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<issue_start>username_0: I am a Ph.D. student in theoretical computer science. I have recently come across one problem on which somebody has already done work, but in that work I figured out one problem which may be small (I don’t how significant it is). I asked my colleagues about this, and some of them suggested me to pick a new problem for your first Ph.D. problem. I am in confusion what to do.
My question is: Is it okay to work on a problem which is incremental as your first Ph.D problem? *Incremental* in my context simply means designing a faster algorithm.<issue_comment>username_1: Yes!
----
Your goal for your first problem is just to **publish something**. It doesn’t have to be significant. It doesn’t have to be in a top conference. It doesn’t have to be related to your eventual thesis topic. It doesn’t even have to be in the same subfield as anything else you publish in the future. Just publish something.
This is just getting you used to the process of writing and revising and submitting and being frustrated by bad reviews and rerevising and seeing the results in print, so that none of that stuff is a barrier later. This is inoculation against the inevitable future Impostor Syndrome telling you that you can’t do this, because you already *did* this.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: *To add to username_1's answer: Yes, and it is encouraged for inexperienced researchers.*
Check [<NAME>](https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=slVcOQIAAAAJ)'s awesome slides on how to do research:
[http://www.cs.ucr.edu/~eamonn/Keogh\_SIGKDD09\_tutorial.pdf](http://www.cs.ucr.edu/%7Eeamonn/Keogh_SIGKDD09_tutorial.pdf)
In particular, read from page 20: "Finding research problem":
>
> Some people have suggested that this method can lead to incremental,
> boring, low-risk papers...
>
>
> * Perhaps, but there are 104 papers in
> SIGKDD this year, they are not all going to be groundbreaking.
> * Sometimes ideas that seem incremental at first blush may turn out tobe very exciting as you explore the problem.
> * An early career person might eventually go on to do high risk research, after they have a “cushion” of two or three lower-risk SIGKDD papers.
>
>
>
Data mining is not my field, but I heard that KDD is the top-tier conference there.
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: The deadline to register for a peer-reviewed computer science conference with proceedings is in three days and I cannot attend despite being the main author of a paper there since I am leaving the current institution for non-academic employment. **I cannot afford to lose this job and losing it will have catastrophic consequences**. I have discussed this issue with the coauthor for many months, and they kept saying "I'm pretty sure that I can go, but if not we'll find a solution". At least one author of the paper must be registered and at least that person must present it at the conference or else the paper will not be published.
There has been still no tangible proof of the coauthor either definitely going to the conference or registering, and I do not know this person well enough to trust them. The publication is critical as it is the only proof of me producing anything in quite a long time, so I cannot afford to lose this publication. I cannot take the stress any more. **How do I ensure that someone registers for my paper so that it appears in the proceedings?**<issue_comment>username_1: This may depend on the publisher of the paper. Some conferences explicitly require that one of the **authors** of the paper **presents** it at the conference. I can read this requirement from your text, but you have to be careful.
If you just **register** an author, that is not enough. They have to present! If **someone else** presents the paper that might still not be sufficient.
You should also consider contacting the person above your co-author. Discuss this issue with him/her and point out that presenting at the conference is important. Then you do not need to trust your co-author that much and you might have a more reliable answer.
Regarding your leaving for another employment: Have you talked to this employer? They might be willing to support your case (e.g., giving you a few days off).
Even if this hurts financially: Have you considered just going to the conference and presenting on your own? I have seen people doing this from similar situations. However, this can be quite expensive and might not be a feasible option.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: Another possibility is that your "non-academic employment" obviously values your skills - have you considered asking them if they will give you leave (paid or unpaid) to let you present - and it has been known that some people say in their intro "I am here thanks to the grace of X...".
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_3: >
> The publication is critical as it is the only proof of me producing anything in quite a long time, so I cannot afford to lose this publication
>
>
>
Then you should be turning up yourself. You can't blame this on anyone else: you messed up your schedule.
>
> How do I ensure that someone registers for my paper so that it appears in the proceedings?
>
>
>
Do it yourself. Sorry, it's that simple. You need to start taking responsibility for this now.
I understand that, having left it so late, it's going to be a little awkward getting time off from your new employer. However, presenting an academic project at a conference is a pretty good reason to have that time off — an employer not understanding of that is probably not somebody I'd want to work with. It's just that late notice that you're going to have to contend with. Given its importance to you, you should have had this event as a fixed date on your diary for months now, and noted it to your new employer early on.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_4: There's no reason that the paper can't be *presented* by a random colleague. You still have to satisfy the registration requirement, but if you know someone else who is going to be there, you can ask them to present for you. You'd want to provide them with slides, etc. If you don't know anyone attending the conference well enough to ask them, you could ask the session chair (assuming she's already identified) for advice.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_5: **You are worrying too much**
If you are leaving for non-academic employment, then the loss of the paper is unlikely to have any significant impact on your future career. Outside of academia, employers are likely to place little or no value on your publication record and - by the time you're looking for your next job - whatever your going to be doing that means you can't attend the conference will be considered far more important than whether or not you got this paper out. You don't need to worry so much about it.
**You should trust your co-author**
You say "[t]here has been still no tangible proof of the coauthor either definitely going to the conference or registering" but there's no tangible proof of the opposite either. Stop borrowing trouble from an imagined future.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_6: It has been discussed at length that you should reconsider if the paper or not leaving to present it are more important and I urge you to do that.
However, assuming you know your situation better than us, even though it sounds off, here's the only solution I can think of:
Ask. Nicely!
Call your co-author, say please (because you want something from him) and hope he says he'll register. Then explain how important it is and ask for a confirmation so that you can sleep better. Make sure it doesn't come across as mistrust and that you're just asking because it's so important to you.
If that doesn't work, swallow your pride and beg. Offer to pay the flight (if you were going you'd pay it too (?)). Offer something else. Most people will agree to do it when they understand the severity of the situation. But maybe try to explain it more in depth than you did here, because I haven't understood it yet.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_7: You might try talking to the conference chair to see if there are any options if you absolutely can't make it. AAAI also has the policy of "At least one author must register and present", but this year, there was a paper for which none of the authors were able to obtain visas, and thus couldn't attend. One of them recorded a video of them giving the talk, and the session chair played it at their scheduled time. Perhaps you could work out something similar.
I have no idea how common that sort of arrangement is, though. Their situation was certainly one that was beyond their control, so if the reason you can't attend is less compelling, the chair may be less accommodating.
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: I seem to be a bit stuck here. I am reading quite a lot, but I cannot find a topic to write about, which is original and which I could then publish as a paper. I am in the Humanities, so it's basically just about reading, reading, reading (so no research in a lab or something).
Are there strategies for this? What would you recommend a young scholar does to publish more and find interesting things to write about?
PS: I know that this question will not receive an entirely objective answer, but there might still be some proven strategies or insights that could alleviate some concerns.<issue_comment>username_1: You're thinking about this the wrong way; if do not have a topic you want to write about - then don't write.
I'm not being flippant: You should write and publish something if you feel it's important to express in writing and to disseminate. Don't try to produce publications for publication's sake.
But maybe it's the other way around: You're frustrated about being so passive - like you said, just "reading, reading, reading" - rather than producing something written. Well, in that case, instead of thinking about what to *write*, think about what you want to *know* or *figure out*. What questions about human society (be it history, sociology, psychology or whatever you're focused on) intrigue you?
When you have your questions, you look for what's already been written or said. If it's sufficient - then you had an interesting read and can perhaps put the knowledge to some use; and if there isn't a definite answer to your question - that's what you can contemplate, explore, study, and eventually publish about yourself.
**Edit:** I gave a general answer, but your tags suggest you are in grad school. If that's the case, then also consider:
* You have an advisor. Talk to him/her about this - that's what s/he's there for.
* If you've submitted a research proposal, then you've asked yourself some of these research questions already. Are you actually looking into them? Do you have satisfying answers to them?
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: I am in a different field and I am almost in a similar situation where I am interested to work on something original. However, getting started is bit difficult at this point.
As pointed out by @username_1 in their answer, 'You should write and publish something if you feel it's important to express and disseminate. Don't publish for publication's sake.' This seems to be a great piece of advice.
In my field (engineering), we do read a lot of papers; but, I read it differently.
Case A:
* Read a paper that reports a new method M to solve a problem P.
* Find out the limitations of the method when P changes a bit.
* Can method M be improved to fit the new problem P'.
Case B:
* Read a experimental paper.
* Find out the outcomes of the experiments and all its parameters.
* What happens the method in experiment if the problem changes? (a vice-versa to Case A)
Case C:
* Start exploring a problem which has never been solved (an open problem).
* Do there exist some approximation methods for this problem? What are their results?
* Can it be solved in an alternative way?
I am really not sure whether it would fit to humanity field.
Upvotes: 3
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<issue_start>username_0: This is in reference to my question: [How to do a PhD to equip myself for a job as assistant professor](https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/103616/86798).
I was told in the answer of the above linked question that chances of landing a job as an assistant professor in Mathematics are quite slim. Very few people will actually get a permanent position in academia.
An article of 2014 shows only 0.5-3% of PhD graduates will actually get a job as an Assistant Professor.
But I have two questions:
>
> 1. Why do so many people still apply for a PhD in some reputed institutes in India even knowing the harsh reality? I found there are 1500 applications for four PhD scholarship positions.
>
>
> * One answer says that people move to industry, but I still don’t understand how after doing a PhD in suppose differential geometry or algebraic geometry one can do a job in industry if he/she gets no position as an assistant professor.
> * Will one be satisfied to do some managerial work in some Consultancy firm after doing a PhD in Mathematics?
> 2. Are people jobless after a PhD?
> Completion of a PhD requires so much effort. So why is there no value after doing it?
>
>
>
**NOTE**:
In the most up-voted answer below it has been said that many who enroll for a PhD don't even wish to pursue an academic career.
I have been asking my seniors who are currently pursuing a PhD or are in the verge of completing their degree or who have completed it.
They said that they all want to be Professors in some Universities and want to be involved in research because that is the dream job for them.
I am obviously talking about PhD in Mathematics<issue_comment>username_1: The issue is that the frame of your question is wrong. You’re assuming that the purpose of a PhD is to get an academic job, when that is not the case: Many people who get PhD’s have no desire for an academic job, even from the time they apply!
The number of academic positions is indeed insufficient to absorb all the PhD’s. But there are lots of other “landing spots”:
* Industrial research and development
* Start-ups
* Non-university government research institutes (like the US NIH or DOE lab system, or the Max-Planck-Instituts in Germany)
* Finance and consulting
* Administrative and Supervisory positions in other disciplines.
Overall, PhD’s have a lower unemployment rate than non-PhD’s. It’s all a question of where they want to go.
As for doing a PhD, the basic skill it teaches you—the one that makes you valuable to lots of people—is the ability to learn new fields quickly and become an expert in those fields. You don’t always need specialized knowledge in your PhD topic to get into an area.
But ultimately the reason for doing a PhD is the love of research and discovery. People pursue research careers because that’s what they want to do.
Upvotes: 8 <issue_comment>username_2: I did a PhD and was hired for my master's degree, not for my PhD. Financially it did not (yet) pan out, but personally it did.
Why I still think it was a great time: I spend five more years on campus, had great colleagues, contributed to the community (published articles, gave talks, wrote some open source software), taught several courses, traveled to conferences, could deeply study a couple of topics, and was afterwards still hired for a ok-payed industry job.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: I discovered that in Fine Art a lot of people do a PhD later in life, aged 40 plus or even 60 plus. These people have mostly been artists for a long time, and have returned to study to deepen their understanding of art and to rethink their practice. The ones I met mostly supported themselves by teaching something related to art, in trade or technical institutions, not universities. For one or two, the PhD might lead to a job in a university or a public institution, but the main motivation was simply to help their personal development as artists.
As far as I know, doing a PhD later in life is rare in the science and technology fields. It is true that PhDs in Fine Art are fairly recent (at least in my country), and so these older artists didn't have the opportunity to do a PhD when they were younger.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: Some of my observations:
1. **They don't know what they're going into**. Most PhD students have some idea of how hard it is to get a job afterwards, but don't actually *know*. It's similar to how one can imagine what skydiving is like, but don't actually know until after trying it.
2. **They're confident they can succeed**. PhD students are some of the smartest of their generation. They were top of their high school class, top of their undergraduate class, they've never met an obstacle they can't overcome. Why can't they also top their graduate class, top the postdoc chain, and top the applicants for tenured positions?
3. **The process worked for their supervisors, which makes them think it'll also work for the students**. The supervisors are probably the people most influential in convincing undergraduates to do graduate studies. These are the people who've already did all of the things in #2. If they can do it, so can their students, and hence they encourage their students to try.
4. **They don't know what they want to do**. They haven't really thought about future careers and only have a vague idea of how their studies enable them to find a job if the academic path fails. The hidden reason they did undergraduate studies is because that's what everyone who did well in high school went on to do, and the same applied for graduate studies. "The best undergraduates do PhD studies, so I'll do it too".
5. **They have romantic ideas about what people with PhDs do**. When scientists talk about what they do, they don't usually say "I write funding proposals". The not-exactly-accurate answers propagate and influence the next generation of students to try to become scientists themselves.
Upvotes: 8 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_5: **Because it's fun!**
No, really. I went to do a PhD because I thought it was fun. It allowed me to live in an awesome location, travel around the world to conferences and summer schools, to spend years doing exciting research with nice colleagues, and even getting paid for all of it (and in Sweden, the pay is not bad at slightly above the national median salary, plenty for a sufficiently large apartment (compared to an undergraduate dormitory) where I did my PhD).
I postponed growing up and thinking about the future for after the PhD, which means now, 4½ years into a couple of postdocs.
Upvotes: 7 <issue_comment>username_6: It is a definite problem with no easy answers. A partial solution is that a STEM PhD can provide a gateway to related fields. Going from a Math PhD to a job in computing or data science is a well-worn path. If you have the skill-set to get a PhD in differential geometry then you have the skill-set to e.g. rebrand yourself as a data scientist (if need be). Since a fundamental problem in data science is trying to find solutions to the [curse of dimensionality](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curse_of_dimensionality), having a deep understanding of geometry is actually relevant. A graduate-level knowledge of mathematics linked with an ability (but not necessarily expertise) in programming can go far in industry.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_7: In my opinion, there are people that opted for PhD for their own personal achievement. There are people who take the title that comes with PhD very proudly. And there are also people who want to prove themselves that they can achieve that. It is the experience that counts, not much about the career.
EDIT : It is from my personal experience. I had few bad grades in my undergraduate study, but I managed to finish it and I am one of the few people around me that went for Master and completed it.
Pursuing PhD had never been something I want to do but I do to prove to myself that bad grades and CGPA won't hold you back. I never thought about pursuing career in academic.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_8: A personal anecdote. Your mileage may vary.
For me, entering the PhD program meant:
* Stay in the same city as my girlfriend
* Continue the sport I loved, with my team
* Sufficient funding to become financially independent of my parents (just...)
* Automatic deferment from military service (draft)
* Work with smart people, a camera that could shoot 10M frames per second, and an interesting / challenging project
In contrast, "trying to get a job" would mean:
* End of studies --> return to home country for military service
* Girlfriend now "far away", in the days when international phone calls were expensive (and letters took a long time, and email had not been invented)
* 18 months later, see if I could pick up life where I had left off
The PhD was fun, led to a postdoc, then to a role in industry. 27 years later I am still with that company, leveraging the systematic and critical thinking skills that research taught me. My sports team did well at the national level. I married my girlfriend, and we have raised four children.
An academic career was never the goal. There would have been no money in it. I'm still dreaming of winning the lottery; then I might "endow a chair and sit on it". My PhD training tells me that it's statistically unlikely.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_9: There is a big difference between getting education for **Vocational** reasons and **Academic** reasons.
Vocational training is training that you can apply immediately to a job; it tends to be somewhat practical. For example, plumber, electrician, MBA, accounting, automechanic, physician, nurse, computer programmer. For Vocational training, you go to school to learn how to do something in particular, so that once the training is done, you are qualified to go and do it. I think most people view undergraduate degrees as something vocational.
Academic education, in contrast, is learning for the sake of learning; perhaps "advancing human knowledge" is the best way to say it. For someone who views life with a utilitarian philosophy, most PhD's, like poetry and video games, are not at all useful.
So in summary, your questions:
>
> Why do so many people apply for a PhD even when chances of getting academic jobs are slim?
>
>
>
Answer: Because a PhD is not a vocational degree; it is an academic degree
>
> Why do so many people still apply for a PhD in some reputed institutes in India even knowing the harsh reality?
>
>
>
Answer: If someone is unhappy with reality, perhaps advancing human knowledge is a means to fix the dismal reality many people face. And particular institutes, IIT for example, are reputed because they have contributed much to the improve human condition. There are people who work not for material reasons but instead to improve society as a whole.
>
> Are people jobless after a PhD?
>
>
>
Just like people everywhere, joblessness can indeed effect PhDs. There certainly isn't a 100% employment rate in any group of people, is there?
Likewise, most people who have a PhD are able to find a job. However, I am willing to wager that on the whole, people who get vocational degrees earn more money. For example, MBAs, Physicians, and CS people will earn more than most PhDs. In the end, many PhDs get a job in a field that can use their skills vocationally; for example, many physics PhDs go into computer science when school is done.
>
> Completion of a PhD requires so much effort. So why is there no value after doing it?
>
>
>
There are many things in this world that require a ton of effort for which very little remuneration is received. For example, child rearing. Raising kids is a task that most people do anyway. If society paid more money for what it values, shouldn't being a mother pay the most of any profession? In truth most mothers raise kids for a variety of reasons; sense of fulfillment, love, etc.
Likewise with PhDs, people pursue these degrees for reasons not related to remuneration. Perhaps we should re-organize society so that those we value the most receive the most money? Moms will get the most money, followed by poets, and everyone will pity the impoverished health insurance company executive?
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_10: I'm surprised what I see as the most important reason for doing a PhD isn't mentioned.
I did PhD because I love the subject. I'll work on a subject that no one has ever done. I'll increase the knowledge base of humanity. If I'm lucky (and work really hard), there might be a theory named after me. Even if I didn't, I'll probably provide a shoulder for the next Newton to stand on.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_11: It's cool :-) I would get a Ph.D. just for fun if I had time and money. It's fun (for many people including me nothing is more fun than getting to understand new things), it feeds you dopamine (some people use gambling for this, some do sports, some prefer to explore), and makes it much easier to get people respect you which is extremely ego-pleasing :-) And there is nothing wrong in pleasing your ego as long as you do this consciously and don't let it cloud your reason.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_12: **Because it is a way out of *poverty*!**
While many people will do a PhD because they love research and discovery and also the intellectual challenge, there are other important factors too.
Getting a PhD is a way out of poverty for some people. If someone is poor and they live in a country with declining living standards, getting a PhD from another country can help them in two ways:
1- They will be paid for their PhD research. In some countries if you are lucky you do not pay university for your PhD, otherwise you pay to get a PhD while you are enrolled full-time! Doing PhD and having a job (if you could find it and if it would pay enough) is not easy for everybody.
2- If someone wants to immigrate to another country with better living standards, the easiest way is to be educated and to be highly skilled. Getting a PhD from another country makes it possible either to settle in that country or immigrate to another one easier.
Many people live in less developed countries and finding an academic job after their PhD or their job satisfaction is their least concern!
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_13: One might as well ask why artists paint, why poets or writers write, why people pursue professional sports. In each case, the chance of "success" is quite small. People who do these things have passion for what they do, they don't mind making great sacrifice, and they all hope that one day all the hard work will pay off.
I was lucky to get out of grad school when it was still possible to get a job. Nonetheless, each time I looked for a new position, there was a certain amount of fear that I might not get one.
At the end of the last class I taught before I retired, I played the song "What I did for Love" from "A Chorus Line." It summed up my feelings for my career, and probably would for many others who "dreamed the impossible dream."
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: I am currently concluding my PhD in England and I’d like to do a postdoc preferably in the US or Canada. I’d like to know:
Does it make sense to contact the supervisors when I find an interesting project or should I only act upon explicit job advertisements?<issue_comment>username_1: I advise against it. In my research group (social sciences), we have post-doc opportunities, but we have very targeted searches and only consider candidates when positions are open. I receive lots of unsolicited applications throughout the year. Many are not remotely close to our area of research, so it seems to be a SPAM-based approach. The only time I think it might make sense is if you brought funding with you, and the post-doc was relevant to the broader work being done within that research group. That might be attractive to a research group when a funding source is not immediately available to hire a post-doc.
If you are interested in a given University / research group, you may consider reaching out to see whether post doc opportunities are on the horizon. That will likely be a better use of your time.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Absolutely you should, many positions aren't advertised and it could be your skills are just what the other group needed. Make sure you go for a quality over quantity approach, and really tailor each application to the group you are applying to. A well thought out cover letter (checked for spelling and grammar) and a well formatted and targeted CV puts you in a favourable position. A good approach is to send an application by post as well as by email; you will really stand out doing this. Talk about what you what you like in the group, your current situation, and how you think you would contribute to the group's research. In terms of funding, if you have some already great, if not, research what you would be eligible for and open the possibility of the pair of you developing an application together.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]
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| 1,366
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<issue_start>username_0: In Mendeley, the closest category for an R package appears to be "*Computer Program*"; however, R itself is a computer program, not its packages.
Other literature sources seem to cite technical documents about R packages instead of the actual packages.
Aside from manually entering the citations, is there a way to incorporate R packages in my Mendeley library?<issue_comment>username_1: You could export the citation as a bibtex file, e.g. <https://www.rforge.net/doc/packages/knitr/write_bib.html>
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: For example, if I want to cite *Data* in *Function reference*
<http://ggplot2.tidyverse.org/reference/#section-data>, in this case, I will use **web page** to added to Mendeley manually as follow:
* title = Data - Function reference - ggplot2
* url = <http://ggplot2.tidyverse.org/reference/#section-data>
* Date access = 2018-02-12
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_3: Each R package has a different way to be cited. Some were formally published as scientific articles in journals, some only as packages. The only way to know for sure is to check how the package maintainer want you to cite their package, with function `citation`.
Base R also comes with function `toBibtex` that help you export the correct citations as a bibtex file.
For instance:
```
> citation("Rcpp")
To cite Rcpp in publications use:
<NAME> and <NAME> (2011). Rcpp: Seamless
R and C++ Integration. Journal of Statistical Software,
40(8), 1-18. URL http://www.jstatsoft.org/v40/i08/.
Eddelbuettel, Dirk (2013) Seamless R and C++ Integration with
Rcpp. Springer, New York. ISBN 978-1-4614-6867-7.
<NAME> and <NAME> (2017). Extending
R with C++: A Brief Introduction to Rcpp. PeerJ Preprints
5:e3188v1. URL
https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.3188v1.
To see these entries in BibTeX format, use 'print(,
bibtex=TRUE)', 'toBibtex(.)', or set
'options(citation.bibtex.max=999)'.
> toBibtex(citation("knitr"))
@Manual{,
title = {knitr: A General-Purpose Package for Dynamic Report Generation in R},
author = {<NAME>},
year = {2018},
note = {R package version 1.20},
url = {https://yihui.name/knitr/},
}
@Book{,
title = {Dynamic Documents with {R} and knitr},
author = {<NAME>},
publisher = {Chapman and Hall/CRC},
address = {Boca Raton, Florida},
year = {2015},
edition = {2nd},
note = {ISBN 978-1498716963},
url = {https://yihui.name/knitr/},
}
@InCollection{,
booktitle = {Implementing Reproducible Computational Research},
editor = {<NAME> and <NAME> and <NAME>},
title = {knitr: A Comprehensive Tool for Reproducible Research in {R}},
author = {<NAME>},
publisher = {Chapman and Hall/CRC},
year = {2014},
note = {ISBN 978-1466561595},
url = {http://www.crcpress.com/product/isbn/9781466561595},
}
```
As for importing bibtex files into Mendeley, I do not use Mendeley myself but [this Q&A](https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/383688/copy-bibtex-information-to-mendeley) on TeX.se shows that one can simply use menu items "File > Import... > Bibtex (\*.bib) " to do so.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_4: To add to the accepted answer, I believe you are looking for:
```
writeLines(toBibtex(citation("package")), con = 'path_to/reference_filename')
```
You can omit the package name for citing R.
Hope it saves someone a few minutes.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_5: With the bibtex package, you can generate a Bibtex file from the package citations and then upload it in Mendeley or another reference manager software. As an example
```
library(bibtex)
write.bib('package name - here', file='name for the file')
write.bib(c('bibtex', 'utils', 'tools'), file='references') ## for multiple packages
```
Please see the package's cran page (<https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/bibtex/>) for further information
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_6: ```
knitr::write_bib(c(.packages()), "packages.bib")
```
This will generate a .bib file containing all used packages, which you can add to Mendeley.
<https://bookdown.org/yihui/rmarkdown-cookbook/write-bib.html>
Upvotes: 0
|
2018/02/12
| 1,346
| 5,474
|
<issue_start>username_0: I just had an interview for a role that was a perfect fit for me. This is a research role in a University. During the interview, the professor who was making the hire commented on how my skills in computational modelling was a close fit to his research project including the amount of upper division quantitative units I have taken; in my undergraduate program I took two math and two physics units every semester.
1. Of the remaining two other guys in their 50s, one was constantly berating my Alma Mater for being slightly lower ranked than this current University.
2. He also berated my average GPA without taking into account the level and load of the units I was enrolled in.
3. In addition, he was constantly berating my long term career goal while also putting down <NAME> and the national research group of the country I did my undergraduate in.
4. He even went as far back to nit-pick my grades in middle school.
5. There are no standardised questions asked by the two other interviewers aside from the professor making the hiring
At some point the professor who was making the hire had to rebuke this old man who was on the panel.
Throughout the interview, I politely yet logically articulated my argument as to why his views were flawed.
To be honest, I was shocked at how the interview turned out given the culture in academia and research.
Is there anything I should do in the future if something similar comes up? How common is this?<issue_comment>username_1: You have nice and professional and less nice and less professional people in every field, you unfortunately met one of the less nice people. The fact that other members publicly rebuked him shows that you are not alone in your interpretation that his behavior was not OK.
The important (and very hard) thing to do is not to stoop to their level, and you seem to have achieved that.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: What can you do? difficult - they pick the interview panel and that is something you cannot control.
What you can do is what you did : respond calmly, logically and clearly.
If the other two can over-ride him then you may be lucky - it does, of course, depend on what they were looking for.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: Usually, the hiring process is managed by not one person, but a committee. Therefore, those *two other guys* including that *old man*, given the fact that they have access to your enclosed information, are also in the hiring committee.
If someone criticizes your CV during an interview, usually not trying to find excuses is the best. Maybe you should point out some other feature of yours which makes criticized thing not so important.
Committee members are people. Maybe they had a bad day. Maybe one of their favorite candidates was eliminated 5 minutes ago. Maybe they have another thing in mind. Maybe one of them just plain did not like you. Maybe they're playing good cop bad cop routine. Those are all possible.
If you dwell on the tone of the comments rather than focusing on answering the questions, your concentration will drop and the remaining part of the interview will be worse.
>
> **Q:** Is there anything I should do in the future if something similar comes up?
>
> **A:** Concentrate on answering the questions in a plain and simple fashion.
>
>
>
Also, I would like to point out that your tone in the question when addressing them is not the politest. So, maybe we will see another question like below:
>
> One of the candidates wrote very rude sentences about me in an online QA site. Should I
> consider him despite the good background?
>
>
>
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: 1. Stay calm and professional - whether they are doing so intentionally or not, they are testing and observing how you function when faced with adversity. Escalating or counterattacking usually means you failed the test.
2. Figure out how closely you'd have to work with that person if you decide to take that job. Don't take jobs where you have to work closely with people you dislike.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: Generally speaking: staying professional, not stooping to their level, and being focused on upselling your existing skills and experience -- as others have noted -- is strategy #1.
But also: [Be prepared to walk away.](https://www.huffingtonpost.com/neil-patel/how-to-know-when-you-shou_b_9845014.html) This is a last-ditch option that should be in your toolkit somewhere, someday. It doesn't sound like it was needed in this case, because 2 of the 3 committee members were giving you a fair hearing. But if you were being outright abused by everyone involved, and it was obvious you couldn't get the position (and it does happen), then walking out to save your dignity is something you have every right to do. Like many things, I expect that mentally preparing for this as a self-defense skill, which hopefully won't be used, will make you more comfortable, relaxed, and self-confident in future interviews.
As an anecdote: I have exactly two moments of professional regret, and they both involve not walking out when I was being unnecessarily berated by employers -- one during a hiring interview, with three people, when the dean who was the sole the decision maker belittled and cursed at me for no good reason. Beyond, that, I've probably wasted time on being "positive" in interviews that were clearly not going to be a good fit.
Upvotes: 2
|
2018/02/12
| 1,541
| 5,285
|
<issue_start>username_0: ### Background
I would like to cite journal articles published by the [Royal Society](https://royalsociety.org/journals/), specifically in the journal [*Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences*](http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/).
Apparently, sometimes an *of London* is included in the name, and I have seen the journal’s name abbreviated as both:
>
> Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond.
>
> Philos. Trans. R. Soc.
>
>
>
### Example
A prominent example is the [Wikipedia page of the journal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophical_Transactions_of_the_Royal_Society#References), citing amongst others:
* >
> <NAME>. (1865). "A Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field". *Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London.* **155**: 459.
>
>
>
* >
> <NAME>. (1983). "The Cosmological Constant [and Discussion]". *Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences.* **310** (1512): 303.
>
>
>
### Question
Should I simply remove the *of London* (resp. the *Lond.*) whenever I see it in order to be consistent? Or is there any specific reason to include *of London* in some cases?
### Remark on standardized abbreviations
According to Wikipedia, the [ISO 4 Abbreviation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_4) of the journals in the *Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society* series is
>
> Philos. Trans. Royal Soc.
>
>
>
This raises three sub-questions:
1. Why do I see *Royal* abbreviated to *R.* so often? Is it wrong?
2. What is the correct way of including the series names (such as *B: Biological Sciences*) in the abbreviation?
3. Was there another official abbreviation in the past, possibly including *Lond.*?<issue_comment>username_1: In bibliographies you should always use the standardized abbreviations for journal titles. It just gets confusing if everyone starts making up their own abbreviations.
(Informally or in talks it’s ok to use well-known but not standardized nicknames or abbreviations like JAMS or Crelle.)
**Edit:** I usually use two ways to find the standard abbreviation: mathscinet's journal search and the journal's webpage. Embarrassingly for my answer, in this case the two sources disagree, [mathscinet (subscriber link)](https://mathscinet.ams.org/mathscinet/search/journaldoc.html?id=8815) gives "Philos. Trans. Roy. Soc. London Ser. B" while the journal's webpage gives [Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B](http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/faqs#question5). So you're probably fine either way.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: I wrote to the Royal Society out of curiosity, and received a very helpful answer, along with the permission to post quotes from it here.
So here is part 1, referring to **Background** in the question:
>
> The answer to the first part of your question is easy. The “Lond” or “London” was dropped from the journal titles a long time ago. Although the Society’s official, legal title is “The Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge” we now call ourselves just “The Royal Society” and the journal titles reflect this.
>
>
>
And here is part 2, referring to the **Question**:
>
> As to the abbreviations, there is a huge variety of these and no single standard has been adopted across all publishers for any journal abbreviation system. For example, "Royal" can be shortened to either R. or Roy.
> [...]
> Our preferred abbreviations are stated on our journal [websites, for example](http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/faqs#question5).
>
>
>
And I was even provided with some additional hints:
>
> Most science publishers use the National Library of Medicine (formerly Index Medicus) system. Some use ISO4.
>
>
> Fortunately it no longer matters very much which abbreviation people use, as citations now use the DOI (which carries all the relevant information).
>
>
>
To complete this answer, I looked up the [record entry](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nlmcatalog/7503623) of *Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci* in the [National Library of Medicine Catalog](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nlmcatalog). The record entry lists 18 alterntive names/abbreviations for the journal, and contains a note explicating when in the past some of the alternative names were in use.
Lastly, some relevant information could be found in the [Fact Sheet:
Construction of the National Library of Medicine Title Abbreviations](https://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/factsheets/constructitle.html):
>
> If a journal title undergoes minor changes that do not require a new bibliographic record, the existing title abbreviation continues to be used.
>
>
> Once the title abbreviation has been assigned, NLM and the ISSN Centre do not go back and change a title abbreviation qualified by place name, even if the place of publication changes over time.
>
>
>
**So the conclusion is:** someone who decides to use the *National Library of Medcine Title Abbreviations* consistently will abbreviate
>
> *Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences*
>
>
>
to
>
> *Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci*
>
>
>
with a *Lond* reappearing from its misty past.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]
|
2018/02/12
| 758
| 3,131
|
<issue_start>username_0: For the past few weeks, I have been struggling to understand something and answer a very specific research question. I asked my advisor the same question and he couldn't give me a satisfactory answer.
1. Is it socially acceptable to bypass my advisor and ask a senior academic the same question?
2. Does it reflect negatively on my advisor if I bother other academics with my research?
I am an Asian international student studying in the United States and not sure what is the most prudent way to do this. In my country, bypassing ones advisor to ask a senior academic reflects poorly on the advisor and group in general and is implicitly frowned upon.<issue_comment>username_1: Research is (often) about cooperation/collaboration. If your advisor doesn't know an answer for a question important for your research, but you have a strong feeling that some other researcher will be able to help you, then you shouldn't hesitate to ask him. As a scientist, you can only benefit from such interaction.
Eventually, the other researcher might be interested in your work, and share with you some (useful for you) ideas. In the future, if you keep in touch with them, you might have a chance to work with them on some other problems that will positively impact your career.
---
About US specifically, I don't think your advisor would have any objections. But as people are different, if you still feel hesitant, consider asking some colleague (an older PhD student, or a post doc) if this is ok. But I doubt you'll hear not to ask questions anyone other than your advisor.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: At the core, that is a question that **you** are facing. There are many ways to figure something out:
* google
* go to library
* ask colleagues / lab mates
* ask advisor
* ask on StackExchange
* ask someone you have never talked to before
You shouldn't hesitate to use any of these, as long as you show due diligence when asking people. That is, don't jump to emailing professors (or your advisor) until you spend some time figuring problem on your own.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: At the heart of this is a interpersonal social question. When a student comes to me with a question I don't know the answer to, I rarely just say *sorry I don't know*. As an advisor, our goal is to help students learn what they need. When I don't know something, I try and point my students in a direction (textbook, articles, person) where they might be able to find the answer. While I would not be upset if a student "bypassed" me to talk to someone after finding out I did not know the answer, I can imagine some advisors would be.
I suggest you identify the researcher(s) who might know the answer and tell your advisor that you were thinking of contacting this individual. Your advisor might have some valuable insight and tell you not to contact Dr Jones, but instead contact <NAME>. Your advisor might also give you an introduction or want to be included in any email correspondence so they can learn the answer too. Your advisor might simply say *sounds good* and leave you to it.
Upvotes: 5
|
2018/02/12
| 605
| 2,714
|
<issue_start>username_0: I'm currently an undergraduate student in the US but looking seriously into some master's programs at European universities for the international experience, cost difference in my field, and exposure to different styles of study. I'd also like to become a high school teacher someday at a public or private school, most probably in the United States.
I understand that each state has license requirements for public school teachers, but as far as where they get their higher degree, would it be disqualifying if the graduate university is outside the US? Does the type of accreditation matter (like if it is accredited in the US, or by the government of the country in which it is located, or another authority)?
For context, the universities I'm looking at are in EU countries and the UK and middle-to-well-ranked.
EDIT: For clarification, I am a US citizen by birth and will earn Bachelor's degrees in the US. And as far as why I mentioned I'm looking into US schools, I would totally be open to pursuing a career abroad but I know attaining second citizenship can be difficult and I have know idea what job markets are like abroad... the US just seemed like the more realistic option.<issue_comment>username_1: The short answer is that your EU Master's degree would typically be about as useful as a US Master's degree in your subject area, which is not very helpful by itself.
Most of the requirements to be licensed as a teacher in most states in the US have more to do with what training you've had in education rather than your subject matter expertise.
A further important point is that if you aren't already a US citizen and unless you can immigrate to the US through some other pathway (e.g. by being married to a US citizen) you'll find that it is difficult if not impossible to get work authorization to teach in a school in the US.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Every state in the US has slightly different requirements for obtaining a teacher credential. Many states actually have a list of oversea degrees the recognize. However it is always possible to have your degree and transcripts examined by the local state government. You would need to have your documents recognized by the issuing country's embassy before submitting them to a state government.
Once the documents are approved you would need to obtain the actual teaching license. This involves passing a test and taking a year of classes focused on pedagogy . Many states will allow you to teach while completing these tasks.
Given the general shortage of teachers it is fairly easy to complete these steps. With a graduate degree this would put at an advantage to obtain a position.
Upvotes: 1
|
2018/02/12
| 368
| 1,555
|
<issue_start>username_0: This might sound a silly (probably it is!) question to ask. But whenever I go to give a talk at some other institute I face this dilemma of putting the host institute's logo or only my affiliation logo, on the title slide. Most of the time I put both.
Keeping aside my decade-old-hesitations, let me ask you about your opinion on this.<issue_comment>username_1: Use either, neither or both.
In an academic context, this sort of thing doesn't matter (and, as StrongBad says, it's perhaps unusual to put the host's logo on your slides, although probably not a *faux pas*).
Focus on more important things like the content of the talk.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: The acceptable use of logos is usually described in an institution's corporate design manual. The corporate design manuals I've seen do usually not allow people not affiliated with the institution to use the logo without explicit permission, so I would never use the host institutions logo. Such thing will also not vary between fields (in my university's cd-manual, only some color schemes differ between faculties). There might even be some legal issues involved, but I'm not competent to discuss legal matters.
Most academics in at least my field, quite reasonably, ignore corporate design manuals which might even specify minutiae of how your slides are supposed to look. Usually, they do this by not showing any logo at all- my preferred choice for aesthetic reasons. But there is absolutely no reason to show a host university's logo.
Upvotes: 2
|
2018/02/12
| 703
| 2,773
|
<issue_start>username_0: I have been invited to be an external examiner for a Ph.D. in electronic engineering at a UK University.
I work in the Electronics industry in a research role, regularly competing for external research funding with academics and sometimes collaborating with them too (including 2 or 3 of the academics in the department from which I have received the invitation).
I have not studied for a Ph.D., but feel I keep up to date with research on the topics in question. I review papers for IEEE journals and have some professional recognition.
The Ph.D. has been sponsored by my employer and I believe that a colleague has been the industrial supervisor. I have not met the candidate. I don't feel that any of this creates a conflict of interest.
Am I qualified to take this role? How much work will it involve?<issue_comment>username_1: Are you qualified? Yes. Even if you lack knowledge, you can read the dissertation thoughtfully and give useful input.
How much work? Rough estimate: Twice the work it takes to review a IEEE paper.
Also: I think you'll find the experience rewarding.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Since you do not have a PhD degree, you should check to see if the university's regulations will allow you to serve. [The University of Nottingham's regulations](https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/academicservices/qualitymanual/researchdegreeprogrammes/role-and-appointment-of-examiners.aspx) state:
>
> However, it will be appropriate in some cases for Schools to nominate individuals from other suitable environments provided that those individuals are experts in the field of the student's topic of research and **hold a professional status which is equivalent to a University Professor, Reader, Lecturer or teacher.**
>
>
>
You should check if your experience allows you to serve as a reader. You wouldn't want to get involved and then find out it doesn't count for procedural reasons.
Otherwise, if you'd like to do it, there's no reason why you shouldn't!
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: >
> I have been invited to be an external examiner for a Ph.D. [...] The Ph.D. has been sponsored by my employer and I believe that a colleague has been the industrial supervisor.
>
>
>
This could be **perceived as a conflict of interest**, since your employer and colleague would presumably benefit from the candidate's success. It is irrelevant whether there's a real conflict. If anyone perceives a conflict, then the candidate, your employer, your colleague, and you could all be harmed. **Do not accept the invitation**.
Beyond the conflict, there's an issue of whether you are qualified, which is addressed by [another answer](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/103730/22768).
Upvotes: 0
|
2018/02/13
| 598
| 2,549
|
<issue_start>username_0: One one hand, there were attempts to give some meaning to the term on Wikipedia; there is [a page on SIAM's website](http://www.siam.org/students/resources/report.php) and a [Master's program at Stanford](https://icme.stanford.edu/academics/degree-programs).
On the other hand, there are very few jobs which use the term. However, there are positions with "Computational" and "Engineer" like "Computational Imaging Engineer", "Computational Biology Engineer" and so on.
I assume that skills and knowledge, which are necessary for doing a job with "Computational" in the name are, roughly, the same. Consequently, if a person has a core set of skills and knowledge, it should be easy to apply them in different fields.
Am I right in my assumption, and "computational scientist" is a possible career goal? Or it is too broad a term (e.g., a synonym for "applied mathematician") and should not be considered as a specific goal.<issue_comment>username_1: Computational science is more of a mode of work than an actual career path—using modeling and mathematical techniques to solve problems in engineering, medicine, finance, and other disciplines. Almost all computational scientists have an area of emphasis within that field (as you mentioned, computational imaging engineer or computational biologist). You can move within areas relatively closely related, but making larger leaps may be more difficult: a computational fluid mechanics expert cannot quickly be substituted for someone working in bioinformatics, and vice versa.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: In most cases computation is a tool, not the specialism. Many engineers work primarily through simulations or modelling, as do many oceanographers, physicists, chemists, etc, but in most cases it's not a subject in its own right; the specialist knowledge is in engineering, or physics, or whatever, and the computational side is learned on top of that. (possibly bioinformatics is a bit of an exception here?)
Off the top of my head there are two other routes which are more about the computing side: that of "data scientist", which I guess is the computational form of being a general statistician; and the newly-emerging role of "research software engineer", which focuses on the programming side, usually in order to facilitate other people's research - analogous in some ways to a lab technician. RSE is a concept that is only just beginning to gain traction as a career path, so may not really exist in your country yet.
Upvotes: 0
|
2018/02/13
| 628
| 2,839
|
<issue_start>username_0: A month ago, I submitted a paper to a prestigious journal. In that paper, we proposed a general method (method A), and we proposed a set of methods for doing some work based on this method A. I now have to work on another paper, which relies on method A, which I will be submitting to a less prestigious journal. Since I need this paper to graduate (I am a PhD student), I can't wait for the first one to be accepted before submitting the second one.
I didn't find any policy regarding referencing a submitted paper in the second journal (from Elsevier).
Is it a good idea to very briefly describe the method A in the second journal paper and also reference it as a submitted paper? Method A has some proofs which I will not restate in the second paper.
This way, the reviewers will be able to do their work. Note that it is very important that I don't want to hurt the chance of acceptance of the first paper or my reputation in any way.
In other words, how can I describe a result from a submitted paper so that the reviewers can do their work?
What would you suggest for someone like me who has to submit another paper (for faster graduation) in this situation?<issue_comment>username_1: When submitting a paper, you are normally able to provide attachments for consideration by the reviewers. You can include a draft of the submitted manuscript as a reference for the readers.
However, if you're in mathematics or another field which encourages preprints, you should in principle be able to post the paper on a repository like [arXiv](https://www.arxiv.org) and point the reviewers to the repository version while the paper is under consideration. If the paper is accepted and appears in print before the new paper is accepted, you can change the reference in the proof stage.
What you can get away with depends upon the editorial policies of the journal. Some journals require you to provide copies of any material that is unpublished (such as correspondences with other researchers or unpublished manuscripts). Other journals will let you get away with less. But in general, you need to show some sort of evidence that the work is under consideration. Perhaps an email confirmaing submission, plus the abstract, will suffice?
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: The correct answer really is username_1's. But if your supervisor really won't let you preprint or submit a draft as a confidential attachment you should describe the method in detail in your methods section and reference it (manuscript in preparation) or (manuscript under review) and hope the reviewers don't pick you up on it. You might find they say that this is not good enough, but give you the opportunity to make it better, at which point the other paper might have passed review and you can reference it properly.
Upvotes: 1
|
2018/02/13
| 574
| 2,597
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am a front-end developer and I find it extremely difficult to find a bachelor's thesis topics since all the computer vision, machine learning, data mining stuff is done in languages other than JavaScript. I feel like the fact that I am a frontend developer limits me to topics like front-end JavaScript framework comparison, responsive web application design etc. But I just don't feel like these are good research topics.
Is there any advice/topic suggestions you can give me?<issue_comment>username_1: You could easily extend your possibilities by learning another programming language. Since you are already familiar with the underlying concepts, it should not take too much time to learn something like C, Java, or whatever is common in your field.
I would also do this apart from your thesis. This gives you a lot of new possibilities also after your thesis in your future career.
However, I recommend you to learn a new language before you start your thesis, otherwise you might run out of time or achieve only limited results. But that depends on your personal situation and how much time you have left.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: It's worth to know related technologies as frontend usually needs some backend and AJAX is not so old technique. Even backend can be written in Javascript (Node.js), it's limiting if you don't know Java, .NET, Python.
