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<issue_start>username_0: When I go to university for four years and study, e.g., law or medicine, do I earn an undergraduate degree? And do I have to go to university for another two years or so to get a graduate degree? Also, is it the same university then, or do I have to go somewhere else? And do you have to get a graduate degree? I’m really confused by the American academic system.<issue_comment>username_1: * When I’ve went to university for four years and studied, e.g. law or medicine, do I earn an undergraduate degree?
The first four years of university, in the U.S., generally result in an undergraduate degree. However, in the U.S., typically you can't study law or medicine at the undergraduate level.
* And do I have to go for another two years or so to university to get a graduate degree? Also is it the same university then, or do I have to go somewhere else?
Generally this is indeed done after an undergraduate program. The length of time varies greatly, depending on what course of study you choose. It is possible to earn a graduate degree at the same university where you earned your undergraduate degree, or at a different university.
In general, you have to apply for admission to graduate programs, and this is not guaranteed even if you are already an undergraduate at the same university.
* And do you have to get a graduate degree?
It depends on what you want to do. Many people seek employment right after their undergraduate studies and do not go on to graduate school. If you want to practice law or medicine in the US, then a graduate degree is necessary.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: This flow chart, from the National Center for Education Statistics, summarizes it better than any explanation I can think of.
<https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d01/fig1.asp>
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/DbWYf.gif)
Everywhere you see an arrow represents a potential change of institutions, or (above the black line) a natural place to exit formal education if desired. In particular, most people who pursue graduate or professional study do so at a different institution than their undergraduate institution. (They are usually eligible to apply for a graduate program at their undergraduate institution, if it's offered, but don't receive any special preference over applicants from other institutions.)
I'd also note that in many fields, one can go from an undergraduate program directly into a PhD program, without having to get a masters first. In that case the PhD program normally takes more time (say about 5 years), and may or may not award a masters degree "en passant".
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_3: None of the answers have discussed this yet, so I'll mention that the 4-year undergraduate degree (a "Bachelor's of Science" or "Bachelor's of Arts" or perhaps "Bachelor's of Engineering") typically requires completion of a range of introductory "general education" courses as well as more specific requirements in a "major field of study." In comparison with most other countries, undergraduate degrees in the US (even in very technical fields) generally require a much broader range of course work.
For example, an undergraduate student majoring in computer science might be required to take about 25% of their courses in general education subjects including things like English, History, Psychology, etc. The CS major might include another 20% of courses in mathematics (e.g. calculus, combinatorics, probability, etc.) Another 40% of the major might be in specific computer science courses. The remaining courses would be "elective", allowing the student to take more computer science or branch out into other disciplines. Of these courses, only the "Computer Science" courses would be taught by Computer Science faculty. The general education courses and mathematics would be taught by faculty from those respective academic departments.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: A 4-year degree (BS, BA, &c) just qualifies you to enter medical or law school. There are undergraduate pre-med and pre-law programs, but they're general degrees with concentration on areas needed in medical or law. You don't, AFAIK, actually have to take the pre-law or pre-med programs to get into medical or law schools.
A graduate degree requires extra study beyond the undergraduate degree, pretty much by definition. There's no fixed length. Two years is probably a minimum for a masters' degree, but you can take longer, if for instance you're doing it while working a regular job. (This is also true of undergrad degrees.)
You may or may not do graduate work at the same school that you did the undergraduate degree at. It really depends on your personal circumstances. If you are really interested in a particular field, and have financial support so you can continue directly to grad school, you'll typically try to get into the best program for that field. OTOH, if you are attached to the area you're living in, or need to work to finance education (and life), you might well stay at the same school. (As I did: I choose to live where I do for reasons unrelated to education, so I attend the local university.)
Also, in the US there's no need to go directly to grad school from undergrad. I got my MS about 15 years after the BS, and entered the PhD program some years after that. I also know several people who got undergrad degrees, became financially independent from jobs in industry, and went back to school to do grad work in fields that interested them.
Upvotes: 2
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2017/08/26
| 1,543
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<issue_start>username_0: From *The Professor Is In* and from other sources, I've gotten the impression that it's very good practice to refer to possible collaborators both within and outside of your department or academic unit. This makes sense to me. Doing so demonstrates that you're not just applying blindly, but rather have thought through how you fit in on that particular campus. It also makes the sale that you're a good fit with the folks already there.
I'm unsure if this practice should start at the cover letter. **Is it appropriate to mention potential collaborators (either within or outside of my targeted dept) whom I don't know in the cover letter?**
Talking about working with people I don't know feels a little bit pretentious--how on earth should I know what they want to collaborate on?--but I can get over it if I have incentive.
Meanwhile, it also feels natural that I should be contacting these potential collaborators if I'm sincere about thinking there's potential to work together. OTOH academia's a bit emphatic (relative to industry) about recusal so contacting such people might seem pushy, or even like trying to cheat.
**Is it OK to contact potential collaborators at the institution/in the department to which I'm applying? Is it ever expected?**<issue_comment>username_1: * When I’ve went to university for four years and studied, e.g. law or medicine, do I earn an undergraduate degree?
The first four years of university, in the U.S., generally result in an undergraduate degree. However, in the U.S., typically you can't study law or medicine at the undergraduate level.
* And do I have to go for another two years or so to university to get a graduate degree? Also is it the same university then, or do I have to go somewhere else?
Generally this is indeed done after an undergraduate program. The length of time varies greatly, depending on what course of study you choose. It is possible to earn a graduate degree at the same university where you earned your undergraduate degree, or at a different university.
In general, you have to apply for admission to graduate programs, and this is not guaranteed even if you are already an undergraduate at the same university.
* And do you have to get a graduate degree?
It depends on what you want to do. Many people seek employment right after their undergraduate studies and do not go on to graduate school. If you want to practice law or medicine in the US, then a graduate degree is necessary.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: This flow chart, from the National Center for Education Statistics, summarizes it better than any explanation I can think of.
<https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d01/fig1.asp>
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/DbWYf.gif)
Everywhere you see an arrow represents a potential change of institutions, or (above the black line) a natural place to exit formal education if desired. In particular, most people who pursue graduate or professional study do so at a different institution than their undergraduate institution. (They are usually eligible to apply for a graduate program at their undergraduate institution, if it's offered, but don't receive any special preference over applicants from other institutions.)
I'd also note that in many fields, one can go from an undergraduate program directly into a PhD program, without having to get a masters first. In that case the PhD program normally takes more time (say about 5 years), and may or may not award a masters degree "en passant".
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_3: None of the answers have discussed this yet, so I'll mention that the 4-year undergraduate degree (a "Bachelor's of Science" or "Bachelor's of Arts" or perhaps "Bachelor's of Engineering") typically requires completion of a range of introductory "general education" courses as well as more specific requirements in a "major field of study." In comparison with most other countries, undergraduate degrees in the US (even in very technical fields) generally require a much broader range of course work.
For example, an undergraduate student majoring in computer science might be required to take about 25% of their courses in general education subjects including things like English, History, Psychology, etc. The CS major might include another 20% of courses in mathematics (e.g. calculus, combinatorics, probability, etc.) Another 40% of the major might be in specific computer science courses. The remaining courses would be "elective", allowing the student to take more computer science or branch out into other disciplines. Of these courses, only the "Computer Science" courses would be taught by Computer Science faculty. The general education courses and mathematics would be taught by faculty from those respective academic departments.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: A 4-year degree (BS, BA, &c) just qualifies you to enter medical or law school. There are undergraduate pre-med and pre-law programs, but they're general degrees with concentration on areas needed in medical or law. You don't, AFAIK, actually have to take the pre-law or pre-med programs to get into medical or law schools.
A graduate degree requires extra study beyond the undergraduate degree, pretty much by definition. There's no fixed length. Two years is probably a minimum for a masters' degree, but you can take longer, if for instance you're doing it while working a regular job. (This is also true of undergrad degrees.)
You may or may not do graduate work at the same school that you did the undergraduate degree at. It really depends on your personal circumstances. If you are really interested in a particular field, and have financial support so you can continue directly to grad school, you'll typically try to get into the best program for that field. OTOH, if you are attached to the area you're living in, or need to work to finance education (and life), you might well stay at the same school. (As I did: I choose to live where I do for reasons unrelated to education, so I attend the local university.)
Also, in the US there's no need to go directly to grad school from undergrad. I got my MS about 15 years after the BS, and entered the PhD program some years after that. I also know several people who got undergrad degrees, became financially independent from jobs in industry, and went back to school to do grad work in fields that interested them.
Upvotes: 2
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2017/08/26
| 887
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<issue_start>username_0: I received a master's in math a long time ago and now I am thinking I would like to get a Ph.D. Since I have not been in school, would it be ok to approach a professor I would like to work with by proving a small thing from one of his papers he says is "work to be done" and emailing to him? I already have a proof. Would this add value for him or would he be annoyed? Many people here say you need letters from professors but I have no way for that. This is in America.<issue_comment>username_1: In most math PhD programs in the US [I believe most turns to "all" as you approach the pure side of the mathematical spectrum] students are admitted and funded by an admissions committee representing the department as a whole, not primarily by the recommendations (or funding) of individual faculty members.
So if you are contemplating showing this work to a professor in the hope of getting admitted to that department's PhD program: that is not a very direct route. If you are applying to that department anyway, then by all means contact all faculty members with whom you feel a connection and especially in the situation you described. You should also mention this work in your application, e.g. in your statement of purpose. That way it is likely that the admissions committee will contact the faculty member and ask about your case. If you have correctly answered a question from one of their papers [and especially if this answer has not already appeared elsewhere in the literature; it would be a good idea to try to find that out], then they are certainly likely to put in a good word for your application. However, you should understand that students are being judged mostly on the quality of their coursework, the present state of their mathematical knowledge and their potential for future achievements, and not very much on their own research achievements [e.g. because it is common for top candidates to have no research achievements]. So you should not expect this to offset any major *weaknesses* in your application.
By the way, having no letters of recommendation is a major weakness: in fact, it will cause your application not to be considered at most programs I know. Maybe your idea is rather to get into a correspondence with this professor that will allow them (in time) to write a letter for you? If so: yes, that could work.
By the way, I am currently the Graduate Coordinator [and *ex officio* chair of the graduate admissions committee] of the mathematics department at the University of Georgia.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: If he actually says that it is "work to be done", and you really have answered the question he intended to pose, he would probably be interested to hear from you.
And even if he thinks it's too small a contribution, or if you've answered a question that is different from the one he asked, you have nothing to lose by writing to him.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: If the proof is correct, non-trivial, and it was not kind of handwaving "oh, you could do this too", but rather "it would be curious to do, but we have not yet" -- yes! Even if you do not have a second thought of getting a position.
It is always fulfilling to hear about someone picking up your old work. It might even give you a paper together with the Prof. But! Getting a PhD position is a bit uncoupled from fruitful cooperation, as already detailed above.
Is something like an "external" PhD position viable in your country? Basically work elsewhere (possibly part-time) and get the PhD (e.g. from that Prof.) in your free time. I don't know your circumstances, but if you already have a steady job, leaving if for a (typically underpaid) PhD position might be unfulfilling. "External" PhD is about getting the title without working at the university.
Upvotes: 1
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2017/08/27
| 912
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<issue_start>username_0: I'm currently writing an essay on the possible benefits of video games in education for my Extended Project Qualification, and for part of it I want to cite a blog post from Gamasutra written by a developer who makes educational games. My supervisor has previously said to me that I should try to stick to citing research papers or books, as these are generally reputable, and I agree with this. However I cannot find anything in a journal that fits the point I want to make, as I wanted to write about a developer perspective on these kinds of games. Would citing such a post have an impact on the reputability of what I am writing, and therefore impact my grade?<issue_comment>username_1: In most math PhD programs in the US [I believe most turns to "all" as you approach the pure side of the mathematical spectrum] students are admitted and funded by an admissions committee representing the department as a whole, not primarily by the recommendations (or funding) of individual faculty members.
So if you are contemplating showing this work to a professor in the hope of getting admitted to that department's PhD program: that is not a very direct route. If you are applying to that department anyway, then by all means contact all faculty members with whom you feel a connection and especially in the situation you described. You should also mention this work in your application, e.g. in your statement of purpose. That way it is likely that the admissions committee will contact the faculty member and ask about your case. If you have correctly answered a question from one of their papers [and especially if this answer has not already appeared elsewhere in the literature; it would be a good idea to try to find that out], then they are certainly likely to put in a good word for your application. However, you should understand that students are being judged mostly on the quality of their coursework, the present state of their mathematical knowledge and their potential for future achievements, and not very much on their own research achievements [e.g. because it is common for top candidates to have no research achievements]. So you should not expect this to offset any major *weaknesses* in your application.
By the way, having no letters of recommendation is a major weakness: in fact, it will cause your application not to be considered at most programs I know. Maybe your idea is rather to get into a correspondence with this professor that will allow them (in time) to write a letter for you? If so: yes, that could work.
By the way, I am currently the Graduate Coordinator [and *ex officio* chair of the graduate admissions committee] of the mathematics department at the University of Georgia.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: If he actually says that it is "work to be done", and you really have answered the question he intended to pose, he would probably be interested to hear from you.
And even if he thinks it's too small a contribution, or if you've answered a question that is different from the one he asked, you have nothing to lose by writing to him.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: If the proof is correct, non-trivial, and it was not kind of handwaving "oh, you could do this too", but rather "it would be curious to do, but we have not yet" -- yes! Even if you do not have a second thought of getting a position.
It is always fulfilling to hear about someone picking up your old work. It might even give you a paper together with the Prof. But! Getting a PhD position is a bit uncoupled from fruitful cooperation, as already detailed above.
Is something like an "external" PhD position viable in your country? Basically work elsewhere (possibly part-time) and get the PhD (e.g. from that Prof.) in your free time. I don't know your circumstances, but if you already have a steady job, leaving if for a (typically underpaid) PhD position might be unfulfilling. "External" PhD is about getting the title without working at the university.
Upvotes: 1
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2017/08/27
| 942
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<issue_start>username_0: I am a PhD student close to finishing my 1st year, highly motivated, passionate, hard working and with one accepted article in a really good journal (related to PhD project) plus conference proceedings.
I would like to grow as a scientist and also develop my ideas and therefore having a good research portfolio (i.e. papers) is essential for an early career scientist as me.
I am trying to share some of my research ideas, which are something extra outside the PhD project (multi-task), with my PhD supervisors but it seems that they won't listen or are not interested.
Why are the not involving/listening to me in their ongoing research?
My field is applied physical sciences and I am based in 'EU'.<issue_comment>username_1: In most math PhD programs in the US [I believe most turns to "all" as you approach the pure side of the mathematical spectrum] students are admitted and funded by an admissions committee representing the department as a whole, not primarily by the recommendations (or funding) of individual faculty members.
So if you are contemplating showing this work to a professor in the hope of getting admitted to that department's PhD program: that is not a very direct route. If you are applying to that department anyway, then by all means contact all faculty members with whom you feel a connection and especially in the situation you described. You should also mention this work in your application, e.g. in your statement of purpose. That way it is likely that the admissions committee will contact the faculty member and ask about your case. If you have correctly answered a question from one of their papers [and especially if this answer has not already appeared elsewhere in the literature; it would be a good idea to try to find that out], then they are certainly likely to put in a good word for your application. However, you should understand that students are being judged mostly on the quality of their coursework, the present state of their mathematical knowledge and their potential for future achievements, and not very much on their own research achievements [e.g. because it is common for top candidates to have no research achievements]. So you should not expect this to offset any major *weaknesses* in your application.
By the way, having no letters of recommendation is a major weakness: in fact, it will cause your application not to be considered at most programs I know. Maybe your idea is rather to get into a correspondence with this professor that will allow them (in time) to write a letter for you? If so: yes, that could work.
By the way, I am currently the Graduate Coordinator [and *ex officio* chair of the graduate admissions committee] of the mathematics department at the University of Georgia.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: If he actually says that it is "work to be done", and you really have answered the question he intended to pose, he would probably be interested to hear from you.
And even if he thinks it's too small a contribution, or if you've answered a question that is different from the one he asked, you have nothing to lose by writing to him.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: If the proof is correct, non-trivial, and it was not kind of handwaving "oh, you could do this too", but rather "it would be curious to do, but we have not yet" -- yes! Even if you do not have a second thought of getting a position.
It is always fulfilling to hear about someone picking up your old work. It might even give you a paper together with the Prof. But! Getting a PhD position is a bit uncoupled from fruitful cooperation, as already detailed above.
Is something like an "external" PhD position viable in your country? Basically work elsewhere (possibly part-time) and get the PhD (e.g. from that Prof.) in your free time. I don't know your circumstances, but if you already have a steady job, leaving if for a (typically underpaid) PhD position might be unfulfilling. "External" PhD is about getting the title without working at the university.
Upvotes: 1
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2017/08/28
| 898
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<issue_start>username_0: It has been identified on [stackexchange](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/80698/published-paper-not-showing-up-on-google-scholar) that Google Scholar has a bug where ArXiv publications are not updated to match the final journal publication information in google scholar (for several months). And the answer claims that google has stated that fixing this bug is not a priority for them.
My question is: Does this bug exist for all preprint servers or just ArXiv? This a huge problem in my field (where the convention is to not cite ArXiv papers), so I'd rather post my pre-print elsewhere if this problem does not exist for other preprint servers.
BioArXiv and ResearchGate come to mind as possibilities.<issue_comment>username_1: It's been reported in other preprint servers, most notably bioRxiv.
ResearchGate isn't a repository or preprint server. It's more analogous to uploading your photos to Facebook. No long term storage is assured, nor any of the usual maintenance procedures and standards that preprint servers use.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: I've been [following](http://blog.dhimmel.com/preprints-2015/) the Google Scholar Preprint Bug for several years. <NAME> (who [first characterized](http://serialmentor.com/blog/2014/11/1/the-google-scholar-preprint-bug) the bug in 2014) and I tried reporting it many times. Finally, we caught up with the creator of Google Scholar, <NAME>, in the comment section of Scholarly Kitchen. I was a jerk, which didn't help, but Anurag's responses kept us feeling frustrated.
Anyways, Anurag did shed some light on the cause of the bug in [this comment](https://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2015/10/05/guest-post-highwires-john-sack-on-online-indexing-of-scholarly-publications-part-1-what-we-all-have-accomplished/#comment-60515):
>
> Most preprints/ahead-of-print versions are indexed in early-version model — as they should be. Articles that are indexed in early-version mode are recrawled and reindexed frequently. Changes to their location, their content, their format, their versions are expected to be frequent; this allows changes to be picked up soon.
>
>
> Occasionally, a preprint that has been in that state for a while can get indexed in the archival mode. When that happens, updates to that article (location, content, format, versions etc) take longer. Articles that are indexed in an archival mode are reindexed less frequently – as they must, if the indexing system is to use the limited crawl capacity at the journal sites effectively.
>
>
>
Therefore, the bug occurs when a record (preprint in our case) is stagnant for too long. Then that record is placed in archival mode, which triggers the bug, by causing newly crawled versions of the record to be silently ignored. **Therefore, according to Anurag's description, the bug is not limited to any single preprint server.**
In line with the description, it appears longer publication delays increase the chance of the bug. Perhaps a workaround is to frequently update the preprint so the record never enters archival mode.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: I can confirm that, as of 2019, the pre-print non-updating remains an issue with arXiv. In this case, the Google scholar record has not been updated although the final version of the article was published 4 months ago. We'll see how long it takes for Google Scholar to catch up and update its record.
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: Considering that proper reference is provided (journal, author name, date etc.), is copying **exact numbers** from published scientific articles could be considered plagiarism or copyright infringement?
For example, there is a research called "Dancing can reverse the signs of aging in the brain". I need **to cite in my own research** some data from it, including how many there were participants, their gender (how many men/women), age and BMI. There are some tables as well, from which I intend to take some baseline numbers. As a result, I'm making my own conclusions (words or sentences are not copied, only numbers).
Thanks.<issue_comment>username_1: As long as you cite appropriately you are fine. Scientific articles are supposed to interact with one another, and in the process we often refer to results by others. If it is convenient to repeat key findings, or aspects of the sample, you can repeat those. It becomes plagiarism when the reader may reasonably think that you are the author of those numbers. That is why we cite, to give credit where credit is due.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: I cannot vouch for your field, but in physics and chemistry it is quite common to cite data from previous research to compare with your own data. For example, you can have a table with columns, first column being your data, and the other columns being experimental data obtained by other people. You need to properly reference the other sources. As a footnote to your table, you can put "data taken from Ref. 6", for example. As an example, check the first table from this [quantum chemistry paper](https://arxiv.org/abs/cond-mat/0509421v1).
If you need to paste figures from other people's papers, you need to get the publisher's permission first. You may need other people's figures when you write reviews or books.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: No, it's neither:
* It's **not plagiarism** because you cite the original source and you don't try to put others' results as your own.
* It's **not a copyright infringement** because there's no copyright on data.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_4: You are doing "comparative" research. You are publishing your own results. Then you are comparing your results with those of Mr. X or Journal Y, in which case you need to present the other party's results.
As long as you make it clear which results are whose, you're fine.
Upvotes: 0
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2017/08/28
| 1,070
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<issue_start>username_0: Currently, I am writing for two conferences, independent from each other. One paper is a generic one, while the other one is more technical.
However, I would like to use some of figures I have drawn in both of them. Is this ethical or are there any issues doing that?
EDIT: The conference are about advances in IT, electronics engineering and the papers have not been published yet.<issue_comment>username_1: Conferences are about reaching out and sharing research with peers interested in said research.
If both conferences involve different audiences, seems fine really, and not unethical.
Unless conference organisers specifically demand that paper content be completely original.
At worse, the odd member of the audience will attend both conferences. If your papers are making different points, showing identical figures should not be an issue.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Conferences mean very different things in different fields.
In some fields (e.g. most of pure mathematics), they are essentially just a venue for presenting/publicising your work to other researchers. **In such fields, conference abstracts are not treated like full publications; there is no strong expectation of originality.** So you can re-use your figures freely between conference talks/abstracts, and re-use figures from journal publications in conference talks/abstracts.
The only thing to worry about, in this case, is that if you re-use material too often, then people who see it multiple times may get bored of it, and think you are being lazy and not producing much new research. But this is unlikely if you are just re-using one or two figures, provided your talks/abstracts contain substantive other fresh material.
In other fields (e.g. much of computer science), conferences are a publication venue in their own right, on a par with journals. **In such fields, there is an expectation of originality; so you should re-use figures sparingly, and usually explicitly note when you do so.** Essentially, in this case, treat it as you would re-using material between papers. So it’s not necessarily a bad thing, especially in e.g. a background section, but it won’t count towards the original content that a referee will be looking for. And the re-use should be noted explicitly and prominently — e.g. “The relationship between fuzzles and woozles is shown in Figure 3 (reprinted from Jones 2014).” — unless possibly the figure is clearly just a *very* simple and standard illustration of background material.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: There are two concerns you must address if you want to reuse a figure: "[self-plagiarism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plagiarism#Self-plagiarism)" and [copyright](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright).
To avoid self-plagiarism, one simply needs to cite their previous work in which the figure was published (because some fields treat conference proceedings as publications, I'm assuming your field does as well.).
Copyright becomes more difficult and would require all of the details such as which venue you initially published in and their specific copyright policy. Here are some possible methods to avoid copyright issues:
1. Publish the figure first in a venue with generous copyright policy (e.g., [PLoS ONE](http://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/licenses-and-copyright)).
2. Modify the figure so it is different and not an exact copy.
3. Determine if your reuse falls under "[fair use](http://fairuse.stanford.edu/overview/fair-use/what-is-fair-use/)".
4. Obtain permission from the original publisher to reuse your figure.
I have reused figures in my own journal articles, but my employer does not allow the work to be copyrighted in the US so I only need to worry about self-plagiarism.
For most academics, copyright can be a problem. Your university likely has people who can help you. Personally, I would ask a librarian. For example, the University of Virginia's library has a resource page on [how to get permission to reuse a figures](https://www.hsl.virginia.edu/services/howdoi/hdi-get_permission.cfm).
Also, PLoS ONE discusses this topic more in a [blog post on resuse](http://blogs.plos.org/mfenner/2010/09/30/why-cant-i-reuse-these-tables-and-figures/) and includes more details on copyright issues.
Upvotes: 3
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<issue_start>username_0: I was reading a blog post, [How to reject a rejection](http://serialmentor.com/blog/2017/1/2/how-to-reject-a-rejection), by biologist <NAME> where he explains that it is common to resubmit a rejected paper to the same journal after a revision or appeal a rejection and get it published there. This was surprising to me because, in mathematics, my impression is that this is very uncommon. I believe overall resubmissions and appeals are uncommon, not just successful ones. I suspect a reason for this is that are many good journals that are appropriate for any given (good) paper, but maybe it happens more than I thought for the most prestigious math journals like the *Annals*.
While I'm interested in mathematics, I'm also curious about how things are different in different fields, so let me ask generally:
>
> How common are resubmissions and appeals for rejections for the very top journals in your field? How often are these successful?
>
>
><issue_comment>username_1: Good question. At the risk of telling you mostly what you already know, here is my perspective:
>
> After 12-15 years and 40-50 submitted mathematics papers (not counting multiple submissions), I have learned that one should virtually never appeal to the editor *with the expectation of it changing the outcome*.
>
>
>
In my experience "what's done is done" is the philosophy taken by editors and referees more than 90% of the time. When I have brought up flaws in the refereeing process to an editor after rejection, the most common reaction I get is *indifference / mild agreement* but with the view that what's done is done. Only rarely have I had an editor willing to substantively engage with issues in the referee process. In one of my earliest experiences, this resulted in an invitation to resubmit...and N months later the paper was rejected again.
At this point, when I remonstrate with the editor, I make it *explicitly clear that I am **not** appealing the decision* but just speaking up on the process as a matter of principle. In fact this kind of "principled reply" has twice resulted in an invitation to resubmit. In one case I declined that invitation (cf. the above story); the paper was published elsewhere after one more rejection. The second (rather recent) time this followed a **desk rejection** by the editor. I just couldn't fathom why this paper was desk rejected by this journal, and since I had had bad luck with the same paper previously, I wrote to the editor basically asking "I just don't get it; could you please explain?" Amazingly, the editor wrote back immediately saying he had completely misunderstood the paper. He invited us to resubmit the paper to the journal. The editor in chief of the journal got involved as well (see below!) *in a positive way*, and the paper was accepted soon after with minimal fuss. This experience made me realize that submitting a paper was like watching a baseball game: no matter how many times you've done so previously, there's a reasonable chance that you'll see something completely new!
Speaking of resubmitting following a rejection: in our field, I think that is unequivocally a **terrible idea**. The part of the above story that I didn't tell yet was: after the handling editor apologized profusely, he asked us to resubmit the paper via the journal's automated submission system. My coauthor and I almost did that....but we were stopped short by the dire warnings about resubmitting the same paper after rejection causing us to get automatically banned from the system! We relayed this to the handling editor, whose response was essentially "OMG" and then he contacted the editor in chief. The editor in chief looked into this and eventually asked us if we would be willing to change the title in order to resubmit. We did so, decided not to change it back at the end, and this published paper has a slightly different title than the version on the arxiv or my homepage.
Even if that doesn't happen, I think that resubmitting what is even essentially the same paper to the same journal after rejection is the swiftest way to wear out your welcome with that portion of the community. Imagine how many iterations of proofs of the Riemann hypothesis / twin primes conjecture / ... the *Annals of Mathematics* must get. At some point they just have to ignore them.
[However, I now remember that I got added as a coauthor to a paper after it had been rejected by a previous journal in combinatorics. My feeling was that the new version of the paper was only by historical accident a new version of the paper; in all other ways it was a different paper. So we resubmitted to that journal, and it was accepted. Then I submitted a solo followup paper to the same journal the following year. They told me that they didn't want to publish two papers in the same subject at approximately the same time (long backlog)...and they offered me the option of *merging my new solo paper with the previously accepted triply authored paper*!! Baseball indeed.]
Your question is about "top journals." I am starting to suspect that "top journal" means something different in mathematics than in some other academic fields, e.g. after reading questions like "I have five papers accepted in top journals but don't think I can complete my PhD." I mean, I am a successful research mathematician but have never even *submitted* a paper to any of the top three math journals. But I find it unlikely that e.g. the *Annals* is more forgiving about resubmissions / more amenable to editorial remonstrations than other math journals. I would expect it to be less so...
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: Been there done that...
In the domain of electrical engineering, IEEE Transactions are the most prestigious ones amongst authors. However, transactions within IEEE have different prestige/ranking.
I once submitted a journal paper to an IEEE transaction, which got rejected with no resubmit. I submitted to another IEEE transaction and this time it was accepted after two rounds of review. From my experience and people around me, this is very very very common. However, note that when you submit a rejected paper, sometimes you need to declare that.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: I've seen rejections get turned around in biology for journals like Nature and Nature Biotechnology; these rejections are treated like a harsh review and are appealed with a letter to the editor and an extensive rebuttal plus rewrite. The process is strongly similar to the blog post you are linking.
This is a possibility if the reviews can be addressed thoroughly and the editor seems to find the paper interesting. And although I have no comparative data on this, I suspect it helps enormously if the group leader is well-known.
Almost all group leaders I know do appeal in this way. Also, a panel discussion with editors from major journals revealed that such appeals are quite common but that there are no guidelines for them in journals, meaning the process depends a lot on the editor.
Some speculation on why this is happening: in biology, reviewers will always ask for more experiments and/or more analysis. For most published papers, the reviewers have had a strong say in how the final paper looks. This is different at least to my former field, theoretical physics, where it is perfectly possible that an article makes it through the review process without any (major) changes.
This back-and-forth with reviewers makes the review process more subjective and also creates more room for bargaining with editors and reviewers. In particular, it becomes possible to bargain about rejections.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: I would also add that you can "reject" reviewer comments also. Just tell the editor to take it or leave it. (If you think the reviewer is screwing the paper up.)
Also, there are a gazillion outlets out there. So it is very easy to just move to another one. Sometimes editors threatened with that will take the paper as is. Not always of course. And I wouldn't make a drama over a comma or a cite or the like.
Upvotes: 0
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<issue_start>username_0: I'm an agronomy major who's performing additional academic work as way of increasing my chances of getting into grad school.
This semester I'm going to be writing a literature review regarding plant breeding in ornamental plants using references from 2007 to the present year. The emphasis will be in breeding methodologies ((1)mutagenesis, (2) genetic transformation) and (3) biodiversity.
My professor has done extensive research in genetics but this is also the first time he's advising a student in writing a review. Out goal is to make it as publishable as possible.
I've already obtained multiple articles but this is my first time writing a review. Can I get advice on how to start or how to plan my creation process?<issue_comment>username_1: First, you'll need to identify what kind of reviews you're planning to write. Just to name a few: critical review, integrative review, literature review, meta-analysis, scoping review, systematic review, etc. The methods differ somewhat regarding the types. For example, if you're writing a systematic review, then you'll need a much heavy focus on how you searched for the articles and how you sorted/selected them.
Second, most reviews are question-driven and according to the types, the specificity of the questions also differ. Scoping reviews may have a looser definition of questions while meta-analysis and systematic review may have a set of tightly defined questions.
In other words, it's likely not something we can introduce on a Q&A website like here. As a "review" varies so much that can be as quick as an afternoon of search or a five-year PhD project.
What I'd recommend:
1. Identify about 5-8 review articles in your field that you'd like to model after. Most reviews are pretty apparent in terms of what type of reviews it is. But if you're unsure, talk to a librarian.
2. Read up about that kind of review. There are books (like Booth's Systematic Approaches to a Successful Literature Review) and guidelines (check www.equator-network.org) on how to carry out the search, arrange ideas, and present your interpretation. Again, your library would be a great start.
3. Consider working with someone who had experience in writing a review. They can help you with revising subtle things like how to tabulate the data to make them digestible and useful, and how to present your findings, etc.
4. Budget **a lot** of time.
5. Develop a system of keeping good notes and bibliography. People have used index cards, highlighters, Evernote, etc. to keep their thoughts and their quotes clearly laid out and discernible from each other. Bibliography management software is also a must, as there will be intensive referencing.
6. If you have tuition remission/support, consider register for a course in your school on literature review. Most of these courses require students to have an independent project (you may petition for one if there isn't.) That way you can get to work on your topic and obtain guidance and input from the course instructor. I think 13 to 14 weeks of weekly effort should get you a very strong draft. (According to your school policy you may want to give the instructor a heads up and seek approval on using your research topic, though I don't see any conflict here.)
What I'd privately recommend:
1. Evaluate if you truly need a review. While I understand it sounds logical to "read up and write about the field" before you joint in. It's true that it's easy to read a lot of articles about a field, yet it takes time/experience to be able to tell the intricacy among them. So, most reviews take a much, much longer time to write compared to, say, writing up about an experiment. If you don't have much time before the application, consider at least another shorter paper such as a part of your PI's research that you are involved in as a side project.
2. I am not at all familiar with agronomy, but I'd guess that the topic may be already too broad for some kind of reviews as it covers all "ornamental plants." Dissect the sample articles you got and examine how the authors specifically model their question statements.
3. Most common newbie mistake is writing an annotated bibliography. If the review reads like "A says a, B says b, and C et. al. says c," chance is it's not being done quite right.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Please excuse me for recommending my own work, but I've done quite a bit of work to address the problem: "I need to do a literature review. How do I do it? And once I've collected a bunch of articles, what do I do with them?"
In brief, I recommend adopting a theory-mining approach. That means to explicitly look for theory in the source articles and then to synthesize the theory as the contribution of the review. What I mean by "theory" is very simply "A is related to B". This is distinct from literature reviews that simply summarize what people have said about A; that is not theory. Theory is about explaining how and why phenomenon A is related to phenomenon B. In my academic field (information systems), I have found that this focus on theory is the most useful thing that can be done with literature reviews (in terms of citations by other researchers). So, in your case, for example, you might explicitly focus on literature that studies which breeding methodologies effectively result in certain desirable characteristics. Although my literature review approach focuses on social sciences, I believe it would be relevant in a case like yours.
I have two main relevant articles to recommend:
* [The View from Giants’ Shoulders: Developing Theory with Theory-Mining Systematic Literature Reviews](https://ssrn.com/abstract=2699362): this describes the idea of theory-mining reviews and focuses mainly on theory
* [A Guide to Conducting a Standalone Systematic Literature Review](http://chitu.okoli.org/media/pro/research/pubs/Okoli2015CAIS.pdf): this provides more practical details on how to actually conduct a general literature review
Upvotes: 1
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<issue_start>username_0: Suppose author X writes a paper, and in this paper, they prove a result that is a very small part of their paper. However, the result has a mistake. Based on personal judgement, it appears the mistake is an innocent mistake that does not disrupt the intellectual flow of the paper. i.e. it is very reasonable to believe the author X had the ability themselves to get the proof right. In fact, it may have been simply a typo. Nonetheless, it is unarguably incorrect.
Author Y comes along and builds other results off of the (corrected) ideas by author X. Author Y wants to (for good reason) cite author X, as their results would not have been obtained without author X.
What is the correct way to do this in a paper? The way I see it, there are 2 possible actions for author Y:
1. Pretend like author X didn't make a mistake at all and give them full authority on their theorem.
2. Say something like ... "the results are based off the ideas by author X" but don't give as much of a "these are author X's results" flavor. Author Y then after mentioning author X, proves the theorem themselves.
Action 2) seems to be the most reasonable in the sense that it is intellectual honest and doesn't shame author X for no reason. However, is it considered plagiarism to be somewhat vague about what author X did?
Thank you.
EDIT: I realize another option is to allow author X to correct their mistake and then do action 1. But with how slowly paper publishing occurs, this seems unjustly detrimental to author Y so I don't consider it a real option.<issue_comment>username_1: Given the situation as you describe it, in particular that there is evidence that the author could have corrected the presumably-small mistake themselves, I'd recommend that you quote the true assertion, and/while noting, literally, that there is an easily correctible error or typo in the proof as written.
Catching typos is important, but is not "research", of course. And, yes, once typos or silly mis-statements are pointed out, many authors can repair them without hesitation. So I myself generally consider "paper X" to be "paper X with all trivial typos and obvious blunders corrected". (Still, yes, sometimes the boundary of this is not clear...)
In particular, yes, I give credit to authors for obtaining a result who've slightly messed up the argument, both for observing what is true, and for at least approximating the proof.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: I believe that username_1 is pretty much correct here, but here's a way you can incorporate this into your paper:
>
> Smith and Jones (1995) found that the area under the rhomboid apparatus was upper-bounded by the third order discriminant. While their final result is valid, a minor flaw was found in their proof. We provide a corrected proof in Appendix A. Given the established upper bound, we now show that the lower bound is negatively correlated to the complex derivative under the hyperspace gradient....
>
>
>
This approach gives your reader the "best of both worlds". You acknowledge the source upon which you build your own findings, acknowledge the minor flaw in that source, and *provide a proof that your reader can rely on*.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: >
> 2) Say something like ... "the results are based off the ideas by author X" but don't give as much of a "these are author X's results" flavor. Author Y then after mentioning author X, proves the theorem themselves.
>
>
>
You’re missing the forest for the trees here. The result *is* author X’s result. A small mistake that anyone can correct cannot reasonably be said to change that fact. It would be rather small minded of you in such a situation to try to give the impression that author X does not deserve 100% of the credit but that someone like you had to come along and “prove the theorem themselves”. Depending on your precise phrasing, it can even come across as intellectually dishonest and/or insecure.
The best thing that you can do to serve both author X and your readers is give author X full credit for the result, while at the same time pointing out that their proof contained a small error (and as I said there is no inconsistency between saying those two things), and then explaining, in as much details as you feel is needed, how the error can be corrected.
Upvotes: 3
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<issue_start>username_0: Is it permissible for one of the authors of a paper to work alone for the extension of that paper?<issue_comment>username_1: There is nothing illegal about this, nor is this publicly frowned upon. After all, it's very possible for some of the original co-authors to simply not be interested in the extension.
However, your co-authors might see this as impolite, to say the least. If you offer to include them in working on the extension and they decline, then everything is fine. If you don't make such an offer to them, they might not want to work with you ever again.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: Are you (writing the papers) under someone's employ or as part of a contract with someone? Then supposedly you would be expected to make sure your employer / contractor is OK with whatever direction you go. If you are not, then you simply have no such obligations anymore.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_3: I once was in the situation that my coauthors were always "interested" in the extensions, but had little time, which delayed the whole paper.
After some time I began to write extensions on my own and tried to publish them, which, indeed, was bad for the relationship to my coauthors. They had the impression that I was working behind their back (which was somehow true) - while my impression was that I was much quicker alone.
Upvotes: 3
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<issue_start>username_0: I'm getting my Bachelor's degree in Physics in a year and a half, I have a good GPA (~3.6/4.0) and I can score ~7.0 or higher in IELTS exam.
Which offers better chances for a scholarship for a Master's degree, North american or European countries? Is there a difference in accepting foreign (in this case middle eastern) students? Because I can't take both TOEFL and IELTS exams, I have to choose.
And when looking for scholarships, when should I start emailing professors and start sending applications?<issue_comment>username_1: In many European countries you won't be able to get a scholarship for a master's degree directly from a university. Also local students don't usually get that. The research funding is mostly aimed at PhD students, because master's degree students aren't expected to do research at the level these funds are targeting. Also, the general perception is that if you're a master's degree student, the university is providing a service to you, not vice versa, so why should they pay for that in addition?
Depending on national / local regulations, you may have to pay a tuition fee or not. If there is a tuition fee, there may be programs to waive or reduce these. There may be opportunities to work as a salaried student assistant at the university, but you'd first have to start a study program before even being considered for that.
What you're looking for are usually national funding organizations or foundations that support students coming from abroad to do a master's degree in that country. These are very rare and come with specific conditions. One such example is the [King Abdullah Scholarship Programme](https://www.daad.de/deutschland/stipendium/datenbank/de/21148-stipendiendatenbank/?status=1&origin=&subjectGrps=&daad=1&q=&page=1&detail=10000334) of the German Academic Exchange Service.
For these countries, it'll be a **waste of time writing to individual professors** about scholarships for a master's degree. Instead it might be helpful to contact the **offices for international exchange** at your target universities to ask whether they know any scholarship programs for their place that apply to you. Or maybe you have such an office at your home university that has a list of programs for their students who are interested in international exchange.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: In some European countries, master's degrees are part of the "undergraduate" experience and handled accordingly. For instance, in Germany, where I worked for several years, there is no charge for undergraduate education beyond a registration fee of several hundred euros per semester. Consequently, scholarships would only be needed for living expenses, rather than tuition costs. Work-study arrangements could provide the necessary funding without scholarship support.
