8145) (2014)
* [Bayesian Prediction for The Winds of Winter](https://arxiv.org/abs/1409.5830) (2014)
* [A Farewell to Falsifiability](https://arxiv.org/abs/1504.00108) (2015)
* [Beyond the New Horizon: The Future of Pluto](https://arxiv.org/abs/1504.00630) (2015)
* [Astrology in the Era of Exoplanets](https://arxiv.org/abs/1603.09496) (2016)
* [An unexpected new explanation of seasonality in suicide attempts: Grey's Anatomy broadcasting](https://arxiv.org/abs/1603.09590) (2016)
* [Pi in the sky](https://arxiv.org/abs/1603.09703) (2016)
* [SET-E: The Search for Extraterrestrial Environmentalism](https://arxiv.org/abs/1603.09428) (2016)
* [Stopping GAN Violence: Generative Unadversarial Networks](https://arxiv.org/abs/1703.02528) (2017) (the example from the question, included for completeness)
* [A Neural Networks Approach to Predicting How Things Might Have Turned Out Had I Mustered the Nerve to Ask <NAME> to the Junior Prom Back in 1997](https://arxiv.org/abs/1703.10449) (2017)
* [On the Impossibility of Supersized Machines](https://arxiv.org/abs/1703.10987) (2017)
* [Detecting the Ultimate Power in the Universe with LSST](https://arxiv.org/abs/1703.10432) (2017)
* [Sitnikov in Westeros: How Celestial Mechanics finally explains why winter is coming in Game of Thrones](https://arxiv.org/abs/1803.11390) (2018)
* [Independent Discovery of a Sub-Earth in the Habitable Zone Around a Very Close Solar-Mass Star](https://arxiv.org/abs/1804.00419) (2018)
* [Colon<NAME> in the Aviary with the Candlestick: a limit cycle attractor transitions to a stable focus via supercritical Andronov-Hopf bifurcation](https://arxiv.org/abs/1803.11559) (2018)
* [The Long Night: Modeling the Climate of Westeros](https://arxiv.org/abs/1903.12195) (2019)
* [Worlds in Migration](https://arxiv.org/abs/1903.12437) (2019)
* [Forecasting Future Murders of Mr. Boddy by Numerical Weather Prediction](https://arxiv.org/abs/1903.12604) (2019)
* [A new kind of radio transient: ERBs](https://arxiv.org/abs/1903.12412) (2019)
* [Novel approach to Room Temperature Superconductivity problem](https://arxiv.org/abs/2003.14321) (2020)
* [Quantum Godwin's Law](https://arxiv.org/abs/2003.13715) (2020)
* [An Artificially-intelligent Means to Escape Discreetly from the Departmental Holiday Party; guide for the socially awkward](https://arxiv.org/abs/2003.14169) (2020)
* [The search for life and a new logic](https://arxiv.org/abs/2003.13981) (2020)
* [Making It Rain: How Giving Me Telescope Time Can Reduce Drought](https://arxiv.org/abs/2003.13879) (2020)
* [Searching for Space Vampires with TEvSS](https://arxiv.org/abs/2003.14345) (2020)
* [A PDF PSA, or Never gonna set\_xscale again -- guilty feats with logarithms](https://arxiv.org/abs/2003.14327) (2020)
* [Defining the Really Habitable Zone](https://arxiv.org/abs/2003.13722) (2020)
* [Pandemic Dark Matter](https://arxiv.org/abs/2103.16572) (2021)
* ["I'll Finish It This Week" And Other Lies](https://arxiv.org/abs/2103.16574) (2021)
* [Using Artificial Intelligence to Shed Light on the Star of Biscuits: The Jaffa Cake](https://arxiv.org/abs/2103.16575) (2021)
* [The Swampland Conjecture Bound Conjecture](https://arxiv.org/abs/2103.16583) (2021)
* [Detection of Rotational Variability in Floofy Objects at Optical Wavelengths](https://arxiv.org/abs/2103.16636) (2021)
* [I Knew You Were Trouble: Emotional Trends in the Repertoire of Taylor Swift](https://arxiv.org/abs/2103.16737) (2021)
* [Quantum analog of resource theory of stinginess](https://arxiv.org/abs/2103.16799) (2021)
* [The secret of the elixir of youth of blue straggler stars](https://arxiv.org/abs/2103.16866) (2021)
* [Science Spoofs, Physics Pranks and Astronomical Antics](https://arxiv.org/abs/2103.17057) (2021)
* [My cat Chester's dynamical systems analysyyyyy7777777777777777y7is of the laser pointer and the red dot on the wall: correlation, causation, or SARS-Cov-2 hallucination?](https://arxiv.org/abs/2103.17058) (2021)
* [The Swapland](https://arxiv.org/abs/2103.17198) (2021)
* ["My Rhodopsin!": Why Adding Dark Mode to Journals Could Make Us All Better Astronomers](https://arxiv.org/abs/2203.16546) (2022)
* [Worry No More, The Hubble Tension is Relieved: A Truly Direct Measurement of the Hubble Constant from Mooniversal Expansion](https://arxiv.org/abs/2203.16551) (2022)
* [Could fresh lava be (warm) dark matter?](https://arxiv.org/abs/2203.16563) (2022)
* [What's for Lunch? A systematic ordering of foods in the Soup-Salad-Sandwich phase space](https://arxiv.org/abs/2203.16580) (2022)
* [Taurine in Taurus. An Over-Caffeinated Search for Coffee in Space](https://arxiv.org/abs/2203.16598) (2022)
* [COWS all tHE way Down (COWSHED) I: Could cow based planetoids support methane atmospheres?](https://arxiv.org/abs/2203.16609) (2022)
* [The popular myth of the drunk fireworks in the Valencian Fallas: "If you run, it chases you"](https://arxiv.org/abs/2203.16630) (2022)
* [Predicting Winners of the Reality TV Dating Show $\textit{The Bachelor}$ Using Machine Learning Algorithms](https://arxiv.org/abs/2203.16648) (2022)
* [The Parking Lot Planet](https://arxiv.org/abs/2203.16791) (2022)
* [Social distancing between particles and objects in the Universe](https://arxiv.org/abs/2203.16982) (2022)
* [Transmogrifiers: Bright of the Exomoon](https://arxiv.org/abs/2203.17017) (2022)
* [On the Possibility of Discovering Exoplanets within our Solar System](https://arxiv.org/abs/2203.17075) (2022)
* [The Three Little Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf: Case Studies of Peer Review](https://arxiv.org/abs/2203.17095) (2022)
* [Follow the Index: A new proposal](https://arxiv.org/abs/2203.17123) (2022)
* [A Modest Proposal for the Non-existence of Exoplanets: The Expansion of Stellar Physics to Include Squars](https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.16915) (2023)
* [When Tails Tell Tales](https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.16941) (2023)
* [On The Planetary Theory of Everything](https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.17035) (2023)
* [As a matter of colon: I am NOT digging cheeky titles (no, but actually yes :>)](https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.17059) (2023)
* [UFOs: Just Hot Air or Something Meteor?](https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.17103) (2023)
* [UFOs: Just Hot Air or Something Meteor?](https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.17103) (2023)
* [Nuggets of Wisdom: Determining an Upper Limit on the Number Density of Chickens in the Universe](https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.17626) (2023)
* [ChatGPT scores a bad birdie in counting gravitational-wave chirps](https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.17628) (2023)
* [Chromaticity Effects on the Outcomes of Spheroid-based Scored Events](https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.17637) (2023)
* [Party Planning the Next True Happy New Year: Lunar Orbital Evolution Epochs with Integer Synodic Months Per Year](https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.17697) (2023)
* [Can AI Put Gamma-Ray Astrophysicists Out of a Job?](https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.17853) (2023)
* [A Unified Nomenclature and Taxonomy for Planets, Stars, and Moons](https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.18217) (2023)
* [MO0NFALL: The Great Filter and Exo-Moon Occurrence](https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.18227) (2023)
* [Programmed but Arbitrary Control Minimization of Amplitude and phase for speckle Nulling (PACMAN)](https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.18231) (2023)
* [Macroscopic Dynamics of Entangled 3+1-Dimensional Systems: A Novel Investigation Into Why My MacBook Cable Tangles in My Backpack Every Single Day](https://arxiv.org/abs/2304.00220) (2023)
---
Note: since this has become what I think is the most comprehensive list of arXiv joke papers I know of, I've made it community wiki so anyone can add to the list. Any additions should be *clearly* joke papers and, in keeping with the topic of the question, must be posted *on arXiv*.
Upvotes: 7 <issue_comment>username_3: Uploading joke papers to arXiv does not violate arXiv policy, according to this email sent by the arXiv moderation:
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: arXiv Moderation
> Date: Mon, Mar 13, 2017 at 4:38 PM
> Subject:
> [moderation #189697] Removing a joke paper
> To: <EMAIL>
>
>
> Dear Spa,
>
>
> We will not remove this paper as it does not violate any of our
> policies.
>
>
> -- [retracted name]
> arXiv moderation
>
>
> On Sat Mar 11 18:27:47 2017, <EMAIL> wrote:
>
>
>
>
> >
> > Dear arXiv-moderation,
> >
> >
> > This paper is a joke paper: <https://arxiv.org/abs/1703.02528> (it was
> > submitted to an April 1st joke conference: <http://sigbovik.org/2017>).
> >
> >
> > Could you please remove it from arXiv?
> >
> >
> > Best,
> >
> > <NAME>
> >
> >
> >
>
>
>
This seems to be in contradiction with <https://arxiv.org/help/moderation> ([mirror](https://web.archive.org/web/20170314164213/https://arxiv.org/help/moderation)):
>
> arXiv is distinct from the web as a whole, because **arXiv contains exclusively scientific research content**. Although arXiv is open to submissions from the scientific communities, our team has worked behind the scenes for a long time to ensure the quality of our content.
>
>
> arXiv moderators will suggest the removal of a submission that violates arXiv policies in some way. Potential reasons for removal are: Inappropriate format. arXiv accepts only submissions in the form of an article that would be refereeable by a conventional publication venue. This excludes […] papers that contain inflammatory or **fictitious content**, papers that use highly dramatic and mis-representative titles/abstracts/introductions.
>
>
>
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_4: Also, realize that people have done this to real journals. Consider the Sokol hoax. Or the famous math paper about big game hunting mocking. Or the more subtle Physical Review Letter co-author [<NAME>](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F._D._C._Willard)
I would avoid doing it too much. And if it gets done too much it will damage the resource. That said, a little bit is kind of amusing. Especially if skillfully done. But some pepper is good...too much is bad.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: It does happen, but there are also humorous journals you may also submit to, especially if it is satirical as the Annals of Improbable research will only accept real research that's funny.
I ran across this because I maintain one, The Journal of Astrological Big Data Ecology (Jabde.com) where we also host The Journal of Immaterial Science which tends to involve more chemistry humor. If anyone runs across this, we always accept paper submissions and do actually publish the really good ones.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_6: I consider the paper ["An Explicit Conjectured Determinant Evaluation Whose Proof Would Make Me Happy (and the OEIS richer)"](https://arxiv.org/abs/1401.1532) by <NAME>
a joke paper, or at least a troll paper.
There are no false statements or non-research in the paper.
The issue is that Zeilberger (cleverly) hides the fact that a solution to his problem also solves the very famous Collatz conjecture.
So people trying to solve the problem stated in his paper are very likely to waste their time on a problem that is way harder than it seems.
On the other hand, there could be a [<NAME>](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Dantzig) moment a solution is easier found if one believes that the problem is solvable. Dantzig famously mistook two open problems in statistics for class homework, and turned in the solutions a few days later.
Upvotes: 0
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| 1,354
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<issue_start>username_0: For my masters degree in computer science, I'm currently working on a paper on ransomware. Goal of this paper is to focus on academic writing and citing sources correctly.
### Trustworthiness/Quality of sources
As I wanted to show what kind of business ransomware is and what amounts of money are dealt with, I had a look at the TOR onion network - a deep web only accessible by TOR browser.
I found some interesting results. Despite the fact that the pages are completely anonymous and it's not sure if the authors can be trusted, would it be ok to cite those pages on ransomware-related questions, stating their poor trustworthiness immediately after the citation?
### BibTeX
Other questions came up on how to cite these pages. My bibtex file now looks like this (I replaced some parts by \* for obvious reasons):
```
@misc{Darknet:****,
title={**** - The Better & Cheapest FUD Ransomware + C&C on Darknet},
howpublished={\url{http://****.onion}},
note={Abgerufen am 12.03.2017}
}
```
My question here is how to state that the `*.onion` url only works in TOR browser? Or should I better include a screenshot in case the page gets shut down?<issue_comment>username_1: Is it OK to cite? Yes.
But... While I recognize that some valuable information can only be obtained from the dark side, it is unfair to air a source’s opinion when the source’s identity and motives are shielded from scrutiny.
So, describe the anonymous sources as clearly as you can. I totally agree with you: "stating their poor trustworthiness immediately after the citation". And note that not everybody knows that \*.onion URLs only work in the Tor browser.
About the URL format, cite as any URL, as [Anonymous Physicist](https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/13240/anonymous-physicist) recommends. I would also suggest you to create permanent records of the web page. Services like [perma.cc](https://perma.cc/) might help you, it cannot resolve .onion domains, but you can upload your own archive. Another way can be find [here](https://pirate.london/how-to-mirror-an-onion-site-for-later-discussion-f0ea102a1dec).
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: In regards to your first question, **it is absolutely fine to cite anonymously published content.** This is just a special case of citing a primary source. Primary sources often suffer from issues from trustworthiness, bias, and verifiability and they are routinely cited.
Anytime primary sources are cited, it is the authors' responsibility to provide sufficient context for readers to effectively evaluate the source. You might do this by explaining that the authors are anonymous and you cannot verify the veracity of any of the claims. You might even point out that there is evidence that the claims might be false. As long as it is framed responsibly, you should be fine.
In terms of your second question, I don't think there is any style guide that will help. In these case, I would just focus on the fact **the goal is to allow people to easily and unambiguously identify exactly the page that you are referring to**. There are a few approaches that I think will accomplish this goal. Providing a .onion address with a note like "(Tor hidden service)" might be enough to help people identify how to access because they might then look on the web for how to access this.
That said, since the .onion URLs — like all URLs — are likely to disappear, I think a better idea would be to use a [perma.cc](http://perma.cc) archived link of a [Tor2web](https://tor2web.org/) proxied URL. Tor2web proxies do not protect the anonymity of readers and are, themselves, not entirely stable. That said, for the purposes of creating an archival copy of a citation, they will be entirely sufficient.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: Ideally, in the most strict sense of the word we should cite only material **reviewed** by professionals who have no conflict of interest with the authors, and this material better be published in a reputable journal. That's how we try to ensure trustworthiness. However, Web content is mostly not reviewed, and we wish to cite it, since there is some useful data over there. But there is also a lot of junk in the Web, and the presence of the author's name or nickname <NAME> sometimes adds nothing to the trustworthiness. (Even professional agencies like Reuters, AP, or TASS sometimes produce junk which later goes to the websites of newspapers.)
That's a hole in the publication process: reviewers do accept papers citing low-quality websites, and the Tor sites are not an exception; simply the author of such sites is unknown. In terms of trustworthiness, all the following signatures are completely equivalent:
* [no signature]
* nickname like Sally6pack
* pseudonym like <NAME>
* unknown person like <NAME>
* very well-known person like <NAME> but on an unknown third-party website.
Whether you use this hole (and if so, how) or not is your **own, personal, ethical decision**.
(If you care: my own, purely subjective take on it would be that stating the poor trustworthiness of a website immediately after/before the citation or in the bibliography is fine.)
As for bibtex, use the `note` field to provide any information of how to access the material. You might alternatively consider biber+biblatex and use `@online`. I would refer to a different website with a HOWTO regarding accessing `.onion`.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]
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| 914
| 3,953
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<issue_start>username_0: Barring any extremely unfortunate disaster, I am five weeks away from a final defense and a Ph.D.
At this point, we are in the re-write stage ("of my unforgivably horrible and weak thesis") but it is expected to work and be ready for my final defense in a month.
Prior to the thesis, my advisor REALLY wants me to program the algorithm I give as part of my dissertation. Though I have the algorithm pseudocoded, I have no idea anymore about basic commands, data structures, counters, declaring local and global variables, and just general grammar and structure for what he REALLY wants me to program on (though I don't HAVE to): Mathematica.
Worse, every time I try to get a dry, discrete checklist of what he wants for the program, it varies, often leading him to talk about ill about computer scientists and lament about how traditional languages just don't do the job PASCAL used to do (dead serious). Hence, the last piece of progress required of me by his say so - a piece not really contributing to my original work and that could represent time better spent revising my writing and preparing for my final defense instead of learning how to print "LEOOH WHIORLD" on MATHEMATICA - is setting up, after two years of back-cracking dissertation work, to be what ultimately "does me in."
When (or even if) I get standards for this program he wants to see, *would it be unethical of me to hire a tutor to help me code the program, or even hire a programmer to help me write the program,* even given that I pseudocode the program myself? Skipping the hours and hours of manual searching to learn how to read in files (and files with gigantic matrices at that) and how to look up code corresponding to pseudocode, keep up with counters etc. really seems like a good investment for me, but my moral bells are a ringing on this one, even *if* I pseudocode the project myself.<issue_comment>username_1: Misrepresenting the hired work as your own would be inappropriate, but the following strike me as safe conditions for academic subcontracting:
* Have your advisor's consent (thanks mdiener)
* Find a suitable programmer and get them to understand the algorithm
* Verify and document that the program operates correctly
* Disclose everything in both thesis and defense
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: I don't see an issue with hiring someone or getting a peer to contribute to the software as long as they are acknowledged accordingly and included in any future publications on it. Research is often team effort. However, your concern seems to be saving time during the final stages of your thesis. Sorry but I don't think the process of recruiting someone qualified for the project and explaining your algorithm to them will achieve that, even if your advisor agrees to it.
The most qualified person for the job appears to be you and it would benefit your career to take responsibility in releasing the algorithm. You don't need to do this during your PhD. If it really doesn't add to the original contribution of knowledge perhaps leave it until after the thesis is completed. It is common practice at our institution to prepare publications based on thesis work after the thesis has been competed including accompanying data and software releases. I'd try pitching the thesis completion as a top priority to your advisor with the added offer to complete the software and publications afterwards. This should be easier to convince them to do rather than hiring someone else short term.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: Really you should hire this person to **teach you** *Mathematica* rather than code your algorithm for you.
You should code and *run* this algorithm yourself on whatever data (or input) you have using whatever platform you have. It shouldn't have to be *Mathematica*, why not *MATLAB* or even *C* or *C++*?
If you can write pseudocode, you can write real code.
Upvotes: 3
|
2017/03/12
| 6,606
| 26,545
|
<issue_start>username_0: I'm relatively new to teaching (I was just hired as a tenure-track English professor at a local community college and have been teaching for just about 2 years). I recently received an email from a male student (he is in his mid-50's), and he addressed me as follows:
>
> A great morning to you my dear lass,
>
>
>
Now, the email was complimentary. He thanked me for teaching a great course and said that he learned a lot in my class (all of these things are nice to hear). He has, at times, been difficult to teach (he questions academic conventions regarding basic essay structure, such as not beginning or ending a body paragraph with a quote), but he eventually concedes and makes the necessary adjustments (I am teaching a developmental writing course).
Usually.
I was just a little surprised by his choice of greeting. I am not overly familiar with my students, and I am not young (I am a divorced, 40-year-old woman). I like this student, and I am unsure of how to address this (or if I even should...) situation without causing offense. I feel certain he didn't mean to sound condescending and sexist, but... I also feel certain that if I was a 40-year-old male professor he would not have began his email with "A great morning to you my dear lad."
I would really appreciate any advice concerning how to address this issue. Additionally, I am teaching a combo course, and we just completed the first half, so he will continue to be my student for another 8 weeks.<issue_comment>username_1: I would simply reply:
>
> Dear Student, thank you for your email -- I really appreciated it -- but in the future please avoid addressing professors in an unprofessional way, like "lass" or "lad".
>
>
>
Upvotes: 7 <issue_comment>username_2: Contrary to the other answers, I do not think that an explicit sentence like «It's not appropriate to refer to you teacher as lass(...)» is a good first step.
I would recommend a more gradual course of action.
First, reply to his mail in a more formal way, but without stating that what he's done is something wrong. For example, in the greetings, and ending of the letter, if you're formal, it's usually enough. Let's see if he can take the hint. Remember that because he's 50, and depending on his background, and also on the previous rapport between you two, the world may seem very different to him. If this more subtle approach doesn't work after a couple of mails, then I would be more explicit, and firm, but always respectful.
My main advice is, never go in like bulldozer. You need tact, and sensibility.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: *A 14 year old's classmates formed little groups for making teachers day cards for an affable female teacher. Many of them wrote "we love you" in their handmade cards. This guy didn't get group mates to help him make cards, so he made his own card and in all his innocence, wrote the same sentence as "I love you". He didn't mean it the way lovers do. He was just rephrasing the sentence in singular. He respected his teacher as a teacher. It was only much later he realized what he wrote.*
Since we don't know the person who sent you that email, and what culture he comes from, the best I can judge and say from what you wrote, **is to not reply to the email yet**. Odd emails or letters are usually not honoured with a reply. Also, emails are very poor communicators of emotion, so it can sour relationships unnecessarily if interpreted wrongly.
Instead, the next time you meet the person, be pleasant, thank him for the compliment and casually ask (not in front of the other students) about his use of the word "lass", also gently mentioning your opinion on the use of the word and the decorum that you or your institution expects between teacher and student.
You also need to be informed about the word itself, so there are these and perhaps more if you search:
1. [Lass on Dictionary.com](http://www.dictionary.com/browse/lass)
2. [Lass as a word choice in ELL](https://ell.stackexchange.com/questions/46177/how-to-refer-to-a-young-woman-without-insulting-her).
**EDIT:** *I'm saddened by comments and downvotes targeting the fact that I gave a dictionary reference to an English professor. As responsible professionals (any profession), we always make it a point to refer the sources of information and keep these sources handy, instead of keeping our ego ahead of us. All I did was give the professor references which might help her understand other points of view compared to the original definition. It was in no way underestimating her capability or knowledge.*
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: Can you make it a teachable moment, since he does seem receptive to your teaching? Think about how you might graciously and constructively correct him if he wrote something like this in a paper for your course. Is there any social situation when that casual salutation from a 50+ man to a 40+ woman would be OK? A bar on St Patrick's Day? Someone who can write that salutation has promise as a writer. You don't want to squash that. Perhaps discuss the difference context makes - in an informal conversation (not return email). I don't think this is a big deal, but it's something you want to teach him not to do in the future, when it might be for him.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: Personally, I would address it in a friendly way, but one that makes it clear that you think it's a bit of an odd form of greeting. It doesn't sound like it was intended in an unfriendly or disrespectful way (and I definitely wouldn't characterise it as sexist), but it does sound inappropriately overfamiliar (it would be a bit like one of my students starting an email to me with "Dude! ...").
The easiest way to deal with it, to my mind, is just to send a fairly normal-sounding (but obviously more formal) email back, and mention it in passing in a friendly way at the end. For example:
>
> Dear ,
>
>
> Many thanks for your email - really glad to hear that you've been
> learning a lot from the course. It's been good to see the improvements
> in your essay structure since the start of the course - I'm hoping
> that you'll be able to solidify those improvements over the next 8
> weeks.
>
>
> Kind regards,
>
>
>
> p.s. Just a friendly piece of advice - whilst I'm not generally too
> fussy about people addressing me formally, I think I should probably
> steer you away from things like "my dear lass", not least because some
> people if addressed that way might take it the wrong way and get
> offended. I'm fine with people calling me by my first name (if the OP
> actually is), but I think that's stretching things too far.
>
>
>
Upvotes: 8 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_6: He sounds like a great and rewarding student teach. Probably he intended to say "Now that the course is over we can be friends" by that greeting. By being too familiar he is probably trying to break previous student-teacher wall and referring to you as a younger lady is probably just meant as a compliment.
Knowing that you taught him writing and you had disputes, this greeting might also be a reference to some dispute or a parody of something that was discussed in the course. Some people like dropping such references in a semifunny way and maybe you just didn't get it?
Now how should you respond? If you find him creepy after such a letter, respond "Thank you for the feedback. I appreciate your kind words." or something like that.
But, if you still like the student, you are still divorced and he is just a bit older than you, I'd say go for it :) I suggest you start your response with "Well thank you kind sir!"
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_7: The greeting looks inappropriate to me, but I'm not sure that pointing it out to the student is a good course of action. I often see weird email behavior from students, and I'm not sure it's my job to correct them, unless I really cannot tolerate it. Maybe the student lost a bet. Maybe he is inebriated. Maybe he thinks he is funny. I would probably simply answer with a formal "Dear X, thanks for your kind words, I'm happy to hear that you enjoyed my course, Best regards, Y", i.e., ignoring the weird greeting, and move on. If you are offended and would rather not reply in this way, one other valid option is to simply don't reply, and disregard the email.
Yes, inappropriate greetings may pose problems to the student at some later point in his life, but I don't think it's a teacher's job to educate students on proper manners, or anything not related to the class material (unless the student is really disruptive towards their fellow students or yourself).
By the way, one important question that I haven't seen addressed is **whether the student is a native speaker of English**. If he is not, then maybe that's a very valid reason to simply disregard inaccurate word usage. (Note: I am not a native speaker myself, so maybe I'm not appreciating correctly how inappropriate the greeting is.)
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_8: To contribute a personal example to what has been said already: I grew up in what could be called (somewhat impolitely) a very "backwater" area isolated from the decor and culture of professional etiquette within the context of a society that is not almost uniformly deeply conservative and (United States-style) Southern. Additionally, I have Asperger's Syndrome, which makes things hard when I have to adapt to new mannerisms and different (unspoken) local traditions.
Thus, when I moved north over a decade ago, I had a habit of calling persons of a gender not my own "hun" and "sweetie," in, I think, the same sense that some men from England use the term of "endearment," "love." Additionally, whenever I wished to tell someone I had a good professional relationship with "no" to something, especially if I knew them a long time, I had the bad habit of saying things akin to "doc, you know I love you to death, but I just can't see tryin' this acupuncture business ..."
Of course, my primary care practitioner (who I've known for years and who is aware of my background and Aspergers) is neither a family member, romantic partner, nor friend beyond the capacity of someone known in a professional context. She eventually had to break it to me directly that she "knew where I came from and how tough I can have it understanding these kinds of things, but we really have to keep our language professional here, because some people may not understand and misinterpret what you mean when you say things like that."
