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2018/12/30	817	3,125	<issue_start>username_0: I took a graduate course (C.S) in a U.S university. We were not provided with any grading scale in the syllabus. I was assigned a letter grade but I have no idea how it was calculated. Below is an example of a grading scale from another course ``` If X is your overall course score, letter grades will be assigned using the below scale. Scores will not be rounded. 100 ≥ X ≥ 93 A 93 > X ≥ 90 A- 90 > X ≥ 87 B+ 87 > X ≥ 83 B 83 > X ≥ 80 B- 80 > X ≥ 77 C+ 77 > X ≥ 73 C 73 > X ≥ 70 C- 70 > X ≥ 67 D+ 67 > X ≥ 63 D 63 > X ≥ 60 D- 60 > X ≥ 0 E ``` Can I ask the professor how my letter grade was calculated? if so, would something along the lines of "Could you please provide us with the grading scale used for the course or post it on Canvas?" be acceptable and non-offensive?<issue_comment>username_1: In my opinion: If you have received your grade you can ask the Professor to provide some explanation. At least for us in Europe it is ok to ask. It just depends on the way you ask. Depending on the person he/she will always be offend when you ask. However, just asking for the individual points/grades and how your overall grade was calculated shouldn't be offensive. Why I think so: it should be in your own academic interest to know where you did something wrong and how you could improve. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: You can certainly ask the professor to justify how a grade was calculated and assigned. In most universities and most systems the professor is obliged by the rules to justify to students how a grade was obtained. Moreover, minimal decent teaching practice is that the manner in which grades are to be calculated and the conditions in which the evaluation is to occur are fixed in advance and known before evaluations occur and that the calculations are reproducible by the student evaluated (there are of course particular contexts, e.g. evaluating a student with discapacities or an exam that contains an error in a problem formulation or an interruption (e.g. power outage) in its administration, in which particular modifications might have to be made). Assigning grades according to some scheme known only to the professor is considered something bordering malpractice in many countries. In Spain, where I work, a student always has a formal right to see how exams etc. were graded and to formally protest any perceived error in their grading. Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: Yes, of course you can ask. Do it pleasantly but I would even expect a response. In addition to understanding the mechanics of the calculation (or if it was qualitative what went into it still), you should ask for advice on areas that were weak and how they can be improved and also advice on further studies depending on the class. You may get some very practical advice like "this is one topic you need to know for sure in next course" or "don't worry about it too much, since you are going into life sciences" or whatever. IOW, have a discussion about your academic process, not JUST the grade. But still...get an understanding of the grade! Upvotes: 0
2018/12/30	642	2,774	<issue_start>username_0: I am taking a TOEFL lesson and encountered a lesson in which a student is (almost) complaining he had got B- because he would like to maintain 3.25 GPA average. To me (outside of US) it sounds very "average and O.K" to me. But would that grade point be so disappointing for the student to come to a professor's room to consult about this? Or is this just an example for my TOEFL that is not meant to be realistic? Just curious.<issue_comment>username_1: In my opinion: If you have received your grade you can ask the Professor to provide some explanation. At least for us in Europe it is ok to ask. It just depends on the way you ask. Depending on the person he/she will always be offend when you ask. However, just asking for the individual points/grades and how your overall grade was calculated shouldn't be offensive. Why I think so: it should be in your own academic interest to know where you did something wrong and how you could improve. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: You can certainly ask the professor to justify how a grade was calculated and assigned. In most universities and most systems the professor is obliged by the rules to justify to students how a grade was obtained. Moreover, minimal decent teaching practice is that the manner in which grades are to be calculated and the conditions in which the evaluation is to occur are fixed in advance and known before evaluations occur and that the calculations are reproducible by the student evaluated (there are of course particular contexts, e.g. evaluating a student with discapacities or an exam that contains an error in a problem formulation or an interruption (e.g. power outage) in its administration, in which particular modifications might have to be made). Assigning grades according to some scheme known only to the professor is considered something bordering malpractice in many countries. In Spain, where I work, a student always has a formal right to see how exams etc. were graded and to formally protest any perceived error in their grading. Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: Yes, of course you can ask. Do it pleasantly but I would even expect a response. In addition to understanding the mechanics of the calculation (or if it was qualitative what went into it still), you should ask for advice on areas that were weak and how they can be improved and also advice on further studies depending on the class. You may get some very practical advice like "this is one topic you need to know for sure in next course" or "don't worry about it too much, since you are going into life sciences" or whatever. IOW, have a discussion about your academic process, not JUST the grade. But still...get an understanding of the grade! Upvotes: 0
2018/12/30	742	3,163	<issue_start>username_0: I have been somewhat incorrectly convicted of copying another student's test, and the prospects of reversing this seem doubtful. My school's policy is somewhat more lenient here due to it being a first offense so they removed points on questions they think I cheated on and that this happened is kept on file, though it is not on my transcript. How would this affect my ability to get into top math graduate schools (assuming I am unable to successfully reverse this)? In particular, do many ask me to specify such things?<issue_comment>username_1: While it is impossible to say with complete accuracy, not knowing more, I doubt that it will affect you at all, provided that you act honestly and honorably in everyone's view in the remainder of your tenure. If that is the case, then, even if it is still considered an infraction, then it will also be considered an aberration. That is probably the reason for the nature of the policy in place. Since the record being retained isn't public, the only way it would affect you in the future is if one of your recommenders mentions it. That is unlikely if you show yourself to be honest. People make mistakes and other people recognize that. You don't actually need to have the record corrected to your satisfaction as long as your behavior is such that people in future want to write you great letters of recommendation. But your goal is to be seen as a paragon so that your professors will look on the past as an out of character incident, even if they think that you really did cheat on one exam. Look to the future if you can't alter the past. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: This is certainly not going to help your application for graduate school, and it can be fatal if it doesn't look like you've learned from it. I suspect the default position of most people is going to be against you, unfortunately. * If you still have time (i.e. years till you graduate), make sure to show that you can put the incident behind you. Don't cheat in other classes, but get good grades in them anyway. * If you don't have time, that's bad. You'll need to write a good explanation in your application. * You will be asked about this. There's a box in many graduate applications asking if you've ever been involved in academic dishonesty situations. Don't omit this even if you've put the incident behind you, because if you do, you are not reporting full facts and if discovered any offer of admission can be rescinded even if you've already matriculated (see the statement you have to sign at the end of the application). Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: Has the matter been "expunged"? * If so, then your university should not mention it (you may want to verify this) and you might legally/ethically be allowed to answer "no" when asked about this (you will definitely want to verify this as well, preferably with the new school(s) [anonymously] and in writing). * If not, then you will have to mention it, and I agree with username_2's answer -- this will count against you, possibly in a major way -- all you can do is to address it very nicely in your SOP. Upvotes: 1
2018/12/30	2,014	8,205	<issue_start>username_0: I have recently applied to a research-assistant position at a university in the European Union. I got admitted into the interview. However, I am the only suitable candidate to this job, as I could see by the official documents. I have several doubts about this situation: * Why would they want to interview me, if I am the only candidate, and they find me suitable for the job? * What type of questions/discussion in the interview should I expect? It is a fact that I am not facing any competition, so what will the purpose of this interview be? * Is there any chance of not getting the job? I am really interested in the job, and I did not lie about anything on my CV. Can I still be considered not adequate for the position? * Is the interview just a formality? The original job posting says that the evaluation methods are curricular assessment plus interview thereafter.<issue_comment>username_1: There are a few possibilities. It may be that an interview is required by the policy of the institution. It is also likely that they want to get an idea of how you would fit in personally. If they are happy with your application materials and have no reason to doubt your honesty in that, they just might want to know if your personality seems compatible. Yes, it is possible that you don't get the job. If they decide you are a complete jerk (sorry, nothing implied) they won't want to hire you and will most probably restart the search. But, I'd advise that it isn't anything to worry over. Just be yourself and use the interview to help decide if you want to work with them. If you decide that they are complete jerks you will want to keep looking. They may want to quiz you on aspects of your knowledge that are especially important to their work. Be honest in your answers, even if you aren't familiar. Be positive, of course, about your abilities and adaptability if that seems appropriate. Upvotes: 7 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: > > However, I am the only suitable candidate to this job, as I could see > by the official documents. > > > You probably mean that you are the only shortlisted candidate with suitable background or with shared research interests etc. But there are more than academic qualifications when recruiting a member for a lab. For example, nobody want to hire a jerk no matter how talented he is. I once interviewed for a post-doc position in the UK. Part of the onsite interview was to talk with PhD students and other postdocs in the lab for an hour while the PI and co-PI interviewed other candidates. I thought they just wanted to make me busy, but that were a mistake. There were 2 candidates being interviewed via Skype and they had to do the same. > > -Why would they want to interview me, if I am the only candidate, and they find me suitable to the job? > > > To evaluate you further, to get more information that is not available in the resume/ applications, to check if you fit with the culture of the lab, and so on and so on. > > -What type of questions/discussion in the interview should I expect? > > > Only the interviewer can know. > > It is a fact that I am not facing any competition, so what will the > purpose of this interview be? > > > Having no competition doesn't mean you will automatically get the job. It doesn't mean the interview will be easy either. In the SF Bay Area (or Silicon Valley as poeple often call), there is almost no competition for software engineer, data scientist jobs. Often a company want to hire 300, and they can only find 30. So if you "pass the bar", you can surely get into Google, Fb, Amazon etc. That doesn't mean the interviews are easy, as the bar is very high. > > -Is there any chance of not getting the job? I am really interested in the job, and I did not lie about anything on my CV. Can I still be > considered not adequate for the position? > > > There is always a chance for everything. > > -Is the interview just a formality? > > > I guess not. You should prepare for it as much as possible. Good luck. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: Many academic positions beyond the PhD positions are extremely specialised¹. Even if the job market is saturated with suitable candidates on the time average, it may therefore easily happen that only one or no candidate is available at a given time due to statistical fluctuations. In fact, I am aware of several positions that stayed vacant for quite a while due to a lack of suitable candidates. So, even if your situation is not common in your field, it is very likely not rare, and therefore there likely are mechanisms to cope with it. In particular, there are likely measures to avoid that one completely unsuited candidate must be hired due to being the only one. For example, I know that many funders allow to delay the research plan a little if no suitable candidate is found or to convert a postdoc position to a PhD position and vice versa. For university-funded positions, the flexibility is usually even higher. I heard of some cases where positions were advertised over years until a suitable candidate was found. I also have never heard of an academic position where the hiring party is forced (practically or legally) to accept a candidate. This doesn’t mean that they do not exist, but given the above, I cannot imagine any mechanisms enforcing this to survive very long because they would lead to a completely unnecessary detriment of research quality. So, I really wouldn’t assume that, just because you are the only candidate, you cannot fail. Moreover, even if they are desperate to hire somebody, they may still want to avoid hiring somebody who is very likely to quit after a few months, because they are back where they started with some time and funding lost. Finally note that even if they are already completely enthusiastic about you, they may not tell you and go through a regular hiring process to get a better negotiating position for the details of hiring (if there is anything to negotiate at all). --- ¹ The situation is somewhat different for PhD positions, where in most fields you should be wary why you are the only candidate. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: If you’re not a great candidate, chances are you won’t get the job. I’ve sat on appointment committees for more than one U.K. Russell Group university. Pretty much every time the view of the committee is we’d rather make no appointment, than a poor appointment. Last year, a committee I was on decided not to appoint to a professorial grade post, despite having a number of applicants who were already professors at other universities - they were just viewed as not good enough for the appointing institution. So being a sole applicant far from guarantees getting the job. The university wants to interview you to discover if you’re a great candidate, or just good enough on paper. And if you’re in the second group they’d probably rather not appoint anyone and re-advertise at some point in the future. Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_5: Interviewing is often about cultural fit and how well one fits into the workplace community. It's helpful to talk with a job candidate and listen to how one responds to different questions, because it demonstrates one's communication style and approaches to problem-solving in ways that a CV may not easily otherwise accomplish. It is also a way to demonstrate one's soft skills, and those are harder to measure without a face-to-face interview. Good luck, and Happy New Year! Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_6: > > Why would they want to interview me, if I am the only candidate, and they find me suitable for the job? > > > They have found you to be suitable enough to merit an interview, not suitable to enough to hire "blindly", without having talked to you. Expect essentially the same interview questions you would get had there been multiple candidates. The interview is likely not just a formality and you are not guaranteed to be hired: The research group can decide nobody was found suitable enough, and either shelve the position or try another round of recruiting. Upvotes: 3
2018/12/31	1,866	7,536	<issue_start>username_0: I wish to ask a journal's editor if my manuscript will be "desk rejected" (for, if not, it will be peer-reviewed). He and I both know what that means, but I'd rather say it without prejudicing my submission.<issue_comment>username_1: There are a few possibilities. It may be that an interview is required by the policy of the institution. It is also likely that they want to get an idea of how you would fit in personally. If they are happy with your application materials and have no reason to doubt your honesty in that, they just might want to know if your personality seems compatible. Yes, it is possible that you don't get the job. If they decide you are a complete jerk (sorry, nothing implied) they won't want to hire you and will most probably restart the search. But, I'd advise that it isn't anything to worry over. Just be yourself and use the interview to help decide if you want to work with them. If you decide that they are complete jerks you will want to keep looking. They may want to quiz you on aspects of your knowledge that are especially important to their work. Be honest in your answers, even if you aren't familiar. Be positive, of course, about your abilities and adaptability if that seems appropriate. Upvotes: 7 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: > > However, I am the only suitable candidate to this job, as I could see > by the official documents. > > > You probably mean that you are the only shortlisted candidate with suitable background or with shared research interests etc. But there are more than academic qualifications when recruiting a member for a lab. For example, nobody want to hire a jerk no matter how talented he is. I once interviewed for a post-doc position in the UK. Part of the onsite interview was to talk with PhD students and other postdocs in the lab for an hour while the PI and co-PI interviewed other candidates. I thought they just wanted to make me busy, but that were a mistake. There were 2 candidates being interviewed via Skype and they had to do the same. > > -Why would they want to interview me, if I am the only candidate, and they find me suitable to the job? > > > To evaluate you further, to get more information that is not available in the resume/ applications, to check if you fit with the culture of the lab, and so on and so on. > > -What type of questions/discussion in the interview should I expect? > > > Only the interviewer can know. > > It is a fact that I am not facing any competition, so what will the > purpose of this interview be? > > > Having no competition doesn't mean you will automatically get the job. It doesn't mean the interview will be easy either. In the SF Bay Area (or Silicon Valley as poeple often call), there is almost no competition for software engineer, data scientist jobs. Often a company want to hire 300, and they can only find 30. So if you "pass the bar", you can surely get into Google, Fb, Amazon etc. That doesn't mean the interviews are easy, as the bar is very high. > > -Is there any chance of not getting the job? I am really interested in the job, and I did not lie about anything on my CV. Can I still be > considered not adequate for the position? > > > There is always a chance for everything. > > -Is the interview just a formality? > > > I guess not. You should prepare for it as much as possible. Good luck. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: Many academic positions beyond the PhD positions are extremely specialised¹. Even if the job market is saturated with suitable candidates on the time average, it may therefore easily happen that only one or no candidate is available at a given time due to statistical fluctuations. In fact, I am aware of several positions that stayed vacant for quite a while due to a lack of suitable candidates. So, even if your situation is not common in your field, it is very likely not rare, and therefore there likely are mechanisms to cope with it. In particular, there are likely measures to avoid that one completely unsuited candidate must be hired due to being the only one. For example, I know that many funders allow to delay the research plan a little if no suitable candidate is found or to convert a postdoc position to a PhD position and vice versa. For university-funded positions, the flexibility is usually even higher. I heard of some cases where positions were advertised over years until a suitable candidate was found. I also have never heard of an academic position where the hiring party is forced (practically or legally) to accept a candidate. This doesn’t mean that they do not exist, but given the above, I cannot imagine any mechanisms enforcing this to survive very long because they would lead to a completely unnecessary detriment of research quality. So, I really wouldn’t assume that, just because you are the only candidate, you cannot fail. Moreover, even if they are desperate to hire somebody, they may still want to avoid hiring somebody who is very likely to quit after a few months, because they are back where they started with some time and funding lost. Finally note that even if they are already completely enthusiastic about you, they may not tell you and go through a regular hiring process to get a better negotiating position for the details of hiring (if there is anything to negotiate at all). --- ¹ The situation is somewhat different for PhD positions, where in most fields you should be wary why you are the only candidate. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: If you’re not a great candidate, chances are you won’t get the job. I’ve sat on appointment committees for more than one U.K. Russell Group university. Pretty much every time the view of the committee is we’d rather make no appointment, than a poor appointment. Last year, a committee I was on decided not to appoint to a professorial grade post, despite having a number of applicants who were already professors at other universities - they were just viewed as not good enough for the appointing institution. So being a sole applicant far from guarantees getting the job. The university wants to interview you to discover if you’re a great candidate, or just good enough on paper. And if you’re in the second group they’d probably rather not appoint anyone and re-advertise at some point in the future. Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_5: Interviewing is often about cultural fit and how well one fits into the workplace community. It's helpful to talk with a job candidate and listen to how one responds to different questions, because it demonstrates one's communication style and approaches to problem-solving in ways that a CV may not easily otherwise accomplish. It is also a way to demonstrate one's soft skills, and those are harder to measure without a face-to-face interview. Good luck, and Happy New Year! Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_6: > > Why would they want to interview me, if I am the only candidate, and they find me suitable for the job? > > > They have found you to be suitable enough to merit an interview, not suitable to enough to hire "blindly", without having talked to you. Expect essentially the same interview questions you would get had there been multiple candidates. The interview is likely not just a formality and you are not guaranteed to be hired: The research group can decide nobody was found suitable enough, and either shelve the position or try another round of recruiting. Upvotes: 3
2018/12/31	1,406	5,708	<issue_start>username_0: I spend a great deal more time than other graduate school students identifying and figuring out how to fix mistakes in published papers and specialized books. Time and time again an author's careless error has sent me down a rabbit hole. In fact, finding the mistake and fixing it is often more interesting to me than the research itself. It dawned on me that I might be able to make a career out of editing working papers and books in advance of publication. However, I am not quite sure how to find such a job. I am not seeking to publish my own research; I prefer revise and improve others' work. It seems like a useful thing to do: Author's mistakes becomes my personal headache, so that a dozen or more readers down the line do not have to independently run into the same issues (after publication). It is better to fix this sort of problem at compile time rather than run-time. However, Most peer-reviews are *unpaid* and done by collegiate professors. I am not seeking a professorship; I don't even have a Ph.D. The highest degree under my belt is a baccalaureate (It is in mathematics at the very least). When I took the GRE, I was in the 98th percentile for verbal reasoning. This and other indicators seem to show that I might be a good copy editor. However, I really would like to review papers in mathematics and/or computer science. Although editing at The New York Times, or at Tor Books™ might be someone else's dream job, I very much love math. I would like to focus at least as much time on the rigor and correctness of the mathematics done, as time spent on English grammar. I am very good with logic (the formal kind), comfortable writing proofs, and unperturbed by mathematical symbols equations which make the general populace groan. I am better with graph theory and theory of computation than writing code; my math skills are strong. I have no previous job experience as an editor (other than a pitiful stint at my high school newspaper) and I am not sure where to start looking. I spend a great deal more time than my peers (in graduate school) identifying and figuring out how to fix mistakes in published papers and specialized books. Time and time again an author's careless error has sent me down a rabbit hole. In fact, finding the mistake and fixing it is often more interesting to me, than the research itself. It dawned on me that I might be able to make a career out of editing working papers and books in advance of publication. However, I am not quite sure how to find such a job. A penny for your thoughts?<issue_comment>username_1: The kind of thing you're looking to do can be fun, but does not pay. That's because your progress will be painfully slow. For example, say I have a 300-page mathematics monograph. How much do you think is fair to charge for your content editing? Don't forget the total revenue of that book is likely to be less than $10,000 in total. Further, how many more copies of the book is one likely to sell if they engage you? In the best-case scenario, you'll catch every error, and the reviews will be glowing ... but translating that into books-that-are-sold-that-would-not-otherwise-be-sold, I'd estimate that to be ~5-10 books. From there, we could say that the publisher might be willing to pay you $100. For a 300-page monograph, it's just really hard to see it as worth it. You could make more money by handling the entirety of the publication process. You'd need to do copyediting (i.e. English editing, not just content editing), send proofs to authors, liaise with the typesetters & printers, and so on. Publishers have people whose job scope is to do this ("editors"). Unfortunately, you still won't be able to do the kind of content editing you want to do. I used to work in academic publishing, and when I did this, I handled 8-9 projects at the same time. There's just no way you can treat each manuscript in the detail you want to. Having said that, one part of the job scope of editors is to acquire more projects. If you do a good job with editing, you can impress authors who might in turn either write more books or refer their friends & colleagues to you. This will be good for your career. If the project you're handling is aimed at the general public, or at undergraduate level, you have more of a chance to offer content critiques, but you won't have time to understand deep mathematics. If you still want to do this, then you can find such jobs the same way you find other such jobs: by reading job advertisements and writing to employers (in this case academic publishers). You can also put up your own advertisements to do this kind of checking, in which case you'd use message boards that mathematicians or computer scientists look at. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: A possible occupation is suggested by these searches: ["test editor" + mathematics](https://www.google.com/search?q=%22test+editor%22+%22mathematics%22) AND ["mathematics editor" + test](https://www.google.com/search?q=). See also [this web page](https://www.basic-mathematics.com/math-editor.html), although to be frank, they vastly overstate the desire of employers to want math majors, and the part about a graduate background in abstract algebra, real analysis, etc. giving you "an advantage over other candidates" is especially naive. I say this as someone --- 9 years full-time college teaching and 4 years full-time high school teaching and Ph.D. in math --- who has worked in this field for the past 13.5 years, 12 of which was for a very well known company, from which I was laid off 1.5 years ago and I have since had great difficulty in even finding part-time contract positions. Upvotes: 1
2018/12/31	872	3,613	<issue_start>username_0: I am currently applying for my PhD in pure math. I am also finishing up my masters. Unfortunately my brother passed halfway through the semester and I received an incomplete in one of my classes because I was absent too much. I also missed the GRE Mathematics subject test which is required. I spoke to the head of the department who said that they will consider my application without the GRE subject test. I don't know if he is going to personally be reviewing my application or if he's even going to remember he said this to me. Anyways, should I put this in my personal statement? So far I've talked only about my math research interests, experience, etc. But maybe I should add a concluding paragraph that explains my current situation? How can I approach this? I took my regular GRE and though my score isn't awful, it's not great and I just feel like my brother passing in the past few months has tremendously had an affect on me. That being said, I've worked so hard and besides this incident, all my grades for my masters degree have been high to low A's. I want them to know this isn't me at my best. But I also don't want it to be a sob story.<issue_comment>username_1: Yes, you should absolutely mention it. If you do not, the program will not have the necessary context to evaluate your application fairly -- which is bad for them and worse for you. You should also mention that the program already agreed to consider your application without the GRE -- as you say, it's anyone's guess whether they will remember this concession if you don't remind them. In fact, I worry that a well-meaning secretary might trash your application in any case (as it appears incomplete), so it might be worth indicating this in a more visible place or even calling to confirm that your application was passed to the committee. Now, for how to mention it: concisely. 1-2 sentences is all you need. "I performed poorly during this brief period because my brother died" is all they need to know -- you don't need to dress that statement up too much or say much more than that. * If you go to town making this statement too long, it will sound like an excuse. So, be very clear, direct, and above all concise. * The one thing that might be worth adding is a reason to be confident that you will not continue to have grief-related problems as a PhD student (i.e., give some evidence that things are improving). I do not recommend putting this in the last paragraph as you suggest. The last paragraph should send them off on a high note ("declare victory" and look to the future). Instead, put this into the relevant body paragraph. Sorry to hear about your brother. Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: User: 1. I would mention it (you need to explain the issue or they just see the negative). But I would try to do it in a matter of fact way (you are not asking for any special pity...everyone has deaths in the family as a part of life). Also if you can mention how you will or did compensate for the issue (will take test later, or "took a practice and got a 700 which I feel shows my ability", etc.) Also, if you can take a little of a matter of fact tone that it was an issue and is behind you (will not affect your work in the program) that would be best. 2. No. Telling them you will have to move back to India and live in a village and not be educated because you are a girl is a whine. May be very true. But it's nobody's duty to spare you from that fate out of pity. Instead if you don't want that, do the work to prevent it happening. Upvotes: 0
2018/12/31	468	2,017	<issue_start>username_0: I have been accepted for a postdoc position. My mentor is a young and according to his list of publications he has not many papers and/or many citations. I would like to know whether this position add any value to my C.V or not? As I suppose, his experience is not much in supervising students, I have some doubts about his support. May you please list the roles of a mentor of a postdoc? When I am looking at the other postdocs from other countries, they bold the name of their mentor of their postdoc as a big name in their field. This is why I have some worries.<issue_comment>username_1: Research-wise, if you've just finished your phd, then your postdoc supervisor will need to act for a while like a phd supervisor, and they should better have some experience. If you can do your own research then it may not be very important who your supervisor is. Career-wise, you want to get access to your supervisor's network of contacts and later use their reference to apply for new positions, and if your supervisor is young, they may be lacking in their network and the strength of their name. Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: My choice would be to list the mentor unless you think the person has been an actual drag on your progress. In a more neutral case, don't think about a moment in time but about how things will go in the future. If the mentor is in the early career stage he/she will probably advance in reputation and, if so, it would be good to be linked to their success. Perhaps they are seen as "promising" if not yet a superstar. It is easy enough to update your CV in the future, of course, if things change. Additionally, if you are beginning the postdoc rather than at its end, you probably aren't yet in the job market. This gives you time to evaluate the situation more thoroughly. Perhaps, over the course of the postdoc you and the advisor will advance together. Such could lead to a profitable long-term professional relationship. Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]
2018/12/31	1,113	4,765	<issue_start>username_0: In disciplines such as computer science and engineering, Google Scholar is a fundamental tool in not only searching for recent work of a researcher but is also frequently used as a metric for the proficiency of the researcher. I've noticed in many other fields, e.g. political science, or even math, Google Scholar is not nearly as popular. Does anyone have any insight into why this is the case? Do these other fields have other tools they use to follow researchers or measure their output? Perhaps these factors are not as important in these other fields?<issue_comment>username_1: In computing science, papers are reviewed rather quickly (because they are often tied to conferences, with deadlines, and without journal backlog). They are also usually indexable. In biblical studies, to give another example, it can easily take over two years from submission to publication, even with a minor revisions review shortly after submission - just because journals have a large backlog. Also, there still are journals without digital edition. Biblical scholars I know rely on mailing lists for tables of contents and find PDFs of articles they want to read on academia.edu. Google Scholar simply does not index everything and is not fast enough. From what I've heard, in math it's the review cycle that takes long. This is different from a journal backlog, but the result is the same. Arxiv will be more up to date than Google Scholar. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Probably there are more computer-illiterate people in these fields. Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_3: "Time to market" of the paper (e.g., shorter review time) as Keelan noted might be a reason. It might be also related to what is indexed by google scholar vs. more official indexes. (see link below). For example, google scholar counts as a citation basically everything that looks like a citation, regardless of whether it was peer-reviewed or not. It is possible, that some fields are more reluctant adopting such metrics. For example, arXiv platform has been long ago a popular in math field. But those papers are not peer-reviewed, at least for posting them, there is no requirement of peer-review. In other domains (I think biology) preprints have become popular more recently. Another reason: in CS there are a lot of people outside academia. They are interested whether someone relevant cited their paper (or whatever it was). This boosts google scholar use. In many other fields researchers work only in academia. the official representatives might tend to rely more on official indices (e.g., for promotion etc). It is also possible that some fields are more conservative than others. CS is in general a relatively young field. Also, it is more natural for CS to adopt new technologies. But think about philosophy field that has longer traditions. People in such fields also less care about technological innovations. <https://www.researchgate.net/publication/239314956_Citation_Analysis_Comparison_of_Web_of_ScienceR_Scopus_SciFinderR_and_Google_Scholar> Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: Math already has an excellent tool, MathSciNet. And, more importantly, MathSciNet is much more accurate than Google Scholar. If you are a mathematician, look up yourself in both places and compare! Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_5: There is no single answer to this question. Every field is unique. There is also an element of randomness: If a handful of the right people create Google Scholar profiles, others will follow and adoption will rapidly spread. However, I think there are two key factors: 1. Willingness to adopt new technology. This depends on the existing alternatives (e.g., MathSciNet) and also how tech-savvy people are. I've noticed that, even at the individual level, there is a strong correlation between having a good, up-to-date website and having a Google Scholar profile. 2. Publishing attitudes. Google Scholar is very inclusive in indexing. It counts citations from arxiv preprints, not just peer-reviewed journals. I even get citations from lecture notes and research statements that people have uploaded to their websites. Different fields have different attitudes about what should "count" as a citation and that will affect how they view Google Scholar. For example, math is much more conservative than computer science and Google Scholar adoption reflects that. A final note specific to computer science: Just about every computer science researcher knows people (e.g. former username_3s) who now work at Google. And Google also produces a lot of computer science research. Thus computer science has a very positive view of Google, which may not be the case in other fields. Upvotes: 3
2018/12/31	999	4,007	<issue_start>username_0: This question is similar to the following question: [Is it a good or bad idea to list declined fellowships (for a PhD program) on one's curriculum vitae?](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/368/is-it-a-good-or-bad-idea-to-list-declined-fellowships-for-a-phd-program-on-one) Whereas that question focuses on fellowships for a grad program, I am asking about including other competitive fellowships and/or grants — those awarded after acceptance to a PhD program — in the CV. Examples of these awards could include: * Travel grants * Research fellowships (e.g. NESSF, NSF, Early Career) * Research grants Many will wonder why somebody might decline these awards after being nominated or applying for them. Possibilities could include schedule conflicts, conflicts of interest, and more. (This question is agnostic to the reasons for declining the award, though a follow-up question could be to ask when one should explain why the award was declined on one's CV....)<issue_comment>username_1: This depends largely on (like what Buffy commented) the circumstances and the grant. In my opinion, the circumstances may include where you are in your career. I see graduate students state declined fellowships on their CV relatively often, but I rarely see it on the CVs of professors who usually have enough (and usually more impressive) things on their CV. But in terms of the grants, consider this example of the two of the most prestigious general graduate fellowships: the NSF GRP and the Ford Fellowship. Both offer honorable mentions. It's pretty common to see graduate students state on their CVs that they got an honorable mention. However, suppose that a student received both the NSF GRP and Ford Fellowship in the same year. Because the Ford Fellowship prohibits one from having additional fellowships simultaneously, the student decides to decline the Ford Fellowship and accept the NSF GRP and reap the benefits of a much higher annual stipend as well. Should this student not state on their CV that they were accepted for the Ford Fellowship? What about a student who got the NSF GRP but only an honorable mention for the Ford Fellowship? Should this student be able to list both awards on their CV? It doesn't make sense (in my opinion) that the prior student should *not* be able to list the declined Ford Fellowship while the latter student should be able to list an honorable mention for the Ford Fellowship when an acceptance is clearly better than an honorable mention (discounting all the minority statuses that Ford takes into consideration). However, that example was for two very prestigious fellowships. For minor grants/awards like travel grants, listing declined grants can be seen as 'padding the CV' since many travel grants/awards can be based on lottery rather than merit. To sum it up, if the fellowship or grant is very prestigious, I see no reason as to why you shouldn't have a declined offer on your CV. However, if the fellowship or grant is minor or small, and your CV is already riddled with other awards or grants, then consider how it may be padding your CV with relatively trivial things that distract the reader from the more important fellowships/awards/grants. It's similar to why graduate students should consider deleting their undergraduate research symposium poster presentations from their CV as they progress in their academic career... Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: If you got too scholarships or grants or the like and accepted one, I would list them both (or whatever the number is) and just put in parentheses that you declined it. Make it clear that YOU declined it, presumably from taking the best one. It looks good that you got several prizes. Of course, I would not list awards or jobs that you did not earn (honorable mention is fine, still an achievement). Make it clear the difference (that you rejected something) as it was not 100% clear from your question. Upvotes: 2
2018/12/31	1,306	5,680	<issue_start>username_0: I'm a PhD student and I need to (almost desperately) squeeze in another paper for my dissertation in the next 6 months. Is it acceptable to explain my situation to the editor and ask to set a tighter deadline to the reviewers? My field is health sciences and biostatistics.<issue_comment>username_1: You can ask for just about anything, but unless you already have some connection to the editor you aren't likely to have much happen out of the ordinary. In particular, they are unlikely to move you ahead of another author and you would probably object if the situation were reversed. The editor has little control over what his/her reviewers do or their schedules. If he/she tries to press them, they might just turn the paper back and you get in line again. The editor is unlikely to move on a paper without reviews. The time it takes is the time it takes. Note that in some ways the reviewer "stable" is more important to the editor than the current bunch of authors since there is a long term relationship between editors and reviewers. Since they probably aren't paid, there is little leverage. But you can ask. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: @username_1 is right that you're unlikely to be able to influence processing speed for a given journal. One of the axes on which journals compete is their processing speed. [SciRev](https://scirev.org/) provides a platform for comparison (e.g. [here are the reviews for statistics journals, sorted in increasing order of "total handling time"](https://scirev.org/discipline/BG11/statistics-and-probability/?order=totrevt&dir=up): note that reviews are provided by authors, and the number of reviews per journal varies enormously, so you should be appropriately careful interpreting the results). Googling "academic journal processing time" points you to a variety of other discussions/comparisons. Sometimes journals provide this information on their web pages. Thus you could aim for a venue with rapid turnaround. Unfortunately for you, in my experience there's a correlation between selectivity/flashiness and rapid turnaround (e.g. high-impact journals often ask for reviewers to return reviews on a very short time scale), so you might have trouble getting your paper accepted in such a publication. It may be that some of the less-traditional, more open venues such as PeerJ have relatively fast turnaround times. You obviously know the policies of your advisor/institution better than we do, but (again in my experience, in not totally unrelated fields) it's often sufficient to have a paper submitted to a reputable journal for it to count toward a dissertation; this rule prevents the committee from having to deal with crappy manuscripts in an early stage of preparation, but insulates the students from the vagaries of the publication process. I'd definitely recommend double-checking with someone knowledgeable ... Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: You can ask but it's not likely the editor will say yes, unless the journal is desperate for papers. It's not true that editors cannot speed up papers even if they don't want to impose on their reviewers. Paying more attention to a paper speeds it up - for example, instead of inviting five reviewers to start, invite ten, and the chances someone agrees and writes a fast review goes up even if one doesn't change the review deadlines. Similarly if reviewers decline, inviting new reviewers immediately will probably speed up the processing time. However the question the editor will have to handle is, "why should I bother?" It's not fair to other authors if he spends less time there, and he can't speed up every paper, so why yours? Does he know you? Does he need you as an author? Is your paper likely to be good? Unfortunately my read is that unless the journal is desperate for papers, the editor is not likely to say yes unless he takes pity on you (maybe he experienced something similar as a PhD student?). Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: I think it is completely reasonable to ask. I would go even further and look for a journal that promises fast processing (a letters journal) and submit there. But also let them know your speed need/desire. And of course pull it if nothing is happening with it or if it gets all snarled after some period of time (couple months). BUT. Make sure the paper is very CLEAN. No wild claims. Just the facts, ma'am! Well written. Follow the formatting instructions of the notice to authors like a nuclear tech. Make that thing EASY to fly through like a greased pig. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: You can ask for anything, politely. But there is much you can do to weight the odds in your favor. What you want to minimize is the number of times a paper has to go back and forth (number of times it sits in someone's queue) and the amount of work every party involved has to do. * Make sure to adhere to all the journal's submission guidelines. You don't want to waste a half-week getting it sent back and forth for technical reasons. * Suggest reviewers: For niche topics it can take time, sometimes hours, for an editor to identify appropriate reviewers. Do this work for them: suggest 5-10 reviewers and explain why they might be a good fit. * Be a good writer: Have friends outside your field read the paper for understandable content. Have non-technical friends read for grammar mistakes. * Release the code: Put your well-commented source code with a makefile on Github. This is journal dependent, so try to investigate first. As a reviewer and editor any paper without code is going back, but not everyone believes in that approach. Upvotes: 2
2019/01/01	789	3,166	<issue_start>username_0: My TA letter indicates 90 hours working. However, I worked for 120 hours due to the volume of the students. Now my work is finished I want to let them know by writing an email to the professor. I want to be nice and thankful for the given position. Note, my goal is to get paid for these 30 hours. I had already raised the issue with the professor before doing the work, and was told to do the work, record my hours, and then the professor would follow up with the head of department.<issue_comment>username_1: Your letter seems perfectly polite. My one critique is that I'm not clear what you're asking for. Just to get your record updated? A larger assignment going forward? More money for the hours you put in already? I assume the last one (getting paid for those 30 hours), but I'm not sure. If you're struggling for words, you could call this a "stipend adjustment" or something like that. It is good that you got approval before working these hours. If you had not (as the comments and other answers have noted), you would have very little chance of getting retroactively compensated. Hopefully you got a clear commitment in writing: there is still a chance this will be messy if the professor does not or cannot follow through on their promise to find extra funding for you. Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: If I were the professor (or TA manager) I would read your letter as saying, "Please reward me for being an inefficient, slow grader." And I would be very put off. I could be that at your university, there is a problem with over-working TA's and graders. In this case, you might complain through proper channels that you don't think the published hours are accurate. If enough graders to that, the department might re-think their standards and adjust the workloads. (Perhaps the registrar has been slowing increasing course enrollments and the department needs to be aware that courses that used to be capped at 80 are now capped at 120 and the graders now have 50% more work to do.) But the most you can hope for here is such an adjustment of policy. You won't ever be paid for the extra hours you put in. Welcome to salaried life. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: The correct way would be ahead of time. If they really want the extra work, they can pay for it ahead of time. In all likelihood, they DON'T want to pay extra for extra hours. So what you need to do is just spend LESS time and do an less good job. And concentrate on your research and your own degree. Sorry if this seems blunt but it is the way of the world. Jam through the grading very fast. Don't do any extras. Just make sure all the forms are filled out and the like so nobody can yell at you. Again...this is the real deal. Oh...and if you can get by with less than 90 hours and get paid for 90 without anyone noticing, that's good too. Look at it as an intellectual challenge. Note: I'm not completely cynical. If you have to spend X amount of time (e.g. doing a lecture) than that time is sunk. So try your best, do your best in that time. But DO NOT PRIORITIZE TA WORK over your own research! Upvotes: 0
2019/01/01	875	3,802	<issue_start>username_0: Academia involves a lot of proposals and approvals and it can save effort to combine them. A grant including work that's already been started is easier to satisfy. The applications I receive for independent study describe work that students have already started on. My grandfather used to tell me about submitting the same paper in several courses in his student days. To generalize between these cases, failing to clarify the amount of work already done is a common tactic among researchers. What moral principles guide such actions? Are some specific techniques kosher and others off limits?<issue_comment>username_1: The answer might depend on the field, but (at leat to me) one borderline is that you can not sell the same piece of work twice. E.g. you can not apply for a grant whilst you have more or less the same work packages in an other grant application (or running grant). The same holds true for students work: You can d osubsequent work steps in one larger area, but you must clearly distinguish which part of the work has been done for which course / part of the exam. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Let me make two points. The first is that in order to write a research proposal you have to understand the area well enough to describe it. This implies that you have already explored it and have done some work to get it ready for submission. Even after you submit, you aren't likely to just forget about the problem until you get funding. The alternative would be just saying random things in research proposals. So, there is no alternative, in my view, to making proposals on partially done work. The second point is at the other extreme. I've heard that some very successful researchers, though the stories may be apocryphal, work like this. Do research problem A. After you are nearly done, write a grant request for problem A and if it is funded, write the report but use the funds to do problem B, that wasn't mentioned in the grant request. If B is successful, write a grant for it (B) so that you have funding for problem C, etc. You might question the ethics of this, but the realities are that the funders get what they funded, and the researchers get the funds they need to do research that the funders (and society) like. If you think about doing it any other way, what you wind up with is a lower success rate for funded research (hence less funds for students, etc) and lower reputations all around. That is because there is no guarantee that your initial thoughts on a research topic will bear fruit. So you try to solve more problems than you can reach conclusion on. Lower "success" doesn't serve anyone very well and turns research into a sort of jungle - eat or be eaten - situation. But, I'll also note that if you apply for a grant for a piece of work and tell the funders that it is nearly done, you won't get funded. That should be pretty obvious, I think. On the other hand, if you ask for funding for a wild idea you just had, you won't get funded (unless you are already a superstar). So there is a tension here. So maybe there is a sort of "sweet spot" in which it all fits. But certainly the work is partly done before funding is contemplated by either the researchers or funders. Even if the real situation isn't quite as extreme as this, a researcher funded for A and working on A would be foolish to completely ignore problem B if it occurred along the way. S/he would be wise to follow the threads for at least a while to see what potential there might be. People, including researchers, aren't machines that work on only one thing at a time to the (mental) exclusion of all else. The reality is somewhere in between these extremes, though both extremes exist, I'm pretty sure. Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]