Javascript in it's current standard ECMAScript 5 is not nice language and you may end up with lot of antipatterns and it's worth to look for reasons why there are proprietar solution Angular, React mixing HTML, Javascript and inventing new things like Shadow DOM or a way to standardize new ideas in ECMAScript 6 and HTML standard and (by my opinion better) frameworks like Aurelia or Ember.
It's also worth to look into visualization API- E.g. WebGL with it's 3D capabilities and support among browsers is better and better. Inspiration could be one of early public application: Zygotebody (<https://www.zygotebody.com>).
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: Computer science/engineering students are expected to be able learn new programming languages and technologies whenever they need to. Although I am most comfortable coding in Java and C++, I am mainly using Matlab and Python for my bachelor's thesis which is in Brain-Computer Interface although I had no prior experience with Python and was barely familiar with Matlab but they are the languages of choice in this field. Many of my colleagues also picked up new languages and frameworks to implement their bachelor's theses.
Upvotes: 1
|
2018/02/13
| 604
| 2,649
|
<issue_start>username_0: I have two papers published at the same IEEE conference (at the same year).
Since they have been indexed in GS, they are being merged every few days. That is, I manually need to "unmerge" them, just for GS to automatically merge them again a few days later.
I'm not sure why this happens. They have completely different names. Perhaps the reason is that IEEE has page numbers of 1-9 for all papers that year (i.e., they didn't actually allocate page numbers but just had 1-9 for all).
How can I make GS stop merging these papers?<issue_comment>username_1: You could easily extend your possibilities by learning another programming language. Since you are already familiar with the underlying concepts, it should not take too much time to learn something like C, Java, or whatever is common in your field.
I would also do this apart from your thesis. This gives you a lot of new possibilities also after your thesis in your future career.
However, I recommend you to learn a new language before you start your thesis, otherwise you might run out of time or achieve only limited results. But that depends on your personal situation and how much time you have left.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: It's worth to know related technologies as frontend usually needs some backend and AJAX is not so old technique. Even backend can be written in Javascript (Node.js), it's limiting if you don't know Java, .NET, Python.
Javascript in it's current standard ECMAScript 5 is not nice language and you may end up with lot of antipatterns and it's worth to look for reasons why there are proprietar solution Angular, React mixing HTML, Javascript and inventing new things like Shadow DOM or a way to standardize new ideas in ECMAScript 6 and HTML standard and (by my opinion better) frameworks like Aurelia or Ember.
It's also worth to look into visualization API- E.g. WebGL with it's 3D capabilities and support among browsers is better and better. Inspiration could be one of early public application: Zygotebody (<https://www.zygotebody.com>).
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: Computer science/engineering students are expected to be able learn new programming languages and technologies whenever they need to. Although I am most comfortable coding in Java and C++, I am mainly using Matlab and Python for my bachelor's thesis which is in Brain-Computer Interface although I had no prior experience with Python and was barely familiar with Matlab but they are the languages of choice in this field. Many of my colleagues also picked up new languages and frameworks to implement their bachelor's theses.
Upvotes: 1
|
2018/02/13
| 625
| 2,630
|
<issue_start>username_0: I was working(in maths) for some months on a paper. After I got the results, I found out that some of those were already obtained in another paper that was not very related to my topic. In fact, in that paper, the result is stated as of 'minor' importance because the main purpose of the paper was quite different. It is the technique that he used to prove this, the one that I rediscovered and used in my paper to prove this result and others in the same domain. Due to this, I didn't have a reason to search there in the first place. Although I have other results in my paper, this one was one of the main ones. Of course, I want to cite the old paper. Hence my questions:
1. Is it worth publishing this with a proof?
2. Assume now that I do publish it with proof. Is a phrase like: "Although we arrive at this result independently, it turns out that this was already obtained in [Ref]" acceptable in the paper?
3. Is there a more correct way than the phrase above to cite the old paper?<issue_comment>username_1: I would suggest submitting your paper.
An appropriate title could be «*A proof of [result X] using [technique Y]*» or «*A study of [Result X] and associated corollaries*».
The abstract introduction should start with «*[Result X] has been first proved by <NAME> in XYZ. This paper presents a novel proof of this result, achieved applying [technique Y]. In addition, this paper presents a series of corollaries proved using the same technique: [list of other minor results]*.»
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> Is it worth publishing this with a proof?
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Ask the editors of the journal, underlining the use of the technique you used.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: Since your proof is essentially the same as the proof in the literature, you have to state a good reason for including it anyway. Something like "although this argument has already appeared in [citation], we include a proof to demonstrate its connection with our other results, and also for completeness." But the longer the proof is compared to the length of your paper, the less valid a justification like this will be. If this proof takes up more than say 25% of your paper\*, I recommend removing it, and simply mentioning the relationship between that theorem and your other results. There's nothing wrong with short papers, if the results are good.
Either way, understand that your paper will be judged on what's new in it, and write your introduction accordingly.
\*People may disagree with this number in either direction, but it gives you a rough idea. Certainly 50% would be too much, and 10% is probably fine.
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: As you know, there are journals -predatory journals- which are just publishing scams, without actual peer review, etc. but look like genuine ones, and it is a problem for the honest researcher to avoid them.
Until recently there was a free blacklist, <NAME>'s (which had flaws), and now there is Cabell's list, which apart from being behind a paywall, may not distinguish predatory journals from new ones (see [this review](https://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2017/07/25/cabells-new-predatory-journal-blacklist-review/)).
As the number of publications seems ever-increasing, I feel new, legitimate journals will play an important role in next years. I would be willing to publish in one of them sometime, but I don't know how to identify them. For the moment being, each time I receive an email promoting a starting journal (as some may in good faith do), I just dismiss it as being a predatory one.
So the question is: Are there good ways of knowing that a new journal is legitimate? Perhaps is there some kind of white list?<issue_comment>username_1: **Look at the editorial board**. If it contains respectable, well-known researchers in the field, then it's likely to be a serious journal.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_2: Most new respectable journals will be backed by an institution, so you can have a look at sponsors. They put their reputation on the line, so this is probably a more secure verification than only looking at the editorial board (although not having a well-known sponsor does not mean a journal is predatory!).
The publisher may also give an indication, but not necessarily a very strong one (I would probably qualify some journals published by very well-known publishers as predatory)
Let me give some examples of serious journal, backed up by institutions:
* Discrete Analysis is funded by Cambridge University,
* Algebraic Combinatorics (see also below) is funded by the foundation Compositio Mathematica, and is published by Centre Mersenne (which you have probably never heard of, but who also publishes established journals such as Annales de L'institut Fourier),
* <NAME> are funded by a university, CNRS, public research units, etc.,
* North-Western European Journal of Mathematics is funded by the math department at Université de Lille.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: A new respectable journal is created by a group of established scientists, who usually publish in the journal and persuade collegues to publish there, So after a year or two MAthSciNet and Zentralblatt will have the journal in the database.
If I want to know about a journal I have never heard of I look it up in these databases. If it is not there, I forget about it.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: Since the question is migrated from MathOverflow, I suppose it is about mathematics journals. Anyway, my answer applies only to them.
It is usually easy to tell.
a) Predatory journals usually charge publication fee which they call "open access". (This is the main reason of existence of these journals).
b) They are not refereed in [Math Reviews](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematical_Reviews), and finally
c) Look at the editorial board, of course. And at the publisher.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: Read the articles, look who's publishing there.
Usually you should have a pretty good feeling about all the important and good journals in your field just by doing your research which requires you to read other articles.
Publish in those journals and never in those which send you emails asking/begging for submissions. Except for invited contributions but if you are at that stage in your career that you get invited to publish you should definitely know about most journals.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_6: Judging a journal is like judging a person. You can't just look at one feature and make up your mind about it. You have to spend your time and study each journal. Here is what I usually look at when picking a new, not well-known journal:
1. Indexed in the broadest, yet reputable ranking system. Even the journals that just popped up and carried only by a faculty of one university can make it into some broad ranking list, given legitimate effort.
2. Journal's "face": website, publisher's website, public info. Read the publicly available info about the journal: scope, author guidelines, editorial board, etc. In most cases it is enough to pass a judgement. Every legitimate new journal that pops up is either open-access with no publication fees or introduced by a reputable publisher.
3. Finally, google the journal and the publisher if you haven't already and look through at least the first 10 searches to see if nothing suspicious pops up.
To sum up, just read about the journal. If you don't read, you won't learn. There is really no single rule of thumb. If there was, the predatory journals would certainly exploit it.
Also it is worth noting that "predatory" is not black and white when it comes to journals. There is certainly a gradient to it. Even some of the most reputable journals often have their practices questioned, such as the quality of reviews, paywalls, publication fees, etc.
Upvotes: 3
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2018/02/13
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<issue_start>username_0: I am using unlicensed simulation software (downloaded from torrents) for Doctoral Thesis (and Research papers) on my personal laptop without the knowledge of my institution as the university doesn't have the licensed software. 1) Is this safe?
2) Can I be questioned by the software vendor. 3) Can my paper be retracted from journals?
(I'm uninterested in answers relating to free student versions of software and freeware.)<issue_comment>username_1: It’s not OK to use unlicensed software. I would suspect that advisors would be very concerned about one of their students using an expensive software package for which they didn’t have a license, since they might have liability for letting you use it.
If it’s so important, then you should talk to your advisor about getting a license.
While I am not personally familiar with people having degrees revoked for using unlicensed software, I could certainly sympathize with arguments calling for sanctions against people who do so.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: In many countries it is forbidden to use unlicensed software. Hence, using unlicensed software might result in litigation against your university,\* which might lead to your dismissal. Thus, it is *unsafe* to use such software.
\*There are cases when software vendors have litigated against universities. But, it is difficult to know how many, because universities and software vendors will likely want to settle in private.
---
Having edited the OP's question, I now note that unlicensed software is being used on the OP's personal laptop. Hence, litigation against the university might be difficult, but perhaps not impossible (since the research is most likely owned by the university).
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: This is an interesting topic.
To your questions:
1) Is it safe? Probably not.
2) Can I be questioned by the software vendor? Probably not.
3) Can my paper be retracted from journals? Probably not.
You would have to be sure that you don't get caught. If you are doing your doctoral research at a bigger university you might slip through the cracks because somewhere in your univeristy is using a legit license of the software. In this case it is unlikely that the software company would actually investigate if you are using a license. If you are doing your doctoral research at a smaller university your work might be unnoticed and the software company won't investigate further. But Google Scholar will find everything in case they would want to investigate.
The software company could ask you if you have a license which would be their last step in the investigation. In most cases that happens when someone is using a company outside normal business hours or in a completely different IP range than normal. In your case the software company would only see you using a cracked license. I never heard about software companies who are creating simulation software actually asking reserachers regarding their licenses. But they are fully aware of some researchers using unlicensed software.
If your paper can be retracted from journals could depend on the journal guidelines. The software company would probably see it as some form of advertisement. I would be more worried about your doctoral thesis and your relationship with the university if $h!t hits the fan.
Side note: I know cases where researchers got licenses for simulation software from the software companies. If it's a good project they might support you and are interested to get the results published. They always want to see practical applications for their sotware published because that is the kind of advertisement.
Side note 2: What is wrong with your university? You are doing doctoral research with unlicensed software. Isn't your thesis advisor concerned with how you are obtaining results and the software you are using? And why did you get a research topic when your university doesn't have the actual tools for it?
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: No, it's not okay. What's the ultimate point of a PhD? To train you in how to perform research.
What are the best practices for producing ethical research? Not using pirated software, for a start. If you use pirated software in the production of your PhD thesis, it's entirely possible that your university will take action against you for violating academic integrity standards.
For example, in the [Australian Code of Responsible Conduct of Research](https://www.nhmrc.gov.au/about-us/publications/australian-code-responsible-conduct-research-2018#block-views-block-file-attachments-content-block-1), Rule 17 says:
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> Comply with the relevant laws, regulations, disciplinary standards, ethics guidelines and institutional policies related to responsible research conduct. Ensure that appropriate approvals are obtained prior to the commencement of research, and that conditions of any approvals are adhered to during the course of research.
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Since software piracy is illegal, knowingly using pirated software in your research would constitute a breach of this rule. Indeed, in their document "Guide to Managing and Investigating Potential Breaches of the Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research, 2018", available for download from the page previously linked to, the definition of a breach of the code includes:
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> Conducting research without the requisite approvals, permits or licences.
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Upvotes: -1
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<issue_start>username_0: A few days ago I got an offer (yay!) from a US school. I have about another week before they want a decision. Over the last few days I have been tallying up costs for start up. When should I start negotiating?
And here's the bigger question: my wife and I are expecting our first child basically soon as the fall semester starts - how do I broach the topic of a single semester deferral? I hate to do this but we have a lot of worry about transitioning during such a sensitive time (and their health insurance policy does not allay our concerns plus we have zero connections there and I worry about my wife's isolation as I start a new position). This would be the number one thing for me to take the job.
So how would I go about the negotiation? Would I say A is number one thing I need, then B, then C etc? I should I start ASAP? Should I e-mail where I can cleanly layout reasons for each desire?
In regards to the deferral request, how do you envision the school to respond? It is a small department so not sure how they could absorb the workload. I was planning on going into detail how I would use my deferred time to accomplish tasks that would benefit the school (e.g. grant applications, work on outreach program, prep for spring classes, be willing to take heavier load in spring, get research ready for students etc). I doubt the school will completely dismiss my caution but also worried that deferral will be too much for them to bear.<issue_comment>username_1: Frankly, I think their reaction will be laughter. Most adults have children and you want a semester off because you're just doing what everyone else does? This is a small school and they need a teacher in the classroom. If you can't do that, you're not worth messing with.
For whatever else you think you might want to negotiate over, realize that their hands may be tied. The department may really like you and perhaps would gladly raise the salary or add perks, but the dean cares only about his budget and he gets to decide and he very likely won't decide in your favor.
Yes, I'm a cynic, but you have *an* offer. My advice would be that you either take it or leave it. I believe that the only negotiation possible in these matters is "I have an offer for $90K from this other school. I'd rather come to your school, but you've offered only $70K." You can't negotiate without leverage and I don't think you have any (yet.) I'm assuming you don't have a Nobel prize, because if you did, you wouldn't be considering "small schools".
Sorry for the straight talk.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_2: Negotiating the start date is fairly common for US schools. Schools generally want you to start at the beginning of the fall semester, but it is not uncommon to try and start at the beginning of the summer or in January. Sometimes departments have flexibility and sometimes they do not. While there are horror stories of departments rescinding offers, I don't suggest worrying too much about it.
Without other offers, or a current position, you have limited leverage to force their hand. I suggest you simply ask when the start date is and if it is flexible. They might not be able to accommodate a January start, but maybe they can reduce your teaching load the first semester.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: Some things you can consider:
1. You might be able to negotiate salary for part of the summer, quite possibly even with the benefits being active. I got summer salary in my current position without benefits, but I know at least one person who asked and received an early start to their health care.
2. You might have better luck asking for a reduced teaching load the first semester, rather than a delayed start. Especially since delaying the official start date of your position may delay the benefits package as well, unless you specifically negotiate this.
I do generally agree that it could be risky mentioning that you are expecting. This is the kind of thing they are not allowed to ask about, for precisely this reason. But I strongly disagree with the other answer saying you have no room to negotiate without another offer. They want you as their top choice (even if you were their second choice, you are now their top choice), and they certainly don't want to have to end their search empty-handed. They want to hire someone who will be happy, productive, and long-term, so you do have some leverage in negotiations.
I think cases where startup negotiations actually lead to a rescinded offer for asking too much are very rare (obviously there have been some well-publicized occurrences, I think they are widely discussed because they are so rare). As long as your requests don't suggest that you are out of touch with the university culture, you should be fine.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: You're now at a point where your and the department's objectives align: you want to go there, and they want you to take their offer. They also want you to start on a positive note. A good department head will recognize this and work with you on any constraints you may have.
Yours is a legitimate issues. I may not bring up the issue of isolation of your wife (because that's unlikely going to change by just delaying the move), but bringing up the issue of health insurance and giving birth is clearly something everyone in the US can relate to.
So I think that you exploring whether it is possible to delay starting there is an entirely reasonable thing to do, and the department head will see whether that is possible. Their goal is to get you long term and for you to be a happy member of the department; a single semester deferral is a small price for them to pay for that. Of course, whether your request can actually be made to work is an entirely separate issue (and has to do with whether they have already budgeted you to teach, and whether they have the flexibility to replace you for a semester). But at the very least, they're not likely going to think that your request is totally frivolous -- go ahead, and ask.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: Let me offer the perspective of a former department chair who was involved in hiring negotiations from the department side. Here are a few things to keep in mind:
1. **Hiring a faculty member is a long-term investment.** When a department recruits a new faculty member, typically they expect the person to be around for the next 20-30. When viewed through that prism, any short-term concessions, especially ones that come without any financial cost like a deferral or unpaid leave of absence, are fairly negligible compared to the total benefit the department expects to get out of an otherwise-successful recruitment.
2. **Leverage is important, but it’s not everything.** An academic recruitment is not usually a zero-sum game where each side tries to exploit the other to the maximal extent they can get away with. Specifically, it is a *repeated* game where the reputation of a department’s recruitment practices matters a lot for its ability to recruit successfully in the future, and besides, the two parties are going to be working alongside each other for a long time, so it is in everybody’s interest that things are done amicably and in a way that leaves the other side generally happy and satisfied. For this reason, a candidate’s request that can be granted by the department for a relatively low cost will typically be looked at pretty favorably, even in the absence of leverage. (At least this is true in departments and universities run by rational, competent people...)
3. **Keep your cool.** From the language of your question it seems to me that you are approaching the discussion from a rather emotional place. For example, you say “I hate to do this”, suggesting that you feel guilty or apologetic about bringing up what you perceive to be a super-delicate or taboo topic. Relax! Such discussions are all in a day’s work for the people you’ll be talking to, and don’t carry nearly the emotional weight that you imagine them to carry. Nor do you have anything to be apologetic about. “Negotiation” in the current context is just a code word for you telling the department what your needs and preferences are, to which the department will respond by telling you what its needs and preferences are, and by a process of joint exploration you and your co-negotiator will arrive at the point in the space of possibilities that is reasonably agreeable to you both. Just bring up the topic of the deferral and anything else that’s on your mind, in a live conversation (ask for a phone/video call with the department chair), and do so in a straightforward, mature, honest and professional way, and you’ll be fine. The worst that can conceivably happen is they’ll decline your request and you’ll be no worse off than you are now.
4. **You should bring up your request as soon as possible.** Given the short deadline, any further delay weakens your position, since if you wait much longer, people will wonder if things that you say are important to you maybe aren’t as important as you say they are (otherwise why are you only now remembering to bring them up?). By acting fast you will appear more credible and your requests are likely to be taken more seriously. There will also be more time to explore possible creative solutions that will satisfy both you and the department.
Good luck, and congratulations on the offer, which I’m sure you worked extremely hard to get and is well-deserved.
Upvotes: 7 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_6: >
> How to approach negotiating the start date of a tenure-track position?
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When we perform searches in my department, we either need someone to definitely start ASAP, or we are growing in other areas that have some flexibility w.r.t. start date.
So, when you interviewed, you had a chance to figure out which of the two searches yours fell into: did they ask you a question like, "Are you able to start by Fall 2018?" If they did, and you told them "yes," then chances are they are expecting you to show up prior to the start of Fall 2018 to get prepared for your semester, etc. I would expect the search committee might seriously start looking over the remaining candidates, if, in this scenario, you were to ask for a delayed start.
If the search committee didn't ask you if you would be able to start by a certain date, then I would at least ponder the situation a bit more seriously on your end before deciding to tell your prospective employer that you cannot start by fall. The worst they can say is "no," but I would imagine that there has to be a decent chance of being able to work something out, even if it is not your ideal outcome (should you be willing to accept it under those revised conditions, of course).
Good luck.
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: I am an active participant in an academic reading group. I am co-coordinator, meaning I help pick topics, schedule talks, coordinate food, update the website, send emails, etc. I've also presented a couple times when we can't get presenters at the last minute. I think a link on my website is fine, but does this activity warrant a place on an academic CV?
(EDIT: I'm a second-year PhD student if that matters.)<issue_comment>username_1: Can you make it sound less like a book club or study group and more like group of colleagues? "Assumed an active leadership role" is more authoritative than coordinating and getting snacks. Drop co-coordinating as a verb. You don't have to toot the co-leaders horn in your CV. Scheduling and emailing sounds secretarial and website work sounds like an IT guy. You were a presenter before a group of colleagues or peers in this field on more than one occasion in an academic presentation series. A series of presentations on topics relating to X,Y, and Z. You put in the time and you deserve the accolade. Keep it professional and it doesn't have to say, "We were all grad students!" It sounds a like a series of talks and topics not unlike an academic continuing education conference except spread out over time. I hope you are feeling some of the potential phrasing you can use. Drop the part about the snacks, that's a given and plug in specifics about your presentation topics. Get your presentations and your name in the archive on that website.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: Absolutely yes. This is an important and cool activity. You can write something like:
*2016-18 Coordinator of Journal Club at XXX research group, YYY Dep. - Task: pick topics, schedule talks, present papers, on a weekly basis. 10 participants.*
Upvotes: 2 [selected_answer]
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2018/02/14
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<issue_start>username_0: Why would a professor doing pure math/ theoretical computer science want to take PhD students?
I understand that in computational and experimental sciences taking students is at least beneficial to them. However, in subjects like pure math, it is not obvious to me that there are any significant advantages to take some PhD students. It is probably expected from the department that you will take some students, and it is nice to have someone who can type things up for you. But other than that, I don't see any reasons.
So, why would they want to do that? What are they expecting from their (prospective) students?<issue_comment>username_1: They get to train the next generation of mathematicians. They get to establish a relationship with young students, guide new researchers when they are up-and-coming and those people become **their students**. For the rest of time those researchers will be the person trained by Professor Stella and that is intrinsically valuable for several reasons:
1. Some people like teaching. I love teaching, and if I leave industry and go into university research it will be largely because I want to teach. The ability to work with and mould young minds really appeals to me, and I get value out of knowing that I've helped people learn.
2. You develop an attachment, and a sense of pride, in your students. Their accomplishments become, not quite yours, but close to feeling like yours. If you’ve ever served as a TA, you’ve probably worked for a long period of time with a struggling student. Maybe you felt a twinge of pride when they finally got it, or got a good grade on an exam. When you’re an advisor, you get a lot more than a twinge.
3. They are part of your legacy. They will tell stories about being your student for another 20+ years after you pass away, they will toast you at banquets in their honor and thank you for making them the researcher that they are today.
What a professor expects of you is that you try your very best to be a good scientist, that you do interesting work, and that you continue to carry on the torch of mathematics for another generation after they are gone.
Upvotes: 8 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: In addition to the points @StellaBiderman gives, oftentimes **PhD students can actually be useful collaborators**, not just students.
Yes, the professor will be far more advanced in terms of experience, but a good graduate student is more useful than for just the clerical work you seem to have in mind. Guided well, the student can help explore a research topic and may occasionally have insights or perspective that the professor might otherwise overlook.
This is particularly true for professors who tend to work on many projects at once. They take a managerial role and guide different research projects simultaneously while the students they mentoring focus solely on one of these projects and do much of the legwork.
In order for this sort of relationship to work well, the student will generally be beyond their first year and has a good degree of independence and self-motivation
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_3: Here's a list of reasons which are essentially independent of "artificial" motivations by universities or departments:
1. Bolstering research efforts into questions/subjects the Professor cares about.
2. Reciprocating/continuing the chain of ages: The Professor availed him/herself of an advisor to become an independent researcher, and so will want to do the same for another, younger generation.
3. Fresh, alternative perspective on questions/subjects the Professor is interested in.
4. Opportunity to literally work together on some problem with someone else
5. Help in teaching relevant courses.
6. Help doing programming work - which may occur occasionally even if you're just a mathematician, even a theoretical one.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: Because it's fun? Professors in pure mathematics love mathematics. Working with bright, enthusiastic students who are starting to engage in mathematical research is the sort of thing that someone who loves mathematics would naturally love to do. Your question assumes that this is something hard to explain. I don't see why. There may be exceptions of course, but most advisors enjoy such work.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_5: I am a professor with a background in both disciplines (Computer Science & Mathematics). I can direct a good candidate in a few sentences to try a new approach, or read somebody else's published work and try to apply it to a new problem.
This is especially true in Computer Science: I have given a student a basic idea that became a published paper; but it took them a year to code the idea, incorporate it into an existing library, find issues and fix them, run experiments to document its performance and capabilities for a paper, etc.
All of that is a learning tool for them to be able to do original research and justify it in papers (and understand the effort that it takes to fully realize an idea that can be described on a whiteboard in ten minutes). The same is true for mathematics, researching for prior methods, finding the exact citations to make are all tedious and painstaking efforts, few of us have photographic memories, we are lucky to remember the name of the person that invented some technique or first proved a theorem.
In Mathematics we also have the working out of a proof. We may be 95% certain a proof **can** be made, but figuring out its exact form can be a brain buster that takes a great deal of effort. Think of it as similar to an architect given a drawing of an unusual exterior of a skyscraper. Can this be built? *I think so, if I can solve X, Y and Z, which I think are soluble, but I can't say I have a solution for sure until I have a solution for sure.*
In the meantime, while my student works on his project and consults with me (at least once a week is my practice), I can use my hours working on something else, alone or in collaboration with colleagues, and hopefully both I and my student get a healthy publication from ***our*** collaboration.
The student is not just a slave, however, they become co-authors of the paper and learn how to do this work, and get their contributions to science out there and accepted by the world, to be applied by academics, governments and the world. This teaches them to make a living and have an impact: In both mathematics and computer science, some of these advances can plausibly save lives and raise the standard of living, either by direct use or as a foundation for new applied work in new disciplines.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_6: The other answers are excellent. One point that I don't think has been made explicitly is that the question assumes a relatively short time frame. While the expected contribution of a student may not be helpful during their degree, I think over the course of a career, the average contribution of a student will be positive. Others have referred to matters of legacy, but this idea can be expressed more concretely:
1) **The student, as they progress in their career, can become a useful collaborator.** For example, when <NAME> needed help finishing his proof of Fermat's last theorem, he turned to his former student <NAME>.
2) **By continuing to work in the area of their advisor, the student might advance the field, introducing new results for the advisor to build on.**
3) **By succeeding in their field, students enhance the general prestige of their advisor's area of study.** The emergence of enumerative combinatorics as a major field in mathematics is driven in large part by students of <NAME> and his student <NAME>. Their work, while profound, could have no where near the same impact without tens of descendants extending it. See also Thurston's essay *[On proof and progress in mathematics](https://arxiv.org/pdf/math/9404236.pdf)*.
On an unrelated note, I once asked asked a senior figure in my field whether having students increased his research output (taking into account the above mentioned points). His answer: "No, but it increases my joy in life."
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_7: In addition to the other reasons cited, it may well be that the professor is expected to supervise a number of research students. This might be stated in the professor's contract, and even paid for on a per-student basis.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_8: Well, from my experience as a student, and from what the current dean of my alma mater and a top researcher said (not a literal quotation): **You need students to do the work while you are busy not working.** And he did not mean that the profs are not working. He just meant that they are busy doing stuff like sitting in PhD/master juries, writing grant proposals, teaching, giving talks here and there, going to necessary social events here and there, sitting in scientific councils, academic senates, preparing whatever they need to prepare etc.
This is, IMHO, the most pragmatic reason behind it. Of course, the reasons the other answers give are also important, and I wouldn't judge what is the primary drive for having PhD students as it's a rich mixture of many reasons.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_9: Other answers dance around this, but do not state it explicitly. Professors are the managers of academia. Their own individual scientific / mathematical contribution is expected to be limited. Instead, they are expected to lead group of researchers in the form of Master's students, PhD students, post-docs, and, if they are more senior, assistant / associate professors.
The only professors who really get the freedom to think deep thoughts all day are professors emeriti.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_10: Turning a comment into an answer at the suggestion of others. Inspired by the good answer from @username_1.
There are some selfish reasons for taking students.
Reputation by association
-------------------------
If any of your students gains substantial reputation, you may gain in reputation by association. If this is your intent, then you will likely be very picky about who you allow to be your student.
Merely being smart or being good at what you do is not enough; the student needs to exhibit some kind of quality that is likely to attract reputation. Maybe the student is socially talented and likely to become publically well known, or maybe they are very aggressive and arrogant but good at arguments. The part about aggression and arrogance may sound odd, but I once had a professor tell me that there were a large proportion of people in his field who were smart but pushed their way to the top with their inflated ego just as much, if not more, as their talent.
Reputation by celebrity-like treatment
--------------------------------------
**Alternatively: "Feeling of importance by feeling needed"**
If you already have reputation, students competing for the opportunity to work with you increases your reputation further and boosts ego.
Popularity and celebrity status is one of those things that snowballs, boot-strapping itself once you have it. In this case, people desiring you for your reputation increases the very reputation that causes them to desire you.
I had included an example of a specific and well known researcher that you have all heard of, but I deleted it before submitting to avoid the appearance of being negative. People who fit into this category definitely exist though.
It is not necessarily just an increase in reputation that may be desired though, but rather could just be the celebrity feeling or even just a feeling of importance at all. If this is the case, you might not even be reputable, but you might still feel more important if people are coming to you as a superior. In this case, it is possible that the relationship is good for the teacher if they need a boost in self esteem due to a lack of feeling self-worth elsewhere.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_11: There are many good answers here. I would like to offer a rather different
perspective: Teaching can make you a better researcher. I would include in
this not only supervising PhD students, but supervising undergraduates (e.g.,
senior theses) as well as teaching lecture courses, including introductory
undergraduate courses.
There are exceptions, of course -- for some teaching is truly a counter-productive
distraction. But I think that a significant majority of researchers are helped
(or would be helped) by teaching -- even those who dislike teaching, and claim
that it interferes with their research.
There's the old saying that you don't really understand something unless you
can explain it to someone else. Teaching gives you the opportunity to review
what you thought you knew and fill in the gaps you didn't know you had (or
pretended not to have) -- it's like an ongoing oral exam.
Fields tend to develop certain blind spots -- things that are taken for granted
and everybody knows are "true." It's bracing to have a student come along and
say "I still don't follow what you're saying -- could you go over that again?
How do we know it's true?" (Out of the mouth of babes ...) There's just a
vibrancy that comes with teaching and having students around, even if it seems
like a pain in the neck in the present.
<NAME> (theoretical physicist) addresses this, at least indirectly,
in his "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!" book when he talks about struggling
with his research as a young professor at Cornell and the advice he got from
(from recollection) <NAME>.
A couple of comments: Here I define "research" as pushing the boundaries of
knowledge forward with insight and creativity. If you define "doing research"
as, say, getting grants, then time spent teaching instead of writing proposals
probably does lower your productivity. (Thanks for listening. username_11) Also
a heavy teaching load, say four-plus courses per term or supervising eight or
ten students, will likely be a research negative. But a light load, say one
or two courses per term and two PhD students plus an undergraduate senior thesis,
leads to better research, and I think many professors recognize this (even as
they grumble ...).
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: I am currently reviewing a paper for a journal and there's a section in the 'Methods' that may raise a questionable ethical concern on animal handling. The paper has a potential contribution to the field, however, there's this procedure that harms the animal in the study. I am thinking of rejecting the paper and raise a correspondence with the authors. Will the rejection decision a good decision for the paper?<issue_comment>username_1: You said, "**MAY** raise a questionable ethical concern". So, you might possibly misunderstand what they did, perhaps because they might have explained things poorly. I think that you should give the authors the benefit of doubt and let them defend themselves: recommend a major revision, acknowledging the potential value of their study, but make it clear that you insist that they document that they have followed ethical procedures in the method of concern. If they cannot provide satisfactory evidence of ethical methods, then you would be justified to reject the article for ethical problems.
And, as many other comments indicate, you should clearly explain your concerns to the editor.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: The paper should indicate that the procedure was approved by the appropriate animal care committee (e.g. in the USA, an [IACUC](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institutional_Animal_Care_and_Use_Committee)), Failure to include this information, in my opinion, is a major concern and grounds for strongly recommending rejection of the paper.
If the paper does indicate that an IACUC was involved, then it's reasonable to assume that the procedure was *probably* ethical, but it's fine to indicate concern and ask for an explanation for (1) why this procedure was chosen, and (2) what steps were taken to alleviate pain etc. That can still be a major concern, but on first pass I'd stop short of "strongly recommending rejection". If the authors didn't address my concerns then I would recommend rejection.
The key question is whether an animal care committee approved the procedure. If so, the likelihood is that it's considered acceptable by many people; of course, you don't have to agree and you can include that. When I was a student, one of my mentors rejected a grant application because he felt the discomfort and stress the animals would feel (even though they were IACUC-approved) wasn't justified by the potential benefits of the study. I've always considered this a model for my own reviews; animal studies come with a very high responsibility for ethical use, and it's fine to make sure your values are heard.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: I love this question because it's so hard to answer. So I'll give two contrasting points.
1) Assuming the authors had approval from their respective animal care and use committee (IACUC) and followed all protocol, I do not think you should reject the paper on ethical grounds. As a reviewer at this phase, you should judge the merit of the science only. The onus resides with governing bodies (e.g., USDA).
2) Regardless of IACUC approval, if you identify potential unnecessary harm/distress otherwise avoidable given the research aim, it is your duty to reject on ethical grounds, since IACUC need not be an unopposed body.
Both points have merit, but my opinion lies closer to #1. If the authors followed protocol, your beef is not with the authors necessarily but with the governing body approving it.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: As a reviewer, your role is to give recommendations to the editor, and it is generally not appropriate to have a direct communication with the authors outside of that process (unless they consent to that through the editorial process). However, I disagree with other answers here which preclude you from making your own decision on the ethics, and giving a recommendation on this basis. Here are some further thoughts:
* **The onus is on the authors to show their ethics:** In cases where an experiment has been performed that should require ethics approval, it is appropriate for the paper (or supporting materials) to disclose the required ethics clearance details so that you can review this. If the authors have not done this, it is reasonable for you to proceed on the assumed basis that there has been no ethics clearance. You should state in your review that you are proceeding on this basis. Similarly, if the authors fail to give a clear enough explanation of the study to satisfy you, you should feel free to proceed with a negative recommendation as a result. I do not agree with the other answer here that says you should "give them the benefit of the doubt". The onus is on the authors to give all required information to satisfy the referees; it is not the job of the referees to *guess* what else might not have been supplied.
* **You need not defer to an ethics clearance:** Even if an ethics clearance were to be supplied to you, I don't agree that you necessarily need to defer to this. Obviously it is something you should read and consider as part of your review, but the point of the peer-review system is to allow the referees to exercise *independent* judgment on the work under submission. If you form the conclusion that the experiment was unethical and the results should not be published, this is a recommendation you can legitimately make to the editor.
* **Don't depart from the review process:** The editor will have the final decision on the matter; if your recommendation diverges from the findings of an ethics clearance, it is up to the editor to decide how to proceed. At the end of the day, the reputational risk lies on the journal, so the editor needs to take your recommendation seriously. I don't think it is appropriate for you to go further than this by contacting the authors. If you recommend against publication, and it is published anyway (either in that journal or another) then you can always write a "letter to the editor" raising this complaint.
* **Get more information if you need it:** If you feel that there is insufficient information on the ethics for you to recommend publication, but you would like to give an opportunity for the authors to supply more information, feel free to recommend a revise-and-resubmit asking for further details on the ethics, including more details on the experiment and clearance process.
Upvotes: 1
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<issue_start>username_0: I received a review of my journal manuscript that is not organised in a way to facilitate the author reply. Its main problems are:
1. Sometimes one long paragraph discusses many related points. Quoting each sentence separately does not separate the ideas but produces rough ideas, and on the other hand, it is difficult to provide an organized answer directly without dividing the reviewer comment into distinct points using my own words. So, is it appropriate to do so? And can I e.g., start my answer with: This comment raised several points which are......, Below, my answer to each of them separately.
2. Sometimes, the same points are repeated many times in non-contiguous parts, e.g., a summary of a critique at the beginning of the review and some details in another comment and a suggestion concerning the same critique in another part. By following the typical way of answering the reviewer comments, I have to quote each part of the review and provide an answer. By doing so, the result will be: one answer repeated many times with separate, noncontiguous comments. So, is it appropriate to quote the noncontiguous parts that discuss the same idea together, summarise what the reviewer wrote, and then provide my answer?<issue_comment>username_1: There was no official rule on any journal that I have ever dealt with. It all depends on what the editor would like to see. As long as the editor is OK with you paraphrasing, all will be well.
In the past, I have done exactly what you have suggested. I have also just copied representative remarks from the review and responded to those. Neither one of these approaches were frowned upon.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: It’s always better to quote the reviewers’ text directly. That way, there is no ambiguity as to what you’re responding to. (Moreover, many journals expect you to quote directly!) However, there is certainly no requirement that you must proceed step-by-step and quote everything in the reviewers’ responses exactly as presented. If something is mentioned multiple times, you could list the different references together, and provide one response for the group.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: I usually just write enough to let the editor know what I've done as a result of the referee's report; very rarely does that involve direct quotations from the report. The most recent referee report that I received ("most recent" being a surrogate for "randomly chosen") had 13 specific suggestions, many of them just corrections of typos. My note to the editors said that I incorporated all of the suggestions and then commented specifically on 3 of them (2 because they involved nontrivial changes in the paper, and 1 because I originally disagreed but then decided that the referee was right). Most of my responses to referee reports follow the same pattern --- comment where it's important but don't comment on trivialities and don't copy much if anything from the referee's report. I've never had a complaint from an editor about this. (I wouldn't be surprised if other fields have editors who insist on having authors copy and reply to all comments, but it seems rather silly to me.)
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: I received an official PhD offer from University A on Jan 30 (15 days ago).
In an interview with the faculty from University A, they asked me where A stands among my applications. I honestly replied that A was among the top 3 universities and said that I need to hear from the other two schools before making any decision. I also expressed that it would be hard for me to make the decision before hearing from the other two schools from my top 3 shortlist. The offer from A arrived soon after the interview (obviously).
Today a professor from University A sent me a very short email asking if I had questions or I was close to making decisions.
Is he implying that I should hurry up?
I have not sent them any email since the offer as I had nothing to update. The offer follows the rule of April 15, but the school would offer me a small amount of fellowship (which I don't care) if I accept before late February. The other two schools just interviewed me several days ago and I would expect to hear from them soon.
How should I politely respond?
Thanks!<issue_comment>username_1: I would say you are right about your guess and he is indeed implying that you should hurry up.
If you still wait for the other responses, something like below may be a proper answer:
>
> Dear Professor Smith,
>
>
> Thank you for your kind reminder. However, as I have mentioned, I can
> only inform you about my decision after I have answers from other
> universities.
>
>
> I do apologize if this situation gives you inconvenience. Please feel
> free to proceed further with your other applicants in case you need an
> answer from me immideately.
>
>
> Best, John.
>
>
>
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: I don't think the professor is necessarily implying that you *should* hurry up, they are simply putting pressure on you and hoping that you accept their offer, keeping open a channel for communication if you have questions (like a salesperson asking if you need any help as you are browsing a store), and trying to politely test whether you may have accepted another offer.
If you choose to go elsewhere, they likely want to know as soon as possible so they can extend an offer to another candidate.
I would say it is sufficient to respond with a brief, polite note that you decided before applying to wait for all offers before making a decision, and that you promise to inform them immediately once you have made a decision.
>
> Dr. Professor,
>
>
> I appreciate the email, I will certainly ask you if any questions come up. My plan when applying was to wait until I hear back from all institutions I interviewed at before making a decision.
>
>
> I will inform Impatient University immediately once I have made a decision, either way.
>
>
> Best,
>
>
> Prospective Student
>
>
>
Your responsibility is to inform them as quickly as is reasonable once you have made a decision, but you shouldn't be pressured to respond more quickly than you are ready.
You mention "*the school would offer me a small amount of fellowship (which I don't care) if I accept before late February*" - this is certainly against the spirit of the April 15 Resolution, though I don't know enough about the specifics of the agreement to definitively say it's disallowed. The whole point of the resolution is to not make financial offers of any sort contingent on making a hasty decision, to keep a level playing field across institutions and in the best interest of the students. That said, I wouldn't suggest bringing this up at all or making an issue of it, unless it makes you uncomfortable in which case you could certainly consider it in your decision-making process.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: I think that the only thing this professor is doing is "cultivating" you. And I mean that in a nice way. He's just showing that University A remains interested in you and keeping communication open. I would just thank him and maybe take advantage of his offer. The way I would take advantage of the offer is to ask if there were current grad students in program whom he could put me in contact with, so that I could chat with someone on the inside.
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<issue_start>username_0: Is there an unorthodox way to memorize formulas for daily use, similar to the assimilation of multiplication tables in primary school? I included 'without understanding' because I do understand the formulas: given pen and paper and time to think (about the physics involved and/or dimensions) I can figure out the formula. **I need to be able to use them instantly, without thinking.**
### Context
I am a Physics PhD student who has spent about 7 years in the field. I thought that I would by now automatically have assimilated formulas that I use daily, but this hasn't happened. If anything, the situation progressively worsens because I vaguely remember so many formulas that I mix up similar ones. I can never come up with a formula when asked on the spot, which is embarrassing. On my desk I have stacks of formula sheets that I have to use continuously, including highschool-level formulas, which is very time-consuming.
Examples include
* *λ* = *c* / *f*;
* *k* = Ω2 *m*;
trigonometric identities; hamiltonians; derivatives; etc..
A long time ago when I studied Latin I managed to learn meaningless sequences by heart by repeating them hundreds of times (orally an in writing), rhyming, making songs etc.
This is also the only approach I have found thus far for physics formulas, but the problem is that I need them every time in another form (*k* = Ω2 *m*, Ω = (*k*/*m*)1/2, Ω2 = *k*/*m*, *m* = *k*/Ω, and so on). This means that I would have to separately learn by heart all different permutations of a formula, which is too much.<issue_comment>username_1: For the permutations of the formulas, you are better off getting more familiar with algebra and making the transformations that you need on the spot.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_1: As far as I know there is no established, classic memorization system for formulas. Most people in memory arts have focused on memorization of numbers or text (or cards).
However, there have been a few sketches of how it can be done in the memory arts community. [This thread](https://artofmemory.com/forums/memorising-maths-formulas-2418.html) discusses various suggestions, including defining images for the symbols (integral sign is a violin), peg systems for lists, or using the method of loci to wander around the formula. Similar ideas can be found [here](http://www.skillstoolbox.com/career-and-education-skills/learning-skills/memory-skills/mnemonics/applications-of-mnemonic-systems/how-to-memorize-formulas/).
This method presupposes that you know other basic memory arts. That is of course the problem, it takes a fair bit of training before you will be great at them. I did my PhD on memory, have worked on human enhancement for years, and often have need to recall various formulas... yet I do not use memory arts for them. A mixture of laziness and alternative cost have kept me from it; the tradeoff may be different for others.
Generally when I do memorize formulas I try to get familiar with them - get to know each factor, term and symbol and why they are there. Once you have a web of links you can reconstruct the formula fairly easily unless it is something arbitrary and structureless like
* 4.652 *x*4 + 0.4587843 *x*3 - 0.434343 *x* + 17.
But if you need to rattle off such formulas again and again you might want to reconsider what you are doing.
Finally, making and having a cheat sheet of often used formulas is nothing to be ashamed of. It is useful. I recently created a standard file to include with physical constants and formulas in my code, and it made my current project (a book writing one) noticeably easier and less frustrating. There is nothing wrong with outsourcing your mind to the Rubber Book if you can look things up fast enough.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: **Note:** this answer was migrated from physics.SE, so I've had to re-render the formulas as images. The answer is also specific to learning physics, though it might work for other fields too.
This looks like a classic [XY problem](https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/66377/what-is-the-xy-problem). I don't know of any practicing physicists that use a special memorization scheme 'without understanding', and I think such a thing would be counterproductive. Here are a few tips that might help instead.
**1. Use conceptual handles**
Here are formulas for the speed of sound in a gas, the speed of waves on a string, and the frequencies of oscillation of a mass on a spring and a physical pendulum.
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/nEJPg.png)
The intuition for all of them is the same: the numerator is some measure of a restoring force, whether that's how hard the gas pushes back, how hard the rope pulls, the strength of the spring, or the torque of gravity. The denominator is always some measure of inertia, proportional to the mass of the system. Thanks to this intuition I don't have to remember anything, except that a square root is involved.
As another example, consider all the annoying conversions between wave quantities,
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/c8oRN.png)
along with many others. To remember the conversions between (ω,k) and (T,λ), I just use
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/jpsJv.png)
which is the fundamental definition of the wavenumber four-vector. This fixes the factors of 2π, since that's the change in phase of one cycle. There's no place all these little tricks are written down; everybody has their own and it's best if you make them yourself as you go.