Your situation would of course be different depending on whether or not the person has social troubles, is "stuck in old ways" (not meant to demean those who are elderly), may perhaps be wishing to pursue a relationship beyond a professional one (whether aware of it or not), and so forth, but the kind but terse response above, for me in a similar context, set me straight without causing any confusion or offense in the least.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_9: Oh dear, this has hit the SE super collider. Since you're actually qualified to say if my spelling and grammar suck, my apologies in advance if any of this is written terribly.
In general, discrimination is in intent not in specific words. Since I live in the north part of England, I'm used to hearing strangers being addressed as "love", "hun" and occasionally "dear". The intent here isn't to condescend or be sexist, it's usually to open a conversation in a friendly way when you're about to ask them to do something and don't want to seem rude. Example:
>
> Excuse me love, could you move over a little, I can't quite get past.
>
>
>
In this particular case, let's run through the potential ways to greet you:
* Good morning teacher - No good, sounds like it's a form letter
* Good morning [first name] - Inappropriate for addressing a person of authority
* Good morning Ms [last name] - Better, but impersonal. Could be followed by "You're awesome" or "I hate you".
* Good morning ma'am - What is this the military?
Ok, but seriously, "A great morning to you my dear lass," is certainly overly familiar, but I think it's more intended to convey "get ready, I'm about to say awesome things about you, are you sitting down and suitably braced for how awesome I think you are". I'd personally say that "A great morning to you Ms " would have been the better way approach.
If this person were British rather than American I'd interpret "my dear" as "you're a person I think highly of and are important to me", and "lass" as "woman who I want to imply seems younger than her age might actually be". I'll be fair and say that it's harder to give a similar compliment to man, since the nearest version of lass to refer to a guy would be "strapping young man"... that's a harder one to pull off. Considering in particular that he's of the older generation, I'd tend toward this being a sincere expression of thankfulness.
So how to handle it. Tactfully, very very tactfully. Don't suggest he's being sexist or condescending, that will likely not go well. Focus on the need for professionalism, that's something that can be held as a reason for the change without negative implications. Maybe something like...
>
> Thank you for feedback, it's always good to hear students praise my teaching and let me know that the course helped them. [More specific responses to any points that need addressing in the original email].
>
>
> While I'm flattered to be considered youthful, it is important for us as teachers hold a professional and impartial image with our students. Not managing to do this results in grading and feedback being seen with an unfair bias. It would really help if you could refer to me as even in correspondence. Apologies if that comes across as cold, I don't mean it to be rude.
>
>
>
If it turns out to be a one time thing then that would seem sufficiently handled to me.
It is, to be honest, a sad thing that modern culture makes it considerably harder to honestly flatter someone without it being interpreted as sexist or an inappropriate advance. It's even more sad that enough people do make sexist and overly forward remarks such that we default to that being the intention we infer from them.
There should really be a version of Hanlon's Razor that reads "Don't attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by social ineptitude." Well at least not until you've checked if it was meant to be insulting.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_10: From [<http://www.dictionary.com/browse/lass>](http://www.dictionary.com/browse/lass)
>
> noun
>
> 1.
> a girl or young woman, especially one who is unmarried.
>
> 2.
> a female sweetheart:
>
> a young lad and his lass.
>
>
>
Although definition number two may be going over some lines, definition number one isn't too "out of line". He's calling you young. From his perspective, you are.
From his perspective, he grew up in an era where society taught [<NAME>'s "A diplomat is a man who always remembers a woman's birthday but never remembers her age."](https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/r/robertfros107290.html) His culture does not consider calling a woman "young" to be belittling, rather that is just considered being polite.
Personally, I very much appreciate the comment just for the usage of a word which has become rather rare. Kudos to him.
Now, if you found this to be too personal for your comfort, I would just tell him. You can say
>
> The greeting, specifically the word "lass", just didn't sit well with me.
>
>
>
If he recognizes current societal trends at all, he should take that as a cue to plan to back off a bit, being a bit more careful about word choice. (Whether he takes that cue or not might be a different story, but you can know that you've done what you ought to communicate this to him, without being overly harsh. You simply stated reality, and if there is any discomfort from such a statement, that discomfort of the statement derives directly from the discomfort of the reality, so that's fine.)
If you like, you can take it a step further: Since you are in a position of authority, you could even ask him to refer to you as "Prof. " (followed by your last name), or whatever other acceptable title you deem more right (Dr., Rev., Ms.), or his choice from whatever you list as acceptable. That can be a direct private instruction to just him, and you're fully entitled to treat the rest of the class different (as you deem comfortable).
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_11: I am sorry to add an answer to an already cluttered question, but I am worried that many of the answers are delivered by people that are outsiders to American academic culture and seem to have missed that the question concerns this.
American academic culture, while overtly low key in many ways, is most often very sensitive to people being addressed appropriately. It is also by now highly sensitized to the phenomenon of students not dealing with female faculty in parallel or equally respectful ways to male faculty. This is not the place to debate whether this is right or wrong (though I will reveal that I think it's right), but if you are not or have never been a graduate student or faculty member at an American institution, I think it is very likely that you do not properly appreciate how big a social error it is to treat female faculty in non-parallel ways and *especially* ways which could be construed as (i) overly familiar, (ii) belittling or (iii) sexual/romantic.
If you look at the dictionary definitions of "lass" (supplied in another answer), *both* of them are problematic by the above standards. Emphasizing the age or marital status of a female faculty member is overly familiar and/or belittling. Describing a female faculty member as a potential sweetheart would be seriously problematic: at many universities, this is in the ballpark of sexual harassment.
There is a good chance that the student chose the wrong words and does not mean anything ill, and I would also counsel the OP not to assume the worst. (Or rather, I would if I thought it necessary: as her comments make clear, it isn't.) However, let me be firm that the student has made a mistake that does require some correction, in part for the student's own good: similar behavior could be offensive to other faculty members, and more so to some, than it was to the OP.
I also feel the need to point out that some of the other answers are themselves not so respectful to the OP. More than one answer suggested that the OP book up on the denotations and connotations of "lass." But she is an English professor! Other answers suggest that she learn more about and/or be more understanding to the student's different cultural norms. But the student is an American man in his fifties and the OP is a 40-year-old woman teaching at an American university: I am pretty confident that she has met American men in their fifties, both in various English departments and in her real life. Why she has less expertise on this front than the posters here is far from clear to me. The word **mansplaining** comes to mind.
Bottom line: the student is not behaving properly, and the OP should certainly correct in some way. Doing so in a way that is understanding of the fact that the student is a probably-not-evil human being is, of course, wise, but she certainly doesn't need to take any lessons in male culture.
I myself would recommend responding promptly and crisply: just tell the student how faculty at American institutions like to be addressed: as Dr. X or Professor X. It could be two lines in your email reply. If there are any further issues, you can take them as they come, but in my experience students are generally very receptive to being educated about academic culture by faculty: they know very well how little they know, and (as usual?) faculty tend to assume that students know much more than they do.
**Added Later**: A lot of the discussion here seems to concern whether the student has essentially good intentions. So here is a remark that I sincerely (if naively?) hope will be helpful, possibly critical. **Whether the student has (in some sense, any sense or all senses) good intentions is not relevant -- not relevant either way, I mean**.
In my professional opinion as a tenured American academic with my fair share of administrative/supervisory experience and responsibilities: the OP's original characterization of the email as containing a "sexist greeting" is factually correct. By that I mean that the student used language that the culture of her institution would, if consulted, formally deem inappropriately disrespectful towards women. But here's a crucial clarification: in "sexist greeting," sexist is not a noun -- it's an adjective modifying greeting.
To take a step back for context, let me phrase it this way: the problem is not that the student is a jerk. In fact, this is doubly not the problem. On the one hand, the student could *very well* not be a jerk and still say or do inappropriate (by the standard of American university culture) things. Some words and actions are inappropriate *even if the person saying them has the best of intentions*. In my personal opinion, most of the time that students say or do inappropriate things, they do them out of ignorance or some other reason than ill intent of any kind. On the other hand: *from the university's perspective, a student who is a jerk is still entitled to full service, so long as he refrains from inappropriate words and actions*. I have taught (just) a few students who really are jerks -- dishonest, bigoted, or otherwise distressingly wrong-thinking. That makes things hard for me, *because I have to teach them anyway*, and indeed I have to be very careful not to allow my personal perceptions of their jerkiness influence my treatment of them in the course. If I witness a student making a sexist greeting and ding him for it in his course grade, he can appeal the grade, and neither "He is a sexist!" or "He wrote a sexist greeting!" will hold up as a defense.
So if (as I hope she does) the OP makes the student aware of the inappropriateness of his choice of words, she is not accusing him of being a sexist (of course there is no need for her to use the word "sexist" in any form when discussing this with the student; no one here has contemplated doing so, including her); rather she is identifying inappropriate behavior and informing him about appropriate behavior. (As I said in my answer above: I think that doing the latter is sufficient, as it implicitly accomplishes the former.) Is this one sexist greeting part of a larger pattern of inappropriate behavior, possibly one that could constitute harassment of the OP? Of course, I don't know, but given that the student and the instructor have already completed a whole course and seem to be largely satisfied with each other, I see no cause for alarm about that. And *certainly* the OP need not worry or hesitate about the appropriateness of responding to the student as suggested above: as a few people have already pointed out, she is literally getting paid to teach this student how to develop his writing. There is no way she can get in trouble for this.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_12: The more you engage with this student, the more encouraged he will be to engage with you -- so if you feel that the student is not respecting boundaries, your email response should be succinct and neutral in tone. The student is looking for attention. You can guide the student's behavior by selectively not rewarding it.
>
> I also feel certain that if I was a 40 year old male professor he would not have began his email with, "A great morning to you my dear lad."
>
>
>
Optionally, I suppose you could ask his other instructors whether they have received any emails that pushed the student-professor boundary. From your description, it sounds plausible that he very well might have used this very salutation with a 40yo male instructor.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_13: *Donning asbestos longjohns...*
There was another answer, mentioned on a question by an OP who was wondering about how to respond to a student who dressed provocatively (once a bikini), and one person answering said he had taught where there were very young women whose dress was a revealing version of "stylish" rather than appropriately professional. He talked with them and they changed their work attire, but "the damage had already been done." One veteran with PTSD leaned over her desk and called her four names like "Missy," and creeped her out. When challenged, he said, "That's how we address women in the South."
On the other hand, I spent some time in England, and part of the social rules (as mentioned by other notes) meant that practically everyone lower than me on the social scale addressed me as "my love," and it was inoffensive to the point of being barely noticeable unless I specifically paid attention. None of the other international students, female or male, ever mentioned discomfort at being called "my love"; the social impact is comparable to a U.S.-situated "How are you?" (And even in the U.S., when someone I don't know very well starts off by calling me "Hun," there may be warmth but I have never found such a person taking a pass at me.)
Between these two I would try to make the point that, at least face-to-face, **individual words don't creep people out; nonverbal communication that screams out "INAPPROPRIATE SITUATION" creeps people out.**
What this means for email is more ambiguous, because email does the unfortunate job of stripping out nonverbal communication (though over the years people have developed SHOUTING, *emphasized* and **strongly emphasized** text, emojicons, and so on, to partly compensate for what email drops.
Now it may be advisable to take your best shot at requesting to be called "Prof." or "Ms.", but I'll take a risky guess that if he had called you "Lass" face-to-face, there would have been zero nonverbal cues either of his having a crush on you or of taking a strong move to steer your working relationship. Now if I'm right, that doesn't mean that you're wrong to do your best at explaining to him your preferred ways of being addressed, but face-to-face you might not find it any more uncomfortable than I found supermarket employees being too personal because they kept calling me, "My love."
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: My advisor asked me to publish in an SCI-indexed journal with better impact factor (say more than 1). I found a journal with impact factor as 1.2. But the journal says that its present impact factor is based on 2015 journal citation report (JCR). It does not mention anything the year 2016. I couldn't find their name listed in 2016 report too. But I found a journal with impact factor .4 in 2016 report. My questions are
1. Is the Impact factor valid only for a year?
2. If I publish my work in a journal that says having an impact factor (in the year 2015), can I claim it when I publish in 2017?<issue_comment>username_1: Before answering the question directly as asked, I would like to add few personal comments:
1. This has been a growing culture for Ph.D. research in many developing countries including India to focus on *Impact Factor* of a journal before submitting the work.
2. However, although it makes sense to say about your publication by quantifying the quality of the journal based on so-called "SCI Impact Factor", it is not wise at all.
3. The Impact Factor is an evaluated value of a function that takes into account all publications till that year under that journal. So, Impact Factor alone is misleading to say that "I have published my work in Journal of X which has an impact factor of 5.095"
Now coming to your questions:
>
> Impact factor is valid only for a year
>
>
>
Yes. Unless the computation results in the same value for the following years.
>
> If I publish in a journal which says having an impact factor (2015), can I claim it when I publish in 2017?
>
>
>
No. Actually, you can not claim anything based on this impact factor. If I were to ask you about it, I would ask you this question: "*Did your paper contributed anything to the 2015 impact factor?*" If your answer is "NO". You can not claim it.
People may disagree with my answer. My answer is based on my personal understanding in the field of CS and Applied CS.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Some theoretical background regarding the impact factor:
The impact factor released in the summer of year X ist the impact factor X-1 which means, it takes into account all references of the papers published in year X-1 citing papers published in the years X-2 and X-3.
Currently, in spring 2017, the latest impact factor was released in summer 2016 and it's the impact factor 2015. It has analyzed all references of the papers published in year 2015 citing papers published in the years 2014 and 2013.
To make a long story short, the *current* impact factor of a journal says nothing about the *current* journal and especially nothing about one single article recently published in this journal.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: Since impact factors change from year to year, you typically report the impact factor during the year that the paper was published, when referencing your own article from that journal. Past impact factors often indicate what the future impact factor will be, but is not a guarantee. So, (if impact factor is important) you should base your decision on the last known impact factor.
Also remember (for the future - your advisor suggested a higher impact factor and I'm guessing he or she is a co-author?) that there are great journals without impact factors, but they are specialized to a specific segment of a field. So, publishing in such journals will increase the visibility of your paper with your target audience and may be a high quality journal, but the topic is very specific and the impact factor of the journal will most likely not increase.
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: I am going to give a presentation of my research soon at an undergraduate conference. I have read that it is best to begin a presentation with the ‘thesis’, i.e. a brief explanation of the topic of my research.
However, I’m rather stuck as to how to explain it simply. It seems like it won’t make sense until I’ve explained the concepts behind it a little. To be more specific, the topic is a formalisation I’ve done in a proof verification system. But the students attending won’t know what a proof verification system is. Is it better to begin by explaining what mechanical proof verification is before explaining the topic?
Time parameters: 20 minutes for the talk, and 5 extra for questions.<issue_comment>username_1: >
> I have read that it is best to begin a presentation with the 'thesis': i.e. a brief explanation of the topic of my research.
>
>
>
I would not consider this piece of advice generally applicable. For example, in my field many people are applying the field’s techniques to some application from another field. As most of the audience is not familiar with this application (at least beyond what is generally known), there is no point in telling it anything about your detailed approach, before making it familiar with the application. And this is what good talks do: They first introduce the application and then they explain how they approached some specific problem.
More generally, one fundamental rule for a good talk (and in fact, any communication) is:
>
> Do not talk about something that you do not expect your audience to understand.
>
>
>
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: As username_1 pointed out, you don't want to tell the audience things they don't understand. But sometimes that's the only audience you got and you have to make it work. Besides, this quote will keep bugging you if you give up:
>
> If you can't explain it to a six year old, you don't understand it
> yourself.
>
>
> ― <NAME>
>
>
>
I would start with a heuristic. Compare it to something they do understand, something simple that everyone knows. For instance, when they explain software engineering, they often compare it to constructions of houses.
Some visual examples help. Yesterday I had to explain "statistical significance" to a friend of mine who has no idea about statistics. I flipped a coin, got heads and said that his coin had a 100% chance of rolling heads. He replied "Bull\*\*\*\*!". I flipped it two more times and got heads and tails. I told him now it looked like it had a 67% chance of heads. He looked at me suspiciously. Then I said if I flipped it about 100 times, it would come to about 50% chance of heads, which is close to the truth. He got it after that presentation, even though I never even gave him a definition of "statistical significance". Inserting an easy-to-understand picture into the PowerPoint also does the trick.
Replace the technical lingo with common words whenever possible.
Also, trying to cover multiple difficult topics rarely works in any presentation. I usually pick the most important point and focus on it. If it is too broad, go a level higher. Zoom out and lose the details. Or pick a subtopic and dedicate your presentation to it. That's the trade-off you got to make.
But the most important thing is to do it. Practice, make mistakes, correct them, and improve. By the time someone wins a Nobel Prize, they are always able to explain their work to general public in a few minutes.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: I think the best advice would be to try to explain it to other people first, get feedback and then rework it. I'm not sure myself what that topic includes. I prefer having a map first thing and then letting the discussion fill in the left and right details but if I don't know what a map is I would assume I would need a lesson on maps. But that analogy may be completely useless for your topic.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_4: For a 20 minute presentation you must be concise. For organizational purposes, you can introduce yourself and thesis/focus, then simply state an outline for your presentation: "first I will explain x, then talk about y and follow up with z." Then the audience will expect the background and you don't spend a lot of time on it. Give them the bare minimum background they need.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_5: >
> I have read that it is best to begin a presentation with the ‘thesis’, i.e. a brief explanation of the topic of my research.
>
>
>
Let's generalize this. Start with some hook or hint of what's to come. Something to motivate them to listen to the background explanation you have to provide.
This approach is somewhat analogous to the lead paragraph in a news story.
Additional suggestion: I like talks that provide a brief outline of the talk, at the beginning, and then brief reminders of the outline when moving from one section to another. This could be especially appreciated by your audience if your talk structure is a bit out of the ordinary.
Upvotes: 0
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<issue_start>username_0: I have started writing my thesis, to be finished in the next coming months. Basically, I am revisiting my early papers and reviewing the problems that I solved three years ago to put in my paper. However, I come across some of new ideas, which I did not have before, because my knowledge was very limited. For instance, I recently solved a problem that I had struggled with for a few weeks, back in my first year. Is it wise to make an attempt to publish these ideas, while I am writing my thesis or I should just stop everything and focus on the thesis first?
The reason that I am thinking too much about it, is a particular alumni of our school, who was working on lots of different ideas while writing the thesis and ended up with rescheduling his thesis submission several times.
To be pragmatic, it is very unlikely that I get these results to appear in my thesis, as the whole process of experimenting, writing and peer-review process might take a while.<issue_comment>username_1: I would say based on my opinions and experience that no-one cares about the Thesis.
The Thesis is a set of publications that must be about the same topic. Your publications will be the ones cited, not the Thesis. The Thesis will be only found somewhere in the university archives, while the publications will the visible part of your work you are evaluated upon.
Thus I think that the Thesis should be pushed to the finish line.
EDIT: The form of Thesis may vary, so it is noteworthy that especially in arts and humanities, the Thesis may be a coherent piece of work. Then the Thesis can be evaluated as a whole.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: The situation you are describing is very usual. As one's knowledge and understanding of the field grows, it is only natural that you start getting new research ideas. Also, the research approach keeps getting more evolved and sharper, so it is perfectly plausible that you
>
> ... recently solved a problem that I had struggled with for a few weeks, back in my first year.
>
>
>
As far as this much part goes, all that you need to say to yourself is - congratulations, you have progressed significantly along the learning curve, from a complete greenhorn researcher to a more polished, groomed researcher.
However,
>
> Is it wise to make an attempt to publish these ideas?
>
>
>
I would advice against it, and would collect my arguments as follows:
* If you have got to the thesis stage, invariably there must be a preliminary stamp of approval already for the work from your department or the "student-research-committee". While marginally field-specific, this is generally in the form of an open departmental presentation, where all critique and suggestions are completely welcome. So, even in the present form, the work must be PhD-worthy.
* While it is great that you are getting good ideas, implementing those ideas would come at a time-cost. So you have to ask yourself, whether you can actually afford it?
(*Again, marginal field dependence here, in many places and fields, there are some stringent deadlines at play, e.g. you get only maximum N months between the preliminary-PhD presentation and the final thesis submission.*)
* There is no upper limit to perfection. After you have implemented the ideas you are getting *on date*, by the time you put it all together, there would be still more ideas, and the process can continue further too. Beyond a certain stage, the process will only drag on for longer and longer, it will frustrate you, and cause you to lose interest beyond a stage.
* Please remember that there is life after PhD too. When you wrap up your thesis, you can move on to more independent research/other research projects which may or may not be related to your PhD work. The longer you drag your thesis, the longer it will take you to get there.
* (*My main point*) All researchers are invariably familiar with something like a personal "Back-of-the-register-list". (More evolved form - something like a document entitled "Ideas" located somewhere in the research folder in the computer.) This is the holy place where all these subsequent ideas land up in some kind of list! Then, this list is revisited at various times in the future, and ideas are picked up, improved on and implemented. That's the way to go about it!
Please remember that PhD thesis submission requirement is merely a comma, not a full stop for research. Perhaps it is a full stop for guided research, but bracing oneself for the afterlife as an independent researcher, I would advise you to just get with the formal requirement of thesis, and there would be ample amount of excitement looking towards the horizon!
---
*All this comes with one caveat, as I later realized, reading the [comment by <NAME>](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/86405/how-to-manage-new-ideas-coming-at-late-stages-of-phd/86418#comment217615_86405) below the post: In case you have found some error somewhere in you earlier work, which is making up the thesis, revising everything and setting it right IS the right course of action. In that case, priorities reverse - you would want to fix this work before advancing further on, if not for anything more, also for preserving your research credentials*!
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: It depends:
* What are your career plans after your PhD? Could you possibly work on these problems during the next stage, maybe as a post-doc? In your field, is there a time limit on how long one can be a post-doc? Would working on these problems be a time drain in your next position or nice continuation of your line of research?
* What are the cons of delaying your PhD in your specific situation? Have you already accepted a position? When is your start date? Do you have to financially support dependents while you write your dissertation?
* Could your new ideas be easily scooped? If yes, publishing on these should take priority over getting your PhD 3-6 months earlier.
* Objectively, how novel are the new ideas? Would they possibly lead to a major publication? Or are we just talking about things you could have done slightly differently if you had your current level of expertise? Delaying your dissertation to pursue a major publication is easy to justify. Pursuing "perfection" in your dissertation just for the sake of it is futile.
* In your field/country/institution, is there any chance of your dissertation not being accepted? If yes, there might be merit in strengthening for dissertation with new research. In my area/country (biomedical research in the US), once you have published and are given the green light by your thesis committee, the dissertation is a mere formality, nobody even reads it!
* What does your thesis adviser think? He/She is likely more knowledgeable about the field than any of us here. Do you risk earning his/her ire if you do not take her advice? That would be a bad move early in one's career. This may come down to what your adviser recommends!
Upvotes: 3
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<issue_start>username_0: I used to use this website to get the research papers that are not freely available online. So, passing the right name of any research work for this Russian website will derive the paper directly to your browser in Pdf format.
I used this website for the last 2 years when I was doing my Masters in Jordan. Now, I am doing PhD in Germany, So is it known this website in this region ? is it legal to explore or download the results?<issue_comment>username_1: The paper of
[<NAME> - Die Nutzung einer "Schattenbibliothek" im Licht des Urheberrechts Einige Überlegungen am Beispiel von Sci-Hub](https://ub-deposit.fernuni-hagen.de/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/mir_derivate_00000936/Steinhauer_SciHub_Urheberrecht_2016.pdf)
says that downloading is probably illegal and viewing it in your browser is in some grey-area (although making this difference looks like some law-people did not understand the technicalities at all).
But there does not seem to be one court case where one was prosecuted for just downloading such material.
So if you still want to access the publications this way, then I suggest to use the following robust solution: Use the [Tor browser](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tor_(anonymity_network)#Tor_Browser) or even the [Tails operating system](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tails_(operating_system)). In the latter you could save material with questionable copy-right license status in an encrypted file-system, then in Germany the law is pretty robust (compared to the [USA](https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/02/justice-naps-man-jailed-16-months-for-refusing-to-reveal-passwords/) or [UK](https://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/11/24/ripa_jfl/)) around the "Aussageverweigerungsrecht", i.e. no authority can force you to decrypt it.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: According to publishers, it's technically illegal to use a service such as SciHub. As username_1 points out, viewing the content from SciHub is considered a "grey area" in Germany and in many other countries. While I might recommend its use in countries where it's economically unviable to do otherwise, that can't be said for the German system.
As an alternative to avoiding any of the legal issues associated with SciHub, have you considered using "interlibrary loan" services? Most university libraries, including those in Germany, participate in some sort of network that allows them to request articles that are not available as part of their "local" collection. It may take some time (a few business days, usually) before you get the article, but it is completely legal and a low-cost means of obtaining it compared to buying it directly from the publisher.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: Disclaimer: not a lawyer.
**It is probably illegal to use Sci-Hub in Germany**. By "probably" I mean that although it is possible to defend yourself in court, your defense would be based on technicalities such as the difference between downloading and streaming (more on the difference below), which is definitely shaky ground. If sued, you do not have a strong case. Several court rulings have also inclined against things that would make using Sci-Hub illegal, so if the court sets a precedent in the ruling it is likely to be against you.
* **Sci-Hub acquired the papers illegally**. This should be fairly obvious; if it isn't then see [this article on how Sci-Hub acquires its papers](http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/04/whos-downloading-pirated-papers-everyone). This matters because German law distinguishes between making a copy from a lawful source and making a copy from an unlawful source.
* **Streaming vs. downloading**. Streaming is looking at the material without also making a copy of it. This could, e.g., happen if you are watching a broadcast of a live event. Downloading is actually making a copy of it. In the case of Sci-Hub papers, these are PDF files, and you can't read them without also downloading (at least) a temporary file on your computer. Therefore using Sci-Hub falls under downloading, not streaming. Every time you access something using Sci-Hub, you are making a copy of the work.
Under German law, it's legal to make a copy of a work without the consent of the copyright holder if all of the following conditions are met ([section 53(1) and 53(4)](https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/englisch_urhg/englisch_urhg.html)):
1. The work (if it's a book or periodical) has been out of print for at least two years.
2. The source from which you got the book from is lawful.
3. Personal use only. No commercial use, either direct or indirect.
Point #2 is particularly important. The source from which you get the original copy has to be lawful. **Since Sci-Hub is not a lawful source, downloading from it is automatically illegal**.
**More technical details**: These aren't really relevant to question of using Sci-Hub, but answers a common objection.
German law has a separate section for works used in scientific research (section 60c of the above link). You are allowed to reproduce:
1. Up to 15% of a work for non-commercial purposes, to a limited circle of people. So for example if you're using it for your conference presentation, you're in the clear.
2. Up to 75% of a work for personal use.
3. You may use all individual figures or individual articles from a scientific journal.
The catch is that *this does not supersede the requirement that you get the work from a lawful source*. If you downloaded a paper from the publisher's website using your university's subscription, then you are allowed to make copies of it without the publisher's consent, but if you downloaded a paper from Sci-Hub, you're still in illegal territory.