2019/01/01	4,871	21,017	<issue_start>username_0: The new semester will be starting in a few weeks, and I will be teaching a course which starts on the first day of the semester. The goal of the course is to teach students how to use the R programming language to clean and analyze data. I will teach the course using a flipped classroom format: * To save time (both my own time and students' time), I will record video lectures and write lecture notes, which I expect the students to watch or read before each class. It should take the students about 1–2 hours to watch/read before class. * The class meets 1 time per week, for 3 hours at a time. During the class time each week, students will be in the computer lab, where they will complete data analysis tasks on the computer. During the class time in the lab, students can ask me to clarify any questions they may have. Question: From the second class onward, I will be expecting students to watch the lecture videos and read the lecture notes before coming to class. However, is it a good idea to have the same arrangement for the first class? In other words, is it unreasonable to ask and expect students to read the lecture notes for the first class before coming to the first class? My plan is to post the lecture notes online, and to notify students that they should read the lecture notes by making an announcement using the course LMS system. (In my university, students are automatically signed up to the course learning management system when they register for the course.) ### Some clarifications: * What types of students will be taking the course? The course is a course for undergraduate students, with most of the students are in their 2nd or 3rd year of study. * Is the course listed as a lab or as a lecture course? The course is listed as a lecture course. I am teaching in the business school, where lab courses are extremely uncommon. I believe that courses which are taught as lab courses, say by teaching them in a computer lab, are still listed officially as lecture courses. * Will I be giving the students too much work? In my university, courses meet once a week, for 3 hours at a time. My plan is to give students either some notes to read and/or videos to watch, which they should do before class each week. This should take about 1-2 hours of time each week, which seems to me to be quite reasonable. Students in my university take 5 courses a semester on average, which is 15 hours of class time each week.<issue_comment>username_1: I think that it is reasonable to ask that they read the notes. But I suspect that you will get about the same response that you would get to any similar request during the term. Some will do it - most likely those who need it least - and others won't. There are a lot of reasons beyond slacking why they won't. They have other commitments for their time and effort between terms. So, my advice would be to make the request, but don't assume that it is honored. Find a way in class that you can proceed without disadvantaging some of the students. One way is to start out with pairing in the first exercises. One member of a pair might be able to bring her/his partner up to speed. Another way is to spend part of the first class discussing the notes explicitly. If the scale is reasonable, make this an interactive exercise. Another way is to provide an ungraded quiz that you use solely to let the students know if they have any gaps that they should fill quickly. Make it clear that if they do well on the quiz they are prepared to continue, but otherwise they need to quickly bring themselves up to speed - via the notes. Actually, maybe the response would be a bit less than normal, given that this is, to them, an unusual request. If you are a relatively new teacher, I'll note that your students are not like you, unless this is an advanced graduate course. Very few of them, anyway. You are who and where you are because of certain characteristics and habits that the vast majority of your students don't share. It is always a good idea to remember that. You are not teaching people just like you. They probably don't learn in the same way that you learn. Explore Learning Modalities for a discussion of that. You have succeeded. They haven't (yet). Moreover their success won't be like yours for the most part. Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: In my opinion, yes it is unreasonable. Disclaimer: I am a student in the Netherlands, different universities and countries might work differently. In all the courses I've followed I can't remember a single one that expected me to prepare for the first class. Usually the first half of the first lecture of a course is dedicated to explaining how the course works, what is expected of you, and anything else related to organization. Most students, including myself, usually don't even register in the online environment where the teaching material is posted before the first lecture. You could argue that maybe this shouldn't be the case, and that students should be more diligent. And naturally, it is up to you whether you want to take this view and potentially punish students who didn't prepare. Practically though, most students are probably just going to miss it, or skip it. If you do decide to have students prepare for the first lecture, make sure to clearly note this in the course guide/emails/online announcements. And also note the potential consequences for students who do not prepare. Upvotes: 7 <issue_comment>username_3: It is not unreasonable to ask students to be adequately prepared before they attend any lecture: first, second, third etc. What is unreasonable on the part of the instructor is to expect the students will behave reasonably. Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_4: This is actually a form of blended learning called the flipped classroom. This approach involves studying the material before classes and using the class period for activities and assignments to better understand the content. As such, this is not an unusual request. The only thing that makes this unreasonable is the timing. If I understand the question correctly, you are trying to have the students read lecture notes before you even met them. Before the very first class is strange in my opinion. However, if you have a prior relationship with these students and have taught them before it may be more reasonable but still unusual. Often the first class is used to explain expectations for the semester and not so much on learning activities. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: You want the students to read the lecture notes prior to the first meeting of the class, but you do not appear to have a method of communicating this requirement directly to the students. Without a way to ensure that your announcement is read by all of the students in the class you cannot assume that any of them will read it, and thus in my opinion your requirement to spend multiple hours preparing for the class prior to the first meeting is unreasonable. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_6: Yes, it is unreasonable to ask and/or expect students to do 1-2 hours of reading work prior to coming to the first class of the semester. It’s not just that, as others point out, your expectations will surely not be met, but, equally importantly, that such a request is unfair to the students. What’s reasonable is to expect the students to come to the first class knowing the officially advertised prerequisite material. Requiring more knowledge than that is effectively moving the goalposts, a kind of false advertising, and a (mild) abuse of your authority. In addition to most of the students ignoring your request, even the ones who do the reading may still resent you for this misrepresentation, and for trying to monopolize a part of their time that is not yours to monopolize - the time before the beginning of the class, when students may well be busy with other things they had planned to do. At the end of the day, it’s worth remembering that it is your job to teach the material, and that the time between the start of the class and the end of the semester is precisely the time scheduled by the university for the students to learn that material. Assigning independent reading, while certainly acceptable, is something that should be done sparingly, and not before this official time period. Your intentions seem good and I sympathize with the general idea: I may also wish that if I’m teaching, say, a complex analysis class then students should read at home the basics of contour integration before the course starts so that I can cover more advanced material. But that’s my problem, not the students’. Upvotes: 7 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_7: One big problem could be students who add the course late. You can post the assignment on the class management software, but if some student adds the class the day of or the day before or the day after the first lecture, then he won't know about the assignment until it's too late. If this is a large lecture course, this is guaranteed to be a problem. More so because large courses are usually populated by immature students. If this is a small, graduate course, then it's much less unreasonable. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_8: You don't say what level of students or what any prerequisites are for the course, so my comments are based on the idea of a fairly low level undergraduate course. If it were an honors course for senior majors I might answer differently. 1-2 hours is way too much to expect before the first meeting. At least in the US, students may not even complete registration before the first class and some may not be back to campus until the day of your class meeting. Also you are using the term lab notes and lecture notes interchangeably, but they are not the same. Are you talking about lab instructions? Or were you planning to lecture for two hours? At most, you might ask them to "skim" instructions but don't count on them doing it. That said, I do often email students before the first meeting and ask that they do something. For example, send me an email introducing themselves, post a self introduction on a discussion board, complete a short survey or pretest assessment, read a related newspaper article or watch a related video (since you mention data analysis I'll say that for my into stats class I sometimes use one of the Gapminder videos). Or make sure they know how to login to some system. Also remind them to bring anything they need to bring if you are doing a lab. I also post this in the LMS so that students who don't read their email will see it. That makes possible to have a more engaged first class meeting even if only half the class did it, and students can email me with anything I need to know before class. Also students who didn't read the email get a reminder that they need to do that and also can still do it after class. What are you going to do about the students that didn't do the reading? What about visually impaired students who didn't do the reading? It's already a classroom management problem just thinking about it. There's nothing worse for a course than a chaotic first meeting. It gets the whole thing off on the wrong foot. I would think that for the first lab you would want to plan it out carefully so that it takes a reasonable amount of time (leaving time to review the structure of the course and expectations) and right away start showing that class time will be used for active learning. That is do not lecture for more than you plan to lecture during the rest of the semester. That means you will have to assume nothing for that first class and plan a lab that does not require student prep and is either very self explanatory that you will actively facilitate. It will be better to have it be too short than too long. I don't know how much experience you have in teaching or in the flipped model, but I can tell you that it requires meticulous planning. It's definitely worth it to put the planning time in. I have students doing data analysis with real data in R the first day they walk into my room; it is very do-able with good planning and thoughtful approaches. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_9: Not all your students might have fully enrolled by the first class. They might not have access to the course announcements or the lecture notes, and therefore they can't read the material even if they want to. Beyond that though, what someone considers reasonable and unreasonable will vary from person to person, so I'll sidestep that discussion (the comments to one answer already quotes from dictionaries what this word means) and say, chances are: * Most students will not read the lecture notes before the first class. Only the most dedicated and diligent of students will. * Most students will not complain if you make this request. Some won't even be aware of it until the first lecture. * If you go ahead with this and stick to your guns, the most common reaction will probably be surprise. "Wow, this course / professor is not easy". Personally, I'd skip the requirements in the first class and impose them beginning in the second class. That way, everyone (those that come to the labs anyway) will know what you expect of them, and ignorance is no longer an excuse. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_10: It is highly unlikely that more than 10% of your students will read the lecture notes prior to the first lecture, and that's being optimistic. The beginning of the semester is fraught with logistical issues. Often, students drop a course after looking over a syllabus. The students then spend a little time registering for new courses. More time is spent purchasing required textbooks at the beginning of the semester, then during. A student may spend a few hours moving their belongings into a dorm room or apartment instead of reading the lecture notes. Once things "calm down" a bit, students will have more time to read such things. However, I would plan for failure. Design your lectures to be effective even if none of the students have read the notes beforehand. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_11: Everyone is focusing on the fact that you want to have this done before the first class and casually glances over the fact that you are effectively doubling the amount of time necessary for your class. You don't mention a location, but at every college I know of, course credit values are assigned depending on a loose estimation of the expected number of hours a student puts in before voluntary extra work. The way you want to structure this, the credit score would have to be doubled. If the credit score isn't doubled, you should either halve the number of classes or abandon the idea of not actually teaching the lecture altogether. In order to make this an answer to the question as posed: I second all answers that point out that you have no reliable channel to make your expectations known to the students. As such the specific expectation as asked is unreasonable. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_12: First day of class? Forget it. Class hasn't started yet. Second (and maybe 3rd) day of class? Depends on when drop/add ends at your school, it is likely the first day of class for some. But you must hammer on the necessity of coming to class prepared, and you need to have consequences of not being minimally prepared pre-class. Since you are using the LMS, I recommend the way I operate for a "flipped" classroom. I have 15% of the final grade coming from "readings quizzes", which are short 5-10 question auto-grading (multiple choice, many choice, matching) quizzes over the materials needed to be prepared for class. These quizzes open 5 minutes after class ends, and they are all due by 5 minutes before the next class starts (1 day per week night course), and have no real time limit. I encourage students to start the quiz, and start reading, and answer the questions as they go. I teach IT stuff, so by having these quizzes as 15% of the grade even if someone already knows my subject area (Linux & services administration) from hobby use, work experience, etc. they can blow off these quizzes but the highest possible grade is a middle B. Even if they are getting 100% on labs and projects, it means that they must do very on the unit exams (which come from both pre-class prep content and labs/project content) in order to maintain that B. Even the students who know it all already and are just chasing that degree end up taking the quizzes just to give them that extra breathing room on their final grade. The biggest issue is that some students believe that "Cs earn degrees" - so they do the least possible to maintain that benchmark. Just remember - you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it a duck. Good luck! Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_13: Yes, this is unreasonable. However, what I'm not saying is that you definitely shouldn't do it. Yes, it is unfair. Some people may finish some stressful classes the prior quarter, and went through the effort then to register for this quarter's classes, and then pursued some other activities in life (which might be serious, or not; either way should be at their personal discretion) and then not even think about your class before classtime, except maybe to swing by the bookstore to buy books. That is the standard expectation, and so they may not even know about your additional "requirements" until they show up to your class in order to start learning what your requirements may be. I read your question carefully enough to see that you may use your LMS system, which may inform students. However, they may not be checking their E-Mail. Even if you sent that E-Mail before the prior class ended, they might not pay attention to E-Mail about upcoming courses. As some other answers mention, there are some boundaries, and they might not believe there is any expectation for them to engage before day number one. --- All that said, perhaps the answer (as to whether you should do this) depends on just what your goals are. Here is a solid example showing the other side of the coin. I've been a college instructor and I recall a college President telling me (and some other staff) about something he did. In prior years, he was a college instructor who had a Statistics course. One thing this instructor was evaluated on was the course completion rate. The only students who affected the course completion rate were students who registered and remained past the brief initial re-scheduling period (for the first few days, maybe week or so, of the quarter). So, if a student dropped the class during the initial few days, that person was no longer considered a student of the course and didn't affect the course's rate of completion/mid-course withdrawals. He had a requirement of completed homework due on day number one, and providing a negative grade for those who didn't turn that in. He got a reputation of being extremely unfairly harsh. This tactic also resulted in him scaring away the slackers, so the remaining students (who did put up with this "nonsense") were the truly dedicated, or at least the students who wouldn't shy away from some work. As a result, anyone who was going to drop his class because of workload typically did so during the first three days, or even before his class started, which didn't count against him. By getting his "drop outs" to drop out so early, they didn't count against him, so even in a typically less-popular course, this instructor enjoyed some extremely high course completion rates. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_14: We do a very similar arrangement for the small amount of R teaching we do. Students are asked (via email) to do some preparatory work before the first class. This involves two things for this class: * a video (and written up notes) on how to install R and R studio * A short video and set of exercises on finding their way around the R studio window, using the console as a calculator, learning what a variable is and assigning values to variables. I wouldn't expect them to read but they do seem to watch the videos, or at least, say 75% of them do. This allows us to concentrate the the others during the class. I'll note that our class is compulsory for everyone that does it. There is no signing up late or dropping out. And our students are used to being communicated with via email - any student that doesn't check their email at least once a day will have found themselves dropping quite a lot of credit in their first year. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_15: Don't even tell them. Just give them a pop quiz on the first day. This will send the lesson that they need to pre-read the lessons. Try to be like <NAME> in The Paper Chase. (This answer is not entirely in jest. I think an adversarial teacher is entertaining. And it can drive learning. It's actually a topic that I would enjoy in a question.) Upvotes: 1
2019/01/01	639	2,713	<issue_start>username_0: One of my university professors offered me a research assistant position which would require me to study for a master degree. I really wanted to take it but there are few problems for me. 1. I don't know that professor. 2. I don't know what career I could take after finishing a master degree. 3. I feel like other people are able to make more money early. (Even if I don't care about money). 4. Money problem mostly because I still need find a job to support myself. Even though it got a full fee waiver, I couldn't change the research topic for the whole master degree. So I guess my question is should I really take it even though I'm not really interested in that particular project and worried about my future career.<issue_comment>username_1: While in general it is a (very) good idea to explore new things, the negatives you list seem to imply that it is premature for you to do this. Committing to a Masters degree on a project that you aren't especially interested in seems like a bad idea. On the other hand, if money is a small concern for you and time is of little or no concern, it might be worth it for the experience. Spend some time thinking about what you really want your future to look like and evaluate whether a project like this fits in some way. Don't take a side trip just because the opportunity is there. Think about the main route to your future. The fact that you don't know the professor is of little concern (or should be). You could explore things with that professor, of course: "What would my future look like if I do this?". Such an exploration would also let you know a bit more about the professor. If s/he isn't willing to spend time with you on this, you have learned something important, of course. Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: Sounds like a LOT of negatives in addition to the one in the title even. Just responding to the one in the title, I would say to do a project that interests you. Of course be smart about not picking something that involves a jerk advisor, unlikely to work, or 10 years of apparatus building or waiting for next Space Shuttle (even if you like the topic). But in general, pick something you like. That one looks like a dud. Go talk to several more professors. Have fun scheduling some meetings and talking to them. Many of them like talking about their stuff and will pitch you on something or even mention a few possibilities. You need to get a few options in front of you and choose the best one. For one thing running this process will show you what is available and help you compare by contrast. Don't marry the first girl you date. Well, except I should have, but she was special! ;-) Upvotes: 1
2019/01/01	392	1,514	<issue_start>username_0: So I normally see master graduate student apply for a position as a lecturer. Is there any other career that is available for a master (science) student asides from lecturer? Which is for computer science students<issue_comment>username_1: For a career in academia you basically need a doctorate. There are jobs for secondary school teachers and low level jobs at university. The secondary school positions are actually better than the low-level university positions, in most cases, however. Many places require additional certification for high school jobs, of course. Most people who earn an MS/MA either go on for more learning or head to industry/government where there are positions available. If you want to do research but without a doctorate, the best place is in some industry lab or (for CS) a software development company. The research will be pretty applied, however. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Go to your local jobs portal and search for "master" + "[insert name of your field]". You'll find more answers there than you can here, and those results are tailored for you as well. For example, suppose I'm in Indiana, USA and have a Masters in computer science. Performing [this search](https://www.indeed.com/jobs?q=master+computer+science&l=United+States+indiana) on Indeed.com yields jobs like [this one](https://www.indeed.com/viewjob?jk=b8ee0428dfc5245e&tk=1d05v3secbuoq800&from=serp&vjs=3). Look through the list and see what's out there for you. Upvotes: 0
2019/01/01	1,106	4,834	<issue_start>username_0: I have recently accepted a PhD offer. The subject is very close to what I was working on during my Master's years. I really worked hard back then and fortunately managed to publish high-quality papers. I had several offers at the time and it was really difficult for me to choose between them since they were all good universities. I finally chose the university that I felt better about it and I was happy by my choice at that time. The factors that I liked about the place I chose were that: * Their field is very close to what I have done during my Master's years and therefore I can easily proceed during my PhD. * The supervisor is a well-known person with a good resume and lots of connections in academia. * The chemistry seemed right and the supervisor seemed supportive and was very eager to have me as a PhD student. The problem is, after some time passed, I started to develop lots of negative thoughts and now, some issues that were not important to me back then, are freaking me out right now. I am thinking I decided too quickly and I should have applied to some better universities that I didn’t consider at that time. First of all, the PhD offer that I have accepted is in a non-English speaking country. Although at first I was very eager and excited to learn a new language, it now freaks me out to live in a place where people don't speak my language. Also, now I am thinking maybe my current field of research is not something worth pursuing. I was really passionate about this topic during my Master's years but now I am thinking maybe it is not a worthy topic and it will be too restricting when applying for a postdoc. I don’t know what to do. I don’t want to decline my offer since I think it would really annoy the professor. And considering the fact that she has lots of connections in academia and that academia is a very small world, I think it would be very bad for my reputation. But I just can't get rid of these negative thoughts. I was wondering if anyone has been in this situation before and if this is common between students. UPDATE: Thanks for all the answers. It has been 6 months from when I posted this and I just wanted to share my experience, I hope it might help someone. I talked to the professor and asked for some extra time to decide. I was really lucky since the professor understood my situation and didn't pressure me. I ended up finding a much better offer and accepted the new one and I am totally happy about it. Here is my advice to help others not to make the same mistake: Never ever accept a PhD offer too quickly. Even if it sounds very good. Take as much time as you can and consider every option you have. Do talk to your classmates and previous professors. Their opinions might be very helpful to you when choosing an offer.<issue_comment>username_1: Some doubts are pretty natural. While the bird in the hand may be worth two in the bush, those others look pretty sweet from a distance. I don't think any of the issues you raise should cause you to really want to switch except, possibly, the language issue. However, you should note that academics nearly everywhere are English speakers even if imperfectly. If the other country is, for example, in Western Europe, you will find that nearly every working age adult (and all kids) speak English very well. The issue will be in group situations in which they might prefer their native language over English. Then it would depend on their willingness to accommodate. If you are in a field in which large groups of people much interact it might be an issue. For daily life you can get along pretty well nearly everywhere. I've not been in your situation but have colleagues all over the world and language has seldom been an issue. For everything else, I'd just suggest you relax. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: I am sorry, but they're not real concerns, maybe being in a non-anglophone country seems annoying, but this isn't the main concern as long as you can interact with people with different cultures and learn their language and I think it is interesting. You have mentioned two contradictory points that your selected topic of research could no longer interesting, how you made a conclusion, of course, this a very important point you have to consider as I have been in the same situation and figuring out after one year that this topic is flaw in the community which is you don't want to be in. The best thing you can do is to consider making meticulous research again and asking anonymously about the potential research point and for sure you must have a call with your potential supervisor about your concerns in a reasonable way. My advice is to be neutral in your thinking and don't take any decision unless you can sort things out and good luck. Upvotes: -1
2019/01/01	790	3,220	<issue_start>username_0: I live in France and I'm currently applying for postdoc positions in fundamental mathematics, at several universities in the US and elsewhere. For my application at the University of Denver, I'm asked to give my desired salary, and I have no idea what to answer... I don't know at all what are the standards in the US, I don't even know if it's homogeneous or depends on states... So two questions: 1) Do you have an idea of what could be a standard income for such a position? (To be more precise, it's a visiting assistant professorship with a teaching load of five undergraduate courses over three quarters during the 9-month academic year.) 2) I don't know if the desired salary is taken into account during the search process. Do you think I should ask for a lower salary in order to have more chances to be hired? Or should I, on the contrary, ask for a higher one and expect they will bargain? Thank you in advance, I'm a bit lost since it doesn't work at all in the same way in France...<issue_comment>username_1: This is not so strange. They want to get you at a cheaper price. NEVER quote a salary first for any job. Always let them make the offer. Just write in "TBD" or negotiable or leave it blank. In discussions, just say that it depends. If they really push you hard, just ask them to make a written offer and you will respond then. Usually it is not a big drama and you can just brush it off. Don't put a number down... Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_1: I also recommend highly to do some research and find out what the going rate is for postdoc fellowships in your field in the US (and for your level of competitiveness). You still won't want to write down a number. But you need to know that when evaluating offers. As with any job there can be other factors like benefits, cost of living, duties, fun place to live, advancement. [All that said, the job with the higher $$ is almost always the best fit...they are showing how much they care with that. And it can affect future salary offers as well. Never go in low.] Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_2: First, it is important to understand that a visiting assistant professor position isn’t a postdoc in the sense that you are being hired primarily for research and based on your research background. This position will be funded by the institution rather than by grants. Teaching will be an important part of the job, and your teaching experience will be important in the selection process. The American Mathematical Society publishes an annual survey of faculty salaries. I’d encourage you to look at the survey to get a sense of the range of faculty salaries in the US. Figure that a VAP will be paid slightly less than a first year tenure track assistant professor. If I had to guess, I’d expect a position like this at UD to pay somewhere between $60K and $70K. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: To give you a reference point: A postdoc salary is around 50.000 USD in your field, before tax. As you will be working on a J1 visa, your salary is [exempt](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J-1_visa#Taxation) from certain significant taxes (social security and medicare) during the first two years. Upvotes: 2
2019/01/02	5,335	22,065	<issue_start>username_0: I got accepted into a school that I really wanted to go to for a math PhD. I finished my masters and I love math very much. It's something that I've always been extremely passionate about. I used to always go for representation theory seminars with an old professor that I did research with (we mainly did work in certain parts of representation theory) and I thoroughly enjoyed them even if I couldn't fully understand. But I suck at math. I think I only was accepted because I'm a woman and Indian. Everyone is so smart in all my classes. During my undergraduate degree I was amongst the top of the class but once I got to a master's, I was at the bottom of the barrel. I can't understand things the way everyone else does. Everyone is always able to engage in the lesson and it takes me 4 hours just to understand the smallest thing, it's depressing. I still got A's in almost all my classes but it wasn't hard to get an A in the classes. It's not like I deserved it and it probably deceived admissions officers. What makes me even more depressed is that on standardized tests, I can score in the 95th percentile in english/verbal without ever cracking open a book. But it's just not the same in math, I have to try so hard and even still I don't do nearly as well as I would like. My strengths aren't in math, I am very good with english, history and philosophy. My professors from my undergraduate degree would always encourage me to pursue these fields but I love math so much more even though I'm not good at it. I just don't know what to do, I enjoy those subjects recreationally but not something I want to pursue full-time right now. I would love to get a second master's in philosophy but it's not my priority and if I never got it, I think I'd be fine just reading the literature on my own. Anyways, even the most basic math facts I will forget. It's embarrassing to be a PhD student and forget things so easily. I don't even want to make friends because I'm scared they will start talking about math and I won't know what they're saying Should I just quit?<issue_comment>username_1: First off, congratulations on being accepted to the PhD. That means the faculty have carefully evaluated your application materials and decided that you are a promising young mathematician. They are experts and they think you have what it takes to finish a PhD. No one gets admitted just because of their gender and/or race. It would be a waste of the department's resources to admit unqualified students and it would be a disservice to those students -- setting them up to fail. It sounds like you have [Impostor Syndrome](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impostor_syndrome). The truth is that almost everyone, from time to time, feels like they don't belong. I have felt that way at many points. No, you should not "just quit". You have a great opportunity in front of you. It sounds like you have other things that you want to consider doing. Perhaps you will decide that those other opportunities are better for you. But, if you do turn down the PhD, you should not think of it as quitting. You should think of it as taking a positive step in another direction. That said, academia is hard. And I would not advise anyone to do a PhD unless they really enjoy research. You should think seriously about what you want to do, as it sounds like you are uncertain about where your best option lies. Talk to people you know personally, as they can best advise you. One thing to note is that a PhD should give you some flexibility to study other things or, better yet, to combine different research topics. My PhD program allowed — required, in fact — me to take graduate courses in totally different fields. Upvotes: 8 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Remember, the admissions committee aren't a charity organization. They'll only accept you if they think you're adequate enough to attend the program. And if they think you're adequate enough, you should certainly not think you "suck at math". Have some confidence, and think positive! You've been accepted at a school when many others who want to attend were rejected. You're a success story! Relax, work hard, and enjoy the program. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: You should first think about what you plan to do with your math PhD, should you stay the course and complete it. It's surprisingly common for people to not consider this. There are two common reasons for doing a math PhD. One is to do research. A PhD is required to do research, and a math PhD is required to do math research. A math PhD would also help you get a good teaching job, possibly in a math related field. There are other jobs for which a math PhD isn't required, but is helpful. E.g. finance. But you don't need a math PhD to go into finance. However, you should be aware, if you are not already, that doing a math PhD is hard, and math research is harder, and commonly only done by people who are really, really into math, consider math among their primary interests in life, and possibly the main professional one. Also, these days math research is extremely competitive, and it's hard to get a decent math research job. The bottom line is, try to be aware of where you are going, and whether it is somewhere you want to go. I only mention these obvious facts, because it is my experience that graduate schools and math departments do a very poor job of educating graduate students about these issues. Unfortunately in some cases there is also a conflict of interest. The department needs cheap labor to teach their classes. Often this cheap labor is obtained from graduate students. This is true in the United States, at least. You don't say where your location is. I also happen to be Indian, and was in math departments for a while. I was better than most people I knew at math, usually by a long way, but it was difficult for me to perform at the level that would have been required for a successful research career. Also, I don't know if, at the end of the day, whether I was interested enough. I don't think anyone here can advise you whether you should be doing a math PhD or not, but again, consider carefully whether what you are doing is something that you really want to do, and whether the direction it is taking you in is a direction in which you want to be going. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: I think you should follow your instincts on this one. Some people may give you the "don't worry" message because it makes you feel better. But I get the impression that you are putting down rational inferences, not just irrational self doubts. Admissions committees have to fill slots and bring people in all the time who don't make it through. Of course they prefer not to get weaker candidates or those who won't make it through from persistence/desire/love (and the two are correlated). But it doesn't really hurt them that much and they have statistics in mind that some percent of students won't fit. The real tragedy is to the STUDENT who wastes productive years and is miserable. So follow your gut on this one. Look for something that uses some of your verbal skills and is not so, so, soooo hard core math as a Ph.D. in math. Go work for McKinsey or Microsoft or the like. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: Whether this is "impostor syndrome" or not, you should realize that you can always quit later. Just because you start a Ph.D. program, doesn't mean you have to labor away for 5 or 7 years at something you suck at. Try it for a year and see how things go. If you still love math and still get A's, carry on. If you can't stand it, then drop out. At least then you'll know for sure. You won't spend the rest of your life wondering if you should have given the Ph.D. a shot. If you don't drop out. Swell. If you do, the year is not wasted. You still learn some valuable math that you can put to some use somewhere. Some graduate credit might transfer to the philosophy department. If you like teaching, then you will have taken a few more courses which will enhance that skill. Win-win. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_6: First of all, math classes are hard. I struggled in them, my peers struggled in them, everyone struggles in them. Its new material and not entirely intuitive (e.g. Ito Calculus). As for not remembering everything, that is pretty normal as well. This seems to be more common as you further and further specialize. Within my area of expertise, I could have a good grasp of knowledge, outside of that bubble, its a little vague. You might be interested in a more applied field that can take advantage of your linguistic abilities. Applied statistics is a massive field with lots of low hanging fruit. This can range from anything to health outcomes based on social media posts to how well students perform after a policy change. You take the best parts of math and then you apply it to real world problems. That said, this does likely mean more probability and linear algebra, though you can have a surface level understanding of both those areas (like myself) and do good work in statistics. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_7: I think you should give the math PhD a try. I am almost exactly like you in terms of strengths and weaknesses, yet doing a stats PhD was the best few years of my life, and now I am smarter and better-rounded than if I'd done a PhD in a personally "easier" subject. Math has always been my hardest subject in school; all the way through elementary school, high school, and college, I disliked math classes and excelled at the other subjects. I'm quite error-prone when handling messy formulas, and I have a hard time manipulating abstract mathematical objects in working memory. But, like you, I was a good student and managed good grades in math, even though it was definitely my weakest subject. Then somehow I fell in love with statistics and, rather to my surprise, found myself at a very selective statistics PhD program. I had the time of my life and graduated early. Here is what I'd recommend: 1. Know your own intellectual strengths and weaknesses. Imposter syndrome is a real thing, but don't let others tell you to automatically attribute your perceived weaknesses to imposter syndrome. Rather, calibrate your strategies and expectations to your own strengths and weaknesses. For example, like you, I easily forget useful math facts, which is a real pain on timed, closed-notes exams. As mentioned above, I'm also pretty slow at actually doing math accurately. Therefore, for high-stakes exams like the quals, my study strategy focused on training my weaknesses aggressively through assiduously memorizing math facts. During the exams themselves, as you'd do at, for example, an athletic event, my strategy switched to playing to my strengths in order to earn as many points per unit time as possible. For me, that meant using my strong understanding of the concepts to earn lots of points on that front, and quickly bailing on any integral that seemed like a pain to simplify (because the probability that I'd mess it up is pretty high, and it's just not a good points:time ratio). Again, this kind of attitude is not imposter syndrome: you are actively working to improve your weaknesses, while finding ways around them on tests. 2. *Math research is tremendously* different from "school math".** With no false modesty, I have many classmates who are much better than me at math. However, many students who love and excel at school math neither love nor excel at research math. Among the key differences are: * The role of high-level creativity and conceptual understanding is much higher in research math than school math. Major research advances don't always come from breathtaking mathematical shrewdness. Sometimes they arise from out-of-the-box thinking or the creativity to recognize and repurpose a useful analog in a disparate subdiscipline. Like me, you may find yourself quite adept at the latter. * Research math requires many other skills besides muscling through integrals. Given that you excel at humanities classes, I suspect that, like me, you're an excellent writer. You will spend a lot of time writing when doing a PhD and subsequently as a researcher. If you write, say, 30% better and faster than the average math PhD student, you will find yourself flying through your dissertation and paper submissions. I wrote each of my 3 dissertation papers in 1 week. This more than made up for the time lost along the way to asking Wikipedia for the 844th time how to do a Taylor series expansion. * Research math is also the ultimate "open-book exam". There are no time limits, and you can Google Scholar to your heart's content. This also means that, as discussed above, you can play to your strengths. For example, whereas others with perhaps more mathematical agility develop new research directions from the bottom up by playing with formulas and combining things in clever ways to see what happens, this does not work for me: I simply get stuck in an algebraic morass. Instead, I work from intuition and conceptual understanding first, then reach for simulation tools, and only then put pencil to paper. Good luck with your decision. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_8: I agree with others that you should try if you love it. Two things to consider - * Think about the alternative. You will never know if you could have done it and you will probably regret quitting before you start. * It is very likely that the people think the same about you, where you are the one who is smarter and more talented. They have reason to think so! You were at the top of your class, you are in the 95% percentile. Imagine how the other 95 feel about you =P I understand how you feel. I also love mathematics/statistics and computer science but consistently score better in the humanities with less effort. That does not mean that I have no talent, I still score better than many of my classmates in STEM fields, and I do not love the humanities in the same way. In the end you become good at what you spend time on and you want to spend time in mathematics. Do your best, decide later. Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_9: I want to posit a few things that you indicated: * You are very good at mathematics, but you need to work hard at it. * You are very good at english, history, and philosphy and feel that those proficiencies come much more naturally to you. I will clarify that I do not have a post-graduate degree, but I was recommended to a program because I apparently am very good at bridging gaps between disparate fields (psychology, education, and engineering). In my professional career I have found this to be very handy. It can be a boon to be exceptional at one thing, it can be a source of great opportunity and wealth to be able to understand several things very well and bridge the gaps between them. Your opportunity at a PhD program will open doors for you to explore how you can connect your various proficiencies. You will absolutely have to work hard and the fact that you've done so in the past bodes well for you. I don't know how one could bridge mathematics with philosophy, but I don't know if I'm particular exceptional in either of those fields. You, however, might be. And you might be able to forge those bridges and advance our collective understanding in both fields forward. As you seem to have a great opportunity before you, I strongly urge you to pursue it if you have the means to. You may find it's a dead end, but there is considerable education to be gained in failure. Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_10: Don't quit. When I began my Ph.D studies (in computer science, not mathematics) I'd been out of undergrad for five years. I was certain I'd forgotten everything I once knew and I was terrified I'd be sharing a classroom with people who had just finished undergrad and had all their learning fresh in their minds. On the very first day of class, in my very first class — Advanced Algorithmic Analysis — the prof stood at the whiteboard. "We're going to start right where we left off in undergrad," he said, and began littering the whiteboard in really dense math that I didn't understand at all. I looked around the room and everyone was just nodding: they clearly understood it perfectly. After ten minutes the professor concluded his derivation. "Is that all clear?" he asked us. "Does anyone have any questions?" I was too scared to put my hand up. I had decided I was going to drop out that very day. I could not compete with my classmates; they all understood this, and I had no idea what was going on. "In that case, could one of you explain to me what I just did? Because I made all that up. It's nonsense." For the next ten minutes we received a kind lecture about how all of us were in the program because we were smart people with a demonstrated track record of understanding things. If we did not understand what was going on in a class presentation, that was a sign something was wrong with the class, not that something was wrong with us. I stayed in the program. I'm glad I did. --- You are absolutely not alone. Other people have already mentioned Impostor Syndrome. It's real and a lot of people suffer from it. The best advice I can give you is to be open with people that you have it, and — this part is very important — ask questions, even the 'dumb' ones. Graduate school success belongs to the people who are willing to ask the 'dumb' questions. And very often there's nothing dumb at all about the questions! Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_11: I finished a Physics PhD and I felt the way you're describing for most of the time. My adviser complemented me about 3 times if I remember correctly. For me, teaching (as a lab TA) was real boost to my confidence and understanding of Physics (which is pretty close to math). Teaching was also where I started to see interconnections between subfields that I didn't grasp as an undergrad. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_12: > > But I suck at math. I think I only was accepted because I'm a woman and Indian. Everyone is so smart in all my classes. During my undergraduate degree I was amongst the top of the class but once I got to a master's, I was at the bottom of the barrel. I can't understand things the way everyone else does. Everyone is always able to engage in the lesson and it takes me 4 hours just to understand the smallest thing, it's depressing. > > > This isn't necessarily a problem. Different people have different ways of learning. Me, as soon as somebody starts presenting equations on a slide, my brain switches off and I don't get much out of the lecture - I need to read through that kind of material by myself, in my own time. Sometimes it takes me several readings to get through it, or I have to try out an example before the abstractions click for me. It might be worth your while to read about different learning styles and see if you can identify what strategies work best for you. I would also strongly suggest talking to somebody at your university about your situation (adviser, support staff, whoever you're most comfortable talking to). > > Anyways, even the most basic math facts I will forget. It's embarrassing to be a PhD student and forget things so easily. I don't even want to make friends because I'm scared they will start talking about math and I won't know what they're saying > > > You might be surprised at how many of your fellow students are concealing the same worries. I still have to look up "basic" facts quite often, but that's okay; real life isn't a closed-book exam. Nobody here can say for sure whether you should persevere with the PhD. That depends on too many factors - some people manage to complete doctorates but at too much personal cost, or they find that the doctorate doesn't position them for a satisfying career. But I wouldn't quit at this point just on the basis of "not being smart enough". IMHO, the link between "PhD" and "clever" is often overemphasised. Yes, you need some degree of intelligence to do a PhD, but other factors are also important - material support, self-discipline, resilience, enthusiasm, etc. etc. I can pretty much guarantee that some of the smart students you're envying right now will drop out of their PhD programs because they can't handle those other challenges. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_13: Often the people who excel are not just those who have played to their strengths, but also those who have overcome their weaknesses. The skills and talents you have in other realms may well help you outdo your peers if you can only make it past the obstacles that are stopping you now. With all that said, *there's real evidence that being a negatively stereotyped minority in a given field can significantly lower your performance below* your natural abilities, especially if you dwell on the stereotypes*. [<NAME>](https://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/0393339726) (provost at Columbia University) has extensively studied this topic --you may find his book, Whistling Vivaldi* valuable, it includes some practical strategies to combat the stereotypes. You should also not be afraid to ask for extra help. One of Steele's findings is that low performing students and negatively stereotyped minorities are much less likely to seek out help because of embarrassment. They are unaware their high-performing classmates are often quietly taking advantage of a wide range of extra help, including peer study groups and one-on-one sessions with their professors. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_14: Do you even have A's on PhD level? Where I am from it was pass or fail. The idea is that at PhD level you could even grasp the material better than your teacher and expand the subject further than the course covered it. If everything goes well, every few years a couple of the students are even supposed to do this. Upvotes: 0
2019/01/02	1,746	6,931	<issue_start>username_0: Has federally funded research at universities and work done at the national labs in the United States been halted due to the government shutdown? If so, what typically happens then? Do researchers just stay at home and not show up to work? Or do they show up, and do something similar to what you would see at a labor strike, e.g. megaphones, demonstrations, make demands?<issue_comment>username_1: I'm not in the US, but I have friends and colleagues who work for a major national institute in the US. They shut down the experiments and stay at home, temporarily unpaid: in fact, they wouldn't be even allowed to enter the premises. They don't do demonstrations. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: > > Has federally funded research at universities and work done at the national labs in the United States been halted due to the government shutdown? > > > The current shutdown affects federal employees - and even then, [not all](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/12/27/shutdown-does-not-shutter-all-government-agencies-donald-trump-congress/2422203002/) government departments or agencies are affected. In particular, the Department of Energy, which funds the [DOE National Labs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Department_of_Energy_national_laboratories), already had an approved spending bill, so DOE is unaffected for now. The NIH and Department of Defense, which fund their own institutes and labs, are in the same situation. However, many other institutions, including NIST, NASA labs, and the Smithsonian have had to cease a lot of their work. Some activities are considered mission critical, and can continue, but that's getting into the specifics. See e.g. this [Washington Post article](https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2018/12/28/disruptive-disappointing-chaotic-shutdown-upends-scientific-research). University researchers are not directly affected, since they are not federal employees\. Even public universities in the US tend to be on the state level. However, there can be a large indirect effect since e.g. NSF, a large funding agency, has [shut down](https://www.nsf.gov/shutdown/grantees.jsp). If this shutdown is anything like the 2013 one, this will not only delay grant applications, but also grant decisions, causing a lot of uncertainty, hiring delays, and lost research productivity. \The military academies might be an exception, but since the Department of Defense had its spending bill approved they probably wouldn't be affected anyway. > > Do researchers just stay at home and not show up to work? Or do they show up, and do something similar to what you would see at a labor strike, e.g. megaphones, demonstrations, make demands? > > > Generally the former - at least at the largest of the affected places security would (rather sensibly) be considered a mission critical operation, and security would be instructed to stop people from going to work. There tends to be some protests, e.g. at the White House during the shutdowns, but I doubt these are dominated by researchers. There are many, many others affected - some 800 000 government employees in total, many who'd be hit harder than your average federally employed researcher. Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: The answer of [username_1](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/122403/75368) is correct as it applies to federal government run (owned) labs. But the situation for Universities is different. These are not federal government owned or run in any sense. Federal government employees are not allowed to work during a shutdown unless they are required to work (being "emergency employees"). But faculty members aren't federal government employees, so they may continue to work as usual. State government is largely disjoint from federal and state employees work for the states, not the federal government. Universities get grants from the government to carry on some research. The funding for those grants may already be "in hand" in the university. If not, checks won't be written so the flow of funds will stop until the "crisis" ends. This latter might cause some disruption, but in many places the university will just carry on. University professors and researchers will continue to get paid as usual. Money to support laboratories may be problematic if it goes on too long, but that is unlikely. Note that the US federal government fulfills its contracts. To do otherwise would be so disruptive that the US would fall immediately to "developing nations" or even "pariah" status. The main issue will be timing of payments. However, if a project requires the presence of or contact with federal government employees, they won't be available and it would be illegal for them to participate in most cases (unless it is required...) Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: I currently work in research administration in an R1 university in the United States. Most researchers should be largely unaffected by the government shutdown, unless it runs for a long time. There are two ways that researchers are being inconvenienced: 1. Federal agencies are not granting new awards. This is stressful for researchers waiting to find out whether they are being awarded any funds. In the end it probably won't change the total amount of funding anyone receives, but it will delay when those funds become available. 2. We often request information from administrators of federal programs regarding on-going research. Those people are currently unavailable to answer our questions. For example, grants typically have restrictions on what can and can't be purchased. If a researcher wants to purchase something and we aren't clear on whether it is allowed or not under the grant's terms, then some aspect of the research may be delayed until the federal agent can answer our questions. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: > > If so, what typically happens then? > > > Do researchers just stay at home and not show up to work? Or do they > show up, and do something similar to what you would see at a labor > strike, e.g. megaphones, demonstrations, make demands? > > > At NASA Ames, there are many contractors who hold professorships at other universities, e.g. CMU, UC Santa Cruz etc, their official employers. I got to know about government shutdown in 2013 or 2014 when a collaborator told me they had to do the telecon from home. Many of their colleagues just went on a vacation, it was just like an unpaid leave, but this collaborator still had many meetings, many paper deadlines, so they just had to work like a normal day, but from home. Even worse, the [Ames Child Care Center](https://www.ameschildcare.org/), located in the NASA campus, is also somehow related to the federal government and was also shut down. So that collaborator had to take care of their child during that period. It was not an easy time for them. Upvotes: 1
2019/01/02	1,609	6,086	<issue_start>username_0: I am an undergraduate in the U.S. and have worked part time (~15-20 hrs/week) for a research group at my institution for about 5 months now. Since beginning the research I have enjoyed every aspect of it. I have gotten to read literature, submit an abstract to a conference and even work on an open source software project. I love what we have been doing so far, and can not imagine not doing research in my future. Therefore, I am considering applying for a Phd in the next application cycle. However, it worries me that I am in a honeymoon phase of research, using the definition from [here](https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/a+honeymoon+period): > > The short amount of time at the beginning of a new relationship, activity, or pursuit when everything goes well and seems to be free of problems. > > > I am a very passionate person and, as a computer scientist, know all too well the love of starting a new project only to become deflated and uninterested after the preliminary work. There are numerous posts on this site similar to "Is a Phd/research right for me?" ([[1]](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/97918/how-to-know-if-i-would-like-cs-research), [[2]](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/13798/how-do-you-know-if-a-phd-is-for-you)) and "How to deal with burnout/loss of interest in research?" ([[3]](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/2219/how-should-i-deal-with-discouragement-as-a-graduate-student), [[4]](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/95747/how-do-i-know-that-i-have-truly-lost-interest-in-research-and-should-drop-out-of?noredirect=1&lq=1)). The existence of the latter questions seems to suggest that a honeymoon phase exists in research. So my questions are: Is this sort of phase common in research? Should I be worried about it? How can I assure myself that this is not a fleeting pursuit? That I will still enjoy research in 5 years? I understand the latter question might be difficult to answer, but are there any objective tasks I can carry to further explore if research is right for me (i.e. more breadth in research-based tasks)? Also personal anecdotes of how you decided your love of research was permanent would help.<issue_comment>username_1: For what I have read you are the initial states of making research because you mention that you have done > > I have gotten to read literature, submit an abstract to a conference and even work on an open source software project. > > > That is a very good start, but here it could happen some issues that could bring the first disputes in your newly weeding with research; these are: * It could happen that your abstract can be rejected or even if it passes nobody assures you that your final paper would be accepted. You should get used to that, and consider that are a lot of external factors that should not discourage you; for example: personal thoughts or bias of a reviewer, low-acceptance rate of some conferences, and even maybe your work is great, but you failed to express it adequately in a research paper. * It could happen also that you find yourself in a labyrinth without a way out when you are doing your PhD, that could bring discouragement, but also you should not let this to put you down and continue until you see a light at the end of the tunnel. In this last part your adviser has a huge role, if your communication with him or her is poor, then you can end up in a no way-out street. Regarding your questions, even though I have pointed some important facts above that you should think about them: > > Is this sort of phase common in research? Should I be worried about it? > > > Yes, it is common. At the beginning, you start thinking that with your research tasks your will be earning a Nobel Prize (it can be the case), but when you continue you find some obstacles that deviate you from the path you initially marked. You should not be worried about it, just enjoy the tasks that you are currently doing. > > How can I assure myself that this is not a fleeting pursuit? That I will still enjoy research in 5 years? > > > This is a difficult one, it can happen that you will enjoy making research all your life or just it could happen that you could suffer from a burn-out and say "(f) word research" and pursue other activities. For example, I knew a very smart guy that was doing his PhD research (fully research oriented European style not the American course oriented) in a very breakthrough topic about evolution. It reached a point that his advisers and him did not manage to agree in how to end up the research; so he just drop it, published some papers as an independent researcher and not he has a business company related to construction. Bottom line, just enjoy the research tasks in which you are now immerse, and try not to worry too much about what will happen in the future. Who knows? Maybe we have a new Turing award winner in sight! Cheers Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: > > Is this sort of phase common in research? Should I be worried about > it? > > > It is common. Whether you should be worried about it depends on you. For example, can you imagine enjoying this even if you aren't "in love" with this. Getting a PhD, even in something you love, will be hard. There will be petty, stupid things that still require time (formatting one's thesis...). Does that strike you as a cost you're willing to bear, or do you only really see enjoying things if they're going well, there's a clear trajectory, etc. > > How can I assure myself that this is not a fleeting pursuit? That I > will still enjoy research in 5 years? > > > There's no real way to be sure this is true if for no other reason than people change in 5 years. But one way I dealt with it was to switch labs for a semester, to disambiguate if I liked all research or just the particular research I was doing. In my case, I discovered that no, I really enjoyed this thing and was not actually just enamored with the idea of research. Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]
2019/01/02	720	2,461	<issue_start>username_0: Is there a website where I can see the standard salaries for recently hired tenure track Assistant Professors in California State University system? I am on the job market and almost in the process of getting an offer. I wanted to get an idea of what to expect and negotiate. EDIT: it is California State University system.<issue_comment>username_1: I'm just assuming you mean California State University since it's the largest system among the states starting with "C", which can be found here: <https://transparentcalifornia.com/salaries/california-state-university/> You can search individuals by name. If the university or university system is public, then the information for faculty/staff salaries is usually posted on some government or independent auditing site. Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: TL;DR It's between $4,923 and $10,924 USD / month ------------------------------------------------- I'm also assuming you mean the California State University system. Well, CSU have a [Salary Schedule database](http://www.calstate.edu/HRAdm/SalarySchedule/Salary.aspx), which you can search. The appropriate search term seems to be [FACULTY](http://www.calstate.edu/HRAdm/SalarySchedule/SalaryGrid.aspx?S1=1&F1=FACULTY&D1=0&Page=1&Recs=50). This gets you a whole number of records, with different qualifications for programs, disciplines etc. But the basis-of-the-basis is: > > > ``` > Class Range Effective Date Class Title Min Salary Max Salary CBID Status > 2360 3 2018-10-31 INSTRUCTIONAL FACULTY - ACADEMIC YEAR $4,923.00 $10,924.00 R03 Active > > ``` > > and if you click through the position code, as @user71659 suggests, you get to [this page](http://www.calstate.edu/HRAdm/SalarySchedule/SalaryDetail.aspx?S1=1&F1=FACULTY&D1=0&Page=1&Recs=50&Rk=23603181031&Rn=48&Rt=162). It tells you this position is that of an Assistant Professor for the Academic Year. It also has the pay scale. Note that even then the database shows a salary range, i.e. a minimum and maximum salary. I have no idea what determines where in the range you end up. Perhaps it's managerial flexibility in hiring? Who knows. You can also contact their (general) HR department and verify, or be more specific (department, program etc.): Their phone is (562) 951-4411 and there's also a [web contact form](http://www.calstate.edu/emailcontact.asp?q=hr1). Upvotes: 2
2019/01/02	854	3,664	<issue_start>username_0: Myself and a few business partners of mine are working to develop a software product, in which I am responsible for building and all other technical aspects. At the same time, I'm currently pursuing a secondary degree in Computer Science at a local university. As my responsibilities within our business include securing a competent technical advisor, a suggestion was raised by my colleagues to inquire with my professors as to if they'd be willing to take on a limited advisory role in exchange for some amount of company ownership. Is this at all common in the academic world? There are past professors in which I've excelled in their classes, had positive relationships and would consider their knowledge in such a role incredibly valuable. Additionally, I also know a few of them are not full-time with the university, but serve as guest lectures with ongoing careers in the software field. I've been told this isn't an entirely uncommon practice, but I can also foresee a number of ethical issues and conflict of interest surrounding this idea, given that I'm a student within the program.<issue_comment>username_1: Due to the mentioned ethical aspects you should avoid any financial relationship with professors of which you are still taking courses. On the other hand, it is happening quite often that a professor is supporting a start up and compensation can be either money, company ownership, or sometimes just personal satisfaction. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: What's the specific relationship between you and your professor? If the professor is currently teaching a class you are taking, advising your thesis, etc. then it may be considered a conflict of interest. However, if you had a student-professor relationship but are no longer in said relationship, and don't foresee any future ones, then I personally don't see any ethical issues. If you are merely a student of the program but the professor of interest has no direct advisory or administrative role that's instrumental to your academic success, then there essentially is no conflict of interest from what I can see. If the professor does has some key role, then it may be advisable to wait until you graduate or it's 100% clear that you have no extraneous relationship with the professor that would result in conflict of interest. I don't think it's a common thing in the academic world, but that might just be because a lot of professors don't have work experience outside academia and never thought about venturing into the unknown. This could also depend on the department (e.g., a lot of Business Professors seem to do consulting work on the side). Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: > > Is this at all common in the academic world? > > > This is quite common in some departments. > > I've been told this isn't an entirely uncommon practice, but I can > also foresee a number of ethical issues and conflict of interest > surrounding this idea, given that I'm a student within the program. > > > There are indeed substantial conflict of interest problems with this, though they are somewhat less if the professor is not your direct supervisor. Regardless, there are almost certainly systems in place at your university to handle these in some way. In short: It's certainly possible, not particularly exotic, but will require some extra effort. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_4: It's common in business schools. I just would be a little wary of what is involved for each party. Maybe you get a few ideas/coaching and the name to flaunt around (and they do to). But you are going to have to drive the business. Upvotes: 0
