date
stringlengths 10
10
| nb_tokens
int64 60
629k
| text_size
int64 234
1.02M
| content
stringlengths 234
1.02M
|
|---|---|---|---|
2018/01/25
| 625
| 2,640
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am involved in a peculiar PhD situation. I am working full time at a government lab that is fairly new (<10 years of existence), but has however attracted some strong names in my field (Computer Science and Data Management) as appointed researchers. Government labs do not issue PhDs, so I had to enroll at a university. The university that I enrolled at (not my choice) is among the top 10 in my country, but lies in the top ~1000 area worldwide. Furthermore, my advisor is not really involved in my work and is generally active in somewhat different research directions. However, I had very good funding so I decided to treat this as exactly what it is, i.e., a formality, as I can't get my PhD from the government lab.
During the past four years, I have been very productive and managed to create a solid publication record at A-level and A\*-level conferences and journals, as well as a decent citation count (~150). I am first author in most of my papers, and some of the people I worked and published with are very established and acclaimed academics in this field.
Before starting my PhD, a obtained an Electrical Engineering degree and a Masters degree from top schools in worldwide rankings. Now my question is, do I need to somehow reflect this situation in the form of a justification of why I am getting my PhD from an unknown university? Or the fact that after two excellent school names, I have this third name in my CV that is unknown and overall a weird addition?<issue_comment>username_1: I think your stellar record speaks for itself (from my experience: 150 citations is something that is rarely encounered on a a PhD-level research).
And where would you like to put that justification? As an asterisk in your CV? THAT would be really weird.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: You need both in your CV, but you can easily split the employment at the government lab from when and where you have obtained your PhD. You can even structure your CV with a complete separation between the list of academic degrees (where and when you obtained them) and the list of research / industry employment and similar.
For the entry with your PhD, it would be reasonable to relate it to your employment at the government lab of course, for example by pointing out a cooperation between this university and the government lab. You don't state whether the advisor you mention is affiliated with the government lab or the university, but if someone who supervises you at the government lab is also member of your PhD committee, that may be sufficient to state a cooperation.
Upvotes: 2
|
2018/01/25
| 1,185
| 5,145
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am a PhD candidate in computer science and I am looking for postdocs.
Surfing the web, I have found a post-doc opening that I find extremely interesting, but I do not know personally the PI of the group, nor my advisor does.
The opening asks for submitting 3 items: a CV, a cover letter and a research proposal.
Before writing a research proposal I would like to get in contact with the PI and try to understand their challenges and write something that would be meaningful for them, instead of going directly with a proposal that maybe is not of interest for them.
Which is the best way to approach a PI in this setting? Should I send him a mail with a CV and referee contacts even if this is not exactly an application, but is an informal query? Or should I go directly with the formal application?
Any experience to share?<issue_comment>username_1: Check their research interests/papers together with what is written in the opening description of the position and write something accordingly.
I do not think it is a good idea to ask the PI to *help* you with your application. If you apply for a PostDoc you need to demonstrate *originality* and that you can achieve things yourself. Asking for something that would make your application better does not stand out as original.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: I think it very strongly depends on the PI and especially on the opening. Its also a bit unconventional that there is an opening without any specification of the project. Since post-doc positions are usually financed by project bound third party funding. In any case it cannot harm to contact the PI without bothering him too much in case you phone him, prepare some one or two good suggestions for your project.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: A postdoc application process is not a competition to find which person can magically understand the PI's objectives, it is there to find the best fit for the job. On the other hand, a postdoc is the start of independent research. You should devise your own research agenda(s) and ask questions about the suitability of your ideas to get a better feel for the project.
In my direct experience and experience of people in a similar position, it is entirely normal to ask questions about the position beforehand. Have a look at the advertisement, it may even explicitly mention to email any questions. My recommendation is to email the PI with a very short description of yourself (research area, where you got your PhD from, etc.) and very short questions. If - this - job is not suitable, the PI may even have you in mind for something else.
In my case I emailed asking if there was scope to do X (there was) for a job in an entirely new field, it is the best position I've ever applied for and I wouldn't have if I had not known it was possible.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: Nice ideas by everyone. I would like to share a bit of my adventure. I aaplied to a post doc position which did not have any specific details of the current or proposed work, instead general post doc duites, like reviewing literature, helping anlaysis and manuscript drafts, etc.. I sent my CV and a general letter of interest to the Institute director (small research setup). he emailed me that he will forward it to interested people. Then, Next day, I had an offer for a telephonic interview. I scheduled it in 3 days, and tried to look at all work done by the researchers there. The interview was for one hour with exchanging general interests, going through my CV, and future career goals. I did google lot of information for telephonic inerviews and felt like I impressed the three interviewers. At the end of the interview, one PI asked me to send a one page proposal of what I wanted to do! No more details were divulged. Here is what I played. I consulted my mentor and looked in the internet for how to write this. There was one big problem, none of the interviewers gave any hint of who could be my PI! Smart! I took a gamble and wrote a proposal which touched upon all the three PIs research. Now, I just prayed!!
After a week I got this email. Dear Drxxx, We are sorry to tell you that we do not have data which could suit your proposal.....However, currently we are exploring two topics in our institute. 1.xxx. 2.yyy. If you are interested you can send a one page specific aims on any one within 2 weeks. Now, I know what to write! I chose one topic and wrote a proposal. I am thinking that I will get the offer! Again.,.Let see! Hoping this will help somebody
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: Depending on where you are, you may be able to also look up the PI's recent funding success, for example NSF (USA) and ARC (Australia) both list the funded projects.
Combining that with the PI's recent research interests and their research statement if available online should help guide you.
Alternatively, it may be that the proposal will be treated as an example of your abilities rather than the project you will be judged on. Published articles, so frequently from authorship teams, may not reflect your abilities per se.
Upvotes: 0
|
2018/01/25
| 963
| 3,922
|
<issue_start>username_0: I've applied to be a teaching assistant (helps with running undergrad labs and marking reports/tests/exams) every year so far during my PhD, but have never been successful. I'm getting to the end of my PhD, and despite my best efforts, have no teaching experience, thus that section of my CV is blank.
Would this be a bad sign for post-PhD employment?<issue_comment>username_1: If you want to stay in academia, then teaching is going to be part of the job, and you will need some experience in that field. Not having that at the end of your PhD is not a disaster, but you will need to rectify that blank spot during your postdoc phase. How big of a deal this is will depend on your discipline and your country.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Outside of academia, the lack of teaching experience will have little or no negative effect on your employment prospects.
If you are going into academic positions, the significance of not having been a TA will depend greatly on your field and the type of institution you will be working at. For instance, if you are at a research-intensive university, teaching experience isn't as essential as at a small liberal-arts college. In a similar vein, an engineering graduate is less likely to be expected to have teaching experience than a PhD recipient in, say, mathematics or the humanities.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: The short answer is yes. username_2 and username_1 have already answered why if you're going into academic jobs, so I'll focus on non-academic jobs.
The price you pay for getting teaching experience is less time spent on research. This might matter if one is going into a research job, but if not, then whether one has 5 publications or 3 isn't really that different (unless you've written things like *Nature* papers, in which case the employer might recognize the Nature brand name). What matters is whether or not you have the degree + which university awarded it. Since you're going to have these regardless of whether or not you have teaching experience, teaching experience is a "free" extra. In other words, having it never hurts and not having it is never good.
With teaching experience, you can claim more transferable skills. Even if you never go into a teaching job like giving private tuition, you can:
1. Say you are able to explain difficult concepts to students. This is transferable to, e.g., explaining your company's products to prospective clients, or to the company's marketing department.
2. Say you are able to mentor junior employees.
So: if you're able to get teaching experience, get it. If you can't, it's not critical, but it'll be a disadvantage.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: I do wish to add - it also depends on your research abilities. My advisor, who happens to be a very new hire (at a top 10 university), was not a TA even once during his PhD. He's a superstar in his field. And yet, he got a tenured-track faculty position at my university.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_5: **Learning by teaching.**
One of the most underrated experience in higher education is how much we learn when we teach. When I would see a topic for the first time, I would usually be left with the impression that I understood the topic pretty well. Looking back, this looks a bit like a delusion.
The process of having to explain the subject matter to a student helps us gain a depth of knowledge that we ordinarily don't fully realize was there.
Teaching while we learn also helps us get out of the [curse of knowledge](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curse_of_knowledge) issue that plagues scholars. Some scholars will get so steep in there subject of study that they slowly lose the ability to speak intelligently about that subject matter to anyone on the outside. When we teach effectively, we have to get out of our own heads and see the world from other perspectives.
Upvotes: 1
|
2018/01/25
| 361
| 1,505
|
<issue_start>username_0: I've been more or less adding material to my CV since I started it while in grad school. As I am now a much more senior person, I am starting to feel it is a bit cluttered and perhaps larded up with inane facts about my (academic) life. For instance does it really make sense to continue to include a prize I won as an undergraduate fifteen years ago? Did it ever?
I'm curious what people think is an appropriate amount of information to include at each career stage: PhD student, Post-doc, Tenure-track, Tenured or if it doesn't make a difference.
I'm in math if people think the subject area matters.<issue_comment>username_1: You'll rarely be faulted for having too much in you CV, awards included. Very senior academics will sometimes trim off things that's seem inconsequential in retrospect, but the cutoff is often undergrad (i.e., graduate school accomplishments, however small, are often included). Sometimes even these are omitted, but it's not necessary. It's your record of accomplishments -- be proud.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: As has been suggested above, keep one version of your CV which is complete with everything you've ever done, and then trim it down as needed for a particular purpose. I keep my CV up-to-date with lists of publications, conference presentations, grants, courses taught, graduate students supervised, committees served on, etc. It's a very long document, but its easy to cut/paste what I need in various situations.
Upvotes: 2
|
2018/01/26
| 1,564
| 6,697
|
<issue_start>username_0: How would I find and select a PhD program in Computer Science, or Computer Science combined with Mathematics? Since I am not a traditional candidate, I am unable to seek relevant advice from professors and fellow student. I am not too concerned about school ranking.
Some background about me and my circumstances may help frame the question and better focus the answer.
I have substantial experience in software engineering (over 20 years), including analysis, requirements, architecture, design, (extensive) hands-on development, testing, systems, team leadership, mentoring, management, and process. Many colleagues have said that I am really good at explaining concepts. I could continue working in software development.
I have a BS Mathematics and Computer Science minor, earned prior to my software career. And I am halfway through a MS Computer Science (part-time). Grades are solid (3.8 undergrad, 4.0 grad), the schools are good, and GRE scores are good enough (>160).
I would either return to my career or I would seek a position teaching at the college level. I am not concerned about about tenure or reputation, nor do I expect to become wealthy. I am willing to TA, and would probably enjoy it.<issue_comment>username_1: On the how part, generally you shop around like you would for a car. Some really good resources you might utilize are at your local university's academic advising offices (you mention you are in a MS program right now, your department may already have one check your school's website). As some I've seen, there are generally department specific academic advisors that can field questions as to what programs suit x,y,z interests. Many times they can and will field questions from prospective students, even if you don't actually end up applying (you are prospective if you are looking around).
Web searches for your program of interest is also a very viable and strong way to find prospective degrees and programs. For instance, a quick web search of "PhD Computational Mathematics" brings up quite a few programs Princeton, Caltech, etc. These are going to be ofcourse the big schools that get returned first, but once you get the idea of what specific type of program you might want to pursue, you can then go to your local schools and ask: What do you have in Applied Math? What do you have in Computer Science? Is it theoretical or applied? Is there departmental funding for students or will I need to seek my own funds (big one)? and so on.
A third option is a bit more involved, expensive, and time consuming. You might find it useful to go to your local university and see if you can enroll as either a non-degree or second degree undergrad. I would recommend second degree, even if you don't plan on completing it, as it helps with signing up for classes. This way you can take some time getting to know what is out there now and where your interests really lie, and get prospective recommended classes out of the way before you tack on graduate fees.
Now as for prospective degrees if you want to combine CS and Math, then you may want to check out applied and computational math programs. Generally you will probably find this type of degree (US) in a school's Applied Mathematics department. This list of [Computational Math Ph.D. Programs](http://people.cs.uchicago.edu/~ridg/PhDcompumath.html) might be useful to you. When I first went through school this type of program really didn't exist in the schools I attended when I attended. I recently decided to take some refresher courses in calculus and it was through attending a local university for these courses that I found the applied math department. This then led to the Computation Mathematics with Physics dual program that I will ultimately pursue.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: *Since I am not a traditional candidate, I am unable to seek relevant advice from professors and fellow student.* — Nonsense. Of course you can seek relevant advice from professors and fellow students. Yes, you're a non-traditional student, but you're not **so** non-traditional that "traditional" advice doesn't apply to you.
You need answers to the following questions, not necessarily in the following order:
* **What kind of research do you want to do?** — Are you interested in doing research in algebra, algorithms, analysis (real or complex), animation, architecture, artificial intelligence,...? Which subfield(s) of mathematics and/or computer science do you enjoy working in, and which subfields are you actually good at? This is **not** the same question as "Why kind of classes you you want to take?" A PhD is a *research* degree; admissions committees will be looking for your interests and potential as a *researcher*. It's perfectly fine not to know precisely which subfield you want to work in, but you should at least have some explicit priorities.
* **Who does the kind of research you want to do?** — Who are your potential advisors? Your advisor and your other faculty mentors/collaborators have at least as big an effect on your success (and enjoyment) as a PhD student as the department you apply to. Look for departments that have at least two or three people who are active and successful in your target subfield(s). You don't want to find yourself in a department where nobody does what you care about, or more subtly, where only one professor does anything you care about, but the two of you don't get along for some reason.
* **What are other strengths and weaknesses of the departments?** — Now that you know who you'd like to work with, and where those people work, other factors come into play. How strong is the overall department? What are the course requirements? Given your past record (and likely recommendation letters), how likely are you to be admitted? How likely are you to get funding? What is the expected workload for teaching assistants? Are there many other nontraditional students? Again, you don't need firm answers to every question about every department, and some questions can only be answered by a physical visit after being admitted.
* **Can you see yourself living there for five years?** Is the department in a big city/small town? What's the weather like? What's the traffic like? What are the local politics? How good is the local food/coffee/beer? Any good nearby farmer's markets / museums / hiking / judo / frisbee golf / hip-hop / swing dancing / fishing / rock-climbing / maker spaces / improv / underwater hockey / SCUBA / musical theater / Zen centers? How close are your family and friends? If you're married: Are there opportunities for your spouse? If you have kids: How good are the schools?
Upvotes: 3
|
2018/01/26
| 1,553
| 6,750
|
<issue_start>username_0: We had a tenure track professor announce she was leaving at the start of the academic year. Documented in faculty meeting minutes. Job posting appeared shortly thereafter. Candidates brought in and offers were made. This person was up for tenure. The committee voted no for tenure since she was leaving. Is the committee in error here?<issue_comment>username_1: Usually people leave before they are up for tenure when they think the answer won't be a good one. A tenure package that doesn't get you tenure at Princeton might get you tenure no-questions-asked at state school. If you make that move as fast as possible, everything you have in the pipeline can be attributed to your new institution and help with promotion there, rather than throwing your output down a poisoned well. During my time at Mid-Ivy university tenure candidate A (best candidate) was denied, future tenure candidates B and C (weaker candidates) promptly left as soon as they lined up offers elsewhere.
Is the committee at error here? Ethically if they have submitted their package, I suppose it "should" be evaluated without respect to what the candidate does afterwards. However in the real world any offer of tenure or permanency is only provided at a cost of significant intraorganizational capital all the way up to dean & potentially president level and is only offered when the expected returns on such investment are likely.
At my previous job my colleague was up for a permanent scientific position in government and had completed his entire package when he started having stomach pains. Turns out he had stage 4 cancer, and the division did not put forth his package. We all donated our sick leave to him so he could keep his salary and insurance. When I resigned I brought up that he was not put up for the permanent position he had worked over a 6-7 year period to attain and my director said "well, when he beats the stage 4 cancer and can come back to work we will put his package forward" (paraphrasing). While extremely cold, I took it to mean that he would not create a permanent position for a terminally ill employee because then he wouldn't have the capital later on to get another one. So certainly if someone is unlikely to accept the offer of tenure the tenure process would not continue. For example, try interviewing for a job and then telling the hiring manager that you were going to take an offer elsewhere. Do you think you would still get a formal offer from this hiring manager?
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: >
> The committee voted no for tenure since she was leaving. Is the committee in error here?
>
>
>
Whether it was "in error" or not clearly depends on your tenure regulations. They probably don't cover this case explicitly, but some do give committee members a fair amount of freedom to say "no" if they for some reason think that granting tenure to the applicant would be detrimental to the department.
However, more importantly, I wonder why the committee made this decision, and why it matters. Was the committee, or individual members, annoyed by the applicant leaving? Was it perceived as a pointless hassle to give tenure at this point? Maybe the decision wasn't even voted on but thrown out on formal grounds (my university would not allow somebody to go up for promotion who has handed in his resignation)?
Why does the decision matter to the applicant at this point? Would they have received faster promotion in their new place if they formally joined as associate professor? If so, was the committee made aware of this in time? It would be unfortunate if the applicant hoped to leave with tenure and the only reason why the committee threw out the case was because they falsely assumed it wouldn't matter anymore anyway.
All things considered, it's certainly possible that the committee purposefully decided to throw some sticks into the applicant's new career path, but honestly, some sort of miscommunication is probably more likely.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: Unless you were on the committee, you have no way (or at least shouldn't have any way) to know why they voted no, so there's no way to evaluate if they made a mistake or not.
If there is a mistake to point out, it would be by the faculty member, or perhaps the chair, letting the matter get to the tenure committee at all, knowing that the faculty member was leaving. I would think that from the faculty member's point of view, a negative decision is worse than the issue never coming up for vote.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: **TL;DR:** I cannot say anything conclusively. But if I assume the premise of your question in its most literal form ("The committee voted no for tenure since she was leaving"), then the possible explanations I can think of are that either the committee was in error, or they acted out of malice and/or vengefulness, or they were simply acting in accordance with the procedures of the institution where this took place.
---
**Detailed answer:** the question is missing many details about the situation, so I can only give a rather conditional and speculative answer, but as a general rule, a tenure vote should be based on the tenure candidate's achievements alone and on nothing else. To the extent that any committee member voted no *because the faculty member would be leaving*, I would regard such a vote as likely indication of either malice, or incompetence, or both. Calling it "in error" sounds about right.
With that said, there are other possible interpretations for what took place, which are not necessarily inconsistent with the details you included in your question, namely:
1. It is possible that the committee members who voted no had a sincerely held belief that the faculty member has not earned the tenure on the merits of her actual work, and that this had nothing to do with her announcing her departure.
2. It is possible that the "no" vote was a formality and meant to indicate that given the faculty member's announced departure, there is no reason to proceed further with her tenure review. The vote might still have been necessary according to the institution's policies, so people voted no to put the case to a formal rest. If this is the institution's tradition of how to handle such bizarre situations, then it may not be an indication of malice or any sort of error. (Note that I am referring to the situation as bizarre because that's how it seems to me; normally, if a faculty member is formally announcing their upcoming departure then only an institution with rather bizarre procedures would proceed with a tenure review for that faculty member when the outcome of that review is for all practical purposes meaningless.)
Upvotes: 3
|
2018/01/26
| 307
| 1,250
|
<issue_start>username_0: Almost all examples I can find in the internet do not say "letter of recommendation", however there are a few which do.<issue_comment>username_1: It’s frustrating to have to look for a bunch of emails titled “Letter of Reference” to find the one about a particular student or post doc candidate. Alternatively, if I’m on an online platform, I want to make sure I’m reading the right letter.
So, as a matter of convenience for anyone handling the letter, I include a header
>
> **Letter of Recommendation for <NAME>**
>
>
>
or something similar as the subject of my letter. That way, it’s immediately obvious who the letter is for, making life easier for whoever is organizing or evaluating the applications. If it’s a postdoctoral reference or something else being sent directly to an individual by email, I try to include this in the email header as well.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: Don't see why not, or why you should avoid it.
I really hate it when people stand on ceremony, and seem to be more worried about the format of something than the substance. No offense, but I don't think it matters, if anybody will read that letter of recommendation they'll be skimming through it.
Upvotes: 2
|
2018/01/26
| 592
| 2,574
|
<issue_start>username_0: My advisor became an assistant professor nearly two years ago. I worked with him for one year but did not publish a paper, and he thinks my progress is too slow. He asked if I want him to assign a new PhD student on this project. I replied that this was not necessary; I had been slow due to personal factors but things were improving. But he did not seem to understand. After that, he completely ignored me and stopped funding me (though he never formally "fired" me). I also find our research interests are not a good match. The project he gave me requires something new to him and me, and I think that’s a hard problem which needs more time.
What should I do? I want to change advisor and don’t want him hate me. Should I go to his office directly to talk with him, because he did not reply me after I send him several emails. I am just afraid the bad relationship will influence my reputation in department. I do have a TA position through the department, so the lack of funding is not too much of a problem.<issue_comment>username_1: If your advisor has stopped funding you, it has already affected your position in the department.
You should consult with the graduate chair of your department and see what your options are. I’d like to say that there are solutions, but this is unfortunately very much a function of who has funding and is doing a project in an area you’re interested in pursuing. You may need to apply elsewhere, if you can’t find a solution at your school.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: If a professor does not fund you, officially, the student is free to work with anyone of interest. There is not any official constraint between you and the professor. It is crucial for a student to be independent, active, and dominant by himself for a successful Ph.D. career since it is your life, not others.
Meanwhile, since he does not fund you, any academic outputs from you with other faculty members are not related to him. Also, remember to protect all your academic copy rights. The professor cannot use any of your academic results if they are produced 'solely' by the student's efforts.
To be concrete, if funding is not an issue, find someone else and just work with anyone who suits your interest. Record all your own research efforts and make it your own IP published such as on Arxiv to protect your own idea. Ignore the current one and do not let him know any of your research progress and efforts.
Just do not let the professor take any advantage of you. No worry about any unnecessary concerns.
Upvotes: -1
|
2018/01/26
| 690
| 2,995
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am currently preparing for a new class in an area in which the individual problems can be very long. (My writeups for individual homework problems were often three or four pages long when I took the same course as a student!)
Solving a typical problem involves:
1. Identifying the correct differential equations and boundary conditions to solve.
2. Making the correct assumptions and simplifications.
3. Identifying the correct solution strategy.
4. Implementing the strategy and solving the problem.
All of the above steps are of critical importance, as we introduce new methods and approaches for each.
Given that, an in-class exam would only have enough time for one problem—so there would be no easy way to evaluate mastery of the breadth of the material. So I’ve been thinking of doing an out-of-class exam. The time would be long enough that the students would have time to think through things, but not long enough that they could spend a lot of time trying to look things up on the internet. The class is also small enough that it would be fairly easy to detect plagiarized work or students copying off of one another. (I suspect four to six hours is sufficient.)
Are there more viable or effective strategies for testing in such circumstances?<issue_comment>username_1: One alternative would be to have multiple problems and with the steps necessary for the resolution in multiple choice questions regarding the process. This way it could be a matter of reading and thinking fast.
At the end they could one of the problems (let's say you proposed 4) and solve it completely.
-- EDIT --
Considering the new information, you could use in-class time for them to get to step 3 and let them solve step 4 out-of-class, maybe with MatLab or Octave (if that fits the course).
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: Split up the question into subsections that, in total, are the initial large question. Turn these into individual questions, in-place of the expected components of the large question.
>
> 1. Identifying the correct differential equations and boundary conditions to solve.
> 2. Making the correct assumptions and simplifications.
> 3. Identifying the correct solution strategy.
> 4. Implementing the strategy and solving the problem.
>
>
>
---
Wait. Do you want us to tell you how to test with a single large question, or how to make a test that would "evaluate mastery of the breadth of the material"?
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: The most time-consuming and least information-bearing step (at least for the purpose of evaluating understanding of the material) is 4. In this situation I've often just given questions asking the students to do 1-3 and explicitly told them to not go through the calculation. It's better if you prep them for this by giving such a question on a quiz first since many students tend to go on autopilot after a couple of decades of being trained to come up with an answer.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]
|
2018/01/27
| 609
| 2,397
|
<issue_start>username_0: When I asked for the letter, last semester’s grades hadn’t been fully uploaded to the system so among the things my professor wrote, they said I was a top-5% student. This week, grades were updated and now I’m the top student in my cohort.
I don’t want to bother my professor again, and they might not respond in time for the deadline (Feb 1st). Would it be okay to add a small note at the end of my cover letter indicating my new standing?<issue_comment>username_1: The info in the LOR is not incorrect, it is at best incomplete. There is no need for a rectification. I would mention that you are the top student for sure, but you do not need to relate it to the LOR. If you do want to do that, you want to avoid raising questions like, "what else is inaccurate?", so you need to clearly state *why* the LOR is incomplete.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: If I was writing the letter, it wouldn't matter to me if you were the top student in your cohort; I still might list you as a Top 5% (or Top 10%) student.
I've been asked to fill out similar references before, and I'm often asked if the person I'm evaluating would be considered Top 5%, Top 10%, Top 25%, etc. In my mind (unless stated otherwise), I am not being solicited for a precise numerical calculation based entirely on GPA or class performance; rather, I'm considering a myriad of other factors as well, such as reliability, attitude, professionalism, integrity, etc.
You don't say what your letter is for (employment or graduate school), but, either way, the student who is top of my class academically (that is, the one with the highest average) isn't necessarily the first student I'd recommend for hiring – and I answer the "Top X%" questions accordingly.
Moreover, your professor may not be evaluating you among the classmates in your cohort, but taking a more historical look at all the students he's ever had who have taken the class(es) you took. So, for example, if you took BWV 201 with me, and asked for a reference, I am going to evaluate you as compared to all the students I've ever had who ever took BWV 201 – not just the handful of students who happened to take that class with you last year, or the students you are graduating with on graduation day.
Bottom line: I'd recommend that you be happy with the high rating you got, and stick with that.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]
|
2018/01/27
| 753
| 3,135
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am a PhD student and recently I came across a researcher who is currently an assistant professor. I don’t know them. But I want their thesis, which is currently not available online. I want to know details of their work.
Is it okay to ask an unknown professor or researcher for their PhD thesis via email?<issue_comment>username_1: Yes, it is completely fine to ask them, but before you do, it helps to be aware of a few things:
* In many if not most fields and countries, PhD theses are somewhere between
+ a recompilation of previously published papers with an introduction and a conclusion and possibly with some additional content that did not fit into publications,
+ just a collection of published papers.This is particularly likely to apply if the thesis is not to be found in a published form.
So, the more important results of a PhD work are likely to be published.
This doesn’t make it invalid to ask for the thesis, but it may be worth checking what that person published during their PhD time before asking.
This way you can establish whether you are actually interested in the thesis and what parts you are interested in.
* Depending on the field, it is rather uncommon that somebody is really interested in an entire thesis, and not just a certain aspect.
Hence a more specific request including why you are interested in the thesis or what specific aspects you want to know about is more likely to gain you what you need.
Usually, the author can directly tell you, which chapters or sections are relevant to you.
For example, the most interesting content that is exclusive to my thesis is a brief review of the general topic in the introduction.
The requirement of publishing my thesis was waived because all essential parts were already published.
If somebody wrote me a mail just asking for my thesis, I would ask them what part or aspect they are interested in and then send them the corresponding paper(s).
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: >
> Is it okay to ask an unknown professor or researcher for their PhD thesis via email?
>
>
>
**Yes.**
I did it a lot and always got the thesis (or any other kind of paper) sooner or later. Typically, you are also likely to get a positive answer if you ask politely and provide the author with the details on why you need the thesis. After all, the author wishes to promote his or her name.
In certain rare cases, you'd get a negative answer:
* Thesis contains classified information, and you are not allowed to read it (e.g., you are in the US and asking a Russian for his/her dissertation on ICBM-related technology).
* The thesis has low quality. ("I wrote it late at nights.")
* The thesis is old and available only in print, so sending it would take more than 5 minutes.
* The thesis is lost and even the university library does not have it any more.
* The author lost interest in research.
* The author is busy and you seem too unimportant to bother to answer.
* The author wants to get the thesis published first and only then share it. (Thanks to @greenb.)
Again, all these cases are rare.
Upvotes: 3
|
2018/01/27
| 820
| 3,330
|
<issue_start>username_0: I submitted my PhD thesis to my department last August for examination. However, I found out from my supervisor that my department only sent my thesis to examiners last November for examination. So it took them about 3 months to get my thesis to examiners. Before submitting my thesis, my supervisor already has elected examiners to examine my thesis and they all agreed to do so. Thus, there would be no problem in getting examiners to examine my thesis. And crazy thing is, when I confronted the staff who is supposed to handle my thesis examination, she nonchalantly said that she was so busy handling something else and she apologized for purposefully delaying my viva because her plate was full. I was beyond furious to learn how unprofessional she is when handling my thesis. Now I am thinking to lodge a report to the Dean of my school regarding how unprofessional my department was in handling my viva voce. But then, I'm scared that my department will have their vendetta against me when they found out that I made a report. Another option is to lodge a report to the Dean once I graduate from the PhD program but that seems like a cowardly move.
What should I do?<issue_comment>username_1: Complaining about this won't speed up your defense or get your thesis to your committee any faster. It will just make you disliked within your department. Accept the loss of time, do your defense, get your degree, and start your next job. Unless there are specific rules against doing so, take the lesson that when getting *your* thesis to *your* committee and scheduling *your* defense date, no administrator will ever take the issue as seriously as *you*. So instead of delegating something you care a lot about to someone who doesn't care at all about this task, you could do these tasks yourself and get them done under a timescale you like.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: I assume English is a second language for you.
Purposefully is not the correct word here.
>
> in a way that shows determination or resolve
>
>
>
Purposely is what I think you mean
>
> on purpose; intentionally
>
>
>
To me it does not sound like the delay was on purpose. It was negligent of the staff not to take the time to complete this fairly simple task. A three month delay is not reasonable and I can understand you are upset.
For sure the department as a whole did not do this on purpose.
I don't see how going to the Dean would help you. I don't see how that would speed up the process at this point.
If you do go to the Dean I suggest you not use words like on purpose or unprofessional. Communicate the problem and how it impacted you. It is fair to name the person responsible for the delay.
Maybe your supervisor could tell the examiners there was a delay and ask them review quickly.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: Yes, you should report this to the dean.
If you are afraid of retaliation, then you can wait until your degree is awarded.
It sounds like your real problem is that your department does not have enough staff to fulfill its obligations to students. It is (normally) the dean's responsibility to ensure adequate staffing, so it is very appropriate to tell the dean about it. Just state the facts, leaving out your feelings about how you were treated.
Upvotes: 0
|
2018/01/27
| 1,418
| 5,632
|
<issue_start>username_0: I'm considering doing a PhD in the social sciences at an Israeli university. My research will not be conflict-focused, and I'm not sure yet whether it will have a local component. I would likely do research that appeals to more left-wing academics (economically and socially), perhaps those who would be inclined to adopt a [Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boycott,_Divestment_and_Sanctions) stance.
My question is: If I chose to obtain a PhD in Israel, will the boycott movement significantly affect my academic career? If so, how?
I've asked a few local scholars and have received mixed responses.<issue_comment>username_1: If there is going to be a problem, then it will occur when searching collaborating institutions outside Israel. I know there has been talk about stopping such collaborations. However, how much that has been implemented is another question. In my field (quantitative sociology) that has not been the case. The argument being that you are not going to help solve a conflict by closing down channels of communication. This is not the place to discuss the merits of that argument, but you can imagine that such an argument is popular in academia. So I suspect that it should be possible to find a collaborating institution if you needed one.
I don't think you have to worry about the value of your PhD. That should be recognised outside Israel without problems.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: tl;dr: It probably won't affect your career.
### You would be in clear violation the academic boycott
Please read the [guidelines document](https://bdsmovement.net/pacbi/academic-boycott-guidelines) of the Palestinian [academic boycott](https://bdsmovement.net/academic-boycott), which is the (most/single) relevant aspect of the BDS movement to your question.
In the document, you will note the position that:
>
> Academic institutions are a key part of the ideological and institutional scaffolding of Israel’s regime of occupation, colonialism and apartheid against the Palestinian people.
>
>
>
and consequently
>
> Specifically, the following events, activities, or situations are in violation of the Palestinian academic boycott:
>
>
> ...
>
>
> 11. International students enrolling in or international faculty teaching or conducting research at degree or non-degree programs at an Israeli institution.
>
>
>
I'm assuming you are not Palestinian, nor an Israeli whose enrollment in Israeli institutions is obviously exempted and not considered a violation.
It does not matter:
* What the contents of your research is
* What your political position is
* What the political position of your research supervisor/advisor is
### You would be considered as benefiting at the Palestinians' expense and legitimizing their predicament
Millions of Palestinians are not able to travel to Palestine (especially the areas considered part of sovereign Israel), live there, study and work there, and particularly, undertake Ph.D. programs. You, however, will do so; and the symbolism is pretty powerful. This will be perceived by many as benefiting from the dispossession and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians. Moreover, it is the Israeli state at whose will you may enter, and they - the Palestinians - may not; and your availing yourself of that possibility will be perceived as legitimizing this control, this power, Israel has.
### Whoever becomes your advisor would be abetting your violation
An academic at an Israeli university who respects the boycott cannot be your Ph.D. supervisor/advisor.
"... but will this all affect my career?"
-----------------------------------------
Only a minority of academics support the boycott - not because most academic oppose it (which they may or may not), but more because most academics have never given it much thought, and have at most heard about it in the media. I'm not basing this on statistics though, but rather on my impression and limited personal knowledge.
In addition, only a minority of those who support the boycott - again, in my belief and to my impression - would actively penalize, or distance themselves from, people who violate the boycott. And that is particularly true for a Ph.D. candidate, who can claim "I just went there, I don't accept Israel's policies nor the collaboration between the universities and the military etc."
However, if you are interested in academic activity in subfields or in institutions in which this minority is more common (e.g. in Arab countries; Middle-Eastern/Palestinian Studies; etc.) - then the chances are somewhat higher. Since I'm not in that situation (nor have I violated the boycott), I can't be more specific.
Even then, institutions in most countries will not condone discrimination against you based on your violation of the boycott, so the space for actions against you would be limited. In fact, in some places - it is people who endorse the boycott, or that are critical of Israel and US and European support for it, that are ostracized and penalized. The US almost passed a law making support for BDS illegal, and one of the states actually went ahead with it (although that state law was struck down as unconstitutional).
So your career will probably be unaffected. It will mostly be a matter of conscience you have to decide.
(Of course it *will* affect your career by your being immersed in the academic and social environment of an Israeli university, which will affect how you develop as a person and your perspective as a researcher. But that's not quite what you were asking.)
Upvotes: 3
|
2018/01/27
| 1,480
| 6,271
|
<issue_start>username_0: I feel that I can get into big trouble very soon. I have been working on my master's thesis in computer science area for about 3 months(out of 6) and still haven't achieved any meaningful result. Although I am working really hard(at least 8 hours per day + some time during weekends), I can't see any hope how to complete this research in remaining 3 months and compile it as a thesis.
The problem is that my supervisor selected very ambitious project for me. Initially, I was a bit scared, but general idea was looking quite meaningful. He promised that "we will be the first who have done this, bla-bla-bla....". In addition to this, he also offered quite generous funding. And I swallowed the bait)
Now, after several months of research, I can claim that the method we are developing looks a bit meaningless(that is why there are no any research on it). Maybe if we dig deeper, this will start making sense, but MS thesis is just for 6 months, I cannot afford doing this research for 1-1.5 years.
So now I am considering dropping out of the project and finding a new supervisor.
Would you recommend doing this? Or, otherwise, how to deal with MS research which yields no results? How this can affect my grade?<issue_comment>username_1: I suggest not worrying too much about it. Research is often never finished - you can reach a nice stopping point, but there's always something further you can try. It's not uncommon for a Masters student to graduate and then the supervisor engage a PhD student to keep developing the work.
If you can't complete the research in the remaining 3 months after three months of preparatory work, what are the odds that you'll be able to jump ship and complete a different project in 3 months?
Your supervisor should be aware of how much he can ask from a Masters student. If the conclusion is you've genuinely tried + learned something, but he gave you too ambitious a project, then you'll probably get the MS degree anyway. If you did better than expected of MS students, you might even get a MS degree with honours. Just relax, do your best, and don't worry too much.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: Normally a Master’s by research is around 1.5 to 2 years long. Most meaningful research work comes out of this pure research program.
Yours is a 6 month research program as part of a larger coursework program. Thus I would not expect much in-roads into the topic (however there are a few people who really make nice breakthroughs).
The key is to know where to stop. It’s seems like you are working on a new thing. Thus merely summarizing and insignificantly expanding the knowledge of the current boundary seems to be fine! It’s an MSc not a PhD! :)
I know a friend who spent 4 years doing a 1 year MSc project as part of his 2 year MSc coursework degree. It really can get out of control. I don’t think he made a significant contribution even after all that time and I think he regrets it to this day. To top it off, he didn’t even have funding. Go figure.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: Your situation is quite common with MS theses (in the US at least). There are several people who are given ideas from their advisors which either turn out to be dead-ends or take up much more than the allotted time. In EECS, the MS thesis defense is more about displaying your ability to conduct research than having significant results. Clearly describe the problem, your methods, and display preliminary results whether they are significant or not.
As an example, a professor in my university is interested in inverse problems in imaging. Every once in a while he takes up a student for an MS thesis for denoising images. Problem is, nothing really beats an algorithm called BM3D in terms of PSNR for denoising images (except in specific circumstances). So he has had a few MS students who developed a new method which didn't work as well as BM3D but nonetheless conducted meaningful research and successfully defended. Everyone on your committee knows that it is impossible to anticipate whether an idea will actually work before doing it.
Switching topics and advisor halfway through might not work (how do you know that a new idea is doable in time before actually doing it?). Usually, this is best reserved for situations where there are inter-personal conflicts. Assuming that your advisor is looking out for your best interests, schedule a meeting and talk to them about your concerns with the amount of time you have left and what aspect of the project you should focus on.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_4: tl;dr: Talk to your advisor about how to proceed
------------------------------------------------
Indeed, as others suggest, yours is not an uncommon situation; and in fact many (most?) Masters' projects are actually 1.5-2 years long anyway. But, be that as it may - don't agonize over this alone: You have a supervisor. **Use him/her.** It's also their responsibility to make sure that you're on track, and it's also their fault if you've gotten stuck in a dead end. Tenured academics are also evaluated by the performance of their grad students, so there's also a "utilitarian" benefit to him/her helping you.
Your advisor is likely to have reasonable suggestiongs that are more specific to your situation rather than the wild guesses we're making.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_5: Talk with your supervisor about your concerns. It is his role to give you guidance on how to proceed, not just at the start but throughout the project. Communicate with him regularly, not just by email but especially in person. His job is not only to challenge, but also to help. **I bet he's had his share of struggling students who reacted by undercommunicating for too long.** (I have been on either side of this dynamic.)
Don't feel bad for appearing to be underperforming. Sometimes things turn out to be harder than expected – that's why it's called research. Show him why you think it can't be done within the 6-month timeframe, and what you reasonably expect to complete. It's his call to decide whether the problem is above or you are below expectations. In either case, **keep him informed sooner than later, so he can make a better judgment.**
Upvotes: 2
|
2018/01/28
| 504
| 2,012
|
<issue_start>username_0: I know many people have asked similar questions and admissions can sometimes be a crapshoot. But, I am currently a sophomore mathematics major at a non-target top 25 public school. If I can maintain a 3.8+ GPA and major GPA, is that a respectable range for a top grad program? I know GRE scores are a factor too, but have not taken them yet. But I am currently doing undergrad research with a professor (maybe will get my name on a paper) and plan to do departmental honors, which requires me to write a thesis by the time I graduate. Struggling with trying to decide if I want to do industry or grad school. My advisor of course is pushing me towards grad school and tells me if I maintain my grades I will have a good shot. I also plan to take hopefully 2-3 grad courses by the time I graduate. What realistically are my chances? I know it is hard to say without GRE's and no answer is definite, but is it even worth me looking at top tier programs?
Thanks.<issue_comment>username_1: Your chances are likely pretty good if you can keep up the grades and the rest of your application is strong. Here at UMich in the computer science and engineering department where I teach, for example, it takes about a 3.8 GPA to be a competitive applicant for our PhD program.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: It depends on the definition of "a top grad program".
I think your GPA is good. GRE is usually not a (big) factor. I would expect most applicants to have >85/90%. If you are worried take the test as soon as possible. You can choose to send only your best result at the end.
Graduate courses are good only if you get good grades from them.
Try to make sure you get at least 3 strong recommendation letters by the time of the application. You want them to be from your field of interest. At least one should be from a more experienced faculty.
Also if it is possible try to get some undergraduate research experience. It helps, but it is not necessary.
Upvotes: 2 [selected_answer]
|
2018/01/28
| 1,615
| 6,908
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am an undergraduate at a US college. I wanted to take a course in a specific area of my major so that I could do better research during the summer. I do not have the prerequisite courses but I have extensive industry experience in this area so they are much less relevant. The course instructor (A) was ok with allowing me. I tried to respectfully ask permission from the department undergraduate advisor (B) but he refused permission right away and wasn't interested in what I had to say.
In a last-ditch attempt to be able to take the course, I emailed a higher-ranking professor (C) in the department explaining the issue and asking if she could help. This professor (C) forwarded my email to the original advisor B, who immediately sent me a nasty email saying that I don't dare ask someone else after I asked him.
While I can understand why the advisor reacted this way, why would a department member forward an email explaining a problem between a professor and student to the professor? I cannot wrap my head around it. Is this normal behavior for academic faculty?<issue_comment>username_1: It's normal to send complaints to people complained about, and if anything you should complain again to someone else about the first incident + the new nasty email incident.
If you could complain anything about anyone and they would never find out what the complaint was or from who and somehow be punished for it, that would fail universally.
When you complain about someone, you should expect it to be read by everyone at the university. Eventually, if your complain is not dealt with appropriately, you can post your complaints + any relevant responses to some campus facebook page or something and see what everyone else thinks about it.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: If your complaint was framed as a request and didn't state that you already tried and failed to get a positive response from the responsible undergrad advisor, it is normal and efficient from the higher-up's perspective to send it to the person in charge.
If your complaint indeed stated that you are unsatisfied with the response from the undergrad advisor and are seeking redress, then it's normal to involve the undergrad advisor but unprofessional to forward your mail without at least masking your name. However, it would still be easy for the advisor to infer the author of the complaint, unless this is a huge department with many similar complaints coming in at the same time.
The reason why the higher-up forwarded your mail can only be guessed. Either they misunderstood your mail, thinking it wasn't a complaint but a request in line with the first paragraph, or they were unprofessional. It is within your rights, in any case, to seek redress to administrative decisions like the waiving of requisite courses, and therefore incorrect if the undergrad advisor tells you not to 'dare ask someone else'. If they don't leave it at an angry email (but I think they will), you still have the option to bring the matter to your university's ombudsperson.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: >
> While I can understand why the advisor reacted this way, why would a department member forward an email explaining a problem between a professor and student to the professor?
>
>
>
Is it the senior professor's formal task to handle complaints about or escalations from the advisor?
If **yes**, the senior professor indeed acted fairly unprofessionally, although it is a reality that in most cases the person that you complained about will learn about *who* complained about them as a matter of practicality (see some other answers for why this is).
If **no**, then, well, I am not sure what you thought would happen. Then you sent a random (presumably busy) senior person a mail about an issue that is in no way relevant to their tasks, and they did the only thing that makes sense from their perspective: glance the mail and forward to the person who is actually in charge for the request.
Look, I get that the first instinct when you get an unsatisfying decision is that you "would like to talk to the manager", but this is not how academia (or, really, any business) works. Department administrators delegate specific types of decisions to individual faculty members so that they *don't* have to deal with them one-by-one anymore. This is arguably not helped by the fact that faculty in academia tend to be very wary to step onto each other's toes. Hence, you will need to work with the undergrad advisor on these issues, even if you don't care for him much.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_4: The text of your question implies that you are supposed to take some requisite courses first to be able to take this specific course. I don't think it is the advisor who established this policy, probably this is a policy of your college, so he just enforced the policy. The fact that you asked the advisor "respectfully" does not mean that he owes you anything. You call your letter to the senior faculty a "complaint", but what exactly were you "complaining" of? That the advisor followed the policy and did not want to open this can of worms (I guess they get an awful lot of similar requests)? Neither the senior faculty was under any obligation to make exceptions to the policy for you. I suspect that (s)he concluded that the advisor had acted within his rights, so there was no formal basis for your complaint and thus no reason to overrule the advisor.
My answer may look rude to you, but maybe your life will become a bit easier if and when you understand that nobody owes you anything (unless they do owe you:-)).
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_5: It doesn't strike me as normal, ethical, or sensible... but awkward things like this happen sometimes. Email etiquette isn't universally defined or followed.
When trying to persuade an administrator to take a certain action, it can be helpful to have a live conversation (phone or in-person).
A side benefit of this approach is that there is no potentially embarrassing email trail.
Moral of the story: you should never write anything in an email that would cause embarrassment if it were to fall into the wrong hands (e.g. through some thoughtless forwarding).
Right now I suggest your main message, to anyone you can get to talk with you, is to persuade them that you have enough of a background to be able to do well in this course. From your description, I would think any reasonable administrator would waive the prereq.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_6: I think you were mistreated to have that email forwarded. Don't at all agree with the answers here saying you could not go to someone else. And you HAD already had the discussion with the given professor. It is your life, your time. That said, I also would have gone in person to have the discussion, not sent an email. Lesson for the future.
Upvotes: 2
|
2018/01/28
| 1,993
| 8,839
|
<issue_start>username_0: I've started to look for postdoc possibilities as my PhD is getting closer to its end (in 6-7 months).
