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2021/10/20	1,189	5,174	<issue_start>username_0: I'm a MS student working on publishing my first manuscript. I wrote the draft, had it reviewed by my advisor (a co-author), then sent it out to my other co-authors for feedback. Two of them (out of 4) strongly suggested removing a specific section in my draft, because they thought the results of the analysis are not meaningful. This was a section that I worked on, with some supervision from my advisor, and although the co-authors hadn't contributed to this section, I'm certain they fully understand what I did. I told this to my advisor, but he disagreed, and said that section is very valuable. I don't really care if we keep it or remove it - I think it has some value, but not that much, and we can still get the paper out without that section. But I'm unsure how to reconcile the different opinions between my advisor and my co-authors. Should I follow my advisor's opinion and tell the co-authors we cannot remove this section? How should I reconcile the disagreement between my advisor and my co-authors?<issue_comment>username_1: Note: I am assuming when you say "advisor and co-authors", you mean something like "advisor and external co-authors", and that the full list of authors is you, you advisor, and your external co-authors. If your advisor is not an author on the paper, then that is a different situation, as noted by username_2. This is a fairly common type of disagreement among co-authors. In my opinion, the main thing here is to have a transparent discussion with everyone where everyone agrees on a way forward -- even though inevitably someone won't get what they want, everyone wants the paper to move forward so unless this is a really extreme case, there will be a reasonable compromise people an agree on. (And, if it is an extreme case, I would argue that it's not your responsibility to handle it, as a masters student). I think where you want to get to is an open communication between your co-authors and your advisor where they agree to a plan of action. As a masters student, it's not really your responsibility to resolve the conflict on your own. But, you can gently push people in the direction of that outcome. I would suggest telling your advisor about the arguments of your co-authors, and ask if your advisor would be willing to arrange a meeting (that could be virtual or in person depending on what makes the most sense, but ideally not email) with your co-authors to discuss this section. Hopefully, you advisor will agree and take on the responsibility to run the meeting. Alternatively, they may say that the meeting is a good idea but they want you to run this meeting. If you run it, let each person voice their opinion, and propose a compromise solution. This meeting can be stressful, but go in with some idea of what a reasonable compromise will be, and keep in mind that these disagreements are common and that even if people have strong feelings now, most likely in 6 months everyone will have forgotten the details and will be happy that the paper was published. My experience is that 95% of things that people say they feel strongly about when they are writing comments alone in their room, are actually things they are willing to compromise on when having an in-person meaning. In the remaining 5% of cases where there really is some serious disagreement, it's more productive to have an argument in person instead of by email. If your advisor says that this meeting is unnecessary and doesn't support it, I would consider that unfortunate since it probably won't go over well with your co-authors, but in this case you can ask your advisor to send an email to your co-authors with their argument to keep the section and with you cc-ed. Then, proceed with what your advisor wants. If you get emails from your co-authors, forward them to your advisor, or respond with them CC-ed. I'm basing this advice on the idea that (a) all things considered, it's easier as a master student to go along with your advisor and let them take the blame for scientific disagreements, and (b) you don't have a strong feeling about this section. If you did have a strong feeling and disagreed with your advisor, you could also consider trying to win your advisor over to your side. Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: (Note: This answer was posted when the question did not yet specify that the supervisor was a coauthor, too.) Is your supervisor also a coauthor of this paper? If yes, then following username_1's suggestion to facilate a direct exchange between your supervisor and the other coauthors is spot-on. If your supervisor is not a coauthor for the paper, then their opinion on what should go in there is ultimately irrelevant. It was reasonable to mention to your coauthors that your supervisor really liked this section, but if the coauthors remain unconvinced (and you don't have other arguments you wish to present to them), the matter is settled and the section will not be included in this paper. The section can always go in your thesis, and if you and your supervisor wish to do so, you could consider writing a second paper incorporating it. Upvotes: 1
2021/10/17	18,028	78,191	<issue_start>username_0: This is a special community wiki 'canonical' question that aggregates advice on a frequently-asked question. See [this](https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/5038/canonical-question-on-how-admissions-works-in-different-countries) meta discussion. Please feel free to edit this question to improve it. Please give answers here that explain in a bit of detail what the doctoral level application process is like in a specific country. Make it clear at the beginning which country. Mention, also, if there are many exceptions to the process you describe. Feel free to edit answers to provide additional information, and, especially field specific information. The focus of this question is on the admissions process, not the process of completing a degree after admission; however, if a country's PhD process has unusual aspects that applicants should be aware of, please do describe these briefly. The intent of this canonical question is to clear up for students, usually cross-border students, what they can expect in making an application and how it will be evaluated. Answers can also be an aid to people answering questions. For example, there are differences between Canada and the United States in doctoral education and it is often useful to understand that when answering specific questions. --- Answers have been provided for: * [Australia](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/189442/79875) * Brazil (To Be Done) * Canada (To Be Done) * China (To Be Done) * [England and the UK](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/181161/75368) * [France](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/181162/4249) * [Germany](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/177050/) * India (To Be Done) * [Italy](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/189262/79875) * [Japan](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/177170/79875) * [Netherlands](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/176973/) * [Russia](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/181152/75368) * [Sweden](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/177111/) * [United States](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/176909/)<issue_comment>username_1: United States [united-states](/questions/tagged/united-states "show questions tagged 'united-states'") ====================================================================================================== Applying ======== In the US, a doctoral application is normally made to a specific department at a university. The applicant is normally expected to hold at least a bachelors degree or be close to completion. There are rare exceptions to both of these. An application isn't made to a specific professor, but to a department. Most applicants hold only a bachelors. Most programs admit students to begin only in the Fall semester. Application deadlines are set by each university. They vary widely, but might be as much as a year ahead of when you'd like to start and aren't likely to be less than six months. They are usually firm deadlines, though some consideration might be given to one or two late-arriving documents. The application is handled by a committee of (mostly) professors in the department and follows a defined process that is specific to the university. There is no national system of higher education in the US. A fee is often required (in the $50-100) range. Universities assess this fee to remove the lowest-effort applications, and it can sometimes be waived for financial hardship; requirements vary by university. Requirements ============ The requirements of an application vary a bit, but normally require transcripts from all post secondary (after high-school) education. The transcripts are usually required to be official and come directly from the university (an unofficial copy may be sufficient for applications, with an official version required only upon acceptance; look for specific instructions for the programs you apply to). Copies of diploma certificates are not normally required and will be specified when they are. The GPA will be considered. The GPA in the field will be given higher weight. Some universities, especially those with many applications might have a minimum GPA requirement, but exceeding such a GPA does not mean admission is ensured. The translation of the meaning of GPA from another system is usually (not always) computed by the university. Letters of recommendation are treated as very important. The committee is trying to make a prediction about the likely success of the applicant, both in study and thereafter. The letters, unlike the CV, therefore, must provide strong evidence of future success, not just past successful activities. The applicant will normally be asked for a CV, detailing past accomplishments, such as papers written and other activities. The applicant will normally be asked to provide a written Statement of Purpose (SoP). The SoP should detail future plans, for study and thereafter. It should be somewhat specific (more so for those holding a masters degree), but doesn't need a detailed research plan, nor a topic for dissertation research. It might be enough to name a subfield of the major field. It is not just a recapitulation of the CV, but should focus on the future and how you plan to get there. In particular it should never be used to give excuses for past issues/failures. Examinations ------------ The GRE exam may be required or not, as may a specialized field exam. This seems to be disappearing at the moment. For international students, a test of English proficiency is probably required TOEFL or IELTS. And, a visa will also needed eventually, of course. The applicant might be asked to provide a writing sample. Requirements vary, but it can be, for example, an excerpt from some paper written for coursework. It doesn't normally need to be published work. There may be an interview required before acceptance. It is more likely to be via Zoom, these days. Acceptance ========== The committee normally takes a generalized view, though individuals on the committee may be more interested in some aspects than others. They normally have more applicants than positions available, so the process is competitive; especially so at top ranked universities. If you are "accepted" into a program then you need to respond to the offer by a certain date. Many US universities are parties to the [April 15 Resolution](https://cgsnet.org/resources/for-current-prospective-graduate-students/april-15-resolution/) which stipulates that offers of graduate admission and financial support can be accepted or rejected up until April 15 of the year you start study in the Fall. This can vary as it is just a private agreement, not a law or regulation. Declining --------- It is not rude in any way to decline before or on April 15 (or whatever deadline). Departments may go down a waiting list if you decline, so your spot is most likely not available if you change your mind. As such, if you are waitlisted, you may be moved off it on or after April 15. Roughly, you are more like to be moved off a waitlist as programs go down in rank. Funding ======= Funding decisions can be separate from applications for study. Many US PhD programs will guarantee funding for an interval sufficient to graduate. However, it is up to the student to graduate during this time and additional work by the student may be required (for example, as a Teaching Assistant). Funding typically comes with a small stipend (sufficient for living expenses for one person) and additionally covers tuition costs. Programs should describe where funding typically comes from for their students. In some fields most students a funded via a Teaching Assistant (TA) position that requires some number of hours per week in assisting (say, grading) for undergraduate courses. TA positions may be restricted by language proficiency. In other fields, most funding is as a Research Assistant (RA) provided by individual advisors/professors, usually under an external grant. Such grant funding might depend on grant renewals, but the department might be able to provide a backup (TA) position in case of non-renewal. Other graduate students may be funded as project assistants or by outside fellowships. Fellowships in the US are most often through an external application to a granting agency, and some international students are funded by their home country (often with a stipulation that they return to work in that country). It is rare for doctoral students to be self-funded or to pay their own tuition in the US. --- ### Notes: This answer applies only for doctoral admissions. Masters level admissions can be quite different (or not). In particular, there are many institutions that offer masters degrees but not doctorates, or doctorates only in a small number of fields. For more details about how to put together a competitive application, see [this canonical question](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/38237). Caveats There are exceptions in US to nearly everything here so this is only a general overview. If you are serious about an individual institution you need to explore their published information. Look for websites both by program/degree and more general information for the institution. Again, the US has no national educational system at any level. There are some regulations, however. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: Netherlands [netherlands](/questions/tagged/netherlands "show questions tagged 'netherlands'") ============================================================================================== Status of PhD Candidates ======================== In the Netherlands, there isn't really such a thing as a PhD student. In fact, whenever people talk about students within the Netherlands, this category explicitly includes Bachelor and Master students, but excludes PhD candidates. Most commonly (especially in the STEM fields) PhD candidates are employed by the university (or research institute) as an “assistent in opleiding” (AIO) or “onderzoeker in opleiding” (OIO), which are considered full employees, with a full 40-hour workweek, a full salary (fixed through the Collective Bargaining Agreement for Dutch universities, so it's almost entirely non-negotiable), and employee benefits (social premiums, 41 leave days per year, and so on and so forth). Some PhD candidates in the Netherlands pursue a PhD without being employed by a university. Such “buitenpromovendi” typically pursue their research part time while having some other full time job. Typically they will have an advisor at university, and may have some arrangement that gives access to university resources such as libraries. Buitenpromovendi are extremely rare (to the point of being almost non-existent) in STEM fields, but are more common in the arts. Applying ======== Since PhD students are employees, you would be applying for a job here. Application only makes sense if a job is advertised. It makes very little sense to cold e-mail individual professors or departments to try to get a position, since almost always we cannot offer you a position. If, through a specific funding source (this can be a project funded through a government grant or a company, or directly through the university), money has been made available to hire a PhD student, this will be advertised as a job on the university's vacancies website and through other academic job advertisement channels. Your best bet is to reply to an explicit vacancy. There is one exception to this rule of thumb: if your government has provided you individually with a grant to go do PhD research for four years in a foreign country, you may be successful by directly approaching potential supervisors. Application deadlines vary per vacancy. There is no generic hiring season. To the best of my knowledge, all Dutch universities have as a strict condition that applicants already hold a masters degree. Generally speaking, a bachelors degree does not qualify you to apply for a Dutch PhD position. This has to do with the fact that PhD students are not seen as students: there will not be any coursework, which you will already have done in your masters degree. Applications will be handled in a university-specific manner. There is no application fee. Requirements ============ Beyond demanding a masters degree in a relevant field, the requirements of an application vary massively per vacancy. You can imagine that a position funded by industry requires a different skill set from a position funded fully by the university itself. The Dutch grading system doesn't run on GPA, so there is no universal grading system into which you need to translate your grades. The flip side of this is that whoever evaluates your grades may not have the knowledge required to interpret how difficult it is in your country to achieve your grades. It may help to provide your own interpretation as a separate document along with your grades. A certain level of English language proficiency is almost always required. A certain level of Dutch language proficiency is almost never required. With exception for some specific research fields, it is eminently possible to make a career at a Dutch university without speaking any Dutch. Often, universities will want to see your masters thesis. If you are still in the process of finalizing it, a sample of the thesis may also do the trick. Any publications will also help here; the core competence to display here is scientific writing, in whatever form. The Job Interview ================= The top-few candidates will be invited for an onsite interview. The interview will be taken by the intended promotor and copromotor, although random interested members of the group may also attend your presentation. Which form the interview takes will depend on university, position, and the number of applicants. You will likely be asked to prepare a presentation: introduce yourself, talk about your research so far (masters thesis, publications if applicable), and you may be asked to give a vision on first ideas of approaches to the specific research proposal corresponding to this position (existence of such a proposal may depend on the funding form for the position). If the position comes with teaching tasks (percentage specified in the job ad), you may be asked to talk about your teaching experience and/or vision. You may also be introduced to some of your potential future fellow PhD students. This is a chance to ask questions about working conditions in the lab, so that you can also make an informed choice whether you want to work with these specific supervisors. Acceptance ========== After all invited candidates have been interviewed, the promotor and copromotor will decide who is the preferred candidate. This candidate will likely be sent a job offer within a working day or two (sometimes, when the HR department of a university malfunctions, it can take substantially longer; this shouldn't happen, but it happens more often than you might think). You will have about a week to accept of decline the offer, after which the second preferred candidate will be approached. If you didn't get the job, you may have to wait a long time before you get an explicit rejection. It often makes little sense to directly approach the intended promotor or copromotor to get more information about this, since they may not be allowed to tell you much more. After all, if you're the fifth-ranked in the list of preferred candidates, your hiring decision may have to wait on decisions from the persons ranked first, second, third, and fourth; crucially, telling you anything about your status leaks information about the status of the other candidates (who you may have met during the interview day, so this runs the risk of leaking personal information). Declining ========= If your plans change for whatever reason, there is no problem whatsoever in declining an offer or withdrawing from the procedure. Universities will appreciate if you let them know as soon as you can. The earlier in the process a withdrawal is caught, the better this is for the other candidates. Funding ======= Since PhD students are employees at Dutch universities, positions are supposed to be fully funded for four years of research. Depending on the funding source, a small percentage of your time may be dedicated to teaching, but regardless, you will be paid a salary. Under normal circumstances, funding is not something you should worry about for any advertised PhD position. --- Notes: This answer applies only for doctoral admissions. Unlike PhD students, master students are considered students in the Netherlands, so their process works very differently indeed. In fact, the streams are completely independent. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: Germany [germany](/questions/tagged/germany "show questions tagged 'germany'") ============================================================================== While such things like graduate colleges (with more... structured programs) exist, the typical way is different. Prerequisites ------------- PhD studies (or, actually, a doctorate) in Germany typically take between 3 and 5 years. They might take longer, 6 or even 10, but the typical minimal time in terms of required funding and general expectation is 3 years. Typically, you need a Master degree for a PhD. While some universities and departments offer loopholes for a BSc (commonly known as a fast-track), it's risky and sometimes discouraged. The in-country BSc takes 3 years, an MSc takes 2 years, and a PhD 3 years (or more, per above). Typically, the PhD is oriented purely towards research and therefore, arguably, not a "programme" in the common understanding. Formal courses or other requirements are typically non-existing (except for graduate colleges). Supervision ----------- A German PhD is a kind of personal affair between the supervisor (a professor, but some other options exist) and the candidate. If a candidate cannot have a working relationship with the supervisor, the chances for a successful PhD are dim. If you want to start a PhD, you ask a professor, if a mentorship / supervision is possible - either formally, by applying for a funded position (see below), or informally. You might get invited for a personal talk where the supervisor-to-be tries to find out where your interests lie and if you would fit personality-wise. Special for our US friends: there are no centralised graduate admissions. The supervision is a personal matter of a PhD supervisor. Position -------- Now, an agreement to supervise a PhD student does not mean anything in terms of money. It's the agreement to guide the student in their research, to give them ideas, to give them an opportunity to bounce ideas, to write papers together. Money? What money? Well, there are positions for doctorate students available. Typically, people occupying them aim to get their PhD. This is actually the norm in STEM fields. But an agreement to supervise does not necessarily come with such a position. Multiple opportunities for a position exits, see below. ### University-funded position Think: TA. You get a contract with the university, are obliged to do something related to your topic work there, e.g., help with the lectures of "your own" professor. Typically, departments have some slots for students, funded by the university itself, that are specifically allocated for a prospective PhD candidate. ### Third-party funding (Drittmittelstelle) Drittmittel are external grants (in contrast to the state-provided funds that are used to pay the university funded positions). With the Drittmittel-funds, positions are created at the university that a PhD student might occupy. Even though the funding is through external grant money, the student will be employed by the university. These positions are typically advertised by the university and are for a limited time only (for the duration of the grant project) The grant is typically tied to a specific project, if the PhD candidate is lucky, the topic of the project can be turned into the PhD topic, otherwise the PhD candidate will have to do most of the PhD research on the side. Some grants will only be for 2 years, not enough to complete the PhD, so there is often the need to find a follow-up position to finish the PhD. Because of this, PhD students on Drittmittel-positions might need to be actively involved in project and grant acquisition. ### Stipend from a charitiy / foundation or DAAD Being an extraordinary foreign student, doing a lot of volunteering, etc. might score you a stipend from a foundation ("charity", Stiftung), e.g. from an organisation close to a political party or a large industrial company. You are not getting a contract with the university, but rather small benefits payments from the foundation. They count as something different than payment for work, the legal background has some impact e.g. in medical insurance. The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) also provides stipends for German nationals, who want to do their PhD abroad, and for international students, who want to do their PhD in Germany. ### Research institutions (Max Planck, etc.) Research positions are also available from research institutions, such as Max Planck institutes, Fraunhofer, Helmholtz, Leibniz institutes. These positions are tied to research projects (institute-funded or via third-party funding). Candidates are employed for such a project and formally need an advisor at a university since the research institutes can't award a PhD. However, actual supervision and advice is provided by the institute. ### R&D at a commercial company Some companies (especially the bigger ones like e.g. Bosch) might advertise their own PhD positions. The freedom of research is more limited in these positions compared to universities or research institutions (as the company aims to benefit from the PhD students' work), most of the work contributes to the company, a small share of "own" and publishable research might be allowed. The positions are generally paid well and there are no further requirements like e.g. teaching. A university professor as supervisor is still necessary. ### Fachhochschule The Fachhochschule (FH) or Technische Hochschule – by official translation: university of applied sciences – is a college / polytechnic. They were ranked a step lower than "full" universities in the Diplom times, now they provide (at least on paper) the same BSc and MSc as universities. Some research positions, typically funded from lab or TA functions or from third-party funding (see above) might be available. Typically, the PhD will be co-supervised with a university, but more and more FHs obtain their own right to defend PhD students. The topics would typically be more applied than at a university. Above means a PhD candidate from somewhere else wants to start a PhD student position at a FH. Below, we talk about a FH-based MSc, who wants to a PhD. Depending on the field of study at the FH, (and because of the previous inequality between universities and FHs) if a subsequent PhD is done at a university, a PhD candidate might be required to take some extra courses to make up for the difference in study content between the more applied FH and the more theoretical university. In such a case, the courses which have to be taken, would be individually agreed upon with the supervisor and the university's admission office or similar bodies. ### ### Moonlighting You might work somewhere else. Maybe some remote job or working part-time. As long as you can finance yourself even independent from the university, you can do a PhD, as long as an agreement of supervision with a professor exists. Admissions ---------- Now, it makes little sense (at least to me) to blindly apply to a graduate college. Always look for advertised PhD positions or pick a professor and ask them directly. Email and inquiry for an appointment would suffice. It is best if you were a star student in their lectures, but a cold email might work, too. Attending graduate college might be still an option, but your future supervisor will tell you what is better for you. Recently, a formal supervision agreements ''(Betreuungsvereinbarung)'' are signed, where goals, time frame, etc. for both sides are listed. Previously (and sometimes still?) the supervision was purely an oral contract. What you as a PhD candidate should get, however, is some kind of the statement from the department, that you are a PhD candidate now. If you are not employed at the university, this might be the only document you have about your relation with it. If you are employed by the university, you will get a contract. Typically it is about E13 (or some share of it), but that's a separate question. At some (not all) universities, you can immatriculate (get a student card) as a PhD student. For about 200-300 € per semester, this means similar perks as for regular students, you get cheaper food at mensa, a local bus/train ticket and student price at museums, etc. Not only professors ------------------- * Postdocs might have some grants available. Is the supervisor the postdoc or the chair is a question to be discussed. * Habilitation candidates and habilitated faculty members typically have all the rights of a professor concerning supervision of the PhD students. If they have funding available is the crucial question. * Junior-Professoren (basically, assistant professors) are same as professors concerning supervision. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: Sweden [sweden](/questions/tagged/sweden "show questions tagged 'sweden'") ========================================================================== In many ways, PhD programmes in Sweden are similar to the [Dutch](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/176909/10094) and [German](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/177050/10094) model, but there are some differences applicants should be aware of. Note that the following is accurate for academic PhD students. In addition, some departments allow for industrial PhD students, for which much of the below will not be accurate. However, I have found that industrial PhD positions are normally not "offered" to outsiders, but specifically created for individuals, so these positions are probably less interesting to the average reader of this post. Status of PhD Candidates ------------------------ PhD students in Sweden have a dual status - they are students with all rights and obligations that come with that status, but they are also full-time employees of the university. In addition to their research, PhD students may be asked to do other work for their employer, usually work as a teaching assistant. This can lead to some friction, and in practice university regulations and Swedish law restricts departments from burdening PhD students with too many distractions. The job "PhD student" comes with a full salary (fixed through union bargaining), and full employee benefits, including rather generous paid time off. The salary is below comparable industry positions, but not entirely terrible (though opinions will vary). Some Swedish universities still award a special degree (the "licentiate") as a sort of halfway point during a PhD study. One can leave the program with a licentiate; this is similar to "exiting with a master's" in the US. However, it's normally not possible to be admitted with the explicit goal of leaving with a licentiate. Advisory Model -------------- Sweden has a different PhD advisory model than most places. Students in Sweden are assigned an entire "supervision team", consisting of: * Main supervisor (typically the professor who acquired the funding) * Secondary supervisor (main and second supervisor are typically working with the student, publishing papers with them and coaching them towards successful completion) * Examiner (mostly responsible for evaluation of progress, signing off coursework, etc.; whereas supervisors are normally supposed to be a student's allies and advocates, an examiner is responsible for quality control and evaluation, and typically is not directly involved in the student's research) * PhD school representative (ensuring that the other three people do their job, ensuring that regulations are being followed, etc.) The exact "job" of each member of this team is different from group to group and student to student - in some cases, examiners are completely hands-off, in other cases they expect to sign off on all research a student plans to do (and even co-author papers with the student). In some cases the secondary supervisor is a postdoc of the main supervisor (and then in practice acts as the first contact point for the student), in some cases it's a more experienced professor mostly mentoring the main supervisor (but rarely talking to the student directly). In theory, the model is supposed to provide redundancy and allow students to complete even if they have conflicts with their main supervisor. In practice, the model can lead to difficulties since students can find themselves in a situation where they need to satisfy multiple stakeholders (who don't always have the same priorities, expectations, and needs). Applying -------- There is in practice no "applying to a PhD school" in Sweden. Positions are advertised through the university job portal, recruiting tends to follow the same standards that are also being used for other university staff, and admittance to the PhD school comes automatically with being offered a job. Cold-emailing professors may make a limited amount of sense, but only to inquire if there are currently openings or if openings are likely to appear in the near future. By and large, universities are not able to hire anybody outside of pre-approved hiring procedures. There are no hiring rounds, positions are advertised one-by-one and on a rolling basis, whenever funding and approval for a hiring becomes available. As in most places in Europe, a master's degree is a hard requirement. Exceptions can, to the best of my knowledge, not be granted. There is basically no standardisation of how the application and selection procedure is organised - some groups make decisions quickly based on CVs and a single round of Zoom interviews, whereas other groups run candidates through a gauntlet of multiple rounds of remote or on-site interviews, writing samples, and trial tasks. However, there are no application fees. Requirements ------------ PhD candidates require a relevant master's degree and typically need to be fluent in English. Swedish is, at least in STEM, generally not required, and there tends to be no requirement to ever learn Swedish. Aside from that, the job profile ("kravprofil") will list what other competencies are required or recommended. How undergrad grades, prior experience, writing samples, etc. are weighted will depend heavily on the professor doing the selection, and very little can be said in general about this. This means that even "unusual" candidates have a chance to be selected, if they happen to run into the right kind of professor with the right kind of requirements. Acceptance ---------- "Acceptance" is generally communicated rather informally, via telephone or through a short "congratulations" email. There are no formal offer letters like in other countries. However, Swedish universities (at least research-intensive ones) are used to applicants from outside the European Union, and should be able to quickly produce the documentation necessary to apply for a student visa (despite being full-time employees, PhD students count as "students" in front of the migration office, and hence a student visa is required rather than a work permit - this does not prevent employment by the university). Note that by law universities can only actually sign a contract with students who are physically in Sweden. International students get a written "contract promise" which is sufficient for a visa, but EU applications basically only get an email and get informed to move to Sweden and then get their contract. This often feels informal and weird to candidates, but is indeed the intended practice. It's difficult to say how long the procedure takes because it depends heavily on the professor doing the hiring, but in general the process is rather fast-moving - acceptance and rejection notices are typically sent out reasonably quickly (or, at least, most professors are fairly transparent with where the process currently is). Funding ------- Positions in Sweden are fully funded by Swedish law. Universities are not able to offer "part-time" positions, or accept self-funded students (the only exception are industrial PhD students, where somebody else still needs to provide full-time funding). Notably, universities are required to provide funding at least for the "normal" duration of a PhD. This is typically 4 years, but can be defined differently in different departments. For instance, in my Computer Science department, normal PhD time is 5 years (including 20% teaching obligations). It is in principle possible to be let go as a student for performance reasons, but in practice this barely ever seems to happen (at least not in my department). You can safely assume that if you get a PhD position, you will be fully funded as long as stay within a reasonable PhD duration. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: Japan [japan](/questions/tagged/japan "show questions tagged 'japan'") ====================================================================== This community wiki answer was synthesized from other answers across the site, especially [this answer](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/82853/) about finding advisors and [this one](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/156168) about the Kenkyusei option. Please feel free to edit this answer to improve it. ### Application Pathways The main question is whether you speak Japanese well enough to take classes and do research. * If you do, you can look for openings on departmental websites and reach out to professors. * If you do not, your best bet is to apply for fellowships that specifically cater to foreign students. The MEXT scholarship is the most common option. Some of these programs will allow you to study in English, but some may require you to study Japanese (and living in Japan without speaking Japanese is somewhat more difficult than the analogous situation in Europe). Most Japanese grad programs are three years and require a master's degree, but a few are five years and require only a bachelor's. ### Kenkyusei (Research Student Positions) and the Grad School Entrance Exam Most grad programs have an entrance exam that must be passed before you can enroll. These exams may, or may not, be available in English. If you are already in a position to pass the exam, and are financially able to physically take the exam in Japan, you can take it and attempt to enroll in a PhD program directly. However, many students (and most foreigners) spend some time as a "kenkyusei" (research student) before enrolling in their degree program. Kenkyusei allows you to do some research under the supervision of a professor (ideally the one who would advise you as a PhD), taking Japanese classes and more broadly getting adjusted to your new environment while preparing for the university's PhD entrance exam. Most foreign students on Government scholarships will spend their first year as a research student. As a research student, your exact activities and responsibilities must be negotiated with your supervisor. In particular, "research student" is a bit of a misnomer; it is likely that you will have no research responsibilities (or opportunities) and your only activity will be studying for the exam. ### Finding an advisor (usually required for admission) You will usually need an advisor lined up before you can start studying. Even if you win a MEXT scholarship without an advisor lined up, your first job will be to find an advisor. There's several things to consider in terms of how to contact people. 1. You need to search Japanese university websites in your field. This is going to be nearly impossible if you don't have any Japanese fluency. 2. Then you're going to want to find researchers who you could imagine working with presumably you'd narrow it in terms of both research interest and their ability to use languages you can use (e.g., English). 3. Write them a letter explaining you are receiving a scholarship from the Monkasho (文部科学省) and would like to study in their university, starting from being a kenkyuusei (研究生). 4. See who responds. As a basic rule, you are more likely to get a response from professors at universities that are used to hosting international students with MEXT scholarships. This will mean national universities like: Tokyo University, Kyoto University, Tohoku University, Kyuusyuu University, Hokkaido University, Nagoya University, Hitotsubashi, etc. and well-known private universities like Waseda, ICU, Keio, Aoyama. More minor schools (prefectural or city ones) will probably not be super familiar with the procedures and would require strong support and interest from the advisor -- who doesn't get much time or money to help work on this (and it's quite the administrative hassle). Separately, Japan is a place where knowing people is more than half the battle so it's hard to build connections from scratch. Instead, you're hoping that at least one person will respond and either be open to hosting your or know someone who is that they are willing to forward your e-mail to. ### Other Considerations * The Japanese academic year starts in April. This can be difficult for Western students (though it works out well if you do the kenkyusei period). * Japanese academia, like Japanese culture more generally, is significantly different than Western culture. In particular, the hierarchy is relatively strict and students are usually extremely respectful and deferential to professors. Similarly, Japanese is one of the most difficult languages to learn (for native Indo-European speakers). * As an outsider, the (sometimes very significant) differences between the prestige of different Japanese universities may be difficult to ascertain. (However, those evaluating your credentials will likely content with the same opacity, if you return to the West post-PhD). * While Japan is known for a brutal work-life balance, this is more an issue in private companies than in universities. Many grad students report not being expected to work weekends. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_6: Russia [russia](/questions/tagged/russia "show questions tagged 'russia'") -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Overview -------- In Russia, the experience of applying for PhD programs differs quite dramatically between domestic and international students, the latter being almost non-existent until fairly recently. International students mostly apply for positions specifically created for them and this quota is therefore separate from that of the domestic applicants; what these programs entail is very much a case-by-case basis, although some general information will be offered to the best of my knowledge. On the whole, in Russia, PhD studies are detached from becoming a PhD. One may become a PhD without ever being a PhD student and one may finish doctorate studies without ever becoming a PhD. This quirk means the incentive to enroll is quite weak. There is, however, a perverse incentive: being a domestic full-time PhD student means having conscription immunity. Needless to say, PhD students are disproportionately male as compared to MSc graduates. Post-graduate job market is extremely heterogeneous as well. At the time of writing, the vast majority of fresh graduates either moves abroad or quits academia. For the former, the ex-student might expect a LoR but not really any more help, unless the lab is well-connected internationally - not many are. Overall I would say that while BSc and MSc education is traditionally strong in Russia and the skills one would get are reasonably marketable, PhD studies are crippled by the severe underfunding of science. Even though some labs have gotten top-notch equipment, this is far from universal and has happened recently enough that the complaint about the capacity to operate said equipment is far too common. Again, fields and subfields may differ drastically: Russians are big on intellectual traditions, and some schools of thought and labs are still very much alive. This has to be assessed individually. PhD program options ------------------- There are several significantly different options for PhD programs in Russia. The positions may be state-funded or have tuition fees, the education may be full-time or take a form of correspondence studies. Tuition fees typically range from $1500 to $5000 yearly, this option attracts not insignificant amount of applicants yearly and universities pose very little extra requirements for those opting for it. In recent years, quite a lot of new options for foreign students have emerged, most notably the [5-100 program](https://www.5top100.ru/en/) ([wiki](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_5-100)). It is explicitly aimed at the increase of the fraction of international students and professors, and decently funded positions are created. This is, however, entirely detached from the rest of the academic experience in Russia. No regular rules apply there, and it operates entirely on a case-by-case basis. For this quite possibly the most significant scenario of a foreign student getting into a PhD program in Russia, studying the specific terms is much required and offering any general guidance is nigh impossible. Status of PhD Candidates ------------------------ In Russia, PhD candidates are considered students. The program lasts for 3-5 years and, for domestic students, does not end with the PhD thesis defense - rather, they submit a "final project" for evaluation. These projects are intended to be a ready-to-submit theses; however, at the time of writing, the conversion rate is below 10%. Before the federal law change in late 2012, the successful end of the PhD program was marked by a thesis defense, but this is no longer the case, and the rate of actual defenses taking place at the end of the program has plummeted ever since. Other than that, the importance of being a PhD student rather than a regular lab employee boils down to the advisor getting compensated for the supervision and providing help with the thesis writing/submission rather than just the subject area of PhD studies. Another thing worth mentioning is the university-provided dormitory, which is important for many foreign students coming primarily from CIS countries because of their financial situation - more well-to-do students, however, generally prefer to rent instead. Funding ------- Funding is a sore spot, and understanding it is required for understanding the rest of the answer. PhD students are financed, but it is utterly insufficient for living: the stipend is on the scale of $100 monthly. Therefore, three major ways of funding have emerged: * Regular research grants. With some senior member of the lab being the PI, the student then becomes a salaried employee for the duration of said research grant. Given how winning the grant in March commonly means the grant agency starting to transfer funds no earlier than September/October/November, it can be a massively painful experience - thankfully, it is expected that the supervisor/PI would sort it out with the university and the funding agency. * "Personal" grants. PhD students are eligible for participating in small-scale student grant competitions offering up to the far more sensible $1000 monthly or so. These grants are few and not many even bother participating, but it is nonetheless a viable venue. * External funding. It may be working for a company (sometimes having nothing to do with the research topic), financial help from the family or, in case of foreign students, their own government's financing. Most commonly, they are mixed and matched. For the reasons outside the scope of this answer, enlisting a student in multiple grants for tiny income from each is an ordinary practice. It is also fairly rare for students to not get any external funding at all: most of them would either get support from relatives or work on the side. In a sense, the latter is expected by the government: students from single-parent families are eligible for an additional $150 or so monthly as a so-called "social" stipend. This all means that the supervisor capacity is not really a limiting factor here, most advisors would not think twice about taking in someone who is not completely useless if they work for free :) While there may still be some frustration with the academic performance of the PhD student, the entire arrangement is commonly viewed through the lens of "is this person worth spending my time and grant money on". Requirements ------------ The MSc degree is a hard requirement. There are also exams to be passed which vary by position/university, but normally it is speciality (see below), English, and philosophy. For foreign students, a Russian proficiency exam is common: very few programs are taught in English exclusively. Oftentimes, some prior certifications are provided instead: if the student obtained their MSc from the same university, they would have taken these exams during MSc studies. Transcripts from other universities are generally accepted, but this is not a hard rule. Applying -------- Another sidetracking preface for the following two sections: Nearly everything* in Russia gets done "behind the scenes", and formal proceedings are merely a façade for it. The main reason for this is bureaucracy: every single correction entering the official channel takes weeks if not months of back-and-forth exchange between several organizations, so the usual practice would be all parties agreeing on a course of action and fulfilling their obligations first and only then signing relevant papers.* In Russia, it is common for MSc's to enroll into a PhD program at the same university they have graduated, often with the same supervisor as well. In fact, it is even encouraged, as their work in this new capacity is perceived as returning on the initial investment their supervisors made while educating them before. Exchange terms abroad are also encouraged and changing fields/supervisors/taking a break before the PhD are quite ubiquitous, yet the "ideal" process would be just working in the same lab from the sophomore year or so on and on. With all that context established, it is now clear that "cold" applications are very rare and people treat them with suspicion. This is not to say the committee would act in bad faith or the applicants would be treated unfairly, rather that there should be a convincing reason to apply for the program in the first place, and without any kind of prior collaboration or recommendations from the previous supervisor or professors that is virtually unheard of. To that end, the agreement with the future supervisor shall be reached before the formal admittance, with very few exceptions. The application itself requires transcripts and an affirmation one holds the MSc degree or equivalent. As customary in Russia, the checklist goes on to include another half a dozen positions, ranging from the ID scans/copies and the health certificate to photos. In general, though, there is nothing terribly complicated about those, aside for the student visa for foreign students. There will be a brief on-site interview with the faculty, this stage is important and functionally combines presenting the statement of purpose and the CV. One should not stress out too much about it, however: at this stage the future supervisor pretty much already vouches for them if the prior arrangements were made as they should have been. Essentially, one should treat the application process as convincing their future supervisor and then going through the formalities. PhD studies and thesis defense ------------------------------ During the PhD program, students take courses in English and philosophy yet again and pass their candidate exams at the end of the first year. They also are normally required to have a bit of teaching duties, and it can take many forms, one common option is being a TA for a year (~50 hours). After that, in a typical PhD program, they focus solely on research. Thesis defense is also a bit unusual and worth a separate mention. Every program has a research field called speciality associated with it (in rare cases, several at once); Russia uses its own nomenclature, which changes quite often - [the latest revision](http://www.iki.rssi.ru/rus/nomenklatura.pdf) is about a year old at the time of writing. Some universities have the thesis committee corresponding to that speciality in-house, others do not - having the in-house one makes submitting the thesis a whole lot easier. Changing one's speciality is a bit of a hassle (not too terrible though) and the speciality itself is frequently overlooked until the very end, yet crucial for the successful thesis defense. The reason for this is that the thesis has to be tailored towards the speciality: it needs to include a list of results, and every point from that list of results has to match one of the (broad) options in the official description of the speciality. Sometimes candidates find out another speciality matches their work better, and that requires retaking the corresponding exam, causing near-inevitable delays. Another particularity is having to provide about 20 pages long abstract of the thesis, which arguably holds more significance than the thesis itself. Writing a good abstract is hard, and it will be the main document the thesis committee itself is concerned with - the full text is mostly for the opponents to comment on. As you should already know by now, by the time the defense itself is scheduled, getting a degree is almost a done deal. This is achieved by having a pre-defense hearing of the talk, which is a rehearsal of the "main event". In other words, it is a go/no go meeting. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_7: England (and the UK) [uk](/questions/tagged/uk "show questions tagged 'uk'") ============================================================================ Note: I assume the process is somewhat similar through the UK, but I know there are some difference between the four constituent countries. I am mostly familiar with the situation in England. Note 2: I work in computer science / robotics so if anybody is aware of differences to other areas, please do edit them in. Funding Availability -------------------- Broadly speaking, there are two types: institutional and individual. The UK PhD funding has been leaning towards large institutional grants for "PhD programmes" spanning several cohorts and away from funding for individual positions. Such funding might support e.g. 5 (new) PhD students in a certain research area (e.g. "FoodBioSystems", "Agricultural Robotics") for 3-4 years. These positions will therefore usually be advertised in more general terms related to the overarching goals of the research area (i.e. "Increase automation in food production to support environmentally friendly agricultural practices"), rather than describing a specific PhD project. In recent years, one increasingly sees the [funded CDT (=Center for Doctoral Training) doctorates](https://www.ukri.org/what-we-do/developing-people-and-skills/epsrc/studentships/centres-for-doctoral-training/) advertised with strict timelines and formalised processes. Individual positions still do exist, but are much less frequent. These are advertised by an individual advisor (or advisors) and describe a specific project the candidate would be working on. It is not uncommon to see an individual supervisor (advisor) advertising individual research projects under the category of self-funded: these do not come with expectations of funding. They are more suited for individuals having some form of funding (home country scholarship/funding) or personal funding. It is important to note that many of these funded PhD positions have international student "quotas" in some form or another. The institutional programmes might only be allowed to admit up to 20% of international students for the duration of the programme. Some individual PhD funding may only cover domestic student fees, making the position essentially unfunded for international students. In such instance, the international student is expected to pay the difference between the 'home' tuition fee and the international tuition fee by themselves. Qualifications required ----------------------- On paper, most (all?) of the PhD positions only require the applicant with a Bachelors degree or an equivalent. This is further reinforced as most institutional PhD programmes are in fact a 1+3 year programmes with an integrated Masters year. However, due to the above situation with international "quotas", funded positions open to everybody tend to be much more competitive than the domestic-only positions, and it is not uncommon for most applicants to actually hold a Masters degree prior to applying. The application process ----------------------- As most positions are supported through doctoral programmes, they are somewhat seasonal. The applications for the coming academic year (starting September/October) would close around March time, the previous academic year. The timing is not so strict for students bringing their own funding (self-funded or otherwise). Prior contact with a potential supervisor is less crucial when applying to an institutional doctoral programme, as the potential PhD projects for the incoming cohort might still not be fully planned or approved -- but you can (and *should) look at the research profiles of the academics involved in the programme. If the position concerns a specific project, contacting the potential advisor in advance might provide very valuable details to both parties, both about the topic, expected/provided style of supervision, etc. In both cases the application process will have two stages: The online application form is usually fairly structured and broken down into a series of questions. Think of these as a series of mini-cover-letters, where the topic of each is highlighted by the question. You can also enclose a "real" cover letter, a CV and (possibly required?) your transcripts. A panel will examine this and determine a shortlist of candidates to interview. The number of candidates to interview for a single position is not predetermined; the panel will balance their time and effort invested in interviewing with how promising the candidate pool is. Around 3-6 candidates may be invited for the interview. * The interview panel will typically consist of around 3 academics and a non-research person. For individual, you might have 2 academics depending on the discipline and faculty. Panel diversity is usually enforced by the Universities. These will last around 30 minutes (to an hour maybe?); again with a series of questions to the candidate and an opportunity for the candidate to ask any questions of their own in the end. Some questions will be application-specific, related to either technical or practical skills related to the PhD. Usually 1-3 questions will be very standard and you can easily search around for lists of these types of questions ("What motivated you to apply to this position") and some strategies to answering them. For the individual positions, the decision is reached very quickly. The candidates are ranked based on the interview, and the first candidate will be contacted within a couple of days, with the hopes of getting an decision from the candidate fairly quickly. Most advisors would be happy to wait for up to a week, but may or may not be open to waiting for longer. The position would be offered to the next-ranked candidate if the first one turns it down, and so on until somebody accepts or the position has been offered to all candidates found acceptable during the interviews. I am honestly not 100% sure of the timeline for the positions supported through doctoral programmes, but I would say it is likely very similar, with potentially a slightly longer delay between the interviews and making the offer to the best candidate. Format of study, status of the candidate ---------------------------------------- The institutional doctoral programmes are typically a 1+3 years programmes, with the first year being a taught Masters degree (with coursework: discipline and/or research courses). The individual ones are typically simply 3 years long research positions. In both cases, the candidate will in fact start as a Master student (thought / by research), and will be required to make a "PhD transfer" following their first year. Some will offer a MPhil which would be upgraded to the PhD after 'good' progress. During the whole PhD, the candidate is considered a student, and will not be paid a salary (taxable income) but rather a bursary/stipend (non-taxable). This is a fixed, prescribed amount for all the students, which will get reviewed (typically very slightly increased to account for inflation) on a yearly basis. Some students (at "proper" PhD level) may be required to, or asked to, serve as TAs/demonstrators in practical workshops, which may or may not be paid, but is typically neither a big time requirement nor a large sum of money. Choice of research topic and advisor ------------------------------------ With individual positions, the advisor will be involved in reviewing the applications as well as interviewing. The topic will be known in advance and advertised. A successful candidate will start working on this topic from the start of their PhD. For institutional doctoral programmes, the topic and advisor may not be chosen until the end of the first (Masters) year. Typically, the student starts to work towards it in the course of the first year. A set of available topics and advisors would be presented to the students through this year, both formally and informally through any contact with the potential advisors that was established through the year (e.g. from coursework). The first focused work on the topic related to the PhD would typically be the final project in the 'MSc year'. There may be some opportunities for the students themselves to be involved in formulating the projects/topics, especially during their Masters year. However, PhD projects are accepted to be fairly flexible, and should be tailored to the students interests as they progress. An industry partner may also be involved in some capacity in the PhD project. This is increasingly true for the institutional doctoral programmes, as there is a push to increase the collaboration between academia and industry. This is especially true where institutions offer professional doctorates: DEng, DEd. Professional doctorates (such as DEng, DEd, DBA) are structured doctorates with cohort training and research. Thesis ------ Thesis can take the form of the traditional thesis where the student writes up chapters and follows a suggested word length. Thesis by article is gaining traction (think of PhD by Publication). For noting: There's the PhD by Publication (retrospective route) which does not fall under the institution and individual explained here. This is for researchers with research publications in their field and would like to formalise their experience by gaining a PhD. The application process is case-by-case and follows eligibility criteria in the Academic Regulations. A variant is the PhD by Practice which formalise prior notable works (arts, exhibition, literary...). Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_7: France [france](/questions/tagged/france "show questions tagged 'france'") ========================================================================== Note: I did my PhD in France 2012 - 2016, but then continued my academic career in the UK. So some of this might be outdated, a narrow picture, or use incorrect terminology. Funding availability -------------------- Advisors may advertise potential PhD topics on their institutional web pages before any funding has been secured. It indicates that they have considered the topic, fleshed out a PhD project, and considered funding sources to apply to. This is due to the fact that PhD funding is awarded, by many funding sources, not just to a potential advisor on a topic, but to a specific advisor and a specific student on a specific topic. The potential PhD candidate needs to be known for the application process, and is more or less involved in it. I am also aware that many of my colleagues have had PhD positions supported through industry collaborations; however I am now aware how and at which point these are funded and advertised. Qualifications required ----------------------- The only "required" qualification is a Masters diploma in an appropriate field. However, as the applicant is essentially applying for funding together with their potential supervisor, and may even be required to present the project proposal themselves (see next section), most successful applicants will have a strong prior knowledge in some part of their PhD topic (mine was a combination of a research area I was familiar with from my Masters, and a completely new field). This typically means more than would be covered in regular coursework. Fluency in French is obviously a massive advantage to any applicant. But, it is not a requirement (I finally started being able to communicate in French in my last PhD year - and promptly forgot most of it when I left). I am not aware of any restrictions on the nationality/origins of the applicant; I was neither a French nor an EU citizen while applying and it didn't seem to get brought up at all. In fact, the PhD students employed by my lab were of extremely diverse origins. The application process ----------------------- As mentioned above, the potential PhD candidate will apply for funding together with their advisor. It is therefore crucial to establish contact with potential advisors well in advance. If there is mutual interest, the advisors will tailor the application to the student's CV. In case of a formal interview process, they will also coach the applicant during the preparation for the interview. We have applied to two funding sources. One was French government funding, which I'll elaborate on -- this is where we applied with the original project for which I contacted the advisors, and prepared the most. My advisors have also put together an alternative application to a different funding body, tweaking the original proposal somewhat into a very related topic. This alternative was a written-only application, requiring no effort from me as an applicant. The application for French government funding included an interview in front of a scientific panel with broad expertise (so, not topic-specific). The student applicant is expected to present the project, briefly review the state-of-the-art, and describe the research ideas they would be pursuing. This part of the process is what makes is essential to establish prior contact with potential advisors -- as they will be able to provide materials to prepare for the interview and put together a presentation. While I have not personally attempted this myself, this also indicates that a potential candidate with an extremely good fit to the research topic of an advisor might be able to apply for a position without the advisor advertising a specific project previously. If the applicant had contacted the potential advisor well in advance, got their interest and established common research interests, a project may be tailored together with the student before an application to a funding body. Both of the applications processes resulted in a ranked list of applicants, where the number of positions to be funded was made known in advance. After these are published, any candidates that are "in the funding" can make the choice to either accept or reject the funding -- rejections do happen as some candidates might have applied to, and got accepted by, different funding bodies. The candidates that did not make the cut, but were close to it, should still be monitoring the results for a few weeks until all the conflicts and double applications resolve, as it is possible for them to still make the cut after better ranked applicants make their final choices. Another detail to point out is the role of academic internships in the PhD application process. While they are by no means a requirement, securing a semester-long or a summer research internship with a French advisor is a very common way for potential PhD students to find PhD positions, and the advisors to find potential students. It is often regarded as a "trial run" or an unofficial probation for both parties. A large proportion of internships end in a PhD offer. These can be fully or partially funded sufficiently to scrape by, but not glamorously paid by any means. An additional advantage is that it also puts the potential PhD candidate in a position where they can reach out to a much larger pool of potential advisors in person, rather than through e-mail. Format of study, status of applicant ------------------------------------ French PhD students are somewhat stuck in limbo. They have an official student card (which can be frequently used for various discounted tickets and services), but they are also officially employed by their research institute. The PhD candidates will therefore receive a regular salary, which is not standardised (unlike some other places), and will depend on the funding source supporting the position. The French government grants resulted in the lowest salaries (but were considered some of the more secure funding), but were generally enough to get by in a decidedly unglamorous but very lively student lifestyle. The candidates are expected to pay for the yearly tuition themselves, but this was quite a low amount (around €400/year; which I could begrudgingly cover from my PhD salary). While not affecting the candidate too much, the institutions are organised in such a way that research labs provide teaching to the University (the services provided by permanent academics), while the University agrees to issue diplomas to their PhD students. Typically a PhD student will actually have very little contact with the University issuing their diploma, and will work in the research institute. Most funding is available for a strict period of 3 years. Extensions of 1-3 months might be possible through applying for further funding, but I remember they were becoming less available as I was leaving. Due to certain French employment protection laws, it is extremely unlikely that the research lab would offer the candidate an alternative position while finishing their PhD (outside the above mentioned extensions) so finishing within 3 years is a very strong target. If planning to continue the academic career in France, a PhD taking longer than 3 years plus a few months will raise some eyebrows. When I did my PhD, PhD positions either included certain teaching/TAing requirements, or none at all. (Teaching contracts obviously paid extra; but were nearly impossible to secure without being fluent in French) However, both PhD students and advisors were not particularly happy with the system (full-teaching contracts were not very desirable as teaching requirements were quite high, while the non-teaching students who wanted some experience teaching could not actually get any teaching), so I'm not sure whether the system changed at all in the meantime. An additional detail for consideration, while more related to the end of the PhD than the application process, which can potentially influence the choice of applying for a PhD in France, is the candidates status after graduating / after the funding runs out. France has a very accommodating social system, which has been adjusted to keep the talent in. As PhD students are employed, they are eligible to receive generous unemployment benefits following the end of their PhD contract. This is also true for international/non-EU students (thought the period is shorter). This means that after finishing their PhD in France, the new Doctors are not forced to scramble for their next position while preparing their viva, and are not kicked out of the country the day after their defence, but are in fact granted a grace period following their completion in which they can look for and interview for their next position. Choice of research topic and advisor ------------------------------------ Prior contact with the advisor and detailed discussions on the topic are crucial before an application to a funding body. A potential advisor will personally work with their preferred applicant in preparing the funding proposal for the position. As mentioned in the paragraph on qualifications, the candidate is expected to have the knowledge of, and experience with using, the state-of-the-art approaches from the area of research of their potential PhD. Therefore, for contacting potential advisors, I would strongly suggest highlighting specific mutual research interests and your specific and relevant experience, rather than just indicating a general interest in the potential advisor or their research. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_8: Italy [italy](/questions/tagged/italy "show questions tagged 'italy'") ====================================================================== Requirements ------------ As is usual in Europe, candidates must already have a Bologna-process master's degree or equivalent title (or be about to obtain one: often having defended one's thesis is not necessary at the moment of application). Admission process ----------------- Each department opens a number of PhD positions. The exact regulations vary across universities and fields, but usually having a contact with a professor at the institution and a specific research project is not necessary to apply. The students can freely choose who they wish to work with after being admitted. Traditionally, admission deadlines are around August/September, so that the winners can start their PhD later in the year (around October/November), but recently universities have started opening additional calls earlier in Spring, in the hope to beat the competition on time and get better students. Duration, obligations, and funding ---------------------------------- Positions are funded for 3-4 years, and the degree must be obtained before the end of the fourth year, barring extraordinary circumstances. It is not mandatory to teach during one's course, but it is often welcome and it is a way to get a little extra money. Often the students are required to spend a few months abroad during the duration of their program to collaborate with other research institutes, and additional funds are allocated to cover for this research stay. Most positions come with a stipend, but a certain number of runners-up is admitted to a position without funding (dottorato senza borsa). It is needless to say that these are not a good proposition, unless someone has a different way to support themselves or obtain funding. A common case is that of school teachers and other Italian public-sector employees, who can get a paid leave to study for a PhD. Project-specific positions -------------------------- Less than half of the positions (depending on the field and the department) are on specific research projects that allocated funding for them. Nevertheless, the admissions still go through the department, not through the PI. How to find positions and apply ------------------------------- Openings are advertised on the university's website, and sometimes professors post them on field-specific mailing lists. There is little point in sending cold e-mails to individual professors to inquire for positions, since they cannot hire students directly. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: Australia [australia](/questions/tagged/australia "show questions tagged 'australia'") ====================================================================================== Understanding Honours in the Australian system ---------------------------------------------- The Australian system has something called "honors," which is a little confusing. In general, an undergraduate degree in Australia is three years, but you can stay for a fourth ("honors") year that will usually entail both coursework and a research project, leading to a thesis. In some cases, this is equivalent to (or is) a master's degree; in others, this may be integrated into the three-year undergraduate curriculum. Honors degrees come in classes: * first class * second class division A * second class division B * third class Note that this is different than the British system, where honors are mostly based on grades. This is important because an honors or master's degree (or, for foreign students, an equivalent demonstration of research ability) is usually required for admission to PhD programs Requirements for PhD admission ------------------------------ Each university has their own requirements, but in general, the criteria are grades and research: * If you have first class honors, you will be a strong candidate for PhD programs (though there will still be competition; lots of people have first class honors). * If you have second class, division A honors, then you are likely eligible for admission, though your application will be stronger if you have good grades, additional research experience, and good letters of recommendation * Otherwise, you will likely need to obtain a research-based master's degree "performed at a high academic standard" or "an equivalent qualification that demonstrates research experience, excellence, and capability" (as [phrased](https://www.sydney.edu.au/courses/courses/pr/doctor-of-philosophy-science0.html) by the University of Sydney). You will also need to speak English well. Admissions Process ------------------ Australia is a little different than the US or Europe. As in Europe, you will usually need to find an advisor. However, your university may have instructions for how to do this. For example, the University of Sydney has a dedicated [matchmaking service](https://www.sydney.edu.au/research/research-supervisor-connect.html), while the University of Melbourne tells you to use e-mail, but has a list of what you should include in this e-mail. Other universities may tell you that finding a supervisor is optional, but in practice, you are much more likely to be admitted if you find a supervisor yourself. We emphasize that you should carefully craft your letter to prospective supervisors. Supervisors receive [many](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/127245/79875) such letters a day, so only ones that are clearly well-targeted and highly personalized are likely to receive a reply. After finding a supervisor, you still have to get admitted to the university. Your language skills and "marks" (not called GPA in Australia) [matter here](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/151776/what-are-some-criteria-to-get-an-australian-phd-scholarship). "These decisions are based on a threshold, not based on who else applies." Funding ------- "Some supervisors have funding they can use to pay PhD students at their discretion, but most PhD students are funded through a university program. The fact that a position has been advertised does not mean the supervisor necessarily has funding for that position." [[source](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/151776/what-are-some-criteria-to-get-an-australian-phd-scholarship)]. Rather, the professor-student team will jointly apply for one of the university's funded studentships. There are a fixed number of such studentships, so this is a competitive process. You may be eligible to be a ["tutor"](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/109309/what-is-a-tutor-in-australia-unimelb-is-it-like-a-ta-what-are-the-responsibi) (TA) or to take another position within the department to make money. Your advisor may be able to help you apply for this. You may also be able to find funding through a government scholarship such as [this one](https://www.csiro.au/en/careers/scholarships-student-opportunities/postgraduate-programs-and-scholarships/postgrads). We emphasize that the stipends, relative to the cost of living in Australia, are quite low compared to Europe or the US. Past [users](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/134766/can-an-international-student-manage-his-cost-of-living-in-australia-if-his-4-yea) here have reported that "it is a struggle at the best of times." Many students do take outside work to supplement their stipends, but there are strict rules about this, and it's hard to find employment in Australia. Hence, even if you are willing to work outside the university, you will probably need a stipend/scholarship and a fee waiver just to get by; it will be pretty much impossible to survive with only a fee waiver unless you are independently wealthy. International students ---------------------- Australian universities routinely deal with international students and will be able to assess foreign credentials. Foreign students will need to apply for a [visa](https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/visas/getting-a-visa/visa-finder/study). Note that some programs (especially part-time programs) may not be offered to international students, and that international students will need to speak English at a very high level to be admitted. Upvotes: 2
2021/10/21	1,029	4,149	<issue_start>username_0: Controlling for a specific department/university/fellowship do more desirable students get better stipends? For example, is everyone who's offered an RA position at University of Washington (or whatever) in Computer Science paid the exact same, or are more desired students paid better? Also, are negotiations acceptable in CS in USA?<issue_comment>username_1: Yes they are generally paid the same within a particular department. There may be variation based on year of entry to program, outside or internal fellowship, and service as TA vs RA. I also know of an economics department that did allow for some competitive bidding for some RA slots, but this was for students in year 3+. There generally are not negotiations for stipend directly, but fellowships could be given to more desirable students. These fellowships may have a stipend component that is higher than the typical stipend, so in effect awarding fellowships can have the same effect as giving “more stipend” to more desirable students. In terms of negotiation, the channel to get “more stipend” is through the fellowship and admissions process, which doesn’t seem to fit what you are thinking around negotiation. (But asking if there are fellowships available that could increase your stipend would be appropriate. Or I know of a couple instances where pointing out that one received a fellowship from school A led to school B finding a fellowship for a student - though that was rare.) There may be negotiation for summer pay. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: In my experience in the life science, username_1's [answer](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/176919/33210) is mostly correct. I have heard about different grants paying students more through RA positions in the life sciences depending upon the funding source, although this is rare. I would also add that some program give extra "scholarships" or "fellowships" to better students. For example, Texas Tech (where I went for grad school) has [scholarships](https://www.depts.ttu.edu/education/scholarships/funding_for_graduate_students.php) for grad students and I was able to receive merit-based scholarships on top of my departmental stipend or external fellowship during different parts of my graduate eduation. Texas Tech also previously had an [ARCS Foundation](https://www.arcsfoundation.org/national-homepage) scholarship and these awards were on top of existing support from Texas Tech. I mention this because Seattle (where the University of Washington is located) also has a chapter of the [ARCS Foundation](https://www.seattlearcsfoundation.org/) and you might be able to apply there for additional funding. I do not know how the Seattle ARCS Foundation works or if you meet their other requirements. Lastly, I have heard that some Universities that give "bonus" scholarships to people who obtain supplemental fellowships as well as some advisors who give "bonuses" for students who publish (e.g., $500 per paper). I do not have links for any of these, only second-hand accounts. Both of these seemed to be rare and from well funded universities and professors. To include other examples from the comments: * From [username_1](https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/56938/dawn): I can confirm- in my PhD institution, we received a “bonus” in our research account if we got an external fellowship. It could be used for travel or materials or books or experimental subject payments, etc. but not taken home as salary. * From [<NAME>](https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/63475/bryan-krause): Another "bonus" method in my grad program was that students paid by fellowship or traineeship were not subject to paying the "segregated fees", which were about $1000/year and were not ordinarily covered by tuition remission. Edit: I also missed your original question: Also, are negotiations acceptable in CS in USA?. I do not know about CS. For life science, I have seen people match other offers, but very rarely. You might gently ask if a program could match another program's offer, but I defer to people who have gone to grad school for CS. Upvotes: 2