2019/01/03	1,421	5,958	<issue_start>username_0: Say a reviewer writes something like > > This paper is [yada yada blah blah]. > > > Sincerely, > > > Professor <NAME>, Big Name University > > > Should the editor just forward the review to the authors because Professor <NAME>, by signing his name onto the review, is presumably willing to reveal his identity to the authors? Or should the editor keep the review anonymous by deleting the signature?<issue_comment>username_1: So, I have heard of people not censoring when people do so. There have been at least some controversies in some fields where this has happened. See for example, <https://www.quantamagazine.org/a-self-aware-fish-raises-doubts-about-a-cognitive-test-20181212/> . For that reason I would strongly recommend removing the signature. Anonymity is important, and I personally (and other people) have had bad experiences with referees who have deliberately unmasked themselves. A big part of the concern where a referee has deliberately unmasked themselves is that if they are prominent in the field there's a possible implied intimidation or threat of retaliation for results they don't like. Also, it is possible that the file you got was intended for the editor and wasn't actually intended to not be unmasked in the first place. But regardless, editors should do all they can to keep the referees anonymous. Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: If the journal is structured with a blinded review process, as most are in my experience, I would censor the name as an editor. Only if there is some sort of explicit journal policy allowing reviewers to unblind themselves would I consider not censoring the name. Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: There are a few different cases to consider. First of all, there is the question of whether a journal's policy even allows for signed reviews. I think that most journals do not have an official policy about this. However, if there is a strict prohibition against non-anonymous reviews, then the editor should remove the identifying information before sending the report on to the authors (and any other relevant parties, such as other referees who are working on the same paper). In the more likely event that signed reviews are not outright forbidden, then editor should look at the additional question of whether the referee really intended to make their identity known. From the report alone, it may or may not be clear whether a referee is intentionally choosing to dispense with anonymity. If there is just a signature at the end of the report, the reviewer might have added it out of absentmindedness. If the situation is unclear, the editor should check back with the referee, to see whether they actually intended to include their name before passing that name on. However, I have seen one review that concluded with: > > I choose to sign this review. > > > [Referee's Name] > > > In that case, it was quite clear that the reviewer (who was both a very senior person and giving a positive report) was not worried about maintaining anonymity. In a clear-cut situation like this, a referee can simply send the authors the report without any additional concerns. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: If the journal policy is to maintain anonymity then it should not be done, even if the referee has indicated her/his name can be revealed. The reason is simple enough: if the review is not signed and one knows that <NAME> from Big Name University usually signs his reports, then one can deduce the referee was NOT <NAME>, which may help the author conclude about the identity of the real referee. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: I think the editor should delete it to avoid spoiling the puzzle game of figuring out who the reviewer is. (Easy one is when they ask the author to cite them.) ;-) Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_6: "Should" or "should not" is impossible to answer in the general case. Some journals may have a formal policy one way, some may have a policy the other, and I suspect that the vast majority have no formal policy about what to do with signed reviews. There is a (small and localized but real) debate over whether reviewers should sign their reviews, and at least for a while it seemed that there was a small movement toward signed reviews. I can say that I've signed reviews and at least in some instances they have been passed on to the authors, so there are some journals and editors who don't have concerns about this. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_7: As username_4 touches on, anonymity is not a property of an individual, it's a property of a set of people. You can't have a single anonymous reviewer; if of the set of possible reviewers, all but one sign their name, then whenever there's a review that isn't signed, everyone knows whose it is (note my wording does admit the possibility that there are people that are qualified to review but haven't been asked to do so by the journal, in which there would be some anonymity in that people might be unsure as to whether the review is from one of them, but for many papers the set of people qualified to review is quite small). We don't let voters waive "their" right to secret ballot, because if all the voters for Party A sign their names on their ballots, then we know that any voter whose name we don't see voted for another party. Since anonymity is not a property of a single person, it is not the right of a single person to waive. Now, if you as a journal want to have limited anonymity, that is your choice, but it's not the reviewer's choice. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_8: I was involved as a referee in a case where the authors turned around and invited me to be a co-author, and I've heard of that happening before. I didn't accept the offer, because the paper wasn't something I wanted my name attached to, but I can imagine cases where it would be appropriate to do so. Upvotes: 0
2019/01/03	872	3,805	<issue_start>username_0: Background ---------- I am 3 months into a 3 year theoretical physics PhD in the UK. Since I am fairly early on in my research career, there are many new ideas and techniques for me to learn, as well as the need for me to work directly on my research questions. Either through reading papers or attending seminars, I often come across new ideas which seem interesting and conceivably applicable to my research. However, I find it difficult to decide whether to further study those ideas to more deeply understand them. On the one hand, my impression is that it is important to deeply understand ideas to be able to apply them to one's own research. On the other, attaining good understanding usually requires a significant investment of time, and this is time taken away from working more directly on the details of my current research. In some sense, this could be seen as balancing short- vs long-term investments of time and mental energy. My question is about how one should decide whether to invest the time learning new ideas now, or wait until they come up more directly in later research. Of course, the difficulty with research is that one is often not sure if or when a new idea will come in handy. Question -------- What thought process do you go through to decide whether to spend time now in learning a new idea?<issue_comment>username_1: First of all, good luck on your PhD! The way I was explained it, the point of a PhD is to become super good at something. To do so, a shallow understanding of lots of things is oftentimes less useful than a deep understanding of one thing. This is just practicality: you need to graduate in X years with a PhD certificate. I would say 80/20 ratio in favor of deeper understanding of a topic vs reading something new, at least. I would attend seminars anyway to keep abreast of what’s going on, and to learn how to speak about one’s work. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: First year PhD students must establish their problem. That problem may be defined by the supervisor, or the student may have to define it themselves. Regardless, a thorough understanding of the problem domain must be established. Hence, it is not only important to "deeply understand ideas to be able to apply them to one's own research," but a requirement. So, such an investment isn't really "time taken away from working more directly on the details of my current research," it is part of research. Establishing whether a topic is essential is more problematic and probably something that should be discussed with the supervisor. Students should study topics beyond their immediate research and the first year of a PhD is an excellent time to do this. Perhaps by committing less productive time to, e.g., the last day of the week, early evenings, or ... Again, this is something that can be discussed (and possibly even negotiated) with the supervisor. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: You've already answered this question. How did you become a PhD student in the first place? You had to have made a decision about how to invest your time. You are proficient in mathematics. If you're not any good with the numbers, then you've got skills you've both not mentioned and using just plain wrong. You have a 3 year project on your lap that you just cracked into. Make a math problem of this. How much time per week do you have to work on your PhD to complete it on time? How much time can you afford to "new ideas" and not miss the goal? Now you know how much total time you have to play with the new ideas. Use that to help determine how many of them and how deeply you want to pursue them. Keep in mind that interesting ideas are not your research. Your research will be an interesting idea to someone else. Upvotes: 0
2019/01/03	1,867	8,154	<issue_start>username_0: My manuscript, submitted to a high-rank and very respectable journal, has been rejected by a referee. From the referee's report one could make a conjecture that the referee is one of my competitors, whose results are far inferior to mine. A second referee also rejected my work by giving an absurd argument. It is not an emotional exaggeration, the absurdity of the second referee's argument should be obvious to anybody graduating a university. The editors agreed with such reports, despite the fact that all my arguments have been completely ignored by the referees. I appealed and my manuscript was considered by one of the associate editors. And now is the most interesting part. The associate editor agreed with the referees and added his own argument against my work. But in this case his real name is known. He happened to be a very famous scientist. Knowing the name, it is very easy to find out his own works on the topic in question. Surprisingly, at the same time I submitted my manuscript, he (associate editor) published two papers in this and higher-rank journals where he stated exactly the opposite to what he wrote in his report to reject my work. Even after he had written his report, he continued to publish and give talks where he states the same point of view (which is the opposite to that of he wrote in his report). If my conjecture concerning the first referee's identity is correct, he is a coauthor of some of the associate editor's works and the associate editor just wants to help him to reject competing superior results. I collected all these facts, presented them to the editors of the journal and accused that associate editor of scientific misconduct (because what he wrote in his report is a deliberate lie, supposedly in collusion with the referee, or even with both referees). After two months, I received a short message that the Editor in Chief will decide what to do in this case. Up to now there is no reply. It seems that the editors simply want to hush this incident up. This journal is one of the oldest and most respectable journals in its field. Is there a way to change this situation and force the editors to report this incident and disclose the identities of the unfair referees?<issue_comment>username_1: This is a tough situation to be in. I’m so sorry! I’d say sending another polite but firm letter to the editors stating that you have facts to back you up. If still no response, get someone involved. Do you know anyone senior who’ll back you up? Do you have colleagues who will be able to reach out to such people? If the journal is affiliated with a society (like the ACM), you could possibly get them involved too. This is all predicated on your story being as you tell it, and that you have factual evidence to back you up. The truth is that it is often very difficult to prove such allegations and the reviewer/editor could just say that you misunderstood and the paper was rejected because of some other reason. I’d be mentally prepared to lose this battle if I were you, and if you don’t have strong factual backing then it may hurt you more than it does them. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: I am going to start in the middle of the story and work to the end and then jump back to the beginning. Some time ago you reported to the editorial board of a journal that you believed an associate editor had engaged in scientific misconduct. After 2 months you received notification that the EiC would be handling the situation. It has been an unknown amount of time since the report has been forwarded to the EiC. Charges of academic misconduct are serious and I would expect most journals to follow up on them. Two months seems a reasonable time for the editorial board to come to the conclusion that the EiC needs to get involved. From there, it would not surprise me if it took 6-12 months to resolve the issue. To the resolve the issue a number of things need to happen. The EiC probably needs to review the policies regarding charges of academic misconduct. They probably need to run the policies by the legal department to make sure everything is legit. Then they probably need to send all the manuscript correspondence to a trusted independent expert to review and provide insight. Then they need to pass everything by legal again. They are likely under no legal obligation to follow though at all and may not even tell you the outcome. You can continue to follow up with the EiC to let them know you have not dropped the issue. I would not follow up more frequently than every 3-6 months. How quickly things will get resolved depends to an extent on how seriously the EiC takes your claim. This brings us back to the first part of the story ... Scientific misconduct is a serious charge and something that ruins careers. If the AE plagiarized your manuscript, that would be academic misconduct. Writing an overly negative review to sabotage the publication of a paper is not nice, but probably does not constitute scientific or academic misconduct. Journals allow editors and reviewers with pretty extensive conflicts of interest to be involved in the publication process. Before pursuing this even further, you should get some colleagues who understand the work to give you some frank advice regarding any potential misconduct regarding the process. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: I don't know the details, but from what you've written, I think your case is somewhat weaker than you think it is: * You can't be sure the first reviewer is your competitor. You can conjecture, but you can't prove it. * Even if we assume the second review is bogus, it doesn't mean the editor made a decision based on it. It's possible the editor is making the decision based on the strength of the first review, and simply included the second review because it's available. * You say that the associate editor published two papers at the same time you submitted your manuscript. I don't know what typical review times in your field are, but this implies the associate editor submitted his papers long before you submitted yours. In other words, he has precedence. * You imply that the associate editor wrote papers and gave talks that say X ("Snow is white") but rejected your manuscript because of ~X ("Snow is not white"). This sounds ridiculous and my feeling is that you're missing something subtle. For example, maybe the associate editor is saying "green snow is not white" which isn't contradictory with "snow is white". * It sounds like you are charging both the associate editor and the original handling editor with academic misconduct. This is clearly a more serious accusation than normal, because it implies both of them colluded. You're further accusing both editors of collusion with the reviewers. My gut feeling says at this point you're stretching belief. I'm not saying it's impossible, but it absolutely sounds unlikely and the burden of proof is heavily upon you. * Further to the above, you don't actually have strong proof. You only have suspicions (which is actually a good thing: it means the reviewer anonymity shield is working). What you've written is somewhat contradictory as well. You say that this journal is one of the oldest and most respectable in your field, and yet the associate editor has published two papers in even more prestigious journals. If you're convinced your position is correct, I'd escalate the dispute, first to the EiC (which you've already done), and then to whatever is above (e.g. the publisher, the society that manages the journal, etc). Keep in mind however that these people cannot break reviewer anonymity, because that mechanism is in place precisely to prevent authors taking revenge on reviewers for rejecting their manuscript. In fact part of the reason the dispute is where it is is because the associate editor (naively? bravely? you decide) signed his name on the decision. If nothing happens, my conclusion is: the more formerly-uninvolved people come to the same conclusion, the less likely it is they're all colluding against you, and I'd just submit elsewhere. Upvotes: 5
2019/01/03	407	1,658	<issue_start>username_0: I have a paper that has been accepted at the International Conference on Advanced Computational and Communication Paradigms (ICACCP).<issue_comment>username_1: [Their website](http://www.icaccpa.in/) suggests so but, as Buffy writes in the comments, the only real way to tell is by asking them. [![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/Xd7cW.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/Xd7cW.png) Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: From the conference website: > > All accepted and presented papers will be submitted to IEEE Xplore (Digital Library) for conference proceedings publication and will be submitted to Scopus for possible indexing, IEEE Conference Record #45516. IEEE Xplore ISBN: 978-1-5386-7989-0. > > > Note that you are required to actually attend the conference and give a presentation (and pay the registration fee). With any conference, if you submit a paper which is subsequently accepted, you are expected to attend the conference and present the paper. If you do not attend the conference (barring exceptional circumstances which you communicate to the organizing committee), then the paper might not be included in the proceedings (i.e., will not be published). Note that computer science is a bit of an outlier because it considers conference papers as publications. Many other fields do not consider conference publications as "real" publications as the review process tends to be less thorough. Many papers (even in computer science) which start out as conference publications are later published (in a more polished, expanded form) as journal publications. Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]
2019/01/03	1,683	6,766	<issue_start>username_0: I am starting a new postdoc position with a professor who's retiring soon (<5 yrs, judging from the grad intake). I am interested in pursuing an academic job and it worries me that I would not be able to count on him during my career, for support after he retires. Am I overly worried and exaggerating the benefit of having a senior scientist interested in your work in the early stage of your academic career? Right now, I am thinking of doing as much work as I can and using his connections to do a second postdoc with younger and active PI. Any advice would be appreciated!<issue_comment>username_1: Before worrying too much, I think you should simply ask the professor about his plans for the future. Is he actually thinking about retiring, or is this a temporary wind-down? Also keep in mind that some people want to retire from teaching and administrative duties, but stay active in research or writing for a lot longer, while others will simply vanish the day of retirement. (The latter is rare, of course, but still happens.) The point is, if you form a good relationship with this professor, and they aren't the vanishing type, you might very well have their support beyond retirement. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: You are overthinking it and maybe trying to plan too far in advance. Your current prof, after retirement, will most likely still be able to help you. He will still have his contacts and may still give you some, if less, feedback on your ideas. You are right to maximize what you have now. But as time passes you will have the opportunity to fine-tune your future. You will know more in a year or so. You can explore with your current prof what he intends after retirement. It may be retirement in name only, perhaps. You can also get connected to his network as you work along, so that his direct presence is less important. Far worse if someone leaves suddenly for any reason. That can leave you stranded. This situation seems well controlled with a lot of planning time. Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: Some advantages of working with someone late in their career: They will be well-networked and knowledgeable in your field, so a good source of advice and expertise. As @username_1 states, many retired researchers continue to publish and attend conferences, so ongoing collaboration is possible. A good person of this type to work with would have many well-placed former students/postdocs/junior colleagues that he or she still works with, and be receiving recognition (awards etc) for their career contributions to your field. You would want to avoid someone who has maintained feuds with their peers since they will be prominent in your field too. Some advantages of working with someone early in their career: They are looking to build up funding or reputation too, so there will be opportunities to collaborate on future projects. A good person of this type to work with would be getting early-career recognition (asked to chair sessions at conferences, for example) and have a good funding track record. You would also want to make sure they have a personality for collaboration. Some people can get a good start based on their own talent but are not able to mentor junior colleagues well. Best of all is to get a mix of both, as you suggested. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: > > I am starting a new postdoc position with a professor > > > No you're not. Not really. You're being hired as a fixed-term (post-doctoral) researcher. It so happens that you'll be associated to this Professor's research group. Now, ok, I'm describing this in the other extreme. But the point is that a post-doc is an independent researcher, first and foremost. > > who's retiring soon (<5 yrs, judging from the grad intake). > > > 1. So you don't even know for sure? 2. Is his output as a researcher and relevance to your fields of interest still significant? Then it's not even clear he's retiring. Or he may "retire" to become an active Emeritus. Otherwise, ok. > > I am interested in pursuing academic job and it worries me that I would not be able to count on him during my career for support after he retires. > > > You're implying you're not worried about his support for the duration of your appointment as a post-doc researcher. If that's the case - then you're in good shape. A lot of people don't have even that. > > Am I overly worried and exaggerating the benefit of having a senior scientist interested in your work in the early stage of your academic career? > > > You're not exaggerating the maximum possible effect of such support, but you are exaggerating its mean effect conditioning on its being extended, and its mean extent. So IMHO, this should not be a major consideration. The main questions could be: * Do you have interesting alternatives? Do Pros and Cons. If not, then be happy you're not busing tables. * Will you be working on what you want to work? * Are there other researchers around with which you can have some "cross-polination" or even proper collaboration? * Do they pay reasonably? (If not, you might still want to go there and help organize a researcher's union; this is not related to your question but I just cannot exaggerate the importance of unionization among junior academics) * How is the environment, housing conditions, spouse support if relevant, child care arrangements, etc. etc. > > Right now, I am thinking of doing as much work as I can and using his connections to do a second postdoc with younger and active PI. > > > Start by "doing as much work as you can". If a second post-doc presents itself and is an opportunity for some variety, consider it - at that point. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: 1. talk with the professor about your concerns. Ask him especially how he sees his retirement. Many professors get a an office as emeritus, and effectively continues working. 2. do not be overly concerned about the professor in the first place. Your role is different from when you where a phd student. Reach out and establish new contacts. 3. Working with a professor that will become inactive (not the same as emeritus) means you have a unique position to take over expertise as he exits, if you are up to that task. 4. As professor go emeritus, they often pull down on hours. If he will have half finished collaborations, research consortium's and funding applications you may get a piece of that cake as well. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_6: I think it will be fine, ESPECIALLY as a post doc. May even be better because his group will shrink and you get more time with him. Also post docs pull their own weight regardless. Plus older profs get more grandfatherly and supportive. Upvotes: 0
2019/01/03	564	2,410	<issue_start>username_0: Education in my home country is very expensive and getting scholarship for postgraduate studies is not possible because I have a poor BSc (low GPA, no papers, etc). So I decided to study my Master degree in a country with much cheaper tuition fees, so that I can make up for my academic record and getting an admission for PhD with scholarship in my home country. Unfortunately 'the custom' in the new country is like that the professors (would-be supervisors) are those who give the admission and they strongly prefer to take students who will stay for PhD as well. But I want to come back after finishing my Master degree especially for being with my family. To avoid consequences and also ethical reasons telling the truth that I won't continue to PhD is a must. A friend of mine suggested this website. I would highly appreciate for any advice for the most suitable ways of approaching and opening up the issue with the would-be supervisor?<issue_comment>username_1: I would never recommend lying to a potential supervisor. It seems like a career killer. If it were me, I'd make a personal appeal to the person, explaining the situation just as you have done here. I think that a positive outcome is more likely in mathematics than in some scientific fields for which labs need to be established. The family issue is an important one that people can relate to. However, things change. Perhaps when you start you will decide to stay on for the doctorate. Perhaps your family can reunite in the new place. Lots of things can change with time. So you don't need to say that you will definitely leave after the MS, but only that you have strong ties that may make it necessary to return home after a couple of years. Remote work on a doctorate isn't out of the question in math, of course. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: > > I would highly appreciate for any advice for the most suitable ways of > approaching and opening up the issue with the would-be supervisor? > > > When you apply for a PhD, you will need letters of reference. Among them, the one from the supervisor is the most important. If you lie to your supervisor, it may be extremely difficult to get a PhD wherever you apply. If you don't plan to pursuing a PhD after your Master, tell the potential supervisor exactly that. If he doesn't agree, move on until you find the one that agrees. Upvotes: 3
2019/01/03	1,215	4,202	<issue_start>username_0: I am puzzled how can one translate the following in French? > > Lecturer, Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, Tenure Track, Instructors > > > Does `Maître de Conférences` translate the first three altogether? So, how can we distinguish between the various ranks? `Maîtresse de Conférences` for a woman is considered a "barbarisme" or not? Can we use `Conférencier(ère)`, `professeur(e) assistant(e)`, `professeur(e) associé(e) for the first three`, respectively? If not, why? Google Translate gives `Professeur agrégé` for associate professor but this is partly faulty, for <https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professeur_agr%C3%A9g%C3%A9> > > En France: Professeur agrégé de l'enseignement du second degré Titulaire d'une agrégation de l'enseignement supérieur : agrégation de droit, de science politique, d'économie, de médecine, de pharmacie. > > > Nevertheless, > > Au Canada: Titre universitaire atteint généralement après avoir été professeur adjoint, avant de devenir professeur titulaire > > > Further, can we use `professeur(e) adjoint(e)` for assistant professor? Ibid. for the couple Instructor and `instructeur`/`instructrice`. Lastly, can we use Tenure Track in French? For example `professeur(e) assistant(e) «tenure track»` is comprehensible in general? Should we use instead something like `professeur(e) assistant(e) avec titularisation conditionnelle`?<issue_comment>username_1: In French North America: Full professor translates to Professeur titulaire. A tenured associate professor would be Professeur agrégé. An untenured assistant professor would be professeur adjoint. I suppose it’s possible to get promoted to “associate prof” without getting tenure (the processes of promotion and tenure are generally distinct), but “tenure” is agrégation. The notion of “adjunct professor” does not translate to “professor adjoint” but rather to professeur associé. I’m not sure there’s an English equivalent to Maître de Conference. Maybe this is before the “professeur adjoint” level. “tenure track” translates to “en voie d’agregation” or “avec possibilité d’agregration”; the latter formulation is used for recruitment but a professeur adjoint already hired would use the former. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: To be honest, the first three title (Lecturer, Assistant/Associate Professor) were always quite nebulous to me. What you must understand is that the two systems are completely different. Basically, if your job is permanent and your activities are split between teaching and research, you have the rank of a maître de conférences (MdC) or professeur des universités (PU). Note that the answer on the "related" question mentions the habilitation à diriger des recherches (HDR), which is more of a degree than a rank. You need to have a HDR to apply to full professorship positions, but you are still a maître de conférences in the meantime. Finally, there are several tiers within both positions (MdC and PU) based on seniority. If your job is not permanent but still have to teach and do research, you are most probably an Attaché Temporaire d'Enseignement et Recherche (or ATER). If your job is permanent and only have teaching duties, you are most probably a professeur agrégé (or PRAG). And finally, if your job is not permanent and only have teaching duties, well, you are not really in the academic system and I don't think there is a rank or title for that. So to answer your questions: 1. No, I believe maître de conférences is the equivalent of a tenured professor (in terms of service/duties but not necessarily experience). 2. I have seen some people using maîtresse de conférences, so I guess it is accepted. 3. All your translations are not valid since they aren't associated with anything in the French system. 4. Since there is no tenure track in France, it doesn't really make sense to try and translate it. 5. Extra item: If you are searching for translations because you are writing your CV, I also recommend what has already been said in the comments: just use the official title and don't mind too much about translating it one way or the other. Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]
2019/01/04	378	1,640	<issue_start>username_0: Is it beneficial to attend international conferences at student level, and what are tips to follow when attending such international conferences?<issue_comment>username_1: It is hard to tell - it depends on the conference! Possible benefits (amongst others) can be: * Learning more about your field and getting more motivation for your studies * Learning about different countries and cultures * Learning how scientific conferences work * Preparing your own scientific contribution for a conference * Networking with well-known people in your field (usually there are some invited speakers) I would strongly recommend to submit your own contribution to such a conference in order to participate fully. For the "tips"-section: * Hang out with people you did not know before * Find a good mixture of new / unknown topics and things which are close to your fioeld of interest * Attend every social event * Don't hesitate to talk to foreign people. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: But do watch out: Not all conferences with "International" in their name are legit. There are many predatory conferences out there that are only interested in your money, not science. Ask a faculty member, your mentor, or your advisor. That's what we are here for, training and guiding young people! That being said, I started attending national conferences as a student and presented my (diploma = master's) thesis work at an international conference. In addition to the suggestions above, try and formulate one question for every presentation you attend. And then get up the courage to ask at least one a day! Upvotes: 0
2019/01/04	1,647	7,146	<issue_start>username_0: I'm in my first year of a PhD at a top UK university. I am part of a cohort of students, most of whom have come straight from an undergraduate degree and never had any "real-world" experience. I am half a decade older than them due to getting some life experience and working in teaching for a few years before realising where my academic interests lie and deciding to give it another go. I have realised that some of the students on my cohort are, to put it politely, not the sorts of people I would actively choose to work with. They may be very able STEM students with excellent academic credentials, but they have tendencies which are getting on my nerves and making them less pleasant to be around. These include: * Giving correct albeit unhelpful advice - for example, one of my fellow students emphatically smacked a couple of equations she wrote on the board during a group project, and proceded to have a go at me for not working through them myself, rather than politely explaining how she got them * Intellectual arrogance - for example, one student goes around, stands behind other students' computers and offers them assistance with their work regardless of whether they asked for it or not, almost as though trying to create an impression of omnipotence and undermining the merits of others * Resistance towards work of a different format to what students have been accustomed to in the past - for example, writing reports as opposed to doing problem sheets, which may not require a complete understanding of the concepts but are more akin to what an industrial role might expect * Self-opinionated behaviour from some students and attempts to attack my own opinions because they do not line up with their own. * Defeatist and entitled attitude - one student who has done poorly in his assignments takes a negative attitude towards work, constantly complains about it and tries to convince others why the work is a waste of time and why there is little to be gained from it. I can't help but feel a bit despirited at these traits others are expressing, considering how I am rusty on some things having taken a gap from academia and yet asking some questions seems to lead to unnecessarily hostile responses. It is also despiriting to realise how much of a maturity gap there is between me and the other students, and (unlike in my previous job) I am not in a position of authority to reprimand them for their behaviour or place them on any sort of misconduct procedure. How can I explain to these other students that their behaviour is having a negative impact on me, and how can I improve my working relationship with them?<issue_comment>username_1: In my experience it is not uncommon for people in your situation to not "gel" perfectly with the rest of their cohort. You are used to an industrial way of working, which is, or at least should be, quite professional and focused on a common goal (e.g., shipping some product). You are also used to fairly clear management structures, as indicated by your usage of "reprimand" and "misconduct procedure". Academia typically does not work like that. As user2768 aptly observes, a PhD study is an individual project - you are not all together shipping some common product, but you are all working on your individual research (or, in the worst case, you are directly competing for papers, grants, and future positions). That does not mean that you can't or shouldn't be friends with the people in your cohort, but it certainly gives the interactions a different dynamic. I have found the following to be a good mental model for working in a research lab: envision yourself as a one-person (or two-person, you and your supervisor) early-stage start-up company working in an incubator or shared office space with other start-ups in a similar position. Sure, you want to have a nice relationship with these other "start-ups", and often it will help to collaborate on this and that, but ultimately you don't need to work with any of them. If you feel it is more productive to do things on your own, do so - and, conversely, don't feel that they are obligated to help you with anything specific you need. As for how to deal with the specific behaviors you mention: essentially, my tip for all of them is to tell the respective students (more or less friendly, depending on your personality and whether you would like to build up or retain a friendly personal relationship) to bugger off and annoy somebody else. You don't need to listen to them giving you unwanted feedback, you don't need to convince them of your opinions, and they don't need to explain how they arrived at a specific solution. If a specific student annoys you or is categorically unhelpful, stop interacting with them. With all that said, I feel there is also a good chance that parts of the conflict are also related to your own mindset. I think it would help you to stop seeing yourself as mature and them as immature and in need of correction. While I am (based on your descriptions) convinced that some of your colleagues are indeed not the nicest of people, you won't be able to change them. It is more productive for you to take a hard look at your own behaviors, and whether you are potentially not as adapted to being back at university as you would like. Maybe letting go of a notion of superiority and maturity, and making some corrections in how you deal with your colleaguesm will also help normalize your relationships. Edit: Some specific advise on dealing with defeatist people. Yes, those are a problem. Avoid very negative students at all costs. Nothing kills your motivation to do challenging research quicker than a friend who talks about nothing else than how pointless their research, your research, and a PhD in general is. Make very clear that you are not interested in that kind of conversation, and if they persist stop interacting with them. Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: "Is you is, or is you ain't..." (in this case) a member of a group. ("Cohort" is too vague: we are all members of all sorts of cohorts.) Do you have to work with these people as part of your research or not? I too am a PhD student at a top UK university, having returned to academic life after a full non-academic career. I am approximately three times the age of my fellow PhD students, so they inevitably strike me as being rather young, and no doubt they regard me as being ancient almost beyond belief. But anyone with experience of working in an organisation knows that you just have to do your best to get along with your colleagues, let them see things about you that they can respect, and respect them, because they will have qualities that you lack. Now, if your research does not require you to work closely with others, as mine does not, then you can control how often you engage with them and on what terms. I know that some PhDs are done very much as part of a group project. If that is your position then it is not much different from any group activity: it is your job to make the best out of the situation. Upvotes: 2
2019/01/04	466	2,043	<issue_start>username_0: For those who submit obsolete GRE and IELTS scores (good scores), how likely is it for the admissions committee to reject/throw away the applications due to this? Will they instead review applications holistically?<issue_comment>username_1: This really depends on a million other things. If you're an outstanding applicant in every other way and this is the only issue then probably not. If it's a choice between you and candidate X who has everything in order, then yes - this would be an issue. If you're applying in STEM (as opposed to, say, English literature), then this may be less of an issue: the school may make you take some internal English course to make up. In any case, please do not lie in your application: there's no issue with submitting an old IELTS, but there is an issue with making it look like you just took it. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: GRE/IELTS scores are far from the most important part of your application. The faculty reviewing your application are likely to overlook this if the rest of your application is strong. However, the problem is that the applications may be filtered by computers or administrators before they reach the faculty (e.g., to remove incomplete applications) and they tend to be less forgiving. A particular concern for you is that your scores will need to be verified at some point before you can register as a student. This requires you to get ETS to send the scores directly to the university. However, as far as I know, ETS will not send expired scores. Thus you will not be able to verify the expired scores and you will not be able register. As annoying as these tests are, I suggest you re-take them to avoid the possibility of missing out on grad school for a silly reason like this. If you really cannot re-take the tests, you should try your luck, but I suggest that you make it clear on your application that the scores are expired. The worst thing would be for the university to think you have misled them. Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]
2019/01/04	1,018	3,952	<issue_start>username_0: I will be teaching at a four year university as adjunct faculty. Is it okay to have my students to call me Professor LastName, even if I do not have this title formally? If not, what other options do I have? I quite dislike Ms.. At my old college, I had my students call me by my first name, but instead I got a strange combination of "Teacher" and "Ms. FirstName" and "Miss FirstName" which makes me feel like a kindergarten teacher. (Note: I have seen this question asked in a variety of ways but not in the case where the asker does not have a PhD.)<issue_comment>username_1: To a fairly large extent this can be student driven, actually. The students get into habits of speech. Some places it results in fairly formal address, in which case "Professor" would be fine in the US. Other places it is common to use first names. Your colleagues should be able to tell you the local custom. In the US, "Professor" has both a generic and a technical sense. Students normally use it as a generic term. Undergraduates, at least. There are some places in which you are Doctor if you have a doctorate and Professor otherwise. Not especially consistent, but as the kids say, "whatever". There are a few places that impose formal rules, but you'd have been informed of that if it were the case. But, no matter your wishes, the students will likely do what they do. I once tried to impose "first names only" rules on a set of doctoral students. Some went along ok, but others couldn't make the jump. I was, forever, Professor username_1 to them. If, on the first day of class, you write your name on the board as "Professor MathStudent1324", most will go along. And if you write "Maria MathStudent1324" you will probably wind up as Maria. But like I said, they will do what feels comfortable to them. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: Professor 1234 is the proper greeting. You don't need to be permanent faculty or have a Ph.D. to get this title when in class and doing the work of a professor. Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_3: One of my colleagues was called Doctor R by the students and he was happy, while they avoided the formality of his family name but showed sufficient respect. Honour on both sides then... Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: I have to add a bit of local flavour to the answers: Whilst in some countries "professor" is just a job title, in others it is an academic title which may not be used unless you earned it. E.g. in Germany it could result in up to a year of prison (see <https://dejure.org/gesetze/StGB/132a.html>) in severe cases. Therefore, in Germany you should not give yourself a title (neither "Dr." nor "Professor") unless you are holding the title. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: It all depends on the customs in your institution and in your country. When I was studying at Cambridge University for my masters in pure mathematics, one course was given by Mr Swinnerton-Dyer - he had never bothered with a mere PhD, was already a Fellow of the Royal Society, and it would have been inconceivable to address him as Professor, a job title to which he was not then entitled. We all called him Mr and everyone was happy. Now, many years later, I am a student at another distinguished British university, and it would be considered odd not to use first names to address the variously titled lecturers, senior lecturers, readers, and professors with whom we have the honour of studying. If I addressed my supervisor as Professor he would assume that I was using formal language because I was upset about something. These things are culturally dependent too. I worked at one time in Germany as head of a bilingual team. If they spoke to me in German I was always addressed as "<NAME>" but if they happened to be speaking English I was equally invariably known as "Jeremy". You just have to ask around to find out what is appropriate in your institution. Upvotes: 3
2019/01/04	377	1,534	<issue_start>username_0: I'm looking at MSBA programs in the United States and have the two recommended academic references lined, but should get a third reference slot open. Between my previous jobs I worked freelance and had a client for about 6 months who was very satisfied with my work, and even offered if I ever needed a reference or testimonial from them to reach out. Question: 1. Would a reference like this be acceptable? 2. How would this option compare to a third academic reference?<issue_comment>username_1: I think it's good. I would draft it for him or give him some bullets. You want to highlight analytical skills and general management business skills. Not just conscientiousness or the like. Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: > > Would a reference like this be acceptable? > > > It would certainly complete your application and would likely be considered appropriate (though this is not my field and I cannot say for sure). > > How would this option compare to a third academic reference? > > > It really depends on who the client is. If you built a website for a non-technical person, then they really couldn't say much other than "they did a nice job, were professional, etc." This reference won't count for much. On the other hand, if this person can say "I'm the CTO of a company and deal with dozens of contractors per year; this one is the best I've had and displayed specific skills X, Y, and Z, etc.", then I don't think anyone will care that this person is not an academic. Upvotes: 1
2019/01/04	505	2,195	<issue_start>username_0: This may apply to any mathematical scientists. I am working on a paper, which (as far as I can tell) needs a result that I obtained. The result needed is a part of another paper of mine that is already under review. If I would like to submit the new paper, but need to cite the old one, how do I best work this issue out?<issue_comment>username_1: There are a couple of ways. 1. Upload a pre-print of the paper under review to ArXiV. Then you can cite the ArXiV version. This is commonly done in many fields, but typically happens at the time of submission to the journal. Check if this is actually allowed after submission to the journal by your specific journal. 2. As a less preferrable variant, upload your paper to your webpage (or to Dropbox or an alternative service) under a non-public link. Cite your paper under review in the new paper with the note "under review" and the link under which the paper can be obtained. Variant 2 is common in case ArXiV cannot be used for copyright reasons (some journals do not accept papers that have already been published in any form). Note that some journals allow to submit supplementary material - it makes sense to include a PDF of the paper with the result that you want to use then. The non-public paper link is not necessary in this case. Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: You can most likely use the time delay for publishing to your advantage. In the new paper cite the old one as usual except instead of a publisher, just put "under review". You could also name the journal or conference to which it has been submitted. The new paper, if it is accepted for review, will take a while. If the old paper is published in the interim, you can update the old citation before the second paper is published. Papers are seldom published exactly as first submitted and go through a round (or more) of revision. Even more seldom are they published quickly. All you need to do in the first version of the new paper is convince the editor and reviewer that you know what you are doing. You may, of course, be asked to provide more information for the citation, and you can provide it then. Upvotes: 2
2019/01/05	2,393	9,841	<issue_start>username_0: I commenced my bachelor of math 8 years ago and at the same time I was diagnosed to have cancer. Because of the treatment process and the emotional state that I was in, I only completed 3 subjects in the first year, 1 subject in the second year, no subjects in the third year and only 1 subject in the fourth year. By this time, I was feeling well, and I enrolled full time in the 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th year and I just graduated recently with a 4.0 GPA (out of 4.0 GPA). My academic transcript does not show my withdrawn subjects and it only shows my completed subjects. So my first question is that should I tell in my application about this history? will it have any negative impact on my application? I am afraid that if I tell the admission committee that I suffered from cancer, they will reject me because they may think that if it comes back during my graduate studies, then the same thing could happen. Will it look really bad that I only completed very few subjects in the first four years? How important is it for graduate admission committee that how long it took you to complete your undergraduate degree?<issue_comment>username_1: Well, I have a German background, so I'm not sure whether my answer is true in the US as well, but in Germany it would be clearly illegal to penalize based on predictions of your medical history. Furthermore, I would explain the situation because it gives a rationale about your past process, and maybe you can add a prognosis of one of your doctors regarding the recurrence of the tumor. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: First of all, I’m happy you’re doing better! It would take a truly heartless committee to ignore the circumstances. In the US it’s illegal if I’m not mistaken, but from a recruiter’s perspective I would definitely see the fact that you overcame adversity and managed to graduate with a good GPA as a point in your favor. Mention this in your statement of purpose. Don’t be melodramatic, just state that you had to take a break from your studies to fight cancer, and then got back into it once you were done. I’d see that as a sign of fortitude and perseverance! Good luck! Upvotes: 7 <issue_comment>username_3: I think that if you mention it it's gonna be a plus. Almost everybody struggle at some point in life, the commission is made by people older than you so statistically even if they haven't been in the same situation of yours, something bad happened to them. It can go from loss of a child or the illness and loss of a parent at a young age, or anything else, anything that drags you down for a long period of time. They most likely know how hard it is to recover from life struggles so they may be fine with the fact that you have been a bit slow in your bachelor degree. In my view 8 years without a justification look bad so I think you should mention it, I'm not sure when and how, maybe in the cover letter. If the time required to graduate is used as a metric then your life situation during that period has to be taken into account too, it would be a bad metric otherwise. Are 8 years with cancer much slower than 3 years with a perfect life? Another point is that you showed you've been able to handle very stressful situations which are quite common in the PhD. I think they may consider this aswell since some PhD students suffer form mental issues and sometimes breakdowns which lead them to slow down or quit graduate school. In my view a person that had a life threatening illness and now is fine mentally can be a good candidate, since the ability to handle stress and pressure without breaking down is a crucial skill. Wish you good luck. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: I am not US-based, so I'm not sure how relevant my experiences are to you, but here goes. I know several professors here in Europe that have told me that they do consider the time it took you to obtain your undergraduate degree an important factor in your application - they prefer employing people who get things done in time. For that reason, I would recommend offering some explanation as to why it took you 8 years to obtain your bachelor's - you don't necessarily have to go into details, you could for example mention a "serious medical condition" or something along those lines. I'd advise putting something to that effect in your statement of purpose / cover letter. That being said, completing your bachelor's with a perfect GPA while dealing with cancer to me sounds like something that might happen in a movie, but not in real life. Pulling that off requires enormous resiliency and mental strength - you should be proud, and I'm sure that any admission committee would be impressed by that. However, I think it is advisable not to write about it in a manner that is too emotional, or letting it take up too much space - you don't want to evoke pity, but simply offer an explanation why it took you longer than usual to finish. Good luck and take care! Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: This is more comment than answer, but I can't comment yet so here goes: The following is a bit blunt: One possibility is that in a twisted(?) way, your struggle with cancer can be viewed as a positive by the admission committee, for their own gains. In this age of diversity, having a student who is a cancer survivor can give the university "inclusivity brownie points". Regardless, you've already shown how you're academically (and emotionally/mentally) very capable, by graduating with a perfect GPA despite the circumstances. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_6: I feel obliged to provide an answer to this question, as I have literally gone through the same thing. In the beginning of my 4th year as an applied math major, I was diagnosed with leukemia. While I initially hoped that I could avoid changing my class schedule and deal with cancer "on the side," it soon became clear that this was not going to happen. I dropped every class I was taking except for senior design (which the school thankfully worked very closely with me on), failed my MATH GRE subject test, and canceled both my application to the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program and applications to math graduate schools in general. After 8 months of hardcore chemo treatments and 2 years of monthly chemo, I finished my treatments, and was ready to apply for graduate schools again. [I had a nearly full-time job for those 2 years in a somewhat related field] When I was applying to grad schools, I confronted the cancer topic in the opening paragraph of my personal statement. I didn't present it as a reason for someone to take pity on me though. Rather, I presented it as a personal challenge that derailed my initial plans, but ultimately made me a better researcher (nay, person!) after I overcame it. I briefly mentioned how the experience forced me to alter the courses I was enrolled in, explaining the WITHDRAWS on my transcript, but focused more on how during these treatments, I still came to campus as an academic tutor for fellow undergrads. > > I am afraid that if I tell the admission committee that I suffered from cancer, they will reject me because they may think that if it comes back during my graduate studies, then the same thing could happen. Will it look really bad that I only completed very few subjects in the first four years? > > > The professors who read your application are not heartless. They'll understand that your first few years aren't representative of your potential. Your 4.0 and consistent academic progress after you defeated cancer are proof enough that you are serious about your studies. Focus on this evidence and talk about your passion for your math interests, and you should be fine. Getting cancer doesn't ruin your life forever, I promise. Thankfully, I have been in remission for the past 5 years now. But even so, I am confident that both my advisor and grad school would give me the time off to handle health issues if it comes back. I'm sure you'll have the same experience as me, in that regard. Good to hear you're back on your feet, and good luck with your applications. Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_7: Just jumping into the throng here because I can deeply relate to your problem, and in a slightly different manner is something I struggled with when applying to graduate school last year. Some background: I am a doctoral student (different field, but still). I had medical (not cancer) issues that bogged past as well. I actually dropped out of college with failed classes and resumed with a different major four years later. As other answers said - mention it in the personal statement, make it matter-of-fact. I woven it in a single paragraph that was structured somewhat like this: > > I wanted to to X. Got sick. Tried my best but my medical issues got > the best of me for a time. Worked hard to get better. Tried again > because the time spent away enabled me to reassess priorities and my > academic path shined through. Now I am better and very committed. > > > In my statement of purpose I decided not to mention any of this. So my advice: Write about it. Only in the personal statement. You don't even have to mention the specific issue (i.e., cancer) - especially if you are better now. It is nobody's beeswax at this stage. When you do write about it (did I mention that you should write about it? ;)), frame it very carefully. DO: The single most important thing you can do is explain, briefly, how your experience made you realize what is important to you (i.e., graduate work). DON'T make this the only core point about who you are, and do not over sell how you overcame adversity - like everything in your statement (personal and research) - show is better than tell. It should be evident, not self-boasting. Good luck! Upvotes: 3
2019/01/05	397	1,735	<issue_start>username_0: I'v already read the similar questions here, but i'm sure those are not applicable in my case. The assistant reminded us during the last session that we can contact him via email, he is only responsible for a chapter not the whole course. Usually my professor teaches the theory and his assistants handle the exercise sessions. I tried to contact the person twice via email about fifteen and five days ago respectively, but I have not received any response yet, and I'm not expecting any response at all based on his behaviour before. I really need an answer before the deadline, so I decided to to contact the professor himself, explaining why and pose my question to him, but after consulting with some academic people this is going to be highly irregular. I don't really know how to handle this in an academically manner.<issue_comment>username_1: While there may be exceptions, I think that in most places it would be proper to ask the question of the professor. You could also mention that you haven't yet received an answer from the TA. That might get things moving better in the future. I would't phrase the comment about the TA as an accusation or complaint; Just the fact that you asked, haven't yet heard back, and need the answer. Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: 15 days ago was the weekend before Christmas, 5 days ago was new years day. I am not surprised the assistant hasn't answered: my university is closed till Monday. Since I have children and the school and kindergarten are also closed till Monday, I have very little time for answering emails. Moreover, this is the time of year to focus on other things than work (why am I writing this answer?). Upvotes: 5
2019/01/06	955	3,235	<issue_start>username_0: The specific paper I'm interested in is Galton (1907), and one approach I worked out is to go to Galton's [Google Scholar profile](https://scholar.google.com.au/citations?user=VfPFUgcAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=sra) and then click on the paper in question, after which I can see the following histogram: [![Galton (1907) citations 2005-2019](https://i.stack.imgur.com/2quWd.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/2quWd.png) This is the kind of thing I want to create, but one problem is that it cuts off in 2005. If I click on [the article itself and look within citing articles](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?cites=5246274520940962152) I can see there are several citations before 2005, but it wasn't apparent to me that there was a way to count them without manually going through each page. Is there a way for me to obtain data for the number of citations by year (including pre-2005) without manually going through the citing articles? <NAME>. (1907). Vox populi. Nature, 75(7), 450-451.<issue_comment>username_1: If you have access to Scopus (Web of Science also works, I presume) you can show the publications citing this paper in search format. Using the filters on that search page, you can retrieve the data you're looking for quite easily (year filter > show more > show all). In this case, that shows the following: [![Scopus-citations of Galton (1907)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/CV9gT.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/CV9gT.png) Problem with this, of course, is that Scopus only shows the citations it has in its database (410 documents). Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Wikidata records Vox Populi at <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q56873889> as well as a few of its citations. With the Wikidata Query Service at <https://query.wikidata.org/> you can formulate SPARQL queries that will plot the citation distribution per year. In Scholia, we do this automatically and a citation distribution per year for Vox Populi is available at <https://tools.wmflabs.org/scholia/work/Q56873889> (see the bottom of the page). Note that the citation information for the paper in Wikidata is certainly not complete. Currently, I see only 80 citations, while I see a count of 927 in Google Scholar. Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: You can use the "custom range" setting (left side of Google Scholar) to get specific ranges, but I would be wary of that. A. I only see one between 1900 and 1960, which seems very low. So I suspect the database is flawed. B. Also, I get different numbers of citations when I sort Google Scholar results by date or by relevance. Should be same number of papers but in a different order. But for some reason it is not. So I am just wary. Other ideas (weak ones). A. Talk to a research librarian at a major university. Ideally this community should be able to answer also. And I feel bad sending you elsewhere. But maybe... B. Perhaps some search in math or statistical abstracts? P.s. Just a caveat on the study you are doing. Be careful about conclusions that the paper got more interest lately. It may have. But you should also consider to normalize (e.g. by overall growth in number of statistics papers). After all the whole literature got bigger. Upvotes: 1
