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2017/10/03	6,562	28,168	<issue_start>username_0: My question has different emphases from [Why are recommendation letters highly relied upon?](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/12874/why-are-recommendation-letters-highly-relied-upon). As we know, the letter of recommendations are heavily relied upon in the process of university/graduate school applications and job market. Sometimes it is considered [the most important part of the application](http://www.math.stonybrook.edu/applying-phd-program). Sometimes, if a referee wants to strongly recommend someone, they may even directly make a phone call to certain departments/professors. However, as we know, the quality and importance of recommendation letters depends largely on the subjective opinions and the reputations of the referees. As a result, the system of recommendation letters sometimes encourages young scholars to spend more (and perhaps unnecessary) time using strategies to gain the favor of professional scholars (I believe there are clever ways for average students to "demonstrate" to the professors that they are strong...) or spend less time in communication to avoid bad opinions (if you can't show people that you are smart, then you'd better talk less and try not to show people that you are stupid). Meanwhile, writing letters seems to be a heavy burden on professors. You might want to argue that this is part of their job, but shouldn't they be given more time for their research and teaching? I heard some professors write dozens of letters every year, which costs them a lot of time (excluding the time for communication with applicants). My question is, is the letter of recommendation really an indispensable part of academic application processes? Can "objective" things like GPA (well, "transcripts" or "courses and grades" might be a more accurate measurement), test and competition scores, publications alone provide enough information to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of applicants? Aside: I don't know much about the application of professional positions (postdoc and tenure-track positions). However, for university/graduate school applications, can we simply raise the difficulty of standard tests (for the information of those who think SAT and GRE general and even subject tests are too easy) to better differentiate between applicants? I heard that in China, PhD applicants need to take qualifying exams BEFORE being considered.<issue_comment>username_1: The problem, in my experience in mathematics in the U.S., is that neither GPA nor GRE test/reflect what is of interest for graduate work in mathematics. So, for example, making the GRE more difficult wouldn't help anything. The point is that the modes of thought, the methodologies, the world views, that are successful for undergrads or course-based Master's students are really quite different from what is needed to do a PhD. Of course, human beings seem to have an impulse to automate things, or make them formulaic, so that GPA and GRE have a tremendous appeal. The fact (in my observation over a few decades) that these are not good predictors of success in math grad school in the U.S. (after the first year or so) does not deter many people, who'd like things to be that simple. That is, I think it is inconveniently the case that it is impossible to make "exams" that gauge what astute grad-program admissions committees want to know. For postdocs and further faculty positions: to my perception, it is significantly more oppressive to have to impress journal editors and referees (who have other interests) than to impress relatively senior people in one's field. That is, the assumption that making a positive impression on senior people is a burden is missing the point. Sure, yes, it is a natural feeling, much like the reaction of teenagers to the "oppression" of their parents, but I think that senior professional academics are more competent in their roles than parents may be, statistically. No, that does not guarantee lack of bias. As far as I understand it, in the U.S., the game is that one needs to make a good impression for a while, but, then, at a certain point, one has tenure, and, in mathematics, if one has not planned finances to depend on huge external income from grants, one can exercise one's own judgement. The abstract-economic conflict is that there are far more people who'd like such situations than there are situations. How to decide? ... EDIT: in light of the original questioner's comments below: the premise that grades reflect the seriousness of a student I think more reflects the assumption about what "serious" means. E.g., it is possible to very scrupulously follow instructions, and to pay careful attention to what will optimize one's grade, without caring at all about the subject of a course. And, in many math courses, the "assigned problems" (from traditional textbooks) are substantially a caricature of what the subject truly is. Often, artificial makework, to fulfill the mythical need for "lots of problems". So I am not particularly interested in performance in regard to such. There is also the implicit premise that "mathematics is obviously objective". In a certain sense, this is relatively true, but the question really should be about good mathematics. That is, (logical) correctness is not the highest virtue, by any means. And not all details are of equal significance, by far. So, to my mind, capacity to see a larger picture and infer wise actions from it is a very important thing to cultivate, for professional mathematicians. The basic stuff, in undergrad and beginning grad courses (in the U.S.) is so standard that there are many sources, and anyone who's interested can learn it from those sources. In particular, I tell my students to not over-invest in drilling themselves on things that in real life are easy look-ups. Rather, the general "physical" sensibility and context of questions is what one needs to reflect upon... not standard stuff. Knowing what is standard and what is not, not the power to reproduce it on command, is the desired skill. And, so, again, performance in usual coursework or GRE and such really tells nothing about the future sensibilities of a student. Letters from astute mentors/advisors have a chance to do so. Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_2: You are correct that the system of letters of recommendation is pretty universally disliked, by the people who need letters, by the people who write letters, and by the people who read the letters. But the problem is that nobody has come up with a significantly better system. In particular, let me outline a few of the things that don't work: * We know, from experience and research, that undergraduates' GRE and GPA scores are poor indicators of success as a graduate student: There appears to be little correlation between GRE scores and the probability that a student succeeds in a graduate program. Rather, personal and interpersonal skills seem to be important determinants whether students succeed in graduate school. There do not seem to be other quantitative measures a selection committee can rely on other than personal references. * When applying for postdoc positions and starting tenure track positions, applicants may be 1-3 and 5-15 publications, respectively. There are typically no grants or awards at this level, so publications are the only quantitative measure available. But publications are difficult to assess quantitatively: What you really want is an applicant's ability level, but what you get in a list of publications is a melange that also includes the abilities of coauthors, the question of where the papers were published (which may not always have been the best location), your inability to assess whether the best work of the applicant may still be stuck in preparation or peer review, or whether an applicant does great work but writes so poorly that their manuscripts are too often rejected (something that they may still learn, or that could be rectified with appropriate mentoring and/or coauthors). There is of course also the issue that you're going to have someone as your colleague for the next 30 years, so you want to filter out the jackasses who don't get along with folks. In other words, there are again no good quantitative measures that would assess the qualities you are looking for in applicants. The only place where I would think that letters of recommendations are pretty pointless is for hires of people at the senior level -- say, ten or more years after their first faculty positions. By that time, there is a sufficiently long track record of publications, citations, grants, speaking invitations, etc, that one can form an objective picture of a candidate from a CV alone. These people are also typically known in their communities (and if they are not, then that's a sign as well). For all other cases, however, I think we just don't have good "objective" measures to determine whether an applicant for anything is good or not, and so we rely on letters of recommendation. Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: A brief extra word on top of username_2's and username_1's excellent answers: 1) Here's a few references as a starting point for discussions of success in graduate school, and admissions: a) <https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3923635/> b) <https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0166742> c) <https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0169121> 2) The best prediction of future research success is past research success. However, especially for undergraduate research, the "objective" lines on a CV are very noisy measurements. This is partially because there are fewer publications, but more because how credit is given to students (especially undergrad researchers) is widely variable. Examples: if you are 5th author, does that mean you washed bottles or you proposed and did a side experiment that got bundled into a different paper? If you are first author of a paper, did you do the experimental design and writing, or just the data collection? Letters are not just a pile of flattery - they can describe what the student actually did, how much insight they provided to a project, etc. This part is, in fact, basically the only detailed description of what an undergraduate has actually accomplished themselves in doing research. So it's not surprising that they are useful. [I'm going to put one minor caveat here. There may be some signs that someone will be successful using an objective test in Mathematics. The strongest example I can think of is the Putnam exam. However, even there, there is a great deal of skepticism that it predicts research ability - since one is problem solving on the six hour scale and the other on the six month scale. See this answer: <https://mathoverflow.net/questions/15848/what-to-look-for-in-applicants-to-graduate-programs-in-mathematics> More importantly, though strong results are a good sign, weak results may not be a bad one - I have been told there are successful math professors who received zeros on the exam.] Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: These are actually several questions IMO: > > Can we stop looking at recommendation letters [which are subjective and biased?] > > > Not entirely, but certainly their weight can and often is smaller than you seem to believe is universal. > > Is the letter of recommendation really an indispensable part of academic application processes? > > > Nope. I was accepted to my current post-doc in the Netherlands with no recommendation letter. I was asked to provide references in the form of contact details though. And this way is not entirely uncommon (but I have no statistics). > > My question is, Can "objective" things like GPAs, test scores, publications alone provide enough information to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of applicants? > > > Grade point averages, in my opinion, are definitely not to be relied on heavily - not because of their (better) objectivity, but because they: 1. Measure something which is not as well-correlated with what you actually want to be assessing 2. Have non-subjective biases due to institute grading culture, country of origin, etc. 3. Don't cover people whose background is unusual and who might want to get into research but for screening the non-exceptional cases, I guess some minimum GPA requirement could be used. As for relying on publications - either you rely on numbers of publications, which is a bad measure IMHO for multiple reasons which I won't expand on here, or you have to actually look at the contents of the publications, which is probably much better but much more time-consuming. Bottom line: IMO you can decrease the reliance on recommendation letters but you'll "pay" with an increased effect of other problems and issues. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_5: Here are some things that reference letters provide that cannot be determined from a applicant's "statistics" (i.e. grades, number of publications, etc.) that would play an important role in their graduate admissions. Reference letters speak to an applicant's character --------------------------------------------------- In my country (Canada) it is generally expected that for a graduate degree you have informally worked out who your supervisor will be before you complete the grad school application. If you can't find a professor willing to supervise you, you generally won't be accepted. For a professor, accepting a new student is essentially selecting a new colleague. The student is someone that the professor will have to work with for at least several years, so it is important to have some idea beforehand what kind of person the applicant is, and whether they will be a good fit for your research group. Reference letters from previous supervisors/professors/employers can tell the professor whether the person is reliable, courteous, a good team player, a good communicator, etc. Just because someone is brilliant on paper doesn't mean you would enjoy working with them. Reference letters can provide context for an applicant's "statistics" --------------------------------------------------------------------- Sometimes, through no fault of their own, a person will have a particularly bad year. Personal tragedy, health issues, etc. can all play a role in reducing an applicant's appearance on paper by affecting the number of publications that they could produce or negatively impacting their grades. On the other hand, a person might have experienced one of the above setbacks and was still able to produce impressive statistics. A good reference letter can frame the applicant's "statistics" in a different light for the person reviewing the application. Side-note: gain respect, not favour ----------------------------------- In my experience it is not necessary to come up with "strategies" to "gain the favour" of respected academics. What you want is respect, not favour. The difference is very meaningful, and will be clear to anyone reading your reference letters. The favour of a narcissist (yeah, they exist in any field) can be gained by giving them compliments, but narcissists aren't good referees. You can gain a person's favour by running errands for them or giving them gifts, but again, they won't be a useful reference because they won't really know you by the qualities that make you a good applicant. Gaining respect is more challenging and it will vary from person to person. Some people respect confidence, some respect humility, some respect raw talent, etc. Everyone respects hard work (everyone worth your time anyway). Gaining respect isn't a game where you need to come up with "strategies". Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_6: The PageRank algorithm ranks a page as more authoritative if many pages link to it, and a page as more relevant if an authoritative page links to it. On Stackexchange, users earn a reputation from the quality of their answers, as conferred by fellow users, which lends weight to their subsequent answers. In academia, professors earn respect by the quality of their work, and the testimony of a respected expert in the field transfers respect onto whoever they recommend. I think it's just human nature to be swayed by anecdotal arguments from authority more than statistical ones. To wit, an anecdote: I've submitted recommendations to a system where I had to check boxes for how unique an individual was in several criteria. The levels of uniqueness are based on how frequently I have encountered students at their level ("top 10% each year," or "top 2 or 3 in my career", etc). The criteria are things like "oral communication," "independent thinking," "personal responsibility", "leadership", etc. This could result in some statistical measure of the quality of an applicant. I hate these matrices! I might have an opinion on a few of the criteria, but on others I really couldn't say. And I've taught maybe 5000 students in my career; asking me to arrange them in increasing order of ability makes me tired just thinking about it. So I'd much rather upload a letter, in which I give quantitative data on the student's performance, and personal qualities which show aptitude for whatever they're applying to. Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_7: In my experience this is more just a statement that the Prof. knows that student and generally thinks well of him and can recommend the students. I don't think the details matter that much, especially since those are often written by the students anyways. It's basically the same with invitation letters. > > Meanwhile, writing letters seems to be a heavy burden of professors. > > > Is it? Many Profs seem to not have any problem with this and the others just ask for a "draft" which they usually sign. In addition it doesn't take much time to write such a letter and the students maybe worked years in the lab of the Prof. and he shouldn't spend some minutes writing a letter? > > Can "objective" things like GPAS, test scores, publications alone provide enough information to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of applicants? > > > They can, but they cannot tell you if the student got the support of the Profs or even know them. For example I applied for a small grant to spend some months in a research group in another country. I talked to the Prof. there, we discussed a possible topic and cooperation and he invited me to his lab. Including a letter of invitation saying that I approached him with several ideas and he is happy to host me and I have his full recommendation shows that I did all of this and he really wants me to join his lab. This is something my publications, honors, grades,... don't show at all. Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_7: I wanted to add an answer to this question earlier, but as I was writing it, I realized there is no easy answer. Research is quite complex and it's not easy to predict people's performance based on anything that could be called "objective metric". Certainly someone with perfect GRE scores and GPA=4 would seem like a great candidate for a graduate program. But, the same person could be like me and have some psychological issues that prevent them to do good research. In my case, I like working alone and I lack patience, even after so many years of training myself. It gets even worse at later stages of career, when people evaluate you based on bibliometrics. Those sound "objective" to them, but an h-index 20 might mean you were just lucky to be working in a very strong group, while the other guy with h-index 5, who won't even get considered for a faculty interview, is close to inventing the warp drive. Letters of recommendations seem to me a good way to offset some of what those objective metrics tell about people. If you are the reader of such letters, you should look for facts confirming or not your evaluation of the candidate's ability based on what you know from their test scores, published results, etc. Those letters also tell the interviewer how the candidate works with people. They are not sufficient and should be doubled by an interview. Even with the interview, you still cannot fully predict how the candidate will fare in the future. You might get a stellar candidate, but for whatever reason they end up working with someone they can't get along with and end up wasting years in graduate school or as postdocs without any serious result. You could also get a regular candidate who ends up working with a group in which they fit well and their career takes off. I have seen plenty of my "average" colleagues becoming great researchers simply because they were wise or lucky to choose the right people to work with. I'm not saying they didn't put in the effort, I'm saying that others with better grades and test scores didn't fare as well simply because they weren't in the right environment. There is another reason why people need letters of recommendations. There are people who simply don't fit in the system, but would do well as researchers. I knew a student who was building robots. He didn't have any guidance, he learned everything from books and forums. His GPA was slightly above what was needed to pass, SAT was abysmal, so no normal undergraduate program would consider him. But he had a great recommendation letter from his science teacher who knew about his robots, so he got into an undergraduate program. Now he's doing well as a graduate student, and has quite a research record. Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_8: The problem becomes clearer when you compare what someone sifting students will probably be looking for. At postgraduate level, you want to know what their prospects are at research. But many graduates haven't done formal research as such, and is really hard to design a grade system to rate their prospects as a future researcher. They will also have to move much more to self development and be able to collaborate with others \_- the grade system might rate how much they know, but not what kind of person they are like to work with. Postgrads often do some level of teaching in the field. In an office they might mentor or supervise others (in some cases). Again, grades don't really tell the recruiter how they are likely to be as a person (not just in terms of technical knowledge) at this. For similar reasons a whole bunch of other skills that are fundamental to deciding who to accept, just cannot be assessed on grading, and even assessing by interview performance is often missing key information. The same goes for commercial as well as research roles - businesses will want to reduce risks of a problem, and the information let's them improve their chances. So a bias favouring candidates with such information will often exist. The human perspective, by someone else, independent, who knows the person, is still extremely valuable and key to many decisions of this kind. Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_9: It seems most of the answers talk in support of letter of recommendations. I'll put in my views which are against it. It also seems to me that most people do not have alternatives to letter of recommendations, so I'm planning to present some idea I had through my experience with grad school applications. Let me make one thing clear, I don't agree with the idea that GRE or GPA has good correlation with grad school success. Some studies which are in alignment with my argument are given below: 1. [The Limitations of the GRE in Predicting Success in Biomedical Graduate School - Moneta-Koehler et al.](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5226333/) 2. [Multi-institutional study of GRE scores as predictors of STEM PhD degree completion: GRE gets a low mark - Petersen et al.](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30372469/) Of course there are more. I'll also provide one study that has a different take on this: 1. [Can the GRE predict valued outcomes? Dropout and writing skill - Bridgeman et al.](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9159619/#!po=0.245098) I may add more studies if asked but these will suffice for talking about GRE goes into a tangent. The primary issue with letter of recommendation is with the recommender and their biases. The country I'm from, finding recommender who's willing to give you a decent letter of recommendation is more difficult that clearing a competitive/standardized test. For example a lot of the senior faculty have an innate picture of what they perceived to be a worthy candidate. And whether you like it or not human biases cannot be removed. On top of that for a student from a rural college it is extremely difficult to network with a professor and impress them enough to get a recommendation letter out of them. A lot of the professors don't reply to emails, a lot of them don't understand the perspectives and struggles of individual students. You can sweep it under the rug saying that they are busy or that one has to be pragmatic about these issues, but then at the end of the day the one who's going to suffer is the student. There are other issues like the affiliation of the recommender. A more prestigious and elite affiliation can have huge impacts on the admission results or at least the notion of how the candidate's worth is seen. As an example from my personal experience, a friend of mine recieved his recommendations from foreign faculties even though they barely knew him and his work. It fetched him admission in some of the top grad programs in Europe. Another friend who had a much better research portfolio was struggling to get admission in Europe and his recommenders were more grounded. I had worked with both of the candidates and I know their potential. I also agree there are many more factors at play here but you have to acknowledge the blatant abuse of the system. Is that not wrong? On top of that it is often the case that when the recommender knows that the student is going to see the letter that they are more lenient while if the student cannot see the letter, they will inevitably be more critical. Some of my arguments are in alignment with the studies: 1. [The Use of Reference Reports in Personnel Selection: A Review and Evaluation - Muchinsky.](https://bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.2044-8325.1979.tb00463.x) 2. [Predicting Performance with Letters of Recommendation - Aamodt et al.](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/009102609302200106) In fact there are plenty of issues discussed in these that I haven't even touched upon. The second study here has suggests improvements over the traditional letter of recommendation. My suggestion however is to completely get rid of the recommendation system. Instead I propose the following: 1. Public Peer Review: Grad school applicants should have a public profile that can be monitored or checked. As an example consider stackexchange. A student who's applying to work on, say, quantum field theory should have a stackexchange portfolio where they could answer non-textbook questions regarding the subject in sufficient detail. It is similar to how some industrial applications look for ranks in coding competitions. 2. Writing Assignments: Instead of simply relying of GRE the candidate can be given a few months to submit a graduate level essay/research article on a basket of topics pertaining to the subject of interest. 3. CV and SOP: Where their research experience and role should be emphasized and possible publications should be mentioned. 4. Interview: Where the candidate should be asked question from their writing assignment and from their research experience. The interview can be as grilling as possible to ascertain that the candidate actually knows what they have written. As a plagiarism/outsourcing check, extremely non trivial assignment topics have to be given, where only publication (or at least high) quality essays/articles should be entertained. Another possible alternative is to reduce the number of recommendation from 3 to 2 or 1 and then putting less emphasis on the recommendation letter and more on the interview. Upvotes: 0
2017/10/04	3,148	13,474	<issue_start>username_0: I am a humanities professor at a middling university in the United States. My department has a poorly funded Ph.D. program, which attracts second-tier students at best. (The good Ph.D. students go to programs that can afford to fund them fully, it seems.) Each year, I typically have my Ph.D. students apply to all of the relevant major grants (Fulbright, Mellon stuff, etc.) that would fund their dissertation research. None has ever gotten a grant, nor have I ever had a student who I thought had a remote chance of getting one. Their essays are usually poorly written, despite lots of editing help from me. (By poorly written, I mean there are really fundamental writing issues, like incomplete sentences. I point these out to them to the extent possible but I can't write their essays for them, and I don't catch every error they make.) Frankly, I think our Ph.D. students are just not of the caliber that are going to win grant contests where only the top 1 or 2 percent of applicants are funded. I am wondering if I should continue to have the students apply to these grants each year. On one hand, it feels like a waste of their time (not to mention mine, and the application reviewers') to have them write grant essays for fellowships that they basically have no chance of getting. On the other hand, I can't know for certain that they will never get grants -- strange things happen -- and more importantly, I think that writing the application essays is good for forcing them to think through their dissertation projects. But maybe that time would be better spent doing research so they can finish our program without accumulating massive amounts of debt (because we have poor funding, many of them borrow money to attend -- for which reason I think we should not even admit students if we can't fund them, but that is a separate issue). For the record, I do strongly encourage my students to apply for smaller-ticket grants -- the kind that pay $500 or $1000 to support a certain type of project, or go to a specific research site, etc. These grants are usually more obscure, more specialized and less competitive, and the students have a better record of getting them. (I also work very hard with them on these smaller grant applications because I know their chances are better.) But when it comes to the big-name, Fulbright-esque grants, the prospects just seem hopelessly dim, and I wonder if the time everyone spends on their applications is worth it.<issue_comment>username_1: It sounds like you have a lot of baggage with this issue that you need to deal with. You need to talk to your students. Make it clear to them how you are willing to help and what you expect of them. As an advisor, it is NOT your job to copy edit their work. They can ask other students, use the univeristy writing center if there is one, or pay someone to copy edit their work. Your job is to help them with the ideas and how to move forward on the project. When talking about fellowship, explain to them they are long shots, but often a good motivator to get projects in good shape. Then, if they want to spend the time and take a shot, or multiple shots, at a fellowship, then you should support them. I used to feel that if a student was not good enough to get a job in academia or industry that required their PhD, then getting the PhD, and possibly taking on debt, was not worth it. Over the years I have come to realize that it does not matter what I think. If the student thinks it is worth it, then it is. All I can do is be honest about what the process involves and the likely outcomes. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: I would recommend that you not discourage your students, for two main reasons: * The practice of writing will make them better writers in the longer run. You simply can't become a good writer unless you write, write, and write some more. * Rejection and failure is a big part of the life of a "knowledge professional," both during their graduate studies and afterward. Sheltering them from processes that lead to bad outcomes will not help them learn to manage with adverse conditions. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: If what you say about your students' writing skills and their chances of getting a major grant is accurate, I would say that it's a complete waste of everyone's time - theirs, yours, and the reviewers - to have them write such major grant proposals. Forget about using such proposal writing as a vehicle to improve their writing skills. The experience won't benefit them if their current writing skills are really as bad as you say they are. Instead, have them focus on the smaller-ticket grants. If any of them show evidence of more promise and growth after such experiences, then you can direct these more promising students towards targets that are higher up on the grant ladder. Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_4: You need to start this day one, so the students have time to get help with grammar. First show them examples of excellent grant proposals, so they have a good frame of reference. Maybe even email them copies so they can refer back to them. Then you need help to try and mitigate the grammar issues. Have them prepare say 5 pages of it as test. Send them to your universities tutoring centers and/or writing labs. Let the centers know your students are coming, and exactly what you expect from them. Send the centers an example of a properly written grant samples. Expectation: Every paper should be grammatically correct with proper sentence/paragraph structure. The key here is the students need to write enough to know whether they will succeed or not, but not put more than a few days effort into it. Now, you should have paper that at least are grammatically up to snuff. Then you need to evaluate the technical part of the work to see if they have any hope of success. Then have just the candidates who pass actually do the real work. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_5: The fundamental problem here is that you have been using the grant funding system for a purpose other than what it was designed for. This system is built on an assumption that grant proposals are submitted (and supported by advisors and mentors) in good faith, with a genuine belief in a realistic chance of getting the grant by participating parties. It is not meant for educating or training grant writers or helping them crystallize their research plans, nor is it a lottery ticket. To summarize, I'm sorry to say it but I think the way you have been using the system is a form of abuse -- a mild one, and apparently well-intentioned, but still. Please train your students using the means appropriate to achieve that goal, and use grants for their intended purpose only. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_6: Maybe you should first answer yourself the following questions: * Aren't you suppose to write a recommendation letter? Can you do it with your clear conscience? * Would you feel it fair if your incompetent students by some chance passed through the grant process instead of those who really deserve it? * Is PhD some kind of a "basic human right", or rather a certificate about an exceptional knowledge and skill? Do you really want to depreciate the title? Isn't it enough that nowadays each taxi driver has some kind of university degree? * Do you want later to have to filter out the articles of those low quality students from the stuff you go through in your future research? * Is your responsibility science, education and guarding of scientific quality, or are you a social worker? * Wouldn't you serve the students better if you gave them realistic feedback, so they would not lose time and would not be frustrated by being unsuccessful in what does not suit them? * And a personal question: It seems that you are very frustrated by the current situation. If you keep struggling with constantly having all your students under your expectations, isn't it time for yourself to consider changing the university? :) Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_7: If your students don't know something, or haven't developed a skill relevant to their success in your discipline, then it becomes your responsibility to teach them. Consider creating writing workshops for your students where they learn to work collaboratively to peer review one another's work and provide feedback for improvement. Meet regularly - perhaps even once a week - to work on developing writing skills for research grants. Your University may also have a writing center that can be used to help supplement writing workshops. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_8: I think that the most direct response to your literal question is that, if you literally cannot support your students' grant/fellowship proposals, it would be at least hypocritical to encourage them to apply, in effect knowing that your letter of recommendation will sabotage their application. That is, whatever the quality of their write-up, they may not suspect that your letter for them will be fatal. So, in short, don't encourage anyone to attempt something when you know that you yourself have pre-judged them and will make them fail. If we can move beyond that, then, yes, it is good practice to write such things, and to go through the editing/advising for it. "Education", I believe they call it. For that matter, for NSF graduate fellowships, apparently the total number of fellowships granted in a given subject (e.g., math, physics, chemistry, ...) is, for systemic reasons, proportional to the total number of proposals sent in in that subject. Thus, in such a subject one is doing a service to one's subject by writing proposals... And, as a bit of unsolicited advice, I'd try to be more hopeful about who/what your students will grow up to be. Immaturity dominates many peoples' behavior for long stretches of time. (Sometimes indefinitely, unfortunately... but let's not go there...) Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_9: Doctoral student here, about a year into my program. I went to one of these "meh" Canadian schools (small liberal arts university in Southern Alberta - chances are they rank lower than your school) for my BSc & MSc. I had good grades (graduated with Great Distinction) & a lot of research experience, but had to stay in my hometown for other reasons - an immediate family member was diagnosed with a terminal illness during my Bachelor's degree, and it fell on my shoulders to take care of her. I found during my time at this school that the graduate students in my lab (including myself) were treated as though we were mediocre at best. My PI always asked undergraduates to stay for their graduate degree, but once they were locked in, she acted as though if they were any good, they would have gone somewhere "better." I spent the first year of my MSc applying to grant after grant, all the while not getting anything. My department offered students a yearly stipend of $7 000. I started having to pick up odd jobs outside of science to make ends meet, and started falling behind in my research as a result. I would send my PI grant applications weeks before they were due, and not receive any feedback. I felt as though I was competing with people who had strong mentorship, whereas I had none. About halfway through my first year, I applied to law school - I was ready to leave science. I had only applied to one school, and it was one of the best in the world, but I got in. Suddenly, I thought maybe I did have some potential - and maybe I was just looking in the wrong place to nurture it. As my first year came to an end, I thought I'd give grant funding one last try. I wanted to stay in science. I turned down my offer to law school, and applied to some PhD programs instead. I also thought I'd shoot as high as I could and applied for a CIHR DFSA to take up a PhD at MIT. I didn't think I had much of a shot, but I also had nothing to lose. I applied for one last major grant for the second year of my MSc as well, but this time I did something differently. When I didn't hear back from my PI, I reached out to other professors in the department and asked for their help. A professor that had nothing to do with my lab or my project took time out of his day to give me feedback. I received funding to finish my MSc - more than any student in our lab had gotten previously. I also got the CIHR DFSA, and an acceptance to MIT. My PI was surprised, to say the least. I'm sure you're a great PI, and I'm sure your students (at least some of them) have potential. I hope you don't give up on them - there may be a few, like me, who have had to stay in the area for socioeconomic or family reasons. Sure, some students may just not be cut out for research, but a lot of people tend to live up (or down) to the expectations set for them. My old PI would take anyone, because having more students appeared to look good on their CV... but she didn't really help any of us reach our full potential. Every institution has a bell curve - make a habit of taking the students composing the top of yours, and mentor those students. I think you'll be happy with the results. I agree that department who don't fund their graduate students tend to have poor graduate programs and poor graduate students (literally & figuratively) - but there have got to be some diamonds in the rough, wherever you are. Find those and I think you won't have trouble getting them funded. Upvotes: 1
2017/10/04	2,076	8,432	<issue_start>username_0: I am asking this question because I simply do not know. The story is that some department (northern continental Europe for what is worth) is (unofficially for the moment) negotiating an Assistant Professor position. The offered teaching/research load is 50-50 which sounds OK in theory. In reality though, this translates to a minimum of 3 and an average of 4 full courses per year (38+ class hours on classes of about 100-120 students) plus supervision of bachelor's and master's candidates as well as administrative tasks. I can't possibly imagine how this is 50%. On the other side of the spectrum, they do not offer any starting package whatsoever: no PhD students, not even basic equipment like laptop or traveling allowance, only a relatively good (for EU standards) salary with no additional benefits (married/child, whatever). They said that I should (imperative hint) apply for external funding (i.e., more work). Thus my questions: 1. Is this considered a true 50-50 research/teaching? I do not see how is this possible. It seems that for research would be only a modest 30% of the time and mostly during summer which is absurd for younger people (more ideas for new research). Even taking out research, this proposal is at least 60% teaching to me. 2. Is this considered a normal offer? I would like to see other people's opinions/experiences. The argument for the offer is basically: take any position that comes in the way, given that the academic job market can be brutal. But I am really afraid this would mean the end of my research at least in its current form, given also that I won't be able to even have any PhD student at least in the next 3 or so years at least, if I ever have them.<issue_comment>username_1: Continental Europe is big and diverse. I now work in Germany and teach 12 courses a year, so 3 a year sounds pretty good... In the Netherlands, where the division of task is measured in percentages, these percentages were not expected to be strictly true. A given amount of courses had to be delivered by the department, and this work was divided over the members. The "percentage" was only used to determine whether you got a larger or smaller part of the work. In the long run the percentages did play a role: If all members had to teach a lot more than their percentage for a number of years, then this could be used as an argument to try to increase the size of the department, which depending on the financial situation of the university, could be more or less successful. A division in teaching/research is not that useful, as administrative tasks take a lot of time. My suspicion is that it is a division between teaching/non-teaching. The need to get external funding is normal. You are right in your assessment that this costs time you cannot spent on research, but I don't think you can get a better deal in this respect anywhere else. The need for starting packages and their size differs a lot by discipline. In mine I am not surprised that an assistant professor gets no starting package. However, this could differ a lot by country and discipline. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: I am a fairly fresh tenure-track Assistant Professor in Sweden. Before that I have worked in Switzerland and Austria, and I also know the state of affairs in Germany fairly well. > > The official teaching/research load is 50-50 which sounds OK. This translates to 3 courses (minimum) per year + bachelor + master student supervision + some administrative tasks. > > > In my current university, 50-50 is indeed normal, but only for tenured faculty. For tenure-trackers, a reduced teaching load of 20% or 25% seems more normal, but it depends on the position and, presumably, on the negotiation skill of the candidate. Note that 50-50 should indeed be understood as 50% teaching, 50% everything else. Note that it is likely possible to buy out of teaching with grants - that is, if you bring in sufficient grants, it can be possible to fund yourself to a certain degree and consequently reduce your teaching percentage. You can ask about this during negotiations, but keep in mind that it is a risky business, as there is no guarantee of winning certain grants at the right time. > > On the other side of the spectrum, they do not offer any starting package: no PhD students, not even equipment, only a relatively good (for EU standards) salary with no additional benefits (married/child, whatever). > > > This is again the standard also in my university - ok, you get some equipment and an informal travel allowance, but no PhD students and no real start-up package. In some cases you may be able to negotiate, but how successful this can be is limited. > > Is this considered a normal offer? > > > Assuming we are talking about a junior professorship, and not a chaired W2/W3 professorship in Germany, then yes, this sounds fairly normal. Not great, mind you, but also not exceptionally bad. The only thing that sounds fairly high to me is the 50% teaching load. That said, in my experience your fear of this being the end of your research career may be unwarranted. In my institution, people still regularly build up good research careers, by winning one or two grants and working intensely with a small but strong group of PhD students. One good way to estimate this is by looking at senior assistant professors and freshly-tenured associate professors. How many students do they have? What have the published recently? If none publishes actively or was able to win significant grants, assume that they get side-tracked too much to get strong research done. If they do, assume that you will also be able to make it work. Edit: I will add some more information on what a X% teaching load actually means, at least in my department. Basically, there is a standard number of yearly work hours that is assumed for a full-time employee. If you take your X% from this total work hours, you end up with the number of hours that you are assumed to spend on bachelor- and master-level teaching. Every supervised bachelor or master's thesis, every capstone project, etc., is valued at a fixed, in our case fairly generous, supervision rate of "work hours". For courses, one person in the department is managing the distribution, and this person basically attempts to calculate "real", or at least realistic, effort hours per course, which also includes prep time. For already established courses this coordinator will basically talk to the teachers and ask them how much time they really spent in the past, and what they spent it on (we are a fairly tight-knit division, so people tend to not lie too outrageously here, although most people probably "overestimate" a little bit). For new courses, an estimation will be made, also taking into account how much material can be reused and what really needs to be done from scratch. All of this data goes into a big Excel sheet, with the goal that over multiple years each person should end up somewhere close to their expected number of teaching hours, including course teaching and supervision. I said above that in practice a 50-50 teaching load means 50% teaching, 50% everything else - this is simply because the teaching hours are realistically the only thing we even attempt to track. Service and research are not really tracked in any meaningful way (large department service roles get a reduced teaching load, though). This also means that, obviously, if you work until deep into the night on your research, you are not suddenly expected to teach more because your total work hours are higher. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: In the UK, in a top-50 university, I had no starting package (as a Lecturer), and the promises of even competing for a PhD student were not fulfilled (they were assigned to more senior faculty). However I was able to compete for some internal funding and fought tooth and nail to continue publishing. Teaching load started at 8 hours per week and increased towards 12. These reasons (and Brexit) prompted me to move. I managed to land as a tenure-track Assistant in a top-15 EU university (!). I was offered a starting package that should enable me to "buy" 2 PhDs. It's too early to tell how heavy the teaching load will be. Given the research intensive focus this university is supposed to have, I hope it won't be too bad. Upvotes: 3
2017/10/04	1,164	4,904	<issue_start>username_0: I'm searching for a PhD position in theoretical physics. My question is: Should I do my PhD with a prominent professor who is 60 years old and does not care too much about their students or with a junior professor who is not famous and does not have published too much papers, but cares too much about his students and is very supporting and nice professor?<issue_comment>username_1: Your post is quite vague and it's hard to know what you mean by saying this 60 year old professor doesn't care about his students. Is he not supportive, does he not reply to emails, does he not give good feedback, is he too busy, is he going into retirement? One can only assume it's one or some of these. By the sounds of things you have already made your decision. Though experience is highly important in academia, the same importance could be lent for how much a professor inspires you. This younger professor may not be prominent, but every professor has to be young [or younger] at some point and if you like this younger professor, and feel excited at the prospect of working with him, choose him. If he inspires you, you are likely to produce a far superior quality of work than if you work under this older, more experienced professor who, to you at least, appears rather dry and unmotivating. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: I'll talk from my own experiences, as in my career I have worked with both kinds of supervisors: I was under a really famous professor, who did not care about his coworkers at all (to the point of not knowing my name) and with a little-less famous person (who became a professor only after we started cooperating). The former was a complete disaster, as he was not interested in my work at all, did not offer any advice (and you, as a junior researcher would need advice from the wiser ones) and was unpleasant in personal contacts and eventually ceased all communication, thus hindering my academic progress. The latter offered interesting guidance and by the end helped me to settle down in academia by recommending me to a position. After all, you do not work with names, but with people. Even younger professor is probably much more experienced than you and can share some of it to you. Also, bear in mind that this is only my personal statement and your mileage may wary. While reading questions here I, for example, got the impression that names play quite big role in academia (not in work, but on recommendation letters, etc.), so you have to take that into account as well. Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: In light of your comment that the older professor does not publish with his students, I'd recommend looking at the careers of their respective former students. The best predictor of future performance is past performance, so assess the two potential mentors in terms of their past success in setting their students' up for productive careers. In making that comparison, also take into account that the illustrious, older professor has likely had some of the best students working with him. If they haven't succeeded, I would steer clear. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: I was the first PhD my advisor had produced; and I could not have had a better experience. My only warning would be to make sure your younger professor has published in journals where you would like to publish, too, and preferably more than just one or two papers. Experience in writing for those journals is something you want, because typically you need to publish a few papers to prove elements of your dissertation are actually "an original contribution". At least that is how it was judged at the two universities I attended; just a PhD committee's agreement that it was original and a worthy contribution was not considered sufficient; acceptance in a peer-reviewed journal was the criterion. Anyway, a younger professor with no PhD graduates yet will pay more attention to you, and may be close to your age (within 10 years) so treat you less dismissively than the older professors, and in my experience may have more energy, working more hours, and be more available to you than older professors. I was able to discuss my project with my advisor nearly every day, probably 4 out of 5 weekdays. I know other candidates that went much longer than that. I know one candidate that chose the department head as his advisor, and got one hour a MONTH with him, and after a year of that worked up the courage (or enough frustration) to switch to a new advisor and started all over with different research. Mostly wasted a whole year. Added: It can also be true for a young professor seeking tenure that successfully graduating a PhD is a plus mark for his tenure case, in 3 or 5 years. Unlike a tenured older professor, this is another incentive for the younger professor to pay attention to your progress and keep you on track. Upvotes: 3
2017/10/04	1,346	5,750	<issue_start>username_0: I want to write a literature survey on a topic, let's say it's risk of crime due to a new technology, let's say due to the Gutenberg press. However, when I search for the overall theme (crime and "Gutenberg press"), it returns few results. Yet, I know of some papers that fit into the topic that are appropriate, it's just that they each use different terminology (e.g., mass-produced slander or text that undermines the Church's authority). These relevant papers don't link their results to the overall theme, namely crime. The problem is that to perform an exhaustive and methodological survey is difficult, since it depends on me knowing links between papers I have read and the theme I want to investigate. I was wondering what methodologies I can use to address this problem? For example, in comparison often a literature survey's methodology section will have something like "we are interested in everything to do with X within topic Y" and base search terms on those two aspects and summarise the results from each database. Then, following sections cover the area based on those results. I would like to achieve something similar, but the ability to search the literature in my case is limited.<issue_comment>username_1: Your post is quite vague and it's hard to know what you mean by saying this 60 year old professor doesn't care about his students. Is he not supportive, does he not reply to emails, does he not give good feedback, is he too busy, is he going into retirement? One can only assume it's one or some of these. By the sounds of things you have already made your decision. Though experience is highly important in academia, the same importance could be lent for how much a professor inspires you. This younger professor may not be prominent, but every professor has to be young [or younger] at some point and if you like this younger professor, and feel excited at the prospect of working with him, choose him. If he inspires you, you are likely to produce a far superior quality of work than if you work under this older, more experienced professor who, to you at least, appears rather dry and unmotivating. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: I'll talk from my own experiences, as in my career I have worked with both kinds of supervisors: I was under a really famous professor, who did not care about his coworkers at all (to the point of not knowing my name) and with a little-less famous person (who became a professor only after we started cooperating). The former was a complete disaster, as he was not interested in my work at all, did not offer any advice (and you, as a junior researcher would need advice from the wiser ones) and was unpleasant in personal contacts and eventually ceased all communication, thus hindering my academic progress. The latter offered interesting guidance and by the end helped me to settle down in academia by recommending me to a position. After all, you do not work with names, but with people. Even younger professor is probably much more experienced than you and can share some of it to you. Also, bear in mind that this is only my personal statement and your mileage may wary. While reading questions here I, for example, got the impression that names play quite big role in academia (not in work, but on recommendation letters, etc.), so you have to take that into account as well. Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: In light of your comment that the older professor does not publish with his students, I'd recommend looking at the careers of their respective former students. The best predictor of future performance is past performance, so assess the two potential mentors in terms of their past success in setting their students' up for productive careers. In making that comparison, also take into account that the illustrious, older professor has likely had some of the best students working with him. If they haven't succeeded, I would steer clear. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: I was the first PhD my advisor had produced; and I could not have had a better experience. My only warning would be to make sure your younger professor has published in journals where you would like to publish, too, and preferably more than just one or two papers. Experience in writing for those journals is something you want, because typically you need to publish a few papers to prove elements of your dissertation are actually "an original contribution". At least that is how it was judged at the two universities I attended; just a PhD committee's agreement that it was original and a worthy contribution was not considered sufficient; acceptance in a peer-reviewed journal was the criterion. Anyway, a younger professor with no PhD graduates yet will pay more attention to you, and may be close to your age (within 10 years) so treat you less dismissively than the older professors, and in my experience may have more energy, working more hours, and be more available to you than older professors. I was able to discuss my project with my advisor nearly every day, probably 4 out of 5 weekdays. I know other candidates that went much longer than that. I know one candidate that chose the department head as his advisor, and got one hour a MONTH with him, and after a year of that worked up the courage (or enough frustration) to switch to a new advisor and started all over with different research. Mostly wasted a whole year. Added: It can also be true for a young professor seeking tenure that successfully graduating a PhD is a plus mark for his tenure case, in 3 or 5 years. Unlike a tenured older professor, this is another incentive for the younger professor to pay attention to your progress and keep you on track. Upvotes: 3
2017/10/05	1,716	7,357	<issue_start>username_0: I work in the field of algebra (more specifically the representation theory of groups). I published most of my papers in journals of algebra and another algebra journal of similar quality as journal of algebra and think about having some papers now in slightly better journals. (It would be good if the editorial board has some names close to my field of research, but this is optional.) Here are some examples that come to my mind: Mathematische Zeitschrift, the Journals of the London mathematical society, IMRN. * Is it considered to be much better to have a publication in such a general journal than in a specialized journal like Journal of Algebra? I made the experience that sending my papers to Journal of Algebra, one gets a much quicker publication and the editors are closer to my field. So from my side I would just send all my papers to Journal of Algebra or another specialised journal, but I assume that this will look weird in my CV. Does it harm me if I do this even when some of my papers could go into a slightly better journal like Mathematische Zeitschrift? I feel uncomfortable sending my papers to editors that are far away from my field of research. Some secondary questions: * How bad is it to have a very good paper (that might be suitable for the best general journals) published in a journal like Journal of Algebra? * Can one give an approximate how much worth a paper in Advances of Math (or a similar or better journal) is compared to a paper in journal of algebra? Like 3 Journal of Algebra papers = one Advances of Math paper and 6 Journal of Algebra papers = 1 Inventiones paper?<issue_comment>username_1: As a senior PhD candidate, my opinion is as follows: > > Is it considered to be much better to have a publication in such a general journal than in a specialized journal like Journal of Algebra? I made the experience that sending my papers to Journal of Algebra, one gets a much quicker publication and the editors are closer to my field. So from my side I would just send all my papers to Journal of Algebra or another specialised journal, but I assume that this will look weird in my CV. Does it harm me if I do this even when some of my papers could go into a slightly better journal like Mathematische Zeitschrift? I feel uncomfortable sending my papers to editors that are far away from my field of research. > > > This question has multiple aspects to be considered: 1. Type of study: As in, where does it fall between being a theoretical paper to applied sciences. Theoretical papers are already very hard to publish and they are often too specific. In this case I do not think it is particularly bad to submit to the same journal. On the other hand, application studies can go both ways: too specific or too generic. If it is too specific, it can be better to submit to a journal which is sector specific. (i.e. You do not submit a marine application to civil engineering journal.) If it is too generic, by which I mean you do not improve a theory or propose a new method, but instead illustrate a method's performance, you should submit to a journal with a higher impact factor. 2. Quality over Quantity: If you are required to publish a specific amount of papers annually for reasons, it should not matter in which journal you publish as long as it meets the standards. Since they are taking quantity over quality, then I do not think anyone would give a second glance to the papers. On the other hand, when quality weighs heavier, you should try to leave your comfort zone and submit to different journals too. Everybody has something to improve your work even if you get rejected. Even more considering that you may have submitted a paper to a better journal and was rejected, you can then use that information to improve your study and submit again. 3. More on comfort zones: I think that if you are bothered by this question and you have other alternatives, then you are not comfortable being in your comfort zone. Take your chances with other journals as well. At worst you receive a rejection. If you believe in your study, why not publish it in a journal with a high impact factor and prestige. (I have been trying to get a paper accepted for a journal for 4 years. I was rejected by 12 different journals so far, with reasons varying from we are too good for you, to it's not you, it's me. I have re-written the paper twice from scratch. With each rejection I improved something and now I am more eager to publish it because it has really improved. I am now waiting for an answer from the 13th journal.) > > How bad is it to have a very good paper (that might be suitable for the best general journals) published in a journal like Journal of Algebra? > > > If you think that you could do better than this, then yes, it is bad to publish a very good paper in a mediocre journal. Also refer to answers above. > > Can one give an approximate how much worth a paper in Advances of Math (or a similar or better journal) is compared to a paper in journal of algebra? Like 3 Journal of Algebra papers = one Advances of Math paper and 6 Journal of Algebra papers = 1 Inventiones paper? > > > I do not know if there is an exact formula about this. I would guess impact factor is what you are looking for. The higher the impact factor, the better the recognition you will get. Also check which index a journal is under. Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: I don't think that "generalist vs specialist" is the right question to ask. Rather, I think that you should think of journals as being in various tiers of quality. Notice that I'll express some opinions on specific journals below, and other mathematicians might disagree with them. It is worthwhile to talk to a good number of senior people to help get a sense as to what tier various journals occupy. I don't think that impact factors are what really matters here, but rather the subjective opinions of whoever will be evaluating your cv (at least in the US, this is mostly other mathematicians). Some subject-specific journals are really excellent (e.g. Geometry and Topology, Algebra and Number Theory, Journal of Algebraic Geometry), some are decent but not excellent (I think that the Journal of Algebra fits this bill), others are pretty terrible (I won't make a list here so as to avoid starting a debate). It is true that the very best generalist journals (Annals, Inventiones, JAMS, Acta, Publications IHES, Duke, JEMS) occupy a higher tier than even the best subject-specific journals. However, it's not clear to me that the excellent but not top generalist journals (eg Math Zeitschrift) are clearly better than the best subject-specific journals. You should try very hard to have your papers in the best journals that you can get to accept them. Editors at strong journals are used to getting papers that are not directly related to their research, so you shouldn't stress out about sending your papers to them. As to your final question (about how many papers in one tier are needed to get the equivalent quality of one paper in a higher tier), the correct answer is probably "infinity". When I evaluate someone's cv, I am trying to figure out how good their best work is. One paper in the Annals trumps any number of papers in lesser journals. Upvotes: 4
2017/10/05	1,496	6,381	<issue_start>username_0: I am a teaching assistant for multivariable calculus this semester. As an undergraduate, I took the course but we learned few. To add, it has been more than 5 years since I took the class. So, every week I have to solve about a dozen question from one chapter. Even though I have got the solutions, I study enough to perform well and be able to answer questions from class. However, the problem is, this is not my only job as a graduate student and I should not spend hours and hours on it. For example, this week I have to solve questions from parametrization of curves, curvature, torsion and some additional subjects. I want to understand every bit of the work. So, how can I study enough to solve questions and answer questions from students without spending too much time?<issue_comment>username_1: Set a time limit for yourself. Decide what a "reasonable" amount of time is to review the materials, keeping in mind your other obligations and priorities. Get as much done as possible in that time. Accept that you may be asked something that you do not know and that you will have to tell the student you will get back to them because you don't have a great way to explain that off the top of your head. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: I TA'd for that exact class last year and it was a nightmare, primarily since I'd taken that class at a school that wasn't as good. But that experience taught me a lot about efficiency. The next quarter, when I TA'd a different class that I also had taken at a different school, I was ruthless about only brushing up on the things I knew the students would ask me about: the homework and the tests. Instead of spending hours studying every corner of the material, I just read the answers to the homework and tests. It kind of feels like cheating, but you're not the one taking the class. The point is to do whatever helps the students the most. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: I want to leave an answer that points in a different direction. You are a math graduate student (your profile says you are studying analytic number theory). Your teaching assignment provides you with an opportunity to improve your own understanding of a basic and important area of mathematics. I'd like to recommend that you take that opportunity and allow yourself the time you need to truly improve your mastery of the subject. I am a 40ish tenured, full professor. I also work in number theory, which -- like many parts of modern mathematics -- is a very "cosmopolitan" field, drawing upon many different areas of mathematics. Over the years I have done research in various aspects of number theory. While I have some core tools and knowledge that have stayed with me over the years, there are a lot more things that I learned and knew better before than I do now, and there are still more things that I sort of learned as a student and would like to know better -- for my own edification but even directly for my research. By far the best opportunity I have to learn something is in a course I'm teaching, at either the undergraduate or the graduate level. In teaching a course I am committing myself to several prep sessions a week for 15 weeks, and there are consequences involved in my slacking on this (i.e., the students!). There is really nothing else like this. So I have taken the opportunity to dig in and learn this material many times over the years. For instance, currently I am teaching a senior level complex analysis course for the first time. I haven't thought about contour integrals since I was an undergraduate (which would be to my detriment in many parts of analytic number theory, as I'm sure you can appreciate), about 20 years ago. So I am taking the opportunity by putting in a lot more than the minimum prep necessary to give solid lectures out of the textbook chosen. At the moment I am a little more than halfway through the course and I have about 50 pages of typed "lecture notes"...of which maybe 25-30% are not actually being covered in the lectures. Perhaps I spend 3-5 hours a week more than would be needed to get by. Having said that, of course moderation is key. For most tasks that you do in academia you have to set firm limits on the amount of time you will spend, or each individual task threatens to take all your time. That will never do. In your case, you should ask "How much time do I want to spend digging into MVC in the context of this TA assignment? How much time can I afford to spend?" This is a good thing to talk about with your advisor, as it largely depends on what else you are trying to do. One more piece of advice: no one said that the time you spend on various things needs to be the same from semester to semester or even from week to week. When it comes to teaching in particular: the first time you teach a class is somewhere from 2-5 times as much work as when you teach it each subsequent time. So one key question is: what are your teaching assignments going to be in the future? Will you be TAing MVC again? If so, then spending more time on it now is justified by the fact that you'll have a much easier teaching assignment later on. (Pro tip: if it's not clear whether you'll be teaching the same thing again, if you want to, ask for it.) When I was a PhD student I taught second semester calculus in the fall semester four times, and that was all but one of my teaching assignments. When it comes to teaching/TAing a course, the real work comes when you have to learn unfamiliar material well enough to stay ahead of the students. If you wait until that happens, you're going to find yourself having to commit lots of hours on short notice. So I would recommend tackling it in advance. As a graduate student, you can learn MVC much more quickly than an undergrad: an intense month at the beginning of the semester could power you most of the way through. Most advisors will be very understanding if your teaching responsibilities are eating up your time for a few weeks. (To be really honest about it: who among us has not wanted to go easy on the research front for a few weeks at a time? Digging deep into your teaching can be a way of recharging your batteries. It worked for Richard Feynman...) Anyway, good luck, and sounds fun. I haven't thought about curvature and torsion in years. Hmm... Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]
2017/10/05	1,588	7,247	<issue_start>username_0: I am an assistant professor of chemistry. My department strongly values international collaborations. I contacted some research groups working on the same topics as mine, but half of them wanted my fund, and the other half thought I want theirs. My imagination of research collaboration was that two groups do parts of a research idea by their available funds, and then preparing a joint paper by combining the results. For example, a common suggestion I received is that they can host a PhD student or a postdoc fellow (for a minimum period of one year for the sake of official paperwork and adaptability) if I have a fund. How can I fund someone to work somewhere else on a project different from my funded project? And how is it a collaboration after all? In my experience, it is very difficult to spend research funds in another country. It is even impractical to send joint proposals (unless there are governmental agreements between two countries). I wonder how do researchers from various countries plan international collaborations (which is apparently very common based on the joint papers)?<issue_comment>username_1: Generally, and as many questions here on Academia.SE reflect, collaboration typically does not grow from blind-mailing people that you have never spoken to and which, presumably, have little to no idea who you actually are. The fact that many of them thought you are interested in leeching of their funds is not surprising, because that's what a lot of these blind mails boil down to. Dawn is on the right track in a comment - before you can have collaborations, you need connections. A common way to establish connections is by going to conferences and chatting with people - initially not even necessarily about common work, although the discussion often tends to go there fairly naturally. Optimally, you would have started this process long before you were an Assistant Professor - in fact, arguably one of the key tasks of an academic supervisor lies in introducing their students into their academic network, exactly so that they have an easier time bootstrapping future collaborations of their own. Even if you have no real network right now, you can probably still fix this, but you should see this as a marathon, not a sprint. You will need to go to a number of conferences, talk to a lot of people, and and generally be present in the community for some time before your name starts to come up naturally when people think about who to collaborate with on a given topic. However, once you have started to be somewhat known in the community, even as fast as after your first conference, you can still approach the people that you talked to there with concrete ideas for collaboration. Be prepared that especially initially you may need to put in a bit more effort than they do, particularly if you collaborate with somebody more senior than you. This does not mean that you should do all the work and just put them on the paper, but if a collaboration is your idea it is often assumed that you are also driving the project and ask your collaborator(s) for concrete, actionable input. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Look at all of this from the view of the other researchers. They're happily working away in their lab or office and they get contacted out of the blue from some assistant Professor in America who is basically saying "Hi! I want to collaborate!". What do you think is going through their minds? If I, a researcher here in America, were suddenly contacted by some assistant Professor in, say, Switzerland or Singapore who I had never heard of before about collaborating, a number of questions would be going through my mind: Who is this guy? What is his sub-field? Does he have any character or personality issues? What of benefit is he offering to bring into a collaboration? Is he a good, productive researcher who is worth my time? Now since you're in a relatively junior position and early in your career, you're pretty much of an unknown entity and you probably can't claim to have a wealth of valuable experience and knowledge that a more senior researcher would have, so that puts you at a disadvantage. You probably do have lots of energy and may be more up-to-date and willing to jump fully into the latest emerging technologies and developments (whereas senior researchers tend to be more conservative and tend to stay with what they're familiar with), so those may be some of your strengths. I would say that before trying to contact scores of foreign researchers about possible collaborations which you don't know will really benefit you and your research, you first need to do some homework and groundwork. First, think really hard about how the other guy sees you and ask yourself what of value you really have to offer in an international collaboration. The honest answer may be "nothing", in which case you're jumping the gun and need to first work on developing a good research program rather than reaching out for international collaboration. Secondly, if you do have something of value to offer in an collaboration, you need to get out and get more recognition by publishing and attending international conferences where you can meet potential collaborators face-to-face, better exchange ideas, including collaboration ideas, and establish a rapport and make them comfortable with the idea of collaborating with you. Collaborations can come together naturally in those circumstances. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: > > I contacted some research groups working on the same topics as mine, > > > I think that's kind of the problem. If they are doing the same as you why should there be collaboration? Just to have more people working on that topic? At least in my field you will also almost never see two similar groups join forces to produce papers together. > > My imagination of research collaboration was that two groups do parts of a research idea by their available funds, and then preparing a joint paper by combining the results. > > > That might be another problem. There's no point in collaborating just to collaborate. And I don't know why you are that focused on funding. What usually happens and how you get collaborations is working together with people doing different things than you do, but together you can do research you won't be able to do alone. So you need to find someone who can help you out with your research problems or you have the expertise to help someone else out. Then you can approach them and ask for a collaboration. Depending on the size of the project and the amount of work the other group has to do you might not even need funding. Or you can apply for funding together, if it's a nice idea, there are programs for that. One example from my field (chemistry) would be the collaboration between synthetic chemists and theoretical/computational chemists. Together you can work on a problem from an experimental and a theoretical angle. One good example would be <NAME> and his research group. He is collaborating with dozens of other research groups and is providing the computational work for the experimental work done in all these other groups. Upvotes: 3