2021/10/21	4,328	18,435	<issue_start>username_0: I speak English with a heavy non standard accent. I'm away from my British university, in a different time zone. No surprise I have to send emails! In September 2021, my Department Chair — who used to be a barrister — emailed me > > In accordance with the complaints you are facing, you must not email any faculty members except my secretary and me, until we have spoken on Zoom to discuss your communication issues. > > > On Zoom with Chair and secretary, Chair told me he received complaints that many students and staff can't understand my English, I send too many long emails. He asked how I scored so high on the TOEFL. I replied I'm fully comfortable in English, but admitted my accent is non standard. Then I found out Chair emailed every department staff about me behind my back — Chair asked everyone to report long or overabundant emails from me. And the university's Counseling Services emailed me to offer support with communication disorders. All this unsettled me. Obviously I didn't request or agree these. I emailed Chair to ask if he knew anything. He replied > > We notified all staff members as appropriate, including Counselling Services, of your communication issues and of the steps that you and I agreed to take. It is a gravely serious matter that you have not accepted support from Counselling Services as we agreed. We are now considering the Student Conduct Procedures for you. > > > > > As you are not complying with our agreed steps, I must meet with you again. Please book an appointment with my secretary. > > > I don't want to meet with him or his secretary again, because he's lying and uncivil. His gruff tone makes me uncomfortable. I replied > > I kindly request we correspond just in writing. I am not comfortable speaking or meeting with you. I never agreed to your actions, like contacting Counselling Services and sending mass emails about me to department faculty without my knowledge or consent. > > > He replied > > You are required to meet with me and my secretary. All my actions fully comply with what we agreed. There is no basis for your request to correspond in writing. Failure to meet may result in a referral to the Student Conduct Office, sanctions or disclipinary measures, or execution of the Student Conduct Procedures as I wrote in my previous email. > > > Now what? How do I refuse him? For privacy, I shall not disclose more detail. But I asked many friends and family to review all my emails. They agree if I'm studying on campus, I would email less because I can talk with people face to face. But they found nothing inappropriate, raunchy, rude, vulgar! My emails are always polite, professional.<issue_comment>username_1: Edit: I strongly agree with some comments below that this answer may be the one the OP wanted to hear. While this is the accepted answer that may stay at the top, please read all the edits and the upvoted answers/comments before taking further actions. --- There is actually a strong argument for corresponding in writing. Both the chair and yourself understood your previous oral meeting differently: the chair now believes that you both agreed that would have to accept support from the counseling office, and you believe to have never agreed to anything of the sort. Oral meeting with no written summary may leave misunderstandings even among native speakers. It happens often in both professional and academic settings. > > Dear Chair, > > > Our previous video meeting led to a misunderstanding. I have not previously agreed to these steps, not during our video meeting or at any other time. I am not sure why you would think we both agreed to this. > > > This misunderstanding during our previous video meeting is the basis for my request to resolve this issue in writing. > > > Edit: While your request for corresponding in writing regarding this matter appears warranted, I suggest you take any help you can to develop your skills. The counseling office thing does sound like it could help you to improve your accent or to understand the local expectations regarding email format. Counseling by native speakers to help you improve your English skills, for free, sounds like a constructive resource you should use. Edit 2: You mention that the Chair is lying and uncivil. Nothing that we can read here can confirm this; it could well be a misunderstanding and that he is not lying, and the quotes from the Chair in your questions are not uncivil. I suggest you assume good intentions from the chair in this matter and work with the resources they suggest; it may well be that they want to help you. You won't get much resolved with a confrontational approach. Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: I think their commnuication is short and to the point. I think they are trying to protect themselves and trying to help you, to avoid you losing your job. Although you seem to be a stubborn\* person refusing this help (which is coming through official procedures), you can still recover from this situation. Maybe did you get your email hacked and someone sent around indecent material to your colleagues? anything is possible, but you are having a strong non-cooperative attitude. Think about this: whatever approach you have, it reflects back to you. Final note: it is not the accent your problem. It is the fact that in writing things are much more prone to be misinterpreted. The fact that you can work remotely, in another time zone, does not mean you cannot have in person meetings. Yes, maybe you have to wake up at 3am for a meeting with your boss, this is an HR issue, if they do not allow to reschedule the meeting at a better time for you (let's say 8am, 2pm london time). \* Being stubborn is both an advantage and a disadvantage, please keep in mind this, sometimes you have to use this talent, sometimes you have to let your stubborness disappear. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: I agree with others that the emails you have quoted do not appear unprofessional. I do not think it is reasonable to refuse a video meeting with the department chair. If your primary concern is misunderstanding during the meeting, then a possible solution is to record the meeting so that it will be clear what has been agreed to. You might write: > > Dear Professor X, > > > I apologize because it appears our previous meeting led to a misunderstanding. My request to resolve issues in writing was an attempt to prevent future misunderstandings. > > > As a compromise, would you be open to recording future video meetings? > > > Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: ### Why do you think they should have your consent? Multiple people have complained about being unable to understand you. They're following up on it within the department, to establish whether this is a genuine problem or not. You don't get to say whether they can do this - in fact if you read your department/university's procedures, you'll find that you've already accepted they can do it. Of course you can withdraw consent at any time - by leaving the university. If you want to stay at the uni, you need to follow their rules which you agreed to. ### Why do you not want to do better? A "non-standard" accent is stopping you from communicating effectively with other people. You've already accepted that. Instead of just saying "we can't work with you", your head of department has reached out to get you help to improve this. That's constructive. The reason things have now gone bad is that you've refused that help. From their point of view now, this means you must want to be hard to understand. There's no reason other people should have to put up with that. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_5: This is really no longer about meeting or not meeting. The chair clearly has serious concerns and, if they are not addressed, he seems to be ready to begin the process to have you suspended or dismissed. You really need an advocate on your side here - lawyer, ombudsperson, union representative, someone familiar with the school's disciplinary processes, etc. Bring that person to the meeting (however you end up holding it), and involve them in all further communications with the chair. It sounds to me like, in the chair's mind, this is more than having an accent or needing to work on writing skills. He's using the sort of language that you'd usually see when someone is sending messages that are so incoherent or troubled that people become concerned about the person's mental health and stability - possibly to the point of thinking that they may be at risk of harming themselves or others, and cannot safely work in the department. The "stop contacting people" sounds like they find your messages not only hard to read, but actually disturbing. The reference to counseling points this way too; "communication issues" sounds like a euphemism. In such a case, it's to be expected that he might contact other department members to find out if they have had similar experiences with you. If that's how he sees it, then one meeting with him, whether in person or in writing, is probably not likely to allay those concerns - and avoiding the meeting is going to make him even more concerned. It might require steps like going to counseling even though you don't want to. Again, having an advocate seems like the best way to negotiate a solution. If it's just you and the chair, I think you are just going to continue to butt heads, and that's unlikely to end well for you because he has all the power. Of course, it is also possible that he just doesn't like you for some unrelated reason (or no reason), and is using the "communication issues" as a pretext to try to have you dismissed. If that is the case then you really need an advocate if you want to stay in the program. Involving an advocate or other trusted third party will also let you get an independent opinion on how your messages really look. If someone you trust also thinks they're disturbing, then maybe you really should seek some help in dealing with whatever is leading to that, be it writing skills or something deeper. And if a neutral party thinks your emails are just fine, then that will hold more weight with the chair than your own view of them, and even more so if you end up having to appeal to some higher authority. Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_6: [Communication disorders](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communication_disorder) are really in a different category than a heavy accent. Clearly, you currently have a very poor relationship with your chair and department. I feel that you may not have understood the nature of the original complaints (warranted or not), so I would personally recommend trying to get more information about what the underlying issue actually is. I would suggest agreeing the meet with the chair and take up the counseling, and start off by simply being curious what the problem is without being argumentative or defensive. I agree with others that recording this meeting, attending the meeting with a trusted third party, and/or giving your summary of the meeting in writing in an email afterward are all good steps to take. I think it is worth keeping an open mind, and perhaps there are steps you can take to improve your working relationships. Be willing to compromise and accept olive branches like go to counseling, even if you would prefer not to do so. This is as much about regaining the trust of your department chair, as it is about any direct benefit you feel you do or don't get from the counseling. Once you have a clear idea of what the precise issue(s) is (are), then you can decide if you want to challenge the steps your chair is suggesting. Hopefully, there are a series of steps you can take that will calm the situation down and allow you to continue working. If, after the meetings and learning more, you have evidence you are being discriminated against, then take it up with the University or lawyer. But don't take this step unless you can document that discrimination is happening, and be sure you understand what the chair will say in response to allegations like this. If you have misunderstood the situation you could end up burning bridges and losing your place at the University. If you really are going to refuse to meet with the chair because they are "lying and uncivil," I think you have to consider the possibility that you aren't going to be able to resolve this situation while remaining a student there. From the chair's side, if you are uncooperative they are likely to ask you to leave. From your side, if you genuinely feel the chair is lying and uncivil, why would you want to be a student in that department? However, I urge you to consider the possibility that you are misinterpreting the chair and that they are not lying and uncivil, but trying to help you. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_7: You almost certainly can't get a good outcome by refusing to meet with your department chair, if he demands a meeting, unless you consider expulsion to be a good outcome. But you are probably entitled to bring an advocate with you. Contact your student union and ask if they have somebody who can be your advocate. Make sure the chair knows that the person you are bringing to the meeting is your advocate and what the reason is for them being there. If you aren't permitted to make a recording of the meeting, take notes during it and share your notes with the chair's secretary afterwards. Also, make backups of all correspondence you have received and sent regarding this issue, and continue to make backups of future correspondence; if the only copies you have are on the university's email system, then you may lose access to them at any time (or worse, if your chair really is dishonest, they could theoretically be falsified). And in advance of the meeting, request whatever documentation the chair has regarding the steps he believes you agreed to. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_8: There are multiple issues here that I think you need to think more about before you take any action. First, from a formal point of view, the department chair is your work supervisor (assuming you are considered an employee). A boss telling an employee they need to have a meeting is a directive that normally an employee is required to comply with in most western countries like the US or UK. If you feel “not comfortable” having such a meeting, that’s really your problem and not something that should concern the chair. You may think your request is reasonable, and perhaps it is, but legalistically speaking, you’re probably out of luck, unless perhaps you have some grounds to request an accommodation based on mental health issues. Talk to HR to consult them if that may be the case. The important thing is to recognize that your sense of entitlement about having your request to communicate only in writing met is unwarranted and off-putting. Second, after reading your question carefully I feel like there are important aspects of this story that you’re not sharing with us. You say that there were “complaints” against you based on your difficult to understand accent and your emails being too long. But the chair’s response is much too harsh to make this believable. He seems to be treating this as a matter involving some kind of misconduct. A strong accent could certainly be a problem but one that would usually be treated with a lot of sympathy and not as if you’ve done something wrong, and an injunction to refrain from any communications with other department members. So, I’m guessing that the complaints might involve other more serious things like harassment or bullying. If that’s the case, the fact that you’re not sharing those details in the question suggest an attitude of denial, which does not bode well for your ability to devise a successful strategy to deal with the situation, or for getting effective advice on this forum. Third, you straight up accuse your chair of lying. I can’t follow the details sufficiently to determine whether that’s likely to be correct, but for such a serious accusation, my sense is you’re probably jumping to the worst possible conclusion when much more innocent explanations could easily explain what’s going on. Again, that’s not a good attitude to have, and one that is likely to cause you to dig yourself into a deeper and deeper hole if you don’t pause, do some serious rethinking, and correct course. From a practical point of view, I would advise that you seriously consider either getting a friend with a lot of common sense to give you detailed advice about your situation, or hiring a lawyer. Anyway, this sounds like an unpleasant business, so best of luck getting it resolved. Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_9: Please meet with your Chair and listen. "Communications issues" is a catch-all, indeed a euphemism, for a broad range of things. I don't think this can be about your English competency (which is exemplary, in your post here) but in the content. Your use of "medacious" in your original headline, a ten-dollar word for "lying", suggests a willingness to share accusations. With the reference to the length of your emails and that the Chair feels it appropriate to involve the whole department we need to consider the possibility that you have been sending long accusatorial rants to a long list of recipients. Complaints have reached the Chair from both the recipients and those whom you accuse, and the Chair cannot ignore these, as he is responsible for maintaining a "safe workplace", which today means far more than having a handrail on the stairs. As an ex-barrister the Chair is likely to be cautious in his words, but also very precise. He will not make the mistake of defaming you but every phrase he uses will mean something. Listen to him, as carefully as you write to us. Also be aware that he resents every minute he spends on this and wants it to go away so he can get back to real matters. This can work in your favour if you let it: if he thinks you've heard him, and understand him, and will comply, he will assure his staff that he's fixed this and he will quickly move on. If he thinks you're digging deeper, he will just as quickly solve the problem by giving you the boot. He will make that decision—or rather, you will make that decision for him—in this meeting. Upvotes: 4
2021/10/21	558	2,367	<issue_start>username_0: I'm a new postdoc working in a project I really like. I've been there for three months and I'd say I'm doing an acceptable progress. My PI is lovely and we get along quite well, however not long ago I found she's advertising the EXACT SAME project that I'm working on, but this time to get a PhD student. It's the exact same team of supervisors, same techniques, everything, just the position changes. She said the student will be coming around January or February and that she'll make sure they have an independent project, but I just don't understand how this will happen as there aren't enough results to get another project out of this same topic. Is this normal? Should I be worried?<issue_comment>username_1: Both that and you being territorial here is normal :) For a good lab, there is rarely no use for an extra pair of hands. Possibly barring some abstract fields where it's common to work on a problem alone or labs with dozens of people where PI can't supervise them all, too many students is never an issue. Your goals and capabilities are now different from those of a PhD student and, in turn, different from those of an undergrad. If you both were MSc students it'd be more concerning. Still, the best way to handle that is approaching your PI, ideally knowing which parts of the project are you specifically interested in. An example of PI reasoning might be that for an experiment, you'd need however many samples and that would imply either the new postdoc (you) working over 60 hours a week, scaling the experiment down, stretching it out (which makes the whole project increasingly irrelevant as the time passes) or... well, getting a new student. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: I will add a bit to the previous answers. A project is typically for the funding, aka money. Often there is money left even after hiring one or multiple people, regardless of the status (e.g. postdoc, PhD). It is very common (at least in EU) to hire multiple people under the same project and even shift them here and there depending on the time frame of the funding. I would say there is nothing to worry about. To make sure you can talk to the PI and ask what would be the responsibilities of the PhD student and if you should help co-mentor and score some additional points there if you want to continue in Academia. Upvotes: 1
2021/10/21	1,796	7,577	<issue_start>username_0: TW: Depression/suicide TL;DR Thinking of quitting my PhD; Don't want to because of the perception that I'd be closing some doors on my future, but in my heart of hearts I know it's probably in my best interest to do so for my health. Before I get into it, I would like to note that I am receiving professional help. I'm writing this post in hopes of getting clarity from those who have maybe seen similar circumstances. For context, I moved from the US to a certain Southeast Asian city-state to begin a PhD in computer science, of which I am only in my first term. I like what I'm doing, I enjoy research for the prospect of proposing new knowledge, and I am certain that this career path is a good fit for me over the software engineering work I've done before. My goal is to work in industry, but in a research position (i.e. OpenAI or something similar). The problem I'm facing now is that basically everything I'm experiencing outside of my program makes me feel somewhere between unhappy and severely depressed. Even after the initial bouts of homesickness that have since subsided, I have been thinking constantly about quitting the program for my own safety. In recent weeks I have had to come to terms with the fact that I suffer from severe mental illness which may kill me if I do not prioritize it. The Covid-19 pandemic has been especially unkind to my mental health, which combined with some issues in my interpersonal life and the shock of expatriating alone has come to a head with a diagnosis of major depressive disorder and a few suicidal episodes. I am receiving treatment, though I don't think it has been long enough for me to make a clear-headed decision about it, and I am seriously concerned for my mental and physical well-being. Taking a 6-month leave of absence is possible for me under the terms of my funding, but I have a gut feeling that I may not be equipped --now or ever-- to live so far from my family. Maybe it's culture shock, maybe it's the pandemic restrictions, that may only be clear in hindsight, but right now I can't picture myself surviving the entire four years abroad. That said, I worked really, really hard for what I imagined was the only opportunity to enter this field, and worry that by quitting I'll essentially be shutting that door permanently. As myopic as that may be, I have read quite a few accounts (mostly on Quora) of people saying that quitting here would make it nearly impossible to justify to another admissions committee that I can perform the task. I know if it even is possible I'd have to take enough time to stabilize my mental health first, but what I'm hoping is that it would be reasonable to go industry/concurrent masters > PhD or industry/concurrent PhD if/when I am ready. It is probably also worth noting here that my study habits have suffered from the things listed above; while my term is not over yet, my current academic standing is looking rather poor. I tend to muddle my own questions with too much context, so I suppose what I'm really asking is if there is a path back to a PhD if I were to quit here. Are mental health concerns a sufficient justification for failing the first time? Do I address this failed attempt when applying again (my suspicion is yes)? I have seen people suggest to others who were further along or suffering physical health concerns to try postponing their defense or taking leave, however, I don't know how long it will take me to find the stability to pursue this again, and likely never so far from home. I also know that PhD students are expected to be able to handle personal stresses and outside factors alongside the degree, so it seems like mental health isn't viewed as such a significant barrier, but there seems to be a rising attitude that we should treat mental illness the same as regular chronic illness. Anyways, thank you internet strangers for reading this. I appreciate any insight into my situation and future prospects.<issue_comment>username_1: Your health is more important than a PhD degree. Having said that, many universities value the health of their students and employees and have resources in place to further that. These could be counselors, doctors or nurse-practitioners who are specifically tasked with finding ways to make the university work for members with health problems. These could be staff members tasked with helping PhD students with all kinds of matters. Also consider your supervisor. Despite all the horror stories here and elsewhere, most supervisors are just decent human beings, who, upon hearing of your problems, are more than willing to think with you about possible solutions. Maybe a letter of recommendation, to make it easier for you to apply to an institution closer to home. Maybe (s)he has good relations with an institution close to your home and can arrange longer research visits to that institution so you can balance time spent at your current institution and time closer to home. Maybe something else. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: There are thousands of reasons for which one may have to quit a PhD, they are all equally valid because you do not need to disclose them, not even in your CV. Let's assume you quit your PhD now, not having the chance to suspend or put on hold your current PhD opportunity. You take 3 years leave (doing whatever, from being a waiter to doing internships at NASA, I do not know), you then decide you want to try to give another shot to another PhD opporutnity. How will your CV look like? You have many options. You can put your time spent at the Southeast Asian in the education field, mentioning the course you followed, programs you learned, techniques you have been introduced to. You can put your time spent at the Southeast Asian university as a "Research Assistant" or whatever title is equivalent to the job defined in your current working contract, because being a PhD is also a job. You can even put nothing, leaving a gap. Please note: gaps in CV and their importance are a self-sustaining myth, especially when applying for a PhD, there are questions about gap year only because people thinks that gaps in the CV deserves to be investigated, because so must be. So, at the interview, when asked about the gap you can say it was for personal reasons. Or you can also go fully open, say you took time to improve your mental health and mitigate the impact of the pandemy and of your status of being an immigrant (you may want to double assess this, if you disclose it if applying again for a PhD position abroad), there is no harm in doing that, and if saying something like that harms your application, you should be grateful you avoided the chance of having horrible persons as supervisors. Good luck, and take care of yourself. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: I think/hope that it is possible. I've turned down a PhD offer from my undergraduate advisor this year and currently I'm taking a gap year. So basically, you can say that I quit my PhD program. I had several interviews with other professors. Most of them seem to understand that how you feel about your program, your advisor, and your life is one justified reason not to continue a PhD program (which I hope is not a euphemism of you are disqualified). While I told all of them that I quit a PhD program, only part of them actually asked what happened. That being said, I'm not saying that quitting a PhD is just fine, because taking a gap year/doing something else does not necessarily make you feel better. Upvotes: 1
2021/10/21	961	4,003	<issue_start>username_0: Can we submit our journal paper(formatted in IEEE-paper style) in arXiv which is already submitted in IEEE journal for review(the paper's decision is not yet made)? or it's mandatory to publish the paper only in arxiv format Regards<issue_comment>username_1: No, that is often not allowed. Once an article is published, it becomes the property of the publisher (check with them first). In your case though, it may still be problematic after it is accepted. Therefore, you may come into problems if you make it available on ArXiv, i.e. if the content is usually behind a paywall but you make it available for free on ArXiv. Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: ArXiv has no "format". You can publish using whatever format you want there. Do check your journal's preprint policy though, because they might ask for certain things once your paper is accepted (e.g. to credit them as the copyright holder). Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: There are two main points to your question that I will address. IEEE policy for preprints For IEEE, you are in general allowed to post the submitted version of the paper on arXiv while it is undergoing peer review (provided your specific journal doesn't have policies prohibiting that, e.g. if it is a double-blind journal). This is outlined in the IEEE author's rights document (<https://www.ieee.org/publications/rights/rights-policies.html>, with a nice summary here <http://journals.ieeeauthorcenter.ieee.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/IEEE-Article-Sharing-and-Posting-Policies.pdf>). Specifically, the policy says: > > 3. IEEE seeks to maximize the rights of its authors and their employers to post preprint versions of an article on the author’s personal Web site, on a server operated by the author’s employer, or on a server operated by an approved not-for-profit third party as specified in 8.1.9.G.2 below. > > > arXiv is one of the approved third-party hosting servers for the IEEE. The main stipulation is that once the article has been accepted and issued a DOI, the posted preprint needs to be updated to include that information, as stated in the preprint policy: > > D. E-PRINTS > Before submitting an article to an IEEE publication, authors frequently post preprints of their articles to their own Web site, their employer’s site, or to another server that invites constructive comment from colleagues and provides a publication time stamp. Upon submission of an article to IEEE, an author is required to transfer copyright in the article to IEEE, and the author must update any previously posted version of the article with a prominently displayed IEEE copyright notice (as shown in 8.1.9.B). Upon publication of an article by IEEE, the author must replace any previously posted electronic versions of the article with either (1) the full citation to the IEEE work with a Digital Object Identifier (DOI), or (2) the accepted version only with the DOI (not the IEEE-published version). IEEE shall make available to each author the preprint version of the article that the author can post and that includes the DOI, IEEE’s copyright notice, and a notice indicating that the article has been accepted for publication by IEEE. > > > This means that you are allowed to post the author-accepted version of the manuscript on arXiv (i.e. the one from after all peer-review is completed but before you submit the final files to IEEE for their formatting), but it must contain a link to the DOI of the IEEE manuscript. arXiv provides a mechanism to include the DOI on a submission, so you need to update the submission to have that. Format of papers for arXiv There is no "arXiv template" that must be followed, and so the exact formatting of the paper is entirely left to you as the author. If you want, you can use the same IEEE template you used for the original journal submission, or you could change it to be a different type (e.g. simply the LaTex article class, SIAM template, etc.). Upvotes: 1
2021/10/21	661	2,760	<issue_start>username_0: Many research journals and Ph.D. thesis has the requirement of originality for the content. According to the dictionary, the meaning for the word [originality](https://www.lexico.com/definition/originality) is as follows > > The ability to think independently and creatively. > > > The quality of being novel or unusual. > > > Suppose there exist two algorithms a and b. And if I get an idea of mixing both of them and obtaining a new algorithm named c that is useful. I can, then, say that algorithm c has the property of usefulness. But I have doubts whether algorithm c has the property of originality since it is a mixture of two non-original algorithms. The originality maybe just be in the idea of mixing the both which many people might already think. Under which category does the mixing of multiple algorithms for obtaining a new algorithm belong? Is it independent, creative, novel, or unusual?<issue_comment>username_1: It certainly can be. A random forest algorithm is an ensemble model which is an extension and mixing of decision tree algorithms along with a statistical bagging algorithm. When first developed, it was an original idea by any sensible definition of the word, and most certainly an idea worthy of publication. Many methods in machine learning are designed around things that are greater than the sum of their parts -- that combining a bunch of weak learners (algos that are only slightly better than random chance) can make something that is a strong learner (an algo that has an arbitrarily high level of accuracy). These new models are original, novel, useful, etc. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bootstrap_aggregating> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decision_tree_learning> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Random_forest> Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: There is no telling whether it is novel enough based solely on the info you have provided. I would describe the required quality like so: the result, as a whole, must solve some identifiable problem better than it was achieved previously. To provide a couple examples: * In number theory, if you use an algorithm to produce a sequence of numbers and call it a day, this is probably not very useful. If this sequence of numbers has some properties allowing to attack some well-known conjecture, this could be absolutely groundbreaking. * In materials science, if you find a novel way to paint rubber balls some indistinct olive, that would probably also not be useful, unless you could specifically say why are indistinct olive rubber balls great. Whoever came up with the [Tyrian purple](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyrian_purple) was likely hailed as one of the greatest researchers/engineers of his age. Upvotes: 1
2021/10/21	738	2,806	<issue_start>username_0: It turns out that I am between posts: my last (fixed term) contract ended this week and I have not yet taken up a new post (won't happen until at least February next year and is not yet certain). In the meantime, how can I present the first information seen on my CV in the best light? Normally I write "Current Post" and put my current details, but can no longer do this. Does the wording "Most recent post" sound ok or is there a better phrasing that can be used for the position that just finished that might soften the blow of applying for posts whilst not affiliated to a current institution?<issue_comment>username_1: I would not highlight it at all. I would avoid using the CV structure that actually highlights the "Current Post" and go for a general "Work Experience" section (Teaching/Research/Work experience could be used together or as separate sections depending on the individual case). Example of what is usually on the CV (when somebody is looking for a job while still being on a contract): > > ### Work Experience > > > Sep 2018—current: Lecturer at The University of XXX > > > brief description, responsibilities, projects, achievements, etc (whatever is applicable) > > > Sep 2011—July 2018: Teaching Assistant at The University of YYY > > > ... > > > In your case, I suggest: > > ### Work Experience > > > Sep 2018—Oct 2021: Lecturer at The University of XXX > > > brief description, responsibilities, projects, achievements, etc (whatever is applicable) > > > Sep 2011—July 2018: Teaching Assistant at The University of YYY > > > ... > > > (bold font on "current" and "Oct 2021" is to highlight the difference, not to be used in the CV) Adopting this pattern would allow giving the correct information without necessarily highlighting the fact that you are in-between jobs right now (if that is your goal). I doubt this is really important information during the CV screening\review stage, but this question might come up during the interview, where you would be able to describe the situation in the best possible light. Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: A simple alternative, which is fairly standard on a CV, is just to title this section as "Employment", without using any descriptive adjective to specify the tense. You then list the positions you have held along with the relevant dates, and these speak for themselves. Admissions panels understand that productive people sometimes have gaps between employment (particularly when they work on contract) so there is no great need to "soften the blow". Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: Between contracts you may call yourself a consultant. Details of your consultancy's clients/projects are, of course, confidential. Upvotes: -1
2021/10/21	1,021	4,361	<issue_start>username_0: I am a postdoc in math who defended his Ph.D. a year ago. I have 5 papers where three of them were written by me(only author). I have always made some (minor) problems that the most referees (except one referee who read my paper and asked me to revise it; the paper is submitted international Mathematics Research Notices) reject my paper at the first, which make me really sad, then I fix them and submit other journals. On the other hand, I have two papers with some great mathematicians that the referees wrote nice reports. I would appreciate it if one could give me some advice for the following questions: 1)When I wrote a paper, then I put it in arxiv, and then I submitted it to some journal. I was wondering that I don't put the paper in arxiv anymore and submit it first and then if it is accepted, then I put it in arxiv. 2) When I was noticed that I made a mistake in my paper (by some referee or colleagues), I felt so bad as my paper has been in arxiv for a while and some mathematicians read it and they found out that I made a mistake. I was thinking that affects my reputation, e.g., I have this thing in my mind that they don't count me anymore as a good mathematician and never read my future paper because they think this guy always makes mistakes. This thought is killing me, in particular, I think since I made some mistakes in my papers, no one will read my future papers. I read my papers several times and checked, but there are still some problems, even I decided to ask some good to read my paper and then I add their name, but they said no. I have neither a mentor nor a supervisor to help me. I would be grateful if I could hear some advice for my career.<issue_comment>username_1: First, everyone makes mistakes. The people that you fear are judging you also make mistakes. It is part of the human condition. It is sad that when you put a paper on arXiv that those finding errors don't contact you so that you can fix them. It would be better if they did, but that might also make you sad. The best solution, actually, is to find some other people to work with and bounce ideas off of. If they are trustworthy, as most are, then they can give you feedback without fear of and bad effects. Another solution, if you really have no one to work with, is to submit your work first and depend on the reviewers to give you the feedback that you didn't get otherwise. And note that those reviewers also make mistakes. But if you take their reviews to heart, then the first look at your paper will see a more refined product than you could produce without feedback. Collaboration in math is now recognized as a good thing. In the past it wasn't used so much, but the internet has changed a lot of things. Don't overthink it too much. Everyone makes mistakes. I just read that Einstein's first estimate of gravitational effects in general relativity was off by a factor of two. Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: You need to chill out. Rejection of papers is a normal part of research work, and something that academics at all levels experience regularly. Making mistakes in published work is also something that unfortunately happens occasionally; researchers are not infallible, and neither are peer-reviewers. When you find a mistake in your published work (or when someone else finds it for you), you are generally expected to correct your paper in a timely manner (unless the mistake is so small that a correction is not warranted), but it is unlikely there will be any reputational damage if you do this. Sometimes we make mistakes in research work, and it is entirely possible that mistakes will make it through the peer-review process for a journal without being discovered. That is why journals provide processes for errata, corrigendum and retraction. When academics point out mistakes in each other's work, this is a collaborative service that is a healthy part of the research environment. It means that there are extra sets of eyes on your work, helping you to ensure that mistakes are corrected as soon as possible. Sensible academics do not search for mistakes in the work of others with a view to "discrediting" them --- they do this with a view to helping improve the published literature in their field and helping ensure that mistakes are not repeated. Upvotes: 2
2021/10/21	620	2,604	<issue_start>username_0: I've made a new discovery. It has prompted me to make new hypotheses in multiple areas - not particularly related to each other. I have already conducted experiments to demonstrate these. I am now organizing all the data for publishing. My concern is, once I publish the initial discovery, I think readers will immediately ask the same questions which I've already addressed with my other experiments. I think typically I should NOT include several different types of experiments covering multiple topics, all in a single paper, right? But I think it would be cool if I can be first to publish on them. So I dont want to invite competition by excluding them from the initial paper. If I submit multiple papers (one for each area/experiment) how can I ensure they all get published together? I'm afraid if some gets rejected and some not, then someone might read my published paper, get the same idea as me, and then beat me to publishing on those other areas.<issue_comment>username_1: > > If I submit multiple papers (one for each area/experiment) how can I ensure they all get published together? > > > You cannot "ensure" it. You can ask the editor in your cover letter to publish the papers together. The editor will decide if it is appropriate. The premise > > I should NOT include several different types of experiments covering multiple topics, all in a single paper > > > would depend on the topic and journal. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: As Prof. <NAME> writes in a comment, you can write a series of papers with titles "Blah blah blah: Part I", "Blah blah blah: Part II", and so on. It's then obvious to the editors of the journal that they should be published together. Note you'll have to send them all to the same journal, for obvious reasons, and be sure to say they should be published together as well in the cover letter. Most journals these days have policies to upload papers as soon as they're ready and not hold them to compile into an issue, but when the papers are clearly part of the same parcel, they can make an exception. > > I'm afraid if some gets rejected and some not, then someone might read my published paper, get the same idea as me, and then beat me to publishing on those other areas. > > > I don't know the details, of course, but this strikes me as improbable - they would have to read your paper, do the experiment, and then get through the peer review process faster than you. Given that your paper is already written and submitted, it's unlikely anyone will beat you to publishing it. Upvotes: 2
2021/10/21	4,832	19,997	<issue_start>username_0: I’m looking to apply for my MCS at a well-known North-American university – the same university where I completed my BCS with honors. My grades are good, more than sufficient to get into an MCS program. My BCS GPA at completion was a 3.6. However, I was young and especially dumb in university. I won’t go into details, but I’m lucky to not be in prison right now. My professors and instructors fought hard to keep the university from expelling me. I owe another group of staff who kept another entire department calm. There was no property damage, injuries, or anything like that. I was supposed to be on permanent disciplinary probation for it, with the understanding that any misstep would result in my permanent expulsion. However, my official transcript shows “in good disciplinary standing” after a year. I was never placed back on probation. There is no avoiding that blemish (and nor should there). There isn’t a single instructor, professor, assistant dean, associate dean, or dean who doesn’t know what happened. I have an excellent relationship with my former instructors and professors. My relationship with the various levels of the deans would be best described as non-existent, save one assistant dean. TLDR: I made a pretty large, well-known (at the university) mistake that should’ve seen me be expelled and jailed. Instead, I was officially placed on disciplinary probation for a year. It should’ve been permanent (by transcript records). Relationship with former instructors/professors is excellent. Relationship with former dean, assistant dean, and associate dean is non-existent. Am I screwed? ### Addressing comments * Absolutely it’s important to acknowledge my past, without dwelling on it too much. That balance will be for me and an admissions board to determine. * Any letter of recommendations I get would be from three respected professors, and two very reputable and trusted instructors. The professors haven’t been at the university as long as the instructors. The professors are important members of a research group. Additionally, I've done graduate-like work with two of them, with a couple articles published. Both instructors have the ear of the dean. * Legal office: I'm not sure how involved they were. I've only ever heard rumors that a federal agency was called. That's never been confirmed (to me). I know that the highest levels of the university administrative team (up to and including the president and chancellor) were read into what had happened. * Time Frame: within the last five years. It's recent enough that most faculty and staff who were involved remember the events and are still employed at the university. With the exception of “the other department” the only group who refused to speak to me would be my deans, with one exception. * I have made steps to make peace with everyone involved, over the years. Some of them have gone unanswered, some of them have been accepted with open arms. It varied heavily on who I’m talking to and their mood that day. * I'm not able to openly speak about what happened, that's partially why I haven't explained what actually happened here (as well as to maintain a little bit of privacy for all of those involved). In order to discuss it, I'd need multiple people to sign off on a full disclosure (partial would make it look like I'm hiding something), which given the sensitive nature is not likely to happen. Anyone in a position to make or break my application already knows the full story. They were involved from the beginning of it. * Financial support is not a concern of mine. I already have everything I need to do my research. I'm employed making a comfortable wage. My employers are in the loop of my desire to get an MCS. They're willing (but would prefer not to) to shift my schedule, as needed.<issue_comment>username_1: Unfortunately, I suspect the only answer we can give you is "maybe." The admissions committee will have to weigh the seriousness of what happened against the evidence that you've learned from your mistake and are otherwise a strong candidate. Some important factors: * Naturally, your application materials, when you address what happened: you will have to explain what happened without minimizing your culpability, but also without spending too many words on the past. * Your letters of recommendation will also carry great weight; if your professors are willing to state clearly that past mistakes are unlikely to be repeated, that should help you a lot. * The details about what you did. The legal office may be concerned about the university's liability if they admit you and you were to do it again. Similarly, if what you did is really horrible and is in the "public record," admitting you may raise concerns about the university's reputation. * How long ago this happened. You say you were "young" -- if this happened more than a few years ago, that should help a lot. If this happened 10+ years ago, then I wouldn't spend more than a sentence or two discussing this incident. It sounds like your transcript shows that were put on probation; so, the analysis probably doesn't change much if you consider universities other than the one you are at now. Though if your current school still has several people who are personally upset about what happened, other schools may be more calm. I definitely recommend applying to more schools than just this one. I don't think your non-disclosure agreement makes this impossible, you can write something like: > > "I do want to be transparent about one incident. During my 2nd year, I was put on academic probation. In short, I [did something really bad]. Due to an NDA, I cannot give all the details about what happened, but I freely admit that it was a major mistake and I am lucky not to have been expelled. [Another sentence or two presenting evidence (not just stating feelings) that you have put this incident behind you.] > > > Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: Teachers support students who learn =================================== If they didn't indict you and they let you graduate, they probably want your path to continue. They also made mistakes. Teachers don't want students who don't need to learn, but they love students who learn and progress the most. To many teachers, you are the ideal student. It looks like you learned and took responsibility. If your tone and attitude at school and in applying are the same as you have here, those professors may likely send good words for you as they rub shoulders with the admissions committee. They probably already have. The work culture is in your favor --------------------------------- The way it often works with a student in your shoes having graduated is faculty dropping lines randomly in the lounge and cafeterias about you with words like "attitude" and "improvement" and "potential" and "learns". Someone might make a call, calm tone, "I've met with him, and he gets it. We should be good here." At any meetings, a few would make a few similar statements, then most would just nod, smile, and vote in your favor. While a carpenter stands back to admire freshly finished remodeling, teachers admire students they helped make a comeback. They get off on it. Teachers love to be part of stories like [Lean on Me](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097722/) (based on a true story). They get angry about different things, like office space in the latest building project. Helping you progress restores good vibes at their meetings like an afternoon dessert at the beach. It's one big fish tank. All the fish know each other and this "school" of fish seems to like you. Normal risk, best to try ------------------------ Faculty, heads, and deans can trip on power. Institutions always have that some. But, don't fear it because it's an "expected/acceptable risk" wherever you go. You may be surprised by who turns out to be your opponents and proponents—the dean who comes down toughest goes to bat for you later, the department head who smiled the most may have been undercutting you. But, that seems not the case here. You probably mostly made friends if you graduated. You never know until you try. In your application, don't belabor your faults, just make *one, single* statement that you are "very undeserving... but maybe the world needs [you] having overcome personal flaws..." Be only positive in the rest of your application. I hope you succeed. But somehow, I think your teachers hope you succeed more than I do. By all means, try! Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: #### People who commit crimes need education too (some would say, even more so) It's obviously extremely difficult to speculate on this, particularly without details of the offence, and the policies and culture at your university. In any case, since your department apparently fought for you to remain as a student at the time, logic would dictate that the same people would be happy to have you as a student as your offence becomes more remote (and given that you have not done anything wrong since then). Moreover, if your official status in the program is that you are now "in good standing", that suggests that the effect of the initial offence on your status has now lapsed. That also bodes well for any application you make. Different universities have different policies when it comes to relevance/irrelevance of criminal history in student applications. Some universities solicit information on criminal convictions and take this into account in applications, and some do not. (For more information on this you may want to read about the ["ban the box" movement](https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/04/ban-the-box-comes-to-campus/480195/) in academia.) It is unlikely that a university would solicit information on criminal offences that have not led to conviction, but in your case, where this is already known, it is possible it would be taken into account. A recent study by [<NAME> Uggen (2019)](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1745-9125.12229) involved a randomised-controlled-trial to estimate the effect of disclosure of a low-level felony conviction on a college application. They found that the rejection rate for applicants with felony convictions was nearly 2.5 times the rate of their control group. So, that gives you a rough idea of the estimated "average" effect of an actual felony convicion on an application. You should also note that some universities specifically go out of their way to provide education to convicted criminals, in some cases including offering education-by-correspondence to people who are actually still in prison. (For an example of a post-prison program see e.g., [St Francis College, NY](https://www.sfc.edu/academics/institutescenters/postprison)). There is an ethos within certain parts of academia that encourages education for people who have committed criminal offences, as a means to give them pathways towards success in a law-abiding productive career. I happen to agree generally with that ethos (though with some limitations and caveats), so I would generally not hold a prior criminal offence against an applicant for a university education program, unless there were some serious ongoing risk in admitting them. More generally, I take the view that the criminal law system exists to punish crimes and the universities exist to provide education; not to act as an ancillary legal system. Of course, like any other major public institutions, universities want to discourage and penalise criminal offences committed by their present students, so that cuts the other way. There are also some ethical complications with service to criminals when university is funded or subsidised by taxpayers, but that is a can-of-worms for another time. Ultimately, the prospects of your application may depend heavily on who ends up assessing it ---i.e., whether it is assessed by one of the university staff who wanted you to stay, or one of the staff that wanted to get rid of you. The best thing you can do is to be up-front about your offence in your application, make clear your contrition and subsequent good behaviour, and then hope that your undergraduate record subsequent to your offence (both good grades and good behaviour) gets you over the line. Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_4: > > Might they admit me for grad school? > > > Yes, it sounds absolutely possible. Look at it this way: you say you are lucky not to be in prison. Well, if there’s a lesson there, it’s that sometimes you get lucky. If you got lucky once, it could happen again with your grad school application. I suggest that you simply give it a shot. Your academic success clearly shows that you have mended your ways and are no longer engaging in dumb, criminal activities. Your professors seem to recognize this too. Given the political attitudes of the typical US academic, many of them probably believe in second chances and in the narrative of personal growth and redemption. This could make the idea of admitting you seem appealing, or at the very least, as reasonable as the idea of admitting anyone else with similar academic credentials. The one piece of practical advice I’d offer is, apply to many schools, not just one. This is good advice for any prospective graduate student, so it applies equally to you. Any single student generally cannot count on getting admitted to any single program they apply to. Good luck! Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: This question is virtually impossible to answer by the good ol' generalization of life experiences, and yet... It is common to give people second and third chances in academic culture. When missteps happen, normally the way out is proving you've reformed to someone and have them vouch for you: regaining credibility and re-socialization are closely coupled here. Since you've retained good relationships with some of the profs, it's already a huge plus. When making amends, one would likely need to sacrifice comfort and a measure of privacy: expect some kind of probation in spirit, if not in letter. It is also tied to the nature of the offense: if you've committed fraud, be able to come with the way to handle related affairs transparently enough; if you were drug dealing on the campus, maybe some check-ups with an addictionist would be in order. Probably the least troublesome to deal with would be a prank went wrong kind of scenario. It might be that while you're allowed to perform research duties, the bar for teaching duties is higher (at least this is the case here). MSc programs don't generally require to perform those but otherwise it could cause issues, too. They do some good will towards you, so the issue might be of capacity. Either they would take delight in seeing you overcome your past or they are overspent already and dread of seeing you again. And there is only one way of finding that out. Be humble but direct. Apparent doubt might be a complete deal-breaker here: if you're not sure about yourself today, why would they be? While you definitely can't just walk in and pretend nothing happened, a certain clarity and assertiveness would be good. "I want to apply" instead of "I was wondering if you maybe could admit me into your MSc program", if you will. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_6: I think you need to ask a different question. The answer to both 'might they admit me to grad school' and to 'am I screwed' is 'maybe, you'll only find out if you try'. The fact that you're asking these questions indicates to me that you're wrestling with the guilt that you feel over your actions. I think the more you can meet this guilt and let it go, the more clearly you will be able to look at your situation and see what your actions were, and what the potential consequences may be. This could then help you to rephrase your question as something like 'how can I handle this matter in my job applications and potential interviews to minimise the impact it has on my chances of getting a position'. Do you feel like you deserve to ask this question instead? I think the straightforward approach you've taken in writing your question is commendable and you'll need it to move forward. Good luck. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_7: To my question "Why not apply to a different university where it would be easier to make a fresh start?" you said > > Any application to another University would require sending transcripts. It's more than a little strange to see honor marks (with no history of cheating), followed by a student being put on Academic probation. I'd be back at the same square I'm currently in. > > > So yes, it would look a little strange. But compare one little strange thing on a transcript to: > > There isn’t a single instructor, professor, assistant dean, associate dean, or dean who doesn’t know what happened > > > You are in a much better spot applying to a new university (assuming of course that this incident did not make national news and that faculty/deans at other schools would not recognize your name). Yes there will be something a little strange on the transcript. You should acknowledge this in your application (but without going into too many details), say that you've learned from it, and then move on. If you have good letters of recommendation and an otherwise good academic record, I think you'd have a decent shot at another university. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_8: > > My professors and instructors fought hard to keep the university from expelling me. I owe another group of staff who kept another entire department calm. > > > This isn't a guarantee, but it's a good sign - if they fought hard so that you could stay at the university, then they may fight hard to allow you to stay for a postgraduate course too, given that you meet the academic requirements for it. You also have nothing to lose by applying (except an application fee if there is one in your country, but that should be small in the grand scheme of things). That said, if there are people at the university who you harmed, and they would be uncomfortable with you continuing to be at the university, then you might consider whether staying there is the right thing to do. There are some kinds of crimes where the continued presence of the perpetrator can cause more harm after the fact. I don't know if this might apply to you, but if it does then it's something you may not want on your conscience. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_9: If it was 5 years ago, you're overthinking the situation. You were probably not even old enough to legally drink by US standards. Young people often do dumb shit and 5 years is long enough for maturity. e.g. My buddy once hacked into the network(he was really talented) of our CS department's main undergrad computer lab and wrote a script that remote-wiped every single machine in the lab, because he was really angry that we were playing games there instead of the planned cram session(with him) for a Linear Algebra exam later that day that he was otherwise utterly unprepared for. He was in a hurry, did a sloppy job covering up his tracks(usually he wouldn't, it wasn't the first time he'd hacked the network) and so was caught. The lab guys had to work nights do a complete fresh re-install of every single machine, the lab was closed for several days and the Dean was pissed, but not heartless, so my buddy managed to get a "plea deal" where he had to single-handedly mop the floors in the computer labs, as "community service", in lieu of criminal charges, for the rest of the semester. He was in the shit-book for the rest of his undergrad and the butt of every professor's joke, since he had to admit the dumb reason he did it. Yet when we came back for a visit(about 5 years after the incident as it happens) the Dean(same guy), slapped him on the back and cracked a joke about them needing to watch out for the master hacker. Upvotes: 4
2021/10/22	879	3,652	<issue_start>username_0: I will hopefully be starting a PhD soon, it will be in the sciences (so at least several hours a day will be spend in labs). It is a 3 year position, with a possible extension to 3.5 years, and it's in Europe. It is possible that I will also start a job around the same time. It would be a remote job, in the same time zone as my PhD. It wouldn't be for the whole duration of the PhD, as the work position is limited to 6 months. I know that a job and a PhD at the same time will definitely be difficult, but I really want to do both, and think it should be okay with good time management (e.g. my lab work will involve centrifuges a lot, so I could get some work done while the centrifuges run). Just want to get a second opinion to see if I'm being too optimistic about this?<issue_comment>username_1: The link to other answers will tell you the same thing as I summarise in a few words: PhD is a full-time job. The relevant question you should ask is: can you do two full-time jobs? Also, many works contracts in Europe prohibit a second job in written. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: I'll focus on the formal/legal aspect of your question, as the issue of practical feasibility has been covered in other answers (in this and the linked-to threads). A second full time employment will most likely be impossible for formal/legal reasons alone. In many places in [europe](/questions/tagged/europe "show questions tagged 'europe'") a "PhD position" means you are an employee of the university. Sometimes these are part-time and sometimes full-time positions. If full-time, you have a contractual commitment to work 36-40 hours per week for your university, so this would absolutely preclude another job. If part-time, the contract would most likely require you to seek assent from your superiors, e.g. HR but de facto your supervisor, for any other employment you take on. The expectation with part-time "PhD positions" is that you work on your PhD project in your spare time and on your employment duties (teaching, research, administration) during your work hours, even if this distinction is often fictitious. You won't be able to do this if your spare time is consumed by another job. Thus you probably will neither receive assent for taking on a second position with any significant work hours nor have sufficient time for your PhD project anyway. There is one exception, namely that the second job directly contributes to your PhD project. For example, industry internships in an applied/engineering filed, or government internships that allow you to conduct participant observation in political science are not uncommon. Nothing in your question suggests that this exception applies. Moreover, the contract for your prospective second job will most likely also preclude you from taking on another full-time position. You will have to talk to your supervisor about this, but it sounds very unlikely that you will be permitted and/or able to work full-time while being on a PhD position. If you are dead set on the second job, you could try to negotiate a later starting date of your PhD position and consider already enrolling as (self-funded) PhD student before. But even then, your chances of success are small, because your supervisor probably wants to fill the position soon. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: Yes, you are being too optimistic. As soon as anything goes wrong (i.e. your second job has some issues, or the centrifuges do not run as smooth as predicted) you will end up under huge stress. And a PhD is already a lot of stress, especially in the first ... 4 years. Upvotes: 2
2021/10/22	661	2,640	<issue_start>username_0: I'm working to prepare my master's degree admission. So the admission team provided me with a declaration form and I'm want to know what exactly the last two points mean: > > Read the following and agree below: > > > • I will read and accept the responsibility of the Honor Code if I am > approved for admission to ... University. > > > • I certify that all information given on this application is > complete, true, accurate and my own original work. > > > • I ensure that the academic credentials provided are authentic and > have not been altered. > > > • I confirm that the I-20 Shipping Address provided in the application > is an address where I personally receive mail. > > > • I confirm that I have included information on all of my academic > studies and will not pursue further study prior to joining this > university. Failure to provide this information can result in > dismissal from the university. By selecting yes, this will serve as a > signed agreement: > > > □ Yes □ No > > > My guess for the last two points is: 1. The I-20 shipping address would be my actual address in the city I work and live in. 2. The "not pursue further study" would mean, as I complete the admission application process and get the agreement from the university that they accepted me in the graduate study whether the admission is direct or connected with finishing an English course, that I will not get involved in pursuing any higher education.<issue_comment>username_1: You can apply to as many universities as you like. What it means is that if you accept another offer and actually join that program, then your current application becomes void. But it doesn't limit your ability to apply elsewhere. I doubt that it would actually even apply to a single term-length course (say to fill a gap), but only to joining another degree program. It would actually be improper for a university to try to limit your action prior to accepting you into a program. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: 1. This means that you receive mail at this address. In other words, this is your address, not your brother's address (or some such). 2. "Pursue further study" means pursue graduate study in the field you apply for. For example if you're applying for a MSc in Aeronautical engineering, then you are saying that you will not be enrolling in another Aeronautical engineering MSc program while this application is being processed. If you do, then you may be dismissed. You are allowed to apply to many programs, however. Applying is not the same as pursuing further study. Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]
2021/10/22	1,951	8,085	<issue_start>username_0: If you google some obvious search phrases, you will find a number of web sites where students can pay people to take their online exams for them. If I am convinced that a student has used such a service on one of my online exams, how can I prove it? The disciplinary board at my university has fairly strict standards when it comes to proof. When students have cooperated on exams, or copied from each other, there are often obvious similarities between their answers that you can point out to the board, but in a case like this there is nothing to compare to. These have been open-book exams where any resources, except other people, are allowed. For example, they are allowed to search and read Q&A sites such as Stack Overflow, but not post their own questions. There are no locked browsers or remote video proctoring.<issue_comment>username_1: Having thought about this issue both from purely academic side, and also from cryptographic protocol side (trying to be clever...), I think there is no way to achieve this goal. So, then, the real questions are about the size of the issue (how many students do this?) and about revising our notions of "exams" to make evaluation be such that it's "easier" for students to study than to hire other people to do their work (whatever that work is decided to be). (One example of reconsideration of what happens in an "exam": years ago, it occurred to me that, if the goal of a course is to get students to learn something, it may be better to give open-book exams, because then at least they may learn something during the exam, even if they didn't study before. :) No, I do not want to take this toooo far, but this and related points do not seem to be part of some traditional testing cultures...) Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: > > If a student has used such a service on one of my online exams, how can I prove it? > > > I don't know if this works for all of them, but for chegg specifically: if you find one of your exam problems on their site, have your Dean write chegg a formal letter indicating this and ask for an investigation. Chegg will (usually) send you a list of usernames and IP address of the student who originally posted the problem, as well as any students who viewed the problem. This is detailed in their "honor code": <https://www.chegg.com/honorcode> I have used this successfully last year to find out who posted copies of my exam to chegg. Edit: in response to comments, this was in US. I don't know if this process would work in Europe. Also, all of the students in question had either used university e-mail addresses, or something like <EMAIL> so I was able to identify all of them. Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: In general, it is always possible to safely cheat via expert in written online exams: The student can just forward whatever web interface you throw at them to the paid expert and then the expert can do everything the student has to do without you noticing¹. For whatever it’s worth, I have been a member of huge groups of people with a strong interest to avoid this kind of cheating and nobody could provide a solution. As a consequence, you can only detect and prove such cheating if the cheaters or hired experts get sloppy (or confess). And even then it will be difficult to provide sufficiently strong evidence to convince the board. For example, I can think of the following: * The exam’s handwriting is strikingly different from the student’s usual handwriting and the student fails to reproduce said handwriting under observation. (But of course, a remotely clever cheater would copy the solutions provided by the hired expert by hand.) * The student cannot explain their solution at all. However, if you are probing like this in the first place, just make the interview about the solutions the official actual exam. * The student cannot explain how they accessed the exam interface from an IP address located in a different part of the world. * The exam question appears on a public platform. If you think that these probably do not apply to your exam, then that’s more or less my previous point: You can only prove this with help of convenient sloppiness from the other side. --- ¹ “Locked” browsers and video proctoring can increase the technical hurdle (but not make it insurmountable). Theoretically you can take extreme measures where you only accept solutions that the student handwrote without touching their keyboard under complete video surveillance, but even then you cannot do anything against an expert in the same room giving hints. (Also, I do not condone this extreme proctoring because it is a surefire way to trigger a vast array of anxieties in honest students and disadvantage them.) Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: Am not a teacher although I do have some experience in sharing knowledge. Setting aside the thought that this answer may backfire on me in the future :-) , best way would be to select students randomly (or whoever you suspect of not honouring the 'honorcode') and tell them that you are cross-validating that they did indeed answered it by themselves and have them explain how they arrived at that answer. If the students answer on the lines of - > > I googled it and then chose website-a from where I further navigated > to website-b or i took samples from website-a,b and c and made up my > answer > > > ...that may be just fine. On the other hand if they reply on the lines of - > > I am unable to find the links now but was able to do it before .. > > > would be red-flags (although not impossible given that google/duck-duck-go would rely on scoring and that may change in between student searching once and searching again). In such cases need to increase the number of samples (if unable to recollect how they answered question-a, ask them to explain answer for question-b). Given the pandemic, it would not be unexpected and may even give students and parents that some amount of care is being taken from the faculty end. You'll need to figure out how to do the co-ordination bit across students though. Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_5: Sometimes you can say nothing and wait for the cheaters to get overconfident (i.e.: sloppier) in future assignments. They may forget to remove the invoice from the cheating service, or may let a friend turn in a copy ... or something else glaring. For now, all you should/can do is note the suspected students and move on. Maybe save copies of the suspect assignments (the goal being for when a student says on a later assignment "but I just cheated on this one in a moment of weakness"). My other advice is not to worry too much about it. Sure, a school's reputation goes bad if they graduate only incompetent students, and other students will yell at you if they hear how "everyone else" in the class is cheating; but a few is inevitable. It's not like they dock your salary for it. And these students often go on to fail the next class (where they are so far behind they don't even know how to cheat properly). It's far too easy to turn catching a few cheating students into one of those movies where the student is a serial killer and you're the only one who can catch them before you retire (at the end of the semester). Focus on the good students. Spend a few hours here and there on academic dishonesty, and then put it out of your mind. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_6: As others here have noted, proving cheating via technical means can be difficult, if not impossible in some situations. I've found that a surprising amount of people buckle under pressure and admit to cheating or dishonesty if you simply (gently, but firmly) ask them if any cheating took place. This is especially true if you ask with a kind of calm confidence that says "I know something happened." Do not throw accusations, show aggression, or insinuate anything. Simply ask an easy-to-answer question or two and take it from there. If they do not admit to anything, call it a day and move on. Upvotes: 1
2021/10/22	547	1,768	<issue_start>username_0: I am a Master's student, soon I will be finishing my master's thesis. I am looking for a full-time job and would like to know the exact Entgeltgruppe I belong to. I am studying in Baden-Württemberg, Germany.<issue_comment>username_1: > > Entgeltgruppe 9b TVöD gilt typischerweise für Beschäftigte mit > absolviertem Hochschulstudium und Bachelor, vergleichbar mit dem > gehobenen Dienst bei Beamten. > > > 3.044,70 € ohne Berufserfahrung <https://www.jobs-beim-staat.de/tarif/tvoed-bund_e9b> That's the monthly wage for jobs in the public sector (before taxes, which are around ~40% of the salary). As a PhD, you should get TV-L E13, but almpost never a full position, it can be anywehre from 50% to 100% (paid, you are obviously expected to work 100% of the time, because you have the privilege of working and researching in the mighty German system). In the private sector it will be probably quite a bit less, depending on the sector and on your (language) skills. Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_2: Depends on the Bundesland, company/institute, and your contract negotiations. Often the relevant factor is not the EG but the percentage of the employment time. For example, E13 with 75% is more than E14 with 50% and so on. However, for a full time job it is often 100%, unless you are a PhD student or anywhere else in Academia after the Masters. Also depends on the sector you are working in. Natural sciences seem to pay more than social sciences. Often the negotiations in the private sector are the last step in the process. PhD students belong to E13 with roughly 50-75%. So that should answer close to your question. In the private sector I personally know people who on average get about 100% TVöD 13. Upvotes: -1
2021/10/22	1,275	5,297	<issue_start>username_0: I'm a PhD student. When COVID lockdowns hit I lost contact with everyone else from my department other than my supervisor. I subsequently pretty much lost all my motivation to work, and managed to work an average of 5-6 hours per week in the last 18 months. (I'm in a field where in theory I could have worked as normal, but in practice things didn't go this way). My supervisor somehow didn't seem to notice, so I never brought up the issue to a full extent. I now got back to my department and feel decent motivation again, but by now I have 2 years left on my PhD and only a really crappy preprint on my book. So, I don't even know if it's even worth it to attempt to salvage my academic career or just finish the PhD asap somehow while transitioning out of academia. Anyone else in the same boat? Did you manage to catch up? Is it even worth it to try at this point, or is 1.5 years thrown away too much at this stage of my career?<issue_comment>username_1: If your motivation is now back to the level it was before the pandemic, then it’s a pure sunk cost. That is, you’re returned to exactly the state you were in 18 months ago, so if the plan then was to do your PhD, it should still be the plan now. The number of years you’ve been in are irrelevant. Well, two caveats. (1) the number of years you’ve been in could be relevant. But since you’re in a field permitting work outside a lab, that seems very unlikely. Time is incredibly fluid in many PhDs, and you may well find you can do three years’ worth of work in the next 18 months just as well as you were able to do three months’ work in the last 18 months. Maybe not, of course! But you did say your supervisor apparently didn’t notice your recent productivity levels—that’s some evidence toward the fluidity hypothesis. (2) The above argument is only valid if your pre-pandemic plan to do the PhD was actually the right plan for you. Even if you’ve learned nothing of relevance to completing your PhD in last 18 months you’ve definitely learned something about your motivation toward finishing your PhD. It’s not very intrinsic! Again, it’s entirely possible that this was all down to COVID. But it’s also very possible that it’s evidence that you’re not as inspired by your PhD work as is ideal for an academic career, and could be a sign that’s it’s a good moment to think about leaving. If you can finish your PhD quickly now, then all the better. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: Talk to your supervisor and make a plan. ---------------------------------------- FIrst of all, let's notice and modify your frame: * You didn't do "absolutely nothing"; you did some work every week and wrote a paper. Writing a paper is damn hard and isn't nothing! (For comparison, while I have had some periods during COVID when I was able to be productive, for the last four months I have done no original research at all....) And I highly doubt anybody is saying that your preprint is "crappy" besides you; that's surely a feeling more than a fact. * There's nothing to "catch up" to. There's no cosmic clipboard keeping track of how much research you were supposed to have done or where you are "supposed to be". Like everyone in the world, you did the best you could every day, and because of these once-in-a-century adverse conditions there were limits to what you could accomplish. And if your supervisor didn't "seem to notice", probably they actually understand the situation. * You didn't "throw away" that time; you pushed through it as best you can, with imperfect but visible success, and you're even feeling motivated again. Given the global situation, those are pretty damn good things to be able to show from that time. Now, your main question is about your career prospects going forward. And it seems clear that the person who is best able to give an overview of your career prospects is your supervisor (and perhaps another trusted faculty mentor if you have one). Your supervisor can help you formulate a plan for how to use your time in the next half year/year/two years, and can give you estimates on how various levels of output would impact your job prospects. And, just as importantly, they can continue to check in with you over the next half year/year/two years, update their overview of your progess, tweak your plan for using your time, and otherwise help guide you to do the best you can do over the remainder of your time in the PhD program. They can even find out whether the time frame has some flexibility in it, which is even more likely than usual due to the COVID disruption. It would have been nice if your supervisor had already initiated a planning/overview conversation of this type. But that's okay, you can initiate it, and I recommend that you do. Part of you is probably hesitant to do so, fearing the worst possible evaluation of your progress; but the reality will be much kinder than the ugly voices inside your head (that we all possess). And whatever they say, having a concrete plan for using your time going forward will be the best thing for you. Future-You will find out what it all means concerning the next stage of your career; Present-You can let go of that and just start doing the work that you want to do and are now re-engaging with. Upvotes: 3
2021/10/23	1,133	4,923	<issue_start>username_0: I started a PhD program in the US in August. My supervisor didn't respond to numerous emails, copied to department staff, for a month. Finally, I got some rather hostile responses -- all caps, abusive language, etc. After that, we had a meeting that was just bullying, condescension and harassment for an hour - they said I was not communicating with them! On top of this, they completely changed the research direction we discussed that prompted me to apply in the first place. None of this is in person, all remote. The harassment was so bad, I have never experienced anything like it. I want to leave. Flew off the handle accusing me of doing things I did not even do, that were frankly immature, unprofessional and demeaning. Should I file a complaint and leave or just leave or ask for another supervisor? Also there is a disability related issue here which was not allowed to be addressed, and is required by legislation. Needed permission to take a course in my research field from them as grad chair directly related to research and flew off the handle accusing me of not wanting to do any work or complete research properly. Talked to me in dehumanizing way, like I was a child. My current supervisor is also the grad chair as said - so it complicates things.<issue_comment>username_1: > > Should I file a complaint and leave or just leave or ask for another supervisor > > > This depends on your goal. If you are seeking to let your supervisor know that you are unhappy with them, there may be better ways to do that than making an official complaint (though that would certainly accomplish your goal too). Direct communication would be a start. If what the supervisor did was way out of bounds and a punishable offense by the university (something the university would recognize as cause for reprimand, ex. sexual harassment), then I would recommend going on record and making a formal complaint. This might help figure students avoid this problem as well. If you are just looking to improve your situation, I’d recommend leaving without filing a complaint. Your situation could perhaps be the result of communication issues or a particularly bad time for the professor. It would be better to avoid burning bridges if possible. Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: It is not at all clear what happened between the two of you. I can't infer from your post if it was harassment, or just your perception. Some people are just naturally grumpy, aggressive and difficult to deal with. They might have been quite annoyed when you asked the school to check on them. If it's harassment, the easiest is to change advisers. The other option is to transfer somewhere else to do your PhD. You could also leave and not get a PhD at all, assuming you were not to keen on getting one, in the first place. If it's something serious, it might be worth bringing it up to the university officials, but don't expect swift justice. They're going to get away with it, unless there were previous complaints, especially of the kind that can't be ignored. Regarding the research direction change, depends on whom you work with. Some people seem to change the direction every few months, just because they found some interesting new papers or talked to some new collaborators. It happened to me, to, more than once, and it was costly in terms of productivity. It's a risk when you do supervised research. But, it is your responsibility, more than theirs, to keep your research focused enough to be able to publish and graduate. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: First, faculty should not verbally abuse grad students. However, they should have every right to strongly criticize them in a direct way. On that note, I think there is a back layer that should be acknowledged here. While it was not polite for your supervisor to ignore your emails, it is also not unusual for a first year student to be largely unsupervised in the US context. In general, first year is for focusing on classes, and a supervisor may not even be assigned until the second year. If you contacted the university about them, they likely are losing face with their supervisors. They have at least some right to be mad, and depending on the email chain involved, they may be correct that you overstepped. Keep this in mind when formulating next steps. You may actually want to send the emails to a trusted older grad student to see if the faculty is actually in the wrong here on anything besides tone. Based on your comments - you sent your supervisor 7 emails about class choice? This seems extreme. You were told by the admin to be patient/wait. Then you went above your supervisor’s head to contact administration? This seems like you trying to force your timeline on your supervisor and getting a variety of others to do so as well. This is a different type of harassment—worth considering. Upvotes: 2