2019/01/06	1,298	5,062	<issue_start>username_0: Recently, I submitted an article and got a response from a reviewer that I cited 6 of my own articles out of 44. The reviewer said that it’s a cheap act of self promotion. 1. If I do not cite my own work, how can I expect others to? 2. Is it bad practice to cite your own work? The reviewer didn’t say I cited senselessly, rather he complained about the citation of my own work. How to respond in this given situation?<issue_comment>username_1: 6 out of 44 is less than 14%... If the cited works are relevant, such as building on previous results or analysis then there should be no problem. If you are citing works that are by you but not relevant then that is an issue (I don't think you are doing this but just for both sides). If the only works you are citing were your own then that may be an issue, but could still be relevant ie further work etc as above. Perhaps you respond by pointing out the relevance of each cited work and, also consider if the links between the works cited and the current paper need to be strengthened. Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_2: The phrase "cheap act of self promotion" might be viewed as offending, and is surely unprofessional (it's just the reviewer's opinion). I'm a hothead, so I would point this out to the editor and ask him to discipline the reviewer. --- Overall, self-citations are a way of self promotion – yes, you point the reader to your earlier relevant works in the topic, but you also advertise your previous papers in hope that those that missed them will cite them in their own future articles. Citations are a valuable asset in academia, so it's not surprising authors go after them. Self-citations, however, don't stand on equal grounds as citations – in my field, many evaluations require "number of citations excluding self-citations", so self-citations are not just an easy way to boost ones metrics. Referring to one's earlier works in the topic is definitely a good thing, showing the author's experience, linking to previous state-of-the-art, and simply telling a story that's behind research ("previously, I've made the analysis in 1D, and herein, for the first time, a 2D analysis is performed"). If your self-citations fulfill any of these roles, I see no reason to remove them. In the response to the reviewer point out the relevancy of the citations used, like [username_1 suggests](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/122610/68958). And the 6/44 ratio is all fine to me – after all, you're the expert in the field, so it's natural you have achievements. If it was 38/44, that would look silly. --- Heck, I've seen reviewers flooding their (anonymous) reviews with a list of "suggested" references, orbiting around one author – it's hard not to be convinced about the identity of the reviewer, and think of it as a "cheap act of self promotion"... Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: The answers here of [username_1](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/122610/75368) and [corey979](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/122611/75368) are correct, but let me point out two additional issues. First, it might be that without your citations you could validly be accused of self plagiarism. Readers of the current work need to be able to trace back the ideas to earlier work. This is why we cite ourselves rather than just reuse old work. Second, if you want a mental check on whether a self-citation is proper or not, just ask whether you would still be giving this citation if the other paper were written by someone unknown to you. If the answer is yes, then it is certainly proper - even essential - to cite it. If the answer is no, then you should probably forgo. As for a response, you could simply ignore it. However, if you think that it is affecting the editor's decision, you could point out the self-plagiarism aspect. Upvotes: 8 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_4: In all likelihood, I would ignore the comment. (If you need to respond to editor, just write that the references are all related to the current paper and were left as is. Make your comment short...no elaborate arguments.) Obviously take a look at the paper and see if there are any papers that are blatantly on very different topics. But if they are all in same area of exploration, leave it as is. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: Merely counting the number of self-citations is meaningless. The appropriateness of each citation should be judged on its own merit. If you do decide to respond to the comment (and you may choose to ignore it), you should ask the reviewer if there is any specific citation he or she objects to. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_6: You can reply that citing your other works will be valuable for the reader to be able to follow your train of work. Just reading a paper without context it can be hard to get a grasp of why to even research what this paper tries to address. With context, it is much easier to explain to a new reader why this latest paper is relevant to the trail of papers. Upvotes: 0
2019/01/06	1,138	4,468	<issue_start>username_0: This question was inspired by the confusing headline (now edited) for [How should I respond to a reviewer's complaint about self-citation?](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/122609/how-should-i-respond-to-a-reviewers-complaint-about-self-citation) Does self-citation actually promote your previous publications? We have questions about inappropriate self-citation, but what about self-citation that is relevant? Does it bring attention to research?<issue_comment>username_1: Citing your own work that doesn't contribute to the current work should be seen as wrong. That is improper self promotion. Citations, whether of yourself or others should be done to support the arguments of the current paper. Citing things not relevant is a disservice to readers. Use citation for the purpose for which it was created: allow the reader to follow arguments back to their source. The exception would be a survey paper in which you are simply gathering the important documents of some subfield. But for a paper that hopes to advance scientific knowledge, leave out the things not relevant to the conclusions. You cite yourself in such work so as to avoid self-plagiarism. Needing to "promote" your own work also seems a bit odd to me. If the work is good, it doesn't need promotion. The work should stand on its own. Or not. Spend your efforts on doing good work, not on advertising it. Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: The answer might depend on how you define "effective promotion", but there is scientometric research concluding that self-citation leads to more citations - crucially including more citations by others. Instead of a comprehensive literature survey (which I'm ill-equipped to write), I'll just refer you to one of the more important papers on the topic as an inroad to the field. Studying citations to Norwegian scientists, [Fowler and Aksnes: "Does self-citation pay?", Scientometrics 72, 427-437 (2007)](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11192-007-1777-2) found ([non-paywalled version](http://fowler.ucsd.edu/does_self_citation_pay.pdf)) > > that the more one cites oneself the more one is cited by other scholars. Controlling for numerous sources of variation in cumulative citations from others, our models suggest that each additional self-citation increases the number of citations from others by about one after one year, and by about three after five years. Moreover, there is no significant penalty for the most frequent self-citers — the effect of self-citation remains positive even for very high rates of self-citation. > > > Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: Self citations should be no different than any other citation you're going to make. I think you shouldn't, for the sake of imparciality and objectivity, see your previous works any differently than any other previous works. The person conducting the research is not relevant to the subject being studied, only the findings are of scientific relevance. So, it should not matter who is being cited, just the content being cited. Citations shouldn't really be made as a way to promote one's work (or anyone else's work, for that matter). They are there to serve as a basis for further advancement of the scientific knowledge on the subject being studied. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: A pretty simple answer is that google scholar weights citations highest of all search criteria in its rankings. Citing your own work (where appropriate) increases its rank order under google scholar's search results. You increase a few other metrics with self-citation including your h-index. This seems like a pretty straightforward incentive for scholars to self-cite themselves. From a practical point of view, though, why would you not cite yourself? If you are producing quality research in your sub-discipline, not citing yourself would be inappropriate. This is especially the case if you have a strong and directed body of research. Here are relevant citations: <NAME>., & <NAME>. (2009, April). Google Scholar's ranking algorithm: the impact of citation counts (an empirical study). In Research Challenges in Information Science, 2009. RCIS 2009. Third International Conference on (pp. 439-446). IEEE. <NAME>., <NAME>., & <NAME>. (2012). Manipulating Google Scholar citations and Google Scholar metrics: Simple, easy and tempting. arXiv preprint arXiv:1212.0638. Upvotes: 2
2019/01/06	875	3,639	<issue_start>username_0: I am planning to write a thesis in three months. How to be more organised towards writing and get the first draft ready in three months? Has anyone written the first draft of the thesis in three months or so? I have some writing done already as I have published some conference and workshop papers.<issue_comment>username_1: Make an outline and a schedule, then follow the schedule. Include time for revision and feedback in your schedule. If you know all the content already, the writing can be done much faster than that. In my field, it is only necessary to write about 90 generously spaced pages, so three months is less than a page a day. In more verbose fields, your thesis need not be more than 500 pages, so that's an achievable 6 pages a day. The real problem is when you do not know the content you need to write - that part we cannot help with here. Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: I wrote my thesis in 10 days. Granted, I was well published before, so 3/4 of it was a cut and paste. This was 90s so I had to use lab computer for typing. Went in at night and typed. Then did a morning run, ate breakfast and slept. Avoided distractions from lab group. Avoided complicated LaTex and just did it old school. Even xeroxed in figures versus fancier drafting program. Did individual chapters to correspond to papers. Picked easiest endnote system (by chapter). I think I even did individual files by chapter because Word got complicated trying to do multichapter work. At the end of the day, it's pass fail. Just get it done. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: Having done this myself, one thing I did was work at certain desks in the stacks at my college library that happened to have metal walls. This acted as a Faraday cage, blocking all wifi and cell phone signals. It was very helpful for focus, while a the same time allowing me to easily access the internet if I needed to look up a paper simply by standing up and walking out of the work area. You may not have something similar, but the key issue of removing easy distractions like phones and especially the internet is very important. Similarly, I would suggest not using your personal laptop to do this--it's another way for distractions to creep in. You'll want something that can download papers, compile TeX, and pretty much nothing else. You may be able to get a loaner laptop from your department for work purposes or get an old used laptop for cheap. I also heavily relied on copy and paste from my previous papers, and even some of my advisor's papers. Obviously the sections from my advisor's papers had to be rewritten, but it gave me a complete draft, which was a big change psychologically. Having a complete document that needs lots of revisions is way different from having an incomplete document, even if the amount of work left to do is similar. One last thing--keep a regular sleep schedule that gets 8 hours of sleep and involves waking up before 8. This is something grad students are notoriously bad at, but you'd be amazed at how much better you feel. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: I found spending at least some time (a few hours/week) with a 'writing group' of people similarly in need of a focus on writing to be very helpful. We booked a conference room, took turns bringing in coffee and snacks to share, and set a common timer for when we'd take breaks. Even without any mutual accountability (we were all in totally separate fields, working on our own theses and papers), the shared goal was a strong force to keep us focused and averse to our own distractions. Upvotes: 1
2019/01/06	1,511	6,050	<issue_start>username_0: Below is an example that I had in mind, but my question is more general: does the reputation of some authors cause their papers to be prioritized for review sooner than other important papers, e.g. the paper "primes is in p" (link below), which was written by unknown, Indian grad students? In this specific example, a year seems like a long time to review an important -- and very short -- paper. <http://annals.math.princeton.edu/2004/160-2/p12> Milestones Received: 24 January 2002 Accepted: 21 March 2003 Published online: September 2004<issue_comment>username_1: There can be many reasons why a paper takes a long time to be published. The `official' reason is that the paper needs to be carefully reviewed and considered before the result can be accepted for publication; the more prestigious the venue, the more care is taken in reviewing the results. However, there are other factors that come into play 1. This is in my view the most important: reviewers take a long time to get to finish their review, especially in high-quality venues. One should remember that reviewing is unpaid labour that academics provide to the academic publication industry for (what is apparently) the right to publish. There is no real incentive to review; there are meta considerations, like standing in the community, that depend on how much you do it, but I know several successful academics that do the bare minimum. 2. Good results in bad packaging: even a groundbreaking set of results can be poorly structured, which would result in delay in publication (if not outright rejection). 3. Politics and names do have some (minor) effect: having prominent authors/friends on the editorial board can result in a slightly faster turnaround. However, I have not heard of cases where editors have unethically accepted the work submitted by their friends, or rejected/dragged on the review process for the work of competitors. Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: I doubt that the reputation of the author has a large effect in general, especially at the review stage. It might if the paper suggests an especially important result. In that case, a quick read and the likelihood that it is correct will motivate the editor and reviewers to get it finished quickly. But the sheer volume of submissions suggests that the effect is small, and rare. More likely, delays are natural. If the topic is obscure it may be hard to find appropriate reviewers. If the result is a small contribution, there will be little incentive to advance it over others. Sometimes the paper requires additional checking, if it isn't especially self-contained or if the techniques used are non-standard. Moreover, the editor doesn't have a lot of control over the work habits or schedules of the reviewers as they are usually unpaid volunteers. Academic schedules get in the way of doing things quickly as does the too common absent mindedness of some professors. Sometimes the reviews come back to the editor in a way that it is hard to make a decision and the paper is sent out to others so that the editor gets a clearer picture. Sometimes reviewer conflicts need to be addressed internally. Once accepted, the delays are usually just caused by scheduling. For print journals, especially, where overall page limits put in a constraint, as well as the fact that some editors may want to bring similarly themed papers into a single volume. At this point, of course, it may be desirable to think about the reputation of the authors and so an unknown author with a minor result might get delayed a bit. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: > > does the reputation of some authors cause their papers to be prioritized for review sooner than other important papers[?] > > > There isn't really such a thing as "prioritized for review". In most cases, the time it takes to find reviewers is much shorter than the time taken for those reviewers to do their work. Even if the editor says, "Wow, this paper is important – I'd better find reviewers as fast as I can!", that probably wouldn't make much difference to the total turn-around time. > > e.g. the paper "primes is in p", which was written by unknown, Indian grad students > > > <NAME> was a full professor at the time, not an unknown grad student. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: You don't know what the timeline really was like. For all you know, it could've been this: > > Authors submit paper: 24 January 2002 > > > First decision made: 24 February 2002 > > > Revision submitted: 3 March 2003 > > > Final decision made: 21 March 2003 > > > First proofs sent to author: 2 April 2003 > > > Proofs received back from the author: August 2004 > > > Don't automatically assume that long review times are always the journal's fault. Sometimes the author just takes a long time to respond. Here's an extreme example. [![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/cbVcy.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/cbVcy.png) It's been more than three years since a decision was made on this manuscript, and the authors still haven't submitted a revision. At this point, they probably will never submit a revision. But if they do: the only fair submission date is 21 March 2015, and it will look like the review took a fantastically long time. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_5: The Annals of Mathematics is the most prestigious mathematical journal. It has very strict standards, and it often does triple reviews. So, the editor has to find three willing referees among top mathematicians in the area. These are usually very busy people, so it is no surprise that the whole process takes a while. Besides the fact that from "received" to "accepted" there may have been a request for a revision. In all, it doesn't sound like a lot of time, even if not ideal. As an anecdote about this journal, I know about very good mathematicians who have submitted their best work to the Annals, and the report has been "good work, but not up to standards". Upvotes: 3
2019/01/06	640	2,733	<issue_start>username_0: I am a Graduate in Life sciences who has been working in a corporate job for the past 2+ years. I am currently researching and aiming to apply for PhD programmes in Europe. In requirements for PhD I have come across the need for Recommendation letters from past supervisors. It has been over three years since I worked under a Research supervisor. And I feel it would not be appropriate to ask them after a long term. Are there any means by which I can proceed without recommendation letters ? How will this affect my chances for acceptance?<issue_comment>username_1: Actually, I think it is a mistake to try to submit without letters. People will wonder about your motives and worry that you don't think you can get good recommenders. Your break isn't that long, actually. After 20 years it would be different. Your old professors probably still remember you if you did good work. Of course, you will need to reintroduce yourself, bring them up to date on what you have done recently, and remind them of what you did in the past. But, assuming that you had a good enough relationship back then to have asked, that hasn't changed. It is certainly appropriate to do so. Many professors, in fact, are happy to hear about old students and to support their further advancement. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: I just want to add to username_1's answer, with which I agree. Applying without recommendation letters, even if somehow possible is a signal of death :) Generally speaking, decent programs focus on research and want their students to do the same. Since a doctoral student is quite an investment to a department (time from professors, stipends, materials etc..), often they are fairly risk averse. This means that admission committees often (so I've heard, but it is a logically compelling argument) search for as many signals that a candidate can (a) pass the rigors of the coursework (e.g., through past GPA), (b) produce productive and methodologically rigorous research, and (c) not quit in the middle. The last three points can be conveyed through past research experience, a compelling statement, and letters of recommendation. These letters can help alleviate the aforementioned concerns by showing that a candidate has experience with conducting research, and that people (i.e., professors) that are proven as researchers believe that you can cut the mustard. Long story short - get these letters. If you need, it is often not a year wasted to spend working for professors before applying. You can increase your chances at a good graduate program dramatically, and also get a better sense if this is indeed a path you with to partake in. Good luck! Upvotes: 2 [selected_answer]
2019/01/06	632	2,627	<issue_start>username_0: I am revising a paper and want to change the title of the paper and send for editor-in-chief. My Question: Is there an formal sentences to announce to editor-in-chief and reviewers that I want to change the title of paper in this revision. For instance, is it acceptable that I write the following text? > > With the editor-in-chief’s and reviewers’ permission, the authors want to change the title of paper because of ... > > ><issue_comment>username_1: Actually, I think it is a mistake to try to submit without letters. People will wonder about your motives and worry that you don't think you can get good recommenders. Your break isn't that long, actually. After 20 years it would be different. Your old professors probably still remember you if you did good work. Of course, you will need to reintroduce yourself, bring them up to date on what you have done recently, and remind them of what you did in the past. But, assuming that you had a good enough relationship back then to have asked, that hasn't changed. It is certainly appropriate to do so. Many professors, in fact, are happy to hear about old students and to support their further advancement. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: I just want to add to username_1's answer, with which I agree. Applying without recommendation letters, even if somehow possible is a signal of death :) Generally speaking, decent programs focus on research and want their students to do the same. Since a doctoral student is quite an investment to a department (time from professors, stipends, materials etc..), often they are fairly risk averse. This means that admission committees often (so I've heard, but it is a logically compelling argument) search for as many signals that a candidate can (a) pass the rigors of the coursework (e.g., through past GPA), (b) produce productive and methodologically rigorous research, and (c) not quit in the middle. The last three points can be conveyed through past research experience, a compelling statement, and letters of recommendation. These letters can help alleviate the aforementioned concerns by showing that a candidate has experience with conducting research, and that people (i.e., professors) that are proven as researchers believe that you can cut the mustard. Long story short - get these letters. If you need, it is often not a year wasted to spend working for professors before applying. You can increase your chances at a good graduate program dramatically, and also get a better sense if this is indeed a path you with to partake in. Good luck! Upvotes: 2 [selected_answer]
2019/01/06	461	1,937	<issue_start>username_0: The [European grading system](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ECTS_grading_scale) also follows an ABCDEF system like in the US. However, an A in an European grading system is worth more than an A in an American system. So what is the point of using such a confusing system? Now every American student applying in Europe will present their As and be perceived as incredibly impressive, while an European student with many Bs will go to US and be underestimated because a B in US essentially means "slightly above average", while a B in Europe means "Very good, but with minor mistakes".<issue_comment>username_1: Actually, you are underestimating the intelligence of American academics. It isn't hard to do the computations and people on admissions committees know these things. In many cases, automatic translations are done before the committee even sees an application. If you are confused by it, it is really only because you don't deal with it frequently enough. But in the larger world it isn't an issue and people won't over/under value anyone based on different grading schemes. But for the most part, local practice is local. Most of the students stay fairly close to home, so any consistent scheme will do for most students. For the others, it is just a translation problem along with other translation problems that might occur. I'll also note that not every institution in the US uses the same scheme in any case, and the "meaning" of an "A" can vary. The translations are needed here too. It is a normal part of academic life. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Even within the US, colleges may differ significantly in the amount of grade inflation. People look at class rank and the competitiveness if the school (or even the major) to evaluate. Also this is one of the rationales for GMATs, GREs, etc. (especially for foreign schools wher people don't know much about it). Upvotes: 0
2019/01/06	576	2,345	<issue_start>username_0: At the beginning im so sorry about what i did. But in literature review of the introduction part of my thesis i realized that i made a mistake :( It is about giving state-of-the-art part of my study area. When i describe a study i saw that, in paper it says that; "this paper describes the design for bla bla (paper)... we will evaluate the design(at conclusion)" but also in paper it says that for example; "knee design take advantage of the fact that knee generate needed power bla bla. But when i describe the paper i wrote that; "In[5], they emphasized that the design produced correct power" here the faily part :( they didn't evaluate but i mention that the design PRODUCED correct power. and 2 similar sentences:( For example i say: "ankle didn't produce unneeded power for bla bla". but in paper it says; "ankle design take advantage of the fact that ankle doesn't produce large power for bla bla" The case is here; they introduce the design or lets say, ,idea, proposes but i described as it produced that power etc but actually it wasn't made, those of them were ideas or claims of authors. is it reason of revoking of my thesis later :( please help me.<issue_comment>username_1: I don't think mis-quoting a particular reference will cause the revoking of your thesis. Edit based on edited question: If you are mis-representing the results ie changing the results to be for the ankle instead of the knee and then basing your results on that, then that could well be a concern. Can you submit a correction to that section? You should check this with your advisor - they will know whether you should edit it or leave it... Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: If you aren't allowed to make a correction then you can't and it is what it is. But since it was accepted, there should be no issue for the thesis or for your degree. However, in the future, if you do a publication that needs to cite the thesis, you can make a correction there. I assume, of course, that the error doesn't call your main result in to question. In that case you would need to either ignore the past or give a rather extensive update to your thesis in a new paper. People make mistakes. People correct mistakes. Science moves on and advances. Your thesis probably won't be the last piece of work that you do. Upvotes: 3
2019/01/07	1,015	4,191	<issue_start>username_0: A lot of academics like to complain about the academic publishing industry and its questionable practices (e.g. not paying reviewers for their work, overcharging universities for subscriptions, preventing public access to publicly funded research etc.). The answer seems to be moving to open access journals/non-profit publishers. My question is: can anyone share the story of a reputable scientific community (of reasonable size) that has made a full switch to open access publication? What made it work?<issue_comment>username_1: The great success story of open access is [arxiv.org](https://arxiv.org/). [Wikipedia claims](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ArXiv) that "in many fields of mathematics and physics, almost all scientific papers are self-archived on the arXiv repository." There is no citation for this claim and I couldn't find a study, but certainly there are subfields where a very high fraction of papers go on arXiv.org. It's also a fact that all serious journals in these fields allow authors to post preprints on arXiv. I would say that "all authors can make all their papers freely available with minimal effort" is success. This latter statement is backed up by data; just go to [SHERPA/RoMEO](http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/search.php) and search for e.g. journals with "math" in the name. The first page of 50 results doesn't show a single one that prohibits preprint archiving. The dominant publisher (SIAM) in my field (applied math) [allows authors to post the final published article on personal or institutional websites](https://www.siam.org/Publications/Journals/Related/Journal-Policies/Detail/open-access), for no charge. When they adopted this policy, they also made it apply retroactively to all articles ever published by them. I'd call that success. I wouldn't necessarily consider a wholesale move to author-pay journals to be a similar success, since the author-pay model (as implemented by many for-profit publishers) siphons off just as much money that was intended for research as the (for-profit) subscription model does. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: I think Machine Learning (and much of computer science) is a good example. As far as I know, all the major venues (conferences) are open access, plus much of the work also appears on arxiv. I believe it is possible to get tenure as a machine learning researcher without ever publishing in a closed-access venue. As for why this is the case: 1. The cost of the publishing process is met through registration fees from conference attendees (and sponsorships). In effect, it is pay-to-publish, but it is tied in with the cost of renting a physical space for the conference and providing food/coffee etc., so people don’t think of it as such. 2. Machine learning is a very young field that matured in the computer age and it is filled with tech-savvy researchers who are quick to adopt new systems. That means it is not burdened by historical baggage. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: The computational biology community is pretty heavily into open-access. The top field-specific journals, such as PLoS Computational Biology and Bioinformatics are open access, in-fact, I can't think of any computational biology specific journals that are not open-access. Of the two top journals in the related field of genomics, Genome biology and Genome Research, Genome Biology is fully open access, while Genome Research open-accesses its articles after 6 months. Of course people in these fields still publish in the top general science and biology journals - Science, Nature, Cell, PNAS; which are not open-access, but it would be very unusual for a computational biologist publishing in these venues not to either preprint on bioarXiv or use the gold open access streams at these journals. Its difficult to say the field has fully made the "switch" as computational biologists publish all over the place, but publishing close-access with a preprint, Gold access, or putting up an author-version copy on an institutional repository, is very much a community taboo, and would earn you a rebuke on twitter and funny looks at conferences. Upvotes: 2
2019/01/07	1,444	6,002	<issue_start>username_0: This is a parallel question to [Open Access Success Stories?](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/122656/open-access-success-stories) and is something I've been thinking about for a while. If one reads the linked question, Spark makes the following statements about questionable practices in academic publishing: 1. They don't pay reviewers for their work. 2. They overcharge universities for subscriptions. 3. They prevent public access to publicly funded research. And the solution to these problems is open access. Spark is not the only person who thinks this way about open access; similar sentiments have been expressed here on SE, and I've also heard from a senior professor in real life that Elsevier is disliked because they are "against open access". The problem is, to say that open access is a panacea makes little sense from my perspective as a former publisher: 1. It's not like open access journals pay reviewers for their work either. In fact my experience strongly indicates that it isn't possible to pay reviewers anything more than a pittance unless the journal charges a substantial submission fee (which is distinct from an open access fee, since that is only paid upon acceptance). 2. You go from overcharging universities for subscription to overcharging authors for submissions. In other words open access just shifts money around. 3. It's not like open access is unprofitable. Hindawi is one of the most prolific open access publishers (everything they publish is open access), and last I saw, their [profit margins of ~50%](http://eprints.rclis.org/23264/2/Predatory%20Publishers%20Threaten%20to%20Erode%20Scholarly%20Communication.pdf) easily dwarfs that of conventional publishers (~35%) (however this is not an apples-to-apples comparison, because the 35% figure includes book revenue, and the profit margin for those is usually lower than for journals). 4. The statement that Elsevier is against open access is untrue, and many (most/all?) Elsevier journals [allow open access](https://www.elsevier.com/about/open-science/open-access/open-access-journals) if the authors are willing to pay for it (Elsevier is against piracy, aka. reproducing copyrighted material without paying for it, not open access. Ironically, worded this way, most people are also against piracy). 5. That leaves just the idea the subscription-based model prevents public access to publicly funded research. If this is genuinely a problem (in the vast majority of cases, the general public are not interested in reading research articles) then the authors can still usually [make the papers available legally + for free](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/94931/do-we-really-need-gold-open-access-if-publishers-permit-self-archiving-and-shari). Further, again from my perspective as a former publisher, open access is actively great and the industry would totally not mind if everyone just converted to open access. That's because it's guaranteed revenue. You no longer have to worry about convincing people that your journal is so good they should pay to read it. As long as researchers have research to publish, your journal gets revenue. You might even get to save on marketing costs. Besides, you barely have to do anything that you aren't already doing. In fact the most important reason publishers haven't just converted everything to OA is because many authors are simply unable to pay for OA (especially those from developing countries). NB: The free-to-publish and free-to-read model, diamond open access, would indeed be a panacea. Problem is this model only works with external funding, so unless society becomes willing to commit millions of dollars every year to subsidize this, it's not realistic. Even if it does happen, it's just another way of shifting money around: we go from article processing charges to a direct subsidy for publishers. tl; dr: from my point of view, open access just shifts money around. Accordingly, I don't view open access as either good or bad; it's just something that's there. Academics, however, tend to perceive open access as something "good". Why?<issue_comment>username_1: I think the premise of your question is false. I don't think anyone views open-access publishing as a panacea. I think authors dislike the subscription funding model because the fundamental goal of publishing is to get people to read their work and paywalls undermine this goal. Also authors lose control of their own work by handing over copyright to the publisher. The other thing academics dislike about publishers is that they overcharge for their services; they are making too much profit for what they actually provide. That is just a question of how much they charge relative to their actual costs. It doesn't matter who (authors or readers) is actually paying. I don't think most academics believe that reviewers should necessarily be paid. It's just galling when you volunteer your time as a reviewer while the publisher makes billions of dollars of profits. I think most academics would happily volunteer for a non-profit publisher. One more point: Giving authors the option of paying to make their article open-access (e.g., gold open access) is a fantastic scam. The publisher gets the money from the authors (something like US$5000), but doesn't need to reduce the subscription price of the journal! Publishers sell libraries subscription packages, rather than charging per article. As long as a large enough fraction of the publisher's offerings are paywalled, they can demand an expensive subscription to the package. The publisher then disingenuously claims that they "support open access". Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: You are confusing "open access" with "author pay". They are not the same at all. Every paper I write is open access (they are on arxiv.org, on my personal website, in my university's open repository, or all three). None of my papers go to author-pay journals. Upvotes: 2
2019/01/07	888	3,807	<issue_start>username_0: I have two questions, a general question and a particular case question, regarding the authors of a manuscript. 1. In general, I would like to inquire about who should be added as authors to a manuscript as well as about the order of the authors. 2. I prepared a research paper and I was wondering whether I should add the name of this person or not. In particular, this person presented me with an access to his computer facilities (high-performance computers) and he has been supporting me with his engineering technical support. However, he is neither a researcher nor a person holding a PhD degree. In fact, he is an engineer and he is doing this for free. Can I put his name as a co-author to our manuscript?<issue_comment>username_1: Technically, you can list anyone as co-authors, including [your cat](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F._D._C._Willard). If you want general guidelines, you can find [several](http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities/defining-the-role-of-authors-and-contributors.html) [online](https://www.research-integrity.admin.cam.ac.uk/research-integrity/guidelines/guidelines-authorship). In practice I think it is reasonable to discuss this issue in advance with your collaborators — who will be authors and what will be the order of appearance, and who will just be acknowledged. So in your case it really had to be negotiated beforehand, not afterwards. I'd say that technical help is not authorship by default, but if such specialist wants/needs to be an author for some reason, I'd have no problems to include him in the list. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Authorship conventions vary enormously from field to field, so it is impossible to answer this question in any generality. This is the sort of question you need an advisor for. However, two general pieces of advice are to (i) make sure to discuss authorship at the earliest opportunity so as to avoid conflict later on and (ii) be generous, particularly with junior people (e.g., non-PhDs). People tend to worry about dividing the credit for the work, but, in reality, adding another author does not deprive you of much credit; a much greater risk is offending someone and harming future collaboration opportunities. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: As others have said already, you should discuss authorship as early as possible and make sure that everyone agrees and is satisfied with the position within the list they are getting. However, if it is too late now to do so, here is my recommendation: * If the list of authors is not too long (i.e. spare space) you might add them if you really believe they played a crucial role in the making of the research/manuscript. * If the list is too long, you can always add them at the end in the acknowledgments section. This is a common practice, particularly in the case of people that gave occasional support. Additionally, as always in life, you should try to be consistent - include authors whose contribution is of enough value, and not just because of free space or to be a good guy! Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_4: All the other answers are great, but regarding HPC in particular: it's not common to include someone who provided tech support as a co-author (regardless of their credentials), unless this person actually wrote substantial parts of the code specific to your project or contributed core ideas to your project's theory or design. It would be appropriate to mention him (and the supercomputing center) in your Acknowledgements, and you should absolutely cite whatever foundational code your project relies on. But you should also ask him directly how he would prefer to be credited-- some people are shy and don't even want their names in the Acknowledgements. Upvotes: 1
2019/01/07	2,933	12,425	<issue_start>username_0: I have a freshman requirement as a science student for at least 3 core science classes, and I picked physics as often as I could. However, I must choose either chem or bio as my third. I chose bio. The thing is, I'm deathly afraid of chemicals. I don't know when it started, but I can hardly touch household cleaning products without obsessively washing my hands afterward. I broke down crying a few times in high school bio, to my embarrassment. Oh yeah, and I'm also pretty much a hypochondriac. It's not something I can control. I'm afraid that my grades will be hurt because of my phobia. There are several hands-on labs in the course, though I am not sure if we are working with very hazardous chemicals. The exact course name is cell and molecular biology. How should I approach the course, and does anyone have any advice for avoiding chemicals in the lab? I wish I could opt out of a class due to fear, but alas. What should I do? Thanks in advance.<issue_comment>username_1: (This answer supposed the OP is an American; which turns out to be true, but they are attending school in Canada, so while the general thrust of the answer remains valid some of the US-specific aspects are obviously not immediately relevant) Phobias can potentially fall under mental disabilities, which may then subsequently be covered and protected by the Americans with Disabilities Act (this would be determined by the particulars of your case). I suggest contacting your university's disability office for help and guidance. Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: First of all, you should look for professional help. If this phobia affects your life, and it sounds like it does, you should try to work on it. For most phobias, there are very good behaviour therapy approaches available which help you dealing with your phobia. Please look for a therapist! One practical thing you can do is writing an e-mail to the course instructor asking what kind of chemicals you are about to use within the course and check out how dangerous they are. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: To further echo one of the comments: Seek professional help. This may be a trained psychologist, or even just a general medical practitioner, who may be able to direct you to another institution if necessary. You may have access to mental healthcare through your institution if you do not otherwise have access. Specific phobias are [treatable](https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/specific-phobias/diagnosis-treatment/drc-20355162). Formally addressing this will do two things for you: * It may or may not help you overcome your fear. This may not be necessary just because of a single bio class alone, but it sounds like your condition is limiting your life in other ways, and this just may be a good trigger for you to seek a treatment that may improve your life in general going forward. * However, even if the treatment is not successful, or takes too long to help you much with your class (treating phobias can be a long-term project, from my limited understanding), your condition is now on record, which allows you to approach whatever office in your university is responsible for handling special needs students. They should be able to convince the teacher to find alternative ways for you to do the class without handling chemicals, but they will almost certainly not act unless you have documentation from a qualified medical professional. Upvotes: 9 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_4: The other answers are mostly great and I would suggest trying what you can from them - especially seeking professional help with your phobia and documentation of it for accommodations. With that said, one element of a "chemical" phobia is often an understanding that there are a lot of active substances of unknown identity present in what we generally think of as "chemicals" (cleaning products, products and byproducts of industrial processes, etc.) and legitimate concern about an overwhemling range of possibilities of what effects they might have on your body. A low-level chem or bio class probably doesn't have a lot of situations where you have to handle such things (and hopefully you can get accommodations so that you don't have to), but what it does give you is an opportunity to learn about these substances, and (as opposed to commercial cleaning products) to know exactly what you're handling and to have a chance to learn what is and isn't known about how it reacts and what safety concerns there may be around it. This might be an opportunity for you turn take some control, through knowledge, over your phobia, especially if you make a plan to do research (thinking well-cited Wikipedia articles, science texts, and peer-reviewed science papers, not random websites) outside class to get a better understanding for yourself. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: I realize that rational arguments do not help phobias. Dealing with a phobia will require therapy as suggested by the other answers. Sometimes understanding better the things you fear can help you cope with the fear. Sometimes not. If this is a case where understanding might help, you should realize that pretty much everything is a chemical (the only tangible exception I can think of is light). You are made of many different chemicals (water, salts, sugars, fats, minerals, polypeptides, polynucleotides). Everything you touch, eat, smell, and taste is made up of chemicals. You might argue: "Sure, but those are natural chemicals. I have a fear of artificial chemicals." My response to this is that natural and artificial have no clear definitions. Many chemicals made industrially can be found in nature and in living things. Many natural compounds (including things you can find in the woods, such as mushrooms) can be as hazardous as any cleaning agents that you have. The most toxic compound (in nanograms of toxin per kilogram of body weight), [botulinum toxin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Median_lethal_dose), is natural. An important guideline in toxicology is: the dose makes the poison. For instance, carbon monoxide and hydrogen sulfide are well-known to be "toxic chemicals" and exposure can be fatal. However, your body produces both of these chemicals in small quantities as a normal part of metabolism. Despite its toxicity in relatively large doses, your body produces hydrogen sulfide to send signals and it [plays an important role in blood flow](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21210746). Your body is perfectly capable of detoxifying small amounts of many "toxic" compounds and does this all the time as a normal part of metabolism. Since you are interested in science, I heartily recommend that you study chemistry and toxicology. This will allow you to better understand the risks and nuances of toxic substances. Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_6: I think the other answers have largely covered it, but let me put it all together. I see three main paths forward: 1. Complete the course. * Some combination of therapy and gloves might help you to get through it * Consider e-mailing the instructor to better understand what is required * Perhaps your lab partner would be willing to take the lead in handling the chemicals. 2. Consider a different course. It's not clear if you have any other options. * A dean would likely approve doing a higher-level course instead of the intro course (e.g., physical chemistry instead of chem, or anatomy instead of bio) even without mentioning your phobia. But, these courses are at a higher level and might not be appropriate for you. * At many universities, geology, astronomy, or computer science can fulfill a science requirement, so make sure you're correct that it has to be 2 of bio/chem/physics. 3. Seek an accommodation for your phobia. * If you register your phobia with the disability resource office, your university will have to give you more leeway * They may be willing to let you do the analysis without actually being present for the labs; or, they may offer dispensation from the requirement to do chem/bio instead of physics Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_7: Talk to your professor ---------------------- As the other answers have said, professional help is important for your overall quality of life. But it's also a long term solution, and you also have to deal with your labs this semester. Talk to your professor about how you can be successful in your current labs while you seek professional help. Be prepared for your professor to be dismissive of your concerns ---------------------------------------------------------------- While there are many wonderful and empathetic professors out there, not all of them are such, and there's no guarantee that you have one of the good ones. An unfortunately large percentage of the population is dismissive of any emotional stresses that they do not personally feel. As an experienced biologist or chemist, your professor is probably very comfortable with dealing with hazardous chemicals, and may not remember that not everyone feels the same way. On the other hand, they're also a teacher who has likely dealt with all manner of students in the past, and may very well have helped other students with similar phobias to yours in the past. Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst. Focus on your reactions to your fear, not the fear itself --------------------------------------------------------- The truth of the matter is that many of the chemicals used in labs are hazardous when mishandled. A healthy respect for chemicals is something that most professors are going to want to encourage, not discourage. The problem lies not with your fears, but in how your phobia causes you to react - shaking, holding your breath, making mistakes, etc. Frame this as a safety issue (which it is) - your phobia makes it unsafe for you to handle chemicals. This moves the discussion away from "how are you mastering your phobia" and "is your fear rational" (which are issues for you and your professional help) and into the realm of "How will you participate in labs safely while you are mastering your phobia." Don't let your professor side track you into a discussion of the whys and hows of your phobia. Focus on the practical effects that your phobia causes, and how those make it dangerous for you to work in the lab. Also, lab safety is a serious concern, and gives you grounds to escalate the issue if your professor tries to dismiss your concerns. (Not that you wouldn't have grounds anyways, but lab safety gets a lot more respect than mental health, and your escalation is more likely to be taken seriously) Consider solutions ahead of time -------------------------------- Before you talk to your professor, brainstorm for ways that you might be able to make the class manageable. Maybe you get a lab partner (or two, if the labs are designed for two bodies) who can managed the chemicals while you make observations from a safer distance. Maybe you act as an observer to all the students doing labs, and don't participate yourself. Try and come up with as many possible solutions as you can, and consider how effective you think each one would be, and why. This will help prepare you to discuss these solutions with your professor, and find one that's workable. --- If you do manage to find professional help before the beginning of classes, talk to them about how to best approach your professor - they'll probably have better advice for you than some random person on the internet. On the flip side, your school probably has some resources to help you find the professional help you need. Your chemistry and bio departments may even have experience with very similar phobias to what you currently face. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_8: As other already say, go to see a doctor for help. Meanwhile you can try eleventh commandment of work in laboratories: Thou shalt not work without proper protection. Wear protective gear - lab coat, goggles, mask and nonpowdered nitril gloves. If you aren't sure you can stack them. We do use this trick to be sure our hands won't be contaminated when working with nasty stuff. If you are not given such, you can buy gloves in drug store and all the gear can be bough in dedicated stores. If don't know how to find it, you can ask any M.D. Upvotes: 3
2019/01/07	2,876	12,224	<issue_start>username_0: Last summer I did an internship in an industry for 9 weeks. It was a great experience and my supervisor was a very formal and professional lady. On my last day, she asked about my graduation date and I told her it’s just 6 months away as it was my last semester. She responded: "Send me your CV when you graduate.” I sent her a mail today and got this reply. “Good to see your email and glad to know that you have achieved an important milestone. Congratulations on your graduation. Your CV has been received and shall be forwarded to HR. All the best for your future endeavors.” What should be my response now? I don’t wanna sound immature or unprofessional. I was thinking about a thank you or something but I don’t know if that would be appropriate.<issue_comment>username_1: (This answer supposed the OP is an American; which turns out to be true, but they are attending school in Canada, so while the general thrust of the answer remains valid some of the US-specific aspects are obviously not immediately relevant) Phobias can potentially fall under mental disabilities, which may then subsequently be covered and protected by the Americans with Disabilities Act (this would be determined by the particulars of your case). I suggest contacting your university's disability office for help and guidance. Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: First of all, you should look for professional help. If this phobia affects your life, and it sounds like it does, you should try to work on it. For most phobias, there are very good behaviour therapy approaches available which help you dealing with your phobia. Please look for a therapist! One practical thing you can do is writing an e-mail to the course instructor asking what kind of chemicals you are about to use within the course and check out how dangerous they are. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: To further echo one of the comments: Seek professional help. This may be a trained psychologist, or even just a general medical practitioner, who may be able to direct you to another institution if necessary. You may have access to mental healthcare through your institution if you do not otherwise have access. Specific phobias are [treatable](https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/specific-phobias/diagnosis-treatment/drc-20355162). Formally addressing this will do two things for you: * It may or may not help you overcome your fear. This may not be necessary just because of a single bio class alone, but it sounds like your condition is limiting your life in other ways, and this just may be a good trigger for you to seek a treatment that may improve your life in general going forward. * However, even if the treatment is not successful, or takes too long to help you much with your class (treating phobias can be a long-term project, from my limited understanding), your condition is now on record, which allows you to approach whatever office in your university is responsible for handling special needs students. They should be able to convince the teacher to find alternative ways for you to do the class without handling chemicals, but they will almost certainly not act unless you have documentation from a qualified medical professional. Upvotes: 9 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_4: The other answers are mostly great and I would suggest trying what you can from them - especially seeking professional help with your phobia and documentation of it for accommodations. With that said, one element of a "chemical" phobia is often an understanding that there are a lot of active substances of unknown identity present in what we generally think of as "chemicals" (cleaning products, products and byproducts of industrial processes, etc.) and legitimate concern about an overwhemling range of possibilities of what effects they might have on your body. A low-level chem or bio class probably doesn't have a lot of situations where you have to handle such things (and hopefully you can get accommodations so that you don't have to), but what it does give you is an opportunity to learn about these substances, and (as opposed to commercial cleaning products) to know exactly what you're handling and to have a chance to learn what is and isn't known about how it reacts and what safety concerns there may be around it. This might be an opportunity for you turn take some control, through knowledge, over your phobia, especially if you make a plan to do research (thinking well-cited Wikipedia articles, science texts, and peer-reviewed science papers, not random websites) outside class to get a better understanding for yourself. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: I realize that rational arguments do not help phobias. Dealing with a phobia will require therapy as suggested by the other answers. Sometimes understanding better the things you fear can help you cope with the fear. Sometimes not. If this is a case where understanding might help, you should realize that pretty much everything is a chemical (the only tangible exception I can think of is light). You are made of many different chemicals (water, salts, sugars, fats, minerals, polypeptides, polynucleotides). Everything you touch, eat, smell, and taste is made up of chemicals. You might argue: "Sure, but those are natural chemicals. I have a fear of artificial chemicals." My response to this is that natural and artificial have no clear definitions. Many chemicals made industrially can be found in nature and in living things. Many natural compounds (including things you can find in the woods, such as mushrooms) can be as hazardous as any cleaning agents that you have. The most toxic compound (in nanograms of toxin per kilogram of body weight), [botulinum toxin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Median_lethal_dose), is natural. An important guideline in toxicology is: the dose makes the poison. For instance, carbon monoxide and hydrogen sulfide are well-known to be "toxic chemicals" and exposure can be fatal. However, your body produces both of these chemicals in small quantities as a normal part of metabolism. Despite its toxicity in relatively large doses, your body produces hydrogen sulfide to send signals and it [plays an important role in blood flow](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21210746). Your body is perfectly capable of detoxifying small amounts of many "toxic" compounds and does this all the time as a normal part of metabolism. Since you are interested in science, I heartily recommend that you study chemistry and toxicology. This will allow you to better understand the risks and nuances of toxic substances. Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_6: I think the other answers have largely covered it, but let me put it all together. I see three main paths forward: 1. Complete the course. * Some combination of therapy and gloves might help you to get through it * Consider e-mailing the instructor to better understand what is required * Perhaps your lab partner would be willing to take the lead in handling the chemicals. 2. Consider a different course. It's not clear if you have any other options. * A dean would likely approve doing a higher-level course instead of the intro course (e.g., physical chemistry instead of chem, or anatomy instead of bio) even without mentioning your phobia. But, these courses are at a higher level and might not be appropriate for you. * At many universities, geology, astronomy, or computer science can fulfill a science requirement, so make sure you're correct that it has to be 2 of bio/chem/physics. 3. Seek an accommodation for your phobia. * If you register your phobia with the disability resource office, your university will have to give you more leeway * They may be willing to let you do the analysis without actually being present for the labs; or, they may offer dispensation from the requirement to do chem/bio instead of physics Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_7: Talk to your professor ---------------------- As the other answers have said, professional help is important for your overall quality of life. But it's also a long term solution, and you also have to deal with your labs this semester. Talk to your professor about how you can be successful in your current labs while you seek professional help. Be prepared for your professor to be dismissive of your concerns ---------------------------------------------------------------- While there are many wonderful and empathetic professors out there, not all of them are such, and there's no guarantee that you have one of the good ones. An unfortunately large percentage of the population is dismissive of any emotional stresses that they do not personally feel. As an experienced biologist or chemist, your professor is probably very comfortable with dealing with hazardous chemicals, and may not remember that not everyone feels the same way. On the other hand, they're also a teacher who has likely dealt with all manner of students in the past, and may very well have helped other students with similar phobias to yours in the past. Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst. Focus on your reactions to your fear, not the fear itself --------------------------------------------------------- The truth of the matter is that many of the chemicals used in labs are hazardous when mishandled. A healthy respect for chemicals is something that most professors are going to want to encourage, not discourage. The problem lies not with your fears, but in how your phobia causes you to react - shaking, holding your breath, making mistakes, etc. Frame this as a safety issue (which it is) - your phobia makes it unsafe for you to handle chemicals. This moves the discussion away from "how are you mastering your phobia" and "is your fear rational" (which are issues for you and your professional help) and into the realm of "How will you participate in labs safely while you are mastering your phobia." Don't let your professor side track you into a discussion of the whys and hows of your phobia. Focus on the practical effects that your phobia causes, and how those make it dangerous for you to work in the lab. Also, lab safety is a serious concern, and gives you grounds to escalate the issue if your professor tries to dismiss your concerns. (Not that you wouldn't have grounds anyways, but lab safety gets a lot more respect than mental health, and your escalation is more likely to be taken seriously) Consider solutions ahead of time -------------------------------- Before you talk to your professor, brainstorm for ways that you might be able to make the class manageable. Maybe you get a lab partner (or two, if the labs are designed for two bodies) who can managed the chemicals while you make observations from a safer distance. Maybe you act as an observer to all the students doing labs, and don't participate yourself. Try and come up with as many possible solutions as you can, and consider how effective you think each one would be, and why. This will help prepare you to discuss these solutions with your professor, and find one that's workable. --- If you do manage to find professional help before the beginning of classes, talk to them about how to best approach your professor - they'll probably have better advice for you than some random person on the internet. On the flip side, your school probably has some resources to help you find the professional help you need. Your chemistry and bio departments may even have experience with very similar phobias to what you currently face. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_8: As other already say, go to see a doctor for help. Meanwhile you can try eleventh commandment of work in laboratories: Thou shalt not work without proper protection. Wear protective gear - lab coat, goggles, mask and nonpowdered nitril gloves. If you aren't sure you can stack them. We do use this trick to be sure our hands won't be contaminated when working with nasty stuff. If you are not given such, you can buy gloves in drug store and all the gear can be bough in dedicated stores. If don't know how to find it, you can ask any M.D. Upvotes: 3