My PhD was in the area of Machine Learning and more specifically motion data analysis (and even a more detail subset of that!). So at the start i focused on the institutes which are doing that specif type of research at the moment. But my supervisor told me that generally it is not advisable to continue the exact line of research which i did in my PhD! He suggested other areas of Machine Learning or even interdisciplinary topics like Robotics!
By heart, i trust him about his advice, but i'm still puzzled! For example if i want to apply for a postdoc advertisement, don't i have to show i gathered relevant skills and experiences during my PhD? and of course during my PhD i gathered skills mostly related to my topic of research and have published also mainly in the same sub-field.
Well, definitely there are few areas different than my PhD's which i really like to work on, for example the link between Robotics and Machine learning and etc. But how can i show i have a strong profile when i want to apply for a category not close to my PhD topic?<issue_comment>username_1: If you want to grow your skills professionally, you should postdoc in an area which is complementary to but different than your current expertise. If you want a faculty position you should find the 1 or 2 people in your exact field who have a current track-record of placing people into faculty positions and then try to postdoc for that person.
Finishing my PhD I chose my postdoc group by looking at what skills I wanted to add and what areas were interesting in my very broad field. Therefore I joined a large group led by an ambitious Assistant Professor. The research program on the PI's website were exactly(!) the focus areas and skillsets I wanted to learn. My time in this group was extremely productive. I was given the chance to learn entirely new fields and go after problems of my own selection. I was able to mentor several graduate students and undergraduate students and design projects for them that led to coauthorships and patents for me independent of my own hands-on contributions. My boss never sat on a manuscript I gave him for any longer than a month before clearing it for submission. In total I authored or coauthored roughly 21 peer-reviewed manuscripts from this 4-year era and I received two internationally competitive awards for my research. This part was really great!
The bad part was my ambitious boss was also selfish and a little insecure. After receiving tenure his focus went towards marshaling support for winning every conceivable young investigator award out there. I was always pushed to go for low-hanging-fruit projects that would place well in midrange journals at the expense of investing time in deep skillset learning or high-impact projects. He was not supportive of me or the other postdoc finding a faculty job, because advocating for us would take away capital he needed to win personal awards. He wanted to look over my faculty application not to provide constructive input but ensure that no ideas that were generated from my current research were in the application. Therefore the research Ideas I proposed were far enough outside my core research expertise and demonstrated accomplishments that hiring committees could easily dismiss them. The places I obtained interviews based on my own merits were extremely deficient in the opportunity and support they could offer me. Those places, with their poor resources were especially turned off that I channeled my bosses' ambitious attitude. I proudly stated I hoped to grow a group larger-than-average there, and also hoped to be in a position to win young investigator awards around the time I received tenure. At the end of this failed cycle I felt very professionally empty. Was all the nights and weekends I put in to make my ideas work just to enhance my bosses' career at zero benefit to my own? My boss said I should continue working for him for 45k because with just 5 more publications or so in the next year I would be a shoo-in for a top position. I decided that was really self-serving for his own ambitions and left as soon as I could.
At this point I also had enough self-awareness in the field to see that all the good positions where startup packages and institutional support were what I desired were predominately going to people from the exact same groups. The way a good department typically does hiring is they look at what area they want to hire in and then directly contact the 1 or 2 high-status professors and ask whether they have any postdocs or students in their group looking for a position. Those candidates may have been a lot less productive than me, but they had the "right pedigree" and a tightly focused publication record and a research outlook that extended nicely from distinguished leaders of the field. This profile is 10X more appealing to hiring committees than someone who has emerged from a nobody-group with a large pile of scattershot papers.
So if I could go back in time, I don't know if I would change my mind and make the more cynical, careerist decision. If I did I would probably have a position I really liked. But I would also be a much more limited, uncreative investigator. I do wish I had a mentor at the end of my PhD that could explain the ends and outs of the consequences of these decisions. Basically my defense committee just said that I should go for a faculty position without practical advice on the sort of games I should play to make that possible.
What you do is really up to you. I will also add that the options your adviser pushes you may or may not be in your best interests. They may be looking to "place" you somewhere that helps themselves out. You should have a good idea of where you see your ambitions taking you by now.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Your postdoc gives you an opportunity to demonstrate two key traits of successful researchers: **independence** and **flexibility**. Both of these traits are essential for succeeding in any tenure-track faculty position. Consequently, building a **reputation** for these traits is essential for being hired into a tenure-track faculty position. Faculty hiring committees look for people who will succeed on their own, and who will remain successful over several *decades* as the field evolves around them.
Independence
------------
Right now your research reputation is deeply entangled with your advisor's. The research community knows your advisor better than they know you. If you've never published without your advisor, the community has no direct evidence of *your* research abilities. Even if you did most of the work, and even if your advisor tells everyone that you did most of the work, the community will give your advisor more credit than you. After all, your advisor's opinion isn't exactly unbiased; they have a vested interest in making you look good.
**The only way to build an independent research reputation is to publish independently.** At a minimum, this means publishing strong papers without your advisor. Even better is to write strong papers with new ideas/techniques that can't be traced back to your advisor. Solo followup papers on joint work with your advisor are good, but some people will still think the key ideas are your advisor's, and you're just cleaning up the low-hanging fruit. Better to strike out completely on your own.
Flexibility
-----------
Most PhD theses focus on a narrow collection of closely related problems, which are solved using similar ideas/tools/techniques. No matter how strong your thesis results are, if you've only ever done one "thing", then people will wonder if that's all you *can* do. So if all your research has been on reinforcement learning of human motion for animation synthesis from Kinect data, the research community will think of you as someone who works on reinforcement learning of human motion for animation synthesis from Kinect data. But what you *want* is for people to think of you as an expert in reinforcement learning, or an expert in animation synthesis -- or even better, an expert in machine learning more generally.
**The only way to develop a reputation for broader expertise is to demonstrate broader expertise.** That doesn't mean you have to suddenly switch to a completely different field — you do want to exploit the expertise you already have. But *something* significant needs to change—for example, statistics instead of reinforcement, or animals instead of humans, or robot motion planning instead of animation synthesis, or YouTube videos instead of Kinect data, or all of the above—that requires you to develop new ideas and new techniques.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]
|
2018/01/28
| 2,245
| 9,349
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am currently a post-doctoral researcher at some institute. My Ph.D. supervisor, from my former institute, keeps asking me to review papers that come to her for review. I am pretty sure that this is because I am good at a particular topic which is not her expertise. She has coauthored papers on the topic but she is not an expert there.
I have two problems with this. First, since I am not her student now, she should stop doing this; I am an independent researcher now. Second, I feel that this takes away credit from me. She could tell the journal that I am a better person to be a reviewer and this will benefit me since I am still young. Currently, I use my skills, time and energy to review papers for which she earns credits and I lose a chance for the same. Should I tell her this or is it normal in academics? If I should, how should I?<issue_comment>username_1: Let me be sure I understand... editors send her papers to review, she sends them to you to do the actual work, then she returns them to the editors as her work. Is that correct? If so, you have two options.
You could, the next time you get such a paper, decline immediately and without making excuses. "I'm sorry, I cannot do this, and won't be able to do so in the future." If you're afraid of burning bridges, you might find a likely excuse, such as press of work.
~~The "nuclear option" is to accept the next paper, review it, and return it directly to the editor (assuming you can identify the publication and editor) with the notation that "Dr. X asked me to review this." You absolutely will burn bridges if you do that, but you won't get any more papers from her, either.~~ **Edit:** In the comment below, username_2 is correct that what I suggested is passive-aggressive. However, if my summary in the first paragraph of the answer is correct, then the former supervisor is engaging in serial plagiarism. A *report to* the editor is equally nuclear, equally certain to burn bridges, and likely equally effective. (Before anyone says it's the same thing, I want to point out that responses to other current questions here take the position that reporting academic misconduct is not only appropriate, it is required. Of course, those answers apply to students... )
**Edit:** It was suggested in a comment that I add what happens if one burns bridges with one's former supervisor. That, of course, depends entirely on individual circumstances. The best generalization I can reach is that, the further along one is in one's career, the less damaging it is likely to be. If OP will depend on this supervisor for a recommendation following the post-doc, then it may be necessary to allow that former supervisor to continue to take advantage, or to fabricate excuses. If, at the other extreme, OP is the star of the lab and is certain of a tenure-track position at the same institution after the post-doc, then burning that bridge has less chance for harm.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_2: >
> Should I tell her this or is it normal in academics? If I should, how should I?
>
>
>
You are quite reasonable to be concerned about your former supervisor taking advantage of you in such a way. I cannot say what you “should” do, but in my opinion any of the following ways to respond would be appropriate:
1. You can tell her that you are happy to consider reviewing papers in your area, but that as an independent researcher intent on building your professional credentials you will only consider such requests coming from an editor, so she should feel free to pass your name along as a suggestion to the editor for any paper she thinks you are qualified to review.
(Note the precise language here: you don’t want to say that you are “happy to review the paper”, only that you are “happy to *consider* reviewing the paper” - since she is not an editor and is only trying to freeload on your work, it’s not really her business whether you will ultimately agree to do the review or not; moreover, if you tell her that you agree to do it, you open the way for her to try to manipulate you further by saying that since you agree, it’s more convenient/accepted/normal/[insert some other bullshit excuse here] for you to send the review through her.)
2. You can tell her that you are busy and cannot take on the review at this time. Repeat as needed until she gets the message and stops sending you these requests. (This is a white lie so not really my preferred option, but still a reasonable and socially accepted way to handle the situation.)
3. You can tell her that you cannot take on the review without explaining yourself. Repeat as needed.
As for the risks of angering your former supervisor with each of these responses: obviously you need to apply your own judgment based on your acquaintance with her, but I have this to say: even a person who tries to manipulate you or take advantage of you in a small way can still be a decent person, and can actually be impressed if you stand up for yourself in a graceful way and put them in their place if they have crossed a line of appropriate behavior. If the former supervisor is some sort of vindictive psychopath and you depend on her for future career success, you might be better off not doing anything that will upset her, but if she is a normal person who just has some flaws, I think the risk of damaging your relationship with her by asserting yourself in a polite and respectful way is very small. Conversely, the option of being a pushover and continuing to allow her to freeload on your work and talents also carries its own risk that as a result she will not have much respect for you and will not be very motivated to help you with your future career.
Hope this helps, and good luck.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: No it should not be normal. It is the decision of the editor to pick a specific reviewer. As a reviewer, you are supposed to keep the manuscript confidential. While i would see that this can be argued if you ask somebody working in your organization and reporting/being supervised by you, i think giving material to somebody whom you do not have direct control over in another institution is a pretty bad violation of the usual journal policies.
There are a number of bad situation which could arise from this
* You actually having a professional relation to the peroson which you review (without your former professor knowing)
* You telling your new boss about this, and he/she deciding to do politics using that knowledge (delaying etc)
* You plagiarizing the paper, without the editor being able to track how that ended up there (since nobody knows about it)
* You asking for changes to include references to your papers (innocent, since the editor team wont catch it...)
So no, beyond you not getting credit, i think it is a pretty shady thing.
(Added after comment): There are essentially two options, which depend on the mindset of your supervisor.
* You explain what I wrote and tell that this makes you uncomfortable - you don't have to tell about her taking credit for your work, so it is less personal.
* You inform the editor about the incident, pass your review, and ask the editor to be confidential about it. (I would imagine that they may just remove you former supervisor from their list)
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: Your concerns are fair enough to tell your former supervisor that you have your own things to do.
Try to reply the emails with a polite tone, explaining her that you do not have time for a while because you work on other papers. If she keeps sending you papers or insists on a level of harrassment, then there are two options left.
1. You can keep on reviewing papers once in a while and your problems remain.
2. In your own words in the comment to username_1's post, you can *burn the bridges*.
Burning the bridges with an abusive person (note that in this case, your former supervisor abuses your experience) is not very dangerous in my opinion. What is way more unpleasant is if your future depends on doing somebody else's job.
One life-pro-tip I always adore is
>
> Do not ask a person to do something for you as a favor, if the person does it for a living.
>
>
>
In other words, if you were in a software company and your former manager asked you write some patches, when would it worth **not** burning the bridges? Software development is a paid job, and it is not ethical to ask for someone to do it for you. Same as reviewing papers. Only difference is, you are not paid by money, but academic reputation.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_5: This person was your *advisor*, right? So she is your ally, mentor and general fan, no? You can be straight with her.
Phone call:
>
> Hi Susan. About the paper you sent me yesterday to review. I'm flattered/honored that you thought of me for reviewing it.
>
>
>
(Pause in case she wants to say something at this point, which she probably will.)
>
> The thing is, Susan, I'm at the point now where I need to start establishing myself as a reviewer in my own right.
>
>
>
(At this point she may figure it out and state the desired conclusion. If not, spell it out for her:)
>
> Could you pass my name on to the editor as a possible reviewer for papers about (description of sub-field)?
>
>
>
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]
|
2018/01/29
| 4,966
| 20,127
|
<issue_start>username_0: I attend a public university in Kentucky (USA). My professor has assigned an advocacy assignment that requires students to write three letters of support for a certain House bill that will soon be voted on (H.R. 592 / S. 109).
* The professor has given us all a template where we get to "customize" one paragraph with our own supporting statement. The letters must have our name electronically and physically signed. This bill would alter our profession and most of our college is in support of it, including the professors
* The letters must be positive and supporting of the bill. The letters must be turned in to the professor for proofreading, then will be sent by the professor to our home county/area representatives.
* The template letter repetitively thanks the representative for sponsoring the bill and provides background info as to why the representative should vote in favor of it.
I have emailed the professor, the dean of academic affairs and the dean of the college. The dean of academic affairs responded with basically "not her issue". (Although our student handbook specifically states she's next in line after a professor with any concern.) The dean of the college has not responded. And the professor announced to our class that the assignment is still due tomorrow at noon. Later, I requested to meet with him but his requested meeting time is not until after the assignment is due.
I actually have a neutral stance on this bill. My concern is that a professor is using his position and course to force students to take his personal stance on a bill that will have a major change in healthcare, specifically pharmacy practice. My main concern is that even if the professor doesn't send my letters, he will all of my classmates that may not have expressed their concern. (That's 140 students with 3 letters each = 420 letters sent)
Can a professor do this? Is this legal? Or a violation of students' First amendment?
I turned in my assignment with the preamble edit as recommended by some and met with the professor at his request. His response was that I would receive full credit for my assignment, he was unaware of this issue previously, the other course director and himself have not looked into this issue, he is retiring in March, and he has no regard to continue the discussion besides our conversation in his office. He then proceeded to tell me his personal life stories and asked questions about my history (i.e. where are you from? What do your parents do? What do you want to do in life? etc.)
There is no resolution at this point and he does not seem concerned. He has not edited the assignment (as my initial request to him was to make the assignment not part of his final course grade due to the circumstances of the assignment) and all other students were still required to do the assignment (3 endorsed letters, addressed, and stamped, in support of the particular bill) and turn them in to class teaching assistants to review and mail.
I have also researched university policies on such matters and he is in violation of University policy as well as violating students' academic freedoms. I notified him of this during the meeting and he had no response other than "well you've done your research, I have not."
This professor is in his mid-70s, very traditional, and is retiring in March (2 months) as I stated previously. I believe he doesn't want to deal with this issue and has no desire to take the time to resolve it. Do I contact him again? The assignment still stands and has not been altered. Students were forced to endorse political activity of a Professor or be reprimanded by a failing grade.
What do I do now?<issue_comment>username_1: I don't know about the legality. If you don't get an answer on that here, you could delete your question and ask it at Law.SE.
I do have a practical suggestion regarding the academic aspect of your dilemma, though.
I [read](https://www.ashp.org/Advocacy-and-Issues/Provider-Status/Pharmacy-and-Medically-Underserved-Areas-Enhancement-Act) that "The Pharmacy and Medically Underserved Areas Enhancement Act (H.R. 592/ S. 109) is bipartisan legislation that will amend section 1861 (s) (2) of the Social Security Act to include pharmacists on the list of recognized healthcare providers." And that this is analogous to the transition nurse-practitioners underwent at some point to be able to treat and prescribe, similar to what doctors do. Apparently this bill is a bipartisan effort.
I'm confused -- are you against this bill? Or are you just bothered by the instructor requiring that students take a certain stance?
But either way, I think the solution to your dilemma, in the immediate term, is to write a short, persuasive essay explaining your position, and hand it in without the envelope.
You can certainly continue working your way up the ladder expressing your concern about the nature of the assignment (regardless of the legality, you can in either case express a concern). But I don't see how you can be certain of getting your point of view heard by the higher-ups before the due date.
---
**Edit**: Thanks to the reference to FIRE (Foundation for Individual Rights in Education) provided in a comment by @rath, I found a [similar case from Citrus College](https://www.thefire.org/cases/citrus-college-compulsory-anti-war-speech/) for you. An excerpt from FIRE's description of the case:
>
> A Citrus College professor had compelled undergraduate students to write anti-war letters to President <NAME>, penalizing the grades of students who dissented or refused to send the letters. After FIRE intervened, the Citrus College administration repudiated this outrage and resolved all issues in favor of freedom of conscience.
>
>
>
FIRE has resources that could be helpful for you, including an outline of the "fundamental right of freedom of conscience and the threats to this right on college campuses." An excerpt from the intro:
>
> **Freedom of conscience** is the right to arrive at one’s private beliefs without coercion from those in power. Differences of opinion are the natural byproducts of a vibrant, free society. Unfortunately, at some of our nation’s colleges and universities, students are expected to share a single viewpoint on hotly debated—and often highly personal—issues. The two primary ways freedom of conscience is threatened on college campuses are through viewpoint discrimination and thought reform.
>
>
> **Thought Reform**: Listening to different opinions and being exposed to unique perspectives, especially those with which you don’t agree, is a fundamental aspect of the college experience. Colleges and universities overstep their role as educational institutions when they demand adherence to certain values and subject students to disciplinary charges or mandatory counseling for failing to demonstrate a commitment to those values.
>
>
>
It can be helpful to look up your institution's mission and policy documents, including the code of conduct, and quote from them, because when administrators reading your letter recognize their own rhetoric, it will be easier for them to read with a mindset that's favorable to the letter writer.
On the other hand, if you can't find a clear institutional commitment to freedom of conscience on campus, that's a problem, worth pointing out.
Hopefully your instructor will realize that he didn't think things through enough, and will take the opportunity to open up a class discussion of this issue.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: >
> Can a professor do this? Is this legal? Or a violation of students' First amendment?
>
>
>
You are 100% correct to be concerned. No, the professor most certainly cannot do such a thing; his behavior is deeply unethical and a blatant abuse of his authority. I am not a lawyer and can't comment about legality, but for a professor to coerce students to express political opinions they may not hold would certainly violate longstanding traditions of academic freedom and freedom of speech. Honestly, while the behavior may well be illegal, it is in any case bad enough that in my opinion you have more than enough ammunition to fight it even without resorting to legal arguments, so I don't think legality even necessarily matters that much.
As for how to respond, I think the emails you sent to the deans are a good start. Basically you need to alert some sensible people at your school (I am sure there are some) to what's going on and get their help with stopping the professor from sending out the fraudulent letters -- these could be student union representatives, the department chair, an ombudsperson, or all of the above. You can even consider contacting some local journalists and/or state legislators, although I would advise keeping things within the campus for starters.
In the meantime, while you are waiting for help to arrive, I would advise you to do the letter-writing assignment as you were asked and submit it by the deadline, but following the guidelines in my answer to [this question](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/57894/how-should-i-communicate-that-i-do-not-hold-the-views-expressed-in-a-paper-i-wro) regarding how to prevent the opinions you are being forced to express from being attributed to you against your will - that is, do not sign the letter, and preface it with a disclaimer in big bold letters and a verbatim quote of the assignment. The point of this is that the professor can reasonably ask you to write a letter where you advocate beliefs you may disagree with if he sincerely believes that that promotes the learning objectives of the course he is teaching, so it would be prudent of you to complete that part of the assignment in order to not get a failing grade and maintain the high moral ground in any battles that lie ahead; however, I do not believe that he has the authority to force you to pretend to endorse the letter's content. It would also be a good idea to seek legal advice, for example on [law.se](https://law.stackexchange.com) and/or by talking to an actual lawyer. Good luck!
————
**Edit, added a bit later:** It’s fascinating to me that this is taking place in the context of a course called Leadership in Pharmacy. It seems to me that by fighting this injustice you are showing a much greater understanding of what leadership is (and will likely learn much more valuable lessons about leadership) than either the professor or those among your fellow classmates who will follow the professor’s instructions without questioning them. Please allow me to congratulate you on your good sense and initiative. In my book you have already earned an A+.
————-
~~Also, as others have said in the comments, do come back and add an update to your question later to report on how the situation resolved itself.~~ **Further edit, added in response to OP’s update of the question:** Since it looks like you won’t be getting the cooperation of the professor, I suggest continuing to send emails to draw attention to the situation. The key is to recruit allies who will be in a position to get the professor to see how unacceptable his behavior is. Some specific ideas I can think of are:
1. Write an email to the department chair, dean and the university general counsel in which you describe the behavior, explain why you believe it violates university policy (and why it’s illegal if you think you can substantiate such a claim). Describe your conversation with the professor and its unsatisfactory outcome, and ask for their intervention. Consider adding a threat, either explicit or veiled, that you will contact the media if no action is taken.
2. Alternatively and/or at the same time, try to find some classmates who are upset about what’s happening. If a good number of students band together and begin to voice loud dissatisfaction in emails to the department and university administration and/or social media, the university will be compelled to act. That will also reduce the risk that you will be singled out for retaliation.
3. Use social media. A single tweet or short blog post may be all it takes to attract some serious public and media attention to the story.
4. Get a lawyer. Official-looking letters bearing a signature ending with “Esq.” are a hell of a lot more scary to university officials than an email from an undergraduate and will command immediate respect.
As before, I think it’s advisable to try resolving the situation quietly without attracting attention from outside the campus if possible, since that carries the least risk to you of retaliation or somehow being dragged into a serious public scandal that you have no wish to be a part of. However, it seems that you are fast approaching a point where you have exhausted your options within the campus and it may well be beneficial to seek more public attention, so going public should be an option to consider seriously, while keeping in mind that that means a higher level of commitment and risk of disruption to your life.
One final piece of advice: in all your communications with university officials and/or the media, keep your tone *neutral* and *factual*. Describe facts (“this is a violation of university policy XYZ”), not opinions (“this is an outrage”, “I am deeply offended”, “the professor is behaving unethically”, etc), and let people draw their own conclusions. The facts are (very, very) strongly on your side here, and are your greatest weapon.
Upvotes: 8 <issue_comment>username_3: While it is certainly ethically and morally questionable - do consider how much you are willing to take this battle as a representative of justice or students or whatever.
You can avoid conflicting your own principles, if you write a heading/preamble,
>
> Please note, this is an assignment essay (prof Y, course X, University Z) and does NOT reflect my personal standpoint regarding the legislation (H.R. 592 / S. 109). This is the assignment of X.Y, the essay will be signed as "<NAME>" to avoid any issues. (your signature here)
>
>
>
And then write a flaming support for the legislation. Sign with <NAME>. Sign your own name in the preamble.
The professor has already made a serious error. He is liable to take a lot of flak - if the right story comes along. If this recieves a failing grade, or anything less than an A+, then go public - and say you recieved unfair grading due to having a political view that differs from the professor. This is a story that is easily sold, and will ride the wave of offendedness that seems to be on the rise these days.
He really cannot grade you punitively, or something that can be percieved as punitively - he must give you a better grade than what you deserve.
Update: You ask for advice what to do next. It seems it was a mistake on your professors part. Assume no malice. Let it be.
Upvotes: 8 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_4: Somebody else mentioned "you can even consider contacting some local journalists and/or state legislators, although I would advise keeping things within the campus for starters."
I'd highly recommend raising as much public fuss as you can - call the local news stations and so on. Oftentimes things kept within the campus never leave the campus, and never get fixed.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_5: >
> The professor has given us all a template where we get to "customize" one paragraph with our own supporting statement.
>
>
>
If your original contribution is only a small portion of the letter, that seriously compromises the argument that this is of academic value.
>
> The letters must have our name electronically and physically signed.
>
>
>
This has no academic value.
On the legal side:
>
> Amend KRS 158.183 to permit students to voluntarily express religious or political viewpoints in school assignments free from discrimination
> <http://www.lrc.ky.gov/record/17RS/SB17.htm>
>
>
>
You can also make an argument that a reasonable person would expect a university to give grades based on academic merit, not political activism, and this is thus a breach of contract. You could look through your university's handbook and other documents to see whether there's anything that touches on this.
Furthermore, this could be viewed as bribery, extortion, and/or embezzlement: your professor is soliciting personal/non-academic services in exchange for grades (bribery), threatening you if you don't comply (extortion), and using employer resources to advance personal interests (embezzlement).
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_6: I'd hand it in, but make it very clear on the assignment, and under separate email cover, that you certainly do not authorize any release of your document outside the school, and that you're uncomfortable with the premise of the assignment. Cc the Dean of students.
By way of justification, the assignment itself, asking you to write a letter of support for pending legislation, is quite reasonable, and has nothing to do with your personal level of support of the bill. Sending it to your Representative does not seem reasonable, wise, consistant with educational goals. The prof cannot and should not force you to petition your government. He or she can make you write an assignment.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_7: While I am not a lawyer, this sounds like you are being asked to make a public statement under duress. If you write a separate letter (under your real name), notarize it, and send it to your representative, he may have no choice but to take your complaint seriously. That is, of course, if your representative does not support this bill.
If he does support it, find a representative who opposes it and send your letter to them.
If you want to make sure it does not get lost in the noise, you can also call their office and explain that you are forced to write the letter and stress that it will be edited after you sign it. Mention that you will not have a chance to withdraw the letter after the edits. If this is illegal, the representative who opposes the bill should jump at the chance to expose any support for the bill that is being drummed up illegally. That is the benefit of a multi-party system. The opposing interests keep each other honest.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_8: Cherrypicking statements from the scenario to make sure I've got it right:
>
> My professor has assigned an advocacy assignment that requires students to write three letters of support for a certain House bill that will soon be voted on (H.R. 592 / S. 109).
>
>
> The letters must have our name electronically and physically signed.
>
>
> The letters must be positive and supporting of the bill. The letters must be turned in to the professor for proofreading, then will be sent by the professor to our home county/area representatives.
>
>
> It repetitively thanks the representative for sponsoring the bill and provides background info as to why the representative should vote in favor of it.
>
>
>
Now your question:
>
> Is this legal?
>
>
>
Uhm, ***no?***
How is this anything other than coercion? This is absurd.
I'm very sorry to hear that your Dean doesn't want to know, and unfortunately do not have any useful suggestions for you. But there is no way in my mind that this assignment can be anything other than laughably invalid.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_9: While potentially less serious, this strikes me as very similar to the [Lindsay Shepard](https://globalnews.ca/news/3923478/wilfrid-laurier-no-complaint-lindsay-shepherd/) case (potentially with the partisan roles reversed, but I have not read the details of the bill).
Do what she did - go public if it goes bad - if they fail you. I do not know the laws in your locale; but if they summon you to a meeting (and it is legal to do so) record the conversation.
Compelled speech is not, and should not, be acceptable anywhere, especially not at a University, so fight this. University should provide a space conducive to forming and sharing your own opinions, not being forced into a viewpoint.
Upvotes: 1
|
2018/01/29
| 897
| 3,878
|
<issue_start>username_0: My supervisor does not want to push this further and take official action since this was a lone incident and I had health issues at that point. However, since I am not getting closure, I do not feel like I have a go-ahead to re-apply to universities. I feel that future advisers/people I write to for grad school should be aware of this but do not know how to bring it up, since there's no official record of this. By plagiarized, I do mean that there's no question/argument about it, there's some straight up copy-paste. I have reworked it now, but feel like I have put an end to further education for myself. I also turned down some grad school admits (this + monetary issues). Any advice/clarity would be appreciated.<issue_comment>username_1: No, don't push, and don't tell it to future advisors etc.
You shouldn't feel this obligation to offer up the truth, especially about bad things, to people who don't even want or need to hear it.
Lying and openly telling all of your problems are totally different (especially when not even asked about them, by people who don't even want to hear about them, who have the power to make decisions that will be harmful to you).
Your supervisor thinks you are a good person, and they don't want to make unnecessary problems for you. You've even shown your character by going back and re-doing it. If your supervisor thought you were lying or that you would keep doing it in the future or that other people would be harmed by you elsewhere, they would want to make official problems for you.
So what I mean about lying/deception vs openly telling everyone all of your problems: there are people who are always only thinking about getting to the next step, and will lie to their classmates/coworkers, or steal from them etc. If some interviewer asks you "did you ever plagiarize anything?" then you can tell them (but if you believe they shouldn't even ask that question, or that the answer is irrelevant, then feel free to lie). But if you apply for a PHD or something and they ask about it, then you should probably tell them, and tell them the whole story.
And I don't mean you have to let them ask exactly the right question. If they ask something that seems like it's related, and that they would want to know this, feel free to tell it. I just mean, if they ask some general question about your history, you shouldn't tell them every bad little thing. Would you tell some random people at the bus stop too? "Hey man do you go here?" "Yeah I go here, but I plagiarized this thing like 2 years ago, I thought you should know". You know what I mean?
Just forget about it. Even the people in charge of dealing with it don't want to keep going with it. Their job is to make official problems for people who are doing it as part of a pattern and who don't want to correct their actions, to prevent future harm to other people.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: No. You should not push for further action. The university holds the authority to determine whether or not to take disciplinary action with respect to violations of its own policy. As far as the university is concerned, the matter has already been settled. Personal closure is a separate matter that neither your university nor another university can provide for you. Accept and appreciate your advisor's kind judgement, learn from your mistake, and keep moving forward.
In general, you should not deliberately call attention to this when applying or interviewing for graduate school. It is normal and expected for applicants to 'put their best foot forward'. Disclosure is fine, if asked or if it would contribute something constructive to the interaction. Most of the time, bringing it up is likely to distract from more important topics, such as what you hope to get out of the program, how you expect to contribute, and so on.
Upvotes: 2
|
2018/01/29
| 4,968
| 20,421
|
<issue_start>username_0: I take on more than I can handle and everything is left incomplete. Constant reminders from my previous supervisor, my current advisor, and colleagues, increases my anxiety level and sometimes I end up entirely avoiding work. I haven’t completed a paper as first author in the last two years, although I have two papers ready for submission for the last two months and two more I could complete with a week of uninterrupted work on each paper. These papers have been dragged so much that now I am losing interest in making any more changes. I will appreciate any suggestion for dealing with anxiety regarding works that I should have completed more than a year ago.<issue_comment>username_1: This is a well known problem - and depending on your personal situation you should consider getting professional help by a psychologist. It's not a shame and it might prevent further harm. They could assist as well in creating a step-by-step program.
If you are willing to handle the situation by yourself, you'll have to do "a few" things (which are a lot to do!):
1. Learn to say "no" to specific tasks. Do not accept any new assignments unless your papers are done.
2. Figure out, *why* you are procrastinating - your mind has a reason for it and you should figure out what it is.
3. If the overall workload is too high, cancel some things forever. Eg. decide *not* to submit one of the "old" papers. How does this thought feel? Better or worse then the actual situation?
4. Go on step-by-step. Focus on finishing one of the old papers. Submit it. Take a break! Choose the next step of work.
5. If needed, be disruptive.
* Take a longer break (e.g. 4 weeks of vacation)
* Move your whole inbox to a subfolder "old" and never ever look at it - important mails will be re-sent.
* ...
6. If you are having a good relation with your supervisor(s), involve them in the process.
Upvotes: 7 <issue_comment>username_2: Get help. Speak to a psychologist, it will never get better on its own.
I have ADHD and Asperger's and I identify with your problem. I get the usual rush that you get starting something new or trying a new sport or activity as your body responds to the new and exciting activity but my body just does not generate the same response that other people have after the rush period is over and the satisfaction response starts.
As a result I start loads of things but never finish as my motivation goes. My average life of a hobby is just under 6 months and my attic is full of gear from abandoned sports and games.
After getting help I now have a rigid structure that allows me to complete my tasks. My personal structure is a half hour work period, 10 minute break and another half hour on a different project. The switching helps me to avoid boredom and finish tasks. I also have rigid planning and defined goals to stop me meandering off topic.
This is tailored to me, you will need to find out what works for you but you WILL find something that works with the help of an expert.
See an expert now and things will improve.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: I am trying to overcome the exact same situation. I am a 3rd timer postdoc. I believe the major cause behind postdocs quitting science relates with exactly what you describe. I am adding my general recommendations below, based on what I have been doing.
The root of the issue is at not being able to publish results between starting new projects. This is surely due to taking on more projects that one can handle, but I see this as also not getting enough support from collaborators. Thus I suggest you to concentrate on these two main problems. My advice as below:
* Stop acquiring new data. I am sure you're are right worrying about some exciting new idea and results that could be scooped at just any minute by your peers. That you're itching to look into the details of something apparently groundbreaking you came across a few weeks ago. That you have 'supervisors' (people you grew to call 'bosses') trying to squeeze out more data and analyses out of your expertise. **Just don't.**
* Take your time to list your unfinished projects, organise your files accordingly, backup all the raw data, and get notes in order in your computer. Back everything up as if you're ready to hand all of it to someone else to finish. This will help you line things up in your head and establish priorities.
* Do not overwork yourself, and that is mainly mentally. Take at least one day **completely off work**, every week. Take vacations. During rest you must not think about any of this (have fun, hobbies, relationships). You must be able to forget in order to return to a task in any productive way.
* Commit to a routine of exercise, stretching, meditation. Fulfilling tasks depend on good health, and a sane body. Understand you're making yourself sick. Whenever you feel heavy, go for a jog, take 30-60mins in some empty room for intense stretching, go trekking, swimming, whatever makes you feel empty again. This will help you sleep and heal.
* Cold showers and waking up very early will wire your instincts back to physical awareness and make you feel stronger. This is too physiological to explain logically: just do it as if you're camping, and within few days you'll feel a big difference.
* Focus on self-improvement and (*implicitly and politely*, but only if possible) tell your peers to bloody sod off. Too many professors nowadays will suck postdocs and PhD students dry, while sitting comfortably on a fixed income, pretending to be busy around empty/ghost meetings, random signatures, staring at some computer screen. *They are just waiting*. They are vultures waiting over you to offer papers and data for them to claim as their own. **Do not dance for them**. Almost any parasitic professor and collaborator is actually deadly scared of losing hosts, so as soon as you seem like dropping out, they'll give you space.
ONLY AFTER ALL OF THE ABOVE (should take few months):
* Think of your savings, family situation, and alternative careers you could take up with your skills to decide on what to do next. Are you really sure you want to finish any of the projects you listed? Why do you want to finish them, objectively? Make a career choice here. My main advice at this point: **make yourself ready to quit anytime**. Having nothing to lose makes you ruthless.
(a) You want to finish some project(s). Focus on that one while following a strategy to finish it. Be selfish. Take your time, work only on this until it's finished. Do one single small step at a time, do not stop to look at the whole picture. This project must be personal, not for pleasing anyone or showing off. Contact your peers and **demand** help. If they are your co-authors they must help you with something according with your strategy. Should they refuse do get angry make it clear they are *not* legitimate partners on this. If you feel no-one is really helping and you're just dragging, kill this project and move on to the next one, or (b).
(b) You decided there is a better life for you elsewhere. Contact other postdocs and ask what they have in mind. Contact your friends and enlarge your interests network. Read a lot of books. Take a look into transitioning to other careers with your expertise, e.g. Industry, Coaching, Private Consulting, Teaching, Start-ups. Tell your peers you're moving out, and start negotiating whether they are interested in finishing projects using the data you organised. Wish them good luck.
You must keep in mind that you live for yourself. You do what you want. As a PhD you have skills which are highly sought for. The best way out of inertia and depression is through bold action. Do not worry about being gentle: take what you want and screw the rest.
You might appreciate reading this:
<http://www.benchfly.com/blog/lessons-from-a-recovering-postdoc/>
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_4: Thanks for posting this question. I'm a postdoc who ended up in a very similar situation as you have. At some point, it caught up to me, I had a mini breakdown, ended up with a short hospitalisation followed by anxiety that was intense enough that some days I was afraid to leave the house. I'll tell you what helped me, both in terms of changes in my personal and professional life.
* **Find support.** You hopefully have friends, family, or coworkers in your life with whom you can share what you are going through. You might feel embarrassed or awkward about sharing this very personal part of your life. This is normal, but try your best to proceed anyway. I once found myself so tense I didn't know what to do with myself. I reached out to a friend despite my every inclination telling me to just deal with it. The feeling of relief that came just from *making the decision* to talk to someone was so intense I cried for 10 minutes and then slept for an hour.
* **Find *professional* support.** This is step 2 because it's harder than step 1, and can be hard to find someone with whom you work well. For myself, the key was finding more body/mindfulness-based therapy, but traditional talk therapy can be great to. Depends on you and your therapist.
* **Make time for yourself.** For me, I found taking 5-60 minutes per day (busy academic schedule, eh? what can I say, it's the effort that counts) to be calm and quiet worked wonders. I found some resources for incorporating yoga and breath meditation into anxiety treatment, and these were very effective more me. For others, more physical exercise does it. Be open minded, willing to experiment, and find what works for you. Making sleep a priority was also key.
* **If it helps you, take a break** (short or long). But don't force it. I found a longer break when I wasn't ready made it worse. I suddenly had no structure, and that just made me more anxious. But a day off to go the mountains when things got to be too much was perfect medicine.
* At work, **take things a step at a time**. Don't worry about the paper you have to write. Focus on the paragraph you have to write. On the one analysis you are going to do before lunch. One the small and concrete steps that get you where you need to be. The big picture will come together. If things don't proceed as fast as you like, be kind to yourself, and let go of the expectation that it should have been faster. As others have noted, take regular breaks. I work for 30, then walk for 5.
* **Seek affection** (if you are someone who is comforted by this). If you are lucky enough to have someone (human, animal, whatever) in your life who gives hugs on request, take advantage of it. It sounds corny, but seriously, it's helps a lot more than we give it credit.
* Finally, **accept that *it's just a job.*** Whether you know it or not, you have other options, and even if the career train you are on doesn't work out, *you will be ok.* Your life and your mental health are more important than the career.
Take care of yourself, and I wish you luck on your journey.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_5: Although a psychologist should help you with the emotional part of the problem, I think you should get a *coach* to help you create a plan and stick to it until you objectives are accomplished. It is a more pragmatic way to solve the productivity part of the problem.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_6: A few comments on the the fly, hoping they help. Hope and help are key words, indeed.
* Take care of yourself: by the way, try make a conscious, but not stubborn, effort of defining to your mind who the 'yourself' needing care is;
* For many organizational problems, a commutative rule applies: the order in which you solve them does not matter. It doesn't matter if you publish the second paper first, or the third paper second, and so forth. Go for the most ready or inviting ones: low-hanging fruits first. These tips break the analysis-paralysis situation;
* You are already asking for help in this forum. I see valid and compassionate answers here. You are already being helped out, it's on you to weight those reactions and proceed (at your own risk, naturally, but in no solitude);
* Pause, revise, reverse where needed. You are already able to describe your distress, which is key. You did pause. If you don't know whether the bottle is half-empty or half-full, turn the question into what you should do with that bottle: staring at it, filling it, drinking it, emptying it, throwing it away, changing focus of attention altogether, collect more bottles, ...
* Be accepting of your weakness. Strength is most frequently developed in steps and through training (at least, leaning on what physical exercise teaches us). You might have been lazy on the first signs, map back what happened this far. The tale of [Little Thumb](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hop-o%27-My-Thumb) is profound there: he's smart because he keeps tracks of his path into the dark wood using *breadcrumbs* (a term now also used with the most confusing of experiences: Internet surfing);
* Unless it is organization what you deeply hate and hurts your true self, consider evaluating your intents according to the [SMART criteria](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMART_criteria) (many others may be a better fit to your personal situations).
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/LxIoB.jpg)
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_7: I suggest using **Scrum and Agile** techniques to plan and organize your work before actually tackling it. If you can setup a kanban board of tasks for each project, and try to break down tasks into something you can accomplish in less than a day, then it will visually show you progress toward your goal. For me visual progress is one of the keys to motivation.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_8: I've had the same problem all my professional life. The only solution that worked for me thus far was to make a list of the stuff to do, and start doing the most urgent research task, while putting off everything else.
Right now, I have to worry about a project starting, an ongoing one and a grant I plan to apply for. I also have a paper to finish. I decided to put the paper at the top of my list and 80% of my efforts every day go into completing that paper. I don't do any other serious work right now, and I reject any other task until that paper is done.
I removed from my work environment anything reminding me of the other research stuff unrelated to the paper. I blocked SE on my computer at work and everything else that could distract me from the writing. When I'll finish with the paper, or get seriously stuck, I will go to the next research task in my list.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_9: I can very much relate to your problem. However, I have learned to handle this problem (although it took me some time), and I believe that you can learn that too. Now, I don't know how much you avoid the work. I took it to the extreme, and avoided work for long periods of time. So my advice/comments focus a lot on that.
* I saw a psychologist once a week, which really did help.
* For me, the most important part was to learn how to accept the presence of anxiety and not respond to it by avoiding whatever it is was that made my anxiety levels rise. Anxiety is a feeling, but avoiding something is an action, i.e. they belong to two completely different categories. It is possible to learn to immediately respond to increasing anxiety levels by acting and confronting rather than avoiding. The old way of responding for me was to try and distract myself by doing or thinking about something else. My new way of responding is to ask myself: What will happen to my anxiety levels if I sit down and work for four hours with a ten minute break each hour? Then I "experiment" by doing just that, and I always write down the results (that is, what actually did happen to my anxiety levels). Sometimes the anxiety persists, but often I forget about it once an hour or so has passed.
* I noticed that things started to change when I started to open up to people. For me, avoiding work made me feel ashamed of myself. And unfortunately, I had a person in my life who told me that I was avoiding work because I was lazy, which made me feel even more ashamed, and I didn't trust that there could be people in my life that would understand and support me. But eventually I did open up to my parents and to my supervisor, and they were very supportive. Not everyone will be, but some people will be, and those are the people you should talk and listen to.
* Take the evenings off. Because I was worried that I was in fact simply a lazy and worthless person, I didn't think I deserved evenings off. I was behind on my schedule, and it seemed strange to me to allow myself to relax in the evenings while that was the case. But I know now that if I want to function normally, I must take care of myself.
* This point is related to the previous point. I don't know about you, but I had a tendency to think that I had to "catch up" with the time I had waisted on avoiding work. So I would make plans that were impossible for me to follow and finish. The thing is, if you haven't been able to work 8 hour days lately, you won't suddenly be able to work 13 hour days starting tomorrow.
* Write a list (or several) of what needs to be done. Don't give yourself deadlines, instead give yourself hours that you should be working. Start at the top of the list, and move on to the next point once the previous has been completed. Giving yourself a deadline puts pressure on you, but I don't think that more pressure is what you need. Sometimes you might feel the need to move on to the next point on the list even though you aren't finished with the previous one. Sometimes, that is necessary and justified, other times you are just avoiding something that gives you anxiety, or are simply too unfocused to stay with the task that you've given yourself. You need to be honest with yourself: Why do I want to move on to the next point despite not having completed the point I am currently on? If the reason is anxiety, then fight that urge.
Lastly, good luck. It might seem impossible right now, but these things can change quickly. Once you have managed to complete some of the work that is currently incomplete, you will already notice a big change in motivation and how you approach your work.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_10: There are many great answers above, mine is just an addition and not an alternative answer.
I face similar problems and what helps sometimes is to classify work to:
```
----------------------------------------------------------
| | Important | Not Important |
----------------------------------------------------------
| Urgent | A | B |
----------------------------------------------------------
| Not Urgent | C | D |
----------------------------------------------------------
```
Classify your tasks into A,B,C, and D.
Priority is given to tasks under A, there are no disputes about this.
But then actually we are often tempted to look into the tasks under B. But what you want to do after you are done with A tasks, is to focus on the tasks under C before they find their way to A.
For example, as a final year PhD student, conference deadlines fall under B, while a PhD dissertation falls under C.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_11: >
> I have two papers ready for submission for the last two months and two
> more I could complete with a week of uninterrupted work on each paper.
>
>
>
Pareto rule: The last 20 percent take 80 percent of the time. Leave some work for the reviewers! If you can't let go, you can still polish and edit after you've submitted your draft. It will be a draft, because there is no such thing as "finished" in academic writing. In the words of [Tara Gray](http://secondlanguage.blogspot.co.at/2009/02/key-sentences.html):
**Kick it out the door and make them say "No"**
Feel the relief. Then move on to the next project. Only look back once you've gotten the reviews; then work them into the draft and submit to the next journal.
At this point, you don't have to target A+ venues. A finished B publication is better than a non-finished A publication.
Upvotes: 2
|
2018/01/29
| 426
| 1,879
|
<issue_start>username_0: I've uploaded an article to ResearchGate, and ResearchGate asks me whether it has been peer reviewed. It hasn't, and I'm wondering whether ResearchGate can get it peer reviewed for me.
Is this possible and if yes how would I do it?<issue_comment>username_1: As far as I know, the answer is no.
Research gate is a site for displaying your work so people can find it. It is not part of the publishing process itself.
Peer-review is what happens after you submit the paper to a journal, before they accept it. I find it strange that the publisher would ask if the paper has been peer-reviewed. Possibly the intended question is whether it has previously been submitted to (and rejected by) another journal, so they can ask to see previous reviews before using up more community time on further ones.
Edit: I can't make up my mind whether the website you are uploading to is Research Gate itself or another journal website. If you mean Research Gate, then the 'is it peer reviewed?' question means 'Has it been accepted for publication?'
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Research gate is not a journal or other form of publication outlet. It's a sort of researcher's facebook with an option to upload papers or preprints of papers that were published elsewhere. These are not peer-reviewed (again) by research gate.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: I think I understand your question now. You've uploaded your article to ResearchGate, and ResearchGate asks you whether it has been peer reviewed. It hasn't, and now you're wondering whether ResearchGate can get it peer reviewed for you.