The case is very different in the US, where master's degrees are part of the graduate experience. Almost all master's programs charge tuition and there are not nearly as many available avenues for supporting such costs.
Therefore, it is probably "easier" to finance a master's degree in Europe, but it's also probably more challenging to get into such a program if you don't have the necessary language proficiency.
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: I submitted a paper about 20-25 days ago in this conference <http://ctceec.org/> knowing about IEEE involvement here.
Today I have got an acceptance email for my paper, The astonishing thing to me is, I knew at least 1-2 month is required to review this type of conference paper.
The conference date is 8 September, 2017 which is very near. Is there anyone who can assure me that this conference is not scam?<issue_comment>username_1: The website has a button that says "IEEE proof", whatever that is supposed to mean, which seems like the equivalent of a folder on your computer named "definitely not porn". Understand: they're trying suspiciously hard to use their (alleged) IEEE affiliation as a marker of legitimacy and quality.
Follow that link and enjoy that delightful prose:
>
> "We believe education is our motherhood and research is our motto. Our intention is to collaborate innovative brains at one place. So, here we are with "International Conference on Current Trends in Computer, Electrical, Electronics and Communication" (ICCTCEEC) platform to share, learn and discuss. We guarantee your pleasure because our city itself mean you what are we."
>
>
>
Let's say the intentions of the people who committed that website are not fraudulent that's still incredibly sloppy and careless not to have it proofread. Seeing this, I would doubt that anything else about that conference can be worth your time and money.
By the way, IEEE affiliation, even if legit, doesn't mean the conference is good or not spam.
The usual advice in these cases: **consult with your supervisor and colleagues.** There is typically a rather small number (~5) of conferences worthy of attending per field and any half-serious researcher knows which these are.
Upvotes: 7 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Registration of the conference with IEEE (i.e., [2017 International Conference on Current Trends in Computer, Electrical, Electronics and Communication (CTCEEC)](http://www.ieee.org/conferences_events/conferences/conferencedetails/index.html?Conf_ID=42587)) is a good sign that it is not an outright scam. However, I note that the conference is sponsored by the [Bangalore Section](http://ieeebangalore.org/) but I couldn't find it on their website which is troubling. Within the IEEE community this tends to imply that the section is treating the conference as a very low priority so quality control may also be quite low. Thus, while I doubt the conference is an outright scam, it likely will not stand out much more than a research colloquium for graduate students at a given university on a CV.
To elaborate a bit more on sponsorship, generally high profile conferences are sponsored by international societies (e.g., [IEEE Computational Intelligence Society](http://cis.ieee.org/) sponsors the Symposium Series on Computational Intelligence) and the conferences tend to have competitive peer review take place. Generally you will want to know what major societies in your field are and limit attendance to their conferences.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: Scam = ripping your money off: Probably not.
Scientifically worthwhile to attend: Probably neither. Just check the submission format, which is M$ Word 07 instead of LaTeX/PDF; that usually answers the question.
Touristically cool: Decide for yourself.
List of accepted papers consists of Indian authors, afai can see 100% (which is not necessarily bad, they invented zero and got Primes is in P, amongst a lot more).
Upvotes: -1
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<issue_start>username_0: I am new to publishing and want to publish a paper as an independent researcher. The conference I want to submit this paper to states the following on their website regarding the review process:
>
> Review process will be blind to review.
>
>
>
Does it imply that the review process is double blind? If not, would stating my affiliation as an independent researcher have any negative impact?
I am currently working for a startup company and worked on this paper in my spare time. Since the company is not associated with my research, I decided not to put in the company as an affiliation.<issue_comment>username_1: This *sounds* like it means double-blind review, but it is not really clear; the phrasing is not standard nor grammatically correct. If it is important to you, you should contact the conference organizers and ask for clarification.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Actually I wanted to comment with "why would you want to submit exactly there", but I am too new here, reputation must be damned! I am confused over the formulation, too.
For experience, someone on the PC would sight the submissions and tell you if something is not Ok. Depending on the size of the conference, however, it might just be a desk reject.
You might want to contact the PC chair and ask.
Well, here are also some suggestions for alternatives, if your focus is image processing. The list is not exhaustive.
Conferences:
* CVPR
* SIGGRAPH Asia
* Pacific Graphics
* MICCAI
* Vis
* SIGGRAPH of course, but top-level and expensive
* ICCV (heard too litle about it)
* ICMR (heard too litle about it)
* GraVisMa (heard too litle about it)
* Bioimaging (heard too litle about it)
Journals:
* IEEE TVCG
* IEEE TMI
* The Visual Computer
* Computer Graphics Forum
* ACM TOG (very high-reach)
I don't know of you picked the conference based on location, but submitting to a journal could also broadcast your result and you don't need to travel. For talking to people a conference is obviously better.
Upvotes: -1
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<issue_start>username_0: I'd like to apply for a PhD in Ancient History at Oxford in the future.
Currently I'm planning to apply for a ResMa in Ancient History at Leiden university, in the Netherlands, which is thaught in English.
Is it a recognised uni for classics in UK or the US or should I do a British university instead, such as Durham, Mancester, UCL, St Andrews and so on to have better possibilities to be taken at Oxford?
Thank you all!<issue_comment>username_1: I think your university's prestige matters very little. What is more important is the quality of work you do, your grades, possible publications, awards etc, and the strong reference letters which naturally follow on from those things.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: All of the universities you have mentioned are top-league universities with high prestige. As for whether you have a better chance of getting into Durham, UCL etc versus Oxford is debatable. They are internationally renowned and the competition very high. Of course, Oxford is Oxford, but there's little point in going to Oxford *just because it's Oxford*, which it sounds like you want to do, because you don't seem to know what it's like for your specialist subject area.
The most important thing about any university is the **staff in the departments**, not necessarily the university itself. These are the supervisors who you will be learning from and have constant contact with. Their tuition can be either inspiring or a hindrance to positive learning.
All of the universities you mention are good. Take some time to visit their websites, look at the department members, their publications and what *feel* you get from the institution and the department. Do you get the impression that you really like the place? Does it look inspiring? Does it make you want to find out more, do you think you that *when* the course gets difficult [not *if*] you would be able to overcome the obstacles with the staff's support?
At the end of the day, finding out the answers to these questions is far more important that going to Institution A or B based on some arbitrary popular notion of league places. A slightly lower-league university may get a lot more out of you than one a few more places up depending on how well you gel with the department. If, after your research, you still want to go to Oxford and it looks right to you, by all means go for it, but don't get hung up on it. The amount that an institution inspires you will govern how much 'better' the 'possibilities' are for your entry.
Upvotes: 3
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<issue_start>username_0: I’m currently preparing a tenure packet. I have reviewed a few papers for journals in the last few years. I am wondering how I should include this activity.
Certainly I will be including evidence of this professional activity (e-mails with the editors acknowledging the receipt of the report, etc.), but I presume that it would not be standard practice to include the reports themselves. It already feels a little odd to quasi-publicly acknowledge that I was an anonymous referee for some papers that didn’t get published (Hmm, I wonder what my report was like), but this seems like the right way to go.<issue_comment>username_1: If the requirements do not include actually including the reviews, then I would not do so. I would instead just resort to including the email exchanges acknowledging that the reviews have been received.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: Back when I still needed to pad my CV, I included doing peer-reviews in the "Academic Service" portion of my cv:
* Anonymous peer reviewer for Journal of Slack Exchanges (2015, 2017)
* Anonymous peer reviewer for International Journal of Critical Yoyoing (2015)
but I did not have to provide any evidence per se. However, with anything tenure related, you should **speak to your chair** as well as recently tenured colleagues at your university and follow their advice -- as each university has its own particular way of doing things.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: **Absolutely not.** Referee reports are confidential, *especially* for papers that were rejected. Including them in your tenure packet would violate that confidentiality.
Upvotes: 4
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<issue_start>username_0: To publish a research paper in peer review journal is good, are they ask charges to get a paper published<issue_comment>username_1: That is not so easy to answer, as things might strongly differ between different journals. If you are in a PhD program, try asking your advisor. He/she might also know about funding available at your institute that can be used for journal fees.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: Definition of [Peer-review in Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peer_review) reads:
>
> Peer review is the evaluation of work by one or more people of similar competence to the producers of the work (peers). It constitutes a form of self-regulation by qualified members of a profession within the relevant field. Peer review methods are employed to maintain standards of quality, improve performance, and provide credibility. In academia, scholarly peer review is often used to determine an academic paper's suitability for publication.
>
>
>
There is a certain set of information you need to determine whether a journal is peer-reviewed (refereed). See the following useful links:
* [How to recognize peer-reviewed journal? (From: ASE Library)](http://www.angelo.edu/services/library/handouts/peerrev.php)
* [How can I tell a journal is peer-reviewed? (From: McMaster University)](https://library.mcmaster.ca/faq/how-can-i-tell-if-a-journal-peer-reviewed)
There are journals that are called **Open access journals**, which usually charge a publication cost. The [Wikipedia definition of Open Access (OA) journal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_access_journal) reads the following:
>
> Open access (OA) journals are scholarly journals that are available online to the reader "without financial, legal, or technical barriers other than those inseparable from gaining access to the internet itself." They remove price barriers (e.g. subscription, licensing fees, pay-per-view fees) and most permission barriers (e.g. copyright and licensing restrictions). While open access journals are freely available to the reader, there are still costs associated with the publication and production of such journals. Some are subsidized, and some require payment on behalf of the author.
>
>
>
Upvotes: 1
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2017/08/30
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<issue_start>username_0: The reviewers have already commented on our article and the conference management system shows us each of their comments. Based on the comments, we know that the article will definitely be rejected. The final verdict is scheduled on 15 days from today.
We are interested in improving (based on the presently seen reviews) the manuscript and submitting it to another venue.
Will it be called duplicate submission in the new venue, if we submit now?<issue_comment>username_1: **Formally, yes.** Until you have actually received the accept/reject decision, your paper is still under submission and cannot be submitted elsewhere.
On the other hand, you can avoid this conflict (at least in principle) by formally **withdrawing your original submission**. Normally I would advise against withdrawing so late, since you'd arguably be wasting the PC's time. But if the work has already been done and the outcome is clear, the PC is just wasting *your* time by making you wait two weeks for the official decision.
If you do withdraw and submit elsewhere before results of the first conference are announced, you should make the situation very clear to the new PC chair. In particular, you should forward the formal acknowledgment of your withdrawal. There is a nontrivial chance that the two PCs overlap, and that someone will flag the "dual submission" without realizing that it was withdrawn.
Finally: If the reviews are so obviously negative, you might consider giving yourself more than 15 days to improve the paper before submitting again.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: This question is bound to come up more frequently with the advent of rebuttal phases in major conferences. In such a system, authors get the comments, and sometimes the preliminary accept / reject votes, a little in advance to allow them to write an answer to the reviews, which is then - at least in theory - taken into account for the final decision. In such a system, it's fairly obvious when a paper is dead, and waiting for the final verdict is a waste of time in that case.
I don't think there is already a generally-understood moral code on whether you need to wait for the final rejection before submitting again. Formally withdrawing, as username_1 proposes, is a possibility, but given that the paper is, for all practical purposes, dead, a withdrawal seems to only add overhead at this point. Personally, I suspect a busy PC chair will just ignore your mail at this point.
**Hence, I would not consider it a double-submission to immediately resubmit the paper. Just think of the paper as rejected and carry on.** Note that this advice only holds if it is glaringly obvious that the paper will be rejected. Don't interpret this as permission to speculate if the reviews could still go either way, especially if the conference only gives you the textual comments but not the verdicts. Further, should your paper miraculously be accepted in the first conference anyway, you need to immediately withdraw from the second review process.
Upvotes: 2
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2017/08/30
| 836
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<issue_start>username_0: From my understanding, a PhD thesis has more original/substantial contribution to the field than a masters thesis. Because of the time invested in a PhD thesis, it is more ambitious and expected to generate peer reviewed publications.
However, in terms of structure: length, content etc. how does a master's thesis differ from a PhD thesis and a journal paper? Particularly as it pertains to engineering disciplines.
Some sources I looked at:
* [Quora: What's the difference between a master's thesis and a Ph.D. thesis?](https://www.quora.com/Whats-the-difference-between-a-masters-thesis-and-a-Ph-D-thesis)
* [Reddit: What are the differences between research done for a Master's thesis and research done for a PhD dissertation?](https://www.reddit.com/r/GradSchool/comments/3g5k0n/what_are_the_differences_between_research_done/?st=j6z6jgnj&sh=b57c6ec4)<issue_comment>username_1: **Formally, yes.** Until you have actually received the accept/reject decision, your paper is still under submission and cannot be submitted elsewhere.
On the other hand, you can avoid this conflict (at least in principle) by formally **withdrawing your original submission**. Normally I would advise against withdrawing so late, since you'd arguably be wasting the PC's time. But if the work has already been done and the outcome is clear, the PC is just wasting *your* time by making you wait two weeks for the official decision.
If you do withdraw and submit elsewhere before results of the first conference are announced, you should make the situation very clear to the new PC chair. In particular, you should forward the formal acknowledgment of your withdrawal. There is a nontrivial chance that the two PCs overlap, and that someone will flag the "dual submission" without realizing that it was withdrawn.
Finally: If the reviews are so obviously negative, you might consider giving yourself more than 15 days to improve the paper before submitting again.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: This question is bound to come up more frequently with the advent of rebuttal phases in major conferences. In such a system, authors get the comments, and sometimes the preliminary accept / reject votes, a little in advance to allow them to write an answer to the reviews, which is then - at least in theory - taken into account for the final decision. In such a system, it's fairly obvious when a paper is dead, and waiting for the final verdict is a waste of time in that case.
I don't think there is already a generally-understood moral code on whether you need to wait for the final rejection before submitting again. Formally withdrawing, as username_1 proposes, is a possibility, but given that the paper is, for all practical purposes, dead, a withdrawal seems to only add overhead at this point. Personally, I suspect a busy PC chair will just ignore your mail at this point.
**Hence, I would not consider it a double-submission to immediately resubmit the paper. Just think of the paper as rejected and carry on.** Note that this advice only holds if it is glaringly obvious that the paper will be rejected. Don't interpret this as permission to speculate if the reviews could still go either way, especially if the conference only gives you the textual comments but not the verdicts. Further, should your paper miraculously be accepted in the first conference anyway, you need to immediately withdraw from the second review process.
Upvotes: 2
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2017/08/30
| 378
| 1,480
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<issue_start>username_0: I am so worried about the GRE exam! I have not any experience about it, but need to take it in order to do my PhD in the USA. So far I prepared a vocabulary notebook and wrote the definitions of 3500 words. Now, I am thinking of how to memorize those words in a short time. Moreover, I need to study for the Math and analytical writing sections.<issue_comment>username_1: For the vocab you could download this flashcard deck <https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/2430987595> and the software anki. It's a spaced repetition software with a little bit of a learning curve, but once you get it down it is highly effective. Or you could search memrise for a few gre decks.
I just bought a GRE workbook. I have yet to crack it open, so i cant review it. But it has a lot of quanatative questions that mimic the GRE. So a work book and some flashcard software would be your best bet.
Good luck!
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: I highly recommend Magoosh. I used their vocabulary app while I was walking around campus for a couple months and by the time the exam came I was thoroughly prepared. They also have a pay-for-service learning course which is good to review the material you've forgotten since high school. I am a fairly math oriented person going into the life sciences so I did not do too much of the math portion of Magoosh but the writing section was fairly useful and the english section was great. Knock 'em Dead!
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]
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2017/08/30
| 456
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<issue_start>username_0: During my undergrad (past 3 years) I worked in a niche ecology lab and during the time generated some data. The work I did was not exactly groundbreaking but I think it was solid publishable work and could find a home in a decent journal.
My PI is encouraging me to write up my work and submit it for publication in the next few months but I have just started graduate school and am working in an entirely different field (Biophysics with a sprinkle of cell biology).
Considering that I expect writing up the work for publication will be a significant undertaking (seeing how it would be my first time writing a paper for publication), and the disparity between the subject of the paper and my current/future research, would it be worth the time commitment to follow my PIs advice and write the paper? Would there be any real benefit for my career in a different field if this work does get published?<issue_comment>username_1: The experience of having gone the whole way through the publication process is very valuable and will benefit you when you start writing up your new research. In the long run (say by the time you'd be applying for tenure-track jobs) having a publication in another field won't help your CV much because people are looking at your research program. But in the medium-term if you apply for postdocs you may not have many (or any) actual publications (given the time it takes to write-up and submit research) and it's going to make you look better because it shows to potential supervisors that you're responsible and capable of completing a project.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Yes. Future employers in general like a longer publication record. (You also may end up working in another field or fields from that of your degree.) It also helps to go through the publication process.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: I presume you can use the experience you get from creating the publication in your current job. The data may be totally different but the process will be almost the same.
Upvotes: 0
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2017/08/30
| 1,220
| 5,219
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<issue_start>username_0: My ex-colleague (let's call her C) in the Lab is now a faculty member at a university. We have collaborated before in our work. Our works are similar in the methodology but different in the topic. In other words, in her dissertation, she used method X to solve a problem in topic Y. In my work, I will use a variation of X to solve topic Z.
C is now planning to write a research grant proposal about my topic and she asked me to help her in preparing for the proposal. C and my advisor (her ex-advisor) will be the PIs in the proposal. I asked C to include my name (as PI or any other way) because this is my work and I have already a published paper about it but C said that only faculty members can be included. But I feel that if I'm not included in the proposal in any way, my work will be stolen because C tries to get her students in her university to work on my idea.
If the funding is approved, I am afraid that they might hire someone else to work on my idea and then probably I won't be the first author anymore or maybe not included in the publication at all because both of them know my idea very well.
I'm new to the funding stuff so please help me. I might be overthinking about it.<issue_comment>username_1: You should only collaborate on proposals with people you trust. I don't know a definite way of protecting an idea in realities of academia, apart of some engineering disciplines, maybe. So you are right that after the proposal is written and submitted, only PI's will have control on how the project will be executed.
I never heard of people asking their PhD students to help them work on their proposals, unless these PhD students were then included as postdocs on the project. Otherwise, I can't see, what's in it for you. It is not your contractual obligation or academic duty as PhD student to help your professor write their applications. The same is true for your ex-colleagues and other members of academia.
You could politely ask your colleague to clarify in which role are you invited to collaborate on the proposal.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_2: While it depends on your region as well as the specific grant to which your colleagues are applying, I think you are approaching this issue the wrong way.
It is true that after working very hard on a certain field, subject or method, we may become overly attached to the ideas that we generate. However, if you are not willing to accept (and even embrace the fact) that other people are so interested in your work that they are using it and, more importantly, submitting grants on it, why are you even concerned about publishing what you do?
More importantly, they should (and likely already have, given that they are asking for your help to write the proposal) realize that you are possibly one of the most capable persons to work alongside with them on the topic, given that it was you who initially proposed the idea. You can benefit from their grant by collaborating with them -- perhaps by providing guidance to the students who they are willing to hire to work on something you value important!
As someone who collaborates with many other people who work on ideas that I initially generated, here's how I would approach the issue. Tell them which particular research directions you would like to work on yourself (perhaps as a part of their grant, trusting that they will fund you if the grant is funded), and offer your expertise to them on additional directions that they can have other people working on. On those latter papers perhaps you won't be the first author, but you may collect papers as second, third, etc, as well as see your ideas grow into a fruitful research.
Honestly, ideas are cheap. Most students and faculty have a dozen a week. Execution is expensive, and that's the part they are willing to do. I don't see a reason why you shouldn't help them.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: You are worried that
>
> they might hire someone else to work on my idea and then probably I won't be the first author anymore or maybe not included in the publication at all because both of them know my idea very well
>
>
>
But that can happen regardless of whether your name is mentioned in the proposal, and regardless of whether you even help to participate in the proposal.
You also mentioned that you already published a paper about this work. Anybody who wants to build on your published work can, including C, your advisor, and other people you don't even know.
Having your name on the proposal doesn't affect whether others can work on your idea (with or without your involvement), so it wouldn't resolve the issues you are worried about.
However, since C and your advisor asked if you would be willing to help with the proposal, you have an opening to talk to them about who would carry out the work if it is funded, and what your involvement would be. I suggest you initiate a conversation about this. Discuss with them how this proposal relates to your current and planned work, and who will be involved in carrying out the work in the proposal (if it is funded). (As suggested in [glauc's answer](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/95282/11365).)
Upvotes: 3
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2017/08/30
| 419
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<issue_start>username_0: I and our security guards have not heard from nor seen a prof. of mine who I do research for. We do know that he is from Texas, but we are unsure of his exact hometown.
How can I email to ask about his and his family's safety without overstepping any boundaries?<issue_comment>username_1: It's fine to ask. Like a commenter mentioned, probably better to not add that it's because you haven't heard from him on a particular issue (i.e. not "Did you forget those TPS reports, or are you affected by a hurricane?").
Some things to consider:
1. It's possible you haven't heard because he is directly affected: stranded, injured, hospitalized, dead.
2. However, it is also possible you haven't heard because his family is directly affected. He might be searching frantically for them, trying to make contact, helping in some way, etc.
3. Lastly, it's possible that the situation is completely unrelated.
With all of those things in mind, especially #2, a polite show of concern is certainly appropriate, without any attached expectations or requests. Something along the lines of "Since I know you have ties to Texas, I hope you and your family and friends are safe." Even if it turns out he isn't from the Houston/gulf coast area, there is a reasonable probability that he could know someone in the area and would appreciate the sentiment.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Your professor may be your superior, but he's also a person (and a co-worker in some sense). There is nothing wrong with writing an email that says that you are hoping that he's ok given that you know that he's from Texas. Wouldn't *you* appreciate if one of your colleagues write such an email?
Upvotes: 1
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2017/08/31
| 815
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<issue_start>username_0: It is an engineering/computer science/math paper, is 1/2x read as 1/(2x) or x/2?
Can you please let me know if it is clearly one of them, or it is not possible to say which one it is?<issue_comment>username_1: If it's correct as written, then it means 1/(2x).
However, it's possible it was a typo, and that (1/2)x was meant. You need to interpret from the context in which it occurs which was intended.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: It's ambiguous as written. *Technically* I would argue that it means (1/2)x; just as if you wrote 1/2\*x into a computer system. To say otherwise is to subscribe to the commonly-presumed notion that juxtaposition supersedes the normal order of operations, but that is not something actually written in any official definition. But it's possible that the writer was being sloppy and did in fact mean 1/(2x). You will need to decode from the context, or else contact the author.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: I would read it as 1/(2x), because otherwise I would assume they had written it simply as x/2, whereas there is no easy way of writing 1/(2x).
Of course, if there is some multiplication sign, or simple a space, between 2 and x, then I would interpret it as half x.
Whatever they meant by it, it is poor and ambiguous notation. You really should consider the context and see which option makes sense. (If you are ever in the position of writing mathematics, or teaching others to do so, please guide them away from such ambiguous notation.)
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: The expression looks ambiguous to me, but it might be because I am unaware of a certain agreement on how to interpret it. I made a simple experiment in [Julia](https://julialang.org/), a modern language for numerical computing.
```
julia> x=2
2
julia> 1/2x
0.25
```
So obviously, in Julia there is a built-in rule saying that multiplication binds stronger than division, i.e. 1/2x=1/(2x). This could be based on an agreement in engineering and scientific computing fields.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_5: My guess. 1/2x is an attempt to write
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/26IyU.jpg)
on a defective web forum (like academia.se) not implementing LaTeX. And therefore, it means 1/(2x).
Second guess. If written by a mathematician, 1/2x means 1/(2x), since if she meant (1/2)x she would have written the simpler x/2
Third guess. Grade-school "follow the rule, do not think" method: for multiplication and division, evaluate left to right. In that case 1/2x would be (1/2) x
Fourth guess. Grade-school "follow the rule, do not think" method: multiplication first, then division. in that case 1/2x means 1/(2x).
Summary: unless you are clearly in one of the groups I mention, and writing for others in that group, then **do not write** 1/2x .
Upvotes: 3
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2017/08/31
| 399
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<issue_start>username_0: I am applying for a postdoc in the UK. I hold an academic IELTS certificate. Does anyone know is that enough for a Tier-2 visa?
Thanks in advance<issue_comment>username_1: Being a Tier 2 migrant here myself, I can confirm that IELTS Academic exam is accepted for Tier 2 applications. The general rules are [here](https://www.gov.uk/tier-2-general/knowledge-of-english).
However, a word of caution is needed. UKVI has recently changed the list of [approved test providers](https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/635698/Approved_Secure_English_Language_Tests_and_Test_Centres.pdf), and IELTS franchise seems to split into "IELTS" and "IELTS for UKVI" providers. Only "IELTS for UKVI" providers are approved for immigration purposes. The exams are essentially the same, it is only the level of screening, security and scrutiny which is different.
It is **not clear** to me whether the IELTS certificates issued before the split are still accepted by UKVI. Many people assume that they should because the laws can not be applied retrospectively, but IANAL. I would like to know the answer, too.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Thanks for the answers.
A couple of sentences for people who might be in my situation:
In order to get Tier-2 visa, you have to take part in IELTS exam. The one which is acceptable for this purpose is IELTS for UKVI and the other tests would cause failure to your application.
Upvotes: 0
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2017/08/31
| 2,720
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<issue_start>username_0: There are two ways of treating conferences that are commonly mentioned on this site:
* **Conferences are publication venues** for papers (or similar). Submissions will be subjected to a serious peer review, are citable as evidence, and are a relevant achievement.
Submitting the same material to two different conferences or a journal and a conference would be considered self-plagiarism.
This applies to computer science and engineering (or at least some subfields thereof)
– for details, see: [Is the status of conference publications in Computer Science really absolutely unique?](https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/40783/7734)
* **Conferences are not publication venues.**
The material presented there is typically also published in journals, books, and similar – but this process is not tied to the conference; it may occur before the conference, later, or even not at all.
Submissions are only subjected to minimal review¹, are not citable as evidence, and not considered a big achievement.
Participating in conferences is still considered important though.
It is common that authors present the same material at different conferences.
This applies to the majority of fields.
¹ to weed out utter crap or to decide what should be a talk and what a poster
In light of [this Meta question](https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/q/3813/7734), I am interested whether the above two cases are the only two.
To me, it would not be surprising if this actually is the case, as the two categories have a self-preserving mechanisms.
For example, for a conference belonging to the first category, weakening the criteria for submission would usually be a bad move.
On the other hand, I am very well aware that I do not know every field’s customs.
Hence, I am asking: **Are there conferences that hold a status not described by the two categories above?**
Please answer only if you can name and describe such a conference – if this question remains unanswered, this would be an acceptable and meaningful outcome.
Note that this is only about what is submitted directly to the conference for the purpose of being presented there.
Whether articles corresponding to the presented material will be collected for a book, special issue of a journal, or other form of proceedings – be it with separate peer review or not – is irrelevant for the purposes of this question.<issue_comment>username_1: Yes, there's a third type where a single conference uses multiple submission categories, and submissions to one category are thoroughly reviewed and published as papers in the proceedings, whereas submissions to the other category only appear with short abstracts in the conference booklet or similar, and may also be restricted to specific sessions (such as poster sessions).
I know such conferences in mathematical oriented engineering fields. As just one example, I can mention the [Vienna International Conference on Mathematical Modelling](http://www.mathmod.at). If you look at their call for papers, they have a category "Full Contribution", where full papers are solicited, to be published in the formal proceedings after the review and presentation. But they also have categories "Discussion Contribution" and "Student Contribution", where only abstracts are submitted, and there's no formal publication associated with the submission.
There are other conferences in the same field which make this distinction as well within their submission categories.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: >
> ***Are there conferences that hold a status not described by the two categories above?***
>
>
>
Yes. An example of such a conference is the [ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI)](https://chi2018.acm.org/). They accept full papers, notes, work-in-progress short papers, posters, demos, etc. and have different selection criteria and processes for each submission type:
>
> 1. **Refereed content**: is rigorously reviewed by members of the program committee and peer experts. The process includes an
> opportunity for authors to respond to referees’ critiques. Submitters
> can expect to receive formal feedback from reviewers. The program
> committee may ask authors for specific changes as a condition of
> publication. Papers and Notes are refereed content.
> 2. **Juried content**: is reviewed by a committee but in a less rigorous process than refereed and does not include an author’s
> response or conditional acceptance. Juried content is generally not
> required to make the same level of lasting and significant
> contribution to our knowledge and understanding as refereed content.
> Authors who submit to juried tracks may expect to receive light
> feedback of up to a few paragraphs in length. The following tracks
> contain juried content: Late Breaking Work, Case Studies, alt.chi,
> Student Design and Research Competitions.
> 3. **Curated content** is highly selective but does not necessarily follow a reviewing process by a committee. Curated content may be
> selected from submissions or invited by the track chairs. Authors who
> submit to curated tracks should not expect to receive formal feedback
> on their submission other than the selection decision. The following
> tracks contain curated content: Workshops/Symposia, Panels, Courses,
> Doctoral Consortium, EXPO, Special Interest Group (SIG) meetings,
> Videos.
>
>
> (source: <https://chi2018.acm.org/selection-processes/>)
>
>
>
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: There is also a rather new hybrid journal-conference model, such as the one implemented in [Ubicomp 2017](http://ubicomp.org/ubicomp2017/cfps/papers.html):
>
> **New Publication Model**
>
>
> Starting with the 2017 edition, UbiComp no longer considers full paper
> or note submissions. Instead, it will invite for presentation papers
> published by the Proceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile,
> Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies (IMWUT). IMWUT has 1 volume per
> year with 4 issues per volume, published in March (Issue 1), June
> (Issue 2), September (Issue 3), and December 1 (Issue 4).
>
>
> The UbiComp 2017 main technical tracks will consist of papers in IMWUT
> 2017 Issues 1-3. Authors of these papers will be invited, but are not
> obliged, to present at UbiComp. The conference will retain its
> workshop, poster, and demo tracks, which will have their own
> publication outlet.
>
>
>
To explain the change, in earlier years this conference was the category 1 conference-as-publication-venue, with peer review and proceedings published. Now full papers have been moved to a multiple deadline per year model in a journal, and authors of papers accepted to the journal are then invited - but not required - to attend and present at the yearly UbiComp conference. A number of other conferences in related fields are discussing possibilities of adopting similar styles of hybrids.
This is not a case of an already common practice of a journal inviting submissions from conference proceedings, such as turning a smaller conference paper into a full journal article. To attend and present as an author of a full paper, you have to go to the journal to get to the conference, rather than the other way around.
Note that one of the influencing reasons for all this is in multi-disciplinary fields, where publication cultures clash because - as a single example - someone from psychology and someone from computer science want to co-author a paper, but one field doesn't respect or acknowledge conferences and the other field has a variety of reasons for not wanting to use traditional journal models. There is also a variety of other concerns, but those go beyond the topic of discussion anyhow. Supporters of this method hope that it will better support fields who only count journal articles, while at the same time still supporting the conference culture of networking and dissemination of conference publishing communities.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: Not sure if they are a really separate category - I wouldn't say so, but: whereas the bigger conferences within neuroscience are merely following your 2nd category (minor review of abstracts, not unique content, no strict correspondence between submission and presented material (in case of posters of work-in-progress)), posters presented there are, often, citable. This can be either as "poster at a conference", or the submitted abstract may even be published in some kind of journal (e.g. Clinical Neurophysiology). Whereas citation of such material is rare, since usually the material will be published in form of a proper paper later, it does happen.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_5: I don't think those are “categories” at all or that there is a sharp distinction between what's citable “as evidence” or not.
As you requested specific examples, consider design conferences like the biannual Design Research Society conference. You need to write a short paper, it's reviewed and distributed afterwards but having been involved in both I can tell you the reviewing process is a lot less thorough than at CHI.
These papers can be and are cited but it's also quite common to republish them, typically with some revisions, sometimes at the invitation of the conference organisers, sometimes independently. As far as my employer was concerned, this counted as a publication when measuring the output of our department but not on a par with a journal publication, another crucial difference with the computer science model.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_6: Conferences in the field of *bioinformatics* have been experimenting with different formats, since they bring together people from several different disciplines that have various publication models.
Some of these include peer-reviewed papers that appear in proceedings but are not considered a journal publication in biology, and can be independently submitted to a journal. In fact, sometimes a conference will associate with a specific journal and offer co-submission such that it is reviewed in both the conference and the journal at the same time, and later all accepted papers get published in a special issue of the journal.
Another non-standard idea is something called a "Highlights Track", in which papers which have recently been accepted to a journal and are potentially of significant interest to the community can be submitted and a subset is selected for presentation.
Often you have multiple submission tracks in the same conference in order to accommodate the needs of the different disciplines.
If you would like specific examples I suggest looking at current and past ISMB (Intelligent Systems in Molecular Biology) and RECOMB (Research in Computational Molecular Biology) conferences.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_7: I guess this is a hybrid of sorts: The [EWTEC](http://www.ewtec.org/) conference series (which is application rather than discipline-specific, but is probably more engineering than anything else) peer-reviews submissions - even those that are eventually presented as posters - and they are considered relevant outputs that can be cited and put on a CV. However, the community tends to consider such papers as being worth less than an journal article - and anecdotally, peer-reviewers tend to go a little easier on them - and indeed the copyright transfer to EWTEC specifically allows the author to use their conference paper as the foundation for an expanded version for a journal.
Summary: Conferences whose proceedings are valid, citable outputs, but that are considered inferior to journal articles.
Upvotes: 1
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<issue_start>username_0: My question is about how to best read mathematics papers for research.
I just passed the last qualifying exam as a Ph.D. student in mathematics (studying statistics) and I'm reaching the point where I will need to do more research, which involves reading papers. I used to write, in my own words in a journal, pre-reading thoughts (why I'm reading this paper, what I already know, etc.), a summary of the paper's contents while reading, post-reading thoughts (what I think about the ideas, how they connect to others, how this could be useful, opinions, etc.), and a list of potentially interesting bibliography entries for later reading. When reading I would essentially read linearly, making margin notes, highlighting interesting sections, and so on. Reading a single paper could take a day, going through this process.
This did well enough for my undergraduate thesis on a topic in economics. It also worked well for the paper that my adviser and I are wrapping up and submitting to journals. But I get the impression that this is not an optimal way to read papers, especially in subjects as technically intense as mathematics. (My role in the paper I co-authored with my adviser was to do simulation studies for a test statistic he and another co-author developed, which is more computational and programming intensive than mathematically intensive, and paper reading was basically to get background on the subject. This is fine for me as a starting researcher, but I don't think I will get by on this alone for a Ph.D. thesis, let alone in my later career.)
I'm shy about asking my adviser the best way to read papers, so I'd like to hear others' approach. Is my approach to paper reading a good one, or is there a better way?<issue_comment>username_1: I think your approach is good. Here are some suggestions:
* I doubt that writing what you already know is ever likely to be useful to you in the future, so you could save time by not doing that.
* At the end, I would write two or three sentences to summarize the paper, at the top of your notes. I mean a kind of replacement for the abstract, but easier to read, stripped of the self-promoting aspects, and including your overall opinion of the paper's quality and usefulness.
* I usually make a note of how easy the paper was to read, as I don't want to re-read a paper in the future if I found it painful to read or understand the first time. Or at least I want to be forewarned.
* Include keywords or other important words and phrases. If the paper contains an important piece of information, then you will want to be able to find that in the future, if you have forgotten where you saw it. You have to anticipate what words or phrases you will be likely to search for.
* A day is rather long. You will probably need to become faster, but that may happen naturally. I usually do the same kinds of things as you, and I don't think I am slower than anyone else at reading papers. I probably pick up more details.
* As <NAME> said, there is no reason to be shy about asking your adviser.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: My PhD was in statistics, and I have also supervised PhD students in this field, so hopefully I can offer some useful advice. Here are some thoughts:
* **Talk to your supervisor:** There is no room for intellectual shyness in that relationship. Your supervisor is not going to be upset with you for asking questions, evening if it is something you think you should know how to do already. The fact that you even think to think about this is a good sign, and your process is quite impressive. Don't be shy.
* **Streamline your process:** Your process sounds quite comprehensive already. Personally, I find that writing a short summary in your own words/notation is probably the most useful exercise to understand math papers. Some of the other stuff you're doing might be a bit excessive, especially if you're only getting through one paper a day.
* **Learn the maths, expand your tool-kit:** In a mathematical field, in additional to understanding the specifics of the paper you're reading, you also want to use this as an opportunity to gradually expand your mathematical tool-kit. To do this, make sure you understand the derivation/proof of each result, and if you see an unfamiliar mathematical technique, talk to your supervisor about why it works, and when you might deploy it.
* **Learn to "see the matrix":** Think about the *intuition* of each method and and make sure you can describe it intuitively. When reading mathematical theorems, ask yourself lots of questions: Do I understand this result and its relevance to the field? How would this be applied in practice? Do I understand the proof(s)? Are there other ways to prove this? If there are necessary conditions for a result, do I understand why they're necessary (i.e., why does the result fail without them)? If there are sufficient conditions for a result, do I understand why these are sufficient (i.e., why does the result hold in this case)?
* **Jot down your own ideas:** As you read the literature, jot down your own ideas for possible extensions and interesting questions that come out of this. At first these might be quite ill-posed, but you can gradually refine them as you learn more.
Upvotes: 3
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2017/08/31
| 697
| 3,037
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<issue_start>username_0: Say I wish to pursue a phd in some CS related field. How knowledgable do I have to be in the field I am pursuing? I'm asking because some things happened recently that led me to doubt myself:
I have been doing some machine learning research for the past year and I'm working towards a first author conference submission (as an undergrad). As I was drafting my paper, my professor asked some questions about the project I'd done - such as why I chose certain methods over others, or why I choose a particular parameter for my experiments and more. And I realised that I couldn't answer them. See, in my project, I didn't create anything new. I simply took existing methods and applied them to a relatively unexplored research area, which means that I was just following what other people did. To take something and apply it somewhere else doesn't really require that much knowledge in my opinion. I've been reading papers, trying to explain why some methods outperform others and often times I do not fully understand them. The high level logic maybe I understand, but certainly not the in-depth algorithms or implementations.
I feel as if I know nothing about this field (and I probably really don't know much). Yet, my professor offered me a phd position. I feel like he was placing too much confidence in me. Have I managed to fluff my way through this project, or is this something that happens to other people too? Especially those who completed their bachelors and went for a direct phd.<issue_comment>username_1: It appears you may be suffering from 'imposter syndrome' - welcome to academia! This particular ailment is widespread, I'm afraid.
Especially as an undergrad, no one expects you to be an expert. That's why you go to graduate school. The fact that your advisor asked those questions suggests he/she thinks highly of you, and suggests he/she may be a good advisor.
Now, and in the future, use these situations to identify holes in your knowledge, then fill them.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: It is very appreciated for your honesty. In my knowledge, I have seen many students they join PhD courses having very little knowledge in their field. Also, many join in new fields without having any proper/concrete ideas. However, their interest to learn, hard work and self confidence all together help them to achieve a PhD and a great career ahead. It is also worth to mention that each PhD student must face lots of ups and downs. However, their self confidence and interest to do something new helps to overcome all the down situations.
So first of all, you should never loose your self confidence at the very beginning. It is very well said that "`it is never too late to start`". You will get enough time in PhD to learn many new things including your objectives. Moreover, it seems you have got a very good and inspirational professor. So there is no doubt whatever knowledge you have now, it is very much enough to pursue a PhD in your area of interest. Good Luck!!
Upvotes: 2
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2017/08/31
| 756
| 3,050
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<issue_start>username_0: **Is it possible to write PhD thesis (or PhD thesis level scientific articles) in Computer Science without real advisor (of course there always be formal one)?** E.g. there are (almost) no books how to learn musical composition, artistic painting, cello playing - all such learning is done during private tête-à-tête studies. Maybe Computer Science is similar discipline which can not be learned by self-studying books, articles and conference proceedings. Maybe Computer Science has enough unwritten folklore that is passed only via direct contact between advisor and student? I have read many acknowledgments in thesis that ascertain this viewpoins, there are so much thanks for explaining one or another thing.
