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2020/09/01
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<issue_start>username_0: I have two questions about grants:
1. If someone wins a grant, do they have to perform research exactly
about the questions they proposed in the grant? Or, is there room to
change the research question later?
2. What to do if there is uncertainty when I do not know which lab
or even country I will be in the coming year. As I understand, the
grant is written with the help of a PI and ideally the research is
done in their lab. Do people set in the stone where they want to do
the research before writing the grant? If the postdoc has to move to
another country, what happens to the grant? Is it divided between
the postdoc and the PI?<issue_comment>username_1: This will differ by granting institution, but nobody expects research to go off without a hitch.
In general, though, research grants are contracts between the granting institution and the research institution -- *not* the investigator. Changes of location can be done, but it's not a light matter.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: You have two sets of rules to follow (really more):
* your institution. If you are part of an institution (university) or company they will have set guidelines about leeway they will have with certain grants. In fact (very major medical university example) the guidelines will vary by department and could vary more by staff member. This is in your institutions best interests to keep each person in line so that they have more of a favorable status. For instance if you "broke rules" and went off and did your own thing... Sure you may not get sued and possibly the money is never recouped but others that your work with may not get funding anymore or at the very least be under more review. And more review usually means less miscellaneous money allocated. I have witnessed misallocations being deducted from larger university pool or general stipend numerous times.
* who gave the grant. If it was government there probably is close to zero chance you are moving countries - speaking in general here. If private then you would have to work with that company. Depending on how you wrote your funding work it could be implied that you will do research at the addresses that you gave. Moving without an OK could be a hard stop to funding and you would be in possible default.
* governing agencies. Some grant "markets" are so pervasive that the grantors are not able to monitor EVERYTHING. That is where government agencies get involved. They can make the call if a doctor can order 20 new laptop for their staff based on a general grant and things like that. Most universities have large staff that work with these agencies and keep their doctors in line with the rules that change quite frequently.
As far as specific on what you research there are usually review periods built in where you need to submit your status and findings and future intent. Depending on what type of grant it is - as stated above - it could be your university requiring these, an agency or the grantor/company. So you would need to ask this question to your department grant team (PI) or to the grantor. If the grant "contract" is vague obviously it allows you more flexibility.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: I'm going to assume the US and the National Science Foundation for the purposes of this answer because it's the main thing I have experience with. Also, "IT DEPENDS":
1. If the research question needs to change a bit because the research isn't going exactly where you thought it would, the Principal Investigator should have a discussion with the Program Officer/Manager assigned to them by NSF. There's some slop in the system. They'll probably want you to follow the science. Biology awards probably can't be turned into pure theoretical Mathematics ones, but the PO will be able to guide the PI.
2. NSF money can't be used to pay a foreign national to work in their home country (nor an American in a foreign one) except under extreme circumstances or ones required by the science (think Large Hadron Collider or the Antarctic Program). The grant is to the institution under the direction of the PI, not directly to the PI and other named people. And, if the postdoc decides to go back to their home country, they just go home and don't get to work on the project anymore unless another source of funding with different rules comes along. If the PI decides to move from Harvard to Yale and wants to take the grant with them, then they can ask Harvard to release it to Yale and NSF for their permission, and maybe it'll all work out. Happens all the time. There were certain advantages at review-time for awarding the grant to the PI when they were at Harvard (Facilities document), now NSF has to decide if Yale is a good enough substitute. I've never heard of it not working out, but it might if the PI was taking a big step down (Harvard to a community college, maybe?). If the PI were trying to take an Engineering Research Center (ERC) or telescope or supercomputer with them, then everyone would probably say "no."
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: Moving to another country
-------------------------
I'll try to answer one of your many questions, namely "If the postdoc has to move to another country, what happens to the grant?".
Most grants are awarded by national institutions who would contract the performance of the research either only in their country or in a particular institution in their country. (EU grants may allow or even expect intra-EU mobility)
If after awarding the grant but before starting it the postdoc has moved to another country, then that would generally simply disqualify them from that grant, and it would be canceled. Perhaps the institution can allocate some different postdoc for the approved research from the same grant; perhaps that money goes to the grant proposal who was "next in line" in the grant competition.
If the postdoc "has to" (it's usually a choice) move to a different country or institution during the grant execution, then that would most likely break the conditions of the grant contract, and would stop the grant. It's possible that in this case part of the already received funding would have to be repaid, depending on the contract conditions.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: While there are different questions here, I'll answer from the point of view of Computer Science in the United Kingdom.
Different funding bodies vary hugely on how much you need to "follow" your original plan. The EU expects regular submissions, which show your progress towards your original goal, and an explanation of any deviations. On the other hand, the EPSRC funding council provide great freedom, basically trusting you once you start. They are also happy if you do very different research to your original target, assuming you have a good reason.
In the UK, research money generally "follows the PI", so if they move University the money goes with them. Postdocs do not have any right to take money to another University. It is possible to transfer a grant to another PI in exceptional circumstances (for example, the old PI leaves the country, or academia) -- such requests are considered, it helps if there was another person already working on the project who is an obvious new PI.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_6: The degree of flexibility is determined precisely and only by the particular grant, contract, or fellowship program that you are dealing with. Some give a great degree of flexibility (e.g., US NSF grants) while others have an extremely rigid set of deliverables and timelines (e.g., DARPA projects).
In general, however:
* Grants and contracts are with an institution, not a person. Grants tend to be more flexible than contracts, with more ability to change the research as you go. In either case, the money will move only if the PI moves and the funder and institutions want to cooperate. You *might* be able to arrange a way to be paid at another institution (e.g., via a subcontract or a remote position), but that would be quite unusual at the postdoc level.
* Fellowships tend to be the most flexible. They are typically given to people rather than institutions, and tend to essentially follow them wherever they go within certain boundaries. Many are restricted by nation, but some are not. Likewise, they often have the least constraint on the specific research to be carried out.
Upvotes: 2
|
2020/09/01
| 611
| 2,595
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<issue_start>username_0: I am applying to a grad school in the US and I am asking application questions through emails. In one of the emails, I accidentally addressed the admissions director as *Miss*, even though the title of her choice is *Ms.*, as shown in her signature. We've had a few email exchanges before where I had addressed her correctly as *Ms.*, but I wrote this email under stress and in a hurry (it was a difficult subject and time sensitive) and made this title mistake.
Also English is not my first language. She looks young and I am not that familiar with US titles. I had a vague impression *Miss* is associated with relatively young people and only upon further checking did I realize *Miss* is used to address unmarried women.
How serious this mistake is? Is it sexist or rude?
I will pay attention and address her correctly in the future. Any other suggestions?<issue_comment>username_1: Assuming her title was not "Dr." (you said you checked, but just for future readers), *Ms.* vs *Miss* is not really offensive. I don't think anyone really knows what the difference is anymore. I bet you most Americans would say *Ms.* is short for *Miss.*
*Mrs.* technically means married but is also therefore associated with being old. So a young woman might be slightly peeved at being addressed as *Mrs.*
There is no difference here between academia and the rest of American culture.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: I doubt it makes a big difference.
In general, the honorifics "Miss" and "Mrs." are considered obsolete in professional and academic settings, as marital status is not considered relevant (besides the sexist aspect that there has never been such a distinction in honorifics for men). They should not be used unless someone specifically requests them. "Mr." and "Ms." have been the standard gendered honorifics for some time, and "Mx." is coming into wider use as a gender-neutral alternative.
However, I think people realize that these distinctions may be missed by speakers unfamiliar with the language and culture, so I don't think serious offense is likely to be taken. If you like, you could write a very brief followup email saying something like "I'm sorry, in my previous email I meant to write 'Ms. X'".
(In general, also note that people who hold a faculty position or a doctoral degree are likely to prefer to be addressed as "Prof." or "Dr." respectively. When someone has both, there may be local customs preferring one or the other, but either should be acceptable. English does not use both titles together.)
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]
|
2020/09/02
| 2,500
| 10,769
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<issue_start>username_0: Watching various COVID-related briefings, I notice there is always a sign language interpreter. This is clearly necessary, yet thinking about all the conferences I've attended in the past, literally none of them have had a sign language interpreter.
How do conferences work for deaf scientists? Do deaf scientists simply not attend conferences? If so, how does one even work in fields such as computer science where conferences are an integral part of the academic experience?<issue_comment>username_1: They do not work. Most conferences in most fields of science do not work well for people with any sensory/communication disabilities.
A few online conferences offer automatically generated captions. These help some but they are not very accurate.
Edit: The fact that conferences are ableist is not because they are intentionally ableist, but rather because of ignorance. Many conference organizers would be willing to adjust their conferences if they knew how to do so and had the funds.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: In what was a very large astronomy conference I have seen a sign language interpreter (actually they had two, who round swap every few minutes during the talk) in certain sessions (presumably going to the sessions which the deaf scientist(s) was attending). I haven't seen this at other conferences, but whether that is because of their smaller sizes or because deaf scientists didn't attend I don't know.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: In most disciplines and in the larger more developed countries it's perfectly straightforward to provide real-time transcription where the speech is transcribed into text on a big screen (or streamed to a delegate's laptop or tablet).
>
> Many deaf and hearing-impaired people do not have sign language, or
> fluent sign language, and as with translation between any two
> languages, nuance can be lost and ambiguities can be introduced in the
> translation from English to Sign. Sign interpretation also requires
> that a student maintain continuous eye contact, usually necessitating
> additional notetakers. Students using real-time transcription can take
> their own notes; the last dozen or so lines of the lecture are
> displayed on the transcription screen for easy reference.
>
>
>
(adapted from [Mirabai Knight Stenography](http://stenoknight.com/FAQ.html#cartname))
Using computer-assisted realtime transcription (CART) is useful not just for people with hearing impairment; people whose first language is not the same as the speaker's, or people with some specific learning difficulties, may find it useful to have a real-time transcript.
>
> **In the USA, one in seven people have hearing loss. For people over 65,
> that rate goes up to one in three.** Events at most conferences seat
> hundreds of people, so statistically it’s a sure bet that at least
> some of those people would benefit from captioning. Even people with
> mild hearing loss, who do quite well in one-on-one social situations
> by using a combination of residual hearing, lip reading, and context
> clues, often have trouble with conference audio, which can be
> distorted in the amplification process, and which puts the speaker so
> far away from the audience that lipreading becomes impossible. There’s
> also the benefits that captioning can offer people without hearing
> loss, who may be more comfortable reading written English than
> understanding spoken English (very common when English isn’t a
> person’s first language), or who may have central audio processing
> issues (very common in Aspergers and autism) or attention deficit
> issues such as ADHD.
>
>
>
<https://ccacblog.wordpress.com/2013/02/11/conference-captioning-ask-for-it/>
And the transcript forms a useful record of the conference, and can be used by people who couldn't attend the conference because of cost or distance, or who have disabilities making travel impossible or difficult, or who are unable to obtain visas. The transcript can also be translated (or machine-translated, which may be good enough for getting the gist or deciding whether ot order a paid-for translation).
All this widens access to and participation in the conference, and means that the cost of providing the transcript can be covered by the general budget rather than being a specific cost for one or two delegates.
An example of a conference video being transcribed
<https://livestream.com/accounts/686369/events/4375102/videos/100329035>
And a picture of a conference with, it appears, both transcription and sign.
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/t5mYg.jpg)
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: I am neither a deaf scientist nor an organizer for conferences. However, I was a student and staff member at a university with a significant deaf population so I'll speak from that perspective.
The prevalence of interpreters and other accommodations for those with disabilities varied significantly. It was a given that American Sign Language (ASL) interpreters would be present at large scale events and presentations aimed at the community as a whole. Additionally, interpreters would be provided for deaf students taking classes taught in spoken English.
Beyond that, it was usually the responsibility of the deaf person to arrange for an interpreter; though many interpreters were employed by the university, there was no guarantee one would be available on short notice. This may explain why I seldom saw interpreters at club meetings and other smaller events, especially those that emphasized spontaneous direct communication. For example, interpreters were present at the anime club where much of the activities involved watching Japanese animation with subtitles, but I did not see any at the club for tabletop role playing games where interpersonal interaction was constant.
In short, students and staff had the accommodations necessary to fulfill their primary goal(s) but often not enough for secondary ones, such as socialization. I suspect a similar dynamic applies to scientific conferences.
Conferences that regularly have deaf people attending likely organize interpreters themselves but the rest will only provide accommodations when requested. (In other words, at a typical conference, you're not going to see an ASL interpreter unless there's at least one deaf person present!) The effectiveness of such accommodations are apt to suffer if the organizers lack experience and/or resources. This would discourage deaf people from attending unless the conference was essential - for example, a topic of particular interest is being discussed or a colleague is in need of material or moral support - or had a positive reputation of proper accommodations.
In summary, the attendance of deaf scientists at conferences is presumably dictated by the following:
* The importance of the conference to the individual deaf scientist
* The presence and quality of accommodations that enable deaf scientists to be productive
* The number of people with whom the deaf persons can readily communicate with
* Each deaf scientist's personal comfort level with attending conferences designed primarily for hearing people
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_5: COVID briefings are aimed at the general public (and many Deaf people have poor English skills due to a history of bad Deaf education) and are low on jargon (hence fairly straightforward to interpret). Interpreting into the local sign language is the right choice for maximum accessibility.
For a high-jargon scientific speech to an audience of scientists, transcription may be the better option. You would need a specialist interpreter to manage such a speech; and it would be tricky for the Deaf audience member to view both the interpreter and the slides at the same time.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_6: In spite of what username_1 says, conference can work for deaf scientists. This is the case in my own area of work, digital accessibility.
There are two main methods to make conferences accessible for deaf attendants:
1. **Sign language interpretation**: this means that a sign language interpreter translates the spoken words into sign language. If the conference is a local or national event, the sign language interpreter will translate into the national sign language, e.g. American Sign Language (ASL), British Sign Language (unrelated to ASL), German Sign Language, etc. However, if the conference is an international event, there won't be sign language interpreters for each of the nationalities represented in the audience. In that case, sign language interpreters will translate into [International Sign](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Sign). Sing language interpreters take turns every 20-30 minutes. It is also helpful if they know in advance what the talk will be about, so they can prepare for it.
2. **Live transcription into text**: the talk is transcribed live and the transcription is displayed on a large screen at the front of the conference room. The transcriber can be physically at the conference or connected remotely. The transcription is in the same language as the talk.
For congenitally deaf persons, sign language translation is preferable, since that represents translation into their native language (except if the translation is into International Sign), whereas written language is essentially a foreign language.
Research into sign language avatars has been ongoing for quite some time, but I have never seen them in action at conferences.
The above is about deaf scientists in the audience. What about deaf scientists giving a talk?
In 19 years of research in accessibility, I have seen this only once. It was a congenitally deaf researcher from Finland who gave a talk in English. His pronunciation was only marginally harder to understand than that of many other non-native speakers of English, i.e. something one could get used to within minutes. The only issue was that he did not know how loud he was talking, so he asked he wasn't talking to loud. After feedback from the audience, he started talking less loudly.
(The conferences I am referring to include [ICCHP / International Conference on Computers Helping People with Special Needs](https://www.icchp.org/), where translation was into International Sign, the e-Accessibility Forums in Paris (transcription), events organised by the Swedish organisation Funka/FunkaNu (transcription) and conferences organised by EU-funded projects in the domain of digital accessibility.)
Upvotes: 4
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2020/09/02
| 287
| 1,289
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<issue_start>username_0: A while back, I remember seeing a service, and I believe more than one, that claimed that they would store letters of recommendation for you and send them on your behalf or the person writing the letter. That is, the letter writer would submit the letter to them, and then you could submit that same letter to different places requiring a similar letter through them, all without you ever seeing the letter. The idea is to avoid repeating work for the writer and avoiding constant asking for letters for the applicant.
The thing is, my Google-fu has completely failed me and I cannot find them again. Does anyone know what I'm talking about?<issue_comment>username_1: [academicjobsonline.org](https://academicjobsonline.org/) does that, for instance: Letter writers can upload "generic letters" which serve for all applications of an applicant. Of course, this requires that the corresponding application process is done through this platform by whoever advertises the job.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: In mathematics, mathjobs.org fills this role.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: Interfolio. In general you have to pay for it, though a few departments will pay them instead. They will try to upload or mail to whatever system you want.
Upvotes: 1
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2020/09/02
| 1,544
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<issue_start>username_0: Problem
=======
I have to familiarize myself with a new sub-field fast, to the point where I can recommend an agenda/recommendation for further research. I thought about doing a systematic literature review to achieve this, but have to work somewhat cost-efficient due to external deadlines that I have no influence on.
Background
==========
Systematic Literature Review
----------------------------
When I say "systematic literature review" (SLR) I'm referring to a speficic [concept](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34619/what-is-systematic-literature-review?rq=1) which originated in medical science and was introduced to computer science by [Kitchenham (2004)](https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Procedures-for-Performing-Systematic-Reviews-Kitchenham/29890a936639862f45cb9a987dd599dce9759bf5), for a hands-on guide see [Kuhrmann et al. (2017)](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/311582945_On_the_Pragmatic_Design_of_Literature_Studies_in_Software_Engineering_An_Experience-based_Guideline).
Purpose
-------
The purpose of conducting a systematic review would be to acquire the necessary knowledge to be able to argument for new research endeavors (i.e. defend their relevance). Additionally, it would be nice to get a publication out of this, which is part of the reason why I think about doing a systematic review instead of just writing up a state-of-the-art document for myself.
Narrowness
----------
The topic I want to research is part of Software Engineering, and deals with the application of a specific concept in a more-or-less specific environment. I could not find any systematic reviews (or indeed, any reviews) covering this.
What I found
============
Ressources
----------
### Time
The approximate time to become familiar with the state-of-the-art in a field that one is already familiar with, according to [this](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/7303) answer, is one year. Even though the question was about a PhD, and not just a work project, this strikes me as a little high. An [answer](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/1167) to a question about the usefulness of SLRs warns that spending 6 months on a SLR for just a paper is excessive.
### Human effort
Even though the literature on SLR recommends multiple researchers, [this](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/99164) answer says that it is quite possible to conduct and report a SLR on your own. I might get a senior colleague to look over my draft and maybe recommend specific papers, but I should expect to do almost all of the work on my own.
### Paywalls
I don't have institutional access to a lot of journals and such, which means that I will mostly be able to read exactly those papers that are either published in Open Access journals or are otherwise available through researchgate and similar platforms. [This](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/16593) answer predicts that a restriction like that will render the SLR of little interest to publishers. Since I not only support Open Access publications for various reasons, but also really don't have a lot of choice in the matter (I can't convince my institution to pay for the access I want, nor do I have the money to pay for all those subscriptions), I do hope that this is not true.
Usefulness
----------
Even though it is considered [useful](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/1167) to write a SLR in order to get a good foundation in a field, it might be more [efficient](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/3423) to just read some papers (specifically reviews, if they exist) and follow the references. However, this efficiency calculation does not factor in the expected utility of publishing a SLR as paper.
Questions
=========
Main question
-------------
Is it really useful to write SLRs in order to familiarize yourself with a topic in a short time, while a publication is nice-to-have but not mandatory?
Sub-questions
-------------
1. Is it possible to do a SLR on your own, in a matter of weeks?
2. Do paywalls effectively keep me from writing and/or publishing SLRs?<issue_comment>username_1: Systematic literature reviews should surely be written by domain experts, since they have a better understanding of the broader literature. Attempting to write a review to *familiarize [one]self with a topic* seems rash, studying existing reviews would surely be a better approach. Alternatively, studying key journal articles and textbooks is an option. The former should include *related work* sections which are essentially mini literature reviews.
---
>
> The topic I want to research is part of Software Engineering...I could not find any systematic reviews (or indeed, any reviews) covering this.
>
>
>
Software Engineering is an established research field.
Numerous systematic reviews have been conducted. Books have even been written. I'm struggling to believe nothing exists, especially as *related work* sections can be a substitute for *systematic literature reviews*.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: Performing a systematic review is very time consuming. Also, it may result in a "high dispersive work", if a very specific research question is not set "a priori".
Also, SR is not only "indexing" evidence, but also effectively aggregating them in a readable and useful summary. If you are not an expert in that field, you may not be able to do that, and the quality of the overall work may be low.
If your goal is to improve your knowledge in a specific field, performing a systematic review may not be the most suitable option in the first place. You'd rather read existing reviews and summary (if any) - this would be extremely more time-effective.
To answer to the other two questions:
1. Yes, it is possible to do in a matter of weeks, but not entirely on your own (the process of screening requires at least two independent reviewers, according to the PRISMA guidelines).
2. Yes, if you are not able to reach those literature that meets the inclusion criteria of your SR (and this is quite probable).
Upvotes: 1
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2020/09/02
| 1,745
| 7,105
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<issue_start>username_0: Context - need to understand the 1-year taught MSc programmes offered by universities in the UK, in order to make a choice regarding higher studies (masters level) in Computer Science.
Specific confusion - Generally, an MS degree elsewhere will be of 2-years duration with enough time for lectures, electives and projects/thesis, thus equipping students for both jobs and research in the future.
How does a 1-year taught MSc programme in the UK differ? Are they only for students who have no interest in research? Do they not cover the subjects in depth? (I am aware of the MRes programmes but they seemed apt for students who're 100% sure of pursuing a PhD.)
Basically, I am confused if pursuing a 1-year taught MSc programme in the UK will add no value at all. I mainly want to learn specific subjects in much more depth and want to keep open options for research roles / PhD in the future.
Any guidance will be much appreciated. Thanks in advance.<issue_comment>username_1: Regardless of length, MSc programmes vary by institute and country. An MSc isn't necessary (nor sufficient) for entry onto a PhD programme, requirements vary between instituties and countries. Nonetheless, PhD students commonly hold an MSc (or equivalent).
Generally, the difference between a one- and two-year MSc is that the latter is twice as long. That doesn't imply you'll be taught twice as much, because institutes vary. Nor does it imply they'll be any emphasis on research, again institutes vary.
To determine whether an MSc (of any length) is useful for industrial- or academic-research positions, look at requirements for positions you are interested in.
---
It's worth noting that UK MSc and PhD programmes are shorter than those offered in many countries.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: You will need to enquire specifically about the particular MSc. Because MScs are short, they tend to serve very particular purposes.
They might provide the opportunity for someone who did one subject, to gain enough knowledge in another subject to work or do research in that subject (e.g. someone with a Mathematics undergrad to do a computer science job).
They might provide specialist training in a very narrow part of a subject. E.g. we do a degree called Human Molecular Genetics, which is basically training to work in an NHS genetic diagnostic lab, or my friend runs an MSc in Mammalian Zooarchology, which will train people who did a general archology degree, and now want to either get a job as a animal bone specialist on a commercial archology unit, or do a PhD in Mammalian Zooarch.
Or they might be for people who's undergrad degree wasn't good enough. Say you only got a 2:2, or you went to a university that isn't very well regarded, but want to do a PhD... they give you a second chance. We offer one of these. The students combine taking a selection of our final year undergrad courses with special lab skills course, an extended literature review and a lab research project.
I should add that all our MScs provide an extended research project (3 months, full time in the lab), but I don't think that's the case for all MScs.
I always advise student thinking of doing an MSc in the UK to know exactly what it is they want out of it, and to know that the particular MSc they are thinking about will provide that.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: As other answers indicate, taught MSc courses seem highly variable. I did such a degree in Mathematics/Computer Science, a subsequent PhD, and am currently a research postdoc. So in the strictest sense, I can report that not all taught MSc courses are insufficient in this regard.
The course featured an approximately 3 month research thesis after a first 9 of intensive coursework. This supplied the most important element for academic preparation.
One other comment on "value" you might consider: I had few marks and no new recommenders from the MSc by the time applications for PhD programs the subsequent year were due. The MSc proved valuable in subsequent years after having sufficient time to get those in hand. At the time, I think it had little impact on which PhD programs accepted me.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_4: **Suitability/format:** At my UK institution, and I do believe this to be a country-wide standard, the taught MSc (just like the MSc by research) lasts for **1 full year** - *September to September*, or *3 semesters*. This is indeed 1 semester shorter than a typical MSc elsewhere in Europe, but not half as short. This is 2 semesters of courses + 1 semester for the thesis (at my institution, the "lit review" part of the thesis is done as part of a course in the 2nd semester, and 3rd semester is fully practical). The quality of the programme can have large variations depending on the University.
**Value compared to other EU MSc programmes:** On average, I would say the "depth" of the material is the same, or maybe just a tad lower, as the depth on an average EU University. But, this is just a hunch (based on a sample size in single digits). In the context of ambitions for an EU research career, my next and very strong hunch is that finishing a 1-year taught MSc in the UK *would not put you in any disadvantage compared to finishing a MSc programme anywhere else*.
**Value on it's own/as regarded in the UK:** The picture slightly changes when viewed in the context of UK Higher Education or if you, for any reason, target a career in the UK specifically. Some tidbits to consider:
* When talking about Higher Education, most Brits will inquire *"Do you have a degree?"* referring to a BSc.
A MSc here is not only quite expensive, but also considered to be for students who are passionate about subjects: often a personal development choice rather than a career move.
* An increasing number of funded PhD positions *in the UK* are now part of large university-wide or cross-university doctoral programmes, which *are integrated: (taught) MSc (1 year) + PhD (3 year) programme*.
In other words, if you are interested in pursuing a PhD programme in the UK, but first finish a MSc degree on your own expense/with funding for MSc only, there is a good chance you will be required to do a second MSc degree as part of your PhD. It will still, of course, help your application. The trend I have seen here is that most Brits will apply with a BSc (only requirement), while quite a number of overseas students will apply after their MSc (as is typical elsewhere).
* For completeness: if you are interested in a (non-research) career in the UK, I have anecdotally observed a number of situations where an overseas degree is not very highly valued (especially outside of STEM) in industry. Finishing a (MSc, but really, any) programme at a British University could be a way to get an industry position in the UK.
* Similarly to above, even before Brexit, finishing a degree in the UK (any, I think!) would substantially ease the immigration situation for international (non EU) applicants.
(I know nothing about the US to compare with value of programmes there.)
Upvotes: 1
|
2020/09/02
| 1,097
| 4,460
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am an undergrad who worked at a computer vision related lab. The lab I used to work at raised some red flags by saying that even if I contributed, my name could not be on the paper. I also transferred schools, so I left. The problem is, I have this potentially great research idea that I'd like to test. I still have the data (a one hour video) and was either a. going to ask if I could use it for solo research, of course crediting them b. try to find a new professor at my school to supervise me.
I decided I want to find another professor to supervise me, cause I have never written a paper before and this is kind of a big project. I have been reading papers and research this for 5 months now, and I have never seen my idea done before. It basically takes something from a different area of the field and applies it to the research area I am interested in. I have seen it tried before, but not in the exact way I plan on doing it.
My concern is, what if I email professors about this and they steal me idea? Sure, if your ethical you won't, but could that happen? I want to email this professor with my idea, and ask if has any data / ways I can explore this at their lab. What if he says no and runs with my idea? either way, I am hoping he can offer me some perspective, but even if he says no he can be wrong - and isn't that the point of research to explore things that may not work?
Another reason I want to work with him is because all though there is another professor who would be able to help, he publishes a lot in IEEE and Civil engineering journals. I am trying to get noticed by the AI/ML and deep learning community, and that is where this other professor mostly publishes in. Would it be bad to ask him if he knows of any professors I can work with, if my idea doesn't suit his lab?<issue_comment>username_1: Let me start this by saying that the scenario you describe is not very likely. If you have an idea, done the research, and have some preliminary models, then any semi-reputable professor (at the very least, in the United States) will not steal your idea. This is due to several reasons:
1. There are real repercussions to their reputation if you complain (say, by reaching out to student representatives or your institute's ombudsperson).
2. You are willing to do all the work and have made a lot of headway, all they need to do is simply supervise you and they get a free publication. Why would they steal it and then struggle to go at it alone/wait til their own students figure it out? ML, and vision in particular, is an *extremely* fast-moving field; for all they know, if they reject you, you'll find someone else who'd be willing to work with you and they'd be wasting their efforts.
That said, if you are genuinely concerned, the best way to avoid having someone steal your idea is to write it down yourself and publish a short summary. Now, I do not mean that you must go through peer review; rather, write down your general idea into a human readable format, and then post the draft to ArXiv, where it'd be timestamped and immediately recognized as yours.
Good luck!
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: Unless by mischance you are contacting people who are not actually respectable (on the world stage), the sorts of issues that worry you are non-issues.
The more genuine issue, assuming the above, is that more-expert people will not immediately have the same enthusiasm for your ideas as you do. For many possible reasons, including that they and their group have already thought about that, maybe many times, and/or they are aware of other peoples' thinking in such terms decades earlier, etc.
So don't be offended, and don't be suspicious, if/when people do not hail your ideas as revolutionary, etc.
In real life (in academe, in my 40+ year experience), although, yes, sometimes unscrupulous advisors and others do indeed steal their advisees' ideas/work, ... this is (mercifully) quite rare. In particular, again, unless you are unwittingly involved with nasty losers, this worry should by far not be your first consideration. Indeed, thinking in such terms would corrupt your thinking in many ways.
And, in any case, as <NAME> recently said, "when they go low, you go high".
Obviously morally ideal, ... and, yes, not always easily feasible in reality... but thinking in those terms is a much better base point than thinking in terms of endless dishonesty.
Upvotes: 2
|
2020/09/02
| 793
| 3,403
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am currently self-studying The Art of Computer Programming as an undergrad in my free time. To do all of the exercises (or even a portion of them) would be incredibly difficult and time-consuming; however, there are solutions at the back of the text. I am wondering if I would miss out on something from a pedagogical perspective if I simply look at the problem, understand what it's asking, and then read the solution and understand it?
I would hope that mastery of the content is gained through experience in the field and further study in mathematics. How strongly recommended is giving “the old college try”?<issue_comment>username_1: Some of the exercises are very hard. That is expected. But it depends on how deep you want your learning to be. If you are happy enough with a superficial understanding, then just read the solutions.
But if you want "operational" knowledge. The knowledge of how to put all of that to use and to extend it in your work, then you need to do a lot of the exercises. Mark them off when you succeed and come back to the ones you can't do later on. Or, find someone more knowledgeable than yourself, who also understands learning, who can give you *minimal* hints when you get stuck.
The issue is in the way the brain works. Long term memory works not by seeing something once and having it immediately imprinted *somehow*, but through rewiring of the neurons through repetition, reinforcement, and feedback. If you don't do that, you won't develop a deep understanding - or even memory of what you've seen.
But, since many of them are hard, and there may still be a few research problems hidden in there, don't work until you get frustrated. But instead of giving up and reading the solution, put it aside and go on to another. Come back to the hard ones occasionally and see if you can do better.
The more you do, the more it will enable you to do others, even if it doesn't make them easy.
In some books the exercises are what give it value. If you can do them, you have some deep knowledge TAOCP is like that.
But the same is true of the books you have for your coursework in CS and in Math.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Reading the problem and then reading the solution to understand it would be like going to the gym and then understanding how to lift weights by watching other people. Unless you do it yourself, you won't build any actual muscle.
Any amount of studying is better than never having picked up the book, but programming is very much a skill you have to practice. There are so many things you have to experience and fail at first hand to develop this skill.
For example, people often joke about forgetting something as simple as a semicolon at the end of their statements. The only way to ingrain that into your brain is to get that error a few hundred times in real life practice.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: You probably have no chance to finish all the exercises in the TAOCP in your lifetime.
Some of them appear to be open problems, i.e., the solutions would be publishable.
A better way would be to skim over the material, and go into the details and the depth of the parts that really interest you. Then you might find out that TAOCP is not complete, and that you'll need even more time to find the additional literature by yourself.
A titanic task, indeed.
Upvotes: 2
|
2020/09/03
| 1,369
| 6,075
|
<issue_start>username_0: Suppose that a PhD (in engineering) student has 3-4 review/survey papers in their domain, and has received more than 500 citations in total. In a situation like this, can they pass the oral defense and get the PhD degree without a research paper?
What I want to know if review/survey papers can compensate my lack of research output. Any examples and stories that I can refer to?<issue_comment>username_1: It is possible to get a PhD without writing *any* papers; the formal requirement is of writing a thesis, and many people do just that. So I think the formulation of your question is a bit misleading.
But cutting to what I think is the actual intent behind your question rather than the specific choice of words, the answer is almost certainly that you cannot get a PhD without doing original research. Just making expositions of research already done by others, no matter how detailed or how many citations you get for them, is not what a PhD is about and wouldn’t satisfy the requirements.
Upvotes: 7 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Your advisor and your university determine whether your work meets the requirement for the degree. That's where to go for guidance.
I suspect (as @DanRomik says) that a literature survey, no matter how thorough and useful, will be insufficient.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: The naive answer is yes. All you have to do is convince a panel that what you did warrants a PhD. This will be different for each school/department/panel/student. Typically this requires contributing something novel to the field. Something novel does not have to be a research paper.
A couple examples:
* A colleague wrote a review where he extracted related data from a
multitude of papers. He did this for a single minor figure in his
review. Turns out others wanted that data already aggregated and it
spawned many more research papers. He ended up creating a website/database and
maintained it throughout the rest of his PhD. This database was
a significant portion of his PhD (and probably his strongest
portion).
* Another colleague created a machine to automate a particularly labor
intensive process in the lab (2 years of development). This was then used by many other
researchers in their own novel research papers. Again this became a
large portion of his PhD, and made him very popular among those who wanted to use it.
It doesn't have to be a research paper but it does need to be novel and contribute to the field. A review in and of itself is not necessarily novel, but it can be. As @JonCuster pointed out, the 'new' stuff was not the review nor a research paper but new tools that helped the community do further research.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_4: It seems to me that what you're actually asking is can a person be classed as a researcher if they only write review papers. I think that you know that the answer to that is no, unless the review papers have significant research results embedded in them. Generally though, review papers are requested, and just randomly writing up a survey paper and getting it published is very difficult, and actually not recommended unless you are an expert and have been studying the subject for a long time.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_5: ### You might be able to get a PhD in metascience.
To quote Wikipedia, [metascience](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metascience) is "the use of scientific methodology to study science itself", performing research on the process of research. Part of this process would involve writing a bunch of literature reviews in order to analyze aspects of the scientific literature to determine information about the scientific process. For instance, you might code a thousand recently-published Information Technology papers to determine what the most popular scientific methodologies are, and how the methodology chosen affects other aspects of the paper like reproducibility or the availability of software artifacts produced during the process of writing the paper.
As a result, when you perform a metascientific analysis of the literature, you're not just taking existing knowledge and packaging it into a more convenient location, but producing new knowledge about the scientific process.
This isn't just speculative, either; when looking up the publications of authors who created popular scientific methodologies and gotten thousands of citations on their papers introducing them, you'll sometimes find that they've created a career out of publishing papers on metascience and scientific methodologies.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_6: Survey papers are useful and will give you citations if well written.
But for a PhD, you need to add to the existing body of knowledge, not merely reorganize it. Unless it is a massive contribution, such as a reformulation or neater repackaging of existing knowledge (for extreme examples, consider parts of Euclid, Cartan, Wielandt, the latter of which merely found a shorter proof of a known theorem, but it was *much* shorter), which itself is a scientific contribution, it's a very clear *no*.
In fact, if you *are* able to create a simplified map through a difficult and ill-understood landscape, that's definitely a PhD.
Others talked about new tools as worthy of a PhD, in a way, this is a similar situation. Identifying what makes a field hang together is a new tool. Done well, it can change a field.
However, this is most likely to be far harder than to pick a concrete problem and study it. However, it is also far more than just a literature review.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_7: Information Systems professor here. I chair a dissertation every year or two. Short answer is no.
(1) You need to prove that you can independently execute the scientific method and complete a sufficiently complex research project that extends the body of knowledge in your area.
(2) I wouldn't be doing you any favors if I let you leave the program without a good body of work that you could use for conference papers and grant proposals.
Upvotes: 3
|
2020/09/03
| 966
| 4,176
|
<issue_start>username_0: I have a few results during my math PhD that I used in a black-box or grey-box sense. I have a rough idea of how it is proved but the proof itself is extremely long and detailed. I cannot reproduce it off the top of my head without looking at the paper and going through it line by line again. Some of these proofs also themselves refer to other lemmas and proofs in different papers and it can become quite a deep rabbit hole.
I am at a stage now where I can either spend some weeks studying these proofs in detail or I can focus more new research and take these results as black box results. What is the right/expected thing to do from a scientific mindset? On the one hand, understanding everything from scratch would be nice but on the other hand, the reason we write lemmas is so that others can use them as a springboard to develop new ideas.
TL;DR how deeply do mathematicians understand other people's work before using their results? My practical concern would be my thesis defence but the broader scientific "best practice" would be good to know too.<issue_comment>username_1: This depends on the individual case and requires judgment.
On the one hand, understanding the past work completely gives you a better base of understanding going forward.
On the other hand, there are circumstances in which you understand the past work sufficiently to go forward, *and* you have enough trust in it to know that you won't be embarrassed in future for doing dead end work.
That complete understanding takes time, as you note. It is seldom necessary for a mathematician to recapitulate the entire history of mathematics since, say, Euclid, to do significant work.
For some problems in some (sub) fields, more understanding is needed. In others, less. But there is an old saying "Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good." (Usually attributed to Voltaire.)
If you are good enough to recognize problems with lines of thought and you have insight into the underlying structure of the field, then trust your judgement. If you smell a skunk, delve deeper, otherwise, move on. It isn't a perfect defense against error, but.... Voltaire, again.
Upvotes: 2 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: You don't need to know all the proofs. That wouldn't be practical. If it helps you prove your result or uses a common technique then it could be worth learning. Otherwise you would be spending lots of time reading a proof, but for what purpose? Just knowing why a theorem is true can be satisfying, but that's about it.
It does help to keep in mind whether a theorem you read follows from the definitions in a straightforward way or whether it uses some deep facts.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: I think this does depend a bit on each person's approach, but what you've described to me sounds totally fine and normal. I quite regularly use results where I could give a gauzy explanation of the proof, but nothing good enough for, say, a Ph.D. qualifying exam, and I feel no compunction about using well-established results where I could not even summarize the proof (for example, the classification of finite simple groups). I can't imagine deciding to dedicate even a full work day, let alone weeks, to trying to understand a proof without some clear goal in mind for using that understanding.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_4: Whether people expect you to know the proofs of results that you use will depend on (at least) two factors. First, how complicated is the proof? I wouldn't expect anyone to know the whole proof of the classification of the finite simple groups or the solution of the Kepler problem, etc. Second, how close is the result to your research area? I once used, in a paper about the axiom of choice, the result (which I hope I'm remembering correctly) that, over the group ring of a cyclic group of order 23, not all projective modules are free. I didn't learn the proof of that, and I don't feel guilty about not learning it. I just cited the paper where it was proved. But, depending on the complexity of the proof, I might well feel guilty in the same situation if the result was in set theory.
Upvotes: 0
|
2020/09/03
| 1,296
| 5,184
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am a postgraduate student in mathematics. I am writing my thesis, for which I need to prepare some Matlab plots and figures. I had sent some plots to my supervisor, and he suggested to use black for the line color because most journals want to make sure that plots look good when printed black-and-white.
I am curious to know some other advice for figures like line width, styles, colormap for surface and contour plots, the figures’ dimension, etc.<issue_comment>username_1: Someone general advice:
* do a Google search. There are already plenty of articles talking about all different aspects of creating good figures, and they probably do a better job than my answer here.
* experiment. Just create a figure and look at the font size, linewidth, color selection and arrangement, etc. If you have an average person's understanding of aesthetics, you should be able to spot issues in your figures. Print the paper out, and see if everything is legible.
* imitate. Find papers in top journals and important dissertations, and see how other people create figures. I am not in mathematics, but if you look at Science, Nature or top journals in my field like Physics Review Letter, you should get a good sense of the elements in a graph, how to convey data and ideas effectively, and how to make a graph look great.
* look up guidelines. Journals in my field often have a very specific style guide (like [this](https://www.osapublishing.org/ao/submit/style/OSA_art.pdf)), which can be a very useful reference. They can include things like "minimum linewidth is 0.5 pt" and "font size must be greater than 18 pt". They are generally good guidelines to follow.
Some specific things you can look into:
* Don't be afraid to use large font size. They are probably not large enough.
* using colors, and especially color maps, is tricky. There are many considerations that you may not be aware. You can easily find advice of how to use colors, and there are [websites that help you select colors](https://www.canva.com/colors/color-wheel/), so I will not repeat them here. Here are some discussions on colormap:
+ [A Better Default Colormap for Matplotlib](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAoljeRJ3lU)
+ [Rainbow Color Map Critiques: An Overview and Annotated Bibliography](https://www.mathworks.com/company/newsletters/articles/rainbow-color-map-critiques-an-overview-and-annotated-bibliography.html)
+ [Color Map Advice for Scientific Visualization](https://www.kennethmoreland.com/color-advice/)
+ [A survey and task-based quality assessment of static 2D colormaps](https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2079841)
* make things simple. Don't overcrowd your figure.
* use annotations where necessary. A figure with adequate annotations will often explain itself, even without captions.
Additional resources:
* Look up a book named "Trees, maps, and theorems" in which there is a chapter about figures. (I have been to a great talk given by [<NAME>](https://www.principiae.be/X0101.php) about how to give a good presentation.)
* [Figure Design](https://mitcommlab.mit.edu/eecs/commkit/figure-design/) (MIT EECS Communication Lab)
* [Choosing color palettes](https://seaborn.pydata.org/tutorial/color_palettes.html) (Seaborn)
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: At its heart, every figure tells a story. Before you worry about the "polishing" details, you first need to make sure that you're organizing the information to tell the story as clearly as you possibly can.
A classic book on the subject, which I have found very helpful, is [Edward Tufte's "The Visual Display of Quantitative Information."](https://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/books_vdqi) This has a lot of great first-principles concepts for communicating information with figures, as well as a lot of great examples of figures that do well in doing so.
When you are working on your own figures, try playing with different arrangements and densities of information within a figure. Our first instincts are often wrong, so try splitting dense figures into separate charts and try combining figures together. Likewise, our eyes like to move in lines, so try shifting locations and orientations of objects in diagrams into different organization (e.g., vertical, horizontal, circular) to minimize overlapping lines and to bring the most important conceptual relationships into simple and salient geometric relations with one another. Color is another valuable dimension that you can use to organize relationships, whether to make certain things pop or to turn a bunch of individual lines into an organized gradient whose gist can be grasped with a glance.
Once you've got the core narrative elements of presentation sorted, then you can think about how you might want to polish the figure by adjusting fonts, line weights, colorblind compatibility, etc. Most modern software, however, starts you with pretty reasonable defaults for fonts and colormaps, so you may not need to worry much about those. Matlab, for example, has switched to [parula](https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/parula.html), which is designed to work well for both colorblind viewers and greyscale printing.
Upvotes: 2
|
2020/09/03
| 651
| 2,858
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am a graduate student in a US chemistry department and found a class (mechanical engineering) that would be somewhat helpful for my research but is out of my discipline. I'm not familiar with a lot of the methods used and so I was considering emailing the professor to see if it would be possible. Would this be ok to do?<issue_comment>username_1: I believe so. I would provide some specifical information on the e-mail: I would tell them all the classes I've taken that are more or less (since you have a different area of studies) related to their subject so that they could know exactly what you knew, any relevant internships or experiences, why I was interested in taking the class, and I would specifically ask if he could advise me on some materials to read / study beforehand in order to go more prepared to class.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: I get multiple emails about this every year, so I certainly consider it normal. It's my impression that most faculty will.
Before you do that, see if the syllabus is available to you somewhere. That will show the professor that you did some due diligence on your own, and may even answer your questions. Also note whether or not the class has a firm prerequisite listed - if it does that may make this more challenging. If it does not then that suggests to me that you've got a better chance at success.
If you're still not comfortable asking, or the professor doesn't reply, you should be able to get help with this from your academic advisor. They may be able to secure the past syllabus for you also, so if you prefer that route it might suffice.
Another suggestion is to consider asking about auditing the class - if it's outside your department and isn't necessary for your degree, maybe that would be enough to help you with your research. A related element would be asking to take the class pass/fail, depending on your university's restrictions on such a practice. That would allow you to take the class and, even if it's a struggle, all you need to do is pass in order to come away with what you need from it.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: I think it's perfectly fine to email the professor and ask him about taking it with limited prerequisites from your end. I'm an undergraduate student (in ECE), but I've taken multiple ECE/Math/Physics grad courses after emailing respective professors and convincing them I can succeed in their courses despite not having official prerequisites (read username_2's and username_1's answers for how to do so).
Do note that there may still be departmental holds/ registration requests you may to remove/make respectively in order to register for courses outside of your major/field of study, so do ask the professor if such issues are also relevant to your particular situation and how to handle them.
Upvotes: 2
|
2020/09/03
| 699
| 3,060
|
<issue_start>username_0: Very recently, a paper has been published that says:
```
I plan to incorporate X into my research in the future.
```
The aforementioned paper was published recently, so the follow up containing X is not published (nor do I know if the author is working on it right now). Would it be OK for me to then to do the research suggested in the paper? The idea to incorporate X into the research was an idea I developed independently, but it also happened to be in the "future work" of another paper, if that makes any difference.<issue_comment>username_1: I believe so. I would provide some specifical information on the e-mail: I would tell them all the classes I've taken that are more or less (since you have a different area of studies) related to their subject so that they could know exactly what you knew, any relevant internships or experiences, why I was interested in taking the class, and I would specifically ask if he could advise me on some materials to read / study beforehand in order to go more prepared to class.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: I get multiple emails about this every year, so I certainly consider it normal. It's my impression that most faculty will.
Before you do that, see if the syllabus is available to you somewhere. That will show the professor that you did some due diligence on your own, and may even answer your questions. Also note whether or not the class has a firm prerequisite listed - if it does that may make this more challenging. If it does not then that suggests to me that you've got a better chance at success.
If you're still not comfortable asking, or the professor doesn't reply, you should be able to get help with this from your academic advisor. They may be able to secure the past syllabus for you also, so if you prefer that route it might suffice.
Another suggestion is to consider asking about auditing the class - if it's outside your department and isn't necessary for your degree, maybe that would be enough to help you with your research. A related element would be asking to take the class pass/fail, depending on your university's restrictions on such a practice. That would allow you to take the class and, even if it's a struggle, all you need to do is pass in order to come away with what you need from it.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: I think it's perfectly fine to email the professor and ask him about taking it with limited prerequisites from your end. I'm an undergraduate student (in ECE), but I've taken multiple ECE/Math/Physics grad courses after emailing respective professors and convincing them I can succeed in their courses despite not having official prerequisites (read username_2's and username_1's answers for how to do so).
Do note that there may still be departmental holds/ registration requests you may to remove/make respectively in order to register for courses outside of your major/field of study, so do ask the professor if such issues are also relevant to your particular situation and how to handle them.
Upvotes: 2
|
2020/09/04
| 703
| 2,864
|
<issue_start>username_0: From *[<NAME>’s bullying: lab members speak out](https://forbetterscience.com/2020/07/17/bullying-lab-members-speak-out):*
>
> Not everything in Jan’s lab was bad and I think it’s also important to point out that my relationship with Jan was often professionally respectful. For example, Jan repeatedly asked me to peer review manuscripts that he had received from various journals from all impact levels. The level of trust was high. Jan would give me his log-in and password. Our routine was that I’d submit reviews for manuscripts without him reading either the manuscript or the review that I wrote; it was completely hands-off. Honestly, I quite enjoyed this, although my work was always claimed in Jan’s name.
>
>
>
The scientist in question seems to see little wrong with that. Can you provide an ethical analysis of this behaviour?<issue_comment>username_1: It's Jan's job to teach lab members how to review. For younger lab members, Jan should read reviews before they're submitted and provide feedback. For older members, that might not be necessary. Jan should always give credit to sub-reviewers.
Passwords probably shouldn't be shared, reviewing systems should define procedures for sub-reviewing, but, many don't, so password sharing is perhaps okay. If the reviewing system doesn't allow sub-reviewers to be mentioned, then that's a fault with the system, not Jan. Nonetheless, Jan should go to the effort of ensuring credit is correctly assigned.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: It isn't inherently wrong to give younger members of a research group reviewing assignments (it's a legitimate and commonly used teaching tool when mentoring younger scientists), but there are two points that are definitely ethically questionable:
* The review is in his name because the person quoted uploads it in his name. That's deception: The editor expects the review to be from him, in hopes of tapping his experience, but gets nothing of the sort. The younger scientist also doesn't get any credit.
* There is no teaching element in all of this. Yes, there is trust, but if he never read these reviews, he can't give feedback to the younger scientist on what they could do better.
When letting younger scientists do these reviews, I often do take their (final) review after we talked about it in some detail, and prefix it by saying something along the lines
>
> The following review was prepared by one of my graduate students. That said, we discussed it in detail, and while the words are those of the student, the conclusions are ones we share and that I believe appropriately reflect our views of the paper.
>
>
>
This way, the student gets to learn, and we together provide a review that meets the expectations.
In other words, I find the behavior exploitative and ethically questionable.
Upvotes: 2
|
2020/09/04
| 1,365
| 6,442
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am asked to review a paper for a fairly highly regarded conference.
