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<issue_start>username_0: I did my pHD in 2007. After that I worked on several univeristies as post doc and postdoctoral associates. I mentored students, did TA, wrote proposals, and worked with industrial collaboration projects.
What is my possibility to become a tenure faculty ?<issue_comment>username_1: You can certainly apply. There is nothing to prevent that. But, like any candidate you have to meet the qualifications and present a positive case.
Depending on your field, you may be expected to have a pretty full CV, with papers and such and also good letters of recommendation (in those places where they are valued). You might also be asked to explain why you spent so long as a post doc. That may be easy to do, depending on your research and its outcomes.
But only a hiring committee will be able to say whether you can be offered a tenure-track position.
And, as you make applications, it is better to cast a wide net and not focus on only a very narrow subset of universities. Match any application to the needs of that institution as best you can discover.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: You could probably become a professor with that sort of experience at some institutions worldwide, but in the USA for example, the university will most likely want "the big names" in the field. That can be a PhD student with little experience but big impact (very rare), or otherwise rising stars. That is quite difficult to achieve, and I suppose is not directly related to experience.
But, obtaining experience leads I suppose "monotonically" to better chances of a faculty position, no doubt. 14 years is easily enough.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: You can certainly apply but the chances are slim: there’s a point when the work you did in the past is no longer relevant for your future research prospects. Maybe underwater basketweaving was a big deal 14years ago, but now all the rage is in zero-gravity painting.
The difficulty is that you will be compared in all categories - publications, student supervision, grants - with people 14 years out of a PhD. In particular,
you will need to present the case that *recent* work would be relevant for *future* work: after all, hiring committees will not hire you for the work you did in the past but for the work you will do for them in the next so many years.
There might also be the technical difficulty of salary expectations. Normally, someone with 14 years of experience will command higher salary than a more junior candidate, and the $$ might simply not be there to hire in the upper pay grades.
Upvotes: 1
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<issue_start>username_0: Suppose someone has a math bachelors with a developing interest in AI research but has not taken a single computer science course.
Is it advisable to "start over" and try to be admitted to a masters program in computer science, perhaps by taking prerequisite courses as a non degree student somewhere?
Or is it possible to approach the field from the perspective of statistics, getting an MS in Data Science or Statistics and self-teaching programming and CS along the way, before applying to a CS PhD?
In other words, is there really any AI or machine learning research being done in most statistics departments?<issue_comment>username_1: In the field of AI, there are many mathematicians. For example, they may focus on the theoretical aspects of AI algorithms, e.g., non-convex optimization. Knowing how to program is a definite requirement, but I do not believe you need an entire degree for that.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: I am an assistant professor in data mining. My best students are always the ones with a strong background in mathematics. The mathematicians will acquire the necessary computer science skills along the way. The computer scientists will have bigger trouble getting up to speed with the required mathematics skills.
If you have a mathematics BSc degree, and you want to get into DM/ML/AI research, consider choosing an MSc/PhD programme where you can combine your interests. Maybe go for a double degree. Whatever you do, do not view your background in math as a drawback. You are in pole position w.r.t. CS students.
Upvotes: 0
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<issue_start>username_0: Maybe a dumb question, but for example: say I'm doing a PhD in Theoretical Physics (I'm not) but I need to have taken certain undergrad math courses to understand the material, which I never took in undergrad. Do grad students ever end up in undergrad classes for this reason, or do they just learn the material themselves out of books?<issue_comment>username_1: Depends on institution policies, but usually yes.
That said, the grade you get usually won't matter, and besides you might already know some of the things in the course. You might be better off just focusing on the interesting part then, by self-educating.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: As others say, **this depends entirely on specific institutional culture and policies.** But from my experience (studying/working at various universities in North America and Western Europe):
1. You can almost certainly audit the class — i.e. go to the lectures, get access to online study materials, etc.
2. You can probably, but not certainly, take the class — i.e. submit homeworks, take the exam, and get assessment, feedback, and a grade. At some universities, especially in the US, this may incur tuition fees, or count towards an allowance of how many courses you can take. All programmes I’ve been involved in allow this, as far as I know, but I wouldn’t be shocked by an institution that didn’t.
3. You may or may not be able to use this course as credit towards your PhD requirements. Most PhD programmes require you to take a certain number of courses, but have certain limitations (in both level and topic) on which courses count for this. Some programmes I’ve known have allowed higher-level undergrad courses to count; others haven’t.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: There are some institutions where auditing is more expensive than enrolling in a course for credit; often this comes from losing the tax money from the government agency. There are some institutions where there is a pass-fail or pass-no record option; in some cases, a grade of D will either count as a fail, or be reported as a D. In some cases, the professor turns in a letter grade and the registrar changes it to pass, fail, or whatever.
At other schools, there is a Math 505 or some analogous number which is only open to non-math graduate students and covers what they missed in their undergraduate program.
And taking a course for as long as you can and then withdrawing? It may not affect your GPA, but Financial Aid may view that the same as failing the course.
In order not to influence any committees that may decide to pass you or offer you a fellowship, I might ask the main graduate school office of the university(ies) you are interested in, rather than the department, for their answer.
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: Professional compulsory activities I am referring here falls into the following two classes:
1. The activities that need to be done very quickly.
2. Activities given by supervisor to participate in a voluntary activity.
I frequently encounter the professional compulsory activities. Former are more frequent than later.
Examples for first one includes: Evaluating copies of students within a day, preparing teaching material for students of a course took by my supervisor within a day, preparing grade sheets within half day etc.,
Examples for second one includes: Attending to an outstation workshop for a few days, attending webinars at non-lab timings etc.,
The issue involved in allowing them is break in my personal time table and sacrifice in my personal activities etc., I am not at all comfortable with them as I want to spend time according to my own preferences in non-lab hours.
Those professional compulsory activities always break my productive cycle of work and forces me to spend time.
Is this a common phenomenon in academia or **am I entertaining those activities instead of saying a strong *NO***?
*Note*: The announcement for first class of activities are not in my hands. Superior authorities announces deadlines by personal calling, mailing etc.,<issue_comment>username_1: This is a US specific answer, perhaps, but yes, some of the things you describe are done, but it requires some perspective. For example, if you are working as a TA in a course there may be requirements on the timing of getting grading done so that feedback can be given to the students in a timely way. These may be university requirements, actually, but could be made by an individual. But I would expect to be told of these requirements early on so that I could schedule my other activities, work and life, around them.
The second kind are also done, if less frequently, but I'd expect to have some notice and I'd expect them to be rare. While you describe them as "voluntary", others would call them "professional". They take time and effort, but can pay you dividends as well. A professor may treat them as part of your professional training.
But imposing chaos on your life is bad. You need advance notice and the opportunity to schedule.
I'll note also, that professors have such requirements thrust on them as well, especially until they earn tenure. And even afterwards, the educational mission of the university has to be kept moving forward.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: I’ll give an answer based on my experiences of academic research in Australia and New Zealand compared with Japan and other East Asian countries. What is expected and what is considered “voluntary” varies considerably and I think these represent different extremes with working in North America or Europe being somewhere in the middle. Of course, individual departments or even laboratories have different working cultures.
In Australia and New Zealand you can freely say no to these things if they’re at short-notice and affect your personal life. Especially if you have a long commute or young family it is understandable to maintain regular working hours. You will be expected to attend conferences, teach undergraduates, write grants, and review papers. However you will usually be given ample time to manage your workload around these responsibilities. Any opportunity to entertain visiting guests or attend seminars is entirely voluntary. Of course this can be great for networking or professional skills but is your choice not to attend.
In East Asia (I think Japan and South Korea) are the extreme here, things are very different. It can be very difficult to say “no” to these things. The working hours are generally much longer and often overtime is considered the only resort to meet deadlines. Due to hierarchical culture, subordinates may not be given much notice. This is unfortunately something that does occur frequently in working environments in this part of the world. This extends beyond research activities and includes participating in events hosted by your institution, hosting visiting speakers, and attending things like the Christmas or New Year parties. In Japanese workplaces, not attending these “social” gatherings after working hours can be considered very disrespectful. These are not “rare” in Asian countries, some labs do this kind of gathering several times *per week*.
Either way you must consider your situation and what’s appropriate. When applying for a new position I think it’s important to discuss these concerns ahead of time and agree of expectations. If possible talk to other members of the lab to find out what it is like. It varies considerably but does occur to some extend in many research positions. I think this kind of workload only increases in more senior positions with more responsibilities, which is why some is delegated to you.
What you can do is expect that some tasks like this may come up from time to time in the future. You need to decide whether it’s best for you and your working relationships to be assertive and set limits or to allow time for it. Managing your time and workload to be productive is incredibly important in an academic career. Regardless of how common it is, you need to learn to cope with the stress that this causes. I too try to plan ahead and try to maintain balance with my personal life so I understand this can be frustrating.
Upvotes: 0
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<issue_start>username_0: My question is whether preprints continue to exist after the information contained in them gets published in a journal. It would be confusing to have two sources for the same information (the preprint and the official publication), so I am assuming that preprints are taken down by the authors after their work gets published in a Journal. My question also is concerned with their citations. If preprints and peer-reviewed articles exist, I don't know if tools such as Google Scholar are adding the total number of the citations received by both papers (I believe they should, as they are practically the same publication, only with different levels of revisions).<issue_comment>username_1: In general, preprints continue to remain available even after publication. In fact, on most preprint servers, such as arXiv, it is impossible to completely remove a preprint once submitted, and any updates are stored as new versions. The preprint itself is a form of publication, where you can disseminate results, get feedback, and get a time stamp for your work without waiting for a lengthy peer review process.
Preprints may be cited and used to derive other works before they are published, so it is important to preserve past versions for the references to be coherent, particularly since a paper may be updated several times before publication in a peer-reviewed venue. The preprint version may be more likely to receive corrections and updates after publication, since that is easier than updating the journal version. It may also contain extra supplementary material missing from the published version due to length constraints, and so it is not necessary that the two versions are identical.
Regarding citations, services such as Google Scholar are usually able to interpret several versions of the same paper as a single entry. However, [issues with this do exist](https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/95152/68109), and have so far not been satisfactorily resolved.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: This is a genuine problem with the old-times notion of "publication", that is, in static (peer-reviewed or not) forms.
The so-called "preprint" forms on peoples' home pages or arXiv and such can be updated, corrected, and so on.
The traditional form of citations has the analogous problem, of having been developed gradually in a time when there was no internet, so people couldn't communicate easily themselves, ... couldn't even *typeset* things themselves. In those times, a "reference" was an utterly fixed, static thing, which would never change... and its deficits were fixed in stone forever, etc.
So it's not a surprise that the old citation concept cannot cope with more dynamic references, locations, and so on. Don't over-think how to cope with such a failure... nor believe that there should be a real "solution" in the old context.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: Preprints, in the form of pre-drafts ("preliminary and incomplete"), working papers, under submission versions etc, remain in most cases available online. This is, in my opinion, a good thing, for many reasons.
Influential working papers may remain as such for many years, while gathering hundreds, if not thousands, of citations. My favourite example is a very extensive, heavily methodological piece that was put online in 2002 and got an official reference in 2009, as a book chapter. If the old version was removed, the old citations might not be tractable.
It can be both useful and interesting to track the evolution of a draft. Sometimes, interesting footnotes, quotes or even sub-sections are not in the published paper (e.g. after following reviewer recommendations) but can still be useful to someone else. The same holds for changes, mistakes etc.
EDIT - I forgot the most important point, mentioned by @BruceET : a publicly available copy, almost identical to the published work, that is not behind a paywall. This is by far the best reason.
I am not aware of a working paper being updated after the work is published, but it might contain more detailed tables, appendices etc.
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: Pursuing an academic career involves risk, including financial risk. My question is: what factors should one consider when deciding whether these financial risks are worth it in one's personal situation?
As an example, consider my situation:
* I am 38, have a liberal arts degree, and am considering a master's degree in a humanities field.
* I have some undergraduate student debt and no financial safety net or retirement savings
* I currently live with and am primarily supported by my mother, and I have no children/dependents.
* I am not open to relocating
Some thoughts:
* Most graduate assistantships pay poverty level wages. As long as I continue living at home, it's okay, provided that my mother remains in decent health. However, I would not be able to support myself on that wage if I had to. Alternatively, I could forgo funding and take out more loans for my graduate education, but that would leave me with exorbitant debt.
* I would be entering the job market around my late 40s, possibly early 50. Tenure track positions straight out of grad. school are rare, and many newly-minted PhDs end up with part-time adjunct positions or post-docs, neither offering financial security.
* Tenure track positions (particularly in the humanities) are scarce, and there's a chance I could never achieve tenure, even if I completed a PhD.
* I'm passionate about this area of research and can't think of anything else I would like to do.
* Perhaps "odds of success" are something that should be considered, but this is hard to measure at such an early stage in my career.<issue_comment>username_1: Humanities is specifically high risk unfortunately Gemini, so the simple answer is yes, the financial risk is disappointing massive, no matter the yearning. username_4's point about your mother's health raises another important issue, one of mobility and flexibility. In a very scarce and competitive academic environment, extreme flexibility and mobility tends to be the number in order to capitalise the rare opportunities which pop up all over the world. Those opportunities tend to be important building blocks to increase your chances of tenure, something which would likely be very difficult with an unwell parent understandably.
I am gonna be voted down but sorry Gemini, your question is framed as a financial risk question, but you then you minimised the issue of money later on in the piece too. If you are financially secure, it is much easier to establish a career compared to struggling with student loans. However, the inner contradictions in your piece echos the lack of detail around your previous work history or career development. Success in finances can be different from success in academia, and vice versa. Most of the time skills from one can help the other.
My worry is that you may have an idealistic impression of academia and its more secure lifestyle, which may not reflect the tough financial realities, especially in the humanities. Its highly contested and arduous inner workings is usually very invisible the public and most students. So I agree with Buffy, despite the passing mention of "passion and interest", there needs to be more focus on demonstrating that passion and interest. Focus on developing those skills now which can only support your academic endeavours.
So if you can't imagine another career other than academia, then the focus of your work and attention needs to be to broaden those opportunities rather than the Masters and PhD only. Just about every academic have blogged, written, spoke, run a consultancy or developed their opportunities in other ways, rather than in the usual academic journal article/conference sense? The humanities can demand much much more unfortunately, as it has I would argue smaller areas of international and public interest, making it much harder to carve out an academic career.
Everyone here seem very genuine and keen for you to succeed, but I think there is a serious concern that the path is only going to get tougher for you rather than easier.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: It's tricky to answer this question because you did not clearly state what your actual goal is.
If your goal is to become a tenured professor in the humanities, the truth is that this is an implausible goal for almost everyone. There are very many qualified people and very few universities hiring. There is no reason to think the underlying economic causes of the situation will ever change for the better.
If your goal is to get a PhD, this is something that most people can achieve if they work hard on it for a long time. If you do it, expect short-term financial disadvantage.
If your goal is to have an "academic career" by being an expert in a field of the humanities and publishing frequently, you can achieve that. But do not expect to earn any money at all from it. Have another job.
>
> I think academia offers the perfect balance of autonomy and job security (if you're able to get tenure).
>
>
>
The job security part is a myth. There are no jobs that are secure. Having tenure provides no protection if your university is unable to pay you. It is more secure than many other kinds of employment, but it is not secure.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: I would recommend you check out the salaries of humanities faculty at your local state university to see the expected salaries for those who actually land jobs. (Usually available with some clever googling via a newspaper website.) Then try to look at the website of your relevant professional association to see the percentage of PhD graduates who land those types of jobs.
Overall, jobs in the humanities are rare and not well paid. If you are not able to move, you are very unlikely to get a job beyond an adjunct position, which is typically paid below minimum wage.
One additional consideration: individual departments will have different probabilities of placing students in full-time academic (tenure-track) jobs. It would be helpful to look at the recent placement rate of students at your target institution (since you don’t want to move). These may range from 5% in TT roles to 50% at the most elite departments— the department-level variation is very important.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: Based on your description, getting a Masters degree is not a good idea. Several reasons:
* You can't be sure your mother will remain healthy.
* You currently have no savings, and you're already 38. There's not much time left to build up a retirement fund - and as you point out, academia does not pay well.
* You already have student loans to pay for.
* Getting a job in academia is *hard*. "There's a chance I could never achieve tenure" is a very calm way to put things; the real odds of you never achieving tenure is probably [in the vicinity of 80%](https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/02/how-many-phds-actually-get-to-become-college-professors/273434/) in the humanities.
Let's take the rosiest result that you could possibly get by pursuing an academic career. Your mother remains healthy. You are able to fully fund your studies, without incurring extra debt. Your current debt is paused until you finish studying, after which the [interest rate is 4%](https://www.debt.org/students/financial-aid-process/interest-rates/). You finish in 6 years. After graduating you immediately land a tenured professorship paying [$60k a year](https://www.ziprecruiter.com/Salaries/Humanities-Professor-Salary), from which you are able to save $30k a year. You use the savings to first pay down the debt, then invest all of it into the S&P 500, which returns [10% a year](https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/042415/what-average-annual-return-sp-500.asp) (this itself is risky, since you need to save some money for a rainy day, but we are considering the rosiest possible result).
1. Six years from now: you are 44 years old, net worth -$25,000.
2. Seven years from now: you are 45 years old, net worth $4,000.
3. Twenty two years from now: you are 60 years old, net worth $1,065,200.89.
If we further assume that $1 million is enough to retire on in 22 years' time (itself [a shaky assumption](https://www.ruleoneinvesting.com/blog/retirement-planning/retire-with-1-million/)), then in the rosiest scenario, you are just barely across the finish line.
You could make the model more complicated of course. Perhaps your $60k/year salary will also increase at the rate of inflation (although if taking inflation into account, your expenses would also increase), perhaps you are willing to delay retirement to 65, etc. But the margin of safety you have is tight, even in the rosiest possible scenario. What if your mother falls sick? What if the stock market crashes right as she does? What if you are involved in a car accident and need surgery? What if you can't live on $30k a year (note you have to pay taxes out of this number; further, even if you can, what about your spouse/children)? What if you can't land a tenured position?
**tl; dr:** don't do it.
**Edit:** in the more general case, one would modify the model above to take on more realistic assumptions. For example you could say that immediately after graduating, you do a postdoc that only pays $40k a year for 6 years, during which you save $20k a year, before landing a tenured position. This changes your net worth in 8 years' time to $13,760, your net worth in 12 years' time to $122,248.02, and your net worth in 22 years' time to $843,014.89.
Perhaps you decide that when you become a professor, you'll buy your own house for $100k. This further modifies the calculation above to make your net worth in 12 years' time $22,248.02, and your net worth in 22 years' time will be $583,640.65 (+ however much the house is worth).
If you then decide that you will work longer before retiring, your net worth in 27 years' time will be $1,141,427.40. In fact, if you play around with [the calculator](http://moneychimp.com/calculator/compound_interest_calculator.htm), you'll find that time really is money. 10% more time beats earning 10% more salary! That's why 23-year olds can follow their hearts while older people must be more conservative if they want to retire comfortably.
You ask further about how to model probability of success in becoming a professor. To do this, search up an alternative career option (preferably several) for people with your intended degree. Next, use your local jobs portal to look for jobs for people with that degree. Finally, check salary websites for how much these jobs earn. Now instead of the $60k/year salary assumed in the calculations above, you put in whatever your new salary is, and rerun the calculations. Remember there's an ~80% chance you never become a tenured professor, so a plan B is important.
If after running all the calculations with realistic assumptions, you find that you can reach the finish line with room to spare (how much margin of safety depends on your risk appetite, but you can always make more pessimistic assumptions and see if you still get there), then a PhD is financially feasible.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_5: I think it depends on your backup plan.
As others have pointed out, there is a very high risk that your first choice will not work. You need some other way of supporting yourself, possibly supporting your mother if she needs your help, meeting financial obligations such as repaying student debt, and providing for your retirement through some combination of savings and social security history.
It is difficult to see a backup plan that would instantly get you enough income. Most careers have an initial low earning period. It sounds as though your bachelor's degree is not one that opens up a lot of opportunities immediately, so you may need to get e.g. some certificates before you can start earning much. You need to get past any training, probation, or low earning for inexperience as soon as possible so that you can quickly use the backup plan to earn enough if necessary.
Ideally, you would pursue the master's degree studies and implementing your backup plan in parallel. I have known several people who have completed a master's degree while holding a full time job. If that is not possible in your situation you cannot afford, from where you are now, to start the master's degree immediately. You need to work the backup plan first, if you have to choose.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_6: I do not know, if it is feasible in your field. I do not know, if it is feasible in your country. I also do not know, if you are willing to do it.
Industry, for a while
=====================
I have seen such careers multiple times, in Germany, around computer science. You should have a PhD (which is a separate problem tackled below). Basically, people in the management of larger companies are quite well accepted as professors, especially at FHs (the English term is "University of applied sciences", a typical one educates engineers).
So, a PhD and about 10 years at <NAME> would probably boost your chances for a tenure – provided you'd still want it then. Also, it's more attractive financially.
PhD, in the industry
====================
Again, in Germany, there is also a chance to get a PhD in the industry. Either with a collaboration project or with a topic interesting to a company or with company's funding at the university.
They are sometimes officially hiring PhD candidates, but the topics are mostly very special and you don't get to choose one. (Again, choosing one's topic completely freely in the academia might not be best for a academic career. Your advisor would probably know better. But I digress.)
Summary
=======
It might be doable, but please consider all the issues in your life and the future outcomes. The benefit of my suggestion is that you'd still have a good paying job, even if getting a professorship fails.
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: I just got reviews back on a grant proposal.
On the whole the reviews were positive, but one reviewer criticised us because the five PIs are all male.
The proposed project arises naturally out of a couple of strands of work that we’ve been doing recently. The PIs are the people who’ve been involved in that work, plus the CTO of an industry partner. We’re in a niche area of applied math, and neither of the institutions involved have female staff eligible for the grant scheme working in the area of our proposal.
I support efforts to fix gender imbalances in academia, and I would have preferred a mixed-gender team. However, I’m not sure what I could have done for this project. The options seem to be:
* Propose a fundamentally different piece of work with different participants. However, this would likely not be of interest to the industry partner, which is central to the viability of the proposal. Our original idea would then presumably not get developed.
* Expand the proposal to bring in female colleague(s) at another institution. However, the funding scheme essentially only provides the salary for one postdoc, so the benefits for PIs at additional institutions are limited. The obvious candidates are all a long-haul flight away, so day-to-day engagement would be challenging. I’m uncomfortable asking people to do work on my proposal when I can’t offer them much in exchange.
* Ask someone to put their name on the proposal “for show”. Clearly offensive and counterproductive.
Does anyone have any advice on how to best reconcile diversity considerations with practical realities in these circumstances?
My question is more about the general issue – and whether there is anything I should have done differently – than about how to respond to these particular reviews.<issue_comment>username_1: This is a hard and important problem. There are a few things you can do to address it.
First, admit that there is a problem indicated by the demographics of your discipline. Tell the funding agency that
>
> neither of the institutions involved have female staff eligible for the grant scheme working in the area of our proposal.
>
>
>
Tell them briefly about your universities' plans for future diverse hiring. Tell them that the grant applicants do not have control over the diversity of current staff (if this is true).
Explain how the project will contribute to gender inclusivity. You said you plan to hire one postdoc. How will you encourage gender minority scientists to apply for that postdoc? How will your selection process prevent discrimination? How will that postdoc receive professional development that will advance their career?
Will you be communicating about your project to the public, and will that be done in a way that reaches people of all genders?
It sounds like your project is applied. Will the application benefit gender minorities? Even if they get a minority of the benefit, it's still worth pointing out that your project does not exclusively benefit one gender.
Do not add a token applicant. You are obligated to allocate the project funds efficiently. Some people argue that tokenism has the opposite of the intended effect.
Upvotes: 7 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: There are correct answers, politically correct answers, and answers that get you funded expeditiously. The last one of those is: yes, add someone for token, and allocate minimal funds for her. A math project should focus on solving the math problems.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: I do not see how the problem can be solved without adding a female researcher in the project. It is quite difficult to tell the way, however, without knowing the field and the day-to-day modus operandi. I would not be as hesitant as the OP in asking colleagues from other universities or internal PhD students or post-docs, given some familiarity. A PhD student might be quite willing to contribute to add the grant in her CV (a very competitive asset), while a post-doc or academic might be interested in forming working relations through a side-project. In that light, the payment, duties etc are negotiable - they might actually prefer a low commitment involvement that includes drafting, writing, some statistical analysis, data collection etc. The OP will never know without asking and grunt work is not the same as a token name on the poject. I would explore the OP's second option more thoroughly, but have no opinion on the amount or type of compensation the female researcher can be provided.
It is also a bit of a long-shot and probably not workable, but can't a PhD/ post-doc hire be fast-tracked and be tied to the project somehow? Is there any way that is feasible, legal and not morally questionable given the circumstances?
All the above are subject to the type of work the project implies (lab work, experiments, everything can turn online without too many problems etc).
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: If I see you have five PIs, all male, there are three possibilities: Pure chance, or you don’t want women on your team, or there are not enough female candidates (after all, they might have all gone to better teams).
In the first two cases you should know how to fix the problem. Although removing someone from the team for being male looks like illegal discrimination as well.
In the latter case, check which qualified women there are, and why they are not on your team. If you can reply “there are 7 qualified women. #1 works on X. #2 works on Y etc.” that should help. And obviously add that the number of qualified women is outside your control.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_5: This can be answered with a pretty simple question:
**Are the PIs the best people for the job?**
If they are, then, quite frankly, there is nothing that needs "fixing" (at least in terms of this particular proposal, you may have wider problems in your field but they aren't your problem alone to solve and I digress).
If they aren't, then you should look at who is and have them on the project instead.
Whatever you do, don't add a female PI who isn't qualified or suitable for the position just to please the reviewer. It's not helpful and is actually rather patronizing and offensive. Also, dropping a PI just because they're a man and you need a woman is discrimination in and of itself.
**Tokenism is just another form of sexism**
In the long-term, it might be worth analysing the root causes of why the 5 best people all happen to be men.
However, that's not relevant for this proposal and isn't going to be a short-term fix. I'd suggest you write a letter to the reviewer indicating that you believe the 5 PIs are the best people for the position and leave it at that.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_6: I once submitted a math paper to a top 5 journal, and when the reports came back the referee said that it was more appropriate for the next tier because 1) It only constructs one object which was already predicted to exist and 2) It uses an extensive computer calculation. These were undoubtedly true facts about the paper, and certainly it'd be a stronger paper if it constructed a family of objects or if it didn't require a computer. Nonetheless, it was a very good paper, and there was nothing we could do to address either of these criticisms. We'd thought a lot about whether we could make either of those improvements and we couldn't. 10 years later I still think about whether we can fit that object into a family and I still can't do it, 10 years later I still think about whether there's a less computational approach and there still isn't. Nonetheless, despite there being nothing we could do to address the criticisms, they rejected the paper because top 5 journals have plenty of great papers and can afford to reject your excellent paper because of valid criticisms that you can't do anything about.
All of this is just to say that you should really seriously think about their criticism and see whether you can address it in a productive and substantive way, and if you conclude that you can't do so, then you need to accept that they might reject the proposal simply because they have other proposals that are just as good and which also broaden participation of women in your field. Next time you have an idea for a proposal think about including women co-PIs earlier in the process and maybe you can find a different local maximum (somewhat different subject, different direction of collaboration, different mode of collaboration) which avoids the drawback identified in this proposal. By all means follow username_1s excellent suggestions and maybe they will fund the proposal, but in the end it comes down to their judgement and all you're really owed here is that they explain their judgement and that this judgement be based on accurate and valid reasons. In this case they've identified a valid criticism and communicated it to you, and ultimately it's their judgement call.
Upvotes: 3
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<issue_start>username_0: I have one postdoc hired on a H2020 project for 18 months. Fortunately, she worked rather well and all her tasks are going to finish soon (11th month of the project). I would like to reallocate her to other projects my group is working on now, and which fall a bit outside of the initial H2020 project, but in any case, she has the competence and capabilities to move to the other projects. I briefly talked her about this and she says it would be unethical and illegal to work on something she has not initially hired for. I think that even if these new tasks are not directly related to the H2020 project, if she works on them and gets new publications, it would be a clear benefit for her, and I told her, but she continues to refuse to work on them. How would you argue with her to move to the other tasks when the H2020 tasks are finished?<issue_comment>username_1: I'm just guessing, but she probably has the right of it. I would cease arguing with her entirely but suggest that something additional might be done on the original project that might *also* result in additional publications, etc.
Don't be the bad person here. And, especially, don't find some way to punish her for being both competent and ethical.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: You can switch her to another project if you have the funding for it. What you cannot do is to have her work paid by one H2020 project to carry out work for some other separate project. If that's what your postdoc says, she is right.
However, even in your existing project, there should be sufficient leeway to do work on good publications, research etc. and improve the work that you have carried out on the core project. Research never stops.
Alternatively, if you have funding for another project, then you can ask for the budgets to be reassigned (**Edit:** if she agrees) so that she is paid through the budget of the other project. That's perfectly acceptable, albeit you may have to return some of the budget of the original project she was hired for if that is not used in its entirety.
What you cannot do is to have the original project budget pay for work carried out on another project.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: Funding agencies usually understand that circumstances may change during the life of a project and have the ability to authorize changes in the project’s scope. A postdoc finishing all her predicted goals ahead of schedule seems to me like one of those situations where such a change is certainly justified and desirable.
I suggest that you write to the program managers of the program that funds your project. Describe the situation and the alternative project you are proposing to reassign the postdoc to. Ask (as an informal, hypothetical question at first) if they would allow a change of scope of the project to authorize this reassignment. If they say yes, you can show the postdoc this pre-approval - it mostly counters her argument that the reassignment is unethical or illegal (perhaps [still leaving a bit of room for argument](https://workplace.stackexchange.com/q/147989/71681), though, depending on the laws in your local jurisdiction).
If she then agrees to the change, you can go ahead and obtain formal authorization through whatever formal process the funding agency requires you to go through, if such a formal process is required (typically filling some web form on the funding agency’s grant management website and having the program manager submit approval on their side, something I had to go through once or twice).
Now, if upon your initial request the program managers don’t want to authorize the reassignment, well then you have your answer, even if it’s not exactly what you wanted to hear.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: **EDIT: This answer is wrong in the specific case of Horizon 2020 funding where you must sign a declaration of exclusive work, or keep a timesheet**
Legal and ethical are not necessarily the same thing.
Legally its going to depend on whether the funding is your name or the postdoc's name. I can't speak for H2020, you'd have to check the funding agreement, but for UKRI funding would usually be in your name, and the agreement is that you propose some reserach, the funder says "what do you need to do that?". You say I need a postdoc for 3 years and they say fine. The deal is the reserach in return for 3 years of postdoc.
The postdoc will be an employee of the university not of the EU, just paid using money that EU gave to get that reserach done. And the research is now done. You provided the research, you kept your end of the bargin as far as the funder is concerned.
You don't say what country you are in, but every postdoc I've seen in the UK basically has a job description attached to it that says the postdoc's duties are to design, perform and interpret experiments, prepare manuscripts, present at conferences, and any other reasonable task required by the employee's line manager. (that last clause is always there, even my contract, as a permenant faculty member, has that clause). This means, you would *legally* be witin your rights to force the postdoc to work on something else. You could probably, in theory, start disciplinary proceedings against them if they refused.
That absolutely does not mean that doing so would be a good idea from ethier an ethical or a practical point of view. From a practical point of view, its takes around a year to conclude a disciplinary case, and even then you are going to be stuck handling someone who will very definately not want to work with you at that point. From an ethical point of view, this sounds like someone who has worked very hard and achieved well in furthering the aims you set out for them, and thus deserves to be rewarded for that by having some say in what they do next. Also, as a postdoc, you need work that is yours and you can take with you to start your own group to apply for a fellowship. This is hard if you've been working purely on someone else project.
If they *really* believe it is unethical to work on any project other than the H2020 project, and that is now finished, I don't see how they can continue to take the salary in a way compatible with their ethical beliefs. Perhaps they don't agree that the project is finsihed?
I would ask the postdoc what they want to work on. The project you hired them for is finished. And you clearly aren't going to pay them to sit around doing nothing for the next 7 months. As they will need experimental resources, its going to have to be something you both agree on, because you are not going to give them your resources to spend on something you are completely against.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: I think User Peteris wrote a wonderful answer in comment to answer,
>
>
> >
> > If that postdoc does work unrelated to that project for these 7 months, then you can't fund these 7 months postdoc's salary from the
> > project budget. (You could use that freed-up money to fund some other
> > employee for the project goals, though, with appropriate paperwork.)
> > That's a strict contractual obligation for the institution and the PI
> > in a H2020 project, this gets checked in an external audit in every
> > single H2020 project, and faking documentation to say that the postdoc
> > is working on the project when in fact she's working on someone else
> > would not just be unethical, it's felony fraud. – Peteris Jun 14 at
> > 23:16 3
> >
> >
> >
>
>
> H2020 projects compensate eligible costs. You have your costs
> (salaries, equipment, etc) and EU compensates them afterwards if the
> expenses if they're appropriate. If someone's job is finished faster
> than expected and comes in under budget, that's great, but the "saved
> up" money for the seven months of postdoc's work is not yours to spend
> as you wish. You only get funding to cover the actual eligible costs
> (i.e. the salary paid to the postdoc while they worked on the project)
> that you spent on the project, if you didn't spend something, then you
> don't get funded for that. – Peteris Jun 14 at 23:30 3
>
>
> To put it shortly, I'm asserting that "You provided the research, you
> kept your end of the bargin as far as the funder is concerned." is
> very much not true in this situation, you're required to document what
> specific expenses you want to be covered by the EU funding and
> demonstrate that they're eligible to be covered; achieving the project
> goals is not sufficient to demonstrate that all the costs were valid
> and should be funded. – Peteris Jun 14 at 23:38
>
>
>
What does it legally mean for you? You can have potential legal issues if a dispute between you and postdoc arise.
Not to mention that you would need to return the money.
Also exclusivity of work is pretty clear
>
> For this purpose, "working exclusively" refers to an uninterrupted period
> of at least one full calendar month during which all the hours worked by
> the employee for the beneficiary were dedicated to the H2020 action.
>
>
>
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/fsbEs.png)
you question **How would you argue with her to move to the other tasks when the H2020 tasks are finished?**
I wouldn't argue her, I would offer a raise or extra income, depending on university, country and legal system, in case of my country, I would pay on hand.
Im not sure how it is regulated in your country.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_6: *This answer is based upon observations from computer science at German universities. Experiences in other countries and fields may easily differ.*
As other answers have explained, legally, she is right. H2020 projects require that people funded from them work exclusively on the project. Working on tasks that are explicitly and specifically meant for another project is not permissible and can only be done based on another funding source.
However, that does not mean everything has ended up in a desirable way in the described situation.
First, the **practical angle**: As has also been noted [in a comment](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/150518#comment401822_150520), things are much fuzzier in reality. For anyone who works in an institute with other researchers, the following appear to be typical professional interactions1:
* Regular status updates by telling each other about one's current progress or interesting new results in one's project(s).
* Brainstorming meetings to help one or more colleagues to find solutions for current problems in their project(s).
* Colleague A helping out colleague B with topics or skills that A knows about and that B needs in their project(s).
* Collaborating on joint publications, challenge entries, supervised student projects, presentations, etc.
* Doing organisational work useful for themselves but also for the entire institute, e.g. creating document templates, taking care of certain mutually used technical equipment (no matter whether that's a server with research-related data or being in charge of the institute's coffee machine), etc.
* And of course, tentatively taking part in various efforts that maybe end up contributing to the project, maybe not. This is sometimes not clear from the onset.
Now, most of these can be argued to yield some results related to the project, though they certainly also contribute to other projects. They are simply a normal part of daily interaction working in a team, and the idea that colleagues in the same institute ignore each other because they are working on different projects seems simply out of touch with reality.
Second, though, there is another aspect that I'm more worried about in this case - let's call it the **intended goals**: The postdoc in question seems to be under the mistaken impression that finishing a project as early as possible is a commendable result. In contrast, my impression is that the goal generally seen as more desirable among researchers is to *conduct as much research as possible* within the parameters defined in a project grant.
That does not mean resources should be squandered or abused. But it does mean that, if considerable amounts of resources are left, one should think twice whether there really isn't anything worthwhile left within the scope of the project that could be further explored.2
It may be too late to change anything in the described case here, especially if the postdoc in question has already reported their project work as complete to the grant agency, or conducted finalizing steps on their project (such as finishing a concluding report that would have to be redone, were some earlier steps in the project to be retroactively enriched with additional studies, experiments, or aspects). For the future, though, two things may be important:
* First, the OP should have a conversation with the postdoc to clarify the above. A research project is not a race for time won by the fastest researcher, it's a race for content won by the researcher with the most comprehensive, reliable, and useful results.
* And second, something that I'm actually somewhat worried about: As said postdoc seems to be so convinced she has absolutely finished all of her requirements, maybe a part of the problem is that the grant application was too restricted in its focus? As far as I have been told, a crucial part of the art of writing grant applications is to find a good balance of being concrete enough to gain the grant, but being vague enough so as to allow those working on the grant to still do what makes sense for the project, even though it isn't known at the time of applying for the grant (many months earlier!) yet. This question leaves me wondering a bit whether the grant in question failed to create sufficient opportunities, so after finishing a couple of items on a checklist, there is nothing left to do for the postdoc.
---
1: I'm not saying every institute will feature every single one of these, or only these interactions. But they are typical examples of what arrives during the workday at a university in my experience.
2: The reasons appear to be threefold:
* It's beneficial for both the institute and the involved researchers to conduct more research.
* It's beneficial for the project to produce stronger or more comprehensive results.
* And, as I have been told time and again, whoever finishes a project while leaving considerable amounts of granted resources (time and/or money) unused will get granted less in the future (because, from the point of view of the grant-giver, "obviously, they can achieve their goals with less than they claim").
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: I am a graduate student at an American university, and I have been assigned to teach an online math class. I have noticed that there are many lecture videos available on Youtube made by actual professors, and since I am a first-time lecturer, their videos are superior to anything I could make.
I am wondering if it would be appropriate for me to assign Youtube videos as lectures? Or would this be considered unprofessional/frowned upon/likely not allowed?
Are there any pitfalls I should be aware of?<issue_comment>username_1: The answer depends on your goals.
If you have plans to work in academia, eventually you might find yourself on a track to becoming a professor yourself. In this role, you are expected to teach. Hence, you should be able to prepare teaching materials of high quality to support your teaching and benefit students' learning. The sooner you start working on your first video lecture, the sooner you prepare the one which you are actually not totally ashamed of. Your first lecture might be half-baked and otherwise of sub-par quality, but that's expected on your career stage, when people start learning the ropes. But if you listen to feedback from your students and your mentors, and reflect on it, then your second lecture will be better than your first one, and eventually you start producing good quality stuff. Most importantly, you will become a better educator yourself, equipped with a wide range of tools and techniques, and understanding which method works best in a particular situation. You will be able to adapt your teaching to the needs of a particular student cohort, and you won't depend on materials from the internet (which may or may not be available).
But maybe your goal is simply to survive this teaching assignment until you graduate? In this case there is probably no shame in using online materials to complement your teaching. Just don't forget, that you still need to support your students and help them contextualise and understand the content. You may achieve this by preparing some examples based on the materials in the lecture and working through them with your students. It may be appropriate to have a discussion regarding the material, or even to critically assess and compare the material presented by different lecturers.
Good luck.
Upvotes: 7 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: In normal (pre-covid-19) times, giving lectures is an essential part of the job description of a university course instructor. Planning to teach your course in a nonstandard way that involves not giving lectures without prior approval from your department is something that would have been almost certain to get you into trouble, and to reflect very poorly on your professional judgment.
During the covid-19 pandemic some institutions are getting more tolerant about alternative teaching arrangements, so your chances of having your department consider this sort of thing are a bit greater, if you propose a thoughtful plan that shows convincingly that students would benefit. Nonetheless, the fact remains that in the US higher education context I am familiar with, even these days “teaching a course” is assumed to be more or less synonymous with “giving lectures”. So again, planning not to give lectures means you plan to do things significantly differently than the norm. Therefore even if you think you have good reasons to do so, given your lack of experience and low ranking on the institutional totem pole it would still be pretty inappropriate to carry out such a plan without prior consultation with and approval by your superiors, and likely to result in negative consequences for your career as a graduate student.
TL;DR: it’s certainly a bad idea to do it without explicit approval from your department. The saying “it is better to ask for forgiveness than for permission” does not apply in this situation.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: >
> I am wondering if it would be appropriate for me to assign Youtube
> videos as lectures? Or would this be considered unprofessional/frowned
> upon/likely not allowed?
>
>
>
My short answer: No, this is not unprofessional or inappropriate. Give your students the best materials that help them understand the content.
If someone else puts something in an easy-to-follow or especially interesting way, I think that is a good thing to share. You did the back-end work to find that perfect thing, so sharing it is the natural outcome of your research. We (nearly) all use published materials to assign for students to read or work from, and nobody expects you to retype well-worn material in your own words to disseminate to your class. In fact, if anything, there is sometimes an opposite expectation that you use published texts as the primary content materials.
I think you should find the videos that you think are great and then start getting practice making your own. Maybe set a schedule where for every two videos you use from other people, you make one of your own. I think your students will want to hear from you in your own voice, because they know the examples you go over will probably be most like what they will expect to know for exams, etc.
>
> Are there any pitfalls I should be aware of?
>
>
>
* The video could be removed by the owner.
* The video might take a non-standard approach to something, so you'll have to vet them carefully.
* Students might complain that they don't like a variety of different methods/people/etc. (if you are cobbling together videos from whomever).
* The videos aren't captioned appropriately (or at all) for accessibility purposes.
* You don't get practice making and posting videos, and something happens at the last minute where one of your videos doesn't work for some reason.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_4: If you find it too hard to come up with your own lecture in a short amount of time, you might as well write down the script of the mentioned Youtube lecture and learn it by heart or make it into your own version and give the lecture yourself rather than just playing someone else's lecture?
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_5: There is a danger of the department will find out. Next term, they can just ask the students to look at the lectures on youtube without you. You will be out of a job. So make sure you bring other values to the students.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_6: I got my Ph.D. in math at a U.S. university about 20 years ago. Teaching, one course each semester, was a core part of the experience. It helped to make the funding work out for grad students, it gave students a small-class experience, and it developed grad students' (=future math academics) teaching skills.
Wholesale reliance on someone else's lectures is a **cop out**. Your students will object, at least some of them. You will not learn a key skill. Your department, sooner or later, is likely to not be keen about it. Don't do it; bite the bullet and learn and practice this core academic skill. (Even if you become a research mathematician, you will occasionally teach!)
Now what **is OK** is to provide your students a list of additional references for their *supplementary* reading or watching. So pointing to a couple of really good online lectures by others, complementing yours, is a good thing. Ideally that wouldn't be just others presenting the very same material, but in some way more exciting. And if your students decide they prefer to spend their time watching the other lectures rather than yours, so be it.
But don't turn your back on developing an integral skill of a professional mathematician. Yes, you'll have a learning curve. Yes, your students are your guinea pigs. But it's part of what you need to learn at this stage of your career.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_7: I would say that using other professors YouTube videos as lectures is perfectly acceptable. This is the digital age, it's not the 20th century any more. If we have access to the boundless knowledge of the internet, and especially the YouTube, why not use it. People who object are still locked in their outdated mindsets. You absolutely don't have to reinvent the wheel. Just use the knowledge of the internet hive mind machine.
When I was a student I didn't even attend professor's lectures, preferring to use YouTube to teach myself instead. Academia must understand that they should either use the internet to their advantage or be swept away by the tide of free online learning materials.
If you can make the entire education online, why not do it? Why not use YouTube videos to accomplish this goal? In my old university, the calculus classes were always full, making students have to wait an entire semester before they could take that class. I always wondered, why do they not just open an online class with YouTube videos replacing traditional lectures?
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_8: **Perspective**: I am currently a TA for a first-year Logic course, in a university that had to move its lectures online mid-semester. The lecturer I work for is new at this university and decided on an ambitious overhaul of the logic curriculum, using a different notation and some different definitions, so none of the previous handbooks precisely match his teaching.
This hasn't gone very smoothly. Even before the crisis hit, TAing for a lecturer who's writing the curriculum during the semester is hard. You don't have a lot of preview to the material to prepare your own classes with. There may be mistakes in the material you get, or things that haven't been explained well, that you have to then re-explain to the students. Also, this was my first time teaching.
But I was getting better at it. I noticed that students would be very timid in practice class, but after I'd demonstrated an exercise and left it on the board, after a while, they would start asking questions about it. I'd often have to explain the same bit to three students sitting in different parts of the class, who'd arrived at the sticky bit in their own time. But repeatedly explaining the same thing seemed to get them all past it and their homework was pretty decent. Students told me that my explanations helped them more than the lecturer, although I personally think what really helped them was circling round the same topic two or three times and taking stabs at it from different angles.
When the crisis hit and lectures moved online this created a lot of logistical troubles with actually getting the online classroom systems to work. And when they finally worked, students were far more timid about asking questions. So far, we haven't been able to get them to participate as actively in Q&A as before, and there's a definite dip in homework quality.
### Which brings me to my points to you.
Setting up a curriculum of your own material is hard. Doing it all at once makes things harder on the students. If you teach this course for more than one year in a row, you can improve it every year, replace bits from other professors that you don't like with your own that fit better into your overall curriculum. Doing it all at once is likely to overwhelm you with work and not give the students the best material.
**Curating a selection of online lecture videos is not a one-time job.** New lectures will appear, you'll discover weaknesses in the existing ones, and perhaps add some of your own. You can refine this selection year by year.
Part of your job is **coming up with assignments that use the lessons from the online lectures.** A good assignment forces the students to attentively consume the videos and readings you prescribe, and prompts students to come up with questions. A structure that has worked well for us is separating it into Exercises and Homework.
Exercises are questions posed to students, and after a while you give the answer and how to get there. The point is that students can examine "how it's done". The exercises can be relatively hard, and are intended to demonstrate some interesting property of the theory they've just seen in a video, or a technique to approach a particular problem.
The homework on the other hand is graded for points - in our class the mean mark for the whole semester's homework counts as 30% of the total grade for the class, which is enough to motivate most students to do it. It's not a lot of homework per week, and it's intentionally and obviously easier than the exercises. But to solve it, students will try to really understand the exercises and use those techniques to tackle the homework. **And it'll get them to ask you questions.**
In an online teaching situation, student-teacher interaction is extremely important and one of the hardest things to make work. What you really need is conversation starters, and the combination of "watch this video, then think about this exercise, then ask me questions" could be that. You may need to split the group into manageable subgroups, too. You may find that this ends up being a lot more work than in-class lectures!
**Analyze the homework.** After one homework assignment that was done disastrously bad, we identified which topics the students clearly had trouble with and made new tutorials specifically for those topics. If you grade the homework yourself, take time to analyze what kind of mistakes your students are making. If you have TAs, ask them their impressions. Because it can be harder to get people to ask questions in an online classroom, you need to get more of your information from this channel.
You should notice that a lot of what I'm advocating is that you should **shy away from doing a "big bang" development** of your own material and focus on interacting with the students and reacting to what they can't get out of the videos/texts. I think if you push this interaction heavily, you won't get (a lot of serious) complaints about you lazing off.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_9: There is a whole spectrum of what you can do, from "*show this tricky experiment with a nuclear plant done by Dr X*" to "*prepare a playlist of online courses and just launch it when the course starts*".
It is absolutely a good idea to use **some** interesting, famous or otherwise complicated to replicate videos. It adds a lot of spicing to your lecture.
Do not overuse it, though, as it will not be your course anymore. On top of that you learn **enormously** when preparing a lecture (this is the time when you sometimes actually understand what you are about to teach).
Upvotes: 0
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<issue_start>username_0: I did not get along well with my former PhD advisor. I was able to defend and graduate; however, I have learned that my advisor was giving bad recommendation letters. No wonder why all of my postdoctoral applications were unsuccessful even though I have good academic standing. Since we had several intense arguments in the past, I can conclude with confidence that any reference from my advisor would be damaging.
I have decided to go to industry (non-research) not just because of this problem but also because of poor job prospects in academia. Now, I am wondering how I can minimize the damage. I do not know how references work in industry, but I can certainly exclude my advisor in any list throughout a recruitment process. My PhD advisor also has several connections in HR. This can also be damaging if a company background-checks through the university HR department.<issue_comment>username_1: You are worried to much.