**2. Don't worry about judgment**
I was just watching a summer school lecture where a renowned theoretical physicist took a good 30 seconds to flip a fraction. This is completely typical and not embarrassing at all. Some people function better rearranging symbols in their heads and some function better using chalk or paper. Personally I can't do anything in my head; I have to use paper or write it out in the air, but I have never felt judged for doing this. If your colleagues are being judgmental, they are being rude and you shouldn’t let them get you down.
When I see somebody able to remember or rederive something much faster than me, I often ask them what their conceptual handles are. Unless the person is exceptionally rude, they’re typically happy to explain. (This is especially true in physics, where mere memorization is uncool.)
**3. Chunk concepts, separately from tools**
If you're having trouble writing a grant proposal, the solution is not to memorize the exact sequence of muscle activations needed to write every individual letter. Similarly, if physics feels too 'big', the very worst thing you can do is to make it even bigger, by unpacking every equation into eight separate equations. Learning is instead done by chunking things together.
For example, take the [derivation of the wave equation](http://www.math.ubc.ca/~feldman/m256/wave.pdf), which is a full two pages of math written out. You don't want to store every line in your head. Instead, you just want to store a general intuition that "curvature means a restoring force because strings under tension straighten out", which gives you the ∂²y/∂x² term. To get from that to the final result you need to know Newton's second law (giving the ∂²y/∂t² term), the small angle approximation, and the binomial approximation. But none of these are specific to the wave equation -- they're just general tools.
As another example, I was lost when first exposed to tensor notation. It looked like there was an enormous amount of stuff to memorize! But it faded away once I sat down and wrote out all the allowed manipulations. It turns out there aren't that many, ten common ones at most. All tensor calculations up to graduate level are just using the same ten steps over and over again, so in a technical sense it's actually *easier* than high school algebra, which has many more allowed manipulations. Once you have this understanding, many derivations get shorter; they get chunked into "use the standard steps, plus this one trick in the middle".
Then all you have to do is remember the trick, ideally with a conceptual handle.
**4. Construct your own understanding**
As I emphasized above, the best way to get this kind of understanding is to construct it yourself! There's no shame in revisiting a subject that's "basic" and rebuilding it yourself from the ground up; I've done this with calculus and mechanics several times whenever I felt I was getting rusty. Make a formula sheet, or if you think visually, try drawing a mind map or a dependency diagram. Challenge yourself to rederive key equations without a reference. If you do this a lot, you'll naturally construct the necessary conceptual handles and chunks, and get better at recognizing which tool to use.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_3: For me (a mathematician), the process is based on repeating the formulas often enough. At some point, I begin to guess what the right answer might be, then I will do the (mental or paper-based) calculation to verify. Some repetitions more, and I will not need to verify any more.
For some formulae, there are specific tricks, which usually relate to testing with very simple special cases and checking that the result makes sense. For example, either sin(*θ*) = *x* or sin(*θ*) = *y*, but which was it? I do remember that sin(0) = 0, and remember where the zero angle points in the unit circle, which allows me to deduce which alternative is correct. (True solution left as an exercise.)
In physics, I need to remember whether I should divide or multiply by some quantity. In addition to checking the units, I might let the quantity go to zero or infinity and consider what should happen then. *v* = *s*/*t* or *v* = *t*/*s*; if distance stays constant but time goes to infinity, then the velocity must be small, which allows me to pick the right alternative. (I actually check this by looking at the units, but the example should illustrate the technique.)
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: I really like @username_2’s answer, which I think does a great job of addressing the issue in a more or less canonical way. To add to that, part of your false premise (what @username_2 refers to as your XY problem) is that you are trying to compartmentalize “memory” and “understanding” as two separate and independent things. That’s not how the brain works. In practice, remembering things and understanding things are two aspects of the same set of mental phenomena. When you properly understand the derivation of a formula, it’s not just that you are able to reconstruct the derivation and the formula on demand given time and pen and paper, but it also becomes much easier to remember the formula *without* the derivation. This is because of the conceptual handles (to use @username_2’s very apt terminology) that you develop through the process of acquiring that good understanding.
In fact, I think whether you can easily memorize a formula or not can in many cases be used as a good signal to test whether you have acquired the necessary understanding of the derivation/reasoning behind it. If you still find the formula unintuitive and difficult to remember, or generally feel uncomfortable with what the formula says, it’s possible that you haven’t internalized the logic behind it (maybe because you are focusing too much on *memorizing* the derivation itself rather than really thinking and understanding why each step is natural and how the different parts fit together). The mental exercises that @username_2 suggests can be a good way to bring yourself up to that level, which is a higher level of understanding than just reading a proof or derivation and verifying that it is correct.
In addition to that, @username_2’s advice to simply care less about your ability to come up with formulas on the fly when other people are watching also sounds very sensible.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: The method I have always found most effective is to **make a word or initialism out of the letters in the formula**, filling in vowels/consonants as needed.
Examples:
1. To remember the Laplace domain formula for the *first*-order lag element PT1 in control engineering
note that the denominator spells out "1st"!
2. To remember the formula for time invariance
)&space;=&space;y(t-%5CDelta) "F(u(t-\Delta)) = y(t-\Delta)")
I treated the uppercase delta as an "A" and remembered "futa" (Japanese word for "hermaphrodite") which of course only makes sense if you're familiar with the word.
3. Similarly, I use "Uli" (German first name) and "ICU" (Intensive Care Unit) to remember this pair of formulas in electronics, while imagining my friend in the ICU:
&space;=&space;L&space;%5Ccdot&space;i%27(t) "u(t) = L \cdot i'(t)")
&space;=&space;C&space;%5Ccdot&space;u%27(t) "i(t) = C \cdot u'(t)")
I also use a similar idea to remember lists (use their first letters, for example PAGE to remember that rational agents have **p**erceptions, **a**ctions **g**oals and an **e**nvironment) and definitions (find a mnemonic in its name, for example, in bioinformatics, **B**LAST extends a match in **b**oth directions while **F**AST calculates o**FF**sets).
Upvotes: 3
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<issue_start>username_0: During the pursuit of my degree, which I received in '92, I took a class where motifs in folksongs were routinely discussed.
I don't remember the exact wording now but I noticed a few songs with wording about a couple going to bed and the man putting the woman "toward the wall". I couldn't figure out what this motif might mean, so I asked about it in class. My male professor looked me dead in the eye, and answered "for leverage". The delivery was not lighthearted, and it was not followed by anything to lighten the mood. I read it as a kind of attack in the form of sexual innuendo. Why? Partly because of the aggressiveness of his eye contact, and partly because of the flatness of his tone of voice.
My reaction was no doubt colored by the fact that a friend had previously told me she approached this professor during office hours for a different class and he'd asked her out for coffee. She declined, and he retaliated in class.
My interaction with him quelled my in-class participation and made sure I never approached him after class unless there were plenty of other people there. Nonetheless, I got a good grade in the class and it had no lasting impact on me. I dismissed it from my mind and didn't think about it again until the rise of #metoo.
At the age of 20, he seemed... *old* to me, and it never occurred to me that he would still be professionally active - until I heard him on the radio yesterday talking about a new book. As it turns out he is still at that same university, and I'm concerned that he's still "teaching" young women.
It has been nearly 30 years and the "harassment" seems nebulous at best. Should I report this, and if so, how? I started drafting an email to the department chair, but while the incident certainly had an impact on me at the time, it seems so... thin? weak? questionable when I write it out (even here).
So... now what?
For the record, this is not about me. I pretty much got over this a long time ago. My concern is for young women in his classes today.<issue_comment>username_1: ### Reporting it with just the details given would seem sub-optimal
It's been 30 years and you're apparently feeling distressed about the situation. In principle, that sounds like a problem; something that, in an ideal world, shouldn't happen. So, there's something going on here; empirically, there's a problem.
How to address that problem? It's hard to tell just yet.
At the moment, I don't know how anyone could take action in response to the incident described. There's simply not enough information to conclude that the instructor was acting inappropriately; for example, it's entirely possible that the instructor was simply disgusted by the subject matter, or perhaps they were attempting to be terse to end the conversation. Or maybe they had something else on their mind entirely.
Since it seems unreasonable for anyone to take action against the instructor based on this information alone, reporting it wouldn't seem helpful, even if it had just happened minutes ago.
### Doing nothing would also seem sub-optimal
In the question, you'd mentioned the `#metoo` campaign. While I'm hardly an expert on social media trends, it's my understanding that this meme exists specifically because feelings like this have often been buried/repressed.
That's probably not the healthiest of approaches, even if common. Rather, if this is bugging you, it'd seem like trying to figure out exactly why would be important.
In short, this probably isn't something to just completely ignore without some sort of resolution.
### Possible solution pathway: seek more information
It seems like you may want to reflect on the situation and see if there's more involved:
1. Can you recall more information? For example, are you sure that this was the first incident of this type, or perhaps there were other contributing factors that affected how you perceive the event?
2. At your discretion, you *might* consider talking to this instructor, either directly or through a mediator. This might be emotionally difficult, but from a fact-finding point-of-view, it'd seem potentially effective.
3. Talking to a professional about your feelings and recollection may help.
In general, tough problems like this seem best addressed through reflection and fact-finding.
### Suggestion: Hold off on hating this instructor just yet
From the information given, it's unclear (at least to me) if this instructor was doing anything bad, either intentionally or unintentionally. He may've been entirely innocent, which is a ***possibility*** to keep in mind.
That said, I really want to stress that it's a ***possibility***, because it's also entirely possible that he's done a lot of bad things before and you've correctly picked up on a continuation of a heinous pattern of behavior.
### The 30-years-ago part isn't too material yet
You're entirely correct that this having been about 30-years ago would be a huge complicating factor to resolving an issue of harassment. Even if it were blatant and clear harassment, then that'd have been a barrier.
Still, I think that the question of whether or not this was harassment would be the bigger issue. And for your own emotional health and well-being (which are ***important!***), it seems like a question to address.
I mean, realistically, I doubt that there's much you can do about something from 30-years ago. But if you choose not to resolve the issue *for that reason*, that'd seem to leave underlying emotional damage. Ideally that'd be avoided.
### Possible action: Reporting the retaliation against your friend
>
> My reaction was no doubt colored by the fact that a friend had previously told me she approached this professor during office hours for a different class and he'd asked her out for coffee. She declined, and he retaliated in class.
>
>
>
Clear, direct retaliation is something that might be reported. Asking a student out to coffee may've been inappropriate, depending on the culture and context.
What was the retaliation? And was it reported at the time?
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Randomly choose a woman who graduated in '92. The chances are not negligible that she'll have experienced something similar or worse somewhere along the way.
Times have changed over the past 30 years. By now this professor will likely have come to understand some things better, or if not, will at least have learned to be more careful about expressing his true colors openly.
At any rate, statutes of limitations, and the nature of the allegation you described, would make it rather pointless to file any sort of complaint.
(Now, if he came to be nominated to the Supreme Court, and you had documented his behavior at the time, I suppose there might be some usefulness in your coming forward.)
*Editorial comment about your question: The quotes around the word "teaching" bother me. He apparently committed a microaggression toward you. You heard a cautionary story about him, which led you to protect yourself around him. You say you did well in the class, so presumably you learned the material in his class. So the quotes don't seem fair, and suggest that this may be more about jumping on a bandwagon than about consciencious activism.*
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: Honestly, I think this is way over the top. I am not even sure if there is anything that could be reported at all.
Let me just sum it up:
* This way 30 years ago, nobody except you might remember your case anymore
* Its unclear whether you have experienced harassment at all, it's even harder to tell after 30 years. Hurt feelings do *not* automatically mean that you were harassed.
* You did not take immediate actions back then, as you said, you "got over this"
* A *friend has told you* that he retaliated that she did not want to go on a coffee with him. I have heard way too many stories about (female) students who interpreted way too much into their professors'/teachers' behavior. I would be very cautious with stories heard second-hand. If your friend is really sure that something went wrong, *she* has to address this issue.
If your report this professor: Which reactions do you expect by the university? Is there anything that they could do **now**? On the other hand: Are you aware that you *could* bring him into serious trouble, perhaps just due to a misunderstanding 30 years ago?
>
> For the record, this is not about me. I pretty much got over this a
> long time ago. My concern is for young women in his classes today.
>
>
>
I think today's women are confident enough to oppose against harassment on their own. Our society is way more sensitive now.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]
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2018/02/14
| 1,361
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<issue_start>username_0: This is a question somewhat related to [another question](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/19468/how-to-approach-potential-advisor-whos-going-on-sabbatical) about advisors on sabbatical.
I started what I thought would be my final semester of my PhD (applied math) in January. I have already passed quals and finished my proposal for candidacy without issue. (So I'm not reaching to say that I could/should be in my final semester).
However, in December of last year, my advisor suddenly informed me that he has decided to go on sabbatical (1 year) 800 miles away. He did not offer to take me with him or anything.
In the meantime, I'm stuck trying to grind out the last chapter of my dissertation. He'll call about once a week to check in on my progress. Emails outside of then have pretty much gone unanswered; his one reply was a terse "*Thanks, I'll start looking at this.*". He has told me outright that the papers "we" (meaning I write them and develop them, he edits them) are working on are his only work right now.
I am not aware of all the minutia of how sabbaticals are approved at my university, but it seems like a sabbatical to just work a few hours a day while sipping coconut milk is not in keeping with the purpose of the sabbatical.
Overall, my advisor hand waves all of this by just saying that he will pay me an RA-ship this summer if I can't graduate by spring, as if some pittance of money can buy me off. I would of course like to obtain a real job at some point. I have an offer on the table for a full time position, but it relies on me being able to finish by May or so.
I understand that I may not know the whole story. There could be undisclosed health issues, family issues, mental issues, etc..
**Questions:**
1. Is it normal for a PhD advisor to leave on sabbatical in a student's final semester?
2. Is there anything a PhD student can do about their supervisor going on sabbatical during the student's final semester?<issue_comment>username_1: Professor on sabbatical with student(s) finishing dissertations. Fairly normal in my experience.
Professor using sabbatical leave as a vacation. Not normal in my experience. However, you're not in any position to complain about this. It appears that the leave has been approved by the powers that be, so it's unlikely that a complaint would change the situation.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: As in comments and so on... there are two very different issues here. The first is getting your thesis done, the second whether making a sabbatical into a vacation is ok along with whether it is standard practice to "ditch" students.
It is indeed very common to "ditch" students, not at all necessarily consciously maliciously, because there's not at all reliable funding for students at the other location. Nowadays, with the internet (!), this is not necessarily so severe, since communication is still very, very easy.
Is it ok or common to make sabbatical into a "vacation"? Mm, maybe not so much, but/and people needn't choose unpleasant locations for their sabbaticals... especially now that we have the internet. Notions of "relaxing" are legitimate uses of sabbaticals, since feeling refreshed and renewed is essential for good work. (Don't tell the bureaucrats and bean-counters...)
The only really important issue here is that you have (some kind of?) offer already, but that it is (reasonably enough) contingent upon your finishing... in spring? in summer? You should be able to communicate this to your advisor, and stir them/him/her to action at least on this account.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: I don't really understand what the problem is, but there are three clear-enough questions in here that I can answer:
`What can a PhD candidate do if their advisor leaves on sabbatical without warning?`
Keep doing what you're supposed to be doing -- do research, write papers, give and attend talks, network, write up a thesis, and graduate. These things should not be contingent on your advisor being around.
`Is it normal for a PhD advisor to leave on sabbatical in a student's final semester?`
Yes. Professors go on sabbatical and they will always have students in various stages of their studies. My advisor went on sabbatical in my second and again in my last year. (Yes, my PhD was that long.) It wasn't a problem.
`Is there anything a PhD student can do about their supervisor going on sabbatical during the student's final semester?`
Ask if you can come along? (I did that the first time, but not the second.) Again, I don't really see what the problem is that you want something done about. It's simply not reasonable for you to insist that he stays for your sake -- you should be independent enough to not need his continual physical presence.
There is a fourth issue here: `using a sabbatical as a vacation` This is indeed a bit unusual, but not unheard of. I think it's more common for professors to take a sabbatical at a university that "coincidentally" is in a very nice location, rather than have no institutional home during that time. Ultimately, professors get a lot of leeway in terms of what they do on sabbatical. As long as he does research, I don't think anyone cares where or how he did it.
Upvotes: 2
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2018/02/15
| 355
| 1,501
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<issue_start>username_0: In [this question](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/32274/is-it-better-to-submit-a-paper-to-a-journal-normal-issue-or-wait-4-months-and) both answerers suggest that papers in special issues are likely to receive more attention and citations than those in "normal" issues. [Wiley](https://authorservices.wiley.com/editors/editorial-office-guidelines/special-issues.html) have also made the same claim. Can anyone provide a source that gives data supporting or refuting the claim?<issue_comment>username_1: No source, sorry.
In general, there should not be any dependency. In some areas, the only citations you get are from people you personally introduce your own work to. The venue where the paper is published is of second relevance. In my experience, for example, my most cited paper is a technical report, although I do have journal papers, even published in special issues.
What might potentially play a role in citation counts is whether special issues enjoy free access or paid access.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: It might be pertinent to consider that the journal editors will undoubtedly commission their special issues in subjects that they consider to be 'hot topics', with the aim of boosting overall citations and of establishing their journals in those areas. So there's an element of selection going on even before you consider whether a community might respond more favourably to a paper just because it's in a special issue.
Upvotes: 2
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2018/02/15
| 475
| 2,068
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<issue_start>username_0: Suppose a grading system is used in which grades vary between 1 and 100. Grades below 50 are failing grades. If I want to grade the students on the normal curve, which grade should I choose as the mean of the distribution? In other words, what should be the mean of the new grades? The number 50 is somehow counter-intuitive, as it results in half of the students failing the exam.
Note: This question was previously posted to stats.SE, but was voted as off-topic there.<issue_comment>username_1: “Grading on a curve” means that you select what percentage of grades you want to correspond to a given final grade. It’s entirely up to you how you choose the resulting mean grade using that system. If you want to make the mean a 60 or an 80 or anything else, that’s your call. Ultimately, though, the point of the curve is to avoid having “grades less than 50 are failing.”
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Your last sentence tells me that you do not want a normal distribution to be your "curve" since, in the symmetrical distributions, the mean and the median coincide. In reality, in my experience, the distributions of students' performance are more a right skewed (right tail long) chi square distributions. These distributions of course depend also on the difficulty of the exams and how instructors tamper with the examination procedure. In cases of those who want to pass the whole class you may see chi square distribution drastically skewed to the left, where, like in lake Wobegon, "all students are above average". That much for the distribution of students' performance. Grade "curving" does not have much to do with these distribution curves, rather has to do with the ranking of the students and instructors (or sometimes implicitly or explicitly departments') manipulation of grade or passing percentages. So "curving" amounts to drawing segments on the ranking score line and assigning appropriate grade labels, arbitrarily, with one restriction that hopefully higher grades imply higher overall class score...
Upvotes: 0
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2018/02/15
| 916
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<issue_start>username_0: Before submitting a review for a manuscript, I noticed the appendix possibly contains an author name, but I don't know him/her. My file explorer automatically shows files' metadata, including author name.
The review should be double blinded. Should I inform the editor?<issue_comment>username_1: When in doubt: yes. Let them know when and how you found this potentially compromising information. Especially if you think this may impact your objectivity (e.g. "I don't recognize this name, so I'm not going to trust him as much and may/will be more critical than I otherwise would"). But even if you think your evaluation will be unaltered, you should let the editor know. They need to be the one to decide if the review process can still meet the necessary criteria, if the authors should be notified and asked to alter the file to eliminate the metadata, etc.
In your case it sounds like you did the entire review under appropriate double blinding, fully unaware of the authors while making the evaluation, and then at the very end of the process you gleaned a potential clue about the author name. If so, then the editor may accept that no actual problem has arisen, and may simply try to take steps to ensure such metadata is no longer visible to reviewers.
Things get more complicated if there are multiple reviewers for this paper: it now becomes possible that one or more of them saw this data early in the process, and it potentially compromised their review, but yet this went unacknowledged. This makes it all the more important to inform the editor.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: If everyone in the chain were to follow the letter of the double-blind process, then the paper either has to be rejected, or has to be reviewed by someone else, and your review may not be taken into account. So, if you like the paper and want to see it accepted, then perhaps you don't want to escalate the situation.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_3: I have always informed the editor and in every case, he hasn't cared. I seem to have a super-power in that I can recognize people by their writing style. So I have always known who the author of the paper was, without any tell-tale flaws in data scrubbing. There's nothing the editor can do to thwart my super-power. (Well, perhaps he could have someone translate it into Chinese and then someone else translate it back to English, but it'd be better to just get a different referee.) I just put in my comments to the editor that, "I can tell this is <NAME>'s work." So I go for full disclosure and let the editor handle it as he will.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: Unless you think that this might have impacted your objectivity: No, there is no need to actively involve the editor. As you revealed the identity only after writing the review ("before submitting") objectivity is probably not an issue.
It is important to understand that double-blind is far from being perfect: In many cases the "secret of authorship" just does not hold for long. You know your colleagues, what they are working on, which tools they typically employ, their style of writing and so on.
Hence, so even if there are some common rules, double-blind should not be understood in a too formal manner. It basically is a code of conduct. (1) The authors agree to try their best to hide their identity. However, there is also the other side: (2) **The reviewers agree to not actively try to reveal the author's identity**.
In this realm you as the reviewer are supposed to not look into the PDF metadata. If you stumble across a single, apparently accidentally left-over name, try to ignore it. Yes, all this should not happen if the authors had done their job. However, we are all humans and as long as neither your objectivity is impaired nor you have the impression that the authors tried to "drop" their identity, there is no need to make too much of a fuzz about it.
Upvotes: 2
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2018/02/15
| 334
| 1,352
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<issue_start>username_0: This is a respected conference. Reviewers accepted but commented this
>
> Novelty of the topic! Abstract could be better
> explained and have figures.
>
>
>
Ok, I understand that I need to highlight novelty and more info, but having the figure? what does that mean? Graphical abstract? graph from research results? I am ashamed to ask reviewers because they are well-known names in the field. ( H index over 50 and 30)<issue_comment>username_1: This occurs to me as the editors allow authors to put figures in the abstract, or visualize your results using figures.
This might be helpful for those who have limited access to conference proceedings and ease the decision process whether or not to buy the issue.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: Unless the submission guidelines/instructions suggest otherwise, they're not asking for a graphical abstract. They're asking for a figure(s) that illustrate the key results of the presentation (for instance, if your talk is "Correlations between A and B under Conditions X", you could include a graph of a against b).
[Here's an example](https://ep70.eventpilotadmin.com/web/page.php?page=IntHtml&project=ACS17FALL&id=2735880) of a conference abstract with figures, taken entirely at random from the online programme of a recent ACS meeting.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]
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2018/02/15
| 2,177
| 9,556
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<issue_start>username_0: Suppose a graduate student is found to be noticeably or even significantly behind in overall academic and research competence. For example, they may have significantly weaker language and comprehension skills and technical skills such as using a computer or navigating the web. They may also be lacking other peripheral skills which are often important for graduate students. This may be indirectly related to being from a minority and/or underprivileged background where such exposure and opportunities to learn can be limited.
If he/she are held to the same standards as his/her peers when comparing their relative performance, would this be considered to be discrimination if his/her situation was known? On one hand, same treatment would be fair to his/her peers and avoids human judgement. On the other hand, one could argue that it is unreasonable to expect the same amount of performance when they are missing necessary skills and experience.
There was a comment that 'held to the same standards' was too vague. As a result I want to provide some hypothetical situations in which it is necessary to compare the performance of a student with his/her peers.
Suppose an advisor has limited funding for RA and travel opportunities. They want to provide them to students with the best performance either as a means of rewarding them or to provide a better return on investment. This would mean the graduate student in question would have little chance of obtaining it. Is this discrimination or an unfair bias?
Suppose again the average graduation time for a program is 5 years. However, due to the slow progress of the student (compared to their peers) they may be held for 6 or 7 years before being deemed ready to graduate. Is this a discriminatory practice?<issue_comment>username_1: It would be discrimination to not hold them to the same standard. It would not necessarily be fair on the underprivileged students,but where do you draw the line? Who's to say a "privileged" student has a benefit in a specific subject? If a privileged student is studying criminology to they get leniency on their grading for not having experienced as much crime? Who's to say their background hasn't helped them in other ways?
If you start grading based on a student's background you start to diminish the integrity of the course. "You only passed cause you're from a poor family".
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_2: The only fair way is to assess abilities is to do the same way for everyone. This does not imply that you can't offer additional resources to students from underprivileged backgrounds (e.g., additional, Spanish-speaking tutors for Hispanic students) but in the end, you will have to apply the same standard when measuring ability or a diploma becomes meaningless: Did this student applying for X get an A because she was good, or because he was Hispanic?
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: You are asking two separate and completely unrelated questions. The first, which you posed in the title, concerns the meaning of the English word "discrimination". The answer to that question is very simple: no, treating all students according to uniform standards and policies without consideration of their membership in various ethnic or racial groups is not discrimination; rather, it is precisely the *absence* of discrimination. That says nothing about whether it is a good or a bad (or moral/immoral, ethical/unethical etc) policy, it simply answers the question of whether it fits the meaning of a particular word in the English language.
Your second question was about how graduate students from minority and/or underprivileged backgrounds "should" be treated, which I interpret as asking about whether the policy of applying uniform standards to all students alluded to above is a good or a bad thing to have. This is a special case of a large set of questions associated with the terms [affirmative action](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affirmative_action) and [reverse discrimination](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_discrimination). It is a controversial topic that has been and still remains the subject of a large amount of debate as well as litigation, and if you care to learn more about it, there's a large body of discourse on such questions that you can find referenced in the Wikipedia articles linked above or with a google search. It is a sufficiently complex topic that I feel I can't meaningfully comment on it in a short post, and in any case enough has been said about it by people who have given the subject much more thought than I have to make anything I can think of saying about it laughably simplistic and uninteresting.
To clarify, this answer expresses no opinion about what policies should be in place for treating graduate students from underprivileged backgrounds.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_4: It is not discriminatory to expect that graduates of your program attain a certain standard of excellence, as determined by the (uniform) graduation requirements established by the program. It would be derilection of duty, however, to bring in a student substantially below your department’s expectations for incoming students without offering some mechanism or plan whereby the student can “catch up” with her peers. Note that this doesn’t mean you are obligated to move heaven and earth to do so—the student also bears significant responsibility for meeting the program requirements just like everybody else.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_5: I disagree with the other answers. While on the surface, holding all students to the same standards sounds like the definition of fairness, if those standards are in fact discriminatory, then holding students to them is discrimination.
The simplest example I can think of is in Wales, students are allowed to take exams in either English or Welsh. Holding all students to a standard of taking exams in English (or Welsh) would clearly be discrimination against a group. One could argue that not allowing students to take exams in Spanish is also discrimination, and to an extent it is, but not all discrimination is illegal and not all groups are protected.
Another example would be to force students to take exams on Friday evenings. This would conflict with the Jewish Sabbath and cause issues for some students. Discrimination can also occur if the standard does not allow accommodations for individuals with disabilities.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_6: *Is it discrimination?* No, as it is it's not discrimination. You're treating all the students equally, without discriminating between them, so it's rather the exact opposite.
However, unlike what some might think, "Am I treating everyone on an exactly equal footing?" is not the gold standard of ethical actions. For example, we can all agree that providing special bathrooms for people with reduced mobility and giving them priority access to these bathrooms is good, right? Well, *that's* discrimination, too! But good discrimination... (Which may be an oxymoron depending on your definition of "discrimination".)
You can't just say "it's not discriminatory" and be done with it. That's intellectual laziness and dishonesty. "Is it discrimination?" is perhaps one of the questions you should ask yourself, but certainly not the only one.
One problem is that the word discrimination is so negatively charged that people are reluctant to use it for situations where discrimination can be good, and try to contort words into meaning their opposite. But in the end it's not "discrimination" that matters, it's "are my actions moral?". But of course, it's much harder to answer, and many people take the shortcut. We're all different, and pretending that moral actions can only result from pretending that everyone is exactly the same is at best naive.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_7: If you are assessing the students on the correct criteria then it is not discrimiation. However, often we judge people on a proxy for what we really care about.
So, for example, if I set an essay on the the structure/function relationship of the genome, I am trying to assess a students understanding of a particular section of biology. If I then give a poor mark to a student whose first language is not English because the quality of English is poor, this is discriminatory, because some groups of people have better/worst English, but this is not supposed to be the skill being assessed. However, if instead of biology, the programme was English, then it would not be discriminatory to assess the quality of English.
Similarly, I might want to assess how hard someone works by how often they are in the office between 9am and 5pm (yes, I know this is a terrible way to assess effort). But if someone is from a culture with a siesta, they might work 9am-1pm and again 3pm-7pm. They are working just as hard, but my criterion only works well for people of one culture.
---
The question about how to deal with resource allocation is more nuanced, and for me would be a question not of reward, but of who would benefit most. So a student who doesn't yet have research to present probably would not benefit from travel to conferences as much as one who did. But for RA help, i would generally look at two student and go: this student is going to complete their project without extra help, where as this one is never going to finish without support. Thus the RA help would go to the one who needed it so that both students could get over the line.
Upvotes: 2
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2018/02/15
| 1,332
| 5,318
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<issue_start>username_0: According to Stanford's Computer Science graduate admissions department this year:
>
> 110 students were accepted. Nearly all accepted applicants were from Stanford (BS/MS), MIT, Berkeley, Princeton, Michigan, Texas, Washington, Tsinghua, and the other ivy leagues. About 10-20 were from non-top schools.
>
>
>
I am one of these 10-20. I go to a state college and our curriculum is imaginably not up to par with the elite schools. I'm scared. Did anyone experience the similar situation? How would I prepare myself to hang with the smartest people in this Ph.D. process?
If you're a professor, how much does this affect you in choosing a Ph.D. student?<issue_comment>username_1: (Source: I am a math professor at Stanford, with connections to the CS department and many former students in the CS Master's program, and experience with graduate admissions.)
Nothing about this situation suggests that you are any less intelligent than your classmates. The admissions committee isn't running a charity: if they thought you weren't prepared to excel, they would have admitted another student from MIT instead of you. They invest a lot of effort into determining which students are positioned to be successful; it's not a perfect system by any means, but I think they know better than you do whether you're prepared.
I have never considered undergraduate institution or background when considering who to work with, and I haven't heard of any colleague doing so either. As a grad student you get better and better at learning, so it's easy to patch any holes in your background.
If you are concerned that you haven't had the opportunity to take all the classes that the CS undergrads at Stanford have: well good news, the majority of CS courses are online, including all the lectures, slides, and homeworks. And you have 7 months before you'll start grad school this fall -- that is plenty of time to complete all the courses you're worried you've missed, if you really feel that's the best use of your time.
Upvotes: 8 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: This was me years ago! username_1's answer is a good one, but here's my idiot opinion: yes it's super intimidating and my first year I was sure I would get kicked out. Part of it was undeniably the fact that my lower ranked institution really didn't offer the same/as many classes as what my colleagues from MIT and Caltech got, and I really was less prepared. But part of it was also that those colleagues were extremely confident, having come from those top ranked institutions (and also had some of the garden variety arrogance that seems to come standard with STEM majors, which amplifies that confidence). What's more, the grad classes were extremely difficult and some of my colleagues weren't as used to having to struggle to understand things. But annnnnyway- most of us did fine and graduated (including me yay). Some- including some ivy leaguers- dropped/failed out. The main difference was in work ethic, determination, and being a personable non-asshole (you'd be surprised how far that last one will get you).
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: I did my undergrad at a state school; it is a huge R1 research university and I got a lot of experience, but its ranking in some lists is anywhere from 20-60 globally.
I did my PhD in a top 10 ranked university and I worked with people who did their undergrads/masters/PhDs at these universities as well.
I was a bit nervous before I went, but frankly I found very little difference in the capabilities of the students. In fact, many people I worked with in undergrad could run rings around the PhD students I worked with as a grad student. I'm working in a different field, but I assume there's not much difference across fields.
What makes a difference more so than your background, previous experience, and certainly the rank of the school you went to is your interest in your subject. Deficits, should they exist, can easily be overcome if you are passionate about your project and are willing to put in the time.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: I did undergrad at a non-R1 private university that does well but not excellent in national rankings. I did my Ph.D. at the top school in my discipline, and almost all of my classmates had undergrads from R1 public schools or Ivy-caliber private ones.
If anything, my experience showed me that the fever surrounding admissions to undergraduate institutions is *way* overblown. I was well-equipped and never felt out of my league. The difference between a Harvard or decent public school undergraduate degree is less than you think.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: You are looking this the opposite way.
**You're a success story.**
Indeed, comparing yourself with students from top schools can be intimidating. However, *to some extend (1)*, graduating from a top school can be a ticket to a PhD program by itself. On the contrary, you managed to get into this program without having this advantage.
This wasn't luck. You were accepted because you're capable, even more so, since you don't have this advantage.
It's going to be ok. Relax, work hard, and enjoy the ride. And congrats!
(1) I'm not in any way diminishing the abilities of students graduating from these schools.
Upvotes: 2
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2018/02/16
| 1,426
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<issue_start>username_0: In a statement of purpose (for graduate admission, in mathematics), how can one address the question of "why do you want to attend this university?" without making it sound like I'm stating the obvious or giving out gratuitous flattery?
In paticular, for reference's sake, I'd be interested in reading some sample statements where this issue is addressed smoothly.<issue_comment>username_1: This could be a good opportunity to mention particular faculty there you might want to work with, if there are any such. (But don't go overboard, or say anything that's not true.) In any case, in my experience, these sections generally don't affect decisions -- with the one big exception that if you say you want to come to study geometry, and the committee knows that all 3 geometers in the department are retiring, they might not admit you for your own sake. (Another reason not to say anything that's not true!)
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Riku, this is a key question. They want to know if you are applying to them because you were told that it's a good idea, which means you may not apply yourself to the studies, or if you are eager for what they have to give you. So tell them why it has to be them, and not some second rate establishment out in nowhereville.
Something along these lines will not go amiss: "*I will benefit from the unique situation that MIT offers. In particular I look forward attending the lectures of Dr X, and also the opportunites to enjoy the cross fertilization of ideas with students of other disciplines, such as ... and ...*" Try to find 4 or 5 reasons that are about why this university, and this university only, is the one that will inspire you to achieve more than any other. It's OK for one of them to be a social reason, if it's one that the reader will identify with, such as "*I want to join the chess club*" or "*New Orleans has the best sea food restaurants in the world*".
Obviously at the interview they will ask you justify what you put in this section, so make sure you can do that.
You will come across this question again and again in your life. I have been in the interviewer's seat and I ask it for the same reason. If you answer this well, I am more likely to hire you than the person who says "yours is the best place".
Finally a warning - if I get a good answer to a question, I google the wording to see if its genuine or plagiarised. So don't copy answers off the 'net.
Best of luck with your endeavours.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: Stating some courses they offer is a great way to show them that you have done your research before your application. If that course is unique, then that might add extra value. For example, suppose you want to apply to the University of Michigan, with a specific interest in electromagnetics. Then mention some courses such as the '**EECS 526: Plasmonics**' is a course you look forward to taking. In this way, you can demonstrate the committee that you really want to attend this school.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_4: It is not a trick question. There is some reason you're applying to this school: what is it?
* If this is a top school in your field, you should not pretend you're unaware of this. Instead, say something like "It should be clear why someone with my background would be drawn to MIT. Some of the most interesting research in mathematics is happening at MIT, in particular [blah]. I am also excited by the high caliber of the other students."
* If the true reason is location, I would again be honest; they are going to notice that you are local and infer your real reason anyway. For example "Since I am married with children, remaining in Seattle is non-negotiable. I am fortunate that U. Washington has...[other reasons / good qualities here]."
* You can mention specific professors, but bear in mind that the professor you list may well read your application. As others have said, being too specific (I want to work with Dr. X) can cause problems if you are dishonest.
* Most universities have some program (e.g., interdisciplinary studies, community outreach, etc.) -- mentioning this is maybe a good idea, but again be honest; simple statements ("I also read that Nebraska has a collaborative with Nebraska State; this seems like a good idea") are more endearing than over the top statements ("I am extremely passionate about inter-university relationships; networking with my peers at Nebraska State will present a superlative opportunity for my professional growth.")
* Finally, there is no need to go overboard on this section. A short paragraph where you state some fairly obvious reasons is fine -- it is your potential to complete a good PhD that really matters; here they just want to see that you have put some thought into this.
One last comment. Don't write anything you wouldn't feel comfortable saying out loud in a one-on-one conversation. Too many of these essays have cringy, boring stories about the author's childhood, or dreams, or identity, etc. You are a professional making a professional decision to apply to this university: here you should state your professional reasons why you are doing so.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: If you have to ask this question, the answer may be that you don't need to address this question. Obviously, if there are specific faculty you believe you want to work with then you can mention that and why you want to work with them. But if you can replace the university name in what you write with a different university and it is still true then I'm not really sure you need to write anything about the university at all.
Instead I would focus on what experiences you've had that make you think you are interested in pursuing math research and anything unique about your educational history that schools may not know just by looking at your transcript.
As someone who recently went through the application process for math PhD programs, I did not mention specific reasons why I wanted to attend a specific program in my statements.
Upvotes: 0
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<issue_start>username_0: If I have an internet presence where I am published on some websites, would that affect my chances of getting into grad school? More specifically, do grad schools google their applicants before getting accepted for a PhD program? For example, if someone posted some defamatory things about me on some websites, would grad schools google me to find these things beforehand? And if they do find these defamatory things, how much does it affect my chances of getting in?<issue_comment>username_1: I have no doubt that some grad schools google applicants. I'm pretty sure that defamatory things others say about you will have close to no effect on your admission. It's the things you say yourself that might give you trouble. If you're openly pro-nazi on your facebook page, that'll be a problem.
And, unfortunately, if you take a bold public stand on one side of some issue (say the Palestinian state) and someone one the committee feels strongly the other way, it could still be a problem. But don't worry about others' comments. Everyone knows about trolls.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Even if the graduate school itself doesn't officially 'google' you, you can be sure potential advisors will. It's just too easy and accessible. I'd assume they will, and do your best to clean things up, or even temporarily deactivate your account if you're that worried. I'd be less concerned with the defamation and more concerned with the overall first impression.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: For each PhD student I advise, I have to raise roughly a **half a million dollars** of funding over the course of their degree. So, you'd better believe I Google any student I'm seriously thinking about taking on!
Typically, however, I am not looking for anything about their personal life; rather I am looking to see if there is any useful information about their potential as a grad student. For instance, some students these days post class projects online, blog about research, post interesting code to GitHub, etc. More often than not, the information I dig up this way is *positive* and only supports their application (and I wonder why they didn't include it in their application in the first place!).
Upvotes: 1
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<issue_start>username_0: I will soon finish my undergraduate degree in math, and I want to study mathematics as a hobby after I graduate.
Online, I see a general trend of people saying
>
> You can't learn real math without collaboration and feedback. Go to graduate school!
>
>
>
But I don't want to go to graduate school, and I have found that I learn better through self-study than by taking notes in class. That being said, it always does help to get my questions answered by professors, and collaboration with other students is sometimes helpful as well.
**Question:** Is it possible to have this kind of mathematical community without actually being in academia?
What I fear is studying for years by myself obsessively on a subject only to find that I had a horrible misconception the whole time that could have been avoided if only a professor had looked at my work.<issue_comment>username_1: Nowadays, you can get feedback and answers to questions from places like MathStackExchange, and MathOverflow. Most of the responses are (in my observation) either entirely competent or quickly corrected by others. Good quality control. No, that wouldn't be the same as having a good advisor (ideally a world-class scholar on your subject) that you talk to in person every week. Still, these sites can give guidance.
Also, quite a few of the more-senior people who like to contribute to such sites may be amenable to direct email contact, etc.
(Grad school is not about "taking notes in lectures" per se, but is about having access to the informal observations of very good mathematicians, and being able to ask them questions immediately, in the moment.)
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: Disclaimer: I am a mathematician, but I do research in CS.
My observation is that all mathematics, but especially research-grade mathematics has a lot of features of a folklore. It is **much easier** when someone explains it to you, even more if informally. Reading books helps, of course, but for me a quick informal explanation done in five minutes could replace a tedious drilling through formalism for understanding for few days. Of course, you'd *still* need to be able to get through the formal and completely correct description. But it's much easier, when you already have an informal understanding.
To give an example, the determinant is *actually* an oriented volume of the *n*-dimensional parallelotope spanned with matrix component vectors. Compare this with a definition from almost any undergrad book on linear algebra.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: You have a couple of good answers about what you could do. You should also be aware of what you *shouldn't* do. Don't send unsolicited e-mails to random mathematicians in which you launch into long mathematical discussions. Unfair as it might be, there is a good chance that your message will be quickly deleted as the work of a probable crank. Most professional mathematicians receive numerous such e-mails (or in the old days, physical letters) over their careers and have learned not to pay too much attention to them. If you have a legitimate mathematical signal, don't broadcast it over a channel which has been drowned out by the noise of cranks.
The good thing about the suggestion of being active on Math Overflow is that this would allow you to develop a relationship with professional mathematicians. I have had a number of unsolicited e-mails from people that I have encountered on Stack Overflow, and I have almost always made an effort to respond to them. The virtual rep that you earn on Math Overflow entails a certain amount of real-world rep with the mathematicians who participate on that forum.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: One good option is to hire mathematicians to help you when you have questions. Many graduate students and some folk with Ph.D.'s work as tutors. If you're going into programming in the US, you should have the budget. You might not connect with the first person you contact, but if you live near a research university there should be some opportunity for this.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: I’ll give an answer based on personal experience. My situation is not exactly like yours, but may be similar enough to provide some insight.
I recently completed my undergrad in physics and applied math. Upon finishing this I decided that I was more interested in pure math, and wanted to pursue this in grad school. I ended up not getting into any of the Ph.D programs I wanted (probably because of a lack of pure math experience), so I was left in limbo, so to speak, still wanting to study math but not yet able to enroll on a graduate program.
My solution was to email some professors at a local university who I had found doing things somewhat related to what I was interested in. I told them my situation and explained that I was just looking to learn more about their research and math in general. This ended up working out and now I attend regular seminars at the university and I meet up with them every once in awhile to just discuss math.
I have found it very helpful to be able to have face to face conversations with other mathematicians, even though I do most studying on my own at home. Though Stack Exchange is a valuable resource, I don’t think it can adequately replace this interaction.
I’d like to point out that I am not sure if my experience is typical. After all, this is a somewhat small university that I am talking about, and it may be harder to find professors at larger universities who are able to take extra time to talk to you (I certainly found this to be the case at UC Berkeley, which is where I did my undergrad). Still, I think that this is an option you may be interested in considering.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]
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<issue_start>username_0: There is a good question about how to be a discussant [here](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/79576/how-to-be-a-discussant), but it does not cover my question.
I was chosen to be a discussant for an upcoming seminar (actually, it was proposed to me by the same author I am discussing). I have several comments to make about the work, which I will put on slides. Should I talk the author through them before my presentation, or perhaps send him/her my slides beforehand? Or is it well understood that discussions are "surprises" and presenters should be able to address the discussion "on the spot"?
I have no intention to put the presenter into trouble, but perhaps, for the sake of the audience, it is better if I send the slides/discussion beforehand, so the quality of the answers might be higher. But I am not sure this is standard. Any ideas?<issue_comment>username_1: Nowadays, you can get feedback and answers to questions from places like MathStackExchange, and MathOverflow. Most of the responses are (in my observation) either entirely competent or quickly corrected by others. Good quality control. No, that wouldn't be the same as having a good advisor (ideally a world-class scholar on your subject) that you talk to in person every week. Still, these sites can give guidance.
Also, quite a few of the more-senior people who like to contribute to such sites may be amenable to direct email contact, etc.
(Grad school is not about "taking notes in lectures" per se, but is about having access to the informal observations of very good mathematicians, and being able to ask them questions immediately, in the moment.)
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: Disclaimer: I am a mathematician, but I do research in CS.
My observation is that all mathematics, but especially research-grade mathematics has a lot of features of a folklore. It is **much easier** when someone explains it to you, even more if informally. Reading books helps, of course, but for me a quick informal explanation done in five minutes could replace a tedious drilling through formalism for understanding for few days. Of course, you'd *still* need to be able to get through the formal and completely correct description. But it's much easier, when you already have an informal understanding.
To give an example, the determinant is *actually* an oriented volume of the *n*-dimensional parallelotope spanned with matrix component vectors. Compare this with a definition from almost any undergrad book on linear algebra.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: You have a couple of good answers about what you could do. You should also be aware of what you *shouldn't* do. Don't send unsolicited e-mails to random mathematicians in which you launch into long mathematical discussions. Unfair as it might be, there is a good chance that your message will be quickly deleted as the work of a probable crank. Most professional mathematicians receive numerous such e-mails (or in the old days, physical letters) over their careers and have learned not to pay too much attention to them. If you have a legitimate mathematical signal, don't broadcast it over a channel which has been drowned out by the noise of cranks.