The answer is: it can't. It just wants to mark articles shared on RG that have been peer reviewed elsewhere as such, but it won't have it reviewed for you. To get it reviewed, you would have to submit it to an actual journal.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]
|
2018/01/29
| 1,621
| 6,836
|
<issue_start>username_0: For example, I want to propose a new algorithm for an existing problem, and I already have published several papers about this topic, they share exactly same background, is it OK for me to copy the "background" and "related work" part from my published paper?
The background contains some already well-studied techniques, in order for the paper to be self-containing, they should be briefly introduced (instead of just being cited).
I don't see the meaning that I have to express the exact same thing in a different way for every new paper<issue_comment>username_1: This is called "text recycling" or even "self-plagiarism" and generally frowned upon by editors. It's better to avoid it as much as possible, even if it results in more work, particularly for non-native speakers of English. Too much overlap can result in rejection or later retraction, where "too much" is at the discretion of the editor. You are also very likely to annoy reviewers if they notice the overlap with your previous publications.
The Committee on Publication Ethics has the [following guidelines](https://publicationethics.org/text-recycling-guidelines) for journal editors:
>
> **When should action be considered?**
>
>
> Text recycling can take many forms, and editors should consider which
> parts of the text have been recycled. Duplication of data is likely to
> always be considered serious (and should be dealt with according to
> the COPE guidelines for duplicate publications [1,2]. Use of similar
> or identical phrases in methods sections where there are limited ways
> to describe a common method, however, is not uncommon. In such cases,
> an element of text recycling is likely to be unavoidable in further
> publications using the same method. Editors should use their
> discretion when deciding how much overlap of methods text is
> acceptable, considering factors such as whether authors have been
> transparent and stated that the methods have already been described in
> detail elsewhere and provided a citation. Duplication of background
> ideas in the introduction may be considered less significant than
> duplication of the hypothesis, discussion, or conclusions.
>
>
> When significant overlap is identified between two or more articles,
> editors should consider taking action. Several factors may need to be
> taken into account when deciding whether the overlap is considered
> significant.
>
>
> **Text recycling in a submitted manuscript**
>
>
> Text recycling may be identified in a submitted article by editors or
> reviewers, or by the use of plagiarism detection software, e.g.
> CrossCheck. Editors should consider the extent of the overlap when
> deciding how to act. Where overlap is considered to be minor, authors
> may be asked to re-write overlapping sections, and cite their previous
> article(s). More significant overlap may result in rejection of the
> manuscript. Where the overlap includes data, Editors should handle
> cases according to the COPE flowchart for dealing with suspected
> redundant publication in a submitted manuscript [1].
>
>
>
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Another legal reason for publishers requiring you to rewrite this material is that the copyright holder on the previous paper (which is most likely the publisher, not you!) might object to another publisher violating their copyright on the recycled text.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: There are a number of reasons, besides the obvious legal reasons, why this is a bad idea:
1. If the papers are similar, the referees might be the same. Getting a feeling of *déjà vu* while refereeing feels very bad. Experts analyze a paper in terms of how it is different from the existing literature. If it cannot be separated from this literature, things get muddy.
2. Your previous write-up was probably not yet perfect. A researcher is, at least partly, paid for writing papers and is, therefore, a professional writer. Use the chance to improve your writing.
3. Even if what you wrote before is perfect, it would only be perfect in the context of the questions addressed in the previous paper. Even if you are talking about the same algorithms and the same papers by other authors, they will relate differently to the present contribution of the current paper. A well-written paper is not a badly fitting collection of parts like Frankenstein's monster but tightly integrated. Work on the coherence of the paper.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: I don't believe it appropriate to copy/paste large portions of verbatim text. Nor does it seem appropriate to rewrite what you have already written. (Plus, this is really hard. In fact, on a paper I co-authored one of the referees pointed out that a paragraph was lifted *almost* verbatim from our previous work. We decided to rewrite, but the lead author of that section gave it to me to re-write. It is just hard to revise yourself.) There are two options as I see it:
1. Quote yourself. One big damn blockquote. And ***cite*** it. (Duh).
2. Write a sentence or two and end with, "For a complete discussion of (topic), see (your previous brilliant work which discussed the topic more fully).
As a third option, can I reject your premise entirely? In the end you need to ask yourself **why** you need to include this. To quote your question:
>
> The background contains some already well-studied techniques, in order
> for the paper to be self-containing, they should be briefly introduced
> (instead of just being cited).
>
>
>
If the techniques are so well-studied, a scholar in your field will surely recognize them. So all you may need to do is provide:
1. Name and Citation
2. Reason you need it to solve *this* problem (as opposed to previous problems you have solved).
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: Go ahead with the same Introduction, Methodology, Related works sections. What do you need to use some different technology?! If you are really researcher you don't have a time to move from one scientific problem to another. And what about Future works section? If you wrote that you will continuously tuned your algorithm and just go to the Travel to Mars subject then you are poser. Just go with another Result, Conclusion and Future works. That is not self plagiarism. People that understand new algorithms development will understand a movement in a science.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_6: My two bits. One, the background is meant to set the context for this paper. So, even if the basic idea or concept is similar to previous research, it can still be written differently - and must be written differently - to suit the purpose of this paper. Two, writing it afresh usually provides a new and relevant perspective to the same idea or concept.
Upvotes: 1
|
2018/01/29
| 603
| 2,636
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am an undergraduate student at a university with a strong co-op program. It is assumed and well-known by all the professors that all students will complete one or more co-ops, and that it is currently application season.
I am currently taking a class in a subject manner that is strongly related to my career goals, and the professor has made it well-known to the students in his class that he runs a lab on campus performing research in this area (quantum optics).
I would like to approach this professor and ask him if he would consider hiring me to perform research in his lab for my co-op. Since I take his class, I know his office hours, and I've visited him during this time already a few times.
So far, all the times I've attended his office hours I have been the only student there. Although this is suspicion, I believe he thinks I am strong student, as he allowed me to take the class despite not having a prerequisite after indicating the extent to which I've self-studied the material and discussing previous work experience.
My question is: would it be a bad idea to ask about potential opportunities in his lab in person at his office hours, or would this be better addressed in an email?<issue_comment>username_1: I think it is totally fine to ask him about a research job in person. However, it will not hurt if you do this via email. The best way mostly depends on personal preferences.
When you plan to address this topic just start a nice conversation about what exactly they are working on and check, whether this matches your expectation. Then you may ask him for a position.
There is nothing "special" about this, these questions are quite common in academia. It's great when students are interested in someone's research and want to support it.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: In my experience, you are more likely to be noticed by a professor if you actually show up in person. Busy people tend to overlook/ignore/forget emails, and asking in person makes more of an impression. Since you mentioned attending his office hours, your face might seem familiar, while your name might not (you did not mention mailing him explicitely).
Before asking, think about what skills you can bring to the table (he might ask you about programming languages etc).
Do not, however, overstay your welcome: it is likely he will not hand you a contract right on the spot, but maybe wants to ask around his department/think of a task to give you first.
In any case, make sure to tell him your full name and/or email address, he might want to write it down ;)
Upvotes: 3
|
2018/01/29
| 342
| 1,343
|
<issue_start>username_0: It became a real problem for me. I need to read some old articles for my research but these qualities are so bad that I can't even read the text. For example, this article "<https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0012365X74901368?via%3Dihub>".
Do you have any opinion on my problem?<issue_comment>username_1: You have two options. Either you try to locate a paper copy (or a copy thereof) of the journal issue via your local library and if necessary via the interlibrary loan or you contract the vendor of the digital copy (sciencedirect in your case) and complain about the quality of the digitised paper asking them to upload a better-quality version. I tried this with another publisher (degruyter) and it took a couple of months before they updated the digital copy of the paper on their website.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: As per my comment you can ask your library to get the paper via an "Interlibrary loan" - just go in to the library with the details of the paper - make sure it is all correct and they will contact you when it is available.
Or, as the publishers - shown on the paper, but I don't know how long they can take...
When I last did an interlibrary loan it was 10 to 15 days and it was ready, but it may depend on how old the paper may be,...
Upvotes: -1
|
2018/01/29
| 1,332
| 5,415
|
<issue_start>username_0: I’ve just completed a graduate degree at a university in the UK, as an older student.
The department, IMO, is a mess of politics, fickle actions, and backstabbing. Whilst here, I have been pushed, abused, called names, intentionally failed and ignored.
A few others have suffered the same fate and it has dealt more than a few low blows, so much so that it has made me severely depressed.
I finally got my course completed, received notification of passing and confirmation of my degree award.
Recently, I learnt that I may be facing yet another confusion with my department (regarding my choosing to publish dissertation findings with a certain professor (dissertation supervisor) and not including the department head).
Please can you let me know if my degree can be taken away, i.e, revoked, from now to graduation ceremony? (No plagiarism or fraud)
My question specifically is, can a whimsical and angry department head revoke a degree once granted by the university?<issue_comment>username_1: Absent plagiarism, fraud, or other academic sanction, it would be difficult to revoke an awarded degree. There would have to be strong evidence for doing so, and it’s not often attempted, in part because of the likelihood of legal action.
So, I would normally say don’t worry about it. However, in a dysfunctional department, anything could happen, and you should be prepared to act in that unlikely event.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_2: Your university would normally have a policy document on this subject and you might try contacting the registrar's office and asking if they have one. Don't go into details why with them.
For reference this is from [Swansea's Revocation Of Awards document](http://www.swansea.ac.uk/academic-services/academic-guide/conduct-and-complaints/revocation-of-awards/) :
>
> Revocation of Award
>
>
> The University may, on the recommendation of the Senate, revoke an award and all privileges connected therewith, having determined that there is good cause to do so. This may include where a person
>
>
> * has after investigation, been found to have obtained an award by fraud or deception, including unfair practice;
> * obtained an award due to an administrative error or irregularities in the conduct of the Examining Board.
>
>
>
There's an explanation of the procedures required as well on that linked page.
>
> Recently, I learnt that I may be facing yet another confusion with my department (regarding my choosing to publish dissertation findings with a certain professor and not including the department head).
>
>
>
There's a possibility this could be construed as academic misconduct, although the details would be important in making that assessment.
I think your best bet is simply to see what happens, rather than anticipating the worst. Again there should be a very detailed policy document on this available from the university.
I think if it's a case of genuine mistake it's very unlikely much would happen at all, but you'd probably need to have committed some major infraction (misrepresenting a substantial body of work as your own would be typical) to suffer a loss of the whole award.
If at all possible try and discuss the issue with the people involved and ask for advice on how to rectify any error by e.g. contacting the publishers and seeking to make a correction.
>
> I don’t think I’ll have the strength to act, if something like that happens. I’ll want to give up on everything.
>
>
>
Your comments make you sound somewhat depressed. I suspect you're suffering somewhat from a difficult process qualifying and may have actual clinical depression. You might consult a GP about this, rather than anything else. Final stages of qualification can do this to people - it's very stressful.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: >
> Can a whimsical and angry department head revoke a degree once granted by the university?
>
>
>
**No, because your degree was granted by the university** (e.g. the senate or other such body) not by the department head. At worst s/he could initiate a procedure to possibly revoke the degree, but there you would not be at the mercy of his whim.
Caveat: There is a remote theoretical possibility that somehow in your university, departments grant degrees themselves. Even in that case, the department head cannot revoke a degree him/herself, and would need the appropriate forum to do so (same forum which grants degree). But again, this is extremely unlikely.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: Not unless you cheated to get it. Or if you do something really nasty like crimes against humanity.
I am sorry that you are going through this. It sounds like your department is acting like pompous idiots. I can understand that they prefer students to complete their degrees as this represents well on them. They also want people to go into successful academic careers, for the same reason. But the reality is that you need to decide for yourself what is best for you. Pay no attention to their pressure.
It is a shame you will not be able to remain in good standing with them. These academic contacts are important, but certainly, it is not going to end your career to lose them. Ultimately, they will also benefit from your success in the private sector. And they know this. They are just giving you a guilt trip which is absolutely reprehensible.
Upvotes: 2
|
2018/01/29
| 2,326
| 8,761
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am wondering what are the most well-regarded rankings of computer science departments in the US. Preferably, this would be broken down into rankings by research output and rankings by student labor market outcomes.
Surely, one can find a myriad of such rankings by google searching, but I am wondering whether there are some common rankings that are referred to as standards by academics and practitioners. Thank you kindly.
**EDIT**:
Let me clarify. Most answers below answered the question "are academic rankings useful/unbiased/etc." but this is not at all what I was asking. I know that such measures are noisy and subjective. This is well-known. But in every profession there are some rankings that are well-regarded *among other researchers in that profession*.
Please, I know it's hard, but try to stop yourself from answering why rankings suck, even if you feel very strongly about it.<issue_comment>username_1: **Very few computer scientists (or academics in general) think highly of any ranking system.** The main reason for this is that rankings are pretty arbitrary, highly biased by personal opinion, and not super informative. There's very minimal feedback pressure on rankers to get it "really right," and there's no particular reason to think that they do.
The methodologies vary widely, and small differences can result in wildly different rankings because the gradations between schools is usually not very big. In the [US News and World Report Ranking](https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-science-schools/computer-science-rankings), five schools all got a perfect score. [Their methodology](https://www.usnews.com/education/best-graduate-schools/articles/science-schools-methodology) is to solicit rankings from researchers on a scale of 1-5 and then average them. So there were five schools that everyone gave top marks to. But there were also 17 schools that received higher than a 4.0 without receiving a 5.0. Due to their methodology, that means that there are at least 17 schools for which at least half of respondents said it was a 5/5. It seems unambiguous that all of those 17 schools are outstanding, because at least half of researchers gave them a 5/5. However, it likewise is very unclear what a 4.1 vs a 4.5 actually corresponds to.
This also shows how much the presentation of the results matter. The following three statements are all true of the USNWR ranking:
1. UIUC is ranked 4 slots behind CMU.
2. UIUC's ranking is five times that of CMU.
3. UIUC's raw score is 11% lower than that of CMU
4. UIUC is a top 3.3% school and CMU is a top 2.8% school.
Other sites use a weighted system that scores universities on a variety of factors and then take the weighted average. The issue with this methodology is that the results are highly variable with differing weights, and there doesn't seem to be any principled way to decide if "mean impact factor of faculty" should be weighted 0.3 or 0.1. Even choosing to measure "mean impact factor of faculty" could be disputed, and one could use median instead of mean or only look at the 5 most active professors. There are arguments for and against myriad tweaks like this, and again there seems to be no principled way to decide which is best. This wouldn't be very concerning if it mattered little, but it matters a lot. This is easily seen by looking at 5 random rankings and observing that there's a very high variance in the ranking of universities from site to site. This issue is exacerbated by the fact that [universities try to](https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2009/06/09/gaming-rankings) [game ranking systems](http://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/2014/08/26/how-northeastern-gamed-the-college-rankings/) (note there are two links there).
How your school is ranked can also vary massively with the discipline or sub-discipline. My alma mater had a fabulous CS theory program, a less-reputed systems program, and (at the time) a non-existent AI program. Someone who says "I studied theoretical computer science at Stella's alma mater" gets a very different response than someone who says "I studied programming language theory."
Not only is your discipline going to matter a lot, who your adviser is will as well. Sometimes the word experts on fields or subfields work at universities that are, in general, not thought as high of. But if you can go study the problem you're interested in with the world expert on it, you should jump at that chance, even if it means going to some podunk school you'd have never heard of if your adviser wasn't located there. And these kinds of concerns are entirely ignored by rankings. Some rankings have breakdowns by sub-discipline, but there's no real way to get them nuanced enough to be particularly meaningful.
University rankings are also comically America-centric, and actual perception of the quality of universities widely varies by region, both within the US and across the world.
Finally, university ranking [doesn't matter that much](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/90/university-rank-stature-how-much-does-it-affect-ones-career-post-ph-d) compared to other factors.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: There are many rankings available. For example, five minutes of Googling turns up the following.
1. <http://csrankings.org/>
2. <https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-science-schools/computer-science-rankings> and <https://www.usnews.com/education/best-global-universities/computer-science>
3. <https://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings-articles/university-subject-rankings/top-computer-science-schools-2017>
4. <https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/2018/subject-ranking/computer-science#!/page/0/length/25/sort_by/rank/sort_order/asc/cols/stats>
5. <https://lucatrevisan.wordpress.com/2014/10/23/an-alternative-to-the-seddighin-hajiaghayi-ranking-methodology/>
You can see that they differ quite a bit. This is because such rankings are *highly subjective*. The first one listed even lets you adjust the ranking by counting or discounting different areas.
The rankings pretend to be objective. But the truth is that there is a lot of freedom exercised in how to weigh different factors. You can achieve drastically different rankings by tweaking your criteria slightly. (Weighting publications by venue. Comparing departments of differing size. etc.) I strongly suspect that the people who collate rankings will tweak their methodology until it "looks right" which means objectivity flys out the window.
This is why academics generally scoff at rankings (and mock them). Generally when I look through a proposed ranking my internal monologue goes as follows. "OK the first three seem reasonable. I don't think the fourth and sixth ones should be so high. Hey, wait, where is my alma mater? That's nonsense. This is garbage." Likewise, I think most academics quickly find something they strongly disagree with in any proposed ranking. All rankings are essentially nonsense, particularly outside the top 10 or so (which will have been tweaked to look reasonable).
The computing research association has a statement expressing how most academics view rankings: <https://cra.org/cra-statement-us-news-world-report-rankings-computer-science-universities/>
Unfortunately, some people do take rankings seriously (and thereby embarrass themselves). For example, <http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2017-10/30/content_33891752.htm> and <https://www.cs.utexas.edu/news/2017/ut-austin-ranked-top-computer-science-university-us-second-best-globally> and <https://www.umdrightnow.umd.edu/university-maryland-rankings>
If you are interested in rankings, the first question you should ask is what you actually want to know. If you have a more specific question (e.g., where should I go to grad school?), then you can look at more specific -- and useful -- information. Unfortunately, this is probably going to be more work than just Googling for a list.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: I understand why the other answers are doubling down on the "rankings are nonsense" stance, but to play devil's advocate, I'd be surprised if the US News Rankings differ very much (on average) from a hypothetical ranking based on which departments are most often recommended to students who are applying for grad school.
We shouldn't take rankings too literally, but they can be useful for finding out roughly what tier an unfamiliar department is in (which anyone who's cast a wide net in an academic job search has had to do). If department A is ranked in the top 30 and department B is in the 70s, there's a reason. One's research into the matter shouldn't end there, but the information is not meaningless.
Upvotes: 2
|
2018/01/29
| 761
| 2,653
|
<issue_start>username_0: Presume that these mainstays (even if their names are short) can all be [named publicly](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Doe).
I fancy referring to them only with my abbreviations that I introduce on the first page, to save space and avoid typos, like for long surnames (e.g. some [Indian](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_mathematicians), [Polish](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Polish_mathematicians), and [Russian](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Russian_mathematicians) mathematicians).
E.g., I'd state my abbreviations of <NAME> as IXS, <NAME> as JB, and <NAME> as PN (I chose the latter because of its 2 accents). Then I'd write:
>
> [IXS won the Polar Music Prize in 1999](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iannis_Xenakis#Later_life), but fewer prizes than [PN](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Per_N%C3%B8rg%C3%A5rd#Awards). JB won none.
>
>
><issue_comment>username_1: I've never seen this in academic writing, ever. At minimum it will be confusing, and some people might find it rude to obscure people's names like this.
Don't do it. Just write out the surnames on each reference. If they're long, so be it.
If your main goal is to avoid keystrokes and typos, use an autocomplete or "abbrev" feature of your word processor or text editor, or some sort of macro expansion. But don't impose it on the reader.
(I think in some fields it might be acceptable to refer to authors of the paper this way. "One of us (NE) previously investigated this question..." And in some cases, you see initials used to refer to individuals who are anonymous, such as patients or study participants. "R.Z. is a 59-year old female who presented with shortness of breath..." But I've never seen initials used for non-anonymous third parties as you suggest.)
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: I agree 100% with Nate's response, but I'd like to expand on *why* it might be considered rude to do this.
I don't speak Danish. If I'm citing a researcher with a name like "Nørgård", it's probably because our hypothetical Dr. Nørgård spent many hours learning a second language and went to the trouble of publishing their research in English. They may even have paid a translation/editing service to help with that.
I find it tough enough writing or understanding academic papers in my own language (English). That so many researchers do it in a non-preferred language is a massive gift to me. Taking the trouble to figure out how to write (or paste) "Dr. Nørgård" is a *very small* way to remind myself of that gift and to express my respect for their effort.
Upvotes: 4
|
2018/01/30
| 1,486
| 6,318
|
<issue_start>username_0: The government science sector is relatively small, but when you add up all the state and national departments and related organisations, it's a lot of people doing a lot of science.
Despite the strategic importance of public sector science, as far as I know there is no group responsible for the sector as a whole. It is no one’s job to support, connect or speak out for the highly diverse, often committed but sometimes isolated workforce within the government science sector. It is no one’s job to keep track of the sector, to share knowledge and work towards practical resolution of shared issues. This stands in contrast to the relatively well-organised, represented and funded science in academia. (Note that public sector jobs can be well paid and secure)
**I would like to know if there are any organisations, initiatives or resources aimed at a) monitoring or b) supporting government (public sector) scientists**, in any country.
* One excellent example is the UK's Government Science and
Engineering profession. Well worth a look.
<https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/civil-service-government-science-engineering>
*What do I mean by government / public sector scientist?*
* is not employed by a university or college (what I think of as academia)
* employed within executive arm of government, often a department e.g. Dept of Environment, Dept of Health, Dept of Agriculture
* spends subtantial amount of job conducting research
* generally not rewarded by academic measures of success and so in some sense decoupled from academic career structures (not saying this is good or bad)
*What do I mean by monitoring?*
* Keeping statistics and recording trends in number employed, discipline, funding, salaries, career paths, impact on public good or economy etc (while not perfect, there seems to be many reports and organisations tasked with tracking these kinds of things in academia and private sector R&D)
*What do I mean by support?*
* The kind of work done by national academies of science (e.g. AAAS in the US, the Australian Academy of Science, the Royal Society in the UK) and disciplinary societies, professional bodies and the like. Note that their work may or may not be relevant to government scientists, but it is generally not targeted at them. *Can anyone share an example of work by a body like this that is specifically targeted to government scientists?*
* Initiatives, policies, resources aimed at supporting career development and tackling issues. For example just about every university/college and many departments and institutes within them will have their own set of policies, initiatives and resources targeted to early career researchers, whether it's developing writing and publication skills, grant application training, outreach skills, building a career plan, finding a mentor etc.
* An issue is that university and college resources, and the staff within them, are often active in the public domain. There are probably a lot of resources out there but government scientists may not be encouraged/authorised to have a public presence and their departments may not prioritise sharing what may be seen as internal resources with the general public.<issue_comment>username_1: Your questions appear to be asking about non-academic government scientists.
To answer your question about supporting science, yes groups exist that support them. The largest of which is probably the American Association for the Advancement of Science ([AAAS](https://www.aaas.org/)) who advocates on behalf of scientists both in the United States of America and other countries as well. The [mission and purpose of AAAS](https://www.aaas.org/about/mission-and-history) is to
*advance science, engineering, and innovation throughout the world for the benefit of all people*.
I am member of AAAS and a government research scientist. The news and updates section of *[Science](http://www.sciencemag.org/)* includes both news about government scientists and what AAAS is advocating on behalf scientist and science.
To answer your question about monitoring science (at least in the United States), the Office for Personnel Management (OPM) provides oversight and standards for managing scientists across agencies (e.g., this [public webpage](https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/performance-management/measuring/research-scientists/) lists some of their resources).
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: There are different ways to interpret "government public sector scientist". For instance in the UK there are government laboratories which are executive agencies of government departments, such as the [Animal and Plant Health Agency](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_and_Plant_Health_Agency). In contrast the UK research institutes used to be part of Research Councils UK, which is a non-departmental public body, and were equivalent to university departments in every respect except awarding degrees (same eligibility for funding, etc). However, nowadays most of those institutes are either independent charities or have become part of a university.
>
> It is no one’s job to support, connect or speak out for the highly
> diverse, often committed but sometimes isolated workforce within the
> government science sector. It is no one’s job to keep track of the
> sector, to share knowledge and work towards practical resolution of
> shared issues
>
>
>
It sounds like a trade union is the body closest to what you're asking about. In the UK the union representing most government scientists/engineers, as well as many of the research institutes I mention above, is [Prospect](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prospect_(trade_union)). This includes forensic, nuclear, agricultural, fisheries and environmental scientists, among others. The union will address safety, job security, pay negotiations etc.
There are also professional bodies and associations that are open to STEM employees in their profession irrespective of their employer, such as the [Institute of Safety and Technology in Research](http://www.istr.org.uk/), which provide continuing professional development and networking opportunities. And most academic societies will not exclude members based on whether they are employed by government, academia or industry.
Upvotes: 1
|
2018/01/30
| 768
| 3,330
|
<issue_start>username_0: I know that it is general practice to include a footnote on papers acknowledging research assistants who have contributed to the project. I am wondering, however, if any guidelines or accepted practices exist for how to determine which assistants should be acknowledged where. In general, since it is low cost to acknowledge assistants, it makes sense to be pretty generous in erring on the side of acknowledging. But, in the interests of acknowledgments being honest reflections of those who contributed to the project, what about some of these particular cases?
* Research assistant (RA) is hired. Does a small amount of work, but not enough to be useful, and then quits.
* RA works hard on project, but is very poor at communicating. As a result, RA goes incommunicado for a while, comes back at the end of the period having put together a work product that is of zero use to the project.
* Open-ended research project begins. At start of the project, it is not clear which avenues of research / aspects of the project will turn in to productive papers and which will not. RA does good work on an avenue of research that turns out to be a dead end. Another avenue of research is more successful and results in a paper. RA contributed nothing directly to the successful avenue, but did contribute to the larger open-ended project.<issue_comment>username_1: >
> Research assistant (RA) is hired. Does a small amount of work, but not enough to be useful, and then quits.
>
>
>
Whether someone is still employed (by you) is not relevant. Ignore this fact.
>
> RA works hard on project, but is very poor at communicating. As a result, RA goes incommunicado for a while, comes back at the end of the period having put together a work product that is of zero use to the project.
>
>
>
The amount of effort is irrelevant as well. If the work was indeed not helpful to the project at all, you don't need to acknowledge this person. However, consider that by participating in discussions this person may still have contributed immaterial value. If you have a place for general acknowledgements (not related to any particular part of the content), you could mention this person here.
>
> Open-ended research project begins. At start of the project, it is not clear which avenues of research / aspects of the project will turn in to productive papers and which will not. RA does good work on an avenue of research that turns out to be a dead end. Another avenue of research is more successful and results in a paper. RA contributed nothing directly to the successful avenue, but did contribute to the larger open-ended project.
>
>
>
This is similar to the previous case. This still person is still likely to have contributed immaterial value to the project that did result in a paper.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: I think it's best to err in the direction of being generous with attribution. Firstly because it's hard to be accurate about how important someone was (which both applies to you potentially underestimating your contribution, or the RA overestimating their contribution) which can lead to hard feelings. And second because it's just a few words and the power to make someone feel good about their contribution outweighs the cost of those words.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]
|
2018/01/30
| 683
| 2,946
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am applying to several computer science PhD programs, and several professors who I mentioned in my statement of purpose have reached out requesting Skype interviews. My question is: how often are these requests made? Should I be very encouraged or is this standard procedure for almost all qualified applicants?<issue_comment>username_1: Time is one of the most valuable resources for professors – I know no one who just offers interviews for fun.
Upvotes: 7 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: >
> Should I be very encouraged or is this standard procedure for almost all qualified applicants?
>
>
>
It's to be expected that lead researchers would want and need to have a proper conversation with a PhD applicant. It's almost like a job interview.
But beyond just pointing this out, I believe you should see your surprise as indication that you may have gone about your application process in not quite the right way.
In my opinion, when looking for a place to do Ph.D. research, you need to take the time to get in touch with the relevant research groups and their primary researchers, to understand what their interest and foci are, to introduce yourself, to figure out potential directions you would pursue if you joined them - all things which would have gotten you in touch with those "professors who I mentioned in my statement of purpose" (and as is understood, have not contacted before).
Had you done so, you would likely have thought of such Skype conversations as something you want to do anyway, regardless of the admission process, and that could be beneficial for you in itself. Assuming these are academic worth their salt, face-time with them is something you should be able to benefit from.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: >
> Should I be very encouraged or is this standard procedure for almost all qualified applicants?
>
>
>
Be very encouraged. I can guarantee you that they *don't* do it for all "qualified" applicants, because nobody has the time to do that. In my institution in Sweden, for any given call, we may get somewhere between 25 and 150 applications. Even of only a third of those are qualified, it is easy to see that the hiring faculty member can't interview everybody who is qualified even for a call that received comparably little attention. I typically interview about 3 to 5 people per call, and I would presume that this is fairly normal.
That said, take the call *very* seriously. In the past I have been highly disappointed with how badly prepared many applicants were in these Skype calls (e.g., I usually ask beforehand that candidates do a short 10-min presentation of their master's thesis and some candidates have no presentation prepared, or candidates who have obviously not even looked at my website and clearly have no idea what kind of research I actually do). I never hire applicants that seem ill-prepared for the interview.
Upvotes: 5
|
2018/01/30
| 1,859
| 7,805
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am an Engineering undergraduate student at a Canadian University and have had trouble in a course with regards to time to complete online quizzes. The course syllabus says there are 4 quizzes worth 4% each throughout the semester and gives the weeks that they will be conducted on, but does not give the date or time of the quiz. The quizzes are online using our university teaching website that all courses use.
The first issue arose after the very first lecture. During the first lecture nothing was mentioned about the first quiz. The Saturday following the lecture the professor emailed us and said that the first quiz would open Monday morning at 8am and be due at midnight. He also said all further communication would be through the teaching website we all use. (The syllabus also says all communication should be through the website). I planned to do the quiz (it's only a 10 minute 5 question quiz) Monday after my other classes in the evening around 9pm. I go to do the quiz only to realize it is closed. I check my email and apparently the professor emailed Sunday evening at around 7:30pm saying that the quiz will be closed at 8pm on Monday. I don't check my email every single day as it has never been a form of important communication for any class I have ever taken. I do, however, check the class website daily and there was not a single notification about the quiz. Every other course I have taken has given notifications on the website. I felt like this was unfair as the professor has said clearly on the syllabus and in his earlier email that all communication would be through the website. He then proceeded to change the quiz time (which is not on the syllabus) the day before on a Sunday evening through an email. I emailed showing him the discrepancy in a very professional manner and he simply replied with "check your email, things may change".
I found this last minute change to be very unprofessional and was upset at losing 4% of my mark. I have never missed a single assignment or test in all my 4 years of university and I attend every single lecture.
I would have taken my complaint further but in class the professor said that since some students were not enrolled in the class yet since it was only the first lecture that the lowest marked quiz would have its mark replaced with the average of the other three. Although not a direct remedy to my problem and not exactly fair I let it slide since it was good enough and I don't like complaining.
Now 4 weeks into the course the same thing happened. I check my email Tuesday morning to find that the professor emailed again on a Sunday (two days prior) saying quiz 2 is now open until Monday at midnight. I missed the quiz again. I checked the class website all throughout the weekend and Monday, no notifications were given. This is the second quiz I have now missed because I don't check my email every day and there is no remedy in place for missing it, it will be a zero. I have not yet contacted the professor or anyone else yet as I don't really know what to do except maybe talk to the department chair.
I feel like these last minute quizzes are not professional and should be announced in the lectures ahead of time or at least have their dates and times on the syllabus and if things change a notification on the class website is the bare minimum that should be done to communicate this.
Am I wrong to suggest that the professor is being unreasonable with the way he is communicating the quiz times? Should they not be set ahead of time or at least communicated in class and on the class website as opposed to email one day before? Do I have a case if I talk to the department chair?<issue_comment>username_1: I understand you are being upset and i can relate. However, chances are your professor does not do this on purpose but is busy with other things and only remembers the tests shortly before the next lectures.
What you can do to try and change the situation:
* ask about the test time frames in lecture ("Professor, when will the next test be online?")
* put up a forum post or similar stating that you have trouble adjusting to the tests due to their somewhat spontaneus openings and short times, asking for either the time frames to be lengthened or notifications about upcoming tests in advance.
* check your email more often (yes, really!)
I would not recommend talking to the department chair before doing all of these.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: The professor has been jerking you around (whether intentionally or not).
For now at least, you will need to check your email more often during the target dates.
It is fine to present your concerns to the department. (In my view, being a good citizen of one's university includes providing constructive criticism that will help improve students' educational experience.) I recommend presenting your concern in a calm way.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: I'm confused: When you first brought this to the attention of your professor, you were told: "check your email, things may change". Then, later on, you say:
>
> I checked the class website all throughout the weekend and Monday, no notifications were given.
>
>
>
Why would you check the class website all through the weekend and Monday, and not check the one place where your professor told you alerts would be coming? Near as I can tell, you answer that when you say:
>
> I don't check my email every single day as it has never been a form of important communication for any class I have ever taken.
>
>
>
Well, it looks to me like now you're in a class where it's an important form of communication, and you'd be better off checking your inbox than the class website.
I'm seeing some irony in your allegations of "unprofessionalism," given the fact that, when you first talked to your professor about this issue, you used email to do so:
>
> I emailed showing him the discrepancy in a very professional manner...
>
>
>
Now, as for your bottom-line question:
>
> I feel like these last minute quizzes are not professional and should be announced in the lectures ahead of time or at least have their dates and times on the syllabus and if things change a notification on the class website is the bare minimum that should be done to communicate this.
>
>
> Am I wrong to suggest that the professor is being unreasonable with the way he is communicating the quiz times?
>
>
>
There are couple issues here, and you seem to be mixing the two:
1. How much notice is given between when the quizzes are announced and when they are due.
2. How the professor is alerting the students to the fact that the quizzes are now open.
As for your second question, I don't think email is an "unreasonable" way to announce quizzes, particularly if the students at large haven't yet indicated that this is inconvenient or ineffectual for some reason.
As for the first question, a 48-hour notice might be reasonable to ask for, but your issue seems to be more about email vs. the course website than the amount of time actually allotted.
By the way, I think you should be willing to be more flexible in this regard. (Perhaps the professor finds it very easy to use email but onerous to update the course website.)
In short, I don't think using email as a primary form of notification is "unprofessional," and I certainly don't think you should go to the dept head with a complaint before hashing out the current procedures with the professor in class. And, if you do elect to discuss this in class, be very wary of accusing your professor of acting "unprofessionally," as you did twice in your question. That smacks more of whining than an earnest effort to improve the process for all stakeholders.
Upvotes: 2
|
2018/01/30
| 1,087
| 4,949
|
<issue_start>username_0: Is it unethical to research journals for other students?
For example, a student is researching gifted students and their subsequent ACT/SAT scores. Then:
1. Would it be unethical for me to research educational journals and give the student the title of articles that pertain to their research?
2. Would it be unethical for me to charge for this?<issue_comment>username_1: What would be unethical is for the other person to misrepresent work that you did as having been done by them, or for you to knowingly aid someone in such a misrepresentation. It’s important to credit people for the work that they’ve done. Relatedly, if the work results in an academic publication, it may be an ethical requirement to list you as a co-author depending on the standards of your field.
There's nothing intrinsically unethical about the work you describe, or about charging people for it.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: There are at least two sides to the question: whether the actions are unethical when applied to anyone (not just students), and whether there is an ethical difference when a student is involved.
**First, considering the actions when applied to any person, in principle, there is nothing unethical about doing a literature search for someone**, nor is there anything unethical about you charging the person to do intellectual work for them. In fact, whether you are paid or not, shouldn't make much of a difference (except for the very important point I make at the very end). Ethical problems would mainly come up when asking if that person credits you for your contribution or not.
If a researcher has someone do some research work for them and then published the work, it is usually considered a professional courtesy to at least acknowledge the other person's contribution, but this is not usually considered an ethical obligation. (Indeed, it would probably be unethical to credit you as a co-author for such little work; see [Literature review and authorship](https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/100996/20418)).
**Second, the fact that the person is a student only really matters if the student intends to submit the work for academic credit.** If the student is expected to submit work that they did on their own, then the student would be obligated to report the extent of your assistance to their instructor. Again, whether or not the student paid you is irrelevant--what matters is that the instructor should understand that they received outside help for the work they are submitting.
From your side, it probably isn't strictly required for you to care what the student does with your help. However, if you have reasonable ground to suspect that the student is using your work to cheat on an assignment, then I think you should certainly ask the student to clarify this suspicion. If the student's explanation is acceptable to you, then act as you see fit. However, if you still suspect that the student is cheating, then you should act with the understanding that you are probably collaborating in their cheating.
**Ultimately, you should take care of your conscience and act accordingly.** And that's where the matter of payment really matters: if the fact that you are being paid makes you less sensitive to your conscience, then you certainly shouldn't receive any payment. Your conscience is worth far more than any monetary price.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: Although your question is about a student, consider first the situation of professional researchers. It is certainly not unethical for researchers to employ assistants to do some of the work for them; this is common in academia. If this leads to published or submitted work, the employer should not attempt to pass-off the employee's work as their own, and this would usually mean giving some acknowledgement to the assistant in the paper (or giving co-authorship if their contribution is sufficiently substantial to warrant this).
Now consider your problem where the employer is a student rather than a professional researcher. The only difference here is that the work is being submitted as assessment for courses rather than as an academic publication. The same considerations apply: the employer should not attempt to pass-off the employee's work as their own, and should give appropriate acknowledgement in the submission. If the course requires the work to have been done without assistance, then this will fall foul of that requirement. If you have reason to believe that your employer will use this work in a way that is unethical (i.e., submitting as his/her own work for an assessment item that was supposed to be done without assistance) I recommend that you should decline to participate.
Finally, the fact that you are being paid is irrelevant. Whether you are being paid or not, the ethical issue is about whether the student receiving your work is attempting to pass it off as their own.
Upvotes: 1
|
2018/01/31
| 570
| 2,477
|
<issue_start>username_0: I have completed my Master's in Mathematics.
I loved two subjects: Algebra (modules and non-commutative rings) and Cryptography (visual and algebraic). I wanted to work on them in my PhD. I scored good grades in both subjects.
Now when I am going to apply for a PhD program at different institutes. I am getting two options PhD in mathematics and PhD in Computer Science where Algebra comes under Mathematics and Cryptography under CS.
**Question:** Which PhD field offers better job opportunities in future: Math or Computer Science?<issue_comment>username_1: Assuming that you're interested in the private sector and holding all else equal, I'd guess that a Computer Science degree would tend to outperform a Math degree. It's just such an incredibly useful field to have expertise in.
That said, if you're going for competitive research positions in overlapping fields, e.g. cryptography, then it may not matter that much so long as you have the appropriate background for that sub-field. Then, you'll probably be evaluated against other applicants more heavily based on objective qualifications rather than the name that your degree has on it.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: If you're going to be a researcher, pick the one you care most about. You'll need the extra motivation and drive to stay passionate for the next 40+ years.
If you're going to be a professor, it really doesn't matter much which you pick, as they are both quite viable, and both have interesting sub-fields to focus on.
If you want just about anything else, pick the crypto. The demand is higher for practical comp sci, leading to better job stability in recession years. With the ever-increasing need for better encryption and foiling enemy systems, both the private and government sectors will continue to see a rise in demand (and pay) for any smart cryptographer.
Note that depending on individual university programs, computer science degrees may include a lot of emphasis on topics outside of cryptography, or may assume a working knowledge of certain comp sci topics. For example, if you don't have a background in programming, it would behoove you to chat up the professors and make sure they don't expect you to already be conversant in C++, Java, object oriented concepts, etc. With your masters I fully expect you could learn whatever you lack, but that's a choice you want to make and not have thrust on you after getting into a program.
Upvotes: 1
|
2018/01/31
| 446
| 1,831
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am preparing the application for an AP position at a local university. The documents I am required to submit include recommendation letters from three referees, who the university's website states should preferably be my ex-supervisor and/or employer. But altogether I have only two ex-supervisors in the past.
**My question is, who could serve as an a alternative referee for me (other than ex-supervisor and employer)?**
My understanding of the preference is someone who has worked with you for a relatively long period of time and therefore is in a position to speak on behalf of you. I had thought of my collaborators, but most of them work with me on a short-term. I have only one long-term collaborator, but he is from math dept. (I am an engineer).<issue_comment>username_1: In order of preference:
1. Your other thesis committee members.
2. Administrators who supervised you, e.g. supervisor of TAs.
3. Professors with whom you taught as a TA.
4. Collaborators / coauthors.
For my job applications I had my advisor, a committee member, and a professor from another department with whom I had worked. One to speak about my research, one to speak about my writing, one to speak about me as a colleague.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: The long term collaborator from math dept would be perfect.
* It is a long term collaborator, so they should have found something positive in you;
* It is from another department, so it shows that you are able to speak the different dialects of science (and you are an engineer that stereotipically behaves like an engineer, this is an enormous plus).
And the final important point:
* it will distinguish **you** from all the other engineers applying for the same positions and providing boring, uninspiring 100% engineering references.
Upvotes: 0
|
2018/01/31
| 719
| 2,681
|
<issue_start>username_0: My former prof switched university and now I can't ask him in person for a letter of recommendation - should I try to see him in person? I've read [on here](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16610/how-to-obtain-a-fair-recommendation-letter-from-a-professor-who-knows-me-via-cou?rq=1) that asking him via email might not be the best approach.
I could travel to that city - I have a friend living there - but it's not close and I am not sure how important it is I see him in person. I also don't want to annoy my professor with this, so I'm not sure.
The problem is only that it's been 2 years since I studied with him, and I did not do research with him, just submitted an excellent essay. So I think it would probably be good to remind him a bit of who I am. What would you advise me to do?
While "Should I ask my professor by email or in person", is related, it doesn't answer my question. I'm asking whether travelling to that professor in order to see him in person is overkill.<issue_comment>username_1: If he is someone who is likely to write you a good LOR then he is unlikely to be annoyed by an email asking for that. Traveling there seems like overkill to me. On the other hand, if it is really, really important to you then it is unlikely to hurt to ask him in person.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: I don't think a visit is necessary (and I don't see where in the linked thread it says otherwise). Even if you were to visit him, you would contact him first to make an appointment, presumably by email.
Why not send a mail in which you both [ask for a letter of recommendation](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/24592/email-to-a-professor-after-long-time-for-recommendation) and whether the prof would like to talk to you to refresh his memory (be it in person or on the phone)?
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: The question you link is about getting a letter of recommendation from a professor in your own university. In that situation, it makes sense to talk face-to-face. However, when the professor is in a different city, this is no longer necessary or even reasonable.
Honestly, I'd find it kinda creepy if you arranged a meeting with me and the smalltalk went
**Me:** So, how come you're in town? [Thinks: *probably visiting friends or something and just dropped by because they were here*.]
**You:** I spent two hours travelling here just to talk to you for fifteen minutes and, when we're done, I'm going to spend two hours travelling back.
**Me:** [Thinks, *er, how do I say "You know about telephones, right?" without sounding like a jerk?*] Um. ... ... Ookay.
Upvotes: 4
|
2018/01/31
| 524
| 2,341
|
<issue_start>username_0: I just got a paper back from review, with a comment from the editor:
>
> "As the suggestions are primarily editorial I deem the revisions required to be minor."
>
>
>
I have been given one week to revise the manuscript and write a response to both reviewers, but unfortunately both reviewers suggest me to do quite some extra work: additional analysis of data, additional numerical experiments, ....
As the editor describes the reviewers suggestions as *"editorial"*, and I have been given only a week to revise the manuscript, I don't think that the editor expects me to do all that extra work (which would be impossible), but how do you deal with this in the response to the reviewers? Is it acceptable to basically say *"interesting idea, impossible to do within a week"*?<issue_comment>username_1: My guess is that the editor didn't read the reports carefully and didn't notice that the reviewers suggested significant extra work.
Contact the editor and point this out, and give an estimate of how much time you will need for revisions. (Try to be conservative in this estimate so you don't put yourself in an unnecessary crunch.)
It's up to you to decide whether to actually do some or all of the extra work requested. For anything you don't do, write a response explaining why you don't believe the extra work is warranted. (You might want to consult with colleagues to get another opinion.) The editor and reviewers will reconsider the paper and decide if it is acceptable with the changes you made.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_2: The editor has said that they want to publish your paper. This means that having your paper in this journal is of mutual benefit to you *and the journal*. The editor is not going to capriciously change their mind and reject your paper.
If you can't reasonably implement the requested changes in a week, then it's completely reasonable to ask for an extension. Just explain that some of the requested changes require whatever it is that they require and give an estimate of how long that will take. It's possible that the editor will have some good reason to say no but it's overwhelmingly likely that they'll give you more time or they'll ask you to just make the changes that really are "editorial" and skip the others.
Just ask.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]
|
2018/01/31
| 349
| 1,633
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am currently an undergraduate math major and have hopes of attending graduate school in applied math. I also have a love for physics and thinking of minoring in physics. After some research, I found that many departments have professors in the research area of mathematical physics. Is having a minor in physics a good background to pursue research at the graduate level in mathematical physics?<issue_comment>username_1: It depends on what courses you end up taking as part of your physics minor. Mathematical physics leans heavily on Lagrangian and Hamiltonian mechanics, quantum mechanics, statistical mechanics, and electrodynamics.
I don't know how many credits you have available for your minor and what the requirements are in your university to take those courses. At the very least, make sure that you have taken both classical mechanics and quantum mechanics. Your math background in real and complex analysis will put you in great shape to learn the formalisms of the other theories.
Good luck!
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: **Degree names don't matter: coursework matters**
It really depends on what subjects you've taken courses in and what subjects you've learned in your free time. Grad schools don't particularly care if your degree label lines up with what they're offering, they care if your coursework and professional experience does. In the US, many graduate programs explicitly list the courses they want you to have as a minimum background. Contact their admissions office or look through their websites for the required background coursework.