The paper presents some 'novel' algorithms to do a particular job, but it fails to mention any of the various related previous work which address the very same issue.
Even if the algorithm is sound and their method is thorough I am hesitant to accept the paper, since there is no comparison to existing techniques; neither on a methodological level nor on the level of results.
Can I reject such a paper based on the non-existent comparison to related work, or should I focus more on their method and results itself?<issue_comment>username_1: You can write: the algorithm is sound and their method is thorough, however, there's no mention of the various related previous works (e.g., X, Y, and Z) which address the very same issue, without such discussion I cannot evaluate the work's novelty and I must reject the paper at this time.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: One of the key questions for any piece of scientific work is this: *how does this work contribute to human knowledge?*
If a work fails to even discuss its relationship to prior work, then it is entirely appropriate to reject it. Likewise, if the authors mention algorithms that are directly comparable but fail to actually make a comparison with any of those algorithms. When I am given a paper that is entirely isolated in this way, I will not even bother to check the details of the algorithm's soundness, since the work already has a major disqualifying failure.
For many algorithms, however, the differences are qualitative and not quantitative, and thus a direct comparison would be unenlightening or pointless. For example, if algorithm X tolerates a class of failures that prior algorithms do not, then it is enough to show that algorithm X tolerates those failures. One does not necessarily need to re-prove or empirically demonstrate that the others do not.
Likewise, the number of potentially related prior works is often vast and complicated. No algorithm paper will ever compare to all of the other related algorithms, because "related" is a broad and fuzzy concept. You and the authors will generally not make the same judgements about which algorithms might be interesting to discuss in related work or to directly compare against. Thus, the standard to which you should hold related work is not "Do I want to see comparison against Algorithm Y?" (that's Evil Reviewer #2 behavior) but rather "Does the comparison provided sufficiently support the author's assertions?"
Bottom line: be generous in your judgement of comparison to prior work, but papers with no meaningful comparison should be rejected.
Upvotes: 7 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: Needs revision
--------------
There is a meaningful difference between asserting that a particular work is fundamendally not appropriate for this venue, or that it is unacceptable as it now stands. The former is a 'reject', the latter is 'accept with revisions required'.
You should recommend a rejection if the changes required to make it a good, appropriate paper would require to fundamentally change the paper itself or its conclusions. According to your description it's not necessarily the case - you claim that the paper needs a comparison to existing techniques on both a methodological level and also on the level of results. If the paper added these comparisons, would the paper be acceptable, or would it still be not good enough? That's what the review should state.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_4: If it were me, I would say that it needs a substantial revision before being considered again for submission and that they need to add a thorough lit review making it clear that they are aware of the previous work on this problem and can explain the novelty of their contribution.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_5: I will add one important point not addressed in other answers so far: I consider that **rejection criteria for a journal to be different from that for a conference**, even for the same article. The most pertinent point I see here is that whereas journal articles have the time to request multiple rounds of revision (which could drag on to a year or two or even longer), conference reviewers must decide immediately whether the article can be quickly made acceptable, or not, since the conference review and presentation timeline is always very tight. In journal submission terms, a conference submission can give only one of two decisions: either it is "accept with minor revisions", or it is "reject". In particular, there is no option for "major revisions" as a decision.
With this understanding, the question is: whatever the revisions you think might be necessary, can they be done easily and feasibly in the space of just a couple of weeks? If so, you can accept the article and request those minor revisions. But if the revisions you consider essential cannot be done easily or quickly (in the timeframe of the conference, specifically, before the deadline for authors to submit the final "camera-ready" proofs), then you should recommend rejection.
Note that my answer is very general and does not even address your substantial question of whether or not the absence of a literature review is sufficient to reject the article. Rather, I ask you to reframe the question thus: do you have confidence that, in the tight timeframe of the conference, the authors can fix the literature review problems? Also, note that, unlike with a journal submission, you probably will not be given the opportunity to verify if they have done what you consider essential.
With this understanding, based on the details in your question, I think it might be unlikely that the authors would satisfactorily reframe the article in the literature, especially since you would not be able to verify this. If so, you should probably recommend a rejection. But, of course, explain to the authors what you would have like to see, so that they can hopefully do the revisions and submit to another conference or to a journal.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_6: >
> should I focus more on their method and results itself?
>
>
>
If you do this properly then *you* will have to do the comparison.
It should be the responsibility of the author to compare and contrast.
Of course if the new algorithms solve a previously unsolved problem this may be sufficient.
Upvotes: 1
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<issue_start>username_0: Let me tell you the story. I am a researcher in Mathematics and I have been the past months developing an idea that seems simple but potentially fruitful. The idea is so simple and straightforward from the current literature (at least for me) that I was even concerned that something like that was already (and) better studied. However, I was checking during some weeks and I am sure that nobody developed that idea so I began to write a paper that is now a long paper and it is in its 3rd week of preparation. I did already a lot of work.
I was in that situation when some days ago I entered in a very famous forum for math discussions (not in Stack Exchange) and saw an image (not even a TeX document, it was a mere drawing) just an image and a post of someone describing something very similar to what I am currently studying. It is not exactly the same, though, but you can consider that my construction is some kind of particularization (the object is introduced in the post is so general that without particularize you can say very few things and I also use this in connection with other branch of mathematics in a way that seems original and novel and it is of course not mentioned in that post).
The problem came when I was checking more on the person publishing that idea (as I said just one post with a text of a few paragraphs, less than half a page) and this person seems like a bit of a crackpot in the sense that the only thing that seems to do is to stake territory out by publishing some unpolished and partial ideas in his/her blog (always really short underdeveloped ideas, never -not just one- long citable papers with actual developments and content). It is reasonable to think that if you begin to write ideas randomly at this rate at some point you will touch something interesting by mere casualty, and this is what happened, though the touch is just tangential.
Do not get me wrong: I want to cite this person as I consider that there is some value in the fact that he/she saw this and introduced it although very rudimentarily and not rigorously; the problem that I face is that I am not sure how could affect to my reputation or the acceptance of my paper to cite a crackpot-like person who could (although it is clearly not true) use this against me maybe saying that I stole his/her idea. I want to be morally okay and recognize to this person his/her novelty in that generalization, but I got there independently and actually working though the idea also and I would not like that this person could make a nasty statement about my integrity when I am really trying to be fully integral and actually recognize his/her part (tangential as I did not get ideas from the post because I reached my idea independently and hard-worked on it) in the novelty of the general case. How would you manage such a situation?
I am also thinking that citing such a source could not be well-seen by a potential journal and could lead to automatic rejection of legitimate work. I am thinking in some names of crackpots that got cited in legitimate work and then some undesirable things happened (I cannot write particular examples here because it could damage some -already damaged- reputations, but we can all think in some of the kings of viXra or GM in arXiv to fit into this non-hypothetical situation).<issue_comment>username_1: Just cite them.
You write, *I consider that there is some value in the fact that he/she saw this and introduced it although very rudimentarily and not rigorously*, so mention that. You also write, *I am not sure how could affect to my reputation or the acceptance of my paper to cite a crackpot-like person*. Why would citing *a crackpot-like person* matter? You say they introduced the idea, that's what you're citing. Not citing, as you go on to write, would result in allegations *that I stole his/her idea*.
You could perhaps place your citation in the following context: Independently of this work, the underlying idea appears to have been first recognised by X. This work goes beyond that presentation to ABC.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Obviously, as you say yourself, you have to cite it. And I see your problem - your paper will be reviwed and read by humans, who may have their biases. One of them could be "OP cites a paper from this nationwide-known crackpot, so the paper cannot be serious". I've unfortunately encountered biases among academics in many ways (eg that people from certain nations do not produce valueable research) and I don't think anybody is completely free from them (which may sometimes good - otherwise people would have to read many useless crackpot papers which proved major theorems).
In your case, I have only two advices:
(1) Write your paper as professional as possibly be. Sometimes people are sloppy with proofs and this is widely accepted (although I read yesterday on Stack Exchange the opinion "one small typo should imply paper rejected" ) - here you should not be sloppy with proofs, layout, grammar etc. The people who read this should get the impression that it is really professional and that you are not a crackpot. Ask your collegues for their opinion. Prove in your paper that ehat the crackpot says really makes sense.
(1b) If at all possible, cite many "serious" papers. Of course, not irrelevant ones. But if you have thw choice between "putting some more results to the paper and thereby citing serious papers" or "keeping those results for a follow-up paper", choose the first option. I repeat: You should not cite papers just to cite them, but because you need them. And of course, you should not make the paper far too long just to cite and include results...I think you get my idea.
(2) Talk to other people. My impression is that "unexpected" things like "I found gold in some crackpot's work" are often better told orally than in paper. If you go to conferences and give a talk, mention the funny story that you found this result in some unexpected place. If you have dinner with collegues, tell them this funny story. Maybe this will make them look together at the result with you (if it is interesting for them), maybe they will also cite it if they need it. Anyway, when the community sees the paper, chances are good that people already know about this results and will not be surprised and possibly even checked the crackpot paper because they found this story so interesting.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: In the strictest sense, a citation is exactly that: A citation, not an endorsement. As a consequence, I would find it unlikely that someone would consider your paper any less just because you cite something or someone.
But then you also always have the opportunity to qualify citations. For example, you can say something like the following, which is a pretty strong endorsement of the work you are citing:
>
> In [13], Bayer and Schmidt have previously considered this exact problem and produced an excellent algorithm to solve it. That said, while we know from their work that the algorithm has optimal complexity *on average*, there are also known cases where it runs for far longer than in the optimal case. This paper addresses this flaw.
>
>
>
Compare this with the following citation:
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> In preparing this work, we have spent a substantial amount of time on trying to find literature that considers the problem we address here. Very little can be found, with the possible exception of the blog post [42] that presents some ideas -- but few details and no worked out solutions -- of what we do here.
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Such a statement makes it clear that you think it is related, but it's not an endorsement because you also make clear that whatever is presented there is not a full solution of the problem. This seems unobjectionable to me: Nobody can be mad at you for citing prior work this way, as you make it clear that whoever goes to that blog post will not find prior art, just ideas.
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: I have seen the other questions on linkedin on the Academia stack exchange page but had a slightly different one.
For a PhD student who is looking to becomes a professor post grad school, is a linkedin helpful?
From what I see, the interview process for academia is the following:
1. The student gives a job talk at the universities they are interviewing for.
2. They interview 1-1 with the professors in the department, especially those in the same research field
3. Their publication record, existing fundings, and CV are reviewed.
4. Lastly, their recommendations from their own advisor and collaborators are weighed in.
Although point #4 might not be explicitly done, at the end of the day that seems like one of the primary implicit ways a student gets their foot in the door - the student's PhD advisor connects the student to another professor in another university who will vouch/champion them in the interview process.
With all this being said, I see that the academic review board goes directly to the students CV, publication record, and their academic website/page to get a sense of who they are as a academic professional and whether they are involved in the proper outreach activities and support diversity, etc.
In this whole pipeline, I can't imagine linkedin being helpful anywhere along the way. So is it helpful? Or is it only helpful for PhD students seeking opportunities in the private sector? Does having a linkedin affect how I am perceived in Academia?<issue_comment>username_1: In my experience (academia and industry), there is very little benefit to LinkedIn in the academic sphere. It just fails to have critical mass in academia, and therefore gets used very little. I'm sure it depends on discipline, but a combination of own/departmental webpage, preprint servers and publication aggregators, and (in some disciplines) Twitter is where it's at. That being said, a low-key LinkedIn profile doesn't hurt, especially if you want to start staying in contact with friends and (former) colleagues who leave academia and for whom LinkedIn becomes a lazy directory of who has gone where and how to stay in touch. I can't imagine it would have a negative effect on perception.
I do however recommend to academics (including advanced Ph.D. candidates) to set up their own, personal (i.e. professionally focused but personally owned, controlled, and managed) webpages, especially if they are in techy- or in any way outreach-to-the-public relevant fields. These days, it is cheap and easy to get a domain name of your own, to set up a WordPress (or similar) site somewhere. Then you get to post your research in the format you want, show a bit of creativity, etc. And by doing it early and well, your site will rank highly in search. It's much more professional looking, to current- and would-be peers as well as to journalists and the public (if relevant) if you have a well-organized and up-to-date website, than if a couple of years down the road a Google Search for you yields 3-4 abandoned pages at institutions you did a post-doc at, with expired links to old papers and no mention of the most exciting topic you are focusing on at the present time. In this day and age you will eventually want to control how you market yourself, and it's easiest to do if you start doing it gently early rather than in a big rush when you discover you ought to have been doing it already.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: * It is helpful when you want to jump into industry at some point.
* It is helpful as a way to network with your peers in a "professional" context
* It is potentially helpful for other people reading you work to get a sense of your credentials.
* It is completely useless for building a network of research contacts.
The tricky part is that you are almost certainly going to be spotted by (aggressive) recruiters or other people who wants you to work with them down the road, and you have to keep telling them "Uh, I am 1 year into my PhD so I can't work for you right now", or "Uh, I can't really do an internship because I'm 4th year into my 5 year PhD program". Or "Sorry I can't relocate with Shenzhen at the moment."
Upvotes: 0
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<issue_start>username_0: I see that there are many questions on whether putting/putting how many affiliation(s) on a paper. My situation does not quite fit into all the existing questions, so I am posting my question here.
First of all I am currently working as a part-time lecturer at two different colleges in the same city. I am writing my paper on my own, and neither of them has support for my research (besides having access to some database of my field and access to journal papers). I am not sure if I should put any of the colleges I am currently working at as affiliations. The reasons of my concern are
1. The number of courses I teach at these two colleges vary from semester to semester. I expect in some semester I would not have any course to teach at one or even both of the colleges. This means in some coming semesters I may not affiliate with these colleges (for example the summer semester).
2. I would prefer to put the university I obtained my PhD degree as the affiliation, and write something like "Alumni of XXX University". But I have not seen this before in any paper, and I am not sure if this is the norm.
3. I do not object writing myself as independent scholar, but I probably will use the email of the university I obtained my PhD degree in this case. But then I would think why don't I do 2. in above.
Sometimes I think submitting a paper to a journal by a university email address is better than personal email address in the sense that the editor will take it slightly more seriously.<issue_comment>username_1: Being a graduate of some institution is not an "affiliation" in the normal sense of the term since the association has ended. You can say that somewhere, of course, say in an author footnote, but *Independent Scholar* or *Independent Researcher* is a more accurate description of your case.
But, if you have to give an email address in the header, make sure that it is one that will endure. Actually, everyone should try to do that, though it isn't always possible. It is more important for independent's however, since it is harder to track you down in years to come of you don't have a current affiliation when you write a paper.
But you are correct, IMO, not to list your part time institutions under affiliation since they have had no part in supporting your research.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Affiliations are about finding and positively identifying you, as well as also understanding your approach to the problem.
For example (and this is a real case), I would put much less stock in linguistics papers authored by people in the economics department than linguistics.
In the US and Canada, institutions derive so little value from having their name as your affiliation, I don't personally see much of a point in not putting the institutions you're currently at to "stick it to them." In any case, having a real affiliation looks much better than "Independent Scholar" (perhaps unfortunately).
Commenters indicate this is different in other systems, which I'm not qualified to address. Nonetheless, I would err on the side of including them; not only because of your quote below, but for the benefit of the community and improving your own credibility.
>
> besides having access to some database of my field and access to journal papers
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This is not nothing. I would recommend putting the colleges you currently teach at. If they no longer employ you at the final check, take them off.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: Merriam-Webster defines "[affiliation](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/affiliation)" as
>
> the state or relation of being closely associated or affiliated with a
> particular person, group, party, company, etc.
>
>
>
This would be one of the two colleges or maybe even both. It doesn't matter, whether you did your research with their help or not. The affiliation gives you credibility and the affiliation can show what great staff they employ.
If you are employed by a company and your publication is unrelated to your day job, as it was done in your spare time, my answer would differ. Many companies don't want to have their names used without some grand-grand-boss confirming that it is ok and does the brand no harm.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: I know I am late here, but I would add to the other answers that it depends on where you did this work. You mention that you are writing this paper on your own, but in my field there is a lot of work that goes into a paper before you start writing it.
I typically see folks list the affiliation that they completed most of the work with as their affiliation, and then often list other affiliations that they are currently at as "current address" or "current affiliation." If you conceived of this work, or collected data (or ideas) during your time at your PhD institution, I think it is completely valid to use them as an affiliation (assuming they are okay with it) since you *did* complete parts of the work under that affiliation.
But I also agree with others that there is no harm in including your current affiliations (either or both). It is totally normal (again, at least in my field) to list 3 affiliations on a paper.
Upvotes: 1
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<issue_start>username_0: EDIT: I asked the question poorly, so what follows is an edit of the original.
When submitting an abstract for a presentation on research that is based on joint-work, should all authors be listed or only the presenter(s)?<issue_comment>username_1: Most conferences require the attendance of at least one of the authors. Others may also register, but usually there is a cost involved. I don't know of any that require all authors to attend. I think it would be unlikely.
So, one is normally sufficient.
It might be useful for more than one to attend, so that the one(s) not presenting can faithfully capture any questions asked, so as not to lose those ideas.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: Co-authorship has (almost) nothing to do with conference registration.
Normally, each person who wants to go to the conference has to register for the conference or else, you know, the conference won't let them in. Just like each person who goes to see a movie has to buy a ticket.
And if you're going to present a paper at a conference, then you need to be at the conference, thus you need to "buy your ticket" and register. If you co-authors want to be at the conference, they have to register too, whether or not their names happen to be on the paper, and if they don't want to go to the conference they don't have to register.
The only way that co-authorship ever connects to conference registration is for certain conferences that require you to pay for at least one registration per N papers (e.g., if N=2 and you're going to present three papers, then one of your co-authors has to buy a registration even if you're the only one going). I find that obnoxious, but that's the economic model these conferences have chosen.
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: I'm just wondering to what extent I can hire someone to collect data for me. This would be secondary data, collecting patient records from clinics. I have no clue how to organize data or use databases, so the research assistant would also be helping me do that. I would, of course, be reading the patient records and interpreting them into specific variables (such as did this patient have a heart problem: Y/N).
* My full-time job is at the university working for a project under a PI who is not my PhD supervisor.
* The project funding has run out that we cannot pay for our team's salary.
* I applied for some funding as the PI on the project and got some extra funding.
* I could use the funding coming in from the new project to cover our team's salary and also utilize the team's research assistant to collect the data for the new project and for my PhD thesis at the same time.
The project only needs data to caluculate the prevalence of heart problems whilst my intention for my thesis is to find out risk factors for these heart problems. I would only ask to further collect a years worth of history for each patient with a heart problem.
I think this arrangement I could kill two birds with one stone but I am worried about the implications such as how much of the work should be all mine for my PhD thesis. Also, I wouldn't have to pay out of pocket to hire someone to do this for me as I'm only getting paid 81k per year.<issue_comment>username_1: In terms of ***academic honesty***, there is in principle nothing unethical about using data that was collected by someone else, subject to all involved parties agreeing to this of course. Collecting sufficiently large clinical datasets is a long and complicated process, and there are entire departments specifically created to manage such databases and provide data to researchers. Papers solely analysing and re-analysing such publicly available data are very common in epidemiology, bioinformatics, statistical genetics etc., so that definitely will not be an obstacle to publish.
However, your supervisor and thesis committee may have different ***expectations*** about the work that you will do and skills that you will obtain during your PhD. Some issues that might come up are:
1. Are you outsourcing something that you are expected to learn during your PhD? Is the "database use and organization" something very menial, or too computational to be relevant for your field? Otherwise maybe you can do a part the process by yourself, and thus show that you have acquired enough knowledge of it?
2. Usually there are some regulations on how much time & effort you should put into full time studies. If you do not do the data collection, will you be spending the same amount of time on some other academic work, beneficial to the project/lab?
3. Is there sufficient scientific advance/intellectual contribution/novelty remaining in your thesis, when viewed separately from the data collection? This one is the most difficult to judge. In the eyes of thesis examiners, doing some "menial" work often pushes the candidate towards bench biology, and this takes away some scrutiny from other parts of the work (even though it shouldn't). For example, you might be expected to have a deeper understanding of your statistical models, have some sensitivity analyses, maybe comparison between different models or such.
As long as all the involved parties agree on these expectations, I don't see anything unethical about this path.
Now, whether you are ***legally allowed*** to use the new grant for this purpose is an entirely different question, and will be determined by the fund's conditions and your institution's hiring policies.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: In addition to Juod's answer, you should check your research ethics approval and see what it says. In some cases, every researcher must be individually approved by the ethics committee to handle the data. If it's not allowed under your current approval, you can probably apply and get permission for addition of the extra person.
Upvotes: 0
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<issue_start>username_0: [MATLAB vs. Python in industry](https://or.stackexchange.com/questions/4170/matlab-vs-python-in-industry) at Operations Research SE contains the following statement:
>
> I am a beginning PhD student in math, and I would like to focus on optimization. I am learning programming for the first time [...]
>
>
>
How common is this situation?
When I got my degrees in mathematics, computer programming courses were compulsory, and many math courses assumed that we already knew how to program. For example, in graph theory, we wrote programs to solve shortest-path problems; in optimization, we wrote programs to solve linear programming problems; in statistics we used APL.
That was as an undergrad student, 45 years ago, using multi-million dollar computers. So I don't understand how people today, when computers are so ubiquitous, can make it to PhD level mathematics without ever being exposed to programming.
What happened?<issue_comment>username_1: It's probably fairly common.
For the United States, a good source of data on undergraduate math programs is the American Mathematical Society's *Statistical Abstract of Undergraduate Programs in the Mathematical Sciences in the United States*. In [their most recent report, dated 2015](https://www.ams.org/profession/data/cbms-survey/cbms2015-Report.pdf), you can find in Table SP.18 (page 67) some data on curricular requirements in four-year math degree programs. You can see there, for instance, that among PhD-granting universities, 26% didn't require any computer science courses for any of their undegraduate mathematics majors. A further 19% required it for some of their majors but not all. There are separate figures for masters-granting universities and undergraduate colleges which are not dramatically different.
The numbers may have changed in the past five years, but I suspect not by a lot; changes in curriculum requirements usually involve a lot of bureaucracy and happen slowly.
So I suppose that the people who set curriculum at those institutions simply don't share your opinion of the importance of programming coursework, or feel that students can make their own decisions whether to take it as an elective.
(Whether or not those institutions are acting wisely is certainly a reasonable topic for debate, but this site is not the place for debates.)
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: Being able to do simple computer programming was much more important for engineers and scientists 45 years ago than it is now.
Doing statistics and other analysis on non-trivial amounts of data used to require programming. Spreadsheets, data visualization programs, and similar tools have become ubiquitous along with computers, greatly reducing the need for custom programming.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: Math undergraduate programs are generally horribly behind when it comes to usefull skills. Had I graduated with a BS degree and only followed the guidelines given by academics I would have been mostly void of any practical ability.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: Reading the other answer I think that this is very much dependent on the country.
In Germany this would be rather rare. At least all TUs (technical university, e.g. TU München, TU Berlin,...) have mandatory programming courses very early in their math curricula. Holds for regular math degrees. There are even more applied programs (under different names e.g. "Technomathematik") with even more programming courses. All math programs I know of have some programming courses in their curricula.
Apart from that: Using computers to do math is incredibly helpful for all kinds of mathematics! Especially for research in mathematics (not restricted to "applied math"). Doing a sanity check on a newly derived inequality, obtaining and testing conjectures, doing number crunching to get optimized constants, or using computer algebra to do tedious calculations are just some examples...
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_5: My bachelor's degree (1966) is in physics, and one of the requirements was to learn some Fortran programming. I promptly forgot all I had learned about Fortran because I never had any use for it. I have, on rare occasions, used Mathematica, Maple, Gap, but most of the computations I need can be done in Excel.
Nevertheless, I think it would be good to teach programming, especially to the weaker math students --- the ones who argue when you tell them (in more polite terms) that their "proofs" make no sense. They're much less likely to argue when a compiler tells them "syntax error", and they're more likely to (eventually) learn how to express their thoughts accurately.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_6: I did some checking via Google of requirements at some prestigious universities. As far as I can tell, Princeton, Harvard, Yale, and Columbia all do not require programming classes as part of the major. These departments all take a very theoretical approach to the field, and I suspect most departments are more practically minded.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_7: While it is occasionally helpful to know some programming in mathematics, it is not really mandatory.
I did my M.Sc. in mathematics and could not make use of my "hobby" in the field. I helped a post-grad student of my advisor (at least she claimed my calculations were helpful) with a basic GAP algorithm, but that's all.
One should accept the fact that computers lack abstraction that is necessary for mathematics. At least for now. Neither ATPs (automated theorem provers) nor algebraic computation platforms -Maple, GAP, etc- are close to being useful except on occasion.
I should probably note that I am talking about abstract algebra here. Some other fields do enjoy great utility and it makes me jealous.
That being said, I find it quite odd that in 2020 there are people (as in any single breathing, living person) who doesn't know how to program at all. Except those living in a third world country like me. Wait...
It feels like they are proud of their ignorance. May Turing bless them.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_8: I think it is common to study mathematics without having done any computer programming. I base my opinion on the fact that when we were in school, most of us did not learn about history by writing programs.
So, if history classes are fine without computer programming and mathematics classes are fine without computer programming then it is reasonable to conclude that mathematics classes should be fine without computer programming.
Mathematics is the study of patterns. It is also about abstract concepts, and not reality.
I think that computer programming is mostly about patterns. So studying mathematics should help with understanding how to program computers.
So I think that studying mathematics without computer programming is OK. However, it would have been better if you had done some computer programming first.
The main reason to learn computer programming or mathematics is not so much for the practical applications, which are usually small. The main reason is that they help you think better.
Upvotes: 0
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<issue_start>username_0: I have been asked to serve on the examination committee for a PhD thesis. It's in the area of machine learning. It's from a university in a developing country. My job is to provide a written report, recommending whether to award the degree (possibly with minor or major changes), or even not to proceed to defence. I won't be participating in the defence itself.
The quality is very bad. I would say it would receive a low grade, if evaluated as a 3-month MSc dissertation, in my university (in a developed country, but not a top-tier university). It's bad in every respect - novelty, experimental design, understanding, motivation, contact with literature, writing, reliance on "predatory" journals, even some (fairly benign) plagiarism. So, my instinct is to recommend it should not proceed to the defence.
My problem is that standards vary between countries and between institutions. How much allowance should I make for this? I do not want to perpetuate a "vicious cycle" which prevents high-quality work in developing countries (eg [Breaking the (perhaps perceived) academic (poverty) cycle](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/143806/breaking-the-perhaps-perceived-academic-poverty-cycle)).
Part of my problem is that I don't know how much weight my report will carry. Maybe the department is used to receiving harsh reports from international committee members, and de-weights them. Or maybe a harsh report from an international member is enough for an immediate fail.
If I could allocate the blame in my review, I would say the supervisor surely deserves most of it. But it is the student who will suffer the most, if they fail. On the other hand, perhaps the supervisor's own PhD was the beneficiary of some lenient reviewing in the past, leading them not to know what standards are expected. I should not perpetuate that cycle either.
I hope my question does not sound condescending or insulting to scholarship in developing countries. I know that great research is done everywhere, and I have great respect for many individual researchers from the country in question.
Edit: of course, there are no right answers here, but I accepted @anon's answer because the "PhD = passport to worldwide community" concept was the most helpful in my thinking. In the end, I wrote a fully honest review from my point of view, and recommended it should not go to defence, but I added a note that I understand the local committee will apply the institutions' own standards. It goes without saying that I was constructive, not negative, and gave a lot of advice for accessible improvements. Thanks to all for a useful discussion!<issue_comment>username_1: I suggest that you remember that you are evaluating the work, not its author, or the supervisor, or the university. Give it an honest evaluation, based only on what you see before you. If it doesn't measure up to your standards, then say so. Say why. Make suggestions if you have the time. But honesty is required.
One of the reasons, actually, for international reviewers is to give the home institution some assurance that they are producing students on a par with others.
Upvotes: 7 <issue_comment>username_2: The question is very difficult. One reason developing countries are developing because there are issues in the culture of learning, teaching and research which hold them back, amongst other authority-based or rote-based learning, focusing on unproductive criteria etc.
Now, there are amazing talents in these countries and some very interesting curricula (whose carriers often end up in good position in a 1st world country), but, on the whole, the system is not going to change overnight. On the other hand, the advent of the internet has brought the world's greatest library (ignoring the paywalls) to the fingertips of virtually anybody on this planet. In other words, the essence of a great academic institution which used to be its library, is no longer exclusive. Thus, even developing countries have now, in less resource-intensive topics, the perspective of improving the standing of their academic institutions.
To avoid the structural problems of nepotistic and political considerations, neutral external evaluations are increasingly sought. Research programs are now more and more evaluated by evaluators from established academic locations. It is clear that it is unlikely that the quality of such programs is going to match anything that, say, a top university regularly comes up with, but in a comparative setup, one can still fairly assess which of the proposals are the better of the submitted lot.
The OP's situation is more difficult. They have not been asked to rank, but to decide on a pass/fail. I would be careful not to assign blame to the supervisor, and possibly not even the academic institution - they have to work with what candidates they have, and their education level, existing tradition and resources. The question is, why did they select OP as a reviewer? Because of their expertise field, to rubber stamp the thesis, or indeed because they wanted an objective, developed-country view on the quality of the thesis?
As an academic, I would find it difficult to just waive the requirements I expect from a doctoral level work. But, understanding the context in which it was created, you might consider formulating it politely, compassionately, constructively, and perhaps with indications of what would need to be done to get the work up to passable level.
*[I would not put too much weight on downgrading due to publications that fell for predatory outlets - after all, not only can you not expect less internationally experienced supervision teams to be fully aware of that, predatory outlets are sometimes very well disguised. For instance, I remember a case of a predatory conference which closely mimicried another conference which is well known, which managed to push their version to the top search engine ranking - this included name, location (it was in the same country as the real one inducing you to not note the discrepancy; basically a form of gaslighting). We ourselves discovered it by chance, by on/off noticing that there were two different versions of a Program Committee, one of them with none of the researchers you would expect.]*
They invited you to evaluate this work. This means they want your opinion. Academic integrity would probably demand that you give them your real opinion, but, in view of the circumstances, with a compassionate and constructive attitude and showing the candidate a way towards passing.
Finally, in the end, I assume it is their local committee that has to evaluate the opinion and give the ultimate verdict. If you feel that the mitigating circumstances still might call for a possible pass, you might consider formulating your opinion in such a way that gives them a back route to pass the candidate should they choose to do so.
In my opinion, the thing to remember that, ideally, with a PhD, that person should be able to apply for a position as a postdoc in a developed country. The long-term goal is that, with time, a PhD from that institution should become trustworthy enough that any good university in the developed world would realistically consider a PhD from that institution as a viable candidate. You have now a small role in helping to move towards this endeavour.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: Somewhere in the information pack that the university sent you, there should be an explicit statement of what the requirements for award of a PhD at that university are. At some universities, the only requirement is the classic "substantial original contribution to knowledge". Other universities ask for a substantial original contribution to knowledge and a couple of other things too. I've never been involved in a PhD exam at a university that doesn't require a substantial original contribution to knowledge, but I guess such universities must exist. So the direct answer is: the standard you should apply is the (presumably published) standard for award of a PhD of the university for which you're examining.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: If you have the time, you could consider giving him the full truth. Not only what parts are poor, but also why they are poor and more importantly, what would have been a better way of doing it. You can't give him the full tutelage of a supervisor, but since he apparently has a poor supervisor now, some good advice might help this student a lot.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: External examiner = independent, disinterested, and candid expert
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Universities engage external examiners in order to add the legitimacy of **disinterested expert approval**. Since the independence of the external examiner is a vital criterion, it is essential that the university **not** be allowed to dictate the terms on which you, as this disinterested expert, grant (or refuse to grant) approval. This is an occasion where you can and must be completely candid, acting without fear or favour. Whilst the internal examiner(s) and convenor are supposed to be similarly candid, they may be reluctant to be candid, since they may be too scared to "rock the boat".
*[When I say disinterested, I mean you have no vested interests in the university or the candidate; of course, you have a vested interest in maintaing the integrity of scholarhip generally, and it is that interest which you represent in your capacity as **external** examiner]*
As the external examiner, your responsibility is to evaluate the PhD thesis independently, since your duty is to scholarship, **not** to the university engaging you.
Therefore, you should judge it by the same standard as you would judge any PhD in the relevant field, irrespective of institution. Unlike Bachelor or Master's degrees, **the principal criterion for the award of a PhD is universal and generic: a substantial original contribution to scholarship**. As an expert in the relevant field (I hasten to add that only the candidate can be an expert in the work itself), it is your prerogative and responsibility to make a determine whether the thesis meets that criterion **independent of what the university may or may not require**.
A PhD is a 'passport' to recognition as a legitimate academic worldwide. Universities (and some vocational Higher Education institutions) are entrusted with the sacred responsibility to act as 'gatekeeper' to issuing this 'passport'. University regulations for PhD degrees are just a means to an end, existing to **guide** all parties towards determining what consitutes a substantial original contribution to scholarship. Ensuring compliance with such regulations is the responsibility of the internal examiner(s) and the convenor. The external examiner should disregard the bureaucracy and evaluate a PhD thesis **solely** on its own merits.
If the candidate has failed to comply with a university regulation (e.g.: he/she submitted too early or too late, did not attend some compulsory workshop, or did not comply with the word-limit) but his/her thesis **is** worthy of a PhD award (i.e.: the non-compliance is **not** a matter of academic integrity), that is for the internal examiner(s) and convenor to address, and **not** your problem as an external examiner.
If the candidate has complied with all university regulations, but his/her thesis is **not** worthy of a PhD award, it **is** your duty as external examiner to either recommend against awarding the degree (if the thesis is nowhere close to the standard required) or require corrections before the degree can be awarded (if the thesis is close to the standard required -- "pass subject to corrections" is the usual outcome in the UK). Of course, **you should make your criticism constructive and useful, but you must not be lenient**.
You are working for the global academic community, NOT for the university (despite the fact that it is the university which pays your fee and travel expenses)
==============================================================================================================================================================
Your responsibility as external examiner is to hold both **the candidate** and **the university** to account, and act as a vital line of defence (on behalf of the global academic community) against universities being too lenient (or, conversely, being too hostile to their own candidate... it can happen!). You also have a responsibility to defend the candidate against any absurdities of the university -- that is to say, you should have no qualms about disagreeing with university regulations if you feel they are inappropriate to the work at hand (e.g.: if you think the abstract is too long, you should demand, in your report, that the candidate make it shorter, regardless of how long the university regulations require the abstract to be).
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_6: Being honest is not incompatible with adjusting for context. **Give your assessment honestly, but not just in absolute terms — also state how you judge the thesis relative to the expected standards of the institution.**
Of course, you will probably have to ask/research a bit to find out those standards. Perhaps ask your contacts to send previous examples of what they consider a strong thesis and a weak-but-passable thesis; perhaps ask them to send any official guidelines to follow; perhaps ask for a phone call for an off-the-record chat to get their personal guidelines.
If these turn out to basically agree with your usual standards, then things are straightforward. If they’re much lower than your usual standards, then you can be clear in the report that you are writing with reference to them, along the lines of:
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> This thesis has major problems XYZ. These are significant scientific flaws, which must be addressed in order to produce good-quality research, and by my own university’s standards, I would not recommend proceeding to defence. However, the thesis does meet Target Institution’s standard of acceptability to proceed to defence, according my best judgement and the guidelines I have received.
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You are not compromising your honesty or candour, nor hiding the ways in which the candidate’s (and perhaps the institution’s) research standards need to be improved; but you are also not unilaterally imposing an external standard.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_7: Let's first consider the question of whether a thesis from a weaker university should be evaluated differently. First, we must define what we mean by 'weaker' and 'stronger.' I believe that there are two relevant definitions for this use: one is degree-granting institution and the other is quality of institution. We may also wish to consider institutional prestige as an additional factor.
Now, we must consider the effects of evaluating based on these factors. If one evaluates based on institutional prestige or degree-granting status, then their evaluation will be heavily influenced by reputation and hearsay. Such evaluations can be prone to personal bias as well.
If one evaluates based on institutional quality, then they are evaluating solely on the merits of the research and not hearsay. However, I believe that this can also be prone to bias.
Consider that there are many excellent institutions which may not be well-known. These institutions may have excellent professors and students who produce fantastic research, but because the institution is unknown to most people this work will go unnoticed.
Conversely, there are many institutions which may not be so excellent. These institutions have professors and students who produce less-than-stellar research, but because the institution is well known this work will be noticed!
Therefore, it seems that there are two factors which influence whether or not a thesis will be noticed: quality of the work itself and reputation/prestige.
Upvotes: 2
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2020/09/05
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<issue_start>username_0: I work in an engineering field (related to AI, machine learning, etc.) and something I found interesting is whenever I use "big words" or even long words like "substantiate" or "corroborates" while compiling a draft to be submit to a conference and such, I will get a request from my co-authors demanding me to change them.
For example:
* "these related works are germane to our present discussion." I got a
request to change the word "germane" to something else. Really?
* Or "...therefore, the scenario considered in [reference] is situated diametrically
opposite to ours." I was told to change "diametrically". Really?
* "The experiments in [references] corroborates with our results". I was told to change corroborates to "collaborates".
There are a lot more examples, especially in the latest draft. But I don't want to point them out just in case my colleagues are reading this forum. :-)
Mind you, this is all in the introduction of the paper, hence no way to confuse it with any technical terminology. This happens to me so frequently that I became almost clairvoyant as to which sentences I will need to rephrase in the upcoming revision.
My intention is merely for the writing to be conversational, and this is done in order to distinguish our works from some of the truly monotonous writing styles pervasive in this field.
Also worth noting is that some of the top authors in this field uses very flowery language (sometimes in my opinion excessively so), so you can say that I'm perhaps subconsciously trying to imitate them.
We are working in a North American university. However, some of my colleagues are non-native speakers (who have stayed here for something like 20 plus years). I wonder if this phenomenon is more wide spread or it is just happening to me.<issue_comment>username_1: Yeah, I've had this before. My PhD supervisor\* removed several of my perfectly fine English words with simpler ones. I still have the svn commit message saying, basically: "removing difficult words, but I'll allow 'aberrant'. I've learned something today :)".
In hindsight, I am not convinced that my supervisor was wrong. While my words were accurate, it doesn't hurt to write papers in a form that is more easily accessible to a wide audience. After all, I would like my papers to be read by an audience that does not exclusively stem from a native English speaking country. There are 1.1 billion Chinese people on this planet, and they encompass a substantial number of scientists.
The "corroborates->collaborates" suggestion is obviously wrong, and you can respectfully point that out to your co-author. But for the other two suggestions, I tend to agree with your co-authors that going for a simpler, shorter version is probably a better idea. For instance, where you write "these related works are germane to our present discussion", what is the point of the sentence anyway? Obviously, any related work that you discuss is assumed to be relevant to the discussion in the paper that you currently write, because everyone assumes that you're not wasting everyone's time. And where you write: "...therefore, the scenario considered in [reference] is situated diametrically opposite to ours.", you can also write "hence, the scenario from [x] is the polar opposite of ours". I don't think that the one version is necessarily better than the other, but I do think that they hold the same information, and if one version makes your co-authors happier than the other, then why not go for that version?
\*my PhD and subsequent research is in the field of data mining, so definitely STEM.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: The rule is:
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> Never use an uncommon word where a common word can do the job just as well.
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This is to make it easier to read your work.
You said
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> My intention is merely for the writing to be conversational
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However, "Germane," "Scenario," and "Diametrically" are not words used in conversation. Words like these will immediately jump out to native English speakers as inappropriate for scientific language. In my personal experience, highly educated native Chinese speakers know these uncommon words and use them in their writing, but some native English speakers will not know them and quite a lot of other English language learners, who are the majority of your readership, will not know them.
Write as simply as possible, but no simpler.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_3: There's nothing wrong with long words. The real issue with your writing is that it is redundant.
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> "these related works are germane to our present discussion."
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In this sentence, "germane" just stands for "related", so you're effectively saying "these related works are related". Here you are using the English cliche of pairing a common word with a rare synonym, which we also see in phrases like "trials and tribulations" or "vim and vigor". As in these examples, you include the common word because without it, people won't always know what the rare word means. But the very act of doing that makes the rare word completely useless. Redundancy in this form should basically always be removed.
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> "...therefore, the scenario considered in [reference] is situated diametrically opposite to ours."
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This is another example of the cliche above. The word "diametrically" isn't doing any work the word "opposite" isn't already doing. It's only there for the purpose of being a long word.
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> "The experiments in [references] corroborates with our results".
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This is not correct usage: the word "with" shouldn't be there. Incorrect usage of a long word is very bad: people who don't know it will be annoyed with you, and people who do will judge you.
Upvotes: 7 <issue_comment>username_4: The main objective of scientific writing is (or, at least, is supposed to be) to communicate the results, proofs, and general thought process in the clearest way possible. By itself, using a rare or not very well-known word is not a crime and it may make sense, for example, when it has precisely the meaning you intend to convey while more common words can only approximate it or have alternative meanings that you want to exclude, so if you do it sparingly and with clear understanding of the logic behind your preference, I would say "go ahead!".
That some people may have to look at the dictionary one extra time doesn't bother me too much: I like to learn new words myself and the common practice of sending the reader to the library to dig up some hard to get journal for a proof of some half-page long lemma that could be easily included into the main text irritates me much more. The bad practice, IMHO, is only using fancy words merely for the sake of doing it.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_5: Aside from what everybody else has said, I think it's worth noting that you're not prominent in your field (yet). Prominent people have more leeway than newbies. This is unfair, but it's the way it is.
So yes: write as simply as you can, without losing the complexity of the points you're making.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_6: >
> We are working in a North American university. However, some of my colleagues are non-native speakers (who have stayed here for something like 20 plus years). I wonder if this phenomenon is more wide spread or it is just happening to me.
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No, I would ask you the same thing.
When you write a paper, you want to write it for an international audience to maximize the number of people who can read it.
For me that means two things:
* When possible write it in English rather than in your native language, since English is the lingua franca for a lot of STEM fields
* Don't make it unnecessarily hard to read for a non-native speaker.
I am not a native speaker, but after working 8 years in international companies I think I am fairly proficient in English. And I would have to look up the words "germane" and "corroborates".
It is fine to use less common terms if they are needed for precision or are common in industry. If I need to look up a word and find that it could have been expressed in a simpler way, I am getting frustrated. I would probably even think less of the paper, since a good writer would be able to convey complex technical situations in a simpler way and someone who uses flowery language might want to hide a lack of substance.
If I am going through a lot of papers, I just might skip one that is unnecessarily frustrating.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_7: It is not necessary to keep a language in your papers sound like manuals, but at least it should not be confusing and overwhelmingly long. The language should be balanced between boring and flowery. Especially for people who read your paper to learn something new it is important that things are clear and precise. Stick to words you define, do not use synonymous words you did not define for things you defined (which is also part of a flowery language, but this can be really confusing).
So, it remains to cite [Karl Popper](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Popper):
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> Jeder Intellektuelle hat eine ganz besondere Verantwortung. Er hatte das Privileg und die Gelegenheit, zu studieren; dafür schuldet er es seinen Mitmenschen (oder „der Gesellschaft“), die Ergebnisse seiner Studien in der einfachsten und klarsten und verständlichsten Form darzustellen. Das Schlimmste – die Sünde gegen den heiligen Geist – ist, wenn die Intellektuellen versuchen, sich ihren Mitmenschen gegenüber als große Propheten aufzuspielen und sie mit orakelnden Philosophien zu beeindrucken. Wer’s nicht einfach und klar sagen kann, der soll schweigen und weiterarbeiten, bis er’s klar sagen kann.
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Translation by me:
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> All intellectual people have a particular responsibility. They had the privilege and the opportunity to study; in this way, they owe their fellows (or the society) to show the results of their studies in the clearest and most comprehensible form. The worst [...] thing [they] can do to their fellows is to play prophet and to impress them with oracle-like philosophies. Someone who cannot say it clearly, should be quiet and continue working until they can say it clearly.
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Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_8: I'm adding an answer for the purpose of voting, because I completely disagree with the (currently 8) answers and highly-upvoted comments to this question. None of the examples that the OP gave are uncommon or exotic words, to a well-read and reasonably-literate English speaker. To me, they were all entirely transparent. If you put them in a list of random words and asked me which ones were "flowery" I'd be hard-pressed to identify them. The idea that professional academics need to look these words up and claim that they are new to them is really quite hard to believe.
I'm reminded of a time I got refused a programming job for suggesting a [standard textbook algorithm](http://www.madmath.com/2015/12/that-time-i-didnt-get-job.html) ([Horner's Method](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horner%27s_method)), which the reviewer couldn't understand; similarly, when I sometimes bring this up online, many commenters likewise agree they would prohibit it from any codebase as "too opaque". But how can (computer) science progress without using new observations/algorithms?
Likewise, I've overheard my colleagues in the English department at the community college where I work (U.S.) saying that they now routinely have science PhDs from nearby graduate schools being referred to them for writing assistance, because those students commonly can't write even a simple English sentence correctly. So I think that there's an aspect of writing skills (and standards) for students in science programs that has very much fallen down in recent years.
The fact that you observe top authors in your field using a similar writing style is the most important piece of evidence, in my opinion. I'd recommend that you continue being literate, write in a style that feels natural and expressive to you, and pursue the goal of developing into a top researcher/author in your field.
Also, I would recommend that you get different co-authors in the top tier of your field. Consider looking for articles that you find inspiring and well-written and reaching out to those authors for actual (ahem) collaborations.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_9: I will preface this with confirming that I am a native speaker of English.
I would say the first two cases given by your co-authors should be corrected though (as many others have pointed out) in the third example the correction is wrong (though I also think it could be written better, and shouldn't have had with).
My feeling is that what you want to do is generate emotion in the reader as they read your paper. You want to build anticipation, tease the solutions and results, and feel the excitement when everything comes together. You want this so that the reader doesn't have to slog through yet another string of logical arguments. One way to achieve this (and I'm guessing this is relevant to at least some cases) is to use less common words from the English language. These may be words that as well as their broad meaning have sublet undertones of meaning flavouring them.
An example of these undertones is my use of flavouring in the previous sentence. Broadly it says there is general information in a sentence, and hints to help understand the meaning of other sentances. Subtlety it suggesting that a writer can take a boring/bland sentence and choose to add further hints of something that makes the text and enjoyment to read.
Another example would be *verdant grass*, broadly it means "green grass" but carries subtle meanings of lots of life. If we needed to use this in some academic text then maybe we might prefer to avoid verdant if possible. We could then use *green grass*, but then we've lost the subtle undertones, but perhaps we could fix that by using lush to get *lush green grass* instead. Now we have something very similar to what we wanted to say but by making use of more common words rather than something that would work brilliantly in a novel.
In addition to my broad thoughts above I'll go through my thoughts on the three sentences and how they could be improved.
**The examples**
For the first example I needed to look up germane, since your primary goal is to communicate information clearly that suggests there would be a better word (e.g. relevant). Only your secondary goal is to make it enjoyable to read, so if making it enjoyable to read requires people to pull out a dictionary or obscure information then it should take a back seat to writing boring but clear text. And don't forget that you should only expect your target audience to be competent at English, not have native level fluency.
>
> these related works are germane to our present discussion.
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Why germane? What does this give that related doesn't, is there any difference from what is said by "these works are related to our present discussion". If there is a difference can you correct this simplified sentence using more common words rather then reaching for a less common one.
One reason I could see you might be wanting to do this is to slow the reader down so that they think more about what you just said, and to separate what follows from what you've just written. In which case you could try something else while still restricting yourself to simple words (e.g. use the passive voice), "The work(s) presented in [citation(s)] must be considered for our present discussion" (though I still feel like this sentence could be improved).
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> ...therefore, the scenario considered in [reference] is situated diametrically opposite to ours.
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Unlike the first example I (personally) don't have to go to the dictionary for this, though it still feels bad to me. The big picture of what you are saying is
*Scenario in [Ref] is not the same as our work.*
However there are implications made by your choice of words, something like:
*There is a location in parameter space related to our work, and the work in [ref] is located at the complete opposite location.*
The parameter space idea probably comes to me because you used "situated" rather than because of "diametrically".
Why not something like "Therefore, the results in [references] are inconsistent with the scenario we've considered." Does this convey the same ideas that you wanted originally, if not could you start from this and generate what you want to say?
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> The experiments in [references] corroborates with our results
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Here corroborates is correct but you shouldn't have with. However I feel like what you are conveying in the subtle undertones is wrong. Broadly you are saying *experiments in [refs] agree with our results and thus strengthen our arguement*. However at the subtle layer I feel you are saying *[refs] decided to check our results and will strengthen our claims* which is causally the opposite of what is going on. Depending on what you are trying to say perhaps "Our results corroborate the hypothesis put forward in [ref]". Or if you are trying to use the references to strengthen a claim put forward in your paper, "The experiments in [ref] fit the framework of [put claim here]"
The last thing to remember is that different people will interpret the subtle information differently, though their interpretation is still valid. So when you write like this you can't just assume that everyone will interpret it the same as you do.