2017/10/05	972	4,124	<issue_start>username_0: A colleague of mine has recently edited a book whose subject I find very interesting (I know several of the authors personally as well). Unfortunately, like most things published in academia, the copies available from the publisher are quite expensive (and I would have to pay with my own personal money). Is it OK to message him and ask for a soft copy? I'm not sure as to what is the usual publishers' practice in that case. Would I decrease my colleague's revenue if I don't buy and thus asking for a copy would be considered rude? Or maybe by the time of publication the editor has usually already received her remuneration?<issue_comment>username_1: Yes, it's rude. Your colleague worked for months, and possibly years, on editing his book. The amount of money you are trying to save by not purchasing the book is likely on the order of 1-10 times your hourly wage. See the disproportion here? The point is that your colleague has much more invested emotionally in the book than you do in the money the book costs. He is likely to find your request rude and to be offended by it, not because of the lost royalties from the publisher, but because it would signal to him (correctly, as far as I can tell) that you don't appreciate the large effort he made to create something that would be of value to others. In academia people don't write or edit books to make money (as discussed on academia.se occasionally, that would be one of the lousiest money-making strategies ever devised), but because they feel it's important and find meaning and satisfaction in it. Much of the satisfaction comes from getting the very modest amount of positive feedback the author gets from the rest of the world, which comes primarily in the form of sales figures and the occasional meager royalty check. Your request would be undermining both of those sources of positive feedback. So again, it's rude, and in my opinion inadvisable. Edit: if the book is really expensive (e.g., 200+ euros, which is a price I haven't seen myself recently but some people say is common), and you would be paying for it out of your own pocket and not from research funds, then asking for a digital copy seems to me a bit more reasonable and less inappropriate. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Asking directly for a free copy, unless you have a close friendship or working relationship with the editor, will sound rude. (And if you do have such a close friendship, there's a strong chance you purchased a copy, or you may have even been gifted it.) What I have done is an extension of a model I use for friends who publish music or books. I never expect to get anything free or at a discount, as supporting their work is important to me, and most of the time each work sold has direct implications on the royalties, etc, that they receive. So instead, I ask them which way of purchasing (directly from them, digital download from a given store, physical copy from a retailer, etc) gets them the most, that way I can also recommend the same method to friends who may want to purchase it. In academia, I apply the same model, but there's one (not so) small difference: oftentimes, the author/editor has already received all or virtually all that they will get from the book publication, so they don't care if anyone gets a free copy. When I ask, even for books I intend to purchase because they are worthwhile to have in my personal physical collection, I have occasionally been offered a digital copy of the book at no cost. In reality, this isn't too different than with articles — many of us will happily send out a copy of our articles to someone on request because rarely (never) does anyone make money each time an article is paid for. That and citations. But, if you go this route, note that you should be fully prepared to actually pay if they offer to personally sell you a copy. It would be at least as rude to reject such an offer after you've effectively said you wanted a copy and were willing to pay $x, and when offered it less than $x, you backed out for cost. Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]
2017/10/05	491	2,077	<issue_start>username_0: I'm an undergraduate (Bachelor's) student and I'm thinking about attending a conference which exactly matches the topic of a research project that I'm working on at the moment. I have never attended a real conference. I wouldn't go to present anything, but just because I have a great personal interest in the topic and because I would like to know about the recent developments. Would it be weird if I attend this conference alone? It is a small conference but there is a special student's price, which makes me think that I might be welcome.<issue_comment>username_1: > > Would it be weird if I attend this conference alone? > > > Probably, as an undergraduate, you won't be able to connect too much with the more senior researchers, but there's nothing weird at all. So, if you can, go for it, and enjoy your first conference! Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: No, not at all. In many large conferences there are events specifically tailored for undergraduates, including poster competitions. You may find it easier to connect to other attending undergrads or graduate students. However, I would not discount the benefit of even being a passive spectator and just attending and getting the feel of presenting at a conference. Information such as the format and style of presentations, the questions people may ask, and experience of good and bad presentations will be helpful. All of this will come in handy when you do actually have to present as a graduate student. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: > > a conference which exactly matches the topic of a research project that I'm working on at the moment > > > If there is one reason why you should attend the conference you refer to, it is right here. You MUST go. You might be able to ask questions you might have on your topic, get acquainted with others who are interested and working on the same topic, network with them in person and on linkedin/researchgate, etc. Actually, there are too many reasons why you should definitely attend and none against it. Upvotes: 2
2017/10/05	508	2,083	<issue_start>username_0: I'm a staff scientist in a medium-sized lab and I'm organizing a large event for high school students at my university, a large public research institution. I'd like to invite a professor or senior researcher to give a talk at the event. Is it generally considered okay to invite your close collaborators (e.g. PI, direct supervisors) to give a talk? I have no misconceptions about the importance of my event (it's not) but I don't want to violate some etiquette by asking someone in my lab to give a talk. What about other events, small conferences, etc.?<issue_comment>username_1: Yes, I think it's perfectly acceptable that you invite colleagues to give a talk at an event or conference. There are many advantages for them if they give such a talk, for example: * disseminating their work * practising speaking to a non-expert audience * networking * free coffee/ lunch/ biscuits If they don't want to do it, they'll decline your invitation and you can ask someone else-- a good choice might be PhD students who will actively want or need to practice outreach and public engagement. Anyway, whoever you decide to invite, I don't think you've got anything to lose by asking. Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Yes, I think there is no more-reasonable thing than to ask a colleague to explain their work or related things, to various audiences. The colleague may also reasonably decline, thinking that they cannot provide a suitable context, or that they do not feel comfortable attempting to communicate well to the anticipated audience, but these are secondary issues. That is, some people will, reasonably, feel that their current work is not easily consumable by any sort of general audience... and that they cannot, or are not interested in, giving a talk that gives the more digestible background. Not every expert has a good "narrative" about their work. But it is certainly reasonable to inquire. At best, one has experts "spreading the good word". At worst, experts will be disinclined. Nothing lost. Upvotes: 2
2017/10/06	638	2,480	<issue_start>username_0: I am an Indian student enrolled in an integrated master’s-of-science program and currently in my fifth (final) year of the program. So should I be called a senior graduate student or senior undergraduate student? [Edit]: I read this <https://www.numfocus.org/programs/john-hunter-technology-fellowship/> on the first line of second paragraph. I quote that here: > > The program consists of a 6 month project-based training program for postdoctoral scientists or senior graduate students. > > > Also the eligibility is: > > Eligibility: Eligible applicants are postdoctoral scientists or senior PhD students, or have equivalent experience in physics, mathematics, engineering, statistics, or a related science. > > > Am I eligible? I am an Applied Mathematics student (maths major).<issue_comment>username_1: There's no such thing as a senior graduate student, and strictly speaking, you're not an undergraduate senior. You're either a Master's student or in the final year of a BS/MS (or BA/MA, etc.), depending on how specific you want to be. Edit: Given the subsequent clarification, I agree with username_3. Since the description refers to postdocs as well, "senior" means "advanced," so within a year or two of completing a PhD. Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: In the USA, "senior graduate student" is not a formal title. It refers to the graduate student who has been in the research group the longest. Someone in your situation would be referred to as a "masters student." Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_3: When talking about undergraduate studies, "senior" has a specific meaning in the US system, i.e. a student in their last year of a bachelor's degree. But there isn't a specific meaning in the context of graduate studies; here "senior" just has the generic meaning of "more advanced, more experienced". Of course, this is relative. In the context you mention, referring to "postdoctoral scientists or senior PhD students", it seems clear to me that they mean a PhD student who is, at least, in the second half of their studies. US PhD programs usually involve 2-3 years of advanced coursework, followed by dissertation research. This program seems to be intended for students in the research stage, and it will likely expect that the students have a base of advanced knowledge in the relevant subfield. From your description, I don't think you are eligible for this program. Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]
2017/10/06	2,562	11,501	<issue_start>username_0: I am currently reviewing an interdisciplinary computer science paper which is heavily based on previous works in logistics and process engineering that have been unfortunately published only in German (18 out of total 30 references). The overall idea is sound, but as the logistics structures are in some sense a basis of the paper, I have a strong inclination to reject the manuscript as the research cannot be followed and reconstructed by a researcher that does not understand German. On top of that, virtually none of them are available online, or otherwise easily accessible. I was going to hit the "Reject" button just a few moments ago, but I still have my doubts: I know that in humanities and also in mathematics people often cite publications written in other languages, but I have not yet seen something like that in computer science. Also, if it were one or two references, but 60%? The journal reviewing policy does not help me in this case. I was thinking about proposing the following workarounds: * Extending the paper - this is probably not an option as the journal imposes quite a strong page limit, or * A supplementary report - the vital parts of the non-English text could be made available as an Technical Report or an on-line publication (I was thinking about arXiv) and this can be referenced in the manuscript. Is it fair to reject it? Has anyone experienced something similar? What was your decision?<issue_comment>username_1: Having many non-English references is absolutely no valid reason to reject a computer science paper. If a reader wants to follow up on the references, they can learn some German, find a translator, etc. But this is the responsibility of the reader, not the author. Upvotes: 8 <issue_comment>username_2: Rejecting a paper because you do not understand the language doesn't sound like a good excuse and people will get frustrated. On the other hand, since it is not some standard and well known/used publication that has been scrutinized and/or translated, and it cannot even be found online it is up to the authors to make every possible effort and convince the readership that their techniques and relevant results are sound. I suggest to give them the chance to enhance and update their manuscript with all the necessary details in order to judge the soundness of the paper. Failing to do so would (and should and a fair warning) lead to a regretful rejection. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: I like your idea to propose the mandatory provision of a supplementary report. At the cost of some extra effort for the authors, this would be a good compromise between the interests of the authors (getting a fair evaluation of their actual work) and those of the readers (being able to reconstruct and extend the research). An included benefit for the authors would be the possibility to disseminate the underlying ideas to a wider audience. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: I'm not sure how computer science publications work, but having used quite a few non-English papers myself I have the following suggestions. Almost every paper adds a small increment to the specific subject. Usually, authors can easily find one or several English language papers connected to the non-English paper and cite those instead to support their arguments. In case the authors cite data from a non-English article, it quite acceptable. In this case they must reference strictly numbers that can be looked up in the article by a reader who doesn't understand the language. If there is a need to cite methods or interpretation of the data, then they should be translated and briefly summarized in English. In any case, the burden of translating and verifying foreign texts should not fall on the reader of a journal. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: See it the other way round. Many German papers have English references, although not all readers will be fluent in English. If you cite from a foreign book, eg. chinese it is helpful for the reader to give a (rough) translation. If you reference to a paper from an 'exotic' language to translate the tile and give a very short synopsis of the content. Because it is helpful to know whether the reference is a paper on a specific problem or giving an overview over another topic. If you are restricted in length in a journal, create a small website, were you provide the German original sources and make it readable to the english reader, by letting out the German citations. Is the paper still valid with many foreign references? As a informed reader I would ask whether the reference given are available in the language of the paper. E.g. referencing to a standard algorithm in a german book, when the same algorithm is described in many english books. If this is the fact I would be more alert concerning the validity of the paper. However brilliant papers have been written in China, behind the iron curtain and so on, without any reference to english sources. I'd be happy to read a such brilliant work Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_6: I would not go for a reject for this reason. As a reviewer, wishing that authors provide more background from foreign language papers is acceptable. I would do so in this case. Like, in normal case it is straightforward to assume that the reader can inform herself on previous techniques from earlier papers and you present the state of the art more to highlight what you have done differently. Here it is not like this. So, the authors might be required to present a better/broader overview of the related work and state of the art. As a reviewer I would basically ask them to retell the essence of the foreign-language papers, so their paper is understandable and makes sense even if the reader cannot read the foreign language references. As a side note: where it mattered, translations were published. You paper authors might not be aware of them, but they might be out there. I know that some Russian math journals were routinely translated in English during the Cold war. It's another issue how to cite such works in an English paper... Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_7: From a scientific/scholarly point of view, there is absolutely nothing wrong with non-English references which date from a time when English wasn't quite as dominant yet, or which come from a field where it still isn't. More recent non-English references can be a red flag but they are still no reason to reject a paper. They are a red flag because it's just not normal any more, and so people who publish in a language other than English anyway are likely to be very inexperienced, very old, very eccentric, or trying to hide plagiarism from English sources (possibly self-plagiarism). All of these factors are reasons to have a close look, which requires being able to read the references. To some extent these factors apply even when the references are from a technical field that hasn't standardised on English yet, as this makes it likely that the field itself has low scientific standards. In any case, however, if for some reason you cannot really review a paper, then you should refuse doing so. Your inability to read some key references would certainly be one reason to do so. Or you could delegate the review (or just checking the references) to someone who can read the key references that you can't. Although this was historically not done, I guess nowadays one should be very careful when citing non-English sources. Ideally, the author should be very explicit about the major claims taken from such a source. This way most readers can simply take it on faith that the source actually supports the claim, and those readers who can read the source (hopefully including a reviewer!) will know if it doesn't, without having to fully understand how it is used. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_8: Your only responsibility as a reviewer is to check that the article is scientific, relevant and original enough. When references are valid, the language should not matter, especially if - as you say - you can check them because you personally do know German. In other words: I too am shocked that this is even an issue. Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_9: I tend to agree with @username_1's answer that citing non-English sources is fine. But that is actually beside the point, since as far as OP's situation is concerned, I think he has much less of a dilemma than he thinks. The reason is that whether to publish a paper that references many German-language sources should be an editorial decision. As a reviewer, OP should check that the paper is correct (including looking up the references to the extent that's necessary, which OP can do since he speaks German), and that it is novel and lives up to the standards of the journal. If those conditions hold, he should recommend acceptance. He can also point out in his report the potential issue with non-German readers not being able to fully understand the theoretical background the paper makes use of. It would then be up to the editor to decide how to handle the situation, depending on their philosophy and the policies of the journal (which may vary, for example a journal published in Germany might have a different view of such issues than one published in the United States). To summarize, the question of whether papers like this should be published is a very interesting one, but from a practical point of view, I don't think OP really needs to concern himself with it. Upvotes: 7 <issue_comment>username_10: I would recommend rejecting any paper that is incomprehensible to somebody in the field without following its references. The references not being in English isn't the problem. Leaning on the references too much is. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_7: There is no simple answer to this question: either you are able to actually judge on the quality of the cited material, or you are not in a position to be the reviewer for the particular paper. Citing inaccessible material is simply slightly negatively affecting your evaluation, that's it. You should definitely reject if the author cites a simple corollary of a theorem to be found in a privately circulated memoir of the Slovenian Philological Society, 1883. This citation cannot be serious in a CS paper unless the paper is doing research on citations or invalid proofs. On the contrary, citing Gauss, Leibniz, Euler, Grothendieck, Kantorovich, Fichtenholz, or Kolmogorov is actually not a bad sign by itself. In general, you never know before you look. In the particular case, since you happen to be fluent in German, there is less excuse for not being able to produce a good review. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_11: What is the purpose of references? Certainly allowing the average reader to follow the research is a part of it, but the more important part is giving appropriate credit to where the authors got their ideas, which may well include papers in the authors’ native language or which happened to available to them but not the wider internet. In itself, definitely not a reason to reject. That said, the paper should stand reasonably well on its own - the text should include sufficient summary that only those particularly interested in the details need look for translated versions of the citations. Also, a qualified reviewer should be able to confirm that the cited paper says what the authors claim it does. Upvotes: 2
2017/10/06	2,310	10,345	<issue_start>username_0: On another SE site i have read that > > Self-study often leads to rapid but shallow knowledge acquisition. > > > I'm a software engineer and i spend a lot of time taking math and physics courses on different online platforms. And this sentence makes me worry. Is that true?<issue_comment>username_1: Having many non-English references is absolutely no valid reason to reject a computer science paper. If a reader wants to follow up on the references, they can learn some German, find a translator, etc. But this is the responsibility of the reader, not the author. Upvotes: 8 <issue_comment>username_2: Rejecting a paper because you do not understand the language doesn't sound like a good excuse and people will get frustrated. On the other hand, since it is not some standard and well known/used publication that has been scrutinized and/or translated, and it cannot even be found online it is up to the authors to make every possible effort and convince the readership that their techniques and relevant results are sound. I suggest to give them the chance to enhance and update their manuscript with all the necessary details in order to judge the soundness of the paper. Failing to do so would (and should and a fair warning) lead to a regretful rejection. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: I like your idea to propose the mandatory provision of a supplementary report. At the cost of some extra effort for the authors, this would be a good compromise between the interests of the authors (getting a fair evaluation of their actual work) and those of the readers (being able to reconstruct and extend the research). An included benefit for the authors would be the possibility to disseminate the underlying ideas to a wider audience. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: I'm not sure how computer science publications work, but having used quite a few non-English papers myself I have the following suggestions. Almost every paper adds a small increment to the specific subject. Usually, authors can easily find one or several English language papers connected to the non-English paper and cite those instead to support their arguments. In case the authors cite data from a non-English article, it quite acceptable. In this case they must reference strictly numbers that can be looked up in the article by a reader who doesn't understand the language. If there is a need to cite methods or interpretation of the data, then they should be translated and briefly summarized in English. In any case, the burden of translating and verifying foreign texts should not fall on the reader of a journal. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: See it the other way round. Many German papers have English references, although not all readers will be fluent in English. If you cite from a foreign book, eg. chinese it is helpful for the reader to give a (rough) translation. If you reference to a paper from an 'exotic' language to translate the tile and give a very short synopsis of the content. Because it is helpful to know whether the reference is a paper on a specific problem or giving an overview over another topic. If you are restricted in length in a journal, create a small website, were you provide the German original sources and make it readable to the english reader, by letting out the German citations. Is the paper still valid with many foreign references? As a informed reader I would ask whether the reference given are available in the language of the paper. E.g. referencing to a standard algorithm in a german book, when the same algorithm is described in many english books. If this is the fact I would be more alert concerning the validity of the paper. However brilliant papers have been written in China, behind the iron curtain and so on, without any reference to english sources. I'd be happy to read a such brilliant work Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_6: I would not go for a reject for this reason. As a reviewer, wishing that authors provide more background from foreign language papers is acceptable. I would do so in this case. Like, in normal case it is straightforward to assume that the reader can inform herself on previous techniques from earlier papers and you present the state of the art more to highlight what you have done differently. Here it is not like this. So, the authors might be required to present a better/broader overview of the related work and state of the art. As a reviewer I would basically ask them to retell the essence of the foreign-language papers, so their paper is understandable and makes sense even if the reader cannot read the foreign language references. As a side note: where it mattered, translations were published. You paper authors might not be aware of them, but they might be out there. I know that some Russian math journals were routinely translated in English during the Cold war. It's another issue how to cite such works in an English paper... Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_7: From a scientific/scholarly point of view, there is absolutely nothing wrong with non-English references which date from a time when English wasn't quite as dominant yet, or which come from a field where it still isn't. More recent non-English references can be a red flag but they are still no reason to reject a paper. They are a red flag because it's just not normal any more, and so people who publish in a language other than English anyway are likely to be very inexperienced, very old, very eccentric, or trying to hide plagiarism from English sources (possibly self-plagiarism). All of these factors are reasons to have a close look, which requires being able to read the references. To some extent these factors apply even when the references are from a technical field that hasn't standardised on English yet, as this makes it likely that the field itself has low scientific standards. In any case, however, if for some reason you cannot really review a paper, then you should refuse doing so. Your inability to read some key references would certainly be one reason to do so. Or you could delegate the review (or just checking the references) to someone who can read the key references that you can't. Although this was historically not done, I guess nowadays one should be very careful when citing non-English sources. Ideally, the author should be very explicit about the major claims taken from such a source. This way most readers can simply take it on faith that the source actually supports the claim, and those readers who can read the source (hopefully including a reviewer!) will know if it doesn't, without having to fully understand how it is used. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_8: Your only responsibility as a reviewer is to check that the article is scientific, relevant and original enough. When references are valid, the language should not matter, especially if - as you say - you can check them because you personally do know German. In other words: I too am shocked that this is even an issue. Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_9: I tend to agree with @username_1's answer that citing non-English sources is fine. But that is actually beside the point, since as far as OP's situation is concerned, I think he has much less of a dilemma than he thinks. The reason is that whether to publish a paper that references many German-language sources should be an editorial decision. As a reviewer, OP should check that the paper is correct (including looking up the references to the extent that's necessary, which OP can do since he speaks German), and that it is novel and lives up to the standards of the journal. If those conditions hold, he should recommend acceptance. He can also point out in his report the potential issue with non-German readers not being able to fully understand the theoretical background the paper makes use of. It would then be up to the editor to decide how to handle the situation, depending on their philosophy and the policies of the journal (which may vary, for example a journal published in Germany might have a different view of such issues than one published in the United States). To summarize, the question of whether papers like this should be published is a very interesting one, but from a practical point of view, I don't think OP really needs to concern himself with it. Upvotes: 7 <issue_comment>username_10: I would recommend rejecting any paper that is incomprehensible to somebody in the field without following its references. The references not being in English isn't the problem. Leaning on the references too much is. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_7: There is no simple answer to this question: either you are able to actually judge on the quality of the cited material, or you are not in a position to be the reviewer for the particular paper. Citing inaccessible material is simply slightly negatively affecting your evaluation, that's it. You should definitely reject if the author cites a simple corollary of a theorem to be found in a privately circulated memoir of the Slovenian Philological Society, 1883. This citation cannot be serious in a CS paper unless the paper is doing research on citations or invalid proofs. On the contrary, citing Gauss, Leibniz, Euler, Grothendieck, Kantorovich, Fichtenholz, or Kolmogorov is actually not a bad sign by itself. In general, you never know before you look. In the particular case, since you happen to be fluent in German, there is less excuse for not being able to produce a good review. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_11: What is the purpose of references? Certainly allowing the average reader to follow the research is a part of it, but the more important part is giving appropriate credit to where the authors got their ideas, which may well include papers in the authors’ native language or which happened to available to them but not the wider internet. In itself, definitely not a reason to reject. That said, the paper should stand reasonably well on its own - the text should include sufficient summary that only those particularly interested in the details need look for translated versions of the citations. Also, a qualified reviewer should be able to confirm that the cited paper says what the authors claim it does. Upvotes: 2
2017/10/06	953	3,970	<issue_start>username_0: I am considering where to submit a recently finished preprint, and one of the best fits is a journal associated with the country where I'm working. That is, I'm a postdoc in one of main cities of X-land, and the jounal is called 'X-land Jounrnal of Mathematics'. Is the connection an argument in favour or against publishing there? The arguemnts for publishing in XJM are, I think, quite natural: given that I'm working in X-land, I want other X-ians to be interested in my work, and they're perhaps fractionally more likely to have a look at XJM than YJM for Y != X. Assuming that publishing a paper in a journal is mutually beneficial, it stands to reason that I'd be happier to help XJM than a random other journal (even if infinitesimally so). On the other hand, I have heard arguments in the opposite direction. The key worry is that the paper may be taken less seriously, and some slight academic nepotism might be suspected. That is, someone could see the publication and think it was just published because XJM looks more favourably on papers sent from X. Are any of these concerns valid? If given a choice between publishing in a "local" journal, or an equally good "non-local" journal, which is a better idea? Or is it just the same, and I'm massively overthinking? The field is pure mathematics. I don't want to name names, but the population of X is of the order of 10 mln. I realise the points "For" are very minor, and the arguments "Against" are probably minor too. I'm not originally from X, but would gladly hear how the answer would change if I were.<issue_comment>username_1: A couple of reasons publishing in an X-land journal (like [Math.Scand.](http://www.mscand.dk/)) could make sense: * You'd like to commemorate and emphasize the fact that you were a postdoc in country X; * You're interested in getting another job in country X; * Your work is of somewhat general mathematical interest and not narrowly focused within a certain mathematical field (like that of the Journal of Topic). Generally, a good criterion may be whether your work is of interest to editorial board members of the X-land journal (and conversely whether their work interests you), or whether the same is more true of Journal of Topic. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: I'm only going on my own experience here but I believe: Location of the journal should only be taken into consideration after some other, more important, factors. 1. You should choose a journal that is a good fit for the topic, length and style of your paper. 2. You should pick a journal with at least one editor who will know roughly what you are talking about. 3. You should aim for as good a quality journal as is reasonable for the quality of the paper (this will most help your career). 4. There may be certain journals you just prefer to avoid (obviously junk/scam journals, but also eg. many mathematicians avoid Elsevier). 5. You need to consider any publishing costs (eg. for open access journals) and any rules you must follow (eg. UK open access requirements). 6. Where your field allows, avoid sending multiple papers to the same couple of journals (which could suggest one or two editors happen to like you). Once you have a short list that meets these requirements, you could reasonably choose a local journal in favour of a non-local one. I think the other requirements will avoid the suggested negative impacts, when your work is viewed as a whole. Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: One consideration is if you want to help such local journals. If publishing your paper in a local journal will help maintain or even increase the quality of mathematical publications in that country, and you would like to contribute to the flourishing of mathematics there, then that would be a perfectly valid reason to do so, even if it means passing up on a more prestigious journal. It all depends on what your goals are. Upvotes: 2
2017/10/06	482	1,873	<issue_start>username_0: Luckily I got in academia after having a serious conflict with my previous advisor. The problem was that he gave my dissertation proposal to his previous student (another his previous student said that he loved her a lot). She even got $100,000 NSF grant with the proposal. I said it was unfair. Then he did his best to kick me out of the school (he even called the police for the reason I was shown up in his office; contacted all people to say that I am not qualified for a Ph.D. and so should be kicked out). A school dean saved me and so I graduated. However, for the conflict, I couldn't get in my field (I am in totally different field); still I need to take medicine to get in a sleep, to meet people and to control my anger. Anyway, I'd like to go back to my own field again because it is too tough to struggle in a new field. Any advise? Also I'd really like to pay all back to him regarding what he did to me. What could be the best way? Anyway, he is a full professor in a well-known research school; also he is a big name and so about 30% of faculties in this field are his previous students & 50% of senior faculties are his good friends.<issue_comment>username_1: Get on with your life. Best way to get revenge would be for you to become successful and renowned in your field despite conflict with previous advisor. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: I've had a very egocentric MS advisor who stole my work. However, I got the MS thesis published against the odds. Do you have data from your previous work that is publishable? If so, go ahead and publish them. What are you working on right now? Is it something you like better than what your did earlier? If so, focus on what it matters now. Getting a stranglehold of your new research discipline and getting things published will be the best form of "revenge." Upvotes: 1
2017/10/06	1,647	6,405	<issue_start>username_0: I am a post-doc in the physical sciences and I am finding that people have very different expectations of what a post-doc's priorities should be. Typically people are somewhere between two camps. I call these two extreme views "Laundry list" vs. "Research trumps all". The "Laundry list" view is that everything matters, and that next to research skills developing soft skills is also very important. Examples of such advice philosophy are the Times Higher Education guide (see [here](https://www.timeshighereducation.com/carousels/10-habits-successful-postdoc#survey-answer)) and the The New Scientist guide ([here](https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn21491-eight-ways-to-set-yourself-apart-as-a-postdoc/)). Apart from research, there is great emphasis on teaching and mentoring students, practising talks, going to many seminars and networking. The "Research trumps all" view is that at the post-doc stage, the importance of papers far outweighs everything else. For example, [this](https://theprofessorisin.com/2014/09/12/managing-your-postdoc-years-a-guest-post/) interesting guest post on The Professor Is In advises to be very cautious about getting involved in mid-author papers and optional teaching commitments. In the Scientific American blog post "The Awesomest 7-Year Postdoc " ([here](https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/the-awesomest-7-year-postdoc-or-how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-the-tenure-track-faculty-life/)), the author directly attacks laundry list advice of the above kind and emphasises selectivity in activities, putting research and teaching first. Cal Newport's canon of advice (e.g. [this](http://calnewport.com/blog/2008/02/15/fixed-schedule-productivity-how-i-accomplish-a-large-amount-of-work-in-a-small-number-of-work-hours/) and [this](http://calnewport.com/blog/2009/03/12/some-thoughts-on-grad-school/) post) is generally all about selective focus on research projects and minimizing dissipation (e.g. little email communication, drop bad projects). I am most interested in career advice for post-docs in the physics, mathematics, computer science, life sciences on a path towards a research oriented academic career. I think it would be very interesting to see what you think and where you place your post-doc priorities on the continuum between "Laundry list" and "Research trumps all".<issue_comment>username_1: I think this is an interesting and multi-faceted question. As a postdoc, I was very much on the laundry list side of things. I did a lot of teaching, organized events, went to plenty of conferences, helped with department service, collaborated in projects that I probably should have gotten out of months ago, started a lot of long-reaching initiatives which would not lead to any papers in the short term, wrote grant proposals, and so forth. My publication track record was good, but not nearly as good as the track record of some of my colleagues who tried harder to fend off non-publishing activities. I think ultimately this made job searching harder, as hiring committees in virtually all research-oriented institutions put an overwhelming emphasis on published papers. However, I also feel very strongly that I am a better and more well-rounded academic now than what I would be if I had locked myself in and wrote one paper after the other. I especially feel like I am pretty well set-up to achieve my tenure requirements (which, at least in my institution, are much more well-rounded than just looking at papers alone), and the change from a postdoc to a faculty position has been rather smooth - I did not get the "shock" that some others seem to have when they suddenly need to do teaching, department service, etc. All in all, I think a good way to see it is that the "publications-over-everything" strategy maximizes your chance to get as good a tenure-track position as possible, while the laundry list strategy trains you better for a long, well-rounded career. Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: As this question has been re-opened, I'll put a version of a comment I made in meta here as an answer: It Depends on You and Your Job There is no single, written-in-stone answer for this question, which is why there are a variety of seemingly contradictory answers. Your Job: The postdoc position itself might have requirements to it that push one or the other. For example, if your PI is coming up for tenure, and the volume of papers is primarily what they're being evaluated on, that's clearly a need. On the other hand, if you're largely funded by a cooperative agreement or other mechanism that involves a lot of work with outside groups and products that aren't necessarily papers, the "Laundry List" might work better. Your Desired Job: There are hiring committees who are definitely looking just at volumes of papers. Who want to see that Cell/Nature/Science manuscript sitting there. For these, clearly, the "Research is Everything" approach is likely the right one. For other positions, there's much more emphasis on stakeholder engagement, or software development, or other things that don't get easily wrapped into a single manuscript, and where the "Laundry List" is more appropriate. Vexingly, these positions might even be part of the same call. You: It's likely that one approach suits you better. For example, there are people who I know who are extremely good at playing "The Game", for whom the "Laundry List" approach would potentially be very productive, and where "I spend a lot of time on Twitter" is actually a major benefit to one's career instead of a time sink. Similarly, there are people who are immensely productive when writing papers - if they can ditch the other stuff on the "Laundry List" for a bit, they can absolutely churn out solid, impactful research results. In this case, "I shall crush them under the weight of my CV" might be a good strategy. I have seen these people co-exist in the same position, and have similarly good career trajectories. When it comes down to it, I think a better approach is to figure out which one you fit in, and then try to find jobs that are conducive to that, rather than the other way around. I'm extremely skeptical that someone trying to shoehorn themselves into a different "style" will be as successful as they would otherwise be if they found their niche. Upvotes: 3
2017/10/07	340	1,482	<issue_start>username_0: I'm a fourth year mathematics postdoc and I am looking at tenure-track jobs this year. I see some jobs that have a targeted research area but often have a caveat sentence along the lines of "Exceptional candidates from other areas may also be considered." I am trying to decide if putting my file in there will cloud their applicant pool (since I am in a related field but not in the advertised discipline). What do caveat sentences like this mean? What does "exceptional candidate" mean? Should I apply?<issue_comment>username_1: Do not filter yourself out. You do not know what the hiring department wants (and they might not know/agree themselves). Just send your application in. Do not worry about clouding application pool. The application pools are huge, but most applications are dismissed within a minute. As a member of a hiring committee, I prefer to spend an extra minute on one more non-competitive application than miss a chance to hire an excellent colleague who will work side-by-side with me for years. Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: A lot of schools may not be able to hire someone in the desired area. If they can get a qualified person who will take the money that they are willing to pay, then they count themselves lucky. I agree with the previous poster. Don't sell yourself short. Give the search committee reasons as to why you would take THAT job. Rise to the challenges of the job you take. Upvotes: 2
2017/10/07	1,131	4,961	<issue_start>username_0: I'm pursing an online engineering degree at ASU. In a introduction circuit class, I have a flimsy idea of what I'm doing and little time (each class is only 7 weeks long) to try to figure it out, so for some assignments I take my best guess and my mentality is if I miss some points, so be it, as long as I understand the gist that's being asked. This class had a relatively huge project where we submitted photos and the program files for 2 related circuit designs and it was broken down into 3 parts, 1 part for all of the lab information, 1 part for the first program file for the first design and 1 part for the second program file. When it came to the lab part, I had a good idea of what was asked and by the end I thought I knew what I was doing. For the 2 program files of the circuit designs I tried making similar circuits to those that were in examples in lecture videos for my class, but they didn't work correctly. So instead, I researched using a YouTube video by the TA in my class, a tutorial about the type of circuits being made and a powerpoint from a different university. I did NOT copy a single design presented in the video, tutorial or powerpoint. I re-checked and I can guarantee that my design does not look exactly like any of the ones viewed in the learning materials I used. Instead, I took components from each of the designs until I had something that produced the logic I theoretically proved it could be in the lab report. I received an email from the TA asking why I submitted an entirely different project than what was being asked, and my only simple answer is that I had no idea what I was doing. Obviously, that isn't a good enough answer when someone is implying you cheated. So in a long response email I explained that I didn't feel confident in what I was doing and I tried to make something that worked and I explained how I did each part of the project and linked him the learning materials I used. He hasn't responded, but I would like to know if anyone knows, is there anything I can in a situation like this where it's implied that I cheated and even though I most definitely have not, I can't prove that I didn't given the learning environment? What can I do?<issue_comment>username_1: > > How do I clear my name when wrongfully accused of cheating? > > > Putting myself in the shoes of the TA, I would say that you haven't even been accused of cheating. You say: > > I received an email from the TA asking *why I submitted an entirely different project than what was being asked*, and my only simple answer is that I had no idea what I was doing. Obviously, that isn't a good enough answer when someone is implying you cheated. > > > The answer is right there: Your TA asked you why you submitted an entirely different project than the one you were supposed to complete and you said you didn't know what you were doing, which, by the way, completely confirms your TA's suspicions (i.e., that a clueless student completed a project in one of the most completely incorrect ways). TL;DR: I wouldn't worry about the cheating "accusation." (but do worry about whether you are putting your best foot forward with respect to completing course assignments and projects the way they're intended to be completed, etc.) Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: I think the TA was rightly concerned about an entirely different issue from cheating. I have done only a little bit of circuit design, but a lot of programming and they have some similarities. I believe doing exercises, in both cases, makes the difference between vaguely getting the gist of an idea, and solidly understanding it. You were given an assignment that was supposed to help you solidify specific knowledge so that you could apply it, and to demonstrate your understanding to the instructors. You did not understand the material well enough to do the assignment as set. At that point the right course of action would be to go to office hours or contact the TA to get help understanding the material, and work at it until you could apply it to the exercise. If you had to guess on any earlier assignments for the same or prerequisite courses, you should go back and review the material for those assignments. Instead, you turned in material that might have been a good answer to a different question for a different course, but did not demonstrate understanding of the material for your current course. You are probably going to get a low grade for the assignment, not because of cheating but because of failing to do the assignment as set, and failing to understand the material the course is intended to communicate. --- For the sake of your understanding of future courses, you would probably benefit from taking another shot at doing the assignment, even if it is too late to get it graded. The better you understand the year one material, the less difficulty you will have next year. Upvotes: 4
2017/10/08	1,063	4,549	<issue_start>username_0: I know it is TA's responsibility to help students understand the course material. But there are always some students don't like to think independently, or maybe just not smart enough. Is it ok for TA to tell students that "I can't help you. You should figure it out by youself." for some lame questions? Would this put TA into dereliction of duty?<issue_comment>username_1: My job as an instructor is to help the students learn, and I try to do so to the best of my abilities. * If a student is asking very basic questions (don't call them lame ever), help them to get up to speed pointing at some reading. You should pay attention to this, since for every student that asks questions, there may be several silent ones, and it may be an indication that the cohort is missing some knowledge your course is assuming. * If they ask questions for which they know the answer, but are unsure, teach them how to validate and verify their answers. * If they ask every little step of the way, the Socratic method is an option: ask questions back, make them work for the answers. But make them helpful: use them to guide the student towards the answer. * The students that just ask very many questions, just get lower priority, since I have to take care of the whole group, but I do still help them. * Questions that are off topic can be either gently shot down and redirected, or quickly point them at some references. If you find the question particularly interesting, you can offer to give more details after class. Make sure they don't get lost in the sidetracks, though. In general, the goal should be to try to make yourself redundant by teaching them how to not need you you. This is never going to actually happen, but it is a worthy sky to look up to. Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_2: As an instructor, you should bear in mind that your goal is to teach, not to supply answers - sometimes that does mean getting a student to work something out on their own. But there are two major things to keep in mind: even in your own head, it's not good to think of questions as "lame" unless you think they aren't being asked in good faith - by which I mean, the only "lame" or "bad" questions are questions that are intentionally asked to annoy you. If the student is genuinely having trouble, it is certainly the responsibility of the TA or instructor to help (within the time they're being paid for, at least). That doesn't mean you have to give the answer. As username_1 pointed out in their answer, the Socratic method can be a great way to go; respond to their question with a question of your own, forcing the student to think about it. If you feel like your students are often asking questions they "ought" to be able to figure out on their own, then if I were you I'd change my focus; concentrate more on teaching them how to figure things out, rather than just on the material. For example, I teach math; one technique I'm fond of is generalization: when a student comes to me with a problem I think they can solve on their own, I'll just repeat broad generalizations to them (e.g., "a good way to start any math problem is by naming things. What looks like it wants a name in this problem?") until they get the ball rolling on their own. I'm not giving them any new information, or even any information specific to the problem, just sort of prodding them in a good general direction. Also: I don't know what field you're in, but in math confidence is a major issue. Many students will ask endless questions because they're afraid of getting a problem wrong. I try to counteract that by teaching them (a) how to recognize that they've gone in the wrong direction, and (b) that going in the wrong direction isn't bad as long as you can fix it. Once they get used to that idea, they get more comfortable with making mistakes and don't need me to help them along as much. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: No. You should refer the student to the professor if s/he doesn't feel satisfied with your explanation. On the other hand, if you don't feel satisfied with your explanation, then please delve deeper into the material on your own time; you may seek help from fellow grad students and/or from professors. Don't hesitate to tell the student you don't have a good answer off the top of your head, but you will look into it. Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_4: One line answer: yes, but your answer should provoke their interest and make them think deeper, make them wonder about the problem. Upvotes: 0
2017/10/08	1,262	5,225	<issue_start>username_0: I maintain an email group for my class where the reading list and other course materials are made available to the students. Despite sharing all relevant information with them, I still have students asking me exact page numbers and sections from the book, and whether 'Topic X or Y will be on the exam'. I am fed up! Am I obliged to entertain these queries? They usually ask these queries on email or typically on sms. This is a second-year undergraduate class (about 50 students) majoring in economics. I teach them a statistics course. I've included a link to the syllabus (page 2 of linked document). [Link to syllabus](https://www.dropbox.com/s/bcr6ik24owm57fy/Syllabus%20July%2016.pdf?dl=0)<issue_comment>username_1: In general, you're not obligated to answer any questions. You might tick off your students and eventually your coworkers and department heads (if they get enough complaints), but it's highly unlikely that not answering questions will be job threatening or otherwise result in official reprimand. There are two reasons to answer questions: 1. You want to. 2. You think it would be rude or disrespectful not to. Something that could be listed as a third reason but in my mind falls under 2. would be. 3. You think not doing so would adversely affect the learning of students Clearly you're frustrated with your students for not figuring out the answer themselves. This is a very common situation to be in, and not only with regards to reading the syllabus. One major part of deciding how you want to teach is deciding where the line is for questions. Some professors carte blanche refuse to answer any questions whose answers are in the syllabus. Some professors will answer "what are we reading tomorrow" ten times in a class period. Annoying as it may be, answering questions vs replying "it's contained in the syllabus" will be part of what your students use to judge how nice they think you are, how approachable they think you are, and similar subjective qualities. You need to figure out how you wish to relate to your students and how many trivial questions you want to indulge for yourself, because the answer is different for every person. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Whether or not you're obliged is debatable, but here is what you can do to reduce the time that's consumed by answering redundant emails: Have your students write all questions into an online forum that's accessible for every participant of your course.\* Post your answers there as well. You can "pin" answers that are of a general nature. Your first pinned message should be a FAQ, entitled "Frequently asked questions. Read first before posting" and with the first line reading something like: > > Before posting a question, please make sure that it has not already > been answered. In particular, check the pinned messages first. Chances > are, your question has been answered and you can save yourself and me some work. > > > If you get a duplicate question, just refer the student to the relevant message. This should work as a gentle nudge that deters other students form asking redundant questions in the future (remember that the answer can be read by the whole course). \* and only them. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: First, the students' decision to ask you questions directly makes sense if you consider their decision from their perspective. As a student, would you rather spend 30 seconds asking the lecturer a question directly; or spend 10 minutes to read through the syllabus carefully to find the answer to the question himself/herself? By asking you questions directly, the students are merely minimizing their effort in order to get the information that they require. You should consider whether the syllabus is well-organized and clearly written. If the syllabus is long and rambling, it is understandable why the students prefer not to read it. As a teacher, I believe that it is your responsibility to spend a reasonable effort to organize course related information so that it is easy for a student to understand. I'm currently teaching a course with more than 600 students. We seldom receive e-mail inquiries from students. I believe the reason for this is that I spent quite a bit of time thinking through how to structure our course webpage so that it is easy for students to find the information they need. * We have a master page which contains links to the pages on specific topics. * We have a webpage which contains information about the textbook for the course. This webpage contains a table which indicates which chapter and which pages of the textbook to read for each lecture. * We have a webpage which contains information about the quizzes. This webpage explains clearly which lectures are tested for each quiz. Finally, I would not answer any questions if the answers are clearly written in a document which has been given to the students. For example, if you have a short webpage or document which contains all the information relevant say to Quiz 1, and students ask you questions about Quiz 1, I would just tell the students, "Please read the Quiz 1 document carefully for the answer to your question." Upvotes: 1
2017/10/09	1,224	5,267	<issue_start>username_0: Let's say that I've been part of a research lab at a U.S. university for awhile but do not plan to continue on for my PhD. What does one typically do with all of their research work, e.g. experimental write-ups, code files and email correspondence with researchers external to the lab? Does one typically initiate some "handover process" and document all of the work carefully enough so that someone else in the lab gets to inherit the work and take over from that point on, or should one keep their own work theirs, without distributing it to the lab that they were a part of?<issue_comment>username_1: Ideally, all work would be carefully documented and discussed with co-workers in the group before someone leaves. Often times, though, departures are much more sloppily handled. However, the research group obviously retains an interest the lab notebooks, data, and other work products created while someone is part of a research group. For data retention practices, I would say that "best practices" would include leaving the originals with the research group, while the person who created the data keeping a copy for their own personal records later down the line. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: We have a lab culture of having a lot of digital write ups. We spend a lot of time documenting everything and they look like research papers even if they do not get submitted. Since you seem to not have that: I would take a bit of time to outline anything that you believe is valuable in the same way you would write an academic paper. The two reasons for this are 1) it transfers knowledge to your laboratory, and 2) it is something that you can show an employer if questions come up about your time in academia. From anecdotal stories from people who have left the lab, these sort of documents were useful when they were finding an industry job and if they went back to academia in the future. Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: Considering documentation and informing coworkers about your work, is not different than in the industry. The research you create at work, where you were employed and paid to do the research with the employer's resources, is most often property of the team/department and the company. But usually, you can keep your research notes and some of the data - if it's not critical intellectual property. Also, the correspondence to external people could be viewed as somewhat public (if they didn't have to sign a NDA) and you could keep it and use it in further correspondence to those externals. Even during normal research projects, coworkers should know what you do and what experiments etc. are lined up in the near time frame and vice versa. In the industry, it's also very important that you constantly have notes that 1 or 2 coworkers that are familiar with the topic, can use if you're ill or on holiday. So I would say it's normal to start a "handover process" at least 1 or 2 months before you leave. Even if the present coworkers won't (or can't, because time etc.) take over your research, as a supplement to the notes, they can help the next person who does. The idea of writing the description like a paper seems a very good example. Maybe you can talk with some of your coworkers about your research and focus the "papers" on the parts where they had the most questions about. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: This answer also applies to leaving a lab but staying in academia, just moving to a new lab, institution, etc. Have a Talk About Future Plans : Is it intended that you will be an author on the projects you are leaving, because they're at the stage where your part was a significant contribution? Have you done enough that you should still be first authors (if you are), or are you willing to give that up for whoever carries things the final distance. This is also a good time to make sure what you're planning to do and what your PI/boss wants you to do are the same. This is also also a good time to make sure you know whether or not you can use code/data/etc. in the future at your new position or not. Leave Your Contact Info : Preferably a relatively stable email address. User accounts/Electronic Resources : Make sure that any electronic accounts that are tied to you (i.e. GitHub accounts, things where you're the admin/moderator/etc.) are transferred to someone else, and that their username and password combinations are findable. Documentation : That thing you've always been meaning to do, but never gotten around to doing? Now's the time. Create a data dictionary with clear descriptions of any data you have, what the values mean, etc. Talk it over with whoever is taking over your project to make sure that they understand what you mean. If you have code, make sure it's documented, commented and easy to follow. Clean up any lingering #FIXME type comments, or at least make sure your successor knows they're there. Contacts : If you've built a relationship with a stakeholder group, another collaborating team, someone in a core facility that helps with your work, etc. it's time to do your best to hand over that relationship - at the very least, make some introductions so that they know who you are. Upvotes: 1
2017/10/09	1,384	5,554	<issue_start>username_0: Is there any research/study/survey that tried to compare the earnings generated by open-access papers (researchers/institutions pay when publishing) vs. paywalled papers (researchers/institutions pay when reading)? I.e., for a given paper, do publishers make more money through the open-access model, or through the paywall model? --- This question came from Mark's [comment](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/97068/why-did-journal-subscription-prices-increase-by-25-between-2013-and-2017-vs?noredirect=1#comment250104_97068) ([mirror](https://web.archive.org/web/20171009025520/https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/97068/why-did-journal-subscription-prices-increase-by-25-between-2013-and-2017-vs?noredirect=1)). FYI: [Are open access papers read by a larger readership than paywalled papers?](https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/87184/452)<issue_comment>username_1: Ideally, all work would be carefully documented and discussed with co-workers in the group before someone leaves. Often times, though, departures are much more sloppily handled. However, the research group obviously retains an interest the lab notebooks, data, and other work products created while someone is part of a research group. For data retention practices, I would say that "best practices" would include leaving the originals with the research group, while the person who created the data keeping a copy for their own personal records later down the line. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: We have a lab culture of having a lot of digital write ups. We spend a lot of time documenting everything and they look like research papers even if they do not get submitted. Since you seem to not have that: I would take a bit of time to outline anything that you believe is valuable in the same way you would write an academic paper. The two reasons for this are 1) it transfers knowledge to your laboratory, and 2) it is something that you can show an employer if questions come up about your time in academia. From anecdotal stories from people who have left the lab, these sort of documents were useful when they were finding an industry job and if they went back to academia in the future. Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: Considering documentation and informing coworkers about your work, is not different than in the industry. The research you create at work, where you were employed and paid to do the research with the employer's resources, is most often property of the team/department and the company. But usually, you can keep your research notes and some of the data - if it's not critical intellectual property. Also, the correspondence to external people could be viewed as somewhat public (if they didn't have to sign a NDA) and you could keep it and use it in further correspondence to those externals. Even during normal research projects, coworkers should know what you do and what experiments etc. are lined up in the near time frame and vice versa. In the industry, it's also very important that you constantly have notes that 1 or 2 coworkers that are familiar with the topic, can use if you're ill or on holiday. So I would say it's normal to start a "handover process" at least 1 or 2 months before you leave. Even if the present coworkers won't (or can't, because time etc.) take over your research, as a supplement to the notes, they can help the next person who does. The idea of writing the description like a paper seems a very good example. Maybe you can talk with some of your coworkers about your research and focus the "papers" on the parts where they had the most questions about. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: This answer also applies to leaving a lab but staying in academia, just moving to a new lab, institution, etc. Have a Talk About Future Plans : Is it intended that you will be an author on the projects you are leaving, because they're at the stage where your part was a significant contribution? Have you done enough that you should still be first authors (if you are), or are you willing to give that up for whoever carries things the final distance. This is also a good time to make sure what you're planning to do and what your PI/boss wants you to do are the same. This is also also a good time to make sure you know whether or not you can use code/data/etc. in the future at your new position or not. Leave Your Contact Info : Preferably a relatively stable email address. User accounts/Electronic Resources : Make sure that any electronic accounts that are tied to you (i.e. GitHub accounts, things where you're the admin/moderator/etc.) are transferred to someone else, and that their username and password combinations are findable. Documentation : That thing you've always been meaning to do, but never gotten around to doing? Now's the time. Create a data dictionary with clear descriptions of any data you have, what the values mean, etc. Talk it over with whoever is taking over your project to make sure that they understand what you mean. If you have code, make sure it's documented, commented and easy to follow. Clean up any lingering #FIXME type comments, or at least make sure your successor knows they're there. Contacts : If you've built a relationship with a stakeholder group, another collaborating team, someone in a core facility that helps with your work, etc. it's time to do your best to hand over that relationship - at the very least, make some introductions so that they know who you are. Upvotes: 1
2017/10/09	342	1,403	<issue_start>username_0: I am a bachelor-level (software engineering) student. I made [a GitHub repository](https://github.com/guillaume-chevalier/LSTM-Human-Activity-Recognition) more than a year ago, where I use machine learning and deep learning to identify movements in accelerometer signals. As of now, the GitHub repository has a thousand stars. There is already research being made derived from my work. As a practical example, [here](https://github.com/guillaume-chevalier/HAR-stacked-residual-bidir-LSTMs) I collaborated with someone to write a paper. I wonder: Should I write and publish a paper on the first project, even though it's a year old? What are my options, if any?<issue_comment>username_1: Yes, you can publish a paper, if * you have new ideas in your software that you developed yourself. * the ideas have not been published by you before. If other people who have used your software also documented your ideas, cite them. Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: I agree with the other answer provided here, but I would also attempt to seek either (preferably) Academic or Industrial advice (companies have their own R&D departments and publish their own papers). A Professor can give you hands on advice to approach publishing the paper in a specific manner to make your ideas stand out and justify their importance and relevance. Congrats btw. Upvotes: 1
2017/10/09	645	2,732	<issue_start>username_0: I receive sometimes one line instructions from my PhD supervisor on work I need to do and send. Not always clear though. He sometimes forgets what he had discussed in our last discussion, or does not explain the rationale. Under such circumstances, how do I communicate with him? Redoing done work is I believe a waste of time and energy.<issue_comment>username_1: I think you should realize that your advisor is just an overworked human being. He tends to forget things, particularly what you, or other people in the group do because there are just too many things to juggle. It might be that he isn't a great planner and doesn't keep tabs on everyone in the group, but not necessarily. That being said, imagine you had to do his job. What would your student ideally do to make your life easier and still do good research? I'm not sure about you, but my ideal student would show as much initiative as possible. They would also self-manage themselves. If I ask them to do some work, they would know why I need that work done (preferably from our discussions), how does that fit in their, or our project and would try to do it on time. If they can't do it, for whatever reason, they would let me know as soon as they can so I can think of an alternative. I personally don't forget what work I assigned, but if I do, I expect my student to remind me that, and the reason I asked for it. No need to redo work. You keep it short, something like: > > Dr. [insert dude's name], I have finished the assignment you asked and sent you an email on [date]. I have attached it again. Regards, > > > As for you not knowing the rationale for a specific task you get, I think you should try to find out from him when you discuss. Face to face conversation is very valuable because it's easier for him to make himself understood. It's also easier for you to get your information if you are nice and polite. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Expanding the answer of Magicsowon, If you receive one-line email instructions and they are clear to follow: follow them. If you receive one-line email instructions and they are not clear: respond with a request to schedule a meeting. Suggest your supervisor to choose from several timeslots when you will be able to make it. Include tentative times and dates into the email subject line. In the face-to-face meeting: remind him how the last meeting ended. If you had completed any of his tasks, deliver the results. If you have any clarification questions, ask them until you are in the clear. It might be a good idea to make notes during the discussion and send them to your supervisor by email later, so that you'd be on the same page. Upvotes: 2