My question is about having real PhD advisor. Of course, each PhD student has its advisor by the University rules but there may be cases when having advisor is mere formality, advisor can have no knowledge and skills and the discipline pursued by the student. It can happen and it happens in countries that are not top countries.<issue_comment>username_1: I disagree on
>
> Maybe Computer Science is similar discipline which can not be learned
> by self-studying books, articles and conference proceedings.
>
>
>
You still can learn a lot by yourself. It may not be as good as if you have a mentor. But start from what you know the most (at the very minimum, the courses with top scores in your BSc. or MSc.), read the top publications in similar topics, and go from there.
I met a lot of successful Phd. students who are almost independent researchers from day one. A lot of successful professors also did Phd. independently.
If you have choice to go with helpful supervisor, then go. If you do not have, the only thing you can do is to try your best.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: >
> Possible? yes. But unnecessarily harder.
>
>
>
Going beyond what a good advisor can do to help you learn, publish stuff, and actually get your phd, he/she can greatly improve your chances of getting a job afterwards.
And yes, while there are several books available, there are nuances and tricks that are passed mostly tete-a-tete. As is almost always the case. It really helps to have someone with experience backing you up.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: Let's not lose sight of the fact that **doing a PhD is a very hard thing to do**, even *with* an adviser (and particularly in computer science, but also in essentially any other discipline). So what you're asking is basically "is it possible to do this thing that is difficult enough that a good proportion of the people who try to do it don't finish, but in a way that makes it even *more* difficult than it already is?"
To use an exaggerated metaphor, it is a bit like asking whether it's possible to climb mount Everest blindfolded. The *literal* answer is, [yes, it's possible](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erik_Weihenmayer). The *practical* answer is: any specific person who tries it will almost certainly fail.
Upvotes: 3
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2017/08/31
| 1,382
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<issue_start>username_0: I am trying to work out if I should release slides for my lectures before or after the actual lectures. I don't think the projectors for the lectures are very good, and I think it would also be nice for students to follow along and also get an idea of the structure of the lecture with slides they can download. On the other hand I'm concerned that having these slides may promote disengagement. The slides are a somewhat cut-down version of the full lecture and won't contain all the details that the live version possesses: this might make the lecture a bit harder to follow along with downloaded slides... but on the other hand it will be clear what details are not going to be included in the downloadable version (so whether or not students need to take notes on such would be clear at the time).
The two approaches are mutually exclusive, so I'm struggling to work out which is the preferred option.<issue_comment>username_1: Posting slides, whether beforehand or afterwards, absolutely will encourage some students to either skip class or tune out, especially in intro/required/big-lecture courses. On the other hand, they are useful study aids for many students, especially students with certain disabilities. Since your intention is to flesh out the slides during lecture, you might try some kind of built-in accountability/interactivity such as a mini-quiz on notes you'd like students to take on the slides. The objective is to keep their brains in the on position.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Students generally prefer to have the lecture slides beforehand, and you should let them make their own decisions about whether having the slides out during class will help their ability to concentrate.
On my first day teaching a class, I posted the lecture notes after the lecture, and I immediately got several requests along the lines of "can you post the lecture notes beforehand instead."
If you want engagement from the students, you should earn it by being a better lecturer. Don't try to demand the students' attention by giving them fewer learning tools.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: Here's a couple of questions that might help you put this into perspective.
* Do you normally expect your students to have read (in at least cursory fashion) the textbook material the lecture is on before or after the lecture itself?
* Do you provide a calendar of expected lecture topics, and expect this to be useful to them in advance?
* Do you view your job in this course as one of introducing new concepts, and then leaving it to them to come to grips with these and how to use them through homework? Or of one of helping them understand and apply new concepts?
Now ask yourself how the lecture slides relate to your answers (which may differ depending on the course). If you are already expecting them to have a certain familiarity before you lecture, then what is the distinction that says that providing the slides before you lecture is bad but insisting they read the textbook is not? You don't even need to insist on it, really; the text is already there and they can always read it ahead of time, even if it's not expected of them, same as they could with lecture notes.
I've known a number of mathematics professors and lecturers who feel that the amount of lecture time available is inadequate to fully and properly explore the required topics to their full satisfaction. As such they must make certain concessions. One of the typical ones is to tell the students that they are expected to have performed a basic reading of the material in the textbook prior to the lecture on it. This lets the instructor focus a little bit less on trying to set up all of the new concepts, and leave many of the proofs to the text, and spend a little more on getting them accustomed to using it and understanding it via examples. Especially so in lower division courses such as calculus, where applying it is of greater importance than knowing how to prove it; but rarely so in their graduate courses, where the concepts and proofs are often of much greater importance.
That said, I've not seen even amongst those a consistent philosophy on the provision of lecture notes/slides. Sometimes they object because their notes are not written in a way to be useful to students (only to them), sometimes they object because they think (some of) the students will be lazier if given them, sometimes they provide them slightly before, sometimes long before, etc. And I've not seen any consistent correlation suggesting one approach is better than another; either in student achievement or in student reviews.
You need to figure out what goals your institution expects you to achieve with your course, what *your* philosophy of teaching is, what it is that will make *you* the most comfortable and effective at teaching, and how these things play into and impact your decisions. And, of course, always be willing to learn from experience should things not work out as well as you'd planned!
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: I have used both approaches throughout the years, and honestly still go back and forth about this same issue. One concern is that students may preview your slides ahead of time as a way to gauge whether or not they "need" to attend class. In theory, if they feel comfortable enough with the material you will cover that day, they need not attend. I have used a few techniques to deal with this concern -- If this is your only concern, you could make attendance mandatory and have students sign in. Or, depending on your class size, you could require short in-class activities be completed at the end of lecture (and turned in before they leave). This would not only gauge how much they learned from your lectures, but also would serve the dual purpose of checking attendance.
However all this being said, in my experience, even if students ASK for me to post lecture slides a head of time so they can print them off, very few actually do.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: Before, so the students can annotate their copies.
If you're worried that seeing the slides in advance will cause your students to want to skip the class then the problem is the class, not the slides.
Upvotes: 2
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2017/09/01
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| 2,530
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<issue_start>username_0: I would like to submit my very current research to some Journal. The work is related to recent hurricane in USA (<NAME>). Since the peer-review process takes months to publish a work, so I am looking for some well-known journal which can publish my research in maximum 2 weeks with no cost. Would anyone have any idea where and how to publish very current research? or already published their very current research in past?<issue_comment>username_1: **Quality peer review takes times**: Science takes time and quality peer review takes time. Presumably, you want the stamp of approval that peer review brings. In which case, you will want to publish in a journal where the peer review has meaning. And in this case, peer review takes time. Sure, some fields and journals will get you an initial decision faster than others. But you might get rejected at the first outlet and that can take time; and you might be asked to do revisions somewhere and that takes time to get that outcome, and then for you to make the revisions, and then get an outcome on those revisions. The fastest experience that I've had from submission to in press was about 2 months. And I wouldn't expect to have the same outcome for other work submitted to the same journal.
**Consider sharing a preprint**: One option would be to post your work to a relevant preprint server. I don't know what discipline you are in, but OSF preprints will accept work in any discipline <https://osf.io/preprints/>
This would allow you to circulate and share your work immediately.
You could then engage in the more time-consuming task of getting your work published in a peer-reviewed journal.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: >
> so I am looking for some well-known journal which can publish my research in maximum 2 weeks with no cost
>
>
>
This is unlikely to exist. There may be well known journals that will publish slowly at no cost, or obscure journals that will publish for free quickly, or predatory journals that will publish quickly for a cost.
But peer review takes time. So a proper publication.
What are you goals? If you want knowledge to be public, you could approach a magazine or newspaper, make a blog post, or post a preprint to ArXiV. This can also help if you want to establish work as yours, so you don't get "scooped".
At the end of the day, the urgent responses to a hurricane will likely come from government scientists, publishing government reports instead of peer-reviewed articles.
Upvotes: 2
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2017/09/01
| 759
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<issue_start>username_0: There are already questions on how to handle unpublished material in CVs. But here I am wondering if would be reasonable to cite an article in preparation in the application of a grant for a PhD or a postdoc position right after a PhD. So basically only for Junior scientists who are still in the process of finishing their PhD or their Masters and have one or two papers in the pipeline which are very relevant to the application in question.
I have seen published papers citing other manuscripts in preparation, usually from the same author or a co-author. So how is this handled/seen in a grant application, provided that the manuscript in preparation exist and can be provided if requested? Would it be better to reference a presentation at an international well-known conference?<issue_comment>username_1: In general, most grant applications do not permit you to list unpublished work for consideration. This is to prevent "gaming the system," whereby somebody could claim a whole bunch of work is "in preparation" when it really isn't. However, you need to check the specific instructions for *each* funding source to see what their rules are with respect to unfinished or unpublished work.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: As noted by @username_1, there are many grant mechanisms that expressly prohibit listing anything that's not "in press" or published, so the first stop would be checking the rules for the grant application itself.
If it *is* allowed, it's understandable to a junior scientist to do this (and indeed, I did this on several job applications). A few general notes:
* **Don't** list a journal. No one cares that something is "in submission" to Nature or Science or Cell or what have you, and it erodes your credibility.
* **Do** be sparing in what you list. These should be papers you're actively working to prep for submission, are being circulated to co-authors, etc. Things where in another few months your CV might look markedly different. "I've written the title and maybe half the intro" doesn't count. Every idea and musing you've had doesn't count. There shouldn't be a wall of these, or way more in prep entries than actual published work.
* **Do** be prepared to talk about each and every one of them (this follows from the previous point). I *have* been asked about papers I had in prep in a fair amount of detail (they were interested in the topic).
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: Two other possibilities, which should be considered in parallel with aeismall's and username_2's comments, which are both sensible:
1) Post a preprint on arxiv/biorxiv/etc, cite the preprint. That way they can read the paper without requesting it explicitly. (I think it's unlikely someone will request it.). If journal policies prohibit you from posting it on arxiv, you could put up a PDF copy on your website, and link to it. Both of these plans demonstrate the state the work is in; the arxiv plan also shows that you are willing to expose it to the outside world, even if it is not yet published.
2) Request that your advisor specifically address this unpublished work in their letter. "In preparation" is much stronger when there is a paragraph or two of someone else describing the work's context and importance.
Upvotes: 0
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2017/09/01
| 285
| 1,253
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<issue_start>username_0: I am applying for some (second) master programs and a few Ph.D. programs. I earned my undergraduate degree outside the US but got my master degree in an American university (I am an international student). I wonder if I can only submit the transcript of my first master degree for my application?<issue_comment>username_1: The general answer to this question is **no, your undergraduate transcript is required as well.**
The reason is that for master's degree programs where coursework dominates, undergraduate success is usually a good predictor of graduate success. While for PhD admissions, they don't have as much predictive value (since PhDs are about research, not classwork), it is still important to have a baseline for judgment.
In addition, the schools will want to check if you have the necessary prerequisites to undertake PhD studies. This usually requires your undergraduate transcript.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Submit exactly what the application ask for, and if it's not clear, ask for clarification. When in doubt, submit them all.
Different schools will have different requirements, but if they ask for your undergrad grades, or all grades, you need to submit them.
Upvotes: 2
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2017/09/01
| 584
| 2,326
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<issue_start>username_0: My nephew, a recent graduate, is applying for a fellowship at CERN, and he is providing the usual letters of reference. He has in the past done some work for me (I work in the same field he is studying), and I know him quite well, professionally speaking.
If, in addition to the other letters of reference, were I to write one for him as well (explicitly noting our relationship, being relatives), would that most likely hurt or help?<issue_comment>username_1: I strongly advise you against writing it.
In [this answer](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/37100/20058) by ff524 you can read a few reasons on why your letter may be considered strongly biased. But let me add one more point, a cultural one (you never know the background of the selection committee members).
Even though you can be objective and honest in assessing your nephew's skills, and even though your letter would be just an additional one, you have to think that in some countries (e.g. Italy and Spain, but I'm sure these are not the only ones) the academic world has faced for a long time accusations of nepotism and corruption. Therefore, by many people who have grown up in such kind of culture, your letter would be probably considered as yet another case of potential nepotism.
I might be overly pessimistic, but do you really want to risk this?
Let me add a remark in view of HEITZ's comment below: *When applying for a position, follow the instructions*. That is, if the call requires, say, 3 letters of recommendation, your nephew should send 3 letters, not 2, not 4. Why? Because anything that is not compliant with the instructions will likely annoy a selection committee who has to assess many applicants, because they will have to decide how to handle unwanted special cases.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Writing the letter yourself is indeed problematic as others suggest - or may be perceived as such.
What I believe you should do is have your nephew contact a relevant **third party** and ask that **s/he write a recommendation** based on his/her assessment of your nephew's work.
If there is job such relevant third party, and nobody can tell what your nephew has contributed other than you two, then it's even more suspicious for you to make the recommendation.
Upvotes: 0
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2017/09/01
| 1,038
| 4,383
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<issue_start>username_0: I'm currently writing the State of The Art chapter of my thesis.
To my advantage, there are many good surveys in my field. My views are not equal to other surveying authors, so the structure is not the same, nor the way the existing work is addressed. So far so good.
The problem is that eventually, one comes to the part of describing existing work and obviously some papers are so important that they must be present in any Survey of a given field.
I'm specifically worried about situations in which a surveying author *AAAA* describes the work of a third author like: "Algorithm AWESOME improves performance by statistical methods" and I'm saying something like: "Smith presented AWESOME, which uses statistics to reduce execution times". So, I'm somehow forced to paraphrase author *AAAA*, because AWESOME does that one thing and that's it.
So the question is: **Is this somehow forced paraphrasing of a surveying author plagiarism?**<issue_comment>username_1: I would just comment, but I can't. Building on ff524's question (in comment) "Are you citing the survey(s) (in addition to the original papers)?", I would simply say "algorithm AWESOME does this and that (AUTHOR OF ALGORITHM OR ANYONE ELSE RELEVANT, 1908; AUTHOR OF THAT GREAT REVIEW YOU THINK READERS SHOULD ALSO READ OR CHECK, 2043)", as "(BURGUER, 1908; FRIES, 2043)" for example (or format it in the same standard you're using). This gives due credit without overcredit nor plagiarism.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: First, let's be clear about one thing: plagiarism only occurs when you copy someone's work (perhaps with only minor modifications) without clearly citing the original source. If, however, you clearly cite the original source and you make it clear that you are copying or modifying the original citation, then there is no question of plagiarism. So, I really don't consider the situation that you are describing to be an issue of plagiarism, otherwise, you wouldn't even be posting this question--you're not trying to hide anything.
That said, I have heard of the idea of so-called "paraphrase plagiarism" where some people consider it to be plagiarism if you modify an original source but somehow "not enough" so that they consider it plagiarism. I personally think that's silly, as long as you made it quite clear that you are citing another source. At worst, that could be called sloppy paraphrase or sloppy citation, but I think the serious and strong word "plagiarism" should be reserved for deliberate attempts to deceive or mislead. In any case, even if it is silly, you don't want people to accuse you of plagiarism when you have no intention to do such a thing. Anyway, this is a controversial point, so, I'll drop back and now get back to directly addressing your explicit question.
In general, when discussing or describing a primary article in a literature review, you should directly cite the original primary articles, not other literature reviews that mentioned the primary articles (even if these other literature reviews are how you found out about the primary articles). Ideally, you should read (either entirely or partially) the primary articles, and so you should be able to write an original summary in your own words of the primary article. As long as you don't look at the literature review's summary while you are writing your own original summary, there should be no concern about plagiarism because you are not plagiarizing: you are writing your own original summary. Of course your summary will resemble that of the literature review, since you are both describing the same original source, but that similarity is due to two independent descriptions of the same thing; it is not because you plagiarized anything. (Again, this assumes that you did NOT look at the other literature review's summary while writing your own; if you do look at it, then you might unconsciously or semi-consciously copy its wording and structure--so, don't look at it.)
That said, even though you should cite the primary article directly, if you learnt about the primary article through the literature review, it is good to cite the literature review as well as a general source, both so that your readers recognize that you are aware of it and as a courtesy to acknowledge how it helped you to identify relevant literature.
Upvotes: 1
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2017/09/02
| 2,798
| 11,698
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<issue_start>username_0: I'm a CS student enrolled in a class about a certain programming language. Recently, I discovered a trick that is pretty useless in actual production code and doesn't seem to be known by many. The trick results in a program not outputting the expected result. The program is less than 5 lines long.
I am curious as to whether my professor would be able to uncover the solution and would like to ask him during his consultation time. My concern that I do not want the professor to think I am trying to be rude, disrespectful, or anything negative to him.
Would it be appropriate for me to go see my professor during his consultation hours and ask him why my program is not outputting the correct output?<issue_comment>username_1: This really depends on how busy the office hours are.
At my university the office hours lines are often 30 minutes to 1 hour long, so you do your fellow classmates a disservice by taking up the professor's time with something that doesn't actually help you.
But if nobody comes to the professor's office hours, then sure, you might as well. Professors are used to not knowing things (they do research, after all), so it's unlikely that you would bruise their ego. You don't get to be a professor without being repeatedly humbled by your experiences.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: At best, you might amuse them, but there is significant risk that you'll annoy them if they don't think that the subject "is just a game". That is, they may not think that contemplation of a trick question is a good investment of resources. Or, if they are very quick/savvy, they'll see through it right away and wonder why *you* are wasting your time this way...
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: Asking it as a "trick", where you pretend it is a real question and you don't know the answer, could certainly be annoying depending on the professor's mood. So don't try to be tricky.
>
> Hi Professor, if you have a few minutes, I came across an interesting puzzle that I thought you might appreciate. I thought the answer was pretty surprising. [if invited to continue:] Look at this program; can you guess what it would output?
>
>
>
You should make it clear that this is a "riddle" to which you already know the answer. If the professor isn't interested in spending time thinking about it, he can always ask you to tell him the answer, or just say he is too busy right now.
Also, you know your professor better than we do; use your own judgment as to whether he is someone that would find this sort of thing interesting.
---
Some commenters have raised the question of whether this is an appropriate use of office hours at all. My view is that it is, since it is at least somewhat related to the content of the course (same programming language). It also has the potential to lead to a technical discussion in which you might learn something. I personally would be happy to have this kind of conversation with a student during my office hours.
Of course, it should be low priority. If there are other students waiting with questions that are directly about the course (homework, lecture, etc), then this is not a good time to ask your puzzle; go away and come back another time.
---
I am assuming that your honest goal in all this is simply to share something that you think the professor will find technically interesting, and/or to learn more about it yourself. If your intention is actually to "test" the professor, or to impress him with your obscure technical knowledge, or make him think you are smart so that you get a better grade, then please don't; that *would* be rude and disrespectful, and professors tend to be pretty good at seeing through things like that.
Upvotes: 7 <issue_comment>username_4: The [answer](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/95375/14144) by Nate suggests a nice and respectful way to discuss this problem. You could even prefix that by "when researching about [the language] I came across [..]" to show that you found it by genuinly being interested in the subject as opposed to be the bravest and challenge him with a trick question circulating the class.
I decided to write an answer not only to agree with another answer, but to explain why you shouldn't lie like you intend to. I think that it IS (contrary to your intentions) disrespectful to pretend that this question is a genuine one that you have problem with.
If the professor tries to seriously help you and tries to imagine what were you thinking, it might just mislead him in an unfair way. If he asks you "what did you want to accomplish by this code" or "why did you write these lines like that" what will you answer? Going to lie with "I don't know, did I go wrong there?" again?
Even stupider case:
>
> -- Hey, professor, I'm having some trouble, can you give me a hand? I can't understand why is this code not outputing [x].
>
>
> -- What the hell, moron? Did you find this trick problem on [y] and are trying to fool me now?
>
>
> -- Oh, I didn't know you read the site...
>
>
> -- I published this problem on that forum, couldn't you read neither my username nor signature?
>
>
>
Besides, I'd like to challenge your reasons for asking. You haven't told us - is the professor considered (or considers himself) a guru on this language? Or maybe (as usually is the case) his research is somewhat related to programming languages and someone has to introduce you to that language? And is the course actually about the language or does it use the language to teach some programming concept?
Just because the professor seems to know a lot more on the language than most of the students, it doesn't mean that professor is or should be a specialist in the language. Or that he even is/should be interested in the language that much. Maybe he is just using the language as a tool to teach a concept? Often it is the case that subjects like functional programming are taught in a functional programming language like Haskell, but the course is not actually about the language.
Of course, the professor should know the language enough to use it, show it and understand students code, but there is no reason to expect him knowing implementation details or other particularities that your trick might depend on. So just tell him up straight and honest - "I found this trick question". If he has the time and enthusiasm, he might enjoy it and you might have a discussion that benefits both of you. Or maybe he just tells you to not waste the consultation time and ~~f.. off~~ write your thing in an email.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_5: I think that trying to trick someone this way is fairly unethical behavior. And for this particular kind of situation I find being honest is usually the best way to do it.
"Hey, I found a cool trick I thought you might like."
Your professor then gets to decide how much interest he has in it, and enjoys being part of your friendly interest instead of forming a 'this kid's a dick' opinion of you.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_6: No, do not do this. It is a complete waste of everybody's time.
Office hours are there to help students learn, not for playing pranks.
If there are other students who wish to use office hours to learn, you are denying them the support they need by wasting your professor's time. If there aren't other students using the time, you are denying your professor the chance to spend the time doing something productive.
However, if you don't understand how the code works yourself, you could ask this as a non-trick question. Since it's rather tangential to the course, I wouldn't recommend that if there are other students wanting to use the time.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_7: **Depends.** Is there any didactic purpose to the gotcha? (Java has tons, and Python has quite a few). Some of these are very instructive (e.g. the mutability, shallow copy-related ones), and some are just annoyances or mistakes in the standard.
Anyway, I'd phrase it as a comment: "There's an obfuscation/gotcha revolving around X" and see if they're actually interested in knowing about it, rather than a riddle or trick question. Unless the prof's personality is ok with the latter - you know better than us.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_8: It sounds to me like you are trying to profit from your clever discovery (which is a common enough thing for someone to do when they've discovered something cool) but are looking for the *wrong sort of profit*. Namely, you are looking for a cheap emotional thrill that you would get from being able to demonstrate to yourself that your professor would fail the little "test" you have devised for him, and which you yourself passed (although under different and perhaps incomparable circumstances).
However, this thrill (assuming it materializes) would not actually bring you any tangible benefit, and on the other hand it may have a significant cost in annoying the professor and having him form a poor opinion of you as an immature jerk. Seeking an emotional thrill that comes at a cost of actual, real world harm is precisely one of the hallmarks of immature behavior.
So here's a suggestion. If you want to *actually* benefit from your cute discovery, by all means share it with your professor (and with us, and with your friends, Facebook contacts etc), in the way username_3 suggested or in some other friendly way that doesn't involve trickery. Professors love to have conversations with smart students (during office hours or at other times) and learning from them just as much as they love teaching them. I'm sure your professor would enjoy the discussion and be suitably impressed (to an extent proportional to how clever the discovery is -- keep in mind you haven't exactly reinvented relativity theory here, so I wouldn't expect too many accolades...). This could translate later on to him giving you advice, mentorship, a letter of recommendation etc.
Another suggestion is to simply enjoy for now the satisfaction of doing something creative and learning something interesting. The pursuit of knowledge has many rewards, but not all of them involve instant gratification. Some day in the future you might use this tidbit or other bits of knowledge you pick up in a job interview or some other useful occasion, but until then, isn't it fun just knowing you are learning cool things and becoming smarter?
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_9: I've been in programmimg since 1980s and, among other things, I held computer classes even for high school professors. In my opinion, no professor should be offended by your question, be it a trick question or not. If the professor is really good, s(he) can see what's the point in your trick question. If it happens that the professor doesn't get it, even s(he) can learn something new. If the question is really cool you both may have a good laugh.
So, if the professor is offended by your question or thinks that a student's question is a waste of time - it's shame that such a person works in education. I spent countless hours sharing my knowledge with my students and I think the most dangerous situation is to create the atmosphere in which students are afraid to ask.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_10: Post it to StackOverflow. If the trick is nice, you'll get tons of upvotes and you will make a bunch of people smile.
Wasting the time of a professor might be a bad idea. Showing an interesting result would be ok. It depends on: How cool is your discovered trick? And how is your professors mood? The StackOver test might help to figure out the first question.
And share the StackOverflow link here for us curious people.
Upvotes: 3
|
2017/09/02
| 961
| 4,302
|
<issue_start>username_0: My mother is a quite famous researcher (she has a PhD) on the field I want to do a PhD in. She works on the industry (not academia). I helped her on successful projects. She knows more about my work than my professors since we have worked much longer together.
Is it a good idea to ask for a recommendation letter from her? Since our personalities are very similar she can point out the high probability that I will be successful like her?<issue_comment>username_1: I would say no, this is a very very bad idea. Your mother going on about how likely you are to succeed will probably not carry much weight. What else would your mother say? If you were unlikely to be successful, would she say that? (even if she would, the perception of the people reading the letter will be that she would not)
Upvotes: 8 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Your mother is not a suitable person to write a letter of recommendation. Even people who know her professionally may not know whether she can write a really objective letter about you. One of your mother's collaborators might be a good letter writer, if they both know your work and are sufficiently independent of your mother to not have any conflict of interest.
Failing that, you can still discuss the projects you worked on with her, and perhaps indicate that you do not have a letter of reference for them because of the conflict of interest.
Although your professors have not worked with you as long, readers will put more trust in their objectivity. They have presumably worked with you as much as they have with other students at a similar stage for whom they are writing letters. They are better placed to know how you compare to your peers.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_3: No, don't ask for a letter of recommendation from your mother. I doubt she'd write one for you, anyway.
Letters of recommendation from close relatives are not accepted, because they can't be trusted to be objective. It's quite common for application forms to explicitly say that referees cannot be close relatives.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: Not only would a letter from mother be discounted, it could have a negative effect.
It would simply beg the question "Why can this person not find someone independent to write a reference?"
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_5: **TL;DR:** Nobody in their right mind would accept your application, as it could ensue considerable damage to them.
I want to add the perspective of the decision maker to what’s already been said.
In all of this I assume that there is no explicit rule against recommendations by close relatives – because otherwise the situation is very clear anyway.
Also, I assume that this happens in a country where nepotism and cronyism are frowned upon and not common.
If I had to make a hiring or admission decision and the application contained a recommendation from the applicant’s mother, I would probably reject it immediately (even if I did not read a single word of the recommendation).
If it were my job to formally process applications before they get to those who actually make the decisions, I would ensure that they never even see that letter.
Also, if the recommendation was authored by somebody with a name and biography making it likely that they are related to the applicant, I would check.
The reason for this is as follows:
If somebody finds out that I made a positive decision based on an application containing a recommendation letter by an obvious relative, I can be accused of making a bad decision, ignoring a blatant conflict of interest.
It doesn’t matter whether I carefully took the conflict of interest into account; it doesn’t even matter if I actually read the recommendation – because in such a situation the burden of proof is primarily on me.
Possible repercussions include lawsuits, the end of my career, and similar.
The only way to avoid this problem is to reject your application (and the fact that you used a recommendation by a close relative will give me sufficient argument for this).
And just to be sure:
Hiding this conflict of interest is not a good idea either, because it shifts the blame for this almost entirely to you (not that you would be in a good situation if you had disclosed and were hired).
Upvotes: 3
|
2017/09/02
| 858
| 3,633
|
<issue_start>username_0: I graduated with a BS in physics in 2009, so it's coming up on ten years since I've been in academia. I have a great relationship with one professor, with whom I'm still in contact, and my old advisor would most likely also help me.
The problem is that most places I see want three letters, and I don't know of any other professors that'd likely remember me. I do, however, have about half a dozen former class mates. I have a friend doing a postdoc at Yale and another at Lawrence Livermore. I also have another friend who just finished her dissertation at Berkley.
I have a wide range of research experience, am published (I helped an experimentalist and got tacked on to the groups paper in phys rev), and have fair grades from a very challenging curriculum (e.g. general relativity, qft of a scalar field, theoretical techniques, intro to string theory), and am not worried about the subject GRE hell (I've done it before and scored in the 80%s once and 90%s the second time).
My problem is that usually one needs 3 letters. I currently work in tech, and could get a great letter from my department's boss, but the only time I do math there is when I make corrections to complex integrals an EE's whiteboard. Or when I'm bored and start calculating connecction coefficients for a metric or dervice generators for SU(n) n>2.
Any advice would be most appreciated!<issue_comment>username_1: From what you say it is not clear how your current job is related to the PhD you plan to study. But in general, excellent recommendation letter from your working place might be a good complement to two academic letters. At the end, your work did require technical / analytical skills, and those are the skills that will be useful in academia. Had you been a soccer player or dancer, this would have been a different story. Also, probably you can ask your boss to focus on some aspects that you think are important to emphasize (e.g., technical skills).
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Two ideas that might help:
* Do what you can to find out about what the institution you are applying to might expect. You might be able to correspond with some prof there whose interests align with yours. In fact, this might be a good thing to do in any case - expressing interest. You should learn something about the prof's interests first, of course.
* In addition to your letters, I assume you make a statement yourself. There, you can and if space permits, include a short section saying that you have been working in the field for a while and so have included both prior academic letters and more current professional letters of recommendation. Have the latter letters stress your brilliance, of course.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: Your situation isn't clear. You say you have a professor you are still in touch with and a boss who is also ready to write you a letter---what about that experimentalist, with whom you published? Won't he/she give you a letter?
And of course, you can take a letter from your current boss. What graduate course are you applying to? If it is analytical, your current boss could comment on your analytical skills.
It is important too to remember that graduate departments are not just looking at your letters for evidence of your math/physics skills. They can get that information from your grades too. They are also interested in learning about your work ethic, work habits, your ability to communicate with peers, your ability to work in a team. I am sure your current boss can provide great commentary on these other very important skills.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]
|
2017/09/02
| 1,107
| 4,475
|
<issue_start>username_0: I found a better proof for a theorem than a proof from a published paper. Is it possible for me to publish my proof with the same theorem citing that paper?<issue_comment>username_1: You can publish anything *interesting*.
There are instance where a new proof of a new theorem is not interesting. There are also cases where a better exposition of the existing proof is interesting.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: Why wouldn't it be? This is somewhat common. To cite just one example, [Dilworth's Theorem](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dilworth%27s_theorem) (about antichains in a partially ordered set) originally had a somewhat involved proof when it was first published in 1950. Since then there have been a number of papers published with titles like "A Proof of Dilworth's Chain Decomposition Theorem" (that one by <NAME>), with many of these papers being widely cited in their own right. The one by Galvin is a masterpiece of mathematical elegance.
The crucial question is if you can convince the referees that your proof is both sufficiently new and sufficiently better and/or interesting so as to warrant publication.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: Sure. People publish new proofs of old results all the time. I've done it twice, myself.
Publishability, as with any paper, depends on how much you can get people to care about your new proof. If the result itself isn't very significant, your proof will need to be a big improvement; for a more significant result, it might be enough to improve one of the steps. People will probably care more if your proof is shorter, simpler, requires less material from outside the field (or, conversely, establishes links with other areas), leads to a stronger result, etc.
Be careful that your new proof isn't circular. If Smith proves that every widget has an even number of facets and Jones extends this to prove that the number of facets is actually a multiple of six, you don't get to publish *A Short Proof of Smith's Theorem* that simply points out that every multiple of six is even.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: As several people already mentioned, the prime number theorem is a great example:
>
> No elementary proof of the prime number theorem is known, and one may
> ask whether it is reasonable to expect one. Now we know that the
> theorem is roughly equivalent to a theorem about an analytic function,
> the theorem that Riemann’s zeta function has no roots on a certain
> line. A proof of such a theorem, not fundamentally dependent on the
> theory of functions, seems to me extraordinarily unlikely. It is rash
> to assert that a mathematical theorem cannot be proved in a particular
> way; but one thing seems quite clear. We have certain views about the
> logic of the theory; we think that some theorems, as we say ‘lie deep’
> and others nearer to the surface. If anyone produces an elementary
> proof of the prime number theorem, he will show that these views are
> wrong, that the subject does not hang together in the way we have
> supposed, and that it is time for the books to be cast aside and for
> the theory to be rewritten.” - Hardy, 1921
>
>
>
Then, <NAME> Selberg gave a non-complex-analysis proof in 1948,
see history of this problem [here](http://www.math.columbia.edu/~goldfeld/ErdosSelbergDispute.pdf).
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_5: Apart from the trivial answer, *yes*, I would like to highlight a few points before submitting new proof for an existing theorem to a publishing venue.
* It depends on **where you are submitting** it. Certain peer-reviewed journals might not welcome proofs for established theorems.
* It mainly depends on the **subject or discipline of concern**. It is much more common to see alternate proofs in venues of mathematics and physics than in computer science.
* It depends on whether the new proof is **theoretical or practical** in nature. Unless the theorem is not practically proved before, referees of reputable technical publications might not readily accept application papers of existing theorems.
* The new proof ought **not to be a trivial simplification** of an existing proof. Otherwise, it would become an exposition paper than a research paper. This again comes down to the perception of the reviewer and the publisher.
Having stated above, you could technically publish anything new as long as you believe it benefits a wide scientific community.
Upvotes: 1
|
2017/09/02
| 1,846
| 7,520
|
<issue_start>username_0: I'm PhD student beginning my third year. I plan to graduate at the end of my fourth year, leaving me with about another two years in the program. However, at the end of a productive summer of research, my PhD supervisor has mentioned that I'd be on track to finish considerably earlier if I want to. My program uses the "three papers" dissertation model, so at any given time, it's pretty easy to gauge how close we are.
In fact, I do not want to finish early because I am really enjoying doing research with my supervisor and feel that I'm receiving outstanding mentorship from him. Additionally, four years is already fairly short for my program (which is usually done in five years), so it doesn't seem that there is much additional benefit to finishing before year 4.
Instead, I'm considering asking my supervisor if I should defend early and then become his postdoc for whatever remains of my planned four years. I imagine the benefits would be:
1. Since I plan to apply for faculty positions after this, I would have nominally "done a postdoc" instead of being fresh out my PhD.
2. I'd be off the hook in terms of departmental responsibilities, like TAing, for my fourth year.
**Are there other advantages or disadvantages to defending early to become a postdoc? Also, are there advantages or disadvantages for my PhD supervisor?**
More notes / responses to questions:
* I have reason to believe that postdoc funding would not be an issue, so perhaps let's not focus much on that.
* It may be relevant that my PhD supervisor and others believe my publication record (from before my PhD, totaling around 17 papers with ~7 first authorships) to be competitive for a faculty position without doing a standard postdoc (i.e., not the truncated version with my PhD supervisor that I'm proposing).
* I had an early start with research and didn't go straight from undergrad to PhD
### UPDATE: 2 YEARS LATER
After weighing the various pros and cons pointed out here and in live conversations, I ultimately did follow through with the above plan. It worked out great. I am a few months into a faculty position now. It's too early to say if I'll secure successful grants, etc., but I am having a great time and feel very well-prepared. Of course, YMMV, and there were certainly multiple elements of luck, but my n=1 experience with this unusual plan, at least, has been excellent so far.<issue_comment>username_1: For advisors, there may be a big change in how grad students and postdocs are paid, and what charges are being assessed to their grants. These may be helpful or hurtful to your chances of getting a postdoc position.
For instance, your advisor may be currently paying tuition charges that he would not have to pay if you were to become a postdoc. On the other hand, he may have to pay you a substantially higher salary as well as overhead to support you as a postdoc. So it's really a factor of what the rules are at your school.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: You don't mention the country/field, but I'll give my 2 cents because I did my PhD in 3-4 years (depending how you count it).
IMHO and experience, there are virtually no upsides to rushing this:
* If you don't have a postdoc position guaranteed, you would be competing against people that spent 6 years padding their resumes. You have 3 papers, they will have about 10-12, or at least 5. The last years tend to be more productive.
* Postdocs usually have limited duration. Effectively, you would be reducing the amount of time you have to "pad" your resume for a position after the postdoc. Think of someone with 6 year phd in their belts + 2 year postdoc...
* Postdocs can teach as well. It is good for your CV and can help financially.
* Postdocs are shorter. It always takes a while to get your bearings at the start, so the scientific production will likely take a hit.
Of course, you might have personal factors that I cannot account for (like lack of funding, two body problem, etc), but in general, I would advise any student of mine to take all the possible/necessary time, assuming that they want to get a TT position somewhere good. If you want to teach in the back of beyond, or go to the industry (in a non-research position) then ok, rushing can work.
>
> TLDR; If you think you are good enough now, you could be even better in a few years, which would greatly increase your chances for a good TT position.
>
>
>
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: Regarding potential downsides for you:
"Time since obtaining the PhD" is often taken as the *academic age*, so by graduating early, you make yourself appear older. This can have a formal impact, for example, many grants meant for postdocs come with *age restrictions*, so are only available in the first n years after obtaining your PhD.
[Side note: This wouldn't matter for you if you get a faculty position straight away, but at least in my area, this would be quite unusual.]
The *academic age* can also play a role informally if people have to judge your productivity. (Number of papers)/(Years since PhD) is a formula I've seen a few times in this context.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_4: Moving up through the levels of academia brings more responsibility and less support. Being an academic is not easy (try looking up stress levels among academics). I would personally not recommend rushing if you can afford not to.
In terms of your suggested benefits:
1. In most fields it is (very) unusual to go directly to a faculty research position. Going straight to a teaching position is possible, but it doesn't sound like that's what you're hoping for. When you apply for postdocs as a PhD student, you are measured heavily by your references. When you apply as a postdoc, you are measured much more by the papers you have produced. Also, in my field at least, the new-postdocs are considered for jobs before the repeat-postdocs.
2. In a faculty position you will almost certainly be expected to teach. Avoiding teaching is therefore not necessarily a good move. Also, depending on the terms of a postdoc position, as a postdoc you could get landed with admin duties that count for less on your CV (as well as being less interesting).
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: I would recommend doing your postdoc in a different research group from your PhD.
For PhD students who are pursuing an academic career, in the United States the usual route is to stay a PhD student until you get a job offer. If you accept a postdoc position in your PhD advisor's group, it may be interpreted as meaning you were unable to get any other job offer. You will not have as many different experiences as someone who has worked in two groups.
In Australia you would be expected to finish in 3.5 years, so you would not have a choice of waiting for a job offer. You also would not be finishing early.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_6: The answer depends on your goals. Two common goals:
1. Do you want to maximize the time you can do research?
Then it's probably good to linger on the PhD studies. Once you are a PhD you will get more and more "responsibility" (double-speak for irritating side quests which eat up your time to do research)
2. Do you want to maximize your income?
Post docs usually get paid more.
---
Also the PhD degree is a stamp of approval that you can do research independently.
Ending up postdocing at the same place where you did the PhD... does not really confirm that.
Upvotes: 2
|
2017/09/03
| 484
| 1,997
|
<issue_start>username_0: In the announcement of a tenure-track faculty opening in computer science in USA, I see a request for
>
> a letter of application explaining your interest in ⟨university⟩ and in this position
>
>
>
Other documents (CV, research & teaching statements, scholarly work, references) are also requested, cover letter not being among them. The application goes to a small, mostly liberal-art university.
How many pages are typically expected for the letter of application? Is a cover letter expected in addition?
I have read [What are the differences between a cover letter and an application letter?](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/10325/what-are-the-differences-between-a-cover-letter-and-an-application-letter), which, however, speaks about a PhD position. I have also read the links provided there, but, they are targeted more towards the non-academic job market.<issue_comment>username_1: There is effectively no difference between a customized cover letter and a letter of application. The job ad wants you to submit a cover letter that is customized to their university. They are asking you to avoid a generic cover letter. Make sure that, in addition to talking about your research and teaching in general, you speak to the specific reasons you think you would be a good fit for their institution.
Note: Although I have not served on a hiring committee, I did complete the academic job market last year.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Cover letter = letter of application. It typically goes: "Hi, this is who I am, this is where I got my PhD, I have published here. Let me tell you a little about my research. Let me tell you a little about my teaching. I want to join your faculty because of this reason. kthxbai"
It should be two pages, single spaced, maximum. Use letterhead if you've got it, but keep in mind that letterhead is only used for the first page; the second page, if you have a second page, is on regular paper.
Upvotes: 3
|
2017/09/03
| 1,718
| 6,889
|
<issue_start>username_0: I've prepared a manuscript on biomedical sciences and my advisor, who commonly reviews papers from high-impact journals, and my co-advisor, who is in the editorial board of an open-access journal both liked it. I'm very sure that my results are novel, and I did my best to prove my hypothesis.