But this also means there is flexibility in how you write and so you can develop a style you are comfortable with, enjoy writing, and take pride in the results. However whatever style you develop it must be constrained by the ways that your target audience will interpret it, and the general skill level that the majority of your audience has.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_10: In a famous literary feud, <NAME> allegedly said of Ernst Hemingway's writing that it has
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> never been known to send the reader to the dictionary
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Hemingway's response pretty much sums it up:
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> Poor Faulkner. Does he really think big emotions come from big words? He thinks I don’t know the ten-dollar words. I know them all right. But there are older and simpler and better words, and those are the ones I use.
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If you have to pick one side, err on Hemingway's in academic writing. The *only* point of an academic paper is to get your ideas across to your readers in the most efficient way possible. In particular, it is *not* to impress them with your English prowess.
Upvotes: 4
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2020/09/06
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<issue_start>username_0: I have just noticed something very weird, some months ago, I was looking in google scholar an article of <NAME> called "The Vapor Pressure of Metallic Tungsten", it had 761 citations, some time passed
and I searched the same article again and now it has 744 citations. I don't know if maybe I didn't see the correct number of citations the first time, but that make me question myself, is it even possible for a scientific article to lose cites? does that make sense?<issue_comment>username_1: Google Scholar's citation counts are based on the number of citations found by Google's web-crawler. They tend to fluctuate up and down a little. This is usually either because documents such as internal reports or theses disappear from their authors' websites, or because Google's algorithms identify certain documents as duplicates of one another and 'merges' them.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: In addition to the inherent curation problems of web-crawling, determining duplicates, etc, it is quite possible for a document to truly lose citations.
For this to happen, a citing article would be withdrawn or amended such that the citation is removed. If the article is withdrawn for error, one might argue whether it ought to still count as a citation or not, since the article may leave some trace. In the case of, say, entirely fraudulent publications being used to pump citation counts, however, those citations would certainly be well and truly gone.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: To directly answer the question:
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> Is it possible for a scientific article to lose citations?
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>
>
Not except in rare cases. For the most part, citation is a permanent thing. This also depends on how citations are counted: if an article is published but then updated to a new version (say on a preprint site) which removes a citation, does the previous version count as a citation or not? Citation databases like Google scholar have to make a decision about such matters, and whatever they choose, they try to apply it in some consistent matter. But it can be hard especially as article titles can change between revisions.
Because it is fully automated, Google scholar is likely to be less stable than the "real" citation count as measured by some objective criteria (making a decision as to whether, e.g. preprints or website pdfs are counted, whether updating or retracting a paper removes old citations, and so on). I would guess that the "real" citation count almost always never goes down.
Upvotes: 3
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<issue_start>username_0: I am starting my PhD in a few days. One of the faculty told one of his students that me and another incoming PhD student just made it in terms of the initial admission ranking, i.e. we were in the bottom of the pile among those who made the cut. The reason that we got in was because the top candidates they sent offers to didn't come and there were professors asking for us specifically.
I know I could report this professor for his behavior but I'm not gonna do that. However, I am wondering if initial admission ranking means anything in terms of actual PhD performances. My field is statistics.<issue_comment>username_1: >
> we were in the bottom of the pile.
>
>
>
Not really! You were in the very top of the pile. Many departments get more PhD applications than they can accept. Typical acceptance rates are about 10%, although I don't know about statistics specifically.
So if they offered eight spots, you were applicants #9 and #10. That's good. Unfortunately, when it comes down to choosing eight people out of the top 20 or so, it comes down basically chance. There is no objective way of measuring how good a candidate might be. So there is likely no real difference between #9 and #10, or more critically, between #8 -- the cutoff -- and #9. That a professor was asking for you specifically means a lot more than the overall ranking come up with by a committee.
Because "ranking" in the top 10% or so is meaningless, it doesn't really correlate with performance. Likely, you and you cohort study different enough things that it's hard to compare anyway.
It is quite inappropriate for a professor to reveal students' "rankings," *especially* to other people, though.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Interesting question. My guess is that 'bottom of the pile' matters, and matters more at universities that have diverse scores. It would be hard to answer directly.
Departments do not generally release this information. This is in part because the process may be far more organic than they would like to broadcast, with individual professors raising their hands for students for a variety of factors that are not directly related to scores. This is almost entirely because of the fidelity of these tests to determine success, and the realities of test sensitivity and specificity at relatively high values. Although scores matter (a scholar search for 'admissions statistics to graduate student success' will show you this), for a good program students tend all to be at the top of the pile.
To sort the top of that pile, advisors look for other metrics of likely success, most notably the idea of 'fit' to the professor's teaching style, personality, and areas of interest. The 'bottom of the pile' your friend ended up on may have been related to scores, but also may have been related to the advisor's understanding of 'fit'. Certainly, this advisor seems not to be happy with the match, and is doing themselves and their student no favors in terms of making it work.
The unsavory impetus for your question aside, the very reason that this professor's behavior is improper (and cruel) is also the reason the question may be challenging to directly answer; it is all a bit taboo. But, you know, if you did answer this taboo question empirically, I think it would be a useful contribution, and statistics would not be a poor field to answer it within...
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: >
> we were in the bottom of the pile...[does] initial admission ranking means anything in terms of actual PhD performances?
>
>
>
I would clarify this a bit. Let's say there were 100 applicants for 8 spots. What likely happened was that some formula was used to rank applicants from #1 to #100 (the details of how this is done will vary widely). Now this formula is far from perfect, so the program will not just blindly follow it -- there are lots of other factors to consider, including the matching between the advisors and the students. But anyone ranked below, say, #35 with this formula is unlikely to get one of the 8 slots, so those applications will be set aside. This is an easy and objective way to reduce the number of applications that need to be further considered.
It sounds like your rankings according to this initial formula was only just above the cutoff (say, #33 and #34). This puts you in the top 1/3 of applicants, which you should be proud of. Better yet, it got you into the next round, where the professors decided that you would be a good fit for the program.
Now, is the #1 student more qualified than the #35 student? Probably. But between the #25 student and the #30 student, the difference is probably negligible. Students are multidimensional, which is why the final decision was made by humans, not by the formula. Further, the elements in the formula (undergraduate grades, undergraduate research experience, writing skills in the SOP) are only loosely correlated with the skills necessary to be successful in graduate school. So, I suspect the correlation between one's initial formula score and one's graduate school success will be similarly small but positive.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_4: It depends on the field, for engineering as long as you have a degree you will benefit. For areas of pure science or mathematics I would be worried, mainly because the jobs just aren't there - even generic teaching jobs.
I guess this is independent of the issue of degree completion but on a practical basis I wouldn't suggest theoretical physics or mathematics to anyone who isn't at the top, top of the field because you're going to end up doing something else after graduation.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_5: First, at my R1 math dept in the US, we no longer pretend to linearly rank grad applicants. That's ridiculous and meaningless.
I'd wager that the faculty person who made such remarks has some sort of resentment of grudge about some demographic of students... and tells his/her *own* students that [some demographic] of students is inferior to them...
(I'll not go into details about my observations of such behaviors... tho' one stereotypical riff is non-US-origin faculty to disparage lazy americans...)
In any case, although some of my colleagues here *do* definitely like algorithms and numerical rankings, all my (multi-decade) experience indicates that these numbers are not merely not *good* indicators, but just worthless. They test many things, but not what we want for a PhD program in mathematics, of whatever sort.
So, yes, there are people who have poor enough judgement to say such things, but it's basically disconnected from reality. Still, even deluded people with enough power can make their delusions be operationally real, so be alert... sigh...
EDIT: among other things, in my R1 US math dept, by now we do not pretend to linearly order applicants. It's more like a first-pass that tries to assess whether people would succeed in our program, or not. Obvs don't want to admit people (for their benefit and ours) who are not at all prepared, or maybe don't have the interest or ability. But among those who *could* meet our expectations ... how to "rank". There's really no sane system. GRE subject test scores have shown their own irrelevance, ... GPA? Whah? Predicting what 22-year olds may accomplish based on the previous few years of their life is ridiculous.
In my 35-year involvement with grad admissions, I find that the only reliable assessment method requires "reading between the lines" in personal statements and letters of recommendation. How in the world could I describe this in algorithmic terms? (Ok, I could make up something, especially if litigated-against, but, c'mon...)
Yes, I am all too well aware that many programs do behave as though some algorithm is sufficient. In fact, our program plays against that by looking at candidates whose "typical algorithmic" status would be not-so-high, but whom we can anticipate would be great students. :)
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_6: In addition to the already good answers:
The criteria used for PhD admission are only weakly related to what it takes to do a successful PhD.
Doing a PhD is about doing *research*. (In the US, not in its entirety, since you still take courses, but that's what it is really about.) Admission is based on grades in taking *courses* and passing the corresponding *exams*, together with some other criteria. Good performance in exams is only weakly related to being good at research, as are the other criteria. So just because other people did better in their exams, it does not mean that they will be better researchers.
Upvotes: 0
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<issue_start>username_0: I know that similar questions have been posted before but i cannot find a specific and complete answer.
Suppose that i post a preprint article on ArXiv/TechRxiv. Then, i submit the paper to an IEEE Transaction journal. After revisions it is accepted. In IEEE [author's FAQ](https://www.ieee.org/content/dam/ieee-org/ieee/web/org/pubs/author_faq.pdf) i can read the following:
>
> Can an author post his manuscript on a preprint server such as TechRxiv or ArXiv?
> Yes. The IEEE recognizes that many authors share their unpublished manuscripts on public sites. **Once manuscripts have been accepted for publication by IEEE, an author is required to post an IEEE copyright notice on his preprint.** Upon publication, the author must ***replace*** the preprint with either 1) the full citation to the IEEE work with Digital Object Identifiers (DOI) or a link to the paper’s abstract in IEEE Xplore, or 2) the accepted version only (not the IEEEpublished version), including the IEEE copyright notice and full citation, with a link to the final, published paper in IEEE Xplore.
>
>
>
So, here is the question: how can i do that if ArXiv/TechRxiv does not permit to replace/edit previous version of a preprint? I am allowed just to update the preprint, hence create a [new version of it](https://arxiv.org/help/replace). However, previous versions remain accessible.<issue_comment>username_1: When referring to a preprint being replaced, it is understood that a new version will be generated. Most/all preprint servers do not generally permit editing existing versions in order to maintain a clear timeline.
Even though older versions remain accessible, readers would view the latest version as the most up-to-date version to refer to for future use, so this is unlikely to be an issue.
This interpretation also agrees with the [terminology used by arXiv](https://arxiv.org/help/replace).
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: I have just gone through this process with the an IEEE publication and TechRxiv. Having 2 revisions before my paper was accepted, these two prints are archived as 2 different versions of the same record, having the same DOI with a versioned suffix. TechRxiv always shows the newest record first.
Once your article is published on IEEE Xplore, you can download your author accepted manuscript from the Author Gateway. This will be the same PDF as your final submission, but with the IEEE copyright and Published DOI put on the document for you.
You can then click My Submissions in TechRxiv, and edit your existing record to now include the provided AAM.
Anyone accessing TechRxiv will see your latest version by default. This is completely acceptable with respect to IEEE policy, as can be seen from the instructions you get during the publication process, or the IEEE website.
These are the notices on the IEEE provided AAM:
>
> This article has been accepted for publication in IEEE Transactions on
> Electron Devices. This is the author's version which has not been
> fully edited and content may change prior to final publication.
> Citation information: DOI 10.1109/TED.2021.1234567
>
>
> © 2021 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but
> republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission. See
> <https://www.ieee.org/publications/rights/index.html> for more
> information.
>
>
>
Please see these for more information:
<https://www.ieee.org/content/dam/ieee-org/ieee/web/org/pubs/author_version_faq.pdf>
<https://journals.ieeeauthorcenter.ieee.org/become-an-ieee-journal-author/publishing-ethics/guidelines-and-policies/post-publication-policies/>
This link states that TechRxiv and ArXiv are acceptable places to store a copy of the AAM:
<http://journals.ieeeauthorcenter.ieee.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/IEEE-Article-Sharing-and-Posting-Policies.pdf>
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: I just received an email from an undergrad student in a course that I am teaching.
The student informed me that his girlfriend's father passed away,
and so he will be unable to attend my class because
he "needs to stay with her to help her with official processes related to her father's death".
(I am paraphrasing what he wrote.)
This is the first time that a student has raised this as a reason for missing a class.
**Question:
Is the death of a girlfriend's father a reasonable excuse for a student to miss a class?**
Here's how I am thinking about it:
* The death of an immediate family member is a significant event.
If the student experienced the death of an immediate family member,
there's no question to me that this would be a reasonable excuse for missing a class.
* However, in this case, it's not the student
who is experiencing the death of an immediate family member, but his girlfriend.
I understand that for university students,
a girlfriend/boyfriend can be extremely important.
* I don't think my university policy allows a student to miss quizzes/exams
due to the death of a relative of the student's significant other,
so I am assuming that the same policy would apply for missing classes.
However, I have a nagging feeling that if I were to deny his request,
I would be a "bad" or "unreasonable" teacher.
(Note: I mistakenly wrote "due to the death of the student's significant other" earlier but I fixed this mistake.)
### Response to comments/questions
* Due to COVID-19, the course is run virtually using Zoom.
* A few weeks before the start of the semester,
I inherited this course from a colleague
who received reducing teaching load
because he was assigned additional administrative tasks.
I am therefore trying to run the course how he set it up in the past.
The attendance policy which he set,
and is included in the syllabus,
is that if students miss 2 or more classes,
they will automatically fail the course.
* In addition, students do receive a small amount of points
for attendance and participation.
* The course is conducted using a **seminar course format**
rather than a **traditional lecture format**.
For all classes except the first class,
students present their work,
and other students ask questions and give feedback and suggestions.
Due to the seminar course format,
it makes some sense to me why my colleague required
a high level of attendance to pass the course.
* I found what the university policy says
regarding excused absences for exams or coursework:
>
> A death certificate and supporting documentation where there is a demonstrably close relationship between the student and the deceased.
>
>
>
### What I learned and what I decided to do
* Ultimately I decided to excuse the student from that particular class.
* It was pointed out that attendance and participation
only counts for a very small number of marks
in the overall course assessment.
Therefore, I should not waste time and effort overthinking this issue.
(In the case where the student were absent for
an exam or major course assignment,
I would have to follow official procedures
to handle the student's issue.)
* It was also pointed out that students
may be strongly emotionally affected
by events that occur not only to their immediate family
or to their married spouses,
but also to their significant others or close friends/relatives
or even their pets.
* Finally, it is a hassle to take attendance,
so in future courses,
it would make my life easier and less stressful
if attendance was not considered in the course assessment.<issue_comment>username_1: Unless your university has an umbrella policy about absences, you as the instructor get to decide what you deem acceptable. In this case, I would first defer to what you wrote in the syllabus.
A common type of wording is to allow "excused" absences, where a proof of an excuse can range from things like a doctor's note, official notice from the university (commonly used for athletes), or an obituary, to name a few. If you were not explicit about absences in the syllabus, then you have even more freedom to make a judgment call here.
>
> If the student experienced the death of an immediate family member, there's no question to me that this would be a reasonable excuse for missing a class.
>
>
>
What if the death was a student's guardian? How about a childhood friend? What if it was a cousin that they have not spoken to in 20 years but is still considered immediate family? Often, instructors ask that the student provide proof of the event such as by providing an obituary, which is what you could do here to avoid being an unfair instructor.
>
> Is the death of a girlfriend's father a reasonable excuse for a student to miss a class?
>
>
>
Yes.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_2: >
> I don't think my university policy allows a student to miss quizzes/exams due to the death of the student's significant other, so I am assuming that the same policy would apply for missing classes.
>
>
>
You'd have to check your university's policy, but I would be very surprised if this were correct. I'd urge you to double check.
What I suspect is that university policy *requires* you to excuse absences, for a list of specifically enumerated reasons. If the student offers a different reason, I would guess that policy neither forbids you nor requires you to excuse the absence.
Quite frankly, the policy that "if students miss 2 or more classes, they will automatically fail the course" sounds draconian to me. (And like something that might be forbidden by university policy.) I wouldn't adopt such a policy, just becase a colleague did. Personally, if I were in your shoes, I would immediately reverse course and announce a more lenient policy in its place. And in this case in particular, I would *definitely* accept the offered excuse.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: *Edit: see below for some additional thoughts following OP’s revision of the question.*
Let me start with this basic premise: **Your students are adults.**
Let me repeat that: your students are adults. That is one of the great luxuries of teaching in a higher education setting: you get to spend your time and energy actually teaching the subjects you are passionate about and not having to worry about being some kind of glorified baby-sitter or beacon of moral rectitude for your students. The division of labor is clear: the students get to make to their own decisions about how they want to best benefit from the course you are teaching, and you get to test them, give out assignments of various sorts, and give a grade at the end of the semester that reflects your assessment of what they learned.
And now for your question:
>
> Is the death of a girlfriend's father a reasonable excuse for a student to miss a class?
>
>
>
While it is tempting to answer with a simple “yes”, I think the more accurate answer is that it is meaningless to speak about a “reasonable excuse”. Quite simply, in the context of a lecture-based college class, you should not be in the business of policing the reasons for students’ absences, or indeed whether they are absent or not. So in that sense, *any* excuse is a “reasonable” excuse. But if that’s the case, of course the notion of an excuse loses all meaning, so we come back to what I said above.
I know that what I‘m saying here flies in the face of the reality that some instructors mandate attendance in lectures, and that you do as well. Well, I have nothing more to say other than that such mandates are misguided and pointless, and lead to precisely the kind of fake dilemmas of the sort presented in your question, in which a baffled instructor tries to wrap their head around whether something is a “reasonable excuse”.
Finally, from a practical point of view, since you inherited this course from a colleague and don’t seem to personally have a strong attachment to the mandated attendance requirement, the best course of action is to simply drop that requirement, and free up your and your students’ time and energy for more productive uses.
---
**Edit:** OP has edited the question to clarify that the course is “conducted using a seminar course format rather than a traditional lecture format. For all classes except the first class, students present their work, and other students ask questions and give feedback and suggestions.”
For such a course, an attendance requirement *may* be logical. I’d still advocate for the instructor to make every effort possible not to get dragged into having to adjudicate questions about what is a “reasonable excuse” for missing class. It’s simply not a healthy situation for an instructor to be in and again conflicts with my “students are adults” premise. What I suggest instead is to have a policy that “students may not miss more than X lectures”, without making a distinction between “excused” and “not excused” absences, and to set X at a number that’s high enough that the policy won’t hurt students who had “serious” problems like an illness or a death in the family. For example X=4 or 5 would be pretty reasonable for a course of the type OP is describing. With such a policy, again the instructor will be treating the students as the adults that they are and freeing up everyone’s time and energy to let them do what they are actually at university to do instead of quibbling over bureaucratic nonsense.
Upvotes: 9 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_4: ### Yes, this should be a reasonable excuse.
Leaving aside the discussion in certain other answers about mandatory attendance policies and whether or not they're appropriate, there is an important factor that you haven't considered: University students are adults. Adults engage in romantic relationships that have traditionally been formalized with marriage. As time has passed, however, increasing numbers of young people have decided to do away with formalizing a relationship as a marriage when engaging in a serious romantic relationship that, in previous years, would have been recognized as a marriage. Indeed, in many places, the government has put into place rules governing "de facto marriages" that cause such relationships to be legally considered marriage.
As such, if I was in your position, I would assume that your student was engaged in such a relationship, and treat the death of his girlfriend's father the exact same way that you'd treat the death of his wife's father, and thereby treat it as a death in the immediate family.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_5: You are actually asking 2 questions:
1. Is this a valid reason to miss class?
2. How should grades be handled?
Let's look at the questions one at a time.
### Is this a valid reason to miss class?
I think it's important to see this from the students perspective. So let's get you into similar situations.
The father of your husband/wife passed away, and he/she needs you. Is it ok for you to take the day off? Or your almost adult child's best friend since they were kids pass away. Is it ok for you to stay home? What if it's your almost adult child's special someone that passes away, is it ok for you to take care of your child in this case?
According to your reasoning in the question it wouldn't be ok for you to take care of your loved ones and help them out in any way you can. To me that is ridiculous, of course you should do what is needed for your family. It's really no difference with a boyfriend/girlfriend.
### How should grades be handled
This part of the question is harder to answer.
Let's take it to the extreme, different things happen during the course and the student isn't able to participate at all. Should you pass this student? Of course not, they haven't shown they have the knowledge needed to pass.
So what is the goal of the education? Is it to be in the classes? Or is it to get the knowledge of the course? Obviously it's getting the knowledge, and I think your goal should be to make sure the student have the knowledge needed rather than count the amount of missed classes.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_6: I think your question is ill-posed. Why do you consider that a family member's death is justified and the death of a girlfriend's father is questionable? In some cases, we are emotionally much more attached to people who are not family members. Then, I think it is not appropriate to judge which one is "justified" or not. This is your personal judgement, we respect it but no need to impose them to others.
By the way, this could be the death of my pet. You can be deeply attached to your pet and its loss can make you sadden so much that you do not want to attend your class.
This is said in previous comments but these people are adults and unless the university has a policy which obliges students to attend classes, we should let them do what they want. Either they attend or not, this should not be our business.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_7: Well, again this is a rather difficult topic to debate. What exactly do we mean by 'reasonable excuse'? Who decides what's reasonable? I'm not sure that there ever will be any definitive answer to the question of whether or not someone has good reason to miss class.
As for the death of a girlfriend's father, I think that this is definitely one of those situations in which you might be able to show some leniency and understanding. It's not surprising that a young man would want to console his girl after she has lost her father.
On the other hand, I do think that it is important to teach students the importance of responsibility and accountability. If a student chooses to skip class in order to console his girlfriend, he does so at the expense of his learning.
In this case, I think it would be perfectly reasonable to deny the student's request for an excuse and instead require him to attend class. However, if you do choose to allow the student to miss a class or two in order to take care of his girlfriend, then there is nothing wrong with that.
The topic provides much food for thought, and I appreciated the opportunity to respond. And thanks! That's one of the most interesting topics I've seen so far.
Thanks again for the great topic. I really enjoyed thinking about it.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_8: Yes
===
1. Students are adults
----------------------
I largely agree with username_3's [answer](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/154925/129015), especially with emphasizing the voluntary nature of higher education.
2. The reasonableness of excuses
--------------------------------
However, saying that `any excuse is a “reasonable” excuse`, while *true* does not seem very *useful* to me. Instead, I want to introduce a handy way of thinking about excuses and how we might determine how reasonable they are.
As a reference, I am using this LessWrong [post](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/gFMH3Cqw4XxwL69iy/eight-short-studies-on-excuses), which frames the question as a two-person game in which one player (of type utilitarian) makes a rule, the other player breaks it and gives an excuse, which the first player needs to either accept or reject.
**The general principle:**
>
> The general principle is that by accepting an excuse, a rule-maker is also committing themselves to accepting all equally good excuses in the future.
>
>
>
**Which means that:**
>
> The first party's response is based not only on whether the person's excuse is believable, not even on whether the person's excuse is morally valid, but on whether the excuse can be accepted without straining the credibility of their previous pre-commitment.
>
>
>
Now, to apply this to the present case.
3. The Co-grieving Student
--------------------------
**First**, this is different from [The Grieving Student](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/gFMH3Cqw4XxwL69iy/eight-short-studies-on-excuses#The_Grieving_Student), since in this scenario, the student has not felt the loss themselves, but rather is supporting their grieving partner (note that I don't include if the student is related to the deceased person or not, which would lead to a different discussion), which I term "co-grieving".
**Second**, it's still relevant that the primary grief is that of a deceased loved-one, instead of, say, grief about a lost competition, in that we would accept this primary grief as an excuse (for details see the link above).
**Third**, we apply the quoted principles and ask the following questions:
1. Does accepting the excuse encourage other students to miss class?
2. Does rejecting the excuse deter other students from missing class?
### 3.1 Note
Remember, by accepting the excuse we are essentially saying "I am the type of player to accept this kind of excuse. You can expect me to accept this kind of excuse in the future". However, society judges the loss of a family member to be of high importance, irrespective of our decision regarding the excuse. Including the partner/s of the grieving person does not drastically lower the standard.
### 3.2 Accept
If we accept the excuse, we cannot expect a sudden rise in people missing our classes, since it is unlikely that they will kill their partner's family members in order to miss class.
### 3.3 Reject
If we reject the excuse, we might deter people who's partner lost a family member from missing class. However, this is unsure, since plenty of people would regard such an event as more important than attending class (and find other ways to miss class, like finding a lax doctor). Conversely, if those people effectively *are* deterred from missing class in such a situation, our contribution to society is that we establish class-attendance to be of higher importance than partnership (which might not be essential to the game we are playing, but still seems worth noting).
4. Conclusion
-------------
Keeping in mind that class attendance in higher education is not terribly important, we find that under the premise that we want to ensure class attendance, it still makes sense to accept the excuse that someone's partner is grieving the loss of a family member for missing class.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_9: All of this is U.S.-specific: *Some history on this:* A specific college (I think it was actually a truck driver's school) reported that student's were attending classes that they weren't. This caused financial-aid (i.e. funding) issues and seemed to be unethical and possibly illegal. (See the web-site: <https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/confessions-community-college-dean/attendance-policies>)
As a result, many schools were forced to take attendance (when I went to college, they didn't typically at the University level). So, then one has the obligation to attend lectures that had previously been basically miss-at-your-own-risk.
If I were the professor, I would typically always allow a student to attend almost any funeral, especially if it were a one-day-event. For out of town or overseas funerals, the situation gets more complicated.
Also, in my post-academia work-world, I would think **most managers** *would* generally allow an employee to miss in this situation, though for certain jobs/situations that would not always be true. I had to do this myself, and there was no problem from my manager. Of course, I used a vacation-day (but with very little notice).
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_10: Yes, of course.
(Any discussion beyond this is over-thinking it...)
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_11: The student told you: "...needs to stay with her to help her with official processes related to her father's death". This suggests that there isn't much support from the family of the girlfriend. It's then best to talk to the student to assess whether there are now other issues causing a longer term impact beyond the usual formalities. Should that be the case, you can suggest that the student get help from the university to manage the situation.
For example, it may be that the girlfriend's mother needs care and that the father was taking care of her. The mother is not able to take care of the formalities, so the girlfriend needs to do that, as well as take care of her mother temporarily before a permanent solution is found. However, she also has a job and can only get limited time off. The student is then expected to do his share. In such a situation, it's easy for the student to underestimate the impact this may have on his studies.
There is then no need for you to find out the precise details of such a situation, the student is entitled to privacy about this. But you can tell the student that in case he is now confronted with having more duties on the longer term that are likely to interfere with his studies, that he should not hesitate to seek help and not wait until problems arise.
Upvotes: 0
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<issue_start>username_0: How would potential research advisors view someone entering graduate school because of interest in particular "real-world" problems, with the ultimate hope of leaving or changing fields if these particular issues are resolved?
I can come up with a few examples. Perhaps someone is very passionate about a particular disease for personal or family reasons, and 15-20 years later therapies have progressed to the extent that they feel the problem no longer needs their attention. Maybe someone is passionate about climate change, environmental protection or missile defense because of the challenges of their hometown, and 20 years later political circumstances change (e.g., in the last case, the Cold War ends) such that they no longer feel these issues threaten their communities.
This model of thinking about one's career, "If society is successful the problem will be solved and we can all quit our job" contrasts the life-long academic model. At the same time, I feel that's how many people are motivated to enter research, not from the perspective of "I'm interested in X technology" but "I want to help solve Y problem".
My concern is, if I interview with potential future advisors with this kind of story, even if the political problem I'm focused on has a long, 1-2 decades timeline for resolution, a future advisor might find this kind of attitude "disloyal" to a field. When advisors ask about my interests, I feel that they're looking for a response that describes intrinsic academic interest in a topic, "I think X is really interesting", rather than a framing of research as "I'm concerned about Y political problem that you might not necessarily care about or may even disagree with, it's unlikely to go away in a 10 year time-frame, and I think getting a PhD in Z is the best way for me help my community in working through this problem". Especially for a pure-academic, "I'm primarily motivated by recent, specific political circumstances" may not sound very dedicated coming from a student entering a new field for them, even if all signs point to this problem staying around for decades. And for certain issues, like defense/ security, advisors may object to training students with this motivation because of their ethical views.
What concerns would such an advisor have, and how can I respond to them?
I'm in a technical field, for reference, but am interested in answers oriented towards humanities-oriented fields as well.<issue_comment>username_1: >
> My concern is, if I interview with potential future advisors with this kind of story, even if the political problem I'm focused on has a long, 1-2 decades timeline for resolution, a future advisor might find this kind of attitude "disloyal" to a field or otherwise unacceptable.
>
>
>
Importantly a PhD in a given field really is just a piece of paper signalling you are capable of independent and novel research. It's sort of a baseline expectation for a researcher and nothing more. Kind of similar to how your BSc simply qualifies you to speak intelligently about broad topics in your field.
I'm not aware, personally, if any situation where switching fields/leaving a field would be seen as a negative. In my field (Computer Science) it's not uncommon at all to see researchers publishing in broadly related fields such as math, engineering, economics, or really any other place Computer Science is used. Though, to be fair many more stick to their specialization.
>
> This model of thinking about one's career, "If I'm successful the problem will be solved and I can quit my job" contrasts the life-long academic model. At the same time, I feel that's how many people are motivated to enter research, not from the perspective of "I'm interested in X technology" but "I want to solve Y problem".
>
>
>
10-20 years is more-or-less a career (using your numbers above). I don't think anyone would look at you negatively for quitting at that point.
>
> "I'm primarily motivated by recent, specific political circumstances" may not sound very dedicated coming from a student entering a new field for them, even if all signs point to this problem staying around for decades. And for certain issues, like defense/ security, advisors may object to training students with this motivation because of their ethical views.
>
>
>
Political motivations really depend on your field. I can only speak for my field but if it wasn't for a need for better computing technology in WW2 the field of Computer Science may not be what it is today!
However, importantly your political motivations *must* necessarily align with your advisor's. If your advisor does not see your problem as important it will likely be disregarded. Your goal during your PhD is to learn how to do research under the guidance of someone with significant experience. It's approximately equivalent to a journeyman position in labor but for academia. Your advisor is there to help you find topics that will get you out of your PhD on time and hold your interest for 4-6 years. If you get a read from your advisor that what you want to do is ethically/politically contrary to their beliefs you can either accept this and do research with the *end goal* of contributing how you want after your PhD, or attempt to find a new advisor. Your PhD is not your entire career. If you get your PhD you'll have *plenty* of time to do work in things you enjoy.
In general your post gives off a small sense of superiority. What will sink you is this sense you seem to have that you *will* solve a major problem in a field. It's an honorable thing to think about but to use a direct example - if I told my advisor my goal is to solve P =? NP in 20 years I would probably be told to seriously evaluate whether I understand what research actually is.
Keep this in mind when broaching this question. It's good to have aspirations of greatness but remember to keep them in check. Research is incremental. Reframing your thoughts, and the way you broach the question to advisors, into something like "I am extremely passionate about XYZ and I want to advance the body of knowledge in this field during my career" will both make you look humble and intelligent.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: There's a body of methods in experimental design called "statistical decision theory", and it works only if one has an "external/political motivation" of the kind you describe, encoded in a loss function. Hence, with anyone who uses statistical decision theory, it should be safe to discuss the general idea of having an external/political motivation to undertake research (although that doesn't entirely rule out the possibility that a *specific* external/political motivation might be risky to bring up).
Upvotes: 0
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2020/09/06
| 550
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<issue_start>username_0: I've been thinking that sometimes here on Stack Exchange, people make very good questions and give very good answers, in my case, I have learnt a lot from the community and when I post a question I try to make an effort to formulate it in a proper manner to avoid downvoting, so, when applying for a job or an academic position, would be correct to also make a reference of your Stack Exchange profile?
I believe that people that are hiring you, may have a better glimpse of you interests, what you know and what you don't know from the answers and questions that you make, so, is it a good idea to also show it?<issue_comment>username_1: If:
* the person specification for the job calls for skill X; and
* you think to yourself "I demonstrated skill X in StackExchange post Y"; and
* your StackExchange history doesn't contain anything likely to be offensive or embarrassing (given your user name, check the recruiter isn't a descendant of the house of Valois)
then it might well be beneficial to refer to StackExchange (although perhaps to the specific post Y, rather than to your profile).
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: You may get a small bump by being a good *answerer* on the technical stacks, like Physics or Cross Validated. I've heard MathOverflow in particular has a decent recognition among mathematicians. Especially if you are applying for a teaching position, showing a good track record wouldn't hurt, even if only 1 in 25 people have heard of Stack Exchange (which would be a very high proportion in my experience).
By "good" I'm thinking of rep north of 5,000 at least, but I'm not familiar with the standards of those Stacks in particular.
That said, your thought about:
>
> I have learnt a lot from the community and when I post a question I try to make an effort to formulate it in a proper manner to avoid downvoting
>
>
>
... is, I'm sorry to say, pretty meaningless and confusing to explain to someone looking to hire you in an academic position. No one cares that you didn't get downvoted when asking a question online. That is basically the bare minimum to participate in these sites, even though I do acknowledge the communities can sometimes be harsh.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]
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2020/09/07
| 512
| 1,970
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<issue_start>username_0: What is meant by a conference indexed in Scopus? It's easy to know which journals are indexed in Scopus from the Scopus homepage. Are there any conferences in Mathematics which are Scopus indexed? Does there exist any page like this <https://www.scopus.com/sources.uri> where I can identify Scopus-indexed conferences?<issue_comment>username_1: **There is no such conference.**
Scopus is an indexing database which indexes the publications (journals and conference proceedings). Scopus does not index conferences.
What you are actually asking is: **Whether the conference's proceeding is indexed by Scopus?**
Many conferences publish their proceedings via popular publications such as Springer, IEEE, ACM, Elsevier. If it is a Springer-publishing proceeding: usually, it is LNCS (Lecture Note in Computer Science) and it's sub-lecture notes such as LNAI. Similarly, there is LNEE (electrical engineering), and many such. These LNXX proceedings are indexed in Scopus.
If it is IEEE, usually the papers will appear in IEEE Xplore (which is Scopus-indexed). Similarly for ACM proceedings, ACM Digital Library.
Elsevier publishes under the name of Procedia Technology or Procedia Engineering and few more. These are indexed in Scopus.
There may be other known publishers such as IOS Press, and many more. In that case, you have to check thoroughly where the conference publishes its proceedings and whether that publication is indexed by Scopus.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: **Conference indexed in Scopus** does not exist! Rather, it's conference proceedings.
In the *context* of conference and conference proceedings, *mathematics* is as broad as it can be. You might need to narrow down to domains/subdisciplines.
For what you're looking, perhaps [Scimago might have a searchable listing](https://www.scimagojr.com/journalrank.php?type=p&area=2600)
**Edit**: PS: just noticed this was asked in 2020!
Upvotes: 1
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2020/09/07
| 928
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<issue_start>username_0: I'm in a very strange situation. I have been accepted to a PhD program in the UK which was supposed to be financed by an external company (this was arranged by the advisor). I've already accepted and met my conditional offer and stipend but the external company withdrew their support and I (implicitly) understand from my advisor that without funding he will not be able to take me on.
From what I understand the accepted offer and stipend are considered contractually binding and that the lack of finding is not "my problem" anymore. Is that so? and if so, can I and should I really insist that my advisor take me on regardless of finding new funding sources?
Clarifications:
* I have discussed this with him already; he is actively looking for positions for me elsewhere.
* My contract does not say anything like "contingent on availability of funds."
Edit:
My goal was never to litigate the matter or get some compensation out of it but to find a way to do the PhD program. As many said in the comments it is not realistic to force such a relationship even if "i am in the right". He is already doing his best to find a solution and I will work with him to that end. I guess that if it fails I will simply move on.<issue_comment>username_1: ### Talk to a lawyer.
This is a dispute regarding a broken contract, which is a legal matter that nobody here is capable of answering - even if someone here was a lawyer, they wouldn't be able to give you legal advice without taking you on a client due to legal ethics. However, a lawyer specializing in UK employment law should be able to advise you on the possible courses of action.
Note that I’m not counselling you to sue, but merely to speak to a lawyer, since they would be able to tell you what your options are.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_2: It's one of my nightmares as PI for this to happen. I would try to work with the professor to find a solution. Another professor might have an opening or the school might have some funded PhD positions.
You don't want to go into a PhD position by force. The relationship will be toxic from the beginning. Concerning the contract, I would be very surprised if the university doesn't have an exit clause or a loophole. Universities usually have a big legal department and good experience in building loopholes. It could be something in terms "Position was to work with company X. Since the project didn't go through, the position is redundant". I've heard some pretty creative loopholes over the years.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: Your offer is made by the University, not your advisor. Someone in admissions probably messed it up, but fwiw this is neither your, nor your advisor's problem. As soon as University gave you an offer, and you met the conditions, it's legally binding.
Many other answers are written under assumption that PhD is an employment and hence "probationary period" or "redundancy" can be applied. This is not correct. In the UK, PhD is considered "training", not employment. The University's offer for you is their promise to provide you with a particular service. Even if the industry partner goes bust (which is not impossible), the University is still under obligation to fulfil their side of the deal. If the University absolutely can not serve you (e.g. the only qualified professor has just left, the lab building collapsed, their license is revoken), they must find another suitable program for you and pay your tuition fees and relocation.
These obligations are not merely ethical, but can be and often are enforced. The relevant regulator in the UK is the [Office for Students](https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/). Obviously, I am not a lawyer, so I can't give you any legally reliable advice. But I believe you are right and OfS will be able to support you if the University disagrees with your arguments in this case.
Upvotes: 3
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2020/09/07
| 702
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<issue_start>username_0: This question is similar to [the date of PhD award in France](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/112063/the-date-of-phd-award-in-france), but for the case of Oxbridge (maybe all of UK, but I don't know).
There is the date of the defense (behind closed doors), after which one may recieve no corrections, minor corrections, or major corrections (re-submit thesis). After the corrections are done the thesis is given to the University, and one can be "approved" for a PhD. But one only receives the certificate after a graduation ceremony, which may be years (typically weeks or months) later.
Which of these dates should I choose for fellowship applications etc? I have
1. Date I defended
2. Date I submitted the last version of the thesis
3. Date thesis was approved
4. Date I left the university to work elsewhere (become a postdoc)
5. Date I graduated. (This is on the official transcript.)
In this chronological order. I obviously don't care personally, but often there are requirements such as "this and that many years after your PhD".<issue_comment>username_1: In a UK university a qualification is not considered as **awarded** until the graduation ceremony. It usually requires the Chancellor to utter the words *"I grant to those listed on the official record the qualification ... etc"*.
Until that time you have the intermediate status of *graduand* and not graduate.
The date of the Phd is the date of the ceremony.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: In terms of assessing eligibility for a University Research Fellowship, the Royal Society defines it as the date the thesis was approved by the graduate board. I know this because I was found ineligible for the URF last year (too few years since PhD award), and I was trying to argue that the date of defense or the date of final submission should count - they disagreed!
That might not answer your question in all circumstances, but it gives a firm answer for at least one of the awards which considers time since PhD awarded.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: The multitude of dates that would make sense is not at all specific to Oxbridge, and many funding bodies will clarify which date they want in the fine print.
If they don't specify otherwise, then the graduation date is a safe bet, as this is the date written on the certificate. In my experience, "at most x years post PhD" restrictions are far more common, and for those the graduation date will be the most beneficial one for you anyway.
If its not specified, and if the graduation date would disqualify you, but one of date of defense and submission date for the final version would work, then it makes sense to get in touch with whoever is in charge to make the case that they should consider you.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]
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2020/09/07
| 2,059
| 8,674
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<issue_start>username_0: I was wondering if it is common for professors to ask a new international postdoc to work without compensation while waiting for paperwork to be completed.
I was in an interview and the professor hinted at something along this line, when I brought up the topic of the lengthy visa process to be expected.
A few notes:
* The professor is not my PhD advisor. He's at a different university in a different country. So, my question is not similar to [this](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/148938/is-it-unethical-to-expect-ones-phd-students-to-work-after-graduation-without-co) one.
* The whole visa process could take 3 months.
* The work contract may include a start date that is earlier than the visa issuing date (in this case ≈ 3 months earlier) but the university cannot pay me for that period without a valid document/visa. That's why I mentioned 'without compensation'. Correct me if you think I am misunderstanding this aspect.
* I understand that the scope of the postdoc's work is related to a project that has tight deadlines, which is why the professor wants work done as soon as possible. But, I find that the duration in which this situation would last is long. A maximum of 1 month may seem tolerable but not longer.
Is this common in academia for international hires? And would it be ethical?<issue_comment>username_1: Asking someone to work without compensation is illegal in many jurisdictions. It is also hardly ethical. Unfortunately, it is also not uncommon in academia.
In modern "publish or perish" academia professors are often under a huge deal of pressure from university administration to produce countless high-quality papers and teach ever-growing number of courses. A significant proportion of academics feel that they are forced to work extra hours to meet the expectations of their universities. This draining and insecure work environment often impacts the judgement of academics when they manage the work of their PhD students and postdocs. Many sincerely believe that they should "prepare" their students/postdocs to the hard realities of academia and make them more competitive by demanding to produce results at a cost of personal life and well-being. This is wrong, but unfortunately, wrong things do happen in this world and in academia as well.
UPD: Answering some questions in comments, I feel that I have to explain why the PI's behaviour is wrong. I don't think it is a subjective judgement.
1. Forcing someone to work without compensation and without contract is modern slavery. Slavery is wrong. Postdoc are employees, they have terminal education degrees, they are professionals and they do important research work, not some glorified "training". Forcing a postdoc to work without contract and compensation is wrong.
2. But perhaps, the PI was not forcing the postdoc, but merely asked them nicely whether they would like to volunteer? Well, let's see. Postdoc does not know whether they can say "no" to their PI without risking their contract or compromising the work relations with their PI during their contract. There are so many ways in which postdoc's whole career depends on their PI's opinion (access to research resources, appraisals, extensions of contract, letters of recommendation, etc). In this situation postdocs are under a huge pressure to say "yes" to unfair and illegal proposals. That's why even proposing to work without contract is abusive, morally wrong and often illegal.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: The underlying issue you're encountering here is that, generally speaking, a postdoc position is considered an education (albeit a paid one) for the position holder. As a consequence, telling a postdoc before they formally start their job that they might want to start reading some background material or working on the project (presumably while they have no other job because (i) they've graduated with their PhD and (ii) are waiting for their visa to process) is not so different from telling a student at the beginning of the summer break "Look, this is the material I'm going to cover in MATH 517, and here is the book we're going to use; why don't you start reading up on that material now already instead of waiting for the beginning of the fall semester?".
Strictly speaking, it might of course be illegal to have someone work *for you* while they are not paid. But graduate students are also not paid and still work on research projects -- the point simply being that it actually benefits both the graduate student and the future postdoc to already work on the project because *they are also working for themselves* (through publications or, more generally, for future job prospects).
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: This might depend on the country you want to work in.
>
> The work contract may include a start date that is earlier than the
> visa issuing date.
>
>
>
I doubt that you get such a work contract. A competent administration won't sign it.
I'm in Germany and I just hired an international PhD student (here they often are employees in the same way as post-docs). The process was as follows:
1. They applied for a 90 day (work) visa at the embassy in their home country. For this our administration provided the necessary documents (most importantly confirming the job offer). It took about a month until the visa was issued.
2. Once that visa had been issued, they got a signed contract for the time period covered by the visa. They came to Germany and started working.
The following step is what was supposed to happen. Unfortunately, in reality it became slightly more exciting because they came to Germany just when we went into the COVID lock-down. But everyone involved (our administration, the visa office) was very helpful and we successful sorted everything out.
3. Once in Germany, you go to the immigration office and apply for a long-term work visa (once again, with documents from our administration). As soon as that is issued, the contract for the full time period is signed.
**Don't work without having a work visa.** If the authorities discover that somehow, you will be deported and will never get a visa again. In most cases it's not worth the risk. However, there are some special visa options for scientists (see [there](https://www.research-in-germany.org/en/plan-your-stay/entry-and-residence.html) for some options in Germany). But in any case, you need to have a visa (and not a tourist visa) if you are not a EU citizen.
However, nothing prevents you from preparing by studying literature, attending online meetings, etc.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: You should encourage them to write a work contract that begins at a time when they will be allowed to pay you, and not before, unless they are agreeing to give back pay (I would be hesitant even in this case). You don't want any legal trouble for working when you are not legally allowed to work, this can be just as big a deal as hiring someone when you are not legally allowed to hire them.
As for whether this is common, it probably varies by country. In Germany, I'm sure this almost never happens; but very few countries are as structured in following rules as Germany. In other countries (not naming names) you might find that sketchy things can happen, like once you get there they write a new work contract that doesn't actually begin until your visa does, and you are left "working" the first 3 months without pay OR a contract (or so I hear, hahahahahaha :/ ). Or even if you refuse to work, you are already in the new country as a "visitor" with no income.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: There is a difference between no compensation and delayed compensation. An important question is how routine this paperwork is. If it is merely a bureaucratic hold up and you are already in town, why not get a jump start on your research? It could make the research when you officially start easier, and could lead to a better overall research experience, which could help your long-term career.
Hopefully the professor is enthusiastic about the research. From their point of view, this could be *allowing* you to start early rather than *forcing* you to do so. The only thing that would be a red-flag for me would be if you weren't given any choice. You should have the freedom to say something like "I would prefer to get settled while I'm waiting for the paperback. Can you suggest some background material that I might read in the meantime?" (or words to that effect, the business about reading at the end since you would still want to communicate a bit of enthusiasm for the project).
Upvotes: 3
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2020/09/08
| 537
| 2,396
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<issue_start>username_0: Me and my friends did a project during final semester. It got accepted for publication. Later I came to abroad for studies. My friends didn’t add my name as a co author.I have given my input and it’s my project idea to initiate. Can we add my name as a co author later?<issue_comment>username_1: In principle, it is possible to make changes up until the point that final proofs have been submitted. However, at a well-run journal any attempt to add an author after acceptance would require approval from the journal's editor, and they would likely require an explanation for why this change is being sought before agreeing.
The reason for this is to guard against various forms of misconduct, especially:
* subversion of the review process, e.g. by concealing conflicts of interest;
* offers of authorship as a reward/bribe.
If the editor is satisfied with your explanation, they will allow you to add authors. If they are not, the result is likely to be that the paper's acceptance is rescinded, and it is rejected from the journal. Note that many journals require the corresponding author to certify that they have included all relevant individuals as authors as part of the submission process, and admitting that you lied here does not do much for your credibility.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: I believe we cannot. This is because the purpose of an article is to be a source of information and entertainment for people who do not have the time to do research on their own, which means that it must be as accurate as possible.
If you were to go back and change things after it was published, then what are the readers supposed to believe?
The co-author would likely have a different perspective than the original author, which means that he would either disagree with it or expand on the topic in ways that could be considered offensive by people who agree with the original article.
It is possible that the co-author would disagree with the topic and remove it entirely, which makes a mockery of the entire article.
It is also possible that the co-author might add information that was not there before, which would change the focus of the article and make it more about him or her than he main topic.
I believe it is best to keep articles like this as they are, where the author has a single point of view that will not change over time.
Upvotes: -1
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2020/09/08
| 2,503
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<issue_start>username_0: I want to know why some PhD students don't publish their works in a journal.
For example, I have seen many good, high level German theses which were written around 1970-90, but were not published in any journal.<issue_comment>username_1: The obligatory journal publication of scientific work done for a degree, no matter what (think: "publish or perish") is a fashion that spilled over from the US to Europe and especially Germany around the late '80s-'90s. Before that, people bothered only publishing work that they felt was outstanding, and sometimes not even that.
I am aware of work that exceeded in thoroughness and quality by far other publications on the same question that were published more than a decade and half later, where the original authors did not feel that it was up-to-scratch for publication and refused to do what they felt was a "half-baked" work.
One may say it might be desirable if some this self-critical attitude would still be maintained (not in its totality, so much good work went effectively lost this way), it would save one a lot of sub-par reading and reviewing duties today. However, this ship has sailed long ago.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: First, in the olden times there was much less pressure to publish, and many researchers would publish only a handful of papers in their whole life, and they would publish only very complete works. I personally know researchers, considered anyway leading researchers in their field, who would publish just once every few years and who retired with probably less than ten published papers. Something that nowadays wouldn't even get you a tenured position.
Second, many PhD students leave academia for industry once graduated, and they may lose interest in publishing their work, right at the moment in which their work is more mature for publication.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: Well, talking about the period the OP mentions (70s-90s) the 'publish or perish' idea wasn't really a thing. So then chances of publication would depend very much on if the supervisor of the graduated doctoral student had much interest in said students work. Coupled with the fact that staying in touch, co writing drafts and such was harder pre internet. Both of my parents have PhDs (UK, early 1980s) from which nothing was ever published in a journal. My Dad was explicitly told by his supervisor when starting his research 'If you publish, it won't be with me.' (an attitude that mystifies me, but it was the case). Bits of my own thesis (Germany 2010s) remain unpublished as my supervisor was less interested in those particular bits and / or they needed just that bit more work, topped off by the fact he retired a few years after I finished.