2017/10/09	1,194	4,939	<issue_start>username_0: I have been given my first manuscript to review for a journal. The topic is a very good one, it fills a research gap nicely and is an area that I specialise in. However, the execution of the paper is lacking. I am about halfway through making comments on it. The English is consistently poor in both spelling and grammar, and the structure is dire, which makes it hard to follow the main arguments. I am aware that bad English is no reason to reject a paper, but the English in this paper is very confused in many places, sometimes multiple times per paragraph, and it's a trial to follow. I believe that the paper could only be salvageable after a rewrite, but by a third party. I don't believe the author's English is good enough to bring it up to standard. I do not care about being 'kind' to the author, but the topic is so good that I would love to see it go through, but I am torn between accepting it with majors or recommending rejection. My PhD supervisor has advised me to recommend rejection, but I am still unsure which way to go. Should I recommend acceptance after major revisions in the hope that it will improve based on my [now extensive] advice or just recommend rejection?<issue_comment>username_1: <NAME> has a very insightful scheme for calculating the final recommendation based on technical, presentation, and omission grounds ([source](http://selab.netlab.uky.edu/homepage/jeff-lecture/685-6-reviewingRules-2pg.pdf)): [![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/9kBJG.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/9kBJG.png) The fields in the matrix correspond to different types of problems: > > Technical Problems > Minor: Mistakes in background, related work; > Moderate: Does not affect the key results; > Major: Changes the key results; > Critical: Negates the key results. > > > Presentation Problems > Minor: Typos, spelling, grammar; > Moderate: Make understanding the paper harder (organization, notation, repeated grammar); > Major: Prevent understanding of part of the paper; > Critical: Prevent understanding or evaluating a key result; > > > Problems of Omission > Minor: Omitted background, related work; > Moderate: Not part of the key results; > Major: Missing in the key results (proof or experiment, > lack of control in experiment); > Critical: Must be in the paper to evaluate the result > (experimental study, etc) or not enough results. > > > The source also provides additional information and context. Based on this scheme, I think the appropriate recommendation in your case would be a major revision. Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: I would reverse the question: Should you accept a weak paper written in terrible English, just because it's about a topic you like, a niche you care about or a something nobody else is writing about? Like mentioned in some of the comments: this could actually be detrimental for the overal interest in the subtopic, and this publication might prevent more capable people from publishing the same thing (but better) because something is already out there. In addition, the low level of English and lack of structure might also let you fill in too many blanks and give their reasoning too much value, just because you're very comfortable with the topic. Are you sure a pass by a language editing service would fix this? If it has to be rewritten by an "expert in the field" that person might as well just write the whole thing from scratch. Finally: rejection is (most of the time) not the end of a manuscript. You can write a shorter review message with your opinion and advice and reject it. In a few months you'll see the manuscript being published in another journal, either re-written so it got accepted in a decent journal, or published in a journal with much lower standards. Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: If the manuscript seems to be technically sound, just because of English you can not reject it. Different graphical finding can give you the feeling about the good and bad of the work ... if its good, put up your thoughts on the paper and leave the decision to the editor... mostly in these cases editors tend to ask authors to give one more look on their manuscript and shares your views with them ... it would be really ok. the only favour you can do it to keep the tone neutral while suggesting or making comments on the manuscript. Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_4: You do not accept or reject the paper. You recommend a decision to the editor, and the editor decides. You should copy what you have just written in your question to your review: it is an excellent assessment of the quality of the paper that clearly indicates why it has merit and where it needs to be improved. If you think it has a chance to be published after being rewritten: "major revisions". If not: reject. Upvotes: 0
2017/10/09	1,595	6,641	<issue_start>username_0: Forgive the question for being silly, but I do not live in the US and work in a different field. I am developing an application I believe would be a wonderful (free) asset to the study and comprehension of a particular subject (history, which I suppose brings with it philosophy, sociology, and many others really) for students and docents alike. I would thus like to gather the opinions of any number of actual professionals (maybe pique their interest and earn their cohoperation), who may be kind enough to waste a few minutes, on the concept, which is handily laid out in brief at the project's URL. A quick look at a few universities' websites made it clear that is not the way, unless I wish to enroll. I briefly considered contacting PhDs through LinkedIn, but it feels wrong. So the question is: what are the proper (sensible, respectful, appropriate, expected) ways and channels, if any, for a complete professional stranger, to contact a US Professor and hold some expectation that they may react after some fashion (or at least a suspect they may have actually received the message) ? * Why the US ? Because it seems like a good starting point. There are so many people and learning institutions in the US. And American history is quite unique. And the geography is vast, it fits well with the concept. Plus, english. The Answers all raise very helpful points, I wish I could pick at least 3. It being a question about new tech, students may be the ones to pursue. Thanks all.<issue_comment>username_1: Email is listed on college directories, and is the standard means of communication. Generally no receipt confirmation is used, and a reply is not guaranteed. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: > > I am developing an application I believe would be a wonderful (free) > asset to the study and comprehension of a particular subject for > students and docents alike. > > > Consider presenting it at an academic conference. In my field, there are usually industry booths at the conferences. But there is also often the opportunity to present innovative software with a poster, or sometimes even as a talk. Don't expect any responses to unsolicited emails marketing your software. These will usually be regarded as spam. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: Email them, and make sure your email is much more concise than your question here (and try to avoid overly flowery language). Don't expect a large number of responses, because to many academics such an email will look like spam. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: > > what are the proper (sensible, respectful, appropriate, expected) ways and channels, if any, for a complete professional stranger, to contact a US Professor > > > Email is the standard channel for such things. > > ... and hold some expectation that they may react after some fashion (or at least a suspect they may have actually received the message) ? > > > Sorry to sound pessimistic, but such an expectation would be largely unrealistic in my opinion and if you hold it you are likely to end up disappointed. The reason is that most US professors get a lot of unsolicited email from many people (some well-intentioned, others who aren't) trying to get them to "waste a few minutes" on their pet projects and offer feedback, encouragement, fill a short survey, forward email to their students and colleagues, try out a product or service, etc. The fact of the matter is they simply cannot realistically afford to reply to all such emails and still keep their sanity. Even just reading all email is impractical when you count the additional daily barrage of administrative emails begging for your attention, and ordinary, genuine work-related email from colleagues and students. I personally no longer waste even a minute of my time on any solicitation unless it is personally tailored to me (i.e., has my name in the email greeting and some additional content that proves the sender has an idea who I am and bothers to explain why they are contacting me - if they don't, I will assume the email is a mass mailing and ignore it). Anything else won't get even an acknowledgement. Even personally tailored emails may not get a response if they are from a commercial entity trying to sell me something, concern a subject that's clearly of no interest to me (which would be obvious to a sender who actually knows anything about me), or show indications of dishonesty or bad faith (e.g., a sender who claims to have read my latest paper when clearly they don't have a clue what my work is about). For other emails who are written by individuals who just have something to say to me (and have a reason for wanting to say it to me specifically), I am happy to spend a few minutes of my time writing a short and respectful answer, and if necessary offering a bit of advice or a pointer to some helpful resource. Hope this helps, and good luck! Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: Professors are busy, but PhD students are more likely to have spare cycles for you, and probably more open to new methodologies. Find someone that has already some experience, so they can give better context and send them emails. Skip Linkedin, it is mostly an industry thing. Now, you need to craft your email very carefully to show your recipient that: 1. You are offering something useful for their research. 2. You don't want their money. 3. You know what you are doing, you are not a crank. 4. You want some actionable response from your recipient. "Hey, look how cool is this" isn't actionable, "whaddaya think?" is, but seems like a lot of work, "would this be useful for your research on underwater waving through the ages?" bit better, "is there a source of data I could apply it to to be useful for your work?" is better. (Note how the last one shifts the workload to you, we PhD students are lazy people). The last one is important: there are enough people that read some popular science and suddenly know how to revolutionise every field of study; don't be one of them. Show them that you understand the problem at hand, and that you have some unique set of skills to solve it (in your case, may be you are a good programmer with a wide interest in History), and that your tool is actually useful; but don't oversell it. If you live near a university you should consider checking them out, because then a physical meeting is possible. Your profile lists you live in Europe, you should consider searching there too, because they are more likely to be able to fly you in for a meeting if and when the project takes off. Upvotes: 2 [selected_answer]
2017/10/09	868	3,734	<issue_start>username_0: I have recently become a Master's student that is in a research group on theoretical elementary particle physics. The program lasts for 2 years and I am expected to have a Master's thesis written up by the end of it. However, I have been told that the research has to be done completely on my own and have received pretty much no instructions or guidelines as to what is expected of me throughout my Master's degree. At the same time, I feel like there are unwritten and untold expectations of what I should be doing, with the peer pressure suggesting that I should figure it out on my own instead of ask someone else. Despite this, I have asked some of my peers and also my professor, but my peers have told me that everyone goes through the same process, and my professor just tells me that I have to do my own research by myself. As such, I am at an impasse as I feel like I do not know enough about the field right now to embark on any original research. I do have an idea of how broad it is and the sort of prerequisites that I have to study, but there just seems to be too much ground to cover in 2 years, not to mention that I do not have a concrete idea of what are of high energy physics I would like to do my Master's thesis in. Is this a normal situation I am finding myself in? If so, then is the only solution to just "deal with it"? Any advice will be deeply appreciated as I find myself feeling extremely lost right now. P.S. I am in the same institution and research group as I was when I was doing my Bachelor's degree, and had the experience of writing up an original research Bachelor's thesis in the span of 2 months whilst being supervised by a Post Doc in my research group. However, I do not feel like I had a complete grasp of what I did, and though it is quite specialised within the field (String Phenomenology), I do not think I have enough knowledge to even do research surrounding the topic I researched for my Bachelor's thesis.<issue_comment>username_1: I find it odd that you have been given absolutely no guidance whatsoever. That doesn't quite sound right. While your advisor may not give you step-by-step guidance to getting started, a little bit of a start by explaining a problem to tackle or suggesting some recent review articles to look at would be the least an advisor could do to get a student started. When you're done with your higher education, the goal of it will be to enable you to become an expert in a field in which you haven't studied or explored. Learning how to learn is the most important skill you can develop—and your advisor should help you to build those skills! Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: To me this sounds very wrong. I started my PhD in theoretical high-energy physics (before changing track and becoming a pure mathematician researching geometry, still with some string theory inspiration). I did a 1-year Master's in maths/theoretical physics without a thesis in the UK before my PhD, so I was in a similar position as you are now when I started the PhD -- and I think it's pretty clear that in theoretical physics the gap between what you do in any of your lecture courses and actual research questions is huge. My view is: As a Master's student in this field, you can absolutely not be expected to invent your own research project completely on your own. Even as a PhD student, it is a crucial part of your supervisor's role to suggest research projects and guide you on what material to learn to be able to make progress (although if you do come up with your own ideas, that's great). What about students in other research groups? How is it going for them? My advice would be to change supervisor, to be honest. Upvotes: 1
2017/10/09	3,631	14,585	<issue_start>username_0: I committed plagiarism at the end of my PhD. My psychiatrist found that the plagiarism is related to a psychiatric disorder (mental health problem). I have published many papers in top journals and this behavior was clearly out of character. I was asked to voluntarily withdraw from my PhD program. However, I have a psychiatric explanation, and I have a psychiatrist who can vouch that my mental health issues have been resolved and there should be no further incidents in the future. After taking time off to get treated and to recover, now I am considering applying to PhD programs again. However, I am facing a question from most universities that I am applying to. Is there any hope for a student who committed misconduct that is related to a disability? I am nervous about this application. Can anyone help me figure out how to deal with this issue in a proper way?<issue_comment>username_1: You can't really hide the fact that you were dismissed for plagiarism. If you do, and it comes to light later, that can be sufficient grounds to have your admission revoked (or to be expelled). If you're asked, then you need to be straightforward about it—explain the entire situation briefly and cogently. Explain what happened and why it happened, and why the universities to which you're applying can be certain that it won't happen again. If you can't make that argument, your chances of success will be quite small. Upvotes: 7 <issue_comment>username_2: I think all you can do is be honest about why you were dismissed. While plagiarism is supposed to be a mortal sin, I know of at least two academics who are now in tenured positions after they were dismissed (or resigned) from other universities because they plagiarised some of their work. I don't think this is a deal-breaker for you, provided you have, as you say, addressed the medical condition that caused it and have taken steps to not have it repeat. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: > > One way of thinking about this is that your plagiarism was an effect of your mental problems, something that you weren't able to control. > > > As you said, you weren't expelled of the program for plagiarism, you voluntarily quit for health reasons. That's the official line. There is a big difference there. Notice that I'm not saying you should hide what happened. I just believe that, given your phrasing, you don't fully believe that you weren't at fault. You didn't plagiarize anything, you shouldn't bear the "guilt" of something that wasn't your fault. To the question, personally, I would compartmentalize the information. In general, CV and documents, sent widely, I'd say "health reasons", which is true enough, if anything at all. In the case of a more serious interview, I'd mention the health reasons and explain that it has been solved, details on demand. When things get really serious, but before signing, explain the whole thing. I said that because on one hand, your health is not really anybody else's business, but it may impact the school and professors. Transparency is good, but you still have to respect your own privacy. Tricky balance there. What does your previous adviser thinks of this whole thing? It should be an interesting point of view. Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_4: It's not easy to understand how a mental health issue can lead to plagiarism, and it's less clear still how a medical practitioner could reach the conclusion that a specific instance of plagiarism was a consequence of a mental health issue. Unless those things can be documented and explained in a credible way, it is unlikely people will overlook the circumstance. If people can be convinced that the plagiarism was a consequence of a mental health issue beyond the plagiarist's control there remains the issue of convincing them that it will not be repeated. Since plagiarism is professionally unacceptable, its cause, while relevant in a moral sense, is not relevant in a practical sense; someone who plagiarizes cannot work as an academic professional, whether or not that person is morally responsible for the plagiarism. Consequently, even people who have accepted the difficult to believe claim that the plagiarist could not control committing the past plagiarism will have to be convinced that he/she can always control him/herself in the future. Summary: people have to be convinced the plagiarism resulted from a mental health issue, and people have to be convinced that the mental health issue will not recur. Convincing an admissions committee of either seems difficult. There are many people trying to get into PhD programs, and those deciding on admissions generally are reluctant to dedicate resources to candidates who they judge to be at risk of not completing the program. The slightest hint of a lack of forthrightness or an unwillingness to accept responsibility is likely to condemn the application of a candidate who has already failed to complete a PhD program for the reasons described. Upvotes: 7 <issue_comment>username_5: You have been asked to withdraw voluntarily from the PhD program. If you did, that's the official line on it. However, you don't actually take responsibility for your own acts in the manner you describe what happened, like a parent that declares "it wasn't us, it was the devil" when a child turns out wrong. There aren't separate histories for "bad you" and "good you". Drugs will shift the balance of your motivations but not section off a part of you. Whatever was it that made you do your misconduct, you need safeguards and procedures and checks in place that go beyond "I am taking medication now, nothing like that will happen again". Because it "happens" to people without a medical condition, too, and they, like you did, have an untainted history as additional incentive to steer clear of plagiarism. The "my psychiatrist found that I plagiarized because of a psychiatric disorder" line will not work to convince the responsible persons that you aren't a high risk candidate for their reputation: psychiatric disorders don't magically disappear. So don't flaunt it. Don't be seeing to hide essential information, but don't make it a source of pride either. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_6: So the psychiatrist that you paid found that you aren't responsible for your actions... That's garbage. He gave you the answer you wanted to hear, so you can excuse your own actions, because you paid for it. I have ADHD and have done a ton of stupid stuff in the past. That condition is "ME", not some alternate person that I have no control over. Once you take responsibility for your actions, you can truly gain control over yourself. Until you own your actions, I do not believe you should try again. The next time you are faced with an easy choice you will just take it again, and blame your condition. The university intentionally left you a way to save face by allowing you to voluntarily withdraw from your program. It wasn't accidental. They left you a means to try again. If asked you can honestly say that at the time you had documented mental health problems that caused poor performance and the university asked you to voluntarily withdraw. Its a grey line. Depending who follows up and what records the university maintained it could go bad. However, the worst they can say is NO. That's better than not trying if you really want it. At least you can tell yourself that you tried your best. Good luck. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_7: This is the rest of our life. So get serious. FORGET any mental claim. Focus on "their" claim. This is what you must challenge, and you must challenge it on policy grounds. Get a lawyer, preferably one matriculating from a liberal college or university. Although doubtful,you might find one "for free." Go to your major professor and recount the following, *before action. See if that "Department" will reconsider. (Document all names and comments.) If "they" will not reconsider, take next step. With your lawyer,seek a meeting with the top* of the chain--Dean of Instruction etc. Not the "affected" Department Document "their" claim of plagiarism. Discover all school policies related to plagiarism. There WILL be a loophole. Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_8: In an ideal world, authorities would try to psychoanalyze a criminal and treat him and release him, rather than putting him in a place that messes him further : irrespective of whether he was responsible for his twisted mind, eg substance abuse or whether it was something else , eg. messed up childhood , substance abuse by mom in pregnancy etc. However my friend the world is not an ideal place. It that were true , you wouldn't be running after pHD degree. I am by not inferring you are a criminal, just providing analogous example. If your records do not talk about plagiarism , you just need to come up with an explanation. If not , you can still contribute to the world with your intelligence. Your degree shouldn't affect your earning if you really want to make money. And a lot of people with less wealth are often more loved and respected. A person who makes 100 times the average doesn't always do so because he has 100 times the intellect or EQ or risk taking ability. On the contrary he probably connects less with people, uses them more and is going to be forever unhappy because of his lack of empathy. I only wish you good luck and hope you still help the world with your abilities. Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_9: You've lost academic credibility through the plagerism. Truth be told, you'll lose even more credibility by hiding behind a 'diagnosis'. Political Correctness obliges us to pretend to accept it. But... Just say 'sorry, I've learned my lesson, it won't happen again'. And make sure it DOESN'T happen again. You might be let back in. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_10: First, you were not expelled, you voluntarily left for health reasons. Second, if you're diagnosed with a mental disorder, you may fall under the Americans with Disabilities act. If that is the case, you'd need to consult a lawyer on that one, you may have grounds for reinstatement with your former institution. Now, the question is do you want to return? Personally, I think the first place to start with if you are interested in pursuing reinstatement is with your original advisor. If you choose to pursue reinstatement, you will need to get your advisor, the department chair and perhaps other professors on board. If you don't, you may be able to legally force the issue, but it would make completing your PhD very difficult. You simply aren't going to finish your PhD if you don't have an advisor and if no one will sit your boards and oral defense. I can practically guarantee that finishing at your original institution, if possible, will be the quickest way to complete your PhD, but you will have to jump some serious hurdles to make it happen. Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_11: Not sure how I stumbled into this site but as long as I'm here...... In short yes, there is hope. However, without knowing the context of your situation I can offer perhaps some suggestions -mostly echoing a lot of the solid advice from others. I have a PhD and have served on both pre-doctoral internship and post doctoral residency admission committees. While the selection criteria and processes that I am familiar with may differ substantially from those used in the academic selection processes for entrance into a doctoral program (which may be more heavily weighted toward quantitative variables and initial algorithmic cuts (rather than research and clinical work), I think several suggestions offered by previous posters are important. 1. In your CV acknowledge that you withdrew (not dismissed) from your previous academic institution 2/2 medical issues. I'd be vague and omit that you were asked to withdraw; If you get to an interview stage (assuming there is one) then a more detailed disclosure will be likely required. You need to get past the first hoop. 2. You indicate a high level of competence in the program prior to the honor violation, emphasize those accomplishments on your CV 3. Speak with your major/dissertation chair or advisor; unless things have changed radically over the past 30 years, they still ask for letters of recommendation and these will be important. Let them tell your story and also highlight your strengths and accomplishments. Of couse you could always go back to the undergraduate well and ask your profs from that institution write letters again. 4. Be prepared to explain how the disorder contributed to this anomaly in your behavior; what was the functional impairment of the disorder/illness (i.e., judgement, attention). How has that functional impairment be mitigated, resolved managed etc). So if you had an episodic mood disorder that impaired your judgement, how do you manage sx now? Even if the plagiarism was really egregious but clearly linked to a significant alteration in thinking and bx, you may get a pass. On a side note, no forensically oriented mental health expert would ever vouch "that it will never happen again." (unless you're dead or have some some other countervailing factor :-) ). No such thing as a guarantee. I'll leave you with this gem from [Tommy Boy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommy_Boy): > > Tommy: Here's the way I see it, Ted. Guy puts a fancy guarantee on a box 'cause he wants you to feel all warm and toasty inside. > > > <NAME>: Yeah, makes a man feel good. > > > Tommy: 'Course it does. Why shouldn't it? Ya figure you put that little box under your pillow at night, the Guarantee Fairy might come by and leave a quarter, am I right, Ted? > > > <NAME>: What's your point? > > > Tommy: The point is, how do you know the fairy isn't a crazy glue sniffer? "Buildin' model airplanes!" says the little fairy, well, we're not buying it. He sneaks into your house once, that's all it takes. The next thing you know, there's money missing off your dresser and your daughter's knocked up, I've seen it a hundred times. > > > <NAME>: But why do they put a guarantee on the box? > > > Tommy: Because they know all they sold ya was a guaranteed piece of shit. That's all it is, isn't it? Hey, if you want me to take a dump in a box and mark it guaranteed, I will. I've got spare time. But for now, for your customer's sake, for your daughter's sake, ya might wanna think about buying a quality product from me. > > > Upvotes: 2
2017/10/09	612	2,374	<issue_start>username_0: I have a friend at another university that I met at a conference a couple years ago. Since then, we usually make an effort to attend each other's sessions, grab coffee, etc. Last year he organized a session at our flagship conference, and I think he's organized a similar session several times before. I think it would be fun to co-organize a session together, but I would assume he's doing his usual session. Would it be rude for me to ask if he would like help organizing the session (i.e., adding me as a co-organizer)? Or is this the academic equivalent of asking, "Can I invite myself over to your house to play video games since I don't have a N64?" For context, we are both at universities in the USA. He is an Egyptian-born Canadian citizen, and I am an American. He is a few years senior to me; he is in a semi-permanent research position, and I am a 4th PhD student. For the record, I don't think he would view this as rude because he is a genuinely friendly guy, and I think he could easily tell me "no." But I am more curious about the general etiquette of these things.<issue_comment>username_1: I would not directly broach the subject. If you want to judge interest, the kinds of questions I'd ask are: > > What do you have to do to organize a session? > > > If your friend mentions needing a co-chair, you could ask your friend if he has someone in mind. But do not ask directly to be a co-chair for someone else's session. What you might instead want to ask is: "would you like to be co-chairs for a future session sometime?" Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: If you're friends, then if you think you can ask the question "I'll be at conference X again next week, would you like to go out for dinner?" then I think it's fair game to ask "I'll be at conference X again next year. I was thinking of organizing a session there myself, but then I also thought that it would be quite similar what you've been doing for the past couple of years. Would you be interested in doing it together this time? It would be good for my CV, and I could take some of the work off your hands." If he doesn't appreciate sharing the work, then he can say no. I don't know anyone who would, though: He's going to have less work to do, and it's not like he gets less credit than if he did it alone. So why would anyone say no? Upvotes: 1
2017/10/09	851	3,714	<issue_start>username_0: I was recently forced out of a PhD program at XX early in the dissertation stage. Without going into details, XX acted in bad faith and also broke the law. So even though a good academic case can be made for re-admitting me, XX won't touch me. The problem is that in order to avoid a lawsuit, XX manufactured a story about how I repeatedly failed to make progress despite their leniency. All additional information contradicting this story was deliberately omitted from my file and the people who know what really happened will not go on record about it. So the only option is to enroll somewhere else. But it looks terrible to have been thrown out of a program after several years, with the official reason as failure to make progress on a dissertation. It probably also looks terrible say that XX lied about that, even though that's exactly what they did. I have good evidence, but an admissions committee is not a courtroom jury and will probably not want to hear that XX broke the law and lied to cover it up. What can I do to address doubts about my ability to complete a PhD? Do I tell them what actually happened?<issue_comment>username_1: Letters of recommendation are meant to be confidential: that also includes confidential to the administration of the university at which the recommender works. Therefore, if you know people who know what's going on (your question suggests this is the case), you could ask if they could write a letter of recommendation explaining the situation. Alternatively, you can provide details about your situation if there is a place to do so (in a cover letter or a "special comments" section in an online application). Remember that an admissions committee is not a jury—they don't need to be convinced beyond reasonable doubt; they just need to believe you're going to be a good fit for their department. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: So here's what I see as the issue you need to overcome: If I'm told that a whole department or university conspired against a student to force them out, I usually tend to think that that is a silly allegation and that the person who makes this allegation is delusional. That's because it requires that a whole bunch of people (who also happen to be my colleagues!) would have had to act unethically, as opposed to just one person coming up with claims that have no factual basis but support their self-interest in believing that it's someone else's fault. I have no idea which side is correct in your case, but as a member of an admission committee, a story like yours would certainly not make me excited about the candidate. So you have two options in your explanations to the department you are applying to now: * You provide incontrovertible evidence that your claims really are what they are, and that the colleagues of the admissions committee members are all unethical blokes waging a vendetta. You may not have the space to sufficiently support your claims. * You make up some other explanation that sounds plausible for why you left that program. This may include "having had personal problems that you have since overcome through personal growth", or an admission that you really did something wrong but have come to understand by now why it was wrong and that you have learned from it. In either case, the explanation ought to be credible and probably ought to address the issue at hand in some way, though it can also be a bit nebulous. The point I'm trying to make is that leaving a program, for whatever reason, carries with it a stigma that usually falls on the person who left the program, not the program itself. It is your job in the new application to address this. Upvotes: 3
2017/10/10	515	2,193	<issue_start>username_0: How should a bibliography cite works titled in several scripts? Up to now I've been putting all titles into a single list, in the original scripts and in the alphabetical order informed by their otherwise unused transliterations. For example, Матюшкин (Matyushkin) could come right after Mason, but the transliteration Matyushkin would not appear. I have a book in hand from Princeton University Press in the 1950s that also uses a single bibliographic order, but includes only transliterations and title translations, not the original-script references. That makes it hard to track down a source because the reader has to be able to back-form the other spelling, which may be ambiguous or nonstandard. The title translations are useful, though as they involve the creation of new text, they can make an entry not match references elsewhere to the same work. Filled with doubt, I wonder if there is a standard approach to this problem.<issue_comment>username_1: I think it's best to use transliterations as the basis for the bibliography. However, if you'd like to also provide the spelling according to the original language's alphabet, you can do so in parenthesis after the transliteration. I suspect the tendency to use transliterations arose because it was too expensive to have additional languages when documents had to be typed or typeset before publication. In the modern digital era, such limitations have largely disappeared. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: For non-Roman scripts, it's common to have separate bibliographies. I imagine that this was especially the case when switching languages required switching codesets or linotype font sets. So you'd have: * English language bibliography * Chinese language bibliography and so forth. There's even a question on the TeX.stackexchange on how to do this: <https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/343307/put-chinese-language-entries-before-english-language-entries-in-the-bibliography> These days, it's easy to mix the two together as unicode solved many of the font issues. But separating them allows you to use the name ordering system most appropriate for that language. Upvotes: 2
2017/10/10	604	2,614	<issue_start>username_0: I'm not professional scientist. I work a normal job and don't make my living out of science. In fact I have never gained any money by doing science. However, I have my scientific ideas, I browse journals, collect publications and am trying to built a research program on my own. I have been doing it for years and I believe I have reached a point where I can propose something very interesting to the professional communities in several fields of science, as well as philosophy. The problem is I'm not affiliated with anyone and don't have PhDs. I want to attract attention from professionals and even get some of the experiments I could propose done. I even don't wish to do them themselves and get money for my efforts-I just want to see am I right? I have been making advances to various journals and this site's communities in the last year or so and I think I might got to publish something soon (in a year or so), however it will most likely be in a philosophical or theoretic journal and I will be still pretty far away from experimental verification. So, my question is, if I don't have access to any funds but want to see am I right or not what are my options to actually get someone to test my predictions and do experiments based on my ideas (or as I would like or call them-blueprints)? How can I reach a community without the needed background?<issue_comment>username_1: I think it's best to use transliterations as the basis for the bibliography. However, if you'd like to also provide the spelling according to the original language's alphabet, you can do so in parenthesis after the transliteration. I suspect the tendency to use transliterations arose because it was too expensive to have additional languages when documents had to be typed or typeset before publication. In the modern digital era, such limitations have largely disappeared. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: For non-Roman scripts, it's common to have separate bibliographies. I imagine that this was especially the case when switching languages required switching codesets or linotype font sets. So you'd have: * English language bibliography * Chinese language bibliography and so forth. There's even a question on the TeX.stackexchange on how to do this: <https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/343307/put-chinese-language-entries-before-english-language-entries-in-the-bibliography> These days, it's easy to mix the two together as unicode solved many of the font issues. But separating them allows you to use the name ordering system most appropriate for that language. Upvotes: 2
2017/10/10	502	2,077	<issue_start>username_0: I remember reading an article (in popular magazine I think) that attributed to de Tocqueville a quote along the lines of: > > To engage in science, one has to own a farm. > > > meaning that a person has to be financially secure in order to undertake (independent) successful scientific endeavours in a free time – and science itself doesn’t really pay very well. Unfortunately, I can’t find original article nor google the quote with conjunction to de Tocqueville. Can anyone help in identifying the original phrasing and source of the quote? It’s also completely possible that my memory does not serve me well and it might have been coined by some other person (or maybe you know similar quotes?). --- Also please note that I am looking only for a quote and do not want to discuss the financial aspects of academia.<issue_comment>username_1: I think it's best to use transliterations as the basis for the bibliography. However, if you'd like to also provide the spelling according to the original language's alphabet, you can do so in parenthesis after the transliteration. I suspect the tendency to use transliterations arose because it was too expensive to have additional languages when documents had to be typed or typeset before publication. In the modern digital era, such limitations have largely disappeared. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: For non-Roman scripts, it's common to have separate bibliographies. I imagine that this was especially the case when switching languages required switching codesets or linotype font sets. So you'd have: * English language bibliography * Chinese language bibliography and so forth. There's even a question on the TeX.stackexchange on how to do this: <https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/343307/put-chinese-language-entries-before-english-language-entries-in-the-bibliography> These days, it's easy to mix the two together as unicode solved many of the font issues. But separating them allows you to use the name ordering system most appropriate for that language. Upvotes: 2
2017/10/10	1,624	6,470	<issue_start>username_0: Apparently, this [varies](https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/a/1212/22511) even in the same country (I'm in [country A](https://academia.stackexchange.com/revisions/75677/7)). Case 1. University releases recommendation letter questions right away. * recommendation letters are submitted at the same time as the rest of the application. Case 2. University doesn't release recommendation letter questions right away. * release is only after rest of application is finished. --- So how will this work? My understanding: In case 1: 1. I work on my statement of purpose (or equivalent). 2. I also draft recommendation letter, solicited by letter writer. 3. I give my draft, again solicited by letter writer, to recommendation letter writers several weeks before deadline. 4. Then I continue to work on statement of purpose. 5. Maybe update recommendation letter draft, solicited by letter writer. 6. Submission: Recommendation letter writers and I submit. In case 2: 1. I work on my statement of purpose (or equivalent) but can't do so as much as in case 1 because I have to draft recommendation letter after it is released 2. I am unable to draft recommendation letter, solicited by letter writer, until completion of step 1, but at least I can work on the content if not the presentation as if working on a [reference letter](http://work.chron.com/difference-between-reference-recommendation-letter-26700.html). There's also hoping universities of case 2 have similar questions to universities of case 1. 3. Submission: I submit statement of purpose after about half of the time as in case 1. 4. Recommendation letter questions are released to recommendation letter writers. 5. Recommendation letter writers give to applicants to draft. 6. I draft in about half the time as in case 1, solicited by letter writer. 7. Maybe update recommendation letter draft based on not knowing questions prior, solicited by letter writer. 8. Submission: Recommendation letter writers and I submit. Might I have missed something? Did I get anything possibly wrong?<issue_comment>username_1: Here is the normal process of a recommendation letter: 1. You ask someone to write a letter for you. 2. They write the letter and answer any questions. The mechanics of the process can vary, as you note. But your role in managing that process is mainly about giving them as much time as possible to do the recommendation. Ask them early, and if you need to send material such as questions, do it as early as you have the information. They might ask for additional information from you, such as factual information to include, or even what things you would like them to emphasize. But the point is that the letter is their work, which consists of their evaluation of you. That is what is normal and expected. It does seem that, at least occasionally some professors may ask you to draft the letter for them. There are several questions about that on this site, including [this one](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/29041/what-does-it-mean-if-a-professor-asks-you-to-draft-his-reference-letter-for-you). People disagree about whether this is ok when the professor asks. If a professor asks you to do this, you will have to decide what to do. However, under no circumstances should you draft all or part of a recommendation and send it unsolicited. This is not how things work, and it looks very bad. * It communicates a lack of respect for the person giving you the recommendation. Rather than let them do their job, you feel you have to put words in their mouth. * It looks like you are trying to game the system, and at worst someone might even consider it borderline fraudulent. Just don't do this. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: I am going to address the problem of the questions and the order of occurrences specifically, without addressing the issue of drafting one's own letter. That topic has been covered [elsewhere on this site](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/29041/what-does-it-mean-if-a-professor-asks-you-to-draft-his-reference-letter-for-you). The questions you are referring to are not open ended questions designed to affect the text of the letter. The questions are basically a form required by HR. Typically, the reviewer drafts the letter before looking at the questions. The questions are typically multiple choice or very short answer. They are often answered outside of the letter context (i.e. on a website form). Questions may include: * How do you know applicant? * How long have you known applicant? * In your opinion, is the applicant in: top .1% of students; top 1% of students; top 10% of students? As you can see, these types of questions do not impact the letter text, because they are already included. I have not seen schools ask faculty to change their letter text to include unusual/special information. If this is asked for, it is handled through the web form. TL;DR: Think of the letter as being separate from the "questions" or "form." Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: I think the case here is, someone (your family member, your friend, your professor etc.) has caused an obsession about reference letter questions. I strongly suggest you get rid of this obsession. There is no such thing as recommendation letter questions. Some universities require the referees to fill out a form. Some don't. If there are no such questions, all you have to do is go to your favorite professor, and tell them the following sentence. > > Hello Professor, I will apply for graduate programme in this > university and they require reference letters. Can you write me one? > > > If, on the other hand, the university has a specific form, you just hand in that form and say: > > Hello Professor, I will apply for graduate programme in this > university and they require this form to be filled by my referees. Is it OK if I put your name and you fill the form? > > > Other than that, you are just overreacting. If you desperately want to see the reference letter, just ask two of them and read one. But keep in mind that academics can hint some things with specific words in the letter and you might not be able to understand even though you read it. TL;DR: If there is a form, hand the form in. Else, just ask for a reference letter. Reference letters have absolutely nothing to do with your statement of purpose. Upvotes: 2
2017/10/10	575	2,453	<issue_start>username_0: I graduated with an excellent master's degree from one of the western European countries. I thought it would be good for my career development to do a PhD in another university but unfortunately I now find myself in a lot of trouble. The lab I am working at has several issues and there are many deeply unethical things going on. I am pretty confident that if I leave the lab without completing a degree, the professors will try to hamper my applications to other places. Is there anything I can do? Obviously I am no longer a good applicant but someone who (at least seemingly) "failed" first. I wish this was my fault but it is not. To make the question clear, I am contemplating on leaving due to ethics issues, general unfairness, and repeated mistreatment of employees (not just me).<issue_comment>username_1: Deciding to leave one university for another is in my belief, beyond the scope of asking strangers on the internet. However one thing stood out. > > The lab I am working at has several issues and there are many deeply unethical things going on. > > > If things are as egregious as you claim, you are beyond, "should I leave" territory and cross into "what are my country's whistle-blower laws"? Is your lab injecting subjects with unknown substances or diseases without their knowledge? Is it stealing or utilizing funds in an unscrupulous manner such as buying personal items? If things aren't as serious as claimed, I don't see why you couldn't have a sit-down meeting with your researchers and inform them of your dissatisfaction and hope things turn around. If it comes to applying to another program, you can always inform your potential institution of the shortcoming of your current situation. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: I would suggest talking with your university's ombudsperson. First, have a discussion with the ombudsperson about what behaviors they are required to report. Usually they will bring this up themselves, but it's best to be sure--some institutional ombudspersons are mandated reporters. Then I would discuss those aspects of the situation that can be kept confidential (hopefully, the entire situation). They can advise you and point you towards other campus resources that may be of use. In other words, this sounds like a complex situation that is worth talking about in person, and in more detail than you probably feel comfortable disclosing online. Upvotes: 1
2017/10/10	1,709	7,070	<issue_start>username_0: I was always a distracted kid growing up. I found it difficult to pay attention to anything for more than fifteen minutes. Growing up in Asia, teachers at the school and college levels always put it down to me being a “bad student” and made sure I knew that I would never amount to much. After moving to the US for my master’s degree in computer science over ten years ago, my distractions and poor academic performance started haunting me again. I was put on academic probation and faced expulsion if I did not bring my GPA up (from 2.5x to 3+). During one of my lectures, the professor noticed my fidgeting and asked me to meet her after class. She told me I exhibited the classic symptoms of ADHD (which I had never heard of before) and asked me to meet the university counselor. The counselor confirmed the diagnosis and referred me to a psychiatrist for medication. This was probably the biggest turning point in my life as it was only then that I realized that there was something that caused me to behave the way I did. Knowing and understanding what the cause of my distractions made me able to address it and focus my energy and concentration properly. I transferred to a different university (lesser ranked than the first one, but well known for its notoriously rigorous curriculum) and was able to maintain a 3.5+ GPA throughout, in addition to being invited to PhD level research groups and being admitted to highly selective research internships in Europe. I enrolled in classes that were restricted to PhD students after I petitioned the school dean, and ended up topping 2 out of the 3 courses. In my mid-30’s now, I currently work as a scientist in a reputed firm. I’ve been granted a patent in machine learning and one of my papers has been shortlisted for publication in a top tier conference (I won’t know for sure till next month). I came across a PhD program that pretty much aligns perfectly with my grad school research and social cause and I’m extremely interested in applying for it. The application process involves the regular requirements of GRE/recommendations/statements of purpose and transcripts from ALL universities attended. My grad advisors and I have maintained good relationships over the years and they have encouraged me on several occasions to apply to a PhD program. However, I’m worried that my academic performance at the first university I attended for my master’s will come back to bite me. While I can just apply and hope for the best, I don’t want to have to ask my professors to invest the time and effort to write recommendation letters for me, only for my application to be thrown into the trash. On a scale of 1 to 3 stars, (3 requiring the most effort), here are the requirements for the application: * Personal Statement (\\) * Transcripts from all institutions attended (\\\* - insanely difficult and time consuming to get bachelor degree transcripts from university) * 3 letters of recommendation (\\ - easy enough, but I feel bad about getting my professors to do this for me if there’s no change of getting it) * GRE (\\) The PhD program is in a field I'm very passionate about and has world class researchers on the faculty. At a recent graduate open house, I met the director of the program who said they had an 11 percent admit rate over te past few years. All this said, would it make sense to apply to the program anyway or will the fact that I was nearly expelled due to my academic performance make the risk not worth the effort? EDIT: I wanted to thank everyone for their thoughtful and supportive responses. I've decided to apply for the PhD but for next year's intake. As an update, the paper that was shortlisted to the conference I mentioned ended up being accepted, so that's sure to build up my profile a little more.<issue_comment>username_1: You are now in your mid-thirties. You don't give a precise timeline, but based on your description I'll assume that the poor performance from the first university you attended for your master's happened about 10 years ago. In the meantime, you completed a degree elsewhere with much more distinction, and developed a career and a track record of successful achievements. The logical conclusion is that any sensible admissions committee will look to your recent record as a much better indicator of your potential to succeed in the graduate program than your more ancient school history. The grades from your old school will very likely be seen as largely irrelevant. So, in my opinion this should not be a major concern. And as @astronat said in a comment, you'll never know what would happen if you don't try. Good luck! Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: There is a rule I have for these things: "If you don't apply, the answer is automatically 'No'" To address some of your concerns: > > Transcripts from all institutions attended (\\\* - insanely difficult > and time consuming to get bachelor degree transcripts from university) > > > Talk to the programs about this requirement - often admissions are written assuming a candidate with a "standard" path through academia, but are more flexible in practice. For example, we recently did some things to help a student coming back after a long period of time because, like in your case, it would be very hard to dig that deep into history. > > 3 letters of recommendation (\\ - easy enough, but I feel bad about > getting my professors to do this for me if there’s no change of > getting it) > > > There's a chance. That seems to actually be the core of your question - is there a chance. And I'm going to say the answer to that is yes, despite your difficulties. Now clearly, I can't speak for any particular department's program, but some thoughts: * Time has passed, you seem to have built a successful and relevant career, and are doing good work. That counts for quite a bit. * You have a reason. Having undiagnosed ADHD is a perfectly credible explanation for having struggled early in your career, and you have actually demonstrated that this was a turning point. Admissions committees understand that people are human beings. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: Some people are good at passing exams but bad at research and scholarship. Some are bad 'in school' but turn out to be great scholars and scientists. But for most people, academic performance correlates pretty well with research performance. So... the odds are stacked against you, somewhat. However. You are probably not the statistical average (few people are, in fact). So you have to honestly evaluate how you might stand out. Do you really really want the PhD? Are you capable of sticking with it, dealing with setbacks and unpleasant feedback? Are you creative, inventive, yet intellectually disciplined and rigorous? Are you good at dealing effectively with delicate situations? Are you a negotiator? You probably get the general gist of these questions. And remember, life really is nothing like a Hollywood montage. Upvotes: 0
2017/10/11	1,722	7,123	<issue_start>username_0: Publication bias. Reproducibility problem. Abusing statistical tests. These are some of the many criticisms received by all fields of science for a long time. If I read an article on Psychological Science and am sceptical of their results, or if I want to apply another statistical techniques to see if the results remain convincing to me, I can't. I need to run another experiment. Or if I want to conduct a meta-analysis, maybe having other researcher's raw data is better than just the mean/CI they report in journals. If scientists' mission is for public good and for the advancement of knowledge, why don't they publish their results in raw (of course they need to remove research participants' privacy information). They shouldn't be afraid of others' criticising their work. Only truth can endure the testing of time. Nowadays, with the prevalence (and low price) of online storage platform and sophisticated database management, why don't they do it for the public's good? EDIT: by raw data, I mean to make the dataset public and accessible to everyone (well... at least researchers)<issue_comment>username_1: A few thoughts: > > Publication bias > > > While making data available would help address some problems in publication bias, merely having data sitting on the internet somewhere isn't even close to enough to solve it if people still use journals as content curators. > > Reproducibility problem > > > Available data = / = Reproducible data > > I need to run another experiment > > > This is, in many ways, desirable. "I took the same data and got the same answer" is a fairly low form of reducibility. Yes, it catches statistical errors, and enables you to try new methods, but at least in my field, before something can really be thought of as "reproduced" it needs to be obtained via an entirely different experiment, preferably in a different population. That enables the understanding if there is a consistent effect that occurs in a variety of contexts, or if it was a fleeting result that was either noise, or (more philosophically) just the tail of an effect that is randomly but not perfectly distributed around 1. > > Or if I want to conduct a meta-analysis, maybe having other > researcher's raw data is better than just the mean/CI they report in > journals. > > > It depends on the analysis you want to do, but this is not inherently true. Also note that it is often the case that, if this was what you're doing, an email to the researchers may provide what you need. Both times in my career where I have genuinely needed someone's raw data, I've been able to get it. > > If scientists' mission is for public good and for the advancement of > knowledge > > > You are making a massive assumption here: That the mission of scientists is the public good. A few notes: * Even for idealistic scientists, the actually doing of science doesn't occur in a vacuum. In order for you to continue to do your science, keep your people paid and the lights on, etc. you have to compete with other labs. Collecting data is often a long and laborious process, and there is a very real temptation to continue to mine that data past the initial publication. It is a competitive advantage, and science is competitive. * It is not axiomatically true that the public good from the release of data > the public good that comes from a lab being otherwise successful. An idealistic lab sacrificing themselves on the altar of data access doesn't necessarily help. > > why don't they publish their results in raw (of course they need to > remove research participants' privacy information). > > > This is a considerable hurdle. For example, there are a number of studies I've worked on where identifiable information is essential to the finding in question. This might be a special case, but it's not an uncommon one. There may also be agreements in place preventing this - many minority groups, for example, are very justifiably skeptical of "And then we can do anything with your data we want". > > They shouldn't be afraid of others' criticising their work. Only truth > can endure the testing of time. > > > Very often, the concern is much more about preserving the ability of their data to generate new publications over time. > > Nowadays, with the prevalence (and low price) of online storage > platform and sophisticated database management, why don't they do it > for the public's good? > > > Because the public's good doesn't pay my postdoc's salary. Now this all sounds jaded and bitter and horrible. Which is ironic, because I actually do try to make as much data as possible available to the public. But there are very real constraints, both on the nature of the data themselves and in the doing of science, that stand in the way of automatically making data available. One must be able to acknowledge these when thinking about data accessibility and reproducibility. In my case, for example, what "the data" is is often a somewhat murky concept, and I find the tendency to view "I downloaded your code and data and ran it" as what people sometimes view as reproducibility to be...troubling. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: Once upon a time, no data was published. Today, large amounts of data is published, though in ways that preserve confidentiality of human subjects. US Federal grants and contracts for most research now have a requirement that the investigators include a plan to make their original data available to users. One common way is to deposit the data in an archive managed by a large research organization. One example of this is the ICPSR (Interuniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research) Archive which is maintained at the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research. Other universities have archives for their own research data. The data is often modified to meet the standards of privacy required for federally sponsored human subjects. This usually means that some identifiers have been modified or removed. For example, age might be categorized in intervals of years rather than exact age. These modification are a condition of doing the research, so they can't be helped. Federal survey data is mostly available on-line at the agency that collected the data, Census, Bureau of Labor Statistics, National Center for Health Statistics, etc. Some of it is free. Some kinds of data can be obtained if the requestor proves that they can insure the security data, such as patient data from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Federal agencies often have data centers where you can do your analyses and any requested results are examined by staff to insure that its release will not compromise privacy of respondents. A vast amount of data is now published. The notion that an investigator owns their data and completely controls its release is dead, at least if someone else paid for its collection. If you would like some data, contact the principal investigator or the funding agency and ask how to get it. At least in the US. Upvotes: 1
2017/10/11	5,171	21,309	<issue_start>username_0: In the next semester, I will be teaching for the first time a seminar course which is composed of about 25 students. I am not sure how to respond to prospective students who have asked me about the grade distribution of the course. For courses with large enrollments, I have the impression from my colleagues that I have to follow the "typical grade distribution" at my university, which is something like 25% As, 50% Bs, 20% Cs, and some Ds and Fs if the students really did poorly. However, for the new course that I am teaching, I am wondering if I will be given more leeway in the grade distribution because the course has a small enrollment. I would like to give grades based on the students' performance. * So if many of the students perform well, I would like to give 90% or even 100% of the students A grades (A-, A and A+). * Conversely, if most of the students perform poorly, I would like to be able to give a low proportion of A grades. Every semester, a committee made up of members of my department which will meet to discuss the grade distributions of each and every course offered by our department. I am hesitant to recommend grades that deviate too far from the "typical grade distribution" at my university because I am afraid of receiving pushback from the committee members. Questions: * Should I fight for the freedom to assign grades according to my academic judgment, without necessarily following the "typical grade distribution" at my university? * Is this a fight that I could win, and if so, how do I go about winning it? Update I had forgotten to include an important and relevant piece of information. The goal of the course is to teach students how to analyze and present business case studies. Consequently, by its nature, the evaluation of the students' performance in the course will tend to be more subjective, rather than objective (as it would be for a course on say, calculus). The grading of the course is based purely on continuous assessment; we do not have a final exam for the course. (Given that the purpose of the course is to develop students' presentation skills, a written examination does not seem to be the right way to assess students' learning.)<issue_comment>username_1: You won't get into trouble if all your students earn grades of A. It has always been my hope that I'd have a class with all A grades, or even all A and B grades. It has never happened. If you "give out" all grades of A, someone, perhaps your department chair or the committee you mention, is going to ask you to explain yourself. Your course (presumably) has a set of learning outcomes. You should assess your students against those learning outcomes, at a level of difficulty suitable to the students' standing, e.g. a greater level of difficulty for seniors than for freshmen. When you've done that, the grades will take care of themselves, and if everyone earns an A, you've done an outstanding job with the course! Edit: based on the update to the question: For the purpose of providing useful formative feedback, you need to assign a grade to each piece of work you assess. Doing so has the added benefit of covering your posterior. Such grades should be assigned according to a rubric that the students have seen before beginning work. There is a brief example of developing such a rubric [here](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/35183/16183). Even in a course such as you describe, grades can be assigned granularly and with objectivity. If you've done that, your students will thank you and your defense when questioned by chair or committee is that the students got the grades they earned and earned the grades they got. Upvotes: 7 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: It probably depends on your department policy; however if there was indeed one that made you give away certain percentages of each grade it would be unfair to the students. A person should be assessed on the basis of that person's performance and the grade should not be dependent on external circumstances of other people's performance (unless we are talking about group projects). As others have pointed out, grades distribution should occur naturally. If you feel that you've given too many good grades that may indicate that your course is too easy and you should maybe consider increasing the difficulty next year. In the beginning of courses that I teach I usually tell my students that they will earn points (homeworks and exams are the basis for scoring) and their grade will be based on the total number of points. In my country there are three passing grades and one failing and I communicate the thresholds that are connected with each grade (if one scores < 50% of points - that person fails the class; the other thresholds are set at 75% and 90%). I depart from the practice of not taking group performance into account when there are many failing grades - in that case that may mean that the course was too difficult and thresholds may lowered (that possibility is also communicated to the students at the beginning; however it makes me wonder if it doesn't affect student's discipline negatively). I would never raise them though if I gave away many highest grades - I would be happy if that once happened and attribute that to my exceptional teaching performance. As for the case of getting into trouble after giving away too good degrees - that may, again, depend on your institution policy, but as my experiences go, I have never heard of anyone getting in trouble for that. I have known a number of lecturers that are in fact known to never fail a student and nobody is making problem with that. It's the other way around - one of colleagues had a talk with dean after he failed his whole class. If you are afraid of pushback from the faculty you may consider asking more senior and experienced members on the issue as well. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: There are three reasons your students are all getting straight A's: 1. Your testing methods are not good enough and just about everyone can get an A, even if they didn't study or know the material well enough. 2. You are just that good of a teacher. 3. You have many, many brilliant students. The first reason is the only one that could get you in trouble. The others are not a concern. You might be asked about it and asked for proof that the methods were adequate, and you should be prepared to present them. Just keep note of what was given in class and what was given as homework. The exams should be a good indicator of whether it was easy or not to someone who is remotely relevant to the course. Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_4: > > Should I fight for the freedom to assign grades according to my > academic judgment, without necessarily following the "typical grade > distribution" at my university? > > > Is this a fight that I could win, and if so, how do I go about winning > it? > > > I'm approaching this question a bit differently, instead of pedagogy let's talk about office politics. I'd humbly suggest fine-tuning this mentality to steer away from being adversary. It's indeed true that most of us found these committees rubber-stamping and paper-pushing, some of them do work as a good quality control and even resources of advice. > > However, for the new course that I am teaching, I am wondering if I > will be given more leeway in the grade distribution because the course > has a small enrollment. I would like to give grades based on the > students' performance. > > > This is the main reason I suggested you to work with the committee. We can't decide if you can have the leeway, they can. I'm not sure what's the office climate is at your place, but generally, I'd suggest: 1. Prepare your syllabus that has a fully developed assessment scheme. If this is the first time, it's better to have more assessments each with a lower contribution to the final grade. They'd provide more occasions to adjust your question/grading style and opportunities for students to get your style and better understand your requirements. 2. Schedule a meeting with the chair of that committee, present the scheme. Ask for feedback and express concern about possible fluctuation in grades compared to the historic record; the chair may give you some expected range of change which would be useful. Listen to the chair's advice and concern. Try to reach a conclusion. 3. After the meeting, send an e-mail follow up to summarize the decision, attach the scheme (or revised scheme.) Save this e-mail. 4. When class starts, let students know of the expectations required in order to excel. Grading policy and rubrics may be useful to share at this point. 5. Teach and assign grades. If anything seems awfully off, talk to the dean and/or the chair of the said committee. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_5: I had an incredible professor in college. He told us that, by definition, most people are average, and a C is by definition an average grade. That's how he would grade on a curve. He expected to see a distribution like this: ``` F D C B A 0-10% 0-10% 50-75% 5-10% 0-5% ``` If he saw too many A's he felt like he needed to increase the difficulty of the tests. If he saw too many D's and F's then he needed to decrease the difficulty of the tests. It was kind of interesting - there were a few of us who were paying for an education. We worked hard, studied, and got A's and B's on the tests, and I suspect we actually learned, compared to other students in the class. He also ensured that there were extra credit opportunities - worth a full letter grade in the class. And he also encouraged us to come by during office hours pre-tests to make sure that we had prepared enough, and he would happily help us improve where we lacked. --- That contrasts with the "cheerleader stats" course that I took, where we could bring a full 8.5"x11" sheet of paper, one side totally full of notes to the test (coupled with my insane courseload that particular semester)... I got an A in that class, too, but not because I actually learned anything. I actually feel bad about that class because there were a lot of interesting things that I know I missed out on. --- All of your students have different motivations for attending your class. Some want to be there because they want to learn. For others, they're just doing it because that was the next thing to do after high school, and do we really have to come to class every time? Uuuugh! Decide what kind of teacher you want to be, and then tailor your tests and curriculum around that. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_6: As a student in Germany, I learned that professors seem to try to adapt grades in classes to the [Normal distribution](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normal_distribution), So that "average" students are in the center and the rest move along with them. The problem hits when trying to apply this to different classes and you got a very good one, a "normal" one and a bad one. now the curve is normal among these classes but not the good or the bad class. But is it good to change teaching in the good or bad classes to get the normal distribution inside of these? That's what most teachers tried to do during my time in school. But I think it's just a thing of mileage, by getting older and having taught for a long time, it's easier to get it right. I don't think you can hit it in the beginning. Your best bet is to ask the students from time to time if it's good or not. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_7: Is this a fight that I could win, and if so, how do I go about winning it? This is a fight you could lose. See the example of [Denis Rancourt](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denis_Rancourt) who was suspended for giving A's to every student in his physics class. Should I fight for the freedom to assign grades according to my academic judgment, without necessarily following the "typical grade distribution" at my university? I would want to make sure my faculty association would support me. Is this something you have at your institution? I recommend checking in with them. In general, I definitely support "assigning grades according to (your) academic judgment". The bell curve simply cannot show up in each and every class, and forcing or coercing faculty to push every class under that curve is a mistake. As a point of personal experience: I remember being told (as a graduate teaching assistant) that I was required to fail at least 40% of my college algebra class, or I would not be allowed to teach it again. That turned out to be hyperbole, as I only failed 20% and went about my business otherwise. 100% A's, on the other hand? I am positive I would have had a "talking to". Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_8: The main concern here as I see it is: > > typical grade distribution > > > This requires further explanation as to how the "standard" is set up. There are several scenarios that can exist. Fixed material: For example, if you are teaching specific course with specific requirements like Calculus I for example and at the end of your course 100% of students are able to show that they learned 90-100% How can you give some one a C? Your only option in making such course more difficult is by including content from Calculus II. This is exact area, you don't have to "fight" it, just present it as self evident fact that can be proven by looking at results of Exam papers. Flexible material: This is for courses like Literature, Sociology, Politics, certain Core/Intro courses. (Although even these courses often have fixed departmental boundaries) However, here if all your students get A's that could mean two things. Either they were all smart, or you've made your course too easy by not including enough/complex materials. This is a grey area. If I'm the chairman and also a professor in the same department. And my students get much worse grades than yours, (or to put it in ego's words I'm a bad professor and you're a better one) I could just present it as a "fact" that you're being too lenient and too easy on your students. But here too, Exam papers are your proof of understood knowledge. Whichever the scenario may be, make sure you conform to the pre-approved curriculum/syllabus and your Exams reflect that the students have actually grasped the materials you've set to cover. I would then ignore this "typical grade distribution" system and play it dumb asking (whoever challenges you) for advice on how to make things more "challenging". Bottom line is, there is only so much material one can present in any given course - time being the limiting factor. There are some good professors/teachers and some bad. I've had both kinds, and everything in between. It's easy to tell which is which. The better the professor the less time students have to research the course-related information looking for answers elsewhere. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_9: It depends on how "trouble" is defined. If you are tenure track but pre-tenure, consistently giving out a very high percentage of A's might cause trouble for you that you never saw coming. A senior faculty member once told me that the problem with giving too many A's is that, when I go up for review, my reviewers will think my classes are "fluff". It is natural to think we need good teaching evaluations, but I get the sense that departments want good teaching evaluations together with evidence that you are challenging your students and holding them to the high standards of your institution (as well as being an effective teacher and other things...). Perhaps unfortunately, grades might be used as such evidence (despite how arbitrary the grades may actually be!) This answer is not advocating giving artificial low grades, but rather highlighting a potential pitfall of designing courses in such a way that most students will get an A. Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_10: From a quick glance through, I don't think any of the answers point out the following: Grade distributions tend to vary a lot from course to course. If you're being told about grade distributions from say large introductory courses, the point of this so you can see if you're giving grades in a way seems to be consistent with other classes. (Note grade distributions can vary quite a bit for different large classes, or even the same class in different semesters---e.g., students tend to do better in a Fall Calc I than a Spring Calc I at my school, for a few obvious reasons.) If you're not being told about grade distributions for the kinds of classes you're teaching, then that likely means there are no set expectations for what kind of grades you should give out. Note the population of smaller, advanced classes is quite different than that for large introductory classes, which means that such classes tend to have quite different grade distributions. Also, when the grade distribution is a statistically much smaller sample, one-off grade distributions can't be used to conclude too much. That said, I agree with username_1's answer completely. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_11: I would think this depends on what sort of institution you're at. There's a lot of variation. Once as a graduate teaching assistant, I was told that the several TAs leading discussion sections under one lecturer would be largely independent of each other, but that "If everyone in your section gets an 'A', there will be a row." This was not a serious possibility, unless it was. Once a student newspaper and then a local regular newspaper published an article about a student threatening a lawsuit because she got an "A" where she deserved an "F". She was sure the grade was intended as a bribe to stop her from complaining about the professor. Early in the term she complained about lack of sufficient feedback on her performance. Then she dropped the course. But she didn't officially drop it because that was too much hassle; she was still registered. The professor decided everyone except one weak student should get an "A" and that one should get a "B". So he located that student's name on the list and wrote "B" and then entered "A" after all the other names, without looking at them. This student had fallen off his radar by not being there. After the matter got public attention, the department head intervened and changed the grade to an "F". Three times I taught a course for (about a dozen) engineering graduate students in the joint program of MIT and WHOI, where I gave some feedback on homework but no scores on homework and no quizzes or exams and at the end certified that everyone passed. This wouldn't work at a community college nor even at a fairly well respected flagship state university. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_12: Have previous test(s) results as a proof of fairness of your grading First-hand experience: I went to a very selective college, they intentionally do not use "gaussian grading" on the behalf (which I fully share) that, since they are preparing students for the outside world/for higher academical achievements, it is not fair for individual scores to be influenced by how "good" the other classmates are, since a "class", for how big it may be, it is just not a representative sample of all the students in the field. In a course full of talented students it is fair that there will be a lot of "A", in a less gifted/less previously prepared class it is absolutely ok that most of them will have positive but not so great grades. In a course that I followed the group was less than excellent, as a result the negative results on finals (we have no mid-semester assignements or whatsoever) were over 70% of the total. When challenged by a few students the professor simply showed to the board that the exams were really similar to those from past years, the material provided the same and the only real difference was, well, in the results. End of the thing. What you need to do, if challenged, is the exact same thing (albeit with opposite data). This way you will show that you simply encountered a very good group of students and are giving them the high scores they deserve. There is no point in lowering grades of very good students because they happened to be in the company of other great individuals, and the opposite applies too. It leads to questions like "Yes, X has good grades, but was he a good student or just happened that the other ~40 people he was in class with were just not that brilliant?" EDIT: I feel adding my comment to another answer as part of this answer. In my graduating group there was an abnormally large amount of great students who went on to purse phds or got into great companies, both with excellent results. There were a LOT of top marks in a lot of tests. It would have been very unfair if tests were made harder to have the grades fit a gaussian and thus have way less excellent students who happened to be in other "less gifted" groups get higher grades and get ahead of them when competing for doc.s, positions in r&d etc. The assumption that a group of ~50 people should fit the general normal distribution for whole field is a HUGE one Upvotes: 2