2019/01/07	2,259	9,141	<issue_start>username_0: I have come to see a comment on twitter: "If you define “good ML paper” as “ML paper accepted at NeurIPS/ICML/etc” then writing a good ML paper is probably much more about how skilled you are at storytelling and paper writing than about ML." This comment is about Machine Learning (ML) and the comment is someone's opinion. My question is more general, how to improve the writing skill for scientific papers? It would be great if someone can answer in Machine learning and NeurIPS/ICML perspective.<issue_comment>username_1: As with most skills, both physical and intellectual, the key is practice and feedback. To be a better swimmer, swim a lot. To excel at it, get a coach who can give you feedback. The same is true of writing and many other things. To be a better writer, simply, write. But the feedback is also important so find a way to get that. You will get it from referees when you submit papers, but you can also get it less formally if you share drafts among colleagues. If you are a student, you probably get feedback from professors, but ask them to comment on your writing specifically, not just your ideas. There are, of course, books and such to help you be a better writer. Their advice may be helpful: Keep the reader in mind; Be correct but not pedantic; the opening should entice the reader to continue... But the books won't make you a writer (or a swimmer). Just write. And get feedback. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Some personal perspectives to advise you (or others who read this question later). Please don't take the writing of this post as perfect as it is hard to proof things in comment box. Do as I say not as I do! (That said, I have gotten 6 first authored papers, all of my academic papers, published without any revision at ACS specialty journals...so there is some "I have been there".) 1. Most of the skill (or problems depending on your point of view) is applicable across writing in general or at least science/engineering/math writing in general. You are savvy to look for ML specific issues, but 90%+ of how to write a good paper would be the same in physics, chemistry, statistics, medicine, or even business. 2. I agree with the username_1 comments on "practice". 3. One slight note for anyone who is non-native speaker is to work on your English. Your (personal) English comes across as quite good (you may be a native speaker). But I am really addressing others who may read this who are outside the Anglosphere, publishing in it, or who are foreign grad students. English is the "lingua franca" (sorry France) of academia. Don't let that hold you back. But plunge in, in all of your daily life, into use of English (languages get better from use...be the machine learner that just jumps in, not hesitant.) That said, when submitting papers, first do your absolute best (not slack), than have an English speaker review. It is VERY common for papers from certain countries to have poor English. This is frustrating for reviewers since the content itself is difficult AND may have science flaws. Weeding through that along with Chi...bad English is a hassle. 4. Feedback: Agree with the Buff comment. But would just add you will get differing opinions at time. And experience differing levels of insight from people. Use your noodle to differentiate when there are conflicts. 90%+ of the time, advice will be similar, especially on basic topics. But there will be differences. Don't let it fluster you. 5. You are right to want to write well. I had very middle of the road results in noteworthiness, but I wrote clearly. And my papers sailed through. Make it easy. Let this be a life lesson. Same thing applies in the work world. 6. References: I don't know the "how to write a paper" books. I'm sure they are mostly OK. But I will share a few gems that helped me. Google them. a. Katzoff Clarity in Technical Reporting. Short NASA pamphlet. Underground gem that I encountered at Langley. Very practical and researcher to researcher in tone. Free on the web. In particular, read his section on "honesty". b. E. <NAME> Introduction to Scientific Research. Great advice on writing up incomplete work. It is not sleazy. It is your duty! Somebody paid for that stuff. Don't be a tree in the forest. [Ignore the issue that this book is from the 50s. The lessons are universal. And you should learn to be able to extract lessons in old books, not put off by anachronisms. At least the writing is not hard to read...just it will hurt you when he talks about ENIAC or the like.] c. Strunk and White Elements of Style. Everyone recommends this. To the extent that I'm sure there are reactions against it. But it gets recommended for good reasons. Short, sweet. Lots of practical word choice advice. And "omit needless words" is a great philosophy. Very cheap...buy a copy. Get exposed. d. <NAME> Pyramid Principle. There are a couple versions but they are very similar. Ignore where she tries to say she invented something or plays on the McKinsey association. But pay attention to the advice on lists and hierarchical structures. e. Little Red Schoolhouse (writing advice). This one may be hard to find...sorry don't have copy to hand...typing in a ba...cafe. And I got my copy by Xoxing one from a Uni Chicago B school student. But it is a gem, gem, GEM. Key point is to try not to use nominalizations (Google this word) as subjects and use clear actors instead. "Bartenders measure how much booze to pour carefully." Not "The practice of rigorous mensuration...". Capisce the difference? f. Warriner (Harcourt Brace) English Grammar and Composition. Just a simple reference for when to put a comma in or not (and such like). Very user friendly. Written for high school students. Easier than more complicated style guides or grammar texts. 7. Practical advice (may duplicate some from references): a. Avoid long paragraphs. This shi...stuff is hard enough. Don't write monograph style walls of text. Keep the paras under 150 words. Seven sentences max (five if the sentences are very complex/long). This is not some mathematical "rule" and I'm sure someone will disagree in comments. But it is practical advice. Ideally the paras should have unified topics. But if it gets too long in one para find/devise/create a reason to break into two (or three!) paras. b. Separate chemical or math formulas with line breaks and centering. They are too hard to process in line in normal text. c. Figure captions are some of the most important text in a paper. I am a fan of longer captions. Hone them and don't use needless words. But tell as much of the story as you can in captions. People read graphs and captions MUCH more than rest of the paper. Captions are PRIME REAL ESTATE. d. References: Check every citation personally. If it is a journal article make a photocopy and keep it on file (helps for your research itself). It is very frustrating to look for a reference and find it is wrong. Or even that it doesn't pertain (this can happen when people copy errors forward in a lab group). e. Journal instructions: Get a copy of the notice to authors (usually in first calendar year issue of the journal). Look at every instruction and check it personally. Like a machine. Like a nuclear technician. You would be amazed how many people don't do this...and how much it helps make a paper slide by easier. For references, use whatever scheme is particular for the journal (they are all different). If you use a bibliography program, check the results personally. Errors can happen. In the grand scheme of things...it doesn't matter and/or hopefully the copy editor finds it. That said, it is something under your control. Get it done. That way people can concentrate on the science, not the format (since you are so gnat's ass perfect in format!) f. Use spell check. And when you make any edits use it again! This sounds silly. But you would be amazed how often people neglect it (even in the work world). Have a PAPER dictionary next to you to check on words that spellcheck highlights falsely. (Merriam Webster collegiate, hardbound, is a good choice). Of course use the net to check words still of concern (especially proper nouns) in addition. g. Getting traction. I had a quite shrewd professor advise me to write the figures first and the abstract last. This is sound advice in a fashion but I realized it is WRONG. Write in whatever fashion gets you MOVING. In the modern world of computers, it is very easy to edit later (as opposed to when people had typists). My advise is to put the title of the paper down and the major sections (with NO CONTENT) and then hit "save". Guess what!? You are started now. Then write whatever comes easiest. If "abstract" is easier to write now, write it now. You can revise it later. I have even written up most of a paper and then just had a couple gaps. And the momentum and such moved me to do the final regression (or even the final physical experiment!) --- Good luck. Kick ass. Have fun. "No prisoners!" <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1m7cSALYOBM> Upvotes: 2 [selected_answer]
2019/01/07	1,530	5,948	<issue_start>username_0: Every day, I am figuring out that competitiveness in academia is high. Of course, there are thousands of academics, but only a small number really make an impact with outstanding research. My goal -- since I was a young girl -- is to be a prominent researcher. I got an assistant lecturer position at my home university, which is not top-tier, where I worked with incompetent professors. I travelled later and found that I am not good at all and figured that my goal is far beyond me, after I was forced to leave my PhD, after just one year, which is as a black mark on my record. Maybe this off-topic, but at 28 years of age, I didn't achieve what I was looking for. I am quite disappointed. My female role-models' paths were straight; I had some bumps in my life that made the delay. I wish I can know how to find a good lab, I wish to work with a really good professor. My question: How can one survive in academia beyond publications, because there are thousands of crappy researchers and only a small number who made a serious impact? I'm really passionate about learning and exploring, I feel I am in a cage and I want to find the place where I belong, but I didn't yet, and I am afraid it is too late.<issue_comment>username_1: A few points- 1. 28 is not too late at all. You still have a tremendous amount of time. We all mature at different rates. Some rush and graduate from undergrad by 20, then speed through a phd program by 24. Some are very successful doing this, others are not. From a personal standpoint, I took a 5-6 years between undergrad and starting a phd to work in the field. I have found that this experience greatly enriched my scholarship. 2. There is a lot of good work in academia. I do not believe that the majority is crappy, most is very good, and very necessary work. And the other thing you must ask yourself is "good work to who?". What is considered good work by a policy maker might be different than an academic. 3. Failing out of a phd program is not the end of the world, you wont be the first or the last to have this happen to them. You just pick yourself up, transfer to a different university, and graduate. To specifically answer your question: a. write b. present your writing in conferences c. publish your writing in journals If you publish 3-4 papers a year as a first author, there stands a really good chance that in a few years you will start to make a name for yourself in your field. You do this over a decade and you will be a tenured professor who is a prominent member of your field. Thats the reality of academia, you cannot get away from having to write and publish. Eventually you will reach a point where your time is better spent writing grants and managing a lab but you have to write/publish to get there. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: No, it's not too late, my former spouse finished a doctorate when over 40 and had a great career afterwards. But you seem to have an odd view of academia, especially when you write about "competitiveness". That seems to imply that for me to "win" you need to "lose". A zero sum game. It ain't like that, and making it like that will only harm your chances of success. Academics normally work for personal success. They want to do good work. They strive to extend what is known in their field. But one of the best tools for that is cooperation, not competition. There is no reason for me to think that I'm better or worse than you if I'm doing what I like and produce valid results - perhaps with your help. Or you produce good results with mine. In fact, many people rise to the "top" in academia for purely random reasons. They choose to work in a field they find interesting. But at the same time, many others, seeing the history, choose to do the same. The field becomes "hot" and so some of its practitioners are seen as hot as well. But it was just chance in many ways. But the really big breakthroughs have often/usually been the result of teamwork. The fact that many breakthroughs in computing came out of Bell Labs was due to the close association it provided among good people. Those people reinforced one another's ideas in a synergistic way. My advice is to do what you love. And find others to work with you to achieve success. It can be great success or not, but if life is rewarding it is worth it. You don't have to "beat" anyone. Also, prominence is a mixed blessing/curse. You will get asked to do more than you want to do. You will give yourself an ulcer if you don't learn to relax. Your personal life may come under a microscope. If it comes naturally you will be able to handle the pressure as it develops, but if you are overly competitive you will find few allies. Relax. Focus on the science, not the success. Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: > > How can one survive in academia beyond publications > > > The short answer is that it's nearly impossible to survive in academia without publishing. You want to make an impact and push forward your ideas? You have to publish them, shout them out to the world! > > there are thousands of crappy researchers and only a small number who made a serious impact > > > This is again true, it is very hard to have a significant impact in academia. You need a combination of skill and luck. You had a couple of setbacks, worked with people you didn't get along with, and the clock has been ticking in the meanwhile. Is it too late? No! I only finished my bachelor's degree when I was in my late 20s, and I know many others who did the same. Not finishing your PhD successfully is not great, but is not necessarily a "black mark". We are all human and stuff happens. What you really need to succeed in academia is drive, and a willingness to learn from your failures. I would say that these are necessary, not sufficient, conditions, but still important. Good luck! Upvotes: 2
2019/01/07	732	3,094	<issue_start>username_0: Background knowledge about me: I'm 26, have done a Bachelors in Mathematics and now I'm in my 3rd year in my masters in Computer Science in Germany. I have found it very difficult in general to decide what to study, I've always been into learning things without specifying a passion and I've been a very good student. When I started my Bachelors in Math I really struggled because it was very theoretical but during the first year I decided that I would go into Applied Math and Computer Science. Starting my Masters the courses were difficult and again I couldn't decide where to focus so I went with Machine Learning, since it was closer to my previous studies. Although I've finished all my courses I am really struggling with my Master Project(which is in Machine Learning), it doesn't seem interesting to me so I am just procrastinating. I decided not to change the project and try to find something else, because I thought that all of this time I have spend would be wasted. I'm considering dropping the master and searching for a job, but that's also a problem since I don't have any experience. Since it has taken me some time to finish my Bachelors and now I am really strugling with my Masters, should I leave it and try to acquire some knowledge from online courses about things that would be more relevant for a job?<issue_comment>username_1: > > I have found it very difficult in general to decide what to study, I've always been into learning things without specifying a passion and I've been a very good student. > > > Warning: I'm going to propose a very subjective answer, my interpretation might be completely wrong. My impression is that you are a perfectionist person and you get easily disappointed with the reality of... well everything: your courses, your level, your project topic... Nothing seems good enough for your high expectations. Being perfectionist can be a valuable quality but we don't live in a perfect world, you need to start accepting that. What strikes me in your question is that you don't mention any personal preference: do you like maths? do you like CS, or ML? Are you eager to get a job or feel like studying longer? I'd suggest you need to find where your motivation lies in order to know what to do. I don't think anybody can answer your actual question except yourself, you are looking for advice about your own preferences. Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: Get that football across the goal line. Your project is pass fail. Just finish it. Don't change topics. DON'T drop out after so much time spent. After all, all the same options for career redirect will be there even if you have that extra sheepskin in your pocket. P.s. I hear you on the procrastination and avoidance. but you have to find something to spur you on. For me it was publishing. Got a lot of egoboo from that. Then the thesis was a cut and paste. Maybe that works for you (can even sign up for a conference to push you). But whatever the "trick" (e.g. "accountability buddy"), figure out something to push yourself. Upvotes: 1
2019/01/07	823	3,494	<issue_start>username_0: I once applied to a job (in the US) where the search committee unexpectedly contacted one of my colleagues to ask about my job performance. This individual was not one of my references. I had never heard of this practice before, and now that I'm considering applying elsewhere (outside of the US), I'm wondering if this is something that I can expect from search committees in Europe. My question is similar to [How do I keep my tenure track job search confidential?](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/76832/how-do-i-keep-my-tenure-track-job-search-confidential), but there's one main addition I'm seeking: how do I ask for confidentiality in the cover letter without sounding as if my colleagues would give them bad news? I worry that asking for confidentiality might give the impression that I'm trying to hide something about my job performance. On the contrary, I know my colleagues would say great things about me; I'm just not ready to let everyone know that I'm applying for jobs outside of the US.<issue_comment>username_1: I don't think there is a way to guarantee it, but I also think the practice is pretty rare. It might occur when someone at the new place knows someone where you currently are, of course. You also can't expect them to never ask but can request that any contact not come immediately because you don't want to prejudice your current administration against you thinking you are about to leave. I suspect that it is pretty common to be in your situation, so people receiving the request wouldn't see it as unusual. If people have the impression that you are happy where you are but exploring possibilities elsewhere and that you'd like things to stay confidential for a while, I think most people would accept that and rely initially on the materials you send them. Later in the process they might want to talk to your current boss, of course. But you can't actually guarantee that it will stay quiet. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: I used the following language, and I think it had the desired effect. > > Because I am hoping to keep this search confidential, I request that > you contact my references rather than my current colleagues at this > time. If I were to become a finalist, I would of course expect and > invite you to speak to my current department. > > > Upvotes: 8 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: I would just write that you are applying in confidence as there are other searches in progress or the like. (If they still blow it off, what can you do. Other than cross them of your list of course.) Unfortunately academics tend to be less professional than industry about things like this. And of course your position is weaker if you are applying out of the blind versus being approached by them, already have tenure, etc. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: I have seen cover letters like that, here honesty is key. Remember that people on the committee would like to have the best candidate get the job, and that sometimes requires some "poaching". To paraphrase a good sentence I have previously seen used to that effect: "I am currently employed at institution X. I am happy with my employment here, but ready to seek new challenges at institution Y. As my employment at institution X is still ongoing, I would appreciate your discretion when inquiring references. Should you need references from my current colleagues at X, please contact me in advance." Upvotes: 5
2019/01/07	3,007	12,603	<issue_start>username_0: What should one list in the startup funds if you are taking up a tenure-track position at a public undergraduate university in the US, mostly focused on teaching? I'm asking specifically for mathematics/applied mathematics/computational mathematics.<issue_comment>username_1: What do you think you really need in order to conduct your research program? Can you justify why you need these things in order to conduct the research? How much of this is so important that you'd turn down the job offer if you didn't get it? Things that you might ask for include summer salary for yourself for a year or two, computer equipment (say $3K for a nice desktop computer up to $100K for a high performance computing cluster), funding to travel to conferences or money to pay undergraduate students to work on your research with you. At a regional comprehensive undergraduate only public institution, chances are that there isn't much money available for a startup package. Based on my experience, I'd be surprised if you could negotiate for much more than a couple of months of summer salary, a few thousand for travel expenses and a few thousand for a desktop computer. At an institution with a graduate program, you might also ask for support for a graduate student. In negotiating these things, you're likely to find that the chair of your department (or search committee members if the department chair is negotiating with you) can be helpful in telling you what others have received in the past and what the administration is likely to fund. Whatever you do ask for, be sure to ask politely and don't let it seem as though you won't accept the offer unless your wish is granted. It's not unheard of for offers to be retracted in the face of startup package demands that are too high. You should also give a budget with justification rather than negotiating for a simple dollar amount. The strategy of negotiating the salary and startup package verbally before a formal offer is quite common. It is a smart negotiating tactic on the part of the institution since you have nothing to fall back on until they make a first written offer. If you demand too much, they can simply move on to another candidate without ever making you a formal offer. Another advantage of this strategy is that it forces you to make a decision quickly- you can't draw out the process with multiple rounds of offers and responses. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: You need to do a fact finding mission if you want to do this properly. Institutions vary widely on their policies, and while I have worked as a research administrator at two research universities, PUI's (Primarily Undergraduate Institutions) can offer more flexibility than large institutions or much less due to funding restrictions. I am going to generalize my answer a bit for the masses. Some of this will not apply to you in particular, but as a research administrator, I make no assumptions on what cost categories may or may not look like for a researcher. You really never know. In this answer, I am going to break down questions about individual cost categories to consider, as well as larger policy considerations that may affect your maneuverability in the future. Institutions vary so widely, a policy may make you claustrophobic or give you so much freedom, you can't imagine how it could be problematic. These vocabulary terms are so standard in research administration, that you should be able to Google them easily for most institutions. I am using Wellesley as an example in point of fact-- I have no connection to the institution, and yet can quickly find the policies I want to do this basic research on how they function. Make sure you know the answer to the following questions as you make your budget. --- Constructing the Budget: ------------------------ A. Salaries. What are the policies on paying for undergraduate students (graduate if available)? Can you hire postdocs or is that forbidden? What about other staff? Is this regulated by the institution or the school/department? This information may not be freely available, but you should inquire about school/department policies. B. Fringe. The forgotten cost. Google your institution's name and "IDC agreement". (Also referred to as "F&A" or "Facilities and Administration" Agreement.) Here's an [example](https://www.wellesley.edu/sites/default/files/assets/fa_rate_agreement_letter_fy18-21.pdf) from Wellesley. You will skip the IDC section, which applies to sponsored funds only, and go to the fringe benefits rates. In this case, regular employees have a 34.6% fringe rate. Thus $1 of a "regular employee" at Wellesley actually costs $1.346. Next question-- is a student a "regular employee"? My guess is no. Typically institutions pay fringe for undergrads only during the summer (that temporary employee rate). If your institution's website doesn't explain this easily, try contacting the Vice Provost's office or Office of Sponsored Programs. While you are looking at a PUI, one of the reasons fringe is important to consider is that junior faculty often bring in postdocs in their first couple of years, because in a graduate structure, it's hard or impossible to get students in the door right away, and they are completely untrained. Postdocs typically draw over 20% fringe on higher salaries (~$50-80k depending on field). C. Travel. Depending on the field, this is a lot or a little. I have worked in chemistry and CS, and CS is much higher than chemistry due to the way publishing works in the CS field. How expensive are conference fees though? Gordon Research Conference is really expensive, particularly if you are sending more than one student. Be aware that some sponsors will not fund foreign travel, if that is a consideration. D. Capital Equipment. Is this something you need? This money is hard to get from a sponsor, and should be absolutely a priority for a startup package. E. Materials and Supplies. This includes, but is not limited to: publication costs, poster printing, lab supplies, minor equipment, computing equipment, catering, and other supplies. Ask about policies for things like user fees and gases (if applicable), and other possible department-supplied expenses that may not be a consideration. How are office supplies handled? Are you responsible for your own printer and toner, or is that forbidden? F. Tuition. Are you responsible for any tuition costs whatsoever? If so, find out what these costs are. --- Other Considerations: --------------------- Uniform Guidance. If you apply for sponsored funding, you have to be able to allocate a cost with great precision in order to assign it to the grant. See federal law, [here](https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/2/200.405). Thus if a computer cannot be allocated with any accuracy to this one project (e.g., an NSF grant) you should pay for it with startup. (See paragraph d in the above link.) What types of expenses will be difficult to divide between sponsored projects? Allocate more funds for these. Supplemental Salary Policy. Are you limited to three summer months? Can you charge salary during the academic year? Can you charge your startup for this? (Typically, startups do not allow supplemental salary to be charged, supplemental salary provided from the school is a different pot of money. Do you get this or not?) Direct Charging on Sponsored Awards. Does your institution allow you to charge your academic salary to a sponsored award? This can increase your flexibility in sponsored research, particularly if you are interested in relieving teaching load. Wellesley's policy is [here](https://www.wellesley.edu/sites/default/files/assets/policy_and_procedures_on_charging_direct_costs_to_sponsored_awards.pdf). I have seen this policy used as a negotiating chip during difficult periods of funding. Restrictions on Spend for This Account. As with the last paragraph, are there cost categories that are forbidden? Typically supplemental salary, staff salary, and non-research expenses. There may be more. Cost Sharing and Matching Policy. If you want to apply for a grant that requires cost sharing or matching, are you responsible for this, or do you apply to the chair or dean for funds? Wellesley details their policy [here](https://www.wellesley.edu/sites/default/files/assets/cost_sharing_final.pdf). Computing Policy. What devices are provided for your personnel (and yourself). Can you purchase any endpoint device you need or are there restrictions? What softwares are provided? Wellesley has a pretty impressive [list](https://www.wellesley.edu/lts/techsupport/windows) available, listing Adobe, MATLAB, Mathematica, EndNote, and other software that one may be happy to not have to pay for. (Link is to Windows, but they have a Mac list as well.) IDC and IDC Cost Recovery Policy. While there is no IDC "indirect costs" charged to your startup, you should understand the rate that applies to any sponsored funds and this recovery policy. Wellesley explains theirs [here](https://www.wellesley.edu/sites/default/files/assets/policy_on_indirect_costs_2.pdf). The reason you care about the IDC rate for startup is to understand the impact of IDC on a sponsored budget. If you apply for an NSF grant at Wellesley, the IDC rate is 75% of salaries and wages, which is really high, but only applies to salary and wages (not true of all institutions). That means for $1 of salary expenses, $1.75 is charged to the grant instead of the $1 that would be charged to startup. If the IDC base is listed as "MTDC" this IDC would be charged on other direct costs (including fringe) as well. This creates a compounding effect, whereby salary has fringe AND IDC applied, and IDC is applied on the fringe as well as the salary. As some sponsors (e.g. NSF) provide small, all-inclusive budgets, this could affect your feelings about your startup. This is typical in theoretical and physical sciences, compared to NIH-funded medical research, where IDC is paid IN ADDITION to the requested direct costs, rendering the IDC rate irrelevant to these researchers. Does the institution give you funding back for the sponsored dollars you bring in? This policy varies widely, from nearly nothing to large percentage. Here's an example of Wellesley's [policy](https://www.wellesley.edu/sites/default/files/assets/policy_on_indirect_costs_2.pdf), where they give the PI 10% of the IDC they received during the year. Is this something you expect will be a good source of revenue? Internal Funding Availability. Are seed programs offered regularly, or other fellowships or initiatives? These are frequently found under the Provost or Vice-Provost's page. Wellesley's is [here](https://www.wellesley.edu/provost/committees/facultyawards). University Resources. High-performance Computing Resources, for example has a page [here](https://www.wellesley.edu/sponsoredresearch/proposals/high-performance-computing-needs). Other pooled university resources should have a page with rate information or someone to contact. --- Negotiations: ------------- Some of these questions may seem like we are getting quite into the weeds. However, I have managed startups over dozens of faculty over the last 8 years, and I can tell you that they never last long enough, and it's an important emergency fund. So many expenses are unforeseen, and had department/school policies been more readily understood and available, the PI may have restated their requested budget to be more realistic. While I haven't seen the negotiation processes, myself, I can tell you that it seems institutions frequently find a balance in your own compensation and your startup. I have seen startups in computer science pushing $1M (major institution) and their own colleagues may receive paltry amounts and get a decent bump in salary. [FWIW, a non-trivial number of PIs want more lab funding than personal funding. The stress of finding funding for research is very high.] Make a formal, detailed budget, referencing policies as needed, and people will take you seriously, even if they can't give you everything you request. In general, I find this changes the tone. My detail-oriented PIs get more than those who don't put in the energy-whether from a sponsor or their own institution. There is a certain amount of respect from administrators (who tend to set school/dept budgets) when a PI pays attention to and references policies that are publicly stated on the website. Upvotes: 2 [selected_answer]
2019/01/07	1,037	4,555	<issue_start>username_0: I work on an actively developed collaborative project. The project is a simulation package. The model has various manuals and guides. These guides are non-peer reviewed collaborative documents self published online. When features are added to the model it is important to keep the guides up to date. For example, when a new feature is added the user guide must be updated to enable users to use the new feature. I recently added a major update to the code. I documented the use of the new submodel and it's numerical verification in the collaborative user guides. To make this novel contribution permanently available to others (the guides are changing constantly) and to reach a wider audience, I submitted an article to an archived peer reviewed journal. The article included the theory, implementation and verification of the new submodel. i.e. some of the content from the guide is in the article. One of the reviewer's comments I received was: > > It bothers me that the present paper does not add any new findings or results to those already published in . Figures xyz of the current manuscript are same as the Figures abc of . Therefore, I do not recommend the publication of this paper in the in its present form. The authors must delineate the similarities and differences between the works mentioned above. > > > I am the author of the relevant sections of the guide. The guide is not a permanently available archived peer reviewed journal. That is the reason I decided to publish in a journal. I would draw a parallel to a PhD thesis chapter (or an MSc thesis). These are publicly available, arguably more "peer reviewed" than manuals or guides and will be permanently archived. It is typical for thesis chapters to be converted in to journal articles - so why not a non peer reviewed, non permanent and unarchived manual? Is this a valid and fair comment? Is content presented in manual or user guide be published in a journal?<issue_comment>username_1: Yes it can. Obviously there can be a benefit from moving work that is not peer reviewed into peer reviewed archived literature. But this journal didn't want it. Don't argue. Move on to another one. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: I think the comment is fair, but can be rebutted. I would prepare an answer layered on two levels: * On the practical level, change figures xyz as much as you can. Maybe run some additional simulations, change the plots, legends, colours, etc.. This will show some willingness to the editor. * On the more crucial aspect of whether your work can be considered "novel enough" to be published in the journal: I would argue that + the paper will provide a much more coherent context to the model (as only published articles can), and as such its dissemination will be facilitated; + the guide is subject to be changed in the future, while the published paper is a much more "stable" resource for future researchers; + depending on the model itself, you can argue that the paper will make it possible for researchers that don't use your code to implement the model in their own codes. If this is true, you might reword some parts of the manuscript to focus more on the model itself, which should be the paper's main selling point, than on its implementation in the code. Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: Check on the guidelines of the journal. There are some journals, such as [Computer Physics Communications](https://www.journals.elsevier.com/computer-physics-communications) which explicitly encourage publication of code along with manuals and a paper describing it (and actually also peer-review the computer code). However, even for other journals, the reviewer's comment may not be completely fair. A publication should be original, i.e. contain not only previously published results/material. The question now is whether those guides are published material. In the olden times, people presented new results at conferences and published them in associated proceedings (not reviewed), yet the very same results were later published in peer-reviewed journals. Your situation is very similar and arguably, the guides not public in a sense that makes your manuscript not original. I would 1. publish the manuscript on the arXiv; 2. shorten the online guides substantially, referring to the up-coming journal article and its arXiv pre-print. Even if you cannot (1), you can do (2) though for some time (until your article is published) the guides may be incomplete. Upvotes: 1
2019/01/07	1,630	7,466	<issue_start>username_0: I am doing a masters in electrical engineering which involves a project done in association with a company related to the university. I initially thought this would be a good thing as I expected the people at the company to already have the resources and knowledge to train me on the relevant things. But as I have come to realize, the project I was given was chosen out of a wish to have a certain product, without really knowing how feasible it would be. There is existing literature by groups who had done similar things in the past, but all of them had access to different resources that I cannot use (fabrication processes with certain steps that do not seem available in what I have access to). In addition, their focus was more research-oriented, while in my case the intention is to make a commercial product eventually. The papers also tend to lack important information which, to be honest, even makes me doubt the amount of rigor that has been put into this kind of project before. Of course I have already done a literature review on what has been done, and I have some ideas about how to implement certain things, but basically everything I do is based on my guess for how things "ought" to work given what others have done and my understanding of the theory. I have no idea about how the fabrication will work out in practice. In addition, before doing this project I had no prior experience with any of the chip fabrication details. In undergrad we had electronics courses, and I have sufficient understanding of the electronic circuit design, but the project also involves chemical aspects that I have never had to deal with before. It also requires knowledge of process details which are not usually needed for most applications, and are therefore not documented in what I have access to. I have tried to figure out a lot of this when doing the literature review, and I believe to have done a good job understanding relevant concepts, but my lack of any real experience prevents me from ever being confident that what I am proposing has any chance of working in real life. And none of the other persons I work with have ever done any similar work on that before, so I don't really have someone to guide me. I regularly have meetings with my supervisors, and I have explained my concerns, but it seems like we keep having misunderstandings about what can be done. I usually try to explain rationally the problems that I see with particular ideas, but they tend to rely too much on "what the other group has done", and seem to just assume optimistically that certain things will work out. Of course relying on previous work is generally a good idea, but given the important differences in terms of available resources and goals, there is no way for me to simply replicate what others have done, and to me it currently looks somewhat far-fetched. So basically, I am worried that I will eventually reach a dead end due to infeasibility or issues that I have overlooked, and that I will then get blamed for not completing the project. Perhaps I am wrong in expecting this, but I thought that there would already have been something organized or planned out before I joined the project, but it is really all from scratch and with little guidance, and relies on various things working out which I have no control over. So am I right in expecting more concrete guidance, and should it be a problem if the project turns out to be infeasible or not work as expected?<issue_comment>username_1: Welcome to the wonderful world of research! You're describing what research is like: nobody really knows the answers, so nobody can really give you concrete guidance; nobody really knows what will work, so the only thing to say is "try it and see what happens". It might sound optimistic, and in some sense it's a good optimism, because no matter what happens you've discovered something new. So relax and do your best. If you try something and it doesn't work, explain why it doesn't work to your supervisor. If you get stuck, also let your supervisor know. Your supervisor cannot really spell out what to do for you every time; it's quite possible he'll say "okay, we're stuck. What do you think we should do next?" and you can try thinking of something (don't worry if you fail; after some time he'll probably think of something himself). Finally don't worry about what happens if the project turns out to be unfeasible or not work as expected. Nobody can guarantee beforehand if the project is going to work as expected. You're likely to be graded over your work, not your results. If your supervisor had given you a project that turned out to be more complicated than expected, he'll undoubtedly factor that into the grade, as well. Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Thesis projects students do at companies have a high chance of going off the rails and ending badly for the student, the university, and/or the company. At least, that is what a professor told me when he gathered all the master students in a meeting to warn us of the dangers of doing a thesis with a company. After numerous bad experiences, my university has had to set up a standard contract containing all kinds of protective clauses (for the student and university) that the student and company MUST sign before the university gives the go ahead. As well as there being a blacklist of companies who've so blatantly taken advantage of students that they will never be considered again. There are plenty of horror stories of students having to start over from scratch after spending 9 months on a failed thesis. So yes, you have all the reason to be concerned! The only thing you care about is completing your thesis and graduating. I presume by supervisors you meant the people at the company. It does not matter what the company thinks, it matters what your supervisor (and the thesis committee) thinks! The university decides in the end whether you graduate, and their criteria are that your thesis shows valid, original research. It should be your number one priority to make sure that the work you're doing for this company aligns with that goal! Remember though: even if your work ends up 'failing', that doesn't mean you've failed your thesis. Failing experiments are a crucial part of research, you just have to discuss with your uni supervisor what this looks like. My advice: go to your supervisor at the university right now and explain them everything. Discuss with them if the project the company wants you to do is something the university would consider appropriate for a thesis, even if it 'fails'. If it isn't, you need to re-align goals with the company ASAP. If either your supervisor or the company aren't helping, or if you have no clear plan that your supervisor can approve of, seriously consider cutting your losses and quitting this project. Starting over now hurts but it sure as hell beats starting over in 3 months or 6 months. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: There's an old saying by managers in industry: "Don't come to me with problems, come to me with solutions". You're seeing lots of problems. But this is a research project - your job is to find solutions. If you don't have the equipment to do X, then is there another way to achieve the same result? If so, then you've found something to write up in your thesis. Just copying things that other people are doing isn't research. Upvotes: 0
2019/01/08	979	4,370	<issue_start>username_0: Basically what it says in the heading, lengthy explanation below At my university, just completing your major and general ed courses won't get you enough credits to graduate. This means that we have to either complete a minor (6 courses) or just take courses from other fields. Up until now I have just been taking courses that I thought were interesting, in a variety of fields, none of which have much, if anything, to do with my major (which is psychology). Minors don't show on the degree certificate - they're technically unofficial and you can only tell by going through the transcript that somebody's completed one. Al the only two fields available at my university that have any real connection to psych are bio and computer science. The bio curriculum has next to nothing to do with psych though, except two courses which I am taking anyway. Judging from my experience in high school, I have no aptitude and not too much interest in CS. I could get a minor in sociology, which I do enjoying, but I don't plan to pursue social psych later on. I'm sorry this has been so long. Basically, would it be advisable to minor in something related to psychology in order to boost my chances at grad school? Or is it okay if I finish my psychology requirements and electives and then just take other courses that I find interesting? I'm an undergraduate, currently in the middle of my second year, so I still have time to finish a minor before I graduate and I'm very confused about everything.<issue_comment>username_1: I don't think most schools will know or care about the nuances of the Sahana U minor system. Ergo, do what you want. Since many schools don't require a minor at all, they won't worry about if you do the extra classes in history or math or basketweaving. They will just look to see that you are a psych major, what GPA you have, standardized test scores, essay, letter. It's extremely unlikely that the content of those 6 diversification courses will affect any decisions. Just concentrate on doing well with whatever you do. And take what you like. The major is already covering key content needed for grad school. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: To provide an anecdote, the Ph.D student who supervised me during my undergrad work as a psych major got admitted to the program because he minored in computer science and the professor needed someone computer savvy to help set up the lab he was starting up. I'm not saying he didn't deserve the spot, but I know other people who had also applied and they had far more expertise and experience in clinical psychology. Whether your minor can contribute to the strength of your application depends on whether it can be used to make a strong case for your candidacy. For example, if you were applying to specialize in cognitive psychology or artificial intelligence, a minor in computer science might help depending on the content of your planned research. If it adds nothing to your case, then it's probably not worth it. A stronger factor would be research and field experience outside of or in excess of what is required by your program. They serve as further evidence that you can not only hit the ground running but also be a contributing asset to the department you are applying to. Because I am currently the head of our lab, the professor consults with me before accepting new students to make sure they are a good fit and would work well in this environment, and what we look for is working knowledge of research procedures, capacity for working with others, problem solving abilities, and familiarity with academic settings. Academic excellence is a given so we basically skim it to look for any Bs or Cs, it's really about undergraduate/masters research and field experience. We also follow up on rec letters to get additional details. How my university and my professor handles admissions is certainly not universal, and every university and department obviously have their own standards. So whether your minor will help or not certainly varies depending on the situation. If you know that doing your minor will help you in the area you intend to research, or you simply find that field of study interesting regardless, feel free to do your minor. If not, I would recommend investing that time in your studies or extracurricular activities. Upvotes: 0
2019/01/08	1,003	4,378	<issue_start>username_0: I know questions regarding whether its possible to go from EE undergrad to CS have been answered previously, so please bear with me as I have a few distinct questions. I'm a Junior at a mid-tier state school and I've taken quite a few CS courses (such as data structures, discrete math, programming methodologies and principles, and software development). I've been doing some reading online and I've come to find that ML/AI(esp. Computer Vision) is something that really piques my interest. I am not sure that I have the proper probability and statistics skills required to pursue a CS PhD with a focus in ML/AI. NOTE: (I do have a solid background in other math: Multi-variate Calculus, DiffEq, LinearAlg, multi-dimensional signal spaces,etc.) 1. Do you think that it would be feasible for me to actually gain acceptance into a PhD program with this focus without any research experience in ML/AI or even CS in general? I have previous academic research experience(5 months) in EE(Semiconductors) as well as a high GPA(3.9+) and should have solid letters of recommendation. What kind of disadvantages could I face? 2. Would you recommend doing some self-studying of ML/AI in place of continuing my current research in EE? (I'd love to do research in ML/AI but my university doesn't have research opportunities in the area for undergrads). 3. How can I approach finding well-reputed groups/institutions in this area? Thanks, I really appreciate any input or advice that you may have.<issue_comment>username_1: 1. I think yes, it is feasible. On a purely technical side, regulations vary across countries and universities. At my university they consider eligible all applicants with previous education in "computer science and engineering". The rest undergo "additional examination", which in practice means that they check whether their actual transcripts overlap enough with our CS curriculum to be considered equivalent. 2. Computer science is an umbrella term, so it is a really diverse area. Even if you narrow it down to "machine learning", it still doesn't help much to identify your stronger and weaker points. There is machine learning in natural language processing, in computer vision, in human behavior analysis, etc., with different requirements. 3. Since you mentioned computer vision, I think your math background is really handy. What many such candidates lack is coding skills and general experience in dealing with programming environments. Sometimes we have to glue together a bunch of "experimental" (buggy and poorly documented) libraries and make them work. When something goes wrong, people get startled with cryptic printouts and endless error messages, as they don't even know where to begin to untangle this mess. At least, this is what I feel sometimes as I have to take personal care of the tech issues... Sorry no comments on the "best groups", but personally I think you should approach the question the other way round. Go to Google scholar and search for papers with keywords of your interest. Read the ones you like, see who cites them and which papers they cite. Just follow the links in both directions, gather enough papers to understand (a) who is cited more often and (b) what kind of research you personally like -- after all, your personal interest in a particular type of project should matter most. And this is how you approach people: by showing genuine interest in their projects and knowledge of their publications. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: In general, EEs are better at math than CS so you will probably be fine. I would not worry about prob/stat. Can pick up a course if needed. Is easier than diffyQs, etc. More of a question will be coding ability, interest, and experience. Go code some things. (Note, I'm not telling you to take a course.) Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: You will be fine. EE and CS are very closely allied disciplines, so much so that at many schools, they're the same department. Here at Michigan, e.g., computer science and electrical engineering are subdepartments of a single EECS department. I teach in CS part but, like a number of my colleagues in CS, my degrees are in EE. This is very common. You also are likely well-prepared to pursue interests in ML, vision and AI, all of which tend to require more linear algebra than statistics. Upvotes: 0
2019/01/08	1,399	6,143	<issue_start>username_0: I'm a 4th year PhD student (in 5 years program) and recently I have been invited by a conference organizers to become a member of the conference technical program committee (TPC) for an international conference in Bahrain. I have discussed with my PhD adviser whether to accept such invitation and he mentioned that it is good to participate in the conference activities. So, what things I need to consider while reviewing papers since this is my first TPC task, any tips? I found some question [here](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/90983/be-a-member-of-tpc-of-a-low-quality-conference) but mine is a bit different.<issue_comment>username_1: As a reviewer, you have a dual role: you are both, a gatekeeper responsible for ensuring the quality of the programme, and a mentor to the authors for improving their own work. * As a gatekeeper, your task is to fairly evaluate whether a paper fulfills the standards of the community and this specific conference, whether the paper is methodologically sound, and (notoriously) whether the paper is sufficiently interesting to the community. The last part tends to be the most subjective, and my personal recommendation here is to not put too much stock on this item. By and large, we as a scientific community tend to overestimate our ability to predict what research will have an impact. Further, don't be too strict with regards to methodological soundness - my impression is that particularly inexperienced researchers have a tendency to be overly critical of other people's work. Finally, be careful not to recommend rejecting a paper simply because it is not the kind of research you would have done, or because the authors have chosen a different method than the one that you would use when attacking their problem. * As a mentor, you want your review to be both, honest and helpful. Don't sugarcoat your review, but make sure to highlight positive as well as negative aspects of the manuscript. If you criticise, do so with concrete, actionable recommendations. Don't just write that "approach A is bad", but suggest what else the authors could do that would be more convincing. Don't write that the authors have not taken important related work into account, but list what exactly is missing and why this matters. Always, always make sure that your review is professional and friendly - you may be tempted to give some authors some "tough love" and set them straight. Avoid this temptation at all costs. Some more recommendations: * Don't write a super-short, high-level review. As you are surely aware, as an author it is very disappointing to receive a 5-lines review for an article that you spent a lot of time on. However, it is ok if the length and detail corresponds to the quality of the paper - for a very questionable submission that is clearly below the bar, you don't need to write pages and pages of explanations if one or two paragraphs are sufficient. For instance, if you are convinced that the method the authors use is fundamentally incorrect, there is no point in detailedly commenting the entire manuscript. * Make sure that the crucial points of your review stand out. If you write a detailed review (as you should), highlight what the most important comments are, so that they are not drowned out by smaller, detailed comments. If you recommend rejecting a paper, I suggest clearly differentiating issues led to you rejecting the paper and things that you think are either easy to fix or less crucial problems. * Give the authors the benefit of doubt. Don't assume that everything that isn't described in sufficient detail is necessarily terrible, or that every mistake in the paper has been planted with malicious intend. * Relatedly, make sure that you don't read anything into the paper that isn't actually described. Our mind tends to fill in the blanks, and sometimes all it takes is a few keywords to fill your mind with an idea of what you think the authors have done. Make sure that you are evaluating what the authors actually describe, and not what your mind imagined after the abstract. * You have a duty to try to understand the work, but if you fail to understand what the authors actually did even after honestly trying to follow, it is on the authors. Ultimately, you are a prototype reader for the paper - if you fail to follow the manuscript despite presumably investing more time and goodwill than the average reader, the paper may need a better presentation. Overall, remember your own experiences as an author - which reviews did you find helpful? Write reviews that you yourself would appreciate, especially if you recommend rejecting the paper. Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: 1. I would assume they may need other things from you than just reviewing papers (moderating a session or chasing people down or whatever). Just pitch in and help. 2. For the reviews, I advise not to be as tough as you would be for an APS journal. It's not the expectation that the hurdle is the same. And also a lot of people do conference papers that are little vignettes or mishashes of previous work. Yeah, the advice says not to do this...but it is incredibly customary. [You want practical tips, I give you this.] 3. If you can improve a few papers that are hard to read/comprehend that is all for the better. I would even see this as the main work versus scientific quality control. Even here, your objective is to get the papers over the hump (conference really wants the papers for their proceedings). It's very different from PRL getting many times more papers than they accept. So be supportive and helpful and if you have to reject something, try to make it clear and easy for author to revise and get accepted after revision. (It would be a very rare paper that I would reject after second try even if still issues with it.) 4. For clear easy papers give a little feedback and accept without revision. There will be a lot of papers and you need to keep things moving. I wouldn't even feel the obligation to write a long report (as another person advised). Upvotes: 1
2019/01/08	1,078	4,557	<issue_start>username_0: TL;DR: does undergrad school's name recognition matter for an international student aiming for top social sciences PhD programs in the US? --- Hello. I've been struggling with this decision for quite a while now and thus would totally love to hear some advice. I'm from Russia and am currently deciding on where to do my undergrad studies. I'm really into the idea of doing a PhD in some social science (economic sociology, or possibly some business-oriented applications of it, like marketing) right after that, aiming for a bunch of good US programs. All the depts that are a perfect fit for my current research interests would be really hard to get into, think 3-5% acceptance rates. So, I have two options: A. A well-ranked school. It sends quite a handful of its undergrad alumni to great grad programs all over the world, including some American ones, every year. I'd have lots of research opportunities here, maybe managing to eventually publish something. The problem is, I heavily dislike this school for personal reasons, and the offered courses aren't really my cup of tea. Overall, I'd spend quite miserable 4 years here, but could handle this in case of it having any noticeable impact on the grad admissions. B. A significantly weaker school in terms of name recognition. The courses offered here align with my academic interests way better. I'd still work on my own, do my best at attempting to get something published, and maybe contact some research centers & labs offering to volunteer, but I'm afraid of the 'no name university' stuff hindering my chances. It's basically the only problem I have here and the only thing stopping me from picking it. The A school is in top-100 in the world for sociology, my undergrad major, and has lots of experience with sending students to top PhD programs. The B one isn't on any rankings at all. Both are in the same city. So, the question asked in the title arises.<issue_comment>username_1: I am sure some people will disagree with me, but this is what I can say as a person actually reading application documents and hosting international students (including PhDs). First, your school name does matter, but to a lesser degree than one might expect. A "well-ranked school" on a national level might be virtually unknown to people in another country. As a rule, top national schools plus top schools from international ranking lists ring the bell, but the rest is "largely unknown", so it is very possible that school A in your list is not that familiar for the program's committee members as you may believe. Second, we have to look at school names due to the absence of better criteria. Consider this: tons of people send their applications to MSc/PhD programs. They all have reasonably high GPAs, they possibly had work experience, etc. What's the difference? OK, the school name is one such factor that can make an application stand out. However, there is a much better way. If you aim at PhD level, you must make your personal part of the application stand out. In practice, it means that you should publish scientific papers, and the higher the rank of the respective journals/conferences, the better. Think about how to strengthen your profile as a scientist, and you will greatly increase your chances of admission anywhere in the world. Also don't think in terms of "sending students" to a program. It is your personal endeavour, and the school's power in pushing you as a candidate for another university PhD program is usually limited. (Of course, here I have to note that it is probable that a better school can be more effective in supporting your research activities, but this is another issue). Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Emma: It matters but they have many other ways of differentiating students. GPA and scores and undergrad research. I advise going to the school you like and just doing a good job there. Philosophically: Harvard is Harvard because of the students selected, not because of the training they get. And every year there are many people from state schools that get into great grad programs or McKinsey or Goldman or whatever. And many people from Harvard that don't Granted, the numbers are better for people from Harvard. But a lot of that is just the population of the students, not the training (or even the brand name). If you are top-notch, it will shine through fine. If you aren't, don't think the school will cover up for it either. Plus: don't be miserable. Upvotes: 1