So really in summary, there are a whole pile of factors, the ones covered here are just a few examples.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: There are good answers pointing out things were different in the '80s and '90s. Another thing to keep in mind is the differences between disciplines. There are disciplines, e.g. (some parts of) history in Germany, where journals don't have the standing it has in other disciplines. Slightly exaggerated (but only slightly) the attitude is that the only really scientific publication is a book.
There are good reasons for that: history, by the very nature of the thing they study, is not a very fast paced field. So if the speed of journal article writing is not a big benefit, then why not use the space of a book to make a really thoughtful argument? In those disciplines publishing your thesis in journals is still not encouraged, and in part actively discouraged.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_5: Surprisingly not yet mentioned in the comments or in the 4 answers thus far is that for some people, and this is mostly for the 1970s to early 1980s, there was also the problem of typesetting journal papers for submission if you were no longer in an environment with department secretaries to type your work (because writing papers is not "mission central" at non-research colleges/universities, such as [The University of Southern North Dakota at Hoople](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoople,_North_Dakota)). The situation was even worse if you were not in an academic position or if you were in a non-academic research oriented position that was not closely related to whatever esoteric subtopic your dissertation dealt with. Obviously this was especially problematic for someone who never learned to type (not all that uncommon before the early to mid 1980s), but even for those with competent typing skills, the task of preparing multiple copies (via [carbon copies](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_copy)) of a nearly error-free document, full of math or other technical symbols carefully handwritten on the copies, often just wasn't a sufficiently high priority for the effort needed, especially in those cases where there would be essentially no career or other advantages in doing so.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_6: I can think of a few reasons specific to the period you describe:
* If these theses were **written in German**, they would likely have had to have been **translated into English** for publication. These days it is more common that theses are written in English across Europe, lowering the effort required to adapt the work into a publication.
* Before the internet, there were **fewer journals and no keyword searching**. Libraries only had the space for a limited selection of journals. A publication in an obscure journal would likely never be read, whereas these days internet searches allow people to discover papers wherever they are published. Back then, searching for publications in your field meant phoning up a librarian and asking them to search through their index cards (or later, a primitive computer database) for you.
* Historically, **the thesis itself would have been considered a full-on publication**. Sharing a print of the thesis with other researchers, checking a thesis out of a library etc. were all more common. The benefit of duplicating the content in a separate publication was therefore lower. These days, physical theses tend to be locked up in a basement somewhere, never to be seen again. If a pdf is published online, it may have restricted access, and will not be indexed by sites such as PubMed.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_7: While I don't know about German universities in the 1970s-90s, there is (at least in my experience) a fairly obvious reason why PhD dissertations (and master's theses) aren't published in journals: they're way too long.
The typical journal paper runs about 8-10 pages (per Google and my own experience), while a thesis/dissertation might be closer to 100 pages. Many journals impose page charges - $100-$200 per page - so publishing papers of that length in traditional journals would be financially impossible for many people. <https://www.nature.com/news/open-access-the-true-cost-of-science-publishing-1.12676>
What often happens (again, in my experience) is just the opposite: the research will be published in several short papers, which will be expanded to form chapters of the final thesis/dissertation. Then too, if the research is part of a larger project, the papers might well be published with several co-authors.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_8: Most of the other answers focus on the theses written prior to 1990 not being published in journals. However, even nowadays theses are sometimes not published in journals for a variety of reasons – including mine from 2017.
This will, depend on the field, obviously; but my thesis was written in organic chemistry which is traditionally a field where journals are valued highly. My specific sub-field (total synthesis of natural products) has a couple of difficulties that, taken together, prevented my work and the work of most of my colleagues during their PhD from being published.
Publications in this sub-field typically consist of a complete synthesis of a large and complex molecule; one entire PhD typically consists of synthesising only one such compound. (In some cases, maitotoxin being the extreme, multiple PhD students work on the same compound over the course of many years, sometimes even in succession.) At the end of one’s time, there are two possible outcomes: a completed synthesis which has a high chance of ending up in a top-tier journal or an incomplete synthesis which, at best, can be published in a very low-tier journal – even if the work itself is thorough, high-level and extensive.
Unfortunately, it is not really possible to predict whether a project will be successful and what time it may take. My project was initially given to a master’s student because it seemed easy to complete and when I took over, I expected to complete it in a year maybe a year and a half and move on to a second project. This did not work out and ultimately another PhD student took over when I was finished – but she also was unable to complete the molecule. In the end, we settled for a partial synthesis in a lesser journal, probably because my supervisor was completely fed up with the compound. This partial synthesis covers maybe 40 % of what I included in my thesis (the PhD student who took over declined authorship, stating that she had provided no significant improvements or additions to my data).
On the other hand, one of my colleagues had a similarly complex molecule but a couple of strokes of luck leading to his completed synthesis being published within his first year as PhD. He spent the remainder of his time synthesising related natural products and derivatives and ended up with three papers to his name. (This being natural product chemistry, there were three people listed as authors: the PhD student and his two supervisors.)
The above leads me to another aspect: **publication in a journal** is often **not mandatory** to receive one’s PhD. At my university, publications were entirely optional. On the other hand, instead of writing a separate thesis three (or more) publications of similar or related topics could be submitted together with an introduction and a conclusion in what is known as a *cumulative thesis.* My colleague who ended up with three papers chose this path.
---
In other sub-fields of organic chemistry, publications are far more predictable. However, in these fields a PhD thesis often encompasses several individual projects that may or may not be strongly related. Individually, these projects are sufficient for publication, but it might not be possible to publish the entire thesis in one, as the projects aren’t related sufficiently. So the entirety of a thesis may be split across several publications rather than collected into one.
Upvotes: 3
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<issue_start>username_0: Last year I did some work to help out my friend and his supervisor on a project that they were working on. I wasn't very involved with the project, but the work that I contributed was important for them to be able to find the main results that they were interested in. I asked at the time if they would they be happy to include me as an author on the paper based on this contribution, and they said they would be happy to do that.
I think it's quite likely that the paper might not get very many citations. The most closely related paper to the one they will publish soon was written by my friend's supervisor, and it has only one citation. It was published in 2015, and I think it's in an area that doesn't have so much research interest in general.
I've been wondering what different people think about whether being an author on this work would look better or worse for me, with respect to future positions in academia. I'm hoping to look for a postdoctoral position in the near future, in a different but related field.
I feel like it might look better: I would have more publications and it's showing more of my skills. I could put it on my CV.
Or it might look worse: I know there are different metrics which take into consideration how many citations papers have, and having a paper with no citations might reduce my score on them.
I'm currently at the end of my PhD and I have 6 publications, one has 4 citations and the rest have between 10 and 25. I think at this point it would be reasonable to ask them to include me only as an acknowledgement on the paper, if I decided that was the best option for me.
Any opinions/perspectives on this appreciated.
I appreciate that it's my choice whether I put the paper on my CV or not, if I choose to stay as an author.
Thanks<issue_comment>username_1: No, this is not a problem. Everyone has papers on their CV which have few citations, including older papers. If this were true for *all* your papers, in particular even all of those which are several years old, this could be an issue - but this does not seem to be a problem at all in your case. (Note that the distribution of citations vs. papers is somewhat similar for everyone, reflected e.g. in the fact that there is a clear relation between the number of publications and the h-index.)
Moreover, if you really feel later on that a given paper does not represent you well, you can always omit it from your publication record - you are not obliged to list everything you ever published there, in particular if you feel it is not relevant.
So I would go with being a coauthor of the paper, if the others offer coauthorship to you, and you feel it is deserved.
---
*Edit:* To follow up on your updated title, a paper with a low number of citations will not have a negative effect on citation metrics: Typical metrics are either the total number of papers, the total number of citations, or (most importantly) the h-index, none of which gets worse if you add little-cited papers. The only indicator which would be affected is the number of citations per paper, but this is rarely used - and even then, a single little-cited paper will not have a big effect.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: I probably don't have the best perspective, having been out of academia for a few years, but as far as I know, anyone who cares about citation metrics will be using a standard widely-inclusive data source (e.g. Google Scholar) to get their data. So as far as the metrics are concerned, it doesn't matter whether you put any given paper on your CV or not.
More generally, I think it's quite rare that it would actually hurt to put a paper on your CV. The only case I can think of where you would actively want to not be associated with a paper is if the paper was retracted for some reason having to do with academic fraud, or something similarly serious, and in that case leaving the paper off your CV isn't going to keep people from finding out about it. Having no or few citations certainly isn't a reason to not want to be associated with a paper. It's quite a normal situation, especially as an early-career researcher.
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: I am planning to hire a postdoc (in mathematics), and have never done this before. My department is far from diverse. I have read that a good way to achieve a diverse pool of candidates is by advertising widely, including circulating them to special interest groups.
I can definitely see the benefit of this. Members of underrepresented groups may tend to be less "well connected" in the community and, as a result, the advertisement might have a harder time reaching them. At least, this seems to be part of it.
I would love to advertise widely, and specifically to organizations which will help me reach underrepresented groups. However, I am finding it difficult to find viable options for doing this... Many sites charge hundreds of dollars for each job posting. While I would love to post it everywhere, it doesn't seem realistic. The main things that I have come up with are:
* Mathjobs (<https://www.mathjobs.org>). I expect that this will reach the largest number of interested applicants (the job is in North America). But this is really just the standard place to post things.
* Association for Women in Mathematics (<https://awm-math.org/>). This actually seems like a really great option.
* Distributing the advertisement through mailing lists dedicated to my area of mathematics.
* Some professional societies in mathematics allow members to post jobs (I think).
* Advertising the job at the end of research talks (although, it doesn't seem to be that commonly done in my area, so it might be awkward...).
* Advertise to colleagues and ask them to spread it by word of mouth.
* Posting to social media? Although I am a bit wary of this.
Apart from the AWM, I don't really see how any of these will benefit members of underrepresented groups specifically, and, even the AWM is mainly targeting one group. Does anyone have any other ideas? Suggestions?
This post focused mostly on where to *advertise* the job, but I would also love to get input on all aspects of achieving a large and diverse pool of applicants! Please feel free to share any advice you have.<issue_comment>username_1: <https://jobrxiv.org/> and twitter although I don't know how much math people use either. For my bio-related field they're pretty good.
You'll probably get plenty of diversity in your applicant pool but you'll end up removing most of it when you filter for prestige PhD institutions and advisors. You should try to remember that URMs from second tier PhD institutions are just as smart in aggregate as the population from Stanford or whatever, but are likely to publish worse and have fewer opportunities. Evaluate them based on who's outperformed for their grad environment and in general you'll probably have a bunch of applicants you wouldn't have otherwise considered. (This is also useful for identifying the halfwits from Harvard who have underperformed despite every possible advantage - don't hire them).
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: In mathematics, essentially all jobs in North America are advertised at MathJobs.org, so getting more people to see the advertisement will be difficult difficult. Indeed, what is allowed and expected when posting a job opening is very much country dependent.
The candidates will likely be very concerned with the atmosphere in your research group. There are two obvious places possible candidates will look if they are trying to decide to apply or not.
One is the on-line CV that you and other potential supervisors have on your websites. If you did some mentoring be sure you mention that. All those ``synergistic activities'' in your biosketch are things you might want on your website on on an accessible CV.
Before anyone looks at your CV or website, they will be looking at the advertisement. To whom is the advertisement appealing? What campus resources did you decide to mention?
I am not sure about social media as my idea of social media is MathOverflow. I have heard positions mentioned briefly at the end of a talk, so why not do that?
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: Avoid tight deadlines
=====================
I am not in your field and not even in the same country, but one piece of advice I would give is to ensure that there is a reasonable span of time between the advertisement and the deadline. It can often take some time for advertisements to actually get noticed, because most people do not check a job site every day, and many people will have very large volumes of electronic mail (hence, it may take a while for them to actually see an advert posted to a mailing-list). Given that you mention a desire to recruit from a diverse pool, it is worth keeping in mind that people with poor health and/or caring responsibilities may find it harder to check for job advertisements regularly and assemble an application in a timely manner.
Basically, you want to avoid situations such as:
>
> I would love to apply for this, but the deadline is 5pm TODAY. If only I had seen the advert last week, I might have been able to apply.
>
>
>
>
> Oh, this job looks fascinating, but it will take a lot of effort to reformat my CV to show me in the best light. Oh, and the deadline is 9am on Monday. More weekend working. Oh, and I had better contact <NAME> to ask for a reference. He never answers electronic mail on the weekend, so I will have to 'phone him and hope he will not mind.
>
>
>
>
> Ah, this would be a dream job. But the deadline is less than 48 hours away, and I promised to take the kids to the beach tomorrow. Would I be a bad mother if I reneged on my promise? I cannot even blame the weather forecast this time! Or maybe, I can take the laptop with me, and be very careful not to get any sand or seawater in it.
>
>
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>
> Why do I always have to get ill at the wrong time? The mailing-list had an advertisement for this great job a week ago, but by the time I got out of hospital and went through my mailbox properly, I had missed the deadline.
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>
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: The typical advise is that men tend to apply even if they are not a perfect fit for the position, while women tend to only apply if they feel they satisfy all the conditions. Thus, do not exaggerate the requirements in the job posting.
If your university/department/faculty website has lots of pictures of smiling students, make sure the pictures show diversity. According to some research (not public), this is not noticed by the majority but elicits positive attention from some minorities.
An illustrative link of how typical the typical advice is: <https://hbr.org/2014/08/why-women-dont-apply-for-jobs-unless-theyre-100-qualified>
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_5: Where to advertise is only a small part of the challenge in ensuring a diverse pool of applicants.
Checking the language used in the advert is extremely important. It is quite easy to build in words that exclude certain groups of applicants. For example, are you tempted to write that you are a “young dynamic team”? You’re likely to exclude older post docs. The best solution here seems to be to get a diverse group of people to review the advert and ask themselves if they would apply. Use their feedback.
There are also gender decoders that can spot gender-specific language. Try e.g. <http://gender-decoder.katmatfield.com/>. This spots more than just using he/she to refer to applicants.
You should think about whether to use “they” or “she” directly in the wording of the ad (s well as "he") to make it clear that gender diversity is desired. This may require legal input in some jurisdictions.
Furthermore you could be very explicit in the types of diversity that you welcome. Give examples of how you support parents, LGBTQ, underrepresented minorities (do you have employee resource groups?), and so on.
You could try to be effusive - not just the classic “we welcome applicants with diverse backgrounds“, but “we cherish and celebrate the differences that all of our colleagues bring to our team” (seen recently in an ad for a startup).
I have to stress that the language used here is purely for example, and you need to get a second opinion or possibly a legal review depending on where you are.
Good luck in getting your Postdoc!
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_6: I was recently at a diversity forum, and a Google rep gave a talk that included some of their research on this. They found that in their own job advertisements, there was almost a step function in the number women who applied vs the number of words in the job advertisement. Once the number of words passed a certain threshold, the number of women applicants fell suddenly.
(ETA: The theory was this was related to the length of the description of necessary/desirable qualifications)
Also including the boilerplate tagline along the lines of "We welcome diverse applicants of any race/gender/ability..." has been shown to increase diversity in the applicant pool too.
Upvotes: 1
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<issue_start>username_0: It's been several weeks that I sent an email regarding to an open call for a position.
The position is advertised in a personal webpage with the message "[...] suitable candidates feel free to contact me," as opposed to the "job vacancies" page which the faculty has. There is no mentioned deadline.
I have mistakenly used my commercial email address instead of my academic email address.
I know that some people filter the incoming emails with respect to the domain name to reduce the number of spams in the primary inbox folder. I am afraid that this is the case.
So, I am considering to send a follow-up (duplicate) email to make sure that the email reached to the person. However, I am not sure how to word the email as I blindly assume that the person uses such filter.
Please note that I am perfectly fine with the idea of my assumption being wrong and the person choosing to ignore my email since I am not a good enough candidate. My concern is that I am a considerable candidate but I might have lost my chance because of some technical issue.
The best outline I have come up with is to write "(please ignore if duplicate)" in the subject, and blame my email provider in the first sentence, and then copy/paste the rest of the mail.
What is the least annoying way to recieve a potential duplicate email?<issue_comment>username_1: Just send an email in any way you want - send the very same email again, or state at the top that you would like to inquire about the status of your application below. As long as you do this once, all fine. If you keep doing it every other week, you will get people annoyed.
As mentioned in the comments, application processes take their time. And if there was no deadline listed, you should still assume them to wait for some 4-6 weeks, and then maybe take another 2 weeks for looking at the applications.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Do not send a duplicate email. Send a follow-up email, with the previous one at the bottom ("several weeks" is already long enough without even an acknowledgement of receipt). Send it from your other address without mentioning the spam issue.
If your email was indeed lost to a filter, this resurrects it, without being an annoyance in the opposite case. Out of the 1% of people who will notice the different sender address (assuming the name you configured to appear is the same in both accounts), 90% will not care and 9% will guess why.
(If you are not sure how to write that follow-up email, it is a different question, that likely has many duplicates at workplace.se).
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]
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<issue_start>username_0: While conducting research for my dissertation, my collaborator and I discovered a mathematical error in published work and this error was confirmed by the author through personal correspondence. On the surface, it appears as a minor error, however it effects certain mathematical statements. The author of the work unfortunately has not published the correction in the errata for the work. It has been over a year now since our last correspondence.
The area of research I'm conducting is not widely studied so there isn't a large community of academics who are familiar with subject matter so this is unlikely to be something that will be checked by the wider community.
In the manuscript, I have written that we discovered an error and corrected it and that the correction was also confirmed by the author, and the only proof I have is email correspondence from the author. After I graduate, my email account will be shut down after a year. Therefore, would it be alright to include the correspondence I have as an appendix in the thesis in order to verify the statement I made about discovering the error and having our correction verified? The language in the email is formal and professional.<issue_comment>username_1: You can only publish email correspondence in your thesis if all people involved in the email communication agree. Anything else is highly unprofessional and also unethical.
On the other hand, if you have clearly demonstrated that the manuscript had an error, there is no need to add those email. You could write that this has been confirmed by the author and cite a "private communication".
Regarding the emails, there should be no problem to save the emails even if your account is deleted.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: In some cases you can also write:
>
> The mistake described above has been confirmed [15] by the authors of [12].
>
>
>
where the extra citation may read something like:
>
> [15] Shot, Big and Fry, Small. Personal communication, September 9th, 2020.
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>
>
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: A mathematical argument speaks for itself and its validity does not hinge on the blessing or confirmation of a single individual, even if the argument corrects a mistake that individual has made previously. So I think your premise that you need to include anything about the error being confirmed by the original author as some kind of “supporting evidence” is simply false. The fact that the author confirmed what your said is something that can be mentioned if you’re doing it as a way to save the author a bit of embarrassment, but is otherwise irrelevant. If you simply provide an explanation of the error and the details of how it is corrected, that will completely suffice to convince any readers of the validity of what you are saying. No emails need to be quoted.
As for your literal question: no, as a general rule it’s a terrible idea and quite inappropriate to quote a personal email in a thesis or other publication without explicit approval from the author of the email. But as I said that’s sort of the wrong question to ask for your particular situation.
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: For someone who has just finished his M.Sc. with extremely good grades, is it possible that their not so extremely good grades during undergrad might affect where they get their PhD?<issue_comment>username_1: Depends - but I feel if you can convincingly communicate why you want the PhD position you are applying for, I doubt your undergrad grades are going to be detrimental.
Also, I recon this differs a lot from country to country and field of research.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: Since you have not provided enough details in your question I will go with a generalised answer to this end. The answer to this question, however, is country- and organisation-specific. Further, it does also depends on the PhD advisor herself.
I am in academics for a few years now and I have seen some post-grads (not PhD) who do/did have bad grades during their corresponding undergraduate studies.
First, let's quantify what does a bad grade mean: On a scale of 1-10 (10 being the highest), bad grade would be, according to me somewhere within 4. "Ok" grades would be the ones falling in the range: 5-7, and above 7 is just great. As I said, this can be argued; but lets for the moment accept these as axioms.
So, if your grades in the "bad" category, then you should have something additional to show to the PhD selection committee or the advisor you are applying under. This term "extra" would mean something like a voluntary project that you did, maybe a collaborative work you participated in, or an article that you wrote with some others. Again, this extra stuff that you show may not be well-accepted but would definitely provide a soft edge towards the decision-making process. Also, note that PhD application might require a few recommendation letters if those letters could mention these extras to compensate for your bad grades, then you are okay I think.
If you have nothing to show as an extra component, then this might not be a good sign to have "bad" grades in the CV. A PhD position would expect someone to be serious in studies and highly motivated to pursue research.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]
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<issue_start>username_0: I have a Master's in Computer Science and I currently work in a manufacturing company. My current role is IT Manufacturing Technical Leader with responsibilities split between technical and business tasks evenly. I've always wanted to move closer to more-technical-less-business tasks.
So my questions are:
1. Given I want to be more on the technical side, is it wise to pursue a PhD in Computer Science? I am not sure how a PhD will help or affect my future roles (in this company or otherwise).
2. Another conflict I have is regarding the PhD itself. I am not really sure what I would like to research. Is this something I should know and be ambitious about BEFORE applying to my PhD? My wife is currently in her Master's and she is really passionate about a lot of different topics in her respective field. She intends on pursuing her PhD. Seeing where she stands, it makes me question my desire to get into a PhD program when I have no idea what it is I want to be an expert in or research on. So to repeat my question, should I need to know what I want out of the PhD now or will it come to me while I am in the program?
I have always wanted to get a PhD and I am afraid I shouldn't. I would appreciate some guidance on this.<issue_comment>username_1: A PhD is about research. Not so much about being "on the technical side." So, I'll doubt that a PhD is right for you if those are your only goals. Many of us in mathematics and even in CS got a Phd (mine in math) because we were driven to it. There is a saying: "You don't choose mathematics. Mathematics chooses you."
On the other hand, there are doctorates other than the PhD that are focused on other things. The NSF in the US recognizes research doctorates, but notes that there are others as well.
Wikipedia has a [useful list](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_doctoral_degrees_in_the_US) of different kinds of doctorates, and one of these might meet your stated objective better.
Of course you may have other goals, not stated here, that would suggest that a PhD is appropriate. Moving in to the research group at your current (or another employer) might be enough. Certainly in Academia, the PhD is the most recognized terminal degree - with some exceptions, depending on field.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: Think of a PhD as a funded research post. Its primary purpose isn't to get you a job but to give you a space to do academic research (with the minor caveat that I am not a computer scientist, and I understand that there are some job listings which ask for PhD graduates). Your research will be on an extremely narrow question, and these are usually not directed at an industry-relevant task. It is highly unlikely that the research output will make you any better at your job.
If you want to do the research, and there is a topic that motivates you so much that you could work on it exclusively, even if nobody else really cared about it, for many years, then a PhD may be right for you. Many PhD students discover that this isn't really the case for them, however, and you could be at a high risk of this if you begin without a reasonably specific topic in mind. Sometimes people phrase this in some sort of macho framing, as though PhDs are there to show you are tough - while toughness matters, intrisic motivation towards a potentially extremely obscure research topic is an absolute prerequisite. There is no point doing it for title, bragging rights etc.
I would suggest that if you aren't highly motivated by research in and of itself, you would do a lot better not to do a PhD. Nobody will think the less of you for not being Dr. Crazy Cucumber.
Edit: typo
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: An important piece of advice missing from other answers: ask PhD students what PhD life is like. Preferably current students but recent graduates will do (first-year students are still in the honeymoon phase, and last-year students will probably decline). If you do not know any, ask a professor to put you in touch (do not ask the professor themselves: survivor bias means they like academia a lot more than is standard, and nostalgia embellished PhD memories after a certain age).
Notice that I do not mean "what is your research topic", but more "what is your every day routine". One hour of time and a couple of beers (or your culture-appropriate or pandemic-times equivalent) will save you hundreds of hours of internet searches.
That advice really applies to other work-life choices, but a PhD is a really special kind of job (more reason to check) and the info is fairly easy to get (unlike typical jobs where employees are harder to invite for a chat and more tight-lipped about the boss).
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: I learned yesterday that an idea (let's call it Idea A) I came up with on my own and that will appear in a paper I'm writing actually appeared in a paper 15 years ago. (My field is math, I'm a PhD student, for context.)
The paper has other ideas that I think are significant on their own so I could remove the section where Idea A is used crucially. However, that section helps put the overall results into perspective. One way or another, that part of the paper should stay put, I think, even at the risk of proving results that some might claim are not really new. (At the risk of flattering myself, I think the value of the paper will be greater than the sum of its parts: even if you might claim that many of the arguments, like Idea A, aren't hard or appeared previously, I seem to be the first one to see that they could all be combined into a considerable collection of interesting results.)
My question is how to address this in the paper. Certainly, there's no question the older paper will be cited and I'll mention it somewhere in the introduction. It's just a matter of how much credit to give and to what extent it is appropriate to mention that I stumbled upon the idea "independently" of the older paper. (I understand that "independently" usually refers to results that appear within a few months of each other rather than a decade and a half later.)
To make it slightly more concrete, in the introduction, I was planning to write: "The analysis here is based on the approach in Paper 1 and Paper 2. However, some additional arguments are necessary to deal with additional difficulties that arise in our setting." Those additional arguments include Idea A, which I had planned to sketch immediately afterward. I could then say later, when I give a literature review, that "The idea sketched above appeared previously in Paper 3." A difficulty with that, though, is Paper 2 cites Paper 3. While the way I conceptualized the issues involved, Papers 1 and 2 were the starting point, it may be that Paper 3 influenced Paper 2. One way to fix that would be to say, immediately after "However, some additional arguments...," the following: "(Actually, one of the key ideas here appeared previously in Paper 3.)" If I write "it appeared previously," is the implication that I came on the idea on my own clear? (Usually, in cases where other work informed my approach, I would say outright, "this idea was inspired by..." or "it's an adaptation of arguments appearing in..." or even "this result relies crucially on previous work of...") Another phrasing I have in mind is: "One of the key ideas here, which was new to the author, actually appeared some time ago in Paper 3."
Similarly, I will probably mention Idea A in a conference talk next year. Is saying something like "This is an idea I stumbled upon and really like. It turns out that the authors of Paper 3 had the same idea in mind." appropriate? I would prefer not to think about questions like this, but it's much easier to navigate this kind of issue when you build on others' work knowingly.
Of course, all of this is actually irrelevant as far as the *content* of the paper is concerned.<issue_comment>username_1: Push Idea A into a background section and push novel results elsewhere. There's no real need to explain why you include a background section, but you might like to mention where your presentation differs from the original and explain why.
>
> I seem to be the first one to see that they could all be combined into a considerable collection of interesting results
>
>
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That's (part of) the novelty your paper provides.
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> to what extent it is appropriate to mention that I stumbled upon the idea "independently" of the older paper.
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>
>
You could mention this somewhere, but it isn't necessary. Your paper has changed direction, like many papers. There's no need to provide a history of such changes. (Unless they are particularly interesting to your story.)
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: I think it's fine to say something in the introduction like "at a late stage of the development of this paper, the paper X, which had previous developed idea A, was pointed out to me." If you're worried about whether to leave in proofs for the results in paper X, that's a judgement call. You can always say "we include a new proof to illustrate the techniques we'll use later in the paper" or something like that.
You can actually see a situation where I had to deal with this on the arXiv: I put a paper called "A new presentation of the cyclotomic Cherednik algebra" <https://arxiv.org/abs/1609.05494v1> on the arXiv, and well, it turned out it wasn't totally new. So in the second version, I changed the name and just explained what had happened: <https://arxiv.org/pdf/1609.05494v2.pdf> and changed the wording a bit to emphasize how I was applying the presentation, not just the bare fact of it.
Upvotes: 1
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<issue_start>username_0: Unlike the question [Safely negotiate a salary for a PhD offer - Germany](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/18950/safely-negotiate-a-salary-for-a-phd-offer-germany) where the goal was to negotiate the % of the salary of a PhD position, my post instead focuses on the specific level (Stufe) of a 100% TVL E13 position offered to a PhD holder.
Additional details:
* The field is CS. So, AFAIK first-year PhD students *usually* start at Stufe 1 of a 100% TVL E13. So, it seems unfair to let a postdoc start at that level too.
* My PhD has not been obtained in Germany, but I spent slightly more than three years working on very similar topics/responsibilities as the ones envisioned in the new position.
* I have no competing offers with a higher level.
How can I safely negotiate a higher level/Stufe if the human resources put me on the first level? Do I need support from the new professor? Or the PhD advisor (though not in Germany)?
I have read here that this is likely to depend on HR, but if some of you have some tips, they would be more than welcome.
PS: I have also checked [this](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/134088/what-is-the-difference-between-tv-l-e13-and-tv-l-e14-positions-is-it-negotiable), [this](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/152169/does-a-3-year-phd-experience-in-a-non-german-eu-university-count-in-determining) and [this](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/62010/post-doc-salary-in-germany). But they do not answer the question of *how* to negotiate, especially if one's PhD is not from Germany.<issue_comment>username_1: First, talk to your future supervisor. If they do not support it, chances are slim. Or, if they say it is impossible, equally so.
If they support it: Find out what the rules are - well, probably your supervisor knows.
Generally, there are two options, depending on the place: Either, the administration decides on their own. Still, they might not proactively put you in a higher level, but wait for you to ask for it and supply documents proving that you have previous experience. In that case, the support of your supervisor will certainly help the process. And it is not unlikely that the administration would ask them if they judge the qualification equivalent.
Second, it could be that your supervisor has to write a justification why you should get a higher level, and *then* the administration decides. Certainly, in that case the support of your supervisor is essential.
Finally, it could be that the administration has very rigid rules on this, and the supervisor has no influence on that. In particular, they could have the rigid rule that they don't recognize anything which was not in German public service (that would be the most conservative option, since they don't have to vouch for anything).
Good luck!
(In any case, I would say that level 2 is realistic, since, it only requires >1 year of experience. Level 3 is more ambitious, since it requires >3 years of experience. In any case, also check the salaries for the different levels - the steps are not uniform.)
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: The argument you should focus on is that your professional experience counts as "einschlägige Berufserfahrung" (relevant professional experience). That's the official reasoning you need to meet to justify starting at a higher level. So I'd focus on explaining how exactly your experience is directly relevant to the work you'll be doing in that position.
As already mentioned, you need the support of your supervisor on this or it's not going to happen. The other person that is very important in my experience here is the person doing the actual administrative part of the process, e.g the secretary of the professor. They have likely been through this process several times already, and have a working relationship with the people inside the university that need to sign off on this.
There are a lot of factors outside your control here, and it depends entirely on the dynamics inside the university on whether you can succeed with this or not.
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: I did my Ph.D. 2 years ago. After that, I moved into the industry where I am now working in a similar field. I like to think that they would be happy to get a mail every now and then on what I have been up to or if I bump into some interesting research questions. I have been sending them a mail once every 8 months or so if I had something to share (e.g. a job opportunity, relevant research paper) or just for giving them an update on my professional life. It does not seem to annoy them.
But is it generally appreciated that I reach out/stay in contact? Or is it strange that I still contact them now and then?<issue_comment>username_1: I always appreciate such messages from old students. I often wonder what they are getting up to. I don't think I'm unique in that, but some would, perhaps, not be as happy with "interruptions." But you will get a sense of whether you should continue it if you do this from the response.
Going back in person is also a nice thing to do if you get the opportunity. Not only for advisors, but also for old mentors that you think had a positive impact on your life and career.
If it annoys them, you will hear about it, or they will just ignore you. But I think it is a professional courtesy to keep people updated. Many of them have invested something in you and like to hear how the investment has turned out.
Upvotes: 7 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: I expect there are some supervisors that would be annoyed by this, but I suspect they would be in the minority. A supervisor invests a lot into a student, and unless you left on bad terms, its most likely they'd love to hear how you are doing, I know I would.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: As you stay close to their field, it might be interesting to your professor. You could simply ask, if he wants further updates.
Most PhD students leaving academia also leave their field and work on completely different topics or have other issues as those researchers face. In these case, it would be enough to talk to the advisor at alumni meetings or the professors round birthday parties to keep them updated.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: About 10 years after getting my Masters in CS I came across an obscure feature on a software project I was doing on the side. It involved discrete math, which is mostly theoretical. Dr Itoga had taught this at the University of Hawaii, my alma mater.
I decided to send him an email telling him that I finally had a chance to use what he had taught me, and that he should his students that you never know what CS skills you are going to use in industry.
The next day I get an email reply that he always hearing from his former students, and asks if he can post what I said for his students.
Of course I replied yes. I told this story to a friend, who then tracked down <NAME>'s post to his students with my words quoted.
Although it will depend on your relationship with your advisor or professor, in general, yes, they appreciate you reaching out.
Upvotes: 3
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<issue_start>username_0: I'm a student in college, and while I was taking a linear algebra exam, I noticed that there was a mistake in the last exercise. Our exam is composed of two parts: multiple questions and exercises. I usually prefer to start with the second part while everybody starts with the first one.
I spent about 15 to 20 minutes before I called the teacher and said that there is an error. He confirmed the error and announced it to the rest of the class. At the end, I left some questions in the first part blank because I ran out of time.
The problem is that I received my grade (16/20) and I'm not really happy because if I had more time I could've done so much better (19/20 if I had finished the three other questions).
How could I ask him to upgrade my grade and explain to him that I really deserve it and that I really need to have (19/20) so I can pass my semester?
---
**Update:**
I saw my teacher today, and he didn't even give me a chance to talk and said that there is nothing he can do. When I said that this is not fair and that I spent time to find the error he said "You should've passed the exercise". I don't know what to do now, any idea?<issue_comment>username_1: >
> How could I tell him to upgrade my grade and explain to him that I really deserve it and that I really need to have (19/20) so I can pass my semester?
>
>
>
**Don't tell him how to fix the error**, and don't open with this being a make-or-break for passing your semester. This will probably put him on the defensive, and make him less likely to be sympathetic. In fact, the first time I read your question, I thought you were in the wrong, but upon closer reading, I understood your issue better.
I was in a similar situation, except one whole quiz section learned about the error half way through, whereas the other two learned about it at the start of the test, through a TA's error. It was a headache for the professor. If I recall, they ended up giving everyone in that section a percentage boost.
Be polite, and straightforward:
>
> Hi Professor,
>
>
> In our last exam, I pointed out an error in the last part of the test. I spent 15-20 minutes working on the question before I figured out the error. Since I like to start with that section, I wasn't able to finish the first part of the test. Because of this, I didn't score as well as I could have.
>
>
> Other students didn't have to spend so much time working on this question because I found the error for the class. Is it possible to adjust my score to reflect this?
>
>
>
Honestly, he probably didn't even think of it, or forgot by the time he was grading. You have a totally reasonable request.
Upvotes: 7 <issue_comment>username_2: I suggest that you just tell them the circumstances and that you spent time fruitlessly. Perhaps they will have a solution for you so that you aren't disadvantaged. Not everyone will help, but if they don't know what happened they won't make any adjustment or provide any remedy.
But ask in a way that you aren't just grumbling and demanding. "How can you help me recover from this situation?" puts the responsibility for the situation where it belongs and notes that you have suffered from it. If the error was subtle then you might have a case. But if it was pretty blatant, then the prof might just think that you should have spent your time more wisely.
In general, it is good practice to read all the questions before attempting to answer any, or, perhaps, just answer the easiest ones on the first pass.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: >
> How could I tell him to upgrade my grade and explain to him that I really deserve it and that I really need to have (19/20) so I can pass my semester?
>
>
>
It sounds like you have a reasonable case to argue that *you did not get a fair chance to demonstrate your knowledge of the material*. Note the deliberate phrasing here: that is *not* the same as saying that you automatically deserve a higher grade.
My advice: do explain the situation to the professor and ask for help in resolving the unfairness. But:
1. Do not under any circumstances say anything like “I really need to have (19/20) so I can pass my semester”. That is a completely invalid and irrelevant (and more than a little bit off-putting) argument. What grade you “need” is beside the point and nothing the professor ought to take into consideration; what grade you *have earned*, and what opportunities to get graded in a fair manner you deserve to get, are what’s relevant here.
2. I also feel it’s inappropriate to ask the professor to “upgrade your grade” by giving you points for questions you didn’t answer. Yes, it was unfair that you didn’t have time to answer those questions, and yes, a reasonable professor will see that and come up with a way to address the issue. But the fact is, we don’t know that you would have answered those questions correctly if it weren’t for the incident with the error, so asking the professor to assume that you would have is unreasonable in my opinion and may undermine your request.
Instead, what you should ask for is something more vague, such as for the professor to “help you resolve the unfairness” or to “help you demonstrate your knowledge in a fair way that puts you on a level playing field with the rest of the class”. Leave it to the professor to decide what to do — that would come across as much more reasonable and will likely lead the professor to view your complaint more favorably and sympathetically. And after all, there aren’t a whole lot of ways one can think of to address the situation; it’s quite possible that the professor will decide that awarding you the points for those questions is the simplest solution and will do that without you even explicitly asking for it.
Good luck!
---
**Edit:** to address your update,
>
> **Update:** I saw my teacher today, and he didn't even give me a chance to talk and said that there is nothing he can do. When I said that this is not fair and that I spent time to find the error he said "You should've passed the exercise". I don't know what to do now, any idea?
>
>
>
One idea that comes to mind is for you to email your professor a link to this thread. Perhaps seeing how other academics see the situation might lead the professor to reconsider his decision.
It’s a bit unorthodox maybe, but who knows? Could be worth a shot.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_4: Indirectly responding: this sort of problem explains why no comments or corrections should be made during an exam. It is essentially impossible to do so in a way that treats all students fairly...
So when I make exams, especially "Written Prelim Exams", one of the "rules" is that there will be no comment on or corrections to questions during the exam.
Yes, of course, I'm unhappy if there's something wrong in a question... but trying to repair it during the exam is not possible to achieve in a truly fair way...
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: It's not worth bothering with, for many reasons.
2 or 3 points on a quiz at the start isn't going to affect your final grade. You're thinking about a B- on this quiz, which should have been an A. But for real, you missed a few points out of 600 in the whole class. Quiz points are only to get your attention. The tests are probably out of 100. Even if it would affect your grade, most instructors set a curve -- if it drops you to a final score of 79.995, you'll probably get a B anyway. I used to put a star next to scores with some possible issue then check during final grades if they would have mattered. I don't think it ever has.
Quizes generally don't have as much time-pressure as students think. If you know it, there will be plenty of time. If you're searching notes, or making several false starts, that means you don't know it as well. Plus isn't it common test-taking that multiple choice are easier? You choose to do it the hard way. You also don't know if you would have gotten those correct.
Finally, right now you're the good student who found a mistake in the quiz. Don't turn yourself into the whiner who cares more about a few points than learning math. It doesn't just make a bad impression on the instructor, it's bad for you. Going into the next quiz fixated on the point system and the various injustices that might occur is a great way to break your concentration on doing the problems. If you put it behind you, you can start reading the next assigned chapter right now.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_6: Here's a different view. You are responsible for managing your time during the exam. You are free to attempt the questions out of order, but if you are not making progress on a question after a while for whatever reason, you are supposed to make sure you complete the questions that *are* doable for you. Getting to the point where you had more questions still untouched than you could possibly answer in the time remaining (even if they were easy) is where you made your mistake.
While the professor should not have made an error in a question, if you followed the principle of taking responsibility for your own progress on the exam, you would have turned to other questions upon noticing unusual difficulties with that question (rather than sticking to it singlemindedly until you convinced yourself there was an error). You could come back to it at the end. It's the same approach whether the question turned out to have an error or just to be very difficult. Thus, you would have limited the damage to at most that question.
When an [error](https://www.nytimes.com/1982/05/25/us/error-found-in-sat-question.html) is [discovered](https://www.insidehighered.com/admissions/article/2019/06/03/college-board-admits-error-mathematics-scoring-may-sat) in a standardized test like the SAT, the question is removed from the scoring and the remaining questions are scored. There is not an appeal for those who may have spent too much time on the flawed question. Test-takers know not to spend a long time on any one question while there are still others to try.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_7: I am a retired Director of Undergraduate Studies and was a member of the Academic Integrity group at a UK university.
For me, the problem is one of auditing any adjustments. The Professor should not adjust the score but bring it to the attention of the external examiner, who will have authority to approve an adjustment, in light of your other results. However, that would only be done if the semester grade would have been affected. If the end of semester result was not affected then there is no point in making a change to the mark.
Only rarely would we offered a student a chance to resit, knowing that study momentum would have been focused on the exam and not some later date. However, there were cases where a student chose to resit, alongside those students who had failed the module. They seldom changed their mark, however, probably because of a disconnect between study patterns and resit timing.
In the big scheme of things, it's rare for a change (16/20 to 19/20) to have any material effect on the overall result but you imply it makes a difference as to whether you pass your semester. In that case, chase it with vigour!
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_8: When an exam contains an error that has had the potential to have affected the results, the professor is morally obliged to offer all students an extra voluntary makeover exam. The rules and regulations the exams are subject to at the university may not make it compulsory for the professor to do this, but merely sticking to the limits the rules allow for amounts to substandard professional behavior. No one can succeed in academia by just sticking to the rules.
Students who feel their scores were affected by the error may then complain that they'll need to sit another exam instead of just getting a higher score. But having studied for the original exam and mastered the topic, they should be able to just revise the topic in a few days and pass the new exam with ease. It's also an elementary topic they need to keep on speed with throughout their entire academic careers, so doing another exam in it isn't a waste of time. Any negative attitude for extra studying really isn't a good attitude for anyone in academia, so students who feel like that should reconsider whether they should continue their studies at university.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_9: **When** you confront the professor with this, if he is agreeable, be prepared to be asked what you think would be fair. Have a few options ready.
I would suggest that you lead with asking for your score to become 16/17 which ignores the three questions you didn't get to. As an added bonus 16/17 is equivalent to the 19/20 you think you could have gotten.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_10: I fully support the fact that your raising the error helped the other students and you deserve to get bonus points for that. One may argue that other students might have wasted time on that too, and if they did, then in their answer sheets it will be reflected in the order of answers they attempted and they might get some points too.
In any case, you deserve a few points, maybe not 19/20 because one could argue that your test-taking strategy is flawed.
Another alternative is you get a new test with 16 as minimum points irrespective of your new score. This would require the teacher to set another paper, which they must do as they failed to set a correct question paper in the first try. Any other student who attempted the same question earlier than other questions must be also given the chance to write the exam.
In my opinion, you are well within your rights to take this up, especially since the teacher did not hear you out. It was their mistake and you must take it up with the dean in your university. Or maybe even someone higher up the rank.
I had a somewhat similar situation in high school. Suddenly there was a ceiling imposed on the marks awarded in tests, after the evaluation. Except for mathematics, no other test can have more than 80% awarded to students. I was the only student in the class to get more than that in civics and science. Instead of scaling it down proportionally for all students, the teachers conveniently just cut off my marks. I successfully raised it with the school principal and got the exception. The fact that I succeeded in getting that done was more helpful to me in my life than those exam results. I faced the ire of the teachers when I argued with them and then went to the principal. Your case is of course different, but there are some similarities too.
You standing up for what is right and not giving up is a more important test than the one for whose points you are contesting. So do not give up.
I would also like to add that a large number of answers on this platform are from academicians who tend to give answers which put their fellow academicians in a safe place, probably not even intentionally. So read every answer after considering the fact that the person answering it might not be neutral. After all, the teacher is at the wrong end in this case and he has no right to push you over.
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: I want to know how to compensate a low overall grade for past education for a Ph.D. application in computer science in the UK ?
Thanks<issue_comment>username_1: Retired Director of UG Studies here...
While you will learn a lot doing a PhD, it is, more than anything else, a process in learning how to research. So, particularly for Computer Science, evidence that you can present, analyse data and prove results (proof is a vastly underestimated part of a PhD for Maths/CompSci) is paramount.
If you did badly in your GCSEs, that probably won't make any difference if you later got a 1st for your UG degree or at least a merit for your Masters.
Faced with 2 candidates for a research PhD, one with poor past results and one with stellar but both with equal recent results, I would always chose the one that I thought most likely to complete the PhD. Drop-outs can hinder future funding and create problems with funding applications. Show that you're a sticker and have strong study momentum and you should be fine.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: It's not clear what you consider to be a low grade, or whether you are already in the UK. This answer assumes that you have a low 2:1 (i.e. 60%-65%) and have obtained your degree(s) in the UK.
If your highest qualification is a BSc, you can compensate for a low overall mark by one or more of the following:
* Get a Master's degree (preferably a research-based Master's) and do well in it
* Get some research experience either independently, through your workplace or through someone at your local university
* Make sure you have excellent reference letters from three reputable academics, of which at least one can talk about your research ability and experience in detail
If your highest qualification is a Master's and the poor marks were in your BSc, you have already demonstrated that you're on an upward trend and there's not much more you can do. If your highest qualification is a Master's but the poor marks were in that Master's, there's not much you can do about that, unless you have a very good explanation as to why that might be (mitigating personal circumstances, perhaps). Again, having a referee who can vouch for you will go some way to compensate for that.
However, it's worth bearing in mind that if your degree is classified below a 2:1 (i.e. a 2:2, 3rd or pass), your application may be screened out before your references are even read. It's possible to get around this if you have someone on the admissions committee who will vouch for you, but this presumes that you have already contacted a potential supervisor who understands why your grades are poor and is still keen to take you as a student.
Note that we have a wiki question on this site that is US-focused, but much of the advice is also applicable in the UK: [How does the admissions process work for Ph.D. programs in the US, particularly for weak or borderline students?](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/38237/how-does-the-admissions-process-work-for-ph-d-programs-in-the-us-particularly)
Upvotes: 2 [selected_answer]
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<issue_start>username_0: I submitted to a journal, in which I got a minor revision. In the minor revision, I was asked to do nothing other than to include a future research direction in the end after the conclusion. I submitted with the minor revision two days ago and today, I got a mail saying that a major revision is suggested.
The mail reads as follows:
>
> Thanks for submitting your paper to this special issue. Please add a section after introduction for literature review. The current quality of paper is not sufficient to publish on the journal. Please include most recent literature as well.
> You will need to state the research motivation at the beginning and conclude the research questions in the end.
>
>
>
Now, I am not asked to do anything regarding the analysis part or anything. I already have stated the research questions in the manuscript. I also don't understand what it means, "current quality is not sufficient."
Is this usual? Any advice on how to deal this?
Update: My paper got accepted. Woah..!<issue_comment>username_1: In my field, biomedical science, it is highly unusual to hear back from a peer-reviewed journal within 2 days of resubmission. I would recommend double-checking whether the journal is a peer-reviewed journal and whether the papers published in this journal provide a significant contribution to your field. It is important to always check that as there are multiple predatory journals out there. As Roland said, you have two options. Certainly, you should always consult with your supervisor prior to any action.
Another point I would like to add is that usually when the reviewer finds issues regarding the quality of the manuscript, the reviewer will point out the specific issues in order to clarify where the authors have to work on before resubmission. It is very strange that you did not receive a detailed review.
As for the change from minor to major revision, that can happen. Particularly because not always the same reviewer will be available to review all versions of a manuscript, so in some cases, your manuscript may be sent out to a different reviewer after resubmission.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: This entire situation is strange:
* to start with: you submit a paper that apparently lacks a good introduction with motivation for the research, a conclusion, and references
* the reviewers did not notice the lack of references, a big and obvious problem with the paper (but hopefully easy to solve)
* the reviewers did not comment on the lack of presence of a motivation for the research and the apparent missing conclusion, another problem that should be immediately obvious
* although directions for future research are sometimes added to a paper, any paper should be publishable without this being present, and I have never seen reviewers or editors ask for those
* the minor revisions being changed into major revisions is uncommon, but given the seemingly poor quality of the reviews it is understandable if the editor read the paper afterwards
The papers I have reviewed myself that lack the basics such a motivation, conclusion and references always had many other problems and I have always had to recommend rejection for those other problems. I hope that your paper is not one of those.
Taken together it seems to me that the reviewers are inexperienced and the editor did his best to give you valuable feedback to improve the paper. From what you tell us yourself, it does indeed sound like your paper needs major revisions.
To proceed, I would suggest to:
1. Make sure that the journal is sufficiently good for your paper (normally you have done this already before submission). Also see the answer by username_1.
2. Revise your paper by adding or improving the introduction and conclusion, and adding the relevant references. This is a lot of work so hopefully it is possible to do within the timeframe given to you by the journal to carry out these major revisions.
3. I would not include any suggestions for future work unless I actually had some and wished to disclose them before doing the research.
4. Do not see the change to "major revisions" as unreasonable, but learn from the suggestions you got and remember them for your next paper.
Upvotes: 0
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<issue_start>username_0: I am a current graduate student at a research-oriented university. Nonetheless, for me, it is a big mystery why and how the professors are incentivised to recruit and train the graduate students.
In an experiment-oriented research group, graduate students are the work-force of the principal investigator, so the professors train the graduate students to conduct experiments and research so that they contribute to the research group. However, in theory-oriented research areas such as pure mathematics, theoretical computer science, and theoretical physics, in many situations, graduate students do not contribute to the professor's research. They receive training and guidance for their research career unilaterally.
It should depend on the system for each nation, but what are the designed incentives for the professors in such areas to hire and train graduate students other than volunteer service spirit? In addition, I have heard that there exists an incentive system to push the professor to let their graduate students graduate within a reasonable time. What is such a system?<issue_comment>username_1: A few reasons:
1. [It might be required by the funding agency](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/101626/why-do-departments-fund-phd-students-instead-of-postdocs).