2017/10/11	1,482	6,115	<issue_start>username_0: I am an undergraduate student on an integrated masters degree, currently getting started on the journey of looking for potential PHD projects/supervisors. I have just written up my academic CV (by the way - this wasn't the point of this question, but one page or two? Do people care?), and I had a thought after putting the year-by-year breakdown of my grades. My first and second year percentages are mid 60s, whilst my third year percentage is 77. This is due to the fact that during first year I experienced the onset of a relatively severe mental health issue (I hear voices in my head from people who aren't there), in second year I was undergoing treatment and trying to find what was/wasn't working, and by third year things were sorted out and I'm somehow "back on track". I'm imagining the question "Why are your averages in first and second year so much lower than third year?" being thrown at me. This is a fair question, because third year is really quite significantly harder than the first two years, and I was also just back from a year long work placement which I undertook after second year. How should I answer? I'm sure the answer "Personal problems" would be acceptable, but what if the question is asked "Would you mind discussing those?"? I have no problem discussing my mental health issues, and I no longer consider myself somebody who "suffers" from them, but I am aware of the possibility that in terms of PHD applications this can somehow be a red flag. I also have no problem giving the answer "I would rather not discuss those, but they are no longer issues for me" or something along those lines. I also thought "That is something which I would be happy to discuss with my PHD supervisor, if I get one, but is not something which is easily explicable in the time we have here." could be a reasonable answer. What would be the best way to deal with this potential scenario?<issue_comment>username_1: Shortly, for your CV: One or two pages is okay where I am from. But if you could put the information on one page, the question is why would you have two? If, on the other hand, there are a lot of accomplishments to be listed, of course do not omit them just to make it fit on one page. But now to your general question, and to discuss that I would like to quote you. > > I have no problem discussing my mental health issues, and I no longer consider myself somebody who "suffers" from them, but I am aware of the possibility that in terms of PHD applications this can somehow be a red flag. > > > Personal problems could mean anything, not just health issues. If it were me, I would maybe try to inquire how "expertly" you have figured them out, as there is a difference between "I just started to feel better." and "My mom recovered fine from her illness/ I dealt with the problem adequatly/..." Although, if you are fine discussing it in a little more detail anyway, a "red" flag might become a "yellow" flag. For example, if you tell me you had mental health issues, I will try not to judge you, but without further information, I have to face the problem that I am treading on eggshells. I would not want to trigger a trauma in you or something similar. Can I work with this insecurity? I don't know. On the other hand, if I know at least a little about the problem, it will give me a chance to watch out for you, to recognize a reoccurring problem early and be able to warn you, to not trigger said trauma, to generally be able to have an idea how to treat you right. I don't mean that you have to throw your history at everyone, but if you are in an interview that is going well with a person that you judge to be well-meaning, it might benefit you to be honest about it. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: How about "I had some medical issues", or "I was diagnosed with an illness, but things have been going much better since I got treatment for that"? Mental illness is just an illness, you don't have to specify the mental part if you don't want to. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: Honestly and truly, you're overthinking things. I don't think you will be asked about your first and second year percentages- and this is coming from direct personal experience (you don't say, but I'm assuming, like me, you're in the UK, applying for UK PhDs). I also completed an integrated Master's course. My first year grades were worse than yours, and although my grades did improve over the years, I was still nowhere near a 77 average in my third year. My "low" achievement was also partly due to mental health problems. I never mentioned this once in any of my application materials (CV, personal statement etc) and it was never brought up in interviews. Provided your grades show an upward trend i.e. they get better over time rather than worse (which yours do) you have nothing to worry about. This is especially true if you do well in a course that has a subject you did badly in as a prerequisite e.g. you got 54 in Calculus I but got 75 in Calculus II. In the unlikely event that they do ask about your previous low grades, answering that it was due to personal problems or illness is perfectly acceptable. If they press you, just be honest and tell the truth (as you should when answering any interview question!). However, in my experience of PhD interviews, they are much more interested in finding out what your current skills and research interests are, not about some low grades a couple of years ago (quite a long time for a young academic!) which you have since compensated for. At a tangent to this, I would strongly recommend that you get some research experience before applying- I expect that as part of your Master's you will be doing a final year dissertation. Be ready to talk about all aspects of this project in great detail at interview, as well as your future research interests and how they link to the project (if your Master's and PhD will be in the same field). Good luck and try not to worry too much about PhD applications- it's a stressful time and you'll be very glad when it's over! Upvotes: 0
2017/10/11	1,254	5,082	<issue_start>username_0: I have submitted the PhD thesis for examination more than 2 months ago. I am currently working with full time job as a researcher in industry. While I am still subject to my supervisor as I have yet to undergo viva voce, I am tired with how my supervisor is treating me now. She likes to boss me around with work at university. She asked me to provide training to new PhD students in the lab. While I don't really mind do it during my free time (i.e., weekend), she forced me to do it as soon as possible so that she can get the results and publish them in short time. This has led me to ask for leave from company just so I could demonstrate lab techniques to her new students. Furthermore, she nonchalantly gave my phone number to new grad students to contact me should any problems arise in the lab without my permission. To make things worse, I was the one held responsible to troubleshoot the problems if the experiment was not successful. Also, she just e-mailed me any papers or manuscripts for me to analyze/check the statistics without me being involved in the project. Then I found out that she didn't even acknowledge me when the paper was published (as co-author/ acknowledgement section). I am tired of the way she's been treating me. I know I am still bound to her as I have yet to undergo viva. I am scared to tell her that she needs to back off as this will definitely affect my viva voce. What should I do?<issue_comment>username_1: > > She likes to boss me around with work at university. > > > You can't change a micromanaging supervisor/manager. That is just how they operate. What you can do is set the tone for requests and try to accommodate these requests given reason. > > This has led me to ask for leave from company just so I could demonstrate lab techniques to her new students. > > > Kindly ask that she put her requests in writing, preferably email, so that you can check on the parameters of her request if you happen to forget details. If what she asks conflicts with a prearranged appointment, state the facts. "I am sorry, I have X to do at this time" and make sure that you offer a viable resolution "...But I have time at Y, would that work?" this way, you get to set the tone and timetables. > > I am tired of the way she's been treating me. I know I am still bound to her as I have yet to undergo viva. I am scared to tell her that she needs to back off as this will definitely affect my viva voce. What should I do? > > > As for being subject to your supervisor, is it safe to presume that you a board of people whom are evaluating you? You are subject to the extent what you are willing to do, you can always refuse in a calm tactful manner. One spiteful reviewer should be easily be addressed by your adviser going to bat and having a conversation with him/her. After all, even lab supervisors have superiors that they report to. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: To be frank about it, your main problem is that it is not long enough after you've left the university -- i.e., you've submitted your thesis but haven't defended it yet. Taking a job in between your thesis submission and successful defense sounds inherently awkward to me: what happens if your defense isn't successful? But I gather that having a such a long gap between submission and defense (in my neck of the woods, we are happy if students send us their thesis three weeks before they defend it) is standard in your part of the academic world. Did you discuss how you would be spending the time between submission and defense with your advisor before you took the job? If not, now would be a good time to have that discussion. I agree with a comment above saying you should try to set boundaries. I think "Because of my full-time job..." is a promising start to an explanation of why you can't do everything she wants. You wrote > > This has led me to ask for leave from company just so I could demonstrate lab techniques to her new students. > > > That seems like a more drastic step than talking to your advisor about this. If you are willing to go on leave from your full-time job, then where are you going to draw the line? However, I have to counsel you to have this conversation with your advisor carefully: assuming that getting the PhD is important to you for the rest of your career and life (a fair assumption given your situation, I hope!), the truth is that your advisor has as much power over you now as she has ever had. If you have a terrible falling out with her, that could make her look over your thesis in a different light and -- while personal disagreements with your student should not turn an acceptable thesis into an unacceptable one -- there is some risk of that happening, I'm afraid. Coming back to the first sentence: you're in an awkward, but temporary situation. I would suggest working overtime (literally?!?) in the short run to make sure that you both get your PhD and keep the job you want. Hang in there until you get everything you want. Good luck. Upvotes: 3
2017/10/11	405	1,796	<issue_start>username_0: I am a Ph.D. student in computer science and still in my first year. My professor just assigned a review task of a A-ranked conference to me in order to review research papers submitted by original authors (almost 8 papers). So far, he wants me to take over the coordination with my fellow Ph.D. colleagues in my department to finish this task asap. So I have to distribute the papers with the right colleague according to his/her research interest and experience. But, since I am still in the first year (even I am doing well 'as my colleagues say' and published two research paper in peer-reviewed conferences), I want to ask if is it common and normal thing in academia to let junior researchers review high-quality A-ranked conferences research papers, and whether the conference editorial chairs know about this conduct from assigned committee members as external reviewers.<issue_comment>username_1: Yes, this is pretty normal. Many conferences even have a "sub-reviewer" field in the submission form where the professor can note which of their students actually did the review. The professor should conduct some quality assurance however. In my previous group we had a meeting to talk over our reviews, in my current group the professor takes our comments and checks them over before submitting them himself. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: I think you did not do a review from what I read in your question. you just classify the papers based on the reviewers' interest. However, there is no risk in your task because if you classify the paper incorrectly that mean you did not understand the topic so the reviewer will return it back for a second shot. Definitely, you will get benefit by helping your colleagues with the revision process. Upvotes: -1
2017/10/11	387	1,625	<issue_start>username_0: I am writing a computer science paper that has a keywords section that comes directly after the abstract. Currently I have just one keyword in there, how important is that section? Do I have to come up with as many related keywords as I think of, or nobody actually uses this section and I can ignore it?<issue_comment>username_1: The number of keywords you should use depends on the journal you will submit your paper to. They usually require 3 to 5 keywords so they can direct the paper to relevant reviewers and editor. It also makes it easier to get recognition since search engines utilizes keywords instead of scanning whole papers. In short: No, you definitely should not ignore it. You should write down related keywords but do not exceed the number of journal. Additionally each journal has a "Author's Guideline" documentation. If a submission fails to meet these guidelines, your paper is most likely to be rejected even before evaluation. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: A recent statistical analysis finds that the number of keywords has a small and significant effect on how often a paper is cited. This suggests that adding some keywords to your paper is good for you and for those would try to locate and cite relevant literature. Thus, you should not ignore the keywords but enter as many relevant keywords as the journal's house style allows. <NAME>, <NAME>, [The impact of author-selected keywords on citation counts](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joi.2016.10.004), in Journal of Informetrics, Volume 10, Issue 4, 2016, pp 1166-1177. Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]
2017/10/11	581	2,415	<issue_start>username_0: *Background Information* I would soon be graduating with an engineering degree from a "no name" university somewhere in Nigeria. My performance during my degree was above average. I am hoping to apply for a PhD program in US. The professors with whom I interact with regularly (with PhD's from schools in the US), have been giving me a resounding warning about applying to schools that clearly do not want and will never admit me because of the school's unpopularity and country of origin. One particular professor told me that Bachelor's degrees from this part of the world are not at all trusted and treated with disdain. I know lot's of schools encourage everybody to apply, but the exchange rates are not friendly, and I don't want to burn the scarce resources I have *QUESTIONS* 1. Does country of undergraduate study matter to the graduate admissions committee? 2. Do schools in the US give off hints that applicants from certain backgrounds need not apply? 3. With the difference in educational standards, do I stand a chance at all, even if i find a school willing to admit me?<issue_comment>username_1: The number of keywords you should use depends on the journal you will submit your paper to. They usually require 3 to 5 keywords so they can direct the paper to relevant reviewers and editor. It also makes it easier to get recognition since search engines utilizes keywords instead of scanning whole papers. In short: No, you definitely should not ignore it. You should write down related keywords but do not exceed the number of journal. Additionally each journal has a "Author's Guideline" documentation. If a submission fails to meet these guidelines, your paper is most likely to be rejected even before evaluation. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: A recent statistical analysis finds that the number of keywords has a small and significant effect on how often a paper is cited. This suggests that adding some keywords to your paper is good for you and for those would try to locate and cite relevant literature. Thus, you should not ignore the keywords but enter as many relevant keywords as the journal's house style allows. <NAME>, <NAME>, [The impact of author-selected keywords on citation counts](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joi.2016.10.004), in Journal of Informetrics, Volume 10, Issue 4, 2016, pp 1166-1177. Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]
2017/10/11	1,091	4,187	<issue_start>username_0: I have heard if you send papers to a journal/conferences there are some conditions that might be dangerous for you academic progress! I researched about it but I wasn't able to find a good definition to be aware. My main question is how they add an author to black list and how is the procedure? moreover, what is the reaction to original researches which might be weak or bad written? I know they will reject but is this the end or they will mention your prior effort in future? My research field: Computer Science Thanks in advance.<issue_comment>username_1: The use of black lists to prevent low quality submissions in academia is pretty rare. I have never heard of a journal or conference having a formal black list procedure. The first I ever heard of a formal black list system was the one implemented by [EPSRC](https://www.epsrc.ac.uk/funding/applicationprocess/basics/resubpol/rua/) in 2010. There was a discussion of the system published in [Nature](http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100324/full/464474a.html) soon after it was implemented. Basically, the system works as follows, if a PI had 3 proposals that were either not scored or scored in the bottom 50% in the last 2 years, they are only allowed to submit one application as a PI for a 12 month period. Grants submitted where you are a CI do not count against you and even when black listed you can be listed on an unlimited number of applications as a CI. The fact that formal black lists are not frequently used, does not mean that submitting low quality work does not hurt your reputation. It is quite likely that if reviewers frequently see low quality work from a researcher that they will have a negative bias towards future work from that person/group. The opposite holds for individuals who consistently produce high quality work and sometimes get the benefit of the doubt. In fact, I think these biases are one of the reasons for a double blind review system. Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: If you do something egregiously bad, or are extremely abusive towards the journal, then they might blacklist you. But you need to do something exceptional. Simply submitting bad papers won't get you blacklisted (since desk rejection doesn't usually take long), and neither does submitting poorly written papers (which are even easier to handle since they just send you a "unable to understand your paper" email, which they might even have a standard version of). It's usually to the journal's advantage to receive potentially-publishable papers, after all. Here's [a real life example](https://retractionwatch.com/2014/04/10/following-personal-attacks-and-threats-elsevier-plant-journal-makes-author-persona-non-grata/) of a journal banning someone from submitting. The person in question is [<NAME>](https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=dWCOqCkAAAAJ), a plant scientist who has received 21974 citations as of time of writing. Scientia Horticulturae cited personal attacks and threats for their decision. One of the emails sent to the journal's editors and cc'ed to other scientists was: > > I will expose your fraud to every scientist I know, and make my case public from now on that corruption and fraud, lack of professionalism and libel are the four corner-stones for the publishing frame-work by Elsevier and this journal, Scientia Horticulturae. > > > da Silva also wrote this: > > Moreover, if I do not see a resignation [by either of the journal's two editors-in-chief] in 72 hours, I will immediately post this libelous case of editorial bias and witch-hunting on Retraction Watch and other blogs. > > > MOREOVER, IF I DO NOT RECEIVE A CONFIRMATION, WITH PROOF, OF STANDARD AND UNIFORM INQUIRY TO ALL AUTHORS, AS WELL AS A RESPONSE TO THE NEXT 8 QUESTIONS, I WILL CONTACT ALL SCIENTIA HORTICULTURAE AUTHORS AND ALSO THE INSTITUTES TO WHICH ALL SCIENTIA HORTICULTURAE EDITORS BELONG. > > > As for the procedure itself, I imagine the publisher would add a note to your profile in their editorial management system that you are blacklisted and all your submissions are to be rejected without review. Upvotes: 1
2017/10/11	1,234	4,999	<issue_start>username_0: I have done my own research independently from any academic institution. The theses are mainly biochemical, and aquaculture. I would like to have the work peer reviewed. I tried to use researchgate.net but they have created a barrier to entry for autodidacts, and non-institutional researchers. The question answer format for stackexchage is also unsuitable. Are there other web-portals specifically for independent, non-institutional, autodidact researchers?<issue_comment>username_1: You need not have any institutional affiliation to submit your work to the usual peer-reviewed journals. The only downside to lack of affiliation is that people might wonder "who you are". But there's no rule against anyone in the world submitting... The "gotcha" is that if your writing style, formatting, referencing, and so on do not approximately conform to the standards of the milieu, people will almost surely reject your submission out of hand. That is, it is critical that you not communicate any sort of "crackpottery", which is often signalled simply by extreme, random non-conformity to simple professional standards. So you might want to try to get advice from a seasoned professional, who knows the "parlance/standards/prejudices" of the profession. This may not be easy, especially if you approach them with a snarky or combative attitude, but I'd wager that you really do need this help. That is, to get any kind of hearing, you "need" to demonstrate that you can comply, to some extent, with the implicit conformity demands of the milieu. Otherwise people won't pay attention to you at all. No, of course, this is not any official statement, but it is obviously the mechanism in almost every human activity. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: ### Join an organization Most major fields have at least one major organization for academics, professionals, students, teachers, interested industrial representatives, etc.. For example, if you're in the US or other country where they're active, you might be interested in the [American Chemical Society (ACS)](https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en.html). Professional organizations can help you meet others in your research area, publish your work (for example, ACS runs several major journals), and potentially find employment. ### Attend the meetings Once you're in the relevant organization, you can try to attend a conference (and some allow you to attend without membership, but often with a higher entrance fee). Major organizations tend to host at least 1 major annual conference that people come from around the world to attend, plus a bunch of smaller regional conferences and special conferences devoted to particular subtopics. For example, ACS's next major meeting is the ["255th ACS username_2ional Meeting & Exposition: Nexus of Food, Energy & Water"](https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/meetings/national-meeting.html), coming up in March. From their landing page: > > ### Why Attend? > > > Discover new research, network, advance your career. > > > [Learn More](https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/meetings/national-meeting/why-attend.html) > > > * 16,000 attendees > * 11,000 papers presented > * 16% of attendees are International > * 22% of attendees are from Industry > * 47% of attendees are from Academia > * 22% of attendees are Students > > > They're taking abstracts now. If you want to present, you can go ahead and write up a proposal. In my personal experience, it's not too hard to get a proposal accepted - but whether or not people happen to attend your talk is another matter, so you'll want it to be interesting for that. Once some of the abstracts have gone through, they'll post a schedule online where you can read about what everyone's doing and plan which talks you want to see. At larger conferences, there'll often be lots of talks going on at the same time in different conference rooms, so you'll want to plan out your schedule in advance. Then, **network!!!**. Ask questions after others' talks; meet up with people doing research similar to your own and industrial representatives looking to head-hunt talent. Print off some business cards in advance if you'd like; mostly with your name, contact info (ideally email, possibly LinkedIn/etc.), professional association (if your career is related to the field), and some quick reference to what you're there about, just so they can recall what your topic/area is when they get back home after the conference. Also, if you do present, you'll often have an opportunity (or obligation, depending on the organization) to post an abstract on their website. If you're looking for exposure, this is a good option. You might even post your other work on a pre-print server and reference it (assuming that it's related). Once you get home, add people to your professional networking. Put them on your LinkedIn or other professional media. Try to get involved in the organization; talk on its forums, etc.. Upvotes: 2
2017/10/11	772	3,452	<issue_start>username_0: My graduate student utilized some particles produced by a collaborator's lab in some animal imaging experiments, which were designed and analyzed by my student and me. The protocol for synthesizing the particles has already been published by my collaborator, and a technician in the collaborator's lab made the particles according to the protocol. I shared some of the resulting in vivo images from this study with my collaborator, but unfortunately, I subsequently discovered that the collaborator used some of these images in a fraudulent manner (grossly misrepresenting them as preliminary data in some grant applications). The collaborator's institution conducted a formal investigation of this and other incidents and found scientific misconduct had occurred. I would like to publish my graduate student's image data, in part to make sure that a legitimate representation of the data is in the literature, but mostly because the work was publicly-funded and represents the hard work of many good people. If the misconduct hadn't occurred, I probably would have considered including the collaborator as a co-author on the publication, by getting them more involved in the manuscript, even though the particle prep was not novel. But now there are many reasons why I do not wish to publish something with this collaborator! Is documented scientific misconduct involving the data from this study a valid reason for not including this collaborator as a coauthor of a paper describing this study? Can I simply acknowledge the technician who provided the particles and reference the prior publication of the protocol?<issue_comment>username_1: If the misconduct in question tainted the data itself (and not just subsequent uses of that data), then the paper itself is fundamentally tainted and should be reworked with non-tainted data. If the data isn't tainted and it is a result of this person's work, then they deserve credit. Proper credit has to do with your intellectual honesty, and not the merits of the person receiving the credit. Having said this, I don't think that this necessitates including them as a coauthor -- but I don't see how you could avoid at least acknowledging them by name. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: At the moment your question is a little ambiguous: > > I subsequently discovered that the collaborator used some of these > images in a fraudulent manner (grossly misrepresenting them as > preliminary data in some grant applications). The collaborator's > institution conducted a formal investigation of this and other > incidents and found scientific misconduct had occurred. > > > This suggests that while the images were misused, the actual data itself wasn't tainted - for example, the "particles" used in the analysis are what your collaborator says they are, etc. In this case, I think whether or not to include them as an author comes down to the authorship criteria of the paper - i.e. did they make substantial contributions to the work, etc. If that's the case, I think you have to include them as an author. It's a bad idea to use authorship as a reward, and it's a similarly bad idea to use authorship as a punishment. It shouldn't carry moral weight. That being said, given "this and other incidents and found scientific misconduct had occurred", your current findings might be sufficiently tainted by association that it may be worth starting over. Upvotes: 2
2017/10/12	629	2,656	<issue_start>username_0: I have a former classmate of mine who wasn't successful in his/her application to top-tier PhD/MD programs this past application cycle. Over the phone and through email, I've been sympathetic when I learned about his/her disappointment and offered words of encouragement, reminding him/her of their worth ethic (working 2-3 jobs at the same time and maintaining a stellar GPA) and personal aspirations (the kind of aspiration where you think that he/she would be a major force in research, selflessly serving the needs of others, and accomplishing a great deal in their career) during our undergraduate years. However in recent time, I've lost touch with this person for unknown reasons, as I stopped hearing back from them. Distance, time, busy with other stuff. I don't know. The question I wanted to pose is, should I try to reach out again? If they decided to reapply, what little would my words of encouragement offer beyond a smile and good wishes? (I doubt they would have an impact on the actual admissions board) If they decided to not reapply, wouldn't my words just pour salt into an otherwise fresh bitter wound in their mind? Mind you, I am going through the testing phase at the moment myself and am narrowing down my PhD study programs to a handful for application, so I can't claim that I am in similar waters. Put yourself in this person's shoes, how would you react in either scenario?<issue_comment>username_1: If you decide to reach out again, I would try to reconnect over a different topic first. It sounds like it has been a while since the results were announced, and bringing up their past disappointment over and over again will probably not help them get over it. If all of your interactions are focused on this one topic they might start to wonder if you are either secretly judging them about it, or if you are just pumping them for advice on what mistakes to avoid in your own applications. If subsequently they bring up the topic on their own, you can express sympathy at that point. But I would follow their lead in whether they want to dwell on it or not. Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: The most important question in terms of if you want to address the topic is: Despite their stellar and good record,he/she was not admitted. Do you understand why? Is there any issue which can be changed? If you really don't understand it, then I would not talk to them much. From the viewpoint of picking up the conversation: I think it's not wise to make it the first topic, but leave it to them how he/she responds to a general "How are you doing." question. Upvotes: 0
2017/10/12	1,360	5,984	<issue_start>username_0: I am a young postdoc at a large crowded university in the USA. Also, I am not from the USA, so my school experience has been very different from the high school experience of my students. Since I am teaching mathematics classes, I wonder whether there is a good and comprehensible summary the American students have seen in their high school mathematics classes. Given the fractured education system in the USA, good and comprehensible may be mutually exclusive, but the question is worth a try.<issue_comment>username_1: Some high school students take the equivalent of a semester of calculus. For some, the highest course is Algebra 2, which does trigonometry and transformations, mainly. There is practice graphing functions, finding the inverse of a function, that sort of thing. If the student is interested in math, science or engineering, it's likely s/he will have taken "Precalculus" which does some analytical geometry to get students ready for the first semester of calculus. Sadly, high school students in the U.S. almost never learn any linear algebra. You could take a look at New York's Regents tests and EngageNY materials. Generally, some statistics are taught in each year of school. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Every state has their own standards of what is covered in high school math classes. Many states (but not all) modeled their standards on the Common Core standards found in this link. <http://www.corestandards.org/Math/> The topics covered are sorted into the categories of 1. Numbers 2. Algebra 3. Functions 4. Geometry and 5. Statistics and Probability. Each category gives more specific standards students are expected to master. If you would like to see how topics covered by standards are presented good resources are EngageNY (<https://www.engageny.org>) which provides sample lessons/worksheets for the entire Curriculum. One note is most most teachers I knew who used EngageNY would modify/scaffold the material extensively for their students. Also to see sample exams JMAP has archives of New York's standardized tests by year/subject <http://www.jmap.org/JMAP_REGENTS_EXAMS.htm> and also with questions sorted by standard <http://www.jmap.org/JMAP_REGENTS_BOOKS.htm> An important note is that Common Core standards go up through Algebra II but it is possible that some or even most of your students also took Pre-calculus and maybe even Calculus in High School as well. If you want to see what might be covered in a high school Calculus class one option is you can look at the course overviews for Advanced Placement calculus <https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/pdf/ap-calculus-ab-course-overview.pdf?course=ap-calculus-ab> and <http://media.collegeboard.com/digitalServices/pdf/ap/ap-course-overviews/ap-calculus-bc-course-overview.pdf> Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: I write as someone who has taught calculus/linear algebra to first year engineering/science students in the US and Spain. In a typical European system (and probably most of the rest of the world) a student studying a technical area (science, engineering, medicine) in the university will have seen in the equivalent of high school a full year of calculus and a full year of some sort of matrix calculus course that involves using Gaussian elimination to solve systems of linear equations. In the US even a student studying a technical area may have seen in high school neither calculus nor matrices. Probably more students will have seen calculus than not, but very few will have seen a systematic treatment (meaning using elimination, involving formalizing parameter counts in terms of rank and dimension, etc.) of the solution of systems of linear equations. For example, in Spain one can reasonably assume that first-year engineering students know that the solutions of a system of $m$ linear equations in $n$ variables depend on $n-r$ parameters, where $r$ is the rank of the system, and, moreover, that they can compute a parametric description of these solutions via row reduction. This material appears on the exams used to determine placement in the university, and is covered in the last year of high school. One does have to review this material in a first semester linear algebra class, because they probably do not know it as well as they should, nor have they seen it presented with much sophistication (their understanding is purely operational). In the US, teaching engineering students (the situation might be different teaching math majors) one cannot suppose familiarity even with the matricial representation of a system of linear equations, nor even that students have seen systems of linear equations involving more than two variables (which they were taught to solve "by hand"). Also linear algebra would usually be a second or third semester course, not a first semester course. The conservative assumption is that US students entering the university have seen no linear algebra (to the point of not even knowing what a matrix is) and have not learned much more than very mechanical manipulation of derivatives and integrals. With non-technical students the conservative assumption is that they do not know basic trigonometry and with polynomials can do little more than factor two variable polynomials. It is also important to remember that their backgrounds are far more heterogeneous than they would be in many other systems. The US "system" is not a system at all, and it is a mistake to assume uniformity of preparation. Moreover, even for nominally well prepared students the expected level is less than what it is in many other countries. On the other hand, the flexibility underlying this heterogeneity also means that an occasional talented student will have studied outside the standard curriculum, and will have learned linear algebra, vector calculus and more, but often that student gets channeled into level appropriate courses in the university too. Upvotes: 3
2017/10/12	741	3,123	<issue_start>username_0: Many of my peers in my program, Computer Engineering, are of the opinion that what you do in school is a "head-fake", that you take all this intense math and science essentially to prove that you can accomplish difficult tasks quickly. A "real job" doesn't actually use any of that junk except for a few select classes. I suppose I understand that sentiment, but my issue is that after something like 20 years of math, Stockholm Syndrome has kicked in and I really enjoy it. I will miss it. I just finished one of the hardest classes at my University with an A because Fourier Transform just makes sense to me. Learning how to operate some software program is not the same as learning how to build a differential amplifier. Not all learning is equal. I have had two fantastic Co-Op (internship) rotations with some big name companies working on great projects, but the most intense math I used was division and that makes me sad. While my peers cannot wait to graduate and start their lives, it feels like it is the end of mine. It seems that industry, for every 1 person actually producing something, there are 20 people doing documentation, management, talking to the customer, supply chain, etc etc. (edit: and I do not mean that in a derogatory manner, I am actually getting an MBA as well at the moment. I just mean that the one person who uses their academic knowledge is followed by a slew of people who do not use it). So, the obvious answer is to go through a PhD and enter Academia but I do not think that is the right path for me considering I have no desire to teach and I also really enjoy making the money I do now. Putting my fiscal life on hold for another 4-5 years seems like quite a lot as I am already in debt. My question then, is, how do I use what I learned in school while in industry? Or should I leave industry and pursue academia? Should I still go for a PhD but do industry research? How can I continue to learn while I am working in industry? Apologies if this question is unclear, it's very nebulous and if this gets removed or -1 I understand.<issue_comment>username_1: What you'll find is that most positions—whether in academia or in industry—you will not be directly applying most of the skills you learned in school. As a "knowledge professional," the most important "skill" you'll use is learning how to learn: you'll likely be placed in situations where you have to figure out what you need to solve, and how to come up with a solution. Your background will provide help in figuring out the problem—after all, the principles are the same—but you'll typically have to simplify your analysis (because of time or resource constraints, and so on). Or you might have to branch out into new areas that you haven't learned before: being able to do so quickly will give you a big advantage over the "competition" (whoever or whatever that may be). Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: If you haven't looked into cryptography, you should. It requires a lot of complicated math along with computer science, and it pays quite well. Upvotes: 2
2017/10/12	1,981	7,825	<issue_start>username_0: If I'm already at a decent school but don't feel like graduating, and a professor at a university agrees to take me as a pure math PhD student, can I join the PhD program or must I get a Bachelor's. The universities I am interested in are medium-upper level math universities (Northwestern, Berkeley, UCLA, Ohio State, etc)<issue_comment>username_1: You can join a PhD program without getting a Bachelors degree. Dr. <NAME> does not have a bachelors degree. She has one non-honorary doctorate. However, if you are at a decent school and the professors like you and you like them, then getting a bachelors degree will be no sweat. If the professors are all like mathworker21 is the future of math then they can credit by examination/life experience/whatever all requirements away and fast track you into their PhD program. In fact, if they wish they can bypass the PhD, post-doc, and tenure process and make you a full professor if they can sense the future Fields prize winner in their midst. Returning to reality. You are not a future Fields prize winner. They do not sense it. In order to have a traditional academic career, you are going to have to finish your bachelors degree. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: You should answer the the following question: if you were in the Admission Committee of Berkeley, UCLA etc, why would you take the applicant mathwork21? How mathwork21 compares to hundreds, if not thousands, applicants who have perfect GPA, GRE score etc. Nothing is impossible, there are always outliers. The question is if you are good enough to be an outlier. I can imagine a situation when this is possible. You simply need to win one or two [IMO](https://www.imo-official.org/) medals, and have a LoR from a Field medallist that says you are a genius. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: It is possible in theory and has happened in practice. (As I have reported elsewhere on this site, [my own former thesis advisor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_Mazur) attended but did not graduate from Bronx Science and attended but did not graduate from MIT, and this did not stop him from being admitted to the PhD program at Princeton, where he received his PhD at the age of 22.) However in recent years university systems have gotten increasingly formalized. Especially at public universities, many bureaucratic requirements are taken seriously and are difficult or impossible to waive. For instance at [my state university (UGA), one needs a bachelor's degree to be eligible to enroll in our graduate program](http://grad.uga.edu/index.php/prospective-students/domestic-application-information/requirements/application-procedures/). Speaking as the Graduate Coordinator of the math department at UGA, we would almost certainly not seriously consider an application from a student who could not meet this requirement. On the one hand, it would be an uphill battle to get such a student enrolled. On the other hand -- why won't they arrange to get an undergraduate degree? Because they "don't feel like graduating"? It is hard to understand why we should go out on a limb for an apparently feckless student when we have so many other applicants who really give a feck...so to speak. Berkeley, UCLA and Ohio State are all state institutions, and I would expect (though I am not completely sure) their views to be similar to mine. In my opinion the strategy of trying to bypass your undergraduate degree could only work if you are a student who is so exceptionally strong that it is clear to the very top schools that they want to have you. Having said that...I got my PhD in math at Harvard, a perennially top-ranked program. All of my fellow graduate students had (at least) undergraduate degrees. On the other hand, more than one or two of them were under 21 when they arrived. So in trying this maneuver you may be competing with absolutely brilliant 18 or 19 year-olds who were nevertheless feckfull enough to acquire undergraduate degrees. I really don't like your chances. Finally: > > and a professor at a university agrees to take me as a pure math PhD student, > > > That's not how it works at all. You have to get admitted by the department and the graduate school. In pure math in the US, it is very rare for admissions decisions to be made by any one faculty member: they have to be made by the committee as a whole. Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_4: I work in a research institution, there is a colleague who is trying to start a PhD without even finishing his graduate program. He is a smart man, our professors are willing to take him on board. But it doesn't work like that. He can't be admitted without super strong evidence that he can indeed do research. Our professors don't have the power to admit him - they don't run the university. The university admission committee don't care how intelligence he is, they'd just look at formal documentation. It's close to impossible be admitted into any reasonable university without any degree. You have to be an extraordinary exceptional, are you? If you're a rich man like Mark for Facebook, you can jump directly into a PhD degree! How many academic papers you have with you as the first author? If you don't have any ... just finish your undergraduate degree... Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: There are a lot of things in academia that are possible to do in theory, in the sense that they have been successfully done by someone, but in practice are so difficult and risky to do, that the answer to a generic person asking about whether they can do them is, to an extremely good approximation, "no". For example, it is in theory possible (or at least was, back in the 1940's) to get admitted to the math PhD program at Princeton [on the strength of a 3-sentence long letter of recommendation](https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.vox.com/platform/amp/2015/6/6/8738229/john-nash-recommendation-letter), and to go on to write a PhD dissertation that ends up winning you a Nobel prize. But if an anonymous stack exchange user asks a practical question about whether they can hope to attain such things themselves, I would simply answer: "no, almost certainly you can't." Now, what you are asking about is admittedly of a less tall order than winning a Nobel prize, but it belongs in the same category of achievements. For reasons explained in Pete's and others' answers, your plan will almost certainly not succeed (unless you know something about yourself that we don't, say that you have already been very successful in research, published multiple well-received math papers and managed to impress some well-known academics who are offering to help you get into a good PhD program without a bachelor's degree). Moreover, this plan is extremely risky, since once you find out that the plan didn't work your only option would be to go back to school and finish your degree, costing you time, money and emotional distress. When weighing all of that against the option of just finishing your degree, however annoying and pointless that might seem to you, any sensible person would recognize that finishing the degree is the much more advisable option. Anyway, good luck! --- Edit: there is another serious risk factor in your plan that occurs to me and that no one has mentioned yet. Even if you do get into a PhD program, it is far from guaranteed that you will end up graduating - even some very talented students sometimes end up dropping out (for miscellaneous reasons, for example loss of motivation). In the event that you don't finish your PhD, you will then be left without any degree, which could make it much harder to find a good job. So, I know your question was "can I" and not "should I", but it's something to think about... Upvotes: 3
2017/10/12	1,201	4,411	<issue_start>username_0: We know that women in much of the developed countries are less represented in STEM studies. However, such a statement hides the fact that women are approx. half of the students in biology, chemistry and maths (check e.g. [here](https://www.aps.org/programs/education/statistics/womenmajors.cfm) ) but barely 20% in engineering. It is often stated that women tend to choose careers where they feel more useful towards society but that is difficult to reconcile with the fact that the share of women in Chemistry is 50% but only 35% in Chemical Engineering, [here](http://ascelibrary.org/doi/pdf/10.1061/(ASCE)LM.1943-5630.0000081). I have tried to find sources that would address this difference but in general the topic treated is STEM as a whole. Are there studies focusing particularly in this difference in gender representation, engineering vs sciences?<issue_comment>username_1: I suspect that this is yet another example of [the fractal nature of the gender binary](https://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2015/05/22/the-fractal-nature-of-the-gender-binary-or-blue-vs-turquoise/). STEM may be coded masculine in general, but within STEM different fields are coded "more masculine" than others. I'm very familiar with this in my own field: IT in general is masculine, but UI/frontend is more feminine than backend, on the backend system stuff is more masculine than application stuff, writing it in C is more masculine than writing it in ruby, ... This is sometimes even explicitly expressed as "your beard has to be this long to write/understand this code" I've never found a good explanation for most of these associations, they seem fairly random to me (and apparently change between cultures as well). Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: "We know that women in much of the developed countries are less represented in STEM studies." I don't know why academics of all people say this, when there doesn't seem to exist any consensus as to what "STEM" even means. Does psychology count as a science? Does sociology? Does nursing count as a technological field? And the list of such areas goes on and on. As to why "why are women even less represented in engineering than in other STEM fields?" There could be any number of reasons to this, and any analysis should probably get treated as rather partial. That said though, something may get revealed by looking at engineering jobs themselves and what men and women believe about them. How much travel do engineering jobs involve? How many hours of work do those jobs demand? What sorts of on the job risks exists, such as an engineer who works in a mine? How do the sexes compare when talking about willingness to work long hours? How do they compare when talking about willingness to travel extensively for jobs? How do they compare when considering working in jobs where serious injury may be a significant risk? Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_3: There is a large body of research dedicated to underrepresentation of women in STEM. Let me direct you to this wonderful synthesis on the topic by Wang. His work is pretty comprehensive on the subject: <NAME>., & <NAME>. (2017). Gender gap in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM): Current knowledge, implications for practice, policy, and future directions. Educational Psychology Review, 29, 119-140. He has also written a widely cited work here: <NAME>., <NAME>., & <NAME>. (2013). Not lack of ability but more choice: individual and gender differences in STEM career choice. Psychological Science, 24, 770–775. doi: 10.1177/0956797612458937. Rong Su produced a great meta-analysis on this topic as a graduate student: <NAME>., <NAME>., & <NAME>. (2009). Men and things, women and people: a meta-analysis of sex differences in interests. Psychological bulletin, 135(6), 859. If you are looking for more of a cognitive reason, you might be interested in looking at the work by <NAME>, <NAME> (both out of Vanderbilt), or <NAME> out of Arkansas. For example, a nice little cognitive work on gender differences recently came out in Intelligence while <NAME> was working at Duke- <NAME>., <NAME>., & <NAME>. (2018). Sex differences in ability tilt in the right tail of cognitive abiltiies: A 35-year examination. Intelligence, 67, 76-83. Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]
2017/10/12	287	1,264	<issue_start>username_0: I want two of my letters to come from individuals I did research with (at different times) but neither has taught me or has a full professor title - one is adjunct and the other is a scientist at a university-affiliated lab. I think my academic advisor (the schoolwide kind not the department-specific kind) would write the best third letter and it might provide a different perspective from the other two. Is it better to forego one of these recommendations from people who know me really well in favor of a professor who doesn't know me as well?<issue_comment>username_1: You want writers who can provide a compelling letter. I advise students to ask the professor first 'do you feel you can write a compelling letter?' Usually they'll tell you if not. I also recommend putting together a prospectus of your accomplishments to help them write one. Having a writer with full professor status (vs assistant or associate) is less important than the content. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: Letters from "lower-status" people but who've really seen you doing the thing (rather than taking classes in "the thing") are infinitely better than (routine) letters from routine-coursework instructors, regardless of their status. Upvotes: 3
2017/10/13	510	1,980	<issue_start>username_0: Most conferences have registration fees that can be paid online. However, some conferences (such as [IBIMA](http://ibima.org)) don't offer Web-based payment processing and instead require that fees be paid by (a) wire transfer or (b) by sending all credit card details (including card number, expiration date, CVV, cardholder name, signature) in a scanned attachment over standard e-mail. Is this common practice, or should it be raising red flags?<issue_comment>username_1: One of the big conferences in my field did this. I facepalmed, but ended up mailing a scan of a form with my credit card details. Unfortunately, conferences are organized by researchers, who are generally not event planning experts. They are likely to select the cheapest or easiest to set up solution, and not follow best practices. That makes it sometimes difficult to tell the difference from scams. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: (Not an answer but a long comment) Sending credit card numbers via e-mail is a violation of the [security standards](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Payment_Card_Industry_Data_Security_Standard) of the credit card industry. See, for instance: * [Does sending credit card info over email violate PCI-DSS?](https://security.stackexchange.com/questions/76390/does-sending-credit-card-info-over-email-violates-pci-dss) * [Is storing CVV complaint with PCI standards?](https://security.stackexchange.com/questions/73191/is-storing-cvv-compliant-with-pci-standards). If you [report](https://www.pcicomplianceguide.org/how-do-i-report-a-pci-violation/) the conference to your credit card issuer, they will risk a fine. The conference will then have to switch to another means of communicating credit card numbers that complies with these directives, such as an electronic payment form, fax or snail mail (sigh). Note that these are indeed arguably more secure than e-mail, because they are much less vulnerable to remote hacking. Upvotes: 3
2017/10/13	1,852	6,652	<issue_start>username_0: If I use the word "Doctor" amongst laypeople, they will think I actually work as a doctor, treating people or advancing medicinal research on a daily basis. If I use the word "Mathematician", they will think I work at a university where I spend some of my time lecturing students and some of my time doing research into complicated math problems. If I use the word "Scientist", they will think I work in some laboratory where I am pivotal in the advancement of some cutting-edge research that will make the world a better place. However, one can denote oneself using above terms by merely graduating and/or acquiring a PhD, even if one then left the field entirely, either out of choice or due to a failure to succeed. My question is thus, is it wrong to call oneself a Doctor/Mathematician/Scientist if one is actually not working as one such, but merely acquired the appropiate degrees? Since clearly one is knowingly deceiving others\? If this question is too opinionated, I shall then ask: how many academics do* actually use their degrees and doctorates to label themselves even if they actually are not working in those fields? --- \To provide an example of such deceit, I had thought for a long time that <NAME>, who writes many pieces on political, religious and scientific affairs, actually was a neuroscientist, as he claims. That sounded massively impressive to me the first time I heard it, and added much merit to anything he had to say about science. I recently however found out that all he has done as a "neuroscientist" is get a PhD in it, and his thesis has been heavily criticized.<issue_comment>username_1: It's not the individual word that matters. Calling oneself a scientist is not unethical, no more than it is unethical to call oneself a musician without being in the Top100 charts. What is unethical is deliberately representing yourself in a way that causes people to assign you an authority that you do not have. This is an incredibly gray area because it is entirely dependent on context. As an example, answering "I'm a doctor" to the question "so, what do you do?" would be misrepresenting yourself if you are in fact a mathematics PhD who now works in insurance. However, answering "I'm a doctor" to the question "how well-educated are you?" is perfectly reasonable. The difference in understanding of a topic between someone who left a field a few years ago and someone who is currently still researching in it is probably not too huge, when it comes to science popularisation efforts. I'd also take issue with your characterization of "just" a PhD - PhDs are the frontline researchers of science, the further along you get in your career the less time you have to actually put your hands on the science. Professor is mostly a management job. That said, you shouldn't be so impressed with someone that you defer uncritically to their opinion based on just a title. Every field has its marginal cranks, even actively currently practicing ones. Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_2: A doctorate* or PhD is a degree you have obtained. If you have obtained this degree, it is never incorrect to refer to yourself as dr. X, or X, PhD. However, in normal conversation, one would usually say "I have a doctorate", rather than "I am a doctor". This is because "doctor" is also used to indicate a profession. Mathematician and scientist are, on the other hand, professions. If you work in retail, you are neither, even if you happen to have a PhD in mathematics. You could, however, say that you are trained as a mathematician. Compare this to how having a teaching licence does not make you a teacher. As for the ethical considerations, it will mostly depend on the context and the intent with which the words are used. Similarly to [username_1](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/97293/81255) I would consider it unethical if you use these terms to deliberately misrepresent yourself. Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: First point, check the Laws They obviously vary in each country, i.e. in mine you cannot legally use the title of Engineer if you have not passed the related Bar exam. You can call yourself a Master Laureate in engineering or Laureate in engineering (the latter if you have "only" a bachelor degree) but, except obviously for the conversational situation, it is an offense to claim you are an engineer if you haven`t passed the Bar exams. The same goes for the title of Lawyer. De facto this distinction applies only when using title in formal settings, but it is worth to know it. Only real danger is confusion with Medical Doctors This is probably the only real-life situation where a real problem may arise: if you are in a confined situation (i.e. small cruise ship) and by misunderstanding on the title of "doctor" officials are led to believe you are a medical doctor (and thus a very useful person in an emergency) when you are not other people may end up in danger because of this. "Hey, passenger in 36C fall unconscious!" "No worries, I`ll get the doctor in 42B" "Me? CPR? Wait a sec, I have a phd in math.." :) "Scientist" Did you bring interesting and notable contribution to your field thru systematic research? If yes, no matter if BA of PHD, then you are a scientist! Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: From [a talk](https://www.aps.org/careers/guidance/webinars/upload/Careers-Talk.pdf) by [<NAME>](https://www.aps.org/careers/guidance/webinars/upload/Careers-Talk.pdf), who is the "Career Programs Manager" for one of America's major scientific societies: > > Who is a Physicist? > ------------------- > > > Anyone with a Physics degree: BS, BA, MS, PhD, etc. > > > Why? > ---- > > > * Definition > is > consistent > with > other > disciplines > (e.g. > Chemistry) > * Defines > a > common > set > of > experiences > (and > texts) > * Inclusive > view > is > better > for > survival > of > discipline > > > What makes them Physicists? > --------------------------- > > > Share experiences create familiarity—not only with the same Physics concepts, but also with the culture of the discipline. > > > However, > most > importantly, > even > a > basic > Physics > training > imparts > essential > problem > solving > skills—“how > to > think”—which > is > the > hallmark > of > a > physicist. > > > Where do Physicists Work? > ------------------------- > > > Not where you think! ... [Only about] 14% of Physics Degree holders will actually become Physics PhDs—and by extension "traditional physicists." > > > Upvotes: 3
2017/10/13	579	2,452	<issue_start>username_0: I'm a student who, due to circumstances beyond my control, is having to take a gap year. I want this gap year to be productive, however! And would love to engage in citizen science projects/activities. However, given where I live, the citizen science projects and open-lab type spaces are non-existent. Could I perhaps: > > Read a bunch of research papers on a common topic and synthesise a review paper? Do journals publish review papers written by non-academics/amateurs? > I certainly enjoy reading review papers: What sorts of criteria are review papers assessed on for publishing? (I assume that the style and format and referencing follow their preference/convention is a necessity for publishing. But what else?) > > > In doing so, I'd learn about a topic, how to write a review paper and perhaps being published could be an advantage when I look for research internships in the future? Does anyone have any other potential endeavours to suggest? I've already shadowed & volunteered in hospitals & performed a few lab experiments. I'm currently looking for something that I could do to genuinely contribute to science and use this gap year as a learning experience. Thank you! jxs<issue_comment>username_1: A link to Academia is your best bet. Stay in touch with people doing research in the field of your interest in a formal setting. If you come up with a notable work you may end up co-publishing it with them. Open source is a great alternative There are many, many notable pieces of code developed (and credited to) individuals no tied to major organizations to be found i.e. on GitHub. This is a good way to quickly put your results thru "peer review", albeit informally, get credit for your work and -why not- good PR. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: For side activities, you might want to look at [Zooniverse.org](https://www.zooniverse.org/). They have a wide range of activities in which netizens participate in data classification for various projects. Most of the projects are scientific studies, particularly in biology, ecology, and astrophysics. There is not a requirement for substantial time investment, and you could do bits of classification as a break from other endeavors. Although you would be contributing to useful studies, you wouldn't acquire in-depth knowledge directly from participation, but certainly would be introduced to a variety of subject areas. Upvotes: 0
2017/10/13	1,211	5,286	<issue_start>username_0: Summary: was targetted as a 'troublemaker' for missing time in PhD due to illness, PhD went badly, I dropped out halfway through. Should I seek formal acknowledgement of discrimination, to clear my name and limit damage to my career? I did 2 years of a 4 year course at a university in the UK. I am disabled and for medical reasons was not always able to attend. I had medical evidence provided by my doctor, and a disability needs assessment written up by the university's disability support service, which (among other things) specifically mentioned that I would not always be able to attend. The head of my department noticed my absence at some events and asked me about it - I told her I was absent for medical reasons. From then on I came under repeated close scrutiny from her and she tried to get me out of the department - mostly by discreet means such as telling my supervisor he should refuse to supervise me as I would cause trouble, and claiming that my work showed I lacked the basic skills to be a student in her department (after which a meeting was held between her, my supervisor, and the head of my programme, at which the head of programme decided she was wrong and not to persue it further). During these processes, numerous emails were sent around (most of which I don't have copies of, but was shown by my supervisor) to various people, some saying I was a problematic student and others disclosing confidential details of my disability without my permission, including to people who definitely didn't need to be told them (such as admins booking meeting rooms). I discussed this with the disability service, who got in touch with the department to remind them of my needs assessment. Eventually my attendance dwindled more- when I was well enough to attend, I felt very uncomfortable in the department, where anyone I walked past might have been CCd into an email from the department head calling me a troublemaker or with private details. My work, which had started off well, degraded and my supervisor became unhappy. I decided to suspend for 3 months to focus on health and get some distance from the departmental politics. My supervisor refused to sign my suspension form, as he was unconvinced that my work would improve after returning. I left anyway and effectively acted as if I were suspended for 3 months, after which I decided to withdraw as I had been offered a job which was more appealing than my unhappy PhD life. I might want to try again at doing a PhD at another uni in a couple of years time. I am worried that dropping out of the last one will reflect poorly on me - but I feel that it was partly as a result of harassment due to my disability. Should I seek any formal recognition - either legally or through some university process - of discrimination, to help clear my name of the slander given against me and to clear an embarrassment from my CV?<issue_comment>username_1: First of all, if you're able to get legal advice, you should do that. Find someone who specializes in higher ed law, which might be a project by itself. I'm not a lawyer and I'm not well-acquainted with UK disability law, but it does sound to me that what your department did was illegal discrimination and harassment. From the details you've provided, it also sounds like it would be impossible to prove and no lawyer will touch it on a contingency basis because there's no clear financial loss. It's also extremely unlikely that the university itself is likely to find in your favor if you go through a university grievance process. So the bad news is that there's probably nothing you can do to clear this from your record. It's probably not much consolation, but I've heard dozens of stories about graduate programs engaging in exactly this kind of "soft" discrimination, especially against students with more amorphous disabilities such as chronic illnesses. The mentality seems to be that a student with this kind of disability is unfit and a waste of resources. This reasoning is explicitly illegal, but graduate programs are granted so much latitude in evaluating students that they get away with it. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Formal recognition that you were discriminated against would certainly strengthen your future applications. However, it would take a large effort (and probably a lot of money) to try and acquire one, and as username_1 notes, your chances of success are probably not all that high. But it is entirely possible to succeed in your future applications even without such a document. People leave PhD programs due to irreconcilable conflict with their advisor/department all the time. While it is a red flag, it just means you need to make a case for why it will not happen again. You mention you are in the UK, where I think professors have a fairly direct influence on admissions - contact profs beforehand, and find one who believes you even without a legal document backing you up. That's probably who you would want to work with anyway. (Of course, don't go prof shopping with that as an opener, but generally if you get to a phone interview, it'll come up naturally.) You'll have to weigh the effort and risks involved to decide if legal proceedings are worth it to you. Upvotes: 2