>
> My PhD advisor also has several connections in HR. This can also be
> damaging if a company background-checks through the university HR
> department.
>
>
>
First, HR is not allowed to say anything bad about you with no clear evidence (for fear of being sued). They will just give minimal information, and that's it.
Second, background check is often done by a third-party, who is only interested in ticking all the boxes that you declared. They are not interested in hearing some random stories.
>
> I do not know how references work in industry, but I can certainly
> exclude my advisor in any list throughout a recruitment process.
>
>
>
For non-research positions, nobody care about references.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: I've been on both sides of the fence, and hired from academia into industry.
There is a lot of variability, of course, but generally references matter less and impression made during the interview a lot more for jobs in industry vs academia. Accomplishments and credentials continue to matter.
In industry, many people who change jobs are doing so since their previous job is not a great fit. Or have not let their current manager know they are looking elsewhere, so cannot use them as a reference. And getting a good reference from someone else is easily gameable. As a result, many reference checks -- at entry level in particular -- are purely formal ones, merely to make sure the candidate isn't a conficted fraudster or lying through their teeth about their prior experience.
To the extent you are applying for more senior and/or creative positions, there may be a desire to genuinely talk to someone to get a better sense of what kind of person you are. So you should think through what articulate and ideally industry-experienced contact, another faculty member or even a fellow research team member, you could supply if someone does want a reference.
By the way, we of course can't know about the specifics of your relationship with your advisor. But it is certainly possible that a dispassionate (as opposed to loyal) advisor may have given poor references during your academic job hunt not out of personal animus, but since they were not convinced (rightly or wrongly) that you are well suited to continuing in academia. They might be quite supportive of you seeking employment outside academia and even able to provide a good reference in that situation. Of course, this may not be the case at all, especially if you feel you cannot trust your advisor to not be two-faced.
Upvotes: 0
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2020/06/15
| 1,660
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<issue_start>username_0: I was asked to be a referee of a PhD thesis.
The thesis is completely based on several papers published in journals.
All the papers have, besides the PhD student, other authors (different authors for different papers).
Also, the field of study is Mathematics,
so the order of authors is Alphabetical, and there is no information about the contribution of each author.
Given this situation, how should I evaluate the thesis? Is there any general advice on how to proceed in such a situation?<issue_comment>username_1: Let me start with a story. At Harvard, before a PhD student is allowed to schedule their oral dissertation defense, which (as is the case in many places) is usually a formality, the advisor is required to explain the significance of the dissertation work at a faculty meeting, and the faculty have to agree that the work is significant enough for a dissertation for the defense to go forward. The possibly apocryphal story goes that, after a contentious faculty meeting at which a dissertation was grudgingly approved, the advisor, a well-known mathematician who has had many students, remarked, "Well, this isn't the worst dissertation I've written."
The point is that, while we claim that a dissertation is the work of the student, in most cases, this claim is really partially true polite fiction. Certainly the student is expected to understand all of it, and to have contributed significantly to it, but, in any sort of collaborative theoretical work, it doesn't even make sense to precisely separate out which ideas came from whom. I've heard mathematicians claim that they correctly decided which idea to pursue to solve a problem based on the quality of the silences during a conversation with their collaborators, and I believe this claim. When ideas are developed with such subtle yet vital contributions, it makes sense to just give each co-author 100% credit for the ideas.
Unless you have a policy that theses should not be based on collaborative work - and, frankly, this policy is unenforceable due to the common but not universal custom for advisors to decline co-authorship with students on papers where they would otherwise be a co-author - you really have no choice but to take at face value the claim that the thesis represents the student's work. At the least, you can expect the student actually wrote the text of the thesis and understands its contents, and if there is an oral defense you can test whether this is true. Beyond this, you will have to trust the student and the advisor that some acceptable portion of the ideas in the work actually came from the student. Someone contemplating hiring the student will get more information in the recommendation letters from the advisors and the other collaborators.
It's generally understood that an advisor usually ends up spending more time advising a student on solving their dissertation problem than it would have taken the advisor to solve the problem themselves. You might want to read between the lines of the following statement about the culture of PhD advising from the American Mathematical Society: <http://www.ams.org/about-us/governance/committees/Statement_DirectingPhDTheses.pdf>
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: From your comments I understand that the coauthors are not advisors and that the work itself is more or less a verbatim copy of the papers.
In this case, I would indeed ask back which parts of the papers are the results of the PhD student.
username_1 is certainly right that in many cases, the work of a student and his/her advisor cannot be separated (although there are advisors which do not discuss ideas with students), but if the student collaborated with other people, there should be a statement about what (roughly) belongs to whom.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: I do not see the problem.
The fact that the work was already been published is irrelevant as long as the student is an author. The order of names may not be representative of the actual contribution due to publication tactics, although it is very good practice for the student to be first author. I assume that the thesis is not a monograph but a collection of papers (e.g. "Essays on Aztec Riding"), so there is no structural problem. The most important point is whether there is enough of a novelty to justify awarding a PhD. Unless the student has collated published work of others in the thesis papers to such a large extent that there is no own theoretical or applied contribution in the papers and the thesis as a whole (in essence a literature review, a press article or a generic opinion publication), I do not see a point for concern.
Of course, if collation and a patch-up of papers published by others is what has happened, there is a huge problem.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_4: You don't say which country you are in, but if this were the UK, I'd evaluate the work in thesis on its merits, and then interrogate the student on which parts of the work they consider to be their contributions in the viva. If you are convienced in the viva that the student had made a significant personal contribution, I would work with them, through the corrections process to add a statement/statements to the thesis to make clear what the students contribution to the work was.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: French perspective here. My understanding is that **the contents of the PhD manuscript handed by the candidate should mostly consist of their own work**, or things of which they are a main contributor: they should definitely understand it, probably have written it (or wrote a version of it), etc. If the candidate is an author on a paper to which they only contributed in a minor way, they can mention the paper in the PhD but probably not include the material in the manuscript. And by extension: if the candidate hasn't been a major contributor to any paper to which they are listed an author, then the manuscript should be pretty lightweight indeed. :)
Concretely, if you have doubts I'd advise **getting in touch with the thesis advisor** to clarify expectations, i.e., ask them to briefly describe the personal contribution of the student to the works they have co-authored, clarify if the contents of the thesis is indeed the candidate's specific contribution, etc. If phrased politely, I think this is a pretty sensible request.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_6: >
> All the papers have, besides the PhD student, other authors (different
> authors for different papers)
>
>
>
This student can work with different set of co-authors, and be productive. This shows that (s)he is already an independent researcher. Moreover, they are also independent from their advisor:
>
> I am not sure if it matters, but actually, non of the four papers is
> coauthored by the advisor of the student.
>
>
>
If the papers are good, then they are good, what else do you want to check? Is there a mediocre student who manages to publish good papers with different set of authors? if there is, it is also a fantastic skill that I want to learn :)
Upvotes: 0
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2020/06/15
| 800
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<issue_start>username_0: I have an accepted paper which is now in the proof stage. Throughout the paper we define various acronyms, since we use these terms lots of times. For example:
These two acronyms are introduced in the first section:
>
> A Bayesian network (BN) is a well known machine learning technique for (...) The conditional probability distribution (CPT) requires the specification (...)
>
>
>
Afterwards we generally used these acronyms, but not always. For example, at the start of a new section. We felt it is better to start the section with
>
> Bayesian networks were introduced by (...)
>
>
>
than with
>
> BNs were introduced by (...)
>
>
>
I think it is much easier to read the first way. Afterwards we do use the previously defined acronyms.
They have even changed these in the section titles. For example, a section is called
>
> Estimating the Conditional Probability Tables of a Bayesian Network.
>
>
>
They have changed this to
>
> Estimating the CPTs of a BN.
>
>
>
To me this does not look right. The reader who just wants to quickly grasp the contents of the paper will likely be confused.
Is there any convention about this? Do you think I am right to suggest the complete titles?<issue_comment>username_1: You should not assume that all changes introduced by the typesetters are the result of enforcing some house style. You should also not assume that these people are particularly competent. If they modify your text in some nonsensical way, you have two choices:
* Page 7, line 15: Replace "Estimating the CPTs of a BN" by "Estimating the Conditional Probability Tables of a Bayesian Network".
* Page 7, line 15: Please replace "Estimating the CPTs of a BN" by "Estimating the Conditional Probability Tables of a Bayesian Network".
Personally, I'd choose the first variant. This is not a request, this is an order. If they don't comply, escalate to their supervisor.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: It could be that they find your titles overly long and verbose (and they may have a point - they do this work for a living). But your point about giving people a fresh start in a new major section is valid too.
An in-between option would be identifying the major/minor terms in your titles and using acronyms only for the minor terms. For example:
>
> Estimating the CPTs of a Bayesian Network
>
>
>
If you're already thinking about Bayesian Networks (and know what they are) then "CPTs" is easily recognized. More easily than
>
> Estimating the CPTs of a BN
>
>
>
But it's less ponderous than
>
> Estimating the Conditional Probability Tables of a Bayesian Network
>
>
>
It's a matter of style, and since it's your text in their journal, you should both have a say in it. Aesthetics and clarity should be balanced against each other as well. Treat this as a negotiating position, and consider the question from both viewpoints.
Upvotes: -1
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2020/06/15
| 574
| 2,238
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<issue_start>username_0: I have this problem that I write:
"Image segmentation methods include region growing, region modelling and mathematical morphology"
These I can discover to exist in papers on image segmenting by doing a Google search. But I find it difficult to find a source that I could cite as for a "definition of image segmentation". And I'm not sure if this is even necessary. And if I would reference, say three papers just in order to prove that these are image segmentation methods, then it would seem overkill.<issue_comment>username_1: You should not assume that all changes introduced by the typesetters are the result of enforcing some house style. You should also not assume that these people are particularly competent. If they modify your text in some nonsensical way, you have two choices:
* Page 7, line 15: Replace "Estimating the CPTs of a BN" by "Estimating the Conditional Probability Tables of a Bayesian Network".
* Page 7, line 15: Please replace "Estimating the CPTs of a BN" by "Estimating the Conditional Probability Tables of a Bayesian Network".
Personally, I'd choose the first variant. This is not a request, this is an order. If they don't comply, escalate to their supervisor.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: It could be that they find your titles overly long and verbose (and they may have a point - they do this work for a living). But your point about giving people a fresh start in a new major section is valid too.
An in-between option would be identifying the major/minor terms in your titles and using acronyms only for the minor terms. For example:
>
> Estimating the CPTs of a Bayesian Network
>
>
>
If you're already thinking about Bayesian Networks (and know what they are) then "CPTs" is easily recognized. More easily than
>
> Estimating the CPTs of a BN
>
>
>
But it's less ponderous than
>
> Estimating the Conditional Probability Tables of a Bayesian Network
>
>
>
It's a matter of style, and since it's your text in their journal, you should both have a say in it. Aesthetics and clarity should be balanced against each other as well. Treat this as a negotiating position, and consider the question from both viewpoints.
Upvotes: -1
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2020/06/15
| 661
| 2,586
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<issue_start>username_0: I need to submit and present well documented research reports of mine to a panel of experts. It is well known that there is a custom of including dedication page to any significant reports.
I want to include the statements like
>
> *Dedicated to god <-name->*
>
>
>
My colleagues are cautioning me to not include such statements due to multiple reasons. The key reasons include: panel mates may be atheists and hence may not receive it properly, *it is not encouraged for a research aspirant to mention god related statements in academic matters* etc.,
I am interested to know the validity of the second reason: is it true that dedicating my report to god can be taken as a pit to my research aspiration?<issue_comment>username_1: Generally, I don't think that dedications are common. In engineering, for instance, you never see a dedication except in a textbook (not common though) and PhD thesis.
Besides that, no scientific reviewer should be impacted by a dedication. There are always black sheep, who won't like it or even have a problem with it.
As reviewers or a panel are always a bit of a draw of luck, I would stay on the safe side and not put this in (any sciences/engineering).
If you are so faithful and personally committed to dedicate this work to "God" from a personal point, that's what matters. It's not necessary to state it.
But that's a decision you have to make.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: >
> The key reasons include: panel mates may be atheists and hence may not receive it properly,
>
>
>
I agree with this statement.
There is a thing in psychology called in-group versus out-group categorization. One such grouping is religion. So, when you put a dedication like this on the page, you are saying many things, but one of them is "I am a member of ". If the reader is also a member of said group, he will read it and think (consciously or unconsciously), "he is one of *us*!" But if he is a member of a different religious group (and count "atheist" as just another group here), he will read it and think "he is not one of us, he is one of *them*!". Now, if the reviewer is professional, he will try to not let this thought bias him positively or negative towards the work. However, such biases are much harder to ignore than we would like to think. See for example <https://diversity.ucsf.edu/resources/unconscious-bias> (this focuses on race, but many of the topics transfer to religion). So I would not do it unless I was absolutely sure that all the reviewers were members of the same religion.
Upvotes: 2
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2020/06/16
| 652
| 2,580
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<issue_start>username_0: I lost my Dad while waiting for the examiners reports of my thesis. In my final copy I would like to include a dedication page to him (in addition to the general acknowledgements page), but I'm not really sure what to say. I know I would like something really short, but more than "I dedicate this thesis to my Dad."
I was thinking including something about how I know how proud he was even though he won't be around to see me graduate. Or perhaps referencing how I hope my dedication to my field in science stays as strong as his dedication to his own field (engineering).
I would appreciate any suggestions or examples of dedications as I haven't managed to find too much online and I'm lost for words.<issue_comment>username_1: Generally, I don't think that dedications are common. In engineering, for instance, you never see a dedication except in a textbook (not common though) and PhD thesis.
Besides that, no scientific reviewer should be impacted by a dedication. There are always black sheep, who won't like it or even have a problem with it.
As reviewers or a panel are always a bit of a draw of luck, I would stay on the safe side and not put this in (any sciences/engineering).
If you are so faithful and personally committed to dedicate this work to "God" from a personal point, that's what matters. It's not necessary to state it.
But that's a decision you have to make.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: >
> The key reasons include: panel mates may be atheists and hence may not receive it properly,
>
>
>
I agree with this statement.
There is a thing in psychology called in-group versus out-group categorization. One such grouping is religion. So, when you put a dedication like this on the page, you are saying many things, but one of them is "I am a member of ". If the reader is also a member of said group, he will read it and think (consciously or unconsciously), "he is one of *us*!" But if he is a member of a different religious group (and count "atheist" as just another group here), he will read it and think "he is not one of us, he is one of *them*!". Now, if the reviewer is professional, he will try to not let this thought bias him positively or negative towards the work. However, such biases are much harder to ignore than we would like to think. See for example <https://diversity.ucsf.edu/resources/unconscious-bias> (this focuses on race, but many of the topics transfer to religion). So I would not do it unless I was absolutely sure that all the reviewers were members of the same religion.
Upvotes: 2
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2020/06/16
| 786
| 3,162
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<issue_start>username_0: When there's a weekly seminar in a STEM department that professors and grad students attend, how are these speakers given slots?
Are they invited? By whom?
Can they apply to speak at some weekly seminar, e.g. apply to give a math talk at Harvard?
Do the seminar speakers then get their airfare and hotel paid for by the department's own budget?<issue_comment>username_1: This varies a lot.
Sometimes the department will be interviewing to hire new faculty members. The candidate will be asked to give a seminar as a part of the interview process.
Sometimes a professor from another institution will be in town anyway (e.g. for a conference or some other meeting), and will be asked to give a seminar.
Sometimes a professor will be specifically invited to come to give the seminar. Usually there would be a committee in charge of picking speakers.
Airfare/hotel compensation would be very situation dependent.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: As has been noted, everywhere will have its own procedures, but I think my department is fairly typical of what I've seen elsewhere:
* One or two junior faculty are responsible for organising the main seminar series
* Every few months they solicit suggestions for seminar speakers from the other faculty. Nominations come in different forms, e.g.:
+ "I think <NAME> work is cool, we should invite her sometime"
+ "<NAME> is going to be visiting me for two weeks in March, perhaps she could give a talk"
+ "<NAME> emailed me to say she's going to be in our state for that conference in May, maybe we could get her up here too?".
* The seminar organisers then try and assemble a programme, balancing many factors (breadth of topics, speaker availability, diversity considerations, political clout of nominator...)
* The department expects to pay some travel and a night or two's accommodation for anyone scheduled in the main seminar series. Sometimes speakers will decline this (e.g. if they were in town anyway); sometimes individual faculty will supplement it (e.g. to enable someone to stay for a whole week).
In addition to this main seminar series, individual faculty members may arrange 'special seminars'. Typically this occurs when someone happens to be visiting for other reasons, and there isn't a convenient empty slot in the main seminar series. Special seminars may not be as widely-advertised or attended as the main series. Any costs are typically borne by the hosting faculty member (out of their grants/etc), rather than the department (but they are often minimal, as the speaker was invariably in town anyway).
I think it is pretty uncommon to specifically offer to contribute to the department's main seminar series. However, it is very common to contact acquaintances with messages like "Hi <NAME>, I'm going to be in town next month. If you have time, it would be nice to catch up and I can show you my new proof of the Basketweaver Theorem. Of course, I'd be happy to make it into a talk!". In such circumstances, you should not then *expect* any reimbursements, though often you will at least get taken out for lunch/dinner.
Upvotes: 5
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2020/06/16
| 1,647
| 7,393
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<issue_start>username_0: I had reviewed a manuscript two months ago.
Though the manuscript was interesting and well written there were some minor flaws.
I had pointed to the author the flaws and asked them to correct them.
I had also mentioned three papers, which I co-authored, and which I feel should be cited in the paper.
But today I find that the article has been published by the journal.
**Though all my suggestions were incorporated, I find that the articles I co-authored and which I had asked the authors to cite have not been cited.**
Should I write to the editor of the journal to take steps against the author for not following what I said?
Will it be ethical to write to the editor to not send me any paper again for peer review since my suggestions were not obeyed?
Also the Editor is a good friend of mine.
I feel let down that though I had asked them to cite some papers, the authors did not say what I said but still got the paper published in the journal.
What steps shall I take now as a reviewer?
Should I do the following:
1. Ask the Editor to withdraw the paper from the journal as I know the Editor well.
2. Never ever peer-review for that journal.
3. Boycott the authors works in future from any journal i receive.<issue_comment>username_1: You seem to misunderstand the review process. The authors are not obliged to follow your suggestions. Typically, when authors submit a revised version of their paper, they also include a 'response to reviews' in which they explain what they have done as a result of reviewer comments. If they wish, they can argue that certain comments or suggestions are misguided/unnecessary/etc. It is then up to the editor to decide whether to accept their paper or send it back for further revision.
You ask what steps you should take: forget it, and move on.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Your enthusiasm and dedication are commendable, but you are misunderstanding the peer review process.
You are not a gatekeeper. You are a participant in a collaborative process to identify publishable papers and improve them. This process involves the authors, the peer reviewer**s** (plural), and is mediated (if necessary) by the journal editor.
Let's talk only about papers which are accepted-with-revisions or minor-revise-and-resubmit. You and at least one other reviewer have made suggestions. The authors receive those and respond. When those suggestions are good ones, and they usually are, they address and/or incorporate them. In other cases, they respond, explaining why they didn't incorporate them, or why they addressed the underlying issue in a different way than a reviewer recommended. The rationale may be anything from the fact that the reviewer misunderstood (the response may then include clarifying some other language so others don't misunderstand), concern about scope creep or length, or just inconsistency between reviewer feedback.
For references in particular, there is a balance to be found from extensive and comprehensive literature review, through pointing to a set of representative articles anchoring the results in the broader field, to merely pointing to specific prior knowledge on whose shoulders the new results were developed. The authors may have just viewed it differently than you, or faced different feedback (e.g. even "this paper should cut down on the references, there are too many of them" from the 2nd reviewer).
If there is significant pushback from the authors, and/or disagreement between reviewers, the editor *may* send a revised version back to the reviewers. But that is up to them. It seems in this case they felt this was not necessary. Frankly, having briefly been an editor myself, if a reviewer made substantive suggestions, plus recommended a few additional references, and the author addressed the suggestions but pushed back with any reasonable explanation against the additional references, I would consider it a success and publish, as seems to have been the case.
What to do?
1. Regarding this paper, nothing. That ship has sailed. Unless omission of the papers creates a plagiarism situation, or truly egregiously omits the most important relevant reference in the field, no one is going to retract or print a correction about a potentially missing reference.
2. In the future, consider adding more explanation in your review *why* additions (whether literture or others) are important. This is for the benefit of both authors and editor. Shift from gatekeeper to persuader mindset. This might also affect your language more broadly. We don't know the context, of course, but personally I found your phrasing in the question, refering to "minor flaws" and "asked them to correct them" a bit concerning already. Perhaps it is appropriate, but as an erstwhile author, reviewer, and editor I would have preferred to see it positioned instead as "suggested improvements and recommendations", unless they are literally a gaping hole in the logic.
3. If you continue to find that certain journals and/or editors seem to pay insufficient attention to whether authors incorporate and/or address important reviewer feedback from you, refocus your time and energy on those who do.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: Although you don't have any ground for your request to the editor (most probably they will simply not do anything), I do believe your sentiment is correct (at least in many case it is).
I find the problem of *not citing* papers much more ubiquitous than the problem some academics are used to complain about of "being forced to cite papers".
In my experience, there is a huge problem of stinginess by some authors; they emotionally feel as if they loose something just by citing other work, even justifiably so. It is clear that from the readers' perspective a long full literature review is highly beneficial and academically justified, than a partial incomplete list of references.
Citing unrelated work is wrong. But citing relevant work is a must.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_4: **Asking to include these references was wrong in the first place.** According to your comments to the question(1) and to the accepted answer, the literature you asked to cite :
* is co-authored by yourself
* is "not closely related" to the paper under review.
As reviewer, you should only suggest to discuss closely related literature. Moreover, before suggesting to cite your own work, you should apply careful judgement for two reasons. First, as reviewer you obviously must not abuse your influence to boost your citation count. Second, even if your reference suggestions are well-intended, your desire to be cited might lead you to overestimate the relevance of your work.
The authors of the paper under review most likely explained in their response letter why they consider your literature suggestions irrelevant. The editor was apparently satisfied with this response. It probably has not escaped his or her attention that the irrelevant literature you asked the authors to cite was co-authored by yourself, shedding a bad light on the objectivity and integrity of your review. Asking to retract the paper after your initially positive review, only because the authors did not cite your work, would just add insult to injury.
(1) I've now edited these comments into your question, because they are highly relevant.
Upvotes: 3
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2020/06/16
| 2,390
| 10,047
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<issue_start>username_0: After a PhD in pure mathematic, I wanted to do work in applied areas where I could bring in my pure math expertise. So I did two postdocs in computational medical imaging where I could apply my pure math knowledge coupled with machine learning (which I also liked because of my pure math background). **But the reason I wanted to do computational medical imaging were:**
*1) I felt the market for pure math would be hard, and it'd be difficult to obtain a permanent position. However, if I worked in imaging, then my CV would show that I was capable of doing both pure and applied stuff, hence would keep my options open to industry as well.*
*2) I looked through some papers in medical imaging, and **what attracted me was the mathematical tools that they used in these papers**, **but I didn't pay much attention to the actual unsolved problems in medical imaging. It was definitely not like I didn't care about these problems in imaging, but they were not the main reason I got attracted to it.** But I went ahead with the postdoc anyway, but worked mostly on problems that were of somewhat general nature (e.g. problems at the confluence of differential geometry and machine learning, of interest in imaging. I didn't really work with raw images, rather some heavily processed images that'd fit my differential geometric model).*
After finishing these two postdocs, I tried to continue in medical imaging, but for reasons that were not under my control, I couldn't, and thereafter, I tried to switch to industry and worked unsuccessfully in several companies for short times, and currently I'm again looking to move back to academia.
The reason I ask this question here is that, I recently had a long talk with a friend of mine who's also a PhD and successfully transitioned into industrial R&D from applied math/machine learning to autonomous driving. He told me that I took a wrong approach to working in applied areas. The reason to work in applied areas should be *"I want to solve this problem in this applied area (in my case medical imaging)"* as opposed to *"This applied area uses this and that tools, which I'm already familiar with and like using, hence I must like that applied area as well"*. **The second one was my approach, and I'd like to know if I were wrong?** Even to this day, what principally excites me in an applied area is the underlying math I can bring in to solve the problems there, hence in a project, I seek to stay on the theoretical side, rather than the practical one. For example, *I'm definitely more at ease with pen and paper, but I can and do code for a problem that requires machine learning*, but I'm no fan of e.g. keep tuning parameters to obtain the optimal model like they do in data scientist positions (*I had some, didn't feel passionate about and was unsuccessful*) - I rather like to write an algorithm, prove its convergence if needed, and test it on small and gradually bigger datasets. **MY QUESTION: Am I being wrong in my approach?** **Please be brutally honest! Is there a middle ground that I can take, and how? Thanks in advance!!**<issue_comment>username_1: If you are making a mistake, it may be in narrowing your focus, closing off opportunities. Especially if it is you who is giving a too-narrow definition of your capabilities.
A math PhD should be able to teach (nearly) any undergraduate math course and many MS level courses. Every college and university teaches math and so needs people to teach those courses. The market is enormous. But for, say, medical imaging, there are few places that are truly interested. While it is also true that your skills should, and do, enable you to work on a vast range of problems, if you exclude those from consideration, or seem to, then your opportunities also close.
In a lot of ways a mathematician is like a Swiss Army Knife, being able to attack many problems, pure and applied, since they have a facility with abstract thought and how things fit together synergistically. But be careful, in any application, that you define yourself in a way that is flexible enough that others can see your potential.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: In my opinion, your friend is more right than you.
>
> This applied area uses this and that tools, which I'm already familiar with and like using, hence I must like that applied area as well.
>
>
>
means to me you are interested in the tools, not the application. The employer may think you'll leave if they change the tools. If that happens, they lose the investment on you.
Your friend's approach
>
> I want to solve this problem in this applied area
>
>
>
means you are interested in the application regardless the tools they use. Your familiarity with the tools is a bonus to them. When and if they switch to another set of tools, they know you'll stay and learn how to use those new tools if necessary. After all, you are a PhD. You must be able to adapt yourself to new technology and tools with your previously acquired knowledge and rigorous math training.
My suggestion, use the combination of the two approaches. Emphasize your friend's approach, but also mention your familiarity with the tools, so the potential employers know you can jump to work right away without much training.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: There is nothing *wrong* with your approach, following along the lines of <NAME>'s comment on your original question ("There is nothing to criticise here..."); however, here is another way to frame your thinking on this:
I've been guilty of having a tool, say a hammer, and looking for nails to hit with that hammer. In many cases where a nail wasn't there, but maybe a screw, I still used the hammer since I wasn't familiar with how to use screw drivers. I've also seen many others with this mentality, particularly in my field of computer science. This mentality ultimately limits the types of problems one can work on, can be off-putting to potential collaborators from other disciplines, and may even be detrimental. The book *Range* by <NAME> essentially argues this and has a chapter on "Learning to Drop Your Familiar Tools". One interesting anecdote of how only using tools one is familiar with on a variety of problems is a note by <NAME> in JAMA in 2015, that highlighted findings that "...adjusted mortality for high-risk hearth failure and cardiac arrest is lower at teaching hospitals during the cardiology meetings than during the rest of the year." [1]. In other words, patient outcomes were better when cardiac surgeons were away at conferences(!).
I don't think the above fits exactly how you are thinking, but it is related, hence the mention. Another point to make, based on your clarifying comment below:
>
> Just an other example, I don't like e.g. writing a code in TensorFlow to implement an RNN, but I like to write down the analytical expression of the cost function of RNN, and understand the gradient vanishing and blowing up problems from the scratch.
>
>
>
Is that there are industrial R&D organizations that would benefit from this interest and do fundamental research. A few that come to mind are Facebook AI Research (FAIR) [2] and Google Brain [3]. Government funded labs may also be a good option, depending on the type of lab and the country you live in.
[1] Redberg, <NAME>. "Cardiac patient outcomes during national cardiology meetings." JAMA internal medicine 175.2 (2015): 245-245. Link: <https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/article-abstract/2038976>
[2] <https://ai.facebook.com/research/>
[3] <https://research.google/teams/brain/>
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: Mathematician working in industry here. I'll second [scaaahu's answer](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/150597/4140) and would like to offer an additional point of view.
Industrial employers have problems to solve. They are looking for *solutions*. Tools are only means to an end. As such, they will usually prefer candidates and employees who will use the most appropriate tool to solve the problem at hand - not search for problems they can apply their favorite tool to.
Thus, if the latter is your preferred approach, and especially if you communicate this ("What drew you to the field of medical image processing?" "I was looking for somewhere to apply differential geometry."), you may be limiting your employability. (And incidentally, also your personal growth.)
Of course, this doesn't mean tools are irrelevant. Switching tools such as technologies simply because a particular tool is better for a particular problem may be short-sighted if it requires much upfront/ongoing investment. And knowing tools that help you address problems is always a good thing, and you *can* become a guru for one particular tool. It's just that industry on balance prefers people that are driven by problems and solutions, less so by tools. And if you do go the guru way, you need to make sure your toolset stays in demand.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: **Solving applied problems demonstrates your ability and willingness to perform in industry, which is probably more convincing in the job market** in comparison with applying familiar tools, which only shows you have the right skills. You can adjust your self-promotion to improve your chances, e.g., by explaining that applying tools allowed you to hone your skills, which you're now ready to solve problems with. (There's a problem if those tools are now outdated.)
>
> what principally excites me in an applied area is the underlying math I can bring in to solve the problems there, hence in a project, I seek to stay on the theoretical side, rather than the practical one.
>
>
>
**You need to ask yourself whether transitioning to industry is for you**. (You can be *more at ease with pen and paper*. Industry is awash with cash. You can specialise. Someone else can code, fine tune parameters, etc.) If you want to *stay on the theoretical side*, then why transition?
Upvotes: 1
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2020/06/16
| 4,754
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<issue_start>username_0: I am a graduate student (PhD) in a STEM program. A fellow lab mate of mine asked me to review a chapter (basically the background/history of their project) of their graduate thesis a couple months ago. It was during my finals, I had conference papers due, along with the pandemic shutting everything down; it was a crazy time. I informed this person I was really busy, but I would try. They sent it to me (in PDF format), and I read through it and made some suggestions on content, ideas, and presentation. It was in rough shape; there was a lot of work to be done, but their main concern was if the content made sense and had good logic flow. I replied with my opinions. This was a favor from me without compensation. The thesis was in English and the lab mate was a native speaker.
Fast forward to now, this person defended their thesis this week and passed.
Yesterday I received a very passive aggressive text message from this person that stated the following (mostly paraphrasing):
>
> The only real critique I had on my thesis was that the chapter I sent you had typos. I went through this chapter again and found quite a few. In the future when someone asks you to review a chapter you need to carefully check and find typos because it’s embarrassing to send a final thesis with a chapter filled with typos. Its disappointing when you rely on someone and they screw you I hope in the future you do a better job.
>
>
>
The rest of the text chain did not go well.
Let me start off by admitting that I am able to see my fault in this. I could’ve (should’ve) done a more thorough job in editing. But my question is: Is it really my responsibility to find typos? It’s always been my view that you polish something as much as you can before sending it off to others. They sent it in a PDF which I can’t edit (also no indication of spelling mistakes, and its so easy to gloss over mistakes), and I informed them I was super busy, both excuses, but still a little relevant. I also was dumbfounded that they didn’t do a single edit after mine. I feel ultimately it is their graduate thesis and their responsibility for its contents. I feel I can’t be blamed for this person literally not pressing the spell-check button.
In hindsight I should’ve been more assertive with this person by saying I didn’t have enough time to fully give myself to editing. This is a lesson I’ve learned. They are now removing me from their acknowledgements (I couldn’t care less), but what I do care about are the things they are telling other people about me (I screwed them; I’m lazy; etc.). I replied to their texts expressing my view that the typos are not my fault, and it quickly turned into a blow out where I just ended up apologizing and asking not to discuss it further.
What could I have done better? What should I do now? Am I justified in my opinions?
PS: Thank you all for your responses and encouragements. I was feeling pretty bad about the situation, but I feel a little vindicated now. I’ve learned a lesson: I will focus on clear communication and setting expectations.<issue_comment>username_1: >
> "The only real critique I had on my thesis was that the chapter I sent you had typos. I went through this chapter again and found quite a few. In the future when someone asks you to review a chapter you need to carefully check and find typos because it's embarrassing to send a final thesis with a chapter filled with typos. Its disappointing when you rely on someone and they screw you I hope in the future you do a better job."
>
>
>
This is unfair. What happened was, at best, a miscommunication on their part. They somehow thought you would check thoroughly for typos, which you did not have time to do. Unless you told them "this chapter is perfect and doesn't need more editing", I have trouble imagining why they would assume the chapter was camera-ready.
>
> Let me start off by admitting that I am able to see my fault in this. I could've (should've) done a more thorough job in editing.
>
>
>
I don't see that as a flaw. If anything, perhaps you could have communicated more clearly about what you were able to do, as well as what you did not do (thoroughly check for typos).
>
> I feel ultimately it is their graduate thesis and their responsibility for its contents.
>
>
>
Exactly right, and this is truly the "bottom line" here. No one else is responsible for the content of your thesis but yourself. Getting help does not absolve you of the responsibility to proofread your own document and when you defend, you are supposed take full ownership over what is written.
>
> what I do care about are the things they are telling other people about me (ie I screwed them, I'm lazy, etc).
>
>
>
The word for this is "bullying". This behavior is not acceptable and should not be tolerated by you or anyone else.
Upvotes: 8 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: That student's response is obviously unnaceptable and quite rude. You should gently remind the student that ultimately they are responsible for their own work when they submit a document and if editing was so important to him/her next time they should hire an editor.
That being said, in the future it's a nice gesture to let others know ahead of time if you only looked at grammar or logic so they know what still needs looking over.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: You don't owe this person anything, were under no obligation to help them, and everything you do for them is done in a spirit of generosity and kindness. If they don't think you did a good enough job, that's their problem, not yours. If they don't want your help, they are under no obligation to ask for it.
It sounds to me that you did it exactly right, concentrated on the what the most important thing to improve was a the time - a poor structured and argued thesis might fail. One with typos is unlikely to.
Believe me, if this person is going round bad mouthing you to others, the only person it is going to reflect badly on is them.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_4: This lab mate should take full responsibility for the contents of their own graduate thesis. Having a friend or colleague look over a chapter is fine, but it does not relieve the main author from that responsibility. The email that this person sent to you is unacceptable, and you should not feel bad.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_5: I've been in similar situations, and I've learned that people have different ideas of what "editing" or "looking over" means. If that happens, I am sure to be absolutely certain what the person is expecting, and what I will offer. I don't think you are to blame in this situation; use it as a learning experience and be sure to clarify the level of "proofreading" requested in the future.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_6: Once as an undergraduate I gave a professor a draft of a scholarship essay for review. I told the professor that it was a rough draft but that the main idea was there and that I'd appreciate feedback on the main ideas in the essay. When I got the review back, the professor was furious and proceeded to chew me out. I had wasted their time by giving them a draft with typos and mistakes which were obvious and could have been fixed with a good spellchecking and simple grammar review. Typos are a job for the spellchecker, not a tenured and revered faculty member. While I quickly developed an opinion that the professor was in fact not a very nice person, I think that they were right in some sense and ever since I've always made it a point to not send out drafts with obvious typos that are simple to fix, even if it's easy to say "sorry, rough draft, there may be some typos".
I share this because it sounds like almost the exact opposite situation from what you describe. While it's a good idea not to be a jerk about it, IMO it's extraordinarily rude for someone else to expect you to find typos in their own writing unless you are to be a coauthor on the work. I don't think you're responsible for the typos in the slightest.
Good communication is always challenging and it's hard to properly judge how you did there from the vague descriptions of text messages that blew up. It's also important to maintain good relations with your coworkers, so it might be worth re-examining how you engaged with them on the issue after your own feelings about it have settled down a bit. Perhaps you could have worded your response differently, started by congratulating them on passing to try to lighten the mood, etc, but this is more of a personal skill than anything. For what it's worth, if person X complained to me that friend Y failed to find typo's in person X's thesis, I'd think much less of person X more than anything - gossiping and trashing your coworkers like that is not ok.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_7: I often review papers for a certain college student, and always explicitly ask if they're looking for deep technical review of their writing - typos, punctuation, word choice, verb tenses - or more of a broad overview of the content (need more explanation here, rework this example, you haven't defined this term yet). And in any event - unless you edited & submitted it on their behalf, any errors still present when they submitted the paper were their responsibility, not yours.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_8: >
> "*(...) Its disappointing when you rely on someone and they screw you I hope in the future you do a better job*"
>
> The rest of the text chain did not go well.
>
>
>
Oh man, I had to take a walk to cool down. I truly (and seriously) admire all the answers you got here and that none of them told you to reply to this guy to fuck off.
>
> I've learned a lesson: I will focus on clear communication and setting expectations.
>
>
>
This is a good lesson to learn anyway, but do not expect that kind of person to have been grateful for the work you did. Whatever critique of **their** work they would have received would have been **your** fault anyway.
Good work in keeping your emotions at bay.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_9: Others have already elaborated that you did not do anything wrong, and I have nothing to add to this. I will only address your other two subquestions:
>
> What could I have done better?
>
>
>
While setting expectations could have prevented the entire affair (not that it was justified), there is another strategy.
I review a lot of stuff for colleagues, students, journals, and so on, but I do not set any expectations beforehand.
Instead, I review on every level (broad structure to typos) by default, in particular for students, as they benefit from certain issues pointed out early on.
However, I will remark every systematic error only once or twice.
For example, if field names are inappropriately capitalised throughout the manuscript, I will only mark the first one or two occurrences.
If not obvious, I will accompany this with a warning that I will stop marking this kind of error.
In particular, I will not correct more than a handful of typos (of the kind that can be found by spell checkers), but simply remark:
>
> *colleauge → colleague* (I will stop marking spell-checkable typos from now on)
>
>
>
I think this is a win–win situation: I do not need to proactively set expectations, I do not spend much unnecessary work, every sane person knows what they are up to, and in case I ever review for somebody as ethically challenged as your colleague, I have a solid defence.
>
> I just ended up apologizing
>
>
>
This may depend a bit on your culture, but this sounds like a counterproductive move that will just enable your colleague. (“Fractalflame apologised; so they admit I am right …”)
>
> What should I do now?
>
>
>
As others have mentioned before me, your colleague is probably rather making a fool of themselves than you.
Still, remember that the entire thing is on print so you have rock-solid proof, should your colleague ever challenge your version of the story.
Just memorise a few typos that a spell-checker could have found and that made it to the final thesis.
In case this ever comes up in a way that requires you addressing this, you can cite them as evidence that your colleague obviously hadn’t run a spell-checker yet, and you didn’t want to rub that in.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_10: You're in the right, but don't continue the flame war
=====================================================
The person who requested the review from you appears to be either mentally unstable (e.g. a wound collector; see: psychologytoday.com/us/blog/spycatcher/201509/wound-collectors) or extremely manipulative. Either way try not to inflame the situation anymore than it already is, silently cut your ties with this person, and move on. You now know this is not someone to work with or interact with in any way in the future. They're either going to mistreat you, or are potentially dangerous. You did nothing wrong, but it's time to walk away. If needed get professional advice on next steps. But whatever you do, don't continue the flame war (even though you're in the right), and be very very careful about any further interactions with this person. They may well be harmless, but their behavior is really weird, suggesting they might have a serious (and dangerous) mental illness (note: I am a layperson and not part of any medical profession; if concerned get advice from a professional).
Even if the student might be acting in good faith, just walk away
=================================================================
The third possibility I could see is that the student in question is extremely entitled, so they expect others to do things for them, and feel justified in chewing you out when you don't meet "expectations". In this case the student is being unintentionally rude. The problem is none of us answering over the Internet can judge which of the three is the case. You'll have to assess the situation and make that judgement call, and react accordingly. Which in my opinion, the best response in all three cases is to walk away. Nothing is gained, and poking the bear could be dangerous.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_11: >
> Let me start off by admitting that I am able to see my fault in this.
>
>
>
No.
Don't let your labmate shift the blame to you from himself. In all honestness, you made no error and there's no fault on your part. You did a voluntary review of a text he was responsible of, nothing more. It feels he is coping with the critique by finding someone to blame instead of accepting his faults.
Let me introduce my thoughts by a proposed reply, **highlighting** the core ideas:
>
> Dear Lab Mate,
>
>
> I received your letter and I'm glad to hear about your successful
> defense. I feel, however, surprised by your assertion of my
> responsibility regarding the typos.
>
>
> When you kindly asked me to review your thesis, I was deeply occupied,
> as I mentioned in my reply. Nevertheless, I agreed to spend whatever
> little free time I could find with helping. I thoroughly read your
> thesis, and I made a number of comments I wholeheartedly believe were
> helpful. Assuming you already used a language checking tool, and given
> **my restricted time** I could spend with reading, I focused on the
> context and the structure of your thesis - as I mentioned in my reply -
> instead of spelling and grammar.
>
>
> Reading your email, I was surprised that you believe I was in some way
> responsible for the typos in your final work, and at the same time, I
> am a bit disappointed to see that **none of my suggestions were
> considered**. This makes me believe there was a **communication error
> regarding your expectations**, and perhaps we should've make this more
> clear.
>
>
> Though I was glad to help you, I believe **the author of the thesis bears full responsibility for the context**, and I did provide genuine help - whether
> accepted or not. What I saw was an intermediate version, and **a final
> review should've been made by you, your supervisor, and possibly e.g.
> a spell checker tool**, to filter out such errors as well. As I
> mentioned in my review, there were places seemingly unfinished, and I
> also suggested some major structural changes.
>
>
> I'm sorry to hear that my voluntary help did not meet your
> expectations, but please note that **I was in no way obliged to aid** your
> work, and though I did everything in my limited options to improve
> your thesis, it's **the writer who should finalize the content** and
> decide whether it may be submitted. In the future, I would suggest
> communicating your expectations more clearly, and also leave enough
> time for reviewing your work in detail, instead of solely relying on
> other's voluntary help [*note: and then shifting the blame on them*] , to avoid such situations.
>
>
> Thanks, and I wish good luck for the followings:
>
>
> Fractal Flame
>
>
>
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_12: Your colleague wrote "I went through this chapter again and found quite a few [typos] ... "
I would suggest to your "colleague" (who isn't acting very collegial) that it was clearly their responsibility to go through their chapters themselves *prior* to submitting their thesis. In addition to coming across as rude, they come across as inexcusably lazy.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_13: There is an old joke that goes like this:
>
> A man is flying in a hot air balloon and realizes he is lost. He spots a man down below and lowers the balloon to shout: “Excuse me, can you help me? I promised my friend I would meet him half an hour ago, but I don’t know where I am.”
>
>
> The man below says: “Yes. You are in a hot air balloon, hovering approximately 30 feet above this field. You are between 40 and 42 degrees N. latitude, and between 58 and 60 degrees W. longitude.”
>
>
> “You must be an engineer” says the balloonist.
>
>
> “I am” replies the man. “How did you know.”
>
>
> “Well” says the balloonist, “everything you have told me is technically correct, but I have no idea what to make of your information, and the fact is I am still lost.”
>
>
> The man below says “You must be a manager.”
>
>
> “I am” replies the balloonist, “but how did you know?”
>
>
> “Well”, says the man, “you don’t know where you are, or where you are going. You have made a promise which you have no idea how to keep, and you expect me to solve your problems. The fact is you are in the exact same position you were in before we met, but now it is somehow my fault.”
>
>
>
Long story short, some people just have a strong need to blame anyone but themselves for mistakes.
Upvotes: 2
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2020/06/16
| 787
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<issue_start>username_0: Due to COVID-19, I'm working from home, and I'm going to give a presentation from home. I wonder if some of good practices when giving presentation directly are still good? For example: do not put too many words in the slides => but now the audiences only have the slides to stare at, should I put more words?<issue_comment>username_1: No, I'm pretty sure that more words to stare (squint) at aren't going to be a big winner. If you can't switch back and forth between yourself and your material in a seamless way, then send them the materials prior to the presentation and refer to them as you go. Number them, perhaps to make reference easy.
But some sort of screen splitting software would be better, perhaps.
And assure that there is room/time for questions and an effective way to answer them.
And attend to what is seen in the background as you speak and make sure that you don't get interruptions from people/pets as you go.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Differences between a real in-person and a remote presentation are quite many, but the main key points of keeping an audience engaged remain the same. Assuming the audience can access the slides somewhere before or after the presentation, I would suggest to have pictorial representations of main concepts - use schematic diagrams and small bullet point sentences to assist them. Play around with bold fonts and highlight colours for texts, but not too much of any of these. There are many other good practices for giving a scientific and technical presentation, do perform a google search and find your preferred ones.
For a remote session, it is best to choose a platform where you can share your screen and **keeping your video on**, which actually adds a real feel to the presentation for the audience. It is good to have a plain background and silent environment as much as possible. If you choose a virtual background, make sure the software platform has had enough practice with it so that it can recognize between you and the background without patches of your face disappearing in the background. Structure your words more like a conversation and less like a monologue because even though the audience might be the best in this field, it is easy to zone out in such a session, so it is best to put in **elements that attract attention** and makes your talk easy to follow. Also, remember to number your slides/equations, etc so that they are easy to refer to.
Also, keep track of the time, if there is a chair or convener, probably they will give warnings, otherwise time yourself and don't rush or be overly slow, try to keep a steady tempo. A **neutral tone** is also a strong requirement for remote sessions because if your audience is spread across the planet, you don't want to come across as either a rude person or a bore.
I remember the speakers from remote sessions whose talks were natural and didn't seem too rehearsed and plastic. In the end, the content matters the most, but it is always pleasant to see it presented in an easier way - just like in a good paper.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: May not be relevant for your situation, but I had added audio to my ppt presentations for building excel models using the Solver.
The students can work on the example in parallel, pause it as needed and, perhaps, mute me as needed :)
Feedback was good, as my students were in all the world's time zones so one single presentation was not going to cut it.
Upvotes: 2
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2020/06/16
| 502
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<issue_start>username_0: I saw some Ph.D. positions from a particular university. Most of the projects align well with my interest. So before applying, I want to write the professors some queries (e.g. just to know what he is expecting in the candidate or even I am eligible or my profile meeting his expectations or not). Is it ok if I send the same mail to all the professors I want to work with, even when they are from the same department? If they ever come to know any candidate sent the same email to all his colleagues, will it be harmful to the candidate?<issue_comment>username_1: It is okay in the sense that it doesn't violate any ethical rules. However, I think it is unlikely that you will find success on this path.
Professors receive an unhealthy number of emails every day, and this increases with an unhealthy number of PhD application emails in PhD application season. If you want an email to a professor to be successful, it may pay off to carefully balance two counteracting forces: on the one hand, you want to be economical with the professor's time, and on the other hand, you want to stand out in a positive way. The most straightforward way to stand out is to be specific about the professor's research: why are you particularly interested in working with this person on this project, and where in this project do you see a first solution strategy that could potentially lead to a first paper?
It is a big ask to craft an email that satisfies these constraints. However, generic emails are very likely to be ignored. So that route is probably best avoided.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: It is difficult to be certain, as it is partly a matter of individual personality. I think, however, that it would be good to mention in each letter that you are also making inquiries generally in the department so that no one is surprised. And if they are slightly tailored, say mentioning a paper of theirs that you are familiar with it is a bit better.
People certainly expect that if you send them a letter you will be sending others as well.
But I wouldn't send one letter with every one copied, or worse, BCC'd.
Upvotes: 0
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2020/06/17
| 943
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<issue_start>username_0: In computer science, is there any difference in usage of the terms: theoretical, mathematical?
If yes, which is more broader?
Context: If my supervisor says *focus on theoretical aspects of the paper* and *focus on mathematical aspects of the paper*. Should I interpret as same?<issue_comment>username_1: Theoretical and mathematical: **They're different**. Mathematical aspects are the mathematical parts, whereas theoretical aspects are the fundamental computer science parts. E.g., computational complexity is theoretical computer science, whereas statistical analysis is mathematical.
That said, **it may depend on the context**. Ask your advisor for clarity.
Ask your advisor for clarity whenever you don't understand, or, at least, mention that you don't understand and that you'll look into the details later, possibly asking for direction on where to look.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: This question is relevant to more than just computer science, so here's a take on it from an economist's perspective, that may still be relevant to other fields.