The good thing about the suggestion of being active on Math Overflow is that this would allow you to develop a relationship with professional mathematicians. I have had a number of unsolicited e-mails from people that I have encountered on Stack Overflow, and I have almost always made an effort to respond to them. The virtual rep that you earn on Math Overflow entails a certain amount of real-world rep with the mathematicians who participate on that forum.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: One good option is to hire mathematicians to help you when you have questions. Many graduate students and some folk with Ph.D.'s work as tutors. If you're going into programming in the US, you should have the budget. You might not connect with the first person you contact, but if you live near a research university there should be some opportunity for this.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: I’ll give an answer based on personal experience. My situation is not exactly like yours, but may be similar enough to provide some insight.
I recently completed my undergrad in physics and applied math. Upon finishing this I decided that I was more interested in pure math, and wanted to pursue this in grad school. I ended up not getting into any of the Ph.D programs I wanted (probably because of a lack of pure math experience), so I was left in limbo, so to speak, still wanting to study math but not yet able to enroll on a graduate program.
My solution was to email some professors at a local university who I had found doing things somewhat related to what I was interested in. I told them my situation and explained that I was just looking to learn more about their research and math in general. This ended up working out and now I attend regular seminars at the university and I meet up with them every once in awhile to just discuss math.
I have found it very helpful to be able to have face to face conversations with other mathematicians, even though I do most studying on my own at home. Though Stack Exchange is a valuable resource, I don’t think it can adequately replace this interaction.
I’d like to point out that I am not sure if my experience is typical. After all, this is a somewhat small university that I am talking about, and it may be harder to find professors at larger universities who are able to take extra time to talk to you (I certainly found this to be the case at UC Berkeley, which is where I did my undergrad). Still, I think that this is an option you may be interested in considering.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]
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<issue_start>username_0: I'm getting way ahead of myself, but being nervous on the job market I asked an advisor what happens should a candidate receive **zero job offers.** To which the reply was, "That never happens."
I'm sure that some people have had this experience before. I'm in the social sciences in a discipline that is very competitive with fewer than normal options outside of academia. I still have a ways to go time wise for job expectations, but I am curious about what options others may have gone for in situations where they either received no offers or none that were more appealing than something else that wasn't planned.
My assumption is that people will shoot for adjunct positions or similar options should nothing else come along, and try again in following years. Can anyone speak to being in this kind of position, or knowing someone who has gone through it?
Of course I expect and hope not to be in this position, but I am planning for everything. Others have told me that they apply for upwards of 70 positions in a year, which to me is insane (I don't know how assured I could be in the quality of that many applications). I have probably applied for 20-25 positions thus far, so I don't know if I should be approaching the process differently. And in the worst case situation, where to go from there?
**Edit:** Thanks all for your sensitive and helpful comments.<issue_comment>username_1: It certainly *does* happen. I have a friend who, in the 70's, took 7 one-year adjunct positions consecutively before he got a tenure-track job. That means he kept U-Haul in business during that time. (That's 8 moves in 7.1 years.)
Also, in the late 80's, the US had a large influx of Chinese grad students (when China was trying to repair the damage the Cultural Revolution did to their education system.) Half of them didn't get jobs the first year out. Many of them were offered one-year "assistant lecturer" positions at their Ph.D. schools, to tide them over and give them another year to apply for jobs.
So that's two things that can happen. The other non-ideal situation is that you paint houses to feed yourself until you can find the academic job you want. Not ideal, but it can be cathartic. There's nothing wrong with any kind of honest work. Just keep applying and keep your attitude up. Be like Dory: Just keep swimming, just keep swimming....
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: It certainly does happen. And when it does happen, people tend to leave academia for a job in industry, commercial sector, retail, etc.
Unfortunately, the current culture of academia still tends to focus on success stories and turns a blind eye to unlucky candidates, almost treating them as they never existed. Your supervisor's response falls is this sad mainstream paradigm.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: I am also in the social sciences, and I do know people who didn't end up with a tenure-track job upon completion. At this stage, you are not totally out of luck for a tenure-track job (mine came through later than this), but you should be keeping your eye out for suitable alternatives. Talking with your cohort peers might reveal if there is still movement on the primary market at this stage, or if everyone is working the secondary markets now.
Suitable alternatives (secondary market) would include: visiting assistant professor jobs, lecturer/adjunct jobs, postdocs (including in your current institution at centers etc.), government or thinktank research jobs.... Sometimes these are posted in the same places as TT jobs, but they can also be on other websites (especially gov't and thinktank websites) or found through networking. You also might have the option of stretching your PhD an additional year and redoing the search next year.
At this stage, I would send an update to all committee members and ask to meet with each to discuss strategy. At the meeting you should ask them to reach out to their networks for you and especially ask them to help you network for things like post-docs.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: Some humble (and maybe too obvious to state) suggestions from personal experiences.
**Tailor your CV and cover letter according to the position requirements**
This is usually underrated. But helps a lot. In the last decade, the interest to the academic jobs increased dramatically. Thus, some job advertisements receive abundant number of applications. As a result, some really good candidates get eliminated in the first stage due to their lack of presentation.
**Lower your standards**
Yes, it might not seem too attractive to apply for a position in a low-tier university. But you have to start somewhere. At the end of the day, your work speaks for itself, not your institution. If you are a good scientist, you will conduct quality research wherever you work. My favorite professor used to tell me that "a pen and a bunch of paper is enough to be a good mathematician." It is not the same thing for social sciences, but the core message, I believe, applies to every field.
On the other hand, you may adopt a mission for yourself: improving the institution from low-tier to higher tiers.
**Networking is important**
Academia mostly works with references. Therefore, no matter how good you are, it might be the case that people who have *strong* references get ahead of you. So, try to attend some events, and get to know some people. They are way more approachable than most people think. And believe me, most of them really appreciate ambition. If they have no openings available, they will surely lead you to some good possibilities.
I wish you the best of luck while going through these tough times.
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: I am from Colombia and would like to do grad school in the United States.
It seems in order to study I need to take the SAT and TOEFL exams? Is this correct or does it depend on the university?<issue_comment>username_1: No, you don't need to take the [SAT](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAT). The SAT is for students going into undergrad. Instead, you'll probably need to take the [GRE](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graduate_Record_Examinations), which is a similar exam for students going into grad school.
Yes, you'll *probably* need to do the [TOEFL](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TOEFL), I'd guess. That seems like a common requirement for international students.
Both of these requirements vary from institution to institution, so you'll probably want to check with the specific institutions that you want to apply to. Depending on the program you want to go into, you may even have to take a [GRE subject test](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graduate_Record_Examinations#GRE_Subject_Tests).
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: Either GRE or IELTS test has to be taken before applying for any university, After that based on your grades/points, they will offer you admission. Beside this, you should get a study visa however it is a different story
Upvotes: 1
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<issue_start>username_0: During PhD admissions, our department assigns each admitted PhD student both a faculty and grad student contact, and we make every effort to express our excitement and enthusiasm about the student joining our program; often the faculty contact is a prospective advisor. Usually there are some nice conversations, which provide a nice prelude to the on-campus visit.
In one or two cases, I've had a student simply stop responding to email. In this instance, a student I admitted who was initially glad to talk to me quickly cut off contact with both me and the grad student contact (even before the visit). I am trying to understand if this is a **bad sign**, or if I'm just reading too much into it. It's been a long time since I was a PhD student, and I suppose there are a lot of reasons for this behavior. Still, during my own PhD visits I was sure to be very polite and timely with everyone who contacted me.
**Question for current prospective PhD students:** *Why would you give a faculty member the cold shoulder, rather than just replying politely and briefly to their email?*
I can come up with lots of hypotheses (busy with classes, overwhelmed with contacts from faculty, or simply not interested in the program), but all I can do is guess. I want to hear from the latest generation of students: what makes these interactions with prospective advisors tough?<issue_comment>username_1: I am not a prospective PhD student but a current one, and I am not in the mind of every PhD applicant, but my best guess is that some are not really interested in your department, some don't know how to say "I actually accepted an offer at a different school" with good manners, some are not fully sure if the e-mails come from a human or from an automated system (especially those who come from countries with a strong culture of professors ignoring or being mean to students, especially undergraduate - I wouldn't have imagined I'd receive personalized e-mails either!), and some are just rude. Or maybe it's just generational: in the same way it's starting to be considered more polite to never reply a text again than to politely decline a second date, and that many prospective employers say "we'll call you" after a job interview and they never ever call, there might be some perception among some people that it's better to be silent than to reply negatively? I don't know. Do they get interviewed before receiving an admission offer? Are they aware of how many offers you make out of a larger applicant pool? Emphasizing that might entice some of them to continue the conversation, or at least it might dissipate the question on whether they were not aware of things or, instead, they were plainly impolite.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: If I am understand the situation correctly, your department has made an offer and the student has not accepted it yet. Here are my guesses from my own experience (current phd student):
* The student does not want to make it seems like he is committed to the program. If he showed too much excitement it would be awkward for him to turn down the offer later on.
* The student is not sure if he or she should reply to the email, especially if the email does not end with questions. Sometimes when people send me emails about some information, I am not sure if it is a good idea to send an email saying that I am grateful and I have received the email.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: *Why would you give a faculty member the cold shoulder, rather than just replying politely and briefly to their email?*
Emailing faculty is a touchy subject for students. A student who doesn't email you back and ends up cutting off all contact most likely was thinking of the "best" way to tell you why it just wasn't "working out" but couldn't quite figure out how to do that.
Looking for a citation with that?
Have a look at [this question](https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/90725), the questions that are related or are linked to it, and the questions with the "[email](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/email)" tag, for starters.
Your titular question is not something that we can possibly know, but I would guess that it's probably not you, specifically, that is the root cause of the problem. Some people click and some don't.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: As username_3 pointed out, for students, Emailing faculty is not all that easy.
I'm a (relatively) new grad student and have been through the process more than once. At least for three of the PhD programs I got offers from, I responded very late and very minimally, even though a few faculty did reach out to me. I wish I was more responsive and honestly, I was quite displeased with myself for how I was handling those emails, but I was just going through a hard time (as many grad school applicants do when they're in decision making process) and responding to their emails was not easy. Two of those programs were those I knew I'm not going to choose, but one was actually one of my top choices. So, I can tell you, although probably "the cold shoulder" means the applicant is more likely to decline your offer than to accept it, it may very well be the case that you're their top choice. That being said, if they're seriously considering your program, I'd expect that they'll eventually send you a somewhat positive email, but perhaps with a delay.
Even out of application context, emailing faculty could take a substantial amount of energy from a student. Especially if they're emailing someone they don't know very well. I often feel quite anxious when writing an email to a professor. Sometimes the email rests for days in my Drafts folder and eventually when I'm fully convinced that further proof reading and editing does not lead to any meaningful changes, I'll send it. Just the burden of the unanswered emails in my inbox itself feels quite heavy on my shoulders and some significant amount of energy is required to get started with answering them. This is terrible, and I'm sure there are a lot of students out there who are a lot better at handling this, but I also know there are some who are struggling even more.
Some tips for making it easier for the students to respond, especially when dealing with new admits:
* Make sure you have a very friendly tone and avoid sounding so sophisticated. Make them feel like you may very well make a typo in your email, and would be totally cool with them having one.
* **Sign with your first name ONLY!** And even better, let them know in a very cool and friendly way how they should address you. For grad school recruiting, the best experience I've had was when a professor told me something along the line of them being my near future colleagues and asked me to go by their first name. The worst thing is if you receive an email with a full name signature! I wouldn't know for the life of me whether I should start my email with "Hi Grigori" or "Hi <NAME>"!
* Write a short email and suggest to have a chat over a Skype call with them. Although this works very well for me, for some, it may even put more pressure on them, so it may be better if you write something like "I'd be happy to have a short Skype chat and discuss whatever you'd wish to discuss. We can also always discuss any questions/concerns via email". Make sure they would feel like it's totally fine to go with the email option.
* If there's any time constraints or some sort of "expiry date" for responding to your email, make sure to clarify that. Also, if there's none, try to communicate to them that you're ok with a delayed reply. Often a student may think it's already too late to respond to your email, and that makes them delay it even further once it's past when they perceive to be the "deadline" for a reply. I'd say it's important not to sound imperative or as if you're demanding a reply, but that you're helping them manage the timing of your email communication. You should always sound like you're **on their side**, not like someone who's assessing their performance.
Needless to say, these are my views and influenced by my personal experience and that of people around me that I know of. Obviously, there are differences between different people and a different remedy may work better for some students.
Upvotes: 1
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<issue_start>username_0: I'm looking for a term for describing this writeup of mine which is too long and detailed to constitute a paper, but seems to short to merit being called a [monograph](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monograph). Is there such a term?<issue_comment>username_1: I am not a prospective PhD student but a current one, and I am not in the mind of every PhD applicant, but my best guess is that some are not really interested in your department, some don't know how to say "I actually accepted an offer at a different school" with good manners, some are not fully sure if the e-mails come from a human or from an automated system (especially those who come from countries with a strong culture of professors ignoring or being mean to students, especially undergraduate - I wouldn't have imagined I'd receive personalized e-mails either!), and some are just rude. Or maybe it's just generational: in the same way it's starting to be considered more polite to never reply a text again than to politely decline a second date, and that many prospective employers say "we'll call you" after a job interview and they never ever call, there might be some perception among some people that it's better to be silent than to reply negatively? I don't know. Do they get interviewed before receiving an admission offer? Are they aware of how many offers you make out of a larger applicant pool? Emphasizing that might entice some of them to continue the conversation, or at least it might dissipate the question on whether they were not aware of things or, instead, they were plainly impolite.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: If I am understand the situation correctly, your department has made an offer and the student has not accepted it yet. Here are my guesses from my own experience (current phd student):
* The student does not want to make it seems like he is committed to the program. If he showed too much excitement it would be awkward for him to turn down the offer later on.
* The student is not sure if he or she should reply to the email, especially if the email does not end with questions. Sometimes when people send me emails about some information, I am not sure if it is a good idea to send an email saying that I am grateful and I have received the email.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: *Why would you give a faculty member the cold shoulder, rather than just replying politely and briefly to their email?*
Emailing faculty is a touchy subject for students. A student who doesn't email you back and ends up cutting off all contact most likely was thinking of the "best" way to tell you why it just wasn't "working out" but couldn't quite figure out how to do that.
Looking for a citation with that?
Have a look at [this question](https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/90725), the questions that are related or are linked to it, and the questions with the "[email](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/email)" tag, for starters.
Your titular question is not something that we can possibly know, but I would guess that it's probably not you, specifically, that is the root cause of the problem. Some people click and some don't.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: As username_3 pointed out, for students, Emailing faculty is not all that easy.
I'm a (relatively) new grad student and have been through the process more than once. At least for three of the PhD programs I got offers from, I responded very late and very minimally, even though a few faculty did reach out to me. I wish I was more responsive and honestly, I was quite displeased with myself for how I was handling those emails, but I was just going through a hard time (as many grad school applicants do when they're in decision making process) and responding to their emails was not easy. Two of those programs were those I knew I'm not going to choose, but one was actually one of my top choices. So, I can tell you, although probably "the cold shoulder" means the applicant is more likely to decline your offer than to accept it, it may very well be the case that you're their top choice. That being said, if they're seriously considering your program, I'd expect that they'll eventually send you a somewhat positive email, but perhaps with a delay.
Even out of application context, emailing faculty could take a substantial amount of energy from a student. Especially if they're emailing someone they don't know very well. I often feel quite anxious when writing an email to a professor. Sometimes the email rests for days in my Drafts folder and eventually when I'm fully convinced that further proof reading and editing does not lead to any meaningful changes, I'll send it. Just the burden of the unanswered emails in my inbox itself feels quite heavy on my shoulders and some significant amount of energy is required to get started with answering them. This is terrible, and I'm sure there are a lot of students out there who are a lot better at handling this, but I also know there are some who are struggling even more.
Some tips for making it easier for the students to respond, especially when dealing with new admits:
* Make sure you have a very friendly tone and avoid sounding so sophisticated. Make them feel like you may very well make a typo in your email, and would be totally cool with them having one.
* **Sign with your first name ONLY!** And even better, let them know in a very cool and friendly way how they should address you. For grad school recruiting, the best experience I've had was when a professor told me something along the line of them being my near future colleagues and asked me to go by their first name. The worst thing is if you receive an email with a full name signature! I wouldn't know for the life of me whether I should start my email with "Hi Grigori" or "Hi Professor Rasputin"!
* Write a short email and suggest to have a chat over a Skype call with them. Although this works very well for me, for some, it may even put more pressure on them, so it may be better if you write something like "I'd be happy to have a short Skype chat and discuss whatever you'd wish to discuss. We can also always discuss any questions/concerns via email". Make sure they would feel like it's totally fine to go with the email option.
* If there's any time constraints or some sort of "expiry date" for responding to your email, make sure to clarify that. Also, if there's none, try to communicate to them that you're ok with a delayed reply. Often a student may think it's already too late to respond to your email, and that makes them delay it even further once it's past when they perceive to be the "deadline" for a reply. I'd say it's important not to sound imperative or as if you're demanding a reply, but that you're helping them manage the timing of your email communication. You should always sound like you're **on their side**, not like someone who's assessing their performance.
Needless to say, these are my views and influenced by my personal experience and that of people around me that I know of. Obviously, there are differences between different people and a different remedy may work better for some students.
Upvotes: 1
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2018/02/17
| 3,620
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<issue_start>username_0: On a math exam recently, the students were asked to use the definition of a limit of a sequence to prove that the sequence given by 3n/(3n+5) converges to 1. Given a positive number Ɛ, the definition requires proving the existence of some number N such that if n>N then |3n/(3n+5) - 1|<Ɛ.
As a consequence of the definition, once a sufficiently large N is found, any larger value of N will also suffice. Many students set |3n/(3n+5) - 1|=5/(3n+5)<Ɛ and solved for n to find N = (5-5Ɛ)/(3Ɛ). However, the professor decided to include an extra step: 5/(3n+5) < 5/n <Ɛ, which leads to another sufficient value N = 5/Ɛ.
Although most students gave a correct proof (consistent with the definition in their book), the lecturer took off points because they didn't find the "best" value of N. The lecturer claims that the author would have used some (unnecessary) inequalities to find the "better" N, which is probably true.
When students complain about losing points, I tell them that their answer is correct and that they should seek full credit for their work. The lecturer suggests that I am putting the students in a position in which they may "pick a side" and that ultimately the lecturer is in charge.
Who's wrong here?
**Update:** I was not notified about the lecturer's decision to remove points until after I gave the midterms back to the class. Once students started asking me about the missing points, the only written justification left by the lecturer was "not best N."
By "best N," the lecturer was referring to the N value found by using the additional inequality 5/(3n+5) < 5/n <Ɛ. By "best," he does not mean "smallest" (and by definition, there is no largest N).<issue_comment>username_1: The nature of the dispute makes this problem difficult.
As a mathematics (BS) and computer science (MS, PhD) student I have done numerous exercises that required proof of the existence of a natural number N such that for all n>N some inequality is true. In addition to limits in mathematics, they show up in computational complexity analysis of algorithms.
Every time I have done one of those exercises I have picked a value of N that made the proof as simple and clear as I could. Often, I was aware of a smaller value of N that would have required a longer proof. I have never been marked down for picking an unnecessarily large value of N.
Any finite value N, no matter how large, such that the inequality is provably true for all n>N is equally good. That is an important aspect of these definitions, something the students should understand and apply.
If smallness of N were going to be a grading factor, despite its irrelevance, it should have been announced in advance.
That said, it would have been better for the OP to discuss the matter privately with the professor, and perhaps with more senior professors. The OP should not encourage protests directly, but should state the professor's decision and recommend that follow-ups be forwarded directly to the professor or offer to forward them on the students' behalf.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_2: Mathematics allows for objective truth. If students answer a question correctly then they deserve full credit. I do not think it is wrong for you to advocate for your students or for you to encourage them to advocate for themselves.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: Mathematically, you are clearly right. Any reasonable person should agree with you. The problem asked to prove that a limit holds, they proved it, period. "Find the optimal N for a given epsilon" has nothing to do with the question asked[0]. Since your professor doesn't agree with you, it makes me suspect he's not a reasonable person.
Having said that, it is still annoying for him if you "go against him" by telling the students to appeal the grade (appeal which they would win, if it is done honestly). Have you ever discussed this with him *prior* to you discussing it with the students? What did he say?
So why don't you propose to your professor a compromise? Ask him to change the question from "prove the limit" to "find the optimal N such that this inequality holds". Or "Once you prove the limit, give an estimate of smallest N such that the error is lower than epsilon. "
You can sort of add some context to the question to make it more sensible, for example by saying that f(n) is the percentage of criminals arrested as a function of the amount of money spent, and you want to get to a certain percentage.
In short, if he wants to ask a question about the optimality of N, make him ask *that* question, not an unrelated one.
[0] Personally, I would argue that it is actually harmful. Understanding that any finite intervals can be ignored and that we should focus on what happens for N arbitrarily large is a crucial point to understand convergence and limit at infinity. This obsession on the exact optimal N is harmful, because it gives the impression that it matters; it would be more beneficial to instead show how a complicated inequality, for example, can be simplified by simply considering N incredibly and unreasonably big. It doesn't matter, because we are only concerned about what happens at infinity.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: I think the only thing you may have done wrong is to send the students to the lecturer. That could be (but not necessarily) construed as undermining his authority, and TA's have to watch that carefully.
But I have always instructed my TA's to advocate for the students. I want the TA to come to me with my errors or any other problem they find. At least once per semester I begin a lecture with, "Mr. Johnson has informed me that....and so here is what we'll do... And I want you all to remember, when student evaluation time comes around, that Mr. Johnson advocated for you, at great personal risk to himself." Warm fuzzies all 'round.
Anyway, I think the way to handle such things is for you yourself to debate with the lecturer. If you lose the debate, you can tell the students that you agree with their complaint, but that you've talked to the lecturer about it and he's not changing his mind. You might inform them of the departmental avenues for grade appeal, but advise them that such a minor issue is probably not worth it.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_5: I agree with many sentiments in comments/answers here, but---and I be misreading the question---my first guess from what you've said is that the students who lost points lost points for using inequalities that required justification in the professor's mind, not because they didn't use the same bound the professor did. Does this fit in with your situation? Deducting points for incomplete justification is of course reasonable for proofs, though where to draw the line is a judgement call, and one that is left up to the professor, though you may disagree.
In any case, **if you're not sure why he took off points, then you should either ask him or direct the students to.** You should **never** tell students to campaign for a different grading rubric.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_6: Personally, I think you are right; other people who have answered think you are in the wrong. Allow me to offer some additional advice about what to do now:
* It's probably not worthwhile to escalate the situation further. Probably neither of you will change the other's mind.
* You might meet with your graduate director, department chair, or other person with responsibility for supervising graduate teaching in your department. Ask them what you should do in the future, when the instructor makes a decision you feel is wrong and students complain to you about it.
One possible consequence is that, in the future, you would be asked to TA under a different professor. Presumably this is a consequence which you would welcome.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_7: You are getting two answers:
1. The lecturer is your superior, he makes the decisions
2. Mathematically you are correct
Since this is a course in mathematics, not in management, politics, or the military, he seems to me that clearly #2 is the correct answer, and that you are right.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_8: When I first read this question, I was astonished by the requirement to find an "optimal" N to prove convergence as it shows lack of understanding what a limit is. In my class (I did TA work) a student would get full credit even for the factorial of the reference answer.
But then I noticed that I had misread the question. Actually, the professor's N is larger than the student's so it is definitely "non-optimal". But the answer 5/Ɛ is simpler to write and to use further if it was needed.
I think there is some pedagogical value in showing that you can weaken your statements to make calculations simpler. One can find such “unnecessary” (as OP calls them) steps in many real complicated proofs. How much this knowledge should cost to the students in question is up to their professor.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_9: ***tl;dr*-** You're mostly right, but it'd probably be best to approach this diplomatically.
The basic question is whether it's appropriate for you to voice your disagreement with the instructor given your role as a TA. I'd argue that, in academia, it's entirely reasonable for you to express your disagreement; that academia isn't the place for subservient silence.
---
### You're mostly right
It seems like we can fairly uncontroversially establish a bunch of stuff:
1. Mathematically, you're right.
2. This is *mostly* the course instructor's call to make.
3. Students who disagree with the grading policy need to speak to the course instructor.
The controversial point would seem to be whether or not you're permitted to voice disagreement with the instructor's decision. Reasonable people may go either way on this issue.
In typical business contexts, employees are generally expected to avoid expressing disagreement with their higher-ups. In yet more authoritarian environments, e.g. in a military chain of command, such disagreement is actively punished.
However, one of academia's core tenants is academic freedom. It'd seem inappropriate to require an academic (like you) to not share their opinion on an academic matter (like an exam question) to students.
### This can be approached diplomatically
When you share your personal opinion, you might express it as a personal perspective as an academic in the field. This would seem well within your rights.
Then, students might ask why, if you agree with them, you don't fix it. The simple answer is that you can't; that it's the instructor's decision, not yours.
Reasonably intelligent students will tend to understand that that means that they need to talk to the instructor without you explicitly directing them to do so.
### Professional consequences
Be warned that your instructor or other job-selector may prefer to have unquestioning loyalty and may opt against giving you a position in the future, or write a weaker recommendation letter (if at all) if they're upset enough. Standing your ground on issues like this have inherent risks.
That said, personally, I've opted to do this in the past. When students have complained about a decision that I've disagreed with, I've bluntly told them that, yeah, the instructor's wrong, and that they'd need to take it up with the instructor since it's still their call to make.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_10: It's a bit difficult to answer your question because I don't find it completely clear what the point of contention is. But reading between the lines I think I can find two.
* The lecturer says "ultimately the lecturer is in charge". He's dead right here. You are working under his supervision. You can discuss and disagree with his opinion, in fact you should do so (as long as it's feasible: perhaps not if there are 1000 students in the course and marks have to be absolutely definitely finalised by lunchtime). But ultimately it's his decision. If you're still unhappy with that decision - if you think it's mathematically **and educationally** wrong - then you could take the matter up with higher authority. But this is not something you should do lightly.
* The lecturer says you are enabling students to "pick a side". He's dead wrong here. As long as you are giving the same advice to all students in this position, you are leaving all decisions with the lecturer - which is his job anyway. There are not two sides the students can choose between. It rather sounds here as if the lecturer is saying "you have to support what I say because I say so" - which is unscholarly, unprofessional and unmathematical.
You didn't actually ask what you should do, but in case you want my opinion - don't do anything about the first point, unless (as I said already) you feel strongly enough to take it higher. But I wouldn't recommend that. About the second, I would suggest you courteously point out to the lecturer that you are not suggesting to students that their marks should be altered, but are referring them to him to make the decision, as is his right. (And his duty - but it might be more tactful not to mention that.)
Also, keep a sense of perspective, and see if you can encourage students to do so too. I imagine this is probably a small part of the mark for a small part of a small assignment.
For the record, I have some sympathy with the lecturer's attitude (mathematical that is - I have no sympathy with his professional attitude). Mathematics, especially for advanced students (you didn't say what level this is) should not always marked as right or wrong and nothing else. That said, I doubt that I would have marked the assignments as he did in this particular case.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_11: The TA's answer is mathematically correct. However human society involves a hierarchy, based on the sole rule that the boss is always right.
There are other values of N (for example 6/epsilon) which also proofs the convergence. The only mistake in this context would be to proof it based on the fact that 1/n converges to zero. In that case, one can be accused of a circular proof.
The fact that the lecturer believes his/her approach is *the only* right one is an evidence of not understanding the topic (in my case, studied in the ninth grade).
My advice: bite the bullet and let the lecturer claim rightness. On long term, work for somebody you have something to learn from.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_12: I thinks the outcome should depend on the exact question that was asked:
* if the students were required only to provide proof, which they did, they should get full credit.
* if the question mentioned that the "best" value of N had to be found, and defined what was considered best, the professor is free to take off points for answers which don't meet the criteria specified in the question.
It would be inappropriate to penalize students just because they didn't guess what the professor had in mind.
Upvotes: 0
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2018/02/17
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<issue_start>username_0: I got a revise and resubmit after a 4-month review in a decent Psychology journal, submitted a revision and, after another 4-month review, got a provisional acceptance with minor and clerical comments to be addressed, and was asked to submit my response within two weeks. I did response within two weeks, which is almost two months ago at this point.
**Questions:**
1. Should I email the editor through the submission website?
2. If so, what would be an appropriate way to frame the email? I had in mind something like:
>
> Dear \_\_\_\_,
>
>
> I am emailing to check on the status of my provisionally accepted manuscript (ID=*xxx*). Please let me know if there is any further information you need and thank you for your continued attention.
>
>
> Best, \_\_\_\_
>
>
><issue_comment>username_1: The question hangs on the meaning of "provisional acceptance." If the reviewers suggested that no further review was required, then the editor should be able to make a decision fairly quickly once the changes have been made and submitted, so two months is probably too long for the subsequent review. However, there is the possibility that the editor sent the paper out for an additional round of reviews, in which case the delay is much more "explainable," but still bordering on too long.
In any case, a polite email to the editor asking about the status of the paper wouldn't be remiss. What you've written is fine.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: What you suggest is fine. As a referee, I recently sat on a paper for too long. I had a pretty bad accident, and couldn't type (or concentrate, thanks to the oxycodone) for a couple months. I had informed the editor that I was going to be slow, but he didn't inform the author. Later, I got an e-mail from the editor asking for an estimated time. This e-mail was prompted by the author who had inquired. I don't think anyone was annoyed.
Probably the referee is supposed to check that you've corrected the minor typos and he means to get to it just any day now. Your e-mail to the editor will probably generate an e-mail to the referee which will get your paper moved to the top of the pile. And no one will be annoyed.
Edit: I'm in mathematics, so perhaps the culture in your field is different.
Upvotes: 2
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2018/02/17
| 719
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<issue_start>username_0: Recently, as a fresh graduate with a BSc in both physics and mathematics, I've met up with a mathematics professor from a University in my home country.
During the discussion, he asked for my motivation in collaborating and I've made it clear to him that my objective is
>
> 1) To indulge in research during my time in industry
>
>
> 2) To obtain significant research experiences during the period in which we collaborate to strengthen my application for graduate admission.
>
>
>
We will be working on two future research directions built on a previously published paper of his. I have been told not to share the two future research directions until the paper is published. Further, he has not commenced on this research project yet due to teaching commitments.
But, currently, I am picking up background knowledge related to this paper while familiarising myself with his previously published paper that is related to this current research.
This research looks something on the level of an Msc or honours level thesis.
He has made it clear that in collaborating, he **expects results**.
In academia parlance, is it clear to academics that given (2) or the fact that he **expects results**, it is implicitly known that I expect a co-authorship?
If it isn't, how should I broach this topic?
If it is, how do I ensure that he sticks to his word, assuming I do make a reasonable amount of contribution?
To what degree should transparency be ensured?<issue_comment>username_1: The question hangs on the meaning of "provisional acceptance." If the reviewers suggested that no further review was required, then the editor should be able to make a decision fairly quickly once the changes have been made and submitted, so two months is probably too long for the subsequent review. However, there is the possibility that the editor sent the paper out for an additional round of reviews, in which case the delay is much more "explainable," but still bordering on too long.
In any case, a polite email to the editor asking about the status of the paper wouldn't be remiss. What you've written is fine.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: What you suggest is fine. As a referee, I recently sat on a paper for too long. I had a pretty bad accident, and couldn't type (or concentrate, thanks to the oxycodone) for a couple months. I had informed the editor that I was going to be slow, but he didn't inform the author. Later, I got an e-mail from the editor asking for an estimated time. This e-mail was prompted by the author who had inquired. I don't think anyone was annoyed.
Probably the referee is supposed to check that you've corrected the minor typos and he means to get to it just any day now. Your e-mail to the editor will probably generate an e-mail to the referee which will get your paper moved to the top of the pile. And no one will be annoyed.
Edit: I'm in mathematics, so perhaps the culture in your field is different.
Upvotes: 2
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2018/02/17
| 525
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<issue_start>username_0: I am a 3rd-year PhD student in Theoretical Computer Science, having started the PhD program after completing my bachelor in Computer Science.
**Questions:**
1. Is it okay for a PhD student in their third year to start publishing?
2. More generally, when may researchers start publishing?<issue_comment>username_1: There's absolutely no single timeline for publishing papers. I've had students publish papers as first author in the first year of their PhD, and I myself didn't publish a paper until I was a fourth-year grad student, because I was working in a relatively new field and had to work out all the kinks and issues before I could start writing things up.
Research projects are unique, and have their own respectively timelines. Publish when you have something worth publishing, rather than waiting for some arbitrary clock to go off.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: There's no such thing as publishing too early. If you have something to show off, do not hesitate to disseminate the results. Personally, I have published papers even before I started PhD (in less-then-stellar venues), so that I had something to show to PhD admission commitee.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: It depends on the field and on the size of the research group.
Personally, once you reach critical mass of people, I believe the ideal would be for 1/2 yrs to co-author along with 3/4y first authors. One paper/year per 3/4 year phd candidate should be enough to make everyone leave with a nice CV.
Of course, some students might do better (MS research experience) and start "first authoring" before, some might get stumped and start after that, but it would be best to finish the phd with at least 2-3 papers as first author... the competition for positions is only getting worse, both in academia and out...
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: Absolutely anytime, even before starting the grad school. If you feel that you have a good understanding over the topic, or have a dataset to simulate or prove a result and if you have some collaborator(s) then just go for publishing the article. You may visit some of the journal websites and have some ideas how to publish there.
Upvotes: 2
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2018/02/17
| 758
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<issue_start>username_0: I have two very good admission offers from good universities in the US, and I am having a hard time choosing between them. So much that I am starting to consider less relevant factors, such as the position of the department in the different rankings. I believe that the ranking from the US News and World Report is the most prestigious one. However, they only show the top-10 departments on my field. I would need to pay 30 USD to see the full ranking. Is it worth it?<issue_comment>username_1: No, it's not worth paying $30 for an extended list of rankings in a discipline. Why not use more productive factors, such as:
* Who has the wider range of faculty working in areas that interest you?
* Where would you like to live as a grad student (in a city, a small town, etc.)? Does region of the country matter?
* How does your stipend compare to cost of living where you are?
* Will you be close to potential collaborators?
* Do you want to work in a small department or a large department?
* What do your *current* faculty mentors and advisors think of the two departments?
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_2: I'd suggest talking your current advisors and mentors - the people who wrote your recommendation letters. Even if they no longer do research, they can still offer you opinions on where to go. You can also do things like talk to the prospective supervisor's current graduate students. There are much more tangible things to consider than the US & WR ranking (see username_1's answer).
Having said that, if you really do end up in a "both equally good" situation and need to use a ranking, I'd suggest the [THE reputation ranking](https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/2017/reputation-ranking#!/page/0/length/25/sort_by/rank/sort_order/asc/cols/stats). If you ever need to find a non-academic job, the recruiter is not likely to know your supervisor or your research topic. They're only likely to know the brand name of the university. The THE reputation ranking is as good a proxy as any of how the university is perceived by the public. I stress though that this is only a tiebreaker, and it should never outweigh the factors mentioned by username_1.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: First of all, congratulations on your offers. The existing answers have offered good alternatives to spending the money on the ranking report and are worth considering.
However, it *could* still be valid to pursue the avenues suggested by the answers and still pay for a ranking report. The question asks if it is worth the 30 dollars. Consider that you will be spending the next 5 or so years (assuming an average length PhD in the US) at one of the institutions. Where you go will also affect your career trajectory in the next following years if not more. If I were you, I would not begrudge these expenditures if they would help you in making your decision. I would even suggest you to invest in visiting these two choices in person first (though in many cases the department will offer to pay for the travel expenses).
Upvotes: 0
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2018/02/18
| 902
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<issue_start>username_0: I have looked everywhere for an answer to this question. I don't often use APA format. In Chicago, when referencing in-text an annual report over a span of years, one simply types: (Smith, multiple years). I'm referencing an economic report, published annually, to analyse performance over a span of six years. Must I create a separate reference for each year, or may I do the same as in Chicago?
Best guess is the reference will look like:
<NAME>. (2002-2016) *Annual Report*
OR
<NAME>. (Multiple years) *Annual Report*<issue_comment>username_1: If it is a report / essay for your University check with them, if it is a paper for a journal, again, check with them. They may even have information on their site.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_2: I use a lot of citations. I would probably cite and allow for multiple years as long as the citation hasn't dramatically changed over those years (like a climate survey -- the trend would be the same). It may also be useful to pull a specific quote/note from the most recent source (cited specifically by its year) to further illustrate your point, but I don't think it's needed unless that's the basis for your additional work.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: I would show the range. I am kind of a nit at trying to follow format. But then there are times when you have something not covered by the book. I find if you are doing all the regular ones perfectly that the editors allow you some freedom to freestyle when you have something not covered. At the end of the day people want to be able to find things from your citation.
Again, don't make the regular ones a mess or freestyle those. But when something is not 100% covered, just decide you are the grownup and write it the way you want.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_4: I don't work in APA much, but in the several papers I have had published the journal has had particular requirements for special cases like that. Step one would be to reach out to the editor of your chosen publication.
In the mean time I would probably cite them separately.
>
> <NAME>. (2002) Annual Report
> <NAME>. (2003) Annual Report
> <NAME>. (2004) Annual Report
> etc.
>
>
>
with the in text citation (Smith, 2002, 2003, 2004 ... ). I find it preferable to include too much detail and be asked to scale back than vice versa.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_5: I would suggest the following touch-ups to your two suggestions. Besides hyphen, an arrow, or a double dot, or a colon may also be used indicate a series without a break.
* A series of reports without a break (note the plural, "Annual Reports", which is not the exact title. It is a class indicator):
*<NAME>. (2002->2016) Annual Reports*
* A series of multiple reports, all have the same title "Annual Report"
*<NAME>. (Multiple: 2002..2006) Annual Report*
* If the series is not a continuous sequence, the years may be enumerated in increasing order
*<NAME>. (Multiple: 2002, 2004, 2007) Annual Report*
* If there is a mix of continuous series and isolated years, a combination can be used.
*<NAME>. (Multiple: 2002..2004, 2007, 2011-2014) Annual Report*
Upvotes: 0
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<issue_start>username_0: I've come to the conclusion that my advisor is incompetent (he does not have a good understanding of the fundamentals and doesn't know how to judge or generate research ideas). I mainly chose to work with him because he works in the research area I'm interested in. Having interacted with him for a couple of months now, I feel very confident that he doesn't deserve to be here and didn't earn his name on most of his publications. He was recently hired and I would be surprised if he got tenured.
Having said that, I actually think I'm strong enough to conduct research independently. However, I'm very worried of what could happen down the road. I want to get a faculty position and you get hired based on on many factors: the recommendations you receive and the reputation of your advisor are perhaps one of the most important. Isn't it just a disaster to have such an advisor, even if you have a good publication record?<issue_comment>username_1: >
> Isn't it just a disaster to have such an advisor, even if you have a
> good publication record?
>
>
>
Yes it is.
However, this fact is too obvious to state. Therefore, I think you intended to ask
>
> How should I proceed?
>
>
>
In your case, you should proceed with extreme caution because you might end up with not finishing your PhD. Ignoring your supervisor and going your own way is not a good idea.
You might want to change your supervisor. This is precisely where you should proceed with extreme caution. Claiming that one of the professors lacks knowledge about the **basics** of the topic is a serious accusation directed both to the hiring committee, and to the professor. You need rock solid evidence to back your claim up. Else, you might be in trouble with the law, also.
It occurs to me as if you are **very** overconfident. Some statements in your question do not add up:
If you are *strong enough* and have a *good publication record*, even in the beginning of your PhD, then how come you are not in MIT, Harvard, Standford, or some other crème de la crème institute? If you are in one of them, then how come one of the professors is not competent?
Let's say, you are actually at a very prestigious university, and your advisor is really not competent compared to you (which is nearly impossible). Then why do you waste your time ranting about your advisor rather than writing your upcoming paper?
As a result, jumping to conclusions usually hurts. My humble advice would be to taking a step back and trying to change your mind about the situation.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: I can not judge your advisor; he may be completely incompetent. If you know that's the case, change your advisor as soon as you can.
However, I always thought that my own advisors were incompetent, and now I know that was not true. The reason is rather simple: they don't spend as much time with your project as you do. If they understand the details of your project more than you do, that means you're not working hard enough.
If that's the case, my solution is to think of your advisor as a knowledgeable person that you can get an outside perspective from, and not as a person who would know how to solve your problems. Also, the more you go to them and ask their perspective, the more they learn about your progress on the problem, and the more they can help.
Another thing in my experience was that I didn't trust my advisors' opinion on a lot of cases because they didn't explain their reasoning very well. I ended up regretting ignoring their opinions when I saw years later that they were right and the problems were solved the same way they told me.
Of course all of this is my personal experience and may not apply to you, so make a judgment for yourself if any of this applies.
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: There really is only one topic that I find interesting, useful and that I have alot of knowledge of. However students of previous years had already chosen this topic and written Bachelors thesis on it.
How bad would it be if at least half of my thesis was already researched in previous years thesis?<issue_comment>username_1: Unlike dissertations, bachelor’s theses need not be on an original topic or advance the frontiers of knowledge (although those goals are desirable!). A bachelor’s thesis is intended to show that the student is capable of synthesizing information to produce a useful result via research in some form or another.
So unless the school has a requirement that topics cannot be repeated, there is no reason why you shouldn’t be able to produce a work on a similar topic. That said, your work should not be identical to the previous work (which you should cite and discuss in your thesis!)
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: In my opinion it's not a professional way to look at the concept of research. In most of the cases, researchers try to improve upon other related researches (usually conducted by community and their colleagues). This fact actually helps us to have a better understanding about the whole problem, and also the solutions other researchers tried before.
In my opinion you can start reading your colleagues' theses to get to know their research, their novelty and their ideas. After that you are well equipped to start with a new idea to improve the topic your colleagues also worked on previously.
But keep in mind for a bachelor student the most important things are building a good background based on the courses you took and also trying out the standard methods of research (on a topic you are really passionate about) without considering the real novelty or quality. Though it is really nice that you care about such matters.
Upvotes: 1
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2018/02/18
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<issue_start>username_0: I have extensively researched about a new area as part of my Doctoral research and want to write and publish a review article in some Science Citation Indexed (SCI) journal. But the problem is that there are only about 20 articles published till date on this new area. I have seen many review papers on other areas published in SCI journals and found that normally the number of cited and referenced articles are quite high (sometimes even above 300 papers). And then there are non-SCI journals where review papers are having very less number of cited and referenced articles (20-50 or more).<issue_comment>username_1: The minimum papers you need to review will depend on two things:
* Your research the field (which might be relatively small or large)
* The depth vs breadth of your review
In computer science, there have been quality review papers in highly respected venues which only focus on around 10 papers, but where the review lacked in breadth, it made up for in depth, which can be more important if you are looking to make a valuable contribution to the field.
An example is [this paper](http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/5975176/) published in TSE.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Your article needs to be interesting, the number of articles is secondary. If a field is very new than a review of a few articles could be interesting. However, if there are only 20 artcles it could also mean it is just too early to take stock, and your sub-sub-field is not ready for a review article yet. The purpose of a review article is to find partial answers on which there is some form of consensus, and identify open questions and new directions of research. Is your field sufficiently ripe for that?
Also look outside your discipline. It may be that there is a longstanding research tradition dealing with that issue in another discipline.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: Asides the depth of what would be discussed, the area and its level of maturity, the quality of the survey and the definition of its scope also matters. A number of recent and well known literature can be considered while highlighting major strengths and limitations of each proposal as well as new interesting insights that could be considered in the future. The point is that the contribution of the paper should be glaring to the reader of the paper. Also, it may be highly required to properly define the criterion for choosing the articles you are considering if you have chosen a sub-set of literature from a particular scope. This should also reflect in the title and (or) abstract of your paper. Another very important point is the style of organizing your survey paper. For instance with 20 main references you can still write a survey with over 80 references. The other 60 references could be used to strengthen specific points within the paper as well as other secondary issues of importance within the paper. In this case, it is highly recommended you show the readers what value can be derived from those 20 references by showing a summary table with strengths and limitations, salient differences, metrics, qualitative/quantitative comparison etc. or illustrations and charts, all leading to more intuitive questions to be answered in the future.
Upvotes: 2
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2018/02/18
| 2,705
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<issue_start>username_0: Not sure how this happened but I will have a postdoc interview with someone prominent in many fields, prominent even at their already prominent university, and who publishes in top journals with astonishing frequency.