2017/10/13	465	1,914	<issue_start>username_0: I am applying to an executive MBA program. Of course, letters of recommendation are needed. My supervisor has, on multiple occasions attempted to discourage me from applying to any graduate program. He has said than an MBA is a "waste of time". He has said that a PhD would "not help" me. The only programs he has expressed any favor with are those that are 1) on our campus and 2) are simply training in skills that I already use in my current position. He has claimed that he could, personally, "certify" me regarding management skills. He's a professor at a university biological research department. I have been working for him since about 2002, with a brief gap where I moved away to care for a relative. It essentially looks like I will not get a letter of recommendation from him. What can I do?<issue_comment>username_1: "He has said that a PhD would "not help" me." Then why the hell does he have a PhD since it does not help?!! Seems to me that he wants to keep you working with him and discourages for his own benefit. That is selfish of him. I had a similar experience when I applied from my co-supervisor. I can only suggest finding other professors willing to write you a good letter. I would be worried asking this person for a letter given what you have said about him discouraging you. Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: I am no expert on MBA admissions, but I believe they are looking for letters attest to qualities beyond the ability to do well in school, such as entrepreneurship, community service, leadership, and so forth. If your current boss--it sounds like that's what you mean by "supervisor"--is as weirdly hostile as you say, don't ask him for a letter. Look for other respected people in your network who can speak to the qualities MBA programs are looking for, such as administrators, elected officials, community leaders, or even clients. Upvotes: 1
2017/10/13	445	2,038	<issue_start>username_0: I had a few medical cases that I presented in conferences as an eposter, I sumbitted the case as eposter, It was presented as a slideshow in big screens in the conference My understanding is that eposters are not considered publications; so can I submit these cases to journals? Some journals specify as a requirement that the case submitted should not be published before on other journals or electronically. Where do cases presented as eposter stand on this?<issue_comment>username_1: You should check the specific journal's rules about this. I have worked on the editorial side of a number of journals, and have been happy to accept full research papers based on work presented at conferences. This is assuming that the submitted paper has been "worked up" to full paper length and detail (the results presented at conferences are not typically comprehensive), and that there is not excessive overlap (a conference proceedings publisher may well hold the relevant copyright). I write this with the caveat that I have experience in physics and related publishing but not in medical publishing. In any case, I imagine that there's enough variation in practice between different journals within your field to make enquiring with the editors a necessary precaution. Good luck! Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: Very few medical journals consider a poster presentation a publication. So vanishingly few that I have never encountered one in my career. Indeed, the primary expectation of the posters I've encountered is "This'll someday be a paper, but these are the preliminary results." As long as it hasn't been worked into a full paper as part of the conference, there's no reason to worry. If you're concerned about it, you can include a sentence in your cover letter to the journal something like the following: "This manuscript is not under consideration at any other journal, however the preliminary results have been presented as an ePoster at the Conference of Big Deal Science." Upvotes: 2
2017/10/14	828	3,562	<issue_start>username_0: I just stumbled across an article directly related to what we just discussed in class. Is it appropriate to email it to my professor? For some reason it feels improper and I don't want to look like a teacher's pet.<issue_comment>username_1: Yes, it's appropriate. No halfway reasonable instructor would hold this against you. On the other hand, please don't be disappointed if your instructor doesn't respond contentfully to your email. Faculty are extremely busy and many get dozens of emails a day, so they have to prioritize which they can respond to. If you want to have further engagement on this topic, that's what office hours are for. Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_2: Yes, it's appropriate, but whether it's also useful depends on the context. Let me make an example. In one of my undergraduate classes, I teach a part about phase noise and frequency stability of oscillators and frequency standards. It's a topic about which you can find thousands of papers, and it would not be improbable for a student to stumble across one of them. A few possibilities: 1. The student reads the paper because they find it interesting, but can't understand a few points. The student then decides to email me the paper asking for help to clarify those points. This is a useful interaction: the student found interest in a topic I taught and I would be happy to help clarifying those points, through email or by giving an appointment. 2. The student reads the paper and send it to me because it's a recent paper proposing a new method for the characterization of phase noise or because it discusses at length a tricky point I touched upon during the lectures. I'd find this useful, even though I may already know the paper. 3. The student just found one of the many papers about the topic, maybe one which is not particularly relevant, and decides to send it to me for information. I'd thank the student for this, but I wouldn't consider such an interaction particularly useful. In all three cases above, there's no harm in sending the paper, and I'd thank them anyway, but I'd consider it a useful action only in the first two cases. Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: Yes, unless it's a really large class (I wish more students engaged in their subject in this fashion). [You should use some judgement, though - some professors are happier about this than others, but it's not out of order.] If there's some class forum that your professor has access to it might be better to post it there, unless you're reasonably confident that it's something the professor would want to use in classes. Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_4: I love it when my students do this. It shows they are engaged in the course and interested in the material. One other suggestion: I imagine your school uses a learning management system (such as Moodle, Sakai, Canvas, D2L, or Blackboard). Assuming that’s the case, I don’t know how much your instructor uses it. My classes uses the discussion board feature, and I usually set aside a thread for questions, comments, and suggestions. When one of my students asks if I might be interested in some article they found, I generally ask them to post it to that discussion board. That way, all the students can benefit from reading it. You could just approach the professor after class and tell him what you found, and ask if he would like you to send it his way. Incidentally, I’ve never thought any of my students were trying to be a “pet” for sharing a good resource that they’ve found. Upvotes: 3
2017/10/14	2,822	11,080	<issue_start>username_0: I always thought that the phrase "note that" in a mathematical writing is simply something you say to express that what comes after "note that" is a fact. Due to its neutrality and versatility, I use it a lot, without even thinking the possible sentiments that might possibly make some people get me wrong. Moreover, many times we have to prevent symbols to appear directly after a comma or a period, so "note that" is convenient in this aspect too. However, some incidents lead me to presume that perhaps those readers who are not that mathematically experienced could take "note that" as an imperative or even a condescending sign? This is much to my surprise. So, if I am writing something to someone that is senior than me in academia and that is not that mathematically experienced (say an applied engineering scholar whose math background is all from the school curriculum), would it be suggested that I avoid using "note that"? Thank you.<issue_comment>username_1: I'd say 'note that' is supposed to draw attention to something that might otherwise not be noticed but is clear once you think of it. For instance: > > Suppose the square root of 2 is the ratio of integers p and q. Note that we may assume that p and q are relatively prime. Then 2q^2=p^2. So p is even. So p^2 mod 4 is 0. So q is also even. This is a contradiction. > > > If it's not likely to be clear... then write it a different way. Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: "Note that" is a useful rhetorical device in mathematical writing. Its role is to signal to the reader that the statement following it is more noteworthy than other statements, so the reader should, quite literally, take note. While @JeffE sarcastically argues in a comment1 that it must never be used, I disagree; a judicious use of "note that" (in contrast to using it either always as in Jeff's comment, or never) helps to effectively convey nuances of meaning to the reader that are difficult to convey otherwise. This is an example of [taking advantage of the English language](https://terrytao.wordpress.com/advice-on-writing-papers/take-advantage-of-the-english-language/) in mathematical writing. In essence, "note that" punctuates the flow of the text and helps the reader process and make sense of the large amount of information that a typically dense mathematical text often contains, and discern which parts of it are more important and which are less. Of course, as with any other form of expression, "note that" can be used effectively, or (as JeffE's comment cleverly illustrates) abused horribly. Now to address your questions: > > some incidents lead me to presume that perhaps those readers who are not that mathematically experienced could take "note that" as an imperative or even a condescending sign? > > > I really can't say whether "note that" will come across as condescending to those who aren't used to its usage in mathematical writing, but I suppose that's possible (and I'd be curious to hear more about those "incidents"). "Note that" is in fact an imperative, so it makes sense that it will be understood as such by anyone, mathematically experienced or not. > > if I am writing something to someone that is senior than me in academia and that is not that mathematically experienced [...] would it be suggested that I avoid using "note that"? > > > My recommendation is that when you are writing to someone who is less mathematically experienced, just like you need to be mindful that you must adapt the mathematical terminology you're using to your reader's expectations and knowledge, it probably makes sense to also adapt the style of writing accordingly to take into account cultural differences across different disciplines. It is probably true that mathematicians are more used to the way "note that" sounds and is typically used, so one needs to tread a bit more carefully with this device when speaking to a non-mathematician. I wouldn't say you should never use it however, just maybe pay a bit more attention to when and how much you use it and give some thought to whether each usage makes sense in the context of how it's likely to come across. --- 1 JeffE's comment I was referring to, which was moved to chat, said: 'Note that “note that” is simply redundant. Note that omitting it entirely does not change the meaning of the sentence. Note that it’s just a bad writing habit. Note that you don’t need it.' Upvotes: 7 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: This is a rather subtle and interesting question. In [this math.SE answer](https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/54431/why-do-people-use-it-is-easy-to-prove/54440#54440) I weigh in (mostly negatively) on the usage of "It is easy to see/prove/verify." One key sentence: > > To be more specific, I think it is bad writing to say "It is easy to see that X is true" and say no more about how to prove X. > > > The general principle here is that either it is easy to see X or it isn't. If it really is, just say X. If it isn't, obviously you had better say something. If you're in a gray area -- think very carefully about your audience, but err on the side of explaining too much rather than too little. There is another aspect to "it is easy to see": it makes a lot more sense to say this than to write it. In a talk, people can only think so quickly, so having someone say "This is not what you should be concentrating on at the moment; don't worry about it for now" can be crucially useful. But this does not have a place in formal mathematical writing, in which the expectation is that the reader is spending some time working through it. So I don't think "Note that" should be used in place of "It is easy to see that..." However it has other usages. 1. Its literal meaning is "Take note," often with the implication that it will be referred to again. In formal mathematical writing there are other ways to convey this. Writing "Remark: ..." or "Remark X.Y:...." does the same thing and the latter arguably does it better, because you have something specific to cite back to. However "Remark X.Y" is indicative of very formal mathematical writing. In contexts where less formality is assumed / wanted or when writing for people who are not used to the particular format of formal mathematical writing, this might be a bit jarring / off-putting. Moreover, by standard mathematical convention, "Remarks" don't occur in the middle of a proof. 2. It can also just be used purely as filler / transitional words. I agree with @JeffE that the intellectual content of "Note that X" and "X" are identical. Sometimes though you want to insert a few words before X. It is not good to have one piece of mathematical content (especially if it's rich with symbols or other non-ordinary English) coming right up against another, so placing something as separators is a very good idea. So for instance I often write "we observe that...." Maybe this construction is used when the next logical step in the argument is a little less than absolutely immediate, but functionally it is just putting words between steps n and n+1. I performed the exercise of looking back through various book length lecture notes of mine in [honors calculus](http://alpha.math.uga.edu/%7Epete/2400full.pdf), [number theory](http://alpha.math.uga.edu/%7Epete/4400FULL.pdf) and [commutative algebra](http://alpha.math.uga.edu/%7Epete/integral2015.pdf). In the first two sets of notes, "note that" is rather common: e.g. it occurs nine times in the first 50 pages of the honors calculus notes. Both usages identified above occur. I notice that (as a subcase of 1)) it is often used in a rather conversational/pedagogical way, to give students more help in grabbing onto the more important points in the exposition. This usage is somewhat didactic and could be slightly/subtly off-putting to an audience who does want to be lectured at. Not every usage is great writing: the first is "Note that one subtlety here is that..." Ugh. In fact I would say that maybe 25% of the "note that"'s could be taken out. The commutative algebra notes are written at the intermediate graduate level and are accordingly a bit more formal: for instance "Remark:..." (though not "Remark X.Y") is used often in them. It is interesting to note [!!] that the "note that"'s are used more sparingly here, and more often in usage 2) than in usage 1). To come back to the question at hand: > > However, some incidents lead me to presume that perhaps those readers who are not that mathematically experienced could take "note that" as an imperative or even a condescending sign? This is much to my surprise. So, if I am writing something to someone that is senior than me in academia and that is not that mathematically experienced (say an applied engineering scholar whose math background is all from the school curriculum), would it be suggested that I avoid using "note that"? > > > People in different disciplines are going to write differently. Rather than changing all your writing in a way that you think might help, if you are concerned I would suggest just mentioning that you are writing in the style of a mathematician, and to forgive you in advance if it sounds a little weird compared what they're used to. That should more than offset any reader's thoughts that you might be condescending to them. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: You might be using "note that" too much or for the wrong reasons. > > Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary > words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that > a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no > unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all his > sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his subjects > only in outline, but that every word tell. — Strunk > > > After you write a sentence, you should get into the habit of asking yourself if all the words are necessary or can the sentence be recast so that the meaning is preserved but it is simpler, more direct, or uses more familiar words. [Chapter 13](http://www.bartleby.com/141/strunk5.html#13) of Strunk's famous book gives many examples. Wikipedia's Tony1 provides [exercises](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Tony1/Redundancy_exercises:_removing_fluff_from_your_writing) and [more exercises](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Tony1/Advanced_editing_exercises). The reason that "note that" can come across as pretentious is because it's sometimes used to give writing a formal air. [Fowler](http://www.bartleby.com/116/302.html) decried choosing words for ornament rather than utility. And by the way, this is wrong: > > I always thought that the phrase "note that" in a mathematical writing > is simply something you say to express that what comes after "note > that" is a fact. > > > The best way to indicate facts is by simply stating them using the [indicative mood](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Realis_mood) (e.g., this sentence). Upvotes: 2
2017/10/14	924	3,840	<issue_start>username_0: I work at a midwestern university in a very small department in a specialised field in the Humanities. I've been working here as a non-tenure track assistant professor, and have been offered a TT position. I genuinely dislike the place I live in, not for aesthetic or social reasons, but because I have experienced racial harassment fairly consistently since last year (the area is extremely conservative, and does not look kindly on difference of any kind. I'm brown, female and immigrant). It got so bad I had to file a police report against someone who had been harassing me at my apartment. That's not the only instance, though. I've been abused on the streets and told to 'Go back home where I come from, you b\&T\h' while out running. Among other things. I was offered an extension on my non-TT contract a while back and would give anything to go back to the non-TT track with the possibility of leaving for another TT position outside the university after an undoubtedly difficult application season or two. I'm happy to continue working here, as I like teaching here, but I can't do this for another 20 years, which is what my department head talks about when he refers to the tenure track. I don't think I can live or work here for that long, no matter how nice it is to be wanted in the department. I've tried approaching him with a long list of the encounters I've had here, and he seems genuinely nice, but also said that there is nothing he can do, which I understand. Most faculty I discuss this with keep telling me to 'forget the racism, it's just a few idiots'. I can't be quite that sanguine about it. They don't seem to understand the psychological effects of living in a place where you run the risk of harassment every time you step out of the house. And yes, I get that the market is bad. By dint and design, however, I work on a rather niche subject which IS rather marketable. I am rather anxious about taking this offer, and was wondering what to do. Any tips or advice would be much appreciated.<issue_comment>username_1: There's nothing to prevent you from accepting the TT position (which presumably carries better pay and more prestige) while still pursuing positions elsewhere. Indeed, having a tenure-track position may improve your chances of getting an offer outside, or may increase the leverage you have to bargain with if offered something elsewhere. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with accepting the TT job and then leaving (after a year) for another position. Your department head might not be happy, but this kind of thing is not viewed negatively by the academic culture at large. In short, I see no downside for you to accept the tenure-track offer. Upvotes: 8 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: An answer to the general question (the one in your title): Tenure track positions should be the default - they essentially mean you don't get arbitrarily fired. So, you've just been offered a regular position. Take it. If you later decide you want to leave, then you'll leave. Adding the specific information about racism and harassment: Well, one option you could consider is actively fighting against racism - in the university and in the community. As a TT you'll be in a better position to do this, as well as to promote and support others - students, graduate researchers, teachers (in the university) and public figures / community organizers (outside the university) when they do the same or when they're targeted. Now, I realize not everyone can/wants to shoulder this burden, so it's perfectly^H^H^H^H^H^H somewhat understandable if you decide not to. In that case - still, take the job. Look for another position on the side, and if one comes up - then you'll have a proper decision to make among two concrete alternatives. Upvotes: 3
2017/10/14	1,383	6,159	<issue_start>username_0: The guidelines for a certain funding source ask me to address gender aspects. This call is open to all scientist, but I work with pen, paper and computers and I see no gender aspects in my work (only that usually in the institute there are clearly more men than women, but this is not something I could fix in the project). I wouldn't like just to ignore the comment, as it might make my reviewer unhappy. What might this mean for mathematicians/informaticians/physicists?<issue_comment>username_1: It's unclear to me what "gender aspects" means. It sounds like you're assuming it's asking about handling gender in your research, which is a great question since a lot of studies (especially psych and medical) have been done on all-male participants. Some of these fail to replicate in mixed-gender or all-woman experiments. There's also a pretty interesting (and depressing) history of abuse of women in scientific research as research subjects that has gained greater attention recently, which is wonderful. In that aspect it seems like it won't relate to your work at all, since you don't have test subjects. Even amongst research program without the kinds of testing issues, some projects in philosophy, social theory, or medicine are plagued by sexism in their experimental design or theoretical conceit. Here the issue is less the treatment of test subjects as inherent issues and assumptions in the underlying theories. This would also not apply to mathematics, physics, or computer science as they don't develop theories about humans. However it could also mean to ask about more administrative things, like discrimination against women and transgender people in the project. If this is a small project it might not relate to you, but in a larger project and especially a in a lab this is important. To clarify, by "small" I mean "me and two of my grad students and we know each other well." Even a working group of 5-10 people can run into gender discrimination issues. Do you know how you'd respond if a woman working under you came to you and said that she was being harassed or her ideas were being discounted because she's a woman? Do you know how you'd respond if a new grad student was to join and tell you that they were transgender? Or how you'd respond if they were rejected by other people in the project because they are transgender? If you haven't thought about these things, you definitely should. Even if this isn't what they meant, you should have an answer to these questions. I would recommend reaching out and asking for clarification as to which of these interpretations is meant. Definitely don't say "I don't think it matters to my work" because that can come across really poorly, especially if they mean the second interpretation I gave. Simply say that you were unsure if the question was asking about gender as a topic inside of the research or about discrimination within the group of researchers. Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: So the first, and most important suggestion is one echoed by many: Ask them what they mean. Because at the moment, it's fairly ambiguous. Here are a couple potential examples of what they could mean, somewhat building off @StellaBiderman 's list. 1. The inclusion of female subjects in the study. This is now something that basically has to be included in NIH/HHS proposals, and includes both the idea that female study subjects should be included in research - including in animal studies, and also that pregnant women are a protected category for IRBs. 2. Will this project benefit women in the field? This goes somewhat beyond "Institution X is an equal-opportunity employer". For example, one might discuss that the lab being funded, or the institution it's in, has active programs to recruit and retain women that will impact, or be impacted by, the project. For example, a recent proposal we submitted that was to support a large number of graduate students noted that the recruiting department was fairly gender balanced - suggesting that the applicant pool would be as well. 3. Will this project impact a particular gender? Clearly, a project examining the evolution of men's social networks over their lifetime will primarily focus on men, and the findings of the study will primarily impact them. But more subtly, one might recognize that a study modeling disease interventions to prevent school closure, or improve farming practices in certain parts of Africa may have gendered impacts because the burden of domestic and farming work falls on women. I'd also echo @StellaBiderman's advice not to just say "It doesn't matter", at least until you get clarification. Even then, I would try for a more fleshed out version of "It doesn't matter" that shows that you put thought and care into the answer. For example, "only that usually in the institute there are clearly more men than women, but this is not something I could fix in the project" isn't true if you have any funding for students or postdocs - that funding could, at least, help address the problem. If that is indeed what the funder is asking about. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: You can try, as others suggest, "ask for clarification", but in my experience it is likely to result in a loss of time. Large funding organizations are extremely bureaucratic, and the application guidelines have likely been [designed by committee](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Design_by_committee) consisting e. g. of a physicist, psychologist and a professor of art and letters. That committee will not convene to answer your questions, and may have nothing to do with the panel that will evaluate your proposal. So, the question "what do they mean" may not even have a well-defined answer, and even if you receive an answer, there is no guarantee that the panel evaluating your proposal will be bound to use the same interpretation. What I would write in this case is that there is no gender issues pertaining to the research program, and then pledge to adhere to best practices in hiring and in everyday life of the research group. Upvotes: 2
2017/10/14	4,236	17,354	<issue_start>username_0: Rephrased question: Can a PhD supervisor take unpublished ideas from a student's dissertation and work on them hence denying the student the opportunity to work on her ideas herself? I completed a PhD and took on a short postdoc immediately afterwards with the same supervisor. The idea was to be doing something while I apply for bursaries or funds to continue research on the ideas I proposed in my thesis. Throughout my PhD I had minimal supervision and minimal input of any sort from him. In fact, in 5 years, he never proposed or even simply put me on track to an idea or a solution. I know for a fact that my supervisor barely read a fourth of my dissertation; however, I had spoken to him about my ideas several times and they are mentioned in my dissertation as my own. I know he is aware of that because I sent him the acknowledgement part by email before putting it in my thesis. Now he decided to take my ideas for himself and got a new student to work on them with the contacts I developed myself because he was incapable of doing that himself. I supervised the new student who is working on my ideas for a particular application and got him going etc and I will be on the eventual paper. However, my supervisor has now decided to apply my idea to another application which I proposed myself in my thesis as well and given that I am leaving soon, I’ve been told that I will not be on that paper because I haven’t contributed directly. Beside the fact that this is still an application of my idea and one that I suggested myself in my thesis, the supervision I’ve given to the student is perfectly applicable to this idea as well because they are related. Can my supervisor do this even though he knows I want to work on them myself? Can I stop him from doing this? Frankly, I’m gutted and totally demoralised. There is no way for me to compete with him and get a paper out before him.<issue_comment>username_1: A PhD dissertation is published work, not a private document. It is publicly available to anyone with a library access (via interlibrary loan or via an appropriate dissertation vendor). Of course, if anyone (including your former PhD supervisor) uses results from the dissertation, they must include an appropriate citation. That way you get a credit for your contribution. If your contribution is considered valuable by the standards of your field, you can write it up and publish it in a refereed journal for better visibility (compared to the dissertation). You can also upload your thesis on an institutional repository or [arXiv](http://arxiv.org). My advice: do not waste time arguing about ownership of ideas. It will not help your career. You had one idea that was good enough to interest people; make more! Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_2: Your question has two layers in it, and I feel that separating these would be of value: On the ethical layer, ownership of ideas plays a neglible role in academia: It's commonly said that ideas are a dime a dozen. The hard lifting is in the execution of an idea, and this is also what eventually leads to the most significant kind of academic credit, authorship. So, from this perspective, your supervisor did nothing wrong, as no other person would have done by executing an idea found in some other person's thesis. On the interpersonal layer, your supervisor is behaving unfairly by consuming your resources (ideas, but even more so skills, time, contacts) while not offering you to join the resulting projects, even though you are interested in them. Unfair treatment feels bad, and you have good reason to avoid your supervisor in the future for that. Other than that, I'm afraid there's not much you can do here. --- Edit: In the second part of my answer, I assume that you have unambiguously and clearly expressed your interest in being involved in the work that will lead to the follow-up paper, even though you will leave the group soon. If this is not the case, this is the thing you should do immediately. Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: If he can use the material you developed while working there depends on your local laws. Are the rights owned by the individual teacher/researcher or the university or the boss of the research group or maybe someone else entirely? However, there is nothing stopping anyone from doing their own work based on anyone elses ideas. Often it is not the idea but how to put it into action and make it work that is interesting. It is not so seldom that an idea is presented in one paper, does not get much attention and then brought up again later by someone else who gets much more attention because of a better explained application or implementation of the idea. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_4: I am not sure what the laws are in other countries, but in the United States, almost every university has a research integrity officer, whose job it is to look into these kinds of matters. For example, here is a page about research misconduct at UCLA: <http://ora.research.ucla.edu/RPC/Pages/ResearchMisconduct.aspx> If you click on their Policy 993: Responding to Allegations of Research Misconduct, you can then click on "Look up contact person" to find that UCLA's Research Integrity Officer is Ann Pollack. Almost every university has such a policy and a person whose job it is to investigate. You should write up your allegations of plagiarism clearly and include any supporting documents. If you are at a public university in the United States, you can frequently use the Freedom of Information Act (or its state equivalent) to request official copies of emails, for example. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_5: I would explicitly discuss it with him and say that given its your idea and you know the details better than anyone, you want to be involved in the project and still have a leading role. You are leaving so you have nothing to lose by being assertive in a discussion like this. You can say they would lose valuable support and expertise that would help accomplish this whole cluster of projects that just spawned from your PhD. He probably will still come up with an elaborate excuse so that even if you are involved you wont be taking a central role. For the future I suggest keeping your ideas for yourself and share only things with colleagues, supervisors and community overall when they take a more "material" form... By that point then authorship and ownership should be less fuzzy... Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_6: Preamble ======== Since a country wasn't specified, I'll throw in a case against such re-use. [Plagiarism isn't necessarily the case if the work was properly cited, used only in relevant parts and not re-written verbatim in large chunks.](https://integrity.mit.edu/handbook/what-plagiarism) --- Background ========== Depending on the intellectual property policy of the university itself, either the student, or the prof, or the university itself, owns the rights to any profit or IP generated through the course of one's studies. Most universities demand that all IP generated in a degree program by a student is owned by the university, regardless of whether or not the university provided any funding or real help. Two Canadian universities that do not do this (that I know of) are the University of Waterloo in Ontario, and Simon Fraser University in BC. In the case of those two universities, it is very different: the student owns 100% of the rights to his/her research, and around the time of thesis defense, may: * Make the defense private to only people relevant to the defense. * Make all attendees sign legally binding waivers (i.e. non-disclosure agreements, or NDAs) that puts them on the hook for "perceived financial loss" if they disclose the contents of the thesis early. * Decline requests from students, "trouble makers", etc, that want to attend and will sign the NDAs, but likely wouldn't be able to pay for the damages incurred by disclosing the details of the thesis. * Request that publication of the entire thesis, with the exception of the thesis title (don't make it too descriptive), is delayed for one year. + Around 8 months after the (successful) thesis defense, the student may make a request for a second 1 year delay of publication, so that (provisional, draft, or full) patent applications can proceed. --- Summary ======= If you have the right to delay publication due to you being the sole owner of your research, then yes: you can make your prof hold off on the work for 1-2 years. If you have the right to do so, this will likely sour your relationship with your prof, and being able to use him/her as a reference. It's quite common for profs (at least in engineering) to have a piece of work that a PhD student did become the basis of the work for a fresh graduate student. Since there's now so much information on the subject, it provides a springboard for the next student to jump into academia. --- My 2¢ ===== * If you intend to patent the work and make money off of it, see a lawyer. Since you likely did not take IP/legal precautions in advance, this likely won't be a fruitful endeavor. * If you're worried you'll be "muscled out" by your prof writing another paper on the subject, get cracking, and churn out more research of your own. * If you're feeling slighted by another student taking over your work, that's the norm in that industry, just like in non-academic settings when a new employee is brought in to replace someone who retired. * If you're upset on general principle that you aren't in control of the research anymore: that's just life, and the advancement of human intellectual progress. Don't resent it: we all benefit by the advancement of this body of knowledge. If that still bothers you, redouble your efforts to be an expert in your specialized area of expertise. --- Edit ==== [Here's an excerpt from SFU's IP policy guidelines:](https://www.sfu.ca/dean-gradstudies/current/research/intellectual_property.html) > > The result of research is the generation of new knowledge. The > "ownership" of that new knowledge, especially when it is knowledge > with commercial implications and/or results in scholarly publications, > is a sensitive issue. The question of ownership in the context of the > student-supervisor relationship is often complicated by the close > collaboration between supervisor(s) and student during the course of > the research. It is further complicated by the fact that the > University and possibly an outside agency provide resources (e.g. > space, library, equipment, supplies) in support of the research. > > > At Simon Fraser University, unlike many other universities, the person > (student, staff or faculty member) who generates patentable new > knowledge is the owner of that knowledge; the University makes no > claim on it, unless the University is asked to help with the patenting > of the idea [see Policy R30.02]. The main federal and provincial > agencies which support university research through research grants > (NSERC, SSHRC, CIHR and SCBC) also make no claims on the results. On > the other hand, copyrightable new knowledge (e.g. books and software) > is usually owned jointly by the author and the University; consult > Policy R30.01. > > > Research contracts with government agencies or private companies often > stipulate that the rights to commercial exploitation of a discovery > belong in full or in part to the sponsoring agency. Because it is > University policy that the rights to a patentable discovery belong to > the discoverer(s), the University will approve contracts containing > such stipulations, as long as they do not restrict the ultimate > publication of the results (see Graduate General Regulation 1.11.3). > > > [And here's the policy for the University of Waterloo, outright noting that research and all possible IP derived from it, is the property of the owner/inventor(s).](https://uwaterloo.ca/research/waterloo-commercialization-office-watco/intellectual-property) It's no wonder these universities churn out so many startups and inventors: the student has a reason to care about the commercial viability of the research due to having an exclusive view to a profit from furthering the research. > > University of Waterloo has long been known for researchers who are > entrepreneurial thinkers and industry partners. > > > At the core of entrepreneurship is Intellectual Property (IP) Rights > Policy #73, also called "creator-owned," which grants ownership to the > inventor. It's the engine for driving commercialization success of > research-based innovations and may be the most entrepreneurial > oriented IP policy in North America. > > > Waterloo embraces the philosophy that providing incentive through IP > ownership is the best motivator to ensure that commercialization of > research provides broad societal and economic benefit. The policy is a > feature in attracting entrepreneurial oriented faculty and graduate > students who want to engage in commercial enterprise (i.e., through > contract research and licensing opportunities with industry or > independently with their own research outcomes). > > > The policy and the university's entrepreneurial culture has positioned > Waterloo as a national leader in the transfer of ideas and technology > to the private sector. > > > Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: Your Ph.D. advisor should NOT be competing with you. Even if his actions don't rise to the level of plagiarism, he is likely violating the Faculty Code of Conduct at his university. You should report him to your university's RIO. It's an RIO's job to look into these kinds of matters, and he or she will NOT be annoyed at you for wasting their time. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_7: I really don't think that is fair. A student in your class worked effectively and produced an outstanding piece of work that has not been published before. For you to take credit from your students work shows that you aren't teaching to help your student but instead teaching to improve yourself. Regardless of what is legal, you should not be allowed to teach if you are teaching to benefit yourself and not those who are there to learn from you. Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_8: Just for example, there is a detailed explanation in [Ownership of Intellectual Property](https://www.purdue.edu/gradschool/documents/rcr/trifoldfourintownership.pdf) for Purdue University. > > Under Purdue policy, the University shall own all domestic > and foreign rights in and to any and all inventions > made or developed by all faculty, staff, students, and > visiting scholars in the course of employment by the > University, or through the use of University resources. > > > University resources mean any support administered by > or through Purdue University, including but not limited > to University funds, facilities, equipment or personnel, > and funds, facilities, equipment or personnel provided by > governmental, commercial, industrial, or other public or > private organizations which are administered or controlled > by the University > > > ... > > If a graduate student/post doc believes that they have > participated in creating intellectual property that may be > owned by Purdue University, they should first bring the > intellectual property to the attention of their major professor > or supervisor, or the head of their department. > Then, the student/postdoc, in consultation with their > advisor, supervisor, or head, should disclose the new > intellectual property to the Purdue Research Foundation’s > Office of Technology Commercialization (OTC). > OTC has been assigned responsibility for evaluation, > protection, and management of intellectual property > owned by Purdue University. > > > ... > > Under University policy, net proceeds derived from > licensing University intellectual property will be distributed > one-third to the inventors/creators and two thirds > to the University. One half of the University > share will be returned to the inventors’/creators’ departments. > > > Basically, if there is no patent corresponding to what your idea is, there is no way you can prevent others from using the idea. Furthermore, the University insists that they own a majority share of any arising patent. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_9: You are asking: "Can a PhD supervisor take unpublished ideas from a student's dissertation?" What do you mean by "take"? My answer is: If somebody "takes" your idea and says: "this idea belongs to such and such person", he/she can take it and do anything with it. But if somebody attributes this idea to him/herself, this is plagiarism. My definition of plagiarism is: "Plagiarism is a falsification of the fact of authorship." Unfortunately, my definition of plagiarism has not been adopted. In fact, it is legally correct. Now, there is also another problem here. One cannot simply "take" unpublished idea. If it's unpublished, you can speak about it only with the note "personal communication from ....", i. e. the author gave you permission to publish it. If the idea was published, you must give valid reference, to journal, published dissertation, etc. Upvotes: -1
2017/10/15	896	3,784	<issue_start>username_0: I had a course in which the instructor let the markers make the midterm marking scheme and had students ask the TAs to resolve any marking issues instead of talking to him, though the instructor provided sample answers. As far as I know, many TAs are inexperienced and I think leaving the job of making marking scheme to TAs may be too much for them. IMO, making marking scheme should be the instructor's duty. I don't know if it is common in university.<issue_comment>username_1: This might vary by country, but in the US, if the graders are undergraduates--which shouldn't be the case for midterms--then I would say that it's unusual to allow them to decide on the grading scheme. If the graders are grad students, it's quite common. At many schools even first-year grad students are the instructor of record for a course. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: From my personal experience, both as a student and TA I would say that this is quite common in the US, particularly in large, lower level courses. Many professors find such courses boring to teach and will hand off as much as they can to the TAs. For some courses, the TAs may even give regular lectures. As a TA, it's not all bad though. They often write portions of or all of the exams, which allows them to make sure students have a firm understanding of the most important material. They also likely have a better grasp of where students are struggling and will focus on those areas during recitations or review sessions. Students tend to feel more comfortable approaching them, assuming they're doing their job appropriately. Regardless, if you truly feel like the TA is marking unfairly and isn't doing an appropriate job explaining their grading scheme when you ask them about it, you should take it up with the course instructor - particularly if others students are voicing concerns over the same issues. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: As someone not from the US (I'm a PhD student in Hong Kong) - yes, here too. TAs are only graduate students, however. Before we were allowed to take on TA work, we had to take a "Certificate in Teaching and Learning" course where it was explicitly shown to us how to create a good grading rubric and grade fairly, among other things. Don't think that everything the instructor does will automatically be better. TAs have more time to spend on the course, usually. In my case the professor is so busy that practically all his sample answers, when he does have time to make them himself rather than leaving it to me, contain multiple errors! (Of course I also make plenty of mistakes, but they usually become apparent while grading and get fixed before the students see them.) Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: In my experience (two large state universities in the US) this is unusual. My experience was that the TA or TAs graded the midterms and finals, but the professor reviewed the exams before the grades were officially recorded and before the exams were returned to the students. Now, about the grading scheme. For exams, the professor gave the TA(s) the grading scheme, which had been built into the exam during the design phase. For homework: * For a large course with multiple TAs, the more experienced TA(s) would set up the grading scheme, and the less experienced TA(s) would ask a more experienced TA for guidance when unsure. * For a smaller course with just one TA, the instructor often provided guidance. If not, the TA could set up a grading scheme, and if in doubt, could check with the instructor. Tip: If I were in your shoes, I would request an assignment, for next semester, to a large course, where you'd be part of a TA team, and would learn by doing, alongside at least one more experienced TA. Upvotes: 0
2017/10/15	607	2,584	<issue_start>username_0: How to find out if someone holds a Doctorate in Electrical Engineering from Technical University of Budapest? I know that the university changed its name to Budapest University of Technology and Economics. He claims he got a Doctorate in Electrical Engineering from that university in 1972. What I know is that he has a professional "engineering degree" from that university registered in the Engineer Association in my country. But the translation of his degree does not say Doctor nor PhD, just electrical engineer. The certificate is in Hungarian with a translation to Spanish, but translation has no word of "Doctor" anywhere. Another thing is that I find no record of any article nor paper nor publication from him on any journal. Well obviously I can not look for in Hungarian language. When I finished my PhD (in math), I was registered in math genealogy project and I have one paper published on a reputable math journal. Is there a web-page similar to Math Genealogy Project for electrical engineering? I have also written to the university but have no reply until now. I do not know also if Hungarian Universities may release records of former students. Is there anyway to verify that person really holds a doctorate? Or how can I prove he does not have it?<issue_comment>username_1: You could try writing to someone who teaches mathematics there --- see the course coordinators [listed here](http://math.bme.hu/~geom/matdoc/edu/MathBSc.html). Pick someone who is likely to have heard of you (or your Ph.D. advisor, or any of your co-authors, or someone who might be marginally interested in anything you've worked on) and make sure the email subject line reflects this connection. I've done this sort of thing MANY times, even a few times in the early 1990s by postal mail. Also, try writing to a reference librarian, something I've also done successfully several times. To hopefully not overstate the obvious, if you write to someone in mathematics (a field I chose because you said you are in mathematics), this person is almost certainly not going to know the answer to your question, but he/she should be able to assist you in locating someone who can investigate your question, and you should be clear about this in your email to any such person in mathematics. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: If the document doesn't say "doctor" or "PhD", then for all practical purposes it can be asumed that he doesn't have a doctoral degree. The burden of proof is on him to present valid (and reliably translated) certification. Upvotes: 1
2017/10/15	2,103	9,231	<issue_start>username_0: In light of the deep, systemic changes that are being proposed for traditional engineering curricula (especially proposed reductions in lecture hours devoted to hard technical material), what in your opinion is the best argument in favor of the notion that the existence of the Google search box can compensate for the concomitant loss of formal course material coverage? (I can easily formulate multiple arguments against it without assistance.)<issue_comment>username_1: The most sensical version of this argument that I've heard is merely an argument in favor of open-book examinations or take-home exams that more accurately resemble modern real-life conditions. It's not necessary to learn the formula by heart, because you can look up the exact formulation. (You're not likely to forget any important parts of Newton's second law, but for some of the more complicated laws of physics it's clearly more of a challenge. I remember being made to recite, word-exact, some law of diffraction - or was it dispersion? - because there were some easy to forget subtleties.) It's merely necessary to know how and when to apply it. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: I will also answer the modified version of your question, which asks specifically about using Google. Nobody is suggesting that because of Google, students no longer need to learn course material. However, thanks to Google and the abundance of high-quality information that student engineers can find through Google, there is an ongoing shift in 1. the role of the instructor in helping students learn the material, and 2. the way students demonstrate that they have mastered this material. First, given the availability of high-quality information, explanations, textbooks, and lecture videos even on specialized topics, the role of the instructor has shifted away from "standing in front of a room and delivering information that students should ingest and then regurgitate on an exam". Instead, instructors can devote more time to answering students' questions about, and teaching student how to use, the material. (This kind of instruction is not as easily supplemented by textbooks, lecture videos from top universities, and similar materials.) You can see why this is in questions like [Professor only teaches what is already in textbook. Should I quit going to the lectures?](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/13363/professor-only-teaches-what-is-already-in-textbook-should-i-quit-going-to-the-l). A lecture that just repeats information is not an efficient use of contact hours for many students. Second, given that students have, and will continue to have, access to high-quality reference materials throughout their careers, there is a recognition that having committed the knowledge contained in this reference material to memory is not an indicator of an effective engineer. Rather, students (and professional engineers) need to be able to identify the right knowledge to use, find it, and use it properly. Thus, assessment of students has shifted toward demonstrating ability to use knowledge, and away from rote memorization and regurgitation. The shift in instructional strategy is partly to support this. (Of course, students still end up memorizing some formulas and things that they use often. And they still need to "know" enough to be able to identify and find the information they need, and evaluate whether they've found "good" knowledge.) In other words: Students still need to learn fundamental material, but: 1. Some contact time with instructors that was previously devoted to repeating the material, can now be spent engaging with the material more deeply. 2. Students show that they have mastered the material by showing that they can identify the right knowledge to apply to a problem, find that knowledge, and use it. Students don't need to show that they can memorize lots of material. --- Your question seems to come down to "Give me an argument in favor of this extreme hypothetical scenario (graduates of engineering programs not having studied Newton's second law)", on the grounds that current trends in engineering education are likely to lead to this eventuality. I doubt the premise of your question. It is a classic example of a slippery slope fallacy; shifting the balance in engineering education towards more hands-on applications of engineering, will not necessarily lead to elimination of most of the fundamental basics. There are some very good reasons in favor of incorporating more hands-on work into the engineering curriculum, for programs that currently don't have much. One reason is: students who learn material out of a textbook but do not have a chance to practice its application, are not necessarily able to apply it, and do not necessarily have as deep an understanding of the material. (I see this firsthand in my own students.) Another relevant aspect is the depth vs breadth balance, and the duration of the degree. Given how broad most fields of engineering are (mine, electrical engineering, definitely is!), it is not possible for students to take in-depth coursework in all subfields in the course of a bachelors degree. Instead, students take some basics (math, science, a couple of fundamental EE courses) and then they tend to specialize and gain depth in one or two areas. This is unlike your example of a physician, who undergoes much more schooling and has time for more breadth and depth in a specialty. Engineering education is much more condensed, and companies that hire engineering undergraduates understand this - they will either expect to train new hires on the job, or they will only hire students with the right "specialty". For those in the latter category, it is especially important for graduate of our program to be able to show that they are "ready to work" in that specialty, which means they should have engaged in substantial project work in that specialty. Personally, I wish students took more fundamental coursework. But I also wish they did more practical hands-on work. I recognize that in the scope of an undergraduate degree that's not really practical, and that students who want or need that will probably have to do some graduate school. But again, none of these are arguments in favor of an engineering curriculum that doesn't teach Newton's second law, or the Fourier transform, because that is an extreme hypothetical that is not the current practice, and that engineering educators are not generally advocating for. There is a balance, and that's what educators are going for. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: This question reads a little bit like a polemic, but I'll answer from another perspective: someone who is in the position, at times, to educate physicians. I'm extremely skeptical that your engineering students don't know Newton's Second Law, given I was taught it in High School, just as medical students know what a brain is or does. But when I teach them my area, what I want them to learn is how to approach a particular type of study, how to engage with a published paper critically, and be able to articulate - at least in broad strokes - the difference between an odds ratio, a relative risk, and a hazard ratio, and when those things might break. I care about them knowing what a Kaplan-Meier curve is, not the formula for how you incorporate left-censored observations into that curve. I want them to know that p-values are a perilous thing that should not be taken as God's Own Word in a vacuum, but I do not care if they know how variance is calculated for a negative binomial regression model. I care about them knowing what an infection looks like, but when rubber hits the road and they need to treat one, I also care about them knowing they need to get an infectious disease consult. Heck, probably 50% of what I work on is some form of survival analysis, and I don't know what the likelihood function for a Weibull distribution is. But I do know it's in Klein & Moeshberger, and roughly what page it's on. And more importantly, I know what to do with it once I have it. Engineering (and I'd argue Medicine) are different from something like research chemistry because they are professions. The bulk of what they're doing is not research, its the application of well-understood principles and techniques to a common set of problems. Your physician doesn't need to know that beta-lactams interfere with cell wall synthesis by disrupting the last stage of peptidoglycan crosslinking - just that they work particularly well against gram-negative bacteria. In these cases, the practical, project-and-problem oriented learning you are railing against is precisely what their day-to-day job will look like, and they are the essential skills that they will need. For the alternative, just spend a few days on Hacker News reading all the rants about C.S. students coming out of top programs with lots of theoretical knowledge, but no practical idea how to do anything. Someone doing research in that area needs to know that, but that also a specific skill set - and just as I would not treat patients, I would not want a physicist as an engineer. Upvotes: 2
2017/10/15	3,784	15,150	<issue_start>username_0: I am a Muslim student in a non-Arab country. Would it be unwanted/inappropriate for me to dedicate my thesis on Tauber theory to <NAME>, and more generally to all those Jewish mathematicians who died in Nazi concentration camps during WW2? I thought it would form a nice opportunity for some remembrance of the fact that so many people whose work we value today were affected. I was greatly saddened to learn about the fate of <NAME> and wanted to do something with that. On the other hand, a mathematics thesis might not be the place to "confront" like this.<issue_comment>username_1: Who you choose to recognize in your acknowledgments is up to you. If you would like to dedicate it to the memory of someone, that's entirely your choice. If you are worried about the political backlash, you could submit the thesis to the reviewer without the dedication and acknowledgments and then add those at the end. Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_2: Aeismail’s answer is spot on: who you choose to dedicate it to is entirely up to you (modulo political expedience). I've read theses dedicated to martyrs and I've read theses dedicated to cats. Do what you feel moved to do. See answers [here](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/1798/dissertation-acknowledgements) for some discussion. As for how it would be received by the Jewish community and Jewish mathematicians, I am confident that the answer is "extremely well," based on my experiences and conversations about similar tributes. On a personal level, as a Jewish mathematician and descendant of survivors I would find this incredibly meaningful to come across and quite likely be moved to tears by a well-written dedication along these lines. A tip about writing the dedication: one common mistake that people writing about the Holocaust make is to paint it as “unimaginable” or “unprecedented.” Although it is by far the [single largest genocide](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_genocides_by_death_toll) in terms of total number of people killed (6M Jews, 5M others includes Poles, the disabled, and homosexuals) that usually rubs me the wrong way. The Holocaust is without a doubt the most socially prominent, but definitely not only, example of [persecutions of Jews](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_antisemitism) or of [genocide as a whole](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genocides_in_history). It’s also not the most recent or “last” (I see people use this term) genocide, nor has Nazism gone away. Today there is genocide in [Myanmar against the Rohingya people](https://www.opendemocracy.net/ashraful-azad/ongoing-genocide-in-myanmar) and in [Iraq against the Yazidi](http://www.aljazeera.com/amp/news/2017/08/yazidi-genocide-iraq-ongoing-unaddressed-170803162047238.html). Today neo-Nazis [openly march in Virginia, USA while targeting Jews in their chants and waving the swastika](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unite_the_Right_rally). These facts are things people tend to be unaware of, and so people can sometimes accidentally take away from their tributes through inaccurate or dismissive words. I think a dedication to Tauber and the others who were murdered would be lovely, but caution you to think carefully about the wording lest you accidentally minimize or dismiss the aforementioned facts. A couple of people seem to have missed the fact that there’s a direct connection between Tauber and your work. To explicitly state that for anyone who is reading this: the field that is the topic of the dissertation is known as “Tauber Theory” and (presumably) Tauber’s work was foundational and central to the field and the dissertation. Upvotes: 8 <issue_comment>username_3: > > a mathematics thesis might not be the place to "confront" like this. > > > No, I disagree. There are few ways in academia to draw attention to this crime more powerful than the acknowledgements section of your thesis. I hope you choose to do so! Also, to speak to another part of your comment . . . > > I am a Muslim student in a non-Arab country. Would it be unwanted/inappropriate for me . . . . > > > That you are Muslim does not detract from this in any way. Politically, to the Jewish communities, that you are Muslim would only add more power to your acknowledgement. Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_4: As a Jewish researcher in the Jewish state, I was profoundly touched by your post. I agree with previous answers that you can make this acknowledgment. But at the same time, it may indeed potentially damage you, as <NAME> said. Probably you can make some more general dedication to all innocently killed or repressed mathematicians (or scientists, in general). At the end, it might not be that different whether a scientist (or any person at all) died in Hitler's concentration camp, executed by Stalin's regime (as for example, [Matvei Bronstein](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matvei_Petrovich_Bronstein) or was prosecuted because of his homosexuality as <NAME>. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: You should be careful when writing personal statements into public work. These include dedications, acknowledgements, even cover pictures in some cases. This is intended as general advice, without the political implications which other answers already discussed. You should always ask yourself "What is the message I want to convey?" and "What am I achieving by conveying my message in this particular way?". It is fine to care about causes or be touched by the fates of people. Most people will agree with your dedication. Few will not. And some, and this is the most important category, will question your intentions behind it, regardless of how they feel towards your statement. (Are you trying to gain favors with the committee? Are you trying to promote your political views through your scientific publication? Are you a provocateur? etc.) The point is, strong statements in work where science is the focus reap no benefits from the positive effects, but can cause harm if viewed negatively. Your ultimate goal is to have your thesis approved and to graduate. People who are favorably inclined towards your statement won't give you "bonus points" for it, i.e. let you graduate if you would have failed otherwise. But people who are negatively inclined, might be biased enough to cause you trouble. The worst thing here is that probably nobody will voice their disagreement with your dedication directly, but will show their bias in other ways. Thus, you put yourself in a position where you might evaluate every critique whether it is a valid remark on your work or just some psychological reaction to your dedication. Therefore, I would always advise against strong statements unrelated to the work. Your views are better and more professionally expressed (and bound to reach a broader audience) when included in your monographs or blog posts, for example, as opposed to theses or papers. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_6: Is it important for you to concentrate on his death? I (personally) would rather be remembered for what I achieved and and not what was done to me. So rather "He was great mathematician and his research influenced hundreds of mathematicians in the following decades". Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_7: You're a Muslim? I'd definitely avoid it. Even if you weren't a Muslim, I'd tell you to avoid it because of how touchy a subject it is unless the person in question was directly related to the work you've been doing, or you personally were directly related to them, but when you add in the ongoing tensions between Israel and much of the rest of the Middle East, there's too big a risk that it might come off as mocking them or gloating about it. Additionally, even if you manage to avoid falling into that additional pitfall, there's enough antisemitic sentiment among the Left-wing political activist types common on university campuses (e.g. the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement) that I'd recommend against referencing them at all, even in a positive light; you never know if one of the people marking your paper is one of the people that really, really doesn't like Israel. Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_8: A thesis is, among other goodies, a piece of literature. I would include historical remarks into it, too - for the purpose of educating the reader. In the historical section, I would elaborate on the fates of the involved mathematicians. This would make the thesis interesting to read even for non-mathematicians. In particular, I would speak about <NAME> there as much or as little as I wish - and make this section captivating. Yes, I would definitely mention his death circumstances. A dedication to Mr. Tauber may or may not be inlcuded according to your wish, but if you include it, it will certainly raise the literary quality of your writing. The fact that you are a Muslim in a non-Arab country is irrelevant. Being a Muslim is about your own, personal beliefs and your own, very personal way of thinking, behaving, and living, and has nothing to do with mathematics and the history of Holocaust, in particular, of Mr. Tauber. Mr. Tauber's death in a concentration camp, the worldwide sufferings of the Jewish diaspora, and, finally, the Holocaust are disgraceful, horrible pages of the history of mankind that are written with blood. The world should be aware of them, and it's everyone's duty to know about them and learn from them. Germany has already learnt, and the time will come when the other countries will also have to learn. "Never send to know for whom the bell tolls …" But, regardless of this shame on us, Mr. Tauber's personal life, in its core, is not directly related to your thesis, to you personally, or to your religion. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_9: I would argue that such a dedication is appropriate - it serves to memorialize a great person who moved mathematical study forwards significantly, and was killed by an oppressive regime due to his ethnic background. This would be akin to a computer science publication being dedicated to <NAME>, the father of modern computer science, who was oppressed for being gay in 1940s England. It is not an exceptionally controversial dedication so much as one that recognizes our field's past and humanity's advancement in the face of adversity. I would not hesitate to dedicate a published document to a significant historical figure who influenced the entire field behind my work, no matter their religious or ethnic background. This is your thesis, however, so it is ultimately your judgment call. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_10: A lot of people don't seem to realize that acknowledgments are most often inserted into the thesis after the committee has read and signed off on it. On the one hand this is justified because they are not part of the intellectual content of the thesis, and indeed the committee should not be swayed by the acknowledgments in either way. On the other hand, this makes good practical sense because acknowledgments most commonly contain thanks and praise for the thesis advisor, and it's best if the thesis advisor doesn't see this until after she has read and approved the thesis. In light of this I fervently disagree that the OP is accruing any non-negligible risk that placing this acknowledgment will jeopardize the outcome of his thesis submission or defense. But more than this I fervently disagree with the idea that the OP would necessarily be wrong to incur any non-negligible risk to his academic career by speaking out on something that he believes in. Shame on everyone who suggested or implied that the OP may not know where the Holocaust deniers / anti-semites / anti-Israeli leftists may lie and therefore should behave as though anyone could potentially be such a person. That is exactly wrong. I have led my professional life in open support of those who have feeling for their fellow human beings, even / especially those who come from different backgrounds than their own. This has worked well for me, but if it had worked out badly then it would have been even more important. > > Be the change that you wish to see in the world. -- <NAME> > > > I encourage the OP to be a pico-Gandhi by having the courage to honor the people he wants to honor in his own thesis acknowledgments. Maybe this will serve as an example in particular to those who have advised against this here. Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_11: If your thesis is on Tauber theory then dedicating it to a man would be appropriate, so long as you do not do it for political reasons. However, it seems that at least in part you are doing it for political reasons. I would remove all that is not mathematics from your dedication statement. A simple sentence would work fine "I dedicate this work to Tauber." Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_12: I think that the idea behind this is excellent and highly laudable. The only possible issue is that an academic publication should be purely academic and free from any personal political or moral (as opposed to ethical) stance. With this in mind I think it would perhaps be better to restrict any acknowledgements to those which had a direct influence on your paper, as academic publication is not really the appropriate forum to express your personal opinions, no matter how morally justified. Having said that I would certainly encourage you to do everything you can to promote the value of science, reason and humanist (in the general sense) discourse above racial, national and religious differences in other forums. But then again it is hard to see how a personal dedication, which is obviously separate from academic acknowledgements as a preface to the paper would be a bad thing. The key being to be clear that it is separate from the academic work itself. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_13: Students have wide scope in their acknowledgements to dedicate their dissertation to whoever they wish. Your proposed dedication is unlikely to be even mildly controversial; a much more interesting question is whether one would incur a backlash dedicating a thesis to a mathematician on the other side of this historical event (e.g., [Ludwig Bieberbach](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_Bieberbach)), but even here, an acknowledgement should not be an issue, and a professional reviewer would ignore your acknowledgement in assessing the merits of your academic work. Given your thesis topic, it makes perfect sense that you might like to dedicate your thesis to <NAME>, since he is the progenitor of the field that is the subject of that thesis. It also makes sense to mention his demise, and it is not at all unreasonable to mention other mathematicians who shared his fate. The only possible negative is the decision to include other Jewish mathematicians killed in the Holocaust, but exclude other non-Jewish mathematicians killed under other regimes, but even here, this is a direct offshoot of recognising what happened to Tauber. It would take a very tendentious person to be offended by this. Upvotes: 0