**Precedent cases**: there have been two important rulings on this.
1. [ACI Adam](http://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document.jsf?text=&docid=150786&pageIndex=0&doclang=EN&mode=req&dir=&occ=first&part=1&cid=497243). This established that EU law for private copy exceptions (i.e. exceptions in which making a private copy is legal) takes precedence over national law. This means that German law can be more restrictive than EU law, but it cannot be more permissive; you cannot do something that is legal in Germany but not in the EU. EU law mandates that you provide fair recompense to the copyright holder even if you use the work for noncommercial personal use only (see [article 5(2)(b) of the Copyright Directive](https://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:32001L0029:EN:HTML)). If you acquired the original legally, this usually takes the form of taxes on the CDs, hard drives, etc.
2. [Filmspeler](http://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document.jsf?docid=190142&doclang=EN). This established that *streaming copyrighted material from an unlawful source without consent of the copyright holder is also illegal*. So even if you are able to view a paper using Sci-Hub without making a copy of it, you are still breaching the law. This was covered in the popular media, e.g. [here](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4452728/European-court-rules-fully-loaded-Kodi-boxes-illegal.html).
**Finally**: chances are very good that your Internet Service Provider, e.g. your university - has policies that prohibit you from doing illegal things using the service. In other words, *if you download the papers anyway, you are likely in breach of your institute's policies*. In addition to that, [your university could get in trouble](https://www.dw.com/en/warning-for-refugees-on-illegal-downloads/a-19120361) for providing you with internet access.
---
If there's a silver lining to all this, it's that you are unlikely to be caught. But you'd still be doing something illegal. Should you use Sci-Hub anyway? That is up to your personal moral code.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: Since April 2018 at the latest it is most likely legal
------------------------------------------------------
In 2018, the ["Act on Copyright and the Knowledge Society"](https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/englisch_urhg/englisch_urhg.html) (that's an English translation!) came into effect.
It says in Section 60c(3) that
>
> ... full use may be made of illustrations, isolated articles from the same professional or scientific journal, other small-scale works ...
>
>
>
Now, I am not a lawyer, nor do I live in Germany, but that seems pretty clear-cut to me.
Regardless, downloading and sharing academic material is important
------------------------------------------------------------------
While I would not presume to recommend anything in your case - with your being a non-citizen and non-local - I would make the claim that if enough German (or otherwise) students, junior researchers and faculty use it and legitimize it in their circles, then it would become de-facto legal, regardless of the letter of the law.
... In fact, considering past customs of German academics and students, and [@cashman's indication](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/87009/7319) that no one has ever been prosecuted on downloading SciHub content - perhaps this is what actually transpired in Germany.
In support of this argument, I would draw a parallel with the legality of homosexual sex: It was officially illegal in Germany since at least 1871 - but was of course practiced; and it wasn't until 1968/1969 that the criminal ban on homosexuality was lifted in the (split-up) Germany.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_5: Merely browsing the public web, including PDFs on the web, is generally legal in Germany, that's for sure. So it stands to reason, by set inclusion, that it is legal to *browse* Sci-Hub in Germany. Also, Sci-Hub obtains and is generally used to view individual articles that are contained within much larger published journals. Also, Sci-Hub is generally used for scientific research.
There are 5 examples of German theses that acknowledged Sci-Hub at <https://sci-hub.se/theses#de> and there have been no prosecutions for their or other Germans' use of the website. Furthermore, "there does not seem to be one court case where one was prosecuted for just downloading such material," as username_1 noted.
It is illegal to build and start some WMD using instructions you find using Sci-Hub. But it is not using Sci-Hub that makes it illegal. Likewise with many of the plethora of examples created by monopolists and intended to mislead readers into believing or even stating that all use of Sci-Hub is illegal, or "It is probably illegal to use Sci-Hub in Germany." Selling access to copyrighted content without permission of the monopolist is illegal (Filmspeler). Sci-Hub obtains articles from sources that the law considers to have obtained them legally: the for-profit journal publishers (and their ISPs). Sci-Hub, in contrast, does not use them for commercial purposes.
Disclaimer: not a lawyer.
It is probably legal to use Sci-Hub in Germany.
Upvotes: 0
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<issue_start>username_0: This question is motivated after reading a pop-science book from a famous researcher about physics and some implications. I find the content *very* amusing but I was utterly frustrated at the lack of *any* scientific value.
In particular, the book is about some *plausible* explanations about some observed *fact*. The author tells a story as follows:
*Event A \*could\* occur under some wild assumptions. If A occurs and a sequence of events B occur, then an event C has non-zero possibility to occur. So, A is potentially responsible for C.*
I.e., if something *could* happen, let's write a book about it (about A => C) without absolutely any supporting scientific evidence for A or B. It doesn't matter if C could occur for a gazillion other non-related and more plausible issues.
Such exposition reminds me the famous argument that a rocket launch *could* (in principle) alter the rotation of the earth and a change on its rotation *could* alter the climate. So, if we observe a change in the climate together with *any* change in the rotation, we should blame NASA.
I wonder why, otherwise prominent, scientists follow such populist and counter-scientific way of exposition. Could this qualify as *pseudo-science*?
My question related to academic standards and ethics, motivated by the above incident, is the following:
* Do the ends (of drawing more people into science) justify the means (doing so by an exaggerated non-scientific way)? This is not limited to a single pop-sci book.
* Can this be applied to standard university level pedagogy? Is it advisable to teach any scientific topic using a non-scientific way with the hope that more students find it appealing?
* Are there specific examples of such successful pedagogical method?
* Is this a contradiction?
*Note:* Initially, this post created some controversy, and subsequently was voted for closing, for being very opinion-made. I tried to adapt the text and the questions to reflect more objectified answers related to ways of teaching in academic environment. In other words *if it is OK to teach the public about scientific matters in a non-scientific way, could we do the same in class*? Do you have any particular examples, successful or not, in mind?<issue_comment>username_1: This is actually quite a grey area.
Please note that the very objective of a popular-science work is to popularize relatively-complicated scientific subject, into a simpler, more-palatable form which a non-technical or semi-technical audience can read and get drawn into. This is intended to (over some course of time) trickle down and bring more people into science. That's not a bad goal, to say the least.
Now the problem is in deciding to what extent you simplify the complex subject. Naturally, there has to be some simplification, otherwise the product may be too complex for the masses. But with too many approximations, the final product may not bear any resemblance to the actual scientific work at all. It is a difficult tightrope walk, erring on either side will be bad.
Different people will have different yardsticks for which side do they want to err on. More scientifically scrupulous gentlemen would prefer to err on the side of caution, so that even with the simplifications, no one reads badly about their scientific credentials. But there will always be a more extravagant variety, which will take the liberty of a popular-science theme to create an over-enthusiastic presentation of the subject that may dilute the science. Sometimes, people hold that against some of the more famed science-popularizers of our times.
However, provided one understands what someone is trying to accomplish with a popular science work, it is advisable not to take offense with these simplifications. Also please note that science-fiction and popular-science are actually quite distinct: the fiction part in the former is scientifically implausible (and that can be established). In more extravagant popular science, you are still dealing with a soft subject, which is scientifically honest in the sense that it is still a possibility, less probable as it may be!
Go easy on the poor popularizers :)
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: "What if..." Is the bread and butter of science and mathematics. Making outrageous guesses and then checking them is part of the toolkit for professional thinkers.
In your examples, you say that the author takes the stance that one event only *potentially* explains another, which seems fine from a scientific point of view.
As others have said, when you popularize you often intentionally leave out some subtlety. This is really a function of your intended audience. I leave out some subtlety when I teach intro calculus.
As to whether or not the author you reference does this badly or irresponsibly, I can't form an opinion without reading what they wrote.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: As others have already expressed, I think this is hard to answer decisively because you have a specific work in mind whose perceived flaws you are describing in very general terms. You write
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> Event A *could* occur under some assumptions. If A occurs and a sequence of events B occur, then an event C has non-zero possibility to occur. So, A is potentially responsible for C.
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> I.e., if something could happen, let's write a book about it without absolutely any supporting scientific evidence for A or B. It doesn't matter if C could occur for a gazillion other non-related and more plausible issues.
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I think that I have read both good and bad books that fit this general description. Whether it is good or bad depends upon the details: e.g. how interesting / novel / thought-provoking that A is potentially responsible for C even if it is not carefully argued for in any way? Or, how potentially irresponsible / risky could such an allegation be?
I can however answer some of your questions:
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> Does this [qualify] as pseudo-science as opposed to pop-science?
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A key hallmark of pseudo-science is that it claims to be science but does not follow the scientific method (at least not competently and in good faith). A popular book written by a scientist is probably not science at all -- it does not claim to follow the scientific method, be published or not based on its intellectual novelty and scientific rigor, and so forth. It is indeed not necessary to be scientific when one writes about science in a popular way.
I don't intend this as *carte blanche*: a scientist can certainly write a popular science book that is bad or even scientifically irresponsible. If the author takes advantage of the "lowering of the net" in order to promote something *as science* that in fact has not been subjected to scientific standards, then the work could have pseudo-scientific aspects.
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> Do the ends (of drawing more people into science) justify the means (doing so by an exaggerated non-scientific way)?
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Again, it depends very much on the work and how it is done. But it is difficult, sometimes impossible, to be widely appealing and completely rigorous, and some of the most successful popular science books (where success is measured by drawing readers into actual science) have not met the highest standards of scientific rigor.
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> Is this a contradiction?
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Again, no, because the popularization of science is not science.
Upvotes: 2
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2017/03/13
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<issue_start>username_0: I've read [a blog post](http://robertpaulwolff.blogspot.co.uk/2010/07/how-to-write-doctoral-dissertation-in.html) written by <NAME> saying that for a philosophy dissertation to be considered good, at least in American universities, it should be between 200 to 250 pages long.
We could respond, of course, that it is not necessarily the number of pages or word count that makes a thesis up to par. If this is so, can you please cite a dissertation wherein a student was able to defend his central claim in less than a hundred pages?<issue_comment>username_1: The University of Minnesota library system maintaining electronic dissertations library contained 2,536 records for Phd students.
The range was incredibly variable (minimum of 21 pages, maximum of 2002), but most dissertations were around 100 to 200 pages.
The average number of pages per topic is :
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/3hU0h.png)
Source: <https://beckmw.wordpress.com/2013/04/15/how-long-is-the-average-dissertation/>
In fact, it mostly depends on the research area, the university regulation and supervisor research 'style'.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_2: The answer is no, there is no such consensus.
Page number is a very poor indicator of a document's quality [unlike what some people seem to believe](http://pixel.nymag.com/imgs/daily/intelligencer/2017/03/07/07-sean-spicer.w710.h473.jpg).
Don't worry about what a blogger says, talk to your adviser about her or his expectations in terms of the depth and length of your thesis, and how your current version stands with them.
Your adviser should know the standards for your institution and has a shared interest in your thesis meeting them.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: The helpful chart supplied by @username_1 tells the story well: dissertations in the humanities are generally longer than those in the science and social sciences. The shortest humanities dissertations on the list are in English, at 220pp. History runs 295. In my experience, Philosophy is in between those two.
None of this says anything about intellectual quality, but it is a good indicator of expectations.
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: Some background: I’m a TA for a low-level course at a major university on the US east coast. This is my second time TAing this course: the first time, I did it under a professor who has taught this a ton of times and knows his way around very well. This time around, the instructor is a second-year grad student who’s teaching anything at all for the first time.
(I’m a second-year graduate student as well. I was actually offered this course to teach this semester, but I said no and so they dropped me in as a TA, which is fine. I have a great deal of sympathy for the current instructor since in another universe that would definitely have been me.)
I’m seeing a noticeable difference between the two. As a TA, I’m getting a lot of feedback from students that they don't understand what’s going on, that the instructor doesn’t relay concepts clearly, that they’re leaving the class more confused than before. The difference is also clear in the homeworks: we’re reusing the old homeworks with minor detail changes, but they’re struggling a lot more in even basic concepts compared to last year.
My responsibilities in this course are grading, homework fixing, and office hours. I don’t have to teach in this course at all, and I do help those who come in during office hours. Even from my relatively isolated position from the students, though, I’m still getting a ton of pushback regarding the instructor. Should I do more beyond the scope of my duties? If so, what?
Edit regarding those who advised me to tell the instructor: they definitely know about their performance reviews. They pointed out their RMP link to me, and while RMP isn’t the end-all be-all of academic measurement, the feedback there is unusually negative and corresponds with what I’ve been hearing from students. I don’t want to kick the instructor while they’re down, because they already know pretty definitively, and they’re a good person to work with. Just not a good teacher, I guess.<issue_comment>username_1: If it came to your attention that students have *major* issues with the professor, then I think it is better for everybody to talk with the prof. and let him know the problems the students are facing.
You should also ask the students to tell you concrete problems related to the course so that you can transfer concrete complains to the professor. You are not obliged to do so, but this is something that will benefit everyone, especially the students.
There is a good chance that the new prof. (who is a grad student) doesn't care at all (maybe s/he was even forced to teach the course against his will). But still, he should be aware about the major complaints the students have and then it will be up to her/him to fix the situation.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: I'd bet that the grad student teaching the course knows very well that his or her teaching competences are lacking, and that the students struggle to follow. After all, even if this person has little experience teaching, he or she has a lot of experience being a student, and is thus likely to recognize poor teaching, but unable to do something about it.
But alas, such is life sometimes. The grad student cannot suddenly, by magic, become a teacher with 20+ years of experience. Nor should they be expected to. The department, who already made the decision of putting an untried grad student in charge of a course, is also unlikely to suddenly allocate more resources.
It would be perfectly fine if you did nothing. Nothing is expected of you, you will not be paid for doing more than you are asked, and if you just do it, no one will thank you.
If you feel compelled to do something anyway, here's a suggestion. Go to the grad student and say that it is your impression that the students struggle way more with the material than last time you TAed the course, and ask if there is anything you can do. Prepare a couple of suggestions, stuff that you know could be improved by going over it a couple of times more in lectures. Don't pass any blame, but try to be as constructive as possible.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_3: You don't say who you are, but if the course instructor is a second year grad student and you're the TA, I'm guessing you're an undergraduate at the university. I will assume so, and thus that you are academically junior to the instructor. (By the way, the person who teaches the course is called the "instructor." The instructor need not be a "professor" and a grad student cannot be a "professor" at a major American university. Your fogginess about this also makes me think you're an undergrad, in which case it is both common and forgivable.)
The course instructor is the one who is primarily responsible for the course, not you as the TA. If you want to help more, you can help more, but I would advise you to think of it in that way rather than as pushing back against the instructor. Here are some things you can do:
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> 1) Encourage the students to talk to the instructor more, especially about their concerns in the course.
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You're holding office hours, but so should the instructor be as well. It sounds like the students are more comfortable coming to you than the instructor. Half of that is fine -- i.e., they can and should come to your office hours if that's part of your job and especially if you're doing it well -- but they should also be going to the instructor. It's not just for them to get extra help from him: by seeing the students in person and listening to their questions, the instructor gets key feedback about how the course is going.
If, as I'm assuming, you and the students are all undergraduates, they are much more likely to want to talk to a fellow undergraduate, and they may even be much more direct in conveying their concerns to you. Every time a student expresses a concern (or makes a complaint), I would be clear with them that it is up to them to register this concern with the instructor, ideally during the course but certainly during the course evaluations. (If the instructor is really unresponsive they could go higher, but if they want help with that they should get it from someone higher up in the food chain, not a fellow undergraduate.) The TA is not an ombudsperson.
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> 2) If your office hours are going well, you can promote them to the students.
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Do your best to make sure that every student knows about your office hours and that many of the students find them helpful. And then of course really try to be helpful during your office hours. If you want to do a bit more, here is the most natural opportunity to do so: you could try preparing small amounts of course material and presenting them to students in your office hours. If a student cannot make your office hours, you could (if you want) make a point to meet with them outside of the regularly scheduled office hours. And so forth. But understand that if you go over and beyond the call of TA duties, your rewards will probably consist of student gratitude and an internal sense of accomplishment. You are probably not going to get paid more or formally recognized.
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> 3) You can try to talk to the instructor about the course, but this is a rather advanced technique, and should be done only if you are confident it can be done non-adversarially.
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As I mentioned above, it is not your place to criticize the instructor. However, if you gain information about the students and how they are learning, you can bring that to the instructor. So e.g. if students did very badly on part of a problem set, the instructor will probably appreciate your pointing it out. If you think you know why they did badly, you may want to take a shot at explaining why, but think in advance of a way to explain it that comes out in terms of the opportunity for things to be going better for the students, not in terms of telling the instructor what s/he did wrong.
Finally:
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> 4) Understand that it's probably okay if the course is not being taught as well as it could be. However, if it is being taught *truly inadequately* -- e.g., if you have good reason to believe there will be many student complaints by the end of the semester -- then I suggest you convey this opinion to a friendly faculty member, e.g. your academic advisor.
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Some courses go better than others, and some teachers are better than others -- sometimes *much* better. It is not always the case that the veteran professor is a better teacher than the first time grad student instructor, but the *good* veteran professor is going to be so much better than the *not good* first time grad student instructor that it's going to seem painful for you to compare the two courses. But keep in mind that the students are not comparing those two courses; they're just getting the one. (And there are a lot of other degrees of good and bad in courses that you don't know about.) Maybe the department is pushing grad students into teaching courses too early. (But maybe not: in fact, as a second year grad student at a major university on the east coast, I was the instructor of record for a course. I did a good job -- as the evaluations lay, about as good a job as I ever did in the 8-10 more times I've taught the course since then.) Maybe they are letting first time instructors hang in the wind too much. Maybe this particular student is a particularly bad teacher, or maybe he is a generally unhappy grad student and punching time in his last semester in the program. There are so many maybes, and most or all of them are well above your pay grade. There are faculty in the department whose problem this is. If the teaching seems *really really bad*, then you might try to figure out how to convey that message to the relevant faculty members, and I think you will have more than done your part by conveying your concerns to *any* faculty member in the department.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_4: username_3 above offers a lot of good advice, though I would cation about talking to other faculty members first, since if this gets back to the instructor it may be extremely awkward if s/he doesn't take that well.
I would encourage the students to talk to the instructor as a group. This avoids one student taking the fall and highlights that the problem is with instruction and not a single student. Then you can offer suggestions about what you observed as working the previous semester or (even better!) encourage the instructor to meet with the previous instructor you TA'd for to get advice.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: There's a lot of variability in a TA's job from one semester to another. Variables include amount of a bunch of things, such as drudgery, time put in, negotiation with instructor and/or administrators, initiative, background study, interfacing with students, etc. But it generally all evens out in the wash, over the years. Except that if you find that one semester's assignment is regularly taking more than the assumed number of hours per week (for me this was 20), you should bring it up with your supervisor (if it's not clear who this is, ask a knowledgeable secretary, or some department administrator). If it ever comes to this, it can be helpful to keep a log showing hours put in. (It doesn't need to be super detailed.)
For the rest of my answer I'll assume that's not the case here, but rather that you're concerned for the students. If you are seriously concerned for them, bring your concerns, with specific examples, to a department administrator.
Now for some ways you might consider providing more support as a TA (note I said *consider*; and please check specifics with the instructor and the department first -- there is no need to go into a big rigmarole about why you propose specific actions, just ask if it's okay if you do such-and-so):
1. Give the instructor a brief feedback report after each problem set, to let him or her know which problems, if any, are giving difficulty, and what's tripping students up. You might want to xerox or scan a representative homework to include as an illustration.
2. Post solutions to the homework sets (choosing the posting date with care).
3. Prepare worked examples that will enable the students to do the homework assignments. Possible formats: handouts, post on your door, post on the web, record audio or video tutorials, distribute via email.
4. Distribute your notes from the class as taught by the previous instructor (this would require approval from that person as well, of course).
5. Select an affordable textbook, or a web resource, to recommend to students for supplemental reading.
6. Attend lectures. This can help you detect the gaps, so you can fill them in, and also help you tune into the instructor's wavelength so you can complement each other's efforts. Also, sometimes it is helpful to model for the students how to ask a constructive question in class.
7. Reserve a classroom if you reach standing room only attendance levels at your office hours.
8. Schedule a weekly problem-working session.
9. Assist students in setting up study groups (I'd suggest a maximum of five students per group).
10. Offer students the opportunity to send you questions via email, with instructions to use a particular subject line (so you can sort them out automatically); check for questions at specific times of day. This is how online teaching works and it can be very effective.
11. Make sure you understand the material well enough to demonstrate how to do the homework and to be able to answer the most common questions. Seek assistance from the instructor, some other professor, or a more experienced student, as needed.
Project a calm, supportive attitude to the instructor. If you decide to do anything extra, think of it as an investment in your karma. Be the kind of supportive TA you'll want to have when you are in the hot seat a few years from now.
*Note: One semester, I had to do some of these things, and should have done more of them. It wasn't because the instructor didn't know what he was doing. He was very experienced and well organized, but his course was HARD*.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_6: Sometimes you just have to be the change you want to see in the world.
I had a similar situation in grad school.
It certainly doesn't have to be a grad student in over their head. It can be an overconfident new professor, a doctorate angry over being denied a professorship, a retiring tenured who has lost interest, or just a professor too busy with other work.
The others are not wrong at all when they say that you don't have to do more, maybe even that it all "evens out".
But you *can* do more.
And in the end, it's your prerogative. As a graduate assistant, you definitely cannot fairly be expected to do more (indeed some unrealistic folks can send blame your way, but you cannot generally be driven about by fear of unreasonable potentialities).
It's unfortunately a common way in academia within science. We idealize it as this army of passionate professors teaching. But it's actually often people whose love is research being required to teach despite a great lack of interest/skill in education. Or a young professor forced to teach yet another course because the tenured folks don't want to.
And it's unfair on the student. Especially if it's an important major course. The fault may well ultimately belong to the university for not having enough faculty in (though that can take time). But the fault is unfortunately irrelevant to the students end result. They're not going to get what they need.
You shouldn't have to... and you don't have to!
Indeed, you likely won't benefit greatly from it, and it could make life a struggle.
But you're likely to be in a unique position to help. If you don't do it, no one likely does. So if you think you can see and solve problems, don't be scared to step up.
In my own circumstance, the teacher was passionate, just scattered and non-conventional. My co-TA and I were first year grad students who weren't connected to the professor but had a friendly working relationship with him (he was a longtime special topics teacher and staff member, but did not hold a PhD to my knowledge). During the lectures, we saw topics that we were passionate about, that are fundamental, and honestly some of the most interesting in meteorology, being mostly passed over. We'd had great professors in our own undergraduate work (at other universities), and we thought it was important that more be taught on the subjects.
So during the regular meetings with the teacher, we casually noted a few details we'd like to see highlighted, and offered upfront to teach a couple days of the course if wished. He happily welcomed it, and the students benefited.
Because of the wider struggles students were having with some of the other imperfections, we also added extra office hours, tried to grade the homework with plenty of detail, and did a final review pizza session. You're a recent student. You know what can help benefit and you can often have a friendly rapport with them. Use that to your advantage.
And because of your situation, you're also a comrade with the person who is teaching the course. I wouldn't stress as much about decorum or hurt feelings, like I might with a real professor. This grad student may well have gotten this class pushed upon him... or didn't recognize how challenging teaching would be... or hadn't yet learned to say no.
Sit down with him and talk it out. Since you say he knows the reviews are bad, offer to help. If you wish, offer to help him lay out his course structure/notes better, or even offer to teach some if you're available. You can also offer him the true reflection of the course he often won't get otherwise (often students, especially newer ones, are fearful/reverent of a teacher, and uncertain what this is supposed to work like. And so they won't approach the teacher). You can be the reality source he/she really needs.
You can only do so much. You won't change the world. But often in these type of scenarios, there's a not lot others can/will do. If you're passionate about the material, to see it taught better, to see people get the quality you yourself received, then feel free to step up. It's a tough choice, one that indeed could stunt your progress elsewhere, be it towards your thesis(?) or in your personal life. And it's far too often thankless. But in the end, if you know the reasons you're passionate to see, you'll know what you did, and that you did what was caring and gave your best, and that's what will truly matter. Once in a while someone needs to be the one to step up for others.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_7: My advice to the instructor would be to reach out and ask for help from the experienced professors.
As a second year grad student I taught a summer course when no other instructor was available. I know that I did not do as good of a job as one of the experienced instructors did, but I felt that my performance was decent. I got mixed reviews from the students.
I was able to do as well as I did because the department provided me with a ton of support. They had experienced instructors give me feedback on the tests before I gave the tests. I used a previous instructors powerpoints and notes. I audited the course that spring to make sure that I knew the material. The spring instructor mentored me in how to teach. I taught the course the way it was taught in the spring with minimal changes.
None of those things were my idea. The department basically told me to do things, and I willingly did them. I am guessing that your instructor of record hasn't gotten the same help and support that I did.
Sit down and talk with the instructor about who can help him improve. Avoid the temptation to give advice. You don't know any better than they do. They need to go to people who know.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_8: Your job is firstly to help the students, and secondly to help the instructor. It is not your job to make sure the course is well taught. With this set of boundaries, you should wait for the instructor to ask you for help. And when they do ask for help, help as much as is possible at your pay rate.
Considering this, the biggest focus should be making sure that the students are taken care of. The best way to do this is to empower them to have a stake in their own learning.
I, as a TA who has seen variability in how instructors run a course, I have had to give advice to undergrads about how to cope with such a situation. The advice is as follows:
Specifically, there is a big difference between High School and Universities. In a University, it is traditionally the student's responsibility to learn the material, and the instructor's job is primarily to guide learning. With this attitude, it does not matter if the instructor has a very thick accent, or if the instructor gives horrible lectures.
In situations like this, a student should read and attempt to learn the course material prior to class, and arrive at class with questions that require clarification. The usual method of just taking notes and cramming before the exam is very ineffective for poorly prepared instructors.
When I have suggested this to students, who probably never considered why instruction in HS different from in a University, I always see the students eyes light up. I suspect that this is because the notion that they are in charge of what they learn, and they can choose their future is an empowering thought. I had one student send me an email several semesters later thanking me for this advice.
However, once I had a student who was only interested in getting the degree, and had zero interest in learning. I assume he copied all the homeworks, and did "what it took" to pass the exams. He very much disliked the idea of independent learning. I tend to let students who think this way complain; they have an issue I cannot address.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_9: Complaints of any kind don't help much, almost everyone goes through hiccups in the first time they teach something. Teaching is a skill that often improves with time. As a TA, at the cost of your additional time, you may supplement the teaching: (a) conduct recitations just like what MIT and Harvard TAs do, (b) although scribe notes are usually prepared by students, you may volunteer to prepare them from previous semester notes, assuming of course, you took that class some point in the past.