How should I handle this interview knowing (and I do know) that I do not have the best CV they've ever seen? I don't want to talk excessively about all my skills or be vague about the shortcomings of my work in the (frankly unlikely) case that they do hire me and are disappointed that I'm not a superstar. But I also don't think these people are particularly swayed by the argument that I am a quick learner, etc, etc. I also do have some reasonable circumstances why my CV isn't what it could be, but I don't think they want to hear about that either.
What sort of balance should I strike? Or am I overthinking it?<issue_comment>username_1: Be happy for the opportunity to meet with the PI who's invited you for an interview, and go to the interview with an open mind and attitude. Answer questions you receive honestly and without artifice. Show rather than tell your enthusiasm for what's going on.
What's important is what you can do in the lab, and how you go about doing it. You might have a unique capability or perspective to bring that you don't know about it. Maybe your references are better than you think they are (and by extension you're undervaluing your skills!).
And try to avoid the [impostor syndrome trap](https://m.xkcd.com/1954/).
Upvotes: 8 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: I don't have an answer on how you should present yourself but I do have an answer to "How not to present yourself" from my failures.
* First and foremost don't criticize others/events/bad luck for your failures or bad CV
* Secondly, don't off-topic. While conversing always be on point.
* Don't try to use big words just to sound you know a lot. Believe me, they'll find it out. Pros like to keep things simple.
Last but not the least, dress well, smile and keep a good posture. The real way to nail interviews is not through your CV but through your character, else why would they even bother holding one? They could just go through CV's and pick the one with the highest credits.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: First off, let me repeat what henning said: "They've seen your CV, and they invited you for a reason." So you evidently have enough to have gotten through the door.
As per Massimo, "the overwhelming majority of people do not have the best CV experienced people might have ever seen." Ya know, if they only accepted only the best CV's, there would be no need for interviews.
While my experience isn't exactly the same as your circumstances, I'll share anyway :->)
Back in the day when I applied to graduate schools, we knew in advance that most of the interviews were adversarial. Perhaps it was a misguided way to see if you could handle stress. Why that their approach, I don't know, especially since 30-60 minutes of uncomfortable cross examination could never duplicate the demands of the program or reflect one's ability to handle stress.
There's no way that you can prep for some specific unknown shot over the bow, only how you are going to manage it. But you can prep your mindset. Some things that I would suggest (some mentioned by others):
Make eye contact and shake hands when introduced.
Make eye contact and during responses.
Do not criticize, rationalize or make excuses.
Do not try to impress them with big words.
Respond directly and concisely. Stay on topic.
When you're done with your answer. Stop talking. If the interviewer remains silent, don't try to fill the gap with meandering word salad. If it's uncomfortable, confidently ask him/them a relevant question.
Try to respond conversationally. Don't drone on. Avoid poor speech etiquete (umms, errs, ahhs and long pauses).
Be affable, personable and professional.
Demonstrate interest and knowledge regarding whatever you will be involved in but do not try to impress/snow them.
Show some personality and confidence but no conceit, arrogance, superiority or anything negative.
I had one interview with a doctor and a professor who sat about 150 degrees apart with me in the middle on a swivel stool. They played off against each other, putting me in the middle. One was black and one was white. As an example, they raised a racially tinged issue and took opposing sides. They then asked for my opinion and the one I disagreed with went on the assault. At this point in my life, dealing with such an interview wouldn't bother me much since I have more knowledge, as well as the experience and perspective that decades of life have provided. But as a young kid whose future depended on admission, it was stressful. But nothing in my poker face or reaction reflected that. Stay calm and cool. You are accepted or you are rejected. All you can do is make your best effort and if this one doesn't work out, maybe the next one will. Good luck!
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: Look, people always hire for 1 reason: To solve problems. If you are competent to perform the work, then a good interviewer looks for the person who is going to solve problems, not cause workplace drama, be responsive, and be hardworking. Now, fair enough, there might be people with better CV's and can communicate they have all those other skills. In which case, sorry, but you are not the best person for the job. Don't be sad or upset if that's the case, go in, show you are competent and that you are 100% focused on the success of the projects you are working on.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_5: I had an interview of this type. As I was giving the talk, I was terrified. Luckily, I had learned by heart what I wanted to say, and it went smoothly despite me being overly self-conscious.
What surprised me was that the big guy wasn't at all what I expected. He was patient, and gave me time to get over that moment. After that, it was just a normal interview. He asked many technical questions, and I answered the best I could without trying to pimp my results or fake knowledge.
In the end it helped that he was a technical guy, so he appreciated my technical answers. But, I never interviewed for people who became famous in academia due to salesmanship. I'm not sure if the interview would have lasted longer than the talk, because I'm not that good at selling myself.
So, in the end, my advice is what others said. Answer truthfully about your competences and what you did in your research. And, number one, don't worry if you don't get the position.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_6: Bear in mind that interviews are a two-way street. You, as well as your interviewer, are trying to work out whether you and the job are a good fit. Don't be so star-struck that you forget to consider whether you will enjoy working in this environment. Chances are that, by taking this considered approach, you will end up focusing on asking the right questions and showing a genuine interest in the job, and maybe forget a bit about trying to be impressive and be more yourself. Good luck!
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_7: The title of your question calls this interview ‘out of your league’. Of course, things in academia exist that are out of one’s league. For me, having been in organic chemistry and thoroughly acquainted with the perks of this subject, a position in e.g. social sciences, which requires a completely different approach, is out of my league because it is in a horizontally separate league.
But as per your question all you are worried about is that the person who is interviewing you is too high up on the ladder.
In my (admittedly limited; I am still young and only a postdoc) experience, each subject only has one league. There may be top notch scientists and those that struggle to get a high-impact paper published but essentially they are all in the same game, all competing and collaborating with each other. Naturally, there are people everyone in the subject will know because of exceeding work they have performed; in my field, one of those would be <NAME>. But just because a <NAME> is famous, regularly publishes in the top notch journals and so on does not mean that only a certain subject of exceedingly good organic chemists are allowed to talk to him.
When there is a position to be filled, the actual picture would likely be the opposite. *Because* they are well-known, a lot of people will notice that they have a vacancy and would love to decorate their CV with that famous name. Thus, I would expect they receive many more applications per position than Professor <NAME>, junior professor <NAME> or the not-so highly viewed <NAME>. (Again, I don’t know if this is actually the case but I deem it likely.) They have to process the CVs and applications with quite a lot of scrutiny because no way they can invite everybody. There will be quite a number of average and subaverage applications which are quickly wielded out and only the more interesting (to them) ones remain.
Or maybe you did not apply for a published opening but by your own initiative. Again, I would be very surprised if people like Nicolaou did not receive initiative applications all the time — for the reason, see above. And once again, they will have enough experience to quickly and kindly say thank you to those they do not want to have in their group and try and make it happen if they find somebody interesting.
Regardless of which of the two pathways it is, you cleared that hurdle. They are interested. They consider you close enough to them in the league. Now remove the thought ‘out of my league’ from your mind!
As for the interview itself, I am not very experienced with those so I can’t give you any hints. But that doesn’t matter: just approach it like any other interview.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: Research is done in teams, and teams need people with different skill sets. This includes less that brilliant people who get the job done you tell them as long as it is within their capabilities, even if it carries little intrinsic reward.
You've been invited for an interview by somebody who apparently is rather successful in his endeavors. That is good because that means he has a clue about what he can work with and what not, likely more so than you. So there is little need to beat around the bush or get into a panic: he'll be asking the questions necessary to figure out whether you match what he needs, and you answer to your best knowledge. If it's a fit, great. And if not, better to find out sooner than later. Try figuring out the stuff you yourself would like to know, too. There may be some things for you that can mean a better or worse fit.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_8: Use it as a practice interview. Keep in your mind that whatever the outcome, you'll be better off for just having the experience. Win-Win for you!!!
Upvotes: 0
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<issue_start>username_0: I'm doing a PhD in mathematics at one of the world-leading universities. I spend a lot of time engaging in science communication: both speaking (talks for general audience, some of them quite successful) and writing (popular science blog, I started to publish also in some magazines). Even though I enjoy maths a lot, I prefer communicating it to non-mathematicians much more.
Would getting a job in science communication as opposed to continuing research or working in industry be a "waste" of PhD?
Also, would I need a degree in journalism or science communication to be considered a serious candidate for jobs in popular science or media? I've done some research online but it seems that there aren't many scientists (not to mention mathematicians) with a PhD who would focus their career on communicating science.<issue_comment>username_1: A PhD is only "wasted" if you believe it is wasted. If you enjoyed your research, and it's helping you to engage in a long-term career you enjoy, why would it be wasted?
However, there is a very clear need for people with solid scientific backgrounds who can clearly communicate complex mathematical and scientific ideas to the general public. People who can bridge the gap—for example, explaining concepts like "herd immunity" or "cryptocurrency"—in ways that the public can understand, are valuable in the scientific community, and we should be encouraging people to make that kind of outreach. It's not as popular as it should be in academia, but I believe that as more people engage in such careers, we will see room for growth.
So if it's something you really want to do, go for it!
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: To my point of view - PhD skills are definitely a good and valuable thing for oneself and the community
* Hopefully, during the PhD time, it makes some sense for you and your environment, as well as fun.
* It will personally increase your insight in your research topic (and also to the areas around). For the community later, these insights as well as your achieved abilities will make a difference.
* Normally, it is paid better later - a good science communicator is invaluable.
* As username_1 mentioned before, people understanding and translating complex topics (such as in a PhD) are needed.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: A job in science communication after a PhD in Mathematics is not a waste at all! In fact, in my country, there is a well known example of a math PhD and science communicator (in addition to recently having become *professor* in science communication): <NAME> ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ionica_Smeets)).
She mainly is known from co-writing a popular math-blog ('wiskundemeisjes') and more recently from presenting the yearly 'national science quiz' ('de Nationale Wetenschapsquiz') on Dutch television. As far as I know, she's never had any formal training in journalism. (but perhaps you could email her to ask if you're serious enough, she might be receptive)
Her [inauguration speech (In Dutch)](https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/binaries/content/assets/algemeen/oraties/oratie-prof.dr.-i.-smeets.pdf), roughly translated is titled 'On the value of science communication' has some important paragraphs (translated and paraphrased):
>
> When mathematicians exposed the [Monty Hall problem](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monty_Hall_problem) to the general public, the responses to the correct result reported where both massive and hostile! First in the US, then when I reintroduced the problem in the Netherlands. (One reader asked whether it wasn't written by someone who has studied mathematics instead of her [she was a PhD student at the time])
>
>
>
She proceeds that she continued her effort to explain the correct solution to her readers.
>
> I suggested that people try to solve the problem by repeated simulation it. One reader wrote that he spend whole night playing the game and didn't understand *why*, but he did understand *that* she was correct.
>
>
>
This, I think, is key. The role of science communication is both to explain and convince. If explanation fails, try to at least convince people of the scientific (here mathematical) truth.
Of course, whether people know the correct answer to a puzzle can hardly be called important. But it is a good example of what can go wrong and right in an explanation and that **explaining science is far from trivial, a discipline in itself!** She proceeds to show examples from medicine where the understanding of the general public *is* important and were completely misrepresented by journalists (not completely their fault, as I said, science communication is hard)
@DaveLRenfro mentions two more examples: [<NAME>](https://plus.maths.org/content/os/issue55/interview/index) (Ph.D. under <NAME>) and [<NAME>](http://www.ams.org/publications/journals/notices/201709/rnoti-p1005.pdf) (Ph.D. from Rice University).
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: You may well have heard of these but in case not:
* For combining a career in Mathematics with a lot of communication there is [Professor <NAME>](https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/maths/people/staff/ian_stewart/) (now retired from Warwick University, England, but still active) and [Professor <NAME>](https://www.simonyi.ox.ac.uk/about-marcus/).
* For having moved from mathematics with a lot of communication to - for now - mostly communication, maybe look at the career of Dr <NAME>, mathematician and pianist:
<http://eugeniacheng.com/>
Mathematics PhD at Cambridge University, England
Tenure in Pure Mathematics (Category Theory) at Sheffield University, England
Currently Scientist In Residence at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Dr <NAME> is Scientist In Residence at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Alongside her research in Category Theory and undergraduate teaching her aim is to rid the world of "math phobia". Her first popular math book, How to Bake Pi, was published by Basic Books in 2015 to widespread acclaim acclaim. Her next book, Beyond Infinity, was published in 2017. Eugenia is also math columnist for the Wall Street Journal, a concert pianist and founder of the Liederstube.
<https://twitter.com/DrEugeniaCheng>
An insightful interview:
<https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/feb/26/eugenia-cheng-interview-observer-nicola-davis>
An even more insightful interview/podcast, which you might or might not be able to access:
<http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09nvrcn>
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: Not only is it not a waste, **it might even be a prerequisite**! How are you going to communicate complex ideas on the bleeding edge of science, if you cannot follow or grasp the literature yourself?
Ignoring everything else, having a PhD title makes it clear that you have had experience reading and writing literature (at least in most fields I can think of). Overall, I think seeing your research time as a waste is not something you should be worried about at all, no matter the career choice. Even if your future or prospective employer does not value your hands on research experience in financial terms, you will surely benefit from the experience, in my opinion.
On the other hand, if you start to compare yourself to what you consider as your peers now, several years down the line, that's a different story. You **may, or may not,** be happy with how you have invested your time, professionally speaking. There is no objective way of knowing that in advance. That kind of regret or frustration is called *hindsight* and it's a common human fallacy :)
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: I'm an undergraduate electronics and communication engineering student (sophomore) at an Indian university. I joined this engineering course because I found the areas of quantum computing/information and quantum engineering quite interesting, and I felt an EE background would help me later on to pursue higher studies in these areas.
Lately, although I still have great interest in those areas (quantum computing/information/engineering), I am finding myself very much interested in certain topics in mathematics and mathematical physics. Namely, mathematical foundations of quantum mechanics and quantum information (which involves learning a lot of extra math topics like functional analysis), differential geometry and topology (and their application in theoretical physics), statistical learning (I'm finding the application of statistics in machine learning quite interesting and have been reading quite a few books related to that) and discrete mathematics (graph theory and combinatorics).
The natural thing to do in such a case would be pursue a minor in mathematics. But, unfortunately, our university does not offer any minor degrees or dual major degrees. So, it's not possible for me to formally take extra classes in mathematics. Upon pondering a bit I realize that I might want to pursue my higher studies in some interdisciplinary area which involves knowing things from electronics engineering as well as from the rigorous mathematical physics and statistical learning (machine learning/data science/AI). I'm not sure if such an interdisciplinary area of study even exists at the graduate level (?). But I'm really enjoying learning the new things in mathematics and I don't want my spending time on learning these things go in vain.
So, in short, what would be the correct way to keep proof that I'm actually learning these extra things (so that I can show that I actually know these extra subjects/topics while applying for grad school) ? Should I participate in some research projects in these areas? (But then again professors don't seem to accept people who haven't taken formal courses into their research projects). If it were computer science, I could have taken online courses on sites like EdX and Coursera, for certificates. But for mathematics, no such site exists which gives out certificates based on completion of certain courses.<issue_comment>username_1: >
> I'm really enjoying learning the new things in mathematics and I don't
> want my spending time on learning these things go in vain.
>
>
>
If you're enjoying it, it's not in vain. Also, mathematics is used in pretty much all areas of science, so no knowledge in maths will be useless, that I can promise you. For example, as an undergraduate student in mathematics I thought learning algebra and group theory was just a waste of time for me, that I just needed to pass (it was an obligatory course) and forget. However, now I'm doing a PhD in statistics and stochastic analysis, and I stumbled upon groups many, many times. You never know.
>
> If it were computer science, I could have taken online courses on
> sites like EdX and Coursera, for certificates. But for mathematics, no
> such site exists which gives out certificates based on completion of
> certain courses.
>
>
>
There are in fact multiple online courses in mathematical subjects, especially statistics and machine learning. For example, Imperial College London offers a specialisation in Mathematics for Machine Learning (<https://www.coursera.org/specializations/mathematics-machine-learning>). Just browse for "mathematics" or a specific subject that interests you. Moreover, many lecturers put their notes and exercises online, it's an excellent way to learn. Just search for what is most interesting to you. You can also get a relevant textbook and do some self-study. Options are countless?
How to you prove you've done it? You don't need certificates, really! If you decide to apply for some academic programme or a job, what matters are your skills and knowledge, not certificates. I personally sometimes feel that I remember most from courses I didn't pursue certificates in. Why? Because I focus on what actually is relevant or difficult for me, not on solving many exercises that just give me "easy points".
Just pick a subject and a source, and start learning. You can even contact a lecturer for some advice (just e-mail them), they probably would be happy that someone finds their notes interesting. Whatever you do, good luck!
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: I feel sufficiently compelled to answer this as a recent math and physics major who completed his degree requirement.
In my undergraduate class, I was taking various combination of 4 math and physics units each semester -- 4 unit is the heaviest load one can take in a semester.
At the *top end* they were partial differential equations, real analysis, Abstract Algebra, Topology and geometry, mathematical physics, Advanced topics in Quantum mechanics and atomic physics such as quantum mechanics operators, measurement theory, spin and orbital momentum, LS coupling, jj coupling, helium atom, fine structure, hyperfine interaction, atoms in magnetic fields, electron spin resonance, transition probabilities, astrophysics and condensed matter physics, dynamical systems, applied and computational modelling of physical systems.
On top of these, I took various quantitative units in economics and did very well even in absence of the prerequisites.
`,` denotes a limiters of the different subjects/ units/ course/ modules
This is a 3 years standard bachelor but I completed it in 4 years. If you are prepared for the sheer amount of hard work, extreme burn out and a lower than average GPA, do it. Mine dipped slightly below a 3.0/4.0 but I had strong references and computational skills.
>
> The natural thing to do in such a case would be pursue a minor in mathematics. But, unfortunately, our university does not offer any minor degrees or dual major degrees. So, it's not possible for me to formally take extra classes in mathematics.
>
>
>
Everything on your transcript is just ceremonial. What is more important is you knowing the subjects and actually being able to demonstrate it on a technical test/ chalkboard when called.
I'm speaking this as someone who has recently started collaborate on a research project with a professor while looking around for industrial opportunities.
If you're looking to work alongside research members, academics or professors, you may be asked to provide some insight as to what you have already covered in your time; in this case, you are free to draw upon what you have taken in your undergraduate curriculum and *free time*.
People effectively wants to know what you know, not what you have taken.
In my limited experiences, professors are actually impressed with students who challenge themselves by taking advanced units, even if they consider you foolhardy.
>
> Upon pondering a bit I realize that I might want to pursue my higher studies in some interdisciplinary area which involves knowing things from electronics engineering as well as from the rigorous mathematical physics and statistical learning (machine learning/data science/AI). I'm not sure if such an interdisciplinary area of study even exists at the graduate level (?).
>
>
>
While I am equally unfamiliar with such combination in academia, you may circumvent the lack of such opportunities in universities through independent study.
Most research these days are cross functional across seemingly unrelated fields so much is dependent on the candidates to independently learn.
In my short experiences with looking for opportunities in areas of data analysis and machine learning, the common litmus test is a request for candidates to undergo a technical test much like how developers are subject to technical tests despite their year of experiences.
In STEM, hardly anyone will give you the luxury of knowing *something* just because *something* came up on your transcript.
>
> But I'm really enjoying learning the new things in mathematics and I don't want my spending time on learning these things go in vain.
>
>
>
If this is not a contradiction then there is insufficient data.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: Another idea is to use MOOCs. Places like edx.org and coursera.org offer advanced coursework that might suit your needs (even if you already studied the materials and just breeze through for the certificate). You can either pay the fees to get the real certificates which you can include in your resume / applications, or you can do what I do, which is to take the course for free (audit) then screenshot your final progress report showing that you did the assignments and passed the tests, which should be nearly as good. Keeping a copy of the syllabus will also help show the relevance of the materials.
P.S. edx.org is a little easier on free users since you get a final grade on all coursework at the end, where-as coursera.org doesn't let you take some of the tests and doesn't show a final grade the same way.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_4: 1. Don't completely take your eye off the ball on the EE degree. That is a very portable degree with applications from microelectronics to building construction to power. Even if you like some subfields better (or neighboring fields), getting that EE degree gives you a lot of option value. Make sure you don't mess it up.
2. EE is actually a rather mathematical topic. Within EE, try to emphasize areas that are at least mathematical or connected to your neighbor fields. Examples are spectral analysis or computer circuitry.
3. Specific authors/books are failing me now, but I have come across some rather advanced math books that were written by EE profs. Maybe those are good to read. Ones is something like Irresistible Integrals (there are two books like it, can't recall which was from the EE prof). Another is the Leanord Lewin text on polylogs.
4. Don't immediately try to jump to the fanciest, most advanced area. For example, functional analysis is certainly not required for the standard junior year quantum course in physics (which is probably already more advanced than you are getting in EE courses). And you actually get a lot of benefit learning things the simple way first. Look at how physics does classical E&M three times! Freshman year, junior year and then teh Jackson in grad.
Upvotes: 0
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<issue_start>username_0: My master's mentor was a PhD student in my university.
I had an interview in a Dutch University for a PhD position, and the committee made me feel weird about my former mentor being a PhD student. Although the University and my supervisor have said it was okay, I am still a bit worried about my chances.
Does having a PhD student as a mentor lower my chances?<issue_comment>username_1: Your experience has shown that it is a problem in at least one case. If you are applying to Dutch universities then, actually, having a PhD supervise a masters student is (in my experience) quite common. What might be uncommon is for a PhD student to *officially* supervise a masters student.
Your solution is to put down your official supervisor if they are not a PhD student as your actual supervisor, since I suspect that on your official masters documentation you will actually have written "under the supervision of assistant/associate/full professor X". You can mention in an interview that you also worked with a PhD student.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: It is important here to distinguish between what is on paper and what is the day-to-day reality.
As other have mentioned already, it is common for masters students to be supervised *on a daily basis* by a PhD student. However, I have never heard of a PhD student being a formal supervisor for a masters student. I very much doubt that this is your case, but stranger things have happened.
What is far more common is that you are accepted for masters work at a lab/department/research group etc and the main supervisor (at least on paper) is the group leader. Then s/he may delegate the day-to-day supervision to a PhD student who is (hopefully) knowledgeable in your field. This is especially common if the group leader has a large group with many grad students, collaborations and possibly even administrative duties. None of this is of any detrimental impact to your chances to being accepted as a PhD student later down the line.
If you are in doubt, ask yourself the following questions:
* who advertised the position?
* who did I have to contact to be accepted to this position?
* whose name will be on the first page of the thesis as a supervisor, once the thesis is formally written?
* who is paying for the direct or indirect costs of my research?
If the PhD student tutoring you is the answer to all those questions, which I again doubt very much, then it may very well be so that people look at your future application with some hesitation, probably due to how uncommon and somewhat unrealistic this is.
There is however the possibility, if you are doing your masters at a company, that your formal supervisor is a PhD student, who also happens to be doing research at the company. But even then I would probably argue that formally there is a professor at some affiliated university or research institute who's the actual supervisor, at least on paper.
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<issue_start>username_0: I have been hearing things like nothing you write in an email is confidential in state universities because of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) or other similar state laws.
**Questions:**
1. Can I file FOIA request to see all the emails that a professor receives including all of their unpublished research progress and interactions with their students and postdocs?
2. Can a postdoc request to see the recommendation letters received or sent by their advisors about them?<issue_comment>username_1: As Nate notes, it is challenging to answer a question about fifty different state laws. By a happy coincidence, though, [I sort of did it in 2005](http://www.generalist.org.uk/foi/published-foi.pdf) :-)
At that point - it may well have changed in the last twelve years -
* Every state had some kind of local freedom-of-information law, and in general they all *appeared* to affect public universities.
* In some states, private universities may be covered to the extent that they are spending public money.
* Academic institutions operated by federal government departments (eg the National Defense University) are subject to the federal Act. Public universities in DC (all one of them) are covered by local law; it varies in the overseas territories. And finally, there is a lot of ambiguity around what FOI legislation, if any, applies to the tribal colleges and universities.
**Exceptions**
* Delaware had a strange law that appeared to exempt the universities *in general*, but the Boards of Trustees, and financial records, were explicitly covered.
* Kansas had at least one specific exemption for a specific part of a university (I am sure other states had similar provisions buried somewhere I missed).
* Several states had legislation that only gave rights of access to state residents (though this was constitutionally dubious and one had been successfully challenged).
* Explicit topic exceptions were often provided in the law, and most frequently tended to mention recruiting for university presidents, library records, examination processes.
That answers the basic question of "can I use FOI for a university": yes, if they're public, with some caveats. This is generally consistent with international practice.
For the more specific questions, the only possible answer is "...it depends massively on local legislation, caselaw, and practice". I would strongly recommend you look at the relevant state's legislation. If the law is well-established and well-used, the university may even have some handy guidance on this.
My gut feeling, *generally speaking*, and no more than a rough guess, is that:
>
> 1. Can I file FOIA request to see all the emails that a professor receives including all of their unpublished research progress and interactions with their students and postdocs?
>
>
>
Many jurisdictions would balk at "give me all of person X's emails" (as opposed to "give me all discussions about Y". It may well be seen as unreasonably complex to provide, if there is any kind of review stage - the costs for having someone read through all the email to check there's nothing that shouldn't be disclosed ramp up fast, and this can sometimes be a get-out clause. ("We would do what you ask, but we'd have to hire someone for three months, so...")
For ongoing research, there is sometimes an explicit exception, or indeed an implicit one, in the law. (For example, some legislation takes the position that if something is *going* to be published and that process is underway, it's fine not to release it until publication happens - which would implicitly cover most academic research.)
On the interactions with students & postdocs... "interactions" is an odd word. Routine emails between a couple of public employees (which is another way of describing a professor and a postdoc) wouldn't be automatically problematic. But it's almost certain that *something* in the full range of "interactions" would be considered confidential. For students, I would assume the assumption of confidentiality would be drawn wider than for postdocs - but, again, local law will be your guide here.
>
> 2. Can a postdoc request to see the recommendation letters received or sent by their advisors about them?
>
>
>
Maybe. It is a borderline issue and one likely to be handled differently in different jurisdictions. It is complicated by the fact that *one party is involved in the request*, and there may be other more appropriate ways of handling this than FOI. There may also be explicit or implied promises of confidentiality for referees that are enough to ensure they are treated as fully confidential.
Note that "received or sent" may be significant - in the UK, for example, which has fairly robust personal-information and FOI legislation that is probably stronger than that in most US states, you can get copies of recommendation letters [received by the public body, but not sent by them](https://www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/dpfoioffice/a-ztopics/references-subjectsrightofaccess/).
So on the whole... it varies. At least you know the law probably applies to some degree!
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Many states exempt unpublished research from disclosure; Idaho and Texas both have such an exemption.
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<issue_start>username_0: If you want to teach mathematics at a high school for example, then why do you need to study it at a university? You will learn new stuff, but you won't teach anything of that at a high school.<issue_comment>username_1: On one hand, when I myself was in high school I was wondering about the same thing - especially that I learnt the whole high school material (in maths and physics, I mean) in the first year, so felt that I could have taught as well as a teacher. But indeed, as pointed out by [<NAME> and <NAME>](https://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/73431/discussion-on-question-by-stallmp-why-do-you-need-to-study-a-subject-at-a-univer), only at the university (in fact, only during my PhD studies; well, in fact only as a post doc; well, in fact... hm, you get the idea) I learnt the bigger picture.
So, studies are so that if a student asks **"what will I need the quadratic equation for?"** you could give a better answer than **"because it will be on the test"**.
---
What is a *better answer* in this case is a whole different issue. I have lots of friends who indeed, once they finished high school, never solved a quadratic equation again. But on the other hand, they also didn't need the knowledge about Hamlet, genetics, WW II history, etc., in everyday life. That doesn't mean that they, we, you shouldn't learn about those things. I have lots of knowledge that I don't *need* in my life - but I *enjoy* obtaining it, possessing and connecting it with other areas.
Upvotes: 8 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: If high school instruction was mere recitation of the information contained inside the textbook, I dare say that having a teacher at all would be completely unnecessary. The role of a teacher is to explain the material in an easily digestible manner, and more importantly, to be able to answer questions and correct mistakes. A mere high school education is not adequate to achieve these tasks. Consider this: a student who receives a 95% average in a high school course would certainly be considered to have a commanding grasp of the material, and would likely be near the very top of the class. If teachers were not required to gain further education in their subject area, then certainly a student with a 95% average would be an ideal candidate for a teaching position. But that individual doesn't actually understand the material completely! The fact that they didn't get 100% in the course means that they were tripped up by some homework or exam questions, so their own knowledge base is imperfect. Without further work and education they will have great difficulty correcting their misunderstandings and lack of knowledge.
Alternatively, in the interest of making sure that the teacher does not make fundamental mistakes or errors in their teaching, it is of paramount importance that they have further background in the material. Otherwise, they might be unable to answer difficult questions asked by curious students, or even worse, they might answer incorrectly; such a thing would only serve to confuse the students and slow down their education. Such incidents can truly leave a lasting negative impression; as reference, consider the following quote from the introduction to <NAME>'s book *Basic Analysis: Introduction to Real Analysis*
>
> Let us use an analogy. An auto mechanic that has learned to change the oil, fix broken
> headlights, and charge the battery, will only be able to do those simple tasks. He will be unable to
> work independently to diagnose and fix problems. A high school teacher that does not understand
> the definition of the Riemann integral or the derivative may not be able to properly answer all the
> student’s questions. To this day I remember several nonsensical statements I heard from my calculus
> teacher in high school, who simply did not understand the concept of the limit, though he could “do”
> all problems in calculus.
>
>
>
While the above quote is in reference to high school mathematics teachers, the general idea certainly applies to instructors from all fields. Would you really want an English teacher who hasn't written a paper since high school? Certainly such an individual would be unlikely to be able to adequately offer writing advice to students, because they are at a comparable level of skill themselves. What about a physics teacher who only understands physics from an "intuitive" perspective, but is not able to explain anything more advanced? All in all, in most cases a high school teacher without considerable further education in their subject matter would not be able to offer instruction at the same level of quality as someone who has a bachelor's degree or more.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: **In short:** If somebody doesn't like the idea of studying their subject at a university for a few years, I really don't like the idea of that person teaching children (in addition to the pragmatic reasons given by others).
Personally, what I remember most about math in high school was that my teachers were *enthusiastic* about the what they did (despite going into math, I don't recall learning any particular thing in high school; just that I got the standard fare).
I certainly would prefer students learn from somebody who at least *enjoys* their subject. While "study subject X for Y additional years" certainly doesn't guarantee that the person likes subject X, I'd hope that it discourages those who *don't* like the subject from pursuing this path.
I say this because I find few thoughts more depressing than thinking about the experience of a child learning from somebody who fears or resents the subject. And yet, it happens -- I've seen education majors that don't like or don't understand basic mathematics which they may some day teach...
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_4: History and experience shows that those who do not have advanced training in, e.g., mathematics, and try to teach or write about it, give presentations that are somewhere between hilariously and atrociously wrong, broken, mangled, incorrect, damaging, and misleading. Secondary institutions can partially mask this by teaching to standardized tests (esp., multiple-choice ones), but the damage to actual understanding is still done, and people suffer from it later.
For an example attempt at remediating some of these effects, consider [Hung-Hsi Wu's papers on "Teaching School Mathematics"](https://math.berkeley.edu/~wu/).
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_5: I'm going to beg-the-premise of the question.
It is not universally true that to teach a subject in high-school you need to major in it at university.
In Australia it is very common for high-school teachers to only have a teaching degree, or to teach subjects outside their original qualifications.
(For example, the best drama teacher I had, had never formally studied drama. He was primarily a wood-working teacher, who happened to do semi-pro productions on the side, and was shoe horned into the position when our original teacher quit.)
My recollection was that the teachers who didn't have degrees majoring in their subject did not/could not teach it for the the university entrance exam level,
but handled it at the introductory level.
This makes sense -- one does not have to complete even high-school level calculus before one can complete a general teaching degree.
Conversely, the fancy private schools like to boast that all of their teachers have PhDs in the fields they are teaching (as well as a Grad. Dip. in teaching). No doubt this helps justify term fees that are as high as for an university education.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_6: My experience is only from German maths, but summarised I would say the following:
1. It is really helpful to study background material to the "school maths", like geometry, calculus, linear algebra because you begin to "really" understand what is happening there.
2. At university, prospective teachers are usually put into courses that "already exist". The result: The first year is useful, after that they often study very advanced topics with no connection to school maths at all (like topology, Galois theory, partial differential equations,...).
3. Many students who want to become teachers lack motivation for learning these advanced topics.
4. So the standard way of educating teachers may be cheap, but is not very efficient.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_7: The main point is summarized in the [Pólya's](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_P%C3%B3lya) rules of teaching:
>
> The first rule of teaching is to know what you are supposed to teach. The second rule of teaching is to know a little more than what you are supposed to teach. ([*How to Solve It*](https://books.google.com.br/books?id=X3xsgXjTGgoC&pg=PA173&lpg=PA173&dq=%22The+first+rule+of+teaching+is+to+know+what+you+are+supposed+to%22&source=bl&ots=t7KzWMsLq9&sig=wA-NRjSI5EOC9oDXQrQiopyV1bc&hl=pt-BR&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjEqMbhqrLZAhXBvJAKHbrMDlsQ6AEILjAB#v=onepage&q=%22The%20first%20rule%20of%20teaching%20is%20to%20know%20what%20you%20are%20supposed%20to%22&f=false), p. 173).
>
>
>
But why we have to know "a little more"? Well, [<NAME>](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_G._Krantz) has a reasonable answer:
>
> One of the best arguments for even elementary college mathematics courses
> to be taught by people with advanced degrees is this: Because the material is all trivial and obvious to the professor, he can maintain a broad sense of perspective, he will not be thrown by questions, and he can concentrate on the act of *teaching*. ([*How to Teach Mathematics*](https://books.google.com.br/books?id=YV6uCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA2&lpg=PA2&dq=%22One+of+the+best+arguments+for+even+elementary+college+mathematics+courses+to+be+taught+by+people+with+advanced+degrees+is+this:%22&source=bl&ots=Wwc-NTOhLj&sig=aQj1p7-GHaX13RwSMXS9Naqmydw&hl=pt-BR&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjmx9TwsLLZAhXJPpAKHdWdBvAQ6AEIJzAA#v=onepage&q=%22One%20of%20the%20best%20arguments%20for%20even%20elementary%20college%20mathematics%20courses%20to%20be%20taught%20by%20people%20with%20advanced%20degrees%20is%20this%3A%22&f=false), p. 2).
>
>
>
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_8: Some comments mention that the reason of “because you need to know MORE than what you need to teach” cannot explain why elementary or middle school teachers need to get a university degree.
At least in math, the “more” that you need to know might be at an incredibly high level, even for teaching elementary school. My university requires math education majors to take modern algebra, which they probably will never use directly. When they ask me why they have to do this, I tell them “So that when a fourth grader asks you why a negative times a negative is positive, you can appreciate the complexity of this question, and just maybe give a satisfactory answer.”
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_9: It's not the advanced "stuff" that is so important. What is important is the mastery. You want the teacher to have not just learned the content, but made it their own. That kind of mastery can be had without a university degree, but a degree is the simplest proof that one can posses that indicates their intellectual depth.
For me, the pattern is more obvious in the martial arts than it is in academia. In martial arts, in theory all one needs in order to instruct a white belt in the techniques they need to attain a yellow belt is a yellow belt. At that point, you've memorized all the things there are to memorize about these techniques. But we don't rely on a yellow belt to teach. The role of teaching goes to a higher belt. Most often this is a black belt, but sometimes a purple belt will do the teaching (as they are being taught how to teach). You want someone who not only has memorized the techniques, but someone who has internalized them and can express them fluidly. You want someone who won't teach you their own mistakes, because they have had enough time to work those mistakes out.
In the martial arts belt system, one view is that achieving the blackbelt is achieving "minimal competency in the material." It is the first point where you are truly expected to lead your art, and have others follow you. In our current academic system, a university degree is similar in nature to the black belt.
Is it *truly* required? Probably not. You can develop this breadth and depth of understanding on your own, without a university. But history has shown that it is an effective line in the sand to draw, so we draw it.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_10: Teaching is, surprisingly, harder than it seems. At first glance it would seem that teaching is just repeating a set of materials, rinse and repeat. And to some extent there are a sub tasks where this might be true. However, there are quite a lot of mathematics, or any other skills that you just dont learn at high school level except very superficially.
Now do you want to be taught by a person who is just slightly better than you? No offcourse not. Why? Well simply a good teacher can teach the same thing in several ways. Different learners need different strategies, and it is hard to convert something you know how to do into one let alone three or four different explanations and approaches. Also subjects on pedagogy on sufficient level may not be offered at high school level.
There is also a second reason for having a higher education. Things change, and university level education is primarily a education into: How to find out stuff and learn new things rather than learning methods. Eventually something might change, maybe it is decided that you need this new subject matter (ok so its Math) in math. So a teacher needs to have a good enough palette in learning to go and learn that new thing, or at least the employer and parents want this.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_11: When I was in high school, I had a math teacher who did not have a degree. One day, we were learning about pi. The never ending digits of pi fascinated me. How could you ever know that there would not, somewhere over the next horizon, be an end to them? So I asked, in class, how people knew that they were infinite. My teacher gave me an annoyed look, said: "They just are.", and went on with the lesson. From the way she said it, it was clear that she also had no idea.
Because of things like these, I lost all respect for her, and I started to dislike math. I also felt like there was no real reason to listen to her teach, because she was just reading from the book. I also stopped asking questions that were not immediately relevant to exercises. None of this is good for learning.
In addition to this, getting a passing grade is not nearly mastering all of the material. With just a passing grade in high school math, you can solve the problems mechanically, if they are asked in a standard way, most of the time. It is better if a teacher is beyond that level, because they will see where someone is struggling more quickly, both during classes and while grading.
That said, all degrees will have some things that are useless to some students, and that is just the nature of teaching and learning. Education is expensive, highly specialized education prohibitively so, and so people often get a general range of subjects, instead of just the things they need. Making a specialized math course for every program that has math in the curriculum is impossible, so you will end up with math teaching majors learning math with everybody else. It's not a complete loss, though, because you can often use things in unexpected places.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_12: A math teacher who does not know that
* the real numbers are an [algebraic field](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Field_(mathematics));
* set theory and boolean algebra are isomorphic (and what an isomorphism is);
* modern math constructs the natural numbers from nested empty sets,
just to name a few, cannot competently teach 1st grade math. The reason lies in what I consider one goal of education in general, and here in math particularly:
**Education should not be limited to conveying some degree of useful technical proficiency.**
That is, the goal of teaching English1 should go beyond the ability to read a manual or write a shopping list. It should teach about poetry, the human condition, the beauty of language and rhythm; it should instill wonder and curiosity and open up perspectives which are perhaps not available at home or on TV.
The same thing goes for math. Math education1 should not be constricted to counting correct change or buying the right amount of wallpaper. Mathematics is about beauty and symmetry. It is about the power of abstraction. It is about beholding different infinities. It is about the realization that the mind has no limits. Math is like mental CGI; if you can think it, it is there. Math is as creative as sculpting: What you carve out of reality has always been there, you just made it visible. But it is about discipline and correctness, too. Like literature, math shows us what's underneath the surface.
---
1 Also in grade school.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_13: Another reason that has not been mentioned is that studying the type of math that deeply challenges your mathematical abilities is essential for developing humility and empathy for your students.
If every piece of math you ever learned was easy for you, it will be difficult to relate to a student struggling in your class. If you, however, for example struggle through a few upper [or even graduate] level math classes, you will learn to empathize with students who don't understand the more basic things you teach. We all reach what we think is our mathematical wall at some point, we must experience the process of pushing that wall further out and struggling to gain new knowledge.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_14: >
> If you want to teach mathematics at a high school for example, then **why** do you need to study it at a university?
>
>
>
**[Why questions can be answered at many many levels](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MO0r930Sn_8)**, and all of the answers I skimmed are stuck on only one side of one level of analysis, merely trying to present rationalizations for current law/practice.
I don't *know* the 'real' answer to your question, but I want to present:
Potential answers, unmentioned in other responses, at different levels of analysis
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
First order answer:
* **The law/policy says so.**
This prompts Second Why do these laws/policies exist?
* **Teacher's organizations don't want competition.** If just anyone is teaching they have to compete more in the education market, which means it's harder to charge a high price. The size of the educational market is limited to people interested in being students, so on some level it's a zero sum game. Their organizations therefore do things like lobby in government, lobby school boards, create accreditation boards all to require new teachers to spend more time training. They justify it by claiming it's required for quality. Obviously these things *can* improve quality somewhat by removing charlatans, but they *also eliminate* all good/potential teachers who won't or can't get through their red tape.
Further, this is a ratchet that creates ever tightening requirements. Story example: 1st generation of teachers with an AS try to cut out high school grads by demanding a rule that you must have an AS. They eventually succeed. 2nd generation of teachers *all* have AS due to new rule, so some get a BS to show they're 'better qualified'.
Teachers with BS in second generation generation try to cut out
teachers with only an AS by demanding a rule that you must have a BS.
Currently you need an MS, but don't be surprised if, in a decade or
three, you need a PhD to teach high school.
**Disclaimer 1**: I want to stress I'm not taking a political position here. I'm only pointing out that requiring education beyond the material a teacher will teach *is a trade-off*. That trade-off may very well be worth it to most people, but the existing answers to your question show people aren't taking the time to seriously think about whether there are any downsides.
**Disclaimer 2**: Further I think most all teachers really do care about delivering good a educational product. Many if not most teachers I know would never *consciously* want to do anything specifically to limit competition. But their position as paid educators gives them a completely understandable bias towards the regulation side of the above tradeoff.
* **People conflate depth of knowledge with mastery of knowledge** People believe teachers should know more depth than just the
information they teach. However while excess depth isn't a *bad* thing, it's never required. The grain of truth is that the extra study required to get more
depth *likely* also confer more mastery of foundational topics. But it's
also possible to build mastery of a foundational topic without
studying deeper topics as you do in a graduate level program. Learning calculus may give you enough practice in algebra to make you very good at algebra, but you could also master algebra by practicing it directly.
* **There is an over-supply of qualified teachers**. This ties into both the anti-competition and depth of knowledge points. If you have more people who are interested in teaching than you have teaching positions, you can start being more choose-y about who you want to teach. Even without lobbying, you get high requirements as a *de facto* standard in job openings. This happens because employers need a way to filter out the sea of applicants, and they know there are plenty of applicants available even after adding the high requirement.
One major piece of evidence for this is the relatively low salary of
teachers relative to other professions with similar education
requirements, and relative to tuition. Over supply typically leads to low prices (in this case "prices" being wages). In the US at least this is heavily distorted by the fact that most education is government run and heavily regulated, not market based. There's no certainty that tuition would remain so high if all tuition went directly to teachers who then determined how to best use it to teach. But there's a market in some segments, and teacher salaries are still low there relative to some other master/PhD based careers.
TL;DR: The idea that a master's or a PhD is important to teach it is not without merit, but it's certainly not the only potential answer to a your question.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_15: Since many good answer were already given, let me list a few reason very shortly: to teach high-school, one should have learned one's field to a much higher level and breadth than high-school curriculum because:
* one must be able to adjust to curriculum changes,
* one need to confidently spot errors in textbooks and correct them for students,
* one need to construct exercises for the class,
* one need to answer questions that go beyond the curriculum,
* one need to know where some simplifications happens for the sake of teaching, and know the unsimplified version to safeguard against possible mistake coming from the simplification.
I could give a striking example in my field, mathematics, showing that to teach polynomials it is a good idea to know about finite fields, but I said I would be brief.
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: Say I have three names viz... Firstname Middlename Surname. My first name is quite long. My supervisor is requesting that I only use my Middle and Surnames. This occured with my first manuscript with him (he has two short names). Although, I have one publication (with my full three names) before studying under my current supervisor, I have tried to do this. My ORCID account contains the three names. IEEE membership name emphasizes my Firstname and Surname. My question is if I would like to use only my Middle and Surnames now, what are the things I must do and precautions to take to ensure consistency and avoid complications in the future.<issue_comment>username_1: Don't do it! Using not your first name is really bad practice, because people (and systems) will be confused. Your name is as it is - don't let anyone mess with it.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Use the name that you wish to be known by within academia. For the next 40 years (depending on age and career), you will build a reputation attached to your name. That name will be on your papers, announcing you for presentations, on your name tag at conferences, as the author of any books you publish and for many other uses.
Your supervisor is not asking for a trivial change for his or her convenience, your supervisor is asking for you to either give up your preferred name throughout your career, or to have multiple names on publications. While it is certainly fixable to have multiple names, it is harder to ensure you get credit for all your work.
You could perhaps ask why your supervisor wants you to use a different name. There may be a good reason in which case you can take that into account in your decision. Since you have a long name, do people use the full name when addressing you? Would it be reasonable to use perhaps a shorter version of your first name if that's how you are known?