>
> ... a growing feeling in the later years of my work at the subject that a good mathematical theorem dealing with economic hypotheses was very unlikely to be good economics: and I went more and more on the rules - (1) Use mathematics as a shorthand language, rather than an engine of inquiry. (2) Keep to them till you have done. (3) Translate into English. (4) Then illustrate by examples that are important in real life. (5) Burn the mathematics. (6) If you can't succeed in (4), burn (3). This last I did often.
>
>
> <NAME>, 1906
>
>
>
This quote (which is amusing in the light of where modern economics has gone), strongly suggests that *theory* is some meta level above *mathematics*, and that mathematics is in fact often used to support theories. I feel like this generalizes to other fields, even mathematics itself. After all, if a mathematical theory [remains unproven](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unsolved_problems_in_mathematics), what is it based on? Of course, I'm being sloppy with my language here, and I believe *conjecture* would be a more technically accurate term. But when your hypothetical advisor says to "focus more on the theoretical aspects" I believe they're probably using the term theory more in a colloquial sense. I'm not involved in theoretical computer science, but there appears to be [similar topics](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unsolved_problems_in_computer_science) there.
So in short, I feel like theory may include mathematics, or non mathematics, like narrative reasoning or formal logic, and is thus broader.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: I expect that your supervisor is using both words fairly loosely, and that you should think about them in the context of what you are working on specifically.
"Theoretical" parts of the paper might refer to some grounding mathematical theory, but also might just be in contrast to an experimental part. For example, if you are writing a paper about computer systems, the theoretical part might be where you explain your model of what is going on abstractly, as opposed to when you do experiments to probe and develop that understanding. In this case it does not necessarily involve mathematics, but probably is a bit abstracted from the concrete cases considered in the experiments.
"Mathematical" parts of the paper might again relate to the abstract theory, but could also mean where you apply statistical analysis to experimental data.
So you should take these comments in the light of the actual topic and paper at hand. In terms of what your supervisor is trying to communicate, I would check with them to confirm, but it sounds like they are trying to direct your attention *towards* the chunk of the paper that's to do with the formal setting of the research, and *away* from thinking (for now) about other aspects of the paper, such as experiments, literature review, formatting, etc.
Upvotes: 0
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2020/06/17
| 5,234
| 22,065
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<issue_start>username_0: I wrote an exam a couple of months ago and I recently received an email accusing me of academic misconduct. I had just finished my first year of university and this is the first time that I am receiving a letter of this kind.
One of the long answers that I had written matched an answer that was posted online on a homework solutions website.
Now due to Covid-19, this exam was an online open-book exam, I had interpreted the open book exam to mean that we could have our notes and our lecture slides with us. The weeks leading to the exam, I had searched up practice questions online and had written and solved them out on paper to have with me during the exam just in case a similar question came up.
Sure enough one of the practice questions that I had was very similar to the one on the exam. Thus, I had an easy time answering it and pretty much reused what I had written on my notes. I don't think that's cheating if I only looked at my notes on an open book exam. Also, the exam had a lot of math calculations and conclusion statements to go with it. Most questions like this have similar steps/conclusions.
I had contacted a student advocate to help me with my case and I'm supposed to write an opening statement to present to a meeting with the dean of the department.
The evidence against me seems very strong. If I am found guilty, I would get an F on the class and be suspended from taking courses for the months of May-August. But, I am already in the process of finishing 4-5 classes this summer. I am distressed that all of my money and hard work would all be wasted.
Is my evidence sufficient? What other evidence could I use to prove that I didn't commit academic misconduct? What should I write on my opening statement?
**Clarifications:**
* I sifted through his emails regarding the final, and this was what he had written: "Open-Book final exam. Despite the final exam being open-book you still need to be well prepared otherwise- you will not have enough time to finish the exam if you spend a lot of time looking through your notes." No other explanations were provided. Perhaps it was my fault that I didn't ask for clarifications and just assumed.
* My notes and the solutions were very similar, but the conclusion was different. I had tried to solve the problem on my own, but referenced the solution when I got stuck.<issue_comment>username_1: Explain what you did and your study process. If you have notes from your study they will help. Insist, insist, that you did no wrong. That is about all you can do. If you are punished for having studied effectively then your system is broken and it will be difficult to correct.
If you are given a punishment and have the opportunity to escalate it, then do so. If it comes to it, demand a re-exam, even an oral one.
I studied math by solving a lot of problems beyond what was required. It gave the insight that turned me into a mathematician.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_2: Unfortunately for you, they do have a case. There is a big difference between taking notes while learning a subject, and keeping a database with answers to possible exam questions. Whether this database is on paper, on the computer, or on the internet makes no difference.
All you can do is:
* honestly explain what happened (like you did to us in your question),
* emphasise that you did not mean to cheat,
* explain that you have learned from it, and
* convince them that you will do things differently next time.
It might help if you can also show that:
* you understand the subject that was examined, and
* you answered all other questions yourself.
If it was my decision to make I would let you get away with a warning and keep an extra eye on you during the next exam.
But whatever the outcome is, the main thing you should do is learn from this experience: try to study to learn and fully understand the subject instead of study to pass exams.
To answer another of your worries: your money and hard work would not be wasted because you learned a lot about the subjects you studied, as well as a valuable lesson. You may not like this answer, but I wish you good luck and hope that the committee will understand the situation and be lenient.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: >
> due to Covid-19 this exam was an online open book exam, I had interpreted the open book exam to mean that we could have our notes and our lecture slides with us.
>
>
>
To me this is the key point. Was this a correct assumption on your part? i.e. did the professor really intend open book open notes, or did they intend open book closed notes?
If they intended open book open notes, then you did absolutely nothing wrong. He/she intended for you to able to use notes, you used your notes. It was a coincidence that you found this problem online while studying before the exam. Explain it this way.
Now, if he/she had intended open book but closed notes, well then unfortunately you did do something wrong. BUT, I would argue that this is at least partly the instructor's fault. He/she should have been clear that "open book" does not imply "open notes". I am always very clear in my exams about what is and is not allowed. Explain that you had assumed that notes would be okay because the instructor did not say otherwise. Explain that you recognize now that you should have asked for clarification on what was allowed instead of just assuming that notes would be okay. Argue that because it was unintentional, and that you answered all of the other questions yourself, a grade of an F on the whole exam is too harsh of a punishment and try to get them to change it to something else (like maybe just a reduced grade for that problem not the whole exam), or allow you to re-take the exam.
If you don't know what was intended, you may want to ask.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: ### If you have time before you have to respond, you should seek the advice of your university's [Ombudsperson](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organizational_ombudsman).
An Ombudsperson is an advisor that you can consult about your situation. Most universities have them, and they're **independent and confidential.** They're designed to act as advocates for the student, and they're usually expected to be familiar with your university's policies and procedures. Your Ombudsperson will be able to inform you of your rights, responsibilities, and often can offer advice.
If you're not sure if your university has a position like this, try searching "[University Name] Ombudsman". Most universities do have such an office.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: First and foremost, discuss this with your student advocate. They will know the specifics of your university's policies. And they will know how wise it is for example, to fight the charge directly vs. admitting to unintentionally violating a policy (if that turns out to be what you did).
Second, unless your student advocate advises against it, be fully open and honest about your intent to sit the exam honestly. Say everything to them that you said to us. Make it clear that you had no intent to cheat, and believed you were following the rules as presented.
Third, bring evidence of your intent, such as your hopefully copious notes from which you appear to have derived your answer.
It is likely that you violated an academic or ethical rule, if nothing else by using a significant part of someone else's work without attribution. If you copied someone else's answer to your notes, then copied from your notes to the exam without crediting the source, you have effectively copied the source. That's not OK.
If you and your student advocate believe that is what happened, then likely your best bet is to hope that you will be let off somewhat easily for a first offense with evidence that it was an unintentional violation. In any event, you may need to be looking for the most favorable of several poor options. And this will be a heck of a life lesson.
Good luck.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_6: [In a comment](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/150644/i-received-an-allegation-of-academic-misconduct-from-my-university-what-should#comment401575_150644), you write that the professor had written in an email regarding the exam:
>
> you will not have enough time to finish the exam if you spend a lot of time looking through your notes
>
>
>
*This email is absolutely key.* Quote the full email in your statement (including the date and timestamp), and highlight this sentence. It immediately implies that you were assumed and allowed to use notes.
The next point is that the professor apparently did not place any restrictions on what could be in your notes. (Did they?) Point this out.
The next exhibit should be that is was apparently easy to find practice questions that turned out to be similar to questions on the exam.
Nobody can hold it against you if you used the internet in researching what might come up in the exam, and in preparing your notes. (Yes, it would be better to reformulate your notes in your own words. Do this next time. You learn more that way.)
That should already be enough of an argument to rebut the accusation. Here is the structure of the argument I would propose:
1. You were allowed to use notes. Quote the email.
2. No restrictions on the notes were given.
3. You worked practice questions from various sources, e.g., from the internet. Quote the practice question, include if possible the link and a screenshot.
4. For one practice question, you used an answer you found online and put this in your notes. Again, include the link to the answer and a screenshot. Possibly include a copy of your notes.
5. One question on the exam was very similar to this practice question. Quote the question on the exam, perhaps highlight the similarities.
6. Therefore, it is not surprising that your answer matches something found in the internet.
Write this up in a short succinct way. Use paragraph breaks between the arguments. Don't ramble. Make this a short document of two pages at most.
If there is any sanity at your school, this accusation will be dropped immediately, and the professor will get some friendly advice about what to expect if they use questions on the exam that match questions that diligent students might find online while preparing.
Upvotes: 7 <issue_comment>username_7: [username_1’s answer](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/150645/1277) gives an excellent main approach, but there’s an important point they don’t address, which you need to understand and resolve. **There is a mismatch in your question, between how you describe what you did, and how you describe the “evidence against you”.** You need to resolve this mismatch in your defense to the university — otherwise it will seriously undermine your position.
You describe what you did as:
>
> I had searched up practice questions online and had written and solved them out on paper to have with me during the exam just incase a similar question came up. Sure enough one of the practice questions that I had was very similar to the one on the exam. Thus, I had an easy time answering it and pretty much reused what I had written on my notes.
>
>
>
I.e. you say you found a *practice question* online, solved it yourself, and re-used that solution from your notes (adapted to the actual exam question). You don’t mention how you used any *answers* you found online. But you describe the outcome as:
>
> One of the long answers that I had written matched an answer that was posted online on a homework solutions website.
>
>
>
A “matching” answer shouldn’t be flagged as potential plagiarism unless it matches *very* closely — much more closely than would happen just by being an answer to the same question, or even from studying an answer and then remembering the gist of it later.
So the key point is: **how much did you use this *answer* from the site, not just the questions?** Roughly splitting it up by cases:
* (A) You didn’t read the answer at all — you just worked on the same question. If your answer really does match the online answer very closely, then this case seems pretty implausible — so be prepared for the university to question this story hard, and be ready to justify how you came up with this answer. In particular, *don’t* describe it this way (like you did here) if what really happened is more like (B) or (C).
* (B) While studying the practice question, you read the given answer and incorporated what you learned from it into your notes (and then directly adapted your notes into your exam answer). This is acceptable under most standard interpretations of *open book*, so certainly acceptable unless the professor gave policies stating otherwise. On the other hand, it still seems a little surprising that your answer would match so closely as to get flagged as plagiarism, if this is what you did.
* (C) While studying, you copied down most or all of the given answer, and then during the exam, you adapted it directly from this copy. This *is* rather more borderline than case (B), under most “open book” policies — e.g. my “open book” policies include something like “do not seek or take answers from external sources”, so using an answer that you previously copied from an external source is clearly a bit dubious. You still have a reasonable case, but it needs different handling.
Essentially, in any case, you have to convince the authorities of two things:
1. What you say you did was legitimate, or at least, you reasonably believed it was.
2. You really did what you say you did.
In case (A) or (B), it’s clear that what you claim you did should be accepted as legitimate (unless the professor had specifically given policies to the contrary); but you may need more justification to convince the university that you really did what you claim, depending on how closely your answer matches the online one. (If your answer doesn’t match the online one so closely, then this should be easy, though — in that case whoever made the initial allegation was badly over-reaching.)
In case (C), there’s no difficulty accepting that you did what you say you did. But you should accept that — in hindsight — what you did was more borderline, and present your case as “I thought it was acceptable, because we didn’t receive clear policies” rather than “It was acceptable”.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_8: **Read and understand the policy of your department**
This answer is in addition to the other good answers posted here. You've already clearly articulated your own position and explained the actions you took and the motivation for them.
The next part is pure bureaucracy, what is the process for responding to the accusation? Is there a panel you can appeal to? Who should you address about how current circumstances and lack or face-to-face discussions will affect the outcome of your appeal?
These are things which will all be specific to your institution that we can't answer here, but will ultimately have the biggest bearing on the outcome. In the meantime, you should continue your studies for other courses the best you can on the presumption that you will be able to continue those courses in one form or another.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_9: The OP's best course of action in the meeting with the Dean mentioned in the OP would be, in my opinion, to rely on ambiguity of instructions on what was and was not permitted and present the answer as an honest mistake with no malicious intent. The OP could/ should accept own share of responsibility and not try to shift the blame or feign ignorance, but try to convince on grounds of integrity.
This appoach remains problematic and am not sure if it will be effective. The Dean/ department has no reason to be convinced by such an explanation, even if it is true.
An answer very similar to an online source does not demonstrate own knowledge and learning, which is the ultimate point of any examination. This creates a self-evident problem in marking, even if cheating is not assumed: the marker cannot tell if the student has indeed absorbed the taught material. Even for a purely mathematical exercise with only one solution, there are ways to differentiate from a third scource. Use different notation. Add calculations or remove them where the are not necessary. Change the narrative of the answer, if possible. Add detailed explanations and comments between steps. For such a high degree of similarity, the OP took none of those steps. Every marker of mathematics-based answers knows that all correct solutions are very similar, but different degrees of understanding can still be identified. The OP is not in a position to factually demonstrate own understanding. At best, it is a lapse of judgement and at worst it is lazy copying, with all shades in between for the department to decide.
A final point is that the OP copying and using the online solution to own notes is irrelevant. The same problem of own understanding can be identified if the answer was included and copied verbatim from the module material (which was perfectly fine to use). The OP would not have added anything to both cases, and in addition by showing showing the notes the OP simply admits that the solution was copied and used almost identically, with one intermediate step that added nothing.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_10: I believe the school has a Student Affairs Unit or Guidance and Counselling Section. Every student deserves a fair hearing. Writing a letter directly to the Head of the Institution (Vice Chancellor or Provost) can also accelerate your being heard.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_11: One aspect of the situation, also commented-upon considerably, is the idea that it's somehow wrong to have already worked-out or understood so many examples that examples on an exam are already known and understood.
This reminds me of some of my "colleagues" asserting that our grad-level written prelims should never ask questions that've been asked within the last 10 years or so. Um, well, doesn't that communicate to students that there's no sane guide to what to study? I've always counter-argued that this is non-sensical and actually counter to our collective goals.
In my grad course in which "grades matter", I tell the people up front that any reasonable, worthwhile question has (apart from trivial details) been asked and answered many times before, and is surely on-line. In particular, I recommend that people think for themselves, in order to be able to *appreciate* a solution (if they get stuck) that someone else has put on-line. And, after all, aren't we allowed to benefit, and reduce our labor, by the work of the many people before us?
In particular, I tell them that on "exams" that I give, they should work so that any supposedly reasonable question I ask them is "already seen", and they *remember* rather than problem-solving-in-limited-time.
But, yes, some people have not caught up to all this, and will punish students who are behaving otherwise reasonably. And the institutions have not necessarily caught up, either...
So, unfortunately, I have no good action-oriented advice, except to keep in mind the unreasonableness of the situation, and not feel guilty, privately, for behaving reasonably.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_12: If your answer was based on your own notes--even if they were developed in part by doing practice problems from a third-party website--I think you have a strong case.
However, there are a couple of factors that would work against you:
1. If the website you used was explicitly forbidden elsewhere in the course policies, e.g. in previous emails or the syllabus.
2. If the question/answer was a 'trap,' i.e. there was no correct answer or the solution posted on the third-party website was inaccurate or nonsensical in such a way that students would never arrive at it independently.
These are the factors that appear to be working against students caught cheating at Princeton during the covid-related transition to online exams: <https://www.dailyprincetonian.com/article/2020/05/princeton-teaching-assistant-math-department-slader-mat202-academic-integrity-cheating-covid>
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_13: It seems to me that you were copying a solution from another source without citing it (given the length of the solution and what you wrote "matches"). Whether you did this indirectly via your "notes" does not matter. In academia this is called plagiarism and should obviously be reason enough to fail an exam.
I would advise you not to try the "rules didn't say plagiarism is cheating" route. I think your defense could be that you were confused by the "open book" rule, see your mistake and will do better next time. In return the university might not apply those harsh rules to you.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_14: *I had tried to solve the problem on my own, but referenced the solution when I got stuck.* Well, then. It ***seems*** to me that you pretty much straight-copied the answer you found online, and then copied your notes to the exam paper. I have had to deal with these cases, fortunately very infrequently, and though the student in the dock always had my every sympathy, I always sided with the (usually extremely annoyed) instructor. Unfair as that may seem, here is my rationale. If the student had understood even a smidgen of the material, they could easily have reconfigured the answer to avoid any semblance of cheating. That they did not, indicates very strongly that it was straight unthinking letter-by-letter copying, and students ought to know that this is not what studying is all about.
I am sorry that I cannot be more reassuring, but this gives an impression of what the other side is thinking. That said, I always felt that the student should take the hit for this *one* error of judgment only on this *one* paper. I really hate this "mark on your permanent record" bullcrap they always scare the kids with.
Upvotes: 0
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<issue_start>username_0: I defended my Ph.D. in December last year. I was supposed to start my Postdoc position (with my Ph.D. supervisor) from March but the immigration documents got delayed by over 3 months because of the lockdowns. Earlier my appointment was decided for a year from March 2020 to February 2021. But after receiving the immigration documents last month, my appointment officially starts on June 1st, 2020.
I have been working on my Ph.D. Manuscripts since February and also worked on some new collaborative projects since.
Should I put *postdoctoral researcher* as my designation in CV since February 2020 or is it illegal to put the designation before the official appointment begins? If not the former one, what can I put in my CV to show the time from February to May? *Casual researcher*? *Research scholar*?
I was not paid during the period (January to May). My now Postdoc advisor (earlier PhD advisor) has told me that she can write in my recommendation letters that I was a postdoc since February, if needed.<issue_comment>username_1: I doubt that five months needs any explanation at all, especially at the present time. But, unless you are in an unusual legal system, "postdoctoral" is a descriptive not a legal term. "Independent researcher" also works.
But a line in the CV suggesting "Independent collaborative research" would seem to me to cover it well and also be positive.
In interviews and discussions you can go in to the visa and pandemic issues.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: For a normal CV, I would do nothing at all. A five month gap is completely unremarkable. If I received such a CV (and I've done a fair amount of hiring...), if I noticed at all, in a normal year I would probably assume you took a few months off, and applaud you for it. Given this year's unusual circumstances, that would not be a realistic assumption, and I would just not bother assuming anything.
If you're concerned about the upcoming job hunt, a mild concern might be whether you have made sufficient research progress to show momentum and "compete" favorably with new Ph.D's. That is a separate issue; hopefully you have been able to make some progress as an "independent researcher" nevertheless. However, especially if your productivity has been suboptimal, I would be leery to effectively backdate your start date since that *may* increase others' expectations of your progress.
All of this of course doesn't apply if you need your CV for some formal requirements where you are obligated to have no gaps, e.g. for certain visa applications etc.
Finally, a broader thought. You are making a transition from student to research professional. Things are of course messier in real life, but part of that is a transition from having success measured as "ticking the boxes" and "performing well in your student cohort", to "having interesting research successes". A year or two down the road, no one will care what trajectory you took and what activities you did when, merely whether by then you have established a track record of research success.
Good luck in your new position.
Upvotes: 1
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<issue_start>username_0: Is there an easy way to check for the "popularity" (or more particularly, "appealing to experts") or citations of some reference?
That is, when I find some reference and want to check how "good" it is w/o having to read the thing.
Some confusions:
* There can be quality papers with low citation counts. E.g. if the
paper considers an unpopular subfield/subtopic. Or if the topic is not an active research topic at the moment.
* A highly citated paper can be false if it's popular due to biases, rather than accurate paper. E.g. some psychological paper that studies something which feeds people's "subjective validation". That is, people believe a paper is good, because if fits their intentions.<issue_comment>username_1: I doubt that five months needs any explanation at all, especially at the present time. But, unless you are in an unusual legal system, "postdoctoral" is a descriptive not a legal term. "Independent researcher" also works.
But a line in the CV suggesting "Independent collaborative research" would seem to me to cover it well and also be positive.
In interviews and discussions you can go in to the visa and pandemic issues.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: For a normal CV, I would do nothing at all. A five month gap is completely unremarkable. If I received such a CV (and I've done a fair amount of hiring...), if I noticed at all, in a normal year I would probably assume you took a few months off, and applaud you for it. Given this year's unusual circumstances, that would not be a realistic assumption, and I would just not bother assuming anything.
If you're concerned about the upcoming job hunt, a mild concern might be whether you have made sufficient research progress to show momentum and "compete" favorably with new Ph.D's. That is a separate issue; hopefully you have been able to make some progress as an "independent researcher" nevertheless. However, especially if your productivity has been suboptimal, I would be leery to effectively backdate your start date since that *may* increase others' expectations of your progress.
All of this of course doesn't apply if you need your CV for some formal requirements where you are obligated to have no gaps, e.g. for certain visa applications etc.
Finally, a broader thought. You are making a transition from student to research professional. Things are of course messier in real life, but part of that is a transition from having success measured as "ticking the boxes" and "performing well in your student cohort", to "having interesting research successes". A year or two down the road, no one will care what trajectory you took and what activities you did when, merely whether by then you have established a track record of research success.
Good luck in your new position.
Upvotes: 1
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<issue_start>username_0: I and my team members worked on a machine learning paper to predict pass and fail on a standard academic test. The paper was submitted to a reputable journal. The first review came-back with a lot of encouragement but with few suggestions which made us change the methodology of our work especially with respect to the data - preprocessing. The changes were made the revised manuscript was submitted again. However, one thing which should have been debated before submitting was the accuracy of the results which was 100% for multiple evaluation metrics on each of the stratified folds. While the concern was raised within our team we did eventually submit it without rigorously making sure if everything was right or not.
Now the reviewer comments have come back and he has challenged the credibility of our work specifically pointing out that 100% accuracy looks too good to be true. We re-ran the models to evaluate how it behaves and found the results are quite different and not close to 100% percent. We have reviewed all the code and the steps we took to achieve the results but can-not find any flaw or mistake that may have resulted in 100% accuracy.
The current results which hover between 65 to 80% between folds look far more credible. However, I am not sure how to respond to the reviewer especially when we are not able to find our mistake that resulted in the 100% accuracy. We want to be absolutely honest and want to acknowledge that we committed a mistake in submitting the 100% accuracy and we should have been more critical of our work.
While as a group we want to be absolutely transparent with all the data files and results that we have obtained and share it with the reviewer. But I am a little concerned about how would the reviewer perceive such a big difference in results which change the conclusion or at least the interpretation.
Should we submit our responses and revise the manuscript or withdraw the paper?
Any help would be appreciated.<issue_comment>username_1: You have a paper that you, yourself, describe as flawed. I suggest that you fix it before you move forward. Perhaps there is time to do that without withdrawing it, but if you push it forward only bad outcomes are likely. A "response" rather than a correction, is probably not enough.
The journal might reject it. But if they publish it, the readers might, well, question your methods.
If you have time to fix it while staying in the publication process then do so, but otherwise, it is probably best to withdraw it until you can find the errors.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: Just say that you have re-run the experiments, and made an error. Whether the paper is rejected depends on other parts of the paper. Your problem or solution could be novel, and hence your solution is the best result thus far. In that case, 60%-80% is ok. In fact, this might lead to many follow up works, i.e., citations, if your problem is interesting. However, if there is a better solution, then there is nothing to publish.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_3: I suggest that you should withdraw your submission until you can figure out what's going on. Good science should be reproducible, and this is not. You did not appropriately critique your own results, and put forth a result that seemed to "look good". You've now changed some part of your modeling methodology, and gotten another set of results that "look good", even though you cannot articulate any theoretical or practical reason why this set of results is any more sound than the last. The first result did not pass the "smell test" of reasonable performance, and you kind of shot yourself in the foot by failing to investigate. Now you have a result that does pass the "smell test", but the reviewer is aware that your diligence in self-criticism is somewhat lacking.
You're essentially telling the reviewer that "the last result was an error, but this one is not, although we are unable to explain any difference between the two." It's a really big ask for the reviewer to have confidence in your updated methodology, if you yourself cannot explain why it is any more correct than what you did the first time around.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: You should definitely either withdraw or revise the manuscript in a way that explains what you did wrong earlier, what you have changed and what your new results are. Even if you pass the reviews and it is published, someone will question it and your credibility will be affected. 100% is indeed quite questionable to be fair, which largely suggests your training and test data are too similar / overfitting / that there is a data leak etc. which is a very fundamental mistake. Noone is going to bash you for correcting your mistake, even though you might be feeling ashamed.
I was in a group once and a labmate said they fixed the problem we had with overfitting without disclosing his edits in detail and our lab leader insisted we complete experiments and write the paper and send it out despite my suspicions and clear out-outspokenness about it. He was even mean to me about it when I questioned the labmate's magical solution. Later, finally by chance we found out the labmate changed the code to use training data as the test data, so he was training on the same data and testing on it too (we got 96%-98% accuracy even then - this is explainable in neural nets). He had already left the job as his contract was ending, and clearly this was no mistake. We found this after we wrote the whole paper about it and I have spent so much time on it, but I was GLAD we found it after all, it could likely pass the reviews but sooner or later my credibility would go down with that paper.
Upvotes: 1
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<issue_start>username_0: Edit: I found the answer. In the preface to the english edition it says
>
> This book is a translation from the orginal Chinese text of notes based
> on a six-week course on algebraic curves and Riemann surfaces taught at
> Beijing University in 1982.
>
>
>
However, in the English Translation of the Preface to the Chinese Edition it says
>
> In the summer of 1982,1 had the honor of teaching a course on algebraic
> curves at Beijing University. The course met six hours a week for a period
> of six weeks. This book is a thoroughly edited version of the notes taken
> during this course.
>
>
>
So this is like 3 hours a week for a period of 12 weeks so about 1 semester then.
I accidentally checked the english translation to the preface to the chinese edition around based on user111388's question 'Are those numbers from Chinese university terms?' Thank you, user111388.
---
I'm planning to self-study <NAME> - Introduction to algebraic curves and am wondering about how long it would take to finish. I can reasonably estimate how long this book would take to finish if said book was used in some university and is expected to be completed in a semester.
In the preface of this book, it says:
>
> based on a six-week course on algebraic curves and Riemann surfaces taught at
> Beijing University in 1982.
>
>
>
I understand a regular semester to take about 16 weeks and a summer semester to be about 6 weeks, but I'm not sure if the above quote refers to 3/8-ths of a regular semester or a full summer semester.
Context: <https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/3724134/ordinarily-how-long-does-it-take-to-complete-phillip-a-griffiths-introductio><issue_comment>username_1: It is not uncommon for visiting scholars/professors to give a short high-intensity course during their period of visit. These have little relation to the usual/normal university semester/summer schedule since they are (1) tied to the limited visit of somebody, and (2) aimed at people not burdened by classes on the normal schedule (not undergraduates or early grad students in the US).
I have seen these as a full day once a week, half days several times a week - whatever can fit into the schedules of the visitor and the pool of people who want to take the course.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: I found the answer. In the preface to the english edition it says
>
> This book is a translation from the orginal Chinese text of notes based
> on a six-week course on algebraic curves and Riemann surfaces taught at
> Beijing University in 1982.
>
>
>
However, in the English Translation of the Preface to the Chinese Edition it says
>
> In the summer of 1982,1 had the honor of teaching a course on algebraic
> curves at Beijing University. The course met six hours a week for a period
> of six weeks. This book is a thoroughly edited version of the notes taken
> during this course.
>
>
>
So this is like 3 hours a week for a period of 12 weeks so about 1 semester then.
I accidentally checked the english translation to the preface to the chinese edition around based on user111388's question 'Are those numbers from Chinese university terms?' Thank you, user111388.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]
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2020/06/17
| 1,231
| 5,237
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<issue_start>username_0: How much help can one expect from their PhD advisor to get a job (academic or industry)? Is it true that graduates often get positions just by having their advisor make a "phone call"?<issue_comment>username_1: **I think it's reasonable to expect a PhD advisor to *make introductions* but not to place you into jobs.**
They should help introduce you to people at conferences, both directly 1 to 1 or by supporting you in getting opportunities to present.
They should introduce you to visiting professors when they come to tour your space/give a talk to your department.
They should involve you in collaborations, to expose you to more ongoing research as well as researchers.
When it's time to apply for a job, *you* should make the phone call (or often an email). The introductions you've already had let you start the conversation with something like:
>
> Hi, I'm Professor Maxwell's student, we met at the Demons Conference last year. I'm graduating this year and looking for post doc positions...
>
>
>
For industry jobs, I think it depends on your lab and your advisor. For some labs, your advisor has industry as well as academic contacts, because you collaborate with industry or work in a field where industry researchers are found at the same conferences as academics; in that case, all of the above still applies. For others, I would expect you would need to do more outside networking on your own, and I would look more to the rest of your institution for the same sort of networking support, through job fairs and such.
In some locations and cultures, yes, maybe a phone call is all you need, but in others people would be offended by that approach. The phone call that is more important to get you a job, though, goes the other way: it's when the future employer calls your advisor after hearing from you, and asks them what they think of you.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: Some universities specifically tell supervisors that helping students find a job is not part of the supervisor's responsibility.
Most supervisors will give advice. Some may provide more help than that.
>
> Is it true that graduates often get positions just by having their advisor make a "phone call"?
>
>
>
This would be extremely rare. Some might consider it a sign of corruption if it were an academic job. Academia has a tradition of open competition for jobs.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: My advisors wrote generic recommendation letters and uploaded them to Interfolio, and that was pretty much it. That said, my relationship with them was very transactional and so I never felt comfortable asking for anything other than recommendation letters.
Personally, I think advisors *should* help with the job hunt, and should take the initiative to offer help if they know you're looking. If they don't, there's nothing wrong in asking. I'll be repeating some of the already given advice, but I would expect this help to come in the form of recommendation letters, reviewing job application materials, introducing you to people in their network, advising you on interview prep, and - before all of these things - mentoring you over the course of your academic program and encouraging you to do things that'll make you a good job candidate (like presenting at conferences, collaborating on research, encouraging you to publish, giving you opportunities to gain more relevant experience when possible).
As far as jobs on silver platters are concerned, I'm sure there's the occasional graduate who gets a job purely because of who they know. It's probably very rare though, as most places aren't going to hire someone they think isn't right for the position. The more likely scenario is that a particularly influential/well-connected advisor might tell search committee members, "look out for X's application, they'd be great for this job" and maybe talk them up. That might cause a search committee to perk up to X's application and maybe even interview them, but in the end, the job offer will most likely go to whomever they view as the most qualified/best fit.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: It very much depends on two factors:
* your relationship with your advisors
* how influential they are in the area of your interest
And then it depends on other factors like:
* How comfortable are they with recommending people aggressively
* How does your actual skill-set and experience look like
* Have you worked with the prospective company / department of your choice before?
Even the most influential people with the best intentions can't place someone completely unqualified into a job / position (hopefully).
On the other hand, if you already worked on a project with an external company and would like to work there in the future, an additional recommendation from your advisor might just be the edge you need to "place you in the job with one phone call".
I think you can see where this is going.
It's not uncommon that advisors introduce you to new contacts or speak out a recommendation in your favor. That counts for industry as well as academia contacts, at least where I am from (Austria) and what I have witnessed so far. Anecdotal evidence is anecdotal.
Upvotes: 1
|
2020/06/18
| 251
| 1,063
|
<issue_start>username_0: I have my PhD defense coming up and understand that I'll be asked if I have any questions for the examination committee, like asking for advice on turning chapters into publications.
Does anyone have any suggestions? I'm completely stumped!
FYI the defense includes just myself and a small examination committee (three people) so no audience, peers etc.<issue_comment>username_1: Perhaps you can ask for advice on post-PhD life? Assuming you're pretty confident that you'll pass your exam (and your advisor shouldn't have allowed you to defend if they didn't think you were 100% going to pass!), your next step will be getting a job or postdoc somewhere. Perhaps you can ask the committee what they found most important during their first few years post-defense?
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: You may ask their opinion of how to continue the topic being covered by your PhD thesis or how they see the application of it. I expect that your work is somehow closed, but you may get interesting advise you don't see now.
Upvotes: 0
|
2020/06/18
| 585
| 2,501
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<issue_start>username_0: I want to publish an educational article about some non-standard approach to Lagrangian Mechanics, but the problem is that I have written it in my country language (not in English) so I want to know if there is any journal which accepts academical papers, I shall surely convert it into English if there exist one. I want to mention that I have no background in research, I'm a lecturer at one of the state Universities.<issue_comment>username_1: Yes: Some journals publish tutorials. Just add "tutorial" to your search terms and you should find something appropriate.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_2: One example would be the [American Journal of Physics](https://aapt.scitation.org/ajp/info/about) published by the American Association of Physics Teachers. Quoting from their Audience and Mission statement (at the link above):
>
> The mission of the American Journal of Physics (AJP) is to publish articles on the educational and cultural aspects of physics that are useful, interesting, and accessible to a diverse audience of physics students, educators, and researchers. Our audience generally reads outside their specialties to broaden their understanding of physics and to expand and enhance their pedagogical toolkits at the undergraduate and graduate levels.
>
>
>
They have quite a broad range of articles, many of which are of broad interest.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: The *International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and Technology* (published by Taylor & Francis) has articles called *[Classroom Notes](https://think.taylorandfrancis.com/tmes-classroom-notes/)* which
>
> provide a space for short articles highlighting a single, unusual and interesting result, an alternative method, or a creative approach to teaching a particular mathematical idea. These articles are intended to provoke ideas that will support our teaching of mathematics at school or university level
>
>
>
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: The SIAM Review (published by the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics) has articles called *[Education](https://www.siam.org/publications/journals/siam-review-sirev)* which
>
> consists primarily of individual modules that are self-contained presentations of specific topics in applied mathematics, scientific computation, or their applications; each module provides the primary material needed to teach a given topic as well as supplementary material.
>
>
>
Upvotes: 1
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2020/06/18
| 2,002
| 8,391
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<issue_start>username_0: I am a current undergraduate who has been involved in a research lab for the past 3 years. Not too long after joining, I was asked to be a co-author on a paper that was already written. My PI wanted me to be recognized on a publication so I could add it to my CV, but I did not contribute or even read the paper until after it was published. I accepted this co-authorship at the time because I was excited to have a paper under my belt. Now, after gaining more experience working in academia, I realize that I clearly should not have been named a co-author.
My academic reputation is important to me as I hope to have a career in this field of research, so I want to make sure I am honest about my work. I will be applying to graduate schools soon and am concerned about how this co-authorship will affect my applications and my interviews. I have considered removing the publication from my CV, and I have also thought about keeping it on there while being honest about the situation if asked about it in interviews.
Do you have any advice on how to approach this situation? Thanks in advance!<issue_comment>username_1: What's past is past and can't be changed. It is good that you have learned about this issue, but I suggest that you ignore it and just list it like any other publication. There is no major harm done here, even though such "gift" authorship is frowned on in many (not all) fields.
If asked to explain it, just say that you were, at the time, less sophisticated as you were an undergraduate.
Alternatively, you could leave the paper off of your CV, but that can look strange if the paper surfaces.
But the bottom line here is that, as an undergraduate, inexperienced in such things, you did nothing wrong.
And, in some fields, a lot of people get listed as authors even if their intellectual contribution was minimal, since their work is essential to carrying on the work of the lab. Whether that applies in your case, I can't say. Your advisor, PI, might be worth having a conversation about this issue. They may assure you, or not, but their opinion is worth hearing.
---
I need to add a few things for context. There are certainly a lot of people who don't accept what they call "gift" authorship in any form and so hate on answers like this one. But the question of what is a gift and what is earned can be subtle. In most fields, where one or a few people work together, without need of extensive and long running laboratories with all of the technicians that are required for that, it is a pretty simple question and gift authorship is heavily frowned on in those fields.
But there are some fields in which *nothing* gets done without a lot of people contributing over a long period of time. When a paper comes out of CERN, for example, the list of authors might be very long. An experiment might take years to set up and require hundreds of technicians, without whom there would be no breakthrough at all. The work is simply impossible without them. In those situations, lots of people get authorship for their contributions.
There have been a few papers, in fact, where the list of authors has been longer than the paper itself. But, in those fields, it is understood what it means and the order of authorship might be vitally important to help sort it out.
It is, I think, a mistake, for those in other fields with a different work process, to judge these people.
See, for example [this paper with more than 5000 authors](https://www.nature.com/news/physics-paper-sets-record-with-more-than-5-000-authors-1.17567)
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: ---
While an (undergrad) student may be expected to know about the ethical problem of gift authorship, in my experience they often lack the research experience to accurately judge whether a contribution is worth co-authorship or not\*.
(I suspect that this may be a contributing factor in a number of questions on this site that have the opposite problem: the poster doubts whether some of their co-authors, in particular supervisors, should be on papers.)
A second point "in favor" of OP is that while I've certainly seen situations that I judge to be gift authorship, the gift authors in those cases have always been far up in the power/hierarchy (directors, professors), *never* the unimportant undergrad student.
All this does not mean that the case in question isn't a gift-authorship an thus unethical - we don't know the situation sufficiently well to accurately judge this. But it *does* mean there is a substantial possibility that the problem is OP's perception of their contribution rather than the (lack of) contribution.
(There still is an ethical problem in that OP should have received, read and approved the manuscript before submission - this may be counted as "against".)
In other words, **as an outsider after weighing the situation including the fact that OP thinks they should not be co-author, I'm not sufficiently sure that OP is right that I could accuse them of unethical behaviour.**
---
### What to do?
>
> my PI told me "I'm going to make you a co-author on this paper" just before he submitted it. I did raise my concern about my lack of contribution, but he said that it is his decision who goes on the paper and he wanted me included.
>
>
>
is not a particularly fruitful interaction in terms of *learning*.
* If a similar situation arises in future, you may learn more if you ask what the contribution is that they think makes you a co-author: with the answer OP can hopefully a) find out whether this is actually a gift authorship and b) adjust your judement of contributions if not.
(Probably too late now after a few years)
* In case of sufficiently serious misconduct, there is of course also the possibility to contact the editor of the journal and have your name removed. This would raise a big stink, and is *very* serious. A situation with clearly non-negligible possibility that OP's judgment of intellectual contributions is not yet fully calibrated of course does not warrant such a step.
* I agree with username_1 that there is nothing wrong with an undergrad student trusting the judgment of their PI that their work in the lab did constitute a sufficient intellectual contribution to merit co-authorship. After all, they are in that lab in order to *learn* the profession of research.
Unfortunately, I think many PIs are not very good at *teaching* research. I.e., at explaining the what and why of the research profession as opposed to the nominal field of study (I've even seen this with professors who had a reputation for being very good lecturers). The research profession is in my experience often learned by training on the job.
* The misconduct with the paper would still not be by OP but rather by their professor who (possibly) gave a gift authorship without OP having a say in that matter.
* The ethics of OP's behaviour IMHO boil down to whether they are required to denounce their professor for *suspected* unethical behaviour.
In my opinion: clearly no (but where I am, there is substantial bad history wrt. denunciations - I am aware, though, that other users of this site differ in their opinion on whether one is ethically required to denounce what level of alleged, suspected or known academic misconduct.)
Iff it would turn out that OP should rather not have been co-author, I'd judge *their* behaviour at the level of a mistake. After all, they raised concerns - which were overruled by someone whom they were supposed to trust to teach them proper research, and of whom they were very much dependent.
So not nice, to be done better next time, time to move on.
As for the CV, noone expects an undergrad in the middle of the author list to have contributed the groundbreaking research in that paper.
If the paper is brought up in an interview, you can say that you didn't think that your research work merited an authorship, but you trusted your PI to be right when they said it was.
---
\* I'm also saying this as someone who was told at a inventor counseling at a university patent information center that what I consider obvious is considered quite non-trivial on the patent office's scale of invention steps ("non-trivial means non-trivial for an average/mediocre professional") as experienced post-doc with 15 years of professional experience.
Upvotes: 1
|
2020/06/18
| 997
| 4,083
|
<issue_start>username_0: My son took an Undergraduate Thesis course this year, and he could not submit his thesis at the end of the school year. Even he has graduated now, he cannot submit his thesis. His advisor insisted that he should finish his current project, then submit the thesis. He got a temporary 80% on his transcript, even though he has published a conference paper and a workshop paper as a co-first author in top tier conferences in the past year.
It seems unreasonable to me and sounds that the professor is holding the grade as a hostage. It would be more proper to let him finish and submit the thesis on whatever the student got in the past year, and the professor judge the thesis and give a fair grade. The ongoing research can be continued as a collaboration and they could submit the paper together if more conclusive results have been obtained.<issue_comment>username_1: Giving an 80% grade pro tem allows it to be increased as needed and is “easy” on all parties.
Giving a higher grade that may need to be reduced is perfectly feasible just harder to do in front of all parties.
Once the thesis is submitted and has its proper grade then the final marks can be ratified.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: Short answer is that I can't tell if it's ethical or reasonable given a lot of details are missing in your case. However, I can definitely say, accepting the graduation diploma with an unsettled grade is an incorrect decision. It should be a sustained "incomplete" grade and the student should never have agreed to take an 80% as a make-do grade.
>
> even though he has published a conference paper and a workshop paper
> as a co-first author in top tier conferences in the past year.
>
>
>
Yet, this is still not the thesis. Unless, the professor had promised (and the burden to show the proof is on the student) that a co-first author conference proceeding will be held as equivalent to the required thesis.
>
> It seems unreasonable to me and sounds that the professor is holding
> the grade as a hostage. It would be more proper to let him finish and
> submit the thesis on whatever the student got in the past year, and
> the professor judge the thesis and give a fair grade.
>
>
>
An important component that was not clear here is that what the contractual agreement between the student and the professor was. If the thesis proposal has three parts, A, B, C. And the student never finished C, but managed to publish a conference proceeding with materials in A & B. Technically speaking, the thesis is incomplete. And the professor is in the right to withhold the grade.
What is truly fishy to me is that, at least from what I know working in the US, graduation should not be possible unless all grades have been audited and finalized. If the professor gave an 80% and that grade got through audit, and then the student graduated. I really don't know how likely the institute will entertain a transcript revision.
>
> Anyway I am disappointed that he received no award at the graduation
> event even he got 100% on his other courses this year.
>
>
>
This is really besides the point. I'd suggest using this opportunity as a training for the child, know the right and learn how the system operates. It will be helpful along the way in future. Think about:
* Now that graduation is all done, degree obtained. How much does the student want to get that thesis done? What kind of professional relationship would the student want to have with the said professor?
* If there was alleged exploitation, can the student put together a case and ask for mediation or grievance with the academic department? Who can be the student's advocate?
* If the student decided to follow through and complete the thesis, will the professor really be able to change the grade? What's the buy in? Can there be a documented procedure so that all parties involved (registrar, the department, the student and the faculty) are in agreement?
* Keep written proofs on all communication on this issue from this point and on.
Upvotes: 1 [selected_answer]
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2020/06/18
| 1,595
| 6,636
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<issue_start>username_0: I'm starting a grad school and I'm used to start my emails to all my professors with "Dear Professor Smith", even though they respond with their first name at the end of their emails ("Best, John").
I noticed that the guys I'm starting the studies with are using "Hi John" in their emails. I don't think they know professors better than I do.
I don't want to be too familiar, but neither be the only who keeps this distance. Should I switch to "Hi John"?<issue_comment>username_1: Different places have different standards, even within the same country. The US tends to be fairly informal, but I was the only grad student who generally called the professors by their first names. But I was a bit older than most and the faculty was young, so there was little social separation. On the other hand, I pretty much required my own doctoral students to use my first name, though some of them found it hard, as they came from more formal societies.
My preference, personally, would be to stay fairly formal for a bit until you at least meet them face to face and take our cues from that meeting. You can't really go wrong by being a bit more formal than you need to be.
But, in the US, at least, and with your description, you are probably safe enough.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: At least in my field and in the US, the culture is that *graduate students are supposed to be 'colleagues-in-training'*. As such, it is natural for students to be on casual address terms with professors: they are supposed to be working towards being equals.
Of course there is still a gap in power and experience, but casual address is one way to start narrowing that. If others are using casual means of address, it's probably appropriate for you to do so as well.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: In the US-influenced culture of international Academica, closing an email with the first name can most of the time be interpreted as implicit invitation to interact, at least in further email communication, on a first-name basis.
So yes, most likely you can address your professors by first name in emails. Not because your peers are doing so, but because your professors are inviting you to. For other communication, I would just ask: "Is it OK if I call you Jane, or do you prefer <NAME>"?
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_4: Simple rule of the thumb is: address anyone the way he wants to be addressed. Some prefer prof...others prefer Mr/Mrs/Miss. Find out from them how their correspondence should be addressed.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: Signing an email with their first name doesn't immediately grant permission to address them in that way. Specially in academia. **Ask them how they want to be addressed.**
Let me add an anecdote. I used to work with a professor whose personality often resulted in people talking to them by their first name. However, I always referred to them as "Professor", both in person and via email. They never told me to do otherwise and I was completely fine with this.
A couple of years passed and one day I decided to ask if they'd be OK if I referred to them by their first name. This resulted in a whole conversation where they expressed how upsetting it is for people to take this for granted (especially undergrads). The conversation ended with them saying that of course it was fine and thanking me for asking.
FWIW this was in North America with an United-Statesian professor.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_6: In Nordic countries and in mathematics, the norm is to not use honorary titles in general. Hence, I would be starting my emails with "Hei/Hej [first name]", in general. Foreigners coming from hierarchical cultures might not be used to this, so if writing in English, I would typically write "Dear [title]," and thereafter copy what they do.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_7: Since this question is not tagged “US”, I'd add two data points from other countries that I know from experience:
* In Germany, the default is that professors and students, as well as other adults who interact in a professional relationship (except in performing arts), call each other by last name (not with academic title but generic “Sehr geehrte Frau Schmidt”, “<NAME>” etc.). Oftentimes people switch to using first names, but this is an explicit decision and generally reciprocal – either both call each other by last name or both by first name (they are “per Du”). Many professors prefer the more informal first-name basis even for master students, and if the professor calls you by first name then it is probably safe to assume they're fine with you replying in the same way. If the professor is relatively young, then this would be probably the most common scenario; if they are substantially older then they would more likely explicitly *ask* whether the student is ok with first-name, or else stay with last-name (not completely uncommon even among colleagues).
I believe this situation is similar in many other European countries.
* In Norway, and presumably the other Scandinavian countries too, virtually everybody calls everybody by first name. Even undergraduate students wouldn't think twice to address their professor “<NAME>”.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_8: Of course it depends highly of where you are located. There are some countries and universities in which there is a strict social hierarchy and professors prefer to be addressed by their title (some conservatives regions in Asia come tome mind), and there are others where the boundary professor-student is rather blur (where I live professors would feel awkward if being addressed as Dr., given they speak casually with students, share drinks with them while lecturing and so on).
I would consider three points:
1. How do they want to be addressed? Just ask them
2. Address them as most students do. It won't stand out.
3. It doesn't matter. Most of them don't think much about it anyway.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_9: When I was a grad student in Canada (in engineering) back in the 70s/80s, students always addressed professors as either Dr. Foo or Prof. Bar, never by just their first or last names. I can't even imagine someone doing otherwise.
I was in a professional Masters program 5 years ago in the US (in software engineering). I was older than perhaps two of my profs. I believe my entire class (which ranged in age from perhaps 30 to me) addressed all of our professors using doctor or professor honorifics. Now, one of them was *Prof. FirstName LongName-AnotherLongOne*, I called her Prof. AnotherLongOne.