So, I sent this paper to high-impact (around 7) journals and both sent "desk rejection" one saying "it was out of scope" and other one suggested couple other journals. We couldn't send our manuscript to those journals because they had strict word limits.
So, I decided to send it to a medium-impact journal, and again they got us from novelty and rejected it in only one day.
Again, we sent it to a good-impact journal of Elsevier, and after one week in "awaiting editor decision or reviewer confirmation" now I see "decision pending", so we probably got another rejection.
Considering our findings were novel, our written language had no issues, and we tried to do our best with what we had in the lab, what do you think is the issue?
I really don't want to send it to a low-impact journal; so shall I consider some "nonspecific area" open-access journals?<issue_comment>username_1: >
> both sent "desk rejection" one saying "it was out of scope" and other one suggested couple other journals.
>
>
>
I am not going to lie - "out of scope" is a bit the academic version of "it's not you, it's me" in dating. Don't take this feedback as "your paper is ok, this is just not the right place for it". It may easily also just be an editor trying to be polite.
I don't know how common desk rejects are in the biomedical sciences, but in computer science they are rare enough that getting one from a regular journal (as opposed to, say, Nature or Science) is a pretty hefty red flag against a manuscript. Getting *multiple* desk rejects would mean that I would *very* critically reflect on the manuscript before trying anything further. Specifically, you say:
>
> Considering our findings were novel, our written language had no issues, and we tried to do our best with what we had in the lab, what do you think is the issue?
>
>
>
I would encourage you to revisit these assumptions. I don't think that *results* per se are usually what gets papers desk-rejected, but either a completely inappropriate write-up, submitting to journals where your paper is entirely out of scope, or obvious lack of scientific rigour as expected in the discipline.
I have found it to be a good heuristic to look at a random selection of other recent papers in the journal you want to submit to. Even if your results are novel, your method and paper structure should be similar to some of those. If you can't find any recent paper that resembles yours, it may be out of scope. For empirical work, also take a critical look at sample sizes. If all papers talk about hundreds of participants or survey responses and you have a dozen, talking about the novelty of your results won't get you far - it may still be rejected for lack of rigour. Similarly, if (almost) all other papers are empirical and yours is completely theoretical, or the other way around, look elsewhere.
I am aware that I have not directly answered your actual question:
>
> How to avoid desk rejection of a paper on novel findings?
>
>
>
The real feedback I have is - ponder the possibility that, after multiple desk rejects, your problem may not be that your findings are too novel. Get external, unbiased feedback, and find out why the paper appears so problematic to people not close to your work.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: There are several reasons why your paper might have been rejected. Not knowing the journals to which you have submitted, the manuscript and the field, it is impossible (and off-topic in here) to give an accurate reason why.
Maybe the paper is poorly written, maybe it's not properly formatted, maybe the results are not novel, maybe they are novel but not sufficiently interesting to the journal/field, maybe the manuscript is confusing, maybe you are failing to highlight the novelty and the Editors are not correctly interpreting the results, maybe they are not correctly interpreting how the manuscript aligns with the journals. Maybe you are overselling your results.
In addition to username_1's answer, I think the first thing you should do is make sure you get an *accurate and thorough* evaluation of the manuscript from your advisors. If they are, as you you seem to suggest, reputable scientists who routinely publish in the journal as well as review papers for it, they should be at least slightly worried that their paper (I assume they are co-authors) is getting multiple desk-rejections. (Note that if you are submitting and resubmitting papers with them as co-authors and without their knowledge, that's a serious academic misconduct.) You also mention that they have "liked it". What do you mean by that? Was that a coffee break conversation such as "I'm thinking of preparing a manuscript on X and Y"/"Oh, that's a nice idea, I like it", or you've been discussing the results for some time, you've prepared the manuscript, your co-authors have thoroughly read, suggested modifications and finally, after a few rounds, approved it?
If they are not co-authors and (1) it's the norm to have your advisors as co-authors in your field, and (2) you have executed this particular work under their supervision, and (3) you have asked them to be co-authors and they declined, then you should take that as evidence that there's something wrong it the manuscript and they did not want to be associated with it.
In any case, talking to your advisors is the first thing you should do as soon as you get a rejection notice. If they are experienced, they should be able to calibrate the expectations given the response and the manuscript, and suggest changes accordingly.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: From the question:
>
> Considering our findings were novel, our written language had no issues, and we tried to do our best with what we had in the lab, what do you think is the issue?
>
>
>
"We tried to do our best with what we had in the lab" isn't a strongly positive statement about your work. Good quality journals want to see good quality work; trying hard in less than ideal circumstances isn't enough on its own.
And, in a [comment](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/95429/how-to-avoid-desk-rejection-of-a-paper-on-novel-findings/95470#comment244865_95439)
>
> My advisors suggest sending the paper to a low-impact journal
>
>
>
So take their advice! They have much more experience than you, and it seems that they're aware of the manuscript's strength. The high-impact journals keep telling you "This isn't good enough for us", your advisors say, "This isn't good enough for them." Why don't you listen?
Upvotes: 2
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2017/09/03
| 1,009
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<issue_start>username_0: I'm a postdoc in computer science preparing an application for a tenure-track full-time faculty position in a US university. The opinions on whether to use a letterhead or not vary: [Postdoc using current university's letterhead for job application cover letter (academic/national lab jobs)?](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/57699/postdoc-using-current-universitys-letterhead-for-job-application-cover-letter), [Should I use my university's letterhead for a cover letter for a job application?](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/13559/should-i-use-my-universitys-letterhead-for-a-cover-letter-for-a-job-application), [Letterhead ethics](http://bibliobrary.net/2010/11/19/letterhead-ethics/), [The Professor Is In: Why Letterhead Matters](http://chroniclevitae.com/news/50-the-professor-is-in-why-letterhead-matters).
Which choice is prevalent or advisable for the position in question: with or without letterhead?<issue_comment>username_1: I've served for 15 years on my (top-5 US computer science) department's faculty recruiting committee, including three as committee chair.
At least in my department, whether your cover letter uses letterhead **Does. Not. Matter. Really.** The hiring committee is looking at the *information* in your application; formatting is at best a secondary concern. Most committee members will never even read your cover letter, because all the relevant information is repeated elsewhere: In your CV, your research and teaching statements, your web page, your DBLP profile, your Google Scholar profile, and especially your recommendation letters. I did read cover letters as committee chair, but only because that made it slightly easier to classify applications into our target research areas.
As a sanity check, I just went through a random sample of the candidates that my committee rated highly in last year's faculty search. About half of their cover letters were on institutional letterhead.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: I evaluate resumes / cover letters for permanent research positions outside of universities, so perhaps a little different than the target audience, but maybe there is some overlap.
Regarding letterhead, here are my thoughts:
* The letterhead or lack thereof is *far* less important than whether the letter is well written. 50% of the letters I receive (and these are just the ones that are good enough to reach my desk!) contain many obvious mistakes and/or seem to be written by someone with rather poor English skills. Another 25% might not contain outright mistakes, but are noticeably poorly written (organization, paragraph structure, etc.). It amazes me that people are willing to submit such poor materials *while asking for a job*. So, 75% of the time, the letter actually hurts the candidate!
* When I see university letterhead, I always check the resume to see the person's position before reading the letter. In my experience, many letterhead-users are instructors or administrators rather than researchers (which is not a disqualification, but I like to know). I'll also check the university -- if I've heard of the university, the letterhead might make my ears perk up; if not, I'll reserve judgment until I finish my evaluation.
* If the letter is well-written, the person has a research background, and the letterhead is from a well-established university, then the use of letterhead is a net positive. This shows me that the person took the time to add that nice touch, and produced a very nice-looking document in addition to their technical qualifications.
* If the letter is poorly written or the person doesn't seem to have a strong technical background, then the use of letterhead is a (tiny) net negative. This gives me the impression that the person does poor work but tries to dress it up nicely. If you are in this boat, you would be better off adding a lot of technical detail (with or without a letterhead).
So in summary: if you are otherwise a strong applicant, adding the letterhead is a nice touch; if you are a otherwise a weak applicant, adding the letterhead won't save you and might even hurt.
Upvotes: 2
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2017/09/03
| 857
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<issue_start>username_0: I've been working on my teaching statement recently (for the mathematical sciences, but it shouldn't matter). I'd really like to keep the main body to one page, because I personally wouldn't want to read anything longer than that, but there are several instances where I feel like I could include a little more information "for those inclined to read it". Do you think it is appropriate to include these comments as endnotes, or is this somehow more irritating than having a slightly longer document with such comments incorporated inline? For instance, if I do something like this, I end up with one page of text followed by a half page of notes.
>
> I've had broad success1 using a modified Moore method to teach a
> graduate qualifying exam review course.
>
>
> ...
>
>
> **Notes**
>
>
> 1 In the three years I have taught it, 22 students have taken the course, and 19/22 have passed at the PhD level first try; in contrast, the first-try PhD pass rate for the five years prior was only 50%.
>
>
>
If I incorporate such statements, I'm over my (entirely self-imposed) one page limit.<issue_comment>username_1: Endnotes of the sort you are suggesting would give the impression that you don't know how to write a teaching statement. In any document like this, you're trying to make a convincing case, which means knowing what to put in and what to leave out.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: At the end of the day, it's your teaching statement, and you can write it any way you think makes sense. I have seen plenty of different styles and formats so far, and I don't think the expectations of hiring committees are so overwhelmingly similar that it even makes sense to follow a particular style, at least not across disciplines.
That being said, for me personally this style would probably not be very effective. Footnotes or endnotes with actual text (as opposed to, say, hyperlinks or references) have always been somewhat of a mystery to me (why write this in a footnote, as opposed to in the text?). Going back and forth between the endnotes and the main text is annoying, and - let's be honest - your text is for any practical matter longer than one page anyway when your endnotes spill over to the next page, so the benefit is very questionable.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: One thing to understand is that it is not literally true that "one doesn't want to read more than the first page". What *is* true, however, is that "one wouldn't read beyond the first page if he finds nothing interesting on it". That applies to both fiction novels and teaching statements. So, instead of trying to squeeze everything relevant into the first page, I would rather put something really impressive there that would prompt the reader to turn the page over and try to see more (or, if he is extremely lazy, just to multiply the good impression he gets from the first page by the total number of pages in the statement).
The end-notes are generally a bad idea except, perhaps, for some tables (like evaluation averages, etc.) that would otherwise disrupt the normal flow of the text. Nobody really wants to look up all those small numerals after sentences and match them with the paragraphs on another page. If you have ever read a book in which the author inserts some words or phrases in a foreign language you don't know now and then and sends you to the alphabetical list of those in the end of the book every time, you know exactly how pleasant it is to read something structured in the way you proposed.
Upvotes: 1
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2017/09/04
| 2,489
| 10,948
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<issue_start>username_0: I am a fourth-year undergraduate student in Mathematics. Recently, I read a mathematics paper. It seems that the proof in the paper is not as convincing as what one might find in a textbook. For instance, the authors skip some calculations and arguments in the proof. I feel that the detail in the textbook is better. In addition, the instructor in my undergraduate year always checked the completeness and the detail of the proof in exam and homework.
Is this a standard practice in writing mathematics papers? What is the advantage (if any) of skipping some calculation and argument?
I plan to apply to a graduate school in the future. If “the skill of minimizing the proof in math papers” is important, then how do I learn this habit and unlearn the old habits of my undergraduate years?<issue_comment>username_1: Yes, it is common. It saves time and space for the reader.
Keep in mind that when you're doing math (and computer science) you need to pick, from the wide continuum of possible abstractions, the right level for the intended reader/student/recipient. It's among the most important skills for a writer or teacher. For any level of reader, there are things that are "obvious" that would be tedious for the reader if written out fully.
An example: We know that 3x + 5x = 8x. Why? Technically it's because 3x + 5x = x∙3 + x∙5 [commutative property of multiplication] = x(3 + 5) [distributive property of multiplication over addition] = x(8) [addition of natural numbers] = 8x [commutative property of multiplication]. Now, to the extent that "combining like terms" is a relation with which you've worked so much that 3x + 5x = 8x seems obvious, then we could have skipped those atomic-sized steps from fundamental axioms.
So too, the expected audiences for those papers you're reading probably find all the skipped steps "obvious" and something they can fill in mentally (or at least approximate or sanity-check on the fly) as they read it; and hence it would be a waste of space and most readers' time to fill them in. You can get to this point by reading more of the papers at that same level (and as you level-up, keeping pencil & paper next to you, working slowly, and filling in the missing details as you read). Hopefully by working through a master's and PhD program and specializing deeply in one particular area, one can get to the point of reading those papers just like you would read an algebra or calculus book right now. Of course, you'll simultaneously need to maintain the skill of filling in the extra details any time you're serving as the teacher and trying to explain things to lower-level students.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: Without knowing the details of the paper you read, I'd guess that details were omitted from the proof because the authors considered them so elementary that the reader would readily fill in the specifics. That doesn't mean they'd expect the reader to do it all in their head effortlessly as they read, but only that they'd expect the reader to be able to do it without help from the authors. Such omissions would be inappropriate in an undergraduate textbook because those specifics would be the very thing that they are trying to explain to the reader.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: When you are sufficiently familiar with a specific topic, you will also know which parts of a proof are key steps and which are not (either just tedious algebraic manipulation or case checking or some standard argument or...). You hence know which parts should be included and which parts can be left out. Even when you are talking about undergraduate courses, your instructor definitely takes some prior mathematical facts for granted, such as 2 = 1+1 and (1+2)+3 = 1+(2+3). So when you talk about completeness of a proof you are actually saying that it contains all the steps that have not been taken for granted. Similarly in a paper, the authors will omit all the steps that can be taken for granted, often because anyone in that field can easily fill it in. It also avoids making the reader tired by presenting as concisely as possible the information the reader actually wants.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: Yes, it's normal. Homeworks and exams are written to prove that the writer has certain skills; papers are written to prove something new. The reader's skills are not under question, so a different style of writing is appropriate. Also, journals used to have stricter page limits than they do now, so there was quite some pressure to be terse. Conversely, somebody who has a hundred exam scripts to mark needs all the details to be spelled out because they don't have more than a few minutes to give to each script.
It is conventional to omit "routine" calculations that the reader should be able to do themself. For example, one might just assert that a certain function reaches its maximum at x=2p/(1-pq) and assume that the reader is capable of setting the derivative to zero and solving. The reader will typically trust the writer (and the peer-reviewers!) to have done the calculation correctly.
In my view, some authors take this too far and omit calculations which can take hours or days to reconstruct, which is a royal pain when trying to adapt or extend the result. Over time, as you read more research papers, you'll learn what is an appropriate level of detail: the big hints come when you start to co-author papers with your advisor.
Upvotes: 7 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_5: I feel (but may be completely off the mark here), that to some authors its also a matter of pride. By spelling out details that are not “deep”, but may be difficult to reconstruct nonetheless, they’ll give the impression that they struggled with these details themselves at some point. I have the impression that this hurts some authors’ egos, and hence they do not include the details, opting instead to write very difficult-to-read articles.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_6: Others have already provided good (and bad) reasons to write concise proofs, but since you are planning to publish yourself, I will share my own approach when writing papers.
---
As an author, you have to satisfy very different types of readers, from undergraduate students to highly experienced researchers that work exactly in your field of research. But even for a single person, different levels of abstractions are necessary, because I (and surely many others) read papers top-down:
When reading a paper for the first time, I skip the proofs completely. Too many lengthy proofs and I have problems to get the overall picture. Then I skim over the proofs, looking for the main ideas of them. This step would be really annoying if there are too many steps. I only look at the proofs in detail if they are interesting to support my own research, I review the paper or something is suspicious¹. In this final step, I am happy about every detail that saves me time and effort.
How to address the different needs?
-----------------------------------
My usual approach for publishing proofs is as follows.
1. I use pen and paper to construct the proof. This results in a huge pile of unreadable garbage, but at some point, I am confident enough that my proof works.
2. With the ideas still fresh in mind, I write down the complete proof in a publishable form, i.e. in LaTeX², including every conversion that (in my opinion) is necessary for an undergraduate to directly understand every step.
3. With the fully proof at hand, it can now be condensed. For example, by presenting only very high-level steps in the main part of the paper (maybe only the final result and a textual description of the proof ideas) and a moderately condensed version in the appendix that leaves out all steps that seem trivial.
4. The full proof should be submitted as supplementary material if permitted by the journal (see below for an alternative).
Of course, the second step comes with extra effort compared to going directly from the pile of unreadable garbage to the most condensed form. However, it pays off in the long run:
* By writing down every single step in a clearly readable form, a lot of errors are directly recognized. Otherwise, it wastes the time of your supervisor, your reviewers and (if the paper even gets published with the error) other researchers, not to mention the shame and effort when the error is eventually detected.
* Even if you clearly understand your handwritten notes and your publication now, this won't be the case after a year (if you can even find them). So you have to waste time to redo your work.
* If more detailed proofs are published as supplementary material, it will eventually save time for everyone.
* Last but not least, it improves the credibility of your work. Even if only a very minor portion of your readers will actually benefit from or even read your detailed version, they trust you more if they see that you have a complete proof as supplementary material³.
What if I can not submit supplementary material?
------------------------------------------------
In my field of research, only a minor part of the journals and conferences allow submitting supplementary material. An alternative is to submit supplementary material to e.g. arXiv.org. With good timing, you can even mutually cite the original paper and the supplementary material. You should not use a personal website because the probability is high that it will not be accessible for a long time.
Unfortunately, this is very difficult in a double blind review process. It would be much better if the submission of supplementary material is widely available at every journal and every conference.
---
¹ The "That has to be wrong!" effect. You might think that leaving out proof steps will help you as an author in this case. To the contrary, it increases the incentive to prove you wrong.
² If you dislike writing long and complex formulas with LaTeX: My wife is very happy with LyX.
³ No excuse for hiding a wrong proof by using an excessive amount of formulas. That will be detected eventually.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_7: It is standard practice in math. The advantage of skipping trivial details like "this matrix is invertible" without computing the determinant or a easy induction is readability. However, it is also quite frequent to skip larger details that undoubtedly annoy most readers except the most experienced experts. That's great for those three experts and unhelpful for everyone else including students and even experienced mathematicians in other fields. By reading more papers you'll be able to distinguish between the two kinds of omission.
When you write your own papers, you should include those harder details. Err on the side of overexplaining. The worst that you'll get told by a reviewer or editor is that you'll have to shorten a bit, which is far better than having too terse a paper.
Upvotes: 2
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2017/09/04
| 471
| 1,913
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<issue_start>username_0: I need advice on how to explain during a job interview why I am not listing my PhD supervisor as a reference. I have a third interview for a job as a scientist at a startup company.
Previously, my supervisor caused me to lose a job offer by saying I had bad presentation and communication skills. That was when I was applying for a job as an FAS so that would be a much larger component. My supervisor and I had disagreements on writing my thesis with regards to how the 'story' was told.
The second interview required a 30 min talk about my work and yet I still made it to the next round.
I have my MSc. supervisor, a committee member/co-author and my department head as references instead. I realize this isn't as good, but I can't predict what he will say so I don't want to list him.
What can I say if the interviewer (a scientist, as the company has no HR) asks why I didn't list my former boss? And what are the chances he will be contacted anyways?<issue_comment>username_1: Whatever you say, do not lie. They might contact him and if it turns out that you lie about the reason not to mention him as ref, you are probably out. So instead say the actual reason, without speculations and accusations.
One way to go could be:
>
> We had disagreements on a few points recently when writing up my thesis and haven't talked it out yet
>
>
>
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: If you have additional references from third parties (colleagues or similar) explain that you consider the collaboration you had with them to be more intense and on the field, therefore they may provide more sincere opinions.
If this said they insist they want to contact your previous supervisor *although you have explicitly stated he is not a reference* then let them do so and consider that you may not want to work in environments where your (honest) decisions are worked around.
Upvotes: -1
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2017/09/04
| 761
| 3,401
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<issue_start>username_0: In one of the reviews I received from a journal on a paper I sent there, there was a complaint that the paper contained a lot of language mistakes, so serious, that they change meaning of phrases. But no examples of such mistakes were provided.
I am not claiming that language in the paper was perfect, though the paper had been reviewed before submission by four different people (PhD's) with a good level of English and also by a native English speaker (not a scientist though).
I am confused about this quite strong statement about the paper's language despite the reviewer having perfectly understood almost all the ideas in the paper.
Just wondering: is it really typical for reviewers to point out language mistakes in reviews in this way?
a
(P.S. Just in case, I am very grateful to the reviewer for his or her very valuable suggestions on other formal mistakes and for giving me some new ideas).<issue_comment>username_1: If a reviewer has problems to follow the arguments and feels that this is due to the use of English, they usually include this in the review. Unfortunately, it is sometimes hard to pinpoint exactly what is unclear about the language, but a good reviewer should make some effort to help the authors. On the other hand, if the overall recommendation will be "reject" many reviewers do not invest the time to write down all unclear/wrong/misleading formulations. Note that a good reviewer may still follow your arguments although the language may be quite misleading (by just knowing what you are trying to show and correcting the wording while reading).
So you may ask for clarification (and I find this a reasonable request), but you should not expect to get an answer if the paper has been rejected anyway.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: A paper written in English in a reputable journal should be written in correct English. It is the responsibility of the author to make sure of that. Not the referee, not the editor.
See a related question here: [Is poor English grammar and writing style overlooked in otherwise strong math paper submissions?](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/93073/is-poor-english-grammar-and-writing-style-overlooked-in-otherwise-strong-math-pa/93081#93081)
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: The OP took what should have been effective precautions against English mistakes in the paper: review by four different people (PhD's) with a good level of English and also by a non-scientist native English speaker. Those, rather than journal reviewers, are the people who should be pointing out specific problems and improvements.
Given the original version of the question, I would expect the OP's English writing to need some editing before being submitted as a finished paper. It is possible the people the OP asked to review the paper were being too polite and felt inhibited from pointing out changes that should have been made before the article was submitted.
The OP needs to find ways to positively encourage them to suggest edits. If one of them makes a suggestion, thank them graciously and use it, so that they will know their suggestions really are welcome.
It might be good to have at least one co-author with good English writing skills, with a track record of publications in English, and ask that person to do a grammar and style edit before submission.
Upvotes: 1
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2017/09/04
| 860
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<issue_start>username_0: I am currently a postdoc in a genomics lab, doing computational work. I will be completing three years in the lab, this fall (this in the US). I graduated with a PhD in theoretical physics in 2012 (US university) and during a postdoc year at an obscure lab somewhere in Europe (this was the only offer I could land), I decided to switch fields and move into computational biology. It took me about a year to figure out the background for the field and land another postdoc (which is where I am now). I have managed to publish one paper in a high impact journal at this lab and also picked up lots of bioinformatics techniques.
However, the lab is not a good fit for me. It's not really multi-disciplinary and does not use any of my physics skills. But by going to conferences and talking to other people, I have managed to figure out what kind of work I'd like to do in the broad field of computational biology. I've also taught myself the necessary analysis methods that would be helpful.
So here's my question: I am going to apply this fall for another postdoc in labs that are much more aligned with my interests and where I can be a better fit. (a) But some universities specifically state that the PhD should be within five years. (b) Others state that the total postdoc time (including previous experiences) should be five years. (c) And there are yet others which state that the total postdoc time at that particular university should be five years.
Cases (a) and (b) could hurt me. Are there other researchers here who've been in similar (or remotely similar) situations? How strict are these five-year cut-offs? I have now acquired a lot of skills and have a much better vision of where I'd like to take my research in computational biology. I am worried though that this five-year cutoff rule could hurt my research plans and career.
In physics itself, I know many post-docs who did more than two post-doctoral stints with a total time exceeding five years. I wonder how they managed to deal with this rule?<issue_comment>username_1: At least in the US, postdocs are hired by individual faculty members without consultation from others, so the guidelines are somewhat fungible, particularly if there's a compelling reason to hire you.
The one exception is for external (and some internal) fellowships—in such cases, the recency rules are pretty much absolute.
In other countries, though, the rules for what is or is not allowed are stricter, and it may not be possible to circumvent them without significant amounts of work on the part of all involved.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: I *strongly* agree that these time limits are a horrible idea, especially when applied indiscriminately and across fields.
For fellowships and "postdoc status", you're often stuck--the rules are whatever they are. Some places are willing to make exceptions for people who have changed fields or spent time away from the lab (e.g., to have a child or work in industry). If either of these apply, that might be your best bet.
If not, you still might be able to take a postdoc-like job *without* the postdoc title. These positions are often labelled "Research Associate", "Associate Research Scientist", or "Staff Scientist." Informally, these often still get call postdocs.
My impression is that it's sometimes slightly harder to be hired into one of these jobs: the salary is often (slightly) higher and you won't be eligible for time-limited fellowships, but it's not impossible and I think it's fairly common for postdocs to be 'promoted' into this job when they age out.
Upvotes: 0
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2017/09/04
| 2,410
| 10,552
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<issue_start>username_0: Excuse me for the naive question, but **is the reputation/prestige of the journal you chose for your publication really important?**
In the end, I believe the scientific content of your paper must be the key part. Surely you want to publish it into a scientific journal which guarantees high visibility to your manuscript, possibly with Open Access and a strong social media presence. Surely you want your paper to go through an in-depth peer review, with honest comments and reviews. Surely you want fast processing times. Surely you want the journal to be about the paper topic. Surely you want a journal with the audience who are interested in the paper subject.
But in the end, is a specific paper P on scientific novelty N published on a journal J1 having impact factor 50 really more important/relevant/better than the same paper P about the same scientific novelty N published on a journal J2 having impact factor 5?
If yes, why?
Will it affect your career?<issue_comment>username_1: I can say for sure that the prestige of a journal can help you, particularly if you are a young academic!
I was applying for a position at a university several years ago and ended up being the second-choice candidate. Even though my publication record was larger than the other candidate's, and I had been publishing in good journals such as *Journal of Physical Chemistry*, *Journal of Chemical Physics* and *Physical Review*—all of them highly reputable journals in their individual fields, I lost out to someone who had published several papers in *Nature.* (I learned this after the fact from one of the members of the search committee.)
So, yes, publishing in good journals is **very** important when you're starting out.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: This is an answer from mathematics. I cannot say exactly how much of this applies to the sciences.
First of all, I don't actually read all that many papers, certainly not all the papers in my subsubfield, and unfortunately probably not even all the papers relevant to my work. Most of what I read are papers I hear about in talks, that are by people whose work I personally know, or are recommended to me by colleagues. On occasion, I'll look through a (paper!) journal; your paper in much more likely to be noticed in such browsing if it's in one of the 3 or 4 top journals in my subfield than if it's in an obscure journal.
Second of all, when my department hires, at least some of the applicants are working in an area that my department has no expertise in. We are simply unable to judge the quality and significance of all of our applicants' research ourselves. We try to get information about this from recommendation letters, but they may not be that informative (especially if no one in our department is close enough to the applicant's area to understand the recommendation letter!). We may feel a little guilty about doing so, but at that point, we have no way of judging an applicant's research other than by the general reputation of the journals they publish in, and certainly no way to judge in a reasonable amount of time considering we may have hundreds of applicants and are serving on a search committee on top of all our usual job duties.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: >
> Surely you want to publish it into a scientific journal which
> guarantees high visibility to your manuscript, ... Surely you want a journal with the audience who are interested in the paper subject.
>
>
>
These aspects are not independent of the impact factor: For example, a higher visibility leads to more citations, leads to a higher impact factor. You just can not take these out of the equation!
>
> But in the end, is a specific paper P on scientific novelty N published on a journal J1 having impact factor 50 really more important/relevant/better than the same paper P about the same scientific novelty N published on a journal J2 having impact factor 5?
>
>
>
The impact factor is only one (very popular, yet error-prone) metric to measure the reputation of a journal. It is rather a hint that correlates very loosely with the more soft metric that actually counts in the end and that is how the journal is actually perceived in the research community.
Therefore, when deciding between different journals, choosing the one with the higher impact factor is not always the best choice. Every field of research has its own prestigious journals that might or might not have a high impact factor. Especially if the group of researchers is rather small, the impact factor tends to be small, just because there are less overall citations. However, if the most influential researchers publish regularly in this journal, they will also read your paper more likely if you publish there instead of a very generic journal that covers a broad range of topics.
Of course, the reputation of a journal does not make a paper any more important/relevant/better, but it is the other way around: The better your work is, the more likely it is that you can publish it in a journal with a high reputation. There are so many papers published every day that no researcher can afford to read all papers. So even if your paper might be exceptional, the chance that your paper will be read is lower if you publish it in a journal with low reputation.
>
> Will it affect your career?
>
>
>
Because of the reasons mentioned before, it is not the case that the impact factors are somehow combined to generate an overall score that finally counts who gets the tenure, but of course, the committee knows the journals in your field and will tend to choose applicants that published in more prestigious journals just because they know that it is harder to publish there.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: If the paper is good, then it will (in time) become known as a good paper, and the prestige of the journal will be less important. But if the paper was published only recently--or, worse, only accepted and not even published yet--so that it is not yet well known to the experts, then the prestige of the journal may be the best information the hiring committee has.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: In my field, physics, I think journal quality matters, but only at the extreme ends.
What I mean is, there are a few respectable journals, and it doesn't really matter whether your article appears in PRD, JHEP, NPB, EPJC etc. But if your articles appear in PRL (a letter) or similar, it's a big deal. And if your articles appear in junk journals, it's a big problem.
The status of the journals as respectable, big deal and junk probably could be inferred from e.g. impact factors. But in practice, they're held in that regard by the community because of their history and reputation, and not because of their metrics.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_6: My institution has a rule for financing its professors based on impact factor.
A new full professor starts with some money from the institution for the first N years. In year N+1, his budget consists of all third-party funds he has secured for himself, plus an amount of money from the institution based on a formula where each published paper from the last N years counts, and the impact factor of the publication appears as a multiplicator in the formula.
Many scientists will dislike such an arrangement and have a long list of critiques why it shouldn't be so. But the point is, no matter what an ideal world would look like, this is a real-life example where the impact factor (and the related reputation) matters a lot.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_7: Naturally I agree that this does have an impact. But since no one has pointed this out, I'll mention that *how* important this is varies greatly by type of institution.
* There are many thousands of faculty toiling at institutions that are happy when their faculty publish anywhere - though their administrations are happier when it's a top journal, regardless of the field.
* There are those at places where publishing definitely matters quite a bit more, but where quantity may matter over quality in terms of keeping the job.
* And there are those where you need not apply for tenure if you don't have papers in the top two or three journals. (Substitute analogous things for your field.)
Keep in mind that especially for *changing* institutions this may matter more; a recognizable journal/monograph series/whatever will make you more noticeable.
But my first bullet describes the experience of many of us. And unfortunately, your question about scientific content mattering probably is far less important on the administrative side. This may not be the case when it comes to recognition from colleagues in the field, of course, who in some cases may not care about you if you can't make it to those top journals - I hope you aren't in this situation, but in some fields that is unfortunately the case.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_8: I see it frequently that people needing to cite an example of a certain group of publications that deal with the same topic will cite the one with the most citations or the one being in the highest impact journal, not necessarily the one that is most accurately displaying the situation or the one that came first, probably (I guess) because they want to be sure they cite a relevant work when they haven't read them all very carefully or want to increase the importance of their own work by citing "important" stuff. Whatever the reason it surely adds to the reinforcement at work there.
So even when preparing their own manuscript and adding citations, people have a tendency to go for number of citations and/or impact factor of the journal.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_9: **You build your scientific career upon your publication** and the **impact factors** of the journals you publish in, the **number of citations** (sometimes modeled by the h-index) of your papers and the **number of articles** you published are the **three major indicators** of the quality of your research (which are of course quite arguable indicators).
Ideally, **the quality of your research should only be judged on the quality of your papers contents**. Sadly not everyone can or has time to read and understand deeply your work. That's why we generally rely on these indicators, for example when recruiting scientists. Moreover, it is not rare to see institutions that indexes the allocation of budgets upon these indicators which forces lab directors to hire "profitable".
Upvotes: 0
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2017/09/04
| 337
| 1,453
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<issue_start>username_0: For travel convenience, I prefer to print posters near the conference location. How can I efficiently look for the best poster printing price near a conference location?
(In my experience, conference organizers sometime point to a printing business, but they typically tend to be not price optimized, far from it)<issue_comment>username_1: First off, avoid the print shop at any conference location, which is quite likely to be both overbooked and expensive.
Second, make sure to send your poster far enough ahead of time to avoid a potential last-minute rush (particularly at large conferences).
Finally, you can use Internet map sites (Google Maps, Apple Maps, etc.) to search for copy shops near the conference location, and call to find out their rates.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Open Google Maps, and navigate to the desired location. Then choose "nearby." You can zoom in and pan around to make more options visible. You can glance at the review vote average, and click to see review contents.
This way of finding stores and service providers works better, for most things, than the regular google search, which has a primary focus on *text.*
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: If you are in the United States, phdposters.com has local pickup in Baltimore, Boston, Brooklyn, Denver, Durham, Richmond and San Francisco, usually in a university library. Their rates are also pretty reasonable.
Upvotes: 1
|
2017/09/04
| 602
| 2,539
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<issue_start>username_0: I'm an undergraduate Honors student in a STEM major, and in the upcoming years I will have the option to complete an Honors thesis in my field, either as a research/data analysis or a literature review sort of thing. Because of other circumstances I can graduate "with Honors" with or without it, so it would purely be adding to my major, not so much my overall graduation status.
Either way I will have some volunteer experience in labs in my field, and a decent GPA, etc. Would an undergraduate thesis in my field greatly help my graduate program applications? Does it matter if the thesis is based on original research or literature review?<issue_comment>username_1: An honors thesis will probably not make much of a difference for your admissions case **unless** it is completed in time to show up on your transcript. If you're doing it only in your last semester, then it wouldn't show up if you apply in the fall semester of your senior year.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: The part of an undergraduate thesis that helps you with graduate admissions is that it is *a form of research experience*. It's not so much the finished product, the thesis, but the process of getting there and putting the work in. Even if it isn't complete before your applications are due, just that you are working towards a thesis is useful if it will get you into a lab and learn among other people doing research.
In my personal opinion, a literature review isn't nearly as useful for building the skills that make you a good grad school applicant, it's a lot more like the rest of the (upper-level) coursework you do as an undergraduate.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: There are, of course, individual factors that will heavily influence this answer, but in general, as someone who both did this, and now as someone admitting students, I'd say the answer is **yes**. My thoughts on the subject:
* A research thesis would be *vastly* more useful than a review thesis, as a large bulk of graduate admissions is based on trying to estimate your potential as a *researcher*.
* While you do have some research experience, in my mind one of the nice parts of a thesis is that rather than just volunteering in a lab, you are in some ways taking charge of a coherent project you can talk about as a project.
* A thesis lends itself well to papers or presentations, either internally or externally (my undergrad thesis resulted in two papers and two conference presentations) which are *extremely* helpful.
Upvotes: 2
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2017/09/05
| 628
| 2,183
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<issue_start>username_0: I've learned it a bit, through a thesis paper (not PhD-level), and from reading good papers in good journals. But I'm interested in best practices, specifically the things to implement in my style of writing to get my work up to publishable quality (assuming that the content is good enough)?
Answers which summarize tips from available, useful resources are welcome.<issue_comment>username_1: A short but excellent reference is from the [George Whitesides group at Harvard](http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/adma.200400767/abstract) which is available in the public domain.
It goes from outline to draft to finished paper in a few informative pages.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Two good primers specifically on the subject of mathematics, which is quite different from more empirical sciences in many of its conventions:
* <NAME>’s *[How to write mathematics](http://www2.math.uu.se/~takis/ETC/Halmos_howToWriteMath.pdf)* is a classic — still excellent, if slightly old-fashioned in some ways.
* Terence Tao’s blog post [*On writing*](https://terrytao.wordpress.com/advice-on-writing-papers/) collects and summarises links to some excellent advice from himself and others.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: <NAME>'s [A Primer of Mathematical Writing, Second Edition](https://arxiv.org/abs/1612.04888) is freely available on arxiv.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: * <NAME>, <NAME>, and <NAME>,
[*Mathematical Writing*](http://jmlr.csail.mit.edu/reviewing-papers/knuth_mathematical_writing.pdf)
* <NAME>, *Mathematical English Usage Dictionary*, 2016
* <NAME>, *Writing Mathematical Papers in English - A Practical Guide*, 2005
* Three mistakes that people should stop making? 1. Worrying too much about formatting and not enough about content. 2. Worrying too much about formatting and not enough about content. 3. Worrying too much about formatting and not enough about content. (Source: <NAME>, [*How (La)TeX changed the face of Mathematics*](http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/lamport/pubs/lamport-latex-interview.pdf).)
Upvotes: 2
|
2017/09/05
| 2,128
| 8,701
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<issue_start>username_0: I find it irrelevant to specify personal information on my CV, and frankly I do not see why they should be listed in academic applications. What is the advantage for the hiring committing to know if I am 18 or I have 17 children, aside from creating a chance to bias the hiring process with personal beliefs. Is it because they want to know that I am a prodigy child who got his/her PhD at 18 years old, or because if I am a 28 years old female married without children I will want children soon and so I will have to take maternity leave? Is this just an influence of the age/status discrimination in Europe where I see at times that job offers are only open to certain categories of people (i.e.,younger than 30 years old) ?
If I omit this information will my CV be frowned upon? Or will they think I am hiding something? I do not know what I would be hiding because age can probably be guessed from the CV anyway.<issue_comment>username_1: Marital status is completely irrelevant: leave it out. Discrimination based on "Oh, I think you're about to have kids and take a bunch of maternity leave" is illegal.
In practice, date of birth can be inferred from the dates at which you got your degrees and what jobs you've had. OK, you might be a prodigy who got their BA at 14 and their PhD at 17, but the overwhelming majority of people aren't. Or you might be a total bum who was unemployed until the age of 40 and then got a BA at 43 and a PhD at 48 but, again, the overwhelming majority of people aren't that, either. So including your date of birth doesn't really say anything that the recruiter couldn't guess.
Age discrimination is illegal in the UK, and I'd assumed it would be EU-wide. The usual form would be to require somebody to be within so many years of their PhD, though even that's not-really-so-indirect age discrimination.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: I suppose items such as marital status, children, professions of parents, place of birth, etc., are not so much there for providing any information as such, but rather form a part of what "belongs" to a complete CV.
You can leave some of them away, but skipping too many of them (without filling your CV in another way) may send a signal like "This person has never bothered to learn what a 'properly done' CV should look like. They are uneducated and/or not diligent about what they do."
Now, this is based upon what I learned back in school, may be country-dependent (I'm in Germany), and - at least here - should probably rather apply to small companies (whose HR people might rather expect adherence to traditional form than the most modern trends in recruitment processes when evaluating CVs) than to academic departments.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: Despite differences in the different EU member states, there were attempts to create a kind of EU standard for CVs. This is called "Europass" and was created together with social partners and national training authorities. According to [their website](https://europass.cedefop.europa.eu/about) the main scope is:
>
> * Ηelp citizens communicate their skills and qualifications effectively when looking for a job or training.
> * Ηelp employers understand the skills and qualifications of the workforce.
> * Ηelp education and training authorities define and communicate the content of curricula.
>
>
>
While there might be differences in different industries, in my experience it serves well as a guideline in academia (since you ask on academia SE, I assume this might be your main interest). According to their examples ([1](https://europass.cedefop.europa.eu/sites/default/files/cv-example-2-en-gb.pdf), [2](https://europass.cedefop.europa.eu/sites/default/files/cv-example-1-en-gb.pdf)) it is perfectly fine to keep personal information like date of birth and sex (and/or gender) out of your CV. Discrimination by age, race and sex/gender is not allowed in the application process. Especially public institutions, such as universities and research institutes have strict rules against discrimination. You shouldn't face any disadvantages by not stating personal information, such as DOB, number of children (...). Besides in most cases it's clearly irrelevant.
Both a friend of mine and I applied in academia in a EU country which wasn't our homecountry relying on the Europass guidelines and both of us got hired. So those guidelines don't appear to be frowned upon.
However: Some years ago it was at least in Germany considered as a standard to include personal information (as already mentioned in another answer\*). I think especially people working as a professor for a couple of years simply haven't adapted their CVs to today's standards.
Good luck!