2. Graduate students let the professor expand his/her research program. If one is interested in the results, but don't have the time to do it yourself, then graduate students are great.
3. Successful graduate students produce papers which have their advisor's name on them, and if they go on to become successful, the advisor benefits professionally (since it indirectly shows they are a great mentor).
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: Since you mention economic incentives, one obvious answer might be for teaching, at least this was the way it was in Germany. Even the most theoretical professor is supposed to teach a certain number of classes each semester. Generally the work involved in this is too much for one person alone, that is why the professor is supposed to do the lectures and the PhD students handle exercise classes and organisation. So its either supervise a bit on a research level or spend twice the time dealing with undergrad students having missed the deadline for their homework again because their grandfather died for the fifth time in this semester. Personally I'd know what I'd choose...
To this end each professor has a number of positions available, which can only be used to hire PhD students or postdocs. In particular it is not possible to hire someone to just help with the teaching without supervising them scientifically (Not that many qualified people would be willing anyway), or use the money for something else. Also like with any budget item, not using positions for too long is a great way to have them reallocated to someone else.
Regarding incentives to have them graduate on time, that one is also simple, if a bit unrefined: There is a maximum amount of years one can be employed in such positions. So in order to supervise the next student, the old one should be finished.
But I have to say that homo economicus is a spectacularly bad model for professors in theoretical subjects. Most of the ones I know are primarily motivated by science and would gladly work with a gifted student even without receiving any compensation.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: It's a requirement of their job.
(Longer version: in the UK at least, universities seem to be increasingly setting explicit requirements of academic positions, and at least some of those lists of requirements set out minimum rates of research students you must have graduate under your supervision.)
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: * If you are not tenured, one criterion for tenure will be how many (successfully completed, ideally) PhD theses you have supervised.
* If you apply for a grant, showing that you successfully supervised X PhD students will help. In addition, having good students increases your publication output, which is again helpful when applying for grants.
* You might argue that there is no reason to apply for grants in theoretical research, since all they buy you are PhD students/postdocs, so if you don't want to supervise PhD students, why apply for grants? However, even for tenured professors part of their salary might depend on dynamic factors such as grants acquired.
* And finally, already mentioned by others - though this is not part of your question - most people really supervise students because they enjoy it, and not for economic reasons.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: As a professor you typically like to do and/or teach science and have influence over what research is done in your field. You also like to stay employed. Your department will do well if it can teach and/or research well. The likelihood that you are perceived as being effective typically increases if you can increase your output in either field (with sufficient quality). To increase your output, it helps to have "employees". PhD students are employees. They might not always get paid (very much) with money, instead you pay them (also) with your time. You invest some time but get typically more of their time - to teach or research for you, do the menial tasks you as a professor are too busy to do yourself.
If your department does well, that increases the chances that your institute or your university does well. It also increases the chances that you stay employed if there are budget cuts or that you even get promoted. Therefore more graduate students help you do more teaching/research (with you influencing the research of your field by advising them) and it helps you to stay employed.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_6: At my university and several others I know of, our annual raises are based in part on a 'merit score'; all of our activity (publications, undergrad and grad teaching, grad mentoring, departmental and University service) is tabulated [by us] and judged [by a departmental committee or by the department chair]. Faculty with above-average merit scores get above-average raises, and below-averagers get below-average raises.
This makes a fairly small difference in the grand scheme of things, and I agree with the other answerers about the relatively low importance of economic incentives, but since that was your question ...
For an important non-economic incentive: faculty without graduate students often end up with a heavier course load, and many people would rather train graduate students one-on-one rather than lecture and mark exams ...
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_7: At my Alma Mater, one particular tenured prof exclaimed *the first lesson* of grad students *first class*:
"My lessons are aimed at the top 10% of you."
He then proceeded to breeze through the curriculum and teach waaay above it
Not all profs are incentivized to teach grads.
This particular one did it to find future academics in his field.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_8: I question your premise. **For the theoretical groups I have encountered it would be extremely unusual for the graduate students to not contribute to the professor's research.**
Yes, the professor may be more efficient at doing research. And the professor may have to heavily invest in the graduate students' training first. But overall over the course of an average graduate career the student will contribute much more to the professor's research than the professor would have achieved by themselves instead of supervising a student. (*That is true even if the professor hypothetically could do the work that takes a grad student 8h in just 1h, to pick an extreme & somewhat unrealistic example*).
I think that explains why theoretical research groups have graduate students. Any additional incentives are secondary (but exist, because society puts some value on training experts in itself independent of research output).
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_9: It is economical for a professor when you look at the correct 'currency' that an academic strives to maximize: For those who have decided to stay long-term in academia, this currency is not money (if money beyond the getting-food-on-the-table level were of importance, they'd not have stayed in academia long enough to become tenured professors) but academic output (measured in papers, citations, conference contributions etc.) associated with that particular professor's chair.
They optimize for academic output given the funding available to them (in Germany, a full professor usually has funding for several postdoc-equivalent positions associated with their post), and advanced grad students - while time-consuming to train - can become almost postdoc-level resources at roughly half the price (since a PhD student in Germany gets about half a postdoc salary) or even for free if the grad student brings her own grant money.
Another criterion a professor might optimize for is 'legacy', i.e. having trained (and thus influenced) a large number of students, some of whom might go on to make research contributions in their own right, and thus each grad student they teach is another potential contribution to the academic legacy.
Upvotes: 2
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2020/09/10
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<issue_start>username_0: I'm an undergrad student, and I intend to start assisting a senior PhD student with her research work. I'm really interested in the work (definitely don't want to let go of this opportunity), but I'm unsure if the *position being offered to me* is **official**, i.e. if I would be a *research assistant* or something, so to speak.
I was told by the PhD that if I'm to accept, she will have to seek permission from her PI / keep the PI in the loop - which makes me feel that it's probably official but I'm not sure.
**What's a polite way of asking for the necessary clarifications?**<issue_comment>username_1: I don't actually know what "official" means. If your institution has some definitions for such things then it makes sense, but people can't normally just make up titles for things. They can, of course, provide letters in which things are described informally using words that sound like titles. But "official" depends on some institutional backing.
But the way to learn is just to ask, not worrying much about "polite". Will you have a title of some kind that you can use on your CV? That is the question you want answered, and if, no, ask how you can/should present it on the CV.
But you are wise to want to have it clarified. Even if it isn't "official" it can be a good thing on the CV.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: >
> I was told by the PhD that if I'm to accept, she will have to seek permission from her PI / keep the PI in the loop - which makes me feel that it's probably official but I'm not sure.
>
>
>
The PhD student likely has no authority nor budget to hire you. They're trying to establish whether you'd take a position if formally offered. If you will, they'll go and get permission/money from their PI. Whether the PI will hire you depends on the PhD student's sway with the PI and on the PI's budget.
>
> What's a polite way of asking for the necessary clarifications?
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**TL;DR**: Say, *I'm interested, how do we proceed*?
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: **Be prepared to ask for what you want.**
It might be that the PhD student had in mind an informal relationship. But if you would like some formal title or recognition, then the PhD student might be happy to try to arrange it for you.
**Consider looking within your own university for recognition.**
The PhD student might not know how to accommodate such a request. PhD students, and often even professors, don't necessarily spend a lot of time thinking about formal titles or "how the bureaucracy works".
Universities tend to offer formal recognition to their own students for a variety of activities. You might see if there is a suitable such program at your own university, which allows for an external supervisor, and ask the PhD student if she would be willing to serve in that role. Potentially, it might look good on her CV too.
Upvotes: 1
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2020/09/11
| 449
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<issue_start>username_0: Say, I want to publish a research paper. But, for some reason, I don't want to expose my identity.
Is it possible to publish a research paper using an alias?<issue_comment>username_1: Yes, it's possible and plenty of people will have done it.
Rather than try to repeat what has already been said in other answers on this forum, I'd invite you to take a look at the many questions that deal with what name people should choose when publishing articles. The short is:
* It doesn't have to be your real name, but it should be the name by which people in the community know you in person, so they can associate the paper with the author.
* You want to choose a name that will allow you to continue publishing under for the entirety of your career.
You can find some more considerations in the answers to other questions.
But it's possible that I misunderstand the question. Maybe you are interested in a one-off publication under a pseudonym because you *don't* want to be identified as the author? That's uncommon, and as an editor in a journal I would strongly argue against this because the free exchange of ideas also requires that one can have a conversation with an author. If the author doesn't want to be identified, that's not possible, and it's to the detriment of the development of science -- even though I understand that there are cases where a younger colleague may not want to write a critique of some senior scholar's publications, for example. I understand that such cases happen, and I get that publishing under a pseudonym is one solution that one can pursue, but I still think that that's not quite the right avenue either.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Yes it's possible, although you probably have to convince the editor why you'd want to do that.
[Example of paper published with an alias](https://arxiv.org/abs/1009.3956).
Upvotes: 2
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2020/09/11
| 619
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<issue_start>username_0: Recently, I defended my PhD thesis in the final viva-voce session. Post the presentation, one of the panel members questioned that I should not have stated my own definition of a particular concept. The panel member suggested that I should have rather given a industry-standard definition for that particular concept.
This makes me think and wonder that Why I should not suggest my own definition of the concept. After all the definition was published by an high impact journal and has been cited many times. By the way, I understand what they meant. And my PhD supervisor too did not raise this as a concern when I sent them the presentation for checking.
My contention here is, I have worked in this area for several years and I do not get the right to cite my definition for my own viva.<issue_comment>username_1: In other countries, the viva-voce is called "defense" for a reason. The onus is on you to defend your use of the definition, in particular, if it deviates from the industry standard.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: In this type of question, context is everything, and so it's hard to give an unequivocal answer. That being said:
I'd in general have no trouble with someone, in a Ph.D. defense, article, whatever, giving their own definition of a concept, as long as they demonstrated an awareness of what the more standard definitions are, and articulated why it is beneficial to deviate. In fact, a discussion of what the standard definition(s) miss and why the presenter's definition is either preferable, or at least provides an enriching if temporary detour, might be a great structuring device for summarizing what's novel about the results anyway.
I would have trouble with someone just asserting a novel definition of a term with established usage, but not engaging with more standard definitions. To the extent they are an apprentice scholar (e.g. student "defending"), it would make me wonder if they have sufficiently "done their homework" to place their contribution in the corpus of established research in the field. Were they unaware of the other definition(s) and/or did they miss crucial nuance? And to the extent they are now fellow independent research practitioners (and the Ph.D. is the inflection point for this, of course), redefining terms *and making it stick* invariably generates confusion in the field, so should not be done lightly. And the onus is on the one suggesting a terminological change to be crystal clear what the change is (and why). And whether it's fair or not, the bar for that is higher for someone new to the field than someone already well-established.
Upvotes: 1
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2020/09/11
| 1,372
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<issue_start>username_0: I will be graduating this year with a PhD in mathematics. My research background is in analysis in a top 20 program in the US. However, my family situation is such that I can't uproot my family any more than I already have, and I am thus geographically limited in our "in-person" options. There are several universities and liberal arts schools in my native region, but these days it is increasingly rare to get a tenure track position straight out of the PhD, even for non R1-institutions.
So here is my question. How open are math departments/potential mentors to the idea of a remote research postdoc, assuming I can make trips to the host institution, say, two or three times a year? I'm looking both at postdocs in the US and abroad.
On one hand, COVID has made online work more a possibility. And if I stick to research postdocs, I don't have to be in-person for additional tasks (I might also teach online courses in other cases, but I don't want to bank on the continuation of this pandemic, which would just be, well, awful). Additionally, as a mother I already do most of my research from home, and I have figured out to a large extent how to balance my personal life with my professional life under the flexible time schedules allowed by academia. My CV and research activity, as far as I know, is decently strong (two published papers, one in a good journal, two submitted papers, one to a top journal, and several more research projects along the way, several talks, including some invited ones), and both I and my advisor had correspondences with some of the researchers in potential institutions, some of who also know I have a child, so they might be more understanding (or not).
On the other hand, I fear a remote option request might be read at best as a lack of commitment to my research, and at worst an insult to the department. I know personally this isn't the case for me in terms of my productivity (it's been my default for a few years now), but there might be prior assumptions in play. I also know that generally, math research is increasingly social and collaborative. There are some advantages to being able to stop by an office next door and ask a math-related/ research question. I also recognize that universities are going to want additional teaching experience if I am applying to tenure track positions afterwards. My limitation to research postdocs also makes it that the total number of postdocs I'm looking at is less than most PhD's numbers of applications.
Should this not work out, I am also applying to non-academic positions as a back-up plan (gotta put food in the table), but I really do enjoy research in pure math and do not want stop doing it.<issue_comment>username_1: I’ll only address the US in this answer. Some of this may not be applicable to other countries.
The large majority of US pure math postdocs are mixed teaching and research positions, typically with a three year term. Even though teaching is happening remotely at many schools nowadays, you are asking how departments view the idea of a remote postdoc; well, from a practical point of view, if one is making decisions three years into the future, one cannot assume that teaching is going to continue to be done remotely that far ahead. So, my guess is that you getting such a position as a remote-only postdoc is a non-starter.
That leaves the fairly small number of postdocs that don’t have a teaching component. These come in two flavors. The first is grant-funded and controlled by a specific researcher or research group. These seem to me to be vanishingly rare in pure math these days, but if you are lucky enough to be doing research precisely in an area someone with funding for a postdoc is interested in, you may have a chance. At the very least, it seems more plausible for an individual researcher to be receptive to your suggestion than for a department, committee, fellowship, or other institutional sort of entity.
The other type of positions without teaching are prestigious research postdocs funded by well-known fellowships such as the [Miller](https://miller.berkeley.edu/fellowship) and [Clay](https://www.claymath.org/programs/fellowship-nominations). There are only a handful of such fellowships and they are ultra-competitive and extremely difficult to get for anyone, let alone someone who insists on doing a remote postdoc; so getting one of them cannot be thought of as a reliable career plan. But if you’re good enough to be considered seriously for one of those, I can imagine at least a theoretical chance that they might allow you to do the postdoc remotely. You’ll have to check.
The bottom line is that the job market for math postdocs in the US is unfortunately not very friendly towards people in a situation like yours who have geographical location constraints. In any case, good luck!
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: This is a tough one. It's really terrible that academia is set up to essentially require several moves from people, but that kind of is the setup at the moment. You're right that with COVID, a lot of old assumptions are being questioned, and the idea that you have to physically be in the office is obviously out the window, so you never know. There's not much downside to you reaching out to people to see if they are willing to consider it given the circumstances, but I wouldn't go into it with high hopes. Think about it from the perspective of someone on the hiring end. I would say your best hope is something like an NSF postdoc (I'm assuming you're a US citizen) or some comparable fellowship, so I would seek out everything you can find along those lines, and of course, pursue all avenues to find a postdoc in commuting distance of where you live now. I think that's the usual approach of people who for whatever reason really cannot move.
Upvotes: 2
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2020/09/12
| 2,035
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<issue_start>username_0: **Summary:** *Student got defensive when I suggested he might have some neurologial issue that should be checked, should I apologize or how to address the issue?*
I am a PhD student advising a student midway through his master. This student has always been a very slow learner which has caused me frustration because I advise a few other students in the lab. Therefore, I don't have so much time and I feel that without my help he will fail his master.
Every protocol he makes, I have to teach him 3 times because he forgets the steps, doesn't take notes and is overall disorganized. Our advisor has taught him how to take notes a few times but this aspect has not improved. When he tries to do the protocol by himself, he messages me asking about the steps and ultimately can not do it.
In the last 2 times we met, he was limping. The first time, he said he fell off his bicycle and on the second time he said he "just fell" and his legs have a lot of bruises from these falls.
The experiments we do require very steady hands, but his hands shake a lot in a way I am not sure it is normal for a young person, so he has a lot of trouble assembling the devices we make and sometimes breaks them.
Last time we met, we were going to do a new protocol. To be sure he understood, I asked him to read it and explain the steps to me. I gave him an hour to read and when I tried to check it, he couldn't explain it and asked for 3 more minutes.
I believe some activities are harder for some people and even if it is extremely difficult for someone, I should not be the person to tell them to give up. I always consider the case the person might have some personall challenges, but I can only accomodate if I know if the person doesn't want to do a master or if the person has some disability.
Last time he failed a protocol, I asked by message if he would like to see a neurologist for these issues and he got very defensive. This makes me angry because I think he has ADHD or essential tremor or some form of anxiety which are all treatable but prevent him from doing his work and make me loose my time.
I should not diagnose him and that is why I would like him to see a professional, so I resent him not considering this option because if he has no issues, I feel like I should give up on him and let him fail, which is against my principles and the idea of "giving up on someone" makes me feel like a failure too.
I don't know if I should treat him as he has an undiagnosed disability or someone with the opposite of an impostor syndrome (someone who really shouldn't be doing a master but doesn't realize it).
**Should I continue helping him? Give up on him?**<issue_comment>username_1: >
> I should not diagnose him
>
>
>
That's correct. Even if you knew how to, he is not your patient.
>
> I would like him to see a professional
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Also correct. You should tell this student they may benefit from an appointment with the disability office at your university. You can also ask that office for advice.
You should tell your supervisor about the problems with the student's performance.
>
> Should I continue helping him?
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>
If you have tried to help a student several times and made no progress, it is acceptable to give up. This is particularly justified if the student refuses to follow your advice. Depending on circumstances, you may also be able to give the student an easier research project.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Others may disagree, but your position sounds extremely unreasonable and passive-aggressive to me. I'm going to make some criticisms of your position here, and some of it might sound harsh, but I will end with some constructive advice to assist you. The good news is that you sound like a person who is keen to become a good teacher and not give up on students.
The student has already given you explanations for the observed physical problems you mention (except for the shaking hands, which really does not require one), and it is unclear why you do not accept the student's explanation. You have also said in the comments that the student has explicity told you that he is healthy. I fail to see how it is your business to act as a medical assessor for the student, to refer them for treatment, especially when the student denies that they have the condition you suggest. Suggesting to the student that they "might have some neurologial issue" sounds to me like a passive-aggressive way of saying "you're dumb", only in high-falutin academic language. Getting *angry* that the student denies this speculated neurological condition is absolutely nuts, and it reflects terribly on your teaching practice and your general patience for dealing with students.
>
> Every protocol he makes, I have to teach him 3 times because he forgets the steps, doesn't take notes and is overall disorganized.
>
>
>
Welcome to teaching. Teaching exists because people are not already good at the thing you are trying to teach them. It largely consists of reinforcing things you have already explained many times before, until your students internalise the material, methods, and habits. There are always some students who do not meet the required standards, and we set a cut-off level for failure to deal with this. Some students manage to get through to levels of education that they shouldn't have, with bad habits, poor study skills, etc. Dealing with these students can be frustrating (it would be wonderful if they were all the A+ students), but that is a part of teaching. If bad work by students is something that frustrates you to the point of speculating to students that they have neurological problems, that is not great.
>
> Last time he failed a protocol, I asked by message if he would like to see a neurologist for these issues and he got very defensive. This makes me angry...
>
>
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That is totally inappropriate. Firstly, who are you to tell this guy he has neurological issues? Are you his doctor? Maybe he is just a disorganised student who doesn't know the material well. Secondly, the fact that you get *angry* that he denies it is absolutely nuts. It suggests that you are psychologically invested in your own (totally invented) medical diagnosis of this student, in a way that is not about helping him at all.
Let me end with some constructive advice --- *demarcate the proper limits of your job*. As teachers, we try to help students learn, and some students are not well equipped for this. Part of the job is to assess the quality of student work and inform students of their progress. This includes being frank with students when their work is not up to the minimum standards expected. You don't need to play amateur psychologist ---or amateur medical doctor--- for this, and speculate on the causes for poor performance. All you need to do here is to provide whatever teaching assistance is necessary, and calmly but firmly inform the student if he is falling short of the required standard. At a certain point, if the student cannot do the work, they will be failed and leave the program. It is up to the *student* to seek the causes of his own failure. If the student asks your opinion on possible causes, you may feel free to offer your opinion, but offering unsolicited medical opinions (in a way that seems to me to be quite rude) is generally not helpful.
Sometimes novice teachers get themselves into trouble because they take an overly expansive view of their role, and they imagine that it is their job to act as psychologist, medical assessor, etc. Unless you are very good at doing those things calmly and in a helpful way, that tends to lead to more trouble than it solves. Students appreciate teachers who stick to to the facts --- here is the work, here is some teaching assistance, here is an objective assessment of your performance, etc.
Finally, unless it is your actual paid job, it is not incumbent on you to help this student. It is commendable that you have a general ethos of not wishing to give up on students, but if you find it too frustrating to deal with this student (which you clearly do) then **stop**. It is silly to get angry at the student (and resentful even!) regarding your own personal hang-ups about "giving up on someone". Presumably this student has teachers who are part of the general faculty of the university so there is plenty of assistance there for him (from people who do not resent him).
Upvotes: 1
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2020/09/12
| 1,351
| 5,683
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<issue_start>username_0: **First a bit of chronological background:**
PhD in pure math (2 publications, 1 preprint), 1 year of postdoc in pure math (unproductive) 2 years of postdoc in computational medical imaging (1 publication each, and one of these postdocs were in application of differential geometry and machine learning for medical imaging), 1 year of postdoc in computer vision (unproductive, as I was partially spending my time to move to industry - *I accept the blame here*, mostly as a data scientist or machine learning researcher), 2 years of failed industry experience (4 jobs, all permanent, all let go within the first 4-5 months in the respective trial periods). So in essence, 4 years of postdoc, partially productive and 2 years of failed industry experience after PhD.
**What's going on now:**
I've a strong realization that the traditional industrial positions are not from me, and I'm planning to go back to academia, as well as on my way to obtain my freelance status, so I'd be able to consult on the side. But since I worked 2 years in industry immediate prior, I feel I need to get a long (at least a year and a half) project to get back to the full research mode, find a line of projects and use that to get a permanent position. These projects wouldn't be in pure math, but rather in *theoretical machine learning, statistics or applications of differential geometry/topology to solve data analysis problem*.
**Immediate next - a potential answer to a question I might be facing during my next hiring:**
I'll be having a few interviews, and I'm sure some postdoctoral advisors would ask me why I'm not looking for a permanent position, since I'm already 6 years past my PhD. My **honest** answer would be: "*Initially I thought that the academia wasn't for me, that the stakes of getting a permanent position are pretty low, and even then, I thought it wasn't rewarding enough, me being based in Europe and not planning to move. So I wanted to move to industry but in R&D and I thought I'd be doing almost fundamental research; but I was wrong - the industry mindset and environment I found to be very different than the academic one, and hence I'm realizing my mistake only now, and trace my way back into academia*."
**My question(s):**
*But if I do give that honest answer as I wrote above, will it hurt my chance to get into postdoc positions that I'd want to get into?* I don't want to paint a wrong image of myself to my future academic employers, but I fear that if I tell them that I moved into industry as I thought I wasn't good enough for academia and it was not rewarding enough, then my potential academic employers might think that I'm coming back to academia as a second choice and not out of passion. But the thing is that I had to go through a two year period of self-realization, and yes I did make a career mistake, which I'm planning to rectify. *So how do I convey this truth in a manner that doesn't make me look like I wanted to run away from fundamental research (in fact I didn't, I planned to do it, but outside the scope of academia, which did fail and seemed almost non-existent) and work against me in an academic hiring process*?
**If you want more details about the reasons for being let go:**
They're mentioned as comments to the answer by @jerlich.<issue_comment>username_1: I think the answer you have now isn't so bad. But you could be painting yourself in better light. Rather than saying jobs in academia in the pay range and stability you aspired to were too competitive, say you preferred the higher pay and stability you could access in industry. It's the same sentiment but doesn't point to you somehow failing. Many good people get bad luck and don't make it to tenure, and we all know industry offers a wider range of people a better material life in many aspects.
So for example I would tweak this to:
"Initially I wanted to move into industry for (better reasons to reference: higher pay and a more stable lifestyle, choosing where you get to live, etc). So I moved to industry. In R&D and I thought I'd be doing almost fundamental research; but I was wrong - the industry mindset and environment I found to be very different than the academic one, and hence I'm realizing my mistake only now, and trace my way back into academia."
And then maybe say that you've realized it's important to you to be doing fundamental research, so important that the pros of getting back on the academic track now outweigh the cons for you.
Caveat: I'm not in mathematics but in my field your publication record doesn't justify looking for a permanent position, and that would be immediately known to people interviewing you for a postdoc. They may instead phrase this question more like "what have you been up to?" Or maybe even directly ask, "why did you leave industry?"
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Permanent academic jobs almost always involve teaching and managerial tasks as significant components, whereas postdoc jobs can be almost entirely research-focused. Hence, if you like research better than teaching or management, that could be a valid reason to apply for a postdoc job rather than a permanent academic job at any stage of your career. (Although having once used that reason, it becomes trickier to justify applying for a permanent academic job later.)
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_3: If I was considering hiring you, I would want to know more about why you were let go from 4 positions in 2 years. You said in the question that it wasn't for you. In my opinion a sign of professionalism is being able to do work, even if you are not intrinsically motivated to do it.
Upvotes: 2
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2020/09/12
| 2,863
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<issue_start>username_0: I’m an Indian PhD student at a mathematics department in the US. A few months back, I was deliberately shoulder-bumped for a few seconds by another PhD student. This student had previously chased me across the department (literally), invaded my personal space, and stared me down. I asked to change offices, which is usually a routine affair, but a faculty member stepped in to prevent this. I had to remain in close proximity with this guy, who continued to act in passive-aggressive ways.
After the shoulder bumping, I threatened to go to campus police. The aforementioned faculty member responded (in writing) saying: “There is no proof of this ever happening; I can’t prevent you from going to the campus police, but be warned that both of you can get expelled."
Also prior to this, I had reported several racist incidents from another student. A few example quotes are:
* "you fucking Indians" in a very threatening tone,
* "don’t tell me you fucking Indians count so fast,"
* "You Indians and Chinese are taking over,"
* or in a mocking tone: "It’s funny there is racism in your country."
When I showed this faculty member documentation of these events, he wrote to me in an email: "I don’t agree with your assessment that there is anything racist in these incidents." He also said the racist PhD student was "special" (though there is no written evidence of him saying this).
Another teaching faculty member had been similarly racist. He said things like:
* "I was scared to come here initially because I thought I would have to learn Hebrew",
* "I'm so white I'll never be mistaken for an Italian who gets mistaken for a terrorist when doing Math on a plane"
* Telling a room full of Chinese students and a couple of Indian students: "If you speak in Mandarin or Hindi in the corridors you will get into serious trouble, like some Chinese students and postdocs from the past who were speaking Chinese in the corridors and it created a lot of mistrust and there were very serious complaints" (no-one else has ever heard of these incidents).
Further, he physically intimidated me and barged into my office at one point. The faculty member said he had not done anything inappropriate (again no written evidence of this specifically). In fact he said, it is commendable and shows the teaching faculty member is very socially aware and aware of his white privilege.
I would not have necessarily made an issue out of this again, but I recently received a threatening letter from the dean and this faculty member. This letter warned that I could be "withdrawn" and stated that I wouldn't be allowed to defend a thesis right away. I replied saying "Are you sure you want to take such a tone after the murder of <NAME>?" Their reply was: "If you keep speaking like this, we will 'withdraw' you."
How should I proceed after these incidents? I'm particularly interested in legal recourse (though the incidents mentioned may be hard to prove in a court of law, although I have these written emails from our faculty member).<issue_comment>username_1: There's a lot to parse here, particularly in the lengthy comments section. The way I see it is you've got two options:
1. Go outside of the department for help
2. Avoid these conflicts and finish
It seems apparent that the department is not going to help you through this, since you mention both the Dean and the department chair being involved negatively. If you opt for number one, you should look for school-wide resources, similar to Title IX coordinators for gender issues. I'm not aware of this being standardized, so you should look through your university's resources.
I think whether you go with option 1 probably depends on how close you are to finishing. If you're close, and you've been able to work successfully with your advisor, is it possible to minimize, or even cut, all contact with the rest of the department, and just get your degree? It's hard to swallow injustice, but from a utilitarian point of view, there may not be much to gain by fighting with the people in charge of the department you're in. Letting bullying by fellow PhD students go unanswered by simply avoiding them galls me, even, and I'm the one giving the advice! But you should at least weigh the option when considering what's best for you; fighting racism in your department, or escaping with your PhD.
Of course if you're not close to finishing, option two becomes far less viable. I'm sorry you're in such a toxic environment, and I hope you can finish your degree successfully despite it. Perhaps some combination of 1 and 2 is possible - it seems sensible to immediately begin avoiding the sources of conflict in your department, even if you do opt to challenge their behavior at a higher level.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: Can you get a lawyer? I know the universities give legal advice, but in this case they won't. Can you reach out to Indian communities? Perhaps a lawyer can offer you free services? 1) please go to the International Student Services for guidance. If all fails, 2) please go to HR and talk to them, but remember HR is not your friend, they will most likely try to keep it within the institution. If they cooperate, they will hire external reviewers to get their legal opinion on the case, but it can turn into you against the faculty member/dean and HR might take their side.
This might be stressful for you, but I think you are already living a stressful grad life, if anything at least you can make it right for others. I am sorry you are going through this, no one should! I did my PhD in USA and my university was really a safe place for international students, with a high international student population. International students bring in the most revenue/do most of the research, so if your university has any senses at all, they will try to resolve this. If you are just beginning PhD, I would consider other options as well: other labs, other departments, other universities.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: If you have irrefutable evidence of this harassment, you might want to go to the press. The university newspaper and/or local or even national newspapers. Your life will be turned upside down, but maybe it will protect future students of color from this harassment.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_4: Do you have smartphone? Just install app called IP Webcam(I am not sponsoring this, I don't even know the meaning of sponsoring), now follow all procedure set it all up, it works even if your smartphone is locked. It can simply record videos and audios of them. If you can successfully record the incidents and then present them as proof, you are done with your part, let them handle the legal stuff now. Of course as mentioned by one of the answerer, if you are close to finishing your degree, better come home safe and quick! I wish I could help you real quick.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_5: Could you maybe contact the American Civil Liberties Union and ask them for advice?
<https://www.aclu.org/faqs#1_5>
I'm not American and have no experience at American universities but these guys are always in the news with cases similar to yours. Maybe someone who knows more about the US system can expand this answer.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_6: To me your description sounds like a fully grown mobbing/bullying situation. The conclusion is that I'm afraid your best bet is to get away from there, the sooner the better.
This is not a single misbehaving (harrassing, racist,...) individual or incident who *may* be made to behave themselves, but a whole group who ganged up, including some of your superiors and repeatedly harrass.
In addition to getting away from there for the sake of your own health and academic performance, you should not honor such a department with your work.
* Do you already have a professional network?
* Are there professors from other places whom you trust and who know your work?
=> contact them about openings
* Are there fellow students whom you can trust?
* International student networks?
=> contact them to find out whether the prospective new place is likely better.
* Be *extremely* professional and reticent in describing why you leave. However, make clear that the reason is not lack of academic achievement - you may say that you count on being even more productive in the new environment, though.
Where I am students can take their *own* thesis work with them when they happen to change university (with some caveats related to employment and employers having rights to work results). I.e., you may be able to use e.g. papers you already published for your thesis at the new university. Ask about this.
* Is there someone to whom you can unburden yourself? Relations, friends, psychological counseling, a religious or spiritual advisor?
---
A few points about mobbing/bullying I picked from [<NAME>: Berliner Anti-Mobbing-Fibel (in German) [Berlin Anti-Mobbing leaflet - it is mainly about bullying in school, but many of the points fit with what you describe]](https://www.berlin.de/familie/de/asset/download/asset-1226)
* The victim has basically no possibility to liberate themselves on their own [while staying at there]
* Attacks are wilfully intentional and arbitrary
* Mobbing/bullying is abuse of power
* It will not end on its own
* Sequence of events:
1. the potential bully looks for weaknesses/sensitivities of the potential victim
2. Outward characteristics are picked afterwards (ethnicity, hair color, dialect, ... literally *whatever*) to use as pretended "reason"IMHO it is important to realize: the chosen victim has no whatsoever chance to avoid the bullying attacks by changing the picked characteristic since that follows after the fact - and can and will be changed arbitrarily. (This goes in particular @Mandrill)
(Even a characteristic that is not the case with the victim can serve. Say, bullying OP as "Russian" when they're Indian - which signals that the victim is not even worth bothering to label them correctly)
* The victim is in a physiologically stressful situation. This is both a threat to their health and it is likely to hinder their academic performance.
This is one of the reasons why you need to get away from there!
* Whithin the situation there is *nothing* that the victim can do to reliably stop the situation: normally [in a non-bullying situation] adequate, polite requests to the bully to behave themselves are not sufficient. Strong actions that to gets results are counted as the victim overreacting, i.e. *against* the victim.
See OP's description for an example.
Also as said above, the attacks are arbitrary and wilful, i.e. the only pattern they reliably follow is that they will happen when a bully (or one of their so-called helpers/followers) thinks the attack will be safe (see OP describing lots of situations where they do not have witnesses who'd stand up) and have impact.
* There is a strong structural component to bullying: organizational structures that allow this to happen.
Here: those authorities whose duty it would be to prevent or at least stop such bullying have joined the mob.
---
Last but not least: of course this may be genuine racism, i.e. race is the systematic and predictable trigger for the aggression rather than a picked "well-working" characteristic of a chosen victim. IMHO that distinction is rather academic, though: I think the practical possibilities and limitations are the same whether the underlying behaviour is mainly racist or mainly bullying. And for me, both rank as equally bad.
Upvotes: 3
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2020/09/12
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<issue_start>username_0: I will be teaching for the first time to both undergraduate and graduate students in computer science, not in the US, and I am wondering
1. if I should take time to meet & greet with students
2. if so, what should I ask them? I know some questions are uncomfortable (anything that gives away socio-economical background for example), so I want to avoid uncomfortable questions. Should it be about the class? Should it be about their favorite movie?
The course will be online due to the pandemic.<issue_comment>username_1: Addressing #2, here's a list of ideas that's worked well for me:
* what are you hoping to get out of this class?
* what's your favorite food you can find in the area or like to make at home?
* why did you choose your major/what are you thinking about majoring in?
* describe an experience you remember about learning something new?
* tell us something random about yourself (if you use this one, start it off for them, let someone volunteer to go next, then warn them the order you'll go in after that. Tell them they are free to copy other people's categories).
Upvotes: 1 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: "Ice breakers" are not a good way to meet people in any context. When you are meeting a new class of students, it's better to:
* Let them know what they need to do to succeed
* Tell them about the resources they have available
* Tell them why the class is important
* Assess their current ability
* Actually teach
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: I think the most important function of the first class is to engage with the material in an exciting and intriguing way. In cs that might mean teasing with a serious introduction to some topic of interest you will encounter in detail later in the semester. If you can ask good questions that can be addressed now (even if not "correctly"), do that.
In many classes my first assignment, due very quickly, is a short questionnaire asking students about their preparation (previous courses? How long ago?), their hopes and fears/worries about this class, anything else that might help me help them (personal issues like child care or illness can be mentioned but are not at all required).
That serves to break ice for me. If you are comfortable with group work in class you could ask small groups of students who happen to be sitting together to respond to your introductory remarks about what you hope will be exciting things to learn about.
Upvotes: 2
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2020/09/12
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<issue_start>username_0: After being offered a postdoctoral position by email, I was asked by the university’s administration to submit some documents allowing them to start the hiring process. According to them, this process will take 2 months.
I was wondering if it is wise/safe to wait this long without an official letter at hand. If not, how should I proceed?
Note that I am aware of the position details based on the job description and the discussion with the PI, but I was expecting some official document (signed by the administration/PI).
I have seen [this similar question](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/140999/how-to-deal-with-the-postdoc-offer-without-a-contract), but I have added a country tag to my question so that I can get specific answers.
Thanks in advance for sharing your thoughts on this!<issue_comment>username_1: The concept of an offer letter is not a universal one.
Based on my own experience in Germany, as well as what I've heard from colleagues, I don't think they really exist at German universities. I once was in the process of being hired on a temporary professership at a German university, and they had me sign all kinds of ancillary paperwork and got to the point where I was listed as the instructor on the course pages I would have done without there ever being something like an offer letter.
I don't think there is anything more reasonable you can do than going along with the process, and not stop considering backup plans.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: I can't speak directly about Germany, but acquiring work visas for foreign postdocs in China can take 3-4 months. The official offer letter from the university only comes after the visa is acquired. Your new PI should be able to tell you if the process of generating an official offer letter after a faculty has requested one to be made has ever fallen through. For us, HR will evaluate the candidate immediately and let us know if there are any issues (e.g. insufficient work experience; candidate cannot supply a diploma). At our institute I'm not aware of any cases where a qualified candidate did not get an official offer.
I will add that the COVID-19 pandemic is adding a lot of uncertainty to these things. It is possible that the university suspends hiring for budgetary reasons.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: I wouldn't be concerned.
In German academia, it is rather common to make PhD/postdoc offers informally (i.e. just via email etc.), and the formal process is only completed at a much later point. I know of many cases where people only sign their contract on their first working day (in particular in pre-Corona times, administration wanted to do the signing in person, so if you were in a different place, this would be postponed until you arrived).
On the other hand, even without the contract, you can get a confirmation that you *will* be hired in the future, once the necessary paperwork is completed.
However, it will be impossible to get such a confirmation *without* having the required paperwork completed - just imagine that in the course of that, it turns out that you don't have the required qualifications (no PhD, no degree, ... ) - the administration will not sign that they will hire you unless they are sure that this is legally possible.
One thing you can do to speed up at least part of the process - to make sure that you don't "accidentally" miss a qualification (very unlikely) - is to supply all required documents as soon as possible and check that they are sufficient. Even if the process is not completed yet, this should give you additional security that things will not go wrong for formal reasons (again, rather unlikely - they hire people all the time).
Finally, while on the one hand I understand that you want a more formal "safety" that you will get the job, as I said this is rather normal, so no need to worry. But more importantly, you should note that even if you have a contract, within the first 6 months you can be usually fired on short notice and without a reason given (I'm pretty sure this is more or less the same in other places, that there is an initial period where both parties can terminate the employment on short notice, not to speak of places like the US), so even if you have a written offer or even a signed contract, there is still some amount of risk involved, like essentially always in life (unless you have a tenured position).
*Edit:* Maybe to add a comment, hiring decisions typically have to be approved by the personnel council, and possibly other bodies (equal opportunities, etc.), which can take its time, especially at large universities or research institutes. In addition, if this a position funded by public money, it has to be publicly advertised in one way or the other, and the advertisement has to be open for a certain amount of time (I think 2 weeks at least), before the whole process can even start.
So putting all these processes together,
2 months might well be the minimum time it takes.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]
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<issue_start>username_0: All of the acknowledgment examples I have read online address the supervisor with formal title and full name (i.e. Prof WhatNot). In my case, I'd rather use the first name only ("nickname" actually), is that so uncommon? I should probably ask him, but I wanted to understand what is the general opinion.<issue_comment>username_1: Generally, but this is only one person's opinion, it is better to be a bit formal in such a document. But standards can vary. Your best bet is to ask him how he would like to be acknowledged. You can specifically ask if an informal ack would be ok or not.
But there are a few very prominent people who are known professionally by a nickname and it that case, a commonly used form is probably fine.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: This is going to vary a lot by the country and customs of your university, and your relationship with your advisor. But I'd say, if you relationship with your advisor is good, then in the UK it would *not* be seen as out of order to refer to your supervisor as informally as you like in the acknowledgements sections of your thesis. In the theses I've read, these things are often a lot like best man speeches - often written in a jovial and cheeky style, while staying just the right side of the appropriateness line, but also often cloyingly sentimental at the same time.
Upvotes: 2
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2020/09/13
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<issue_start>username_0: I have almost finished my master's in Computer Science the only reason that I don't want to directly continue with a PhD is my advisor and co-advisor. I was left out during almost all my master's projects and it has been a bad experience.
Is it okay to finish a master's and look for another advisor from the same university? How can I explain my decision to my advisor?<issue_comment>username_1: In general the answer to the question would be yes, and many people do so, both by staying at the same institution and by changing universities. But there are caveats. It probably isn't the norm, and there may be local traditions, say in Brazil, that suggest it is a poor idea. But you would probably already know if that were true.
There are many reasons to change advisors beyond a poor experience. One of the main ones is that the student wants to change sub-fields and another faculty member would be more appropriate. It might also be desirable to move to a more senior faculty member for a variety of reasons. An untenured advisor can be risky since their main focus will necessarily be on their own work.
I don't actually think there is a need to explain it. Certainly you don't need to say that you haven't been happy. If pressed, just say that you've decided that the other person would be more appropriate.
I also doubt that you need a "gap".
But find another person and get their agreement to take you on before you make any waves.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: It is perfectly normal. Although you should talk to your advisor that your current advisor that you want to work with a different approach. And it might be helpful if you work with another advisor.
Upvotes: 0
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2020/09/13
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<issue_start>username_0: I was recently awarded my master's degree. This was a very difficult process since my master's thesis advisor completely abandoned me halfway through. She literally did not answer my e-mails . No -one in my institute was specialized in the branch I wanted to write thesis so , I wrote to a professor of another institute in my country and she agreed . I visited her institute for 7 days in January , 2020 and she gave me a research paper to study . After completely understanding the paper in mid February , when I emailed her on how I should proceed she didn't replied . I e-mailed her 4-5 times in February-March and got no reply.I ended up finishing the work on my own and the committee approved my thesis without her involvement.( but didn't evaluated thesis of any student due to pendamic( thesis were not even asked for submission, the evaluation was done on the basis of presentation done in mid february) More details in [my previous post](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/148060/asking-about-how-to-minimize-the-effect-of-a-not-so-good-thesis-due-to-abandonin).
My concern is that no one has reviewed my thesis. One other professor gave very generic comments (grammar) and simply said I wrote a nice thesis. I want to apply to PhD positions in Europe, so I think my thesis should be carefully reviewed by an expert before I apply.
Question: How can I get my (former) advisor to review my thesis? . Should I write in email that a this was not expected as she had said yes to me and even I visited her institute and I was left for thesis without any advisor?
Or there should not be any complaints in e-mail and I should just request her ?
Do writing these things and expressing my displeasure will further diminish chances of her replying to my e-mail . But certainly due to her I went through very much anxiety and had to spend a lot more of time on project by myself ( and whose output is till not known although I tried to give my best ). I am sure she was not suffering through covid-19 and I saw her name as one of the speakers at various seminars taking place in my country amid pandemic( at different points of time).
**She didn't replied. It is a weird thing how professors wield such great power in Academia that students can't do anything.**<issue_comment>username_1: >
> I e-mailed her 4-5 times in February-March and got no reply.
>
>
>
If she did not reply to your e-mails or otherwise advise you when she was technically your advisor, why would she reply to them now that you have graduated? I think she has effectively ended your relationship. I do not know whether she had good reason for this or if she is just lazy, but either way, I think you should pursue other paths forward.
>
> Or there should not be any complaints in e-mail...?
>
>
>
If you are asking someone for a favor, you should not complain about them or chastise them, regardless of how legitimate your complaints may be.
>
> She literally did not answer my e-mails...one other professor gave very generic comments (grammar)
>
>
>
I too am very concerned about your grammar and writing skills. For example, your use of the spacebar does not seem to follow any particular logic. In the case of your question above, I tried to help you clarify, but your subsequent changes made everything confusing again!
I don't mention this just out of pedantry; rather, I think there is an important point here. Consider: I initially really wanted to help, but due to these communication challenges, I'm now sort of burnt out and I think I personally would probably avoid responding to new posts from your account. You should consider the possibility that your advisor's silence has a similar explanation.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: This is a peculiar situation. Your supervisor did not honor your agreement, but at this point she has nothing to gain from continuing to be involved with your thesis, and being angry about that isn't going to help you in any way. Realistically, do not expect any more input from her, and move on.
Getting someone else to look at your thesis could be useful, but keep in mind that you are asking someone to put in a couple days of work for nothing in return. Try to find someone who could be at least slightly interested in this, and see what you can do to minimize the effort for them. Maybe approach a lecturer whose class you took during your degree, or enroll in a new course if you think that you have burned bridges in that university? Search around if there is some other researcher, even elsewhere in the world, who has published on a similar topic -- in particular, someone early in their career might be more excited to help.
Even then, clean up the writing as much as you can by yourself, maybe send them just the key proofs, and ask targeted questions -- in other words, **approach this always keeping in mind that you are asking for a favor** -- and you are more likely to get a reply.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: I think you should ask the university administration to reimburse your fees, you paid for Masters but did not get supervision, if you provide the unanswered emails as evidence this should go a long way.
Upvotes: -1
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2020/09/13
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<issue_start>username_0: I read an interesting topic entitled "PhD candidate vs. PhD Student". I understood that the distinction between the use of those terms is strongly linked to the structure of PhD programs in the US/Canada. I wonder how should I phrase it for an application to a doctoral workshop that requires me to mention whether I am PhD student or candidate (I completed research master's coursework, passed *agrégation* examinations and defended my dissertation proposal before getting into doctoral school).
To be sure I well understand how it works in North-American universities: students often get admitted in 5-6 years PhD programs after graduating from a 4 years bachelor's degree. The PhD programs, therefore, include a 1 to 2 years first step (PhD student) in which students pursue intensive training in their field. Students have to work on a dissertation proposal which is defended at the end of that first step so that the second step (PhD candidate) deal with the completing the dissertation (reviewing relevant literature, structuring research questions, designing research protocols, testing, analyzing results ... and finally, writing the dissertation).
Considering that European students often have to complete a research master + research proposal (+ for humanities and social sciences in France, having passed a competitive examination for teaching which is called *agrégation* is often implicitly required, those demands seem similar to final exams of N-A PhD programs) before applying to 3-4 years PhD programs, should we consider they are "PhD candidates" from their entrance into PhD programs?<issue_comment>username_1: In North America, usually PhD candidate is also called ABD (all but dissertation), so, are PhD students who has passed all PhD requirements but defending/submitting their final thesis. The distinction between a candidate and an ABD is not very clear, some say candidate may imply that one is still working on their dissertation while most candidates who quit may call themselves as ABD. I would not concern myself with the distinction between candidate and ABD on my CV as providing dates (e.g., expected finish time) can clarify it.
Now, in answer to your question, I would say if you can call yourself an ABD (nothing left but defending your final thesis) then you can call yourself a PhD candidate, else, you might count as PhD student.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: In France, both terms can be used and no one would be bothered. Indeed, this can be confirmed through the residence permit status for non-EU foreign people who can make a choice between two different residence permit status.
Either you can have an *étudiant* residence permit which is the student residence permit or you can have the status *mention chercheur scientifique* which is the residence permit that shows you are a professional researcher. I think, in the first case, you can be called "PhD student" and in the second case, you are not legally considered as a student. So, you are PhD candidate.
Of course, you can have the second residence permit if your doctoral research is funded by the university, which is called *contrat doctoral* (doctoral contract). Otherwise, without funding, you can be registered to the doctoral school but you can only have the student residence permit and you are legally considered as a student.
Upvotes: 0
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2020/09/13
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<issue_start>username_0: I have been preparing for a very important exam for 2.5-3 years. And now I am completely exhausted, the exam was scheduled to happen in May, but due to COVID-19 it got delayed to September end. This delay and uncertainty did break my motivation a bit but I still kept on pushing, and now I'm completely exhausted. I don't have the strength to go and take the exam. I have prepared well for the exam, and have been putting about 7-8 hours each day with very little breaks in between, so acing this exam does mean a lot to me and my future also depends on it. But I just don't feel like taking the exam. Even my preparation has been suffering due to this for a week or two.
The exam is just 14 days away, so I don't want to take a break as this time is very crucial to revise the material, but obviously I'm unable to focus on it, which is worsening the situation and acting like a negative feedback loop.
It's like in the saying "Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe", now I have worked hard to actually get a sharp axe, but no energy to actually use it. Please help me, what can I do to get out of this situation.
With the amount of effort I have already put in preparing for the exam, and with my future depending on it, I really don't want to mess this one up.<issue_comment>username_1: What you experience is totally normal.
Take a break for one day, calm down, meditate.
This will help you much more than trying to sit at your desk every day.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: When I was prepping for the prelim, the last week before the exam I was just memorizing equations. It's annoying that memorizing actually helped, and the exam should have been better-written so that problem solving was better tested. Still, under a time constraint you don't want to derive everything from first principles.
Anyways it was (for me) a low brain energy consumption activity that made me feel productive. And bonus: one equation I memorized was actually the final answer to a problem (that test really needs to be improved) so I could derive it backwards really quickly. Maybe you can find something similar that is low-key and rests your mind so you're fresh for the test but also makes you feel productive.
If you're too tired for even the most tedious study activity, then I recommend taking 24 hours completely off. Don't do chores either, just rest. Play a relaxing video game, read a fun book, spend the day in bed binging netflix, go for a hike, out to a bar with your friends, whatever you find energizing and not draining. The time you lose for studying you'll hopefully make up by being fresh for the last stretch of studying and ready to perform on the test. Sometimes you have to sink down and push off the bottom of the pool to get back up to the surface.