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]
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<issue_start>username_0: I read a similar question
([Knowing that most students submit assignments right around the deadline, is it advisable not to set deadline that is very late at night?](https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/50035/8802))
about setting assignment deadlines at different hours of the day
(e.g., 9 AM, noon, 5 PM, 9 PM, midnight).
At my institution,
we use a learning management system
to manage our courses.
I require students to use it
to submit all of the assignments for the course.
I am wondering if it is reasonable to set assignment deadlines on Sunday.
* On the one hand, I don't want to ruin the weekend for students
who may be working on my assignment at the last minute.
* However, I feel that Sunday deadlines
have minimal conflicts with students' other commitments.
If for example I were to set the deadline on Monday,
students may skip classes to meet my deadline,
or they may be busy with work from other classes.
**Question:**
Is it unreasonable to set assignment deadlines on Saturday/Sunday,
say 6 PM on Sunday?
Would this be forcing students to work on the weekends?<issue_comment>username_1: So, set the deadline for 8AM Monday morning - needs to be convenient for you though, but it does mean that it won't conflict with classes - does depend on the "late hand-in" policy though...
This also depends on the submission method - it sounds like you have an online system in place in this case.
Some students will want the weekend to work on it, others will accept a hand-in on Friday 5PM...
Whatever time you set - stick to it (obviously there are some external factors that can change this ie a fire alarm etc)..
I have peer assessments that have a final closing time of 23.55 Sundays - there are always some students who say it closed too early...
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: >
> On the one hand, I don't want to ruin the weekend for students who may be working on my assignment at the last minute.
>
>
>
Leaving the assignment at the last minute, especially in order to enjoy the weekend, sounds more like a choice than an obligation. I don't think it's your responsibility to do time and goal management for your students, especially if they are adults.
Otherwise I want to agree with username_1, just pick something and stick to it. Your student will manage their time to make things work for them.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: It's absolutely valid to set deadlines on Sunday evening. **You** do not force the students to work on weekends. This is **their** own responsibility to manage their workload. They are still allowed to hand in their results on Friday and then they can have a free weekend. One may even argue that a deadline on the weekend gives even greater freedom to the students as they have two additional days.
Time management is one ability that is trained while attending university. Students should be allowed to make their own experience. In their future jobs, there will be quite a lot of deadlines such as "until next week" which is also a deadline on Sunday.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_4: I don’t think there is anything wrong with that, especially since the submission of the assignment is done online. Saturday and Sunday are only two days. If the students have to *sacrifice* their weekend to complete the assignment, that is *usually* because they didn’t manage their time wisely during the days before.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: **It's fine.** Students are expected to manage their time appropriately.
**However**, one of the things I despise most as a student is when the instructor doesn't finish covering the material needed for the assignment until shortly before it's due. So if, for example, you have a Friday lecture that contains information pertinent to the assignment (other than to answer clarifying questions and such for those who've waited that long), making the assignment due Sunday almost certainly eliminates the possibility of a free weekend.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_6: Sometimes it's important as a teacher to do things that are unpopular with the students. However, unless there's a good reason otherwise, why not do what the students want? They'll be happier, you'll be happier because they're happier, and you'll get better evaluations. And you can think of this as banking some popularity that you can spend when you need to do something important that's unpopular. In this case I'm pretty confident that the students would prefer a deadline on a weekday, but if you're not confident why not ask them?
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_7: As a student I hated nothing more than deadlines before midnight. I would be happy with a deadline on either Sunday 11:59pm or Friday 11:59pm, Sunday would better because that means two more days to do work where I don't have lectures to exhaust me. Trust me when I say that to a student free weekends don't exist anyways/
However Friday 5pm would be horrible. Considering lectures can run until 6pm, a Friday 5pm deadline is equivalent to a Thursday midnight deadline.
Unless you are deadset on marking that evening I don't see why the deadline couldn't be moved to midnight.
Would it really make a big difference for you, it sure would to a student, thats a good few hours lost, and making deadlines harder to hit simply because 'students need to learn time management' is a terrible reason.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_8: It is reasonable to set deadlines on Sunday night or the like. I've had midnight Sunday deadlines for quizzes and assignments (in math & computing) for about 8 years now; the last lecture each week occurs on Wednesday or Thursday. I've only had one or two student complaints in that time (those from students also holding a full-time job through the weekend). I almost always manage to grade them all in the 10 PM - 1 AM zone Sunday night, so I can turnaround with feedback immediately at the start of Monday. Works well for me.
Edit: A comment by Mehdrad got me curious as to the exact distribution of submission times leading up to the end of Sunday. Below is a chart for one introductory programming assignment from Spring 2017 (N = 25), when I temporarily set the cutoff for 10 PM (thinking that I needed extra time to grade the submissions). In this example, about 55% of submissions are made before 6 PM Sunday; 20% come in 6 PM to 9 PM; and 25% come in the last hour (two being within the last possible 2 minutes). Two faulty attempts were submitted on Wednesday (not shown here) and subsequently cancelled/replaced; and another fourteen students submitted nothing.
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/fehnW.png)
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_9: There are two major concerns with setting weekend deadlines,
* a number of students may not have access to a computer in order to submit online, at that time. Beware of disadvantaging groups of students that tend to face this restriction. This can be avoided by ensuring sufficient computer availability on campus, which is likely to be true.
* the times over the weekend may be inconsistent, disrupting regular schedules for some students. In particular this will affect students who have significant work or family commitments while studying that they cannot just "time management" away. This can be avoided by setting every assignment to the same time every time e.g. Sunday at 1700 local.
Apart from considerations to ensure all students have an opportunity to meet this submission time, the actual submission time itself is largely irrelevant.
Students who are ready earlier can submit earlier or improve their work over the weekend. Students who are not ready earlier will appreciate an educator who doesn't respond to issues in the learner's life with "too bad, you should have been perfect like I want to pretend I was".
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_10: **Don't assume anything about your students' schedules. Set your deadlines so everyone can manage their time based on their own needs.**
You are concerned about encouraging your students to do work on the weekends. Consider that many students have customer service jobs that require them to work on the weekends (retail, restaurants, etc). They might work nights or swing shifts. They might have children to care for at certain times. You have *no way* of knowing if doing homework on a Saturday or Sunday is convenient for them or not.
Don't arbitrarily pick a deadline based on what you perceive to be best for them. Give your students a full week to work on assignments if you can, because they might only have small chunks of time available to do homework. **Make it due when it really needs to be done, such as when the next class starts.**
For example, I worked 10 PM to 7 AM Thursday through Sunday for my first couple of years in college. I often worked on homework during my lunch breaks, which could be at 2 AM on Monday morning. I'm sure all of my instructors assumed I would/should be sleeping at 2 AM, but it was actually a perfect opportunity to finish up homework.
Since there will always be students that procrastinate, and some percentage will inevitably have an emergency at the last moment, you may want to make it clear at the beginning of the course that you are not able to grant any extensions for any reason, because the deadline is already at the last possible moment. Also give the reason why that's the case, whether it's because you will review it in class, or there will be a quiz on it they need to be prepared for, or whatever the reason is. Be clear that since you are already giving extra time, you expect them to manage that time properly, so that an unexpected difficulty does not make their homework late.
You can always choose to make exceptions later for truly exceptional circumstances, but having a clear policy that you don't make exceptions will discourage people from taking advantage of your already generous deadlines. I've taken many classes with this policy, and I've never heard anyone complain about it.
Upvotes: 8 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_11: A colleague of mine recently included a question about deadlines in the course evaluation survey. The deadlines for the assignments were set on Saturday at midnight. The students (~40) overwhelmingly commented that deadlines on Saturday were "perfect", "not a problem", "very convenient". Only one student was dissatisfied with having the deadline on Saturday and commented that they would have preferred Sunday!
So, at least from the students, it seems there are no objections. Moreover, you are not "forcing" them to work during the weekend, but, by setting a weekend-deadline, you know that many of them will choose to. However, *when you set the deadline does not affect the total amount of work*: if they choose to work on the assignment during the weekend, they have more time off during the week.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_12: It is common for assignment due dates to be specified in the course outline/syllabus. Then the due dates are generally discussed during the first class period or two as the students become acclimated to the course. Since the students know well in advance what is expected of them it is their responsibility to decide when to get things done.
It is often wise to avoid changing due dates as this can be surprising for students. The exception to this is to provide additional time to complete the assignment. For example, if the assignment was originally due on Friday but you extend the due date to Sunday night few will complain. However, if the due date was originally Monday and you move it to Sunday night before this could cause problems. Of course, if there was no original due date this does not apply but it would be strange to have no general idea of when you want an assignment submitted when planning a course. I'm sure we all complain if the Dean changes the due date of various administrative task and students are no different.
Therefore, it is best to stick to the due dates specified in the course outline (if they are there) or to extend the due date but to avoid moving the due date up.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_13: Is IT support available on Sundays at your university? Is there somewhere students can go or somebody they can call if they run into technical difficulties submitting?
If your deadline is, say, noon on Monday or 5pm on Wednesday, then students can get help if they run into trouble. If your deadline is midnight on Sunday, then, on my campus that would mean anybody attempting to submit in the last 55 hours available would be unable to access anything but the out-of-hours hotline. Not only is the existence of this very new, it is of limited help at best. I wouldn't want to be a student relying on this in the face of an imminent deadline.
Note that technical issues can affect even the most adept and experienced users of virtual learning environments. A web browser or OS update, some change to the VLE itself can cause problems or some service can go down. Class policies should assume that Sod's Law has special applicability out of business hours.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_14: As most others have said, the main thing is: give students enough time to get the assignment done. Given that, no deadline is too bad.
Other than that, I think a good deadline should be at or near the "end of working hours" (or at the very start, which basically is the same). Because that maximises the student's capacity for time management. Most of us like to "flow", so planning a full day for a given assignment is normal. And if they need to use the whole last day (not the best idea but still a possibility) allow them. For most people that is at/after sundown. People working nights know they are doing it different and will adjust as usual for them.
As to the day. Do you do classes on weekends? So fine, make a deadline on sunday. You do not? So, why would you expect students to be working on a sunday then? Students may have days off too, no? Set the deadline for a regular working day, please. Sure, students use weekends (I did, I do, I will, I hope) but it is their choice not your's
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_15: Allow the students as long as you possibly can from when they have all required information for the assignment to when it must be turned in. The turn in time should be based on when you need to start grading in order to return the assignments when you plan to do so.
Every student has their own life, schedule, work commitments, classes etc. A narrow window that is fine for one student may be very inconvenient for others. Making the window as wide as possible increases the chances that every student will have an opportunity to concentrate on your assignment, and get the most benefit from it. Making the window narrower than necessary will lead to some students trying to do the assignment during a work lunch break, or cutting into their sleep time.
The students who choose to leave each assignment until just before its deadline are not your problem. They are adults making a sub-optimal choice. Look after the students who are doing their best with time management, but may not have a free hour until Saturday afternoon.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_16: It seems that your options are to either set a deadline on Friday evening or over the weekend. Let's turn the question around. Suppose you enforced the Friday deadline. Would you actually mark the submitted work over the weekend, or would you wait until Monday?
If the answer is that you'd take the weekend off and start marking on Monday, then it's the Friday deadline that's unreasonable. Why would you demand that students hand in work so that you can ignore it for two full days? Set the deadline for Sunday night (or even early Monday morning) and let the students manage their own time. If keeping the weekend work-free is important to them, they'll make sure their work is finished by Friday.
Conversely, if you would spend the weekend marking, a Friday deadline would make sense. Whether or not it would make more sense than a Sunday/Monday deadline depends on other factors.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_17: The common argument is that you are simply giving students a choice; if a student is still working on Sunday, that's their choice. While this argument certainly has some validity, taking it to its logical conclusion, if a sporting event were to allow steroids, then they are simply offering a choice, and if anyone takes steroids, that is simply their choice. Clearly, anyone competing against people using steroids would not feel that they have a "choice" whether to use steroids or not. Similarly, a student whose work is going to be evaluated in comparison to someone who worked the whole weekend may not feel that they have a "choice" whether to work the weekend as well. A central issue is how much of an impact extra time has on the result. The more sharply the assignment runs into diminishing returns with additional time spent, the less of an issue this is. (Note that if your assignments *do* offer a significant advantage to those who spend a lot of time on them, you should be taking a serious look at whether you can design the assignments differently and reduce time without reducing academic value; students should be evaluated on how well they understand the material, not how much time they're willing to spend on assignments. Sometimes spending a lot of time on assignments is necessary, but as an instructor, one of your obligations is to work towards optimizing the value received/time spent ratio.)
Another argument is that you should not be doing time management for your students. While time management is primarily the student's obligation, that doesn't mean that instructors shouldn't consider it. Instructors should design their courses to support student learning, and that means taking students' challenges into account. There seems to be an undercurrent to this argument that procrastination is a form of mental weakness, and making accommodations for it is coddling students. However, procrastination is quite often a result of anxiety or other conditions that should be taken seriously, and not dismissed as merely being character flaws. There are going to be some people for whom dashing off a paper on Friday and turning it in knowing that they did the best they could because that's when the deadline is, is significantly less stressful than having a Sunday deadline and spending the weekend feeling like they "should" be spending the time polishing the paper and worrying whether there's some flaw that they could fix if they just spent more time on it.
These are issues that you'll have to weigh. There's no universal answer; I'm not saying that you definitely shouldn't have a Sunday deadlines, I'm just pointing out that there are valid concerns with such a deadline.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_18: If you intend to start grading the assignment when you get to your office on Monday morning, what would be the point in NOT allowing students until midnight Sunday? (And, of course, accepting work that arrived in the early hours of Monday morning, as long as it WAS 'on your desk' by start of work hours Monday.)
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_19: Clearly a Saturday/Sunday deadline is more generous than the previous Friday, but less generous than the following Monday. **If a deadline on the previous Friday was not unreasonable, then an extension to a deadline on the Saturday/Sunday cannot be unreasonable.** (After all, students can always hand it in on the Friday if they prefer.)
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_20: The only reason I can think of where this would not be "reasonable" is if the students weren't being given ample time to do the assignment.
If you were assigning the work on Friday, for example, and asking for it to be due on Sunday, that may not be reasonable. Why not let them have Monday morning to do the work? However, assuming the assignment only takes an hour or so to complete, there should be no problem with assigning something on, say, a Wednesday and having it due Sunday.
So long as there is enough lead time, that bit about students potentially procrastinating until Sunday is their problem, not yours. If you assign it on a Wednesday and it's not due until Sunday, it's not your fault if they elect to wait until the last minute just because you gave them extra time. If they don't like doing the work on Sundays, they will learn to carve out some time to get it done before the weekend.
One other recommendation I'd make: if there is a good reason for having a six PM Sunday deadline, then share that reason with your students. If I told my class, "I like to look over the homework submissions on Sunday night while I'm preparing my Monday lecture; that way, I can see if there is anything we might need to revisit," I think my students would respect that.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_21: As a student, and being the few ones that had a good computer at home at the time, I joined a few colleagues and often we did work at night *for several reasons*. I also had a couple of side jobs in my first few years of University.
One of the reasons, is that it can get pretty hot in the Summer time, and besides the night silence, you work cooler and focus more at night.
For me at the time, an assignment deadline of 0800AM Monday would allow me both to work during the day/or enjoy the beach in Summer time and working towards the assignment during the night.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_22: Just to throw my own two cents' worth in: I like to try to pretend that I won't necessarily demand anything of students (even grad students) outside of some sort of reasonable work-week. Otherwise, I'd feel that I was pretending to command more of their life than I'd really feel I have any right to.
So all due dates are "within the work week". Yes, this has implications for due dates that are early in the beginning of the work-week... Regardless of rationalizations about planning... I don't do this.
Also, by the way, all due dates are known at least two weeks or so prior, so there's hopefully no abusive creation of conflicts or sacrifices and so on.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_23: This is probably not a major concern for most of your students, but I mention it because it would have affected me as a student, and it has not yet been addressed by any of the other answers: Some students may belong to religious faiths in which doing work on Saturday or Sunday is prohibited. For example, observant Orthodox Jews and Seventh Day Adventists generally would not do homework from sundown Friday evening until sundown Saturday night. (I am not sure of specific Christian denominations that would have a similar prohibition against working on Sundays, but I have no doubt that they exist.) For such a student, making an assignment due on the weekend neither constitutes extra time nor a temptation to procrastinate; rather, it effectively means that they have one less day to get their work completed than the rest of the class.
Now, I don't think faculty should feel obligated to accommodate every student's religious observances -- Sabbath-observant people are used to living in a world that is not designed around our needs. But in the same way that you would probably not schedule an exam on Christmas day or Rosh Hashana, you might want to consider whether weekend deadlines place any of your students under a disadvantage relative to their classmates.
Upvotes: 1
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<issue_start>username_0: Usually to be accepted by a PhD program by a reputed university the admission committee looks for candidates who have made research contributions to the desired field (specially through publications). A Masters student however only starts his/her research work in the last semester and even if something substantial is done during that time, getting it published would take a fair amount of time. How is it possible then for a masters student who's applying for PhD showcase their publications in the application?<issue_comment>username_1: There are two ways to look at this question, both of which are answered in the comments. The first of which is just you asking, "I have submitted for publication, but they haven't been accepted yet." As <NAME> said, make a list, write submitted, and if it's in mathematics, you can even link to Arxiv.
But addressing the implication of the question that it is required to have publications to matriculate, I'm not sure that's entirely accurate. Many Ph.D. Programs accept students directly out of their undergraduate degree, and so to expect them to have published research would be generally unfair. It makes more sense for Ph.D. programs to be looking for students who have the capability for research. This capability can be shown through projects that go beyond the scope of the classroom, research with professors that didn't necessarily result in publication, or as astronat mentioned in the comments, by strong references letters from supervisors, professors, etc.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Submitted manuscripts do not carry the same weight as accepted publications (you can submit almost anything that you want). However, submitted manuscripts backed by strong letters of reference from people the admissions committee trust (preferably your advisor) are very important.
If a reputable member from their field declares that you have done work that is paper-worthy, the committee will generally trust their judgement even if the paper has not been published yet.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: You're making two false presumptions here. The first of these is:
>
> You can't start doing research until your thesis during your master's degree.
>
>
>
Most applicants for PhD positions start getting involved with research projects in some capacity well before their final semester. Many will start doing research toward the end of their bachelor's programs, which will give them time to get a paper or two into the pipeline before then.
The second problematic assumption is:
>
> Usually to be accepted by a PhD program by a reputed university the admission committee looks for candidates who have made research contributions to the desired field (specially through publications).
>
>
>
Admissions committees look for students who *have the potential* to make research contributions to the field in which they apply. Somebody can start in one field and move to another one for their PhD program, if they can convince the admissions committee that the move works.
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: I am doing a PhD with concentration on continental philosophy in Hong Kong (my MPhil also had the same concentration too), but I am really interested in political theory and political science and often audit relevant courses. I am wondering whether it is possible to get another PhD of political science in Germany, if I focus on empirical political science research or political theory, after finishing my current one, provided my German is fluent enough.<issue_comment>username_1: There are two ways to look at this question, both of which are answered in the comments. The first of which is just you asking, "I have submitted for publication, but they haven't been accepted yet." As <NAME> said, make a list, write submitted, and if it's in mathematics, you can even link to Arxiv.
But addressing the implication of the question that it is required to have publications to matriculate, I'm not sure that's entirely accurate. Many Ph.D. Programs accept students directly out of their undergraduate degree, and so to expect them to have published research would be generally unfair. It makes more sense for Ph.D. programs to be looking for students who have the capability for research. This capability can be shown through projects that go beyond the scope of the classroom, research with professors that didn't necessarily result in publication, or as astronat mentioned in the comments, by strong references letters from supervisors, professors, etc.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Submitted manuscripts do not carry the same weight as accepted publications (you can submit almost anything that you want). However, submitted manuscripts backed by strong letters of reference from people the admissions committee trust (preferably your advisor) are very important.
If a reputable member from their field declares that you have done work that is paper-worthy, the committee will generally trust their judgement even if the paper has not been published yet.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: You're making two false presumptions here. The first of these is:
>
> You can't start doing research until your thesis during your master's degree.
>
>
>
Most applicants for PhD positions start getting involved with research projects in some capacity well before their final semester. Many will start doing research toward the end of their bachelor's programs, which will give them time to get a paper or two into the pipeline before then.
The second problematic assumption is:
>
> Usually to be accepted by a PhD program by a reputed university the admission committee looks for candidates who have made research contributions to the desired field (specially through publications).
>
>
>
Admissions committees look for students who *have the potential* to make research contributions to the field in which they apply. Somebody can start in one field and move to another one for their PhD program, if they can convince the admissions committee that the move works.
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<issue_start>username_0: Can I put some references in the research article conclusion to clarify my future work?<issue_comment>username_1: The two main functions of a reference are:
1. Make sure that you don't take credit for someone else's work.
2. As an "external appendix", e.g. "you can read more about this in ..."
If your conclusion contains parts where function 1 applies you *have to* include the appropriate citations. If your conclusion contains a part where function 2 applies you *can* do so, but as a matter of style I would be reluctant to do so. A conclusion is there to emphasize the main points of your article. Adding a link to an "external appendix" is not helping.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: If the others' work is not relevant enough to be part of the big picture of the problem you lay out at the beginning of the article, then it may not be worthwhile to include it at the end. You can probably write the ending in a way that makes clear that you know people have already done work on it:
>
> These results might prompt us to revisit/further consider a broader/related question: [question]. [While X and Y have notably approached this question, a focus on [some aspect related to paper at hand] may shed new light on the subject.]
>
>
>
If your only reference to the other paper(s) is in the conclusion, do not criticize them. It's not the place for a nuanced critique that is needed in such a situation, plus you don't want to needlessly antagonize those authors and their colleagues, who may be among your reviewers. If a key part of your current research article is the critique of the other research, then it may be appropriate to bring it up again, but try to take the tone in the conclusion of "building on" others' research rather than "correcting their hideous mistake." ;)
Upvotes: 0
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<issue_start>username_0: I've been thinking how I proctor and design exams, and I suspect (from things I hear) that there is much more cheating than I find evidence of. What are the most common ways university students cheat, say in a large lecture math or science class? For instance, some possible ways are:
* looking at other students exams
* sneaking in a cheat sheet
* using a phone/prohibited device in class
* getting help on a bathroom break
* having someone else take the exam for you
* getting a copy of the exam in advance
* modifying an exam after grading and asking for points back
But I don't know if any of these happen often enough that I should do more than I currently do.
Ideally, I'd like an answer with data from some studies on cheating, but I'd welcome extensive ancedotal evidence as well.<issue_comment>username_1: The most common issue I observed is **looking at other students' exams**. A student who has a particularly good eyesight sits behind a second 1-alpha student and copies from the sheets of the latter student.
You forgot several variations on the topics you've mentioned, such as hacking to
* obtain the exam in advance
* modifying the exam in advance
* modifying the student's answers a posteriori.
We see attempts of such actions, and we have no idea of how many such attempts have been successful. It can be anything between 0% and 99%.
Another common thing we see are attempts to bribe the teaching assistants. It does happen, although rarely.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Another method described inadvertently by a student in a [question](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/120243/pen-cheat-method) that is probably going to be deleted soon:
>
> **Pen cheat method** [...] The method is called like that because you take a small piece of [paper] and then you insert it in your pen.
>
>
>
More generally, smuggling notes inside stationery --- for instance a large pencil case.
Another variant I have personally witnessed is a student bringing in notes on a sheet of squared paper of the same kind as the one distributed as scratch paper. Of course it's tricky to introduce it, but then once it's in using it will not look suspicious.
Upvotes: 1
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2018/02/19
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<issue_start>username_0: I’m an executive in digital marketing for a Fortune 100. I have 14 years of experience. But I am a college drop out. To grow in my career I’m competing with highly educated people.
What are my options academically to add to my resume?<issue_comment>username_1: If you have 14 years experience, academic achievements are almost irrelevant.
Instead, look at professional certifications, experience managing teams or projects, business achievements etc. as these are what others will look at.
You could go for an MBA - that could be appropriate at the level you are at, but it may not be worth the time and money to go through it. I looked at an MBA 15 years ago and it didn't have anything then that I couldn't get from other avenues. I have revisited the decision now I am looking at some more Director roles, and while it is a bit more tempting, it doesn't give me much for the time and money, whereas my professional certifications and board roles are much higher value to me.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: The obvious solution seems to be getting an MBA.
There're a lot of MBA programs that offer night/weekend classes so you don't have to abandon your current career trajectory to get the degree. They'll often try to charge you more since they assume that you'll have the cash, but it may still be a net win for you.
There're also online MBA programs. These are similarly convenient in that you might retain your current career while earning the degree.
You might check to see if your current employer offers educational assistance. Some might help pay tuition for you!
Finally, if an MBA isn't right for you for whatever reason, you could also look into doing a Business degree at a local community college first. I wouldn't usually recommend it as an MBA seems like the better solution, though it's still an option that may be available to you.
Upvotes: 1
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2018/02/19
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<issue_start>username_0: I am an international student and doing Ph.D. in Physics at a US university.
My teaching assistant (TA) duty is to tutor undergrad students. I am supposed to solve whatever problems undergrads bringing to me. The problem is that I do not know which problems they are having to prepare in advance. Every undergrad from every lab, class in the physics department can bring whatever homework they have to me to ask. Also, I am an International Student and when I was an undergrad, I did not use the textbook undergrad here in US use and many problems are totally strange to me. Sometimes I cannot solve their homework problems. I felt very embarrassed and sorry since I wasted their time, sitting there for 15 -20 minutes to wait for me to solve it.
I am not a terribly bad student, I consistently perform about 80 percent for all the courses as well as standard exams like GRE Physics. But I feel like I am not smart enough to pursue a Ph.D. Sometimes I can come up with very good solutions for grad problems but I am not a fast thinker to solve some undergrad problems which might be solved in a very simple way.
Do grad schools train grad students to be teaching assistants? I think the Ph.D. students need to be prepared to do good TA jobs, isn't it? For example, if someone teaches labs, they should know the content of the lab for that day to come in preparation? How can I become a better TA given my described task?<issue_comment>username_1: How do grad schools train teaching assistants?
Some graduate programs offer specific workshops to teach the fundamentals of teaching. However, being a good TA usually comes down to 3 things:
* Proper understanding of the material
* Experience in teaching beforehand (I am a much better TA now compared to a few years ago)
* Preparation (this is necessary even if you are experienced)
**Nonetheless**, the content of your actual question (and corresponding comments) is quite worrisome. It is absolutely not the responsibility of a TA to be prepared to answer any question from students of every lab, especially without previous preparation. I would dare to say this is not even the responsibility of the professor teaching the course. I have yet to meet a professor who doesn't feel the need for previous preparation when teaching a course for the tenth time, nevermind teaching new courses for the first time.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: From what I see, no one actually trains TAs. There may be a workshop or two that will tell you to be consistent when grading and to not get into unnecessarily close relationships with students, but that's it.
As for your particular situation, I find it weird that you have to solve whatever problems students bring you; perhaps, you're misunderstanding your duties. First, students are supposed to do their homework themselves. Second, you cannot possibly know the contents of all courses. I'd imagine that your actual duties are: 1) if you know the material the student is asking about, you help them navigate through it but you do not solve the problems for them; 2) if you don't know the material, you send the student to some other TA. Anyway, try speaking to other TAs about these issues, they'll likely give you some advice.
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: A large portion of students in a class I'm taking did very poorly on the first project that was assigned in the class. The professor has decided to allow students that did not get full points on the project to increase their grade on project 1 by a percentage of their project 2 grade.
However, the way the that increase is calculated does nothing for the people that did project 1 correctly and received full points. I feel that this is an unfair application of extra credit as it only rewards those that didn't do the first project correctly.
Am I being reasonable when I see this as unfair?<issue_comment>username_1: Offering students a chance to improve their assignments grades is something I have done for every weekly assessment in my teaching course. The underlying idea behind offering a chance to improve grades is in the instructor offering an incentive to students for giving the test a second thought, thus putting more work in, likely resulting in better understanding of the topic. The reason why I did for all tests and students was to avoide "unfairness".
However, it can happen that most students fail miserably at a test. When this does happen, the most likely explanation is that the instructor prepared a test that was simply too hard for its audience. This happens rarely, but regularly (professors are not omniscient gods, professors learn just as you do, professors regularly move to new courses and then they have to calibrate the material on that particular student body). In that case, giving a second chance is a way to correct for this effect. This correction should be designed in such a way as not to change the "leatherboard" in student grades. If that is the case, then the entire class benefits, and there is no unfairness.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: You don't indicate where you are, but I'm going to assume the US or places with similar systems.
What is the meaning of the final grade in a course? You can generally look in your handbook or catalog for the definitions. You won't find "was better than classmates" in the definitions, I'm quite certain. (Which is why I detest curve based grade assignment.)
Instead, grades are supposed to indicate a level of performance or degree of learning. Say a course had only two exams. A midterm and a final. If someone gets an F on the midterm and an A on the final, how do we reconcile those grades? If the course is progressive in nature like mine, I may be inclined to assign a grade of A because that represents the final mastery: I don't care, actually, that someone couldn't do X at the midterm if at the final they demonstrate X and Y.
A different student who made an A on both might be mad, but why? In both cases, at the end of my course, they demonstrated X and Y which was ultimately the point of my class.
If a professor allows students to redo work, in effect they are saying "well, you didn't demonstrate proficiency, but for this course it is necessary for you to do so, so let's see if you can on a second chance".
At the end of the day, if you feel your performance was better than theirs, and make the same or higher grade than them, why should you be concerned?
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: Put yourself in the shoes of the students who did poorly, it's not about punishment or unfairness, but rather about offering more practice to the more unexperienced.
If you are worried that your hardly earned grade loses value because your teacher decided to give another chance to those who did poorly, just think of it this way : *Learning is personal and should be about self-development and inner growth. Not about comparing your medals.*
Giving another chance is like giving more practice. More practice may lead to a better understanding of things, and what have not been understood in project 1 by some students, may be crystal clear to them after finishing the project 2 (I'm kind of exaggerating, but you get the gist).
This allows for a better global level in the class. Let's make an analogy with the army, the physically "weakest" should always be pulled up by the physically "strongest" recruits during physical activities. And sometimes, the physically weakest are also the mentally strongest.
If you think it is unfair, you may not have the right mindset, learning is personal and the learning curve depends on each and every individual. There should be no competition when learning something.
We see this kind of competitive mindset very often in the academic world, it can be sane as long as people use their strengths and advantages to help others out, but it can also be pretty toxic if it's just a "size comparison" kind of behavior and people stomp each other.
I've personally been called things during my computer science studies (where students are usually pretty cruel to the less experienced ones), for example, I'd often break my Linux distribution, and have to repair it, and the other students would make fun of me about it.
This makes them feel socially safe and accepted by using mockery. By mocking someone in difficulty, you try and place yourself above them, because you are probably lacking confidence and have the need to express yourself as superior in one field or another.
That said, just use the occasion to practice more on project 2, fine tune things, get experienced, and even "master" the topic of your subject. There's never too much practice.
Upvotes: 2
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2018/02/20
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<issue_start>username_0: I was doing literature review and I came across a paper which is in the area of my interest but has been retracted because of duplicating the figures (technical drawings) of other papers.
Can I cite this paper in my literature review?
Also, is it ethical to work on the topic of this retracted paper?<issue_comment>username_1: Why not cite the paper it was retracted for duplicating?
The retraction isn't a reason not to work on the same topic as that paper, but if it's retracted for plagiarism, then there are likely better papers that will fit its functional need.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: You should not cite a retracted paper
=====================================
Retracted papers are no longer part of the scientific record. Their original publication was in error. If there was a small fix required, a correction could be issued, but in this case it seems that the journal editors deemed it necessary to retract it. You don't know for sure the details behind their decision, but if you trust their judgement in deciding which papers ought to be published (which you implicitly do, in citing published papers), then you have no rational reason not to trust their judgement in deciding which papers ought to be retracted.
You can work on the topic of a retracted paper
==============================================
Assuming here you mean the same general area, I don't see a problem with this ethically. For example, [a paper on learning in cotton-top tamarin monkeys was retracted](http://archive.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2010/08/10/author_on_leave_after_harvard_inquiry/) due to mistakes (or possibly misconduct?) in data coding. It is in no way unethical for other scientists to continue to work on how cotton-top tamarin monkeys learn things.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: ### You *Absolutely Can* Cite a Retracted Paper
Research is about telling the truth about facts of reality. You can cite any fact of reality you want if it is relevant to your research; if someone says something, you can report that they said it. You can cite a published academic paper; you can cite a newspaper article; you can cite a letter; you can cite a Post-It note or a tweet; you can cite that thing your neighbour said to you over the back fence when he got really drunk that time.
Generally researchers cite claims/information from academic papers as a source of authoritative information that has been through the process of peer review. However, there is certainly no rule that confines academics from citing information from other sources, including sources that have not been through peer review, or have been through it, but have later been retracted. There are many cases where it might be useful to cite a paper that has been retracted. There may be cases where you want to cite something from a retracted paper, where the part you are citing is undisputed, and the cause of the retraction had nothing to do with the part you are citing. There may be cases where you want to cite a claim that has been retracted, but you still think the claim is relevant despite its retraction. There may even be cases where you want to cite a retracted paper because you want to talk specifically about it having been retracted (e.g., if you are doing research on how often and why academic papers in some field are retracted).
Now, if you cite a retracted paper, it is proper practice to *disclose to your reader* that it is a retracted paper, and this should be done in your bibliography where you list the citation details, and should probably also be done in your main body text (e.g., Johnson 2011 - retracted). If you are citing something from the paper that is a reason for the retraction, you should make it clear to your reader that you are citing a claim that has been retracted (and hence has not passed peer review).
The notion that retraction of a paper precludes you from citing it has several obvious absurdities. First, it would make research on retracted publications extremely awkward, if not impossible. Secondly, it would implicitly require that other sources of material that have not passed peer-review could also not be cited. Thirdly, it is tantamount to claiming that writers/editors have the prerogative to preclude you from reporting what they have written. If a politician says something scandalous, and then says "retracted!" does that mean you're not allowed to report it in your research?
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_4: I see at least two aspects to your question: can a retracted article, in general, be cited in other research; and can a literature review include a retracted article in its review?
**Can a retracted article, in general, be cited in other research?** YES. On this point, I have little to add beyond username_3's excellent answer. I disagree with those that think that only scholarly or only peer-reviewed articles should be cited in scholarly work. Anything can be cited, but especially if what is cited is not peer-reviewed, then the citing author is responsible to verify the validity of what they cite. (We should even be responsible to verify the validity of the peer-reviewed work that we cite, but because there is so much research out there, it is understandable that we generally trust the peer-review process to do this validation for us.)
**Can a literature review include a retracted article in its review?** YES. I want to be very clear that such an article is NOT part of the scholarly body of peer-reviewed literature--it has been retracted, so does not have that quality stamp. However, I strongly believe that a literature review should include [grey literature](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey_literature)--the body of scholarly research that is not peer-reviewed, and even when meaningful, high-quality practitioner articles or books. However, you need to be clear that if you cite grey literature (including retracted articles, in your case), you should bear the responsibility to appraise and validate the quality of such work that has not been peer-reviewed. For your readers, it would be irresponsible of you not to verify that the work you cite is valid, particularly if other scholars have not already done so (that is, through peer-review). In particular for a retracted article, you should definitely explicitly mention to your readers that it was retracted and that you are knowingly citing it anyways.
Finally, you asked, **"is it ethical to work on the topic of this retracted paper"**? You are free to work on the topic of any article, whether published or not, retracted or not. As long as you cite and acknowledge the source of original ideas, then you are fulfilling your ethical responsibility. If your concern is that the retracted article no longer has a standard scholarly citation, well [there is a good question and answer on how to correctly cite a retracted article](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/85217/how-to-correctly-cite-a-retracted-paper).
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: I am applying for a Ph.D. position at Netherlands and I see that there will be a promoter and an advisor. I have never seen such a title as "promoter". What is the difference between the two titles?<issue_comment>username_1: As far as I understand, in the Netherlands, only full professors may be appointed "promoter", i.e. the official advisor, the super-boss if you will. Other faculty members must apparently get authorization from the university (see comment).
So if you are going to be supervised by someone who is not full professor (e.g. associate/assistant professor), that person will be appointed as "(co)advisor", while a full professor will be acting as an official advisor/promoter and will chair the doctoral examination committee.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: To add to the previous answer: an advisor is likely to be your daily supervisor, meaning that you have most contact with him/her. This person can also be a full professor. Your Promotor is a full professor (often head of department) who is likely to be too busy to meet often (though their level of commitment differs). An assistant professor is (since a couple of years) allowed to also be a promotor.
In short: the advisor is someone you'll spend more time with and should be there to help you with practical matters.
Upvotes: 2
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2018/02/20
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<issue_start>username_0: The word "paper" on this site seems to be extensively used to refer to serious *scientific* publications/articles by PhD students and other researchers.
Now I am coming across its use by students completing a diploma in legal executive studies — which is not even bachelor's degree level. Here are real examples:
* *I live in ... and will be continuing on with my Legal Exec papers from home, having completed two papers last year.*
* *I have finished 3 papers and I hope to complete 3 papers this year.*
* *Only 2 more papers towards completion!*
* *I am hoping to complete my two final papers this semester (Business and Estate Law).*
Never having been a student in an English-speaking country before, I am now struggling to perceive what exactly those "papers" are. Can someone please explain? The examples above are from New Zealand.<issue_comment>username_1: In the context of the examples, I think "paper" is (rightly) being used as a synonym for "essay." Source: <http://www.thesaurus.com/browse/essay>.
Academics have a plethora of terms to describe their written outputs, e.g., journal article, conference paper, technical report, manuscript, ... Moreover, those terms can be used to describe a single body of work. For example, "*I have submitted my manuscript to a conference. I'll publish it as a technical report, if it is accepted, to enable dissemination prior to publication of the conference paper. Hopefully, I'll publish an extended version as a journal article.*"
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_2: In the parlance used for undergraduate education at Cambridge, the word *paper* denotes a concept related to exams. Essentially, you complete a paper by sitting an exam. The exam might offer questions related to several courses, and expect you to solve a certain number of these. Often, students would not even have taken all courses appearing, so couldn't answer all of these.
It would not surprise me to see academic phrases used in the same style in New Zealand, Australia or South Africa.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: In this New Zealand context, a paper is a course and the terms are used interchangeably, usually with one or other being the formal label at any given institution and the other in common use as well. In either case, it is a single class that can be enrolled in individually, with its own final grade, that can be credited towards a degree, diploma, or certificate.
For reference, we can see [this guide from Victoria University of Wellington](https://www.victoria.ac.nz/study/programmes-courses/undergraduates/degree-structure):
>
> Courses are blocks of work that are taught over one or sometimes two trimesters—they’re often referred to as ‘papers’ by other universities.
>
>
>
or [this glossary from the University of Canterbury](https://www.canterbury.ac.nz/study/qualifications-and-courses/university-terms-explained/):
>
> Courses are 'classes' or 'papers' that involve blocks of lectures usually taught over one semester.
>
>
>
as well as the [University of Waikato's Catalogue of Papers](https://papers.waikato.ac.nz/), which lists all the courses they offer, or the similar ["Search for a paper" page from the University of Otago](https://www.otago.ac.nz/courses/subjects/), and similar items for the other universities.
It does not refer to an exam or to a term paper. ["Exam paper" does refer](https://www.canterbury.ac.nz/library/search-our-collections/exam-papers/) to the physical document given in an exam and the set of questions on it, but never "paper" alone. All of these terms are often used differently elsewhere.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]
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<issue_start>username_0: This question is prompted by two very similar examples reported online: [this one](https://medium.com/@dinachka82/the-teens-will-save-us-af5448b4ddfd) ([also on Twitter](https://twitter.com/dinachka82/status/965270163011620864)) and [this one](https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2016/11/teaching-1984-in-2016/508226/). In both, teachers introduce aspects of the political system described in the 1949 novel [*Nineteen Eighty-Four*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four) to a classroom in which they are (or will shortly be) studying the novel, as an aid to understanding the issues it raises. Essentially, the teachers ask students to secretly or publicly report on the behaviour of other students, introduce points systems and punishments, etc.
In both cases, as far as I can tell, the students are unaware that the experiment is going on, and it's more of an exercise than an experiment; its purpose is not to gather any data or test a hypothesis.
**My question is: from a legal and an ethical review standpoint, what would a lecturer typically need to do before introducing these sorts of activities into their class, in the way described above, as part of a learning exercise?**
I am not asking for personal advice here, I'm just interested in how this sort of thing would be assessed by a typical ethical review panel. I work at a research institute where we do have a very well-defined ethical review process but only for animal studies; we don't do research involving human subjects. Furthermore, several of the steps we would normally be expected to provide (sample size, etc) do not actually apply here since the purpose is not actually research, it is teaching "pretending" to be research: the experiment does not need to generate any meaningful data to fulfil its purpose (unless you redesigned it as a study of the effectiveness of this method in raising understanding of certain issues).
Several of the comments on Twitter noted that this would probably be considered unethical as described; the participants have not consented to be involved, for example. Does the fact that the 'experiment' is not (scientifically) actually an experiment make any difference? Lastly, these experiments sound like they are high-school environments; does the answer change depending on whether the students concerned are above or below 18?
Somewhat related: [Ethics of conducting research on a class](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/20627/ethics-of-conducting-research-on-a-class).<issue_comment>username_1: Short answer: You have to make sure no one cries. If you create an environment that results or reasonably could be expected to result in emotional hurt, then you've been unethical.
At university, there will be a "human subjects" review of some sort. Anyone writing a grant or proposal for anything will have to be passed by this review. I've never done experiments on human subjects, but every grant I've received required an additional piece of paper which stated that there were no human subjects involved (in my math research.)
In your case, as you say, it's not really an experiment, but a teaching technique. I don't know what to say about this, exactly, but I would not be surprised to find that the human subjects panel or office or whatever also oversees such things. No doubt you have to be careful.
Story from 1970: I was in 5th grade in a small town in Nebraska which had a teachers college. Every master's of ed candidate at the college had to do something for a thesis and often this was some sort of experiment on a classroom full of students. Lucky us; those of us in town were the handiest subjects for all these theses. As I moved through the Kearney, Nebraska school system, I was the subject of 4 or 5 experiments each year. We were video-taped, quizzed, surveyed, lied to, etc., on a regular basis.
In 5th grade, my teachers along with some master's candidate thought it would be instructive if they did the "Blue-eyed /Brown-eyed" thing to us. They announced one morning that a newspaper article stated, scientifically, that brown-eyed children were smarter than blue-eyed children. Then then segregated us and the smart kids, not needing so much instruction, got to play games and have snacks. While the inferior kids had to do extra math work sheets, you know, because they needed the extra practice, being so dumb and all.
Of course this was supposed to teach the (100% white) children about racial discrimination and how bad it hurt one's feelings. We had girls in tears by the end of the day. The next day, there were some red-faced daddies with their fists cocked at the school. "You make my daughter cry; I break your ribs." I tell this story to illustrate the ethical problem.
I don't think the situation would be much different with college freshlings. If you hurt their feelings too much, Daddy is likely to visit you. Set aside whether the human subjects panel approved of your experiment or whether there are legal remedies.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_2: Virtually every modern university has an ethics procedure for experiments conducted on human subjects. If an academic wants to conduct an experiment on students (especially one that involves deception) they would generally need to put in a proposal to their university ethics board. This would disclose the details of the proposed experiment, and the nature of any deception of subjects, and the university would make a decision as to whether or not to allow the experiment to proceed.
Experiments involving deception of subjects are often approved (many psychological experiments are of this kind), but it is usual to require that the subjects be "debriefed" after the experiment, to disclose to them the deception they were subjected to, and how the experiment worked. In cases where the deception is likely to be distressing to the subjects, or the gains from the experiment are minor, the ethics board might decide not to allow the experiment to proceed, or might require it to be altered in some way.
---
Now, with regard to the particular situation described in the [*Atlantic* article](https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2016/11/teaching-1984-in-2016/508226/), this does not appear to be an academic experiment at all; it is an extended High School class exercise that uses some mild deception to illustrate the world of the book through mimicking aspects of it in the conduct of the classroom. Students are subjected to some overbearing actions by the teacher to give them a small taste of totalitarianism. Nothing described in the article would be unlawful, since at worst it involves cases of nasty looks, overbearing control, or dressing down a dissenter.
High Schools generally do not have formal ethics panels like the universities, since they do not conduct academic research. It is likely that there is significant teacher discretion on how to conduct classes, but this would be subject to oversight by the school principal. In this case I think it is unlikely that the exercise would have been subjected to any preliminary scrutiny of the kind that would occur in a university ethics application. Obviously students would be free to object to this teaching exercise and take the matter up with the school principal, but this does not appear to be a case of experimentation that would go to an ethics board.