\*) On a side note: In school I was thaught, that information, which can give hints on your personality must be included in every case. Especially profession of parents, siblings, age, hobbies. Apparently this was supposed to help HR to find the most fitting person for the job and the company. This was outdated at the time I was at school (and sometimes even considered unprofessional, as I was told during an internship to which I applied using those guidelines), but the curriculum hadn't been updated.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_4: Since a month, I have been applying to jobs in multiple European countries. In Germany, I had to have a professional help from a German to create "lebenslauf" for private industry and academic jobs. As personal datawise, it includes my birthplace, birthdate, nationality (as I require work permit/job sponsorship) plus I had to have a photo, where you can identify my race, and my gender. As a person living in the US, and keeping the US as a priority, I find this many information, irrelevant to the position and my qualifications, kind of unnecessary and makes me prone to be discriminated, but it is what it is. Moreover, I have also been applying to jobs in the Netherlands, Denmark, and Sweden, and I had friends living/working there and so they know the work ethic and the expectations from a CV or resume. In those countries, I straight out use my "American" CV, which does not include any personal info. Clearly, there is no standard in European countries, I concluded based on four countries I have had experience with.
Also, I have friends who used "just the qualifications - no personal info" regular CV in the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Denmark academic jobs and got hired. So I assume you should check each country if you know someone who is acquainted with the work environment and ethic.
If you don't know anyone, I suggest you couple things before you decide to include certain personal info. If you require work permit, and not a citizen or permanent residency in the country you're applying, including your nationality may be useful. Yet no more than that, because gender, age, marital status are irrelevant; and they make you prone to be discriminated. To further make sure, you may skim the available CVs of professors, postdocs etc. which are available on the university or research lab pages. I think most people have them available in university pages as attachment (at least I have seen most put them), and you can decide whether to include certain personal info or not.
All in all, I **don't** think in the end it really affects the decision on you being hired as where I was born or whenever I was born or whether I am married with kids or not does not imply how good I am in machine learning, or comparative literature or whatever.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: The question seems to be stating that current affairs oblige candidates to specify their marital status and age. However this statement is factually false. For the UK for example, there is no need for a candidate to specify marital status, date of birth or even nationality. It is many times illegal to even request this information. It is also usual, from my experience, that committees do not address this information. For other continental countries the rules may be different.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_6: At my university in Spain, it is required by the regulations that applicants to positions send a copy of their ID card or passport. This implies revealing DOB, gender and photo. I think it would be better not to require that, to avoid bias, but it's how it currently works and I think most if not all Spanish public universities do the same.
On the other hand, CVs here typically don't feature marital status or number of children. Requiring that would be frowned upon, and probably illegal. And the same applies to other European countries as far as I know.
Upvotes: 1
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2017/09/05
| 646
| 2,602
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<issue_start>username_0: For a university project I want to classify authors according to the subjects/domains they frequently publish in. For this purpose I want to first establish a subject classification with the according hierarchies (for example, chemical engineering would be a sub-subject of physical sciences and engineering).
Instead of creating my own classification/hierarchy, I would like to use an official classification of subjects. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find one that is universally accepted.
What I did find are the classifications of different publishers, for example [the subjects listed for ScienceDirect](http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/jrnlallbooks).
So my question is:
**Is there any official, widely used and accepted subject classification?**
*One thing I'd like to add:*
English is not my mother tongue so it might be entirely possible that I am just using the wrong words for doing the search. I’ve been looking for subject or domain classifications. Maybe there is an entirely different term for what I am actually looking for.<issue_comment>username_1: These are the possible classification that you could look at:
* [Google Scholar](https://scholar.google.com/) --> Metric (a link on the top of the page) --> scroll down to 'view top publications' --> Click categories --> ... explore as per your requirement.
* ACM subject classification ([ACM ccs](http://www.acm.org/about/class))
* Mathematics subject classification by AMS ([Wiki](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematics_Subject_Classification))
* [PACS Regular Edition](http://publishing.aip.org/publishing/pacs/pacs-2010-regular-edition) from AIP publishing
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: In addition to the ones @username_1 suggests, perhaps the library classification systems:
* [Library of Congress](https://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/lcco/)
* [Dewey Decimal](https://www.oclc.org/en/dewey/features/summaries.html#hun)
* [Universal Decimal Classification](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Decimal_Classification)
might be useful?
As @tonysdg says below, [there are a variety of other system, too.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_classification)
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: Although a bit obsolete, consider also the [UNESCO nomenclature](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNESCO_nomenclature). It is international and specifically adapted to research. Also, unlike other systems, it is not restricted to Science and Engineering. For instance, in Spain, you have to specify up to three codes to officially register a PhD Thesis.
Upvotes: 3
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2017/09/05
| 631
| 2,347
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<issue_start>username_0: I have come across a few times in research papers or in books, where the authors refer a past (mostly an old) research paper as **classic paper**. For example, in a book Bratko refers the following:
>
> The procedural meaning of Prolog is based on the *resolution principle* for mechanical theorem proving introduced by Robinson in his classic paper (1965).
> [1]
>
>
>
In another example, the author mention such a statement in the abstract itself,
>
> Notes that the stimulation from a classic paper in the heuristics and biases tradition does not come only from the insights provided into processes of judgment and decision making; ... [2]
>
>
>
What is a classic work? Can we say a work as 'classic work', if it cited more number of times? Or, it is a breakthrough work? Then, how do we define a breakthrough work?
[1] <NAME>. Prolog programming for artificial intelligence. Pearson education, 2001.
[2] <NAME>. (2002). Two systems of reasoning. In <NAME>, <NAME>, & <NAME> (Eds.), Heuristics and biases: The psychology of intuitive judgment (pp. 379-396).<issue_comment>username_1: I don't think there really is any one definition of a 'classic' paper, but I think features that might contribute to the label include:
* being an old paper that still gets used (or just referenced) a lot;
* introducing a big new idea;
* having been built on substantially (in a good way);
* being well known as a good survey/suitable for learning the area from;
* dating from and using methods from before a paradigm shift took place.
Note that some of these use the word 'classic' with slightly different meanings.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: This isn't something that is decided based on objective measures - it's a statement of the author's opinion that history has shown the paper to be very important.
If you, in your professional opinion, believe that the paper has had a major influence on an area of research, for a considerable period of time, then you could call it "classic". If you don't believe that, or you're not sure, or you don't think you have enough experience to judge, then don't use the word.
Upvotes: 7 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: It is really just a mild expression of reverence by the author. It has no set meaning beyond that.
Upvotes: 2
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2017/09/05
| 904
| 3,869
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<issue_start>username_0: I have been in biomedical research for a long time without any good number of publications.
Recently, my work is now being published by my PI. My PI asked someone else to do another part of work. I was then asked to email the methods and results but did not provide me any chance to write a paper. Now I am placed as a second author on this paper and 6 other persons out of 9 are guest authors. I can see that this paper has at least 60% contribution from my work. It is emotionally hurting and extremely disturbing to see this unfair authorship practice, which I am asked to silently accept. It is even more hurting to see the names of all guest authors who I only know by name but never contributed a dime of work to this paper.
Should I accept this issue silently?
I'm aware that the universities favor their faculty members, no matter how many nice words are posted on their webpages on authorship misconduct.
Would it be wise to withdraw myself completely from this article?
Any other options?
I was advised by another faculty member that some very senior PIs still work in old-fashioned way of authorship, where they always want to take first as well as corresponding authorship, pushing postdocs on second spot. Besides, accepting this unfair practice would still not be so harmful for future employments as prospective employers can still figure out based on the names of authors that first person is a PI and the next one is actual person who did the most work.
Is it true?<issue_comment>username_1: I don't see any logical reason why you should withdraw your name from the authorship list. This only hurts you in the long run. You should want to have credit for your work.
You might politely ask your advisor why the "guest authors" have been included, and what contribution they have made (since you said 60 percent was your work, what about the other 40 percent), and then discuss it further if you don't like or aren't satisfied with your advisor's answer.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: You should keep your name on the paper. Since the meaning of name order varies a lot by field, it is common to put a note of your contribution next to multi-author publications on your CV. So you will still be able to claim this paper as your work and list it with "(60% contribution)" or similar brief explanation.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: Normally (?) you should be first author and she should be last. At least that's what PI's in my area do, which isn't too far from your field. PI's don't need first author papers, for them it's as good to be senior author - the paper is done in their group and this is indicated by occupying the last position in the author order. PI's also don't write papers, they have students/postdocs writing them. They only help, give feedback, rewrite, etc.
Is this different in your field? Is your PI at a rather early stage in his/her career, maybe still postdoc? Is it the first paper you are publishing together?
The guest authors is a different story, and if they are guest authors - not contributing authors - then they shouldn't be on the paper. There are many questions around here what to do in those cases.
I do feel that a PI who invites half a dozen of guest authors might also take the ethics of authorship order not too serious...
Depending on what you plan for the future, your reaction will range from swallowing this up to complaining at the institute. The latter won't improve your relationship, but it could make the group better for future group members.
You could try to find out whether there is a ethical board at the institute that cares about things like plagiarism, and contact them regarding the authorship question - not to blame the PI (you do not even need to mention who he/she is), but in order to get their advise and possibly support.
Upvotes: 2
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2017/09/06
| 836
| 3,373
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<issue_start>username_0: **Background** : I did both my bachelor's and master's degree from the same institute, let's call it institute X. I liked it there during my bachelor's and since very few institutes near by offered a master's degree in the subject I wanted I joined it. It is a decision I regret. The level of the course and syllabus was very poor and most lectures couldn't give us proper guidance on the books one should refer to for self study. I did manage to find out through a very helpful professor from a highly reputed institute how to go about things and managed to get in to a good institute for a PhD. Now I am on verge of finishing and plan on applying to institute Y for teaching position.
**Question** : I am bound to be asked by the interview panel of institute Y why I am choosing to apply for a teaching position there and not in my own institute. What is the best way to answer?
The real answer to the question is that standards in institute X are falling and the academic environment there is deteriorated. More importance is being given to looking good on paper than to teaching. For example, they show statistics of how you have such a great number of students doing exceedingly well in exams but having written those exams myself I know that they aren't all that challenging to begin with. There are similar exaggerated facts that make the institute look good on paper. I know that I won't be happy there unless there is a radical change.
I don't think I should be saying all this to an interview panel though (or should I?). I really want to give an honest answer but I certainly don't want to come off as some one who insults their Alma Mater even if what I say is true. So what is the best way to answer? Or is there a polite way to say that I don't like the atmosphere there?
EDIT - I would like to add that I am from Bangalore, India.
Thank you.<issue_comment>username_1: If they ask, be diplomatic. Slagging off your old institution doesn't send a good message. Something like:
>
> While I enjoyed my time there and feel they helped me to grow into an independent researcher, I'm now looking to gain experience of working in a different department in order to develop these skills further.
>
>
>
might work, if true (or at least true enough for a job interview).
Then expand on this by explaining why you chose to apply to this new institution, rather than elsewhere, by explaining what you see as their positives.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: You are leaving X because they are too focused on statistics and not so much on good teaching. Instead, you are joining Y. One should thus assume that you did some research and know how Y deals with teaching. This can be used as an argument, e.g.
>
> I think that it is important to put high priority to good, quality teaching. As I read on your homepage/as professor A from your institute told me when I met him last week/..., you seem to agree.
>
>
>
In this way, you don't blame your former institute, as you don't say that they have bad teaching there. Maybe they just have "regular" teaching and you are looking for the best there is, meaning institute Y?
Furthermore, I would suggest to find out about teaching policies at Y if you haven't already, you don't want to end up at an institute that is even worse than X, do you?
Upvotes: 1
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2017/09/06
| 861
| 3,386
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<issue_start>username_0: I am currently writing up a thesis and was wondering if one should cite the PhD supervisors on insights that were solely their idea?
As an example I have a sentence in the thesis that looks something like this in the outlook section at the end of the thesis:
>
> We noticed {cool new phenomenon}, which we suspect to be a result of {awesome effect/explanation}. The details are currently under investigation.
>
>
>
Now my supervisor and I discovered this phenomenon together, but she came up with the explanation without my input. One could say that "we" means "my supervisor and I" in a thesis, but then the author of the document is just me.
I was wondering what proper citation practice is on something like this?
Options:
* Maybe I can put a reference to "superviorName, date, private communication"? Is that enough though
* Explicitly putting their name into the formulation, e.g.
>
> My supervisor {supervisor name} and I noticed {cool new phenomenon}. {supervisor name} found this to be a result of {awesome effect/explanation}. The details are currently under investigation.
>
>
><issue_comment>username_1: I think it is common and well-known that the supervisor sometimes helps the PhD student. In fact, the main work of the supervisor is giving ideas that they come up with due to their experience and knowledge. In many cases, this ideas will not work, in some cases they may. It is up to the PhD student to work out the details and see what comes out in the end.
Thus, I don't think that you should cite your supervisor at every idea she came up with. It should of course be clear in the document who supervised you and you might want to add an acknowledgement.
Two small points to finish:
* If the result is important enough for a stand alone publication, i.e. if you are writing a paper out of it, your supervisor deserves to be one of the authors (then again, this should be rather common for most papers written by a PhD student...).
* If you are in doubt, ask your supervisor about it. She will know how to write it and you can be sure that she agrees with your choice.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Since this is a concrete item (rather than some generic advice) and someone else (meaning "not you") came up with it, you need to cite it.
A personal communication reference would be in order. Your first text sample seems fine to me though (once the reference is added): I assume that you do share the suspicion of your supervisor, so the text is not misleading.
Asking your supervisor about this is definitely a good idea, though.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: Many years after my PhD thesis with <NAME> I wrote this in a tribute:
>
> The central mechanism for producing examples and counterexamples
> showing the theorem was sharp came later that spring.
> Moreover, I think the idea was his, although I didn’t give him due
> credit then. (<http://www.ams.org/notices/200910/rtx091001236p.pdf>)
>
>
>
He didn't say a word when he read the thesis.
I don't think you need to thank her for this particular idea. But you should ask.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: During my diploma thesis, my supervisor indeed insisted in having ideas stemming from him properly cited. The reason he gave was so that I could not make any claims when he made use of them.
Upvotes: 1
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<issue_start>username_0: I have been appointed as a lecturer in a UK university. For establishing my lab, the department head offered two fully-funded PhD students (research programme) or two postdocs. I am struggling with what to choose. I consulted with some colleagues but received contradictory advice.
Postdocs are more experienced for a starting lab but successful PhD students are better points for my promotion. On the other hand, PhD students have lots of official responsibility and paperwork while postdocs have no direct interaction with the university/department.<issue_comment>username_1: It obviously depends dramatically on your discipline and what you want to do with those positions.
That being said, in most cases I would assume that the decision should either be to hire 2 students, or 1 student and 1 postdoc. Here are some advantages of hiring students in your case:
* As a new faculty member, you need to develop a profile for your team. PhD students are often largely a blank slate with not many preconceived ideas for what they will be working on in the next years - it's much easier to steer a team of 2 students into a coherent direction than 2 postdocs, who pretty much by definition already have a research agenda.
* Similarly, postdocs should and will develop their research direction independently of you, which should also include letting them work on their own projects and publishing their outcomes without you. Mentoring postdocs to be fully independent is great and very fulfilling once you yourself are fully established, but in the beginning you may want to use your scarce startup funds in a way that better maximises them for your own career progression.
* PhD students will stay on longer. You have a better chance to develop them and publish extensively with them before they graduate. With a postdoc, it's easily possible that they are gone on to their own faculty position before you have really started to hit it off.
* In many fields where some amount of manual labor is required, a team of 3 PhD holders but no students will be highly dysfunctional, with lots of talking heads and nobody doing the grunt work.
* As you say, successfully mentoring PhD students will reflect positively on you in, or will even be required for, your promotion case. I don't think that having had postdocs usually really counts for anything in this regard.
* You may simply not need a postdoc at this point. In my experience, postdocs are most productive in a large lab where the PI is stretched too thin to supervise all students effectively. This will not (yet) be the case for you.
Not all of those factors are true everywhere, but you should be able to decide for yourself what of the above is accurate for you. However, what I suggest avoiding is hiring postdocs in the hope that they will be some sort of pre-trained super-student, who will do as told with no real benefit to his own career. The few times I have seen young faculty take such a stance, it always ended with very little outcomes and a postdoc who quit after a short time.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_2: Unless some regulations keep you from doing this or you expect to be overrun by excellent candidates, I would advertise the positions for both levels.
I have seen many such offers for positions where you can either apply for a PhD or postdoc position.
This way, in addition to [what username_1 wrote](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/95583/7734), you can take into account the quality of the candidates – which arguably has a much higher impact than their rank.
Also, you stay flexible if you should not find any candidates at all.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: I know from myself and from my friends as an engineering PhD student in the US, PhD students are vastly divided into two:
1. The ones who expect every step, every single instruction and idea from the advisor. They are not much of a help if you're looking for self starters who fly their own tangents. These are mostly clueless students who do not know why they do PhD. They are good at programming, modeling etc. as long as they are given whatever the job is or idea is.
2. The ones who push for new ideas, new methods, and does not only work on what you suggest for project progress but also conducts what s/he thinks would work better. They have tons of ideas to conduct, they enjoy what they do. And mostly, they like to learn as much as possible, so they are more flexible rather than focusing on one single thing, which is whatever the dissertation is about.
From 2 PostDocs I have worked with, in my lab, I have observed:
1. They are more focused in one area, and mostly wanna publish/research in that area since they like to pursue academic career afterwards. The research area is mostly related to their dissertation or kind of continuation of their dissertations "future steps", so they are not always as flexible as a PhD student.
2. However, they have better discipline,and better time management and organization skills. They can easily kick in a project.
3. Mostly, because of their experience, they are more able to or better at looking at big picture rather than getting lost in details, compared to new PhD students; which is pretty necessary to be on time with projects timelines because postdocs are generally much faster and more efficient.
Of course, my observations as just a PhD student may not necessarily be useful for you. But if I were in your shoes or when I hopefully one day get to a similar position, I guess I would devote 1 quota for each if it is possible. 1 for a postdoc who has proven to be"all-over-the-place" but also expertise in one topic, so depth-and-breadth together; and also for management and organization skills. And the other quota to a PhD student to be flexible in research to do. But while choosing PhD student, it is necessary to be able to differentiate whether the student is a self-starter and self-willed or "requires-to-be-managed-at-all-times."
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: I've started work as an assistant professor recently,
and my first PhD student has just started her first semester.
I'm working on a paper with my collaborators
which is almost ready to submit.
I am thinking of asking my PhD student
to help us in the writing of the paper
by drawing a graph using LaTeX/PGFPlots.
However, I am not sure if this is fair to her.
Here are how I see the pros and cons of giving this work to her.
* **Pros:**
Offloading the drawing of the graph to her
would be beneficial to me because it would save my time.
In addition, she would be learning skills
that are useful in her academic career.
Indeed, I have used LaTeX and PGFPlots in my two most recent papers
and will almost certainly use it in the papers I write with my PhD student.
* **Cons:**
I am afraid that she might feel taken advantage of,
in that I am offloading menial and tedious tasks to her,
asking her to do work for a paper
without allowing her to benefit by being a coauthor.
In our field (a type of applied mathematics),
the real work is doing math theory,
formulating problems, solving them or proving math results.
What I am asking her to do (drawing graphs)
is sometimes an important part of paper writing,
but not nearly as important as mathematically rigorous work
such as developing theory and proving math results.
Note: I estimate that it would take me 3-4 hours to draw the plot,
although it may take her a longer time (perhaps one or two days),
given that she is fairly new to using LaTeX/PGFPlots.
---
Thank you all for your answers and comments.
I posted what I decided to do as an [answer](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/95665/8802) below.<issue_comment>username_1: Preparing a graph from already-generated data, to me, doesn't merit co-authorship but would justify a mention in the Acknowledgements. However, something that takes two days out of a student's time (even if it would only take you 3-4 hours) seems like a lot to ask for just an acknowledgement.
How useful is learning the process? If it's legitimately training that's important to her future career, that might tip the balance toward asking her to do it. However, I think my default would be to do it myself.
One other part of the equation (probably and hopefully only a very small part) is that the student is female, based on the pronouns in the question, and female scientists are often expected (from unexamined assumptions) to disproportionately look after administrative work.
Upvotes: 8 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: No, don't do it. This is not fair and disrespectful in particular for a person who has just started his/her research career.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: I disagree with the "learning" benefit. She will have to learn it at some point, why not when writing her own paper. Learning it now won't take less time overall, in contrast, she will spend extra time drawing your figure.
I would not see a problem when you have a PhD student or postdoc who is good in preparing a special kind of figure, to a level way above yours. Then sure you may ask that student, and acknowledge the work (probably not by co-authorship, given there is no significant contribution - assuming that the paper could have been published with an ugly and harder-to-read figure).
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_4: If you have to ask, then I suspect that at some level you know it's wrong.
I'm a PhD student, and I would find it extremely rude of my advisor if he behaved this way. It's not a student's job to perform menial tasks for his or her advisor.
Upvotes: 7 <issue_comment>username_5: I was given such tasks by my adviser and I resented him for it. But, I think you should frame the thing differently. Make the student do the graph, and make a standard template they would use later in upcoming papers. That way some of their work will be useful for them, too.
If you want to be fair, you can explain the student what's in it for them, and tell them you understand if they don't do it. Or you could ask for the work as a favor.
I, personally, would do something else. If drawing that graph would help the student in the long run (they would learn how to do it with LaTeX/PGFPlots) they would have to do it. If it won't, I would ask for it as a favor and I'd be prepared for a refusal, which I wouldn't hold against her.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_6: 1. It's beneficial to you.
2. It's not actually beneficial to the student (she could be working her own work and when writing it, she would learn the tools).
3. She doesn't get any "science points" for it.
You can from a position of power ask her to do it and tell her she can refuse (wink wink). That means she actually can't, even if you really mean what you say.
This does not feel right, you are there for your students, not them for you.
So I see three options.
1. If she will need to do similar work for herself soon, offer her that she can prepare some template, help her with it with the condition that you (or better anyone) can use it. It will take more of your time than you doing what you need though.
2. Just do it yourself.
3. Pay her to do it.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_7: If the student produces the graph, she is the author of that picture. Hence she has the right to be co-author of the paper as well. It then has to be her decision to refrain from that right. Anything else (like asking her to do the work without having the chance of being co-author) would be *trading of authorship* which is scientifically unsound behaviour.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_8: I don't think I would be comfortable asking a new PhD student to do this for uncredited work. Specifically:
* I don't think that "learn how to do this from scratch for a paper getting submitted" is conducive to genuinely learning - there are no intermediate steps, toy data, etc. and for a brand new PhD student, I would be quite concerned about them getting derailed.
* It's effectively uncompensated work.
* It puts the student in a very awkward place, where it's possible her "learning" will stand in the way of a paper getting done swiftly if she misses your estimates, etc. The idea that the paper not going out could be framed as "her fault" despite her not being an author on the paper would leave a bad taste in my mouth.
* As noted by others, female graduate students are disproportionately asked to bear the burden of uncompensated, administrative or other tasks that neither truly advance their careers nor generate entries on their CV. Even if this is not what is occurring in this case, I think it's worth it not to help establish the notion in your lab, her perception, the department, etc. that this is acceptable.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_9: Thank you all for your answers and comments.
This is what I decided to do after thinking it over.
I was chatting with my PhD student over lunch
to find out how she was coping with her first semester
as a person new to being a PhD student,
as well as new to the city and the university.
I realized that this is quite a busy time for her:
* Our department requires her to
take 3 regular courses (each 3 hours/week)
and a seminar course (2 hours/week)
* The university requires her to take a half-semester English course
(also 3 hours/week)
to improve her English speaking skills
* She was also assigned to be a grader for another departmental course
So even though I think it would be a good idea in the long run
for her to learn how to use PGFPlots to draw graphs;
for the next few months, I feel that it would be better for her
to settle in to her new life as a PhD student.
[<NAME>](https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/15477/jon-custer)
made a good comment:
>
> An intermediate suggestion might be for the professor to spend the 3-4 hours (or more) over several days in teaching/mentoring the student in the tools while making the figure. "You need to learn these tools, I have a figure I need to make. Let's work together so you get the basics of what is required."
>
>
>
What I decided to do is the following:
* I will draw the graph on my own.
* During our weekly meetings,
I will "bring her alongside" my work on the graph,
by showing her the code.
The goal is to allow her to see
how I am iteratively working towards the final product.
This should also help her when she does have to draw her own graphs
because at least she would have at least
a little familiarity with the tools required.
As an aside,
I felt that during my time as a PhD student,
I almost always had no idea what my advisor was doing
outside of his relationship with me.
I think it would have been beneficial
if he had told me a little bit about teaching, or admin work;
but especially about successes and challenges faced
when working on his other papers
(i.e., not the one he was working on with me).
Consequently I am trying to keep my PhD student a bit more in the loop
so her eyes are more open to what life is like as a faculty member.
If she becomes a faculty member in the future,
hopefully this allows her to make a more gentle transition into that role.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_10: >
> Is it fair to my PhD student if I ask them to do … work for a paper they're not going to be a coauthor of?
>
>
>
***No.* This is absolutely not fair.**
By default, any work on a paper confers authorship. There are some well-defined exceptions, but these need to be justified. And they fall into specific categories:
* Editorial work (typesetting, proofreading etc), for which you pay.
* “Little effort work” (e.g. superficial proofreading, suggestions, discussions over coffee1), which a friend/colleague does as a favour (that is usually returned), and which merits acknowledgement.2
Any *intellectual contribution* to a paper (even if you believe that it’s not a *scientific* contribution3) must be acknowledged and rewarded with authorship. This is doubly important when the person doing the work depends on a publication record for their career development (technical personnel might not find authorship very important; but they are explicitly paid, with money, to help out). These are simply the rules of the publishing game.
So: is an illustration an intellectual contribution? If it cannot be created automatically, chances are that the answer is yes.
But let’s say it *isn’t* in any way an intellectual contribution, it’s pure menial work: then you either pay somebody to do it, or you ask it as a favour.
Which brings us to the second major problem: the imbalance of power between a PI and a PhD student means that you just *cannot ask favours* from your student. Effectively, *you are giving them orders* to perform work, for free, outside of their contractual responsibility. This is exploitation. It’s irrelevant whether that was your intent or not.
In summary, **asking your student to work for free is unethical, and potentially scientific misconduct**: no matter the situation you either exploit their labour for free, or you steal their authorship.
This situation is, unfortunately, not uncommon in science. But that doesn’t make it right. It’s for this reason that the complacent acceptance in the replies and comments have generated [no little outrage on Twitter](https://twitter.com/klmr/status/906173300623245314).
---
1 Scientific chats over coffee can be extremely fruitful, as any researcher knows. They much more often deserve authorship than is common practice.
2 I know of some researchers that reward any kind of work on a paper with authorship, including trivial things like fixing typos. I find this excessive but it’s worth noting that this point of view exists.
3 Think about it carefully: what does that even mean?
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_11: Why would you waste a PhD candidates' time on that? They are the ones who could take the legacy of your ideas and work into the future. Don't you want to train them to do that the best way they can?
Don't you have BSc or MSc students who need to do a thesis or courses given at your institution which can make the miscellaneous things as part of a project or lab? Many institutes also have *research engineers* employed for the purpose of helping with similar "miscellaneous things".
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_12: If your student is working for you on a contract, then absolutely, though an acknowledgement would still be polite. In that case you are giving the student the task in the role as your (part time) employee, which is a common case.
If your student is financed by a scholarship given by a 3rd party they are not obliged to do work unrelated to their thesis.
If your student is financed by a "scholarship" given by yourself, they are officially not obliged to do any work unrelated to research for their thesis, but in practise this is still very much expected. This is a common situation, at least in my experience, to save costs such as insurance and pension, but I advise you against that as it has too many negative ramifications for the student.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_13: "Co-authorship" must satisfy all of the following three conditions:
1. Provide ideas
2. Significant contribution
3. Approve the final submission
You could ask your student or RA to do the job for you, if they indeed agree and are compensated. If his contribution does not satisfy any of the 3, he should not, in principle, receive a co-authorship.
---
PS: Many BS and BA are willing to RA for free. Why not take a part-time one? This will help both of you, your PhD, and the BA. Many BA are good at Latex, btw, and many of them learn unfamiliar things much faster than the "old" PhD and the Profs (you).
Upvotes: 0
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2017/09/06
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<issue_start>username_0: I got behind in my program because of illness. My university says it's ok for me to have extra time, but the department head of my program doesn't like this because he thinks all students must get a certain time. He wants to cut my funding, which would force me out of the program. He doesn't even care that right now I am doing good work. He just wants me gone. He spreads false rumors about me to other professors. The graduate director does nothing and says it is not his place.
My adviser likes me, but I don't think he is willing to always stand up to the department head. It is late in my program and I can not start over at another university. Thank you for your advice.
**Edit:** Getting behind was not my fault and my adviser knew of my illness. How can I persuade the department head that he should forget about my illness and let me work now so I can finish?<issue_comment>username_1: Have you considered reaching out to your office of the Ombudsman/woman? Often times, they serve as the official/unofficial mediator when it comes to conflicts within an organization.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: in line with the previous answer, yes you should appeal, but if you truly have a department *head* as opposed to chair, you might have difficulty. At least in the US, heads wield much discretionary power while chairs serve as advocates. This may be partially why the graduate director isn't helping much.
Why not make a candid, private, personal appeal to your head? It's often the case that people can be softened when you become a person rather than just another student. Come armed with evidence of all you've done and reiterate your intention to graduate.
Upvotes: 0
|
2017/09/06
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| 4,579
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<issue_start>username_0: I know nothing about the bureaucracy of the academic world when writing papers but I sometimes need or enjoy to read academic papers.
Usually all the papers I've read were written either by professors or by reasearchers (I'm guessing PhDs). Some papers were written by people working at Google and they were PhDs too.
My question is: can anyone write a paper or is some minimum level of education (say a PhD for instance) required? Of course I'm not asking if a persone can wake up tomorrow and write a paper on quantum physics without knowing anything at all of physics.
EDIT: when I said "write", what I meant was having the paper published. Sorry!<issue_comment>username_1: In theory, yes. There are no requirements that an author needs to have an academic title or education. Neither does one have to be affiliated to a university or other form or research institute.
Practically, there are a lot of things that would make it unlikely, such as a lack of support (financial - you need to have some clue of the existing literature, which is usually obtained via university subscriptions to journals) to qualification.
The person might also have to invest some of his own money, since it is unlikely to get a research grant as a privateer.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: Journals set their own criteria for determining which papers to publish, but anything that's original and advances the knowledge of the subject is generally publishable somewhere. The catch is that it's very difficult to do research outside the academic world. That difficulty varies with the field. As you mentioned, companies like Google and Microsoft regularly publish computer science papers; on the other hand, there really isn't alternative to academia for pure math research. Doing research at a company requires it to be willing to support your work, and very few companies are interested in supporting pure research. More applied research still requires companies to invest in their reseachers, and that generally requires a PhD, academic experimence, or some other bona fides.
If you're specifically interested in doing research yourself without a PhD, your best bet is probably to get involved with one of the few companies like Google or Microsoft that does publish large quantities of papers, put your name on its published papers even if it's just doing background or logistical work, and try to build up enough clout and experience to persuade the company to start letting you run research projects yourself. It's a hard sell, even with all the bona fides in place; companies are about making money, not doing research, and it's hard to spin publications as being profitable. You might have more luck at government labs, although their friendliness towards research and publications vary.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: In principle: **Yes, of course!**
No journal I know has a rule that requires a minimum level of education or a specific affiliation. But in order to be accepted for a journal with reasonable reputation, there *are* several requirements:
* **Contribution:** With more education (not necessarily a higher degree) it gets easier to provide a better contribution. As you said, just waking up with a great idea without even knowing the fundamentals of the field of research before is unlikely.
* **Novelty:** For an external person it is hard to decide if he has really found something new or he was just reinventing the wheel. That is much easier if you are part of the research community. That does not necessarily require any affiliation, but for example the regular participation at conferences and workshops.
* **Experience:** You need experience in many areas to write a good paper. A lot of (if not most) papers are rejected not because of bad ideas, but because of wrong experimental setups, wrong application of statistical methods, ugly looking plots that do not provide confidence intervals ... and most importantly because the paper was not written in a convincing way. You can not learn these things by just reading a book at home.
* **Time:** Research requires a lot of time! If the university pays at least part of your bills you have more time to do research.
* **Money:** Depending on the journal, publishing might be very expensive. With an affiliation at a university it is easier to find someone who pays for your publication.
* **Reputation:** Last but not least, there are things, such as reputation of the author, that should not influence a reviewers decision, but they do at least sometimes.
Upvotes: 2
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2017/09/07
| 970
| 4,253
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<issue_start>username_0: During my undergraduate degree, in engineering, I took part in two 'undergraduate research assistantships'. Neither of them went well, from my point of view. Both were done during school terms, and were in my 2nd and 3rd years.
In the first assistantship, I chose to work in an area outside my field of study (and outside of my future interests), due to some interest from high school. The topic was too complicated and unfamiliar to me, however, and I was not able to make any contributions. I spent the entire term attempting to read papers on the subject (and not understanding most of them).
The second was more related to my field, and I was able to make some contributions. It was not at the quality that I would accept from myself now, however.
If a masters application form/site asks for a **complete** record of academic activities/jobs, I will be including information on these.
Would it be likely to help, or harm, and application if I included information on these **voluntarily**? I can see two possible views myself, but do not know if someone reading an application is likely to see them that way, or which would carry more weight:
* Poor performance is the major factor that will be seen in the applications
* Including these could show the ability to try and take on extra work (hopefully more successfully)
In either case, I would be able to speak about some lessons learned from the experience. Along the lines of 'Don't start a major project in an area you have zero knowledge in; get some foundational experience in it first'.<issue_comment>username_1: I don't know about your field specifically, but in my field, you can rarely make any serious progress on research working part time for part of a school year. This is true for professors, postdocs, grad students and and especially true for undergrads. The point of undergraduate research is (1) to give you some taste of research, (2) to learn a few things, and (3) maybe help contribute a small amount of insight to some problem. At least in math, it's more common that undergrad research "only" results in a learning experience rather than a publishable paper. In fact, many research projects for grad students and beyond never become papers, and of those that do, it generally takes more than half a year. That's the nature of research. It's not easy.
Moreover, as you advance and mature your point of view, it's natural that you view your earlier work as naive (again, this is true for professional researchers). That's fine. That doesn't mean there was something wrong with what you did earlier, but just that your understanding has advanced.
Anyway, to answer your question, I would probably include lines on my CV saying you were a research assistant, and at least briefly touch on them in your personal statements. (You may also want a letter from someone involved in one of these, but that depends on your situation.) You're not expected to have outstanding outcomes, so you don't need to focus on that outcomes. But it shows motivation beyond the required coursework and that you have some experience with research.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: It appears you are being too hard on yourself. You say,
"Neither of them went well, from my point of view."
Don't worry about your point of view, for now. It seems that in the first case you did read some papers, i.e., as username_1 pointed out, you showed initiative. In the second case, you did make contributions. Can you get a letter from the supervisor talking about the contribution you made (even though you may think it's not upto your standards).
You don't need to write lessons learnt in your application. Just talk about what you learnt in your broad field of interest.
And yes, research is hard. Many research ideas don't go anywhere. You will have plenty of time to learn life's lessons as you progress in your academic career. For now focus on your application, write objective facts, and don't allow yourself to judge them harshly. Get letters from your supervisors, course advisors, etc. You can have a frank conversation with the undergraduate research assistantship supervisors: will they give you a good letter?
Hope this helps.
Upvotes: 1
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2017/09/07
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<issue_start>username_0: I'm a tenure track professor in computer science at a teaching-oriented university. I still have a number of years before I go up for tenure, but want to start preparing early. One of the metrics I will be judged on is teaching effectiveness; namely, some objective, quantitative measure of student learning. I've talked to my (recently tenured) colleagues about this, and it sounds like no one has any idea of best ways to measure it; everyone kind of offered some discussion of test scores, called it a day, and got tenure. I would like to be a bit more principled in my approach, but am unsure how. A pretest seems like the most obvious, since it seems that you would need a baseline to measure effectiveness over the course of the semester. But, I primarily teach intro programming, where students have no background knowledge (those who do are in another class), so giving a pretest seems pointless.
In particular, I have honed in on wanting to teach critical thinking skills (somewhat in line with "How to Think Like a Programmer") and have slowly changed my approach in that direction, but am even more mystified about how to measure that.
In general, looking for recommendations on how to go about assessing teaching effectiveness in a quantitative way in the computer science field.<issue_comment>username_1: You still have some years and you teach your students not only what is needed to get through your exam but also critical thinking and skills that will get useful later on. Taking both together, you might be able to get nice statistical results if you keep an eye on your students. Can you maybe find out that the average GPA of students who visited your course went up after that? Can you get access to the number/percentage of your students that got a degree after passing your course (maybe with honors) and compare it to the average?
Of course there might be no significant difference here, but you should still keep an eye on it, as teaching thinking skills often only pays off later; but is still just as important.
Note that this should not be your only argument, as it might not be a good one. But if you can get the standard test scores and also add something here, showing how your special teaching approach was beneficial to the students in the long run, I would go for it.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: Teaching effectiveness is often boiled down to some measurement of observable change in the behavior of students. As such, you should be seeking to find some behavior that you can observe in your students that have changed in part due to your instructional practices.
I believe that a pre-test post-test approach can work in your intro to programming classes if you compare different teaching styles/methodologies either used in the same class (within group) or different sections of the same course (between group). You first search for different ways to teach your content, run the experiment, and you will then have clear-cut evidence of the best way to teach your own students in the context that you work in. This would be an example of action research.
When it is time to discuss teaching at your tenure interview you discuss your findings and share how you know what is effective teaching for the classes you teach.
In relation to critical thinking, this is really messy to operationalized and measure quantitatively. How to measure a students ability to compare/contrast, synthesize/analyze, and or evaluate is exceedingly difficult as these are actions that take place within the mind intuitively and cannot be observed. Often, we know critical thinking when we see it but can't measure it with numbers because critical thinking is about developing an opinion which is difficult to measure objectively. Documenting this qualitatively is reasonable but may not be acceptable since your department is requiring numerical evidence.
As such, teaching critical thinking skills but perhaps leaving it out of the discussion for tenure would benefit students without complicating your employment
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: >
> objective, quantitative measure of student learning
>
>
>
This is impossible today and probably always will be. "Learning" is too broad for a single metric. Form a specific hypothesis, then test it using a pre-test and post-test. Ideally, you should use two groups of students, one of which receives an intervention. The other group is a control.
You can get free training courses here: <https://www.cirtl.net/p/cirtl-programming#Courses> (see "Teaching-as-Research")
Do not forget to include qualitative information and feedback from peer faculty.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: Consider using a "program assessment" approach to your self-study. Program assessment is normally meant to investigate what students know overall after a complete course of study (degree program). But I think the approach can give some useful information about individual courses, without the wierdness of pre-testing students on a subject they haven't been taught yet.
Basically: Draft a few concrete goals for the course that you teach, and then turn those into specific test questions that you always carry on your final exams. Ideally, you'd draft those goals and questions with input from other faculty members. Record statistics from those final questions each semester. Be on the lookout for any questions where the students are weaker/struggling more than others, and use that as an opportunity to modify or re-focus your course content. If scores go up in semesters after that, then you can hold that up to the tenure committee as an example of your commitment, awareness, and self-improvement in teaching methods. The fact that you have some years before tenure means that you have time for this long-term approach.
Information on program assessment in general can be found here (UMass, "Program-Based Review and Assessment", 2001):
<http://www.umass.edu/oapa/oapa/publications/online_handbooks/program_based.pdf>
Information on assessment for Computer Science in particular can be found here (U. Pittsburgh, 2014):
<http://www.dbserc.pitt.edu/Assessment/Assessments-Computer-Science>
Upvotes: 2
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2017/09/07
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<issue_start>username_0: When citing, does it have to be obvious from the sentence or placement of the citation what exactly is being cited or why the citation is there? Sometimes I feel like people cite things such that you can only figure out why there is a citation after reading the cited article. Is that ok or should the purpose of a citation be obvious from the text?
E.g. should
>
> In the field of bla {cite bunch of reviews} people do lots of cool stuff.
>
>
>
be instead replaced by something like
>
> In the field of bla people do lots of cool stuff. For recent reviews see {cite bunch of reviews}.
>
>
><issue_comment>username_1: The example you mentioned seems ok. You are referring the reader to those papers which you mentioned their topics. This is generally acceptable.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: Every paragraph has a purpose. The answer to your question depends on the purpose of your paragraph.