Upvotes: 2
|
2018/01/31
| 686
| 2,818
|
<issue_start>username_0: As part of my graduate program, I am required to give presentations to a group of attendees and a program panel about various topics including but not limited to research, involvement, and case studies.
The audience pays attention but rarely ask questions. A survey was released about my effectiveness as a lecturer and nearly 65% of attendees stated my voice was "too authoritative." A common problem was my voice being authoritative and causing the audience to be too timid to ask serious questions related to the topic. Talking in an "enthusiastic" tone (in my own opinion) yielded no results. My voice is very deep and, in order to project well, I tend to speak loudly (no microphones).
What are some tactics to get the attendees engaged and not appear "too authoritative?"
**EDIT:**
Let me add some details that I find relevant that I missed adding. The survey is handed out as attendees walk in. Between each lecturer there is a 10 minute "intermission" to allow attendees to exit or enter. The attendees are required to hand in surveys as they leave. The uni hosting the lecture combines common themes among the surveys. It is unknown how similarities are determined except to the staff reviewing the surveys. The results are then emailed to the lecturer with good and bad things about the lecture. I am then required to email to my supervisor.<issue_comment>username_1: The solution will depend on what the survey respondents meant by "too authoritative". For example, it might mean any of the following:
* your talk is pitched at too high a level, so people feel dumb when
they don't understand, and are too intimidated to ask questions
* your style is argumentative
* one or two people did ask questions, which you didn't answer clearly
* your style is pompous
* you sound overconfident
* you state your opinions as fact
* ...and so on
I assume the survey was confidential, so you can't go back to people and ask them what they meant. So I suggest you ask a few colleagues who are good speakers what they think you need to improve on.
>
> My voice is very deep and, in order to project well, I tend to speak
> loudly (no microphones).
>
>
>
A deep (low-pitched, bass-y) voice projects farther than a high voice. You may simply be speaking too loudly for the room.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Based on experience, I would say that it is making sure that the statements do not excessively utilize a large amount of jargon that is relevant to a specific discipline. The reason that jargon comes across as authoritative is because it usually is within the domain of a specific group of people (and of course, not all people have access to the terminology either due to lack of knowledge i.e. a broad understanding of the discipline.)
Upvotes: -1
|
2018/02/01
| 1,492
| 6,491
|
<issue_start>username_0: I started to do questionnaires and surveys to assess my teaching methods and the learning gain of my students. How to convince the students to participate in these surveys? Is it OK to give small course credits for taking these surveys (say 1%)? otherwise, what are the incentive for the students to take these survey?<issue_comment>username_1: I think that giving some small course credit for a survey like that can be a good idea. Taking the IRB protocols as a model, you might give course credit for the survey, and also some alternate assignment for a student who has some point of principle that makes them not want to disclose personal info like that. Then you've really covered your bases.
In my own case, I give a study survey like that after the first exam. Since this happens to be in sequence and in the same format as three earlier quizzes, I think many students assume that it's for credit and complete it without me saying one way or the other (it's not, and has a different title, but it serendipitously works in my favor that way).
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: I'm going to go the other way, and say this is a bad idea.
If you were trying to do research with the survey, rather than just evaluation, the answer would be an absolute 'no'.
A problem I see with this even for this purpose is that to allocate marks you need to record who has submitted the survey (and if you don't want to reward blank/stupid submissions, also who submitted which one). That is not a good method for getting the students to say what they really think (although it might reduce the number of deliberately inappropriate comments).
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: I am at a program at a public university in the US where we often ask students to fill out these kinds of surveys. To get the broadest participation, it is customary to either make the surveys worth a small amount of credit (especially if the class has a "participation" category in grading) or give a bit of extra credit, say 1-2% on the final exam. Personally, I prefer the latter.
Of course, this credit should be awarded regardless of what the student says. Do you use course management software? My university uses a custom version of Moodle, which includes a Questionnaire module. You can set this up to automatically award participation points with no connection to what the student said. Other course management software may have similar functions. You can also use SurveyMonkey and download a list of responders.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_4: At my university, there are standardized surveys for this kind of thing that are run by the student association. They contain both general satisfaction grades (on a scale from 1 to 6) in different categories (quality of lecture, use of media, ...), and a free-text field for written feedback. The survey is filled out on paper and then returned to the student association, who does the analysis. This is done by default in every course of our department.
The aggregate results of the satisfaction survey are made public for everyone to see, and a more detailed report is sent to the lecturer.
The survey is filled out during one of the last lectures, where we usually reserve a 10-minute timeslot in the beginning for this. We usually get close to 100% participation, for a number of reasons:
1. **Culture**. This is normal at our institution, so no one questions it.
2. **Trust**. It is run by the students themselves, so no one thinks "oh no, I can't write anything negative, what the professor recognizes me?". This is also helped by the fact that many of our lectures have 50+ and some have 200+ students in them.
3. **Transparency**. 1. and 2. are hard to emulate at your university, but if you promise to release the aggregate results, it may drive participation, as this helps other students decide if they want to take a course (I have decided both for and against attending a number of courses based on the evaluation results I saw from previous years).
4. **Feedback**. Some of our faculty also take the time to respond to the feedback in the last lecture (if the results are delivered in time) or in a course-wide eMail (if the results are provided late). There, they answer common questions, give justifications for specific decisions that were criticised, and commit to specific improvements that were pointed out. This shows the students that their concerns are really taken seriously, and that their answers aren't just ignored without reading. Extra credit if you start off the next iteration of the lecture with "based on previous feedback, we have decided to change X."
So, while 1. and 2. will be infeasible for you, maybe providing Transparency and Feedback for the students (and committing to this before you have them fill out the forms) would drive participation, regardless of extra exam credit.
Also, if you like taking the hard route, you could try to get your student association / any organized student body to organize these feedback things for all lectures in the department or even the whole university. This will obviously be a non-trivial change and may take more time than you are willing to invest, but would probably be an improvement that all students would be thankful for.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_5: I would just choose 1 day at an appropriate time in the semester and give everyone in the class a survey sheet when they come in. You don't need to even say much, maybe even just "take a feedback questionnaire" or "here's a survey sheet" or something.
Have no place on there for their names, the surveys should be anonymous.
When most students have come in and sat down, and you are ready to start the class, start your class by mentioning the survey sheet and ask them to complete it during the class and place the form in the box on their way out at the end of the class.
You don't need to mention it again, and you don't even need to check and ask people at the end of the class. If people don't complete it and don't put it in the box, then it's fine.
Most people will have completed it and will put it in the box on their own at the end.
Any more pressure than that and you will get sheets from people with the opposite of the information they want to give, their way of countering the pressure of being forced to submit the form: "Ok, you're forcing me to submit the form? Then I'll choose all the worst choices so it will skew your data the other way"
Upvotes: 1
|
2018/02/01
| 3,551
| 14,478
|
<issue_start>username_0: I recently received an offer for a research award for early-stage scholars producing outstanding research in my field. I have verified the award and the association are genuine and I have colleagues who have won the prize previously.
The problem is two-fold.
The first problem is that I don't think I deserve the award. Not wishing to blow things out of proportion, the award is good to have but won't make you famous. Yet, having looked at past winners, some of them are professors and all of them had a higher h-index than me when they were awarded. Comparing our research, I simply think there is no comparison, my research is not as good as past winner's - although I have an upcoming paper that may have some impact (colleagues seem to think so). Some of the past winners are my colleagues and co-authors.
The second problem is that the award seems to be won by nomination, typically by colleagues, who would have forwarded the nominee's website and CV. I don't want my colleagues to look stupid by declining the award, which would, of course, be a strange thing for most people to do.
I feel that I have been misjudged (too positively) and it just would not sit right to accept the award. On the other hand, I do not want to ask colleagues what to do since they have already been quite kind in accommodating my anxiety (I think), in general, and recently they have been quite generous in other regards.
Although the award is not a big deal my question is: **will rejecting it harm my colleagues or me in some way?**
Minor point: I would also have the option of giving a talk, I'd rather not, but I do have some work to talk about. Wondering if declining the offer to give a talk is a problem too.
**Update:** Thank you for those replies that answered the question. Kimball's ("awards are not about deserving"), xleitix's, and <NAME>'s (right to decline) answers were the most illuminating. It seems like I should accept. I think perhaps I was unclear since some are replying as if I come from a position of arrogance, my main motivation is to not embarrass myself or others.<issue_comment>username_1: The negative consequences of declining is that you (more or less) publicly question the decision making skills and procedures of the committee. Thus, whereas your desire is to appear humble you actually give out the impression to know it better. That does not project good on you. Also, creating a fuss where it is absolutely not necessary (i.e., in such a situation) will be perceived negatively. You will look like a trouble maker.
My advice: Just take the award and be happy they consider you worthy of it, even though you might not yet. Only the future will tell whether the committee or you were right in judging your quality as a researcher.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: Don't give in to Imposter Syndrome!
===================================
Both your reasons are fundamentally not sound. Somebody nominated you for an award. The awards committee thinks you are deserving. **You should not refuse the award simply because you think others may be more deserving.** It's the task of the award committee to establish this, and their decision was you.
Rejecting the award will probably not "hurt" your colleagues, but it will probably hurt *you*. First, you won't have the award, and when you finally realize that your work was maybe in fact good enough to warrant decoration it will be too late to change your mind. Second, you will presumably not get nominated by the same colleagues again for something because they will assume you are not interested in awards. Third, people *will* look at this as strange behavior, and it is certainly possible that you get flak from your administration or senior professors for refusing what essentially amounts to free marketing for your department. Maybe you are tenured and senior enough that you don't care, but, truth be told, very few people are actually distinguished enough that they really don't need to care at all about what their university thinks about them.
>
> Minor point: I would also have the option of giving a talk, I'd rather not, but I do have some work to talk about. Wondering if declining the offer to give a talk is a problem too.
>
>
>
I think it's less of a problem to decline a talk than the award itself, but even that is prone to raise some eyebrows, mainly because giving talks is such an inherent part of being an academic that people will wonder why you do not wish to partake in it.
Upvotes: 7 <issue_comment>username_3: In a comment, you say
>
> The problem is I worry that accepting might shine a light on my research not being quite there just yet and people would look at my bibliometrics and think poorly of me, if I hadn't accepted then I'd just be yet another researcher, if that makes sense. I'm not using the bibliometrics as a yard stick for research quality, but rather perceived research quality. The actual research quality comparison I am basing on papers published.
>
>
>
With all due respect, this is a terrible reason to decline the award. I strongly agree with all the reasons that username_2 list for why it is a bad idea for your career. I further think it's rude to decline the award.
**You don't get to decide who gets the award.** I mean that quite seriously; you don't sit on the committee that hands out the award. Your opinion on who is or is not deserving of the award is entirely irrelevant to everything. Turing down the award is rude because it says, both to your colleagues and to the committee, "I know better than you do who deserves this award." You wouldn't dream of writing them a letter telling them that they chose the wrong person if it was anyone else who was honored, right? So don't do it here. In this example it's all the worse because you're doing so in a blatantly biased capacity as you have a close relationship with the awardee.
Also, awards exist so that communities and organizations can praise their members, hold up examples to junior members, and give the community a chance to highlight important work. See the comments to the effect [here](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/70885/101). When people turn down awards the community very frequently feels hurt or slighted.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_4: >
> Will declining a research award be problematic for myself or other people?
>
>
>
It's problematic in the sense that it would very likely be a mistake, and undermine the goal that the award is trying to achieve, to the detriment of yourself (mainly) and to a lesser extent of the scientific community you belong to. In a system that is supposed to function as a meritocracy, each time a talented person or their work does not get recognition that they deserve, everybody is hurt a little bit.
As for why it is likely to be a mistake, the main point to keep in mind is that it is a very rare individual who has the capacity to assess him/herself as objectively and accurately as he/she is assessed by others -- almost everyone suffers a bias in one direction or another in how accurately they perceive their level of talent and achievements. In many people this manifests itself in the direction of thinking they are smarter than they really are and that their achievements are more significant than they really are - this is the [Dunning-Kruger effect](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect), tied to [narcissism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcissism) and [egotism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egotism). In other people one sees the opposite effect where the person thinks they and their achievements are less worthy of praise than they really are, a phenomenon known (at least in certain contexts) as [impostor syndrome](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impostor_syndrome), and sometimes associated with issues of [depression and low self-esteem](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimisation_(psychology)#Self-esteem/depression). Both of these effects are well-known examples of [cognitive biases](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_bias).
Now, we don't know whether you suffer from any of these biases. But the general principle is that people are untrustworthy judges of their own worth. For this reason, when we finish papers and grant proposals we send it off for other people to critique, and accept their judgment of how good the work is. The same principle goes for awards; people who are more senior and established than you have considered possible candidates for the award and decided that you are the most worthy among them. You don't have either the information that they had of who they were comparing you to, or the ability of the committee members to look at you and the other candidates objectively (or at least more objectively) without being influenced by the very common biases I described above. The logical conclusion is that their judgment that you should receive the award is much more likely to be accurate than yours.
Anyway, good luck no matter what you end up deciding. Although I have an opinion on what would be the better choice, I do think you have a full right to decline the award, and disapprove of the "get over yourself" sentiment expressed in [this answer](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/70885/40589) (which I downvoted) linked to from username_3's answer (which was excellent and I upvoted, along with username_2's also excellent answer).
Upvotes: 7 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_5: It seems to me that most of other answers to this question are basically saying something like: *other experts are better at determining whether you deserve the award then you*. While these answers make some good points (I upvoted at least 1), to me this seems somewhat off the mark because: **awards** (like gifts) **are not about being deserving**.
Think about the following points:
* Given two researchers/research profiles/papers, there are no good objective measures of who is better. Yes, in many situations there will be a clear consensus that one is more impressive/useful/fundamental/beautiful than the other (and note these are all different metrics), but in many situations there won't.
* Consequently, award/grant/job selection processes tend to function more like random selection (though with a non-uniform distribution, or maybe an initial weeding-out process).
* Unless you were on the committee, you probably don't know what their actual criteria were for selecting someone for the award. Maybe they found your work more impressive overall than other nominees'. Maybe they wanted to highlight your work for some reason. (E.g., it's no fun, and rather pointless, if 1 person wins all the awards in a field.)
* In the end, the committee selects whoever they want for whatever reasons they want.
Thus, my suggestion is: *accept the award for what it is, a gift, which you neither solicited nor expected.*
As to your specific question (which has been addressed by others, but for completeness): Yes, declining the award can hurt you in material ways (make it harder for you to get future awards/grants/recognition/jobs---most obviously by not having that line on your CV, but also people thinking you are strange). Getting the award may also help your colleagues/department some, so turning it down would be harmful in preventing that. Also, some people get offended when someone does something out of the ordinary.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_6: To be blunt, I see two valid reasons to decline such an award:
1. Your publications are based on willingly faulty, faked or illegal research. If this was the case, you would have more problems than a non-deserved award.
2. The award nomination is based on nepotism, bribery or otherwise severely influenced voting. It would help if you had an established standing in the community and a tenure position to make a point by refusing that award.
In other cases just let the jury decide who deserves that award, like it was detailed in other answers.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_7: Yes it can be problematic.
Role models and inspiring figures are important to motivate the young. How good you as a person actually are does not matter much in this context, the important effect for any society to achieve is to have some inspirations and role models get the young to want to work hard to become great in the future. Not everyone is inspired to work by awards and glory, but many kids are very motivated by such stories, especially at a time in their development when catching their curiosity for the sciences and/or arts makes a great difference as to if they put their effort into developing their skills (or not).
---
So try and not focus on you as a person, but try and see it as you are doing society a favor by trying to help kids to want to work hard to become great.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_8: Rejecting an award is usually considered an insult toward the organization handing out the award and anyone who accepted that award in the past.
It means you do not respect the organization which hands out the reward, that you question their agenda and the process by which they select award receivers. You also give the message that you do not want to be associated with the people who received that award in the past. When people reject awards, it's usually not because they think they are unworthy of the award, they do it because they think the award is unworthy of *them*.
When you believe that you don't deserve the award, this is pretty much the opposite of the statement you want to make.
My advise would be to accept the award, but be humble about it and use the talk as an opportunity to thank everyone who supported you and to give praise to your idols.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_9: I would add to other very good answers allready posted.
You are not the only one awarded. Your research group, your students, if you have them, your advisor, if you have one, your faculty and your university. Declining the award will affect not only your name but all I have mentioned above.
The comitee agreed on you deserving the reward and only they are qualified and entitled to make the decision.
You argumented by having lower h-index than past awardees. I think it may be simillar to world records in an athletics. You have to beat the actual world record to claim being a recordman. To publish you have to bring something new, which is going constantly more difficult.
Upvotes: 1
|
2018/02/02
| 516
| 1,904
|
<issue_start>username_0: I have written:
>
> In an oil-water system, if the particle contact angle is larger than 90°, showing greater affinity for the oil phase, then the system is likely to be a W/O emulsion and vice versa.
>
>
>
Does this convey "*if the particle contact angle is lower than 90°, that the system is more likely to be O/W emulsion*", in a more professional way, or does it seem lazy?
I hate writing repeating sentences, with a few different words.<issue_comment>username_1: I would make the position completely clear:
>
> Conversely, if the angle is …
>
>
>
technical writing is not a good place to leave people guessing or admitting the possibility of ambiguity: for a few extra words it is worth it IMHO...
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: I think there should be a comma before "and vice versa".
While a person with more subject area knowledge might have taken your intended meaning, I read it as "In an oil-water system, if the particle contact angle is larger than 90°, showing greater affinity for the oil phase, then the system is likely to be a W/O emulsion, and if the system is a W/O emulsion, then it is likely that the particle contact angle is larger than 90°". The term "vice versa' generally refers to reversing *between* the terms, not reversing *within* the terms. So I think it's not so much that "vice versa" in general is inappropriate in academic writing as that you are not using the term correctly.
A correct formulation would be "An oil-water system with a particle contact angle larger than 90°, and one with angle less than 90°, are, respectively, likely to be a W/O emulsion, and an O/W emulsion". Or "In an oil-water system, larger contact angles show greater affinity for the oil phase, and crossing from less than 90° to greater than marks a transition from O/W emulsion being more likely to W/O being so."
Upvotes: 2 [selected_answer]
|
2018/02/02
| 343
| 1,481
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am applying for a masters program. I have read about the courses, which will be taught at the program. In fact, I think that I have had a lot of such courses in my bachelors program. Does it help to specifically mention that I think that I will do great at the program, because I have taken similar courses before? Also, I have got Bs for some of the courses (actually, the most of my classmates have done similar or worse, the grading was really harsh).<issue_comment>username_1: If you've done work *at the graduate level*, then that would be worth mentioning. However, in many cases, the graduate-level coursework are elaborations and expansions on similar courses from the undergraduate curriculum, in which case your undergraduate class might be an "introductory" version of the master's class.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: Anecdotally: I did this when I applied for CSE masters programs coming from a background in engineering. I highlighted the graduate level and elective courses I had taken in numerical methods, optimization etc. to demonstrate that I had interest in, and aptitude for, the courses on offer in the masters program. I also chose the professors from these courses for my references.
I think it can be worthwhile to do this if it fits the narrative of your motivation letter as it shows that you have considered why you want to study these particular courses and why you would be a good fit for the program.
Upvotes: 2
|
2018/02/03
| 367
| 1,634
|
<issue_start>username_0: In recent months, I've begun receiving invitations to serve as a "guest editor" for various journals from publishers I've worked with in the past that I believe are reputable.
I recognize that there's significant workload for such an issue and very little, if any, compensation, but I'm wondering what the benefits are for tenure-track faculty to serve in such a capacity. Is it worth the investment to do so, relative to the time required?<issue_comment>username_1: The advantage of being a guest editor is that you can invite people to submit papers to the issue you are editing. If there is no fee charged to authors, then the invitees may view this as a favor. They might provide you with a favor in return.
You can also invite authors who are likely to cite your own work.
Your institution's tenure and promotion committee may view serving as a guest editor favourably.
Edit: You should certainly never solicit any reward or repayment from any authors you invite.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Disciplines are typically organized in loose groups around a fairly small number of persons. They organize conferences, are editors, are on boards of professional organizations, etc. They are always looking for the next generation, new researchers who could take over when they retire. Being a guest editor for a journal, organize a workshop, chair a session, etc. signals that you might be the next generation. Having a reputation of being the next generation won't hurt when you aply for your next job. It is also good practice for when you become a regular editor.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]
|
2018/02/03
| 716
| 2,997
|
<issue_start>username_0: I'm 2.5 years in to a 4 year PhD with possibility of a 5th year of funding. I started with one advisor, but research interests started shifting, so we brought on a co-advisor. My research interests have continued to shift in the new co-advisor's direction. The research components that the original advisor can guide me on are hitting speed bump after speed bump and never really getting off the ground. I've been making steady progress with the research components of the new advisor. I want to have the "new" co-advisor (not so new by now) just be my main advisor, and have my original advisor just serve as a committee member. Feels like a cold move, seeing as he was the one that brought me on in the first place. But he recently mentioned he's no longer sure how to advise me anymore, so I think he might be thinking the same thing.
I worry I'm too far into my program to make such a move. My comprehensive exams are coming up this semester, which complicates the timing of this as well. I want to suggest this move to my co-advisor in a way that is tactful and won't cause waves. But I'm not sure how to go about it - you can't un-ring a bell.
My questions are:
1. How unusual is it to go from two advisors to one after 2.5 years, and am I better off making this change or doing the best I can with the situation I'm in?
2. If making this change is better, do you have any advice with regards to how to do it so that I don't make a mess?
I am not being directly funded by either advisor, like with a grant. Funding comes through university assistantships. Additionally, keeping the original advisor on in a co-supervisory role is not an acceptable solution, because the original advisor is adamant about research approaches that don't work, and - at this point - also fall outside my interests.<issue_comment>username_1: The advantage of being a guest editor is that you can invite people to submit papers to the issue you are editing. If there is no fee charged to authors, then the invitees may view this as a favor. They might provide you with a favor in return.
You can also invite authors who are likely to cite your own work.
Your institution's tenure and promotion committee may view serving as a guest editor favourably.
Edit: You should certainly never solicit any reward or repayment from any authors you invite.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Disciplines are typically organized in loose groups around a fairly small number of persons. They organize conferences, are editors, are on boards of professional organizations, etc. They are always looking for the next generation, new researchers who could take over when they retire. Being a guest editor for a journal, organize a workshop, chair a session, etc. signals that you might be the next generation. Having a reputation of being the next generation won't hurt when you aply for your next job. It is also good practice for when you become a regular editor.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]
|
2018/02/03
| 1,646
| 6,916
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am a professor at an academic institution in applied mathematics. Last year around summer, a Masters student in my research group wanted to switch from his supervisor towards my research interests as he became more interested in my line of work. He displayed enthusiasm during my classes with advanced, interesting questions and by coming to my office hours before mentioning that he would like to switch.
After having an extensive discussion with his supervisor, I decided to take on the student's supervision responsibilities. My student worked well on his research for the first two to three months. Given his level of enthusiasm, I expected him to continue on for a PhD with me. So, I was quite surprised when he mentioned that he wanted to end with just a Masters and not continue on to a PhD. He mentioned that he did not know what he would like to do after his Masters, and that he would just like to focus on writing a good Masters thesis for now.
Since then, I had the impression that he has not been putting in enough work every week. His work has been alright and okay and sometimes mediocre. I had the impression that he might have been working on somethings totally different which is not related to my line of work.
Wondering about his interests to guide him in the right direction, I plan to ask him about his future plans and to ask him to just write an okay thesis and put time in to work toward his future goals, be it a job or further studies. Is this the right thing to do as a supervisor? Is the student being ethical here?<issue_comment>username_1: There really might be various reasons, e.g. he might have a relationship finished recently, someone in his family might have died, he might have health problems, a depression, etc. As said in the comments, we are not machines and our personal life strongly affects our work, like it or not.
If you see that he continues to perform worse and worse, and/or his mood/attitude becomes worse, you might consider asking him if everything is fine and offer some friendly help - if you are willing to. But don't be pushy; in fact you are a stranger to him and there is no reason for him to open up before you.
Also, a master's program is something in between being just a student and starting to be a researcher - he just might need to adapt in his own way and pace.
And, finally, people are different: some do work slowly with a constant pace, some (like me) work obsessively for a few weeks/months and need later at least a few weeks of procrastination to rest, cool down and clear their mind. It's really best to allow people to work in their own, most efficient way.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Boredom may be a problem here and he has not yet learned how to cope with that.
Your job at this stage is to motivate him to do the best MSc possible for him (or at least the one that reflects his skills at their best potential). Don't worry otherwise about his future beyond that, it is not in your remit.
He may not be cut out for a PhD; or he may not be ready for it. Sometimes students go to work in industry and then come back for a PhD. If sufficiently talented, they can make amazing students: disciplined, organised, and self-motivated in addition to their academic abilities.
In short, what you need to do now is to find out how to get the student motivated for his present work. Do not try to talk about job/PhD or anything, that can be behind an insurmountable wall in the future for them, especially if they are demotivated.
He says he wants to do a Master instead of a PhD. Don't question this at this point (there can be many reasons for that), but explain that, even for a Master on its own, he would want to have a good one, since this increases his options in the future. And, since it's a far shorter route than a PhD, you can try to convince him to maintain his focus for its duration.
"Is the student ethical": well, why not? He is only damaging himself, and it is not like he is cheating - he probably does not know himself sufficiently well and overestimated his ability to sustain motivation after the switch, but it is very unlikely to assume that he wanted to cheat anyone.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: Yes, I think you're doing the right thing.
One of my service assignments is undergraduate advising in computer science at a selective school. I think my experience with undergrads may inform on what could be happening with your grad student.
All the students I encounter are smart and they're all capable of getting an A in anything if they only took one course, had someone else cooking their meals, doing their laundry and cleaning their bathroom and they actually cared about the subject.
When students don't do well, it's almost always one of two reasons. The most common is that they don't have the time, usually because they're taking too heavy a load, but sometimes due to medical, family, relationship, work or other reasons.
The second reason is they don't like what they're doing. Sometimes it was a terrible course delivered by an instructor who did a terrible job. Sometimes it's on us, but those are rare; academia doesn't run completely open loop. Those student evals actually do matter.
More often, they've been pushed into CS, often by parents, or they've pushed themselves into it. And they hate it. They feel cornered and they want out, but see no way out except to plug ahead somehow and get it over with. An example might be a student who desperately wants to be an actor but is facing threats from his father that any financial support will end if he switches to a drama major. Another may have realized the work is different than she expected and not what she wants to do with her life but believes she's sunk too much into the degree to give up now no matter how much she hates it.
A social worker friend of mine once remarked, *"People don't make changes in their lives until the pain of staying where they are is greater than the pain of changing."* And in the meantime, they struggle and they don't do well.
I'm suspicious from your description that your student has come to a realization that this just isn't what he wants to do with his life.
When I encounter students that seem to be struggling in this way (which is pretty often with UGs), it's often because they had a plan but it's not working and they don't have a new one. Asking what their plan is when they don't have one isn't as helpful as encouraging them to think about what makes them happy and what they want from life. What I've found is helpful is to ask them to watch [<NAME>'s 2005 commencement address at Stanford](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hd_ptbiPoXM) and discuss with them some advice he gives: *To do great work, you must love what you do. Don't settle. Keep looking until you find what you love. You cannot live someone else's life.*
Upvotes: 3
|
2018/02/03
| 1,002
| 4,314
|
<issue_start>username_0: My master’s supervisor talks to me once every six months and is uninterested in my research unless I have a half-written paper with a working model already.
There are also no post-docs or assistants managing the students or providing alternative guidance. It is only a professor. And he has about five master’s students and PhD students each under his supervision.
Is this standard operating procedure? I thought I would have more guidance.<issue_comment>username_1: No, this is not standard.
One of the main purposes of a thesis is that you *learn* how to perform research.
While there is some learning by doing, without supervision you are very likely to at least do one of the following:
* misunderstand the task or the topic,
* miss some important existing work when getting familiar with the field,
* make mistakes that could easily be spotted by somebody experienced but may cost you a lot of time or make a lot of your work worthless,
* focus on rather uninteresting aspects and miss interesting discoveries,
* produce bad writing (and thus having to rewrite it entirely before submitting).
This is probably the first time you work on a larger subject. Nobody can expect you to do all these things right on yourself. And even if you do everything right naturally, proper guidance could make you better utilise your talent.
I thus recommend that you do (if you haven’t done it already):
* Talk to other students or the student union to get an idea what exactly is common at your institution.
* Talk to other students in your advisor’s group about their experience. Perhaps the others have the same problem and you can address it together.
* Actively seek feedback from your advisor.
* Consult with your examination rules and the responsible people at your department for ways to switch your advisor, get your advisor to do more advising (ideally anonymously), etc.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: I cannot state exactly how common this is because I'd need more experience. However I am a 3rd timer postdoc who took my PhD 8 years ago, and I have worked in 5 different labs in 3 distant countries. I know many people. I tell you this:
**This is not acceptable. You are not in a good place**.
After digesting this fact you must come up with a strategy and some plans. I have no idea of where you are, nor how things actually work at your institution.
I am currently in China, and from what I've seen and heard, around here such ambiance more common than it should, and a student will not find direct support out it. However if you're in some reputed traditional institution in Europe, perhaps you can find representative personnel like suggested by @Wrzprmft above.
The following facts should be considered:
* Your "advisor" is waiting for you to feed his CV with data/papers;
* Such kind of person is generally at an institution where this behaviour is allowed to continue;
* Mind that a Master student is typically seen to have little "value" and power by a supervisor and institutions;
* Depending on your personal plans, you may be able to find a much better life elsewhere.
I recommend you decide whether you're willing to stay or leave.
If you decide to stay, consider getting another advisor (if this is locally tolerated/possible). Otherwise *face the fact* that you'll have to find your own way and survive & manipulate your pseudo-advisor until the end of your course (2y?). Usually if they get what they want (some data and papers) the maggot will stay out of your path. If you're the kind of independent researcher, this may well prove quite good for you, but *chances are you'll come up with bad quality data and crappy manuscripts*. And perhaps become as good as your "boss" in the future...
If you decide to walk out, *take advantage* of the fact that this guy is just sitting, and use the local structure and contacts to probe your options. It will be easier to approach (carefully) better prospective advisors and contractors elsewhere through your institutional address. Think about career options (industry, other fields), take some online courses on transferable skills. As soon as you've made your choice or things go sour (e.g. you're caught looking elsewhere) find the smoothest way out of this trap.
Good luck.
Upvotes: 2
|
2018/02/03
| 454
| 1,690
|
<issue_start>username_0: My professor has refused to provide a recommendation that I requested from him and directed me to approach the head of the department.
How do I close this communication with him?
Would a thank you email be necessary?<issue_comment>username_1: You don't need to reply to him at this point, what you should do is to follow his advice and contact the head of department.
You could, if you really want to, reply to him saying thank you for the advice - but this may or may not be received as you expect - far simpler to leave it and move on.
Upvotes: 7 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: I would send an e-mail with the reply
>
> Thank you very much for your time. I will follow your suggestion.
>
>
>
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_3: You're over-thinking this.
Professors are people. Communicate with them however you would communicate with other people in a more senior position than you. There are no special rules.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_4: I would send a request to the Head of department, and cc the professor.
>
> Dear Prof Head,
> At the recommendation of Prof Nothead, I am writing to ask if you would be willing to...
>
>
> ...
>
>
> Thank you for considering my request.
>
>
> user86986
>
>
> cc: Prof Nothead
>
>
>
This closes the loop: "I acted on the recommendation". It implicitly thanks Prof Nothead; And if Prof Head doesn't like it, he can reply-all.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: Another alternative could be to actually contact the HoD, and after you got the letter from him, tell your original prof something like "Thank you, that was helpful, I could get the letter from him".
Upvotes: 1
|
2018/02/03
| 1,090
| 4,665
|
<issue_start>username_0: I started my research as a PhD student a few years ago. I was assigned to researcher X's team and had to assist him in finding a solution as the project got stuck. However, X was not able to implement his approach properly and, after some time, I doubted that the solution's concept would work out at all. Nevertheless, X demanded that we continue following his approach.
After a few months, there was still no progress and people started getting disappointed. X got into severe and dirty conflicts (on a personal level) with his other team members. Conflicts escalated and finally X (and another guy) were removed from the project and forced to quit.
I continued working on X's approach for several more weeks. Since my work was not controlled by X, I was looking at the proposed solution more critically. I came across severe conceptual errors and also some implementation errors. I had to discard the current solution and started working on a completely new approach (not related to X's approach). After several more weeks, I finished the implementation and it was working quite well.
Now I am outlining my PhD thesis. One of the topics is my approach to solving the aforementioned problem. However, my approach is not that straightforward, compared to X's approach. It is more complex and expensive. Therefore I need to justify in my thesis, why I decided to use MY approach and NOT X's approach. I can show this his approach does not work. Therefore, I have to describe his approach, show the implementation and present some of the results. Unfortunately, *nothing* has been published by him. **I** would be the first to present **his** approach - this feels uncomfortable. In the department there is a huge fear of retaliation (e.g., accusations of scientific misconduct), since X was forced to quit. We know that he monitors our publications. I need to handle this at low risk without reducing the quality of my thesis.
My options are:
* Leaving out X's approach in the thesis completely. I do not like this, since I invested a lot of work/time and, what is even more, my thesis appears to be not comprehensive without it. It's especially interesting for the reader to know, why X's approach (the most obvious one) does *not* work. Leaving it out reduces the quality of the thesis and creates open questions which remain unanswered (e.g., why I am using such a complex approach, could I not simply do X's method). However, this solution has no risk.
* Describing X's approach without mentioning X. One argued that I had done enough work on it so I should just leave his name out. I do not like this at all as this is ethically not correct.
* Describing X's approach and clearly attributing it to X (altogether on 2 or 3 pages). I would include an explanation of *conceptual* issues, leaving out *implementation* errors (=no personal blaming). That would be my preferred method, however, I am still publishing and discussing his (unpublished) approach. Is this acceptable or does it expose me to some risk?
I would like to use the third option. Is this acceptable or do other/better solutions for such a situation exist?<issue_comment>username_1: One option could be to mention the approach briefly as "an other approach which was followed in our group". If it does not work out, there is no reason to describe it in greater detail, but you can point out why it did not work.
Nonetheless, you should discuss your solution with your supervisor since potential problems will fall back on him/her.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: >
> I need to justify...why I decided to use MY approach and NOT X's approach.
>
>
>
I don't think you need any such justification: "[X's approach] does not work....nothing has been published by him." Thus, the literature contains nothing about X's work and you need not compare your results to his unpublished work. Nonetheless, if you feel that some reference to his work is necessary, then you could mention that X is working on the topic or that some of your ideas followed from discussions with X or ...
>
> It's...interesting...to know...why X's approach...does not work.
>
>
>
Many approaches don't work. You cannot possibly mention them all. It is perfectly reasonable to omit discussion of X's approach. That said, in some cases -- e.g., when the obvious solution seems feasible -- you might like to very briefly mention why the obvious solution doesn't work. For instance, you could mention: This problem can be intuitively solved by ABC, however, ... (You could also mention that X pursued some of these ideas, or that you pursued some of these ideas with X.)
Upvotes: 1
|
2018/02/03
| 4,366
| 18,901
|
<issue_start>username_0: I've recently been the subject of bullying by a group of students. I taught a difficult module alongside another module, which was taught by somebody else. The other module was much easier and offered huge amounts of support. Students described having their hands held in this module. One student told me that this module felt like students were being treated as newbies, whereas my module felt like they were being treated as second year students at a Russell Group university. The university where I work is more teaching focused.
Having heard feedback from students, I think that the tasks I set them were quite challenging, and I don't think they were used to it. I'm still adjusting to the level that the students are operating at in this university, and were I to I teach in the module again, I would adjust the level.
However, the main issue is that students posted rude, personal and abusive feedback in the module evaluations and also posted nasty comments on the module forum. I also got nasty emails from some students, and although I passed this up to management, nothing was done and I was left to deal with this alone.
It has affected my self esteem and my confidence as a lecturer. I've always had plenty of good feedback before and I've always felt competent in my role. I don't know if I have any rights in terms of being bullied by students, but one student has just told me that there is a Facebook group where I was being slated and there were really personal comments. The student I spoke to today described it as a bit of a hate group, directed at me. One student even copied an email that I had sent her (a photograph of it) and posted it on a Facebook group. I'm not sure if this contravenes any confidentiality regulations.
Anyway, I just wondered if anyone else had experienced this and if anyone had any advice. I've been teaching for 10 years and I was on the verge of quitting my job, and I don't feel like I can easily face teaching these students again. On a personal level, I see it as an opportunity to develop greater resilience, but I can't help the fact that it really feels undermining and threatening to be in this situation.
Any advice or support would be appreciated.<issue_comment>username_1: In short, the behaviour of your students is not acceptable - no matter how good or bad your teaching was.
If something like this were to happen at my university, I as vice dean for teaching would invite the whole group for a face-to-face meeting and explain to them how adults should solve problems.
In fact, this is something you should aim for, since the problem will persist and affect others as well, since the students' behaviour will not change.
We had good success with early feedback opportunities (not just the end term evaluation), micro-evaluations (anonymous feedback which can be a one-liner) which are discussed with the whole group, an honest open door policy, and with involving student organizations and representatives early on. Some course formats have to be explained to students over and over again... This might be helpful in the future, but won't help for now.
If you are still teaching this course, I'd suggest an intervention (if possible with the help of another neutral professor) where you address the problem in front of the class. If possible, summon an extra meeting which does not take place in your usual teaching room.
For such a setting, I would suggest just asking the students about feedback regarding your lecture, but ask them to follow commonly accepted [feedback rules](https://www.learning.ox.ac.uk/media/global/wwwadminoxacuk/localsites/oxfordlearninginstitute/documents/overview/rsv/Guidelines_for_giving_and_receiving_feedback.pdf). Afterwards, tell them what you took as the take home message from the feedback.
Afterwards, you should tell them that you prefer direct communication about any issues.
In the best case, they should be ashamed afterwards...
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: The only practical advice here is: Get used to it. The system isn't fair and it isn't nice and the University doesn't care. These things are emotionally crippling and no other career has to put up with this nonsense. Every semester, you get your evaluations back and 99 of them are glowing, but that one immature, soon-to-drop-out-anyway leaves you profane and false feedback, and your week is ruined. It's wrong, but it isn't going to change. So the only thing you can do is work on your reaction to it. What I have done over the years is to force myself to think about the 99 every time I start dwelling on the 1. It sort of works. And alcohol helps too.
Having said that, your situation points up a deep problem in academia. With sites like Rate-a-Prof and Reddit and GroupMe, the students have a ready venue for their shark-feeds. The University should exert itself to fight these things. Student grades (which no one cares about) are somehow protected by FERPA, while faculty ratings are "public record." And somehow, it's OK with your employer that these teenagers can slander you and your work with impunity.
If someone started up a website called Rate-A-Dean, and let faculty treat the deans like the students treat faculty, you can bet our collective TIAA-Cref accounts that the University would send in armies of lawyers and get the thing shut down with extreme prejudice.
(I just looked at Obu's answer and I'm shocked. I've never run into an administrator who would take action in such a case. I'm glad to hear of it, but I think this is rare. If your admins take up your case, then I think you're very lucky indeed.)
Well, here's another practical thing you can do: Give informal evaluations early and frequently. If the students are allowed to vent early on, it tempers their immature behavior when the formal evaluations roll around. Since they get to vent, there is less urgency to start a Reddit thread for a shark feed. Since they've already ranted once, they don't feel so much like ranting again. You can pitch the informal evaluations whether you read them or not. Their still immature and still unfair, but now you control the channel.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: Capable lecturers, especially if they come from research-heavy institutions, treat students as copies of themselves - assuming maximum competence, enthusiasm, skill and perseverance. But you cannot assume that. If you are lucky, you have 5-10% of students coming close to that level.
But you are a teacher, and you have to serve the grand majority. So, your next task is learning how to teach effectively. Most students react well to being taken seriously.
So, rather than semi-formal evaluations, one thing that works well is getting face-to-face response from students early on about whether the course is too easy, too fast, etc. If they say it is way too difficult, you have a gauge that you are probably too fast. You then may want to slow down. If they say it is "a bit too hard", you are in good shape, because you most likely want to stretch them - make it clear to them, though. Students, again, in my experience, respond well to explanations why the course is not and *should not* be too easy, as long as they see a reasonable chance to pass it and serious effort on the side of the lecturer to help them achieve the desired level.
The key is and remains: communication. However, it is the face-to-face that matters. Once communication begins to go on behind your back, we get to a more problematic situation.
And so, now to the matter of bullying. This is, unfortunately, a self-reinforcing process. It is doubtful that this can be stopped short of a very serious warning by the university, but I suspect anything short of a direct threat of violence will not mobilise the department to your protection.
One idea is really to block any of these negative messages. You are not likely to be helped by the department. There is almost nothing you can do to stop a collective of students to run their bullying activity against you, once it has taken off. But you can minimise the effect on you. If hate-mail is sent to you, archive it, but do not read it in detail. Do not respond to statements about people having Facebook pages about you. Far too often, these people project their own shortcomings onto whoever made them face them.
The past cohort is pretty much a lost cause. Cut your losses. However, for the new year, adapt your pedagogy, get feedback early and often, even face-to-face. Do not be subservient, but demonstrate that you are interested in students' opinion, even if you may not always be able to follow their requests. Finding the right balance is a learning process on your side. With this, hopefully, this negative experience of yours will soon fade into an indistinct past.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: I'm sorry to say this, but - as I see it, **I don't think you were bullied**.
You got negative (individual) feedback, and perhaps some of the messages were even nasty like you said they were. People may have even complained about you in a Facebook group (which, if I understand correctly, you have not actually read the contents of). That does not constitute bullying.
Remember, you are the person in a position of power relative to these students. You set their grades, you can make demands of them, you decide if they face a module that's easier or harder.
If they had contacted your friends or family to deride you; if they had spread lies about you; if had tried to publicize their derisive comments to as many people as possible on campus; if they had threatened you with some kind of retribution, or been physically violent towards you; etc. - then you might have called it bullying.
It's perfectly legitimate to feel shaken, insulted, hurt, by their behavior; but it seems to have been within the bounds of what you should just tolerate.
So: Bear in mind the positive feedback that you often get; it's an assurance that you can and do teach well, in most situations. Talk about this experience with close friends and colleagues, or your spouse if you have one. In fact, given the severity of what you describe, perhaps you should consult a psychologist, for more personalized advice about how to handle this situation. It seems to have touched a nerve that runs much deeper than the experience with these students.
**Edit**: Note that even if you don't agree with my point of view, it's a point of view which many may adopt, given the information we have. And if there are many whom you can't convince you were wronged, your justification for any retaliatory action or complaint would be very shaky. Try to turn the tables and see what this scenario sounds like from the students' point of view.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_5: I can only answer for the U.S.
Here is a sample excerpt from a Code of Conduct. This one is from the University of Wisconsin:
>
> Harassment or bullying is language or conduct that is unwelcome and sufficiently severe, persistent, or pervasive such that it could reasonably be expected to create an intimidating, hostile, or offensive environment, or has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with a person's academic or work performance, or a person's ability to participate in or benefit from the university's programs, services, opportunities, or activities, when viewed through both an objective and subjective standard. This includes harassment or bullying that occurs through electronic means, such as electronic media, the internet, social networks, blogs, cell phones, or text messages.
>
>
>
From your description, this seems apt. The start page for the Code of Conduct gives contact information for "Community Standards & Student Conduct."
Please, file a complaint. And check the policies at your institution. If you find something relevant, cite it in your complaint. If you don't, propose that something be added.
Next time: when you start seeing some red flags -- if something feels a bit off -- start documenting, and inform the office that promotes healthy and respectful student conduct (or your department, as the case may be) that you're getting a bad feeling and will update them in a week as to whether things are worse, the same or better. Establishing a line of communication BEFORE things reach crisis point can be helpful.
*Why should you file a complaint?* Part of being a good university citizen means providing specific negative feedback about something that is not right, so the university can work continually on improving the study and work environment.
**Edit**: Additional remarks.
1. The climate in your university will only become more positive if the members of the university community work together toward that goal.
2. Find a teaching mentor or an office that provides pedagogy support for teachers. Spend 5% of your time reading about teaching and observing other teachers and keep a journal about your observations and your reading. As you gain theoretical knowledge and practical experience your confidence will grow.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_6: If you are working in an institution where you are assessed based on your student feedback, you have two choices.
1. You can leave and get a job where you will be supported and developed by your employer.
2. You can make your course so easy that even the dumbest students get B's and spend way over your paid time to hold their hands (when they want it, rather than in office hours). But over time the students will get dumber and you will lose the will to live.
So, I would recommend looking for a new job, probably outside of academia.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_7: There are three issues here:
* Student comments on feedback forms
* Abusive language in direct communication
* Comments on a facebook group.
There is little last on of these unless the language would meet some definition of Hate Speech: i.e. comments were based on your race, gender, sexual orientation or other protected characteristic. In which case it would be a police matter.
On the first of these - student feedback is useful where it comments on the teaching it self in a constructive way that can be used to change the teaching. Thus our office filters out purely person feedback before it is pass on to us: comments on dress sense, personal manner, appearance, sex, race etc are not constructive and cause only harm. The filtering was felt necessary because such comments disproportionately affected women and lecturers from minority groups. However, comments that do address teaching in an actionable way, even if they do so with potentially offensive language, are left in.
For the direct communications I would start by giving the student a warning - tell them that such impolite communication is unprofessional and potentially harassing and that you will address their concerns if they phrase them in a polite and constructive manner. Point our that if they did this to their boss at work, they'd find themselves in trouble very quickly. If they ignore this
report them to the HoD/Head tutor with evidence. If you receive no response, particularly if this happens repeatedly I'd talk to your union rep (you are in the union right?).
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_8: I moved to the UK from a different country and got some really harsh evaluations in my first year, even though I also had quite some teaching experience before that. The level of students (especially at a teaching-oriented university) is unfortunately not very high.