2019/01/08	210	923	<issue_start>username_0: If I write a double affiliation, would it be understood as 1. I'm in both institutes 2. I was in one institute and I am working for the other.<issue_comment>username_1: There are many interpretations for dual affiliations. You must explicitly provide an interpretation, if required. You could do so in a footnote on the first page or in the acknowledgements, for example. Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: There are various options for double-affiliation. I think, the part-time is the least frequent in my view. I would say that probably the most frequent one is when a researcher moves from one institution to another. In general, in the paper you usually use affiliation of the institution where the work was actually done, regardless of where you are now. So, if since then you moved to another institution, people also might want to put their new affiliation. Upvotes: 1
2019/01/08	448	1,975	<issue_start>username_0: I'm involved in TPC (technical program committee) task for some international conference. In one paper I'm reviewing, I noticed that the similarity index is just 2% using iThenticate which seems impractical (for me). Though the type/context of the paper is an essay paper, discussing current status and challenges of some phenomenon/technology/topic, there like no graphs and discussion of numerical/simulation results. I'm suspecting whether the authors are trying to cheat somehow? Any tips how to proceed since this is my first TPC task?<issue_comment>username_1: I don't think I've ever seen an iThenticate paper with 2% similarity. Less than 10% is rare enough. However: so what? Low similarity isn't a problem, only high similarity is. The latter implies plagiarism, but the former ... I can't think of any way the authors can cheat by having low similarity. If it's a fake paper generated by SciGen then perhaps it would have abnormally low similarity, but you've already ruled that out since you understood the paper. It's also presumably possible to force a paper to have low similarity as well, simply by continuously rewriting the parts that iThenticate flags. I'd assess the paper on its content and not worry about the similarity. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: A high portion of the similarities usually come from the reference list, because most of the references in a new paper will already have appeared in the reference lists of earlier papers. For the paper you are looking at, it may be that either the reference list is extremely short, or they only cite papers that have not been cited anywhere else yet. Both would be rather suspicious for the type of essay paper you are describing. When reviewing this paper, have an extra close look at the selection of references. Do the authors really cover the state of the art? Do they give enough and appropriate references for the things they are discussing? Upvotes: 1
2019/01/08	1,804	7,625	<issue_start>username_0: This might be a strange question, but I am currently thinking about a good phrase to use if I want to emphasize that the theoretical omissions I am making are not caused by neglect, laziness, or because they don't fit my results or something. Instead, I want to quickly get across that the main reason I am not discussing them is that it would increase the section without adding anything of value. Is there some good phrase that gets this across? To give a specific example: Let's say I am describing an instrument that heats up a sample until it goes into a phase transition. The instrument works the same way no matter what phase the sample is currently in, but it's a different type of transition in each case. For solids, it would be melting. For liquids, it would be vaporization. For gases, it would be the formation of a plasma. The underlying principles are always the same, but depending on the transition different energies are necessary, the changes take different amounts of time etc., and of course the terminology is completely different. So even though it's the same, and I could talk about it in a very general way, I can't because language fails me. I simply cannot phrase it elegantly, so I have to omit stuff that is not absolutely necessary. I can't say "I'm leaving this out because modern languages are not advanced enough to discuss this phenomenon in a general way, even though it's actually a very simple phenomenon. And my professor wants this to be 150 pages or less and I'm running out of space." But this is kind of what my problem is. Any suggestions?<issue_comment>username_1: You could explain one case in detail, then cover the other cases by listing what terms to substitute for the other cases. Especially if you're dealing with applying the same equation with different terminology, you could provide a table of which variable is named what in each case. E.g. > > Because the principles only differ in terminology, only the solid to liquid transition is covered in detail. The equivalent terminology for each transition is in table 3. > > > Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Find a good source of the appropriate discussion and include a reference. "This is discussed in detail in <NAME> and Brown, 2005." Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: 1. Just ignore the gap. Honestly, if you are just using a calorimeter in the context of several other aspects (synthesis, conductivity measurements, etc.) than nobody needs you to go through every detail of instrument design. Consider someone using X-ray diffraction, even as a primary measurement doesn't need to go through the Laue equations and how to build a diffractometer. They just give specific info pertinent to the particular research (used a Rigaku machine with blabla settings). Of course if your project is ON the DSC, you need to discuss it. Maybe it is sort of halfway between the examples I listed. But still. I think this "omission" is bugging you more than it will others. Just write up your work and don't bother discussing the instrument so much. I bet nobody notices. 2. Publish a paper on the calorimeter. (Even in a teaching or instrument journal.) Than cite that. 3. Practical advice A: don't let something like this slow you down! Write the whole thesis and leave a little "hole" where the calorimeter theory goes. This is psychological. Once the entire paper is almost done, you will have a lot of momentum built up. Plus you will have been thinking about it on the back burner. At that point, you can just plop something in there. After all we have word processors now. You can work on different sections out of order. I used this strategy on my own science writing and it really pushed things forward. Felt good because I saw all this progress happening. And then the holes looked small at the end and got filled in easily. Heck. I even did it with experimental results! Wrote the paper without having all the experiments done (cause I was sick of them). And then having something all done except that one missing piece motivated me to finish off the gap. 4. Practical advice (B): Write it all "long". And then edit it down later. Sure it's a little more work. But this is actually common in the work world that you will have documents with length constraints. Write it up in detail and then go through an editing process to shrink it. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: The mathematicians have a good way of doing it: declare it trivial. In your heater example, let's say that you demonstrated some results in a liquid. Then you start your section with: > > In this section, we present results obtained from heating a liquid sample with a Widget2000. These results can be trivially extended to samples in a gas or solid phase. Since the liquid case is of particular interest for this thesis, other types of sample are not described in detail. > > > As long as your readers know very well that your statement is correct and intuitively agree that the other cases are trivial, without having to think about why they are equivalent, this is a good way to do it. If you have some doubt - e.g. because somebody has to have a certain level of background in your field to know that it is indeed trivial to demonstrate the equivalency - it is also advisable to add a citation of a source which discusses the equivalency. Alternatively, if you think that your readers will disagree with the assessment of "trivial", but also don't have sources which show proof, you can write instead: > > In this section, we present results obtained from heating a liquid sample with a Widget2000. Solid and gaseous samples show analogous behavior, but demonstrating a proof for that is outside of the scope of this thesis. > > > Or, if you want to play it safe > > In this section, we present results obtained from heating a liquid sample with a Widget2000. We also assume that solid and gaseous samples show analogous behavior, which is a standard assumption in the field of heating samples by widgets [here you cite 2-3 popular papers which do the same handwaving as you do]. > > > --- I know that this might sound strange, since there "trivial" also has a different, negative meaning in everyday language. In a scientific text, it means "it can be proven with somewhat tedious, but entirely straightforward work, without any gotchas". There is no negative valence attached to it in this sense, and it is used for exactly the purpose you want: to signify that you are streamlining your text and omitting the true but boring parts. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: One solution is to describe one of the cases in detail and say that the others are "similar" or "analogous". However, from the example you give, I'm really not seeing the problem. Why can't you just say something along the lines of the following? > > The device heats the sample to the supply the appropriate amount of energy to cause a phase transition (melting for solids, vaporization for liquids, plasma formation for gases). The time taken will depend on the amount of energy required. > > > That's about a third of the length of what you wrote. Obviously, you'll need to add more details than you included in the example in your question but I don't see why you can't cover those in a similar way. It doesn't matter that the different phase transitions have different names, because you can just talk about "the phase transition"; it doesn't matter that the phases have different smells because you can just talk about "the smell of the phase". Upvotes: 1
2019/01/08	2,201	9,187	<issue_start>username_0: Last year I finished my master’s. I spent the whole year working on experiments for my master's thesis. Part of the results I obtained were published in my master’s thesis, which was submited via an online tool to my university; so there is proof that that work is mine, I guess. Then I was offered to stay in that research group and do a PhD, but I refused. They went as far as to threaten me with publishing my data without crediting me. I still refused. Now it has come to my attention that my data has been used to write a paper that will soon be sent for publishing. Besides that threat from months ago, no one has asked for my consent or permission to use my data, and I don’t even know if my name will be among the authors. Even if it does, I won’t be first author, because they will be assigning that to the person who wrote it. (I’m not sure how much they have written themselves, as I already had written nearly everything myself for when I had to hand it in for it to be graded for my master.) My questions are: if I am actually asked for permission before they send it to a journal for publishing and they say they will include my name but not as first author, is it worth accepting or should I refuse? In the case they don’t ask me for permission, what should I do? Mail the journal once the paper is published along with my master's thesis and the raw data (all I have are excel files) to prove the data is stolen? --- I understand the confusion in some answers, as my case is very chaotic. As far as I'm concerned, my thesis is not available to the public. Only my advisor and the director of the master have access to it (maybe more people at the university, but it's definitely not available to the public). I also know from a case of a person who did his master's thesis in this same research group and then left, and he was asked for permission before the paper using his data was written. He was also credited as an author. Sadly, the fact that the boss holds a grudge against me for not wanting to stay and her having a favorite (the one who will be credited as first author) also plays a major role in this. In my field, being a first (or last) author means you are who worked the most in that paper. It's usually the boss/advisor and the person who obtained most of the data by working in the lab.<issue_comment>username_1: To decide how to proceed, there are several aspects to consider here: 1. if they use the data without crediting you, they "stole" the results. They definitely can't do that without repercussions (and they shouldn't have threatened you!); on the other hand: 2. if they use the date and credit you, but you refuse to be an author for personal reasons (i.e. not for reasons that you do not believe in the results or publication), this gives you the power to block the publication. An author has the right and probably duty to refuse being a coauthor if he does not believe in the integrity or quality of the paper and its results. Is this the case? Just blocking it (by refusing to be a coauthor) for other than such objective reasons is - as badly as you may have been treated - a disservice to the scientific community, to the values of science and, ultimately, also to yourself. These are the criteria that I would consider foremost in such a situation. Disclaimer: I cannot judge the importance of being first author in your field, so I won't comment on that. In my field, it is not that important. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: > > Part of the results I obtained were published in my master’s thesis, which was submited via an online tool to my university; so there is proof that that work is mine, I guess. > > > Let me first say a meta comment - once you publish a set of results, they are no longer 'yours'. They belong, in part, to the institution that funded you, to your advisor who helped you write your thesis, and to other coauthors/colleagues who helped you along the way. Research is a collaborative act. To your specific case, I strongly doubt that you have proprietary rights to the data. You got the results as part of a Master's thesis supported by an academic institution that has rights to the data. What's more, once you published your thesis, anything in it can be used in future publications if it is properly credited (for example, if the dataset was published as an addendum to your thesis, it's fair to use it). That's basically the essence of academic progress. Just like any other idea that appears in your thesis, the moment that you decided to publish it (as opposed to, say, patenting it and starting a company to commercialize it), others can cite it and potentially use parts of it in their work (doesn't even have to be the advisor, literally anyone can). If the data is not published, I still argue that you could possibly be in the wrong in this case as well. From a proprietary perspective, you did not work alone. Your advisor and academic institution supported you, offered you tools (free access to software to develop your tools, access to your advisor, an office, classes you took, perhaps a laptop and computing services etc.). It is unethical (and a bit selfish) on your part to ignore all of the effort put into your thesis by others, and withhold the work from being published. See a similar discussion [here](https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/91357/100323). Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_3: From what you say it's not clear whether your master thesis has been published, i.e. whether the data/results you obtained and included in the thesis are available to the general academic public. If that is the case the [answer by username_2](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/122751/41302) applies. However, I suspect that your thesis is only available to academics at your old university, perhaps only your former supervisor(s). In this case (and if you continue to take academic interest in the field), you should seek to publish the publishable data/results from your master project. The natural way is to do so in collaboration with your former supervisor. If that is not possible (as it appears in your case) you should still publish your thesis data/results yourself. A simple way is to just publish the master thesis directly on arXiv (but check first whether that is legally possibly with the university). Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: As I understand it, they are not republishing your results. They are publishing new results based on data you gathered. If that's the case, the best you can do to get credit is to make a data publication of your own. This is a relatively new idea, but it exists, and it is gaining traction in recent years due to increased political pressure for data reuse. What you do is to find either a journal or a data repository in your area which supports publishing data of the type you gathered. Your data set gets a DOI, and is citable in the same way that other academic artefacts (methods papers, monographs, etc.) are. If you don't wish to do that, you probably have no other options. Institutions generally see data generated by people working for them as their institutional property, and frequently make sure that this is reflected in e.g. work contracts. Frequently PIs think that the data belongs to them and not to their employer, but I won't go into disputes around that, since you are not the PI, you were in the lowest position of the academic food chain. Your desire to prevent your group's publication is not supported by widely accepted moral/customary rules of how this works, and certainly not by legal ones. In the end, you can get credit or nothing, but if you try stopping them from publishing, you are likely to get nothing but a reputation for a misinformed querulant. But as this is a highly interesting area where new rules are crystalizing by the day, I can only urge you to be part of the one solution which is, in the long term, in the best interest of society and academia as a whole: do the data publication. Update: If you don't know how go about making a data publication, the first thing you can do is to see if your institution has a core facility offering the internal service of research data management. If not, ask a librarian. If everything else fails, maybe a new question on SE is in order, "how do I find a journal that takes data publications from my discipline". Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: I very much doubt whether the OP has much of a claim in this matter. The OP submitted his thesis to gain a Master's degree. It has in effect been handed over to the university and to all intents and purposes has become the possession of the university. On the other hand, the OP, unless he has signed a non-disclosure agreement, would probably be able to make use of the knowledge gained in researching his thesis to publish further material based on that knowledge and thus pre-empt anyone else claiming credit for the OP's work. There's no point in getting too up-tight about such matters, though. Many of us have had work we've done published by others unaltered and without any attribution or credit. Upvotes: 0
2019/01/08	575	2,487	<issue_start>username_0: I didn't give the dimensions of the machine that I designed in my master thesis. My supervisor said that you don't need to give dimensions and said that they are useless for a thesis: you don't make a design as an engineer, you are doing research. So I didn't share the dimensions. And I have dimension-related findings/figures in my thesis. I mean, if you change dimensions, half of the graphs/results need to be revised. But now, I learned that some people say that it makes your thesis misrepresent. Is it the case for my thesis? On the other hand, I spent three long years for this thesis and I never plagiarised. I asked every question to my supervisor. But today because of this situation I'm very stressed. I didn't want to a mistake but because of my supervisor's reckless situation I don't know if it will cause my thesis to be revoked :( You can imagine that; in 80% of my study I have 2 data sets: one of them subject data the other one is my design. So, you can't change the subject data I mean they are constant numbers and also I give reference to that data. But my design's dimensions can be changed and if you change them all my figures are changed because the structure is changed. Can you make a comment on this situation please?<issue_comment>username_1: I don't think you have any issues as long as your advisor is happy. The thesis should be accepted and the degree awarded. After that it is up to you whether you want to publish based on the thesis and what you say. You can certainly revise and extend anything in the thesis. Just cite it appropriately. But for now, just make your advisor happy. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Your thesis should not be revoked for not including the dimensions of the machine. You haven't attempted to deliberately misrepresent or misstate things—you and your advisor made a decision something wasn't relevant to the thesis. But I honestly don't see why your thesis shouldn't include the dimensions of the machine. If it's relevant for establishing a comparison between the existing data and yours, then it really is essential to the thesis and should be included, at least as an appendix. Your own comments suggest that the information is necessary for the reader to process and understand your figures. If your thesis has already been submitted and approved, don't worry about it. If it's in the revision stages, talk to your advisor about why you feel it should be included. Upvotes: 3
2019/01/08	457	1,943	<issue_start>username_0: Recently I saw a professor advertising an open PhD position in his group. He asked students to submit CV and motivation letter. I sent an email but received no reply. Two weeks after that I sent a follow up email, but still no reply. How much time would be reasonable to wait? Should I give up already? I know the professor doesn't owe me a reply, but since the position was advertised I thought he would sent an acknowledgement that the application was received. Am I wrong? Is that the common thing to do?<issue_comment>username_1: I often had experiences with professors not replying to emails (in case they just need to send simple acknowledgements, like your situation). This behaviour is pretty common in my opinion. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Some people are spectacularly slow. I got a phone call inviting me to an interview for a PhD at one university four months after I'd given up, applied elsewhere, had the interview, received the offer, and accepted that offer. Wait as little or as much time as you feel like waiting, frankly. I'd certainly be looking for other PhD opportunities, regardless. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: Professors will often ignore emails that are not important to them. Many professors get a flood of emails everyday, and are willing to spend only so much time replying to them. While a response indicating they received your CV would be nice, I wouldn't expect it. One tactic that occasionally works is to contact one of the professor's Ph.D students. Every now and then someone will be nice enough to let you know what's going on if they know, or ask around for you. I wouldn't hold my breath, though. Just do you what you have to do to advance your academic career, even if it means applying and accepting a position somewhere else. You can always say sorry to choice number 2 if choice number 1 gets back to you later with a positive response. Upvotes: 1
2019/01/08	1,339	5,694	<issue_start>username_0: I finished my PhD in 2017 in a psychology field that is mostly academic (non-clinical), so it is basically impossible to find jobs outside of academia that don't require a huge move. I have a current visiting position that will expire potentially next year (though previous VAPs at the school have been extended). My research productivity has declined while teaching- and I really enjoy teaching and have gotten good reviews, but there do not seem to be many positions that hire only on that basis. Additionally, I've grown a bit tired of the prescribed way research is incentivized and framed in my field. To add to that, my girlfriend is attached to the current area with permanent work and family/friends are all connected to where we currently live. Jobs in this area pertaining to my work seem nearly impossible, but the location is ideal. However, there are a lot of applied types of jobs in the area in psychology. Should I consider going back for a PhD in for example, counseling psychology so as to increase my work potential? To me it sounds crazy but the very real possibility of having no work or having to take crummy adjunct positions for the rest of my life is enough to make me consider it. I've considered applied masters degrees as well which would be enough to get a job, but not great ones for the cost (although maybe best for my circumstance?). I also should mention that I really find the applied aspect of this work appealing, and would love to be more involved with people through it so it's not as though my heart wouldn't be in it. The job market is truly terrible as far as I can tell, and I feel that I'd have a much better chance if I got out of my current field which feels completely pigeonholed. However, spending another 5 years (assuming I get in) in school being broke again plus whatever supervised work comes after makes me tired just thinking of it. The bottom line is, I want job security. Outside of tenure lines, which feel like a far flung possibility at this point, I don't know how to feel secure with my current degree. I know the real kicker is probably my location restriction, but I just don't think it would be worth it to give up my relationships at this point in my life when things finally seem to work out. *If anyone knows of/has had any similar experience, I would greatly appreciate any advice.*<issue_comment>username_1: Instead of looking to start a second PhD, is there any way you could find a post-doc in a more applied field? This would be a much shorter route to obtaining more clinical/applied experience. I do not know how licensure works in your specific locale (i.e. do you need to have a certain specialization in a psychology PhD to be licensed?), but if all you need is experience then a post-doc may be the better option. Post-docs usually are much shorter than a full PhD and also pay much better (relatively speaking). --- > > Jobs in this area pertaining to my work seem nearly impossible, but the location is ideal. > > > One of the worst things you can do early career is place artificial restraints on your job search. Yes, your girlfriend has connections to the current location. Does she want to live there the rest of her life, even if it means you are unemployed? I have had several early career people that I've mentored tell me that they cannot find any jobs, only to discover that they are exclusively looking in their hometown in Alabama with 1500 residents (or whatever). They tell me "Oh, but that's where my family lives!" That's great, if your family is willing to support you financially. Any location where you are unemployed long term without any prospects is not "ideal." Not to be harsh, but you may need to decide whether you would rather have your current girlfriend or a job. This is entirely not my business, but perhaps a girlfriend who refuses to move so that you can find a better opportunity is not a girlfriend you want long term. This is especially true if she is planning on looking to you for any form of financial support. I understand that there is a balance there; your career certainly does not take inherent precedence over hers. But depending on what your long terms plans are together, she and you may need to have a discussion about moving or breaking up. --- As has been mentioned in the comments, it is also possible that you could find work in fields that are not directly related to clinical psychology. I work with some researchers in the engineering industry who do "human factor analysis." They help companies (mostly the defense industry) determine how to make their products safer from a human-error standpoint. Many of these researchers have PhDs in psychology. Developing the quantitative skills to do work like this would be much easier than getting a second PhD. Similar work can be found in fields like political science and legal science (i.e. as a trial scientist). These are often directly related to social psychology. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: > > The bottom line is, I want job security. > > > I think your real question is, "How do I get job security?" I think the answer is that is not a realistic goal. Job security occurs only when revenue grows faster than expenses in the long term. This is necessary but not sufficient. Currently, in academia, expenses usually grow faster than revenue. This will often lead to layoffs or institutional closure. Tenure (or unions, or laws, or anything) provides no protection against the closure of the institution when it is unable to pay workers. Outside academia, very few industries can provide job security over a period of decades. Upvotes: 0
2019/01/08	1,015	4,417	<issue_start>username_0: I recently started my PhD program and have already accumulated a vast amount of papers on my to-read-list. I never had troubles reading and remembering content of academic papers, but this pile is giving me headaches. So much so, that the comment and note functions of my reference management software (Zotero) does not seem to be sufficient to keep track of all the information. Previous attempts to structure key findings in all this literature have resulted in fragmented lists that just add on to my confusion. I also tried mind mapping applications but feel like there must be some kind of best practice on how researchers structure and extract information on a larger scale (~150 papers). EDIT: My goal is to quickly gain an extensive overview of my current field of research and its neighboring constructs, including unanswered or potential research questions, hypotheses that were previously investigated. What tools are commonly used beyond reference management software? I'm aware that this questions has no objective true answer, but find it nonetheless important. Thank you!<issue_comment>username_1: Instead of looking to start a second PhD, is there any way you could find a post-doc in a more applied field? This would be a much shorter route to obtaining more clinical/applied experience. I do not know how licensure works in your specific locale (i.e. do you need to have a certain specialization in a psychology PhD to be licensed?), but if all you need is experience then a post-doc may be the better option. Post-docs usually are much shorter than a full PhD and also pay much better (relatively speaking). --- > > Jobs in this area pertaining to my work seem nearly impossible, but the location is ideal. > > > One of the worst things you can do early career is place artificial restraints on your job search. Yes, your girlfriend has connections to the current location. Does she want to live there the rest of her life, even if it means you are unemployed? I have had several early career people that I've mentored tell me that they cannot find any jobs, only to discover that they are exclusively looking in their hometown in Alabama with 1500 residents (or whatever). They tell me "Oh, but that's where my family lives!" That's great, if your family is willing to support you financially. Any location where you are unemployed long term without any prospects is not "ideal." Not to be harsh, but you may need to decide whether you would rather have your current girlfriend or a job. This is entirely not my business, but perhaps a girlfriend who refuses to move so that you can find a better opportunity is not a girlfriend you want long term. This is especially true if she is planning on looking to you for any form of financial support. I understand that there is a balance there; your career certainly does not take inherent precedence over hers. But depending on what your long terms plans are together, she and you may need to have a discussion about moving or breaking up. --- As has been mentioned in the comments, it is also possible that you could find work in fields that are not directly related to clinical psychology. I work with some researchers in the engineering industry who do "human factor analysis." They help companies (mostly the defense industry) determine how to make their products safer from a human-error standpoint. Many of these researchers have PhDs in psychology. Developing the quantitative skills to do work like this would be much easier than getting a second PhD. Similar work can be found in fields like political science and legal science (i.e. as a trial scientist). These are often directly related to social psychology. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: > > The bottom line is, I want job security. > > > I think your real question is, "How do I get job security?" I think the answer is that is not a realistic goal. Job security occurs only when revenue grows faster than expenses in the long term. This is necessary but not sufficient. Currently, in academia, expenses usually grow faster than revenue. This will often lead to layoffs or institutional closure. Tenure (or unions, or laws, or anything) provides no protection against the closure of the institution when it is unable to pay workers. Outside academia, very few industries can provide job security over a period of decades. Upvotes: 0
2019/01/08	726	2,999	<issue_start>username_0: For example, > > An explicit formula for \_\_\_ has been derived in [1]. > > > [1]: Alice and Bob, Journal of Academia StackExchange, Vol 1 Iss 1, 2016 > > > Problem is, the paper cited could very well include lots and lots of formulas. The desired formula might just be one of many results presented, and it might not be the central one. Why don't authors write the reference as Alice and Bob, ... 2016, Equation 12? Even just giving the section name helps identify the relevant part of the reference, and it'd be a great time saver. However, I don't think I've ever seen anyone try this in formal publications. Why?<issue_comment>username_1: In the introduction section of a paper, such specificity might be considered out of place, since the goal is to provide an overview of what has been done without getting too bogged down in particular details. In the methodology or main section of a paper (depending on the field), such references might be more appropriate, and I have seen papers that specify individual equations, tables, or figures. There's no reason they couldn't do so; I don't believe that there is any stylistic justification that would preclude it. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: I decided my comment might as well be an answer... I think the premise is wrong, despite your personal experience: I have seen more specific references in papers. Typically this is done in the text directly rather than in the citation list, as in: > > An explicit formula for \_\_\_\_ has been derived as Equation 12 in [1] > > > In fields where direct quotation or references to literature or historical documents are common, I have most often seen more specific references in footnotes, though footnotes are somewhere between rare and non-existent in my own field. Overall, however, I would say that it is simply atypical that a specific result stands on its own; rather, the entire paper is required to support a given result, so the citation is to the entire paper. Even if you want to point a reader to a specific equation in a work, it is appropriate to cite the entire work as the source of that equation. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: I looked through my copy of the American Institute of Physics Style Manual (Fourth Edition, 1990, perhaps dated but I have it at hand). In the section on "Footnotes and references" I find no mention at all of specifying specific parts of a reference (i.e. equation, table, specific page) within the reference itself (footnotes, endnotes, ...). The only mention of page numbers is "Some AIP and Member Society editors may permit inclusive page numbers (first and last)...", and this restriction relates to the page numbers for the article as a whole (either journal or part of a book). Now, this in no way prevents an author from pointing out, in the text, a specific equation or table or figure. However, this is not commonplace in my experience (but does occur). Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]
2019/01/09	1,347	5,979	<issue_start>username_0: I discontinued my PhD two years ago due to the reasons that I was not getting along with my supervisor. I had completed all my course works and comprehensive exam plus the committee had approved my proposal. The committee then assigned me an advisor who I felt was not so interested in me (the professor had given me a really bad mark in one of his classes which I took as a coursework). I too was not really interested in him. He did not have a strong publication, in fact he did not have any. I honestly could not find any except one paper dated 10 years ago. I am still curious of how the system works and I wondered how he became a a full professor in the department with such a poor publication. A friend of mine informed me that it is because of the length of time a professor serves within the university that he may receive full professorship. However this is another topic. So, going back to my situation, after the committee assigned him as my advisor, I tried to work with him. However, after a couple of meetings with him, I realized that this was not going to work. One day, after a long – little heated - discussion between the two of us, feeling my frustration, he advised me to request the to Head of Department and the committee that I be appointed a new advisor. I sensed that his advice was not sincere, however, that was what I exactly did. I met the Head of Department in his office with my advisor. We had a lengthy discussion. To make a long story short, the Head of Department turned down my request, saying repeatedly that (quote): “you can only change an advisor if you have a 'cause’”. I thought to myself that don’t I have the right to at least choose or request an advisor. During the holidays, when I return to my country, at the end of the holidays, I did not go back to the university. I emailed them that I will have to discontinue my studies. I eventually resigned from the program as I saw the Department could not accommodate my needs. As I look back, of course I feel a sense of misery that I wasted two years of my life in this PhD program. Just to add, I was living in a foreign country far away form my family (wife and kid) which I could only visit once a year during the summer holidays. The program was a fully funded scholarship program with a very basic monthly subsistence stipend. So my questions are: 1. How much right does the PhD student have to choose his own advisor? I understand that there are universities in certain countries that assign the advisors to the students which was the case for my situation. Since I was on scholarship from the university, does this mean that the university has the full right to assign the advisor and that I would have to fully comply to their requests? 2. How much would this ruin my reputation and credibility to be granted another PhD scholarship from a different institution?<issue_comment>username_1: I wouldn't necessarily say that the funding is what gives your department the right to assign you a supervisor, but more so the rules within the department. In my department, we don't follow a strict mentorship philosophy. This means that graduate students often have more than one mentor that they work with throughout the course of their graduate career. There are times when a student loses their advisor (for various reasons) and they are assigned one, and there isn't much a student can do to prevent losing their advisor. However, the norms of our department is that the student may attempt to change their advisor. In other words, students in my department also have little wiggle-room to prevent getting assigned an advisor, but may attempt to change their advisor because that's the rules of the department. From what you explained, it seems like your ex-department gives little right to the student. This is, in my opinion, probably more reflective of the rules and culture of that specific department than the university providing you funding. The extent to which the situation will negatively affect your future chances of getting into another program will probably depend on how you frame the situation. Obviously, you have taken courses and have transcripts from your previous university that you will have to submit to any new program that you are applying to, and shouldn't try to hide the fact that you ever attended the university. You can probably frame the situation in a way to not place so much attention on the interpersonal clashes between you and the advisor. For instance, you mentioned that you were away from your wife and child for 2 years, seeing them only once per year. This is obviously tough for anyone, and you can discuss how you wanted to spend more time with your family and that also played a large role in your decision as well. You might still want to talk about the department issues you had, but frame the situation to your advantage by not outright focusing on demonizing the former advisor, department head, or department rules. Make that portion a byproduct of personal issues or discuss how it was the one piece that fell down that started the domino effect of other issues you already had, depending on which is true for your case (i.e., also don't make stuff up! Key is to be truthful but focus on matters that won't make you look like a bad investment in the eyes of admission reviewers). Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: @username_1 answer is sound. I would add that it may help you to consider that there are two sides. You have a right to get a good adivisor, but there are only so many people working in the department. If all students end up at the same advisor, then that is suboptimal for the students and the department. So an absolute right of the students to choose an advisor is not feasible. It is up to the department to set rules that guide how much freedom the student has, and how to reconcile that with needs of the department to balance the load across the faculty. Upvotes: 1
2019/01/09	3,482	13,604	<issue_start>username_0: I came across this [highly-upvoted comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/Showerthoughts/comments/advpnm/a_person_wearing_a_suit_in_a_room_of_people_in/edky9pq) on reddit (15,300 karma) by [/u/Semi-Hemi-Demigod](https://www.reddit.com/user/Semi-Hemi-Demigod) > > The CEO of the company I work for said that it's not uncommon for > programmers to be asked to dress down for important meetings. > Apparently investors don't think programmers who dress well are good > programmers. > > > I was wondering if this logic applies to academia, particularly in fields like math, computer science, and philosophy where stereotypically many top people dress sloppily. In other words, are there academic contexts where dressing badly will make me seem more competent at my job? Perhaps this would be an interesting social science experiment to perform, if it hasn't been done already!<issue_comment>username_1: If an academic is dressed in an unusually casual manner, I generally ignore it. If an academic is dressed in an unusually formal manner, I assume one of these: * They are an administrator, or manager, rather than an academic * They are here for a job interview and they don't know it is not necessary to dress formally * They are going to an event outside academia, like a funeral I do not think anyone is impressed by either dressing up or down, but it can send a signal. Upvotes: 7 <issue_comment>username_2: In inverse problems (applied mathematics, more or less) conferences I have seen people dress in a dark suit, hoodies, and everything between. I notice the extremes, but everything between them I ignore, at least to the extent that I could not tell how most people were dressed at a given conference. Any assumptions I make about their mathematical ability based on their dress is mild and unconscious. At mathematics departments where I have been, some senior people in leadership positions dress slightly more formally (but not all), and some individuals dress more formally, but I do not see much attention paid to this, aside (again) from extreme cases that might be noticed. One typically has some idea of who the people are, so assumptions on their ability are not done based on their clothing. I do dress slightly more fancily at job interviews and conferences, because I do believe it has a small effect on self-confidence and response from others. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: Let me add a German perspective, biased by an interdisciplinary field of computer science where "the other discipline" is more formal than CS. * In day-to-day life, students, doctorate students and post-docs are dressed as they would do in other aspects of life. Some are more dressed up, others dressed down, nothing special. But no one would appear in a suit or nice dress (like e.g. in economics / law where it is quite common in Germany) * Professors are usually dressed a bit more formal, also depending on the field. In general, the closer they are to economics / business studies, the more formal the dress. I usually attend in a jeans / shirt combination as long as we don't have guests or formal ceremonies. * In formal settings (guests from industry, formal speeches, interviews, ...) a suit / business dress is common, for most a tie as well. * In conferences, it's about the same, but the range is broader. Some dress up a bit more then usual (e.g. most presenters wear a suit / business dress). I personally would recommend this (and recommend it to my PhD students), because it shows some kind of respect to the audience. But maybe this is because I have a background in performing arts as well and stage presence is a must there ;-). If someone is dressed informally, I personally don't care. * In contrast to some answers, in Germany I would highly recommend to wear a formal dress in job interviews at least for faculty positions. For PhD candidates / postdocs it is not necessary. I never heard of someone dressing down intentionally. Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_4: This is just a complicated race of mind games. There are many fields where 'dressing up' is the norm, as it gives a first impression of respectability and competence. This is also because in many fields 'dealing with people', being sociable and looking professional and respectable is an integral part of the job. In the hard sciences, on the other hand, your results speak for you, there is limited interaction with people necessary, and it is widely recognized that "dressing up = being good" is a false association; no amount of tailored suits will hide the fact that you don't know your stuff. The two things are completely orthogonal. Also, many scientists are not 'people persons', to put it mildly. So when you overdress, this raises a warning in the mind of many scientists: 'Is this guy one of the many people in the world and in other fields who dress up as an attempt of hiding their incompetence? I should be careful in judging him'. But there is nothing inherently bad about it if you really are competent at your job, and you can let your work speak for you. Some scientists routinely suit up for conferences. Similarly, dressing down is not seen a problem, as long as basic hygiene norms are respected; at most it can raise an eyebrow. Upvotes: 7 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_5: > > are there academic contexts where dressing badly will make me seem more competent at my job? > > > In my experience with CS in the United States, no. 1. You rarely have someone making important snap judgements about you. In a situation where they need to evaluate you -- a talk, job interview, etc -- they have something meaningful to go on. 2. Most people you need to impress have seen plenty of smart and less-smart folks of all sorts, so they distrust the stereotype anyway. Smarts and reliability/maturity are treated as separate axes and you want to impress on both. The only context I can think of is if teaching a class of impressionable undergraduates, maybe this strategy could make an impression on them for a lecture or two. But I think your teaching will be much more important after that. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_6: I don't know about "dressing badly", but not wearing a jacket and tie was reasonably standard for the professors and professional staff that I encountered in getting my two master's degrees - one in Oceanography and one in a Computer Science-affiliated field that often interacted with teachers. (I'm in the US, btw.) In the Oceanography school, given that it was a 'wet' science (i.e. lab and field -based), ties and jacket would get in the way and just be prone to extra wear and tear. Even the folks who had more of a desk job (many people specialized in computer modeling) tended to decent casual to business casual - usually only going to business casual on the days of seminars. So the dress norms for the campus were everything from bathing suits / other clothes for field work up to business casual; ties and suits as everyday clothes were an indication that someone had moved on from lab or field work and was in administration. In the CS-related field, obviously, 'wet' field work wasn't a thing. Most grad students wore kinda whatever. Most professors wore business casual: khakis and a button down shirt; some routinely wore jeans (especially on Fridays). It is true that the higher up the food chain you got, jackets and ties became more of the norm again. At the time I started the program (part time grad student), I was also a high school teacher. My typical clothes were khakis, pressed shirt, and a sport coat. I was definitely the most formally dressed in the grad student office. I got confused for faculty fairly often. There were also a fair number of professional staff working on the team. E.g. the chief software engineer for the group I was with was not faculty. He normally dressed in jeans, but this was not out of place. Your question seems to be about meetings. I figured it was useful to discus normal dress norms first, though. For presentations at conferences or poster sessions at the university, grad students tended to find more formal clothes (some went for full suits, most went for khakis/shirt/sport coat/maybe a tie). For internal group meetings, there was no effort to wear anything other than what a person normally wore. If there was a meeting with a prospective new faculty member, people might dress a bit more nicely than normal, but there was no effort to break out (e.g.) ties. However, the CS-related group often had conferences for teachers. During these events, grad students and staff were expected to dress 'nicely' (e.g. khakis and a nice shirt). Grad students from my group often went into classrooms; they were expected to dress at least business casual. On the whole, I don't think anyone (besides the students, when they could get away with it) dressed "sloppily". Hygiene was good; nobody was working in sweatpants at the CS school; folks doing field work in oceanography wore what they needed to, but usually kept decent clothes nearby. Certainly nobody was told to dress down appear like they were better at their job. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_7: Just to make two more probably-obvious points: first, people may make subliminal, subconscious judgements that they will act upon without being willing to defend the basis for the action if it were brought to their (conscious) attention; second, people may/will (thinking of the first point) presume that you've made a conscious choice to dress however you dress (and comport yourself). The second point may need some amplification: people will (perhaps only subconsciously) presume that you "know what you're doing" in dressing or behaving how you do when you interview with them, etc. And, then, perhaps subconsciously, they may wonder why you'd choose to dress/behave in a fashion that you could/should have known might distract or offend or ... them. For that matter, and not without at least a slight reason, it's not surprising that a person could subliminally think "If this person is so willing or eager to disregard my preferences/opinions/whatever at this point, how can I trust them to take care of my interests subsequently?" Yes, I know, this touches on various volatile issues... but, apart from what people should or should not do in reaction to one's dress or behavior, the present question (and, often, others) are about what will/may happen. How to "win friends and influence people"? :) Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_8: While it probably varies by field, most academics seem to fall on a spectrum from "pyjamas" to "business casual", depending on how much they personally care about fashion. There's a few factors influencing it like age, student vs. postdoc vs. faculty, whether they have an event (meeting, talk, teach), whether they work at a desk or a bench, but I don't think there's really any universal rules. The one thing that seems extremely rare is formal dress like a suit, that you would wear, say, in court (I'd say job interview for a company, but then companies also vary a lot). Because the suit (or the equivalent for women) is so rare, I think if you dressed up that much, you would get some pushback. Presumably if you kept it up everyone would adjust to it after a while and just accept it as a quirk of yours. Although, often, people who dress in suits are either coming to interview for a job, or they're sales reps from a company or similar non-academic people, so perhaps you might not want to be confused with them. As for dressing down to be perceived better in a meeting, not knowing anything about the audience, I doubt it would work. As I said, there's a spectrum from utter slop to business casual, so long as you're in that spectrum, it's "good enough" and it doesn't really matter where you are inside that spectrum. The guy wearing gym shorts and flip flops isn't going to like you more or less for wearing nice pants and a button down shirt, most likely he will ignore it because he's used to working with many people who go with either option, and does not consider it a remarkable trait. Like I said, if you go outside the spectrum and wear something like a suit, people might be surprised and/or confused. Now if for instance you're about to have a meeting with a bunch of people who you happen to know are all strongly prejudiced about wearing one kind of clothing, and not the other, obviously dressing in that particular way will help make a good impression. But this isn't something that can be guessed easily from field or institution. You can also never know if people will generally like you more for being on the low or high end of the usual spectrum. It all varies tremendously from person to person (and not really with any useful groupings like field) so if you really want to go down this route your best bet is probably go to the office and see what people actually wear. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_9: There are articles theoretically showing when "dressing down" is interpreted as a favourable signal: [Too Cool for School? Signalling and Countersignalling](https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/3087478.pdf) and the articles citing it [on Google Scholar](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?cites=1234198461042497140&as_sdt=5,39&sciodt=1,39&hl=en). I do not know of an empirical test with clothing, but in the context of hotel advertising, higher ad expenditure is sometimes associated with lower quality: see this [Tourism Economics](https://doi.org/10.5367/te.2013.0324) paper. Upvotes: 2
2019/01/09	3,279	13,030	<issue_start>username_0: For my seminar work i want to use a slide which i found in a presentation available on the internet. Now i wonder whether it is considered plagiarism if i copy the slide into my presentation while citing it. If copying is okay, do I have to quote it on the slide itself or in the references at the end?<issue_comment>username_1: If an academic is dressed in an unusually casual manner, I generally ignore it. If an academic is dressed in an unusually formal manner, I assume one of these: * They are an administrator, or manager, rather than an academic * They are here for a job interview and they don't know it is not necessary to dress formally * They are going to an event outside academia, like a funeral I do not think anyone is impressed by either dressing up or down, but it can send a signal. Upvotes: 7 <issue_comment>username_2: In inverse problems (applied mathematics, more or less) conferences I have seen people dress in a dark suit, hoodies, and everything between. I notice the extremes, but everything between them I ignore, at least to the extent that I could not tell how most people were dressed at a given conference. Any assumptions I make about their mathematical ability based on their dress is mild and unconscious. At mathematics departments where I have been, some senior people in leadership positions dress slightly more formally (but not all), and some individuals dress more formally, but I do not see much attention paid to this, aside (again) from extreme cases that might be noticed. One typically has some idea of who the people are, so assumptions on their ability are not done based on their clothing. I do dress slightly more fancily at job interviews and conferences, because I do believe it has a small effect on self-confidence and response from others. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: Let me add a German perspective, biased by an interdisciplinary field of computer science where "the other discipline" is more formal than CS. * In day-to-day life, students, doctorate students and post-docs are dressed as they would do in other aspects of life. Some are more dressed up, others dressed down, nothing special. But no one would appear in a suit or nice dress (like e.g. in economics / law where it is quite common in Germany) * Professors are usually dressed a bit more formal, also depending on the field. In general, the closer they are to economics / business studies, the more formal the dress. I usually attend in a jeans / shirt combination as long as we don't have guests or formal ceremonies. * In formal settings (guests from industry, formal speeches, interviews, ...) a suit / business dress is common, for most a tie as well. * In conferences, it's about the same, but the range is broader. Some dress up a bit more then usual (e.g. most presenters wear a suit / business dress). I personally would recommend this (and recommend it to my PhD students), because it shows some kind of respect to the audience. But maybe this is because I have a background in performing arts as well and stage presence is a must there ;-). If someone is dressed informally, I personally don't care. * In contrast to some answers, in Germany I would highly recommend to wear a formal dress in job interviews at least for faculty positions. For PhD candidates / postdocs it is not necessary. I never heard of someone dressing down intentionally. Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_4: This is just a complicated race of mind games. There are many fields where 'dressing up' is the norm, as it gives a first impression of respectability and competence. This is also because in many fields 'dealing with people', being sociable and looking professional and respectable is an integral part of the job. In the hard sciences, on the other hand, your results speak for you, there is limited interaction with people necessary, and it is widely recognized that "dressing up = being good" is a false association; no amount of tailored suits will hide the fact that you don't know your stuff. The two things are completely orthogonal. Also, many scientists are not 'people persons', to put it mildly. So when you overdress, this raises a warning in the mind of many scientists: 'Is this guy one of the many people in the world and in other fields who dress up as an attempt of hiding their incompetence? I should be careful in judging him'. But there is nothing inherently bad about it if you really are competent at your job, and you can let your work speak for you. Some scientists routinely suit up for conferences. Similarly, dressing down is not seen a problem, as long as basic hygiene norms are respected; at most it can raise an eyebrow. Upvotes: 7 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_5: > > are there academic contexts where dressing badly will make me seem more competent at my job? > > > In my experience with CS in the United States, no. 1. You rarely have someone making important snap judgements about you. In a situation where they need to evaluate you -- a talk, job interview, etc -- they have something meaningful to go on. 2. Most people you need to impress have seen plenty of smart and less-smart folks of all sorts, so they distrust the stereotype anyway. Smarts and reliability/maturity are treated as separate axes and you want to impress on both. The only context I can think of is if teaching a class of impressionable undergraduates, maybe this strategy could make an impression on them for a lecture or two. But I think your teaching will be much more important after that. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_6: I don't know about "dressing badly", but not wearing a jacket and tie was reasonably standard for the professors and professional staff that I encountered in getting my two master's degrees - one in Oceanography and one in a Computer Science-affiliated field that often interacted with teachers. (I'm in the US, btw.) In the Oceanography school, given that it was a 'wet' science (i.e. lab and field -based), ties and jacket would get in the way and just be prone to extra wear and tear. Even the folks who had more of a desk job (many people specialized in computer modeling) tended to decent casual to business casual - usually only going to business casual on the days of seminars. So the dress norms for the campus were everything from bathing suits / other clothes for field work up to business casual; ties and suits as everyday clothes were an indication that someone had moved on from lab or field work and was in administration. In the CS-related field, obviously, 'wet' field work wasn't a thing. Most grad students wore kinda whatever. Most professors wore business casual: khakis and a button down shirt; some routinely wore jeans (especially on Fridays). It is true that the higher up the food chain you got, jackets and ties became more of the norm again. At the time I started the program (part time grad student), I was also a high school teacher. My typical clothes were khakis, pressed shirt, and a sport coat. I was definitely the most formally dressed in the grad student office. I got confused for faculty fairly often. There were also a fair number of professional staff working on the team. E.g. the chief software engineer for the group I was with was not faculty. He normally dressed in jeans, but this was not out of place. Your question seems to be about meetings. I figured it was useful to discus normal dress norms first, though. For presentations at conferences or poster sessions at the university, grad students tended to find more formal clothes (some went for full suits, most went for khakis/shirt/sport coat/maybe a tie). For internal group meetings, there was no effort to wear anything other than what a person normally wore. If there was a meeting with a prospective new faculty member, people might dress a bit more nicely than normal, but there was no effort to break out (e.g.) ties. However, the CS-related group often had conferences for teachers. During these events, grad students and staff were expected to dress 'nicely' (e.g. khakis and a nice shirt). Grad students from my group often went into classrooms; they were expected to dress at least business casual. On the whole, I don't think anyone (besides the students, when they could get away with it) dressed "sloppily". Hygiene was good; nobody was working in sweatpants at the CS school; folks doing field work in oceanography wore what they needed to, but usually kept decent clothes nearby. Certainly nobody was told to dress down appear like they were better at their job. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_7: Just to make two more probably-obvious points: first, people may make subliminal, subconscious judgements that they will act upon without being willing to defend the basis for the action if it were brought to their (conscious) attention; second, people may/will (thinking of the first point) presume that you've made a conscious choice to dress however you dress (and comport yourself). The second point may need some amplification: people will (perhaps only subconsciously) presume that you "know what you're doing" in dressing or behaving how you do when you interview with them, etc. And, then, perhaps subconsciously, they may wonder why you'd choose to dress/behave in a fashion that you could/should have known might distract or offend or ... them. For that matter, and not without at least a slight reason, it's not surprising that a person could subliminally think "If this person is so willing or eager to disregard my preferences/opinions/whatever at this point, how can I trust them to take care of my interests subsequently?" Yes, I know, this touches on various volatile issues... but, apart from what people should or should not do in reaction to one's dress or behavior, the present question (and, often, others) are about what will/may happen. How to "win friends and influence people"? :) Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_8: While it probably varies by field, most academics seem to fall on a spectrum from "pyjamas" to "business casual", depending on how much they personally care about fashion. There's a few factors influencing it like age, student vs. postdoc vs. faculty, whether they have an event (meeting, talk, teach), whether they work at a desk or a bench, but I don't think there's really any universal rules. The one thing that seems extremely rare is formal dress like a suit, that you would wear, say, in court (I'd say job interview for a company, but then companies also vary a lot). Because the suit (or the equivalent for women) is so rare, I think if you dressed up that much, you would get some pushback. Presumably if you kept it up everyone would adjust to it after a while and just accept it as a quirk of yours. Although, often, people who dress in suits are either coming to interview for a job, or they're sales reps from a company or similar non-academic people, so perhaps you might not want to be confused with them. As for dressing down to be perceived better in a meeting, not knowing anything about the audience, I doubt it would work. As I said, there's a spectrum from utter slop to business casual, so long as you're in that spectrum, it's "good enough" and it doesn't really matter where you are inside that spectrum. The guy wearing gym shorts and flip flops isn't going to like you more or less for wearing nice pants and a button down shirt, most likely he will ignore it because he's used to working with many people who go with either option, and does not consider it a remarkable trait. Like I said, if you go outside the spectrum and wear something like a suit, people might be surprised and/or confused. Now if for instance you're about to have a meeting with a bunch of people who you happen to know are all strongly prejudiced about wearing one kind of clothing, and not the other, obviously dressing in that particular way will help make a good impression. But this isn't something that can be guessed easily from field or institution. You can also never know if people will generally like you more for being on the low or high end of the usual spectrum. It all varies tremendously from person to person (and not really with any useful groupings like field) so if you really want to go down this route your best bet is probably go to the office and see what people actually wear. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_9: There are articles theoretically showing when "dressing down" is interpreted as a favourable signal: [Too Cool for School? Signalling and Countersignalling](https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/3087478.pdf) and the articles citing it [on Google Scholar](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?cites=1234198461042497140&as_sdt=5,39&sciodt=1,39&hl=en). I do not know of an empirical test with clothing, but in the context of hotel advertising, higher ad expenditure is sometimes associated with lower quality: see this [Tourism Economics](https://doi.org/10.5367/te.2013.0324) paper. Upvotes: 2