Upvotes: 0
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2020/06/18
| 2,323
| 9,670
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<issue_start>username_0: I found proof for an open math problem. I know it likely has flaws, but I can't catch any and I'd like to put the proof out for revision. But without losing the credit for it, in case it turns out to be correct.
The thing is I'm just a math student and I have no experience publishing math papers or anything.
I've already checked a post here with the same question I'm asking, in which many people recommended talking first with a mentor or a trustworthy teacher, but I've never had a relationship with a teacher. And currently, I'm not seeing my teachers in person, because I'm in quarantine and my classes are virtual. Moreover, it would be really embarrassing for me to talk about this with people I know, especially if they rapidly find a mistake in the proof. I fear they'd think I'm silly for even considering the possibility I may have proven something no mathematician has been able to prove before. So I don't want to share this with anyone I know unless the proof is reviewed by expert mathematicians and I'm fully sure it's correct or at least seems to be.
Finally, as you may have noticed, English isn't my native language, so I don't know how I could manage to write down this proof in English. I'm not familiar with the math language and notation used in English.
I want an English version because once the proof is published, I'd like to send it to important mathematicians for revision and I don't know important mathematicians who speak my language.<issue_comment>username_1: There are really only two ways to do this. One is that you do it all yourself, and the other is that you get some help. You've indicated that you don't think you have the capability to either check it properly or express it in English, so it seems clear that you need help.
The best help would come from someone who you know, such as a professor, given your other issues. And it wouldn't be terrible if they point out an error. That might lead to additional insight that could serve you well..
But once you have it in reasonable shape, there are math journals that will publish student work. If it is truly good, as judged by your professor, you might be able to submit to a regular math journal. If you reach that stage you will get some additional advice from reviewers to further refine it. But it needs to be in fairly good shape first.
Just publishing it, yourself on something like ArXiv seems like a bad choice here if it still is in only preliminary shape. If it has flaws then you might not like the feedback you get.
But your local math professors should support you in this. They can also give you some advice about future directions. Don't underestimate the value of that.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: >
> Moreover, it would be really embarrassing to me to talk about this with people I know, especially if they rapidly find a mistake in the proof. I fear they'd think I'm silly for even considering the possibility I may have proven something no mathematician has been able to prove before
>
>
>
My advice for this concern is to propose your work as an *attempt* rather than conclusive. It is *normal and okay* for attempts to fail: most do. If you reduce your expectations publicly to those that you hold privately, there is little cost to failure and substantial benefit to success. Ask others to find errors in your work, and be humble.
If they can find no errors, they will be sufficiently impressed. If they do find errors, you can be appreciative and they will feel useful for having found and taught you something and you need not be embarrassed, only thankful.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_3: Such things are quite simple in our day and age. Although you will request help from any professor both for translation and for initial review, you will make sure that you are **the first recorded person to post this proof** even if it's in your own language. Simply create a transaction in either the Bitcoin blockchain or the Ethereum blockchain with that information (Bitcoin blockchain allows for adding extra metadata in your transaction, the first transaction ever has a phrase the creator left).
If you don't know what a blockchain is, first read up on it, but the gist is that it is a secure and unhackable way to store data in a "cloud" type storage. No professor or university could hack it. If you don't want the proof to be visible, you can always encrypt it and post the encrypted version.
EDIT: I found a service that does just that in a relevant question: [proofofexistence.com](https://proofofexistence.com/)
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: Write up a rough draft of the proof, create a public Github repository, and upload the pdf. The Github commit history functions as a publicly-verifiable timestamp. Yet you can always delete the repository if the proof turns out to be wrong. Your work doesn't yet belong on Arxiv, and such uploads are hard to take down.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_5: >
> So I don't want to share this with anyone I know unless the proof is reviewed by expert mathematicians and I'm fully sure it's correct or at least seems to be.
>
>
>
This sentence seems to be a bit contradictory in itself. I'm assuming you meant
>
> So I don't want to share this with *the mathematical community* I know unless the proof is reviewed by expert mathematicians and I'm fully sure it's correct or at least seems to be.
>
>
>
First of all, since you are new to the world of academia, it's reasonable that you are worried about having proper authorship. However, I don't think there is anything to worry about here. Just follow these steps
1. Contact a professor of your university who is expert in the area pertinent to your proof. An email such as follows will suffice
>
> Dear Prof. [name],
>
>
> While working on [...] I found an interesting approach for proving the Theorem [...]. As far as I am aware, this is still an open problem, so I would be interested in knowing if my attempted solution actually constitutes a proof (or at least if it's a valid step towards one).
>
>
> Would you be interested in discussing the details via a Skype/Zoom call? I could also send you a draft of the attempt if you like.
>
>
> Best regards,
>
>
> <NAME>
>
>
>
You could also mention that you'd like to make it into a publication if the proof is correct or salvageable. But that would be of course implied. Saying it explicitly could sound a bit arrogant to some professors.
2. If the professor agrees s/he will likely find room for improvement. Or will discover an irreparable flaw. We don't know. In any case, based on the amount of work done, s/he might suggest to
a. Publish a coauthored paper with you and him/her
b. Publish a solo paper with your name only (in that case **acknowledge the professor at the end**)
c. Not publish anything at all
3. If a. or b.: you are in business! If c., you might try to publish anyway, but this is absolutely **not recommended**, you might regret it later on. Rest assured that, even if the professor contributed a sizable amount, it's still possible that s/he might propose b. There have been several cases where I've seen this happening (albeit for PhD students).
4. If a., when the peer review arrives, the professor will likely take care of that. If b., you'll be the corresponding author, but you can (should) still ask the professor for help.
This was the by far most likely scenario. Now let's review some less likely ones that might make you worried.
1. The professor doesn't want to know anything about it. In this case you can look for a different professor. Or contact a post-doc in your department. You might not know them personally, but the likelyhood of not finding anyone willing to listen is low. If you don't find *anyone*, I don't really have any smart solution.
2. The professor "steals" your work. That is, s/he publises the proof without giving you credit for it. I find this extremely unlikely, almost unprecedented. There is nothing to gain for a professor to publish one more paper after they have tenure and there is everything to lose if they are found out about it. If it really happens (I highly doubt it will) you have all the e-mail trail and you can prove that you initiated this dialog with the professor. Usually in every university there is a professor who is sort of a reference point for students (when they have complaints etc..). Go to him/her and explain the issue. I'm sure justice will be made.
3. You're afraid you will look like a fool for attempting to present an incorrect proof to a professor. Don't worry, this won't happen as long as you don't make any assumptions prior to presenting the attempted proof. It's perfectly reasonable to make mistakes. Worst case scenario, your attempt would be equivalent to the question "why is this not a correct proof? Where is the mistake?". This is a valid question and you **absolutely have the right to ask it as a student.**
Also let me comment that your situation is not unique. I have witnessed other cases of master students publishing before their thesis. I do not know the details but they had a professor who helped and they got credit for it.
Let me also give a personal viewpoint. In academia we need to work under the assumption that we are all on the same team. Our goal is to get mathematics done, not to get to be the the one who says "first!". The latter attitude would lead to people keeping secrets and severely impair collaborations. Again, it's pretty reasonable for you to worry about this, but try to learn to free yourself from these concerns as you mature as a researcher.
Upvotes: 2
|
2020/06/18
| 2,064
| 8,600
|
<issue_start>username_0: In a research paper scientific experiments are carried out and their results recorded. Anybody can just fabricate experiment data saying they did an experiment and these were the results. The only way you'd know if it was true is if other non related people repeated the experiments and found the same data.
Does the peer review process ensure experimental data being reported is accurate and how so?<issue_comment>username_1: There are really only two ways to do this. One is that you do it all yourself, and the other is that you get some help. You've indicated that you don't think you have the capability to either check it properly or express it in English, so it seems clear that you need help.
The best help would come from someone who you know, such as a professor, given your other issues. And it wouldn't be terrible if they point out an error. That might lead to additional insight that could serve you well..
But once you have it in reasonable shape, there are math journals that will publish student work. If it is truly good, as judged by your professor, you might be able to submit to a regular math journal. If you reach that stage you will get some additional advice from reviewers to further refine it. But it needs to be in fairly good shape first.
Just publishing it, yourself on something like ArXiv seems like a bad choice here if it still is in only preliminary shape. If it has flaws then you might not like the feedback you get.
But your local math professors should support you in this. They can also give you some advice about future directions. Don't underestimate the value of that.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: >
> Moreover, it would be really embarrassing to me to talk about this with people I know, especially if they rapidly find a mistake in the proof. I fear they'd think I'm silly for even considering the possibility I may have proven something no mathematician has been able to prove before
>
>
>
My advice for this concern is to propose your work as an *attempt* rather than conclusive. It is *normal and okay* for attempts to fail: most do. If you reduce your expectations publicly to those that you hold privately, there is little cost to failure and substantial benefit to success. Ask others to find errors in your work, and be humble.
If they can find no errors, they will be sufficiently impressed. If they do find errors, you can be appreciative and they will feel useful for having found and taught you something and you need not be embarrassed, only thankful.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_3: Such things are quite simple in our day and age. Although you will request help from any professor both for translation and for initial review, you will make sure that you are **the first recorded person to post this proof** even if it's in your own language. Simply create a transaction in either the Bitcoin blockchain or the Ethereum blockchain with that information (Bitcoin blockchain allows for adding extra metadata in your transaction, the first transaction ever has a phrase the creator left).
If you don't know what a blockchain is, first read up on it, but the gist is that it is a secure and unhackable way to store data in a "cloud" type storage. No professor or university could hack it. If you don't want the proof to be visible, you can always encrypt it and post the encrypted version.
EDIT: I found a service that does just that in a relevant question: [proofofexistence.com](https://proofofexistence.com/)
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: Write up a rough draft of the proof, create a public Github repository, and upload the pdf. The Github commit history functions as a publicly-verifiable timestamp. Yet you can always delete the repository if the proof turns out to be wrong. Your work doesn't yet belong on Arxiv, and such uploads are hard to take down.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_5: >
> So I don't want to share this with anyone I know unless the proof is reviewed by expert mathematicians and I'm fully sure it's correct or at least seems to be.
>
>
>
This sentence seems to be a bit contradictory in itself. I'm assuming you meant
>
> So I don't want to share this with *the mathematical community* I know unless the proof is reviewed by expert mathematicians and I'm fully sure it's correct or at least seems to be.
>
>
>
First of all, since you are new to the world of academia, it's reasonable that you are worried about having proper authorship. However, I don't think there is anything to worry about here. Just follow these steps
1. Contact a professor of your university who is expert in the area pertinent to your proof. An email such as follows will suffice
>
> Dear Prof. [name],
>
>
> While working on [...] I found an interesting approach for proving the Theorem [...]. As far as I am aware, this is still an open problem, so I would be interested in knowing if my attempted solution actually constitutes a proof (or at least if it's a valid step towards one).
>
>
> Would you be interested in discussing the details via a Skype/Zoom call? I could also send you a draft of the attempt if you like.
>
>
> Best regards,
>
>
> <NAME>
>
>
>
You could also mention that you'd like to make it into a publication if the proof is correct or salvageable. But that would be of course implied. Saying it explicitly could sound a bit arrogant to some professors.
2. If the professor agrees s/he will likely find room for improvement. Or will discover an irreparable flaw. We don't know. In any case, based on the amount of work done, s/he might suggest to
a. Publish a coauthored paper with you and him/her
b. Publish a solo paper with your name only (in that case **acknowledge the professor at the end**)
c. Not publish anything at all
3. If a. or b.: you are in business! If c., you might try to publish anyway, but this is absolutely **not recommended**, you might regret it later on. Rest assured that, even if the professor contributed a sizable amount, it's still possible that s/he might propose b. There have been several cases where I've seen this happening (albeit for PhD students).
4. If a., when the peer review arrives, the professor will likely take care of that. If b., you'll be the corresponding author, but you can (should) still ask the professor for help.
This was the by far most likely scenario. Now let's review some less likely ones that might make you worried.
1. The professor doesn't want to know anything about it. In this case you can look for a different professor. Or contact a post-doc in your department. You might not know them personally, but the likelyhood of not finding anyone willing to listen is low. If you don't find *anyone*, I don't really have any smart solution.
2. The professor "steals" your work. That is, s/he publises the proof without giving you credit for it. I find this extremely unlikely, almost unprecedented. There is nothing to gain for a professor to publish one more paper after they have tenure and there is everything to lose if they are found out about it. If it really happens (I highly doubt it will) you have all the e-mail trail and you can prove that you initiated this dialog with the professor. Usually in every university there is a professor who is sort of a reference point for students (when they have complaints etc..). Go to him/her and explain the issue. I'm sure justice will be made.
3. You're afraid you will look like a fool for attempting to present an incorrect proof to a professor. Don't worry, this won't happen as long as you don't make any assumptions prior to presenting the attempted proof. It's perfectly reasonable to make mistakes. Worst case scenario, your attempt would be equivalent to the question "why is this not a correct proof? Where is the mistake?". This is a valid question and you **absolutely have the right to ask it as a student.**
Also let me comment that your situation is not unique. I have witnessed other cases of master students publishing before their thesis. I do not know the details but they had a professor who helped and they got credit for it.
Let me also give a personal viewpoint. In academia we need to work under the assumption that we are all on the same team. Our goal is to get mathematics done, not to get to be the the one who says "first!". The latter attitude would lead to people keeping secrets and severely impair collaborations. Again, it's pretty reasonable for you to worry about this, but try to learn to free yourself from these concerns as you mature as a researcher.
Upvotes: 2
|
2020/06/19
| 735
| 3,083
|
<issue_start>username_0: I want to go to grad school for Applied mathematics, and I have a high GPA in my undergraduate of 3.56 in Applied Mathematics. I wanted to take the GRE. However, they are very costly around $200, which I am not sure if it is worth paying that much to take the GRE. I plan on applying for Graduate Assistantships. If I do not take the GRE, will that decrease my chances for getting into Grad school and a Graduate Assistantship even though the schools I want to apply to do not require the GRE?<issue_comment>username_1: If the school you are applying for **does not require GRE** than it is extremely **unlikely that it will make any difference**.
Certainly [take a look at the discussion on the importance of GRE scores for graduate school admissions](https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/8380/56594); as usually GRE scores most often are used to perform "cut-offs", not as a competitive measure (or at least with relatively low weight). Thus, if the school decides not to make GRE mandatory it does not make a lot of sense to submit one (especially, if you don't have one ready for other applications).
Some exceptions probably will apply if the assistantships/scholarships have a separate set of requirements (I am not aware of specific cases that would require GRE, but can imagine such to exist) or when GRE is an optional application package item and one wants to strengthen their borderline submission. Even though in the last case, I would spend more effort in writing a better statement of intent.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Even if a grad program in math does not require the subject test GRE, the fact that you will have had the sense to take that exam will be a positive indicator about your sensibilities and understanding of the grad school application game.
In my grad program (at a U.S. R1) the grad admissions committee (on which I've served as member and/or chair for 30+ years) we do not use the math GRE subject test score as any sort of decisive indicator for admission. Yes, we do wonder about an applicant who hasn't somehow realized that *many* programs *do* care about it... and why the applicant's advisors haven't told them what this little game is.
All in all, the expense of it is a reasonable investment, even if not quite in the way that people might think.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: Something important is whether GRE is mandatory, recommended or not included at all as a requirement. If it is not mentioned at all, you can skip it and rely on your language and technical grades and a competitive CV and cover letter. If it is recommended, it is best to have it than not have it because it is a straightforward application filter.
Another important element is whether you intend to apply to more institutions with different requirements (e.g. GMAT). In that case it is very likely you will need to take a test at some point because it will be mandatory, but perhaps you can avoid taking both/ all. You can ask the admissions office if they also accept X despite asking explicitly for X.
Upvotes: 0
|
2020/06/19
| 789
| 3,471
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<issue_start>username_0: I recently applied to some post-doc positions at well-ranked universities whose number of candidates is usually not so large (ca. 15, at most 50). Usually, the recruitment process consists of a formal interview, and sometimes, a pre-informal one where candidates are first "filtered".
I'm not aware about the main procedure after such interviews conducted with candidates. I got only 1 feedback from a university being totally transparent on this procedure; i.e. you get a document showing (1) the candidates selected and those non-selected, (2) their ranking in the selection, and (3) comments about the selections made. This makes me think, is it authorized in general as an unsuccessful applicant to request feedback on the outcome of my application? I wish decisions taken were more transparent so that unsuccessful candidates could at least situate themselves in the pool.<issue_comment>username_1: Rules, regulations and customs vary a lot between different countries and institutions. Generally, candidates are informed that Universities are not able to provide feedback for candidates who were not shortlisted for the role. Candidates who were shortlisted and interviewed can have some feedback, but the quality differs widely. In my experience, the most detailed feedback I received from a nordic University, containing about three sentences from the Panel about each candidate. The least useful feedback I received so far consisted of one sentence:
>
> Unfortunately, you were not successful, because we found a more suitable candidate.
>
>
>
In about 1/3 of cases I received no feedback at all even when I asked for it post-interview.
I have to say that currently the post-interview feedback tends to be rather useless, and in most cases it is a mockery of the transparent approach. I suspect that HRs are just too cautious that a frustrated candidate might submit a legal complaint, and are trying to "protect the University" by not saying anything specific or useful.
My experience mostly covers UK/EU. As I said the situation in the US might be different.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Where I am ([germany](/questions/tagged/germany "show questions tagged 'germany'")),
* Telling other candidates who else applied would clearly violate the privacy rights of the other candidates.
For some hiring procedures candidates may be able to gather that knowledge for a shortlist of candidates, e.g. if the procedure includes a day of public lectures by the candidates - however, even these are often sufficiently separated in time that the candidates don't usually meet.
* The hiring committee AFAIK doesn't usually bother to rank candidates except maybe the top 2 - 3 in case they're afraid the top one may not accept the offer.
The feedback on rank that could be given would then be e.g. "you were in the top 8" (in case the first round of deciding whom they'd be OK to hire and whom they would not want to hire had lead to 8 people of whom then then pick their first choice)
* Administration is often very much afraid of people suing for a job. Thus, the hiring committee is likely forbidden by the legal department to give any kind of useful feedback: regardless of whether the one suing for a job is right or not, this material would give them an advantage at court, and possible encourage them to sue (which, even if the court decides against them, is costly for the institution).
Upvotes: 2
|
2020/06/19
| 861
| 3,759
|
<issue_start>username_0: After writing a review paper on a specific topic, is it common to write a book to expand the review paper in a more pedagogical way, and to include more subtopics/content? Also, since published papers cannot be "updated", would it be useful to have a book which takes into account new research directions and new results which have been published after the original review paper? Would be writing such a book being a problem for copyright or other reasons?
I am interested about the situation in the physics literature and hard sciences, but of course any thoughts are welcome.<issue_comment>username_1: There are two aspects of answering your question: copyright issues and the wisest investment of your research time.
Concerning copyright, most journal publishers that I am familiar with explicitly authorize authors to reuse their published articles (even verbatim with no changes) in future books, as long as the original journal publication is explicitly cited. You need to read the copyright assignment that you signed to verify these details. If still in doubt, you can email the editor and ask them directly. What you are asking to do is very common and very reasonable and should pose no problem. It only contributes to the journal's visibility, so they should not have any objection.
Concerning whether it is worthwhile to invest your time and efforts on expanding your previous review article into a book, that question depends on your scholarly field--are book publications rewarded in comparable ways to journal publications? By "reward", I mean do books count equivalently in decisions of hiring, promotion, tenure, grant awards, etc.? This varies widely by field. In my discipline (business, specifically information systems), the answer is a definite NO: book publications count very little for these decisions, at least in research-intensive institutions like mine (books probably carry more weight in institutions that are less research-intensive). In my discipline, it would be much more worthwhile to write a second follow-up journal article that picks up from where the previous one left and updates outdated information.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: I would not recommend this because writing and reading research books is not popular among physicists. Physicists prefer journal articles.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: I published my monograph in the field of chemistry in 2017, after I retired.
>
> After writing a review paper on a specific topic, is it common to write a book to expand the review paper in a more pedagogical way, and to include more subtopics/content?
>
>
>
I have no idea. Others might speak to that.
>
> Also, since published papers cannot be "updated", would it be useful to have a book which takes into account new research directions and new results which have been published after the original review paper?
>
>
>
Other things equal, I would say sure! Anything that helps us assimilate the ever-rising flood of new information is welcome, in my opinion.
>
> Would be writing such a book being a problem for copyright or other reasons?
>
>
>
In my experience, the answer is no. When I wrote my monograph, I requested copyright permission to use two of my papers as book chapters. It was easy, painless and fast: the publisher of the papers gratiously granted permission.
**What else**? I had always heard that writing a book was a labor of love. Now I *really* know that **labor** is the operative term and, regardless of the ultimate fate of my monograph, I know that I had it in me to persevere. So if you write the book, I wish you the best of success, and I truly hope indexing is not the largely unmitigated horror of the old days!
Upvotes: 2
|
2020/06/19
| 506
| 2,162
|
<issue_start>username_0: Some time ago, I applied for a tenure track professorship in Germany, and was invited to an interview. Due to the current circumstances, the interview will now take place online (via Zoom).
Having participated in a few "offline" interviews, what I have been told about the structure and contents of the interview (30 min scientific talk + discussion, followed by a 60 min discussion with the selection committee) seems to be relatively standard. The interview will take place on a technical platform (Zoom) that I am reasonably familiar with due to my online teaching activities.
I am wondering what to expect from, and how to best prepare for an online interview, in particular compared to standard "offline" interviews.
* Are there any pitfalls specific to the nature of virtual meetings?
* How should I best prepare for potential technical issues? I plan on having two laptops ready, but for example WiFi issues are very rare, but not impossible.<issue_comment>username_1: I interviewed candidates in the US for a similar position, the number one non-academic tip is to pay attention to how you appear on Zoom, and go for a professional setup. I was surprised how many candidates were speaking in a relatively dark room with a visible bed (even an unmade bed) behind them.
1. Look at the camera, not the screen
2. Find a relatively solid, professional, not distracting background
3. Light yourself from the front
4. Make sure the camera is raised to something approaching the level of your head
If possible, do a practice interview on Zoom first to prepare.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: * provide a contact phone number in case of serious network problems (and get a phone number for your contact at the institution)
* depending on your field, you might want to be prepared with some way to "write on the board" (low tech, paper and pen, hold the paper up to the camera when you're done; high tech, use your phone as a webcam/document camera, or have a tablet available). (The paper & pen can also provide a last-ditch backup for sending "I CAN'T HEAR YOU" messages if e-mail/chat/etc/etc aren't working ...)
Upvotes: 3
|
2020/06/19
| 552
| 2,413
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<issue_start>username_0: I have submitted one of my work in a good journal (impact factor 6) and I got rejection after a few weeks. Though I was pretty sure that I covered all the experiments or stuff they can ask for. The reply mail did not show any cause. They just regretted that they cant publish my work. What can be some reasons behind this?<issue_comment>username_1: If there are no comments, it is possible that an area editor simply made the decision to reject your paper based on the topic itself. This can happen in high volume high impact journals. Editors are constantly sifting through tonnes of papers looking for gold nuggets.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: It would depend on the field obviously but I'll have a go at the most common I see in my area.
* Outside the scope of the journal
* Has been done before
* Incremental - minor value
* Value of the work was not clear
* Not appropriately supported with experimental results
* Badly presented in the context of the discipline
* Badly written
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: At good journals, publication is a competitive process.
They get far more acceptable papers than they can process, so it's not true that all papers that are good enough are accepted. Only papers that are better than almost all the other papers that are submitted are accepted.
If your paper did not go out for review, it's likely that, even if the paper was done as well as a paper with your particular results could be done, it still wouldn't have been accepted, because the results are simply not interesting enough compared with the results in other submitted papers.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: It should "go without saying", but apparently does not, that you should have advice from experienced people/faculty both prior to submission, and after receiving reviews. That is, an essay which might seem reasonable to a novice (we have to admit that, at the beginning, we are indeed beginners) is (potentially) viewed as too rough and naive to more experienced people.
This is why you need advice *before* submitting, to be sure you're "in the right ball-park" (meaning "approximately ok").
There are many other random factors in play, of course. And some of these can be randomly fatal. Ok. But the main non-random feature you yourself have some control over is the style, tone, etc., of the document you send.
Upvotes: 2
|
2020/06/20
| 943
| 4,648
|
<issue_start>username_0: There are opportunity costs associated with spending time on writing a critical analysis of the literature and submitting that review article to a journal as opposed to conducting research (although the two aren't mutually exclusive). As a PhD student, is it worth spending the time to write and publish a review article as opposed to just pursuing research, without impacting the graduation timeline? And if the review article is published, would it be reasonable to incorporate it in one's dissertation?
This question is of particular interest to me since I also work a full-time job and only have enough time to allocate to one, maybe two, major projects for school at a given time.
This question has been significantly revised. The old version of the question is below.
---
My PhD program (United States, Computer Science) recently changed the comprehensive exam requirements so that we now have to write a research survey critically analyzing an area of our choice and orally defend it. The expectation is that the survey, either as is or with some additional work, would be of publishable quality, although there is no requirement for it to be submitted or published. My advisor is encouraging me to strive for actually submitting the survey once completed.
For those familiar with the either formal or informal requirement to publish a certain number of papers in order to graduate, **how would publishing a survey impact that paper count? Should or would surveys be considered to count towards the paper count requirement?** Additionally, there are opportunity costs associated with writing and trying to publish a survey, such as not being able to dedicate as much time to research; however, writing the survey will certainly help with research.
I understand there are many factors in play with respect to the type of program, quality of the survey, committee members, advisor, etc., but high level considerations would be appreciated.<issue_comment>username_1: A survey almost certainly would count towards your paper count requirement.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
A proof based on common sense is that surveys can generally be hard to distinguish from research papers: there [exist](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/79301/108665) review papers that have notable amount of novel work added but are still called reviews. Thus it is very unlikely for your department to put such a distinction.
Publishing your (already finished) survey is worth it.
------------------------------------------------------
Your original question states that you have to produce a survey of defendable quality. Then, the effort required is just polishing the survey further to publishable quality and handling the communication with a journal. The reward will be getting a publication, with all its formal (increasing your paper count, see previous paragraph) and informal (getting recognised) positive consequences. Surely worth it!
The proof is again based on common sense: if the pros did not outweigh the effort in your local environment, no work would have made its way further than internal discussions within your department.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: You should consider why your school requires a survey article in place of a more traditional comprehensive exam. I am familiar with schools with such requirements, and I personally think it is an excellent approach. It requires students to engage broadly and critically with the literature so that at the end of their doctoral process, they are not only very narrow specialists in their particular topic (which they need to be), but they are also broadly knowledgeable generalists in their discipline.
In my opinion, does not require too much additional work to uplift the survey from merely an exercise for your comprehensive exam to making it an article worthy of submission to a good journal. And having the explicit target that your effort will end up in a journal would increase the quality of your work so that you not only barely meet the exam requirements, but exceed them.
Concerning the additional work required after the exam to actually take the article to publication (submission and then multiple rounds of revision), in most fields, a survey article counts as a regular publication. Indeed, survey articles are generally understood to be cited more highly than regular articles, and that would be a very good investment for your career.
So, in short, I recommend that you put in the additional effort and take the survey article all the way to publication.
Upvotes: 1
|
2020/06/20
| 868
| 3,647
|
<issue_start>username_0: As background, I have a MSc in Chemical Engineering, and I am currently teaching in one of the first *Fachhochschule*-type institutes that have been established in my country. This institute stands as the middle ground between high school and university or industry, and I have been appointed as a teacher for one of the mandatory courses.
Due to COVID-19, all lectures are being performed online, and I have prepared the course material, such as slides for lectures and practicals. The lectures I have prepared cover about 80% of all course material.
I have found that one of my former professors' research group has published in their webpage the slides of a university course which comprises the missing 20% material of my course. Moreover, their slides are really well done, and it would take me lots of time (1-2 months) to prepare the same material from scratch. I have the idea of using said material directly in my lectures, by citing *very explicitly* the source, since it is very well made and clear.
Is it therefore ethical to do it?<issue_comment>username_1: If you cite the work you avoid plagiarism, other questions aside.
But the really ethical way to do this is to ask permission first and explain how and why you will use the material. If they have published it online there will probably be no reason to refuse you.
But another issue is how it will be perceived by your own students. Other questions here have revealed that some students feel cheated when this happens. So, make sure that you add value to the slides you borrow and that the value added is clear to your students. You may want to explain the borrowing to your own students as well.
In general, students want to know that you are spending effort on them.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: More as a food for thought, than an answer: You state that you (are going to) teach *mandatory classes* which reads equivalent to providing lectures about topics generally known in your scientific community. Say, as an example, after your classes each attendee shall know about how to compute the mean residence time in flow reactors.
It is late, you soon complete the lecture materials about something which is well known and understood, the equations won't change if the topic is taught in school A or B. And you use materials by your colleague, altogether with proper attribution of credit as s/he prepared it this well that you estimate this as better as you -- given time and plausible effort at your disposition -- could yield.
Now the Provocation: Put the your material together with him/her, identify others to *join* forces in a collaboration, this time under the perspective to improve lecturing material. Distribute the load to prepare the material on multiple shoulders, gradually improve them in a *collaborative* effort like wikipedia. What is the benefit if each instructor has to do this work on his/her own if these hours of work could be used instead for discussions with the students? Here I agree with <NAME>'s argument around minute 26 at his talk at [SciPy 2014](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1e26rp6qPbA) and his contributions to the computer-oriented initiative of [software-carpentry.org](https://software-carpentry.org/). With courses given around the globe, material is openly shared ([example](https://github.com/swcarpentry/python-novice-gapminder)) and improved over multiple years by many ([example](https://github.com/swcarpentry/git-novice/graphs/contributors)). But this pattern equally may be used in academia ([example](https://github.com/kit-cel/lecture-examples)).
Upvotes: 1
|
2020/06/20
| 868
| 3,929
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<issue_start>username_0: I completed my MS by research under a supervisor. There was considerable delay in completing because my supervisor suddenly lost interest in research midway through my program. I had sent him a research paper for his comments but even after several reminders, he did not show interest in looking at the paper. After graduating from the program, I decided to send it to a journal myself. I sought permission from my supervisor and he was ok with it. Since he had not reviewed it, he said he could send it without including his name as one of the authors. So, I had acknowledged his guidance in the paper in the acknowledgement section. I had sent the paper and now, in the reviewer comments, one of the reviewers has asked about not adding the supervisor's name in the author list (it was listed under minor comments). I'm not sure how to respond to this question. Right now, I'm not exactly on speaking terms with my supervisor. Can anyone please help me?<issue_comment>username_1: Just reply with the facts: Explain that your supervisor was offered coauthorship, but has chosen not to be a coauthor of the paper. (If you feel you want to elabore why - e.g. since he felt he did not contribute sufficiently to the paper, or the like - feel free to do so.)
Especially if this is listed under minor comments, take it as such.
In any case, it is generally not up to the referee to judge who should be a coauthor of a paper. What can be demanded is that you offer coauthorships to anyone who made a significant enough contribution to the paper. As long as you did that, you are fine.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: Could the wording of your 'acknowledgement' be misunderstood as implying your supervisor's contribution to be commensurate with that of a co-author?
====================================================================================================================================================
You should take a 2nd look at your acknowledgements section, where you have "acknowledged his guidance". It is possible that the reviewer got the impression, from reading this 'acknowledgement', that your supervisor may have made an author-level contribution.
Without seeing the actual text of your 'acknowledgement', I cannot comment on whether it is clear enough. However, if you have not already done so, you may wish to clarify the 'acknowledgement', for example by saying something like:
* "**Although Prof. X was not involved in writing this paper**, his/her general guidance helped inspire my research into ..."
* "**Whilst Prof. X was not involved directly in the research presented in this paper**, he/she played an important role in my development as a researcher in this field."
* "**Unfortunately, we could not find the time to collaborate on this research**, but I am very grateful to Prof. X for his/her guidance during my Master's studies, **which enabled me to pursue this research independently**."
* "This paper is inspired by, **but separate from**, research I had conducted under Prof. X, whose guidance **at that time** gave great impetus to my development as a researcher. **Regrettably, Prof. X was unavailable to collaborate on the research presented in this paper**."
[sections in **bold** denote the sections that clarify Prof. X is **not** an author; these are illustrative examples, designed to demonstrate that Prof. X's involvement was limited, **but** presenting his/her guidance in a positive light; before using/adapting any of these examples, please consider carefully whether they describe your situation accurately]
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_3: I would just write that the advisor was not interested in this work and maybe attach a screenshot of the email where he said that he is not interested in being included and that he is OK to submit on your own. That is only if the email does not have any other confidential info.
Upvotes: -1
|
2020/06/21
| 215
| 935
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<issue_start>username_0: In my field, conferences are rarely peer reviewed. The usual categories of peer review are journals and grants. If I peer review for conference proceedings, should I list that in my CV under journal peer reviewing, or should I create a new category?<issue_comment>username_1: Maybe you can go with a broader heading so you can group them all together - something like "Manuscript Reviewing" will cover a myriad of publication categories, like conference proceedings, journals, edited volumes, etc. EDIT: Would also add that in doing so, the reader would then automatically know that those are all peer-reviewed venues.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: **A *service* section would be appropriate**, optionally with sub-sections including *editor*, *editorial board*, and *PC*, for instance. Service goes beyond peer-review, so you could also have sub-sections including *examiner*, for example.
Upvotes: 0
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2020/06/21
| 301
| 1,286
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<issue_start>username_0: I'm helping to hold a workshop sort of thing to help students learn how to read/write research papers, but as I am a sophomore and haven't read too many papers myself, I can't find anything that is easily comprehensible for the students. Anything that is not too long and does not have too much jargon will probably work well. I already looked at this paper on mathematically modelling spaghetti curling, which I think is doable, so anything like that, or written simply would be good!
Please help out, I am sort of on a deadline and we need to finalize the papers very soon.
Thank you in advance!!<issue_comment>username_1: Maybe you can go with a broader heading so you can group them all together - something like "Manuscript Reviewing" will cover a myriad of publication categories, like conference proceedings, journals, edited volumes, etc. EDIT: Would also add that in doing so, the reader would then automatically know that those are all peer-reviewed venues.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: **A *service* section would be appropriate**, optionally with sub-sections including *editor*, *editorial board*, and *PC*, for instance. Service goes beyond peer-review, so you could also have sub-sections including *examiner*, for example.
Upvotes: 0
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2020/06/21
| 1,553
| 5,855
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<issue_start>username_0: In papers, the symbols explained in an equation are usually explained like this:
>
> *δ*(t) = tan⁻¹〖*ke*(*t*) / *v*f(*t*)〗,
>
> where *δ*(*t*) is the steering angle, *e*(*t*) is the closest point between the path and the vehicle, *v*(*t*) is the vehicle’s velocity and *k* is the gain parameter.
>
>
>
By contrast, textbooks often explain mathematical notation in a list-like format, e.g., like this:
>
> *δ*(t) = tan⁻¹〖*ke*(*t*) / *v*f(*t*)〗,
>
> where
>
>
> * *δ*(*t*) = steering angle
> * *e*(*t*) = closest point between the path and the vehicle
> * *v*(*t*) = vehicle’s velocity
> * *k* = gain parameter
>
>
>
I consider this more legible, and I was thinking if I could use this in my scientific papers.
Is there any reason not to do this?<issue_comment>username_1: Unless you get contrary feedback from a reviewer (or advisor for a thesis), I think the format you use is up to you. Your suggestion adds readability and understandability and only loses compactness. To me it seems a positive tradeoff. But an editor might have specific needs.
But write as you think best, and yield to reviewers as necessary.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: In some journals there are page limits, and so your first example becomes more relevant. But I agree your second example is more readable.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: Good question! This is perhaps a matter of taste, and I don't know if there's any science about what's supposed to be more readable, but I prefer the former method. I feel it flows better when I read. The same goes with other kinds of lists, such as lists of assumptions.
A few times I have tried to make a bullet point list, only to find that I can control the flow better when I remove the bullets. I can customize the punctuation, and even interject more details on some points without making the list look typographically unbalanced. Here's an example from [one of my own publications](https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8734022):
>
> The expression is valid for a plasma that is 1) collisionless, 2) non-drifting Maxwellian, and 3) nonmagnetized. These assumptions are
> justified in [1] and will not be further investigated here. It is
> further required that 4) the ion collected current is much smaller
> than the electron collected current. This is true for typical
> ionospheric conditions with ions drifting at approximately 7500 m/s,
> 5) that the object is not affected by other, nearby objects, and 6)
> eV/kT > 0 or, for cylindrical objects, eV/kT > 2. As for the probe
> geometry, it is assumed that 7) the probe is very thin (r << λ\_D), and for cylindrical probe 8) very long (l >> λ\_D). The m-NLPs on CubeSats
> typically have a radius of 0.255 mm [2], such that r/λ\_D < 0.2 for the
> Debye lengths considered. According to numerical simulations by
> Laframboise [7], finite-radius effects are not significant even for
> r/λ\_D = 1, so this assumption is valid. The assumptions eV/kT > 2 and l >> λ\_D will be discussed further in what follows. The vicinity of other
> objects is only briefly considered.
>
>
>
Often I avoid lists all together for the sake of flow, but in this case I wanted the assumptions to be clearly and explicitly listed. Having a bullet point list and discussing the items afterwards would only have disrupted my flow. Others may prefer otherwise, of course.
I suspect some would think lesser of a bullet point list, perhaps in particular since it is unusual, and that this may detract from your referee's impression of the paper. For my own part, I would perhaps suggest to change it, but I would not let it decide whether the paper gets accepted or not.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: My feeling is that the space that something takes on the page should be positively related to its importance. Often equations are given using symbols that are fairly standard in the subfield. Their definitions might be included for people outside the subfield, but for most readers, these definitions will be unnecessary. So in some cases, it would be drawing a lot of the reader's attention to something that is sort of a footnote.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_5: You claim that the longer format is more legible. I do not think it is necessarily the case, let me explain. (Another reason not to use the longer format is to avoid having too many pages in the paper, but others wrote enough about this, I think, so I will disregard this aspect.)
As a general rule, when writing either a book or a paper, I believe you should try to make it as easy as possible for the reader to distinguish which parts he should pay more attention to (because they are especially important, difficult or nonstandard), and which he can more-or-less safely skim.
In your example, the itemized format puts very strong emphasis on the notation used for various parts of the formula. This might be a good idea especially when you are just introducing this notation, and the formula (and its parts) are heavily used later in the paper. Or maybe you want to make sure the reader remembers exactly the factors on which delta depends.
On the other hand, it may be that the meanings of the symbols are standard/established earlier in the paper and you are merely recalling them. Or maybe you are never going to use them again in the paper. Perhaps the formula is just a side remark. In these cases, the longer format will (unduly) draw the reader's focus to it, so you may prefer to avoid it. In other words, while indeed this makes the formula itself more legible, it may make the whole paper overall less readable.
Of course, in practice, what you write may not fall into either of these extremes, and in the end, what should and what should not be emphasised is up to the writer's/editor's judgement and taste.
Upvotes: 1
|
2020/06/22
| 526
| 2,066
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am a 2nd-year PhD student. I have published two conference papers, and now I want to upload a copy to arXiv. I am aware it is common (flexible) for researchers in some areas (e.g. machine learning) to upload their papers on arXiv; However, it is uncommon in my research area/targeted publications, but I think it would be useful for wide-access (my research area: algorithm-hardware co-design for machine learning)
I wonder how to know If a paper is allowed to be put on arXiv?
* Do publishers have rules against that? Or It is the Journals/conferences have rules against that? Where can I find them (generally)?
* Are there any rules on the version of the paper that is allowed? e.g. pre-publication, camera-ready, post-publication etc.
Thanks.<issue_comment>username_1: >
> I wonder how to know If a paper is allowed to be put on arXiv?
>
>
>
You can put papers on arXiv before signing any copyright waiver, then papers are always allowed. (Albeit some venues - surely very few, if any - may refuse to publish papers already on arXiv.) When a paper is already published, you need to check the publisher's rules, which vary between publishers.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: Check the publisher's website. They should have policies for putting papers on arXiv.
For example here is [Elsevier's policy page](https://www.elsevier.com/about/policies/sharing), and:
>
> * Authors can share their preprint anywhere at any time.
> * If accepted for publication, we encourage authors to link from the preprint to their formal publication via its Digital Object Identifier (DOI). Millions of researchers have access to the formal publications on ScienceDirect, and so links will help your users to find, access, cite, and use the best available version.
> * Authors can update their preprints on arXiv or RePEc with their accepted manuscript .
>
>
>
So for this publisher the answer is "yes", you are allowed to put papers on arXiv as well as update them once the peer review process is complete.
Upvotes: 2 [selected_answer]
|
2020/06/22
| 1,004
| 4,230
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am about to finish my PhD at a US university and am starting to apply for jobs and postdocs in physics and computer science. Throughout my PhD, I maintained a good relationship with my PhD supervisor. However, in the last year and a half, he has made social (not academic) comments that were very inappropriate. These comments more directly influenced other students, and the proper actions have been taken with the university and an investigation is on-going. To be clear, the comments are inexcusable and I have lost all respect for my supervisor.
I am wondering what the most appropriate way for me to proceed is, as many positions explicitly ask for a letter of recommendation from ones supervisor.
Some additional data:
1. I, luckily, had a rather successful PhD and have many collaborators who I could ask in his place. However, I imagine I would need to address why my advisor is not writing a letter.
2. I do think my advisor would write me a positive letter, but (a) I feel uncomfortable asking him for a favor and (b) I worry that (and I hope) if public action is taken, his letter will not be viewed in a positive light. Quite simply: I'd rather not have a word of support from him.
Is this something I can/should address in a cover letter or otherwise?<issue_comment>username_1: While there is always risk in such things, if his professional credentials are good and the other comments don't reflect badly on that, I'd suggest asking for the recommendation and not otherwise mentioning it in cover letters and such. Treat it as a purely professional relationship, which it should be.
As you note it is odd to not have a recommendation from one's advisor. And I'm assuming that your judgement is that his letter would be professional. If you have a way to find out anything about what he has written for others, it would be a benefit. A department head might, possibly, give you some guidance. But that is another judgement call - whether to ask.
Of course, you can't control the reactions of others, but you can, if asked, disassociate yourself from his views. Just say that you don't hold those views in any interview or such.
I'll note that in math and cs there have been a number of similar situations where a person is widely respected professionally, but whose views on some issues have been shunned and the people condemned. It doesn't reflect on their technical work, not should it reflect badly on you or your work.
---
See the case of [<NAME>](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shockley), and that of [<NAME>](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Lee_Moore).
And, of course, many people hold appalling views of things, that may be known to others, but not to their students.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: If you don't get a letter from your advisor, and I certainly see why you'd feel uncomfortable doing so, the best thing to do would be to ask *one of your other letter writers* to address why you don't have a letter from your advisor. In practice, this may be tricky because it only works if you know that one of your letter writers knows about the problem with your advisor and agrees that it's a problem, so I understand if this is not possible. But it has several advantages over only you mentioning it:
* Faculty where you're applying are much more likely to read the recommendations than your cover letter.
* The committee is more likely to believe a third party that your advisor's offensive comments are the real issue and not that you're worried your advisor wouldn't write a good letter
* The presence of a powerful person backing you up lessens the chances of a friend of your advisor retaliating against you.
In a sense, what you really want is a kind of "surrogate advisor", someone who's willing to step in and champion you going forward because they understand the situation. A postdoc advisor might be able to play that role, but if you've worked closely with other faculty already they also might be able to play that role.
All that said, I think most people would understand that you're in a powerless situation vis-a-vis your advisor and wouldn't hold you getting a letter from your advisor against you.
Upvotes: 4
|
2020/06/22
| 743
| 3,080
|
<issue_start>username_0: Context: math master's thesis.
I get that I need to show up and be able to have a discussion and answer questions, etc. That's all fine and good.
But in my uni, 70 % of the thesis defence consist of my own presentation. Then maybe 25 % of the time is alloted for questions, and 5 % for grading.
What is the point of that 70 %?
Am I supposed to just re-summarize the entire thesis?<issue_comment>username_1: Probably not all, but a good part of it, for a public presentation, is just giving you a chance to be the center of attention for an hour and to energize students who might be able to attend it. In part it is a "brag" on the part of the faculty about what great students they produce.
There are places, I'm sure, where it is a bit of an ordeal, and it is often scary, but it is also a welcoming you to the core of the profession (for doctoral presentations anyway). Yes, you are good, and we are happy to sit and listen to you for a while as you demonstrate it.
And if it isn't like that for a public presentation, then something is probably broken.
Non-public presentations are more in the line of an exam requirement and you will probably be judged on the quality of your organization and presentation. At the MS level, I would hope that people would realize that you don't yet have a lot of experience doing these things and so expect the student to be a bit halting in delivery, if not organization.
What you need to do is to present the core ideas of the thesis, focusing on insights, and not details. If details are required they will probably come in the question/answer part. Don't be tedious or overly pedantic in your talk.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: The point of the thesis presentation is so the examiners can see if you actually did the work in the thesis or not.
It's quite easy to paraphrase content from e.g. publications, to ask one's supervisor for assistance tackling technical aspects of the work. So, by seeing you present the work and asking you some questions about the content, the examiners can assess whether you actually understand what you're talking/writing about.
Think of it as a presentation followed by an oral examination on the content. Some tips (I am not a mathematician but hopefully these are generally applicable):
* Be clear about what problem your work is addressing.
* Be clear about why that problem is actually worth addressing.
* Make sure you give due credit to the relevant literature (e.g. with citations).
* Don't spend more than 1/3 of the presentation on the points above.
* Focus on what *your* contributions were to solving the problem described above.
Hope this helps.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: An important part of research is communicating the results of your work. (At least where I work) this is why we insist on candidates making an oral presentation.
It does serve a verification purpose, in the sense that you are expected to have mastered the topic to a level where you can explaining by yourself to an audience of appropriate background.
Upvotes: 0
|
2020/06/22
| 1,660
| 7,303
|
<issue_start>username_0: At my university in the UK, candidates doing a full time PhD (3 years) have to submit a 1st year report which includes literature review, the "gaps" that will be tackled by the doctoral work, expected outcomes, research methodology, Gantt diagram of the future work, the completed training plan, and some preliminary experiments (if any).
The supervisor makes a report about the performance of the candidate (training, attendance to meetings, etc.).
A committee of faculty members (excluding the supervisor) reads the candidate report and the supervisor report, and examines the student on the content of the report and challenges the topic, etc. It's like a mini-viva. The committee is called to make a decision if the candidate is able to complete the PhD in the next 2 years or not. If the answer is not, then the candidate gets another chance in 2 months and if they fail again, need to leave the program.
**My question:** How can one make a decision about the ability of a candidate to complete a PhD from their performance in the first year? I have seen people struggle in the first year and then do amazing work and vice-versa. Questions like "the ability of the candidate to perform novel work" cannot be answered after the first year.
I am early-career faculty.<issue_comment>username_1: When a candidate enters a program, the admissions materials are intended to help a committee and/or an advisor make a prediction about successful completion. If they are sufficiently conservative, then the predictions, when positive, are fairly, but not absolutely, reliable.
This interim analysis has the same purpose. We, the faculty, need to make a prediction of success. The sorts of things asked for in your description seem fairly well focused on that. The real question, is, "is this a serious student" who is currently "doing the right things" that will lead to success - probably.
But, if the student is really doing research, then, just as you suggest in your addendum, it is impossible to predict with perfect accuracy. True research can't be scheduled and the more you learn, the more questions should arise.
So, while the pre-admission judgement should be conservative, I think an interim judgement needs to be more "liberal". That is, the benefit of the doubt should be given to most candidates if they are actually working. But the combination of the student's answers and the advisor's judgement should be able to find situation in which a student really isn't serious and is just wasting their time. I would think that 20% in this category is too high, however, and might indicate a failure of the system as a whole or the admissions process. Perhaps after the two month review it turns out a bit less.
But getting advice about life choices after a year of study seems like a good thing, as long as the student has a chance to explain what might be the reasons for an apparent lack of progress. And getting faculty advice about getting back on track, is also probably a good thing for those few having problems.
As I noted in the comment, I would also expect that a fair number of students for whom success was predicted don't, in fact, complete on time, due to a variety of factors, some personal, but many also related to the uncertain nature of research itself.