I am disappointed about the management though. Did you mean professors or people outside your department? In my experience, nothing good comes from outside the department... One thing I would recommend is to discuss this with your colleagues (at the same level as you). They might have similar experiences and might even have suggestions for how to handle this. I think it is not unusual to get bad evaluations in your first year.
I assume that your teaching evaluations go onto your record and that you are therefore worried about them, especially as you may still be on probation. The good thing is that you have time to recover, and you will be able to show a positive trend over the years. Anyway, the most important thing to realize is that it is not you - it is the students. If you adapt (dumb things down enough where possible) your evaluations WILL improve. It is sad that this is necessary, but given the level of students that are accepted to many universities, it seems to be the only way.
Also, these students will move on soon enough and you will be able to make a better impression on the next batch. Having said this, the behaviour of this batch really is unacceptable. Do the students have personal tutors that you could contact?
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_9: One of the silver linings of these cases is that you can be confident that, over time, these students will rotate out of the university and you will still be there. For that reason, I wouldn't concern yourself too much with whether or not the nasty comments you received on your teaching constitute "bullying", and I wouldn't bother pursuing a complaint within the department. Just treat it as a learning experience and bear in mind that some university students act in ways that are immature and unprofessional. When they are older and are experiencing the difficulties of the workforce themselves, I would expect that they will look back on this and feel ashamed of their behaviour.
If it were me, I would just ignore the sniping --- students like this are immature adolescents, and grown-up professionals don't concern ourselves with the catty social media sniping of adolescents. To any mature reader, social media posts like this will reflect poorly on them, but not on you. I suspect that your department probably did nothing because they understand this reality, and they figure they can let this one slide. Unless you have seen indications to the contrary, I wouldn't take this to mean that they don't support you; assume that they have confidence in your teaching unless they tell you otherwise.
Most importantly, don't let this bad experience shatter your confidence in your teaching. It sounds like you probably didn't calibrate the course to quite the right level of difficulty, and students got the shits with that and lashed out in an immature way --- it happens. Over time you will learn to pitch your course at a level that is challenging enough, but with adequate support so that the students do not feel lost and angry. Departments expect that lecturers may sometimes have a bad semester where teaching doesn't go as planned, especially if they are new to a course. Over time you will gain the experience to command a classroom well, engage your students at a correct level, and have better teaching experiences.
Upvotes: 1
|
2018/02/03
| 1,275
| 5,477
|
<issue_start>username_0: I'm currently applying to the masters program at my undergraduate institution for a degree in mathematics. Due to my rather ambitious nature and biting off much, much more than I could chew at times (sitting in on multiple graduate courses and doing the coursework for them as an undergraduate for example), my GPA is not ideal for applying to graduate school (3.13) with my in-major GPA being even lower (just below a 3.0 I believe).
That said, I have heard of people getting into graduate school here with less than a 3.0 and I believe I have a decent opportunity of getting in, but I'm struggling to decide who should write my letters of recommendation.
In high school my GPA was much, much higher, so I got good letters of recommendation from both my teachers as well as people who knew me in other areas of my life. Of course now, I'm guessing that graduate schools are completely uninterested in letters of recommendation from anyone that isn't a professional in your field. Because I haven't had any internships or done any summer programs or anything, this pretty much just leaves my undergraduate professors to write letters of recommendation for me.
Given how small my school's pure math dept is and that we are required to have 3 letters of recommendation this is very limiting. There are very, very few professors I've had more than once, and those I have had I haven't necessarily done well in thier classes. So I've given the question of who should write my letters of recommendation a lot of thought and see the following 3 options and am wondering what might be viewed as the best option:
1. 3 letters of recommendation from professors of mathematics in the pure math dept of my university. This would certainly conform to standards but they would not likely be glowing letters of recommendation due to my less than stellar undergraduate performance (the highest grade I would have gotten in any of these individuals classes is an A-...less in others)
2. Given that you ideally have letters of recommendation from professors whose courses you did very well in, I could get letters of recommendation from math professors whose classes I've gotten A's in. The problem with this is that these classes are few in number and the professor's that taught them were in either applied mathematics or mathematics education (the 3 classes I got an A in were one in pure math taught by an applied mathematician, one in applied math taught by an applied mathematician, and one in math history taught by the dept head who's in math education). I also do not know most of these professors very well at all.
3. 3 letters of recommendation, from a more diverse pool of people, but would be closer to what you'd consider a "glowing letter of recommendation". I'd of course have 1 from a math professor that knows me well, but then two others perhaps from a professor of physics (I'm very interested in mathematical physics, but I'm applying to the pure math program not the applied math program and this physics professor's research is in physics education), and then one from either an acquantince who knows me well who is in the graduate program now, or a lifelong mentor of sorts who can speak to my work ethic and who I am as a person, but is not at all in the field.
Sorry for such a long post, I don't often use the academia site, but I'd really like to know what my best option is. Thank you!<issue_comment>username_1: Since this is an "internal" application, the recommendation letters are really a formality. The department wants to know whether you're likely to succeed in their program. Since they already know you, they have a good idea what sort of student you are.
In my opinion, your real problem is that they know that you're that type of student who bites off more than he can chew. That sort of student is not likely to be successful. (I don't know why, but that sort of student annoys me deeply. It pushes some button deep in my psyche.) You expend lots of effort but you don't master anything. All these graduate profs have had you sitting in their classes, thereby soaking up some of their effort and for no results. Meanwhile you dogged your undergrad classes, and wasted the efforts of those professors.
My advice, if you want to get into their program, is to go on a mission to convince the faculty that you've learned your lesson, that you know you need to focus and master today's learning today. That you won't, in the future, be distracted by every shiny object that arises. Yes, lots of different bits of mathematics are interesting to the point of being seductive, but you can't learn them all at once. The moral of the story is that joke about the old bull and the young bull looking down the hill at a herd of cows.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: GPA is a function of how well you follow orders. Far far more important is the relationships you built with your professors, by talking with them before and after class, while in classes with small class sizes. That is to say, how well they remember you, and that the remember your positively.
Didn't do that? Then you are deep doo-doo.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: You sat in on graduate courses and did the course work. Do the professors who taught those courses know about the quality of your work; did they grade your papers along with those of the officially enrolled students? If so, then could they write recommendations for you?
Upvotes: 0
|
2018/02/04
| 662
| 2,812
|
<issue_start>username_0: I graduated with a Mathematics degree from a top-20 program in Mathematics. I have a good math background (I took many honors and some graduate level courses in my university with good grades with a 3.8+ mathematics GPA, and some researches and reading courses as well).
I applied for the PhD program in math at several universities (none of them is top-10). However, I got a terrible math GRE score (I took it once and only got 30% tile). Even though I believe that test is not a reflection of my math skills and knowledge, I think that test will bar me from going to any PhD program I applied to.
What are some options with my pure mathematics degree? I know some of you would suggest for me to go to some Master's program, but I cannot afford to pay anymore since I am an international student, and I know that I should not go to graduate school if I have to pay myself anyway.
At this point I am pretty much hopeless about my applications, and I think it would be wise to find a new path for my career.<issue_comment>username_1: I wouldn't jump to the conclusion that you'll be rejected. Many programs use a GRE cutoff, but not all. Wait and see.
If you don't get into any program that you like, I would suggest that you find something else to do for a year, perhaps back in your home country. Retake the GRE (study more this time), and apply to PhD programs again next year. It sounds like you'll be a very strong candidate if you can get past the GRE cutoff. I see no reason to give up.
(Also, are your undergrad professors aware of your situation? They may have contacts at the graduate programs where you applied, and could suggest to them that they not overlook your application.)
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: You might want to put in a couple of applied math applications along with the pure math departments you had already identified. It could be helpful to choose applied math programs that have applied and pure tracks within one department. This would make switching tracks easier once you've established yourself in the department.
Another possibility would be a computer science department with some math-heavy tracks.
You could submit a short letter stating that you feel that your GRE result is not an accurate reflection of your actual level.
The difference between getting in somewhere and not getting in somewhere is huge. $200, on the other hand, is not a huge amount of money. (If it is for you, request a fee waiver.) This would argue for studying for the test and taking it again, ASAP, and letting the schools know that you will be submitting a new GRE result on x date. In fact it would probably be a good idea to pay extra if needed, to get as early a new test date as possible.
Admissions decisions are hard to predict exactly.
Upvotes: 0
|
2018/02/04
| 546
| 2,293
|
<issue_start>username_0: My advisor said that when I write my thesis I should staple together my three papers. One of my committee members says my thesis should have a unifying theme and a narrative that ties together all the papers. My advisor thinks this is stupid and explicitly told me not to listen to my committee member.
Both of them have to sign off on my thesis. What should I do?<issue_comment>username_1: The way you present it, it sounds like the two are mutually exclusive, but they are not really: a "stapler thesis" generally contains an introduction and a conclusion that are there to tie the papers together into a whole. This implies a unifying theme and a narrative. It's only a few pages, but it makes a big difference.
You should probably at least make some effort to introduce a narrative, despite your advisor's opinion. Of course you know them best, but in general it's less likely that someone would refuse to sign off on something because you put in *more* effort than they thought warranted, and more likely they would refuse because you didn't put in enough. Better to err on the side of doing more.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: If you trust your advisor's ability to manage dissertations (does he have supervising experience at your institution?), follow his lead and forget about the rest.
The way I see it, it is your job to do 110% of the work that goes into the dissertation in accordance with your advisor's instructions. Your advisor's job is to manage the political aspects of the dissertation. Normally, he should not suggest anyone to be on your committee if he is not certain that he can work with them.
If your advisor can manage the committee, you should not worry about a thing. For the most part you should not even need to talk to your committee members beyond a simple formality. I only saw my committee members when I sought their advice explicitly. None of them told me to do things a certain way.
**IF** you have to justify your actions, go with a vague statement like "I appreciate your input, I tried to put it to work as much as I could. There were other factors I had to balance (vague hint to your advisor's role). All in all, I am pretty happy with how it turned out, thanks to your suggestions."
Upvotes: 2
|
2018/02/04
| 1,568
| 6,731
|
<issue_start>username_0: Suppose I am taking a mathematics course on something I have studied partially by myself. Say the professor assigns a problem whose proof I have already seen before, whether through owning a textbook that contains it, a lecture or assignment in a different course, or elsewhere during the natural course of pursuing a curiosity.
What is the best course of action in this case? Does it matter how I originally learned it, eg. if I have previously *solved* the problem myself versus having previously *seen* a solution?<issue_comment>username_1: This is not a difficult situation, you worked on a problem and understood the solution, then having it set as an assignment - your grade is based on the effort you have put in - either during the course or before.
Benefit from it - other topics you may not be so lucky...
Whether it is an assignment or a final exam - this is NOT cheating - you put the work in and that's fine.
If the professor was meant to write "new" questions and did not, instead re-using old ones then that is their problem, and they may not see it as a problem ie back to "it's the work you put in".
Some students will do every problem they can find on a topic, others will only do two and say "that's enough" - apart from the students with "genius" level or a photographic memory then the grades tend to follow effort...
Upvotes: 7 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: On a homework assignment, it normally doesn't really matter. You might leave a note telling the grader that you've seen the problem before, but it's kind of a point of minor interest.
Even on exams, it's often not a big deal. We might say that you got lucky, but if it just happens to be a question that you've studied independently or remember from a prior assignment (if the instructor's reused them), then awesome. Sure it may not be ideal for an exam, but that sorta thing happens.
One case in which it does kinda get ugly is on a major exam with, say, 3 questions on it. Then, an instructor might give a question from a previous year that a student may've seen the solution approach to through no dishonesty of their own (e.g., an older student may've tutored them and used it as an example from their memory, or the instructor may've forgotten that they did the same in a class one day).
In that more extreme sort of case, it may be worthwhile to bring it to the proctor's attention and ask them what to do. Then, the proctor'll generally make an announcement about the issue, instructing students on how to handle it, e.g. skip the question, do it anyway, or replace it with some modified version or new question.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: *Do not* dig out your notes from back then and copy them.
That's really all there is that could be an ethical issue. Solve the problem again, using your understanding of the material and memories of past studies - just like everyone else. You just got lucky that your past studies happened to include very detailed examination of this specific problem, and that you therefore know it thoroughly. Everyone sometimes gets lucky on an exam question that's about a topic that comes easily to them.
Edit to clarify: This is especially for the case where you have merely *seen* the answer in question in a textbook/lecture. We all agree that googling a problem and copying the solution from the textbook you found that way is wrong. Just because you happen to remember the name of the textbook doesn't make it right.
The goal of a graded exercise is to demonstrate that you can solve certain problems. If you still remember how to solve it, you don't need to look at your notes. If you have forgotten, *you don't know how to solve it any more* - so it would be cheating to pretend you do.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: The other answers seem to suggest that you got lucky, which is something I disagree with entirely. Math classes are not a bunch of disparate courses or linearly organized. Last semester, I routinely gave exercises in a number theory class which duplicated material in an abstract algebra course, which some but not all of the students have had. The point was I wanted students to understand certain things from algebra for my course, but I can't assume everyone knows it as it is not a prerequiste.
At least in the US, students come into math classes (from lower-level to upper-level) with very different backgrounds and my goal for all of the students is to reach a certain level of proficiency and understanding of the topic, not to have each student learn at least X much material that is new to them. (Though if a student already knows almost everything in the class, they are probably in the wrong class.)
I am totally okay with exercise/exam problems being easier for people who have stronger backgrounds (or at least stronger in relevant areas). The only thing I am sometimes not happy with is if someone solves the exercises using results we haven't covered/assumed already in the course. If you're worried you might be doing this, or you want more challenging exercises, chat with the instructor.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: I ran into this question, writ large, in high school, so my perspective may be skewed.
In 7th and 8th grade I took a 2-year course on American History. We used a standard textbook pair, and our tests were the generic ones from the teacher's guides, though as I was in an honors class the answers for matching and multiple choice questions were blanked out and we were expected to supply our own answers. (Our grades were also based on a fair bit of supplemental work.)
I moved to another state between 8th and 9th grade. In my new school, 9th and 10th graders took a two-year course of... American History. From the same textbooks. My teachers administered... the standard tests from the teacher's guide.
Every exam I took in History class during 9th and 10th grade was the exact duplicate, in much easier form, of a test I had taken 2 years before.
I saw **zero** ethical problems in studying for my tests by reviewing my own graded papers from tests I had taken at a lower academic level.
In your case, you are being assigned for homework problems that you have already done during your own independent learning. If they are well-known problems then the solutions are probably available online, as well. I'd suggest that you attempt to solve them again from scratch, so that the skills and techniques are fresh in your mind (the true underlying goal of most homework), and only refer back to your previous solutions if you get stuck, but I see no ethical issues in applying work that you previously did while satisfying your own intellectual curiosity.
Upvotes: 2
|
2018/02/04
| 2,475
| 10,815
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am a Ph.D. student in theoretical computer science. I meet my research supervisor once a week for around 2 hours. I prepare some of my research and try to present in front of him. I always try to make a list of theorems and claims given in the paper to discuss with him in a certain flow but most of the time he starts asking questions and then we go in other directions (which is okay from a research point of view). Due to this, it sometimes takes 2 months to read a single paper. I always try to follow my designed plan but it rarely works. Also, I don't feel satisfied most of the time because many times I am only able to discuss 50-60 percent of what I have planned. Please help.<issue_comment>username_1: Meet with your supervisor and discuss your concerns with him. Tell him that you are not sure whether your current style of meeting is productive enough. Try to find a solution together. The goal of your discussion is *not* that you just spend an hour or two with him. Your discussions should advance your research and help you, but that is not happening right now. So it is your own responsibility to address this issue with him. All in all, this looks like something that can be solved quite easily after a short discussion with your supervisor.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Disclaimer: this is based on my own experience of both sides of this but in life sciences, not computer sciences. And individual supervision styles vary; there is no single "right" way to do this (although some ways are right and some are just wrong).
I am not completely sure that what you're currently getting is unproductive; you might just have a different idea of the 'product' than your supervisor. The function of a doctorate is to equip you to function as an independent researcher. If you have technical/theoretical questions and have not been able to answer them yourself, then you can by all means bring them to the meeting - but your supervisor may feel (and this is an entirely valid perspective) that these meetings are not for answering a long list of preprepared specific questions which could be dealt with via email (or that he might expect you to be able to resolve independently). It sounds like he sees your plan as a springboard to get into fairly open-ended discussion of the area of research. This is a great opportunity, and you seem to partially recognise this, as indicated by your quote below.
>
> he start asking question and then we went to other directions (which
> is okay from research point of view )
>
>
>
As a supervisor myself I would prefer to bounce ideas around with a student than go through a paper item by item (unless there was a really good reason for it). There is however a balance - in the early stages you want to make sure a student has a firm understanding of the basics, in the middle stages you want them to start developing big ideas, and by the end you want to make sure they'll submit on time :)
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: Your advisor doesn't need to understand all the details of the paper, so long as *you* understand them. The point of meeting with your advisor isn't to go point-by-point through the paper, it's for your advisor to help you out if you're confused or stuck, to give you suggestions of research directions to go in, and to supplement the material in the paper with related information. Your advisor listening to you explain the details of something that you already understand is a waste of both of your time.
The only thing you've said in your question that seems like it might be a problem to me is "it takes 2 months some time to read a single paper." You should discuss this with your advisor, but I'd suggest that you do more to condense the point of the paper so that you focus your discussion on the key points and what your advisor wants to discuss, and then you move on to the next paper rather than spending week after week on something you already understand.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: Speaking from experience, both as a student and as a Phd supervisor in theoretical computer science. The meetings with your supervisor serve *many* purposes. To narrow the scope a little bit, let me only discuss the type of meetings you mention - where you read a research paper and discuss it to a high level of detail with your advisor.
In TCS (and maths, I would assume), the primary goals of having the student read a paper and present it to the supervisor are:
* So that the student learns the contents of the paper, especially the main technical tools used and developed in the paper, to a degree where the student can *recognize* a setting where these tools can be applied, and *apply* the tools in relevant settings. Because this is research the tools *will* have to be modified at least slightly every time they are applied. Hence, in order for the endeavor (reading the paper) to be any useful at all the student needs to achieve a *very deep* understanding of the paper she is reading.
* So that the student learns to read, understand, and present (and eventually write) technical proofs. This is a big one - it is *incredibly* important that whenever you feel that you understand a proof, that you are able to present it at various levels of detail. On one end you should be able to give a “big picture” view of what the Lemma statement actually means, what it gives you, why it should be true, and why this is a non-trivial statement. It is equally important that when probed, you are able to re-create to *full detail* a presentation of the proof. By full detail I really mean full detail - are you saying “let x be an element of S” you better have proved that S is non-empty first. Are you invoking Lemma 3.5? You have to point to precisely which objects you are applying Lemma 3.5 to, why these objects satisfy the premise of Lemma 3.5, and which objects this invocation of Lemma 3.5 generates for you to use further in the proof.
The level of understanding that I describe above is really the *only* level that will be useful for you in your research. It also takes a *lot* of work to get there, this goes way beyond the level of understanding you need to get A’s in your classes. For this reason it is *perfectly normal to take 2 months to read a 10 page paper*. This is also a great cause of misunderstandings and frustration between students and advisors (the student thinks “I already know this to a level where I would ace an exam on this paper”, while the advisor thinks “the student has no idea what is going on”).
I can not speak for your advisor, but in such discussions with students I often ask follow up questions in order for the student to herself come to the realization that she needs to understand this or that part of the proof better.
Also, professors are not gods. In fact, for me, *the vast majority* of follow up questions that I ask is because I am struggling with understanding what it is the student is talking about, and I’m trying desperately to figure out whether I missed something obvious, or whether the student is talking nonsense. Doing this (for 2 hours) is mentally exhausting to the point of the infeasible. For this reason the conversation will often naturally after an hour or so shift to lighter topics.
I can’t actually know whether any of the above applies to you, but I do find that the above is a pretty common problem. Let me end with some pieces of advice (much of which has already been said in other answers).
* Talk to your supervisor about this. This might well not bring about the change you are looking for, but you will better understand each other’s motivations, frustrations, etc.
* If you are worried about your productivity, *show initiative*. Ask your supervisor about what are the next natural papers to read, with or without discussing these papers with her. Then read them, to the best of your abilities. Ask your supervisor for research questions, and think about them. Talk to your fellow students, and initiate research projects with them. Remember that in the last year or two of your Phd. you should be able to complete a research project from A to Z without any help from your supervisor at all. This involves obtaining the relevant background, asking feasible and interesting research questions and answering them. The best way of getting there is to try to do this as much as possible from day 1 of your Phd studies, and then using your supervisor to help you with your weakenesses. As an example, when I was a student I had no problems with *solving* problems, but had no idea how to find relevant research questions, and so I would lean on my supervisor and collaborators for this to a large degree. For you there might be another aspect of research that you will need extra support for, and that is what supervisors are for!
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_5: Please don't confuse advisory meetings with Journal Club.
If you don't belong to a Journal Club, I suggest you start one. In Journal Club, the members take turns presenting. When it's your turn to present, you can "make a list of theorems and claims given in the paper" and present them to the club "in a certain flow." In Journal Club, you can expect to be allowed to finish what you've prepared.
For your work with your advisor, the initial stage is about finding a topic. Some advisors propose a specific topic. At the other extreme, the student proposes it. There are lots of collaborative ways in between of finding a topic. The advisor *should* provide guidance, though, especially in the sense of avoiding getting stuck in a cul-de-sac (a topic that's not going to go anywhere).
Try this: when you bring in a paper as material for discussion, and your advisor starts asking you somewhat tangential questions, write those down (or record them), and spend the next few days working on one or more of those questions. In your next meeting, report on that work. Remember, the PhD is about doing *original* work, not just retracing someone else's steps.
As you get more into it, you will probably start to ask yourself some of that type of open-ended questions, and then you can show up to a meeting with your advisor to report on what you asked yourself, and where that took you.
(Fast forward after some time working in this way)
If you become concerned about the amount of time that has passed without your having settled on at least a preliminary area of inquiry, you can express your concern to your advisor, e.g. "I'm concerned because I don't have a research topic defined yet." Then give your advisor some time to think about your concern -- maybe one to four weeks. Hopefully he will have some ideas for how to get things moving toward a topic definition in a more efficient way.
Upvotes: 2
|
2018/02/04
| 1,910
| 7,913
|
<issue_start>username_0: Due to some unfortunate miscommunication, one of the staff members at a university felt like I did not meet one of my obligations.
The staff member sent me an extremely rude email that happened to include other members of the department who I happen to know personally. The fact that the email was extremely condescending makes it seem like the staff member was trying to make me look bad.
Several months ago I received an email outlining some obligations. About a week ago I received another email explaining that I did not have to do one of those obligations. (Fortunately, it turned out to be something that was relatively simple and could be done at any time.)
Because I did not think I had to do the obligation, I did not do it. If the staff member would have clarified what they said, I would have been more than happy to do it. It also turned out to be something extremely simple.
Instead of clarifying, they sent an email that said "I did your work for you" and "here is what I said several months ago to prove that you knew you had to do this" but did not mention where they said "you do not have to do this".
The email was extremely rude and condescending. I would have been able to let it go if they did not include the other members of the department in the email. Now I am not sure how to respond. My thought is that they just forgot that they said I did not have to do the obligation.
I am not sure how to handle this. I have ideas along the lines of asking for an apology, clarifying the situation and explaining that I felt they were extremely rude, or forwarding the entire email chain to higher members of the department.
If I do decide to ask for an apology or clarify the situation, I can't decide whether or not I should include higher members of the department or who in the department I should include.<issue_comment>username_1: It sounds as if your co-worker *was* extremely rude, and owes you an apology, but pointing those things out in so many words is rarely productive. Instead, I would use something like the following template with a reply-all:
>
> Hi John, there seems to have been some misunderstanding. From your
> email of January 28th (copy attached below), I understood that I was
> no longer required to feed the departmental axolotls - if I misunderstood this, could you please clarify what was intended?
> Anyway, thanks for fielding it on this occasion.
>
>
>
At that point, if your co-worker is a sensible person who was just having an off day, they will offer an apology without further prompting. If not, well, your other colleagues can form their own judgement based on the relevant facts.
**edit:**
re. whether it's better to respond to the CC list, or just in private: you certainly have a right of reply in the same venue, but whether it's advisable to exercise that right depends very much on circumstances.
If the alleged omission is sufficiently trivial ("you didn't wash up the teapot yesterday!") then "John" has already made themself look silly just by making a big deal about it, and it's not likely to harm your reputation, so I'd just let it go. The annoyance value to others from prolonging the thread outweighs any need for reputation control; cf. the old adage about wrestling with a pig.
At the other end of things, if leaving the allegation unanswered could harm your professional reputation ("you didn't label the poisons cabinet/feed the research animals/complete the grants proposal due next week"), *and* if "John"'s allegation might seem plausible to the recipients, then it becomes important to rebut it in the forum where it was made. You don't want a dozen co-workers believing that you're a menace to their health or their work.
Leaving aside your own reputation, it might be important to reply for other people's sake. People take their cues on acceptable behaviour from those around them, and bullies often bully more than one person; for either of those reasons, it can be beneficial to see bullying behaviour promptly challenged.
Because workplace culture varies so much, it might be wise to seek input from colleagues at your institution - they can probably tell you better than us whether people take your co-worker seriously.
Upvotes: 8 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Regardless of the setting (i.e. academia or corporate workplace) there is only one way to handle this: Professionally.
That leaves you with two options:
Option 1: Ignore it and move on. Maybe they were having a bad day. Maybe they aren't great at communicating. Maybe it's a once off. Either way, there's no personal damage to you and some things just aren't worth escalating. If you see the person, talk to them. Say something like "Sorry for the misunderstanding, but I thought from your other email that it was no longer required. Thanks for completing it for me". This gives them the chance to also respond and offer an apology of their own, if they are so inclined.
Option 2: Respond to his email directly, with something similar to the format suggest be <NAME> in his answer.
**Do not**, under any circumstance, reply all and list your grievance, why you're right and demand an apology. Respond directly to the email, CC or BCC in your supervisor so that they are aware, and respond in a professional, succinct manner. And then leave it at that.
Responding in a Reply All email, listing why you're right and demanding an apology is not going to do you any favours. Keep it private and keep it professional. Apologise for any misunderstanding based on the previous email and leave it at that.
If they decide to continue, that's when you escalate with your supervisor and possibly further.
Most likely though, no one other than you is concerned or even paid attention, and chain emails to everyone merely make the sender look bad. The last thing you want to do in these situations is air all the dirty laundry in public. And if things do go pear-shaped, refusing to be drawn into drama and responding in a polite, measured, professional manner puts you in a good light.
Either way, chalk it up as experience and move on.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: Quite often, the right choice is not to dignify it with a response. Consider whether or not the other people who were copied in will care. If not, responding isn't necessary, and makes you look like you care far too much about something trivial. Similarly, if they already have a more negative opinion of the person who sent you the email than they do of you, then responding isn't necessary. It's only worth responding if the other people respect the person who sent you the email and care about the issue at hand. These two conditions are often not satisfied.
If it is important to respond (e.g. because you'll get incoming if you don't), it's generally best to respond not to the email in question, but politely to the email containing the evidence, copying in the relevant people. A friendly "thanks for doing this after all in the end - much appreciated" will generally suffice. Everyone else will get the point, and the person involved will either have to let it go themselves or look foolish.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: I think I'd wait a bit. Eventually one of your colleagues who received a copy of the rude e-mail will mention it to you. Then you can shrug and say, "Actually, in a later e-mail, she said I didn't have to do that, so I don't know why her panties are in a bunch." At this point your colleague is apt to give you clear advice on whether the incident will hurt your career in any way. If not, you can let it go. If so, he can also give clear advice on damage control.
But I think that it's likely that the colleagues copied on the "extremely rude" e-mail already think that her actions were inappropriate. Someone may have already mentioned it to the chairman/supervisor.
Upvotes: -1
|
2018/02/04
| 3,234
| 13,294
|
<issue_start>username_0: We are having Visit Days soon, and we (current grads) are expected to have one-on-one conversations with visiting students with research interests closest to ours. One typical question we get, "How is Prof. X? What is it like working with them?".
As a current grad, I can see the names of the visiting students along with the professors who are their top choices for advisor, and several students have listed two professors I've tried to work with in the past (they had been my top choices when I joined this university).
These professors are great researchers, but, in my opinion, not good at all as advisors. I am not going into details because that'll end up being a rant, which isn't the point here. But my view is strongly shared by *all* my group peers who had, at some point, tried to work with these professors (due to their fame as researchers).
Because nobody had warned me before I started working with these professors, I ended up wasting two years in grad school, in my opinion, a very, very high price to pay. I would like to be very honest with the visiting students. At the same time, my field is quite close-knit, with all top professors collaborating with those at other places. If these visiting students end up not joining us, I'd not want them to remember me as the person who bad-mouthed these famous researchers.
How can I honestly answer questions about these professors without coming across as bitter (which I admittedly still am)? If I just state the facts, well, even those are going to be coloured by my viewpoint, and will therefore be biased.<issue_comment>username_1: First of all you should decide whether you want to convey any negative information, factual or otherwise, about these faculty members. You are certainly not obligated to discuss the issue at all. You could for instance contrive not to be present for this part of the Visit Day, or you could show up and say "I'm sorry, but I don't have anything to contribute in response to that question. Maybe you should ask someone else."
In my opinion though, absenting some very clear and serious negative consequences for you, you **should** provide feedback on your experience, because as you say,
>
> Because nobody had warned me before I started working with these professors, I ended up wasting two years in grad school, in my opinion, a very, very high price to pay.
>
>
>
You go on to write
>
> I would like to be very honest with the visiting students. At the same time, my field is quite close-knit, with all top professors collaborating with those at other places. If these visiting students end up not joining us, I'd not want them to remember me as the person who bad-mouthed these famous researchers.
>
>
>
Telling the truth about your own experiences is not "bad-mouthing" anyone.
>
> How can I honestly answer questions about these professors without coming across as bitter (which I admittedly still am)? If I just state the facts, well, even those are going to be coloured by my viewpoint, and will therefore be biased.
>
>
>
I suggest that you plan out what you will say, or could say, in advance. Indeed you should concentrate on factual information. You should also remind them that this is just your own experience, and that others' experiences might be different. This should encourage the visitors to seek out information from others, which is good.
I also don't think "bias" is the right word. Your answer to the question "What's it like to work with Professor X?" is inherently about *your feelings* on the matter. If you had a negative experience, then *that's the correct answer to the question as far as you can provide*. It doesn't mean that others will have the same experience -- and again, you can emphasize that in your response -- but it is your take on the situation.
What is the alternative? Dishonestly describe your experiences and thereby lure further students into bad experiences? That's not helpful to anyone.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_2: I assume the purpose of this event is to provide useful information for
incoming students. Presumably, you have been asked to participate
because someone thinks you can provide some worthwhile advice.
It would be surprising if you were chosen to participate with no
knowledge that you took a somewhat indirect route in your own career.
I would say your obligations are to share information you think will
be helpful and relevant. Perhaps your primary message might be about
what eventually worked well for you and what contributed to your success.
You might also acknowledge that personalities of advisers and students
come into play. Some students need different kinds of technical and
emotional support than others. So you can urge students to consider these factors
in choosing an adviser.
One objective way to measure the success of various advisers would be
to look into the number of successful interactions with students and
the quality of the resulting work. You can encourage prospective
students to look at the output from each professor under consideration and judge for
themselves. You might also suggest the importance of an initial
discussion between prospective adviser and student where mutual expectations
are frankly discussed.
I think it would be OK to say that some of your own interactions with
advisers in the department have been unsatisfactory, and to point out
how in retrospect these mismatches might have been avoided.
You should try to focus on the needs of the particular individual students you
are trying to help. To be most effective, you should decide in advance
what specific personal misadventures it would be useful to mention and which would be best to avoid. You have an obligation to give information you think will be helpful, not an obligation to give your life history.
Finally, on the chance that any of your unsatisfactory interactions
with advisers resulted from actual abuse, I believe you have an obligation to
report that to the *department* in advance of any discussions with
prospective students.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: >
> How can I honestly answer questions about these professors without coming across as bitter (which I admittedly still am)?
>
>
>
By explaining what happened to you, and perhaps to other people, and sticking to the facts - rather than providing your conclusion about those Professors' character. (And note that the way events made you feel is also a fact.) Let the person asking you reach their own conclusions.
Also, by qualifying your answer with a mention of other people who have had better experience with these Professors, whom the person asking you the question might also consult.
However ... be advised that not embellishing and not being ultra-positive will often be perceived as disloyal bad-mouthing, by certain people. Honesty has its price and no good deed goes unpunished - in many institutions.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: Provide the information needed but do it with positive remarks. Avoid negative statements and anything that would be embarrassing if quoted in public. Example:
>
> 1. Prof. X has an ambitious research program. This group attracts students who come in with extensive prior research experience.
> 2. Prof. Y is much sought after as an invited speaker. Due to his/her conference travel commitments, s/he tends to attract students with a high degree of self-sufficiency.
> 3. Prof. Z is a relatively recent arrival in the department. S/he provides a solid training in lab techniques and a strong suit is guiding students in defining their research question.
>
>
>
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_5: Shift the conversation. Rather than answer the question about what it's like to work with Professor X, who you don't like, ask about their interests and talk about Professor Y, who would be great for that.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_6: This profile is actually pretty common in academia, and those professors typically know that they're not good advisors because they're *not interested* in being advisors.
Keeping that in mind, your statement can be informative and accurate while not being derogatory:
>
> Prof. X is a great researcher, with many publications in top-tier journals. They have a very busy schedule, and cannot dedicate much time to advising. They can only supervise highly motivated and autonomous students who aren't expecting to see them more than once every 6 months.
>
>
>
* It gets your point across.
* It makes it clear for the students if their profile would fit.
* Prof. X will be thankful for you not to send students in need of much supervision.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_7: Do not assess the professors how good advisors/reseachers they are, you are not entitled to do so. You can only assess how their way to advise fits to your needs.
You can mention the topics the professors are intersted in, their results, their typical schedule etc. Let students decide, whether it fits their preferences or not.
If you want to share your expirience with working with the professors, describe what you had expected and why it didn't fit to your needs. You and the group you are in is too small sample to extrapolate conclusions. Who says the asking student's needs doesn't fit with the professor's way to advise?
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_8: There is a fine line where you can be *factual* and yet not bitter or come over an badmouthing/backstabbing.
A key aspect is to be clear *whose experience you are talking about*, rather than asserting a generality that is always true for all people.
* "People like him for his clarity of thought, *but for me, he was a hard professor to work for*.
* *"I found that* I was left more on my own resources than I would have liked. It might have been just right *for someone else* though. *It depends* how you prefer your teaching"
* "*For some students* who need to feel nurtured, its less good a choice. *For others* who need to feel pushed, its an excellent choice".
* "It depends what you want in a professor. If you want X then you might prefer prof X. If you want Y then prof Y might be a good choice".
No professor or personality trait is universally good/right or bad/wrong for everyone.
So instead of *judging and opinioning* your professors, try instead to describe what kind of person would be a good fit or poor fit, and let them decide which fits them.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_9: Rather than give advice about specific faculty, try to give advice on how to choose an advisor. Then it's up to the prospective student to make their own
valuation of how much it matters.
For instance, if you want to advise against a certain professor because they don't spend much time with their students, you can say: “When choosing an advisor, you should ask yourself: ‘will I do better with an advisor that expects to see me once a week? Or once a month? Or once every six months?’”
These (and others) are questions that prospective students don't know to think about. You're giving them advice that's valuable not just for avoiding a specific professor, but types of professors. It can be helpful even if the prospective student lands somewhere else.
The prospective may feel you've already adequately answered the question, simply by the fact that you *didn't* say, “Prof. X is amazing! You should definitely work with them.” But if they demands to know which of these Prof. X belongs to, you can say “I found Prof. X was a six-month person with me, and I'm more of the once-a-month person, so I ended up working with someone else. But you should talk to some of his current students to get more information.”
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_10: I think the folks who said you should be tactful but direct in telling prospective students about the potential pitfalls of working with some folks are on point. I'll add another potential thing to say:
>
> Professor Y is an excellent researcher and very well-respected. In my experience, she didn't have a lot of time to supervise me as a student. That said, I felt like I got much better guidance from Professor Z.
>
>
>
Or something along those lines. Be more or less direct according to your judgment. Let's hope there's something positive about some professor you can say!!
I am sympathetic to the fact that your field is close-knit and that you don't want to jeopardize your future relationships. I'd urge you to balance that with your instinct that prospective students deserve to know what to expect. You can state the facts without bad-mouthing people. You'll have to assume that your interlocutors are mature enough to make a sound judgment about your message. From what you said, it sounded to me like you weren't sure you could assume this. I'd urge you to give this a second thought.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_11: Talk about your own experience and about what didn't work. You don't need to say that it was the professor's fault, but telling what happened to you may make students think what can happen too them.
For example, "Since I wasn't able to work 120 hours a week, I didn't meet Prof X expectations and the project needed to be abandoned". Probably you can find better examples.
Upvotes: 0
|
2018/02/05
| 413
| 1,863
|
<issue_start>username_0: After completing a paper my supervisor at the time wanted to use a paper review service to review my paper for grammar, English etc..
I am a native English speaker and the service is based in a non-English-speaking country, but I don't know the nationality of the person who reviewed the paper. After receiving back the corrected paper, it seems like they have reduced its size by more than 50% by taking out words phrases that they thought to be redundant and rewording sentences to be easier to understand by anyone.
I feel like these services aren't worth the money but that might just be due to the sour feeling of having someone change the majority of a paper you've spent a fair amount of time on by someone that might know little about the subject.
What kind of experiences have people had with these services? Do you think think they are worth using?<issue_comment>username_1: >
> [paper review service] reduced [paper] size by more than 50% by taking out words phrases that they thought to be redundant and rewording sentences to be easier to understand by anyone.
>
>
>
A fifty percent reduction in paper length is an excellent improvement of your paper, because your readers have less to read. (Assuming what "they thought to be redundant" really was.) There's no need for any "sour feeling," appreciate the improvement and learn how to make similar reductions. (Note that reductions are far easier for someone else to make than the original author.)
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: Was the removed text actually redundant or was it important to understanding the paper? did the rewording actually get the correct point across in an easier to understand way or did it change the meaning unacceptablly?
Without a good answer to those questions it's impossible to say if the service was useful or not.
Upvotes: 1
|
2018/02/05
| 1,619
| 6,972
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am a <NAME> early stage researcher in a H2020 funded project (early training network, for those aware of the terminology), that's spread between several universities in Europe (including where I am now, London /snark). I'm approaching the end of my contract.
This project is, according to the published figures, rather lavishly funded (€4 mil in total). Just in the "Research, Networking and Training Costs" there's **approx €200k for three researchers for three years** (that comes to 1800/mo per researcher!). This excludes salary costs, management costs, etc.
This project has been plagued from the beginning by a serious lack of transparency and mismanagement, which has been slowly revealed throughout the duration of the project.
Some examples:
* We, as researchers, were not consulted as to what training we need, and were "forced" to go to courses & workshops organised by the consortium partners, which half of the time were useless (completely off topic).
* Even if we didn't attend said workshops (out of desperation to get work done, in my case), the host university would still pay the organising partner a set "participation" fee.
* I was told there's no budget to go to conferences, even if I had a paper in. Some of us had to pay up front for our secondment related travel costs (at our industry partners).
* We were told secondments were mandatory 8 months, whereas actually they were *maximum* 8 months.
* My host university slotted me in at the wrong pay grade for two years (was being underpaid - this issue is sorted, but just goes to show). They're still using the wrong conversion rate, instead of the ECB rate (£0.7 for €1), but apparently that's going to get sorted at the end of the contract.
My conundrum is simple: I've just been told that my host university has overspent, and there's no more money for me to go to an important industry board meeting where I was invited due to the research I've been doing so far, and supposed to talk about it in front of a couple of important industry actors in my field.
I'm a bit fed up. I have never seen a single excel sheet of sorts on what the money has been spent so far, by whom and on what. It has been consistently denied to us. From my own book-keeping, I've spent, so far, somewhere in the range of **1/5th of my total budget**.
I'm afraid to push too hard on my supervisors for details, as I still need to (write and) submit a dissertation with them, and maybe get a PhD degree - and they might easily get offended.
I also believe this should be "sorted out" at one point or the other. I've been previously working in practice (Architecture & Engineering) for 4 years where such behaviour would have spelled instant trouble and litigations. How would one report/flag serious concern/blow a whistle on such a project, in the rather sensitive British cultural context?
*Disclaimer:* I do realise I am in a very lucky position, and life can be much worse in academia & research than I'm having it... it's just that I might have a too developed sense of justice or need for clarity for my own good.<issue_comment>username_1: These are public funding from the EU, I don't think there should be any secrets how the money has been used, because eventually the universities involved will have to report this to the EU. Don't go point blank to the secretary or the PI until you have gathered more information, there might be expenses or costs that are legitimate and that you don't know about.
**A first step** would be to ask the secretary/auditor in charge of the bookkeeping the documents documenting how the money has been used.
**Secondly** you have to go through these and flag transactions that according to your knowledge don't sounds right. You then need to gather some information if these flagged expenses sound right or not, you could also contact the EU for this.
**Third step**, if some of these transaction don't make sense ask to the people who reported these expenses.
**Last step**, if you find discrepancies you have to bring this up with the EU.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: I am not detailedly aware of European Training Networks, but it sounds like you are grossly misunderstanding some things here.
1. €200k for three researchers for three years are absolutely certainly *not* only for your travel and consumables.
===================================================================================================================
As you correctly assessed, this would be very lavish and no EU project that I have ever seen gives you that level of funding. European Training Networks in particular are, as far as I have seen, generally *underfunded* when it comes to travel, and assume that the host institutions also chip in. Assume that there are costs calculated in here that you are not seeing, for instance institutional overheads or the costs for organizing trainings.
2. I understand that the "lack of transparency" is disappointing, but this is not *your* project, it's your supervisor's.
=========================================================================================================================
Quite frankly, PhD students generally have no detailed insights into the finances of the projects that they work on because they are also not formally responsible for them (i.e., you are probably not formally responsible for signing expenses).
Your supervisors report to their administration and to the European Union, not to you. They do not owe you an Excel file of where the project finances go. But do not worry - there is a formal audit at the end of the project which will look *very* carefully into where the different funds went. If it was actually grossly misspent (as opposed to spent on things that you or the other PhD students didn't want), legal issues will come up. However, I presume this will not be the case, as your supervisors are almost certainly aware of the mandatory end-of-project audit.
3. Project politics are a thing.
================================
Your university presumably commited to sending you to certain trainings when they signed up for the network. Yes, it sucks if they are unrelated to your work, but sometimes you'll have to do things for your project that are not key to your personal research agenda. In a Training Network those are a few trainings here and there - in an IP project it could have easily been as much as 50% of your work time. Without knowing the details, I would still guess that you are complaining on a fairly high level here.
That said, your institution still screwed up.
=============================================
There should be money for you to go to conferences and present your research. If the project funds do not suffice for that, they *should* have made sure that the university can co-finance from other sources. If they are unable to do that, they should not have hired a PhD student.
Upvotes: 4
|
2018/02/05
| 1,906
| 8,088
|
<issue_start>username_0: I started working on my master thesis a few weeks ago. When I talk to my supervisor and try to discuss new ideas she always starts to explain **very basic** material that is only tangentially related. Sometimes even repeating what she said in our last meeting.
This leads me to believe my supervisor assumes I do not know what I am talking about when presenting my ideas. And even worse not knowing some very fundamental stuff even after she explained it to me.
I know it is hard to judge what other people know, but this makes it very hard to discuss my thesis with her.
How can I politely let my supervisor know of the level of my knowledge to have more interesting discussions about my work?<issue_comment>username_1: I've had similar worries. Rushing too far ahead too quickly can be seen as showing off, which some will not digest well and will react with throwing basics at you back.
Having blasted my way through a similar period (I was rushing ahead) in the not too distant past, for me it **slowly** worked out for the best. Once I've proven that I "master" the basics, the discussion progressed to a really good intellectual level, in which both supervisor and me would freely admit what we know and what we don't.
Looped advice across meetings can be politely solved by taking meeting notes. At the next one, you can always pop up and say, "Based on the previous discussion, I have already looked at X and ... [invalidate politely] or [validate]". This will show that you've done your homework, and can move on.
Obviously this depends a lot on the person. *Disclaimer*: this was also during the course of a PhD degree, not a master's. I know it's not an easy advice to follow -I almost failed at it - but patience, if you can afford it, works well in this scenario, especially if your supervisor is relevant for your subject.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: More years ago than I care to remember, I changed departments and started working for a new manager (NM). At the same time, another person (AP) also joined the department. My new manager put a weekly meeting on our calendars for the three of us. We would go into the meeting, and NM would start asking us what seemed to me to be really simple questions - what are we working on, issues with deliverables, who are we talking to about whatnot. Really simple questions. Almost insultingly simple questions, or so it seemed to me. Hey, I'm experienced and know what I'm talking about!
I started getting irritated by this meeting wasting my time. I could have had a meeting with NM to say it was wasting my time and why am I invited. Or, as I did, I took note of what was asked and what the answers were expected to look like (yes, there is problem A, we are trying fix B, and I'm working with so-and-so on alternative path, will know next week how to resolve). Then, I went 100% prepared to perform the data dump that NM seemed to want, whether or not I felt it was appropriate.
Fast forward 2 weeks, where I had started off the meetings presenting the necessary information (and only the necessary information) to NM at the beginning of the meeting in ~ 5 minutes. No questions addressed to me. Then, AP would get questioned, and generally fumble through the answers and need direction on what to do next.
Next week, I was removed from the calendar invite. AP was not.
Several months later, NM and I had a nice conversation over lunch about the purpose of the meeting. Basically, it was to establish that (1) I knew what I was supposed to do, (2) who I was supposed to work with, (3) I could rapidly summarize progress/goals/deliverables/budget stuff, and (4) I indeed could think for my self and be proactive in getting the right things done. In essence, I had passed the test and shown that I was, indeed, and as expected, an independent contributor and good team player. And, NM remained a good manager and mentor for me, just much more hands off (unless needed!).