2017/10/15	3,836	15,471	<issue_start>username_0: I am applying for a lecturer position in Australia in computer science. The application process asks for "a statement addressing the selection criteria outlined in the position description". An enumerated list of n (say, n=8) selection criteria is available in the job announcement. The criteria are heterogeneous, ranging from simple "PhD title or equivalent" to elaborate "a high level of communication skills". Which high-level structure is expected? 1. A continuous, consistent, logically ordered, literary perfect text, from which it follows that the applicant satisfies all the criteria. 2. A list of n paragraphs, one paragraph per criterion, that technically addresses the requirements, but not more. 3. A list of n sections, one section per criterion, that technically addresses the requirements, but not more. 4. ...? How large are the typical statements in each case?<issue_comment>username_1: Who you choose to recognize in your acknowledgments is up to you. If you would like to dedicate it to the memory of someone, that's entirely your choice. If you are worried about the political backlash, you could submit the thesis to the reviewer without the dedication and acknowledgments and then add those at the end. Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_2: Aeismail’s answer is spot on: who you choose to dedicate it to is entirely up to you (modulo political expedience). I've read theses dedicated to martyrs and I've read theses dedicated to cats. Do what you feel moved to do. See answers [here](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/1798/dissertation-acknowledgements) for some discussion. As for how it would be received by the Jewish community and Jewish mathematicians, I am confident that the answer is "extremely well," based on my experiences and conversations about similar tributes. On a personal level, as a Jewish mathematician and descendant of survivors I would find this incredibly meaningful to come across and quite likely be moved to tears by a well-written dedication along these lines. A tip about writing the dedication: one common mistake that people writing about the Holocaust make is to paint it as “unimaginable” or “unprecedented.” Although it is by far the [single largest genocide](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_genocides_by_death_toll) in terms of total number of people killed (6M Jews, 5M others includes Poles, the disabled, and homosexuals) that usually rubs me the wrong way. The Holocaust is without a doubt the most socially prominent, but definitely not only, example of [persecutions of Jews](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_antisemitism) or of [genocide as a whole](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genocides_in_history). It’s also not the most recent or “last” (I see people use this term) genocide, nor has Nazism gone away. Today there is genocide in [Myanmar against the Rohingya people](https://www.opendemocracy.net/ashraful-azad/ongoing-genocide-in-myanmar) and in [Iraq against the Yazidi](http://www.aljazeera.com/amp/news/2017/08/yazidi-genocide-iraq-ongoing-unaddressed-170803162047238.html). Today neo-Nazis [openly march in Virginia, USA while targeting Jews in their chants and waving the swastika](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unite_the_Right_rally). These facts are things people tend to be unaware of, and so people can sometimes accidentally take away from their tributes through inaccurate or dismissive words. I think a dedication to Tauber and the others who were murdered would be lovely, but caution you to think carefully about the wording lest you accidentally minimize or dismiss the aforementioned facts. A couple of people seem to have missed the fact that there’s a direct connection between Tauber and your work. To explicitly state that for anyone who is reading this: the field that is the topic of the dissertation is known as “Tauber Theory” and (presumably) Tauber’s work was foundational and central to the field and the dissertation. Upvotes: 8 <issue_comment>username_3: > > a mathematics thesis might not be the place to "confront" like this. > > > No, I disagree. There are few ways in academia to draw attention to this crime more powerful than the acknowledgements section of your thesis. I hope you choose to do so! Also, to speak to another part of your comment . . . > > I am a Muslim student in a non-Arab country. Would it be unwanted/inappropriate for me . . . . > > > That you are Muslim does not detract from this in any way. Politically, to the Jewish communities, that you are Muslim would only add more power to your acknowledgement. Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_4: As a Jewish researcher in the Jewish state, I was profoundly touched by your post. I agree with previous answers that you can make this acknowledgment. But at the same time, it may indeed potentially damage you, as <NAME> said. Probably you can make some more general dedication to all innocently killed or repressed mathematicians (or scientists, in general). At the end, it might not be that different whether a scientist (or any person at all) died in Hitler's concentration camp, executed by Stalin's regime (as for example, [<NAME>](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matvei_Petrovich_Bronstein) or was prosecuted because of his homosexuality as <NAME>. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: You should be careful when writing personal statements into public work. These include dedications, acknowledgements, even cover pictures in some cases. This is intended as general advice, without the political implications which other answers already discussed. You should always ask yourself "What is the message I want to convey?" and "What am I achieving by conveying my message in this particular way?". It is fine to care about causes or be touched by the fates of people. Most people will agree with your dedication. Few will not. And some, and this is the most important category, will question your intentions behind it, regardless of how they feel towards your statement. (Are you trying to gain favors with the committee? Are you trying to promote your political views through your scientific publication? Are you a provocateur? etc.) The point is, strong statements in work where science is the focus reap no benefits from the positive effects, but can cause harm if viewed negatively. Your ultimate goal is to have your thesis approved and to graduate. People who are favorably inclined towards your statement won't give you "bonus points" for it, i.e. let you graduate if you would have failed otherwise. But people who are negatively inclined, might be biased enough to cause you trouble. The worst thing here is that probably nobody will voice their disagreement with your dedication directly, but will show their bias in other ways. Thus, you put yourself in a position where you might evaluate every critique whether it is a valid remark on your work or just some psychological reaction to your dedication. Therefore, I would always advise against strong statements unrelated to the work. Your views are better and more professionally expressed (and bound to reach a broader audience) when included in your monographs or blog posts, for example, as opposed to theses or papers. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_6: Is it important for you to concentrate on his death? I (personally) would rather be remembered for what I achieved and and not what was done to me. So rather "He was great mathematician and his research influenced hundreds of mathematicians in the following decades". Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_7: You're a Muslim? I'd definitely avoid it. Even if you weren't a Muslim, I'd tell you to avoid it because of how touchy a subject it is unless the person in question was directly related to the work you've been doing, or you personally were directly related to them, but when you add in the ongoing tensions between Israel and much of the rest of the Middle East, there's too big a risk that it might come off as mocking them or gloating about it. Additionally, even if you manage to avoid falling into that additional pitfall, there's enough antisemitic sentiment among the Left-wing political activist types common on university campuses (e.g. the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement) that I'd recommend against referencing them at all, even in a positive light; you never know if one of the people marking your paper is one of the people that really, really doesn't like Israel. Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_8: A thesis is, among other goodies, a piece of literature. I would include historical remarks into it, too - for the purpose of educating the reader. In the historical section, I would elaborate on the fates of the involved mathematicians. This would make the thesis interesting to read even for non-mathematicians. In particular, I would speak about <NAME> there as much or as little as I wish - and make this section captivating. Yes, I would definitely mention his death circumstances. A dedication to Mr. Tauber may or may not be inlcuded according to your wish, but if you include it, it will certainly raise the literary quality of your writing. The fact that you are a Muslim in a non-Arab country is irrelevant. Being a Muslim is about your own, personal beliefs and your own, very personal way of thinking, behaving, and living, and has nothing to do with mathematics and the history of Holocaust, in particular, of Mr. Tauber. Mr. Tauber's death in a concentration camp, the worldwide sufferings of the Jewish diaspora, and, finally, the Holocaust are disgraceful, horrible pages of the history of mankind that are written with blood. The world should be aware of them, and it's everyone's duty to know about them and learn from them. Germany has already learnt, and the time will come when the other countries will also have to learn. "Never send to know for whom the bell tolls …" But, regardless of this shame on us, Mr. Tauber's personal life, in its core, is not directly related to your thesis, to you personally, or to your religion. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_9: I would argue that such a dedication is appropriate - it serves to memorialize a great person who moved mathematical study forwards significantly, and was killed by an oppressive regime due to his ethnic background. This would be akin to a computer science publication being dedicated to <NAME>, the father of modern computer science, who was oppressed for being gay in 1940s England. It is not an exceptionally controversial dedication so much as one that recognizes our field's past and humanity's advancement in the face of adversity. I would not hesitate to dedicate a published document to a significant historical figure who influenced the entire field behind my work, no matter their religious or ethnic background. This is your thesis, however, so it is ultimately your judgment call. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_10: A lot of people don't seem to realize that acknowledgments are most often inserted into the thesis after the committee has read and signed off on it. On the one hand this is justified because they are not part of the intellectual content of the thesis, and indeed the committee should not be swayed by the acknowledgments in either way. On the other hand, this makes good practical sense because acknowledgments most commonly contain thanks and praise for the thesis advisor, and it's best if the thesis advisor doesn't see this until after she has read and approved the thesis. In light of this I fervently disagree that the OP is accruing any non-negligible risk that placing this acknowledgment will jeopardize the outcome of his thesis submission or defense. But more than this I fervently disagree with the idea that the OP would necessarily be wrong to incur any non-negligible risk to his academic career by speaking out on something that he believes in. Shame on everyone who suggested or implied that the OP may not know where the Holocaust deniers / anti-semites / anti-Israeli leftists may lie and therefore should behave as though anyone could potentially be such a person. That is exactly wrong. I have led my professional life in open support of those who have feeling for their fellow human beings, even / especially those who come from different backgrounds than their own. This has worked well for me, but if it had worked out badly then it would have been even more important. > > Be the change that you wish to see in the world. -- <NAME> > > > I encourage the OP to be a pico-Gandhi by having the courage to honor the people he wants to honor in his own thesis acknowledgments. Maybe this will serve as an example in particular to those who have advised against this here. Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_11: If your thesis is on Tauber theory then dedicating it to a man would be appropriate, so long as you do not do it for political reasons. However, it seems that at least in part you are doing it for political reasons. I would remove all that is not mathematics from your dedication statement. A simple sentence would work fine "I dedicate this work to Tauber." Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_12: I think that the idea behind this is excellent and highly laudable. The only possible issue is that an academic publication should be purely academic and free from any personal political or moral (as opposed to ethical) stance. With this in mind I think it would perhaps be better to restrict any acknowledgements to those which had a direct influence on your paper, as academic publication is not really the appropriate forum to express your personal opinions, no matter how morally justified. Having said that I would certainly encourage you to do everything you can to promote the value of science, reason and humanist (in the general sense) discourse above racial, national and religious differences in other forums. But then again it is hard to see how a personal dedication, which is obviously separate from academic acknowledgements as a preface to the paper would be a bad thing. The key being to be clear that it is separate from the academic work itself. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_13: Students have wide scope in their acknowledgements to dedicate their dissertation to whoever they wish. Your proposed dedication is unlikely to be even mildly controversial; a much more interesting question is whether one would incur a backlash dedicating a thesis to a mathematician on the other side of this historical event (e.g., [Ludwig Bieberbach](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_Bieberbach)), but even here, an acknowledgement should not be an issue, and a professional reviewer would ignore your acknowledgement in assessing the merits of your academic work. Given your thesis topic, it makes perfect sense that you might like to dedicate your thesis to <NAME>, since he is the progenitor of the field that is the subject of that thesis. It also makes sense to mention his demise, and it is not at all unreasonable to mention other mathematicians who shared his fate. The only possible negative is the decision to include other Jewish mathematicians killed in the Holocaust, but exclude other non-Jewish mathematicians killed under other regimes, but even here, this is a direct offshoot of recognising what happened to Tauber. It would take a very tendentious person to be offended by this. Upvotes: 0
2017/10/15	1,307	5,523	<issue_start>username_0: I've currently decided to get a second bachelor's in Statistics over 1.5 years after finishing my first bachelor's in math. Both of these degrees are debt free and follow a passion of mine. The next goal is to work in industry for about three years at my parent's home while taking one class a semester in Computer Science online to save for a master's in Statistics with Thesis where I hope to take some really advanced courses over two years. The big idea is that I could grab courses like Categorical Data Analysis, Multivariate Statistics, Nonparametric stats (and maybe substitute mathematical stats 1 and 2 with graduate Measure Theory) etc during my second B.S. and then focus on the really advanced statistics courses and math courses during my masters like advanced graduate topology, experimental design and bayesian analysis Then I would start a PhD in say Computer Science focused on Machine Learning to develop cutting edge statistical tools based on theoretical principles in Statistics, computational topology, measure theory etc. Would this be too much education? I want to do more than just take classes on various statistical methods before a PhD. Edit: I should add that the answer I received from r/datascience was to go straight into a Masters program. But since I can't afford that yet, I guess the answer in my circumstances is that I can do a second B.S. in Stats or Comp Sci if I'm making good money near my parent's home?<issue_comment>username_1: I would agree with the answer from r/datascience. Go straight to MS. The main reason you cited for waiting on the MS was that you could not afford to pay cash for grad school and you didn't want a loan. Keep in mind that cash and loans are not the only two options. There is a significant amount of financial assistance available for grad school. E.g. you might be able to get a teaching assistantship (teach an undergrad class in exchange for tuition), research assistantship (work on a professor's research project in exchange for tuition), or a fellowship/scholarship. I got all three of these at various points in my program. I have a MS and a Ph D and I literally paid zero tuition for both of them. My wife and my sister both have MS and neither one paid any tuition. Research assistantship is very common in technical fields where corporations sponsor research projects. E.g. Apple or Microsoft might give a CS professor $200k to study some challenging problem. The professor will spend that $200k to hire grad students to do the work. You work on the project part time, say 20 hours a week, and that pays your tuition. Now if you were talking about studying history or poetry or violin performance, then money is a lot harder to find. But Comp Sci, you have a good chance at finding some money. The only reason I can think of to do a second BS before the MS would be if your BS was in such a completely unrelated area that you would be unlikely to get admitted to the graduate program. For example, if you had a BS in English Literature or Violin Performance, you would be unlikely to get into an graduate program in Statistic or Comp Science. But I don't think that applies here. With a Math degree (assuming you have good GPA / GRE scores) you should be able to get into a good Statistics or Computer Science program. EDIT: Let me try to put this a different way. To a large degree, the value of a BS is less about the specific facts/skills that you learned, and more about proving to a potential employer or grad school that you are a hard worker (see [Signaling theory](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signalling_(economics))). Opinions vary, but let's says it's 50% about what you learn, and 50% proving you're a hard worker. If you get a second BS, it's only worth half as much as the first, as you've already proven you can do work at the BS level. If you get an MS, you now prove to potential employers that you can do work at the MS level, which is worth a lot more than proving you can work at the BS level. Let's just say that an MS is worth twice as much as the first BS for this. Then an MS is worth four times as much as a second BS. And since it will take a similar amount of time, why waste your time getting the less valuable thing? Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: As someone doing an interdisciplinary PhD (a mandatory element of my programme) in CompSci and Music, there is nothing interdisciplinary about the subjects you've already studied between maths, stats and CS. Now don't get me wrong, they all compliment each other very well, and judging by the fact you can even consider doing more than one bachelors, you're probably an extremely competent and bright student who would sail through a CS PhD. But to say any element of this is interdisciplinary is a bit of a farce. Stats, maths and CS is, in most universities housed under the same faculty. You wouldn't be able to say you're doing any combination of those three in my programme and justify it as interdisciplinary work. If you'd like to learn more about interdisciplinarity in research, the classic text to start with is <NAME>'s Interdisciplinary Research: Process and Theory. If you want to put it into practice, consider working with another faculty for your PhD outside of electronics, maths and computer science within your institution. There are many opportunities to apply Machine Learning techniques to any number of disciplines, so the limit is your imagination (and a good supervisor ;) ). Upvotes: 0
2017/10/16	1,571	6,537	<issue_start>username_0: I'm a lab assistant at my university and one day some of my coworkers who are underclassmen asked me about my experience with a professor I had taken a couple classes with. I told them that every class that professor teaches is hard and that one specific class, is a "flipped" course in which students have teach themselves the material and come to class ready to just answer questions and do classwork. I also mentioned that in that particular class the professor would get frustrated when students asked her questions during class time (so much so that she would yell at whoever asked her a question and in one instance became so frustrated that she stabbed the white board with her expo marker and could no longer write with the marker because the tip was completely sunken in). I also mentioned that this particular class put me under so much stress that it caused me to develop anxiety. Everything that I told my coworkers was my honest experience with said professor. It is not the first time I've told others at work about my experience while taking classes with this professor as well as with any of my other professors (in fact, on that same day I had talked about many of my previous professors and my time in their classrooms). Somehow one professor who manages some of the labs found out that I was talking about that particular professor (I'm not sure what exactly she heard or how much of what I said she heard) and decided to get right in my face and yell at me to stop talking about said professor because she didn't like what I said. After having yelled at me she just briskly walked away. When she confronted me, I was standing right next to my coworker and I noticed that even my coworker had to pull her head back because of how loud and close the professor got to me/us. My ears were also ringing for a few moments. I am not upset at the fact that whatever I said got out because I don't think I made any personal attacks, I simply talked about my experience in that particular professor's class. What upsets me is that the way the professor confronted me has really increased my stress levels and anxiety to the point that my blood pressure has risen. I am also experiencing dizzy spells, fatigue, and aches all over my body. I suspect that this is due to my anxiety. I have been stressing over this incident for the past couple of days and I'm not sure what to do. For now I've decided to go speak with a counselor to try and calm down and seek a different perspective on the situation. I'm also going to discuss the situation with one of my superiors at work and ask her for advice as well as get her perspective on the situation. I don't want to make any rash decisions or actions based on poor judgement and wild emotions. I am not comfortable enough to talk to the professor who confronted me (at least not 1-on-1). Can anyone give me any suggestions on what I should do? Do I contact the Dean? (Is there even enough basis to do this?)<issue_comment>username_1: It sounds like you were the victim of a (relatively moderate) kind of abusive workplace behavior. I would not seek to handle this through the department-level chain of command but rather through the university level policies on such things. You don't say where in the world you are, but at a US university there will be something quite formalized in place about this: e.g. [see this policy at my university](http://safeandsecure.uga.edu/workplace.html). Note that the prohibited conduct includes > > harassment of any nature such as stalking, swearing or shouting. > > > The webpage goes on to explain that any employee who witnesses this kind of behavior should report it to human resources (HR). You want to find the equivalent at your university. When you report it, you should mention the name of your coworker, and they will very likely be contacted. The rest of it is really up to HR, and they will know how to approach it confidentially and so forth. They are also the experts on how serious the behavior is, but I think there is no question but that it is serious enough to report to them. By the way, none of this sounds like it will be much fun for you, but I really encourage you to do it anyway. I suspect that the likely outcome is that if this is an isolated incident, the professor in question will get nothing more than a talking-to. But what if it isn't an isolated incident? The community needs your help to identify and deal with the problem. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: I'd like to suggest that while it's fine to share your experience of attending a certain class, try to portrait that with a little bit of neutrality and perhaps empathy. Let's say, the said professor could have just lost a baby, she was going through a rough time and maybe depression. She could only share with her close friend, who was the other professor that yelled at you. If that's the case, would you still be so fond to share the negative experience in such a vivid manner? Are they unprofessional? Of course; are they inhuman? Probably not. What I'd like to get at is that in a usual world, people don't just burst into rage for his/her friend based on overhearing some negative comments. This case does not seem that straightforward to me. And while I don't wish to invalidate your experience, what good can come out from such strong advice that you gave to your peers? Now they may go to her class all anxious, do not volunteer to answer any questions, and the said professor would get all upset, thinking her teaching might not be working. Have you ever thought that your advice might have ripped away your peers' opportunity to appraise their own experience? Perhaps consider something like: * I didn't have the best time cause I felt that it's very demanding, but hopefully you'd have a better experience. [Emphasize that your mileage may differ.] * When I was taking her class, she seemed to prefer a tighter control on the flow of her lecture. Feel it for yourself but for the first class, just jot down your questions for later and see how it goes. [Downplay the whiteboard incident, give positive advice to prevent possible shock.] Fortify empathy and positiveness, and we may find that the surrounding is actually not that threatening and anxiety-inducing. I'd like to end this comment with a quote that was attributed to so many people form <NAME> to <NAME> that I am not sure any more: > > Instead of cursing the darkness, light a candle. > > > Upvotes: 2
2017/10/16	955	4,026	<issue_start>username_0: So I plan on applying for a PhD program pretty soon. I’ve done quite a lot of research into the people who do interesting things in my area and I’ve come up with a list of universities that I want to try to get into and people in those universities with whom I’d like to work. My problem is that the list is too long... Is it wrong if I apply to too many places? I’m a good student and I can get pretty impressive recommendations, so there is a good chance I’ll be accepted in more that one place and I don’t know if I’ll look bad if I turn down offers after having talked to several professors and everything.<issue_comment>username_1: There is no such thing as "too many places", except if it is compromising the quality of your applications (or your other life activities). Start applying at your most wanted places, making sure to polish your application to your best effort, and keep going until you run out of time, energy, or programs you would actually want to attend. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: First of all the question > > How many postgraduate programs should I apply to? > > > is not possible to answer objectively; it is as subjective as it gets. Ultimately it would depend on the type of person you are, on the possibilities you have available to you etc etc. My short answer would be: apply as many as you like... The question > > What is a good number of PhD positions to apply for? > > > is also a bit tricky, but somewhat better. There are no clear cut numbers and threshold, AFAIK. I would definitely send out more than one! If your problem is that your list is too long, prioritise. Rank these places based on factors relating to as well as besides scientific reasons, such as location, cost of living, weather, any cultural aspects etc etc.. When you have a ranked list, rather than a plain list, you can start from the top and work your way down. (OR: start from the bottom, to gain some experience as you work your way up to list. This was an advice I was given by a head hunter once, his advice was to divide the list of companies I was interested in to three tiers and start from the lowest one). In any case I would suggest that you take your time with each application and go with quality over quantity (more on this a little further down). If the applications you send out come back negative, continue from the list. About sending multiple applications out; the important thing there is that you don't want to come across as a wholesale applicant sending boilerplate mails or applications to anyone and everyone in the field, even if that's not the case. For example, it's probably a good idea to not apply for several different positions in the same department with the same type of application. Research environments aren't that big (at least in Europe), PIs that work in similar fields typically know and talk to each other. So if you don't leave a good impression with one, you might be off to a bad start with another one. Now that being said, it does not have to be a negative thing, as a matter of fact you can turn that to an advantage even. I applied for two postdoc positions at the same institute, turned out these two labs were very well connected. I did my interviews for both groups together, and they even helped me choose between the positions. Important thing is to be transparent about it. Finally, I think there are plenty of questions here on Academia.SE that address these type of issues actually. Feel free to do a search for `application`, `job` or `job-search` tags. Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: What I ended up doing was ranking my schools in terms of preference: I applied to those schools whose offers I was most likely to accept first, and worked my way down the list. I had planned on applying to about a dozen schools, but stopped filling out applications after six because I realized I wouldn't really want to go to any of the other schools on my list! Upvotes: 2
2017/10/16	3,545	14,986	<issue_start>username_0: This is perhaps less a question and more of a cautionary tale, but I've seen a few people asking how best to talk to their supervisor about mental health and I wanted to share my experience with this and perhaps get some advice for if I find myself in a similar situation further down the line. So, to give a little context, I am a female student who has just completed her viva. I also suffer from anxiety and depression. For the most part, my PhD went well, I was happy to follow my supervisor's guidance and tried my best at everything she asked. As time went on though, depression and anxiety started creeping in. By the time I got close to handing in, I was seriously depressed, bordering on suicidal, and was having near daily panic attacks at the thought of facing my supervisor. It also took me a long time to get help, my supervisor was very much of the 'just work harder to get over it' mentality and I ended up adopting that for myself. I couldn't really be depressed; obviously I just needed to work harder. Fast forward to having handed my thesis in. My supervisor was advertising a post doc position, built on the results from my PhD. She was very keen on me applying for this post, telling me multiple times that she was happy to hand it to me on a plate, as it were. I, however, couldn't face another three years of working with her. I had finally started getting help for my depression and, although I wanted to get better, I was very aware of the fact that remaining in my current situation would not be helpful. I didn't want to be rude, and simply not apply for this postdoc, so I sent my supervisor an email. > > Dear {supervisor} I have decided not to apply for the postdoc you have > advertised, but I felt I owed you an explanation for my decision. I > understand that you need the best person possible to fill this role in > order to do the project justice and to produce the best science > possible, and at the present time I do not feel I can be that person. > This has not been an easy decision to make as the project is both an > interesting and exciting topic, which would allow me to develop all > the work from my PhD. I have spent a lot of time weighing up the > options, but I cannot honestly apply for the role and give it my best. > My mental health has been deteriorating for some time now, and this > combined with other stress-related problems means that I cannot commit > to a long-term role at this point. I have seen a doctor and am > currently having sessions with a therapist to help work through these > issues, and I hope in time I will be able to return to a healthy > state. At present, however, I do not feel that I can honestly apply for > the role, and I hope you will accept my apologies for disappointing > you. > > > I appreciate all the help and guidance you have provided during > my PhD studies, and I am very thankful to you for providing me with > this opportunity. Of course, I will still do my best in readying the > remaining chapters for publication and in preparing for my viva. I > just cannot commit to a future role at this point. In conclusion, > although my current health problems prevent me from applying for the > role, I wish you all the best with this project and hope you find an > eminently suitable candidate. > > > In hindsight, this perhaps was not the best move. Since the subsequent meeting following this email the supervisor has been increasingly angry with me. She has told me that my behaviour is unacceptable, and that anyone else would have fired me. If I make mistakes, she accuses me of behaving maliciously towards her and tells me that I am unqualified for a career in science. She has also told me several times that she can't possibly write a reference for me, despite my good work for the majority of my PhD, because she doesn't know if that is the real me or whether instead I am a nasty manipulative person. In some respects, very little of this matters. I have been offered a job outside of academia, which I am looking forward to starting, and have recently worked with a conservation organisation who are more than happy to give me a good reference. I have also passed my PhD, and have no corrections to make. I do, however, still have to interact with this supervisor, as she wants to publish work from my PhD and I am worried that, unless I am involved in the process, she will not include me as a co-author. I would like to get some feedback, though, on how common this sort of reaction to mental health problems is in academia. I know that the percentage of the academic community with mental health problems is disproportionately high, and that it is important that more people are open about mental health. Is it something that is still viewed as a weakness in academia, though? I don't want to believe that is the case, but I do want to advise caution for anyone thinking about telling their supervisor something like this. I also want to encourage anyone who is struggling with their mental health to seek help. It's really important that you don't try to deal with something like this alone. You can't fix your mental health just by working harder. Furthermore, it is not a weakness. It is an illness, a medical condition. Just like a broken bone or a fever, a mental health problem is not your fault. Just to clarify, in case anyone is worried, <NAME> is a pseudonym.<issue_comment>username_1: Your university should have policies in place for equitable treatment of individuals with disabilities (which mental disorders like depression count as being among), which your supervisor is almost definitely in violation of. Take whatever evidence of your condition, along with whatever evidence of your supervisor’s misconduct you have to the student association, equity office, or whatever analogous organization your university possesses that is in charge of providing support to students with disabilities, and make a formal complaint. Treating people with disabilities with respect isn’t just a good idea, it’s literally the law. If you’re in the US, it’s the Americans With Disabilties Act, and other First-World nations will have equivalent legally mandated protections in place. Upvotes: 7 <issue_comment>username_2: The thing about mental health issues is that people don't talk about them. Everyone knows how to deal with someone who has broken a leg, who has migraines, and maybe even with people who have cancer. But because we don't talk about mental health issues, we don't know what to do with people who have them: we don't know how to recognize the issues, how to separate health issues from performance issues, we don't know how to talk to the person in question. That's a shame because there are so many occasions where we ought to know this. I suspect that many people "sort of" learn this as they get older just because they have people in their family or circle of friends through which they're exposed to this. Where I'm going with this is that it is possible that your adviser may be well-intentioned, but simply can't separate between "not working hard enough" and having mental health issues. She may not be able to recognize the difference, or not know what to do about it if she did. In about half of my answers on this forum, my suggestion is some variation of "talk about it with your adviser, from person to person". Since it sounds like you used to get along well, so why not suggest to have coffee together during which propose to talk about these things. That's not going to be an easy conversation (health issues never are, even more so if they involve a societal stigma), but you're both going to feel better about things at the end, and maybe understand better where you're coming from and what is going on. It's soo much better to talk about these things in person than via email! --- All this said, I'm glad to hear that you are getting help! Your world will be a better place! Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: You are definitely being "unaccomodated" as a person with a disability. Start the complaint process, but since you're leaving academia anyway, your goal should be to get your PhD process complete and published. Let the powers that be know that, and they'll be glad to finish you up out of the program and be done with you. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: People, generally speaking, don't understand what it's like to suffer from mental issues. Those of us who suffer from it, sometimes have to carry very heavy (invisible) weight on our shoulders, trying to balance a productive life together with anxiety or depression. I find trying to express myself verbally and trying to share my feelings in an open and intelligent way highly productive and accepted very well both by students and faculty. I think it is important because it helps bridge the gap between the idea others have of who you are and what you are experiencing to what you are actually experiencing. From your post, it strikes me as if your advisor accuses you of being not genuine. Could it be that the way she has received your email was as an excuse for not liking her? It sounds to me like you may have touched a self conscious nerve there, and that she may have projected some of her insecurities on you. If in general your advisor really liked you, which sounds to me like the case, as she offered you a position which is basically the highest badge of appreciation, I suggest you try mending the wound with her. Some people live in extremes, where people either love them or hate them, and they reciprocate those same emotions. Often times, in the same snap of a finger in which you switched sides you could switch back just by having a genuine positive interaction with her. Now, I'm not suggesting you'd go over the top to try to have such an interaction with her, but a solid way to accomplish such a thing could most likely be reminding her of a positive past interaction you two had, expressing appreciation and being open and honest. On a personal note, to whomever gets to read this in the future, searching for a post regarding mental health issues in the academia. Don't be afraid to get professional help, don't be afraid to communicate your status and most importantly, if you are aware of having such issues and suspect they can interfere with your professional relationships, make sure to choose to work with the right people, and when I say the right people, what I mean is people with higher than average emotional intelligence. Being a brilliant researcher doesn't necessarily come with the ability to empathise with a fellow human having trouble. When choosing an advisor, choose someone you can feel comfortable communicating your difficulties, if you can't be honest about your competency of doing a task due to a mental issue or a hard situation, how can one expect you to be honest about your difficulties when you are simply not up to par academically? These are my two cents. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: You are likely to find that your depression eases immensely when Toxic Advisor is in your rear view mirror. Obviously, you are working with one of the increasingly-rare individuals whose constricted world view cannot comprehend life events as affecting a person's well-being. This is obvious by their threatening your hard-won work in academia, which later is likely to threaten your professional career in private or public sector also. If you stop it cold here it is easier to do so now than later, as the supports in place to assure your Rights and Protections will never be as strong again as they are no. You are under the auspicious of instruction in a an institute of Education - the last port before launching into the World and expectations that become less compassionate as focused on money, money, money. So, if you are leaving academia because of this unreasonable treatment you may want to wait before you commit to that change, especially if you love your work and had dreams of working in academia. In fact, as I look back on your posting discussion, I must wonder if you weren't targeted as vulnerable. I think I catch a whiff off natural gas in the air; the conditions do lend themselves to you being the victim of gaslighting. Those emotionally vulnerable are often targeted by predators. Is it possible that Toxic Advisor has strong motive to beat you into submission by way of claiming you Too Defective to be worth anything and Your Work and your Little Dog Too (what the evil neighbor/wicked witch called Dorothy's dog, Toto)? It sounds like you are being browbeaten into accepting their demand. I do not think that Toxic Advisor is a brilliant anything. What ever the deal is this person's attitude and performance - by any standards of any workplace that is not slavery or bonded servitude - are severely unprofessional. It is altogether possible that your Advisor not referring you on to resources at the school may be in violation of school, state, or federal policy or regulations. In the United States, Title IX and other federal program policies and legislation directly tie funding to the Right to Education and the Right to Disability Equity. If at all accredited, wherever your school is there is going to be an office responsible for investigating, reporting, and enforcing your Rights as person, student, and disabled. Your Advisor has been duly notified that you need "Reasonable Accommodation," and which you should backup with a simple confirming email stating the same. Get a doctor's letter that is called "Verification of Medical Necessity." It is simple a note on doctor's office letterhead that you have a condition (nature of which is not their business, by law) that is a disability by effecting your ability to be able to concentrate and physical well-being such that you need periods of rest. The doctor who writes the letter should be one treating you for depression, either as a family physician or specialist. The school then must respond with an approval or denial. There are only two reasons for a school's Denial of Request for Reasonable Accommodation: 1) if the Reasonable Accommodation (RA)would substantively disrupt normal activities of the school, or be so 2) prohibitive financially as to place a burden on the institution. Good Luck - Be well and enjoy Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_6: Some people are just jerks. You got several helpful answers about how to deal with this legally and how to educate your supervisor. Still, some people are just jerks. They will hang up to their view of the world even if the reality shouts something else in their face and even if this impact others or make them suffer. This is not just mental heath - history has shown this with basically anything, from religion to homeopathy. I would just move on. You have your PhD, you have another position in a better environment so just enjoy it. Upvotes: 2
2017/10/16	2,434	10,485	<issue_start>username_0: I am applying for PhD programmes very soon and I have recently been trying to get in touch with my potential referees. At my previous institution there is a professor who knows me the most out of all academics I know; we had plenty of conversations regarding the field I want to pursue my PhD in and also I did very well in modules taught by him. I was planning to request a reference from him and I tried to get in touch with him three times (through e-mail), however, he has not replied to me (it has been about two months since my first e-mail). Should I assume that he overlooked my e-mails (he is very busy) and send him another message? Or rather, should I try to contact him through the Department? It might seem to be a trivial case, but I really do not want to annoy him too much as his reference would potentially be of the biggest importance in my applications. What would you suggest in this particular case?<issue_comment>username_1: Your university should have policies in place for equitable treatment of individuals with disabilities (which mental disorders like depression count as being among), which your supervisor is almost definitely in violation of. Take whatever evidence of your condition, along with whatever evidence of your supervisor’s misconduct you have to the student association, equity office, or whatever analogous organization your university possesses that is in charge of providing support to students with disabilities, and make a formal complaint. Treating people with disabilities with respect isn’t just a good idea, it’s literally the law. If you’re in the US, it’s the Americans With Disabilties Act, and other First-World nations will have equivalent legally mandated protections in place. Upvotes: 7 <issue_comment>username_2: The thing about mental health issues is that people don't talk about them. Everyone knows how to deal with someone who has broken a leg, who has migraines, and maybe even with people who have cancer. But because we don't talk about mental health issues, we don't know what to do with people who have them: we don't know how to recognize the issues, how to separate health issues from performance issues, we don't know how to talk to the person in question. That's a shame because there are so many occasions where we ought to know this. I suspect that many people "sort of" learn this as they get older just because they have people in their family or circle of friends through which they're exposed to this. Where I'm going with this is that it is possible that your adviser may be well-intentioned, but simply can't separate between "not working hard enough" and having mental health issues. She may not be able to recognize the difference, or not know what to do about it if she did. In about half of my answers on this forum, my suggestion is some variation of "talk about it with your adviser, from person to person". Since it sounds like you used to get along well, so why not suggest to have coffee together during which propose to talk about these things. That's not going to be an easy conversation (health issues never are, even more so if they involve a societal stigma), but you're both going to feel better about things at the end, and maybe understand better where you're coming from and what is going on. It's soo much better to talk about these things in person than via email! --- All this said, I'm glad to hear that you are getting help! Your world will be a better place! Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: You are definitely being "unaccomodated" as a person with a disability. Start the complaint process, but since you're leaving academia anyway, your goal should be to get your PhD process complete and published. Let the powers that be know that, and they'll be glad to finish you up out of the program and be done with you. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: People, generally speaking, don't understand what it's like to suffer from mental issues. Those of us who suffer from it, sometimes have to carry very heavy (invisible) weight on our shoulders, trying to balance a productive life together with anxiety or depression. I find trying to express myself verbally and trying to share my feelings in an open and intelligent way highly productive and accepted very well both by students and faculty. I think it is important because it helps bridge the gap between the idea others have of who you are and what you are experiencing to what you are actually experiencing. From your post, it strikes me as if your advisor accuses you of being not genuine. Could it be that the way she has received your email was as an excuse for not liking her? It sounds to me like you may have touched a self conscious nerve there, and that she may have projected some of her insecurities on you. If in general your advisor really liked you, which sounds to me like the case, as she offered you a position which is basically the highest badge of appreciation, I suggest you try mending the wound with her. Some people live in extremes, where people either love them or hate them, and they reciprocate those same emotions. Often times, in the same snap of a finger in which you switched sides you could switch back just by having a genuine positive interaction with her. Now, I'm not suggesting you'd go over the top to try to have such an interaction with her, but a solid way to accomplish such a thing could most likely be reminding her of a positive past interaction you two had, expressing appreciation and being open and honest. On a personal note, to whomever gets to read this in the future, searching for a post regarding mental health issues in the academia. Don't be afraid to get professional help, don't be afraid to communicate your status and most importantly, if you are aware of having such issues and suspect they can interfere with your professional relationships, make sure to choose to work with the right people, and when I say the right people, what I mean is people with higher than average emotional intelligence. Being a brilliant researcher doesn't necessarily come with the ability to empathise with a fellow human having trouble. When choosing an advisor, choose someone you can feel comfortable communicating your difficulties, if you can't be honest about your competency of doing a task due to a mental issue or a hard situation, how can one expect you to be honest about your difficulties when you are simply not up to par academically? These are my two cents. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: You are likely to find that your depression eases immensely when Toxic Advisor is in your rear view mirror. Obviously, you are working with one of the increasingly-rare individuals whose constricted world view cannot comprehend life events as affecting a person's well-being. This is obvious by their threatening your hard-won work in academia, which later is likely to threaten your professional career in private or public sector also. If you stop it cold here it is easier to do so now than later, as the supports in place to assure your Rights and Protections will never be as strong again as they are no. You are under the auspicious of instruction in a an institute of Education - the last port before launching into the World and expectations that become less compassionate as focused on money, money, money. So, if you are leaving academia because of this unreasonable treatment you may want to wait before you commit to that change, especially if you love your work and had dreams of working in academia. In fact, as I look back on your posting discussion, I must wonder if you weren't targeted as vulnerable. I think I catch a whiff off natural gas in the air; the conditions do lend themselves to you being the victim of gaslighting. Those emotionally vulnerable are often targeted by predators. Is it possible that Toxic Advisor has strong motive to beat you into submission by way of claiming you Too Defective to be worth anything and Your Work and your Little Dog Too (what the evil neighbor/wicked witch called Dorothy's dog, Toto)? It sounds like you are being browbeaten into accepting their demand. I do not think that Toxic Advisor is a brilliant anything. What ever the deal is this person's attitude and performance - by any standards of any workplace that is not slavery or bonded servitude - are severely unprofessional. It is altogether possible that your Advisor not referring you on to resources at the school may be in violation of school, state, or federal policy or regulations. In the United States, Title IX and other federal program policies and legislation directly tie funding to the Right to Education and the Right to Disability Equity. If at all accredited, wherever your school is there is going to be an office responsible for investigating, reporting, and enforcing your Rights as person, student, and disabled. Your Advisor has been duly notified that you need "Reasonable Accommodation," and which you should backup with a simple confirming email stating the same. Get a doctor's letter that is called "Verification of Medical Necessity." It is simple a note on doctor's office letterhead that you have a condition (nature of which is not their business, by law) that is a disability by effecting your ability to be able to concentrate and physical well-being such that you need periods of rest. The doctor who writes the letter should be one treating you for depression, either as a family physician or specialist. The school then must respond with an approval or denial. There are only two reasons for a school's Denial of Request for Reasonable Accommodation: 1) if the Reasonable Accommodation (RA)would substantively disrupt normal activities of the school, or be so 2) prohibitive financially as to place a burden on the institution. Good Luck - Be well and enjoy Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_6: Some people are just jerks. You got several helpful answers about how to deal with this legally and how to educate your supervisor. Still, some people are just jerks. They will hang up to their view of the world even if the reality shouts something else in their face and even if this impact others or make them suffer. This is not just mental heath - history has shown this with basically anything, from religion to homeopathy. I would just move on. You have your PhD, you have another position in a better environment so just enjoy it. Upvotes: 2
2017/10/17	262	1,298	<issue_start>username_0: For the purpose of applying for a lecturer position in Australia in computer science, what is actually a "contribution to technical achievement"? This phrase occurs among the selection criteria but seems to me way too broad from a purely linguistic viewpoint. According to the text describing the selection criteria, a "contribution to technical achievement" is supposed to be separate from research experience, teaching experience, experience outside university, creative achievements, and professional contributions – they are measured separately.<issue_comment>username_1: I suspect that "technical achievement", within the context of computer science, is a reference to the production and development of computer software/hardware. Hence, "contributions to technical achievement" is a cue to allow you to give information on any contributions you have made to the development of software/hardware/computing problems (e.g., a program you wrote or helped with). There is probably going to be some overlap with "creative achievements". Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: The job ad should list a contact. You can ask them. In my experience the selection criteria are not written very carefully. So I would guess there is no precise answer to your question. Upvotes: 0
2017/10/17	1,741	7,068	<issue_start>username_0: > > "Program MARK: A gentle introduction" by <NAME> and <NAME> > > > is a guide to using a particular piece of statistical software. It is available in print form as well as in a [free, online version](http://www.phidot.org/software/mark/docs/book/). The foreword to the book contains the following paragraph: > > We’re occasionally asked how to properly cite this book. Easy answer – > please don’t. This book is not a ‘technical reference’, but a > ‘software manual’. The various ‘technical’ bits in the book (i.e., > suggestions on how to approach some sorts of analysis, guides to > interpreting results...) are drawn from the primary literature, which > should be cited in all cases. > > > Now, I don't have any problem with the last sentence - the authors are quite right to recommend citing the primary literature. But I don't understand why they recommend NOT citing their own work. If I have found it useful (I have) then the usual arguments for citation seem to apply: * Citing the guide may be helpful in pointing others towards this useful resource * The guide has performed an important function in my work, even if that function is "just" pointing me towards the primary literature, and that function should be acknowledged. It is in a small way dishonest if I imply that I researched the primary literature without any help. * While any mistakes in my use of the software are of course my own, knowing the source of advice that I've used might help others to spot or trace those mistakes. Against this is the fact that the authors have politely asked me NOT to cite the work. I have no wish to be disrespectful to the authors who have created a valuable resource. But is it reasonable for them to ask me to break from academic good practice? Should I respect the authors' wishes and omit a citation?<issue_comment>username_1: No. --- If you use a source, you must cite it. The authors deserve credit for their work, even if they don't believe they deserve credit for their work. Of course, you should also take the authors' advice and also cite the appropriate primary sources (after reading them, obviously). Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_2: Just cite them because (in my opinion) they only do not want to have any serious, academic citations. They made these remarks to prevent you from citing them for ideas that are not originally theirs and facts that might not be as sourced as in a "proper" academic publication. I think what they don't want you to do is cite their book like you'd cite other sources for ideas and facts. Like: > > We got the idea from [Evan et al] or used the formula from [Evan et > al] to prove what was proven before [Evan et al]. > > > What I think is perfectly appropriate is something like the following: > > We used fact a and fact b to get started [other guy et al], based on > the idea from [this girl et al]. A helpful source in the > implementation using the software xxx [proper software citation] was > the textbook by [<NAME> and <NAME>]. > > > And then take care that you actually cite primary sources where needed. Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: Whenever you make a statement that expresses someone else's idea, you should provide a citation for the idea, even if the originator of the idea ask you not. > > Citing the guide may be helpful in pointing others towards this useful resource > > > This is not a reason for citing work. The purpose of citations are to give credit to others for their original ideas and not because you think something might be useful to the reader. > > The guide has performed an important function in my work, even if that function is "just" pointing me towards the primary literature, and that function should be acknowledged. It is in a small way dishonest if I imply that I researched the primary literature without any help. > > > No one expects you to research the primary literature without any help. No one cites Google Scholar and Pubmed. I often read an article and find other articles from there and in the end do not cite the entire chain that got me to the idea I needed. Again, this is not a reason to cite something. > > While any mistakes in my use of the software are of course my own, knowing the source of advice that I've used might help others to spot or trace those mistakes. > > > This is a reason to cite something. Saying what software you used is critical. For example, and I think it is relevant and correct, the [SVD](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singular-value_decomposition#Calculating_the_SVD) is well defined mathematically, but can be implemented in a number of different ways that behave very differently for nearly singular matrices (or something like that). It becomes important to provide readers with which version you used. Two common ways are to state the software used and to reference the technical manual. The author's have asked you to not reference the technical manual. In this case, I would then cite the software itself. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: I think you may have misread what they want. I admit it is a matter of interpretation, but to me it seems that they are asking you to not use them as a citation for certain types of information, namely statistical techniques. So, if you are doing a t-test and want to say "I did a t-test as described in (Cooch and White)", they are asking you to not do that, but to go find a textbook on statistics and say "I did a t-test as described in (Bamberg and Baur)". This should not exclude citations where their book is the authorative source. For example, if you are writing a comparative article on statistical packages, you can write "The MARK software supports both paired and unpaired t-test (Cooch and White)". This would be a proper use of their work, for which they deserve a citation. They wrote a book on what a given program supports, and you can cite them for that. So why did they express it in this unusual way? I think they had a specific target population in mind. There are a lot of students out there who are eager to do right, take the time to perfect every single citation they use, but don't know yet enough about different types of literature sources and which one is appropriate for which case. So, they do a statistical analysis by clicking the appropriate button in their software tool, their supervisor remarks that they need a citation, and the first place they naively look is the book describing which button to click. And then ask the authors how to make the citation "right". If this happened often enough to Cooch and White, I can understand why they chose to put this information in the book, hoping to save the students from doing the wrong thing. As for everybody else, who does not belong to that population but is using the book as a citation for the things it actually is meant for (e.g. information on the functionality of MARK), I think they are free and even obliged to cite it in the usual way. Upvotes: 4
2017/10/17	435	1,731	<issue_start>username_0: The situation: You did your B.Sc. and M.Sc. in CS with focus on subfield X1 and are now pursuing a PhD in subfield X2. There is a Masters program in subfield X2 available where you do your PhD that offers courses that allow you to advance in this subfield (which is pretty new to you). Does it make sense to get a second M.Sc. while pursuing a PhD if the courses of the Masters program will be beneficial to your PhD work? Subquestion: Do you think it is even feasible to do this based on your experience? The geographic context is Europe/Germany so a PhD does not include course work. A Masters (at a university of applied sciences) takes 3 semesters full time with the possibility to double that time when doing it part time.<issue_comment>username_1: Many PHd programs include a masters with them. So if you enroll in universtiy X and get Phd DD, you will earn Ms DD on your way to getting the PHd. A Phd without a dissertation is essentially a masters degree (when you compare the coursework). Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_2: In Germany, as has already been pointed out, the Master's degree is a prerequisite for enrolling in PhD "studies." It should also be pointed out that in the German system, PhD students are Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiter (research employees), so it is expected that they would devote all of their time to research activities. Enrolling in a second master's program would run contrary to those expectations, unless you are only a part-time employee (and receive a correspondingly reduced salary). That said, it is possible to sit in on additional classes as a listener. (And generally this is required if you are coming from a foreign country!) Upvotes: 1
2017/10/17	2,797	11,446	<issue_start>username_0: I build simulations and make them open-source. Depending on the context I either license them with Apache or GPL. I publish the simulation results in paper and link to the code. However sometimes some parts of the code are useful for others regardless of the overall original simulation. Is there a way in the license to ask/recommend/enforce that people who use some of that code remember to cite the paper associated with it? Is a friendly reminder in the readme the best I can do?<issue_comment>username_1: Unless you use some third-party code that is copyleft-licensed and forces you to use the same license, as the author/copyright holder, you are entirely free to choose your own licensing terms. (There are some legal limits, but they are very broad. You can't ask for someone's firstborn.) You could make your own license that has as a condition of use of your code that any paper that builds on it needs to cite you. However, in practical terms this is unlikely to have more effect than a friendly reminder in the README. It would enable you to take the authors of the paper to court, but this would be far worse for your reputation (and your wallet) than a missing citation is ever likely to be. Custom-made licenses can also come with their own pitfalls (it takes a lawyer to draft a good one). Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: Before thinking of the citation of the software, think of the related situation for scientific articles. Have you have read an article with a comment "If you use the results of our research, it is mandatory to cite this paper"? Probably not, it is because it is the practice of working scientists to cite relevant material (Comment here: I do not claim that the citation process is always well used, fair, or whatever in this direction. In general, this is the way scientists are supposed to work). Because of the relatively recent status of software as an academic artifact (in comparison to books and articles), the situation is not as good as it could be. Several initiatives have been made to think of this issue, to propose solutions that are considered fair, and to encourage a citation practice that is as good for software or data as it is for articles. 1. Smith et al "Software citation principles" PeerJ Computer Science 2:e86 <https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj-cs.86> collects the recommendation of the FORCE 11 working group on software citation. For developers and users. 2. ["Encouraging citation of software – introducing CITATION files"](https://www.software.ac.uk/blog/2013-09-02-encouraging-citation-software-introducing-citation-files) is a blog post by <NAME> as part of the Software Sustainability Institute. It recommends to include a "CITATION" file with the relevant data to cite the software. 3. [The Journal of Open Source Software](http://joss.theoj.org/) is a journal whose purpose is to publish concise articles about a software. The papers have a DOI and can be cited, which enables you to include your software in the "traditional" publishing and citation practice of scientists. There are probably other initiatives that I don't think of right now. There seems to be consensus anyway to stick to a well known license recognized by the Open Source Initiative (OSI): <https://opensource.org/licenses> To conclude, the context of your software also matters. If one of your aims is that your software is re-used by others, either standalone or in combination with other tools, this influences the choice of the license. Looking furhter, if you want your software to be distributed in larger packages or in Linux distributions, a well established license is critical. Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: A license requiring some form of citation is certainly possible, but there would be practical problems which, I believe, far outweigh the benefits. To get an idea of what such problems might be, consider the [original BSD license](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BSD_licenses#4-clause_license_.28original_.22BSD_License.22.29) with an "advertising clause", requiring "all advertising materials mentioning features or use of [the] software" to display an acknowledgement of the original authorship. This seems innocent enough, but led to an unreasonable accumulation of acknowledgements as more and more authors added their own name or organization to the must-be-acknowledged list; and it causes the license to be incompatible with other licenses such as GNU's General Public License, which prohibits many kinds of restrictions on redistribution; because of practical problems of this kind, the clause was dropped from later versions of BSD. So, if you are the sole author of the software, you can write your own license which sets whatever conditions you wish for redistribution (subject to the limitations of what copyright cannot forbid, e.g., "fair use"). But: * this will probably make it impossible to combine (or even link, in the case of libraries) parts of your software with certain major open source licenses such as GNU's GPL; * it might not pass as "open source" or "free software" according to certain definitions of the term (e.g., Debian's Free Software Guidelines, which are interpreted in a very conservative way and don't consider the GNU Free Documentation License to be "free" — this is a long-lasting controversy), and this can cause additional practical problems; * when writing such a clause, you should carefully consider what happens if someone wants to reuse parts of your code in their own software (possibly having completely different goals and being used in a context that you didn't even imagine); * and a legal license is only ever useful if you are seriously considering taking violators to court (or at least threatening to do so in certain cases). For reasons such as these, I submit that a non-legally-binding request is more appropriate. Keep in mind that something non legally binding can still be morally (i.e., ethically) binding, just like citing previous works is morally required in academia even if it is not legally required. So you can phrase your request for citation in a way that makes it clear that, while it is not a legal obligation, it is still much more than a friendly reminder. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: I would argue that a legal license is not the place to talk about citations, in the same way that copyright considerations are not the right tools to handle plagiarism of text in more normal settings. There are two sets of standards that academic publications need to follow, the legal ones and the academic ones, and we're better served by keeping them separate. As such, the approach I would argue for is to choose a standard legal-considerations license (Apache / GPL / MIT / whatever works for you) and then make it clear that there are additional obligations (not just your wishes) from the academic arena. Thus, a sample readme section might read > > This code is © <NAME>, 2017, and it is made available under the GPL license enclosed with the software. > > > Over and above the legal restrictions imposed by this license, if you use this software for an academic publication then you are obliged to provide proper attribution. This can be to this code directly, > > > * <NAME>. ACDS: an Awesome Code to Do Stuff, [v2.3](https://doi.org/acds-versions-have-dois-obviously) (2017). [github.com/cknight/acds](http://github.com/cknight/acds). > > > or to the paper that describes it > > > * <NAME>. How the ACDS software solves every problem. J. Awes. Softw. 12, 37654 (2017). > > > or (ideally) both. > > > This separates the two arenas and it makes it easier (hopefully) to deal with problems if and when they do come around. Think about it: if someone comes in and uses your code without attribution (and you somehow find out), what are you going to do? * Are you going to sue? Is it going to work? Or can you at least present such a credible threat of legal action that e.g. their institution caves in? (Unless the answer to any of those questions is "yes", then there's not that much point to trying to come up with fancy legal language to attempt to enforce citations.) * Or, more realistically: are you going to contact their journal editors, show how the paper is plagiarizing your code, and demand a retraction? The second option is much more likely to work, and it works entirely on non-legal mechanisms, because academia does have additional standards and additional ways to enforce them. The plagiarism might not have broken the license, but you didn't need to sue them to get what you wanted. --- And, while we're at this, notice one important feature of the sample readme I just gave: it makes your code easy to cite! By putting this in up-front and making it unambiguous that it needs to be cited and how it needs to be cited, you're setting clear expectations and making it easier for authors to cite you. Some features of note: * Provide a 'proper' publication to direct the citations. You need them, because of the economies of academia, and plenty of people are happy to ping a paper so long as you tell them which one. * Ideally, write a software paper that describes the software itself, in journals like the [Journal of Open Research Software](https://openresearchsoftware.metajnl.com/) (or, say, if you can stomach the elsevierness, [Computer Physics Communications](https://www.journals.elsevier.com/computer-physics-communications/)) or whatever works in your field. If your code is user-ready then a software paper is both useful for those users, and useful for you in capitalizing the work you've done on the software into forms that the ever-slow-moving academic economy of citations can recognize more easily. * Put your code somewhere easy to find, and make sure it's going to stay there. * Give every version of your code a DOI. They're easy enough nowadays, at least [via github](https://guides.github.com/activities/citable-code/) but also directly on Zenodo or Figshare, that there's no excuse not to. And, moreover, they make it easy to locate and download exactly what version of the software was used for any given calculation, making your software more accountable. Think of this as a stick-and-carrot routine: set up some stern language to set expectations but then prime your users to follow your wishes and make the process as seamless as possible. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: > > Is there a way in the license to ask/recommend/enforce that people who use some of that code remember to cite the paper associated with it? > > > I am surprised to not find [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode) (or any other [Creative Commons licenses](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/)) mentioned in the otherwise excellent answers already submitted. It does not exactly fulfill the requirement of "enforcing citations", but its premise (focus on attribution) is closer than that of most other permissive / open source licenses. Also, it could serve as a subtle reminder by itself. Caveat: It is generally [not encouraged](https://opensource.stackexchange.com/questions/1717/why-is-cc-by-sa-discouraged-for-code) to apply CC licenses to software, but given the academic context and the nature of your cares, I'd call that notion at minimum debatable in your case. Upvotes: 2
2017/10/17	1,203	5,148	<issue_start>username_0: I am a grad student. I recently produced a paper myself. The topic of the paper does not have much to do with my advisor's research area, but my advisor was put on the paper as an author. What are your analyses of this incident (especially how would it affect my contributions to the work if it is perceived as being part my advisor's project)? What are your recommendations?<issue_comment>username_1: "What are your analyses of this incident (especially how would it affect my contributions to the work if it is perceived as being part my advisor's project, while it is not)? What are your recommendations?" My analysis is that this "incident" is normal, very common, and would not effect at all your perceived contributions. It is normal and common for scholars to list in their grant applications and reports any paper that was remotely done under the umbrella of the project, and that this is expected, for better or worse, in the academic system, where scholars need to justify their grants, in order to receive more grants. What is written in a grant report/application has no bearing assigning academic credit per se, so it doesn't effect at all one's perceived contributions. My recommendation is thus to be generous and not petty when assigning credits, and generally act with collegiality and not in a confrontational manner when dealing with your advisor, colleagues or, in time to come, your students. There are more important and consequential fights than nitpicking on precise credit assignment. I see too many people (usually beginners in academia) over emphasizing "precise" credit distribution, until they forget the big picture. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: > > What are your analyses of this incident (especially how would it > affect my contributions to the work if it is perceived as being part > my advisor's project, while it is not)? > > > The major impact on your work is that you have spent whatever amount of time you have spent worrying about this, writing the question, etc. and the opportunity cost involved. "Whether or not a paper is listed on a grant report" has nothing to do with assigning credit, or assessing your contributions. It does not imply your advisor has some expertise in the area, or you don't, or really much of anything. It is entirely an internal document for a funding agency to go "So, what have you been spending your time on this year?". He's an author on the paper, therefore it belongs in that report. No single paper (save, perhaps, for a distinct lack of any papers) does much beyond giving a gestalt impression of productivity. Indeed, the only two impactful circumstances I can even imagine are both good for you: * If you are someday funded by the grant, the PO has already seen your name, and repeated exposure is good. * If that funder has open access requirements (ala the NIH) your paper may be more widely available without any additional open access fees paid by you. But really, this is Not A Thing. > > What are your recommendations? > > > Move on with you life. Though based on some of the language in your question and comments, some time pondering the relationship you have with your advisor may not be ill-advised. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: When I was a phd student, I often felt that my PI did not contribute anything. Now that I advise students myself, I see how much effort it takes to get a project of the ground. I have an idea, write a grant application, administrate the project, hire students, steer them in the right direction. When a student joins the project, I have potentially invested many years of work that might not be visible to a student. For example, I might think that a certain class of materials might have some property. Later I get a student and have him synthesize the materials. Even if I would not talk to him during his entire experiment, I have still made a substantial intellectual contribution. From the students point of view it will look totally different. He'll probably think that he designed the molecule all by himself. I try to stay in the background, but that doesn't mean I don't contribute intellectually. That doesn't mean that your PI contributed something to your current paper, but he might have done so in the background. If your PI feels deceived, rightfully or not, he can make your life miserable. I don't know the exact circumstances of your situation, but in either case, you should just move on. Nothing you can do about it that won't backfire badly. Having your paper listed in his application really doesn't create any disadvantage to you, and I don't think your PI has done anything wrong or unethical. Also, maybe he would have liked to contribute more, but he is busy getting money so that his group can continue. Tricky situation, maybe next time you can nudge him to contribute a bit more by more forcefully including him in the discussions. Then you will not have to worry and can add him as an author in good faith, and your PI will also be happy because he gets to spend some time away from writing grant applications. Upvotes: 3