After all: “If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?” ~~<NAME>
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: As suggested by @username_1, at least in the departments I've been a member of, it is unusual for a student to fail their first year viva at the re-submission stage (although more common for the first submission to fail). The first year transfer fills a number of purposes:
1. Guide the clearly unsuitable to alternative life directions. I work in a molecular biology department, and we once had a student who didn't understand that DNA makes RNA makes protein.
2. Make sure the student has a project to call their own. This is often a good time to identify students who are just working on whatever their supervisor feels like that day as a technician and not working towards their own project. I once knew a student how had co-authored a Nature paper (among others) fail their first year review because they were just filling in holes in their supervisors work-force and didn't have their own project. Another warning sign is that the student can't explain their project - suggesting the project isn't really theirs and its more the supervisor's project.
3. Its a good time to identify problems in the student/supervisor relationship. Is the student being properly supervised? Are their signs they are neglected, over-controlled, bullied or led astray? If gives them an invited opportunity to make the committee aware of problems they have with their supervisor. Conversely, a supervisor can confidentially tell the committee of worries they have about the student, which can allow the committee to bring something up without damage to the student/supervisor relationship. I remember once a student was late to their viva because they were scared their supervisor would be angry about them being absent from the lab. Big. Red. Flashing. Warning. Sign. right there.
4. Give the students something concrete and consequential to work-towards in what could otherwise be a very unstructured time (and possibly the first unstructured time the student has experienced). It forces them to read the literature and think about what they want to do. In this way the first year viva serves the same pedagogical purpose as many assessments - it focuses the student on what is required of them and motivates them to work hard on those things.
The UK isn't the US, and students don't have 6 years to spend time finding their niche. As you pointed out, students have 3 years to complete their degree. If you have no plan for what you want to do after 1 year, you are going to find it hard to come up with enough research to fill 250 pages and publish manuscripts before you run out of time.
There is another point to consider. UK departments are judged on their in-time completion rate. That is, the fraction of students that succesfully submit their thesis within either the funded period, or 4 years, *whichever is shorter*. Departments where this number drops below 75% are prevented from applying for PhD studentship funding from the government research councils that fund the vast majority of PhDs in the country. However, if a student leaves within the first year, then they are not counted against this number. Generally once a student has passed this point, a department will do everything in its power to ensure that a student completes within 3/3.5/4 years, including somethings they shouldn't (too much help writing the thesis, appointing "sympathetic" examiners etc). It is therefore very much in the interest of departments to ask students to leave before the cut-off if they don't believe they will complete. Indeed, in many places I've worked, it has been mooted that we are too lenient on students at this point, passing students who go on to struggle, when it was clear at the 1st year viva stage that they were going to struggle and it would have been in everyone's interests if they had left with an MRes at that point.
Upvotes: 2
|
2020/06/22
| 6,026
| 25,881
|
<issue_start>username_0: A colleague of mine is a non-tenured teaching-track faculty
in a neighboring university.
We work together frequently through our joint outreach and REU projects.
He is currently teaching a summer course in mathematics (pre-calculus algebra) with a compressed schedule from mid May to early July.
The final exam is scheduled in two weeks.
Last week he received students’ requests/suggestions,
cosigned by presidents of two large student organizations¹, that:
* The final exam should be cancelled for minority students (but remain the same for the rest of the students, i.e. minority students will do strictly less work); or
* The final exam should be modified to contain **only** questions that relate to life experiences of [marginalized minorities](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_exclusion#Community_exclusion); or
* Marginalized minorities will take an easier final exam.
None of these requests are realistic at least in the current semester.
Indeed, imposing different grading standard by race is likely illegal too.
So we can start with the premise that
*none of the requests can be granted*.
Yet, it seems dangerous to dismiss these requests completely, as they are backed by large student organizations.
Moreover, in one discussion, some student estimated that the failure rate in his classes has a strong correlation to race factor in the last few semester.
(Students probably reached this estimation only by
surveying other students who took his classes in the past, but my colleague admits that it: “sounds about right”.)
It sounds to me that the students are collecting data for the next level of action should he reject the requests.
The vague official message from the chair and dean is that he, as the instructor, has the right to design the course.
However, it is seems that the administration is getting ready to let him take the blame, should this develop into a PR disaster – e.g., the chair will only discuss this on the phone but not over email.
He feels that his job is on the line.
How could one react to this and avoid both a PR disaster or doing something illegal?
There may not be enough time to save my colleague, but I’m still curious, as I wouldn’t be surprised if this would happen on my campus soon.
---
¹ The two presidents are not enrolled in this class, but many club members are enrolled. This letter was only addressed to this one instructor, cc’ed department chair. If they send the same request to other instructors, we wouldn’t know.<issue_comment>username_1: I would suggest offering something in response that makes the students feel like their concerns are heard, without compromising the academics of the course.
For example:
>
> I understand that this is a difficult time, especially for minority students. Unfortunately, if I cancel the final exam, I won't be able to assign a grade to these students and they won't get credit for their work this semester. But in recognition of the extra challenges some students are facing right now, I am going to schedule an additional review session and office hours before the final exam. This way, students who are struggling can get additional opportunities to master the material before the exam.
>
>
>
A response that communicates empathy and understanding is much less likely to develop into a PR disaster than one that is irritated, defensive, or dismissive.
Upvotes: 7 <issue_comment>username_2: EDIT: The question has changed substantially, resulting in a bit of a mess.
I subscribe to the philosophy that conflicts with students should be used as teaching opportunities where possible.
Is your exam actually useful? If it's not, cancel it for everyone. If it is, explain to students why its useful (to students or society, not you personally). If it's useful, it would hurt minority students if they don't take it.
Your exam probably should include questions that relate to the experiences of minorities. Questions that relate to the experiences of a particular group do put that group at an advantage. Spread the advantage around as equally as you can. There might be exceptions, such as if the topic of your course is a white person or a group of white people, you might not be able to ask questions that relate to black people. Or maybe your course is about a pure math subject or cosmology which cannot be connected to anyone's experiences. Tread carefully: if you are not familiar with a particular group's experiences, do not rely on stereotypes. Ask an expert for help, or admit you don't know how to do it if that's the case.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: The technology does not allow the school to administer a "fair" exam ([example](https://nypost.com/2020/06/13/cuny-professors-uncover-scandalous-level-of-cheating-in-final-exams/)).
I am a little surprised that the chair told him that he has the right to design his own course (I believe departamental exams are more common in remedial math courses).
Since all the students are stressed out by the current events, he should not administer any final exam, but just give everyone an "A".
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_4: >
> Moreover, in one Zoom discussion, some student estimated that the failure rate in his classes has a strong correlation to race factor in the last few semester (Students probably reached this estimation only by surveying other students who took his classes in the past. But my colleague admits that it "sounds about right").
>
>
>
I am wondering, why this has not come up yet as part of a possible approach. Correlation does not imply causation --- yet, if there are hints and your colleague's gut feeling that minority groups struggle more with the course, I would ask myself why this is the case. So as some have already proposed to widen tutoring and office hours before the exam, I would kindly ask *all* students to elaborate on their struggle with the course, its content or anything related. In my opinion this is best done anonymously (i.e. as teacher leave the room while the students contemplate and set up a letter box or a messenger system).
The chance is that you may find issues that can cause that perceived asymmetry (alongside with structural reasons, about which usually no one can anything do about on their own).
// edit: The same appraoch is useful for any intersectional dimension of inequality: class background has a huge impact on academic merits as well as sex/gender (e.g. in natural sciences).
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_5: I consider the answer of @username_1 to be the best, but here is an administrative alternative.
The lecturer can discuss with administration if the exam can be replaced with coursework within short notice but with sufficiently long deadline. This gives all students, including minorities students, flexibility and much more additional time.
Another option is to discuss with administration (or suggest to students) if extensions or special arrangements (e.g. exam extra time) can be granted to all or any students who apply for them. Although such accomodations are normally made centrally, a "local" departmental solution might be possible.
Both of these solutions are based on how some universities have dealt with students affected by the coronavirus, where blanket extensions were given and/or extensions were granted without the students having to supply much, if any, medical evidence. They are not without their problems but provide a reasonable way out. In any case, students must not be discriminated based on skin colour, ethnic origins etc, or given a (dis)advantage compared to other students. As a mitigation example, the first and third solution suggested by the students in the OP are inapplicable on those grounds and are certain to expose the lecturer.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_6: Making special plans for minorities just seems like reverse racism to me. How can you expect the majority to pass this exam, without special assistance, but the minorities not? Why does a person from a minority need special assistance anyway? I'm assuming they had to make the same vetting process any student from the majority did?
This just seems like a massive discrimination lawsuit waiting to happen. You have to do for some students what you do for all of them, unless you want to answer the unsavoury questions about what basis you are doling out 'special treatment'.
I will take the chance to reply specifically to the highlighted parts of the original post.
You cannot cancel an exam for some. Clearly a decision is going to have to be made from an executive standpoint, and yes these are indeed special circumstances, but the decision needs to be applied to the collective and take all the students' concerns to heart.
If you start kowtowing to political rhetoric then it just becomes a matter of time before your institution loses its academic rigour. If student organisations are unhappy with the syllabus, then they can be invited to give their input when the syllabus comes up for review, but you cannot change the syllabus willy-nilly just to appease a student body. Especially not in the middle of a year.
In making the exams easier for some, your institution's credibility dies a sudden death. This is also the first step to becoming a diploma mill. It is also massively unfair to the students who do put in the work and graduate from a school, that from no fault of their own, have their credibility ruined.
Credibility for institutions, just like for people, is very hard to build up. The building of credibility takes years of concerted effort to make happen, but it takes only one moment to tear down.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_7: This is an ongoing problem at all levels of university life. For example Asian students applying to Harvard (1) brought (and lost) a lawsuit against Harvard's admissions policy that they claimed was racist because of a perception that Asian students 'had fewer social skills' In other words that they were perceived to be inferior in some way. On the other hand, Yale (2) have been accused of discriminating against Asian students on the grounds that they are somehow over-qualified and therefore over-represented. This supposedly deprives other groups of available places.
That such opposite claims should exist simultaneously and be vehemently pursued, shows the depth of feeling and confusion that exists in this area.
The value of exams ultimately is to persuade potential employers that candidates are capable of performing the job adequately. If employers feel that certain people's degrees are less valuable because the possessors of them have had an "easy time of it", this only pushes the problem further along the line.
I suggest that representatives from all parties must be involved in the discussion. The argument should be,
>
> "We passionately want to further the interests of minority and/or disadvantaged
> students as much as possible. At the same time it is important not to
> devalue the perception of their qualifications in the employment
> sector. How do you suggest we best do this? All ideas are actively
> welcomed."
>
>
>
**Citations**
(1) Why The Asian American Students Lost Their Case Against Harvard (But Should Have Won) by
<NAME> - professor and published writer on constitutional and educational issues. <https://www.forbes.com/sites/evangerstmann/2019/10/01/why-the-asian-american-students-lost-their-case-against-harvard-but-should-have-won/#4ef936bb63c1>
(2) U.S. Investigating Yale Over Complaint of Bias Against Asian-American Applicants
<https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/26/us/politics/yale-asian-americans-discrimination-investigation.html>
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_8: One could consider an option (offered to all students in the course) of making the exam optional. This could be done where taking the exam could only help a student's grade; or where it could help or hurt. You could also say, for instance, that to be eligible for a grade of A, a student must take the exam. If you do this option you should be prepared, in advance, to let a student know what their grade without the exam would be.
I have been a student in at least two courses where this occurred...quite a long time ago, but both very reputable institutions.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_9: Before talking about what to do, here are some suggested premises to follow:
1. Document all communications on this issue. Even if it's just a phone conversation, record the date, time, and summary.
2. Use these two as guiding questions: "Have I followed the school policy and syllabus?" and "Have I done my due diligence to make sure students' requests are heard?"
3. Acknowledge that if there has been any racial discrimination in the school, your colleague cannot undo this in a semester. However, it's important to look into it and get started. (aka, do the due diligence.)
4. Get into alliance rather than being antagonistic. The common enemy here is supposedly the school and the math curriculum. Ascend the students' grade-centric request into momentum for a larger movement.
First, I don't think your colleague should deal with this alone. If the department head is not taking this up directly, then involve other parties such as Office of Equal Opportunity or whichever office that handles requests for accommodation.
Second, go back to the syllabus and stick to the policy asking for accommodations. The said students are asking for accommodations. Invite them to submit a request to the office in charge. In most institutes, that office will contact you with a recommendation on what accommodations to implement (e.g. extended time, larger fonts on text, quiet room, etc.)
Third, go for highest possible level of transparency: acknowledge that this is happening and make this incidence known to the whole class without disclosing any information marginalizing any group. Document those announcements as well.
Fourth, check with your registrar and see if it's possible for some students to apply for switching to pass/fail instead of getting a letter grade.
Fifth, check again with your registrar to see if they can actually get some real grade data broken down by student's race/ethnicity.
Sixth, sit down, and really think how much extra is your colleague willing to do. For example, extra office hours by appointment (so that those who feel marginalized can have some more face time, should they want.)
Seventh, consider extra credit that is also useful for your colleague and educational for the students. For example: a 5% extra credit on a two-page essay on "What I'd do to achieve race/ethnicity equity in pre-calculus algebra," "Is the mathematics curriculum equitable? Why and how to fix it?" Make sure to note that the information may be summarized anonymously and reported back to the department for future planning.
---
My answer received this following comment and I'd like to give a more detailed explanation:
>
> How is your extra-credit question algebra? This is an algebra course,
> not a social studies course.
>
>
>
My counter question would then be, **given the rift between social science and STEM, who is going to own up to this question?** Should they be a pile of assignments filed away by a social science professor, or a set of possible improvements that an algebra professor can adopt? There are pros and cons in both, I'll leave that to each of their own view. But I feel that, enough with pushing our STEM education questions over to social science, ask about the inequity, learn about it, and do something with it.
Another more pedagogical point I'd like to highlight is that: **don't get too bogged down by the frame of your assessments**. A lot of teachers think that they can only assess what they teach. But actually assessments engulf much, much more than what the students learn.
For example, pre-existing knowledge or misconception is worth assessing at the beginning of the class. What did the students come equipped with? How well they know it? Learning environment is worth assessing as well. Do they feel enough supports from this class? Do they get the software and textbook without much trouble? Or have they been doing without it because they are expensive? And of course, affect and emotion are worth assessing, too. Do they feel safe in my class? Are the examples featured in class applicable to their lived experience and career prospects?
I'd **implore everyone to assess more broadly**. You may often be surprised by how much you have affected the students, and how much you can learn from them.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_10: I'd offer two practical suggestions. First, have a "blind" grading system, where each student is assigned a random code that goes on their exam papers\* instead of their name. None of the graders know which code corresponds with which student.
Second, ask the students to suggest questions that relate to the life experiences of "marginalized minorities". Of course that includes figuring out how to tell if someone actually is a marginalized person, or say one of Barack Obama's kids :-)
\*Maybe homework too, but it's too late for that this year.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_11: It's worth noting that giving in to the student can also cause a PR disaster, it just will upset other people.
When dealing with those that asks for special treatment, I would advice arguing for why it's good for minorities as well when there's equal treatment.
If it's generally known that minority students at a given university don't have done the same work that nonminority students did, the degrees of the minority students will be worth less.
This will seen encourage employers do be less trusting that minority students with degrees have the skills that a nonminority student with the same degree has and thus further racism.
But not giving the marginalized students the same exam you would effectively steal the opportunity of them to prove that they have skills. If one wants to live in a world where margalized students can be hired based on the skills that they have taken away the opporunity for them to prove their skills seems to be discrimination.
The goal of a pre-calculus algebra course is to teach students certain math that's needed by later courses. If the students continue without actually learning the material of the cause they are likely to get problems with later causes. It's likely best for students who don't have the skills to pass the exam to repeat the course.
One job of exams is to provide a student objective feedback about how they deal with the subject. If a students learns early that they aren't fit for a certain subject they waste less resources that they would otherwise invest in the subject.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_12: Suggest that he edit his word questions to directly relate to typical experiences for African-American students.
================================================================================================================
One of the comments mentioned that this is a course on pre-calculus algebra, so presumably the exam would include word questions. You could base these on official numbers for things like the rates of inter- and intra-group criminal violence compared to the proportions possessed by those racial groups, or do things like include questions on stereotypical interests possessed by African-Americans; for instance, if you have a word question about exponential growth, you could make it a question about a rapper calculating how much interest he'll make if he puts the money he made from his latest album into the bank, or a question about solving a linear or quadratic equation might become a question about a black woman calculating the total cost of different hair care products.
If your colleague takes this approach and is not African-American themselves, they may want to ask an African-American colleague to look over it and make sure that none of the stereotypes they've used have reached the point of being offensive, and the best person to decide if any of the stereotypes your colleague's used are offensive to African-Americans would be an African-American. Your colleague probably wouldn't want to include any questions referencing fried chicken, watermelon, or purple drink, for instance, because it's my understanding that those are considered offensive stereotypes.
Note: I'm not an African-American myself, so I can't say for certainty what is and isn't offensive to them.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_13: **CYA: Cover your Ass**
1. Have all communications with everyone over email. Send follow up emails recapping discussions after phonecalls.
2. Do not opine on anything, not with the students nor with any one else. Your opinions are irrelevant and will only get you in trouble.
3. Follow explicit University policy on designing exams. It's likely that it is illegal for the instructor to make any attempts to gain any knowledge about a student's race, let alone make any decisions based on it.
4. Freedom to design a course is completely different from freedom to grade on anything other than course material.
5. **Stay off of social media.**
6. Do not accept any suggestions made by the president of the student organizations unless explicitly approved in writing by the Dean or University President or someone higher up. Try to be robotic about the application of University rules.
7. Leave out "real life based word questions" entirely. Change "Bob wants to fence a rectagular garden ... " to "What is the area of a rectangle if width equals ..."
Seriously, please ask your friend to focussed on staying employed (in their *non-tenured* job) during COVID19. The race relations situation in America is extremely tempestuous right now, particularly on campuses, and now is not a good time to become a scapegoat that gets caught in a conflict involving much larger political forces.
The issue of making mathematics accessible to underprivileged communities or the even broader issue of education being a tool of cultural hegemony or cultural violence etc can be addressed more systematically by folks who are tenured and in positions of power at the University.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_14: It might be possible, without compromising the construct validity of the exam, to accede in part to the second request, i.e. to include *some* questions of direct relevance to contemporary struggles for racial equality.
@jl6 already suggested one potential area for investigation in a comment above, examination of the mathematics of voter suppression/gerrymandering.
I don't know what the intended learning outcomes of OP's courses are, but it might also be possible to build an interesting algebra exercise around one of the following:
* showing that, given some algebraically-prescribed significance test, some algebraically-prescribed structure of data set [\*1], and some algebraically-prescribed way of controlling out confounding variables, there exists a domain of parameter values for which one cannot detect statistically significant racial bias in the stop-and-search decision-making of any individual police officer, but one *can* nevertheless detect statistically significant racial bias in the aggregated stop-and-search activity of the police force as a whole [If anyone's thinking of going down this road, I suggest not identifying any particular real-world police force, unless you know for sure whether that particular police force is inside or outside that domain of parameter values, and are therefore able to defend yourself against any accusation of defamation]; and/or
* deriving expressions for the second moment of area, about axes aligned in different horizontal directions, of a horizontal cross-section of the legs of a statue of a confederate general (or equivalent local wrongdoer outside the US), and thus determining in which direction one would pull on a rope attached to the statue's head, to achieve flexural failure with the smallest force [\*2]. I think OP said "pre-calculus", so one would probably have to supply a formula for the second moment of area of a single leg about its diameter, and have students use the parallel axes theorem. [If anyone's thinking of going down this road, make sure to check local laws on "instructing in the art of crime" or similar first; although recalling some of the formative-assessment questions I was set when I was an undergraduate leads me to believe this is well within the bounds of what's safe in my local jurisdiction.]
I note OP's observation about more senior faculty members showing signs of preparing to scapegoat the front-line instructor if anything proves controversial. My advice for dealing with this is: make sure the questions are written in good time to put them through the faculty's established system of internal and external moderation (the faculty does *have* an established system of internal and external moderation as part of its exam authoring process, right?) That way, a couple of other academics have looked at the questions, and either dipped their hands in the blood by signing a form agreeing that the questions are appropriate, or ruled the questions inappropriate and requested (in writing) particular changes to them.
[\*1] but probably not the actual content of a data set - that would lead down an arithmetical rabbit-hole that probably isn't relevant for an algebra course
[\*2] or, if your local protesters appear to want the statues they topple left intact (either in order to avoid prosecution for criminal damage by not actually doing any damage, or in order that the statues can be re-erected as cautionary artifacts of historical record in a non-celebratory context), to *avoid* flexural failure while applying enough force on the rope to rotate the statue off of its plinth.
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<issue_start>username_0: I have seen some confusing information online. I am looking into postdoc positions at Caltech (Pasadena, CA). From my understanding, the annual salaries are somewhere in the 55k - 60 k range. What kind of taxes apply, though? I've seen conflicting information, and am quite confused.
[Here](http://finance.caltech.edu/Controllers_Office/Tax/IncomeTax#:%7E:text=The%20California%20Institute%20of%20Technology,and%20Taxation%20Code%20Section%2023701d.) it seems that some of Caltech are exempt from federal tax, but I am not sure if this applies to postdoc researchers.
Also, how does one being a foreigner (with a work VISA) affect taxation?<issue_comment>username_1: The National Postdoc Association has an [Overview of Tax Issues for Postdocs](https://www.nationalpostdoc.org/page/TaxIssues) that may be a good starting point.
>
> [Here](http://finance.caltech.edu/Controllers_Office/Tax/IncomeTax#:%7E:text=The%20California%20Institute%20of%20Technology,and%20Taxation%20Code%20Section%2023701d.) it seems that some of Caltech are exempt from federal tax, but I am not sure if this applies to postdoc researchers.
>
>
>
This just means that Caltech itself is exempt from paying income tax. By default (that is, unless there's a tax treaty), a postdoc receiving money to cover living expenses will pay tax on their income. In California there would be both federal and state income tax.
>
> Also, how does one being a foreigner (with a work VISA) affect taxation?
>
>
>
This can depend on whether there is a relevant tax treaty or not, and how long they've been present inside US borders. See e.g. [International Postdoc Survival Guide - Beginner's Guide to Income Taxes for International Postdocs](https://www.nationalpostdoc.org/page/SurvivalGuide_Tax) for resources.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: First off, postdoc salary levels at Caltech vary widely by department.
Regarding taxes, there are tax treaties between the US and a lot of other countries. For some of these countries, these treaties have special regulations for (postdoctoral) researchers staying for less than a certain time (e.g. 2 years): If you move to the US from such a country (not your home country, but that of your last residence), you remain tax resident of that country, so your postdoc salary remains taxable in that country, rather than the US. (Note that you still have to pay state taxes in California, but these are rather low.) I think the philosophy is that you do not give up your residence in said country, but only come for a "long visit". There are various rules whether you can choose where you tax your income or not, and what happens if you exceed the period of time for which you are subject to this tax exemption, which differ by country of origin, so essentially you have to check the relevant tax treaty. (Notably, with some tax treaties, if you exceed that time you have to tax all of your income in the US retroactively.)
As an example, here is an [excerpt from the US-German tax treaty](https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-trty/germanprot06.pdf) (2006 Amendment, Article XI):
>
> *Remuneration that a professor or teacher who is a resident of a Contracting State and
> who is temporarily present in the other Contracting State for the primary purpose of
> carrying out advanced study or research or for teaching at an accredited university or
> other recognized educational institution, or an institution engaged in research for the
> public benefit, receives for such work shall be taxable only in the first-mentioned
> Contracting State for a period not exceeding two years from the date of his arrival.*
>
>
>
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<issue_start>username_0: With advancements in the internet and technology, I think that I can learn anything from internet with requirements of time and interest. I am very interested in quantum computing technology, but after finishing the learning process, I should do some research to find new things in that field. I am not aiming to get money or anything like that, I want only to get knowledge and have fun.
But in that stage, I guess that I will need a funding to build a lab and fulfill my needs to finish research. My writings above are my plan, I didn't mean any isolation,but I think that self-learning is the best way for me because I don't have enough money to get a degree and one of the reasons of plan is that. I also think that the internet can fulfill any needs for research except money.
Therefore,The aim of that question is asking you about your thoughts about my plans. Also,I want to ask about funding, is it possible to find research grant as a non-degree, self-taught person?<issue_comment>username_1: No.
Without a degree and a position at a university or research institute, it is highly unlikely you can get any kind of funding for research.
You can try to get a job at a company that does research in such topics (which requires who to have the background knowledge, not necessarily a degree), but this will also be hard to get.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_2: To add to <NAME>'s answer, there is more to getting a research grant than just the research part and having a good idea.
There are many requirements in terms of financial aspects (turning your proposed budget into something the research funder will accept), rules and regulations about what can and can not be funded, legal issues (Most research funders will have requirements that you be affiliated with a university/research institute), and regulations on how the money used is reported which may also include requiring financial audits.
Also many funders will require someone else to also commit to partial funding, I.e the funding body only pays 50% of some costs while the rest comes from, say, a university.
This makes submitting a grant application almost impossible without a university/research institute backing you.
Even if you got all that, when you apply for the research grant you will need show that a) you are capable of doing the research b) you are the person they should fund c) your research ideas are plausible and exciting enough for them to spend money on you. All of which is much easier once you have a degree and have done research first in a research group with another person (who has their own money) before you start applying for money yourself.
Also you say you can learn anything from the internet, well the point of research is to do something new, thus by definition it wont be on the internet yet. If you want to learn over the internet have a look into some online degrees, just be careful some places are scams but there are some quality institutions out there that give degrees based on partial or fully online courses. These can be cheaper than a traditional in-person degree.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: I say Yes. I did something very similar when I was a teenager but on a smaller scale.
You don't say what country you are in. I live in Britain. Many years ago I was learning classical guitar. I discovered a comprehensive guide to guitar playing that was only published in Spanish. I decided that I should translate it into English. The problem was that I spoke no Spanish. I applied for and received a grant to spend eight weeks in Spain at a language school. In the end I did not translate the book but there was never any requirement that I report back to the grant-giving body. I can now play the guitar *and* speak Spanish.
If you are enterprising enough and convincing enough, pretty much anything is possible. You just have to be willing to find the right channels.
In your situation (but assuming you live in Britain) I would do the following:
Search for a charitable institution that provides funding for the advancement of individuals. There are surprisingly many.
Preferably find one that has some connection to the field you are interested in. If you can't, there are more general ones.
What are these charities? They are almost all a result of a very wealthy individual who has left a sizable trust fund in their will. Usually these are for funding "young" people but not all. Surprisingly some of these funds are underused - they have money sloshing around but they don't get enough applicants.
Note: If you fail with one, keep going - they don't keep in touch with each other.
Now comes the bootstrapping process. Firstly you must come up with plans for a feasibility study. This will require some work but you usually need to convince a committee not a panel of scientists (although sometimes one expert will be asked to look over the proposal). If successful, this limited grant will be enough to get you started on a small scale. When you have a very convincing and well-researched plan with preliminary results, you go back, declare your success and ask for further funds to progress to the next stage. The charity will be delighted that the money has been put to such good use and will likely fund you again for the next phase. At the end of this, if you are successful, there are a number of ways to go. If you want to get into academia rather than go it alone, then at this point you can go to a university and say, "Look I have self-funding for the next X years and I have all these original results, can you help me to publish my work, can I register as a student and make use of your facilities? Unis always like funding from outside, whatever the source and if your early results are really convincing, they are likely to find you a supervisor.(See note at end) If you don't want to be in academia then continue independently. Maybe you can sell a patent to a big company and/or work for them. Maybe you can form your own company.
There are plenty of millionaires and billionaires in the world who never had a degree. You just have to be made of the right stuff.
By doing it gradually this way, you discover whether you are actually any good and whether your enthusiasm is lasting. There is a heck of a lot of work going it alone, but exceptional individuals have done it throughout history.
---
Note: I personally got into music college without the necessary exams. I worked hard and got a teaching job at the end of it. After teaching guitar for 7 tears I got bored. I got into a postgraduate computer science course at Cambridge University without having a first degree. This was on the basis that I had taught myself to program and then got a job as a programmer. Experience counts - even with academics provided they can see beyond the ends of their noses. It is even possible to get huge exemptions from an undergraduate degree course and still be awarded the degree if you can demonstrate actual working experience.
If you (cliche coming) think outside the box and appear confident, it's surprising how many people will be generous enough to help you. If you don't get a grant then at least you have tried so what's to lose?
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_4: In most cases, research grants are not awarded to people. They are awarded to research institutions. So no, an individual cannot get those grants on their own, no matter what degree they have or do not have.
There is no rule preventing eligible research institutions from hiring someone who has no degrees and having those people apply for grants on behalf of the institution. But generally there are plenty of people who have degrees, so they get hired.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_5: You can't get your own research grant, but if you start your own business you can be part of a research consortium.
I worked on a Horizon 2020 project. Those are big, international projects, where the funding agency (European Commission) requires that the partners are from different countries and some are small or medium enterprises. One of our partners was a company with just one employee apart from the founder. If you are really good at something that partners from academia need, and they know and trust you and your business, they may well invite you. You won't be leading the project (or maybe you can — I'm not actually sure, but it would seem uncommon and unlikely), but you will be getting a part of the grant. I'm pretty sure the business partners are not required to have degrees (some had roles that weren't research), so this way could, at least in theory, be a way in.
However, you'd have to be really good at what you do, network with the right people, and win their trust. None of this is remotely easy, but there is no formal rule blocking you.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_6: I'd say it's very unlikely, but not impossible.
Most fields/companies value experience more than a degree. AFAIK there is a quantum computer you can access for free, so you can get experience. You can use this to get a job, and then - with a company behind you - it'll be easier to to what you want.
Crowdfunding could be a way as well for research (instead of a grant). Thunderf00t financed his research by his Youtube subscribers that later lead to some interesting papers. (the idea to do a research on alkali metal+water reaction also came from there)
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_7: Not all grant programs have the same requirements. Recently, the OpenStreetMap Foundation's microgrant program closed (where "micro" is still thousands of euros, depending on what you need) where you could apply for funding if you want to do OpenStreetMap-related projects or research, and it's not as if only Dr. Ing. <NAME> PhD could apply to those.
NLNet is another organisation that funds various projects. They also have theme funds: if you want to do research that fits within one of those themes, it should be possible to get funding there. A related organisation is NLNet Labs, which helps find funding for projects like looking into the security of some important software. Which organisation may be able to help you depends on what you want to do and whether someone finds that important enough to fund it.
I happen to know of these two since they were pointed out to me, but there are many more organisations that spend money on all sorts of things. You may need to do part of the work beforehand to, like others already said, prove that you can actually pull it off, at least until you have some kind of track record, but you needn't simply accept that without a silly piece of paper you can't ever get funding for research you're enthusiastic about.
That said, I did interpret your question in a broad way: a research grant without a degree in general, but I'm not sure if that's what you meant. If you don't merely want to do a few projects for the good of all, but really want to make academia your career, then universities is typically where the money is at, and they indeed generally require you to have completed a university study before considering you worthy of a position in a university.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_8: >
> "With advancements in the internet and technology, I think that I can
> learn anything from internet with requirements of time and interest."
>
>
>
So why don't you just "learn from the Internet" how to make money? Seriously, to achieve your goals, you don't necessarily need research grants, you just need money. Note that, e.g., Einstein, Fresnel, Tsiolkovsky, and Grassmann made history in science when their jobs had nothing or little to do with their discoveries. Note also that people in academia often spend time and effort on teaching and/or raising funds that are at least comparable to those spent on their research.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_9: Fabian and username_2 have explained well why you can't get an academic research grant without a degree, relevant experience, a track record of success, an institutional affiliation, and a substantial part of the required equipment, space, personnel etc.
On the other hand, there are plenty of public competitions, some substantially funded such as the x-prize, that are geared towards private individuals and small companies. The downside is you get paid only if you win, but if you win, it is not out of the question that you could be funded to continue working on a specific research topic.
For example
* NASA Venus Rover Challenge
<https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/nasa-wants-your-help-designing-a-venus-rover-concept>
* DHS <https://www.dhs.gov/science-and-technology/prize-competitions>
* DARPA <https://www.darpa.mil/work-with-us/public/prizes>
It is quite common for private consultants to do research for hire. They won't get funded from academic sources, but corporations and government agencies pay for such research all of the time. You'd be surprised what kind of equipment some people have in their garages. Others rent shared user facilities at national labs or universities.
Upvotes: 2
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2020/06/23
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<issue_start>username_0: I managed to get a tenure-track academic job in the last month. While I'm thrilled and relieved to have secured employment, I feel somewhat guilty about it. The current employment situation is dire, due to the Covid-19 pandemic (it wasn't great before...). Many of my friends and colleagues are extremely worried about their career prospects, facing unemployment, or being forced to leave academia. I don't think I'm necessarily more deserving of a job than any of them. I can see that my experience fits well with the department I was hired by and was fortunate that they were pressing ahead with hiring.
Perhaps calling it ["survivor's guilt"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivor_guilt) is too extreme. I certainly don't intend to minimise the experience of those suffering due to much more severe circumstances. But I don't think Impostor Syndrome quite describes it. I suspect this feeling may be common in academia, in particular at the moment.
How can I support my struggling colleagues/friends and mentally handle the guilt that comes with surviving in academia (at least so far!) when so many others are facing an unprecedented crisis?<issue_comment>username_1: Congrats on your new job! One way you might be able to turn these feelings into something positive is to use whatever influence your position affords to help the students or non-tenure track faculty in your department. You can't fix the limited availability of positions, or competition for them, but maybe you can play a role in making your department as supportive as possible for those experiencing stress from this situation.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: One way to deal with it is to turn it to work. If you feel you do not deserve to be there, or are not more deserving than others, prove yourself wrong and start working on a high quality paper, prepare a great course for next year or be engaged in something new.
If you come across even the slightest opportunity of employment pass it on, even if it along the lines of hourly paid marking. Since you are an insider and they are outsiders, try to get them back in, sustain their network and pass their names around just in case (both inside and outside academia, if possible). Also keep in mind that someone's perspective might be skewed when it comes to decisions (e.g applying for a semi-to-non-relevant position or taking a leap of faith), so the advice and support you would normally provide as friend might need to be a bit different.
It is unfortunately an awkward situation among one's social circle, but just showing you still care with actions, no matter how small, can go a long way.
Upvotes: 2
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2020/06/23
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<issue_start>username_0: There are usually two types of cut-offs in entrance exams that decide who will and who won't be able to attend the particular institution.
They are :
* Rank based
* Marks based
In a rank based cut-off system, students with a rank above a specified rank can attend the institution.
In a marks based cut-off system, students who obtain marks above a particular mark can attend the institution.
In my opinion, a marks based cut-off is a much better system since it focuses more on learning, rather than competition.
I also believe that in a rank based system, the focus slowly shifts from learning to being above others. Students start focusing less on actually trying to understand what they need to understand to master a certain topic and more on what constitutes an exam. There comes a point where they no longer make use of their own brain, no longer explore what they're taught and just do what's required to be done for them to clear an exam (say). This is basically what the education system is at most of the places in the world.
Marks based systems are converting to rank based systems at a dramatically high rate.
What would be the benefits of a rank based system over a marks based system (if any)?<issue_comment>username_1: I agree with you that a marks based system promotes learning more and also in a cooperative manner.
I can think of one advantage of a rank based system though. A rank based system can normalize an exam otherwise too hard for anyone to get to a certain mark. An example of this could be a qualifying exam in a graduate school. Suppose a scenario in which there are few questions in an exam with the majority being very difficult questions by mistake (let’s say that year a new professor made the questions). If the school had a mark based system, it could be possible that most people cannot pass the exam due to questions being too hard. In that case, a rank based system would be better, since it would at least acknowledge the toughness of the situation and somehow provide an opportunity to pass the maximum number of students without being unfair.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: When knowledge is measured by an exam, some students will naturally focus more on learning "how to do the exam" instead of the actual content. Others will be more interested by the content. In my opinion, whether the cut-off is rank-based or mark-based has little effect on this. For example, cut-offs for English language exams such as TOEFL are always mark-based, but most exam takers will be happy to practice using old exams. The best way to get students to "learn the content instead of the exam" is to design good exams that can only be passed if one knows the content well.
That aside, the following advantages of each type of cut-off come to mind:
Rank-based cut-off
-------------------
The most obvious advantage of rank-based cut-offs is that the number of students who pass the cut-off is fixed. If this is an entrance exam to some program for which there are limited seats, rank-based is the easiest way to go. It becomes easier to plan resources.
Another advantage of rank-based cut-offs is that they are less dependent on the fluctuations in the difficulty of each year's exam. The exam designers do not have to worry so much about making it "equally difficult" to previous years, because the N best students will pass anyway.
Mark-based cut-off
------------------
As you said, the main advantage of mark-based cut-off is that it actually evaluates how well the student knows the content, independently of what their peers know. It is less about competition (which may be good or bad, but that is not the question here) and more about actual knowledge. If the two "logistic" problems discussed above are mitigated (i.e., if the number of seats is unlimited and exams can be designed to be equally difficult every year), then mark-based cut-offs are probably a fairer evaluation of students' skills.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: I suspect the primary reason that rank based metrics are used is that a (graduate) school has capacity to take a limited number of people every year. For example, my department has funding to take 6 PhD students a year. Even with Master's students, we only have the staff and lab space to take around 40.
Of course ranking people on an exam and taking the top 6 students would be a terrible way to decide who gets in and who doesn't, and even where exams are used (we don't use exams), they should only be a part of the picture, so that somewhat removes that advantage.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: I can give a perspective of this from the lens of a country which does have a Rank based entrance, India with a specific focus on an exam named JEE. Firstly, the thing to understand is that there is not enough seats in colleges to go around.
To put in perspective, in a usual year about [900,000](https://www.collegedekho.com/news/jee-main-2021-number-of-candidates-registered-21297/) people write this exam. The actual amount of seat in the college which have the most funding are about [30k-40k](https://www.motachashma.com/articles/total-seats-in-iit-nit-and-iiit.php). Now, the actual seats of those college which leads to having a higher chance of employability is even less. You may say, why on earth did I bring up employment statistic? That is because the main focus of many Asian countries is employability. You can clearly see this when you see that only those with highest rank can get in those employable fields.
---
>
> Marks based systems are converting to rank based systems at a dramatically high rate.
>
>
>
This is exclusive to India actually. If you see other part of world, they are starting to move away from test scores to seeing what a person actually does as criteria for admission. [1](https://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/national/sat-act-remain-important-even-as-universities-shift-away-from-standardized-tests) , [2](https://smeharbinger.net/the-new-standard-colleges-are-moving-away-from-standardized-test-scores-in-the-midst-of-recognizing-the-wealth-and-privilege-that-play-into-the-scores-received/)
---
One more point: A mark based criteria would mean, if one is competent enough then they can participate. A rank based means, just competition for sake of it. If we were a society were resource were in abundance and things could be spared, it is a no brainer to take the first option. But, we are not, and that's why it's the second.
In the particular case of India, there will be more and more people writing entrance exams per year till it dips again due to the dipping birth rates now. So, yeah.
Upvotes: 1
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2020/06/23
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<issue_start>username_0: I am looking for professional help to verify some results I am working on and maintaining in a write-up. However, I can't get anyone for free since I was forced to leave my old university, Case Western Reserve, (due to disagreements) and I don't know if I can find an online program that assists undergraduates in their research (I should have graduated my senior year with a bachelor's degree but am technically a freshman. I have studied rigorously up to differential equations; It's complicated). Moreover, professors are busy and would most likely ignore my requests no matter how much money I offer.
Therefore, is there a way to pay for professional research help? How can I receive feedback on what I am working on?
**Details:** My field is mathematics. I think the work may be complicated enough that graduate students won't be able to rigorously answer everything. I need someone with a Ph.D. on the level of professors.
(Technically, I am working on developing a finitely additive measure and sum that takes the average of functions defined on countably additive measure zero sets. I am looking to verify if my measure and average on a function gives in fact what I am looking for. For reference, the link to my pdf is [here](https://www.dropbox.com/s/q5zm26r89dbxppp/New__Measure%20%2812%29.pdf?dl=0)).<issue_comment>username_1: If you are describing research that you are doing, then you may just go ahead and contact a professor who does the research in the field you want. Outline the scope of the work that they are required to do, and how much you are willing to pay. You'll probably need an MoU that states how any results derived from this work are to be published, and who retains ownership.
I am not in mathematics but in my research days we received requests from private individuals not uncommonly. Usually those individuals were representing themselves as entrepreneurs and they worked with us through their company, but if my advisor were to get a request to do research with potential rights to publish, and it would bring in some funding commensurate with the amount of work, we would take it whether it was a company or an individual.
So, to your point of "professors are busy and won't listen no matter how much money I offer", I think that's not true. However, don't waste their time. Presuming you are in the US or Canada, a professor can make up to and exceeding $100 per hour. You need to realistically assess how much work they need to do and then make it worth their time. If they need to do a few hours worth of work and will be paid $500, either personally or to their research accounts, that might not be very attractive. If you are offering a few thousand for a collaboration that doesn't take up their entire working life, you are probably going to get more responses. If you just want someone to check your work for like $10 and a high five, you don't want the person who accepts that offer to help you.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: The harsh answer: You probably can't. At least, unless you are somehow quite wealthy, and if that was the case, I suppose you could simply pay for enrollment at another university. Let me try and clarify a bit.
As a researcher I get many requests from people who want me to look at their particular problem. This ranges from
* Fellow researchers who want to discuss - I most often oblige (at least if I have time, and their request is interesting or relevant).
* Students who I don't know in advance, who wants guidance - I help if their question is well researched and not too polemically phrased.
* Students from my own institution, not under my supervision - I always help, as this is my job.
* Amateurs who have invented the a new method or theory for something, and wants it checked - I rarely do more than skim it.
* etc. etc. etc.
You are in the last category. If you are to convince me that I should prioritize your request over the others, then I should be immediately convinced that your idea is really something special. My field is not mathematics, so I can't tell here. But judging from comments from professional mathematicians, neither can they. The second option you mention is money, and this is where I think you need to be fairly rich. If a purely monetary argument should convince me to push you to the top of the stack, you would need to pay me the equivalent of my going rate when doing freelance work, around 200 €/hour.
My best bet is to either:
* Try and get re-enrolled into a university. There people get paid to answer your questions.
* Try and find someone who would be really interested in your specific problem, and write them.
* Undo whatever you did to get banned at math stackexchange, and try again there. Being nice gets you a long way, being polemic and insisting that only a professor can answer your question, will get you few friends.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: I'm surprised this hasn't been mentioned yet:
**If your work is at a research level (i.e., not just homework), submit your work to a journal or conference to be peer-reviewed.**
Generally, the way researchers get feedback on their work is through the peer review process. The process is: (i) You write your work up properly, explaining your contribution in the context of prior work. (ii) You submit it to a journal/conference for which it is in scope. (iii) It gets assigned to qualified reviewers. (iv) The reviewers read the paper and write up their comments. (v) These comments are sent back to you along with a decision.
For some reason, researchers will perform this service for free, but it may take a while.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: There are degree-level maths tutors around on the Internet. I'd approach one of them working in a related field and see if they're willing to work in this way. They charge say $35-$120 per hour and it would be reasonable to pay them for the time they spend outside of lessons reading and assessing what you've done.
I think a lot of tutors might be reluctant because the costs could quickly mount up without the student appreciating how time-consuming it is, leaving the student with a bitter taste in their mouth - and no tutor wants that.
Upvotes: 1
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<issue_start>username_0: I am wondering on how to interpret these types of "reviews". As per [the guidelines](https://mathscinet.ams.org/mresubs/guide-reviewers.html) of Math reviews
>
> Two other treatments of items are possible, but should be used sparingly. You may recommend that the item be listed without a published review, or you may recommend that the author's summary be used as the review. In the second case the quoted summary would be given above your signature, to indicate that the summary is being used on the recommendation of the reviewer. If you decide to recommend one of these options, simply put your request in the Review text box (e.g., "Publish without a review", or "Use the summary as my review"). However, in most cases, the mathematics community would prefer an insightful review to either of these two treatments.
>
>
>
From [another post](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/24327/78473) here, I understand the first option to mean "do not bother to read this article". I wonder about the second one; a first interpretation could be "everything is correct with this paper and the abstract is good enough to guide the reader". Alternative, it could mean "I didn't bothered to review it".<issue_comment>username_1: When I review for MR I often use a paraphrase of the author's summary when it is a good description of what is in the paper. I don't mean that to say "not worth reading" or "I didn't read it". I would probably not use the MR option that merely reproduces the abstract, precisely because it might suggest a negative opinion of the work.
That said, I tend to review short papers that are OK but not earthshaking. A review of an important paper should do more than repeat or rephrase the author's summary.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: My sense is that the interpretation of a "summary only" review depends significantly on the culture of the research field of the paper and its historical relation to MR. I just looked at each article published in one of the main journals in my (applied) sub-field last year and exactly one of them had a non-summary review. On the other hand, a similar trip through recent issues of Journal of Number Theory shows that summary reviews are quite rare.
Personally, I have used this type of review once (out of approximately 30 reviews) with an intended meaning that matches your first interpretation. After reading the paper and writing my review I looked at the abstract again and realized that it was remarkably similar to what I had put together. Given that, it seemed reasonable to allow the author's words to speak for themselves.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: There are two reasons that a Mathematical Review will be a summary rather than an actual review:
1. The assigned reviewer recommends using the abstract or a part of the introduction as a review. This could be for several reasons: the reviewer thinks author's description of the paper is good and they don't have anything to add, the reviewer doesn't understand the paper well enough to review it, the reviewer doesn't have/want to put in the time to read and review the paper, ... Ideally in the latter 2 cases, the reviewer would decline the review request, but I doubt this always happens.
2. Mathematical Reviews can't find a reviewer for the paper. This could be because no one agrees to review the paper, but primarily it is just that in certain fields there are many more papers published than reviewers available so in order to keep up with the constant flow of new papers, the editors have to decide that some papers will be sent for review, some just get summaries from the text of the paper, and some don't get any reviews. This is why, as @username_2 discusses in their answer, at least some areas of applied math may have more summary-only papers than number theory. (And I believe the proportion of modern papers with only summaries is even higher in zbmath.org than in MathSciNet, primarily due to a smaller pool of reviewers, at least from what I've observed in number theory papers.)
Anyway, it is not the case that a paper with only a summary is "lower quality" (whatever that means) than a paper with a proper review. Though it is true that the "best" papers in an area tend to get proper reviews, many very good papers just have summaries. However, if a paper does not get a summary or a review (and is beyond the preliminary stage), that tends to correlate with being published in lower-tier journal, but again is not a definite measure of quality.
Upvotes: 2
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2020/06/23
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<issue_start>username_0: I saw in some applications that some researchers state that their papers are in top 10% most cited articles, but they never state how they calculated this. I have tried Web of Knowledge and there are some metrics there, but the don't really match the text from those applications. For instance, I found this kind of formulation in one of the applications:
>
> For the articles published Engineering category in 2015, the average
> number of citations is only 1.22. This article is therefore one of the
> top 10.00% most cited articles published in Engineering in 2015.
>
>
>
I saw that it was calculated using Google Scholar, but I don't know how they do it. Can anyone please help me to understand how can you see if you paper is in top xxx% most cited articles like in the text above? Is there a software for that? Or is there any relation with the h-index that can give that for a certain year?<issue_comment>username_1: Go to Web of Knowledge and search by publication name. Then sort by citation count and find the 10% cutoff (e.g. if there have been 10,000 papers published in that journal, then the article with the 1000th highest citation count is the 10% cutoff). Then find the paper you're interested in, and see if it's above or below that 10% cutoff.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: In [Scopus](https://www.scopus.com/), you can use `SRCID ( 17945 ) AND PUBYEAR = 2021` to query all publications from the journal `Bioinformatics` published in 2021. You can then sort by `Cited by (highest)`. Here `17945` is the Source ID. You can find all Source IDs from [Sources](https://www.scopus.com/sources.uri?zone=TopNavBar) located at the page top.
Upvotes: 2
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2020/06/24
| 2,172
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<issue_start>username_0: I had an oral agreement with a supervisor that I was to complete research work for him. We established how many hours I was to work, and my hourly rate, when the work was to be done, etc. I completed the work, sent it off to him, he gave me some feedback and asked me to correct some citations and so, I incorporated the feedback, made fixes to my citations and then never heard back from him.