Clarity in academic writing is always good, but you should weigh whether being explicit is clarifying or obscuring the important points. "For recent reviews see {cite bunch of reviews}," may be fine if you want to direct the reader's attention to the existence of those reviews. Perhaps you're doing a metareview, or for some other reason want to track development of the literature.
But the terser version is cleaner if the existence of reviews is tangential to your point. The reader can investigate further if she wishes--hopefully the titles of your cited works make their purpose clear, so she's not digging around to figure out what they're about!--but she can also breeze past the citations to your main point. Extreme concision in citations is widely accepted. I've seen citations to my work (broadly, in interdisciplinary social science) where I was not entirely sure why the authors thought it was relevant!
So what is your paragraph trying to accomplish?
Upvotes: 2 [selected_answer]
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2017/09/07
| 592
| 2,511
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<issue_start>username_0: I heard from an administrator of a different grad program than mine that TA salaries are in fact negotiable -- a little known fact to be aware of.
Given this tip, how can I effectively negotiate my pay for the classes I will TA for, before signing my contract with the human resources department?
Unlike in industry, I don't have TA salary information from, say, other schools around our campus location to make an effective argument for more money.<issue_comment>username_1: As with any job in just about any industry, salary negotiations are tricky, however the basis for it depends on your experience and skill set. If you have experience being a TA prior (and perhaps with a good track record) then that is something you can bring up in your negotiations. If you are TAing for classes that require a certain skillset or knowledge that not a lot of TAs have, then that's another advantage. If the negotiations are in person, then the conversation might go something like this:
>
> Based on my prior experience, along with the skillset and knowledge
> needed to be a TA for these classes, I would like to ask for an
> increase of $x to what you are offering.
>
>
>
If it's over email, then something similar. Nothing is guaranteed, but that would be a start for your negotiations.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: In general, TA salaries are *not* negotiable, but are instead set by a department or school for all students. There may be some "wiggle room" in special cases: for example, if you have already served as a TA and have experience, there may be a higher level of pay available under such circumstances.
In the event that your school allows for negotiations, I would say in any case that you would have to provide a solid argument for why you deserve more than the standard salary. Do you already have teaching experience? How much? Where?
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: As other responses have pointed out, most programs don't have any flexibility about this. But a few do. They might also have other points of flexibility, such as teaching load, auxiliary funding (e.g. travel), or one-time recruitment awards. Your leverage is more your desirability as a student than your teaching experience.
The good news is that as long as you're not a jerk about asking them to improve their offer, you're not in danger of having it rescinded. (At least I've never heard of this happening.) So you have nothing to lose by trying.
Upvotes: 1
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2017/09/08
| 1,747
| 6,904
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<issue_start>username_0: I read often that preprint servers such as arXiv are changing how we publish. However, no one in my area of medical imaging uses them and they are regarded in my lab with suspicion.
I currently have a finished manuscript that I am about to send to an IEEE transaction journal. I would like a preprint of this manuscript to be publicly available for several reasons. However, my supervisors are worried this might invalidate my ability to publish this manuscript. They don't want to take the risk that I do this wrong and can't publish.
So here is the simple question I never seem to see a simple answer to. Here is a finished manuscript, fully formatted for the journal I am going to submit it to, in PDF. Can I submit this PDF as a pre-print to arXiv right now, or not? Will the publisher still consider publishing it? To play devil's advocate, why wouldn't IEEE say, this has already been published in the arXiv, it is no longer new work?
Edit: Here is what IEEE says: "Does IEEE consider an author posting her paper on preprint servers or on her company's web sites to be a form of prior publication, which may then disqualify the paper from further editorial consideration? No. IEEE policy allows an author to submit previously posted papers to IEEE publications for consideration as long as she is able to transfer copyright to IEEE, i.e., she had not transferred copyright to another party prior to submission."<issue_comment>username_1: Check with the journal you are trying to publish in. Different journals might have different views on things and there is no general answer that is true for all of them.
Try looking up the regulations for copyright when publishing with said journal, there should be information there on what you are still allowed to do (upload to arXiv, upload to your personal homepage, send it to people only on request, etc.). Maybe they don't want you to upload the exact version you publish with them, but rather a preprint (e.g. without the journal formating).
And btw, this is not a simple question, as the correct answer differs between journals, fields, etc.
---
Ok, today is my nice day:
Googling "IEEE Arxiv", the first hit is
[this FAQ](https://www.ieee.org/documents/author_faq.pdf), which has a point:
>
> **Can an author post his manuscript on a preprint server such as ArXiv?**
>
>
> Yes. The IEEE recognizes that many authors share their unpublished manuscripts on public
> sites. Once manuscripts have been accepted for publication by IEEE, an author is required to
> post an IEEE copyright notice on his preprint. Upon publication, the author must replace the
> preprint with either 1) the full citation to the IEEE work with Digital Object Identifiers (DOI)
> or a link to the paper’s abstract in IEEE Xplore, or 2) the accepted version only (not the IEEEpublished
> version), including the IEEE copyright notice and full citation, with a link to the
> final, published paper in IEEE Xplore
>
>
>
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: Although it might not answer the question exacly, googling revealed a useful [Wikipedia list](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_academic_journals_by_preprint_policy) of the policies of some journals.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: Yes you can. If/when they accept the paper you need to perform the actions as described in:
From <https://www.ieee.org/content/dam/ieee-org/ieee/web/org/pubs/author_version_faq.pdf>
>
> **Can an author post his manuscript on a preprint server such as ArXiv?**
>
> Yes. The IEEE recognizes that many authors share their unpublished
> manuscripts on public sites. Once manuscripts have been accepted for
> publication by IEEE, an author is required to post an IEEE copyright
> notice on his preprint. Upon publication, the author must replace the
> preprint with either 1) the full citation to the IEEE work with
> Digital Object Identifiers (DOI) or a link to the paper’s abstract in
> IEEE Xplore, or 2) the accepted version only (not the IEEEpublished
> version), including the IEEE copyright notice and full citation, with
> a link to the final, published paper in IEEE Xplore
>
>
>
On the author center of IEEE it's restated here, that prior to publication one can share it on ArXiv
<http://ieeeauthorcenter.ieee.org/publish-with-ieee/author-education-resources/guidelines-and-policies/policy-posting-your-article/>
>
> **Prior to Submission to an IEEE Publication**
>
> Authors may post their article anywhere at any time, including on preprint servers such as arXiv.org.
>
>
>
Authors seem to get a lot of leeway from IEEE, including reuse of their previously submitted work in new works. Only thing is that your preprint must match the accepted version by IEEE. Not any rough draft or anything.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_4: I don't know of any reasonable publishers in my field (theoretical CS) who would refuse to publish work that has been submitted to arXiv as a preprint beforehand. However, there is one important exception which hasn't been pointed out by other answers: **double-blind reviewing**.
For venues that employ double-blind reviewing, submissions are required to be anonymized, i.e., not give away the identity or affiliations of their authors. Some employ so-called "lightweight double-blind reviewing" where this requirement only applies to the submitted paper: the idea is to avoid biasing the reviewers, but not to prevent them from determining the identity of the authors if they search independently.
However, some venues are more strict about double-blind reviewing and want to ensure that reviewers cannot find out the authors even if they search. Some of these venues (or some reviewers at these venues) will outright reject any submission if they manage to deanonymize the author in this way. (In my opinion, this is stupid, but I have seen this happen at a respectable conference.)
So, **in the case of a venue which is double-blind and not in the lightweight sense**, it may be a problem if you have your work posted on arXiv before submitting, because a reviewer will probably be able to deanonymize you by searching for your work (the title, abstract, or some random sentence) and finding the arXiv page with your name.
As [arXiv submissions cannot be deleted](https://arxiv.org/help/withdraw), I think it may be better to wait for acceptance before posting your work on arXiv, in cases where you are planning to submit your paper to a double-blind conference with such a policy, or if you might be resubmitting it later to such a conference.
See also a [related question](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16831/is-it-legal-to-upload-a-paper-to-arxiv-when-it-is-under-double-blind-review-for) and [discussion of this problem](https://chairs-blog.acl2017.org/2017/02/19/arxiv-and-the-future-of-double-blind-conference-reviewing/).
Upvotes: 2
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2017/09/08
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<issue_start>username_0: A globally available, free bibliographic database, much like Google Scholar but with stronger query-building and export of hits, would be tremendously useful.
[Edited to add explanation of why this would be useful: Specifically, systematic reviews and meta-analyses require replicable procedures. This means queries must be repeatable (yielding the same hits) and hits must be exportable to enable e.g. double-blind, documentable screening procedures. Ideally these procedures and their replications are Open (i.e. inclusive to all researchers), and so expensive licenses can be undesirable.
To clarify what I mean by queries and exporting: e.g. a systematic review could use a query like:
```
(TI:("condom use" OR "safe sex") OR
AB:("condom use" OR "safe sex")) AND
(TI:(determinants* OR "psycho-social variables") OR
AB:(determinants* OR "psycho-social variables"))
```
Which would look for all papers that include either 'condom use' or 'safe sex' (or both) in their title or abstract, and also include either 'determinants' or 'psycho-social variables' (or both) in their title or abstract.
The next step would then be to export all hits to enable screening of the hundreds or thousands of references for relevance (ideally by two or more blinded screeners).
Google Scholar has very limited query-building capacities and no exporting functionalities (i.e. it does for single hits, but not for thousands of hits in one go).
However, no such freely available systems seem to exist.
Is there some reason for this other than that nobody has got around to it yet? Are there license problems? The title, authors etc are not copyrighted I think, but maybe abstracts are - on the other hand abstracts etc are all in the public domain, so I assume they can be copied, emailed to colleagues, etc, and so I guess they could be included in such a database as well. Or is that not allowed?<issue_comment>username_1: **[I4OC: the Initiative for Open Citations](https://i4oc.org/)**
This is probably the leading project to do this, though I believe there have been various proposals in the past.
>
> The idea of creating an advocacy group to promote the availability of citation data gained momentum at the 8th Conference on Open Access Scholarly Publishing (COASP 2016), in response to a report that only a tiny minority of the almost 1,000 publishers depositing references with Crossref at that time were making this data publicly available.
>
>
>
They're making pretty good progress:
>
> As of June 2017, the fraction of publications with open references has grown from 1% to more than 45% out of the nearly 35 million articles with references deposited with Crossref (to date).
>
>
>
However, there's a long way still to go - not least that the 35m target quoted there is only articles in Crossref, which means ones for which a DOI has been issued. Once you get into historical material which never made it online, this can potentially get a lot more challenging; I'm not familiar with how (or whether) they plan to address legacy material.
And, of course, it's only targeting the underlying data. They haven't made a move to build a "user-friendly" database on top of it, though there's nothing preventing a third party from doing so.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: One possible reason is that there is no real need for such a (locally stored) database. Currently the Web itself is used as the ''database'' for bibliographic information, and the Web, through Google, allows all users to have very good querying mechanism.
Upvotes: 1
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2017/09/08
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<issue_start>username_0: I am a first-year math master's student looking to apply to math PhD programs next year.
Is it appropriate for me to cold-email a US math department to request information about the job placement of recent PhD graduates? For example, I may want to ask how many graduates with which advisers managed to get postdocs and eventually tenure-track positions at either research universities or liberal arts colleges. Another example is that I may ask how many graduates with which dissertation areas eventually obtained non-academic research jobs (e.g. Microsoft Research, NSA, US national laboratories).
Besides asking departments directly, I can only think of the [Math Genealogy Project](http://www.genealogy.ams.org/), which is not always complete, and the [Annual Survey of the Mathematical Sciences](http://www.ams.org/profession/data/annual-survey/employ-new-phds), which has excellent data but only for broad groups of departments and broad classifications of research areas.<issue_comment>username_1: You could email either the departmental graduate advisor, chair, or POI but be prepared to be disappointed -- either because they don't respond or they don't have the data you want:
* Until you've been offered a position, you are just one of a hundred plus applicants. Your likelihood of getting a response improves when they are courting you not when you're an unknown student emailing out of the blue
* Running this type of stats takes time and energy as many departments don't have a mechanism for tracking former students. We often only do this on a departmental level during an external review (if even then) and so the data can be several years old and not very granular
* individual labs or professors may track this but their n can be so small as to be meaningless (is a prof who places 2/5 really better than a prof who is placing 3/8).
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Echoing other comments and answers: first, there is a potentially significant issue (in the U.S., for example) about giving too much personal information about former students, whether successes or failures. Nevertheless, yes, of course, documenting "successes" is good PR for a grad program. At my R1 U.S. uni, we do list PhD alumni, and, to the degree that it seems unobjectionable, their current situations. But this is potentially tricky.
Many grad program exert less effort to track alumni, in part because of the privacy issues, and in part because often people don't want to be "tracked", at all.
And, in terms of the utility of such information to anyone: it turns out that grad students, especially the more able ones, are very much individuals, so to categorize people by their advisor or topic or... is potentially very misleading. E.g., in terms of probability or statistics, there are soooo many conditioning aspects that the bare answer to your question would be almost worthless for predicting your own subsequent success (based on successes of previous students of a given advisor, etc.)
Upvotes: 1
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2017/09/08
| 1,286
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<issue_start>username_0: Suppose a couple of years into a PhD program one gets a job offer he/she is quite happy with and decides to take it. This could be for one or several reasons such as:
1. You are at a point in your life where you need some money and its financially more secure to work rather than being a graduate student.
2. It's a good idea to experience what the work force/industry/"real world" is like for a bit.
3. You may not be satisfied with your research topic/advisor at your PhD institute.
Assume also that during this couple of years one has acquired enough credits to get a masters before leaving.
My question is after working a couple of years, how would it be viewed by graduate committees if I decide to reapply for PhD programs in case I decide I really want to finish the PhD now that I am financially at a better place and have a good first hand experience of what its like being at both sides of academia.<issue_comment>username_1: If you leave with a master's you can't use the same material again for another degree. It is also likely that the state of the art will advance enough in the intervening time that the research would be out of date/already done by someone else. Thus, you can't "resume" a PhD.
However, if you graduate with a master's in hand now, it is quite possible to apply for a PhD after a few years working. But you will have to start again and spend the full study period producing enough new research to be worthy of the degree. (This might be shorter, e.g. in the UK-style system students with a research master's are expected to complete their PhD in 3 years compared to 4 years for students with a bachelor's or a taught master's.) This is quite normal and will not be viewed negatively (although the fact that you started a PhD and "bailed out early" by taking the master's might, depending on the circumstances - but this is only likely to be known if you reapply to the same institution).
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: Through the computer science point of view, all three reasons you've listed above tells me that you are better off in the industry.
>
> You are at a point in your life where you need some money and its
> financially more secure to work rather than being a graduate student.
>
>
>
Indeed. But the point of doing research as a grad student is having less money for more time. Even though most of the [PhD comics](http://phdcomics.com/comics/archive_list.php) disagree with me, I find conducting research at a good university gives you a lot of time to spend for yourself.
You will have the *deadlines*, not the *working hours*. Thus, either working at your office, or at home in the night, is completely up to you.
Also, not to disagree every single thing, but you have way more financial security as a researcher compared to the industry. Unless you behave very unethical, it is an extreme case that a university cuts out your funds.
>
> It's a good idea to experience what the work force/industry/"real
> world" is like for a bit.
>
>
>
This reason speaks for itself. If you're thinking the industry is the real world and conducting research is imaginary(?) world, then your choice must be very clear by now.
>
> You may not be satisfied with your research topic/advisor at your PhD
> institute.
>
>
>
The solution to this is simply changing your research topic and advisor. This is another point in academia, that you have all the freedom in the world to work *whatever* you want. Opposed to industry, where usually your boss tells you what to do and what not to do.
As I've discussed this topic [earlier](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/65514/15949), I believe having a PhD degree cannot be measured by how much extra money you've missed, or is it really worth it.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: Caveat: I've not yet done admissions, so be skeptical of my answer and use your own judgement.
My impression is that admissions committees are really only concerned about a two things:
1. Is an applicant capable of handling the technical work and coursework necessary for obtaining a PhD?
2. Is an applicant likely to stay through the program and finish?
Leaving a PhD program and then coming back later really only influences their analysis of that second question. As long as you can appropriately explain why your current PhD program wasn't working out, why switching to industry was a good thing at the time you did so, and most importantly describe why you're committed to following through on a new PhD program, then I don't think that leaving with a master's will be much of a disadvantage.
I don't want to put words in your mouth, but the attitude you describe does not sound surprising at all in my field (computer science). If a prospective student told me some variation of this story it wouldn't dissuade me one bit:
"I didn't understand how my work was valuable or would fit into industrial practice, so I left academics for a few years to gain that experience. Having seen how things are actually done in the real world, I'm really eager to come back and make specific contributions with that knowledge in mind."
Upvotes: 1
|
2017/09/09
| 580
| 2,394
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am a new faculty member. My chair is simply crazy in my perspective.
1. I am an assistant professor. However, my teaching assignment is "offering individual statistical consulting/workshops", not "teaching any classes". This was indicated in my job description when I applied for this job. However, several times, she says, "you are not teaching" - so she says that I need to do what she asks me to do because she pays my salary (I really do not know why she pays).
2. What she wants me to do is to write research/funding proposals and articles, then put her as the PI/the first author although they are my research ideas/works. She has taken three studies so far. More seriously, when she took the first one, I refused it. Then she sent out an official letter including some other faculty, saying that she took my research proposal because it was originally her idea and I stole it. Worse still, she then forced me to write the paper for her.
3. My Ph.D. is in statistics. She said that I couldn't get tenured unless I change my research field into an education field which she wanted to do. Her point was again "paycheck" - I should do something because I am not teaching.
4. Worst of all, she claims I am a bad person and faculty member because I refuse her unethical requests as a researcher. Furthermore, she talks about me to all the other faculty members, causing them to hesitate to be friends with me. Whatever I say goes to the chair.
I am preparing to leave this crazy medical school. However, my concern is the possibilities the chair could ruin my future career by using her connections. What should I do?<issue_comment>username_1: You need to sit down with the chair and have a long frank discussion about what your job duties are and what you need to do to get promoted/tenure. You should ask about mentoring for new faculty (you need a senior colleague who can help you). You need to have a beverage (or 6) with junior faculty to discuss what is up.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: I strongly suggest having conversations with other faculty in your department, to get their perspectives on what your responsibilities actually are, and on the behavior of the chair. I would also suggest speaking with deans or associate deans, but only after talking to your colleagues within the department.
The situation sounds bizarre; good luck!
Upvotes: 3
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2017/09/09
| 833
| 3,375
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<issue_start>username_0: Here's a small dilemma. I have a few ideas that I am putting into the form of a research proposal. It borrows heavily from the insights of <NAME>'s Theory of Comparative Advantage. Now, the notion of comparative advantage is pretty much common knowledge in economics. However, my proposal is for research in Complex Networks.
Should I cite <NAME>'s original book from 1817 in which he published the idea, without having read it? (I doubt I'll be able to follow the argument easily in Enlightenment-period English) Or should I cite a secondary paper by someone more modern that talks about and analyzes comparative advantage? I would prefer the latter route as I would actually be able to read the material that I'm citing, but then I will not be going to the source of the original idea.<issue_comment>username_1: In general, using the original source is a good thing. But if the original source is *very* old, and much discussion and development has happened since, it is not advisable to *only* cite this original source but something more recent. This does not mean that you cannot cite Ricardo in your introduction, but if you go into the details, I would cite a recent, respected work that offers a modern view.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: (from the question above)
>
> *... a research proposal. It **borrows heavily** from ...*
>
>
>
Always read the original work, unless perhaps you'd have to learn a whole new language. Shakespeare's English is easy enough to understand once you've gotten into it, a text half as old shoudn't be a large problem.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_3: You need to read the material you cite. That does not mean you need to read an entire book if the relevant portion is in one or a few chapters, but just plopping in a citation without ever cracking the cover is reference padding and is academic misconduct.
You've been given good advice by <NAME> about *also* citing newer material, but you can't cite something you haven't read.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: In your place, I would read just enough of Ricardo’s book to support whatever point you're making, and cite it. As username_3 wrote, you don’t have to read the whole thing to cite a single claim from a single section.
I’m also a little unsure why you consider Enlightenment-period English so unreadable. Here’s a sample of the prose I encountered when I looked up Ricardo’s 1817 book online:
>
> There are some commodities, the value of which is determined by their scarcity alone. No labour can increase the quantity of such goods, and therefore their value cannot be lowered by an increased supply. Some rare statues and pictures, scarce books and coins, wines of a peculiar quality, which can be made only from grapes grown on a particular soil, of which there is a very limited quantity, are all of this description. Their value is wholly independent of the quantity of labour originally necessary to produce them, and varies with the varying wealth and inclinations of those who are desirous to possess them. These commodities, however, form a very small part of the mass of commodities daily exchanged in the market.
>
>
>
This is easily comprehensible to me even as a non-economist, and a far more clearly written than a lot of present-day scientific articles I’ve read.
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: I'm working on my thesis and I'd like to see if some documents that I'll use have been used before to see if the topic and focus I'm working on has been done before. At the moment it seems it hasn't, I looked for citations in Google scholar and it has only 1 citation, Academia.edu has around 2000, but I must have Academia Premium to see it. Is there any other way to look for citations? Is it worth to have Academia Premium?<issue_comment>username_1: I used a lot [Web of Science](https://clarivate.com/products/web-of-science/). You can see who cited what (if it is indexed) and it usually has links to the full text. See its [wiki page](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_of_Science) for more information, including links to other search engines.
Where I work, the administrative staff takes their bibliometrics from Web of Science.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: For biology and chemistry-related publications you can use [Europe PMC](http://europepmc.org) as a search engine - it indexes citation counts and is free to use. Since it only shows open citations (those that publishers have made freely available), the citation counts will be smaller than those for the Web of Science, but you can access that info without subscribing. Alert: I work for Europe PMC.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: For papers in mathematics and related fields, arXiv tracks how many times a paper has been cited by other arXiv papers. In some fields this might not be useful, but in mathematics/computer science/some fields of physics it’s going to be a very good approximation.
Upvotes: 0
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<issue_start>username_0: I want/need to use the word 'Android' referring to the Android-System/Software in a paper/thesis. I found [these](https://developer.android.com/legal.html) guidelines. Do I have to use both, the TM-symbol AND a footnote? Like AndroidTM - It looks strange...<issue_comment>username_1: Your thesis or paper is in this respect similar to a newspaper article about the product ("Independent coverage"). Do newspapers use the "TM" symbol if they write about products? No. (At least no newspapers or magazine I know does.)
It is used by people who have an agreement, are cooperating with the proprietor of the brand name in question, to show exactly that.
These "guidelines" (same as e.g. Microsofts EULAs etc.) are not even a binding contract in many legislations, because they try to force them on you after you have already paid for the product.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: I would advise you to be as conservative as possible and err on the side of adhering to the wishes of the trademark's owner. It won't do you any harm, whereas breaking a rule/convention might wind up giving you grief.
The rights of owners should be respected, especially when the cost is essentially zero. You will want them to respect your IP in future as well.
It is easy to *Do the Right Thing* when it costs you nothing.
I would guess, however, that mentioning the trademark and its owner once in the paper is sufficient.
And note that you do this, not because of a legal threat but because you respect the people that built the system. This is especially true if their prior work has enabled your own.
Upvotes: -1
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<issue_start>username_0: I have the definite suspicion, that a fellow PhD student in my department hired someone else on a freelance cloud working platform to do his work. I saw him/her using the website of this platform several times and even found a very specific job posting. Despite the limited details in that posting, I'm 99 % sure that it is from him/her.
How should I behave? Should I confront him/her first, or should I directly go to his/her advisor? How to substantiate my suspicion and be 100 % sure? Should I fake-apply to that posting to get more details?
As asked in the comments: The suspicious job posting is about developing new research and is not related to editing or proof-reading etc. The posting offers several tens of thousands of dollars.
EDIT: I would like to thank you for the very good answers. You've all really helped me deal with this case. All the answers are somehow correct, but I accepted the answer that suggested to me, what I finally did. Our university has confidants/obmbudspersons for unethical academic practices to whom I have reported the suspicion.<issue_comment>username_1: I would suggest you to spend your time working on *your* PhD. A PhD is not a competition, and generally there is no need to look over your peer's shoulders for suspicious activity, nor is it your responsibility. As another answer puts it, *assume good faith*.
What you have here is a suspicion of academic dishonesty based on (what I hope) a chance and unintentional glimpse of their computer screen. Let us ask this hypothetical question: how would you feel if someone saw you browsing the same sites and suspected *you* of academic dishonesty? And what if they went to speak to your advisor or department head about it? Or if they started shadowing your web browsing or postings to find dirt on you?
The reason I give this answer is because suspicion is potentially harmful to the suspected individual and detrimental to the work environment. I've made these clarifications in light of the downvotes.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: Just innocently ask him about it. If he's evasive or incoherent, you know there is something fishy going on, and you can tell him he's stupid, endangering his own, your profs and thereby also your reputation etc. If you find he still tries to afterwards, you can still turn him in.
Or you find what he's trying to outsource is totally legit, and that's it.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: **Assume good faith** (while being aware that this is not always actually given).
If the job posting is indeed quite close to what that PhD student is doing, then sent an email to the student and their supervisor with a link to that posting. Just something brief, like "I just saw this posting, and it reminded me of your project. Maybe you want to check it out?". If the posting is not from the student, they might want to get in contact with the actual poster. You have helped.[1] If the posting is from the student, but is legitimate, then no harm is done. If the posting is an attempt by the student to pass off others work as their own, their supervisor will not be caught unaware, but you are not involving yourself in any drama directly[2].
If the posting itself does not relate to the project, and it is only in conjunction with you seeing the student using that website that you got suspicious, then the evidence is sufficiently weak that I would recommend forgetting about it. Trying to investigate is more likely to cause a mess that to improve the situation.
Footnote:
[1] Contrary to what some of the commenters mentioned, I would not discount this case. I can perfectly well imagine a situation where the job posting itself is very similar to a PhD project, yet surrounding circumstances make the poster absolutely sure that it is not from the PhD student. Maybe some technology being developed by a PhD student is of interest to some start-up? "Write a short note to student and advisor." would be my recommendation, then, too. Thus, jumping to conclusions is avoidable for both sender and receiver (and should be avoided).
[2] Just to clarify: Of course there is significant risk that the student or others will blame you somehow. However, this is others involving you in the drama, rather than you jumping in head-first.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_4: First of all, I'd like to express my opinion that none of us here have the moral authority to tell you what to do, and you should be suspicious of anyone telling you that you definitely should or should not do this or that. This situation is very serious and you are the one who will be living with the consequences of your actions, not us anonymous (or not) internet strangers.
Instead of telling you what to do, I thought it may be helpful to list the choices you have and each one's pros and cons. Here they are as I see them:
1. *Continue to investigate by sending a fake application to the job posting.*
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
**Pros:** through such an investigation you will be helping (if your suspicions prove correct) to expose a very serious ethical breach (bordering on a criminal offense of conspiring to commit fraud) by the student in question, and helping to rid your department, university, and the academic world of someone who clearly has no business being there.
**Cons:**
* You will likely incur the wrath and hatred of the student you will be investigating (and possibly his family members, friends, and even other grad students in the program) later on when he finds out you were the one who sent the fake application that helped expose him.
* You may very possibly be suspected of sending in a *real* application, which would implicate you in unethical behavior yourself and cause you to get in serious trouble. Make sure to document your activities in a way that clearly establishes your honorable intentions. Even then, you could end up being accused in some unexpected way of causing harm or even doing something illegal by your meddling.
* By choosing such a high level of involvement in what sounds like a very messy affair, you may cause yourself a lot of wasted time and emotional entanglement later on (e.g., being debriefed or interviewed by university officials and administrative investigation committee, even having to testify in court some day).
The bottom line is that this course of action carries a significant amount of risk and potential for trouble for you.
2. *Continue to investigate by asking the student about his activities as one of the answers suggests.*
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
**Pros:** can't think of any. Someone so immoral would almost certainly just lie and you will gain no information.
**Cons:** by asking him what he's doing you will alert him to the fact that his current deception scheme is too easily detectable, making it likely that he will come up with a better, less transparent scheme, and ultimately helping him to defraud the university.
3. *Do nothing, just ignore what the student is doing and mind your own business.*
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
**Pros:** no work for you, no wasted time and emotional entanglement in a messy scandal, no colleagues who hate you for getting them expelled from school, etc.
**Cons:** you will have to live with the knowledge and potential guilt and shame associated with having known about the student's possible unethical and maybe illegal behavior and done nothing. The student will go on to fraudulently receive his PhD and your university'a reputation may suffer as a result. Your own degree may be worth a little less as a result. In a small but real way, all of society will suffer.
4. *Report your suspicions to the chair of your department and/or the student's advisor and/or other appropriate university officials.*
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**Pros:** you don't become involved in the affair in a messy, major way, but will likely lead to the student being exposed if he is in fact guilty. You will also know that you did the morally right thing by reporting the student and won't have to live with the guilt and shame of having done nothing.
**Cons:**
* you may still eventually become known as the person who helped expose the student (you can try an anonymous complaint if you want to keep yourself completely out of the story, but I think that will be less effective and would make it harder to prove the student's guilt), with the possible animosity and other negative consequences I described above. However, the level of animosity would likely be less great than in the scenario where you submit a fake application.
* you won't get the satisfaction, excitement, and superhero feeling that you might get by becoming actively involved in the investigation and playing private detective as in the suggestion to submit a fake application.
---
To summarize, you probably want a recommendation about which action to choose, but as I said, I don't think it's right to offer one. You will have to make your own decision, but hopefully the analysis above may still be helpful. Good luck!
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_5: ### tl;dr: Ask your own adviser.
Describe the situation (keep the person *anonymous*) and let your adviser suggest what to do.
If you care, make it a case to him that you think it will devalue *your* degree as well as the department's reputation to have the department award the same Ph.D. degree to someone who is not putting in an honest effort like you, especially if this later comes out as a scandal. This should make it clear that you don't view silence as an option, but that you also don't know how to proceed.
If you are sure he can't guess whom the student would be, bring examples of the work and the post online, showing their similarities and asking him to make a judgment.
If internal politics (e.g. between your adviser and his) might prevent your adviser from acting on this, then maybe go to another (ideally, tenured) faculty member in the department whom you trust.
In any case, what I would **NOT** do is to go to anyone in the student's reporting chain.
This could be seen as an attack on everyone below and may make things worse for yourself.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_6: First of all, make sure before you act on reporting **potential** academic dishonesty to some seniors whether the adviser or the departmental chair since the false accusations often create negative perception on the person who is accused, and it also creates distrust and disarray within the environment. Both are harmful to a research lab or group of colleagues.
I have witnessed similar situations where a friend or a colleague hired an undergrad or ms researcher, or used outside freelancer experts in small parts of a project to expedite the progress of the project. They resorted freelancer way when the job requires certain expertise that noone in the office has, or the job is some drudgery AND outsourced job does not violate the confidentiality if the project is funded by a private party.
Moreover, I believe a person who plans to commit academic dishonesty would not use office or school's network to do that. Or I would call that, excuse my language, a dumb move.
Instead of directly confronting and accusing him of whatever you think based on what you see on his computer's screen, I suggest just casually open the topic asking him whether he is doing freelance work or looking for a freelancer that you noticed while you had a glance at his computer. I think his behavior will give the answer whether he is hiding something or not.
Also, I like to point out that as an engineering PhD with many international students from different nations I noticed that the perception of plagiarism or academic dishonesty is different and mostly they have not faced or witnessed with a situation with harsh consequences such as being dismissed or expelled from the school. That's why sometimes they don't really think. Maybe the person is not aware of that he is committing academic dishonesty.
Remember, who starts up in anger sits down with a loss, so make sure of what's going on before taking actions.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_7: All universities have a Research, Grants, & Contracts office that is staffed with trained personnel to respond directly to reports of unethical / illegal conduct, and fraudulent or wasteful activities. Research facilities should have notices posted that explain how to contact them, including how to submit an anonymous report. You can also look up the contact information in your school's directory website.
That is the correct way to follow up. Doing anything yourself would only jeopardize or compromise their ability to conduct a legitimate investigation.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_8: Have you considered the possibility that the person is on the other side of the transaction... may be using the platform to try and make a little extra money helping others for example bachelors or masters students?
---
If you are indeed right then anyway there will be times in the PhD programme where (s)he will be required to present the work among peers : conferences, seminars, group meetings , collaboration seminars with other groups, the dissertation and possibly also half-time seminars.
(S)he should then be bustable on not being able to respond to questions or criticism about the work in the case that (s)he has not done it / and-or does not understand it.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_9: Tough one.
If you're right, it's dishonest, though you are then up against the problem that the advisor may not want to admit that this is going on in their group. Say anything and you may not make yourself very popular.
In fairness to yourself, this needs to be as anonymous as possible - as far as advisors are concerned. If you do anything, talk to the department chair. Most will not want this kind of academic dishonesty in their department, you certainly should not investigate yourself since it's the department's responsibility, and taking you away from your responsibilities.
Talking to the chair is far less likely to result in a nasty situation, since his advisor will have no idea if it was a student or some member of the office staff that found it.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_10: Besides [username_4's suggestions](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/95706/43446), which provide good details into the consequences of all actions that were raised in the question, I would also consider another approach:
5. Instead of fake-applying to the suspicious job posting, contact the freelancer's website and explain the situation.
**Pros**: with the information you provide:
1. The website's team may consider that the job posting goes against their policies and remove it from their website.
2. An opportunity may arise to know further details of the person who posted it in subsequent replies, e.g. they try to confirm the relation you are trying to establish (with this feedback information the suspicion may be more easily cleared out).
3. You may remain anonymous.**Cons**:
1. The website's team may ignore your information.
2. Part of the information you gave may be sent to the poster in order to explain the conflict, which may lead to the poster knowing more about you.
3. If the website considers and removes that post and if it was indeed your colleague, it may not stop him from posting in other websites (perhaps in a more obscure way).
A personal note, think carefully of what information you may disclose to anyone without having the chance to be related to you or, in the end, affecting you personally. If the poster is willing to pay tens of thousands of dollars for that research, they may also be willing to generously pay others in order to keep "disturbances" out of the scope...
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_11: Is what he is doing illegal or against any academic code at your institute?
I can't think of any code that prevents you from using other person's services unless you are doing plagiarism or being dishonest about the hours that you put in the work or what you actually did for research.
For example, you cannot have somebody else write a paper and put your name on it without you actually being involved in the research, but there is nothing wrong with having someone doing some experiments for you, and create a table of results under your supervision. Specially when this is related to repetitive manual work. Isn't that what post-docs or senior PhD's do all the time? Or isn't this what automation with a computer script do in many situations?
Unless you know for a fact that what he is doing is illegal, I would say it is none of your business.
Also, as others mentioned, even what he is doing is illegal, unless I was in charge, I would not start investigating it myself, but I would just report it to someone who actually is in charge.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_12: Only proceed with your investigation if you understand how anonymity works in the Internet. Don't use your regular Internet connection, or an e-mail account that you have connected to using your regular Internet connection, at any point in this. Learn how to use Tor, or do everything using a public Internet connection which couldn't be traced back to you geographically. That is, don't just go to McDonald's next to the campus (or even worse, next to your house). If you have a chance, ask someone completely unrelated to your university to reformulate whatever messages you're planning to send in their own words, or use Google Translate to translate your own writing to a different language and back, then edit the result into a reasonable form while keeping as much structure and vocabulary as you can.
If you do obtain evidence, keep in mind that the plagiarism occurs only when the student actually submits their work for review or publication, so alert your institution only when (or if) it actually happens.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_13: Oh my goodness, I'm startled by the tone of so many of the responses here.
You have a duty to report what you've seen to the Graduate Chair or the Department Chair. Investigating is *not your job* but it *is* theirs.
Upvotes: 3
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<issue_start>username_0: I am a Computer Science Master's Student, currently working on my thesis at a research institute. I have multiple supervisors: **A**, who was my "theoretical" supervisor when I started my thesis 5 months ago, **B**, who is my "technical" supervisor, and **C**, who is my new "theoretical" supervisor, as **A** is leaving the company soon.
I will finish my thesis at the end of the month. My problem is the following: **A** would like me to publish my work as a 6-page paper in an upcoming conference, with me as the main author, and him as a co-author. The problem is, he is the General Chair of the track where he wants me to publish. He even mentioned how I shouldn't worry about the paper not getting accepted, since he has so much power there.
I expressed my worries to him about this being unfair. I've checked the website of the conference, but I did not find any policy explicitly forbidding this practice, still, I think it is not right. When I told him about my concerns, he waived them away, saying *"Everybody does it like this"*.
Now, I am pretty sure that neither my other supervisors, nor the leader of the research group knows about **A**'s plans, since he only discussed this with me, and didn't CC the emails about this to the other supervisors (as he usually does, because we discuss every question about my thesis together).
My question is the following: **what should I do now?** Should I contact the other supervisors about this? Should I just flatly deny publishing the paper in his conference? Or should I play along?
As all of my supervisors will have an effect on my grade, I do not want to hurt anyone's feelings. I have less than a month left until my thesis defense, but the deadline for the conference application is in a week.<issue_comment>username_1: I think there would be a conflict of interest, if your co-author is also among the chair people of the conference.
Apart from that, you should not publish anything without your other supervisors acceptance and/or without informing them. That is: do not put their names on something you submit if they don't know or don't agree with being named there, AND (especially relevant in this case, it seems) do not submit something where you omit a contributing author. Author here doesn't need to be someone participating in writing a piece, but already being part of a research project.
Therefore, if you want to publish at this conference (independent of A's role in the conference), then send an email to all your supervisors and ask what they think about publishing/presenting your work there. If they don't know about A's role in said conference, and you worry about it, tell them (maybe omit A in this case, if you prefer) about the position of A in it.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: The real problem here is that A can use his role as chair to ensure that your work gets accepted to the conference. In a serious scientific conference, work is supposed to be evaluated in a fair way, without conflicts of interest like this. This gives me a strong impression that the conference is not serious, and that the behavior of A is unethical.
If you trust your co-supervisors, I think it would be a good idea to ask them about their opinion on the matter, because they will probably be more able to judge the situation than we are. Depending on your relationship with them, you can try two possible approaches: (i.) directly point out your concern about A being possibly unethical (like you did here), or (ii.) be more diplomatic and ask innocently without assuming bad faith, e.g., "do you think it's OK for us to submit at this conference even though A is chair"? In addition, as they are your advisors, you should probably be getting their opinion anyways about where you publish your work.
This being said, if A uses his influence to get your paper accepted, I would say that *he* is the one acting unethically, not *you*. From what I understand, the rules of the conference allow you to submit something co-authored by A, and you have pointed out to A that you would not think it appropriate for him to use his influence to get the paper accepted. Hence, if he does it anyway, I think he should be the one to get the blame. In other words, I think the main concrete risk of this transaction for you is that you may be publishing your work at a worthless conference; in terms of ethics, I don't think you should be the one to blame if A does not handle the conflict of interest properly.
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: I'm a student. Recently, in one of my classes, a fellow student brought their baby in a stroller. She may have asked the professor beforehand for permission to do this. The baby cried, made loud utterances, and loudly kicked the inside of its stroller. Several students, including me, found this very distracting. The professor didn't react to any of this. What should he have done? Should students be prohibited from bringing babies to class, or are there some circumstances under which it should be allowed?
I didn't complain to anyone, as I assumed that the student brought her baby to class because of exceptional circumstances and that this wouldn't become a habit. I don't know whether anyone made a complaint. This has only happened once, during the most recent lecture.<issue_comment>username_1: A blanket ban on bringing babies to class is probably not allowed at many institutions. However, I agree that if the baby is acting up, then the supervising parent should take the baby out of the classroom so as to minimize disruptions to the overall lecture.
This should be reached as an agreement outside of class time so that the lecturer is not placed in the position of having to stop lecture to ask the parent to remove his or her child from the room.
Upvotes: 8 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: The professor's situation is hard to deal with and it is pretty tricky no matter which route he chooses, whether he does not allow the parent bringing kid or he allows them to be present in class. However, I see no difference between college kids using cellphones, or accessing to social media on their personal computers during class and the parent bringing her kid. Can you ban personal computers in class? No. Can you control the person accessing to internet as a professor? Yes, you may block thru the network given to that class but still, you cannot.