2021/10/23	1,081	4,920	<issue_start>username_0: I have completed my BS and MS from India and am applying for a Ph.D. in the US. I just want to know, are international students required to submit certificates along with their transcripts even if the certificate requirement is not mentioned on the program website? I am confused about whether I should submit the certificate with my transcripts or not during the application. Because if I submit my transcript and if the university does not require it, this might indicate that I cannot follow the instructions. Again, if I do not submit the certificate and they require it, then this can delay application consideration. And about the application consideration delay, I have another question, if I submit my application (before the deadline, with all the documents and fee) and if application consideration is delayed for some reason (after the deadline), will this mean that my application will not be given full consideration even if the problem is solved? Will be considered a late submission or something? Almost all the universities have quite similar instructions for uploading the transcripts but they do not have any information regarding the certificates for application review process. So, what should I do? Suggestions will be appreciated. Thanks...<issue_comment>username_1: > > Should I file a complaint and leave or just leave or ask for another supervisor > > > This depends on your goal. If you are seeking to let your supervisor know that you are unhappy with them, there may be better ways to do that than making an official complaint (though that would certainly accomplish your goal too). Direct communication would be a start. If what the supervisor did was way out of bounds and a punishable offense by the university (something the university would recognize as cause for reprimand, ex. sexual harassment), then I would recommend going on record and making a formal complaint. This might help figure students avoid this problem as well. If you are just looking to improve your situation, I’d recommend leaving without filing a complaint. Your situation could perhaps be the result of communication issues or a particularly bad time for the professor. It would be better to avoid burning bridges if possible. Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: It is not at all clear what happened between the two of you. I can't infer from your post if it was harassment, or just your perception. Some people are just naturally grumpy, aggressive and difficult to deal with. They might have been quite annoyed when you asked the school to check on them. If it's harassment, the easiest is to change advisers. The other option is to transfer somewhere else to do your PhD. You could also leave and not get a PhD at all, assuming you were not to keen on getting one, in the first place. If it's something serious, it might be worth bringing it up to the university officials, but don't expect swift justice. They're going to get away with it, unless there were previous complaints, especially of the kind that can't be ignored. Regarding the research direction change, depends on whom you work with. Some people seem to change the direction every few months, just because they found some interesting new papers or talked to some new collaborators. It happened to me, to, more than once, and it was costly in terms of productivity. It's a risk when you do supervised research. But, it is your responsibility, more than theirs, to keep your research focused enough to be able to publish and graduate. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: First, faculty should not verbally abuse grad students. However, they should have every right to strongly criticize them in a direct way. On that note, I think there is a back layer that should be acknowledged here. While it was not polite for your supervisor to ignore your emails, it is also not unusual for a first year student to be largely unsupervised in the US context. In general, first year is for focusing on classes, and a supervisor may not even be assigned until the second year. If you contacted the university about them, they likely are losing face with their supervisors. They have at least some right to be mad, and depending on the email chain involved, they may be correct that you overstepped. Keep this in mind when formulating next steps. You may actually want to send the emails to a trusted older grad student to see if the faculty is actually in the wrong here on anything besides tone. Based on your comments - you sent your supervisor 7 emails about class choice? This seems extreme. You were told by the admin to be patient/wait. Then you went above your supervisor’s head to contact administration? This seems like you trying to force your timeline on your supervisor and getting a variety of others to do so as well. This is a different type of harassment—worth considering. Upvotes: 2
2021/10/23	1,233	5,198	<issue_start>username_0: We are in a moderate sized group (approx. 10 PhD and 4 postdocs) with a single professor as everyone's supervisor, who is well respected in our field. In our field it is normal that the supervisor is co author on all papers unless it was an external side project / collaboration and so the majority of papers coming out the group require his final say. The issue we have is the length of time to get feedback and hence publish, as an example there are several group members waiting on feedback of papers for over 1 year. A particular issue is he constantly breaks his self imposed deadlines, he will say he will give feedback by Friday,then Wednesday, then Friday etc for months at a time. Recently he has taken to playing us off against each other, he says he'll read A's after he's done B's but when A asks B, B has heard nothing. From the group's point of view he is more interested in taking more students / new projects and the delays we experience are his choice. This is hitting tipping point in our group, there is a lot of discontent and everyone is talking to each other so it's a downward spiral about who has it worse each week, PhD students are missing getting their theses handed in and postdocs are saying the delays are significantly affecting thier career prospects. One recently said if their academic career is over and they have no need for a reference they'll report him for misconduct on their way out. To clarify this is a top 5 UK institution. Sorry for the lengthy background, my questions are: 1 Is it considered misconduct / unethical to delay publications through such long delays to feedback? 2 What are the techniques to encourage feedback in a timely manner?<issue_comment>username_1: My diagnosis is that he is overworked. The solution would be to drop half of you and send you to other advisors. I doubt that he is just lazy if he is "well respected" in the field. I doubt that this is an uncommon situation at high level universities with top advisors and active students. It isn't unethical if he is being diligent even if he is "late" in giving you feedback. There are only so many hours in the day and he is entitled to a life. I see two possibilities for moving forward. The first is to seek feedback among yourselves. You have a dozen people who are at least somewhat familiar with your work. You may not be able to get final approval but if you all put less pressure on the prof he may be able to respond in a more timely manner. The second is to only ask his advice/permission on vital things and then only by extracting the essential in what you need advice/permission on. If you send one page requests rather than 30 page current versions of a paper it is easier on everyone. One technique I used with students for review of subsequent versions of work was to have them also send the earlier version as well as highlight changes in the latest. It can be very easy to provide feedback. I used paper, so no paging or technology beyond a pen was needed for feedback. So, work more among yourselves and reduce the load on the prof. Complaining isn't going to get you anywhere. --- I also suggest you look at student outcomes after graduation. Do his students wind up with a career? The market is harsh now, of course, but if his students get placed as well or better than can be otherwise expected, then it might be worth the short term pain. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Misconduct implies a deliberate action. I don't think that is likely; what would he have to gain? Instead, it sounds like he has too much to do. That is no fun for you, but also no fun for him. So he does not have to be the enemy. Solving this issue would make work more enjoyable for all. This is obviously a very delicate discussion: not many bosses would react well to subordinates telling them how to do their work. This is not necessarily a good thing, but it is the way the world works. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: This sounds like my previous lab. It is an unfortunate situation. Unethical, in my opinion, to take on that many students in the first place, but as others above have said, their behaviour is more of a matter of burnout rather than malice. When I was a PhD student in this situation, things that helped me get the most out of my PI were: * Giving PI bite-sized chunks to review instead of larger tasks; * Being specific and concise about what you want feedback on. Have a request email read like a Buzzfeed article rather than a novel. Make it easy for them. * Being a bit bold and saying "I think this is the way to address X. If I don't hear from you by next Friday, I'll assume you agree and will do that method going forward...". It is small effort for them to stop you from going off-course, and if you take this pro-active approach, it is less work for them. * Being verbally grateful for the help I did receive. Understandably, many students were very frustrated with their lack of feedback, and were underwhelmed with the level of feedback even when it was received. This attitude can encourage a positive feedback loop where both parties are frustrated. Hope this helps. Good luck. Upvotes: 2
2021/10/23	4,585	17,853	<issue_start>username_0: TLDR: I love mathematics but can't find a way to study/do research without becoming unhealthily obsessive. Any tips on how not to think about mathematics all the time, on how to manage intrusive thoughts? Background: Three years ago I graduated with an MSc in Mathematics, and published 3-4 papers following my master thesis. I enjoyed it and could have moved on to a PhD, but felt as though I could no longer control my thinking obsessively about maths, so I decided to take a break. My last year at university was filled with intrusive thoughts about problems I was working on, regardless of my desire to do so. I generally seek to have a balanced lifestyle (friends family sports arts etc) and this is more important to me than excelling only at one thing (maths), but my brain would not let go. It became difficult not to think of problems in my free time, especially when trying to fall asleep (insomnia & waking up in the middle of the night to write solutions to problems). I still managed to keep a relatively balanced lifestyle, but my life was sporadically permeated by obsessive thoughts about mathematical problems. Post-math: At that point, I decided to stop maths for a bit. I worked for a year and then got a semi-random opportunity to go to a professional dance school for a couple years, which I recently finished. I'm still obsessive, but I've become somewhat less agitated in the brain and developed deeper connections to other people and to my own body/emotions. I'm 26 now. I could become a full-time dancer and might do that for a couple years, but it's not much of a long-term project. I'm still highly drawn to mathematics and could probably get back into it, whether PhD or industry... But I'm afraid of my brain. The question: Can I become a professional mathematician without becoming overly obsessive/compulsive/unable-to-control-my-thoughts? Do you have any tips on how to manage an obsessive/always-thinking mind? Would doing research in industry make for a better work-life separation than academia? EDIT: Thank you so much for your thoughtful replies and good intentions. Their many flavours helped me get a sense of the many ways I could deal with my problem, and how there was hope in turning it from a curse to a blessing. I got in touch with a public mental health institution and hope to see a therapist in the coming months.<issue_comment>username_1: I think that you should just follow your passion. If you're trying not to be too addicted, then take constant breaks. Maybe even discuss with other people who pursue similar interests. Since you have such a deep love in math, why not continue excelling at it. When you feel like you need a break, or maybe create your own breaks and schedules, do it! Pursue your lives interests and at any point it feels like too much, find something else and maybe come back to it later. This is my advice, but I feel like maybe you should seek help with a therapist or someone else with the answer to your question. I hope this helped. :) Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Since you are at the point where you describe your own desires being in conflict with your brain, and that you are afraid of your own brain (as if you are two distinct entities), you need to speak directly to a psychologist. Having said that, I think most mathematicians find themselves thinking about mathematics during their leisure hours and often when going to sleep (often to the chagrin of spouses). Indeed, many mathematicians have solved problems they were working on via subconscious thinking while asleep. There is nothing inherently unhealthy about that; mathematics is sufficiently interesting that it is a pleasant thought during leisure hours and going to sleep. So long as this is balanced with other interests and hobbies it is quite enjoyable. Whether thoughts about mathematics get to the point of becoming "obsession" is a matter of degree, but since you self-describe as obsessive, I'll take your word for it. We are not really in a position to assist you in understanding whether or not you can be a professional mathematician, or whether you can do so without obsessive thoughts. (There is at least one [well-known case](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_Who_Loved_Only_Numbers) of a successful mathematicians who was obsessive to the point of eschewing all other concerns in life, so obsession certainly does not preclude mathematical success.) I recommend making an appointment with a psychologist to get to the root of your feeling of lack-of-control over your own thoughts and brain. It is probably also good that you are pursuing other hobbies and interests that can serve as fodder for a more diversified range of thoughts. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: I am quite sure that by the moment you will start a PhD, and maths will be your daylong "thing", you will be able to have a balanced lifestyle because now you are trying to do three things: 1. have a job 2. have a balanced life 3. not think about mathematics and you fare quite well. If you merge point 1 and 3, you will end up with 1. have a job as mathematician 2. have a balanced life so problem solved, go for a PhD. If you had the same "obsession", but instead of maths about dance, would you find the idea of becoming a dancer and a dance teacher strange? No? So, why should it be a problem becoming a mathematician? Go for it! Yes? You really need a good psychologist! Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: > > I generally seek to have a balanced lifestyle (friends family sports arts etc) and this is more important to me than excelling only at one thing (maths), but my brain would not let go of me. > > > My view may be unwelcome, but I'll provide it anyway. It may be possible that some angst you might be experiencing comes from trying to be something you are not, because you feel you should be. What makes you generally seek to have a balanced lifestyle? Is it because you genuinely enjoy and derive the same pleasure and satisfaction from "friends family sports arts etc" as you do from mathematics? Or could it be because you feel you should enjoy and derive pleasure and satisfaction from them, perhaps by internalizing social/societal views? If you are trying to be a "well-rounded" person because that's how people should be, or that's the kind of person you imagine you would like to be, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that those are the wrong reasons. Trying to be different than what we are usually results in all kinds of mental stresses and that manifests itself in various ways, including physical health. If you enjoy or at least don't actually mind the feeling of being passionate about math at almost every waking moment, and it doesn't interfere with the basics (food, water, shelter...) then consider trusting your brain more and letting it take you where it thinks you need to go. Especially in the case of mathematicians, much of their best work is done early in life. It's quite okay to be passionate or consumed by mathematics. Please reexamine why you feel you need to resist your passions, because trying to be anything besides who you are can be dangerous and destructive to the spirit, and often the damage shows up later in life. > > It became difficult not to think of problems in my free time, especially when trying to fall asleep (insomnia & waking up in the middle of the night to write solutions to problems). > > > So what? That's called passion! As long as you can manage to get enough sleep overall, how is this an actual problem, and not a blessing? > > I still managed to keep a balanced lifestyle, but my life was sporadically permeated by obsessive thoughts about mathematical problems. > > > Again, so what? Passion for something is a blessing that many/most people never really experience much of. If you've got it, consider welcoming, cherishing and nurturing it! Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_5: Allow me to speak as someone with some firsthand experience of this (albeit in a different field)... There's a fine distinction to be made — and one that only you can make, truth be told — between the ecstatic and the neurotic. I mean, honestly... Anything we do well, with commitment, dedication, and conscious attention, can produce ecstatic states. For me and for you (apparently) the deep dive into an intellectual problem opens something clear and bright (divorced from rational assessment) within us. Call it an endorphin rush if you want to be agnostic about it, but there's a euphoria in working with a problem that most people neither feel nor understand. They get 'satisfaction' from figuring something out; you and I get 'bliss' from seeing it in all its dimensions. It's a beautiful thing one shouldn't deny. On the other hand, academia does tend to breed neuroses. The drive to be better than others, to jump through senseless and convoluted hoops, to gain acclaim and reward, to do something 'significant' and 'meaningful'... All of these can warp us, and can toss a dose of bitter herbs into something we would otherwise find sweet. It's a problem that some people handle better and some people handle worse (and that I handle worse than most). We should all be aware of it. Academia is geared towards the pedantic, not the ecstatic, perhaps to its own sorrow. So really, this is a judgement call. Say you find yourself lost in a problem, waking up in the middle of the night to jot down insights, forgetting to eat, neglecting friends and family, etc.: yeah, I've been there. Now ask yourself a simple question: Am I lost in the joy of this, or am I driving myself like a mule to squeeze out every last drop of my ability? The first is ecstatic, the second neurotic, and you definitely want to prefer the first. The other just leads to burnout. Of course, one can be neurotic about balance just as easily as being neurotically extreme. If you push yourself away from something that gives you deep joy in order to be more 'social', 'friendly', 'normal', or however you want to cast it, you are doing yourself a disservice. If you do what you love, you will be a beloved figure. People might think you are eccentric, but it's impossible *not* to be drawn to someone who does what they love with their whole heart. Do what you love with your whole heart and you become iconic; there's no other way to put it. Don't be afraid of your own mind's capacity for ecstasy; learn to embrace it, and to live it. Meditation would help if you're inclined that way; it clears away the thoughts that act as bitter pills, lets your mind run more freely, and helps you distinguish the ecstatic from the neurotic. Ignore the religiosity of it — I do — and look to the philosophy and the practice. You're 26, your (physical) brain has just reached its maturity with plenty of room for (mental/intellectual) growth. Don't label ecstasy (if that's what it is) as obsession; you'll merely teach yourself to fear it. There is no harm in pursuing what you love. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_6: Im going to go a slightly different route from the other answers. In the one post, you describe your mind like this (in this area at least): > > unhealthily obsessive > > > intrusive thoughts > > > somewhat obsessive by nature > > > filled with thinking about problems regardless of my desire to do so > > > I generally seek to have a balanced lifestyle ... but my brain would not let go of me > > > insomnia & waking up in the middle of the night > my life was sporadically permeated by obsessive thoughts > > > I'm still obsessive > > > I'm afraid of my brain > > > Can I become a professional mathematician without becoming overly obsessive/compulsive/unable-to-control-my-thoughts > > > My concern is that you're describing symptoms of a possible neurological/mental health condition. You emphasise over and over that you feel you lack control, and that this happens despite you, that its a case of you vs. your brain.(\) If so, it may follow you in other areas, anyway. It may also unfairly impact your genuine enjoyment of mathematics by turning it from love of life to uncontrolled compulsive focus, overturning your need for a "balanced life" which you say you would like to prioritise (but cannot). Without being a clinician or saying whether these are applicable, both OCD and ADHD can be described in the terms you use (lengthy personal experience confirms). OCD is the one that from your own language, you may have wondered. The latter strongly suggests itself as something to consider, because its a condition totally affecting focus and control over the brain, in which the brain can lock onto specific items of interest and not let go, or be easily distracted into focusing on them instead of (say) sleeping or other things. It also has genetic links to the body clock genes and strong links for insomnia and nighttime-too-awake-brain. I would suggest checking with a clinician, whether there is a clinical condition involved. That has a few benefits. You clearly wonder if you do, and fear it as it stands. Asking may give peace of mind, help, or reassurance. * You are afraid to follow a subject you clearly love and have passion for * If there is a clinical issue, it may (visibly or invisibly) impact other areas, or follow into other things you do. It may be having effects you dont connect to this. Avoidance may be tricky. (\) In fairness you use the word "somewhat" at one point. I discount this because its a common "Im not sure how severely to express this, so lets be cautious", and is contradicted by the rest of your descriptions. People also routinely minimise the impact of issues, when first asking, for fear of overstating them.* Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_7: If you're enjoying mathematics, please do not stop unless you feel overwhelmed in which case you can take a break and then continue with it again. Being consumed by an subject is rare and only that will give you success. If thinking about mathematics is affecting you and making you feel worse and thereby making it harder for you to improve, then you should take a break. And then get consumed by it again. It's a good thing to be immersed in a field of study so please dont stop because of frivolous reasons. However, if you don't enjoy it, consider a different path and pursue something else. If you dont know how to take a break, I would suggest video games and drinking cool water. Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_3: You listed you have passion and achievements in mathematics, many people would wish that. Now, you have some concerns on the psychological side, intrusive thoughts etc, right? Then go and talk to a person who is qualified (psychologist) in that to give you advice how to manage that. And don't substitute instead your interests for dance classes! Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_8: Have you considered transcendental meditation or NLP, both of which should help? Failing either, when that last year was filled with thinking about problems, regardless… what else was different from your earlier years? Do you see no difference between your brain not letting go of "you" and of "(your) maths problems"? Do you see no difference between merely worrying, and (very) usefully waking up… to write solutions? Can you specify how your life was "sporadically" permeated? Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_9: Disclaimer: This advice comes from a layman. I am not a professional within psychotherapy, and this answer provides only a discussion, based on the OP's challenges, about which family of psychotherapy (PT) that could be a good starting point, if deciding to seek professional help. Better advice as to what family of PT could be viable is best left to a real professional, whilst noting, however, that the PT industry can be very biased between different families of PT, and a professional practitioner of e.g. [psychodynamic psychotherapy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychodynamic_psychotherapy) may not recommend [cognitive behavior therapy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_behavioral_therapy), and vice versa. --- > > […] But I'm afraid of my brain. > > > 1. Can I become a professional mathematician without becoming overly obsessive/compulsive/unable-to-control-my-thoughts? > 2. Do you have any tips on how to manage an obsessive/always-thinking mind? > 3. Would doing research in industry make for a better work-life separation than academia? > > > Your fear of "unable-to-control-my-thoughts" (2) is not an uncommon false [metacognition](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metacognition) belief, and I would argue that attempting to change the contexts of your life (1, 3) as a way to face this metacognition would be letting a false belief inhibit your passions in and ultimately your overall quality of life. If applicable (finance, culture, ...), therapy is one common path to use to learn how to control/face these traits of the hyperactive mind, so that they may be used as tools for your passion for math to leverage whilst not inhibiting other parts of your life. If applicable for you, you may want to look into whether there’s any local professional therapist working with [metacognitive therapy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metacognitive_therapy) (MCT). Whilst [cognitive behavioral therapy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_behavioral_therapy) (CBT) is typically used as a tool to address worries and ruminations related to thought patterns, MCT is particularly suited for challenging thought patterns about thought patterns (hence the meta; "my thoughts on maths control me; I cannot control my thoughts on math, they are obsessive"). Upvotes: 2
2021/10/23	912	3,555	<issue_start>username_0: In (Dr.) <NAME>'s [Geometric Unity: Author’s Working Draft, v 1.0](https://geometricunity.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/Geometric_Unity-Draft-April-1st-2021.pdf) he has a footnote on the first page: > > The Author is not a physicist and is no longer an active academician, but is an Entertainer > and host of The Portal podcast. This work of entertainment is a draft of work in progress > which is the property of the author and thus may not be built upon, renamed, or profited from > without express permission of the author. ©<NAME>, 2021, All Rights Reserved. > > > I am perturbed by the phrase "may not be built upon". Perhaps I do not understand what this phrasing means in context, however prima facie it strikes me as preferring control over the idea rather than its growth. I do not have anything to add to Eric's ideas, but let's exemplify hypothetically. Let's say that I have found a choice of 'ship in a bottle operator' that accomplishes what <NAME> had hoped for, but also resolves any [potential issues with complexification](https://timothynguyen.files.wordpress.com/2021/02/geometric_unity.pdf). It seems that in Eric's view, even with citation to his work, I should not publish such a development of his ideas unless he has given it an explicit approval. Does Eric's stance go against the scientific spirit of [seeing farther on the shoulders of giants](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standing_on_the_shoulders_of_giants) and [academic freedom](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_freedom)?<issue_comment>username_1: The author holds copyright and is, in essence, claiming "all rights reserved". But he can't claim more than what the copyright law protects. You can't "own" ideas, but your expression of them can be protected by copyright. Patent law gives a limited (in time) exclusive right to exploit the idea, but not ownership of the idea itself. Priority of discovery is a matter of etiquette, and should be acknowledged, but, again, doesn't imply ownership. Acknowledgement protects against claims of plagiarism. Most likely here is that if you just avoid copyright infringement you can do what you like with extension. But cite the work, of course. Note, however, that, for most purposes, copyright is a matter of civil law unless you try to mass produce someone else's copyrighted work. Being in the right doesn't necessarily mean you can't get sued. Some IP owners are relentless with lawsuits and can make claims beyond the law - a form of intimidation. It can be expensive to defend yourself against even an unjust lawsuit. --- For a more explicit answer, I find it hard to impute a motive to him. The language is a bit strong (stronger than usual), but it has no real world effect other than to reserve all rights. In fact, this is one case where keeping it private might have been a better option, whereas sharing it is more in the "spirit" of science. Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: It should be noted that all this notice does is to re-state the rights and restrictions that are already the default ones by law. In other words, it does not actually have any effect. The rights and restrictions would be exactly the same if this notice was not present. Also note that everything you write, for which you do not explicitly grant additional rights will have the same rights and restrictions. That is the reason why Stack Overflow, Inc. requires you to license all content you create on this site to them, for example. Upvotes: 3
2021/10/24	802	3,273	<issue_start>username_0: I am sent a lot of papers to review, from an expanding set of journals. Currently I am a postdoc on the job market, with little time. Even though recently I only agree to review for better journals, or for journals that haven't asked me before, reviewing still takes too much of my time. Is it worth doing it at all at this point? Do hiring committees care about my reviewing record? If they do, do they ever look at sites like [Publons](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/94541/publons-is-it-a-serious-thing), or is it sufficient to list the name of some journals I reviewed for in my CV? Publons being a commercial company, I never agreed to "get recognition for my review" there, even though most publishers offered it. One of my concerns is that some of the journal editors are likely to be on hiring committees, and it would be viewed badly if I refuse too many review requests. On the other hand, the editors might judge me by reading my reviews, so I feel pressure to spend more time on writing a good review than what I am able to afford ...<issue_comment>username_1: You are overthinking it. In your CV list the journals for which you review. The fact that you do it a lot could be either a positive or a negative in the mind of a reader. The issue is subtle since spending too much time reviewing (as opposed to your research) is bad also. But if you review at all, and give helpful feedback it would be a minor plus to anyone who follows up on that. But, I think, very few would pursue it. Don't be coerced into reviewing, either mentally or externally. Put your best efforts in to your own work and review as you have time and interest. It is what most academics would do. I also suspect that the overlap between editors and academic faculty on hiring committees is pretty small. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: Refuse away. As username_1 mentioned, the sad fact is that peer review has a terrible return on investment for the reviewer (particularly in the early career). It’s not just unpaid work monetarily, it also has negligible return in terms of career progress. While we’re on the topic, don’t organize any conferences either. Research is the cake, presentation & collaboration skills are the plate and table you serve it on (as opposed to serving handfuls of it off of the floor), and review/organizing/being the lab’s safety officer are the little decorative plastic bits you stick into the top and discard before eating. Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: I expect most active researchers get more review requests than they can reasonably accept, and journal editors understand this. If you decline promptly, in a way that suggests you don't just decline everything (such as "I'm sorry, but I have too many other papers to review at present"), and make an effort to suggest alternative reviewers, this won't reflect badly on you. Personally, I try to avoid declining consecutive requests from the same editor/journal (if I realise). Of course, by declining you may lose the chance to make a positive impression, but the way to make a positive impression is by delivering a careful, helpful and timely review. If you take on too much, you won't be able to do that anyway. Upvotes: 2
2021/10/24	639	2,664	<issue_start>username_0: I am applying for a a Master's in Computer science at United States as an International Student. If I mention the names of a couple of professors of the university in my SOP, and indicate that I find their research interesting, would it be helpful since it indicates I have done some research about the university? Or can it backfire as it is just a single line in the SOP and thus it might appear I am just trying to impress the admission committee?<issue_comment>username_1: You are overthinking it. In your CV list the journals for which you review. The fact that you do it a lot could be either a positive or a negative in the mind of a reader. The issue is subtle since spending too much time reviewing (as opposed to your research) is bad also. But if you review at all, and give helpful feedback it would be a minor plus to anyone who follows up on that. But, I think, very few would pursue it. Don't be coerced into reviewing, either mentally or externally. Put your best efforts in to your own work and review as you have time and interest. It is what most academics would do. I also suspect that the overlap between editors and academic faculty on hiring committees is pretty small. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: Refuse away. As username_1 mentioned, the sad fact is that peer review has a terrible return on investment for the reviewer (particularly in the early career). It’s not just unpaid work monetarily, it also has negligible return in terms of career progress. While we’re on the topic, don’t organize any conferences either. Research is the cake, presentation & collaboration skills are the plate and table you serve it on (as opposed to serving handfuls of it off of the floor), and review/organizing/being the lab’s safety officer are the little decorative plastic bits you stick into the top and discard before eating. Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: I expect most active researchers get more review requests than they can reasonably accept, and journal editors understand this. If you decline promptly, in a way that suggests you don't just decline everything (such as "I'm sorry, but I have too many other papers to review at present"), and make an effort to suggest alternative reviewers, this won't reflect badly on you. Personally, I try to avoid declining consecutive requests from the same editor/journal (if I realise). Of course, by declining you may lose the chance to make a positive impression, but the way to make a positive impression is by delivering a careful, helpful and timely review. If you take on too much, you won't be able to do that anyway. Upvotes: 2
2021/10/24	593	2,502	<issue_start>username_0: I recently found a case of duplicate publishing and at the same time conflict of interests. Here is the case: Someone sent a paper (in Persian) as the sole author in a scientific Persian journal. Submission date is Jan 1, 2020 and acceptance date is Aug 8, 2020. Based on the author academic background it is related to her academic career. She was being employed in a highly competitive university during the submission time. She seemingly adds the faculty dean as the first and corresponding author and re-submits the same paper (now translated into English) to a WoS journal. Comparing the two papers, subject and abstracts are word-by-word the same, and the article body is almost (over 80%) the same (the difference comes from the formats and limitations of the journals). No kind of reference to the first Persian version is specified. The second paper submission date is not specified in the published version but if the first review appeared 2 months after submission, it should be March 2020, because the first review date is 2020/05/24 (according to review log). I have two questions: 1. What should be done in case the first Persian paper was proved to be submitted sooner than the English one? 2. Can this be considered a case of conflict of interest? PS All scientific Iranian journals accepting original researches require that the work should not be submitted or printed anywhere else. ~~UPDATE: Persian journal removed the sole-author paper without any notice about retraction or something. Still traces of the Persian paper is available on paper search platforms. What to do?~~ UPDATE2: Persian journal links was broken because of the system upgrade. The paper is still up and accessible.<issue_comment>username_1: You can contact both journals, of course. Let the editors work out whether there was any deception or improper behavior. Beyond contacting the editors there isn't much you can, or should, do. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: This seems less like a case of fake authorship than it is a case of duplicate submission and/or plagiarism. You contact the journals and let them handle it. You mention that you can see the "review log" for one of the papers, which suggests you work at that publisher; if that is the case you still contact the other journal and work out a coordinated response. Warning: this is a delicate situation so if you are a junior employee you want to talk to your supervisors before proceeding. Upvotes: 4
2021/10/25	573	2,365	<issue_start>username_0: A few days ago I have uploaded my article to the EM system. Next, I downloaded the generated PDF and everything was seen perfect. However, yesterday the Elsevier support team sent an email to me saying "There appears to be an error in the file [ 00main.tex ] that prevents the PDF from building correctly. Please Edit Submission and reload the file." Now, is it possible to get an error message on their side in spite of getting no error message on my side? How is that possible? I ask them immediately but got no reply. Here is the [manual](https://www.ariessys.com/wp-content/uploads/EM_PM_LaTeX_Guide.pdf) provided by Aries Systems for guiding Latex files. And here is the order of the files on EM: [The order of the files](https://i.stack.imgur.com/LjXNm.png) Please let me know what I am missing about this EM system.<issue_comment>username_1: One possibility is that the file simply got corrupted during upload/on their side. Another is that they have some issue with packages/build system overall, especially if you use some less-than-common setup. In either case, do what they have asked you to do: reupload the file. Then, reply to the e-mail giving your perspective and requesting clarifications in case the issue persists. Side note - it is not as much of an academia question as a LaTeX or, more generally, computers one. Can pipelines break for no apparent reason, especially when trying to build on a different machine than originally tested at? Yes, they do so all the bloody time. Upvotes: 1 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: It is definitely possible that error may be in their submission system. I will tell you my story, While i was submitting my latex files to one of the journals of Elsevier for pdf generation at their end, i always failed to get through their EM system. I finally contacted their Latex support system (<EMAIL>) and they figured that the problem was on their end. Their submission system had outdated elsarticle.cls file (This is irony). I uploaded all the files again along with the elsarticle.cls (updated). This time i succeeded in generating the pdf. Moral of the story! Always ensure you have an updated versions of all the packages and files. Note that order of the files is not important, unless you want the specific final pdf. Upvotes: 2
2021/10/25	1,222	5,210	<issue_start>username_0: I'm writing a commentary-ish paper on what NOT to do on peer-reviews. Like many of you here, I've received numerous reviews ranging from very good and constructive to absolute garbage. Some background: Some of the notably bad ones include recommending rejection entirely because of the sample used or that the manuscript cited papers from authors the reviewer had a personal falling out with. Most questionable reviews are on the lesser side, typically including subjective interpretations (e.g., "This topic is not important") to just poor commentary with no clarification of their stance (e.g., "The authors claim X, Y, and Z. I don't agree."). Now, my question is, is it permissible to quote examples of real bad peer-reviews in papers? The peer-review comments are also double-blinded (or will be anonymized) and won't be identifiable (and thus it would be hard to claim defamation here--but heck, I'm not a lawyer). Would it even be recommended to use real examples (i.e., is there possibility of some form of retaliation)? I would believe that using real examples would hold more weight but I can also imagine slightly altering them to avoid issues down the road. \*NOTE: I'm also writing a blog-esque type commentary on toxicity in academia where I would cite real examples of academic workplace toxicity. A possible spin-off question would be whether the answers to the two questions above is the same for quoting real cases of toxicity. Edit: Per Anyon's comment, comments of original nature are likely to be construed as copyrighted from a legal standpoint (including peer-review comments). That being said, I believe quoting real peer-review comments will likely need to be credited to "Anonymous Reviewer" for those obtained via double-blinded review.<issue_comment>username_1: Look for officially published peer reviews. For example, [atmospheric chemistry and physics](https://www.atmospheric-chemistry-and-physics.net/) and other journals by the same publisher (Copernicus) make all peer reviews public, along with author replies, other comments, and editor comments. All have DOIs and are fully citable. In this case, there should be no objection to quoting peer-reviews. Quoting from unpublished sources may be more problematic, because the authors never agreed for their comments to be made public. In this case, it's even more important that your quotes are rather generic, so nobody can be sure you're quoting them. If you quote from published peer reviews, there is of course still a risk that the author goes public and gets angry. Anyone can get angry for any or no reason. If you're worried about that, maybe pick examples that aren't from your field? Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: #### It should be fine, but put in an ethics application with your university first Assuming you are at a university, you can apply to your university ethics office to put in an application for your proposed research. The university will then review the proposed research and advise whether it breaches any ethical or legal rules. If you are not at a university you might still be able to get some advice from the ethics office of your alma mater. So long as your proposed research does not identify the reviewers or journals, there ought to be no issue of defamation involved (and in any case, truth is a defence against an action for defamation). It is also unlikely to breach the right to privacy, since it will not give "unwarranted publicity" to any person or institution. Some commentators have pointed out that the review contents would be subject to copyright. While that is true, copyright laws provide exemptions for use in academic research. Specifically, the "fair use" exception for copyright usually allows use of a work for the purposes of academic research, criticism or review, and parody or satire. I disagree with the view that you need to confine your attention to published reviews. As in many contexts, academic research may legitimately find and report information that is not on the public record, so long as you obey relevant laws relating to defamation, privacy, and copyright. The obvious drawback of confining attention to published reviews is that the authors of such reviews are likely to be "on their best behaviour" when they know their review will be published. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: I would be wary of quoting peer-reviews because you do not have the writer's consent. I don't know if it is a legal grey-area, but it feels like an ethical grey-area. If I wrote you a private email and you cited me in a paper, even anonymously, I would still feel there was a breach of trust. I think reviews we expect to go unpublished, should stay unpublished in full unless you have the reviewer's permission. If the issues you are discussing are common, you could take the approach of combining several versions of similar comments into an anonymised exemplar. As a reader of your article, I don't think direct quotes would mean that much to me compared to an 'ensemble'. I have had comments in reviews that were so off as to break satire, so I don't think believability will be an issue. Upvotes: 0
2021/10/25	418	1,708	<issue_start>username_0: I graduated from my master studies 1.5 year ago (almost). Could this gap affect my attempts for setting foot into a PhD? I have to say that all that time I acquired 2 certifications in different languages as well as one professional certificate for advancing my programming capabilities. I would like also to ask you if should I say (in a possible interview) the fact that I was offered a PhD position but for significant personal reasons that time, I had to reject it. It was pretty bad for me. I appreciate any response Best regards<issue_comment>username_1: The certificates probably count for littlest in many places the gap shouldn't matter at all. Lots of people take a break. But make sure that you still have current contact with professors from your earlier studies - people who can support your application. And you don't need to offer apologies for why you turned down an earlier offer. Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: This should not matter much. 1.5 years is not that long, and it means the biggest potential hurdle you face (your recommenders retiring or similar) is probably not a big issue. You might have to explain (in your statement of purpose or in the interview) why you took 1.5 years off, though 1.5 years really is not that long so it might not come up. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: I, myself, has joined PhD almost 3 years after my masters and has been doing it till now, in Mathematics. In the mean time I qualified for PhD\_fellowship\_exam and also got a bachelor of Education (B.Ed.) course. So my answer to you is that you are not late. But you should have the strong motivations to spend 3-5 years approximately in PhD. Upvotes: 0
2021/10/25	958	3,502	<issue_start>username_0: Im a mature student, i am almost finished with my undergrad and looking to continue to a masters or maybe go straight for a PhD. The end game is to emigrate to the USA to teach in the universities and partake in some research projects. I was wondering, as i cant seem to find anything online. is it possible for a British PhD holder to teach law in the USA?<issue_comment>username_1: I don't see any obstacle, though most US law professors know more about US law that otherwise. But international law is a valuable field as well and UK might be a good place to study that. So it might depend on what you study and specialize in if you earn a doctorate in UK. If you know more about Scottish land law in the 14th century than anything else it will be quite a lot harder (I'd guess you know that). The other alternative, of course, is to move to US for the final stages of your education. With an LLB from UK, you would probably be eligible for beginning doctoral study in US. See [this post](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/176909/75368) for how it works. However, the total market for law faculty at the research level might be quite small, though a lot of undergraduate colleges probably have a pre-law program that teach fundamentals. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: I do not think you should get a PhD from anywhere to be on law faculty in the US. You should do research about what higher degree(s) you obtain. For example, many (most?) of the faculty at law schools either have a legal degree (e.g., a JD) or are cross appointment faculty. For example, I browsed the faculty at [Yale](https://law.yale.edu/faculty), [Michigan](https://michigan.law.umich.edu/faculty-and-scholarship/our-faculty), and [Texas Tech](https://www.depts.ttu.edu/law/faculty/directory.php). The majority of faculty have JDs, with some have PhDs and JDs, and very few having only PhDs. Edit: Upon further research I see that the [American Bar Association](https://web.archive.org/web/20100726103926/http://www.abanet.org/legaled/accreditation/Council%20Statements.pdf) views a J.D. as the same as a Ph.D.: > > WHEREAS, the acquisition of a Doctor of Jurisprudence degree requires from 84 > to 90 semester hours of post baccalaureate study and the Doctor of Philosophy > degree usually requires 60 semester hours of post baccalaureate study along with the writing of a dissertation, the two degrees shall be considered as equivalent > degrees for educational employment purposes; > > > THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that all appropriate persons be requested to > eliminate any policy, or practice, existing within their jurisdiction which > disparages legal education or promotes discriminatory employment practices > against J.D. degree-holders who hold academic appointment in education > institutions. > > > Based upon this new finding, I encourage you to see what US law professors have. Here are three ways you might find your answer: 1. Find a US law professor and ask them if/how they would hire somebody with a similar background as you. 2. Search faculty webpages until you find backgrounds similar to yours. Possibly even consider sending these people an email asking them for career advice. 3. Ask your question on a US legal forum where more lawyers may be present. Possibly the [Law exchange page](https://law.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/legal-education). I think your question is on topic here, but sites like that would have more lawyers. Upvotes: 1
2021/10/25	1,040	4,299	<issue_start>username_0: Let's say, as an example, that I started a PhD in a lab which works with artificial intelligence, and I'm in a position to work with neural networks. If I'm more interested on implementing neural networks on very constrained devices (let's say, low processing power and small memory), could that contribute to my thesis? Some background Here's some more context. I started in a PhD program a little over a year ago. Let's say I hold a bachelor degree in CS, and the only experience I have with artificial intelligence and neural networks comes from coursework. Over the past year, I've been studying the topic and I have being implementing some of the methods and algorithms that I came across. What I feel is that I'm very interested and I enjoy implementing these methods in systems where processing power and memory are very limited. This forces me to look at the algorithm and at my system, and think of how I could better match them. This could mean taking advantage of the particular architecture of my system or a particular characteristic of the algorithm. This is something that I have some experience with. Compared to how I feel about implementing these algorithms and methods, I feel only moderately interested in trying to come up with novel algorithms and methods and diving deep into the theory of neural networks. For the other students in the lab, it is quite the opposite: they're focusing more on coming up with novel algorithms and theory and they really don't care about implementation aspects. As long as it works, it is fine. I have the impression that the other students look down on me, and I have heard that focusing in implementation aspects is more of a job for technicians or bachelor/master students, not PhD students. However, I do believe that getting deep into implementation details requires a lot of effort and understanding of the problem. What I would like to know is whether this effort would be enough to contribute to one's thesis, or if I should change my approach and forget about implementation aspects. My supervisor has been very hands-off so far. He said that it was great that I was studying the topic and trying implementations, but, so far, he has not given me any concrete topic or direction. He hired me for this position knowing that I lacked theoretical knowledge on the research topic (let's say neural networks), but he said that he was interested in other experiences that I had.<issue_comment>username_1: Talk to your advisor. Even if they are hands off, you can take the initiative to ask for a short meeting and directly ask them, "I am interested in doing X, Y, and Z for my thesis, would you find that acceptable?" From what you've written, I am guessing they will say some variant of either "yes" or "that's fine but for balance and/or to connect with other work in our lab it would also be good if you include some other topics like A, B, C." Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: This depends entirely on your university and, in particular, on what your advisor is willing to approve. Convince them and it works, otherwise not. Many fields have applied subfields so it isn't impossible in theory, but in practice it depends on your advisor unless you are willing to change. No one here can overrule anyone at your university. And maybe you need to build a better (closer) relationship with your advisor. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: Oh, if it's about the topic you mentioned, then you should definitely not be discouraged the slightest, as long as your supervisor can benefit from your research in some way. A lot of people work on theory and hardware-independent ideas in deep learning, but without the usage of a specific hardware component (the GPU), deep learning would have never established itself the way it did. There is definitely a whole subfield in deep learning that tries to push the boundary of what is possible on smaller devices. Here are a few examples (I'm not working in this subfield, so take it with a grain of salt): <https://arxiv.org/abs/2001.03048> <https://arxiv.org/abs/1904.09274> <https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0045790621001257> <https://www.nature.com/articles/s41565-020-0722-5> <https://arxiv.org/abs/1905.11946> Upvotes: 3
2021/10/26	231	1,044	<issue_start>username_0: I am currently a TT faculty at school A and I am applying to school B. I have my peers' letters from their annual class visits at school A. Can I share them with the hiring committee while applying to school B? I am thinking of including a link to those letters in my teaching statement.<issue_comment>username_1: I think probably. But you should ask someone at school A. If A does not know you are applying to B and you do not want them to know then I think you should not share the letters. If you have seen them officially you could say you got good peer reviews. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: If your department gave you these letters as part of official communication, then they wanted you to have them and they are yours to use with I would say. I don't think your current department could claim that you cannot use them for applications, though they might claim copyright, for example (so you couldn't include them in a book you publish without the agreement of the authors). Upvotes: 1 [selected_answer]
2021/10/26	1,168	5,075	<issue_start>username_0: One of my graduate-level classes had our midterm exam worth 30% of our class grade. Since our class is too big for proper distancing in our usual room, the professor split the class. Two-thirds of the class would take the exam with the professor, while the rest of us would take the exam in another room with the teaching assistant (there is no intended difference between these groups of students). The class is normally 100 minutes long, but the exam was scheduled for 90 minutes and was expected to conclude 10 minutes before the usual class end time. The teaching assistant was punctual and ended the exam for us at the 90 minute mark. I found out from students who took the exam with the professor that they were allowed to finish the exam at the normal class end time, meaning they had an extra 10 minutes to work. How should I approach this? I don't know any of the people who were in my exam group so I can't reach out and see if we are in agreement over the issue of having less time for the exam. Plus, even if we are, I'm not sure what realistically could be done to balance the scales.<issue_comment>username_1: I would contact the professor about this. I'm not really sure that there is a fair way to solve this, I can't come up with one for now at least. A solution is definitely up to the professor, since they created this unfairness. Maybe they will not do anything, I can't tell. But, you should contact them to ensure that this doesn't happen again since this is indeed not fair to all students, and the professor should know this. 10 minutes extra on a 90 minute test is quite a lot extra time. Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_2: You have no obligation to follow up. The real competition is over what you learn, not so much over your grades. At least that's where you will be once you leave the school because grades can't be compared between different schools. If your feeling of unfairness isn't extreme, you could just as well let it be. If you do want to follow up, you have no obligation to consult the rest of your exam group. Their circumstances and preferences might be different to yours, but that shouldn't stop you from providing your own feedback to the professor. If you do decide to follow up, you have no obligation to suggest any resolution ("to balance the scales"). Keep your feedback simple, factual, and don't commit yourself to expecting or not expecting the professor to take a compensatory action. Even if they won't take any action this year, or even acknowledge your report as a serious problem, they should be able to reduce the variance in exam duration the next time. Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_3: ### Did most students finish within 90 minutes? I've done exams where basically everyone has finished with 15 minutes to spare. Equally I've done plenty where it was almost expected that you'd run out of time and you'd have to triage your answers. If most people finished in time, then they didn't get any benefit from the extra time. Students with a marginal passing/failing grade who got the TA could legitimately challenge the result based on the extra marks they might have got in 10 minutes, but the bulk of the class will be unaffected. @WoJ commented elsewhere about grades being used for awarding prizes etc., and these would still all be valid. If most people didn't finish in time though, then the difference is significant. In this case most of the class at affected, and this is a structural problem which needs to be addressed by the department. The professor can't handle this alone - nor should they try, because reasonably fair assessment is a precondition for a university being permitted to run classes at all. Certainly this is an honest mistake, but it's a mistake nonetheless and it's the kind of situation which is why the department will have formal procedures for reassessing questionable exams. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: I would informally email your institutions academic integrity board and enquire about the policy around exam fairness. All you need to say is that you suspect that the other group received an additional 10 minutes and why you believe this (ie. they dismissed 10 minutes after the first group). In my mind, you shouldn't be the face of raising this directly with the professor, it could seem like sour grapes and bias interactions going forward. The institution hires people who understand the policies who can investigate what has happened. Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_5: Ask your professor to use some statistical analysis to determine if the distribution of scores in the group who received 10 more minutes differed statistically from that of the group who did not. If it does your professor would be able to report by how much. Resolving the problem becomes easy then. The marks of the group who did not receive the 10 more minutes are to be inflated by the difference. If there is no statistical difference then take some comfort in the fact that it may not have had too much a material difference. Upvotes: 3
2021/10/26	760	3,112	<issue_start>username_0: Data from a published study was deposited on the [Harvard Dataverse](https://dataverse.harvard.edu/) abiding by the replication policy of a scientific journal. I have no connections with the scholars who collected the data and published the study, but I am conducting related work so I downloaded the "replication" data and used it to also conduct some new analyses. I have now found some interesting results, and since my new tests are not part of the original publication, I would like to publish them in new articles (I will also use some original data that I have collected). Question: is it appropriate to use data collected by other researchers and made public for replication purposes in other to provide new scientific insights? Should I ask permission to use the replication data for a new publication? In particular, shall I contact these authors and, eventually, agree with data restrictions or co-authorship requests? Existing questions cover related cases where [the same author(s) re-use old data](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/80002/is-it-ok-to-re-use-data-from-a-previously-publication-in-a-new-publication), a case of [scanning data from an existing publication](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/104601/can-i-scan-data-from-a-paper-for-my-own-research), and a case where [replication (apparently without extensions) is used to connect with the author(s)](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/80281/how-to-address-an-author-showing-replicated-results-from-his-paper), and a similar case where [a database becomes available upon publication](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/71567/given-a-journal-policy-that-authors-must-share-original-data-am-i-free-to-use-t).<issue_comment>username_1: Yes, that's not only appropriate, but -- next to replication -- a main purpose of publishing data. Not being able to build on published data would greatly limit the accumulation of knowledge and lead to wasteful duplication of data collection efforts. Of course you must cite the data source. Perhaps you should even acknowledge its authors beyond this citation, especially if you have solicited any useful feedback on your work from them, which is something you should try. They know the limitations and "peculiarities" of their dataset better than anyone, and there might even be potential for cooperation. Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: The data supporting scientific research is by default public. Hiding or withholding it must not be considered the default. So, you're really asking us: > > is it appropriate to use data collected by other researchers and not withheld from the public (which would be strange and inappropriate) in order to provide new scientific insights? > > > Yes, of course it is, why wouldn't it be? Just like when I cite a paper, I don't care whether the author published it to help humanity or to brag about their achievements - I also don't care what the official excuse is for doing the default, obvious and necessary thing, which is publishing the data. Upvotes: 2
2021/10/26	425	1,387	<issue_start>username_0: Is there any database/resource/website providing the full historical impact factors of a journal? Scimago gives graphs of citations (kinda IF), but it only backs to 1999. I look for a database having older IFs.<issue_comment>username_1: Yes, check Journal Citation Reports (JCR), published by the company that calculates impact factors (Clarivate). Unfortunately, this is not a free service. Here's the historical impact factor of Nature. [![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/qF8aB.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/qF8aB.png) Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: I would suggest exaly over JCR for two reasons: 1. It is completely free and you can reuse both data and graphs. 2. It provides historic impact factors for all journals from their first day (as old as 1665). For example, this is a graph for Chemical Reviews [![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/QUL6L.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/QUL6L.png) Source: <https://exaly.com/journal/14022/chemical-reviews> or Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America [![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/D0w38.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/D0w38.png) Source: <https://exaly.com/journal/12356/proceedings-of-the-national-academy-of-sciences-of-the-united-states-of-america> Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]
2021/10/26	1,658	7,298	<issue_start>username_0: I am currently a postdoc at one of Europe's universities. I have a grant that covers my postdoc position (1.5 years) and it's coming to an end soon. I have been working with one member of the research group on a research topic. Since the last year, I have been encountering many problems and I want to list a few of them here: 1. There is no direct contact between me and the head of our research group (PI). This makes the ongoing progress of the project very slow. This is also due to wrong decisions taken by the member whom I am working with. The overall environment is not that healthy. 2. Since I am coming from abroad, I'm facing a little bit of racism (not so much). He considers that we are slow and not good enough to do research. That's what he thinks! Anyhow, you know, things like that lead to lack of interest or to demotivation to work. 3. During our meeting to present results, the PI takes decisions to do some study or calculations, and after doing so, I present the new results and he says that such calculations are useless. It happened many times and I don't know why he requests them in the first place! In this way, I lose more time and cannot make any progress. Until last week, I worked for months on some calculations that he requested, to which he replied: "Why did you do such calculations?" My postdoc experience so far has been really bad. To be honest, I didn't think it would be like this since I had a good experience during my PhD. Now, it's totally different. In my point view, there is no clear path for my research project in the first place. I mean, everything we wrote in the research proposal for the grant is not being implemented by any means. Until now, I have no publication and I am concerned. Will this have a negative impact on my CV and on finding a new postdoc (a postdoc without a publication)?. I am always doing what is requested of me, because at the end I need at least a good recommendation letter. I am really frustrated on what to do because working under the supervision of someone (that member of our research group) who is not experienced isn't really helpful and at the same time, frankly speaking, my PI is really careless. I would really appreciate your considerate answers.<issue_comment>username_1: I think your number one priority should be finding a graceful way to get out of this group, since it is not a good fit for you. I wouldn't advise quitting without having alternative employment, so this advice boils down to... you need to find a new job. In fact, independent of the toxic environment you find yourself in, you really need to find a new job, since it sounds like you have less than 6 months before the end of your current contract. If you want to stay in academia, then this means you should apply for more postdoc positions (or, if you feel ready, faculty positions... but it sounds like you don't think you are ready). The application season is now, so you should be applying yesterday! There is not much you can do about your publication record at this point, given your timescale. Obviously, it would be better if you had more papers, but I don't think you should assume this makes you un-hire-able, and I think you should apply and see what happens. After all, your postdoc has not been so long. In your cover letter and research statement, discuss projects that are ongoing, and how you can move them forward in a new postdoc. If you should end up interviewing anywhere, do not say anything negative about your current position. Focus on the research that excites you that you want to do. Longer term (once you are secure in a new position), to avoid falling into this situation again, you need to develop your own internal sense of what papers you want to write and what you need to do to get that work finished. While ideally you will have a good working relationship with your advisor, especially as a postdoc, (a) your advisor is generally expecting you to drive your own research, and (b) your academic career depends on you developing a research profile that you carry with you to different institutions. Unfortunately, this may mean you need to stand up to intimidating bosses, if you feel they are giving you tasks that are not helping you achieve your research goals. It's not easy to say no to people with power over you, and it helps to also learn finesse in dealing with these situations. But, fundamentally, you need to take responsibility for the success of your research. You may also want to seriously consider non-academic options. I'm saying this from the perspective that you should keep all of your options open, and I am not trying to imply I don't think you can get a new postdoc position. If your contract ends in 6 months -- and assuming you can't and/or don't want to try to extend it -- then working now to make sure you have as many options as possible before your contract ends, will help you make the best decision for yourself. The academic job market is finicky. Best of luck, I know this can be a very difficult situation. Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Since "what to do" was already answered, I'll try to give a few ideas about why this could be happening. I would do so in form of an overly detailed hypothesis with little basis in provided facts, and several or all points might be untrue, but I hope you would still find it useful as a perspective different from your own. So, let's imagine your PI expects you to be significantly self-sufficient. They say people from country X are bad workers, but that is not necessarily racism - they say it with the same intonation about the graduates of the university down the street. They know their approaches/background/habits don't mix too well. Let us also imagine the PI has a knack for bouncing their ideas off people, so when they come to a meeting and try to figure out what to do next they throw in some ideas - however, when it comes to acting upon them, what they'd do (and expect you to do as well) is to give it a good ponder and possibly do something entirely different. What I'm getting at is that this whole situation sounds like a gigantic communication issue, and the gut feeling tells me it comes from mismatched expectations: your PI expects you to actively exercise your creative freedom and push back on tasks you find not that fruitful after considering them for a while more than the meeting format allows, all while you seem to think your PI is your boss and you're expected to do as they say. One reason you might be perceived as a bad worker is not because a good one would do the same tasks faster but because they would ignore/refuse those tasks and do something else instead. This is well-known in the industry (customers don't know what they want or at least express something entirely different when requesting features), but in academia can get extra weird. So my advice is: yes, quit this group, find a new one like username_1 said etc etc... But in the future, pay more attention to what the expectations are and find examples of someone living up to them. People are notoriously bad at spelling out what they actually want, and you might find that you tried to work hard but ended up being too diligent for your own good. Upvotes: 2
2021/10/26	1,373	5,700	<issue_start>username_0: I wonder if this is going to sound silly, I'd rather vent this anonymously online first before taking any action in the real world... I'm doing a Bachelor's Degree in Creative Writing and part of our next assignment is on Mozart. The music they've selected us to analyze is his Horn Concerto No. 2. Due to my autistic spectrum disorder, I find certain frequencies/noises to be irritating to listen to, it's this sort of throbbing in my inner ear like when you listen to something that is too loud or at the wrong frequency. I think it's related to my sensory processing disorder in some way, I have similar issues with tactile sensations. The Horn Concerto causes this throbbing/vibration and trying to analyze it is uncomfortable/painful. This sounds ridiculous but would it be wrong of me to ask my tutor if I could do another piece of his music like Lacrimosa/Requiem or the 9th Symphony for one half of my assignment? I enjoy both those pieces, Mozart has such a wide variety of music to choose from and I'd hate to have to choose something else just because of my condition. Feedback would be much appreciated.<issue_comment>username_1: > > would it be wrong of me to ask my tutor if I could do another piece of his music like Lacrimosa/Requiem or the 9th Symphony for one half of my assignment? > > > No, it wouldn't be unreasonable to ask and in many places accommodation would be required by law. But in some other places what they should do and what they will do might be quite different. I would hope that the UK requires appropriate accommodation. But you should ask and explain your reasoning. In fact, since the program isn't one in music at all, it might be necessary for someone like me (almost completely deaf and totally deaf in certain frequencies) to use a completely different assignment that doesn't depend on normal hearing. I've had to give up music - even <NAME> - sad. Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_2: You can certainly ask but there are several potential issues with your request. I'm always reluctant to modify an assignment for a student because, if I do it for one student, then I have to be willing to do it for everyone. I understand that you have a situation that makes the assignment problematic but I have no way of confirming that and I definitely don't want to put myself in the position of trying to decide what constitutes a good reason and what doesn't. It's true that faculty are legally required to provide accommodations for students with disabilities but this is only the case for disabilities that have been confirmed by the university. We can't make this decision unilaterally and, for better or worse, this is a situation that the federal government takes very seriously. That means that there are lawyers involved and, whenever lawyers get involved, things get very rigid. I'm required to give students the accommodations the disability office has decide they get and I'm specifically required not to do anything else. If I do, we're back to having potential fairness issues with the other students in the class. The path forward for you should be to go to the disability services office at your school, provide them documentation of your condition (or find out what documentation they want to see) and have them provide an official accommodation notice that you give to your professors. Unfortunately, that's a process that probably won't be done in time for this assignment. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: You're majoring in Writing. Write about how irritated you get with those notes and yes, emphasize your spectrum disorder. That should give your prof a fresh perspective about how "other" people view Mozart. You could do a whole book about this even to a point comparing autistic and neurotypicals who also hate listening to that type of music. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: > > This sounds ridiculous > > > It's not ridiculous, you're feeling physical discomfort. Plus, how can you be inspired to write creatively by something that's mostly grating for you to even listen to? > > but would it be wrong of me to ask my tutor etc. > > > It's perfectly fine, but: * Your tutor might give you some sort of excuse, like "I have to give everyone the same piece" or "I can't make this decision myself" or whatever. I don't think that's a valid excuse, but it might happen. * Make an effort your request to sound respectful and non-aggressive, and not like a demand. You've explained it pretty well here, i.e. focusing on how it affects you; just make sure to use an appropriate tone of voice. Also, don't make a concrete suggestion for an alternative piece; rather, first wait for your tutor to acknowledge the problem, and either ask you for a suggestion or start wondering out loud what to do. * Your tutor might have another alternative, e.g. using a painting instead of a musical piece; or even letting the other assignments have more weight in the final grade and letting you skip this one. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: Asking for accommodation is fine -- remembering that there are laws that dictate whether such a request must be honored, and that many profs will respond to polite and timely requests, whether they are required to or not. I don't think you should recommend a piece for replacement though. That might offer you an advantage over other students. My preference would be to do your best to communicate what disturbs you in the original piece (perhaps indicating times of such passages in a recording), examples of works that don't disturb you, and ask the prof to do their best to offer you an option that you wouldn't find disturbing. Upvotes: 3
2021/10/27	2,188	9,302	<issue_start>username_0: I'm considering a change in careers and have a general interest in pursuing research in a humanities field (probably history or philosophy) as a future career. As a result I've been researching degree programs, as well as possible future academic careers. However, I'm struggling with figuring out exactly which degree path and career path would match up with my specific interests. College websites don't give very thorough descriptions of what is involved in their respective degree programs and so I'm not sure where to go to figure out what degree and career path lines up with my research interests. I'm also still trying to define exactly what I want to research which doesn't make this any easier, but I was wondering if there is a resource I'm not aware of (other than college degree descriptions) that could help me clarify which field of study and possible future career would line up with my current research interests?<issue_comment>username_1: In my opinion, you are asking two questions here: how can I become more certain of what research topic I wish to pursue, and are there any general tips for choosing an institution where I can pursue my interests? Right off the bat, it must be mentioned that in Western universities, the number of attending students is generally in decline, and so we are seeing an over-concentration of students in higher-ranked institutions. This means that most lower-ranked institutions are having a hard time attracting students, and are shrinking their departments. Even some higher-ranked institutions are shrinking/closing departments that are lacking in student enrolment numbers. As for a career, it's already hard enough to get a stable career in STEM fields, and it's even worse in history/philosophy/humanities. Even if you get a career, only 20-30% of your weekly job tasks will be related to pursuing the research you love: most of the time you will be grading papers and tests, preparing classes, doing boring administrative and service work, and attending boring meetings. Still, many would say that those 20% of research time make all the other chores worthwhile, or at least bearable (so long as you can find a positive work environment with welcoming/supporting colleagues, but that's a whole other issue). We have to get these negative aspects clear first, because no matter how good you are at research, you will certainly find yourself in many periods of trouble, where your research hits a roadblock, or you will be struggling to find faculty positions, or dealing with rejection letters. In fact, many humanities graduates end up not getting academic positions and continue pursuing their passion as independent scholars. This is not intended to discourage you in any way; but you need to be fully aware that it's going to be a bumpy ride, and therefore you must seek to become as emotionally resilient as possible. The only thing that can help you pull through during these periods of turmoil is your deep passion for your research topic, your determination to find a solution in the face of adversity, and your ability to believe in your capabilities, regardless of what others say about you. Where there is a will, there is often a way. Now let's address the questions. Here is a list of aspects which can help you to filter out unsuitable universities/topics of research. 1. What is your financial situation? Choose a list of 5-10 universities where you are able to afford tuition fees and living fees without getting into crippling debt. 2. Have these universities downsized their Humanities departments recently? Conversely, are these departments hiring new faculty during this year? It is well-reported, for example, that SOAS University of London is experiencing financial difficulties. Check newspapers, or websites such as [Inside HigherED](https://www.insidehighered.com/) or [the Chronicle of Higher Education](https://www.chronicle.com/) to investigate whether any department in your list is having difficulties, and check job ads for the same departments to see if they are expanding. 3. For each department, check the list of faculty professors, and check Google Scholar and other websites such as ResearchGate to try to read their most recent paper. Alternatively, search Google/Youtube, to see if they have done any academic presentation of their work. Is there anything about their work that grips you, excites you, fascinates you? If so, note it down immediately in your list. It is crucial that you read different papers to get a sense of what topic appeals to you or not, and to know what kind of research is taking place right now. 4. The four main trends of growth in Humanities at the moment right now are: (A) Digital Humanities, namely using digital/computational tools to solve humanities issues in ways that were not previously possible or feasible; (B) Global History/Transnational History, that is, comparing historical/philosophical perspectives between different parts of the globe; (C) Looking at history/philosophy through the lens of identity categories such as gender, race, sexuality, etc.; (D) Analyzing historical/philosophical issues through an environmental lens, or with consideration to Earth's natural processes and their effect on humans (Environmental History, Environmental Anthropology, etc.); You might want to investigate your list of departments to see what kind of work they are doing in these areas, and whether they appeal to you in any way (NOTE: if you think there are other important trends, let me know in the comments and I will update my answer accordingly). 5. The next layer for your triage is that of availability of primary research materials: for your research topic, is it relatively easy to access libraries and digital archives that contain manuscripts for you to analyze? Most people end up choosing historical topics from the 18th century onwards, because there are much more digitized materials available, and the barrier to entry is lower. However, this early modern/modern period is also the most crammed with competitors, and it can be hard for you to stand out among the crowd. The further back you go in history/philosophy, the more challenging (or rewarding, depending on your perspective!) it becomes: there are less materials, they have lower rates of digitization/online access, you will often need to master other languages, or depend on archaeological reports which are hard to find. 6. Finally, does the university provide a learning environment conducive to facilitating the free exchange of ideas between students/faculty? In recent years, in some institutions there have been significant tensions between students and faculty regarding delicate/thorny political topics. It is no joke to conduct research in the midst of a toxic environment. If you are in the US, you might want to check if the academic institution supports the [Chicago Principles](https://freeexpression.uchicago.edu/), or if it is well-ranked in [FIRE's rankings](https://www.thefire.org/the-2021-college-free-speech-rankings/). Make a list of 5 potential universities/research advisors, and 3 potential research topics. See if you can contact the professors in your list to inquire about your preferred topic of research (in which they are specialists, of course!). Make sure that you can find a topic or a research problem that captivates you, because you will have to work on it for years on end, facing many difficulties. There is a real risk of burnout, and only your passion for the topic can make you devote more of your free time in order to push through the obstacles. Otherwise, your situation will quickly escalate into procrastination and potential depression. Also, if you already know someone who is in academia (either student or faculty), it might help to gauge their opinions to help you find the research topic most suitable for you. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Unless you intend to study the history of philosophy (or perhaps the philosophy of "History"), then your first task is to make a decision between those fields as their research process is quite different as is, perhaps, the likelihood of employment in the two fields. To make the decision, you need to read a fair amount in both fields to see what sorts of questions get asked and how they get answered. And the readings can't be in the popular literature, but in the scholarly output of people in those fields. You are making a life changing decision when you enter a doctoral program, and while it is possible to back out of a choice it is usually very painful. If you are near a good university that has a lecture series, you might look for lectures in those fields and see if you "get the bug" to follow one or the other. Attending a conference in each, though a bit expensive, might give you a good sense of what those folks actually do and whether you want to do something like that also. Maybe mathematicians are different, but we don't really get a choice. Math compels us to follow. If you don't have that same sense about a field then it will be hard to be both happy and successful if you follow it. First things First. Along the way, you will likely learn more about the universities that do the sorts of things you want to follow. Upvotes: 0