I recently emailed him about not being paid; he told me that he was not able to use the work and instead offered to find me alternative funding opportunities in the future. When I insisted that I did the work and deserved to get paid for my time, he threatened to report me for academic integrity issues. I'm only a Master's student, and this is my first research assistant position. Is this normal? Who should I speak to about this?
I am not part of a union, and my supervisor approached me to do this work. I do have email correspondence that confirms we have an agreement, but not confirming the specific terms (e.g. he wrote emails where he told me, submit your work and your time/hour log and I will pay you). He later revealed he had used the grant money to pay a different student to do different work.
The oral contract was made in front of others. It was in a lab setting, so others definitely overheard. Another clarification was that another student was to take over the work I began because I was going on an exchange to a different school. So there is more proof of a contract existing between my supervisor and me. My #1 concern is the threat of reporting me for academic integrity. My #2 concern is getting paid. I've contacted my faculty and was advised to report this to the dean of my faculty, which I'll be doing shortly.<issue_comment>username_1: >
> Is this normal?
>
>
>
No. In most places, wage theft is a serious crime.
>
> Who should I speak to about this?
>
>
>
The HR department. Possibly also the department chair. Provide a detailed written statement of what happened and when.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_2: No, this is not normal. If an agreement about number of working hours and an hourly salary is made, the salary is normally supposed to be paid according to that agreement.
It is not clear to me if a contract was written up, or if everything was oral agreements. If there is no contract, and no written correspondence to confirm the agreement, you will unfortunately have a hard time lifting this case. But in any case, the correct person to contact (which is your question), is your union, or a local union representative at your institution - that is, if unions are common in your country, which you don't mention.
If you are not a member of a union, you should become so if that is a possibility.
You should also start looking for another supervisor, as this person clearly don't have your best interest in mind.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: You *should* report this to a some authority.
The chances are good (but we do not know this) that the person has done this before and will do it again. Ethically if you have evidence enough to make a formal complaint you should to prevent them exploiting people. Ethically and practically are, however, two different things - you will have to make the decision yourself.
>
> he wrote emails where he told me, submit your work and your time/hour log and I will pay you
>
>
>
That is sufficient grounds to take a complaint case. It is borderline whether it is enough to successfully take a legal case for failing to pay against them. It is not quite a contract (IANAL) I think, as the terms would be explicit (e.g. how much per hour or in total) for a contract. If you have corresponding emails now saying he will not pay that would be much stronger.
Strictly speaking you need legal advice specific to you country from your own lawyer.
Do not expect to ever get paid. You can possibly put an end to this person's behavior (by *maybe* getting them fired), but getting paid is not so easy.
>
> I recently emailed him about not being paid;
>
>
>
Email is your friend here. Hopefully the replies were in email.
Make records of any emails, e.g. print them, copy them to disk. Get copies of texts by phone or whatsapp fs whatever if possible and try and get recordings of any phone messages left for you.
Courts and formal review processes will need evidence like this.
>
> he told me that he was not able to use the work
>
>
>
This is rarely a legitimate complaint in a labor case (which is what you would probably have here - again IANAL). If your work was OK up until you asked for payment a court would typically take that as a demonstration your work was OK and without fundamental flaw. There would have to be a history of consistent complaint from the other person to justify not paying. They should also have stopped using you to assist them to be able to defend their position. Stopping after you ask for payment they refuse to make is too late.
>
> and instead offered to find me alternative funding opportunities in the future.
>
>
>
That is known as "bait and switch", it's not considered reasonable. You expected to be paid, but unfortunately did not have an explicit agreement on the form of that payment, so it might be a slight weak point.
>
> When I insisted that I did the work and deserved to get paid for my time, he threatened to report me for academic integrity issues.
>
>
>
If he was foolish enough to do that in email, you have an extremely serious case against him for abuse of power. He was acting an an employee of an institute and your supervisor so that is a case you can directly take against them. Typically you would make a formal complaint first via the institute's normal procedure. I would expect that to be enough to put this individual in danger of loosing their job - I'd personally fire someone for doing this (when good evidence existed), but your institute and country's normal practices are unknown to me.
Make sure you have good legal advice for this process. Join a union and request their help and advice - they typically have a legal representative they can at least put you in touch with, sometimes for reduced fees or free as an initial step. If that is not an opinion get your own lawyer.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: **tl;dr:** Try your *local small claims court or arbitration service* to claim your salary, and make a formal complaint to your university regarding the professor's threat.
Disclaimer: I'm not a lawyer, I'm an academic too. Try to look up guidelines specific to your jurisdiction. Don't worry about what may be common in academia. Pay disputes are very common in every field of life, and your situation isn't that different to if a car wash or a restaurant tried not to pay you for work already completed.
**The full answer**
There are two issues here - firstly getting the money you are owed, and secondly dealing with your professor's threat of retaliation.
Although the exact processed will vary from country to country, I would suggest this as a somewhat universal blueprint to get the money you are owed.
1. **Compile all evidence in writing.** Make an annotated PDF of all the emails where your agreement is mentioned. Email people who were present at the meeting when you agreed the hourly rate, asking "Hey, just sorting out some project stuff. You were there when I set an hourly rate if X Euros with professor Y. Just wanted to check you remember that this was the amount we agreed on." From their replies, you now have evidence of the oral agreement in writing too.
2. Email a **formal final request for payment** to your professor. Keep it brief (don't go into your whole dispute), and include payment details and a date by when you expect payment.
3. If the professor still refuses to pay, **file a claim with your local small claims court or arbitration service**. Small pay disputes are very common, and these kinds of services are designed to be cheap and efficient to use. For example, in the UK the fee to submit a claim is ~20GBP. Evidence (i.e. your annotated set of emails) is submitted online to an arbiter who will try to reach an agreement between the parties. No need for lawyers, and most cases can be resolved online or by phone, with no need to go into a court. In general you won't have the opportunity to call witnesses in this kind of arbitration, so make sure you have all your evidence (including the emails from witnesses) in a PDF or on paper.
The threat of academic retaliation by your professor is another issue, and a very serious one. Was this threat made in writing? If so, I would immediately make a formal complaint to the university. This will pre-empt any possible retaliation on the professor's part. If the threat was not made in writing, you may not want to make a complaint at this stage - however by formally pursuing the money you are owed, you will have demonstrated that he has a conflict of interest if he ever does decide to make a complaint against you.
Upvotes: 2
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2020/06/24
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<issue_start>username_0: Is asking for the syllabus before class frowned upon?
I usually ask because I'm trying to figure out what we're going to do and whether I have interest in the subject.<issue_comment>username_1: It should be perfectly acceptable (nearly) everywhere. You may not get it, for a variety of reasons, but it is fine to ask. Note that some places have it online, so you might look there also.
Even an older syllabus might serve your purposes.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: There is no problem asking, and in many cases it is already available on a website. Students that had taken the class earlier are another source.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: i) the syllabus should be available before a student selects a course - and indicate requirements and successful completion will satisfy requirement for a course at the next level
ii) the syllabus should include a list of recommended text books
iii) ideally, a lecture schedule will suggest pre-reading material. It is recommended that the student does pre-read they can then focus in the lecture on parts less well understood
iv) past exam / course work should be available. Again read and map "tests" to the lecture schedule.
Ideally "test" will describe how grades are awarded. A very generic approach is Pass : a text book answer, Merit : identifies weakness in the text book answer, Distinction : offers a "worthy" solution to those weaknesses.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_4: It is perfectly acceptable and in fact you don't even need to justify your reasons when asking for it. I would also consider the following additional steps you can take in assessing a course:
* Check if you have access to the course website and its resources, or any old material that may be on the professor's own page.
* Check for which textbooks and/or books will be used for the course. If the course strictly adheres to a textbook you may want to read it to get an insight into how the subject will be taught, and whether you are comfortable using that resource.
* If the module/course is part of a program (e.g. BSc, MSc), sometimes information about the course will be provided in webpages on the degree course it is part of, and those would be worth checking out.
Upvotes: 0
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2020/06/24
| 359
| 1,363
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<issue_start>username_0: I have my own publications on Zotero, and would like a convenient way to export these references directly to my resume/CV so I only have to update them once. Is there a CSL style that can generate resume-style publication lists? They should appear in the following format and be sorted in reverse chronological order:
```
2020 Full bibliographic reference, formatted
in whatever sensible style can be found.
```<issue_comment>username_1: Most citation manager allow you to change styles/define custom styles. [For zotero see here](https://www.zotero.org/support/dev/citation_styles/style_editing_step-by-step).
All you need to do then is make a document where you add citations to all your references in whatever order you want, add the bibliography and copy it to your CV.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: <NAME>'s [GitHub repository](https://github.com/adamaltmejd/cv) has a CSL file that seems to be what you are looking for. Adam also compiles his CV from markdown with BibTeX via Pandoc and Pandoc-citeproc.
Upvotes: 2 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: Perhaps the easiest solution will be using the [APA-CV citation style](https://github.com/citation-style-language/styles-distribution/blob/master/apa-cv.csl) as proposed in [this SO answer](https://stackoverflow.com/a/58907768/14993291).
Upvotes: 0
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2020/06/25
| 1,606
| 5,691
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<issue_start>username_0: A "video poster presentation" sounds like a logical impossibility, but now that conferences are online, they seem to be a thing. What makes one effective? How is this different from a recorded conference talk? What makes for good content?<issue_comment>username_1: First, this answer isn't based on experience of creating such things, but just on general principles. I assume that you want an audience to actually watch the video to the end and that what you have to say isn't so earth shatteringly novel and important that they naturally will. But also, I assume that what you want to say has value in itself, though more for some than others.
First, I think you have about 15 seconds at the start of the presentation to answer the viewers question "Should I continue with this or not?" But the answer has to be obvious from the presentation, rather than just saying outright "This is why you should watch." If you aren't immediately compelling, people will hit the "next" button. It isn't like a class where students are forced to sit and watch.
The last 15 seconds are probably also very important so that people have a succinct message to carry away - make it memorable.
Talking heads are boring. A video has an advantage over a live talk, of course, since interested watchers can hit rewind if they miss a point, but still, do *something* to avoid the talking head issue. An overly pedantic presentation will probably also induce watchers to move on.
I assume that the most interested people will have some way to contact you after the presentation so that you can get follow up. The format suggested by walkar in a comment sounds like it might be very good, so that people can ask questions after viewing and possibly get some synergy going. But I also assume you don't have control over format.
I'd suggest, actually, that you take some inspiration from an early science oriented TV show intended for children: [Watch Mr. Wizard](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watch_Mr._Wizard). It was a half hour of simple science done live. The wikipedia article points to some similar things that this show inspired. Some of the shows are available on [YouTube[(https://www.youtube.com/results?search\_query=Mr.+Wizard). And note that by using another person, in this case a youngster, as an assistant, <NAME> avoids the talking head problem. You can have a "conversation" with an assistant that you can't have with the audience.
---
Background: I'm an old guy with hearing problems. I don't watch TV or depend on video much. When I do, I'm looking for visual impact and am quick to move on if the presentation starts out too slowly or gets boring. On the other hand, I'm interested in lots of things. If you catch me early, I might stick around. I don't need to take notes anymore, so won't, but a clear message about the key insight (the last few seconds) will stick with me and make you memorable.
Oh, and I never missed an episode of Mr. Wizard.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: Online poster presentations are displayed on a small screen. Usually the user interface makes it hard or impossible to zoom and scroll. Therefore, poster graphical design does not work. Instead, large fonts and a much smaller number of images should be used. Essentially, the poster should look like a slide instead of a poster.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_3: I am specifically answering the question of video *poster* presentations. This is not advice about making good videos or demos in general.
An in-presence poster presentation is a short oral presentation in front of a poster, with questions. The poster itself is a large surface usually divided into a small number of panels that the presenter can point to. You can functionally replace the oral poster presentation by a pre-recorded video, replacing the individual panels by a matching number of slides, and shedding a tear for the lost opportunity to answer questions.
**Our practice therefore is to treat video posters as 5-minute oral presentations.**
We find that the hard part is fitting a high-impact presentation into that time frame, whether it is for a poster or not. For guidance we use <NAME>'s ”Ten simple rules for short and swift presentations” from PLoS Comput. Biol. 13(3), <https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1005373>.
1. [Plan a clear story](https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1005373#sec002)
2. [Provide only one major point per slide](https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1005373#sec003)
3. [Limit use of text](https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1005373#sec004)
4. [Use simple visuals](https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1005373#sec005)
5. [Develop a consistent theme](https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1005373#sec006)
6. [Repeat critical messages twice using different visuals](https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1005373#sec007)
7. [Use the principle of parsimony in explanations](https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1005373#sec008)
8. [Allocate more than one slide to effectively end the narrative](https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1005373#sec009)
9. [Use the final slide for contact information and links to additional resources](https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1005373#sec010)
10. [Use timed practice](https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1005373#sec011)
Upvotes: 2
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2020/06/25
| 1,017
| 4,394
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<issue_start>username_0: During my PhD (field of machine learning) I've been working in collecting a very large dataset. The whole work took more or less 1 year. I had the idea, collected most of the data and wrote all the software for data collection and data annotation. I acknowledge I had help from other people setting up sensors and collecting data, but mostly technical work.
Recently I've found out that my supervisor is giving this dataset to his other students without my consent and even submitted 2 papers (even before the submission of my own paper, so I don't even get a citation).
In those other papers, they wrote my name in the acknowledgements. I didn't find it fair and I've claimed at least co-authorship from the other papers. But my supervisor claims that he purchased the equipment, and the funding came from his project, so he owns the dataset and he decides what to do with it.
I took 1 year doing everything, and other students spent 0 hours, and I just get an acknowledgement? I really didn't find it fair.
I'm trying to solve it internally with my supervisor, but it's not working. Since the papers were already submitted, I'm not sure I will be able to change authorship. I have many proofs that this dataset was mainly developed by me.
What's the best way to try to solve this problem? Report it to the department? Address it to the conference chairs (the papers are still under review)? Or just forget about it and finish my PhD without complain?<issue_comment>username_1: Fighting with your supervisor is probably going to negatively affect your own career. Don't let your future hang on this one thing whether it is fair or not. Forcing punishment on the advisor will not get you the letters and recommendations you need to get out and on your own.
Get your own paper published. "Make nice" enough that you get good recommendations. Get away. Build your career.
If you focus just on the "justice" of it you could easily be the one to suffer blowback. Let the past be the past and optimize for your own future. This paper and this dataset isn't going to define your future, nor, hopefully, be the best work of your career.
And, no, I don't make this recommendation happily nor lightly.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: I don't see anything problematic here, unless the papers that your advisor wrote with the other students take credit for developing the dataset (which would be a clear ethical violation).
Many papers in computer science use one or several datasets developed by other authors, and it's not a standard practice that the dataset developers are invited to contribute as authors. In fact, doing so may lead to vastly inflated author lists for papers that use many datasets.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: It should be considered positively if the dataset is used by completely somebody else. I remember that number of acknowledgments can be used as a metric in some grant application or other types of report.
If you prefer citation or authorship, then I'd recommend to make your dataset citable as soon as possible, e.g. as your own publication, article or as pure dataset. Public dataset can be uploaded and cited by services like Zenodo, which generates citable DOI.
Your career won't be affected by on less co-authorship. More important is your attitude to work. Personally, I'd be very happy if some of my datasets are used by my colleagues, anyway I do not know exactly your circumstances and lab relationships.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: Unpopular opinion: be happy that your dataset was used for, not one, but two publications!
You'll get your paper out, then at some point you may write
>
> "This dataset was used in the following publications \cite{otherstudent1, otherstudent2}."
>
>
>
So that people will know that your contribution was important. That's kind of counterintuitive because *you* are citing *them*. But people reading your paper will understand the usefulness of your work. And that's more important than bibliometrics.
I understand that having two more papers in your CV will positively impact your career. But the gain of two more publications is *greatly* outweighed by the loss of a bad recommendation letter.
My advice is to get the paper out, focus on the fact that your research was useful (that's our goal at the end of the day), and move on.
Upvotes: 3
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2020/06/25
| 2,379
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<issue_start>username_0: I am average student completed my under-grad and grad studies successfully. I am doing PhD since mid 2015 (~7 years now).
---
I was a hard-working student. I was a self-motivated student always wanted to do PhD and stay in Academia. I was hoping somehow my work will help to people.
If I compare playing tennis to a PhD studies, I feel like my advisor is breaking my racket to motivate me and I cannot keep up with a broken racket, which is my will to move on.
---
These are the some stuff that my advisor told me multiple times. I cannot forget or over-write them:
* "You disappointed and hurt me. I don't know what am I going to do with you."
// *One year later, during a meeting over zoom, when I told him that these words offended me and I do not want to hurt you anymore, he just closed the zoom meeting to my face saying I am not your psychologist.*
* "You are like a turtle. You can't even graduate in 20-30 years."
* "You are bad at time management and always lost in details."
* "Your model is junk. I won't write my name on top of this model."
* "Even high-school students won't make the mistakes you do. Should I keep going?" [Me]: "No, please don't."
* He threw a book at me and told me that: "You should learned from it"
* He keep showing his other students Ph.D. and throw in front of me saying: "See how good they are writing, you should write like them, but I don't understand what you write."
* I have three other Ph.D. students, I have to work on their papers, thesis, I have classes to teach. I don't time for you. But later, I learn that he was actually working on some other projects that he get fund from.
In front of all the jury members he also mentioned:
* "I am giving you `F` to motivate you. I trust you keep working."
* "I never helped that much to any of my student in my life. I don't know what I can do more."
* "I start to understand the way he thinks and explains his work after 4 years. He is very complex."
* "Doing Ph.D. is not meant for you, you don't have enough capacity for it."
* "I cannot compile you."
* "I will give you 'F' if you won't complete your paper in 4 weeks."
* "I don't believe that you implemented and tested your code" // I have actually done
* "If I want I can help his journal paper but I will never put a single character on his journal" with a small smile on his face
---
Everything boiled up when I get `F` from my progress at Fall 2018 on my PhD studies. All lead to depression and anxiety.
Then pandemic started in 2019. I have semester multiple semesters and enter into progress again in beginning of 2022 and jury gave me `F` again and threated me that if I don't submit my journal paper till next semester they will give me the second `F` and kick me out. Since then, I completely disconnected from my advisor, start to fear from him, but keep working on my journal.
I have completed my paper and shared with my advisor 8 months ago, and updated version 2 months ago -- but there is no response from my advisor. When I see him face to face, he told me that he was busy and have to work for his other students' projects. He is completely ghosting me and does not even response back to my e-mails.
=> If he allows me to submit my work to a journal; and if I complete my second journal in this semester (~within 4 months) there is a hope that I am approaching to graduation. If I cannot submit my journal in this month I think the everything is over.
Overall, I am not blaming my advisor, instead I chose blame myself and think over the following questions:
* Where did I do wrong? What did I do to deserve all this?
* Why did I start PhD journey?
* Did I lost most important years of my life for nothing?
* If I have chosen a different advisor, would it be the same?
*All these let me to realize that I am actually not mentally and emotionally capable enough to be successful in PhD or even in any job from now on related to computer science and coding. I feel like have invested nearly 15 years (sum of undergrad and grad studies) of my life for something I am not worth of.* And probably when I kicked out from PhD I will never ever code again.
**=>** Should I conclude that I am not capable enough to do PhD with the words of my advisor? or Should I give myself another chance?<issue_comment>username_1: Though I can't relate to your situation, I have friends who were in a similar situation during their Ph.D. They were mentally abused and constantly demeaned by their advisors. Though this behaviour is predominant in South Asian universities. But it's quite prevalent in many western universities too. However, all my friends who went through such hard times, they did one common thing, they persevered.
They did not lose hope and did whatever was necessary to get the degree. After they graduated, they went their own way and are leading happy lives years after graduating.
What I trying to say is, you know that you are hard-working and a good student. What you are going through is because of your circumstances. You have worked hard for the past 4.5 years on your Ph.D., don't lose hope now. Do what's required for being eligible to defend and then change your circumstances.
>
> All these let me to realize that I actually not capable enough
> mentally and emotionally to be successful in PhD or even in any job
> from now on.
>
>
>
Don't focus on something that hasn't happened yet. Your job now is to complete your degree. Don't worry about the success and job at the moment. Those will come. You are capable, that's why you are in a grad school.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: >
> Should I conclude that I am not capable enough to do PhD with the words of my advisor? or Should I give myself another chance?
>
>
>
No you shouldn't conclude that you are incapable of doing a PhD. Whether or not you should give yourself another chance depends entirely on you. We can help you with identifying the salient points that should play a role in that decision. (More on this later)
>
> Overall, I am not blaming my advisor
>
>
>
That shows that you are mature and capable of being critical of yourself. **But** your supervisor was abusive. That behavior you described is not normal and it should not take place anywhere, let alone a university. Your supervisor has a lot to be blamed of, keep that in mind.
>
> All lead to depression and anxiety.
>
>
>
That is understandable. But please don't overlook this. We (or at least I) are not qualified to give you advice on how to deal with depression. But I can suggest you to go see a medical professional. Health, and in this particular case mental health, is important above all.
---
**What options do I have?**
It greatly depends on the university. In my university for example we have a "mentor," which is a professor assigned to you who checks in on you periodically and acts as a neutral party when you have problems.
For instance, I could go to my mentor and tell him "look, my supervisor is being abusive. Am I crazy or am I right? What can we do?" And he might suggest to change advisor, mediate the conflict etc...
Maybe you don't have such a figure. In another university we had a similar figure but it was more general, not assigned to you personally. Check if your university has such a thing and do go talk to them.
If not, you could consider changing supervisor. That of course depends on various things
* How far along in your thesis you are. If you are almost done, it's probably not worth it.
* Is your supervisor an influential professor in your department, or is s/he generally admired? In that case your next supervisor might resent you for the choice you made.
You might also consider changing university altogether but that would likely mean starting from scratch. Fresh starts are good, but also very energy consuming.
Given what you described, it seems that your supervisor is breaking ethical rules that nearly any university would have. You may look at the appropriate department in your university and seek to file a complaint. This is an action that you could take together with one of the previous two suggestions.
Finally you could also hang in there, hope to get a decent letter and start a postdoc in a better place. However you should check that your anxiety allows you to do this. If the situation becomes unbearable, don't try to resist it.
---
**Should I continue academia?**
Like I said, we are not going to make a decision for you, but consider these
* Do you still love doing research and, in particular, do you love your particular area of research?
* Would you like to teach at university level?
* Do you believe that in a more supportive and encouraging environment you would be able to perform better?
* Are there any other jobs that you would consider doing other than academia?
* Have you taken under consideration alternative options, like leaving academia and returning at a later moment.¹
Answer to (not necessarily only) these questions sincerely to yourself and decide accordingly.
---
¹ Gaps in the resume might be hard to motivate and might get in the way of getting a job in academia after having left it. But, even though I cannot provide any examples from my experience, I don't think that it would be absolutely impossible to re-enter.
Upvotes: 3
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2020/06/25
| 3,154
| 12,809
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<issue_start>username_0: A few days ago, I was notified of my degree award, and my imposter syndrome kicked in - trying to see if I've done anything to not warrant earning it. I found myself looking through good academic practice guidelines and noticed something I'd previously overlooked -- that it was considered exam cheating to attempt to look at another candidate's exam paper even if nothing was gained from it. I'm pretty sure that on at least one occasion I've looked at another person's script while they were taking an exam. To be honest, I have no clue which exam(s) I would've done this on (although I know this wasn't a very common behavior of mine) and, again, I've never been able to benefit from it as I've never been able to actually read anything from anyone's papers (My conscience wouldn't have let me forget this) -- so all my work on my exams are my own knowledge and not gained from anyone's scripts. I also can't remember precisely if my intentions in doing so were to try and get answer from him/her or to see which part of the exam script they were on to judge whether I was behind or not and should pick up the pace (although there **must've been some instance where I actually tried to get an answer but couldn't make anything out**) - I just have a feeling that I've looked at a person's script before and specifics are pretty hazy.
What should I do about this? My friend told me that he himself and friends he knows (who I know as well and are high achieving students) have been guilty of this and most students are and that this isn't a big deal. I also fail to recollect when this would've happened, and how often (although it couldn't have happened more than a few times as I think I would remember an incident more clearly if it happened more often). Should I tell the college about this, or take it as a learning experience and move on? Part of me doesn't want to penalize myself if this is a fairly common thing, and I worked very hard to get the degree award I have.<issue_comment>username_1: What you should do, is precisely nothing. Take a deep breath. Have a culturally appropriate beverage and celebrate your finishing.
We are human. None of us is perfect. We fall. We get up. We move on. The past is past. Most of us here would probably not like to see a complete rerunning of our past selves in every respect.
But, since it bothers your conscience, vow to do better in the future so you have less to be worried about.
Upvotes: 7 <issue_comment>username_2: Some of the psychoanalytics say. Don't lie. But, if you lie you should know why you're doing it. I.e. if you cheat - you should know why you're doing it, but don't cheat yourself. There are exceptional cases where individual should judge and balance.
It's up to you to be aware whether you deserve award.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: It can be hard to have perspective on one's own actions. Let me tell you how this sounds to readers: "I went looking for any tiny reason to disqualify my accomplishments or prove to myself that I didn't deserve them, and even with perfect knowledge (up to memory) and motivated reasoning I can't find a clear example."
This means that you deserve your degree. Even an honor code, which may seem to be black and white, invariably involves some judgement in practice, and not all violations are equal. For example, imagine a student who in the process of turning in their exam catches a glimpse, without even wanting to, of another student's exam as they do the same. This would also be a violation of the letter of your honor code, but not one which any reasonable authority would hold against them.
Listen to username_1, and maybe reflect on the roots of your desire towards self-sabotage.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_4: You are off by a few orders of magnitude regarding severity of your transgression. It seems like part of you is trying to self-sabotage here.
For calibration:
Scenario 1: If I am proctoring an exam, and spot a student briefly glancing in the direction of another exam, I'd tell them to not do that again – and that is the full extent of what is going to happen (assuming I don't see the same person doing it again). Even if I were to bring this up as academic misconduct, it would quite certainly be thrown out immediately.
Scenario 2: Let's say a student approaches me after an exam, and confesses to having glanced at an answer from another student. The most likely outcome is that they would lose the points for that question. The realistic worst-case is that they get a 0 on the exam, and have to resit it. If the confession happens after the grades for the year have been confirmed, I don't suppose anything would happen.
Ok, so what kind of misdeeds would you need to confess to in order to get your degree revoked? For most universities, cheating in an exam just wouldn't cut it. Something like "I paid another person to attend all exams in my place" or "I completely plagiarised my dissertation" would probably do it.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_5: (This seems off-topic, but was too long for a comment.)
Quoting some of your comments:
>
> I shouldn't feel like this degree was unearned or forsaken by this?
>
>
>
>
> but wouldn't the far more self-sabotaging choice be more "honorable" or the right thing to do?
>
>
>
It seems like your question is less about the *practical* matters, and more about whether it is *morally right*. I don't know if I am interpreting correctly, but it seems like you feel like you did wrong and you find it difficult to forgive yourself, so you are trying to redeem yourself by punishing yourself.
My two cents:
* Forgiving yourself will not come from giving up the degree or otherwise punishing yourself, nor from strangers on the internet saying you did nothing wrong; it will only happen if *you* forgive yourself.
+ (To be clear, I'm not implying that the reason you need to forgive yourself is because you did something wrong. Forgiving oneself has to do with perceived fault, and is independent from actual fault.)
* Redeeming oneself is a fallacy, implying that one is not worthy and must suffer to become worthy. In my opinion, every person is intrinsically worthy; no one has to suffer to "prove" it. Nor do shame and suffering help someone improve; they are often even counterproductive.
Lastly, I second the comments' suggestion to see a mental health professional. I wish you all the best.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_6: I agree with the other answers here about the self-sabotage behaviour you're experiencing, but would like to address one thing nobody else has quite mentioned.
>
> ...if I've done anything to not warrant earning it.
>
>
>
This statement works under the premise that a single (in this case inconsequentially tiny) flaw, undoes all the work I assume you have done to earn the degree.
>
> I worked very hard to get the degree award I have.
>
>
>
How many hours of work have you put into the degree? How many hours of sleep have you lost? How many exams did you pass using your brain alone?
At the end of the day, the qualification is a document that says you are qualified to practise in the field. You passed all the requirements without any external help and are a fully capable professional in your field.
If I asked you to solve a problem in this field, would you no longer be able to solve it? Does the fact that you glanced at other exam papers a couple of times means that you actually are incapable of doing the work? You have earned the qualification entirely under your own merit.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_7: Everyone else has done very well pointing out to you that this is not at all an issue and you shouldn't consider it cheating. I would like to add one more point: the reason that "attempting to look at another candidate's paper" is on there is to cover for cases where the examiners know damn well that someone was cheating by looking at someone else's paper, but can't guarantee that they saw the answers because they caught the cheater before they could write it down. It doesn't actually mean that the attempt is in itself cheating.
Calm down, you deserved your diploma. Have a nap, call a family member who'll be appropriately proud of you, and listen to the friend who pointed out that this is very common.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_8: Some things in life are a big deal if you are about to do them, but not so much if they happened along time ago, and with no bad consequences. I would give a good slap to anyone who was about to do what you did. But I wouldn't bother someone who had done it a long time ago and obviously learned their lesson and then some. I don't know a single human being who has made it to 25 years of age without doing something they weren't too proud of. No one got hurt. You don't owe anyone any damages. You learned your lesson. Forgive yourself.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_9: Actually cheating is bad. Trying but failing to cheat is still bad, but not so bad. But you are *not* asking about that. Rather, you are asking whether you should attempt to destroy your degree. You can think about the ethics of doing *that*. Would it be ethical to choose to make such an attempt or not? If most people are *more ethical* than you, and would be disadvantaged by you having your degree, maybe it is slightly justifiable. But if most people are *more unethical* than you, you would be doing the world a very big disservice if you actually manage to put yourself out of the job market! I would rather you build the bridge I walk across, than someone who cheated on exams and think there is nothing wrong with that!
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_10: >
> it was considered exam cheating to attempt to look at another candidate's exam paper even if nothing was gained from it.
>
>
>
I would imagine that clause is largely there as to be something easier to prove than full-blown copier cheating when cheating is suspected. A lot of pressure goes into proving people are cheating (Loss of employment, Loss of Visa, Lots of wasted money) and it may be a way to prove some academic misconduct in the case the professor can't explicitly prove you were cheating to the evidence standard needed but can show that you 'glanced at your neighbor's paper'. The reason that's there is they can do something lower like throw out the test or take some points away as opposed to a full-blown expelling or something of the like. o
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_11: Take yourself out of the equation. Pretend for a moment that you're talking about your classmate Bob, not about yourself:
>
> I'm pretty sure that on at least one occasion Bob has looked at another
> person's script while they were taking an exam. To be honest, I have no
> clue which exams he did this on. ... I just have a feeling that Bob has
> looked at a person's script before and the specifics are pretty
> hazy. ... I also fail to recollect when this would've happened, and
> how often.
>
>
>
Now, imagine that you're on an honor council and the above complaint was submitted to you. There's no chance that you'd investigate that complaint. There are zero details, only a vague hunch, so you really couldn't investigate it if you *wanted* to. It comes across not as a genuine report, but as a poor attempt to slander another student that the submitter doesn't like. The only thing to do with such a report would be to throw it out (and possibly have a stern chat with whoever filed it).
There's no point in trying to report something unless you actually have *something* to report.
Hopefully, looking at it from another angle also makes it clear how unreasonably malicious you're being to yourself. It wouldn't be appropriate to treat someone else that way, so it's *definitely* not appropriate to treat yourself that way.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_12: Let me just quote "A Mathematicians Miscellany" by [Littlewood](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Edensor_Littlewood), where he describes his experience with an examination:
"There is only one other question I am sure of having done, and for the following reason. I began on a question on elementary theory of numbers, in which I felt safe in my school days. It did not come out, nor did it on a later attack. I had occasion to fetch more paper ; when passing a desk my eye lit on a heavy mark against the question. The candidate was not one of the leading people, and I half-unconsciously inferred that I was making unnecessarily heavy weather ; the question then came out fairly easily. The perfectly highminded man would no doubt have abstained from further attack ; I wish I had done so, but the offence does not lie very heavily on my conscience."
So at least you're in good company:-)
Upvotes: 1
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2020/06/26
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<issue_start>username_0: Do grad school admissions (particularly for Arts) care about how many classes you've taken per semester during your senior years?
For example, I'm (potentially) finishing my undergraduate studies with a 3-class semester. However, during this time I'll also be volunteering in classrooms for experience (I want to do a BEd before a Master's, the latter is far down the line) and potentially working part-time. I've taken 4 to 5 courses for all my other semesters save for one other, when I was also working and doing job searching for my school's Co-op program.
I'm worried, potentially, that a 3-class load will reflect poorly - even though I did a lot of other things during this time. However, my GPA is very high, above what is considered the competitive average to be accepted.
In your experiences how do grad schools weigh overall GPA vs overall class loads?<issue_comment>username_1: I was actually going to ask this same question because I also had a low course load throughout most of my undergrad. education (without working or extra cirricular activites). I can't answer from experience since I haven't applied anywhere yet, but I think it may depend on the circumstances and your overall courseload throughout your undergrad. education.
Since you've been taking four-five classes all your other semesters and have a high GPA, they're probably not going to care about a single semester with three classes, regardless of whether you working/volunteering/etc. in your spare time.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: Most people are not going to care what course load you took. In my opinion, making graduate admissions decisions on that basis would be inappropriate.
However, I do recommend taking the highest course load you are capable of. This will help you learn more, graduate faster, and start earning money sooner. At many institutions, taking the maximum allowed course load will also save you money.
If you take a low course load for a long time, I would suggest doing something meaningful with the rest of your time, and mentioning all the great stuff you did in your graduate school application.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: They will probably consider your courseload on top of everything else, but if you are only taking fewer courses in your last year and not as a continued pattern then it will probably not be considered relevant.
For example, if a student has a low or mediocre GPA while consistently taking only one or two courses per semester, that will not look good; it may be a concern that that student may have trouble passing all of their classes under the kind of courseload that is necessary to complete a graduate degree in a timely manner. On the other hand a good GPA while taking a very heavy courseload starts to be more impressive.
But again, this kind of thing will only be considered as part of a larger pattern, in relation to concerns about being able to perform well in a graduate program.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_4: >
> "In your experiences how do grad schools weigh overall GPA vs overall
> class loads?"
>
>
>
* GPA is much more important.
* Course load is often not even seen, unless people dig into your transcript to more details such as which courses you took and which ones brought up/down your GPA: In this case if you took only 3 courses/term throughout your undergrad, it might raise eyebrows but you are saying it's only your senior year so it won't likely be a problem.
* More important than GPA and Course Load combined, is reference letters and publication/research-experience if you have any. GPA means very little to me because I know that a 70% at Oxford (where I did my PhD) is considered a "1st" which is the highest-level of honour and is only awarded to the best of the best students, yet in Canada (where I did my undergrad degrees) it was common to get 90s or even 100% occasionally. Furthermore even within Canada a 90% at University of Waterloo might mean something different from a 90% at Laurier Unviersity (in the same city), and a 90% in Psychology might mean something different from a 90% in Literature (even at the same university), and a 90% in PSYCH 101 with a leniently grading TA might mean something different from a 90% with a harshly grading TA (even for the same course in the same university in the same country!). **Your volunteering and experience-gaining, which you say is the reason why you're taking 3 courses instead of 5, might actually be benefiting you more than you imagine, because if you do well you might get a strong reference letter, which is usually more powerful than a good GPA alone.**
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: I was at Harvard University graduate school of arts and sciences.
To be a full-time student a graduate student must take at least 12 credit hours, otherwise they are part time.
In terms of GPA, most undergraduate schools **will only accept your unweighted GPA**
Admissions is a holistic gesture, and it isn’t a “all or nothing”
decision.
They are wanting to know why you may, someday, establish **significantly innovative and pioneering work** in your field, and that the work that you have completed, in the past, is…
**truly exceptional.**
Upvotes: 0
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<issue_start>username_0: The prof is quite famous (lots of publications and even a Wiki page). His doctoral advisor is also quite famous (still is part of the faculty of the university that I want to apply to). Would a recommendation letter have a significant impact on my application?
Alternatively I can get a letter from another prof which will be probably a little stronger. Which option would be the best for me? Basically would the other prof's letter carry more weight since he got his PhD from the university I am applying to.
I am applying to a top 3 institution, (if that makes any difference).
Thank you all in advance.<issue_comment>username_1: If the professor can truly vouch for your skills, knowledge and motivation then fine.
So if you have attended a course given by that professor then yes. Otherwise I would say no, as you should use referrees that can vouch for your attributes, and not use someone as a referee « just because they went there ».
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: As a tiebreaker, it *might* be nice to have a strong letter from someone who went to the target university, especially if it has a highly specialized or unconventional program.
However, yours is not such a marginal case. You stand to benefit more by getting a letter from a professor who knows you closely and can say positive things about your research ability.
Upvotes: 1
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<issue_start>username_0: My question is that do most people keep in touch with their doctoral advisors after they graduate? Do doctoral advisors forget their PhD students after the students get their degree?
I am mainly asking about math/physics if that makes a difference.<issue_comment>username_1: I very much doubt any of them "forget" in the sense of "Who are you, and how did you get this number?"
The relationship one has with their former advisor will depend on both the advisor, the graduate, and their relationship - and it will evolve over time. Some are happy to go their separate ways, some continue to be long time collaborators or friends, and the amount of political capital they will spend on their former graduates varies wildly.
Some advisors (wisely IMO) step back a little bit to make sure that their former PhD students develop an independent research agenda and voice, and clearly have a separate career from their advisor.
But it all depends. Personally? I keep in touch with my advisor, see him at conferences (back before COVID-19), and when the opportunity is right, we collaborate, but we don't actively seek out those opportunities.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: It depends on your current relationship and on who you & your advisor are as a person in general.
If your current relationship runs smoothly and your research interests continue to coincide you may continue to publish joint papers. I have seen that happening long after a former PhD student graduates - even after they get faculty positions.
However I have also seen former advisors turning competitive and trying to exclude former lab members from the continuation of a project. I would guess in that case one would not want to try to continue to have any kind of friendly relationship with the advisor...
Upvotes: 0
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2020/06/26
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<issue_start>username_0: I have to review a paper for a journal that is on some work related to a paper I published 2-3 years ago.
The authors do not cite or compare our work although they try to solve the same problem.
In particular they use a similar fairly innovative way for the field to treat the input data, as we and another publication did, but they cite neither of these 2 papers.
Is it an issue of conflict of interest if I ask at least for a citation of these two papers that are preexisting (and one of which is mine), and ask also for a performance comparison with at least one of the competing methods?<issue_comment>username_1: Well, of course there is some conflict of interest if you recommend citation of your own papers.
If your paper is objectively relevant, that trumps such concerns. Having published a related paper makes you a good reviewer of this paper. But your review would be less useful if you couldn't point out related papers only because you authored these. As long as you keep in mind that [this is a slippery slope](https://retractionwatch.com/2017/03/03/citation-boosting-episode-leads-editors-resignations-university-investigation/) and are aware of and transparent about your conflict of interest, there shouldn't be an issue.
So, in the comments to the authors, I would explain in more detail than usual, why the paper is relevant. I would also in the comments to the editor point out that and why you recommended one of your own papers to the authors.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: If you are absolutely certain that you know (say) two papers which are clearly relevant for their work, you should state it:
>
> The authors should comment on the work presented in [1, 2] and how their work improves on that or is different.
>
>
>
Add more details if you want to be helpful to the authors; for example, if the work [1, 2] uses a very different methodology than the present paper, you may want to offer a bit more detail to help the authors out. But it is voluntary. Also, whatever you write might end up copy-pasted in the final paper.
If you are not absolutely sure the papers are the most relevant and would improve the paper, you might still write:
>
> The authors may want to comment the related work [1, 2].
>
>
>
maybe with more qualifications or detail. You can certainly make friendly suggestions, but given the power relations in play, you should explicitly mark them as voluntary improvements or such.
Also consider that there might be a lot of related literature that would be as appropriate to discuss as yours and the authors had to cut off their literature review at some point. In such a case, asking them to cite your paper in particular seems suspect. You should adjust the certainty of your recommendations according to how well you know the field.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: >
> The authors do not cite and compare our work although they try to solve the same problem. In particular they use a similar fairly innovative way for the field to treat the input data, as we and another publication did, but they cite neither of these 2 papers.
>
>
>
In the case of close proximity and (f)actual relevance, I do not see a problem - it is scientifically justified to provide insight and highlight overlap. I am slightly concerned, however, whether just addressing the same research question is enough. In even moderately populated (-ar) fields, it is impossible and even undesirable to cite all relevant literature, and citations along the lines of "X also does Y, period" may be seen as redundant, not supporting the paper narrative or social gestures. In such a case, unless there is an evident methodology or results link, which factually adds something to the narrative, I would think longer about suggesting a self-citation, even if the intention is perfectly benevolent. Bottom line, would it really add something, or is it one of those interchangeable citations that "must" be put in for completeness? In the case of a small area, where listing prior work is helpful to the reader, I would not hesitate.
There is an additional comment to be made about the contribution of the paper. If the contribution claims to be technical ("We found new way A to do B), I do not see a problem. If, however, the paper claims to do B which has not done before, which your paper does with a different methodology, you should definitely mention this in the comments and examine carefully if there is an actual contribution of the work you are reviewing and if it differs enough to warrant publication.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: It is arguable, but by reviewing a paper you mainly give a suggestion to the editor whether the paper in its form is publishable, and you point out unclear points, which needs to be cleared before publication. According to my point of view, you have a responsibility towards the editor and not towards the author. You are expected to be objective.
If prior art is detailed in the paper with citation of similar solutions than yours, than it should not be an issue. On the hand if the state of the art is not presented, or they present a solution which was at least partly suggested by others as their own novelty, you should note that in your review.
Two form of a reframing question to help with your moral dilemma:
* What would you do if you were not the author of those papers?
* What would you do if you are aware of papers of others solving the same issue?
Also, you can ask for an explanation, which might not necessarily be part of the paper. You do not need to ask for including a citation.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: I review quite a lot of papers. I had such a case only once. In general, I am somewhat sceptical about those batches of "please also cite" in a reviewer's recommendation with one particular name on all of them. Some journals are also actively working against such requests from reviewers.
So, to avoid all those ethical issues and to be absolutely sure it's not my only judgment, I did this:
Mention it to the editor
========================
In quite all review forms there are two fields. Comments to the author (the actual review) and comments to the editor that are not shown to the author. I wrote in the review something along the lines
>
> It is not reasonable to say in line 1234 that the presented method is a "novel breakthrough", because there have been other methods better in performance (but totally different in nature). **A reference to such a paper is available from the editor.**
>
>
>
In the editor comments I wrote something like:
>
> I would like the authors to compare their approach to the method XYZ [citation]. I find it relevant and of interest. However, as I coauthored this paper, I leave it at your discretion to communicate or not to communicate this citation to the authors.
>
>
>
By the way, my paper was not mentioned in the decision letter, but reviewed paper was rejected, so it did not matter much.
Upvotes: 3
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2020/06/26
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<issue_start>username_0: I am currently in an institution wherein most of the academic body in my department (Electrical Engineering) have a rather poor (and that's putting mildly) mastery of English.
My concern is if I miraculously manage to get a letter of recommendation from one of them, will the admission committee try to get in touch with him/her for further inquiries? Because I don't think (It is certain) they will manage a detailed and meaningful discussion (which is what I think the committee wants) without some external help, which I highly doubt they'll even bother to seek.
So, to reiterate the question, does the committee generally try to reach the referees? What would you advice someone in a position like mine to do?
Thanks for reading.<issue_comment>username_1: I have written many letters of reference.
I have also been contacted, over the phone, by HR or admissions who wish to discuss the candidates, just to expand on experience or whatever.
So, if they wish to contact the people who you put as referees, then they will do so.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: This isn't something you need to worry about. It is unlikely that they will do so, but possible. If they do, the language issue will not reflect badly on you. The people are peers and will understand that language can be an issue and will compensate for it. If your letter writers are positive about you in writing, it will be clear to the caller that they are positive about you when speaking.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: You have not stated where you are applying to. I can imagine that practices vary by geography.
However, in 25+ years of industry, academic, and related work, primarily in North America, I have found that it is exceedingly rare for hiring or admissions committees to reach out to providers of written references (this is in contrast to a habit in industry of asking applicants for the contact information of references to speak with by phone instead of asking for written references).
I recall only 3 cases where I have been a bystander or participant to such a reachout. In two cases it was to confirm the reference provided was valid in the first place, and in one case to factually confirm a presumed typo that made one sentence in the reference letter have an anomalously negative tone.
Normal admissions or even jobs committees do not have the time to seek a supplementary "deep and meaningful" discussion about applicants. In addition, there would likely be concerns about procedural fairness in who and how would lead such a discussion, who would participate, and the possibility of bias if one person was reporting the outcome of a discussion to the committee. (As someone who has also hired in the private sector, I think those concerns are overblown, but so be it.)
Finally, it's not applicable in your situation I presume, but I would add that of course for senior, prestigious posts (deans, named professorships, etc.) there is sometimes back-channel discussion with people familiar with a candidate who may or may not be providers of formal reference letters, but that is in the context of a committee forming its own dossier about 1-2 leading candidates, a different story.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: Currently, in the U.S., in mathematics, I think to contact *some* applicants' references but not *others'* would be viewed as inappropriate, unfair, etc. Applicants should be on a level playing field, with "level" in a very strong sense of fairness and equity.
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: This is similar to the [question here](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/29535/is-it-okay-to-directly-address-your-reader-when-writing-a-scientific-paper/29549#29549), but my question is different because I'm not asking about ever using "you" in my writing.
I quite like using the turn of phrase "Note that...". For example, I'm discussing some feature of data that reflects a physical property. But then I want so say that my data looks a little different because of such-and-such reasons. So, I would like to write something along the lines of: "Note that all experimental data in this manuscript shows just half of the typical shape because we performed only half of the typical sweep."
When I write "Note...", I'm actually speaking to the reader directly. It's kind of like saying, "Hey you! Pay attention here!" Everywhere else in the manuscript the focus is on the experiment and not on the reader. So, would this be frowned upon?<issue_comment>username_1: It is not frowned upon and is mostly seen as a stylistic choice. It might be annoying if the same phrase is repeated many times ("Note, note, note, note"). If you prefer an alternative, here are some.
"The reader should note..."
"Readers familiar with XXXX will realise..."
"For those unfamiliar with... an explanation is provided in footnote/ appendix/ section"
"Notably,..."
"It must be stressed that..."
"We emphasise/highlight/note that..."
"It is important to note..."
"Let us note that" - from @user151413
Or simply do not refer to the reader but to the fact.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: I often use imperative constructions like "Note that", "Observe that", "Recall that". Other imperative constructions, grammatically addressed to the reader and used by practically all mathematicians, include "Let f be a function" and "See [7]." I don't recall ever getting frowned at for using such language.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]
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<issue_start>username_0: I did an REU research program in my undergraduate college career. However, I had a bad experience because my mentor was not helpful and was very condescending person. I was told too that you worked closely with a mentor or grad student before I even started the program, which obviously did not happen. The program was disorganized that even the grad students did not know that they were suppose to help or guide the undergraduate students in their research, and they were also not helpful. So it was like me doing all the research by myself with no help or guidance. If you did not have a good experience in the REU program, would you still put on your resume in order to get into grad school?<issue_comment>username_1: It isn't your fault that you had a bad experience. Put it on your resume for grad school and if asked about your experience during it, you can be honest about it.
Additionally, you now have some perspective on what kind of mentorship you'd like in grad school.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: Yes, I would include the experience on your resume. You gained research experience. Even a bad REU almost certainly taught you more than an unrelated experience or job. If the topic comes up about your REU experience during an interview, I would talk about what you learned in a positive way. For example, you appear to have learned about the importance of organization during research.
However, I would not list your mentor as a reference. Perhaps you could list on the graduate students you worked with during the REU. Also, do not worry about a lack of publication or presentations from your REU. In my experience as a REU participant and now an REU mentor, few projects result in publications even from well run programs and presentations are largely a function of your program and home university.
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: I have submitted two articles to a journal. One of them got accepted within 10 days, but the status for the other one has been "Awaiting AE assignment" for 15 days now. The journal says on average they take 30 days to make a decision on a paper. Should I contact the journal about the status and why it's not changing? Is it possible that they forgot my article? And would sending a reminder have a negative impact on the decision of the journal?