Upvotes: 2
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2017/03/14
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<issue_start>username_0: I was reading a note of <NAME> on inequality which is written for International Math Olympiad (IMO) participants. Although he writes that “target readers are challenging high schools students and undergraduate students“, it appears to be quite advanced.
It occurred to me to ask, do these IMO problems contribute towards research work in math? Do these math notes/books give good overview for research work?
I am not interested in examples of Fields Medal winners who had previously participated in the IMO.<issue_comment>username_1: I think that there is only a weak correlation between capable researchers and Math Olympiad champions. In fact, some of those "math savant" types make poor researchers since they cannot frame their mathematics in formal and well constructed ways. At my university, we had a few students score in the 40s and 50s on the Putnam exam. I think two of these six or so students went on to a graduate degree in math. And it took one of them three years after graduating to finally get around to doing so.
Also, the problems on exams like the Putnam exam and the Math Olympiad exams are already established mathematics. It would, in my experience, require large leaps to produce publishable research from such questions.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: I think of Olympiad problems more as "parlour tricks". They're really difficult, and it's super-impressive if someone's good at them, but the skills are very different to the skills you need in research. As a big example of a difference: the Olympiad rewards quick accurate leaps of reasoning, because you're under such time pressure. Research rewards long-term grit and persistence through blind alleys and repeated failure.
Upvotes: 7 <issue_comment>username_3: There are very different areas of mathematics, some are more theory-oriented, some are more problem-oriented. Theory-oriented areas (like e.g. algebraic geometry) are built from bottom to top, while problem-oriented areas (like combinatorics, discrete optimization) offer you a bunch of methods that are suitable for solving problems and you need to cleverly combine them. The spirit of the latter areas is much nearer to the "Maths olympiad feeling" while the former areas require different skills.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_4: I'll go against the other answers and say experience with math Olympiads helps a student to become a better researcher, although in a limited way. Math Olympiads give you a larger "bag of tricks", with which you can solve faster the easy-medium problems that you may encounter during your research.
Moreover, you arrive at university with a larger math background and understanding, struggle less with the material and are probably more likely to retain what you see in the lectures. For instance, separating the nontrivial ideas from the tedious details is much easier when you already have a lot of experience in solving problems and writing proofs.
And in maths, everything you know can suddenly become useful in another field. It's useful to have already seen something. As a numerical analyst, I have on occasion used ideas from other fields in my research: combinatorics, algebra, inequalities...
That said, Olympiads tend to produce "problem solvers" rather than "theory builders", and some students burn out after doing maths for so many years (but it's a very small minority) or lose focus in the lectures at the undergraduate level because they find them not challenging.
Disclaimer1: I have been an IMO contestant twice, and now I am heavily involved in the organization of the Italian Math Olympiad.
Disclaimer2: all of this is anecdotal (but so are all the other answers I have read up to now). I don't know if there is any rigorous statistical investigation on that.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_5: Disclaimer:
I participated in the International Math Olympiad,
and have a PhD in operations research,
which is essentially a type of applied math.
There is some overlap between math olympiads and research math.
However, as others have noted, mathematics is a very broad field,
which includes subfields such as:
algebraic topology, theoretical computer science, combinatorics,
control theory, optimization, statistics/machine learning.
The amount of overlap with math olympiads depends very much on
what subfield of "research math" you are referring to.
Math olympiads have more overlap with say combinatorics,
and less with say control theory.
In training for math olympiads,
I learned how to try special cases
to get intuition about how a problem works,
and how to simplify a problem step by step,
and how to write a logical and complete proof.
I also learned how to persevere,
and to enjoy the challenge of tackling problems which are difficult,
and also when to give up when sometimes I am just stuck.
I think that these are skills that also are required in research math.
Therefore,
I think that there is positive but imperfect correlation
between performance at math olympiads
and performance in research math.
If you don't do very well at the IMO,
you can still be a successful pure math professor;
and if you get a perfect score at the IMO,
that does not mean you are guaranteed
to have a successful research math career.
Finally, the math olympiad is an artificial competition,
in that the problems in the olympiad
can all be solved in a fairly short time
with a relatively small set of tricks.
On the other hand, in the real world,
research math is much more open ended,
you need to find and define your own research problems,
and oftentimes the problems cannot be solved!
I would use the analogy that
olympiad math is like an RPG such as
[The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Legend_of_Zelda:_Breath_of_the_Wild),
whereas research math is like real life,
extremely messy and open ended.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_6: There is some IMO-problem which was influencing research-math:
<https://terrytao.wordpress.com/2009/07/20/imo-2009-q6-as-a-mini-polymath-project/>
In short it is used for testing
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_7: Math competitions serve more as platforms for students to join the mathematical community than as actual tools for research.
Many of my mathematically inclined friends and I would probably not have developed an interest in math until college (or not at all, if some other subject got to us first). The impetus to compete in middle and high school led us to develop curiosity in the field, eventually leading us to pursue more advanced mathematics and enter the research world.
However, to directly answer your question, math competitions themselves are not directly used for research purposes.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_8: >
> do these IMO problems contribute towards research work in math?
>
>
>
No, not the problems themselves. IMO problems must be unambiguously *solvable* in a few hours. They are not research questions. However, you can easily make an argument that the IMO *process* helps mathematical research by encouraging young talent (see some of the other answers).
>
> Do these math notes/books give good overview for research work?
>
>
>
No, if you mean an overview of *current* research. Research is heavily sub-specialized. IMO must be accessible to not yet super-specialized high school students. However, in a very general sense, IMO questions and research both involve a fair bit of writing proofs; perhaps IMO can be considered an *"overview"* for research in that sense.
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: I am not sure if this question is too specific. Please feel free to mark it as such if it is.
I have come across a PhD advertisement that says "upload a curriculum vitae including a brief description of your research interests".
Does 'brief description of your research interests' means SOP? I can see that research interests and research experiences are different. Is 'brief description of your research interests' different from SOP?<issue_comment>username_1: The intent of both types of response is similar enough to be identical, but there's perhaps a more important distinction here: this is part of a job application. The audience for this application is interested in what you have already researched, why you studied it, what you plan to research next (ideally as your PhD research), and how your past experience will aid your research plans. It's an opportunity to connect some of the material already listed on your CV, especially as CV's generally don't include much detail about the future.
This previous question (["Unclear terms: Statement of Purpose, Academic Statement and Personal Statement"](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34775/unclear-terms-statement-of-purpose-academic-statement-and-personal-statement?rq=1)) touches on similar issues though it appears that the poster never received an answer they liked.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: In my field (social sciences/economics) this would mean you need to include a section on your CV with some subject area keywords ("applied microeconomics, education, development" or similar). Typically this would be one of the first sections. In the case of a faculty search, this allows the search committee to see if you fit the department needs. In the case of a PhD applicant, it might match you with potential advisors.
If you are not sure if this is the case in your field, you might try looking at CVs from people at your prospective rank in the department.
Upvotes: 0
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<issue_start>username_0: The educational system in which I have studied focuses on **teaching the theory/abstract theoretical courses before the applications**.
For example, I spent the first 1-2 years of a 5-year engineering program only studying Mathematics, Physics and other basic courses before even getting any hint what the applied problems we will eventually try to solve are. In terms of tools, I first learned and programmed the individual methods and then I used "real-life" software for the first time.
**Now, having seen applications**, I look back to my basic courses and I think **"that abstract topic was actually much simpler than I originally thought!"**.
It feels like I was just stupid to not be able to fully understand or get interested enough into the abstract topics.
I would feel much better if my university has made me **first work on some easy applications, trying to understand the context, the difficulties and the possibilities, then dive into theory** and then have the advanced applications that require advanced theory. A kind of "iterative model". I understand that this would probably take more time.
However, I see that university education keeps being like this in the universities I have studied into (Greece and Germany). Strong theory first, applications later. Traditional, "sequential" model.
**Does my "iterative model" observation, as a student, make sense from a teaching perspective?** What is the current situation and trend in more "progressive" educational systems? If it is not already applied, why not?<issue_comment>username_1: I highly recommend to teach **practice first**.
You can derive understanding for the theory easier from the practice instead of doin it the other way round.
**I give you an example from my bachelor programme:**
We had a course about data modelling and one lecture was about relational algebra. It was downright confusing for the majority of the class although we had courses in formal models before. The next lecture was about SQL and after that lecture and inlcuding SQL homework the topic of relational algebra was much clearer to the course participants. Hence it would have been wiser to put SQL first and relational algebra afterwards.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_2: It isn't really a question of either or in terms of theory and practice. Instead, what is needed is theory and practice happening simultaneously in the classroom. The students learn a concept and then they used it immediately in some sort of authentic assessment. To have to what 1-2 years to use any sort of new knowledge is difficult for the average young adult learner and nearly impossible for a mature adult learner. Knowledge retention is most effect through teaching it to others and followed next by the application of it.
Within education, there is a big emphasis on learning by doing or being an active learning. This can take many forms such as the use of projects, problem-solving, presentations, etc. The point is that the students need to learn through actually doing or producing something through some sort of authentic real-world application. The real-world application creates the relevancy that most students need in order to process whatever it is that they are learning. This is particularly true for inexperienced students who have zero practical knowledge.
A major exception to this is the experienced student who returns to gain theoretical insights into their career. For example, if a teacher returns to school for a master's in education, they often experiences many "aha" moments when they see a connection between a theoretically concept and something that happened when they were teaching. Since these people already possess practical knowledge they are even better able to appreciate theoretical knowledge and create a bridge between the two.
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: Are Ph.D. dissertations always required to include new discoveries? I was wondering if a dissertation could, instead, consist of a reorganization or reformulation of known material. Inventing new things is not my strength. But I think I'm pretty good at organizing information and making it clear and easy to understand. In some cases, I think that this activity might even be more valuable than discovering new things, and I find it to be just as satisfying. I can see that it might lead to a nice book, but I don't know if it could ever get me a doctorate degree. The field is mathematics, if that matters.<issue_comment>username_1: Generally: yes, you have got to do something "new" in mathematics.
It is open to debate what constitutes "new", however. It doesn't need to be the proof of the Riemann hypothesis.
Keep in mind that new discoveries and inventions don't appear out of nothing, but usually build upon existing work. That might mean that the basic ideas are already floating in the air at the beginning of the PhD. You just fill in the details of the possibilities that other people have conjectured.
Summarizing and organizing, however, can be a valuable contribution to your research. You will typically find holes in the theory as you organize it, and so you can fill those in. If you find among those data a good abstract principle that has been overlooked previously, all the better.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: >
> Are Ph.D. dissertations always required to include new discoveries?
>
>
>
What distinguishes a PhD from all other academic degrees is the requirement of a novel, sufficiently substantial intellectual contribution. In practice, what "novel" and "sufficiently substantial" mean are handled on a case-by-case basis.
The word "discovery" does not appear in the above description and would not be appropriate in certain academic fields, but in mathematics a PhD thesis is required to contain new theorems or new proofs. It is often contrasted (e.g. in various programmatic descriptions and graduate handbooks) with a master's thesis, which may contain *only* novelties of exposition.
So if you go around mathematics departments asking "Can I write a PhD thesis in which the novelties are all expository?" I would expect the answer to be a quite consistent **no**.
However:
1) "Inventing new things is not my strength." I too was once extremely daunted by the prospect of inventing/discovering significant new mathematics...so much so that I spent five years as a PhD student learning how to do it. (I got it now.) My point being: if you are otherwise talented and interested in mathematics, there is no good reason to think that you will not become good at this.
2) If you are otherwise talented and interested in mathematics, you will very likely become *good enough* at discovering new mathematics to write and defend a PhD thesis. The requirements of a PhD thesis are partly aspirational: in reality, we settle for a bit less much of the time. I have seen some PhD theses where I was confident that there was nothing really new in them. To be a bit specific, I know a thesis in which a student attained the main result through five pages of calculation, whereas a more conceptual framework would yield it in about a paragraph. The result was of the form "For all n, there is a [mathematical object of type X] for which the [parameter value associated to any mathematical object of type X] is n." It had not been stated before in the literature, but when I searched further I found that the theorem could have been proven simply by citing extant examples in the literature. And by the way, this was not the worst PhD thesis I've seen -- on the contrary, the theorem was natural and interesting, and I rather liked it. It resulted in a paper published in a reputable journal.
3) You write
>
> In some cases, I think that this activity might even be more valuable than discovering new things,
>
>
>
Yes, I agree most heartily. I suspect that the number of theorems proved in 2016 lies in the interval [10^5,10^6]. Without smart people taking time to reorganize, simplify and expose these results, we're all going to get carried away in the flood.
>
> and I find it be just as satisfying.
>
>
>
I do a lot of expository work, and I find it more satisfying in some ways and less satisfying in others than discovery-oriented research. It is an unfortunate professional reality that its perceived value by the overall mathematical community is lower.
However, really good exposition is rare enough so that people who are good enough at it can make academic careers out of it. <NAME> is a legendary figure for his lifetime of mathematical exposition. <NAME>, a mathematician of my generation (and a friendly colleague of mine) is well on his way to the same achievement. Both of these people can do discovery-oriented research and have the papers to show for it. However it seems to be the case that they are *more* interested in exposition and have spent more of their time on that. To become the Spivak or Conrad of your generation would be a worthy goal.
4) There are doctoral degrees that are not so heavily focused on discovery-oriented research. In comparison to the PhD they are much fewer and they are not very widely known, but they exist. Let me quote from my UGA colleague [<NAME>'s website:](http://faculty.franklin.uga.edu/mklipper/)
>
> Before being hired by UGA, I received a Doctorate of Arts (D.A.) degree from Carnegie Mellon University in 2011. Instead of doing research, I wrote a textbook draft for an analysis course.
>
>
>
I know nothing about this degree program other than what I just said, but I know Dr. Klipper and the value he brings to my department. Based on that alone I recommend that you give it serious consideration and search for similar programs if you feel that this is where your interests lie.
Good luck.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: The thesis is supposed to be *publishable* ... So if there are, in your field, published papers that do not include new discoveries, then (theoretically) there could also be Ph.D. theses that do not include new discoveries.
But in general what is acceptable for a thesis is something you decide with your advisor, not with us here.
Upvotes: 1
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<issue_start>username_0: I am currently working as a graduate teaching assistant for a semester-long introductory physics course, aimed primarily at Biology/Pre-Med undergrads. The students usually have a short quiz every two weeks in a discussion section, along with two prelims (mid-terms) and one final exam. The TAs make the grading schemes for their own quizzes as each discussion section has a different quiz.
One thing that I find very strange with the grading (quiz or prelim) is that the grading scheme is made *after* seeing the answer sheets submitted by the students, not before. The intention behind doing so (at least for the quizzes) is to assign less points to the harder questions and more to the easier ones so that the average is roughly 7.5/10 (this is a soft rule).
Similarly, on the prelim, the points for individual sub-questions were decided after conducting the exam and seeing a few answer sheets (points for each question were fixed beforehand).
1. Is this a standard practice for introductory physics courses in the US?
2. What are the benefits of this practice over deciding a grading scheme beforehand?
From [an answer describing a good grading system](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/30610/31940):
>
> At minimum, a good grading system should meet three criteria:
>
>
> 1. it should accurately reflect differences in student performance
> 2. it should be clear to students so they can chart their own progress
> 3. it should be fair
>
>
>
On the first two counts, making the grading scheme afterwards seems to be a bad choice:
1. Accurately reflecting differences in student performance → making the grading scheme later may bias the grader towards assigning higher points for conceptually easy questions instead of more challenging ones.
2. Clear to students → the points for individual sub-questions are not assigned beforehand so students cannot judge how much time they should devote to different problems.<issue_comment>username_1: This seems like a variation of norm referenced grading aka grading to the curve. What is unique in your question is that the TAs are not using the student's responses to set the curve for the overall score of the quiz but rather to set a curve for each individual question. This is strange in my personal experience but I cannot say definitively that it is an unacceptable practice. However, probably no one with thorough training in assessment in education would do this.
One of the concerns you mentioned was fairness in the grading. One way to address this is to clearly communicate how quizzes and exams are assessed and graded. If you explain the current system it will help significantly. If students know what to expect they may disagree but it reduces the risk of complaints of unfairness
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: This seems perfectly reasonable to me. In this type of freshman physics course, there are some very common difficulties that students have:
* Physics is counterintuitive, e.g., students often intuitively believe in some kind of half-baked aristotelianism, and this belief can be resistant to instruction.
* Students try to solve problems by shopping for a formula that has the right letters in it, and then plugging numbers into the formula. They don't think about what the formula means, when it's true and when it's false, etc.
This is all very well documented in the pedagogical literature. The best summary I know of, although it's out of date, is in Mazur's book Peer Instruction. Mazur shows a lot of evidence that physics instructors are in denial about what their students are really learning and about the (in)effectiveness of traditional teaching methods. There is a huge gap between how physicists think about their subject and how their students think about it.
A lot of these issues are qualitatively different than in other fields, such as mathematics. E.g., I don't think students have deeply held intuitive preconceptions about derivatives and integrals before they walk into a freshman calc course. In a course like freshman calc, a lot of what the students are learning to do really is just algorithmic -- there's a reason it's called calculus.
For these reasons, it can be extremely difficult for an instructor in a freshman physics course to write appropriate exam questions. Results can be really horrible if you write questions that require conceptual understanding, multistep problem-solving, symbolic rather than numerical calculation, or interpretation of symbolic results. You can write problems that just require plug-and-chug, but then you're dumbing down your educational standards.
Because of the gap between how instructors think about physics and how most students think about physics, there is a real danger when setting an exam that you will be taken by surprise by how horrible the results are. This is particularly likely to happen with inexperienced instructors. Fiddling with standards after taking a look at the answers is IMO not an unreasonable way to prevent this kind of meltdown. Especially for a non-tenured instructor who can't afford bad teaching evaluations, I think it's pretty understandable to do this. As time goes on, people usually get a better feel for what kinds of questions will be hard. If I were evaluating someone for tenure, I would rather see them doing the kinds of things described in the question than see them writing plug-and-chug exams.
There is one thing that does seem a little odd to me about the specific situation described in the question. If I'm understanding the question correctly, the instructor in charge of the course seems to have delegated the writing of some of the lower-stakes quizzes to TAs, but the instructor will still be the one writing the final. However, there doesn't seem to be any mechanism for making sure that the standards and style are consistent throughout the course. Ideally students would be doing homework that is similar in style and difficulty to the quizzes, prelims, and final. The instructor should be setting the tone as to what should be the mix of easy and hard, concepts and mathematics, numerical and symbolic. If that isn't happening, then something is wrong.
<NAME> wrote in a comment:
>
> In future semesters adjust the tests so that's not needed. Personally, I don't find it hard to dial in an appropriate difficulty level after the first semester.
>
>
>
If these questions are being written entirely by TAs, with almost no supervision by the instructor, then it seems unlikely that there is any institutional memory that would allow this type of adjustment to occur over time. If that is the case, then the serious problem is lack of supervision, guidance, and institutional memory -- not a particular practice in grading quizzes.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: There are definite advantages to this scheme, but I see one big potential pitfall.
The advantages: sometimes a question you pose has a "garden path" wrong answer where students can follow what seems like a perfectly good line of reasoning, and end up not getting it correct. Maybe attacking it from this approach would work in principle, but you end up with horrible equations you need to solve. Whether a student gets these questions right might be rather random, depending on which approach they happen to think of first. If you reduce the number of points these problems count for, the grading will be fairer.
The potential pitfall: it will be very tempting to look at what the two or three best students in the section did, and use this to calibrate the questions. This gives an enormous advantage to the students you think are the two or three best students in each section, and you should try to avoid doing this.
Upvotes: 0
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<issue_start>username_0: I've been led to believe that it's much easier to get money (assistantships and fellowships) as a PhD student than as a master's student, and so it's cheaper to go straight to a PhD program if you know you want to get a PhD. This is supposing that you spend the same amount of time in grad school with both routes. Is this correct? And are there other significant factors in determining whether or not it's cheaper to go straight to a PhD program?
Edit: I'm hoping to study computer science, if that's relevant. If I do a master's, it'll be in the US, but I'm not sure if I'd want to do a PhD in the US or in France. You can just assume the US for this question.<issue_comment>username_1: Edited according to new information OP gave. I'm not a CS major so someone else could provide a better answer.
In my knowledge on the field of CS, I believe that most universities will give you full tuition waiver and living stipend, and you will be expected to work as RA or TA along the way. I do know some of the last year PhDs who taught intro class in undergrad CS as instructors.
>
> I've been led to believe that it's much easier to get money (assistantships and fellowships) as a PhD student than as a master's student
>
>
>
PhD students are more likely to be under assistantships and fellowships, and most likely it may be required for them to be under assistantships or fellowships. Some excellent Master's student may also get such opportunities. However, if you are referring to opportunity cost, the answer becomes more of personal preference than an absolute answer. **If you know that you ultimately want to do PhD, it is financially better to go straight into PhD without having to pay for your tuition for Masters.** However, going through masters may provide a better chance for your admission acceptance. You will also be more sure about your research interest; jumping into PhD is a huge investment, so it's wise to explore before committing. There are many CS majors that I know personally who went on to MS before going into PhD.
>
> And are there other significant factors in determining whether or not it's cheaper to go straight to a PhD program?
>
>
>
I think ultimately you have to check with the graduate programs about their funding. There are many Master's programs in CS that provide partial tuition waiver, and if you become a TA, they may even waive all your tuition in some universities. Look into your universities to see if they have such programs available.
If finance is one of your concern, the advice that I've heard is to work after undergraduate in research institutions or industry. In that way, you can earn some money for yourself, while boosting your resume and giving time for yourself to discover if you like the research topic you were initially interested in. If you end up in an industry job with little research aspect, publishing papers along the way is excellent way to show admission committee that you are interested in academia.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Caveat: I only know one CS department well. However, I will answer based on that, to get you started.
It doesn't matter whether you apply for the Master's or the PhD, and you can change your mind along the way; you'll start with the same coursework regardless of whether your intention is to stop with a Master's or continue for a PhD; all the learning you do as part of the Master's will get you that much closer to your PhD; and most grad students are funded; whether you wanted a Master's or not, I think you would be given one regardless, after completing enough coursework. The initial driving force for a PhD is to pass your basic exams, and this might be done in your third year; the driving force after that is your research. The coursework prepares you for both of these hurdles. If you stop with a Master's you don't have to do the exams; if you go somewhere else for a PhD after a Master's, you'll have to pass their exams, but *hopefully* the coursework at Department #1 will have prepared you fairly well for them (even though it's a different program), and you won't lose much time.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: >
> This is supposing that you spend the same amount of time in grad school with both routes.
>
>
>
PhD programs in the US are 4-5 years (and some are starting to last typically 6 years, even for good students). The first two years are mostly coursework (like in a master's), the rest is dissertation work.
PhD programs in Europe, except for the schools that follow the American system (I think it's mostly business schools), are supposed to last 3-4 years, and you're supposed to enter there having already completed a master's program in that field or a very similar one. if you have a 5-year bachelor's from certain countries, it may count as equivalent to a master's in some European universities, but not in all of them, and not for sure if your bachelor's is 4 years.
So, before taking into account any financial consideration, I would take care of knowing the length of the master's and doctoral programs you are considering, and the admission requirements.
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<issue_start>username_0: I have been advised that it is a good idea to read papers written by a potential supervisor before having an interview with them for a PhD position.
I can make sense of the summaries and introductions, but that is all.
* Do supervisors ask applicants about whether they have read their papers?
* Do I attempt to summarise vaguely what the paper is about?
* What sort of questions may be asked about papers?
* Can you just say something along the lines of ' I find it very interesting that you did a recent article in ????' for flattery?<issue_comment>username_1: I would **not** expect a direct "Have you read my papers? Please summarize them in 5 minutes or less."
However, potential supervisors will likely want to tell you about their research and it will be obvious whether you are lost or following along. Try to understand their published work at least well enough to ask some informed questions. Be prepared to have a conversation. You don't have to be an expert yet on their research but you should be knowledgeable enough to follow along.
If you are wanting to spend something like 5 years in their lab hopefully something they are doing is interesting to you - you should be prepared to ask about that as well: "I saw you did some work on laziness in physicists, are you still working on that? If so, what became of the project? I thought it was really remarkable how much the laziness was anticorrelated with time spent on StackExchange, I would have expected the lazier physicists to spend more time there."
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: I would, in fact, ask the opposite question: Why would you want to work with someone if you are not interested in their work? Of course, I wouldn't hold an oral exam or something with a prospective PhD student, but I would hope to be able to have a substantive discussion about my field with the student.
Thus: I wouldn't ask "Have you read my work?" because to me, it would be obvious that the student has read some of my work. Out of interest, not because I asked for it.
BTW: I wouldn't recomment you to say something along the lines of 'I find it very interesting that you did a recent article in...'. Say something substantive, challenge me, tell me why you are *not* convinced by that article, ask me about it -- yes! But don't try to flatter me in a blunt manner.
Good luck with your applications!
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: The above answers are both great. I will add my two cents, since it seems this point is not apparent from the -nevertheless- great answers.
You should read the papers of your potential PhD supervisor *not because you find somewhere advice to do so*, but because you are *interested* in her/his research and you want to pursue similar line of research. Any other reason is the *wrong* reason.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: >
> I can make sense of the summaries and introductions, but that is all.
>
>
>
That is a problem. If you are so unfamiliar with the field that you cannot understand anything about the methods, how can you know if this is what you want to do for the next 5-6 years? A certain amount of training is expected to happen during a PhD but graduate school is not like undergrad. There are no TAs. Great majority of PIs do not have the time to hold your hand and teach you everything. You need to seriously consider if you have the necessary background to do a PhD *in this field*.
>
> Do supervisors ask applicants about whether they have read their papers?
>
>
>
They will ask why you want to join their lab. If the plan is to say "I haven't seen your work but XYZ", XYZ better be good!
>
> Do I attempt to summarise vaguely what the paper is about?
>
>
>
You could try asking a question about the paper. You probably should admit straight away that you don't understand the methodology very well. Perhaps the PI will be willing to explain it to you! (This actually happened to me several times, most scientists are very eager to talk about their research)
>
> What sort of questions may be asked about papers?
>
>
>
Future directions, next experiments to do, etc are popular questions since that is exactly what you would be doing if you joined the lab.
>
> Can you just say something along the lines of ' I find it very interesting that you did a recent article in ????' for flattery?
>
>
>
You can but you will likely be asked ***what*** you like about the article.
NOTE: I am a biomedical researcher, not a physicist.
Upvotes: 1
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<issue_start>username_0: I'm looking for a PhD position. Of course I'm reading and following the papers of the field to get to know the community. Is there a tool to visualize a citation/co-author network (or at least a database I could visualize myself)? I have looked into tools like CitNetExplorer and VosViewer. Csauthors.net is also a nice tool, but it is limited to showing only a path between two researchers instead of a full graph.