What does this mean for you? You started a few weeks ago. You and your work style are a complete unknown to your advisor. What do they really want? What questions do they ask? Can you anticipate what they are and how to answer them correctly? If you need help, do you ask for it? Can you describe what you are working on in 60 seconds or less?
Be proactive. Show that you do indeed know the right things and are applying them properly. Do not go there to passively answer questions. Ask for help when you need it. And, learn to deal with people whose social interaction style is that way - you will meet many more in the course of your career.
Upvotes: 7 <issue_comment>username_3: Did you think about the possibility that when you're presenting your ideas, some things you say gives her the impression that you have knowledge flaws in basics of the topic?
Everybody makes blunders, and they are usually overlooked during casual research discussions. However, in your case, your supervisor is about to commit some considerable amount of time to your thesis. Therefore, she has to be careful because one cannot tell if a blunder is caused by some carelessness or lack of knowledge. In the former case, going over some basics never hurts anyone. In the latter case, it is a must.
Also note that without covering the tangents, you cannot go deeper into the center.
Next time, when you're explaining something, do it as if you're teaching some freshman. Picking every word very carefully and leave no missing thing. Then you will already say what she has to say in the first place.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: As a supervisor, I gain confidence in my students' skills when they start producing results. "Discussing new ideas" may or may not be an indicator of understanding. A piece of working scientific code (even a short one), a fully worked out problem (even simple one), a nicely produced graph/visualisation (even a simple one) often say more than thousand words.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_5: When one is having unproductive or somehow frustrating weekly meetings with someone, it is often helpful to **send a short to medium-short preparatory email**. You have to time it just right. Say your meeting is Thursdays at 11 am. Perhaps the ideal time to send this email is Wednesday dinnertime, to make sure that your advisor reads it either Wednesday evening or Thursday morning. **You want your email to be fresh in your advisor's mind when the meeting starts. But you want to send it close enough to your meeting time that your advisor will not be tempted to respond via email.** It may help to state explicitly that you're not expecting a response via email. You could even put something like "Prep for meeting (date)" in the subject line.
When you show up for your meeting, explicitly **ask your advisor if s/he had a chance to read the message.** If the answer is yes, great. (If the answer is no, hand over a print copy and excuse yourself briefly, e.g. you need to get some water. Make sure to be neutral in your tone so that your advisor doesn't get the idea you're disappointed. For example: "Oh, that's okay, I'm sorry, I should have sent it yesterday morning. I also printed out my outline, do you want to take a look?" Note, the purpose of stepping out of the room briefly is to give your advisor a chance to have good inward focus, so as to be able to take in your outline properly. Stepping out isn't necessary with some people but it can be quite helpful with others.)
The email can be an outline of what you would like to address in your next meeting. It can include a brief summary of what was covered last time. It can be a suggestion for next steps. **Basically, this email pre-loads some information in your advisor's mind so that you can jump straight into productive work.**
Experiment a bit with the format of this preparatory email. Once you find one that works well, use it as a template each week. However, once your collaborative relationship is going more smoothly, you can start experimenting again with varying the format.
Upvotes: 3
|
2018/02/05
| 929
| 3,720
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am a graduate student in pure math, namely graph theory and combinatorics. I have recently been nominated by my department to be the math department candidate for a university-wide research award. In the award application materials, it asks for my CV and is very specific that the authors names need to be in the same order as on the published paper so that the level of my involvement can be judged.
I am in a field where the convention is to put all names of co-authors alphabetically, regardless of input. It is clear to me that I need to mention this on my CV, but I am worried that if I just say that that the order of the authors is irrelevant in my field, the people judging my CV will be unsatisfied because then they won't have any information about how much I contributed to each paper.
Is there a tactful way to deal with this issue?<issue_comment>username_1: If you are concerned, you may want to include more information about the culture of coauthorship in mathematics. For instance, you could enclose the following [updated AMS culture statement](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0ahUKEwiUy66GmY_ZAhUOmVkKHX5yC5sQFggpMAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ams.org%2Fprofession%2Fleaders%2Fculture%2FJointResearchandItsPublicationfinal.pdf&usg=AOvVaw2hc59TCQT1DUyH3G66dOYO).
As a mathematical "lifer," I want to be honest: the way that we handle coauthorship in mathematics *does* sometimes obscure the individual contributions of the authors. On the job market, this is often circumvented by getting letters from one's senior coauthors describing the contributions you made. You might consider doing that here, or that may be too heavy-handed for this case.
You could also talk to a mentor in your department and see what they think. They may have more experience with what happens at the university level.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: I worked for more than a decade in a field where authors are always listed alphabetically, and the typical author list includes 500+ names. Individuals do get awarded in this field.
As it has been suggested, the contribution of a single author in such a paper is not officially recognized on a paper in this case, but it is unofficially recognized by the community. Most people in your field will know the work of somebody worth an award, either through letters of recommendations and word of mouth, or presentations, posters or seminars on the same topic of papers you published.
As you can afford only one letter for this award, all you can do is to highlight the public talks you have given related to the papers you list on your CV, and count on your reputation in the field. Good luck.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: Unless the CV has a fixed, required format, such as in an NSF proposal biosketch, you are free to include any additional information you judge to be pertinent.
Since they require the author order to match what's in the paper, then you should preface your list of publications *for this CV* with a quick note stating: "Mathematics publications use alphabetical order when listing authors because [reasons]." That will allow you to explain the issue concisely.
(Note that a number of other fields have similar issues—such as economics.)
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: Another idea is to include something like an annotated bibliography for you papers. Included in your annotation will be a description of your contributions to each paper.
Doing this will have the added benefit of helping prospective employers understand what roles you played in each paper. It will also help if you are in academia and are going up for rank advancement.
Upvotes: -1
|
2018/02/05
| 1,097
| 4,133
|
<issue_start>username_0: I know peer reviewing is done freely and voluntarily, at least I think for the most part, so I am not sure strike is the best way of calling it, but it gives the idea. With all the recent discussion about open access and overworked researchers that relate to the publishing cycle, I was wondering if there has been any protest, or strike, or talks for a strike by peer reviewers.<issue_comment>username_1: Researchers have refused to review for Elsevier, as part of [the Cost of Knowledge boycott](http://thecostofknowledge.com/), which
1. Objects to exorbitantly high prices; and
2. Objects to measures that restrict free information.
The initial success of the boycott was summarised in 2014 by [<NAME> (Fields Medal recipient)](https://gowers.wordpress.com/2014/04/24/elsevier-journals-some-facts/):
>
> A little over two years ago, the Cost of Knowledge boycott of Elsevier
> journals began. Initially, it seemed to be highly successful, with the
> number of signatories rapidly reaching 10,000 and including some very
> high-profile researchers, and Elsevier making a number of concessions,
> such as dropping support for the Research Works Act and making papers
> over four years old from several mathematics journals freely available
> online. It has also contributed to an increased awareness of the
> issues related to high journal prices and the locking up of articles
> behind paywalls.
>
>
>
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_2: Not *en masse*. If researchers refused to review *en masse*, the system would break down and no papers would be published (or they'd be published without review) and the impact would be very visible.
On smaller scales there has been a *Cost of Knowledge* boycott of Elsevier, an individual publishing house. This was initiated by <NAME> in 2012, in protest of Elsevier's perceived high prices and gross margins. The target is Elsevier because it is the "worst offender" - Elsevier's margins are very high, above 20%. The boycott allows the signatories to say if they're not willing to publish with, to do editorial work, or to referee for Elsevier. It's had minimal impact: as of time of writing, there are 16,946 signatories, a tiny fraction of the number of academics in the world (millions). It did, however, lead to Elsevier lowering its prices slightly for mathematics journals as well as making some old papers available for free.
On an even smaller scale, I've seen researchers decline to review papers because they don't review for non-OA journals, or because they don't work for free. This is a very small fraction however: I've invited hundreds of reviewers, and the number who decline for these reasons can be counted on one hand.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: Apart from the Cost of Knowledge, which was a while ago now and had a broader scope than just reviewing, more recently there was [No Deal No Review](https://web.archive.org/web/20190424075942/http://www.nodealnoreview.org/) by Finnish researchers. They boycotted the task of peer reviewing for traditional publishers in order to put pressure on them while they negotiated with the Finnish universities.
Since [the result of those negotiations](http://finelib.fi/finelib-and-elsevier-agreement-access-to-scholarly-journals-and-50-percent-discount-of-article-processing-charges/) are widely met with disappointment, it's not clear yet [what will happen with the boycott](https://www.nodealnoreview.org/2017/12/29/an-open-letter-to-no-deal-no-review-participants/).
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: We have recently launched an initiative which is very similar to what you ask about: **[No free view? No review!](https://nofreeviewnoreview.org/)**. This allows researchers to pledge that they will not do reviewing work for venues that do not put their research in open access. It is not specifically targeted to one single publisher or research field.
Disclaimer: I'm one of the people behind the initiative.
Another similar existing initiative is **[Research Without Walls](http://www.researchwithoutwalls.org)**.
Upvotes: 3
|
2018/02/05
| 332
| 1,570
|
<issue_start>username_0: It is common for professors to have cordial relationships with their colleagues who work in different institutions (obviously), and I was wondering if it is also common for them to exchange info about their PhD applicants during the application review season. For example, if a promising candidate has applied to the chemistry programs at University X and University Y, would the people in the admissions committees of these two chemistry programs potentially contact each other to discuss the prospects of this student?<issue_comment>username_1: This would be a breach of privacy, so this normally does not and should not happen. What would be the advantage anyway? Even if professors have close collaboration, each professor wants the best candidate. Of course if you directly contacted a couple of professors from different institutions then they might discuss students interested in their lab, but usually only if you are a really good prospect - but this would not be in relation to your admission.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: People might discuss the pool of applicants generally—what percent is international, what was the admit rate, etc.—but never an individual candidate's application.
The only time I could imagine an admission committee member discussing a candidate's application is if someone on the committee (or in the department, if it's more decentralized) knows one of the people who wrote the candidate's letters of reference and wants to get more direct information than what's written in the letter.
Upvotes: 4
|
2018/02/06
| 478
| 2,031
|
<issue_start>username_0: For my masters project I utilized user stories as a means of requirements gathering. I have roughly 100 of these along with the acceptance tests to go with them.
I'm currently writing my thesis and detailing the methods I used to gather these requirements. My question is: Do I include these user stories as figures in text or add them to my appendices, or not at all?<issue_comment>username_1: I don't like including large amounts of "raw" data in a thesis, paper, or any other printed medium, because it does not contribute to the main text, and if you've already summarized the essential data in the thesis, then you don't need to explicitly include the data.
That said, you do want to make the data available in *some* medium. Perhaps you can make it available as an online repository (perhaps your school allows for "attachments" or "supporting information" to be included with your thesis. You could then scan the surveys (or bundle them up into a single file if they were generated electronically, etc.) and post them somewhere that readers can access.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: To add a little bit to the nice answer of @username_1:
In general, they should be included and referenced somehow. My general guideline to a thesis is: I want to giv the thesis to the next person working on the project and it should contain all relevant information to a) understand and reproduce all design decisions and b) proceed from that. This would include all data gathered.
In your main text, you should give one or two illustrative examples of how your user stroies look like and how they are used.
A 100 page appendix would be overwhelming. If you can consense them to ~20-30 pages (which I would not assume), you could consider them as appendix.
In my university, we usually require a CD in each thesis containing the thesis as pdf plus all source code, executable files, data used etc. This would be a perfect place for the user stories. You can reference the CD in your text.
Upvotes: 0
|
2018/02/06
| 688
| 2,824
|
<issue_start>username_0: I recently submitted a paper to a journal. It came back with a "revise and resubmit" recommendation and two referee reports. Both of them were quite positive. One of them suggested that I remove from the paper a certain topic and publish it separately in order to give it more visibility. The other referee and the editor did not say anything about splitting.
The referee's suggestion seems reasonable, but I am not sure how it should be done technically:
1. Should I submit the two sub-papers into the "resubmit" form? (but what if the other referee does not agree to the split?)
2. Does the other paper have to go again through the entire review process, including finding new reviewers?
3. How much additional work does this split entail for the editorial board, the reviewer and the authors (in addition to the obvious work of writing a new paper)?<issue_comment>username_1: >
> Should I submit the two sub-papers into the "resubmit" form? (but what if the other referee does not agree to the split?)
>
>
>
No
>
> Does the other paper have to go again through the entire review process, including finding new reviewers?
>
>
>
Yes
>
> How much additional work does this split entail for the editorial board, the reviewer and the authors (in addition to the obvious work of writing a new paper)?
>
>
>
As much as any two submitted papers.
---
Keep in mind: you don't have to follow a reviewers suggestions. Splitting a paper may sound reasonable, but writing the second paper can be a lot more work than you may think - you cannot just copy the first paper's introduction and add different results. Especially when the editor doesn't ask you to do so (or asks you to remove part of your results). Also, the "smaller half" resulting from such a split may not be enough to get published on its own.
The way to go would be to remove part of the results (those that would make up paper#2), as well as the other bits that are focussed on results#2 only (introduction, methods, discussion, references, ...). That revised/shortened paper would be what you submit as revision (paper#1). You can start writing paper#2 (make sure not to copy from paper#1) and submit as a new manuscript.
You could submit paper#2 to the same journal/editor, explain where it came from, and ask to send it to the same reviewers - but there is no guarantee (a) the editor will like what you did and think it's sufficient for a paper in the journal, (b) the editor will send it to the same reviewers, and (c) the reviewers will accept to review it.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: I think you could contact the editor in these circumstances for advice. I would also think about asking another colleague in your field to read your paper and the reviews and give you their candid opinion.
Upvotes: 2
|
2018/02/06
| 1,694
| 7,189
|
<issue_start>username_0: At our institute, PhD students carry out presentations on the advance of their projects once a year. The presentations are "internal" in the sense that only undergrads, PhD students and professors of our institute may attend.
I am about to carry out my second such presentation corresponding to my second year progress. For my first presentation (one year ago), my advisor asked for my presentation and called me into his office one day before the presentation and went over it, changing it in a non-trivial way, i.e. deleting slides, changing titles, content, etc. I found most corrections counterproductive or superficial at best. In the end I did not include all corrections, just enough to keep him/her happy.
I was quite frustrated and stressed since the overall tone was "this is terrible", "we are way behind in our project", "this is bad". After the presentation I got very good feedback from professors and colleagues (my advisor is not a professor). Once he saw the feedback, he changed his mind from "this is bad" to "good work, good presentation".
This has also happened a couple of times with other internal presentations at our institute. I am pretty sure this will happen again in the next days.
My questions are:
* Is it common for advisors to carry out extensive and minute corrections on the presentation structure and slides of its PhD students?
* What is the best way to communicate that I will not follow corrections with which I do not agree?
* Or, are PhD students obligated to follow the commands of the advisor?<issue_comment>username_1: Short version: take control, don't give work to be corrected if you do not want it to, but this depends on your advisor so you can try and involve someone else and get a feel for your group.
Long version: I'm afraid the answers depend on your group and its politics. However...
>
> Is it common for advisors to carry out extensive and minute
> corrections on the presentation structure and slides of its PhD
> students?
>
>
>
It is common for - some - advisors to do this. Often, but neither exclusively nor universally, newer advisors (from my observations) take a more micromanaging approach and may even correct their own corrections.
>
> What is the best way to communicate that I will not follow corrections
> with which I do not agree?
>
>
>
Whatever you say runs the risk of your advisor being difficult, but sometimes difficulties have to be overcome.
Your options are, depending on the context,
1) To not give them the presentation in the first place, stating you want to become more independent, this would be the option I would take and then if they disagree you can discuss why.
2) If you want feedback, then you need to get to the point where you are telling your advisor what to do, what is it that they could help clarify? Instead of handing over the presentation to them, you could have a meeting and point out "is this right? How should I say this?" etcetera. This is just as relevant for writing papers.
3) If they demand you give the presentation and make many changes, then you can ignore them or explain you will "take them into account", this will likely annoy them, but again, if your advisor is difficult you may have no choice.
In general, I think you need your advisor to step back...
>
> Or, are PhD students obligated to follow the commands of the advisor?
>
>
>
In principle, it is your PhD. In practice, some advisors are too involved and others are not involved enough. If your advisor is, as it sounds, overly aggressive then one thing you can do is try and involve a coadvisor, someone older who may even be your advisor's mentor. If they are involved in meetings then they may guide your advisor and calm them down. In terms of what is "obligated", technically nothing, but your group might have particularly authoritarian norms, you should discuss with others in your group and get someone else involved if it is an ongoing problem.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: I had a PI who did this. I just stopped telling them when I had a presentation and removed the opportunity for them to meddle. I guess this isn't possible for you as they know this talk is coming up!
If they insist on going through it again, you can calmly point out that: you got good feedback from your peers and senior scientists last time; and that, while you appreciate your supervisor helping you, you don't agree with all of their suggestions and will be guided by your own judgement (as that worked well last time).
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_3: There are simple technical solutions that allow you to avoid unpleasant discussions if you want. Prepare your presentations in LaTeX or export them to pdf format, but do not give your supervisor the source code or editable ppt version. Or simply print the handout for your supervisor and present the talk orally. Collect feedback in a form of comments written over the text. Then go through suggestions and decide, which to take on board and implement, and which not.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: The best way to affect change is to provide a logical reason for your advisor not to make changes directly:
>
> I have to deliver the talk based on these slides. If I don’t know what changes you’ve made, it will be very difficult for me to adjust my talk, particularly if you delete or rearrange slides. Would it be possible for you to give me some suggestions for improvements instead of making the changes yourself?
>
>
>
It’s exactly for that reason that I don’t mess with my students’ slides unless they ask me to edit them, and even then I prefer to provide suggestions except for trivial edits like misspellings and formatting.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: Concerning your first question, "Is it common for advisers to carry out extensive and minute corrections ...?": I believe what I do with my students is rather common, at least in mathematics. I don't directly correct anything in their TeX files, but I make comments, either orally during a discussion or in writing on a printout of their document. The comments are of three general sorts. First and most important, correcting any factual errors in what they've written. Second, expository suggestions (e.g., you should define this term because some of the audience might not know it, or you should reverse the order of these two items). Third, correcting typos. I expect (and I believe this expectation has always been met) that the first and third sorts of comments, the corrections, will be incorporated in the document. Comments of the second sort are for the student to think about; some students will do whatever I suggested, and others will do something else (or do nothing) with these comments.
As for "extensive", that depends on what the student wrote; some students need a lot more corrections than others. As for "minute", I do correct whatever typos I notice, and those corrections would usually be minute. Sometimes, though not often, corrections of the first sort might also be minute (e.g., the student wrote "for every real number" where it should be "for every non-zero real number).
Upvotes: 0
|
2018/02/06
| 612
| 2,594
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am a PhD candidate in biology. I have a paper that I need to be published for me to graduate. It was accepted for publication in November 2017. I returned corrected proofs in December. In January the production team asked about "problems to be fixed" before final production and I immediately responded. Now, in February, the paper is still not available online.
I've noticed that there are papers in the same journal which were only accepted in the last days of January and now are already available online with pages and volume. I also noticed that there are papers still 'in-press' for a very long time already.
My concern and curiosity is why there are articles stayed as in-press (corrected proof without bibliographic information) for a long period of time while there are newly accepted paper automatically out with complete bibliographic information. for example below is two paper:
In-press until present: Received 6 May 2017, Revised 7 October 2017, Accepted 10 October 2017, Available online 16 October 2017.
Available online with complete bibliographic information: Received 23 August 2017, Revised 15 November 2017, Accepted 18 November 2017, Available online 6 December 2017.
What may be the reason for this?
Would it be right if I email the production team of the journal if it is possible to release my paper since I am waiting for it for my graduation application this semester?<issue_comment>username_1: Unless your paper was intended as part of a special issue, you absolutely should contact the journal to inquire about why the publication has not yet been published. In this digital age, three months is more than enough time to get a paper through the post-acceptance pipeline.
In your first email, I would just ask about the delay in publication. If you do not get a satisfactory response, then I would escalate and mention the need for the paper to be published to graduate.
Also, I would check with your school about the need for formal publication to occur. In many instances, an acceptance memo is sufficient.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Yes, you should. The last publisher I worked for had a target of 25 working days from acceptance till online publication. There's some variance here since the publisher can't control how long it takes for the author to respond, but from your description your response was immediate. In that case four months is well above reasonable. I would write back asking for a status update.
For the record, I'd start thinking about sending a chaser if it takes more than 6-8 weeks.
Upvotes: 1
|
2018/02/06
| 675
| 3,110
|
<issue_start>username_0: In conducting a literature review i.e., research done on a particular topic for a certain period of time what is the prefered period of the review? Would it be advised if the time period is from 2000 to present only?<issue_comment>username_1: The year that a paper was published is entirely irrelevant to the question of if it is worthy of inclusion. I’ve read good review papers citing work that is almost three thousand years old and I’ve read good review papers not citing anything older than 2015. Using age as a proxy for relevance is an incredibly poor decision. You should include what is important for someone in the field to know, regardless of when it was published.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: The simple answer is that you should include all relevant research, regardless of date. However, there is a theoretical aspect to this, which is contrasted with a practical aspect.
In theory, or in principle, a literature review should go as far back in time as there are still relevant articles. On one hand, if there are older articles that are superseded by newer articles that incorporate their older information along with new updated information, such older articles need not be cited, since that would be redundant. On the other hand, it is a general academic principle of courtesy to always cite the original source of an idea (if it can be clearly established who originated the idea), in order to give credit to the original source--this might involve citing a few very old articles.
In practice, however, the practical execution of all literature reviews are constrained by the amount of time that the reviewer has to do the work and by the amount of financial resource available to do it (e.g. whether hiring assistants is an option). If the constraints only permit reading and doing a proper review of only 50 articles, then it might be more efficient to set a cutoff date so that only the most recent articles are reviewed. However, setting a cutoff date requires the reviewer to prove that there is a logically sound reason to expect that older articles would not add relevant information. (For example, it could be reasonable to limit a study of online education to articles older than 1989 on the grounds that only Web-enabled online courses are of interest, and the Web was invented in 1989.) Without such an objectively clear justification, then the review is probably incomplete for no acceptable reason.
That said, even if there are such practical constraints, I would strongly advie the reviewer to include a few older articles that are highly cited by more recent ones, especially if such older articles seem to have important information for understanding the evolution of thought in the area. Above all, there should be no fear that if the reviewer sets a rule for articles 2000 and after, then it is a "sin" to include a few articles older than that. It is OK to set practical boundaries for your search criteria, but to exceed your boundaries for specific exceptions that pop out to you. That is good literature search practice.
Upvotes: 2
|
2018/02/06
| 946
| 3,823
|
<issue_start>username_0: I have been offered admission in a top-25 university, and a RA position in a lab that works on my area of interest. I am pretty happy with this offer and I would feel comfortable accepting it. However, I still have not heard back from some top-10 institutions.
I am concerned that the professor might feel upset if I take too long to answer the offer. What should I do?
I should mention that I am an international student applying to Engineering PhD's.<issue_comment>username_1: You should ask both institutions.
Some institutions will fast-track deciding on if they’ll accept you if you tell them you have an outstanding offer. By contacting the outstanding offers, you can probably find out sooner.
Additionally, you should contact the department that made you an offer and tell them that you’re interested and honored by their offer, but have some outstanding applications and ask when they want you to get back to them by.
**EDIT:** I completely missed that the title says “in the US.” As the other excellent answers have stated, you very likely have until April 15th or later to make a decision. A large number of universities (see the 2014 list [here](https://gradadmissions.mit.edu/sites/default/files/downloads/CGSResolution_May2016.pdf)) have agreed to give all students at least that long to decide to respond.
It is worth noting that the [April 15th Resolution applies to offers of payment and funding, not acceptance](http://cgsnet.org/april-15-resolution). However, since in the US virtually all engineering PhDs are funded, it *de facto* applies to admissions as well. If you were applying for an unfounded masters program, it wouldn’t apply.
Some schools give longer than April 15th to decide, while others will pressure you to accept on the 15th or soon after. So for now, I would advise you to wait. If in early April you still haven’t heard back from a school you really want to go to, I would advise you to contact them as I said at the beginning.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: In my field (public health), they gave us a deadline of April 15 to respond to offers. It seemed like it was perfectly acceptable to respond on that day. (And yes, I am in the US.)
A funny story: one of the universities I applied to only accepted 4 students a year, and it invited about 10 students to go interview. I figured out, after a while of not hearing back, that I was on their wait list. I had got an excellent offer from another university, and at some point in late March, I decided that further information would not change my decision, so I accepted that offer and sent my regrets to two other programs that had offered me admission. I forgot to do so to university number 1, and on April 15 I got a call from them.
As I said, I determined that further information would probably not change my decision, so I am fine, but that serves as evidence for paragraph 1.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: Following on username_2's answer:
Your offer should have stated a deadline to reply. That deadline is almost certainly [April 15](http://cgsnet.org/april-15-resolution). You're under no obligation to reply earlier, and should not feel pressured to do so. Nobody is expecting to hear from you before that. Neither the professor nor anyone else will be upset if you wait until the deadline.
Take as much time as you need, up until the deadline.
username_1's answer is good advice for most job search-type situations, but in view of the April 15 Resolution, I don't think it's quite relevant here. There isn't much point in contacting other schools to let them know of the offer in hopes of them speeding up their process, because they know you have until April 15 anyway, and they are certainly planning to send out their acceptances well before that date.
Upvotes: 2
|
2018/02/06
| 1,247
| 5,150
|
<issue_start>username_0: My question is, how can I publish my results without name of my supervisor as a co-author? Do I need their name in my paper? Is it suspicious if I submit an article without his name?
I have a problem with the head of the lab that I performed the experiments there. He wants to be the coauthor but in my point of view he does not have substantially intellectual contribution to my work. He also, told me that he would send samples for the measurement to another lab. But, he did not. Whenever I followed up about the measurement of samples, he postponed to another month. It is almost two years. My supervisor is worried that the guy may make trouble for his profession. So, he said that I can publish the results that I have without his name. The article is just have two authors, another student and me (PhD graduate). Do you think that journals will publish our results or they will suspect about it?<issue_comment>username_1: Why not include your professor as co-author and do not include the head of the lab where you performed the experiment? Regarding your question, if the journal will suspect about it there's a part of the submission that you can declare any conflict of interests.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: Papers can be published without supervisors, or in other words just by students who have done the research. Since it is unclear exactly what his role his, it is hard to say how suspicious this would be. I don't think the Journal that you are submitting to will do thorough investigative research to determine exactly who did what on each submitted paper, but if this colleague felt he contributed some amount of work to this paper and you intentionally leave him off you will burn bridges in this relationship.
I think if he did contribute, he should be included. If he did not contribute, it is okay to leave him off.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: You're asking two questions here:
one explicit is "*will journals publish our results*?", and the second lies beneath: "*is it ok to publish without a supervisor/head of lab*?"
As for the 1st, the answer is **yes**: if the journal is a fine one, only the contents will be looked at from the point of view of advancing the knowledge, independent on the list of authors. As a PhD student I didn't have any problems publishing single-authored papers.
As for the 2nd, it depends: if your supervisor says it's ok to publish without him, then it's ok, just go for it.
But the case of the lab head is much less straightforward: will you be using his lab again, how much of your future research and career depends on him etc. The thing is, in some places it's customary that the head of the lab/research group is a coauthor - like it or not, sometimes that's just how it is (if you don't like it, you can consider changing the lab/department/faculty/university; otherwise you can bear with it for the time being).
---
So also these related threads:
* [Is it ethical for advisors to automatically coauthor papers?](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/19362/is-it-ethical-for-advisors-to-automatically-coauthor-papers)
* [Postdoc that refuses to follow the terms of her contract](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/90399/68958)
* [Is it better to submit a paper to an important journal without the supervisor name or to a less important journal with the supervisor name?](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/19319/is-it-better-to-submit-a-paper-to-an-important-journal-without-the-supervisor-na)
* [Authorship Dispute: Soft threats from funders to cancel project unless they are listed as coauthors](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/101163/authorship-dispute-soft-threats-from-funders-to-cancel-project-unless-they-are)
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_4: To help answer the question "*is it ok to publish without a supervisor/head of lab?*", consider the following points:
* Having more names listed as authors doesn't dilute your own contribution. At job interviews, you will be asked which of your articles *you* consider the most significant, and what was *your* contribution to them: your ability to explain these points has nothing to do with the author list.
* Having a more experienced researcher co-sign one of your articles may attract more citations. When writing, nobody should ignore previously published relevant work; in practice, getting cited is easier when co-signing with "big names" in a field (not saying I like this situation, but it is what it is...).
* Simply by allowing you to work in their lab, this person made a significant contribution to the article (although not a "substantial intellectual contribution"), in the sense that the article would not be the same without you being able to do work in this lab. Some might think this is what the acknowledgments section of an article is for; it depends how you used the lab's resources (was it more like a service that you could have easily found somewhere else, or did you benefit from this lab's unique expertise or equipment?). If it looks more like a collaboration, including this person as author would be fair.
Upvotes: 3
|
2018/02/06
| 1,833
| 7,532
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am a fourth year graduate student at a tier 1 research university in the US. I had lot of hiccups in getting started with my research. Our program is rotation bases where you rotate with your potential PIs for a semester (or more). I decided to rotate with Prof. A and continued it for another semester. However, in the summer of the year I was transitioning into my second year, I went to Prof. B to do my last rotation. Prof. B had a more concrete project that I worked on and I was super productive under him so I decided to join Prof. B's lab permanently. However, Prof. A was not happy about this since I had done two rotations with him.
In my third semester Prof. B decided to leave academia and moved to industry. I was given an option of quitting with a Masters or joining another PI. I chose to find a new PI. My research focus was in a particular area that only Prof. A and Prof. B studied. Our department is anyway too small with only 6 faculty who work on completely different areas. So, after being without a PI for almost a semester I decided to approach Prof. A to see if I could join his lab. He was not convinced initially. I had to provide detailed account of things I had worked on with Prof. B. In one of such early meetings, he told me "I don't have to do this. sufficient number of students have graduated from my lab and I have a tenure now.". But eventually, he decided to let me in his lab. Since we both didn't have a concrete project in mind, he suggested I write a review article on the project I had previously been working on. That did not go well. I wasted a semester studying that area in depth, but went in a tangential direction and couldn't finish the review. However, a new project came up through a collaborator and I was assigned to finish it. However, there were very limited questions that could be answered and my progress left him dissatisfied. I was told I could do 'cool things' with the data, without ever being told what these 'cool' things could be given the limited nature of data. In this process, I got another project to work on which I saw as being my main contribution to my field. However my PI has always found my methods to be 'too complicated'.
In this entire process, my realtions with my PI has always been deteriorating. I have been told "I am smarter than you", "I am not interested in your sloppy work", "Don't waste my time with your bullshit". My requests to talk about our method have lately been ignored.
I wanted to work in academia and I want to finish my PhD. However when I think about the relation I share with my PI has forced me to wonder if I even finish my PhD, his letter of recommendation will be a negative one, probably killing my career anyway. My post sounds toxic, but so has been my relation to my PI. I had to seek professional counselling a year back. With the relation we share currently, I don't let it affect my work. However, I am also not at peace with it in my mind.
Hence, I am considering quitting and applying elsewhere. However, I will need letters of recommendation from him to do that. How do I present my case? I have a decent GPA in undergrad/grad schools. In these four years, I was also able to enrol for a Masters in a related field in the same school.<issue_comment>username_1: Get the PhD as quickly as possible, do whatever they say, and get out. Be nice and get your degree before they decide they are gatekeepers and you should be outside the gate. You will have a worse time with the regrets and a terminal masters. They will give bad recommendations and even the professors that like you will side against you to be team players. Reapplying is a joke and you will be viewed as a quitter with a complicated story. You would retake a bunch of classes at another school. Coursework will not transfer, trust me, and you will pay again. You will be marked as uncooperative. Be nice and do research they can publish in their area. Your dreams and interests can come later. Professors are not well respected outside their bubble because they lord it over young impressionable minds. They are not the world. They live in la la land. Do you ever want to get a real job and have a paycheck or just keep paying a school for classes you probably don't need? They hate you because you are smart and they can see you still think they are the center of the universe. They are mean and nasty because society doesn't really respect them. Once you get older, you will start to see professors as losers who lord it over children. Universties sell classes; it is a business. Minimize the damage and expenses but get that degree. Stop sharing anything personal about yourself, they will use it against you. Don't be a quitter and don't be naive. You should see how these guys are with their female students...what losers. Top tier losers.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_2: Have you read this? [A note on Ph.D.](https://www.cs.purdue.edu/homes/dec/essay.phd.html) You have to be honest with yourself, first. Do you really like what you are doing?
If you go to another school, they should not know about your history! so, no worries to be labeled as quitter!
getting two masters and a PhD is better than 2 PhDs, so, ...
And course work also are transferable, maybe not all of them, but some will do for sure. This is not hard to figure out. Just read/ask the target university you want to go to!
Where are you? if you are in the US, are you American? Because if you are not American, getting PhD with current advisor, and not having good skills and papers and recommendation, makes your post graduate life like hell.
Time would not be your friend!
You are in bad situation, I am afraid you are the only one who has to decide and each decision has its consequences.
I will just ask some questions, then maybe that would help.
1- Do you like what you are doing?
2- Are you able to get a job if you stay with current advisor and your history? (number of publications, skills, etc.)
3- Do you think you can do another 3-4 years in another school?(just like this one you cannot predict who you are gonna work with, what project you are gonna work on, etc.) What if that one does not go well?
I think if you are American, just get the PhD. start with a low paying, low profile job, and build your way up. Experience is better than a degree!
Whatever you choose to do, has a cost. The cost you did not pay since the beginning of your journey.
P.S. yeah, Advisor A pushed his students hard, make their lives like hell, now he has tenure, he does not care, making lives of new students hell again, but in another way!
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: Since you have shown to be able to do productive work already and, second, you are willing to move, i would say not all is lost. I would recommend to get informally in contact with possible advisors from other universities and have an informal talk first before you officially apply for a PhD there.
If possible try to go abroad and apply in a different country.
A professor who is working with your former advisor will most likely reject you to avoid bad blood, but there might be many others looking for a good student. A situation like yours is not that uncommon and professors will understand and decide based on their need for students :-)
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: Consult Professor B; he thinks highly of you, and can suggest someone for you to work with, who is not professor A. This may entail moving elsewhere.
Upvotes: 3
|
2018/02/07
| 576
| 2,399
|
<issue_start>username_0: I have always loved psychology, and so I went and got a first degree in that field. However, I also loved technology (especially computers) while growing up. Unfortunately, I wasn't well-informed about university programs, and so I didn't know I could do both psychology and computer science in my undergraduate, until I was admitted and wasn't allowed by my institution to pick on new programs. So after undergraduate I decided to go on to pursue a health technology (ehealth & telemedicine) master's program, but my lack of knowledge in computer science makes me not proficient in the tech aspect of my field and limits my PhD options in that field. My ideal career move involves combining technology in my psychology professional practice. But now, I am confused as to whether I should just go on and pursue a PhD Health technology or go in for a second master's in psychology to allow me further into PhD psychology afterwards? I can't apply for PhD in psychology without a master's in that field either, but I also feel I am not growing younger anymore and so time matters, if I want to enjoy a long career before retirement then I should get a PhD soon enough. But that will mean sticking to health technology and forgoing my psychology dreams. I am really confused now. Also, is there anyway I can get into psychology and still take a course in computer science? What are my options, what should I do?<issue_comment>username_1: If it is possible to start your dream PhD without further prerequisites: **do it**. Also take notice that it'll be hard, but doable. In my opinion a second Master's has no benefit, taking the possible admission to the PhD program aside.
I know someone, who got a PhD in physics after a Master's in biology. I went to a PhD in CS after a Master's in mathematics.
(This is also a bit dependent on the field and on the social component, so please tag with a country for further answers. My experience references German system, but it *should* be generic enough for US too.)
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: From my experiences, I would take the PhD road; being in the German and later Swiss environment.
I studied computer sciences first, and continued with a PhD on it. One of the best decisions of my life: it opened many doors. A second master can be added later, if you want. (I added an MBA some years after the PhD).
Upvotes: 2
|
2018/02/07
| 473
| 1,997
|
<issue_start>username_0: I need a specific class to graduate. However, it's only taught by a single instructor who happens to be of a demographic group that I'm uncomfortable around.
How could I complete the required coursework given this discomfort?<issue_comment>username_1: Take the class with this professor. You are most likely uncomfortable with this professor's race because of minimal exposure to interactions with this person's race. The real world is full of people that are different than you, and becoming comfortable with that is part of being an adult. Interacting with people that are different than you, whether it be race, sexual orientation, religion, etc. will help you grow as a person and open your world view, which is a huge part of the purpose of college in the first place.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: You wouldn't be the first student ever to feel uncomfortable around an instructor due to demographic membership. In this case, it may be due to race. In others, I've seen students who've been sexually assaulted by the other gender feel uncomfortable around instructors of that gender. These feelings are unfortunate, though they seem to happen in the real world.
It's kind of an [XY-problem](https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/66377/what-is-the-xy-problem), though. We have overwhelming empirical evidence that instructors of all races can be excellent teachers. This is, it's unlikely that the instructor's race is the true problem; rather, we might consider the unpleasant feelings about race to be the true issue.
You might consider reflecting on your feelings about race and specifically why it's a problem for you. Professional counselling may help to reveal the issue. And depending on your institution, such services may already be offered to students.
In the long run, it'd seem healthiest for you to learn how you truly feel and seek to address whatever emotional causation this particular situation may reflect.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]
|
2018/02/07
| 565
| 2,466
|
<issue_start>username_0: I'm an undergraduate major in International Studies applying for grad school programs in Development, Securities, and Global Governance. I have international experience working in West Africa for World Bank and USAID sponsored NGO research initiatives.
I've recently submitted all of my intended applications for graduate school programs and fellowships. In the last week, I've received three emails requesting that I apply to graduate school programs which I had not intended to apply for - Cornell, Denver, and Penn.
Does this mean that the programs are particularly interested in me or is this a normal spam-type email to people that have applied to other programs with similar major focus?<issue_comment>username_1: Take the class with this professor. You are most likely uncomfortable with this professor's race because of minimal exposure to interactions with this person's race. The real world is full of people that are different than you, and becoming comfortable with that is part of being an adult. Interacting with people that are different than you, whether it be race, sexual orientation, religion, etc. will help you grow as a person and open your world view, which is a huge part of the purpose of college in the first place.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: You wouldn't be the first student ever to feel uncomfortable around an instructor due to demographic membership. In this case, it may be due to race. In others, I've seen students who've been sexually assaulted by the other gender feel uncomfortable around instructors of that gender. These feelings are unfortunate, though they seem to happen in the real world.
It's kind of an [XY-problem](https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/66377/what-is-the-xy-problem), though. We have overwhelming empirical evidence that instructors of all races can be excellent teachers. This is, it's unlikely that the instructor's race is the true problem; rather, we might consider the unpleasant feelings about race to be the true issue.
You might consider reflecting on your feelings about race and specifically why it's a problem for you. Professional counselling may help to reveal the issue. And depending on your institution, such services may already be offered to students.
In the long run, it'd seem healthiest for you to learn how you truly feel and seek to address whatever emotional causation this particular situation may reflect.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]
|
2018/02/07
| 272
| 1,183
|
<issue_start>username_0: My M.Sc. Thesis' abstract got accepted for presentation at a conference this year and I am about to send the paper. Should I give the paper to my current supervisor (of my Ph.D. in a different University) to read it and have an opinion?
**EDIT: Including answers to comments**
My previous supervisor has read it and gave me feedback. He suggested me sending the abstract and his relationship with my current supervisor does not exist since they don't know each other.<issue_comment>username_1: Since you already have feedback from your previous supervisor (who presumably knows the research in question much better since it was done with him) it's not critical to get feedback from your new advisor. But any feedback can be useful, especially if your new advisor is in the same area.
I would at least make your new advisor aware of the paper and ask if they want to read it, just so there won't be any surprises or perceptions that you are publishing "behind their back". Leave it up to them if they want to give you feedback or not.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Yes, it's your current supervisor's job to coach you.
Upvotes: -1
|
2018/02/07
| 805
| 3,689
|
<issue_start>username_0: I would like to ask about a reasonable interpretation that can be made in the case that an aerospace engineering faculty member of a high-level US university, like Caltech or MIT, directly talks to my current university professor about my backgrounds and preparations before my formal submission of application.
Actually, I have been in contact with a faculty member since two years ago and I provided him periodically with updates regarding my work, master's dissertation and publications etc. The professor constantly expressed his interest in my background and even wrote in his last email that "I very much look forward to read your PhD application". A few weeks after this last email, there was a conference that my thesis advisors, one of whom is prominent in my field, were attending and the faculty member talked to them in person, said that he will certainly read my paper, which was published in that same conference, and that he is indeed interested in supervising my PhD.
Of course, I applied to the program and I am now waiting to hear back from the admissions committee and I read in some other questions that in top-rank institutions, the decisions are typically made by a group of faculty members, not necessarily the potential supervisor alone.
As such, I thought to ask this question so that it would be possible to find out how common this kind of situation is and what can be reasonably understood out of it.<issue_comment>username_1: Sounds like a polite chat. Professors are humans. They go to a conference and meet all kinds of people they don't know well and they need a topic to talk about, and a common acquaintance is a good topic for small talk. It is a bit tricky in the sense that there is an application involved here, but overall I would not over-interpret this.
If you want to interpret this, then you can see this as a slightly positive sign: (S)he is also signaling that (s)he is interested in supervising you. That helps: if one committee member says that (s)he wants to supervise a potential students, then there needs to be a good reason not to go along with that (e.g. lack of funding).
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: I think that it's quite normal that faculty members ask people who have already worked with potential PhD students about their experience with the student, especially if they know the other person already or have an opportunity for some small-talk - **if** the other information they have makes the candidate interesting for further consideration. That seems to be the case in your situation, as your potential PhD advisor even mentioned that he's interested in supervising you for a PhD.
Even in a situation with sufficient positive evidence about a candidate, one would still try to base the decision about taking someone as a PhD student on multiple factors - not only how an applicant presents him-/herself in an application or another interaction, but also trying to ask other people about how their interaction with the applicant went.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: It's similar to the "calling your references" stage of a regular job application. Anyone who's considering taking you on would want to know more about other people's experiences with you. You can probably infer that you are under serious consideration as a candidate (but not precisely how likely you are to get the job, because people vary in their practices of how soon they check references).
This gives you no additional information, though: the Prof in question already told you he was interested in taking you on as a PhD student! There's no need to second-guess anything here.
Upvotes: 2
|
2018/02/07
| 4,209
| 16,979
|
<issue_start>username_0: I’m a Syrian refugee residing in Europe. I am about to complete my undergraduate degree in mathematics, and have applied to several graduate schools. To my surprise I got into a few very good ones. However, the last years I have suffered from tinnitus as a result of an explosion in Syria. I am afraid that the concentration problems that come with it (usually manageable, but sometimes severe) will prevent me from success when the difficulty level of study increases. Especially because I have never heard of a successful mathematician that suffers from the same condition. Being a mathematician is my dream, and it would be hard on me to give it up. I lost a lot already.
Could you give advice on how to proceed? Are there strategies to adapt for people in academia with tinnitus?<issue_comment>username_1: Frame of reference: I am a mathematician with disabilities that impair my focus and my ability to do mathematics, but not tinnitus.
Disabilities and chronic illnesses suck. Very often, there is no easy way around them. But that doesn’t mean that you should give up on mathematics, not remotely. Giving up means that you don’t even have a chance of living the life you want to live, whereas not giving up means you have that chance. Go and try. If it doesn’t work out it doesn’t work out. But don’t decide it’s not going to work out ahead of time.
It may be the case that your condition prevents you from pursuing a career in mathematics. If that happens, it happens. In a year or two you’ll be in the same position you are now, and not much will have been lost. But I promise you that if you give up on it without trying you will wonder for the rest of your life what would have happened if you had tried.
Every school in the US has an office dedicated to helping students with disabilities, and I can only assume it’s the same in Europe. I’ve taken exams in silent, distraction-free environments, gotten large extensions on assignments, and extra time on exams. The process of obtaining those accommodations can be frustrating, but they’re totally worth it. Since healthcare in most European countries is so cheap, it shouldn’t be that expensive. In the US, the required tests can run you several thousand dollars. The disabilities office might not advertise themselves particularly well, but any academic advisor and many deans or other figures of authority should be able to point you in the right direction.
Again, I cannot speak specifically to your condition, but I and many people I know have similar conditions it seems. Here are some suggestions for coping techniques:
1. Buy the best noise cancelling headphones you can afford and wear them all the time, even when not listening to music. These changed one of my classmate’s life and enabled them to do homework again.
2. Find the quietest places on campus and spend your working time there. Many universities have some libraries or reading rooms dedicated as silent zones.
3. Seek out locations where you’re unlikely to be interrupted. My concentration comes and goes, and the worst thing for my productivity is interruptions. If you’re working near/with friends, tell them how it’s really important that they try to not interrupt you or distract you. I had a habit of working in the astronomy tower, which was not only out of the way but had a locked room that only about 20 other students had access to.
4. Seek out others with similar conditions, and see if there are any disability advocacy groups near your university. The moral boost you get from being around other people with the same or similar struggles is incredible, and they might have location-specific coping suggestions.
5. If you feel comfortable doing so, tell all your professors. In my experience professors tend to be extremely accommodating, and will often go above and beyond what the law or university policy dictates. I understand if you don’t feel comfortable doing this, but it was a huge boon for me to out myself to my professors.