2019/01/09	577	2,366	<issue_start>username_0: I submitted a manuscript to an international conference. Later I'm told to download the invitation letter and attend the conference. The question is I have not recieved a formal e-mail notification, presumably titled Acceptance or Rejection Notification, of the paper. So what do you think of this? Are there any international conference that notifies authors by the provision of only a downloadable invitation letter but with no formal e-mail notification? Thanks!<issue_comment>username_1: I don't want to presume, but a quick look through the conference website makes me suspect that it may not be the top of the line for its field. Take a look at the program committee, are they reputable people that you know? If you're a student, can your advisor comment on the conference's value? Can some expert comment on the conference's quality? Did you receive any reviews? Were you asked to pay a lot of money to attend? If any of the above hold, this raises some red flags. If it's indeed a disreputable venue, I would avoid publishing there. Retract the submission and thank them. There are some places where you wouldn't want your work published. Again, I'm really not from the field, but not getting reviews, the general look and feel of the conference website (conferences that go out of their way to tell you that they're indexed by all of these libraries is not a good sign) etc. would make me think twice. As my own advisor wisely said: there are some conferences with a negative impact factor... EDIT: This conference is sponsored by WASET, which is almost certainly a predatory publisher. Do NOT publish there. See [here](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Academy_of_Science,_Engineering_and_Technology). It is also listed on Beall's list - see [here](https://beallslist.weebly.com). Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: It's normal even for some very top/good conferences to just want you to go to the conference and to not hold you hostage with the conf. paper review. Even if your paper is rejected for the proceedings (very unlikely, they need papers!), you still can do the conference. Also, some conferences do the reviews on site, using participants. So it is not unusual to not have a pre-reviewed proceedings paper. They want you to go. If you like the trip pay the money and go. Upvotes: -1
2019/01/09	658	2,709	<issue_start>username_0: Grad student just getting started here, this question popped in my head this morning when stumbling across a former colleague that has already published a lot but in journals with low h-indexes. Generally, is it better to publish more articles in journals that are cited less often/have a smaller reputation, or publish less in higher impact journals? Bonus question : does the answer changes if considering early-career scientists vs later stages?<issue_comment>username_1: Actually, high impact journals get that way from the quality of the papers in them, not the other way around. So, I'd suggest that you look at it a bit differently. Write as much as you can based on your research. Make the papers as high quality as you are able, with new and interesting results. Publish them in the "best" journals that will accept them, but "best" means the most appropriate for the subject matter as much as anything. If you get rejected somewhere, revise and send the paper out again, perhaps to a less prestigious journal. Over time you will have a "mixed" portfolio. But you will have a good portfolio if you keep at it. Keep a lot of irons in the fire. You will probably spend the bulk of your effort at one project at a time, but keep notes on other ideas that arise along the way and outline new potential publications as you have the time. If you get stuck on your main project, pick up one of the others. No, the answer doesn't change. In fact it is the way to get, successfully, to the later stage. Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Started as a comment but got too long: To be practical, I would aim your first papers at "decent" subspecialty journals. Not Science/Nature (covering all of science). Not journals covering all of a field (e.g. Journal of American Chemical Society, Physical Review, JAMA). But the next level down (e.g. Inorganic Chemistry). They are not hard to get into if you (A) do classic, good, science and (B) write it up clearly and honestly. [Of course if you discover phlogiston, do a press release and send it to Science.] In general, the mags from ACS or APS are "decent". But you will also learn equivalent from Elsevier, Wiley, etc in your specialty. However, the commercial publishers tend to saturate the waterfront, so avoid their lowest impact journals, new launchings, etc. unless you have no other option. Usually you can't save up work and then have a better package that (thus) makes it into a higher ranked journal. Note: sometimes you might be able to self review a campaign of work. But even in that case, you would be better off having published earlier in the more specialized journals. Upvotes: 0
2019/01/09	727	3,084	<issue_start>username_0: I'm two years out of my PhD in the humanities and have given a couple of job talks since, all on material from my dissertation. Not only have I spent months trying to make the talks themselves as good as possible, they're based on ideas and material I've had the entirety of my PhD to feel confident about presenting. My question is: at what point on the market do universities expect you to present new material that's not part of your dissertation research? I'm at the very early stages of developing my "second book project," but my research / argument aren't nearly as developed!<issue_comment>username_1: For as long as the material is relevant. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: I’m in a vastly different field, but if your work is progressing at approximately the same rate as your community’s then I wouldn’t worry about it. Perhaps you can talk about your ongoing work as well just to signal that you’re not stagnant. The point of the job talk is to assure the department that you’re going to do good work while there! Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: Most universities want to see that you are at the publication curve or ahead of it. For example, its perfectly ok to talk about your dissertation three years out of grad school if you are talking with your now published results. If, on the other hand, you are discussing a phd that you never turned into a publication, that can be a little trickier. If you are currently in the revision process of the publication, thats probably ok too. The main point that I am getting at is that talking about your dissertation is ok, its likely the foundation of your future research. Its even better, though, if you are discussing the published results from your dissertation in a journal or in your case, your published monograph. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: I do not know how it in humanities, but in general the idea is that in job-talk you present the solid work that you have already done and preferably published. Put it simple: you should present the most solid work that you have done because it is the track-record that you are judged. The talk can include some portion of newer work, but as soon as it is not published it is better to be only small part. In job-talks there is a common practice to devote 5-10 last minutes to future directions. Your new part can go for example there. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: If you are already in a tenure track position, you should start talking about new work now. Maybe make it a blend if you just don't have much. But certainly I would not emphasize earlier work just because you have a more polished talk. If you are still looking for a good position (out of work, or doing post docs or lecture positions) than it is fine and maybe even preferable to concentrate on the thesis. But even here I would emphasize some of your recent work. Remember these talks are not just talks on the content and for enjoyment but advertisements of you. Yes, make them pleasant and revealing, sure. But make yourself look good. Upvotes: 2
2019/01/09	1,886	7,733	<issue_start>username_0: I had submitted a paper manuscript to JAMS (J. of Amer. Math Soc) and recieved the following email 2 months after the submission. Can you help me interpret this email, as to what the situation is and what would be the best way moving forward. Are there any positives/negatives that can be taken. I have not received any referee reports or any technical points on my work, which is what disappointing me. I would like to understand the circumstances/rationale behind this decision. I am new to journal publishing. I want to know how i can take this decision moving forward, while choosing another journal for submitting. And also self evaluating my work from this. Is there anything to loose heart? email : (names and references removed for privacy reasons) ---------------------------------------------------------- > > Dear Professor XXXX, > > > This message concerns the manuscript > > > XXXXX by XXXX > > > submitted to the Journal of the AMS. > > > We regret to inform you that we cannot accept this paper for > publication in JAMS. The reviewers who evaluated this submission did > not think that it meets the acceptance standards at JAMS. > > > JAMS is the premier journal of the AMS, with extremely selective > acceptance criteria. A paper must be truly exceptional to obtain the > unanimous approval from the editors, which is required for > publication. We publish fewer than 30 papers per year in all of > mathematics. As a result, less than 10% of submissions are accepted > for publication, and many excellent papers are rejected. > > > One reviewer suggested that the discussion in your paper should > include a comparison with the following reference: > > > XXX, XXXX, XXX. XXXX: XXX.XXXXX XXXXX XXXX, Journal of XXXXX. > 5555;5(XXX):5555-4444. > > > Sincerely, > > > XXXXXX, Editorial Assistant Journal of the American Mathematical > Society > > > --- Sent via EditFlow by JAMS Editor > > > --- > > Dear Professor XXXXX, > > > The reviews we received were intended for the editors' eyes only, so > we are unable to send them to you. > > > Apologies, XXXX > > ><issue_comment>username_1: The second paragraph of the mail is just boilerplate that everyone gets. The final recommendation is all you really need to be concerned with, but I'll guess that it is a big concern for the reviewers. Is it the case, perhaps, that you missed an important earlier paper (the one cited) in developing your own? If so, you need to go back to your work and see how much you add to the earlier work. It may be that you only need a simple update before resubmission, but it is possible that you are left with too little that is new for you to proceed successfully without a lot of work. But, no, nothing seems to be hidden or implied that isn't stated directly. As for your comment about submitting (as is) to a different journal, they will likely have exactly the same reaction. Possibly even some of the same reviewers. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Most likely is that your theorem is just not ground breaking enough. It is possible there are other issues with the paper (writing quality of the text or logic of the math). But we really can't tell because the paper was not deeply reviewed. Go to a lower tier journal (more specialized) and submit it there. This will either get published or at least give you better feedback on your manuscript. Note even on the off chance that your discovery should be at that top level journal, it is still their choice and people make mistakes. Nothing is perfect. Move on. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: There isn't anything between the lines. It's simply a rejection. The editor and reviewers feel that your paper is clearly not strong enough for this journal, and they're telling you so. Note that JAMS is an extremely selective journal, generally considered one of the top four out of all the many hundreds of journals in mathematics. It is very very hard to get a paper published there. Most of the papers they publish will be major breakthroughs in an area, or solve a famous open problem. The "10%" is actually misleadingly high, because the vast majority of papers are never submitted there in the first place because the authors know they have no chance. Such journals often do a quick first round of reviews, where the reviewers are only asked if they think the results are potentially important enough to warrant publication in JAMS. Only if they say yes does the paper go on to a full technical review. In this case, it sounds like they said no. You didn't receive a detailed report because they didn't need to do a detailed review of the paper to make a decision. Remember that their job is ultimately to make the decision; it's not their job to give you feedback or help you improve your paper. Sometimes that happens along the way, but when the decision is clear, they won't spend time on a paper that, in their view, can't be made publishable in this journal. The reviewers can, as in this case, make comments about things they happened to notice as they were doing their quick review. That's why you got the note about the reference. You'll have to read the reference to determine exactly what was meant here; it may be that the reviewer thinks that paper may already contain your results, or at least that they are similar enough that you need to carefully explain the difference. But it sounds like the reason for rejection was the overall significance of your paper, and this was just something they noted in passing. How to move forward: submit to a different journal. If you want feedback on your paper first, you'll have to get it from someone else, e.g. a mentor, PhD advisor, collaborator or fellow researcher. Such a person could also help you get some ideas of journals for which your paper might be better suited - where it would have a better chance of acceptance or at least a full review. Upvotes: 7 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_4: Top journals, and JAMS is at the very top (most mathematicians probably will not have ever seriously considered submitting there), typically have 2 first passes before a proper peer-review (referee): (1) editorial consideration and (2) "quick" opinions from experts. Which is to say, there are 2 common ways for a paper to be rejected before it is sent for a full peer-review: (i) the editor decides from the title/abstract/info that it is not appropriate, or (ii) the editor solicits experts for an opinion of whether it is worth the effort of a full peer-review. Based on your letter, and since you didn't receive a referee report, I would say the most likely scenario is (ii), and this is not surprising because unless you have done something really spectacular (I don't know that you haven't, but playing the odds...), you shouldn't bother submitting to JAMS, Annals, etc. (It can also happen that a referee who is asked to do a normal review, just sends back a few lines in the case of recommended rejection, in which case a full report would not be passed on to you either.) So my suggestion listen to the expert's advice and compare what you've done with what's in that paper. Then, if possible, ask some more senior people for advice for where is an appropriate place to submit your work. Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_5: Here's a positive from this experience that nobody's mentioned: You got your answer in 2 months. This is actually quite fast for an answer on a mathematics paper. This is much better than waiting 12 months or more, then getting that same response. You should address the cited reference (which may be duplicating some of your ideas), and resubmit to another journal. Upvotes: 3
2019/01/09	419	1,911	<issue_start>username_0: Currently studying a Bsc in Accounting & Finance. During my studies if found an increased interest on subject such as Stochastic calculus, measure theory and mathematical analysis. I want to pursue a Msc in Applied Mathematics but wondering whether the transition is possible. I would be pleased if someone could provide me certain similar cases/experiences or some advice with reference to study material.<issue_comment>username_1: As with any application, you need to make your case. But if you have studied those three math subjects and have a good understanding of them, I think you have a basis. It might be especially possible if your future studies apply math to the financial realm, of course. It would be harder to get into a program with admissions systems that mostly check boxes of requirements rather than looking at individuals. If the admissions process gives you access to professors and potential advisors it would be easier, provided that you can convince someone that you can manage the early courses that might be required. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: I would caution you that math programs can be very different from finance. Way higher math content, and less applied (more proofs, less use, even in applied math). You likely need both more math prerequisites and (crucially) MUCH more math ABILITY in math program than in finance. Just think very carefully if you have the math chops to succeed. In any case, look very carefully at what you are getting into. It is not just the difficulty but the abstraction. username_1 is right to tell you to look carefully at programs and find the one that fits you. If you go to an applied math program, you probably want one with a finance twist or at least more applied-ish and less math-ish. Similarly, I would consider subset of finance programs that are more mathematical (real options, etc.) Upvotes: 0
2019/01/09	411	1,799	<issue_start>username_0: I have a thesis template that does not put the List of Figures, List of Tables etc. in the contents page. What is the normal practice and what is the normal order for the front matter? Currently it is: * table of contents * list of figures * list of tables * list of listings * list of symbols<issue_comment>username_1: As with any application, you need to make your case. But if you have studied those three math subjects and have a good understanding of them, I think you have a basis. It might be especially possible if your future studies apply math to the financial realm, of course. It would be harder to get into a program with admissions systems that mostly check boxes of requirements rather than looking at individuals. If the admissions process gives you access to professors and potential advisors it would be easier, provided that you can convince someone that you can manage the early courses that might be required. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: I would caution you that math programs can be very different from finance. Way higher math content, and less applied (more proofs, less use, even in applied math). You likely need both more math prerequisites and (crucially) MUCH more math ABILITY in math program than in finance. Just think very carefully if you have the math chops to succeed. In any case, look very carefully at what you are getting into. It is not just the difficulty but the abstraction. username_1 is right to tell you to look carefully at programs and find the one that fits you. If you go to an applied math program, you probably want one with a finance twist or at least more applied-ish and less math-ish. Similarly, I would consider subset of finance programs that are more mathematical (real options, etc.) Upvotes: 0
2019/01/09	3,059	13,305	<issue_start>username_0: I have been reviewing the articles for various top-rank journals and conferences for the last few years. After all these experiences, I can tell you there is no way to confirm the correctness of simulation results. Therefore, I usually make comments on design, procedure, mathematical and analytical analysis. In the results section, I can ask some questions about why this or that is so, but how can I judge if the simulation was really performed or these are just fabricated graphs? This question came in my mind because I observed on few occasions, during review process, a reviewer ask for including new results, which in my opinion required a lot of coding and effort to implement, but author responded within 7-10 days with new results and improved article.<issue_comment>username_1: > > there is no way to confirm the correctness of simulation results. > > > Simulations should be repeatable, hence, correctness can be checked by re-running the simulation. Of course, the authors might not provide the necessary code, but then you can request the code as a part of the review process. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Do you have reason to doubt their veracity or good faith? Are their claims somehow not believable or highly questionable based on your knowledge of the field? If it isn't standard in your field to release code I don't think a reviewer should necessarily demand it, regardless of your feelings about making code public. The authors should describe their methodology sufficiently for someone else to replicate it; in that way, they are putting their reputations at risk that were someone to duplicate their approach they would find the same results. Fabricating results is a very serious accusation. There are some statistical approaches to test whether data are likely to be fabricated, but the efficacy of this approach depends on the sophistication of the fabrication, and that question is better suited to CrossValidated. If their work is meaningful in the field, at some point someone will implement their approach again. There is necessarily a bit of trust in science that people do what they say they've done. A reviewer should check that a paper's conclusions follow logically from their results, and that their methodology is described and sound, but they need not verify or replicate the results. As <NAME> points out in a comment on another answer, even simply running code tells you very little about those key factors, it only tells you if there is a blatant lie or mistake. Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: You can't really judge if the simulation was really performed. That's why we've had things such as the [Schön scandal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sch%C3%B6n_scandal) - the reviewers of those manuscripts didn't detect the fraud either. What you can do is implement the "smell test". Is this approach feasible? Are the results reasonable? Were there any glaring omissions? If you can't see any obvious problems with the simulation, that's good enough: the real peer review happens after publication. Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_4: > > After all these experiences, I can tell you there is no way to confirm the correctness of simulation results. > > > That is not necessarily true. In some cases, it is very easy to discern that a graph cannot possibly be correct or at the least has been badly misconstrued or misinterpreted. I had such a mistake caught in one of my early papers and have caught them in several papers I have reviewed. It is not easy to prove that the simulations have actually been performed. However, the [Open Science](https://osf.io) framework is designed to make it easier to verify results of both computational and experimental work. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_5: In order for simulation work to be precisely reproducible, it would be necessary to have (a) the code for the simulation and (b) the seed for the pseudoramdon generator used to run the code. Unless the code is proprietary, there is no good reason for authors to withhold this information from reviewers, even if the code will not be published as part of the paper. However, publishable simulation studies may be so extensive that it is not feasible even for an energetic skeptical reviewer to repeat the simulations. To a degree many simulation studies can be self-verifying. When this is possible reviewers should insist on feasible inherent verification. In non-technical language here are a couple of examples of what I mean. (1) Often a simulation will produce several results of which some are novel and some are easily obtained or generally known without resorting to simulation. Then at the very least a reviewer can can confirm that the latter results are valid. Somewhat similarly, simulations may refine results that can only be approximated by probabilistic or other mathematical computations. Then the reviewer can confirm that the results are at least approximately correct. (2) Very frequently, an important part of a simulation study may be to obtain approximate bounds within which the simulated results are likely (perhaps 95% likely) to lie. If it seems feasible to have obtained such bounds and the paper under review lacks them, then the reviewer should ask for them or for an explanation of their absence. *Addendum:* This is a trivial example illustrating some concepts in (1) and (2). Suppose five dice are loaded so that faces 1 through 6 have respective probabilities (1/12, 1/6, 1/6, 1/6, 1/6, 1/4) of occurring. If all five are rolled, what is the probability that the total is at least 25? A simulation in R statistical software of a million such 5-die experiments shows that the fraction of outcomes with totals 25 or more was 0.092903. Is this result believable? The answer is Yes, to about three places. The simulated 95% margin of simulation error is "within 0.0006." It is easy to see that the average total is 19.583 and the corresponding simulated result is 19.580. A reasonable 2-place normal approximation is 0.0922. This particular example is rich in corroborative possibilities, but those are a few. Note: Another issue is that, using various kinds of mathematical software, this problem could be solved exactly by advanced combinatorial methods. One exact method is based on [this page](https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/2359311/what-is-the-probability-of-sum-of-five-dice-is-being-14), except that our dice are biased and outcomes are not equally likely. It is questionable whether simulations should be published if there is a tractable exact solution. One job of a reviewer is to identify papers that should not be published for this reason. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_6: Usually known examples are reproduced to gain confidence that the simulation is doing what it claims. Then further simulations show the new results, which might not be reproduced by an other group because the did not use the described method or approach described in the paper/talk. Due to brevity, often the first part is omitted in journal articles and conference talks. PhD theses contain them more often. One of my first publications, it does not contain any breakthrough, is only cited from others to show that they match my results. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_7: If I were reviewing a paper which relied to a heavy degree on some computational analysis, but didn't supply the code, I would reject that paper unless the authors could give a good reason: even if they'd used proprietary libraries, I'd want to see the calls they made to those libraries. This is required by many journals in my field (genomics/bioinformatics). That said, if the simulations ran for 2 months on 10,000 cores (or even a week on 200 cores), there is not much chance of me reproducing even with the code. And I almost certainly have neither the time, moneny nor expertise to repeat lab experiments in any paper I read. I don't think that providing code, although a good practice, is a protection against dis-honesty. In the end there is very little protection against outright fraud, and the review process is not primarily there for that purpose. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_8: I end up reviewing data science type papers where the underlying code is critical. I've started being that guy during reviews, and this is what I ask for: 1. Code must be available to me as a reviewer. Full stop. 2. The code needs to have tests that I as a reviewer can run. I can't go through the code to check and make sure it works exactly as advertised, but I can see if the tests are appropriate and that they pass when I run it. 3. The code should have reasonably good test coverage around the scientific parts, and regression tests should be reasonably justified (i.e. We expect to see this result because of reason X). 4. If you've re-invented a wheel you have to explain why (even if that explanation is that you didn't know someone else already made it) These all seem pretty reasonable to me and address a lot of the concerns about code quality. Most people with well designed code will hit them all just by virtue of having continuous integration tests on a GitHub repository, and I think it's no longer necessary to coddle people with poorly designed code (which is too many people). Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_9: It is an unfortunate artifact of history and culture but academia is still in the dark ages with regards to sharing source code. Serious computational researchers will often provide at least a detailed algorithm, and often the code as well. But dabblers who had to learn how to code "on the job", or people very set in their ways and traditions, will often neglect to do so and publications standard rarely require it, even though you would think that anyone in their right mind would agree that all scientific code should be open source (or at least shared with reviewers) if it is to be worth discussion. Unfortunately, the established culture does not expect sharing of code, even though the in the analogous case of physical experiments there is an expectation of sharing the exact process down to every detail of method and material such that it may be exactly reproduced by other researchers. I would suspect that the reason for this is that in the grand scheme of things computers are a relatively recent tool of science, and the ability to easily share code is still more recent. That said, we've had ubiquitous internet and zero effort code hosting like Github for over a decade now, so if you ask me, it's about damn time. But it looks like there is still quite a bit of inertia. > > I have been reviewing the articles for various top-rank journals and conferences for the last few years. After all these experiences, I can tell you there is no way to confirm the correctness of simulation results. Therefore, I usually make comments on design, procedure, mathematical and analytical analysis. > > > That's about the best you can do. You can also try to intuitively conjecture based on the rough description (if any) of the computational approach, whether the results achieved are credible or not. But ultimately it is impossible to know for sure. I try to add a little nag at the end of my reviews about releasing the source code, although I don't think it gets taken seriously very often. > > In the results section, I can ask some questions about why this or that is so, but how can I judge if the simulation was really performed or these are just fabricated graphs? > > > Well, the way you phrase it, you can't really know if any graph or result is fabricated, unless maybe you were personally present while the research was done. There is inevitably an element of trust. But without source code, even if you do trust, you cannot offer meaningful critique about some computational parts of the paper. Obviously you can still comment on initial assumptions and the approach chosen. You can comment on how the results are interpreted. But the implementation itself is out of reach until you can see the code. Actually, even providing a detailed algorithm would not be sufficient: The authors' implementation may not necessarily be an exact match for the algorithm they intended. > > This question came in my mind because I observed on few occasions, during review process, a reviewer ask for including new results, which in my opinion required a lot of coding and effort to implement, but author responded within 7-10 days with new results and improved article. > > > I don't think it's fair to be suspicious just because they did it a little too quickly. They may just be very good at coding. Personally, my development rate is very variable: Sometimes things just click and I can write code really fast, sometimes simple things take forever. They may know of easier ways to implement the change than you are aware. They may have already coded something similar in separate work and been able to repurpose it quickly. If someone were to falsify results, I think they would either respond right away because they don't care, or wait "long enough" to avoid suspicion. If they bothered to wait at all, I don't think they would jeopardize the whole enterprise by waiting too little. Upvotes: 2
2019/01/09	375	1,687	<issue_start>username_0: My friend published a paper. After few months he found some error present. He asked the journal editor for a correction, made the changes and replaced the old version with the new one. The old journal paper is still present in websites other than the journal. Will these websites replace the old with the corrected new paper? If not, will it be a problem?<issue_comment>username_1: It depends on the third party website. If they are constantly monitoring the main journal, it might happen, but I would assume that this is not true for every website. On the other hand, in most cases the journal should only be available via the journal web site thanks to the copyright regulations of that journal. And people citing the work should always look for the original source. Therefore I would say it is not a problem of your friend, maybe it can be a problem for people working with unreliable sources. But I would not care. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: This is why journals don't like to make corrections to published papers. The journal can fix the version on their website, but once electronic versions of the paper have been sent out, they can't be recalled, and it's beyond the journal's control to replace all of them. As username_1 said, it's up to the third party websites to replace the old paper with the new one, and this depends too much on the website to predict. As for whether it'll be a problem, I'd guess no: if the error is major enough that it'll be a problem, the journal should absolutely not change the paper but should issue a corrigendum. Since that didn't happen my guess is that the error is too minor to worry about. Upvotes: 0
2019/01/09	557	2,283	<issue_start>username_0: I am a PhD student. I need to finish my study in 6 months. My story and problem: I always send my work to my supervisors on time. For each work (objective), they take about one to two months to respond to me. Therefore, I need to send them a reminder after one month. After my reminder, they ask me to resend it again as they forget it and do not want to search for it. Then, they take about 2 weeks to respond. After that, they asked me to do some more work, which I do and resend my work to them again. They agree that this version is good and ask me to do my next objective based on my study plan. After finishing all my tasks and sending them my thesis, they asked me to go back through all my objectives and do further work. These objectives have been already proven many times in many different areas and are not related directly to my topic. I explained to them that I will be in trouble if I do not finish my study at the time that is specified by my sponsor. The university has put me under review as I did not finish on time already. Also, I have had to request two extensions from my sponsors. In addition to their delay in responding, they sometimes travel overseas for about 6 months without regular contact. This happens every year. What do I have to do now? Any help, please?<issue_comment>username_1: There isn't a lot you can do on your own. The supervisors have their habits. The best advice I can give is to try to find someone to speak to them on your behalf to get them to help you meet the deadlines. You want an advocate that will be respected by the supervisors. Deans are good for this sort of thing, actually. But if you can meet face to face with people, either the supervisors or an advocate to help impress on them the urgency it would be better than trying to do things by email, which is asynchronous by design. Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: I had a very similar situation as yours for a couple of years when I studied statistics as a master's degree. My supervisors used to send me emails back after 1 or 2 months and one of them liked to be away out of the country. I was so much struggling with the supervisors' issue, so I decided to change my supervisor at another faculty. Upvotes: 1
2019/01/09	1,347	5,542	<issue_start>username_0: Freddie was offered a post-doctoral position they did not apply for, by Sasha. Sasha and Freddie know each other because they used to share an office. The topic is quite different from what Freddie has known in the past. Freddie is surprised and hesitates to accept. Had the position been externally advertised, Freddie would not have applied for lack of self-assessed qualifications, but Sasha convinces Freddie to learn on the job. Notwithstanding the impostor syndrome, Freddie accepts, being between jobs and enjoying the opportunity to broaden skills if successful. The risks for Sasha are quite clear: perhaps too optimistic about Freddies skills, and if unsuccessful, that will be bad for the project. But what are the risks for Freddie in this scenario? In the scenario in which Freddie is unsuccessful, how damaging would that be to academic career chances? Is the value of an unsuccessful postdoc positive, neutral, negative? --- In a previous version of this question, Freddie was called Sue, and Sasha was called Sam.<issue_comment>username_1: Choosing the right postdoc is super important. Not many people will be forgiving to Freddie if she explains that her failure to publish was due to her taking a position she wasn’t qualified for. It may be that some people would be agreeable to take her for a second postdoc, but that involves its own hassles and risks for an already unhappy Freddie. This is all if the postdoc goes badly. If it goes well, then it could be seen as better than a postdoc in Freddie’s field! Switching fields makes you a bridge between them and expands your skill set. To conclude, high risks, but also high rewards! Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: It's possible Sam invited Sue to apply because Sam did not expect anyone as qualified as Sue to seek the position. Maybe Sue is overqualified in reality, and should seek a better position. Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: > > But what are the risks for Freddie in this scenario? In the scenario in which Freddie is unsuccessful, how damaging would that be to academic career chances? Is the value of an unsuccessful postdoc positive, neutral, negative? > > > It's probably obvious but I think it's worth mentioning: the risk is to damage their career chances by not producing anything (or very little) during the postdoc. Depending how long and how unsuccessful the postdoc is, this loss of opportunity might undermine their future applications when compared to other candidates who would have maximized their scientific production. (I'm saying this based on my own experience: a few years ago I had applied unsuccessfully for positions after a couple unproductive years; when asking for feedback I was told that my low publications/year ratio was an important factor) > > Notwithstanding the impostor syndrome, Freddie accepts, being between jobs and enjoying the opportunity to broaden skills if successful. > > > Despite the risk, this sounds a reasonable choice to me. The fact that the PI is aware of the risk but encouraging anyway is a big advantage in this scenario, since the candidate can expect the PI to be helpful and patient. Together they could establish a plan with specific targets for the postdoc, and agree to pull the plug at a certain point in time if things really don't work out. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_4: The main question here is what kind of postdoc Sasha needs to appoint. Does Sasha have a specific project / task that they expect Freddie to handle? To that extend is this negotiatable? * If Sasha has a very specific task in mind that is largely un-negotiatable (e.g., because of hard commitments to a funding agency, or because there is a specific study that Sasha really wants to do), and Freddie foresees that they won't be able to actually do this, then they are only setting themselves up for failure when accepting the postdoc. The consequence will likely be a personal fallout with Sasha and a big setback to their own career. Nobody wins here, and Freddie should decline. * If Sasha is more flexible, and Freddie can do something that would be of significant value to Sasha's research programme, it is likely that things will be ok. The consequence in this case will likely be that the project gets adapted or shifted to another person, and things will work out alright. (or at least it has the same chance of working out alright than any other postdoc) Given that Sasha knows Freddie personally, and has explicitly invited them to apply, I presume that the second case is more likely than the first - but a frank discussion between Sasha and Freddie is necessary. It is possible that Sasha is not aware that Freddie lacks these skills, or that they overestimate Freddie's ability to learn the required skills on the spot, but it is equally possible (really: more likely) that Sasha is fully aware that the project will go in a different direction with hiring Freddie, and they are ok with that. Many academics I know (including myself) care more about the potential of a candidate to do good science in their overall field than whether they are the best fit for a specific project. In other words: I would typically rather hire a great person who is a bad fit for the specific project than a medium person who is a great fit. Ultimately, I care more about good papers being written in my team than what I care about the topic of any particular project. Freddie needs to find out if this is the case for Sasha as well. Upvotes: 2
2019/01/10	2,195	9,067	<issue_start>username_0: I'm a graduate student in math and I usually have lots of questions about papers I read. Sometimes my questions are about technical things but a lot of questions I have are about "well-known" facts that I didn't learn from courses or from my background reading. I do think about my question to make sure I can't quickly figure out the answer. What is a litmus test or rule of thumb for asking experts naive questions? Over the years the responses I have gotten were: "It's obvious," "Exercise" (when I never figure out the answer due to lack of knowledge), an ethusiastic response, or uncertainty from experts as to the answer. I don't want experts to think, "How do you not know this?" I want to develop a reputation as a knowledgeable grad student who has potential as a researcher. A postdoc friend confided in me that he doesn't post questions because he's worried he'll look stupid. And I also don't want to annoy people with lots of trivial questions. But I also know that I have to learn from them, and that it's usually way faster to ask someone in person about their paper than to hit a roadblock in their paper and keep thinking about it. My algorithm so far goes as follows: 1. Ask my adviser or some grad students. 2. Do as thorough an Internet search as possible. Look for the answer in papers that may provide a clue. 3. Ask my questions on MathStackExchange. If I don't get an answer there ask on MathOverflow. 4. If MathOverflow answers are unclear or I don't get responses, either discuss the answers with my adviser or email an expert out of the blue. What would be a more efficient algorithm for asking possibly naive questions, if there is one? The main drawback I have encountered is that an expert can sometimes answer my question right away, whereas independent search would take too much time.<issue_comment>username_1: Perhaps you are overthinking the effect that asking questions has. Perhaps you are misjudging which questions are "naive". They don't sound naive to you, I think, but you worry that they are naive to others. I went to school long ago - mathematics. Before the internet. Before personal (or many) computers. But my solution to having a question was to ask it. I asked a lot of questions. I didn't bother people in their offices for simple(ish) things, but in class I pretty much always had my hand up. My mother was often exasperated with me for asking so many questions as a child, but I never got that sense that my professors were. But the effect was that almost everyone thought I was very smart. Smarter, probably, than I really am. It turns out that I was just bold enough to ask the questions that other students were afraid to ask. Some of the questions I asked, of course, were the result of errors made by the prof in lecture and he/she would then correct them, but most were just gaps. But the best answer isn't always a direct answer, but a hint as to how/where the answer can be found. The simple answer doesn't usually give the context you need. The "answer to life, the universe, and everything is 42" may be correct or not, but it isn't enlightening. It is the connections between things that are important, everywhere, but especially in mathematics. Some may think that you are asking things you "should" already know, but everyone will see you as engaged, rather than complacent. It turns out that, just as in a course, in grad school you probably aren't there to prove to people that you don't need to be there. Ask and ye shall receive. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: To build on what username_1 said: my experiences have been that people don't mind questions, even 'naive' ones. What they mind are questions being asked that show you've done no effort on your part to find an answer. Based on the fact that you have an algorithm to find answers, I cannot imagine that you fall into that second category! If anything, it sounds like you are worried you've gone too far out the other side: that is, are you spending too much time doing your own research when you can get the needed information faster. That's a bit more of a personal decision, so I can't tell you about you, only about me. I don't think people (as whole) or academics (in particular) have any idea how complicated ideas get. For most any grad-school-level topic, there's a ton of background information that goes into it that most experts forget that they had to acquire. (what I consider "the expert's blindspot" but wikipedia has listed as "[the curse of knowledge](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curse_of_knowledge)".) I have found that experts who are reminded of the level of complexity of background information respond to questions (that some might think are naive) quite well. It's when experts still have that blindspot that they think a question is 'stupid / foolish / naive' (etc.) By showing that you have done some research on your own, you help remind the experts that learning is hard and involves a lot of steps and that you are trying. I can be prone to the idea of "oh, I don't want to bother so-and-so", but I have learned to overcome that (to some degree). As long as I have shown some level of research on my part, I have found that answers are not hard to come by, as long as I am willing to ask them. (Lastly, most experts love to talk about their topic. Getting an expert to talk about their area of expertise is usually pretty dang easy!) Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: > > I don't want experts to think, "How do you not know this?" I want to develop a reputation as a knowledgeable grad student who has potential as a researcher. > > > Reputations tend to develop based on facts. If you want to develop a reputation as knowledgeable, then get knowledgeable, by asking questions when you don't know something. In other words, you are doing the right thing by asking questions. Don't worry if it is a "naive" question, of if you are afraid you will look silly. If you don't know the answer, and you can't figure it out yourself, then ask for help. You are a student after all! Gradually you will develop more knowledge, and your reputation will eventually reflect that knowledgeable state. Professors are much more impressed by a grad-student who is hungry for knowledge and unafraid of embarrassment than one who covers up their lack of knowledge by being afraid to ask questions. > > Over the years the responses I have gotten were: "It's obvious," "Exercise" (when I never figure out the answer due to lack of knowledge), an enthusiastic response, or uncertainty from experts as to the answer. > > > "It's obvious" is a shitty answer, and whoever told you that is a shitty teacher. If it's not obvious to you at graduate level then it is probably not obvious, and your professors should attempt to elucidate it for you. If you are having trouble with exercises assigned to you then this may reflect a lack of preliminary knowledge in techniques needed to solve those problems, so try to solve it as an exercise and come back for more help when you've hit a wall. If the experts are uncertain then that means you are approaching the level of problem where things are getting pretty difficult. Keep asking questions and bringing tenacity to your problems and eventually they will crack. > > A postdoc friend confided in me that he doesn't post questions because he's worried he'll look stupid. > > > That approach is what looks stupid to me. I learn really fast because I ask a lot of dumb questions that make me look stupid. You'd be surprised how much you learn when you do that. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_4: Your algorithm lacks non-Internet literature search. Even in this age, the best-organized mathematical expositions are still in books and in pre-Internet papers. By excluding pre-Internet resources, you are missing on opportunity to learn the "common" background. You should browse your library shelves (preferably physical, but virtual also work). You should search papers not simply on Internet, but on MathSciNet/Zentralblatt first. [And don't stop asking questions.](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/51658/609) Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_5: I advise to stick with your process. Yes it is less efficient for you but the world of mathematics professors does not owe you a duty of personal tutoring. ALSO, you may find some tangential gains along the way. It's not so much that you are scared to bother the great men but that you need to build your own muscles also. That said, I would be a little more direct and quick to ask questions of professionals at your institution (versus letters out of the blue to people offsite). Over time you will build up a directory of people inclined to help you, knowledge of the library, benefits of Dover paperbacks, etc. Also anyone who is teaching you, you should mercilessly exploit. Even if they get prickly or try to brush you off..let that roll off your back like duck water and just keep grinding. Go to every office hour and wear them down. Upvotes: 1
2019/01/10	836	3,481	<issue_start>username_0: As I already shared in this [question](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/121995/what-is-the-probability-of-rejection-for-a-long-time-review-in-the-revised-versi), I have submitted a paper in January of the last year to a high-rank journal and the decision was "reject and resubmit". I worked very, very hard and prepared a significantly improved revised version of the manuscript with a near 50 pages response letter to the reviewers. Unfortunately, the policy at my university is that the advisor must be the corresponding author. Two other students of my advisor--which I don't know personally--submitted a paper to the same journal a short time after the decision of my manuscript. After less than a week, the journal sent a letter to my advisor, which is also the corresponding author of their manuscript, that their paper didn't pass the plagiarism check. By my investigation, I found out that they copy-pasted some parts of their introductory paragraphs from other papers. My advisor sent a letter to EIC telling him that this problem was due to not having a plagiarism checker software. He is the second author in my paper and third author in the other paper and corresponding author for both. I have now waited a long time for the decision of my manuscript. One of the professors of my university told me yesterday that they may not have sent the paper out to reviewers and might make you wait for a long long time. Then, if you mail them, they will reject your paper. It is a punishment for your advisor. Otherwise, they will make you wait for 12 to 15 months just for punishment and then reject it without review . It was a nightmare for me as I am under immense pressure for my job and my graduation. I agree that my advisor is an irresponsible and ignorant person. But I didn't do anything wrong. Just very very hard honest work. Can they delay the decision of a submitted manuscript of someone that already sent a paper which didn't pass the plagiarism check? Is there any such policiy or behavior in journals? What should I do?<issue_comment>username_1: I know of no such policy - but editors are humans, too. On the other hand, an editor has to deal iwth hunderts of submissions per year. Plagiarism check is usually done automatically. At least I would not have the mental capabilities for remebering those issues and playing such games. But you never know. Rejecting a paper without review after a year of letting it sit and then returning it without review would be malpractice and a reason to complain about the editor behaviour. Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: The people who run good journals are (i) professionals, (ii) people. From the first follows that it's not professional or appropriate to sit on a paper for a year without sending it out to reviewers or making a decision as punishment. That's just not ethical. From the second it follows that the editor is probably not going to bend over backward to ensure the paper gets dealt with today instead of tomorrow. In any case, your characterization of editors as these kinds of vindictive monsters out to get you is incorrect -- that's not the kind of person who would be appointed as an editor. Either way, there is nothing wrong with writing an email to the editor and asking what the status of a paper is. That happens every day, and it's part of the job of an editor to deal with this in a professional manner. So go ahead. Upvotes: 3
2019/01/10	2,392	10,139	<issue_start>username_0: I am a graduate student in mathematics at a top school. Most of other students achieved gold medal in International mathematics olympiad for high school and/or other similar competitions. Most did their undergraduate in the very best school. I came from a very modest educational background but worked really hard. I did not participate in IMO or other math competitions and if I did, I do not think I would have done well. I attended a not well-known small university in Australia. Now that I am surrounded by all these gold medalists, I just feel that they are way beyond me and I am so dumb when I compare myself to them. How should I deal with this feeling?<issue_comment>username_1: I have thought about this too. I am also a math grad student. I went to a liberal arts college in the US. I took lots of non-math courses, didn't take any graduate courses, and didn't do any extra math activities like the Budapest semester. At some point I made a list of the math I learned as an undergrad and what I learned in grad school and it is a huge amount more in grad school. Another thing that helped was realizing that some of the grad students who, based on impressions, would do very well, never finished the program due to various reasons. One thing that could help is to befriend grad students with whom you could let your guard down. There can be a lot of posturing, but much of it is quite obvious. Grad students who do that can still be helpful to talk to. It also helps to talk to faculty members whom you feel comfortable chatting with. They can really help you feel more at ease. I was at a workshop/school once and overheard a senior faculty member telling his math professor friend that by the end of a math conference, everyone feels like an idiot. So what if some grad students know more than you? At some point when you specialize you'll know a lot about quite a lot of things, and find joy in looking back at your accomplishments. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: First of all, let me assure you that a lot of people feel this way when they first join graduate studies. For some of them, this is the first time that they are truly challenged. Not all students go for IMO. I have a bachelor's and PhD in math and never attended one. I felt small and insignificant in comparison to my peers, but then I started working on my problem. It took a lot of effort and reading and reasoning, and eventually I got a result! It takes all kinds of smarts to do math, and I think that once you get to know your peers you'll realize that you have a lot of worthwhile things to contribute! Ask yourself this - why did you get into a top school? Those schools are pretty selective, and at least two people looked at your application carefully, in addition to your undergraduate lecturers who gave you sufficiently good grades to get in, your referees who wrote good things about you and so on. All of these people thought you're good enough. Could all of these people be wrong about you? Why do you think that you are in a better position to assess your quality than all of those experts who looked at your application and decided that you are good enough? Good luck! Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: The fact that you are in the graduate program at all is a testament to the admissions committee believing that you are, at the least, just as good as those other students. It's normal to have the imposter-syndrome and you'd be surprised at how many of the supposed perfect students feel the same way, but are simply putting on a facade. I have never encountered any professor, graduate student, or colleague whom I had always regarded as natural geniuses mention that they had never experienced the imposter-syndrome. In fact, the ones who brag about how they believe they deserve to be in the program or department are usually the ones packing their bags the next year because they lost motivation to push through (from my experience, at least). The key thing to keep in mind here is that, just like how you're idolizing one part of other students' accomplishments (e.g., gold medals), those same students may be idolizing some achievement of yours but are doing so without your knowledge for the very same reason of having imposter syndrome. That being said, I personally do not think that having an imposter syndrome is necessarily a bad thing. This is what I always tell my undergraduate mentees who express similar feelings: The imposter syndrome is only as demotivating and negative as you let it be. Having those feelings can also be an indication that you're growing in a competitive environment and are able to see and acknowledge the areas where you lack compared to others. This just makes it easier for you to know what areas to improve on next. In other words, if you're smarter than everyone in your program, what room is there to improve? If you constantly think that you're doing an amazing job in life and don't need to pay attention to anyone else, are you actually improving at a competitive rate? Or are you already stagnant? Certainly this may be adaptive for self-protection in certain situations but I'd be surprised if anyone is able to keep up with the competitiveness of academia if they're only attentive of themselves. I would say it's all about framing--feeling like an imposter certainly doesn't bring about positive emotions, but it can be a motivator for striving to produce positive outcomes. I am, however, a relatively cynical person who strives on negative emotions, so I would say that my personal take on the matter shouldn't override any kind of cognitive perspective on the matter that you find more useful...just as a late disclaimer. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: You got your position. You performed well in university. You are going to be held to a higher standard but all you can do is remember what you have done and that you have shown you are ready for the next level. I had the same thing going into undergrad. The main thing that helped me through was solving problems with others showing (to myself) that I could contribute. I gained confidence from that. As a postgrad I attended conferences with people from top ranked universities. Again I was worried I was not as good and only through talking to them about problems did I regain my confidence (thankfully they were nice). I have never met a grad student who wasn't worried about their ability to succeed, no matter what their past accomplishments. You are doing maths. The main way you can get confidence imo is by solving what you have to learn. You don't mention how you are getting on with the work/any courses. How are you handling them? If you handle them (with plenty of work and study) then it does not matter how many gold medals someone has, you are matching up (indeed most graduate students I have met have been terrified about how they are getting on so it would be a great sign). Maths olympiads are fun and it tends to show mathematical ability but it is not directly related to research. It is a different way of thinking and I wouldn't worry about them. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: *TL;DR: You can't control feelings. Shift the focus to what you can* control which is your attention. --- Treat feelings as signals, not drivers. You are better off just accepting them. They will not go away for good unless you find and fix the source. My guess is that you dwell on comparing yourself to others. Think of it this way: if you changed your environment and surrounded yourself with, say, data analysts - would you feel more empowered to pursue your goals? At least now you have the opportunity to learn from people you consider smarter than you what might prove more beneficial for you in the future. The point is: comparing yourself to others provides no value*. It's a counter-productive mechanism that distracts rather than motivates. There will always be a person out there somewhere that's a few steps ahead of you. What does not help is the fact that many of the academic systems are designed to be competitive. There is also a lot of people simply driven by competition - and it is clear to me that you are not. Remember that you do not have to be. I am not convinced that competitiveness is generally useful to science anyway. Achievements vary from perspective. I couldn't care less about math medalists, to be honest. And it is a good thing actually: if you adjust your perspective to focus on making you* achieve the goal, you won't care about other peoples' achievements - unless you are happy for them, which would be a healthier counter-mechanism. All you need to do is to keep the daily grind going and do what you need to do regardless of emotions. Motivation will probably appear sooner than you expect. As a side-note, a good practice is to list all the achievements of the last year (not generally area-specific, it might be even something like going on a holiday) and remind them to yourself when you start overthinking the things you haven't done. It has a better chance of putting you in a good mood than letting yourself down. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_6: I have a slightly different take on this than the other answers: It is a common experience for academics that, at school (as opposed to University), they were usually the brightest person in the room. At some point in their academic career, they will end up in a situation where they are no longer the brightest person in the room. This can be a profound shock to a person's self-image (you've always been "the clever one", "the swot"). It happened to me when I started at Cambridge University. It will have happened to all those people who went to "the very best schools". A big advantage of going to a place like that, is that essentially everyone is going through the same process at the same time. The thing to remember is, that although you are now probably working in an environment where there are brighter people in the room than you, that doesn't mean you aren't entitled to be in the room. Upvotes: 2