Essentially, I would like to map all collaborations of the researchers to get a feeling for where the hot spots are and where the niches are.<issue_comment>username_1: You might want to have a look at the [Web of Science](http://webofknowledge.com) (formerly known as ISI Web of Knowledge). When I started my PhD back in 2008, I used it particularly for visualizing citation networks relevant to my research. I think some time later it became a subscription based service, so the access is not as easy anymore, but a lot of scientific institutions or libraries may provide you the access. I haven't used the Web of Science any more in recent time, so I am not really aware of their capabilities today -- but the description still reads similar to what I remember.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: Using google scholar might be another option for you. Since many researcher also have a google scholar profile, you can explore preliminary collaboration patterns and the number of citations. Maybe this helps you a bit to trace back some recent developments and to identify the main scholars in the field.
Besides of this and depends whether such a publication exists in your field, but reading the 'annual review of XXX' (for instance Annual Review of Sociology or Annual Review of Economics) is often helpful to read, because you see the recent trends and 'hot issues' (or just recently re-discovered niche topics) and often prominent scholars in the discipline write such long review article - see: <http://www.annualreviews.org/>
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: I have found [Connected Papers](https://www.connectedpapers.com/) very useful, particularly for machine learning. You type in your paper and it shows you a network of related papers where node size indicates number of citations and color indicates recency. Here's an example for the paper "Attention is All you Need."
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/tKNV1.png)
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_4: [scholia](https://scholia.toolforge.org/) has support for the display of such co-author graphs.
I have created the tool [sotsog](http://sotsog.bitplan.com) with the motto Standing on the shoulders of giants with direct access to the clouds which connects it's search results to scholia if a hit is found.
If you e.g. enter "ISWC 2016" in either scholia or sotsog you'll end up at the [proceedings scholia page](https://scholia.toolforge.org/venue/Q28790065) showing author graphs such as: [](https://i.stack.imgur.com/kD2p0.png)
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_5: With [ResearchRabbit](https://researchrabbitapp.com/) you can visually discover relevant research literature.
* Connects to your Zotero account and automatically imports your library (I don't know if any others work as well)
* Shows you "similar work", "earlier work", "later work"
* Allows you to explore authors of a set of selected papers or proposes other relevant authors matching the set.
All this is nicely displayed as a graph network.
Upvotes: 1
|
2017/03/14
| 947
| 3,744
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<issue_start>username_0: I am a first-year PhD student in statistics, but plan to apply to computer science graduate programs in the fall. Two of my recommenders, however, are professors who I would like to advise me if I were to stay in my current program. Because I have a limited computer science background, there is a decent chance that I will not be accepted to good programs and will therefore stay in my current program. I am worried that this will make it difficult to work with these professors if I do end up staying.
Is this likely to be a problem? What's the best way to obtain a letter of recommendation while keeping the door open for that person to be my advisor if transferring programs doesn't work out?
Thanks!<issue_comment>username_1: You might want to have a look at the [Web of Science](http://webofknowledge.com) (formerly known as ISI Web of Knowledge). When I started my PhD back in 2008, I used it particularly for visualizing citation networks relevant to my research. I think some time later it became a subscription based service, so the access is not as easy anymore, but a lot of scientific institutions or libraries may provide you the access. I haven't used the Web of Science any more in recent time, so I am not really aware of their capabilities today -- but the description still reads similar to what I remember.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: Using google scholar might be another option for you. Since many researcher also have a google scholar profile, you can explore preliminary collaboration patterns and the number of citations. Maybe this helps you a bit to trace back some recent developments and to identify the main scholars in the field.
Besides of this and depends whether such a publication exists in your field, but reading the 'annual review of XXX' (for instance Annual Review of Sociology or Annual Review of Economics) is often helpful to read, because you see the recent trends and 'hot issues' (or just recently re-discovered niche topics) and often prominent scholars in the discipline write such long review article - see: <http://www.annualreviews.org/>
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: I have found [Connected Papers](https://www.connectedpapers.com/) very useful, particularly for machine learning. You type in your paper and it shows you a network of related papers where node size indicates number of citations and color indicates recency. Here's an example for the paper "Attention is All you Need."
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/tKNV1.png)
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_4: [scholia](https://scholia.toolforge.org/) has support for the display of such co-author graphs.
I have created the tool [sotsog](http://sotsog.bitplan.com) with the motto Standing on the shoulders of giants with direct access to the clouds which connects it's search results to scholia if a hit is found.
If you e.g. enter "ISWC 2016" in either scholia or sotsog you'll end up at the [proceedings scholia page](https://scholia.toolforge.org/venue/Q28790065) showing author graphs such as: [](https://i.stack.imgur.com/kD2p0.png)
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_5: With [ResearchRabbit](https://researchrabbitapp.com/) you can visually discover relevant research literature.
* Connects to your Zotero account and automatically imports your library (I don't know if any others work as well)
* Shows you "similar work", "earlier work", "later work"
* Allows you to explore authors of a set of selected papers or proposes other relevant authors matching the set.
All this is nicely displayed as a graph network.
Upvotes: 1
|
2017/03/15
| 933
| 4,043
|
<issue_start>username_0: I will be going to a career fair tomorrow where no company with my undergraduate engineering specialty (it is a rather distinctive field) will be there. Therefore, it would be very hard to obtain a summer internship from one of these companies. However, I will attending graduate school in a more broad specialty of engineering (ME) and would like to list my new school which I would start in the fall on my resume even though I won't be graduating my undergrad until late April. Normally I would imagine that companies wouldn't even give me a look since I haven't even taken many basic ME courses except fluids, thermo, materials, etc, **but** I will be attending a very prestigious graduate school where I am pretty confident I will get looks even though I don't have an undergrad in the field.
First off, will listing a school I haven't started yet but will almost certainly be attending cause problems?
Second, I have been accepted to this school BUT have not accepted the offer yet. I am worried that if a company does a background check and they call up my future graduate school, that the school won't have me registered because I haven't accepted the offer yet and might not check a list of accepted students.
Please keep in mind I am just looking for a summer internship. Thanks<issue_comment>username_1: >
> [...] will listing a school I haven't started yet but will almost
> certainly be attending cause problems?
>
>
>
If you are listing a school which you are not going to accept their offer to attend, this may be considered some sort of dis-honesty; it may have consequences in the companies you are going to be hired in.
How companies may care about such dis-honesty for an intern student, may vary from one to another. Some may find it too irritating and may file it as a bad background for the student in their internal documents. Others may neglect it, but another ones may report it to the education department to which the student is affiliated to. You may not be so sure about such consequences.
By the way, as long as you have doubts about the future of your education; why do you want to list it in your education 'background'? Instead, talk about it in your cover letter or in the summary of the CV you are preparing for the companies you think about joining.
It will have much more positive effects on the employer when they see how you are thinking about learning the courses which are close to the work they are focused on; and how you are preparing yourself to develop your professional skills and knowledge.
Moreover, do not under-estimate the role of negotiation and your interview sessions. You can talk about all your plans for your future in those events, and these are important for the companies.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: The wonderful thing about resumes is that they are freeform documents. You can clearly say something like "Accepted as a grad student, March 2017. Anticipated start date: September 2017." In this way, there is no issue about dishonesty at all (certain online applications may not allow this kind of nuance). So, the answer to both questions is: so long as you are crystal clear in the document, you shouldn't have any issues in terms of honesty.
The question you didn't ask, however, is "is this a good idea?". Opinions will vary.
* On one hand, many resumes are only glanced at, and so putting your prestigious grad school's name right on the top of the resume might be a good idea. Sadly, putting this information in your cover letter (which is a much more appropriate place) means that few people will read it.
* On the other hand, it is certainly *unusual* to list your graduate school on your resume before you start -- especially in your case, when it sounds like you would complete the internship before even starting grad school (and especially when you haven't even formally accepted the offer yet!). This might rub people the wrong way (though I highly doubt it would have serious or long-term consequences).
Upvotes: 2
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2017/03/15
| 681
| 2,782
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<issue_start>username_0: The main purpose of this question is to collect some advices to efficiently proofread my own mathematical paper (when there are two authors or more, it is easier since one is supposed to read what the others write). When we write mathematics, there are a lot
of not so minor mistakes we can make:
* We omit to introduce a notation.
* Non-uniform notations.
* A sum should stop at n+1, not at n but the last term is not important.
* Etc...
Of course, we would like to limit the number of such mistakes in order to save the reader's (and referee's) time.
* One possibility is to wait a long period of time in order to "forget" and read what is written, and not what we have in mind. Although "hurry for publishing" is very bad, we cannot always wait a lot of time (thesis defense, applying for post-doc/permanent position) and we would like to make the process fast.
* An other possibility is to send a draft of the paper to a colleague. But he may be busy and not read too much into details. Anyway, when we are alone to write a paper, we would like to send to the colleague a document without too much typos and mistakes mentioned in the beginning of the question.<issue_comment>username_1: A general technique, applicable not only to mathematical papers, is to list common mistakes, such as the one you noted. Then, you do a revision of your paper for each item on the list: reading only to look at uniformity, reading only to look if you introduce all notations, etc.
I've picked up this tip in the [following book](http://press.princeton.edu/titles/10769.html) and it has worked well so far.
The book also suggest to reduce the familiarity with your text, so you might be able to read it as a "new" reader and thus find mistakes or parts that are not clear. You could do that by putting away the manuscript for a few days/weeks, printing it, changing the font, etc.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Another general technique to reduce familiarity is to read backwards.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: For long papers, one thing that I have sometimes found helpful is to generate a random list of page numbers, and read check those pages in the indicated order. That somehow reduces the problem of excessive familiarity.
Another thing that can be useful for some kinds of papers is to code all formulae in Maple (or some similar system) and check them by automatic simplification or by substituting random parameters.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_4: Besides, if there is time, a break can help, i.e., not to look at the paper for a weekend, a week etc, longer the better, doing something else, and then reading it afresh. This context switch can help remove the bias of something having known already.
Upvotes: 2
|
2017/03/15
| 889
| 4,012
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<issue_start>username_0: While I was an undergrad, I wrote a paper on topic A with my advisor. Currently, I'm working in a research institution with an Economist whose work mainly lies on topic B. However, I've come to understand that I do not like A or B, but I'm more interested in topic C, and I've done some independent study on topic C. I'm thinking of asking my undergrad advisor and my current Economist for recommendation letter to apply for PhD in topic C.
How will admission committee for PhD view such recommendation letters from academics whose work is not on my current interest? That is, will it have any negative influence in my application, if I seemed to change my interest often?
To be specific, all topic A, B and C is under the field of Economics, but are vastly different from one another (especially the switch from A to B; it was like learning completely new subject). Knowledge gained from A and B can only be partially transferred to C.
Related, but does not quite answer the question that I have: [Value of recommendation letters from professors in a different field](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11017/value-of-recommendation-letters-from-professors-in-a-different-field?rq=1). My question is more focused on the fact that two recommendation letters will show my interest in certain research topics were very short-lived.<issue_comment>username_1: I think it depends on exactly how long you worked with these two individuals and what you accomplished. You want strong letters, so if you worked with both of them long enough for them to assess your basic research abilities and potential to develop into an independent researcher, I think the fact that they don't work in your exact desired field won't matter much. The fact that all three topics fall under the same Economics umbrella probably makes it even less of an issue.
It is true that sustained interest in a field/topic is usually a positive. However, I think you and your recommendation letters can spin even short-lived interests into a positive thing if you demonstrate that your prior experiences in A and B were valuable from a research skills development standpoint, while also helping you narrow your research interests down to topic C. Switching topics after you start a PhD can become difficult (especially the longer you wait), so admissions committees may look favorably on any prior work that helps you discover your research passion.
Upvotes: 1 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: I do not think it matters. If these people can best speak to your abilities then that's that. The key point should be to get letters of reference from people who can give context to your application and your achievements beyond the information the committee will get from your transcripts and other documents you submitted with your file.
Knowledge between fields may not be completely transferable, but research skills often are. Thus, a recommendation like "This guy is great because he got an A in my class on topic C" is useless, but someone who can expand on your ability to find resources and data, to analyze this data, even on topic A or B, is much more valuable.
The committee may regard your change of interest as positive or negative - this depends on committee I suppose, although I don't know of very many places where the expectation is that your interests as an undergraduate and junior graduate students will not change, especially as research topics are often driven by those of the supervisor.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: It is quite understandable for an undergrad to still be exploring interests. In your application, it is good to create a narrative that links together A,B & C so that a reader can see your thought process and see that you were adapting your interests as you learned more rather than just getting bored and moving on to something new. I agree with @user67075 that the letters speak more to your aptitude/character than specific interests.
Upvotes: 0
|
2017/03/15
| 1,720
| 7,325
|
<issue_start>username_0: A colleague of mine and me are organizing a 3-day preparation course for undergrad students to prepare them for their upcoming lecture about computational physics (the course in about 1.5 months).
This course takes place at a German university.
The third day of this course will involve a "do-it-yourself-day" where the students can choose between different projects to do.
We are in the process of creating these projects.
Usually, we are creating them independently of each other and uploading them to our course-site and inform each other we added a new project. Sometimes we'll also talk about them to discuss specific tasks etc.
So I made a project to calculate the trajectory of an [artillery from the WWII](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schwerer_Gustav).
It's perfect for an academic task because it has a high velocity and goes high into the atmosphere so the students must do the calculation with air friction and height effects like decreasing temperature and pressure.
I almost completed this project to be ready to be uploaded but my colleague has moral concerns since its a weapon and was used by the Nazis.
I don't have that many concerns since its a purely academic approach to this and it's not like we are calculating how much damage it can do. Also, the approaches used to solve this task are not so unlike the approach to get a space shuttle again safe to Earth (which is much more complicated though since I didn't choose it) for example.
**Q: Are his concerns justified and should I abandon this project?**
*(I'd also be glad to new proposals, it should be fast and go high to use friction and height effect.)*<issue_comment>username_1: I don't see anything immoral about it. What if the weapon was used by Americans? It's an aspect of history and if the weapon has an interesting application in your course, why not use it?
Personal feelings aside, if you're worried about stepping on your colleague's toes, you could just describe it as a generic projectile and not mention its historical significance so you can still use it in your course material. I don't know the logistics of your project, but why be specific about the weapon?
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: No, his concerns are not valid and you should not abandon the project, which has scientific value as well as a small amount of historical added value that I think is of independent interest. There is nothing about the representations of Nazis or Nazi history in this project that would make it any different from mentioning the Nazis anywhere else, e.g., in a movie or work of literature, or in the Wikipedia article you linked to about Nazi weaponry for that matter. So your colleague's logic would imply that one must never discuss anything related to the Nazis, which is clearly absurd and false. Of course, an important piece of context is that you are in Germany, which leads me to speculate that your colleague has indeed been conditioned by his upbringing to shy away from discussions of Nazism. Perhaps he had family members who were involved in the war and his parents discouraged him from discussing Nazi history, or he absorbed this sentiment at school or through the media; who knows? But it is pretty clear that his sensitivity about these things has reached rather exaggerated and irrational levels.
Incidentally, warfare in general and World War II in particular have driven a large amount of development of new scientific and technological ideas. Personally I find it fascinating to read about this interaction between science and world affairs, including reading about scientific work the "bad guys" did, and fail to see how merely studying historical events can carry any moral or ethical meaning or can be anything other than a good thing.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: As a teacher I try and stay away from controversial topics unless it is related to a learning outcome. There is no way to teach about evolution and geology without running counter to creationism/intelligent design. In your case, one could argue that using a historically accurate weapon enhances learning about the trajectory of a projectile. The issue then becomes what is the least controversial weapon to use as an example without impacting your ability to deliver the learning objective.
In Germany, any WWII weapon is going to be controversial. If you choose a weapon used by the Allied powers, you are using something that was used to attack their country. Choosing an Axis powers weapon has the obvious issue of being perceived as "pro Nazi". Without knowing much about historical weaponry or physics, maybe a weapon that wasn't used in WWII would work (there are an awful lot of non WWII era [Howitzers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_howitzers)).
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: German citizen here. My feeling is that your example is not at all outrageous or morally problematic per se; but it might lead to some raised eyebrows in the given setting (a German university) and for quite understandable reasons.
You use a German WW II weapon simply to illustrate some computational problem. That is, you don't make any evaluative statement about nazism, German WW II aggression or even warfare and weapons in general. Neither is your problem about making weapons more effective, which could then be seen as an implicit value judgement.
It is also, fortunately, no longer "taboo" to discuss the nazi past. [German political culture has overcome](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vergangenheitsbew%C3%A4ltigung) the lead-heavy immediate post-war period, in which the memory of the atrocities that Germans had committed was actively repressed together with everything that reminded of them. To be sure, there is a (perhaps large) minority that prefers to rationalize, relativize or even idealize the nazi regime and its crimes. Some of these guys have a strange fascination for WW II memorabilia and nazi paraphernalia. Here it can be hard to draw the line between hobby historians and hobby revisionists.
So as your student I would wonder: Of all the examples that you could have chosen, why this particular one? If the course was about military history or WW II, the choice of example would make immediate sense. But since it isn't, your example seems quite arbitrary. (Wouldn't other projectiles or objects have similar physical properties?) This would probably lead me to conclude that the example is "just and example", but I couldn't quite help to speculate a bit about your motivation and perhaps your historical-political attitude. Less so, however, if you are not a German.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_5: It's a good applied physics example, but I don't get driving the WW2 weapon IN GERMANY. The Germans have a hard time with the Nazi past. Not happy with having been the bad guys. But also not happy about having it rubbed in their faces all the time.
Obviously you picked the German weapon because you thought it was relevant. But you don't understand some of the issues in that country. So you're actually being sort of clueless when you think you are being relevant.
I assume that you main target is to teach the topic. Not to get snarled up in other kerfuffles. So give it a rest. Your colleague is being smart here to warn you.
Upvotes: 0
|
2017/03/15
| 1,087
| 4,470
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am currently a postdoc and will soon be applying for a faculty position in computer science. I am inclined to not ask my postdoc host for a reference letter when applying.
The reason I don't want to ask my postdoc host for a letter is because I have been a postdoc for less than a year and have mostly worked independently or with remote collaborators. So far I have only coauthored one paper with my host. (It's a good but not great paper.) Also, I am supported by a general fellowship -- i.e. I am not formally "tied" to my host, which means I don't think he feels strong "ownership" of me as a postdoc. It is not a true mentorship relationship.
I think my postdoc host would write a positive letter for me, but it would be weak for the aforementioned reasons -- he simply doesn't know me that well. I have other potential letter writers who would be able to write stronger letters.
What is worse? A weak letter from my postdoc host or no letter? Is this something I should try to explain on my application?
Any advice is greatly appreciated!<issue_comment>username_1: First of all: It seems you're on good terms with your host. Well, talk to him about this exact issue. He will probably sympathize and either let you in on drafting the letter, or at least agree with you in principle on what he intends to write. (And if he evades then you'll at least know there's something wrong.)
>
> What is worse? A weak letter from my postdoc host or no letter? Is this something I should try to explain on my application?
>
>
>
The answer depends a lot on whether the place/person you're interviewing for might talk to him over email/phone/Skype.
* If they will *certainly* talk to him, then a letter - good or bad - is not very meaningful anyway. He'll tell them what he wants to. So I wouldn't bother.
* If they will *certainly not* talk to him, then your actual merits regardless of his opinion are likely to count for more than his letter anyway, so I'd get the letter from him just in case, and mention in passing that you worked mostly independently. I'm not 100% sure I'd add the letter to the application, it depends on the circumstances.
* If you *can't tell* whether they'll call him up or not, I'd use the letter just to be on the safe side - assuming you actually get the letter in hand and don't have to ask him to send it to them directly (a weird custom that exists in some countries). Better this way then for them to call him up and for him to say "Uh, Dr. Foo? Umm, yeah, he was here, umm, he worked on... let me see.. it was some... stuff, I dunno. We wrote a paper together at some point, it was ok I guess. Not sure what he did exactly."
But frankly I have to say that it's not clear-cut. I, for one, would not put much stock in recommendation letters unless they said something exceptional.
One last point: Perhaps you should ask your host to focus on *specific traits* of yours, your skills or strengths in some things he's observed, in which case it won't matter all that much that you haven't worked a lot together.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: I'm in math, where things may be different, but I wouldn't necessarily care if you don't have a letter for someone you've been nominally working with for less than a year. (Usually I would expect to see a letter from your PhD advisor though.) Even if you were there longer, I wouldn't necessarily expect to see a research letter from someone at that institution, unless a significant part of your work is in collaboration with someone there. Mostly I just look at what the letters themselves say, who they're from, and what your actual research is.
Reasons to not get a letter from your postdoc host:
* you have other references that can write significantly stronger letters
* your other references are more or as well known in your area
Reasons to get a letter from your postdoc host:
* your host can say good things that your other references can't effectively comment on (e.g., how you're such a great colleague to have because of all the things you've been doing in the department, or how you have certain impressive skills/knowledge needed for your project with your host that didn't come up in your other collaborative project)
* your host is more well known than some of your other references
Note: at least in the US, many departments will want to get a sense of what kind of colleague you'll be, not just how good your research is.
Upvotes: 0
|
2017/03/16
| 666
| 3,011
|
<issue_start>username_0: When I was applying for PhD I was considering Germany, UK, Austria and Switzerland in my search for a position. So far, I found that each university/region has their own policies in application submission process.
For instance, I found that most of the Swiss universities ask for a direct recommendation letter from the recommender and it is not acceptable to submit it as a general one and it is only acceptable if it's sent directly from the recommender's institute email to the target university. In contrast, in Germany where applying now at a higher ranking university than the Swiss one, professors, and universities are more flexible and accepts them as a general one, so no need to be specifically produced for the particular university.
I tried hard to find a place in Swiss universities, but I ended up rejected with no response from my previous professor as it considered time consuming for him, and I don't blame him since general recommendation letter is enough in other universities.
Do universities that ask for such a thing consider them self better than the others and will lead them to better candidates?
The question is, why such universities make it hard for the student who apply for PhD? Is a general recommendation letter (I have 4 letters from different professors) from your previous professors where they indicate positivity about the candidate enough for such a PhD application?<issue_comment>username_1: By forcing the letter to be sent directly from the institutional email of the Professor, the university makes sure it is a truthful recommendation and not a modified or faked one. Such practice of faking documents in unfortunately happening in any recruitment environment, not only academia.
Even worse and common practice in academia, my own phd adviser asked me to write my own recommendation letters because he lacked time, and he just signed them.
Such practice as described in your message partially prevent this.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Its common to have writers write general letters (To Whom it May Concern) tailored for particular kinds of applications (i.e. PhD programs in the field of your major). Some programs, such a fellowship programs, involve funding for a very specific topic and want letters tailored for your participation in that particular program. When you're applying to PhD programs, the same letter usually suffices (I'm writing from experience as a US academic, so I could be wrong about the rest of the world). But the applicant is very rarely allowed to submit their own letter. The letter should come directly from your writer to ensure that the writer can write honestly. This is standard practice in the US, and its also my experience in the UK. To avoid asking your writer to submit dozens of letters, you can usually use a dossier service like interfolio to upload the letters. Sometimes it doesn't work, but then you're only asking your writer to manually submit a handful of letters.
Upvotes: 0
|
2017/03/16
| 1,049
| 4,546
|
<issue_start>username_0: Suppose a certain undergraduate course in computer science is given at a university which has a mandatory project part, requiring teams to be formed of two people. Student A forms a team with another student, B, but the cooperation is very difficult. Student B never shows up to work on the first assignment, contrary to a made appointment, citing illness as the reason. After that student A never hears from student B again, nor sees her in class anymore. Student A has to do all work now, which is meant for a two-man team, and therefore misses deadlines (she has other courses too which require attention). Student A leaves no stone unturned to get a new partner to form a team, but to no avail. The penalty on handing in work past the deadline is severe, so this causes the student a lot of stress. The quality of the work is not an issue, and she has done "her best" on the work like she normally would.
Is it unethical for the professor to continue to enforce the deadline and associated penalty (significantly reducing student A's grade and grade average) under these circumstances?
An additional difficulty is that student A really likes the professor and has for that reason some difficulties talking to him about these issues.<issue_comment>username_1: >
> Is it unethical for the professor to continue to enforce the deadline and associated penalty (significantly reducing student A's grade and grade average) under these circumstances?
>
>
>
First, I think it's quite misguided to frame this as an ethics question. If the professor is creating course policies and enforcing them in good faith, with the goal of achieving certain educational outcomes, then, even in the event that the professor makes a mistake or does something that most reasonable people would disagree with, it would be hard to argue that the professor is behaving unethically. Thus, the correct thing to ask IMO is not "is it unethical" but rather "is it appropriate" or "is it the right thing to do".
With that said, I think the best thing that the student in your question can do is argue her case to the best of her abilities and allow the professor to make a decision to the best of his ability, and respect whatever that decision ends up being. Bringing ethics and accusations of unethical behavior into the debate is counterproductive in my opinion and may backfire by causing the professor to become defensive and entrench himself further into his punitive position. Personally I think that given the student's lack of timely action to communicate the nature of the problem to the professor, which resulted in missed deadlines, enforcing the course policy would be a reasonable decision. On the other hand, making an exception to take into account the allegedly extenuating circumstances would also be reasonable. To my mind it's simply not a black and white issue.
As for the student's supposed difficulty to communicate with the professor because she likes him... well, not sure what to say about that. People have all sorts of difficulties in life, but ultimately the question is, is the student willing to make an effort and take proactive measures to overcome her difficulties so as to achieve the outcome she wants to achieve? If so, there are any number of steps she can take. She can write a letter instead of speaking to the professor in person. Or she can recruit a friend to come with her to a meeting with the professor and help her overcome her shyness or even speak on her behalf. Etc etc. It's all a question of will. And if she lacks the will to confront the problem, she has all my sympathy, but nonetheless I don't see that as an "extenuating circumstance" and she should not be surprised if the outcome is not what she wished it to be. In any case, best of luck to her.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: I also am not certain this is an ethics question, but more one of practicality. This situation happens often enough that professors probably already have a process for dealing with it; I for one don't want to change deadlines every semester.
Your best defense here is data. Keep a record of things like attempts to contact/schedule with your partner, deliverables completed by you/your partner, dates/times partner ditched you. If you show clear attempts and do the work you can, you'll make a strong case for leniency.
Though you seem to be unwilling to talk to prof about this, you need to. Coming to him at the very end with a plea isn't going to help as much as early warning.
Upvotes: 0
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2017/03/16
| 1,973
| 8,363
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<issue_start>username_0: I was recently reading a textbook, written by a professor from an elite university, which I was finding to be very informative and well-written. Excited to learn of other works or talks by this individual, I searched for him on Google, but was extremely dismayed to find the results page full of news articles about his improper personal conduct and trouble with the law that resulted in his being forced to retire from teaching.