2017/10/17	560	2,445	<issue_start>username_0: Hypothetically, suppose one applies to and is admitted to both a funded PhD program in Field A and a master's program in Field B at the same university, in different departments. Suppose there was a structure in place at the university for both programs to be undertaken concurrently (an implication of this is that I would not have to pay tuition for the normally unfunded master's program). Is it unethical to attend both programs, knowing that depending on how the Field B master's goes, I may end up leaving the Field A PhD (after receiving my Field A master's) for the Field B PhD at the same university? Note that this is not my intention going in, but simply the one unlikely but possible situation in which I know that I would leave. I don't expect this is likely to happen - and if for whatever reason I don't want to or can't make the switch to the Field B PhD program at that university, I would see the Field A PhD through no matter what. Furthermore, if it is unethical to attend both programs, is it also unethical to apply to both programs? It goes without saying that I would not misrepresent myself in my statements of purpose to either program (or to my letter writers).<issue_comment>username_1: It is not unethical to apply to both programs. However, for most advanced degree programs, the possibility of doing multiple programs simultaneously is remote, unless the departments have already established a method for undertaking work between the disciplines. For instance, there may be an interdisciplinary program or a "joint degree" program. In such cases, though, you will find it very difficult to find a funded program that will pay for your studies to complete a degree in another department. Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: There are many "unlikely but possible" reasons you might leave a PhD halfway through. A family member might fall sick and need constant care, you might fall sick and be unable to complete, you might win the lottery, you might have a child, you might be offered an amazing opportunity in industry, your advisor might turn out to be insufferable, ... You never know what will happen, and it's a risk that everyone, including your funding source, has to accept. There is nothing unethical to doing what's best for you if such a situation comes along, as long as you do not go in with the intention of leaving halfway through. Upvotes: 0
2017/10/17	621	2,648	<issue_start>username_0: I hold a degree from a European country, and at that time we didn't have a system similar to the common "Bachelor + Master". My degree has been considered as equivalent to a Master by the University of another European country, and in this other University I obtained a Doctorate. Now, I have been offered a teaching position in Russia, and they want a statement of my undergraduate University, saying that that degree is equivalent to a Master. But this University (where I graduated) tells me that they can't make a statement of equivalence, they can only certify that I have that degree. So, who should be the authority that officially takes care of confirming the equivalence? To complicate things, I graduated before the [Bologna Process](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bologna_Process "Bologna Process") came into effect.<issue_comment>username_1: Each country should have a government office (or equivalent organization) that makes such determinations. You should ask the university to which you're applying for the appropriate office to consult in their country. If you want one from the country where you obtained your undergraduate degree, ask their registrar (or equivalent officer) who is responsible for such certifications. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: I think that you should ask to the university from which you graduated a [Diploma Supplement](http://ec.europa.eu/education/resources/diploma-supplement_en) for your degree. This should help the non-European country in recognizing it. In many universities Diploma Supplements are nowadays routinely delivered to the new graduates, but maybe they are able to prepare one also for those who graduated before the [Bologna process](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bologna_Process). Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: From my experience in European countries, the equivalence is established in the destination country, that is, the country in which you want to use the degree. Basically, the university where you graduated is not habilitated to certify that you have the requirement for a Russian degree. (This would be almost equivalent to delivering Russian degrees.) Since you have obtained your degree before the Bologna process, you might be able to obtain from the university where you graduated from a statement that your degree is equivalent to a master degree at their university after Bologna. (I know that universities routinely give attestations that one of their master degree grants access to their doctoral programme.) This might help the Russian administration to navigate in the pre-Bologna higher education landscape. Upvotes: 2
2017/10/18	396	1,753	<issue_start>username_0: I'm a beginner instructor teaching undergraduates, and I seem to have their attention and am working hard to inspire them. Recently several of them have told me that they now approach the subject with a newfound enthusiasm because of me. Anonymous teacher evaluations will probably be an important factor for me to remain employed; yet, I doubt that young undergrads know the significance of the evaluations, and I wonder whether they just circle any ratings on the evaluations form, just so they can get it over and done with as quickly as possible. So, I am wondering whether I could make an announcement to the students at the end of the semester, when they have to evaluate me, that if they felt I've done a good job, this is their chance to support me and put it writing on their evaluations and to be as specific as possible. Is this ok to ask of the students?<issue_comment>username_1: In my experience undergraduates vastly overestimate the impact of their evaluations, rather than the other way around. If you were to do this - and I think it's fine to do - I think a slightly more oblique approach (rather than "Support Me!") might be warranted, like noting that student evaluations are used in deciding who teaches which classes, etc. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: You may certainly encourage your students to provide evaluations that accurately reflect their opinion of your teaching. You may encourage them to provide detailed information rather than just the bare minimum. You may also explain to them how the evaluations are used by administrators. What you must not do is to encourage them to make you look good by giving evaluations that don't accurately reflect their true opinions. Upvotes: 3
2017/10/18	1,415	5,915	<issue_start>username_0: I am writing a PhD thesis in robotics and I was wondering if it sounds good to start a phrase with: 'According to Wikipedia ...' Do you think I can do that or not?<issue_comment>username_1: "According to some unknown guy on the Internet, I can say that according to Wikipedia..." No, you should avoid that. Wikipedia is open, so it can be changed by (almost) everyone and you have no guarantee that the given information there is correct. While many articles are very informative, it might be better to take the actual source (given on the Wikipedia page) and make sure that this source is credible (e.g. published in a good, peer reviewed journal). Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Do you mean can you cite Wikipedia or can you use the phrase "according to Wikipedia"? Of course citing Wikipedia is not recommended since it can be highly inaccurate [look at e.g. Loudwire's "Wikipedia: Fact or Fiction" YouTube series where bands go through their history on the site and tell the interviewer what is true and what is false]. Using the phrase, "according to Wikipedia..." is of course absolutely fine, though I would suffix your information with a caveat that the citation is unreliable. You could also cite another piece of related information from a more reliable source, and make a reliability comparison. Ultimately though, it's best to avoid citing Wikipedia altogether. If it is the only place the information you can find is cropping up, then it is most likely false. Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_3: A good Wikipedia article must be supported with credible sources and references (see [here](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reliability_of_Wikipedia "Reliability of Wikipedia") and [here](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citing_sources#When_and_why_to_cite_sources "When and why to cite sources")). Wikipedia itself has a good read on [citing Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citing_Wikipedia "Citing Wikipedia"). In case of scientific articles, the references are usually either published books and/or articles and papers from scientific journals and conferences. In either case, you should be able to follow them and reference the Wikipedia article (or the section of your choice) back to any of these original sources, and then cite that original source in your thesis. That makes for a valid and accepted citation instead of something that someone might have randomly written on the day you checked the article. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: I think that username_1’s answer is highly misleading and represents a popular, but false view of the website. Investigations have shown that Wikipedia contains as many or fewer statements of incorrect fact on scientific and technical matters as more traditional encyclopedias like Encyclopedia Britannica (though "mistakes by omission" are more common on Wikipedia). Just because Wikipedia can be edited by anyone doesn’t mean it’s unreliable. Additionally, just because anyone can add content doesn’t mean that there are no controls on content, nor does it mean that there aren’t people or systems for double checking edits. However, it is correct that one shouldn’t cite Wikipedia because Wikipedia (like most encyclopedias) is a tertiary source and has a strict “no original research” policy. Encyclopedias are summaries of information, but don't contain original research by design and are not the original source of the content. You should always cite the original source of the content, not a reproduction of it. If you wish to credit an encyclopedia with drawing your attention to the material, you can append "accessed via Wikipedia" to a citation, which I've seen done in some published scholarly books and journal articles. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_5: Depending on the reason for the citation it could be perfectly fine. For example, if you simply want to use the encyclopedia definition to start your introduction: > > According to Wikipedia robotics deals with the design, construction, > operation, and use of robots,[1] as well as computer systems for their > control, sensory feedback, and information processing. The subject of this > thesis ... > > > There is nothing wrong with this (besides maybe the lack of creativity: citing an encyclopedia is used very often in introductions). However, note that Wikipedia cites an original source for this definition under [1], so in this case it is probably preferable to cite the original (the Oxford dictionary in this example). However, if your purpose is to use wikipedia as a source of factual (scientific) information it is not a good idea. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_6: No, you should not. Wikipedia is not a scientific source. The scientific source is the primary peer-reviewed reference that wikipedia's articles cite. You can (and should) use Wikipedia for a general understanding of a concept, but you should (read and) cite the primary source of the particular concept. Finally, I would avoid writing "According to X, Y leads to Z" altogether and instead write "Y leads to Z because ...[citeX1, citeX2]". "According to X" is an authoritative argument. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_7: hard to imagine someone not knowing the answer to this. 1) go to wikipedia 2) just cite whatever citation wikipedia gives you (hyperlink/bottom of page) This has been hammered into my head since like 4th grade... Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_8: In addition to the other arguments: Citing web sources is a problem, because you do not know if they stay online and if they will be changed in the future. Wikipedia is a bit better than other websites, as they have a clear edit history and citing with date `accessed on ...` is possible. But you're still relying on the article being still there. For deleted articles there is no (easy to view) history. Upvotes: 0
2017/10/18	1,138	4,597	<issue_start>username_0: I have seen something similar has been asked but I seriously don't know what to do. I applied to 3 PhD programs all from quite good Universities. For all of them I contacted a potential supervisor, and they agreed to supervise me after a skype interview. Recently I finally got an answer from the best of the 3 Unis and after three interviews and a small project, the professor agreed on supervising me. Due to some life events I had to wait one month to complete one of the applications, which I think it already pissed off one of the professors. Obviously, I would like to go for the best University, not only for its ranking but also because of the city itself, the people I know in that city, and the research field which is closer to mine and more interesting for me. All the professors agreed to supervise me after meeting me for an interview and after deciding a research topic. I have already applied to all 3 of them and I am waiting to know anything about the funding. I did not want to take the risk of getting no scolarship for the position and missing the deadlines for others possibilities (which would then force me to wait up to one full year, which is really not a good option). Now I may win more than one scolarship, so: How can I decline the other two offers? I wasted their time and possibly affected their chance to accept other PhD students. I don't want to sound rude, but the PhD it's a very important choice in my life. I know they invested some time in me and my application. From the way the talked to me, it looked like they did not consider the idea of me applying to other Universities (some of them even introduced me to the research group). I feel incredibly embarassed to be honest.<issue_comment>username_1: I wouldn't say you 'wasted' their time. All supervisors are well aware that most applicants apply to more than one institution at a time; wisely so, especially that PhD admissions for good universities are highly competitive, and one shouldn't risk their chances applying only for one place. Unless you made a promise or commitments to be working with them, you've been an applicant and have acted as such. As an applicant you have the option to decline an offer, so this is totally normal. Therefore, you can contact the other supervisors; the sooner the better so that they can consider their other options too. You can thank them for their time and the interest they had in you, and explain your situation like you did here. They will likely understand the situation (TBH this should be happening a lot for them). Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: It sounds like you do not yet know what kind of funding will be available at the three institutions to which you applied. If that is a defining factor in whether you accept, I would wait until you have the final offers in hand, make your decision, and then politely decline any alternative offers. As @username_1 said, this may be disappointing to the other supervisors, but not at all unexpected or unusual. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: I applied to 8 PhD programs and went to 5 different interviews. I was eventually admitted to 4 programs, and had to notify the rest that I would not be attending their program. Professors do expect you to consider other choices, so do not be embarrassed. Letting them know about the decision is the best thing you can do. I am posting one of the letters I sent in case that helps: > > Hello XXX, > > > I am writing to let you know that I have accepted the offer of > admission from Uni X. It was a difficult choice, and I will miss the > atmosphere and opportunities at Uni Y, but I hope that we will be able > to stay in touch. I really enjoyed meeting you and your lab members and look > forward to learning about your future work! > > > Best, username_3 > > > In my case, I also sent similar (but shorter) letters to other interviewers I had, since they also invested their time and effort into considering my application. Bottom line: there is nothing wrong with declining an offer, but do notify your prospective advisors and do it politely! Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: I am very grateful for the offer but I have decided to proceed with a different one. I wish you the very best for the future, Yours, See- short and sweet. They are busy people and at this point they only need one bit of information from you. They have invested a lot of time already, as you say, they do not wish to spend anymore time beyond the point where you become a no-go. Upvotes: 0
2017/10/18	711	3,165	<issue_start>username_0: I'm currently interning for a small R&D company. The boss is notoriously tight fisted and prone to cutting corners to save any amount of money he can. In the past, he has attempted to use my student status to get free or discounted software for company use to avoid paying licensing fees. (To clarify, software purchased using my status as a student but not to be used by me but by other individuals in the company) He recently found out I get institutionally provided access to various journals and has started requesting I provide him with pdf or printed copies of papers so he can avoid paying for them. Is this ethical? Legal?<issue_comment>username_1: It is unlikely that your use of this journal subscription would fall within the terms-of-usage agreed by the university with the journal providers, and agreed by you (as a student) with the university. You should enquire further into the particular terms of access for these resources, but I would imagine that they would be restricted to use for educational and research purposes within the scope of your position as a student at the university. Either of these practices could potentially get you into trouble, though the use of software beyond the terms of the licence is probably more fraught with danger. Downloading journal articles for work purposes is not that uncommon in fields employing academics and students, though it is probably not legal. While some forbearance might be given for small infractions, certainly it is unethical to agree to access a resource from the university for the purposes of your education, and then to use that resource systematically to advantage a commercial business that is unwilling to pay for the service. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Based on the title of this question, of course not. It's violating terms of service not just unethical. Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_3: As to downloading articles, it's not ethical in one sense. However, many research articles are funded by public dollars. Is it ethical that they wind up behind paywalls? Institutional access to journals costs a lot of money. Yes, the publishers are providing a service by disseminating the material, and yes, that deserves remuneration. However, once again - most research has some public funding behind it. In my view, depending on the context, asking a student intern to download a few articles is not necessarily unethical. If unethical, it's not necessarily the sort of thing that you want to call the cops for. Asking an intern to buy student software for the rest of the company is definitely not ethical. That plus the OP's tone makes me think there is more stuff going on that he or she is not saying. In ethics, your gut does have to play some role in making your decision. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: Why are you asking whether this is unethical? That's something for you to decide. Possible points to consider: is the paywall system underlying most academic journals ethical in and of itself? Is being "unethical" towards something which is unethical actually something that is really unethical? Is it legal? No. Upvotes: -1
2017/10/19	1,487	6,048	<issue_start>username_0: When entering my MS I had an advisor assigned to me because I didn't finish undergrad in the university I'm now in. I want to research graph theory but my advisor researches in computational geometry, and every problem I proposed to him he dismissed as being too difficult (without really explaining why) and proposed an optimization problem with metaheuristics instead. As I'm approaching the end of the first semester now, I need to have an advisor confirmed and a topic semi-defined, so I half-heartedly accepted one of the problems he proposed just to get on with it. Now it is about 3 days later and I'm already regretting the decision I made: I'm 22 years old and really like researching, but the thought of dedicating 2 years of my life on something I'm "meh" about does not make me happy. I think it is clear my advisor isn't going to open his mind to new ideas but is it too late to switch advisors? Since dropping out is not an option, as I moved from a different city and just settled in here, what should I do about it? Should I give up convincing him and try to find a new advisor in a month? Is it "normal" for people to take a research topic they don't really like for a masters program? Edit: I realised I made a bad choice of word that made me seem like I am mad or demanding something from my advisor. I edited my question.<issue_comment>username_1: You're not going to change your advisor's mind and giving him an ultimatum is needless bridge-burning. Since he was assigned to you, it's probably not going to be that much of a surprise to him if you switch to someone else whose interests are better aligned with yours. It's a little surprising he hasn't suggested it already. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: This sounds like you are mad at your supervisor, however, keep in mind that researchers are often very specialized in a particular field, and would have difficulties supervising a project in a different field, or using a method they are not familiar with. THerefore, if you want to do a particular project/work in a particular field/with a particular method, it's up to YOU to find a supervisor that has the matching expertise. Otherwise, you may indeed do what your supervisor suggests you. Where I work, students have the opportunity to choose their own supervisor that matches their interests. If they don't, they will get assigned to someone. In that case, the students are warned that they may have to do a project that is suggested by the supervisor. Sounds like it is the same at your place. And in that case, it is normal to do something that you don't really like. Let me tell you, it's better to work at something you do like. Therefore, get out and find a supervisor that works in your field/method. And don't blame the supervisor for having his own interests. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: > > I think it is clear my advisor isn't going to open his mind to new > ideas... > > > That's because you're asking him to be a different person. > > but is it too late to switch advisors? > > > This is a determination you have to make for yourself, because it may very well involve more time. > > Should I give him an ultimatum and try to find a new advisor in a > month? > > > An ultimatum is a bad idea - you're calling your advisor's bluff with no reason to believe they'll change, no incentive to make them do so, and no alternative options on deck. At best you're likely to get a 'no'. At worst you're talking about severely burning some bridges. Instead, you should start talking to graph theorists about your interests, find out if they are too hard, and if not, if one of them is interested in advising you. Then talk to your advisor, tell them that your research interests are changing and you're switching advisors. > > Is it "normal" for people to take a research topic they don't really > like for a masters program? > > > Normal would involve statistics, but I'll tell you that I wasn't passionately interested in what I was researching for my MS. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: I noticed from your profile that you are located in Brazil, and I will answer assuming that you attend an university there. First, you should consider that your advisor does not know you. You mention that you come from a different university, and given your situation your advisor may have no way to gauge your abilities. Even if he or she is interested in the topic, and/or could advise you on it, it's possible that he or she may not know whether you are capable of solving the problem you are proposing, given that your record is unknown. Second, Master programs are short, and in particular in Brazil they are usually composed of 1 year of courses + 1 year of research/thesis writing. That leaves very little room for error. Your advisor is probably a lot more comfortable suggesting a problem that he or she knows how to solve and that he or she knows that can be solved in a short time span. Taking longer than 2 years to graduate is usually not well seen by the program administrators, given that it impacts them negatively with respect to CAPES evaluations. Furthermore, unless you have already qualified your thesis proposal, it is very likely that you can still very easily change advisors, particularly if you are still taking courses (well, that's not the case if you are getting paid by the professor's grant and/or scholarships on his or her control, but still, you could try to find someone else). Giving a professor an "ultimatum" will be seen as a preposterous action and is deleterious to your situation (people talk, you know). It is ultimately you who depend on him/her, not the other way around. Additionally, it might just as well be that your professor is not interested in your suggestion. There is nothing you can do about that, and it would be extremely naive to think there is. Why would he/she spent two years of his/her life advising someone they don't know on something they are "meh" about? Upvotes: 2
2017/10/19	1,348	5,219	<issue_start>username_0: [<NAME>'s Why The Professor Can't Teach](http://www.marco-learningsystems.com/pages/kline/prof/profchap2.html) mentions many problems in current mathematical education in university. The author said the [Doctor of Arts (D.A.)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_of_Arts) in Mathematics was created to solve these problems. But I noticed that there are only three universities that have this degree in the U.S. (even in the world). They are 1. Carnegie Mellon University, 2. University of Illinois at Chicago and 3. Idaho State University. I even heard an associate professor in CMU said they want to halt this degree. So my question is, has the D.A. degree in math been taken seriously?<issue_comment>username_1: A doctorate is a doctorate. But where you get it matters: Note that two of the three are highly regarded 'name' Universities. Universities prize research over teaching; DoA was devised to solve a teaching shortage that no longer exists. The ratio of people with doctorates to University positions is very high. To get a tenure track university position, you need to publish. "Math is a young man's game". If you don't publish something good before 30, you never will. That said, my friend noted that his philosophy professors at a state University were all from Harvard, and very good at teaching. His math professors were all from low-tier schools and spoke terrible English. If you take a DoA, you must learn to teach really really well. Oh, and if you are truly curious: Look up someone who has one on LinkedIn, and pay the InMail cost to contact them. Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_2: > > So my question is, has the D.A. degree in math been taken seriously? > > > How seriously the degree is taken is more likely to be influenced by which university granted it than the name of the actual degree. This is especially true for uncommon degrees like a D.A. in Math I'm going to assume you're considering a D.A. in math and are asking to find programs you'd be interested in. I would not put very much stock in the name of the degree for the following reasons 1) The name and the umbrella college each school inhabits in a university is usually influenced by politics. The likely scenario is when the school was created, there was some in-fighting to get the shiny new building and the new resources that school would bring. For some reason, it ended up in the Arts department. For example, the [MIT Media Lab](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIT_Media_Lab) is part of the Department of Architecture, even though it has little if anything to do with it. 2) Even if the program was inspired by this book, the founding professors have likely retired or are near retirement due to age. It's a pretty old book, and the idea hasn't seemed to gain much traction. Even if the programs were originally designed to focus on teaching, new faculty have likely been hired and put their spin on it. I highly doubt any program at a university shares that much with it's 40 (or more) year old counterpart. 3) Some professors research effective teaching methods in their own departments whatever the degree is called Schools such as [Rose-Hulman](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rose-Hulman_Institute_of_Technology) are almost completely teaching focused and award tenure based on excellence in teaching. Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: If the NSF (National Science Foundation) doesn't recognize a degree as a [Research Doctorate](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_doctoral_degrees_in_the_US), for whatever reason, the holder's opportunities will be limited. For example, most colleges and universities in the US expect faculty to do at least some research at some level. The required quality varies widely. Tenure in the US is determined by faculty committees. If one or more members of your committee doesn't accept the quality of your degree for whatever reason you will fare poorly in attaining tenure. Finally, when you apply for grants you are expected to list your "highest" degree. If a "doctorate" isn't recognized as a Research Degree by NSF, you might need to list an MS as your highest degree. This can be devastating if you don't expect it. For the D.A. degree, NSF recognition as a Research Doctorate ended in 2003. Note that the above is directed to anyone who would want to pursue this degree now or in the future. Consider the above issues. However, it says nothing about the quality of the people holding the degree. Many were unfairly left stranded, unfortunately, by NSFs change of designation. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: Contrary to an earlier post, the DA is considered an equivalent degree to the PhD in the USA. It is also recognized by the National Science Foundation as a legit doctorate degree. The reason DA degrees are poorly understood is because there are only a small handful awarded each year in the USA. The degree was much more common in the 70s, 80s, and 90s. If you are aiming to teach in a college you will have no issues with a DA (in fact, the degree was designed for this purpose). If you want to teach in a research university you'd be better off with a PhD. Upvotes: 0
2017/10/19	2,928	12,274	<issue_start>username_0: This question geared towards STEM but can definitely be expanded for courses in the arts as well. Imagine the following scenarios: * A student has taken a course, but passed the course with barely a 60 over the 50 percent required to pass the course. * A student has taken and passed a course with a project component, but found that it would be beneficial to explore other topics if given another opportunity, in particular, using the expertise of the instructor and the resources provided in the course. * A student has taken and passed a course, but due to family issues/illness/personal issues/financial issues/job/internship, etc. the student takes a break of one or two years; when the student returns to school, he or she would like to take the course again as a refresher. * A student has taken and passed a course, however due to change of instructor, textbook, and other circumstances the course material was presented in radically different way, the student feels that the material presented has been inadequate or non-standard and would like to take the course again. In each of these cases, from a student's perspective, I do not see why it makes pedagogical sense to prevent the student from taking the course again. The student could improve over his or her previous poor performance, explore alternative topics in a guided way, refresh his or her knowledge or be taught the material in a different way, perhaps by a more experienced instructor. However, I suspect that most schools do not allow students to retake courses they have already passed, no matter how poorly the student performed, or how long ago the course was taken, etc. > > My question is: what would be a sound reason for this? > > > From the school's perspective, one reason may be that the student would be at an unfair advantage over the other students. This reasoning however, assumes that there was some measure of fairness to begin with. It is difficult to claim this given the vastly different backgrounds the students have prior to enrolling in a particular course. Even then, the transcript would quickly reveal to a potential employer or an potential supervisor that a course was taken twice or several times. It can probably be said that a course that is passed with a high score/mark the first time is better than a repeated course. --- Added: Since the most common response to my question is: "But I was able to retake courses", please read some of the different policies for various schools and related discussions: <http://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/aacc/academic-advising-faq>, <https://graduatecollegebulletin.ouhsc.edu/hbSections.aspx?ID=586>, <https://orapps.berkeley.edu/Registrar/courserep.html>, <http://artsandscience.usask.ca/undergraduate/handouts/RetakingCourses.pdf> <https://www.revscene.net/forums/572588-question-about-retaking-courses-limit-etc-ubc-sfu.html>, <http://calendar.ualberta.ca/content.php?catoid=6&navoid=857><issue_comment>username_1: I don't think that students should be allowed to retake courses to get better grades. This motivates a lazy attitude from the start, saying "well, doesn't matter, I can simply retake it". However, students are supposed to do their best. Apart from that, I see two points that might exclude someone from retaking a course: 1. Spaces available. If the course is full, priority should be given to students taking it for the first time. 2. Money available. Depending on the system in your university, you (or the government, your scholarship, etc.) either pay for each course or just a general fee. In the later case, the university would run into financial problems if too many students retook the course, as the available money (for TAs, material, etc.) is calculated with the number of people taking the course for the first time in mind. However, I can understand why you would like to retake some courses and I think it is possible, as long as you pay attention to these two points. Discuss it with the professor in charge, point out that (if necessary), you will not participate in the final exam or not hand in homework, as to not take time from the TAs. From my experience, most professors don't mind if you just sit in the lecture and pay attention, as long as you don't cause more work and as long as spaces are available. But that depends on the professor and on the university in question, so you should ask directly. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: In the United States, institutions that have such a rule do so primarily because of the requirement of satisfactory academic progress, or SAP, that is imposed by some, perhaps many, forms of financial aid. "Progress" means accruing the credit hours necessary to earn one's degree, and students who repeat courses for which they've already earned a satisfactory grade are not progressing (as fast) toward graduation. Students who do that more than a couple of times may have a high GPA, but unsatisfactory academic progress, and may lose their financial aid. Edited to add: Sadly, and to me astonishingly and dismayingly, the subtleties of how financial aid works seem to escape many students. They overlook the SAP requirement entirely or decide they will somehow "catch up later." In the United States, it is difficult or impossible to have different rules for similar groups of people, so we generally can't have one rule for students with financial aid and another for those without. The result is that, even if it makes no difference to your financial situation, in many institutions you can't repeat a class in which you've earned a satisfactory grade. Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: Not being able to repeat an exam if it was already passed can lead to the situation that a student is better off failing a test than passing it with the minimum passing grade. In Germany I witnessed it several times that students tactically approached this issue. I saw students erasing or destroying their exam papers 10 minutes before the end to avoid passing. I also saw students walk out of oral exams because they judged their answers to be not good enough. I think the main reason for this kind of policy is that you are obliged to allow students to retake failed exams and not obliged to allow students to retake passed exams. Therefore, most universities try to avoid the extra work that is caused by students sitting the same exam twice or even more often (there are exceptions, though, but at the one university where exams could be repeated as often as the student wants, a lot of lecturers complained about the workload). Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: Summary: this rule is about efficient allocation of resources. In an ideal world, people would study whatever subjects they felt were useful or enjoyable for them to study, however many times and for as long as it took them to satisfy their curiosity and reach a level of mastery of the subject that they are happy with. Sadly, we do not live in an ideal world. Two specific ways in which our world is not ideal are: 1. In our world, education is a scarce, and very expensive, resource. At any university, there is only a finite number of classes that can be offered to a finite number of students, and the demand quite frequently exceeds the supply. This creates a pressure to strive for efficiency in various ways, and in particular to impose mechanisms that avoid a (relative) waste by teaching people things that they already know. 2. In our world, education, and grades in particular, have very significant consequences for people’s future, greatly affecting one’s chances of getting a scholarship that enables them to stay in school, getting a good job, making money, and ultimately, having a good life. In some countries (the U.S. among them, in my opinion), this creates a very intense level of competition over what is already a scarce resource, and results in highly distorted incentives that cause students’ decisions regarding topics to study and how many times to study them to be motivated by highly non-ideal considerations having nothing to do with intellectual curiosity: e.g., it is very common to see students taking specific courses, or taking courses with a specific professor, or wanting to retake a course they did poorly in the first time, for a good grade. This exacerbates the scarcity problem I described above and results in even more waste and an even higher pressure to impose efficiency mechanisms. The policy of preventing students from retaking courses they already passed is one obvious answer to these problems. I agree with your analysis and with the conclusion that it is not an ideal rule, since there are situations when a student might genuinely be interested in learning a topic better by retaking a course; but in a world with a finite amount of resources in which a student taking a course affects other students’ ability to take other courses, the rule makes some sense and does not sound so unreasonable in my opinion. Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_5: At my university, students are allowed to retake a class (there might be a limit on the number of times, though). One reason why this is allowed is that some programs have a required grade on a prerequisite, so a student may have passed the class but not be able to use it for his program. Another reason is that a student may be on probation for not having the required GPA, and getting a higher grade by re-taking a class may help them get out of the hole. To avoid abuse, they are not permitted to retake a class once they have taken the "next one" in the program (i.e., you cannot retake Calculus I after you passed Calculus II). Also, only the last grade stands: I've seen students re-take a class and get a failing grade, and they were forced to take the class yet again. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_6: In my College (Engineering) after you get graded you have a 20 days timeframe to sign the vote or refuse it. If you refuse it, you can take the course/exam again. I once asked, out of curiosity, why this and the rationale provided was: "now that you are a senior wouldn't you love to go back and take again programming 101 just to get an easy A+?" In the "neighboring college" (Economics) they are even stricter, if you take an exam and pass it there is no refusal, that is your mark, period. The reasoning there is "get used to the world of finace, here too many things must be perfect at first take..." Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_7: In my college (I was a professor) a student can retake a course for a better grade, they would have to pay tuition, but they can only receive hours credit for it ONE TIME. The second time around, it will not count toward being a full-time student (which demands completing 12 academic hours in Fall and Spring semesters, less in summer sessions). Some scholarships, student loans and even paid internships require students to maintain full time status, so they would have to retake the course in addition to a full time load. Also some forms of educational financing may ONLY pay tuition for classes that earn academic hours, so they might have to pay the course tuition out of their own pocket. On the other hand if they formally quit, withdrew, dropped or flunked, then they did NOT earn any academic hours, and taking it again would earn them academic hours, so their financing would likely pay for a retake. Anyway, it is not prohibited in my college (American state college), selling seats in classrooms is the business we are in. We don't want students gaming the system to inflate their GPA or defraud their educational financing institution, that would deflate our reputation as a good school and perhaps lower our desirability to potential students and their parents. Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_8: I know someone who took a specific course again to get a better grade. Sometimes it is allowed, usually the average of the two grades would show on the GPA, but that is institution-dependent. Of course, sometimes one can audit a course. We had a course number that had rotating sequences of different topics, so of course, that was repeatable (but possibly confusing to people reading transcripts). Upvotes: 0
2017/10/19	909	4,241	<issue_start>username_0: I have to give a presentation about progress in my PhD after the first six months. I am not sure what is expected from a PhD student at this stage. I have done mostly literature review and a few initial experiments with the existing technology. I am planning to divide the presentation into different sections such as background/importance of the research work, problem that needs to be addressed and possible approaches. It would be nice to get some ideas about such presentations.<issue_comment>username_1: Sounds good. I don't think that people expect you to already have lots of results after 6 months; if you have ideas what to look into and why that is important and interesting, that is not bad at all. Apart from that, this is a good question to ask your advisor, he/she knows the rules and regulations at your university better than random people on the Internet. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: Generally speaking, what your supervisors want to see is that you are not completely lost, but instead have understood the problem and know where you are going. So my suggestion is to show them exactly that and convince them that you are on the right path. From what you are writing, it sounds like you are doing good progress. Understanding the problem is usually the first big hurdle with PhD research. The second is defining one or more research objectives that are achievable with the resources and time you have available during your PhD. You say you have already reviewed existing literature and started running experiments, so that should have given you a sufficient understanding of the current state of the art in your research field. What I suggest you do now is to try and define realistic research objectives that you believe you can achieve within the time at your disposal. The layout you suggested sounds good to me. Include: 1. introduction with description of the problem you are trying to solve 2. previous research and existing solutions to the problem 3. description of the experiments you have run and presentation of your preliminary results 4. plan of research and the next steps you will take Obviously, first consult any specific guidelines your faculty / department / research group might have regarding the preparation for this review presentation. Good luck! Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: Having recently gone through a 9 month review for my part-time PhD (so really 4.5 months in) I can give you an idea as to the approximate sections I had. It depends on what format your institution decides to use, and you'll have to look that up for yourself. Mine was a relatively formal presentation to my supervisors and an independent Chairperson who wasn't necessarily aware of my work (but is constant throughout the PhD process). I discussed the following topics: * Introduction to the problem space. * Ideas about specific research questions (may not yet be defined). * The beginnings of a literature review: notable results, papers, or individuals. * Preliminary research: any results, simulations, theory, or suitable work that you may already be putting in (field dependent). * Proposed future work that will help either answer the proposed research questions or else guide their formation. * A "Project Management" perspective: plans for completion, awareness of deadlines, risks to completion. The last of these was something that was regarded as high priority. In my opinion the key things at this stage would be to show that you a) are making solid progress and b) there aren't any major barriers to your completion. No one is expecting you to go in to this presentation as a world-leading authority in your field after 6 months. As I'm not a PhD reviewer there may be other criteria, this was what I was advised to focus on. As said elsewhere though, there should be guidelines at your University or else ask other students or your supervisor about typical content. Depending on who is present remember to pitch your content appropriately. Your direct supervisor(s) will be relatively familiar with your work however if there are outside assessors they may not be aware of your work or even particularly knowledgeable about the problem. Upvotes: 2
2017/10/19	344	1,485	<issue_start>username_0: When a candidate is applying for a faculty position and the university asks for their reference letters, does this say anything about the chance of getting an interview? Obviously it's not a bad thing. But have they made the short list? Does this mean the application wasn't desk rejected (but nothing more)? Are they in the top 25%? 50%? Something else? This is a social sciences department in the United States.<issue_comment>username_1: It doesn't necessarily mean anything. Some schools routinely request letters of reference for all of their applicants; some schools only request them after an initial level of screening. Others (in Central Europe) may not request the letters from the recommended reviewers at all, but instead recruit a panel of "eminent" researchers in the field to submit comparative letters based on the proposed finalists' applications. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: An assumption to my answer: That a school is exercising the (imo correct) decision to only ask for references from a limited part of the pool to save everyone time. It says something but not very much. I've been on several committees where letters are only requested from a limited subset of candidates, but that subset is fairly broad. It's not necessarily just the short-list, because letters factor heavily on who makes the short list. Mainly, it says you have a chance, instead of no chance, but no more than that. Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]
2017/10/19	4,526	18,071	<issue_start>username_0: Today we (professors + teaching assistants) proctored a midterm exam for a class of about 80 students. There was undoubtedly a "hardest" question on the exam, since nearly the entire classroom of students asked us how to proceed with that question. To be fair, we didn't give any hints, but it was clear that one had to use a definition to be able to proceed. When we collected the exams, all of the exam booklets had that question unanswered -- except for one student's exam. And this was the only student who asked to go to the bathroom. I gave him permission to go, but I did not ask for his phone, which I now highly regret. What can we do in this situation, in which I strongly suspect that this student went to the bathroom to look up a definition on his phone, so that he could answer the question correctly? We still have to look at every exam to be sure that only one student got it right (the bathroom student), but if this were indeed the case, do we have any power to accuse him of cheating, or, have we missed our chance by not asking for him to leave his phone in the room? I feel a big injustice will have been done to the rest of the honest students, if we let this one slide ...<issue_comment>username_1: I apologize in advance for my frankness. > > What can we do in this situation, in which I strongly suspect that this student went to the bathroom to look up a definition on his phone, so that he could answer the question correctly? > > > Nothing. > > have we missed our chance by not asking for him to leave his phone in the room? > > > You missed it, but it doesn't really matter: the student might have had a mate with a phone in the bathroom. Or not. The student might even have known the answer. > > I feel a big injustice will have been done to the rest of the honest students, if we let this one slide > > > In your career you quite probably have already let others slide. I wrote in [this answer](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/45128/20058) that, on the basis of my (now sufficiently long) experience, if a student wants to cheat, they will. Therefore, one has to accept that, from time to time, a student cheats, and one doesn't notice or is not able to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the student cheated (and you don't want to accuse someone of cheating if you're not able to prove it, right?). So, move on. NB: As some have remarked in various comments, the fact that almost all students were unable to answer that question can be a major issue. In this answer, I specifically wanted to address the cheating part only, because I think that this other issue is a totally different matter, which can be also culture-dependent, and which is probably worth of a different (interesting) question. Upvotes: 8 <issue_comment>username_2: Call him in. Ask him how he solved it. Don't imply that he cheated. Just ask how he solved it with genuine curiosity and interest. If he asks why you're asking, tell him he was the only student in the entire class who solved it and you'd love to get an insight into his problem solving process. Either you have a genuine genius on your hands or you have a cheater. Don't do anything yourself to imply the latter possibility. If he really IS a genius, you will be glad you had this interview with him and can now give him the scholastic accolades he deserves! Rather than going on falsely believing he is a cheater. If, as you suspect, he was cheating, he may "fess up" to it. Or he may not. But if he can't explain the answer or how he arrived at it in any way, shape, or form, you will know he was cheating. And he will know that you know. And that may be enough to change his behavior for the better in the future. --- If it turns out he was cheating (either by his admission or by his total failure to be able to explain anything about the answer), the lightest thing you could do would be to not give him credit for that question. So then no one gets credit for it, since no one else answered it. Or, as others have said, you might just let it slide as far as grading is concerned. But having the above interview gives you the chance to (a) discover a possible genius or (b) put a little bit of discipline on the student so he's aware he didn't "get away clean" and will be less likely to cheat again. The very least it will do, if he cheated, is to make him sweat. Upvotes: 8 <issue_comment>username_3: Not exactly an answer, but perhaps some perspective: a long time ago, I went to one of the U.S. service academies (Army, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard, nevermind which) and, like all incoming people, was subjected to an extensive battery of placement tests, some generating college credit, and so on. Far more systematic than most U.S. colleges and universities even today. Having been an avid student of mathematics for some years prior, I had indeed read a lot, and in particular had known how to do calculus (which was the basic entry-level topic in mathematics) for some years prior. While doing generally well on the other exams, apparently I only mis-answered a single question of 100's on the calculus exam. Since even competent people rarely do that well, and since I did not have high school calculus on my record, this was suspicious. (Let me remark that, yes, I did in fact know how to do calculus pretty well, and, yes, I also knew how to "game" multiple-choice questions. And I guess I had a good day, too.) A point is that at the U.S. service academies, any lying or cheating or anything-at-all is a dismissable offense. So, given the suspicious nature of the situation, I was called before an "officers board" to account for the situation (since there was certainly no overt evidence of cheating). Being a naive, scared kid standing at attention in front of officers, to the question "how do you account for this?" my initial response was "Sir! I read a lot of books! Sir!" (That was the required style of address...) (This got a laugh, which did not calm me, by any means, because at the time I didn't know how to interpret it.) The wrap-up was that I was not punished or dismissed from the place... So: in your situation, you'd definitely need to interview the student before thinking in terms of accusations. Some people are not typical, even though, yes, statistically they are. Also, the whole "deny bathroom break" thing is silly, and insisting on "accompanied breaks" is silly/rude, and so on. The complications to "testing" are not solvable by outlawing bathroom breaks. Nor by outlawing phones, because dedicated cheaters can get much smaller devices... "Catching and punishing cheaters" is obviously not the primary goal of education of any sort, so we don't want to let that goal corrupt the rest of it. Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_4: If you think that you failed to teach the class sufficiently enough for any your students to be able to answer the question on an exam you gave them, then the things that are unfair are these, and a few others: 1. You put questions in the exam that you did not teach them adequately 2. You assume that your student cheated The exam and its results have no value in the real world. The knowledge gained from a well-taught class has value. The skills learned while studying subjects has value. Do a much better job teaching the subjects. Do a much better job building exams that test the students on only the material that you sufficiently taught them. Grade your teaching skills on the results of the student's ability to answer the questions. If you had the only student who realized that it was completely unfair of you to have put a question that you as the teacher thought not one student should have been able to answer, and that student decided to make it fair, by looking up the answer themselves, then that student deserves extra credit. You are not the only teacher who has their perspective on what matters wrong. Praise the student for being the only one to get it right, and ask them about how they got the answer. Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_5: If you can't prove that a student cheated, you can't prosecute or penalize them. Bear in mind cheating is a very serious charge, and can ruin a student's academic career. Don't throw this charge around lightly. If you're the teacher, and if your test isn't well-written enough to be able to discern if someone knows the material (v.s. googling the topic in the bathroom for 5m), your test-making skills could stand some improvement. In other words, rethink your student evaluation process if it can be defeated by a cursory google search, or a 'cheat-sheet'. Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_6: Disclaimer: I have never to date taught a class and never compiled, overseen or marked an exam. As much as I believe cheating or attempting to cheat is a bad attitude and as much as I want cheaters to be punished accordingly, I also believe that proving cheating must come down to hard evidence. Hard evidence meaning enough evidence that you would win a criminal case in court if it were taken there. One key principle is in dubio pro reo and this applies here: you do not have proof, you only have a hunch. Unless you manage to find actual, factual evidence do not accuse this student of cheating and do not adjust only their mark in a way that suggests cheating. --- I for my part know that I sometimes remember the weirdest details while missing out on often-repeated details. So I might well have performed poorly or averagely in that exam because of not knowing general stuff — but by chance I may remember exactly that definition almost word for word (or symbol for symbol if this is a mathematics exam) and be able to answer that question. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_7: Just remove that question from the paper - on the grounds that so few managed it or the material had not covered that sufficiently... Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_8: * First, a bit of (my) perspective: Don't overestimate the significance of grading people, in general. As a researcher I have not found that much use for the exam grades of undergrad/grad students I encounter. It's basically something the capitalist economy needs, or thinks it needs, for employee selection. This, as opposed to giving students feedback on their answers - what they got right or wrong and where their mistakes seems to stem from; doing that is super-important. So the fact that the bathroom-student's grade may be wrong, in itself, would not seem to me like the sky is falling. * On the other hand, fairness is a big deal in my book. Thus the prospect of someone having gotten phone help on a hard question and "sticking it" to his/her fellow students would bother me. However * Either the question you gave was solvable - in which case you have no basis for suspicion - or it was objectively practically-unsolvable, in which case I don't believe you even have a moral leg to stand on for accusing the student of misconduct. To quote the line from the biblical Samson: "If you had not plowed with my heifer, you would not have solved my riddle" - if it were a question which half the class answers, you never would have been suspicious of the "bathroom student". * You should adopt the [proposal of @SolarMike](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/97646/7319) and just cancel the question, so that the grade is based on all of the other questions and this one doesn't count. If that student complains, you can figure out whether he actually understands the material well enough to have solved the question him/herself... also, +1 @SolarMike's answer. * Next time, Have the least experienced TA in the course, who had not seen the exam in advance, sit down and solve it - before administering the exam to the students. That will save you a lot of grief if you can manage it. * The greater injustice in this case is you guys either writing an inappropriate exam question or failing to educate your class to answer a question on an appropriate exam. Try focusin on bettering yourselves rather than on punishing the misdeeds of others. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_9: Once, a long time ago, in an elementary school in which I went, we had an exam (I do not know the English word for an exam in elementary school, it could be a word "test", but I am not sure) in physics, and, as far as I can remember, I was the only pupil that solved the hardest question on the hardest version of a test (I think there was some classification of tests, depending on maximum grade that can be obtained, one class of tests had some maximum grade, another class another one and so on, maybe there were only two classes of tests). Also, it seems to me now that only I solved that question not as only in my class but as only in the school, because there were some pupils that approached me like : "How were you able to do that? No one did it." Well, I answered the hardest question on the hardest of exams (tests) because I remembered some scene from a movie I watched, where an actor while being in wilderness and trying to do everything he can so as to save his life, did exactly what was the answer to the question of mine. There was almost no way to answer that question by only going through what was given to us from our teacher before. I did not mention some also important facts here, but it could be the case that bathroom student solved the question without any cheating, if I were you, I would talk to him and explain to him the whole thing, I would tell him that if he cheated in any way that he should admit that so that he and you feel better, and if he cheated and is able to admit it, I would not tell to other students that he cheated, and would not view him because of that as more bad than some others, if he really cheated and is able to admit that then he only needs a good talk and a clarification of what exactly did he do. I wouldn´t also, if he cheated, accuse him or un-reward him, or take some of his points from the exam, I would just explain to him that what he did is not right, and that´s all. Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_10: If the question was really too difficult for 79/80 students to attempt, you should consider not punishing them for missing the answer. Note that this is not because 1 student did answer it, but despite that one student did answer it. --- Practically the implementation may be the same (e.g. everyone gets full/partial score for the question), but because this is about ethics it is important that you only do this if it is not to punish the 1, but because you want to be fair and the question was too difficult. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_11: If the method offered by [username_2](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/97598/78358) doesn't help you determine whether the student cheated or not, your best bet is to either let it go, or find a way to adjust how you weigh the entire test in the final grade. You may consider dropping each student's lowest test score (for example). You can even drop each lowest-scored question on this particular test (assuming all questions have the same point values). However, (since you are troubled enough to ask for help here) I assume you understand that you cannot accuse a student whom you suspect if you don't have the proof to justify the accusation. Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_12: I pretty much agree with username_1's answer, but there might be one thing you can do. Run a search on the web with some sentences of the suspicious answer. If the student copied verbatim some text available on the net (something more extensive than a single generic sentence), then while you won't be able to prove he or she cheated, you will be able to prove plagiarism. That may, or may not be useful. I had a similar problem once in a course preparing to a national competition. At one test that was taken from a former competition sheet, three papers where copied extensively from a correction of that test available on line. The students argued they learned the solutions by heart to several of these competition sheets, which might be true (I don't know if it would makes me more sad if that where true, or if they had cheated with phones and lied to our faces). I tried to make them understand that plagiarism was a serious offense even without cheating involved, but we did not proceeded with the disciplinary board. That test was not used for grading the course at all, and I explained why to all students (without giving names) -- this was possible because we train student with numerous such tests. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_13: > > What can we do in this situation, in which I strongly suspect that this student went to the bathroom to look up a definition on his phone, so that he could answer the question correctly? > > > You can examine your suspicions: 1. Is the student’s conduct suspicious? What conduct? At worst, the student went to the bathroom, with permission, without surrendering a posession that they weren’t asked to surrender. Not suspicious. At best, they didn’t have a phone to begin with. 2. Is the student’s answer suspicious? No, based on this question. Now you say that it’s suspicious because the student was the only one to answer it. But you must have expected that someone would be able to answer it, or you wouldn’t have included it, right? And since you are a competent teacher, it had might as well be one of your students, right? So the answer is: Unless you can come up with some better evidence, do nothing. (Or, if your university has an integrity board, let them handle it. In that case, you shouldn’t even be here asking about it.) Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_14: I am puzzled by the fact that this "hardest question" could hinge on just knowing "a definition." A pragmatic approach would be to exclude this question from the exam, on the grounds that with 79 out of 80 miss rate it was clearly inappropriate given the reasons we organise these exams, and rescale the remaining questions. Upvotes: 0
2017/10/19	1,410	6,231	<issue_start>username_0: Last year I completed an exam at University and a friend is doing the same exam/class this year. Would it be cheating if I gave her my revision notes of the semester (written before I did the exam)? They don't have any exam-related answers, just summarized lecture notes. I read that it is cheating if a student has an unfair advantage over other students. I don't want to get her or myself in trouble. Thank you.<issue_comment>username_1: No, it is not cheating. * It's also not cheating for them to go to the library and find a particularly well written textbook that no-one else had. * It's not cheating for them to hire a tutor. * It's not cheating to share your revision notes with other students before your exam. * It's not cheating to do a unit completely including exam, then repeat it in the next year to get a better mark (In fact, this is normal if you fail) Most would say not even cheating (or facilitating) to tell them about the exam in your year. E.g. along the lines of "I focused my study too much on the topology part of the unit, but there was only 1 topology question in the exam. But I don't know how it will be this year." Some would even argue that its not cheating to share with a past student a copy of last years exam, with fully worked solutions. On the basis that the instructor is not going to use the same exam twice. This is a bit more dubious though. At the end of the day, the purpose of the exam is to test how well they know the content. So the context of an unfair advantage is one that lets them do well in the exam, without learning the content. No one cares how they learned the content. They might have gone to lectures, read the textbook, watched youtube lectures from other universities, read notes from a friend, or even have been working in the field for decades and just be attending the exam to get the paper to prove it. No one is assessing an unfair advantage at learning as cheating. Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: I don't have enough reputation here to leave comments, so I'll have to leave them as part of an answer, but I would note, from my own academic integrity research, that the answer isn't always clear cut. On the face of it, passing notes to another student sounds fine. In practice, it depends a lot on how the notes were compiled and any additional value added. As an example, there are sites that exist which reward students for uploading their lecture notes. They often breach the copyright of the original author (think of all the work the lecturer/professor went in to compile that course). Or, they breach the copyright of the university (since many universities automatically own the copyright of teaching materials produced by someone employed by that university). That would often result in an academic penalty based on breaching academic misconduct regulations. Deliberate breach of copyright could also result in a case that is taken through the legal system. Now, in practice neither of those are likely to happen, but there have been several recent cases of cheating in universities being progressed in the real world, for instance, students getting someone else to take their exam for them who have ended up with a prison term. What if the notes are edited before being shared? Well, the same copyright issues still apply. There is a point where the editing is sufficient that the notes could be considered a new piece of work, but that is a long way away. What if the notes are being shared for free between students? The same issues still apply. A lecturer is unlikely to be concerned if it's a one-off event with a good reason (a student was ill and couldn't attend, so you supply them with a copy of the lecture notes), but a systematic activity, like constructed revision notes, may be considered unacceptable. What then might be a good way to proceed? One thing you might want to do is contact the lecturer and offer the edited revision notes, to be made available to all students in the class as an additional resource. Many lecturers are very happy to supply additional material that they didn't have to compile themselves. I agree with the other comments that you can use other existing sources to supplement your knowledge, such as textbooks, MOOCs, academic papers or YouTube videos. I'd always encourage my students to do this. If nothing else, it shows a wider interest. Some students do hire outside support. Again, this is usually okay if it is just tutorial support, with the proviso that a lot of essay mills now operate in this space, with the intention of upselling towards their other cheating services. There are other obvious areas that aren't acceptable, but do happen, for instance hiring a teaching assistant who has privileged access to the course materials. Reviewing previous test and examination papers also sounds perfectly acceptable. In the UK, those are all expected to be available to students. It still amazes me when I hear about universities where they're not available. University staff themselves are expected to lead the academic integrity movement by example. That includes not allowing one student to have an unfair advantage over another student (consider the example where one group of students, such as a fraternity, has compiled a test bank which students outside that group don't have access to). By the same token, there would be an expectation that coursework questions and exam questions were not reused. Using these could be said to be encouraging students to cheat. This would be uncommon in the UK, as the culture is to write original questions and have them externally checked, but if it did happen, I'd expect it to be a disciplinary issue. Going back to the original question, if you do share your notes, I'd recommend checking that the content hasn't changed. I certainly update my materials every time I deliver a module, sometimes quite substantially where I think that I can improve the student experience (or when it's important to include an additional concept, which generally means trimming somewhere else). That's another good reason for running the notes past the lecturer to check that the information is still current. Upvotes: -1
2017/10/19	866	4,148	<issue_start>username_0: I'm working on a paper that there is no previous paper for it to distinguish. its an old tool like ant colony optimization that is used on a new approach. I have sent the paper to a journal and they have said it doesn't have a good benchmark.<issue_comment>username_1: A benchmark is a standard or reference that will allow other authors compare their algorithms with yours. If the problem is known and other papers were published to solve it, follow the lead and compare your algorithm with them using the same parameters. If there are no other paper solving the problem, look for similar problems and check how they are described by certain variables. The most basic parameter is the problem size, ie how many instances your problem has to deal with. For sorting algorithms, it is the number of items to sort. Usually, we start with quantities that could be easily handled in memory, increase to the limits of available memory, up to numbers that will need disk to store all items. The second parameter is distribution. Are all instances equally probable and distributed along the possible spectrum? For sorting algorithms, if the set of items is partially sorted or totally random will impact the performance. In my thesis, I worked with geographical objects like cities, which are concentrated in some areas that were difficult to process, and other areas totally empty that could be easily recognized and discarded as not interesting. Each problem might have multiple parameters, some are important, others are irrelevant. Your work is to identify them and choose values that are realistic and could show the strengths and weakness for different algorithms, not only yours. Another set of parameters, very common when comparing software, is related to hardware, like the number of processors, total memory, network speed, etc... Hope it helps, without reading your paper is hard to be specific. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: As others have noted, it is very difficult to know how to act or suggest when we have no idea of the full picture. However, the problem seems to lie on the fact that you are attempting to use/adapt a method to apply on a particular problem, and there doesn't seem to be a benchmark solution to the problem you are trying to solve. One way to gauge your work with respect to the literature is to also solve a well-known problem that has an established solution in addition to your problem. However, if you have already established that there is no benchmark, then there is nothing you can do about it. Perhaps one of the reasons why they (the reviewers, I assume) want a benchmark is because they want you to prove that your paper is of value. Comparing the method to a benchmark is one of the ways that can be done. For instance, value can be proved by showing that your algorithm is faster/requires less computational power/finds better local optima/etc than someone else's. However, if there is no benchmark, you may want to look for other ways of displaying the value of your paper. For instance, one way to do that is to show that the method allows you to understand certain so far unknown features of the problem (there are other methods to accomplish this goal, but that utterly depends on your problem/field/goal). However, while I don't know your field nor the people nor the problem, simply applying a different method to solve a problem that has been solved by other methods may not provide sufficient novelty to yield publication, hence why they probably want you to show value. On the other hand, maybe they want some sort of validation that your code/method is actually working properly, which is a very common supplement provided in many numerical papers. If that's what they want, you can apply your method to a different problem that has a benchmark, well-established solution, and show that you can reproduce the results. Finally, it may just well be that you are trying to publish in the wrong venue. If you are trying to publish in the "Journal of Methods that Require Comparison to Benchmark Solutions", then you are probably out of scope. Upvotes: 1