2021/10/27	807	3,264	<issue_start>username_0: I am a 5th year Ph.D. student in Computer Science. My advisor thinks that I have made a good progress during my Ph.D. and I should give my Ph.D. synopsis presentation. In the Ph.D. synopsis presentation, the student briefly presents the work to the research committee so that they give approval of writing the doctoral thesis or any final feedback. If done, it means the Ph.D. is almost completed. However, I think that I have made good progress but not to a level that I expected. I do not have quality publications yet. I have 2 tier B papers, 1 tier A paper, and 2 papers (average ones) currently under submission. How should I communicate to my supervisor that my Ph.D. might not be a good Ph.D.? Also, should I even communicate this issue to him or not?<issue_comment>username_1: Yes, have a conversation about it with your advisor and take their advice. There are a number of good reasons to finish and move on to your next steps. Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. It is a great thing to finish your doctorate with a bundle of things "yet to be done", "future directions", "work in progress". It gives you things to do as you start those next steps. You also have a lot to talk about in any employment interview. You may have a mild case of "imposter syndrome", actually - "my work isn't good enough". Well, your advisor, who should know these things and has some experience thinks otherwise. Once you begin your next steps, nobody (nearly) will judge you on the quality you perceive in your thesis. It is your first major work, but it shouldn't be your best work. Look forward. Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: I am apparently a somewhat rare breed - I have a habit of skimming through theses of potential collaborators. It is about as much of an impact as you might see on your future evaluation: to most, you would just become a PhD and that is it. Do I even bother looking up publications? No. I look for ambition, certain poise with the flow of ideas, the way this person has structured their work. The work itself will very likely become irrelevant in just a few years. Unless you are a total genius who is incredibly productive their entire lifetime or get lucky to achieve something groundbreaking during PhD\, it is not that* special, and people will largely look at how you did it, not what you did. This applies first and foremost to the thesis committee. Now, I also can completely relate to being unhappy with the work while pretty much everyone around says I could just defend whatever I did these few years. It is not an insignificant milestone, but pushing back on the notion that it will be something perpetual for generations to come is much needed. Now is a good time to adjust your goalposts. I have struggled for quite a while with publishing "not top-notch" results as well, and the thesis itself is similar. What helped was Hamming's "You and your research" [talk](http://www.paulgraham.com/hamming.html): spend your energy on something important. When the time comes to showcase some big work you have done, write a book or two! Until then, publish and move on to the next problem. \*If this was the expected outcome, all we'd be doing was PhDs! Upvotes: 2
2021/10/27	525	1,726	<issue_start>username_0: In my paper, I am quoting a sentence which involves a quote from another paper. I am using Chicago style notes and bibliography. How should I do this? See the example below: > > Hoffman concludes, “Actual class affiliation is not as important for > the rise of Islamic fundamentalism as ‘an incongruity between high > aspirations and the decrease in economic and political > opportunities.’” > > > Is it enough if I just reference Hoffman like this in my note: > > <NAME>, “Muslim Fundamentalists: Psychosocial Profiles,” > in Fundamentalisms Comprehended, ed. <NAME> and <NAME> > Appleby (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1995), 203. > > > Or should I also in some way include a reference to the reference she uses?<issue_comment>username_1: Look at 14.273 of the Chicago Manual of Style (16th ed.). You can see an example of how it would be formatted here: <https://libguides.westsoundacademy.org/c.php?g=457482&p=3156527> Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: The important issue is not the citation style. The important issue is that you should look at the original source, the paper that Hoffman quotes from. This way you will be able to give credit to the person who wrote it, and it makes sure that you are quoting them accurately. If that one sentence is all you are quoting from Hoffman, I don't think you should cite her paper at all. Just cite the one she is quoting from. You might find this paper interesting, about the importance of checking references properly: "Monuments to Academic Carelessness: The Self-fulfilling Prophecy of Katherine Frost Bruner", by Rekdal. <https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0162243914532138> Upvotes: 2
2021/10/27	2,312	10,081	<issue_start>username_0: As a disclaimer, I have to say I am against any kind of censorship. That being said, academics also have a responsibility to their audience. An academic with a few thousand citations purposefully perverts statistics on covid vaccinations. His statements are all "technically true, but what is the point" kind of statements which might mislead the population gravely. Had it not been the case that he has a good track record, I wouldn't take any action. It is impossible to reply to everyone who doesn't understand statistics. But having a good track record and a good affiliation, his impact might cause confusion in public. Moreover, he uses twitter in his native tongue, while his affiliation is at a different country, so there is a good chance that his supervisors have no idea what is going on. If he published these thoughts on a journal, anyone could have make a counter publication, or simply write to the editor after which the editor would request an errata. Yet, these statements are published on Twitter. I personally feel responsible due to the dissemination of such misleading information. I mean, I am not disseminating them but I might stop this hurtful process. So, what is the correct way to approach here? My options are: 1. Mind my own business. Maybe block him for a peace of mind and let him cast doubt in people without scientific reasoning. 2. Write an anonymous email to his institution stating my concerns, as he flaunts his affiliation on his twitter bio. 3. Write an email with my name on it. I seriously don't want this as it might affect me getting a job after my PhD. Thanks in advance! PS: I know that some of you will want to know how he perverts statistics. Here is a few of statements: * If you are vaccinated, have covid and pass it without complications, it means that vaccination was 0% effective against infection but 100% effective against hospitalisation. (Technically true, but who uses statistics when sample space is 1?) * We can't know if an unvaccinated person admitted to ICU due to Covid wouldn't be admitted if he were vaccinated. (Again, technically true. Either he wants to tell correlation does not mean causation, which is not obvious from the rest of the thread, or he wants to apply statistics to an individual case for a definitive answer, like he did above.) Edit: Actually there is a bigger question here: "Are academics responsible for their statements in public domain pertaining to their field of expertise other than their publications?".<issue_comment>username_1: You can complain to his institution, and it might a good idea if only to make his colleagues aware of what he is doing, in case they are not already aware. However, based on your description I don’t think you should seriously expect that the institution will take any steps to tamp down or suppress this person’s speech. People say technically true but misleading things all the time. Whether something is true or not is a factual question that can be resolved, but whether something is misleading is usually a subjective matter. So it sounds to me like this person is exercising the freedom of speech and academic freedom that are traditionally available to academics and to citizens of a free country. Even if I might disapprove of the way he is using those freedoms and think he might be causing harm, ultimately academia tries to encourage free inquiry in the pursuit of knowledge and truth. That requires giving academics the freedom to say stupid or misleading things. If he crosses the line into spreading clearly false information, particularly in a way that’s clearly intentional or motivated by bad faith, then there’s a chance that some action may be taken. This addresses the academic context. Beyond that, you can also complain to Twitter if you feel this person may be violating their vaccine misinformation policies. Twitter is not by bound by academic norms and is free to take action. If this person is a member of a profession that has a licensing requirement, for example a physician, you can complain to the licensing organization or authority. They might have their own ethics standards to deal with these sorts of issues, which again might differ from the general academic norms. Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: You can bring it up with their department. However, there's a good chance what they're doing is protected either by free speech and/or academic freedom, so nothing might happen. The department could, however, make something like [this webpage](https://www.lehigh.edu/%7Einbios/News/evolution.html): > > The faculty in the Department of Biological Sciences is committed to the highest standards of scientific integrity and academic function. This commitment carries with it unwavering support for academic freedom and the free exchange of ideas. It also demands the utmost respect for the scientific method, integrity in the conduct of research, and recognition that the validity of any scientific model comes only as a result of rational hypothesis testing, sound experimentation, and findings that can be replicated by others. > > > The department faculty, then, are unequivocal in their support of evolutionary theory, which has its roots in the seminal work of <NAME> and has been supported by findings accumulated over 140 years. The sole dissenter from this position, Prof. <NAME>, is a well-known proponent of "intelligent design." While we respect Prof. Behe's right to express his views, they are his alone and are in no way endorsed by the department. It is our collective position that intelligent design has no basis in science, has not been tested experimentally, and should not be regarded as scientific. > > > I imagine what led to this was a lot of complaints to the department about Prof. <NAME> "purposefully perverting information on evolution/intelligent design", to the point that the department felt they had to say something to distance themselves from the actions of one faculty member. Nonetheless, they are not censoring Prof. <NAME>. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: There is certainly a need for proper communication of facts, but the twitter examples provided in the question are not egregious misrepresenations of fact. Even the OP agrees that they are technically correct. To make a legitimate and effective complaint against an academic or expert--or anyone, for that matter--one must be careful to not appear biased or vendetta-driven in the process. If a complaint is made in which the arguments appear petty or open to interpretation, the complainant may injure his or her own influence. With respect to COVID-19 information and policies, there is a wide spectrum within the expert community and knowledgebase in terms of best practices in handling it. Statistics can easily support an opinion from any side, depending on how the numbers are presented. On one side, adverse effects from the disease and numbers of fatalities are regularly reported. On the other side, VAERS data show a decided uptick in reports of vaccine-related mortality since the COVID vaccines were first administered--so much so that more deaths have been reported to VAERS this year than in all previous years on record, and for all other vaccines combined. This is [publicly accessible information](https://vaers.hhs.gov/data.html). Anyone with an internet connection can find it. With considerable disagreement within the medical and scientific community, reporting someone merely because one's own view differs, however strongly, is problematic. The best option, really, is to talk to the individual personally and address, in a respectful manner, your concerns with him or her. It may be that you will persuade him or her to be more professional in supporting his or her facts. It may also be that the individual will clarify things for you regarding his or her position which you may have not fully grasped. In any case, it is the right thing to first address your concerns with the individual yourself. If you were to put yourself in his or her place, is this not what you would feel was most appropriate? If, after communicating directly, you still feel the situation is unresolved, proceed very cautiously with making a report of any kind. Make sure that you do not make the same mistake you accuse him or her of--of not having sufficient support for the facts of your case. You might need to verify, for example, that his or her statements were in some way a clear falsification or misrepresentation of the facts. If all you have to go on are "technically correct" statements, your own perception of them as misleading may be seen as subjective. It will not help your case to appear at all vindictive; you must be sure to model the same professionalism you desire to see in your colleague. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_4: I note from your description that this academic's statements are correct, but you regard them as not being on point and misleading people somehow. (You don't say how, but presumably you are being vague about the facts so as to preserve anonymity.) In view of that, it sounds like your position is a counter-argument seeking some kind of other contextual facts to be brought in so as not to mislead. That is unlikely to be a sound basis for any kind of academic complaint. In such a situation, you might have more success by contacting this academic to calmly and politely explain your concerns. You could explain why you think his posts might be misleading to some people, and give your own view on what other information you think it might be useful to note. Assume good faith and see if you can start a dialogue where you both seek a good way to present the technical facts on the matter in a way that is clear to a general public audience. If you can convince him of the merits of your view, it might change how he presents those issues. (And if he can convince you of the merits of his views, it might allay your concerns about his posts.) Upvotes: 2
2021/10/27	4,873	20,531	<issue_start>username_0: I went to undergrad with someone who I am good friends with. He was always very bright and got into a top tier grad school. I went to another grad school and we're both postdocs now (again, at different universities). However, in grad school he got involved in some questionable research activities. He did work with his adviser that was legitimate, which is how he graduated and even got a postdoc (it was good work and it was from a top school) but he had "side projects" which are now the entirety of his postdoc and "research". His adviser tried to stop him from graduating because of the crankery. However, since my friend did have research done for a PhD, his adviser couldn't stop him. At first, I thought I just didn't understand my friend's research, but now I am convinced that it is pure crankery and it has gotten worse over time. I have tried offering gentle corrections but he isn't having any of it. He's nice enough, just doesn't listen. How do I help my friend? In grad school, at least he did some legitimate research. Currently, he's doing none and the stuff he is doing is getting more and more cranky all the time.<issue_comment>username_1: If your friend is showing symptoms of delusion or obsession, encourage your friend to get help from a mental health professional. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: No one responds well to being told they are crazy. I would ask probing questions: "Can you show me a functioning simulation? What specific predictions does your theory make?". Basically encourage them to apply the same tools of critical thinking to their own ideas as they might apply to other ideas. Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: Adding on to @username_2 's answer, ask your friend to explain it to you. Ask them to show you examples of why they think their theory might be correct. Be open to them being right, and have them prove it to you. Where you see flaws, point them out, and ask for them to be explained, apply Ockham's razor, etc. Where you see flaws, suggest an experiment that would clarify your theory vs theirs. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: I’m sorry for the pessimistic answer, but you can’t help your friend. I speak from experience with an acquaintance with similar tendencies. Cranks suffer from delusional thinking. Nothing you can say will make him see that what he is doing is nonsense. It’s fascinating to try reasoning with such people and marvel at the sorts of answers they give to questions asking them to explain their ideas and why they make sense. But in the end, none of what you say will make any difference whatsoever to your friend’s beliefs. Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_5: Two thoughts: First: Check out [this article](https://ritholtz.com/2019/08/the-illusion-of-explanatory-depth/). The point it makes is that many of us think we know more about something than we actually do. For example, would you say you understand how zippers work? Flush toilets? Flutes? If you are like most people you probably think you understand these everyday objects more than you actually do. This effect is known as the "illusion of explanatory depth". > > SLOMAN: So, the illusion of explanatory depth was first demonstrated by a couple of psychologists named Rozenblit and Keil. And they asked people how well they understood how these things worked, and people gave a number between 1 and 7. And then they said, "Okay, how does it work? Explain in as much detail as you can how it works." And people struggled and struggled and realized they couldn’t. And so when they were again asked how well they understood, their judgments tended to be lower. In other words, people themselves admitted that they had been living in this illusion, that they understood how these things worked, when, in fact, they don’t. > > > Something similar might work on your friend. Ask them to explain the mainstream theory, why we believe it, etc. Second: Check out [this article](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/225381383_What_to_do_when_the_trisector_comes), which deals with a mathematical crank known as the "trisector" who claims to be able to trisect an angle with just compass and straightedge, which is something that has been proven to be impossible. The author, who deals a lot with cranks, says you should not examine their proof for an error or ask them to find the error in the proof of impossibility. Instead, you should: > > To the first letter from a trisector respond politely, being sure to congratulate him for the goodness of his approximation, or its simplicity, or his cleverness in finding a new approximation. Include a computer printout giving the errors in the construction for angles of various sizes - I go from 0 to 180 degrees in steps of three. This is important because the computer still has the power to inspire respect and awe. Also, enclose some other approximate trisections with some remark like, "I thought you might be interested in seeing how other people have gotten approximate trisections." > > > I have greatly improved my success rate in recent years with this technique. I still remember my gratification at my first success. An engineer in New Jersey had produced a large hard-bound book, more than 250 pages long, with the title Adventures in Geometry stamped on the cover in gold. I thought that anyone who had invested so much in the trisection was beyond salvation, but in response to my letter he wrote in part: > > > "I am satisfied that I have achieved only an approximation, and I will now put it aside." > > > A soul snatched from damnation! I have had some other recent successes and perhaps some of the now silent trisectors are convinced too. > > > This might not be adaptable to your friend's field, unfortunately. Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_6: A question worth pondering - is it crank, or just alternative? What's the difference? Cranks believe that the truth is being suppressed, that their work is particularly astounding, and that any criticism is an attempt to suppress them. If the views are merely "alternative", then they're trying to explore possibilities, and that's actually an acceptable thing. Most new theories begin as "alternative", and the greatest discoveries happen when someone is viewing things from an unusual perspective. The approach to helping your friend to be better is different depending on which category it falls into. True cranks need to discover their problem for themselves, which means you need to point them in the direction that will lead them to self-discovery of the problems. Alternative researchers are best helped through guidance - often the best approach here is to ask probing questions and offer possible ways to improve the work, rather than trying to get it discarded entirely. To demonstrate the difference between these, consider General Relativity and theories that compete with it. In the "alternative" category, you will find a broad array of [alternatives](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternatives_to_general_relativity), many of which have been tested and found to not match experiments, but some of which have come from quite well-known physicists and mathematicians. This is healthy - if General Relativity is going to be improved upon, it will be through development of alternatives. Meanwhile, an example of a "crank" within this field is [Autodynamics](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autodynamics). The creator of this "theory" (a term I am using quite loosely, and unscientifically) claims that his first book on it was immediately blacklisted by the "National Atomic Energy Commission" of Argentina, and that a daily newspaper published an account of his theory, and was then threatened with being shut down if they published any more from him. To be clear, this is information provided on the official Autodynamics website (which I won't link to, here - if you want to view it, follow the above Wikipedia link, it's linked from there). Essentially, the claim is that Autodynamics didn't "win" against General Relativity because it's being suppressed. It can, at times, be hard to tell the difference. The best way to tell, is that aspect of claimed suppression. Does your friend believe their work is being suppressed? Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_7: The way you have framed this question, and the answers so far (whether optimistic or pessimistic), have all approached the situation as an intellectual one, about convincing your friend that the knowledge they believe they have is incorrect. I suggest that this is not the way to proceed. Instead, think of this as an issue of communities. Your friend's academic work has left the 'respectable academia' community and moved into 'crank' territory – this may be within a community of likeminded others (the internet makes this very easy to achieve) or perhaps as a lone operator. The situation isn't like a misinformed student, it is analogous to (but not the same as, and not as serious as!) someone who believes in a conspiracy theory, religious cult or extremist beliefs. There is no one set of reasons people can be vulnerable to such beliefs, but common characteristics might include loneliness, a sense of frustration or powerlessness in their previous situation, and isolation which enables them to lose perspective quickly. Under this view, trying to help your friend by discussing the correctness/validity/truth/whatever of the work they are doing is orthogonal to the problem. Instead, see what you can do about the underlying issue. Perhaps your friend was frustrated with what they saw as a lack of progress in mainstream academia. Perhaps they are corresponding with someone charismatic who gives them the positive feedback they have been craving. Perhaps they are very bored (and lockdown has made this much worse!) and when they are writing their crank work they feel a sense of purpose and satisfaction. Therefore, consider what you would do to help any friend who seemed to be 'falling into the wrong community'. Perhaps inviting them to join your squash league would help. Perhaps encouraging them to volunteer teaching highschoolers would help. Perhaps reminding them of some non-academic pursuits they were involved in when you were undergrads would help. You could also gain insight by looking online at advice given to people with friends/relatives who are conspiracy theorists, COVID-19 deniers or have extremist political views (again, I am not suggesting that these are all equivalent!) which typically stresses that arguing directly with them doesn't really help. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_8: One approach that might be useful here is to focus attention on the academic filters relating to publication of research. If your friend is truly absorbed by nonsensical theories and ideas, presumably he will have a hard time publishing those ideas in academic journals, and this will make it hard for him to establish a career where he can be paid to do his research. Consequently, you might start by asking him if he is having any success publishing the ideas that you regard as "crank" ideas. If he has been unable to get through peer review then you might further inquire as to the problems he was having and this could lead to a frutiful discussion of what would be required for his ideas and theories to be proved or disproved. Try to focus on the falsifiability of his theories and what kind of evidence he could examine to show that the ideas are true or false. Ask him to explain his theory to you and to explain how he will demonstrate its merit to peer reviewers. You can then raise objections and challenges as "devil's advocate" to "assist" him with preparing for peer review. (Of course, you can also tell him you find his ideas to be wrong.) That will allow you to challenge the merits of his ideas from the perspective of helping him to prepare for the rigours of academic publication. If he truly is well off-track, one possibility is that he might come to reject any value in peer-review entirely. If he seems to be heading in this direction, encourage him to look at the merits of the filtering and feedback system that peer-review provides (especially for novice researchers). Remind him that he was able to complete his PhD, so in principle he should have the skills needed to put forward publishable work if his theory is sound. (And of course, if he is having no trouble having his ideas published in reasonable academic journals, this might mean that your diagnosis of their crankery is incorrect.) Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_9: I don't know. You say little about the actual field of research he (you too ?) is in. You are a bit vague of the depth of the friendship. Seems like you two are just ex-sparring partners from undergrad days and the relation has fallen off since then. But you do feel concerned on a human level and want to know what to do in this situation. I suppose you fear he'll be removed from his present position and/or excluded from serious consideration for any future appointment. One thing I know (though knowing and applying are two separate things) is that you can't be successful when trying to play two roles in someone's life: you can't be friend and critical colleague. Bearing in mind some similar posts, it might be worth looking into if any other event has occurred in his life in recent years that may have started him down this road. This could be a traumatic event, a medical condition, a painful relationship break-up or - most likely here - encountering a charismatic yet misleading pseudo-scientist. Something you can do is to go to your own doctor and frankly discuss the situation and how you should best handle it. The doctor may have ideas or experience of use. Or they may suggest that you contact a psychologist/counsellor. Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_10: Unlike the stereotypical crank, your friend is actively engaged in research to make a living (presumably). The absence of credible work will automatically force him to confront some tough questions, following which he will have to make a tough, decisive choice. All is probably not lost. The best you can do is to stay around and be supportive (of the person, not the suspect research) in case he does fall upon hard times and could use help. Would be nice to avoid the temptation to be smug and say I-told-you-so if this does happen. Otherwise, it's best to play a passive role rather than actively counter him. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_11: I think that, rather than discussing the specifics of the "work" of your friend, it might help to encourage your friend to ["take the outside view"](https://trickle.app/drip/16304-taking-the-outside-view-can-overcome-optimism-and-provide-a-more-realistic-assessment/): briefly ignore the great potential/novelty/grandeur/etc. of this particular work, and instead consider what to do with "other works superficially similar to yours". If they accept this and have a reasonable view of "similar works" (Nobel prize winning works are the wrong reference class...), their frame of mind should become a bit closer to yours, at least for a moment. Some questions to consider can be: Would it be worth spending as much time on those projects as you do now? Would now be the best moment to spend time on it, or are there more urgent or less risky projects to work on right now? Is this good for your career? If there are simpler or more concrete goals that the grand work in theory should resolve, would it be better to primarily focus on these goals instead?1 If your friend either rejects this exercise, insists on an incorrect reference class, or concludes that it's nevertheless still worth it to spend most of their time on this, then I don't think there's much you can do. They've made their decision. --- 1: This seems to have worked at least once: "I believe [a hypothesis commonly believed to be true] is false. (...) Even if [this hypothesis] is true, my belief in the opposite has led me to many ideas I’d have never found otherwise.", [<NAME>, On the Strong Exponential Time Hypothesis](https://www.imsc.res.in/~vraman/exact/ryan.pdf) And yes, said ideas indeed did lead to a some good papers. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_12: If you spend a reasonable amount of time with this person then you can sidestep the whole crankery problem using animal training techniques such as training an incompatible behavior and least reinforcing scenario. (This doesn't work for problems like cold emails from trisectors, unfortunately, it requires a pretty strong commitment to regular reinforcement.) Train an incompatible behavior: Get them to start working on something else, some problem that actually is solvable. You don't have to say work on something else instead of crankery at all, simply working on something else will be incompatible with working on crankery (only so many hours in the day, etc.). As an example, a bird trainer who didn't want his bird to land on his head trained the bird to land on a specific target instead. Training the bird to land on the target was much easier than trying to convince the bird not to land on his head, and obviously if the bird lands on the target then it is not landing on his head. This shouldn't be too hard, since most academics are easy to distract with any new problem, and you can use lots of positive reinforcement (asking to hear about results, showing interest in the problem, praise for any clever solution, etc.). Least reinforcing scenario: When they go back to the old, unwanted behavior (crankery), just ignore it and use positive reinforcement for the new, wanted behavior. If you try to argue with them that the crankery is useless/bad/etc. then they will just be motivated to come up with new reasons why it is good/important/etc. and spend more time thinking about it/working on it....the opposite of what you want! Instead just ignore it and change the subject whenever it comes up. If they start a conversation with [crankery, blahblahblah], you could redirect with something like, "Actually I have been spending all of my time on [cool topic]! Did you hear about [cool application] they have been using it for? It is really nifty, let me tell you about it..." (Or even just make a non-committal noise and then start talking about something entirely unrelated.) Talking about the crankery doesn't get any reinforcement from you (good or bad), it just falls into a black hole and gets no response (to the crankery) at all. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_13: Sometimes cranks are right. Consider Noah who became "delusional" that a great flood was coming. All the scientists of the world opposed him. If your friend is not developing a perpetual motion machine, which is known to be an impossible source of energy, perhaps give your friend a little room for some original thought. This world would not enjoy much of its present collective knowledge without the participation of many who stepped beyond the bounds of what their present society would have termed sanity. <NAME> dared to sail off the edge of the planet, believing that the world was a sphere, and not flat at all. Many mocked him. He was considered delusional. But who ended up actually being delusional? It was those who accepted incorrect groupthink. Without details, we cannot say much about whether or not your friend is truly going off the deep end. Neither can we know of a certainty that your friend is incorrect or less correct than yourself--or even the rest of us. Given the historical problems with groupthink, I would propose that your friend is doing society a service. If those who are "delusional" accomplish nothing more than to get others to think more carefully about the facts and to be open to a new reality, they have accomplished a great thing. Without people like this, and imagining a world in which no one dared think or believe anything beyond what was popularly accepted to be true, we would never have advanced to where we are today. Even if your friend is not correct, your friend should be regarded as having the same rights that all of the rest of us have, including the right to be wrong. Ultimately, what one chooses to believe is a personal choice and an inalienable right. It is sometimes possible and helpful to persuade someone through the utmost of tact and consideration, but it is never right, nor even actually possible, to coerce one's beliefs. Upvotes: 0
2021/10/27	332	1,384	<issue_start>username_0: I'm an undergraduate student applying to the graduate programs in the U.K. I'm preparing the personal statement and have a question about the format. From the website, there are no general requirements on that, but I wonder is it appropriate if I highlight (i.e., make bold) the part in a sentence to grab the reader's attention? For example: > > After that, I took a leading role within my team for the second application of this method. > > > I don't know if highlighting some words in a sentence would be an asset or make the statement look less formal. Thanks for the suggestions!<issue_comment>username_1: I suggest that you don't do that. This is a professional communication. If people read it at all, they don't need the emphasis, which is a bit like shouting. Make it as professional as possible. Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: You can bold a heading on a separate line but do not bold individual words within a paragraph. If you'd like to emphasize text within a paragraph, italics can be used sparingly. (Substituting italics for bold in your example would still be too much.) Also, take care to use only one font family. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: Some of the submission tools might only store text. You probably can't be guaranteed that a reviewer actually sees your bold, suggesting you should avoid it. Upvotes: 2
2021/10/27	1,534	6,271	<issue_start>username_0: My dissertation is just for an undergraduate degree, but acknowledgements are required. I have sent two direct emails to the internal supervisor who was assigned to me, one introducing myself and one asking for advice. There have also been several emails where they have been copied into, just to keep them up to date with my progress. I plan to acknowledge and thank other staff members (academics and counsellor), my external supervisor and a friend. I have never received a reply from this internal supervisor. Do I have to acknowledge them if they've never bothered to respond to a single email let alone help in any way? Alternatively, or perhaps additionally, I'm considering excluding them altogether from the title page and cover sheet where I'm required to name my supervisors. EDIT: Just wanted to thank everyone for their insight and suggestions. I'm still considering which path to take and in the meantime I have mentioned the lack of response to my course leader again, just in case there's still an alternative route at this point.<issue_comment>username_1: Don't do things that will come back to haunt you. Name them on the title page as required, certainly. As to the other, I won't advise, but it is possible that the advisor saw no need to give you feedback if they felt that you were making appropriate progress otherwise. If you sent an email and specifically asked for a reply then they should have done so, but if it read as "informational" then a reply might not be considered necessary. If they are required to approves/sign your work for credit and graduation then it is better to go along even if it seems unfair. First, protect yourself. Don't bite the big dogs. Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: First: their name on the title page and the cover sheet is not an acknowledgment whatsoever, it is just a bureaucratic formality. Sure, it is an implicit acknowledgment, they are in the front page, but it is simply because they officially accepted and (most likely) they did the final review of your submitted thesis. If anyone discover that you plagiarized material for your thesis, they will have some issue as well. Second: there are two sides to their silence. * the obvious "you did not have such a big relation, they did not care", which is somehow understandable, considering the pandemic and the total lack of empathy that people have in the academia (i.e., they did not understand that even an encouraging "good job, keep on" can be tremendously helpful). * you actually were doing a good job on your own, so among the bazillion things to do, a bachelor student is somehow after the least important thing. I don not share this view, but it is a common view forced by the extreme load imposed on people in the academia. So, who cares about being polite? since they did not complain, it means you did a good job, they did not help, so do not acknowledge them, stick to the bureaucratic requirements of placing their name on whatever sheet of page required, but simply ignore them in your acknowledgement. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: A story from ancient Greece: > > [Diogenes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diogenes) was knee deep in a stream washing vegetables. Coming up to him, [Plato](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plato) said, "My good Diogenes, if you knew how to pay court to kings, you wouldn't have to wash vegetables." > > > "And," replied Diogenes, "If you knew how to wash vegetables, you wouldn't have to pay court to kings." > > > So the question is, would you rather be Diogenes or Plato? Perhaps you prefer to be truthful with some cost to your reputation, or perhaps you prefer to be polite with some cost to your sense of personal integrity. It really depends on which you value more highly, and we can't tell you what to value. That said, we can tell you what the cost to your reputation might result in: a supervisor who may be unwilling to write a reference for you when you graduate, or who may write a less glowing reference than otherwise; who may not think highly of you if you apply for a postgraduate course at the same institution, and may be unwilling to supervise you if you do; and who may be in a bad mood while grading your project. On the other hand, the cost to your integrity is fairly small, and you likely won't even think about simply having written their name in your acknowledgements section after a few months or a year. Still, if you are <NAME>, then I can't say it's wrong to leave their name out. In that case, though, do leave them out entirely; it would be unnecessary and rude to [damn them with faint praise](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/damn_with_faint_praise) or say anything negative about them. Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_4: Perhaps the subject of your dissertation was assigned (possibly in discussion with you) by him/her; if so, already one reason to acknowledge. As a supervisor, s/he equally is ultimately in charge to let you access his/her research group to use lab space, technical equipment (like computers and glassware), consumables (like chemicals), group specific know-how (directly or/and by fellow co-workers in the group); surely worth an acknowledgment, too. While interaction of the PI with the day-to-day business may vary (e.g., due to the size of the group, his/her engagement in teaching, organization of the group), his/her work contributes to keep this running e.g., by grant writing, establishing collaborations with other groups. In addition, preparing publications, reviewing other publications, participation in commissions of uni/professional societies demand attention, too. As an undergrad, many facets of this work may not visible to you (yet). Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: Here's how I solved this problem once. I simply wrote something along the lines of "I thank Prof. X for agreeing to supervise my studies". Looks like an entirely valid acknowledgement - people not aware of Prof. X not having done any supervision at all won't notice how I actually have nothing to thank for except signing an agreement. This way, I did not have to express fake gratitude but neither had to potentially cause trouble by leaving out an "important" person. Upvotes: 3
2021/10/28	1,258	5,320	<issue_start>username_0: Does anyone intentionally make papers shorter in order to avoid grammar or reference errors? I've pondered this, because it seems like it could be a good strategy. However it may come with pitfalls, such as not saying all that might be necessary. But having fewer words and sentences would make proofreading easier and have a lower probability of errors happening in the first place.<issue_comment>username_1: > > [If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter.](https://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/04/28/shorter-letter/) > > > What you are proposing is way more difficult than avoiding, detecting and correcting grammar and reference mistakes. Proof-reading is important but it is the easiest step of writing a paper. Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_2: You should in general not be able to make your paper shorter. If you make it shorter without losing any of your contents, you should have made it shorter for that reason. When you write a paper, it is already your goal to clearly and concisely. When you try to remove contents to reduce grammar or other errors, you're removing value of your paper. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: From my experience reviewing papers (and for example, reading posts here on Academia), the length of the paper doesn't really matter when it comes to making spelling or grammar errors. Some people are just more prone to make them (due to being non-native speakers or other reasons), and they will make them no matter the length of the text. Sure, the overall number of errors will probably be smaller, but the readability of a shorter text doesn’t improve. Instead, trying to force the content into a shorter text might even lead to a decreased readability and understandability because some vital information might be omitted to fit the shorter text. That being said, trying to say what you want to say in as an easy and short expression as possible is always great, because it will make understanding easier. But as [username_1 suggested](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/177237/does-someone-intentionally-make-papers-shorter-in-order-to-avoid-grammar-or-refe/177239#177239), this is often more difficult. If you don't feel confident with the language quality of your paper, instead of forcibly shortening just to reduce the overall number of errors, I suggest to try to find a person with good English and/or written language skills to proofread your finished paper prior to submitting. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: There are good reasons to try to keep papers as short as possible while conveying all of the important intellectual content. The shorter your paper is, the more likely people are to read it; keeping your writing lean forces you to focus on the key ideas; etc. Avoiding grammar or referencing errors, however, is not a good reason to write a short paper. For one thing, the length has no bearing on whether or not you have omitted relevant references. More to the point though, conveying the content clearly should be the main factor determining the length. (Along with length guidelines from the journal where you choose to submit the paper). If you aim for a different length for any other reason, you are necessarily sacrificing the clarity of you communication. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: > > Does someone intentionally make papers shorter in order to avoid grammar or reference errors? > > > AFAIK, most people make papers shorter because they need to meet submission length limits. Given that, it doesn't matter what other possible reasons you might have to shorten your papers. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_6: > > "Brevity is the soul of wit." > > > ― <NAME>, Hamlet > > > Sure: Being brief is a good thing. Shorter is generally better and easier to read. It should be a goal when writing, especially technical and scientific writing, to express the idea as quickly and crisply as possible. I do find that when I edit my writing, it often gets a little bit shorter as some clunky phrases or repeated wording turn out to be unnecessary and get removed. And redundant references are in fact a pitfall that things might fall out-of-synch when edited. But I broadly doubt that's a top-level priority for anyone when structuring their writing. The top goal is to be clear and expressive, and not elaborate more than is necessary. That said, there is a practice in software development called [refactoring](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_refactoring) which pretty much boils down to exactly the OP's intuition here -- take existing, functional program code, and edit it for readability and maintainability. In most cases this leaves the code shorter than when it started, and indeed more robust in terms of attack-surface for bugs and broken references. > > In computer programming and software design, code refactoring is the > process of restructuring existing computer code—changing the > factoring—without changing its external behavior. Refactoring is > intended to improve the design, structure, and/or implementation of > the software (its non-functional attributes), while preserving its > functionality. Potential advantages of refactoring may include > improved code readability and reduced complexity... > > > Upvotes: 2
2021/10/28	917	3,927	<issue_start>username_0: In a meeting for a potential PostDoc place, I want to talk to the professor about potential collaborations and working together. I've learnt that independent papers are a must for my career. I also know that I am able to do this but perhaps not entirely independently. For example, I may produce a paper entirely on my own but say I use supercomputing time for which the grant was written by the professor. Therefore, I would say this is not entirely my own effort. Although it is debatable. In the meeting, what is the best way to put my demands on the table. My options are: 1. Do not talk about it. Maybe after 2 years when I am almost about to leave I can think of something completely on my own with the 2 years of experience behind me. 2. Talk about it directly. I say it on the face that I want and need a single author paper and I can help with other things while I get the single authorship. 3. Drop indirect hints that this is important for my career and reduce the chances that the message is delivered. Kindly suggest a suitable approach. You may create your own option.<issue_comment>username_1: Another approach is to ask rather than tell. This has the advantage of appearing collegial (not making demands) but also getting direct info on policies/preferences (to the extent the person is honest). Ask: how do you handle authorship? Under what circumstances do your post-docs publish solo authored work vs co-authored work? How do you assist post-docs with communicating their readiness for running their own lab on the job market? Is solo authorship an important part of this, in your opinion? Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: **Ask for forgiveness, not permission** (This answer assumes a field where solo-authored papers for a post-doc are feasible, but practices differ from place to place.) You're navigating a certain tension here: An ideal PI will be an unselfish mentor and advocate for your career. Unfortunately, real-life PIs often see their post-docs as ripe oranges to be squeezed out. If you ask a professor for permission for solo-authoring a paper, it's not unlikely that the answer will be no, which would leave you without the option to solo-author papers. My advice is to first seek evidence on what the PI's possible stance is. Three tactics here are: First, check the track record of the PI's current and former post-docs. Second, talk to current and former lab members in private. Third, have a more open-ended conversation with the PI, framed as "I seek advice on publication strategies - how do you think I should publish to get a faculty job?" without addressing solo-authorship and related policies explicitly. If you have the feeling that their stance is negative, don't ask about it. Instead, seek to be a productive member of their lab, who shows an excellent potential to successfully apply for faculty jobs. Then you're in a position where you might be likely to be forgiven if you at some point casually mention a minor solo-authored paper you submitted. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: As a post-doc, I think you should be able to work on several projects at the same time. Working on only one paper with your supervisor (collaborator who pays for the visit?) might not fill all your time, and you can work on a separate project. Also, if you apply for some grant that you get the funding for as a post-doc, gives you much more freedom, even though you have supervisor. I did a 2-year post-doc with this format, and I think wrote about 6 papers during this time, only one with the actual supervisor (2 papers with a very talented undergraduate student, one paper with another researcher at the department and 2 papers on my own). One of the papers I wrote myself was a problem my supervisor suggested, and it was highly influenced by his previous work - it was kind of a gap that needed to be filled. Upvotes: 1
2021/10/28	1,511	6,537	<issue_start>username_0: This question is an extension of this particular question: [Is this way of writing e-mails to professors asking for funded PhD positions to work under their supervision good?](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/173122/is-this-way-of-writing-e-mails-to-professors-asking-for-funded-phd-positions-t) I am a person in an Asian country who plans to write to professors in Europe for a PhD position in Pure Math. I know Europe has a lot of countries and is certainly not a uniform block but I think the way of writing e-mails should be similar to get a favourable response. I previously sent e-mails that were somewhat generic and was unsuccessful in finding an advisor. I want to know how I should read the papers of profs I want to work with and write about them in the e-mail so that they are convinced that I have done my work and this is not a spam mail. I thought about reading the paper of a professor whom I wanted to work with. I could read only 1 paper (16 pages) in 1 month (I am doing some courses in math also), although I understand the paper but I think this is not a feasible process as by this process I will be able to mail only 3 professors by February. I mailed him and he had already committed to another student for next year. The papers I read for masters thesis were also quite hard and it took me 4 months to read 3 papers because I had to read other papers also as they used results from other papers also. So, for other professors I am thinking of reading Abstract, Introduction, Notations section completely, then very briefly seeing other sections (mainly headings) and then reading conclusion section for 2 papers. Is this strategy fine? But the problem is that in this way I can't write that I have read those papers as that's a lie and if they asked anything from which I have not studied they it will lead to a really bad impression. So, if I just write that my interest align with them then it will be a generic and useless statement. So, how should I phrase the statement when I am reading only what I mentioned? Also, if you have better strategy on how should I convince them that my interests align with their work and I am a good candidate kindly tell me that also.<issue_comment>username_1: I think you are approaching this question from the wrong angle. You're worrying about appearances rather than any actual needs. There are reasons completely outside of the application process for you to read a prospective advisor's papers. One is because you are actually interested in the contents of the papers. The second - hopefully a reason on top of the first, not a reason by itself - is for you to learn if your interests are compatible with those of the prospective advisor. A prospective advisor doesn't actually care if you have read their papers. What they care about is if any of the reasons in the above paragraph apply, and your reading their papers is a signal about those reasons, not valuable in and of itself. Now you could "lie" by giving this signal without the underlying justification for the signal actually holding, but then you risk going into a PhD that you actually have no interest in. Now, this situation is a problem in pure maths, because the subject has gotten so specialized with so much background around any problem that most papers take a lot of effort to read. Probably a majority of people who finish PhDs nowadays don't really understand the full context of their own dissertations, because they haven't had the time to learn it at their pace of learning. (It's a by now classical joke that, for the average dissertation, only one person understands the contents, only one person cares about the contents, and they are not the same person.) That means, realistically, you have to find some other way to find out about, and signal, your interest in a prospective advisor's research other than by reading their papers, and a good Masters student might simply not have enough background to make a good decision for themselves. (But you might want to reconsider doing a PhD. The job market is terrible. Only people who are amazeballs brilliant are getting jobs in developed countries.) Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: This answer is particular to pure math. I second most of what username_1 says; indeed as a prospective advisor, I would not expect an applicant to read my papers in any amount of details prior to the application. Rationale: I understand you are probably applying in many places, with limited chances of success in any particular one. Therefore, the time you have spent reading my papers is anyway negligible on the time scale of a Ph. D. project, so, heaving read my papers does not really make you a more qualified candidate. We all know that in math, to read something in detail requires a lot of time and effort. Also, papers are written for experts who know background, understand their context and so on, they all have different places in the literature and varying degrees of importance. So, just starting to read a random one of them is not the wisest time investment from the objective point of view. A starting Ph.D. student of mine may benefit more e.g. from reading lecture notes or seminal papers by other people than my own most recent paper. To require someone to read and understand them to apply for a Ph. D. with me is just an unreasonable waste of their time. If anything, browsing abstracts and introductions of several papers will give you a much better understanding of the research of a particular person than reading one of their paper in detail. It will be clear that you have read my papers only because you decided to apply, and there is no way you can phrase the short initial e-mail so that I can reliably discriminate between someone who really read it and someone who only browsed the title and abstract. Plus, I don't really care, as once again it only speaks to your job search strategy and not your qualifications. What does speak to your qualifications is prior exposure to the relevant field. If I am convinced of that you have such an exposure that gives you a real head-start, then it is a big plus for your application. So you better focus on e.g. your master thesis topic and courses you have taken in the relevant area, or what you self-studied. If you can then signal that you understand, very broadly, your potential advisor's research area and how it is related to what you have done before, that's already very good. Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]
2021/10/28	377	1,658	<issue_start>username_0: I'm writing the introduction to my Ph.D. thesis in theoretical physics. It is fairly interdisciplinary sandwich thesis. I have already written a Background section were I write some of the necessary background knowledge necessary to the motivations and the context of the paper. So I am left with writing a shortish introduction section. Can this section be written in 1st person, explaining why I find this work interesting and why I was led to work in this specific area?<issue_comment>username_1: For any reader interested in your results, that would just be noise that gets in the way. Something they need to scan over to reach what you really need to say. I'd recommend against this and suggest you keep to the topic. A shortish introduction might be a good thing, actually. Those kinds of personal stories are something that might go in a blog or on a personal website. Keep the thesis (and other professional writing) strictly professional - at least until you have built a solid standing in your career. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: > > Can this section be written in 1st person, explaining why I find this > work interesting and why I was led to work in this specific area? > > > No, you should instead explain why your reader (an imaginary physicist with knowledge of your field but without expertise in your specific topic) should find this work interesting, and how the current state of research led you to work on your research question. Leave the subjective and biographical remarks about your personal motivation for the preface (if any) and acknowledgement section. Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]
2021/10/28	1,599	7,096	<issue_start>username_0: I had a very bad PhD experience which has led to complete loss of motivation to pursue a career in theoretical physics. I don't have the motivation anymore to work on topics which are very abstract and, being a postdoc, it is even harder to do this independently. In addition, I find the long term prospects of doing this very dark. There aren't any good job opportunities and getting a tenure track position requires more than one postdoctoral experience. Off late, I have been thinking of transitioning to biology and more specifically to the field of genome editing. I know this is very different from what I have been trained at, but I have always liked this field and did a lot of self-study during my graduate years. Prior to contacting people, I asked for advice if this transition is doable or practical. And everyone who replied has strongly encouraged me to go forward. But it was a different story when it came to actually getting a position (I asked for internship opportunities also) in the lab. The advice was to get into [computational biology](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computational_biology) where interdisciplinary people are more. I don't want to transition into computational biology just because it would be easier to transition, but learn completely new skills. Otherwise, I would have preferred to dedicatedly train in [data science](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_science) and find the high paying corporate jobs. I want to stay in research and do impactful work, something with real impact and not esoteric like my graduate or postdoc work. Given the situation, I have been thinking of doing another PhD because I don't have any constraints. But I fear that this is not recommended and I doubt I will get admission into good places. Should I meet the people whose work I admire in person or have an online discussion with them if that is possible? Most of the transition stories I have heard involve some kind of meet up during conferences/meetings and things fell in place after that. Any kind of useful advice keeping my interests in mind would be highly appreciated.<issue_comment>username_1: At the risk of being blunt, it is probably worth pointing out that there is a difference between "wanting a job in a specific area" because you want to transition into that area, and "actually being qualified for a job in that area". In other words, an honest evaluation of the situation is likely that nobody will give you a paying job in a genomics lab because you don't have the background for such a job: The people they want to hire as, say, postdocs have had several years of training and job experience in this area, and you don't. That's just a fact, regardless of whether or not you've done self study in the area. So you're stuck hoping for that unicorn to appear out of nowhere. The recipe to actually getting these jobs is to obtain the qualifications necessary for these jobs. You won't get this qualification through self-study: You're competing with people who've spent several years at the lab bench during their PhDs. You'll have to go through that school as well. So apply for grad programs. You might of course encounter the same issue: They would like to hire people as graduate students who have had several years as biology undergraduates; if you know someone in biology departments, it is conceivable that you could find ways to demonstrate to them that you have equivalent knowledge and find admission anyway. As for your last comment, "Most of the transition stories I have heard involve some kind of meet up during conferences/meetings and things fell in place after that.": These sorts of cases are first rare, second probably exaggerated (the person in fact did have quite a lot of biology background already, though they might have had a position in a physics department), and third quite often involve people who are not actually seeking a paid position: They are, for example, already physics faculty and simply find themselves in collaborations with biologists. I would not think this a viable path for you to get from where you are to where you want to be. There is no alternative to actually being qualified for the job you are seeking. Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: First a slight reframe: if your disappointment with theoretical physics is that it's too abstract and you want to do "impactful work", maybe consider opportunities outside academia as well. Academic research does a good PR job of selling itself as the non-profit, idealistic, make-the-world-a-better-place counter to industry, but in my experience most academic research is pretty inward-looking and gives relatively little reward to anyone who is not driven by scientific curiosity itself. So look also at medical physics (which can be research or clinical!), relevant industry, data science etc. If you're set on staying in academia, one thing to be wary of is that many of the biology labs who might be interested in hiring someone with a physics background "out of the box" would be doing so expecting you to bring in physics expertise. If your negative experience is with academic theoretical physics, this may work just fine for you, but if you have grown to really, really dislike physics and/or want to do fundamentally different work, then it could be very frustrating to be the "pet physicist" while everyone else is doing the more traditional biology work that you were hoping to do. Basically, you need to have something to offer to the lab that hires you: it's either your physics/numeracy expertise (for example, as a data scientist sort of role), or as a biologist in your own right. In the latter case, as you correctly identify, you are not actually qualified, and pursuing some relevant qualifications would help both your CV and your understanding of life sciences (I would probably start with an MSc rather than a PhD, especially if you've just emerged from a negative PhD experience). And, as @terdon points out, "genome editing" isn't really a field in biology. At best it's a technique - there are a handful of labs working on the technology itself, but the vast majority of people use transgenesis/CRISPR/what have you as a tool in pursuit of a biological question. This is a common problem I have seen in people with a hard science background - they often tend to be interested in, or aware of, only a few high-profile technical or abstract problems that are actually rather unexciting from a biology perspective (all fields are prone to this, not just biology...). If you want to work as a biologist, then having some relevant academic background would help you understand what your colleagues are working on and why it's interesting. You absolutely don't have to change your own interests or preferences. But placing your specific interest, which may be genome editing, into a more solid understanding of the biological problem it's trying to solve will help you make connections with a broader range of people and align your work with actually useful outcomes. Upvotes: 3
2021/10/29	2,263	9,803	<issue_start>username_0: I am a STEM undergrad. Many of my upper division assignments are group reports with a lot of writing (literature reviews, lab reports). A lot of my cohort does not seem to have college level writing skills. Their tone is too casual for scientific writing and oftentimes their writing is convoluted with no logical progression. In a few of these classes, the TAs and professors will give general writing advice but it doesn't seem to be enough. To deal with this issue, I will usually: 1. Rewrite the worst portions for them, and overlook other sections even though I consider it unacceptable quality (gets the point across but is difficult/frustrating to read). 2. Ask them to do non-writing tasks like data analysis and I'll do most of the writing I am now with another group member whose writing skills are not the best. I don't think it's efficient for me to redo their writing and they might feel like their contribution is being ignored. Their writing is bad enough that I might need to rewrite most if not all of their sentences. Should I give them writing advice and ask them to rewrite? How should I bring this up with them? I don't think my standards are too high but should I just lower my standards?<issue_comment>username_1: Talk to them. If you want to help them/they want your help First, do make sure that your writing skills are as good as you say they are (I have no reason to doubt this, but it is important to verify this yourself!). If this isn't the case your advice will be ignored/deemed arrogant. Then, talk to them about it. Be clear, in a non-accusatory way, that this might be an issue for the grade and since it is a group project, you want to ensure this is handled properly. So, don't do this: > > Your writing is not good enough. I'll rewrite your contribution later. > > > But word it like this: > > Hey, I've noticed that we can still improve the writing in our paper. Do you want to work on this together to make sure we catch everything? > > > You are in university, and this is a collaborative effort. Make it a learnable moment for you both! They can learn more about writing. You can learn how to teach/collaborate more effectively. Of course, they can say something like "no, just rewrite it yourself if you don't think it's good enough". But then your message didn't come across. Because your current strategy, while perhaps efficient, is not always sustainable in a post-undergrad (be it industry or academic) setting. You will always have to collaborate, so preventing colleagues from working on certain tasks will ensure that they do not improve. Helping fellow students to improve is probably not your main priority right now, but if they are open to it, it can be valuable for you both. If you don't want to help/they don't want help If they are not willing to learn from you, and your grade is in danger, then you need to be more direct and confrontational. Do emphasize taking their contributions into account. It will be a bit more straightforward: > > We need to fix the writing, otherwise our grade will suffer. If everyone is okay with this, I will do this. I will make sure to keep the concepts that you contributed in there as clean as possible. I'll share the final version X days/hours before the deadline, so everybody can check if I didn't change/remove anything important. > > > Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: Although no one really likes to be criticized, I think it is better for all parties involved to tell the people in question that their writing skills are subpar (or at least that you think they are). Try to be nice about it though, and be aware that poor writing skills (either in one's native language, or in English, the lingua franca of the academic world) are not uncommon (even in higher level positions). It is exactly for this reason that many universities offer scientific writing courses. Maybe you can see if your institution offers them as well, and provide this info to your coursemates. Significantly improving writing skills is a lengthy process and will not happen fast enough for your course, though. In my experience, it is often easier (and less time consuming) to write a completely new text, instead of trying to rewrite an already badly written one. So why not play to everyone's strengths and do as you suggest: if no one objects, ask the others to do more of the practical work and concentrate on the writing yourself. Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: There are a couple (at least) of mistakes that novices (say, undergraduates) make about group work. The first is to divide up the work and then later integrate the pats written by individuals. this actually adds work to the process, rather than simplifying it, since the integration is a significant step. The second mistake is to assume that everyone takes the same role and does the same thing (on their piece if the above division is also assumed). People work alone on their own part and do the same tasks that "team" members do on theirs. This is counterproductive. One of "my" favorite papers was a group work. Two of the team developed the pedagogy and explored it. The rest of us analyzed it and gave them feedback. One of us did the actual writing over several iterations with feedback from everyone else. He happens to be the best writer in the group. Note that everyone took a different role and the role of writing went to the best writer. The author order listed the two that developed the structure as "first". The second feature of the above is that we all worked together, with frequent (constant) communication. There was no "integration step" and each author played a role best suited to their skills. My role was quite minor overall, though I was able to contribute some insights. So, my suggestion is to not divide a group project into "chunks" with people taking the same role as everyone else on their chunk, but to divide it into roles that contribute to the whole. Also, to work together, closely together, throughout the process. If you really want to improve the writing skills of someone else and you have those skills, then I'd suggest that you pair up with them on writing a piece. You do most of the actual writing, and your partner asks questions and contribute things from their primary skill set, whatever it is. Or let them write a bit and comment as it goes along, suggesting alternatives as they go. And, yes, this is really [pair programming](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pair_programming) adapted to writing. But improving their writing may not be essential for the project if you give appropriate roles to people rather than "chunks". --- Hint: You won't improve someones writing (or other) skills by complaining that they do it poorly. Not in the short term anyway, though some kinds of criticism can result in a long term inward look and commitment to change in a person. This has happened to me a couple of times. I recall one in math and another in taichi. But the process it induced in me took a long time to come to fruition. But neither of these was from teammates in any sense, but from teachers. That is their proper role - to induce change and improvement. Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_4: This may not be an easy task but a man must try his best for the better of himself and hos fellows around. I am saying that the way you care about their feelings is nice but with that there are ways you can speak to them that they would understand what you are passing across. All this are interaction techniques one needs to apply when working with people. I didn't know this techniques when I was the leader of a group assignment which needs enough research, so I ended up doing the whole group work on my own and delivering it for them to access. After they told me they read it, they did not even give any feed back on it to show that they did not have enough reading or writing skills to correct any mistake even when there was one. After this group work, I went further to understand how to interact with people like that during a group work. Here are some important steps: 1. Understand the kind of people you are working with: This is to say take your time to understand the kind of person you are working with (if he or she is an understanding one or arrogant one), know the level they are on compare to the task at hand and throw crazy ideas that would not hurt the individual but would bring out the serious part of the individual. 2. Don't make your self the boss: Do not let your group mate or the person you are working with notice your presence or don't try to be right every time. Give each member time to talk if they want and ask if the are ok with what is to be done or there are any suggestions or contributions. Bring your self down to their level to understand or get their plight and bring them down so they can also know what is on the table and undertaand your own plight. 3. Correct with care: What does this mean? When you have done the above, your group mate will understand that they need to work and if a work is now brought to you for your opinion, you can now correct them calmly by teaching them and referring them to materials that would help them during the course of the group work. 4. Lastly, decide: Decide what? Decide between your partner the result from all your collective research and bring them together to get the final result. This can only be achieved if step 1,2 and 3 are carried out appropriately. It should be noted that step 3 can not be carried out without accomplishing the first two steps. In conclusion this step will be accomplished if one know the signs that give an accomplished group leading such as sincerity by partner, respect from partners and so on Upvotes: 0
2021/10/29	496	2,078	<issue_start>username_0: I'm trying to immigrate outside my country and found that all employers require degree certificates before work permit sponsorship. I've dropped out of college and have been studying at home online. I don't have any college certificates apart from a recent ESL teachers course diploma certification that I got earlier this year. So, I don't have money for education and accomodation abroad. My Question: Are there any scholarship websites where I can post my resume and desired course and they could probably grant me a full scholarship for my studies? I have about 3-4 open source projects that include a barcode app, a file browser app, whatsapp app and an iTunes playlist converter app... Could anyone suggest me how to study without any initial finance? Co-op courses or full scholarships are what I'm hoping to find online.. Thanks!<issue_comment>username_1: Full scholarships for undergraduate study in US are quite rare. They are sometimes give for extreme hardship, but mostly to US citizens. They are sometimes given for truly exceptional merit. They are also given to fairly exceptional athletes in some sports. For an international student, I'd think that some funding originating in your own country would be a better possibility. Perhaps a company could sponsor you. Perhaps some organization that sees a need for more people educated in a certain field could help. Doctoral study is different and most students work as a TA to finance their education and living expenses. But these are not normally available to undergraduates or even masters students. Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Have a look at how can you enroll in german universities, or scandinavian universities. Some of them offer (relatively speaking) not so expensive bachelor and master courses. If you are looking into US universities, we are talking about tuition fees being 10/20 times lower, with similar or cheaper costs of life (ok, this is a gross assumption, Stockholm , Swedem will be more expensive than Urbana, Illinois) Upvotes: 1
2021/10/29	539	2,219	<issue_start>username_0: I wanted to do a book review for a journal. I enquired the editor whether a book review for the journal is commissioned by the editor or anyone can write. He answered anyone can write and included the following in the mail. > > We normally invite authors to do the review of the book that we > receive at the office. > > > Could you name the book you want to review? > > > Best wishes > > > I am highly confused by what he meant 'the book that we receive at the office'. This is a Taylor and Francis journal.<issue_comment>username_1: To me, the statement: > > We normally invite authors to do the review of the book that we receive at the office. > > > sounds like a commissioned review, in the sense that the journal/editor is inviting relevant authors to review a particular book when they receive it (presumably promotional copies distributed by the publisher to generate interest in purchase). I'd interpret this as saying that receiving unsolicited submissions of reviews is not the typical way they do things, even if the email did say it happens. That said, the text you quoted is not grammatical, so it's likely the email was either written hastily or by someone who is not a native English writer, so it may not be fruitful to closely analyze every particular statement for deep meaning. You could ask for clarification, but it probably makes more sense to just follow the directions given to you: if you want to review a book, let the editor know which book it is you'd like to review. They'll go from there and let you know if they're interested or not. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: One way to do book marketing is to send books (or more commonly, catalogues, since sending books is expensive) to journals and ask them if they want to review it. This is probably what the editor is referring to, and "the office" is his or her office at their institution (as opposed to the local Taylor and Francis office). You could ask them for an electronic catalogue, the name(s) of the publisher they are in contact with (and you will search the publisher's website yourself), or you can just name the book you want to review and see if they have it. Upvotes: 1
2021/10/29	3,681	15,703	<issue_start>username_0: Summary: I am closing my laboratory, and need to find a new placement for a PhD student who has strong anti-vaccination beliefs. Every professor on campus knows about it. How I can help them find new lab? --- One bright, well-performing individual in my group is unvaccinated (against everything, apparently) due to personal beliefs. This individual is not outspoken about these beliefs, but their status as such has been spread not only within our group and department, but to many related groups. Indeed, upon learning this I myself stopped meeting in-person with the individual. I am closing my laboratory, and seeking new homes for my graduate students ([see here if curious](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/175327/how-do-i-job-hunt-as-an-assistant-professor-mid-tenure-mid-pandemic)). I am having zero luck identifying a new advisor. The student is increasingly frantic; homes have been found for the entire remaining group. It is clear to that student what the problem is, and why no one will engage. I am now hearing comments from them that suggest to me that they will exit and "give up." My university does not allow sharing of vaccination status, so this cannot be made explicit in any way. I am in the USA, at an R1. They will not get vaccinated, and our program does not allow "unsupervised" students. I would love to pass this matter off to my administration or their counsel, but we have been told to handle this at the departmental level. How can I resolve this in a more positive way? Outcome: The student quit. Happy Update: I have hired her through my new industry position. It is remote work. Details below.<issue_comment>username_1: Advisor-advisee relationships are not just based on scientific fit, but must also be based on a good personal fit. username_5 is obliged to take on a student, or if they can be obliged to, they can't be forced to be a good advisor (thanks, [jakebeal](https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733/jakebeal)). If your peers have learned that your student has made some objectionable and unresolved decisions in their past, I see little you can or should do. You specifically mentioned "personal" and not "religious" beliefs, so unless your student is a member of a religious sect with a long-standing opposition to vaccines and wants to start a legal route over religious discrimination, there's not a ton of options for them. I wouldn't want to supervise a student that doesn't want to help end the pandemic, either. I think there is very little conscientious people owe the willfully unvaccinated at this point. Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_2: As the student’s current advisor, you do have some responsibility to help the student find a path forward with their PhD. But that responsibility is not infinite; the student is also responsible for their own decisions and actions, and if they want to continue in the program, it’s their responsibility to make themselves attractive enough that someone else will find the idea of supervising them appealing. A few things you can do are: 1. Consider looking for a way to allow the student to transfer to your new department and keep working with you, if this is compatible with your own personal philosophy about what vaccination preferences you’re willing to tolerate in a student, and with the new institution’s covid policies. 2. Talk to your colleagues and encourage them to take on your student, praising the student’s good qualities as much as you honestly can. If you feel that your lack of ability to mention the student’s vaccination status makes it ethically impossible for you to advocate for the student in such a way, I think a way to resolve this dilemma is to ask the student to give their permission for you to mention their vaccination refusal, waiving the privacy-related constraint. Make it clear that if they will not give you that permission, you will be unable to advocate for them. 3. If the above advocacy fails, or if the student refuses to waive the privacy restriction, have a heart to heart talk with your student, and explain to them that you did your best to help them find a new advisor, but did not succeed. Explain to them that at that point, as long as they refuse to be vaccinated you do not think they will be successful in continuing with their studies. After taking these steps, in my opinion you have fulfilled your ethical obligations. It’s up to the student to decide what to do next in such a situation. I don’t see that there is anything else you can or should do. Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: ### Consider talking to the university's legal counsel if it's because of religious (or other legally protected) reasons. If this student is refusing vaccination due to genuine religious beliefs, then I would recommend that you talk to the university's legal counsel to figure out what you can do. Discrimination against someone for their religious beliefs is illegal, and that would likely include indirect discrimination as a result of inflexibly applying rules and regulations that have a disparate impact on a protected group. If this is the case, then the university either needs to find him an advisor, or they need to waive the requirement that he has one, in order to protect themselves from a discrimination lawsuit. If you're in an area where things like political beliefs are legally protected under anti-discrimination legislation, this would also apply if their reason for objecting for vaccination falls under any other legally protected reason. Additionally, in the comments you've mentioned that the location you live in has a government mandate banning vaccine mandates by private organizations. If your student is unable to find an advisor because of their vaccination status and will be forced to withdraw from their degree as a result, that would amount to a de facto vaccination mandate, and would place the university at a great deal of legal risk if they were to make a complaint to the state government. I would definitely recommend that you speak to the university's legal counsel as a result. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: Check if anyone in the faculty holds the same beliefs. That may be his only chance. If none, go with the university's guidelines. That falls under the jurisdiction of the College Secretary and the university's legal office. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: One of the ways to defend against Covid-19 is to put on masks. For example, we have only 16,499 cases per 24 million populations in Taiwan so far. The major reason I believe is that most of us (over 99%) put on surgical masks. (Our vaccinated rate is low compare to other countries) If you cannot convince the student to be vaccinated for whatever reason (be religious belief or not), can you persuade the student to put on the mask? If the student still refuse to do so, let them go. If the student is willing to put on the mask, then finding a professor to accept them may be easier. If still no one would take them, then you have done your best to keep them. Good Luck ! Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_6: If you really need to help them, then I suggest that the first step is to get a commitment from them that they will do whatever is necessary to protect those that they work with. Masks, isolation (zoom), whatever. If they are willing to make that a top priority - no excuses, then proceed to the second step, otherwise tell them that you can't help them as it would put others at risk. The second step is to inform anyone that you recommend them to that they aren't vaccinated and are therefore a potential public health risk, but that they have promised to take all necessary precautions. You may, in some jurisdictions, need their permission to have this conversation with others (IANAL), but if not given and you can't do this, then they are tying your hands from ethical behavior. If you are in a field in which people need to work closely with one another, such as a lab, then this might actually be impossible. In a field like math it would work, since weekly zoom meetings and electronic communication is both possible and safe. But if people need to huddle over lab equipment then I'd find it hard to come to a solution. For a belief to be ethical, it must take account of the valid needs of others. If not, it is just selfishness as well as dangerous to public health. And dangerous to public health beyond the bounds of the lab itself, since you have no control over how they interact when away from work. But if they are willing to take responsibility and the physical constraints make it possible, then you can safely (and ethically) work with them. Furthermore, having a belief and acting on that belief are two different things. And if you can't work with them, it isn't because you reject their belief. It is because they are a danger to the community. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_7: As an uninjected graduate student who won't be compromising on this, it was really a non-issue for me. I did everything online. In-person was always unnecessary, and I think classes should have been in a distanced format anyway and it was a move backwards to restart in-person classes. Anyway the point is, unless there is a compelling reason for the person to meet in person their vaccination status should be completely irrelevant. Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_8: First, I am amazed that they were able to enter a college in the United States while unvaccinated. I didn't know that there were colleges that did not mandate standard vaccines. I could see not mandating HPV or influenza, but I am amazed the situation exists for things like pertussis. Your ethical obligation is to try; it is not your obligation to succeed. This drama is playing itself out all over the United States right now over a wide range of settings. The problem is that it sounds like there is no way to develop a reasonable accommodation around the student's status. This is an interesting question that should be answered by the university's legal counsel. Your institution doesn't require vaccinations so it is accepted as part of the contract that students do not need to be vaccinated to enter programs there. The student needs an advisor and found one, but that advisor is leaving. I would say that this is not a problem for you, but that the student should engage legal counsel. The institution has a duty to perform, but there is no functional way to force faculty to take on a student. There is a bizarre contradiction present. The student was admitted with a hidden deficit. That deficit is unrelated to the performance of their duties as a student. The institution entered into a contract with them. The faculty probably do not have to take a student as an advisee but the institution has an obligation to perform. There may be a legal duty to assign that student to a faculty member. However, the faculty member cannot be made to write letters of recommendation or even to prevent them from recommending against hiring the student. I would say your ethical duty is complete, but I am not sure the institution's legal duty is complete. Further, I am not sure there could be a path for success for that student even if a faculty member is required to take them on. If the student leaves, does the institution owe them all the potential lost wages for their time there as well as refund tuition? They entered in good faith. They performed as required. They did not fail to meet the institution's standards. There are illnesses that prevent vaccination, they are uncommon but they exist. There are also treatments for certain illnesses that eliminate the immunity normally granted by vaccines. Should those people who either cannot be vaccinated or have been vaccinated but have no immunity be banned from colleges? Generally, colleges grant medical exemptions certified by a health care provider but that isn't what happened here. I would say this is an institutional failure. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_9: I agree with other commentators that you should take whatever action is reasonable to find a new place for the student, but their acceptance depends on the decisions of others. Your obligation is to make reasonable efforts to assist the student to find a new place, but you can only do what you can do --- you are not obliged to guarantee successful placement of the student. You have stated that the student is a bright and well-performing student, so presumably you can give a reference that reflects that reality. Aside from helping to identify possible placements and giving a good reference to the student, it is difficult to see what more you can reasonably do. If you are concerned that vaccination status is having an adverse impact here, I would recommend you seek to have potential laboratory supervisors apply whatever are the operative university rules --- i.e., if there are vaccination mandates at the university then the student should be bound by them, and if there are not then the student should be free to attend a university laboratory without vaccination. You can seek information on university policies and applicable laws from the university legal counsel, and they can also give guidance on whether or not it is legitimate for university personnel to take account of the vaccination status of the student in their decisions. Seeking advice from the university legal counsel would be prudent in any event, since there are also possible legal issues relating to privacy breaches (see below). --- Possible privacy violation issue: Notwithstanding the limitation on your own responsibilities, an important issue here is for your institution to ensure that relevant privacy laws/policies are being respected, and take action if there has been any breach of applicable rules. Your post is unclear about the details, but from your description it sounds like the student either did not disclose their vaccination status, or did not disclose it widely. In most jurisdictions, medical information taken from students is subject to privacy laws/polices, and this generally means that the medical status of a student cannot be disclosed except on a "needs to know" basis, and with various privacy protections. The legal situation in the US is complicated, but universities are covered by [FERPA](https://www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/ferpa/index.html) in many cases, and this imposes privacy obligations on the university. You also state that your university rules prevent sharing of vaccination status. Your post states that the student's medical status has been spread around within your group and department and to other related groups. That sounds like it would probably entail a violation of privacy rules in FERPA and in your university rules. If so, that could lead to a complaint against the university and possible legal action either under FERPA or contract law. Since you are closing your laboratory, this is not an issue for you personally, but it is something that you should bring to the attention of the Head of School and possibly also HR/legal counsel at the university. One of the other answers here suggests that you should encourage the student to waive their privacy obligations in order for you to directly discuss the issue with potential laboratories, and you should tell them you cannot effectively advocate for them if they are unwilling to waive these rights. I would strongly recommend against doing that without first speaking to the university legal counsel. It could raise further legal issues relating to the privacy obligations of the university. Upvotes: 2