2019/01/10	995	4,132	<issue_start>username_0: Many (traditional) journals request copyright transfer upon acceptance. A group of librarians [suggested](http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2018/11/09/a-librarian-perspective-on-sci-hub-the-true-solution-to-the-scholarly-communication-crisis-is-in-the-hands-of-the-academic-community-not-librarians/) that authors negotiate the copyright transfer and prepare to walk away if the journal insists on full copyright transfer. Suppose the authors refused but the journal insisted on the transfer, and therefore the authors decided to publish elsewhere. Generally, what are authors' and journals rights in such a case? What happens to the peer review the authors received from the first journal? Can or should they present it when submitting to another journal?<issue_comment>username_1: If you do not transfer copyright to the journal (or in some way provide them permission), the journal has no rights to reproduce the manuscript. If you do not transfer copyright to the journal, your rights are not limited. > > What happens to the peer review the authors received from the first journal? Can or should they present it when submitting to another journal? > > > I am not sure if this has anything to do with why you withdraw the manuscript from the first journal. You clearly do not hold copyright on the reviews (e.g., the reveiwer probably does, but [maybe not](https://www.nature.com/news/you-never-said-my-peer-review-was-confidential-scientist-challenges-publisher-1.21342)), so forwarding them on is probably a no-no. That said, there are likely no damages, so if you did, it probably is not a big deal. More importantly, if the new journal wants the reviews they would probably go through a portable peer review system (although that does not seem to be very popular). Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: I doubt you should ever forward the reviews. Irrespective of this copyright gambit. You can summarize that reviews were done and the general positive/negative and evolution of the paper (in succinct fashion). But the reviews themselves were in confidence. I would also mention your copyright issue with the second journal. Otherwise you are wasting everyone's time. Probably wasting people's time at first journal too. If you want the rights, find a journal that does this or just self publish. Academic journals are different than paid authored content (stories, novels, freelance articles and photos) where some negotiation dance is tolerated. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: The authors should check when the journal transfers copyright. As mentioned by <NAME> in the comments, some journals assume the authors transfer copyright once a paper is submitted, not after acceptance. If the authors withdraw a paper because they do not want to transfer the copyright, the journal's likely reaction would be to remind the author about the possibility of publishing open access. If the authors decline that too, then the journal will probably think, "why did you submit it to us then?" Getting the paper reviewed involves a nontrivial amount of effort. If the journal decides the authors submitted the paper knowing that they will withdraw it if it's accepted, effectively wasting the journal's time, they might blacklist the authors. As for what happens to the peer reviews, from the journal's perspective, nothing. The reviews are left on the manuscript's record, of course, but nothing beyond that. The authors will still have access to them, and they can do whatever they want with them (such as use it to improve their manuscript). They should not, however, present them to another journal. As I wrote in an [answer to another question](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/118541/submitting-a-paper-to-a-new-journal-with-responses-for-the-rejection-to-the-firs/), these reviews don't help the new journal: > > We can't use the original journal's reviewer comments & your responses. We don't know who the reviewers are. We can't tell if the reports are legitimate. We can't see if confidential comments were submitted. > > > Upvotes: 2
2019/01/10	1,976	7,942	<issue_start>username_0: I'm currently doing a PhD in computational biology, but I have other interests like music and ceramics, and I'm lucky enough to be at a university with excellent programs in both. I've wanted to take a course in either of these fields for the 3 semesters so far I've been here, but my advisor won't approve and sign off on them. I have a free slot this spring and I really want to take a course just for fun, and to learn from the world-renowned instructors. I've tried negotiating about just taking an evening class, or having my work for him improve since I'll be happier overall, but he's just stuck on "this isn't your field". Who's being unreasonable here?<issue_comment>username_1: Well, maybe you are both being unreasonable. Do you have the "right"? Of course you do. Do you have the right to do it while committing to your current degree program. Perhaps, or not. That would depend on the rules in place at your institution as well as the wishes of your advisor. I'm just going to guess that the advisor is concerned that you will not spend sufficient effort on the tasks associated with the degree if you take something extraneous. That may be a legitimate concert. It would be especially important if you are doing joint lab work with others. It is normally a bad idea to go against your advisor's wishes. He has some say in your future and you want him to be happy to support you now and in the future. After you finish you can do as you please, of course. You could also, take a course from a different institution. That would add to your load, of course and the advisor might still object if he learns of it, based on your level of commitment. Perhaps the advisor is telling you something important about his view of your progress and what you need to do to succeed in comp-bio. Think about it. Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: I once took courses that were not directly in my field. I think it is appropriate but I would just listen to your advisor -- it's easier in the long run. Perhaps take some courses / participate in events at a place like a church, the Y, student groups or clubs, etc. NOTE: At some places, they expect grad school to be your ENTIRE life, so this is not unexpected, though perhaps not fair. My advisor wasn't like that. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: Do you have to formally ask your advisor for approval as a result of actual rules? If not, I would just take the course and not mention it to your advisor. It's like any other extra-curricular thing you might do but not mention to your advisor, like, I don't know, joining a tennis team. Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_4: Just turn up for the class. Don't register; just sit-in. Afterwards, explain to the instructor that you're studying a PhD in computational biology and that you have a personal interest in the course. You won't get credit, but you're fulfilling a personal interest, not an academic requirement. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: There isn't an absolute answer to the question: the rights and responsibilities of a student vary between universities, and are probably set out in writing somewhere. At my university, any student could attend lectures in almost any subject (practical labs and medicine are the exceptions that I can recall), although etiquette was to ask permission from the lecturer in advance. Without seeing the regulations for your university, we can make some inferences. --- > > Do I have “the right” as a grad student to take a class just for fun? > > > I think you answer that question yourself: > > my advisor won't approve and sign off on them. > > > If you need approval from your supervisor, then you don't have the (unrestricted) right. --- However, the body asks a different question to the title: > > Who's being unreasonable here? > > > To answer that, you have to get at why you need your advisor to approve and sign off. Are the courses you take assessed to determine your progress? If so, your advisor is being reasonable: unless you can show how studying music or ceramics will improve your understanding of biology, the course would skew the assessment. Do the courses need to be paid for? If so, who's paying? If it comes down to thinking that you should be thinking about biology 24/7 then the advisor is being unreasonable, but the need to obtain approval hints at a good reason. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_6: Ask the graduate program director in your department, or some other department administrator. Ask in general terms, with neutral language. That is, avoid terms such as "unreasonable" and avoid finger pointing. If the answer is "It's perfectly all right, and it's none of the advisor's business, as long as the student strikes a good work-life balance," then go ahead and describe your difficulty. I expect you could get a department signature. (Avoid unnecessary conflict, and don't tell your advisor you made an end run around him.) If I were the department administrator, I would sign your form with alacrity, and say > > I'm glad you've found a rewarding hobby. > > > Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_7: > > Do I have "the right" as a grad student to take a class just for fun? > > > I think phrasing the question as you did is slightly the wrong way of looking at the situation. It is more correct to say that you have the right to be treated with respect by your advisor. This includes having the advisor recognize that you are an intelligent human being with many dreams, hopes, ambitions, and a rich set of interests that go far beyond “doing research in computational biology”, and that the years you are now spending at a university community with leading experts in so many fascinating areas of human knowledge are an amazing and unique opportunity for you to pursue those interests and grow and develop as a person. To be honest, I feel sorry for your advisor for being so short-sighted and narrow-minded that he cannot understand why taking these classes is important to you. It does not sound like he is treating you with the respect you deserve, and by failing to respect you I think he is also failing to respect himself and to be the decent person that I assume he wants to be and might believe himself to be. Finally, your question reminds me of a part of <NAME>’ 2005 [commencement address at Stanford](https://news.stanford.edu/2005/06/14/jobs-061505/). Talking about his days as a college dropout taking random classes to pursue his eclectic interests, he says: > > Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn’t have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this.[...] > > > None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But 10 years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, it’s likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backward 10 years later. > > > I know this doesn’t help with the practical question of what you should do, which others have commented about, but I thought I’d offer my take on the philosophical aspect of your question. Keep dreaming, and good luck! Upvotes: 2
2019/01/10	1,107	4,946	<issue_start>username_0: basically I was working on the answers with my friend and didn’t realize the questions were slightly different and therefore I used the answers we got that were based off of hers to mine. I am scared, what should I do?<issue_comment>username_1: In the worst case, you have been caught in the act of submitting someone else's work as your own. I imagine that, even absent a statement on the course syllabus, the university has a policy statement on Academic Misconduct, it explains that this type of behavior is frowned upon if not prohibited, and you were told about the policy at some point. The simplest form of punishment is that you will receive a grade appropriate to an incorrect answer. The extreme form of punishment is that you will be called upon to explain yourself. To mitigate against the worst extreme in the latter case, I recommend that you and your friend visit the instructor sooner rather than later. You should offer an apology from both of you. Your friend gave away her work to allow others to use as their own. No harm there, but she should have recognized that her work was not to be submitted by you for you to get a grade. You took her work and submitted it unaltered as a way to get a reward (a course grade) for no work on your own. In the case where individual efforts are demanded for a question, team work is the approach where you get together, assure that you understand the question and how to do the work for it, and then each go home and do the required work on your own. Academic Misconduct is by comparison the case where you go home, each do some work to get to some type of answer, get back together, decide the "best" answer, and then submit that identical "best" answer for each of you. You did somewhat the latter rather than the former. Lesson learned. You should hold no major anxiety. It happens all the time, and your case is very minor. Admit to it, apologize for it, promise and hold to the promise never to do it again, and move on. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: From your post & comment, my understanding is that both of you worked on the questions together (i.e. you didn't just copy her answers without understanding how she got there) and to the best of your knowledge, there's no rule prohibiting students from helping one another with assignments. If that's the case, I would recommend contacting the lecturer (or their assistant, depending on how the course is run) and explain the situation to them, and offer to redo your assignment with the correct questions. Make it clear that you didn't simply copy from work that your friend did, and that neither of you were aware of any rule against helping one another with assignments. If you don't do this, there is a risk that they will notice the identical answers and assume that you copied from your friend. Depending on university policy, there may also be consequences for your friend if they assume that she let you copy. Even if neither of those things happen, you probably won't get a good grade for the assignment if you answered the wrong questions. If there is a rule against collaborating on assignments... there may be some consequences, but it's going to look a lot better for you if you come forward instead of waiting for them to notice. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: In my university (a member of the UK Russell Group), your actions would be separated into two issues. First, there is the possibility of collusion, defined in our assessment regime as the act of working with other students to complete an assessment task meant to be completed individually. Second, there is the possibility of "copying", which is the submission of another student's work as one's own. One is no more or less serious than another. It is likely that you will be found to have fulfilled the definition of "copying" on the evidence to hand. Whether you will be found to have met the definition of "collusion" will depend on whether the instructions in the assessment task, module handbook, Department handbook or similar document. Under our assessment regime, if you are found to have breached the Academic Integrity Policy, an investigation will be held in which the evidence against you will be presented. You will be permitted to challenge the evidence and provide an explanation. If this is a first offence, then our policy allows for a range of penalties, the least severe being a zero mark for that assessment all the way to the most severe of a zero mark for the module. This depends on a number of factors such as whether this is your first offence, they egregiousness of the offence, the weight of the assessment, etc. My advice is to contact the module leader or instructor right away and explain the situation. Be honest. In the event of an investigation under the Academic Integrity Policy, displaying insight, contrition and honesty will go a long way. Good luck. Upvotes: 0
2019/01/11	2,968	12,247	<issue_start>username_0: As of time of writing, the University of Oxford is top of the Times Higher Education world university ranking list, while the University of Southampton is 118th. (Nothing special about the THE, Oxford, or the University of Southampton - I'm just picking examples.) Because a university's research is usually a major factor in these rankings, an immediate implication of this is that as a whole, Oxford's research is "better" than Southampton's. Why is it better? I can think of some explanations: * Professors at Oxford are smarter than those at Southampton. Obviously the smarter you are, the better your research. * Professors at Oxford are more motivated than those at Southampton. Maybe they work 24/7 while those at Southampton work 9-to-5. * Professors at Oxford have more resources than those at Southampton. For example perhaps they have more + bigger grants they can apply for, and with more money, they can hire more students + conduct experiments using equipment their counterparts at Southampton don't have. * Professors at Oxford are luckier than those at Southampton. They "just happened" to pick topics that later led to massive advances and Nobel prizes, which made them academic superstars. Oxford then gave them very attractive job offers to lure them there. Now it's a rich-get-richer situation - once you are famous, other people read + cite you more too. Are any of these explanations accurate? Are there other factors I've not thought of?<issue_comment>username_1: I think a moderate impact comes from a university in the anglosphere. It is the language of publishing. Also students tend to want to come to the anglosphere, not the converse. Thus there is a brain drain in one direction. You might think this is just from the research prestige itself but I disagree. E.g. many students want to immigrate to the anglosphere even if they leave research. This is probably not just a language effect but also the culture, business climate, freedom, etc. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Your question is a bit circular. The "best" universities are at the top of the list because it's a list of the "best" universities -- however that is defined. :) What makes a "top" university is largely a rich-get-richer feedback loop: The "best" universities attract the "best" researchers, which makes them the "best" universities. The "best" researchers get the most funding, which helps them do the "best" research. The "best" universities get the most money, which helps them spend more on research. That explains why older universities tend to have higher rankings. They have had a long time to gradually build up that feedback loop. However, external factors have a big impact -- availability of funding and university management is important, as is the desirability of the location/country. Countries like the UK and US have a lot of good universities because they are attractive places to live and their government provides adequate research funding and, importantly, this has consistently been the case for decades or centuries. One important point you are missing from your list: Some professors are teaching six courses per year -- they have no time for research. Other professors are only teaching one course per year -- they have plenty of time for research. Upvotes: 7 <issue_comment>username_3: This is a very interesting sort of question. Unsurprisingly, it's surely not the case that people in one region are naturally smarter than those in another. Once we believe that, it is possible to see how the generally-pretty-uniform-brains of people are "steered" in different ways in different cultures. E.g., in the so-called anglosphere, there is a bit more encouragement to "make progress", as opposed to "adhere to orthodox canons". For those of us in western europe or north america, this principle is completely unsurprising... but, suprisingly (to us here?), this idea is not universal. In the U.S., for example, in mathematics, the top universities actively try to "collect" the most creative (by a somewhat orthodox criterion) people. Those unis with good endowments can afford to throw lots of money at this goal. There you are. But, duh, there are many very good people who are not swept up in status-game issues, e.g., if they're more interested in spending their days doing the thing rather than promoting themselves... Nevertheless, it does tend to be true that the most innovative ideas are most circulating at high-end places. By my observation, this is only distantly connected to funding or status per-se, but, over the long term, does depend on the local status-culture at the place. This can be populist or not, depending. Some math faculties can, as a group, be amazingly Luddite. People are people... In mathematics, at least, it is not easy to come up with worthwhile new ideas. In the face of bureacratic pressure to "do new stuff all the time", one way out is to "solve problems" endlessly (which ought to be mostly a spin-off of improved technique, but don't tell the admins...) Then, after filtering out lots of noise, we do sometimes find that the "elite" places have people who have contributed genuinely new ideas (regardless of PR noise about it, and regardless of many other things... whose idiocy does not subtract from the worth of the thing being ridiculously hyped) may be more concentrated in "elite" places. Partly for good reasons, partly for silly. And don't believe the "press releases"? :) EDIT: under the principle that comments are ephemeral, I wish to add something of @ElizbethHenning's comment and my affirmation, so that these further qualifications will not get lost: to copy my comment on her comment... Yes, indeed, as @ElizabethHenning comments, it does seem to have been that there's a stereotype of what an "outstanding research person" is, and in science, technology, math, engineering that stereotype is traditionally white, male, and with certain mannerisms... And this does also fit with other remarks about self-referential-ness: a metric can (supposedly) legitimize itself by basically echo-ing the outcomes of other, prior beliefs (whether explicitly in metrics, or otherwise). That is, if a metric does not find the traditionally-top universities at the top, it's not going to be given much credence. The true effect is that there is \_enormous\_inertia\_ in belief systems, and these belief systems are essentially institutionalized, in the sense that institutions behave as though stereotypes were facts. The misogyny, sexism, etc, that occur in STEM fields in the U.S. is all the more stunning because many or even most of the people exercising it do not realize that they are, indeed, channeling belief systems that ... if identified explicitly to them... they would mostly find reprehensible, and silly. It's the old question "what does a mathematician look like?"... We can all fill in the blanks. Turns out that the "romantic" mythologizing about "killer instinct" and various other pseudo-macho stuff may not have much to do with actual mathematics... but, gosh, then how we would we [sic] prove our macho-ness? Too large a topic... but/and it does have a significant impact on issues about rankings, status, funding, and so on. Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_4: The amount of endowment/grants/economic abilities of a school also affects the rankings because if a school gets more grants, that means they may complete more research. For example, there are more than 5-10 professors in very top universities who bring grants to the school and do research with that grant. This automatically affects the quality and quantity of the research. I also agree with previous answers that the language of publishing is English. Technically, if a university is in an English-speaking country, it has more chance to be ranked higher. Moreover, the citation score is one of the most important ranking criteria in THE or QS ranking systems. So, if there is more quality research, there is a high probability that they will be cited more. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_5: An important factor is that "top" universities get more students applying, so they can be more selective about who they admit. Having talented students pushes up standards in general for a university. They are more interesting to teach, so teaching there is more attractive for lecturers, and they ask better questions. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_6: Everything else being kept the same, more prestigious research institute have better access to novel information/trend/fashion/politics which allows you to go for the low hanging fruits faster, if this is your sport. This is a variation of one of the comments on the rich getting richer, if you define success at research by collection of low hanging fruits. It is also typically where important meetings involving funding are taking place, which may be of relevance to your work should you be into that sport. Having worked in both types of places, there are also drawbacks, in terms of excessive competition/ high level of noise/ etc. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_7: It has already been mentioned that what makes the ‘best’ universities consistently ‘best’ is essentially a positive feedback loop building on a lot of time to build up that feedback. For example, Oxford was founded in the 11th, the LMU in the 15th (moved to Munich in the early 19th), the TUM in the late 19th, Harvard in the 17th, Berkeley in the late 19th and the Japanese Imperial universities in the late 19th/early 20th century. Contrary to that, Southampton wasn’t made a full university until after World War II. However, I feel it wasn’t addressed adequately how the feedback started and how it progressed. In the olden days, there were relatively few universities and it did not matter much where you were: if your ideas were good, you would be noticed. Universities were considered prestige projects by the heads of state and funded accordingly. Research happened where it happened. Over time, a few places were considered ‘better’ than others by a combination of factors that all boiled down to pure chance: exceptionally generous funding, an exceptionally liberal science policy or an exceptionally bright professor giving a university a good reputation. Once this process had begun, more researchers would be interested in joining a given place because they also hoped for generous funding, a liberal environment or that the merits of an exceptionally bright professor would shine upon them. This would mean that the universities would be able to be slightly more selective in whom to accept as a professor. Fast forward a few decades and the reputation of certain institutions had started to grow. A slightly larger pool of candidates which allows the university to be more selective in which professors to hire results in the better, brighter or more distinguished professors being hired. These would then in turn deliver more valuable research, adding to the university’s reputation and increasing the number of people who desired to work there. As soon as publication metrics and external funding started getting really important, this feedback strongly accelerated and left the others behind. Finally, students would also choose a desirable university rather than just going for the one near home. Originally, this would likely have been the oldest institutions with decades or centuries of tradition but more recently if given the possibility they would want to choose the institute with the best research profile. So again, the ‘best’ universities get a larger pool to choose from, can be more selective in whom they admit and thus have a higher chance of picking the brighter students who would advance research more. --- It is important to note that all of these metrics—while often stated as ‘best university’—should actually better be considered subject or even topic-specific. For example, among German universities one of the go-to places for natural product chemistry would probably be the LUH in Hannover—a university that would usually only be considered also running when it comes to overall research or even overall chemistry. Upvotes: 2
2019/01/11	1,030	4,464	<issue_start>username_0: I’m an undergraduate doing research in the bioinformatics department, and we are researching drug addiction. We are also attempting to incorporate the psychology cooccurrences (i.e. suicide ideation, anxiety, depression) of addiction. Personally I have not experienced drug addiction, but I am very familiar with two different addictions (one ongoing) and the cooccurrences mentioned above. A benefit of this has been that my first paper and project was very well received by the professor because I understood the subtleties of the topic. However, this also means I am mentally unhealthy. I have always considered telling the professor about this, but I don’t know if this would be encouraged/acceptable, and if I would still be allowed to stay in this research area. Any input is appreciated, thank you!<issue_comment>username_1: Yes you can. Even may. The question is should you? What is the motivation? To brag your worldliness? To earn pity? I advise no. Concentrate on learning the topic academically. Let your personal experience enrich your learning but more as deep background. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Your suitability as a candidate vis-a-vis the research area is very rarely dependent on a physical or psychological characteristic. For example, you don’t need to have Tourette’s syndrome to do good research into Tourette’s syndrome and some of the best researchers in prostate cancer don’t even have prostates. In fact, many countries have laws against using specific characteristics in selection processes. I think that having personal insight into a particular object of research can certainly give someone empathy for subjects and this can come across in presentations or writings. However, that your research into addiction has been well-received is less likely to be due to your own experience as it is from the quality of your research — the rigour of your methods, the appropriateness of your analyses, the sensible ness of your inferences, and the weight of your contribution to the field. I would strongly advise against your plan. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: Okay, first off, I do not think you should mention it unless you think it negatively affects your work. But then I think you should absolutely do it. You do have to be critical about this. I don't know your situation. But if you are currently suffering from an addiction, you might be prone to some of the same psychological defense mechanisms. And this might give you a bias in your work. But it might also be the complete opposite. So... just be critical and honest with yourself. If it negatively affects your work, you should not be doing this kind of research. Also think about the worst case scenario: What if someone else finds out? Would that be a career destroying situation? If that is a chance, then it is always better to admit it yourself before someone else can. It will help you stay in control of the narrative, and people will not hear about it from rumours. Your second point was that your personal experiences have actually helped you in some way. That might be true because you do not shrug something off as a minor issue if you personally know that it can be a big problem, etc. However, your personal experience is NOT science. You write in a comment that you "feel like [you are] pulling “facts” out of the air lol (because no citation), where actually the “fact” came from experience and interaction with people similar to me". Don't do that! Your scientific work cannot rely on anecdotes. You either have to cite a reference or you have to apply the scientific method, make people fill out questionnaires, write a study and evaluate its significance, and so on. If it feels like you are pulling facts out of thin air, then you are not doing good scientific work, no matter how true those facts are. You have to have some kind of measure of the truth of your facts. Personal experience is not a valid one. So if you think about using your personal experience to help you in your research, do so by using it to find areas that still need to be considered, but then consider those areas with the scientific method. Finally, I want to emphasize that it is not a good idea to self-medicate or to power through an addiction, just in case that is something you're doing. Whatever your situation might be, I hope you deal with it by getting some professional help. Upvotes: 2 [selected_answer]
2019/01/11	844	3,930	<issue_start>username_0: I am reviewing a paper for a journal that has an open review policy. This means that when a paper is submitted to the journal, the paper is published online on the journal's website and when a decision is made, the reviews are published with the reviewers' names. If they want, reviewers can opt out and be anonymous. I reviewed a paper where I was not anonymous. The decision was to request a major revision. I was invited to review a new version of the paper. I am still unsatisfied with some aspects of the paper but I do not think the problematic parts are sufficient to request a reject. However, I am reluctant to accept the paper with minor revision because I think the changes are substantial enough to require another round of review for checking the last version. If I could, I would propose another major revision, but the journal policy is that a major revision is either accepted (possibly with minor revision) or rejected. So I thought I could contact the authors (whom I know) directly to tell them how to fix the issues, and then request a minor revision. Since they already know that I am a reviewer, this seems like it would not break any principles of good reviewing behaviour, would it? Independantly of my precise case, and in order to make the answers useful to more people, it would be good to see opinions on what circumstances allow a reviewer to contact authors personally. [BTW, I already asked the journal editors if this would be appropriate. At the time of writing the question, I'm waiting for their reply.] --- Edit after journal editor answered my request: The editor in chief replied by discouraging me from contacting the authors and provide suggestion how to deal with the situation within my review. There were several reasons evoked for not contacting the authors, but I will simply tell the one that I find most important: that it prevents documenting the review process properly. As a journal that prides itself of making open reviews, contacting the authors directly completely breaks transparency.<issue_comment>username_1: Unless the editor gives you permission, I think it would be improper to deal with the authors directly. While it might speed things along a bit, it would also cut the editor and his/her staff out of the conversation. It is better to just write your report to the editor and submit it in the usual way. This establishes a record of the revisions. It also avoids a situation in which a reviewer would think that his/her comments were important enough to warrant co-authorship. That might not be your position, but some might want to consider it if the option were open. Don't feel bad about the authors. The paper must eventually stand on its own, independent of any relationship between reviewers and authors. You are doing them a favor by being honest and having the editor in the loop aids that. But the editor may have different views, in which case, you can follow them. You have done the right thing by asking. Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: I see a conflict here. Your identity will be revealed after completion of review process and decision, and that too optional. Contacting directly the author means your identity will also be known to author before final decision. In this case they can possibly influence your decision directly or by a reference or sorry to say but possibly by mutual future settlement. In my opinion it will raise questions over whole review process. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: I wouldn't do it. May be seen by the authors or the editors (or potentially other reviewers) as unfair pressure. Even if your meaning is innocent. Just file standard reviews with the editor and let it be at that. Every year there are good and bad papers published and ones that are flawed but useful. Wash your hands of this and move on to other tasks of your own. Upvotes: 2
2019/01/11	427	1,891	<issue_start>username_0: I'm in the process of publishing an article in the Engineering field. The manuscript got a preliminary acceptance, and should be published after few modifications. However, based on one comment I got, I need to evaluate my model's performance based on certain input data. I don't have such data, but such data has been published before in the literature. Is it OK to use the date published by other authors just to evaluate my model? What am I going to do is to digitize the published figures and use the values. I'm going to cite the papers, but I'm not going to add the figures or the datapoints to my manuscript.<issue_comment>username_1: Yeah, it is fine. If anything, it is how the literature and scientific enterprise is supposed to work. I would just be clear about attribution and that you haven't discovered the relationship (from first paper) but instead used existing info to validate your method. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: You can almost certainly use the data that you find. Copyright restrictions only prevent you from republishing it. But if the originators make it available, they do so so that others can take advantage of it (as well as making verification of their own work possible). Of course, the original authors may grant a non-restrictive license to the data in any case, in which case you are bound by that. The same is true if you read something in a copyrighted book. You can use that information for any purpose, but you cannot republish it. But for your work all you really need to do is to cite it properly to avoid any charge of plagiarism. Given the final comments in your question, you should be fine. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: If the data is publicly available, yes, by all means, but don't forget to cite the source of the data (and any associated papers that introduce or describe it). Upvotes: 0
2019/01/11	2,360	9,934	<issue_start>username_0: I am a tenured associate professor at a top 20 US research university. I am publishing and getting grants. My teaching evaluations are decent. I am realizing that I am not interested in mentoring (grad or undergrad) students (— over the last 10 years, I mentored two grad students and they changed advisor before graduating). When I teach, I am not curious about students and their backgrounds. My relations with other faculties in the department (size < 15) have deteriorated and are, now, cold at best. I enjoy the research portion of the work. I am in a STEM field and have had several consulting opportunities. I am currently on leave to decide whether to pursue an academic career (~ 20 years) or to resign completely. I am wondering whether tenured professors have found academic options with limited (or without) students' mentoring and teaching?<issue_comment>username_1: While, as <NAME> says in a comment, we aren't qualified to direct you, I'll give a bit of advice to help you think about it. It is hardly worth spending your life doing anything that you don't enjoy. Your life isn't a "first run". Since this is the US, though I don't know which field, I'll note that almost all academic positions involve teaching and mentoring. It is what we do to prepare the next wave of practitioners of the art. You need to be "special" in some way to avoid it. But most of the specials do it anyway. What do I mean by special? If your research is so important and you are the only one qualified to do it, then, yes, you can probably convince the administration that you should be excused from all other university participation to do it. If you were months away from curing the common cold, or cancer, sure. But the people who do that, also realize that not only their results, but their methods and ways of thought are important to pass on to the next generation, and so do, usually, mentor students. But if you are good enough to fund yourself completely through grants, so that the University doesn't need to pay you, then you can most likely set your own working conditions. Of course, you may not need the university association at all in such a situation. Darwin, for example, funded himself pretty well, though that is harder now. But constantly writing the next grant can also take quite a lot out of you. Alternatively, if you are so bad as a teacher that students drop you like a poison toad, then the administration will be reluctant to assign you to courses. But will also be unlikely to provide many rewards, and may even try to rid themselves of an unproductive member. Yes, unproductive, even if your research is "pretty good" (but see the superstar exception above). But before you decide, find something that you do like and find a way to do that. Presumably you like research. If you can find a good research position you should probably explore that before you make any final decisions. It is also possible to improve as a teacher/mentor. Doing so may actually make it more enjoyable. Whether this comes "at the expense" of your research or not depends on a lot of things. But your mind won't stop working just because you have to also prepare classes. You will find, however, that there are trade-offs. Every job has good and bad parts. If the good parts outweigh the bad, it may be worth continuing. It isn't likely ever to be ideal. So, look very carefully at the options. If you decide to stay, and still want to avoid student contact, you can, over time, probably work to minimize it by (a) working toward superstar status, and/or (b) taking whatever opportunities arise as they arise. This can be sabbaticals, of course, but also unpaid leaves that are funded by some grant or outside organization. If you do enough consulting, perhaps you can use the current university association to work toward the day that you can, like Darwin, self fund yourself and your research. And if you do decide to go, try to do it gracefully, without burning bridges. Your goals in the future may change and you may want to keep open the option of returning to academia. But be aware the the US university has a complex mission that involves teaching students. It tends to disfavor those who don't really want to participate in that mission. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: It's a lot to walk away from. Also, we can't really tell how good the consulting opportunities are and/or if you could get a job somewhere. If you do walk, the same issues might arise on the job. Maybe there are some very select fields where you can just be an individual researcher genius but many industrial companies (and McKinsey and Goldman) will require you to interact with colleagues. If anything it may be more possible to be asocial in academia. Hard to really advise more without knowing what is troubling you. I would definitely look before you leap and not just leave out of pique. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: Depending on your field, it may be possible that you spend an increasing amount of time doing research and less time having to teach classes as you gain seniority. However, in academia, research is always going to be at least somewhat contingent on mentoring students. There is no way around this. The service aspects of the job, although usually small, will not decrease as you go along. If you are in a STEM discipline, there are likely many jobs in "industry" that could be more fulfilling for you (and more lucrative). I would look there with strong consideration of shifting career paths. If you have obtained tenure at a quality university, you likely have much of what it takes to succeed in "industry." Note that there is nothing magical about tenure in STEM in my opinion. My non-university job does not offer "tenure," but even if I somehow was fired, they would need to buy out my contract and I would just go and find one of dozens of STEM research jobs out there in the near geographic area. It's sort of like tenure by abundance of employers. --- These things being said, note of course that almost every research job is going to come with some mentorship and service responsibilities. I work outside of academia on government funded research. We have to mentor postdocs and grad interns occasionally. I have to attend meetings and sit on committees. Getting along with colleagues is of course part of every job. Also note that university positions have certain job benefits that most people do not get. Academics often have large winter and summer breaks. You set your own hours. You have access to a large university library. Sometimes faculty get discounts on university events and facility access (gyms, museums, concerts, etc.) Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: Only you can answer that question. But, other have made similar choices before. Read the "Working Life" in [Science Magazine](https://www.sciencemag.org/) and other [Science Career](https://www.sciencemag.org/careers) articles. Many of the username_2 authors talk about their transitions away from academia, including tenured professors. [The Versatile PhD](https://versatilephd.com/) has many resources as well about life away from academia. Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_5: I fully agree with username_1 that you should try to find out what you actually like doing before quitting. The exception would be if you dislike your current situation enough that it's detrimental to your mental and physical health. Either way, use your current leave to explore your options. Now for the part of my answer that started as a comment, but got out of hand: You don't actually state in your question whether you still\* enjoy doing research or not. If you don't, well, that's the three main aspects of academia out the window (research, teaching, service). In that case, a university position doesn't sound at all right for you. You might as well abandon ship, go to industry, and make more money. You might enjoy working there more, or not - but be able to retire earlier... Of course, industry has its own downsides, and it's not exactly devoid of entitled people, or decisions made over your head either. However, if you still\* have a passion for research, and since you're in a STEM field, maybe look into working at a non-university research institution. This could be at a national laboratory, or an industry research lab. Certainly national labs tend to lead to more active research work, and collaboration with peers than is typical for university professors. You might still find yourself doing some mentoring - at least for postdocs - but in a different climate. \*Presumably you at least used to, and hopefully you still do. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_6: Probably not everyone has the same view as me, but your department seems to: the job description of "professor" means more than just doing research on your own. Teaching and service are important parts of the job. It is possible to find tenure-track jobs that are more focused on research and may be completely without classroom responsibilities, but unless you are such an important researcher that there are funds set aside for you to be your own personal research department, even research-heavy positions are going to expect that you mentor others: if not students, then postdocs; if not postdocs, then other tenure-track faculty. If you aren't a more senior professor, those latter options won't be available to you. I think you can consider other types of positions in academia, but if you are miserable doing key parts of your job description it is time to find another job. However, there may also be other approaches that let you find some appreciation of the parts of your job that you don't prefer: not everyone values the different parts of their job equally. That assumes, of course, that you aren't causing harm to other people in the process. Upvotes: 3
2019/01/11	1,289	5,676	<issue_start>username_0: I'm in collaboration with another researcher in the field of linguistics, she wants to try machine learning algorithms/analysis on her dataset. The dataset is not published before, and the contribution of this work is to use ML to better analyze linguistic theories and to support/challenge them with this new empirical evidence (ML). So, my role here was to try appropriate ML tools based on the goal she described, and also I designed a new ML algorithm to serve the purpose. In addition, I perform the experiments, numerical evaluations, preparing the figures. But since the main concept and the aim is fundamentally related to the linguistic field, she is in charge of writing down the main structure of the paper (Abstract, Introduction, the purpose, contribution). But, definitely, I'd write the ML parts and where I need to provide quantitative conclusions and also explanations regarding the new algorithm I designed and ML approaches that were used, and how to interpret the results. Well, we are aiming for a conference in the area of computational linguistics, and it is not clear for me who should be the first author of this contribution. Also, I do not know if it is possible to claim equal authorship for such cases, and whether it'd be considered as the 1st authorship in my CV? BTW, she is a post-doc, and I'm an almost finished Ph.D.! ;-) Update: Since the value of this publication (if being accepted) is important to both of us regarding our future proposals and job-search, I personally prefer an equal authorship option, if possible! But I'm not sure if possible to show that in the CV!<issue_comment>username_1: You could investigate to see if there is a standard order in the linguistics field as there are in some. But otherwise you might just list authors alphabetically, which is common in CS, for example. You could include a brief note somewhere in the article on contributions, especially if they were different in kind, not just "amount". I worked (retired now) in CS and never gave any thought to "first authorship", valuing collaboration over nearly all else. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: Here is a thought. (Perhaps it is naive. I haven't seen your paper, and I know nothing about the publication culture in computational linguistics.) Could you perhaps write two papers, with you appearing as first author as one and your collaborator on the other? This would settle the issue symmetrically. Whether it is a good idea depends more on how "bi-disciplinary" your work is. By which I mean: is your work coming from two different camps, linguistics and machine learning? If not, splitting is a bad idea. If so, if you write one paper "splitting it down the middle" is there a ready-made audience who will appreciate the synthesis of both camps into a single paper? If so, splitting is a bad idea. But if not, you might find that your work reaches more people if you appeal separately to the linguistics and machine learning communities. Again, just a thought. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: Authorship order is very field-dependent. From the perspective of biomedical sciences, I feel like your collaborator is acting mostly as a "senior author": she has identified a target and approach to research, and you are doing the implementation. Since you are doing the bulk of the analysis and producing the results, in my field I would put you as a first author and your collaborator as the final author. However, in my field, senior (last) authorship is given value and credit; their contribution is not recognized as more or less than the first author, just "different", and for people at different career stages the importance is different: productive professors, for example, may not have any first authored papers over long stretches of time besides an occasional review. In your field this may not be the case, in which case it is much more difficult for you to determine authorship order. One factor to consider is how much your contribution to the paper really is. From reading your question, it seems like the bulk of the work is yours; however, since you are using your collaborators data that can quickly get complicated. If this is a data set that has already been used and this is just a new approach to old data, that is much different than if these are brand new data collected for this purpose which therefore have a lot of effort into the collection and your analyses may be a more minor addition to the ordeal. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: Like others I can only offer a perspective from a different field (biological sciences). However in this field marking two authors as having equal contribution is common. This is usually done using an astrisk in the authorship list (\). So it would look so it might look like: Student, PHD\, Researcher, PD\, Bigwig, A^. \ these authors contributed equally. ^ To whom correspondence should be addressed. However, it is also common in the field for people to argue over who is the first "first" author, which suggests people don't entirely believe the equal really means equal. You would make it the same in your CV and hope the person reading the CV respected the \* (which some do and some don't). Of course, this is for Journal articles. For conference presentations (which are much less of a big deal in biology than in some other fields, and don't really count as a "publication", the first author would always be the person actaully standing up and giving the paper. But then its routine for the same paper to be given at multiple conferences and the order of authors might change between them. Upvotes: 2
2019/01/11	1,007	4,461	<issue_start>username_0: I am taking part in a project that involves several authors with so many back and forth in writing. I am curious to know what usually are digital platforms or role of thumbs in term of managing writing, edits, and comments by several authors who do not have a vast technical background and do not have time to learn new things such as GIT or LateX? Do you prefer google documents for example or what?<issue_comment>username_1: You could investigate to see if there is a standard order in the linguistics field as there are in some. But otherwise you might just list authors alphabetically, which is common in CS, for example. You could include a brief note somewhere in the article on contributions, especially if they were different in kind, not just "amount". I worked (retired now) in CS and never gave any thought to "first authorship", valuing collaboration over nearly all else. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: Here is a thought. (Perhaps it is naive. I haven't seen your paper, and I know nothing about the publication culture in computational linguistics.) Could you perhaps write two papers, with you appearing as first author as one and your collaborator on the other? This would settle the issue symmetrically. Whether it is a good idea depends more on how "bi-disciplinary" your work is. By which I mean: is your work coming from two different camps, linguistics and machine learning? If not, splitting is a bad idea. If so, if you write one paper "splitting it down the middle" is there a ready-made audience who will appreciate the synthesis of both camps into a single paper? If so, splitting is a bad idea. But if not, you might find that your work reaches more people if you appeal separately to the linguistics and machine learning communities. Again, just a thought. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: Authorship order is very field-dependent. From the perspective of biomedical sciences, I feel like your collaborator is acting mostly as a "senior author": she has identified a target and approach to research, and you are doing the implementation. Since you are doing the bulk of the analysis and producing the results, in my field I would put you as a first author and your collaborator as the final author. However, in my field, senior (last) authorship is given value and credit; their contribution is not recognized as more or less than the first author, just "different", and for people at different career stages the importance is different: productive professors, for example, may not have any first authored papers over long stretches of time besides an occasional review. In your field this may not be the case, in which case it is much more difficult for you to determine authorship order. One factor to consider is how much your contribution to the paper really is. From reading your question, it seems like the bulk of the work is yours; however, since you are using your collaborators data that can quickly get complicated. If this is a data set that has already been used and this is just a new approach to old data, that is much different than if these are brand new data collected for this purpose which therefore have a lot of effort into the collection and your analyses may be a more minor addition to the ordeal. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: Like others I can only offer a perspective from a different field (biological sciences). However in this field marking two authors as having equal contribution is common. This is usually done using an astrisk in the authorship list (\). So it would look so it might look like: Student, PHD\, Researcher, PD\, Bigwig, A^. \ these authors contributed equally. ^ To whom correspondence should be addressed. However, it is also common in the field for people to argue over who is the first "first" author, which suggests people don't entirely believe the equal really means equal. You would make it the same in your CV and hope the person reading the CV respected the \* (which some do and some don't). Of course, this is for Journal articles. For conference presentations (which are much less of a big deal in biology than in some other fields, and don't really count as a "publication", the first author would always be the person actaully standing up and giving the paper. But then its routine for the same paper to be given at multiple conferences and the order of authors might change between them. Upvotes: 2
2019/01/12	913	3,662	<issue_start>username_0: I'm not a physicist but I read the occasional physics paper. Coming from another discipline I find it odd that most article references in physics journals leave out the article title - this seems like a valuable piece of information to include for future researchers (not to mention their research assistants or library staff who may be asked to track the article down). This reference style is recommended in the [Physical Review Style and Notation Guide](https://cdn.journals.aps.org/files/styleguide-pr.pdf) (PDF, p. 7) and the [AIP Style Manual](http://web.mit.edu/me-ugoffice/communication/aip_style_4thed.pdf) (PDF, p. 9) so I assume it's fairly widespread (although as a counterexample, the [Reviews of Modern Physics Style Guide](http://d22izw7byeupn1.cloudfront.net/files/rmpguide.pdf) (PDF, p. 8) encourages an optional "long format" that does include the title). Why does the physics community prefer this reference style, and what's the history behind its adoption?<issue_comment>username_1: The title is not strictly necessary to track down a paper, so it can be considered superfluous information. Leaving it out saves space, paper, and money in the printed version of the journal. It also saves on shipping. (The names of individual journals are abbreviated for the same reason. Same goes for the page range being replaced by the opening page number.) That's the historical reason, as I understand it. Speaking of history, this practice goes back a long way, and was commonplace already in the late 20s and 30s, in journals published on both sides of the Atlantic\. One might expect this to have changed somewhat with the rise of digital distribution, and particularly the newer online-only APS journals. It sort of has. In 2015 the print journals decided to [allow](https://journals.aps.org/edannounce/article-titles-in-the-reference-list) titles in the reference list. As for the online-only ones, I haven't had reason to check the style guide all of them. However, I know that at least one of them, Physical Review X, even [requires](https://journals.aps.org/prx/authors/suggestionforauths-prx) the inclusion of titles. While Reviews of Modern Physics is still [printed](https://librarians.aps.org/ordering#print-add-on) (and thus should prefer leaving out titles for references according to the above logic), it's a unique case in many ways. One of these ways is that it mostly publishes few, but quite long papers. Hence, the relative savings of leaving out the titles would tend to be much smaller than in e.g. Physical Review Letters. Even with digital distribution, many of us still prefer reading a printout, so the paper savings are still appreciated. Another reason for preferring this kind of concise referencing is that it kind of fits how some (a lot?) of us think about papers (although I admit there might be a chicken-and-egg situation here). It's Brady's PRB from 2015, not whatever the title of that paper might have had. Also, titles are quite often similar to those of related papers, and can blend together, so they don't add much IMO. \No special meaning is assigned to these decades, I just happened to have a few Zeitschrift für Physik and Physical Review papers from this time period on hand. Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: As a complement to @username_1's answer, I would add that citations are no longer there only for the reader's convenience: they have also been hijacked by bibliometrics and such "administrative" purposes. When you judge papers by the journals they appear in, you tend to find journal references more important than titles. Upvotes: 2
2019/01/12	472	1,976	<issue_start>username_0: I got a Bachelor degree few years ago and I have worked (non-research job) for few years since then. Recently, I would like to pursue a master degree in a foreign university but I cannot obtain sufficient academic references because no professor from my previous university seems remember me. I am planning to seek for an short term(< 1 year) research opportunity (internship would be fine) of a foreign professor whose research area is really attracting me so I can hopefully ask for his reference after that. Is it weird or appropriate for me to contact him directly for such research opportunity since I am not a student (Assume I have already been granted a 1-year working visa from that country)?<issue_comment>username_1: It's not weird, but do be prepared to have your email ignored or politely declined. Professors regularly get such emails, especially if they're famous. In particular, what you should do is to show the professor what you can do to help them in their research. Which works of theirs are you going to focus on? What does your experience mean for the professor? Good luck! Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: No, not weird at all. People have all reasons to be out of the university for some time (due to work, child care, army service or whatever). Sometimes though people don't understand how the system works in general. Once in a while I receive messages asking for "opportunity to do research in my lab", but I have no idea what is their specific request, i.e., what they want me to do in practical terms. I cannot bring outsiders to the lab, they should have some official status at our university (such as a degree student or a research student). However in this case they should contact admission section, not me. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: sure you can. but be ready for "no positive" answers. its life. you can try 100 times or 1000 times, sooner or later you will get Upvotes: 3