I'm now unsure whether I should continue reading his textbooks--they appear to be correct, well-written and insightful, but I might feel embarrassed now to keep them on my bookshelf or tell someone I had studied them. Should I avoid reading and learning from his work? And, more out of curiosity, should individuals publishing work in his field avoid referencing his texts or published research?
I left out a lot of the specifics, so more general thoughts or comments about this are welcomed.<issue_comment>username_1: No, it's generally not a bad practice. For a closely related question, see [How does it affect the treatment of a mathematician's results, if that mathematician was a Nazi?](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/84829).
>
> Should individuals publishing work in his field avoid referencing his texts or published research?
>
>
>
His published research:
for sure **no, not avoid references to his research**; the linked question covers this well.
As for his textbooks:
Most often one is not forced to reference any particular text, as there are other texts that do the same. (Perhaps "there are other texts that do the same" ought to be the definition of a text rather than a research article or monograph, but there are exceptions to this definition.) I think personal preferences can and do come in when choosing which text to reference: for instance, I would be happier to reference a text that is freely available online, or if I don't like (academically speaking) a text generally then I might try to replace a citation to it by a citation somewhere else, even if that's a little trouble. (I remember doing that recently in a joint paper: a coauthor cited a text I didn't like. I got him to (find and) cite another one instead!) But if Dr. Fallen's text is the unique source for something, you must cite it, and if you unambiguously feel that it's the best source, you probably should cite it.
As for your studying: I see no argument whatsoever against studying the good text of a bad person. In fact, "bad person" is a kind of reification. Everyone does good things and bad things; when we say someone is a "bad person," we mean that our evaluation of their actions (that we know of) is weighted towards the bad. But avoiding or trying to nullify the good actions of a bad person is...bad. We should encourage, reward and make use of the good behavior in *everyone*, right?
I do have one proviso: you may not want to financially support Dr. Fallen, for instance if you suspect that financial support would somehow abet his reprehensible activities. So you may well not want to **buy** his book if you haven't already. If you feel that citing Dr. Fallen's text in a situation where you could also cite another (both are secondary sources) could induce others to financially support him, then maybe that's an ethical reason for choosing a different citation even if you personally think Dr. Fallen's text explains it better: this is a bit of an unlikely edge case, I think.
Upvotes: 7 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Science is supposed to be about facts. People are very much geared toward good vs evil, and choosing sides.
<NAME>, <NAME>, <NAME>, <NAME>, .....
At one time in history each of these people produced some form of art/entertainment that resonated with a large number of people, and then they did something that a large portion of the population found objectionable. Does that make the things they created bad?
Our culture has decided that if someone does something we don't like, we don't like anything they are associated with... until they are dead. Once they are dead we can like their work again. I would argue that it would only be an ethical issue if the work itself were obtained in an unethical way. For instance, if someone tortured a bunch of children just to see how children responded to being tortured.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: I suppose it would depend largely upon the reason for the fall from grace. If the fall was due to falsifying data, that would be a big red flag for serious citation (unless you're pointing out the the conclusions may be false).
It gets more interesting if this involves research that does not meet ethical standards. Mengele did "research", and I suppose there are serious people who can tell you whether any of his results were valid -- but he treated humans as less than human.
Then, of course, are people who fell from grace for reasons that would be considered non-reasons today. I would hope that I don't know too many people who would refuse to cite Turing because of his sexual preferences (though, I confess, I have zero knowledge about how he was regarded in contemporary academic circles, he certainly had detractors in government).
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: If Einstein was a warmongering Nazi, would his scientific discoveries become something less than they are now?
If the book is helping you, you should continue using it.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_5: Unless that fall from grace precludes being able to take their science seriously (see: <NAME>), there is no reason to avoid their work. As other people have mentioned, a citation is not a personal endorsement of an individual as a good and decent human being. It is a pointer to a body of scientific work.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_6: If the "improper personal conduct and trouble with the law" had potential to make the professor's work questionable, then his work should be excluded from serious consideration.
In many cases, the author's crimes have nothing to do with their research, and if the facts/research/conclusions are true, then by all rights there should be no reason to avoid using it. However, there remains a fear of "crime by association" and it's up to each reader whether they are able to get past the author's or researchers' crime or activity to be able to use the knowledge they wrote about. Sometimes it is the only place to find such information. If that is not the case, some may feel better quoting it from a secondary source in order to avoid the association with the original author.
As an example, in the Numismatic field, there was a researcher who wrote a great encyclopedia that had a ton of research behind it and basically became many people's "bible" on coins. It came to light that the man was a pedophile - many thought this tainted the work he had done, but his proclivities had nothing to do with the cold hard facts of coin mintages and coin design. Seeing as it was the only reference with some information (still to this day), it will be quoted but always with reluctance; the quoter usually finds a way to express their dismay with the author, as if to make clear that they do not condone the author's crimes.
In the end, if the professor's works are factual, then it's up to you; the facts stated won't be any more wrong or right because of what he did in his personal life, but you could also be judged by people who will mentally combine the researcher with the research. So *if it matters to you*, you may want to gauge *your audience's* ability to separate the work from the author before citing him or having his books clearly visible on your bookshelf.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_7: Here's an example of how one author dealt with this issue: <https://arxiv.org/pdf/math/0511366>
The first page mentions a result by one <NAME>, "better known for other work".
The result is mathematically sound, it's relevant to the paper, and Kaczynski discovered it, so it's entirely appropriate to cite him - it would be weird to depend on a result without citing a source, and dishonest to deny the attribution. But the author probably felt weird about referencing somebody who's better known as a notorious terrorist without acknowledging that side of his existence.
Upvotes: 3
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<issue_start>username_0: I am a 29 year old with an Undergraduate degree from Berkeley in Biochem. I graduated in 2012 with every intention of applying to PhD programs after taking a year or two off to work.
Due to some health issues and the economic slump I was unemployed for awhile. Now I've been working in the Biotech industry for 2 years and with the support of my two bosses who are both science PhD's themselves I finally feel confident and ready to apply. By the time I intend to apply (this fall) I will have 3 years of Biotech Research experience. While I was an undergrad I worked as a research apprentice all 4 years so I also have a lot of experience in academic research.
My biggest question and concern is: will my time in industry hurt me? Could it be an asset? Can I succeed in getting into a good school as a less than conventional applicant?<issue_comment>username_1: I worked for 2-3 years after my undergraduate degree before applying to doctoral programs, and I think my work experience only helped. Like you, my job was relevant to the programs to which I ultimately applied. I was able to explain in my statement of purpose how my job experience strengthened my research skills and actually motivated my decision to apply to graduate school. As long as your application is strong (good letters, good GRE scores, etc), I can't see the gap between undergraduate and graduate school mattering that much.
That being said, one point you may want to address is how you kept your "academic muscles" toned over the last 5 years. Some people find the transition back to academic life difficult after extended periods away from it, and it may be useful to demonstrate somewhere in your application how you have kept in contact with the academic world, even if it was only indirectly.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: I'm not familiar with the biochem field but I've heard if the experience is applicable it is preferable to candidates without experience. Even if it's just life experience, those qualifications are still useful. The checklist (maybe not in order of importance) is probably something like...
1. How good are candidates at the tasks they will be required to
perform. Measured by grades, quality of portfolio, procedural work related experience.
2. How much growth and exposure will the candidate get the school. How ambitious, how enthusiastic, publications / exposure of portfolio, wealth, name, etc.
3. How easy are they to work with. How punctual, your work ethic, communication skills, are you a jerk, etc.
If you're just hitting the last one that's still useful. But your experience seems like it's relevant so best case scenario you'd be filling out the first category as well. Obviously the rest depends on who else is applying and whatever other variables come with the school.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: I was 27 and with 4 years in different research positions when I applied for PhDs in Operations Management (almost all in business schools). My experience is that some schools seem to be very focused on young students, fresh from undergrad or master's, while some other schools or departments prefer people with more experience. I had a very poor BSc/MSc GPA but having research experience (even of the first 2 years were in a totally unrelated field), papers, and good recommendation letters, I got admitted in a lot of very, very top schools.
I wish you good luck!
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: Age 29 is still young. University can't and shouldn't judge you by how old you are, this is illegal in most countries.
They will look at:
* Your PhD proposal
* Your academics achievements
* Your research potential
* PhD interview (if any, requirements for some programs)
* How your industry experience relates to your research
* Recommendation letter from your academics and industry connections (if any)
* How you are compared relative to other candidates
I'm a few years older than you but I'm still confident for my application.
Upvotes: 1
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<issue_start>username_0: Is it possible to bring my spouse along for overseas academic conference? (My spouse will not be attending the conference. Airfare and accommodation for my spouse will be paid by us.)
The intention is for my spouse to visit the country and for us to do some sightseeing together during weekends/ off days.
Are there any things to look out for? Has anyone tried this before?
Thanks for any feedback.<issue_comment>username_1: Yes, it is perfectly normal and accepted, at least in all fields I have heard about. Many conferences also allow one to purchase extra tickets for the social program (conference dinner, excursions) for spouses and accompanying persons.
The only possible source of trouble is how to split the hotel bill, since you will (most likely) be sharing a room. Make sure to inquire in advance with the institution that pays for your trip, or at least ask a colleague what the norm is.
Upvotes: 7 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: One thing to note is that unscheduled time during conferences (meal times, evenings, weekends, days off, etc) is commonly used by participants for networking, social events, informal scientific discussions, one-on-one collaboration, and so on. If you are planning to spend this time with your spouse instead, you may miss out on those opportunities.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: I have done this both as the researcher with the spouse, and as the spouse. I have never encountered any problem with it, nor has it been particularly rare (one conference I went to, by virtue of being in Disney World, I suspect featured more people with their family than without).
The one caveat is to make sure your spouse is prepared to be somewhat ignored during the days of the actual conference, as in my experience it's a bad idea to let the desire to go on vacation interfere with the actual purpose of the conference. So, for example, they may be on their own for dinner for a night or two.
When I was the spouse, I usually used this to go to museums and the like I knew my partner would be less interested in.
Upvotes: 4
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<issue_start>username_0: I am currently a Canadian grad student about to publish my first paper. However, I **really** dislike my real legal name, to the point where very few of my real-life friends know my real first and last name. This is mostly because I come from China, and my legal name is a difficult-to-pronounce transliteration of my original Chinese name, which itself sounds very tacky and funny in Chinese. Even my parents are embarrassed at how they named me and use a totally unrelated nickname to address me even in Chinese. (to use an English analogy, I go by "Jake" when my real name is "Alexander")
Is it possible to publish consistently under a pen name that has no relation to your real name? I am not seeking to use it as a throwaway name for a single publication, but rather to simply be known as a different name. I don't even intend to hide my real name - it'll likely end up being in parentheses on my personal webpage or something. I just don't want to see a name I'm embarrassed of on every single thing I publish.<issue_comment>username_1: My [answer to another question](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/83609/10685) applies equally here:
>
> Regardless of what your ID card says, you can publish your papers under whatever name you want. Some people use pseudonyms. Much more common is that many women continue to publish under their maiden name when they marry and change their surname.
>
>
> There's no reason you can't publish papers as [Jake].
>
>
>
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Sir <NAME> published many papers under the pet name <NAME> (of course not legal name). There is no problem for him, DBLP doesn't get confused either.
I know some Asians add English first name when publishing papers. For example, if his name is <NAME> (embarrassed enough???), and he publishes papers under the name <NAME> (or even <NAME>). That way it is still easy to claim authorship without explanation, and people can just call him Lee.
Upvotes: 1
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<issue_start>username_0: Very much as the title states; what should I expect being my supervisor's first PhD student?
I understand that there are likely both pros and cons to this - however I'm looking to hear the experience of others, and how this compares to experience of those who have had a supervisor with previous students.<issue_comment>username_1: Well, the same as you should expect from any supervisor: guidance, support, constructive critique, one-on-one meetings of appropriate frequency, and some insight into how the internal process at your institution works (he/she might have to familiarise him-/herself with that).
One aspect where lacking experience with PhD students might have an impact is the "proper calibration" around what constitutes a PhD-worthy topic and what constitutes a sufficiently comprehensive body of work. Likely the supervisor only has his/her own PhD to extrapolate from, and particularly when the supervisor has moved after the PhD and entered a significantly different academic culture, some adjustment may be needed (that was the case for me). Because of that I would hope that the supervisor is open to engage with some sort of mentor (a more senior colleague with already some PhDs under the belt) to talk about this. You might consider to have such a person as a co-supervisor.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: I was my supervisor's first Ph.D. student and I survived the experience...
Although your advisor is almost certainly trying to do a good job, the simple fact is that neither you nor your advisor has ever done this before so mistakes are likely.
My advice would be to make sure that your dissertation committee includes some more experienced faculty and get them involved in the process (e.g. by having meetings with your full committee, having the committee review dissertation proposal and attend presentations that you might give on the work) as early as possible.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: I was my supervisor's first PhD student, and honestly I would not recommend it. The main downsides were
1. He did not have grant funding, and I have had to TA almost every semester of my PhD, even though this is very atypical in my department. He said he was going to get grants, but he just never did.
2. He was a terrible manager (in several ways) and kept switching management styles. I didn't find this out beforehand because he had no other PhD students to warn me about this. However, it is probably pretty common for new professors to be poor managers, because they don't have a lot of experience in managing students. (It is probably common for older professors to be poor managers too, since professors get very little management feedback from their students.)
3. In general, you have no idea whether the advisor will be good or not because there is no track record and no lab alumni you can talk to.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: My favorite "pro" would be the exciting experience of helping to put a lab together from an empty room, if the PhD is in the sciences and the mentor is building her first lab. The value of such an experience can be huge.
As with many things, this can be a pro or a con. The "con" side is that this is a frustrating procedure. Things will take longer than if you walked into an established lab. You and your mentor will make mistakes. Some of the money spent will be wasted.
The "pro" side is that you will have the experience of building a lab. You will understand the whole lab much better than somebody who walks in to a developed lab. You will have more input into the final product, and thus, more ownership. You'll get to help spend startup money. You'll learn how choices are made.
In the balance, I think this is a positive aspect.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_5: I was the first PhD student of a mathematician who was already a very strongly established researcher at the time. It was an extremely valuable and positive life experience for me and I consider my choice of the advisor a major hit of luck.
You can expect the first-time tutor to be more motivated to help you succeed than one who already leads several students. That's a definite plus. Motivation is one thing, ability another.
You should look closely at where the potential advisor themselves are before you start, and whether it would be a huge step forward for you to ever get professionally to where the potential advisor already is. Consider their past projects, publications, collaborators, funding, their position in the department where you will be a student; also their skills and values that appeal to you personally, especially their skills to explain known things and stimulate curiosity about the unknown. Expect that they will teach you achieving just a subset of what they already achieved themselves; and only if they are a good teacher. Spend enough time with the potential advisor and their closest collaborators beforehand to make sure you've tasted what you will be getting if you sign up, before you decide.
Did the potential advisor lead any undergraduate students in research related projects before? Do you know of any PhD students who are already benefiting from working with your potential advisor, although their primary or formal advisor is someone else? How is your potential advisor successful as a course instructor?
While you will be part of their *future* research, many technicalities will likely be similar to what they achieved in their *past* research, or to what's generally achieved in the department they are starting to work in, by researchers of a similar track record.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_6: I was also my adviser's first PhD student, and I got my own first student recently. The short answer to this question is that it's not obvious what to expect and it depends a lot on the personalities and academic upbringing of both student and adviser.
As a PhD student I had a lot of trouble with my adviser's micromanaging. I didn't like that, but he could do it because I was his only student. Second problem was that he had no idea what my thesis should be about. I tried three different projects until we finally figured out what to do together. Grant money was not a problem because he had both a grant and startup money, so I was research assistant for the whole duration of my PhD. Once we started to get along, after two years of working together, things came out nicely and by the end of my PhD I had a few good papers to show.
From my perspective as a guy starting to advise younger scientists, things are different. At first, I tried not to repeat things my PhD adviser and my postdoc bosses did, and I perceived them to be wrong. Then, I realized they may not be wrong if applied to other people than me. The same thing can be said about things I thought my supervisors did right.
So, first thing to expect from a first time adviser is to try to adapt what he perceived as good in the groups he worked before, while avoiding what he perceived as bad. If it doesn't work, they might try to overcompensate doing the opposite, so they would look inconsistent. For example, in my case, I had lots of trouble as a student approaching completely new problems. I'd try to read entire books and after weeks of disorganized searching, I'd end up with no answer. My adviser original approach was to let me do my thing which was his adviser's approach and worked for him. When he realized it didn't work for me, he started micromanaging things very tightly. Though the extra discipline did help, I resented it.
Another thing that might happen is that the new adviser might be inexperienced with teaching. This might be the case of people who excelled at research and got their position because of it. As their student, you may expect them not to be very pedagogical when teaching you new things if they actually do.
Many people who become new faculty feel insecure about their research. Their older colleagues may have hundreds of publications, and they may have a few tens at most. Plus, they need to get tenure. Some new faculty tend to get abusive with their students, plus they keep jumping from one project idea to another and it's very frustrating for a new student to spend three weeks researching something only to find out it's not needed anymore by the time they have an answer.
Something else I've seen in graduate school is new faculty who don't get tenure and their students need to finish the PhD with someone else. You can't predict if a new faculty will get tenure right away, but, in my field, if they don't make new collaborations, they most likely won't publish enough to get it.
I don't think it's inherently bad to be someone's first PhD student. They are pressed to obtain funding as a tenure requirement, and the ones that are good at grant writing, will soon have a larger team. As the first member of that team, your research assistant support will be ensured.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_7: Let me also add an answer to this question, but notice that I'm not a PhD but a Master's student now.
My supervisor for bachelor's diploma and research was a very well-known scientist who also was a head of the department. At first I thought that it was a great choice because of experience but then I realised it wasn't. When going to some famous person be sure that he or she would have enough time for you (answering your questions, explain some theory that wasn't cover in general courses, etc), especially if he or she is busy with some kind of administrative work. That leads to the situation where de jure my advisor was a famous mathematician but de facto I was supervised by his PhD student.
As opposite to this experience now I am working on my master's thesis under supervising of recently graduated PhD holder (just to be more precise, he is only 28 years old when I'm 22). This choice was a major hit of luck since firstly I didn't consider this opportunity and joined only after some other professors recommend him as a good and wise expert in my area of interest. I am very satisfied with my supervisor and till this moment have only pros. He really takes care about what I do, give quick answers to emails, always able to explain something unclear to me and looks very interested in good quality of my research.
So as my personal experience I would suggest not to be afraid of being someone's first student. Your advisor would probably have more time and motivation to work closely with you.
Upvotes: 0
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<issue_start>username_0: I applied to 4 US PhD programs and I've received 3 rejections and 1 waitlist.
I also applied for a scholarship for $25,000/year x4years and just found out that I got it.
I'm thinking that I should update the school I'm waitlisted at because the scholarship could probably help my chances of getting in. I have some questions I'm hoping I can receive some input on here:
1. How should I go about updating the waitlist school about this scholarship? Should I do this in writing or by phone?
2. Should I inform the schools that have already rejected me about the scholarship--is it possible they may change their decisions based on this new information? And if so, how should I approach telling them?
3. The scholarship would require me to research a certain (widely researched) disease and maintain one of my MSc supervisors (at a different institution) as a co-supervisor during my PhD. Is it likely that the school(s) will mind this (especially the second part)?
Thanks in advance for any and all feedback!<issue_comment>username_1: You can conduct the second try during the next admission application cycle - and the time frame of a cycle varies between admission providers then you can attach the paper that indicates acceptance to financial support.
Else, If I was in your situation and I am really interested in a specific program I will try to call the professor at his office. Still no result, I will try to meet him face to face to describe the whole situation if the university in the same city.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: You should definitely notify the program for which you are on the waitlist, since this could matter for their decision. If they have contact instructions on their webpage or in the notification you received about being on the waitlist, then you should follow those instructions. Otherwise, you could try replying to the notification e-mail. I'd recommend doing this in writing, rather than by phone, so that you can provide details. You can just say something like "I'd like to update you on a development in my application: I was just notified that I have received the X fellowship, which ... [give the financial details and any restrictions]. Please let me know if you would like any additional information."
It can't hurt to ask the schools that have rejected you, just in case, but you should expect the answer to be no. I'd phrase it very tentatively (along the lines of "I understand that this is probably not possible, but I don't suppose that my application could be reconsidered in light of this fellowship?"). Don't spend much time on this, since I'd expect that the most likely outcome is that someone will spend 15 seconds typing a "Sorry, that isn't possible" email in response, but I don't think anyone will be offended if you don't sound presumptuous.
Regarding the restrictions, it's hard to predict how much the department will care. You should definitely mention these details in your e-mail, so they can make an informed decision.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]
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<issue_start>username_0: I know there are plenty of grants out there but there must be an easier way than filling out form after form online?<issue_comment>username_1: No. There are no such a services in covering this task. Even if there any, I will not use it since applying for a scholarship require high motivation for a specific position which will not be achieved by automatic filling things. Also, if there any, I will consider them as a harmful service because the experienced professor can differentiate between spam application and real application and this will lead to direct rejection.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: I'm afraid the answer is: There is no free lunch.
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: I have a particularly unusual problem that puts me in a bind. I am a first year Masters student at my faculty, and recently my supervisor have pushed me to "update" her previous student's unpublished paper (few years old, so need to find newer papers to cite inside and format it properly for submission), add my name onto it as co-author and publish it to IET. I feel it's unethical, although my supervisor has assured me permission will be obtained from the original author. Feeling uncomfortable with this practice, I delayed doing that paper.
What are the implications if I proceed with it? Would it pose any problems to me in the future? I'm inclined towards not doing it, though, but I want to hear expert opinions on this kind of practice. Thanks.<issue_comment>username_1: Publish it. As you mentioned that your supervisor **obtained permission** from the original author and you will be w**orking/editing** it, then I assume its 100% ethical to put your name as coauthor and will be no negative sequences. Indeed, this kind of preparation that your supervisor follows is beneficial for you. At the level of PhD, I got the same task. I converted 3 years old master thesis to conference work and I put my name at second coauthor and the original author was mentioned before the name of the professor in the affiliation! since your supervisor is involved in this task, I assume that he knows what he is doing.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: If your contribution to the paper is really *just* formatting and finding papers to cite, no, you shouldn't be an author, and your advisor shouldn't make you one. Your advisor is very likely not trying to be unethical, but rather is trying to reward you in some way for doing the tedious work of formatting, etc., and / or is taking this opportunity to get you to be familiar with the literature.
What should you do? (i) do the work, and point out that you'd prefer to just be acknowledged in the paper rather than being an author; or (ii) refuse to do the work. I'd do (i). But your written solution of "delaying" doing things is not a good one -- this doesn't help you, your advisor, or the paper.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: **TL;DR:** If you can publish a few-year-old unpublished paper, your contribution definitely deserves co-authorship.
However, you will find that the actual work will soon exceed adding citations, and changing format. If that were easy, your advisor or her previous student would have done that few years ago. **This may cost you months**.
When you add new citations, the least you need to do is to add more discussions in the related work. After 3 years, there would be a lot of progress in the field, will the technique in the paper still state-of-the-art? How it compare to the papers from last years etc? You may need to do more experiments to compare with the new techniques. This often means you have to do all experiments in the paper.
Changing format may not be enough, you may need to change the narrative to fit the theme of the conference. Some conferences require particular sections, e.g. Threat to validity, etc.
The conference may adopts rebuttal phase, conditional acceptance etc etc. Handling all these costs a lot of effort.
Since it has been abandoned for a long time, this is likely not a great paper. It may be rejected the first time you submit, and maybe more than one time. I'm sorry but this is the truth :) It may take you a lot a lot of effort.
You don't have to worry if you deserve co-authorship, if this is what bothers you. Instead, you should worry if you can actually do it.
---
Like you and Kbreto, I was asked to do the same task during my PhD. I refused to do it :) The paper my advisor wanted me to work on was in a good shape in term of format etc. But it had been rejected a couple of times before. I thought that it would be easier for me to do my own research and publish it, rather than trying to save someone else paper.
Fast forward 5 years, that paper is still not published, and I don't think it will ever be :)
Upvotes: 0
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<issue_start>username_0: I submitted a paper to elsevier and it got major revision. I proceeded as per the suggestions and submitted revision. After few days the status changed to "Under Review". Now the status is still under Review even after 45 days. Can I ask the editor for a status update or should I wait further?<issue_comment>username_1: -By checking the policies of Reed Elsevier, sometimes revision takes 2-4 weeks and the author will be informed directly about the situation whenever it obtained. It depends on several factors such as how many reviewers they have this term and how many submitted papers they have on their system waiting to be evaluated and which field your paper in.
* If you in hurry, there will be no harm if you send a kind email asking about the progress of reviewing your paper.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: Depending on the field, "Under Review" can also be 6 months. The reviewers review in their spare time. If they don't have spare time or are unorganised reviews take very long time.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: I think the best advise would be to go to the journal's homepage and browse recently published articles. Each such article has information about when it was (1) received, (2) received in revised form and (3) accepted for publication.
From this, you can easily infer average time that is under revision. Keep also in mind that for many papers there is minor revision so the time interval from (2) -> (3) might be small. You should check towards the higher end of that interval to get some estimation. If you think the time spend under review is unreasonably large, you can send a message to the editor asking about the status. But you should not hurry.
Upvotes: 0
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2017/03/17
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<issue_start>username_0: I have seen people listing "memberships" on their CV. Do you have certain rules of thumb for what to list? I have some myself, which are basically memberships that have happened automatically, when I have been invited to give talks - like, come give a talk, and please join our "board of associates". I don't do any work in those roles, and listing them feels a bit like CV padding. I am in the beginning of my career (first post doc).
What is the normal practice?<issue_comment>username_1: -By checking the policies of Reed Elsevier, sometimes revision takes 2-4 weeks and the author will be informed directly about the situation whenever it obtained. It depends on several factors such as how many reviewers they have this term and how many submitted papers they have on their system waiting to be evaluated and which field your paper in.
* If you in hurry, there will be no harm if you send a kind email asking about the progress of reviewing your paper.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: Depending on the field, "Under Review" can also be 6 months. The reviewers review in their spare time. If they don't have spare time or are unorganised reviews take very long time.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: I think the best advise would be to go to the journal's homepage and browse recently published articles. Each such article has information about when it was (1) received, (2) received in revised form and (3) accepted for publication.
From this, you can easily infer average time that is under revision. Keep also in mind that for many papers there is minor revision so the time interval from (2) -> (3) might be small. You should check towards the higher end of that interval to get some estimation. If you think the time spend under review is unreasonably large, you can send a message to the editor asking about the status. But you should not hurry.