2021/10/29	2,346	10,148	<issue_start>username_0: My former postdoc has a new position at an R1 as an Assistant Professor. He is horrified at something I myself once struggled with: he is discovering that his job is a form of management. The individual contributor skillset he succeeded with in my laboratory is one he can no longer indulge as much as he desires... 'Is this avoidable?', is his question. He is asking in the context of leaving, potentially. I myself have minimized this, mostly by being well published, bringing research dollars, and using the resulting leverage in refusing almost all service within my department. However, I am yet much more a manager than he wishes to be. What are viable strategies to remain an individual contributor and also remain competitive for tenure?<issue_comment>username_1: When writing grant proposals, one can choose to apply for funding for part of one's own salary, to spend time at the lab bench (or other disciplines' equivalent), instead of for postdocs or PhD students. The snag is that, for this to work, one has to be exceptionally good to justify the fact that a professor's salary is more expensive than a postdoc or a PhD student. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: #### Embrace the power of no There are plenty of junior to mid-career positions in academia that do not have any serious management component. Consequently, it ought to be possible for an academic to remain in a position without any management responsibilities, so long as they are willing to accept a lower ceiling on academic promotion and pay. Most of the senior positions in universities have some management component, and the "higher" you go the larger the management component. Of course, there are some highly-paid and highly-esteemed academic positions that are pure research positions, but these are extremely competitive. Like anyone else in an organisation where you begin in a technical capacity, academics need to recognise the realities of how a university functions. Like any other large institution, the higher level positions almost all involve heavy management responsibilities and a corresponding reduction in individual technical work. If you don't want these positions, you have the freedom to apply for lower level positions where the expectations of the role are more concentrated on research, teaching, and other individual technical work. If one were to restrict attention solely to positions that lead to tenure then obviously this leaves less variation in roles, and it entails accepting the roles that are generally present in those positions. Your colleague/friend may need to look around for another position until he finds one that has role expectations that are compatible with what he wants to do. This should be possible in principle, but there are some obstacles to be aware of. There is an unfortunate tendency in some universities to have an "up or out" mentality where they expect all their junior and mid-career academic staff to work towards higher-level professorial positions that entail large administrative and management roles, or large funding expectations. This can sometimes manifest in a bias against older highly-experienced academics who apply for lower-level positions to avoid those roles. Nevertheless, some university admissions panels appreciate that experienced academics may wish to remain in lower-level roles that do not have a large administrative and management component, or which have lower expectations with regard to bringing in external funding (which is also somewhat of a management-like activity). Attitudes vary a great deal across different disciplines; in highly techincal fields (e.g., mathematics, etc.) it is not unusual for academics to turn down management and administrative work and still remain as workers in good standing for their teaching/research work. I agree with your point that it is useful to have some leverage, such as having a strong research record and funding. Remember that this is also relative to your academic level, so if you are willing to take a lower-level position, the research and funding expectations are lower, so existing accomplishments will count as more leverage in this context. Ultimately, if he can obtain a position where the role itself does not have a high management component, and where he is "overperforming" relative to research expectations, he should have enough leverage toturn down managment and administrative roles he does not want to do. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: Outside of universities, there might exist such positions: Independent researcher, competitive level, permanent position, good payment, collaborations with industry or other research groups, visiting conferences, writing papers, but not having to manage a group, not doing teaching (sometimes optional), less dependent on grand money. In Germany these are research institutes like Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft or Max-Planck-Gesellschaft. Two researches from MPG won Nobel prizes in 2021. Not sure how much the position there would suite, but I think comparable institutes exist in France (INRIA, CNRS) and the US (United States national laboratories like Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory). Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: If you're teaching, you're managing a class. If you do research, especially funded research, you're managing a project or a grant (or more than one), and all the personnel contributing to that effort. If you're well funded, bringing in research dollars, and have hired a postdoc, you are in a management position. You have not managed to minimize that, but if that's the way you feel, it might just be because you're good at it. If this postdoc feels overwhelmed by the prospect of management, you might consider mentoring your next postdoc so as to introduce them better to the idea and train them to do it well. While there are academic pathways that involve less management, starting as an Assistant Prof is not necessarily the best way to find those positions. It feels like that would be a backwards career step. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_5: From what I have seen in North America (I am at a post-doc level), the job of a professor (especially at R1 universities) is to manage grad students/post-docs, teach, write grants, communicate research (via papers and conferences), and do admin work. Personal research seems to be essentially a side job/hobby. I am not sure if this is the actual job description, but it seems to be the job that most professors at research-oriented universities actually do. The closest exception I can think of is that I have heard of a professor who essentially spends all day (i.e. eight hours) at a blackboard with one or two grad students working on math. I presume the professor's other duties I mentioned above are done outside of this time. While this is personal contribution and a possible strategy, it also still includes managing/supervising the student(s). Outside of tenure, there are staff scientist positions in academia and many research positions in industry. Though, one may need to search carefully as many of these positions may involve supervising/managing junior employees (a PhD-level position in a company is often already rather high up). There are also national lab positions, but again, one would have to look carefully as my impression is that these positions can easily have management/supervisory aspects to the job. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_6: > > How can a professor avoid becoming a manager? > > > They can't, because it's an intrinsic part of the job. A significant component of "management" involves looking after people, and so one starts becoming a manager the moment they take on a post-grad student, and certainly when they hire a postdoc. Possibly a researcher could sidestep this by becoming an eternal postdoc (lifetime on fixed-term contracts) or a one-person CRO in their garage, but then they wouldn't be a professor any more. Notice that "management" isn't the same as "administration" or "teaching". Has your postdoc got a sustainable work-life balance? Is the project ethical? Does your post-grad have a proper desk and computer? Is the lab equipment safe? Is your postdoc being harassed by a colleague, or is she bullying the students? All these, and more, are your problem as the professor. As recounted in the Wellcome Trust's ["What researchers think about the culture they work in"](https://wellcome.org/reports/what-researchers-think-about-research-culture) the research sector is particularly rife with exploitation, bullying and harassment; that report is in line with my own experience and observations. There are plenty more specific examples on this site. My (jaundiced) view is that this is partly sustained by the culture in academia having a somewhat idiosyncratic notion of responsibility and the common notion that anything like corporate management is abhorrent. I don't see how things will improve as long as the present sink-or-swim / if-they're-good-enough-they'll-survive-anything attitude is presented as being normal: people internalise it and just behave the same way to the next generation. (Note that I drafted this off-line - in the meantime username_4 has made a similar point independently, and more gently.) Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_7: The best way to avoid doing too much management is hire someone to do all the parts you either find uninteresting or aren't good at. I know a quite successful academic who said he did this out of his own junior-faculty salary and just starved a while rather than limit his time on true academic tasks. Other options are working in countries that give you administrative assistance and of course writing it into grants. Often just 5-10 hours a week even performed by masters students can make a huge difference. When I started my first junior faculty job, my university literally gave me a book on managing, which basically assumed you'd just been promoted to managing a few of your drinking buddies in the construction industry. It was nevertheless a surprisingly useful book. Upvotes: 0
2021/10/30	1,439	4,900	<issue_start>username_0: For defining Impact Factor, [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impact_factor) uses an example of Nature with the following data > > 2016 papers = 880 > > > 2017 papers = 902 > > > 2018 citations = 74,090 > > > leading to the 2017 Impact Factor of 41.577 for Nature. Checking the information at SJR for [Nature](https://www.scimagojr.com/journalsearch.php?q=21206&tip=sid&clean=0) > > 2016: total documents = 3,108 > > > 2016: citable documents = 4,237 > > > 2017: total documents = 3,062 > > > 2017: citable documents = 4,400 > > > Apart from the fact that the total vs citable documents is contradictory (the latter should be smaller), the data are 4-5 times higher than those given in Wikipedia. On the other hand, Cites / Doc. (2 years) for 2017 is 15.1777, which is 3 times smaller than the 41.577 Impact Factor. How do you interpret these data? Is it inconsistency or am I missing a point?<issue_comment>username_1: First note that you get different values for the impact factor depending on what set of papers and citations you use as an input. That Wikipedia article describes the methodology for the "official" impact factor from Clarivate: > > The value of impact factor depends on how to define "citations" and "publications"; the latter are often referred to as "citable items". In current practice, both "citations" and "publications" are defined exclusively by ISI as follows. "Publications" are items that are classed as "article", "review" or "proceedings paper"[9] in the Web of Science (WoS) database; other items like editorials, corrections, notes, retractions and discussions are excluded. WoS is accessible to all registered users, who can independently verify the number of citable items for a given journal. In contrast, the number of citations is extracted not from the WoS database, but from a dedicated JCR database, which is not accessible to general readers. Hence, the commonly used "JCR Impact Factor" is a proprietary value, which is defined and calculated by ISI and can not be verified by external users. > > > SJR does something different, using the Scopus database instead of Web of Science. Scopus is known for being more inclusive than WoS. See [this answer](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/116898/17254) for a more detailed description of some of the differences. Thus, their data yielding different values should not be surprising. In addition, SJR's definitions of some things stand in contrast to those of JCR. First, they describe (click on the little table icons to see the descriptions) their "citations per document" statistic as > > This indicator counts the number of citations received by documents from a journal and divides them by the total number of documents published in that journal. > > > i.e. it seems they use total documents, the sum of citable and noncitable documents, in the denominator. This is different from the usual impact factor, which would exclude many of these documents. Finally, you mentioned that the number of citable documents for a given year is apparently higher than the total number of documents. This actually isn't inconsistent using SJR's definitions, just confusing. They describe citable and noncitable documents as > > Not every article in a journal is considered primary research and therefore "citable", this chart shows the ratio of a journal's articles including substantial research (research articles, conference papers and reviews) in three year windows vs. those documents other than research articles, reviews and conference papers. > > > What this seems to mean in practice is that the sum of citable and noncitable documents in a given three-year window labeled by a year equals the sum of total documents over the three years prior. Using 2017 as an example, the numbers from SJR are > > 2014: total documents = 2,373 > > > 2015: total documents = 2,512 > > > 2016: total documents = 3,108 > > > 2017: citable documents = 4,400 > > > 2017: noncitable documents = 3,549 > > > This yields a total number of documents in the three-year window labeled 2017 equal to 7,993 = 4,400 + 3,549 = 2,373 + 2,512 + 3,108. In conclusion, if you need the "official" impact factor of a journal, use the "official" numbers. If you don't need it, then just be aware that there may be significant methodological differences between different indices. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: SCI calculations are correct! Clarivate is very selective in choosing citable documents. This is the impact factor of Nature calculated by exaly based on citable documents identified by CrossRef. [![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/yyJZK.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/yyJZK.png) Source: <https://exaly.com/journal/12348/nature> As you can see, it is very similar to those reported by SCI. Upvotes: 2
2021/10/30	4,400	19,163	<issue_start>username_0: I teach mathematics at the university level. While I do not expect anyone to speak and write perfectly all the time, I do feel that students who emerge from college should not be regularly misspelling words and using poor grammar. So when a student sends me an email using such constructions as "Me and X met" rather than "X and I met," I feel it's almost a duty of mine to correct them, yet I usually refrain, because I don't think the student would understand my pedagogical intent and would instead label me as the grammar police, especially since I am a mathematics instructor. Is there any way I can help students develop better writing skills without becoming despised?<issue_comment>username_1: Just do it occasionally, not every time. If someone has terrible grammar then just correct one mistake, not all of them. Tell them when you first meet them that you think writing skills are important, so you might occasionally correct grammatical mistakes, and you hope they find it useful. You could tell them the second sentence of your question, which puts it very clearly. --- Some of the other answers look more thoughtful than mine, so don't take my advice without reading them. Overall, some advice might be suitable in one country but not in another. For example, in some countries, a mathematics instructor may not be free to give assignments that are not about mathematics. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: You should continue to refrain from correcting your students' conversational English. For the reasons you identified, correcting their speech or an informal email is unlikely to lead to a good outcome because it's so personal. There's a good chance they'll experience it as insulting and intrusive, they won't change, and it certainly won't help your relationship with the student. But you are free to red pen your students' written assignments with corrections, meaning that if you want to work on improving your students' formal language skills, even a math teacher is free to give essay assignments, e.g., "Tell me your career goals and why you're taking this class." Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_3: You can post a statement at the start of class saying that you may on occasion provide feedback to grammar or phrasing mistakes even in such mundane exchanges as email simply as a way to improve the clarity or professional tone (versus colloquial tone) that a students should have as they move forward in their career. You can generate a "learning toolbox" folder, create a document of "Some Common Best Practices in Communication", and make this available to the students. You can incorporate grammar and phrasing as grading assessments, leaning on the statement that being able to communicate the approach and results from mathematical analysis with clarity and professionalism is an outcome for the entire math program (and therefore becomes a part of your course). Whatever path you decide to take, you must be clear to the students when you are making any statements about their grammar and phrasing whether your statements are requirements that the students must correspondingly follow because they are part of your assessment (grading) metrics. By example, the default statement that you might need to repeat a few times throughout the class could be "Unless I say otherwise, any comments that I may make back to you about your grammar or phrasing are simply to help you appreciate how you could communicate in a clearer, more professional manner". Alternatively, should you decide to grade grammar and phrasing in some manner, do so fairly against all the outcomes that your course should provide, do so with at least implicit blessings from a quorum of your department colleagues, and do so using standards that students can access before you start the assessments. This avoids the undue perception that you are unfair or capricious, grading too harshly for grammar and phrasing as only a small part of the course outcomes, being the only faculty member who cares about such things, or using standards that no one else uses. Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_4: English is not like mathematics in that there is typically not a universally accepted prescription of what is right and what is wrong. In particular, what is considered "right" is highly dependend on social and geographical background. Even things that you have been taught as being unequivocally wrong might be considered perfectly fine in different social or geographical circles. So unless you plan on doing an extreme deep dive in different dialects of English, what you will end up doing by systematically correcting your students' English is imposing your personal view of what is right and wrong. Doing so can significantly impact the confidence of students speaking/writing English that would be perfectly fine in their social/geographical/cultural background. Since you are a mathematics instructor and (presumably) do not have formal training in the pedagogy of langauge, you should probably refrain from "correcting" your students' English. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_5: There are two ways to approach language: prescriptively and descriptively. You are leaning very strongly towards prescriptivism, while most linguists are much more on the side of descriptivism these days. There's always a balance to be found between the two in real life, though. Prescriptivism is the belief that there is a right way to use a language. Descriptivism is the belief that the way people use a language is the right way, and that all you can do is describe that way. In a way, prescriptivism is like treating the way that language is used as people doing math (they can definitely do things very wrong) and descriptivism is treating them as the math itself, where if you see a conclusion that collides with your world view (assuming the math was applied correctly) you adjust your world view. There is definitely some room for prescriptivism: learning a language is definitely based on it. And when the meaning of the statement is becoming unclear, there might be a place for it too. Some languages also have things that are very hard for language learners, but native speakers are very consistent about it (e.g. when to use "de" or "het" in Dutch) and in some environments, some prescriptivism might justified. I don't think prescriptivism has much of a place in a Math class, except in places where the meaning is becoming unclear. So yeah, especially, for something like "Me and X met", you should continue refraining commenting on it. Or perhaps better: don't just hold back commenting but see it as learning about how language is evolving. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_6: I am French and obsessional about the correctness of my beloved language. I make lots of efforts to write and speak properly and suffer when reading emails and listening to some people speaking (including on the national radio). I am also a father of two children. One of them is like me: grandiose language skills :). The other one is the destroyer of the future of French: not only he communicates as if he was taxed on the nr of lttrs, but in a sentence of eight words he manages to fit nine errors (slightly exaggerating). Both had the same education, same schools, same everything. Both are very good at maths and sports. The older one will have an easier life, the younger will suffer because of how he will be perceived - despite all my efforts to improve his French. So what should you do? Nothing. It would especially be a pity if you marked based on their language abilities, some people just do not get it. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_7: > > While I respect the opinions of those of you expressing a disdain for prescriptivism, I personally believe that education and discourse would benefit from a return to it. > > > Excuse me while I expand on what this actually means: > > While I respect the opinions of those of you expressing a disdain for teaching made-up rules by rote and rigidly enforcing them, I personally believe that education and discourse would benefit from a return to teaching made-up rules by rote and rigidly enforcing them. > > > That's all prescriptivist grammar is: made-up rules, which must be learned by rote because there is no logical reason to prefer them over any other rule. Each prescriptivist rule was made up arbitrarily, typically by one person who lived hundreds of years ago, typically a man with high enough social status that enough other people accepted his personal preferences as authoritative wisdom. So the reason you might think it's wrong to begin a sentence with a conjunction, split an infinitive, or end a sentence with a preposition, is because some long-dead guy preferred it that way so he made up a rule saying you had to write and speak like that. And he wouldn't have had to make up the rule if people were already following it, so all of these rules represented active campaigns to change how other people speak and write, so that it conformed to the rule-inventors' preferences. Try this: invent your own grammatical rule. How about "never use a semicolon after an adjective" or "each noun in a list must have its own article"? Now imagine yourself teaching your new rule to your students and enforcing your rule when your students email you. Would it be reasonable for you to do this? Surely not, because it is not a teacher's role to impose their own personal preferences on their students. But then what makes it any more reasonable for you to impose the personal preferences of some guy who died 100 years ago? His preferences are no more rational or less arbitrary than yours. Now suppose all of that hasn't convinced you that prescriptivism isn't beneficial to your students' learning. But how about this: your students are smart enough to know that your grammatical rules don't make any sense, and perhaps they'll think the rest of what you're teaching is just as dubious. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_8: Ask them whether they want this feedback. ----------------------------------------- > > Is there any way I can help students develop better writing skills without becoming despised? > > > Yes: change careers and become an English professor. But if that seems like too drastic a step... consider that people who make English mistakes1 fall into two groups: The first group is people who aren't particularly interested in improving their English2, and who will not welcome advice on doing so. That may be simply because they don't see the value in getting beyond "can be understood", or it may be for more considered reasons; there is a great deal of politics and history tied up in the question of which varieties of English are considered legitimate "varieties" and which are viewed as "incorrect". Even well-meant "corrections" can easily come across as patronising or worse.3 The second group is people who do want to improve, and who welcome advice on how to do so. Many, but by no means all, are non-native speakers. Both these groups are large. There are enough in the first group that if you make a habit of giving unsolicited advice, a great deal of it will be wasted effort. There are enough in the second group that you could devote your entire life to helping them without ever running out. That being the case, if you want to volunteer English help to people, it makes sense to focus on the latter group where your efforts will be productive and appreciated. So ask them whether they want to be helped. At the beginning of the term, you could let your students know that you're willing to provide feedback on written English to those who want it, explaining your pedagogical intent and why you feel this might be worthwhile, and then see who asks for it. If you don't get enough interest from your own class, well, there are academic editing services who will pay for somebody willing to provide that kind of advice in technical writing. (Some don't pay very well, but since you're looking at doing this for free anyway...) I sympathise with your position. I used to be the guy who offered unsolicited English correction to everybody, whether they wanted it or not. I eventually realised that it was largely unpleasant for my associates to be getting advice they hadn't asked for, and I also discovered that a side job in academic editing was a great way to get paid and thanked for correcting people. So now I expend my energies in that direction, and everybody is happier for it. --- 1. For which, read "make English mistakes" as "do not follow the version of English that I consider to be authoritative". 2. For which, read "improving their English" as "changing it to more closely resemble my preferred version of English". 3. For instance, there are far more people who speak Indian English than Australian English. But many who acknowledge Australian English as its own variety would view the quirks of Indian English as "errors". Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_9: #### In a properly functioning university, every academic in every field is a member of the grammar police The pedagogical intent of correcting grammar mistakes is self-evident --- it is to teach and assess proper grammar. It is perfectly appropriate (and generally desirable) to correct grammar in any field of tertiary instruction, including mathematics and other STEM subjects. As to whether you choose to do this in activites outside the scope of your own courses (e.g., in emails from students, etc.) that is a matter for your own discretion. I tend to agree that it is a duty of academics to instruct students outside the scope of coursework, including giving instruction in soft-skills, spelling, grammar, etc. In any case, in a properly functioning university, every academic in every field should be a member of the grammar police. As a secondary matter, I think you need to reconsider unreasonable fears about how you will be perceived by your students. You are there to be their teacher, not their buddy. Properly functioning universities do not "let the inmates run the asylum". Students receive instruction from experts who know more than them, and if they "despise" receiving feedback on the quality of their work from said experts, then they are in the wrong place, and are free to refrain from pursuing tertiary education. With regard to the specific issue of correcting grammar in student emails, I don't have a strong view either way. It is legitimate to give students instruction on their grammar in this context if you wish, and it may assist them in learning to craft more professional emails. That is a useful skill for the student to take into the professional world after graduation. On the other hand, you might decide that this is going beyond the scope of the intruction you want to give, or you might decide that you want email communication to be a forum where students needn't worry about these issues. Either approach is legitimate and it is within your academic discretion. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_10: I once read the thesis written by a coworker, in the degree program for Computer Science or something similar to that. It was full of typos, spelling errors, and grammatical errors, and I found that to be detrimental to the reading of the paper. Her professor had the policy of "this isn't an English class." But, that doesn't mean you shouldn't do basic proofreading! How do I know you don't have similar errors in the math or code expressions? It gives a rather poor impression, tainting any assessment based on the work being reported on. I think you need to explain that language varies with the context, and writing up results constitutes a more formal context than spoken conversation. Even then there is a range of contexts: spelling mistakes on a hand-written exam can be overlooked, but a typewritten term paper should have been checked before handing it in. The issue is: does the student consider a quick email to be an informal context that can use colloquial language similar to speaking in person? Then would a correction be useful because the writer actually doesn't know, or would it be annoying because the writer does know how to use a more formal mode, but was simply not using it here? Whether it would be fruitful to point out such mistakes in email depends on how well you know the specific student. Noting it on their work, on the other hand, is appropriate, and they should be prepped with an introduction that their results should be documented in a more formal tone. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_11: When students write material of whatever nature for class, it is a good idea to ensure they are using an appropriate academic register and to point out egregious or repeated spelling and punctuation mistakes and so forth. If a student had written "Me and X went ..." in an assignment, whatever the subject, it would be perfectly apposite to add a note saying "wording too informal for an academic essay." Who could possibly disagree? However, whereas it is beneficial to correct someone's writing when feedback might be expected, the same is not true when it comes to correcting everyday communications. It is extremely rude, if not offensive to correct people's speech or writing while they are in the course of communicating directly with you. Imagine, for example, a situation where you had submitted an article for publication in an academic journal. You would most definitely expect, if not welcome, corrections to slips and errors in your writing within that article. At an outside chance, you might even welcome some feedback on the English (or whatever language you are using) in your cover letter. However, suppose having had your article accepted subject to revisions, you emailed a query to the editor regarding who you should contact with regard to a serious typo and and in their reply they wrote: > > By the way, the correct grammar here is not "Who should I contact?", but "Whom should I contact?" > > > Your might well think that in addition to being pompous, this behaviour was both rude and unhelpful. You would be correct. [You might also think that the editor was spectacularly ignorant about the facts of the language, although this would be a side issue, as in the Original Poster's case.] Of course, the Original Poster tacitly knows all of this. The reason they are asking the question here, is that they want to know whether their position as teacher should allow them to trample on the normal sensibilities of their students, and correct them when it might be otherwise be considered rude or intrusive (i.e. correcting a student's email). Or rather, they want to do it anyway but aren't sure how to. I suggest to the Original Poster that they instead model the behaviour that they would like to see in their students. In other words, I suggest that they treat all their correspondents, whether or not they are students, with the same courtesy and respect that they would expect from their own colleagues. Hopefully, this will rub off. Upvotes: 0
2021/10/31	2,033	8,597	<issue_start>username_0: I found out that my supervisor in college translated an unpublished article of mine (in Chinese) into English verbatim and published it in a top journal, without any quotation marks or acknowledgments. I have amounts of email records 5 years ago as evidence, in which my supervisor and I discussed (in Chinese as well) how to modify the paper. I want to write an email to the journal editor to report his cheat, but I am not sure whether the evidence is sufficient to judge him as plagiarism, especially under the situation that my original work has not been published.<issue_comment>username_1: Your former supervisor has represented your work as their own, which is the definition of plagiarism, regardless of whether this work was published before. What you should do about it is a different story. You should consider your current position, your potential for future positions, and how an official complaint to an editor, or official recognition of your major contribution to the published work would impact these. Getting the credit may or may not be worth the trouble you start by bringing up the issue with an editor. Your first instinct here should be to avoid doing yourself or your career irreparable harm. In the US in an academic environment, someone who reports misconduct (and we are talking about misconduct) has a modicum of protection, in that retaliating for a report of misconduct (at least scientific misconduct, and probably some other forms) is misconduct. This means that the institution is likely to exert strong pressure on those in a position to retaliate to NOT retaliate, in fear of liability. In China, I have no idea what the legal environment protecting whistleblowers is, but I would believe it is not as robust as in the US. Even with such protection, a whisper-campaign can be hard to prove. There are also cultural and legal differences between my particular background and people in that part of the world, and some of these involve concepts surrounding intellectual property (see <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellectual_property_in_China> for a bit of a review, and perhaps some good bibliographic material on the matter. You might also peek at Xu, Comparative analysis of intellectual property between China and the West: A cultural perspective, J. Intellectual Property Rights 2014(3)(<http://nopr.niscair.res.in/handle/123456789/28926>), [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/235330028\_'Plagiarism'\_and\_the\_Confucian\_Heritage\_Culture\_CHC\_Student](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/235330028_%27Plagiarism%27_and_the_Confucian_Heritage_Culture_CHC_Student), and <https://uselesstree.typepad.com/useless_tree/2010/08/plagiarism-and-confucianism.html>. Beyond recognizing that there are differences, I'm not particularly well-qualified to comment on them, and would certainly welcome an additional answer that can expand on this. To my untrained eye, it's not just a legal issue, but it has something to to with the concept of intellectual property and how people think about it. You can't just make laws and expect people to follow them when the concepts lying behind a law don't match up well to concepts within a given society. It would seem that as China is becoming more and more involved with the rest of the world, these issues are improving: <https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/10/16/china-intellectual-property-theft-progress/> Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_2: ### Contact the journal, ask for it to be taken down. Most top journals in English should follow academic norms, and those norms require that everyone who has contributed intellectually to a paper be listed as an author, and that publication isn't allowed without the unanimous consent of all authors. As such, I would recommend that you contact them, inform them of the plagiarism, and, if possible, include a link to a preprint of your Chinese-language paper, or to any other evidence you possess that proves your primacy, and ask them to retract the paper. They should be happy to comply - they don't want to be known as a journal that publishes plagiarised work any more than you want your work to be plagiarised! Of course, the professor who plagiarised you would doubtlessly find out in short order, and there'd be nothing to stop him from retaliating against you, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't consider doing it. Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_3: We cannot judge the strength of the evidence for you, but ultimately that is going to hinge on whether you have records of your unpublished paper which will allow an independent person to verify its existence, its genesis, and (roughly) when it was created. If you have records of past emails working on the paper between you and your supervisor, that sounds like strong evidence to me. In any case, if you have enough evidence for a prima facie case on the matter, you can make a complaint to the journal and the university employing your supervisor. Both journals and universities have established procedures to investigate allegations of plagiarism. They will be able to guide you through the complaint process and advise you on what evidence is useful in the matter. Ultimately it is up to them (not you) to judge the strength of the evidence. Nevertheless, if you have records showing the prior existence of the paper, the fact that you wrote it, and corroboration that it existed at a date prior to the translated version, that sounds sufficient to make a complaint. Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_4: I think that with cultural differences across the world and department differences across research disciplines it is hard to give advice here on the best course of action. I would advise you to seek input from a trusted faculty member or ombudsperson at your institution to figure out how to proceed with damaging your current and future positions. The bottom line is this: Your supervisor acted unethically in taking your work and passing it off as his own. But you need to ensure that you follow a path that is best for you overall—and not just consider this manuscript. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: You may think the emails are a strong enough proof. I am quite sure the professor would go full power with the claim "the emails printout are falsified" How can you prove the email exchanges are true? Contact the email provider. Managed in China? by a chinese employee of the university? The same university where the professor has a very powerful role... good luck! Ps: I really feel for your situation, but to face such a situation would already be very difficult in the western world, even by having an equally powerful professor by your side. In the chinese world (mainland or not)? you would neet a lot of friends that want to topple that professor ... Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_6: I think you should write to the editor and let the editor know you believe this article has plagiarized your original work. You probably should send the original paper and pdfs of email messages you have exchanged with your supervisor (perhaps the originals and rough translations). Your supervisor won't be happy but your supervisor should not have plagiarized. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_7: Is it possible they mistakenly attributed your work to another author of the paper and there's no intentional malice here at all? (you don't mention any other authors, but presumably the professor didn't publish it exclusively under their name) Reminding the professor of your contribution may be all that's needed to correct the mistake. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_8: The institution itself could be a good starting point. Consider speaking to higher authorities or trusted personnel in the college to seek some insights into protection of your interests from the college and self-protection, before any contact with the journal which may help with your credit but could alert the supervisor. The college most likely values its own reputation as much as a journal does, and an incidence like this either gets intentionally covered up, goes unnoticed, or be addressed seriously and then that's where any evidence helps, to convince people. Consider the power of a supervisor, are they capable of causing irreparable damage to your career even if all odds are against you? Knowing them for long, what's their personality like, do they tend to seek retaliation? Have you talked to the supervisor at all? Perhaps, this is simply an imprudence of the supervisor and they just didn't think about this being plagiarism. Upvotes: 0
2021/10/31	739	3,208	<issue_start>username_0: Some universities do not clearly state that I should not or must not contact potential PhD advisors. For instance, one says it is not "necessary" to contact an advisor during the application process. Supervision will be decided later. Does this mean contact is not necessary but you can do it if you like? Or does it mean not necessary so do not attempt at all? (I am applying to do a PhD in educational sciences).<issue_comment>username_1: Actually, the instructions are SUPER clear. With these instructions, I would recommend only contacting a professor in that department if there is a real reason why you feel that a professor might choose to advocate for you in the admissions process. You should consider this a substantially high bar to get over. For example, if you've met the professor at a conference because of research you've done, or if you've been very immersed in research directly related to that investigators lab. In this case, you're probably doing the professor a favor by pointing out that there may be an entering grad student they'd have interest in. An additional time when I think it would be a good idea to contact the prof is if you would only attend that university if offered a slot in that professor's lab. In this case, contacting the prof to find out if this is a viable possibility can save both you and the program you're applying to time and expense. If there are three or four labs you'd be willing to work in, skip this. Generally, at least in the US, it's probably only a good idea to contact the prof if establishing a relationship would be mutually beneficial, keeping in mind that the prof will be competing with other profs for the best grad students in their program. If your letter to the prof would look like "you don't know me, but I've heard of your field and I think I would like working in it -- please do what you can to get me admitted" -- that's pretty much just noise. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: My advice is that you don't contact individual professors unless it is clearly required, as is true in some countries and in some field more generally. In particular, don't flood them with the things that would normally appear in an application sent to the department/committee. They have no need to see this and are unlikely to do anything more than delete what you send. The more courteous will send you a note to apply through channels, even if they don't actually look at what you send. People are busy. Don't ask them for things they probably can't do and that would interrupt their work process. And don't try to circumvent the normal application process. Nobody will be impressed by that. On rare occasions, it is possible that one professor will recommend a student, out of process, to a colleague at another university, but only if some special circumstance applies that the sender thinks the receiver needs to be aware of. I have done this, successfully, though it was part of the application process, when it was clear that something in the record was misinterpreted. But a student has no "standing" to do this on their own. And, I was putting my own reputation on the line, of course. Upvotes: 0
2021/10/31	510	2,024	<issue_start>username_0: I'm applying for Ph.D. this year. As far as I know, many universities are strong-committee, i.e. one has to pass the committee so that he/she could get a Ph.D. offer. But when I contacted one professor at Yale (which is also strong-committee), the professor guaranteed that if I apply, he will accept me. I'm wondering, can I count on this oral offer? how sure should I feel about this Ph.D. offer? Would new professors have the privilege of choosing the students they want, bypassing the committee?<issue_comment>username_1: In the US, if a professor had the actual power to admit a student into a doctoral program it would be extremely unusual. Professors are employees, not officers, of the institution, so would need to be granted explicit power for this. It is the institution that grants degrees, not the advisor, though in some fields the advisor provides funding for students. Likely what is intended is that if you get accepted (by the committee) he will be happy to be your advisor. Some professors might have some informal influence over committees, but not much more than that. It is encouraging, however, but you have to make a formal application. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: > > can I count on this oral offer? > > > No. This is not an official offer from a graduate program and you should not count on anything that isn’t an official offer. It’s certainly nice and somewhat reassuring to have an informal promise of this type, but that’s all it is. Individual people are occasionally careless with their words and are known to break promises occasionally, so you should not treat this as a sure thing. > > how sure should I feel about this Ph.D. offer? > > > Reasonably confident, but hold off on popping the champagne. You will live long enough to see various low probability events happen. The possibility that a formal PhD offer will not materialize in this situation is a low probability event, but not a zero probability event. Upvotes: 3
2021/10/31	1,653	7,296	<issue_start>username_0: I'm a first year PhD student in theoretical physics. My problem isn't strictly due to imposter syndrome, but rather not knowing how I should be spending my time. My supervisor has only given me some vague guidance on what my project should be about, while I hoped to be given some reasonably well-defined first problem to work on. His most concrete suggestion was along the lines of "go study some lattice model on this particular class of lattice geometries and see if you find something interesting". For the past two months, while trying to follow his suggestion, I have been attempting to learn various methods that might be useful to my project, allowing me to study said models in said geometries, or to at least gain a better understanding of the available literature, but that's not a way to continue; there is not enough time to learn even a handful of methods that would be relevant to the problem at hand in sufficient depth. I've only had a couple of ideas of how I might be able to study the problem emerge during this process, but even then I don't know if those ideas are feasible, let alone sound (and the more I think about them, the less sound they appear). My supervisor isn't actively doing research himself, and only engages with the research being done by the people in the group through meetings, which is unlike some other group leaders I have done projects with. I appreciate that my supervisor gives me full independence in choosing what I want to work on, but identifying a suitable problem to begin with and means of solving it is what I struggle the most with. Other PhD students in my group are lucky to have co-supervisors who seem more engaged with their projects, or had been supervised by a postdoc during their Master's project and now have some clear follow-up problems to work on with their postdoc partner. Is this how PhD research is expected to look like at the beginning, or are those signs that my supervisor is not particularly good at supervising? I'm in the UK, so changing my supervisor is not an option.<issue_comment>username_1: Firstly, there is always the option to change your supervisor, even in the UK. However, that may be the last resort option, and you have other avenues you can explore first. Have you tried asking your current supervisor for more guidance? If you don't tell them that you feel lost with your current project, they won't know! You can write them an email explaining things just as you have done here, or ask for a Zoom meeting or in-person meeting if you would prefer to talk face to face. Communication is key! The supervisor-supervisee relationship works best if you can both talk honestly and sincerely with each other from the get-go. It's not too late to explain your feelings and problems to your supervisor. (It's also not unusual to feel lost at the start (and middle, and sometimes even the end) of a PhD, but it sounds like in your case you have had a particularly scant amount of guidance.) If your supervisor is unwillingly or unable to give you more help, you should be able to officially or unofficially add a second supervisor to your supervisory team. In fact, I'm surprised you don't already have one -- at my university it was mandatory, to avoid this exact situation. Ask around amongst those keen and engaged postdocs to see if any of them would be willing to take you on as a student, or unofficially mentor you and provide you with some guidance. Make sure that you let your current supervisor know that you are doing this, rather than springing it on them once all the arrangements have been made. Finally, if there's no one in your department who can help you out as a co-supervisor, you could consider starting a collaboration with someone from another university. This is likely to be quite hard since you are a new PhD student with presumably not much of a network. My advice is to to go to conferences and workshops in your field and get talking to people who are working on interesting problems. Suggest something that you could work on together, if you are able to come up with an idea (not always easy!). There are also other questions and answers on this site about how to start new collaborations. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: I don't know if it's the field, but I've heard this story before in UK theoretical physics. Perhaps it might help to be able to go to your supervisor for specific advice. You said you've been trying to learn lots of methods that might be useful to a sufficient detail to use them. That sounds inefficient. I have to admit, I'm not a theoretical physicist, but what I'd do is make a list of all the models you can find in literature in the specified geometry, and see which one excites people the most, or seems to have the most open questions. Or hasn't been studied at all. Then I'd make a list of all the methods that you could apply to it - learn just enough about each one to be able to be 50-60% confident it could be applied and no one has done so before. Then pick one method. Does (did) your supervisor specifise in a particular class of models/methods? It might be worth finding a combination that is complementary with someone else in the dept. Like if your supervisor has worked with model X, and your list of methods includes a method that someone else inthe dept has experience with, that might be a useful combo. Congratulations, you've found yourself a co-supervisor. Then write to your supervisor saying "here are all the models I reckon I could study, and here are the methods I think might be applicable. I think perhaps I might start by trying method X with model Y, can we arrange a meeting to discuss if you think this is a productive way forward?" They might say "no I don't think this model/method will be productive", in which case be prepared to say "what about this other model/method" or "which of this list of methods do you think would be more productive"? He might just shrug, and say "go try, see what happens". Again, discipline specific considerations apply, but usually, if you apply a particular method to a particular problem, and do it well, it can form part of your thesis even if it doesn't work. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: #### Talk to your supervisor Supervisors are there to help, so if you feel that you need some more specific/detailed guidance at this stage of your program, go and see your supervisor and have a talk about it. You can let him know that you are having trouble with the general task you have been assigned and you think you need some more detailed guidance on how to proceed. Research expectations are not high for a first-year PhD student, so it is likely that your supervisor will be willing to accommodate some additional guidance to help you develop. Most major problems that arise in supervision of PhD students occur when the student has a problem, or is not making progress, but they are too shy or anxious to speak to their supervisor about it. Effective supervision requires the student to be realistic about their situation and progress, and report candidly to their supervisor about any difficulties they are having. When this occurs, supervisors can usually assist the student and nip initial problems in the bud. Upvotes: 2
2021/10/31	501	2,095	<issue_start>username_0: Do editors have 3 of 4 simple rules they typically fall back on when selecting referees? Such as picking candidate among recent citations in the submitted paper, or recent citations that appeared in their journal, picking close colleagues? ... are there any likely generalities?<issue_comment>username_1: Remember that the editors of journals are experts in their field and typically only get papers that are at least within the margins of their subject matter expertise. So: Rule 1: If the paper is in an area you (=the editor) knows well, then you will also know all of the major players in the area and pick people from among your professional network as reviewers. Rule 2: If you don't know the specific area well, ask around among your friends for the names of potential reviewers. Rule 3: If you don't even know who to ask, go through the list of references at the end of the paper and try to identify the key papers; then use web searches to find out which of these key papers' authors are the key players. Contact them. For 80% of papers, rules 1 and 2 are good enough. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: There is no hard and fast rules but… 1. Many journals have a database of referees and associated keywords. It’s easy to search referees from this database, 2. Some journals will ask authors to suggest referees, 3. one can look at the bibliography for recent publications on the topic, 4. One can use - say - Web of Knowledge to do keyword searches, 5. One can use GoogleScholar to find who usually cites results from this group, or related groups in the same area, 6. and of course personal experience and knowledge of the field. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: In addition to the guidelines given by username_1 and username_2, there is also: * The reviewers might be suggested, e.g. if we invite A using the other methods, and A declines, recommending B instead, then we are likely to invite B. * The reviewer is not currently reviewing some other paper for the journal (or had reviewed several papers recently for the journal). Upvotes: 1
2021/10/31	2,426	10,294	<issue_start>username_0: In normal job-hunting, it's acceptable to apply for jobs "informationally", to learn about new opportunities before deciding whether the new opportunity is better than your current. Suppose I'm a published MS-level researcher in industry, but have gotten interested in certain research projects in academia and see PhD student lab openings. I'd like to learn more about the projects to see if the project direction is a good fit for my interests, see if I like the culture of the team, see if I like the location, learn more about the funding situation and expected work-life balance of the lab. All five of these things are unknowns when applying to a normal job, and it's acceptable in industry (I'm in EECS) to interview for several rounds with on-site visits to find answers on both sides before deciding if it's a good fit. If for any reason the applicant declines, it's perfectly acceptable to interview with the same team a few years down the road as projects, willingness to relocate, family situation all change dramatically over the course of one's lifetime. As a practicing researcher in the field, I can of course do due diligence and read the relevant papers/ codebases, etc., but interviewing with the faculty and meeting the future team by being accepted to the associated graduate program are necessary to fully evaluate whether the new position is more desirable than the current one. Would this attitude be seen negatively, both by the potential future advising faculty or the larger admitting institution? Would schools be more reluctant to admit me if I re-apply? For context, I'm in the US and would be applying to top-N schools. If this approach is not appropriate for grad-school, how would I go about managing how project/location/team/cultural fit, from my perspective, could change over my lifetime as, e.g., the kids grow up and move out, the field changes and develops. It seems a bit absurd that, because an opportunity or team was not a good fit at some point in my lifetime, it would be closed to me for the rest of a 30 year career, so if this is the case I have trouble understanding the underlying reasoning.<issue_comment>username_1: In my view, it's completely different to apply intending to find a position but not find the right fit than it is to apply "explorationally" to gather information without intending to follow through during the current admissions cycle. And I don't think that's unique to grad school/academia, it's rude to waste any interviewer's time. In industry, it's more common to be contacted for an interview or to go into an interview where both parties know you aren't on the immediate job market. That's different from abusing someone else's time for practice or whatever else. Yes, you'll find professional articles written that say otherwise. Sure, you might see other people doing it. Rude people do rude things all the time, selfish people coach others to be selfish; that doesn't make them less rude or selfish. Applying isn't a commitment to take a position, and it would be wrong for someone to take your honest rejection of their offer too personally. However, they have every right next time around to be skeptical of your interest. Offers for grad school positions usually come on a fairly competitive calendar; if someone doesn't accept your offer, their second choice might have already committed elsewhere. It seems you aren't quite sure if you want to go the academic route. I'd recommend reaching out to labs to communicate without applying. Let them know, honestly, what your position is. You probably have resources to travel, so visit some potential cities as a tourist and see how you like the vibe on your own. If you're doing research work now that's of academic interest, you may be able to arrange to visit and give a talk like an academic would, which typically comes with opportunities to meet with faculty and current students (and maybe even a honorarium for speaking, or at least a free meal). And know that you aren't that special for having started an industry career first - most people have. A PhD in the US is usually a 5+ year commitment, and it's coming with a likely big pay cut for you. Rather than having negotiating power due to your salary and experience, you are probably in a negotiating hole because you are a higher risk to drop out after experiencing a cost of living crunch than a fresh student who has always lived in shared student housing. You'll be needing to explain why exactly you're a good fit for academia, and you'll have to convince programs that you're committed to them. Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: For better or worse, there are some major differences between applying to PhD programs and applying for industry jobs, that mean that treating an application for a PhD spot like an application for a job probably won't work. For one thing, in the US normally you are applying to a graduate program, rather than a specific lab. While it helps a lot to have a clear idea of what groups you want to work for, being admitted to a graduate program is not a guarantee that you will be able to work with a specific group. For another thing, you are applying for an educational program, not a job. The goal is not just for you to produce, but to learn. This has a lot of implications, but relevant to your question, if you apply, receive an offer, and reject the offer to stay in your current job, there can be a perception that you are not serious about pursuing further education, which can color how your application will be viewed (should you apply again). Finally, the laws of supply and demand are not on your side. There are more graduating BS and MS students every year looking for PhD slots, then there are PhD slots. Furthermore, while there are people who leave to go to industry and return, the "typical" path is to go to a PhD shortly after finishing a BS or MS degree. So if you apply, receive an offer, and then reject the offer, there is not an incentive to offer you another spot. Therefore, I think that if you want to avoid potentially burning bridges, you should only apply if you think you want to go to school instead of remaining in industry. In terms of power dynamics: fundamentally there is a power imbalance when you get a PhD, in a way there probably isn't in a typical industry job, because you are the one seeking a PhD. You will need to commit to one group for at least 3-5 years to make enough progress to get the PhD. It's very hard for you as a student to change groups, and if you do this will only set back your own timeline. Therefore, unlike in industry, the (implicit or explicit) threat that you could leave to go somewhere else, does not carry as much weight for PhD students in academia. Any PI will have certain resources available based on funding, there is a standard package you will get as a student, so you can't really bargain with your current salary. The bargaining chips that carry weight, are things that give you ability to produce high-impact research and win grants. But, if you are applying as a PhD student, you probably don't have already those things; you may have the promise to learn enough to do such things, but a typical PhD student is in the role of an apprentice being groomed. As practical advice, I think you should use your academic network. Talk to the professors whose groups you work with about what it is like to do a PhD with them. Ask to talk to their PhD students. Maybe you could try to arrange spending a month in their lab, like an internship (of course I don't know how this would work with your company). Maybe the PIs can provide contacts for groups at institutions where you want to get a degree. I think you can learn a lot from talking to these groups before you apply about what to expect. IMPORTANT CAVEAT This advice about your academic network is assuming that you feel comfortable reaching out to your academic collaborators without jeopardizing your current role. This may not be a safe thing to do, particularly if you are a junior person on your team, since (a) the faculty may tell your boss that you are thinking of leaving your job, and (b) there could be agreements between your collaborators and your employer that they are not supposed to "poach" current employees. I can't judge how likely (a) and (b) are in your case. There are usually agreements like (b) if two companies work together, but I don't know if that is true for academic collaboration. If you don't feel safe directly talking to people you work with about this, then you can find a lot of general advice about what a PhD is like online, including on this site, for example [Advice for thinking about whether to pursue a PhD](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/147306/advice-for-thinking-about-whether-to-pursue-a-phd/147347) Philosophically, I think that if you really want to do a PhD, you can't look at it as a normal job. You have to look at it as fulfilling your passion for a subject by pursuing it deeply at the highest level. This often means making sacrifices in terms of pay, work-life balance. That's not to say there aren't ways to manage a healthy work-life balance as a PhD student, but it's not a job where you can expect to work 9-5 and get everything done. To be successful, rather than negotiating power dynamics between you and your PI, you should focus more on finding a group that will intellectually match your interests and on learning how to be a successful researcher. Now... I am not passing a value judgment on whether these attitudes are a good or bad thing. I am just saying that this is the prevailing culture in academia, which you should be aware of before deciding to purse a PhD. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: PhD programs will happily continue accepting your application fees. It is your life and your money. If you were not serious about doing PhD study, then the money budgeted to such fees could be better spent on such things as a vacation, dinner at a fancy restaurant, etc. If you really have nothing better to spend your money on, you could give it to me. I will without complaint relieve you of any surplus money that is holding you back from achieving your dreams. Upvotes: -1
2021/11/01	1,907	7,839	<issue_start>username_0: Last year, I went to a math conference to present new results in my paper 1, which was just submitted to a journal. Afterwards, a well-known Professor X approached me to discuss the paper. He seemed very interested in the results, and mentioned paper 2, which was written by him and his collaborators. He didn’t ask me to cite his paper though (in hindsight, I guessed that he mentioned it just because he wanted it to be cited). Recently, I asked him for a letter of recommendation. Initially, he agreed. However, after one month, he sent an email saying that he changed his mind, and criticized me for not citing his paper 2 in my paper 1, which is now published. I already have enough references so his refusal doesn’t cause any harm. However, I wonder if I should apologise to him for not citing his paper? The overlap of the two papers is as follows. My paper 1 has two main ingredients A and B, which are equally important. His paper 2 has two main ingredients A and C. I didn’t know about his paper until he told me, and thus I didn’t use any ideas or results of his paper. Updates/Clarifications: * When I talked about the main ingredients, I meant the overall paper, not the new results. Our paper didn’t have any overlap results. The part A was about the physical model (already well-established and in textbooks), which was our starting point. Our paths then diverged from this common physical model. * I removed some references and an appendix to meet the page requirement, including this professor's paper and some other textbooks that described the physical model. We deliberately chose the least relevant ones to remove, and we didn't remove anything that would lead to plagiarism issues. * As a side note, a senior colleague Y just showed me a paper 3, written by Y 5 years before paper 2, but Professor X didn't cite paper 3 in paper 2, even though they had similar mathematical results!<issue_comment>username_1: In general, you do not owe anyone an apology for not citing their work. Even assuming you were wrong not to cite the paper, that is essentially just a mistake in your assessment of the appropriate scope for your literature review; reasonable people can disagree on such matters (or just make mistakes), and it is not a personal snub against the authors whose works are not included. It is possible that you were wrong not to cite this work, and some of your comments on your reasoning suggest that you may be operating under some misapprehensions in regard to this issue. In particular, your comment citing space limitations as the reason for non-citation is not a particularly good justification. (It sometimes only takes two words to cite a single-author paper in Harvard style, plus another one or two lines to add the paper in the reference list.) Similarly, while use of results in a paper is a good reason to cite it, it is not a necessary condition. Sometimes we cite a paper just to let the reader know that there is another work that examines the same/similar problem. In general, whether you cite a paper or not should be judged by whether or not it is helpful to the reader to know about the paper. Giving a charitable interpretation to this professor's actions, one could say that he does not want to give you a letter of reference because he has concluded that you have poor judgment with regard to your ability to conduct a literature review. (The less charitable interpretation is that he conditions his assessments on whether or not the subject of the letter benefits his own citation metrics, which is a bit churlish.) That does not require you to make any apology, but you should take some time to self-reflect and consider whether this is a reasonable criticism of your work. You could certainly write back and thank the professor for taking the time to consider your work and offer a critique, and let him know that you will reflect on it. If you decide you made an error here (i.e., that you should have cited his paper) you could also write back and note your change of views, and in this case you could apologise if you wish, though it is not really necessary. Upvotes: 7 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: > > I should apologize to him for not citing his paper? > > > As a general rule, and not just in your specific case, I suggest erring on the side of apology without acknowledging wrongdoing. That is, do tell him: "I'm sorry I didn't cite your paper"; but unless you are sure you did something wrong, don't tell him: "I should have cited your paper". Why? * It will make the object of apology feel better. * If you're not sorry for what you did, you can at least be sorry for having made him feel bad / slighted / disrespected. * You're not actually giving him evidence for a potential formal complaint about your conduct. So you don't really have anything to lose. * Apologizing does not mean losing face, or admitting a moral vice etc. So even symbolically you have nothing to lose. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: > > Should I apologise to a professor for not citing his paper? > > > The other two current answers are excellent, there are several good reasons to respond and at least acknowledge the professor's concerns and the relevance of their work (the "A" component). If it were me, I'd also include an explicit statement that you were not aware of the paper at the time and that your work was independent of it, to "allay any potential concern" that you might have not cited their work to make it "look like" you were not aware of it. Cover all of your bases in any paper trail. > > However, after one month, he sent an email saying that he changed his mind, and criticized me for not citing his paper 2 in my paper 1, which is now published. > > > As mentioned elsewhere, we should strive to make the readers of our papers aware of all relevant/related existing work to the extent possible within practical constraints. If it were me I'd include something like "In hindsight, I see your point and your paper would have been good to include along with the other citations" provided that you actually feel that way (never lie). You could even suggest that "Should I continue to publish in this area, I'll be sure to reconsider citing your work" and perhaps "Thanks for your advice". It's a big world, but for any given topic of research, it's still a small world. Researchers of a given field constantly bump into each other, sometimes by reviewing each other's papers, and there are plenty of us with subconscious bias and a few that are even cut-throat and vindictive. ### On the other hand... You could also archive, print and frame the email and hang it on your wall. "I decided not to write you a letter of recommendation because you didn't cite my paper" (if that's what it really says) is a real gem! and anyone passing through your office and noticing it will get a chuckle! :-) Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: Regardless of whether or not you should have cited the paper, in my opinion refusing to write you a letter based on this is a pretty clear overreaction. It's not like you plagiarized his work. In fact I think it borders on bullying behavior so you err on the side of citing him in the future. I wouldn't apologize. You can say something nice acknowledging his point if you want to avoid burning a bridge. Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_5: You owe him and yourself, if not an apology, at least an explanation why his paper does not deserve a credit. The professor has criticized your actions, so you cannot ignore him at this point. Either, you apologize or you explain politely why you shouldn't cite his paper. Ignoring a legitimate comment by a scholar is a clear disrespect to the colleague, and is the worst kind of reaction. Upvotes: 0
2021/11/01	427	1,892	<issue_start>username_0: I submitted a manuscript to Journal A. After review, 2 reviewers were positively endorsed for publication. However, 1 reviewer and editor suggests publishing it in another journal (B) in the same system. So We agreed, revised, and transferred to Journal B. So my question is: Will the transferred manuscript at the new journal (B) be sent back to the same reviewers at the transferring journal (A)? or they will invite a fresh new set of reviewers? Thanks Note: Journal A is higher than B in ranking, same system.<issue_comment>username_1: Probably not - because the new journal B does not know which reviewers were invited by A. This information, as well as the reviews received by journal A, is not usually shared between journals. The manuscript could still be sent to the same reviewers, but that would mean the editors of A and B independently agreed that [reviewer] is an expert on the topic who can review the paper. Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: I would expect that where the editor suggests "transferring" to a specific journal, it is because there is some arrangement that this can be done while keeping the same reviewers (assuming that they are happy for this to happen, but I don't see why they would object). Unless the new version of the paper has significant differences, the next review should be relatively quick. This has happened to me. It is of course not uncommon for reviewers, if they don't think the paper is strong enough for the current journal, to suggest a specific other journal which would be suitable, and you shouldn't read anything into that (other than "if I were reviewing for journal B, I would recommend acceptance). But if the editor endorses that suggestion, and particularly if they use the word "transfer" rather than "resubmit", it suggests they think they can expedite the process for journal B. Upvotes: 2
2021/11/01	1,463	6,437	<issue_start>username_0: The question is essentially in the title. Do PhD programs in the United States prefer it if an applicant does not have a master's degree beforehand? This question is particular to engineering, as I think the answer varies even within STEM. As far as I am aware, most US PhD programs will accept applicants with a bachelor's degree, and these candidates can earn a master's degree along the way, or if they drop out. I get a slight feeling that programs prefer such applicants, but if so, I can't think of any reason why. Is it because they are a little more raw, and the program can shape the path of such students to a larger extent? (That doesn't sound convincing to me, at all.) With a master's degree, the applicant already has some experience of graduate school, and possibly even research. Are there any reasons this would work against them?<issue_comment>username_1: I expect that your "slight feeling" comes not so much from the university itself as from its recruiters. If the university is trying to attract students, it will naturally prefer to have them for a longer program as well. American students frequently earn multiple degrees. It is not uncommon to have master's degrees in addition to doctoral degrees. In terms of acceptance to a program, the more important point may be the scholarship which the potential student has maintained throughout his or her prior academic career, including the GPA for the master's degree(s). This is important, not for its indication of mastery level so much as for its predictive value to the diligence and study habits of the student. Ultimately, it boils down to this: Universities like to have quality students who will well represent them in the future. When one has studied for a longer term in an institution, one also tends to have built a greater loyalty to it. It is, therefore, advantageous for the university on multiple counts to have longer-term students. Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: Given that the design of US doctoral programs is to enable those with a bachelors to succeed, the answer would be, structurally, yes. But for the admission process itself, the effect, while variable, I expect to be weak - with caveats. There is, in the US, normally some sort of qualifying process before one formally begins dissertation research. Some places and in most (other) fields this takes the form of qualifying examinations; written and/or oral. There are other processes possible, however, probably more likely in engineering. But there is likely to be some process and the early part of the doctoral curriculum (coursework, lab experience,...) is designed to make passing the bar possible. Usually the early work also guarantees broad knowledge of the field in general before deep specialization for the dissertation. This will also benefit future academics and prepare them for a career. Note that the faculty is pretty certain of the general knowledge of a student who goes through this long process successfully. For a person with a masters in hand, the qualifying process is probably still in place. I'd expect that having it waived would be rare. This makes it more difficult both for the applicant and for the faculty to judge whether they have the general knowledge or not. So, a "preference" is probably too strong. But "extra scrutiny" may well be in the minds of the committee members if that is the process for successful admittance. On the other hand, if a professor has the authority to accept individuals on their own (and probably to give them financial support), the balance may change in the opposite direction. If a professor has need of someone with particular skills in their lab, then someone with a masters might be preferred, being farther along in their education. But the qualifying bar may still be in place, giving the candidate extra tasks, perhaps. My recommendation is that if you are already in a masters program, then finish it. But if you are not, then there is little if any advantage in starting one if your goal is a doctorate in the US. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: This answer is really about some (and not all) top programs in mathematics, but perhaps it applies more widely. A number of top PhD programs see their main mission as training future top mathematicians, maybe not just Fields Medalists, but folks at the level of invited speakers at American Mathematical Society meetings (of which there are around 40 a year). (Note that, with the current scarcity of jobs, we are near the point where most people hired into tenure-track positions with significant research responsibilities have demonstrated potential to do research at this level. I don't think it is unreasonable for a top 10 department to think of their graduate programs this way.) Certainly there is some extent to which mathematical potential is inborn, or at least determined before graduate school. (We don't argue that people with moderate or severe intellectual disabilities can do mathematics research.) Some minority of mathematicians, large enough to be influential in admissions in some departments, believe explicitly or implicitly that mathematical ability at the level required to be a top mathematician is mostly fixed by the end of undergraduate education, and that mathematicians can recognize such ability with high accuracy. The logical corollary of such a belief is that people who did not gain admission directly to a top PhD program with their BA/BS most likely do not have such ability and hence should not be admitted. Most applicants with a Masters degree in the US ended up in an MA/MS program because they did not manage to get into a PhD program, and most of the rest are in a non-top program and trying to get into a top one. In other words, some people consider a US Masters degree a negative signal that you are not(\) good enough to have gotten into a good PhD program right after undergrad. (Of course, if your undergrad degree wasn't in mathematics and you solve a well-known-in-its-subfield 30 year old problem while working on your Masters, that's a stronger positive signal of your ability. (This is a true story.)) Such attitudes have discriminatory effects against people from various disadvantaged backgrounds (including almost all women), which I note here but don't want to get further into. (\) I want to point out I did not write "were not". Upvotes: 2