6. **Be kind to yourself**. It’s really hard on your psyche to struggle with things that used to come more naturally, and it’s extremely common for people with disabilities to become depressed. It’s okay. It’s not your fault. You’re not worth less (or worthless) because of it. Anecdotally, severe depression as a result of disability tends to cause more people to drop out of school than disabilities do. Keep an eye on your mental health and focus on healthy behaviors.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: I have tinnitus, and unfortunately it seems to increase with stress, so I can empathize. However, as this is a problem you will regrettably have to deal with forever, my advice would be to not let it rule your life. You have to pursue your passions irrespective of your condition. Will it set you back? Maybe, but then I'm sure many scientists and mathematicians have ADD, or depression, or social anxiety. If you make your decision based on your condition, then your condition is under control, and that would seem unfortunate.
And in fact, I find I do not notice the tinnitus as much when deeply focused on an interesting problem, so following what interests you may offer some respite from symptoms, however fleeting.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: I have tinnitus as well and it started when I was an undergrad. I made it through that, grad school, postdoc, and am now a full professor. So there is an example of someone who made it through.
I don't know how bad it is for you. When it started for me, I found it very distracting (and emotionally taxing to know that I would have it for the rest of my life). I had trouble falling asleep. But as I've heard is the case for many with this issue, your brain will adapt over the course of the years and you will notice it less and less over time. Today, some 20 years later, I still have it, but I notice it maybe a couple of times a week -- it's always there, but it doesn't bother me any more. I wish you the same progression and that you take the example as motivation to push through it.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_4: PhD student in engineering here.
I have congenital tinnitus, and it seems I started out where username_3 ended up 20 years later. I notice the tinnitus when I choose to, but it doesn't bother me much. In fact, I often find my tinnitus soothing as it's the only sound of silence I have ever known. The tinnitus also can block out more irritating noises. So no, it's not all bad. I can't say my tinnitus has had any measurable negative impact on my life.
My main advice would be to accept your tinnitus and focus on more productive things. This is easier said than done, unfortunately. For many people, tinnitus is a reminder of a traumatic event. As someone who never knew any different, acceptance was likely much easier for me than it is for most people with tinnitus.
In terms of coping with tinnitus, I find most recommendations to be ineffective. For example, several people answering this question recommended noise canceling headphones. I never found those to do anything for my tinnitus (though they decently remove background noise). And I have read people who claim noise canceling headphones make their tinnitus worse. I suspect a scientific study would find noise canceling headphones to be not statistically different from placebo. Over the years I've also seen recommendations for sound therapy like [this](https://mynoise.net/NoiseMachines/neuromodulationTonesGenerator.php). The sounds can be amusing, almost like video game background music, but I can't say they've done anything to help my tinnitus. With all this being said, I have found noise machines to be useful, but mostly to drown out background noise, which I think I have trouble filtering out because my brain is constantly filtering out tinnitus. I find noise machines to be considerably more effective than noise canceling headphones. My final piece of advice would be to try to minimize further hearing damage. When I use headphones the volume is relatively low. Also, my hearing and tinnitus become appreciably worse for a few days after flying, so I wear both earplugs and earmuffs on flights.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: Health problems do not necessarily preclude success in an intellectual field, though obviously it imposes an additional difficulty that you will need to manage. You mention having never heard of a successful mathematician suffering from the same condition as you. I am not aware of any with that specific condition, but it is certainly the case that many famous mathematicians/philosophers have suffered from health conditions on a similar or greater level of severity. This is not surprising given that mathematicians and philosophers have been active over previous centuries where health and medical practices were far less advanced than they are today.
There are literally hundreds of influential mathematicians, philosophers, and other thinkers, who have been plagued by ill-health during their lives, many of whom died young. In this context, it is likely that the health problems you mention would be viewed as relatively minor compared to the afflictions that plagued many influential thinkers during previous centuries. An exhaustive list of examples would be very long indeed, but here are some well-known ones:
---
**<NAME> (1844-1900):** An influential modern philosopher who wrote a number of works of philosophy. Since childhood he suffered from severe migraines, which has been attributed by some to a neurosyphilitic infection (disputed). In his middle-age he unfortunately suffered a mental breakdown and stroke and became physically incapacitated. Prior to this he managed to write a number of important works of philosophy. In his most famous work, *Thus Spoke Zarathustra*, he famously criticised those philosophers who get "good sleep".
**<NAME> (1928-2015):** An influential mathematician who contributed to differential geometry and game theory (winning the Nobel prize for the latter). Nash suffered from schizophrenia that included severe delusions and paranoia. He was involuntarily committed to psychiatric facilities at various points in his life. Nash had difficulty distinguishing reality from fantasy and his mathematical work was derailed at various points by overactive pattern-recognition stemming from extreme paranoia and hallucination.
**<NAME> (1887-1920):** An influential mathematician who made contributions to number theory and analysis. He suffered from severe health problems during his life, including tuberculosis (or possibly hepatic amoebiasis) and bouts of dysentery. He spent some of his life in a sanatorium. He died at a young age owing to severe health problems.
**<NAME> (1823-1862):** A mathematician who made contributions to number theory and analysis. Suffered from ill health for most of his life and died of tuberculosis before reaching thirty years of age.
**<NAME> (1623-1662)** An influential mathematician and physicist who made contributions to geometry, probability and physics. Pascal suffered from poor health over his entire adult life. He fell seriously ill with tuberculosis and (possibly) stomach cancer, and spent the last three years of his life with severe illness.
**<NAME> (1826-1866):** An influential mathematician who made contributions to number theory, analysis, and differential geometry. He suffered from nervous breakdowns at a young age, and died of tuberculosis before reaching the age of forty.
**<NAME> (1903-1930):** A mathematician and economist who made contributions to probability theory, economics and algebra. Ramsay suffered from problems with his liver and developed jaundice, and died young.
---
These are just some examples of influential thinkers who have suffered from severe health problems, and have nonetheless achieved eminence in their fields. There are many other examples of mathematicians and philosophers who died young of various illnesses, though they were not necessarily productive through the those illnesses. Hopefully this puts your own health condition into context. While not wishing to minimise your problem, it is perhaps instructive to note that there are others who have succeeded previously in these fields with severe health problems.
Good luck with whatever you decide to do; hopefully you are able to succeed in whatever field you choose, and manage your illness successfully.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_6: You've had some solid answers already. Here are some additional thoughts. I've collected these ideas from my own experience with a hearing impairment and as a parent of a child with Tourette Syndrome.
To figure out how to modify, adapt and accommodate for a particular disability, the following are helpful:
(1) Brainstorm creative ways to accommodate, modify and adjust your environment to help you work more comfortably and effectively. Read ([example](http://tourettealliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Accommodation_E125.pdf)) and talk to people to find out what's been helpful for others. (Don't limit this research to your specific disability.) Experiment to see which ideas are helpful for you.
(2) Ask advice from a variety of specialists. Since it can be exhausting to see a lot of specialists all at once, you may want to spread them out. Here are some ideas for specialties that may have helpful practical guidance for your condition:
* assistive technology (e.g. noise canceling headphones)
* specialized audiologist who focuses on auditory habituation therapy (see <https://www.ucsfhealth.org/conditions/tinnitus/treatment.html>)
* social worker who specializes in coping mechanisms for the hearing impaired
* occupational therapist who specializes in *sensory processing*
+ an educational specialist.
+ a large pediatric neurology group (I realize you're not a pediatric patient -- but this might be helpful nevertheless)
* general tip for searching: this might sound weird, but some of the best specialists I've found, I found by searching within Google Maps. It's a process. More specialists will appear (like the Cheshire cat) as you play with panning left to right, up and down, zooming in, zooming out. As names come up, google to find the practitioner's website. Also check patient reviews (but do take them with a grain of salt).
(3) Disclosure and self-advocacy get easier with practice.
But note that you may want to postpone disclosing to an educational institution or an employer until after receiving and responding to the acceptance letter or offer letter.
(4) Develop a clear, proud identity as a person with a disability. This really helps. Read about the history of disability rights. Find some figures with disabilities that inspire you and that serve as positive role models. (Fun book about growing up with hearing loss: "<NAME>". The protagonist's situation wasn't the same as yours, and it's intended as a children's book, but still, I got a lot out of it. This author interview is quite interesting also: <https://longestshortesttime.com/episode-86-the-secret-life-of-a-deaf-superhero>.)
(5) For reference, even though you're not in the U.S., take a look at some US universities' disability accommodation web pages and the Office for Civil Rights pages about disability accommodation in higher education: <https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/transition.html>
(6) Cushion yourself with some emotional distance from people who aren't supportive of your educational goals.
(7) Keep your sense of humor. This has been key for me.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_7: I have tinnitus and had it for about 5 years. It's intermittent meaning that sometimes I can hardly hear it. But most of the time I do hear it (about 70% of the time). Sometimes it's difficult to cope with it.
I did Grad level Maths and Computer Science when I was younger before moving into industry and now am close to retirement. I have started learning Maths again. Firstly because I am very interested in Maths, but also because I find that when I am deep in a problem, I tend to forget my tinnitus (as others have mentioned).
I agree with several things username_5 Trettal has said:
>
> "My main advice would be to accept your tinnitus and focus on more productive things"
>
>
>
and
>
> "In terms of coping with tinnitus, I find most recommendations to be ineffective."
>
>
>
I do believe that healthy and active living is probably the best treatment (eating well, exercise, healthy weight, sleeping well if possible, being active).
I've tried to follow the first quote above as much as I can. Since I've had tinnitus, I've resumed studying statistics and math, gotten promoted in my career, and learned some programming languages.
Why do I mention all these things? Because tinnitus doesn't necessarily need to inhibit you, although it probably does make things harder.
Upvotes: 1
|
2018/02/07
| 459
| 1,929
|
<issue_start>username_0: Is it acceptable to add articles under my profile in "google scholar citation" in which i was acknowledged for my real contribution rather than being a co-author?<issue_comment>username_1: Being acknowledge doesn't count as authorship and claiming otherwise will make you seem clueless or fraudulent.
This being said, Google Scholar is a search engine not a scientific vetting service, it doesn't have standards as to what constitute a publication or a citation. Certainly listing articles you didn’t author wouldn’t be the sketchiest thing I’ve seen on this service.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Acceptable I'm not sure, but it really doesn't sound like a good idea.
The point of Google Scholar is to collect in one place the information on papers in which you are an author. If the paper in question was prominent enough in your profile to attract my attention, I would assume that something suspicious is going on, and there is no way for me to tell whose fault it is. Overall, it doesn't send the kind of signal you would probably want to send.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: I was going to say that it's not acceptable, but now that I think about it a little more, the situation is a bit murkier.
If you are trying to do this to claim co-authorship on some high-impact papers in an attempt to boost your statistics and look like a more impressive candidate, this would be wrong. If the purpose is to draw attention to related work in which you participated, it's not nearly as problematic. I would still be unlikely to do it, just for the reason that there would be the question of "why am I listing a publication when I'm not an actual author.
Moreover, what level of contribution did you provide that was enough to merit an acknowledgment but not a co-authorship? (I had one or two of those, and I wouldn't bother to list it on a CV because it's just not worth it.)
Upvotes: 0
|
2018/02/07
| 1,297
| 5,350
|
<issue_start>username_0: I will be giving a talk in a research seminar in mathematics in a couple of weeks. During this talk, I'm planning to present one particular result of mine which shows that a certain method introduced by another researcher several years ago is quite limited. This limiting result is really simple and I cannot believe that this researcher did not notice when writing their paper.
When presenting this work to my colleagues at my own department I expressed my surprise during the presentation quite bluntly.
I cannot go into much detail but given the structure of the paper in question I cannot imagine that they were not aware of this fact at the moment of writing the paper. To me it rather seems that they omitted this limiting result to make their paper seem better.
How should I behave at the research seminar at a university I'm only visiting where I don't know the faculty that well? Can I also express my surprise there or would this be considered bad etiquette? Not sure if relevant, but some of the people there might know the researcher in question better than they know me.
**Edit to address some comments/answers:** First of all, thanks for all the helpful answers, they really give me a new point of view. Secondly, I wanted to mention that it was not my intention to criticise another researcher in public. I was (and am still) honestly surprised about both my result and the other researcher. I learned from the answers that others could misinterpret my intentions and will therefore only mention facts. Thanks for that!<issue_comment>username_1: When in doubt, stick to discussing the work. Don't try to make any assumptions or claims about what the other researchers did or did not know or do. That way, you can't be accused of trying to go after another researcher, which isn't helpful to anyone, and certainly not young researchers just beginning their careers.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: **Talk about the work. Stick to the facts.**
Clearly and bluntly stating the limitations of a *result* is fine, but criticism of a *researcher* during a research talk is completely inappropriate. Your expression of surprise could be taken as criticism of either the researcher's ethics or their competence, neither of which is appropriate to air in front of a research audience.
Whether the researcher is junior or senior is irrelevant. Whether the researcher is known to your audience or not is irrelevant. Criticism should be delivered privately.
Upvotes: 9 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: This is fine:
>
> one particular result of mine which shows that a certain method introduced by another researcher several years ago is quite limited.
>
>
>
These are not:
>
> I cannot believe that this researcher did not notice
>
>
> I cannot imagine that they were not aware
>
>
> it rather seems that they omitted this limiting result to make their paper seem better.
>
>
> express my surprise
>
>
>
This is borderline inappropriate:
>
> This limiting result is really simple
>
>
>
In short, show, don't tell. What you express should be backed up by your results. If it's simple, they'll see that by your work, you don't have to say, "This is simple," or "The other researchers should have seen this" - whether they did or did not is irrelevant to your work.
If you happen to have tested for "surprise" or "Other researcher should have known" or "other researcher omitted information" then present the research and let it speak for itself.
You, however, do not need to editorialize on the subject, and certainly shouldn't be adding your own emotional elements or assumptions to your work.
Present your work, and only your work, and back it up with your research results.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_4: Your surprise is irrelevant.1 People are in this talk to learn about your work and where it fits within the context of your field.
Present the facts, your proof/argument, conclusions and context. If that surprises others too, so be it. But, let them get there on their own.
---
1. It might even be a result of naivety on your part. Maybe the limitations of the previous work are obvious to the author and many other people in the field, and maybe it is actually not surprising at all that somebody else (you) has filled in the gap.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: Personal attacks undermine the credibility of your own work. Academia is already teeming with vendettas and squabbles that go more than skin-deep. Keep out of it, both for the sake of your own advancement and the dissemination of your work. God forbid that someone in the audience sees or knows something of the problem that you may have overlooked and calls you out on it in front of everyone else.
It is possible to underscore the limitations of the previous findings by illustrating with a counterexample. If the mistake is as flagrant as you say, the counterexample should be striking in its relevance and simplicity. For instance,
>
> Lamarckian inheritance does not explain why the children of very tall parents tend to be less tall, rather than as tall or taller, than their parents.
>
>
>
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_6: Call the researcher and ask him/her what they think about x. When you get the answer, you can relate what he or she told you.
Upvotes: 2
|
2018/02/07
| 266
| 1,136
|
<issue_start>username_0: I submitted my revised paper (second-time major revision) just few days back through Scholar One. Now I found some errors in my submitted paper. As the paper is already submitted, what shall I do? Can I write a mail to the editor-in-chief?<issue_comment>username_1: Generally, you can’t change the submission once it’s gone through.
If the errors are truly minor (typos and grammar errors), then it’s not worth it to go through the trouble of alerting the editor. Just correct the problem before the next stage.
If it’s a material error (including the wrong version of a figure, for example), then you should alert the editor and ask for guidance.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: You can email the editor or the handling editor about the error you made in the submission and it's important to include your Manuscript # or code so they can easily track it. I experienced before I mistakenly uploaded a different cover letter for a different manus. I emailed and explained the case what they did was reopened the system so I can modify my submission, however, the "Date Submitted" has changed.
Upvotes: 0
|
2018/02/07
| 1,324
| 5,641
|
<issue_start>username_0: Faculty and students are generally regarded as having some degree of academic freedom (tenured faculty sometimes having more than non-tenured).
Non-faculty staff seem to be a different matter. Specific institutions might have policies addressing this, but I'm asking more from a general / philosophical standpoint: is there any basis upon which a non-faculty staff member at a university might expect -- or demand -- academic freedom? Or should non-faculty staff basically assume they do not have academic freedom?<issue_comment>username_1: Non faculty staff are rarely research-focused, grant seeking PIs. If they are adjunct professors, they're hired for the purpose of teaching, thus the question is moot as research isn't a focus. If they are research staff (research professor, post doc, etc), they are hired for the purpose of supporting the advising PI. True academic freedom (to study and pursue whatever topic of interest) is earned through tenure, though non tenured research faculty retain a degree of academic freedom too, as long as their efforts secure funding and/or promote the reputation of the department (if not, tenure would be unlikely).
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_2: I would say that all human beings are entitled to academic freedom, i.e. freedom to think, freedom to learn, freedom to form an opinion, and freedom to express an opinion.
Specifically in university content, academic freedom is sometimes understood as freedom to express an opinion which may displease the management of the University employing the faculty member. It is commonly accepted that if the opinion was properly substantiated by research methodology, the University can not make any repercussions towards that faculty. I strongly believe that it is the same for postdocs, librarians, and other staff, although I can not imagine a practical situation where such conflict may arise.
Of course, specifics depend on legislation and laws / customs / contracts in your University, and the practical situation may differ from this theoretical model.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: Your usage of the nonstandard term “non-faculty staff”, along with certain other assumptions that seem to be implicit in your question, suggest that you have some misguided notions about what various groups of people employed at a university do. To take your example of librarians, they are part of what is generally referred to as “staff”. They do an important job and can be highly educated and skilled, but they generally do not engage in academic research or teaching as far as I’m aware, and thus the concept of academic freedom does not apply to them. Note that this is a different statement than saying that they do not enjoy academic freedom; rather, the question of whether they enjoy it or not doesn’t even make sense. The same would be true for other groups of staff members who play a supporting role in the life of a university but do not teach or do research.
I should add that none of what I write above should be regarded as in any way disrespectful towards librarians or any other group of university staff. In fact, as a professor in STEM, and more specifically pure math (which seems to be as uncontroversial and apolitical as a research area can get), I also feel that the question of academic freedom is essentially irrelevant for me, and almost as meaningless for me as it is for librarians. Although in a technical sense I can be said to “enjoy academic freedom”, and although it may be fun to fantasize about one day going in to teach my calculus class and spending the lecture time discussing controversial political topics instead of math, knowing that if anybody gets upset I can invoke my supposedly sacred academic freedom, in practice this so-called freedom is a purely theoretical notion; it has never come up in any practical context, and almost certainly never will.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_4: The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) has a set of [Recommended Institutional Regulations concerning Academic Freedom and Tenure](https://www.aaup.org/report/recommended-institutional-regulations-academic-freedom-and-tenure), which has the following to say about academic freedom for staff:
>
> 15. Other Academic Staff
>
>
> a. In no case will a member of the academic staff who is not otherwise protected by the preceding regulations that relate to dismissal proceedings be dismissed without having been provided with a statement of reasons and an opportunity to be heard before a duly constituted committee.21 (A dismissal is a termination before the end of the period of appointment.)
>
>
> b. With respect to the nonreappointment of a member of such academic staff who establishes a prima facie case to the satisfaction of a duly constituted committee that considerations that violate academic freedom, or of governing policies against improper discrimination as stated in Regulation 10, significantly contributed to the nonreappointment, the academic staff member will be given a statement of reasons by those responsible for the nonreappointment and an opportunity to be heard by the committee.
>
>
> ...
>
>
> 21 Each institution should define with particularity who are members of the academic staff.
>
>
>
Essentially: those staff that an institution chooses to define as "academic staff" should be able to bring grievance against a "duly constituted committee" if they believe they have been terminated (or not reappointed) in retaliation for speech or actions that should be protected under the umbrella of academic freedom.
Upvotes: 2
|
2018/02/08
| 1,427
| 5,761
|
<issue_start>username_0: A very busy professor just responded my email. He answered my questions, and in the end, he explicitly said something like "Please let me know if you have any questions" or "Please respond if you have further questions".
So, I am trying to think as if I am in his shoe. Is he not expecting me to reply to this email, if I do not have any further questions?
Is it impolite if I do not respond to this email and let it go? Or, is it considered impolite if I spam his "already-too-full" mailbox with a generic "Dear XXX, Thanks for XXXXX, Regards, XXXX" ?<issue_comment>username_1: A thank you for a quick response is usually appreciated to show that the time spent was worthwhile. It makes people feel better. So there's absolutely no reason not to send one, if you so choose.
The formality of your email should be relative to where you are: if you expect formality (as in Germany), you'd still include the "Dear X" header; in places where it's less formal, such as many US universities, you can dispense with the salutation.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_2: Professors receive hundreds of emails every day. Adding a dozen thank-you emails won't help them to scan their emails for stuff they need to know or need to answer.
I'd propose to save the thank you for the next time you meet them in class or on the hallway. Still polite, but not a waste of their time.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: ***tl;dr*-** Usually it should be okay to send a concise *thank-you* email.
---
Three categories:
1. Most recipients would likely enjoy a concise *thank-you* email for the reasons others have mentioned: the cost to them is pretty low while the appreciation can be nice.
2. Some recipients may really enjoy a *thank-you* email. Especially if they're having a bad day and just need a distraction, a little gesture like that can mean a lot.
3. Some recipients are so flooded by emails that they end up not even reading a lot of their mail. They're unlikely to get mad at anyone for sending them a nice *thank-you* email, however it'd still be easier for them to not get anything unnecessary.
Usually, it's probably safe enough to send a concise *thank-you* email. It'll backfire only a bit in the case of Category (3), which is probably the least common case, and even then it seems unlikely to be any sort of significant issue.
It's probably hard to guess who might fall into Category (3) unless you personally know them.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: If you send a thank-you note, in addition to being polite, you let the professor know that you received their email and don't need anything else from them. That lets them avoid trying to follow up with you later.
Upvotes: 7 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_5: It depends on how much work the professor put in to their message.
If you asked
>
> What is the weight of an unladen African swallow?
>
>
>
and the professor responded, two months later,
>
> As your question interested me greatly, I just went on a field trip to find out. Draft paper attached.
>
>
>
then of course a "Thank you" is appropriate.
The opposite situation is when thinking about and archiving your "Thank you" email would take a significant percentage of time compared to the time it took to answer your question in the first place.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_6: Send the thank-you.
I'm not in academia but I often write emails to colleagues to explain concepts or systems that aren't specifically my area but where I hope to be helpful. I put a lot of thought into the them and try to provide a useful explanation and reference info.
Commonly I'll send a write-up to a whole team and get no feedback. I wonder for a moment if it was worth anyone's time to read it through, then shrug and move on. It's useful to have written the explanation because it's good practice and helps to organize my own thoughts, so I don't generally sweat it.
But occasionally I'll get a quick thank-you. Or months later someone will casually mention that my email has become their go-to reference for details on the topic. And that gives me motivation to keep researching and sharing knowledge.
when you take time out to help someone, move on, and then find out that you've made an impact, it's a really nice moment.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_7: I enjoyed reading the back-and-forth here in the thread, and I especially like the point about considering the depth of the response and how specifically it fit with the sender’s question.
Something I find unconscionably rude is a scenario
like this:
Student sends detailed email with multiple questions.
I take the time to craft a specific, point-by-point response that addresses each part of the student’s question, along with stat examples and/or code (I teach Data Science)
30 mins later student writes ANOTHER detailed series of questions, with a new subject line and NO acknowledgement of my previous answers.
I’m not even necessarily going for a ‘thank you’ here - even a ‘got it’ would go a long way. This isn’t the right way to behave with anyone - peer, senior, or subordinate.
My way of handling this is to simultaneously teach some manners and pump the brakes on the exchange. I ask them to clarify whether they received the first one, mention that i can check with IT if there might be a problem with messages going through, etc. and then wait for that response before diving into the next round.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_8: "... if you have questions ..." states a condition to be satisfied if you wish to respond. Therefore, if you have no further questions, you need not respond. Someone has to end an email exchange and in this case he ended it, unless you have more questions.
Upvotes: 0
|
2018/02/08
| 896
| 3,804
|
<issue_start>username_0: I have a BS in math and a BS in computer science. I attempted to get into a math PhD program right out of undergrad, but I was not prepared for the GRE subject test, so my applications did not go well. I had to find a job while I thought up a new plan, and I have now been accepted to computer science PhD programs.
My ultimate goal is to be a professor and spend my life researching math topics in computer science, or just math. I have a couple questions about getting to that point. Should I get a PhD in math after getting one in computer science? I read that math PhDs find faculty positions much more easily than any other kind of PhD. Should I pursue a postdoc position at some point? I don't want to be a "permadoc," as I've heard them called. I also read that computer science PhDs often go to the private sector, but I don't think I'm interested in that. What advice do you have to help me get where I want to be?<issue_comment>username_1: >
> My ultimate goal is to be a professor and spend my life researching math topics in computer science, or just math.
>
>
>
Not really. That is, it seems you are not seriously committed to any kind of research, you just like the idea of you being a professor. That is not good enough of a motivation. Don't presume to become a professional life-long researcher before you've done some significant research first. And you won't get such research done before you find a particular research subject (or a few subjects) which fascinates you, which is important to you enough emotionally that you want to spend a large chunk of your life exploring it.
When you tell us that you "want to research X. Or maybe Y"." - what I hear is: "I'm not particularly attached to any research problems."
So - your question is premature right now.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: There are several points to consider:
* There are far more PhDs who want to be professors than actual open positions, so most people won't make it. Just take it as a fact of life, and don't be frustrated when being rejected somwhere. It also means that there is no universal career guideline that is guaranteed to work.
* While a PhD is a compulsory badge for you, earning another PhD in most cases won't add add much to your CV, so if you have enough flexibility in choosing a research topic in your current program, stick to it.
* During your PhD studies do you best to build up your own research profile. Find a problem you like, achieve progress, publish in the best journal/conference that is ready to accept your work.
* It is almost equally important to build up your network. When you have a chance to meet colleagues from your domain, do it, and keep connections. If you can collaborate with someone outside your university, take this chance.
People will judge your CV on the basis of its objective merits (whether your research results are good enough according to some reasonable criteria) and your "fitness" for the particular institution/group. Thus I don't think you should focus or general presumptions that there are higher chances to be hired in a field A rather than field B: it all depends on your personal achievements and your target institution profile.
Personal connections do matter, employing someone you know is a safer bet, of course. In general, be ready to more across countries, and accept postdoc positions — no matter how you look at them, it's better to be a postdoc than to have no job or go to industry (if you wish to stay in academia).
As you spend more time inside this system (as a PhD student / paper writer / conference attendee), you'll gain more understanding of your personal goals, I believe. It's quite natural that your current picture of the future is vague, but it will clear up as you go.
Upvotes: 1
|
2018/02/08
| 1,377
| 5,860
|
<issue_start>username_0: I'm a new assistant professor in the UK in Electrical engineering. I'm in the process of setting up my lab and I work in a "hot" area. Thus, I have the chance of getting good students funded by industry or funding bodies.
I know of professors with 10+ PhDs and others with 2-3. The group I did my PhD in was in the second category while my postdoc in the first.
However, I am wondering, what should be my target? Any studies have been made? Any personal experience?
I currently have three PhD students.<issue_comment>username_1: There’s no right answer here. It really depends on what level of supervision you want to provide. The more direct interaction you want with your group members, the smaller your group must be. The more grant money and support you have, the larger your group must be. If you need your students to assist with teaching duties (e.g., if TA’s are assigned to faculty rather than courses), you may need a larger group than a smaller one. For promotion, you may need to have a certain number of graduates or currently supervised students.
So this leads to groups with just a few students all the way up to groups with scores of graduate students and everything in between.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Less than you want...
=====================
If you desire or require more subordinates (students, postdocs, teaching assistants, etc.) and you don't have them, you're going to let yourself down, personally and/or professionally.
... and more than you need
==========================
Every additional student means that much more time and effort you must give to your supervision duties, or that much less of the same time and effort each student can fairly expect.
If the additional students are not adequately supporting the achievement of your (individual, research group or faculty) goals and meeting obligations for the "costs" they add, they are a net loss to you (as an individual, group, faculty).
There may be a range where any number is acceptable and manageable and satisfies your (individual, group, faculty) needs and desires. There may be an anti-range where growth or loss will both push you further from achieving one of the aims above, even as it pushes you towards achieving the other.
Generally, if you present an attractive opportunity (for whatever definition prospective new people might have) it will be easier to gain than to lose, so unless you have specific targets to recruit i.e. headhunting, start low and build rather than start high and cull. This is doubly so if removing students would be a heavily bureaucratic or legal process compared to that of onboarding them.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: This is more of a qualifying remark: What your eventual target might be should probably be different from your current target. Advising students is a skill you have to learn and learning this skill will take time. So I'd recommend starting small until significant parts become routine. Also, more senior students might be able to show new students the ropes, so staggering might be useful too.
There are of course a lot of other constraints, so don't take this as your only criterium.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_4: **This depends on many things**, such as whether you have tenure, whether you have postdocs or other “in-house” faculty to help you advise and mentor grads, how demanding the students themselves are, how many people you have space/equipment for, how many students you can expect to support financially, and how much time/effort you want to put into advising — both as opposed to your other work and as opposed to your personal life.
In my experience, having observed this for some time, a lone advisor typically accepts no more than two grads. If they have a postdoc or equivalent, they will sometimes accept another grad or two and share the advising with their postdoc.
If you’re going for tenure, obviously focus on that, with guidance from more senior faculty in your department. Expect to successfully mentor a grad or two by the time your tenure review cones up. This shows you are valuable to your institution.
Some grads and research projects are naturally more or less demanding on your time. You’ll need to evaluate how demanding potential grads and/or research projects would be before recruiting any. Allocate slightly more time than you expect, to be safe.
Some groups are constrained by lab equipment and/or space. Competing for time to use special equipment is difficult for grads. You want to make sure you don’t recruit more grads than you have room for.
It’s also difficult for grads to have to look for funding elsewhere, as this takes significant time away from their research. Of course, seeking funding on their own is good experience for them on many levels, but being able to provide funding makes everyone happier. Not being funded can cause grads to take way longer than they should to graduate, which is stressful foe them *and* you. Consider how much you will be able to help support them financially (e.g. as a Research Assistant) and how likely it is they will be able to secure funding on their own (with your guidance) for their research.
You also need to consider your own plans. Do you have a sabbatical coming up? Will you be working off-site or traveling a significant amount of time over the next few years? Are you going through some demanding personal challenges, such as divorce, mental illness, physical illness, having kids, and so on? If so, you might avoid recruiting new grads unless you or others will be able to support them during these times.
One word of caution: don’t recruit a large group all at once, as doing so has the potential for you to become *dangerously* overcommitted. **Start small and add as you learn what you can handle.**
Upvotes: 2
|
2018/02/08
| 2,008
| 7,799
|
<issue_start>username_0: About 5 years ago, <NAME> wrote an [interesting and in my opinion, crucial, piece on why many **academic cultures**](https://jakevdp.github.io/blog/2013/10/26/big-data-brain-drain/) are **unsustainable in the long run**, and **will eventually be outcompeted industry** if not **totally collapse** due to excessive brain drain.
His key argument is that desirable academic skills are increasing indistinguishable from desirable industry skills, the difference is that industry pays more, and produces vastly more interesting results with higher impact. **Thus raising the natural question: why stay in academia?** For instance, why would any post-doc earn 40k when they can earn 200k using the same skillset working at IBM, Apple, Google, Uber, Ebay, Amazon, Yahoo, Etsy, Ali Baba....this list is endless.
This brain drain has been documented in recent articles such as:
1. ["Big tech firms' AI hiring frenzy leads to brain drain at UK universities
High demand at companies such as Google could leave fewer talented scientists to teach next generation, academics fear"](https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/nov/02/big-tech-firms-google-ai-hiring-frenzy-brain-drain-uk-universities)
2. ["'We can't compete': why universities are losing their best AI scientists A handful of companies are luring away top researchers, but academics say they are killing the geese that lay the golden eggs"](https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/nov/01/cant-compete-universities-losing-best-ai-scientists)
3. ["AI academic warns on brain drain to tech groups"](https://www.ft.com/content/298e2ac0-b010-11e6-a37c-f4a01f1b0fa1)
It seems the author's prediction has by and large came to fruition.
Key excerpt from the first article:
>
> With virtually the entire world utilizing the tools of data-intensive discovery, the same skills academia now ignores and devalues are precisely the skills which are most valued and rewarded within industry.
>
>
> The result of this perfect storm is that skilled researchers feel an insidious gradient out of research and into industry jobs. While software-focused jobs do exist within academia, they tend to be lower-paid positions without the prestige and opportunity for advancement found in the tenure track. Industry is highly attractive: it is addressing interesting and pressing problems; it offers good pay and benefits; it offers a path out of the migratory rat-wheel of temporary postdoctoral positions, and often even encourages research and publication in fundamental topics. Most importantly, perhaps, industry offers positions with a real possibility for prestige and career advancement. It's really a wonder that any of us stay in the academy at all.
>
>
>
Couple years ago I have read similar question being asked (perhaps precisely on this StackExchange), and at the time the common consensus was one of denial. A few prominent professors predicted that no such brain drain would occur due to historical tendencies they have seen in the students, in other words, a non-issue. But now it seems that the brain drain cannot be stopped, a quick survey of my fellow graduate students quickly revealed that none of them wanted to remain in academia after graduation.
Out of this denial and leadership vacuum in academia, a very insidious academic culture has developed: students would start a PhD degree just to take enough industry-oriented courses and then quickly leave for industry. I have personally witnessed this in many fellow graduate students.
So, once again, is there anyway for academia to stop or halt the one way brain flowing from academia to industry? What can academic culture change in order to attract bright and talent students to carry on with fundamental research?<issue_comment>username_1: **I wish your assumption was correct!**
The typical cases you mentioned cannot be extended to academia as a whole. It is true that industry can pay higher salaries, but still, faculty jobs are competitive as hell.
On the other hand, in many countries (e.g., in Europe), the number of students is strongly declining. This means that even the current faculty will be out of the job soon. This is the reason for high pressure on faculty members for doing various tasks including attracting funds. Many universities rely on international students to survive.
With all the problems and pressure on academics, faculty positions are still among the most competitive jobs. Still, headhunting is a common practice in the industry for attracting talented people. If there was such a one-way migration, headhunters would not need to persuade academics with attractive job offers.
In my practice, for any faculty position, there are at least 10 qualified candidates, but one will get the job. Some try again somewhere else, and some get frustrated with the competition and give up to get a job in the industry. This is how the migration occurs in general.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: You mentioned one answer (pay). There're others. I once communicated with someone who left his position as a professor at a major North American university. That surprised me since I knew the job was in high demand. I asked him why, and he responded:
>
> Professor positions in major research university in US require
> generation of research funds - a process of writing your best ideas
> and sending them to funding agencies. The process of getting money
> from funding agencies is worse than the lottery. You spent a lot of
> creative effort in putting a proposal together and then most of the
> time it gets thrown into a garbage can. It is a general state of
> affairs, not just my experience. I just decided that I've had enough
> of that. When I spend time creating something I want it to see the
> light of day. So I switched fields and now work in a very dynamic
> industry, generating new knowledge or writing products that are
> actually used.
>
>
> If any postdoc ask me for advice now - whether or not to go into
> academia - I would answer why would you torture yourself? There are so
> many fun jobs and are even better paying.
>
>
>
There's more. If a fresh PhD graduate stays in academia:
1. You live a nomadic lifestyle, hopping from one postdoc to another. This is not only bad for any significant others and children, but also a great hassle. Each time one moves, one needs new visas, needs to find accommodation, and so on. To add to that, postdocs offer no job security, and one is virtually always looking for a new job.
2. After that, if you're smart / lucky enough to get a permanent position, you have to generate research funds, which is unreliable (above).
3. After that, there's no guarantee you'll actually get tenure. If you are denied tenure, what are you going to do next? One is probably already >40 years old at that point.
Taken together, *only the extremely passionate (or extremely masochistic) choose an academic career*. For further reading I suggest these two articles which strongly shaped my view on this: [Women in Science](http://philip.greenspun.com/careers/women-in-science) by <NAME>, and [Don't Become a Scientist!](http://katz.fastmail.us/scientist.html) by <NAME>.
Having said the above - why would a brain drain from academia to industry be a bad thing. It's simply market forces of supply and demand at play. If more people took the option to shift, there would be less competition for permanent positions. Less competition makes the academic path more attractive. Eventually things balance out. It's further possible for society to reverse the brain drain whenever it wishes, simply by providing more funding. If society doesn't want to do that, I don't see why academics should try to force it.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]
|
2018/02/08
| 599
| 2,282
|
<issue_start>username_0: Actually I'm proving that `∀n∃p∈P|n. Which is a result similar to Bertrand's Postulate, but with a shorter proof. Should I publish my result? If so, as I'm not affiliated with any Research Institute how do I do that?`
**Edit**
Since yesterday I've improved my proof: `∀n∃p∈P|n. This means I'm proving Bertrand's Postulate with a simpler and shorter proof. So, which is the most appropriate
Journal to publish this result?`<issue_comment>username_1: As @Nat says, do post in on arXiv. Many journals have a "Notes" section for short results like yours, which people would find interesting, especially if they were teaching similar results. The MAA Monthly does this, e.g. After you have the proof up on arXiv, submit it to the "Notes" section of an appropriate journal, following the specific directions for that section. At least one professional mathematician will look at it, so you'll get some vetting. Have a look at the Missouri Journal of Mathematical Sciences.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: >
> Can such results be published and how?
>
>
>
“Such results” certainly can be published, if by “such results” you mean genuinely new proofs of well-known theorems, especially if they contain a new and interesting idea (rather than being a trivial modification or variant of an existing proof), and especially if they are shorter than existing proofs, although that is not a necessary condition for a new proof to be publishable.
Such new proofs are published quite frequently. For example, when I was a graduate student I published a new proof of Stirling’s formula. It was published in the American Mathematical Monthly, a respectable journal that often publishes papers in this category.
>
> Should I publish my result?
>
>
>
As others have said, you can at the very least write up your proof as a paper and submit it to arXiv to make it available to the community. And you can try to publish it in a journal - if it’s interesting, well-written and novel, I think you have a good chance of getting it published somewhere.
>
> If so, as I'm not affiliated with any Research Institute how do I do that?
>
>
>
See [this question](https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/3010/40589) for some suggestions.
Upvotes: 3
|
2018/02/08
| 3,483
| 14,805
|
<issue_start>username_0: I serve on a faculty search committee at a large university here in the US. The part of the job none of us enjoys is informing a candidate who's visited and given a teaching demonstration that we've decided not to recommend a hire. We do it in three pretty bare sentences thanking them for coming, telling them that unfortunately, we cannot offer a position (without giving any reasons), and wishing them well. This is the best we could come up with.
Is there any better/best way to do this? How do other search committees communicate rejections? How much, if anything, do they tell the applicant about the reasons for the rejection? Do they try to do more to soften the bad news? And would they send the rejection by mail or email (including PDF attachment)?<issue_comment>username_1: Getting a rejection sucks. There is not much you can do about it. My wife and I have talked about this a lot and as candidates the only thing we wanted to know was how close we were and how we stacked up against the people who beat us. When sitting on search committess we have had various levels of success trying to inform candidates in the rejection letter about how many applicants, how many first round interviews, how many campus visits, how many offers, and was the position filled.
The other thing we do is make sure the letter starts off with *we cannot offer you a position* and then includes all the other information.
Upvotes: 7 <issue_comment>username_2: One standard is to sugar-coat the rejection by some formula resembling "Thanks for your interest in our ... but we've had so many highly qualified applicants that we cannot accept/hire them all..."
This is nearly universally true, first. The possible salve-to-ego is that you're telling the person they weren't rejected because of deficiencies (even if that were the case), but that you simply couldn't admit/hire/whatever all the highly qualified people.
It is my impression that this would also satisfy any U.S.-style HR-dept's requirements.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: "We'll call you" - a classic joke I know but still effective. Set up the expectation before hand that there will be no feedback, then you don't have to give it if you don't want to.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_4: There is no perfect way to "reject" someone. Regardless of the industry, candidates anticipate a minimum response but rarely will this cordial note contain a reason for the rejection.
Despite this, when a candidate offers their time to do a teaching demonstration, I feel it behooves the interviewers present to provide constructive feedback to the candidate. We should remember that the candidate spent hours on the preparation as well as the execution of this demonstration and would like the committee to acknowledge their effort. I make it a policy to always ask the candidate how they feel they performed and what areas would they seek to improve. Then I will provide some feedback to them about their presentation.
**A word of caution**
Given that we live in a highly litigious society, everyone must choose their words carefully. I advise not commenting on the person but focusing on what was presented and how it was presented. Furthermore, the old adage holds true here, "less is more." Keep your feedback concise and stay on point. Moreover, this feedback should happen at the end of the presentation so as to avoid legal issues that could ensue if provided in written form. Lastly, use your best judgement and follow your instincts when and when not to provide criticism.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: I understand the desire to add information and soften the blow. But there's the potential for every word in the letter get pored over and clung to. If the applicant knows they finishes second, do they feel better or worse?
I think you can be polite and complimentary, while at the same time not sugar-coating the message. For instance,
>
> Thank you for visiting our department last week. It was a pleasure to meet you in person, and I very much enjoyed your talk. Unfortunately, we are unable to offer you a position.
>
>
> You are a very strong candidate, and I am sure you will find a position that fits you. Good luck with your search, and in your career.
>
>
>
You can cut out the parts that aren't honest, like *it was a pleasure to meet you* if they were a jerk, or *I enjoyed your talk* if it was terrible, or *you are a strong candidate* if they really flopped.
I would not offer any constructive feedback, or details on what sealed the decision, unless invited after an initial message such as the above. It might be better to deliver those kinds of remarks over the phone, again, to avoid creating a permanent record of a painful event.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_6: i've gotten a few of these letters.
best to remind the candidate **before** they arrive for the interview/lecture, **during** the time when they are on campus (at least once), and in the rejection letter, is that the position is competitive and there are other candidates and that he/she may very well *not* be the one that comes out on top.
1. so you fly the candidate in and lodge them at a nice inn at your expense. perhaps the day before the interview/lecture.
2. on that night previous to the interview/lecture, you take them out somewhere nice to eat. perhaps include everyone in the Search Committee that can make it. maybe also the dept. head if this person is not already on the Search Committee.
3. on interview day, take this candidate to the student center (where there is food) along with *students* (upper class and grad students in your department) that have expressed interest in coming to the candidate lecture. let the candidate interact with these students. pay for the candidate's meal.
4. make sure the lecture is well advertised with 8.5 x 11" posters (and email sent to everyone in the department and perhaps related departments) announcing the guest lecture and the topic of the presentation. make sure there is no (good) reason for the candidate to think that, if no one shows up, it's because no one knew about it.
5. do everything you can to relieve the candidate of any burden or cost (other than the candidate's time) of the interview.
anyone other than someone with the ego and sense of entitlement of <NAME> should understand that getting such a position is an earned accomplishment, not an entitled right.
then when the rejection comes, the candidate may feel that they *missed* something, but they would have no reason to feel that they were *deprived* of something as a consequence of the interview.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_7: The following is my personal opinion, I don't claim it's provably objectively best.
>
> And would they send the rejection by mail or email (including PDF attachment)?
>
>
>
Physical mail is too slow; don't prolong the pain. And this is doubly true if they're from abroad.
email is perhaps less dignified, but it's acceptable, especially if the applicant thinks about the above consideration. If you do it that way, make two versions: The body of the mail and an official rejection as a PDF.
But I think what you should do is **make a phone call personally** to reject. That allows them to do a bit of venting or fishing for information with whoever calls them - and it's up to that person to withstand this or to disclose some information - but emotionally it's less frustrating in my opinion. It also emphasizes how they weren't rejected out-of-hand, automatically, mechanically. Of course - the phone call doesn't come instead of the other options; after making the phone call, send the email or the physical letter (which is perfectly ok in that situation.
>
> Do they tell the applicant about the reasons for the rejection?
>
>
>
This depends on what you mean by "a good way". It's more convenient for *you* - personally and as a department - not to say anything. The rejectee won't be able to argue, or to appeal, or in extreme cases to sue.
But if you care about the rejectee at all, then definitely be forthcoming with them. If you have a somewhat formalized procedure for evaluating the different candidates, that would be a good crutch for such a description: "While we were impressed by your X, another candidate presented a more impressive Y". If you really want to be candid and help the guy/girl on their next attempt, disclose what you had perceived as *flaws* - although that's the kind of disclosure likeliest to elicit arguments.
>
> Do they try to do more to soften the bad news?
>
>
>
Generally, no. You very rarely have anything to say that will actually soften the blow. However, the personal communication - such as a phone conversation - does soften the blow IMO.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_8: Just something that I would add to some of the good answer we have already. If the candidate was really good, and would have been hired had there not been a better one, I might include a sentence indicating that we would be happy to see them apply again in the future.
Of course, if you ever write this, it better be true.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_9: One thing that I must add to the other excellent answers.
**If the candidate has already had an on-campus interview, deliver the bad news as closely to face-to-face as possible.** In particular, if the candidate already attends or works at your university, tell them in person. If they aren't local, tell them over phone or even Skype. Deliver the bad news by email only if a phone call isn't possible (or the candidate has expressed a preference for email). Deliver the news by physical mail only if email is not possible, or if required to do so by lawyers whom you are now working incredibly hard to get fired.
If your previous communication with the candidate was only through email, a simple plain-text email rejection is acceptable. If your previous communication with the candidate was only through postal mail, then your time machine has apparently stranded you at least 25 years in the past; you have more significant problems than delivering a rejection.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_10: I can share my experience as a candidate who received a kind, but ultimately unclear quasi-rejection after my campus visit.
What had been done well: On my visit, which was about 7 days after a Skype interview, I was told that another candidate was coming on X day and that the faculty would meet to make decisions around Y day and I'd hear from them shortly thereafter.
So sometime around Y day, I get an email from Department Chair.
>
> I told you that I would keep you informed about our process, so I am writing to let you know that our search committee voted yesterday and decided to pursue another candidate, and the rest of the faculty has endorsed that decision. I know this is not the news you hoped for, and I still greatly appreciate the time and effort you spent as part of this process.