Upvotes: 0
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2017/03/17
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<issue_start>username_0: The university that gave me an offer only gave me two weeks to accept the offer. I asked them for an extension, and they only gave me a week more. I have still yet to hear from the other universities I applied to; since it is only mid March. I am quite confused as to what I should do, I don't want to give back the offer after accepting it. But I also can't predict what the other universities decisions would be and neither am I too confident as to reject the one offer I do have. Would appreciate some advice. I applied to Masters program in Physics, in Canada.<issue_comment>username_1: Presumably the school you heard from was not your first choice.
I'd just be as upfront as possible, with everyone. Next step is probably to contact the schools and/or professors you haven't heard from, say that you have another offer, and ask if they can give an update on the timing of their decisions.
Depending on what those schools say, contact the school you were accepted to and request another extension until the specific dates that the other schools gave you.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Clearly accepting the offer without mentioning the possibility of declining it later is a lie.
And YOU have to make the decision whether it is acceptable to lie in this case or not.
As I was in the same situation, I also wondered what to do.
Here is the decision that I have made for myself:
When applying for a Bachelor or Master degree program, accepting an offer has little consequence for the offering institution.
There is no scholarship attached that could be offered to another candidate and there are quite a few places to begin with, so departments may presume that some accepted offers will be rejected later.
Personally, for me I could live with lying to the institution in this case.
When applying for a PhD program the institution will make plans for you after accepting an offer.
That is, assign teaching duties and allocate funding for you.
If the accepted offer is rejected at a later point, this will cause a great deal of trouble for the institution.
Personally, for me it would not be okay to lie to the institution in this case.
So, that is what I did.
(I applied for PhD positions)
I accepted my less favored offer and withdrew my applications at other institutions.
If one of the other institution had given a life changing offer to me, I might have reconsidered, but the benefit for me would have had to be gigantic to offset the damage I would have been doing to the less favored institution.
After all, even if you do not care about the well-being of your less favored institthat would be burning a bridge, and some fields of research are so small that it can harm your career very badly having burned that bridge.
Upvotes: -1
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2017/03/17
| 957
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<issue_start>username_0: Is it polite when my professor keep opening my office door without knocking at the door whenever he wants to ask anything?
Since the door closed, I am supposed to hear knock before breaking into, or rather, busting into the room. Is it polite?<issue_comment>username_1: Ethical yes. Polite no, it is not. I do not see what ethics (resolving human morality) have to do with opening the door.
On a philosophical level, ethics and manners are kind of incompatible since they deal with a different nature of question.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: It *can* be impolite -- from mild to severe --, but it really depends on the group culture.
For instance, my closer colleagues and I usually don't knock to each other's doors before entering -- the rare times the doors are closed --, and we've been doing this for more than 20 years: we used to have a common office space at the beginning of our careers and we simply grew up without any expectation of privacy at the workplace, and really we don't feel the need for it. I still share space with other colleagues or students.
I usually invite my PhD students not to knock when they have to visit me, and I usually don't knock on their doors.
In other groups, however, the above behaviour would be considered extremely impolite: if you are a newcomer, you should try to understand the prevailing group habits, but if you really find a certain habit annoying, try to approach the professor explaining -- in a non-confrontational way -- your concerns.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: As others have said, this depends at least partially on the prevailing custom in the country or insitution you are in. Another factor which has not been mentioned so far is the number of people who use your office. It seems to me that the acceptability of entering an office (other than your own) without knocking increases with the number of people who occupy the office. If you are the sole occupant of the office, an unannounced visitor is more liable to threaten your sense of space than if your office is shared by several others, particularly if these other occupants also receive their share of visitors.
Indeed, if the office is shared by a large number of people, it may be preferred if visitors don't wait to be invited to 'come in!' as the duty of calling out such an invitation is liable to fall to the unfortunate person based closest to the door.
(As a footnote, I once shared an office with someone who was very senior and very respected in the department and who had just retired. I think I was his first office mate in over 30 years. Being a gentleman to his fingertips, he adopted the habit of knocking before entering *our own* office, a habit I then felt bound to adopt myself.)
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: I believe it is never polite to just walk into an office without making sure the occupants of the office are aware that they do not have an expectation of privacy. Many departments expect faculty to keep their doors open and in turn many PIs expect students to keep their doors open. Even where the department/lab culture accepts doors being shut, PIs often think of all space as "theirs" and expect unfettered access to their students. This does not make it right. A PI should discuss the policies with their students and hopefully come to a mutual agreement about privacy.
I was going to argue it depends since in my old department, graduate students used to be in a shared office that was the "gate keeper" to the laboratories. As it was on a noisy hallway, and there was valuable equipment in the office, the door was always kept shut, but not locked. No one knocked when opening the door. The reason that just walking in was not polite, is the PIs never discussed with my students that there was no expectation of privacy. While I think the students would have been hard pressed to change the minds of the PIs, the PIs should have explained the policies.
Upvotes: 0
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2017/03/18
| 978
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<issue_start>username_0: In choosing between PhD programs A and B (for pure math in the US), some professors have remarked to me that A is favorable because it is more selective and consequently has stronger students than B. Is this a factor I should consider? Both institutions have several of the top researchers in my subfield so quality of advisors is not an issue.<issue_comment>username_1: Ethical yes. Polite no, it is not. I do not see what ethics (resolving human morality) have to do with opening the door.
On a philosophical level, ethics and manners are kind of incompatible since they deal with a different nature of question.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: It *can* be impolite -- from mild to severe --, but it really depends on the group culture.
For instance, my closer colleagues and I usually don't knock to each other's doors before entering -- the rare times the doors are closed --, and we've been doing this for more than 20 years: we used to have a common office space at the beginning of our careers and we simply grew up without any expectation of privacy at the workplace, and really we don't feel the need for it. I still share space with other colleagues or students.
I usually invite my PhD students not to knock when they have to visit me, and I usually don't knock on their doors.
In other groups, however, the above behaviour would be considered extremely impolite: if you are a newcomer, you should try to understand the prevailing group habits, but if you really find a certain habit annoying, try to approach the professor explaining -- in a non-confrontational way -- your concerns.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: As others have said, this depends at least partially on the prevailing custom in the country or insitution you are in. Another factor which has not been mentioned so far is the number of people who use your office. It seems to me that the acceptability of entering an office (other than your own) without knocking increases with the number of people who occupy the office. If you are the sole occupant of the office, an unannounced visitor is more liable to threaten your sense of space than if your office is shared by several others, particularly if these other occupants also receive their share of visitors.
Indeed, if the office is shared by a large number of people, it may be preferred if visitors don't wait to be invited to 'come in!' as the duty of calling out such an invitation is liable to fall to the unfortunate person based closest to the door.
(As a footnote, I once shared an office with someone who was very senior and very respected in the department and who had just retired. I think I was his first office mate in over 30 years. Being a gentleman to his fingertips, he adopted the habit of knocking before entering *our own* office, a habit I then felt bound to adopt myself.)
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: I believe it is never polite to just walk into an office without making sure the occupants of the office are aware that they do not have an expectation of privacy. Many departments expect faculty to keep their doors open and in turn many PIs expect students to keep their doors open. Even where the department/lab culture accepts doors being shut, PIs often think of all space as "theirs" and expect unfettered access to their students. This does not make it right. A PI should discuss the policies with their students and hopefully come to a mutual agreement about privacy.
I was going to argue it depends since in my old department, graduate students used to be in a shared office that was the "gate keeper" to the laboratories. As it was on a noisy hallway, and there was valuable equipment in the office, the door was always kept shut, but not locked. No one knocked when opening the door. The reason that just walking in was not polite, is the PIs never discussed with my students that there was no expectation of privacy. While I think the students would have been hard pressed to change the minds of the PIs, the PIs should have explained the policies.
Upvotes: 0
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2017/03/18
| 675
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<issue_start>username_0: I’m trying to submit a preprint of my paper to the Arxiv as an independent researcher. My academic background is in theoretical physics; I have a PhD in physics, did a postdoc, published several papers in Physical Review and PRL before taking a job in industry. I’ve been working in industry ever since, so I do not currently have an affiliation (i.e. an `.edu` email). I’ve spent the past few years working on my research project independently, and I’d like to submit to the Arxiv and have the community review my results.
I’m currently stuck at the “not endorsed” step. I’ve reached out to qualified endorsers in my subject per the Arxiv’s endorsement process but got no replies. I then contacted the moderation to appeal, but they rejected with what seems like a template reply (“We insist submitters be affiliated...”)
Given my situation, I am wondering if there is any known way to make the Arxiv waive the requirement of endorsement? For example, does the Arxiv make an exception for former academic researchers who have previous publications in peer-reviewed journals?<issue_comment>username_1: I would suggest that you reach out to several more qualified endorsers – perhaps waiting a few days before contacting the next. There are many reasons why the one endorser you contacted already may not have replied. Maybe they're busy, sick, or on holiday. Do you know any old supervisors or collaborators that are endorsers? They might be much more likely to help out!
There is no officially documented way to circumvent the endorsement process, though I would argue that you do have the right to have your work endorsed within a reasonable period of time. Otherwise, clearly the endorsement process is broken. Endorsers should not be endorsers if they don't have the time to endorse!
If you have no success after contacting at least several more endorsers, you could try [contacting the moderation team](https://arxiv.org/help/contact).
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: 1. Just to check, your first request for endorsement emails were hopefully to your thesis advisor/postdoc advisor. If they haven't gotten back to you, either you definitely haven't waited long enough or there may be some other issue (they don't want you to submit to arxiv without them looking at it first?).
2. Worth looking to see if there are other ways to get a .edu address. If you are a researcher in a relevant industry, you could potentially get some degree of honorary affiliation with a local university just by asking the right people. However, this is probably much harder than getting an endorser! You should also look into your PhD and undergraduate school's policies: many offer "alumni" email addresses that are .edu - but I'm not sure if this is sufficient for arxiv's purposes.
Upvotes: 3
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2017/03/18
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<issue_start>username_0: I am applying for a lectureship in Engineering at a research intensive [Russell Group](http://russellgroup.ac.uk/about/) university. The position involves both research and teaching, roughly 40% research, 40% teaching, 20% admin.
I need to provide three references. I have references which are very familiar with my research work but know very little about my teaching experience. I also have a reference who is the opposite (knows my teaching experience but not research).
I could provide 3 research references, or 2 research and 1 teaching reference.
Should my references focus solely on research, or is there value in including a teaching only reference?<issue_comment>username_1: Although the time-split may suggest the teaching and research are equally important, in practice, as you know, your research is what will wow the appointing committee.
What you need to do on the teaching front is provide evidence that you'll do it effectively (good student feedback, good vibes from those running courses that articulate with yours, minimal problems generated for department) and also efficiently (that is, not likely to bite into the 40% research time - preferably contrariwise). A reference is good, but a reference alone probably won't deal with all this, but you can prepare your pitch to get these messages over; and if you have to give a class or whatever as part of the interview process, do it in such a way that conveys the right message. It's become pretty standard for people to have to hand a teaching portfolio or the like, and if quizzed seriously on this front, be able to offer a sight of it.
As to the admin, I think that again it helps if you've run a conference or helped organise a course or whatever, and it's known that you can do these tasks without taking your eye off the research ball.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: For Russell Group? Research is king - this is not a teaching post, it's a research position (UK Russell Group lecturer is broadly equivalent to an assistant prof at a US R1 - the job titles are different).
Your CV should mention teaching experience, certainly, but your reference letters should be talking about your research skills, and your likelihood of securing funding. What are your REF 4\* papers, what funding do you have – those are what matters.
(Source: I'm an SL at a Russell Group Uni, recently on interview panel for lecturer posts)
Upvotes: 3
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2017/03/18
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<issue_start>username_0: I am new to research and I have yet to internalize the concept of journals and their utility in archiving scientific literature.
Almost all the papers I have read recently are from this website called [arxiv](https://arxiv.org/). Arxiv calls itself to be a preprint archive. Anyone can upload a PDF file to the repository and it counts as a valid research. Large companies like Google and Facebook post all their research here. The research is peer reviewed, It does not have the tyranny of a fixed format and the publishing is instantaneous unlike journals which are painfully slow. It is also open access and unlike open access journals it does not cost a fortune to publish a paper.
My question is, why were journals used to begin with? Why are they used now?
I have heard some people say that if a paper is not published in a [scopus indexed](https://www.scopus.com) journal then it does not have any value. Then why are so many people publishing here? As far as I know citations from arxiv are picked up by google scholar.
EDIT: Ok, so the entire system is a huge mess.
* <https://gowers.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/elsevierstatementfinal.pdf>
* <http://www.michaeleisen.org/blog/?p=1439>
* <https://arxiv.org/pdf/1204.1351.pdf><issue_comment>username_1: First of all, ArXiv covers mathematical disciplines (specifically: Physics, Mathematics, Computer Science, Quantitative Biology, Quantitative Finance and Statistics), not all academic fields. So, the question, which seems to pose this as a general inquiry about the need for journals, is overly broad in the context of offer ArXiv as an alternative.
Second of all, ArXiv is not peer reviewed. Therefore, consumers of the information need to be a bit more careful than when they're referencing information that has gotten past an editorial board and at least a couple peer reviewers. That's not to say that erroneous material doesn't get past peer reviewers (it does) but there's just more quality control in a peer reviewed paper than an unreviewed paper.
Third, my impression of ArXiv is that people upload their stuff there to make it available sooner while they pursue publication in a peer-reviewed journal. It is not meant as a publishing destination, but rather a repository to speed up dissemination of the information for those who may want it sooner.
Fourth, in my department (I'm in a science discipline, not math), getting tenure requires publishing in peer reviewed journals that are indexed by something like Pubmed. Book chapters and unpublished reports (which is what I'd consider an ArXiv paper) count very little toward fulfilling tenure expectations.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: Journals, in the past and today, are not just printed material - they're social institutions of the community; and publishing in a journal is a process that involves:
* **Peer review** by such specialists in the field as the editor/editorial collective/steering committee deems appropriate; and
* **Editing** of the paper: Content-wise and typesetting/graphics-wise and language/style-wise. It could be editing due to reviewer comments by the original authors or by professionals employed to assist with the journal.
You don't get that on ArXiv, and you only get that partially (or almost not at all) in conferences.
The use of journals as publication venues is also a form of **filtration / selection**, even from among papers which would merit reading given endless time and attention. In the past, publication in a journal was often the difference between a publication coming to people's attention *at all* (ignoring personal contacts); but these days, it's still the case in most disciplines that there's much more awareness of what's been published in journals than of what one could find using an web search engine.
In some fields, conferences serve this role as much/more so than journals, but you can just apply this answer to submitting papers to those conferences - whose proceedings are like a sort of a journal too.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: Peer review, as the others have said.
Mathematicians can consult dozens (if not hundreds) of false proofs of the Riemann Hypothesis on Arxiv. Such things are (mostly) rejected by the journals. Journals which publish them soon get a bad reputation.
Imagine if all the amazing new health claims form the Internet could not be distinguished from serious medical research! (For many people I know, that is unfortunately already the case. But those who care can try to find which of those cancer cures have at least some actual evidence for them.)
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: >
> Why are so many people publishing [on ArXiv]?
>
>
>
You have to be careful with terminology when making statements like that. ArXiv is certainly "publishing" in the literal sense of "making public" but would you say that you'd "published a book" if you'd just put it on your website? Probably not.
>
> My question is, why were journals used to begin with?
>
>
>
Because they predate ArXiv and the web by hundreds of years, though the format has changed over time.
>
> Why are they used now?
>
>
>
Partly through inertia, partly through a lack of alternatives. On a purely scientific level, ArXiv itself is not peer-reviewed. On a non-scientific level, ... People have an intuition about the quality they expect from a paper that appears in a particular journal and we don't have alternatives that allow us to make this kind of judgement. Correspondingly, certain journals have quite a lot of prestige, which is important for students early-career researchers who are looking for promotion; a large fraction of papers have at least one such author. It's easier for people like <NAME> to work outside that system.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_5: The big problem with Arxiv is something you mentioned in your post:
"**Anyone** can upload a PDF file to the repository and it counts as a valid research. "
There are thousands and thousands of papers on username_1iv which are somewhere between junk and complete nonsense. To convince yourself just look at the many "proofs" of the Riemann Hypothesis and, if I remember right, there are also "proofs" that RH is false.
The same problem also appears with some journals. The simple fact that something was published in a journal doesn't make it true. There are a lot of predatory journals which would publish anything for money, and the quality of their papers is even lower that the worst things on username_1iv.
But there are a few journals which try to control the quality of the published research. They are not foolproof, and they sometimes publish bad or wrong papers, but the chances of that happening are typically much much lower than the chances of a random paper from username_1iv of being junk or wrong. While not perfect, peer review can catch many mistakes and comb out many low quality papers.
As a researcher, knowing that a paper was published in what I know to be a serious journal, compared to just put on username_1iv (see (\*) below for extra comments), gives me an extremely important piece of information: I know that if I read the paper in detail, and try to understand it fully, it is less likely that after couple weeks I discover on page 64 that the author does something completely stupid and unfixable and nothing works.
Peer review in good journals it gives me better chances of not wasting large amounts of time for nothing.
(\*) Often, if I am familiar with the work of a certain mathematician, I don't need to rely on this type of information to know what to expect. In that situation, what I know about his work combined with a fast read of the abstract and maybe introduction can tell me if the paper will be interesting or not. But things can be tricky if I come along a very long and technical, potentially interesting paper from an unknown mathematician.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_6: Why were journals used to begin with?
-------------------------------------
Before journals, scientific work was disseminated through books.
And this was fine for many centuries. However, after the Scientific Revolution, as scientific work and consequently publishing were gaining momentum, the format of books and book publishing was simply becoming impractical.
Scientists needed frequent, periodical publishing of regulated works, i.e. something akin to a scientific news service. And this is how scientific journals came to be.
The format of scientific journals has noticeably changed over the years, but the core idea of periodical publishing of new scientific work has remained the same.
Why are journals used in modern academic research?
--------------------------------------------------
We still use journals for at least a few reasons.
As @DavidRicherby has mentioned in his answer, inertia and lack of significantly better alternatives are two major reasons.
But the biggest reason, in my opinion, is simply **money**.
There is just too much money in current academic publishing, e.g. Elsevier had a net profit of £1.014 billions for 2015, and this creates all sorts of barriers.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_7: It's all about scientific communication.
**Once opon a time ...** researchers wanted to share and discuss their findings with each other. At the beginning, they talked and wrote **letters**, since there was only a small number of researchers in each field.
With a more and more educated society the **research communities started growing**. Letters were no longer sufficient, because only a small amount of people could read and interact. The solution was to **publish** the letters, i.e. allow several print copies which could be distributed to several researchers and/or research institutions.
**Letters** were mainly like writing down an idea and/or conclusions as a starting point, waiting for the input of one or two collegues/recipients, pick their ideas up and answer to them again with a letter.
The communication via **published and widely distributed letters** was no longer as interactive as letters. The published research/text was no longer a starting point of a discussion, since a discussion only worked by publishing an answer and waiting for the published reply of the initial author. Each publication had to be printed and send per Mail.
This process had three major **disadvantages**: (1) It was expensive, (2) it was very slow and (3) since there was no longer a specific recipient which was required to answer, some letters were never discussed/questioned.
Journals shifted the discussion with some colleagues to the time before the publication of the letter/article. This is what we call **peer-review**. It solved the three disadvantages by being less expensive, by allowing a faster interaction between author and reviewers (only letters between author and reviewers) and by ensuring a critical examination of each published research/text and therefore its quality.
**Today ...** print publications are more and more vanishing and online/digital publications are the majority. Although the current peer-review process has its problems and issues, it still has the goal to ensure the critical examination of the published research/texts. This is what repositories without peer-review like arXiv can't ensure.
There are several approaches to solve this problem, since there are problems with peer-review and publishers. Some researchers and research societies start their own open access journals where researchers publish and review for free, i.e. research coordinates its own communication without the need of publishers. Another approach is to peer-review after the publication. This is also a community approach but might end up with articles without peer-review, since there are no specific recipients/reviewers which are required to answer. This approach reintroduces disadvantege (3) to the communication process.
In general, most researcher would say that articles that are not peer-reviewed are not quality proved which means that a reader always has to check and validate what is written in the article. Since there are problems with peer-review, most researcher would say, that you also have to check and validate what is written in a peer-reviewed article. With this in mind, one could argue that both ways to publish are equivalent.
**Looking at the great picture** one could describe the current system of scientific communication as ... let's say ... problematic. Publishers are trying to make money. Funders want to save money. Institutions want their researchers to publish a lot, to be cited a lot and to publish in reputable journals, which are most of the times defined by the impact factor that privileges journals that have been around for some time. Researchers want a wide distribution of their work and good jobs which is most of the time depending on their publication list, the impact factors of the journals they published in and the h-index.
**Long story short**, the whole system is stuck.
**Coming back to your question ...** Publishing on arXiv is fine, if your research topic is represented at arXiv. It's also fine to publish on any other (maybe institutional) repository without peer-review. Unfortunately, the current system might penalise this due to the concentration on journals, publishers and bibliometrics when it comes to evaluating research/researcher.
Upvotes: 3
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2017/03/18
| 794
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<issue_start>username_0: Should I cite a paper that I deem of bad quality just because it is among the only two papers that use the same methodology I'm using in my research?
I'm writing a paper that uses a relatively new computational tool. There are ONLY two studies that use the same tool in similar research contexts. One did it superbly (Paper A). The other didn’t (Paper B). I have to make the reader aware I am not the first using this software in my field, but the scope of my paper is clearly defined and does not include delivering opinions on the other two papers (both papers are in my same field, but their research questions are so different to mine that, on behalf of directness, there is no point in discussing their results and wasting precious space in an already dense paper). In other words, a plain sentence of the sort “Software X has been use in rocket science before (Cite A; Cite B)” must do. But I feel a little uncomfortable for not differentiating between the disparate quality of the papers, perhaps sounding like I am endorsing Paper B at the same degree I am endorsing Paper A, and implying that readers should view both as having equally meaningful information. As a clarification, I do not see any wrongdoing by the authors of Paper B; it is just a flawed paper that made it into a top journal.
Is it ethical to skip citing a paper that I consider of bad quality? To what extent does citing means endorsement if no further evaluation of the cited paper is included?
Consider that the problem is more nuanced that it might seem. If the software was of customary use, no citation would be needed, but these two papers and mine are the only studies using the software, and I want to make the reader aware I am not a crank for trying this approach.<issue_comment>username_1: >
> To which extent citing means endorsement if no furher evaluation of the cited paper is included?
>
>
>
**None at all.**
By citing the paper as using the software, you are acknowledging that the paper exists, and that it used the software, and that is the only thing you are doing. Citation is not a sign of approval or agreement or endorsement; it is merely acknowledgement of existence and relevance. Citations are not statements about the *quality* of any result, either positive or negative. If you want to state an opinion about the quality of a result, either positive or negative, you must actually state your opinion in the text, using English words.
I suggest initially citing both papers, and then giving more details about how paper A used the software to derive interesting results, and then remaining conspicuously silent about paper B.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: You are not obliged to cite work that is accepted as badly sub standard. In fact the job of an academic, as with all research, is to filter, to choose the best parts of what is out there. Research is inherently a filtering process, and therefore you want to show your reader that you are good at filtering, that you have vetted the material you choose to cite, otherwise you lose respect of the reader. Ironically if you do not filter properly, you yourself will be filtered by other academics who see that you waste the reader's time.
That may be a bit harsh for one citation, I'm just expressing the general rule, and the more exceptions we make the more likely our own work's quality will be questioned.
Upvotes: 0
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2017/03/18
| 1,459
| 6,247
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<issue_start>username_0: I am currently a first-year master's student in a field of study with a strong international focus. The school's program that I am enrolled in is ranked in the top ten for the major, and the school is located in an ideal location. However, I have serious doubts about my program, and I am a disillusioned student. Other than the fact that I had gained acceptance to the school, the main reason that I chose to enroll at my current school was because of its emphasis on professionalism. Most of the professors in my program seem to be adjuncts who are employed full-time elsewhere and teach at my school on one of the weekday evenings. I thought that by learning under such instructors, I would be able to gain a more practical, realistic knowledge. However, I feel that I am proven wrong. All of my courses are scheduled in the evenings to allow students to work or intern during the daytime.
I am just a second-semester student, and I have taken four courses the first semester and am taking four courses this semester. So, out of my eight courses, only one last semester and one this semester are taught by a full-time professor at the university. The other courses have been or are being taught by adjuncts who work full-time elsewhere. The problem is that the ones being taught by adjuncts, especially this semester, lack clear guidelines for the expectations for the course. Also, most of them do not even have office hours, nor do they respond to emails. I only feel very lost and frustrated. Grades are highly unpredictable, too. In terms of how grades go, I am in the situation of crossing my fingers and hoping for the best. At my current university, strangely enough, undergraduate grades seem to be inflated, while graduate grades seem to be deflated.
Also, what else frustrates me is that my courses seem to only revolve around theory. It's about trying to apply the theory in real-life situations. They don't even encourage creative thinking, just theory. One of my current courses gives out a lot of abstract reading assignments, but the instructor who is an adjunct does not make an attempt to explain them. In each session, it's like, "Hey, what did you think of the readings? I want you to talk about them."
Is it common for a master's program to have so many adjuncts who lack availability? **Is it also common in most master's disciplines to feel totally lost without any faculty guidance?** Would the situation have been different for a PhD program? Is my situation common or unique? If my program is in the top ten for its discipline, would it be beneficial for me in the job market? I feel very embarrassed to tell anyone, especially family members about how I actually feel about my program. I don't feel motivated about challenging myself further because I feel that taking a unique viewpoint is risky to obtaining a decent grade.<issue_comment>username_1: Unfortunately, many US masters programs are viewed as a source of considerable income for the respective departments. They are typically sponsored by companies, which don't necessarily care about the knowledge that their employees get. Being an independent masters student in such a department is not great. Adjuncts are definitely hit and miss. At any rate, while in grad school, the main rule is to rely on yourself. If you can't learn by yourself, don't go there.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: This sadly does not surprise me very much, especially if you are in a field like public policy or international studies, and especially if it is a graduate-level interdisciplinary program that is not directly run by a department with its own undergraduates and doctoral students. (In the U.S., at least, undergraduate programs have very strict accreditation, and doctoral programs are a point of pride for faculty. Masters programs often get lost in the middle, especially if the masters students don't have classes with the undergrads or doctoral students.)
If you want to stick with this degree, you will have to rely on yourself, as username_1 suggests, to get the most out of this program.
* It's at the top of rankings because highly qualified students attend (and vice versa). Make the most of your classmates' knowledge and enthusiasm, and work on side projects with them.