Monitor your own energy levels to see how much time off (if any) you need and adjust accordingly. If you think the time off will just make you more guilty, then go with a low-energy but still productive studying method until you're able to recover. If you're an extrovert, try studying in a group. Even if it's not as efficient for you, the group may make you feel less drained and more motivated.
Best of luck!!
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: Take a two week vacation. Do things you enjoy. Relax. Exercise. Watch TV. Sleep.
The gain from any studying you can do in two weeks will be minimal, compared to the previous three years. The gain from going into the exam rested, relaxed, and with energy will be immense.
Upvotes: 7 <issue_comment>username_4: There are two components to succeeding on any exam. The first, obviously, is command of the material - you need to know what you're doing in order to do it. The second is *emotional* preparation. Intense stress or exhaustion can severely compromise your ability to recall important information or to attend to important details when you're taking the exam. It sounds like you've done good work preparing yourself in the first way - you've studied extensively, and you've reached a place where you perform reasonably well on practice exams (as you said in a comment). Now, it's time to attend to the second component. Thinking about your "axe" analogy: you've sharpened your axe. But if you're too sleepy when the time comes to see where you're chopping, all the strength in the world won't do you any good.
So take this time to rest and relax. Don't think of it as slacking off: think of it as preparing for your exam. Attending to your personal well-being is just as important to success on that exam as studying is.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_5: I have prepared for competitive exams myself and like you I too spent more than 3 years to give a 3 hour long exam. After preparing for a single thing for such a long time, you get past the 10,000 hours of the [10,000 hours rule](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outliers_%28book%29).
>
> The key to achieving world-class expertise in any skill, is, to a large extent, a matter of practicing the correct way, for a total of around 10,000 hours. 1
>
>
>
---
You are quite likely to crack anything that comes at you, at this point.
From your perspective, you *may not have the energy left to use your axe*. However, from the perspective of the external world, you have trained and strengthened yourself for so long that your average shot will be better than the best shot of an average person. Quite the same way that an injured Usain Bolt can run faster than a fit Manish Mittal.
After such a long preparation, it will be difficult for you to screw this up. The ability to answer the questions is ingrained in your reflexes now, for next few months.
---
I'd suggest you to stop focusing on things beyond your control and start focusing on things within your reach. This implies focusing on revising the fundamentals and revisiting your strengths.
Attach yourself with the effort and detach yourself from the results. That means ensuring that you are putting in your best effort and after the effort has been put in, disconnect.
Don't take mentally taxing tasks if you don't feel like it. Just go and give your best shot in the exam. That's the best that you can do. And most likely, it will be good enough.
---
1 Let's not over-discuss this and take it at the face value for now.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_6: 1. **Sleep. Sleep as much as you can. Then sleep some more.** Nothing you could possibly do to prepare further will help you even a tenth as much as getting lots of sleep in the last few days before the test.
2. On top of that, give yourself some time to relax and do things you like. Again, being relaxed and in a good mood will help you more than further repetition of things you've already memorized.
3. Do regular physical exercise. Many studies show benefits of physical exercise for mental alertness. It will probably also help you relax and sleep.
4. Create a high-level list of all the things you've learned in preparation. Mentally go through all of them and see where you feel least confident, then specifically repeat those. Your weakest areas are most likely to benefit from the limited time you have remaining.
5. Prepare to cheat, but don't. No, seriously. Write a cheat sheet, one sheet of paper that contains exactly those difficult things you think you might want to look up during the test. Go through it a few times over the coming days and revise it if necessary. Then throw it away the day before the test. You'll almost certainly remember all of it.
Upvotes: 7 <issue_comment>username_7: >
> I don't have the strength to go and take the exam.
>
>
>
This is called pre-event nerves. This phenomenon happens all the time. I personally have given lectures that I fully prepared for and yet at the last minute got cold-feet. I forced myself to go ahead and did the talks and they were fine. When people are planning to get married, massive doubts can surface in the two weeks before the wedding.
I was once so scared of an exam that I overslept through tiredness and arrived late. Unfortunately because of the lateness I failed. Luckily it wasn't a 3 year effort.
---
When we have a very important event coming up imminently, *fear* surfaces.
Unconsciously we find any excuse to allay the fear - the most obvious excuses are "I'm not ready", "I feel unwell", and "I feel exhausted". Some people will even have a car accident because their unconscious mind is so determined to avoid the fearful event.
The key is to accept that you have prepared as much as you possibly can. You will get a result and it will be good, bad, or indifferent. Life will continue afterwards in any case. Famous people have been known to have failed at college and still make good.
Your fear will try to keep you awake worrying. It will give you brain fog. It will throw your biological clock out of kilter. It will make you unable to concentrate on revision.
See it for what it is and trust in fate and your preparation - pray if you are religious (not to pass but for peace of mind and courage). Most importantly, use relaxation/meditation tapes (available on Youtube) to give your brain a rest from time to time and to get to sleep if necessary.
---
Afterthought: Use the technique of athletes. Spend time each day visualising success. Imagine yourself walking into the exam room, seeing the ideal questions you want and completing them easily. Your brain will become attuned to a successful frame of mind and your unconscious mind will stop nagging you.
---
---
**EDIT on comment by @benjaminaaron\_m**
On reflection, I think benjaminaaron\_m is right. I heard a live interview with an athlete once, saying that they always visualized winning and that there was no point in visualising anything else. However in the case of an exam, I agree that it is probably better to imagine being able to answer some questions immediately and others after a little bit of consideration. Also visualize yourself having a confident and calm attitude.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_8: Do not be upset or confused by this. You've already done a lot! Take a look at what you've already achieved, at all the knowledge you've got. Isn't that great?
I do believe that if one has the strength and motivation to prepare for 3 years, that person will pass any exam.
Take a day off (two is better). Relax, clear your head, get good sleep, and go back to study all the weak spots (if you have any).
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_9: Two weeks is plenty of time to recover your physical well-being. Fixing that will prevent the "worst case" scenario of an incomplete test. You have already prepared for the best-case scenario of a perfect score with two years of study, there is nothing more to do there.
Step one, is to set a fixed time at night for going to bed, and time for waking up in the morning. Set fixed times for meals, and make sure the calories are not too low or too high. Ask your family to help you support these times for your exam preparation. Use your favorite type of regular exercise too, it is good for the brain. Instead of more studying, which is causing you anxiety, read your favorite fiction. If you really don't like fiction, catch up on movies you have missed while studying so much.
Take a practice exam one week before the exam. This should give you an idea if your recovery is on track. If you feel that the health strategy is working, keep doing it for the last week!
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_10: From the context it seems OP is going to give JEE Advance. I've been through this phase and had made it through. The following answer isn't limited to the scope of this exam and is also true for all other relevant examinations.
Feeling this way is completely natural especially when you've worked for it for so long, we start seeing things in absolutes- either it's a success or it's a failure. This sort of thinking isn't exactly correct but as a student who has been at your position, no amount of arguments against it would have changed my mind at *that* time. I would rather urge you to focus on what is in your control and that's temperament. Temperament is what can make or break your 6 hour examination.
Answers above have already gone through important things you can do and I just want to point out that as a student who has been at your position, *it works*. Practice meditation and mindfulness and stay calm. Competitive examinations are more than knowing the most, it's about not losing your mind amidst immense pressure, so take a step back, relax, do things that you enjoy.
There's always some concept that is yet to be mastered, but what you couldn't do in three years, how would you in two weeks? :) All the best, you'll do great!
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_11: Remember your main reason and main purpose of why you are taking that exam. Do not over stress yourself, give time to yourself, do the things that makes you happy, and remember you have already come this far, and you have already overcome a lot of hardships and challenges, so I know you can do it, do your best and good luck.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_12: I know what you are talking about friend. Yes the pressure is really immense. I am gonna give this exam with you this year. And the only thing that I learned about this exam in my 2.5 yrs of preparation is that there is no need to fret or get stressed about it. The grades I used to get by giving the exam with a cool mind were really nice. The thing is let yourself cool a bit. Don't get distracted but try focusing on simpler things and basic concepts. Go out and feel the breeze on your face and breathe deeply.
All the best Bhai!!
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_13: I guess it has been mentioned enough that this is due to stress and probably also anxiety for the test. So its essential to find a strategy to cope. The two weeks will pass and you will do a good job if, and only if you go to the test without feeling totally burned out.
I would feel you are not the person to just go on holiday and forget about it. Same here, so what I do in such situations:
Divide the work you have left (revise Topics, learn stuff by heart) into packages: Try to balance the packages that each package takes about the same time (and max 5hours) and assign a package per day you have left. On that day do the package.
If you are finished and feel exhausted: reward yourself: Read a nice book, go for a movie, meet friends or just watch stupid TV shows. If after you are done with the package you still have energy: start with the package for the next day. But also reward yourself once you are done!
With the packages you also have the possibility to stop studying earlier the next day if you already did parts of your task for the next day. So if you do no feel well and feel you cannot study you can stop and then just assign the remaining parts to the next day.
This way you get everything done and you make yourself feel good if a package is completed. Overall you will have good and bad days, so ultimately you shoudl get everything done even if you have a few bad days where you are not able to study a lot.
That is at least what got me through many exams without losing my mind.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_14: 1. Sleep for enough time. Dream about the long term goal in life.
2. Wake up early.
3. Have day dream about the long term goal in life.
4. Stay healthy.
5. Revise, practice, revise and practice again.
6. Keep focus on the exam and only the exam and nothing else for the next 2 weeks.
---
As confirmed, an outstanding amount of effort was already put into the preparation for the exam.
The fact that 7 hours a day was invested for the past 3 years is a direct proof of how valuable the exam result is.
The covid situation is a common problem that is affecting everyone preparing for the exam, and also everyone in the world right now.
---
Shifting the attention away from the ongoing covid problem and dreaming about the long term goals and wonderful events that will happen after clearing the exam will definitely give the strength and encouragement to go for it!
Upvotes: 1
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<issue_start>username_0: All the guidelines for writing a Statement of Purpose emphasize on how you need to properly explain why you would like to pursue an Master's in the specific branch along with proper examples
However, a Master's in Computer Science is a very vast branch. So how do you mention that you want to do a Master's in Computer Science with examples to explain why when every example in itself will talk about some specialization or another?<issue_comment>username_1: I suggest that you think, and write, more generally. Don't emphasize that you want to learn topic X and Y and Z. Think about *why* you want to learn this stuff and how you intend to capitalize on that in the future. Think about your career plans (your long-term *purpose*).
If you have already determined a narrow specialty, which is probably uncommon for a masters applicant, then you can focus somewhat on that, but the *why* of it all and the future goals are probably more important. It is also more likely that it is that the admissions committee is looking for.
Long term, not so much short term goals.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: It really depends on where you are applying to. Many schools have major groups, e.g., theory, AI, bioinformatics, HCI, etc. In my 15 years of experience in and with grad-schools (CS and areas around), the best is to narrow down on one or two of these major areas. It would make sense to explain why you like these areas, for example, through projects you did during your internships, or courses A, B, C. Next provide a very brief description of work you have done that have been interesting to you. You can find tones of good samples of SoPs through grad school websites for high-rank universities, possibly even the specific universities you plan to apply to.
Upvotes: 0
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2020/09/13
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<issue_start>username_0: I'm writing my master thesis in network formation theory. I believe that a picture with network nodes in the introduction will help the readers understand what my model is and what I am trying to prove. I doubt most readers would read past the introduction anyway so if they do not understand the introduction then that would be a big problem for me.
Is that advisable or not? What if I am using the introduction as the writing sample for my PhD application?<issue_comment>username_1: I can't think of any reason in general that you should not do this if it makes sense in the context of the paper. If you can express the underlying concept better with a figure then it is better than to use words.
But an advisor might disagree, in the context of this paper. And an editor or reviewer of the paper might disagree. In that case, change it.
But the paper is yours. Do what you thing makes the most sense and makes the paper accessible to your audience.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Generally speaking, in scientific papers, it is best to avoid figures and tables in the introduction unless it provides an outlook to the goals and design of the study. If it is from a previous study just cite the original source. Figures and tables other than outlook are usually included in data/methods, results, or discussion, but not in abstract or intro.
For thesis, the story is different. Introduction of a thesis can sometimes be even a review paper you have published in the past, so figures, tables, videos, etc are all fine unless your school specifies otherwise.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_3: I'd expect at least a couple of figures in the introduction of a master's thesis, more in a doctoral thesis. In either case, in some ways, the more the better, as long as they are genuinely relevant and add to the power of the explanation.
For papers you rarely see much beyond a single panel connected with the introduction, laying out the premise of the main model/approach - either a single panel intro figure, or one panel in the first multi-panel data figure. Be aware that journals might limit the number of tables/figures in a paper.
Upvotes: -1
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2020/09/13
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<issue_start>username_0: I have just addressed reviewers’ comments to one of my papers. I am the first author and did most of the job.
One of the authors does not want to resubmit. They offered no explanation and have been avoiding me. How to behave in this case?<issue_comment>username_1: Ask both the editor and the colleague to change the corresponding author to yourself. Make it one mail to both parties. Explain in the mail that there has been a mixup and you want to correct it. You don't need details in a first correspondence, but supply them if required.
Hopefully the journal's procedures will permit this and hopefully your coauthor won't cause a stink.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: To complement username_1's good answer, here's a potentially more diplomatic option: You could email the editor the revised manuscript, indicating that your coauthor had resubmitted it previously but apparently something had gone wrong on the way.
You could even inform your coauthor about that action beforehand, without necessarily having to wait for their response/approval.
This might be slighly less confrontative then asking to transfer the corresponding author, in which case the editor might check with your coauthor, causing a potentially awkward situation.
Upvotes: 1
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2020/09/13
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<issue_start>username_0: A lot of graduate students/applicants, it seems, suffer from "imposter syndrome." Typically, these are bright, high-achieving students, who nonetheless doubt their ability, and this most likely stems from the competitive and selective nature of grad. school and academia. However, how can one tell if they're suffering from "imposter syndrome" or if they're really not cut out for graduate school/academia?
The difference that I see (between myself and these students) is that their professors believe in them, wrote them letters of recommendation, plus they have good research skills (even if they don't see it in themselves, others do). Despite doing well in my coursework (which doesn't even indicate much given rampant grade inflation), I could tell that most of my professors lacked confidence in me (at least I think). For example, when I initially applied to grad school (unsuccessfully), one of my professors wrote me a letter of recommendation that seemed almost sarcastic in its praise. For example, he described a paper I wrote as being among the "top 10 papers he's ever seen from a student in his 20 years of teaching." The paper, however, was only around 10 pages (that was the requirement), plus I used some dubious sources (i.e. newspaper and online articles etc.) because I was in a rush. (There were no requirements on sources, and I received an A on the paper, but once one gets to upper division classes, they should know to only use scholarly sources.) Thus, this couldn't have been one of the top ten papers he's ever read. (Or he's taught some pretty weak students!) (And he didn't even qualify it with "top 10 undergraduate papers," which also confirms that he was probably being sarcastic.)
This is only one example, but I can tell that others don't believe in me. So I wanted to ask if I could be suffering from imposter syndrome or if I'm one who really isn't cut out for academia? That might be too much of an individualistic question, so I'll instead ask: **how can one tell if they're suffering from imposter syndrome or if they really are an "imposter?"**<issue_comment>username_1: **Compare to your peers**.
If you plot the performance of all your peer group, you'll find it looks like a [Gaussian](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normal_distribution) because of the Central Limit Theorem. Then see where you are on that curve. If you're above average, you are suffering from imposter syndrome.
If you scored an "A" on that paper, you should be above average (I can almost guarantee that the average grade is below that, especially if you are in a class that is grading on a curve). In turn that makes your professor's statement that your paper is among the top ten he's seen in the past 20 years more believable, and more likely that you are suffering from imposter syndrome.
By the way, about citing newspaper and online articles, check out [reference 1 in this paper](https://arxiv.org/pdf/1409.4842.pdf), which according to Google has 24,099 citations as of time of writing.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: >
> "top 10 papers he's ever seen from a student in his 20 years of teaching."
>
>
>
That is not them being sarcastic, for one thing the professor should know that sarcasm does not translate well between cultures (and translates very badly when written down, hence why we are even having this discussion as different people believe differently as to whether it is sarcasm or not). Besides the reference gains nothing from sarcasm, if they didn't believe in you then the reference would be a much weaker "I know this person and taught them XX and they scored YY in my class", or they wouldn't have even agreed to write a letter for you.
That is a typical statement I see in reference letter written by American professors, to place the applicant in context with others they have taught. They are simply trying to give their expert opinion on you compared to your peers.
As to applying elsewhere, that's just good practice. Applying for anything in academia is hard and there is limited space. If anything applying to extra places helps you to write better applications, which can then help when you apply to your "dream" location.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: We can’t tell from what you write how promising you really are. But I *can* say you’re showing many classic signs of impostor syndrome.
**Believe the assessments you receive from instructors.**
At least in my experience (the US and NW Europe), “sarcasm” is very rare, and considered quite unprofessional. I would certainly be shocked to see it used in a letter of recommendation, or a formal course report, or anything like that. It might be used in informal personal feedback, but this would be unusual, and considered by most academics today as inappropriate and unprofessional, or (at best) regrettably old-fashioned.
Grade inflation is a realistic concern to some extent, as is “praise inflation” in letters of recommendation. But it sounds like you’re taking this concern far over the top — don’t discount grades or praise entirely. If your instructor praised the paper, it really does mean he was impressed by it. Sure, you are aware of the flaws in it — but he saw those flaws, and nonetheless remembered it as very impressive overall. (Incidentally, it isn’t at all unusual for a paper to have some sloppiness, but still be extremely impressive by showing good insights, knowledge, or exposition.) Which brings me to:
**Don’t judge yourself by a double standard compared to your peers.**
There’s a saying: “We compare our own behind-the-scenes to everybody else’s highlight reels.” Everything you write sounds like what that describes: When you get praise or positive feedback, you are looking for reasons to discount it; but you are taking your peers’ positive feedback at face value. At the same time, you say you see lack of confidence in you from professors, but everything concrete you mention is positive.
**These are all *massive* red flags for impostor syndrome.** It’s always hard to judge our own capabilities, but when in doubt, look at the most concrete feedback you’ve received from people whose judgement you trust, and take it at face value, especially compared to the feedback they give your peers. If you look for specific reasons to discount it, you’ll always find some, because you know your own life and flaws better than anyone else. (Just like when an arrogant person looks for reasons to discount criticism, they can always find some good excuse.) So, fight any tendencies to discount feedback, either positive or negative. Try to believe your professors’ assessments and feedback, praise and criticism, and take both on board. Good luck!
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_4: I have Impostor Syndrom and I wanted to share a bit on it.
I was considered really brillant during primary school, I had really good grades, but it all went crashing down until I had to retake a year in IT engineering school.
During the duration of this school, I was always on the brink of having failling grades, sometimes I did have some really bad, failing grades. I never had a project which could have made me proud.
Nonetheless, I obtained my diploma and went to work 3 months later. I was fired 5 months later.
I went into depression after 4 month of not finding back any work, despite having multiple interviews. I came to believe I shouldn't have had my diploma.
**Even with all I said, now I know. I am worth it.**
If you are not sure, ask your former teachers. They don't have any reason to lie to you. Do not look too deep into why you had such or such grades, why others reacted such or such way. As I understand it, it's your own doubt that you see reflected into others.
To be sure, I can only recommend you go see a coach whom you can talk this issue with.
I did not answer the question (how to recognize...), but I wanted to share my feeble experience with someone who might be going by the same phases.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_5: As an additional important point: whatever your current state of scholarship and maturity, it is not static.
If nothing else, having observed literally 1000+ grad students in math over the last 40+ years, huge changes occur in people in that 20-28 year-old range. I've seen people who seemed silly and unfocused do amazingly good things a few years later.
And, as always, "failure" is only a temporary state... unless you give up.
Another: if, regardless of what other people are saying about you, you can buy groceries and pay rent by doing what you like, you are a success.
Don't over-think it. I know, academe pointedly makes us doubt ourselves... Not the best feature.
Upvotes: 2
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2020/09/14
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<issue_start>username_0: 31 years old, with a PhD in mechanical engineering. Graduated last December, I did not get any decent postdoc position due to my poor publication record during my 5.5 years duration PhD (1 first author and two co-author papers).
Early this year I published 2 more papers from my PhD thesis and was working on the third when covid struck. In March, I was waiting for my work permit to join my PhD supervisor as a postdoc. I was supposed to get a contract of 1 year and planned to publish multiple papers during the period.
My work permit got delayed, I am still waiting for it, though under implied status, I was able to officially start working from June. However the uncertainty and wait severely affected my productivity and mental peace.
I have till now worked on three different topics, but they are at least two months away from being written into a journal paper.
Also, I am still working on the last paper from my PhD thesis, which should have been submitted till now.
Due to covid, I am restricted to job search in my current country of residence. I don't have a valid work permit, so I am hesitating in applying for other positions and I am also aware that my profile has not improved in any significant way from the last year. So, even if I do apply, I won't get anything.
With my age and the time spent in unproductivity, I don't know if I have any prospective academic career left. I have a prior Master's degree and 5.5 years long PhD degree.
Do I have any propects of a academic career left? I wanted give it a shot before going for industry. However, at the moment, industry seems unattainable too considering my lack of internship and professional experience.
Any advice or suggestions?<issue_comment>username_1: Advice or suggestions? Don't put yourself down. AIUI, you already have five peer-reviewed publications accepted. That is *not* a poor publication record by any relevant standard. I successfully landed my first two postdoc jobs, with contracts totalling five years, with fewer publications than that under my belt. Admittedly, I was fortunate enough that both of those occasions were during a period when university research activity in my country was expanding rapidly; but you appear to be internationally mobile, so perhaps you'll be able to choose a country where that is the case (or where it becomes the case soon after the present pandemic is put into retreat). On the second of those two occasions, I applied for a *lot* of positions, and was prepared to be flexible about the academic discipline in which I worked; that seemed to help.
If you want to go into industry instead, Mechanical Engineering graduates are *very* highly sought after by employers, even without internships, professional experience, or master's and doctoral degrees.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Ask yourself why you feel that you need an *academic* career. I have met too many researchers who are wedded to the idea despite the reality that the years are passing and their pace of progression is slow, their security of tenure uncertain. Do you just like the intellectual atmosphere? Do you feel it is prestigious? Do you think jobs elsewhere lack intellectual satisfaction? If you answer yes to any of these, it is important to realise that atmosphere, prestige and satisfaction may also be found in industry, in civil service, in places other than academia. And often they will be better paid ...
Upvotes: 2
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2020/09/14
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<issue_start>username_0: Recently, I was talking to some fellow grad students and the issue of money came up. I was shocked to find out my two friends who are TA's in the philosophy and physics departments at the same university make $600 less than I do per month. They make about $1100/month while I make almost $1700/month as a TA in the math department. I know $600 doesn't seem like much, but I make roughly 1.5 times as much as them! All three of us get the same tuition waiver and pay roughly the same in fees. Also, my previous roommate who was a TA in the music department got paid about $1100/month, but this was over two years ago while I was still an undergrad. Is this consistent with all other large universities, especially at this magnitude? If it is, why do you think so?
My explanation is that the math department has more "power" and can fight for better paid TA positions. What I mean by "power" is that despite the relatively small size of the math department, math is more central to other majors. For example, everyone in STEM and many people in economics, business, finance, etc. take a multitude of math classes and give the math department more leverage when it comes to funding. Also, you don't need expensive equipment to do math research so essentially all funding goes towards salaries.
I could also be completely mistaken so if someone would kindly explain how universities generally fund their departments that could also help enlighten me.
Thanks<issue_comment>username_1: Advice or suggestions? Don't put yourself down. AIUI, you already have five peer-reviewed publications accepted. That is *not* a poor publication record by any relevant standard. I successfully landed my first two postdoc jobs, with contracts totalling five years, with fewer publications than that under my belt. Admittedly, I was fortunate enough that both of those occasions were during a period when university research activity in my country was expanding rapidly; but you appear to be internationally mobile, so perhaps you'll be able to choose a country where that is the case (or where it becomes the case soon after the present pandemic is put into retreat). On the second of those two occasions, I applied for a *lot* of positions, and was prepared to be flexible about the academic discipline in which I worked; that seemed to help.
If you want to go into industry instead, Mechanical Engineering graduates are *very* highly sought after by employers, even without internships, professional experience, or master's and doctoral degrees.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Ask yourself why you feel that you need an *academic* career. I have met too many researchers who are wedded to the idea despite the reality that the years are passing and their pace of progression is slow, their security of tenure uncertain. Do you just like the intellectual atmosphere? Do you feel it is prestigious? Do you think jobs elsewhere lack intellectual satisfaction? If you answer yes to any of these, it is important to realise that atmosphere, prestige and satisfaction may also be found in industry, in civil service, in places other than academia. And often they will be better paid ...
Upvotes: 2
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2020/09/14
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<issue_start>username_0: I have applied for an assistant professorship at a top-tier Chinese university. After interviewing with them, they are now offering me a position: an *associate* professorship!
I find this very surprising. It’s not that I don’t think I deserve it: I have been a postdoc for seven years, and my publication record is significantly better than that of the average Chinese associate professor in my field. But I have never heard of anyone completely skipping the assistant professor level.
I have two questions:
(1) What do you make of this?
(2) How will this unusual feature of my future CV be perceived by universities in the west, if I later try to get back?<issue_comment>username_1: UK perspective
==============
>
> (1) What do you make of this?
>
>
>
They think you are good enough to be recruited directly to the higher-ranking grade. It sounds reasonable in light of your seven years' postdoc experience plus having publications commensurate with the grade. They obviously think you are an outstanding candidate, and may be offering you the higher-ranking grade to make the prospect of international relocation as enticing as possible. Congratulations!
>
> (2) How will this unusual feature of my future CV be perceived by universities in the west, if I later try to get back?
>
>
>
To be honest, I can never remember the difference between "associate professor" and "assistant professor" -- most UK universities do not use these terms and the whole concept of "tenure track" does not really exist in the UK (although some UK universities have very long probation periods for more junior staff dressed up as fancy schemes -- [here is an example that involves up to 8 years' probation](https://www.gla.ac.uk/media/Media_570654_smxx.pdf)). A UK academic reading your CV would, once he/she has familiarised itself with the relative seniority of the grades, be impressed that you skipped straight to the more senior grade. In the UK, an academic who reaches the equivalent of "associate professor" level (probably "senior lecturer") within seven years of getting a PhD will have done very well, but it is not extraordinarily unusual. Definitely, it would work to your advantage.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Different countries have different systems, and job titles do not always translate well across borders. I suspect most people looking at your (future) CV will not read too much into the fact that your title is said to be 'Associate Professor'. They will judge you based on their perception of your achievements and stature, and mentally classify you within whichever system they are familiar with.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: In China academic positions are filled on the basis of publication record. If your total points (dependent on the impact factor of your published works) is higher than a particular number, you can directly be appointed to an associate or professor rank. I don't know if there's any document to back my claim, but I know this from my researcher friends from China. I know of one instance where a graduating PhD student was offered a full professor position because they had three extremely high impact factor publications, (two in science). Chinese academia is different than western counterparts.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: Since other users have already answered on the basis that this offer is made in good faith, I'll address the elephant in the room. This is China, they have a history of intellectual property theft, buttering up to univeristy professors and other academics to gain access to their work or simply a foot hold in academic institutions.
There is a real possibility, however small, that this promotion is simply a way of increasing their soft power.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_5: Not exactly comparable, but my first tenure-line job was at University X as an Associate Professor without tenure, although I had applied for their advertised assistant professorship. The reason is that I also received an offer of a position at University Y, and matching University Y's salary offer meant that my salary would be outside University X's assistant professor salary scale. Hence the offer was "salary = starting associate professor" but "tenure status = tenure-track assistant professor". My official title was Associate Professor\* (\* = without tenure).
Upvotes: 1
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2020/09/14
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<issue_start>username_0: I was recently asked to write a letter of recommendation for a young women that I coach for a sport. I am aware that she is a good student, however my only interaction with her is through coaching. She is an Olympian and I have coached her since she was a child. I have never written a letter of recommendation. Several of the colleges she is applying to have an online portal where the "letter" is to be written. *How might I transform my knowledge of her as an athlete to be of interest to ( -U.S.) colleges ?*
Update/Edit: She was excepted into a US service academy and stepped away from the Olympic Games. With respect to the Olympic Games and the training therein all she said was "*it was trivial and easy, like seriously really*." Indeed it is curious this "trivial introspection" despite years in which she felt she was constantly failing to preform. I now believe similarly to academicians, world class athletes see problems and problem solving differently than does the ordinary person. In particular, upon retrospection world class athletes tend to see problems as trivial and straightforward at either first glance or upon delivery of solution.<issue_comment>username_1: Being an Olympian athlete (as a high school student) would be a huge positive to a US university (or service academy like USNA). This is independent of a particular school participating in that sport (which of course would make him/her a target of the coach, bringing in a whole other level of interaction with the university).
By any measure, the undergraduate admissions office will understand the level of time commitment, time management skills, and capability to establish and work toward long term goals that it takes to be an Olympian.
So, yes, write a letter, talk about the person's work ethic, performance, integrity, teamwork, all that you see that has enabled them to become one of the best in the world.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: A letter of reference from a coach, especially at the elite level, can be extremely valuable for an application. For example, you may be able to speak to:
* the athlete's leadership and interpersonal skills, such as the ability to build connections with peers and teammates
* their initiative, discipline, and focus in accomplishing a goal
* how they might act as a role model to their peers
* other soft skills such as time management, communication, and integrity
Of course the details will depend on your experience with the athlete. Obviously this person has been successful if they reached the Olympic level so it might be worthwhile to reflect on what qualities of theirs allowed them to succeed, and how those might translate to other areas of life (i.e. school). Personally, I have had a coach write a reference letter for me when I was applying to post-secondary institutions and the admissions committee commented that it made a strong impact.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: The skills required to become an Olympian are (with the exception of athleticism and a talent for a particular sport, which I’d imagine are the least exceptional part of the package) obviously transferable to the setting of college education. A letter from you attesting to your firsthand knowledge of the young woman’s skills would be, as others said, extremely valuable and useful to the colleges she is applying to.
My suggestion is that you simply describe your experience of working with her, and what good qualities you are convinced she has based on that experience. Focus on things that would help a college predict that she would do well as a student and enrich the educational environment for her peers. For example, you mentioned she is hardworking and “laser focused”. Those are obviously awesome qualities. Anything else along those lines would be similarly useful. Does she have good leadership qualities? Is she an inspiring person to be around? Etc.
Also, given that you seem to have a lot of experience with the world of international competitive sports, it could help if you manage to describe a bit of that world and put across just how hard it is for a young person to get into the Olympics in your trainee’s particular sport or event. Of course, it’s common knowledge that this is an insanely impressive and difficult thing to achieve, but more concrete details from you are sure to drive home the message that this person has exceptional abilities and would be a coup for any college to admit.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]
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2020/09/14
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| 5,439
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<issue_start>username_0: (I'm a math PhD student)
I'm writing a paper and part of my work relies on an old result of my advisor.
Recently, I started to become concerned that the old result does not have a proof (only a sketch) and I have a hunch that the proof is considerably harder (or possibly just much trickier) than the sketch makes it look. (It's possible I'm wrong; it concerns an area that I'm more of a novice in. However, I know enough that I couldn't cite this result without at least reading the sketch.)
Not only that, there are certain questions I have not been able to address as it pertains to my results, and the more I have thought about the missing proof of the old result, the more confident I have become that those questions could be addressed if I knew the missing proof. Therefore, not only does some of my work rely on this old result, but I may be able to substantially improve it if I figure out the old one. (To put it differently, in my own brain at least, the old result is an important open question.)
Further (and, ironically, this was brought to my attention by my advisor), there is a rather big theorem in our research area that relies on the old result. It's troubling to me that I don't know how to prove the big theorem without it, and it could be an issue for the larger community if, as I suspect is possible, no one knows how to fill out the sketch in the original paper.
It may be that this is simply an open problem that has been overlooked.
I am discussing this with my advisor and I'm concerned that he won't be willing to show me how to fix the sketch or to make time for us to come up with our own proof. (We discussed it previously, before I had understood its importance, and his explanation followed the sketch in the paper. It looks possible that my advisor and his coauthor overlooked the difficulty in turning the sketch into a proof.)
What's worse is my advisor is starting to get a bit defensive about it (or that's my impression). I don't doubt that he will eventually hear my concerns, I'm simply worried that he will want to move on or will admit that he no longer knows how to fix it; and I don't want to sit around waiting until that happens.
Is now a bad time to reach out to a junior person in the field (who I know and trust) asking if they know how to turn the sketch into a proof? I would not phrase it as "I'm concerned the old result is wrong," but as "What am I missing? I'm new to this particular problem, is it known how to address this kind of issue? Have you read this part of the paper before?" I would ask that this person not discuss it with my advisor before we had come to a conclusion and have the entire conversation via Zoom rather than e-mail. At the end of the day, I don't want to bother my advisor with technical details from old papers, whereas the person I have in mind is someone I trust to listen to my questions and take the details seriously.
My concern is if my advisor hears about it, he could misunderstand my intentions and think I'm telling others his old result is wrong. However, this issue is pretty distracting right now and I just want to know I'm not missing something that really is obvious or understood by experts. If that's the case, then I can stop pressing my advisor about it and move on to other things.
I could wait until this takes its course with my advisor; it's just that he's busy. In retrospect, I wish that I had asked someone else first (before my advisor) so that I wouldn't be in the awkward position I'm in now.<issue_comment>username_1: It's absolutely possible that the theorem is wrong. Even with peer-review, invalid theorems get published, especially when a plausible looking sketch is presented. Equally, it is possible that the theorem is true.
Moving forwards, try to expand the proof sketch into a proof. If you get stuck, try to construct counterexamples. If you can't proceed, reach out to the junior person you mention. You could do so casually, e.g., explain that you are trying to construct the proof as an exercise to improve your skills and to better understand the nuances.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Going to the younger colleague is fine, but I also wouldn't hesitate to go to your advisor again. It is, after all, part of his job to train you. Prepare a detailed explanation of the problem you see with the proof and the spots where you think it is tricky. If you're conscientious in narrowing down the scope of the issue, you surely won't be wasting his time. Either he can fill it in (and you're done) or he can't (and then you've made him aware that there's a gap in his old proof, which is doubtless important to him).
I have been in a similar situation. There was a theorem which my advisor attributed to another, famous and famously sloppy mathematician who only sketched the proof. Moreover, another student of my advisor several years prior wrote out a detailed proof in his unpublished thesis. I was working on generalizing the result to a different setting (already as a postdoc) and noticed an unproven assumption in the other student's proof. In the end the assumption was false, the overall result was correct, but required additional novel ideas and evinced some unanticipated subtleties -- my advisor and I published a paper in a very good journal. (Then I got distracted onto other projects and never finished the generalization.)
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]
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2020/09/14
| 2,479
| 10,188
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<issue_start>username_0: I am an independent researcher and have spent the past year writing a fairly extensive (60+ pages) research paper on a topic in probability/statistics. The paper is almost complete but there are a couple minor loose ends that I am having issues with proving. Furthermore, given the length of the paper I am not sure of the appropriate journal to submit for publication and thus am considering contacting relevant professors in academia for help/guidance. My plan was to offer co-authorship in exchange for help addressing these loose ends and guidance with the publication process. That said, my impression is that research faculty are inundated with these sorts of requests and so I was not sure if this approach was likely to get a response. Is this practice frowned upon in academia? If not, are there general best practices for reaching out with these sorts of requests?
---
**Update (2/8/22):** The now 122-page paper is available on ArXiV [here](https://arxiv.org/abs/2106.14958). I was not able to find someone interested in helping due in part to the length of the paper. I am still faced with the challenge of how/where to publish this and most importantly receive feedback. Having stared at this for so long I find that I am unable to see better ways to organize the paper and make it more readable. I did receive some useful feedback over on [MathOverflow](https://mathoverflow.net/questions/403939/how-can-i-seek-help-in-preparing-a-very-long-research-article-for-publication). In particular, it was suggested that I have done too much of the work to ethically bring in someone as a collaborator. This puts me in a strange place because I am really struggling to improve the readability of the paper without feedback and at the same time cannot get anyone to read it because it is so long. I was told I should move chapter 2 to appendices and condense chapter 3, which is where the "meat" of the paper is. Some suggested publishing this as a monograph but I'm not sure. I still am not sure about best practices for publishing works of this length. How many journals accept papers with 50 pages of appendices? Guidance on how to proceed with getting this to an appropriate journal would be greatly appreciated.<issue_comment>username_1: It is common practise to ask domain experts for help and, where appropriate, to offer co-authorship. As professors are busy, you might want to seek more junior researchers. (I'll refrain from explaining how to write an email, since you can find answers on this website.)
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: Yes, finding collaborators late in the game is hard. Too late now, but it is much easier to establish these early on where you can share ideas. And a late collaboration on a very large work is even harder.
But, I fear that you are letting the perfect be the enemy of the good. While I think it will be hard to find any publisher willing to take a stab at such a long paper, I think your best (caveat below) option, if you can find such a publisher is to submit what you have and look at what feedback you get.
I've assumed above that what you have yet to "prove" isn't consequential to the overall result. If it is, then you have to admit that you might be wrong, fundamentally wrong. In that case you have to deal with the "choke points" and examine the available evidence.
Alternatively, and maybe even better, is to mine what you have already done for a series of shorter papers that you can submit more widely and for which you can provide appropriate proof.
Combining the above ideas, if you can separate out those choke points into separate "papers" you might be able to get collaboration on the smaller issues by asking an academic or two for feedback. It might even be different people for different issues.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: It sounds like your question is: "My paper is way too long. How do I publish it in an optics journal?"
1. Identify the most valuable result.
2. Go through your work word-by-word and remove what is not necessary to support that result.
3. Find that it is still way too long.
4. Write a four page, illustrated summary that shows the value of your result. This should have a minimal amount of math.
5. Submit the summary to an optics journal with the document that is way too long as "supplementary information." The summary should emphasize the value of the result, and only briefly summarize the method.
This is not guaranteed to work if nobody's willing to peer review it.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: Somewhere in the comments you mention "It just took a lot of work (lots of many nontrivial calculations)".
Unfortunately not all the work is relevant to be published, in published paper you may find that what is summarized in a very concise sentence (for example "the parameter X of the hyperbolic PDE of order 2.5 has been estimated by analytically solving for the kernel of the lagrangian in a complex hermitian basic solution") which can be understood by the specific community interested in the results of the paper (in the example I gave the comunity would be the imaginary lagrangian chemistry modellers).
There are papers very dense in their results, that are condensed in 10 pages, but they requires a lot of work of many people, however their work is just added as a very fat appendix.
It seems to me it is the case of your publication: you can easily go from 100 pages to 10 pages + an appendix of 1-2 section, each of 40 pages: please note that the appendix can be much less descriptive and it can be limited to the bare minimum (with references and so on, but with minimum descriptions), so it may be squeezed down to maybe 25 pages each.
My external observation is based on the fact that I can follow most of your publication without being in your sector (it's not a good thing :) ) and I found sentences like pag.11
>
> Given the rich theory of Laplace transforms one might hope that
> published tables of transform pairs will provide the necessary result
> to invert this equation. Indeed, inversion w.r.t. β2 is achieved via
> [19, Eq. 5.4.9] yielding an unbiased estimator for τ when κ1 is known
> (see Appendix B). However, the final inversion w.r.t. β1 leads to an
> intractable problem; suggesting the possibility that the estimator T
> does not exist.
>
>
>
Which can be reduced to a much more dense (I am cutting a lot of corners, however the meat is that Estimator T may not exist, right?)
>
> Estimator T could not be found via inversion (see Appendix B)
>
>
>
the preamble is useless: the reader does not want/need to be surprised, or teased, by the reading of your paper.
The results inside must trigger the interest of the reader, not the way you write it (one can even say that the paper can be boring, to a certain extent).
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: 1. Keep the current manuscript to support your theses if you receive inquiries about them.
2. Make a goal of reading daily 5 pages of it and converting them in 1 page.
3. Put together the new manuscript with the single pages and re-read to check if it makes sense.
Repeat the entire process once again (if it’s still too long).
4. Submit for publication
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_6: This is not my field, so I can't assess the technical results (and this is not our role in any case). But from looking through quickly, my impression is that you have a mix of paper and manuscript/textbook here. Consider:
* Chapter 1 begins with three pages of "mathematical preliminaries", which defines terms such as the gamma function and the binomial coefficient. This makes sense for a textbook, but in a research paper, you would normally not define "common knowledge" like this.
* Your later chapters (from the titles, anyway) seem to similarly spend many pages summarizing known results. Indeed, section 3.1 is a "brief review of photon transfer theory" -- four pages. Normally, the entire discussion of "textbook results" in a research paper would be less than a page (though conventions in your field may be different).
* You then have some lengthy theoretical results. I don't have the background to determine whether these results are "exciting" / interesting (and should be a separate manuscript), or if you're just slogging through the work needed to define your algorithm (in which case, you will need to summarize the procedure / results without showing the derivation line-by-line).
* Then, 58 pages in, you define your estimator and set up an experiment to test it. You seem to conclude that it works well. I'm concerned you don't have a state-of-the-art benchmark to compare it against, so how do you know it's better than what exists already? But I don't know your field, so fine, maybe my concern is misguided.
Based on this, I would suggest that you should split this two or three ways:
1. A paper based on your estimator. This will < 10 pages in which you describe the problem, describe your algorithm, and show the experimental "proof" that your algorithm works well. If there are any other "really nice" properties of your estimator, you can state those as well if you can squeeze them into your page limit. Keep in mind your audience: I assume your audience is algorithm users who are considering adopting your method -- so, you'll want to motivate them by showing that it works and telling them how to do it. Or maybe your audience is mathematicians, who will have different motivations. But no one will be motivated by a 122 page paper :-)
2. A manuscript intended for those new to this field. You seem to have quite a bit of this already, though you'll want to remove the "novel" bits that are not well-established results (or use your novel bits as examples).
3. If any of your theoretical work is an "exciting result" in itself, a separate paper there may be appropriate.
Getting the 1-2 short papers published should be doable, and the manuscript being on the arXiv is probably fine. You can cite it there...and you may find that you want to turn it into a full length textbook in the future, in which case not having this part formally published may be a good thing.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]
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2020/09/14
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<issue_start>username_0: I am going to apply to few PhD programs in Microbiology (I'm particularly very interested in Microbial ecology) but I'm afraid my undergrad gpa (8.5/10 for the first 6 semester as I'm currently in my 7th semester) might hold me back (however I have scored 9/10 in all core biology subjects). But I have a lot of other aspects to my application. For e.g. :
* I have co-authored 3 research papers which are published in peer reviewed journal.
* I have co authored 6 book chapters (4 in peer reviewed journals like springer, Elsevier etc)
* I have presented 4 of my papers in 3 different international conferences (2 of them I was the first author)
* I received funding from ISRO-ASI scholarship (Indian Space Research Organisation- Astronautical Society of India) to attend one of the aforementioned conferences.
* One of my team projects received a funding of 38,000 USD from our college trust.
* I have conducted 3 months full time research internship in a research laboratory Tsinghua University.
* I have also done 2 company trainings of 10 day each.
* Plus few extra curricular activities like I was in tedx team, entrepreneurship cell etc. And as part time job I also taught few high school kids.
* By the way I should mention my college is well reputed (best in the state) in my country (India) but is tier-2
I need your help! I have no idea as to which colleges I should target ( my dream College would be University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign) because of this particular professor <NAME>. He's amazing!) But I don't know if I would be accepted. I'm also not very rich so I can only afford the application fee for 10 colleges. I need your advice! Do you guys think I should apply to M.S. first get good grades and then try out for PhD. What kind of colleges I should target? (I actually concentrate more on the laboratory and not on the affiliated University but the University would be the one screening my application).<issue_comment>username_1: At least at the R2 universities that I have worked at, your GPA is not so low that you would be automatically rejected. We would still look at your application. If you had a sufficiently high GRE score and had an otherwise strong profile (including good letters of recommendation), we would likely be willing to accept you. This is especially true for an MS program. In certain situations we might even accept you into the PhD program.
I am not specifically familiar with your field. In my field (CS/Applied math) it is somewhat common for students with less desirable aspects of their profile to be accepted to an MS program, then later be accepted to a PhD program.
I would recommend that you consider the feasibility of getting into an MS program, then elevating to the PhD program after proving yourself for a year. We did that with a few of our students.
---
If you have specific contact with <NAME>, I would consider contacting him directly and asking his thoughts.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: Given your other accomplishments I don't think the GPA will be disqualifying, and normally I would say don't worry about it, but in your case it's more of an issue. Your accomplishments are exceptionally strong for a rising senior in microbiology and are out of line with your weaker GPA, which will raise the obvious red flag that either your CV or your application are fraudulent.
You should address this in your applications. Specifically detailing your role in your major accomplishments and when you did the work would be a good way to head off any concerns from an admissions committee. You should also try to have your letters of recommendation be as specific as possible about exactly what you have contributed to the respective publications, which is another good way of keeping admissions from worrying too much.
I would also discourage you from applying to MS programs - most in microbiology are unfunded now and applying to a program you cant afford is pointless.
Upvotes: 1
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2020/09/14
| 909
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<issue_start>username_0: I am starting a permanent position this year, and while I am very happy here, the admin part seems a bit overbearing. I know from my previous positions as a postdoc, that other places are not that bad.
And it made me think about changing universities in some ten years or so. But that raises the obvious question. If I were to look for a new job now (not that there are any, with the global recession), I'd just apply like everyone else, and go through the usual hiring process.
How do senior faculty change universities? Do you apply for a job ad, or do you talk to your colleagues at another university, or does the department hear that you're unhappy and they make you an offer directly? Do you need to get recommendation letters at all (I know mostly these things happen "in secret until they're public") or would that be just a formality at the end?
I've seen a handful of people change universities immediately after being tenured, or even when they were full professors. And I always found it a bit odd.<issue_comment>username_1: Usually, they do not. But occasionally, all the possibilities you asked about do happen. As Kimball mentioned, exceptional faculty receive invitations to move, which are usually declined. In some cases, senior faculty change universities by applying for an executive position, which sometimes involves an executive search consulting firm employed by the hiring university.
In other words, there is no unique or rigid method.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: My UK University just recently started a completely new research lab - they got a very large grant that can support a lot of personnel (academic and admin) for 3 years (at which point they are hoping the lab will become self-sufficient), so they had three senior academic positions to fill.
The way they had approached filling the Professor positions (EU equivalent would be "Full Professor" but I am having a really hard time finding parallels between EU/UK and the US system as this side of the pond, all academic positions from entry-level upwards are permanent) was through a recruitment agency. The call was not open to the public and instead the agency would contact Professors with matching profiles and encourage them to apply.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: In the US, universities are normally bound by rules that require public announcement of all positions and and open process. You occasionally see announcements in professional academic publications of senior positions. If you think you meet the criteria you can apply. You can also be encouraged to apply by colleagues at your own or other institution.
But all applicants are supposed to be fairly considered "on the merits", just as for employment at any level. Sometimes an Associate Professor who realizes that promotion is unlikely (budget constraints, conflicts with colleagues, ...) might want to seek such a position.
Senior people might also want to change institutions for personal reasons. The economist <NAME>, for example, moved from Princeton to City University of NY, at least in part, because he wanted to live in NYC. Of course, creating a position tailor made for hime didn't hurt. But their rules probably required that others be considered if they had applied.
I moved twice as a Full Professor. Once because the institution was having serious problems and I needed escape, and once for personal reasons.
But, there are normally fewer openings for senior faculty than there are for junior positions.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: They might get a direct offer from another place (free agency model; most common in my experience), they might apply to an advertised position and negotiate to keep some advantages (*v.g.* tenure), or they might move up and change place via the administrative route and then remain at their new place.
Few people change for a worse position if they can avoid it; some do it anyways for personal reasons.
Upvotes: 0
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2020/09/14
| 501
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<issue_start>username_0: I'm a first year math Phd student. I'm undecided between focusing on mathematical computer science (MCS) and pure maths, so I'm taking courses in both. To keep my workload light enough to avoid stress, I've opted to audit one of the courses in MCS. The course is not in my research interests, so I'm taking it primarily to prepare for an exam required by my program later. My hope is to just drop into classes and be exposed to material, without taking the time to do all homeworks/prepare for exams, etc.
However, I'm interested in the professor as a potential advisor later, so it has the double benefit of helping me see if that would be a good fit down the line. My question is: could my auditing, rather than taking the course for credit, be perceived as lack of interest, laziness, etc? How is auditing a course perceived in general? Do I have the right attitude towards auditing?
Note: The course is not in the professor's research area either, so not being interested in the class doesn't contradict my interest in the professor.<issue_comment>username_1: It is fine. If it makes you feel better though you could clarify that the reason you're not taking it isn't just worry about the class. I have used the line in an email before "I have an amateur interest in learning the material" which I think deflects any concern about why you're not committing to doing the course 'properly'. When I said it, it was true, and even if you think it might be a field you wish to participate in later, technically you're currently just dipping your toe in the water right? So perhaps the same line would work for you.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: You should talk to the professor in advance. Explain your reasons. Then they will understand why you are not on their class list, miss class occasionally (don't do this too often) and don't turn in assignments. If you can ask interesting questions in class, do.