Situation is the same. Can you ban parent from attending the class? No. Can you control a 6 month old baby's noises? Arguably no. In my tender heart, I DO believe no college student parent bring their kids for fun to the school. They bring because they had to, they had no other choice. It should be noted that there are over 5 million college students who are also parents. Finding day-care is either hard or not affordable for them given the high cost of attending college. At this point, kicking the student out of the class due to baby is violating her educational rights.
In that sense, the solution does not lie with "What can professor do?", it lies with higher management of the school.
The only way to solve these kinds of problems at school, I think, lies with the new regulations of school's special services, and technological arrangements. Either they may treat the parent of the kid as a special needs student and provide the necessary assistant for free. Or the school may identify parents as special needs and bring distance learning option for the mentioned classes.
I am not a parent, however, I had been in your situation, the single parent could not afford school's overly expensive daycare, and could not find a babysitter at home after her mother, who is the initial caretaker, passed away. However, this situation was taken to the student government body and to the higher management and new arrangements were made, and necessary means to solve the problem were provided by the school.
A little empathy and willingness to solve a problem may bring you to contact with student government body, or approach and urge the professor to bring the issue up in weekly/monthly faculty meetings. Your voice won't be heard if you don't raise it up.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: College classrooms are learning environments that students pay tuition to attend. The material being taught is important for the students to learn to excel in their field. What may not be a distraction to one person could be to another and what gives one irresponsible person the RIGHTS to interrupt everyone elses learning? The preservation of the learning environment is a necessity. The parent has several choices such as taking online classes, organizing child care care with others facing the same difficulty, have more than one back up plan for child care etc.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: This is a great question for several reasons. In today's world, we have phones they are to be turned off from ringing and when they are vibrating, they are just as annoying; we have people clearly watching a program on a laptop during a lecture; now we have a small child not behaving, which is normal, but we do not know why the child is there that one day.
The question of the baby in class could be complicated. Has this happened previously? If not than there may be a very good reason and the professor knew.
Therefore, ignore this. If this becomes a standard event I would find out if babies can be brought into class. Going to school makes being a mom even more difficult; you have to give her credit. She **came to class**.
Perhaps helping her might let her know the child needs to behave better, or be brought to class while tired enough to sleep. Run her round the park, than come in. Or perhaps pass the child around the room and see who she quiets down for, "It Takes a Village" as I recall.
This is one of those problems that deserve compassion, understanding and a discussion with your professor on how to have a baby in class should she return and how to let Mom know she has to behave a bit better. There are so many distractions, one more seems to blend in.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_5: TLDR
----
>
> What should [the professor] have done?
>
>
>
Depends on the actual extent of the disruption. But probably he did the right thing.
>
> Should students be prohibited from bringing babies to class.
>
>
>
Of course not.
---
There is no such thing as a perfect learning environment
--------------------------------------------------------
Even assuming all sources of distraction eliminated, I doubt that you'd be able to focus 100% on the input provided by the lecturer and that you'd be able to pick up and digest every bit of information presented after one time hearing it during lecture time. If your learning strategy relies on others spoon feeding and guaranteeing "perfect learning conditions" for you all the time, good luck to you.
Of course, the student should take the baby out of the classroom if it constantly requires attention. However you should be able to ignore the little noises happy babies usually make. Not all children require being looked after all the time. If they do, it should probably be taken care of outside the classroom. If they don't, there's no reason to outright ban them for some minor distractions they may or may not cause.
Not all distractions are created equal and regulations regarding the usage of entertainment technologies obviously do not apply here. A balance need to be found requiring a certain degree of thoughtfulness and tolerance on all sides. But you need to accept the fact, that you don't live in a world without children.
Also parents deserve formal education
-------------------------------------
To those who argue the normal way of life means education first, family second, and it's their own fault not adhering to that, I say that for academics there will never be a better time to reproduce. Do you want to take a break after completing your master's or phd? Do you rather want to take a break during your postdoc or professional career phase in the industry? Do you want to buy and pay off a house first? You can't wait until retirement to start a family, as a woman at least. Also note that most people probably will find it easier to share the little money they have as a student with a baby, rather than cut their household income almost by a factor of two after getting used to a *dual income, no kids* lifestyle.
It is as essential for parents to receive formal education, as it is to you.
Probably the situation is at least as inconvenient for them, as it is to you. So you can expect them to have a strong incentive already to get external child care available whenever possible.
As parents usually have it harder than you *all the time*, it seems unfair to make it even harder for them, just to avoid causing others to notice there is a world outside beyond the lecture topic.
Diversity is good for you
-------------------------
You are lucky, because it seems to be possible to participate in the education provided by your university even as a parent.
Because that means that there are people promoting a demand for a family-friendly environment and likewise family-friendly employment conditions, that might benefit you one day.
In the long term (evolutionary sense) it's undesirable to remove the academics from the gene pool. Similarly, it's undesirable to remove the parents from education or the workforce.
In the short term, I'd suggest you to either ignore the situation (as the professor did) or to get to know the parent, talk about how she feels about this, what her options are. Ideally in a non-offensive way. Maybe this is different in the US, but here in Germany every sizeable university has programs for the promotion of a family-friendly culture at the university and for the support of working or studying parents among students and staff. If there is none, you could suggest to establish one.
A family-friendly culture starts by recognizing children are there and by making offers to those involved to improve the situation for everyone. If there are no options outside the classroom, they will continue to stay inside. It's the same as with cyclists without proper cycling infrastructure. They need to make use of whatever they can find.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_6: In my former department, one lecturer brought this up. The answer given was that the student was not allowed to bring the baby to a lecture, because legally if their were some incident and the baby was harmed, then this wouldn't be covered by the University Insurance Regulations.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_7: I would talk to your professor about this after class. He's responsible for organizing the learning process during his class, and should be made aware of any problems related to that process.
Ask if there's a policy which requires parents with babies to be admitted. If this is the case, there's not much you or your professor can do. It's unreasonable to expect a baby to sleep on a schedule, and when babies are awake, they make all sorts of noises.
If your professor allowed this out of goodwill, your complains should make him reconsider his decision regarding such admissions in the future.
Complaining to the parent will probably not help. I'm pretty sure they wouldn't bring their baby in class if they had better options, as they're just as disrupted by the baby during class as you are. In any case, the decision to admit them with a baby in class is not yours to make.
Upvotes: 2
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2017/09/09
| 649
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<issue_start>username_0: Fall 2018 application cycle has started and I have a couple of (hopefully not too specific) questions regarding recommendation letters. I am applying for a PhD position in pure mathematics in the USA, with lots of top schools included.
(1) Does the status of the letter writer matter greatly to admission committees? For example, I have done research with a full professor, an assistant professor and a lecturer in my department. The latter two got their PhDs in 2011. If the three of them write me a letter, does that automatically put me at a disadvantage because two of them are not full professors or one of them is a lecturer? I have heard that, in principle, letters from people that are known in their field are looked upon more favorably by committees, particularly because they might be familiar with the letter-writer and can 'read between the lines' and get more information out of the letter.
(2) Should I bother asking for a letter from professors that only know me through classes? I have a potential fourth person in mind for a letter - he is a professor I took two classes with and did well in both. In my understanding, "so-and-so was a good student in my X and Y class" will probably impress no-one, even if it comes from an established professor. All programs require 3 recommendation letters, so would you think it is worth the effort to have an extra letter if it comes from such a professor?
Thanks in advance for any responses.<issue_comment>username_1: A letter from someone who has only taught you in classes and cannot testify to your ability to do research carries little weight with an admissions committee, so it is probably not worth your time to ask for the fourth letter.
As for the level and rank of the recommenders, I believe that also does not make that much of a difference in determining admissions, either. It would be unfair to penalize people based on the fact that they're working for an assistant professor instead of a full professor. (Not to mention that many admissions committee members are junior faculty themselves!)
Instead, what is most important is the quality of the referee letter. How well does the referee know you, and how strongly can they comment on your skills is what is most important.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: Many, if not most, successful PhD applicants in mathematics have no research experience, and even when an applicant does have "undergraduate research experience, " it's usually not worth much as an indication of talent. If the first three letters are from the same project, it's probably better to skip one of them and go with the course professor instead. Rank, or at least reputation, of the recommender does matter, but what's most important is what they have to say about you.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]
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2017/09/10
| 626
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<issue_start>username_0: What exactly is the definition of *self-citation?* I have looked around but I cannot seem to find a definition. There is even a publication, but I cannot access it at the moment. Also I would like to have a definition here on Academia SE.
For example, say I publish paper with a co-author. Then my co-author cites this paper in another publication in which I am not involved. This is clearly a self-citation for him, but is it also a self-citation for me? Does my indirect involvement suffice to make this a self-citation for me?
Maybe there are other ambiguous cases, feel free to edit the question.<issue_comment>username_1: There is no exact, official, legally binding definition of *self-citation*. The term occurs usually in the context of research metrics and scientific evaluations, and every developer of a system to measure such things is free to use his own definition of *self-citation* (or even, to ignore it).
That said, if I were to implement such a system, I would treat *self-citation* as a property of a *paper*, not as a property of an *author*. That means, I would consider a citation of paper A within paper B as a self-citation, if A and B have *at least one* author in common. The reason is
that *some* overlap between the author lists will already make it more
likely that paper A is referenced in paper B.
Note that "the citation of A within B is a self-citation" is not a moral statement. It does not mean that the authors of A, or the authors of B, or the joint authors of A and B did anything wrong. It just means that there is some aspect that makes this particular citation *statistically more likely* than a citation of A within another paper C, where A and C have no authors in common. Research metrics consider events that are more likely (say, a publication in *arXiv*) as less valuable than events that are less likely (say, a publication in *Nature*). They are based on statistical observations, not on a legal process that decides for each individual citation whether it is justified or not. Don't take it personally.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Increasingly, an article should cite its own representation in a Research Data Repository as researchers are being encouraged to make their research data publicly available.
'Self citation' is not a property of the paper, and does not have binary status as the sets of citing authors may not include all the cited authors. What may be a self-cite for one co-author is not a self-cite for a non-author of the citing paper. Further, citing one's own papers may be necessary to avoid redundant duplication and repeating old history.
Upvotes: 1
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2017/09/10
| 3,895
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<issue_start>username_0: I am a second-year CS PhD pre-candidate in a top PhD program. During my first year, I published a first-author paper at the best conference in my area, which I know is a big accomplishment. My advisor is famous in his area and also very caring and supportive, and my labmates are great too.
The thing is my second project didn't go very well, which caused us to change the entire story right before the deadline. I worked more than 70 hours per week and gave all I could, but there was not enough time to get everything we need in a good shape, and my advisor was frustrated with the progress and pointed out problems that I hadn't seen everywhere. I continued to work, but found myself too frustrated and suddenly lost all interest in research, stopped caring about papers, did as best I could to avoid talking to anyone, and want to leave this place and never come back. I know most PhDs somehow have this feeling, but I notice that this time it's quite serious:
* Forcing myself to work resulted in a breakdown every night with the feeling that all I did was nonsense and meaningless.
* My first paper has now become a joke, laughing at me that I could never publish with my own efforts.
* I have no intention to participate in lab communication and truly don't want to talk to anyone. I can't even bear to hear others typing due to the feeling that I am the only one who doesn't make progress.
How can I know if I truly have lost my interest in research (and should drop my Ph.D.), or if this is something that I can overcome? After all, if this is the best I can do, why not go somewhere else and use my skills to actually contribute rather than wasting everybody's time? I am so tired of receiving new tasks at 4 am or 11 pm due the next day. I would highly appreciate your advice!<issue_comment>username_1: Get an appointment with your thesis committee (advisors) or PhD support office (if there is one) stat. These things can happen, but you need to address them with counselors immediately, before they get out of hand.
Whatever you do, don't make a rush decision. Good luck!
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: If available, I would immediately seek out the university counseling services (as mentioned in a comment by @<NAME> ) The things you are mentioning could be symptoms of depression. Or, you may just need some strategies for coping with failure. Often people with your accomplishments haven't experienced much failure in their lives!
Taking advantage of the (usually low-cost or free, if you are in the U.S.) counselling services at the university will help you sort out which of these things it is. Your counselor can also help you come up with strategies to make well-reasoned life decisions for yourself (or with your committee). Regardless, don't make any rash decisions.
In the U.S., it is very common for PhD students to deal with these issues and to seek out counseling. An informal straw poll in my PhD cohort revealed that 90% of us had done so, and approximately 60% were on anti-anxiety medication or continued treatment regimes at any given time. The older students even began to organize a yearly workshop to talk about stress and how to get the help you need!
An update: This 2018 study finds that graduate students are 6x more likely to experience depression and anxiety, compared to the general population.
<https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2018/03/06/new-study-says-graduate-students-mental-health-crisis>
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_3: 1. You are right about it being common for Ph.D. students to wonder if it's worthwhile continuing. Every single doctoral student I've talked with has had the same thought at one point or another. I completed a doctorate myself and was in that place several times...especially after submitting my research project as a conference abstract in the spring, trying unsuccessfully all summer to get it to work, and at the point I was going to get in touch with the conference organizer to tell him that I was not going to be able to attend I had the key breakthrough. Sometimes I wonder if I would have had that breakthrough if it weren't for the pressure and urgency and sleepless nights and frustrating days.
2. "Bad planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part." I have worked in IT for 30 years and the only time that getting tasks at 11 pm or 4 am due the next day is even remotely acceptable is for a production problem. Are you getting those tasks as part of a research assistantship? If that's the case, you have to ask yourself if it's the job or the program, and if the former if there are other options. I was never paid for research and worked my way through teaching recitation classes and later lecturing. It might be time for a talk with your advisor to clarify expectations, as well as with your committee and department secretary (or other graduate student liaison that helps you to navigate the process) to get advice and keep you focused on what I would assume is your goal--finishing the degree.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: Some amount of burnout is very normal, especially just after working really hard for something that didn't pan out the way you hoped it would. The timeline isn't totally clear from your question, but if this just happened, give yourself some time to relax and cool down! Take a few days off from research: go for a hike, cook a good meal, whatever. Then, when you're ready, ease yourself back into it: maybe talk to your advisor about putting this frustrating project aside for a bit and trying something else out.
If, after a while, you still feel this whole thing sucks and you don't want to do it anymore, then it's worth thinking more about that. Especially if you think the high levels of stress and/or feeling bad about things are more persistent, definitely look into meeting with counseling services if they're available at your university or elsewhere. Or you might eventually end up deciding that you're better off dropping out of the program: many people do that, and for many of them it's the right decision. But now, in the aftermath of an unluckily bad experience, isn't the time to make that decision.
---
>
> I can't even bear to hear others typing due to the feeling that I am the only one who doesn't make progress.
>
>
>
If you can't talk to a counselor right away, it also sounds like you could do some reading up on [impostor syndrome](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impostor_syndrome). It affects all of us, especially those like me who really aren't good enough to be in academia, but more so at times when things happen to suck.
>
> I am so tired of receiving new tasks at 4am or 11pm due the next day.
>
>
>
If this is your advisor constantly giving you research tasks to do immediately, this is something you should talk to them about. In a CS setting, this kind of request is only at all reasonable if it's very infrequent. Most things should be predictable farther in advance, or not be so urgent.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_5: Aside from the very good advice of getting counseling and balancing your work and life(!) a popular saying comes to mind: When you fall off a horse, you've got to get back on.
Probably you need some well deserved rest first, but IMO the best way to get rid of the sour taste of your previous experience is to venture into a new project. This will allow you to rediscover why you're doing what you do and help you keep your mind off your previous disappointment (this will require effort!). A variation of this idea is that if you eventually decide to quit, try to do it with a good taste in mouth.
If there's something I've learned during my PhD is that personal growth is as, if not more, important as the actual technical aspects of it. In this case you're dealing with a major disappointment. However, it's within you to make this a valuable lesson and demonstrate to yourself that you can overcome this and other obstacles that might (and will certainly) come in your life.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_6: Just get your PhD and leave afterwards. Most published research is irrelevant anyway. The science community has a serious problem with their "accomplishment" metric: h-index / number of papers etc. They do not allow for failure or dead tracks which, however, are quite natural if you are doing real research at the brink of current knowledge.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_7: *"[I] found myself too frustrated and suddenly lost all interest in research, stopped caring about papers, **did as best I could to avoid talking to anyone, and want to leave this place and never come back**."*
This sounds exactly like a psychological reaction - avoidance of people, and seeking ways to not think of the upsetting thing. I would say absolutely, seek counselling help, and view these as appropriate and mature steps to take, because this is something that could also be playing out in other times and places, causing you distress.
I can't say if you have actually lost interest, but I don't think so. I think it has hit you hard and the reaction against that perceived lapse might be misinterpreted as lack of interest.
It's a very common reaction to avoid that which we feel we have done wrongly, and this sounds much more like that reaction. Also to feel that taking the pressure off is acknowledgement of a kind of failure - it isnt.
The good new is that when that aspect is looked into, many people feel renewed vigour and energy on resuming.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_8: A few points in addition to other useful answers:
1. The negative experience you've had is not with research in general, but with a combination of a certain project, a certain advisor, and the settings of being infinitely overworked and pressured for a certain period of time. So you've been depressed and demotivated by *that* not by "research" in general. And while you should certainly avoid being in that situation again, don't confuse the specific with the general.
Also, even if you decide you've had with your current project; or with your advisor; or with your university; or with your sub-discipline of CS - that does not mean you should necessarily quit.
Note that the fact you've not exhausted all options does not mean that you absolutely have to *stay*. If you don't find a setting in which you're satisfied to work (after some emotional recovery and some attempt at reconfiguration); or if it becomes clear to you there's something else you want to be doing - it's perfectly justifiable to quit and go elsewhere, even if some people frown upon it.
2. You did not say anything about why you're doing research in the first place. That's enormously important in my opinion. I'm against being in a Ph.D. program just looking to get ahead. Do you not have something concrete that interests you? That you want to discover or get to the bottom of? Your Ph.D. research should be about doing *that*. And that should be your key motivation - not chalking up merit points for publications or conferences etc.
3. When I was feeling down due to my research not going well, I found my teaching work to be rather consoling and satisfying. I'm not sure what it's like for you, but if you haven't tried that, consider it.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_9: Your expectations were set based on the great success of your first paper, and now you're frustrated that you've put so much more work into a second paper but it failed in comparison.
This is a life lesson - not in your career path, but in workload management. You burnt out and exhausted yourself. Had the 2nd paper turned out brilliant, you probably would have gotten away with it, because the feeling of accomplishment would validate all the extra effort. But it didn't turn out so well - you are feeling the stress collapse inward now that it isn't bolstered by your high expectations.
There are two very helpful things you should do. First, take a vacation and get away from work for at least a week, preferably two weeks. Second, you should set your next project up to be something small, easily manageable, and something you enjoy. You need to learn workload management, and that will prevent 80% of the burnout you currently feel. Very few people can sustain a real 50+ hour workweek in an intellectual field. Most (notably doctors) have a lot of mentally de-tuned time, which allows them to manage long hours better. The supposed 'executive' 60-hour workweek includes meals, exercise, travel, and sometimes even family time in that 60 hours. The Americans’ Use of Time Project has estimated that people who claim to work 55-59 hours per week actually work about 42-47 hours (<http://fortune.com/2012/10/16/how-hard-do-executives-really-work-today/>).
You won't hit a home run every time you're at bat, so don't set yourself up to always be at bat with all the bases loaded. Give yourself some time to recharge, and bat some easy singles against the warm-up pitcher.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_10: Speaking as a person who reached burnout and left, to the islands no less. I truly believe in retrospect, the greatest life lesson would have been to push the doctorate thru. I did change course in life and my degrees are not directly relevant to my current path, yet they will always have tremendous value. You did succeed in the first year of the program, this is not your first week, you have significant time (and success) invested. Get this doctorate, you don't necessarily need this doctorate or any other to eventually succeed in whatever career path you choose, but this doctorate and all its prestige and benefits will be there for your life. The great lesson you are going to learn here is not about subject matter, it is about your inner self. Can you push thru after major disappoint, learn from failure, regain composure and conquer seemingly insurmountable pressure, or will you run, give up by saying you lost interest? Either path you choose will define you for life, your inner self, and only you will be experiencing the consequences every single day thereafter.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_11: First: **stop working 70 hour weeks**
I find it sad how little attention academia pays to the huge amount of research into productivity[1]. Working absurdly long hours does not make you more productive but does kill your creativity, ramp up your stress levels, and sooner or later makes you burnt out
Second: **take time off**
You have holiday entitlement as a PhD student, use it now. If you're in Europe you'll likely get a sensible amount and can take a couple of weeks off. If you're in the US, you're probably restricted to a smaller amount but you still have entitlement you should be using. In your state, a break is necessary.
Third: **learn to say no to completely unreasonable requests**
>
> I am so tired of receiving new tasks at 4 am or 11 pm due the next
> day.
>
>
>
Any task received outside of normal working hours should be considered unreasonable. Reject them. Any task received without reasonable time to do it is unreasonable. Stop accepting them. Write back - in work hours - with what you consider a reasonable timescale in which you can achieve it, taking into account your other work.
Fourth: **seek support from the University**
Your university will have student support and counselling service available to you; find out what they are and use them.
---
A PhD is a long and hard process, and research is - by its very nature - a hard slog, with variable success and, sometimes long, periods of failure. If you knew how to do it already, it wouldn't be research. It is normal, therefore, for PhD students to have periods of doubt during their PhD programme. Before deciding whether you wish to leave, take the time to get yourself into a clearer mental state so you consider it properly.
---
[1] For an enjoyable introduction read *The Mythical Man Month* and *Peopleware*. Actually, if you're in CS read them anyway.
Upvotes: 2
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2017/09/10
| 1,036
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<issue_start>username_0: I am an amateur mathematician. (I studied in a university but have not finished the study.)
I discovered some new mathematical theories.
Now I want to make academic courses about my theories.
What I need to do to make college or university courses?
A textbook already exists (it is the book where I expressed my theories). What do we need next? Lecture notes? More exercises in the book? Video lectures? A dedicated book of exercises? Something else?
After I prepare all these materials, how to advertise them so that universities would start to teach my theories?
Which sites can I upload my lectures to?<issue_comment>username_1: Think about this for one or two second/s: Why should universities teach about your theories? Universities teach courses because their content is important for the students.
So, you should communicate to the scientific or industrial world why your theories are important. Do they solve important problems? Do they give a better understanding of a certain area?
So what you should do is: Publish papers in good journals about your theories and why they are important. If the communitiy feels your theories are truly important, they will, sooner or later, teach them.
This might not apply if your theories are too advanced (read: it cannot be taught to students because too much theory is needed before one could study your theories). In this case, if you happen to have a website, write down your theories. If the theories are good enough, supervisors in your field will point students to your website (and your papers and books). Don't forget to add the most important thing at the beginning: what the benefit for the reader is. Good luck!
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: >
> Now I want to make academic courses about my theories
>
>
>
You cannot really talk university professors into delivering courses on a topic they are not interested in. And, usually, professors do not deliver courses on topics which are not well established or, at least, for which a certain degree of usefulness has not been foreseen. *And this regardless of the teaching material you're going to offer*.
>
> What I need to do to make college or university courses?
>
>
>
First and foremost, you have to convince the mathematical community that your new theory is (mathematically) interesting. Otherwise, why should anyone teach it? And if you want to be taken seriously, you should certainly do it through the usual venues (e.g., journal papers, conferences etc.), but, most of all, you should clearly: i) show that there is problem (not necessarily a practical one: e.g., it can be a weakness or a limitation in an existing theory); and ii) show that your theory is cool *because* it solves the problem. This process can take years.
Beware, however, that should your theory become accepted, then it might or not become the topic of a course anyway. In fact, if having a theory accepted by the mathematical community is quite probably a necessary condition to have courses on that theory, this is by no means a sufficient condition. That is, not all theories find their way into courses (simply, there's not enough room).
I invite you to reconsider your motivations and your actions in light of the paragraphs above. If having a course on one's work is certainly rewarding, you have to realize that probably no single author has courses entirely dedicated to their work.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: It sounds like it would be sensible to wait until you have finished your degree. You should also publish your theories. Nobody is going to teach your theories if they don't know about them, and nobody is going to teach your theories if they're uninteresting and irrelevant. Getting them published and generating a bit of excitement around them, plus also showing that they're relevant enough to do a course on it, will help you.
Also, you need to do some serious cleaning on your online persona to be honest. You should really make an effort to keep your political and religious views separate from your professional views.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_4: Since a textbook already exists, I think (of the possibilities you mention) the next step would be video lectures.
In the past, most new mathematics by amateurs never even got that far. But nowadays you can do it yourself, put it on YouTube or Vimeo or similar video sharing site.
Upvotes: 0
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2017/09/11
| 2,048
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<issue_start>username_0: I believe that many people read articles from their computers. So, tiny fonts and many columns have no advantage.
Why don’t journals make alternative computer-friendly versions of the articles? For example, with a gray background, single column, double-spaced? I guess it wouldn’t be difficult because they are compiled with Latex, so, adding a single line of code would suffice.
I have heard about this problem from many students and professors. Aren’t journals aware of this demand? What can be done about it?<issue_comment>username_1: >
> Why don’t journals make alternative computer-friendly versions of the articles?
>
>
>
They already do. It’s usually called ***HTML version***. I couldn’t find any statistics on how widely available this is, but as far as I know, all major journals in my field (physics), all mega-journals, and Elsevier offer this.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_2: Actually, many columns still do have an advantage even on PC because shorter lines allow for faster reading. Conversely, double-spacing which unfortunately remains very popular in Word-written theses (probably because guidelines were written by people with no typographic background) would impair the readability of both on-screen and printed versions of a paper. And the good a grey background would do (reducing contrast between the background and text) is beyond me.
In fact, the present-day versions of articles in all journals I need in my field (chemistry) are well typeset and pleasing to read both on screen and on paper — mainly because a simple set of rules is followed that improves readability in both. Conversely, I only see ‘tiny font [sizes]’ in footnotes that I only need if I’m interested in the authors’ institutes. These font sizes are still large enough to be read well on paper and I can read them equally well on screen.
Furthermore, I wish to strongly question the assertion that ‘journals are compiled in LaTeX’. If they were, publishers such as ACS publications and Wiley-VCH would be much keener to accept LaTeX-manuscripts rather than Word-written ones. Their authors’ guidelines read to me as if Word is strongly preferred. I want to guess without having access to actual evidence that journals typically use high-end publishing software, way beyond what ordinary LaTeX does. They probably also perform a non-neglegible amount of tweaking to make sure the articles fit well on paper and that figures and tables are at least in the vicinity of their mentions in the text.
What I consider to be computer-friendly is actually only one last minor step: that citations are clickable and open to the paper which is cited. The big chemistry publishers actually do that — aside from in Elsevier’s case also providing a HTML version.
Finally, I have never heard anybody voice the concerns you voiced. Thus my conclusion is: there is no actual demand therefore nobody does it. If there were demand, there would be awareness.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: Some journals certainly do have HTML versions. For those that don't, the answer is probably a combination of institutional inertia and an eye on the bottom line.
In my "spare time" I am assistant editor on a very small, open access peer-reviewed journal. Even though it was born digital (meaning that we only publish online, and have for the entire decade or so of our existence), layout is done in Adobe InDesign1 and aims for a print-ready look. This is partly because the founders of the journal were used to that, and partly because so many of our readers actually print out and read articles, rather than reading them online (we know because we've surveyed).
Even though we are a small, new journal, I strongly suspect that many/most of the larger, more established journals also use traditional desktop publishing software rather than LaTeX, as they were (by definition) founded before LaTeX was a thing. I also suspect that most of these are specifically using [InDesign, which currently dominates the professional market](https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/01/quarkxpress-the-demise-of-a-design-desk-darling/). Traditional desktop publishing may be part of their workflow even if authors submit papers in LaTeX.2
Over the years I have tried a few times to switch our journal over to a more onscreen-friendly format, but given the demands of our readers and board the only option is to *add* an online-version, not to do away with the print-friendly version. This is harder than it sounds. First, final-final edits aren't made until we are in InDesign, when they're easier to spot in proofs. That means that I don't have a raw file to work with, but rather need to output from the InDesign file if I want to be sure the text matches. This is not a very slick process (getting figures into the right place in the flow, for example, is very tricky). What that means is that I have to essentially type-set two different versions of each article.
Which brings us to the second major issue, the bottom line: I personally do not get paid extra for doing extra work to make a second version. You can probably guess how high my motivation is to do that gratis work when the first version is adequate for 99% of applications. Larger for-profit publishers *would* need to pay someone extra to do the extra work (people who do the grunt work of typesetting and the like are almost the only people who get paid for any part of the actual creation of academic articles); this again is likely to be a low priority if there is not an off-setting financial upside for them.
I do expect that there will be movement in this in the near future, however. For one thing, the technology for porting between one format and another is getting better/smarter, making the barrier to entry for HTML versions much lower. For another, there is a new focus at least in the US on accessibility of documents, and HTML is better for this because it is possible to embed more meta-data to facilitate technical accommodations. My brother works for a very large academic publisher, and he tells me that they also all work in InDesign. However, they are currently in the process of making HTML versions a higher priority, due to accessibility requirements.
---
1 When I started, the journal was actually still being formatted *in Word*, so InDesign is actually an improvement.
2 For example, even though [Elsevier asks for submissions in LaTeX](https://www.elsevier.com/authors/author-schemas/latex-instructions), they [tell advertisers that they use a "PDF workflow"](http://www.ads4els.com/PDFCreateHelp.aspx) and a [recent job posting for a Graphic Designer](https://4re.referrals.selectminds.com/elsevier/jobs/graphic-designer-fixed-term-contract-8396) asks for "High level proficiency with Adobe Creative Suite (InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop)" but doesn't mention LaTeX.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: In mathematics, among other fields, it is common to post preprints to the arXiv. It is quite typical to read these versions in lieu of the officially published version.
A little-noticed feature is that you can download the LaTeX source for papers. Among other things, this lets you tweak the formatting if you like. Indeed, once I did this myself: I didn't like the formatting on a paper that I wanted to read carefully, and so I downloaded the source, changed the formatting, and recompiled it to my liking.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: In my field (mathematics) I find that many PDFs are "computer-friendly" with features such as
* **hyperlinks**
with target both inside the PDF (e.g. cross-references) and outside (e.g. link to the DOI of an item in the bibliography)
* **searchable**
* **table of contents**
Besides papers with HTML versions, there are also journals which offer print & screen versions of their PDFs. For example, the journal [*Algebra & Number Theory*](https://msp.org/ant/about/cover/cover.html):
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/kJVYu.png)
Of course, it is up to the "customers" to ask for extra features and up to the journal to decide whether implementing extra features is worth the extra effort.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_6: I believe this is for technical reasons -- it is common to use LaTeX, and LaTeX is very, very bad at producing HTML versions of papers -- there are various hacky ways of doing it, but none work well.
While it's easier to get HTML out of Microsoft Word, it still isn't entirely automatic, or nice to look at.
Upvotes: 0
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<issue_start>username_0: I am currently writing a research proposal for a PhD in a very interesting field. While working on the proposal I noticed that I run through the following (emotional) stages:
1. Enthusiasm: I think about the topic and am excited to work on it. I
start thinking about what I want to do and how I am going to do it.
2. Optimism: I do the necessary initial research on the topic and am
still excited. My interest in the topic grows and I am very
optimistic.
3. Self-doubt: I start writing and suddenly I am confronted with questions I can’t answer. I start doubting myself and think about all the things I don’t know. I start thinking that I am incapable of finishing this and that I really have no idea about the topic and what is expected of me. I try pushing through but am really hitting a brick-wall.
4. Desperation: I can’t get any work done because I don’t think I can do
the work. I get depressed and angry and make no progress.
5. Mild optimism: I somehow get myself to work on the project again. I
start with the easy parts and just push through until it is all
done. I start thinking that it wasn’t all that bad and that the
desperation really wasn’t necessary. While I am mostly satisfied
with the outcome I still doubt that the result is the best I could
do.
Looking back at my time as a student1 I realized that I run through those stages every time I have to do scientific writing. While I am never quite satisfied with the result, I have always received great feedback and excellent grades from my professors.
Now that I am thinking about doing a PhD I am starting to doubt if I am the right candidate for this because of my difficult writing process. While I know a few people who run trough similar stages I also know people that are enthusiastic throughout the entire process and love writing scientific papers. Maybe those people are more suited for PhD programmes than I am.
So my question is:
**Are self-doubt and desperation a normal part of scientific writing?**
Related questions:
*Can I still be a good researcher if I constantly doubt the quality of my work?
Is there something that I can do to mitigate this part of the process?*
---
1Not sure if this is relevant but I have written several smaller papers in class, two bachelor’s theses and two master’s theses (in different academic fields).<issue_comment>username_1: I start with you related questions:
>
> Can I still be a good researcher if I constantly doubt the quality of my work?
>
>
>
You got it the wrong way. The real question is: Can I be a good researcher without constant doubt of the quality of my work? And the answer to this question is **no**. You should always question your work and and strive to make it better. Doubt is an integral part of research. But beware, that you should come out of this with "yes, my work matters/is of good quality/is relevant…" often enough either by your own conclusion of by feedback of others.
>
> Is there something that I can do to mitigate this part of the process?
>
>
>
Not sure, but you do not really need to. Please read [this thread](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/2219/how-should-i-deal-with-discouragement-as-a-graduate-student) to see how to deal with insecurity and doubt as a researcher. You'll also find that the answer to
>
> Are self-doubt and desperation a normal part of scientific writing?
>
>
>
is most likely to be **yes** for most people regarding doubt and partly regarding desperation (assuming that "scientific writing" and "doing research" are quite similar in this respect). As <NAME> notes, you should critically ask yourself if your self-doubt is close to be "pathological". I am not qualified in any way to give advice on how to diagnose yourself but you may want to read about the [impostor syndrome](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impostor_syndrome).
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: >
> I also know people that are enthusiastic throughout the entire process and love writing scientific papers.
>
>
>
That's great! I'm not sure I know anyone who is enthusiastic through the *entire* process. Having moments of doubt is pretty common, if not universal. The best thing you can do is accept that you're going to have moments of desperation (stage 4), while realizing that you have control over the way out.
People often think that they can't work until they feel better. As you describe it, you feel mildly optimistic and *then* you somehow get to work again. But often times it's the reverse. You get to work, and making progress makes you feel more confident and optimistic. So sit down, set yourself to finishing a small chunk of work, thank stage 4 for its constructive criticism, and show it the door.
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: I'm starting my master's thesis work with a new professor and had a really bad meeting with them recently. They asked me questions I am supposed to be able to answer, but I was so stressed I couldn't think. I couldn't write stuff on the board. It was just a mess.
He said some things that made me feel pretty bad about myself and I really don't want that to happen again in the next meeting. Could someone please share their ways on how they prepare for research meetings they are nervous for?<issue_comment>username_1: Personally, the best way to handle a situation like that is to sit and listen. Then afterwards reflect upon what your adviser has said so that you can better prepare for your next meeting. I have had plenty of meetings where I went in feeling confident and then left feeling like crap.
If you are able to, I would send an email with a list of topics you would like to cover in your meeting. If he doesn't respond, then focus on that list. If he respond, then adjust accordingly. Like-wise, if he doesn't respond, but then goes into the meeting like he hasn't read the email, I would bring up how there's a lack of communication and that you can't do your research if communication is going to be limited to just these meetings.
Perhaps it's just his attitude and demeanor that makes you feel uncomfortable and unable to complete your work - in which case, you might want to consider finding another professor to finish your thesis under.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: It sounds like you're a new graduate student, and that you clearly care about performing well in your program. You stumbled, and you've accepted responsibility and looking for ways to correct the problem. That's great, and suggests that you will end up doing very well in your program. As a master's student, you're not expected to be able to work completely independently, and your professors will likely be happy to help you navigate your program (they certainly *should*). The key is to ask for help early and often.
I would consider scheduling an appointment with my adviser, telling them exactly what you've said here, and asking them for advice on how to prepare for meetings, and perhaps even advice on how to structure your independent learning so that you're learning the specific techniques/concepts that want you to know at each stage. Every adviser is different, so the best advice you can get will come directly from them. It may be intimidating to ask for help, but it is completely appropriate at this stage in your graduate education.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]
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<issue_start>username_0: Are there guidelines how to choose colors for figures in papers? I know that about 5-10% of the population see colors differently. How do I create a figure that has to have at least 4-5 different colors in it and make sure everyone will be able to see it and distinguish between the components.<issue_comment>username_1: The problem of different color perception (at least with respect to climate science) was pointed out 2004 by [Light and Bartlein](http://geog.uoregon.edu/datagraphics/EOS/Light-and-Bartlein.pdf) in EOS. With a strong emphasis on climate science the [blog "Climate Lab Book"](https://www.climate-lab-book.ac.uk/2014/end-of-the-rainbow/) discusses the problem of the so called "rainbow color scale". As mentioned in the comments they recommend "[Color brewer 2](http://colorbrewer2.org)" to create color palettes. (There are packages for [MATLAB](http://se.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/34087-cbrewer---colorbrewer-schemes-for-matlab), [Python](https://pypi.python.org/pypi/brewer2mpl/1.4) and [R](http://www.cookbook-r.com/Graphs/Colors_(ggplot2)/). The link to R includes some more advice.) Already pre-defined palettes (again with a strong emphasis on climate science) are presented by the [Department of Geography of the University of Oregon](http://geog.uoregon.edu/datagraphics/color_scales.htm). This palettes include color-blind safe ones, as well as palettes useful for specific associations.
For example when displaying temperatures blue is often associated with "cold", while red is associated with "hot". Diverting from similar common associations may prevent an more intuitive understanding of your figures.
Another reason for caution regarding color palettes: "Rainbow" (and similar ones) [may distort your perception](https://personal.sron.nl/~pault/) of boundaries.
To conclude: There appears no easy way to select an appropriate color palette for your figures, but there is plenty of advice.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Different screens may display colors differently due to different color curves (or even display settings). And colors don't scale linearly on most screens, so you can't just use RGB values (not to mention RGB is a poor color space in relation to human perception). Just because it displays well on your screen doesn't mean that it will display the same way for everyone else, regardless of disability. The other issue is that some people print out papers, and may not use color.
To help reduce these problems, you should use a [contrast checker](http://webaim.org/resources/contrastchecker/). If you have to choose between 4-5 colors, pick colors that each differ enough on this color checker. There are also [established standards](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_Content_Accessibility_Guidelines) at least in the web development community, but they should be reasonable that they apply to this as well. Among these guidelines are color contrast requirements.
There are alternatives to using colors to differentiate though. You could also use different shapes or different border designs, etc. Preferably, you could use these *in addition* to smart color selection, but if your colors have poor contrast, then these can help to further distinguish the various elements in the figure.
Just from personal preference, but colored text (not white or black) almost always looks bad because the characters end up being pretty narrow, and [subpixel coloring](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subpixel_rendering) to avoid anti-aliasing doesn't help here.
Upvotes: 1
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<issue_start>username_0: I am lucky enough to be on a good schedule with my own **edit:** Thesis and have a little extra time. Earlier in the year, I offered to edit one of my classmate's/close friend's dissertation in Computer Science. I made sure to leave enough time to do this in the writing process and they gave me a copy to edit a week before the deadline.
The time frame is fine, but the issue is I am unsure of how much help I am allowed to offer. They are an ESL (English as a Second Language) student, and I don't believe they have had much formal English training. Our University makes clear that they accommodate ESL students, as it is a large portion of the student base. The dissertation guidelines note they don't come down hard on syntax and grammar, but that the paper does need to make sense in written English, and that the examiners can't grade a paper they can't understand.
I'm looking at the paper now, and it's pretty rough. I'm not going crazy over the syntax and am helping with that some. However, I'm finding I'm having to make a lot of corrections and completely restructuring sentences and paragraphs in order to make the sentences make sense.
My question is how much should I be fixing? How much would I be allowed to fix? I am mostly worried about plagiarism, as it would be obvious that my friend's paper has been dramatically changed. My friend's supervisor has seen some drafts of his writing, and it would be obvious if the writing was suddenly much clearer. Getting a paper edited is not against the rules, but I have to make so many dramatic edits I'm worried it may risk plagiarism.
When there's a bad argument, I don't rewrite it, but just write a sentence or blurb below it to guide my friend to making a better one. Like, "do you have evidence for this?" or, "this is not relevant here, move to...".