Thanks.<issue_comment>username_1: You can send a request for an update at any time. You may or may not learn anything. There could be many reasons for a delay, including not sending too many papers to one editor and needing to find another who is suitable.
But an average of 30 days tells you little about the distribution of actual times. There is no real reason to panic unless you have other options for the paper that seem equally good.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: If you search on this site, you'll find people whose papers have been under review for more than a year. 15 days is nothing in academic time, especially with a global pandemic going on. I'd suggest to wait until at least their stated average time before you ask for an update.
Upvotes: 1 [selected_answer]
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2020/06/27
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<issue_start>username_0: I recently graduated from a master's degree while working on an interesting but niche intersection of machine learning and biology. This area is of my personal interest and I believe it can impact the world in the future but it is not readily marketable. Therefore, I decided to choose a position in a tech company as a software engineer, with works and responsibilities that are unrelated to this niche area. I don't want to give up my efforts in my previous research area and want to continue doing research as a personal passion in my free time such weekends or when I come home from my daily work (which btw I enjoy very much). I find this idea particularly interesting as I would have more freedom to think freely without feeling the pressure of publish or perish and I think it would make the research even more enjoyable to me compared to when I was in grad school and under pressure. However, there might be potential issues and caveats that I am blindsided to them, so I wanted to ask the people here about the potential downsides or considerations in doing research as a part-time or second career.<issue_comment>username_1: The main issue I can think is time. Other people who will be working on the same research field will spend their full working week on the topic while you will be working only in your free time (weekends etc.).
So you will be progressing very slowly and there is a high chance that you might get scooped if you are working on some hot research topic.
All that assuming that you have some average productivity aptitude and you are not some productivity beast that is able to finish up work in 1/10th of time than the rest :)
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: In addition to time constraints, you'll want to try to collaborate with people or professors from your institution. It is pretty difficult to do good work alone, especially in computational fields. One benefit of doing research on your own time is the flexibility to explore areas that may not have immediate funding or interest, but could be impactful.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: Also, even if your daytime work is not related to your personal research, you may either have signed something about IP (=intellectual property), so that your employer feels that they own essentially everything you do that is even *remotely* related to your job. I'd think you should look into this, discreetly...
Upvotes: 2
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2020/06/27
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<issue_start>username_0: I am the original poster from [this question](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/151006/realizing-possible-academic-misconduct-after-degree-award) on a new account. I tried registering the account, but for some reason it made me have a fresh account with no rep and did not acknowledge my original post, so I couldn't comment further.
Now, this is a question on the academia stack exchange, and I can absolutely understand if it is off-topic for this board. However, I just feel the commenters and answerers here being academics can provide a good appeal to authority for me (and seeking a professional is also something I am taking seriously about this as this is certainly something worth talking about). If it is thought this question should be posted somewhere else I'm perfectly happy to do so regardless.
The comments and answers in the thread have been very insightful and helpful for me, and have helped me get to the core of what was bothering me. People have been telling me that it's fine to forgive myself and move on with my life, but I've realized that this thought has been so gripping for me if I try and dig deep and understand the root of my worry: "You *can* forgive yourself, but it only matters if the institution that you've 'wronged' forgives you. That's the only forgiveness that can 'exonerate' you, because they're the institution that you have wronged in some way." In the same sense that if I've wronged someone in the past without them knowing that I have, it isn't good enough to forgive myself for it -- I need the person's forgiveness. Someone who has committed a crime but wasn't convicted for it can't simply forgive himself -- he needs to do his time! The previous sentence seems to encapsulate my psyche best -- particularly that last clause. To me, this is an almost objective idea (cautiously aware that 'objective ideas' are a fallacy in themselves) and blatantly true. I know my 'violation' (which many have said would simply be thrown out if I even mentioned it to the university) isn't comparable to a crime or anything, but it contains the core of my message.
So my question essentially is: do I **even have the authority** to pardon myself for not 'doing the time' for an academic wrongdoing, even if minor? Because a criminal surely doesn't have the authority to pardon himself for not 'doing time' for a crime he's committed. I anticipate that people will say I'm really reaching here and hyperbolizing. I am, but I do see a connection here that still sticks with me.
I understand this is probably a personal question, but I realize I may have a slightly warped or overly harsh moral compass. I anticipate some will say you *can* allow yourself to 'get away with it' for a violation this minor -- but doesn't this require some arbitrary line to be drawn? A declaration of 'this is not bad enough to feel one needs to punish himself if never punished'? One might get the sense that I wish to have a reason to feel like I don't need to report myself because *it is objectively fine* rather than *I forgive myself and feel that it's fine* because the latter still makes me feel like an unpunished wrongdoer. I hope this doesn't sound *too* much like I'm making the community my therapist, but the opinions of academia-minded people here are important to me. A therapist can help me get down to why I hold so much value in the idea that 'someone who has been unpunished *needs to do his time*' but this forum can serve as holding that idea's feet to the fire in academia.
The eponymous question remains: am I morally obliged, where are the lines drawn if the violation is minor and (to my example) nearly meaningless to pursue in practice, and how can one feel their academic integrity can remain in tact by giving oneself the authority to decide not to report themselves when surely it is incumbent upon the university to decide whether the violation is legimiate enough to be taken serious or not as the wronged party?<issue_comment>username_1: The main issue I can think is time. Other people who will be working on the same research field will spend their full working week on the topic while you will be working only in your free time (weekends etc.).
So you will be progressing very slowly and there is a high chance that you might get scooped if you are working on some hot research topic.
All that assuming that you have some average productivity aptitude and you are not some productivity beast that is able to finish up work in 1/10th of time than the rest :)
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: In addition to time constraints, you'll want to try to collaborate with people or professors from your institution. It is pretty difficult to do good work alone, especially in computational fields. One benefit of doing research on your own time is the flexibility to explore areas that may not have immediate funding or interest, but could be impactful.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: Also, even if your daytime work is not related to your personal research, you may either have signed something about IP (=intellectual property), so that your employer feels that they own essentially everything you do that is even *remotely* related to your job. I'd think you should look into this, discreetly...
Upvotes: 2
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2020/06/27
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<issue_start>username_0: I have been doing some looking around to try and learn a little bit more about what applied mathematicians work on in a more general sense and think that I could benefit from a question posted here. Research in applied mathematics seems to be something like a 'jack of all trades' type of discipline in which applied mathematicians can work across many different and seemingly unconnected fields that could benefit from mathematical modelling. But, modelling in a specific field seems to me to be the role of the domain specialist.
Then, what is the utility of an applied mathematician when domain specialists would (should?) be the people who tackle, solve, and model the problems related to their field of expertise? Where do applied mathematicians fit into the research puzzle where domain experts do not?<issue_comment>username_1: Broadly speaking, a domain expert knows what questions to ask, and an applied mathematician knows how to get useful answers once the question is posed, because they are familiar with common patterns that repeatedly appear in the structures of questions about how the world works. Good progress can be made when they work together, leveraging their combined skills.
There is of course a continuum here with many intermediate stages, such as modeling experts, who specialize in abstracting domain problems into mathematical form, and so have some breadth in both the domain and applied mathematics, and so form a bridge between deep domain experts (who have specific goals they are trying to achieve) and the applied mathematicians (who have the tools to fully exploit the models, and are familiar with edge-cases and other problems that may arise during analysis).
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: I am mostly going by your title question and your clarification from the comment. Because as it turns out, the only field most applied mathematicians add knowledge to is applied mathematics itself, only then someone else to apply this knowledge to something later, so there is a lot of internal stuff going on. But more about that later. First let me tackle the part of applied mathematics that is "exposed" to the sciences. (By which I choose to mean everything except maths for sake of simplicity)
What do applied mathematicians do with respect to sciences?
===========================================================
If you want to apply mathematics to something, there are essentially two (oversimplified) steps:
1. Write down a model of your problem. (e.g. differential equations, graphs, minimization problems, etc.)
2. Extract useful information from your model using maths. (e.g. find solutions, universal properties, minimizers, numerical approximations etc.)
People from the sciences¹ are certainly good at the first step, and they are taught a bit about the second step during their education or pick something up in practice. But that is generally restricted to some standard methods. In contrast think of applied mathematicians as kind of the opposite of this. The model a mathematician writes down might be a bit rudimentary and not be most realistic one, but he'll certainly know some more advanced mathematical trickeries to extract some additional predictions from it. And of course as lifetimes are limited, it is basically impossible for someone to get into the full depths of both sides.
Now one would think that this would lead to a clear division of labour. But what muddies the waters is that there are many models and not all of them are created equal. There are many models that may look reasonable but that are mathematically ill-posed, rendering their predictions useless.² There are also many models that look simple and are of interest to scientists, but where extracting mathematical information is impossibly difficult, while a less straightforward looking model might be easier to solve. (And for the converse, there are many mathematical toy-models with interesting theorems but no real applications).
People who focus on this would generally fall under the heading of mathematical modelling. But that is only a small part of applied mathematics.
What problems are applied mathematicians concerned with?
========================================================
Contrary to your question, a lot people in applied mathematics don't deal with specific real world problems at all. Rather than that they work on improving the methods used for problems. These can be ways to prove certain classes of theorems and make predictions or they can be algorithms to numerically solve problems. Both are completely different but kind of have the same function for the sake of this discussion.
The important point is that the good methods are application agnostic. I don't want to prove a new theorem for each new application and I don't want my numerical algorithm to only work for a specific equation (there are some exceptions but those are by necessity, not by choice). So while many may look to some application as an inspiration or put it in the paper as an example, that is not their focus.
**Notes:**
¹As a sidenote, you called them "domain specialists", but that isn't a good distinction, as this is true for both sides. Applied mathematics splits in many domains and each mathematician will only be a specialist in one or two of them (e.g. statistics, or partial differential equations or, certain numerical methods etc.). They just might feel like "jacks of all trades" to you, because each of those domains will have some applications in almost all sciences, but they are still rather specific and fundamentally useless if the problem needs a different subfield of methods. Think of the two as orthogonal to each other.
²If a model M has no solutions, the sentence "Every solution to the model M fulfills property X" is true for any X.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: [Cryptography](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptography) seems to be a mathematical applied field since many centuries.
And today, [computer science](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_science) can be thought of a mathematical applied field.
(e.g. is [abstract interpretation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abstract_interpretation) or [machine learning](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machine_learning) some applied math, or just computer science)
Was [Alan Turing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Turing) a mathematician or a computer scientist?
Is [this paper](https://kedar-namjoshi.github.io/papers/Namjoshi-Pavlinovic-SAS-2018.pdf) about math or about computer science?
Upvotes: 0
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2020/06/27
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<issue_start>username_0: I am currently a student in high school, who plans on going to university.
As of now, I am planning to pursue my bachelors degree in mathematics in the UK and then go on to do a PhD in computer science in the states.
As long as I have been alive I have always loved doing maths and physics. But during the last couple of years, I have really gotten into computer science and can picture myself working in the field.
However, whenever I think about just doing a bachelor in computer science, I end up feeling like I am betraying my principles and throwing away the chance to acquire a proper mathematical education (Not to mention my disappointment in myself for not pursuing a career in theoretical physics (which just doesn't seem like it will pay the bills)).
As to my question, is it advisable for me to go through a math degree before pursuing a PhD in compsci? Or should I just get a degree in compsci in the first place and take some math classes on the side?
(In the case that it matters, I would also like to someday work outside of academia, perhaps pursuing a research or development job in the industry.)
Thank you for your answers in advance. I am really looking forward to reading them.<issue_comment>username_1: This can only be a partial answer and some perspective. Your idea of a math degree in UK followed by a CS doctorate in US is feasible. It is fairly common to enter a doctorate in US from a different field. But expect there to be advanced coursework as part of the doctoral program.
Taking a CS undergraduate degree isn't really essential, though it will give you some necessary topics. But doing that with "picking up" some maths would probably be pretty hard. And maybe not very satisfying if you can't devote enough mental energy to it.
But, you can stay flexible and there is no need to nail everything down at this moment. You will have plenty of chances to change your mind later. If you start in math, you might well decide to continue in that. Likewise CS.
Another point. You say physics "won't pay the bills", but in academia there isn't a tremendous difference in salary between different technical fields. It is harder to get a position in some fields than in others, but seven years from now the market will almost certainly be different and it is hard to predict these things so far in advance.
The best advice you can get is whenever possible, do what you love. Not everyone has an opportunity to do that. If you can manage a set of choices and follow a dream without compromising for money, then your life will probably be happier.
Upvotes: 2 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: There is a large number of mathematics with computer science degrees in the UK. For example, [Brunel](https://digital.ucas.com/coursedisplay/courses/3524efc4-5c3e-cb10-efde-805a6bfa45db?academicYearId=2020) say
>
> Approximately two-thirds of the course is devoted to mathematical and
> statistical areas. The mathematics subjects on this course focus
> particularly on aspects of modern algebra that relate to computer
> science and also include a considerable amount of numerical analysis
> of mathematical problems. You have the opportunity to specialise in
> Level 3 so as an example, you may choose modern encryption methods as
> used in internet transactions.
>
>
> This programme will meet the educational requirements of the Chartered
> Mathematician designation, awarded by the Institute of Mathematics and
> its Applications, when it is followed by subsequent training and
> experience in employment to obtain equivalent competences to those
> specified by the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) for taught master's
> degrees.
>
>
>
[Birmingham](https://digital.ucas.com/coursedisplay/courses/1d75fce7-419f-3498-e9c3-15fb494db61b?academicYearId=2020) say
>
> Depending on how your interests develop, you
> could choose to specialise in areas such as statistics, algebra,
> robotics and machine learning.
>
>
> In this Joint Honours programme you will work at exactly the same
> level as students taking the Single Honours programme. In your first
> year, we will help you to make the step up to university level study.
> We will give you a sound mathematical basis in a broad range of
> subject areas and you will study the foundations of computer science
> together with programme design and programming techniques. The second
> year of your BSc Mathematics and Computer Science will introduce you
> to more advanced areas allowing you to develop particular interests.
> In your third year, you will take project modules and you can choose
> to specialise in mathematics or computer science.
>
>
>
Different courses, and different institutions, will have a different balance between Maths and Comp Sci. If you want to do maths, I think you need to do the maths first, then move to/incorporate Comp Sci. A Comp Sci degree, even with added maths, is not going to be the same thing at all.
Upvotes: 0
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2020/06/27
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<issue_start>username_0: I applied for a summer school and received a scholarship to attend. In the meantime, I am planning on applying for a Masters, in a field related to summer school, before attending the summer school. Is it acceptable to put the scholarship in the CV?
What would be the appropriate place to put the scholarship? I have a honours and awards section in my CV. But I'm not sure that's the proper place to include the scholarship for the summer school.<issue_comment>username_1: This can only be a partial answer and some perspective. Your idea of a math degree in UK followed by a CS doctorate in US is feasible. It is fairly common to enter a doctorate in US from a different field. But expect there to be advanced coursework as part of the doctoral program.
Taking a CS undergraduate degree isn't really essential, though it will give you some necessary topics. But doing that with "picking up" some maths would probably be pretty hard. And maybe not very satisfying if you can't devote enough mental energy to it.
But, you can stay flexible and there is no need to nail everything down at this moment. You will have plenty of chances to change your mind later. If you start in math, you might well decide to continue in that. Likewise CS.
Another point. You say physics "won't pay the bills", but in academia there isn't a tremendous difference in salary between different technical fields. It is harder to get a position in some fields than in others, but seven years from now the market will almost certainly be different and it is hard to predict these things so far in advance.
The best advice you can get is whenever possible, do what you love. Not everyone has an opportunity to do that. If you can manage a set of choices and follow a dream without compromising for money, then your life will probably be happier.
Upvotes: 2 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: There is a large number of mathematics with computer science degrees in the UK. For example, [Brunel](https://digital.ucas.com/coursedisplay/courses/3524efc4-5c3e-cb10-efde-805a6bfa45db?academicYearId=2020) say
>
> Approximately two-thirds of the course is devoted to mathematical and
> statistical areas. The mathematics subjects on this course focus
> particularly on aspects of modern algebra that relate to computer
> science and also include a considerable amount of numerical analysis
> of mathematical problems. You have the opportunity to specialise in
> Level 3 so as an example, you may choose modern encryption methods as
> used in internet transactions.
>
>
> This programme will meet the educational requirements of the Chartered
> Mathematician designation, awarded by the Institute of Mathematics and
> its Applications, when it is followed by subsequent training and
> experience in employment to obtain equivalent competences to those
> specified by the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) for taught master's
> degrees.
>
>
>
[Birmingham](https://digital.ucas.com/coursedisplay/courses/1d75fce7-419f-3498-e9c3-15fb494db61b?academicYearId=2020) say
>
> Depending on how your interests develop, you
> could choose to specialise in areas such as statistics, algebra,
> robotics and machine learning.
>
>
> In this Joint Honours programme you will work at exactly the same
> level as students taking the Single Honours programme. In your first
> year, we will help you to make the step up to university level study.
> We will give you a sound mathematical basis in a broad range of
> subject areas and you will study the foundations of computer science
> together with programme design and programming techniques. The second
> year of your BSc Mathematics and Computer Science will introduce you
> to more advanced areas allowing you to develop particular interests.
> In your third year, you will take project modules and you can choose
> to specialise in mathematics or computer science.
>
>
>
Different courses, and different institutions, will have a different balance between Maths and Comp Sci. If you want to do maths, I think you need to do the maths first, then move to/incorporate Comp Sci. A Comp Sci degree, even with added maths, is not going to be the same thing at all.
Upvotes: 0
|
2020/06/28
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| 8,303
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<issue_start>username_0: It came to my awareness a case of nepotism in my academic network.
It concerns a professor and a former female student of him. The professor and the student had relationship while she was conducting her Master thesis under his supervision. For the year she was writing her thesis, the professor intervened through an academic network he is heavily involved, to give her a scholarship although she didn't have prior outstanding performance.
For her Master thesis he proposed her for some industry prize that she obviously won.
After finishing the thesis she changed city and moved to a nearby city for her PhD (also the Prof. was married with 3 children).
Within the first 2.5 years of her Phd she hasn't produced any scientific output. The student and the professor visit several conferences abroad together in order to have time for their affair.
Now it came into my awareness that he is planning to involve her in a prestigious exchange program so that she will be able to work in his city. The plan involves a newly founded start-up and some of his collaborators/friends abroad. She will "collaborate" with the collaborators abroad, but from distance since the start-up claims to be flexible with location.
So in essence, she will appear to be working with some other Prof. abroad to get accepted into the exchange program, but she will work remotely from the city of her boyfriend professor. Also the Professor recently broke up with his wife.
Since all this is very shady, I am thinking whether someone should inform the directors/board of the exchange program.
What do you think?<issue_comment>username_1: Romantic relations between academics and students (specifically, in situations when academic is in the position of power related to a student) is forbidden for academic staff and may cost them job in many places. The underlying issue is academic fairness: academics are supposed to assess and promote the students based on their academic performance only. Being in personal relations with a student compromises this ability, and at a very least makes the process look unfair.
More broadly, academic teaching is a part of public service, and therefore [Ethical standards for providers of public services](https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/336942/CSPL_EthicalStandards_web.pdf) should be adhered to. In the UK, the The Seven Principles of Public Life are
* Selflessness
* Integrity
* Objectivity
* Accountability
* Openness
* Honesty
* Leadership
I leave it to you to consider how many of these principles are compromised by the ongoing romantic relation which you described.
The professors' behaviour makes me doubt that academic fairness and academic standards in your Department are strongly maintained. Hence, anyone aware about this situation could doubt that all students from this Department received their degrees and prizes for their academic merits. This can compromise the value of your hard-earned degree.
Hence, I believe you have a good grounds for complaint and should consider filing it. You may want to discuss it with student union / student service representative first to identify how you can do it in the most effective but also the safest way for yourself.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: This could go very wrong for you. If you go around and tell people what you told us here this could be considered as defamation of the professor and I wouldn't be surprised if he outright sues you.
The questions you should ask yourself:
1. Can you prove that they indeed had a sexual relationship?
2. Are the other students of the professor indeed more skilled than the student he promoted?
3. If yes, can you prove this in any legal sense or is this just your personal opinion?
Especially if you think you are one of those more skilled students I would be very careful, this can backfire horribly. Bad performance in her PhD certainly is not enough to prove 2. There are a lot of people who don't perform well in their PhD and didn't sleep with their advisor. And even if the professor and the student are a couple now, this is in no way proof that they slept with one another during the time the professor advised the student and less so proof that he promoted her for sexual and not academic reasons.
Academia is always very concerned with integrity. Is it ethical to sleep with his students and betray ones wife? Of course not. But you shouldn't just think about some academic code of conduct the professor may or may not have broken, but about the very real legal implications **you** may face. You are risking a lawsuit in pursuing this further and your personal gain is absolutely zero.
If this would be taking place in Germany, then relevant for the discussion is the following paragraph:
>
> [Section 186 Malicious gossip (üble Nachrede)](https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/englisch_stgb/englisch_stgb.html#p1816)
>
>
> Whoever asserts or disseminates a fact about another person which is
> suitable for degrading that person or negatively affecting public
> opinion about that person, unless this fact can be proved to be true,
> incurs a penalty of imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year or
> a fine and, if the offence was committed publicly or by disseminating
> material (section 11 (3)), a penalty of imprisonment for a term not
> exceeding two years or a fine.
>
>
>
If you insist to pursue this issue, I would strongly advise you not to mention the affair. Go to the board and tell them you think there may be a conflict of interest in the award of scholarship XY. Don't accuse the student and the professor of having had an affair, you can't say this for certain. As [username_3](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/151209/117200) points out it is highly likely that the board already knows about the issue anyways - Leave it up to them to make the conclusions.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: While [TheoreticalMinimum](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/151206/75368) gives sufficient reasons not to act here, let me suggest a few more considerations before you do.
I think you are making assumptions here that aren't obviously correct and might be quite wrong.
You seem to assume that the professor is predatory. I don't know if that is true or not and there is no place in academia for predators, but it might be something more personal and private. Has he shown such behavior in the past? You may also be assuming that the student is, in her own way, using her body, rather than her mind, to advance her career. I doubt you have evidence of that.
You seem to assume that this relationship is responsible for the breakup of his marriage. I don't know if that is true or not, but other, longer duration, things might well be in play here. People break up for lots of reasons. This relationship might have been the result, not the cause, of the breakup.
You seem to assume that this is an infrequent thing generally. But the history, generally, of people breaking marriage vows implies otherwise. "To death do us part" seems to be recognized in the breach. And students and professors actually falling in love when working closely or academic colleagues falling in love is fairly common. Not ideal, perhaps.
You seem to assume that he has promoted her only for his personal sexual satisfaction, not for her work. I think that is overreach. His job, actually, is to promote her, as it is to promote every other student.
You seem to assume that others are disadvantaged by this relationship, offering no proof. That may or may not be the case, but if not, then his professional behavior has been correct, independent of personal behavior. Generally speaking, people's personal relationships are their own business unless others are disadvantaged. Complain, if you must, about unfair behavior if you see it, but leave the personal things to the people involved.
Finally, I suggest that you examine your own motives for wanting to complain about this. Are you disappointed in some way that you haven't advanced as quickly as you thought you should?
I won't advise you whether to complain or not, actually, as I don't have all the necessary information, but think it through deeply before you act.
Upvotes: 2
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2020/06/28
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<issue_start>username_0: I am a PhD student in a Computer Science department, doing research of a mathematical nature. Some of my research problems drifted from my advisor's area of expertise, so I reached out to a researcher from my department about it (who is a world expert in this field). This professor is well-known with many achievements in this field.
The first meetings went well, I learnt a lot, got valuable feedback and I was so happy I had the opportunity to talk to this guy. However, after a few meetings he started with "let's have a meta-talk about you". Then, he brutally attacked me: he said I am not good enough for research, that I can get better but it would never be good enough for research career, that "people are born with the ability to know if their proofs are correct" and since I made some gross mistakes in what I sent, it is clear I "don't have it" and basically I shouldn’t expect to get as good as people with a research career.
Since then, he mentions it in every talk we have. It can be in "minor" comments (e.g. "you have to be realistic and understand you can't really do it", "if you do it alone it will be difficult for you", "it is like chess, and you just don't have it") or in bigger conversations.
As you may understand, I felt horrible after the first time (and I still do, after each of these meetings). I really appreciate him and his opinion, so I took it really bad.
How can I know if he is right? How should I proceed? His words really made me think that maybe he is right.
RE the exact words used: I actually recorded the meetings, so my quotes are accurate.<issue_comment>username_1: I am sorry that it happened to you. This is not a pleasant experience, and frankly it's a shame that toxic professors and supervisors are still common in academia.
Academic research is broad and multi-dimensional. Some people excel in writing proofs, others design and set up wonderful experiments, collect useful data and find beautiful dependencies within. Some people propose fantastic theorems, which take hundred years to prove, others prove or disprove them after hundred years. As a community, we do research in a variety of exciting ways, which mutually support each other.
No single researcher is equally excellent in doing all these things. We have our strong areas and our blind spots. But saying that someone is not fit for research based on a couple of shortcomings in their proof is completely unfair, unjustified, ridiculous and unkind. This is opposite what a University professor should do, in my opinion. A good supervisor would encourage a student to try different things to identify where their strength and passion are. A toxic person would identify a single error and draw far-reaching conclusions from it to undermine student's confidence and make them feel bad about themselves. This is an extremely short-sighted and unprofessional behaviour.
Please try to disregard this person's opinion. Find someone else to collaborate with. Academia is large and although toxic and self-important people are still common, there is also a plenty of kind and supportive and truly generous colleagues around. Don't hesitate to share your experience with others to prevent someone else from having the same negative experience as you just had.
Upvotes: 7 <issue_comment>username_2: Complementarily to [@username_1's excellent answer](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/151134/73304) I'd like to point out that you need to be very careful about impostor syndrom.
Some people might be toxic for bad reasons (lack of empathy, need to denigrate people to shine, narcissism, ...). This should not make you think that you are unfit for research. If you feel like an impostor, your thesis will likely be very hard mentally. It will also be harder for you to work correctly.
It can be hard but try to take a step back. If you have been admitted in PhD, it probably means that you were among grad school's top student. Hence, if you work correctly there is no reason you cannot do a decent thesis. I don't know how long you have been in thesis but once you'll have published one or two paper, it will be easier to feel legitimate. Don't feel low if your paper is not accepted at the first time though, as conference typically accept 15-30% of submitted paper, having a paper refused doesn't mean that there is a problem. On the other end, having a paper accepted generally means you are on the right way.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: There are two key points which need to be addressed here, although the other answers cover things.
1.) You do not need to be a 'genius' to contribute to any subject. The notion of 'genius' is not necessarily a useful one and it would actually probably be detrimental to a subject if everyone who went into that subject was a 'genius'. Certainly in the long run, there are some people you might perceive as being 'geniuses' who actually did harm to their subject. Please read the [blog post](https://terrytao.wordpress.com/career-advice/does-one-have-to-be-a-genius-to-do-maths/) by <NAME> on this matter.
2.) Life is too short to be dealing with toxic supervisors. There are other people who you can work with. For example, ironically I have been in a different situation to you where the supervisor was saying that I was not fit to contribute anything to any subject because I was not good at writing up computer codes and doing smooth, pretty presentations (even though he knew I had been teaching graduate level pure mathematics modules). This is clearly absurd.
My advice is, the supervisor is not going to change their personality, biases or opinion about you. The easiest solution is to change supervisor. Now, when you speak to whoever you need to about changing supervisor, you can say that you do not get on particularly well with the current supervisor, that your skills are different and that you have different ideas about things and different abilities. But also as part of the pitch, try to make it clear that your way of working and the research you would like to do is much better aligned to the new supervisor who you are proposing to change to.
Also, this is off the record, but in my experience the supervisors who often use bullying or undermining behaviour like this are often relying on other people to do a lot of the work for them, so they have a kind of kneejerk reaction when they perceive any weakness from a student. Check their papers from the last seven years and see if they have written any papers by themselves, likely they have not.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: >
> Some of my research problems drifted from my advisor's area of expertise, so I reached out to a researcher [this Professor] from my department.
>
>
>
It sounds as though you are still formally "signed up" with your original advisor, who should have some responsibility for your wellbeing. Maybe you could have an informal chat with your advisor about the nature and the manner of the professor's comments, and ask them to be present in any future meetings?
In my opinion the quoted comments are unprofessional and deserve a reprimand, but the way forward will depend on your institution and its internal politics. Maybe having someone else present will be enough to make him behave like a grown-up.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_5: There are two aspects to this, the claim that you are producing proofs with gross errors, and the claim that the problem is unfixable short of being born with different genes.
The second claim reveals a weakness in the professor, not you. Some people are "naturals" at some activity such as singing or drawing. Some naturals have so little understanding of the process of learning their skill that they are useless as teachers of that skill. Take his advice on the topics on which he is expert, but ignore anything he says about the process of learning to write proofs.
You do need to consider whether you are producing too many errors in your proofs. If so, you should study writing and evaluating proofs. To some extent, practice helps, but you may need a mentor to look over your proofs and discuss where you went wrong. That mentor has to be someone who, unlike well-known professor, knows people can learn, and is able and willing to teach. Maybe your primary advisor can either be that mentor or recommend someone.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_6: >
> "people are born with the ability to know if their proofs are correct"
>
>
>
Aside from this statement being utter and complete poppycock, *even if it is correct* the conclusion your professor draws from it that you cannot be a successful research mathematician is a non sequitur. I know many successful mathematicians who are, to put it mildly, not good at writing correct proofs or at spotting the weaknesses of their own written arguments. And I know famous papers solving important open problems that do a poor job of communicating the ideas in the proof, to the extent that someone trying to read and understand the proof has to do substantial independent work to verify the arguments and fill in many of the logical and conceptual gaps.
In other words, even if your professor’s statement is literally true (and of course it isn’t), many and perhaps even most mathematicians in academia do not belong to that group of innately-endowed proof-wizards. And yet they somehow manage to make up for it with hard work, creativity, and various other talents and abilities that are complementary to (and, I should think, ultimately more important) than proof writing.
>
> How can I know if he is right?
>
>
>
This is the question every grad program admissions committee would love to have the magic answer to. But there is no magic answer. The only answer is: keep working on your research and you’ll eventually find out if you’re good enough. The rest of us certainly can’t predict your eventual level of success, including Professor Know-It-All here.
A final thought: academia famously has the structure of a pyramid that gets narrower as one advances up the career hierarchy. That means your professor likely teaches at a less prestigious graduate school than the one he himself went to. Aside from his sounding like a generally toxic and unkind person, it seems possible that when he says you’re not good enough, in his mind he’s comparing you to his super-brilliant peers from the famous school he attended, some of whom probably ended up even more successful than him, causing him to be envious and somewhat bitter. It may be that you are not quite at their level of brilliance, or even at his level - statistically that would be the case for most graduate students in a comparison with their advisor/mentor - but again, to assume that this means you cannot have a successful and rewarding research career because you’re not one of the absolute best people one can find out there is illogical, cruel, and probably wrong.
Hope this helps, and good luck!
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_7: If people are born with the ability to be leaders and educators, this professor is out of place. Sorry for the lack of further elaboration [\*], but I really think that the argument can be so easily reverted that I feel sorry for him. Taking your story at face value, and assuming it is not just an episode, I would start to think that this person cannot be solely well known for his/her publications.
In my view this is an attempt to make you feel **guilty about anything, something**, and give you the burden to find out the best guilt you have. Any random guilt you pick would do to justify his stand. Any guilt goes.
Stand tall, take a step back, look at it as something really weird, and keep on reasoning.
[\*] See other excellent answers.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_8: >
> people are born with the ability to know if their proofs are correct
>
>
>
What people are really born with is the desire to learn. And this goes for all people. What is research really if not the process of learning on a subject? We do this every day with every aspect of our life. Granted, academic research has evolved to have some very strong guidelines, but the truth is that a new revelation can come to anyone by chance ([penicillin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penicillin#Discovery)), rigorous experimentation ([The light bulb](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incandescent_light_bulb#Filament)) or any other way.
To me, the fact that you are pondering if you are good enough for research given his remark is, in itself, research of yourself. So apparently you are a natural. Congrats!
>
> I really appreciate him and his opinion, so I took it really bad.
>
>
>
This guy may be a very good expert in the subject matter. But being good in a certain research area does not make you a good person, a good advisor, a good leader, or a good person. It sounds to me as if he is either trying to make you feel bad in order to push you forward, or he generally does not believe in you. The first one is pointing low self-esteem for him and in my opinion, is a very bad way to push your subtenant. The second one is ok. Not everyone gets along with everyone and it is a clear indication for you both to carry on without the other. If the second one is true there is no reason for criticism or insults and you should ignore him and carry on.
You should take this situation to improve yourself. You will, no doubt, meet some more poor bosses, advisors, managers, and other unpleasant people. Use this opportunity to teach yourself how to cope with these people and come up as a better person.
---
Research can be very frustrating. You read all the works around you and talk with your colleagues about what they are doing. These works are well-rehearsed and organized showing only the good side and "selling" the work and these colleagues are the sellers and are experts at describing their work as good. While you can only see your failures and bad directions it seems as though everyone else is doing much better than you. It is like the Instagram effect for the academia. It shows only the good side in others emphasizing your failures. You must remember: A research is bound to fail a couple of times before it succeeds. **You** are definitely not the problem. I went through a similar feeling myself on my M.Sc. eventually I found a cool and elegant solution to a problem and was proud of my work but not before much frustration.
From other answers here which probably comes from other researches, it sounds like the research world does not want to lose you. So please don't despair and stay as one of us. I wish you luck!
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_9: I like [@Xavier's observation](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/151196/73304) that the professor's notion of inherent ability in individuals badly reflects back to him as a teacher.
That said, probably all of us know people who we felt were not good at what they were learning and should rather try something else. I'm drawing from my surely limited experience as a computer science tutor in the college lab. There were a few students who showed talent but also a few I believed would never be good IT professionals, at least not technically good. And don't think that I was naively impressed with nerdy males and their previous knowledge: What I see as an indicator for a perspective in the field is an attitude, the general excitement about and the ability to solve problems and puzzles.
It is probably an — unpleasant — service to give the "untalented" students feedback and encourage them to try something different. I suppose that's what your professor is thinking. (I'm glad that was not my role then; I simply supported everybody with what they needed.)
It hurts to see somebody pursue something they are struggling with and which does not bring them joy.
And that would be my litmus test: Does what you are doing bring you joy? If you love Mathematics, by all means stay in it. Passion and joy arise from meaningful interaction with the subject matter and the people. Passion and joy are indicators, however subjective, for understanding, succeeding, achieving. They are, in a feedback loop, also very strong motivators which usually produce results. The cases where people are really irrecoverably bad at something and still enjoy doing it full-time are rare.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_10: There may be various reasons for what he says and what you hear. There is no particular order in the points below.
### The professor
**He may be an asshole**
Some people have a huge ego and they feel like the masters of the world. They do not care about others and thrive on making them miserable. The extreme case is a psychopath.
→ my advice: find someone else
**He may be neuro-atypical** (I am not sure how this is correctly called today - feel free to correct with the right word)
He wants to say: "In my opinion you may not be fully suited for research because it seems that you do not know how to count and this is going to be a problem in the long term"
He says "you suck at research"
→ my advice: find someone else, except if you want to account for his behaviour
**He may be from a different culture**
My friend from the Netherlands tells me things straight away and it took me some time to understand that this is how it works in his country. It is a country close to mine (France) and the difference will be even bigger across the globe.
→ my advice: if you want to continue with him you need to get used to that
*From your description it seems that this is case nr 1 and I would just find someone else and spend these years in a more mentally suitable environment*
### You
Make a 360° review (well, a 180° in your case) - requesting genuine feedback:
* ask some other teachers what they think of you
* ask your peers
* have a look at yourself and say loud three good and three bad things about you
Based on that you need to decide if you are suited for academia.
You may be good enough - not everyone will be the next Einstein. You can flourish in something else than pure research (such as teaching)
You many not be good enough, but there is no measurement for that. I saw brilliant people who barely made it to visibility, and complete idiots who were everywhere and, let me check your question, ah yes - were perceived as world experts in their field.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_11: Initially, Heisenberg wanted to study maths but the professor in Munich asked him about the books he already read and based on that, he told him, that he won't be able to succceed and he will not allow him to enter there (however that process went in detail, I read it in a book from Heisenberg "[Physics and beyond](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physics_and_Beyond)").
And Einstein? His marks were so worse that he couldn't find a job for a while. And later, even when he worked as a patent specialist and set up special theory in his free-time, his boss couldn't believe, once he published it, that Einstein did that.
Sure, these are very special cases but it seems that even cracks are not seen as what they are.
Finally, I wouldn't worry about that jerk, even if he is a world class researcher. And even if you won't be, that doesn't matter. You don't need his opinions to continue what you wanna' do.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_12: I'd say this is psychological assault. When someone attacks your fundamentals in such a way it tends to be part of a manipulative scheme, whether to dissuade you from doing something or to goad you into doing something. This kind of unprovoked cruelty usually aims to overwhelm your defenses so to speak. You should ask yourself what might the other person actually want or what you can give them they see.
I do not think him calling you not cut out for research has anything to do with the impression you give at all, besides just being a student. You are a graduate student and put that professor on a pedestal based on his reputation, which is probably something he is used to or even something he came to expect at this point in his career. He probably knows a line like "You are not cut out for this, think about what else you can do" would work on most students, if coming from him.
It could be something said during a heated conversation about you pestering him so much, but since you are still interacting with him, that does not seem to be the case. So what else do you have? Time to put in for a pet project of his? Being an unwitting part of some mind game for his amusement? Or something more personal? If you decide to keep working with him after such disrespectful treatment, you should pay attention to what he might try to goad you towards in between lines. Does he occasionally go off tangent about some other work, like industry or part of some community, or try to invite you for a dinner with family? I would not be surprised if something like that pops up, except of course if it is just psychopathic amusement.
Upvotes: 1
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<issue_start>username_0: I am writing a PhD thesis in literature. I have covered all areas in about 120 pages. Does the length of a PhD thesis matter even if it has covered all the areas mentioned in the synopsis?<issue_comment>username_1: If it satisfies your advisor and the committee it is fine. A 1 page dissertation in poetry is within the realm of possibility, however unlikely.
It is a mistake to pad things, I think.
Some places (and some advisors) might have minimal length requirements, though I would question them. But if that is the issue here you need to think a bit more about the overall structure, not just the page count.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_2: I did one in the low hundred plus. As long as it passes your committee that is all that matters. But a brave face on, submit it and see the reaction.
Don't even ask if it is suitable. Just submit it to your advisor as your intended work product. After all your independent view is that it is good enough. Let him volunteer a criticism if he chooses. But don't suggest it.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_3: <NAME>'s thesis was 26 pages long with only two references and he later won a Nobel prize. What matters is scientific quality not quantity, if your ideas are superior nobody will object the length (mine was less than 100 pages).
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: The advice you have so far is pretty US specific - in a system without a committee system, where you will be judged by your examiners in a one off thing, you may want to be more careful.
Of course, the person who should really know the answer to this is your supervisor/advisor, but should also be able to look up what the criteria are for your university. I would generally ask around your field. In my field in my country, a thesis is expected to contain at least three more or less complete "stories" that add up to a advance in the field. In biomolecular sciences, 120 pages would be very much on the short side for that, but not completely out of the question - a 40 page literature review and 20 pages of Methods, 5 pages of general discussion/conclusion would leave you with only 55 pages of results - doable if you are terse and everything worked first time.
But these expectations are going to differ from system to system and subject to subject. Speak to people in the know.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_5: PhD theses are judged on the quality of their content. Length is only relevant to the extent that it makes that content understandable (not too short) and findable (not too long).
Upvotes: -1
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<issue_start>username_0: **tl;dr:** I am considering leaving my current PhD program ABD, after four years, several publications and a strained relationship with my bully advisor. How, when and do I explain why I'm leaving if I apply to other PhD programs (in different European countries) and would it be considered a red flag and mean an outright rejection?
**Wider context:** I am a PhD student in an STEM field at a European university, currently in my fourth year.
Over time, I have become increasingly disappointed and disillusioned, and I have been pushed around, bullied and slaved away for minimum pay. My relationship with my advisor is becoming worse all the time. They are a very self-absorbed person and a bully, but very well connected in the University. I have worked very hard for them not only on my PhD but on numerous other tasks that are not even related to my job. I completed all the formal requirements for graduation but my advisor keeps stalling because they need someone to work for them cheaply and the PhD dissertation is strong leverage.
Now I decided I am ready to leave my job and my PhD without graduation as it has become apparent that they will not let me finish no matter how much more I do.
I was thinking of applying to other programs, but it will be obvious that I was already a PhD student, as I can't just leave it off my CV and the publication track record will also be there. **My question is**, will quitting my program ABD and applying to another be a red flag? Do I mention anything about why I'm leaving and when? I have no intention of bad-mouthing my advisor to anyone (except obviously you strangers on the internet), so how do I explain my leaving without coming across as a whiner and a quitter? Or should I just give up and get a regular job?
P.S. I read [this](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/59558/leaving-phd-in-the-6th-year-and-apply-for-a-new-phd-program) question which might be a duplicate, but there the student quit while having a relationship and contact with a *specific* advisor at the new university, while I am just thinking of applying to several calls where I do not have any personal connection with the people hiring. If people here think it's still a duplicate, I will agree.<issue_comment>username_1: The first order of business is making sure that you cannot graduate. If you have more than 10 papers published in non-predatory journals, you are objectively ready to wrap it up. I would suggest contacting former PhD students of your advisor to know how they "escaped".
Assuming you will not be able to graduate, look at your exit options. Your division of the job market between academia and "regular 9-5 job[s]" is to black-and-white.
Most large companies and some midsize companies have R&D laboratoires where research jobs is at least as intellectually stimulating as in academia; compared to academia, you trade some freedom, both intellectual (the cool topic you worked on is not funded this year because of company priorities) and physical (you need to be on premises at fixed hours, and you might even need to follow a dress code) in exchange for better working conditions (on average a better salary, better work/life balance; in experimental sciences you have a better-equipped lab with dedicated workers). That might or might not suit your taste.
For whichever position you end up pursuing, I strongly advise you rehearse what you will say at an interview. You will have to "badmouth" your current advisor; hop over to the [Workplace stackexchange](https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/42121/why-is-it-not-a-good-idea-to-badmouth-a-previous-employer) and read a few questions on that topic; the quick summary is to keep it as factual as possible. For PhD positions any reasonable interviewer would think that you should have defended with that number of publications, so I would point at that and say you disagree with your advisor's decision not to let you defend; avoir bringing other concerns if not asked. For industry positions the interviewer might not be familiar with PhD programs, so I would rather say something vague about an unsound work environment.
For PhD positions, your CV will probably be tossed out without an interview a few times because it is atypical, but if you get to the interview your chances look better than average since you demonstrated an ability to do research, write papers/grants etc.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: The advice of [UJM](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/151148/75368) is good, especially the first paragraph. But, there might be an option to help you move.
I left one program for another, but for different reasons. But I was successful in moving primarily because there was another faculty member who supported me in ways that my advisor did not. He expressed confidence in my ability and it was his recommendations that made my move possible and my future a success.
So, my advice, if it applies to you, is to see who you might have for allies at your current place who could strongly promote your candidacy elsewhere. If such people exist, they might have both recommendations and some influence about other universities. Allies elsewhere would be another possibility.
But just leaving and trying to start over would be difficult, as you suggest. It isn't impossible, and others have done it, but look for a springboard to help make the jump.
Upvotes: 1
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<issue_start>username_0: I am a computational materials science researcher. I model additive manufacturing process using continuum modeling methods. Almost everyone who works in my field are part experimentalists and partly into computational modeling. Though with an experimental master's background, my PhD research was completely computational and not theoretically intensive (it was very straightforward if one knows the computational modeling tools and a bit of coding beforehand, more like clicking the right button and developing scripts to do some analysis).
I feel that I would have gotten better job prospects if I had an experimentalist and computational profile. Almost at the end of my PhD (about to defend), I have a postdoc offer with my current PhD advisor, which I will take because I don't want to move to a different place with covid-19 in other locations. But I dread job prospects in my limited experience and expertise. How to address the fact that I might have chosen wrong research area?<issue_comment>username_1: Don't think of yourself as stuck in a research area. You are starting to gain some independence and can also start to morph your research into any area you choose. Over your career you might do this multiple times, actually.
Use the post doc to start to explore the areas you'd rather work in as much as you can.
Staying with your doctoral advisor might not be your best move, though with coronavirus it may be necessary in the short term as you note.
Your PI for the post doc might be able to give you some freedom here. But even if not, increasing your reputation in one area can lead to more freedom to move and change your direction.
Your career needn't be an arrow.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: First off, congratulations on your upcoming defense! Relax and enjoy this time, and take a deep breath before you start your postdoc. You may be experiencing the anxiety that comes with a significant life-shift, and it’s normal to be questioning your choices.
Use the experience of being a postdoc to the fullest. If you are not happy or are dreading what prospects await you after you’ve finished, try to plan ahead where exactly it is that you want to end up. Making connections and learning new skills as a postdoc is important, and it may be even surprise you how useful this upcoming experience becomes in a different area.
---
In short, decide where it is that you want to end up, and use the opportunities and experiences you’ve been given to grow into that area. You are never “stuck” where you are. Don’t think of it as correcting a mistake, but rather as tackling the next challenge.
Upvotes: 0
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<issue_start>username_0: I can't tell if this is trying to overrate my own publication, or that the achievement is worth "showboating" it to the degree that I've described in the title.<issue_comment>username_1: Yes, it is probably worth it. It makes it easy to find in a quick scan of the CV. Many of the readers will want to rely on getting essential information quickly.
If you are at the point in your career where one publication is good, or even exceptional, then, yes, single it out.
For admissions and hiring committees the first job is to take a pile of too-many applications and sort it into the "look further" and the "good bye" piles. You want to get in the first, of course.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Absolutely. Every little bit counts in that area. Papers published in peer-reviewed acadeic journals, practitioner's journals, press articles, Revised-and-resubmitted papers, working papers, various reports, book chapters, are all welcome additions. I would like to stress that these days universities are getting more and more interested in "impact", so even small press columns or a magazine publication on an academic topic might impress and show that you and your research can reach and influence a wider audience.
What should not be included is predatory publications and obscure blog posts (although something in Vox.eu, Project Syndicate or a similarly reputable outlet is very welcome).
Upvotes: 1
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<issue_start>username_0: I'm applying to a coursework + thesis masters programme and am wondering how specific do I have to be when mentioning my research interests in my email to a potential advisor. I have applied to another programme before and I think I was too specific when I spoke to the prof. He rejected me immediately because he thinks that our interests do not fit.
As an undergrad applying into a masters course, do I also need to have a research topic ready when contacting the prof? I have trouble refining my research topic as I'm applying into a specialization I've no experience in.
I understand that especially for coursework, there is a chance that our research interest (or topic) might change over time, and in some schools/faculty, masters students aren't really given the full autonomy to decide on their research topics.
How can I convince the prof without sounding like I'm trying to fit into the lab's interests or without deviating too much from his interests?
Thank you.<issue_comment>username_1: In my experience (North American research-intensive universities) and point of view, this is a good question without a hard-and-fast answer.
* having a specific research topic in mind is good in that it indicates that you've made an effort to think about the topic. However:
+ new researchers (undergraduates) often have very unrealistic ideas about what constitutes a practical research topic, especially for a beginner in the field who will have a limited amount of time to work on the project;
+ even good research topics may not fit in well with the specific research program of a particular researcher. As researchers are often supporting master's students from grants, their students' projects need to fit into the scope of the grant.
+ researchers (and fields) vary hugely in the amount of independence they give to (or expect of) master's students. You might be able to get some ideas about a particular researcher's approach if you can track down masters' theses of their previous students and look at the range of topics covered.
It's fine (and probably best) to say "I have the following ideas about new projects I could work on ... but of course I would be happy to work on new or existing projects in your lab ..."
* similarly, it's good to express some knowledge of/interest in the potential supervisor's field. **HOWEVER**: I get a *lot* of e-mails that say something along the lines of "I'm fascinated by your work in XXX and YYY", where XXX and YYY are topics that can easily be picked off of my web page or a glance at my CV or Google Scholar page.