The basic ethical question at play here is: is it okay to be overbearing and mildly bullying to your students in order to give them a genuine taste of what totalitarianism is like. Personally, I see no problem with the exercise, since the likely distress to students is mild in comparison to the value of the learning experience, and the students are made aware of the deception after the exercise is completed, so that they can discuss it in relation to the book. Others may disagree, but to me it sounds like a very creative and useful teaching exercise, and the teacher doesn't take it too far. I think it is quite brilliant, and I would happily enrol my own children in this class!
Upvotes: 3
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2018/02/20
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<issue_start>username_0: If I was invited to give a talk but was not able to attend, could it be listed under invited talks in a CV? My point is that there was an invitation and it worth to show it. Similarly, a paper can be accepted for a conference and no one of the authors presented it but it was published in the proceedings. Or a someone receive an award as a sign of recognition.<issue_comment>username_1: **No**: Don't list anything that you didn't do.
---
From [a comment](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/104226/invited-to-give-a-talk-but-could-not-attend-can-it-be-on-cv/104227#comment273801_104227) on my answer:
>
> He's not saying he'll pretend he gave the talk. The invitation itself is a good indicator of his status as an expert in the relevant field, at least in the eyes of the people running the conference. If this is relevant to the job, I don't see a reason not to include it, as long as he makes it clear he didn't give the talk.
>
>
>
which was [extended](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/104226/invited-to-give-a-talk-but-could-not-attend-can-it-be-on-cv/104227#comment273802_104244) to add:
>
> If Google or Apple offered me a job, but I couldn't relocate or whatever, I'd absolutely put it on my CV.
>
>
>
[A comment](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/104226/invited-to-give-a-talk-but-could-not-attend-can-it-be-on-cv/104227#comment273807_104244) on another answer provides an excellent response:
>
> if I saw such a claim on your CV I wouldn't even invite you to an interview. If you didn't take the job, if you didn't go to the presentation, if you didn't do the thing, it doesn't count. It never happened; it doesn't count.
>
>
>
Another commenter [writes](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/104226/invited-to-give-a-talk-but-could-not-attend-can-it-be-on-cv/104227#comment273814_104245):
>
> It may be a accomplishment, but it is also a opportunity wasted. You do not really want to underline your failures to execute. Its a bit like saying businessman saying they got a big contract but never fulfilled it. People are looking for people who can get things done.
>
>
>
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: **An invited talk is not about being *invited* but more about *giving a talk*.**
Strictly speaking, there is nothing that you did: You have not given the talk, thus, I would not include it into the CV.
Regarding your comparison with papers that were not presented: The main contribution of a paper is the *result* which is included in the proceedings. Presenting a paper is just an extension and explanation of your results. So the majority of the novelty and effort went into the paper itself. Please note that there are also journal papers which are (mostly) not presented at all. The same is true for conference papers which I include in my CV despite I have not presented them *myself*, because on of the co-authors did it.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: **No.**
For the same reason that you do not list the jobs that you declined on your CV.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: I don't understand the other answers. Being invited to give a talk at a conference is an indicator of esteem, regardless of whether you could make it. I see no harm in writing `Great Conference (2017), invited to give plenary talk on topic X, but could not attend`.
Mentioning in CVs declined jobs, grants and scholarship and funding is common in some fields, see e.g. the results of this search, <http://www.google.com/search?q=high+energy+physics+cv+declined>
In fact, one of the first hits mentions at least half a dozen declined declined talks
<http://cosmo.nyu.edu/aim/macfadyen_cv.pdf>
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: Despite everyone saying 'no', I'm pretty sure yes, you can. Is that a good idea? Most likely not.
Unless that talk is really prestigious and invitation to it underlines an important accomplishment and you had a good reason not to attend, like sickness or no means to make a trip AND you have nothing better to put on your CV AND you can specify that you were invited, did not attend, because of *(a good reason)* without writing an essay on your CV, AND you make it valuable to your potential employer and not look like an exercise in vanity, AND... well, you get the point
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_6: Being invited does certainly count for something. However, if you were unable to attend, for whatever reasons, then you shouldn't put it on your CV.
`It wasn't important enough to me at the time, but I am adding it to my CV because I think it could impress someone...`
Having said that... if you actually wrote the paper (or, co-wrote) that prompted the invitation, then you should definitely add that to your CV, because the writing is an achievement.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_7: Just look how many answers and comments around here think it's a negative thing.
Sure, with the recruiters that don't it might be a positive point. But you'll lose many others that will think it's pitiful.
Compare the possible gain (little) against the possible non-invitations.
Upvotes: 2
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2018/02/20
| 512
| 2,114
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<issue_start>username_0: As a theorist my chief capital costs are software and computers (for large calculations and simulations). If starting at a new institution I would ask for these in my start up budget (about 20k USD). But in 5 years these items might all be obsolete and incompatible. What do I do then?
I understand that most schools have computer replacement programs every x years but the type of computers I would be asking for in start-up are quite expensive and not your typical campus machine.
I am curious what other theorists have done. Especially interested in those that might be at a primarily undergraduate institution.<issue_comment>username_1: >
> What do I do then?
>
>
>
I daresay that there's only one thing you can do: start to apply for funding as soon as possible, proposing new projects, so that you can get the money required to upgrade your equipment or expand it.
And for what concerns software, when you first buy it, you might also want to buy a support plan for the updates. Over a time span of 5 years, you can probably save a couple of thousand euros/dollars (well, depends on the software, support plan etc.). Or consider free alternatives.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: I'm not at an undergraduate institution, but I *am* a theorist in a department that doesn't have many of them.
My summation of my startup costs were "People and computers".
A couple of things to potentially consider:
* *People*. Support for a programmer, or a grad student, or undergraduate salary for the summer.
* Consider negotiating for a recurring or longer term startup package. For example, my startup doesn't expire. I know someone else at another university who negotiated for "A workstation costing $X,XXX, replaced every 5 years".
* Data costs. If you use data sets, or could conceive of using data sets that cost money, you want to allocate startup to those.
* Similarly, travel and publication costs.
Another approach is to ask your Chair if the *Department* needs something, and put that in your startup in exchange for...favors, or unallocated funding, etc.
Upvotes: 3
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2018/02/21
| 458
| 1,879
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<issue_start>username_0: If a paper is too long, I was advised to split it into two papers. What is the general opinion of reviewers/editors on having "Part I", "Part II" literally in the title of the papers?
Or is it better if I replace "Part I", "Part II" by more descriptive titles?
Thanks. (My field is in Math.)<issue_comment>username_1: This keeps happening for a lot of people. Why don't you split it into different titles? What I mean is, try publishing the Part I and then publishing part II as an extension of part I. This has a huge advantage. Plus you get a citation.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: You can do that, though a better approach may be to title them something like
>
> Hypersingular monoids in graph theory. Part I: Definitions and basic properties
>
>
>
and then
>
> Hypersingular monoids in graph theory. Part II: Applications to semiregular smoothness theory of spiked stars
>
>
>
This way, you're a bit more expressive than just part 1 and 2.
The downside of this approach is that good journals will ask you to make sure that either "Part I" is already self-contained and of independent interest (which is probably difficult to achieve if you are currently splitting up something you've already written), or that you submit the two parts together (so that the combined oeuvre can be reviewed as a whole). The latter, of course defeats the purpose of splitting it in the first place.
Long papers are a hassle all around. It's difficult to get them through the review process, and much depends on what concretely you have in the paper(s). As a consequence, there is little that can be said in terms of specific advice in your situation without knowing the details of the paper. Talk to some of the experienced people in your field about the situation and ask them how they would suggest you handle it!
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]
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2018/02/21
| 424
| 1,598
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<issue_start>username_0: Usually preface is written in books and myself personally have not seen it in a thesis.
But, can a master's or doctoral thesis contain a preface?
Thanks<issue_comment>username_1: It's your work, so unless there are rules to the opposite, I would say go ahead. Many theses contain acknowledgments in a preface, for example -- most of the time thanking real people, but sometimes also their dog, a brewery, or imagined events. Read through enough theses and you will get the idea.
So, see whether there are rules, and if there are none talk to your adviser what is appropriate. Beyond that, *you're* the author and decide how best you want to say what you want to say.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: *Note: This was going to be a comment, but then I realized it actually answers the question that was asked.*
The following 2004 Ph.D. dissertation at Utrecht University has a preface on pp.
xi-xviii, so the answer is YES.
[**Ideas and Explorations : Brouwer's Road to Intuitionism**](https://dspace.library.uu.nl/handle/1874/90)
However, the question you possibly want answered is whether a Ph.D. dissertation at *YOUR* university can have a preface. To find the answer, you can ask someone knowledgeable about the specific dissertation format rules at your university, or you could visit the library shelves where recent Ph.D. dissertations are shelved and spend 20-30 minutes quickly flipping through the first few pages of the 100-200 most recent dissertations, keeping in mind that for some universities the answer might be department-specific.
Upvotes: 2
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2018/02/21
| 907
| 3,885
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<issue_start>username_0: As an example let's take the [University of Southampton, Malaysia branch](https://www.southampton.ac.uk/my/). At face level, the university opened a branch in Malaysia because it's a symbiotic relationship: the university earns more revenue + spread its brand name, and Malaysia gets to leverage the university's expertise to train its future engineers + provide employment (administrators, academics, support staff, etc).
For the Malaysia branch to have some legitimacy, some of its staff must be from the main UK campus. From the branch's "[our lecturers](https://www.southampton.ac.uk/my/about/staff.page)" page, this is indeed the case.
My question is, did these lecturers volunteer to go to Malaysia, or were they assigned by the university? Is it a good thing to be able to say one has worked in an overseas branch, or is it a distraction that must be endured for the sake of the university?<issue_comment>username_1: You will have to ask these specific people to know the exact details. But in general, in the UK, the employer cannot force you to relocate unless you have a mobility clause in your contract and the relocation is reasonable. It's unlikely that the employees had a relocation clause to Malaysia right from the start, and asking an employee to relocate halfway around the world is probably not reasonable. So no, these people certainly volunteered to move abroad.
More generally, most (tenured) academics expect to be considered more like citizens of their universities than the usual work-related subordination relationship implies, and tend to want to have some agency in defining their working conditions and goals. In particular, this implies stable employment conditions unless the employee wants to change.
As for why they wanted to move abroad: there can be plenty of reasons. They want to form new collaborations with people from there. They want to strengthen existing collaborations with people they already work with. They want to take up the challenge of teaching to students in another country. Their pay is better compared to the local standards of living. They want to learn a new language. They want to discover a new country. Etc.
(PS: This isn't the 16th century anymore. The mindset of thinking "We'll open up an establishment in the colonies to spread our wealth and knowledge for the indigenous people" should be a thing of the past. There are simply smart people living and working in Malaysia, and the university of Southampton wants to work with these people.)
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: There are plenty of job adverts for positions at these branches. The job specifies the expected division of time between the two locations. Usually there are perks attached to the time spent abroad, such as higher salary or accommodation costs covered.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: Expats that are sent/assigned from the home office are usually gloriously compensated - same/better standard of living as in the home country; international (read "prep") schools for the children; guaranteed number of returns back home; sometimes additional monetary compensation is tacked on for having to live in a country of certain levels of instability/danger - like "hazard pay". Usually you are at some elevated managerial level and probably hold an MBA or engineering degree.
There are some who simply don't want to uproot and leave their friends and families and their established lifestyles to a place where their native language might not even be spoken. On the other hand, there are those who would kill to be able to do just that. Probably the majority fall into the former category, hence the elevated perks, but what with international cell phones, email and Skype the world has become yet even smaller and more people are willing to uproot their lifestyles to exotics lands.
Upvotes: 2
|
2018/02/21
| 663
| 2,792
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<issue_start>username_0: I did an honours degree last year (4 year undergrad study with a research thesis). My supervisor shafted me towards the end of that year when I was coming up to submit my thesis by being absent with his own life issues and barely communicative, and gave me back drafts literally days before it was due. End result was I fell barely short of the requirements to get a PhD scholarship. So I discussed with my supervisor and he said I could write a paper with his assistance about my work, to bolster a future PhD application.
So we agreed on a date to catch up, the time came and I sent him an email. He has not responded at all, it's been 10 days at this point. Normally he would reply back quickly. I'm getting the strong feeling he's got yet another excuse, but I really need to do this for my professional development/future PhD application. What should I do next? Would it be possible to write the paper myself without assistance (I have all the data).<issue_comment>username_1: There are many reasons why people can miss an email; a likely possibility for busy people is that your email simply got buried under many others. So, don't assume he's trying to ignore you, and you should first bug him again (politely) about that.
It is also a good idea to start writing the paper on your own: your supervisor will be much more willing to help you improve a first outline or even a draft than to start from a blank page.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: The typical approach of a well-seasoned academic when getting a typical (esp. pre-PhD) student paper is: keep the results and figures, rewrite it all. A typical (there are some geniuses out there) BSc student is not able to write a competitive and concise research paper text. I mean-- yes, they can. But simply not good enough and in most cases too long. It would probably need to be edited so heavily that almost any merit is lost.
To me, personally, it's much easier to write the paper from scratch than to rewrite someone's text.
---
Notice that this answer does not weight in the previous email "absence" behaviour of your would-be-supervisor in any way.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_3: *Would it be possible to write the paper myself without assistance (I have all the data).*
If you are going to submit this to a journal without the person knowing or being a co-author, they are going to be displeased, and for good reason!
However, it this is just a fix-up of your "project write-up" that you submit along with your CV, then from an admissions point of view I would rather be perusing a good version that showcases your capabilities, than the rushed version that, in the story as related by you, was less good than it could have been due to circumstances beyond your control.
Upvotes: 0
|
2018/02/21
| 431
| 1,743
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<issue_start>username_0: I am considering applying to a university for a Ph.D. The university wants to know about papers I published - I heard that traditionally the first author (of e.g. 4) is often considered the main one.
I published 3 papers - I did have guidance by a Professor on how to choose a structure, but in the end I wrote it on my own. For some "internal" reasons, the university did not allow me to put my name first - and there were other names (next to my Prof's) added as well.
On each paper there are now 4-5 names and my name is either 2nd or 3rd place.
* How do I convey that I am the main author?
* How do I convey that I did the work?
I dont want to deny the effort of my Prof guiding me and helping me with questions, but I also dont want to make it sound like it was "a collaborative effort" by all authors.
Basically, I dont want to sound like a jackass.<issue_comment>username_1: I have seen different ways of this being handled but one way could be to write in brackets that you done around (50%) of the total work for the paper.
It is more common than you think, many published PhD thesis have papers in which the PhD student is the final author in all of the papers inside the thesis, but they include a note that they where responsible for 50% of the work.
Having papers published will look great regardless.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Possibly there is some other part of the application where you could detail your contributions on these papers - again without putting down your coauthors. This would be more helpful than author order (which is always a tenuous measure of author contributions as you now well know) in showing your independence on this work.
Upvotes: 1
|
2018/02/21
| 1,532
| 6,357
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<issue_start>username_0: I graduated in 2016 with a 2:2, which I feel was lower than what I could have achieved.
I had had some minor issues before starting university, however I had an amazing support system and managed to get these in check. I completed my first year with only the normal issues (homesickness at first and adjusting to living away from home) until just before the end. I failed the last two exams of the year, partly due to the same issues that reoccurred later.
I had been struggling with one of my elective modules and after talking with my tutor, he recommended not worrying about it as I could fail 20 credits and as a 10 credit module, it would not affect my grade. However, the day of I woke up and completely panicked, zoning in and out all morning. I walked to the exam, and blanked and ended up in my department building instead of the exam hall, which was 20 minutes away and I had to run down a very steep hill to make it to the exam. But I made it and sat the exam.
I injured my knee while running. The problem with this is that my main coping method is exercise and I was on crutches. I then managed to completely space out for the last exam of the year. Meaning I failed both these modules, which was my 20 credit allowance. Despite this I averaged a high 2:1 for the year.
I went into my second year, with added roles and responsibilities. I had lived in catered accommodation in first year and moved to self catered in my second year. I became the social secretary of the physics society and started another sport (total of three) I had been a super human in my first year and wanted to do more. This turned out to be a bad idea, as my mental health started to decline, and my grades took a hit.
I then tried to pull them back up in my third year, but poor living conditions caused a physical health decline, which then exacerbated the mental health problems to a point where some days I couldn't get out of bed.
The main problem being that in my third year I was living with some really shitty people and they were really scathing of mental health issues, meaning I didn't seek the help I needed and am now getting and didn't apply for special circumstance. Hindsight really is 20:20.
I have taken time out of my career to get this sorted and to make sure that I am taking the right path for me. I have now ruled it down to three possible paths and want to apply to see what I can do.
I just want to know whether I should mention these issues and the steps I've taken in my time off to overcome these, on my personal statement. I don't seem to get anywhere else to put this and none of my previous lecturers know about this to mention on any references.<issue_comment>username_1: **Firstly,**
I believe you should indeed advise your tutors about your mental health condition and what you have been going through, and that you are motivated and willing to do whatever you can to succeed.
Not to make them biased about your condition and kinder to you on the grades, but to inform them about what you are going through in case your grades suddenly take a hit. Also make sure the tutors keep these informations about you for themselves if you do not wish to deal with people's judgmental behaviors.
You don't have to keep this as a personal burden, don't hesitate to seek for help or talk to people about your personal/scholar record. You shouldn't feel crippled about it, but rather embrace it and who you are, and work on fixing it (if possible of course).
I strongly suggest that you do not give any importance to the "shitty people" you are referring to, and that you focus on yourself, your studies and your well-being, which is the most important.
If you judge that it is important for you to tell your tutors about it, I think you should.
**Secondly,**
That being said, for your statement of purpose, as far as I remember, the point of it is to describe your personal record, what has influenced your career path, professional and personal interests, and so on...
And again, if you judge that it is important for you to mention, or justify some things about your personal record, why not mention it? Remember that statement of purpose is the only part of your application over which you have full control. So it might be worth it. Just make sure it remains an informative aspect and not the core of your SoP.
**I would personally mention it.** But it's up to you to decide wether you should share this very personal part of your life or not, it isn't easy for everyone.
Best of luck to you.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: You should not. But if you write it in the way you wrote the question explanation (rich in useless details) nobody would consider it. Another aspect you need to work on: given the text, the only thing important to you are/were the grades, not career development and knowledge. The major reason you attend classes is to acquire knowledge and wisdom, with grades being a metric of how this acquisition went. If you go for grades without actually acquiring knowledge, your career will get very dull.
The statement is about your passion to the field (which is ... ?), about how you want to teach, sing, dance, engineer, heal, fight, prosecute or whatever the degree is about, how enthusiastic you are about it. While pushing this concept can be enforced by your past, the statement shouldn't be a judgement of what you did in the past.
We all have ups and downs. Finding the one responsible for downs (like the shitty people from the junior year for example) is an evidence of lack of personal responsibility. You had your down, you overcame it, that's good for you, but it was because of you, not because of other people.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: **Mention it, yes, but don't dwell on it.**
The majority of your personal statement should be devoted to explaining your motivations for further study and (if it's a research Master's) your potential to do good research. However, since your mental health had such a big impact on your grades, I would add one or two sentences explaining that this was the case.
Ultimately, the most important thing to emphasise if you do mention it is that your mental health is stable now and you are not expecting to experience similar problems during the Master's course.
Good luck with your applications.
Upvotes: 0
|
2018/02/21
| 1,232
| 3,728
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<issue_start>username_0: I recently accepted a TT asst prof position in computer science at an elite SLAC in the US.
During my job search I perused <NAME>'s book "The Professor is In", and I found it very valuable, especially to reflect about different aspects of the job search process that I hadn't considered.
I'm now looking for a similar resource for new faculty members.
Here's what I found (but haven't bought yet):
* <NAME>, Advice for New Faculty Members, 2000
* <NAME>, Tenure hacks: The 12 secrets of making tenure, 2014
Does anyone have any comment/review about these books, or advice about any other written resource?
Thank you.<issue_comment>username_1: On the teaching side, I wish that I'd read at the start of my career:
* Ambrose, et. al., *How Learning Works*
* Bain, *What the Best College Teachers Do*
And specifically for math instructors:
* Krantz, *How to Teach Mathematics*
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: For new researchers/teachers in France, there is [this welcome guide](http://postes.smai.emath.fr/apres/accueil/livret/livret-02-17.pdf) entitled "Livret d'accueil des mathématicien(ne)s" written by the French math societies (SMF, SMAI, SFS). Some of it is specific to mathematics, but most of it appears to be suitable for everyone. (I hope I will have the need to read it someday...)
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: [This useful guide](https://github.com/jeanqasaur/against-junior-faculty-stress), called *Against Junior Faculty Stress Culture* recommends the following resources:
* [The Art of Saying "No"](http://www.facultydiversity.org/?page=MM_ArtofSayingNo), <NAME>, National Center for Faculty Development & Diversity, date unknown.
* [The Awesomest 7-Year Postdoc or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Tenure-Track Faculty Life](https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/the-awesomest-7-year-postdoc-or-how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-the-tenure-track-faculty-life/), <NAME> (Harvard Computer Science), *Scientific American*, July 2013.
* [On Avoiding Stress Culture](http://jxyzabc.blogspot.com/2016/09/on-avoiding-stress-culture.html), <NAME> (Carnegie Mellon Computer Science), personal blog, September 2016.
* [<NAME>'s Personal Manifesto](https://plus.google.com/+ShriramKrishnamurthi/posts/AF24ykaQYXw?sfc=true), <NAME> (Brown Computer Science), Google+, September 2016.
* [The Best Way to Not Get Tenure](https://blue.cse.buffalo.edu/posts/2016-10-22-the-best-way-to-not-get-tenure/), <NAME> (University at Buffalo), personal blog, October 2016
* [Why I Don’t Tell Trainees How Many Hours I Work as a Tenure-Track Faculty Member](http://drsherrirose.com/why-i-dont-tell-trainees-how-many-hours-i-work-as-a-tenure-track-faculty-member) and [Advice on How to Be an Effective PhD Researcher](http://drsherrirose.com/how-to-be-an-effective-phd-researcher), <NAME>, personal blog, June 2016 and August 2015
* [You Do Not Need to Work 80 Hours a Week to Succeed in Academia](https://dynamicecology.wordpress.com/2014/02/04/you-do-not-need-to-work-80-hours-a-week-to-succeed-in-academia/), <NAME>, personal blog, February 2014
* [How to Live in Paradise: A Guide for New and Disgruntled Professors](https://www.cs.virginia.edu/~evans/paradise/), <NAME> (University of Virginia Computer Science), personal blog, 2015.
* [How I (sometimes) achieve academic work life balance](https://medium.com/bits-and-behavior/how-i-sometimes-achieve-academic-work-life-balance-4bbfc1769820), <NAME> (University of Washington iSchool), Medium, 2017.
It is on github, so don't hesitate to expand it by making pull requests!
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]
|
2018/02/21
| 494
| 1,993
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<issue_start>username_0: I am a senior undergraduate student in computer engineering considering applying for Ph.D in the US. In my country we use a grading system based on percentages rather than GPA and it works as follows:
* 85-100% ---> Distinction
* 75-85% ---> Very Good
* 65-75% ---> Good
* 50-65% ---> Pass
My cumulative grade will probably be about 77% which lands me in the top third of my class. My question is how will graduate admissions committees view and evaluate my academic performance given the differences in the grading systems?<issue_comment>username_1: A general answer, not just for countries but even for schools in the US we're not familiar with, is that we don't know how to evaluate transcripts/grades. Different places apply different standards, both within their curriculum, and for assigning grades. A 77% on its own could be brilliant or horrible (and we mainly just care about grades in relevant classes). One thing we'll sometimes do is check with other members of our department who might be familiar with the country/school's grading system and standards.
In any case, the main indicator we use for how talented and well prepared the student is are the letters of recommendation. As long as you're getting letters from some professors who are known abroad for their research and/or are familiar with the system in the US, you should get helpful letters.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: When I was applying for graduate programs in the US, I reported my local GPA (in a 10-point scale) and, for some schools, I had to translate it into the American-type GPA. I checked some education forums on how to do that. Most importantly, I asked my undergrad/master's school for statistics on the average GPA, the average time of graduation (50% of those who graduate do so in more than the expected 5 years) and the attrition rate (quite high, too). You may want to have this information available in case you are asked about it.
Upvotes: 0
|
2018/02/21
| 3,078
| 12,825
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<issue_start>username_0: I am a mathematician. I recently formulated a conjecture, and was working toward proving it. Another mathematician I know only via email also conjectured the same around the same time.
I now managed to prove the conjecture. I think it is an important result.
However, my paper on this is not ready to be put on the arXiv, because there are natural questions related to this conjecture that need to be solved first (otherwise the paper will look incomplete). I know I can solve these questions, but it will take me time to do that.
From a recent preprint this person put on the arXiv recently, I am convinced that he is also not too far from proving this result (my solution did not use his results and was not inspired by them). Thus, I am worried that he will also obtain the same result.
I was wondering if it would be ethical for me to "block him" and establish priority by emailing him my solution of the conjecture?<issue_comment>username_1: You and a competitor are both racing to solve the same problem, you are both aware of each other, and the "winner" is the first to make their result public.
You're almost ready to make your result public and your competitor might be similarly ready. If you reveal your position to your competitor, then they might make their result public immediately. (They might even be able to do so ethically, e.g., perhaps they receive your mail, largely ignore it, and publish.) Thus, rather than "block him," you'll actually tip him off. Given that emailing needn't constitute a "block," I see no ethical dilemma.
If you want to establish priority, then publish what you have, perhaps after removing any discussion of what might follow from your results (that can be added later). There is certainly no ethical issue of publishing a finished result.
You should also consider collaborating with your competitor. You can do so before or after establishing priority. Ultimately, you have both independently proved a result, and you can both benefit from working together, in particular, you can check each other's work and you can both contribute different ideas. (Although you've proved the same result, it is unlikely that you both think about the result in the same way.) If you don't collaborate, then you might both want to include a statement that acknowledges that the other proved the result independently.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: You are asking the wrong question (or to be precise, a loaded question). It is ethical to send anyone emails containing mathematical ideas (with some obvious exceptions, such as if you expect the recipient to use your ideas to commit a crime), so that’s not the issue. The problem with your plan is that the recipient has no obligation to read your email (and indeed if I were in his shoes I would not read it, certainly not past the point where you claim you have a proof of the result I am trying to prove but for some lame-sounding reason are not yet ready to publish it), so your perception that the email ties his hands somehow, establishes priority, or blocks him from publishing his own proof and claiming to be the first to do so, is simply incorrect.
There is on the other hand a correct and sure way to establish priority, and that is to post publicly a timestamped proof of the result (the arXiv would be the canonical place to do it). Do not worry about the paper being incomplete; as long as the *proof* is complete, and correct, you have established priority and are free to later add other things or make other improvements to the paper by posting a new version or a completely new preprint.
As for the collaboration idea suggested by some people, of course you are free to propose a collaboration, but since you already proved the result, I don’t see what purpose that serves other than as an act of charity, and in fact it would be a bit dishonest to pretend you need the other researcher’s “help” to prove something you already proved. It might make sense in a situation in which you have both proved the result around the same time and found substantially the same proof and decide to merge your papers into one joint publication (I have seen this done on several occasions), or if you both have different proofs and decide to publish them both in one paper. But neither of those scenarios sound like the situation you are describing.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: Priority doesn't mean the idea entered your head first; it means you published it first. And in fact, sending a preprint doesn't even establish that you had the idea first. For all you know, your competitor may be sitting on the same idea as you, for the same reasons (as I said in a comment).
In terms of advice, you should ask yourself how important this theorem really is. If it's something that will make a splash, you should post a short preprint to arXiv as soon as you can. But if it's merely a good result of the level one would routinely see in a solid-but-not-elite journal, you should solve the related questions you mentioned, and submit everything to a solid-but-not-elite journal. If your competitor publishes a paper with some overlap around the same time, that's not the end of the world. You'll both get credit, even if he beats you to the punch by a month.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: It seems to me that there is some amount of "having your cake and eating it too" in your question.
First of all, I think private mathematical correspondence, including sending preprints, should only be "friendly" (or "collaborative"); it should not be "unfriendly" (or "competitive"). If someone emails me a paper, I don't in general have an obligation to read it. If you think I am about to prove something very soon and you send me something with the aim of *taking away the independent nature of my proof*, that seems quite unfriendly. The correspondence doesn't advance the field in any way; it only seeks to advance *you* at my expense. As others have said, if the natural state of affairs is that both you and I will arrive at proofs of the same result independently in roughly the same time frame -- great, we will both get the credit, and it will not be divided in half in any clear way. I don't see why you need to perform machinations to try to prevent that.
Also, you are trying to establish priority in a rather strange way when there are two much more standard ways: submit to a journal and/or post on the arxiv. Regarding this, you say:
>
> My paper on this is however not ready to be put on the arxiv, because there are natural questions related to this conjecture that need to be solved first (otherwise the paper will look incomplete).
>
>
>
But you also say:
>
> I now managed to prove the conjecture. I think it is an important result.
>
>
>
If the conjecture is important, then a proof of it should make for a very nice paper. Most papers "look incomplete" in the sense that they leave something natural undone. And most of us *do not* get to work out all the consequences of our results in the same paper as those results are first published. Doing too much in one paper is risky for several reasons, one of which is that the longer you sit on a given result, the larger the chance that someone else will do it. You seem to be trying to circumvent this natural tension with your private correspondence. While not unethical *per se*, I don't expect it will be well received.
Given the situation and the concerns, I suggest that you *do* upload to the arxiv a short note that proves your conjecture and that does not have all the bells and whistles you would like to eventually have. You say that it is two pages long, so that I would expect that the relevant mathematical community will be able to quickly ascertain whether it is a correct proof of the conjecture. Because of this you don't have to submit right away or even submit the version of the paper you put on the arxiv. You can take the time to make the additions that you want. Of course, other members of the community can respond to your arxiv preprint and build on it as well. That's what's fair, it seems to me.
Upvotes: 7 <issue_comment>username_5: Consider this:
Either you're faster anyways or you want to use his ethics to publish a result he would have obtained faster.
Can something that at best accomplishes nothing and at worst steals merits be ethical?
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_6: I believe such an email would be inappropriate, impolite, rude.
IMO, you shouldn't try to force him to stop working on the conjecture this way, because :
* You don't know his reaction, he might take it very badly.
* You don't know how far he his with his work, he might as well be finished and about to publish ?
* You should see the potential positive outcome in this rivalry instead of the danger. Could he enrich with a second alternate proof ? If he proves it in the same way, doesn't it give credit to it ?
* In the other way around, how would you feel if he would email you a preprint ?
For those reasons, I wouldn't write an email at all and follow @pete-l-clark advise.
However, if you're keen to write to him, here are the ideas I would put in such an email :
>
> I heard you work on this conjecture as well.
>
>
> I wanted to let you know that I found the proof of the conjecture, and
> that I'm about to publish.
>
>
> I would appreciate if you could share your progress with me as well.
>
>
> **OR**
>
>
> Later on - once a publication has been made -, a discussion about our work would be interesting.
>
>
>
(Though, note that one could also take this kind of email as an attempt to put pressure on the receiver, but that shouldn't be your intention IMO.)
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_7: The situation you describe makes little sense.
First, "establishing priority" means proving to the world at large that you were first. Mailing something to your rival proves nothing to anybody except them.
Second, you claim that proving this conjecture is "an important result" but that it's not enough for a paper on its own. That's a fairly direct contradiction. Further, the fact that it can be proven in two pages and that two different people have independently done or almost done this at the same time suggests that it really isn't that big a deal.
If you're really that bothered about it, put a note containing your proof on ArXiv and then flesh it out into the full paper. But, really, it sounds like you should just write your paper, upload it to ArXiv and submit it as normal. If it's as important as you say it is, it's unlikely that there'll be an issue with journals accepting more than one paper on the subject, especially if the proof techniques are different. (And if you've both independently come up with the same short proof, that really does suggest that the conjecture is in the "obvious, really, when you think about it a bit" category of not very important conjectures.)
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_8: One possibility is to publish the proven conjecture to the arXiv by itself to establish priority. Leave the fleshing out of details and answering of the other questions to the paper you'll be submitting to a journal.
>
> My paper on this is however not ready to be put on the arxiv
>
>
>
I don't know if there is such a thing. Okay, papers consisting of only a few words are not ready for the arXiv, but that's not what you have here. Since you presumably will be publishing your result in a journal, the completeness of what you put on the arXiv is not of paramount importance. Since the arXiv is not peer reviewed and often has things put on it such as short essays commenting on practices in the field and joke/April Fools paper (at least in my field, astronomy), a short paper focused just on one result not fully fleshed out would fit in quite naturally.
Another possible alternative is something that just started in my field: [American Astronomical Society Research Notes](http://iopscience.iop.org/journal/2515-5172). These are intended to be very short summaries with very fast turnaround times (I believe they are not peer reviewed) of summaries of works in progress, results that need to get out quickly (e.g., observation of a transient phenomenon), or negative results that aren't worth writing a full-fledged paper for. I don't know if mathematics has something similar.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_9: The simple solution is to put the science as a higher priority than recognition and then establish an agreement to work together with both names on the paper. A "failure to work with others" is probably one of the most common reasons why we have yet to cure cancer, send people to Mars, have flying cars (could you imagine people cutting each other off while traveling an air-highway?), etc.
Upvotes: 2
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2018/02/21
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<issue_start>username_0: Does anyone experience a situation of blank mind during their presentation?
I had a presentation in last month in USA. My presentation was going very well, probably due to enough practice, but during the presentation my mind suddenly went blank at a point. The situation became so worse that I could not even complete my sentence. The sentence was actually:
>
> The reason could be due to the fact that stronger events have higher increasing rates.
>
>
>
The word "higher" didn't come to my mind and suddenly my mind went blank. So I just repeated 2-3 times "stronger events have.... have... stronger events have..." and finally stopped saying. Though few other words like "rapid, more or larger" were coming to my mind to complete the sentence, but the appropriate word "higher" or any similar word did not come. Moreover, I was telling this sentence from my mind completely, so I could not take help from my slides also. Finally I changed my sentence in a different way:
>
> The reason could be due to the fact that the rate of stronger events increases more rapidly compare to weaker events.
>
>
>
It again surprised me that I could not even able to remind the word "higher" until I heard the same word in my next presenter's talk. This is not the first time, but not often.
So I am wondering does it happen due to some particular lacks in me that I need to develop? e.g., I am not a native English speaker. I am also wondering the proper way to handle similar situations when you don't find a suitable word to complete your sentence just because mind goes blank?<issue_comment>username_1: You may be experiencing what is called "mind blanks".
Before I answer, remember that every individual is unique and many factors could be the cause of the mind blanks you are experiencing.
* It may be fatigue, let's say you may have been doing your presentation for already half an hour, and it is natural, if you aren't too passionate about your subject, to get tired or have your brain pull the plug for a brief moment, as random thoughts run through your head.
To remedy this, I personally try to get a coffee/espresso half an hour before doing a presentation. Caffeine can help connections between those gray cells.
* You may get distracted, sometimes when looking through the room, you may notice something about one of the people that sets you off and it completely shatters your concentration, and trying to get back to your topic can be challenging.
* Whenever that happens, try going a step or two backwards, ask yourself "what did I say before I lose track of my speech?", it's okay to start over from a previous sentence and it will also reduce your stuttering or "uhhh"-ing.
* Lack of self confidence may also be a factor of disruption in your speeches. Thoughts rushing through your head may interrupt your speech and before you know it you focus on that one point, making you feel like your short-term memory completely failed registering what you were just saying.
Fear and feeling exposed can completely freeze some people.
* Make sure to remain structured in your presentations, if you happen to use your slides to help yourself, remember that slide unicity is crucial, one slide should contain one and only one message. It'll be better for your audience and for yourself. Audience often forgets anything you had said 30s earlier if you deliver a poor presentation.
All that being said, my personal experience has taught me this :
One thing/trick I noticed that is crucial to a "perfectly" fluid presentation, is to be completely passionate about your subject. Whenever I knew my topic by heart, and was wholeheartedly implied in it, I would actually have a hard time to remain concise and synthetic, simply because I knew so much about the subject that I wanted to explain every single aspect and each of these aspects would also pull another string of 10 micro-subjects.
Unfortunately, in corporate environments, you don't always choose your topic and it can be hard feeling implied and dedicated in it.
If it happens again, try to relax, take it slow, I suggest to not put pressure on yourself as it will only make things worse. Another crippling event that happens along these mind blanks is caring about what people think, so be aware of that as well.
Now to handle this situation towards your audience, do not hesitate to apologize or even ask somebody in the room what you were saying just before, that way you might even be able to add a touch of humor behind this and be like "just making sure everyone's still with me". This is a common joke amongst teachers.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: A good way to take a few seconds of break during a presentation, giving you an opportunity to clear your mind and focus on what you were going to say next, is to drink a little bit of water. Most conference venues prepare water bottles for the speakers, but it is also useful to bring your own just in case there is none where you give your talk. It is very common for speakers to do so, so the audience won't even care about it.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: >
> So I am wondering does it happen due to some particular lacks in me?
>
>
>
No, it's not you; I know lots of people who've had the experience of suddenly going blank for a few seconds in a talk. If there's also a language barrier, that probably doesn't help....but overall it's a common experience for presenters. As you give more talks, these moments should get rarer.
>
> I am also wondering the proper way to handle similar situations?
>
>
>
In the moment: your brain needs a reset. You can pause and take a breath, maybe drink a sip of water. I will sometimes pause, then repeat my last phrase to gain another few seconds to think.
As an audience member, I don't mind when a speaker does this...actually I barely notice.
Ahead of time: Practice your talk until you are comfortable with it (sounds like you already do this).
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: Here are some brainstorming thoughts. I'm partially inspired by my experience as a musician, sometimes needing to perform from memory, and sometimes experiencing unpredictable physiological reactions to the adrenaline of performance nerves; by my experience coping with anxiety about a hearing impairment; and by my experience helping my son with Tourette Syndrome find ways of coping with unpredictable neurological symptoms.
1. For each slide, write down the full text and store it below the slide. Don't display these notes even to yourself during the presentation, unless you draw a blank, in which case you can bring up the notes in order to rescue the sentence. Then you can turn off the notes again.
Maybe you'll never need to use the notes. But knowing they are there can bring peace of mind and reduce anxiety.
2. Let's suppose there's a technical failure with the slide notes. What else can you do?
a) Say some transition words to help you jump to the next point, such as
* Etc.
* I'm suddenly blanking but hopefully you've figured out what I was getting at.
* I will come back to this slide later.b) Just leave a little hole, ignore it and keep going.
c) Ask the air, "Sorry, I just went blank. What did I just say?" Someone will repeat the beginning of your sentence for you, and this may pop you back into the thought. Even if you haven't actually forgotten what you just said, it can still be helpful to hear the first part of your sentence, coming from someone else's voice.
d) Enlist the help of a friend, colleague, session organizer, or friendly volunteer ahead of time. If you're in a blank, you can look to this friendly face for a prompt.
e) If you experience a blank again, or if you are suffering with anxiety about blanks, it may be a good idea to inform your audience, at the beginning, that it might happen. This gets easier with practice, and once you're comfortable with disclosure, it's quite helpful in lowering anxiety.
3. As a preventive measure, design your presentations to be more interactive and less of a monologue. This can help you get out of yourself (less stuck inside yourself), which can be helpful as a means of prevention.
4. As you are preparing to give your presentation, after you've put together all your slides, diagram your talk, and then during your practice talks, try to develop an awareness of where you are in the outline as you're going along. It can be helpful to have a clear idea of where you're about to go and how this fits into the whole.
5. Try mapping your talk to a fairy tale. This is a variant of Idea 4, actually.
6. Learn how to take a deep breath and relax your body when you experience sudden stress. Part of this learning process is to discover what body parts tense up when you're nervous.
Remember that adrenaline isn't all bad. Adrenaline can make the talk feel exciting and fresh.
Upvotes: 2
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2018/02/21
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<issue_start>username_0: I'm currently developing the lesson plan for a large (~100 students) survey course in history for the fall semester. Since this is my first time as instructor of record for the course I'm having some problems balancing how I would like to teach the course (several books worth of reading) with feedback from others in the department (i.e., limit the reading). My concern is that while the textbook is quite solid, there are some significant gaps that I think should be addressed. How can I balance the reading for the course so that I don't overwhelm the students in my course?<issue_comment>username_1: Survey courses are generally designed to be superficial. The music department offers music appreciation. The fine arts department offers art appreciation. These courses expose you to the major themes of the field for the sake of appreciation and not mastery. The goal is to expose none experts to a field in order to broaden their horizon.
You state yourself that the majority of the students are not history majors. Therefore, why would you treat them like history majors and expect them to develop a deep understanding of military history? Few of us become experts in the electives and GEs we take as students.
If you are worried about the history majors you may want to include additional optional reading so that they can go deeper if they desire but weighing down STEM majors seems pointless. Better to stoke a fire/passion for history rather than burn them up with heavy content.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: My undergraduate history courses were probably not anything considered typical at most universities. The reading load was usually a book per week, and the "course text" (when one was assigned) was generally to be fit in on top of the weekly assignments. I got used to it as part of the requirements for studying history at that school and dealt with it.
That said, such a workload is not typical, and there is the need to balance an assigned textbook with supplementary readings. The question is how much you want to focus on the main text. In general, "outside" readings tend to be much more interesting and valuable than the basic text—although you need to understand the basic material to derive greater meaning from the more specialized readings.
So perhaps the way to balance it is to carefully consider which passages in the main textbook are critical, and which ones are ancillary to the course contents, and fill in gaps or extend the work with limited supplemental readings. You can certainly have "suggested additional readings" to help people understand things that you think are worth knowing, but not required to know to be evaluated for the course.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: >
> How can I balance the reading for the course so that I don't overwhelm the students in my course?
>
>
>
1. Select some portions of the textbook to exclude from the reading assignments.
2. For the supplementary sources, select **portions**, that is, don't assign the whole thing unless it's short.
3. Supplement as needed in lecture.
The standard rule of thumb is 2 hours of study time for each hour of lecture.
Upvotes: 0
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2018/02/21
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<issue_start>username_0: We are re-writing a bunch of our lab manuals for a first year circuits course. We want to make a mix of focused questions ("what was the voltage across X?") and thought-provoking questions.
At the moment, the "thought provoking" questions in the current lab manuals are all variations on "comment on the differences between your pre-lab and your experiment". These invariably get students to just chime off a litany of "errors in the equipment" without really thinking it through. What I would like to see the students doing is a thorough comparison and making a value judgment, and mentioning their observations.
I feel that the issue I'm having is that the focused questions are way too specific (just write down the number) but useful for learning certain things like how to take measurements. Thus they are valid questions if not outstanding ones. The thought provoking questions, though, are vague and don't get us what we're really looking for. Can anyone suggest some in-between questions that give students a hint at what we are looking for without just asking them out right?<issue_comment>username_1: I can tell you how I've been seeing this handled at the K-12 level. (I don't know if this is a good way to do it at that level or at the college level.)
A math problem is posed. Then the narrator outlines how a fictitious student, e.g. Marisol, reasoned. Often, this reasoning is flawed. Then the student is asked to evaluate Marisol's reasoning.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: There are multiple ways to do this!
-----------------------------------
From your question, I deduce that you are asking how to evaluate students' thought processes without explicitly asking. One way to introduce this (and perhaps the most effective) is to ask them, not to show their work, but to explain using words. This helps them figure out exactly their thought process and also gives you, as a Professor, an inside look into their brains to tell exactly what they are doing wrong and you can, as a Professor, help to fix their mistakes if they got it wrong.
@aperente001 Also had a good strategy for this, which was to have an example of a problem done incorrectly and asking them to identify this mistake and correct it.
Another way is to give a multiple choice question and to then ask *why* it was correct, just make sure to emphasize that "Because it is the correct choice" is not an answer.
My final suggestion is to try using problems (or questions) that are open ended vs. those that are multiple-choice (if the questions are not terribly difficult, try to make the most difficult questions multiple choice using the above strategy)
Open-ended questions require work, and if work is shown you can draw a conclusion of what exactly went wrong.
Thought-provoking questions are the best kind of questions, and using words instead of work is the best way possible to accomplish this.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: The problem with what I am about to suggest is that these don't apply to first year uni. But anyway, here are some examples.
The lab involves a [Wheatstone bridge.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheatstone_bridge) The question could be something along the lines of "explain how a Wheatstone bridge works within the context of this experiment."
The lab involves mapping out the electric field around a pair of electrodes. This involves specially prepared (and expensive!) paper that is very slightly conductive. The question (actually copied from a 2nd year lab) is: Can equal potential surfaces intersect? Why or why not?
Generally what you want to do is pick questions that are within the range of ability of the students. And that will get them to pull out information they should have. And ideally, that will require them to put that information together in ways not necessarily explicitly in the text.
However, be careful not to overload the students. If you wind up giving them X amount of work where the lab course is only (say) 0.15% of the course mark, then X should not be a lot more than 0.15 of the work expected for the course. You should not be assigning things on a lab that will require them to be doing huge amounts of calculation or library research.