2021/11/01	1,455	6,091	<issue_start>username_0: I'm in the penultimate year of my undergraduate education and about 20% of the year's grade is a research project. It is essentially an exercise since not everybody is expected to produce much in a way of scientific contribution at this stage. It is however possible to do insightful, publishable research, which would be my first time. Doing publishable research would take a lot of time. Because there is a finite amount of hours in a day and week etc., I see three options: * Distribute my time evenly, and get good exam and project grades. * Prioritize exams (I expect my score to be about 80-90%) over the project. * Try and do reasonably well on exams (score about 70%), but put everything I've got into the project. I think I am knowledgeable in the area and I'll be able to contribute and create publishable research and write a paper if I prioritise it. If I would like to go and do a PhD and then become a professor, I think a publication is worth more than ridiculously high grades. Assuming I won't drop below 70%average upon graduation; should I marginalise the exams?<issue_comment>username_1: You shouldn't marginalize anything, and I don't think strategizing about this sort of thing is likely to be beneficial. When you apply to graduate school, your application will be judged against other students who have both excellent grades and excellent research projects. Once you've done the best you can, yes, it's possible you'll have imperfect grades and you can hope other parts of your application make up for that. You could also find that the time you've poured into a research project results in just a mediocre paper with no triumphant result at all - such is the nature of research. Try to build the best all-around application you can, and don't put too much stress on how exactly you can game the system. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: At least some graduate programs require a certain undergraduate GPA as a requirement for admission, and it's likely to be above 70% (although there might be exceptions made in special cases). Regardless of whether a high GPA is more or less impressive than published work, it'd be good to identify those requirements and stay above them. Also, don't assume that the two sides are fully independent. A reasonably broad background education can be useful when doing research. It provides you with a better set of tools with which to approach your problem (or at least lets you know that such tools are likely to exist). (As an extreme example of someone reinventing the wheel due to an insufficiently broad background education, consider [this paper](https://math.berkeley.edu/%7Eehallman/math1B/TaisMethod.pdf) from 1994, that reinvents the trapezoid rule from basic calculus (popularized by Newton in the 17th century, but possibly also in use in [Babylon circa 50 BC](https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aad8085)). Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: Having been in this exact situation myself, I will argue that the long-term positive effects of publications are worth significantly more than grades. When writing my masters thesis, I choose a controversial subject which resulted in a poor grade, however, the thesis turned into a paper which has helped me land interviews for both PhD and industrial positions. It should be noted that this is from a Northeren European context. Many people here are quite sceptical as to the value of grades. Next to this, I invite you to consider what you enjoy the most - conducting reserach or acing exams. It is virtually impossible to plan anything in detail when it comes to career or professional achievements. One rarely regrets having done something out of passion. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: I think it's a reasonable question to ask about how to prioritize your time and I don't think it's "gaming the system" to think about this carefully. At your level, I would not sacrifice good grades, because grades are an important metric that grad schools use, because you actually need to learn the material in undergrad well to do good research later, and because your plan to compensate for mediocre grades by having solid research is very risky since it depends on your research succeeding in a fixed timeframe, which no one can guarantee. Even more than succeeding, you are banking on this research being sufficiently interesting and impactful, that grad school committees are so impressed that they overlook your senior grades. Maybe you could justify lower grades if you were sure you could get a high impact publication out of your research, but I doubt you can be sure of this. I would set the minimum bar for yourself at getting good grades, and completing the senior project at the level that is done by most students. If you can make the senior project even better without sacrificing your grades, then by all means, do it. Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_5: It is completely negligent to listen to advice telling you to focus on a research project to the detriment of your other studies. The project is just one small part of your overall grades, intended as an introduction to research through a self-study project (likely the first and only non-structured aspect in one's entire degree) led by a supervisor. It is likely the one and only aspect of your entire degree where the end result is uncertain and potentially completely open-ended. If it was intended as an avenue for students to spend all their time on to the detriment of their other studies it would obviously be completely inappropriate - of course it's not intended to be that way. If at the first opportunity for some flexibility one then decides to dedicate all their energy to X to the exclusion of all their other responsibilities, especially when the outcome is likely the most unpredictable it would ever be for someone attempting to do research (at the very beginning of their first opportunity to do X), it simply sets a bad precedent for the future and indicates an inability to manage basic responsibilities. Upvotes: 0
2021/11/01	5,611	23,183	<issue_start>username_0: I am a 5th year grad student. This is the first time I am allowed to teach a higher level major course on my own. We just had our midterm today and I am confused as to how to proceed. On the midterm that I created, the instructions were to "attempt only 5 problems" out of a total of 8. But I didn't specify on the exam what would happen if the students were to attempt more than 5 problems. I noticed half of the class (11 of 20) did follow the instructions and only handed in 5 problems or clearly marked which one are to be graded. But there are those who did more than 5 and did not specify which ones I should grade, perhaps hoping that I would pick their highest 5 problems or they simplify forgot. What should I do in a situation like this? I know it is "standard practice" to simply grade the first 5 problems in numerical order that they have attempted. Unfortunately it seems most if not all students have no clue how to do problem #2 and #3 (these were fair questions, but required students to be clever), therefore if I were to follow this standard procedure, the students who attempted more than 5 (which basically means they attempted all) will almost certainly get a failing grade, which seems a little cruel. (I listed on the syllabus "rough" grade cutoffs, i.e. A = 90+, B = 80+, C = 70+, etc. with pluses and minuses. The grades of students in the class are basically clustered at the moment, with a bunch of students around 90-95%, then a couple around 70-80% and then some around 30-50%, with not many outliers.) Any advice would be appreciated! EDIT: I asked two faculty members they both told me to simply grade the first 5 attempted questions in numerical order, and the difficulty of each question shouldn't matter. They said the same policy is used on qualifying exams. Sorry that I was just overthinking. That's what I'm going to do.<issue_comment>username_1: My view is that we should make sure grades are good predictors of underlying ability. This answer reflects that. Perhaps it slightly overestimates a small number of students, but that is much better than vastly understimating/failing them (in my view, capriciously). Option 1 Since the exam just happened, and with so few (~10) students, I would simply email them and state something like: > > It's unclear to me which five questions you would like graded, please let me know by [some short deadline] or I will grade #1-5. > > > The short deadline - perhaps by the end of the next business day - is so they don't have too much time to game this system. In my view, if they are extremely likely to drop #2 and #3, any possible advantage they may have gained by discussing their answers and realizing which ones they did really wrong is well ameliorated by having them still have to pick five out of the remaining six and already having lost time working on more than five problems. Option 2: Just grade the five most complete answers. This is probably what they want and what they meant to do. If this still feels unfair to you after getting their preferred five questions, *you could grade all* students on their best four out of five.** (This is what I'd do if this happened to me). Finally, you could pick randomly out of the problems they started, but given these are upper-division courses, I feel giving them a little bit more benefit of the doubt feels more reasonable. Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_2: My most important advice is not to do that again. And, make sure students read and understand the rules. Not all will find them obvious, though with 20 it is easier. There is no perfect solution, but there doesn't need to be. If you use coarse graduations, then it probably doesn't matter if you take simple actions. And if you don't grade competitively in any way then you can assure that it doesn't really matter at all. If your attitude is "I'm here to give points", rather than "I'm here to withhold points" then you have a solution. But since it is on you, then it means more work for you (another reason to avoid a repeat). Do something like this: Peruse the other students first, to get a sense of what is known and what is not - generally. Then look at the students who answered more than needed without indicating which were to be included and see if their knowledge generally matches that of the others. Look at everything they did, without throwing out questions arbitrarily. You can, judiciously sort them into the coarse categories without applying numbers. It may turn out that the few students have really demonstrated mastery overall, so should get high marks. They may have done poorly on most questions - low marks. But if the graduations are sufficiently coarse (as is normally true in the US at the end of a course) then the sorting problem isn't as hard as you imagine. But a distinction between 89 and 91 is probably (definitely) beyond the bounds of the possible. And note that the Sorting Hat at Hogwarts only had to distinguish four categories. Remember that you are grading individuals, not the class as a whole. Each student demonstrates a level of mastery or fails to do so. All you need is a rough measure, mixed with a bit of generosity. This works as long as being generous is applied generally over the course so that individuals aren't treated unfairly by the grading system itself. And the big big lesson is that you are an educator, not a grader. You'll get better at this, I suspect, but don't repeat old mistakes. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: Mark the five best answers for each student. Presumably the fact that they completed more work than necessary means they spent less time on those answers: hence, they have already 'penalised' themselves for not following instructions. Next time, make sure the instructions are clear on what happens if they don't follow instructions. Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_4: When this happens you generally have two possible options: * Grade the first five problems. * Grade all of them, and then take the final score as the sum of the best five problems. It's obvious that the second option is better for the student, while the first is better for you (since it takes less work). Since the instructions clearly said "attempt only five problems", you should take the option that is better for you. You can't control what students do in exams, but you can stop them from abusing you as a grader. Frankly I'm surprised this hasn't already been drilled into your students by their high school teachers. If you do take the second option, I would emphasize afterwards that it's a one-off act of mercy, and not to expect similar favours in the future. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_5: First, be transparent about what happened and how you are addressing the situation. Document your grading methodology and share enough details with the class so that no one will have reason to feel aggrieved. Second, your goal is to maximize the fairness in your treatment of all students. Unfortunately your unclear instructions can leave some theoretical possibility for someone to feel (or claim to feel) like they are being treated unfairly no matter what you decide to do. But the scope of this theoretical unfairness is quite small, so if you proceed with common sense and good faith, I think you (and everyone else) will be fine. Now, as for what to do, I think the following is a reasonable option: 1. For each exam, grade all the questions answered by the student. Use their top 5 question scores and as the basis for determining a tentative grade. 2. Review the grade distributions of the two groups of students (those who answered exactly 5 questions, and those who answered more). Do you see a sizable difference in the average scores across the two groups? I.e., something that gives you reason to believe the group of students who answered more questions than they were supposed to are enjoying an unfair advantage in the grading? 3. If there is a sizable difference favoring the “rule-breaking” students, consider artificially raising the scores of the second group to compensate for that difference. 4. If there isn’t a sizable difference between the two groups, or there is a difference but it’s pointing in the other direction (the rule-abiding students being the ones who enjoy the advantage), consider not making any adjustments and declaring the tentative grades you calculated as the final grades. 5. As an intermediate solution, if there is some difference but you are not sure how relevant or significant it is, consider using the tentative grades as final grades, but announcing to the class that you are reserving the right to increase the grades of some or all of the students from the rule-abiding group later in the semester, if you feel that that makes sense. That leaves you an opening to be generous in some way that’s entirely at your discretion, for example if at the end of the semester there is a rule-abiding student whose score is very near one of the grade cutoff points and could benefit from a small extra push. 6. Any of the above options can be considered based on not just the statistical calculation I mentioned but also other information that you have that affects your perception about the extent of the unfairness. If you follow these steps, I think the students will appreciate that there was a minor snafu in the exam instructions and you handled it reasonably and competently. Again, the key is: transparency, acting in good faith, and taking care that any grade adjustments you make are only in the direction of increasing the grades of some students, not in the direction of penalizing anyone. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_6: I would like to confirm [the answer from Avid](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/177445/), with following thought experiment: A student gets the eight questions and starts solving them, in the sequence from easiest to most difficult. Once the student has finished five questions, he realises he still has some time left, and decides to solve the sixth one, and the seventh one, and finally the eighth one, which is the most difficult. As such, the student has proven: * To be capable of solving all problems, even the most difficult ones. * To have an ambitious work ethics. I could not disagree more with [the reaction of Cag51](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/177439/students-answering-more-questions-than-allowed-on-exam#comment477606_177445), as if the "skill" to follow instructions is more valuable than the proof of higher competence, especially in a school environment. Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_7: While I'd broadly agree with the advice in your edit, I would mark the first 5 in the answer booklet, rather than questions 1-5. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_8: Simple. Given there are 40 students who answered more questions than allowed, generate 40 arrays with the numbers 1-8 in a random order. In Python, ``` from random import shuffle a=[1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8] for s in range(40): shuffle(a) print(s,a) ``` This will give something like ``` 0 [4, 2, 5, 7, 6, 3, 1, 8] 1 [4, 7, 2, 3, 5, 8, 1, 6] 2 [5, 1, 6, 7, 2, 8, 3, 4] 3 [6, 1, 3, 8, 4, 5, 2, 7] ... ``` Then you only consider the first 5 questions numbers that the student answered. For example, if student 0 answered questions `1 3 4 5 6 8` then you would only consider questions `4 5 6 3 1`. This is very fair because the questions considered are randomly selected. So there is no gaming the system. Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_9: Picking the worst answers is the "standard practice" where i live and most fair to the students that did follow the rules. Picking 5 of the best answers is giving an advantage to the people who didn't read the rules. I think what the student has proven by solving multiple questions is irrelevant. Rules are rules and who is to say that people who only solved 5 questions couldn't solve all 8? It is after all, the smart thing to do. The other option is picking random questions, but that doesn't feel very professional to me. Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_10: Rule nr. 1 for teachers is that students are always right in a collective sense. A single student can be wrong, but if there are more than a few who did something unexpected, then you are the one who is wrong, the students are right, however inconvenient that is for you. In this case, this means that you should look at all the answered questions and grade the 5 best, no matter what the rules say. Now, one could argue that the students did in fact make a mistake, but that's a totally mistaken view to take. The students are not at university to pass exams, they are there to learn and master particular subjects. They are paying for the services offered by the university, including the opportunity to sit exams to measure how well they've mastered the subjects they are studying. If you are going to grade the first 5 questions leading to students who would otherwise have scored 100% to now fail the exam, you are not delivering a service to the students that they paid for. This is then grounds for appeal, which could even go to a court should the university uphold the decision to fail he students. With many thousands of dollars paid for tuition, no judge would rule that it would have been too much effort to correctly grade the students that would have avoided this absurd outcome. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_11: Your institution should have a rule for how to grade exams in this circumstance. If so, find out what the rule is, and follow it. (It appears from the update to the question that this is what you did and it resolved the issue.) If the institution's rule is one you disagree with, follow it anyway; it would be unfair to apply a different rule, because students who took the exam may have known the rule, and may have submitted answers according to their understanding that the rule would be followed. --- If your institution doesn't have a rule to deal with this happening, I personally believe the fairest and most sensible way to deal with it is to mark every answer and then take the best 5. The reason I think this is the fairest rule is because it doesn't penalise a student for starting a question, realising they can't answer it, and then choosing a different question. If a student wrote one or two lines on some question and then gave up, it would be absurd to treat that as one of their five questions when they have written 5 full answers to other questions. That student could lose up to 20% of their mark just because they put pen to paper before realising that they could do better on a different question. (Or if they were supposed to cross it out to indicate that they didn't want it to be marked, then they could lose up to 20% of their mark simply for not putting a line through something they thought would be ignored anyway.) There are some other answerers and commenters who believe taking the best 5 answers would be unfair on students who only attempted 5 questions. I disagree; suppose the exam is 80 minutes long. Then if a student "followed the rules", then their mark is based on work which they had 80 minutes to do. A student who answers all 8 questions will receive a mark based on work they only had ~50 minutes to do. My own experience (from marking exams where the best k answers count, and students are told so) is that students who attempt too many questions tend to have rushed and made mistakes in most of their answers. Also, if your institution doesn't have a rule to deal with this happening, then make sure that someone higher-up knows that they need to make one so this won't be a problem in the future. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_12: You assert this is your first time teaching at this level. I noted carefully your statement (emphasis added) > > Unfortunately it seems most if not all students have no clue how to do problem #2 and #3 (these were fair questions, but required students to be clever) > > > Since "most if not all" of the students did not successfully respond to the problems (honestly, did any succeed? your statement is vague on this point), it appears that you yourself have failed to either adequately teach the principles covered by the problems or in your expectations for the students to complete them. This calls their fairness into question. In every instance I have observed of this, the instructor owned their failing and eliminated such problem(s) from having a negative consequence on students' grades. I appreciate that "clever" solutions are encouraged but when it requires such cleverness that the vast majority are likely to fail (per your own admission), the most ethical response is to remove said questions from consideration. i.e. only grade 1,4,5,6,7. Students who did not complete the requisite 5 after eliminating 2 and 3 should be graded fairly on their attempts. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_13: Novel answer: Grade all questions answered and then normalize it to out of five. If all questions are worth the same, then it is simply score \* 5/N where N = number of questions answered. Only do this if N > 5. Also count a question that clearly abandoned early on as not answered- just ignore it. Pros A student who does equally well on all questions will get the grade the would have gotten answering only five. Although possible to get a better grade than they would have, it is unlikely. It would require that the student had no insight into which they did better. Some or many will get a lower grade than they would have but it will not be as bad as just doing the first five- taking as true the OP statement about questions 2 and 3. It will soften the blow of those questions. So bottom line is there is a negative effect for most who did not follow instructions, but it is smoothed out vs. just picking five to grade. Cons It is more work from you. You will get complaints that you should have taken the top five. And some edge complaints about incomplete answers that the student will say was clearly abandoned. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_14: I find it highly unlikely that half your upper-level class failed to follow instructions unless we are not being told the whole story. Half the class doesn't do something like this unless something was at least somewhat unclear. Did you announce your exam structure in the lecture before the exam? Is it described in the syllabus? Did you explicitly tell the students to mark the questions they want to be graded or rip out the pgs from the exam book they didn't want graded? Did you announce, verbally at the start of the exam, "remember attempt only 5 of 8 questions", or is it just in the written exam directions? Written instructions are like the fine print of a 30 pg legal mumbo jumbo contract. No one reads them. They are taking a timed exam! Reading written instructions is a waste of time on basically any other exam. If you surprise your students with unusual rules in written instructions, you are effectively tricking some of your students. The only exception to this is if you allocate a minute or two at the start of the exam explicitly for reading instructions. "Now you will read the instructions on the first pg and not open the exam. Be sure to read the instructions carefully right now." Furthermore, did you define what an "attempt" is in your written instructions? Suppose you got the exam 1. several well-thought-out and presented paragraphs/calculations etc. 2. a few scribbles or sloppy scratch work 3. a few scribbles or sloppy scratch work 4. several well-thought-out and presented paragraphs/calculations etc. 5. several well-thought-out and presented paragraphs/calculations etc. 6. several well-thought-out and presented paragraphs/calculations etc. 7. several well-thought-out and presented paragraphs/calculations etc. 8. several well-thought-out and presented paragraphs/calculations etc. I assume under your "grade the first 5 attempted problems" you'd grade 1,2,5,6,7? Correct? If you graded 2 and 3, and I was your student, and it meant I failed the exam, I'd try my best to get you in serious trouble with your University. I'd drown you in paperwork and proceedings for the next year. I'd rally half the class to complain with me. Don't be fooled, most Universities in the USA usually side with the students in borderline cases like this. The students are the customer and you screwed up by not specifying that there is a penalty for attempting more than 5 problems. I highly doubt that half the class was trying to get an advantage. It's much more likely that the students simply didn't understand, didn't know, or forgot your unusual exam specifications. Do you really want to fail a student who knows the material well because of this? Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_15: I have just been in this situation. I solved it by grading all of the problems and calculating the expected value of randomly selecting five problems. In my case, a complaining student actually admitted that he was trying to game the system. I give choice because sometimes people have difficulties understanding a problem as posed and because sometimes people draw a blank on a particular problem. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_16: I ended up grading the first 5 attempted questions for each student i.e. if a student attempted #1,2,4,5,6,7 then I graded #1,2,4,5,6. For questions that require short responses almost anything other than a blank counted as an attempt. For questions that require long essay-like responses (proofs), anything that stated an assumption and claim counted. I don't think it's reasonable to say students "forgot" to indicate which problems are up for grading. I think the students who submitted more than 5 questions for grading without indicating which ones they want me to grade, are simply trying to game the system or get an advantage over other students, and here's my reasoning: 1. I have repeated in class instructing them to indicate which questions for me to grade. In the exam students were given a "question sheet" which listed all the questions and were provided "unlimited" number of scratch paper, in which they will put their responses on. On top of that, I have verbally told the class in the beginning of the exam "to only submit or indicate 5 questions up for grading, not more," and also at the end of the exam to "make sure you choose which 5 are to be graded." 2. Some questions require only a very short response which could be totally correct or incorrect (for instance, find the kernal of some map, or, list all the subgroups of some group). I think some students aren't sure if they got these questions correct and don't want to risk losing points for the entire question(s), so they simply didn't choose which ones are to be graded, versus the rule-abiding students who had to choose whether to discard these "questionable" answers. Thanks for all your responses, I didn't expect this many answers, when I made the decision to grade as I did I only had 3-4 responses. Upvotes: 2 [selected_answer]
2021/11/02	5,389	22,196	<issue_start>username_0: I'm an undergraduate student in the U.S. writing my resume for grad school applications. I'm pursuing double degrees (will have two diplomas) in physics and mathematics (both in Bachelor of Science), with a minor in philosophy. I'm really confused about how I can show the education on my resume? Should I list my GPA for each major in the degrees, or just show the overall cumulative GPA? Here's what I'm planning to do: > > [University Name],[College of Natural Science][Education date] > > B.S. in Physics [Physics GPA] + B.S. in Mathematics [Math GPA][University location] > > Minor in Philosophy > > Overall GPA:[overall GPA][Honors:...] > > > Does that look professional? (Philosophy is not in the college of natural science) Any suggestions about how I can improve this section? I don't know if it's okay to list 3 GPAs at the same time. Thanks for the help :)<issue_comment>username_1: My view is that we should make sure grades are good predictors of underlying ability. This answer reflects that. Perhaps it slightly overestimates a small number of students, but that is much better than vastly understimating/failing them (in my view, capriciously). Option 1 Since the exam just happened, and with so few (~10) students, I would simply email them and state something like: > > It's unclear to me which five questions you would like graded, please let me know by [some short deadline] or I will grade #1-5. > > > The short deadline - perhaps by the end of the next business day - is so they don't have too much time to game this system. In my view, if they are extremely likely to drop #2 and #3, any possible advantage they may have gained by discussing their answers and realizing which ones they did really wrong is well ameliorated by having them still have to pick five out of the remaining six and already having lost time working on more than five problems. Option 2: Just grade the five most complete answers. This is probably what they want and what they meant to do. If this still feels unfair to you after getting their preferred five questions, *you could grade all* students on their best four out of five.** (This is what I'd do if this happened to me). Finally, you could pick randomly out of the problems they started, but given these are upper-division courses, I feel giving them a little bit more benefit of the doubt feels more reasonable. Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_2: My most important advice is not to do that again. And, make sure students read and understand the rules. Not all will find them obvious, though with 20 it is easier. There is no perfect solution, but there doesn't need to be. If you use coarse graduations, then it probably doesn't matter if you take simple actions. And if you don't grade competitively in any way then you can assure that it doesn't really matter at all. If your attitude is "I'm here to give points", rather than "I'm here to withhold points" then you have a solution. But since it is on you, then it means more work for you (another reason to avoid a repeat). Do something like this: Peruse the other students first, to get a sense of what is known and what is not - generally. Then look at the students who answered more than needed without indicating which were to be included and see if their knowledge generally matches that of the others. Look at everything they did, without throwing out questions arbitrarily. You can, judiciously sort them into the coarse categories without applying numbers. It may turn out that the few students have really demonstrated mastery overall, so should get high marks. They may have done poorly on most questions - low marks. But if the graduations are sufficiently coarse (as is normally true in the US at the end of a course) then the sorting problem isn't as hard as you imagine. But a distinction between 89 and 91 is probably (definitely) beyond the bounds of the possible. And note that the Sorting Hat at Hogwarts only had to distinguish four categories. Remember that you are grading individuals, not the class as a whole. Each student demonstrates a level of mastery or fails to do so. All you need is a rough measure, mixed with a bit of generosity. This works as long as being generous is applied generally over the course so that individuals aren't treated unfairly by the grading system itself. And the big big lesson is that you are an educator, not a grader. You'll get better at this, I suspect, but don't repeat old mistakes. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: Mark the five best answers for each student. Presumably the fact that they completed more work than necessary means they spent less time on those answers: hence, they have already 'penalised' themselves for not following instructions. Next time, make sure the instructions are clear on what happens if they don't follow instructions. Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_4: When this happens you generally have two possible options: * Grade the first five problems. * Grade all of them, and then take the final score as the sum of the best five problems. It's obvious that the second option is better for the student, while the first is better for you (since it takes less work). Since the instructions clearly said "attempt only five problems", you should take the option that is better for you. You can't control what students do in exams, but you can stop them from abusing you as a grader. Frankly I'm surprised this hasn't already been drilled into your students by their high school teachers. If you do take the second option, I would emphasize afterwards that it's a one-off act of mercy, and not to expect similar favours in the future. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_5: First, be transparent about what happened and how you are addressing the situation. Document your grading methodology and share enough details with the class so that no one will have reason to feel aggrieved. Second, your goal is to maximize the fairness in your treatment of all students. Unfortunately your unclear instructions can leave some theoretical possibility for someone to feel (or claim to feel) like they are being treated unfairly no matter what you decide to do. But the scope of this theoretical unfairness is quite small, so if you proceed with common sense and good faith, I think you (and everyone else) will be fine. Now, as for what to do, I think the following is a reasonable option: 1. For each exam, grade all the questions answered by the student. Use their top 5 question scores and as the basis for determining a tentative grade. 2. Review the grade distributions of the two groups of students (those who answered exactly 5 questions, and those who answered more). Do you see a sizable difference in the average scores across the two groups? I.e., something that gives you reason to believe the group of students who answered more questions than they were supposed to are enjoying an unfair advantage in the grading? 3. If there is a sizable difference favoring the “rule-breaking” students, consider artificially raising the scores of the second group to compensate for that difference. 4. If there isn’t a sizable difference between the two groups, or there is a difference but it’s pointing in the other direction (the rule-abiding students being the ones who enjoy the advantage), consider not making any adjustments and declaring the tentative grades you calculated as the final grades. 5. As an intermediate solution, if there is some difference but you are not sure how relevant or significant it is, consider using the tentative grades as final grades, but announcing to the class that you are reserving the right to increase the grades of some or all of the students from the rule-abiding group later in the semester, if you feel that that makes sense. That leaves you an opening to be generous in some way that’s entirely at your discretion, for example if at the end of the semester there is a rule-abiding student whose score is very near one of the grade cutoff points and could benefit from a small extra push. 6. Any of the above options can be considered based on not just the statistical calculation I mentioned but also other information that you have that affects your perception about the extent of the unfairness. If you follow these steps, I think the students will appreciate that there was a minor snafu in the exam instructions and you handled it reasonably and competently. Again, the key is: transparency, acting in good faith, and taking care that any grade adjustments you make are only in the direction of increasing the grades of some students, not in the direction of penalizing anyone. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_6: I would like to confirm [the answer from Avid](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/177445/), with following thought experiment: A student gets the eight questions and starts solving them, in the sequence from easiest to most difficult. Once the student has finished five questions, he realises he still has some time left, and decides to solve the sixth one, and the seventh one, and finally the eighth one, which is the most difficult. As such, the student has proven: * To be capable of solving all problems, even the most difficult ones. * To have an ambitious work ethics. I could not disagree more with [the reaction of Cag51](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/177439/students-answering-more-questions-than-allowed-on-exam#comment477606_177445), as if the "skill" to follow instructions is more valuable than the proof of higher competence, especially in a school environment. Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_7: While I'd broadly agree with the advice in your edit, I would mark the first 5 in the answer booklet, rather than questions 1-5. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_8: Simple. Given there are 40 students who answered more questions than allowed, generate 40 arrays with the numbers 1-8 in a random order. In Python, ``` from random import shuffle a=[1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8] for s in range(40): shuffle(a) print(s,a) ``` This will give something like ``` 0 [4, 2, 5, 7, 6, 3, 1, 8] 1 [4, 7, 2, 3, 5, 8, 1, 6] 2 [5, 1, 6, 7, 2, 8, 3, 4] 3 [6, 1, 3, 8, 4, 5, 2, 7] ... ``` Then you only consider the first 5 questions numbers that the student answered. For example, if student 0 answered questions `1 3 4 5 6 8` then you would only consider questions `4 5 6 3 1`. This is very fair because the questions considered are randomly selected. So there is no gaming the system. Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_9: Picking the worst answers is the "standard practice" where i live and most fair to the students that did follow the rules. Picking 5 of the best answers is giving an advantage to the people who didn't read the rules. I think what the student has proven by solving multiple questions is irrelevant. Rules are rules and who is to say that people who only solved 5 questions couldn't solve all 8? It is after all, the smart thing to do. The other option is picking random questions, but that doesn't feel very professional to me. Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_10: Rule nr. 1 for teachers is that students are always right in a collective sense. A single student can be wrong, but if there are more than a few who did something unexpected, then you are the one who is wrong, the students are right, however inconvenient that is for you. In this case, this means that you should look at all the answered questions and grade the 5 best, no matter what the rules say. Now, one could argue that the students did in fact make a mistake, but that's a totally mistaken view to take. The students are not at university to pass exams, they are there to learn and master particular subjects. They are paying for the services offered by the university, including the opportunity to sit exams to measure how well they've mastered the subjects they are studying. If you are going to grade the first 5 questions leading to students who would otherwise have scored 100% to now fail the exam, you are not delivering a service to the students that they paid for. This is then grounds for appeal, which could even go to a court should the university uphold the decision to fail he students. With many thousands of dollars paid for tuition, no judge would rule that it would have been too much effort to correctly grade the students that would have avoided this absurd outcome. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_11: Your institution should have a rule for how to grade exams in this circumstance. If so, find out what the rule is, and follow it. (It appears from the update to the question that this is what you did and it resolved the issue.) If the institution's rule is one you disagree with, follow it anyway; it would be unfair to apply a different rule, because students who took the exam may have known the rule, and may have submitted answers according to their understanding that the rule would be followed. --- If your institution doesn't have a rule to deal with this happening, I personally believe the fairest and most sensible way to deal with it is to mark every answer and then take the best 5. The reason I think this is the fairest rule is because it doesn't penalise a student for starting a question, realising they can't answer it, and then choosing a different question. If a student wrote one or two lines on some question and then gave up, it would be absurd to treat that as one of their five questions when they have written 5 full answers to other questions. That student could lose up to 20% of their mark just because they put pen to paper before realising that they could do better on a different question. (Or if they were supposed to cross it out to indicate that they didn't want it to be marked, then they could lose up to 20% of their mark simply for not putting a line through something they thought would be ignored anyway.) There are some other answerers and commenters who believe taking the best 5 answers would be unfair on students who only attempted 5 questions. I disagree; suppose the exam is 80 minutes long. Then if a student "followed the rules", then their mark is based on work which they had 80 minutes to do. A student who answers all 8 questions will receive a mark based on work they only had ~50 minutes to do. My own experience (from marking exams where the best k answers count, and students are told so) is that students who attempt too many questions tend to have rushed and made mistakes in most of their answers. Also, if your institution doesn't have a rule to deal with this happening, then make sure that someone higher-up knows that they need to make one so this won't be a problem in the future. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_12: You assert this is your first time teaching at this level. I noted carefully your statement (emphasis added) > > Unfortunately it seems most if not all students have no clue how to do problem #2 and #3 (these were fair questions, but required students to be clever) > > > Since "most if not all" of the students did not successfully respond to the problems (honestly, did any succeed? your statement is vague on this point), it appears that you yourself have failed to either adequately teach the principles covered by the problems or in your expectations for the students to complete them. This calls their fairness into question. In every instance I have observed of this, the instructor owned their failing and eliminated such problem(s) from having a negative consequence on students' grades. I appreciate that "clever" solutions are encouraged but when it requires such cleverness that the vast majority are likely to fail (per your own admission), the most ethical response is to remove said questions from consideration. i.e. only grade 1,4,5,6,7. Students who did not complete the requisite 5 after eliminating 2 and 3 should be graded fairly on their attempts. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_13: Novel answer: Grade all questions answered and then normalize it to out of five. If all questions are worth the same, then it is simply score \* 5/N where N = number of questions answered. Only do this if N > 5. Also count a question that clearly abandoned early on as not answered- just ignore it. Pros A student who does equally well on all questions will get the grade the would have gotten answering only five. Although possible to get a better grade than they would have, it is unlikely. It would require that the student had no insight into which they did better. Some or many will get a lower grade than they would have but it will not be as bad as just doing the first five- taking as true the OP statement about questions 2 and 3. It will soften the blow of those questions. So bottom line is there is a negative effect for most who did not follow instructions, but it is smoothed out vs. just picking five to grade. Cons It is more work from you. You will get complaints that you should have taken the top five. And some edge complaints about incomplete answers that the student will say was clearly abandoned. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_14: I find it highly unlikely that half your upper-level class failed to follow instructions unless we are not being told the whole story. Half the class doesn't do something like this unless something was at least somewhat unclear. Did you announce your exam structure in the lecture before the exam? Is it described in the syllabus? Did you explicitly tell the students to mark the questions they want to be graded or rip out the pgs from the exam book they didn't want graded? Did you announce, verbally at the start of the exam, "remember attempt only 5 of 8 questions", or is it just in the written exam directions? Written instructions are like the fine print of a 30 pg legal mumbo jumbo contract. No one reads them. They are taking a timed exam! Reading written instructions is a waste of time on basically any other exam. If you surprise your students with unusual rules in written instructions, you are effectively tricking some of your students. The only exception to this is if you allocate a minute or two at the start of the exam explicitly for reading instructions. "Now you will read the instructions on the first pg and not open the exam. Be sure to read the instructions carefully right now." Furthermore, did you define what an "attempt" is in your written instructions? Suppose you got the exam 1. several well-thought-out and presented paragraphs/calculations etc. 2. a few scribbles or sloppy scratch work 3. a few scribbles or sloppy scratch work 4. several well-thought-out and presented paragraphs/calculations etc. 5. several well-thought-out and presented paragraphs/calculations etc. 6. several well-thought-out and presented paragraphs/calculations etc. 7. several well-thought-out and presented paragraphs/calculations etc. 8. several well-thought-out and presented paragraphs/calculations etc. I assume under your "grade the first 5 attempted problems" you'd grade 1,2,5,6,7? Correct? If you graded 2 and 3, and I was your student, and it meant I failed the exam, I'd try my best to get you in serious trouble with your University. I'd drown you in paperwork and proceedings for the next year. I'd rally half the class to complain with me. Don't be fooled, most Universities in the USA usually side with the students in borderline cases like this. The students are the customer and you screwed up by not specifying that there is a penalty for attempting more than 5 problems. I highly doubt that half the class was trying to get an advantage. It's much more likely that the students simply didn't understand, didn't know, or forgot your unusual exam specifications. Do you really want to fail a student who knows the material well because of this? Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_15: I have just been in this situation. I solved it by grading all of the problems and calculating the expected value of randomly selecting five problems. In my case, a complaining student actually admitted that he was trying to game the system. I give choice because sometimes people have difficulties understanding a problem as posed and because sometimes people draw a blank on a particular problem. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_16: I ended up grading the first 5 attempted questions for each student i.e. if a student attempted #1,2,4,5,6,7 then I graded #1,2,4,5,6. For questions that require short responses almost anything other than a blank counted as an attempt. For questions that require long essay-like responses (proofs), anything that stated an assumption and claim counted. I don't think it's reasonable to say students "forgot" to indicate which problems are up for grading. I think the students who submitted more than 5 questions for grading without indicating which ones they want me to grade, are simply trying to game the system or get an advantage over other students, and here's my reasoning: 1. I have repeated in class instructing them to indicate which questions for me to grade. In the exam students were given a "question sheet" which listed all the questions and were provided "unlimited" number of scratch paper, in which they will put their responses on. On top of that, I have verbally told the class in the beginning of the exam "to only submit or indicate 5 questions up for grading, not more," and also at the end of the exam to "make sure you choose which 5 are to be graded." 2. Some questions require only a very short response which could be totally correct or incorrect (for instance, find the kernal of some map, or, list all the subgroups of some group). I think some students aren't sure if they got these questions correct and don't want to risk losing points for the entire question(s), so they simply didn't choose which ones are to be graded, versus the rule-abiding students who had to choose whether to discard these "questionable" answers. Thanks for all your responses, I didn't expect this many answers, when I made the decision to grade as I did I only had 3-4 responses. Upvotes: 2 [selected_answer]
2021/11/02	1,318	5,291	<issue_start>username_0: Are academic publications meant to be "dry"? Or are there examples of "nice to read" papers? Is this subjective?<issue_comment>username_1: Different texts have different purposes. If you buy a novel, then you want to be entertained. If you read a scientific article you want information. Standards for scientific articles are there to make this transfer of information efficient even if the author is not a great writer. I think it is a good thing that these standards are very strong and deviations are very rare, since most people who think of themselves as good writers, are actually pretty bad. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: > > Are academic publications meant to be "dry"? > > > If by dry you mean unpleasant to read, then no. If you mean efficient and without superfluous “fluff,” then yes. > > Or are there examples of "nice to read" papers? > > > Of course, much in the same way that there is “nice to listen to” music. Writing comes in a variety of styles. > > Is this subjective? > > > Yes. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: Academic publications are meant to be informative on things that are, for most people, difficult to understand. If those things were easy to understand then they would likely have been discovered long ago and not the subject of current research. Scientific and other scholarly works are written, primarily, for experts who are interested in the progress made, not in entertainment. They want the essence. Some writers are good at explaining the scientific works to a more general audience, however. <NAME> comes to mind. But what they write aren't really scholarly works, but popular ones. And some scientific writers are, of course, terrible writers that even the experts find difficult to decipher. Scientific papers are also limited in length generally, so long narratives leading up to conclusions is pretty much impossible. If every paper were written like a novel, then one might expect to have them be "nice to read". But think about any long (non-scientific) work; Harry Potter for example. If you extract the essence of the work and reduce it to 8 pages, you will probably find the result pretty "dry". Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: This has been stated a few times already, but I would expand on what @mlk said in a form of comment. Most people, myself included, are pretty bad at writing. One might think "oh how great would it be if scientific papers were more like posts people write on blogs or Facebook, it would be so much easier to read", but this turns a blind eye to how bad most of these blogs actually are. Many of them are utterly incomprehensible, even! The trick here is then that one does not read all the blogs or consider them all while making this comparison - why'd they do that? Instead, they are reading good ones. This is not an option for something that people do as a part of their job. Maybe if we had another few years of mandatory journalistic studies for all academicians, it would be better. But don't you find this is a bit ridiculous requirement to have? "Be good at writing or don't do science", huh? The issue is further exacerbated by the need to write in a non-native language, which English is for many - again, myself included. I wish I could write better and am trying my best, but learning a small subset of language and producing dry texts full of clichés is just easier. By easier, I mean less prone to mistakes that could alter the meaning a lot. Saying something like "I feel myself great today" is awkward but is actually more innocent than leading someone to write off tens of thousands of dollars in reagents/equipment because you've provided some murky instructions. It is more of a necessity, then, rather than a goal. People with decent command of language and confident in their skills often write quite engaging papers, and it is definitely a plus. You may even find that great, Nobel prize-level scientists are, in general, a fair bit better at delivery than their less accomplished colleagues. Some people just don't care and it still work - one notable example of this I know of are YOLO papers; here's one example <https://arxiv.org/abs/1804.02767>. Google Scholar shows almost 10k citations for this one; CS/ML/AI field is a bit unique admittedly but still, sticking to formal guns didn't matter at the slightest for that one. Even then, one thing stands out: it may be flavorful but has to be unambiguous and comprehensible. Formal writing accomplishes both. Writing "the substrate was whirling like clouds enclosing on the Malmo coast in August" may be engaging and might even provide some helpful ideas to some people about how did it actually look like, but for most, it would be incredibly not helpful. A tangential: there are popsci outlets presenting research in a more digestible way, but the people writing those articles naturally talented and/or formally educated in writing. TL;DR: It would be great to have more engaging and readable articles but it is too much to ask. Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_5: Definitely. The more adjectives you have in your paper, and/or bombastic your statements are, the less people believe you. We have enough of those in the media. Upvotes: 1
2021/11/02	1,279	5,388	<issue_start>username_0: You would surely have read the quote which says > > If you can't explain it to a six-year-old, you don't understand it yourself. > > > I'm a Master's student in Physics currently in my first sem. Soon, We have to choose an advisor for our Ph.D. There are instructors whose teaching doesn't fit to me (really saying to most of my fellow students). I wanted to ask, If I can consider that they aren't good at research as well? How much correlation there is between teaching and research?<issue_comment>username_1: I would think that the correlation is low in general. But that is because tenured faculty get to choose, to some extent, whether to focus primarily on teaching or research rather than to both "equally". Both take effort, but a different kind of effort. And some faculty change focus over their career. But it is certainly possible for someone to be great at both, for example, someone who can give insight into deep topics, not just detailed (pedantic?) explanations. Using teaching ability (or a match between what they do and what you like them to do) as a predictor of their research is probably not a win for you. And, the ability to guide your research is also important along with the quality of their own. For purposes of making a choice, I suggest you look farther than just those two "variables". How helpful they are likely to be when you need it (some research focused people are terrible at this). How successful other student advisees have been, both in their degree work and in starting their careers. There are a lot of variables. Don't ignore other important factors. --- I've known people who were excellent at both; one of my mentors. I've known people who excelled at one or the other but not both. One example, that seems like a counterexample, is [<NAME>](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Lee_Moore) who was both a pioneer in Topology, but also in a certain teaching method (Moore Method). His method was very effective, if you could stand to bear it. He didn't lecture and he didn't let students read mathematics. Instead he had them spend their time writing and developing math from the barest of hints. Most people would hate this, since it is very difficult, but it worked for the few that stayed with him. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: No. Counterexample: Einstein's English is fairly heavily accented, making him hard to understand. Therefore if he were to teach in English, it won't be outstanding. That doesn't say anything of the quality of his research, of course. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: I would strongly disagree with the quote, as teaching requires very different skills than conducting research. There are many great researchers, who are bad at teaching, and vice versa. However, this does not mean that you should not take a supervisor's teaching ability into account when looking for a potential supervisor for your PhD. Supervising a PhD candidate requires a complex set of skills, of which conducting research and teaching are two important ones. Another one is more subtle, concerning the interpersonal relations, essentially how well you two get along. The latter is an aspect that you sometimes can already assess from the lectures or classes you had with the instructor. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: The quote is wrong. There are plenty of things you cannot explain to a six year old but can still understand perfectly well. Almost all the people I know who do not care about teaching are also not good at research. This does not mean those who care about teaching are good researchers or good instructors, but if they care about teaching it’s usually a good sign. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: Based solely on my personal observation, I would estimate that prowess in research and teaching are weakly positively correlated (i.e., I think there is some positive correlation here, but it is not strong). There is some theoretical reason to believe that these things ought to be positively correlated, due to some overlap in the requires skills for the two activities, but as others have pointed out, there is also some degree of competition between the two roles in academia. In any case, if you particularly want to identify the most successful researchers in your department then ---rather than relying on a weak proxy measure--- you could probably just ask around the faculty and get their opinions. Professors in your department might be willing to tell you who they identify as a particularly strong or successful researcher, and who they think would be a good supervisor for you if you were to pursue a PhD candidature. Research success (for the supervisor) is just one thing that is helpful in a PhD supervisor; there are other important factors, including having shared research interests and having a good "fit" in terms of learning style, etc. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_6: There is a persistent myth that sloppy, unprepared, handwaving, wishy-washy, arrogant, condescending, etc... teachers must be brilliant researchers. And one can climb the greasy pole quite nicely exploiting this. However, it has been my observation that such people are also sloppy, unprepared, handwaving, wishy-washy, arrogant, condescending, etc... in their research, and it is usually best to steer clear of them. Upvotes: 1
2021/11/02	408	1,724	<issue_start>username_0: I am currently applying for a PhD position in data science, and my potential supervisor is asking me to write a research proposal. This professor is working on "ML & NLP methods for Digital Health." I am very interested in NLP technologies, and I really want to pursue a PhD in this direction. The problem is that I have no ideas to provide in this research proposal. I could probably write something, but I'm not an expert in his field of specialty and I think it's ridiculous to send a bad proposal just because he's asking for one. I wonder if it would be better to just tell him that I don't have any ideas to submit. What do you think? Thanks in advance.<issue_comment>username_1: I assume that in Switzerland you need to send something, no matter how tenuous. You aren't expected to be an expert yet. That is why you want doctoral study. Try to narrow it down to something that you would "like to explore". Even a couple of things. But send something that indicates interest. You can also say (guessing a bit here) that you are open to suggestions beyond your own ideas. Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: I would guess that the professor won't decide whether to hire you depending on which problem you propose to study. The professor is instead trying to find out whether you're well prepared to do research. Grades from past study aren't great indicators of that ability. If you're able to formulate a research proposal that makes any sense at all, then you're probably well prepared for a PhD (= to start a PhD). On the other hand, if you tell the professor that you have no ideas, it doesn't really send the message that you're curious and creative. Upvotes: 0
2021/11/03	6,050	25,455	<issue_start>username_0: I made a small mistake while teaching a very simple concept. It was mainly a numerical mistake, and the essential parts of the concept were well illustrated. I want to admit my mistake and even though most students will receive it well, I fear to lose my authority with some students, mainly the ones that think that they could teach the class.<issue_comment>username_1: I make mistakes in class - not often, but more often than I'd like. I note them and correct them as soon as I see them (or a student points them out to me). Sometimes I'm asked if I do that on purpose to see who in the class is awake. I reassure the class that there's no need since I err often enough by accident. You may annoy the few troublemakers who think they can teach the class better than you, but you will earn the respect of the true learners. Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_2: I think the genuinely legitimate authority of "the teacher" is that they have far more experience than their students. Not that they are perfect, etc. Yes, experience does tend to diminish mistakes, but does not eliminate them. In fact, part of "the lesson" can/should be about how to cope with inevitable errors! :) (as opposed to pretending that no errors will be made...) In particular, the teacher should not pretend to take up a "position" that requires "defense". :) Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_3: Whoa, there is actually a lot to unpack in a post that short. Presumably you're teaching in a university setting. What "authority figure" are you even talking about? If students look up to you, great! But it is not even remotely a part of your job to make sure you're "above" them in some imaginary hierarchy; your job is to teach them. Trying to enforce it in some way is usually unproductive both for the teaching and your "authority". > > mainly the ones that think that they could teach the class > > > Do you actually feel contested? Why? If they want to teach the class, they are free to apply to the department asking to do so. If they don't, but feel like you're doing a poor job - why don't they serve as [TAs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teaching_assistant) helping other students? There are plenty of ways to handle this tension if it exists, and productive ones don't involve wrestling with the troublesome students. Finally, when correcting mistakes, consider how impactful they were. If it is something silly like 2+2=5, either don't bother or mention it at the start of the next class briefly asking students to go over their notes since they didn't catch it earlier. If it is more impactful, dedicate some time to it. You have still delivered value to them, so chin up and try to see the situation through their eyes. No one wants to spend ten minutes on someone addressing insecurities more so than they do the actual content of the lesson. Stick to the point, and keep educating them: respect is earned by doing your job well. Your job is teaching, not some sort of power play. Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_4: As a student, I actually learned a lot from watching how professors handled mistakes. In a lecture, if you didn't intentionally make a mistake, this is an unscripted moment, and therefore a glimpse into how an experienced person deals with something unexpected. I came to respect professors who were able to make a mistake and fix it; it taught me how to think, and how to be honest. By the same token, I lost respect for professors who were more concerned with the appearance of authority than just admitting to and fixing the mistake. Addendum After reading some of the other responses here, I feel I should add that I'm a white male from the US, and didn't consider other cultures or underrepresented groups when writing this answer. I certainly see how perceived authority among students could become more of an issue if the cultural norm is that a teacher shouldn't be challenged, or if the teacher is working to overcome implicit bias. I still feel, on balance, that admitting to and fixing mistakes confidently is intellectually honest and will engender more confidence and trust than ignoring mistakes, and actually provides an opportunity for a positive learning experience. However, I am not an expert on these issues, so I wanted to highlight that as a caveat. Upvotes: 7 <issue_comment>username_5: The best policy as a teacher is to ensure the students know that you are human, just like they are, and can make mistakes. Let them know, also, that the best learners, and most knowledgeable people, are those who never close their minds but continue to learn. Those who think they know everything, besides being wrong, are destined to remain ignorant of many things they might have otherwise learned had they been willing to make corrections to their own preconceptions and mistakes. Respect is earned, not commanded; unless you are teaching at the lower elementary school level (up through about the fourth grade). While you can always receive a certain level of respect by imposing it on the students, they will not have actual respect for you unless you have earned it. In Asian societies, students would never dare to correct their teacher because it is taboo to cause one's superior to "lose face." But this, while maintaining a certain form of "respect," loses the advantage of teaching independent thinking. Students merely copy their teachers, generally finding little advantage to recognizing a teacher's potential errors in the absence of an acceptable way to disclose them. When an error is noticed, the student just stays quiet about it. In Western societies the pendulum is at the other extreme: respect for teachers is secondary to one's own "right" to independent thinking--and correcting a teacher can become a matter of one's personal pride. I recall the story of a European boy whose family had moved to America. He was in primary school but was far advanced (a genius) in math. His father saw fit to enroll the nine-year-old in a math class at the local university. One day, the mathematics professor incorrectly worked a problem on the board, and the child corrected the professor--undoubtedly in the less mature manner of a child. The professor took umbrage at being corrected by one so young, and got very angry. The father ended up defending his son to the professor, and the professor had no defense because he had made a mistake. (Mathematics is somewhat more black-and-white than some subjects might be.) The professor had only made things worse for himself by attempting to hold himself up as infallible. When an Asian student of mine corrected me in class one day, I was so surprised that I praised him! It is great for the learners if they are alert enough to catch a teacher's mistakes, and I preferred to have it corrected than to have inadvertently taught something which might be incorrect. I always invited my students to correct me--though it was often the case that I had, instead, opportunity to explain why their offered correction was mistaken. I would appreciate them for trying, and it was a teaching moment from which all of the class could benefit. In Asian societies teachers are not supposed to appear fallible. They are not expected to admit any mistake. They are expected to maintain their superiority always. But, in my experience, the principle of earning respect in place of commanding it actually works very well with Asians, and being humble enough to accept one's own mistakes helps to earn their respect. In the end, if your authority is based on the students' respect of you, you will maintain your authority best by putting the students' learning ahead of your own pride. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_6: Back when I was in high school I remember situations where the teacher makes an obvious mistake - obvious enough that even students who haven't mastered the topic can spot it, such as a simple arithmetic mistake - and doesn't admit it. Some students joked about it privately afterwards, but the underlying reason for the jokes wasn't that the students think they understand the material better than the teacher. It was because suddenly everything the teacher says is suspect. For example, suppose the teacher says X. The students think about a homework problem unsuccessfully, and guess that maybe X is wrong. But the teacher insists X is right. Can you trust that X is right if the teacher never admits they are wrong? Even worse: at this point, the teacher is definitely not an authority figure. You're better off biting the bullet and admitting the error, especially since it was mainly a numerical mistake and the essential parts of the concept were well illustrated. Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_7: Frankly, you would lose respect from those capable students far more quickly by not admitting mistakes or worse still trying to cover them up. This is because they probably already know your mistakes, so their respect or disrespect would be based not on your mistake but rather on your honesty regarding mistakes. Students can often tell if you know you have made a mistake but try escaping without admitting. Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_8: I do a lot of live programming demos in my lectures (I'm about to do another one in about 10 mins※ ;o). I make mistakes each time. It's no big deal, and it is why compilers give error messages. It gives me a chance to show how things are done that can't be adequately explained by conventional lectures, such as how to go about programming in such a way that you minimize errors and ensure that the ones you do make are found and corrected quickly and easily. I had the same approach with my chalk and talk lectures back when I taught maths. If you are not making mistakes as a learner you are too far inside your comfort zone to learn efficiently. As a teacher it possibly means you are too far ahead of the students to find their difficulties easy to anticipate. In short, don't worry about mistakes, and try not to worry about authority. You have demonstrated that you have a good grasp of the subject by the fact you have been appointed to teach it. Having said which, as a middle aged, white male marsupial, it is easy for me not to worry about authority, which is something that society needs to be working on. I suspect it is a lot less easy not to worry about authority if you don't automatically get the respect that your ability deserves because of qualities that have nothing to do with your ability to teach the material. ※ I provided several "learning experiences" during the demonstration ;o) Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_9: You've received a lot of very good answers already. I'll just add that one more possible way to maintain authority and still correct the mistake is to make a joke about it. Which one depends on your sense of humor. When asked by a student why I wrote something that is wrong or misplaced or noticing that myself, I just say "because after 50 I have a brain-mouth-hand coordination problem, so occasionally I think one thing, say another, and write/do a third one". I usually add that "unfortunately, some younger people suffer from this disease too". It may look somewhat lame to you (or it may not), but usually it causes some laugh and smiles and if you can manage to make your audience smile at your will, you may be sure that you are still in full control. I also tell my students in the beginning of the class that "people usually look most stupid when they are afraid to appear stupid". The same applies to losing authority: one loses it most exactly when one acts of the fear to lose it. Just my two cents. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_10: You really should admit to the mistake. As others have pointed out, the absolute worst thing for a teacher's reputation is to make mistakes that students can see, and not admit them; or even worse that that, to argue with, deflect, or browbeat the students who point them out. That said: Time is of the essence. The quicker you can fix the error, the better. Within seconds, by yourself, is ideal. If a student points it out in a few minutes, or anytime in the one class session, then that's perfectly fine; usually easy to go back and fix it. But if it's outside the class session then the half-life on how useful this is starts to tick down. The particular numbers may not matter a whole lot if the essential concept or process was shown correctly. It becomes more of a burden if you need to recreate all of the work (board work lost, etc.) from scratch. If days have gone by and no student noticed, I'd be prone to let it slide for time-efficiency purposes; if a student does point it out or it's really crushing my conscience, then I've written up a handout document showing the correct solution. (Although Krantz in How to Teach Mathematics argues against even that, specifically.) When I do make a mistake in class, and a student catches it instead of me, then my standard framing response is like this: > > Thank you so much! I usually make about one mistake a day, and there > it is. That's why we need to do the hard stuff in teams, and I'm > depending on you to watch what I'm doing for mistakes like that. > I'm so glad we're doing this together! > > > Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_11: You can flip it round, and use it as a teaching moment, which also takes the wind out of the sails for anyone who might act up..... Instead of focusing on your mistake, focus on their learning. I'd tackle it like this: > > Before we carry on, I want to teach you one of the most important lessons in (subject). > > > How many of you, feel you've got a good grip on the material so far? > > > (pause) > > > Excellent! > > > So, how many of you spotted the mistake I made last time/last week? > > > (pause, some hands go up, some people look down) > > > Excellent! > > > At this point, you can either ask someone to explain what it was, or tell them yourself, followed by the punchline, where you ask why people didn't say something. They probably won't speak easily. It's an awkward question but a really good one. If needed, pick one of your bright sparks who says they saw the error, and ask directly, why they didn't say something. It's a very valid, legitimate question. Do this in a cordial, supportive way. So they don't feel picked out for bad reasons. Then, draw the lesson from it. People in authority will make mistakes at times, whether in academia or commerce or other areas. And often, nobody will say a thing. This will happen periodically throughout their entire lives. "I want you to think about that, and decide, what you* feel should happen, in situations like this."* Or whatever else you feel is the lesson you want as a take-away. In this way, you flip it round. You maintain authority and initiative. The people most likely to feel they know it all, are in the position of "well, why didn't you say something?", which deflates them and reduces scope for issues. And most importantly, everyone learns a really important point, in the best way possible - seeing it taught, by their teacher. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_12: Just so it's said, authority is a function of attitude, not a function of action. One person can do everything perfectly and still be unable to command authority; another can goof left and right and maintain it. The key is to be calm and assertive. Don't question yourself or your capabilities, and students will naturally fall into line. With respect to the specific problem, my approach has always been to turn it into part of the lesson. Walk into class the next day and lead with: "How many of you noticed the mistake I made in last lecture?" Get a show of hands so you have an idea of how many people actually did notice (which won't be as many as you think); explain and correct the mistake; move on. There's no need for you to 'admit' you goofed — treat that as a mere obvious fact — and no need to explain anything beyond the basic issue and correction. You on't have to 'make it up' to the students, you just have to fix it. Hold in your mind the fact that you are an expert on the material and the goof is inconsequential; the force of your own self-assertion will move people past it. Yeah, I know it's a lot harder in practice than it sounds, but it does work. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_13: If a student made such a mistake in a graded piece of work then you would probably take points off for it. That makes this a good teaching opportunity to show why one should always check one's work, because [anyone can make some minor mistake](https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/navy-ships/a22473758/spains-newest-submarine-is-too-big-for-port/). Depending on how much time you have for that topic you can go into greater detail about how you could have checked your work (estimated the answer and compared, using your answer in the original equation and verifying, etc.). Or if you don't have much time, you can just mention it in passing: "Minor correction for yesterday's problem, here is the correct result. This is an example of why you should always check your work. See xyz resource for examples of how to check your work." It's important to explain that one actually needs to check, and ideally give strategies for checking, because otherwise students tend to conflate "being good at math" with "never making arithmetic mistakes"...if you can separate those two in their minds you will both preserve your dignity and show them that even learners can produce routinely correct work, since catching and fixing errors comes from diligence rather than some stroke of genius. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_14: I would say you are making too much of this. Students do not expect perfection from their teachers. In the first few minutes of each class I always run over the most important things to remember from the last lecture, clarify things I think I didn't teach well, and present errata. In no way has this ever caused me to lose face. If you seem embarrassed when discussing the mistake, perhaps the students will think less of you. But if you just present it as a correction or clarification to the last lecture, if anything it will improve you in the eyes of your students. You set the tone in the class. Mistakes on your part or theirs are great teaching moments, not a source of shame. If your students are not respecting you much, your tone and confidence may be areas in which you can improve. Confident people are comfortable talking about mistakes they have made. Being accessible and teaching at the appropriate level are important considerations in students' evaluation of their teachers. Perfection or seeming to know everything is not. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_15: One of the best solutions I’ve seen used by a math teacher of mine is to reward the students for catching your mistakes. My teacher set this up by making it so that if a student pointed out a mistake during class, she added a point to the running tally. When she reached ten mistakes caught by the class, she bought treats for the entire class. Without needing to expend money, this could also be done by giving extra extension days to the class, or any other reward. This completely changed the dynamic of the class, which did a few things: 1. It made it so that students were proud to share their expertise and were happy to understand the material and point out mistakes. The mistakes made the student who pointed them out look good, rather than the teacher look bad, because the students were focused on the reward. 2. It provided a clear mechanism for the teacher to fix mistakes and the students to correct mistakes. If the teacher corrected a mistake before the students noticed, she was saving herself from giving up a point to the class, and her doing that re-engaged the class to pay more close attention. If a mistake was made, a student catching it was a success for the class, rather than a failure of the teacher, and so students were quick to point out mathematical errors and it wasn’t awkward or degrading to do so. Drawbacks: 1. Writing math could be stressful for the professor at times because she was worried about giving up too many points. I believe this was due to setting the point requirement too low. 2. Finding a suitable reward mechanism can be tough, especially since the most motivating rewards are often those which require extra money or time spent to set up. 3. It can be awkward or difficult to set this up in the middle of a semester since it introduces a whole new mechanism into lecture, so I recommend setting it up at the start of the class. However, if needed, this can be done later. In fact, in the OP’s original case, it could be introduced with “here’s a free point because I made this mistake - see if you can catch the other ones!” Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_16: I absolutely agree with the idea that it's a better lesson to admit mistakes, show humility and adaptability, as that's teaching the students many of the skills they'll likely need in complex maths and sciences. Many could use help learning how to spot errors or thinking outside the box (such as you would show by revisiting it, since it's going off script some) That said... if teaching a course with a fairly limited timeframe, I very much encourage you to carefully consider what your personality is handling a revisit in class, how to handle it best timewise, and perhaps even consider other ways. What I mean by that is that I can remember quite a few classes where a teacher\professor made such a mistake... and then we ended up wasting a lot of time going back over it, getting lost in additional mistakes, etc. I know when I taught, I might be a little more nervous going over such mistakes, and that might open me up to more tangents or minor questions spiraling out of control on the topic. That's kind of the thing, it may indeed be a bit of a shakeup in the environment in the class, and that can indeed lead to make some students feel freer to be challenging and disruptive going forward, depending on the course level and such. It is indeed a chink in the armor. It's good to show you're real and human. But do keep wary that some students may take it as an opportunity to become too comfortable and derail your direction some in the future. Or invite many more questions of "are you sure you aren't making a mistake here as well", I got X, which in some situations can derail other students from understanding if they become too pervasive, rather than keeping quiet and reviewing their work, and usually finding they made an error. You have to feel you can maintain authority in that sense. You may well have to be stern at some later point if such questions or disruptions kept coming. And so if your concern is you may not have the confidence and force to handle that, you may want to avoid making a big deal of it. In addition, in courses where time is at a premium... you have to balance that aspect. At the least, if it's a long concept that brought you to the mistake, you may want to have the bulk of the notes rewritten up on the board before class so you can quickly remind them where you went, they can refresh through the notes for a few moments, and then you can point out the issue, and hopefully move on in pretty short time. Or it may be better if it's going to be real time consuming and complex to do like a handout (students probably won't mind that, notes they don't have to write!). You can point to that, or hope they'll look at it in their own time (very much dependent on the course level\passion for the subject again). Perhaps offer to talk about it more in office hours (or whatever concept you use for outside of class help) if anyone is one or two struggle with the idea, and the others have no issue. Or if it's more minor, you can mention in it brief passing to start the class, just that you made a minor [numeric/conversion/equation/whatever] error... Or indeed just skip it entirely if it's just not notable enough to be worth the trouble. Humility and teaching the students how to find mistakes is great, but at the same time, there's no need to try to reflect perfection. But don't worry about the students who "think they can teach the class". Maybe they can, maybe they can't, but you're paid to, and your duty is to the students who are trying to learn. There are certainly courses where I've had to make that clear to difficult students. You can't let the troublemakers shake you or overwhelm your thought processes. If you're afraid of those students, that they may be show you up or such, it shows. I'm guessing you know your stuff, you've got nothing to worry about from them, just focus on doing what your students as a whole need, and tend to forget those who choose to cause more trouble than trying to learn anything in the course. They aren't your central concern, even if they're trying to make you such. If they feel too smart for the course, they either shouldn't be taking it, or they can up the inability to test out of it with administration or whatever. But it's not your issue. They can doodle or read the paper or something else that's nondistracting. But the world doesn't revolve around them, and you shouldn't stress over such ones that think they can teach the course. Upvotes: 0