* The *most* compelling aspect of an application/e-mail is evidence that a student has previously engaged with something about the subject. Even if you haven't done anything in the particular field, it helps a lot if you highlight things that you know/have done that will make you well-prepared for research in the topic — this could be course projects you've done in related fields, or courses you've taken (or things you've taught yourself) that are good foundations for getting started in the field.
I appreciate that the last point is hard if you're just entering the field for the first time, but talk is cheap: demonstrating that you've already taken some steps to prepare yourself is much more convincing. If you can't do that, then demonstrating some awareness of which aspects of your current training would be useful is helpful.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: If there's a particular professor you'd like to work with, my suggestion is to read the most recent several papers from the laboratory. Then when you write the professor just say that you're very interested in their research direction. You've read their recent papers on X and Y and were particularly interested in some particular point that one of those papers emphasized. Basically indicate to the professor that you understand what their research is, and you have the capability to independently understand one or more of their recent research articles. Then, if you can, relate their research field to your own training/background. If you have anything specific to connect you to their research direction more than your own words that will count 10x.
My personal feeling is that if you're someone just about to enter an MS program, it's not that likely you'll have some earth-shattering research idea the professor hasn't thought of before. And, you're right, generally, that MS students are generally expected to carry out the professor's instructions rather than have a fully independent research topic (one of the differences between MS and PhD training). Therefore, saying "I really want to work on X topic" might be limiting at best, or actively harmful at worst. Better to simply express your honest interest in the professor's particular research **direction**.
Depending on the program, remember, too, that an e-mail may only be the proverbial "foot in the door," and there would be followup interviews in person or via Skype/Zoom/etc. Therefore your goal in the first step is really to get to the second step. Better, in that case, to keep things short and to the point.
Upvotes: 1
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<issue_start>username_0: Scenario:
---------
You catch a student cheating on a graded assessment. While you are required to report them to a student-affairs administrator, it is up to you, the instructor, how to grade the student on the assessment.
The most common response seems to be to give the student a zero on the assessment. If this is an exam, this may mean failing the course.
Question:
---------
**Is punishing a cheating student by failing them useful because it results in learning (either by the individual cheater, or by the community at large because of the message it sends), or because it weeds out students who are dishonest?**
I would appreciate any references to the effectiveness of punishment for academic dishonesty leading to changed behavior(s).
**Note**: If a student cheats on assessments, it is clear that you will not have sufficient data to grade their knowledge or abilities there. This question is not about whether we should accept work completed via cheating, but whether rewarding the behavior with a failing exam/course grade is effective in some way. Answers that boil down to "but what else can we do" probably answer a different question not being asked here.<issue_comment>username_1: In my experience (North American research-intensive universities) and point of view, this is a good question without a hard-and-fast answer.
* having a specific research topic in mind is good in that it indicates that you've made an effort to think about the topic. However:
+ new researchers (undergraduates) often have very unrealistic ideas about what constitutes a practical research topic, especially for a beginner in the field who will have a limited amount of time to work on the project;
+ even good research topics may not fit in well with the specific research program of a particular researcher. As researchers are often supporting master's students from grants, their students' projects need to fit into the scope of the grant.
+ researchers (and fields) vary hugely in the amount of independence they give to (or expect of) master's students. You might be able to get some ideas about a particular researcher's approach if you can track down masters' theses of their previous students and look at the range of topics covered.
It's fine (and probably best) to say "I have the following ideas about new projects I could work on ... but of course I would be happy to work on new or existing projects in your lab ..."
* similarly, it's good to express some knowledge of/interest in the potential supervisor's field. **HOWEVER**: I get a *lot* of e-mails that say something along the lines of "I'm fascinated by your work in XXX and YYY", where XXX and YYY are topics that can easily be picked off of my web page or a glance at my CV or Google Scholar page.
* The *most* compelling aspect of an application/e-mail is evidence that a student has previously engaged with something about the subject. Even if you haven't done anything in the particular field, it helps a lot if you highlight things that you know/have done that will make you well-prepared for research in the topic — this could be course projects you've done in related fields, or courses you've taken (or things you've taught yourself) that are good foundations for getting started in the field.
I appreciate that the last point is hard if you're just entering the field for the first time, but talk is cheap: demonstrating that you've already taken some steps to prepare yourself is much more convincing. If you can't do that, then demonstrating some awareness of which aspects of your current training would be useful is helpful.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: If there's a particular professor you'd like to work with, my suggestion is to read the most recent several papers from the laboratory. Then when you write the professor just say that you're very interested in their research direction. You've read their recent papers on X and Y and were particularly interested in some particular point that one of those papers emphasized. Basically indicate to the professor that you understand what their research is, and you have the capability to independently understand one or more of their recent research articles. Then, if you can, relate their research field to your own training/background. If you have anything specific to connect you to their research direction more than your own words that will count 10x.
My personal feeling is that if you're someone just about to enter an MS program, it's not that likely you'll have some earth-shattering research idea the professor hasn't thought of before. And, you're right, generally, that MS students are generally expected to carry out the professor's instructions rather than have a fully independent research topic (one of the differences between MS and PhD training). Therefore, saying "I really want to work on X topic" might be limiting at best, or actively harmful at worst. Better to simply express your honest interest in the professor's particular research **direction**.
Depending on the program, remember, too, that an e-mail may only be the proverbial "foot in the door," and there would be followup interviews in person or via Skype/Zoom/etc. Therefore your goal in the first step is really to get to the second step. Better, in that case, to keep things short and to the point.
Upvotes: 1
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<issue_start>username_0: The *h*-index is often used to measure a 'quality' of a scholar, and it is also often criticized as a lousy measure, since there is more into quality than just the number of papers and citations.
What are some examples of arguably great and famous scientists with low *h*-index?<issue_comment>username_1: You can find a lot of historical examples, from people whose careers predated the publish-or-perish culture. A striking more recent example is [<NAME>](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Higgs), who was awarded (among other honors) the 2013 Nobel prize in physics. Whether that makes him a "great" physicist is of course arguable, but he clearly did important work. [However,](https://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/dec/06/peter-higgs-boson-academic-system)
>
> <NAME>, the British physicist who gave his name to the Higgs boson, believes no university would employ him in today's academic system because he would not be considered "productive" enough.
>
>
> The emeritus professor at Edinburgh University, who says he has never sent an email, browsed the internet or even made a mobile phone call, published fewer than 10 papers after his groundbreaking work, which identified the mechanism by which subatomic material acquires mass, was published in 1964.
>
>
>
[This article](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4654436/) estimated his h-index to be about 9, but I've seen estimates of around 11 too. Either way, it's a very low number for the field by today's standards, for an established professor. [To wit,](https://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/dec/06/peter-higgs-boson-academic-system)
>
> Speaking to the Guardian en route to Stockholm to receive the 2013 Nobel prize for science, Higgs, 84, said he would almost certainly have been sacked had he not been nominated for the Nobel in 1980.
>
>
> Edinburgh University's authorities then took the view, he later learned, that he "might get a Nobel prize – and if he doesn't we can always get rid of him".
>
>
>
Upvotes: 7 <issue_comment>username_2: Here are a few contemporary mathematicians who solved major open problems and have relatively low h-index, computed using citation data MathSciNet, for their stature in the mathematical community:
[<NAME>](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yitang_Zhang) (proved boundedness of gaps in primes): h-index 2
[<NAME>](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grigori_Perelman) (solved the Poincaré conjecture): h-index 10
[<NAME>](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Wiles) (proved Fermat's Last Theorem): h-index 15
All of these mathematicians made quite the splash, and are worth reading about, and have the feature that they wrote relatively few papers but worked on very deep, hard problems.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_3: [<NAME>](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_Ising) probably counts. He did his PhD thesis on the (now well-known) model that bears his name, but didn't work in physics for decades afterwards. Though he eventually became a physics professor, he didn't publish again either. I couldn't find anything about his h-index, but it can't be too high since there aren't many works written by him.
>
> After earning his doctorate, <NAME> worked for a short time in business before becoming a teacher, in Salem, Strausberg and Crossen, among other places. In 1930, he married the economist Dr. <NAME>. As a young German–Jewish scientist, Ising was barred from teaching and researching when Hitler came to power in 1933. In 1934, he found a position, first as a teacher and then as headmaster, at a Jewish school in Caputh near Potsdam for Jewish students who had been thrown out of public schools. Ernst and his wife Dr. <NAME>, <NAME>, lived in Caputh near the famous summer residence of the Einstein family. In 1938, the school in Caputh was destroyed by the Nazis, and in 1939 the Isings fled to Luxembourg, where Ising earned money as a shepherd and railroad worker. After the German Wehrmacht occupied Luxembourg, <NAME> was forced to work for the army. In 1947, the Ising family emigrated to the United States. Though he became Professor of Physics at Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois, he never published again. Ising died at his home in Peoria in 1998, just one day after his 98th birthday.
>
>
>
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: How about a physicist, <NAME>, who created Huckel theory and one of the founding fathers of Molecular-Orbital theory / quantum chemistry.
He was definitely someone who struggled in academia even before the publish-or-perish era, hardly able to get a professorship. I couldn't find his official publication list, but this encyclopedia article lists 11 works for all his life: <https://www.encyclopedia.com/science/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/huckel-erich-armand-arthur>
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_5: <NAME>
---------------
Just yesterday this article was published with the title "[Albert Einstein the mediocre: Why the h-index is a bogus measure of academic impact](https://phys.org/news/2020-07-albert-einstein-mediocre-h-index-bogus.html)." Check this out:
>
> "let's examine the case of Einstein, who has 147 articles listed in the
> Web of Science database between 1901 and 1955, the year of his death.
> For his 147 articles, Einstein has received 1,564 citations during his
> lifetime. Now, if we add the citations made to his
> articles after his death, Einstein has received a total of 28,404
> citations between 1901 and 2019, which earns him an h-index of 56."
>
>
>
**Only 1564 citations over 147 articles, at the time of his death!**
The h-index of 56 might seem large, but there's been about 70 years of citations (23,000 of them) after his death, so even when he was 76 years old he would have had an h-index that might be considered mediocre for someone at that age, and someone considered to be one of the most **prolific** academics of all time.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_6: Incidentally, to answer the question in the title, "scholarship" and "peer-reviewed publication" are substantially different things, somewhat like "understanding" and "novelty" are not at all the same, though loosely connected.
In mathematics, in the U.S., for example, "scholarship" is not much rewarded by "the system", if only because it's hard to quantify, and the contemporary style of quantification of is much beloved by administrators at all levels, and papercount, etc., are numbers.
And, then, again, "citation count" is a very skewed metric, for many reasons.
Upvotes: 1
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<issue_start>username_0: Has someone here an opinion or already experience (and recommendations) with online preparation courses for writing ERC grant proposals, or for other kinds of funding?<issue_comment>username_1: Yes, but this is strongly dependent on the course. For example, will the teachers give you personalized feedback on *your* proposal, or is it simply a course that offers general guidelines and tips? Usually the "tips" type courses are helpful if you're a first-time grant applicant without a strong external network. However, if you have colleagues who have been awarded these grants or have served on review committees and are willing to look over your proposal, their feedback will be more valuable. Especially because they will be more similar to your actual reviewers (pressed for time, not in your field, etc.).
If it's a course that includes specific feedback on your proposal, or if it's a private grant preparation service, these can be more helpful because they are more tailored. I have some colleagues who run this kind of grant editing/grant preparation service, and they usually offer some statistics in their promotional materials. For example, of those whose grants went through this process, how many were funded? My colleagues' success rate is about 80% at the moment, so clearly these kinds of services can really improve your chances. However, they also require substantially more money that may not be reimbursable by your university.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: I won an ERC-StG a few years ago. I worked very closely with the fundraisers at my university and found their (personalized) feedback extremely helpful. They had also managed to collect a good number of successful applications to use as references when creating my own application. Once I'd heard I got an interview, the university then sent me to a 2-day interview training course in the Netherlands (Yellow Research), which I found extremely useful. Not just for the advice they give, but because they put you in a room with 4-6 other hopeful interviewees with which to discuss and spar with.
Based on my experience, here's what I'd recommend:
1. Work with the fundraisers at your institute. If they are not helpful, ask your institute to pay for outside help.
2. Set aside at least 3 months full time to work on the proposal.
3. Consider that some national funding agencies will offer smallish grants (something like €10k) to help support your salary while writing, or for training courses like I mentioned above.
4. Find some reviewers that you trust to give you critical feedback. Some should be non-specialists in your field and very familiar with ERC grants, ideally by serving on a panel (most universities will have 1-2 current or former panel members in their faculty). Others should be specialists on your field, but not necessarily familiar with the ERC system. For this I used my collaborators.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: A complementary perspective to the already good answers: Take into account how much time the course will take you, compared to how much time you spend in total on the proposal. So even if the benefit is not big, it might still be worth the time. And beyond some information, you might get to know people.
Upvotes: 0
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2020/06/29
| 1,474
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<issue_start>username_0: I had a paper ready for journal publication, but decided to break it into 2 conference papers and submitted them to a conference.
Now, one of them is accepted but the other one is rejected! The thing is, the 2 papers are related and I think they should be published together. The paper which is rejected, had 3 reviewers. One accepted it, one weak-accepted and the other one rejected it. The two who accepted it, marked it as innovative, highly useful and relevant. (All 3 reviewers mentioned they are highly confident on being able to judge my paper)
Now, can I write to the conference and tell them to review the paper or argue with them that the paper could be accepted based on points made by the two reviewers?
PS: I had to break them into two papers because of the page limit. Furthermore, it makes more sense for them to be published together since they are parts of a single framework. However, this doesn't mean that one cannot be published without the other; as I mentioned, I believe publishing them together just makes more sense. Moreover, I was very confident that both will be accepted!<issue_comment>username_1: >
> Now, can I write to the conference and tell them to review the paper or argue with them that the paper could be accepted based on points made by the two reviewers?
>
>
>
You can try, but what do you have to tell them that they do not already know? They have already read the reviews, thought about them and reached a decision. Unless you can think of a compelling argument that invalidates or rebuts the criticism of the unfavorable review, your chances of success are essentially zero.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: Honestly, you shouldn't be splitting a research paper into two and trying to submit as two publications, unless there is a page limit or something. You even are admitting that it doesn't make sense to publish one of these without the other.
I would say you're better off asking them to combine the two papers back into a single paper to publish. But doing this risks making you look bad, as it is admitting that they shouldn't have been split up in the first place. An alternative is to add to the second paper to make it strong enough to stand on its own and submit it to a different conference as a follow up.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: In my field, that would almost certainly not work. If anything, it will send the signal to the program chairs that you're very inexperienced with how the conference process works.
Conferences have a certain timeframe for reviewing, followed by a discussion period and a decision about each paper. It's practically unheard of that a paper that was rejected in this stage still got accepted due to some authors appealing.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: (CS perspective / I was conference chair and program committee chair several times):
You made your choice and now you have to live with it. You have until submission of the final version to make sure that the paper is readable and self-contained. Since the accepted paper was reviewed independently from your other submission, that should be quite possible. You might disagree, but the reviewers thought it could live on its own.
You can publish your other paper on a preview server or as a technical report at your university / department / personal web-page. Pre-publishing it there should not hurt its chances of being accepted elsewhere. This way, you can cite and refer to it.
You can either submit the other half to a different conference or you can work both of them together and submit to a journal. This is standard practice in CS.
If you were to try to negotiate with me, I would be quite annoyed, though of course trying to be polite.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_5: You state the large publication was split into two smaller ones because of a page limit. Possibly, to meet these constraints, you reorganized the presentation of the work such the second one builds upon the one accepted which you then cite. Thus it need not be a case of «salami research».
In mathematics and natural sciences, it happens that the first publication describes only one aspect, and under subsequent work this is extended and generalized. For example, Einstein's published on [special relativity](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_relativity) in 1905, and continued till 1915 to publish then about [general relativity](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_relativity). In your case, you possibly have the results of both the particular case, and the more general application already in hand, and could submit it elsewhere. It may be even easier to publish the two in different venues than back-to-back in the very same issue of the journal ([this](https://pubs.acs.org/toc/oprdfk/21/8) is rather an exception).
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_6: **The outcome:** Some members kindly gave me good comments in reply to my question. Actually, I used some of them in preparing my email to the conference committee. Here, I'll mention what the process was and what happened for those who find themselves in a similar situation:
I have contacted the conference with the reasons I had in support of my paper, and argued that my paper had the required qualities to be accepted. However, they respectfully denied it almost immediately! :)
So, to sum it up and for clarification purposes for others that might one day need to do the same thing: It does not seem that there is anything wrong with contacting the conference committee to argue that your paper deserved to be accepted. However, there is a little chance of changing the conference judgement even despite having sufficient reasons.
PS: Something I learnt during this process, is to always ask direct and accurate questions without going into unnecessary details. In this question, I first talked about my journal paper,and I shouldn't have done It! Since the majority of comments were in regard and around reasons for why I should or shouldn't have broken one paper into two papers and that was not my question! I had already made my decision and divided the paper into two and I believe I had good reasons for that! As a result, not only I got many unrelated comments and answers, but also someone changed the topic of my question to something that I do not agree with, but since I didn't have enough points, I couldn't discard their changes! Now, how funny is that? :))
Thanks everyone and good luck with your publications!
Upvotes: 2 [selected_answer]
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<issue_start>username_0: My performance in my bachelor's degree was adversely affected by some medical extenuating circumstances (related to physical injuries). I am currently in a master's program and my performance is much better. Should I mention these extenuating circumstances in my PhD applications and should I include the relevant documents (doctors' statement, diagnostic report, etc)?<issue_comment>username_1: You might mention extenuating circumstances if:
* They significantly decreased your past performance.
* You explain why your performance will not be reduced in the future for the same reason.
Do not include any evidence unless it is requested, or perhaps if the circumstances were something very unlikely. Having been imprisoned for a crime and later exonerated might be an example where evidence would be a good idea.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: I wouldn't attach any diagnostic report. But you could highlight, that you're especially proud of your performance increase during your masters, because it was closely linked to you overcoming the health issues you endured during your bachelors degree. But only use one sentence for this, it shouldn't be more than a side note.
Definitely don't make it sound like you want special treatment because of your past health problems, but instead present the way you coped with them as a strength. To overcome serious illness shows that you are capable to overcome setbacks, this is very valuable.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: Since you are now in an MS program now and are doing better at it, I think it would be a mistake, actually, to dwell too much on the reasons for poor performance earlier. At most, a single phrase in an application letter that you suffered physical injuries as an undergrad that impacted your performance at the time. No more than that.
Applications will put heavier weight on later work over earlier in any case and people improve their work for many reasons. If it were the later work that was impacted, you might need more explanation. But in this case, just a hint that someone can follow up on if they think it necessary, is plenty.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: Your notes during your Bachelor's does add some weight to your application but in trying to negate a possible negative weight of these notes by supplying this information, you might add negative weight to the expectations for your future performance. Just keep in mind that what matters most to a potential supervisor is your future performance and they would always have second thoughts about a student that might potentially disappear from the lab for an extended period of time. One more thing that might be important here is whether the potential supervisor is doing a tenure-track or is already tenured. The former group are very stressed out and performance focused.
Upvotes: 0
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2020/06/29
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<issue_start>username_0: Currently my MA gpa is a 70/100 and I'm studying in the UK. I just received the grade of my latest assignment, that is a 68. That means that my gpa is now bellow 70. However, the university is giving me the option of an ungraded pass for this assignment, so that my gpa will not be affected. If I select to apply for an ungraded pass, instead of a 68 in that assignment, are my future PhD applications going to be affected? I am concerned that an ungraded pass might not look good on my final record and in my PhD applications. Additionaly, I am still working on my dissertation, so if I achieve a high grade for it I can still improve my gpa. What do you think is the best course of action? Thank you!<issue_comment>username_1: I have doubts that it will matter. The reasons for taking a pass might be obvious to a reader. Letting the numbers fall where they may might seem more honest.
But also consider that few (if any) programs will automatically exclude you for GPA alone. People are admitted into doctoral programs based on many things, none of which (other than dishonesty, perhaps) are determinative alone. People on an admissions committee will want to make a prediction about your likely success in the program and thereafter as well as your readiness to do research.
I also suspect that most committees will be a bit generous in the age of coronavirus, though that doesn't lessen the competition that every student faces. Make your best case for admission no matter which way you choose to jump on this (minor) issue.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: The difference is miniscule and it will not make a significant different in the average. I would suggest you kept the mark, which is considered rather high in UK standards. Having a first is meaningful for prestige reasons but a high 2.1 such is your is by no means damning - a 68 has no difference with a 70.
Upvotes: 1
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2020/06/29
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<issue_start>username_0: I've looked at some CV's from colleagues and superiors that I've worked with in academia, and one interesting thing I've noticed is that most of them don't mention if they've graduated with distinction (cum laude, first class etc), but for me it's crucial to mention. At what point is it not necessary to include? Does some amount of academic experience such as publications trump whatever the honors one received when graduating to the point where it's not necessary to include? Is this done because potential employers aren't interested after the person has a solid enough background in academia post graduation and degree conferral or is it simply not worth the whitespace?<issue_comment>username_1: I would mention it and leave it on your CV going forward. It is recognized and awarded by your university. Some people might discount it and others might not.
It is a minor thing, however, as it is normally simply a reflection of your GPA. And in applications that contain the GPA, that is a more precise indicator of where you wound up.
But it is an accomplishment, nevertheless and it is valid to be proud of it.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: In my experience, people include this aspect on their CV regardless of how many publications they have (or other relevant measures of success).
It is a **positive** and simple thing to include, especially as an addendum to the degree obtained (“degree in X from Y university—summa cum laude”).
An important consideration when writing a CV is that is is not too burdensome for others to read. In the above-mentioned way, there is no adverse cost to including this information, so it is only a positive thing.
It is a **negative** thing if the GPA was not good enough to receive high distinctions. In that case, it’s best not to draw attention to it.
---
If it is a positive high distinction, you only have to gain by including it.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: You haven't said whether you have a PhD, but in my experience, by the time you do, your bachelor's degree is reduced to a single line or two, like:
>
> **Bachelor of Arts, Basket Weaving** (2019)[, *cum laude*]
>
> University of Nowhere
>
>
>
I would recommend, as a rule of thumb, if you can squeeze it onto that line, go for it. If it needs a lot of explanation, maybe reconsider, unless it was a very high honor.
Consider though, that many people in doctorate-level education have similar honors. Your bachelor's degree being *cum laude* will not matter for anything except maybe entry fellowships.
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: I am a tenure-track researcher in STEM fields. On June 9th, I was told that all meetings scheduled next day were cancelled so that we can be a part of #ShutDownSTEM. I was not aware of it, and I actually thought it was a joke1 (I purposely isolated myself from real-world news).
So I kept all the meetings. On June 10th, it was business as usual for my group. Other people certainly knew we were working on that day.
Will our disobedience lead to trouble later?
Update: Okay, it is actually slightly worse than how I initially described it. Originally I did not know about ShutDownSTEM. On the 10th, however, some graduate students did stop by our lab and explain to us that we should use that day to reflect on ...... someting. My postdoc and I, both being people of color, were somewhat annoyed by such intrusion. So we explain to them we support their cause, but we not are going to spend a day watching netflix, and send them on their way. We certainly tried to be as polite as possible. But I suppose it wouldn't be unfair to say we dismissed their demand.
---
1. In my defense, if the president of the university tells me to take a day off so that we can BurnDownUniversity, I'd certainly think it is a joke.<issue_comment>username_1: I doubt there could be any *official* consequences at all under the circumstances. Of course if you did so to support racist policies or denigrate BLM (Black Lives Matter) then you might be castigated for that. But the thing was put together very quickly and I'm not surprised that many didn't know of it or understand the purpose, though many universities promoted it quite heavily.
You may have a bit of explaining to do if questioned on it, but if rules aren't properly promulgated they can't fairly be enforced. The name itself, requires a bit of explanation, so thinking it was a joke shouldn't be an issue.
I'm a bit surprised, though, that no one in your group knew of it or bothered to explain it.
---
And some of the explaining you might have to do is to your students if they think less of you for what occurred.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: >
> Will our disobedience lead to trouble later?
>
>
>
Anything is possible, and some things are a lot more possible these days than they were just a couple of months ago. It’s quite reasonable for you to be worried.
But let’s be clear. You didn’t “think it was a joke”. That is a poor way to explain your outlook and increases the chance that you will be criticized, perhaps harshly, by people who don’t have patience for nuance, facts, and the intricacies of human nature in these turbulent times. It’s probably more accurate and more productive to say that the whole thing was so unexpected and took you so much by surprise that you did not immediately appreciate how important the shutdownstem event was as a way of expressing your support for an important social movement. Thrown off, unsure what to do, and being a creature of habit and passionate about your work and its importance to science and to society, you ended up sticking with your usual routine. ... Right?
Similarly, I think it’s a mistake to use the word “disobedience” to frame your behavior. Researchers in US academia do not take orders from anyone about when or with whom to hold meetings. If you carefully read the emails you received I am sure you will discover that none of the stuff about canceling meetings and participating in the shutdown day is phrased as a directive. It was almost certainly a “suggestion” or “strong recommendation”, or you were “encouraged to participate”, “invited to reflect on systemic racism”, etc. And indeed I am confident that you reflected on many important issues that day (and most other days in the last couple of months), as pretty much everyone has been doing. Do not play into the hands of overzealous activists who presume to see into your heart and know what you care about and what you don’t care about by professing to a willful disobedience you are not guilty of. Instead, anyone criticizing you for not participating should be forced to acknowledge that the invitation to participate was precisely that - an invitation, making it entirely reasonable and acceptable to decline.
I could go on with a few similar things in your post that suggest a somewhat cavalier attitude that opens you up to a heightened level of scrutiny and criticism. Please try not to give anyone asking about the shutdown the impression that you find the recent nationwide events uninteresting, unimportant, or not worthy of being thought about or taken seriously. When you write things like “I purposely isolated myself from real-world news”, “reflect on ... something”, and “send them on their way” you sound dismissive and create a serious risk of being misunderstood. Since you support the cause of the activists, it would be foolish of them to come after you, but if by your words you give them the wrong impression, it’s quite possible that some of them will not be as thoughtful or charitable to you as they should be.
Bottom line: think defensively about this. Your actions were reasonable, but much could depend on the precise way in which you explain what happened if questioned. Also, find allies who know you and would be willing to come to your defense if push comes to shove. I hope it doesn’t come to that though, and it very well might not. Good luck!
---
**Edit:** note that I am posting here using my real identity. In such times when discussing potentially controversial topics I’m always cognizant of the possibility that in the process of offering advice to some anonymous person I never met I may be inadvertently opening myself up for potential attack or criticism by anyone who disagrees with what I wrote or interprets what I wrote in a different way than how I intended.
Oh well, it is what it is I guess. But just to clarify in case anyone gets the wrong idea about what I’m saying: **in this answer I’m addressing OP’s concern about possible criticism and/or career damage given their actions during the recent STEM shutdown day of protest, and *only that*. I’m *not* commenting on any political movements or points of view and their significance, worthiness, virtue etc, so please do not interpret any of what I wrote as commentary of that type.**
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: In your update you mention that you are a person of color.
In my observation, ShutDownSTEM was largely aimed at white people -- who have not experienced structural racism, and who may not have thought about it deeply.
Several of my professor friends on Facebook are social justice activists. A consistent point that they make (via sharing blog posts, etc.) is that white people should do more of the work, carry more of the burden, of ending structural racism. In general, their criticism is not aimed at people of color.
Although I cannot predict how people will behave, I would be very surprised if you faced negative consequences.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_4: In short term
-------------
>
> Will our disobedience lead to trouble later?
>
>
>
No, I really doubt that. I don't think the OP will get into any trouble for *not following the strong recommendation*.
There are only a few thousand researchers signed up,
which likely means a majority of people did not actively participate. So at least you are not alone (not saying it's good). If you are in trouble, so will much of STEM.
Will you be in trouble for poor explanation?
Almost surely! If your public explanation is anything like your question here, I'd say you will certainly get into trouble.
username_2's answer already highlighted all the "wrong" keywords in your question.
In long term
------------
I can see a real risk of this incident resurface years later when the OP seek higher position.
Upvotes: 2
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2020/06/30
| 600
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<issue_start>username_0: I have a question about publishing. If I publish a paper in a journal that does not specify any type of license used, and I am never asked to transfer the copyright.
Apart from this, the journal defines itself as "open" and there is no copyright notice of any kind in the journal's articles.
I think that I could retain all the rights without restrictions. What do you think about this?<issue_comment>username_1: >
> I think that I could retain all the rights without restrictions. What do you think about this?
>
>
>
Seems plausible, but read the journal's terms of service, since you may be digitally bound by some terms, and maybe just send them an email to ask.
Upvotes: 1 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Do not publish without a contract. The absence of a contract casts serious doubt on the competence of the journal. You do not want your work to appear in a journal that gets shut down because they did not have their paperwork correct. No quality open access journal would neglect to have a license.
If the question is "Will you retain your rights?" My answer is that this is a situation which should never occur, so you shouldn't find out.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: What we "think" about it is of little consequence. The laws around copyright vary over the world. I think you are being a bit blasé about it. You need some explicit statement of any license you grant. If the publisher makes assumptions and does things you don't approve of with your work you may have little recourse other than a lawsuit that will probably cost you money. As [username_2](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/151248/75368) suggests, you shouldn't deal with such people as they are probably not reputable.
If they aren't willing to be explicit prior to publication and ask you to actually sign a clear agreement, then it is a giant red flag.
*The risk is yours and yours alone.* You may be fine, but no one here can provide any assurance of that. Talk to an IP lawyer to get knowledge of the local laws that will apply.
My worry is, if you give them an implied but not stated license, whether they can pass that license on to others. And, again, if they assume that, then it is a lawsuit that would be necessary to stop it. What "I think" is that you are stepping into a minefield. Don't do so blindfolded.
If you are associated with a university, they may have IP lawyers with whom you can consult.
Upvotes: 1
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2020/06/30
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<issue_start>username_0: I am currently working for a Computer Science researcher as an undergraduate. I worked for them last semester and have continued into the semester. However, I am having a bit of trouble lately because I feel like I haven't been as helpful as I could be and at times feel like a burden when I ask too many questions or am unsure how to do something. Do advisors get annoyed by undergraduates when they ask too many questions? Is there a way that I can improve? Or any general practices that are good to follow?<issue_comment>username_1: Some advisors will get exasperated and others will be more patient. The latter are to be preferred, but everyone is different. But if you ask too many, look for signals of exasperation. Instead of asking for answers to your questions, you might try asking for places to look for answers.
But even the exasperated professor should be clear if you are becoming a bother. Won't necessarily happen, of course.
In particular, you want to develop insight into your field, not just answers. Insight comes from hard work, of course.
---
Let me add that asking a lot of questions is, in general, a good thing, though not everyone will agree. But take notes of any conversation, perhaps immediately after, so that you capture the essence in a way that is easier to recall than depending on an imperfect memory.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: Being a burden is the sine qua non of undergraduate researchers! That's not a dis, it reflects the truth that the professor isn't having you in their lab for your abundant research output, but for your own education (and possibly so they can lure you in to joining them as a graduate student). After all (it's easy to forget sometimes) a professor's *main job* is education.
Therefore, don't worry about asking too many questions. Those are natural because you're in a situation where nearly every step of your work is new to you. The key thing you want to focus on is how to make it so the question frequency decreases with time. The gradual transition from undergraduate newbie to postdoctoral rock star of course has something to do with gaining additional domain knowledge, but it's just as much about learning how to learn, and learning how to work.
So part of your learning now should be a bit meta. In addition to "how do I write a python script to do X?", your questions should also take the form of "how can I solve this myself?" "before I go to Prof. X, have I googled? did I ask their other students?" "is this related to my previous experience, and, if so, how did I solve it last time?"
I think as long as you are going to Prof. X with novel questions (and getting clarification counts as novelty), then you are doing your job just fine, and answering those questions (or helping you to answer them yourself) is them doing their job.
And to +1 what username_1 said, keeping a good notebook where you record not only your conversations with Prof. X and other members of their group, but also your own learning (like summaries of papers, results of experiments, key techniques you picked up) is a key skill to learn.
Upvotes: 2
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2020/07/01
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<issue_start>username_0: So far, that is the only information given to me by the journal. I have no idea if all 18 reviewers were invited at the same time, or if one at a time. In either cause, is this a bad sign, something like a looming possibility that the editor might eventually reject my manuscript if they can't find any reviewer to go thru my work?<issue_comment>username_1: It is difficult to give an informative answer without knowing the culture of the journal to which you submitted. In the journals where I am an editorial board member, 18 would be a high number to get the number of reviews necessary for a decision (often 3).
A couple of reasons to be pessimistic:
1. It could be that your manuscript is being handled by an associate editor (AE) who likes to fire off a huge number of review invitations routinely, in which case I would suspect that this AE does not work hard to find good expertise matches.
2. It could be that the information from which the potential reviewer has to decided whether to accept the invitation (author list (unless double blind), title, abstract (usually)) is not enticing the reviewers to accept. If this is true, you could try to take this as constructive feedback that your title and abstract should make someone want to read your manuscript.
On the optimistic side, I do not think that having a large number of reviewers invited is particularly bad news for the ultimate acceptance of your manuscript. Best of luck.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Without knowing the specifics (which would force you to identify the journal, which you should not do) it is hard to tell. When I was AE in Computer Science, it was very hard to get good reviewers. It used to be that some senior people would farm out reviews to their students, and if they checked the work of their students, then this would be fine, but this practice is now frowned upon. Now, senior people at the peak of their career are too busy to accept review requests unless they are for very specific conferences or highly prestigious journals. Those beyond their peak are slowing down and doing less community work and are even less likely to accept review requests. This leaves junior people, often selected because of their related thesis work. If they published as students, they have moved on and their email is no longer valid. If they moved to industry, they often do not get any rewards for doing reviews, even though they might be actively publishing. If they moved to a university, they feel overwhelmed. The result is that review invitations are often unanswered. You might have noticed that there are now efforts to at least get credit for doing reviews.
So, most journals have a hard time finding reviewers, while pressuring AEs to find them fast and not re-use them. They also do not want any connections between the reviewer and the AE and the reviewer should not be an AE.
Trying to answer your question: 18 reviewers is a large number, but: an AE might be inviting batches of people at a time that the AE does not personally know and expecting that maybe 35% will actually receive the invitation and of these, the majority will not accept. I am assuming a competent AE that has matched your article with reviewers based on the prospective reviewer's previous publications, but otherwise unknown to the reviewer.
There is at least one editor that use a system where the editor or editorial assistant seems to just randomly ask people that have reviewed for the editor before. I get review invitation to review articles in fields that I only know from wikipedia. That would be another way to get very large number of reviewers invited.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: You will be lucky if you get 18 reviews! It can be good, especially if you have nefarious/incompetent reviewers in the mix. If your paper is good, most competent reviewers would acknowledge that in their review; this also helps the editor if many reviewers provide the same comments. In contrast, if you have two reviewers, with opposing views, it is harder for the editor to judge; is it a bad paper or just a bad reviewer?
Upvotes: 1
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2020/07/01
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<issue_start>username_0: Our lab performed 3D scans of materials (e.g. metals, rocks etc.) produced by other institutions and universities. But I am also interested in other analyses.
I was wondering who has the copyright on the data, the one who acquired the data (the person who performed the analyses, collecting the actual data and metadata, in this case, me), the person/institution who created the materials that were scanned, or the one who provided the materials?
I waited for more than one year, now I would like to make the data public, and I would like to understand if I own the copyright of the worked that I carried out.<issue_comment>username_1: Copyright almost certainly isn't the correct legal basis here (IANAL, so take that with a grain of salt, but as comments have pointed out, data is not subject to copyright in many jurisdictions), so I would suggest dropping that part of your thinking. The issue is not whether you have copyright of something produced, but whether you were allowed to use the materials you were provided to produce publicly available data.
Usually when materials pass between entities, including between universities or between a private company and a university, they are subject to a [Material Transfer Agreement (MTA)](https://www.rsp.wisc.edu/contracts/mta.cfm). This is a contract that specifies what can and can't be done with provided materials.
In the absence of such an agreement, there may be some implied rights but it might be best to go ahead and secure an MTA after the fact, or at a minimum get some informal agreement that you can use to protect yourself. Otherwise, you're in a situation where you are at the mercy of those who may be upset by your actions, which could start an academic or legal dispute that you don't want to be involved in.
(note: I'm assuming there is something somewhat special about these materials such that you could not have obtained them from other sources)
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: First, IANAL so keep that in mind.
Copyright only applies to artistic or creative work so it's going to depend on what you mean by data. The general rule is that "mere information" can't be copyrighted. The canonical example is the phone book. You can copyright the way the information in one is *expressed* or presented but you can't copyright the information itself. It sounds like you've got something similar in the measurements that you've taken from these samples.
With that said, copyright is a complex area of the law and situations that may seem simple to a non-lawyer may actually be quite complex. If you're at all unsure, your best bet is to contact a lawyer.
Upvotes: 0
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2020/07/01
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<issue_start>username_0: For example, what would this be for July 1st, 2020, in New York (Eastern Time)?
Is UTC-12 the same as AoE ("Anywhere on Earth")?<issue_comment>username_1: UTC-12 means that it's 12 hours behind UTC. That's the maximum distance in our 24 hour day clock. So UTC-12 is the timezone where calendars end.
That's probably the motivation behind using it as a deadline. For example, if the deadline is January 31st UTC-12, then as soon as it's not January anymore anywhere, the deadline has passed.
---
>
> Is UTC-12 the same as AoE ("Anywhere on Earth")?
>
>
>
AoE could be interpreted to apply daylight savings time. UTC *never* applies daylight savings time.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: "[UTC-12](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UTC%E2%88%9212:00)" is a timezone 12 hours behind [Coordinated Universal Time](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coordinated_Universal_Time), which is (more or less) the time in Greenwich, UK. Nobody actually lives there, though.
A day is 24 hours, and the Earth is divided into 27 major timezones from UTC-12 to UTC+141, with the UK in the middle(ish). Therefore, someone in UTC-12 is the very last person to reach a time. At the time it is 12:01 AM UTC-12, it's 12:01 PM UTC+0, and 11:01 PM UTC+11.
So by setting the submission deadline to 11:59 PM UTC-12 on a given day, it ensures that anyone anywhere in the world who submits on the appropriate **day** will be on time. Hence, "[anywhere on Earth](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anywhere_on_Earth)."
New York is UTC-4 during the summer, which means the deadline is 7:59 AM the following day.
---
1: It would seem like only 24 timezones would be necessary, but a few regions chose to move to UTC+13 and UTC+14 for their own reasons. Someone in UTC+13 is 25 hours ahead of UTC-12 (so 1:01 AM the next day). The details aren't important, but in case you'd like to do your own reading.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: Since UTC-12:00 is the [westernmost/'latest' timezone on Earth](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_zone#List_of_UTC_offsets), this is indeed another way to denote 'Anywhere on Earth'.
Eastern Standard Time (EST) is not used in New York on July 1st; instead, they use [Eastern Daylight Time](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Time_Zone) which is UTC-04:00, so July 1st 11:59PM UTC-12:00 is July 2nd 7:59AM EDT.
Upvotes: 4
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2020/07/02
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<issue_start>username_0: My PhD thesis consisted of two published papers and one submitted paper embedded in some additional framing. For completion of my PhD, I had to upload my thesis to the servers of our academic library, where it is now publicly available.
However, afterwards, the third paper from the thesis was rejected after peer review. I performed substantial changes and submitted the manuscript to another journal. They returned it back to me, stating that I exceeded by far the allowed index of similarity (40 % similarity with 35 % similarity of a single source). I spent $100 for a plagiarism check only to find out that the source from which I was accused to have copied a majority of my work, was my own publicly available thesis.
As my thesis contains my third (unpublished) manuscript, it naturally has a high similarity with the version I was about to submit.
How can I solve this?<issue_comment>username_1: Most publishers I know explicitly permit (pre)publication of papers as part of a thesis. For example the [copyright policy](https://www.elsevier.com/about/policies/copyright) of Elsevier (the publisher you used as a tag) states:
>
> Authors can use their articles, in full or in part, for […] [i]nclusion in a thesis or dissertation (provided that this is not to be published commercially)
>
>
>
Going by this, everything is fine with your submission.
More generally, you did not attempt to sell a work previously published in another journal (or parts thereof) as a new publication, which would be the typical case of self-plagiarism.
For all of this, it does not matter whether you modified the respective chapter or included parts of the frame, as long as you stayed away from the already published chapters.
However, the rejection of your paper may not have taken this into account, either because it was automatic or somebody did not connect the dots.
I thus advise to consider the rejection to be an unintentional error or their side.
I would therefore simply write to the journal explaining that you suspect that your paper was mistakenly identified as plagiarism due to similarity with your thesis, which is fine as per the above rules.
In general, it is a good idea to mention upon submission that parts of your paper have been previously published, be it as a preprint or thesis to avoid exactly this as well as potential clashes with journal policy.
Finally, to address some of your concerns:
>
> I feel like [writing to the editor] may be conceived as begging for permission to be allowed into a reviewing process
>
>
>
I would not worry about this.
First, what you are challenging is not a judgement call (e.g., a desk rejection due to lack of relevance).
The journal stated a very objective argument for rejection (plagiarism) and you have very objective arguments that this argument is erroneous.
It’s a simple mistake; it can happen; you are asking for it to be fixed.
Furthermore, even if this should be considered begging, you have little to lose: Right now the journal considers you a plagiarist (which you might want to set straight even if you decide to submit to another journal).
>
> The copyrights of Elsevier allow me to use articles published under their flag in my thesis. My case, however, is the other way round: I want to publish something that has been part of my thesis in very similar form. The thesis is published, but it contains a part that is not peer-reviewed and has not been published as an article.
>
>
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Copyright transfer to journal exists because the journal’s business model is selling your paper and they want to have some exclusivity on this.
For this, the order of events doesn’t matter.
My point with linking these policies is to demonstrate that Elsevier is generally fine with papers that are available as a thesis.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_2: *Find a better journal.* A large portion of papers published in journals were previously published in dissertations. A competent editor would have checked to see if the similar document was your dissertation. This is a mistake, but an unreasonable one.
I have never seen a decision letter that involved an automated check of similarity. In good journals, plagiarism is determined by humans, not computers, though computers do assist.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: I've never heard of this happening. Since it was possible to do so, I imagine everyone who now writes a thesis or dissertation is required to upload it to the library. I had to turn in two copies of each (before the internet). And many if not most of us go on to publish it or parts of it So I don't know if it's something unique to your field or the journals you are submitting to. Technically, copying your own work is still considered plagiarism, and I'm not sure how library copies are viewed - since people are able to presumably download them I don't know if this is considered being published. I guess for some journals perhaps it is. First, make sure to look very carefully at all the submission information for the journal. It that's a policy it would be mentioned. If you don't find anything there, I would politely write to the editor explaining the situation and see what they say. Truthfully, I'd be surprised if they didn't the exact same thing with their own thesis or dissertation, though perhaps before the internet.
Upvotes: 2
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2020/07/02
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<issue_start>username_0: Many apologies if this is not in line with the questions for this site, but I am seeking some advice for the following problem.
I have finished an integrated masters degree and applied to PhD positions this year. There was one I wasn't entirely convinced by when applying, but the prospective supervisors seemed very supportive and 'human' when I was interacting with them, and I kept thinking at every stage as things progressed 'well, I guess I can just go ahead and see what happens. No harm there'. Unfortunately, I followed this trail a bit too long. This was the only PhD off I was given, and was funded. I initially declined the offer. It felt 'right' to do so, even though it probably wasn't very rational given the present uncertainty over PhD funding for future years in light of coronavirus.
But anxiety was eating away at me. I started having pain attacks, and ws getting very little sleep. In a moment of panic, when waking up very early in the morning screaming for fear of not having anything to do in the following year and the uncertainty of reapplying for PhD, I wrote an email asking for the PhD offer back. After calming down somewhat, I thought it was a really stupid thing to have done. But alas, the offer was given, and even though I told myself I wouldn't;t accept because I didn't;t think it was the right thing, I didn't feel there was anything to do but accept.
Now I am miserable, because I am not happy with the PhD situation, and because another opportunity has come up for this coming year which I would be really happy doing and I think it would open doors. But to decline the PhD offer now would be such a big blow I know. But please note before berating me, that much of the 'decisions' I made were done out of anxiety, clouded mind (partly due to coronavirus related issues) and just feeling there was no way out. I didn't feel I had anywhere to turn to for advice because people would just tell me 'you've accepted, so get on with it'.
But concisely, here are the problems:
1. I have accepted a position with funding. I appreciate I may have deprived someone else of it.
2. I can't imagine myself being happy in the location where the PhD is.
3. The department doesn't do research precisely in my area of interest. It has a truly excellent department in an area which crosses heavily with my interest, and that is why I applied. At the time I wasn't sure to what extent I would like to dapple in this area.
4. My prospective supervisor is nice, but also very young and doesn't have many past students. I feel like it would be so rude to deprive him of a student he is interested in having.
5. But I genuinely fear going, not being happy, not doing good work and/or wanting to transfer. I should add that the prestige of this institution is far lower than that of my previous place of study, and I sometimes feel like they wanted me for that reason. It sometimes eels like martyrdom.
6. Maybe I would come to love working in this area alone after all.
7. **Burning bridges and tarnishing my name in academia**. This is the thing I am terrified of right now. As I mentioned in 3, the present university is a hub for the research which crosses Healy with mine. So this could be a huge, mega blow to my future academic career. Also, I think I will inevitably end up interacting with the people in this department at conferences etc, which would be really horrible.
8. I mentioned I have something lined up for the coming year which I would be happy doing. It may not help with getting a PhD though.
9. Another point is that because of the overlap of fields of interest, I would have a difficult time saying that 'I realised I wanted to work on something else' if I tried to transfer schools.
I'm starting to get quite exasperated. And not just with this but life in general (please don't take this out of context and say 'I need professional help'). I have spent the last few years working really hard to overcome very difficult personal obstacles and challenges, and try to shape myself and my life into what I want it to be. It feels like I'm almost going backwards, ending up in a location which feels mildly oppressive to me, for the sake of research in a good group.
My questions are these:
* **How detrimental might it be to my future academic career to reject the PhD offer at the present moment?** I hear of scare stories that bad relationships with supervisors have come back around to bite.
* **What are some ways to balance this prospect with doing what I think will make me happier?**
* **Is PhD funding likely going to be more scarce in coming years**?<issue_comment>username_1: Applying, getting accepted, backing out, asking for an exception to get back in, getting that exception, then backing out again, will unquestionably burn bridges. It seems highly unlikely you're going to hurt anyone's feelings, because this sort of thing happens. I don't think you'll "tarnish your name", but I don't think you could rely on them giving you another chance at admittance. Within a another application cycle or two it's unlikely anyone at the department even remembers the name of one applicant who didn't start the program.
But now that that's out of the way, the rest comes down to your own feelings and priorities. What made you want to do a PhD in the first place? You mention the lower prestige of the program, but also mention that this is the only place that accepted you. Is doing a PhD still a goal of yours? If so, where would you apply if this place is no longer an option? They may not recall your name off hand, but I'm sure admissions would have records. It's also true that doing a PhD is often an arduous task. Is this something you could just work through for the long-term benefit, even if you don't like the location? You may have all kinds of good options available once you complete the program, but the anxiety and panic attacks you describe may suggest problems with getting through a whole PhD.
But these are things only you, and any professionals you choose to consult, can really analyze.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: I agree completely with username_1's answer. Just a few additional notes:
* While pulling out now wouldn't look great, it would be far worse to accept the offer and then do poor work and/or leave on bad terms. So, if you already know you will be unsuccessful, you should not attend. That said, it can be difficult to tell whether you would actually be unsuccessful, or if you are just nervous. You shouldn't make this decision alone -- ideally, both an academic who knows you well and a mental health expert should advise you.
* Your comment about the institution's prestige is a little strange. For undergraduate, the most prestigious schools are usually the famous ones (Harvard, etc.). But now that you are a grad student, it is your department's or even group's reputation that determines prestige. So, it this place is a "truly excellent...hub" in your area, it's a little contradictory to say that it's not prestigious.
* Regarding your other opportunity, I would just comment that many people plan to start a career (and/or family) and then pursue their PhD "in a few years," but in my experience, few actually follow through with the PhD. And this is not a bad thing; many people correctly realize that they can have a rewarding career without a PhD. But, you should be aware that there is some chance that doing a PhD is "now or never."
Upvotes: 3
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