Upvotes: 0
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2018/02/21
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<issue_start>username_0: I'm curious about the pros/cons of including extra flavor text in quiz/exam questions.
For example, which would be better?
1. > What is the product of this reaction?
2. > The following molecule is found in a marine plant species, and has shown to inhibit cancer cell growth. One possible reason is due to the following reaction of this molecule. Provide the correct products of the reaction.
I've jumped back and forth between the two options. One on hand, I think it is beneficial to have students learn to parse text to determine important pieces of information. On the other hand, am I primarily interested in their passage reading skills or the content of the course (I realize the answer could be both)?
I also want to consider english language learners in this. Does it make things more equitable for students if there is less text to process through to get to the "actual" question?<issue_comment>username_1: It is always a good idea to offer authentic questions or tasks for assessment. So, if this additional information is authentic part of the problem, it is good to include it. For example, if you would put it in the Introduction section of your paper on the topic of the quiz, you can include it in the quiz.
However, from the reading point of view it makes it harder to process, particularly for language learners. Any unnecessary bits should be left out.
Ideally, you should find the right balance between these two contradictory factors.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: ***tl;dr*-** Questions loaded with extra information can be great on homework, but exams should have more concise question statements.
---
Exams should avoid extra wordiness since it's extra work being put on-top of students who may already be under stress from activities outside of the class. Additionally, more distractible students might get side-trekked by the additional information.
For homework assignments, questions with extra content could be awesome! I'd stress that the extra content should be real; for example, if the question's
>
> The following molecule is found in a marine plant species, and has shown to inhibit cancer cell growth. One possible reason is due to the following reaction of this molecule. Provide the correct products of the reaction.
>
>
>
, then the depicted molecule should be a real one actually found in marine species and shown to inhibit cancer cell growth. Real examples like that can help build students' general knowledge, while fake examples can pollute their knowledge base with misinformation.
The other issue is that wordier question statements can create interpretation issues in which there's more ambiguity over what information the instructor's looking for.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: Other answers have mentioned reasons that this might not be a good idea. One way it could *help* some students is by triggering linkages in memory! For example, one of your students might think, "Wait a minute, this reaction inhibits cancer? I thought I remember reading about how Exemplar Acid kills cancer cells - maybe Exemplar Acid is one of the products?"
This is especially helpful when you want to test for or encourage students use of the material in real life. In real life, we usually *get* background information that can help us identify what a solution might look like. If we are building a bridge, we usually get quite a bit of information on performances of past bridges in the area, recommendations from other engineers who bid on the project, knowledge of local weather patterns, etc., rather than just a bare equation that we are expected to solve, transform, or optimize. Similarly, in a medical research context, knowing what the products *accomplished* may be very useful in hypothesizing what actually happened without having to spend time deriving from first principles.
Upvotes: 1
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2018/02/21
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<issue_start>username_0: I know it's a free process and it depends on reviewer if they want the data and for author if they want to submit it.
**Questions:**
1. What are the chances of a reviewer asking for data?
2. Why might reviewers ask for data?<issue_comment>username_1: I've seen hundreds of reviews as an editor, and don't remember ever seeing a request for raw data. So the answer to your first question is "almost zero". If it does happen, I imagine the reviewer will have to explain to the editor why (s)he needs the raw data, and if the editor is convinced (s)he'll pass the request on to the authors.
EDIT: The reviews I saw were in physics. Things might be different in other fields.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: I have asked, or been asked, for data a vanishingly small but non-zero number of times. But I'm pretty secure in asserting that it's rare.
As for why - I would hope they would specify this when they requested it. Among the reasons would be to see if your results are genuinely obtainable from your methods. This is not necessarily just looking for fraud, etc. but checking to see if your writing is clear enough that by "following the recipe" they get the same answer.
Another possibility is they want to try an alternative analysis. For example, in my field, there is a variable selection method that is commonly used and also *wrong*. Generally, I ask authors to re-do their analysis with a more appropriate method as a reviewer, but it's entirely possible this won't change the answer. Having the data would let me check for myself.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: **What are the chances of a reviewer asking for data?**
It would be different from one field to another. For example, there is a small chance to be asked for *more* data (and very tiny chance of being asked for *raw* data in the fields such data analysis/science and machine learning, and optimization.
The odds will increase when the claims are very surprising (too good to be true!) or not clearly backed by theoretical proofs and discussions.
**Why might reviewers ask for data?**
To investigate the correctness of the presented conclusions and claimed achievements based on the obtained data. The reviewer/editor usually provide enough details on why such deep investigation is necessary and how it can affect their final decision.
**How to decrease the chance?**
To decrease the likelihood of such requests, that may make the review process even longer, one can:
* provide as much supplementary data as possible right at the time of submission,
* share codes (if applicable) via Git repositories to give the reviewers the confidence that the results are genuine and correct, and
* provide sound and clear theoretical proofs (when applicable) that support the claims regardless of the quality of the data.
---
In general, it is really appreciated to make the researchers and their outcomes reproducible. That's why many researchers publically share their valuable datasets/outcomes.
**Further Readings:**
1. [How to share a scientific dataset with the research community?](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/59664/how-to-share-a-scientific-dataset-with-the-research-community)
2. [How to share to mention/publish large datasets?](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9964/how-to-share-to-mention-publish-large-datasets)
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: In my field (structural biology), we have repositories where we are required to deposit data and models prior to publication. The deposition date establishes precedence, and the data and models are only made public once the associated publication comes out. The repositories will grant the editor and reviewers of the article access to not yet released data and models if they request it during the review process. I don't know how often they actually ask, but I like the fact that the repositories make this possible in a formal and non-awkward way.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: >
> What are the chances of a reviewer asking for data?
>
>
>
If it is important for reproducing your results, they *should* be high.
>
> Why might reviewers ask for data?
>
>
>
Because scientific research is built upon reproducibility of results.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_6: You are asking the wrong question. Do not care about whether the reviewers might *ask* for your data. Ask yourself if there are any real reasons why you should not just *provide* the data!
Personally, I never had the case that a reviewer asked for my data if I did not include it. But when I included it, I had *several* reviewers who pointed out that my paper comes with data. This was a **huge** bonus in the review and, as far as I can estimate this, was one of the reasons my paper got accepted.
Despite from getting your paper accepted, publishing data is a great contribution to science. Other researchers are able to reproduce your results, discuss it in more detail, and may advance faster.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_7: It depends on the scope of the article, as well as the scope of the journal/conference.
A paper which can be very acceptable at a conference, without any experimental results or data sets, might get "strong rejection" from reviewers of another conference.
One of my manuscripts was rejected because
>
> The paper just provides some theoretical results, without demonstrating the
> practical effects on real-world scenarios.
>
>
>
The previous version of the same manuscript was rejected by another set of reviewers of another conference because
>
> Although the work has good empirical data and clear experimental
> results, the lack of theoretical work leaves me no choice but recommending a
> rejection.
>
>
>
The best way to understand this is to check other accepted papers in that conference/journal. Do those papers mention the experimental results as a crucial part, or do they rely on their theoretical results and provide some basic experiments? The answer to this question might help you to decide whether the editors will ask for your data set.
Upvotes: 0
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2018/02/22
| 937
| 3,940
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<issue_start>username_0: I'm finding that this is a problem for me.
All of my papers have been solo efforts so, naturally, nobody else is really invested in them before I submit to journals. After I submit a paper, I either notice mistakes or cannot resist making significant stylistic changes. Then I send a revision to the editor to forward to the referee. This has happened multiple times, sometimes more than once for a particular paper.
I would like to hear from other researchers:
(a) Do you have similar tendencies?
(b) As a referee, how frustrating is it to get these revisions? On one hand you're getting an improved version (in the eyes of the author), but on the other hand some of the referee's work may be wasted.<issue_comment>username_1: (a) No, I don't have similar tendencies. When I submit a paper for publication, I'm so relieved to have finished it (usually much later than I had planned) that I usually ignore it until I get the referee's report. I usually have plenty of other tasks that need my attention because I had postponed them while finishing the paper. (b) As a referee, I don't mind getting an improved version of the paper **provided** it comes with clear information about where the changes are. I don't want to check the part of the paper that I've already read (and my notes on that part) against the new version just to find that nothing has changed in that part.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: **(a)** I occasionally edit my preprints after submitting them to a journal, although not nearly as often as before that. As you guessed, this might confuse referees, and most likely they'll want to know what exactly has been updated. When I'm the sole author, I solve this problem by complete transparency: all my changes go on a public git repository, and I tell the referee which commits have happened between the previous and current revisions. ([Example git repository](https://github.com/darijgr/gzshuf/commits/master) -- but this one is nowhere near getting submitted yet. Note that using git is extremely easy if you're the only author and are only using it to keep track of your own changes -- in this case, you don't even need the commandline; everything can be done by point & click on github.)
**(b)** Yes, as a referee I am often frustrated when I don't know what exactly has been changed (PDF files are painful to compare, if the changes aren't completely minor). Authors should strive to make changes as transparent as possible; but this doesn't mean that they should avoid making changes.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: IMHO I think you should let the referee read and comment on the original version, then you can include the revisions asked for as well as the errors you wish to correct as well as your stylistic changes. This is what my supervisor did with me when we had errors we wanted to correct.
This minimises the work of the referee on your paper, also you should perhaps be more critical / thorough on your original before submitting it.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: Please don't do this. Especially multiple times for the same paper. It wastes the referees' time and I'd be very annoyed by it. Don't keep moving the goalposts.
If you find **an actual mistake** that requires significant changes to the paper, contact the editor. For anything else, wait until the referees have finished their job and then fix it. That includes any kind of stylistic change and any minor mistakes that don't have significant effects, unless you think it would take the referees more than a short time to figure out what's going on. (For example, if your paper claims that 2+2=5, that's not going to cause much confusion to the referees so you don't need to send a new version. However, if you make some long argument based on the "fact" that 2+2=5 and that argument requires significant changes to cope with the correction, you should talk to the editor.)
Upvotes: 3
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2018/02/22
| 1,785
| 6,981
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<issue_start>username_0: Can anyone chime in whether if it is socially acceptable for a (graduate) student to directly contact renowned academics outside your immediate research department with comments on their work or your work?
*This is under the assumption that you are not a crank or a stalker or someone who is trying to become an "academic celebrity".*
By renowned academic, I refer to people who have published well-known textbooks, ultra-high impact publications, or are important figures (i.e., "Godfather/mother of..."), or have made public appearances, shook hand with the President, etc.
It is not unheard of in the old days. I remember seeing letters from [Einstein](http://physicstoday.scitation.org/do/10.1063/PT.6.4.20171219a/full/) or [Freud](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/A_Letter_from_Freud_(to_a_mother_of_a_homosexual)) answering questions from "concerned citizens" (including kids). But I wonder if it is socially acceptable to do this nowadays. Regardless of the answer, I wonder what are the chances of receiving a serious reply.
*Update:
Encouraged by the response I have received, I contacted the person with his work and I posed to question for him asking for advice. The person gave me a very warm reply!*<issue_comment>username_1: Yes, it's perfectly fine to do so. To maximise the chances of a response, make sure your email is clear, concise and polite.
Upvotes: 7 <issue_comment>username_2: From my experience, it is very acceptable, and there are very high chances of reply — in my case, reaching 100%.
Highly reputable scientists are people, too, and like to hear comments on their work — of course positive feedback is most welcome, but they are willing to clarify doubts or hear out concerns.
I have successfully contacted authors asking to share their data (no one refused), asking for clarifications, or expressing doubts whether their methodology is bullet-proof. I also repeated some computations and just sent the authors a message saying that it's a nice work and I agree with them. They also replied, and were very pleased with the confirmation of their results.
Some people may direct you to their co-authors or assistants or PhD students for technical details, but that still counts as a helpful reply.
Being an astrophysicist, I was for a moment interested in the IQ distribution, so I contacted, as it turned out, one of the world's most prominent psychologists in the field, who was very polite and helpful: pointed me to semi-public repositories of data and gave advice on how to handle it. In the end, I couldn't contribute anything meaningful, but I would't be discouraged to send him potentially interesting results and propose a collaboration to write a paper together. He made an impression that he'd be very up to it.
As for *how-to*, start en e-mail with a brief introduction of yourself:
>
> Dear Prof. XXX,
>
>
> I am a PhD student in YYY at University UUU in WWW. I recently read your work ZZZ and found it very interesting.
>
>
>
Try to keep the message rather short and concise. Scientists are busy and appreciate being precise and getting to the point.
Upvotes: 7 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: It is perfectly acceptable to do so, and many do respond if the question is relevant. Most often if they do not respond, it is because of them being busy (having hit the [e-mail event horizon](https://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=388)) rather than being offended by your question.
Like the other answers, I would recommend that you are to the point in your e-mail and not too chatty.
I would recommend following [Matt Might's Guide](http://matt.might.net/articles/how-to-email/) to sending and replying to e-mails, to increase your chances of getting a response.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: It is absolutely accepted and common. Of course, make sure your e-mail is polite and has some content (not, like, "I just wrote to say hello"). As an anecdote, I once wrote an e-mail to the author of my favorite textbook when I was trying to replicate one of its tables, and he replied the same day, and sent me the original code he used to obtain those results!
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: Yes, I'd say so.
I have personally emailed <NAME>'s MIT address and received a reply within a day. This was from my university email address, although I've heard he tirelessly replies to nearly all emails he receives
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: In your case you are an academic (even if you are still at the graduate student stage) contacting another academic. That is a perfectly socially acceptable thing to do. This is somewhat different from your example where someone outside of academia has decided to contact a well known academic.
Email away, though don't take it personally if they don't respond (they are often quite busy)!
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_6: As others have written, yes you may. I would also add some do's and don'ts:
* **Don't** contact them just to offer praise/thanks (nor derision/dislike).
* **Don't** contact them to ask for general advice, social commentary, general opinion on something academic (i.e. "What are your thoughts on the theory of XYZ"). **Do** ask specific and concrete questions (if you have questions).
* **Do** send email; **Don't** phone them. If they have office hours at their campus and you're visiting - that's fine too.
* **Don't** ask for something you could easily find the answer to in your own academic surroundings, or by reading their published work on the subject of your interest. **Do** look at that published work before writing (but no need to go through dozens of papers and books).
* **Don't** make them read a very long message explaining context that would be useless to them. **Do** be concise if possible, and otherwise start with a brief version of what you mean to say, providing a more detailed explanation later.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_7: People have been sending fan letters since snail mail existed, and probably before. What's the worst that can happen? It's not likely they'll resent the “intrusion” so much as to do anything harmful (like what? sabotage your college application?) or embarrassing (like what? spend the time responding only to say, “buzz off!”). Chances are, the worst that will happen is the email will be ignored.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_8: In my own experience, I had a question about a WWII Japanese submarine sunk off the coast of California. On an impulse, I phoned Dr. <NAME>: discoverer of the Titanic. After calling his office, I was put right through to him! He knew of the story and passed along the name of a colleague in California who had researched this story. I was absolutely amazed.
Please follow this advice: Be very brief; have your question well thought out and researched; be profusely appreciative of their time; follow up with a hand written note, in an envelope with a stamp, thanking them again.
Upvotes: 2
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2018/02/22
| 2,145
| 9,070
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<issue_start>username_0: I’ve been in correspondence via email with a potential PhD supervisor who has agreed to take me on. After a few emails back and forth and polishing my proposal with his guidance I submitted my application per his instructions.
It’s been a little over two weeks since I submitted. He suggested we interview either via Skype or a visit to the campus.
Visiting the campus would mean I would have to book some plane tickets. They're relatively cheap since it's within the UK but I'm also on a budget and don't know if I'm going to get accepted or if the interview is required for a decision on my application. I suggested a Skype interview and then during the interview we could arrange a visit on campus but he countered with an offer to just visit the campus during the last week of the month.
I was confused so I agreed I could visit campus but asked for him to clarify or provide some guidance on the application process and never heard back from him. I still haven't bought plane tickets and am not sure how to interpret this series of events.
Should I just explain my situation to him and ask for a Skype interview? When I agreed on a visit I told him when I would be able to fly out but haven't heard anything so I'm really not sure about buying plane tickets. It all seemed like things were going along smoothly but now I'm very confused.<issue_comment>username_1: The solution here is honesty and candor. You should explain that you would like to visit the campus, but that your financial situation doesn't allow it at the moment. Any reasonable person would either drop the suggestion of a campus visit, or find some money to pay for your travel expenses. Any other reaction would be a red flag.
Upvotes: 8 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Actual travel would be unreasonable to ask for (but not, perhaps, if it was all taking place within the greater London area). On the other hand, I would consider a skype conversation to be reasonable. You can go into much more depth on specific topics a lot easier than in an exchange of emails.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_3: Assuming you *want* to go to that university and work with the advisor, I would say the cost of a domestic plane ticket is probably worth it given the impact on the next 4 or 5 years of your life.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: I recently traveled across the UK by train for two separate interviews (from St Andrews down to Norwich on one occasion, and down to Oxford for another), so I can from personal experience say that situations involving traveling for interviews seem relatively common.
In both instances, reimbursements for travel expenses were a given, and involved submitting the tickets and a summary of the costs to the university after the interview. In one of the instances I had to email the university and ask about reimbursements, while in the other it was stated ahead of the journey that travel expenses would be covered.
Based on this, I would highly recommend asking them whether or not travel reimbursements are available, or, if the cost of buying tickets cannot be covered by your budget until the time that the university sends you the money, ask whether the purchasing of the tickets can be paid for by them ahead of time. In situations like this, it is often best to be specific and make sure that the university knows exactly what is required of them.
Several other alternatives also remain. As suggested in another answer, coaches are often cheaper than flights, in addition to being readily available, and train tickets can often (as far as I have heard; I have not tried this myself) be purchased by a third party on behalf of another traveler, allowing for the university to pay for the tickets ahead of time.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_5: I had a similar experience, and personally I accepted. Accepting or proposing an alternative depends on several factors. Personally I accepted because it was a very good lab and it was already a great opportunity to just get a chance at an interview, and because the cost was not crazily expensive and I could afford it (I took the cheapest transportation I could). In the end, it was useful to go there, as I could meet the team and not only the head, so I could see for myself what the ambiance was and get a glimpse of the lab's work and the way they work, and in addition it allowed me to get contacts I could communicate with for further questions, who were very helpful when I had to make the arrangements to set in.
So in the end, I would say that you should ponder the decision. It's not all black and white, it's not an unfair demand your supervisor did, as you can get additional information to make your own decision about joining in (as the team counts a lot!). If you really can't afford the cost or the lab is not a highly demanded one, then you can propose an interview by skype after explaining that your financial situation doesn't afford you to come physically.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_6: >
> A potential PhD supervisor wants me to visit campus for an interview before I know if I'm accepted
>
>
>
You've got things the wrong way around, my friend. It is *you* who wants to visit with the research group, in the hopes of joining it. It is very much in your interest to go, to get to know these people, to talk to them about their research work and group dynamics, to give some kind of talk... it's not some caprice of your prospective supervisor.
Still, you can and should definitely ask - politely - whether they could offer to cover your travel expenses. Do not insinuate that this will somehow be a condition for your coming to visit.
>
> but I'm also on a budget
>
>
>
After drink, food and lodging, this is probably the next most important thing in the budgeting priorities list. If you don't have money to cover the cost of the trip, and the university/the supervisor don't ofer to cover your costs - take a loan.
I mean it, I'm not joking. Do not give up on this.
>
> ... and don't know if I'm going to get accepted
>
>
>
So improve your chances of being accepted by visiting.
---
PS - All of the above assumes you care about being accepted there. If you just submitted an application as your n'th favorite option then maybe I'd change my answer
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_7: In this type of scenario, the majority of academic advisors would offer reimbursements for your expenses. I think there is a decent chance that your potential advisor assumes that reimbursement is implied; however, I'm from the US and not entirely sure how things work in England. In my own experience, my advisor is always very busy and tends to overlook logistical matters similar to what you're describing. If your advisor "agreed to take you on" I wouldn't worry too much about acceptance at this point as your admission to the University is pretty much entirely dependent upon that fact. I know you're on a budget; however, you said that you CAN afford it. Thus, you should definitely visit the lab as this is a huge commitment for the next 5 years of your life and it is 100% worth checking out the lab and meeting everyone in person before signing your life to it....even if you aren't reimbursed.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_8: A personal visit to the campus significantly reduces the risk that you are making a big mistake by taking the position. Even if there's only a 5% risk of it all going wrong (e.g. because you can't stand the place or the people), incurring some travel expenses to eliminate that risk is well worth the expenditure.
The same applies to the institution as well of course: which is why they might be prepared to cover your costs.
A personal visit achieves far more than a Skype chat. If you go and have lunch with other students, they will tell you things that you won't learn from a formal meeting with your supervisor: for example, what's the best part of town to look for digs.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_9: Just do a Skype interview. Take it from there; the issue might come up naturally. If it does not come up you can mention it at the end when they ask if there was anything you should have discussed.
It seems that the supervisor is willing but the whole thing is still dependent on funding being allocated. In that case demanding travel from far afield is a bit too much and I would not have required it of a candidate (anything up to a three-hour train journey seems acceptable to me, even though ticket pricing in the UK can be insane). If the money is there and the supervisor is keen, I'd still do a Skype in the first instance.
It has been brought up that you learn more about each other (including an chance to get the feeling that this won't work out) if you visit rather than Skype. But this is all relative. Fleeting intake contacts have worked out fine; extensive getting to know you's have failed to give the requisite early warning.
Skype and be open about doubts and misgivings. Better to clear up such matters now than later.
Upvotes: -1
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2018/02/22
| 483
| 1,959
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<issue_start>username_0: When I submitted my manuscript for a special issue of IEEE journal 3 months ago, the status of my article was:
>
> [Administrator]: [*name of publication manager*]
>
>
> Under review
>
>
>
Yesterday it changed to:
>
> [Administrator]: [*name of publication manager*]
>
>
> Awaiting Recommendation
>
>
>
I am afraid that my article may be desk-rejected because
>
> [Administrator]: [*name of publication manager*]
>
>
>
hasn't changed to
>
> [Administrator]: [*name of associate editor or editor-in-chief*]
>
>
>
**Question:** Is there any difference in the peer-review process of general submission and submission to a special issue?<issue_comment>username_1: Write to a relevant editor and ask for clarifications. Probably there is an editor that is managing the special issue that you can contact - that would be my first choice. Otherwise write to the topic editor and as last resort to the main journal editor. You find their names and emails in the journal website usually.
And to reply to the question: no there is no real difference in the peer-review process between normal and special issues.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: Yes, there's a difference in the peer-review process for general submissions and special issue submissions. That's because very often, the special issue involves a guest editor who's not otherwise a member of the editorial board.
In your case I suspect the journal administrator is acting on behalf of the guest editor. That is, the journal did not register an account for the guest editor. The guest editor is still making the decisions, but the journal administrator is inputting those for the guest editor, which is why it appears as though the journal administrator is "awaiting recommendation".
It's unlikely your paper's being desk-rejected. It's been three months. If you do indeed get a desk rejection, that's a black mark against the journal.
Upvotes: 3
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2018/02/23
| 560
| 2,345
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<issue_start>username_0: I have a two-word last name which gives as full name something like "<NAME>" (just an example) with "Mike" the first name and "<NAME>" the last name (no middle name).
I have published few conference papers and I noted that Google scholar is referencing me (author's name in the results) as "<NAME>" which I'm sure other people would do too.
Now that I'm writing a journal paper I'm thinking of adding a hyphen to my last name "Adam-Pince" to avoid any confusion with others authors.
I wonder what's the common practice in such a situation.<issue_comment>username_1: You should write your name the way you want to have it appear in print: it's your name!
However, that said, it is true that automated algorithms are not always alert to the sensitivities of naming conventions. You could certainly choose to have an academic "name of record" that is different from your legal name. So you could be "<NAME>" legally but go by "<NAME>" in academic publications and citations.
The only rule to follow is to stick with a single name once you've picked it.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: **Make it easy for people to cite you correctly.**
People are lazy. When I cite a paper, I usually copy-paste the citation from some website. This can be the publisher's website, the author's website, or some index like Google Scholar or DBLP (for computer science). I suspect most people do this too. So you should make sure the correct citation appears in these places.
Make sure that the publisher of your papers has the correct citation on their website. Put the correct citation on your website (e.g. create an "export citation" link). Create a google scholar profile and make sure it has the correct information. In some places it may be appropriate to even include the suggested citation in your paper itself. These actions won't ensure 100% correct citation of your name, but they will make a difference.
Another note: You get to choose what name to put on your paper. It doesn't have to be your legal name. (For instance, someone who changes their legal name upon marriage may choose to keep publishing under their maiden name.) So you do have the option to choosing a professional name that avoids these issue -- e.g., by hyphenating. Just be consistent.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]
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2018/02/23
| 197
| 874
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<issue_start>username_0: I'd want to know whether the third recommendation letter is important. In other words, whether the order of recommendation letters is important in applied maths or all the letters of recommendation are equally important.<issue_comment>username_1: If somebody asks for your letters of reference, they will ask for all of them. So the order in which they’re listed doesn’t really matter—particularly since they might arrive out of order anyway.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Since you're in applied math, you're likely using MathJobs. It's true that the order you list your recommenders is the order they'll show up on the committee's side. But that order doesn't really matter. The one exception is if you have e.g. a fourth letter that only addresses your teaching (not your research); in that case I would list that letter last.
Upvotes: 2
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2018/02/23
| 315
| 1,194
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<issue_start>username_0: Suppose that you already have an advisor and an ongoing project. Suppose that you are willing to get a "side gig" and that there is a professor you know at your school who is working in an area that interests you (which is not your main area of interest though).
How do you preface and then ask in a professional way the following question:
>
> "Do you have any projects on which I could work under your supervision/with your collaboration?"
>
>
>
Basically, it is about asking for a small "side" thesis project to a professor who is not your advisor.<issue_comment>username_1: As JeffE would say: "Ask it directly, just as if the professor were human."
>
> "Do you have any projects on which I could work under your supervision/with your collaboration?"
>
>
>
Sounds just fine.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: **Step 1.** You check with your supervisor whether they are okay with this "side" project.
**Step 2.** You learn if your own supervisor can give you such task. If not, you move onto the next step
**Step 3.** You go to the professor you want to work with and tell them that you want to collaborate with them.
Upvotes: 3
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2018/02/23
| 1,917
| 8,426
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<issue_start>username_0: This question follows from a MathOverflow question, ["*Why should one subscribe to print Journals*"](https://mathoverflow.net/questions/293667/why-should-one-subscribe-to-print-journals?noredirect=1#comment728974_293667).
It seems obvious to me that having print journals in a library is beneficial. Yes, Arxiv, MathSciNet, Blogs and lecture notes by Mathematicians, Math Overflow, Wikipedia and Scholarpedia all of these have been extremely helpful in dissemination of research mathematics. Amongst other things electronic copies of articles helped immensely in increasing accessibility.
Most journals these days have an online version. Which probably only a few would argue is not beneficial.
What I can't get myself agree is the opinion that one should stop subscribing to print copies of journals altogether. The arguments against subscribing both print and online I have come across are cost, space constraint, and redundancy.
The difference between online and print+online versions of journals are often marginal. If space constraint is an issue then one can argue against having a library as well. Why subscribe to the journals at all as most of the articles are available in the internet free.
What I can't fathom is the argument that print version of journals have become redundant.
I am asking this as in a discussion regarding journal subscription many faculty members expressed the opinion that we should stop subscribing to print version of the journals. How does one defend the case for need of print journals?
Am I overly emotional and just nostalgic for old times? So many times I chanced upon a result while browsing through the pages of a journal; sometimes relevant to my own area, and sometimes totally unrelated but so exciting that it got me interested in that area.
I am sure this issue or debate is not limited to my university and I am asking this question here hoping to benefit from the comments and thoughts you may share.
My question is what are the benefits of subscribing print version of journals, even if online versions are available. How it helps the research of faculty and graduate students.<issue_comment>username_1: Here are a few arguments for print journals, some I’ve heard, and some I’d make personally.
1. **Accessibility**. Print journals can make journal articles accessible through the mail. This may seem an anachronism, but it still matters. There are locations in the world (including in developed countries) where the most convenient means of receipt is by post; rural areas with limited Internet access and no central library come to mind.
2. **Interactivity**. Print journals are still generally more interactive than their digital counterparts. You can hold them, make notes on them, record your impressions, clearly index them, and even cut out sections.
3. **Curation of linked content**. Each journal issue may provide multiple linked articles, which together tackle a question from multiple angles. This can facilitate better comprehension of a topic or encourage the reader to explore multiple facets of an idea. In the physical form, these relationships are made very clear.
4. **Disconnecting**. You don’t need to get on the Internet to read the journal; physical journals encourage you to break away from your computer and allow for a productive use of time in the physical world. You can keep it analog, if you will — somewhat of a luxury these days.
5. **Anticipation**. You can look forward to receiving a nice package of great articles with each issue. Rather than an article or two a day, you can get a nice meaty hit of intellectually stimulating goodness. It’s a great excuse to set aside a reading day, if your schedule is amenable.
6. **Health**. This may seem silly at first glance, but humor me here. Reading print is easier on the eyes for many people and can reduce eye strain. Further, you don’t continually stare at artificial blue light (a frequency in the visible light spectrum that is involved in the modulation of the hormone melatonin). If you plan on reading after sun down, a journal is probably a healthier option than a screen over the long term. There’s a lot of literature on PubMed, but here’s a nice [overview](https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/blue-light-has-a-dark-side).
Of course, those 6 reasons may not be particularly relevant to a faculty department — *maybe* 3 - 5, but probably not to the degree that they would make a print subscription worth it.
**Specific to a faculty department?** I’ve seen journals by water coolers and in reception areas, perhaps in the hope that they can encourage conversation or, simply, give visitors the opportunity to read about research that is relevant to the department domain(s) — not so dissimilar from academic posters that find their home in the departments halls.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Ok, as a paper fetichist, OA activist and former scientific advisor for a mathematical library, I cannot not answer this. But I must distinguish several perspectives.
What I like about paper journals
--------------------------------
### *I like to hold them, and let the paper smell and nice typography sink in in the background of my mathematical immersion.*
Unfortunately, most large commercial publisher are doing such an **awful job** that this emotion is barely possible anymore with many otherwise great journals. Come on: *GAFA* allows an article to start on a left page, in *Advances* you see both recto and verso superimposed because of the low-quality paper, even *Inventiones* has too light or too bold printing making papers sometimes difficult to read. Thank goodness there are still *Acta* with large yellow pages, the *Annals*, the journals of MSP and a few others that stand out, but unfortunately I lost my library when I got my current position.
### *I like that I get to know about what is done outside my fields*
When I still had a great library with many paper subscriptions, I would look at all abstracts in certain journals, and when an abstract seemed interesting I would read the introduction. It would very rarely result in a direct connection to my own works, but I think I got several research ideas that way and more importantly, it would enlarge my mathematical culture constantly.
This point could be emulated in an electronic format (and is partially, through e.g. arXiv email alerts), but it is not the same at least for me, and in the current state of affairs.
### I like the calm and solemnity of a library
I enjoyed very much to go from volume to volume following citations and knowing that I would get in a few minutes almost all I needed, while benefiting with the almost monastic atmosphere of a library. Being out of my office, this also meant no interruptions.
This was only possible because the library I had was really great.
What are reasons to keep paper subscriptions outside of my own experience
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
### To hold what we buy
For some time, electronic subscriptions gave permanent access to the period that was subscribed, but this seems to become the exception rather than the rule, and in any case might turn difficult to enforce (if you need a trial to get access, that is an issue). Once you buy a volume of journal, the publisher will not get in your library and take it back. There is a great safety in this, that electronic subscription cannot provide completely.
In France, we are devising a plan to have every significant mathematical journal identified and subscribed to by at least two libraries, in paper version, with a pledge to take good care of them (have them binded, indexed, etc.), mainly as a safety net.
### Not much more
Honestly, the use of paper versions have declined so much that it is often difficult to argue in favor of paper versions, and I totally understand the choice to transform libraries into learning centers and concentrate on electronic subscription. It makes me a bit sad, but I get it.
One thing that has not been considered enough until now, is how to get electronic version better. They are still too close from scanned papers, which makes the situation far from optimal. My bet currently is that the energy needed to defend paper would be more useful in pushing for better public scholarly communication infrastructures (hat tip to Björn Brembs).
Upvotes: 3
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2018/02/23
| 611
| 2,641
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<issue_start>username_0: The question is self-explanatory actually.
Should I attend Seminars/Conferences that give Certificates upon achieving some number of attendance? And do they have any worth if I/ to put them in my CV?
I'm an undergraduate student currently in Electrical-Electronical Engineering program and every week there are seminars carried out by University/Department and varius events carried out by various clubs. Some of them give certificate upon attandance and some of them require attending the seminar for some number of sessions for certification but I'm not sure if those certificate have any value at all and I want to know if it's worth ditching relaxing after week of lectures for some certificate that can be obtained by literally every single human being that walks in to the hall.
Thanks in advance.<issue_comment>username_1: Building a proffessional profile of yourself the more that you are attending Seminars/Conferences Meetings and Discutions it shows better reputations onbyour Profile Interviews
PhD <NAME>
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_2: I am not in the same field, but I have never heard of something like this before. I would not worry about the certificates, and not put them on your CV.
My guess is that these are not certificates in the sense of 'something to show off and be proud of', but rather evidence of attendance for graduate students who are required to attend a certain number of seminars as part of their course requirements.
For an undergraduate, attending such seminars would be something you write about in your statement of purpose (or similar) when applying for graduate courses, as demonstrating your active interest in more advanced study. A local weekly seminar would not be significant enough to list on your CV, but a major conference might be worth listing, even if it happened to be taking place locally. As you continue through an academic career, this would drop off in favour of talks you have given, not just listened to. It is very unlikely that anyone outside academia would take much interest, except in very specific circumstances.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: There is some value in attending these Seminars/Conferences that you may want to consider:
* It shows that you are "doing more" than the minimum requirements
* You may end up adding or emphasizing important keywords in your CV
* The Seminars/Conferences you mentioned are from University/Departments and clubs. If the Seminars/Conferences have any "Name Brand" involvement, such as corporations or other institutions, you get the name of the institution on your CV.
Upvotes: 1
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2018/02/23
| 1,001
| 4,279
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<issue_start>username_0: I have self-funded, 8-page long research which is highly suited a famous researcher, in both their academic and personal interests. How should I ask them for comments and advice? I am not asking them to be my advisor or to provide me funding, but a direction to continue my research. A letter of recommendation would be great, of course.
Should the research be written in an attachment, or in the email right ahead? They have to read the research anyway, right? It has a preamble, which conveys the mathematical results in Apple's advertisement style, and has received extremely positive feedback. Should this be placed at the top of the email, even before the salutation? Many presentations do this way, and it does create more impression than the traditional approach. How would other researchers normally do in this situation?
---
My current approach:
* A salutation and a hope that the letter isn't sent when they arn't too busy.
* A three-line paragraph just for choosing a proper pronoun. I want to show the respect, but using "professor" multiple times feels distant, which they might not want to be.
* A five-line paragraph telling how they fits me (not because they're famous, but because they have niche expertise on the topic), and what my goals are (funding, advice for career path)
* A five-line summary of the attachment
* A three-line sentence to introduce referees
* A thank-you conclusion, re-acknowledge that they're busy but still spending their time reading my letter. Hoping the best for them and their family.
My worry is that they wouldn't open the mail at the first place, or find the summary to be too "astonishing" to be true.<issue_comment>username_1: Assuming that you are not already personally acquainted with the famous researcher, it is not a good idea to send them 8 pages of anything.
If you cannot see a way to become personally acquainted then your next best step would be to find some other perhaps slightly less famous researcher whom you do know and ask them to introduce you to the famous researcher whose views you wish to obtain.
Failing that, send a very short letter asking whether they would be willing to look at some work of yours, giving a really good reason why they should.
If your work is outstandingly original, such that any researcher in your field would be astonished by its brilliance, then ignore the above. I have in mind the case of the Indian mathematician Ramanujan, who did send a lengthy unsolicited paper to <NAME> and changed his life.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: A friend of mine wrote an undergraduate thesis that was groundbreaking original research. Nobody at his university had the expertise to evaluate it, but one of the faculty suggested he send it to a fairly famous professor at another university. He did.
That professor read his work and sent him some feedback, including several (correctable) errors he noticed. He also made sure my friend's application to his program was approved and he was offered their best fellowship. Eventually my friend attended that doctoral program and the professor he had contacted was his advisor. He also published the a journal article based on his undergrad thesis in one of the leading journals of his field.
This is an unusual story; most "self-funded" research is not of that quality and many famous researchers don't bother to read that sort of email. **If your work is of that kind of quality, and if you are lucky enough to find a researcher who opens and reads it, this approach can work**. If you believe you're in that situation, definitely do send the manuscript in your initial email (or post it online and provide a link); the likelihood that the researcher will follow up and ask you for a copy, when he/she has no evidence of the quality or relevance of your work, is extremely low.
Always start with a salutation; the last thing you want is to come across as being rude. I would keep the email short, but long enough to show the researcher that you've done serious research and that it's relevant to his/her interests. Roughly the length of an abstract, though in your email you can describe things less formally and point out specific connections with the recipient's work.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]
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2018/02/24
| 1,703
| 7,569
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<issue_start>username_0: Completed an essay worth 30% of our grade over the Xmas period and were given incredibly strict instructions (no sources other than the 10 pages given, 1200 word count, marked 50% language and grammar [german] and 50% content). Got my grade back and got 32% which is my first ever fail of my life. Was slightly discouraged until I learned that nearly the entire group failed or got 42/43/44?
The essay was also given to another branch of the course (politics and computer science) and they all passed with quite high marks (60% upwards). I completed a similar essay for another subject and got 57% and another where I got 65%.
We all feel that we have been unfairly marked, but despite being in the best university in our country, we are too scared to ask anyone in the department. All the colleagues stick together and would definitely take the side of the markers and imply we're all stupid.
My essay wasn't amazing but I definitely don't believe I deserved to fail and others don't either...
So my question is: is there anything we can do to change this?<issue_comment>username_1: Talk to your student's union.
They should know whether or not there can be anything done and if yes, what. They should also know if a situation where everyone fails is common (in some universities there are some courses, mostly freshman-courses, where it's common that 90% of students fail) in your country/university.
But prepare yourself for the possibility that nothing happens. In my experience, the situation that two groups/individuals are graded obviously differently, is very common in the university level. In my university, for example, there is no quality control of the courses whatsoever - a course is taught well/ is fair if and only if the instructor wants to teach it well and wants to be fair (and is capable of teaching well and being fair). Fortunately, many academics are "good people" wanting to be a good teacher (without being rewarded) but some don't care at all (which can also makes sense, since they need to focus on publications to survive).
But what can you learn from this situation? You can take some steps to prepare.
1) It's always a good idea to find out what the exact rules are for taking courses in your university. Can you switch the order of the courses? Can you choose instructors? Can you do exams with instructors who held the course some years ago (but you took the course with someone else)?
2) If you can choose instructors, then try to find out something on them. Who teaches well? Who is motivated? Who treats students fair? Who helds female and male students to the same standards? (Unfortunately, not everyone.) What about foreign students? Who grades fairly? To find things like that out, ask your student's union, socialize with other students, read things in facebook groups, maybe become active yourself as a student's representative.. These things will help you a lot.
If lists are avaiable on who will teach courses in the future, try to adjust your courses (if possible) such that you get the good instructors. Remember that, of course, your goal should not be to just get the easy-grading instructors, but the ones where you learn much. (But nobody is helped if you learn much but fail the exam because the instructor belongs into the (unfortunately, non-empty) category of people who let everyone but women with very revailing clothes fail).
However, be advised, that unlike popular belief, there are many harsh graders where you don't learn much and their are many easy graders where you learn a lot.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: **Marking consistency within a course:** Students may reasonably expect that their academic work in a course will be marked consistently with other students *in the same course*. This occurs naturally when there is a single marker, but in cases where there are multiple different markers in the same course, the course lecturer should be giving them adequate instructions to ensure consistency of standard between them, and should review this if there are problems. If you have been marked by a different person than another branch of your course, and you believe you have been held to a higher standard, you should speak to your course lecturer to raise the apparent inconsistency across different markers. On the other hand, if there was a single marker, then the inconsistency in grades across branches of the same course must presumably be due to some deficiency in your class. Speak to the marker and find out what your class is doing wrong that other classes are doing right.
**Consistency of standard across different courses:** Academics are experts in their subject matter, and they have broad discretion to set the standard within their own courses. Most put in a great deal of thought and effort to set a standard that is appropriate to their cohort of students, taking account of their year level, program, etc. Academics are humans, and sometimes we misjudge the difficulty of the work we set (accidentally making it too hard or too easy), but most academics have been teaching for a long time and have a reasonable sense of the appropriate standard to set in their courses. Universities generally engage in some meta-level analysis of their courses to try to get some consistency of difficulty levels across different courses. At my own university, there is a Course Quality Committee that reviews the distribution of grades in each course and asks academics to provide an explanation if the grades are unusually high or low.
**University is not High-School:** While you may reasonably expect consistency of grading within a course, and some reasonable attempt at consistency across different courses, there is no principle of tertiary education that precludes an entire class from failing an assessment item. Failing an entire class on an assessment item is not unheard of (I have heard quite a few similar stories) and it can be a useful “wake-up call” to a class if they are not meeting the standard expected in tertiary work. Bear in mind who is the subject-matter expert here, and who are the neophytes. You say that you and your fellow students don’t think you deserved to fail. Fair enough, but peer consensus of novices is not a reliable indicator of professional judgment. You are undergraduate students who are only just starting to learn the subject in question — so you are qualified to make professional judgments on the appropriate work standards *how* exactly?
**Speak to your lecturer, and show an interest in improving your work:** Academics are reasonable people who are generally open to explaining their decisions. The matter you have raised is one that is worth speaking to your course lecturer about. Either there has been an inconsistency in the marking (which you may legitimately raise) or there has been an error made in the overall standard (which you legitimately raise) or you and the rest of your class are just not learning sufficiently well to meet the standard of the course (which you should *definitely* raise). Go to your lecturer with an open mind, and without assuming that the problem is him/her. Raise your concern, but show that you are open to the possibility that you and your class are not meeting the required standard, and ask for advice on how to improve and meet the standard the other classes are meeting. It is highly likely that your lecturer will give you a fair hearing, and give genuine consideration to whether there has been an error in the standard set for the work.
Upvotes: 0
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2018/02/24
| 212
| 950
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<issue_start>username_0: The authors of a paper explicitly wrote that they included their code as a supplementary file, and the file is actually available, however, it only includes the header and no code whatsoever. Is it possible to make the journal take notice and correct this issue?<issue_comment>username_1: If a file is missing or appears to be missing, then the editor in charge of the paper should obviously be notified, since he or she is the person responsible for managing communications between the authors and the reviewers. (I have done this before when there was an obvious missing document.)
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Is this an old or a new paper - if it is old you may not be the first and, effectively, it won’t happen, but if new, you may be lucky...
Of course, it could be a new paper and they have changed their minds, which leaves you the choices of finding the code elsewhere or coding it yourself...
Upvotes: 1
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2018/02/24
| 281
| 1,112
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<issue_start>username_0: I already have a PhD, but now I'm graduating with a Master's in another field from another university.
**Question:** What academic robes do I wear?
I know it is normal to wear the regalia from the highest award but that seems strange in this case.<issue_comment>username_1: You should probably contact your graduate school to ask them. Ceremonial matters like this have some tradition behind them, so it'd seem to depend on what traditions your school cares about.
And if they don't care, then I suppose that you'd get to decide! Then it's really a matter of personal preference.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: It varies from university to university. In Cambridge, for example, you wear the academic dress of the highest Cambridge degree you hold, if you do already hold one, but if you are not already a Cambridge graduate you wear the garb appropriate to the degree that is about to be conferred on you. So, in a case such as yours, suppose you hold a PhD from London and are about to take a Cambridge master's degree, you would wear the Cambridge gown and hood.
Upvotes: 2
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2018/02/24
| 281
| 1,169
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<issue_start>username_0: I'm in the process of reviewing a journal submission and noticed that one of the figures is composed of a cropped out piece of a figure from another work. The authors don't cite the figure as coming from this work but do cite the other work elsewhere in the manuscript. Would this constitute as plagiarism?<issue_comment>username_1: You should probably contact your graduate school to ask them. Ceremonial matters like this have some tradition behind them, so it'd seem to depend on what traditions your school cares about.
And if they don't care, then I suppose that you'd get to decide! Then it's really a matter of personal preference.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: It varies from university to university. In Cambridge, for example, you wear the academic dress of the highest Cambridge degree you hold, if you do already hold one, but if you are not already a Cambridge graduate you wear the garb appropriate to the degree that is about to be conferred on you. So, in a case such as yours, suppose you hold a PhD from London and are about to take a Cambridge master's degree, you would wear the Cambridge gown and hood.
Upvotes: 2
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