>
>
> You will not receive any official notification for quite a while because those do not go out until after someone has formally accepted the position.
>
>
>
This note was consistent with the kind and high-integrity people I dealt with there. Indeed there was a lot of effort put into the visit and they knew I had a deep personal connection with the institution.
Knowing how faculty searches work, and given what had been communicated to me previously, this note was consistent with two potential realities:
1. I was still under consideration but ranked below another visitor.
2. I was excluded from further consideration and should regard the email as a rejection.
Obviously a common tactic for search committees in these situations is to not say anything to the lower-ranked, but still hire-worthy, candidate(s) while you negotiate with the top choice — this would go along with interpretation 2. *But* my previous communications with the search committee made the "keep lower-ranked candidate in the dark" strategy untenable because they had promised a follow-up at a fairly specific time. They had to tell me something at that stage.
The final sentence led my mentors and I to conclude that it was likely, but not certain, that I had been excluded from consideration. On the other hand, it may have been included just so I wouldn't be blindsided by an automated email later on if the top choice indeed accepted the offer. Normally you can never know which interpretation is correct when I was ultimately not offered the position, since either one is consistent with my not getting the offer.
In this case, I later learned who the other candidate who visited after me was. This candidate was also not offered the position and received a similar/same note at the same time. We are quite confident, though not 100% certain, that at the time we received this note that no other candidate had visited and the timelines involved allowed for no more than 1 other candidate.
A couple months later, the department announced they had hired **2** candidates for that position. This leads me to conclude that they likely brought just 2 initial candidates on a visit (the other person I know and me), we were both found unacceptable, and they subsequently brought additional candidates to campus and later decided to offer at least 2 of those.
**My recommendation**: If a candidate has been eliminated from consideration, please make that clear. The other information I would later get about the process leads me to believe that when I received this note, which did not explicitly reject me, I had already been ruled out as a viable candidate. I suspect the Department Chair intended me to get that message, but did not word the note carefully enough, perhaps due to an effort to soften the blow. I don't know that I needed/wanted to hear the gory details (e.g., we were sufficiently unimpressed with you after your visit that we had to extend our search process beyond its initial plan just to get somebody we could hire) but certainly I would have benefited from not hanging on to a bit of hope when it later became clear that I was wrong to do so.
I and the other candidate waited in limbo, unsure whether an offer might be forthcoming, until seeing Twitter announcements from the 2 who received the job. If I hadn't seen those announcements (or if it took another couple weeks), the possibility of a forthcoming offer could have affected negotiations I had with another institution.
**Aside**: I was fine receiving this information via email. In fact, I'm glad I did rather than in a phone call. Such a conversation would be awkward, especially given the emotions involved. That being said, I'm mildly phone-phobic so there's not a lot that I like to do over the phone.
Upvotes: 2
|
2018/02/08
| 288
| 1,128
|
<issue_start>username_0: I have a paper that I uploaded to arXiv and google scholar listed it as a publication. The paper cites a number of my papers that are already published. However, Google scholar doesn't add arxiv citations to the already published papers.<issue_comment>username_1: So apparently you have to wait. There is a delay between your arXiv submission and detection of its citations by Google scholar. But it will eventually happen.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: There is an issue where Google Scholar does not promptly add the full version of a paper to its index if a pre-print version of the same article was previously found. See the discussion below:
[Do all preprint servers have the non-updating issue in google scholar](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/95152/do-all-preprint-servers-have-the-non-updating-issue-in-google-scholar/140015#140015)
The funny thing is that the final version of the article will show up in a regular Google search but not in a Google Scholar search. Apparently it takes a while for the two version to be reconciled and merged.
Upvotes: 2
|
2018/02/08
| 1,588
| 6,448
|
<issue_start>username_0: I want to cover the topic of [achondroplasia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achondroplasia), the most common form of dwarfism, in a large introductory biology lecture. How can I discuss it in an appropriately sensitive way, one that respects people who have the condition or are close to people with the condition? I'm used to lecturing about sensitive but biologically relevant topics like race, incest, and "extra-pair copulation" [mating outside of a socially monogamous pair, which would be adultery in a human context], but these are topics that are applicable to a broad audience. In this case I'm more worried about offending or annoying particular individuals. (I may be feeling particularly sensitive about this because I've had a little person in a couple of my other classes in the last few terms.)
* the [talk page for the Wikipedia article](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Achondroplasia) mentions that what to call achondroplasia ["a medical condition, disorder, disease, disability, or none of the above"] is controversial; "condition" feels most neutral to me.
* the [online FAQ for the Little People of America](http://www.lpaonline.org/faq-) doesn't say much more than
>
> Such terms as dwarf, little person, LP, and person of short stature are all acceptable, but most people would rather be referred to by their name than by a label.
>
>
>
(this is in a section explaining that "midget" is considered offensive).
For what it's worth, I'm going to be discussing the rate of mutation in the gene responsible for the condition; the strength of natural selection against the condition; and how we can calculate the expected frequency of the condition in the population from this information. This does raise some potentially problematic topics (such as the lower probability of survival and reproduction). In the past when I've covered this topic, I have mentioned [<NAME>](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0227759/), a little person who has been both professionally (Emmy-award-winning) and reproductively (he has a child) successful.
The reason it's worth discussing achondroplasia in class is that it's a surprising example of a deleterious, autosomal dominant genetic condition that's maintained by pure mutation-selection balance (i.e., we don't know of any counterbalancing selective advantages that would have caused it to stay in the population).
Any suggestions?<issue_comment>username_1: Poking around the LPA website, I found a list of [discussion groups](http://www.lpaonline.org/index.php?option=com_ccboard&view=forumlist). I think that making a post there would be an excellent way to get feedback from people with the condition and get questions about terminology, etc. answered. The best way to design sensitive education is with the input of the people who it affects. I would also recommend calling LPA and asking them if they have any reference materials that they would encourage you to read.
[This essay](http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/07/06/1057430074743.html) about where to draw the line when it comes to eugenics, written by a little person, might be a good thing to read before talking about that topic.
[This profile](https://m.seattlepi.com/local/article/Professor-fighting-discrimination-step-by-step-1160394.php?source=rss) of a late Harvard Law professor who was a little person might be another good person to talk about as an example of someone who has led a successful life. However, you should be careful with the tone of stuff like that. You don’t want to present it as “look! Some little people can manage to lead regular people lives!”
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: There are several aspects to this:
* terminology
* how to show that when you're not talking genetics, you see the person first, and the genetic make-up second
* how not to put your foot in your mouth and inadvertently say something offensive
* how to be an ally
As the parent of a child with Tourette Syndrome (TS), when I go to scientific talks about TS, I'm listening with both intellectual curiosity and an ear for information that will be useful for me -- to improve our quality of life, help me advocate for my child, and help my child advocate for himself. I like it best when the tone is neutral. I hate anything that suggests that people should feel sorry for a person with Tourette. If the speaker is naturally a person who's good at seeing the humorous side of life, I enjoy that -- but it's not necessary.
Terminology: In general I like *disorder, condition, trait* and *anomaly* better than *disease*, but whenever I can I use the word *difference*. In his case it's a *neurological difference*. In some sentences the plural fits better (*differences*, *neurological differences*). When I'm advocating for his educational rights, sometimes I need to use the word *disability* because this word is effective in that context. Note that *person with a disability* sounds neutral to me, whereas *disabled person* has negative connotations.
I think it's fine to include images and short biographical sketches of famous people with the condition you're going to talk about, but I would put those in the beginning, where they will give your general audience a positive image of what you're talking about. If possible, try not to have only one famous person with achondroplasia.
You can also include images that differentiate between achondroplasia and other forms of dwarfism.
It might be interesting to talk briefly about how scientists' understanding of dwarfism has changed over time, and how medical management has changed. For example, you mentioned the lower probability of survival and reproduction. Have these probabilities changed over time? If so, what has helped?
If there are terms that hurt, that were used historically, I would advise you not to mention them at all, even if you're talking about how things have changed over time. Keep your language positive.
If there are any take-home messages from the science that would be especially interesting for those with a personal interest, they would give you a nice note to end on. But it's also okay to end with pure science ideas.
You mentioned you had a student with this trait in your classes recently. If there's enough lead time, perhaps you'd like to invite him or her to co-present with you. I mean, just ask if s/he would be interested -- with no pressure.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]
|
2018/02/08
| 1,090
| 4,823
|
<issue_start>username_0: While doing literature review towards my Master's dissertation I noticed that many recent papers in my field (robotics/computer vision) frequently cite publications produced a decade or even more ago.
Now, that would not surprise me so much if those were, say, about fundamental algorithm which we still use (even if in modified and updated form). However, often the papers in question are of high-level systems designed to tackle a problem using technology available at the time. If the same problem were to be tackled in the present day, with current technology, the solution offered in such citation would make little sense.
It seems to me that referring to such work in a publication introduces very little (if any) value to the paper and mostly serves as a show-off-y way to generate more words and populate the reference list. And yet, it seems like nobody minds that, because the vast majority of the publications I've been reading have a number of obsolete / pointless references in them.
Is there something I'm missing there? What value, if any, is there in citing a clearly obsolete work? If it is really as pointless as it seems to me, what is the reason for the practice being commonplace in contemporary academic writing?<issue_comment>username_1: Coming from the same field as you, I know what you mean. I also wondered the same thing at first. Note that in other fields, citing papers that are 100 years old is the norm so saying a paper is old because it is a decade old might not resonate for them :).
* There is much to take from an old paper. Even if the problem was solved with "obsolete" technology for an obsolete problem, the method employed, the problem tackled, the method used to test the results, ..., all this might still be relevant to your problem.
* You might also use related works to show that a research direction was taken as to explain why you don't have to do it yourself. But at least you will show that you know it has been searched and your reader will also know.
* The last reason you might want to cite those paper is to put your own work in contrast to those present there. You say the works are obsolete and old ? Perfect, explain how your research tackles a problem they have not resolved. This is something especially important in robotics where everything is new and shiny and cool and changes so fast. **Make yourself unique** by citing close related work but showing how you differ from them. And those similar work might be those older highly specialized work:
>
> This method solve *very specific problem 1*. However, it cannot solve *novel situation* while **the method we present in our work can**.
>
>
>
There is more to a paper than meets the eye.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: 1. Academic writing is a genre of literature. It is a convention of this genre to include a little history lesson on the ideas and past work that lead up to your present contributions.
2. Readers from your field appreciate you indicating the foundation you are building on, rather than having to *assume* that you and they have the same understanding of the concepts and the terminology. They must be sure that there is a shared pool of knowledge between you. You not only cite, but summarize your sources and how they are relevant; because not only they must know where your concepts and terminology are coming from, but they must also be convinced that you know what you are talking about.
3. Readers unfamiliar with your field appreciate the little history lesson. You have already done the work of researching it. Don't make them do it again.
4. Citations are a form of currency in academia. Citing an old paper shows your appreciation of it. It is a form of payback, a "thank you" note, a show of respect for the researchers who did the work before you. (A political aspect of this is that these people may be the ones reviewing your paper and deciding on its fate.)
5. While a specific "technology" may be obsolete, there are numerous surrounding issues discussed in academic papers - process, implementation details, evaluation, insights, methodology, etc. It is likely that there is a lot that is relevant for you in old papers.
6. My personal experience is that many older papers are more understandable and "literary," more readable, than recent ones. For novice readers it may be easier to start there to get a handle on things.
There is no such thing as "obsolete work" in academia. A particular device or technology that is the subject of research may be obsolete, but never every single aspect of the research done around it. In fact, by design, by virtue of the scientific process, such "obsoletion" is desirable and even necessary in research; because it shows that progress has been made in the field.
Upvotes: 2
|
2018/02/09
| 3,342
| 14,442
|
<issue_start>username_0: I'm lucky - I probably won't have to provide for any loved ones after I die (they can take care of themselves). That means I can use my assets on whatever I want, and most likely, that will be science. The exact amount I can spare depends on how much longer I have to live, but an order of magnitude estimate is $10 million.
I understand that most funding requires proposals from the scientists, which are then peer reviewed. I'm not particularly interested in that. Instead I'm thinking of finding people working on what I'm most interested in (cosmology) and funding them to do whatever they want, trusting in their integrity to use the funds appropriately.
Questions:
1. Is it better to use the funds as a one-shot lump sum, or make it sustainable (that is, keep the principal, and use only the interest on that for funding)?
2. What is a good amount to provide a single professor? Is it better to provide one researcher with the $10 million, or ten different researchers with $1 million, or some other number?
3. How do I go about this? Can I just ask for the professors' bank account numbers, and write in my will to transfer $X into that account?
4. I'd like to talk to the professors, preferably face-to-face, to assess their character. Are the professors likely to be willing to talk?
**EDIT**: Thanks for answers. I'll need to think about it. I'm not keen on funding PhD students since there're already too many graduates and too few permanent positions. I'm also not keen on funding a fellowship because when I wrote my own applications there were so very many fellowships, many of which required their own separate application. I'm hoping to make things easy.
I also want to free some scientists from spending so much of their time writing funding proposals. Endowing a chair is a possibility but that ties the money to a single university, which is again something I need to think about. Hopefully there'll be many more years before I die to sort all these out, and thanks again for answers.<issue_comment>username_1: You are in a fortunate position, and so are the ones who may benefit from your generosity.
I imagine that you will have no problem getting people to talk to you. As far as modalities are concerned, the easiest way to find out how to do this best is probably to talk to someone in the "development office" of university of your choice. Just transferring the money into a professor's bank account is not a winning strategy, because that person might have to pay taxes and you'd have no guarantee that the money is actually spent on research (as opposed to a nice vacation in the Caribbean). On the other hand, development offices are well equipped to deal with donors. Options include making your money a "no strings attached" grant to an individual professor, endowing a "chair", or endowing fellowships for graduate students or postdocs in a particular area of research -- in essence, universities will be very happy to take your money, but you can set the conditions on how it will be used. All of this includes helping you draft details of these arrangements that will then become part of your will and that will be executed when the time comes.
If you talk to someone in a research university's development office, you will find out that your situation is more common than you may think. Your contacts there will have seen every variation of arrangements and should be able to help you find ways to achieve what you want!
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: As it's your money, other people can only offer opinions. You might consider that
1. A sustainable endowment will cost money to manage.
2. The more researchers you fund, the more paperwork will be required. Organizations that give a lot of money usually use a mixture of strategies, so they must think there is no one correct answer.
3. Details change over time, so leave this to the executor of your estate.
4. Probably they will be willing to talk to you, but they prefer to be assessed by experts in their field, not unknown people.
Nearly all funding goes to institutions for management on behalf of an individual, not directly to individuals.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: One suggestion to consider is endowing a Professorial chair. The cost of this I believe is something like $5 million.
The university would take care of the administration and it would be an ongoing contribution to science. It would also be clear where the money is going -- the Professor's salary. This is different to making a more nebulous donation.
You can choose the area the chair should be in and its name. Potentially you could have some limited input into selecting the inaugural holder of the chair.
You would need to approach the department/university to explore this option. But bear in mind that you need to convince them that you are serious about donating.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: Funding people instead of projects is in fact a good idea if you are interested in a supporting fundamental research problems to be addressed. There are multiple ways to go about this, and it's a reasonably well established principle, so you might want to search around a bit how other funding organizations and (non-profit) foundations approach this.
1. **Lump sum vs. funding from interest** is really a choice between aiming at one or two breakthroughs within a period of 5 to 10 years vs. continuously supporting research in a specific field, on a smaller scale, over 50 to 100 years. This relates to the answer of the next questions...
2. **Amount to give to a single professor:** A strategy for **short term funding** (using up the capital) would be to fund the establishment of a new research group, i.e., pay the salary of someone early in their career (assistant or associate professor level) plus some funds for research staff (PhD students and post-docs). I would recommend a funding level of $2M (that is what the Consolidator Grant of the European Research Council provides for a period of 5 years) to $5M per professor, depending on how much expensive equipment and materials are needed to do this research. That means you could fund 2 to 5 such groups. After the period of funding at that level, these persons should have achieved sufficient research results to be self-sustainable, though you cannot be sure that they will continue working on the kind of questions you aimed to fund.
For **long term funding**, I would recommend donating the whole sum as a [Financial endowment](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_endowment) (see Endowed professorships) to one university. If you assume an interest rate of 1 %, it will pay $100k per year, which might be just enough to pay a professor's salary, or, if the university agrees to pay the professor, could be used to fund 1 - 2 PhD students or post-docs working with the professor.
3. **How to spend the money:** Don't transfer that money to a professor's private account. Professors get research budgets from their universities, and if the funder wants to, the spending restrictions can be extremely flexible while still making sure that the money is only used on research related costs. So you either need to make an agreement with a university for them to administer the money according to the stipulations you agree on, or set up a foundation that administers the money and pays it to universities, who then put it in the research budget of the professors that it's meant to support. For the first option, you may want to contact a university's alumni or financial office, or maybe the dean of a department in the area you'd like to support.
4. **Don't plan to select the persons you're funding yourself.** First, it's better to fund young researchers, and if you talk to potential candidates while you still can do it, I'd hope that these will be old, or at least senior researchers, by the time the money becomes available. Instead, **choose the persons that will do the selection**. In the endowment case, that would be the university department that gets the endowment. Make sure that the general research direction and overall functioning of the department fits to your aims, and only select them if you're reasonably confident that they will use the money according to your aims. In the non-profit foundation case, I'd suggest setting up an advisory board with reputable scientists in the field you'd like to fund, and let them run the selection. Keep in mind that the composition of this group (institutions they come from, character, etc.) will be an important factor in who they select for funding. If this is going to operate over a longer time, make sure that there are regulations in place how new persons can enter the advisory board when you won't be there anymore.
Upvotes: 7 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_5: Don't do the dividing yourself. Let someone else do it. Or let an organization that you trust do it, doesn't have to be a big one either - it may be better to go with a smaller one so that they will honor you and spend the money more how you would of liked it to be spent
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_6: The best thing you could do is to contact a university Development Office - they deal with all kinds of donations for research and will be able to develop some interesting options for you.
The amount you need to give to achieve different things will differ university to university. If you get in touch and express your interest in giving to Cosmology, a Development Officer can come and speak with you about your preferences and the logistics of giving (including how endowing positions works and how payments are made). They will typically write you a proposal covering all of these things and introduce you to relevant academics, and eventually, if it's the right project for you, be able to put together a gift agreement which sets out your expectations and theirs. If you intend to make the gift in your life time the university will want to build a good relationship with you, include you in the life and work of the institution and report to you on what your gift has achieved.
It's worth noting that you don't need to fund a specific person, you can always fund a particular post (for example, a professor in cosmology or some graduate scholarships to work in a certain area) which can be held by a succession of people over decades. You can also pledge a certain amount and then fulfil that pledge over an extended period of time. FYI if you endow a post typically the institute will invest the capital to generate an annual return of anything from 4% upwards which would be the annual 'spend' (i.e in the case of a post, the salary of that person).
I would suggest in the first instance identifying a few universities who undertake work you're interested in, and then contacting the Development Office to see what they can do. The bigger universities in the US and UK in particular are very familiar with this kind of funding.
I work as a Development Officer for a university in the UK so this information is based on my professional experience.
Good luck, and I hope you find a project that you feel is really worthwhile.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_7: You should find people/organizations who have done this in the past and see what they did and how it's working/not working, and if you can get them to open up, see if these people/organizations will provide advice for you. Specifically for cosmology:
* The Simons Foundation, which recently founded the Center for Computational Astrophysics (which has the "Cosmology X Data Science" group as one of its groups) and is providing funding the Simons Observatory, which has various cosmology telescopes in operation and planned
* The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, a particularly old foundation that (among other things) has helped fund the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and Sloan fellowships, among which cosmologists are recipients
In addition to seeing how these foundations do things, it may be possible that you could donate your money directly to them, which might be a relatively simple option to make sure your funds get managed properly. I do not know at all how these foundations are set up and if they accept donations.
Beyond that, I think the best option would be to seek out a lawyer that specializes in such things and ask their advice on the best and most effective thing to do with your money.
And thanks! Though I do not work in cosmology, my work in astrophysics has been greatly enhanced by data obtain through projects that were partly funded by private money. Astrophysics in particular has benefited greatly from wealthy benefactors.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_8: Out of interest the university in the UK I work at takes about 30% of any grants to cover "overheads". I would assume it would be the same for any donations.
It might be worth checking in your country but I do not know if there would be a way around it.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_9: Just a thought: If you want to reduce the amount of work for funding proposals and also do not want to tie your money to a single chair/faculty, you could also establish a price.
A committee could choose "the best paper in cosmology" every year and offer 50.000$ to the author(s). This would be nearly no bureaucracy for the scientists and you would be sure that the money goes to people with interesting, new research.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_10: To add an alternative, consider investing in things that universities and national funds neglect, that is still useful or essential for research.
I am a mathematician and use a lot of software. MathOverflow, OEIS, FindStat and Wikipedia are essential tools in my research, and help hundreds to millions of people. Developing things like FindStat and other databases requires high knowledge of the field, as well as programming skills.
However, such development is not considered as 'fancy' as publications, so it is a risk to devote time to software projects as a mathematician.
Hiring developers or otherwise contribute with server costs for such projects would be a nice gesture. Or, simply ask 100 researchers to improve wikipedia articles and paying them a small sum.
What about funding a conference, where each participant can choose from a list of wiki pages that needs to be expanded (related to their field), and doing this is a prerequisite for attending?
Upvotes: 2
|
2018/02/09
| 688
| 2,665
|
<issue_start>username_0: I'm aiming to apply for a MA in Germany and in the description for my programme of choice it says:
>
> The study course is *admission free*.
>
>
>
I'm a bit unsure of what this could mean, any German student could clarify if this means that meeting the criteria is enough for admission or something else?
**How to apply section**
>
> Most important points
>
>
> The study course is admission free. Application
> for beginning students is possible in summer semester.
>
>
> First day of application: December 15th 2017
>
>
> Application deadline: March 31st 2018
>
>
> Special admission requirements: Bachelor's
> degree or equivalent qualification in Philosophy or in a closely
> related field worth at least 60 credit points.
>
>
> Admission requirements: A very good command of German is required.
>
>
>
**Application/admission procedure section**
>
> This is an open admissions degree course, and applications are
> accepted for both the winter and summer semesters. Please note For
> open-admission Master's degree programmes it is strongly recommended
> to submit their applications as early as possible before 15 July for
> the winter semester. If the supporting documents are submitted after
> these dates but before the standard application deadlines, your
> application can only be processed at the start of the lecture period
> in the new semester.
>
>
><issue_comment>username_1: The phrase *admission free* certainly is an attempt to translate the German *zulassungsfrei*.
*Zulassungsfrei* means that everyone satisfying the basic requirements can enroll in the course.
Sometimes it means that it is not necessary to apply for admission at all, and one can directly move to the enrollment step. **However**, this varies on a university by university basis, so do not rely on this unless you have verified that it is applicable to your university. Based on the extra info given by the OP, it does not apply in their case.
In the other cases, one still applies for admission, but this is a pure formal check of requirements.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: This is most likely a very confusing translation of "zulassungsfrei", as opposed to "zulassungsbeschränkt";
the former meaning that there are no special restrictions placed on who will be admitted, you just need to satisfy the basic requirements for being allowed to enroll. In case of a Master's degree, that would probably be a relevant Bachelor's degree.
"Zulassungsbeschränkt", on the other hand, means that there will be some selection procedure because the number of spots is limited. Usually selection is by grades.
Upvotes: 5
|
2018/02/09
| 226
| 949
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am a PhD student working in applied probability theory. I have submitted my PhD thesis and started to apply for postdoc positions.
Is it OK to ask a professor whether they have a position available? If so, what should such an e-mail contain?<issue_comment>username_1: I advise you to have this conversation in person and not via email.
When you are face to face with this professor you will be able to read their body language. If you ask the question and they appear annoyed or uncomfortable then just end the conversation quickly and politely. If, however, you see they show interest, then you may inquire further.
When setting up the initial meeting, you can write a simple email stating who you are and asking what times the professor is available to speak with you.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_2: Yes, it is fine. It never hurts to ask. Some people will ignore you, but some people will reply.
Upvotes: 3
|
2018/02/09
| 1,693
| 7,112
|
<issue_start>username_0: A few years ago I undertook the position of co-editor as a journal and organized a redesign of the entire journal: new layout, new cover, new typesetting, new printers, everything. I'm very proud of all of this work, and I make sure to bring it up in cover letters and interviews.
I learned about a year ago that my fellow co-editor lists on their CV that *they* redesigned the journal. (Note: they didn't even claim that they *organized* it, which would also be false, but that *they* did the redesigning, so it's plagiarism of the designers and typesetters, too.) But this is unequivocally false; they had precisely zero contact with our new designer, our new typesetters, or our new printers. I'm not even sure this individual knows what articles we published in the volumes for which they were co-editor.
Despite my frustrations with what I felt was outright plagiarism of my career, I ignored it. But I've recently learned that this person and myself are on the shortlist for the same job.
In my eyes, I'm in a lose/lose situation:
* When two CVs say that a person was responsible for something, obviously at least one person is fudging the truth. I worry that my colleague's CV calls my own honesty and integrity into question.
* But I can't really go speak to anyone about this, can I? It seems like I would just come across as trying to tattle or get a leg up in the job search.
Is there anyone I can contact, or any way to approach this in a safe way?<issue_comment>username_1: I would just ignore it. I doubt that anyone will even notice unless they look at the two CVs side-by-side, and even then, they will probably just assume that the two of you worked on the redesign together. They wouldn't doubt your honesty (nor the other editor's). So I don't think this really disadvantages you.
It might be a slight unfair advantage for the other editor, but I think it's minuscule. In hiring decisions, things like professional service get a very low weight. The fact that you were an editor is perhaps somewhat helpful, if the journal is recognized as publishing good research, but what you actually did as editor is too minor a point. The fact that you can redesign a journal may speak to your graphic design skills, but academic jobs don't care about that - they care about your research and teaching (in some combination). In fact, I'm not sure it is wise to emphasize it in application materials or interviews - people might think that tinkering with your journal could be a distraction from actually doing research.
If the topic of the redesign comes up at the interview, just describe honestly what you did. You don't need to get into what your co-editor did or didn't do.
I doubt that you will be asked specifically about the fact that both of you are claiming credit (for one thing, it would reveal that the other editor is also a candidate for the job, which would normally not be shared with other candidates). But if so, I would say something like "As co-editors, we share the responsibility for what happens to the journal on our watch. But on this particular project, I took the lead."
Upvotes: 7 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: The situation sounds unfortunate.
I don't know the details of what you and the other person claim. However, I think that someone looking at both of your applications will not immediately suspect dishonesty.
It's quite normal for people to take credit for joint work. If the other person is listed as a co-editor (or co-author if the work is a paper), they generally have the right to claim credit. It's only really problematic in situations like yours where the contribution was entirely unequal. Ideally this situation would have been resolved in advance by removing them as a co-editor.
There is not too much you can do about it. Trying to raise a dispute or do anything to criticize the other candidate will make *you* look bad. However, there are two things that you can do in general:
1. Have your references explain your contribution. This requires you to have one of your references be knowledgeable about the situation, which may not be possible in your sitation.
2. Be prepared to discuss the situation in your application or in the interview. If you can give a more detailed and confident explanation of what you did, then it will be apparent that you were more involved. However, you should be careful to avoid disparaging others. So prepare diplomatic answers. Talk positively about your work, not negatively about others.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: I agree with @NateEldredge for the most part.
A piece of advice which is "wisdom in hindsight" for OP, but may be relevant to others:
If you have a bit of your CV, or your work, that you're particularly proud of as an experience (as opposed to a paper with your name on it) - either manipulate your environment to make some written acknowledgement of what had happened (e.g. in OP's case - publisher sends him a thank-you letter with fancy letterhead), or write about the process ex-post-facto in a blog. It shouldn't be self-laudatory, but if you're genuine enough, and link to people you worked with, and present what things were like before and after, and maybe describe some kind of lesson learned or even extol and praise others who were involved - that makes it clear that you really did do that.
Now, the thank-you letter is not something you can put in your CV, but you could theoretically use that if asked about who-did-what. The blog post is something you can link to from your CV, and that really nails down the who-can-take-credit question. Of course, as a commenter suggests, don't expect the people reading your CV to actually read it; they'll just note it's there.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: These days lots of unscruplous actors fish CVs off the internet for all kinds of purposes, most probably various business models for example to isolate and make people more desperate so employers can get them for cheaper. Make **really really sure** before taking **any** action at all that the source for that CV is really who you are afraid it might be. Because it might well be an attempt by third actor to undermine your network and your confidence.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_5: By accident I have come across this site, but I'm going to chip in because I have decades of experience to draw on. So I hope this helps ...
Don't let your "colleague's" activity distract you.
Your CV gets you an interview. It is your performance in the interview which gets you the job, so that is where you should now be concentrating.
If you mention the alleged irregularity a) the interviewer(s) will not have time to substantiate your claim, and b) you might come across as negative. So, if a discussion on the work comes up, make sure you answer everything as positively and accurately as you can; show you know the details of your work.
I have read thousands of CVs, and engaged hundreds of faculty. Just try to relax, show you can be part of the team, tell them what you bring to the table. Good luck!
Upvotes: 2
|
2018/02/09
| 1,033
| 4,492
|
<issue_start>username_0: In the US graduate universities, Ph.D. students have to take courses. Can a student with low GPA do good research? I think doing research is solving problems. If someone cannot solve a homework or an exam, how the person can even solve more complicated problems to publish?<issue_comment>username_1: >
> In the US graduate universities, Ph.D. students have to take courses. Can a student with low GPA do good research?
>
>
>
In short, yes. GPA is a measure of your ability to follow instructions, do homework on time, and perform on exams. If the grading scheme has enough of a curve it barely does that. In any case, it's not a meaningful measure of research ability.
In the US graduate program I'm familiar with (in physics), several of the classes you take are actually not that closely related to your own research. Spending too much time on those classes can actively hurt your research output, while being somewhat beneficial to your GPA. Often there are also teaching duties to handle, so time management can be crucial. Sometimes you hear the advice to get good enough grades\*, and spend the rest of your time on research. It also seems that potential employers are not too interested in the graduate GPA - the degree itself and your research tend to be more important factors.
\*The grades should be enough to remain in good academic standing, and count towards your degree.
>
> I think doing research is solving problems. If someone cannot solve a homework or an exam, how the person can even solve more complicated problems to publish?
>
>
>
To some extent this is true, particularly for the courses relevant to one's research area. Understanding that subject matter and being able to solve problems is clearly worthwhile. Usually that translates to good grades in those classes, but I don't think it's guaranteed. One can have personal issues that semester, suffer from time pressure on a final exam, etc.
On the other hand, research problems are not always just more complicated versions of the problems studied in class. They may require new, creative methods that you wouldn't see in a course. They may require learning specific procedures that just aren't covered in standard courses. Not to mention that being able to pick a good open problems to work on is an art in itself. Certainly, getting good scores in a course does not guarantee one becoming a successful, independent researcher.
In conclusion, there might be some correlation between graduate GPA and research ability for large enough population sizes, but I don't think it holds any predictive power on the individual level.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Sure, it's entirely possible to have a poor GPA and still do great in research!
Maintaining a high GPA and doing great research are two different skill sets. Sure, they have overlapping components - like, as you said, problem solving helps with both - but it's still entirely possible to be weak in one while strong in the other.
Some of the components are even anti-correlated. Examples:
* A student who does things exactly the way the teacher wants them to be done is likely to get a good GPA for it, but the student who figures out their own strategies'll tend to do better in the research world.
* A student who seeks social validation might work hard on their GPA, but the student who's more interested in the field itself is more likely to excel in research.
* A student who thinks in contrived logic should tend to do better on exams, but a student who thinks more generally should do better in research.
Many academics can pull off both a great GPA and great research, but many others will be good at one but not the other.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: I would like to add to some of the other good answers already posted here.
Generally speaking in the US, PhD students take classes *concurrently* with their research with an advisor. As a simple mathematical fact, time spent on classes takes away from time spent on research. Therefore the argument
>
> If someone cannot solve a homework or an exam, how the person can even solve more complicated problems to publish?
>
>
>
ignores the possibility that a student has decided to spend the time on solving a homework problem elsewhere, such as on their research topic. While a good GPA can be a sign of competence, a PhD student with an overly stellar GPA begs the question of why their time was not spent elsewhere.
Upvotes: 1
|
2018/02/09
| 525
| 2,405
|
<issue_start>username_0: Currently I'm a student at one of the russian universities which obviously requires me to write theses and similar academic papers in Russian. Most russian universities (and CIS unis, in my observation) follow locally modefied versions of Soviet thesis structure guidelines. In my writing I regularly rely on English-language papers from JSTORE and the like, but one particular thing I've noticed is that the structure of those papers was, though logical, nontheless depended on a given author, even in cases when authors work and publish their papers in the same uni. In other words, I couldn't track a hint of more or less universal structure across multiple papers. Such practice is very uncommon in post-Soviet countries, as structure here is explicit and tengible (for example, paragraphs within introductory chapter are clearly defined and have comparable composition across the majority of papers in CIS countries).
Back to my main question. Are there any official guidelines which students/researchers are compelled to follow within a solitary uni or a cluster? Can you point out to a resource that can shed light upon academic writing tradition in English-speaking and/or European countries?<issue_comment>username_1: I have never heard of such a thing in the US. I think that such a universal structure for English academic writing would honestly be a very negative thing. My experience tells me that the more structure you force upon people the more formulaic and less interesting their writing becomes. In the US, many people are taught to write the "five paragraph essay" as a child and I know people who had to actively train themselves out of it in college because it made their writing a lot worse.
Having all papers written the same way would quite simply be incredibly boring. Papers should be written for people to read and enjoy reading.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: There are some common structures that show up frequently (e.g. Introduction-Background-Methods-Results-Discussion is common for experiment-based papers), but they are different for different fields, and it is not mandatory to follow them. Some universities (mine among them, but I'm not in Europe) give "Thesis Writing" classes, where you get an overview of the various strategies. You could look up materials from these classes, maybe they will help.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]
|
2018/02/09
| 1,794
| 6,935
|
<issue_start>username_0: I recently have had a discussion about my friend's tone in his email.
His supervisor asked him whether he wants to attend a summer school in May. He wanted to thank him for his invitation and also wanted to keep the mail short. As a result, that is what he came up with:
>
> Hello Professor,
>
>
> I have plans during that period. Thanks, but no thanks.
>
>
> Regards,
>
> John
>
>
>
He is getting along well with his supervisor, but I believe that the phrasing is a bit disrespectful nevertheless. It might be the case that I am not a native speaker.
Am I exaggerating the situation and this is something can be overlooked?<issue_comment>username_1: It's not the use of a "slang" expression that's the issue.
Saying "thanks, but no thanks" implies that s/he was trying to trick you with the offer to which you're replying. The phrase is imbued with a bit of hostility and disdain.
So, don't use it. Also, the way your friend phrased your email sounds flippant. Turning down an offer from someone's advisor should be done with more of a justification. It wouldn't hurt to be **polite and respectful**, and write something like
>
> Hello <NAME>,
>
>
> I want to thank you for the offer of XYZ; unfortunately, I've already made plans to [important activity that clearly should not be canceled to take the offer].
>
>
> [Possible counter-suggestion regarding the offer, e.g. doing something after that period of unavailability.]
>
>
> Regards,
>
> John
>
>
>
Still pretty short.
Notes:
* The reason doesn't have to be super-specific, but the more vague it is, the more it's likely to sound like an excuse.
* If your friend dislikes his/her supervisor, or doesn't appreciate him/her, or the offer - that's *double* the reason to be polite and respectful of him/her when rejecting.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_2: It sounds extremely rude, I am afraid. I would assume mitigating circumstances for a non-native speaker, but the "no thanks" permits "thanks" to be interpreted as substantive, and thus has a highly dismissive connotation which should never be used with your superior, and neither with a friend you would like to keep.
The connotation that shines through (at least in the UK) is a sarcastic "Yeah right, you think you do me a favour? In future, please spare me your ideas."
Upvotes: 9 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: Given that *"thanks, but no thanks"* is often used as a mocking euphemism for *"gee, that's a stupid idea, I will of course not do that"* I would suggest not using it on your advisor.
What's wrong with just writing "thank you, but unfortunately I won't be able to make it for reasons A and B"?
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_4: Advisors propose activities to students to give them opportunities: to learn, to build connections, and to become known in their field. All things that can be useful for the students' future careers (many of my current colleagues are actually people who I first met at a summer school).
Thus, I would consider your friend's email offensive (and, *no*, I'm not a particularly polite person in everyday life).
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_5: If I was invited to attend something that I couldn't I would simply say, thanks for inviting me, but I'm sorry I'll have to decline, as I'm busy that day.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_6: "Thanks, but no thanks" is a sarcastic insult, plain and simple. If I were the supervisor, it would end any feelings of good will I had toward the student. From then on, I would provide the student with the statutory support required by my contract, but no more, and devote my energy towards helping other students.
A sincere apology might put things right.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_7: 'Thanks, but no thanks.' is sarcastic and rude. Your friend should NOT use such wording, ever. If he has, he should personally visit the professor and apologize for having done so. If he is not a native English speaker, he might be able to blame it on that. If he is, he should have known better, and will have trouble explaining his use of such a phrase.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_8: Your friend seems to have gotten the idea that "no thanks" is needed to indicate that the answer is "no", while "thanks" is needed to indicate gratitude for the offer. That is not the case. If the email were to contain nothing but the word "thanks", that would be inferred to be acceptance, but "thanks" in an email that otherwise indicates other plans would be understood to be only gratitude, and not acceptance. And "no thanks", as the words indicate, communicates both a negative answer and gratitude.
Thus, "thanks, but no thanks" is redundant. Unfortunately for your friend, it is a form of redundancy that has been used to indicate disdain. To be precise, I would say that it not so much *is rude*, but has been associated so much with rude intent that it should be avoided (although of course there is a point at which "is taken to be rude" becomes the same as "is rude").
You say that you are not a native speaker, but don't mention whether your friend is. If I were speaking with a non-native speaker, I would give them the benefit of the doubt and not expect them to be familiar with the entirety of English-speaking culture. Even with a native speaker, I would be willing to entertain the possibility that they chose their words poorly without considering the pop-culture context, especially if I had had previous dealings with them in which they were polite. Other people here have indicated that they would be less charitable, which I find unfortunate, so your friend will have to consider the possibility that the professor will share their attitude.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_9: This question might be better on <https://english.stackexchange.com/>, but I think you already have a few excellent answers. Let me add my own two cents' worth.
"Thanks, but no thanks" often comes across as sarcastic and even contemptuous to the native speaker's ear.
A far better phrasing would be:
"Hello Professor,
Summer school does sound very interesting. Unfortunately, I have already made plans for that period. I must therefore respectfully decline your thoughtful invitation. Thank you very much.
Regards,
John"
It may be a bit longer than your friend intended, but it's not unduly verbose.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_10: As a native English speaker, the phrase does not strike me as offensive. It means, "Thanks (for the great offer.) No thanks (because I'm busy.)"
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_11: I believe the phrase becomes significantly more polite by adding a simple comma, implying a different intonation:
>
> Thanks, but no, thanks.
>
>
>
Still, I agree with the other answers that this is uncommon style. In this case, it's not necessary to repeat the decline (`but no`) or the `thanks`.
Upvotes: 2
|
2018/02/09
| 674
| 2,981
|
<issue_start>username_0: I'm currently in my first postdoctoral research position at a European university, in pure maths. I'm considering changing to software development. In case I would rather like to return to academia, how hard is it, as compared to trying to stay in academia right away?
The two scenarios I'd like to compare are:
1. Finishing my current postdoc and apply for new postdocs (let's assume that all relevant application deadlines are still in the future).
2. Finishing my current postdoc, working *n* years in software development and then apply for new postdocs.
How big does *n* have to become such that the chances of application success in the second scenario are significantly lower?<issue_comment>username_1: The possibility of getting a postdoc starts to drop rapidly as you become farther away from your PhD, regardless of what you are doing in the meantime. This goes double (or triple) if some of that time is spent without having publications.
What is your end goal? Certainly not to hop from postdoc to postdoc for the rest of your life. Answering this question will probably help you decide what to do. Take another postdoc if you are hoping to become a professor or academic researcher. Take a software development position if you are wanting to leave academia. Don't hold on to too much hope of being able to go back to academia in pure math after leaving for more than a year.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: I think this would be effectively impossible with n>1. Many postdoc positions in math have a formal requirement that applicants have completed their PhDs within the last k years, with k usually equal to 3 or 4. Even when this is not a formal condition, the culture in math postdoc hiring makes it very unlikely that you will be seen as a competitive candidate for another postdoc after 2 or more years away from academia, unless perhaps your record is so strong already that you can be considered seriously for tenure track positions even now (in which case you should apply for those positions and not postdoc positions anyway).
With n=1 I think you may have a realistic chance, especially if you can offer a convincing explanation of what you were trying to achieve with the software development “gap year”, and especially if you take care to maintain visibility in your research community during your year in industry by continuing to publish and/or going to conferences.
Disclaimer: the above represents my opinion only and I cannot vouch for its accuracy. You should seek opinions from multiple sources before reaching a decision, including trustworthy senior people who are more familiar with your personal situation and goals. Anyway, good luck!
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: So, you basically want to leave the academia for `N` years and then to return back. While this is possible, mind that you would have a publication gap of `N` years that might affect your standing greatly.
Upvotes: 1
|
2018/02/10
| 1,072
| 4,171
|
<issue_start>username_0: The Michigan State University (MSU) has moved to fire the medical school dean for the actions of the child molester / doctor, <NAME>. Why does that happen in academia? I'm interested in knowing why the professors around a convicted child molester also have to lose their tenure and jobs. Is this a typical procedure of American universities?
For comparison, a person working in industry who is guilty of sexual crimes usually seems to be solely responsible and only they are held accountable - not their entire department of managers.<issue_comment>username_1: The Dean of the medical school is not being fired because he was involved in sexual crimes.
He is being fired because he *poorly handled the Title IX investigation*. He utterly failed to ensure the safety of student and patient safety, and he bears responsibility for that.
To characterize him as being "not involved in" the scandal is not accurate - the scandal is not only Nassar's actions, but that they were allowed to go on as long as they were without being addressed.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_2: Your analogy is mistaken. A better one would be: a manager's job description includes "making sure employees don't molest customers or other employees, and acting and initiating investigations promptly if any accusations thereof arise". Said manager then fails to act and investigate promptly when accusations thereof arise, or do anything to prevent potential future or ongoing incidents, thereby endangering both people and company alike. Still sound like getting fired is mysterious?
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: As a general principle academic tenure protects an academic against being fired for expressing unpopular views, but it still allows the university to fire the academic "for cause". Academics with tenure are not totally immune from losing their positions, especially if they engage in misconduct or failure that does not involve merely an expression of unpopular views.
In [the case you are talking about](https://www.reuters.com/article/gymnastics-usa-nassar-michigan-state/michigan-state-university-to-fire-dean-after-nassar-scandal-idUSL2N1PZ1VM), MSU has referred Dr <NAME> (Dean of Medicine) to Faculty Review Panel who will decide if there is "cause" to remove his tenure. The university alleges that he has failed to satisfy his job requirements in his administrative position, by failing to enforce guidelines on Nassar for the protection of students. There is certainly no suggestion that Dr Strampel was involved in the sexual assaults committed by Nassar; the allegation is that he did not properly adhere to the administrative requirements that would have restricted Nassar's ability to commit misconduct against students. He is accused of breaches of criminal law relating to misconduct in a public office for these alleged failures, and he is also subject to a review of his position by MSU.
This is an interesting case, because of the separate aspects of academic tenure as a protection of academic work, versus the responsibility of senior academics in their administrative capacities. I think there is a reasonable argument for the position that administrative failures ought to lead to removal from administrative positions, without necessarily leading to loss of tenure as an academic (e.g., Strampel might be removed from holding an administrative position, but still be allowed to work as a tenured academic in a research/teaching capacity). It appears that the university is seeking a full firing in this case, and it remains to be seen what the Faculty Panel will decide.
---
**Update:** It appears that Dr Strampel was convicted of "misconduct in office" and "willful neglect of duty" relating to his actions in relation to this matter; he recently lost an appeal against conviction (see news reports [here](https://www.npr.org/2019/06/12/731985152/ex-msu-dean-who-oversaw-larry-nassar-is-found-guilty-of-multiple-charges) and [here](https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/michigan/2021/01/15/former-msu-dean-william-strampel-appeal-misconduct-office-conviction-denied/4174236001/)).
Upvotes: 4
|
2018/02/10
| 439
| 1,698
|
<issue_start>username_0: I've been invited to an academic workshop in India. As a North American woman, it is conventional to wear business casual (e.g., pant suit or dress) or even casual clothing to a conference or workshop in my field (geography/health). Would it be appropriate to wear business casual in India or to dress more formally? Are pants preferred over knee-length skirts for women?<issue_comment>username_1: This is out of my field as I’m male, but think of the temperature, so next be respectful (not suggesting you wouldn’t...) but a lightweight business suit may be the order of the day.
Any images of last years conference available - may give you a hint...
I don’t think you will be required to wear a sari ... Mind you a colleague went to a conference abroad and made some friends and they went shopping to get her some national dress as a memento .... and some light fun of course.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: I think a plain short kurti - preferably one that goes down past your bottom and is not sleeveless - with plain jeans (not ripped or stonewashed or with designs) is perfectly appropriate. I wear this outfit both in India and the US, and it doesn't look out of place in either country, while being extremely comfortable in the Indian climate. In the US, I believe kurtis are called long tunics here and are sold by several major brands.
I don't think there's a need to wear a sari. My friends who work in India only wear saris when they want an excuse to dress up :) For example, weddings, super formal events, etc. Of course my mother and mothers of my friends wore saris almost every day, to go to work. So maybe it's a generational thing.
Upvotes: 3
|