There is a small chance that you will be told "no" and a small chance that there is an enforced university policy discouraging audits for which no fee is paid.
Upvotes: 1
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2020/09/15
| 862
| 3,664
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<issue_start>username_0: I'm worried that my advisor is sabotaging me either knowingly or unknowingly. I'm entering the 5th year of my PhD in a hard science. I had prior publications, but I have yet to publish any papers with my advisor -- because I get scooped whenever I get close to submitting one. The group that keeps scooping me is led by a professor who is an ex-student of my advisor.
For the past 3 years, my advisor has gone on sabbatical to visit with this group 2-3 times a year for anywhere between 2 weeks and 6 months. During one of his first visits, my advisor asked me if it would be okay if he presented some of my research during a group meeting. I didn't see a problem with that. However, about a year later, this group published a paper having done basically the same experiments I had done. I was stunned and asked my advisor what was up with this. He shrugged it off and said 'this happens, we'll get you another project.'
This other group had not published anything in the area of my first project in the last decade. I figured really bad luck.
Fast forward another year. I've started a new project in a different area of my field. My advisor again asks if he can share my new research with this group. I said I didn't want to share it this time. I thought this was very understandable given what had already happened, but my advisor got upset at being told 'no.'
At the time my advisor was visiting them, I was struggling to justify why I was getting a low value for a value I was trying to determine experimentally. Some time after my advisor returned home, I realized I had made a mistake in my analysis which, after correction, put the value where it should be.
Several months after my advisor's visit, the group came out with a paper on exactly what I was working on. Bizarrely, the paper they published included the low value / result that I initially got before realizing my mistake, they offered very little explanation for this low value. Their own theoretical calculations suggested it should be higher. But it's the number I had when my advisor visited them.
This other group had never before published anything in the area of my second project. When this professor was a student with my advisor they worked on a different area of my field than I am working on now.
It feels like my advisor is trying to get me scooped, or doesn't know any better. My advisor visits so often it seems unlikely he isn't aware this group is working on what I'm working on. If that's the case, shouldn't he warn me? How do I proceed with future projects / my advisor?
My advisor also has tried to abandon each project after I get scooped, but that doesn't make sense to me, either. The other group only does a single experimental run, while I do several. I also think they've made significant mistakes, which my work can correct. I think my work still merits publication. Any advice on how to handle this situation would be much appreciated.<issue_comment>username_1: We can't determine for you if your supervisor is intentionally sabotaging you or not. But it seems clear that you relationship is irretrievably broken. You should seek a new supervisor.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: Something is clearly wrong here. If your supervisor is not alarmed, talk to another senior person and make pretty damn sure your supervisor is correct not to be alarmed. There are many people you can ask: your thesis committee, your head of department, a trusted faculty member, someone from the School of Graduate Studies, and so on.
Ask to speak in confidence - something is clearly wrong, and that something could be your supervisor.
Upvotes: 2
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2020/09/15
| 1,545
| 5,948
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am currently doing a PhD. My professor, which is my first supervisor, is a man. My second supervisor is a woman and works for my first supervisor. The etiquette and the courtesy, at least in my country, requires to greet the female first, e.g.:
>
> Dear Dr. Female,
>
> Dear Prof. Dr. Male,
>
>
>
This sounds wrong to me, since my professor is my main supervisor. Can I greet my professor first without violating etiquette?
My PhD position is located in Germany; my research field is mathematics and I write everything in English.<issue_comment>username_1: **Hierarchy beats Gender in Germany**
In a professional context in Germany, hierarchy beats gender, at least [according to the Knigge](http://www.stil.de/knigge-tipps/detail/artikel/die-hierarchie-entscheidet.html), which is an etiquette guide of nontrivial influence. This goes as far as to be gender-blind. Only rank is important.
So you would address the highest ranking person first, in this case, your professor.
Upvotes: 8 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: In addition to @PhilYardman's point (which is correct) you also need to consider how directly your email addresses whom. This beats both hierarchy and gender: the importance in the style link in @PhilYardman's answer is evaluated in the context of the email.
* The ones who are primarily addressed (To) come first and are always greeted.
So, if you primarily write to your secondary supervisor and "only" keep your supervisor informed of this, the greeting starts with "Dear Dr. Second-Supervisor"
* Those who are only informed (CC):
+ I name them, but usually put that greeting into parentheses. This reminds everyone that more people are reading this email, while also signalling that the ones in parentesis are only notified.
+ It would also be acceptable to not include them in the greeting.
* If there are further people on BCC, they are not named (that would defeat the purpose of *B*CC), but you may use a generic greeting - depending on the context and content anywhere between "Dear all" and "Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren" [Dear Madam or Sir - but the German version is in plural], or a group address (Say, "Dear supervisors")
* I'd adapt the level of formality ("Sehr geehrter Herr Prof. Dr. med. mult. Supervisor" - "Sehr geehrter Herr Prof. Supervisor" - "Lieber Prof. Supervisor" - "Lieber Herr Supervisor" - "Lieber Vorname") to the customs at your institute and to the likes of your supervisors. This varies a lot between fields, institutes and people...
"Prof. Dr." sounds too formal to me for the STEM fields I work with - but e.g. in the medical field it is AFAIK quite common (and there the position in the hospital would be attached as well "Chefarzt Dr. med.").
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: >
> The etiquette and the courtesy, at least in my country, requires to greet the female first
>
>
>
This answer will be a little bit on the philosophical side (probably too much so for some people’s taste), but I’d like to suggest another way of thinking about the question. Instead of asking what is tantamount to “how can I best conform to what my society expects of me in email greetings?”, you can turn the dilemma around and ask “how can I help dismantle antiquated social norms that assign different genders to predetermined roles, and push society ever so slightly in the direction of being more rational and fair?” In other words, put the focus not on being the best *follower*, but on being the best *leader*. Granted, the particular social norm in question is a harmless one, but the point is that it’s part of a larger pattern of gender-aware (or outright sexist) norms which are *not* all harmless.
If you like the idea of looking at things that way, just write the greeting in the way that seems most logical to you based on the content of your email and your relationships with the two co-advisors.
Of course, the specific dilemma in your question is so trivial that it doesn’t really provide much of an opportunity to be a leader. Whatever you do in this specific situation, I doubt anyone will even notice it, let alone know to interpret your behavior as a conscious attempt at shifting social norms (although if they happen to ask you about it, you can certainly explain the thinking that went into your decision). But I’m mainly suggesting this as a *mindset* to adopt in similar situations that you may encounter in the future, some of which may be more consequential. In other words, the current situation can be used as a kind of training or practice opportunity to get into the habit of challenging stupid social norms — particularly in a low-stakes environment where no matter what you do, it’s almost certain that nothing bad will happen.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: This may sound flippant but I’m being 100% serious:
You’re doing a PhD in STEM and addressing your supervisors. The customary form of address is “Hi” or, if you have a very formal relationship with your supervisors, “Hello”; not “Dear Prof. Dr. X” — even in the traditionally hierarchical German system.
Starting an email to your supervisor with “Dear Prof. Dr. X” is *distinctly weird* and risks coming across as off-putting. If you’re not on first-name terms with your supervisors, simply leave off the name entirely from the salutation (i.e. write just “Hello”, not “Hello Xavier”).
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_5: In a professional context, it is often acceptable and actually useful to address correspondents **using their functional title**. In this case I think it would certainly be acceptable to use
>
> Dear Supervisors,
>
>
>
It sidesteps the issue of order and immediately makes it clear in what capacity you address them. This would of course not be appropriate in the context, e.g., of a course that you are assisting with which may have nothing to do with them being your (research) supervisors.
Upvotes: 4
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<issue_start>username_0: Just surfing the net to find useful resources, came across to the university course page, and course materials were well explained. However, when trying to download them, Unfortunately, there was a canvas page to do the university authorization.
* Is it a mistake to ask the instructor for the course contents, despite not being a professor's student?
* Well, if that is not a problem, Is there any suggestion or recommendation with how speaking and using words or expressions in email text might make it better?
* Should there be an EDU email or other Email service providers are safe?
* What if they did not answer? Is it right to keep doing it again?
Any help would be appreciated.<issue_comment>username_1: 1. It is definitely not a mistake to ask the instructor for his course notes. From what I know it is common practice to do this and many professors and grad students do this on a regular basis even if you are not a student taking that course.
2. I would recommend you take a straightforward approach, there's no need to beat around the bush. Introduce yourself to the instructor being clear about your intentions with his course notes. If there are some certain parts of the course you are more interested in, remember to mention them as they might be more comfortable sharing some parts of the content rather than the whole thing.
3. An EDU email could be better but it depends on the circumstances. If you are a professor teaching a similar course at some other university, the instructor might have his concerns regarding sharing content but if you work in industry and there's no chance of stealing their work they might be okay with sharing it.
4. If they don't answer you can drop another email after some time (I usually give people a week before sending a polite reminder email). However if you don't get a reply for your second email, I personally wouldn't keep sending them emails.
I hope this was helpful. Let me know if you have any more questions.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: I see no harm in asking, but personally I would find it weird if someone outside the university asked me for all my course materials.
Building a course is a lot of work. There are multitudes of open-access education resources that I could post to if I felt so inclined. But teaching the course is part of what I do for a living, at my place of work no less.
So, it can't hurt to try an email, but I wouldn't go into it with high expectations, nor would I keep after the professor. I think you'll be more likely to be successful if you simply explain your interest in them specifically, and why you can't get the material elsewhere.
Upvotes: 1
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2020/09/15
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<issue_start>username_0: I’m Nick, a postdoc currently working on publication of my PhD work. There are several authors on the paper - two former graduate students as co-first authors (myself and Aubrey), followed by five undergraduates (all of who have graduated now) and another younger current graduate student as the last author (Pax, who overlapped with Aubrey and me during our PhD years) before the PI's name (i.e. PI is senior/corresponding author).
We are preparing a submission to a journal after three failed submissions.
In this version, our advisor moved up the position of Pax to be second author, after myself and Aubrey. We only noticed from looking at the manuscript version she sent to us with comments. In other words, she didn't discuss the change with us.
After several days of contemplation and looking through the manuscript to see if Pax really added so much to the changes in the manuscript, both Aubrey and I decided that Pax didn’t deserve to be second author - and the answer is pretty obvious because *all* the remaining authors contributed intellectually and experimentally to the paper. Pax, on the other hand, has never added much to manuscript meetings and doesn’t know the data from the paper as well either. Despite that, my advisor decided to move up the position of Pax to be second author.
When we questioned my advisor on this, she said that Pax contributed intellectually to the current layout of the paper (which didn’t change significantly from the last version) and gave another unconvincing answer about how intellectual contribution is difficult to assess (which in this case, I feel the answer is pretty black and white).
Aubrey and I really think there is a hidden reason that my PI is unwilling to admit, but what bothers us is that our PI is being non-transparent. I figured this is academia and the PI gets the final say in what she does.
Neither my or Aubrey’s authorship position is affected. But I know that since I am the first author on this paper, I can fight for the authorship positions of undergraduate authors all of who have really contributed a significant amount of work to the paper. This way I can learn to fight for fairness within academia.
What shall I do? Pursue this issue further with my PI or resign myself to the situation?<issue_comment>username_1: Let it go. Maybe decide to not publish with this PI in the future. But this particular hill is not important enough for you to die on.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: This question's answer depends strongly on field, which isn't in the question. In my fields (physics & telecoms) any positions other than first or last are largely irrelevant, and last author is actually a prestigious position.
The last part is obviously not true for you, but in general detailed order matters more for the morals of those involved than it does to the wider world.
Upvotes: 2
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2020/09/16
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<issue_start>username_0: I am an undergraduate student planning to apply for Ph.D.
The thing is that I spent the first year of my undergraduate at another university. I did transfer some credits but I didn't transfer any major credits. The question is - do I need to include my transcript for the first year in the application? Or could it be based on the institute I am applying to? The GPA of my first year is not bad but getting the transcript is a little bit tricky since the institue is in another country.
I really appreciate your input!<issue_comment>username_1: They will probably ask for it.
That being said this is a question for the institution you are applying to. Send an email or call their graduate college to figure out what is necessary in your particular case.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: As CL40 said, you will probably need to submit all of your transcripts (this is almost certainly the case in the US at least). I think most schools have this information on their admission webpage (check the FAQ as well). If it is written something like "transcripts from all of the programs attended", then it means you need to send them that transcript. It wouldn't hurt to email/call and ask though.
About your grades, I wouldn't worry about it. It's your 1st year grades, which count for very little (if at all), and you're saying it's not terrible, so I don't think that'd hurt your application. (More senior people here on SE can have more reliable comments on this though. I've never been on the other side of the application game.)
Upvotes: 1
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2020/09/16
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<issue_start>username_0: Today, an increasing number of research papers are publicly available. At the same time, a community of researchers and students are reading those materials. We are highlighting, commenting, finding connections between topics, contradicting... in general digesting that knowledge.
Where does all that information go? Is there a project/app/platform that allows me to access the comments and annotations of those who read the papers before me? Something like a line comment on github.
Being science a collective endeavour, why is something like that not the standard way of doing research?
Am I missing something?<issue_comment>username_1: I was recently introduced to this site: [hypothes.is](https://web.hypothes.is/) (I have no affiliation). In essence, any PDF with a URL when opened with their layer allows you to see comments and highlights from anyone else who has chosen to use it, or sub-groups you can join or arrange.
I have not seen anyone in academia use it, but perhaps you could start. It does seem like it could be useful for a small group of people who want to understand a paper.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: My impression from reading the comments section of papers that do allow comments, especially those on any topic of broader interest, is that, like most content on the internet, **it's mostly junk**. I'd expect the same of other types of annotation.
Therefore, you would need to design a whole platform around people not only providing their annotations, but also rating the annotations of everyone else. There has to be enough good content there to motivate people to keep the quality level high. There need to be enough people interested in curating any specific paper or the junk level goes up and the usefulness goes down.
Using StackExchange as a model, in particular my experience on the scientific stacks here, **there are not enough people interested in a specific academic topic to curate properly**. The curators are a tiny minority, so this would only even have a chance of working for papers that are very popular, and those tend to be least in need of annotation because they produce other types of content: editorials/comments posted in journal, posts on Twitter, etc.
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: I am going to join a PhD position in one of the TUs in the Netherlands. This question pertains to the salary I can expect. I have worked 2 years after my bachelors and 3 years after my masters. For the doctoral candidates, according to Collective Labour Agreement by Dutch universities, the initial salary step is P0 and it climbs to P3 in the final year of a 4 year PhD program.
I think I am entitled to start at P1 (or P2 if I can stretch it), based on my experience, which is one of the reasons I got selected. Can I push the HR and ask to start at higher level (P1 or P2 instead of P0)? Any insights will be welcome.<issue_comment>username_1: Short answer, no.
Every PhD student starts at the same level, I have never heard of anyone negotiating a higher salary (I did my PhD in the Netherlands). The only two exceptions I am aware of are **a)** medical doctors doing a PhD - they start at a higher salary - and **b)** people funded by an outside source like a foreign government or company, where the outside source stipulates and pays the salary.
But a higher salary based on work experience: no. I don't suppose there's any harm in asking if you have already accepted the PhD position, but don't get your hopes up. I actually know one PhD student who has tried it, but she got shut down fast by HR.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: Actually, I know of one PhD student who tried and succeeded to negotiate a higher starting step at a Dutch TU. It is very difficult. Universities have a vested interest in broadcasting the message that this doesn't happen. However, in exceptional circumstances, it is possible.
Upvotes: 3
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2020/09/16
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<issue_start>username_0: I have a PhD in statistics and teach statistics for humanities students in a university. One week before the start of the semester I posted all the required information regarding the course textbook, as well as guidelines for how to access it (it is available online). I also explained all of this to the students verbally on the first day.
It is now the third week of teaching. At the beginning of the week I posted the first online homework. Three hours before the deadline, one of my students sent me an informal email, without a subject line or her name. She said in her email that she needed a help with accessing the book in order to do her homework.
I requested that she let me know her name and section number. She replied at 8pm with the information. I politely responded to help her with the problem. At 10pm, she sent me another email with another problem, that I also helped her with.
Then she sent me a final email a few minutes before the deadline. Her email was really informal and disrespectful. I replied saying that it is not acceptable to request help on the same day as the homework is due and that it is her responsibility to be ready for everything as we are at week 3. Then, I helped her and told her that if she needed any more help with the course book she should contact the bookstore and not me.
Then she replied with some sentences in full capital letters. For example, 'SORRY', 'THERE IS NO ACCESS CODES IN THE UNI BOOKSTORE'. Then, 'the uni must save CODES'. Then she said "you try to challenge me".
I replied that I did not want to argue and that she should be careful about what she said.
Was she disrespectful in her emails? Is it acceptable to send an email in all caps? Am I wrong to deal with this point?<issue_comment>username_1: No, "shouting" in an email isn't "normal". And, yes, it might imply disrespect. But I think that, given everything else you say, it is more likely that it indicates extreme PANIC on the part of the student (sorry for shouting there).
But fear can cause people to act badly. Don't overreact without more evidence.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_2: >
> Does...the student...show disrespect?
>
>
>
Maybe.
>
> Does using a full sentence with capital letter acceptable as a normal
> communication?
>
>
>
All-caps emails aren't normal.
>
> Am I wrong to deal with this point?
>
>
>
You needn't *deal with this*, just let it go. If the student repeats this behaviour, then you might want to take it further.
(You needn't respond to student email out-of-hours.)
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: In your syllabus, write down the times when you are available to answer questions. If you accept questions by email rather than during office hours (reasonable during lockdown), also explain how long it usually takes before the students can expect an answer. If students have multiple questions, advise them to schedule a videoconference or phone call so they can get your answers in real time.
>
> She replied at 8pm with the information. I politely responded to help her with the problem. At 10pm, she sent me another email with another problem, that I also helped her with.
>
>
>
With the arrangment above in place, don't answer emails after hours, which, I presume, includes 8pm.
>
> I replied saying that it is not acceptable to request help on the same day as the homework is due and that it is her responsibility to be ready for everything as we are at week 3.
>
>
>
Indeed. You went out of your way to help, but being on time for the deadline is your student's responsibility. It seems like you need to manage expectations. See first paragraph above.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: For a one-off or short-term rudeness, my policy is to respond with pure facts, served chilled. If you have a good instinct for delivering comebacks at just the right level, a hint (but just a hint) of sarcasm might work wonders.
Manners are important, but it's not our job to teach the students manners - and they are rarely grateful for it, especially those who would need such a lesson the most. Most certainly, I generally ignore capitalized letters as they signal inadequate acquaintance with netiquette or a really immature person.
That being said, your student is probably more in total panic and loss of control of the situation than expressly rude; this probably deserves more of your compassion than your anger. This does not preclude you to use aforementioned strategies for response and to decide how much time you are willing to allocate to help them and to enforce your decisions strictly. How they decide to communicate is their business - understanding why they do that, and what to respond are your businesses; and two separate ones, at that.
Do not use language that can be interpreted as a threat ("she should be careful about what she said"), a better response to a challenge ("you challenge me") is to just ignore it or to ask - without any emotion -what they mean if you really cannot ignore it. Think of Spock's raised eyebrow when you do it, it will put you in the right attitude for this.
Upvotes: 8 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_5: "you try to challenge me"
When people are stressed, they sometimes revert to phrases used by their parents.
"you try to challenge me" sounds exactly like what a parent would say to an unruly teenager.
I suggest you reply with instruction rather than censure.
You could say for example:
"One of the purposes of higher education is for students to take responsibility for their own studies and deadlines. Please do your best to plan ahead for your assignments. This is an important skill that will serve you well."
---
**EDIT**
Having read the comments below by @username_4, I agree that this should be advice given ahead of the main course. In future I would perhaps modify my above suggestion slightly and make it part of the course material, e.g.
"One of the purposes of higher education is for students to take responsibility for their own studies and deadlines. It is your responsibility to make sure you have the right books and study materials in good time. Please plan ahead for your assignments by making and adhering to a realistic timetable. These are important skills that will serve you well."
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_6: >
> Was she disrespectful in her emails? Is it acceptable to send an email
> in all caps? Am I wrong to deal with this point?
>
>
>
Writing in all caps is not proper etiquette, and shouldn't be considered "acceptable". At the same time, your student seems to have little to no idea. So I would ignore the issue and consider that computers are challenging for the student. Thus why they're unable to access it on their own, their multiple issues, and the nonsensical reply about "codes". Writing all caps would be just another consequence of the poor technical knowledge of the user (plus, maybe made worse by the stress of not being able to meet the deadline). It may be that the student *intended* to be disrespectful, but there's no benefit for you in getting offended, either. Simply ignore it, or politely point out that writing in caps is interpreted as shouting.
You may be surprised that in 2020 some people have trouble at such length, but there are. Plus, we don't know about the age of the student (not that certain people from digitally native generations are better than their grandparents). The course being for humanities students might also help explain that they didn't need to use such a system until now (or maybe managed to forget).
Since you already had the step-by-step instructions prepared, it might have been useful to have sent back a pdf with those same instructions. They are published and they should have known about them, but if the user is not able to properly find their way on the internet, something like that could be immensely helpful for them (while requiring nearly zero-cost for you).
I suspect this student will continue struggling with their computer for the rest of the course.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_7: Very weak students are likely to have a comorbidity of poor language skills (possibly just starting to learn English as a second language), poor computer and keyboard literacy (e.g., not even having awareness or control over case-sensitivity), and poor email etiquette knowledge. These students are likely to face a cascade of system failures, not being able to interface with coursework for these as well as other reasons. (Teaching at U.S. community colleges for about two decades, roughly half of our students are in this category.)
I would highly recommend that you pay this no heed whatsoever. Do not take offense, and do not try to "correct" the perceived slights. It's hard enough for these students and they almost surely mean no offense. Try to focus and communicate on the immediate task-based issues. Succeeding at this communication will be challenging enough for both of you!
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_8: From the quotes you provided, it seems possible that the student may have been using all-caps for emphasis, as opposed to 'shouting.' She may also come from a culture where all-caps words are not considered shouting. If she is normally calm and respectful in class, I'd give her the benefit of the doubt; however, I would also advise her that many people consider all-caps to be shouting and she would do well to avoid doing that in future.
Kudos to you for offering assistance that late in the evening, because you certainly didn't have to. As others have pointed out, it is the student's responsibility to manage their time and have assignments ready on time. I find it hard to believe that she wouldn't know this. It was made clear to me well before I finished high school.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_9: To add to what everyone said, be aware that such students could be troublemakers in a wider sense. Such as rallying other students to disrespect you/expect immediate responses/etc, and reflect badly on you in the course evaluation.
To protect yourself:
* be helpful
* do not engage in any heated exchanges
* respond timely and politely to all emails (next workday responses are completely ok)
* address the questions, ask for clarifications
* let students know what to expect in terms of communication (typical response time, preferred medium etc.)
* let students know that you expect them to be functional adults and adhere to cultural norms. Point them to relevant resources if needed. Norms may vary across cultures.
* appreciate the students work (even if it is sh\*t, you can tell that you see clear signs of hard work)
This way you can keep a paper trail and protect yourself if the student escalates the issue.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_10: **An alternative interpretation**
Another consideration is that the use of caps is being used for another purpose. In gaming discussion groups, for example, capitalisation of individual words (like 'CODES') or a specific sentence can be used for emphasis or to draw attention to a specific word, especially when there is no formatting (like bold) or an absence of any form of mark-up.
In some very rare cases, it can even be used to indicate satire or parody, especially when it's hard to distinguish normal, serious text from the thing being parodied (especially if it repeats someone else's words in a mocking context).
This approach is often used by less experienced online users who aren't familiar with using asterisks or dashes to emphasise specific words, or feel that such emphasis is being ignored or somehow insufficient. This might occur if a person feels their point is being ignored or missed somehow.
Caps is used more to *stress* a point or highlight a problem, especially on individual words or specific sentences. So the email appears to be trying to highlight they cannot complete their task because there is something wrong with the codes specifically.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_11: TL;DR
You're a teacher. This is a great opportunity to *teach*
If you're it sure if someone has been rude to you or not, your best bet is to assume innocence. If you do otherwise, you risk punishing your student for something they didn't intend, and that would make *you* the bad guy.
At ths same time, you rightly feel that this isn't something you should ignore. Even if the "shouting" was unintentional, others who are less understanding than you may assune the worst, and this will inevitability cause problems for both your student and others.
I fact, in the situation you described, your student has made a several mistakes that, if repeated, will cost them a great as both a student and in life in general. This gives you a golden opportunity to help your student get better at *life* not "just" at your subject.
Some of your student's mistakes include:
* Leaving work to the last minute
* Not following instructions / poor computer skills
* Not respecting yout personal time
* Communicating ineffectively in email
The first step in learning anything is to recognise your ignorance. Dealing with your own ignorance can be hard, however. When someone points out my faults I feel ashamed (because I should know better), and fearful (that I can't learn to be better). I sometimes fight the "acccusations" of people who are trying to help me rather than receiving what they say as good advice.
On this basis, I suggest that you gently but firmly offer your student the help they need. In your response, you need to make it clear that (1) you want to help them, (2) you and others make mistakes, too, (3) that the help is on your terms, (3) what your students mistakes are, (4) what the consequences of those mistakes can be, (5) what one thing the student should focus on, (6) what the student needs to do next, (7) what help you can offer, (8) that you have faith in the student.
Unfortunately, you also need to do all this rather consicely and very clearly: poor students tend to struggle with a "wall of words". Good formatting of your response might help. It also might be helpful to say the same thing in several ways: in an email to this student, as a general statement ti the whole class, in a one-to-one meeting, etc.
As one of the other posters has pointed out, you may also want to think about your own behaviour, and what it inadvertently reinforced in your student. I appreciate that your account of events is necessarily incomplete, and that you may already have addressed this, but it is possible that when you responded late in the evening to your student's request for help, you set the expectation that (1) it is OK to start homework late, and (2) you - and others - are avaliable to drop everything at all hours to help. I'm certainly not suggesting that you shouldn't have tried to help, but you do need to set expectations that this isn't normal.
This leads me to my final suggestion: that you make this an opportunity for *you* to learn something. Are there things that you could have done differently that could have reduced the likelihood of this kind of situation occurring in future? Are there expectations that you could have set differently? Could you improve your communication?
After all, this is learning experience of all of us.
Upvotes: 0
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2020/09/16
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<issue_start>username_0: I found a mistake (not a misprint) in an article which has been published in a very good math journal. According the available data, the article was in peer-review process for more than 8 months. But I do not know why the referee(s) did not notice that. What are reasons for this kind of articles?<issue_comment>username_1: **People make mistakes.**
Manuscript authors, reviewers, and editors are people, and people are not perfect. Even if every person involved in the publication of a manuscript catches 99% of all errors, it's still possible that some errors will go unnoticed. This likelihood of course goes up when authors/reviewers are careless, but it can never be eliminated entirely even with very meticulous review.
Upvotes: 8 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Going by my experience in reviewing papers, it's virtually impossible to really review every aspect of a paper. This is particularly the case in some fields where the supplementary methods go for 100s of pages and the code may be 10s of 1000s of lines long. It's unlikely that all reviewers have the in depth knowledge of specific fields **and** the huge amount of time required to properly evaluate everything in the paper. This is particularly the case in fields which are relatively new and ground-breaking - there simply doesn't exist the pool of capable reviewers.
For example, I recently reviewed a paper for a top journal (Nature Genetics) which involved a complex and quite a specialised piece of software for genetic analysis. There was no way I could evaluate each line of code they had written, so there is no way the reviewer could be expected to detect bugs and errors in the code. We have to look at the results presented and their justification to then assume that the code is working as the authors said it would. There is a rather large amount of faith in the authors that their code does what they say it does. I could have spent a whole month non stop reviewing the paper and I still imagine minor things could have slipped by.
This issue is compounded by a) the fact reviewers don't get paid and b) reviewers are often very overworked and c) there isn't much motivation beyond professionalism and academic ideals (although of course these can be strong motivating factors) to spend a large amount of time meticulously reviewing papers.
tl;dr. Reviewers mostly do the best job they can, but given the terrible structure set in place to perform most peer-reviews, I certainly wouldn't trust a peer-review to be a cast iron certificate that everything in the paper is correct, but fortunately a vast majority of people in academia are honest and don’t try to deceive readers or reviewers.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: Ideally, this would not happen, but it is near unavoidable.
For instance, if you are refereeing a proof, chances are you won't read it line-by-line. In fact, when I can only read a mathematical argument that way, it is because I have not yet understood it, and this is a really bad way of verifying global correctness, or coherence, or originality. A lot may be lost, and even if everything is correct, chances are that at the end it is hard to say with any certainty how flexible the argument is, whether all the assumptions are truly needed, whether some steps are really as difficult as depicted, or why. Usually we read modularly, trying to grasp the global structure of the argument, using lemmas and the like as black boxes. Only when that structure makes sense, we proceed to the lemmas. Or we may not even read the proofs of the lemmas, because we see how to prove them ourselves. Now, if one such proof has a problem as written in the paper, there is a chance we will miss it because we see how to prove the lemma anyway. Some referees do not care much about mistakes at this level, since they are easily fixable, and what matters more is that the overall argument is sturdy.
It would be much better, overall, if papers included extended discussions of motivation, intuition, proof strategies, and so on. People reading them would find the arguments easier to digest, and the possibility of missing a mistake would reduce. But technical writing is difficult to begin with, some journals have page limits, and sometimes there are time constraints (related to tenure or promotion considerations, for example) that restrict the ability of authors to spend the time that this inclusion would require. Of course, not having such remarks throughout the paper may make it difficult for referees and other readers to grasp some of the details, which may lead to missing mistakes.
Ideally, we as referees should read the paper several times, at least once line-by-line, but few times we are in the position to devote so much time to the process. When I can afford the time, I may even comment on typos or style, though I much prefer if the substance of my comments is on the mathematics of the paper and its potential for generalizations or extensions, or connections with other works. A few happy times I've seen how to improve some of the proofs presented in the paper, but I imagine I have missed important details as well.
Of course, it may well be that a paper has an error that is not at the level of a typo or a lemma not quite proved as it should be. An error may be significant and we may still miss it. Sometimes we find an argument similar to something we are familiar with, and skip verifying details we expect to be routine, and end up missing something serious. Or we misunderstand. It is really not that uncommon or surprising.
Papers are not written in formal languages that are machine-verifiable. Some people argue that they should be. Whatever is the case, currently most of our proofs are conversational, and technicalities may be omitted on occasion. Many papers are very dense, and it takes years of careful examination by many people to detect flaws or gaps, or genuine mistakes. Peer review is not meant to signify a perfect guarantee of correctness, and it is a mistake to think of it as having that goal.
Here is a quote regarding the refereeing process of the journal [Discrete Analysis](https://discreteanalysisjournal.com/), highlighting precisely this last point:
>
> In some cases, it is not reasonable to expect a reviewer to check the correctness of a paper down to the last detail. In such cases, editors may be satisfied with indirect evidence that a paper is likely to be correct. (For example, it may be that the general outline of the argument is convincing, but that the technical details involved in converting the outline into a complete proof are very complicated.) Thus, publication in Discrete Analysis should not be considered an absolute guarantee of correctness, just as in practice it is not a guarantee for any other journal.
>
>
>
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: I'm an engineer and peer reviewing papers in my field for complete correctness is nearly impossible, as papers typically summarize findings with novel computer codes or experiments I don't have direct access to. I review a paper to see that it is free of obvious fallacy, on topic for the publication, and appears to represent work of sufficient quality and novelty that subsequent researchers might find it useful. If I'm satisfied on these counts, I'll click "recommend for publication". I'll leave comments on minor issues if I see them, but I don't see it as my job to proofread or edit papers for free.
Engineers generate a lot of data and models on obscure topics, so I suspect these standards are a bit different than in some top scientific journals. However, I would encourage anyone who doesn't have first hand experience reviewing papers to view peer review as more of a screening process to weed out trash than make sure what makes it to print is absolutely correct.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: The reviewer is *not* responsible for the content of an article. He gives his opinion on the novelty and scientific rigour, and recommends acceptance or rejection based upon that opinion. He has the freedom to recommend improvements, and is expected to point out whatever *appears* to be erroneous *to him*.
The author must not lie (that would create a liability on his side), but of course can err like all humans do in nearly every waking moment.
The *reader* however must never take anything for granted just because it was written down in an article. It is the reader who must double-check everything and still carry the full responsibility if he looses time, money or a limb based on a misconception that was transported in some scientific article.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_6: I would say there is another source of errors in peer-reviewed publications. The latter need to contain something new, so they are often state-of-the-art, and it is just hard both to produce and review their results, hence the errors.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_7: I believe that human error is the most common reason for inaccuracy in peer-reviewed scientific articles, but I must respectfully add another reason: academic politics. I served as a peer reviewer for over 20 years. I typically spent 10-20 hours on each review, because informational integrity is the bedrock of scientific advancement.
The longer I served as a peer reviewer, the more frequently I received articles on controversial topics or from "big names" in my field. Reviews are supposed to be anonymous, but when authors refer to "our previous work (xxx, 2012)" anonymity disappears.
Sadly, it became apparent that some senior Editors were less willing to require revisions from "big names" who used inferior methods, incorrectly interpreted the meaning of their statistical results, or who badly mischaracterized the results of prior research. Errors that would have sounded the death knell for a paper written by a newbie were overlooked, dismissed, and excused. (My own research became increasingly arduous as I realized that I needed to check the veracity of any citation I encountered before relying upon it.)
I stopped peer reviewing after spending three weeks on a particularly critical article by a "big name". This person had used a type of analysis with which I was familiar, but which was not well known in my field. Quite simply, the paper was a train wreck. Among several other serious errors: Basic tenets of the theory underlying the analysis were ignored, misstated, or inaccurately cited. Mathematical calculations were just flat out incorrect. And rather than using standard measurement instruments common in the field, the author used untested, unpublished instruments developed in his/her lab.
I was not a "big name," and I wanted to make certain that I was on very solid ground in my critique. I documented every single concern in my eight-page review with references to published material; never did I leave the senior Editor to just "trust my judgment." Where I knew that the senior Editor might have difficulty tracking down a source, I sent photocopies of the material I had used.
The article was accepted for publication without a single substantive change. The other reviewers, who admitted that they knew nothing about the fairly dense theoretical basis of the analysis, returned half-page reviews that mentioned only typographical errors and run-on sentences. The senior Editor was not willing to discuss the decision with me.
As I said in my opening statement, I do not believe that academic politics accounts for most of the errors in peer-reviewed research. I think that most stem from honest human error or from unfortunate carelessness. I post this response to round out the answer to the OP, and to make explicit the fact that "big names" do not guarantee "good science" or error-free publications.
Upvotes: 2
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2020/09/16
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<issue_start>username_0: I am working on a website that contains a list of free courses. My aim is to promote our field (semidefinite programming).
Each course consists of a number of articles.
Each article is built using different resources (books, posts, talks). Those resources are listed in each article.
I strongly believe that participation could improve the work.
For each article, I want to send emails to the professors whose works were used and ask them to give a read the article, check and suggest small improvements if necessary. I will not ask them to write. The participation could be done by mail, github or comments on the website. I will also keep a list of all the participants as a reward to every person who agreed to help (I am trying to find another way to be grateful to participation but).
However, I don't want to feel spammy. Any suggestions on doing that in a good way?
PS: my work is not sponsored by any organization.<issue_comment>username_1: I will try to be honest. If I received an email from a random person with whom I had never interacted before, asking me to do work for free, without any recognizable institution/organization/group/... behind that person, then I would consider spam, no matter how well the email was formulated. Sorry.
Getting your name on a random website is not enough of a "reward". You have to convince people that investing time in your project is valuable to themselves and/or the community at large, not just that it "could improve [your] work". You also have to convince them that they are not going to sink time in a project that is eventually going to be wasted because it will never gain traction and it is managed by a one-person team that will eventually have other things on their mind.
Think about it this way: you are essentially asking people to conduct a kind of peer review. I would never accept to review papers for a journal run by a single person with no institutional support. This would simply be pointless: a paper published in such a journal has essentially no value, and my effort is almost certainly going to be wasted once the journal inevitably disappears.
I do not think you can "bootstrap" this kind of group project by contacting random unknown people. Start with your colleagues, your peers, your contacts, etc, insist on the importance of outreach *once the project starts to take shape*, and then let the network expand on its own. If it works then great, if it doesn't then you just had a nice idea but with no audience.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: The Professor will usually become happy and encourage the work of student, if kept informed about the work before it gets published.
However, if a Professor is approached for feedback on an already published article that is based on the Professor's work, then the same enthusiasm or encouragement may not be guaranteed.
The easiest way to get blessings and encouragement from a Professor is through in-person communication / phone / formal letter well before the article is published.
The Professor must also be given enough time (one or two weeks) to review the article and suggest minor changes to wording or quotations.
---
Keeping the Professor informed and allocating sufficient time for review will result in maximum encouragement.
Approaching the Professor after the article is published, or not allocating sufficient time for review will result in minimum encouragement.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: The answer is: if you want stuff reviewed, you have to pay for it. Not in terms of money, but in terms of reputation or visibility. Reviewing can be amongst the most dull tasks in a scientist's life, so without a clear frame to do this, it is not something that people will be willing to carry out.
What you aim for may be probably best viewed in the context of free software development. There are core developers and then further contributors, and finally bug reporters.
So, if you create a useful website with a well-curated collection of resources, people may want to contribute and with time to start suggesting improvements. But you have to do the mid-term upfront investment of creating value before hoping for people to join in the effort (if that will at all happen, it may just fizzle out).
Alternatively, a well-regarded expert in the field could chair a relevant conference or workshop, invite the top people in the area, and kickstart a web resource which you may offer to organize. It is not you that would then be the head of this undertaking, but rather the top people in the field. You then would have only a marginal role in the matter. Whether you would want to take such a path, is for you to decide.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: If you're planning on making this a commercial site with pay-for-access or ads in the future, I wouldn't do this.
You might turn this around. Make the website and articles as good as possible, copy-edited for spelling and grammar, great layout, no broken links, etc.
Send an email to the resource authors just letting them know about the website as a resource for their students. Don't ask for any reviews or participation. If you send the email to multiple people at once, make sure you bcc them, not use the To: line. You might get a response if only from students who have looked at it. However, you also need to be ready to remove links to resources if someone objects.
Upvotes: 3
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2020/09/17
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<issue_start>username_0: As research grows even more intricate in fields such as pure and applied math (and other technical areas), very few reviewers now have a complete picture of any single field. Thus it should be common for more mistakes to be published (in a journal or in a conference).
This said, it is very uncommon for anyone to (at least successfully) edit an article after it has been published.
Some reasons for editing may include:
1. a (reasonably minor) error has been spotted, e.g., a negative sign is missing, typos that are not simply grammatical mistakes.
2. an important reference that was missed.
3. a result which has been proven wrong because of a very technical edge case that everyone has missed, but was not essential to the proof.
4. simulation was off by a tiny factor
5. some other minor, and not detrimental issue to the paper, such as a misplaced figure, mis-referenced equation (cannot tell you how many published papers have [?] in them)
Nor are there really any mechanism in place to promote authors to fix errors after publication. Yet plenty options for authors to repeat upload till "final version".
I am very curious as to why this is the case.<issue_comment>username_1: The primary reason is that journals are "publications of record". They just record a specific version of a paper, namely the one that actually gets printed, along with important data such as who wrote it and when it was submitted.
You are of course free to put corrected versions onto your website, or maybe onto preprint servers. But in the end, that's not the "version of record" as you can change whatever you want on it -- you can add and remove authors, etc., and it's hard for anyone to track down when exactly a particular change was made if a dispute should arise who came up with an idea first. It's of course true that journals today could just do that on their websites: allow newer versions of papers to supersede older versions, but then that would require some kind of editorial process that journals are not equipped to handle.
---
Completely separately, though, I take issue with your opening statement: "very few reviewers now have a complete picture of any single field. Thus it should be common for more mistakes to be published". I don't think that there is proof that that is true -- science was difficult 50 years ago, and it is difficult today. I don't believe that authors or reviewers or editors are any worse equipped today to assess the contents of papers than they were 50 years ago, and so I see no reason why we should *expect* more mistakes.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: To add to @WolfgangBangerth's answer:
* We to have the tool of *errata* in place. If the mistake is non-negligible, but not so substantial that a new paper is warranted, write an *erratum*.
* For books, we have editions. This could be done for papers as well, an indeed e.g. arXiv does that (calling it version rather than edition).
* Papers are supposed to record the cutting edge of research. Thus, we expect or at least need to consider that their *content* may become outdated.
+ They give a record of what was known at the time of their writing. "Known" includes what the authors realized back then, not what the authors could have realized from their data had they already had the enlightening insightful thought that in fact happened only years later.
It is important to keep record of this, we do not want to muddle historical tracks.
+ It is maybe not worth while fixing typos & Co. a few years after publication in a situation where the reader anyways has to do their due diligence on updates of the topic/content.
The effort could better be spent towards gaining new insights.
Upvotes: 2
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2020/09/17
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<issue_start>username_0: I am teaching an **undergraduate** mathematics course to software engineering students. I often ask my students to prove some mathematical identities as their homework. The identities could be, for example: trigonometry identities, [Laplace transform](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laplace_transform) identities, [Menelaus'](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menelaus%27s_theorem), [Stewart's](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stewart%27s_theorem), [Ceva's theorems](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceva%27s_theorem), etc.
One special student often just copies other works obtained from the Internet without doing any effort to prove them by himself. When I asked him, he replied "Why are we bothered to reinvent the wheel?". I have not replied yet and I will do later.
Could you give some advice for countering his argument?<issue_comment>username_1: You can tell the student the following:
The goal of homework is not to prove new things that the instructor doesn't know, but rather to give the students knowledge and experience in using the tools given to them. This is called "learning" - probably your course/institute has some goal the students "learn" something. You could refer him to that.
It's the same when a teacher teaches: The teacher does not reinwent a wheel but rather tells/shows known facts. Yet schools, universities are important.
This is also not related to mathematics or university. Most likely, the students had to learn a foreign language (or their own language) at school. Then they had to apply it (by speaking or by doing grammar exercises). Here they also do not invent new things (as one could say a novel does), but deepen their knowledge.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: The student seems to have the misconception that mathematics is about "facts". Early education stresses elementary facts a lot, so this is pretty natural.
But mathematics is about understanding relationships, not memorizing facts. If you don't know *why* something in mathematics is true, you really don't understand it. The proofs in mathematics are more important than the theorem statements, actually, as the latter just capture the essence in a simpler statement.
Until he understands that it will be difficult for him to advance *as a mathematician*, assuming that is a goal. If it isn't a goal, then he has little incentive to change.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_3: There are a couple of good reasons:
* firstly (at least when it comes to first-principles mathematical proofs), the skills involved in reinventing the wheel are very similar to the skills involved in inventing something new, so repeatedly reinventing the wheel is good practice for later inventing something new;
* secondly, undergraduate students are in training to join the elite of experts, who are likely to be the people called in to solve problems at speed, in disaster-recovery situations where infrastructure like the internet, electricity, running water, etc. has gone down, so they need to learn to solve problems without the internet available (this one is also the justification, in terms of authenticity, for using closed-book, timed exams in the summative assessment of undergraduates).
There's also an ultra-cynical reason: there are people who make a comfortable living out of reinventing the wheel (sometimes literally) and patenting it.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_4: Someone said:\*
>
> When you reinvent the wheel, you end up learning a great deal about why wheels are round.
>
>
>
And that is really the point. When you’re at university to get a degree in wheels, you should fully expect not just to be told that wheels exist but to be asked to think deeply about them so that you develop an understanding, at the deepest level, of why they work the way they do. That is literally the whole point of going to college.
\*Source: something I read recently somewhere on the Stack Exchange network. The quote is from memory, I can’t find the exact source now unfortunately.
Upvotes: 8 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_5: My answer would go along the line:
>
> It's a bad idea to blindly believe everything you read. We all know that there's
> a lot of nonsense out there in the internet. So you better be
> able to judge yourself, and this exercise is part of teaching you how
> to evaluate whether some mathematical claim is true or not.
>
>
>
Maybe it would raise motivation to have the students decide whether some claim is true or false, and to present sound reasoning (proof) for their answer.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_6: Doing math is different from 'knowing math'. With knowing math I mean memorizing formulas and concepts. We all probably have experienced this in an exam that contained math: you think you know some formula but when you're in the exam you notice you don't actually know how to implement it in practice. Proving identities is one of the best ways of getting some hands on practive with the material. Even though it might not be the most direct way to practice with it. One benefit you get by proving those identities is that you better know *when* you are allowed to apply these identities because now you know exactly what conditions are required to make the proof work.
A second argument is that proving an identity is an effective way to remember said identity. Personally proving a formula about 3 times over an extended time is enough to memorize it for me.
I'm still a student so I don't know how important it is to be able to make proofs in your career and this will probably vary a lot depending on your department. (it is *very* important in the maths/physics department though)
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_7: **I was that student**
*NOTE - Since I posted this there has been a similar answer by @username_11 - However username_11's answer is so much better explained than mine that I have upvoted it and recommend it over mine*.
Not as an undergraduate but before that in secondary education.
I resented doing chemistry and physics experiments because they were printed in books that we had to work through. As far as I was concerned, they weren't experiments because experiments are discovering something new, not repeating what had already been done. Instead I would do my own experiments at the back of the class.
I refused to learn a proof for Pythagoras' theorem that we were supposed to one year. I ended up having to prove it almost from scratch in an exam.
I rarely did maths homework because I had "understood" it when it was explained in the class and didn't feel the necessity to demonstrate the fact.
I did pass the exams in these subjects - barely.
By the time came that I was expected to apply for university I was so fed up with education that I wasn't interested. I ended up going to music college instead. It was only years later that I decided to pick up my studies again. I was working full-time and simultaneously did a part-time degree. By this time I was more mature. I worked hard, followed the rules and got a first and went on to do a Masters.
I really don't think anything could have changed my mind at the time. I was lazy and a rebel.
I suspect that this student is similar and has got by so far by surviving on natural ability without rigour. It may be that he will be more suited to researching one specific difficult problem and will make the effort at that time to put in all the necessary work. Think <NAME>.
**Suggestion**
If like I was, this student is a lazy rebel (and somewhat immature), it will be difficult to motivate him to take the standard route. The best I can suggest is to find something that really motivates him and show how following the course will aid him in achieving that.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_8: Counter by
1. Having the student consider why a musician or athlete practices routinely, and
2. offering an unsolved problem to prove as an alternative.
Together these points should prove compelling, assuming the student's objections were truly sincere.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_9: I'm a mathematics graduate currently working in computer science and data analysis. In my experience it is difficult (if not impossible) to memorize every single aspect of mathematics, especially for identities which could be combined with one another in various complicated ways to produce infinite results. Instead I find it useful to start with the most basic parts for which I have a deep understanding and put them together - in essence "reinventing the wheel" - until I have my desired result.
Years after taking a certain course, I have found myself working on projects that need certain identities and facts (I've needed a surprising amount of geometry and trigonometry for processing image data). There is no way I would remember them all, but I can still remember the basic parts and the process needed to put everything together. Sure I could look it up (as long as I remembered the name or enough details about the identity, which isn't trivial), but that is not always an option...
Even more important, there are times when I am working with very well known identities or processes, but I need to put two things together, add something new, or make a change to get a slightly different result. If I only ever used what could be easily looked up, I would be out of luck in this new situation. But hopefully after "reinventing the wheel" many times over, I will have developed the **problem solving skills** necessary to tackle the problem.
Do that enough times, and complex things like "the wheel" become the basic parts for which you have a deep understanding, and you can use it to build greater and grander things, a "car" for instance.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_10: Maybe your student is seeing only the traditional aspect of the proof: a mean of verification, validation, conviction. If this is the case and the student believe the identities are true, there is no reason to bother to prove them. Then, you could try to explain and work with the other functions of the proof: explanation, systematisation, discovery, communication and intellectual challenge. See [this paper](https://carma.newcastle.edu.au/resources/jon/Preprints/Papers/JMB%20solo/ICMI%2019/Related/mdv%20proof.pdf) by <NAME>. Here are two quotes:
>
> Who has not yet experienced frustration when confronted by students asking "why do we have to prove this?"
>
>
>
>
> The question is, however, "what functions does proof have within mathematics itself which can potentially be utilized in the mathematics classroom to make proof a more meaningful activity?" The purpose of this section is to describe some important functions of proof, and briefly discuss some implications for the teaching of proof.
>
>
>
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_11: I was that student. And the reason is mainly not because I was a bad student, or a bad engineer (a 2:1 degree and 25 years in industry should answer those points). It was because my lecturers were bad teachers. And yes, you too may be a bad teacher right now, without realising it. The difference is that you've seen this student's question as a challenge to improve your teaching, and that's something you should be proud of. What matters for all of us is how we learn to do better.
You're teaching engineers, who are without exception practical people. (Or the good ones anyway. I assume you want your course to produce good engineers.) Remember that they aren't at university to become mathematicians, they're there to become engineers. If you want them to learn a subject which seems of no real value to them, you need to convey the value in doing it. It seems you haven't managed to get this across.