2021/11/03	2,900	11,924	<issue_start>username_0: Follow-up question to [Why do most scientists think Brexit is bad for British science?](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/114135/why-do-most-scientists-think-brexit-is-bad-for-british-science) If Brexit is bad for British science, then naively one would expect that the rankings of British universities should worsen after Brexit. This doesn't seem to have happened. Among the three most widely-followed rankings and comparing to the 2016 results (which is when the Brexit referendum happened): * In the [QS rankings](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QS_World_University_Rankings#Results), Oxford improved (#6 to #2), Cambridge did not budge, Imperial & UCL switched places with one another, Edinburgh improved (#21 to #16), Manchester improved (#33 to #27), KCL dropped (#19 to #35), LSE dropped (#35 to #49) * In the [THE rankings](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Times_Higher_Education_World_University_Rankings#World_rankings), Oxford did not budge (it couldn't improve either, since it is ranked #1), Cambridge dropped by 1 place, Imperial dropped by 4 places, and UCL dropped by 3 places. * In the [ARWU](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_Ranking_of_World_Universities#Results), Oxford did not budge, Cambridge improved by 1 place, UCL did not budge, Imperial dropped by 3 places, Manchester did not budge, Edinburgh dropped by 3 places, and KCL improved by 3 places. Overall it doesn't look like much has changed. Some universities certainly moved a lot, but not the UK's universities as a whole. Why hasn't the rankings of British universities dropped? I can think of many possible reasons, e.g. the effect is delayed, the rankings are not reflective of the situation on the ground, the British government provided the political support to have Brexit without British science suffering (per [avid's answer to linked question](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/114142)), etc., and I am wondering which explanation(s) are correct.<issue_comment>username_1: Most of the papers that are being published right now were written pre-pandemic. Most of the researchers who might, long-term, decide to leave the UK or who now no longer consider coming to the UK are ... still exactly where they were pre-Brexit, simply because all of these things take time. Rankings don't change dramatically because of such reasons. And then there is also this: There is not really any difference between universities between rank 20 and 50, and probably also not between 2 and 6. In other words, whatever effects you quote in your question is simply noise. It will take a long time -- ten years or more -- before you will be able to see an effect of Brexit on rankings, if any. Upvotes: 8 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: In statistical inference for time-series data, it is really quite difficult to test for whether or not a policy has a causal effect. The main difficulty with this is that the policy itself may have a delayed effect or even an anticipatory effect (potentially both) and there may also be many confounding variables that impact on the analysis. This kind of analysis is "uncontrolled" observation, which makes it difficult to determine whether a hypothesised causal effect was present or not. The best you can really do in situations like this is to look for a temporal change in your output variable (e.g., university outputs, metrics, etc.) that coincides with the introduction of the policy (or some appropriate period of delay after it is introduced), ideally conditioning on a range of potential covariates. For the production of scientific work you would need to include a delay that is roughly commensurate with the amount of time it takes to do a research project and have the resulting scientific paper(s) published, which is usually a couple of years. If you are looking at an outcome like university rankings, there might be a further delay involved depending on the way the ranking is measured. I have no strong view on whether Brexit did/didn't/will/won't harm scientific research output in the UK. At best you might be able to make a rough guess about this hypothesis once you have about ten more years of university output data, but it will still be contingent on a lot of caveats that apply when trying to make causal inferences from uncontrolled observation of time-series data. Another way to try to figure this out would be to look directly at whether there is a drop-off in external funding (that is not balanced by increased internal funding) and/or whether there is a decline in international research collaboration. Regardless, it will take a while for data to come in, and all the normal caveats on causal inferences will apply. Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: British universities are not limited to Oxford, Cambridge and a bunch of other top50 ones. In cases like this, it is usually the bottom line which suffers the earliest (and the most overall). Oxford may remain at top positions just by the virtue of having preferential treatment from the government: direct financing, possibly easier to get visas for international students, this kind of thing. All compared to a a significantly less prominent university, of course. Plus, it is a really long process, but that was mentioned already. Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_4: I imagine the idea that Brexit is bad for British universities depends on two factors: * no longer having access to EU research funding; * no longer being able to attract (or retain) so many EU scientists. (There is also the fact of not being able to attract so many EU students, and losing out on EU student fees, but this is likely to be compensated by the fact that those EU students that do still come will be paying the significantly higher international student fees.) How might these actually play out, and on what timescale? Well, the first one shouldn't really be so much of a problem, since the shortfall could be made up by increased funding availability from UK sources. After all, the UK was a net contributor to EU science funding, so this wouldn't actually involve spending more on science. In fact, in the short term increased UK funding has become available before EU funding has stopped being available (of course whether, in the long term, the increase will be sufficient is difficult to predict). However, even if universities don't lose out overall on funding, different priorities mean that individual areas may be significantly worse (or better) off. The second one certainly has started to happen; I know people who have moved back to the EU because of Brexit. However, there are several reasons why this will take a long time to be felt. For one thing, there is less reason for established academics to leave, since often they have been in the UK long enough to qualify for settled status, etc. In many cases they also have more reason (e.g. family commitments) to stay. So the main effect is on junior scientists who perhaps have less of an impact on rankings now (but some of whom will eventually be senior scientists who might have worked in the UK). The other issue, as well as the time lag between research being done and being measured by rankings that others have mentioned, is the following. Suppose there is a research group at UK university X, and as a result of Brexit, some members leave. Collaboration between members of the group is likely to continue (after all, COVID has made international collaborations not much harder than domestic ones). Meanwhile, new members are appointed. So the research output of members of the group is actually likely to increase - less of it will be entirely produced by university X, but that doesn't matter for the purposes of assessment and rankings. Of course, we might expect international collaboration to decrease as a result of Brexit in the long term, but in the short term it is likely to increase as existing domestic collaborations suddenly become international. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: Officially, Brexit only took effect on 31 December 2020, and only ten months have passed since then. I believe it will take more time before the full effects of Brexit impact the rankings of UK universities. I've watched a number of short documentaries and interviews about EU professors quitting their posts in the UK and moving back to Europe. Some of the best professors I've ever had were from EU countries, so I do think the UK will suffer without them. My personal experience was that EU professors from Germany and Holland often put more time and energy into the students, compared with UK professors. UK professors often treat it like a 9-5pm job, but the Germans and Dutch would go the extra mile and work longer hours to help students out. I also doubt that <NAME> will prioritise university funding, so I think the UK will lose out on funding over time and the university rankings will gradually decrease. That's just my opinion. I truly wish the UK the best and I hope everything works out in the long run. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_6: It can take years to know the full extent of the consequences/effects brought about by Brexit. It's not even two years since it happened. And less than two years is nothing in the evolution and operation of Academia. Grads and undergrads that came to study to the UK before Brexit are committed to stay the course for years. Same with students that already had plans during/after Brexit. The same situation applies to research/publishing work being done in collaboration with UK's academia. We are talking about commitment in years. Whatever negative impact (if any) will occur slowly and over the decades. I suspect it will affect middle/bottom tier universities first/the most. The top tier might be affected, but not that much and would occur later. There will be consequences, that's just logical. They will not happen immediately after Brexit for Academia, but we see them happening in the financial world (see [here for an example](https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/bankers-quit-london-brexit-relocations-eu-step-up-2021-05-12/).) Whether the UK's financial and service sectors can adapt and shrug it (or even bounce back stronger) remain to be seen. And anything affecting wealth and work will have an impact on Academia (and just about anything.) Moreover, anyone from the EU wanting to study or do research in the UK will have to adjust, change or perhaps even abandon plans just because of immigration changes and uncertainty. But again, the world will not know the full effect for years to come. It is too soon after Brexit to conclude that nothing will happen, just because nothing has happened yet. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_7: It will take many years for any effect to become apparent. Decades, probably. Also, Covid has thrown a big spanner into the works of higher education in all countries. Far greater than Brexit, I would argue. For the student experience, it has been little short of catastrophic. This will make identifying any long term changes of trends even harder than it usually is. Many (most?) of the world's "top" universities are not in the EU (and never have been). Doesn't that fact suggest that it may not be a problem? One major factor is that English is the World's second language, its lingua Franca. This is likely to be a major influence on students and scientists. Far greater, I would have thought, than any effects of a change of funding from receiving money from the EU out of money paid to the EU by UK governments, to receiving funding direct from the UK government. Obviously, the generosity of such funding is relevant, but the future a decade hence is not knowable on either side of the English channel. I would have thought UK universities are more in competition with universities elsewhere in the Anglosphere, than universities in EU countries. Upvotes: 2
2021/11/03	1,435	5,837	<issue_start>username_0: I sent my Review Paper to a journal and it took almost 4 months to respond to me. In the first decision, the reviewers suggested some revisions. Their comments on the first decision were: > > Reviewer: 1 > > > Comments to the Author > > > The present manuscript refers to the review on TVC studies using many > previous existing results. If the authors want to publish the present > manuscript in a journal, the reviewer like to recommend some > professional review journals. In case, the authors are advised to > consider more aspects on the TVC effectivess and performance, based on > the input energy or power for the control. > > > Reviewer: 2 > > > Comments to the Author > > > The manuscript addresses a timely and important topic relating to the > Fluidic thrust vectoring techniques. Various fluidic thrust vectoring > techniques with its characteristics, design, classification, and > different operational criteria were introduced and compared. The > summary is completed and detailed. It is recommended for publication > in PPR after a minor revision. > > > Reviewer: 3 > > > Comments to the Author > > > The manuscript reviewed various fluidic thrust vectoring control > techniques for application in jet engine nozzles. It includes the > research summary which are being performed in past couple of decades. > The effects of many parameter (flows and geometric) on thrust > vectoring are described. The content of the manuscript is worthy for > aerospace community dealing with thrust control and aircraft > maneuverability. However, the following issues need to be addresses to > make it more attractive to the readers: The authors are recommended to > enrich their review article by incorporating the above issues. > > > Reviewer: 4 > > > Comments to the Author > > > Review of “Analysis of Fluidic Thrust Vectoring Techniques in Jet > Engine Nozzles” This manuscript performs a detailed review for the > Fluidic Thrust Vectoring Controls (FTVC). In addition, authors discuss > the effects, advantages, and disadvantages of each technique. For each > technique, the reviews are very profound. Many tables are designed to > summary the research of each technique. In particular, a table > (labeled 12) is used to compare all the FTVC systems. Therefore, I > would like to recommend this paper for publication in PPR. In > addition, I have two suggestions. > > > After submitting the revised manuscript, they responded back with some futher suggestions > > Reviewer: 1 > > > Comments to the Author For the first round of review, the reviewer has > pointed out some important issue to be resolved in the present > manuscript. If the authors want to publish the present manuscript as a > form of review journal, then they should not simply enumerate the > results obtained from many previous papers, but give meaningful data > of TVC based on accurate comparative analyses. As we know, the control > performance of TVC would be proportional to the power or the energy > amount applied. Thus, it does not make sense for the authors to show > the results of many different control methods only. The authors should > not argue that there are no data for the input power or energy and > they can get the control effectiveness, the total pressure loss, or > energy loss, etc. Otherwise. the present manuscript may be subject to > a duplication issue or a plagiarism to the published papers. > > > Reviewer: 2 > > > Comments to the Author According to my comments on the last > manuscript, the four modifications are all OK. I recommend the revised > manuscript for publication in PPR. I have two other suggestions, but > it is not mandatory. > > > What should I do if I don't understand the suggestion of Reviewer 1. This is a review paper and I have added every data based on previous research papers. It doesn't make sense to me when the reviewer said "Thus, it does not make sense for the authors to show the results of many different control methods only." What should I do now? should I contact the editor and ask for further clarification about reviewer 1 comments. Does the reviewer want me to apply each technique and compare my results with the data available in the literature?<issue_comment>username_1: If you don't know what a reviewer is saying, contact the editor. They can either tell you what the comments is supposed to mean, or they can write to the reviewer for clarification. As an editor for the last 15 years, I've been contacted by authors with this kind of question numerous times and I've always thought that that is entirely appropriate. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: The reviews you received are borderline nonsensical, and might have been written by an unqualified person or even a robot. It looks like you submitted to a scam journal. You should withdraw your submission as soon as possible and look for a reasonable venue for publishing it. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: Well, the reviewer 1 is asking you not to present only the data from different study, but to compare them in a quantitative manner ("accurate comparative analyses"). However, you can always refute the reviewers' comments, they are comments, you can argue if they are reasonable or doable. In this case, I would reply that the additional analyses required by the reviewer 1 are beyond the scope of the review you performed. In my field I have seen (and found useful) both review papers providing kind of a large catalogs of data (like yours seems to be) and review papers providing an in-depth and complex comparative analysis of already published data (like reviewer 1 seems to request). Contact the editor, then decide what to do, but keep in mind it is called peer review because you are a peer discussing among peers. Upvotes: 1
2021/11/03	1,036	4,212	<issue_start>username_0: I have submitted a draft paper (word count is about 11000 words) to my supervisor in Late July 2021. My supervisor has started editing the paper in late September but hasn't finished it yet. Editing about 30% of the paper is still remaining. Is it normal to take this long? I must mention that the field I work on is not the field of expertise of my supervisor. Edit 1: added word counts in response to answers.<issue_comment>username_1: > > Is it normal to take this long? > > > No, this is unusual, and highly problematic. This behavior from your advisor severely cripples your ability to make progress as you are getting blocked on something in your research which should have taken a week or two. If you haven't, you need to be sending reminders to your advisor, at least weekly, e.g.: > > Hey X, Following up on this -- can you give me an expected timeline on when you would be able to edit and finalize our draft manuscript? > > > In my impression, your supervisor is not doing a good job of supervising you. If they are not malicious, then reminders and direct communication like the above might help. It is likely they are just extremely busy, but that does not excuse ignoring and completely neglecting a PhD student. Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_2: The time seems long, but probably not unprecedented. There isn't enough information here to make a judgement about the reasons, but if this is normal behavior for them, then it is possible that they are just in over their head - too many students, too varied the topics. The fact that it is outside their normal field of interest is probably responsible for a lot of it. They need to do their own research, perhaps, just to keep up with you. You don't list a reason for the July - September delay. Vacations? Travel? Other deadlines? Laziness? Incompetence? But you suggest that they have only been working on it for a bit over a month. That is more normal. And you deserve updates during that month. You don't give the length or difficulty of the paper. If it is just a "draft" then it may be harder for them to manage. If it is in a difficult subject or is pretty rough, then a longer turn-around can be explained. You don't say how critical the time is. If it is a serious issue then you should expect more from them, otherwise, maybe not. But, you need to make progress and your supervisor has a responsibility to help. You need to communicate with them, preferably in person, to work out a solution. Bugging them or accusing them is unlikely to get a better result. But you need to talk to them and work out a plan. One option to suggest is that they give you back the part they have finished so that you can make any necessary updates. You can ask them to send along updates as they have them. You can tell them that you are a bit blocked until you get their feedback. But, one meeting probably isn't enough. Suggest that you meet every couple of weeks for half an hour to get advice and feedback. They owe you that much. Getting partial updates may be enough to let you keep your momentum. Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: Could you please tell me the word count of your paper? I used to edit academic papers and our expected turnaround time depends on the word count. If your word count is around 4,000 words, I'd expect it to be edited and returned within about one week. If your word count is 50,000 words, then it will take a fair bit longer. For a short paper, I'd expect it back within two weeks. After two weeks, you have a right to politely ask the supervisor for some feedback or an update. Please be polite about it though, because your supervisor might be under a lot of stress. A quick coffee catch-up is a good idea. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_4: > > Is it normal to take this long? > > > Yes. This is field dependent I suppose, but in general, editing a paper for publication (again, depending on the area) is a very hard work, and your supervisor have only taken about one or two months for editing at this point, which is not only normal, but quite a short period (assuming he/she is doing a serious job of reviwing and rewriting). Upvotes: 2
2021/11/03	539	2,311	<issue_start>username_0: If you search my website (<https://example.com>) at Google Scholar, you get 400+ results. There are dozens of papers that mention my website because it shows valuable and concise data about thousands of plant and animal species. The papers cite my website with the main URL (<https://example.com>) or some specific URL (<https://example.com/item/macaca-silenius>). Can I make my Google Scholar profile show that my website has been mentioned by 400+ papers? I have already created a profile at Google Scholar with the name of my website and with a verified email at my domain.<issue_comment>username_1: This is probably not possible. Google Scholar doesn't mention anything about citations to web pages on their [citations page](https://scholar.google.com/intl/en/scholar/citations.html#citations). Like Louic suggested in the comments, if you want this recognition is could be worthwhile to publish a paper on your data set and try to have people reference that from now on. But that will unfortunately not retroactively fix this. You can show the citation count on your website if you feel so inclined. Remember that you do already get recognition by people actually citing your website. I do not think many people value citation counts of a website on Google Scholar. Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: First of all, you are getting recognition, that's what citations are. There isn't much other recognition that you can get on top of that. Nevertheless, there are ways to increase the visibility of the recognition you already have. You should create a Google Scholar account with your own name. It wasn't the website that did the work, it was you. Then it would help if you would provide clear instructions on your website as to how should your work be cited. Unfortunately, there isn't a lot you can do to change how others cited you already, but at least you won't have this problem for the future. Publishing your work in a peer reviewed journal is not necessary to get citations, although it makes it easier by fitting into the norms of academia. Contrary to other suggestions, your work is already published on whatever.com and it doesn't need a republishing on a different website (e.g. nature.com) for it to be considered published. Upvotes: 2
2021/11/03	502	2,220	<issue_start>username_0: I am applying for a marine biology orientated PhD in Denmark and they ask for the following: A research proposal/description of your approach to the above project (max one page excluding references) The project already has a defined topic although it is quite vague. I am unsure what is expected in terms on content and format for the research proposal. Has anyone successfully applied for a DK PhD and has submitted this type of documents? Any tips or advice would be greatly appreciated.<issue_comment>username_1: This is probably not possible. Google Scholar doesn't mention anything about citations to web pages on their [citations page](https://scholar.google.com/intl/en/scholar/citations.html#citations). Like Louic suggested in the comments, if you want this recognition is could be worthwhile to publish a paper on your data set and try to have people reference that from now on. But that will unfortunately not retroactively fix this. You can show the citation count on your website if you feel so inclined. Remember that you do already get recognition by people actually citing your website. I do not think many people value citation counts of a website on Google Scholar. Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: First of all, you are getting recognition, that's what citations are. There isn't much other recognition that you can get on top of that. Nevertheless, there are ways to increase the visibility of the recognition you already have. You should create a Google Scholar account with your own name. It wasn't the website that did the work, it was you. Then it would help if you would provide clear instructions on your website as to how should your work be cited. Unfortunately, there isn't a lot you can do to change how others cited you already, but at least you won't have this problem for the future. Publishing your work in a peer reviewed journal is not necessary to get citations, although it makes it easier by fitting into the norms of academia. Contrary to other suggestions, your work is already published on whatever.com and it doesn't need a republishing on a different website (e.g. nature.com) for it to be considered published. Upvotes: 2
2021/11/03	651	2,933	<issue_start>username_0: I would like to follow a line of investigation but I have some doubts. I'm mathematician and currently finishing my master's degree in Latin America. I know that I have a lot to learn to make impact articles, but I would like to start by publishing results from my point of view with alternate demonstrations or a different approach, and progressively improve. But I do not know where I can make those publications and have them seen internationally, I know some Latin American magazines but being in Spanish or Portuguese it is very difficult for it to become international. I like constructive criticism, so I am not afraid to publish something and know my mistakes either in editing or presentation, I want to continue improving. Perhaps this query is out of place on that website but I would like to know your point of view, since many here have gone through the same thing as me, and I would like you to share your experiences with me to continue improving. I'm sorry about the tags but I didn't find a suitable one for this query.<issue_comment>username_1: A PhD is the standard way to get trained in academic research. While that doesn't mean it is impossible to do good research without a PhD, my impression is that most people who think they can skip the training step have misled themselves. A PhD isn't just a title to hold, it's a mark of having completed this training program. It's certainly possible to publish as a masters student, but you'll want to get input from a research advisor. Even "low impact" work is difficult to publish properly, and you can do damage to your reputation (or, at minimum, waste your own time) trying to do it yourself. I would not advise trying to publish without a research advisor's assistance until you've successfully published several papers with assistance. A research advisor will be able to help you decide what appropriate venues there are for the work you're doing, and how to frame your work in a way that it will be interesting to other readers. If you're in mathematics, it seems even harder in that in many subfields research papers are extremely niche and there may be only one or two people in the entire world that are even remotely interested; it does not sound that you're at a point where you know how to find those two people, so you need additional support. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: I think you should start by looking at journals that publish the kinds of papers you expect to write. Journals written in English are likely to be more widely read than those in Spanish or Portuguese, and your English is clearly good enough for you to consider them. I don't think you should worry about international visibility. The practice at putting your ideas on paper in a way that makes them attractive to the editor of your journal of choice is what you need now. You will get the criticism you need from the referees. Upvotes: 2
2021/11/04	1,434	5,824	<issue_start>username_0: How do I change British university's mind? I don't want to argue or get into a debate. For privacy, I prefer not to disclose more details. The course isn't science or medicine, so there are not many reasons to study this on campus. I started remote study in Oct. 2021. Their refusal unnerves me because [the university's Health Centre is overwhelmed](https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/sep/27/anxiety-mental-breakdowns-depression-uk-students). It takes months to book one appointment. I heard from friends they can see you just at most twice each term. I prefer my psychiatrist who knows me well. My parents want me to stay at home, so they can take care of me. ### Other reasons for remote study I didn't mention these yet because they feel less persuasive. COVID is rebounding in Britain. [Londoners ignore mask rules. “Face coverings must be worn for the full duration of journeys on the TfL network, including inside our stations and bus stations,”](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/sep/19/to-mask-or-not-to-mask-opinion-split-on-london-underground). This anti-mask makes me so anxious! But is this baleful enough to convince my university? I want to save money by studying from home, rather than rent expensive accommodation. I'm on low income. This is the reply I have received from the university: > > We are responding to your request for remote study for 2022. As stated > in our email to all students, the faculty prefers students to study on > campus starting from January 2022, except those with exceptional > circumstances that prevent them from returning. > > > Thank you for providing your psychiatrist's letter to explain your > relevant circumstances, namely your Major Depressive Disorder for > which you are taking antidepressants. We are deeply sympathetic to > your depression. We recognize the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated > mental health, particularly for anyone with psychiatric illnesses. > > > Nonetheless we are unable to accept your request. The university has a > Health Centre with psychiatrists who are very experienced in and has > regularly dealt with psychiatric illnesses. We have confirmed with the > Health Centre that they are happy to schedule you for regular > consultations upon your return. They also confirmed that the NHS > covers your antidepressants for a very nominal fee. Therefore there is > no sufficient basis that your Major Depressive Disorder prevents you > from returning to campus. > > ><issue_comment>username_1: > > How do I change British university's mind? > > > Speaking as somebody in a Swedish university that's currently in the process of "going back to campus", you most likely can't. Even if individual teachers or program managers are sympathetic to your concerns, whether to allow students to study remotely (and if yes, under what conditions and for how long) is generally a political process that is decided high up in university administration, and they will not make judgements on individual student cases. If the policy of your university is that all students need to study from campus, it's likely nothing you say will make them make an official exception for you. Inofficially, it may be possible to take individual courses remotely. Especially during the transition period, many teachers will likely be acutely aware that some students have valid reasons (health or otherwise) for avoiding campus for the moment, and most universities really don't have all that much say or insight into how individual teachers design and run their courses (so many teachers at the moment choose course designs that can also be done remotely, if feasible for the course). That said, this will likely be entirely inofficial, so you'll have little right to demand accomodations or complain if, for instance, a hybrid course is more difficult to follow remotely than if you were in class. I would also expect that this degree of teacher understanding will wane over time, due to the COVID situation improving but also due to people accepting these issues as the "new normal". > > Their refusal unnerves me, because university's Health Centre is overwhelmed. It takes months to book one appointment. I heard from friends they can see you just at most twice each term. I am cared much better at home. I prefer my psychiatrist who knows me well. My parents want me stay at home so they can care me. They don't want me to fall into suicide ideation. > > > I really, really sympathise with this concern, but it may be time to consider whether interrupting your studies is not the more productive way to protect your mental health than trying to wring out an official exception from a university that is probably under significant political pressure to return to normal studies as soon as possible. Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Your University will almost certainly have a formal appeals procedure that can be used to appeal against academic and procedural decisions, such as this. There should be on-line information on the forms and procedures for this process on the university website. The student union is likely to be able to provide advice and support. Whether an appeal is successful depends on the reasons for making the appeal and the documentary evidence you can provide. Nobody can say what the chances of success are without knowing the detailed reason, which you should certainly not post here! I would suggest though that saving money is unlikely to be regarded as a sufficient reason. If you do want to study from home, I think e.g. the Open University would be a much better bet as they are specifically set up for that purpose (so you are less likely to disadvantage yourself by not being on campus). You might want to consider a transfer instead? Upvotes: 2
2021/11/04	876	3,810	<issue_start>username_0: Follow-up question to If Brexit is bad for British science, why hasn't the rankings of British universities worsened? For example, Berkeley for engineering and technology even managed to surpass Singapore's NTNU, going from the 6th place to the 5th, under the last 2 years of Trump's presidency (QS ratings). Regarding Natural Science, both US and UK universities outperformed Japanese Tokyo University, which slide out of the top 10 in the same time-window.<issue_comment>username_1: > > How do I change British university's mind? > > > Speaking as somebody in a Swedish university that's currently in the process of "going back to campus", you most likely can't. Even if individual teachers or program managers are sympathetic to your concerns, whether to allow students to study remotely (and if yes, under what conditions and for how long) is generally a political process that is decided high up in university administration, and they will not make judgements on individual student cases. If the policy of your university is that all students need to study from campus, it's likely nothing you say will make them make an official exception for you. Inofficially, it may be possible to take individual courses remotely. Especially during the transition period, many teachers will likely be acutely aware that some students have valid reasons (health or otherwise) for avoiding campus for the moment, and most universities really don't have all that much say or insight into how individual teachers design and run their courses (so many teachers at the moment choose course designs that can also be done remotely, if feasible for the course). That said, this will likely be entirely inofficial, so you'll have little right to demand accomodations or complain if, for instance, a hybrid course is more difficult to follow remotely than if you were in class. I would also expect that this degree of teacher understanding will wane over time, due to the COVID situation improving but also due to people accepting these issues as the "new normal". > > Their refusal unnerves me, because university's Health Centre is overwhelmed. It takes months to book one appointment. I heard from friends they can see you just at most twice each term. I am cared much better at home. I prefer my psychiatrist who knows me well. My parents want me stay at home so they can care me. They don't want me to fall into suicide ideation. > > > I really, really sympathise with this concern, but it may be time to consider whether interrupting your studies is not the more productive way to protect your mental health than trying to wring out an official exception from a university that is probably under significant political pressure to return to normal studies as soon as possible. Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Your University will almost certainly have a formal appeals procedure that can be used to appeal against academic and procedural decisions, such as this. There should be on-line information on the forms and procedures for this process on the university website. The student union is likely to be able to provide advice and support. Whether an appeal is successful depends on the reasons for making the appeal and the documentary evidence you can provide. Nobody can say what the chances of success are without knowing the detailed reason, which you should certainly not post here! I would suggest though that saving money is unlikely to be regarded as a sufficient reason. If you do want to study from home, I think e.g. the Open University would be a much better bet as they are specifically set up for that purpose (so you are less likely to disadvantage yourself by not being on campus). You might want to consider a transfer instead? Upvotes: 2
2021/11/04	1,313	5,839	<issue_start>username_0: I am fresh at teaching computer science. For this subject, students must write an exam. Are there any statistics beyond avg, median, max, min points which you can recommend calculating? Furthermore, can you recommend any visualizations for year over year comparisons or comparisons with various previous years? Any help is appreciated.<issue_comment>username_1: Don't overthink it and don't put too much significance into any set of numbers. There are a lot of reasons for this, but the most fundamental is that any given class is not a random sample from the "population" and the population itself changes from year to year as well as being difficult to define. Your list of possible statistics is fine. The harder you try to push it the less reliable your numbers will be. And don't put a lot of effort into why some statistics (min, max) vary widely from class to class. Larger samples tend to even out the mean, of course, as expected, but maybe not the mode, or even the shape of the distribution. But an even bigger issue is that, for a professor, you need to treat each student as an individual, not as a data point. Every student is different, and every student is likely different from you. The very fact that you are where you are, with your educational background and interests sets you aside from nearly all of your students who have different goals than you do. You need to learn to deal with that. At whatever level you teach you will find that some students find it all very easy and others very difficult. This is aside from differing motivation for what you teach. You need to be willing (and I hope able) to give full marks to everyone in the class. Or to fail everyone in extreme cases. You need to work harder with and for some students than others. You need to learn the tricks to do this efficiently. Statistics won't help you much, and, in particular, they may not say anything about you, though if you need to fail everyone, then you need to reflect on that and make changes. I've had classes where everyone was (more than) capable of full marks. I never worked harder in my life. I've also had classes where I needed to tell them they might all fail if they didn't change their (learning) behavior. Both sorts of situations can turn out well, though in the latter case I had to take time out to teach them how to learn effectively. One practice I used in teaching was to look at the grades overall at the end of a course to see whether, informally, the distribution matched what I "thought" the general level of learning was overall. If I thought that the grades "seemed" lower than my judgement of their learning then I would adjust the grades overall a bit upwards, though not downward. This still fulfilled my "contract" with them that if they earned X points their grade would be (at least) Y. Any surprises at the end were happy ones. And yet I was viewed by the students as a very demanding instructor. But I also realize that when I was a novice instructor I was far too rigid. Experience helped a lot and for many new university teachers there are no pedagogy courses that teach you how to get it right early on. --- Edited to add: If your 60-80 students are divided into different sections then be prepared to find that there might be differences between the sections in performance even though the "teaching is the same" for them. One of the hardest things I ever did, and I'm still not sure I was successful, was to teach three sections of the same course of about 30 each "back to back" in three consecutive hours. --- There is one statistic, however, though I can't remember its name, that tests the validity of individual questions. It is possible that the statement of some exam questions is confusing or misleading, and the best students to worse than the average on that question. In essence it measures the distribution per question vs the distribution overall. This isn't a measure of student performance, but a measure of the validity/reliability of an exam itself. Perhaps someone with more background in statistics can supply the name of the measure. This one is worth considering. --- And if your department constrains what you are allowed to do then see the following: [Grades are too high for the department - what should I do?](https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/116460/75368) Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: When presenting exam results to students, I usually post a bar chart of the distribution of scores along with min, max, median and mean and call it good. I always look at the bar charts of average scores by question (Gradescope is great for this) but I don't usually post those charts unless there's something interesting I want to share with the class, e.g., that a question turned out to be much more difficult than we expected. But allow me to soap box for a moment. The exam itself is more important than how you report the statistics. A good exam has several objectives. Students expect grades so of course it must fairly measure and differentiate your students' performances and give them useful feedback on what they're doing well or not so well across problems of varying difficulty. Plotting scores as a bar chart, you should see a nice bell-shaped curve distribution. Second, a good exam should measure your performance as well. Assuming different questions or problems test different things, a bar chart of average scores by question can right away tell you which learning objectives were generally achieved and which were not. Third, a good exam is one last chance to teach or reinforce your learning objectives, e.g., with a problem that asks students to take what they've learned one small step further, resulting perhaps in an ah-hah moment. (One of my staff used to call problems like this "spicy".) Upvotes: 3
2021/11/04	383	1,543	<issue_start>username_0: I am planning to quit my master degree ( I have completed 14 of 20 months) because I dont feel it will be helpful in my career, I also dont like to do a final Business model plan (which is huge around 180 pages) to get the degree (it must have financial evaluation and more stuff that are not related to my carreer, I studied Informatic engineer by the way). I am struggling with continuing it, I already have my Engineer degree, I know the world it is more competitive but it doesnt mean that every employee must have a master degree in order to suceed. I dont regret the time invested, I prefer studying and get a specialization program in my career field rather than a degree in something I wont work and invest more money and time just because "I must finish what I started" and then dont take advantage of it. Tell me your opinions please<issue_comment>username_1: MBA are helpful only because of the network you build during your final assignment. The intrinsic value of a completed MBA is close to 0. However, in the late stage of your career, people would expect you to have an MBA, to offer you higher managment role in complex, large corporate environments. Where do you want to be in 20 years? the indivdual consultant paid 50-500$ per hour, or the high order manager in a big company? Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: Even if an MBA is of no benefit to you and not relevant to a job you're seeking, finishing it is always going to look better on your resume/CV than not finishing it. Upvotes: 1
2021/11/04	627	2,640	<issue_start>username_0: Is there a problem with "non-publisher" journals? Since the web allows anyone to produce information, then is the idea of a "publisher" out-dated? Why not publish by oneself, rather than through a publisher?<issue_comment>username_1: The main issue in a coherent answer/resolution to this question is about what "publication" means, what the goals are, etc. Yes, the notion that literal publication is only possible through traditional channels is obsolete, since, yes, it is not difficult to arrange to put things on the internet, either on one's own web site or on preprint servers. So, yes, one can indeed communicate to other people. But, of course, if one has no prior track record, one will mostly be ignored, if only out of expediency. There's a lot of new stuff produced each day that become visible on-line. People with long-established track records will often receive a bit more attention to preprints than others would, and with obvious reason. The gatekeeping aspect has at least two components: factual accuracy, and "significance/status" of the results. For a long time now the factual accuracy has seemed to be subordinate to the "status"... Yes, there is a flood of new stuff all the time, but mostly it is ignorable (if one has a bit of experience), so I don't care whether or not someone is supposedly curating it. I'd prefer to be my own judge. Not to mention the two-year-plus time lag (in math) for something to pass the gatekeepers. Further, for many years now editors have told me that ascertaining correctness (of a generally non-controversial result) is not my job as referee. More about "appropriateness for the journal". Code for lots of other things... Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: The publishers these days have two main functions. They raise the profile of published works through the reach of their journal and they vouch for the quality of the papers through the peer-review process associated with the journal. Neither of these benefits are accessible if you self-publish. Believe me: some have tried. However, the hard reality is precisely because everyone can produce information, the amount of valuable information as decreased as a function of the total output. In other words, the good stuff is drowned by the bad stuff, and unless you publish in a reputable journal, your self-publish work will likely reach fewer people than the number of fingers on both of your hands. There are influencers and snake-oil salesmen of every shade who manage to bypass traditional publishers and reach out to massive audiences, but these are rare exceptions. Upvotes: 0
2021/11/04	866	3,683	<issue_start>username_0: I am currently applying for a PhD degree in Canada and one of my potential supervisors from the UK asked if he could ask my Master’s supervisor for reference. So I emailed my ex-supervisor about this but got an automatic reply saying she’s on maternity leave. However, I have her Facebook and Instagram info, so I can message her there, but is it appropriate to do so? She gave birth around three months ago, and we have not been in contact for around two years.<issue_comment>username_1: This is from an American perspective, not a British one, but absolutely do not message her on Facebook or Instagram! Especially if you have not been in touch for two years. I would never consider messaging a supervisor in such a way to ask for something professional, and that goes 10x while they are on official leave for any reason. Explain the situation to your potential supervisor and get in touch with your master's supervisor's department chair or director of graduate studies for advice. They may know when her maternity leave is up or may be able to get in touch with her1. In the worst case, they can provide the best reference they can. --- 1: Some people on leave may be checking their email infrequently for matters like this. Of course, she is entitled not to, but they will know her personally and know whether she's open to requests like this or is entirely offline. Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_2: You have already used this person's professional email address, so your request is made. She will check your email and respond to it when she is good and ready. Many office workers set automated emails when they are on leave but continue to check email and deal with important matters; nevertheless, they are under no obligation to work while on leave. It is not appropriate to badger an academic through their private email/social media while they are on leave (and doubly so since she's just had a baby). The simplest thing to do here is to let this prospective supervisor know that you have contacted your former supervisor with this inquiry, but she is presently on maternity leave. You can give this new prospective supervisor her (work) email address for direct contact and he can also email her if he has an inquiry. If necessary you can contact your department head (or relevant staff that run the masters program) to obtain assistance in getting an alternative reference. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: > > "However, I have her Facebook and Instagram info, so I can message her > there, but is it appropriate to do so?" > > > Yes, it is "appropriate" to do so. In other words, you would increase the chances of getting a letter if you do so, and only very marginally decrease it. The reason is obvious: you make her understand that it is important to you. Furthermore, Academia is not a usual work-place. It is certainly not a corporate work-place, and for most parts it's not even a "work": many of the major aspects of academic life are on a volunteer basis. Hence, while it may be seen as "unprofessional" to contact your boss on Facebook if you work in a traditional industry/corporate (e.g., insurance company), it is not entirely inappropriate to contact academic colleges on social networks. Clarifications: it is impossible to know in advance if your supervisor is going to be happy or not to receive your message. It is also important to understand different cultures, and know where your previous supervisor works: if she is from UK/US, then she may indeed be more inclined to see her job as akin to a "corporate" job, IMO. If she is from Central Europe, she may be less so (again, IMO). Upvotes: 3
2021/11/04	1,014	4,439	<issue_start>username_0: I've done some work at my industry research internship that has led to a draft of a paper. I am currently applying to PhD programs, and the company at which I interned has a lengthy internal review process which will result in an inability to submit the paper to either a publication venue or a preprint server until after most of my applications are due. The abstract has been approved by internal review and submitted to a journal, but I will be unable to share the paper in time. Is there a best practice for demonstrating that I've done research that has led to a paper, while also not yet having published the paper someplace due to these constraints? My supervisor has agreed to write a letter of recommendation on my behalf, so I suppose they can write about this, but I'm wondering if I should perhaps add a section on my CV to accommodate for this situation, or address it in my personal statement. I'd appreciate any and all suggestions, thanks!<issue_comment>username_1: Your CV can have a section "Work in Progress". You can list titles (or tentative titles, even obfuscated titles if needed) there. You can mark some of the items "In preparation for publication" or something similar that seems right. "Pre-submission company review" can probably be understood, though it may need a footnote. It doesn't belong in the SoP, but might be mentioned (or the meaning made clear) in a personal statement. But a footnote in the CV is probably enough. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Listing your publications bibliography style, and using a parenthetical comment, or change of font (removing italic, APA style) to identify those works under review, unpublished, or pre-publication is perfectly acceptable. This is often appropriate for technical reports under a grant, or government agencies. If not publicly available, you might have a copy on hand to show, however. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: This is an example of a situation in which having a personal web page might be beneficial. Specifically, I suggest doing the following: 1. Set up a personal web page with a section titled Preprints and any other details about you you think are worth highlighting. 2. List your preprint-under-internal-review there, in the format: > > adamcatto. My grand theory of everything. Preprint (2021), under internal compliance review at Acme Corporation, Inc. > > > 3. In your CV or elsewhere in your grad school applications, include a link to the web page. Also include a link to the preprints section of the web page from the CV entry listing your paper. 4. As soon as the paper passes the internal review and you are authorized by the company to make it available publicly, update the web page entry referencing your preprint to > > adamcatto. My grand theory of everything. Preprint, 2021. > > > with a link to a PDF of the actual paper (or to the arXiv page of the paper if you upload it there). If you submitted it to a journal you can add “Submitted”. In this way, people reviewing your application will get the most current, real-time information about the status of your paper, with the option to view the paper itself once that’s been made possible. The benefit of this approach is that it buys you more time to have the paper approved and still make it accessible to the people reviewing your application (without having to contact the grad programs and beg to be allowed to update your file, which I’m guessing is not likely to work). This can be a meaningful advantage, since between the application deadline and the time people are actually reviewing your application there is a delay of typically a few weeks, even a month or more. Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_4: Make sure you are clear about what your company's policies are about what you are allowed to share about the paper. This is something you should talk about with your boss. Assuming you are allowed to share that the paper exists, who the authors are, what the title is, and the journal where you submitted the paper, you can add a line to your list of publications like 1. Author name 1, Author name 2, "Title", Submitted to Journal X. An unpublished paper counts less than a published one, but having the line in your CV is better than not having the line. Of course, you may have to modify this to remove any information the company's policies don't allow you to share. Upvotes: 0
2021/11/04	983	4,171	<issue_start>username_0: I am currently working on my second book and I want to make it open access this time. I know there is many way to put the book online (github, bookdown, etc.), but I am worried on how it will be perceived by colleagues to not have the book officially published by a publisher. Update I am specifically refering to scientific book targeted primarily for scholars. My book is actually on how to use the R software in french, but the answer can have broader range. Questions Is it okay to put a book online without a publisher online? How will it be perceived by other academics? Should I be better to try to publish the book with a known publisher and pay the open access fee?<issue_comment>username_1: Your CV can have a section "Work in Progress". You can list titles (or tentative titles, even obfuscated titles if needed) there. You can mark some of the items "In preparation for publication" or something similar that seems right. "Pre-submission company review" can probably be understood, though it may need a footnote. It doesn't belong in the SoP, but might be mentioned (or the meaning made clear) in a personal statement. But a footnote in the CV is probably enough. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Listing your publications bibliography style, and using a parenthetical comment, or change of font (removing italic, APA style) to identify those works under review, unpublished, or pre-publication is perfectly acceptable. This is often appropriate for technical reports under a grant, or government agencies. If not publicly available, you might have a copy on hand to show, however. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: This is an example of a situation in which having a personal web page might be beneficial. Specifically, I suggest doing the following: 1. Set up a personal web page with a section titled Preprints and any other details about you you think are worth highlighting. 2. List your preprint-under-internal-review there, in the format: > > adamcatto. My grand theory of everything. Preprint (2021), under internal compliance review at Acme Corporation, Inc. > > > 3. In your CV or elsewhere in your grad school applications, include a link to the web page. Also include a link to the preprints section of the web page from the CV entry listing your paper. 4. As soon as the paper passes the internal review and you are authorized by the company to make it available publicly, update the web page entry referencing your preprint to > > adamcatto. My grand theory of everything. Preprint, 2021. > > > with a link to a PDF of the actual paper (or to the arXiv page of the paper if you upload it there). If you submitted it to a journal you can add “Submitted”. In this way, people reviewing your application will get the most current, real-time information about the status of your paper, with the option to view the paper itself once that’s been made possible. The benefit of this approach is that it buys you more time to have the paper approved and still make it accessible to the people reviewing your application (without having to contact the grad programs and beg to be allowed to update your file, which I’m guessing is not likely to work). This can be a meaningful advantage, since between the application deadline and the time people are actually reviewing your application there is a delay of typically a few weeks, even a month or more. Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_4: Make sure you are clear about what your company's policies are about what you are allowed to share about the paper. This is something you should talk about with your boss. Assuming you are allowed to share that the paper exists, who the authors are, what the title is, and the journal where you submitted the paper, you can add a line to your list of publications like 1. Author name 1, Author name 2, "Title", Submitted to Journal X. An unpublished paper counts less than a published one, but having the line in your CV is better than not having the line. Of course, you may have to modify this to remove any information the company's policies don't allow you to share. Upvotes: 0
2021/11/04	1,029	4,275	<issue_start>username_0: I’m writing my first recommendation letter for a student (for grad school) who is excellent. I’d like to, thus, write a very good recommendation letter. Are there informal guidelines for writing recommendation letters so that my letter does not come off as insincere and reflects the student’s quality?<issue_comment>username_1: If you can write about what the student has done, rather than just the grades in courses, it is a plus. Any special projects? Any leadership actions? Are they self directed? Do they have insight? Are they helpful to others? Have they done independent study, alone or in small groups? Would you take them on for a research project without qualification? Can you confidently predict their success, in school and beyond? But itemize actual actions when possible. Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: Since you've never seen such letters, you don't know what they usually contain. Ask one of your senior colleagues for examples of letters, imitate them, and then ask that senior colleague to give you feedback. Mentoring is one of the jobs of senior faculty. Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_3: The main thing to remember is to explain the basis for your evaluation and give a sensible comparison of the student relative to the cohort. It is not necessary to give detailed information on grades (since that will be given separately), but you should give some underlying objective information that explains your assessment that the student is excellent. What have they done that excels relative to what you expect for students of that cohort? What skills does this student have that other students in the cohort do not have? Etc. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: Think about how you know the student is excellent -- what sets them apart. In particular, if this is the first recommendation you've written, that suggests you may have a limited basis of comparison (to other students you've worked with). The difficulty you have in conveying your opinion may be related to an underlying difficulty in justifying your opinion. A useful guideline is [show, don't tell](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Show,_don%27t_tell). Here, this means it is much more convincing to cite distinctive, concrete, factual observations about the student than to pile on generic superlatives. For example you could note if they are going above and beyond course objectives, are doing research-level thinking, or are "the only student in our department to accomplish X in the last N years". Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_5: I think it's important to show and not tell. While most people simply use adjectives to describe, it would be great if you can show concrete examples, past interactions etc that you had with him/her, which can drive your point across better. Do also say, what difference did he/she make. What could not have been done without their attributes ? Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_6: Quantify their rank =================== I'm in a hard science field, so the answer may be less relevant to humanities letters. I have found that the strongest letters highlight specific interactions and anecdotes about positive qualities, but most importantly rank the student relative to a distribution. For example > > I have been teaching Physics 101 and Engineering 305 for the past 4 years, and this student is easily among the top 5 of the ~200 students I have taught. > > > If you've never written a recommendation letter before, you probably have a smaller pool to compare against. In principle that might weaken your letter some, but really that's important information to your reviewer. A letter ranking the candidate top 5 out of 20 years of experience vs 2 years is legitimately more weighty. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_7: You could always emulate the style of <NAME> when he wrote a recommendation letter for [<NAME>](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Forbes_Nash_Jr.). [![This is to recommend Mr. <NAME>, Jr. Who has applied for entrance to the graduate college at Princeton. Mr. Nash is nineteen years old and is graduating from Carnegie Tech in June. He is a mathematical genius. ](https://i.stack.imgur.com/300H9.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/300H9.jpg) Upvotes: 3
2021/11/05	5,784	24,994	<issue_start>username_0: As a Ph.D. student, I have TA'd many classes, and it seems every semester, we have caught at least one person for directly copying homework answers from a previous year's solutions. In most cases (probably 8/10), the instructor does not want to begin any formal academic integrity hearings, so all that happens is the student gets a 0 on the question with no other punishment. It doesn't seem fair to me that there is no formal reprimand for cheating other than getting a 0 on the question. When I have asked instructors about this, their reasoning is that creating a formal hearing/meeting is too much work, and they often add that the students (who are overwhelmingly international students) may not understand that directly copying solutions is not acceptable. The question is, if giving a 0 on a homework question an adequate and fair punishment for cheating? Why don't the instructors want to take any additional steps? Somewhat related: [Professor does not care about cheating, what should TA do?](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/118042/professor-does-not-care-about-cheating-what-should-ta-do)<issue_comment>username_1: There could be a variety of reasons, of course, so I'll only speak for myself. I consider that I'm in the classroom (or was - retired now) to teach students, not just the subject at hand, but how to learn, and, to a lesser extent how to behave properly in an academic setting. Giving a zero on an assignment, might be a huge deal if it represents a fairly large percentage of the overall course grade. It may well be punishment enough. But if I do that, I'll also require a conversation with the student, pointing out that they are there to learn something, not just accumulate points. I'll get through to some of them, but not all, I assume. If I get better behavior in the future and a change in attitude, then I see no need for a permanent notation in the student's record. Repeated infractions after warnings is a different matter and should result in more severe penalties, up to expulsion. For that, the professor needs to bring the case to larger authority. If you remember that teaching is the main job, not grading or policing, then it becomes easier to accept. I once had a group of students all from the same culture. In their home country they were greatly discriminated against so they learned to support one another, despite any rules. It took a long time to convince the better students that they weren't actually helping the weaker ones by providing answers (without learning). But the weaker students were the ones that needed to do the work the most. I can't say that it was completely successful, but we (the faculty) made some progress. Punishing them would probably have been counterproductive since the system would now seem to be "against them", just like in their original country. --- And, of course, giving the same graded assignments in consecutive (or recent) years is pretty foolish. Some student groups keep files of old questions with answers for just this purpose. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: Dealing with this kind of academic dishonesty is complicated. For small infractions early in the semester in beginning courses I preferred to try to turn the incident into a learning experience for the student, who may be from a culture (foreign, or just high school) where the borderline between helping and cheating is not as clear as I might like. At the beginning of my teaching career I tried to handle most cheating cases myself. At one point I failed two third year students for turning in a solution to a programming exercise that I recognized because I had written it myself as a model answer several years earlier. (Sometimes it's better to reuse a good programming exercise that teaches the subject best for honest learners rather than change it to foil the few students who might cheat.) Later I followed the prescribed university reporting policy for any significant incident. That happened twice. See [https://www.cs.umb.edu/~eb/honesty/](https://www.cs.umb.edu/%7Eeb/honesty/) Edit in response to a comment from @PeterMortensen One case led to expulsion from the university - it was a serial offender. Finding them is one good reason for following university rules. I think the other led to failure in my course. I like to hope that my work with beginning students who misunderstood the plagiarism/cheating rules learned the right lesson, but don't know. Some thanked me at the time. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: I suspect this is entirely dependent on the instructor and department. At Michigan, where an Honor Code (and no proctoring of exams) is part of the culture, we took it pretty seriously. We used the MOSS (Measure of Software Similarity) system at Stanford to detect possible plagiarism in our students' project submissions in our computer science courses, carefully reviewed each case by hand and if the evidence was there, standard practice followed every time was to report it to the Honor Council and let them sort it out. It's helpful to remember that when people copy, they copy a lot and the obfuscations they add, like changes to variable names and the order of if/then/else clauses, are generally really lame; they don't fool MOSS and they wouldn't fool you, either. At Michigan, when we reported a case, the evidence was compelling. There was always lots of copying and there were often damning artifacts like the same odd misspellings in the comments. We'd often find hundreds of lines of completely identical code. With two submissions side-by-side, it's easier than you might think to tell if they were copied. Our largest intro CS courses typically had enrollments around 1000 to 1100 and we usually reported 5% or 6% of the class for possible academic violation. About 90% of the cases we submitted typically resulted in a finding of responsibility by the Honor Council. Usual penalty was a zero on the assignment and a 1/3 letter grade deduction on their final course grade. If they were from a previous semester and beyond the reach of a grade penalty, they got community service. The most frequent reason why someone might be found not responsible was that their partner did it and they didn't know about it. Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_4: My own experience with this is that places I've worked had very cumbersome and time-consuming processes to deal with cheating "officially" --- meaning that there would be penalties more than just grade reduction. I followed those processes on a couple of egregious cheating cases, however the students involved retained lawyers to ensure the university complied with its own policies and procedures. The level of effort required meant that my department had a full-time staff member dedicated to ensuring the process was followed to the letter. Sometimes, formal processes that extend outside the class are just a waste of everyone's time. Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_5: Good instructors care about the students mastering the study material. Homework problems do help with this effort, but grading of homework and exams to test students comes at the expense of this effort. So, you don't want to invest a lot in perfecting the grading system w.r.t. some notion of fairness as that has very little to do with the objective of the teaching effort. Students may have seen a homework problem and its solution somewhere before, they can't be faulted for being able to score a lot higher than they would otherwise have done because of that. A good instructor should tell the students that they should practice with difficult problems, that the homework problems they get are just to check that they are not falling behind too much, but that only doing the homework problems will not yield a good result at the exam. The students should also be told that passing the exam is not proof that the study material has been mastered perfectly. Students who aim at just passing the exam will be unlikely to qualify for a Ph.D. position. When I was a student, a passing grade was 60%, but most professors considered 80% to be the minimum standard. A student who passed more than a few subjects below the 80% mark would not be accepted for a Ph.D. position. We didn't have graded homework at the time, we instead studied using only challenging practice problems that were too hard to be suitable problems for grading. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_6: There are generally two types of tasks. One group is for student evaluation and includes exams and serious assignments. This group is for answering the question if the student is performing well enough to continue the studies. Cheating there is usually taken much more seriously. Another group of the tasks are the "homework" tasks that are more to help a student with understanding. They are part of the learning process and are enforced only because too many students are not self-organized enough to complete them otherwise. Any cheating when doing these homework tasks harms the cheater more than anybody else. They will pay during the exam. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_7: In my experience, and from talking to colleagues over the years, there are a bunch of different reasons for this. The ones emphasized by the previous answers are all real (reports are time-consuming, instructors have bleeding-heart attitudes). However, there is a whole additional suite of reasons, some of which are of a less benign character. 1. In some fields, especially physics, cheating using Chegg has become extremely widespread in recent years. This has been exacerbated by the use of online homework systems (so that instructors don't read much student work, and students don't fear getting caught) and also more recently by COVID, which has made Chegg cheating possible on exams. Because the cheating has gotten so pervasive, it has been ethically corrosive, and the attitude toward it has become like the attitude toward police corruption in many African countries -- it's part of the landscape, and you can't fix it. 2. Punishment requires a high standard of proof, and the ability to convince deans without subject-matter knowledge that the proof is valid. Chegg cheating is a pain to prove, because Chegg is paywalled. The practical way to do it is for the instructor to pay for a Chegg membership, which then allows them to view the Chegg answers to their exam questions, but many instructors are understandably reluctant to give Chegg their money. 3. Administrators fear lawsuits, and therefore they create policies that make punishment difficult, as well as not always supporting instructors in individual cases. It's common to have policies that guarantee only a warning for a first offense, and this makes reporting cases feel pointless. One might report a case in the hope that it will lead to apprehension of students who cheat multiple times, but this requires some faith that other instructors are reporting cases, which is probably not happening. 4. Student evaluations of teaching are seen as very important to junior faculty. In addition, the advent of systems like ratemyprofessor has greatly shifted the balance of power away from instructors and toward students. There is intense pressure to lower standards, make students happy, and ignore cheating. There can be a "race to the bottom" dynamic, in which students desperately seek to enroll in the classes taught by the most permissive instructors. Low-enrollment classes can be canceled, or administrators can put pressure on instructors whom they perceive to be doing a bad job at ensuring student success. The OP more specifically describes a situation in which homework is graded, and students are copying answers from previous semesters' solutions. I'll assume for the sake of argument that this is a math class, although a lot of the same considerations would apply to a class like physics or phonetics. In my experience, there was an arms-race phenomenon in these classes, where instructors felt that they had to make homework worth a lot of points in order to get their students to do the homework. If instructor A counts homework for 5% of the grade, and instructor B counts it for 20%, then students will spend more time on B's homework than on A's. This rewards B for having a high percentage and penalizes A for making it low. But when homework counts for as much as 20% of the grade, students have an intense incentive to cheat. For instructors who are being berated and bullied about giving too many low grades, an easy way to raise their grades is to decrease the weight of the exams relative to other things like homework. Then if there is widespread cheating on the homework ... yay, student success has increased. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_8: I've led a few workshops at my institution informing other faculty about our school's academic integrity policy and best practices for interfacing with it. It's pretty interesting to hear the wildly different reactions to our advice. Some of the issues I've heard (intersecting with other answers here) include: * Students don't know the policy, so we shouldn't punish them too much. (With common reference to foreign-born students, which comprise about half of our school's population.) * Instructor prefers to deal with it "on a personal level", and have a talk with student that's not officially recorded anywhere. * Department has a custom policy that differs from institution's official policy, and keeps the issue in-department. * The official process is too time-consuming, and simultaneously has a low likelihood of any other penalty being applied by the school. (Notes: At our school it's largely the instructor's responsibility to investigate, interrogate the student, gather evidence, etc. For me, this process seems to average about 3-4 hours of work, not counting the mental burden of just thinking about for a week or more. And that's not counting a disputing student taking it to a committee hearing, possibly with a lawyer.) * The process is too punishing (most often heard from liberal arts and social science faculty). * The process isn't punishing enough (most often heard from STEM and healthcare faculty). * The cheating student will probably fail the tests and final exam anyway. * Academic freedom means the instructor should have freedom to make their own policy and deal with it however they like. We must remember that the normal state for a faculty member is that they're incited and rewarded essentially to publish new research, and the teaching gig is a secondary issue. So, they almost surely don't have any budgeted extra hours to deal with the cheating cases when they do arise. I'll say that in my case I frequently do give zero on an assignment as a first penalty, and only ask for higher institutional penalties on a second infraction or a more severe case. Lately I've started filing a report even for the first type of case, without requesting further sanctions. I agree with the OP's intuition that it's likely cheating students are running the same scam in multiple classes in parallel. Even so, it's broadly unlikely that the institution is going to take action and hand out punishments just based on the fact that multiple reports were filed. On the other hand, I think where I am, our (excellent) academic integrity officer will look at the history of cases to decide severity of punishment for new cases that are found in violation. This will vary greatly by institution, of course. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_9: Academic dishonesty is technically hard to prove. Sure, a student copies from the assignment from last year but… is it illegal? Is it stated as such in the course outline? How does this differ from finding a book in the library where the same problem has been worked out in details? What if the copies overlap by “only” by 90%? What if they overlap by 70%? And of course, the obvious point (which does not in any way excuse copying) is: if the instructor knows people are copying, why did this instructor assign the same problems as last year? When dealing with assignments, the easy solution is to give 0: it avoids the paperwork (considerable), the timelines (long) and the sterile discussions of the items mentioned above. Presumably individual assignments are worth a tiny fraction of the overall term mark (each question an even smaller fraction), and more importantly the instructor controls this fraction, so assigning 0 solves the local problem with minimum fuss. As an instructor, I make it clear to students that if they cheat on assignments - which are not worth much - I’ll get them on the midterm and the final, which are taken in a much more controlled environment and in which collaboration, the use of electronic resources or other means of copying/cheating are not so readily available. I place heavy weight on exams rather than assignments. I very rarely use the same assignment (or exam) questions two years in a row; I am merciless in pursuing academic violations in exams and the students know it. This does not stop students from copying on assignments, but experience has shown that this is rarely a good path to success in my classes. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_10: In my discipline, cheating is rampant. I would say that the majority of students have some form of unauthorized assistance for their coursework. I wondered why academic integrity wasn't taken very seriously until I realized that academics aren't taken very seriously. The product that universities sell is a diploma, not an education (i.e., human capital). The diploma's value is based on the reputation of the school which almost exclusively comes from research and publications (as well as football team performance and how fancy the buildings are). The quality of instruction and pedagogical factors are largely irrelevant. This all serves as background for the three main reasons: 1. Punishing cheaters hurts the reputation of the school, it embarrasses the school and undermines the charade of instruction being important, it's better to pretend cheating doesn't happen. 2. Punishing cheaters means lost revenue, not just for the cheater that is expelled but also for prospective students that will be scared off from a school that might take $100,000 of their money and then expel them. 3. Punishing cheaters is difficult to prove and a pain to resolve, administrators have little desire to get involved. Most people visiting this SE channel are unlikely to agree with my cynicism but this has been my experience which has been almost universally shared by associates in academia. Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_11: I recall from when I was a student one student wished to do some programming over the summer and hence implemented the compiler from last year's assignment without before having been to the lectures. Another student copy an assignment from a student in the next year and got found out as the assignment had changed a little. How can the difference between the two be proved to a strong enough edvidance level to remove one of these students from university? Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_12: Enforcing academic integrity violations through the university system is very costly to the professor in terms of time and effort. The system is burdensome, complex, and sometimes capricious. Professors, therefore, have little incentive to use that method. That's the answer to your question. I would use the university's honor system if the violation was of sufficient magnitude that I thought the appropriate punishment for the student is greater than what I, as their professor, could easily enforce. For example, if I thought the student should be kicked out of school. I would also use the system if I wanted to fail a student from my class, most likely. I have encountered academic integrity violations on two occasions, neither of which were what I would call very severe. After meeting with the students, privately, I reduced the semester grade of one by a letter grade and the other by half a letter. Those enforcements required zero effort on my part and left a lasting impression on the students. In each case, I also offered to go through the university system if the students preferred, but they also did not want that. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_13: > > It doesn't seem fair to me that there is no formal reprimand for > cheating other than getting a 0 on the question. When I have asked > instructors about this, their reasoning is that creating a formal > hearing/meeting is too much work, and they often add that the students > (who are overwhelmingly international students) may not understand > that directly copying solutions is not acceptable. > > > Without going into a full cultural background, Asian students do not look at copying in the same manner as Westerners do. Westerners label it "plagiarism" or "cheating," but Asians see it as necessary for their survival to identify the most gifted and to imitate their correct responses. It is common practice in Asia for instructors to ignore or even to assist a student's copying. Asian learners place a high value on principles of uniformity in which the best and most commendable are to be imitated by others. My first teaching experience in Asia, freshly graduated and certified to teach, gave me some exposure to the "cheating." Having been taught to deter cheaters by creating multiple forms of a test, I had a form A and a form B which I passed out to the students in their adjacent rows. When a student would copy from the one beside him or her, he or she, apart from getting the wrong answer, would be giving me evidence of cheating. Upon grading the exams, I discovered that fully a third of the class had been consistently cheating (those who cheated on just a question here or a question there may have slipped through the cracks). Having been taught traditional Western values, I gave each of those students a zero on the exam. One student questioned me, and showed me that her answers had been the same as those of the student beside her! Her entire countenance was the picture of a question mark, obviously not understanding what had happened. I pointed to the "Form A" and the "Form B" on each of the tests she was comparing and, being intelligent enough, she instantly grasped what had happened. "Teacher," she said in her broken English, "me bad." And she made no further complaint. In her culture, cheating was not wrong unless, and until, you were caught. For the next exam I created four forms so that not even the student in front or behind could have provided the correct answers--but none of them cheated this time. They had learned their lesson--don't cheat with the foreign teacher! In my case, giving zeros was education enough. They needed no formal proceedings, nor even did I lecture them about it. Asians realize that not all have the same gifts. The very students who may be at the top of the class in mathematics, and from whom all copy their answers in that class, may be mediocre in history, and be copying from their classmates. The sharing of answers comes naturally to them in their cooperative society. Westerners, on the other hand, have a much more individualistic worldview and expect each person to solve problems alone, with little or no help. Instructors who have enough experience to realize and understand these differences in thinking will be far more likely to show greater tolerance for the foreign "cheaters" in class. It is more important that these students be taught how to learn and to find answers for themselves than to merely punish them for something that they would not grasp as worthy of such severe treatment. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_14: When I have asked instructors about this, their reasoning is that creating a formal hearing/meeting is too much work. Not to mention the endless cycle of additional hearings and paperwork that may follow, and the horrible embarrassments and humiliations that result as soon as mid-level idiots get involved. Should you ever become an instructor yourself, by all means go ahead and learn the hard way. Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_15: I suppose that students should study old exams, for example, and learn the techniques used, for example. And some students have good memories. There are a few proofs that I could write down, that would be very, very similar to a textbook. And there is no copying involved. But there is a simple way to check. Just take the student, and ask them the same exam question, and check if they can answer it on the spot. And better yet, try to modify the question slightly so it requires a different answer, and check if they can reply. If yes, they actually know the material. Apart from that, why are you copying previous exam questions, if giving the same answer gives a student zero points? That seems incredibly unfair. Upvotes: 0