* Try to take the maximum number of classes with full-time professors, even to the point of petitioning for graduate classes from other departments to replace your requirements. See if you can do an independent study with a few other motivated students and a willing full-time professor.
* Make the most of the entire campus you're on. I am guessing that, for this program to be so highly regarded, it is part of a busy university, so get on the mailing lists for departments you're interested in, try to discover funding sources for research projects open to you as a student there, and/or try to find a professor to do research with (for a limited number of volunteer hours, for course credit, or as a job).
* Does your program have a capstone project or thesis? Figure out how to make that serve your career goals. (If you're interested in further academic study, then try to make the research as well-thought-through as possible; if you're interested in working in a particular company or industry, find a topic that's in demand there.)
* If there's a campus writing center or tutoring center or statistical consulting center, use it as much as you can to improve your project/thesis.
* If there are career counseling resources on campus, use them. You may be able to be part of the campus alumni network.
If you don't see this "self-driven" option working out, you could also find something related to do for a year and ask for a leave of absence. (E.g., if this were a public health school, you could find a relevant job in some level of government somewhere, or a job at a health-related NGO/non-profit.) See how necessary it is to finish your degree to advance in that world, and give yourself time to make that decision. (While you may have to live with low wages or no wages while doing this, it may be a better choice than paying tuition and living expenses toward a program you are not seeing much value from.)
Good luck!
Upvotes: 2
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2017/03/19
| 2,795
| 11,961
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<issue_start>username_0: **This is a follow up to the question [Is it possible take take part in a research project if I'm not a part of a university?](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/306/is-it-possible-take-take-part-in-a-research-project-if-im-not-a-part-of-a-unive)**
I'm a student who has not yet entered college (though I am planning to as soon as I graduate highschool; that's a little ways away now though) located in the United States. I am old enough to legally work (just to clarify) and I'm interested in doing research. I've been teaching myself various subjects in math, physics, and programming/computer science (I've learned how to program in Python, the basics of calculus and linear algebra, and I'm reading about quantum computing, for example). Reading the question linked above, the advice seemed to be to contact a professor, whether through family, at conferences, or by emailing, and that it was certainly possible. I don't have any family that is in academia, and I can't exactly attend conferences (though I might try to attend some open talks that the nearest university gives, though that's a bit of a long shot) so the **best option seems to be to email them**.
**What information do I need to give the professor?** I've read about a CV, but my educational record is, you know, Kindergarden through 8th grade (with straight A's, but, you know, plenty of people get that) and the electives I've taken haven't yet differentiated much, and they won't until around 10th grade. I have taught myself a decent amount, but I don't know how to convey that information. I've found several professors at a university near me that I'd be interested in working with, and I'm working through some of their papers, so I can talk semi-educatedly about their research (hopefully, anyway). I also have an idea for a research topic that I've been working on for a bit in the field of quantum computing.
Should I try to compose some version of a CV? Should I explain that I'm teaching myself various subjects, and am interested in their research, perhaps referencing some question I have about one of their papers and/or stuff I'm working on? I assume you're not really supposed to say, "Dear Professor so-and-so, Can I work with you?" I also assume they're not going to take reputation on stack exchange as any sign of intelligence. =)
**Tl;dr**, how can I a. get a professor to take me seriously and b. have a shot at getting accepted as a volunteer or assistant or summer intern or whatever for the professor/lab/group? Or should I not be emailing them (instead calling them, setting up an appointment, whatever)?<issue_comment>username_1: **What information do I need to give the professor?**
It certainly wouldn't hurt to have a resume of some sort on hand to give to a university professor. If you have entered in Robotics competitions, math competitions, science bowls, etc. it wouldn't hurt to include those as well. Really anything to prove that you are serious and really interested in the topic.
However, in all reality, it would be difficult for a professor to focus his/her time on giving you an internship or research opportunity when you are competing against many other University students who probably are more knowledgeable and have more experience than you. (I tried doing that in high school - emailing professors and such to try and improve my chances of getting accepted to college and none of them responded.) In addition, the University probably would be more favorable towards their own students rather than someone in high school. I think that your best bet would be to start joining summer camps and such offered by your local university. Research how to be involved in such activities. When I was in high school, I was part of my Robotics team and there were competitions at my state university. This gave me a good chance to meet with the college students there who were present and get an idea for what the topic is really about. Even though I never met a college professor at these events it definitely provided opportunities to really experience "research" without being so formal.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: I think the biggest obstacle you face is convincing a professor that you are a good investment of his/her time. Quantum computing is a tough subject even for advanced undergraduates and graduate students, so I think the default response for any professor to an 8th grader would be one of skepticism that you have the basic skills to be an asset to his/her research. In other words, will you be able to contribute enough to a project to justify the time and effort the professor will invest in you?
One slightly unconventional approach would be to try lower on the academic totem pole. Do the professors you identified have any graduate or undergraduate students? Do they work in a department that has an academic coordinator? These people may be more responsive to emails, more willing to talk with you, or better abled to point you to other people (key word is **may**). If you can impress a professor's graduate student with your initiative, skills, etc., this could be a way to get your foot in the door.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: You might want to try aiming a bit lower, such as those schools that don't have graduate programs.
At these types of places, where it is difficult for professors to even get any students (let alone the top undergraduates) involved in their research program, some professors may actually want to bring on board a high school / junior high student, if for no other reason than to impress some administrative type (dean, department head, etc.) that this particular professor is engaging in some form of outreach (you know, to help spread the word about the program to get students excited about going to school there).
Just send an email to someone involved in the area you are interested in, attach a CV \*, and briefly explain your aims. If the school is close by to you, you could also arrange an in-person visit. For the in-person visit route, if you are indeed interested in attending the school for your undergraduate degree, I suggest you indicate this fact when you attempt to setup the meeting.
Good luck.
---
\* In your CV, you can briefly summarize your self-study progress and plans, your research interests, any projects you've undertaken on your own, and the like, if you don't have any formal educational training in the research area of interest, any papers published, etc.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_4: I actually did roughly what you're after back when I was in high school. I ended up working in a chemistry lab at the local university from my sophomore year through the summer after my senior year---and got paid pretty well to boot! While not the same field as what you're after, hopefully you can learn from some of my experiences. As most of the other answers are from a professor's perspective, I'll try to give my recollections from the high school point of view (rather than my thoughts as a current PhD candidate).
* I found this job via networking with a family friend that was working as a post-doc in a different lab (same department). The "hiring process" consisted of meeting with the professor for a 45 minute talk before being welcomed aboard and given a tour of the lab. As with many jobs, networking beats cold-calling almost every time. Even if it's not your "dream research group," see if you can't get your foot in the door by seeing if anyone is hiring for "Research Assistants" or "Laboratory Technicians." Large research groups will sometimes even have listings for such things.
* Try to strike a balance and not oversell your abilities. As you mention, you have a large number of accomplishments, especially compared to your peers. Keep in mind, though, that you are looking to join a research group that will have people with years of formal schooling and research experience. As an analogy, you have probably figured out that (some) of your teachers don't take it kindly when you prove them wrong in front of the class; a similar level of tact is useful here as well. You're asking to join *their* research group!
* When you reach out to professors and hopefully meet with them, try to sell why you would be beneficial to their group. In my case, the first year or so I spent in the lab was very much laboratory tech / assistant work---cleaning glassware, updating MSDS sheets, organizing the stockroom, updating the website, etc. However, I was proving myself to be a known and helpful quantity and learning everything I could about all of the ongoing research projects. This slowly transitioned into helping perform experiments and eventually designing and running experiments that were helpful for the research that others had going on. In comparison, don't necessarily be expected to be "handed to keys" to whatever multi-million dollar machines are around on the first day.
* Learn everything you can. There's an amazing amount of information you can pick up by attending lab meetings or asking different researchers about what they're working on (and especially where to learn more). Even if you're doing "grunt work," make the most of it!
The professor in charge of the research group ended up writing me an awesome letter of recommendation when I was applying for university as well as writing letters of introduction to several people at the university I chose. This helped me start working in a lab on the first day of my freshman year in a new city on the opposite side of the country, rather than being just another face in a large lecture hall. In addition to keeping on top of my own coursework, the experience of working in a research lab was probably the most productive thing I did with my time in high school.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_5: First of all congratulations for your will to set high targets. Based on your question I suspect that you are more advanced than typical for your age.
Maybe you could try to contact institutions which support high IQ persons. (e.g. <https://www.mensa.org/>, or <http://www.triplenine.org/>). They might help you with contacts to universities. Like in every job search, personal connections can be very helpfull.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_6: Universities often have outreach programs specifically aimed at high school students like you, who are ready to dip a toe in the waters of college-level research and coursework. You're probably going to have better luck going through one of those programs than contacting professors directly. Professors are very, very busy as a rule, and notorious for not responding to email *from their own students* in a timely fashion, let alone from people they've never heard of before.
[This google search](https://www.google.com/search?q=iowa+state+university+high+school+outreach) brings up several such programs at Iowa State that might be relevant to you.
There are also a number of summer "camps" for high school students in the sciences that you might consider applying to. I can personally recommend [SSP](http://www.summerscience.org/).
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_7: In the US, the easy option is for you to walk into the department at your university of interest and speak to the department secretary. Tell her who you are, and what your goals are. Be friendly.
He/She might know which member of faculty you should speak with, and might even be able to help you set up a meeting.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_8: Check out the 3rd author of this top-quality conference research paper: <https://www.usenix.org/conference/fast17/technical-sessions/presentation/chen>
I was pretty floored when I realized a high school student was involved in a university research project. This is another example that proves it can happen; if you contact a university and they tell you what a bad idea it is, point them at this!
Upvotes: 2
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2017/03/19
| 711
| 3,139
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<issue_start>username_0: I am currently studying in an undergrad programme in the social sciences/humanities in North America, and I am debating whether I should pursue the honours degree option (which would require me to take additional coursework, choose a concentration, as well as write and present a honours essay).
I want to apply to grad schools (MA programmes, but I want to try to apply directly to PhDs as well) when I finish my BA, so I'm wondering what is the impact of the "honours degree" in the application process? Will this improve (significantly?) my chances of receiving an offer?
The main reasons why I'm hesitant about the honours degree are (1) that it would cost me more money and (2) that since I've already graduated from a different programme (in a different discipline) this is my second BA and time is starting to be an issue.<issue_comment>username_1: Serving on a doctoral faculty for many years, typically when candidates are evaluated there are specific criteria that first have to be met. So, they will evaluate basic things like your GRE score, GPA, TOEFL score (if applicable). They will also evaluate your writing sample, if required to make sure that you will be able to write at the graduate level (use of references, clarity of writing, etc.).
Other than that, they will evaluate how well you fit with their program. Are you planning to study a topic that is aligned with the work already being done? Do they have an appropriate mentor/advisor to match you with? Do you express a sincere interest in research (our program emphasized research, but we would receive applicants who wanted a PhD and continue working as practitioners in the community. We weeded some of them out if it looked like they would not excel at research).
So, the Honors designation alone won't necessarily put you ahead of other candidates. That being said, if a doctoral program has a limited number of graduate stipends available, they may only accept the most qualified candidates - if the honors program you mention has specific coursework that is in strong alignment with the graduate programs you plan to apply to, then you may want to consider the additional study. However, if you have a strong record of the programs' requirements and write a compelling statement or writing sample, the honors program may not be your best investment. Best of luck!!!!!!
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: I think the value of an honors degree is much more in the activities required for the "honors" designation rather than the designation itself.
For example, at my undergraduate institution for my field, it was a requirement for honors to write an undergraduate thesis based on research in a lab, and to complete several seminar courses: your institution sounds like it uses similar specifications. Because "honors" means so many different things to different institutions, it is unlikely that a given PhD program will know what your "honors" designation really means; however, they *can* evaluate your readiness for a PhD based on the work you have done in courses and undergraduate research.
Upvotes: 3
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2017/03/19
| 1,218
| 5,031
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<issue_start>username_0: Suppose the first paragraph of a paper submitted to a journal says "We prove that the Riemann hypothesis follows from Catholic doctrines concerning sacraments [etc.]" and the referee's report accompanying the rejection says "The author's purpose is to prove the P =/= NP conjecture . . . " etc. and explains that that fails.
How reasonable would it be to argue that the journal should reconsider on the grounds that the paper was not honestly reviewed? And in so doing, how would one avoid offending the editor who probably holds the referee in high esteem and has never heard of the author?<issue_comment>username_1: I think most journals won't reconsider a rejection, but just ask you to resubmit. Formality.
Explain to the editor why the previous reviewer had this misunderstanding, what you changed to clear this up for the future reader, and there should be no problems. Provided you have identified and addressed the problem correctly. ;-)
If the paper was not formally rejected, do the same thing. Just be very polite in any case, because the fault is definitively on you, and you want the reviewer to just slap his head and say "Yes of course, brilliant, why didn't you say so before!".
Instead of being annoyed with you for wasting his time.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: >
> How reasonable would it be to argue that the journal should reconsider on the grounds that the paper was not honestly reviewed?
>
>
>
If I were you I would *really, really, really* avoid bringing anything to do with "honesty" into the discussion. Seriously, it's unprofessional and off-putting to question the integrity of people who may have a much higher reputation and level of credibility than you (and you don't even know the identity of the person you're accusing... not a good position to be in). However, I think it would be extremely reasonable to politely point out the mistake and make the case that the reviewer's misconception of what the paper does is severe enough so as to invalidate the conclusion of the review and justify giving the paper a fresh look.
Now, whether it is also reasonable to expect your argument to sway the editor's decision is a separate question. Personally I wouldn't be too optimistic, but it's worth a try, and if you phrase your rebuttal politely and professionally then I don't think you are risking anything other than a bit of time and a minor disappointment.
I also agree with a point made in the comments that it would be worth taking a fresh look at your paper to see to what extent a lack of clarity in your writing may have contributed to the reviewer's mistake. If you find any way to improve the presentation in a way that minimizes the chances for this sort of misunderstanding, do so, and include a revised version of your manuscript when you submit the rebuttal, and explain the changes you've made to eliminate the chances for a misunderstanding.
>
> And in so doing, how would one avoid offending the editor who probably holds the referee in high esteem and has never heard of the author?
>
>
>
I don't see why the *editor* should be offended, and also think it should be possible to not offend even the reviewer if your email is polite and sticks to facts. Mostly, just don't say anything offensive (like questioning people's honesty!) and you should be fine. Here's one way you might do it:
>
> Dear Editor,
>
>
> Thank you for sending me the referee report for my paper and the decision regarding my submission. While I appreciate the consideration given to my paper by yourself and the anonymous referee, I wanted to point out what appears to be a misguided interpretation of my paper's results by the referee. They claim that I try and fail to prove the conjecture that P=/=NP, but in fact my claim is that I have proved the Riemann Hypothesis, which is a very different conjecture. The difference between those two claims is that [*insert very brief explanation here if necessary*] and is well-known to experts in the area. I believe that my reasoning is solid and have checked the paper to the best of my ability, but of course a serious examination of my paper would be necessary in order for a fair and correct decision to be made regarding whether the paper should be published by your journal. The referee's mischaracterization of my claims obviously calls the conclusion of the review into question.
>
>
> I therefore kindly request that you send the paper to be refereed again, either by the same referee with a request that he or she rethink their opinion in view of their earlier misunderstanding, or to a different referee who is qualified to provide a serious opinion on the paper.
>
>
> I also wanted to mention that I have made a few small changes to paragraphs X, Y, Z in Section A to try to make the statement of my results clearer and minimize the chances that other referees or readers of my paper will misunderstand my claims. The revised manuscript is attached.
>
>
> [Yours etc.]
>
>
>
Upvotes: 3
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2017/03/20
| 1,241
| 5,249
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<issue_start>username_0: My professor that I've worked for, and other professors that I've met in undergrad, often complain about how it is "publish or death" situation in their department. Specifically, they have told me that they feel like they are under heavy pressure to publish, often having to work for late nights and weekends. It's somewhat ironic because they thought that life would get much easier once they finish PhD and perhaps get a tenure, which is exactly what I'm thinking now.
However, they told me that they are often over-worked and burnt out as well, just like many other PhD students. It might be worst because for many of them, it's been a long marathon, working day and night to obtain PhD, just to compete with many outstanding candidates fighting for limited positions in universities, and if they have successfully secured the job, to work insanely to impress other colleagues and get tenured.
Even for tenured professors, while they won't be fired for not publishing, they have told me that they are often looked down upon if they don't publish many papers in good journals, especially since they are now 'senior researcher' in the department. While these are purely anecdotal with very limited sample, I feel that there might be some truth in their complaints.
My question is: **Is it common for professors in university to be under such high pressure and constant competition? Why do people want to go into academia if they are under such stress?**
I personally would not want to go into academia, if I know that for the rest of my career, I'd be under constant pressure to outperform others and publish as many papers as possible in the best journals. I may be naive, but I feel that workload in academia easily exceeds that of industry job with fixed 9-5 hours, and I doubt many industry jobs have such fierce competition among the 'best of the best'.
I'm aware that this may be field-dependent, so I'm interested to hear from people's experiences in many fields. I'm currently in US, but I want to hear from experiences in other countries if they have different cultures.<issue_comment>username_1: There is always pressure to succeed in life, and further, people who get prestigious jobs are often those who are self-motivated to do exceedingly well. I've also noticed athletes who cannot have "fun" playing softball or whatnot because they are so upset when they or their teammates play badly. Unfortunately, these are the types of people who often win in competitive situations.
**There are enormous differences between departments both within and across institutions.** Believe me, even one crop of PhD students or a year of undergraduates can make things more or less pressured, let alone university or department executives.
Why do people become academics? Two reasons: because they love what they do, or because they feel like they can't do anything else. The latter is nuts. If you do not love what you are doing, *get out now.* **Anyone who can make it to a PhD let alone to faculty can get a good job in industry.** But academia really is about getting to spend at least some of your time pursuing and talking about things that really truly interest you, and might change the world.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: I'll tell you my experience in pure mathematics. Some departments (usually the more elite ones) are more competitive than others, and some fields are more competitive than others. While your field and environment certainly play a large role in how much pressure you feel, the amount of pressure you feel is also largely determined by **your attitude toward your work.**
I think my department is very friendly and uncompetitive, though I go through phases of feeling more pressure or less pressure, but these are mainly internal pressures, e.g. I want to get this paper finished by this time for some arbitrary self-imposed reason, but I don't feel like there's some result I *have* to get. My attitude now is I just think about certain things and try to understand them. Maybe a paper comes out of this, and it may or may not be what I was hoping to do.
When I was a grad student, and a postdoc, I noticed some people were more harder working than me, and would get better results, but I didn't want to work 14 hour days every day. And I figure I'd just work how I want to, and then the type of school that's willing to hire me given my output at the time will be happy with me working how much I want. Indeed, I did not feel any pressure before getting tenure or afterwards. While during some periods I do work long hours, typically I work 40-50 hours/week, am not too stressed, and have the freedom to work on what I want to.
Generally, people stay in academia because they like what they do, though there are unpleasant parts of the job (refereeing, grading, certain committee work, etc), and certain times of the year are more hectic than others. Typically as you get more senior, more gets asked of you (though you don't need to always say yes), but this is probably true for most industry jobs as well. In industry, a lot of deadlines are harder than in academia, and a lot of people get stressed out and overworked in those jobs too.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]
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2017/03/20
| 1,344
| 6,092
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<issue_start>username_0: Update: Mars 29
Thank you everyone for your time and efforts to help me with the revision. The article has been resubmitted yesterday and accepted this morning. Without your help, I don't think I can do this. Except your suggestions for this revision, the more important thing I've learned from your comments is the altitude and methods of research， which points out the correct direction and helps me get rid of some misunderstand of research. Thank you everyone again. It's a excellent experience of discussing with you here and I expect more communications in the future.
---
I've received the editor's reponse for the second revision. He marked "minor revision" in the online system of submission. But his review is so confusing.
Reviewers/Editor comments: As the reviewer kindly points out the discussion is very speculative. In view of this, the outcome of this manuscript is still in doubt and a final decision will be taken upon submission of your revisions.
Reviewer #1: The authors have responded to my comments. The article has some value but its discussion is still somewhat heavy on speculation and somewhat light on hard analysis. Leading the authors further toward a stronger analysis falls beyond the scope of the review and so it falls to the editor to decide whether that value is sufficient to warrant publication in [journal].
In fact, if I revise the manuscript according to their demand to eliminate the "speculations", I have to delete and simply a lot of the discussions. This is a real "major revisions" indeed. So now I am so confused for this so-called "minor revisions". I'd like to ask your help and advice, thank you!
---<issue_comment>username_1: In my experience, there are three big differences between a major revision and a minor one:
1. The major usually has more extensive edits requested, which will take more time.
2. A major revision goes back to reviewers, while the minor revision goes to the (associate) editor for a decision.
3. The vast majority of minor revisions are ultimately accepted for publication, while many more major revisions are later found unacceptable and rejected.
Another possible factor is that some publications may only allow one major revision in the review process. Here, it sounds almost like they want a major revision (as @Enze MA said) in terms of the extent of the changes, but it won't go back to the reviewer who basically punted and asked the journal to decide whether to accept as is.
So given this, my own reaction would be to try and satisfy the editor that I'm doing my best to follow the reviews, without the drastic rewrite to remove all the speculative content. After all, it's a minor revision. Would it work to somehow make it clearer in the article that the authors recognize some of the discussion is more speculative, for example?
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: I just had something similar to this happen with a high-impact journal with an awesomely useful review process. **The majorness of corrections is not about the amount of text changed, it's about how significant to the main outcome -- and how difficult to execute -- the changes are.** What I (and it sounds like you) had to do was to recognise which of my claims in the discussion were well-supported, and which were not, and just delete what was not, or possibly replace it with smaller, better substantiated claims.
This is a sensible requirement by a good editor. Science isn't benefited if great experiments carry forwards unwarranted speculation to readers, but we also don't want great experiments thrown out because the authors who did them overestimated their value or significance in some way.
Congratulations on your publication, and I advise that you just comment out the stuff you have to delete, or better yet put it in a file as the start of your next paper, and figure out how to really support those claims :-)
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: Both the reviewer and editor are very polite and guarded in their answers. Reviewer #1 basically says that the analysis section of the paper is too light. OP seems to accept that in the comments. "if I simply these discussions (!), it will be revised a lot." Reviewer 1 says the analysis needs to be beefed up, but he is not going to do it. ("Leading the authors further toward a stronger analysis falls beyond the scope of the review...")
Reading between the lines of @Enze Ma's comment, I think I can see the potential problem: The author uses macroscale experiments ---it would help to know a bit about the area in order to understand what that means --- but uses microscale theories to explain these results. This is always going to be a problem and needs to be addressed honestly and directly. What is it about the macroscale results in the paper that make them different from previous work? Are the microscale theories, in fact, able to shed new light on the macroscale resuls? If not, what is the contribution of the paper to existing literature?
This final question is, of course, the most important and should be addressed first. There should be no waffling about the contribution. "I think my paper may extend the field ... " is not going to cut it. "My paper extends the field in these ways:..." is much more positive, stronger, less speculative, and is likely what reviewer #1 is looking for.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: The distinction between minor and major revisions is subjective and it may be that the editor believes that this may be an easy fix, though the comments made to you are confusing for you (as they may be to anyone).
Without having your paper to review and not knowing about the topic of the manuscript, my initial thought is that you may be able to move your discussion section from "speculative" to "analytical" by grounding your findings more in the existing research. If you can relate your findings more to the existing body of research and site other stories, it seems that this would make your discussion of the findings less "speculative." Good luck! Hope this helps.
Upvotes: 1
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<issue_start>username_0: I'm in the process of selecting an appropriate journal for my article. I short-listed a few journals based on topic coverage, IF and speed of the review process.
I am confused: should I select a journal with higher IF (2.3) published by a non-reputable publisher (MDPI) or should I publish in a journal with low IF (1.2) published by a reputable publisher (IEEE)?
By reputation I mean the reputable publisher (IEEE) is specialized in my area of research and non reputable (MDPI) is an Open Access publisher.<issue_comment>username_1: Another way to see which is reputable or not, besides the impact factor, is the *Editorial Board*. Which of these journals have, in your opinion, the strongest Ed.B. (measured by expertise/fame etc). Journals with stronger Ed.B. will guarantee better visibility of your result and, probably, more technical/specialized review process.
You should also know that IF is, sometimes, artificial in the sense that it does not capture the exact *quality* of the journal. In my field, TCS, there are many highly ranked journals (for example *Combinatorica*) the impact factor of which is less than many mediocre journals. But does it mean anything? No.
Also, more specialized journals (and hence with lower IF, although that's not *always* the case) have better visibility on your own field. Submitting your paper in a general purpose journal includes the risk of your paper getting "lost" in otehr unrelated, or borderline related, papers which means high risk of being overlooked by potential readers. You might say that this can be solved by posting it on ArXiv but I found out many interesting papers for my research the way I described above.
At the end of the day, nobody is scrutinizing IF: what matters is how reputable and well known the journal is and how easy or hard is to publish there.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Ultimately you should ask your supervisor or close colleagues which journal they recommend. You can also look at in which journals the top researchers in your field usually publish.
In the absence of better reasons, personally, I would value publisher reputation over the journal's impact factor. Especially in your case since the two journals have comparably low IFs and MDPI is a dubious publisher.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: My recommendation is to choose the publisher's reputation over the impact factor. MDPI is not a reputable publisher, nor will it ever be.
I used to work for MDPI a few years ago, so I can attest that the negative comments people have written on forums about MDPI are mostly truthful. MDPI's main aim is to make as much money as possible - they'll publish anything and everything. That means employers will not be impressed that you have published a paper in an MDPI journal because literally anyone can do that. It reminds me of kindergarten when the teachers would give every kid in the class a prize, but we all knew it was worthless because every kid got one. MDPI will publish anything, so long as you pay their fee.
Don't fall for their claim they're Swiss (they're Chinese). I would say around 95% of the papers are written by Chinese students.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: The publisher's reputation is more important. In my area, MDPI publishes poor quality papers. The impact factor can be inflated easily; e.g., the journal publishes hot topics, has many tutorial/survey/introductory papers, etc. All these factors can improve a journal's impact factor.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: **Journal reputation comes first** - because people recognize the journal name, but not the publisher that publishes it.
For example, I'd be surprised if most scientists can name the publisher that publishes *Nature* or *Science*. In fact, try it as an exercise: search for the top ten journals in your field with the highest impact factor, and try to name the publisher that publishes them. If the journal name doesn't give the answer away (many IEEE journals have "IEEE" in the name) I'd be surprised if you can name more than half.
MDPI is somewhat special because their journals follow a standard naming pattern, but even then: if you take every journal in the world whose name is a single word, and attempt to identify which are published by MDPI, I'd be surprised if you get more than half of them right.
Upvotes: 2
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