To divert slightly, think of *The Karate Kid*. How does <NAME> teach Daniel? He gives him apparently pointless exercises to do. Daniel puts up with this for a while, but eventually tells Miyagi to shove it. Miyagi then demonstrates that there was some value to the exercises after all. The thing is though, this isn't the only way to learn, nor actually the way which works for most people. Go into a regular dojo, and you get taught how to block and punch by, well, blocking and punching.
You've got the Miyagi method though. You've given them seemingly pointless exercises to get practise in basic techniques. Now your Daniel has called you on it though. So what's the application for that technique? If it's widely used, what's even one application for it?
For concrete personal examples, we spent ages at university learning about phase lead/lag networks, PID controllers, and so on. What we didn't do was get an actual motor and position sensor, and actually control something. The result for me was that it didn't really stick, and I've had to relearn it all at work when I've had projects which needed it. Practicality and relevance are the keys for engineering.
You mention Laplace. Have you had them do any DSP? It doesn't get more hands-on with Laplace than filters. And that step response? That's what happens when your wheel hits a bump, or someone pops the microphone. Do you get a (Butterworth) ringing or a (Bessel) smooth step? And which do you accept, if the depth of filtering is also important?
There are lots of ways you can go which makes your subject relevant. All you need to do is find them. This may require you to talk to the engineering staff to find how they use these techniques (per @KevinArlin's comments), to give you examples you can hang your lectures on. If it means students they'll be teaching or supervising later have a better grasp of these basic techniques which they'll need, I'd expect them to jump at the chance.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_12: **Because you need it to pass the exam.**
Call my cynical, but that's the ultimate reason. Not wanting to reinvent the wheel is often very reasonable, e.g. if you were asked to prove Fermat's Last Theorem, you would be foolhardy to attempt to prove it yourself instead of searching up <NAME>' proof.
The great benefit of attempting to prove the identities yourself is that you become familiar with the thought process, the basic equations, and so on. For example with trigonometry, one might see an expression involving sin^3(x) and think of converting that one of sin(3x). Without this insight, one might never make progress. Working on similar proofs before helps provide this signpost when it matters during the exam.
If the student is capable of learning the proofs enough that they can prove similar identities, under time pressure & in an exam setting, then there's nothing to worry about. Whether they get to this stage by working through someone else's proof, or by figuring it out themselves, isn't important.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_13: Let me formulate a contra-answer to the one from username_11:
I am also a mathematician, and I have worked as a software engineer for several firms. One of them had created their own development environment, which generated a whole bunch of binaries and one textfile. All those automatically generated things together were the actual product.
After six years, I was assigned as a functional tester, and one of the things I did, was parsing, reading, grepping, ... the automatically generated textfile, and my colleagues were completely astonished of the amount of bugs I found while doing that.
But most of all, I was astonished by the fact that litteraly no-one (we were several hundreds of colleagues) had ever thaught of reading that file as a human being: people were so focused on the fact that that file was auto-generated that they did not even think of doing that. My insight went as a shock through the company!
Therefore I'd like to encourage you continuing what you are doing: try to increase the insight of your students. They may resent you for it, they might even claim hating you for it. But later (I was about 35 years old), there might come a moment where that insight comes in very handy and for the rest of their lives, they'll love your for it!
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_14: **I agree with your student.**
I have a PhD in physics and used math as a toolbox. A wonderful, useful, shiny toolbox. The kind of toolbox where you know that in order to find the roots of 3x^2-9x+2=0 you would find delta etc. I do not care how it was found, because this is a tool (I am not interested how a screwdriver is built either).
This is **really, honestly** not to diminish the value of your field. Someone had to invent these tools in the first place.
My son is going through 2nd degree polynomials as we speak. I had to suffer through the whole proof part and he knows that at the end of the day, it is three formulas he will blindly use.
One thing you could consider doing - and this is a very useful exercise: to set up a problem where blindly using the formula will make them fail, because the formula has an introduction part ("If x belongs to ..., then (formula)"). This will probably not make them study the proof (who knows) but will teach them a valuable lessons on limitations.
And someday, as they will be engineers, they may remember that story with limitations when building the bridge you will walk on. This happened to me (not with a bridge, fortunately) and helped me to always remember that models have contraints.
What I am trying to say is that the proof may not be the most valuable thing to teach them.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_15: Feynman cut to the heart of this issue in The Feynman Tips on Physics:
>
> I have a few moments left, so I’d like to make a little speech about
> the relation of the mathematics to the physics—which, in fact, was
> well illustrated by this little example. It will not do to memorize
> the formulas, and to say to yourself, “I know all the formulas; all I
> gotta do is figure out how to put ’em in the problem!”
>
>
> Now, you may
> succeed with this for a while, and the more you work on memorizing the
> formulas, the longer you’ll go on with this method—but it doesn’t work
> in the end.
>
>
> You might say, “I’m not gonna believe him, because I’ve
> always been successful: that’s the way I’ve always done it; I’m always
> gonna do it that way.”
>
>
> You are *not* always going to do it that way:
> you’re going to *flunk*— not this year, not next year, but eventually,
> when you get your job, or something—you’re going to lose along the
> line somewhere, because physics is an *enormously* extended thing: there
> are *millions* of formulas! It’s impossible to remember all the
> formulas—it’s *impossible*!
>
>
> And the great thing that you’re ignoring,
> the powerful machine that you’re not using, is this: suppose Figure
> 1-19 is a map of all the physics formulas, all the relations in
> physics. (It should have more than two dimensions, but let’s suppose
> it’s like that.)
>
>
> Now, suppose that something happened to your mind,
> that somehow all the material in some region was erased, and there was
> a little spot of missing goo in there. The relations of nature are so
> nice that it is possible, by logic, to “triangulate” from what is
> known to what’s in the hole. (See Fig. 1-20.)
>
>
>
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/uYADH.png)
>
> And you can re-create the things that you’ve forgotten *perpetually* —if
> you don’t forget too much, and if you know enough. In other words,
> there comes a time—which you haven’t quite got to, yet—where you’ll
> know so many things that as you forget them, you can reconstruct them
> from the pieces that you can still remember. It is therefore of
> first-rate importance that you know how to “*triangulate*”—that is, to
> know how to figure something out from what you already know. *It is
> absolutely necessary*. You might say, “Ah, I don’t care; I’m a *good*
> memorizer! I know how to really memorize! In fact, I took a *course* in
> memory!”
>
>
> That *still* doesn’t work! Because the real utility of
> physicists—both to discover new laws of nature, and to develop new
> things in industry, and so on—is *not* to talk about what’s already
> known, but to do something *new*— and so they triangulate out from the
> known things: they make a “triangulation” that *no one has ever made
> before*. (See Fig. 1-21.)
>
>
> In order to learn how to do that, you’ve got
> to forget the memorizing of formulas, and to try to learn to
> *understand the interrelationships* of nature. That’s very much more
> difficult at the beginning, but it’s the *only successful way*.
>
>
>
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/DBz5S.png)
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_16: For the last student who asked me this, I pulled out Gradshteyn and Ryzhik (my copy from 1992). My first line (in joke voice) was "Alright, get to memorizing."
Then I flipped to page xxiii and pointed at the text leading up to "We then kept only the simplest formula." Then jumped to page xxiv to the line "Thus, before looking up an integral in the tables, the user should simplify as much as possible the arguments ... in the integrand."
The student responded that there exists software containing the entire book. I replied with my experience : "There are only a few pieces of software whose marketing departments make this claim. To date, none of them have been correct, as I have found fairly simple integrals that each version of each piece of software I have used fails to integrate."
If you can't bring your work in to a form that can be found in references, you are crippled compared to someone who can. This may involve algebra, trigonometric identities, Fourier, Laplace or other integral transforms, the Cauchy integral formula, et c. If you don't understand those tools and how they work, you will not understand when you should or should not be using them. This knowledge comes only from practice.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_17: Since they are software engineering students, ask them if it is still relevant to understand different [sorting algorithms](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sorting_algorithm). After all, there are libraries.
The answer, of course, is that one should be able to understand how one's tools work, at least when one has reason to look. I recall a bug where a programmer was unaware that [quicksort was not stable](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sorting_algorithm#Stability).
Upvotes: -1
|
2020/09/17
| 640
| 2,650
|
<issue_start>username_0: I'm in the sciences in the USA, and a very relevant to my field, well respected journal just advertised. I have been encouraged to apply. The workload is advertised as not egregious. I already sit on several editorial boards.
I worry that this kind of service may be better left for post tenure. My personal advisors are split: I likely have a good shot at it, some think it will be a good move, others hesitate.
I'd be very interested both in answers outright, and things to consider that I an my mentors might have missed.<issue_comment>username_1: This depends on what your institution values in its faculty. It also depends on what you would need to give up that might be more important to obtaining tenure. If it comes at the expense of "a few" papers at a place, such as an R1, that highly values papers, the risky. If it comes at the expense of grant proposals at such a place, then risky.
"Not egregious" can mean a lot of things. Tenure should be your first concern at this point if you intend to stay in academia.
But if the institution values such things as having its faculty present a public face to the academic world, maybe a liberal arts college, then less risky.
But, on balance, I think your guess that it is better left for post-tenure is the right one.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Being an editor-in-chief is a rewarding position that most departments value on someone's CV.
So much for that. But I cannot stress enough how bad an idea it would be to take on such a role while being an assistant professor without tenure. As the EiC, your workload consists of 50% assigning papers to associate editors, and 50% dealing with the difficult papers where some bigshot's poorly written paper has been rejected and they complain/some associate editor not actually doing their work/other cases that are not of technical nature but involve *people*. You have to make judgment calls about these papers, decisions, people, and that's hard if you don't have the stature and independence that tenure gives you. That's because to get tenure (and, to a lesser degree, for promotion to full professor) you rely on the well-known people in your community that are exactly the ones who you might have to make decisions about. In other words, without the independence that tenure gives you, you will perpetually find yourself caught in conflicts of interest, and that's a really awkward position in which you can only choose between lose-lose options.
In other words, *don't do it* if you don't already have tenure or anticipate getting tenure shortly after taking on the role.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]
|
2020/09/17
| 700
| 2,824
|
<issue_start>username_0: A certain fraction of personal websites of researchers has a hint along the lines of "CV available on request." I always found that a bit odd. Are there any situations where a researcher would
1. Actively ask another researcher for their CV; and
2. Would be more inclined to do so because they have such a hint on their website?<issue_comment>username_1: No, I don't think so.
(What else is there to say?)
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_2: Academic CVs can get quite long, listing conferences presented at, committees served on, etc. It's easy to see that some people would feel that the whole world doesn't need such a detailed record of their life.
>
> 1. Actively ask another researcher for their CV,
>
>
>
I think it's more likely a non-academic would need this sort of thing.
Here are some ideas why you might need someone's CV:
* A journalist or university PR person reporting on their work
* Preparing a biography (e.g. a conference introduction)
Or, as an academic, you might really like someone's work, and want a quick way to find all their papers. Google Scholar isn't perfect, especially when people don't curate it. Personally, I wouldn't email for a CV in that case, but someone else might.
Or perhaps they are open to being recruited by another lab or department or company, but want to know when someone is interested, rather than not knowing. Is this effective or a good idea? I have no idea.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: It's conceivable, e.g. if you are a [headhunter](https://www.investopedia.com/terms/h/headhunter.asp) or someone who isn't an expert in the field but is looking for someone who is (for example, a publisher looking for someone to start a new journal; a journalist looking for someone to interview).
That said, the number of hits one gets for just having a CV on one's website is likely to be much larger than the number of requests for the CV (i.e. most people don't request it even if they need it).
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_4: Doing this does convey useful information: it signals that the individual has made a conscious decision not to post their CV online. If you come across this statement when looking for someone's CV you know not to waste more time searching. I think this is the real reason people do it, rather than any concern that people might otherwise not think to send an email.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: Short answer: privacy.
When you're not looking for new opportunities, why should you expose your life to everyone who visits your website? Of course there are differnt views at that. Making the CV available on request is one of them.
In addition, it may not only be a concern about actual visitors, but an option to stop all kinds of bots from indexing your CV.
Upvotes: 2
|
2020/09/17
| 823
| 3,564
|
<issue_start>username_0: I have an undergrad thesis idea that involves transformers. I am trying to take the lead on the idea before I contact a professor about it - i.e. figuring out exactly how I'd make it happen, and if it is realistic. The problem is that because of covid, the largest research funding I can get from my university as an UG is $500. I read a paper about a type of transformer, and I would like to apply that to an area it hasn't been applied before (my interest area). However, it seems like transformer based research is expensive.
**I am worried about two things:**
1. I don't want the professor to think I am idiot for suggesting an idea that might be big in scope / too expensive, but I truly do not know how to determine if it is too expensive / out of scope
2. I do want to publish first author. If this idea is too expensive, am I allowed to ask if he has any other projects for me (I can also provide him with my other interests).<issue_comment>username_1: Maybe your best approach is to contact manufacturers who would have an interest in commercialisation and see what advice and resources you can get from them
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_2: It's great that you're taking the lead and refining your ideas to come up with a well-defined research proposal. Your prospective advisors will appreciate the effort and it will likely increase the chances of them accepting you as their student.
Cost is certainly an important aspect in determining the feasibility of a project. From your question, it appears that the main cost will be for computing power. It would be a good idea to attempt to estimate computational requirements to the best of your ability, by looking at relevant literature that you base your ideas on. If the costs are likely to be extremely high (as an extreme example, take the cost of training GPT-3), you could shelve the idea and think of something else.
However, no matter how carefully you go through this, it is always possible to miss something vital. Particularly, since you are undergraduate and it sounds like you are not yet very experienced in this field, you may miss factors to consider that are obvious to your professor. This is completely fine: you learn by working on projects, and it is the role of the supervisor to guide you through it. As long as you make a good faith effort and are enthusiastic to learn, it is very unlikely that they'll think you are an "idiot" because of this.
So, it would be a good idea to prepare well, but not wait too long to approach the professor. Their inputs can prevent you from wasting time on infeasible ideas, and also help improve your proposal. If they consider the idea feasible and interesting and accept your project, they would very likely cover most of the costs too by providing access to their lab's resources, so external funding, while welcome, may not be necessary.
Referring to your second question: yes, you can certainly discuss other ideas and ask for suggestions, or offer to join an existing project. It is unlikely to be unusual for professors to provide complete project ideas at the undergraduate level.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: >
> Is it my responsibility as an undergrad student to figure out if my thesis is affordable?
>
>
>
Usually, no. This is an example of where your faculty advisor should help you.
Do take a few minutes to research costs before discussing it with your advisor.
There might be exceptions if, based on your area of study, you were expected to know about costs already.
Upvotes: 2
|
2020/09/17
| 1,398
| 6,442
|
<issue_start>username_0: In the summer, I took a math course where one of the homeworks involved a question where answers were expected to include several diagrams alongside an explanation. At the time, I thought it was a difficult question and I had been complaining about how confusing it was to a friend who was also taking the course. Eventually, I did complete the question independently with some suggestions the instructor of the course gave me during a meeting.
Before the submission deadline, my friend offered to explain to me some of his ideas about the problem over social media, I believe I had asked for this a few days before because I was struggling. At this point, even though I had already finished the question, I agreed to the proposal. I thought there would be no harm because the course permitted collaboration to the extent where students can discuss their ideas about the problems in the homework. My friend proceeded to send me some diagrams alongside a very brief explanation outlining his steps, at first I went along with this because I did not sense anything wrong. But after it seemed like they were sharing too much, my friend stopped after I requested that they not continue their explanation (I was afraid that if I did not stop them, I would have essentially seen their solution to the question).
When I submitted my problem set, I did not modify the answer I gave to that specific question prior to the conversation, and so what my friend showed me had no effect on what I actually submitted. Thus, I did not copy anything or 'cheat' in any obvious way. Still, I felt very guilty and anxious because I thought I had seen "too much" of my friend's work. I tried to forget about all of this and assured myself that the correspondence was harmless because it did not influence the work I submitted. Nevertheless, a few weeks later, after something reminded me about what had happened and I decided to e-mail the professor with a description of what happened on two separate occasions. This was after I discussed how guilty I felt with the friend I mentioned earlier, who respected my decision to send the e-mail.
I think my instructor missed both of these e-mails. After this, I had once again decided that I should just try to move on, because once again, I convinced myself that what happened was harmless (as I said before, I did not change my answer to the question even after seeing what my friend showed me). All of this happened a few months ago. Once again, I had resolved to just forget that all of this happened.
A few hours ago, something had reminded me about that conversation. I decided, for some stupid reason, to review the conversation again, and I once again felt a wave of anxiety after reading it. I regret that I did not send a 3rd e-mail earlier so that my instructor could provide their input on this situation and give me some peace of mind. Furthermore, the final marks for the course have already been released and finalized, and I feel like sending an e-mail to my instructor about this issue at this point would either seriously annoy them, or put them in a very bizarre position. I do not know what I should do in this situation, or if I am just overthinking things.<issue_comment>username_1: I can't speak to your specific institution, because it may have different rules, but here are some general thoughts:
1. Academic integrity rules are there to protect the degree. If it comes out that basically an entire class (or even just a single student) got their degree through work other than their own, then that degree is essentially worthless. However, these rules aren't there specifically to prevent collaboration. In fact, the academy is all **about** collaboration, as long as appropriate credit is given.
2. Violations of academic integrity in most places only happen when there is a failure to disclose. That is, let's say that my friend wrote my entire assignment, but I submitted it as "This is Mike's assignment, but <NAME> wrote the whole thing". I should probably get a zero for that, but I am not violating any academic integrity **because I did not represent someone's work as my own**.
In this case, you disclosed the event to your instructor. As such, you have reasonably absolved yourself of guilt in an academic integrity sense. Furthermore, you stated that you submitted your original work, created before the collaboration. In that case, you essentially just compared answers after a submission.
All of this points to the fact that you should not be concerned, you acted with integrity. However...don't do that again. There is a fine line between collaboration and cheating, and it's sometimes hard to convince yourself and your instructors which side of that line you're on. Not putting yourself in a situation where you can see another student's work before the deadline is the surest way to protect yourself from the guilt and potential academic misconduct.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: You are overthinking this. You have not cheated, and there is no need to do anything further.
The goal of assignments generally is to make students learn how to independently solve the problems, and assess them on it. This is why directly copying others' work is disallowed while discussion of ideas (to a limited extent) is allowed: discussing ideas helps your learning, while blind copying does not. You still need to understand the ideas, and apply it correctly, and write a coherent answer by yourself. This is also why your instructor provided helpful suggestions, as you mention, to point you in the right direction, while still letting you come up with the solution yourself.
In your case, you did not even use your friend's ideas. From your account, you were careful to stay within the limits of what was permitted for collaboration, so there's no issue. Even if what they shared was too much, you did not cheat as you did not use it in your own submission. It's perfectly fine (in most cases) to discuss solutions after submission; in fact, a good idea since feedback is quite valuable.
The absence of any response to your emails suggests that the instructor either did not read the message or did not see any issue with your behavior. The fact that the final marks have been declared without you hearing about this reinforces this. Sending repeated mails in this situation is a bad idea and quite unnecessary.
Upvotes: 3
|
2020/09/17
| 546
| 1,764
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am applying for a Ph. D. program after a 10 year career of secondary classroom teaching - I have held several positions in that time should I cut some of these teaching experiences out to make my CV fit one page (the teaching experiences are not at the college level, and not necessarily directly in the program I am applying for).<issue_comment>username_1: Unlike an American industry resume, an academic CV does not have a length limit. It would be appropriate to list all your teaching experience.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: >
> I am applying for a Ph. D. program after a 10 year career of secondary classroom teaching - I have held several positions in that time should I cut some of these teaching experiences out to make my CV fit one page
>
>
>
Rather than cutting them out, why not list them, but omit descriptions, e.g.,
* 2018 - 2020 Department Head, School, City
* 2012 - 2018 Senior XYZ, School, City
* 2000 - 2012 XYZ, School, City
The descriptions can be pushed elsewhere, e.g., into an opening sentence. Alternatively, if you were at the same school, then something like:
* 2000 - 2020 School, City
I concluded my teaching career as **Department Head (2018-2020)**, having served as *Senior XYZ (2012-2018)* and *XYZ (2000-2012)*. Blah, blah, blah.
Even if you weren't at the same school, you could use something similar, e.g.,
* 2000 - 2020 Secondary classroom teaching
I concluded my teaching career as **Department Head (2018-2020), School, City**, having served as *Senior XYZ (2012-2018), School, City* and *XYZ (2000-2012), School, City*. Blah, blah, blah.
**The key idea is to include all positions. Don't omit material, gaps don't look good. Compress instead.**
Upvotes: 2
|
2020/09/18
| 1,211
| 5,242
|
<issue_start>username_0: I recently saw my ratings on RateMyProfessor.com and it's very disheartening to see all the negative reviews from a course for which I worked so hard. Comments like "sh\*\*\*y professor" are very difficult to accept. It's taking a toll on my mental health for sure. What are strategies for dealing with such comments?<issue_comment>username_1: I think the only way you could counter this is for you to produce a few introdutory video productions of what you are teaching and post them online or YouTube , that way students who have seen your bad reviews have an opportunity to make up their own minds
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_2: If it's a few people and your evals are otherwise fine then just ignore it. Everyone who gets a D or an F because they showed up high all the time and never learned anything will write a bad eval. Also you can ignore all your zoom class evals from last semester cause covid.
If it's a consistent thing in all your evals it's probably you. Teaching is a skill and like any skill it can be lost. Student evals are pretty good at telling you what's wrong but usually it's bad lectures, disorganization, or unfair/unclear testing. The biggest thing I think is disorganization and fair grading - students will put up with a bad lecturer. They hate feeling like the class is being slapped together at the last minute. They really hate exams that feel capricious and grading that feels arbitrary.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: I am not a professor. Perhaps it would be useful to you to understand this from a student's perspective. I am a PhD candidate and did my undergrad at the same school I'm in the PhD program for. This has given me some unique insight into the difference between what is put on a review, and the actual person (one of whom I work with closely) in reality.
RateMyProfessor encourages extremely harsh reviews. From a professor's perspective this is simply noise in the channel.
As a student RateMyProfessor became virtually worthless after I got through the middle of my undergraduate courses. Early undergraduate courses tended to be a grab-bag of instructors and professors. Some of them not even in the same field they are teaching. You will find that as course numbers increase and topic becomes specific (implying higher difficulty) the ratings skew *heavily* to the negative. The conclusion here, I think, is obvious. Student's want easy grades. But the explanation for that is not simply "students are lazy". As a student I didn't really get time to enjoy my classes. In order to graduate in 4 years I had to stay focused entirely on two goals: (1) minimize time spent studying (because I had several classes to worry about as well as a part time job) and (2) maximize my grade. I got out of my CS program with a 3.7 GPA which given that I took several hard classes really amounted to a mixture of actual work ethic, careful selection of professor, and time management.
You might say "well that's quite contrary to what I'd expect of a PhD-worthy undergraduate!" given that I am a PhD candidate. But truth be told, it wasn't until my last semester of undergrad when my course load was low that I really got to enjoy my classes for what they were. Until then, it was simply a game. Optimize the parameters of the equation whose solution is your graduation. The crushing weight of both expectation (get a good job) and retaking classes costing significantly more money made this equation my single greatest concern. Though you didn't say you were in the US I am speaking from a US standpoint. This is absolutely a consequence of extremely high prices for classes (where failure isn't a financial option), the unspoken requirement of a college degree for a good job, and the time crunch to get into industry to make some actual money.
Knowing this, take these things with a grain of salt. Know that especially if you are teaching undergraduate courses your students are adversarial. You could be a bad teacher, that is certainly a possibility, but more likely you have screwed up their solution to the equation required to graduate. Keep this in mind and seriously evaulate whether you are a *measurably* bad professor or you are teaching a hard subject and students who misinterpreted your presentation (as in you, personally) are upset you screwed up the game they are playing.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: Ignore these ratings. Just like most people who go online to write reviews of restaurants and other places go to write (sometimes baseless) criticism and vent, students who go online to write review of their professor go to write (sometimes baseless) criticism and vent. This is heavily skewed against the professor. Add to that the fact that ratings can be made anonymously and that people tend to behave like complete idiots anonymously (including posting multiple bad reviews just to mess with the professor), and you've got a recipe for disaster.
If you want to know better what your students think of you, take some time to do an anonymous in-class survey with pointed questions that go beyond rants and points on arbitrary scales. There are already questions about this on this website, you can look them up.
Upvotes: 3
|
2020/09/18
| 645
| 2,781
|
<issue_start>username_0: My field of study is purely theoretical, meaning that there are a ton of equations and a bunch of numerical simulations. I am targeting groups that align with my field and I am trying to read their research. I know this question has probably been asked before, but how much of the group's research am I expected to know before I email the PI about lab openings? Three levels of abstraction are given below:
1. Just the title of the projects and the material given on the webpages.
2. Go through the abstract and conclusions of their latest papers.
3. Take a single paper and go through it line by line, understanding all the equations and simulations.<issue_comment>username_1: However much you need to be able to sensibly answer the question "Why do you want to work in my lab?" Probably titles and abstracts, with a full paper if there is something that is relevant to your prior work so you can give a strong answer like - I see that you are working on topic X and that relates to my previous work by ...
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: For me, it really depends on the stage of interaction with our group.
* For the first contact, I would expect that you have at least visited our website and know what we work on, in general. Browsing the website and some paper titles should be fine for this. If none of the paper titles make sense or sound interesting to you, then why are you applying to work with us in the first place?
* If we end up chatting more detailedly (e.g., if you have a phone interview with members of my lab) I would expect that you looked at all the recent papers involving the people interviewing you, and have read at least a subset of those. I don't care whether you understand the work line-by-line, and I am fully aware that some of our work can be technical and academic. However, if you can't be bothered to at least skim some of our papers and try to grasp the core ideas, it does not reflect very well on your commitment to our line of research.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: What occurs to me is, I think, what @user151413 may have been thinking in their comment. You need to know enough that you believe this is a team you want to work in. Beyond that, take the tack of convincing the PI that you have research ideas that fit their interests, and which you can be productive in (i.e., publish), even if (perhaps especially if) they aren't exact topics the team is already exploring. Or that you have skills that can apply to topics the PI may be wanting to explore, outside the current team's expertise.
Just being one more of what they've already got is probably least appealing, unless you are specifically targeting a vacancy they've posted or that you know may be opening.
Upvotes: -1
|
2020/09/18
| 1,131
| 4,504
|
<issue_start>username_0: I have applied to a PhD position some weeks ago. After thinking about the given topic and institute for a longer time, I don't want to do my PhD there anymore. They want to interview me but since I would not even accept an offer, I don't want to do the interview (additional stress).
How can I politely decline the interview?<issue_comment>username_1: >
> Dear XYZ,
>
>
> thank you for considering me for this position. Unfortunately, for personal reasons I am no longer considering this option. Hence, I have to decline this invitation.
>
>
> With best regards, clearseplex
>
>
>
In other words, like you would politely say no to any other opportunity - polite, short, and without going into details why exactly you changed your mind.
Upvotes: 7 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Just politely decline the offer? It saves you time and it saves them time so they can schedule somebody else faster. You’ll be doing everyone a favour, just be polite and cordial, thanking them for the opportunity but letting them know you decided to go in a different direction.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: 1. I don't think any apology is necessary.
2. Actually, I don't think
"unfortunately" as suggested by @username_1 is necessary. After all,
who are you saying it is unfortunate for? You? No, you don't want
the interview. Them? That seems presumptuous - you are implying they
are unfortunate for missing out on your presence.
**My suggestion**
*Thank you so much for your offer of an interview for blah, blah blah. After thinking about it seriously I have decided that the topic of this PhD is not for me at the present time.
For that reason I shall withdraw my application at this point. I appreciate the time you have given me.*
EDIT
See comment by @JBentley. I agree and would change "After thinking about it seriously" with "On considering my options" or similar.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: I thought I might give an alternate opinion here: is declining the interview in your best interests?
I am not an academic but I have recently been in the position of having multiple interviews / opportunities where I preferred some over others. What I didn't do was decline to speak with someone, knowing that the interview itself might actually convince me to join the company.
There are many benefits to speaking with them:
1. The way a person / company interviews a candidate should be part of
your decision making process, perhaps there are parameters you are
unaware of that might sway your decision.
2. You can get valuable experience in the exact setting you would be hoping to to do well in under the same or similar context even.
3. An offer from another university may actually improve your odds at landing the one you
want. (stalking horse)
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: >
> I don't want to do my PhD there anymore.
>
>
>
Okay that's how you feel, but reconsider, for several reasons:
A very smart and beloved Physics professor once told me:
>
> Never turn down a job that hasn't been offered to you.
>
>
>
What was meant is that you never know when you might *really like* a situation, or a specific professor, once you find out more! Appearances from a distance may be totally different than [ground truth](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground_truth).
Is there no chance at all that more information might change your mind? What happened to the reasons that made you decide not to go? Are you simply second-guessing your own intuition?
If you feel it necessary, consider a note simply explaining your concerns, and ask if they would still like you to go to the interview. If it's fine with them, then okay you've been upfront.
If that's even a possibility, then consider the added benefit to yourself of *practice*. In industry where interviews are "just a part of doing business" it's not uncommon to do the first interview for a job (one believes that) one doesn't want very much. It gives the opportunity practice in a lower-stress situation, and to have some experience before doing an interview for a job (one believes that) one really wants.
That will be a bit less common for PhD program interviews of course.
If there are other reasons one wants to skip the interview, then okay. But if the reasons aren't firm, then consider what's *potentially lost* by not going compared to what's lost by going, and reexamine why you thought you'd like to go and see if those reasons have really changed.
Upvotes: 2
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2020/09/18
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<issue_start>username_0: Suppose someone is pursuing PhD in mathematics from a third class university and their supervisor has little knowledge about their own field. Is it possible to publish a good research paper in good journal?<issue_comment>username_1: Yes, it is possible. The institution doesn't matter. The advisor doesn't matter. What matters is the content (and correctness) of the paper, along with a judgement about its "novelty". Those judgements will be made by reviewers and editors, independent of where the paper originates.
Good writing helps, of course.
Upvotes: 7 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: If you're worried about the impact (on how "good" your paper is) of not having local access to colleagues with a deep background knowledge of the field, you could try submitting to a journal that has an open, public review stage prior to its formal, traditional peer review, to get access to a pool of expertise. There exist some journals with such a process that can reasonably be described as "good journals".
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: Yes but your research better be plenty good enough for that journal.
Coming from a poor school gives you a big disadvantage with the quality of your research to start with. But you could be good enough to improve to the higher level of that journal.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: Yes it does not matter where you come from if the paper is good enough (and you can pay the fees) a journal will publish it.
One issue that could arise, if you/your supervisor is less skilled is being able to turn your good idea into a good paper (so that a good journal would publish it). This needs a good knowledge of the subject area to know how to sell the paper, what are the interesting questions in your field, and how your work fits in and improves your field.
Good papers are not just about having a good idea but being able to sell the idea. This is done though the choice of plots, what you discuss (and what you leave out to stop the paper becoming too long), the literature you cite, and the overall presentation of the paper. I've seen many papers that after reading them many times I eventually realize the authors did good work, they just worded their paper poorly and as such the papers end up in lower tier journals.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: **TLDR:** It is possible, but in practice it's much easier to get the same paper published with a 'Big Name' university in the affiliations. Coming from a 'Third Rate' university, you will need a glowing cover letter to convince the editor to send your paper into review at all.
What has been said so far is true **in principle**, but not necessarily **in practice**. Since the OP explicitly asked about the possiblity, the other answers are technically correct but disregard the mechanics of the publishing process: Not all papers get into the review stage. Before being sent for review (i.e. before the scientific importance even has a chance of being assessed by actual experts), the top journals have an editor vet submissions before sending them out. And by 'top journal', I'm not talking only Science and Nature. Nowadays, even journals with mid-single digit impact factors have desk rejections.
This editor has little time for each submission and also is likely to get into trouble if they send too many 'duds' (papers of poor quality that subsequently rejected by the reviewers) into review, because it can be very hard to find reviewers. If there is a 'Big Name' associated with the submission, there is very little risk for the editor in forwarding your paper into review because if it is a dud, the 'Big Name' university provides protection ("I did have my doubts about this paper, but since it came from 'Big Name', I thought it might be worth giving it a shot.").
If you think you have made a significant scientific breakthrough in your paper, then you may have a chance with a sufficiently strong cover letter to your submission. Make it clear what the contribution is and why it is very important. Don't make it "Dear Editor, please find attached my submission. Sincerely yours,...", but make it "Dear Editor, in the attached paper, I've partially solved longstanding problem X / I have shown that method Y can be extended by Z, making problem X finally accessible" or the likes. The cover letter is a sales pitch. Big Name universities are a brand, and if you do not have such a brand attached to your name (yet), you must sell the paper harder.
If - as is the default - you still get your desk rejection, publish in a well-regarded low-tier journal and watch the paper get cited. The next paper has a better chance of getting through the editor.
Another option is Open Acces journals, which can have a very high impact factor and are a bit easier to get into, because your university has to pay a substantial fee. However, beware of predatory journals (<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beall%27s_List>).
Upvotes: 4
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2020/09/19
| 969
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<issue_start>username_0: On another post of mine, someone said that the idea of a qualified candidate is "elusive" because there are always more qualified applicants than open spots in any program. I thought that was a valid point, and I wanted to ask how most programs select candidates once they've met or exceeded the minimum qualifications. I know research interests/match of faculty is a factor, but there still must be more applicants than any given advisor can take on. So once the "pile" is narrowed down to most "qualified" candidates, how are they chosen?<issue_comment>username_1: This varies widely by university and by field. I'll list a few possibilities.
In some fields a faculty member has to decide to take the student on as an advisee. Such fields as lab sciences often work like this and the professor may provide grant funding in their "lab" for the student. But such fields also sometimes require that the application process is completely done through the professor, with a student making direct application for a spot in that lab.
In many other fields, a committee will make a decision. There may be some attempt to assure that the student interests align in general with those of the faculty. There may be some situations in which a student is accepted because some faculty member "needs" an advisee for some reason. Or, it is even possible, that a faculty member might pick out an applicant and lobby for their admission.
There might even be some consideration to whether the department is trying to boost some research area and chooses students matched in some way with that.
And, in those places, such as the US, where most doctoral students work as TAs, there might be some consideration given to a person's potential to do a good job with that.
Finally, if there are a lot of highly qualified candidates, it might be that letters of recommendation become more important. People are looking for students who will be successful and not require too much "extra" shepherding.
This isn't a complete list, of course. Committee members will, of course, differ in what they look for.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: For funded positions the uncompetitive applications are removed and the remaining candidates are evaluated subjectively. Every committee will have different criteria, but for stem fields it tends to go strength of letters (including the prestige of the writer - people I've never heard of count a lot less than people I know), strength of current work, and grades might get used as a tiebreaker. Some places might sneak gre scores in somewhere but that's less and less common. The important thing is making sure the people you commit to funding for 5-7 years will not be a huge pain in the ass and will be competitive when they leave for jobs and fellowships.
Unfunded positions tend to just order everyone by gpa gre and prestige of the school they did undergrad. The important thing is filling the class.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: <NAME> has written a [fantastic detailed description](https://www.cs.cmu.edu/%7Eharchol/gradschooltalk.pdf) of the graduate admissions process in selective computer science PhD programs in the US, based on her experience at Berkeley, MIT, and CMU. her description is also consistent with my experience at Illinois.
Short version: There are **far far** too many highly qualified candidates to admit them all. The graduate admissions committee is looking first and foremost for concrete evidence of research potential. Grades and GRE scores are used primarily as filters and only if they are low. You need supportive recommendation letters from reliable sources (preferably expert researchers in your target area, who have a reputation for identifying strong PhD students) that describe your research experience and interests, in technical, personal, and credible detail. Your statement must describe your own research interests, experience, and goals, in technical, personal, and credible detail, and in the idiomatic language of a *researcher* rather than a *student*. Your research interests must match those of someone on the faculty who has advising capacity, and you must look more attractive to that faculty member than the dozens of other applicants who want to work with them.
And then you must get lucky.
Upvotes: 2
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2020/09/19
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<issue_start>username_0: I plan to start my Ph.D. quite late at age 31. I wanted to know if this would have any implications on my career if I decide to stay in academia and apply to faculty positions after completing my Ph.D.<issue_comment>username_1: Officially, age discrimination is illegal in hiring in the USA after the age of 40, but it still happens. Still, you won't find hard cutoffs in grant language or tenure tracks that have to do with your date of birth, but many impose timelines that initialize the year you finish your PhD, or the date you got hired, etc.
1
Another thing to consider is how comfortable you want your life to be, and how many years people spend in your PhD program and in postdocs. The pay in grad school is very low, so it's hard to get any meaningful savings or a sizeable retirement fund. Postdocs in the US pay decently in some fields, but depending on your lifestyle it can still be tough. Postdocs with families in my field, for example, do seem to be squeezed.
Another factor is geography. Jobs in academia can be competitive, and you don't have a lot of control over where you live (again, depending on the field). So think about how late in life you want to be settled in one place. If you have a partner or anticipate having one, you may have to separate for long periods of time if the geography of your jobs is incompatible. There are many long distance marriages in my field.
These problems are difficult for everyone, but they are a little easier to deal with early in life. You still have time to save up for retirement after you get a tenure track job, you have cushioning if your PhD takes an extra year or two, you're less likely to have children and other high expenses, and you may find starting over in a new place exciting rather than exhausting. These are just generalizations, and there are plenty of counterexamples, but they are factors to consider in your own life before going down this road 10 years later than most people get started. If you get unlucky you could be looking at being well into your 40s before you have a stable job in a place you plan to settle.
But this all really depends on your field and your program.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: US universities are not very interested in the chronological age of their faculty. Your age just won't be noted as much as your gender, race, or linguistic background. It will not be an official hiring criterion.
Upvotes: 2
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2020/09/19
| 2,955
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<issue_start>username_0: I just started advising graduate level students, but I am having a lot of problems. I thought I would be a patient, understanding, helpful advisor but really I am being tested.
One of the students only copies things, she did some literature review and presented it, fine, but when I ask the finer details it is clear that she hasn't grasped concepts that she presented. I talk about the problem that we will work on and hope she will grasp the big picture, but then when she struggled, I thought maybe we should start small. So I gave her a machine learning task, straightforward task, gave her resources. Nothing. She says she doesn't understand how it is related (literally only difference is the dimensions of the data, but she has difficulty grasping high dimensions of data and doesn't see it is just a matter of array size). Then I found her a tutorial, step-by-step, which uses an identical format of data, I asked her to try to understand and write a report so we can talk about it (when I don't ask for something concrete she just doesn't do anything, I asked her earlier for progress email exchanges and she just went missing). For this tutorial, where each line of code is explained, each line of data is explained, she still asked a million questions (only on the format of the data, nothing about machine learning part). I answered patiently, and asked her to please please try to "understand" what we are trying to solve. About her data questions, I sent her a million links to show all she has to do is "google", it is a famous dataset, there are even discussions about it on kaggle. Honestly, this blows my mind because this is not something even undergraduates should ask. Just file operations, she asks "do I use this file" or that file as input without considering what we are solving. So for the report, she sent it the next day, seemingly just translated the tutorial. And I explained her, it is not homework, but it is to help her understand. She said she can't meet online when I offered to talk about what she learned etc. Anyway, I asked her to move on to our dataset keeping this example in mind. And she asked me a million data format, file reading questions. For the sake of moving on, I wrote a very detailed guide (which I really shouldn't have to), and now she did like one step and asks me if it is correct.
I followed a similar route with another student, and when we did a meeting on a small task he was supposed to work on (image classification), it was clear that he learnt -nothing- at all although he had running code. I mean nothing about how the example works. He just repeatedly talked nonsense about input/output and neurons mimicking the brain when I asked what a convolutional layer does. I said it is okay to say that he doesn't know if he doesn't know, and I explained it to him. But, all book and video resources I sent him has this information and he had 2 months on this.
The first student was assigned to me because I was told she had a high GPA and I needed to graduate a graduate level student asap so that I can rise etc etc. (Really not something I care about, but the school does this for everyone who just started a position) She seemed very eager but I am beginning to doubt she has ever written code for a project.
On the other hand, I accepted the other student because he was so keen to learn machine learning, and also because he is an international student (not many people in the dept are open to international students other than me). None of these are project hires. I try my best to tell them that they need to do research, they need to work on novelty, they need to understand the theory and inner workings of machine learning.
\*\*- Can I outright tell them that there is a limit to what I will answer? That I am not expected to answer all their questions? And I really shouldn't? What is the opinion on this? I don't think for a graduate level student, I should be wasting time on file operation. More importantly, I need the students to think on what we are trying to solve, so that they will know what they need as input. I want them to think about it and understand it, I showed them the way but they just won't walk from there. How to not be a jerk but communicate this if they aren't responding to my requests for them to try to understand what we are trying to solve, draw connections with other works, study inner-workings of theoretical concepts \*\*
* Obviously, I can't give a whole lecture on the topic, so they need to learn these on their own.
* My plans for a journal club seems delusional right now.
On another note, I have undergrads who had failed the graduation design project before (so not the typical "best student" profile), but passed the last semester with flying colors when they worked with me, and they never tired me as much. We worked closely and they were able to complete all the tasks, understand inner workings, even add their own contributions. I made them explain each line of code they wrote, when I asked them to make changes in a short time they were responsive, and they thanked me for my interest and for helping them learn from scratch.<issue_comment>username_1: Background (okay to skip): I myself am a PhD student and an undergrad recently started working with my advisor on a senior thesis project. My advisor is pretty much absent, and works by throwing lots of papers at someone and then leaving them to their own devices. Most of the time she can't answer my questions so I don't even try. Not because she's incompetent but because she doesn't really even communicate much with me so what I'm working on has only a little bit to do with what she knows about. I decided to meet with the undergrad once a week to attempt to provide the guidance I wish I'd had when I was in his shoes and he matches the description in your question.
I think there are two main problems:
1. Many undergrads who have stellar grades have learned to play the grades game without learning very much critical thinking. My undergrad GPA pales in comparison to my new "mentee" but I am positive I am better at googling things I don't know and persevering on problems that are way above my head.
2. You might be surprised by how little the students actually understand. I constantly felt overestimated when talking to older mathematicians. Most of the time, during meetings, conferences, and even classes, I had absolutely no idea what people were even saying. You also can't assume a student knows the material in classes they took. They might just be in it for the grades. I think my mentee makes very little progress and asks too many questions simply because he has been given papers that are way above his head and he's not ready for them yet.
To make a long story short, your students seem to lack bravery. They need to build confidence and you can't make them do that.
My idea of a solution:
1. Set your expectations straight. Giving clear guidelines for questions might help but I don't think it's enough. I think if I were your student, I would appreciate hearing what you've written in this question. Tell them what you think of their progress. Don't be mean, but spin it like this: you students have a lot of potential and you're really intelligent but you're just not going to learn anything or make any progress if you keep coming to me every time you're stuck! Also make it clear that PhD students are kind of like assistants. You can guide them with how to learn but you aren't their lecturer. They have to learn on their own and they should come to meetings with something to contribute.
2. This whole "disappearing" thing can't be tolerated. You're obviously putting a lot of work into mentoring them. Make it clear also that they need to give you reports even when they don't have a concrete goal that you handed them. I would love it if my advisor asked for that! But she doesn't and I have to put all the effort into the relationship. But maybe the biggest part of research is finding a good question to ask and a good problem to work on. They also need to learn to do that. Giving you a weekly status report will help them keep themselves on track, reflect on their progress, and give you an idea of what they are doing but it should not be a lot of effort on your part.
3. I would give them a small task or problem that you think they should be able to solve themselves and tell them you won't advise them until they solve it, without help. I know a professor who doesn't take students until they can solve any question in a particular (difficult) textbook on the spot. You don't have to be that extreme, but just give them a problem you think is instructive and you know they should be able to handle at least eventually. Assuming this is completed successfully it will go a long way in building their confidence.
4. I would also make it clear that it's okay to take some time to learn the basics, something my advisor never did. But it seems like you're already doing that.
If they students respond badly to this, honestly I think you've done everything you can. But at least this gives them a chance.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Advising students is not easy for a beginner. I have tried and failed myself more then once, and I'm still amazed of the many ways one can fail at the task.
What you need to do:
* set a schedule
* set objectives for each
* set expectations
* set clear deadlines
* advise students, never work for them
* do not allow students to control your schedule
* be ready to drop some of them.
One rule of thumb is to make the students work. Whatever you do, they should be forced to learn and do things. Another rule is to set your limits and rules clearly. Then have group meetings if you're allowed to, and make the journal club part of it.
From my PhD, I learned best everything that my adviser refused to do for me. You want them to learn a technique, you give them a starting paper, and a small assignment based on that paper. You do not answer questions, unless you see some honest work done by them trying to find the answer to that question first. Here, on the site, they close your questions if they feel you didn't do some research on your own first. They are graduate students, and just googling some terms is not good enough research. Whatever you do, you should not do their work just to "move on". You have your own work to move on, and their work is their responsibility.
You should limit your meetings with them, unless you feel you need their help with something. If they need help with something, you should remember you're not their technical support. Help as an adviser: suggest papers, suggest possible approaches, but do not do their work. They should be writing guides and documentation, not you.
Group meetings are important. You're presiding over them. Each of them has their own assignment, and should have something to show for it. Some slides, a demo, some results, code. You can also present your own stuff as an example.
You can also have your journal club. Assign papers yourself, at the beginning. Every group meeting could start with one of them presenting a paper. You need to present yourself one, to set an example.
You should not be overly critical of their performance. With the students you described, it's easy to say they do everything wrong. Instead, just pick on one defect of their work, or presentation, and bring it up until it disappears. And when it does, congratulate them on job well done specifically mentioning what they did right.
I think you should think of yourself as a gym coach who is paid to get a bunch of morbidly obese people in shape. You need to take it easy, and realize they might not want to work that hard. Also, if you go too hard on them, they might get seriously injured. But, for them to lose the weight, they do need to work, and no amount of running that you do for them, no amount of saying that you say to them is going to do it. In other words, this pressure to graduate someone as soon as possible is misplaced. I think it's better to give them progressively hard tasks starting at the level of their course work. You also need to be patient. Some need more time, some are too immature, and some may not care.
If it is to set rules, you should make sure your students attend the meetings and do the tasks. Also they need to respect your schedule. They do not schedule meetings. They can ask, but you decide. Then if they consistently miss meetings and deadlines, you should simply drop them. You should not be afraid of that.
Dropping students is not something they or you should take personal. It doesn't they are weak. Maybe you just couldn't teach them effectively. Maybe they didn't like you. It is possible that they go work for someone else and they do very well there.
Upvotes: 2
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2020/09/19
| 844
| 3,491
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<issue_start>username_0: I have a student who sends me emails twice a week showing me his updated dissertation. At first I supported him a lot. But he literally does what I say word by word and never goes beyond what I tell him in doing further research. I have been clear to him that his limits are the sky. But when he adds a small detail he sends me an email again asking me if that was okay or not.
I think he assumes that he will take a very high mark if I did not tell him exactly what he needs to do for his dissertation. I am a bit worried about how to reply to this student. As I am trying to be polite and nice and I do not want him to fail, but at the same time I need to be genuine.
Please give me advice on how to reply to such kind of students so that I do not offend them. I want to convey that I encourage them to do further research and it is okay to say something I disagree with as long as they support it with proofs and evidence.<issue_comment>username_1: I'll assume you already have language that indicates your support. Don't give up on that.
But, ask him for two things. First, that he only asks for feedback once a week (or whatever you are comfortable with) and add a report on changes and why they were made.
Second, ask him to specify in the report things he is unsure about and to detail *why he is unsure*.
The goal is to get him to think more deeply about why he is doing things and to separate the simpler from the deeper things.
Upvotes: 7 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: I usually set weekly or so meeting to discuss progress of my students. They are free to contact me in between if something important/urgent comes up.
I'd handle a situation like the above with a short answer, if needed, or just "take another look, we'll talk about it next time".
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: I think the key here is your insistence on “trying to be polite and nice” and telling the student “politely”. I can’t say for sure, but I’m guessing your desire to be polite is getting in the way of clear communication. I’ve seen this happen with people who are so afraid of upsetting others that a lot of the time when they want to communicate something it comes out all muddled because of the insistence on passing everything through a kind of “politeness encoder”. Usually the way this happens is the person who does this tends to think that the listener knows all about this encoding scheme and can decipher the message easily by applying the inverse “politeness decoder”. But this is simply not true, and the message is lost.
Be polite if you want, but **first of all be clear.** Have a frank talk with the student, explain the problem as you perceive it (with the politeness encoder dialed down to a minimum or turned off altogether), and brainstorm with the student some plan to get past this obstacle in his approach. Once the student understands what the problem is, he will be well-positioned to address it.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_4: >
> I want to convey that I encourage them to do further research and it
> is okay to say something I disagree with as long as they support it
> with proofs and evidence.
>
>
>
Then that is what you should say! Precisely that.
*Dear X*
*I appreciate your desire to get things right but always relying on others may be counterproductive. I encourage you to do further research. It is okay to say something I disagree with as long as you support it with proofs and evidence.*
Upvotes: 3
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