2021/11/06	1,156	4,642	<issue_start>username_0: My advisor has funds for me to use for research from his grant so that I don't have to teach in my final semester. Unfortunately my department is denying the request and forcing me to teach a course to be funded since they are low on teachers. 75% of other students are being allowed to use research funding in my department, and I am one of the 5 who is not being allowed. The reasoning is because of timing and a change of policy that once the department determined they were running low on instructors they started denying requests for research funding. I have exhausted avenues within my department and have still been denied. I do have a lot of savings and could afford not to be funded at all. Honestly, I am tempted to deny teaching altogether. Of course I would not earn my 10-15K + health insurance + tuition benefit that I would get for research funding or teaching or being on the grant for research, but it is doable and honestly tempting to me right now. I am really upset about this. I am going into my last semester and need time to finish my thesis, find a job, and everything else that comes with graduating. I simply do not have time to teach and have been counting on this funding from my advisor. I think it is completely ludicrous that the department is telling my advisor he cannot fund me using the grant money which was set aside for me. Can you think of anything I can do to fight this? It seems both immoral and illegal to me. Should I contact the graduate school or the dean of students? Do I have any legal recourse for this? It just feels they are stealing the grant money from me because they won't allow my advisor to give me the grant money meaning I am forced to teach if I want to get paid.<issue_comment>username_1: This happened to me once. To make it worse, I was told I must teach the semester I did not want to, and I could not teach the semester I did want to. You probably should not fight it. You do not have any leverage. Really the only action you can take is to complete your PhD a semester earlier than planned. It's probably not illegal. It probably is unethical to prioritize the need for cheap labor over PhD student success. Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: > > It seems both immoral and illegal to me...It just feels they are stealing the grant money from me > > > It is understandable that you are very upset at having been arbitrarily assigned additional work for no additional benefit. However, "immoral and illegal" is likely too far. It is highly unlikely that you were personally named in your advisor's grant. It is similarly unlikely that your contract stipulates that you are entitled to this grant money. Rather, it sounds like you and your advisor had a good-faith agreement that he would try to fund you from this grant, and it sounds like both of you tried to honor this. It is annoying that department rules are frustrating your agreement, but I would be very surprised if this was legally actionable. Even the morality may be less clear-cut than you imagine. > > Honestly, I am tempted to deny teaching altogether. Of course I would not earn my 10-15K + health insurance + tuition benefit...but it is doable and honestly tempting to me right now. > > > Tuition is pretty expensive -- five figures at least. So, this could easily cost you $30K. I would suggest that is not worth it. Even for me, being busy, long past grad school, and financially comfortable, I would probably agree to teach a course in exchange for $30K. > > Can you think of anything I can do to fight this? > > > I would start by recalibrating expectations. First, this is a fight you may lose. Second, this is an inconvenience, not a crime against humanity, and it is not worth "going nuclear" over this (i.e., avoid burning bridges or making threats). Third, you have very little leverage as a grad student. Instead, I would discuss this with your advisor (or another trusted professor). If possible, estimate specific tasks that may have to be postponed or skipped due to your reduced availability. Do not lecture about legality or morality; instead, gently point out that a last-semester student is not really a good choice for a complicated teaching assignment. * If your advisor is on your side, they are probably much better positioned than you to find a work-around. If your advisor tries to help and fails, it is very unlikely that you will have more luck. * If your advisor does not want to get involved, they may at least be willing to give you feedback on your ideas about complaining to the dean's office or the graduate school. Upvotes: 2
2021/11/06	601	2,419	<issue_start>username_0: I am writing a statement of purpose for Ph.D. applications in the US and Europe. In doing so, I have come across the idea that I should not use first-person pronouns in formal writing. Does this apply to statements of purpose? How do I describe my academic/research/other experiences in the statement then?<issue_comment>username_1: It's perfectly normal to use first person pronouns in your statement of purpose. I've never heard of anyone deliberately avoiding them, and frankly I'd imagine it would be pretty bizarre to read! The statement of purpose is not exactly "formal writing", like an academic paper would be. It's not informal either, it should be written fluently and professionally, but this type of personal essay is perhaps is closer to formal speech (or maybe a formal email) than it is to academic writing. I suspect your source was talking about using a passive voice and not an active voice (e.g. "X was increased" vs "I increased X). That was standard practice in academic papers and scientific reports in the 20th century. It's sometimes seen as old fashioned now, as the active voice is gradually becoming more common, but both styles have their advocates in academic publications. In any case, that debate certainly doesn't apply to a personal essay. Use first person pronouns normally in your SOP. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: This is more general advice than you ask for, but yes, use the first person as the [answer of username_1](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/177665/75368) suggests. However, you may have the wrong idea about SoP in general. It isn't a document praising yourself for past accomplishments or a recapitulation of your CV. It is a forward looking document giving your plans for the future, both in studies and beyond. It isn't at all about what you have done, but, instead, what you plan to do and how you want to go about it. So, don't describe your "experiences" there. That is for the CV. And, don't use the SoP to try to explain any past failings. If you have a subfield in mind or even a research direction you are interested in, put it in the SoP. If you are pointing toward a career in academia, say that. You don't need a formal research plan or topic for most such things though some specificity is helpful, especially if you hold a masters already. The CV details the past. The SoP looks entirely forward. Upvotes: 1
2021/11/06	762	3,158	<issue_start>username_0: One of my students is applying to [Caltech](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Institute_of_Technology) for a PhD. He asked me for a recommendation letter. I haven't written a recommendation letter before. He is a bright student and I want to help him. On Caltech's website, there are five questions a recommender needs to answer. The last one is "How does the applicant compare to any previous students who have come to Caltech for their graduate work?" However, no one from our department ever applied to Caltech. My university is a well-reputed one, but the department is small. Most of the students either choose to pursue a PhD domestically or go for industry positions. Applying for PhD in the US is unheard of. That's why I'm very keen on recommending this student as he is breaking barriers and is the first in our department with such ambitious goals. I do know that on a letter, it wouldn't look good if I mention that none of our students have joined Caltech. How should I answer this question in a positive light that would be helpful for my student?<issue_comment>username_1: Answer it honestly. You won't be the first to just say that no one has applied before. You can then say, if you haven't elsewhere, that you expect they will be highly successful and are proud to recommend them. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: It's a silly question to begin with --- academics giving recommendations should be comparing the student in question to other students they know/have taught (at same level, etc.), not students at an entirely different institution they have never met. Just answer honestly and resist the temptation to tell them how stupid their question is. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: See if you know anyone who has gone to Caltech for graduate study (e.g. someone who is an alumnus). It doesn't have to be a former student, it could e.g. be your professional contact. If not, see if you know anyone who has gone to a similar US university for graduate study, preferably a university of a similar stature. If that's not possible too, the best you can do is probably comparing with PhD students at your university. Fortunately your university is a well-reputed one. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_4: The committee will likely know that no one from your school has gone to grad school at Caltech (at least in that department). That was the case for me (I don't think they had this question when I applied), and I was accepted. The issue was that they weren't familiar with my undergrad program, so they didn't know how to interpret me being a top student at my university. In the end, they took a chance on me, and I can tell you I wasn't the worst student there. Consequently, of course you should be honest, as username_1 says, but if you can compare this student with students who went to grad school at other top places, or even how the student compares with undergrads at well-known schools, that will likely be helpful. (In general, even without this question, you should do this in your letter if possible.) If not, hopefully the other letter writers will be able to. Upvotes: 2
2021/11/06	2,261	9,577	<issue_start>username_0: Though I don't have a graduate degree, I have original (and rigorous!) mathematics and have been cold-emailing some professors. Unfortunately, none of them want to collaborate online with me. I really would like to get my research accepted. What can I do?<issue_comment>username_1: Read enough math papers so that you have a sense about how they are written up. Then write your own, emulating the style. Then submit it to a journal. You don't need any degree for this. You will get feedback. If the work is not very good, it will be immediate feedback and you need to think about what you are doing. If it is good, then, after a while you will get a reviewer report suggesting changes. You don't need collaborators, but finding someone to read your work and give you some feedback is helpful. If you have an undergrad degree, or are an undergrad, one of your professors can probably help. Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_2: So, this depends to some extent on who you are asking and what you are asking, and what your results are. First, let's be clear that people aren't likely to to be interested if you have a claimed proof of some famous open problem, like the Riemann Hypothesis, or P != NP, or the Collatz conjecture. Second, asking people out of the blue to collaborate is in general a not at all small ask. If you are doing so, you need to at a minimum explain in your email a) what result you think you have b) how it works and c) what part requires collaboration. Is there a specific technique or aspect that they are an expert on? For example, if someone sent me an email asking to collaborate and it was on something I don't know much about, I wouldn't respond positively. If you have a result that doesn't need someone else, then write it up, and then talk to someone who is an expert on a closely related problem. After you have their feedback, then send it to a journal if it is good and worth looking at. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: Possibly you don't want to really ask for "collaboration" as much as "advice" or "feedback". Advice and feedback are "limited" responsibilities, while collaboration is an on-going thing. People might be willing to give advice but not make any long-term commitment. Also, keep in mind that most professional mathematicians, by their own design, are already "fully-booked" for the foreseeable future, apart from possible large surprises which would justify changing their schedule abruptly. That is, they already have many on-going projects, as many collaborators as they'd want (if not too many!), as well as other obligations. So, imagine that you are asking a person who is already extremely busy to do something extra. Not that that's impossible, but "it's a big ask". :) EDIT: ... and, anyway, as in other comments and answers, you don't have to have collaboration of a professor to attempt to publish (in the old sense of "in a refereed journal") your work. Yes, the stylistic expectations, and judgement about level of innovation and so on, will be easier for an experienced person, but in that regard all you really need or want is "advice" rather than "collaboration". Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_4: Another idea is to pay them. A university lecturer or professor normally gets paid to help students get published - and it's a full time job. Why would they do the same work for you for free? But lecturers also often offer for-a-fee tutorial services to students, mainly for those who need extra help to catch up. But a maths lecturer offering such services may be willing to tutor somebody through the process of writing up and submitting a paper instead. It might make an interesting change of pace for them. And if in the process they end up reading your work and having ideas of their own about it, that could conceivably turn into collaboration. But don't get your hopes up too high. It's hard for outsiders to judge what's of sufficient interest to be worth publishing, and it's particularly hard for outsiders to overcome the credibility barriers raised as a result of the thousands of amateurs who seek instant fame for solving famous problems, who turn out to be fooling themselves. You should take seriously the possibility that you might end up paying someone a lot of money, only for them to tell you that the work is unpublishable, or to see your months of hard work being rejected by the journals. Such is the academic life. If that's going to upset you, don't start down this road. As others have already said, the best way to get into mathematical academia (or any mathematical career) is by going through a postgraduate programme - this is exactly what they are for! And you are competing with everyone already on that path. Attempts to find a faster shortcut are always going to be more difficult and less reliable than following the main highway. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: There are some good answers already. Let me add * There are dozens of new works appearing every day. Even if your work is correct, it's just one of n. Don't expect academics to be especially interested in your work, or take lack of interest as an especially bad sign * Academics get so much email. Cold emails from non-academics low priority. * More generally, academics are busy, and might already have many projects and collaborations on the go * Starting genuine, fruitful collaborations is hard. You have to have common interests, understand each other (sometimes I mean the actual language you're speaking, sometimes just the way you think about things) As to what to do, * Don't get discouraged by lack of interest or difficulty beginning collaborations, though do listen to feedback. * Read many papers on similar topics * Write in a similar style, don't make bombastic claims and show knowledge of relevant literature * Submit to journal that papers similar to yours are published in * Read and take on board any referee reports you receive, or feedback from the editor Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_6: Against some of the other answers, I will give a more pessimistic view here. It will be almost impossible for you to get published from outside academia. I'll outline a few reasons. * Nothing prevents you from submitting your work to a journal; an academic affilitation is not a requirement. That said, to get published you need to impress one or more experts (the editor(s) and the referee(s)). Unless there is some crazy exceptional idea in your work, badly written mathematics will fail to impress. Which brings me to the next point. * It usually takes more time than a full Ph.D. for a mathematician to start writing mathematics decently. That is, years of practice and mentorship; a big part of supervising graduate students has to do with getting them to write properly. So I would deem it impossible that whatever results you have are written in a way that a referee will find acceptable. Refereeing a paper is a lot of work, and referees get understandably upset when papers are written poorly. * Without mentorship and contacts in academia, it would be really hard for anyone (not just you) to assess the quality of your own research. Most non-trivial research benefits greatly from discussions with other experts. And it is a common experience for all (most?) mathematicians to have a "brilliant" idea, that immediatly becomes stupid when we explain it to another mathematician. We have all thrown some "earth shattering" paper to the trash when we finally realized it was worthless. * Which brings us to the issue of contacts. Even for an absolutely brilliant mathematician, it would be hard to be heard from outside the community. Most famous case being that of Ramanujan. His first attempts to get in touch with British mathematicians ended up in rejection precisely because his (brilliant) arguments were poorly written. And some were wrong, as most of his results on prime numbers were. Hardy's wisdom and mentorship were required to make Ramanujan a mathematician. Another famous example is Fourier, whose papers were (rightfully) rejected even though they had brilliant ideas. The only chance you have to get an inside is to hopefully get in touch with someone who is a direct expert in the (sub) area your results are in. That said, we are all used to receiving papers from cranks; the only way I would (maybe!) take a closer look to a paper sent to me out of the blue, would be if it makes interesting claims in topics I have worked myself. Even then, most people are usually busy enough with their own projects, students, classes, and service work, that they won't have the time to pay attention to you. Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_7: What you are asking for here is for someone to do the job of a PhD advisor but to do it for free and without getting any credit for it at their work. If you want a PhD advisor you're going to have to apply to a PhD program. The only likely exceptional circumstances here would be: 1. You are a very talented high school student. People like the opportunity to work with someone stronger than their usual students, and like the idea of helping out someone like their younger self. 2. You are extraordinarily rich and are willing to fully employ a mathematician. Given the current realities of the job market I expect you could hire a postdoc for something like $60K plus benefits as a personal PhD advisor (assuming that you make a good impression on them as someone reasonable during an interview, any whiff of crank and even that kind of money won't be enough). Upvotes: 2
2021/11/07	2,238	9,511	<issue_start>username_0: If I upload my research to researchgate, will this guarantee me copyright? Because I sent my research there and I added it to the site with ease and no one has reviewed it before sending it.<issue_comment>username_1: Read enough math papers so that you have a sense about how they are written up. Then write your own, emulating the style. Then submit it to a journal. You don't need any degree for this. You will get feedback. If the work is not very good, it will be immediate feedback and you need to think about what you are doing. If it is good, then, after a while you will get a reviewer report suggesting changes. You don't need collaborators, but finding someone to read your work and give you some feedback is helpful. If you have an undergrad degree, or are an undergrad, one of your professors can probably help. Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_2: So, this depends to some extent on who you are asking and what you are asking, and what your results are. First, let's be clear that people aren't likely to to be interested if you have a claimed proof of some famous open problem, like the Riemann Hypothesis, or P != NP, or the Collatz conjecture. Second, asking people out of the blue to collaborate is in general a not at all small ask. If you are doing so, you need to at a minimum explain in your email a) what result you think you have b) how it works and c) what part requires collaboration. Is there a specific technique or aspect that they are an expert on? For example, if someone sent me an email asking to collaborate and it was on something I don't know much about, I wouldn't respond positively. If you have a result that doesn't need someone else, then write it up, and then talk to someone who is an expert on a closely related problem. After you have their feedback, then send it to a journal if it is good and worth looking at. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: Possibly you don't want to really ask for "collaboration" as much as "advice" or "feedback". Advice and feedback are "limited" responsibilities, while collaboration is an on-going thing. People might be willing to give advice but not make any long-term commitment. Also, keep in mind that most professional mathematicians, by their own design, are already "fully-booked" for the foreseeable future, apart from possible large surprises which would justify changing their schedule abruptly. That is, they already have many on-going projects, as many collaborators as they'd want (if not too many!), as well as other obligations. So, imagine that you are asking a person who is already extremely busy to do something extra. Not that that's impossible, but "it's a big ask". :) EDIT: ... and, anyway, as in other comments and answers, you don't have to have collaboration of a professor to attempt to publish (in the old sense of "in a refereed journal") your work. Yes, the stylistic expectations, and judgement about level of innovation and so on, will be easier for an experienced person, but in that regard all you really need or want is "advice" rather than "collaboration". Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_4: Another idea is to pay them. A university lecturer or professor normally gets paid to help students get published - and it's a full time job. Why would they do the same work for you for free? But lecturers also often offer for-a-fee tutorial services to students, mainly for those who need extra help to catch up. But a maths lecturer offering such services may be willing to tutor somebody through the process of writing up and submitting a paper instead. It might make an interesting change of pace for them. And if in the process they end up reading your work and having ideas of their own about it, that could conceivably turn into collaboration. But don't get your hopes up too high. It's hard for outsiders to judge what's of sufficient interest to be worth publishing, and it's particularly hard for outsiders to overcome the credibility barriers raised as a result of the thousands of amateurs who seek instant fame for solving famous problems, who turn out to be fooling themselves. You should take seriously the possibility that you might end up paying someone a lot of money, only for them to tell you that the work is unpublishable, or to see your months of hard work being rejected by the journals. Such is the academic life. If that's going to upset you, don't start down this road. As others have already said, the best way to get into mathematical academia (or any mathematical career) is by going through a postgraduate programme - this is exactly what they are for! And you are competing with everyone already on that path. Attempts to find a faster shortcut are always going to be more difficult and less reliable than following the main highway. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: There are some good answers already. Let me add * There are dozens of new works appearing every day. Even if your work is correct, it's just one of n. Don't expect academics to be especially interested in your work, or take lack of interest as an especially bad sign * Academics get so much email. Cold emails from non-academics low priority. * More generally, academics are busy, and might already have many projects and collaborations on the go * Starting genuine, fruitful collaborations is hard. You have to have common interests, understand each other (sometimes I mean the actual language you're speaking, sometimes just the way you think about things) As to what to do, * Don't get discouraged by lack of interest or difficulty beginning collaborations, though do listen to feedback. * Read many papers on similar topics * Write in a similar style, don't make bombastic claims and show knowledge of relevant literature * Submit to journal that papers similar to yours are published in * Read and take on board any referee reports you receive, or feedback from the editor Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_6: Against some of the other answers, I will give a more pessimistic view here. It will be almost impossible for you to get published from outside academia. I'll outline a few reasons. * Nothing prevents you from submitting your work to a journal; an academic affilitation is not a requirement. That said, to get published you need to impress one or more experts (the editor(s) and the referee(s)). Unless there is some crazy exceptional idea in your work, badly written mathematics will fail to impress. Which brings me to the next point. * It usually takes more time than a full Ph.D. for a mathematician to start writing mathematics decently. That is, years of practice and mentorship; a big part of supervising graduate students has to do with getting them to write properly. So I would deem it impossible that whatever results you have are written in a way that a referee will find acceptable. Refereeing a paper is a lot of work, and referees get understandably upset when papers are written poorly. * Without mentorship and contacts in academia, it would be really hard for anyone (not just you) to assess the quality of your own research. Most non-trivial research benefits greatly from discussions with other experts. And it is a common experience for all (most?) mathematicians to have a "brilliant" idea, that immediatly becomes stupid when we explain it to another mathematician. We have all thrown some "earth shattering" paper to the trash when we finally realized it was worthless. * Which brings us to the issue of contacts. Even for an absolutely brilliant mathematician, it would be hard to be heard from outside the community. Most famous case being that of Ramanujan. His first attempts to get in touch with British mathematicians ended up in rejection precisely because his (brilliant) arguments were poorly written. And some were wrong, as most of his results on prime numbers were. Hardy's wisdom and mentorship were required to make Ramanujan a mathematician. Another famous example is Fourier, whose papers were (rightfully) rejected even though they had brilliant ideas. The only chance you have to get an inside is to hopefully get in touch with someone who is a direct expert in the (sub) area your results are in. That said, we are all used to receiving papers from cranks; the only way I would (maybe!) take a closer look to a paper sent to me out of the blue, would be if it makes interesting claims in topics I have worked myself. Even then, most people are usually busy enough with their own projects, students, classes, and service work, that they won't have the time to pay attention to you. Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_7: What you are asking for here is for someone to do the job of a PhD advisor but to do it for free and without getting any credit for it at their work. If you want a PhD advisor you're going to have to apply to a PhD program. The only likely exceptional circumstances here would be: 1. You are a very talented high school student. People like the opportunity to work with someone stronger than their usual students, and like the idea of helping out someone like their younger self. 2. You are extraordinarily rich and are willing to fully employ a mathematician. Given the current realities of the job market I expect you could hire a postdoc for something like $60K plus benefits as a personal PhD advisor (assuming that you make a good impression on them as someone reasonable during an interview, any whiff of crank and even that kind of money won't be enough). Upvotes: 2
2021/11/07	558	1,693	<issue_start>username_0: How do I cite the pullout? Should I just cite the original? What would the bibtex be? The pullout has information that is extremely useful, and I have not found the thing I needed anywhere else. (I feel like I'm overthinking this, but this is one of the most obscure formats that I have had to cite, and I'm inexperienced...) The link to the news release. <https://www.jisc.ac.uk/sites/default/files/janet-news-24-april-2014.pdf> The link to the pullout. <https://www.jisc.ac.uk/sites/default/files/janet-news-24-pull-out-april-2014.pdf><issue_comment>username_1: Why wouldn't you just cite the title, "1984-2014: 30 years of the Janet network", publisher and other details same as usual? Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Depending on your preferred style, either of the following APA variants should be fine: > > Jisc (2014) 1984-2014: 30 years of the Janet network. Janet News 24* (Special Edition Pullout), April 2014. <https://www.jisc.ac.uk/sites/default/files/janet-news-24-pull-out-april-2014.pdf> > > > Jisc (2014, April) 1984-2014: 30 years of the Janet network. Janet News 24 (Special Edition Pullout)*. <https://www.jisc.ac.uk/sites/default/files/janet-news-24-pull-out-april-2014.pdf> > > > Also, since company newsletters on the internet have an unstable repository, I recommend you download and save both the newsletter and the pullout on your local drive and keep it with your supplementary files. This is just in case the link breaks or changes, the company goes out of business, or the newsletter is lost. If you have your own personal copy of the newsletter then your reference will not be lost in this event. Upvotes: 0
2021/11/07	489	2,240	<issue_start>username_0: In a particular math PhD application, there are multiple questions along the lines of "please describe personal experiences and perspectives and what you would bring to our community", as well as a place to attach unspecified "supplemental documents". It appears that these areas of the application are not specific to the math department but rather are shown to all applicants to the university's graduate school. Honestly, I don't think I have anything to add in these areas, having written about my experiences already in my statement of purpose. I was not expecting to have to provide so much personal (i.e., not research-related) information in the PhD application. Would it negatively impact my application to leave these areas blank? Should I say "see statement of purpose"? Background: this is a top 10 pure math PhD program in the USA.<issue_comment>username_1: Actually, don't assume that this question isn't about research and academics. In fact, it sounds like an invitation to provide a "personal statement" beyond the CV and SoP. What is it that motivates you? What have mentors taught you that you want to emulate? What projects and courses have been important in setting your direction? On and on. Lots of possibilities that some would put (incorrectly) in the SoP instead. What you say doesn't need to be entirely "academic" but a lot of it can be. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Obviously, it's not possible to answer definitively whether not answering such questions will negatively impact your application in this particular instance. However, it seems unlikely that it would positively impact your application. For instance, if the admissions committee uses that field for review, having to go dig through you SoP for the answer would not help your application. Also, even though these questions might not be relevant to "research", many PhD programs care quite a bit about department culture and want to admit students who will contribute positively to this culture. This is certainly the case in my department, even though we are almost entirely research focused. So, I also wouldn't assume that the department will not care about your responses to such questions. Upvotes: 2
2021/11/08	4,914	20,774	<issue_start>username_0: I am currently seeking a career outside of academia (STEM) and every "entry-level" career in my field seems to demand familiarity with dozens of technologies. For example, here is a data science job from a big tech company: * Familiarity with at least 1-2 popular AI/ML frameworks and tools - TensorFlow, PyTorch, MXNet, scikit-learn, OpenCV, ARCore, and ARKit. * Expertise in estimation, experimental design, hypothesis, and A/B testing. * Experience partnering with engineering teams to build and test production systems. * Familiarity with AWS services such as EC2, DynamoDB, RDS, AWS Lambda, and Amazon SageMaker. As someone who did an applied math degree geared towards the theory of optimization and learning, I am very familiar with how AI/ML works, but I am not too familiar with all these softwares. Furthermore, I don't know anyone who is currently doing similar research who plays with these Amazon cloud service regularly. It just seems there is no need to publish a paper using any of these tools. It almost seem that you need an entirely separate graduate degree to fully meet these criteria. By the way, almost all the jobs in the field are like this and this example is actually pretty mild and again not even for a senior role. Can someone like me survive in industry?<issue_comment>username_1: You absolutely can do it. This answer will focus on data science, since that matches the job description you posted. I know people with similar profiles who have made the transition. It will take some work to fill in some gaps in your experience, and to think about how to make your experience relatable to an employer. Even if you don't use the tools they are looking for, perhaps you can show you've used similar tools. And over time, you can learn the tools you need. One thing to keep in mind is that many, probably most, people who do these jobs don't have PhDs. So it is not true that you need a graduate level education in the topics you listed [1]. What you do need is a working knowledge of common tools. It's useful to take one or two online courses that include actual coding examples so you can practice getting practical experience. You should also be aware that (a) the "requirements" companies post are not strict requirements -- the ideal candidate will have all those things, but no candidate is an ideal candidate, so people are hired who meet a fraction of the criteria all the time and (b) people pad their resumes. You have to decide for yourself what you are comfortable with how you describe your skills on your resume. You shouldn't lie; you should be ready to explain and demonstrate any skill you put on your resume, and you should be prepared to have to use that skill on the job if you're hired. But, you also shouldn't sell yourself short -- you can pick up the basics of a lot of these packages before or while you are applying to jobs. There is a major skill you have because of your PhD -- your ability to learn new things independently and use them to tackle unsolved problems. This is harder to quantify and put in a list, but it is very valuable to be able to do that in the business world. One way to demonstrate your problem solving skills, and to learn the tools you need in the field, is to do some kind of personal project that you can do to show off your data science skills. A common first project is to compete in a Kaggle competition, or do a previous competition, and be ready to talk about the decisions you made analyzing the data. However, if you can find something that stretches you beyond this, that is even better -- Kaggle lets you demonstrate you can fit a model to data, but it doesn't include many steps that are part of the bread and butter of a data science job, such as gathering and cleaning data, and deploying a model so it can be used for something. Finally, there are data science bootcamps that exist to help people in academia transition to data science. Your mileage may vary on these... On the one hand, they claim to be able to place people into very good jobs. On the other hand, they are expensive and you will have to go for several months without a salary. But, they are an option to consider as well if you are having difficulty landing a job. None of this is to say that you won't have to work hard. You may need to spend a significant amount of time on your resume, practicing for interviews, and sending out lots of resumes (it's a numbers game -- most places won't respond to a resume they receive without a referral, but some will if you have a good resume). You may not succeed at first. But it is possible with dedication. There are a lot of resources online for people looking to make this exact transition. It is possible to get too far into the weeds with them, but do take a look at stories of people who went into industry and practical tips for getting into the field you are interested in. I also urge you to draw on your in-person network as much as possible, both for advice (if you know people, or know people who know people, in the industry you want to work in) and for emotional support. Looking for a job, and changing fields, is tough, and you won't get a lot of direct support within academia. --- [1] Something one of my friends pointed out to me is that in academia, you spend all your time around PhDs, but most people outside of academia do not, and find a PhD to be impressive! Now you don't want to take this too far and rest on your laurels, especially since just the fact of having a PhD by itself will not convince anyone to hire you, but do keep in mind you have some real strengths that may not be obvious to you because of the environment you find yourself in. You are going to need to recognize these strengths and convey them convincingly to potential employers. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: #### Yes, you can survive there By way of personnal background (so you know that I have some knowledge of this stuff), my career is as a statistician in academia and consulting, with the latter being in the tech field where similar requirements are often set out for positions. Much of my academic work has been theory, but I've also been able to work effectively in the tech field and so I've learned a bit about it. So, the first thing I've learned is this: These big lists of skills giving huge numbers of specific platforms are really just a "wish list". Most organisations in the tech field cobble together the required skills by having teams of people who each specialise in different programs and platforms. You'll occasionally run across people who have knowledge of most platforms on these wish-lists, but it is rare. More common is to find people who have high-level specialty knowledge in one or two programs/platforms and who are able to learn the others on the job or collaborate with experts in those other platforms. Moreover, expertise partnering with teams in the tech industry is something that you usually only get once you are already working in that industry, so new starters would not be expected to have this. If you want to make yourself attractive for entry-level positions in the tech field, I recommend you pick one or two key programs/platforms and make yourself an expert in those things. Learning a core language like SQL, Python, R, C++, or SAS (depending on where you want to go) will give you a foundation for programming work in the tech industry. You can learn particular areas such as AI/ML if you like, but it is nice to get a broad and deep knowledge of at least one program/platform. There are many online education providers that will teach you these programs much more quickly than getting a graduate degree (e.g., [DataCamp](https://www.datacamp.com/), [Udemy](https://www.udemy.com/), [CodeAcademy](https://www.codecademy.com/), [Coursea](https://www.coursera.org/), [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/learning/), etc.). Once you have one program/platform you are really good at, you can gradually add other things to your repertoire until you have a more rounded tech resume. This takes years to develop and it usually comes from being involved in projects where you have to learn and apply new tools. (Indeed, you will find that even after you've learned them, you tend to forget programming platforms that you don't use on projects.) Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: I've lived this myself. I got a Ph.D in Electrical Engineering, and mostly did linear algebra (math) and software simulations with Monte Carlo statistics. I can't fix your toaster, do wiring, etc. So for me, I did audio firmware which sort of double-counts as EE and software engineering, for about 5 years. I eventually wound up becoming a software engineer, and there was a 'happy ending.' It would depend on your own skills, of course. Someone who has a lot of technical ability might still do a theoretical Ph.D. But in general, this is a known problem, and can cause difficulties in the industrial world. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: Programming was a second career I picked up out of necessity --it had previously been a hobby. My degree was in the humanities (philosophy). In about 10 years I've advanced steadily from an entry level position to being near the top of the career ladder at my company. My story is not unusual. Just recently I had a conversation with a colleague who was a bus driver two months ago before taking a crash course. Although companies often list long alphabet soups on their listings, the fact is that the job market is white-hot right now, and there are far more job openings than qualified people to fill them. Take the time to get the base level skills, and someone will take a chance on you, no matter how little experience you have. The other factor to remember is that technology advances relentlessly, so even people who are well-qualified today still need to constantly acquire new skills. That means you're not really so far behind anyone else. If you are a good and disciplined self-learner, there is no reason you cannot thrive in tech. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: Job posting are often written by clueless HR personnel often times with the best of intentions don't know what any of the terms mean. You don't have to be the best candidate they would want, you just need to be the best candidate out of the pool of replies. Most job postings would say something to the effect that the employer reserves the right not to make an appointment but often times this is just posturing. In South Africa it is common for tech jobs to remain vacant for months on end. A lot of tech companies growth is largely dependant on how many reasonably qualified people they can get to do the work. Also I do think it worth noting that because the tech scene is so generally lucrative you get a lot of businesses who are willing to take a chance on employees just because the upside is so big. What I would say is that coming from the academy is you have to realise is that you are not selling programs or software. Nobody cares about the intellectual enterprise of programming in the business world. You only have value for a business in how you effect there bottom line. If you can prove to a business owner that he can make 50K in profits by either reducing expenditure or increasing income by buying your 20K piece of software then you are going to make loads. This may be a simplistic example but you have to always know that in this programming world you must solve some sort of problem or fulfill some sort of physical or emotional need of a business or an individual. Your programs are only valued in the problems they solve. This is how this world operates. It is not about the advancement of human knowledge. It is about the advancement of your bottom-line. Too many times I see these so called venture-capitalist sell some sort of tech idea with not even a hint of how they think it is going to operate in the real world and I cannot help but think to myself are they trying to sell me shares in a company or are they trying to recruit me to some sort of new age cult that they are trying to found. Just have what problem you are trying to solve be in the forefront of everything you do. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_6: > > I am very familiar with how AI/ML works, but I am not too familiar with all these softwares... It just seems there is no need to publish a paper using any of these tools. > > It almost seem that you need an entirely separate graduate degree to fully meet these criteria. > > > You don't need a degree to meet these criteria, you just need to learn on the job for a couple years. The job postings are hoping you'll do that on-the-job training on someone else's dime and can hit the ground running, but that rarely happens in the real world. Everyone's first day, from the most senior to a fresh graduate, is spent figuring out how things actually get done at the new shop; HR doesn't seem to understand this. I'm a computer engineer by education, and a controls engineer by trade. I'd never used a Rockwell PLC in school, but I had a thorough understanding of boolean algebra, and ladder logic just isn't that complicated. When I first started, I didn't know how to calibrate a load cell, but I could have built one from first principles, and that was enormously helpful when diagnosing measurement artifacts. Academics typically try to understand the how and why, while industry is more likely to value pragmatism - just make it work and don't ask questions. This will make you less effective on easy assignments, but work in your favor when the team runs into a difficult problem. You just need to find a team that will help show you how to get started - ("Here's your AWS credentials, here's how you log into your EC2 instance, here's how you install TensorFlow, and here's how you make a neural network to classify shapes as triangles or squares"). Realistically, that's just about every team, you're probably not ready to start as a freelancer yet but any engineers will be happy to help you get past that tedious part of the learning curve. You'll just have to find somewhere that will let you start working without checking those particular boxes. At big companies, you may have to bluster past some of the HR drones ("Of course I meet the AI/ML requirements, I implemented [subsets of tools like] those from scratch in my CS435 coursework") to talk to someone who can actually determine whether or not you meet the requirements. Also, I expect that some of those job postings probably require 5 years' experience in technologies which are 3 years old - and yet the positions will be filled. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_7: I did a PhD in theoretical computer science and I'm currently a (senior) software engineer at Facebook. This is counter-intuitive, but after a PhD, interviews at bigger companies are easier than those at smaller companies. * Smaller companies often look for specialists. You are expected to be an expert in the tech stack in the job descriptions. On the contrary, at big companies, e.g. FAANG, they often look for generalists that can do anything, so the interviews are heavy on algorithmic coding questions. They are not easy, but you know all 7 or 8 topics in advance: tree, graph, binary search, dynamic programming (very rare) etc. * At smaller companies, a PhD may be considered as disadvantages. On the contrary, big techs love PhDs. With 0 experience, Google will start PhD holders at L4 (median salary $270k per year in the SF Bay Area, see levels.fyi/), while new undergrad starts at L3 (median $192k per year). Interview for L4 at Google include 4 rounds of coding questions. Nothing else. * If your PhD is relevant to the work they are doing (ML is highly relevant everywhere), you will have easier (and maybe fewer rounds) coding interviews. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_8: My answer is slightly different: Yes you can do it, if you are willing to adapt. No one expects a new hire to hit the ground running at full speed---for every job there's an expectation that it will take some time for you to learn the environment, the culture, and the requirements. The toolkit you develop in a PhD program may or may not align perfectly with a given job, but the ability to independently learn and expand your own skills will help you to get up to speed quickly, as the other answers have said. However, I've had a lot of experience in hiring former academics, and the one big area that I've seen issues is in adapting to the culture change. I've met many, let's say, high-maintenance PhDs---those who expect to exclusively do the pure, challenging, technical work, and who scoff at the soft skills aspects of the job. Working collaboratively, against deadlines, tackling the problem in front of you instead of the one you wish was in front of you, contributing to meetings and strategy are all areas where I've seen PhDs struggle, not because they can't do the work but because they don't want to. I've met plenty of hiring managers who see a PhD as a red flag because they assume that the applicant will not be willing to adapt. Often, using a cover letter to explain why you're interested in the position and showing that you understand and are eager to do the work will go a long way. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_9: I had to do a double-take when you said AI/ML to even say I recognized one of the acronyms and tech buzz terms. First job in tech was 22 years ago at age 35ish with a high school diploma. Everyone I've worked needs a quick-study, problem solver. If you have social skills, even better. I've been blessed with many opportunities, and many I wasn't qualified when I walked in the door. But I got that way as quickly as possible. Consistently churn out work, own your mistakes, and try to get along with folks. Don't set your sights on the moon for your first position. Mine was making some html conform to a different template. Made a deadline and worked ~3 years at that one "6-week project". I also worked 4.5 years at a university. It's where I learned that PHDs don't know everything (childhood misconception). Some of the academics were nice, humble, regular guys/gals and some could be challenging. I think most were petrified they couldn't make it in a real job. At least not with the awe-struck looks they were used to experiencing from kids. It was nonsense, they could have done it. Yeah, I think you'll do fine. Tech is big, broad and getting bigger by the second. Get on in here! :D Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_10: Speaking from people I knew in college, many physics and math majors, including Masters and PhDs, had no trouble ending up at tech jobs such as programmer, data scientist, or in quantitative finance. Companies have different hiring strategies, but many interviewers look for general problem-solving ability and reasoning skills, and are willing to look past not knowing every programming library as long as the candidate has a baseline programming/command line knowledge and shows eagerness and ability to learn (For example, if you have a basic familiarity with linear algebra, something like numpy should be pretty easy to pickup). Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_11: I do entry level recruitment for the technical division of a large company and the features that we look for in a successful candidate are: 1. A numerate degree in a scientific or engineering discipline. 2. An obvious interest in the technical field for which we are recruiting. 3. Good problem-solving skills. 4. The basics of at least one programming language. 5. Not being insufferably annoying. At this level we are looking for raw talent, not an intimate knowledge of the AI library du jour. Although, if you said that you had done a course in (say) Tensorflow then it would certainly help your chances. Frankly, the skills that you list would match one of our engineers with at least 5 years of experience and if a company is offering an entry-level role to someone with that amount of knowledge then they do not understand your value, or their business. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_12: Sure, if you are willing to learn those technologies, and not treat coworkers as servants that convert your PhD magic into code. It is very rare that a PhD has enough skills/value to the company that he can continue doing the equivalent of research without doing "boring" stuff like coding/cloud stuff. In other words if you can get PhD you easily have ability to learn the tech needed, but the issue here is if you are passionate about learning the various tech stacks as you were for the work related to your PhD. Upvotes: 2
2021/11/08	3,066	12,861	<issue_start>username_0: I am less than 2 months away from the end of my PhD (Europe, bioinformatics/machine learning in cancer research). My publication record is super bad so far, submitted my first paper 7 months ago and now we are retracting it and will submit it again as the handling editor was unable to find suitable reviewers as of today (after the manuscript had been accepted for peer review by him...). We are considering to write another paper, which will be very difficult to get accepted as the validation results are bad etc., so that's only gonna be a chapter but not a publication in the end... Earlier on, my PhD committee made it clear that I have to have only 1 accepted paper and two other chapters in my thesis. So the bar is low, yet I'm still unable to finish now. Actually, 1.5 years ago my supervisor did doubt whether we can publish the manuscript we submitted earlier this year as it does not include validation on real data (just a sort of simulation). So that doesn't exactly makes me confident about the whole thing, having my degree depending on a single potentional paper that even my supervisor had doubts about. My supervisor doesn't want to give me an extension (other than 1-2 months, which in this situation woudn't change much), so the deal now is that I'm trying to finish it without an extended contract after I have found a job. In the meantime, I started job search but unfortunately I'm more interested in positions where a PhD degree is required (obviously I'm not looking for a job in the academia, I wanted to work in the industry after I finish anyway). I'm not really into classic bioinformatics, would like to work on machine learning research instead (preferably healthcare/cancer related), but I didn't work on complex projects or anything that involved more hands-on math during my PhD, so I doubt that I have a good chance to get a job that I want with a crap and unfinished PhD. I don't know what to do now as I feel my self-esteem is completely damaged and that I will probably be considered a failure wherever I apply, even though a lot of things went wrong during my PhD that were out of my control (including problems with supervision). I don't even believe that I would be capable of doing the jobs I'm interested in. Shall I still try to finish, even if it technically seems impossible? I guess a crap but finished PhD is still better than a not completed one... But I'm very much afraid that it won't be possible... and then all these years were just wasted and I basically have to figure another career/job that I'm able to do.<issue_comment>username_1: This is my original answer, but please also see the update below where I changed my advice based on some clarifications in the comments. I think you should try to finish the PhD. You are so close, and really it's the major reward you get for the years of toil on your projects. If you drop out now, you will not have a tangible record to show for all your troubles. And a PhD is a nice prize that shows you have valuable experience. There is not much you can do about whether or not these papers get published at this point. Given your timeline, it is what it is. Don't assume the rules your committee gave you are set in stone. No one wants to see you fail, least of all your advisor. Write up the work you have done, and be honest about the submission status of the various papers. I think it is more likely than not that this will be fine, in the end. As pointed out by @user347489 in the comments, a reasonable committee may simply look past a publication requirement, because you are planning to leave academia and enter a field where your publication record does not really matter; make sure your committee is aware of your plans. But in the event that it is a major sticking point, let them decide this, rather than you deciding it for them. Get your committee and your advisor to tell you what steps you need to take to complete the PhD; they are the ones who are responsible for this decision. For now, assume everything will work out, and concentrate on your part of this: getting your work written up into a thesis. There may be some part of you that is angry that you have come so far, and are facing obstacles so close to the finish line. In my opinion, this feeling would be very normal and could actually be put to good use -- try to experience some of that anger and use it to motivate you to do the work, and talk to the necessary people, so you can finish with the degree. Don't give up on yourself now. Job searches take a long time. You need to balance this against finishing your degree. Try to plan your time realistically, and don't expect more from yourself than any human can deliver. When you do get time to focus on your search, read the job descriptions for ads in the field or fields you want to get a job in. Start by making a resume that demonstrates how your skills match what the companies are looking for in a way they can relate to, by using words in their job descriptions. Try to talk to people who do those jobs -- perhaps there are people in your PhD program who have gone on to some of these jobs you can talk to, or people in your broader network, or see if there are job fairs for your field in your local area. Please keep in mind that [impostor syndrome](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impostor_syndrome) is incredibly common in academia, and while I don't know you, I think it quite unlikely that you got into a PhD program and have made it through almost to the very end by being a "failure," and much more likely that you are a talented and hard-working individual who is burnt out by the PhD process (and, I'm not sure if you've heard, but there's a pandemic that has been going recently). On the topic of burning out... make sure you take time to practice some self-care. Go on walks or runs or bike rides. Make sure you eat well and get enough sleep. If you can, take a vacation. Finally, I strongly encourage you to seek out a mental health professional, if you have not already. They can help you talk through many of these issues much more effectively than strangers on an internet forum. --- Update Based on discussion with @antev in the comments, it appears I misunderstood the situation. I was assuming that your PhD could be finished without about 2 more months of work, and that the requirement for a publication could be waived. Apparently, this is not true. Really, the situation is that you need to wait an indefinite amount of time to hear back from the referees. If the paper isn't accepted, then you have to do more work to get a paper published, in order to be able to defend. First, I just want to express I find it completely ridiculous that an advisor would commit to a student for four years and then pull the rug out from under them at the end, by refusing to support them while they finish the degree, either by extending financial support while wrapping up the last stages of this paper, or by loosening the requirement to have a paper (or "going to bat" for you by arguing your case if this is an institute or department policy). With that off of my chest, I think you basically have 3 or maybe 4 options. Option 1 Find a job that you like that does not require a PhD. If you find one, then no need to finish the PhD. Option 2 Find a job you like that does require a PhD, but is willing to hire you while you finish the last steps of your degree. I have heard of situations like this before. But, I have only heard of it when the candidate was "ABD", meaning all requirements were met except for the dissertation. In your case, the situation is murkier because you have a hard requirement for publishing a paper, and you can't guarantee if or when it will be published. So I don't know how likely it is you will be able to find a job like this -- not to say you shouldn't try. Option 3 Find a part-time job to pay the bills while you finish your PhD. Once you have your PhD, or at least have the published paper part of your degree finished, I think it will be easier to find jobs that require a PhD. Option 4 As suggested in the comments, apply for a leave of absence. I don't know much about how this would work -- you would need to look into the details at your location. Obviously there are some major pros and cons to each option, that will come down to personal factors. Option 1 is probably the "cleanest" option, but you have to be sure you really like the job and aren't selling yourself short. If you want a job requiring a PhD, to me option 2 seems better if you can find one, and option 3 seems like a last-resort back up plan. Depending on your institution's policies, Option 4 (a leave of absence) could also be worth considering, but I don't have any idea what that would look like in practice. I also am going to reverse what I said initially. With this set of options, I think it makes more sense to focus on your job search now, and try to nail down what jobs you want and what options you have. Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: First, I am really sorry for you as you are in a really stressful and difficult situation. 2 months is incredibly short to get a paper published. But I know people that get their PhD with a paper under review, you may ask your PhD committee is that is okay. If it is not, I really encourage you to discuss with your supervisor how much time he thinks publishing your paper may take and see with him if he can keep you for this long. Third, I don't know your country but in France there is academic position (ATER) where you do teaching which are often attributed to people finishing their PhD but who ran out of credits. The pay is quite low, but it can help. You may want to check if something like that exists in your country. Wishing you best luck. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: I think it really depends on the University, but I finished my PhD without a single paper. My paper was written 1.5 years before my defense, but my supervisor could never stop with his improvement ideas. When I realized that there is no way to finish my PhD I pushed it to defense like that, without a paper. In the end, everyone is interested in students defending their theses. The university needs a good record also. Try to check with your PhD program coordinator if you have one, or with the ombudsman (that should be there in any Uni), what are your options. Also, stop thinking that you are a fail. No result is also a result. Unfortunately, modern academia does not support it, and it is uncommon to share your fails, but you should be really lucky that your research project ends up with some result. I had to quit one PhD position after 2 years of research and start something else because all projects that I started did not bring any result, but then I was lucky to start a fruitful project, but with bad supervision again :) It is pure luck, especially in biology. With machine learning, it is also not so hard as you think. I am now working as a data scientist and believe me, in many companies the entry-level is pretty low. We just do not know what we can do as PhDs. So no worries, just fight till the end. Good luck! Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: I think that, unfortunately, a lot of thoughts are focusing on the medieval idea of a piece of paper giving enormous advantage with respect to not having it. The work you need to finish your PhD is probably enormous, you may have the chance to find an employer that is in favour of you ending your PhDs in the first months of employment (possible benefit for the company: setting up a good connection with your advisor/department ... if the company has interest and is smart enough to understand this). However, most likely, you will have 6 months (probably more) of hell, where you cannot focus on the new things you need to learn at your new job, nor you can fully focus on your PhD completion. If you are now under stress, that woud only increase exponentially in that period. My advice is to drop the PhD, who cares about people or the social pressure of "you should finish it", if you have learned something in your academic journey, good for you, if you did not, it's a pity but at least you had a salary and even if you did not notice, you contributed to the research apparatus moving forward. Plus, if you got your PhD under extreme working condition (or unethical, like in Germany where most of the PhDs having fundings issues use their unemployment time to wrap up the thesis) you are contributing to the next PhDs undergoing the same path of pain (you know, whatever you achieve to reach a result become a possible business-as-usual for the next generation of people aiming at the same result). Stop it, for your well-being and for who is coming after you. Upvotes: 0
2021/11/08	1,243	5,128	<issue_start>username_0: I need to write an outline of my research for a grant. The orginization I am applying to, NSERC asks for: "Body text in a minimum 12 pt Times New Roman font" Well here's a little problem, I don't own Windows and getting my hands on an MS product to write the proposal irks me a bit. I also don't like the idea that people's taxes are being used to promote a proprietary font. NSERC should ask for an open font, such as Liberation Serif. In short, can I use another font or must I really use a microsoft product to type this proposal? As a general answer to those thinking this is silly/non-important. The font times new roman is a proprietary font, meaning it requires quite a bit of effort to access it on systems that have don;t have a license for it (I am in such a system, so this is already affecting me). But moreover, this is a public grant. This is effectively pushing people towards using proprietary software for research (or in this case to apply for research grants) and that is not ok when there are perfectly valid free fonts that achieve the same result. NSERC does NOT give away free money, NSERC collects funds from taxes and reinverts them into research. It is not ok for a public organization to favour proprietary tools when free tools that achieve the exact same purpose exist. It literally disenfranchizes individuals. Imagine if instead of a proprietary font, the grant process demanded that you submite a docx file or another, similar, proprietary file format. This would essentially be NSERC promoting MS software which would be, by definition, a corruption of academic incentives. This matters, it is not the most important issue in the world, but it matters.<issue_comment>username_1: This is a good question, because Times New Roman is a propriertary font (albeit free on many operative systems). This is a bad question, because the only possible answer is "ask NSERC". However, I am quite sure that if they had time to put such a non-sensical constraint, they will have time to answer questions about the same constraint (I am not sure about their opening to allow for exceptions, though). Final note: if the requirement is "one page, written at minimum with Times New Roman 12pt" is to avoid people cramping tons of text with a thinner font, it is absolutely idiotic. One (I mean one as NSERC) should just fill a page of text Times New Roman 12pt, count the characters (or the words) and then ask for such a limit. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: As has been pointed out by several others, the font is readily available on non-Microsoft products. You aren't the first to face problems with this; luckily plenty of people have come up with [solutions](https://www.reddit.com/r/linuxmasterrace/comments/681gfi/is_a_school_legally_allowed_to_force_you_to_use/). There is no serious technical difficulty here. On the ethical front, I think [Hanlon's razor](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanlon%27s_razor) is helpful here. The organisation most likely chose the simplest instruction that they could come up with which served a large group of people (most people, in their perception). Since it seems to work, they probably saw no reason to update it. They may have a point- a large number of people in my vicinity do think of TNR as a default font. Is it universal, or a clear best choice? Certainly not, and there is no universal choice. If you want to correct the situation for the greater good, first get the grant (following their requirements) and then write to them. If you want to solve your immediate, individual problem, use one of the proposed workarounds. Doing anything else is unproductive. Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: Fortunately, there is a free software alternative to Times New Roman that is metrically compatible, available as part of the [Liberation Fonts](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberation_fonts). Using it has the advantage that the letters consume exactly the same amount of space as they would for Times New Roman. This leaves you two choices to handle the issue: * Ask the funding body if they permit you to use this same letter size font. Since the role of the rule is likely to be limiting the size of proposals, this is a reasonable request. * Finish your proposal and ask a colleague with a Windows or Mac PC to convert your document to PDF for you after changing the font to Times New Roman. This should not affect the layout of the document. The second approach has the problem that if your colleague opens your document in a different program (e.g., MS Word instead of LibreOffice), the layout may be modified. On a related note, if using Microsoft OneDrive is an option for you (e.g., when your point is not about using non-free software at all but really only about the cost of the font), you can write your document with the online version of MS Word there with a free account and select Times New Roman. When you download a copy in PDF, the font is not actually embedded, but the PDF should still work and be shown with that font on computers having it installed. Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]
2021/11/08	2,188	9,056	<issue_start>username_0: I am going to have "entretien de motivation" (interview of motivation) for a graduate school. There is a high change that one of the questions will be like "What are your pros and cons?". What to say if I can't see any serious cons that can influence my study? I admit that I am not perfect but all these imperfections are normal for all humans (e.g. make mistakes in English, ask stupid questions on the Internet). I mean, what is the point to be aware of personal cons and to do nothing with it? Obviously, once I am aware of it I manage to get rid of it. So, how to say it? I do not want to look complacent but in the same time I do not want to make up stuff just to answer these questions.<issue_comment>username_1: Be honest. I suspect the interview doesn't have to be looking for serious cons, just that you are aware of those that you do have and can give a realistic account of your qualities. Wanting to do something about the cons you know about is of course something worth mentioning. If you have to "sell" yourself at such a meeting, the problem lies with the institution, not you. Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: The actual idea of this interview question is (usually) to see that the candidate is able: 1. to identify weak spots of a project and 2. to propose approaches to fix them. Some committees will ask for weak spots of your personality, while others will ask for weak spots of a specific project, but in the end it is the same question (I prefer the latter, though). That means, answers like "I am aware of my English not being perfect, and thus I am trying to improve by taking language courses and always seek feedback from native speakers for my manuscripts" or "my background in X is not too strong, so for aspects of my research connected to X I am reaching out in my network to get advice from experienced people" should be perfectly fine. The answer "I don't see any serious cons that could influence my study" is rather problematic, as it may indicate that you are unable to identify such potential influences and hence you will likely fail to address them appropriately. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: Think about aspects of your work behavior that you struggle with or want to improve. You already mention that once you see a weak point you get rid of it. This is good. This is of course not an instant change, it takes time to build new habits. Mention one of the weaker points you are now working on getting rid off. For me personally one of the things I struggle with is procrastination, so I would word that like so: > > I tend to procrastinate sometimes, especially when I'm working on something that is a bit boring/repetitive. This is something that I am aware of, and that I am working on. I am using daily to-do lists and the Pomodoro timing system to make sure I am doing what I should be doing. > > > Here I mention the issue, I mention when it affects me so I know when I need to be aware of the issue, and how I handle it in those cases. Do make sure you mention an honest weak point, not a pro hidden as a con! For example, "I am too much a perfectionist, I don't stop until I'm really satisfied with a task", which would show a lack of self-awareness if you'd mention something like this. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: Everyone has imperfections, and pretending you don't have any would be preposterous. But they are normally not looking for any serious flaws of yours, but rather how self-reflected you are. If you cannot think of any flaws yourself, try asking those around you that you have worked with before what they think you could improve on. There might be some minor issues that you are not aware of, but might bother others. Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_5: If you really can't think of anything, you could go with something universal, such as "I think my writing is okay, but I think it can be better." This will be true for just about everyone in the world, including the interviewer. Be prepared for the obvious follow up question: "What do you think could be better?" You probably already know a few things to answer that. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_6: If you genuinely can't see any flaws or cons with yourself, this is a serious flaw and you could consider mentioning it: > > I have a serious lack of self-awareness that leads me to be unable to spot any particular shortcomings I have. I know, of course, that I'm not perfect, and I share certain imperfections common to all humans like making mistakes in English or asking stupid questions on the Internet. But deeper introspection has never been my forte. In the past, I have coped with this by ... and .... One example of how I used my other abilities to get through such a situation was .... > > > If in the course of filling this out you are reminded of some other gap, flaw, or con in yourself, probably use that one over this one. Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_7: There are two possibilities. It could be that you really do not have flaws of any kind, and are a perfect, productive, working machine that pumps out correct and high-impact research at a very high rate. In this case, I wouldn't worry too much about the interview. Someone will hire you, and even if they don't you can just self-publish your research on your own and make a name for yourself as an eccentric and reclusive genius who solves major open problems in your field. If you are worried about this question, you can always make up a flaw out of politeness so you don't make your interviewer feel insecure. Or, it could be that you are a human being from planet Earth, in which case there are some areas where you can improve. Maybe you can manage your time on administrative tasks more effectively so you can spend more time on research. Maybe you have never done a project with a collaborator and want to learn how to work with others effectively. Maybe you have not developed good habits around unit testing your code. Whatever it may be, being able to identify an area where you can improve, and articulate how you will improve that aspect of your work, is a major skill that you want to be able to demonstrate in an interview. Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_8: There is no clear answer to this. It ultimately depends on your personality and what they are looking for. If you are humorous, you'd inject something funny as an answer, like refusing to reveal your weaknesses. If you are honest, you will list your weaknesses. If you are dishonest, you will list weaknesses you think they want to hear. If you are confident, you give a blunt answer, like refusing to answer such a question or claim to not have them. They may look for a certain type of personality, so you should answer what you think suits you best. Choosing to appease them might be just as much a mistake as to not to - they may value obedience or are repulsed by desperation. Maybe they are looking for people who express confidence and maturity in their personality. Maybe they want you to reject the question as childish. Maybe they want a well thought-out, honest answer, showing your capability of self-reflection. Maybe they have no clear expectations and will be impressed by your answer (although consider that it's just a tiny factor of many). Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_9: Considering that this is an interview for graduate school, this is really a softball question. Your weakness is "a lack of advanced knowledge in the subject field". That's why you're applying to that school, to fix exactly that weakness. You can strengthen the point by explaining how your basic knowledge of the field made you realize that there was still much to learn, specifically in areas X,Y and Z (and you've prepared for the interview so you come up with areas that are relevant to that particular school). Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_10: Whenever you're asked "what are your cons", or similar, just reword it in your head. Just like you've got areas of your academic life that you want to improve, so to should you have areas of your personal life. > > What are the areas of yourself that you want to work on? What interpersonal or personal skill do you want to develop or learn? > > > I don't like to think of them as "cons", or "bad things", any more than the fact that I don't understand quantum mechanics very well is a "bad thing" - they're just areas I want to improve and learn. I usually pair them with some areas I have already worked on, to establish my personal growth narrative. > > I want to work on my ability to sell my work, so I can better promote my team's interests, and on my emotional awareness, so I can be a better leader for my team and a better partner for those I work with. Recently, I worked on my patience, and on my listening skills. I've found that listening to others, even when I think I already know the answer, has given me better ability to understand the problem, and improved my relationships with my coworkers. > > > Upvotes: 0
2021/11/08	947	3,876	<issue_start>username_0: There is a one sentence precise definition for a graph theoretical concept that I would like to copy more or less 1:1 into my paper. The only thing I change is some naming as "points" to "nodes" to fit it to the rest of the paper. Is this assumed plagiarism? The definition is short and precise. Changing words or replacing them would prolong the definition unnecessary. If taking the definition as it is would requiring me to reference it I would rather rewrite it and inflate it with words. On the other hand wikipedia hasn't referenced where they have taken the definition from and they are not the first to use it. (Can say so for sure, because it has been around long before.)<issue_comment>username_1: Plagiarism is copying text from another source without (proper) attribution. As a quotation, you can put text from outside sources into you paper verbatim if is marked as such (see example). > > "A quotation is the repetition of a sentence, phrase, or passage from speech or text that someone has said or written." [Wikipedia,2021](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quotation) > > > If you slightly adjust the text, leave out the quotation marks but still reference the source: > > Repeating parts of written or spoken information is considered a quotation [Wikipedia,2021](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quotation). > > > Same goes for definitions. Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Generally speaking, what you find in wikipedia is "Common Knowledge". Wikipedia isn't intended to contain original research or even creative ideas. It presents facts that are known and tries, in many cases, to show where the ideas came from. What you read there is technically copyrighted, but with a broad license for reuse: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Copyrights>. It is, in fact, intended for reuse. There is actually a prohibition against posting original research there (<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:No_original_research>) and, when it is found, it is first marked and then removed. Therefore, the ideas you get in wikipedia are free to use and plagiarism isn't an issue. However, if you quote from wikipedia you need to cite it. This is actually the same as quoting from any copyrighted work. You quote to indicate that the words came from elsewhere and you cite to make the source clear. Citation, even of wikipedia, is a benefit to the reader who seeks, in most cases, not only your words, but context in which your words are developed. Wikipedia in general, especially for scientific articles, is good about providing such context. So, I suggest that you cite wikipedia (judiciously) just as a service to readers, though a search of the scientific terms you use will probably turn up related wikipedia articles as top level hits. --- Note that plagiarism is about ideas, not "text". I can plagiarize using literally none of the words in the original. It is misattribution of ideas. Copyright is about the specific expression of those ideas. It is a different concept. If I steal words from a copyrighted source, then I might break copyright, but maybe not plagiarize (common knowledge). --- I'll also note that some people are confused about the definition of plagiarism and the other things that govern IP. Unfortunately, in the context of a classroom, when an instructor sets the rules, things can get confusing, as what is called plagiarism there may not actually be that. It is used as a catch-all for lots of things that involve improper (in the class context) copying. But, I can't "plagiarize" by copying a bubble sort program, since bubble sort is common knowledge, though maybe not to students. I can certainly break the professor's rules, of course. So, some people get the idea that plagiarism is about the words. It isn't. It is about the ideas behind the words. Upvotes: 3
2021/11/08	291	1,217	<issue_start>username_0: I work in an industry research lab. Some time ago, my team wrote a paper. Despite the core authors of the paper being 2 team members (author A and B), we decided to be inclusive and add 2 additional team members as authors (author C and D), even if their contribution was very limited (basically they took a read and provided feedback on language and grammar). At that time, the paper got rejected. Now, we wrote a new version of the paper. Some parts are significantly different, others are as before. Also, the two additional co-authors C and D, whose contribution was limited, left the company. My question: is it fair not to include authors C and D in the new version of the paper?<issue_comment>username_1: > > basically they took a read and provided feedback on language and > grammar > > > If that is really all they did, they shouldn't have been listed as coauthors. Thus, it is entirely appropriate to remove them now. However, you should thank them in the Acknowledgements section. I can't comment on "fairness". Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: As described, you were wrong to give them honorary authorships in the first place. They should not be retained. Upvotes: 0