2017/10/20	230	1,049	<issue_start>username_0: I'm writing the introduction for a research proposal and am trying to express that our approach is "experimental" in the sense that it uses more exploratory and alternative methods rather than that it uses a controlled experiment. Is the phrase "experimental approach" appropriate in this context? If not, what are alternatives? (Words like "novel" and "exploratory" aren't quite right.) Which way should that phrase be interpreted in general?<issue_comment>username_1: I use the term "discovery" when I am using approaches where I don't really have a "control," but am trying to investigate phenomena to determine the underlying causes. (I use a simulation technique which is essentially "deterministic" in its results, so it's a matter of trying to find a model which explains the phenomenon in question, or determining results for a new system). So this would perhaps be an example of "experimental discovery." Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: I think the word you are looking for is empirical. Upvotes: 0
2017/10/20	911	3,975	<issue_start>username_0: I have been following 7 journals at the same time for may be about 10 years now. 4 of them are relatively unpopular and publish may be about 50 papers per year, so they are easy to follow, 1 has 100+ papers so it sometimes requires an effort to read about everything they publish but the other 2 are very popular and publish biweekly full issues with dozens of papers, so it is painful to follow them and I need to look at their webpages to see what is new almost every day. However, I'm interested in a field where I always need to look for papers outside of it and have to browse many journals irregularly to find possibly interesting information. That means I browse through dozens of journals irregularly and have to look through literally thousands of papers. And, oh God, it takes its toll. But the REAL problem is that my requirements only get broader with time, so I now can't just keep on. I think there are really too many journals and too many papers in them to browse through and I can't even manage to read through all the titles of all the papers that could potentially interest me, let alone read the abstracts. This is why I would like to try to find someone who has similar problems and ask him/her how does s/he manage to solve them, e.g. what does it take to browse the maximum number of journals possible as far as search optimization, number of journals covered and time are concerned? Is it possible to cover a wide field and follow everything it happens in it so you could be aware of the new papers published in dozens of journals or is this simply impossible? I want to know how far can I get and how much time would the effort consume, so, if you could share with me your experience I would be very thankful. Thank you very much!<issue_comment>username_1: Use a content manager and subscribe to the journals' RSS feeds. I currently follow ~30 journals and a few blogs (this number changes dynamically as I remove some journals and include others) using [feedly](https://feedly.com), which is a RSS reader that is very user-friendly and has apps for both Android and iOS. The software automatically fetches new content from the journals' latest issues and makes them available to me in real time. My daily feed is usually comprised of ~50 new papers every day. I devote 15-30 minutes of every morning to going through it--except on some weekdays when journals like Nature and Science release an entire issue. Going through the feed includes reading all titles, identifying potentially relevant papers, reading their abstract and saving them to my [Mendeley](https://www.mendeley.com) library. Some people keep track of new papers through Mendeley alone, though I prefer feedly. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Closely linked to the former comment and more an addon: If you register for email alerts, you can most often decide how often do you want to be informed (every article that goes OnlineFirst, just a weekly or monthly email alert or only the final journal issue). For my work, I differentiate between journals that are really close to my field of study and I should know immediately about any study that is published (and these are the journals in which I want to publish my work), journals that are important (often more general-interest journals), but cover such a wide range of topics that many published articles are not directly relevant to me, and thus, I just get a monthly email alert. Finally there are journals that are on the margin of my research interests (or situated in other disciplines), but I like to keep track of them. For these, I get only the TOC of each published issue. With this strategy, I can also reduce the amount of time that I devote to skim through the new email alerts. I can't really tell you the exact number of journals that are in each category, but my feeling is that the number is from the first to the last category decreasing. I hope this helps you?! Upvotes: 1
2017/10/20	7,948	34,425	<issue_start>username_0: I am a postdoc helping in the supervision of a PhD student who is finishing his 2nd year now. This is in Europe, meaning the student came in with a MSc degree and these 2 years have been of research. "Helping in the supervision" actually means here that my professor is nominally appointed as supervisor but I am doing all of the actual supervision (my professor is not familiar with the details of our project, just the "big picture"). The project is on computational physics/chemistry, and the PhD student has a background in chemistry with no prior computational knowledge. At the time of hiring we were under pressure to get the project going and complementing my physics background with someone who actually knows chemistry seemed like a good idea back then. Also the student was very motivated. I have been spending a large amount of time teaching this student lots of physics and programming/scripting, which is needed to carry out the project. I assumed I would need to spend a lot of time at the beginning because of the background mismatch, so that was no problem. I thought things would improve with time. Unfortunately, they have not. The student is terrible at any kind of programming and has a lot of trouble learning new concepts, but what worries me the most is his attitude. He basically is obsessed with getting results but is overlooking learning, in the form of reading books and papers and working hard on a problem for a period of time. If I tell him to "bang his head against the wall" for a couple of weeks trying to crack a problem before seeking advice from me (like we all have done during our PhDs), he gets frustrated after one or two days and starts sending me lots of desperate emails begging for me to intervene. This is a "gimme teh codez" kind of student, looking to avoid any problem which is of any real difficulty. I spend long meeting sessions explaining the theoretical and practical details of some approach, but he only seems interested when I write code that he can copy paste and use to get results (without even understanding the code, let alone the underlying physics). Because of this I have to do lots of debugging and finding the same little (and large) mistakes that arise now and again because the student does not understand what he's doing. I have discussed many times with him that he needs to focus on understanding theory and code, instead of just getting results. But this is to no avail. I get the impression the student wants to do a technician's job rather than a scientist's job, but still get a PhD out of it. As a result, I find myself working personally on any part of his project which has any hint of difficulty in it, spending way too many hours a week doing supervision, and getting increasingly frustrated at the lack of progress on the project. At this point, it would be fair to say that I could myself get everything he has to do (and more) done just in the time I spent meeting with him. I have brought some of these concerns up, but the student won't accept they need to adjust how they work, instead claiming the tasks are too complicated (believe me, they're not), the professor does not help enough, the project is not well organized, etc. I don't know what to do - this student is getting easily 10 times more help than I did during my PhD (and I had a good experience). To complicate things, I am just a postdoc so I have not a wide experience supervising different students that would tell me whether this case is common or isolated. Am I expecting too much from my student? Is the problem I'm having a common one? How can I improve his attitude towards learning and working? How to deal with a bad research student?<issue_comment>username_1: Since I have been that student at the beginning of my PhD, I think I can give you some perspective. I was very motivated when I started, but I didn't know anything about research, so I lost my motivation when I had to be on my own. I tried the same approach as your student with my PhD adviser, and he told me he's not going to do my work or homework because I have to be able to do everything myself. Obviously, everything I did as a PhD student, I can still do now, so it worked. But, you have to establish your boundaries. You have to set some discipline, and the first thing is to reduce the interaction with your student. Set a meeting, once a week. One day before the meeting, your student should put in writing, briefly, what progress he made, and what problems he encountered -- that should be discussed in the first half of the meeting. The rest of the meeting will be you telling him what needs to be done next. You should not talk with or help your student outside these meetings, and you should ignore those abusive "help now!!!" emails he's writing you. If your student just wants to do his job quick, as you describe, you have to realize his output won't be something you can rely on. You need to give him two types of assignments. Some imply things he already does well, so he doesn't lose completely his courage, and the others imply him learning new stuff. The latter have to be easier. You do not help him with them beyond suggesting papers or books to look things up. In case of programming, suggest SE for him to look for help, and give him some examples to get him started and nothing else. Under no conditions you should do his work. There are things you should demand from your student. If he has to present data to you, the data should be in the format your group is already using, if there is code that he needs to write, it should be documented, and he has to present tests that it's working. If you assigned him to read a certain paper, you have to make sure he read it. If you told him to search for literature, he needs to be able to discuss what he found and how is that relevant for the project and so on. Since you are a postdoc, you probably can't enforce things properly. If you were his adviser, you could tell him to follow your discipline, or find another adviser. As a postdoc, you could go to the boss, tell them about what's going on and that the student consumes too much of your time. Tell them you are thinking of setting a discipline and ask them to back you up, especially since you are doing their job. Anyway, whatever you do, once you set your new set of rules, don't let him cross them, or break them yourself. Edit - in response to @CaffeineAddiction comment claiming that, as an adviser you need to introduce the student to the basics. The job of the adviser is not to introduce you to the foundations of whatever field. Part of that job is to teach the student how to introduce themselves to the basics. In other words, you don't teach the man to fish, you teach the man to teach himself how to fish. The basics should have been covered in classes. If they were not, you do have to make a compromise, and intervene when the student seems to have a block and doesn't make progress. But, you do that simply because you don't want to lose the student. That's what I do. If my student has no background, I give him an easy test case, I suggest them a class to take, I recommend a book, or two, and give them one of the not so complex code that works. The code is a model, and might contain a few layers of complexity. My job is to make the student aware of this, and guide them to search for the knowledge they need to improve the code, or write their own. I took the code as an example, since that was the original question. But, when you start research in my field, you don't get a code. You get a paper with a bunch of formulas. To understand those formulas, you need a few years of reading textbooks and other research papers. It's very easy to get lost in the process, in other words, spending 6 months on trying to understand something completely irrelevant. The adviser's job is to offer limited guidance to understanding that paper, help you recognize your blocks and address them. The heavy lifting is still yours. As far as I understand, there are only two valuable skills that an adviser is responsible to teach a PhD student. The first is to teach the student how to learn on their own a completely new subject. The second skill an adviser must teach is how to do research. Many advisers skip the first skill because of many reasons, but mostly because of the lack of time. Then they complain about students with technician mentality. But, learning that first skill, also teaches you the right attitude towards the unknown, which is essential in research. Upvotes: 8 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Your best option is probably to guide him in a way that both helps him go forward with his work and helps him develop the resilience and perseverance that are part of a good scientist. The best way I see to do this is to link him a set of papers containing what is needed for him to reach the solution he asked you for, maybe even in the form of a query on one of your field`s research archives. This way you avoid being "milked for teh codez" while still being a competent supervisor, teaching him how to approach problems in a correct manner. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: > > I get the impression the student wants to do a technician's, rather > than a scientist's, job but still get a PhD out of it. > > > From what you've described, this seems like a very accurate assessment, and it's the crux of the matter. You need to get this message across to your student. [Magicsowon's answer](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/97625/46184) does a great job covering the practical aspects of how to (attempt to) get the student out of their bad habits. I think also explaining the situation to them very clearly is an important component. You have already brought up some concerns with him, but perhaps there is room to be more blunt/direct. You need to get the following points across: * The difference between a technician and a researcher, as alluded to in the quote above. A PhD is not awarded just for putting in a certain number of hours. It is a certification that you have the ability/potential to be an independent researcher. Merely working through a set of tasks with one's hand held throughout does not demonstrate that ability. * Someone who has been showing no initiative and requires that much help is going to really struggle in their thesis defence. * Difficulties such as "tasks are too complicated..., the professor does not help enough, the project is not well organized" are ones that will crop up throughout a scientific career. If the student cannot find strategies to cope with them, they cannot be a successful scientist. Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_4: You say you are based in Europe, but the PhD system of mainland Europe is much different to the UK, where I live. For example I completed my PhD in 3 years, whereas my European colleagues generally tend to spend (at least) 6 years on a PhD, if this is the case then this student is still just starting out and could probably afford to take some time out to catch-up on the basics. Even if you are in the UK, 3 years to complete is an absolute minimum it would benefit him to learn these skills even if it means delaying thesis submission. Perhaps there are some external courses for the student to attend on the more technical skills like programming, I had £3k per year to spend on training during my PhD. I would also imagine there are undergraduate courses at your institution which the student can 'sit-in' on the lectures in physics and programming, I would encourage him to attend. Rather than giving him direct answers to his questions and coding demands, point him in the direction of published work (papers/textbooks) on the subject, be ready to discuss these with him after he has had time to absorb them (not just to read them, but to really understand the authors message). Make clear that it is not your job to do his work for him, and that he will become a much stronger scientist if he perfects these skills now. What happens when he starts writing his thesis and he still doesn't fully understand what he is doing, the method used, and as an extension the results. He will either misrepresent results or simply miss important conclusions, unless you also write his thesis for him. Don't get me wrong, I am all for supporting the student, especially if it is a difficult or technically challenging project, but babying them will just result in more pain in the future. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_1: No, you are not expecting too much from your student. Your expectations are in line with the basic concepts of a PhD pretty much anywhere - which requires the student to be capable of independent learning and problem solving, and an understanding of the underlying fundamental concepts of his technical work. It appears you have taken the time and effort to steer him in the right direction, to no avail. If you were a PI in this situation, I would have suggested a long and frank discussion, and a discussion for the student to leave the group. Perhaps he is not suited for theoretical work, or any kind of PhD level work - in either rate he would not be a suitable fit for the current group. (Perhaps a reprieve can be given to a new PhD student, but two years is too much.) However, as you are not the PI, perhaps the best you can do now is to establish basic but strict guidelines. As a previous answer pointed out, set times for meetings per week or bi weekly would be sufficient. Don't cave in an answer to emails between that time, but save them and address them during the meetings only. Finally, avoid giving him any kind of code directly but only provide high level direction and advice on how to proceed. By applying a 'denial of accessibility' you will have to force the student to learn on his own. You should not have to sacrifice your own productivity to help a lazy student, and you should definitely want to avoid doing his work for him but letting him take the credit for it! Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: I am currently on my second PhD since I dropped out of the first one. I was the "nightmare student," and so I'd like to give you my perspective. This may not be relevant, but I started out as highly enthusiastic and motivated but got disillusioned as the level was much higher than I anticipated. Like your student I was moving into a physics field with a different background (biology) and had no real coding experience. I experienced something that can only be described as "turbulence." I became so paranoid and insecure that I couldn't do anything by myself. My supervisor and project postdoc would send me some code, or a task they needed to do, and I would freeze. I'm an intelligent person but my brain couldn't focus. I'd read Stack Exchange and be unable to implement the solutions. If a solution varied even slightly, I wouldn't be able to implement it. There was some underlying psychological problem. Insecurity, anxiety, stress -- whatever it was, I was a nightmare to be around. I never became independent and the more boundaries people tried to put up with me, the worse I got. When I eventually quit, it was the greatest relief of my life. My postdoc hated me and was openly criticising me for my lack of independence. For some people that works, but for me it made me freeze even more. I'd panic, I was desperate for validation, and just couldn't concentrate. Objectively I agree with every other comment here: set boundaries, he needs to become independent, don't exhaust yourself. But for me, those responses made me worse. Deep down I didn't think I was capable but couldn't admit it to myself so was stressed out and needy. Paradoxically, what would have helped me most would have been to be reassured that I could do it as a person. E.g., that I was fundamentally worthy and deserving of my place in the department, and that my weaknesses were not inherent parts of me, but skills that could be overcome. Sounds so stupid!!! I'm sure many people will feel cynical about that, with good reason. But if I'd had that space to feel emotionally secure I would have felt more grounded, safe and able to solve my problems. In the end, feeling valued and secure would have saved my PhD when being criticised only made me more insecure, but that's just my experience. I know this must sound ridiculous. It was just my situation. The only positive for me is that I now know everything to avoid on my second PhD. But it would have been preferable to get here without wasting 3 years' of public funding and annoying a lot of people. Upvotes: 7 <issue_comment>username_6: Some people just don't get coding. If he's one of them, he's in the wrong PhD. With a chemistry background he probably hasn't written any real code since school (and then only if you're lucky), but might have done a "computational chemistry" module writing simple scripts for a pre-written model or commercial software. Signing up to a computational PhD was probably an error. I've found that people don't realise how unsuited to coding they actually are until they really have to do it. At this point you've done what you can and it's up to the real supervisor. You may need to document the bits you've done that the student is relying on It's possible he's heading towards a form of plagiarism if you wrote the code and he claims or implies that he did if/when he writes up, but even setting that aside if the progress he appears to be making is actually based on work you did, it's time that was made clear. The supervisors options are rarely restricted to making him quit or you spend even more time on the project. There's often the possibility of changing the project to something more suitable. You could take some time to think about what skills he does have, and whether there's a role for them in your group, especially if it's not a purely computational group and there's experimental/theoretical work that would be more suitable. You don't have to find a solution but as a responsible postdoc it doesn't hurt to look for some positive possibilities. Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_7: You had a lot of great a "kind" answers which may work for most of the people, but success isn't for everyone. It's a fact you've gotta admit. > > I get the impression the student wants to do a technician's, rather than a scientist's, job but still get a PhD out of it. > > > As sad as this would be for him, he may not be built to be anything else than a technician, and if that's the case you need to let him fail. He'll need that lesson the sooner possible. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_8: I have been a PhD student, and then an advisor. I had an excellent advisor, and learned a lot from him. The key to being a successful advisor has two major components: * Know when to kick ass * Know when to provide encouragent/comfort Those are your only responsibilities. Basic skills are the responsibility of the student. You can discuss ideas with the student, help with insights, and set expectations. If the student fails to meet expectations, he is on his way to being a former student long before he hits thesis mode. You are not responsible for saving him by doing his work. What is critical now has already been suggested: meet once a week, set goals, in writing, and demand progress reports in writing. Email works very well for this. It also provides a [CYA](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cover_your_ass) audit trail, protects you from being diagnosed as failing because you are doing his work as well as yours, and makes it very clear that his failure is his own problem, not yours. So when decision time comes, he can be let go because there is a written record of his failures. This is not unlike the requirements for employee evaluation that you will face if you end up in industry. It is also worthwhile to keep time sheets on how you spend your day. I kept a simple text file. This includes time you have spent “doing his job”, that is, writing code that is critical to you but he was supposed to have written. The “virtual paper trail” is important. As observed, a PhD student is expected to work well on his own. Not have you do all his work for him. I once had a student who was not even capable of basic freshman tasks and apparently earned their undergraduate degree by letting others do their work for them. I went to their supervisor and explained this, but nothing came of it. It took another year of wasted salary before they fired by a new supervisor. You are not doing your grad student any favors by doing all his work, you are not doing your school any favors by covering up his failures, and you are not doing your profession any favors by churning out someone deeply unqualified to be a professional. And you are not doing yourself any favors by doing two jobs. It is time to fledge this bird. You can’t save everyone. Some people cannot be saved because they do not understand (or refuse to admit) how unqualified they are. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_9: > > The project is on computational physics/chemistry, and the PhD student has a background in chemistry with no prior computational knowledge. [...] > > > I have been spending a large amount of time teaching this student lots of physics and programming/scripting, which is needed to carry out the project. I assumed I would need to spend a lot of time at the beginning because of the background mismatch, so that was no problem. I thought things would improve with time. Unfortunately, they have not. The student is terrible at any kind of programming and has a lot of trouble learning new concepts, but what worries me the most is his attitude. > > > As someone with a master's in computer science who works as an industry programmer, red flags went off for me as soon as I read this in your question - but not for the student. For the way you're managing him. Programming is an exceptionally difficult skill to learn. I would say it is equally as difficult as learning how to do research - but it is also a complete skill in and of itself. In order to get to the point I am now, as a professional programmer, I took four years of programming classes in high school, four years of a CS program in undergraduate, over 12 months in total of internships, and two years of grad school. To get to the point you want your student to be at, where I could teach myself what I needed to to write my own non-trivial programs, took me at least through high school and an entire summer spent teaching myself how to write Android apps. I know that you've gone through a similar process yourself, so this is just a reminder to you, someone who is now on the other side, that programming is very difficult to someone who doesn't have much experience. If you want your student to be successful, you need to step back and give him a chance to actually learn how to program. The good news is that, since he is a grad student, he is both smart enough and at the level where it should only take a semester or two before he starts being productive. (Emphasis on starts - he won't be at the same level you are for years, for better or for worse.) From your question, you've been teaching your student how to program for the last two years. I'm very glad to have read that. On my first read, it seemed to me that you had largely just thrown him into the deep end and asked him to swim, and there's absolutely no way that could have worked. However, to be honest, I still believe that programming is a difficult enough skill that you're not going to be able to teach it to him yourself. This isn't a failing on your part at all. It's just an acknowledgement that you're busy with your own research and the other aspects of managing this student, so your capacity to teach is limited, and your student is also taking classes, learning to read papers, learning how to carry out research - his capacity to learn programming on top of all of that is also limited. To make sure he has an opportunity to learn programming in a way that overcomes those limitations, I strongly recommend that you ask him to take introductory computer science classes. He can probably skip some of the earliest courses and jump into 150 level courses. Then, while he is taking those, please stop giving him as many tasks that require him to be a productive programmer for a while. Is there other work he can do that exercises more of the background in chemistry you originally hired him for? --- I certainly understand being frustrated that your student isn't being productive and doesn't seem to be willing to learn on his own. My point isn't that you should tolerate any student who isn't being productive. My point is that, in the specific situation you've described, I strongly suspect that the core issue is you're expecting a bit too much out of someone who has not had the time to learn a very difficult skill. To emphasize, I think the reason you're expecting too much is because you're asking someone who has no background in programming to be an effective programmer on top of doing research. Either one of those presses an individual to their intellectual limits. There are many other things it is reasonable to ask a student to learn on their own - how to carry out an experiment, how to use the correct statistical analysis, etc. Programming is sufficiently difficult that it's in its own category, though. If, after taking programming courses, your student is still not being productive, then I think your case that the problem is with the student's attitude is much, much stronger. --- [ImportanceOfBringErnest commented on my answer](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/97621/how-to-supervise-a-bad-phd-student#comment252085_97652): > > I think there is a big discrepancy between what a physicists call programming and what a programmer call programming. Mostly, if you show a code some physicist has written to a real programmer they start crying and run out of the room. So I would interprete the skills the questions talks about as really really basic and the real problem seems to be rather the attitude of the student. > > > I absolutely agree that the student does not need to be at the level of a professional programmer. He only needs to be able to bang out a script in a few hours that calculates some value and is done with it. Even so, I still strongly believe that it is unreasonable to expect a grad student to reach that late beginner level of programming ability on their own. In grad school, I was a TA and often helped students with introductory CS homework. I have seen students starting out their programming careers take 10-15 minutes doing things like determining which arguments to pass into a function or writing a for loop that iterates over an array - and that only after banging their head against the problem until they realized they weren't going to get it on their own, sought me out for help, and got some hints from me. This stuff is truly very, very difficult to pick up, and it takes time and patience on the part of everyone involved for a new programmer to be successful. Introductory programming courses are designed to guide students past the true beginner level to the point that they can write basic programs on their own. This is what the OP wants. The OP's student doesn't need to get a full computer science degree or be able to architect an enterprise system. But I still strongly believe that the only reasonable way to get the OP's student to the level the OP wants him at is to give him a chance to go through at least one introductory CS class. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_10: As someone who is a PhD student in computational chemistry who was new to programming when I started the PhD: Please try and be aware how alien and different coding, computer science, computer theory, etc is to someone who is used to being a physical scientist. It was a whole new world when I started and it was very difficult to motivate myself to put all my focus into learning coding and programming, when what I really felt I should be doing (and what I wanted to do) was learn about atoms and molecules. It's difficult to get over the shock at being in a position of serious research, and yet knowing basically no more than a high school senior (about coding). Most grad students I know in my friend were in similar positions as me; very, very few were CS people beforehand or had done anything more than screw around in perl or python for a few hours. I don't know how long your student has been with you, but there's a huge barrier to entry in this kind of situation, so don't set your expectations too high in regards to coding learning speed + enthusiasm, especially if they seem genuinely interested and motivated to learn in other areas. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_11: Most of the 'answers' here suggest that the post-doc "save himself," but they do not provide constructive manager-employee conflict resolutions. I want to outline some suggestions. Try to honestly, objectively assess the following: 1. Does your employee have a learning/language barrier? If yes, seek specialist assistance for clarifying instructions to the employee. 2. Does the employee have adequate resources to understand and execute instructions? (Consistent computer, software, textbook, tutorial access). 3. Is the employee failing to perform due to poor scheduling? If yes, is it due to his own choices (procrastination, under-estimating time needed), or because management has failed to allocate appropriate planning stages for the project? 4. When confronted with a new problem to solve, is there a consistent stage at which he is failing? Consider requiring documentation or a lab journal for employees so that they can demonstrate what steps they took to resolve issues. 5. Is the employee/manager conflict emotional? An employee that dislike his boss may engage in active sabotage, while a manager who personally dislikes his employee may engage in exaggerated fault finding. 6. Does the employee have adequate pre-requisite training/skills to perform at the level required? Consider having a third party participate in a meeting to determine if you are being unreasonable in expectations. If employee has skill inadequacies have a skill-set expert advice on a learning plan, do not invent one on your own. Refer employee to appropriate tutoring, courses, or online tutorials where he can be held accountable for completing a training session. Motivating and correcting the student should come, once a week, in timed, structured meetings. The student should also be given time to state his own concerns, ask questions or offer solutions without interruption or ridicule. Consider the following: * If this is a chemist, perhaps the tutorials closer to their area of expertise. * If the programming is unrewarding consider offering short-term incentives, for example allow him to present a successful model or GUI to undergraduates and get a round of applause for it. * Find bait. If he is publication motivated, use it. If he enjoys educating others, have him write a tutorial, if he likes editing graphics, assign those. * Consider partnering the graduate student with a successful undergraduate who has programming expertise. Ask the graduate student to provide chemistry insight in exchange for the undergraduate learning/practicing programming at a more advanced level. If possible, hire an undergraduate to collaborate with the graduate student. Having an ally or a position of authority may invigorate both. * Praise what can be praised. When the student does solve a problem or does something that demonstrates initiative signal gratitude and do not be sarcastic or condescending. * Network the student, if possible, with someone who could have experienced a similar learning curve and motivation challenges, but who is now successful. When positive reinforcement fails, or falters, here are some appropriate negative reinforcement techniques: * Document your weekly expectation and give instruction on what the employee should do to "self troubleshoot" before the next meeting. When reviewing work consider if step 1 and 2 were taken, if applicable; if 0/2, report to overhead supervisor. * Ask employee to be responsible for correcting his own errors. Provide annotated code, not corrected code such that he has to go in and implement corrections directly. * Provide task specific deadlines and meeting agendas (even if one-sentence long e-mail). If your employee is failing to respond to milestone requests through procrastination or disrespectful attitude to your position, document it and show this to the professor and/or department chair. Harassment or personal attacks are not okay. * Ask the student to present/summarize the purpose of individual experiments or coding that is being performed. If there is a failure to comprehend the project, ask a (qualified, objective) third party or additional participant to provide feedback. If the third party agrees there is a comprehension gap, report this to the professor. I am not doubting that you are in a difficult, time consuming situation, but I do think you might be failing as a manager and educator if your two solutions are "do his work for him" or "fire him." Learn to manage, motivate, and document your efforts. After documenting the experience, allow the professor to make the hiring/firing decision. Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_12: > > My professor is nominally appointed as supervisor but I am doing all of the actual supervision (my professor is not familiar with the details of our project, just the "big picture"). > > > No one is benefiting from this supervisory relationship. It's time to pull the plug. Tell your professor that it's not a good fit and that you can't supervise this student any longer. If he wants more detail, tell him that the student * does not have prior experience with programming, is not applying himself to learn programming, and doesn't have a natural aptitude for it * doesn't understand the underlying theoretical underpinnings of the project * is not able to work independently If at some point your professor assigns you a different student to supervise, please don't wait so long to report back about how things are going. Upvotes: 1
2017/10/20	981	4,025	<issue_start>username_0: Peer-review is an important part of decision-making in academia. Journal reviewers do not get paid. BUT funding agencies pay for the same peer-review (of research proposals). OR universities pay the external referees for reviewing PhD dissertations. My question is: if peer-review is voluntary and a professional duty, why isn't it the case in other reviewing processes?<issue_comment>username_1: > > BUT funding agencies pay for the same peer-review (of research > proposals). > > > Not necessarily. > > OR universities pay the external referees for reviewing PhD > dissertations. > > > Not necessarily. > > My question is: if peer-review is voluntary and a professional duty, > why isn't it the case in other reviewing processes? > > > Because compared to a journal article, those are much more intensive. It may require travel, and almost certainly involves several days of work. Therefor those types of activities are disadvantaged in my considering of "Do I have time for this?" The way to address that? Incentives. Including monetary ones. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: The premise of this question isn't generally true -- I've been paid (once) to referee a paper, and I've worked for free reviewing grant proposals and theses (as an external committee member). Indeed, I've never been paid for either of the latter two activities. Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: Apart from the fact that the implicit claim in the question is not always correct (but seems to be true, at least in my field, most of the time); and in addition to the fact that doctoral thesis reviews and grant proposal reviews can sometimes be more effort than reviewing a paper (but reviewing a paper in mathematics can be enormously difficult, if you feel the need to check that everything claimed is true!), maybe it has to do with the following: I would expect an "average" researcher to submit about as many papers papers as they review (at least in the same order of magnitude). Sometimes even PhD students are asked to review papers. In contrast, almost every researcher has a PhD and needed reviewers for their dissertation; but probably less than 10% of them will ever review someone's else dissertation? Similarly, the average researcher will apply for a couple of grants (starting as students already), but probably only the more/most senior researchers are asked to review grant applications (at least in my field, I assume). Accordingly there might be some sense of balance for paper review: I expect others to review my paper, so it is only fair that I review one paper of someone else. But this balance is broken e.g. for proposals: One person is asked to review, in one go, 80 proposals submitted for a grant. So looking at a single proposal might be less work than a paper review; but doing 80 of them might be more work; and the person will not submit 80 grant proposal over their career, so it seems unfair to expect them to do the work without any incentive. Remark: It is a bit of a mystery to me that free peer review (in particular for highly profitable and expensive journals) works at all. Of course there are some people that claim they learn a lot from reviewing papers (but they could do so by just reading the same papers on arxiv, right?), and some people might get some other benefit out of it (they might have an agenda to reject their enemy's papers, or accept their friend's, or force people to include references to their work, etc). But I think most researchers do reviews (which can really be a huge effort) in an honest way, motivated by the notion of fairness described above. While this is nice, it seems somewhat unusual that an industry can be kept alive just by the spirit of fairness and cooperation against the participant's self-interest... But this is a question that has been discussed at length already, see e.g. [Why don't researchers request payment for refereeing?](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/68191/) Upvotes: 1
2017/10/20	5,278	22,401	<issue_start>username_0: Context: I am an assistant professor of mathematics at a small liberal arts college in the US. I generally find student questions during tests and quizzes to be somewhat annoying. I disliked them when I was a student, and they're even worse as an instructor. To elaborate on my dislike: As a student I found such questioning very distracting. I'd be in the midst of trying to solve a difficult problem when suddenly people around me are talking in hushed voices about a problem I had already done. As one can imagine, it was challenging to pull my attention back to what I was doing. As an instructor, I want to do my best to provide a good test environment, so I would like to minimize questions that I see mostly as a distraction. In addition, most courses contain a student or two who I don't entirely trust, so I like to be able to watch the students during the exam to ensure test security, and answering questions can hinder that. I also don't want students getting up during a test to ask questions, for obvious security-related reasons. (This problem is easily solved by telling them to raise their hand.) Most questions fall into the following categories: 1. Legitimate questions aiming to clarify vague instructions or a typo. 2. Questions fishing for a hint. 3. Questions seeking support of a solution method. 4. Questions asking for confirmation about answer format. Type 1 questions are not a problem. Type 2 and 3 questions are foolish, because I hardly ever tell students anything remotely useful. Type 4 questions are irritating, because my questions specifically say what format to use (i.e. "show two decimal places," "you do not need to simplify," etc.). What are some strategies for eliminating questions of type 2, 3, and 4 while not discouraging type 1 questions? Of course, I can just straight-up tell them that they're not to ask questions unless they believe them to be very legitimate, but I'd like to use a less "adversarial" approach, if possible.<issue_comment>username_1: I am also a mathematics professor, though at a large state university. To be honest, I'm not sure why the questions are "annoying" to you. Maybe you could clarify this, since it could help you get a good answer. (In particular you say you disliked these questions as a student. Again, honestly, I'm not sure why you cared about that.) I also want to add though that I don't get that many questions on exams: probably about one question per 20 students per exam. It is plausible to me that it might be part of the culture of SLACs that students ask more questions on exams, but I don't really know. With regard to the undesirable kinds of questions: I actually find 2) rather weird. I cannot think of a single instance in 11 years of teaching at my university where a student has asked me for a hint on an exam. Only very rarely have they asked a question where I think they are hoping to get information out of me that will make the problem easier to solve. This actually strikes me as being mildly inappropriate behavior. A lot of SLACs have strong honor code cultures, so you might think about whether/how these kinds of questions are not abiding by the spirit of the honor code. If you feel that way, you could put something in the syllabus about it. Then, if a student asks such a question during an exam, you can say "I really can't answer that kind of question. I'll explain more later." And then you can follow up with the student afterwards that they shouldn't be fishing for answers to exam questions. With regard to 3): it's similar to 2) but more understandable/legitimate: after all, some solution methods are not going to get full credit. These types of questions make sense when they already have an answer. If they are asking something like "Would it be a good idea to integrate by parts?" then that really falls under 2). You can try to be as clear as possible in your course before the exam and in the instructions of the exam which solution methods you regard as legitimate, but often there is some real doubt. With regard to 4): if they are asking things that are already stated on the exam, just answer quickly by calling attention to the fact that it's already stated on the exam. Coming back to the beginning of my answer, I think you should reflect on whether, how and why the SLAC culture encourages students to ask too many questions on exams and also whether you think that students at your SLAC in general get rewarded for asking lots of questions. (E.g. do you think that other instructors give out information to individual students in response to questions? It seems a bit unlikely to me, but I suppose it's possible.) If it's clear to you that students are not getting rewarded for asking these questions then maybe you could frame it as advice. A student who is coming up every five minutes to ask a question is probably not getting the undisturbed thinking time that they need to do well on a challenging math exam. On the other hand, if the practice is really not hurting them at all and just mildly annoying you...maybe live with it? Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: I explain at the start of the first test that, "Questions clarifying what you're reading are okay (raise your hand, I'll come over). I cannot tell you how to solve a problem. My response may be, 'I can't tell you that during the test.'" If Question #1 comes up, I do as stated. Questions #2-3 get a fairly loud (but polite) repetition of, "I can't tell you that during the test." (Or, "That's what you're being tested on."). Question #4 may get, "Just read the direction carefully" (which itself is a repetition of something I need to say during almost every single class meeting). I find this public act tamps down on questions as much as I can hope for. The main thing is to be solidly consistent. Counterexample: I was co-proctoring with another professor in their class. That professor got a question, shook his head in disgust, muttered "You should know that", and walked away. Then turned around, walked back, and actually did talk the student through how to solve the problem. This can only encourage more fishing questions like that. Due diligence: In liberal-arts math courses I have occasionally had students express disbelief and/or outrage that I wouldn't help them during a test. "But you're the teacher, that's your job" kind of thing. Upvotes: 7 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: Math student here; Casting my vote for the direct, adversarial approach (particularly if you're not generally adversarial as it will maximize impact.) This is always going on even in upper level math exams at my med-lg state uni, and it is really annoying. I am always hoping for a rule-nazi of a professor to lay down the law, but half of them don't even bother closing the door let alone addressing in-class distractions like inappropriate questions during exams. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: You ask about minimizing questions, but really from how you describe your motivation it sounds like the real question is about minimizing distractions to you and to the students; the questions of type 2-4 don't bother you per se, but only to the extent that they create a distraction. Well, it seems to me that distractions can easily be brought down to a level that no one can reasonably find objectionable by imposing a suitable protocol for students to ask questions, and without compromising any student's right to ask any question they think is appropriate to ask or making the students feel like you are treating them in an adversarial fashion. A couple of possibilities that come to mind for such a protocol are: 1. A student who wants to ask a question should raise their hand and wait for you to notice them. You will then give them permission to get up and approach you in a part of the class that's far enough away from the other students so as to minimize the noise and distraction that your conversation will create. They then ask the question, you answer it, and they get back to their seat. Or, if that's not quiet enough, then a slightly more drastic option would be 2. The student will write their question on a piece of paper and raise their hand. You collect the paper, go back to the front of the classroom, think about the question, write an answer (or something like "no comment" if the question is not legitimate), and give them back the paper. If they are still unsatisfied with your answer, they can ask a followup question by following protocol 1 above. Finally, I should add that I see some psychological benefit to allowing students to ask even illegitimate questions (e.g., of type 2-4). We should remember that exams are a very stressful situation and induce a high level of stress and anxiety in many students, which can be quite debilitating and hurt their performance on the exam. I think it's important to be as empathetic and mindful as one can to this fact; in particular, giving students the impression that you are friendly and stand ready to answer any questions they may have can go a small way towards reducing the level of anxiety some students will experience, even to the extent of allowing them to perform better (and want to ask fewer questions!). And this is true even if in practice when the students ask an unfair or illegitimate question you give nothing away. So, it may sound a bit Machiavellian, but in my opinion creating the appearance of being helpful can be just as important and useful in an exam situation as actually being helpful. Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_5: My approach is approximately "no questions, period" (not after the first few minutes). I'm only in the room to proctor, not to talk about the exam. Even if there are typos on an exam, it is a very mixed thing to "make corrections" during the exam itself, because some people will already have spent time on the thing, etc. That is, "fairness" is sometimes approximated best by "uniformity". One could follow up on "refusal to answer questions" by observing (to the students) that understanding expectations of format, this-and-that, are a large part of what such exams are meant to test. This may not console everyone, but it is a genuine point, and deserves repetition. So, yes, even when there have been ghastly typos, I've just kept things as they were. Yes, this approach does entail announcing that, no matter how scrupulous I've been, there may indeed be typos, and that students should exercise their own judgement about that possibility. (Again, even if there are typos, it is not possible to correct them in-exam in a fashion that is clearly fair to everyone, unless it happens within the first few minutes.) It did take me a long time (30+ years?) to get to this point of view... Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_6: Some of my old professors followed this procedure: * Sit down and get test sheet. * Get 5 minutes to read the test carefully (pens down), we were able to ask clarifying questions during this time. This period did not count towards the time limit. * Start of the test, no more questions beyond this point. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_7: If students get questions clarified when they ask, suddenly the incentive is for every student to ask about every test problem (even if they don't need it). This is obviously suboptimal. Answering many questions is also unfair, as two students might both be confused by a test problem but only one asked -- hence, they are not being tested on the material, but on their willingness to ask a question during an exam. My solution is to answer almost no questions. My typical answer is "knowing the answer to your question is part of what's being tested here". What's being tested includes literacy (reading the directions to the exam and the directions for the problem and interpreting same). I make exceptions for two cases: 1. Typos in the problem. 2. Weird overanalysis of the problem. In the former case (I made a mistake), I announce to the whole class the correction. The latter case is when a student is contemplating using very powerful tools from another course, that he or she doesn't really understand, rather than the simple tools available in this course. Then I tell the student that it's not necessary to do it the complicated way. This happens rarely, so I am not concerned about fairness. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_8: I am not entirely sure what you mean by type #4, but I will try to address it. From my experience, there are high schools were it is taught that some things have to been done a certain way (like it is only allowed to use only a certain method of solving equations or written division has to been written down in exactly that way etc.) which pleases the teacher. I worked with 10-year old kids which were familiar with negative integers, but always asked whether it is allowed to use them since their teachers "forbid" them to use those in class. When I announce Gauß algorithm, students ask whether it will still be allowed to use the substitution method to solve equations. My math teacher always marked my test's answers as wrong when I wrote them as fractions or roots insted as a rounded decimal number (even when the problem was purely algebraic without a "real-world-context"). With this I want to say that especially for new students, it is sometimes not easy to get used to the concept "everything which is correct and well-argued is allowed to solve the problem". On the other hand, I often find the university lecturers have a hard time understanding this mindset of the students. So, if you get a question of type #4, try to think if it can be because of this problem. If so, do not dislike it, but answer it honestly. If possible, say beforehand that "every approach which satisfies the following conditions: [...] is allowed". Of course, if the question literally is "how many decimals should we write down" when it says "write 2 decimals", you can say "read the question again". On the other hand, if you write "you do not need to simplify", this can mean a lot of things depending on the teacher and you may want to clarify this. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_9: Consider that in many places, for many exams, the proctors have nothing at all to do with the class or the subject matter. They are just there to supervise the room. Clearly, in that environment, there are no questions. If there are flaws in the exam, the faculty will have to make whatever compensations seem least bad after the fact. It might, then, be easiest to set expectations that all exams work this way, even if the proctor happens to be someone who could possibly answer a question. When I was a student of math and engineering back in the dark ages, that's how it worked. You got a test, you did the best you could. Every student should know better than to use up all the time on one question. Even if the exam is perfect to the letter, there's always the chance that the student just isn't going to find the path to an answer in the available time. Telling students to (a) put a question aside if they are not finding a solution in reasonable amount of time and (b) write an explanation of why you think the question is insoluble is better than answering questions. If the question is broken, then (b) helps. If the question isn't broken, perhaps the student will earn partial credit for a thought process that is partially correct even if it hit a pothole. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_10: First, make sure that your questions really are as error-free and unambiguous as possible. Achieving that quality takes effort, though. You will need to have one or two trusted TAs actually take the test to ensure that there are no obvious issues. At the exam itself, announce a policy that if you have difficulty understanding a question, try your best to solve it on your own, and write down your assumptions along with the answer. It would probably be helpful to state that you have planted no trick questions, and that smart-alecky assumptions won't fly. Then, stick to your word and accept any reasonable alternative interpretations when grading the exams. If you do get requests for clarification anyway, answer most of them by simply reiterating the "state your assumptions" policy. If it turns out that there really was a bug in the exam, own up to it publicly by writing an announcement on the board. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_11: I find magu\_'s approach the best if you have to proctor your own class. Our institution solved the issue by having exams proctored by non-academic personnel. Beside the obvious advantage that they simply would not be able to answer illegitimate questions it is also more cost-efficient. The academics have that time to do their research. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_12: You just have to warn your students beforehand. As in, > > Questions about the format of your answer will not be answered. Fishing for hints will not work as I won't give any useful info about the questions to any of you. > > > Give them a few minutes extra before you start the exam and ask them to read the questions and ask if the questions are clear. Giving them even just five minutes to read and understand the questions and letting them ask anything they want to be clarified will let you have an easier time later on. Anyway, since you seem to be grading the papers, I'd also like to add that the type two and three are just fine as questions in my opinion, with the appropriate precautions. We had one professor who would give out any hint that you wanted him to give. He would start the exam like so: > > You can ask for hints on questions and anything else your want. I will give you whatever you ask for on the question. However, this will mean that I'll deduct points appropriately. If you want the whole answer to a question, of course, I will even give you that, but, that will mean getting no points out of that particular question. > > > I had to ask for a hint once, it was something minor, so he wrote `-2` to the side of my question (it was a 20 pointer out of 100), and just gave me the hint I needed. With the hint, I was able to answer the rest of the question, getting 18 points in total from that one. Though, if I couldn't answer the question, I'd have lost two points from my paper and that would be it. I was the only one to ask for a hint on any of his exams because people thought he would deduct too many points. He was really fair though, a tiny hint wouldn't mean deducting half the point worth of that question from the paper. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_13: During my teaching days, I managed a few exams. I used a strategy that was quite satisfyingly successful: Right before the exam, I would have told the students that the exam would last at least for two hours. And during the first hour, no one is allowed to talk or ask any questions and I won't be answering any. If you need any clarifications, just move on to the easy or answerable questions during the first hour and give the rest a little thought. I should emphasize again that no one has the permission to talk for one hour. Then after that, my job was way lot easier because many of the problems were automatically solved already. Although I should confess that my teaching days only lasted for two semesters and this method is not tested thoroughly, yet! Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_14: Some practical points: * Spend the time and re-read the exam text "adversarially", trying to think up any possible way to misinterpret them, and correct for it. On the other hand, better to leave some option for mis-interpretation than spending half a page on spelling out the interpretation. * Have another teacher/TA in the course sit down and solve the exam in its entirety, both to catch potential errors/unclear points and to time it and assess difficulty. * Do answer trivial questions (e.g. confirmations) briefly, but kindly and in a supportive rather than derogatory tone. Example: Q: "Am I really supposed to do XYZ?" A: "Yes, those are the instructions." Don't try lecturing people about asking such questions; don't repeat the demand not ask such questions. Instead, try to smile (if you can manage doing that in a non-creepy way), expressing the pride of having brought your student from relative ignorance to the brink of being proven to have mastered the subject matter. I always felt proud of my students taking their exam! * Remember that students' questions while taking the exam may uncover an unforeseen problem with it. This has happened to me quite a few times - both as a student as a TA. * When faced with a "How do I solve this?" question, and declining to answer - have a look at the student's face. If they appear super-stressed, shaking, desperate - consider suggesting they try moving on to the next question/problem and go back to this one later; or that they go have a drink of water and catch their breath. Consider asking "Are you all right?" if you're actually concerned about them. Some people occasionally have 'blackouts', or otherwise become very anxious, and this sometimes helps. It actually 'discourages' useless questions in my experience, because even noticing that a stressed-out student is being attended to with a kind demeanor reduces stress somewhat. That might sound irrational, childish, overly soft, immature to you - but remember you're testing the student's command of math, not the quality of their character or their maturity. Plus - perhaps, for you, an excellent academic who made it to professorship the exams were not that hard and stressful as for other students - don't judge them until you've walked a mile in their shoes. * If you get a lot of questions overall, or about some point in particular - when the exam ends, either stay there for 10 more minutes and indicate that you will listen to issues regarding that question, or hold extra 'office hours' - for hearing and addressing questions about the exam in a little more detail - once you are able to talk about the actual answer, and at more length. This will help you understand what it is people were finding difficult to understand or to solve. Also, this will likely have a positive psychological effect on the students - whether they did well or poorly. Upvotes: 3
2017/10/20	1,520	6,365	<issue_start>username_0: How do I as a solitary student with no guide and no research lab and limited access to research material and books perform research that is of good quality? The field I am interested in is AI, NLP, Generative Art and Artificial Life. I know the single, simple answer is "Just Do It!", but my undergraduate college had absolutely no focus on research and sadly, even my current post graduate course is turning out to be the same. Hence, I have zero experience of what it is to do research. Moreover, I'm from India, where Meet Ups, Research Groups, etc etc are virtually non-existent. Point is, assume that I'm really all alone. I plan on applying for another Masters / Ph.D. after I am done with this one, but most admissions need "Research Experience". So, I decided to do it on my own, with no mentor in sight. Any recommendations / work cycles / words of encouragement that you guys and gals can offer me? PS: Is there any way I can find a mentor online?<issue_comment>username_1: > > How do I as a solitary student with no guide and no research lab and limited access to research material and books perform research that is of good quality? > > > Unless you have plenty of experience, you most likely cannot. > > PS: Is there any way I can find a mentor online? > > > You can study online (distance university), where you will get a mentor when you reach the point of doing research. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: You could look for a position with a private company doing their own research in an area you find interesting and try to get into one of the groups doing that research. You could look at large companies known to be working in those areas (Google, IBM etc) or find a smaller company by looking at job posts listing the sort of skills you wish to acquire. Job posts are broad and list many skills. If you have enough of the secondary skills they may take a chance on you. Now you are doing entry level work in that area under a Principal Investigator who can mentor you. It's bit of a longer plan but you could also take a general SW Development position with your selected company, continue to take courses and express interest in moving into that area with the company. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: I don't want to sound discouraging, but I think that wise people would generally agree with the following two observations: * If you were try to do research on your own, without a mentor, you would almost certainly be wasting your time. It would be very difficult for you to do work which would be published in a reputable journal. * Trying to find a mentor online is also very difficult. Good mentors are usually extremely busy, and most of them are already supervising PhD students and postdocs. Why should they commit some of their limited time to helping you, a total stranger? I feel that it would be futile for you to try to do research at your current life stage. If you are serious about doing research, my advice to you would be to "骑驴找马". This is a Chinese proverb which means "ride a donkey while you are looking for a horse." The figurative meaning is that while you are looking for something better (the horse), there is no reason not to make use of something mediocre (the donkey). Although you did not gain any research experience during your undergrad and post-grad studies; however, hopefully you would have acquired some employable skills in the course of your study. You should put these employable skills to use by working in a job that matches your skills. If possible, as suggested in username_2' [answer](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/97676/8802), you could find work in a company which does research-like work, e.g., Google, Microsoft, IBM. You could start out as a software engineer, doing purely software engineering work, and after a few years transition to research-like work. Eventually, you may be happy with the research you are doing in industry, or at that point you have good references if you were to decide to apply for a research Master's or PhD. All the best! Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_4: I think username_3's answer is spot on, and I would like to reinforce that it is a strenuous path and potentially frustrating goal to perform research independently without any formal training on how to do so. I would like to add, however, that a realizable path is to attempt to do (voluntary) work in another institution for some period of time. That could be done, for instance, during your vacation time (summer/winter). If your institution is unknown and you have nobody to vouch for you, it may be difficult to convince a professor to take you even for a short period of time during the summer, but that's far less unheard of than becoming a successful lone researcher. We've had several undergraduate students from local colleges work with us during short periods of time. Many ended up being co-authors in papers we published and/or were successful in securing a good Master/PhD. Better yet would be to organize with your current institution to spend part of your studies in a research-intensive institution (3-6+ months). Even if that's not explicitly encouraged or allowed, there's always the possibility of you trying to convince them that this would be something you desire and believe would be useful to your career in the future. You can also try to convince them to give you credits for that (replacing elective courses or something like that). If you can secure a formal research position, even if only for a short period of time, it's much more likely that you will be able to continue working from home, potentially following up on what you started on the formal position, especially if your research involves only pen/paper/computer. As a data point, I did exactly that during my undergraduate. Even though my undergraduate institution is relatively well-known and research intensive, I went to the US as an exchange student and worked with a famous professor for a short period of time. Upon returning to my home country, I joined another professor's lab but continued to work remotely with the US group. I ended up publishing two papers as first author with the US group in very good journals before I even finished my undergraduate, and presented my work in an international conference. Upvotes: 2
2017/10/21	1,362	5,887	<issue_start>username_0: I am currently doing research and I know a fellow graduate student who is very intellectually curious. Let's call him/her C. However, I feel that C has a very consistent habit for not crediting people who have discussed problems with him. We work in the same lab/department, so we cannot avoid each other. C would (very frequently, may I add) try to get people to discuss his own research problems with him, and after he has been provided tips, references or full-blown solution to his problems, he would simply take credit for them as if it was his own. Present them as if he came up with the idea. Write them and publish them as papers as if he came up with the idea. He would of course laugh about it afterwards, and talk very jovially about his accomplishments, and in the past I would have laughed along with him, because I have adopted the mindset that perhaps it is good to help out my fellow colleague. I shared my ideas generously, and promptly responded to any request. C's habit came to my attention several month ago when another graduate student told me, that after spending a significant amount of time discussing a problem with C, C provided a solution to that problem, but nearly all the heavy lifting was done through that discussion. Then it just happened, C talked to me about a problem a year ago, I provided him with what I thought would be a good way of tackle the problem. I just saw his publication, which was uploaded online last week, in which the paper utilizes some material drawn from what we had discussed. This incident has left a bitter taste in my mouth, because I feel as if I had been used or exploited. Looking back, outside of accelerating C's own research career, I feel that C has no real connection with any of his fellow graduate students. While the other students would talk about everyday life topics, current events, family, etc., C would only ask us questions about his own research. In doing so, C's behavior in some sense has cheapened my graduate school experience, and left me jaded at the fact that to in order become a top researcher, it seems that you need to exploit other people's time and intellectual energy as much as possible for your own gain. The more you do it, the more successful you will become. It reminded me of my undergraduate days, when fellow students would try to pick your brains about everything you knew about a subject, but gives nothing in return. You have any study material out, they line up to see what you are reading. "Nosy", as some would describe this type of behavior. It just feels that my patience and kindness has being routinely exploited by people who just don't really care about other people. > > How do senior researchers deal with this type of behavior? Of course, > research cannot go on without communication, and we all have taken > credit for things that are not purely our own intellectual > contribution. However, I think the person's consistent willingness to > exploit other people's time and intellectual energy has crossed the > line for me. I wonder if I am over-reacting. > > ><issue_comment>username_1: With people who are like "black holes" (ie all goes in, nothing returned), I just respond in the discussion with "oh that sounds challenging" or "how do you plan to get round that" : once bitten, twice shy... Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: What you describe doesn't sound particularly unreasonable or problematic to me. Researchers discuss things with each other all the time, and of course the results of such discussions often show up in published research. That's what you ought to expect when you have a technical discussion with someone. In fact it's the best case - your contribution was useful and advanced science. You ought to have been acknowledged in the paper, but the standard thing would be to have a brief section at the end, with something like "The author would like to thank <NAME> for helpful discussions." If this was omitted, I would guess it's most likely due to C's unfamiliarity with publishing practice - he is a grad student after all. You could have a brief word with him about this, or ask his supervisor to mention it to him. But it isn't reasonable to expect that the paper will contain a detailed catalog of which specific idea was due to whom. People don't keep track of things like that. And you shouldn't expect this sort of credit to advance your career in any tangible way - it's a mere courtesy. Such an acknowledgement wouldn't make your interaction any more or less "exploitative". If you were expecting to become a co-author on the paper, then you should have said so explicitly at the time of the conversation: "This is really interesting to me. Would you like to work on a paper together?" Of course, in that case, you should expect to contribute a dramatically greater amount of work than just sharing ideas. So I think what you gained from the discussion was about the most that you could expect - you made a contribution that helped to advance the state of the art. You can decide if that feels like a sufficient reward for the time you spent. If not, then maybe in future you want to spend less of your time having such discussions. But I wouldn't see this as exploitation. Researchers talk to each other to get ideas. That's the point of research. Maybe someday C will be able to share some interesting ideas with you. > > While the other students would talk about everyday life topics, current events, family, etc., C would only ask us questions about his own research. > > > So, C happens to be more interested in his work than in mundane topics. I don't think that's a problem. You'll meet a lot more such people if you stay in science. Maybe he wouldn't be an interesting guest at a party, but it doesn't mean he's exploiting you. Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]