Thanks for the advice!<issue_comment>username_1: It sounds like you're doing all the right things regarding helping without actually writing for your friend. I would explain to your friend, and ask them to meet with their adviser, either with or without you, to discuss how much/what type of help is appropriate. With the adviser included in the process, and some boundaries identified, it will be clear that plagiarism is not taking place. That being said, this is a huge time committment on your part. It might help you and your friend for them to work with a writing coach. Your school probably has a writing center or ESL center that can help with this.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: As far as I am aware, the use of proofreaders to correct grammatical or usage errors is not normally a problem. Regulations cover the intellectual content—the ideas should be those of the Ph.D. candidate, but there's no reason they shouldn't be able to have someone help them with writing.
If there's a writing center that students are encouraged to use, then it would stand to reason that a friend should be able to help. Your creation of a paper trail through a marked-up copy shows your contributions and should act as a defense in case there is an accusation of plagiarism.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: This isn't about plagiarism; it's about academic honesty. Your statement that the paper is now "dramatically changed" points to that. If the paper is 60% your friend's work and 40% your work, this is dishonest. 20% your work is dishonest---that's one chapter out of five.
This is a very common problem for nonnative writers of English at the PhD level. When a university grants a degree, there's an assumption that the student is leaving with the ability to function professionally in an English-speaking environment (regardless of where the person plans to live and work). Language skill is inseparable from subject-area knowledge. I've worked as an editor with PhD students and new professors from other countries for many years. It's clear to me that their level of English is directly related to their ability to understand and analyze complex concepts. Both mature simultaneously over time.
I NEVER edit a dissertation so that it turns out at MY language and intellectual level. This would be an ethical violation and a disservice to the student. Those who plan a career in academia will immediately be faced with much higher challenges as soon as they have their PhD in hand: the journal articles and book required for tenure, followed by active research and writing for the duration of their career. If I do their work for them now, there will never be an end to it.
From what you write, it appears that your friend ***is simply not equipped to write a dissertation.*** I know this sounds harsh, but a dissertation isn't a trivial thing. It represents years of study and hard work. As an editor I could turn out a dissertation for an ESL student that would be superior to one written by a native English writer. That would be wholly unfair. Students and faculty from other countries simply need to come to terms with the fact that they have this challenge to overcome and that overcome it they must. Thousands have done this, and your friend needs to bite the bullet as well.
My advice: pull out of editing this dissertation. Tell your friend, "This really isn't ready to be edited. You need more help than I feel comfortable giving."
Sorry to be so long-winded. This is a really important issue. When your computer is getting eaten alive by a worldwide virus you want to know that the person charged with eradicating the virus did his or her own work in the PhD program. So many important roles in society related to our safety, health, financial well-being, and so on depend on competence fairly gained through one's own hard work.
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: I'm a white person researching Asian history. Let's say I'm married and have taken my husband's name, which is unambiguously Asian (I'll use "Leung" for the examples). I'm unsure whether I should use my legal name for future publications, continue using my maiden name, or find some other solution. Here are my considerations:
**Using my legal name**
When people see "Leung" in the list of authors or speakers, they'll expect to see a Chinese person. For me to use this name seems misleading. They might expect a different level of language proficiency and a different personal relation to the subject than I actually have.
My husband is a second generation immigrant and has little interest in Asian history, so my marriage is irrelevant to my academic field.
**Using my maiden name**
My maiden name is a word that means "White". If I use this name and people find out that my legal name is Leung, they might feel like I'm trying to hide something. I don't have many publications under this name, so there's little benefit to continuing to use it. I also don't particularly identify with it, which is why I changed my name in the first place.
**Other options**
Many people in my situation seem to use a double name. However, this name would still not be my legal name, and being known as "<NAME>" feels like a weird joke.
I could use a different name from my family tree, or some complete pseudonym. But this has both the drawbacks of not being my legal name, and also not being the name I have published under so far.
Is there a consensus on what should be done in this situation? Are there resources for people in a similar situation? Since there are many fields where the ethnic background of researchers is somewhat relevant (sociology, area studies, languages...) this must be a common problem.
Edit: Some commenters have expressed the idea that a researcher's ethnicity doesn't or shouldn't matter to their audience. I disagree. For one thing, researchers educated in Chinese universities often have a very different approach to historical topics than those in the west. One commenter has pointed out that this would not affect me, because my western education is declared in my CV. But even for western people of Chinese descent or origin, they will generally have a different perspective on Chinese history than someone who has no personal connection to the place.<issue_comment>username_1: Would this be true for an American of Chinese descent who didn't speak Chinese as a native language? Or who might have been adopted and therefore has no childhood experience of Chinese culture?
You do have a personal connection: you married a Chinese man and you are a serious scholar of Asian studies. If it's really true that it's culturally offensive in a way that would be professionally damaging, then use your maiden name or whatever name you feel represents you as you wish to be represented. But this seems a bit overwrought to me. If you identify with Leung, then use Leung, and just deal with the fact that some people might have a problem with it. You're already OK with being a non-Asian Asian studies scholar--what do you say to anyone who objects to that?
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: A consideration would be to abbreviate your last name(s).
* <NAME> becomes <NAME>.
* <NAME> becomes <NAME>.
* <NAME> becomes <NAME>.
At the end of the day, perception is reality, given that you know the possible results, picking one or the other would have other effects, the decision (and its effects) are up to you.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: **Disclaimer: Pure opinion**
In the US, people with racial names are more possible to get a lower response rate when applying for jobs compared to people with white names ([ref](http://www.nber.org/digest/sep03/w9873.html)). So, I do think you concern is totally legitimate. But I'd say before tackling this problem, sort out your thoughts and logic first. For example, you made a blanket statement
>
> When people see "Leung" in the list of authors or speakers, **they**'ll
> expect to see a Chinese person. For me **to use this name seems
> misleading. They might expect a different level of language
> proficiency and a different personal relation to the subject** than I
> actually have.
>
>
>
Then, immediately, you cited your own point of view that totally goes against the generalizing statement:
>
> My husband is a **second generation immigrant and has little interest in
> Asian history**, so my marriage is irrelevant to my academic field.
>
>
>
First of all, who are these "*they*?" I'd love to believe that most academic professionals do not share the same traits as the general US employers: we look at CV, we look at the research, we look at your evidence and arguments. The *they* in your questions are, to be blunt, ignorant or irrational folks that either:
1. Not directly related to your work, and hence likely an insignificant ripple in your life, or
2. Extremely deterministic in your career, whom can crush you if they want, but in the same time you probably do not want to work with this person.
Give it some thoughts: who are these "*they*?" Do you want to live in constant worries because you can't please every ignorant and irrational person? Do you really care if those who consider non-Asians unqualified to study Asian culture value your work or not?
Second, focus on who you are first, not who you should be so that everyone will appreciate. Primarily which name to take on is your choice, and depending on how open you are you may consider your husband's input (I would wager that he does not care.)
Third, check your own bias, quotes like this should be more critically evaluated:
>
> However, this name would still **not be my legal name**, and **being known
> as "<NAME>" feels like a weird joke**.
>
>
>
Really? Whether a name is legal or not is purely procedural, I can change my name to "Red Fire Extinguisher" legally tomorrow if I want to; don't set up barriers for every one of your decisions. And if you yourself cannot treat your options seriously then you should not expect the same from others.
Basically, it's a dilemma and either one has pros and cons. I'd suggest looking into decision making tools (plenty of them in books like What Color is my Parachutes?) and lay out all the points and make a decision. Another way to deal is to randomly decide it, you may have a celebration with your husband and you two can randomly decide. There are web page ([like this one](http://www.randomdecisionmaker.com/)) for these purposes, a die or a coin works as well.
My concluding thoughts are that: prioritize who you should care about. You're spending too much attention role playing in too many scenarios. The name itself does not make or break a scholar, invest in doing good quality work and I am sure you will find your collaborators and audiences.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: I am a native speaking Chinese living in Taiwan. My field is in STEM, not Asian History. However, I have been reading quite a bit in Chinese history as a hobby since I retired in 2009. Still, I do not consider myself as a scholar in Asian History. Please take my answer as only amateur opinions.
You are right in that Chinese generally have a different perspective on Chinese history than someone who has no personal connection to the place. Actually, Chinese have different opinions on many issues in Chinese history among themselves. For example, there are different views on [Qin Dynasty and its First Emperor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qin_dynasty).
If you pay attention to the reference and source sections of the Wiki page I provided above, you will see both Chinese names and Western names. Please note that I am saying Chinese/Western names, not Chinese/Western people because I don't know the people with Western names are actually Western or people with Chinese names are actually Chinese.
From this example, I hope you can see that the author name really does not matter. What matters most is the quality of the publication. As a personal opinion, I rather see a good quality paper written by a Westerner than a poor quality paper written by a Chinese on Chinese history.
I understand your concern that the readers of your publication may think you are a Chinese if you use your legal name. I think this might be true when they take the first glance at your publication. But, don't worry. They will soon find out it's written by a well Western-educated author. Your publication will tell them that. When I first read your question, I knew you have received well education in Western world because the way you wrote the question.
Now, I want to directly answer your question. I would use
>
> Firstname <NAME>
>
>
>
as the author name because this name accurately reflects your situation. "White" indicates you have Western connection. "Leung" indicates you have Chinese connection. It does not look weird to me at all. There is nothing wrong with telling people who you are.
In conclusion, I think your concern is reasonable given that your field is Asian history (If it's a STEM field, you have absolutely nothing to worry about.). Exactly because of this possible misunderstanding, you need to concentrate on your work to let your research speak for itself and not worry about the name you put on the publication.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]
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<issue_start>username_0: I'm just starting my second year of a master's program and hoping to apply to PhD programs, but I still haven't even submitted a paper for publication. I've worked on 3 research projects over the past 3 years, all of which have fallen apart for different reasons. [EDIT: They fell apart not because they didn't validate my hypothesis or something, but in two cases, because of advisor drama and in one case because another student found a significant flaw.) How can I choose my next project in such a way that minimizes the chances that it'll also just fall apart?
My experience with these abandoned projects has, I believe, taught me three things:
1. Vet potential advisors more thoroughly,
2. Don't waste time on a project you don't think is all that promising right from the get-go, and
3. Get on a project with a team, not one that you'll work on individually.
However, my experience has also shown me that:
1. It's really impossible to know what an advisor is like until you've already crashed and burned with them.
2. Good projects are hard, if not impossible, to come by. At the time that I worked on the projects that fell apart, they were basically my best options.
3. Having to find a team to work with puts you at the mercy of whether people a) have something you're even able to do, b) are actually good to work with, and c) want to work with you (unless, I guess, you're just assigned to the team by your advisor). I've already been shot down by one potential research partner.
Meanwhile, I know of an undergrad who worked on a project for one quarter and now has a publication at a major conference. Do I just have to face the fact that I'm not cut out for this research stuff? I'm starting to get the impression that I'm just a "quitter," but I feel that every time I've quit, I've done so for completely valid reasons, not just because the "going got tough."
Is there something I'm not thinking of or doing in order to find a good project and take it all the way through to completion?<issue_comment>username_1: The fact that your projects failed should not be a bar to your continuing on to a Ph.D. program. The reality of research is that most research fails! Remember that Edison tried over a thousand combinations before finding one to work for his light bulb. Nobody is 100 percent successful in research and projects end up falling short of expectations or failing altogether a substantial percentage of the time. It's how you persevere through the failures that distinguishes a successful researcher from an unsuccessful one.
Moreover, projects working or not working can be a matter of luck, and sometimes it can take an extended period of time to make a breakthrough. During my Ph.D. project, I had basically nothing but failed approaches to show for two and a half years (!) before I had my "Eureka!" moment. I wrote six papers in the remaining three and a half years after that.
So I wouldn't worry about finding a "good" project: ideas that seem sound on first blush can fall through, and a "high-risk, high-reward" type project can lead to big breakthroughs in the long run. Focus on doing something that interests you, so that you can keep going when you run into rough patches (and they will come).
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: I've been in a somewhat similar situation. I agree with your point #1 - advisors are crucial! To better vet them, I would try to talk to PhD students who have been working with them for a few years. Ask them about how their work is going, and how they came to their subject, how their advisor handled it when they ran into trouble with their approach, etc.
For how to pick a subject that has high likelihood of leading somewhere, it's always a gamble but in my previous group, the people who were taken on as part of a EU project grant seemed to do better in this regard - the subject has to be very thoroughly thought out for the application, with "worst case results" analysis where you practically have to guarantee publishable results (even if those will not be top-conference results).
Upvotes: 2 [selected_answer]
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<issue_start>username_0: I'm pretty sure that my former advisor lied to me, manipulated me, and thinks I'm an idiot, so understandably I don't think it's a good idea to ask him for a letter of recommendation for the NSF graduate fellowship. However, my most recent academic research experience was with him, during the Spring quarter, and it's probably the most impressive research I've done, especially since he's a well known professor. I do have other research experience to talk about, but it's not quite at the same level.
But if I write about that project in my application, I imagine the committee is going to wonder why I don't have a letter of recommendation from that professor. Should I strive to minimize that research or even leave it out completely? Or is the benefit of talking about that research experience greater than the risk of being judged for not having a letter from him?
EDIT: This is why I think my advisor lied to me, manipulated me, and thinks I'm an idiot:
1) He said I couldn't work on a certain type of research project I wanted to work on because I hadn't taken a particular class. He then let two other students (undergraduates) who had not taken that class work on that type of project. One of those projects led to a publication.
2) I asked him why he let those other students work on those projects and he said it was because, while they were working on the projects, they learned stuff from that class on their own. I asked why I couldn't have also learned that stuff on my own, and he just said, "ehhhh" and refused to answer any further. [Response to comment below: those students, former classmates of mine, had not learned the material from that class on their own prior to being assigned the projects.]
3) There was only one project he said I was capable of working on. I asked if he thought it was publishable, and he said yes. I worked on it for months, and then met one of his collaborators, who said that it was not in fact publishable, but reassured me that they would post it on the internet somewhere. [Response to comment below: The collaborator didn't say this because something in the project was revealed to be less promising than they originally hoped. He said this because he viewed the piece I was working on as a small addendum to the larger project, which had already been published.]
UPDATE: In case anyone is curious, it turned out that my advisor did in fact lie to me and think I was an idiot. He did not, however, manipulate me -- that part was due to a misunderstanding.<issue_comment>username_1: As someone who has reviewed applications for the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship program, it would definitely be weird to see someone talk extensively about a research project and then *not* have the advisor write a supporting letter. It would certainly raise questions among the panelists assigned to review the application, especially if no other explanation were provided.
Normally I would not make such a suggestion, but this might be an instance where you should list the experience (if you can), but not talk about it so effusively or in great depth.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: **Include it, but only as one piece of a larger research narrative.**
As someone who has reviewed applications for the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship program, I think omitting research experience from your application is self-sabotage. You need to sell your research potential in the strongest possible light, and nothing sells research potential better than actual research experience. I would find the lack of a supporting letter from your former supervisor suspicious only if the letters you did submit were weak.
That said, even with a supportive letter from your supervisor, you wouldn't want to make this project the centerpiece of your application, because you *already* have feedback suggesting that it won't lead to publishable results.
Upvotes: 3
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<issue_start>username_0: I'm a third year undergraduate engineering student in India.
I am applying for a research program at a foreign university which will start at the end of my third year. This internship program requires at least one and a maximum of two letters of recommendation. As is the case for many students in my college (and I suspect many Indian engineering undergrads as well), I do not have much interaction with most of my professors outside of classes. My grades are decent but nothing spectacular in my courses.
Hence, I only have one strong letter of recommendation from a professor with whom I am doing a project. The rest of my professors who I have spoken to about the same have only given me tepid responses and have advised me to come back only if I cannot find anyone else ready to give me a letter.
In this case, what should I do for filing my LoRs? Would it be better to submit only the strong LoR or should I submit a weaker LoR as well?<issue_comment>username_1: Definitely **submit only the strong one.**
A weak letter of recommendation can actually harm you. Once, a PI with whom I did an internship agreed to write a letter, and I learned later that he basically wrote "username_1 was in my lab for 6 months, she did a good job, everything went ok." Needless to say, I didn't get the scholarship. A tepid recommendation just carries the message "I knew this guy for 6 months and I couldn't find one enthusiastic thing to say", which is terrible.
There's still the possibility that your professor would write an amazing letter without knowing you, but I wouldn't take the risk - especially since you already can get one strong letter. It's pretty good for an undergraduate.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: It depends a lot on how you define "a weak LoR". Consider 5 levels:
* +2: My best student in 10 years.
* +1: DWIC (did well in class) + hard working, take initiative etc
* 0 : Simply DWIC, e.g. username_1's LoR.
* -1: He was in my class, he asked me to write LoR.
* -2: Don't take him
Unless you make someone very upset, people will not write a -1 and -2 LoRs. If you believe the weak ones are still +1s, you can submit.
FYI, I fell out with my Master thesis advisor, and decided not to use his LoR (he still offered to write one). I managed to get 3 PhD admissions with full scholarship using three +1 LoRs (but I submitted more than 50 applications).
Good luck!
Upvotes: 3
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| 468
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<issue_start>username_0: I have mildly contributed to a research project which is now ready for publication.
However, I am convinced the treatment of the experimental data is wrong.
I shared my concerns with the PI of this project and shown him why I believe this was not correct. Yet, I only made him doubt and he still wants to publish it as it is. This treatment of the data is not necessary to reach the conclusion of the paper which still holds with more standard data analysis, but it looks less fancy. Now what should I do ?
* should I go ahead and work on the publication ?
* should I withdraw from this project (which is a side project for me) ?
On the one hand I still believe the conclusion of the paper is true and I could use an additional publication on my CV. On the other hand I feel it is dishonest to publish something which I believe is not true.<issue_comment>username_1: Before signing or withdrawing, I prefer to keep discussing those matters until a decision is taken which everyone can defend. If this isn't possible you will have to weight the pro's and con's, and how you feel about having a paper with your name that you cannot stand behind (if that is the case).
One option could be to not be named as author, but instead in the acknowledgement section - especially if your role was a minor one.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: You seem to be giving two stories: you note that you 'still believe the conclusion of the paper is true' but you then note that 'it is dishonest to publish something which I believe is not true'. If the issue is simply the handling of the data analysis (with alternative paths leading to the same conclusions through more or less fancy approaches), I might suggest a compromise. Add a footnote at the presentation of that analysis indicating that conclusions remain even under a more conservative statistical analysis. If the journal allows, you can elaborate a bit there. That way, you've solidified that you understand there are multiple approaches, but the conclusion is robust to that. This might be even more convincing.
Upvotes: 3
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<issue_start>username_0: I've attended a couple of conferences, and just standalone public talks held at universities and I've found the topics interesting, so I've written a summary on my blog to share with others (and also as a way to help myself remember the content).
It just occurred to me that I'm potentially "stealing" someone else's IP. I always mention the name of the person / people giving the talk, so I'm not passing it off as my own research, but perhaps the presenter may not want this information shared via a channel other than their own. Some of them aren't just presentations, but may involve a panel of experts answering questions from a presenter / the audience.
What is the general etiquette when it comes to writing about this on my blog? Is it enough just to cite the author(s), or should I contact them beforehand and ask if they mind me writing about them?
(I don't know if it's relevant, but I get about 4 people a day reading my blog, so it's not famous or anything.)<issue_comment>username_1: My general rule of thumb in these matters is the following. **If you don't want to communicate your results yet, you should not be talking about them in a public seminar.** Or, at the very least, you should put out a disclaimer initially that you will be discussing confidential material (I have seen some company talks that started with a similar disclaimer, but probably more for legal reasons than because the presenter themselves cared deeply about it). Barring such a disclaimer, I think it's a fair default assumption that the presenter does not mind their thoughts spreading.
Another safety line you can take is, after you published your blog, making the speaker aware of it. I have found that Twitter works very well and non-intrusively to that extend:
>
> .@coolprof summarizes topic X, feels more research is needed on Y. Summary: <http://my.blog.edu>
>
>
>
In that case you can assume that if the speaker really does not want your summary, or parts of it, on the Web, they will tell you.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Biology/paleontology talks can be particularly difficult to blog about if the presenter is introducing a new taxon name, because priority is attached to whoever uses the name first. If the name is not introduced in the print abstract before your blog post goes up, your blog post could become the "authority" for the name.
This is rare and people will understand what is meant, but taxonomy is a by-the-book discipline because there needs to be a way to make sure everyone is working from the same definition of a new organism description. As such, most people will avoid introducing new names in abstracts rather than peer-reviewed papers, but it has happened in the past.
Upvotes: 3
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<issue_start>username_0: I am currently in the process of writing my masters thesis. During my research I found this another thesis and I really like the way it is organised and structured.
By structure, I mean the heading titles, the organisation of results and their order etc, for one chapter only. Although the topic of both thesis are similar but I will be presenting my own original data and results in the thesis.
Would it be ok for me to closely copy the structure of another thesis or could that be seen as plagiarism?<issue_comment>username_1: Generally, as the purpose of the thesis is to convey *information* and as you are not plagiarizing the content, it should be fine to follow the organizational structure of another work, especially if it serves that purpose.
After all, most publications encourage or enforce some kind of organizational or structural guidelines in their papers.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: It is usually fine to copy the organizational structure
of another thesis or journal article.
However, you should take a short pause just to think through
whether that is the best way to structure your own writing.
As an aside, in some fields, it is almost *mandatory*
to write your article/thesis to follow a certain organizational structure.
For example, virtually all original journal articles
in the health sciences follow
a very standardized structure known as
introduction, methods, results, and discussion (IMRAD).
**Source:**
Sollaci, <NAME>., and <NAME>.
"The introduction, methods, results, and discussion (IMRAD) structure: a fifty-year survey."
*Journal of the Medical Library Association* 92.3 (2004): 364.
Upvotes: 3
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| 419
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<issue_start>username_0: I've read from past questions and answers on this site, namely an answer by JeffE, that anyone with more than 12 months of full-time graduate study, *MS or PhD*, is considered too late of an applicant, unless there is a significant change of field.
What if my undergrad degree was not in mathematics, but I have an MS degree in math, and am looking to apply to PhD programs in math? Would my MS degree be considered something equivalent to an undergrad / first degree in math, and thus make my application eligible for a review by the panelists?<issue_comment>username_1: Generally, as the purpose of the thesis is to convey *information* and as you are not plagiarizing the content, it should be fine to follow the organizational structure of another work, especially if it serves that purpose.
After all, most publications encourage or enforce some kind of organizational or structural guidelines in their papers.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: It is usually fine to copy the organizational structure
of another thesis or journal article.
However, you should take a short pause just to think through
whether that is the best way to structure your own writing.
As an aside, in some fields, it is almost *mandatory*
to write your article/thesis to follow a certain organizational structure.
For example, virtually all original journal articles
in the health sciences follow
a very standardized structure known as
introduction, methods, results, and discussion (IMRAD).
**Source:**
Sollaci, <NAME>., and <NAME>.
"The introduction, methods, results, and discussion (IMRAD) structure: a fifty-year survey."
*Journal of the Medical Library Association* 92.3 (2004): 364.
Upvotes: 3
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<issue_start>username_0: I'm due to start my PhD in Pure Mathematics next month, fully funded by a scholarship, at an average university, I'll be specialising in combinatorial group theory, and I have a strong First in Mathematics from a Russell group university. My goal is to become an academic.
[This](https://math.stackexchange.com/users/104041/shaun) is my Mathematics Stack Exchange (MSE) profile. I've been an active user since 2013, visiting pretty much daily, but my reputation is currently just 5,760 and I haven't used MathOverflow at all (as the questions there every time I visit, which isn't that often, are beyond me). This seems quite low. Should this worry me?
To what extent is MSE reputation an indication of potential in academia?<issue_comment>username_1: The only thing that a high MSE or MO reputation indicates is that a person spends too much time on the internet (and I say that as someone with a reasonably high reputation on MO). I don't think you should take it seriously as a data point on how successful you are likely to be.
On a related note, it also doesn't play any role in things like hiring decisions. At all the places I've worked, someone would be ridiculed if they brought up MO or MSE reputation at a hiring meeting.
It's just recreation.
Upvotes: 7 <issue_comment>username_2: >
> To what extent is MSE reputation an indication of potential in academia?
>
>
>
Very little. You get a lot of reputation for [simple answers to simple questions](https://cs.stackexchange.com/a/61024/9550) that make it onto the HNQ list, because those are the ones that people can quickly understand and say, "Yeah, that's right." Conversely, you get little reputation for deep, [detailed answers to difficult questions](https://cs.stackexchange.com/a/79720/9550), because people (probably rightly) think that reading and digesting them won't be a productive use of their time.
High reputation on a technical Stack Exchange site might indicate that you're a good teacher of that subject, since well-explained, easy-to-understand answers tend to get higher reputation. But, the teaching experience you get as a student and early-career researcher will be a much better indication of that.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_3: You shouldn't worry about MSE "reputation"; one can find MSE members with low reputation but high academic potential and vice versa. Think about it: there are members who reached 100k just by answering elementary calculus and combinatorics questions. "Reputation" is more about effort rather than potential.
However, there is definitively a tendency that those with high academic potential get into top-notch (as opposed to average) PhD programs.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: Being associated with SE is not necessarily a good thing. Not that *you* are like this, but *many* of the responders on SE simply do not present a pleasant demeanor and are off-putting in their arrogance.
Search for, "Stack Exchange Hate," and see what you get, then ask yourself, "If this is how people perceive SE, do I want really anyone knowing I'm associated with it?"
If you want to establish a reputation (which is not a function of SE to begin with), establish a *real* one, in the *real* world.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_5: Social media is definitely becoming a new component to academia outside of publications, and I suspect it can be influential to your career as a form of networking that may, for instance, get your work cited more often simply by bringing it more to others' attention. Possibly a good MSE could be helpful to that, but I suspect it's a stretch - Twitter, LinkedIn and other proper social media tools are better suited to that purpose. Beyond that I echo the other answers by saying you shouldn't expect it to be taken as a serious CV point for recruitment or hiring in academia.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_6: Perhaps this is a philosophical nuance, but I think a case could be made that high MSE reputation would correlate strongly with success in academia. This correlation is likely not directly related to MSE reputation itself, but to something that a high MSE reputation may indicate: love of mathematics.
As an applied mathematics PhD holder myself, I've witnessed first-hand that success in both PhD programs and academic careers in general depends largely on having sufficient motivation and perseverance to put in the time necessary to develop new insights. I would argue that a high MSE reputation indicates a willingness and motivation to seek out challenging problems in a wide variety of mathematical subject matter.
Moreover, the fact that MSE reputation is *not* directly related to someone's job or academic position suggests that person is interacting with MSE in their personal time, which indicates that their motivation to participate in the mathematical community goes deeper than just looking for a way to pay the bills.
Thus, if mathematical academic success is correlated with having proper motivation to learn mathematics, and high MSE reputation is an indicator of sound motivation to learn mathematics, then, by the transitive property, high MSE reputation should be correlated with academic success.
Some of the above is tongue-in-cheek, but while the relationship between MSE reputation and academic success is not causal, I think there is likely a positive correlation resulting from a natural selection bias for significant contributors to this site.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_7: Lots of the duties which decide success in academia are not directly related to knowledge in or passion for the field of study but hard work, perseverance, acquiring grants, doing teaching, administration, live presentations, seminars, conferences, becoming a popular teacher, co-worker and contributor.
Math.SE strips those duties down and we only get to see the knowledge and passion side of the subject of study. There is much more to creating a career in academia than knowledge and passion in the subject of study.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_8: I don't think SE participation is likely to matter one way or the other in your graduate studies, as long as it doesn't eat up a lot of time you ought to be spending elsewhere. Come to ask for help or offer it when appropriate.
Later on in your career that may change. My son [<NAME>](https://stackoverflow.com/users/190277/ben-bolker?tab=answers&sort=newest) has a substantial presence on stackoverflow, helping people with R and statistics. (He's a tenured full professor so can apportion his time as he pleases.)
I posted this on tex se meta:
>
> I quietly argue in my department and regularly tell colleagues that
> significant participation in stackexchange sites should count in
> faculty reviews as service to the scholarly community. I'm sure
> @egreg's answers here advance science more than does his mathematics,
> however deep and interesting that may be.
>
>
>
<https://tex.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/3938/the-importance-for-getting-an-account/3947#3947>
Upvotes: 1
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<issue_start>username_0: As an undergrad, I'm just starting to get a feel for the academic world. Obviously, the ability to communicate well in a collaborative relationship is extremely important. As a fledgling STEM experimentalist, I'm beginning to learn like one.
However, can someone educate me on why there can sometimes be a communications barrier between researchers of different types (e.g., experimentalist versus computational versus theoretical researchers)? What types of obstacles cause these communication barriers? What are some examples of common sticking points?<issue_comment>username_1: The main source of the "friction" in talks among computational, theoretical, and experimental researchers is *language*. One group may use the term very differently from another.
For instance, I can say that I "calculate" a given quantity using a simulation. To me, this implies that I have performed a simulation, and know that the results that I get have a certain amount of inherent uncertainty because of the intrinsic variability of the particles I'm studying and that a slightly different starting point will lead to a very different result. However, all of that nuance may be lost on a theoretician or experimentalist who hears "calculate" and thinks I've just crunched some numbers and have a "one size fits all" answer to the problem.
However, the problem is not merely *among* the different groups, but also *within* them. Even different computational scientists can have difficulty understanding one another without some "translation." For instance, I can remember my two computational advisors arguing over a point for a while before we all realized that they were talking about exactly the same thing. The only difference was that one was using the "language" of control systems, and the other was using the "language" of materials science to describe the same phenomenon.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: I'm a computational chemist. I've worked with many experimental collaborators with wildly varying experiences. Barriers certainly can and most definitely exist. Here are some of the major ones.
1. **Lack of understanding:** This is perhaps the most common and basic reason and results from a lack of experience or knowledge in experimental techniques by computationalists and vice versa, quite simply because they were not trained in this area. As a computationalist, it is natural that I may misunderstand how certain experimental techniques work (especially the state of the art) because I do not spend most of my time working on it. This can result in me over-trusting a piece of experimental evidence, or underestimating the time and effort it can take to conduct the experiments. And believe me, this can definitely happen the other way round. One example, an experimental collaborator asked for some 'quick calculations' in a month and I had to point out that it would easily take a year and all of our computational budget to complete it.
2. **Politics:** In a collaboration, there is always the question of who is the major contributor. Yes, it is possible to have multiple corresponding and first authors, but it rarely changes this fact. In my field (chemistry), usually the experimental side is the major participant of a collaborative work. This means a computational PI will benefit significantly less, and his student will usually not be a first author. This generally leads to conflicts regarding contribution of time and resources given the unequal recognition of work. Sometimes, in order to solve this issue, particularly for long-term collaborations, the experimentalist and computationalist can 'take turns' directing the project and claiming the major contribution to a paper. (I am not supporting or criticizing this phenomenon, but it definitely exists in the field.)
3. **Geographic/temporal reasons:** Quite simply, many if not most collaborations occur between groups in different universities and different countries. The simple fact is you cannot communicate them like you would with your group members in the same room. This results in the need to schedule meetings and email communications which are often difficult (professors are busy!) and are invariably an inefficient way of transferring information. I've has cases where several weeks or even months of work were invalidated/or made irrelevant because I was only informed of new experimental findings many months later in a meeting.
4. **Different objectives/expectations:** There is some overlap with the political reason, but sometimes it can be purely due to academic reasons. It can be common for experimental and computational groups to have different expectations for what knowledge/results a work is supposed to yield. For example, a study can be trivially easy for a computationally group (and possibly uninteresting) to accomplish (via modelling), but can be extremely difficult for an experimental group to synthesize/characterize. Alternatively, a relatively simple reaction for an experimental group to conduct can be a multi-year effort by several researchers (or it can even be unsolvable/impractical by current techniques!).
Is it possible to overcome these barriers? Certainly. I've had collaborators who are well aware of these issues (from experience), and end up being very enjoyable to work with. As an aspiring researcher, the best thing you can do is keep these issues in mind when collaborating with other groups. If possible, try to learn the techniques which your collaborators are currently using, and maintain a steady stream of communication with whoever your direct counterpart is (usually, if you are a student, keep in contact with the corresponding student in the other group instead of the professor directly - though you can/should CC him and your advisor to keep them in the loop).
Edit: I decided to add some examples of hypothetical collaborators from the perspective of a computational researcher (for fun). Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
**The Good:** The well-informed and reasonable collaborator. Knows their stuff (even on your side), up to date on literature, knows what is practical and not. Knows if you are BSing them or not. Won't do you wrong if you do your job. Keep them well-fed with updates. Expect to do good science with them.
**The Bad:** The villain/antagonist. Only works with you because you are part of the same grant or project, and only sees you as a way of getting higher impact factor. Only interested in positive results, gives unreasonable deadlines, does not like to hear the phrase "but that can't be done!' Never satisfied, keep him well-fed, but for your own survival.
**The Ugly:** Nice guy, easy to work with. Okay with whatever you have. Takes anything you offer, but not terribly interested in the science behind the results. Likes you because you can help him get higher impact factor journals. Expect him to disappear one day when he has found someone better or no longer needs your help.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: I think you can look to physics for an answer (caveat - I am not a physicist). From what I've gathered, the disconnect between theoretical and experimental physicists is quite stark. As an outsider, it appears that the experimental scientists get to build and play with big, expensive, dangerous toys and get a lot of the glory. Meanwhile, theoretical physicists do much of the office-based ground work that fuels the experiments. So the experimental researchers argue 'its all theory until you prove it,' while the theoretical researchers say 'yea, but where would you be without us?' Secretly, the experimentalists wish they'd formulated the theories and the theorists wish they could play with big ray guns.
It all boils down to who gets the lions share of the credit - the experimentalists that carried out the experiment or the theorists that laid out the plans? These kinds of arguments are common in many scientific arenas.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: I'm more familiar with this sort of collaboration in industry than academia, but a common cause of problems is simply ego and arrogance.
When the results of theory and experiment disagree, you might characterize as "good" collaborator as someone who assumes that his/her work is wrong and everyone else's is right. "Poor" collaborators do the opposite, of course - and in general, there are more bad than good ones around.
If *everyone* involved looks hard enough for the mistakes in their *own* work, the apparently different results usually fit together somehow. If everyone's primary objective is to *defend* their own work, this often never happens.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: I'm a computational epidemiologist, and so work fairly heavy with both "experimentalists" in the form of either observational epidemiology or clinical trials, computational folks, and more theoretical mathematical biology researchers.
Generally, I've found this collaborative research to be quite successful, but there are some difficulties:
1. **Difficulty understanding scope.** Often, I find clinical colleagues end up wanting to add lots of detail to computational models that *vastly* increases the difficulty in implementation without really understanding what that means. Equally, my more theoretical colleagues don't have a good grasp of the nuances of things like IRBs, how long data takes to collect, etc. and vastly underestimate how hard and expensive it is to actually collect data.
2. **Competing pressures and priorities**. Is 15% effort on a grant a ton of support, or barely covering your time? What's needed for tenure and promotion? What's a "good journal"? Do the theory people get out a bunch of papers early, while the experimentalists sit on their hands waiting for data.
3. **Difficulty understanding what's interesting**. For example, there may be an intensely important clinical questions on really unique data sets that actually use pretty mundane methods from a computational/theoretical perspective.
4. **Different tendencies in different fields**. Do you use LaTeX? How familiar is everyone with programming? Are papers the currency of choice, or presentations? What even is publishable?
5. **Different Incentive Structures**. Are the theoreticians penalized for having papers with multiple co-authors? Are you evaluated based on student outcomes on grants, etc.?
6. **Timing and communicating**. "What data do you need?" "I don't know, what data do you have?" is probably the most common conversation I end up having.
Upvotes: 3
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| 1,863
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<issue_start>username_0: I submitted a paper to a journal and after more than one year I got a positive report. I revised the paper as requested by the referee but when I tried to submit the revised version I discovered that my handling editor is not in the editorial board anymore. What happens normally in a case like this? Should I submit the revised version to a different editor?<issue_comment>username_1: If you have the choice, you should in principle be able to send it to any of the active editors. At many journals, there is no "choice" in the editor and the paper will be reassigned by the editorial staff.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: I sincerely hope there was more communication than just 'after more than one year'. It sounds like there are some organizational changes within the journal that may be working against you. I've had that situation too, and it led to unreasonable delays in review. I suggest you go straight to someone on the editorial board and politely ask for some relief. Problems within the journal editorship should not impact you so negatively, which it clearly has. In my case, this worked, and the review was immediately reassigned to a new action editor and fast-tracked. Don't be afraid to speak up, just state the facts and be polite. The main point is to ask the journal what they think the best course of action is.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: As you replied to my comment that you can not choose an editor by your own choice. In this case, Editor in Chief will assign a new AE to your article. You don't have to worry about the change of AE, because new AE will make decisison based on your revised article and your response to reviewer's comments etc.
However, you can also write a letter to new AE to inform him any delver that details about the progress of review process. Good luck!
Upvotes: 0
|
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| 380
| 1,598
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<issue_start>username_0: I have spent my career working in the field and have recently been approached to teach some classes that are specific to what I do. I have been asked to turn in an “evidence of teacher effectiveness.” I do not have any evaluations or proof that I would be a good teacher. I have guest-lectured a few times and can probably get a few quotes about how I did. Apart from this, what could I use to fulfill this requirement?<issue_comment>username_1: Never a teacher, but as a recent student, here are my suggestions:
* Record one of your lectures of both the speaker (you) and the audience (students). If you can command the attention of your students, then I can argue that this is an indicator of "effectiveness".
* Polls and opinions, much like how the Political Campaigns take polls of their constituents, you can take straw polls from your students on how well you did. "What was unclear?", "What should I focus on in the next class?" Etc.
* Recommendations from senior instructors, I am not sure if this is viable from the other side of the podium, but certainly if it applies, then it is another means.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: If someone is asking you to teach classes before you've had any experience doing it, then I'm going to guess that they don't expect you to produce a full dossier. In that case, letters of recommendation from the people that invited you to give guest lectures, or people who saw them, might be sufficient. You might get some clarification on what's expected by asking the person who's asking you to teach the classes.
Upvotes: 2
|
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| 768
| 3,096
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<issue_start>username_0: In a PhD thesis I read recently, the author mentioned open-source software in the Acknowledgement section, an idea that I liked very much (I missed that opportunity in my thesis).
Now I am considering to do a similar thing in the paper I am currently writing (working everyday on a Linux system with a lot of open-source software tools). Would you consider that as weird and inappropriate?
(My field is physics.)
**Update**: As mentioned by @pseyfert in the comments, the LHCb experiment seems to have an acknowledgement to open source software in their templates (looking at their [paper repository](http://lhcbproject.web.cern.ch/lhcbproject/Publications/LHCbProjectPublic/Summary_all.html), they seem to use that template), it reads "*We are indebted to the communities behind the multiple open-source software packages on which we depend* ".<issue_comment>username_1: I also mentioned technical forums and Q&A sites (about GAMS, C++, the GNU Scientific Library, LaTeX, Maths, Statistics..., in my case) in the acknowledgement section of my PhD memoir.
I do not really think that doing the same in the acknowledgement section of a paper is inappropriate. As long as it is expressed in the same terms as other acknowledgements, I actually think it is a good and revolutionary idea.
Of course, all the coauthors of the paper should agree in including that kind of acknowledgement, just as it would/should be regarding other acknowledgements.
---
UPDATE
To expand and complete my answer, I should say that, in my humble opinion,
* the 'Acknowledgements' section of a paper is not usually mandatory;
* in case there is one, it should be kept not too long;
* you can mention anyone or any 'entity' you are thankful to;
* if there are too many people or 'entities' to mention, try to select the most relevant ones;
* you may consider to keep some place for sort of formulaic or routine acknowledgements such as thanking anonymous reviewers, etc.
But, of course, there should definitely be a place for the 'real' acknowledgements. If you are really thankful for the help from online communities, or you just want to highlight it, I think there is no problem. For me, it makes no difference with other 'personal' acknowledgements, such as thanking some concrete colleagues for reviewing a draft of your paper, for instance.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: People have thanked [thrash metal bands, porn actors, and transportation authorities](https://www.timeshighereducation.com/blog/best-academic-acknowledgements-ever#survey-answer) in their acknowledgments; some have written "[unacknowledgements](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/93423/what-are-the-moral-and-legal-consequences-of-not-thanking-government-for-not-p)".
There is much more leeway for personal quirks in this section than in any other part of your publication, and it's the least likely to be read.
Thanking someone who *actually* facilitated your work is not at all weird. It's in fact very appropriate, even if that someone is a collective entity.
Upvotes: 2
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